Crafty Weekend

Next weekend is Mia's Poolside Birthday Bash, so we had a bunch of errands to run for party prep this weekend. We had trips to Hobby Lobby for decorations, Target for supplies, and Costco for food purchases and birthday cake ordering. While at Hobby Lobby, I was perusing the seemingly endless crafts, I was inspired to do a few things.

The other day, while browsing Ravelry for new and exciting knitting patterns, I came across ten ten knits, which is a blog written by this awesome knitter and overall crafty lady. I read through many of her archives, and found a tutorial for Chan Luu style bracelets that retail for $200+ dollars. In the beading section at Hobby Lobby, I picked up some leather cording and decided to experiment with the beads I already had stashed away from my previous dabbling. A few hours and way too many finger stabs, knots and curses later, here is the result:

This did not photograph well at all, the beads are a dark purple faceted "rondelle" (the technical term, for those of you in the know). I love it and I can't wait to take another trip to stock up on leather cording. I really want to make a longer one with colorful threads, just like on the Chan Luu website. But, since it took me 2 hours to make the pictured one, and then three to make a second one with smaller beads (thank you, Mia, for taking extremely long naps this weekend), this might have to wait until... a week that I do not have to throw a party at the end of.

Also, in preparation for the big birthday party, I decided to skip purchasing the thank you notes that matched our very cute cupcake invitation, and make some personalized ones. I bought some plain blank greeting cards and an alphabet stamp pad, grabbed some of my extra yarn scraps and my knitting needles, and here is the result:

I made 8 of them in all different heart shapes, colors and sizes and sent them all out as Thank Yous for the Chicago Birthday party. This week, I'm going to knit up 8 more of these little hearts and sew them onto a new pack of cards once Birthday Party the Second is over.

So many crafts, so little time! I also have a big soft purple cowl in the works, but knitting a cowl in 100 degree weather has been pretty uninspiring. I'm considering putting those needles down for a rest and starting on a cotton blanket, which is much more weather appropriate.