Meh...rry Christmas...

I've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit, but try as I might all I can think of are the many things I need to get done by then. Mostly I have a baby shower to plan for December 20th. (What was I thinking?)

Maybe if I decorate my own house for Christmas it will get me in the mood. Here's the question, though. How do you decorate a house and a tree when you have a crawling 11 month old who likes to get into everything and very little money to spend on decor! No glass allowed. Glitter probably not a good idea either.

Hmmmm... Ojo de Dios anyone?

Also known as "God's eyes." Remember those? Surely everyone of us has made one at one point or another. At summer camp, or Girl Scouts or just in school as an easy, not too messy craft project?

Much to my surprise, I found that God's eyes were not invented by some crafty, clever Girl Scout den mother in the 70's, there is actually a history behind them. You can read all about it here if you want. But it's much more fun to just make one.

They're super easy to make. Here are instructions if you need them, but basically you're just wrapping yarn around some sticks.


This one here is made with twigs and embellished with bells and beads, if you want to get fancy. Some people get really fancy and really big, too!

I love finding things like this and trying to make it modern again. I think a tree trimmed with lots of God's eyes is going to be very retro cool (and hopefully toddler friendly, too.)

Speaking of retro cool...
LOVE IT!

I'll be sure and post my own pictures when I've made some of my own.

Lovin the Half Moon

So I did my non-traditional french manicure but before I could find the time to take a picture it was chipped and a mess (and really it didn't look all that great to begin with.) Must remember always ALWAYS use a base coat. I usually do, but I was out of town and had forgotten to pack it so I did it without and the results were less than fab.

Well, it all turned out OK in the end because I actually found a manicure that I liked even better. I'd seen it years ago in some advertisement or the other. They were trying to make the model for the ad look 1930ish and she had this cool manicure and I remember thinking, at the time, "I've GOT to try that someday." It's called a Half-moon manicure and it was popular in the 1930's.
Basically, back then, it was fashionable to just leave this little half-moon thingy (the lunula) at the base of your nail unpainted or painted white. In the 1920's it was actually fashionable to leave both the lunula and the tip either unpainted or white as shown below.


But really, who has time for THAT?! And I think it looks kinda dumb anyway. But I really dig the 1930's version and after some web-searching I found I was not the only one.

Apparently, Dita Von Teese is also a big fan and is helping to bring the style back. I found a few other pictures of a less traditional version.


I also saw a picture of just the lunula painted either white or black with the rest done in a clear gloss, but I can't find that picture again. I didn't much like it since the black lunula sort of looked like someone had bruised themselves somehow and the white just looked kind of blah, hardly noticeable for all the trouble it would take to do it.

So I tried my own version tonight with the half moon just left unpained then the rest of the nail in a deep purple. So far I'm really liking it. If it lasts any time at all, I'll take a picture. I'm just too lazy to do it right now.

(By the way, those french manicure tabs work just as well for the half moon manicure, too.)

Inspiration

As promised, here are some pictures of granny afghans that have inspired me:

I'm leaning towards the first two examples for what I have in mind for my friend. I really like the classic look of the same color in the last row. It looks very vintage and classy if white or off-white is used, as you can see in the last picture, but I want something a little more fun for this particular friend which is why I like the idea of the last color being a true color instead of a neutral. I think the trick of this is to choose a good base color. One that isn't a neutral but can act as one depending on the value. I also really love the picture of just the crazy grannies with no apparent rhyme or reason, but I suspect that this crocheter spent a significant amount of time picking which colors would look best where. Though it's a beautiful blanket, it looks a little too modern for what I want to do. As does this one:


But I LOVE, love, love this one! One day I would like to make one like this for myself. All rugged, natural, earthy, colors. And I like the look of the one color in the middle with the two rows of another color. It makes this pretty sort of flower-like motif. Hmmmm...someday.

I'll leave you with this last picture of a granny square headboard. What a GREAT idea for a little girls room. Actually I would put this in a guestroom, too. It's very warm and homey looking.

This headboard was made by Little Purl of the Orient.
The rest of the pictures I found on Flickr and/or Ravelry.

Grannies Galore

Well, I was going to start this post with a history of the Granny Square, but lo and behold, I couldn't really find one anywhere on the internet. I'm thinking granny squares are one of those things that just ARE. Crochet is notorious for this sort of thing. No one can even really pinpoint when and where crochet first came into being. It just showed up one day.

I can only assume the granny square must have first been done by someone's granny. And really that granny was an ingenious little lady. There are so many variations that are possible that it blows the mind. What I find fascinating is how different they can look depending on size, color choice, yarn choice.

I'll admit, the picture above is somewhat campy. This magazine is from the early 80's when the granny square was just about to go into hibernation after it's heyday in the 60's and 70's. Now it's back again and I've caught the fever. I've been browsing around ravelry and flickr for days now, just ooohing and ahhhing over all the different variations I've seen.

I'm finding myself drawn to the blankets that look sort of vintagey and modern at the same time. I have a friend who is very in to everything 70's and I'd love to make her a granny square throw.
Here are some grannies I found on the side of the road at a place called Lovejoy. I actually asked my husband to climb out of the car and take a picture with his iphone. (What a guy!) The one I really like is the middle one with the white border. I find that you can do almost any kind of crazy color combos with a granny afghan and as long as you do the last row of every granny in the same color it ends up looking very together and posh. I have some plans for what I'm going to do for my friends throw.



But I don't have time now to explain all that so I'll have to wait until the next post. For now I'll just leave you with this..

Just a hint.

vintagecrochet 003, originally uploaded by reneewestberry.

Don't have time right now to do a proper posting, but I wanted to post a little teaser of what's coming up.

I see Granny Squares in your future...