Are You Following Me?

No, I don't mean following me around, well sorta, but that's a good thing, LOL!  You can find me on facebook, twitter, ravlery, and pinterest.  I'll be the first to admit that I don't always update my blog, but I'm usually using lots of social media, so it's a great way to find out what I'm doing!  If you haven't found me at any of those sites yet then you definitely should!

My facebook page has sadly been neglected as of late, but I promise to start using it more.  I'll probably even be using it more than this blog, so if you want to see more updates and more about what I'm doing then please be sure to go like it.  You can get there by clicking the little icon to the left!  If you want to see some of my public personal statuses, then feel free to subscribe to my personal page here!



I'm not a heavy tweeter by any means, so feel free to follow me on twitter if you want random sharing and updates from me!  My twitter can be more playful and I tend to retweet more from others and share my pinterest there!  If you want to follow me then please do!



Now, I LOVE Pinterest!  If you're on Pinterest then you know what I'm talking about, and if you haven't then you definitely need to join the addiction, LOL!  It's an amazing thing!  There you can find just about anything and everything you're looking for, and awesome links to cool sites and blogs.  I have all sorts of boards to reflect all of my interests, and you can follow some or all of what I pin there.




Ravelry is the go to place for all things crochet and knitting with it's huge community of fellow stitchers.  If you've been accepted there then you know what I'm talking about here too!  Many of you probably have come to my blog from ravelry because of my free patterns, so you know what a great place it is to find patterns, join groups, and connect with other knitters and crocheters that share your interests!  You can find me there and friend me if you like!  :D


Now I just wanted to let you know that even if you don't use these links today, they are always on the sidebar under my About me section!  :D  Happy social media to you all!  LOL

Starting My 100 Things

So I previous told you all that I wanted to start the 100 Things Challenge. I've started my list with my basics that I know I will not get rid of! It's short and simple but part of the list none-the-less. So here it is so far.

1. Cell phone and charger
2. iPod touch and charger
3. Crochet & knitting stuff (I've decided to count my crochet and knitting stuff as one since I do use it in my business and it's more of a collection. I'm not counting the yarn since it's the materials for my business.)
4. Sweater Knitting Machine (It's separate to me so I'm counting it considering if I don't use it I could get rid of it.)
5. Twilight Saga book collection (I might get rid of this later since I have them on audio also, but haven't decided.)

I've been thinking more and more about how I really want to go about reducing my possessions to 100 things. I don't like the idea of counting each pair of shoes I own or each pair of jeans or tops, however I will go through and make a conscious effort to get rid of things I absolutely don't need. I think I will count shoes as one thing and clothes as one thing and leave it at that! I don't really know where to go from there however!

I do dabble in a little extreme couponing and have started a small stockpile of things. I definitely don't think I will count those items as they are compromised of food and hygiene products that are also meant to be for the household!

I think that there is definitely some more contemplating to be done and going-through to do! This is going to be a year long thing, so please stay tuned!

Have you ever thought about minimizing your life's possessions?

100 Things Challenge

Have you ever heard of the 100 Things Challenge? It started quite a few years ago, but a man named Dave Bruno decided to challenge himself to cut down his personal belonging to only 100 things in an effort to fight consumerism. It's since sparked a movement among many people to reduce their own belonging for a variety of reasons.

The idea of the challenge is to Reduce (get rid of some of your stuff), Refuse (to get more new stuff), and Rejigger (your priorities), as Dave puts it. Whether you are fighting the American style consumerism (like Dave), wanting to clean your life and live simpler (like me), or maybe even just want to get rid of useless clutter, the challenge can be a great thing. 

It isn't something that is set in stone with rigid rules to follow, it can be whatever fits your life. Perhaps you don't want to do 100 things, maybe something more or something less works better for you! Either way, here are some SIMPLE guidelines that the challenge is based from.

• You can only get rid of PERSONAL BELONGINGS. This doesn't include things that are shared within the family like dishes, furniture, or the television. Maybe if you're single and you want to count those things then that is up to you.
• Things that are a PAIR OR GROUP count as one item. A pair of shoes, a set of wrenches, a pack of pins each count as one item.  
• You can purchase new things in the future, but then you should get rid of something to STAY WITHIN YOUR 100 THINGS.

Now, like I said before, these are guidelines to get you to understand the principle of the 100 Things Challenge. You can modify it to fit your needs based on what works best for you. For example, many people think that their book collection counts only as one item since it's a collection of items. I've also heard of someone counting their entire shoe collection as one item even though they did pare down on the number of pairs they owned.

This is all up to you, just as the number of items you want to reduce to! I found an awesome list by mnmlist of the 50 things they've reduced to. If 100 things isn't enough of a challenge then a smaller number like 50 could do. If 100 seems like too few then perhaps a larger number like 150 or 200 is a good place to start.  Either way it's what works for you.

Minimizing My Things

I heard people talking about the 100 Things Challenge a couple of years ago and was always intrigued. It wasn't until recently moving back and forth that I quickly realized there was a lot in my life that I really could live without. I will admit that I've always struggled with getting rid of useful things, though I'm not a hoarder by any means (my husband will jokingly beg to differ).

After letting go of quite a few clothes, I'm now seeing that there are certainly other areas of my home that need to desperately be decluttered and organized. Now while I'm going to try to reduce my personal possessions down to around 100 items (as yet to be determined as I take stock in what I actually own), I do plan to declutter other areas of my home as well and get rid of things that I know my family doesn't need.

My daughter has a sippy cup collection that is beginning to spill out of the cupboards and an entire bin of toys that she doesn't even touch. Though I won't be counting these things in my personal challenge or created a numbered list for them, I do plan to tackle them head on none-the-less.  My goal is to completely declutter my home and clear my family's life of unnecessary stress.  My husband is in the Army and deploying soon and I would like for him to return to an organized home.

So the 100 Things Challenge is not something that happens overnight, it's more of a process. I plan on taking steps to get to my goal and blogging along the way. Take a look at some of these awesome posts I've found about how others have taken on the challenge for themselves.

• zenhabits- Minimalist Fun: The 100 Things Challenge
• Simpler Living- Taking The 100 Things Challenge
• Rowdy Kitten- Living with 72 Things

Oops I Did It Again

I changed my name once more! Is that really bad?  What's a girl to do?  So I decided that my my Etsy shop name, 7polkadots, just doesn't fit me anymore, so I set out to change that!  I picked a name that I felt was better for me and where I want to go with my business and so Two Little C's is born!

Two Little C's was inspired by my children, who's names both start with C's (as well as everyone else in my family)!  With most of my work being inspired by my children, what they like, what they do, it seemed a perfect fit to name my store after them.  I also like that it has a perfect mix of both fun and quirky feel without being overly childish or grown-up!  I really like it!

So now, I'm going to be re-redesigning the blog, LOL, and doing an entire relaunch of my Etsy shop!  I'm working on new product and getting everything in order to hopefully get the ball rolling in the right direction.  That also means a few (good) changes to the blog as well!  I'm going to be trying to focus my blogging more specifically on crochet/knitting and my business type things!  I know that by being all over the place with my banter can be confusing and off putting, and no one wants that now do we!

So I have some free patterns that I'm going to be putting up soon for some crochet afghan pieces!  I can't wait to share them with you!

Until next time, chao!

Grandmothers and Bunnies and Ballet, Oh My!

It's been a hectic time at the O. house and boy it's been fun!  My mother is in town for the week visiting and CiCi has been so excited about it!  We only get to see my mom maybe once or twice a year, so all the time we get is special.

So, lots has happened in the few days my mom has been here already.  CiCi has been asking lots and lots about taking a ballet class, so we signed her up!  It starts this Saturday.  I can't wait to be going to recitals and doing dance classes for years to come.  I used to dance when I was in high school and I strongly believe in extra curricular activities!  So we had to go buy CiCi some ballet shoes and we got her these!  Nothing fancy, just some shoes from Payless.

The biggest upset for us seems to be that we've gotten CiCi a bunny!  I know, it's been a bunch of new things for CiCi, but I really wanted it to.  I guess me wanting it was a good thing since I will have to take care of it the most and deal with CiCi's constant need to play with the poor thing.  Maybe CiCi is a little too small to have a bunny because she has been scaring the poor thing to death, but this is only the 3rd day she's had it so I'm hoping things will calm down really soon!  It's a cute little thing though, and we've named it Ruby, from the Nick Jr show Ruby and Max!  It's not all white like Ruby but it's one of CiCi's fave cartoons with a bunny in it! :)

She loves little Ruby all the same and I'm glad she has a little "friend" at home to play with.  She will hopefully learn a little from the rabbit and all will b e well! :)

-♥-

Chassity O.

XOXO

First Day of School

So my daughter, Cecilia aka CiCi, has started preschool.  I totally would have posted this earlier, but you know I had all that computer trouble around the same time! :(

So a little back story, I grew up in Germany.  My mother is full German and I spent my first 9 years or so in Germany.  Over there they have this awesome tradition for children and their first day of school.  It's called a Schultute!  Basically it's a decorated cone that's filled with candy and goodies so that they feel better about going to their first day of school, which can be filled with anxiety.

I absolutely love this tradition and had to do it for my own daughter, even though she was super excited about going to school! :)  I found this cute blog post with cute instructions on how to do it, but I'm also going to show you what I did!

What You'll Need:

• Poster Board

• Wrapping Paper or other decorations

• Scissors

• Hot Glue and/or good glue stick

• Tissue Paper or Fabric

• String

• Fillers (like candy, school supplies, etc.)

First you'll need to cut your poster board so that it can become a cone.  How large you want it is up to you, but I made mine pretty large because I had some big items.  Place your poster vertically in front of you to measure it out. To get the rounded edge I used a string and a pencil.  I held one end of the string in my right hand with a pencil and placed it at the bottom right hand corner you see in the photo. I pulled the other end of the string out to the bottom left hand corner of the poster in the photo.  Holding the string tight, I keep the left hand in the corner and draw my pencil up and around to the upper left side of the poster, like in the photo.  Then cute along this line to get the final product.

I then used my poster to trace my wrapping paper and cut it out as well.  Using a glue stick or hot glue, glue the wrapping paper down to the poster.

Use your hot glue to glue the two long edges together.  You might need some extra hands or a clip to help hold it in place while you glue.  Make sure it's holding together really well because you don't want it to come apart when you put your goodies inside.

Glue your tissue paper or fabric to the top.  To make sure it goes all around nicely, you'll want to overlap it and bunch it up.  This makes it easy for the kids to open and get inside, as well as not ripping any tissue paper used.  

You could take the decorating one step further and put ribbon around the top edge, maybe make the cone look like your child's favorite character, or put their name on it with pretty craft letters.  The possibilities are endless.  Next year I really want to make another one for my daughter and then I will probably make it into a character.

So, now you fill it with goodies.  I filled mine with lots of candy, as well as a coloring book, stickers, number magnets, number flash cards, light up bracelets, and hair-ties.  Traditionally it's filled with all candy, but you can fill it with whatever you like, even all school supplies.

My daughter loved it.  (Sorry for the blurry pic, but I had a hard time getting my daughter to be still, LOL!)

So, hopefully you can use this, but I'm sure many kids already started school, so maybe next year?  I plan on making one of these for my daughter for a few more years, though they will be smaller and smaller, hehe!  I hope you like this post! ;)

Computer Trouble

Man o man, I must say that my computer is giving me so much trouble that I'm finally breaking down and taking it to in to get fixed! So I regretfully say that my poor computer will be gone for a few days and I won't be able to post much, though I probably could post a few things from my iPod Touch like I am now! ;) So, until I get my computer back, I hope you guys have fun!

Some New Hooks

I'm so excited, well mostly excited anyway! I was finally able to replace a couple of my crochet hooks that met unfortunate accidents! You see, two of my main hooks that I use to make EVERYTHING were lost a broken respectively!

My all time favorite G hook, which I've dubbed my go-to-hook whenever I make something basic, was lost by my daughter who decided to snag it from my little craft area! It's been weeks and I haven't found it anywhere! I've looked in my daughter's room, her play kitchen (where it was spotted last), her toys, and everywhere in between! I finally just decided to get a new one!

Now, for most of my amigurumi toys and such, I always use my E hook. Now, the bad thing about my E hook and using it for ami's is that sometimes you have to pull and push hard to get the hook within the tightly crocheted stitches. I prefer metal hooks and have never been able to splurge on one with an awesome rubber grip, which I REALLY wanna do someday soon, but gripping them tightly and working on such small tightly crocheted pieces makes them wanna bend. I of course feel the need to always bend it back. Are you starting to get the idea yet? For those of you who aren't, hehe, the constant bending back and forth gave it a small crack which later turned out to be a whopping break! Imagine my dismay when it snapped in the middle of one of my projects! :(

So, I've finally been able to replace my lost precious G and broken E with new ones! The G is even the same color as my lost one! :D I had a few work-in-progress pieces that are definitely gonna get finished now that I have my new hooks! See my excitement now!

Don't you just hate it when you're main working pieces break or get ruined? Feel free to tell me about something that you've lost or broken in the middle of a project in the comments section! :D

ABC's of Me

So I was blog hopping, something I like to do, and found out about a cute little blog called Sassy Sippy Cups and Sticky Sarcasm. It's a personal journal style blog and I kinda like what she posts about! Anywho, she had a cute post there about herself from A-Z and I wanted to do the same! It will help everyone get to know me a little and so forth so why not, besides, I LOVE useless questionaires, LOL! So here we go!!!

Age: 28

Bed Size: We just got a brand new King size and I LOVE it!

Chore You Hate: All of it! I mostly hate putting away clothes, LOL!

Dogs: I love dogs! Right now we have a little MinPin/Poodle mix, but soon she's going to go live with my Mom!

Essential Start Of Your Day: I have to check my email! If I don't I get antsy and aggravated because I get sooooooo much mail that it will get crowded!

Favorite Color: I have a few... purple, white, black.

Gold or Silver: White gold, LOL, best of both worlds!

Height: 5'6" (but the docs say I'm 5'5.5", shhhh don't tell!)

Instruments I Play, (Or Have Played): In middle school I played the alto sax, and then the bells

Job Title: MOM and WIFE, that says it all!

Kids: daughter Cecilia (turning 4 next week), son Cassiel (4 months)

Live: This Army Post in Colorado

Mom's Name: Cornelia, but everyone calls her Connie ;)

Nicknames: Chass, Mom, Babe, Hun.....

Overnight Hospital Stays: Well I had a c-section with each of my kids. I also had to stay overnight while pregnant with my daughter for the stomach flu and dehydration.

Pet Peeve: Oh wow, I have lots! Um, lets see! I hate when people take too long for no reason. I hate being late, especially when someone makes me late because they took to long! I don't like when people ask a question just so they don't have to try to figure it out for themselves, drives me nuts! I could go on but I won't, LOL!

Quote From a Movie: Oh wow, um ok I guess I'm gonna say it! "I had an adrenaline rush, it's very common, you can Google it!" from Twilight, LMAO! And "My father is part of the CIA and he;ll have you dead in minutes!" from Girl Interupted.

Right or Left Handed: Right handed

Siblings: I have two younger sisters, Courtney and Colby

Time You Wake Up: Right now it's somewhere around 10am or so, depending on when the munchkin wakes up!

Underwear: LMAO, Under There ------>

Vegtables You Dislike: I don't care for squash, zucchini, or eggplant

What Makes You Run Late: kids, LOL

Xrays You've Had Done: Lots, the ones I remember are for my hands (carpal tunnel) and for my ankle in high school when I sprained it!

Yummy Food You Make: My new faves is my turkey meat loaf and sweet potato chips!

Zoo Animal: I used to love the Elephants, but since moving here to Colorado Springs, at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo you can feed the Giraffes, so it's my new fave!!!

Are you going to post this to your blog? Leave me a link so I can see what you wrote!!!

New Design

So I have once again redesigned my blog and I must say, I really like the way it has turned out! It's nice, simple, clean, and easy on the eyes! I'm still putting everything together and making everything just right so bare with me here as I get it all together!

Bringing Etsy Back...

Ok, so I can't really bring Etsy back since Etsy itself hasn't gone anywhere, but I'm trying to bring my own Etsy shop back to an Open status, LOL! Having a baby has brought on so much work now that I have two kids but I finally feel like it's coming to a place where I can really crochet again, if my daughter would stealing all of my work, haha! But I really mis crocheting and knitting so I've been working hard to get there.

So I've made an executive decision to bring back the cupcake babies! I know I made and listed a different sort of cupcake baby before with wooden peg dolls, but this time I'm bringing back the crocheted originals. I think they are much cuter and what's better than that? I have decided to make some additions to the whole shebang though by adding a fabric lining to the bag, sprinkles for everyone, and more details on the baby and blanket! It's going to be a very cute upgrade! Cupcake Baby 2.0, LOL! I'm working on them right now and figuring out how I'm going to add the new features, so when I finish then I'll be posting here first!!!

I swear, this time I'm really going to try to post more, HONESTLY! ;)

Yarn Yarn Yarn

Today I spent a good portion of the day pulling out what yarn I had left from our shed. I hadn't crocheted in so long due to my carpal tunnel and I had even given away a good portion of what I had. After pulling out what I thought would be a few skeins I realized I had much more than I thought. I am glad that I'll some yarn to produce and some to use for pattern testing, but man I wasn't expecting it be this much. I really plan on getting away from my love for acrylic and going a more natural route with cotton and maybe even wool (if I can find a brand I'm satisfied with). Until then I will continue to create with what I have in order to offer customers a more affordable alternative. So I'm gonna get started on a few progects and we'll see if I can't update you guys without giving away too much! :D