My Clock Cover needs Work...

I thought it would be fun to crochet a cover for my plain, cheap, boring clock.  And it was fun, until I decided that I wanted to put a red stripe in the cover where twelve o'clock would be.  The stripe wasn't sharp enough, and when I added rows at the bottom, and at the top of it, it looked horrifying.  Like a little blob of blood had gotten on the cream colored fabric I had crocheted. Not appealing to me in any way.

But!  We had recently been to the beach, and had brought home a bucket of shells.  Maybe one of them would be the right size to cover my red blob and be the focal point of my clock.  I have a sea-themed bathroom, it would go perfectly in there!

I hung it up, using one of those little command strip hooks, but about two hours later, I heard a crash.  It was just too heavy for the hook and it jumped off the wall to its death. With the shells, the cover was just too heavy.  Maybe I should have used a nail... Anyway, it was too much work for it to only have lasted two hours, so no more crochet clock covers for me.

I hope that your next crochet adventure is a good one, Crochet Dynamos!

xoxo

The Rainbow Cash Keeper

I wanted a rainbow wallet.  Don't ask me why.  I have a gorgeous wallet.  I don't need another wallet.  But I wanted one.  A rainbow wallet, with fluffy clouds.

My balls of brightly colored cotton were calling, so I grabbed a dollar bill so that I made my wallet the right size and began crocheting away.  I studied wallet design, making sure that my wallet would close properly and stay closed, although I wasn't opposed to a button closure if it needed one. I stayed up waaay too late to finish the cloudy part...

Yeah, did you know that credit cards are not "half a dollar" sized?  I had to learn that one the hard way.  My wallet wasn't good for anything other than holding cash, which, for anyone that knows me, is not something I carry often. Fail! But on the bright side, it will be super cute for Mims to play pretend with.  Mom FTW!!!

So now, dear Crochet Dynamos, I am at a bit of a loss.  Do I forge ahead with a 2nd, larger, more appropriately sized wallet, or do I move on to something that an adult would carry?  It is a conundrum for sure... How delightful that that's my biggest worry today... ;D
xoxo

Craft Fail, and I need a metal punch...

I have been in Create! Create! Create! mode lately, which has lead to the inevitable glory that is the craft fail. Why am I sharing this? Because I want to remember my progress, good and bad, and I love it when people that I follow and respect show that they're human.  Plus, I believe my ideas were good, it's the execution that needs fine tuning.

It all started with my love of the awesomeness that is the large fast food cup.  Not styrofoam or paper, since those tend to break quickly (and drench me in the process), but the big plastic cups that can be washed and reused over and over.  I love them.  Really.  But the lids break and after a few days the small cracks become big cracks, and they no longer fit tightly on the cup.  And a tight fitting lid is why I like the cups so much.  I have a five-year-old and a big dog.  My cup gets knocked over daily, and having a barrier that keeps the tidal wave of iced tea from pouring out onto the carpet is essential.  Also, I prefer my tea with no dog hair or Playdoh in it.

The big problem with fast food cups, besides the lid cracking I've already addressed, is that I feel really guilty about using them, since they're not eco-friendly.  I would feel a lot better about using something that I didn't feel was destroying the environment.  Happy Earth Day, by the way...  I know that they sell plastic to-go type cups, and I have bought several of them for $15 each, but the "reusable straw" always gets gross after a couple of days, and they're just too small since I love ice.  I really love ice.  Obsessed might be the appropriate word to describe my relationship with ice, and ultimately, those 16 oz cups don't hold more than three or four sips of iced tea when you pack them full of ice first.

Two of Jake's favorite restaurants use quart sized mason jars for cups, which made me think that might be an excellent choice for our home drinking needs. A quart is pretty big, which would allow me to have all the ice I want in my tea, and not have to refill it twenty times a day. Plus, glass is eco-friendly.  It doesn't break down, but it can be recycled, and no matter how gross it gets I can run it through a dishwasher and it will be good as new.  I still needed to solve the lid issue, since, seriously, I need a lid.  I also wanted the portability that a fast food cup gives, and a slippery glass jar might not.  So this is what I came up with:

A grippy coaster bottom that was absorbent, would protect my hand from icy beverages, and would make my cup easily identifiable in a crowd?  Win, win, win! I was elated!  

 Here is my craft fail though.  The crocheted piece was just too thick to sit properly on the top of the jar, and the metal ring wouldn't hold it in place.  I tried again with a fine weight cotton thread instead and it bowed and fell into the jar as well.

So, I ended up cutting a circle out of a cereal box, putting my crocheted lid into the ring, and then putting the cardboard circle on top of it to back it and keep it sturdy and flat.  The ring screwed on perfectly and my cup has been protected.  I will probably have to replace the cardboard every couple of days, but at least it is more eco-friendly than the plastic lids were. 

Really, I think I'm just going to have to save up and buy a metal punch so that I can make straw holes in the metal canning lids.  Hmm... Those lids would be perfect for parties, since we could all just sharpie our names on them and they would wash off later so I could reuse them. Seriously, what could possibly be more eco-friendly than that?

xoxo