Crocheted visor hat

The two items that Kirsten chose as her giveaway prizes were the blue cabled hat and a custom-made crocheted visor hat for her little boy.  She sent me a few pictures of hats she liked, including this one (from etsy, I believe, but I’ve been unable to locate the seller to give proper credit for the picture and design – if you happen to know it, let me know and I’ll link it up).

I do love to knit, and there were a couple of cute knit options, but I wanted to be able to get the hat done quickly, which definitely means one of the crocheted options would be best.  Plus, I’ve seen the visor beanies around and wanted to give one a try.

The Wee One was my most unwilling model.  The only reason I got the shots that I did was because there was a stray cat roaming the yard that briefly captured her attention.  And, since it was cold out but the only clean sweater had flowers I would never allow my child to be passed off as a boy for a photo shoot, there is a dichotomy of genders going on with my model’s appearance.  

Rockin’ the rapper/gangster look.

The cat could only hold her attention for so long.

The best picture I could get with the blue cap, considering I attempted to take it indoors with no feline distraction.  (Can my child really be so old as to be removing hats herself?  Wasn’t it just days ago that she wouldn’t have even known there was anything on her head, much less had the ability to remove it?)

And, as for the Specs:
Pattern: Visor Beanie by Suzanne Steiger, via Ravelry
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Baby Blue and White; Red Heart Super Saver in Red and Cornmeal; Vanna’s Choice in Charcoal
Hooks: G and H
Mods: Skipped increase rows 8 and 9, used a different striping pattern, and made the brim over 22 chains instead of 26

Lookie what I won!

Kirsten has made her choices and will be receiving her hats soon. I’ll post pictures in a couple of days.

For now, I wanted to share some of the fun things I’ve won in various giveaways and share some of my favorite giveaway sites.

1. My Organized Chaos: A Canadian mom who reviews all sorts of products and gives stuff away nearly every day. It’s pretty much all child-related, though, so if you don’t have kids (specifically young kids), the giveaways are mostly useless. But, since I have a [cute] little one, I was happy to win this:

A brightly colored cardigan from Happy Green Bee (which, coincidentally, is based out of Maine – a town very near where we used to live – and I had no idea the company existed until recently). I’ve seen their clothes before and thought they were very cute, but it’s kind-of a hippie company. All their clothes are made in China, of course, but with organic cotton and are certified “free trade.” They also come with a heftier price tag. I like the sweater, but certainly wouldn’t have bought it on my own. To get some extra life out of it, I requested the 1-2 yr size. Just roll up the sleeves and we’re good to go!

2. Craft Gossip – this is a craft site that does its own giveaways and often posts about giveaways on other sites. I’ve entered many and have won two:

A label maker, straight from Label Zone in the UK. When I got my package with all its international mail markings, I felt so cultured. And, hey, label makers are pretty awesome. If only I could get motivated to clean my house, I’d get organized too and have lots of nicely labeled boxes.

Next, I won a yard of each of these fabrics from Free Spirit. These are part of Jay McCarroll’s (apparently one of the Project Runway winners – I don’t know what season) Germania line. When I first heard Germania, I thought it was going to be flowery – like a geranium – but no, these are all based on germs. These particular prints are a bit bright and kooky, so I’m not yet positive what I’ll use them for, but I am still happy to have won.

3. The Brightside Project – I really like this website. Its completely devoted to giveaways and winners are chosen based on their responses to questions rather than randomly. Of course, if you enter a lot and are never chosen, it may just give you a complex about what’s wrong with your writing (or the stories you share) so as to keep you from winning. Either way, it’s fun, and they have some really nice stuff. (But, lest you think there’s a conspiracy against you if you keep losing, the individual prize contributors are the ones who pick the winners, so it’s not just the site runners that dislike your writings…)

I’m supposed to be getting these pillows in the mail any day now. Which is good, since our futon/sofa could use some throw pillows. You know, to make it more classy. Maybe no one will notice that we use a cheap Walmart futon for our sofa if we get some fancy pillows on there. At any rate, the pillows are from an etsy shop called Rehabilitated, which just happens to be based in Phoenix.

So, yeah, I’ve been feeling pretty good about myself lately. Of course, I’m a little concerned that I’ll use up all my good karma on dinky little giveaways like this and so Publisher’s Clearing House will never come to my door. Do you hear that, Ed McMahon’s successor? I’m still an excellent candidate for a $1,000,000 win!

A birthday bag

Fabric does something to me. As I admitted in this post, I tend to lust after lovely fabrics - usually designer – and I find myself spending plenty of time searching fabric sites online, drooling over what I see. It finally came in handy.

When I saw this post, written by my sister-in-law, the Tracy Joy bag she listed caught my eye, largely because I recognized the fabric (Fleur Tattoo by Michael Miller). A lengthy research process later (pretty much any time I buy something online, there’s a lengthy research process involved), I had my fabric and a copy was underway.

The bag is meant to be a camera bag, and features four padded separators inside. There is also an exterior pocket, just under the flap. The whole thing is padded, and will stand on its own. I wanted to do a thicker strap, but apparently the plastic adjusters (you can see one in the picture on the left) are very hard to come by, at least locally, in sizes greater than 1”. Shipping charges would have made ordering online a little ridiculous, so I settled. Hopefully it doesn’t prove problematic.

According to some blogs I read, the dimensions of the bag are 13”x10”x4.5”. I used a basic messenger bag pattern from Weekend Designer (an awesome blog I recently discovered – it’s a shame the author has “retired”) with some modifications. The whole process was a huge learning experience, and involved significant planning. It was good for me. I must admit, though, I’m not sure it went very far in helping me learn to stitch straight lines. Let’s hope it’s not examined too closely…

Happy birthday, Ash!

We have a winner!

There wasn’t much competition, folks, so if you didn’t win…  Well, maybe you need to take things up with Karma.

Before I pick, I will note that my mom entered, but commented on the Facebook note regarding the post instead of the post itself.  Give her a break – she’s old.  (At least that’s what I like to tell her – often – in the light of love, of course.  :)  Her comment was timestamped November 14, 1:55 pm, making hers comment #3 out of the [now] 6 comments.

Thanks to Random.org’s number generator, the winner is: #5 – Kirsten! 

Kirsten mentions that she might like a baby hat to cover up her wee one’s bald head.  Congratulations, Kirsten!  I’ve sent an email to you so that you can send me your choices.  I’ll post the selections and/or creations on here when they’ve been mailed.

Thanks for playing, all, it’s been fun!

Giveaway!

To celebrate my 100th post (that took awhile, didn’t it?), I’m offering up projects of my past. The winner may pick either two items from the list below, or one item from the list and one item I’ve made in the past that they would like me to make for them that is on the list below.

To enter, leave a comment with your tentative choices (you can submit your actual pickings after you win) by Wednesday, November 18 at noon, and the winner will be posted here either that afternoon or on Thursday.

Pre-made choices:

Rainbow baby
Baby hats – any shown on this page
Baby devil hat
Red snowflake baby hat
Lourdes the hippo
Scooter Pup

Custom choices:

Any baby or adult hat (provided I can still get the pattern)
Any single crocheted or sewn softie (not the carseat toy or Mr. Robot, though – sorry!)
Heck, I might let you “look” through my amigurumi books and pick one I haven’t made before too – I like new things…

If you pick something that I can’t recreate for you, I’ll let you know and you can choose again.

HAPPY GIVEAWAY-ING!

I like cash back

I’m warning you now - this post will be a plug for some cash back sites.  Seriously, though, I think that these are FABULOUS and I use them all myself.  Most don’t even require a whole lot of time or effort, unlike surveys…

Swagbucks – this is one of my favorite sites.  There are multiple ways to earn points, but the only thing I do is use their website (swagbucks.com) for searches in the same way I would use Google.  Their results are a compilation of results from Google and Ask.com, and are generally very good.  They even have an image search and comparison shopping, just like Google.  Every few searches, you’ll randomly be rewarded with “Swagbucks,” which are essentially points that can be redeemed for prizes or giftcards.  In the last 6 months or so, I’ve earned $25 in Amazon giftcards through this site, without any extra effort on my part.

Rebate sites – all of these sites do the same thing: if you’re planning to shop and buy something online, you first go to their website and search for the retailer, then use their link to click to the retailer’s website.  From there, you proceed as normal.  Each site provides differing percentages or dollar amounts of cash back depending on the website you’re shopping, so I find it worthwhile to peek through them all to decide.  Once you’ve earned enough, you’ll be sent a check.  And, these are all reputable companies, so there is no concern about them logging your credit card data or the like.  They simply earn kickbacks from the retailers, and pass on some of that to you.  There are coupon codes available, too, often providing additional discounts.

And, as an added bonus, each of these sites provide you with a $5 bonus (either to your account or as a giftcard) upon sign-up.

• Ebates – example savings: 10% cash back at oldnavy.com, 10% at kodakgallery.com
• Cashbaq – example savings: 5% cash back at target.com, 5% at half.com
• MrRebates – example savings: 6% cash back at fabric.com, 3% at ebay.com
• ShopatHome – example savings: $8.00 rebate at photostamps.com, 6% cash back at hotels.com

Between all of these cash back sites, I’ve gotten a good $40 cash for doing very little extra (since I was going to shop online).  Especially since Christmas is nearing, I think its definitely worthwhile to sign up.

And on a completely separate note, my 100th post will be next.  I think I’ll do a giveaway (as is common in blogland).  Stay tuned!

More Craigslist fun

What do you think they’re selling?

It turns out they actually meant “suite” (although even the furniture companies themselves can’t get that right here – I’ve heard the word “suit” used in commercials too), and Hooker is a brand of furniture.  So, their post is completely G-rated (and boring).  You never know what you’ll find here, though – there was a stripper pole for sale a few weeks back.  It was even installed on a reinforced mini stage.  Classy, huh?