Easter Colouring Pages

Today, in honor of Easter we are sharing the free colouring pages from Crayola! Crayola offers a huge number of cute little colouring pages for children and adults! They also have special occasion colouring pages like for Easter. They also offer DIY Craft ideas and are a great resource for teachers, Homeschooling parents or parents that just want to find fun activities for their children. 

Freebie Friday - Mermaid Blanket

This week for Freebie Friday we are sharing a post from The Crochet Crowd. This pattern for the Mermaid Blanket has become very popular lately and makes a great gift for kids and adults. They even have alternatives for boys if they would like something else (like sharks) or other options like ice cream cones or pizza slices. 

Tips, Tricks, and Tutorial Thursday - Why Cakes Fail

For today's Tips, Tricks and Tutorial Thursday comes from Tipnut (we found it on Buzzfeed) and it shows the most common reasons why cakes fail.

Movie Madness: February

February had many good movie releases from 15:17 to Paris to Marvel's Black Panther. Today, we will take a look into 5 movies from February and how they did in the box office.

 The 15:17 to Paris | Studio: Warner Brothers Studios. | Director: Clint Eastwood

Story line from  MovieInsider.com:

In August 2015, ISIS terrorist Ayoub El-Khazzani boards train from Brussels to Paris. El-Khazzani is armed with an AK-47 and enough ammo to kill more than 500 people, but three American friends refuse to give in to fear. Together, they avert a mass tragedy. 

Opening Domestic Box Office: $12,554,286

Fifty Shades Freed | Studio Universal Pictures | Director: James Foley

Storyline from MovieInsider.com:

Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins.

Opening Domestic Box Office: $38,560,195

Peter Rabbit | Studio: Sony Pictures | Director: Will Gluck

Storyline from MovieInsider.com:

Peter Rabbit, the mischievous and adventurous hero who has captivated generations of readers, now takes on the starring role of his own irreverent, contemporary comedy with attitude. In the film, Peter's feud with Mr. McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) escalates to greater heights than ever before as they rival for the affections of the warm-hearted animal lover who lives next door (Rose Byrne). James Corden voices the character of Peter with playful spirit and wild charm, with Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Daisy Ridley performing the voice roles of the triplets, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. 

Opening Domestic Box Office: $25,010,928

Annihilation | Studio: Paramount Pictures | Director: Alex Garland

Storyline from MovieInsider.com:

In seeking answers to her husband’s tragic disappearance, a biologist volunteers for an expedition into an area sealed off by the government for the last 30 years as an environmental disaster zone. A secret agency known as the Southern Reach has sent in 11 expeditions over those years to discover the truth about Area X, and those attempts were failures. She and her team find a pristine wilderness, but they also notice quickly that the rules of nature and evolution seem to work a little differently. And the creature they find is dangerous

Opening Domestic Box Office: $11,071,584

Black Panther | Studio: Marvel Studios | Director: Ryan Coogler

Storyline from MovieInsider.com:

Chadwick Boseman will play T’Challa, the prince of the African nation of Wakanda, who must take over the throne after his father’s murder. 

Opening Domestic Box Office: $202,003,951

Box Office Results from :boxofficemojo.com

Wednesday Review - Plastic Needles

When I started creating graphgans I didn't realize just how many ends or tails you have to sew in when you are done! (Yes, I wait until the end to sew in all my tails, just in case.) I didn't have much experience with sewing or needles at that time and even know I poke my finger a lot with a regular needle. Also, I find regular needles get hard on the hands. There are pluses and minuses to having plastic needles and regular needles. The minuses with regular needles is that they hurt if you miss and poke yourself with them. The plastic needles have blunt ends so they won't hurt and they are safer. But there is a trade-off. With plastic needles, they are larger sometimes and they don't glide as well as a normal needle does.  

Geometric Design - CAL - Week 12

This picture didn't scan too well but it looks oddly "artistic" to me this way, like water colours or something. For this picture I used markers and pencils (you can see the darker colours are the markers and the faded ones are the pencil). I used the same colour in each and just used them together because the marker and pencil look different. I also added a little purple to the border around the squares. I enjoyed this one a lot also, I enjoy lines and squares more then circles and just random patterns. 

This next page looks like action bubbles from a comic book. Or like fireworks going off on top of diamonds! Keeping this in mind, I wanted the front ground to stand out more than the back ground.

Italian Stuffed Pasta

This week we are going to talk about a Thrown Together meal. This is basically when you take different things and just throw them together to make a delicious meal with little to no effort. This week we are going to make an Italian Stuffed Pasta.

What you'll need:
Tortellini
Pasta Sauce
Parmesan Cheese
Italian Sausages

Step one:
Start by boiling the tortellini (we used three cheese tortellini whichever you like is fine). While the pasta is boiling, slice and chop five Italian sausages (we used the pre-cooked Italian sausages, you can use ground sausage too if you prefer).

Even though we used pre-cooked sausages we pan fried them to get the flavours out and get them crisp.

Once the sausage and pasta are done (and drained), we threw everything into the pot along with a rose pasta sauce.

Mix well and make sure everything is coated in sauce. Add cheese and mix or serve with cheese on top!

Book Club - Chapter 11

The eleventh chapter was kind of slow and drawn out. This chapter's main purpose was to show the doctor talking to Cinder and informing her that there is something special about her body. He also informs her that she may hold the cure to the outbreaks. 

We get to see a more humane side of the doctor when he makes a deal with Cinder. She is precious to his research and he needs her. And though Cinder thinks long and hard about trying to leave. She loves Peony too much to leave, but she does make her demands. By the end of this chapter, the doctor agrees that Cinder is a volunteer meaning she can leave whenever she wants, and she wants to get paid.

1) What similarities to Cinderella do you see? 

2) Do you think Cinder is doing the right thing?

3) Do you think Dr. Erland will keep his word?

4) What do you think this means for his research?

The Crocheter's Guide to Troubleshooting Patterns by Andrea's Notebook

Today we are sharing what is being called a Crocheter's Cheat Sheet! This is from Andrea's Notebook.com. She offers many great cheats for crocheters and this is one of them!

Freebie Friday - Tunisian Simple Shakers Dishcloths

For this Freebie Friday we are sharing a pattern with you called Tunisian Crochet Shaker by Staci from Very Pink. You can find this pattern on Ravelry, and a tutorial on Youtube.

This pattern was super simple to make, it works using the Tunisian Simple Stitch and fallows the same pattern all around. Once you get the hang of it you don't even need to follow the pattern. 

You can find the knitted version is also available on Youtube.

Freebie Fridays - Battleship

This game is called Battleship. It is a single person version of the classic game. There are ten ships in this game. One with four parts, two with three parts, three with two parts and four with one part. This is important to keep in mind when playing. (Each game will have a legend so you can keep track.) Any square with no boat piece in will be water. 

Along two sides of the grid we give you numbers. This represents the number of boat PIECES that are in that row or column. Keep this in mind, it will also help you fill in the squares. All squares around a ship are water. This means for example: If you place a two piece ship  < > the two squares above and below are water and the three on each side are water also (creating a box around the ship). 

Here is the second battleship puzzle, enjoy!

Free Easter Crochet Patterns by The Lavender Chair

This week for Freebie Friday we are sharing the link to The Lavender Chair's Free Easter Crochet Patterns List! I have to admit last time I shared one of their lists it let me down, some of the links didn't actually go to patterns just pictures and it was a bit disappointing. But these all seem to go to a pattern and they all seem very cute, easy and very appropriate for Easter in a few weeks! 

Tips, Tricks and Tutorial Thursday - How to Clean Fruit

For today's Tips, Tricks and Tutorial Thursday comes from social media again, it has been floating around Facebook for a while and it is a great tip about how to clean fruits and vegetables without having to worry if just plain water is actually doing the trick!

Tips, Tricks and Tutorial Thursday - How to make the Tunisian Simple Stitch (Crochet)

For today's Tips, Tricks and Tutorial Thursday we are going to talk about the Tunisian Simple Stitch. Tunisian crocheting is a different type of crocheting that uses the basic crocheting skills and works somewhat like knitting would.

To do Tunisian crochet you need a special hook. These hooks come in different sizes and styles. Some are just really long crochet hooks with a tapered end so the stitches don't fall off, others look like normal crochet hooks with long wires at the end. Either one should work the same as the other.

The first project I did using this stitch was a wash cloth. With a washcloth, I only used 26 stitches so it was small enough to use just a regular crochet hook (they were a little cramped but it worked fine for me).Like regular crochet sometimes it is hard to find the last stitch, so it is very important to keep count and remember to work all the way to the end of that stitch. It is sometimes hard to work into the last chain. Keep in mind the last "loop" will be doubled and it would look like part of the "chain".

Also, something to remember with TSS, is that there is no turning your work, you have to work one way and back to count as one row. (To help me learn how to do this style of crochet I watched this youtube video).

Starting a Tunisian Project:

Any Tunisian project starts the same way a normal crochet project starts, with the chain. For this washcloth, the starting chain was 26. As with regular crochet for the TSS, you want to skip the first stitch and work into the second from the hook. Next, you will start the same way as you would a normal single crochet, but do not finish it. Once you have pulled a loop onto your hook, go to the next stitch and repeat.

Once you have all the stitches on your hook, you will have to pull through them to get back to the end you started at. (You always start at the same end, and never chain before starting.) To pull through you want to yarn over and pull through the first stitch. This is the only time you will pull through one stitch on your hook. The rest of the stitches you will yarn over and pull through two, all the way to the end.

This is what one row should look like when you are done. As you can see this process results in "ribs" or bars running across the row. This is the stitches, and where you will work into. Make sure to skip the first stitch (you can see the hook is touching the stitch to skip in this photo), and work the rest. Continue this until you have the length you desire. (Usually, I stitch to 26 by 26 but 28 x 28 is a good size also.)

Finishing a Tunisian Project:
To finish a TSS project, you will work into the stitches the same way you did before. This time however you will slip stitch and always keep ONLY one stitch on the hook. At the end of the row, once you have done the last slip stitch you pull the end through the way you would a normal crochet project.

Streamer Talk: Dealing with Trolls

Every streamer, blogger, vlogger,  etc. at some point in their career will come across the dreaded trolls. Simply put, trolls exist to cause chaos by attacking the artist or community by filling the chat room or comment sections with hateful, abusive, or generally off-topic comments. The feed off of reactions of the streamer or community and receive joy from the anger of others.

The way to dealing with trolls in simple; don't react. When streaming on Twitch and a troll enters the room, I simply block their messages (timeout/purge) and ban them without saying a word. The second you react and respond a troll, they win. The same goes for any other website; delete the comments and move on. Encourage your community to do the same. If you choose to, you can also to choose to take it a step further and report them to the site administrator if they violate the website terms of service.

K & Company Diecut Mat Pad

These aren't needed but they could add a nice border to a picture and spice up a plain page. They would fit a 4 x 6 photo comfortably or smaller if you want to show off more of the mat. They are double sided and come three the same so you can use both sides if you want. This is a great option because if you don't like the colour of one side you can use the other side. They are very nice and the colours are a little dark but I don't think many people will find they dislike both sides. I paid $6.99 (CAN) for them plus free shipping with orders over $25 (CAN) through amazon.

K & Company Diecut Mat Pad

Wednesday Review - EK Success Brand Decorative Stickers

We are back to talking about scrapbooking stuff, again more stickers. These are wedding themed stickers and they cover the basics. They are a little expensive especially since it is only one page of stickers for $5.37 (CAN) but they do ship for free. They do cover most things you would need for a wedding book. So if you are looking for a few other stickers to add to your collection these would be good to have. They are pretty plain but most wedding themes should be so the pictures can be the start instead of the page or stickers. 

Wednesday Review - Bamboo Tunisian Hooks

Tunisian is a different style or type of crocheting so the hooks are a little different. If you have a small Tunisian project you can use a regular hook but for larger projects you need these special hooks. Again, hooks come in different materials, in this case they are plastic. We encourage you to buy these just to test out Tunisian first and then if you like them invest in more expensive sets if need be. Currently they sell for $2.99 (USD) which is a great price and they ship for free. 

The best advice I can give with any wooden hooks is to oil them before you use them. Sometimes the wood is rough and doesn't always glide as well as it should and oil helps with that. I used regular vegetable oil, any oil you have should be fine (making sure to wipe off excess oil). 

Geometric Designs - CAL - Week 11

For this picture I used crayons, pencils and markers and I tried to stick with reds and things that went with red. As you can see I used a little yellow to stand out and a little purple to do the same. I have no idea what these things are or suppose to be so I just went with whatever colours I wanted.

In the background of this photo the design made me think of waves. So I wanted to stick with some blues and I felt like purple went really well with them. I stuck with mixing for this page also using pencils and markers.