Comfy, Practical, and Fashionable - Toms Shoes

I have one pair of Toms. I need more. I asked for a pair for Christmas because I just liked the way they look and heard they were extremely comfortable.* And they are, indeed, extremely comfortable. People have started customizing Toms with brilliant artwork. Some are really fantastic, but usually pretty pricey. I may try to do my own eventually, but not until I get a second pair. Here are some envy-worthy options from Etsy:

Giraffe Toms (in case you didn't know I love giraffes) - $73

Paisley Toms - $82

Flying Birds Toms - $90

Galaxy Toms - $100

 

And there are so many more where these came from! Including some fantastic Hunger Games options!  

 

*While it is true that Toms do one-to-one (giving one pair of shoes to someone who needs it for each pair bought). However there are several problems with that equation that Toms keeps buried, but in summation the one-to-one, in my opinion, is mostly a publicity stunt for a for-profit business. I just wanted to clarify that I wanted a pair because of the style.

I'm Back! Crochet Blanket, Amigurumi and more

Hello All! I had to put a pause on Hello Lovely for a little while and focus on another blog I have (The Gallery) for a class of mine. I've been busy though!

I finished my first granny stripe afghan! This will be the second blanket I have crocheted, the first being a Christmas present for my mom (below). That was a monster. Nothing compared to the one I made for myself, it was made with Lion Brand's Wool Ease which makes it rather heavy. It's perfect for those chilly winter nights in Iowa, that's for sure.

After snuggling in that one I knew I had to make one for myself. I had started a granny square blanket a while back, but that just wasn't for me. You change colors too often, it takes ages. But granny stripe, that was another deal entirely. So I gave it whirl and fell in love with the granny stitch. It turned out pretty great:

I also made my first amigurumi doll. Amigurumi, pronounced ah-mee-goo-roo-mee, is the Japanese practice of crocheting or knitting stuffed animals and the like. For my first project* I made a crochet version of a kokeshi doll doll. It doesn't look too bad for a first time. I even altered the pattern some, which I got from TGLD Doll on Etsy here. I wanted a good pattern to start with and figured I could edit it a little to how I wanted. I have yet to name her so if you have any suggestions please leave a comment!

In other and also exciting news I will be graduating from college in May! Yay! So there will be plenty of apartment posts and DIY posts probably. Not to mention thrifting finds! Lots of exciting things happening! Can't wait to share them all!

*Cards on the table, I tried to make an elephant once before this one but was using the wrong hook and it failed so I'm not counting it. This was my first successful attempt

Craft Day (part 3)

Finally, my project. I went a little bit of a different route. I had been looking around the web for cool yoga mats, and decided I didn't really want to spend the money on a designed one, but still wanted one. So, I decided to paint my own. I first tried to do some research to see if anyone had done this, and a few have, but it took a bit to find any real material besides a few pictures. I did finally find this short tutorial on livestrong. That at least let me know that I could paint my yoga mat and it wouldn't immediately die once I practiced on it. So I used some acrylic paints, a few paint brushes, chalk and, of course, my yoga mat. Here's my attempt at a tutorial:

Step 1: Outline
Use chalk to outline your design. Chalk is great for this because all it takes is a damp washcloth to start with a clean slate again, or to fix some errors.

 

  

Step 2: Paint! 

There isn't a lot to say about this step. Use acrylic paints and go to town creative style!

 Step 3: Let it dry

Step 4: Do some Yoga
No I don't have a picture of me doing yoga on my new mat, but I should have gotten one.

And that's all there is to it! If you paint your own mat PLEASE send me pictures; I would love to see what you do!

Stay Lovely,
Katelin

Craft Day (part 2)

Megan had a bunch of ideas for what she wanted to do on craft day. She ended up choosing two, a set of burlap place mats and an "I Love You Because" frame. Her inspiration for the place mats came from Cottage and Vine and the board came from A Content Housewife. Take a look at how she did!

Megan's Projects
Burlap Placemats
These weren't the easiest project of the day for sure, mostly because burlap, as it turns out, is a frustrating thing to work with. But they turned out great!

 

She put some clear craft glue along the edges to prevent the burlap from continuing to fall apart. What's really nice is that you can still see the words when you put a plate on them.

I Love You Frame

Megan got married a bit over a year ago, and she loved the idea of doing this I Love You Because frame for her and her husband to write on now and again. I was apparently working on my project the entire time she made hers, so I didn't get any in-the-process photos. But it's just a matter of a printer, a pretty piece of paper, a frame, and some fabric and glue. The fabric flowers were the most difficult part, for sure. Here's the end result, looks great:

 

Stay Lovely,

Katelin

Craft Day (part 1)

This post is late in coming, but in February my sisters, mom, and I had a craft day together! My sisters, Megan and Courtney, have been inspired by Pinterest to start doing some DIY decor and other crafts. Megan started a few projects on her own, including this chalkboard, before suggesting we have a craft day. I had been wanting to have one for ages, so I was all on board.

Courtney's Project
Courtney found this project on Two Girls Being Crafty Blog. Lovely right? She has been slowly adding some things here and there to her home decor and thought this would be a great addition to her dining room/kitchen area. She did awesome! It looks fantastic. All it takes is a canvas, spray paint, a marker, paint, and round sponge paint brushes. Then, get to work!

Stay Lovely,
Katelin

Failed Attempts

When you aspire to make things that you haven't made before, you are bound to have a few mishaps. This week I have had two crafty ideas gone awry. Both dealing with Valentine's day. I feel the universe maybe telling me not to celebrate this holiday of love. 

Fail 1:

The first was my attempt to make my own version of heart ornaments that the lovely owner of What No Mints (shop and blog), Sasha makes. She is as science teacher and I thought it would be cute to make her something adorable with a science edge. So I wanted to make her a heart with serotonin molecule on it (seen on WNM's sun below).

But sadly, sewing is a stretch as it is. Even mild embroidery was a fools attempt for me. My string knotted three times just trying to get the first two lines of the molecule sewn in, I couldn't seem to cut two sides of a heart that were the same size even when I held them together, and when I attempted to draw on the molecule the ink bled through the felt. It was an utter failure and I wasted so much felt in the attempt alone. I am hoping to still have some cute valentines to share after the big day, but so far it's not looking so great. I wish I had a picture to share of the mess, but I didn't think to take a picture of it in my frustration.


Fail 2: A while ago I made the cutest crochet hearts, 21 in total, in a big and small size. I used this tutorial at Skip to my Lou to make them but only used row one and two. (both to make the bigger size and just the one to make the mini hearts).

Big Heart and Little Heart

21 hearts!

So I was planning to make a garland, like that from the tutorial. But, grabbing my dusty purple yarn and going to work to string them all together...things went awry.

I first tried just threading the yarn through the top, like the tutorial does:

But, it just wasn't working. It was pulling the hearts together so the looked more like a circle than a heart. So then I tried threading it through the back which worked, or seemed to, until 5 hearts in I held it up and realized they all were going to fall forward so they faced the floor instead of people. 

So that failed. I think I may try to turn them into hair pins. Perhaps that's the best course of action at this point in time. Or ornaments. Or maybe I will be able to turn them into some sort of cute valentine for my loved ones yet. My mom already sent me her lovely crafty valentine, a homemade card! Isn't it wonderful!?

Do you have any lovely valentines that you've made? Send me a picture or link! I'd love to see what crafty things you all are doing for your valentines.

Stay Lovely,
Katelin