How soon is soon enough?

Really?! I have been working on this project for a good bit now. I've taken it apart and restarted and had to take apart a big section and start on it again. I haven't gained much ground on this. I'll show you what I've been working on... in a bit. I've done sent out my Christmas presents now. So this is something I'm just going to send  to my mother when I'm finished. Like I posted before, I got the original pattern from little woollys blog. It was for the mixed stitched blanket. Well, the Catherine's Wheel has me all kinds of screwed up. I dont know why, maybe because I kept miss counting. I tend to do that when I'm rushing. I got frustrated and decided to eliminate that particular part. Then I said screw it. I'm going to take the stitches in the original pattern, and just mix it up. I'm doing this all mixed up and in no particular order. Don't judge me =p

I'm happy with it so far. Just as long as I can keep it on track with the stitch count. 

ANYWAY!!!!!! Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!!! 

Until next time,

Tonya @WoollyGhoulie

The Perfect Scarf Kick off!!

Okay, I don't have anyone throwing themselves at the opportunity to join this crochet-a-long I wanted to do. And I might get more people interested in it if I just post what I've gotten done, and a description of how I did it. So here..

Yarn: Schachenmayr SMC Bravo in Natural (2 skeins used for main color, and I have used both skeins, leaving only enough to add some to the fringe I might add at the end)) , Black, Dark Heather Grey, Neon Yellow, Neon Orange, Neon pink, Turquoise and Caledon all one skein each. It's a DK weight yarn.
Hook: G (4.0mm)
Gauge: not important in this pattern.

I'm working with a granny stitch. It's simple, fast and looks good. I started off with a magic ring. I then ch2, and that's going to count as the first dc throughout this whole thing. Then 2 dc in magic ring, ch 2, then 3 dc in magic ring. Then ch 3, work 2 dcs into the same dc that you did the ch3 off of. Ch 1, 3 dc in ch 2 sp, 3 dc in same ch 2 sp, then ch 1, 3dc in top of last dc. Just keep doing that and it will increase as you go. Just remember, when you reach the ch2 space, it's 3dc, ch2, 3dc, ch 1.

After I got finished with the Natural color, I fastened off and did the whole weaving in the ends deal. That way I don't have to worry about it later. But that's completely up to you.
Here's a picture of what I've been doing.

And here's a picture of the yarn I'm using again. I posted this earlier in another  post about this scarf. 

I think my next color will be Caledon. =) 

Until next time,

Tonya@WoollyGhoulie

Update on the scarf! Last night and this morning I have been working more on my scarf. Here's what I've gotten done so far

The first row of color, I just did a sc along the dcs in the granny stitch. In between each set of three dcs, there's a ch space, there I did a dc over to the middle of the previous row. If anyone has questions on that, just ask. It's basically just a spike stitch.  Then I just sc all the way around. In the ch 2 at the center point, just sc, ch 1, sc. The next stitch, I just did a shell stitch. You sc then skip two, then seven dcs in next st, skip two, sc, skip two so on and so forth. All the way. The next row is just seven dcs in each sc. I followed that up with a row of sc. 

That's all folks! I'll update it when I get more done!!!

Until next time, 

Tonya @WoollyGhoulie

Here's more progress. I will finish this up hopefully tomorrow. So here's what I've done since the last update. A row of hdc. Three rows of granny stitch in different colors. Row of sc and spike st. Only thing I changed was I skipped a stitch, so I have 2 scs, and then the dc, instead of the three scs and then dc. Then I did a row ow ch 6, skip next 3 st, sc in next st. Then I did a row of ch 3, sc in 3rd ch sp. Then I did a row of dc in the same color as the last. That's it so far. I'm starting to create a slight ruffle. I don't mind that right now. But I definitely don't want it to get any more ruffled. So I'll be working on that tomorrow. I just need to start counting my stitches. No biggie. I've just been winging it with this project. I have done some looking around on Pinterest, and found a blog on blogger.com called MyValleyRose. She has a few patterns on there that I love. There's a shawl pattern I fell in love with. She also sells Tilda yarn in her etsy shop of the same name. So you should check it out. =)

Until next time

Tonya@WoollyGhoulie

Today's update! I'm not done yet folks!!!! Here's what I've got done today

Plus solid, after the row of yellow dcs, I did three rows of granny stitching. After that I did a row is black sc, then another spike row with sc. Then I did a row of sc, then hdc in blue. Then a row of clusters with a ch sp in between each one. Then a row of 2 sc in each ch 1 so. Then a row of hdc in black.. that's it so far!!!! 

CHRISTMAS!!!!! Recipes being shared =)

Hi!! I have some recipes my mother has been sending me. They're COOKIES!!!! And a couple candy recipes. She has made over 600 cookies!!!! I live about 900 miles away from her.. So I don't get any cookies and candy. But that's okay. I'm going to be making some of these recipes this Christmas and New year =) enjoy!!!
Until next time,
Tonya @WoollyGhoulie


So here's the first one:
Simple cookies with M&M candies
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Robbis-MM-Cookies/Detail.aspx?prop24=etaf

Number two:
Norman-Marcus Cookies (my personal favorite)

2 cups butter

24 oz. Chocolate chips

4 cups flour

2 cups brown sugar

2 tsp. Baking soda

1 tsp. Salt

2 cups sugar

1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)

5 cups blended oatmeal

4 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp. Vanilla

3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Measure oatmeal and blend in a blend until a fine powder.

Cream the butter and both sugars.

Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda.

Add chocolate chips, Hershey barm, and nuts. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375.

Recipe says makes 112 cookies but we rolled them 1 inch round balls and  got 206 cookies.  Had to take the mixture out of my Kitchenaid mixer bowl and put it in my biggest metal bowl because there was so much of it that it was overflowing  We just finished mixing it by hand.  I know now that next time I make these I will half the recipe.. The cookies are delicious though. 

Number three:

Jello Cookies

Ingredients

• 3.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 cups salted butter softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 (3 oz) pkg Jello You can use any flavors you want

Instructions

1. Beat butter in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and vanilla. Mix flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
2. Divide dough into 4 sections. Sprinkle 2 Tb of Jello onto each section. Knead together with dough. You may want to add a few drops of food coloring to make the dough more vibrant.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in the extra Jello from the packets. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets. Flatten with bottom of bowl.
4. Bake 8 to 10 min at 350 on lined baking sheets. Cool on baking sheets 2 min. Remove to wire racks and cool completely.

Number four:

Lemon Cookies 

These cookies use only four ingredients, and mix up in less than 5 min. Seriously awesome. Even better, they use no oil or butter. I know, you might be a littl...e skeptical, too. But these are simply the lightest, softest, yummiest cookies ever. Low Fat Crinkle Cookies Ingredients 1 box lemon cake mix (any kind) 1 egg, lightly beaten 2 cups Cool Whip, thawed (8 ounce container) ½ to 1 cup powdered sugar Instructions Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, egg, and Cool Whip. The batter will be sticky! Form dough into tablespoonfuls and roll in powdered sugar. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are golden. Allow to cool 1 minute on baking sheet; then remove. Please SHARE so this will be SAVED to your timeline! Join us for more interesting facts, recipes, health tips, DIY projects and fun stuff atAll-Natural Weight Loss

Number five:

Walnut cookie balls

Serves: 20
Cook Time: 25 Min
Cooking Method: Bake

Ingredients

1 c  (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 c  confectioners' sugar, plus more for rolling
2 tsp  pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp  nutmeg, ground
1/8 tsp  salt
2 c  flour
1 1/2 c  Diamond of California chopped walnuts

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 350º. Spread chopped walnuts on a baking sheet or in a shallow pan. Bake, stirring once or twice, until lightly browned and fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool. Leave oven set to 350º.

2 Beat butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and salt; beat until well blended. Stir in flour and walnuts.

3 Shape into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.

4 Bake until edges are lightly browned and cookies are set, about 15 minutes. Remove from baking sheets. Immediately roll hot cookies in additional confectioners' sugar. Place sugared cookies on wire racks to cool. When cool, roll again in sugar.

Number six:

Easy Pudding Cookies

(110)

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Photo by:Kraft

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The best-kept secret of your chewy-cookie-making friends? Pudding. In this version it's chocolate pudding and white chocolate that do the trick.

Time

Prep:

15 min

Total:

27 min

Servings

Total:

42 servings, 1 cookie each

What You Need

1

Cup  butter or margarine, softened

1

Cup  packed brown sugar

1

Pkg.  (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

2

 Eggs

1

Tsp.  Baking soda

2

Cups  flour

1-1/2

Pkg.  (4 oz. Each) BAKER'S White Chocolate (6 oz.), chopped

Make It

HEAT oven to 350°F.

BEAT butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Add dry pudding mix; beat until well blended. Add eggs and baking soda; mix well. Gradually beat in flour until well blended. Stir in chocolate.

DROP tablespoons of dough, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets.

BAKE 10 to 12 min. Or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 min. On baking sheets; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Size-Wise

These cookies are great for gift-giving and sharing on a special occasion.

Special Extra

Add 1 cup dried cranberries with the chocolate.

Variation

Prepare using other flavor combinations of JELL-O Instant Pudding and stir-ins, such as Pistachio Pudding with dried cherries, Lemon Pudding with chopped PLANTERS Pecans, and Vanilla Pudding with chopped BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Number seven:

Almond Joy Candies

 bag of shredded coconut

Approximately 3 tablespoons of light corn syrup

Almonds

Put the coconut in a food processor to chop up a little finer

I added about 3 tablespoons of light corn syrup,  start with 2 and go from there.  You may need more or less. 

You do not want it to thin.  Keep it the same consistency of almond joys.  For me it was about 3 tbs.

Squeeze the mixture together, if it doesn't hold then refrigerate for a few minutes. 

After its chilled, make small balls (about 1 inch round) and press an almond on top.  After you have all your coconut and almonds on the pan, return it to the fridge for about 15 minutes or so. 

In the meantime melt some chocolate (I had some Candiquik on hand)  I like that a lot better than chocolate chips for coating.. Any grocery store has it.    After the chocolate melted I dipped each piece of candy in the chocolate.  Returned it to the tray to harden.  It taste just like an almond joy.  This was my fist time making this and I will be making them again..

Number eight:

Buckeyes

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: Makes 60 to 70 Buckeyes

From Julie Espy {White Lights on Wednesday}

Ingredients

• 18 ounces creamy peanut butter
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar (about 1 pound)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 12 ounces chocolate chips
• 2 ounces parafin wax, optional

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together peanut butter, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Add confectioner's sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing until almost combined after each addition, until all sugar is incorporated.
2. Roll peanut butter mixture into bite sized balls. Place peanut butter balls onto a baking sheet lined with Sil-Pat, waxed paper, or parchment paper. Chill peanut butter balls for at least 1 hour.
3. In a double boiler set up, melt together chocolate chips and wax in a bowl. Once melted, stir together thoroughly to combine.
4. Insert a toothpick into the center of one peanut butter ball. Use the toothpick to dip the ball into the melted chocolate. Be sure to leave a circle of peanut butter showing at the top of the candy {this is what makes it look like a Buckeye}. Dip the ball once more, leaving peanut butter showing and then place back onto the lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining peanut butter balls.
5. Refrigerate for 10 minutes, or until ready to serve*

Notes

If you are not using paraffin wax, you will need to refrigerate your candy until the chocolate is set, about 1 hour. If you are in a hurry, paraffin wax can be a great option. The wax makes the chocolate set at room temperature and does not need to be refrigerated. Paraffin wax is safe to digest. And unless you eat the entire batch yourself, you're really not consuming very much at all. Paraffin wax can be found at your local grocery store in the canning section.

Ribbit, ribbit, rippit, rip it...

So, I was about 1/4 of the way through this Christmas gift. I realized that my stitch count was WAY off. I had to go back, find out where it began, and take over half of my work apart. I should have been paying more attention to my count. There's a lesson here. Watching tv and NOT counting when you're working with a bunch of different stitches, is a BAD idea. It makes for a bunch of froggin! I have about 10 Christmas dish cloths to finish today, and I can go back to my project I've been working on. I really should have started sooner. It doesn't pay to procrastinate!!!!!!! I guess the perfect scarf is just going to have to wait a little longer! I need to order another color I left out anyway. Alright.. off to work I go!
Until next time,
Tonya @WoollyGhoulie

Perfect scarf yarn!!!!

I received the yarn I ordered from Craftsy, last week. I found this yarn on sale.

It's Bravo, by Schachenmayr! I have never worked with this yarn before. It's from Germany, and is a dk weight. It's 100% acrylic yarn. These skeins consist of 1.75 oz. or 145 yds. I'm so excited! I'm still working on this Christmas present.. I got the idea for it from little woolly. She posted a CAL for a blanket of mixed stitches, and it turned out beautifully. So, I'm taking her pattern, and kind of putting my own twist on it. I'm not using dk weight yarn for the blanket, I'm using Red Heart Super Saver, it  worsted weight. It's turning out beautifully. Im really happy with the results. I'm not using much white, and the little bit that I am using, is soft white. I'm using a couple blues, a couple purples, a berry color red, spring green, pink, yellow, charcoal grey and light mint green. So far, mixing the colors has turned out really really well. Once I get the blanket done, I'll definitely post pictures. Well, maybe after Christmas. I don't want to take any chances on spoiling the gift!

Dinner plans:
Tonight, I'm eating Mexican food, folks. I LOVE fajitas. There's  a little Mexican restaurant here, and they're pretty good. So I'll be scarfing down some steak fajitas and queso and chips! Also, I'll be crocheting on that blanket! I've got to get it done so I can start my CAL on the perfect scarf!

The lucky me:
Our tree has presents under it, we've got food in our belly, and a warm home. I'm pretty lucky. I'm really glad I have the opportunity to surround myself in my favorite hobbies. I'm really lucky I've got the support to keep being creative, and pushing myself. I'm lucky to have my family. I lost my daddy on Dec. 17th of 2011, and I miss him more and more everyday. And this time of year kinda sucks because of that. But, I try to not let it get me too bad, and I try to keep cheery about it all.

So I've got work to do. And I can't do it if I'm blogging!
Until next time,
Tonya @WoollyGhoulie

P.S. here's little woollies blog www.littlewoollie.blogspot.com
Here's where I got the yarn www.craftsy.com
An  here's where you can get your Redheart Super Saver yarn www.redheart.com

Christmas tree Overload!!!

We have decorated our tree! It's the first year that I've ever had a real tree! It smells loverly!!! And it's huge! Biggest tree I have ever had!! So, most of the ornaments are vintage. A big part of them came from a lady whose house I helped clean a while ago. She moved, and gave these to my fiancees mom. She gave them to us! They're old Shine Brite ornaments. I love them! There's a bunch of handmade ones that are pretty old. We had some from when Paul was a boy that we put on there, and some we got a couple years ago from the dollar store. We have a butt load of ornaments. They're even hung inside! I used every single one. It turned out beautifully. Exactly what I wanted! I took some pictures!

 

I found an Elf on the Shelf ornament!!! He's on a bell, not a shelf. Still cute!!! My Momma made a Family Tree sunshine thing, I hung that on there, and of course I hung up a Christmas Pickle!!! I crocheted it myself. =) I've never been so excited about my Christmas Tree!!!!!! I'm going to be blogging again tomorrow on this project I'm working on. It's going to be a gift for someone for Christmas!!! 

Until next time,

Tonya @WoollyGhoulie

The perfect scarf!

I found the perfect scarf, folks. It's here
http://t-jonge.blogspot.nl/2013/09/uitnodiging.html
I LOVE the colors and the mixing of different stitches. I don't know what language that's in, or where to find the pattern. I've looked for a few days now. I can't find anything. So I'm going to try to figure it out on my own!!! If anyone can give me some helpful info on some of those stitches, I think it's mostly granny and shell and your basic hdc, dc, sl st and sc. But if you see something I don't, please let me know!! I love this and I need to have it!!! The colors are so pretty and put together so well, and its just perfect for anything I'd wear! I'm working on my mother's Christmas present now, but once I'm done with that, and I get my yarn I ordered from Craftsy.com, I'll be able to get it made!!!! I'm so excited!!

Here's what I might do. I might do a CAL with it! I wonder how many people I can get to participate and post pictures of their progress along with mine. I never have done a CAL before. I'm working the pattern of One now, but it's long done with. I will post that when I'm done =)
Until next time,
Tonya @WoollyGhoulie