Spring Crafting

I have some serious catching up to do on my blog.  Each month it becomes harder and harder to blog as my girls really aren't so excited about being featured on it and are off busy doing their own thing.

I spent much of the winter finishing up this afghan.  I taught myself to crochet last summer while following along at Wisecraft.  She published a square each week and I managed to keep up, in fact doubling each square to end up with a bigger blanket.

It took a long time to get it put together as the squares were all different sizes and I kept running out of yarn.  It's heavy, warm, and colorful.  Helen chose the yarn and is determined to take it to college.

Of course...now Liz wants one.  She's picked out yarn and I'm gathering the courage to start another big project.  She wants one with circles like the one below:

Helen took a mini-course at school on graffiti art. She set up her own spray paint studio in the basement and was quite busy.  Here are two self portraits she made:

So, we continue to be crafty when we have time!

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Our YouTube Summer

Yesterday my dental hygienist asked me one of those generic questions..."so, how was your summer?" I've been asked this question a lot over the past month and always reply that it was a good summer. When thinking about what made this summer so great, it wasn't a fancy vacation but rather a long series of afternoons and evenings together on the porch with all of us pursuing new interests....via YouTube.

Helen, Nelson, and Liz have been hanging out with their new buddy, Marty.

They've had a lot of fun learning guitar and beginning to play some songs together.
Here they are watching Marty on the ipad.

The instruments went everywhere with us which made for a very full car.

Here they are in Maine learning a fiddle tune.

I spent the summer learning to crochet using the Wise Craft Granny Square Sampler Project.

My YouTube lessons were a little more subdued. 

I have to say these videos really make me laugh, but they worked!

I sat on the porch and crocheted while they played their tunes. 

I've made about 50 squares and am almost ready to put it all together.

It was a very companionable summer. It was fun to find some activities to do that we could all enjoy together and I look forward to many winter nights with our YouTube buddies. We've learned a lot! Now the girls want to learn ukelele...and mandolin....and who knows what else. We're loving YouTube and we're loving learning some new skills.

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Seaside Crochet

My favorite activity this summer has been crocheting. I have loved learning something new. I have an entire afghan almost completed and decided to try my hand at some lace crochet over rocks.  I figured out the patterns and feel so happy to have learned this technique as well.

So, here is my little Maine vacation craft photo-shoot. Here is a little fish crocheted over a stone.

I crocheted a little starfish out of linen warp thread.  It is resting on top of a crocheted sea urchin stone made with cotton thread.

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