Hat #2: Basic Ribbed Crochet Hat

Geez, I feel like I'm going to end up making 30 hats before Christmas.

THAT'S IT. I'M JUST GONNA MAKE 30 HATS BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

New challenge. That's good, I like challenges. And I have a WHOLE bunch of yarn scraps to use up. 

Click "Read More" to find out how I did this. It's not really a pattern, but more like a formula. This was fun and quick and I'll probably do more like this before the challenge is over. :)

Hat #1: Three-Hour Ribbed Knit Hat

Ahhh, November is here. I'll be honest - I kind of hate November. It's not so much that bad things happen in November. Thanksgiving is awesome, and I have some good friends who have birthdays during this month, but overall it just has always been kind of a blah month for me. Too far from Christmas to start getting excited, and Halloween and the excitement of fall starting have already passed. It's one of those awful "in between" months where it's just kind of cold and nasty outside.

Fortunately, cold and nasty outside means I get to knit!

I haven't actually picked up a pair of knitting needles in a long time. I used to knit feverishly, constantly, effortlessly, every day. I knit while watching TV. I knit before bed. I knit while stopped in traffic (not really because that's DANGEROUS). But lately? I don't know. I lost some of the fire. I wanted to get it back.

No better way than to get it back by knitting up my quick-and-easy almost-always-improvised knit hat - a perfect celebration of impending winter (eww) and my hopeful foray back into the world of the great and powerful fiber arts!

I wrote a (kind of) tutorial for this post. Click "Read More" for that tutorial and some other fun stuff!

The Hell Family's Halloween Costumes!

Happy Halloween! (FINALLY!)

We have been a BUSY Handmade Hell family this week. I don't know how the month got away from me already, but I found that my kids were essentially COSTUME-LESS as of the beginning of this week.

GOD NO!

Any good crafty mom worth her salt would DIE before allowing such a travesty to befall her offspring! The vicious side of my maternal instincts kicked into high gear and I spent hours...and hours...and hours planning, cutting, re-cutting, gluing, sewing, and assembling these costumes.

I even managed to throw one together for myself. :)

Click Read More for full pictures and some fun mini-tutorials!

Adventures in Baking Week 5: Monster Peanut Butter Cookies!

Happy Halloween everybody!!!

Okay it's not Halloween yet. But in thinking about the logistics of postings today and tomorrow, I've realized that it'll be best for me to post my final Adventures in Fall Baking experiment one day early, since tomorrow will be COSTUME DAY!!!

That's right, I've been painstakingly working on costumes for myself and my two kids for the last week and I am exhausted! Those will be up tomorrow, complete with amazing face and body paint. We've never gone all out like this before. It's going to be a disaster great time!

Meanwhile, I totes ganked this idea from a pin I found recently:

Lilluna, I think I love you. :)

Read More to see how this experiment went...

Acorn Squash Lasagna

October is almost over! :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

But that means that Halloween is almost here! :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Since I recently discovered (two days ago) that I was going to have the kids for Halloween this year instead of sending them to their dad's, I have been frantically throwing together the costumes I'd been thinking about for weeks, but not actually making. Yesterday was a 12-hour-solid day of crafting, sewing, painting, researching, running to the big box store, wig-styling...ugh. It's amazing what we can do when we go into a project thinking "I literally have no choice but to make this work."

So I don't have anything to show you yet because I'm planning to show off the costumes tomorrow. But! In the meantime! I made a pretty tasty lasagna that I'd love to share with you. :)

Click "Read More" for some truly glorious photos and the recipe...