Tuesday Question & I am feeling Shame

After not having done the Tuesday question for a while, I thought I would go back to it. Hope you all participate.

This weeks question:

Do you make most things for yourself. to give to others, Charity or to sell?

Myself, I made most things to sell or to give away as gifts. I now find I have hardly anything in my house I made for myself and am trying to change that. Time to pretty up my own house with some color.

Over this last week I have started working on getting my crafts room cleaned up and organized, so I can see what I have or not, plus I am really tired of the clutter that has accumulated. So I have a lot of short pieces of yarn left over from varies projects and one of them were some ends of cotton. I decided I would make some can sleeves with them. Got to admit they look rather plain, but I had no further yarn left over. Here they are:

Maybe at a later point, when I have some leftovers again I will crochet some flowers to add. I also found out, that I most likely will not crochet any amigurimi, as my hands really hurt (good old Arthur) afterwards. I guess I have to learn my limits and that is one of them.

Now to my feeling Shame. As I just told you, I am cleaning out the crafts room. Oh what I found. All the unfinished projects that got left behind over the last year. Shame, shame on me. I really, really need to finish them and that is a promise I am making myself. As of today, only unfinished projects will be worked on, till they are all gone. Yap, that's what I need to do.

Here is a list of the unfinished projects: (This way I am accountable to myself)

4 different afghans (yes 4, the shame)

2 different shawls, one a granny and the other one an Elise

1 loom knitted hat

1 set of boot cuffs

1 knitted cowl

1 Easter project

1 quilt

1 fall poncho

In the next few days I will take some pictures of the unfinished things and as I will go along will post updates of how I am coming along.

Thanks for listening to my bickering at myself. Hope your day is bright and beautiful.

Till next time from my neck of the woods.

Cheerful Friday

"Happy Friday" everybody! How was your week?

Mine was quite busy as always, but there were many happy moments thrown in. Finally the weather has been on the brighter and warmer side. We had temps in the upper 50's and 60's. Yay, Happy Dance. So I was quite shocked that they are forecasting snow for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. I am so done with all that. But the weather is what it is and before long we will be complaining about the Heat.

But this week I needed something to get me in the mood for Spring ad I wanted bright and sunny colors around me. Since my main living area is mostly decorated around my coca-cola collection, red, white and black, I felt the need to add some color in one of the other rooms. So since I am working on redoing my crafts room, I decided that will be the room it will all happen in. I want to see nothing but bright, fun colors. Living in a Rental one is always a bit handicapped  regarding paint choices etc., but I am finally allowed to changed the wall color and that will be happening very shortly. Looking forward to that, as you can imagine.

But coming back to what I have made this week to make it more cheery. Without further ado:

Tah-Dah

Something cheerful for the table

This one is made from variegated yarn.

When I picked up the skein I thought

the colors looked brighter,

but it still turned out nice.

How is that for Bright?

Or this one?

A little close up

And one more

All three together

And than I thought I would see

how it would look with some decoration

on it.

Not bad, if I do say so myself

Well they have cheered me up very much and I now know I really want and need more color around me. So I foresee more color in my near future.

For now I would like to wish all of you a blessed and quiet weekend from my neck of the woods!

"Happy Monday" everybody! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend to look back on and also a wonderful Valentines day. The weather is finally improving around here and are we glad to see it. I see Spring in the near future and boy am I looking forward to it. I am so done hibernating and so tired of looking at all the grey. Here a little something to cheer all of us up: A bit of cheerful color

This past week has been a busy and crazy one for me. First I had to work a bunch of extra hours, which isn't a big deal, but was unplanned. Than I must admit, I was quite frustrated because my internet was out most of the time due to the bad weather around here. Living in such a rural area often brings that with it. But the internet is also often the way we stay in touch with people outside of here and I missed that interconnection. Oh well that is how it goes sometime in life, but I was glad I had other outside obligations to keep me busy.

I did manage to get some crocheting related stuff done, something that had been on the back burner for some time:

It started out with looking like this.

Lots of lovely colorful strings.

And turned into a pile of them.

Is it true that you can give them to the 

Birds for nesting?

And now the end result:

A drawer full of nicely sewn in strings.

Don't they look pretty now?

Some have a stack with a different color underneath.

I am so proud of myself of finally getting them done. After all the years of crocheting this is my first granny square afghan. Can you believe it? Well, I have been looking at different methods of joining them together, but I haven't quite decided which one I will use. Another first for me. Will share the outcome with you soon.

Today I am working on organizing my crafts and to see what I have left on yarn, which isn't much at the moment and might require a trip to the crafts store (yay me). But I also want to see what I have on unfinished projects laying around here, and yes there are quite a few. I have promised myself I will finish them, one at a time, as soon as possible. Maybe if I stayed of of Pinterest long enough to see new things I want to make, it would be very helpful. What do you think? Would that help?

Now I bit you all farewell until next time from my neck of the woods. Have a lovely day everybody!

Valentine's Day and My "Grow Your Blog" Give-away Winner

Hallo Friends! Today is the big day for my Give-away to the "Grow Your Blog Party" Winner. But first I would like to wish everybody a wonderful Valentines Day. Hope you have a Sweetheart to spoil you rotten.

And without further ado......

Here is what I have decided on giving away:

A handmade by me Wreath (Americana)

And.....

The Winner will get:

One red Coffee Mug,

A Mug Rug

A red crocheted Heart

Two Heart Soaps (Lavender)

Two Yo-Yo Adornments

and some pretty Heart Buttons

And now to the drawing of the Winner

27 Names are in the Bowl

I had wanted Grumpy Cat to pull the name,

but you guessed it.....

She was being grumpy and uncooperative.

So Here I go drawing the Winner.

Ta-Da....... and the Winner is:

Michele Hebson from "By Hook and Needle"

Congratulations to the Winner!!!!!!

Michele, if you would please send me your information

to erika@erikascraftscorner.com

I will get this of to you in a jiffy.

Hope you will enjoy it!

It was total fun participating in this Blog Party. I have visited over 600 blogs in total, which took some time, let me tell you, but was also totally awesome. There are so many talented people out there, from Crocheters, to Knitters, to Quilters and also Cross-Stitchers and more. Thank you for letting me participate and Thank You to my new Followers. I hope we will built many new friendships along the way.

Until than...... "Happy Crafting"

Olympics

Hallo Friends! The weekend is here. Do I hear many "Yay, finally"?

Well the time has come again for the Olympic Winter Games. Are you watching? Personally I love the winter Olympics better than the summer one. So far I have been glued to the TV since Thursday night, when they had the first competitions started. Last night I than watched the Opening Ceremonies. Quite a beautiful show and very Russian, I thought.

Now my dilemma. As some of you may know, I am a German girl living in the USA. So who do I root for?

 Hmmm, tuff decision. Or maybe just simple......Let's just root for both!

Both countries have very large teams

and it should make for interesting competition.

Either way, I am just very much looking forward to seeing it.

My favorite is Ice Skating.

What is yours?

But I am not just sitting idle watching the Tube, but I actually got something crocheted for my house. I needed some new one's. The old one's were showing a lot of wear and tear and started to look plain yucky. Well you probably guessed it already, it was some more pot holders. I always seem to make them for other people and it was about time I made some to pretty up my own house.

Now I would like to wish you all a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

Till next time.......

While I was watching Downton Abbey Part #5 and a Finish

This last Sunday I actually got to stay home and not work, because we were pretty much snowed in. The roads in our area were plain terrible. So I got to watch my show at home, snuggled in bed, nice and toasty and with my doggies as companions. I had fully intended on finishing the border to my shawl, but as it goes sometimes, it was not to be. For some reason I could not understand the pattern and how it was to come together. I ended up frogging it a few times and was getting a little frustrated. So I decided to give it a rest and wait for the next day, better light and a more awake brain. Glad I did, because the next morning I understood the pattern just fine and I cheated and finished the border on Monday. I also got to sew in all the strings and yay I felled so accomplished.

I had planned on than finally posting on Tuesday, but when I went and took the pictures, they looked just awful because of the lack of light in my house. So yesterday we finally had some wonderful sunlight outside. Even so it was pretty cold still and Icy, I went outside and get the pictures taken. And what a difference the sun made. So pretty.

Looks like pretty snow, but is covered in a sheet of ice

Love this gnarly old tree. 

Had hoped you could see the ice covering it.

Here now for my reveal:

TaDa, TaDa

As you can see, I had to add a pop of color

by crocheting the border in my

favorite color "RED"

Light and Shadow

Doesn't it look pretty around all that snow?

Do love the way the red looks around the white

One last little look at the Border

I do love the way this shawl turned out and am looking forward to wearing it. I have a red and white skirt and a white long sleeve shirt to go with it. Might have to take another picture when I wear it, so I can show you.

Now what will I do next? Many things on my list of what I would like to make, but I have not quite decided yet. We shall see.

For now, wishing you all a wonderful and productive day from my neck of the woods!

A Snowy Sunday

Happy Sunday to you All!

Thought I would pop by and tell you what I have been up to this weekend. At the moment it is snowing out, big white fluffy flakes. It is very pretty, but for our neck of the woods not so good. Living in such a rural area brings challenges with it. We don't have a snow or salt truck around here clearing the roads, so they become icy and slick in a hurry. We are supposed to get 2 to 3 inches, which isn't really a lot, but enough to make it bad on all the rural roads. Hope it doesn't get to bad, as I am supposed to go to work tonight.

Sorry the pictures are not the best, but you get the idea.

Lots more on the ground since these were taken an hour ago.

It's also Super Bowl Sunday. As I am not a football fan, it doesn't affect me to much, but I already heard a few wives complaining about what's to come. Are you a fan? Will you be watching? And will you do something crafty while doing so?

I also baked some fresh bread today. Started the dough yesterday and let it sit overnight. Oh it came out so good. Had me a fresh slice a little while ago, with some fresh butter and a couple of cheesy eggs. So yummy!

Doesn't that look good?

It's a Rye/Wheat combination.

As for my afternoon I will be spending it watching a couple of German movies and sewing in threads for a granny square blanket that has been on the back burner for some time and really, really needs to finally be finished. Sewing in the thread is always my least favorite of things to do, and I therefor procrastinate doing so. But no more. I really need to finish some projects that have been sitting here for a while, so I can show them off to you all.

Otherwise it is Downton Abbey night and I will be working on my shawl, hopefully finishing it. Working on the border now, so it shouldn't be to much more. Looking forward to my favorite show to see what happens next.

That's it for my little report for today. Hope you all stay nice, warm and snugly! Till next time......