Crochet Alice in Wonderland Doll and Mad Hatter Hat

As previously posted there are an abundance of baby showers. The one we are going to on Sunday (June 29th) is Alice in Wonderland themed and her nursery will be the same. That is exciting!

I know that it is going to be difficult for them to find a lot of "baby" items that are along with this theme though.. so I contributed. Here is a link to my previous post which included a picture of the registry present we got them in addition to these.

Two items:
1. Mad Hatter Hat (decor)

2. Alice doll (I'm amazing lol)

I'm going to preface this (kind of?) with the fact that I didn't write this pattern. I'm not doing a blog post on how to make either of these items because they have been done before.

Click here for the mad hatter pattern
Click here for the Alice doll pattern

That being said I'm kind of going to tutorial the hair for the Alice doll because it wasn't covered extensively in the pattern. I found this part particularly challenging.

The main differences between my finished doll and the pattern provided are as follows:
1. I used larger eyes. I decided to use size 25mm safety eyes (the size used for the pattern wasn't provided)
2. Her smile is larger (I think I had to make it bigger because of the large eyes
3. I crocheted a chain and sewed it on for her headband instead of using 3 pieces together.
4. I went traditional Alice and didn't give her stockings. Alice only has red/white stockings in Through the looking glass.

The main differences between my finished mad hatter hat and the pattern provided are as follows:
1. I made it green!
2. I didn't at the pins because it is for a BABY'S room.
3. I used blue/green ribbon instead of ..fushia?

Disregard the quality of the mad hatter photo by the way.... I didn't take it. :/ I actually snatched the photo used off of her Facebook page.

Hair Tutorial!

1. Cut strands 14 inches long. I honestly have NO idea how many I used but it was something like 160?

2. Fold the piece in half and create your hairline first. Use one strand in ALL holes all the way around her face. Just in an upside down U shape around her face. There is no need to make a hair line in back as the hair we put in later will cover this. For the hairline I recommend counting stitches out from the eyes. Don't try it willy nilly because pulling them out later to make it symmetrical, sucks. COUNT!

 3. Push your hook through the hole and grab onto the loop you made and pull it through the hole.

4. Then grab the strands and pull them through themselves (the loop on my hook I just made)

I started from the base of the hairline I made on one side and went around the back, every other hole, until I reached the other side of the hairline. Then I added one every other hole for five rows.

For the top of the head (just as the original pattern suggests) I used one strand in every hole to fill it in. This covers the holes skipped. In some places I noticed some thinning and added a second strand to holes just to get more coverage. This is the reason I can't remember the exact number of strands I cut. I also did a lot of backtracking.

She absolutely LOVED them though. :D I'm planning on making two more of these but giving them regular outfits and matching their hair to the child. I'll place those updated photos below.

Thank you so much for following along!

Super Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

It's almost JULY! That means Picnics, BBQ's, Baby Showers and Weddings, right?!?!?

I'm booked for one picnic and two baby showers already. Plus, east coast vacay in July. I have mixed feelings about the trip. A little anxiety that I think everyone has before flying. Airport/Plane/Packing/etc...

I'm taking the summer off from school (mainly because there aren't any classes offered for my degree.. lol)

Both of the baby showers I'm going to are "potluck" style. I need things to BRING! This is the dish I decided to bring to the first! I always bring sweets to potluck events.

PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE

This looks super easy and I already have all the ingredients.

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter

Directions:
1. Bring the sugar and the milk to a boil.

2. Boil them for 2 1/2 minutes, then remove from the heat. (Make sure not to overcook. If its turned brown you've cooked it too long!)

3. Stir in the peanut butter and vanilla.
4. Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper (I'm using a 8x11 because..I can't find my 8x8 lol), grease it with butter, or use a cooking spray like I did.

5. Pour the mixture in quickly! Don't over-stir like I did. Just stir until its creamy and pour it in.

6. Pat into the corners.

Let set for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. Once set cut them into 1 inch squares. This will make approx. 16 pieces. (Unless your me.. in which case you chop indiscriminately and end up with a weird collection of choppy pieces)

And you're done! Stay tuned for the next treat I'll be making.

Here is one of the gifts we chose!

Adorable, right? We chose this as a gift but I also made two customized gifts for them which will be in the next blog!

Couldn't help adding a picture of it wrapped up. Isn't this wrapping paper ADORABLE? Ahhh. The mother-to-be loves owls too.

Thank you so much for following along!

Road Trip! Portland.Oregon

First road trip of summer (hopefully :) <--- see what I did there? I made the parenthesis into a smiley.

Portland Oregon!

Every year my friend Kristen, her mother, and I go on a road trip down to Portland for her mothers birthday. We never actually travel ON her birthday because she shares a birthday with my mother. So, happily they are willing to take the trip on a different day so that I can go.

We have a schedule!
Powell's books (New, Used, and Out of Print books!!)
and
VooDoo Doughnuts

and...that's it. lol. Keep in mind that Portland is HOURS from where we live. The trip to and from Portland is almost the best part. We catch up and tell stories. This trip though we made an extra special stop! Read on to find out what it was.

Our trip went something like this...

7:30am - Ready to leave

9:30am - Found parking on NW 10th ave by Powell's Bookstore

9:40am-10:40am We roamed the hallowed halls of the greatest bookstores in the U.S. There are five locations in Portland alone... O_o

10:40am - 11:50 am We met up at our designated area and put more money in the meter. I found this ADORBS bike. How jealous of her yoga muscles are you? I am. Think of the things she can LIFT... and open. I had to get Hubbins to open TWO things for me today alone. :/ Then we went back inside and bought copious amounts of books. Here is a picture of the books I bought and their titles.

1. The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Micheal Swanwick
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
3. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
4. New Spring by Robert Jordan (prequel in the Wheel of Time series)
5. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (1st book in the Wheel of Time series)
6. The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan (2nd book in the Wheel of Time series)
7. The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (3rd book in the Wheel of Time series)

12:00-12:25pm - Driving to VooDoo Doughnuts Too (their large store location on 1501 N.E. Davis St.

 12:25-1pm Buying lots and lots of doughnuts. The doughnuts didn't survive long enough for pictures, sorry. If you look on their website though.. I bought 1 Portland cream, 1 McMinnville Cream, 1 Memphis Mafia, 1 Dirty Snowball, 1 Raspberry Romeo, and 1 Ain't That a Peach doughnuts.

1pm-1:30pm More driving! This is a shot of the Columbia River! We made our first stop (hopefully this will be on our list as well from now on) at Kens Artisan Bakery on 338 NW 21st Ave. I wanted to make this stop specifically for their freshly made macarons (macaron NOT macaroon) I bought the Strawberry (on the left) and the Tiramisu. I thought the Tiramisu was good but.. the strawberry..holy DELICIOUS. I wanted another immediately.

1:30-3:30pm The drive HOME.

And.........CUT! It was a super fun day and I really look forward to next years trip.

Thank you so much for following along!

I'm back! Mini Home Tour and Update

Whew! What a hiatus. So, I've finished Spring quarter classes and I'm taking the summer off (sweet news right?) In Fall I've signed up to take intermediate digital photography, Intro to Botany, and Abnormal Psychology. I'm really looking forward to those classes but my next digital photography the most. Here are some of my favorite pictures I took this quarter in the beginner class.

 This is for the assignment "Picture within a picture"

 This was done as an extra credit "Self Portrait"

 Night photography! This was my final. It was taken around 11pm.

 Diptychs are when two photos are put together! This is the best I took I think.

 Black and White was our first assignment. This was my teachers favorite of mine. I colorized only the lemons in this photo.

 Color Indoor/Outdoor assignment. My toesies!

 This was also from the black and white assignment.

And finally the light-box assignment. I chose to try and make this levitate. What do you think?

Finally, we've been SUPER busy rearranging the house. I didn't like our computers being in a bedroom 10 MILES from the living-room and front door. Not even joking by the time we get to the front door whoever has rang the bell is usually getting in their car and leaving. lol. SUCKS. So, we moved them! It was a lot of work but here is a video walk-through I made. Check it out! Remember to like the video if you liked it and subscribe if you want to see more. :D

Thank you so much for following along.