Put Some Character On Your Head

Whew. I have been off of here for quite a while. We have been busy, busy, busy. I really miss blogging and I'm not promising I'm going to start up again, but I will think about it. =)

I wanted to share all the hats I've been making over the last year. I've sold most of these to help with my Christmas gift shopping this year. I really love making these hats. They are so much fun!

I've had a lot of first time requests for hats I've never made. I"m happy to say they have all turned out better than I expected.

I really love seeing photos of the kids and/or adults who have received my hats. It gives them so much more character. I wanted to start selling them on Etsy or Ebay or something like that, but I was so blessed to be busy with orders from friends, or friends of friends that I haven't had time to make any to sell online.

The hats can be made from newborn size all the way up to large adult men size.

Let me know what you think.

This is my very first character hat from one year ago. They've gotten much better since.

Hello Kitty

These next photo is of my third through fifth character hats ever.

Perry the Platypus and Sock Monkey

This one is from a baby shower in April of this year.

Dinosaur baby hat

Pink and Brown Sock Monkey

Purple and Orange Sock Monkey

The rest of the photos are all hats made from August of this year through this past week.

Cookie Monster baby hat

Minnie Mouse in pink

Oakland Raiders colors - sock monkey 

Rapunzel

Horse/Pony

One-eye Minion

Sesame Street - Elmo, Ernie, Grover, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird

 Buzz Lightyear

This is my first attempt at a Minecraft Creeper. 

I've since found some really neat green yarn that makes it look more pixleated like Minecraft really is.

The minion hats have been the most popular of the ones I've made. I think I've done about 10 of them.

Kiley has requested an R2D2 hat, she's a big Star Wars nerd.

Thanks for reading as always. I'm sure I've lost most of my regular readers since I've gone so long without blogging.

Blessings to you and yours and have a Happy New Year.

-Kimmie

Migraines and Baltic Amber Teething Necklaces

I have had migraine headaches since I was seven years-old. They are genetic in our family. They have been debilitating throughout times in my life. During my working days, I lost more than one job due to missed work because of migraines. I saw several Dr's, went to a Headache Clinic in San Francisco, tried a myriad of medicines, special diets, vitamins etc: but nothing helped. At age 23/24-ish, I quit all the medicines I was taking and the number of migraines began to lessen - by age 25 they were gone completely.

During January of my 29th year, they returned with a vengeance  I was coming down with 3 or 4 a month. They would come around the same dates of each month: the 6th and the 8th and the 20th and 22nd. These were, "aura warning" migraines. I'd start to lose vision in one eye, and that was my 30 minute warning to get to a place I could sleep before it was too late. After 30 minutes had elapsed, the migraine was in full force on the opposite side of my head from where the blindness occurred. It was the strangest thing that they had started back up. I still have no idea what to attribute it to. Maybe because I was getting ready to begin my 30's? Who knows.

At that time, I was also a smoker, having smoked on and off starting from age 13. On March 1, 2009, a few months after the migraines returned, I quit smoking - cold turkey and never went back. I was hoping that this would finally help make the migraines go away. No such luck.

After a year, the type of migraine I was getting changed from the, "warning aura" to a sneak-attack migraine. The sneak-attack ones are not as painful (to me) but are not easy to predict and that makes it harder to take the medicine in time to end it quickly. I have always taken Imitrex to stop them in their tracks. It works well, but makes me feel dumb. It gives me a floaty, strange, not-all-there feeling and my chest gets tight. It's rather unpleasant, however the migraine goes away after a nap and I can return to my regular duties.

This bit of history now leads us to the point of this post:

I'm hoping I can safely say this now. I heard great things about Baltic Amber necklaces from several friends who used them for their teething babies. I did some reading in preparation for the day when we have another little one. I soon learned that the amber necklaces help to heal much more than just teething pain. On the list from the website they state: reduces arthritis pain, reduces and PREVENTS MIGRAINE HEADACHES, golfing pain relief, baseball pitching elbow and shoulder, reduces acid reflux, heartburn, reduces and eliminates eczema, psoriasis, balances digestive system and GI track, improves sleep cycles, lifts over all mood and feelings of depression.  

I'm ALWAYS  a skeptic about migraine cures, as any chronic-migraine-sufferer will understand. People, having the best of intentions, always want to heal your migraines or they know someone who used this vitamin or that vitamin. In actuality, someone who has suffered migraines for years, has already tried just about everything anyone can recommend.  Graciously smiling, I appreciate the thought and care.

I purchased two adult sized necklaces for Adam and myself from this Baltic Amber Teething Necklace online store. Click here for the one I purchased. I bought one for Adam because of his chronic pain due to the hard labor from working. I wear my necklace all day and night except for showering. I've worn it, mostly everyday since I received it three months ago. I'm a bit leery to put this in writing, but so far, I have not had one single migraine. I still have had regular headaches, which I believe are allergy or weather related.

I'm not positive it's the necklace working, or the change in diet I started back in July. Possibly a combination of both, but the diet started 3 months before I got the necklace and I was still having migraines up to that point. Now, I have a box of Imitrex in my medicine cabinet that has gone untouched for 3 months. Normally I would have to take 3 to 6 in a month.

I hope this information is helpful to someone.

This is the Baroque Cognac Amber Necklace that Adam and I both wear daily.

Crocheting and sewing for Christmas

Have I blogged about how much I love to crochet? If I haven't I really should. I really love it. It's relaxing, it's easy, it's fun. I love shopping for yarn; I love the way it feels. Okay, you get it. For Christmas gifts this year I crocheted A LOT. I made hats and bath-scrubbies for all of my children, plus my niece and nephews. I found a bunch of free patterns on Pinterest and through google searches.

This was my first ever character hat. Hello Kitty for my favorite niece (she's my only niece). Pattern found here: Hello Kitty Free Crochet Hat Pattern

August has been asking for a sock monkey hat for a long time. She loves sock monkey's and has about 15 of them. Along with her hat, I made Emily and Julia, Perry the Platypus hats.

The sock monkey hat pattern can be found here: at Crochet in Color. I used her pattern with a very large hook to modify it to fit August's head. I can't find where the Perry the Platypus pattern was from. But a simple google search can yield many free patterns. 

I saw these awesome book slings in the Family Fun magazine a while back. I saw them again on Pinterest and decided to make them for Emily and Julia. They always have a ton of books in their beds, these were perfect to hang on the wall next to them. They were also very simple to make. Link here at Penny Carnival .

Kiley and Haley both got slouchy hats, which I regret to say I can't find the link for the pattern.

One of my favorite projects were these monster bath-scrubbies. If found the free pattern at Ravelry.

 I found a skein of really cool Red Heart camouflage yarn, and made each of my 3 wonderful nephews a hat. Apparently I only took one photo of the camo hats. Ha! I guess I need to be better at photographing my work. This was for my youngest nephew who is almost 2. I used the pattern from the sock monkey hat and omitted the ear flaps. I used a smaller hook so that it would be baby size.

The other two hats, not shown were just basic skull beanies for boys/teens with no pom-pom. They are camo with orange stripes in the middle.

These are flower coasters. I made several sets of these in different colors. I even sold a set! Yay me. That was my first homemade sale. This pattern I found on Pinterest and it's linked here at Mollie Makes. I used Patons yarn. I would love to find it in similar colors as the pattern pictures, but so far I can only find blue, white, purple, black and gray.

Making gifts really saved a lot of money. It does take a lot of time. I started 3 1/2 months before Christmas to get it all done. I get really bad carpal tunnel, not the best thing for someone who enjoys crocheting as much as I do. I have to do it in small doses.

 Happy New Year.

~Kimmie