Music

Along with Crocheting and Gardening,  I was blessed to be in a musical family.  I was able to take 1 year of piano lessons when I was quite young and then the teacher quit to go back to work.  I was very sad!  My 2 older sisters had taken lessons for a while and could play quite well and I wanted to be able to also.  So, I started to teach myself.  I learned to play by ear - which drove them crazy at the time and I had some not so nice comments on many occasions...BUT, I never gave up.  Although they remain better at piano playing than I ever will be, I was able to teach myself enough that I played for our choir concerts in High School and I play for the Young Women in our church now.  We were all blessed with the ability to sing also. We were all in choirs in school and sang at funerals and in church.  I LOVE music!  It is comforting to sit down and play the piano to sing.  I also am excited that this love has been passed down to all 3 of my girls.  Madtie has also been in choirs in school and sang in church and usually has a solo in each concert and I am proud of her.  The 2 little ones are into making up their own songs and singing along to the radio in the car.  It's amazing how many words they actually catch on to while listening to the radio. 

My questions for today's giveaway is this:  Do you play any musical instruments?  Are you good at singing, or should you only sing in the shower or car when nobody else is around?

Leave your answer along with your name and email address so I can contact you if you win.  Please tell me if you are a fan of Crafting Friends or Shop Around Baby on FaceBook or both.  I will tally the comments and choose a winner through Random.org at 9pm tonight (7-7-12).  This is just for fun to show thanks to those of you who interact with my page :)

1/2 Way through the months of the year SALE

Good Evening my Friends!  I hope you all have had a Fabulous weekend and have some Fantastic plans for the 4th of July :)  I was able to spend yesterday with my family at a cookout and enjoyed every minute of it.  The strongest childhood memories I have are from all of the cookouts we had next door to us at our grandparents house....Oh, the good ole days!  I have been so blessed to have the family I do.

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by!  I decided today that since we are 1/2 way through the months of the year, it would be fun to have a 1/2 off Sale.  Every pattern in my Craftsy Shop here: Crafting Friends on Craftsy and also in my Ravelry Shop here: Crafting Friends on Ravelry are now 1/2 off.  The prices on Craftsy have already been changed and the prices on Ravelry will automatically change at check-out.

For those of you who do not crochet, but would love to purchase a Ready To Ship dress, I have adjusted the prices to 1/2 off of most of my dresses in my Etsy shop here: Crafting Friends Etsy Shop
I have not listed all of the dresses on Etsy since some of them are in a Boutique in town, so if there is one you know I have that you would like, please email me and I will let you know if it is still available.  This is a great way to get handmade gifts for baby showers or even your own babies.

Wishing you all the best
Kate

Fancy Yarn / Quick Giveaway

To enter the Spot Giveaway, you must be a fan of Crafting Friends on FaceBook (I will be checking)
Leave a comment with your email address, # of my patterns you already have and which pattern you would like to win.  Giveaway will end in 24hours (6/30/12 at 4:30pm MST)


 In trying to find the best mesh yarn to use for the Princess Britt dresses, I ordered some "Fancy Yarn" from Ebay.  I loved the colors, but was slightly disappointed with the width of it when it came.  It is about 1/2 the width of the Red Heart Sashay yarn.  I decided to try it on a Newborn size dress first since it was smaller. Here is the result :)

It was slower/harder to work up than the Sashay, but I think it turned out beautiful!  I wanted the pink around her ankles, so I used measurements from Heidi's Hoook Miss Priss baby leg pattern found here: Miss Priss Pattern  and just made anlkets.  The baby is having pictures done today and it is around 90*, so I didn't want the whole legging for right now.  Loved that idea and will be doning more :)

I did learn a lesson though....DO NOT start a pattern really late at night when extremely tired!!!  I started a dress and was not paying attention to the actual pattern since I have most of it memorized and  was more than 1/2 way finished before I realized I had grabbed the Toddler pattern and was working the 18mo size instead of the Infant pattern Newborn size.  Sooooo, I ended up with 2 dresses.
This is the 18month complete.

Since this yarn was smaller, I had to do shorter stitches for the skirt on this one so it would still look full.  It made it slightly heavier, but not a huge difference.  I have 2 more skeins to use that are a deep pink and brown verigated that is REALLY pretty.  Those will have to wait until I finish the 2 other dresses that have already been started. 

I hope everyone has started a wonderful weekend.  My heart goes out to those who are effected by the fires across the country!  Stay safe and keep cool.

Kate