Finally here!

My mushroom box came! I haven't been this excited in a long time!! Yay for mushrooms! We went outside for a photo shoot.

My new mushroom family!

made by Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist

made by Alison (crochetsamurai on Flickr) of Pepperberry Crochet



made by Valerie (valpowery on Flickr) of Yarni Gras!


made by Michelle (here's her blog)



made by Pam



Thanks everyone, and especially to Sonya who organized all of the
excellent crafters and their mushrooms!

This should happen more often...

My sister has been here visiting (hooray!) so I've been pretty busy. Crocheting isn't really a group activity... so this post is not about crochet, but it is a craft... in a way... The teachers at my school raved and raved about these cake pops and I kind of brushed it off until I actually tried one at a Christmas party. W-O-W!! It was the yummiest thing I've ever had! The closest description I can come up with is a cake truffle. Sounds good, right? I recently had another from a bake sale at school and was inspired to try to make them myself. I searched the source, Bakerella, and found this recipe, but substituted chocolate cake for red velvet. The result was so yummy!!






Here is the inside of the delicious cake truffle...

Whip it good!

Andy and I were catching up on last week's Jeopardy episodes (DVR is the most amazing thing!) and I whipped up these hand warmers for a friend at Starbucks. We work at a store with a Drive-Thru (ugh) and, let me tell you, your hands get COLD! I love the thick-n-quick yarn because it works up so quickly! Hooray! I have so many projects that I want to start, but I think I am going to concentrate on finishing some WIP's that I have stashed all over the house.

Now in progress...

So many things to talk about in my first posts! I promise I will not update this often in the future!! I mentioned in my previous post about crocheting on a bus to Atlanta with some middle school students. Well, I was nearly done with those 'shrooms when we started for the ATL, so I also started a new project on that trip. I am making a purse/bag and I am following a pattern from Crochet Today! only I am modifying it to my liking (as usual!). So I finished the 'bag' part of the purse during that trip (and the subsequent trip - the NEXT DAY with my hubby to see the opera - crazy I know, but so fun!). I need to add the handles and some way to close it. The pattern calls for a drawstring closure, which I do not like. I need a flap, or maybe a zipper. I will be making a liner for it, which will be my first, so why not my first zipper at the same time? Did I mention that I mostly crochet? I'm not so good a sewing... yet... I also have in my head my next project, which will be something special for my Starbucks co-workers...

Here is what I have so far...
I need to do something about the lighting or location for my future pics... these aren't so great...



This is done with ModaDea Tweedle Dee yarn in Blackberry - its dyed to give a shaded effect. I kind of pooched the sides out in this shot (above).



I pleated the side in for this shot... I think that is what I will do if I use the zipper closure idea...

Recent excitement

I just mailed a package to knitsonya yesterday. In the package were five little mushrooms that I crocheted for a handmade mushroom swap. This is my first craft swap and I am SO excited to get my mushrooms! Check out the pictures on flickr and you'll see why! Here are some pics of my mushies...

First mushroom





In progress...





In progress...




I was working on these last two on a charter bus on the way to Atlanta. There's nothing like crocheting with fifty 7th graders yelling around you...





All packaged up and ready for their big trip!! Yay!!

My first *real* post

Okay, here is my first real blog post. I really mean for this to be about my crafting, but I have to talk about the name of this blog. I heard the line somewhere (voulez vous crochet avec moi) and thought it was the funniest and/or cutest crochet reference I'd ever heard. When thinking of a name for my blog, I wanted to use "nancymoo" but it was already taken - bummer! Since I wanted my blog to be mostly about my craft projects, and I since mostly crochet, this line came back to me. I asked some of my distinguished teacher friends and they all liked it. My husband thought it was too long and too hard to spell. I realized that my teacher friends had all taken french like me, so the spelling part didn't occur to me. Finally I decided to ignore the naysayers and use my cute crochet line, and so here I am in the blogging world! Let's get started!