newlyweds in the city: January 2010

Sunday, January 17, 2010

hearts

Knitted Catnip Delight

Found the pattern to make cute little hearts on Martha Stewarts web-site for Knitted Catnip Delight. I think I might knit some up and make magnets. Our sad little fridge feels naked after I took down the Christmas Advent calendar…

Christmas cards

Here are a few of the Christmas cards that we sent out this year. I didn’t take pictures of them all because I was getting irritated at the quality of the pictures that my camera took… Arg!

crochet

Years ago my Grandma Merriman taught me how to crochet one summer when we went back to Illinois to visit. I made a snow white scarf using the double crochet stitch (I think) & to this day I still have & wear this scarf on a regular basis. I have such great memories of sitting on my grandparents couch under the huge picture window with my grandma sitting next to me saying “I can hear the yarn squeak, you’re holding it too tight!” I have tried multiple times since then to pick it back up and failed… Every time becoming more & more frustrated. And again this year, I had been seeing these cute floral necklaces being sold by the street vendors in the city, so I thought I would try to make them as Christmas gifts for friends, but the flowers proved to be trickier than I thought, and I got discouraged with them.

Since both my mom and I knit, she thought it would be fun for us to learn to crochet too, I kept trying to tell her of my past disappointments, but finally she broke me down. :) As a Christmas present, my in-laws sent me some new yarn, hooks, and a couple how-to books, so armed with all of my utensils, one night I set off. I started just crocheting some squares with a thick black yarn that I had laying around that would be easy to see what I was stitching. Success!! I think my favorite stitch right now is the half double crochet, that’s how I made this scarf.

LOVE the yarn (Thanks Gaynelle!!)

Then while at home, I decided to try the flowers again!

I bought some Ruffles yarn while at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio here in the city and had been waiting to experiment with it. In the store they had a display of a rose necklace using this product & I was dying to try to make it! Here is one of the flowers I made. I made 4 big ones and 2 little ones. I just LOVE them! I have so many ideas for what to do with them.

1. String them together and make a necklace.

2. Put them on a pin or clip to embellish a shirt, purse, headband, scarf, hat, etc…

3. Use a bow on a present.

OH, the possibilities are endless…

They only make this yarn in black, white, and black / white mixture, so you don’t have too many color options, but you can brighten the flowers up by adding a pop of color to the center (maybe a rhinestone, button, or a crocheted sphere) in an accent color. Can’t wait to play around with these!

Friday, January 1, 2010

NYE 2009

Last night we had the pleasure of attending our good friends Scott & Brittney's wedding in Tempe. Seven years ago last night Nick and I met each other thanks to a mutual friend of ours, Lauren. We could not think of a better way to celebrate our love and new marriage than with our closest friends watching them pledge their lives to one another!! Love you guys!!!