Crochet Symbols

Can you follow crochet symbols?  

I have not mastered that yet.  I printed out a chart from www.craftyarncouncil.com and I'm bound and determined to learn how to follow these patterns.  My biggest reason for learning is all the great patterns on pinterest that only have a symbol chart to follow.  I have found that very frustrating and decided it's not their fault..I need to learn how to read the symbols!  Teaching an 'ole dog new tricks may not be to easy....but I believe we need to learn something new every day to keep our brains exercised and healthy just like our bodies.  So here I go. 

Click on the link above it you would like to print out the chart as well.

Netflix, Granddaughters and Getting off My Butt

Netflix

Ok, my husband and I have pretty much turned into home bodies as we have "matured".  I can remember the times when we were on the go non-stop, family, friends, neighbors, business, school activities and just plain fun took us away from home a majority of the time.  

Of course we lived in Southern California at the time with a wealth of entertainment at our fingertips, the weather alone kept us outside a great deal of the time.

Now we live in the Kansas City area and are empty nesters, with the notable exception of our 4-pawed children, and spend many evenings in front of the TV.  I always have a craft going (or am being totally frustrated by Candy Crush!) and Bob is usually reading as well, but the TV is on.  We have become great fans of Netflix, in fact I don't know how we would live without it.  On Wednesday we finished the entire "West Wing" series; 7 seasons of fantastic characters, dialogue and story lines.  

So Thursday we looked at each other and said, what now?  Sad but true, we were feeling a tremendous let down!  Well, we muddled through that evening with "America's Got Talent" and some 

baseball for Bob (I was reading) and now we have discovered "Orange is the new Black" produced by Netflix- we find it witty, engaging, and totally entertaining.  

So if we "have" to watch TV, at least it's worth watching!

Granddaughters

We have 2 and a half granddaughters. I say half because our son and his lady fair will not be married until next year so I guess technically I can't claim Lexi as my granddaughter.....yet.  The two oldest are teenagers and what fun to watch them becoming charming, talented, intelligent and of course beautiful young women.  They actually let me friend them on Facebook and one on them has a fascinating Pinterest account.  Unfortunately both of these girls live far away , one in Canada and the other in Michigan, and we only get to see them a couple times of year if we are lucky. 

We have missed so much but with social media we feel as if we can "see" them more often and be apart of what's going on day-to-day.   

Now the little one (actually 10 years old) lives close by and hopefully as we get to know each other better there will some fantastic Grandma/Granddaughter adventures in store for us.

 I know we already share a love of Monster High Dolls and she loved the headband I crocheted for her (wore it to school the next day!) so I think we are off to a good start.  

While I would love to have all 3 of them just around the corner, I will be happy with the precious moments that we do have together and build a lifetime of memories with those bits and pieces of gold.

Getting off my Butt

The few regular followers that I have, have obviously noticed that I lack consistency in actually publishing posts.  Start, stop, start, stop....what is my problem?  

Well I am bound and determined to make this work, I enjoy it too much for it to be a failure.  I have several projects in the works and a series of corresponding posts. 

I also firmly believe if you do something enough times it becomes an automatic part of your daily routine.  So I guess I'm asking you to stick with me, even if you have only enjoyed one little thing you have seen here at Laughing Cat Creates.  I am making a promise to you and myself  that I will be more involved and much more active on this blog.  Stay tuned!

Two-Word Tuesday

Pinterest Obsession

Ok, I'm obsessed with Pinterest.  I was intrigued from the moment I heard about it.  And now, well I can't stop pinning!  If I know I need to do something else, I dare not even open Pinterest, because I will spend hours, browsing, pinning, looking through old pins, finding new ones, looking for more people to follow, trying to find great new things to pin, cleaning up my boards, making new boards....well you can see how the minutes tick by into hours.  I have so many things pinned that I want to try, if I never pinned anything new after today, I would have enough to carry me through another life time!

Here are a few of my favorite pins, in no particular order.

Perfectly Beautiful

Paul Lynde, so funny.  Miss his quick wit!

All time favorite

Love This

Wish I had the nerve to do something like this

Awesome

Two Word Tuesday

Mug Cozy

While I do not drink coffee, I do love a nice warm cut of tea.  I had never made any mug cozies until a friend told me she needed some for a Christmas present and would rather buy them from me than give her money to a stranger.  Well, naturally I could not refuse a request like that, now could I?  So, I pulled up Pinterest and Ravelry, found some really cute patterns (free by the way), went through my stash of yarn, picked out the right crochet hook and away I went!

I had just the right mug to use for display! Yes, I had to add a couple of my favorite crocheted flowers.

Doesn't look like much until you put it on the mug!

Thank goodness I collect buttons!

I love the buttons

Now that I found out just how many people love having a cozy for their mugs you can bet I've added it to my repertoire of hand made items to sell!  Hey I can recognize a good thing when I see it!

Crochet Flowers

As much as I enjoy crocheting scarves, shawls, afghans and the like, I think one of my most favorite items to crochet are flowers.  I think they so much in the way of finishing an item.  I've had a ton of fun creating "posie toes".  Since flip flops are a guilty pleasure of most women all over the world, I thought why not fancy them up a bit.

Finding patterns for crochet and knit flowers is really easy these day, all you have to do is log into Pinterest.  There's a whole bouquet of them sure to help you embellish your own hand made creations.  Of course, you can always purchase the directions, like I did for this particular flower, unfortunately for me, Pinterest was not around when I was looking for just the right flip flop topper, but that's fine, there's never enough flowers for me!  And I bet this one is also on Pinterest now!