Beanies Update #4

Merry Christmas to all!  

Hope everyone had a joyous Christmas yesterday.  We had a great time with family and friends with lots of food, lots of laughs, and lots of... presents. :)  Haha...  But really the true gift is the time we were given to be able to spend with one another.

With the hustle and bustle of the season, I didn't manage to make much.  I do seem to be on track as I finished one and started another. :) 

Beanie #4 is a Blue and Cream beanie.  I decided to use the remnants of two beanies that I made in the past.  It was actually pretty easy to attach the two.  The blue yarn is a Lion Brand Yarn - Super bulky acrylic and the cream is Wool Ease Bulky yarn (I think by Lion Brand Yarn as well).  It's another kid-size hat using the red knifty knitter round loom.

Alright, so Happy New Year, and see you next week.  I do warn that I will probably be late on the update post, as it's a travel day for me.

Lunar Eclipse Pictures

This past Monday we had a special treat in the sky.  We had a chance to witness a total lunar eclipse on a full moon on winter solstice.  So, I'm a bit shy of all the details, but it was still quite awesome to witness.  Also, the clouds cleared just in time for near perfect viewing.  I know this is a bit off topic on what this blog usually has, but I took some pictures and some actually turned out decent.  So, I'm sharing. :D

The first three came were taken thru my telescope view finder.  The last was just with my not so spectacular, but pretty decent zoom camera.

Enjoy!

For more information about this past eclipse:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2010_lunar_eclipse

Up-Cycled Newspaper Giftwrap

For a cheap alternative to giftwrap, try using newspaper.  Particularly this time of year, you'll find colorful, full page ads that would make wonderful giftwrap allowing you to save a bit of money as well as being a bit eco-friendly.  The general problem I've found with newspaper is that the ink tends to get all over your hands, and that's not what you want when you give a gift.  So, the secret to it all.... HAIRSPRAY.  Crazy, huh.

So, apparently, spraying some hairspray on the newspaper you want to use, will help seal the ink in so you don't end up with ink covered hands.  I suggest spraying the newspaper first before wrapping and allowing the newspaper to dry completely. My experimenting has also shown that the hairspray will not make the paper sticky (something, I was concerned with).

To finish it off, I also added a magazine gift bow.  You can find out how to make one here.

Beanies Update #3

With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I again, have not had much time to make beanies.  I did manage to complete one more for Head Huggers. :)

3 out of 10.

This one is a cream and light brown kid size beanie made with the knifty knitter.  The yarn used was a Lion Brand Yarn HomeSpun and BabySoft.

Nearing the end of December in just about half way done.  It looks like I might just be right on track to finish.

Beanies Update #2

Sadly, I have not worked on beanies at all this past week.  So, I have to report a big fat zero. :(

I've been working on a few Christmas gifts this past week and weekend.  Here's a glimpse:

1. fleece dog rope toys all different shapes and sizes.

2.  Miniature stocking gift card holders. (tutorial to come soon.)

Hope you all had a wonderful week and weekend.  More tutorials coming soon.

Beanies Update #1

I thought I'd give you an update on the beanies.  I'm proud to say that I managed to work on the beanies quite a bit this past week... As of today I'm done with 2 of 10.  Yay!  This coming week I plan to work on crafting up some Christmas gifts so, there will probably be less progress done this time next week. I'll try to make these update posts a weekly thing. :)

Here are the first two.

This first one is a white and black camo acrylic yarn (red heart) -- kid size.  This was loom knit (red knifty knitter round).

This second is a navy blue super bulky acrylic yarn (lion brand yarn) -- adult size. This was loom knit (green knifty knitter round).




For information about what these beanies are for, check out my previous post here.

New Charity Links page

Another Quick post to mention that the charity links page on Rad Linc Crafts is live:

http://radlinccrafts.blogspot.com/p/charities.html

Have a look, get inspired, and spread some light. :)

Quick Post Amazon's 25 Days of Free

Just a quick post:

Amazon's doing their 25 Days of Free mp3 music again this year.  Every day from December 1st to the 25th, they are giving away a holiday song for free.  http://amzn.to/hqt43H  Okay, so I usually wait till the 24th or 25th, and download all the ones I want then, but you can go in and download them daily if you want something to listen to before Christmas. :)

Happy Listening! :)

Leftover Cranberry Sauce Muffins

I still had cranberry sauce from thanksgiving.  So, I did a bit of googling.  I found this recipe from the serious eats site (love that site by the way). 


Recipe can be found: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/11/morningafter_cranberry_sauce_muffins.html


Here's the short version...


Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup whole-grain wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups of leftover cranberry sauce
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 
  

0. Preheat oven 400 degrees F

1. mix all dry ingredients in bowl A

2. mix all wet ingredients in bowl B

3.  fold together all ingredients

4. bake in muffin pan til you can stick a skewer in it and it comes out clean.

The recipe by itself is pretty good.  But, dare I say, tasted a bit too... healthy.  I think next time I'll skip the wheat flour and do the whole thing with all purpose white flour.  On the whole, it's quite tasty.