Nic.Crafty

  Happy (almost) Spring! The ground is thawing, the first flowers are starting to pop up, and the Asian Lady Beetles are finding their way into my apartment! Not to be confused with our native Ladybugs, Harmonia axyridis are their smelly, more aggressive cousins. Last weekend, we may have lost an hour to Daylight Savings, but my Anxiety and ADHD combined their forces like a messed-up episode of Captain Planet. Their mission? To ensure I would learn every possible fact about this "fun" little beetle in a single Sunday morning! Fun Facts: Asian Lady Beetles were introduced by the USDA several times between 1916 and 1983 to help control Aphids. Great Job Tax Dollars!  Their favorite snack is the Soybean Aphid, another invasive species that helps keep their population booming. They LOVE warm homes and will throw "beetle parties," inviting thousands of their friends into your walls. When they get scared, they ooze a yellow, foul-smelling fluid (reflex bleeding). It can s...

 Other than a recent repost to remove a photo, it has been over a decade since I last posted here. I’m not even sure where to begin. I look back at these old posts fondly, but they don't necessarily represent the person I am today. I wanted to share an update before diving back into my crafts. ​About a decade ago, I pulled the Temperance card from a tarot deck during a meditation. I wasn’t trying to predict the future or anything that serious; I was just considering new ideas and opening myself up to whatever the universe had for me. ​What I didn’t realize was that the universe had a forge—and like steel, I was about to be tempered. The fire began with a whirlwind romance that pulled me out of New York City and back to the suburbs. Then came motherhood, with all its beautiful ups and downs. ​Crochet was the first craft to really hook me, but I soon grew to embrace others. A Cricut was instrumental in decorating a beautiful beach wedding, and a sewing machine helped me create a vala...

It has been a VERY long time since I have posted anything. While taking a break from blogging , I made two simple granny square blankets, for my favorite niece and nephew. Kai's is a simple blue granny square with a triangle hood . I just kept making the square bigger until it was the size that I wanted. Annalise's blanket is also made with granny squares. I decided what I wanted it to look like on graph paper so that I would know how many granny squares to make. It looks fancier, but it is still just a regular granny square blanket. You can learn how to make your own granny squares from this tutorial (coming soon).