I am a crochet Minion :)

Early in October, my co-worker told me her daughter wanted them to all dress up as Minions from the movie Despicable Me (and Despicable Me 2).  I told her to look on Pinterest for all the cool ideas.  As we were browsing, I mentioned I could totally make the crochet hats we seen.  So I was "hired" to do the job (hired as in I only charge for materials--hey I am already just sitting there watching tv, might as well be crocheting something :D then she surprised me with a Starbucks gift card and lunch--woo hoo!).

I made 2 children's hats with detachable goggles (patterns are linked).  I only use the goggles pattern as a guide though.  I actually used pipecleaners as the base of the eye part to make it a bit sturdier.  Also, I used elastic in the back so that they would be a little less prone to fall off their heads.

They looked exactly the same--so I won't post them both :)

Then I made this adult hat with arms for my co-worker.  When I showed my son the pattern, he told me that I would not be able to do it--Challenged Accepted (totally got that phrase from How I Met Your Mother).  In the end she opted to not have the mouth, but still wanted the arms.

Then I made a men's hat and small teen hat out of the same pattern.  I used a combination of patterns to put this one together.

And finally, I made a slouchy hats for the teen.  I used a pattern I found via Ravelry.  

Edited to add:  But then she wanted it a bit more slouchier and the eyes connected, so I changed the above to this

My co-worker wanted me to make the eyes to be "rolled" eyes like most teens do on a daily basis :)

All the "hair" is made from black pipecleaners.  I could have used yarn, but my co-worker gave me this better alternative idea.

They were a hit!  They got compliments all night and both of the kids teachers wanted one.  Since I had extra yellow yarn, I made her two more hats for the teachers :D  (A total of 8 minion hats!--that is more than 1/2 the kids that came to my house for candy this year--ha ha ha...we got 13 trick-or-treaters.)

I have only watched the first movie...maybe when I am not tired of looking at minions anymore I will watch the second movie :)

Ikea Raskog Cart and Organization

As promised, I am sharing my filled up Raskog cart.

But first I have to show the "before" storage pictures.

This picture doesn't even do justice the amount of stickers I had.  They used to be housed in a 3 inch binder that was quite full (kicking myself for not taking a picture of it before).

I went through them all and below is the give away pile.  I'll let my daughter go through them first, then the rest will be donated to a Girl Scout troop.

Next up was my "junk" drawer.  Embellishments used to pour out of this drawer.  I didn't get rid of too much from here.

Both my huge binder of stickers and my "junk" drawer fit nicely in my top basket.  The binder will be recycled and the drawer will now house only Christmas embellishments.  (and I still have some room in this top basket!)

You will notice two of the storage cups are full.  One with my "bling" and the other is just a mishmash of items--we'll call it my "junk" cup :D

The next basket was for my scrap papers.  They used to be housed in this accordion storage.

Now I can easily flip through all my small pieces of paper...I do keep too many small scraps--someday I'll fix that.  I also placed my 4.5 x 6.5 paper pads in this basket.

You will see another cup filled with my wood veneer items :)

At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the bottom basket, but I was pulling out my Halloween mini album (hopefully to be posted about on Halloween) and I noticed because where it was stored, some of the letters fell off as well as a flower.  So I figured if I stored them in their own basket they wouldn't be smashed again--hopefully.

 I don't have too many mini albums...the majority in the basket are Christmas cards from previous years that I had bound together years ago.  Hopefully seeing them will remind me to look through them more often.

So far, I love being able to just roll the cart up next to my desk and flip through items to find the right embellishment or paper without having to dig through the drawer and put everything back or flip through the heavy binder of stickers.  Totally worth the investment :D

Fleur de Lis Mini Album (surprise winner!)

My kids and husband laugh at me because sometimes I "heart" every single photo on my Instagram feed.  I like the pictures because they are always awesome!  Sometimes I don't even read what the photo is about.

So a few weeks ago, I did my normal...'I will like this photo without reading the caption' and the next day I see that I am tagged in this photo:

What???  I didn't even remember entering a contest.  Normally, on Instagram, you have to tag people to win stuff or repost the picture and hashtag and tag the contest coordinator.  So this time I had to look to see what I won.  It was a cute Fleur de Lis wood mini album from Genuinely Jane Studios.

Luckily, my kids went to a high school where the fleur de lis was their emblem--otherwise I would have felt bad for taking the prize. :/

I knew right away that I would decorate it and put their first day of school for each year they were in high school.  I could have just used the book as it was, but I decided to take it apart and only use 2 of the "pages" as the cover and the back.  Then I traced them to make inside pages in the school colors (orange and blue).

After, I painted one wood cover blue and the other orange.  My local scrapbook store, Scrapbook Island, carries 12 x 12 paper with the local high school names and logos and coordinating paper. So I covered the front and back with that. 

After all the work of tracing, cutting the odd shape, painting, and using an exacto knife to trim around the paper I covered the front and back with...I was pretty much done...I was at the point where I just wanted to finish it.

So here is my pretty plain mini album...maybe someday I will go back and embellish a bit more...maybe.

I can't believe it is ending soon!  My daughter was a sport and took a selfie on her first day of college for me, but I am sure my son will "forget" if I ask him.

My trip to Ikea--Raskog purchase!!!

Ikea is like Costco...you go in for one specific thing and leave scratching your head asking "how did I spend so much?" and "what the heck did I just buy?" ha ha ha.

Unless you live right down the street from one...the trip to Ikea is pretty rare.  I've been there before (maybe 3 or 4 times), but always with my family so we go in and get out as fast as possible.  Today, I made the journey by myself :D  

I went specifically for the Raskog cart.  I've seen lots of crafty ladies on Instagram and 2peas fill their carts beautifully and I have been drooling over it for a while.

It was so easy to put together...isn't it so pretty!!  The best part is it matches my turquoise accents in my room! (They do have a dark grey though--if you don't want turquoise.)

I really wanted these Antonius insert, but I could not for the life of me find them.  

I went through the Marketplace and found where the Antonius items were, but there weren't any inserts.  At the end, I searched on the Ikea computer and the computer said it was in stock and located in the "Secondary Storage"...ok, where is that?--couldn't find that on my map.  I made my way backward through the Marketplace, then again through the maze looking more closely.  Still nothing--boo!  Maybe it was upstairs, but I wasn't willing to trek back to the elevator to go through the entire building again.

At the end, before checking out, I looked through my cart again and realized I really didn't need to get some of the stuff I have put in there, but I really didn't want to just leave it there (working in retail for 2 years trained me to never leave items willy nilly throughout the store :D ) and I definitely didn't want to work my way through the maze yet again to put the stuff back...so it all came home with me--ha ha ha.

What is all that?

4 hanging Bygel Containers (99 cents a piece--woo hoo!)

(Because I am boring, I just got the dark grey--I didn't see any white--otherwise those would have come home with me instead.)

20-piece Dragon flatware set (12.99)--I probably didn't need this at all since there were only 4 place setting--I have no idea why I bought these.  Maybe I will just hold onto them until one of my kids move out.

50-pack Blue napkins (1.99)--for my son's graduation party--in May!!!  Why?  No clue why I bought these either--but these definitely weren't going to be put back where I got them since I picked them up at the beginning of the maze!

Red Wrapping paper (1.99) cute for Christmas

Floor Mat (19.99) I had to get this because I needed a floor mat in my office without those poky things on the bottom and this one doesn't have them--although the picture looks like it does. 

2 Samla containers (3.99 each) since I couldn't find the Antonius insert.

(I wish I had gotten a 3rd one--ugh!)

Kvissle Whiteboard--this was my total score of the day.  $7.99 regularly $29.99!!!  They don't have it online since it was on clearance.

(it looks weird in this pic, but it is basically glass with a white background.)  Did I need this, NO!  But I could NOT pass up that deal.  ahahaha...see Ikea = Costco! :)

I was there for 2 hours!  And it was so relaxing not hearing "are you done yet?", "what do you need that for?", or "when are we leaving?".  But by the end, I realized, I was that person in everyone's way--ha ha ha...the person I curse under my breathe because they aren't moving very fast ha ha ha ha.  I did get a little workout because of the way their carts move, my left foot hurts from trying to keep the cart straight.  It hurts like when you have just been roller skating after years of not skating...you know your left foot hurts from using it to push off to go?  Maybe it is just me ha ha ha.

I will have to have a separate post sharing how I fill up my cart.  I have plenty to put inside.  I really wished I had gotten better inserts though...I like the Samlas, but the handle in the center wastes precious storage space, you know :)

Antiquing

I have been in the market for a manual typewriter for a while.  Last year, I even dragged my husband to San Juan Baustista to look through all the antique stores.  They had some (one store had quite a few), but they were more vintage (aka expensive) than I wanted.  This past August, I talked him into going back because there was an antique fair going on.  Again, no such luck at a great find.  He is a good sport though because he also took me to the DeAnza Flea Market in September--where there was one, but not at a good price--and I am not very good at negotiating.

So this past Sunday, my friends, Liz and Jossie, and I went to the monthly Alameda Antique Fair.

Wow is all I can say.  That place is huge!!!

(this was the view of San Francisco--to the left is the market)

There were lots of vintage items.  I would have loved to buy so many things, but I would not know what to do with them!

Like this speaker from a drive-in movie theater.  Cute, but not for $35?!?!

Jossie made out like a bandit in the few hours she was able to attend.  Liz got a few items.  For me, it took me an hour and a half before I made my first purchase ha ha ha.

Then I finally found a typewriter at a reasonable price.  Although I had seen this same model on Craigslist for $5 cheaper down the street from me.  Oh well...it was all about the day.  I had purchased this item towards the back of the fair and I thought I could carry it around, but luckily the clouds parted and there was a vendor that had a granny cart for sale...10 bucks...done deal! 

Did I mention that the fair was humongous?!  Liz and I were there for 5 hours...and we didn't even stop that often.  Talk about being sore...then we were in such a hurry to get into the fair, we didn't bother looking to see what aisle we parked in (it was aisle V!!!) and that made the trek back to the car dreadful ha ha ha.

Any whoo...I got out of there with only spending $52.  Breakdown:

Typewriter $35

(I've named it Buck. Why?  On the side, it had a sticker that said "Property of Buck.  You touch it, I'll breaka (sic) your head") (as I was taking the label off I realized I forgot to take a picture first :/ )

Cart to lug the typewriter around in $10

Cigar box $6 (I am not sure what I am going to do with it--I kinda just bought it because after an hour and a half I was just wanted to buy something!  ha ha ha) 

Unfortunately, it doesn't smell like cigars...it just smells like old :(

Box of 1989 baseball cards $1 for my husband.

The things I didn't leave with (these pictures are not from the fair, just the internet...I didn't take too many pictures at the fair :/ )

school desk--Some were $60...seen one place that had 2 for $25 each...I wish I need one :)

(photo courtesy of Education article)

50's table and chairs--didn't check the price, but it was in awesome condition

(photo courtesy of Retro Planet)

rolling server cart--the one I really liked was sold, so there wasn't a price

(photo courtesy of Moxie Thrift on Etsy)

card catalog--none at this fair, but so want one (not that I would have bought it though).

(photo courtesy of Poetic Home)

vintage camper--not for sale, but one of the booths had one as their "store front" :)

(photo courtesy of Cornbread and beans quilting)

But in all honesty, unless it fits in my office, I am sure my husband would be like "Where are you going to put that?"  ha ha ha.  Our "decor" is modern.  Heck, I had to negotiate to paint every room in the house a color--he wanted it all white! :D  But I do love looking and when I win the lottery, I can have as many themed rooms that I want...even if the 50's table is never seen :D

World Cardmaking Day (Halloween)

Today is World Cardmaking Day.  I didn't have time to make any today, but I thought I would share the Halloween cards I've made over the past 3 years.

These were on my Etsy shop that is currently closed.

These two were mailed out to my daughter and aunt this season.

And these three were mailed out a few years ago to my nieces, nephew, and aunt (2 of which were probably toss away too soon!).

Every year, I swear I will not buy any more Halloween paper.  And every year, I usually pick up a pack at Michaels on clearance :D