The big day

Well tomorrow is the big day. I am off to my new home to spend my first week there! And start my new job. I am leaving around 5 AM to make the trek out there, its a 5 hour drive. I hope I've packed everything I need. I am not taking much at first. About six days worth of clothes, all  my bathroom supplies, a blanket, pillows, cleaning supplies and paint! I hope to post some great before pictures tomorrow. I am hoping when I get there the power is on. So keep an eye out for more updates.

Busy Day!

So yesterday was a very eventful day and I just wanted to share it with you guys. This blog is about to get interesting! Yesterday my dad and I took the 5 and 1/2 hour drive from North East PA down to South West PA. AND.... not only did I buy a house, I got a new job!

I can't wait to post some pictures, which I will be doing on Tuesday. The land is almost 3 acres. There is a house and an older trailer on it. The house is shot, completely gutted on the inside. The roof an structure of the house is good. However, there is so much mold, I do not think it is salvageable. The trailer on the other hand is livable. I am going to start fixing it up next week. I will be posting lots of pictures. And then either the house will be torn down and rebuilt, or rehabbed. It all depends on how it looks once the warmer weather comes about. But I can't wait! And I am so excited to share my story.

And also, I got a job. I wasn't expecting that to happen at all. So it moved my timeline up super fast. I wasn't expecting to move until Mid-March, however because of this new revelation I am actually moving Monday! I know super crazy!
 

Starting a new adventure

It has been more then a while since I have posted anything to this blog. And a lot has happened since then.

In September of 2011 my husband of almost 7 years and I split up. It was a very devastating time for me and my children. Mostly because none of us saw it coming. Don't get me wrong my husband and I did occasionally argue. But if you asked me then and even now I thought we had a perfect marriage. Just goes to show you nothing is perfect. He had told me he had been unhappy for a while ( I never saw it) and that he ha decided enough was enough. I had found out a few days later he was already seeing someone new. So as you could imagine it was something that was very hard to get over.

I am very pleased to say, however that life actually has been amazing since he left. Yes, it was very, very difficult at first. I was lonely, so I tried dating again only a month after he left. I joined a dating website. That was horrible. I really hate dating. And I admit it was way too soon. But I was going crazy being sad and feeling sorry for myself. I had to get a second job, and for a few weeks even had a third job. I was working part time at all of them, but because my ex did not want to pay child support, I had to do it.

But then the New Year rolled around. January was a so so month. My car died the week before Christmas so I was very upset. But then I decided to buy a new car. That was kind of liberating because I got to pick it out myself! It was actually nice to make such a big purchase and not have to consult someone else before doing so. It was the first time I ever got to dot that.

Then the loneliness began to slowly seep its way back in. So one particular Saturday night when was feeling really low, an was just about to give up on love all together, against my better judgement, I logged onto my email on that dating website I had joined. One particular email caught my eye. I wasn't going to answer it, but I did. Later on that night I spoke to Michael on the phone. The next day we went on our first date and well now the rest is history. :) We have been dating a year now and things seem to be going well.

I have also reopened my etsy shop. I got a promotion at work. No longer working 3 jobs because I got awarded child support. And now with 2013 upon us, my family and I are about to start on a new adventure.
Hence the reason I am writing in my blog again. I want to document it.

I been wanting to go back to school again to get my RN for a while now. Unfortunately, the schools that have the program also have thousands of students competing for 60 seats a year. So it is very competitive to say the least. So I have decided to go about this one step at a time. It is much easier to get into a RN program once you have your LPN. So I am starting there. I went in December and took my TEAS V test and aced it!

Now Michael, the guy I am dating has a very demanding job. He works in the oil field. So needless to say I NEVER see him. Especially because he is 6 hours away in West Virginia and when he has time off he is 5 hours away spending the time with his children. Which he should. So that is where our adventure comes in!

He asked me to move closer to him. And I have decided to. So after I received my results of my TEAS test I applied to the LPN program down at The Fayette County Career and Technical Institute in Uniontown, PA and I found out 3 days ago I got in! School starts March 25, 2013.

So here it starts. Looking for a new home for my family and I. Transferring work, starting school, and for the first few months missing my little ones. They will staying here with my mom and dad until school gets out for the summer so they don;t have to be uprooted during the school year.

Its going to be tough but I know we can do it.

So in the upcomming months I will be sharing with all of you everything. My house hunt/remodel, moving, school, activities, cool projects, and just anything I think may or may not be entertaining. I'm really going to try very hard to keep up with this. So that my family and I can look back on this and see how far we have come.

Thanks for reading my LONG story! Hope all of y'all have a good night!

Laura

Facebook Fan Giveaways

Ok so as some of you may or may not know Facebook has changed their rules and added more rules to how contest are done on a fan page. With the new rules a page owner can still so a contest or giveaway, but only if they are using a FB app. which unfortunately is UNBELIEVABLY expensive! So from now on all give aways done by Creating Cuteness will be hosted on my blog page in correlation with either my flicker or photbucket account. The contest will be posted on the blog when it starts and stops along with all rules. The photos of the items will be posted  on the picture website. I am sorry that this will be more work for both myself and the entrants, but this is how it must be done. I will be posting information regarding our 1000 FAN GIVEAWAY either tonight or tomorrow.

How to die Wool yarn with Kool Aid

So I love do all sorts of crafts, sewing, crocheting, and now knitting!
I love all the different dyed yarns you can get, they are gorgeous but alas, I can't afford them! So I have an inexpensive way to make your own beautifully died yard your self.

What you need:

-Wool yarn, as close to 100% wool as you can get. Remember only the wool will take the color so if it is 50% wool 50% cotton rest assured the dye will wash out of the cotton. I like Lion's Brand Fisheman's Wool. It is 100% virgin wool. It is soft and great for felting too! They sell it for about $10 for 8 oz. But if you a savvy shopper like me and go to AC Moore when they email you your 50% off coupon you can get it for $5!

-Kool Aid, what ever colors you want. For this tutorial I used berry blue, lemon lime, and orange.

- a pot or 2

-some baby soap

- and Saran wrap and a turkey baster or syringe if you are going to make yarn that is multi colored.

-Start off by unraveling your yarn and making it into a skein. You can do this by wrapping it around a chair.

Start at one end of the chair hold the yarn in place and start wrapping as pictured. Make sure you secure the end piece of the yarn under a few of the pieces wrapped around so you can let go. :)

 

-Now I am going to show you how to dye a solid color and how to dye multi colors. I am using this dye to make my son some shorties so I need solid trim and the multi colored body of the short. In order to do that I need about 2oz of yarn for my trim. So I and wrapping around my chair for a few, them i am going to weigh my yarn and when my yarn only weighs 6 oz I will cut off what I have and put it o the side. Then I Will start wrapping the remaining 6oz for the multi colored yarn.                                                                             



Once you have your yarn wrapped you also need to tie some waste yarn around in certain pints of your skein so it does not tangle.  

So here are the 2 skeins I have.

The next step is to wash them. I fill my sink up with warm tap water and some baby soap. Swish them around a little, careful not to do it too much or your yarn will felt. Then I rinse them in warm water. And them fill the sink up with clean warm water and let the yarn soak for about 45 minutes to an hour. this will get it ready fr dying.

Once time is up carefully wring out your yarn by squishing it gently.

I am going to go over one color dye first.

Take your pot, since you are using Kool aid you can use a pot that you would normally cook with.

***PLEASE NOTE: If you are using a chemical dye you need to use a special pot!

Add some warm water to the pot and mix in the kool aid. The amount of water to kool aid ratio does not matter. The wool will soak up all the color. For a light color, use less kool aid, and for a darker color use more, or mix colors.

I used one packet of lemon lime.

Add your yarn, place pot on stove on medium high heat and cover. Once you get some good steam going in the pot, lower the heat to a simmer. Let simmer for about 45 minutes.

Now just a note, once i get my yarn ready for the pot, I very carefully cut the waste yarn off. If you keep it on you will get white spots where the dye won't take. Just be careful not to tangle your yarn.

Once the time is up your done! You will see the water is clear, but the yarn will be dyed, let it cool.

   

Once your yarn is cooled, again gently wring it out. Then place it some where safe to dry.

Now Multi color dyed yarn is a little different.

Take some saran wrap and place it down on your work area. It needs to be a pretty big sheet. i usually use about 3-4 pieces that are about 3 feet long each. Make sure you over lap them.

Take some gasses, the ones pictured were too small so I had to get bigger ones.

Fill each glass with about 8 oz of arm water. Ad your kool aid. One color per glass.

I put green in one, blue in one, orange in another, and then 1/2 a packet each of blue and green in another.

I also have a 5th glass with clean water to wash out my syringe.

Lay your yarn out on to the saran wrap in a oval shape. Take your syringe, fill it with the color of your choice and then squirt it on to the yarn in a back and forth motion. Make sure you squirt the underside too. Then you can push on the yarn with your fingers to make sure it gets the color where you want it. Rinse out your syringe and start with the next color.

Make sure you leave a little gap in between colors because they will spread.

Also you may notice you may get some water build up. Just use a paper towel to blotch it up.

Once you are done adding your colors wrap your yarn in the saran wrap. Take one long side, wrap it to the middle, Take the other long side and wrap it to the middle. then fold over the ends.

Now this is going to go in a pt too, but a different way.

If your lucky and have a spaghetti pot, one that has a pot with a colander built in,  that is perfect. But if not, you need to take a big pot, Fill it up with about 2 inches of water, then take a smaller pot that will fit inside and put your saran wrapped yarn in it then put it in the bigger pot and cover.

Once again you will do medium high till the steam builds up then simmer for 45 minutes.

***Please Note: When your yarn is done, please make sure you let it cool. If you open the saran wrap before the yarn is cooled you will get burned by the steam! Trust me I did it. LOL

Once it is cooled rinse and dry. Voila!

There you have it. Now go knit or crochet something cute!

If you have any questions or if something is not clear please comment and I will be glad to help!

Gearing up for Valentines Day

Just wanted to let ya'll know That i have stocked some items in my ETSY store for the up coming holiday. Check them out they are super cute and the prices are great.

The fabric Shoppe on Etsy

OK so that "new habit" was very short lived! lol

But any way I wanted to post on here about a giveaway The Fabric Shoppe is doing. Checkout their blog for all the details.