Crochet Pattern: 'Inspire Me' Textured Basket

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So I made this cute basket for a Craft Fair coming up in a couple months. I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to make. But I couldn't find a pattern for exactly what I wanted. So, I made one up myself! And I am thrilled with how it has turned out. So, without further ado, here it is!

Materials:
4mm/G hook
worsted weight yarn in 4 colors, holding 2 strands at once
yarn needle

Terms:
MR = magic ring
ch = chain
sc = single crochet
sl st = slip stitch
hdc = half double crochet
tc = triple crochet
blo = back loops only
fro = front loops only
rev = reverse

Pattern Guide:
hdc x 3 = put one half double crochet in each of the next 3 stitches
2hdc = put two half double crochets in the next stitch
tc puff st = (yarn over twice, put hook through front loop of previous row, yarn over, pull through 1, yarn over, pull through 2, yarn over, pull through 2) ← do this 3 times, then yarn over, and pull through 4 remaining loops
rev sc = (worked from left to right) insert hook in next st to the right, yarn over, pull through 1, yarn over, pull through both loops on hook

This pattern is worked very tight, so at times, it may feel like you need a bigger hook, but working this tight ensures that the basket will be more sturdy and not limp.

In row 15, the pattern is worked in the back loops only to create a lip on the basket. This makes the sides more defined from the base as opposed to just flowing from base to sides.

Finished Size: Approximately 8 ¾ inches tall and 9 ½ inches wide

Pattern:
1. Using Color A and holding 2 strands at once, sc 10 into MR, sl st to close (10)
2. ch 2, 2hdc in each st around, sl st to close (20)
3. ch 2, (hdc, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close (30)
4. ch 2, (hdc x 2, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close (40)
5. ch 2, (hdc x 3, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close (50)
6. ch 2, (hdc x 4, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close (60)
7. ch 2, (hdc x 5, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close (70)
8. ch 2, (hdc x 6, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close (80)
9. ch 2, (hdc x 7, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close (90)
10. ch 2, (hdc x 8, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close (100)
11. ch 2, (hdc x 19, 2hdc) x 5, sl st to close (105)
12. ch 2, (hdc x 9, 2hdc, hdc x 10, 2hdc) x 5, sl st to close (115)
13. ch 2, hdc x 10, 2hdc, (hdc x 22, 2hdc) x 4, hdc x 12, sl st to close (120)
14. ch 2, (hdc x 11, 2hdc) x 10, sl st to close in flo (130)

15. ch 2, turn work so that the right side is facing up as the base of your basket, hdc in blo around, sl st to close in both loops (130)
16. ch 2, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
17. ch 2, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
18. ch 2, hdc around, switch to Color B, sl st to close (130)
19. ch 1, sc, (sc, sc spike 1 row below, sc spike 2 rows below, sc spike 3 rows below) x 32, sc, sl st to close (130)
20. ch 1, hdc around, switch to Color C, sl st to close (130)

21. ch 1, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
22. ch 1, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
23. ch 1, hdc x 2, (hdc in blo, hdc in both loops x 3) x 32, sl st to close (130)
24. ch 1, hdc x 2, (tc puff st in front loop of row 23, hdc x 3 in row 24) x 32, sl st to close (130)

25. ch 1, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
26. ch 1, hdc around, switch to Color D, sl st to close (130)

27. ch 1, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
28. ch 1, sc around, switch to Color A, sl st to close (130)
Leave as long of a tail of Color D as you can
29. ch 1, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
30. ch 1, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
31. ch 1, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
32. ch 1, hdc around, sl st to close (130)
33. ch 1, skip st directly to the right, rev sc around, sl st to close (130)
Finish off and weave in ends.

To Finish:
Pick up your long grey tail from row 28, and using your yarn needle, sew around the rows of Color A to mimic the spike stitch from row 19. Do this all the way around.
Finish off and weave in ends. This gives the effect that the spike stitch goes in the opposite direction as before.

Feel free to sell any products made from this pattern. However, do not try to sell this pattern or offer it for free in any way. Please link back to me if you post your basket anywhere!
Tag me in any pictures. I would love to see them! Instagram: @kerry_1105 Facebook: K L Crochet
If you have any questions about this pattern, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll answer it the best I can.

Home Depot Kids Workshops

I LOVE Home Depot Kids Workshops. I mean, like really love them! They occur every single month on the first Saturday of the month from 9am to noon. And there's no reason to try and get there right at 9am because they always have plenty of kits! (Or at least they do where I live.) We always have tons of fun. We always see most people put their kits together and then let their kids just go wild with the paint. And I'm so happy for them that their kids are having a great time. But my weirdo family is full of perfectionists so we usually paint the different pieces first, do a coloring page or something while they dry, and then put our kit together. But to each their own, right? I really feel like these little kits are a great teaching tool in following directions and a beginning lesson in using tools. Plus, they're a cute little project that your kid can use and be proud of. And sometimes, they make great gifts for parents and grandparents!

Here are some that we've done in the past.

And now, we're gearing up and planning the rest of our 2018 so I loved that they had a list (with pictures) out at the February workshop. You will (most likely) never see this list again! So I took a picture for you. Here's what we have to look forward to:

I highly recommend you take your kids aged 3-12 to these workshops. They'll receive safety goggles and an apron at their first workshop and after every project they complete, kids also receive a pin to put on their apron.

Our New Year's Eve Schedule!

Last year, on New Year's Eve, we did something really cool. We spent the day at the in-laws' homestead. Now, they only have TVs in the bedroom and they don't really ever plan anything to do so if you come unprepared, you could end up pretty bored. However, knowing this in advance, I prepared. We started at 8am and ended at 8pm so that our 6-year-old could still go to bed at his normal time. He didn't seem to mind. We started with a schedule:

8am: Ring Pop 'Get ready for 12 Hours of Ringing in the New Year!'
9am: Make a '2017' sign
10am: Glitter some champagne glasses
11am: Decorate star cookies
12pm: Gift
1pm: Play a game
2pm: Make a new years ball
3pm: Make headbands/hats
4pm: Write new year's resolutions
5pm: Make noise makers
6pm: Photo booth
7pm: Fun with sparklers
8pm: Ring in the New Year with sparkling cider

Then we executed:
8am: Ring Pop

9am: Make a '2017' sign

10am: Glitter some champagne glasses

11am: Decorate star cookies (I made the cookies the night before)

12pm: Gift (I just picked up a couple things from Party City totalling about $5. It was a nice break between activities)

1pm: Play a game

2pm: Make a New Years ball (We just made this with a piece of paper that we added glitter to and a couple brads)

3pm: Make headbands/hats (Again, we just made these out of paper and glitter)

4pm: Write New Years Resolutions

5pm: Make funny noise makers (This was so much fun. We took a paper plate and drew a mouth/beak/mustache. Then, we colored it and cut it out. We cut an X where we wanted the noise maker to go and then just inserted the mouth piece into the X.)

6pm: Photo booth (we used the noise makers and hats along with the props I brought)

7pm: Fun with sparklers

8pm: Ring in the New Year with sparkling cider

Now, just to be clear, we didn't follow our schedule completely. We ended up eating breakfast and opening Christmas presents (we weren't able to see them for Christmas so we just celebrated a week late) in the morning so we got a couple hours behind. Also, since glitter is very messy, we ended up prepping all the glitter things at one time (during the glitter champagne glasses time) and then assembling our ball and hats during the time slot to make them. This worked out well since they needed time to dry anyway. By the end of the night, my son was watching the clock so that he could tell me the exact minute it turned to the next hour so that we could open up our next activity! It was great. And no one got bored!

"What Am I?" Guessing Game

If you've read any of my recent posts, you'll know that we recently took a very long road trip. And in an effort to save some money, I made a bunch of things to keep my 7yo son entertained while we spent so many hours in the car. One of those things is a little game that I made called "What Am I?" I took some photos of things VERY close up. Some of these things are easy to tell what they are while others are much more difficult! Some of them he had a real tough time figuring out what it was so I gave him some hints. If you want to download the PDF, there is a link at the bottom. And no worries, I included an Answer Key!

Click here for a downloadable PDF of "What Am I?"

Snack Necklaces

This is a fun little craft to do with your kids before a vacation (or anytime, really). We made 8 of them before we went on our huge long road trip. They turned out great! I wanted to make these as cheap as possible so we went to Dollar Tree where we found some stretchy string, a bag of fruit loops, and some pretzels! You could easily use any other snack item that has a hole in it like cheerios, gummy lifesavers, chocolate covered pretzels, mini cookies, chocolate cheerios, etc. or you could use a needle and thread and go through squishy foods like grapes, blueberries, dried pineapple, gummy bears, popcorn, etc. as well as your holed snacks. Any combination of these things would be delicious. Part of the reason I chose what I did was because I could find them at Dollar Tree, which is cheap, yes, but also because I didn't want to worry about melting chocolate or candy. Plus, we were using string and not a needle and thread. So anyway, here's how we did it:

First, gather all of your ingredients.
Then, cut a length of string that at minimum fits around your head.
Slide your snacks on the string.
And tie the ends together.

See? Easy! And fun for kids to make and then later, eat!

Bubble Painting

A couple months ago, I had tried the bubble painting technique on a piece of pottery I was working on. I thought it had turned out pretty good. Then, I thought, "I bet my son would enjoy doing this!" After all, what kid doesn't like to blow bubbles in their drink. And this time, you don't even have to tell them to stop!

This is very easy. It doesn't take a lot of prep work and kids have so much fun. So first, you need to put something under your work so that you don't make a huge mess. I used a box. Then, mix together some dish soap, paint, and water. I didn't meausure anything. You need water to thin out your mixture, but you don't want too much or the bubbles won't have enough color. I mixed it all together with a straw and then let my little guy start blowing into the cup. The bubbles started flowing out after a while and made a beautiful little mess onto our paper. We quickly cleaned everything out and then tried again with a different color. And that's how we made our bubble art! Amazing!

Magnetic Me

We just went on a super fun road trip! We were on the road for over 40 hours total. That's a lot of down time to be doing lots of random things to keep busy and not be bored. Plus, we had a 7-year-old with us! Lots of time in a car can make for a very cranky child. So I set out to make some homemade travel gifts to save some money. Now, if you have to buy everything for this, it won't really save you much money, but it will still be a fun toy for your kids. And since it's magnetic, the pieces won't fall and get lost in the car! Yay. Win-Win.

So what we're making today is a tin box with a picture of your child in it and fun magnetic disguises. We had bought our magnetic disguises from Amazon about 2 years ago. They are so much fun on the fridge (especially when our elf comes at Christmas). I figured, we could always put them back on the fridge after our vacation, but keep the tin to put them in anytime we want to take them with us. Easy, right?

Honestly, the hardest part was finding the tin! I had thought about using an altoid tin, but I just don't like altoids so I didn't want to buy something I wouldn't use. Then, I thought about those tins of puzzles you can get from Dollar Tree. That sounded like the best option so I went to look for them. Ours was sold out! Bummer. I went to check at another Dollar Tree and they were also sold out! I thought all hope was lost when I came across this Emergency Fashion Kit at Dollar Tree. It was perfect! I didn't really care what the outside looked like (but it was a plus that it was cute).

Anyway, I printed a cute picture of my son and cut it down to fit the tin. Then, I used some hot glue to keep the picture in place. Then, I filled the tin with the disguises. And Done! So much fun!

Chalk Game: Target Practice

We got home from doing some errands one day and my son asks me, "Can we do something outside today?" Well, how do you say no to that? So, I came up with a couple fun things we could do while we were outside and one of them is a very simple, easy to play game.
Step 1: Use chalk to make yourself a target.
Step 2: Assign points to each circle to keep score.
Step 3: Throw bean bags at the target, trying to hit the center from a predetermined distance.
Step 4: The first person to get to a predetermined score wins! (We chose 30)

That's it. Have fun!

Dehydrated Strawberries

I got my husband a food dehydrator for our anniversary last year. He didn't really touch it for a couple months because we were SUPER busy. But once he finally broke it open and started playing with it, he really got into it and started dehydrating everything! My favorite thing he dehydrates are definitely the fruits! Specifically, strawberries! Here's how we did it:

First, I cut the strawberries into thin slices.

Then, we put them on the trays of our dehydrator and turned it on! It's that simple!! Amazing, right? We left the strawberries in there for about 12-14 hours. They turned out great!

Stress Ball

I made the cutest, easiest, little stress ball for my son to play with on our huge long road trip we're taking this month. Are you ready? Okay, here it is. I took a balloon and stuffed it with playdough. That's it! I tied off the end and that was it. Okay, okay, you caught me. It was a little more difficult than that. But not much more! I promise! First of all, I found the cutest balloon that was shaped like a heart in a random bag that I had bought from the Dollar Store. Then, I used one of the little .3 oz packages of playdough that we had sitting around the house because my son doesn't really play with it too much even though people still buy it for us for some reason.
Now, to get the playdough into the balloon, I used small portions at a time that I rolled into worm shapes and then shoved into the balloon opening. This would have been so much easier had I had someone to hold open the balloon for me. Instead, I had to try and finagle my fingers around and shove it in there quickly. Anyway, I eventually got it all in the balloon and then tied off the end. The end was a little long so I just cut the excess off.
I had so much fun squishing and playing with it after I was done that I know my son will just love it! See, that was pretty easy, huh?

Craft: Windchimes

Today, we made a very fun and cute little windchime. It cost a mere cents to make so that's also a plus!

We started out by picking up a stick in the yard, taking it to the garage, and sawing it down to size. We really liked how it was curved.

Then we collected some materials (black yarn, beads, and a couple washers).

We started out by attaching string to the stick. This will be the string that it hangs from.

I asked Owen how many strings he wanted to attach to the stick and his response was 7 (as expected, since he's 7). So we cut 7 lengths of string.

We then attached beads and washers to said pieces of string. He wanted to make them in a rainbow pattern.

And voila! We now have our windchime! We hung ours by the front door.

First, let me introduce myself...

Hi! So I've tried this whole blogging thing before, but it just felt like so much pressure. This time around, I'm going to make it simple and fun! Who's ready?

My plan is to have posts about everything I do as a mom...and some extras.
Like all the fun crafts we do.
And all the fun places we visit.
And all the super fun things we have planned for this summer!

So if you're ready. Let's get started!
But first, here's a picture of my sweet family and a little background on me.

I am a mom of a wonderful 7-year-old boy. I've been married for 5 1/2 years. I used to work as a preschool teacher. But then I discovered that I really enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom more than anything else so I chose to quit my job and devote all of my time to my family. And here we are. I love photography, crochet, pottery, singing, crafting, swimming, and just hanging out with my family.

Now that you know a little about me, let's kick this party off with a bang! Check out my next blog post for an awesome recap on a trip my family took last month!