Free Crochet Pattern PLUS enter a giveaway!

I have decided to host my first giveaway! For those of you interested, here is the prize... 



Drumroll...

The Barba beanie!

This is a handmade hipster beanie, also a pattern of mine that you can find here. It comes with the removable beard. 

One winner will win the Barba Beanie in the picture, however, I am also posting the Barba pattern for FREE right here,  you can simply make your own!

Submit your email below to be entered in the giveaway. You can also earn bonus entries! 

The giveaway ends next Thursday (Jan 3), and the winner will be notified via email. 

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

Barba Beanie Crochet Pattern

I wanted to post another free pattern!
It's only my second one, so email me or comment if you have any questions.

Barba Beanie Pattern

You can also download this pattern from Google Drive HERE

The pattern is for the beard piece only. It goes nicely with the Hipster Slouchy Beanie Pattern.

Thanks for reading, happy crocheting!

P.S. I seem to be having trouble finding a document host that works for everyone, so if you are having trouble getting this pattern, don't hesitate to just email me, and I can send it to you:

whistleandivy at gmail dot com. 

Keep in touch, follow me on Bloglovin! :) 

"Wonderful Stuff" Chex Mix Recipe

I wanted to share one of my favorite Christmas recipes.
I know, it's a little late.
But hopefully you will enjoy it all year round!

I got this recipe from a woman in my husband's home town. She brought this stuff over my first Christmas there, and I was forever hooked.

"Wonderful Stuff"

1 box of rice chex cereal
1 C sugar
1 C Karo Syrup
3/4 C butter
1 1/2 C sliced almonds
1 C coconut

In a large bowl, mix cereal, almonds and coconut. Set aside. Mix butter, syrup, and sugar in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over cereal mixture. Stir to coat all the cereal.
You can either keep it in the bowl and eat chunks, or you can press it into a pan and cut it into squares like rice Krispies. So yum!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and thanks for reading!

Mailbox Quietbook Page

Hm.

It's Christmastime and the Boy's quietbook isn't done. Where are these elves I hear so much about?
I guess I will just keep working and shoot for his birthday.



I love this cute mailbox page I found at Homemade by Jill.
She has a lot of cute quietbook pages, and she has posted lots of  page templates on her blog for free. Thanks, Jill!

I love the little postcard. It would be easy to make different ones and leave them in the book for him to find. They will be more fun when he can read a little bit, of course. 

Finished Olives

The olives are done!

Several months ago, I started curing some olives that I picked from some trees outside our house. It turned out to be a very long process, but the finished olives are actually not bad.

The olives had to be soaked in fresh water for about a month. I decided to cure the olives "Kalamata-style."

This means the olives needed to soak in a vinegar and salt mixture.
I used 3/4 cup pickling salt, 2 cups red wine vinegar, 1/2 gallon of water, and a few tablespoons of olive oil.

They have been soaking in this mixture for about a month and I finally tried one.
They have a rather gourmet flavor: slightly bitter and a strong olive taste. They taste more like a green olive than a canned black olive. They are pretty good!

I bottled them in spaghetti sauce jars, and they were a perfect size. I just painted and modpodged the lids.

I decided to take them to my family for Christmas.  I am pretty sure I can't eat a whole peck of olives by myself! 

Thanks for reading!

Fishtail Hemp Bracelet

I still like hemp.

I like the look of the natural color, it's earthy.

I made this cute and simple bracelet from hemp using a fishtail braid. These are really pretty easy, you can whip one out just a few minutes.

Start by measuring your wrist and decide how long you want your bracelet to be. You will need to double your measured amount. How many strands you will need depends on how thick you want your bracelet. I used 8 strands. Also, it's much easier if you keep one end of your bracelet in loops, so instead of cutting 8 different lengths of hemp, cut 4 that are twice as long as your piece (4 x as long as you want your bracelet to be) and fold them in half. You will have 8 strands and 4 loops at the top.

To begin, take one of the outside pieces, wrap it around all of your strands and tie it under. This will help hold the pieces together, but will also keep your loops open so you can use it to tie your bracelet around your wrist.

Now you can begin braiding. If you don't know how to fishtail, here is an illustration. You are essentially working with two pieces instead of three. Simply take the outside piece and bring it to the inside between your two main pieces.  I hope it helps!

Source

Once you are done braiding, you can either add a big bead at the end or tie a big knot. I didn't have a bead with a big enough hole, so I decided just to tie a knot. With eight strands of hemp, it was a pretty hefty knot and it ended up being the perfect size to fit through my loops.


Hope you like it.

Thanks for reading!

Free Pattern: Striped Hipster Slouchy Beanie

When I was pregnant with my son, I decided to learn to crochet, you know, booties, hats and whatnot.  Well,  relearn, I should say (I took a crochet class for 4-H when I was in 2nd grade, got a blue ribbon on my granny squares).

Thank goodness for youtube! If you want to learn how to do ANYTHING, someone has posted a very helpful video tutorial. The internet is awesome.

My skills are still quite rudimentary, but I really enjoy it and there are some super-cute patterns on Etsy. Not to mention the plethora of FREE patterns out there. Restatement: the internet is awesome.

So, I thought I would throw another free pattern into the mix. It's pretty simply and easy to make: the Striped Hipster Slouchy Beanie!

You can find the pattern HERE.


This is my first crochet pattern, so PLEASE email or comment with any questions!

DIY tinted moisturizer

I have never been a huge make-up girl. I started wearing mascara in 9th grade and didn't wear foundation until I was in college, and even then I used it as a spot treatment. Then, my aunt introduced me to tinted moisturizer. Love!
I still use medium coverage foundation for my particularly blemish-y days, but tinted moisturizer is usually my daily routine.

A few weeks ago, I found my tube empty.
Crap.

But then the idea hit me:

EQUALS

It is absolutely fabulous! I just take a squirt of each, mix it with my fingertips and it works perfectly. I am sure I am not the first person to think of this, but I thought I would share anyway!

Thanks for reading!

Upcycle T-shirt into Baby Bib +Owl Applique Tutorial

Can I just say something?

The Boy. Is. Messy.

When he started eating solids, it was like a hurricane of liquid sweet potatoes and pear puree.

I had been given a number of bibs, but it wasn't enough to contain the food storm.  More Bibs!

So I decided to take those t-shirts that were destined for Goodwill, and put them to good use.
These bibs are some of my absolute favorite things to make. They are super easy, and customizing them is a blast. I usually get comments on his Legend of Zelda Triforce bib, as well as his Zombie bib:

What you need:

One of your favorite bibs
T-Shirt
Basic sewing supplies
Button
Felt for Appliqué



First, pin your bib to the bottom corner of your t-shirt. If you use the shirt wisely, you can get at least 4 bibs.

When you cut it out, leave yourself a seam allowance. 

Now, if you decided to do the owl appliqué, here is my pattern. {Disclaimer: this is my first pattern, so sorry it's a bit weird}

 I hope it works for you!

I used embroidery thread to stitch the owl together by hand. I didn't included them in the pattern, but I just cut a small triangle for the beak, and two small circles for the pupils. 

Now, machine sew your owl to the front piece of the bib. 

Take your bib and place RIGHT sides together. Sew around the edge, but leave about 2 inches unsewn on one of the straight edges. 

Take your bib and turn it inside out through the hole. Iron your bib so the edges are creased. 

Now, sew around the edge of the bib. Make sure you catch the edges of the hole that you previously left unsewn.  Finish with a button and a button hole.

I added two button holes, so the bib can be adjustable. 

All done!

Thanks for reading!

This post was featured!

DIY stencils

I love decorating with stencils. There are so many ways to use them. Well, I went searching for some cute alphabet stencils at Joann's, but was very disappointed with the selection. Then, I came across this little gem from All Things Thrifty.

Brooke used a plastic school folder to make a stencil for the walls. It turned out awesome!

But, what I really wanted was something smaller scale.

I found some cute fonts, printed them out and traced them onto the folder. {Make sure you find "stencil fonts" or else you will lose the innards of some of the letters. You can also edit your alphabet in photoshop}.

Then, using an x-acto knife, I cut out each letter. 

It was simple, although a bit time consuming; it took me about an hour to cut out the whole alphabet. But I have used my stencils several times since, so it was definitely worth the effort!