Author: BeLinda Creech

It’s Cee Cee’s Mom again…I didn’t plan to be doing this for August but Cee Cee had a completely unplanned trip to the hospital at the end of July when her appendix ruptured and had to be removed immediately…

But just the week before that happened we were talking about the blog and Cee Cee was headed to a cookout so she decided on a unicorn theme for this month. She made Unicorn Trail Mix for the cookout, and wanted to share the recipe with you guys!

First off, you need all the yummy marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal, and make sure you get the box with the unicorns in it.

Other ingredients:

A bag of sixlets in pastel colors
A bag of pretzel rods
A bag of plain popcorn
A box of nerds in colors to match your sixlets
Baking chocolate in pink and blue
A cookie sheet
Parchment paper

She put a layer of pretzels on the cookie sheet (use the parchment paper for easy cleanup) and followed package directions to heat a half cup of the baking chocolate and dipped the ends of the pretzels in for a pop of color. She did a cookie sheet of pink and blue and then discovered mixing the pink and blue made lavender.

Once the chocolate hardened she just mixed everything together. She was making a huge batch so it filled a large mixing bowl and a large cake pan.

Her friends loved it! And it was so pretty.

After she spent several days in the hospital, she had lots of thank yous to send to friends and family who helped us so she got out the easy marble and decided those colors continued with her unicorn theme!

She had so much fun dipping the edges of plain cardstock into the easy marble and creating beautiful one of a kind cards. It was nice to see her feeling like making something, and it was just enough fun that it didn’t wear her out.

She was going to make a unicorn but she ran out of energy…instead we have a couple of unicorn worthy yarns that you should know about.

Skacel Vegas yarn is so pretty and with the pastels and the sparkle it is definitely a unicorn worthy yarn. I used to be afraid of metallic yarn because it frayed so much and was scratchy and generally awful. I love this yarn. It’s soft and knits up nicely. That little bit of i-cord in the picture is the yarn held double, and that was easy to manage. This yarn is perfect for that little bit of bling you might need for toy knitting.

And of course, Zauberball. This is such a fun yarn to knit with and these colors are just beautiful. Perfect for unicorns….or socks, fingerless mittens or a hat.

Tools and Materials Appearing in This Post

Marabu Easy Marble
Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball
HiKoo® CoBaSi Plus

ABOUT

Cee Cee Creech is growing up in a home full of creativity. Mom BeLinda loves making things, and Cee Cee loves it too. In 2011, Cee Cee changed their lives when she wanted to knit elephants to comfort the residents of Joplin, MO after a tornado destroyed their town.
This mom/daughter team has raised thousands of dollars, and made/distributed toys for charities all over the world. Today, Cee Cee is a high school student, curious maker, and the teen craft ambassador for Makers’ Mercantile. Follow their adventures on the Craft Corner.

Because my shoes are super awesome this month!

But before I get to that let’s talk about the addi Express knitting machine…

I’m going on a mission trip at the end of this month and I wanted to take a bunch of hats to give to the homeless people where we are going. I know June is too warm for hats but winter will be here before you know it and people will need hats to stay warm. So far I’m averaging about a hat a day which would be impossible for me to knit by hand. All these hats are doubled and reversible! Mom is happy too because this is an awesome stash-busting project. They are nice and warm and hopefully people will feel they are loved because someone made something for them. My goal is 40 hats. Next month I’ll let you know how many I got.

And now for my shoes….Mom used to love getting Keds and painting them when she was my age. We just went to Walmart and got some really cheap white slip on shoes and some painter’s tape. The only other thing I needed was Easy Marble paint.

I loved the pink and yellow combination I used for Easter eggs because it reminds me of strawberry lemonade… And that sounds perfect for summer.

Then I used the blue painter’s tape to tape off my shoes. My painting bowl is not very deep so first I am dyeing the toes of the shoes. I put tape on the rubber and on the side elastic. I used the knife to press down the tape and cover all the parts that I didn’t want dyed.

As usual, Mocha was on stand by to make sure I did a good job and that she wasn’t missing out on anything important.

Its that easy! Taping them off is the most time consuming part. And here’s a little extra tip:if you can take the insoles out, do that. It just helps them dry better if the insoles aren’t soaking wet too.

Then we wait for the toes to dry so I can move on to the back. It may be safe to go ahead and dye the backs but I wanted to be careful so I waited until they were dry…and then I decided I only wanted to do the toes. Lol.

This month marks a very special anniversary for me. The Joplin tornado happened on May 22, 2011 and I started Elephants Remember Joplin on May 23, 2011 when I was 8 years old.

It is amazing to think about all the things I’ve got to do and all the wonderful people I have met because I made the decision to help. I have received so much more than I could have ever given!

Now is usually when I tell you what I’m doing next month and I don’t know! I have a few fun ideas and I want to figure out how to knit the cat a blanket on the addi express…plus I keep seeing fun ideas on Pinterest. Sometimes I just want to make everything. Do you ever feel that way?

But before I go…

I talked Mom into going to Walmart for more shoes!

First I marbled them in pink, yellow and turquoise and then I went back and dipped them a second time in the lavender and blue. I can’t wait to wear them!

Hope your Summer is off to a fabulous start! See you next month!

Mom got a new work table for her birthday and I decided to make her coasters on our zoom loom. A zoom loom is a kind of pin loom. Pin looms have been around since the 1930’s. They are easy to use and don’t use very much yarn. My coaster turned out pretty good. But then I had another idea…

I think I can do a square start to finish in under an hour and the directions that come with a zoom loom are very well written. (Poorly written directions really annoy me.) I chose schoppel wool for my project. The slow color changes made really colorful sheep and the wool was really nice to weave with. I also used CoBaSi for a non wool sheep and I really liked weaving with it too.

Working a simple little square is just a very satisfying project. Mom and I have been enjoying listening to Audible while we work. We are almost finished with To Kill a Mockingbird performed by Sissy Spacek.

Once you have a square done, you can stop there, or you can make your square into something else. I have seen lots of kits to make animals, but I wanted to be able to make something with one square, so a sheep was the purrrrrfect choice. (My cat Mocha thinks so too!)

The legs would be easy enough to make using pipe cleaners, but we had mini clothespins and I think they are cute also. I save an extra couple of feet of yarn for sewing up, but I also use the leftover tails to draw up the ends of the square. First I secure the clothespins inside the square and place the stuffing. If you try to stuff it after, it shifts the clothespins around and the legs don’t stay put. If you decide to sew up the square completely and then clip the legs on after, your sheep looks like his mama was a giraffe and his legs are way too long.

Basically I just place the legs and stitch around it until it feels like it won’t move around too much. Here are a couple of pictures with the pipe cleaner legs. Place the stuffing carefully around the legs so they don’t get moved around. If you just stuff it in, the legs get out of place.

On each end I use a running stitch and draw it up. Whichever end is smooth gets to be the rear of the sheep. If it’s a little more uneven when I draw it up, that can be the head. We will be sewing a felt head on, so any uneven bits will get covered up.

I used safety eyes on some of my sheep, but wiggle eyes work too. The ones with wiggle eyes remind me of characters from the animated series Shaun the Sheep. The head is really easy. I just cut that freehand out of felt. And I don’t use a pattern so each one is similar, but unique.

I also used craft pins so I could hang a sheep on my bag. I just used the holes already present in the weaving to attach it to the back. How fun is that?

I’m sharing one with my pen pal! They would be great to top a crafty gift instead of a bow, or tuck in a skein of yarn for a little surprise for your favorite knitter.

Next month I’m going to be using the easy marble to create some fun shoes for summer, and I am looking at creative ideas for a blanket for Mocha.

I am also talking to my Dad about going on a little trip somewhere fun and I’ll be sharing that too!

Tools and Materials Appearing in This Post

Schact Zoom Loom

Schoppel-Wolle Gradient

HiKoo® CoBaSi Plus

ABOUT

Cee Cee Creech is growing up in a home full of creativity. Mom BeLinda loves making things, and Cee Cee loves it too. In 2011, Cee Cee changed their lives when she wanted to knit elephants to comfort the residents of Joplin, MO after a tornado destroyed their town.
This mom/daughter team has raised thousands of dollars, and made/distributed toys for charities all over the world. Today, Cee Cee is a high school student, curious maker, and the teen craft ambassador for Makers’ Mercantile. Follow their adventures on the Craft Corner.

It’s March and I’m egg-cited to share a Spring craft project with you. I really love to dye eggs for Easter. This year I’ve been having so much fun with it and I had plans to make pictures outside and this happened…

In Kentucky, they say never plant flowers until after Derby for a reason. It was beautiful but only lasted a day.

So now let’s talk about dyeing eggs.

I used water and Easy Marble. Mom blew the insides of the eggs out for me so we could keep the finished decorated eggshells for a long time. She tapped a small hole in each end with a large heavy needle, and then stuck a needle inside and scrambled the egg. Then she blew the egg out into a bowl and made omelets with it.

Then a few drops of Easy Marble are added to the water. See how it just floats on top? You can swirl the colors around a little to get the colors mixed but don’t swirl too much because the paint will start to clump and stick to the needle.

I carefully slipped my egg on a bamboo skewer to control dipping it better.

Then I gave it a good swirl through the paint. Be careful not to let the paint clump up. If you get any on your fingers, it comes off easily with nail polish remover.

I put them on cups to dry. There is probably a better way to do it, but we had cups and bamboo skewers in the cabinet so that was easy.

I really don’t think you could make two alike if you tried!

Cleanup is easy too! You can change colors in the water by using a paper towel to lift the color right off the top. When I was ready to clean up I used a paper towel to lift the color off, and then wiped the inside of the bowl with rubbing alcohol. I didn’t have any drips on the table either. When the eggs are dry, drain the water out of them. You can even go back and dip them a second time if you like. It was the most fun I have ever had dyeing eggs! My plan now is to take the eggs downtown the week of Easter and hide them for people to find.

In other news this month, I checked off an item on my bucket list and saw one of my favorite musicians in concert, Dan Zanes. He’s a Grammy award winning folk and family musician, and friends with my Mom. I got to meet him after the show. If you have kids, look him up. They’d love him.

I didn’t think of it in time but I really wanted to make him an elephant. So when I got home I borrowed Mom’s olive wood needles and knit one up.

I really love these needles. The joins are so smooth and they feel so good in my hands. I’ve used lots of different needles over my 11 years knitting. These are outstanding!

I’m still using the knitting machine too! My new goal is to learn how to knit flat on it, so I’m trying to learn more about that.

Next month I want to focus on some Mother’s day ideas. I think a cute jewelery item would be fun, and I’ve had a couple of ideas for using the easy marble again. And hopefully next month it will really be Spring and no more snow!

ABOUT 

Cee Cee Creech is growing up in a home full of creativity. Mom BeLinda loves making things, and Cee Cee loves it too. In 2011, Cee Cee changed their lives when she wanted to knit elephants to comfort the residents of Joplin, MO after a tornado destroyed their town.

This mom/daughter team has raised thousands of dollars, and made/distributed toys for charities all over the world. Today, Cee Cee is a high school student, curious maker, and the teen craft ambassador for Makers’ Mercantile. Follow their adventures on the Craft Corner.

Last month I had big plans…I was going to stitch a bear. I had a great family story to go with it.

I had Mom help me cut out the fabric. It’s velvet and it’s so pretty. It reminds me of Victorian crazy quilts.

I stitched carefully. I haven’t done a lot of hand sewing like this so I tried to get the stitches even…

And then Mom and I realized I really don’t have enough sewing skills for it to be my project and not Mom’s project. It was frustrating. I wanted to share my Great-Grandmother’s quilt and the bear my Grandmother made from it.

Mom knew I was struggling so she told me a couple of good stories and we decided that with the legacy of making things there is also a legacy of being frustrated when things don’t go as planned. Mom says she can remember Grandmother hurling her sewing across the room a time or two. And Great-Granny evidently tried to wallpaper the ceiling one time and when the paper kept falling down she beat it senseless with a broom. I’ve even seen Mom rip out knitting when she was angry…she probably could have saved it but got mad at her work and started over.

The other thing Mom did was send a text to Franklin…and he said “it happens all the time”and that made me feel so much better. I’ve goofed up stuff before, but not when we had a deadline, and people expecting my work. And I’m going to finish the bear… But I’m going to learn more and take my time and get it right.

I still wanted to keep my quilt theme, so Mom helped me brainstorm a new plan. Kyle sent me a bag of fabric scraps from Makers’ and challenged me to do something with them. So I got out the bag and first thing I did was pick out all the scraps with cats. Cats are my favorite.

And then I got a big letter C.

I did the inside and outside edges in polka dot scraps because I didn’t have enough cat scraps. I think it makes the cats show up better too.

And I laid out the whole top so I could see where to place the cats. I wish I had a bunch more of the fabric with the little cats all over it. I love that one.

The other challenge I had was figuring out what to do with the two bigger cute cats.

I used tacky glue and a foam brush. The brush helped the glue go on really smooth and made it easy to wrap fabric around the sides and edges. I think I’m going to hang it in my room but it looks pretty cool in my Great-Grandfather’s chair. And isn’t it sweet where the two little cats have their tails making a heart?

My Great-Grandmother loved quilting so I think she’d be happy I found a way to use scraps to make something. She raised 6 kids and lived through the Depression so she had to mend and use what she had.I’m glad her creativity has been passed down to me.

Here’s a picture of my quilt bear. My Great-Grandmother made this quilt a long time ago. Mom thinks its close to 100 years old. In the 1980’s Grandmother made bears for Mom and her cousin.

I have made ten more hats on the addi® Express for our local shelter. I love being that I can make really nice hats quickly. If I had to knit them by hand it would go slower and I might not have time to do very many. Next month I am sharing an Easter craft… We’re going to marble Easter eggs! Did you know Makers’ Mercantile® has paint? I can’t wait to try it.

And today I’m going to leave you with a quote from  Benjamin Levisay. “The only thing better than being creative is being kind to each other. The good news is we can do both.” I hope that we all find opportunities to do both until I share again next month.

-Cee Cee

Select fabrics featured in this project:

Seven Islands Inc. CoCoLand Cats 100

Seven Islands Inc Kiyohara Canvas 85 Cotton 15 Linen Grey with Cats

RJR Fabrics Crazy for Dots & Stripes – Black Dots on White 45″ Wide

ABOUT 

Cee Cee Creech is growing up in a home full of creativity. Mom BeLinda loves making things, and Cee Cee loves it too. In 2011, Cee Cee changed their lives when she wanted to knit elephants to comfort the residents of Joplin, MO after a tornado destroyed their town.

This mom/daughter team has raised thousands of dollars, and made/distributed toys for charities all over the world. Today, Cee Cee is a high school student, curious maker, and the teen craft ambassador for Makers’ Mercantile. Follow their adventures on the Craft Corner.