Why I feel a little bit selfish...

See this book? It's rockin' awesome. I found Closet Monsters by John Murphy by chance when looking through the craft books at the library. I borrowed it and just loved looking through it. I made plans to make something from it, so I renewed it the allowed 3 times before taking it back without making anything.

And then I did that 2 more times. This is my fourth time checking out this book and I finally made something! This book is great, because besides showing you how to make the creations specific to the ones he made, he shows you how to make each element individually so you can mix and match to make your own monsters! I really just need to buy this book for myself.

For my nephew's 2nd birthday, I decided to make this one:

I had the perfect old pair of PJ pants to do it with. I've owned these for 6 years, and I got them free at a swap meet. They are the most comfortable pants I ever owned. I wore them all through both pregnancies and they were a staple for me after I brought each baby home. They have stains from where I got paint on them, they were loved. They finally wore holes between the legs that could not be fixed. That was a sad day.

So I cut them apart and started making the "closet monster." Since the instructions where for cutting up a sweatshirt, I just estimated and dove in.

And here is the monster I gave my nephew.

I'm sure there are some questions going on in your head, so let me explain. I got about halfway through making the closet monster from my old pants and realized I couldn't give them up! I'm so selfish! But I just couldn't! Those pants were special... So I stole an old sweatshirt from my MIL and whipped this guy up in about 2 1/2 hours. I finished him by hand stitching the hole closed on the drive to the party.

And that's why these pictures are taken in the car.

He turned out super cute, and fit with his new owner perfectly.

My little brother said he looks creepy, like he's going to come to life and night and get you. My little brother is 21 years old... and dead wrong. That face is cute!

So what happened to the pants? Meet Chills. I finished him up the next day and I love him.

I lined up the stripes off center.

And he is huge! He makes me so happy, it's a bit pathetic!

His face is bigger than Hero's.

Hero agreed to take pictures with him, but neither of my kids really care about him. But I have plans for his role in our family.

When I was growing up, my family had a large teddy bear that was kept up in Mom's closet. If you had a nightmare, you could ask to sleep with Big Bear. Big Bear scared away the bad dreams. I think Chills will be perfect in this job. He can scare away the nightmares and the other monsters. He is a Closet Monster, after all.

The selfish feeling is passing... I'm in love with Chills, don't tell my husband!

Poor Injured Monkey

 I work with the Young Women at my church and we are getting ready for the summer girls camp next week! I know I've mentioned it before, but I used to work as a first aid lab instructor at the U of U. I was asked to be in charge of the first aid night. Rather than teach it myself, I reached out to my old boss and friend to come do it, because she teaches groups like this all the time and rocks at it!

So she came and taught us last night. It's always fun to see who gets it fast, who is squeamish at the gory pictures, and who is fascinated by them.

The girls learned some good skills and had fun practicing.

 
Learning to use a roller bandage:

As a thank you gift, I made up this monkey for her to take home to her adorable baby boy. I owed her one anyway, but to make it fun, I bandaged the little guy up.

The perfect sling and swath for injured arms and shoulders.

Sad injured monkey tail!

It was fun to relive this part of my life again with such a good friend! I've already seen pictures of her baby playing with the monkey (who has gotten over his injuries and had the wrappings removed). 

Raining Cats and Dogs!

While it has been an exceptionally rainy few months, I'm not referring to the weather at the moment. Instead, I'm here to introduce two more sock creations!! First, using only one sock per animal, and the tiny ankle socks to boot, I made this adorable pair of kitties!!

I used the arm seam method I had seen while in Taiwan earlier this year. It was easy and I love the look it creates!

Then I added a little crochet flower with a pearl bead in the center to make one girl and one boy. The idea was for each of my kids to have one, but Pretty had other plans when she saw them.

One for the right hand and one for the left!

(this face was too funny to keep to myself.)

I had to take them from her and fight her off to get the shots of just the cats. They are just the right size for small arms to hug!

Then the "Dogs" part. I bought the cute little blue dog while in Taiwan, and always planned to recreate it, but it wasn't until my mom called me Sunday morning to tell me we were celebrating my nephew's birthday that night at dinner that I was inspired to go for it. I knew he would love a dog, so I went to work.

It turned out great. Obviously much bigger since I'm pretty sure the blue one was made from little kid (if not baby) socks, and mine was made from a pair of women's normal dress socks.

I added a few details not found on the blue one, like a little tail.

And some french knot freckles. This dog was so fun to make, and my nephew did love it. He even tried to share his ice cream with it. Now that's love for a 6-year-old.

I made a sock elephant!

Don't forget to enter the Sima Designs giveaway!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the weekend, when the girl and the hubby where taking naps, and when I should have been doing some sort of cleaning, I finally took the time to figure out how to make the sock elephant! Here's the result of my Saturday afternoon:

Hero calls it his baby elephant. The orange one is the original I brought back from Taiwan. He calls that one the Mommy elephant, even though the green one is bigger. I think that's funny, but appropriate, since the orange one is mine that I will never let him play with.

I had thoughts of selling this one, but when I was sitting on the couch putting it together, Hero asked with wide eyes, "Is that baby elephant. . . for me?" Can't argue with that, especially when it's the first one I've ever made.

Last week, I also made a new monkey:

and a new cow:

I was super excited to stitch on my first labels!! They look great, don't you think?

Hope your weekend was filled with some fun too!

Taking a Risk.

For some time now I have hoped to be as awesome as some of my favorite craft blogs and create and sell my own patterns. While I'm still working on my skills at making clothing patterns, I have discovered that I have a talent for making toy patterns. I know that it's unbecoming to compliment ones self, but I also know that it is a great thing to have confidence. And isn't that what this blog is all about? Giving confidence to try new things, at the risk of failure?

So, I've done it. Decided to take the plunge and start my own shop! Introducing:

I struggled with the name. I didn't like the long sound of "Craft with Confidence Shop". So after ruling out "The Smiling Shrub" (based on translations of the last name), and Jake's suggestion of "The Bookworm" (wa?), Jake asked me what "Vivian" meant. "Vivian" means "lively". Done and done.

It's not much to look at right now, with there only being one item for sell... but that brings me to my second announcement. Introducing:

I have made a PDF pattern. At the beginning of the day, I didn't know how to create a PDF file. After downloading several programs, bugging my BIL about it, and getting a bit frustrated, I finally figured out I could do it directly from my Word program. DOH!

I have to say, it's pretty awesome. Tons of pictures, same detailed step by step you are used to from my tutorials, easy to follow. Plus, I decided that I would include a Limited Production Licence with the pattern. You can make and sell up to 10 with the purchase of the pattern. If you want to sell more, we need to talk and do another agreement (and I need to figure out what to do. . . because I still have no idea what I'm doing here!!)

Eventually I will make sock items to sell, and more patterns. Slowly, slowly.

There you go. I'm diving in, just hoping and praying that I don't fail. I would love any feedback you might have on my shop, like what items you would like to see or . . . I don't know anything you have to say!

CONFIDENCE!!

(woah, that totally makes me think of Mad Eye in Harry Potter, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" and yes, I am a nerd)

The Battle of the Bunny

About a year ago, just before Pretty was born, I was using a pattern from my favorite crochet book to make a car seat blanket for her. The book was on the floor and Hero started looking at the pictures. When he found the bunny stuffed animal he looked at me all cute-like and asked, "Can you make a bunny for me, please?"

How can you say no to that?! It was the first time he had ever asked me to make him something. So I dropped the blanket and went to work on this bunny!

Now, I know what you are thinking. "What's up with his eyes?" and "That doesn't look much like the picture."

I have a first edition of the Happy Hooker book and as such, it has a few typos. I didn't look up the corrections they have listed online until after the head was finished and didn't look quite right. By then, I didn't think it worth it to start over. Oh well. Hero was still thrilled with it!

A few months later, Hero found the bunny at the bottom of his stuffed animal bucket and told me it needed eyes. When I pointed to the buttons, he told me those were cheeks. So I snipped off the buttons and moved them.

And that's when the trouble started. Pretty noticed the cute bunny and claimed it as her own. Not just in a casual way, but the attached-favorite-special-toy kind of way. She sleeps with it, carries it around, and if someone else (Hero) is holding it, she drops everything to retrieve it.

For a few months, Hero didn't really care. But last week, he started getting upset that the bunny was his. Technically, he was right, but Pretty was attached. I decided it was easier to make a new one for Hero than try to convince Pretty to take a new one. After all, Hero would probably move on from it in a week anyway, right? So I told Hero that the bunny was Pretty's and he could get a brand new one. He picked the bear this time, helped decide the colors from my yarn stash, and the bear was born.

Pretty had a hard time with me taking these pictures. Here she is reminding me that the bunny is hers.

I tried to do the corrections this time, but didn't have the right sized hook, so I just did with what I had. I think it looks more like a mouse. Opinions?

Hero picked the eyes out himself. I was going to go with flat black ones, but I'm glad he stuck to his guns about these ones. I really like the texture and how they add to the homemade feel of the bear/mouse.

Hero was pretty happy when it was finished.

 "Take a picture of me sleeping."

Of course, two days later, he doesn't much care about it anymore, but at least the arguing over the bunny has stopped.