Gold Farm Animal Magnets

This craft wasn't so much a "fail" as it was almost an "incomplete". I decided to try the "Party Animal Magnet" craft on a rainy Sunday and it turned out to be more of a challenge and an effort than I thought. You can find a tutorial here on SugarAndCloth.com, however, it's a pretty straight forward concept:
1. Cut animal in 1/2
2. Paint gold
3. Apply magnet
UNLESS, you purchase solid plastic farm animals instead of the hollow ones. If that is the case, you will have an hour long battle on your hands.
If this is you, do yourself a favor and find a saw because scissors, steak knives, bread knives and butcher knives wont cut it (pun intended). 

Running the animal under hot water for a few minutes + extreme force ended up doing the trick. Even though I purchased three farm animals, I stopped here because I didn't feel like struggling with the other two (which were much more thick than this one). You also may need several coats of gold paint as most brands seem to be semi-transparent.

 On a final note: buy strong magnets. My bunny halves will not even hold a piece of thin paper (but they look nice! kinda...)

Octopus or...

Sometimes, I like to pretend that I know how to crochet. I mean, I know the basics and can do ok as long as I am making some variation of a quadrilateral shape. Often, though, I over estimate my skills. Such was the case when I decided I was going to make a crocheted octopus similar to the one below:

 

 

I followed the free pattern here (posted on Squidoo) and gave it a shot.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here is the GORGEOUS "octopus" I ended up with:

Wamp wamp.
The result here was mostly due to mediocre skills and failing to follow instructions/count stitches. A few adult beverages may also have been the problem.
I did try this again a few days later and got much better results:

So, unlike Ikea furniture, following the instructions actually helps with this one. 

Sea Anemone

This holiday season, I thought I would get crafty and make pom poms to top my gifts.  I pinned a tutorial months prior and came to find out the link to the tutorial was dead. The image was pretty descriptive, however, and I thought it would be easy enough for me to just wing it without written instructions (see image below).

So I gave it a shot, and this is what I ended up with:

Obviously, I wasn't using enough yarn even though the bundle I created looked like the picture in the instructions. My pom pom looks like a cross between a sea anemone and a Muppet Baby. I did later find this blog, by Elisa Mclaughlin Designs, where a much more clear description is given. Had I followed her instructions, I'm sure my pom pom would have been less sad looking.
I decided pom poms were too much work and my gifts got dollar store bows instead this year.
:)