Christmas Spiders

 
Yes I did just use the words Christmas and spiders together.  For those of you that have never seen these wonderful Christmas ornaments, you are definitely missing out!  My family and I have been making these beautiful spiders for years now.  My husband was making them with his family before we met and the tradition has continued with our own family.  Even my 11 year old loves to make these every year.  In fact they are the reason this blog post has taken me a while to get up.  We always sell these like crazy every year so I have been busy making a ton of them.  In fact I have 2 special orders to make today and I am hoping that the beads I ordered will come today so I can get them done.

I guess I should give a little background on the reason we would be crazy enough to make spiders and stick them on our Christmas tree.  There is an old German story that relates the reason we put tinsel on our trees coming from spider webs.  I don't want to give away the whole story but I am sure you could find it if you wanted to Google it.  The original story, and the one I prefer, talks about a visit from the Christ Child.  We do have copies of the story that have been changed to have Santa as the visitor for those that prefer the secular version of Christmas.  The spiders made with basic beads are $10 each (plus shipping if you aren't local) and come with a copy of the story.  If you want the more expensive beads, like the silver or gold plated beads, then we charge extra depending on the cost of the beads used.  You could even choose to go all out and do Swarovski crystals with real gold and silver beads if you want a really upscale version.  We are able to get almost any color for the beads we use for the legs but the body choices are a little limited since the bulbs do not come in a huge array of colors.  Once in a while we are lucky enough to get some clear bulbs that can be painted but those are very hard to find.  Please feel free to contact me at craftablesbyali.gmail.com if you are interested in getting some spiders for your own trees.

Finally.........A New Post

I admit it.  I am a horrible blogger!  In my defense it has been crazy busy at our home.  We are currently getting ready for a craft fair this weekend and one the next weekend. Add to that Thanksgiving tomorrow and the fact that the kids have been out of school (the kids call this month No School November) and you can see why I have been busy.  Oh...and I also agreed to take on sewing piece work to help out a friend and make some extra money.  Needless to say I have pretty much given up sleeping for now.  I have been able to get a bunch of crafts finished though so I feel like I just might be ready to do the craft fair.  Here are some of the hats I have been working on.

First up are some of the hats just for the Civil War....the huge football rivalry game here between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

If you can't tell the colors from the pictures the OSU Beavers colors are black and orange and the UofO Ducks colors are dark green and bright yellow.  Unfortunately being winter in Oregon means there is no sun so the pics were taken under the lovely yellow tinted lights in my house.

Next I have some fun/cute hats!

I do have newsboy caps (the style of the hats right above) that I made for boys.  For some strange reason the pictures didn't make it to my email.  I can pretty much make any pattern and I do have several more patterns in my collection so if you see something you like let me know.  The pattern for the owl hat came from Repeat Crafter Me (repeatcrafterme.com) in case you want to try it out.  I think I would also be able to figure out a pattern for almost any character or animal hat if you are more interested in that.  I am currently working on a Pikachu hat and I have the stuff for a sock monkey hat waiting for me to finish.

I don't just do hats, even though it may seem that way.  Here are some hair clips I did.

These are easily customizable and can be made with almost any crocheted flower.

Last but not least I want to share my favorite thing that I have made so far.  It is a diaper cover and hat set just for Christmas.

Little Santa and Elf sets!  So adorable!  The diaper covers are adjustable so they can fit any infant and the hats can be made in any size.  I found this set on Repeat Crafter Me.  They are not her patterns so here are the direct links.  The Santa hat is from Girl in Air.  I did alter the pattern because I didn't like all of her pattern but I don't write out patterns very well so I won't put it on here.  If you really want to know please email me and I will try to share.  The diaper cover is from Flowers Creations and it is easy and wonderful!

Well I best be getting back to my crafting and Thanksgiving preparations!  I do have other non-crochet crafts that I have been working on and just don't have the pics for them yet.  I will get them up as soon as I can.  I you are in the Portland area and want to check out a fun craft fair this weekend please come out and support us!  It is at Cartlandia so there will be great food along with the craft fair.  The address is 8145 SE 82nd Ave and it will be Friday-Sunday from 10-4.  If  you have a Facebook account you can check it out here.  As always you can email me with orders and questions at craftablesbyali@gmail.com.  I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving and fruitful and safe Black Friday shopping!

First Up...

I know that Halloween is only a few days away but I decided to make these cute hats.  I fell in love with these monster hats!  They are quirky and unique which makes them so much fun.  

I got this pattern from a wonderful website called Repeat Crafter Me.  You can find the post for these hats here.  The hat pattern used is from a site called Alli Crafts and the spikes and eyes are from a pattern at The Boy Trifecta.  I did alter the eyes and spikes but I have never written a pattern before and I am not sure if I can figure it out.  Hopefully I will be able to soon and then I can share them here,  I do know that for the eyes I just made a magic ring using sc or dc, depending on how big I wanted the eye.  Both of the eyes on these hats have buttons for the pupils.  I especially love the eye on the pink and cream hat.  I used a cute large button as the center and it turned out so cute!

I also made this darling dinosaur hat.  The hat pattern is the same as the one I used for the monster hat  and then I added spikes across the top and back of the hat and spots on the sides.  The spikes just start with a magic ring and increase steadily down until the seem tall enough.   The spots I did just like the eyes for the monster hats; magic rings made with sc or dc, depending on how large they need to be. I think it turned out really cute but I just wish I had little ones that I could put these hats on and take pictures.  I may have to round up some little ones to model for me.
 Be sure to check out the sites I listed above.  They have really cute free patterns to help you be crafty too.  I hope you enjoy these hats and the other crafts that will be coming as soon as I can get them finished.  If you are interested in buying any of my crafts feel free to contact me at craftablesbyali@gmail.com.  I am hoping that I will be able to get Paypal set up so my crafts are easier to purchase for those of you not in my area.  I hope you have a wonderful day and thanks for  stopping by!

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for stopping by my new blog!  I wanted to take a few minutes to introduce myself and explain why I started this blog.  I am a stay-at-home mom of four wonderful kids and I have been married to the love of my life for almost 20 years.  When my kids were finally in school I decided it was time for me to go back to school also.  I earned by Bachelors degree and became an RN.  I loved being a nurse and thought that would be what I would do for the rest of my life.  Unfortunately things don't always go as planned.  I was injured on the job after a few years of nursing and herniated and tore a disc in my lower back.  The doctors have not been able to fix my back and so I am unable to return to work.  I recently began trying to figure out ways that I could still bring in money for my family despite my back issues.  I have always loved to craft and have done craft shows in the past and always loved having it as a hobby.  I decided that I would try to take my hobby and turn it in to a business.  Hopefully you will all love the things that I create and I would appreciate any feedback you would offer.  Thanks for stopping by!