So, I decided to make a ninja. But just to mix it up, I gave her a little skirt – just like the girl Power Rangers (shout out to Power Rangers!)

She’s hanging out on my amigurumi shelf now, which is getting a little crowded. However – that did not stop me from making my girl ninja a little friend.

Ah, I love me some squirrel. It occurred to me that I haven’t had a squirrel in the house for at least a year (!) The squirrel was decidedly overdue. As a bonus, I love how they ended up being the same itty bitty size.

As I was looking for eyes to use for the squirrel, I discovered this beautiful pair of sparkly green eyes. How did I forget that I had these? I think they make my little squirrel look very ‘forresty’. I feel like these little guys satisfied my amigurumi urge … for now. Enough at least to get going on some squares that I’ve decided to make into a new laptop case. More to come!

My snowflakes that I gave to people for Christmas were a hit! I had loads of fun making them, too. There were even a few little ones left over for me to hang on my tree next year.

The cats loved Christmas. Odis’ favourite part is opening the stockings. She plops herself squarely in the middle of them and won’t budge until everything has been unwrapped.

Boo tends to find his own fun (see below).

In crochet news, Mom gave me a gift bag for Christmas that was full of random, colourful yarns (which made me ridiculously happy). I’ve been working away at some dainty little squares using my new colours, although I haven’t photographed them yet… also, I haven’t even decided what I’ll end up making with them. A tote? A new laptop case? Perhaps inspiration will strike at random.

Also, I found a new place to buy yarn that’s incredibly close to school!!!!!!! And it’s way cheaper than Michaels. It’s called Len’s Mills, and I think they have a few locations in Ontario. I bought a bag of stuffing there on Thursday for – and keep in mind that I get furiously excited over simple things – $2.63. Gah! And they have Patton yarn. Nice.

Now that I have some stuffing again, I feel an oncoming amigurumi spree. Last night I made a yellow ninja with a skirt. I feel as if she needs some friends. Updates to come.

I started experimenting with some patterns using the only white yarn that I had lying around: acrylic worsted weight. So, the first two are a little on the chunky side.

But then I went to Michaels (with coupon in hand) and purchased by first ball of skinny cotton yarn! Armed with the cotton, I went to town on more snowflakes.

One amusing thing I learned: don’t rub your eyes while you’re crocheting with this stuff because the mascara that rubs off on your fingers will show up on the snowflake. And it won’t come out easily. Rats.

I stiffened the snowflakes by painting on a glue and water mixture. I bought some sparkles today at the craft store, so I’m planning on experimenting with them on my next two, which aren’t stiffened yet. I’m also planning on attaching a red ribbon to the tops of them, so they can be hung on a Christmas tree.

I’ve been leaving the snowflakes to dry on wax paper on the kitchen counter. They’ve sort of been taking over the kitchen lately… Mark’s starting to get a little worried. He’s asked, ‘Is this a new thing?’ (Knowing my track record on crafting obsessions, that’s a fair question.) I’ve assured him that I’m giving them all away for Christmas, so he doesn’t have to worry. Well, maybe I’ll keep just a few…

Apparently, I have. And I’ve had a blast doing it. When I started the blog, I wanted a place to write down all of the stuff I’d been up to and to connect with some online crafty bloggers as well. It turns out, it’s also been a great little journal for me too. (As someone who’s not a huge fan of keeping journals/diaries, it’s not the easiest to admit that.) I like the fact that I can look back in time to see what a snapshot of my life was like then.

So, here is a little trip down memory lane. I made this mosaic from the projects that I’ve done over the past year-and-a-half and blogged about.

And here’s the reason why the last mosaic doesn’t contain many amigurumis: because there are sooooooo many of them. I didn’t realize what my addiction was like until I captured them all in one place. (And the scary part: this isn’t even all of them!)

As a sort of milestone thing, I decided to set up a twitter account for myself! It’s @MsPremiseConcln. If you’re on Twitter, you should find me!

So, in closing, thanks for reading. And to all those crafty bloggers out there, thanks for letting me read your blogs. Your blogs bring some happy craftiness to just about every day – and I hope mine can too.

He and I had a photoshoot the other day.

(Aside: I realized that I need a new bristol board backdrop. Apparently, it can only take so much of Boo climbing all over it.)

I’m really liking this snowman. I’ve already made another one to give away for Christmas. The other one has a ‘winter’ themed scarf. It’s two shades of blue with a white stripe in between. These little guys take no time to whip up.

The pattern is posted now on Etsy as well as Ravelry.

Until I gift wrap them, I think these little guys are going to be a part of my Christmas decorations around the house!

The only upside is that I’ve had some of my free time back. While I was teaching, there wasn’t really time for anything else. I found that I was quietly craving bright and happy crochet time. I think this means I’m a craft addict. I’m ok with that.

Now I’m crocheting again, and it’s nice. I’ve got a few projects on the go – all of which are designated as Christmas presents. This year I’m embracing crafted presents in a big way, especially because I’m a broke student again. I actually think I’m going to craft more presents in the future (even once I get a job again) because, along with saving money, it’s a lot more meaningful as a gift.

Here’s what I’ve got under my hat so far …

A secret warm surprise for one person (it’s still in the works). The yarn is a neat little twist of pink, cream and tan yarn.

This one I have to be very guarded about, so I’m just showing you one motif. I love the colour of this yarn.

And this final guy, I just finished yesterday. I’m soooo in love with him. I’m going to give him away as a secret santa thing that’s being organized by some other student teachers at school. I think I’m going to make a few more of him since I can already think of some other people who would enjoy him. I’m also going to write him up as a pattern for my shop. (It feels like forever since I’ve done a new one!)

Unfortunately, not a lot of other people were dressed up at the school where I’m teaching … so I stood out a little bit. Then again, that’s never stopped me before!

Pretty much all of my students knew who I was right away! Whenever I walked down the hall, I would constantly hear kids behind me whispering, “… it’s Miss Frizzle … from The Magic Schoolbus!” A number of students in the grade 12 physics class I’m teaching were insisting that we watch The Magic Schoolbus during class. I love being responsible for turning teenagers into little kids again. Ah, mission accomplished.

So, onto the costume: here’s my dress from the back.

I sewed the following celestial objects onto my dress: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Earth, Saturn, Uranus, a comet, and a bunch of stars. My bus, of course, was crocheted. (I think I scared some of the other teachers when I told them that I made it. Surprise! I’m a crazy craft person!)

As for my pumpkin this year, I ended up carving it the afternoon of Halloween. I’ve never left a pumpkin until the last minute before, but, in my defence, I was crazy busy this past week. I ended up using what was at hand: one large pumpkin, a bunch of little pumpkins that were decorating our table, a sharpie, and one slightly twisted imagination. The result:

All in all, it was a really fun Halloween. I especially loved the fact that I got to dress up as a famous teacher while I was practice teaching.

In conclusion, I can sum up this Halloween with one statement:

TO THE BUS!!

I’ll be honest, I expected to be farther along with my costume by this point … which means that I’ve been working furiously on it this weekend! Here’s my progress on the bus so far. I’m glad to say, it’s resembling more of a bus lately and less of a giant yellow brick.

With windows:

This past week I’ve been teaching one grade 9 math class each day. It’s been a lot of fun – but also a lot of work to plan so much. I’ve only had time for a little bit of crocheting each night this week.

Today, it’s a race to the finish! I’ve got a few more solar system shapes that need to be sewn on to my Miss Frizzle dress, I need to darn in a few ends on my bus, maybe load on another helping of craft glue to the windows, and then I’m ready to go.

I’m really excited for Halloween tomorrow! The school that I’ve been placed as has a TON of school spirit, so I’m pretty sure there are going to be lots of people dressed up.

I should also make sure we have enough Halloween candy for Monday. Mark and I have been into the candy in a big way this week… You know, the busier you are, the more candy you tend to munch on. I hope everyone out there is getting excited for Halloween too!

I know. She’s just painfully cute.

When Rosie met Boo, she was a little unsure at first. I mean, what’s up with the black lanky thing that has made a sudden appearance in the house!? Boo (typically) was unfazed by the whole thing.

It was really adorable watching them get to know each other. Rosie really wanted Boo to act like a puppy and chase her around! She’d run up to him, bark, and then start running away, expecting him to chase her. Boo’s all like, ‘Wha? I don’t speak puppy.’

Eventually, they established some rules to play a chasing game. The rules were: Boo would lie down first, then Rosie would lie down (it took Rosie some time to learn this, because she’s really hyper), then Boo would run after her. After Boo chased her, he’d run away and then Rosie would chase him for a little while. Then the whole process would repeat. It was just SO CUTE.

Boo also kind of enjoyed messing with Rosie a little. This is Boo lying oh-so-nonchalantly on Rosie’s kennel.

In between eating turkey and watching the Rosie and Boo show, I also fit in some time to work on my Halloween costume. I set up my felt at the kitchen table and painted space themed objects that I’m going to cut out and sew on my Miss Frizzle dress.

It was a decent set up: paint, felt, tea, cookies… except for the fact that I kept almost dunking my paintbrush in my tea instead of in the paint container. In retrospect, I should have put those two things farther apart.

Now that we’re home, I feel like maybe Boo has a better appreciation for what Odis (our older, calmer cat) has to put up with from him on a regular basis. Maybe hanging around Rosie all weekend has finally matured him a little bit! Or maybe I’ll just be saying that until the next time I catch him jumping on Odis’ back.

So, to dress as Miss Frizzle, I will need 1) a red wig, 2) a button front dress with lots of fun objects on it and 3) a bus.

While I’m still working on 1), I have planned out 2) and have procured the items necessary to make it. First off, I found a button front dress at Value Village (I heart this place) and have some white felt that I intend to paint with various space-y shapes. I’m thinking that once I cut these shapes out, I’ll use my sewing machine to attach them to the dress.

I have also started on 3) and I thought it might be fun to share my design process.

Whenever I start something in crochet, I always sketch it out first and I usually take some preliminary measurements, just to make sure I’ve got the scale right. Here are my messy initial sketches:

Here is a great picture of the bus that I found on the scholastic website. (They’ve got some more cute images that are intended for colouring-in purposes. Worth checking out if you have kids interested in magic schoolbus stuff. Or if you’re just an overgrown kid like me. I’m not gonna lie, I might colour some stuff later.)

A few measurements later, and I’ve decided that I want my bus to be around 40 cm long. It’s kind of big, I know, but I want something substantial to carry around all day. Comparing 40 cm to the length of the cartoon bus, above, I can determine that the height of my bus needs to be around 18 cm. Here’s one side of the bus so far. It’s 56 stitches wide and 34 rows high, made up of single crochet stitches. (I chain one and turn at the end of each row.)

I’ve decided to construct the back of the bus as a rectangular prism, and attach the hood separately. I want the hood to be less boxy and more round-y. I’m already thinking that I’m just going to glue the windows on with white felt, since I’ll probably run out of steam by the end of October.

All this talk about it makes me want to work on a few more rows before I call it a night. More updates soon!