And the winner of June’s Giveaway

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is

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the 6th comment

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of the month.

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Who is

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WHAT?!

THIS IS THE BLOGGING EQUILAVENT

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OF A DRUM ROLL!

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anyway

the

winner

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BEKI of the infamous PamperingBeki!

Remember that I’m doing a giveaway every single month. Hey, why the heck not. I have inventory left over from the eshop cluttering up our tiny townhouse. Remember the rules:  US shipping addresses ONLY, and every comment as well as every pingback for the month — on any post — counts as an entry. Well, except my own comments and pingbacks.

Just wait until you see what I have for July! It’s very Americana inspired by the 4th of July. Pictures soon.

I’ve been on this mission lately of using up products stashed in drawers, closets and even in the pantry. After all, the best way to save money is not to spend it, right? Right!

Yesterday at about noon-ish I had car keys in my hand ready to run out and grab a fast food lunch. I was really craving a burger – a Carl’s Jr. Six Dollar Burger. Yum. Yum.  My wallet was happy that I didn’t do it. So were my ever-widening hips.

Instead, I rummaged through the pantry and came up with a cheapo lunch of a half eaten, almost stale bag of tostadas crumpled into good old-fashioned tomato soup. Figuring about a buck for the remaining tostadas and about $1.25 for the soup versus about $8.50 for a burger combo, I saved about $6 on lunch today … and probably about 6,000,000,000,000,000 calories.

Before you read any further, this idea is mine. Mine. Mine. And. MINE. It’s trademarked by me.   Do you hear me, Glad Company?

First, a little background. I have a love hate relationship with plastic wrap.  The width is almost always too short to really cover a platter of food. I cannot count how many times I’ve had to tear off two sheets and overlap them to cover platters of leftovers. It’s wasteful.  However, there’s far too much excess when covering a bowl of soup to microwave or wrapping a bite-sized piece of leftover. More waste.

Who came up with this width anyway?

So, here’s my idea. I would like plastic kitchen wrap to come in half width rolls. Who do I pitch this idea to? Does anyone know?

It’s close. See. Look. I’m working on the edging of the double-ended crochet afghan.  Please don’t mention that I started it in March. And please don’t mention that I set it aside once or twice (or three times), violating my own one project at a time rule, to do a couple of other projects.

The secret is that I threw that rule right out the window with this project. It got far too big to haul up and down stairs of our tiny townhouse not to mention that there were four colors dangling from the work at any given time.  So, I now have a downstairs while-watching-TV project and an upstairs not-ready-to-go-to-sleep-but-don’t-want-to-read project. The one project at a time rule has been officially retired.

Since both sides of the double-ended stitch pattern are right sides, I wanted the border and edging to have that same feeling. Instead of working the half double crochet border in the round, I turned the work after every row. I’m doing something completely different for the final edging, too.  It’s a reverse half double crochet where you work backwards, stitching to the right instead of the left.

If you’re a crocheter you’ve undoubtedly heard of the crab stitch — single crochet worked backwards. It’s the same concept with half double crochet. I’m going to name it the lobster stitch. Look at the close-up. Doesn’t it look like lobster claws?

I have to say, crocheting backwards is extremely awkward. This edging is very slow going, but very much worth it … as you’ll see soon … because it’s almost done … honestly!

When you run out of your favorite moisturizer, after digging out the last precious drops for one glorious final application, don’t log on to philosophy.com or QVC.com to order more.  No, no.  Turn instead to your cosmetic remnant drawer overflowing with wonderful, perfectly good products and use those up.  Badda bing. $38 saved.

That’s right. Using up all those products throughout your house is the number one way to save money. Well, I didn’t research that statement exactly. Let me rephrase that it’s MY number one way of saving money.

It’s also a fantastic way of gaining space in a tiny townhouse.

As you can see, it won’t be that much of a hardship. I have some great products stashed. The only one I won’t use is the Eucerin Face Lotion. Eucerin Body Lotion is awesome. The face lotion, however, gives me a bumpy kind of rash. I’ll have to pass it on to a friend or family member to try.

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizer was a staple of mine for years, until I really wanted a moisturizer with sunscreen. Nevertheless, these two little sample bottles will go a long, long way and, combined with makeup that has SPF, should work fine.

Lancôme Absolue was also a favorite once upon a time, back when I was swimming in cash. The stuff is amazing, but very expensive. The tiny jar of Night shouldn’t waste away in a drawer.

I saved $38 today! Wonder how much money is lurking in my closets and drawers?

Whether I’m working out a plot twist in a screenplay or deciding on a stitch pattern for a crochet piece, it’s all about escaping from the real world. Yes, that’s why I do it … escapism.  When I’m creating, I want to be in the zone, focused on the task on hand, and blocking out every bit of reality that has me stressed out.

Business collapsing? Knitting time.  Bank account empty? Write some fiction. Job search coming up empty? Crochet some lace embellished with pearls.

I had all but abandoned my creativity the last couple of years. Starting a business and earning a living took priority. If I wasn’t working on the business, I was thinking about the business day and night. It was draining. Worse than draining, actually, because I was in a constant state of panic.  It was no way to run a business and certainly no way to live a life. I’ve proven to myself that if I don’t take time to zone out and create something, I’ll wind up a basket case whimpering in the corner, accomplishing nothing of worth.

Yarn and words are my materials of choice. Sometimes thread and stitching on a piece of embroidery, or picking up the camera to capture a macro shot will do the trick. Choosing fonts and backgrounds for a blog or website creates my own little moment of bliss, too.  Whatever the medium, creating is my form of meditation. It clears my mind, takes me out that hyper-panic mode and returns my mind to a better balance.

My eshop is still dead, my bank account still teetering, but my head is back on straight … well, as straight as it can ever be.

As promised here is the lovely item for this month’s giveaway.

Crown Spreader

Just leave a comment — or two — or three on any post that interests you throughout June 2009.  Each comment is an entry in the giveaway.  The winning comment will receive ONE of these gorgeous rhinestone crown spreaders of my choosing.  Entries MUST have a US shipping address.

Yes. This is a lonely blogger encouraging comments from her visitors.    The visitor count over ——-> there on the sidebar says you’re visiting. I wanna know what you’re thinking … ummm, unless it involves four letter words.

I don’t make many garments with crochet … or with knitting for that matter.  Accessories like hats, scarfs, mittens, socks and slippers, a bag or two … yes.  Tops and bottoms, not so much.  It was very disheartening to work for weeks (sometimes months) only to wind up with a piece that didn’t look right on me.

My bad experiences with crochet garments were years and years ago using worsted weight yarns that just added so much bulk.   Today there is a plethora of wonderful light weight yarns on the market … and Lily Chin’s book, Couture Crochet Workshop, makes me think that maybe, just possibly, I could design something MYSELF that would look good on me.

The book is 160 page long, but it’s the first 40 or so pages that have really piqued my interest. Lily goes into great detail how-to design or rework patterns to fit your body.  Now, there’s a lot of math involved … so we’ll see how long my courage holds up.

I’ve decided to give it a whirl — using that scrumptious linen yarn I bought on the great yarn tour 

Do you start with the yarn?

Do you look through your stash of magazines and patterns?

Do you just start swatching and playing with colors?

I’ve done all of the above when deciding on what to make with which materials.

I’m sort of particular when choosing projects.  I mean, there’s only so much time in a day and so many days in our lives — I’d rather spend time making something heirloom worthy than making crap.

OMG!  I’m a project snob, aren’t I???!!!

Rest asured I’ve made my share of potholders and doilies. Yes, yes I have. And I love them.  But I want a piece (or two) to be oooh and aaaah over in a museum in 100 years when I’m long gone.  That’s very weird, isn’t it?

The colors remind me of Neapolitan ice cream.

This little puff/bag is my crochet solution to all those little slivers of soap that were gunking up our shower.

I wanted something that would hold the soap, yet be open enough for the water to get in and LATHER the soap. Pretty crucial, don’t you think?

The inside reveals the bag base -- just simple stitches.

So, I started making a simple little bag with an equally simple single crochet, chain one stitch pattern.   Made a row with larger holes (chain two instead of one) on the top for a draw string to pass through.

A close up of the stitches under the loops.

Here’s a little trick when you want to surface crochet onto a piece.  Stitch into into the back loop only on your first layer. That leaves the front loop free to stitch into when you work on that second layer of surface crochet.

Reattaching the yarn at the bottom of the bag, I made a series of chain loops that spiraled all the way up.

Easy.

Loops are 15 chains long.

This bag was made using 100% cotton Sugar’n Cream.  The Neapolitan colors are scrumptious looking, aren’t they?  Love the softness of the cotton, too, but I’d like more lather.  So, I’ll make another using Lion Brand Cotton Ease.  It’s a 50 cotton/50 acrylic blend. We’ll see if the acrylic helps the lathering capability.