Cozy Fall Granny Scarf

What better time to whip up a nice warm and cozy scarf than BLOGtober??  I thought of this idea a little while back and figured I'd make it for a post this month.  I just finished it up the other day and I think it came out so cute that I am keeping it.  Sorry, friends, this one's staying with me!

This has been the year of granny squares for me.  There was my Vibrant Granny Square Afghan that I entered in the fair.  Click the link to see how I did!  That afghan took a while and a lot of grannies!  I also made a ton of other granny squares for other projects.  Pretty soon you'll see a pocketbook I made using granny squares.  They are so versatile.

Here you can see me wearing the scarf.  You like my dusty mirror?  Wow, I should have cleaned that first.  Oh well.  Anyway, I think, in hindsight, I would have made the scarf one square longer.  I thought with the extra stitching lining the squares it would have been a little longer.  This length is pretty good, though. 

Here's a closer look at the details.  You can see I used four colors for this scarf.  I arranged them randomly for a not-so-perfect look.  The granny squares were made using a size J hook.  I did two rounds and outlined each in the off white using a single crochet.  Then I stitched them all together with a single crochet in the same off white.  You can see the full pattern below.

It was a lot of sewing and tying loose ends to complete this project, but it was worth it.  I really like how it turned out.  The colors look perfect for fall and yet I know they'll work just fine for winter.

Materials:

size J crochet hook
scrap yarn in red, green brown, purple and off white

Instructions:

Make 28 small granny squares in four colors. You can divide the colors however you like.

Chain four.  Place hook in first chain and slip stitch to create a circle. Chain two.  Then double crochet two into circle.  Chain one.  Double crochet three.  Repeat two more times until you have four clusters.  Then join with slip stitch.

Slip stitch to corner.  Chain two.  Double crochet two.  Chain one.  In the same corner, double crochet three, chain one.  Double crochet three into next corner, chain one, double crochet three into the same spot.  Repeat until you have two clusters in each corner.  Slip stitch to finish.

Outline in off white using a single crochet stitch.  Sew in all loose ends.

Make 28 granny squares total using the four colors.

Join squares using single crochet.  This is a great video showing how to do this if you need a visual.  Make sure to sew in the rest of those loose ends!

Any questions?  Type them in the comment section below.


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Monster Slime

Monster Slime.  Perfect for the ghoulish days to come!

My kids have been begging to make slime, particularly my son.  I was hesitant, however, because we still have slime on the ceiling from our last encounter with the ooey gooey mess-maker.  But, after a month-long (plus) ban, I decided to give it another try.  Besides, the homemade stuff isn't quite as goopy as its store-bought counterpart.

So I headed to Walmart for supplies while the kids were at school.  I came across a slime starter kit and it was on clearance.  My favorite!  It even had a recipe on the back.  This one was a little different than the slimes we have made in the past, but I figured it was worth a try.

The slime we made in the past called for glue, borax and water.  This one had glue, contact solution and baking soda.  When I looked at the contact solution ingredients, I saw that it contained boric acid, so I'm guessing that's a key component in slime-ification.

Did you know you can use a straw to blow bubbles in slime?  I hadn't thought of it, but apparently the kids are full of ideas. And it works quite well.  Go ahead, give it a try!

I will say that this one, made with the blue glitter glue (plus some extra blue glitter for good measure) worked the best.  The slimes made with clear glue and added food color and sprinkles seemed to seep water for some reason.

Below is the gold slime we made with clear glue, yellow food coloring and gold sparkles before it started to separate and get watery.

Slime Recipe

(from the back of the box)

Ingredients:

1 6-ounce bottle of glitter glue

1/2 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/4 tablespoons contact solution

Add baking soda to glue and mix thoroughly.  Add contact solution and stir until mixture gets firmer and slime begins to form.  

It's really easy, not to expensive and a lot of fun.  This is one of the easier and less messy slime recipes available, especially when you compare it to the cornstarch and water concoction my kids like to make.  That one I recommend for a warm summer day!

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Cinnamon Vacuum Powder?

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I was so excited to try this one.  Ah, fall, and the warm and delicious smell of cinnamon!

I saw a tip on Pinterest to sprinkle some ground cinnamon on the floor, vacuum it up and continue vacuuming the rest of your house.  This is just plain old cinnamon, the one I use for baking.  The idea is that as the vacuum heats up, the cinnamon smell will fill the air.

Did it work?

In a word, no.  I put about a tablespoon of cinnamon on the floor, vacuumed it up and hoped for a delicious cinnamon smell to fill the air.  But I was left flat.  This Pinterest tip is not a keeper.  I really wish it worked.  Maybe if I sprinkle my rugs?  No, even if they did smell nice that way, the cinnamon has potential to stain.  I don't want to do that.

It's too bad, I thought this idea had great potential.  Looks like this is one I'll be deleting off my DIY boards!

Do you have any Pinterest ideas that fell flat?  Leave them in the comment section below.  I'd love to hear of your Pinterest fail!

Update: Days later I smelled the faint scent of cinnamon while vacuuming.  It was so faint that I had to stick my nose to my vacuum to confirm it.  I still don't recommend this idea.


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Nice and Spicy Melt and Pour Soap

I've had some melt and pour glycerine soap ready to try since this summer.  I love glycerine soaps for my sensitive skin.  When I mentioned it to my mom when we were visiting this summer, she gave me a brand new package she had at her house.  I've been wanting to try it out, but until now I haven't had the motivation for a new project.  We moved this summer and other little things just kept creeping in.  Well, finally, soap made the list!

Nice and Spicy Melt and Pour Soap

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 
pinch of turmeric
1 pound melt and pour glycerine soap
10 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil
Soap molds*

According to the directions on the mold, I melted the soap in a glass dish in the microwave.  I started with 30 seconds microwaved at 10 second intervals until it was melted completely.  (I am wondering if I should have melted it a smidgen more because by the time I poured my last soap, it was already hardening.)  Once it is melted, stir in spices and essential oil.  Lastly, pour into molds and wait about 40 minutes until it hardens.

*I got my soap molds at Michaels and I'm a little disappointed.  The more shallow bar molds cause the whole thing to dip, causing uneven hardening.   My original goal was to make it in a silicone loaf, but apparently I got rid of it in our move!

So do I like my Nice and Spicy Soap?  Yes.  I do.  I definitely felt a warming sensation from this soap but it surprisingly gentle considering my sensitive skin. My hands smell lovely after using it and my bedroom, where I store the soap, has a nice pumpkin spice fragrance!

As for the recipe, this site was helpful for inspiration.  She uses a different base and a few other things, but it was a good place to start with ideas.  I also found this site helpful with general soap-making instructions.

The one roadblock that I encountered, which I mentioned already, was the soap starting to harden before I poured my last bar.  Does anyone have any tips for me?  Any experienced soap makers?

Here's a picture to show you what I mean.

You can see the bar on the lower right has the product prematurely solidifying as evidenced by the chunks.

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A Summer Tribute

Ok, this BLOGtober series is supposed to be about fall, but bear with me just a minute.  Fall is the perfect time to look back on your summer adventures.  And what better way to do that than creating a wonderful memory book?  I'm not a scrapbooker, and I almost regretted starting this project after the first page.  But once I got started I was pleased that I did.

One of my goals this year was to scrapbook our photos instead of just let them float in nebulous Internet land.  This is my attempt at that.  I like to have pictures that the kids can look through, things we can leave out.  I don't like being so tied to technology anyway.  This helps with that.

We had a very eventful summer and I wanted to capture all of its (good) moments so that we could look back and see that, yes, even through the absolute chaos we had a good time!  It will remind my family and me how wonderful the summer was.  I swear it wasn't all horrible!

Don't my kids look so cool!  Funny, but I think they pull it off.  

I'm not sure if I'll do another book like this once this one is done, but it was a good challenge to my imagination and I think it's looking good so far.

So tell me, do you print pictures anymore?  I stopped for a while.  Then I made photo books using Walmart's online photo service.  Now, I'm trying it the old fashioned way.  What do you do?

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