It Started With a Little Flower (or two.. or three… or six… or twenty…)

Well this HUGE, HONKIN, BIG OLE, GRANDMAMMY OF THEM ALL post is a few days in the promising… to Jeanne, at least. Sorry, Jeanne, I’ve been so crazy busy this week! I was going to blog yesterday but after my dentist appt I decided to stay up north in the “big city” to do some shopping… I really shouldn’t have since I did some “shopping” with Miss Jeanne while visiting Denver, but, I just HAD to. Went to a couple of consignment stores and did some perusing, bought a new to me Liz Claiborne leather (BLUE BLUE BLUE BABY BLUE) purse (which I LURVE and looks BRAND spanking new) for under $20 and some cutesy boutiquey hair clips (which I am going to case) and then stopped at Real Deals in Lehi and picked up some fun house decorations and a couple of birthday presents :) WOOT!

ANYWAY

This post is dedicated to Jeanne Tomshack.
Because it’s really her fault in the first place, so there. :P

When Wendy posted in this post and then this one and again another one about her new craft addiction and blamed it on me in the first one, I decided that I had to clear the air and keep on passing the buck back to it’s rightful owner and clear my good name as a “responsible crafter”… hahahahah.. just kidding… but seriously… We owe this new and fabulous addiction to our sweet and delightful and unselfish friend, Jeanne Tomshack, who has delighted us with her beautiful creations and has even sent a few of them to a few of us!

A while back Jeanne sent me some loverly little tiny crocheted flowers that I have used from time to time on cards. I begged her for more. LOL! She told me I could do it even when I said, “I just can’t do it right!”. LOL! Well my friends…

Just a little over a week ago, while in Denver for a work trip with Brent, I got to visit Jeanne again.

This is what awaited me at Jeanne’s house when I arrived.

Jeanne made this absolutely out-of-this-world stunning doily for me for my birthday (which was the day before I arrived). Look at the DETAIL!! A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! Thank you Jeanne for such a beautiful gift! I am currently displaying it on the antique hutch/buffet in my front room. It makes me smile every time I walk past it.

BONUS for ME: I was the lucky recipient of a ONE on ONE personalized crochet lesson from our resident crocheting professional on said professional’s couch!

AHHHH THE MASTER @ WORK! I like to think that the top left photo is a special memory her girls will have of their mother when they grow up…. Lovingly creating very special treats for family and friends.

First she showed me and then I followed along….

“Mastah, I just don’t get it!”

“Be still young grasshoppah and become one with the yarn…”

“Yes, mastah… become one with the yarn…”

This is the look you get when you question the great mastah… or maybe it’s when you annoy the bajeebers out of her by constantly snapping photos while she’s trying to teach you something important… like taking the crochet hook out and THEN turning the row… LOL! <<ducking so that the crochet and knitting needles that J’s gonna chuck at me miss me as they come flying through the monitor>>

We went and picked up the girls from school in the mid afternoon… here’s a couple fun shots I snapped while waiting for the bell to ring.

In the photo on the right I am wearing the necklace Jeanne made for me for Christmas and Jeanne is wearing the necklace I made for her on the way out to Denver in the car. (Btw, it’s a copy of the necklace Wendy gave me in my roomie goodie bag at CU. Full circle, full circle….)

We had some fun snapping pics with the girls after school, too. Here are a couple of my favorites. I slipped my little blue flower onto my bobby pin and into my hair… super cute! LOVE IT!

And did I continue crocheting? You bet your crafty little bum I did….

Now I am hooked… pardon the pun. I have been crocheting on and off over the last week during my free time. I crocheted a gatrillion (yes that’s a real number now, at least in my book) tiny flowers during the daylight hours on the drive back to Utah from Denver… and then… because of WENDY.. hahaha… yes, dear Wendy, it’s your fault, too…. I made a HAT! Jeanne lessoned me in the proper forming of the first row and turning around for the second row and Wendy further tempted me… buwahahaha.

Here’s some snapshots of some of what I’ve been up to my arms in lately. (I have since learned that I can’t really do the tiny flowers for very long because they flare up my fibro hot spots in my arms, but big things like the big red hat… not so bad. :)

Just some flowers and odds and ends I was messing around and experimenting with… practicing stitches and whatnot. The big puffy white flower started out to be a hat… but then I didn’t like how fuzzy it was… not really a good “spring” hat.. maybe for next winter… so I changed it up and started making a giant fuzzy flower. hehe! (You can click on photos to view larger.)

The brown flowers are made from hemp. I thought they might be cool on a tropical or even a masculine card… or maybe just a card or project that wasn’t all “girlie” colors. The hemp was a little tough to work with and my fingers were a little sore, but the overall end product is cool.

This cream colored hat is for my niece who is turning 4 in May. I thought it would be a super cute spring hat. :) It was also a pain in the bootay to do… It took forevvvvverr… and my arms ached for two days after I finished it.

This red hat was my first hat! {Gotta love the goofy self portraits!} I had some crappy old cheap acrylic yarn from a previous project and decided to just follow along with the youtube video that Wendy shared and try it out. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be so I kept on casting stitches onto my hook…. I added an extra row of puff stitches and copied Wendy’s idea and made up my own brim. I really like it… it’s so cozy and comfortable that I switched out the red flower for a cream colored flower (experimenting again) and I’m even wearing it today and totally not matching… LOL!

SO… A BIG, FAT, YARN WOVEN THANK YOU goes to my dear friend, Jeanne, for getting me hooked on yet another crafty bit of goodness. Jeanne, I am so glad we’re friends and glad to be able to get to pop in and see you when I get dragged to Denver with the hubs for work! You ROCK!

~ Inky Smiles

PS… this post has been brought to you by the letter B which stands for Buster who couldn’t keep his paws off me during my visit. {You "ain't" hearing any complaining from this dog lover.} What a cutie patootie! I {HEART} you, little man!