My Awesome Deal

One day not too long ago I fell in love with this purse I found on Pinterest.  I soon found out that it had already been auctioned off on eBay.  I was crushed! Yes that's right, crushed!  I can get that way about accessories, just like any other girl out there LOL So I pouted for awhile, but realized even if it hadn't been auctioned off yet, I still wouldn't have been able to afford it...nor would I want to spend that much on a purse even if I did have the money!!  The purse I fell in love with was Coach...and by what I could see, went for $860 on an eBay auction!  Yikes, right!!!  As most of you know, I'm a thrifty kinda gal!  And proud of it! So I've been on the hunt for a purse that was similar in style and color, but at a reasonable purchase price.  The color, of course, is my favorite color....TURQUOISE! I pretty much love anything turquoise, I admit it.  Anyways, its been months now and I hadn't come across anything that looked like the picture I had seen of the purse.  Until two days ago!!!  I had to make a quick stop at our new Ross that just opened up in town.  I was there to make a return but decided to take a quick peek around to see what treasure I could find...and sure enough, I found a treasure!!!  I found a very similar (of course not identical) purse to the one I had seen months ago on Pinterest.  And guess what?  IT WAS CHEAP!!!  That's right, I found it at a steal of a deal!!!  The original retail price for this Steve Madden purse was $108, but because everything is cheaper at Ross I got it for $39.99!!!  Now tell me I didn't get an awesome deal!!  HA!  I'm so excited!!!!  I'm telling you, my friends, its feels great to find that smash deal!!

Nailed It!

So I'm addicted to Pinterest...and I know I'm not alone in this!  I'm quite sure that you are obsessed with it too!  Come on, don't kid yourself...you know you are!  Anyway, I saw on there that someone had the fabulous idea to take a mason jar and make it into a to-go cup (or what I like to call a "fun cup").  So I HAD to make one myself!  And I'm pretty sure that I NAILED IT! 

Everything is better with Leopard!!!

Valentine's Treats

I just love the girls I work with!  They are the sweetest things! 

Today we decided to celebrate a day early for Valentine's Day with yummy treats,

 and I decided to make something a lil special for them. 

Its gonna be a goooooooooooood day! 

a SWEET and YUMMY day too!!!

Time Flies...

Time flies when you’re working! LOL!

Yes I’m a full-time working girl again. I got a job that started on Jan 31st – it was a temp job that was to last only a week and a half, but they like me and asked me to stay on. Pretty exciting! However, that put a little damper on my “Crochet-a-Day” project because I don’t have nearly as much time to work on projects. But it’s not stopping me! Every day I still work on something, even if I don’t complete a whole item in one night. I have to admit though that some nights I might just do about 5 stitches so that I make sure I at least do some time of crocheting that day. Sorry, but it’s better than nothing right?! My projects have gotten a bit smaller since the job started, but hopefully once I get back in a working groove I can figure out some better things to make and manage my time better. I’ve also been a slacker on posting photos of what I’ve made…I will catch up, I promise! In the meantime, what projects have YOU been working on?

Mardi Gras

I just love holidays...This time it was Mardi Gras!

My new boss is super sweet! She was leaving on a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and before she left she brought in a bunch of beads for us, as well as bracelets and little keychains, for the holiday. She wanted us to have some fun that day, while she was gone having fun. So I decided to bake some yummy cupcakes to add to the celebration.

Did you know that Mardi Gras is also known as “Fat Tuesday”…LOL!! Well, you can’t go wrong with chocolate on a day like that!!

Mardi Gras Cupcake = Devils Food Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting…and the Mardi Gras traditional colors of purple, green, and gold sprinkles.

When my boss returned from her trip, she didn’t arrive empty handed. She brought each of us a cute little souvenir from her celebration down south. We each hung them in our cubes at the office.

Hope you too had a nice holiday!!

Super Bowl Crochet

So its Super Bowl Sunday...an exciting day for so many! Giants vs. Patriots (Go Patriots!), delicious homemade chili (made by yours truly), awesome corn bread, lil smokies, veggies, meats & cheeses...and great friends! A fun day all around!

As you already know, I have to crochet something every day this whole year of 2012. So today, I made something that went along with the football theme of the day....

A FOOTBALL BEANIE!
(with a fun poof-ball on top)

I was hoping to get it done before the game started, but no luck. It took me longer than I thought. But it was done by half-time and then I wore it thru the rest of the exciting game. Sad that the Patriots lost, but it was a good game. Its always nice watching sports when there's cute guys playing! LOL :)

My Blogsite Navigation

To my Fans-n-Friends of The Clever Corner...

Thank you so much for the support of my lil business. I hope that you enjoy reading my blog, as well as the items I've been making. I have enjoyed creating little items to sell on Etsy, as well as working on my cupcake catering business. I try to post things on my blog as often as possible to keep you all updated. If you leave any comments, please feel free to give me more craft ideas...things that you would be interested in purchasing. I will try to make it special for you! :) My business is custom work, I want you all to get something that you really want! So your input is welcomed.

PAGES: I have updated The Clever Corner's Blogsite a bit, including adding some new pages to make this more of a website instead of just a blog. If you look under The Clever Corner header you will see a few tabs including About The Clever Corner, Blog, Cupcake Catering, Crochet-A-Day, and Contact. I will be adding to these as I go along. I will try to keep them updated with photos, upcoming events, things for sale, etc. So don't forget to visit all the pages often.

FOLLOW: Also on this site is a Followers section (top right). If you click on the "join this site" button, you will be listed as a Follower of The Clever Corner's blogsite and will be notified when I post new blogs...so be sure to join so you don't miss out on any news! :) Its nice for me to see who enjoys this blog too, so please join.

LINKS: To the right of the screen scrolling down a ways, you will see a couple links that will lead you to my other blogs. I have a personal blog called Jody's Journey about my Life, Stories, and Adventures. If you're interested, feel free to read up on my little posts. Some are more interesting than others, but that's life right?! LOL! I also have a photography blog. Honestly, I haven't posted on there in a long time. I broke my camera lens months ago and haven't replaced it. So you can check out JV Photo and see my past blogs...and hopefully when I replace my lens, get a computer with good editing software (I'm borrowing a computer at the moment), and start taking photos again, then I will have more blogs to post on there. I also have a website www.theclevercorner.net that I started awhile ago. It hasn't been updated in a long time, I'm usually just on this site now, that's why I'm trying to improve it...but feel free to check that out as well. Oh, one more...check out The Clever Corner on Facebook!

ARCHIVES: Also to the right of the screen scrolling down a ways, you will see where it says Blog Archives. There are dates listed and if you click on the year it will list the blogs I have posted in the past. I find its fun to go back and re-read posts from times past, maybe you will too. If not, NO WORRIES! LOL :)

Anyway, I just wanted to help you navigate through my updated blog/website. Updates will happen often, so don't forget to visit The Clever Corner!

So, I'll see you soon then.

Crochet-A-Day 2012

First things first...

HaPpY NeW YeAr!

I hope you all had a very safe and fun holiday weekend! I spent the weekend with my family and we had a good time just chillin, watching football, eating goodies, playing with the dogs, playing with my sweet lil nephew Parker, and I had fun crocheting!

Anyway, its a new year! And with a new year comes new ideas, hopes, dreams, goals, resolutions, projects, crafts, etc. I decided that I'm going to do...

"Crochet-a-Day 2012"

So yesterday, being the first day of 2012, I decided to be productive while the fam was watching football and crochet something. I had already spent many hours over the weekend making cupcake coffee cozies to sell,


and after about a dozen or so of them I needed to think of something else to make. So I googled a free crochet pattern and got to work. Honestly, I didn't know how to read some of the pattern, it was different lingo than what I'm used to...so I improvised and made up some of it on my own as I went along. After awhile, I had a new pair of fingerless gloves!


Today, as the fam was hanging out watching The Lord of The Rings Trilogy (awesome movies!!) I decided to come up with my own pattern for fingerless gloves and make them extra cute...something that fits my personality and what I love...so I wrote my own pattern, and crocheted these super adorable and scrumptious cupcake gloves!


I'm pretty sure these are my new favorite accessory! And if people take an interest in them, I would love to make more and sell these as well. So be on the lookout at my Etsy shop for fun new listings!

The Clever Corner's Etsy Shop
www.etsy.com/shop/theclevercorner

Two days down of 2012, with two "Crochet-A-Day" projects done. I'm looking forward to coming up with some new ideas in the days to come! If you have any ideas for me, leave a comment! And if you're interested in buying any crocheted cupcake cozies, or cupcake gloves PLEASE let me know!

Christmas Clothesline

What do you do when you recieve all your lovely Christmas cards in the mail? Do you hang them up, leave them stacked up somewhere, shove them in a drawer, display them on your fireplace mantel?...what do you like to do? Well, I usually hang ALL of my cards on my front door (inside of course) so that I can see them and enjoy the love that was shared with me each time I go in and out of the house. This year, since I'm in limbo and don't have my own place, I decided to hang the photocards I received in my bedroom. I wanted to do something a little different than anything I've done before, so I hung a small rope across the wall (using tacs so as to not put big holes in the wall) and used clothespins to hang the photos. I added a few snowflakes to bring a little more holiday decor to it...and there you have it! A sweet little Christmas clothesline for my sweet friends! What do you think? Its super economical, and super easy, and super cute (I think anyways).

Christmas Crafties

While mom was cooking our Christmas dinner, my step-sister Kae, step-dad Ray, and I worked on making little party favors for each of the place settings at our dinner table.

Trash to Treasure my friends!

We took empty toilet paper rolls (the trash part of it), wrapped them in Christmas wrapping paper, got some red cellophane and wrapped up some candy treats and slid it through the paper roll. WALLAH! Fun little yummy favors!You don't have to spend a lot of money to make something fun, just use your imagination and start crafting!

Merry Christmas!

Baking Babes

Its that time of year for baking yummy Christmas goodies! And I'm excited that I'm able to spend the holidays with my mom this year...its been a very long time since we've been able to do all these fun things together around Christmas.

My mom and I both have a love for thrift shopping and finding good deals. Well, we decided that on our shopping list should be some fun/ugly (which ever you prefer) Christmas sweater-vests to wear while baking. We had seen some a few weeks back at the thrift store, but decided to wait to buy them since we didn't know exactly why or when we were going to wear them. Well, we finally decided that we wanted to wear them while doing all of our holiday baking. So we went out on Monday back to the thrift store we initially found them at in Moses Lake and started hunting. Unfortunately we couldn't find them, I'm sure someone else snagged them up for their fun parties. But that was ok, there were a few more stores we could check out. Sure enough, at the Calico Cat Thrift Store we found TWO MATCHING sweater-vests for only $3.99 each...we were excited! They weren't the festive red we were hoping for, but they were festive none-the-less.
Baking Day #1 arrived and we put on our lovely/ugly festive Christmas sweater-vests (that had been washed of course! LOL). Man we were HOT Baking Babes! HAHAHA! The baking list was as follows:

A Hyde family tradition at Christmas is BUCKEYES! :) Delicious!!!Buckeyes are a creamy peanut-butterey rolled ball dipped in chocolate...that end up looking like a buck's eyeball. Seriously, they're sooooo good! Every year at Christmas when we'd go to my grandparents house, there would be lots of yummy goodies to eat, but Buckeyes were the family favorite! They would get eaten all up so fast!!

Second on the list was some tasty no-bake cookies. Only a few ingredients needed, including cocoa, peanut butter, and oats...combine and drop them onto a baking sheet for a tasty treat!Next we made some Butterscotch Crispies...these are my favorite! Forget regular boring rice crispy treats, who wants those when you can have these?!?! :) Fudge was next on our list....after it was made, we decided to roll them into balls. We rolled the non-nut fudge in some powdered sugar so we could tell the two apart.We started the gingerbread men cookies, making the batter and chilling it. The rest came on day two.

Last on the list for Day #1 was cake pops. We baked the cake, let it cool, crumbled it, mixed in the frosting, rolled them into balls, and chilled them overnight. The rest came day two.

Baking Day #2 arrived and instead of our lovely/ugly festive Christmas sweater-vests, we wore some fun Christmas apronsBaking list for day 2 was as follow:

Gingerbread men...rolling out the dough, using the cute cookie cutter, and baking the cookies(we didn't end up decorating these...we were going to decorate them at the end of the day, but were too tired and decided they looked great just as they were! lol)Next was sugar cookies. We made up the dough and chilled it for a few hours. Then we pulled it back out, rolled it, used the cute cookie cutters, baked the cookies, and decorated them.
Ya, we're not the best at decorating sugar cookies! LOL

Cake pops came next....we took out the chilled balls of cake, melted the chocolate, dipped them, and rolled them in sprinkles (I've decided that cake pops are not that fun to make)With the remaining chocolate, we dipped a few pretzel sticks and also made walnut clustersWell, two days of baking is a lot of work! We're so glad that we're finished! :) Now its time to get some goodies wrapped for our neighbors...and of course save some for us to munch on this weekend for Christmas.

I hope you all have a very
MeRrY ChRiStMaS!!
and get to eat lots of yummy treats!

Christmas Cupcake Catering

I was hired by Ephrata First Baptist Church to do cucpake catering for their Women's Christmas Dinner that was held this evening. The event was a total success!!

For the last few weeks I've been prepping for this cupcake event that I was catering. I spent time brainstorming ideas for decorating the cupcakes, shopping for decorations and items for the display, making displays, etc. It was fun doing all these things, but it was especially fun having the help of my mom. She was a great assistant! :) We had a good time, well besides the stress of it all! LOL!

Before it was time for baking, the display for the event needed to be created. I was told that the dinner was going to be decorated in red, white, and silver with accents of snowflakes and crystal. So I ran with the snowflake and crystal idea. Because I just moved to WA from CA, leaving most of my stuff in storage in CA, I needed to either buy displays or make them. So I did a little of both.

My mom, step-dad, and I were on the hunt at different stores looking for things that could work with this display, but not cost too much money. We were at Apple Annie's in Cashmere, WA (an antique mall) and found an AWESOME antique sled. I saw it and thought it would be great to mix a little old with new...an old sled with some silver, crystal, and snowflakes. And there it was, the decision had been made and the antique sled was bought for a steal of a deal at $24. The other items we needed were now gonna have to be made. My mom and I found some crystal candleholders at the local thrift stores, some silver trays at the Dollar Tree, and some heavy duty glue at the Craft store...it was time for crafting! I made three pedestal serving trays and one tiered serving tray (you will see them in the photos below). I also made a holder for the menu that was set for the event, but it didn't work out exactly as planned.
This menu was supposed to be held up on the stand I made for it, but when I was setting up at the event the card was too heavy and didn't stay. So it had to sit below and lean against it...but here is the cute stand that I made for it.I used a small mirror from the Dollar Tree, a crystal candlestick from the thrift store, and a shiny new ornament from WalMart. The silver snowflake on top was added after the menu kept falling off. But isn't it so cute!? :)

Another thing that happened while setting up...when my mom and I got to the church to start decorating the table, they didn't have the size that we thought we would have. Instead of a 6ft table we had planned on, we had two smaller tables that were uneven. But, we made it work. The original vision was tweaked a bit, but it actually ended up looking great despite the setback...probably better than planned.

We cut it close today...all finished baking and decorating the cupcakes and decorating my table at the church for the event with enough time to go home real quick and get ready...just in time to make it back to the church for the dinner. We had a great night, I met some really nice ladies at the church, everyone just LOVED the cupcakes and display (some ladies even took photos with it) and only one cupcake was left at the end of the night...SEVEN DOZEN CUPCAKES were gone with only 46 attendees! LOL They were a HIT! YAY!!!

Here are some pictures of the cupcakes and displays (the pictures don't do it justice)...
In the picture below, you can see that in the front the menu sat in the middle with the four different cupcake choices surrounding it on pedestals. I wanted it to be as easy as possible for people to find the cupcake they were looking for :)

The cupcakes and snowflakes lined the top of the antique sled...

The delicious cupcake choices:

Here are a few of the pedestal servers I made...

Shimmering Snowflakes

Doesn't this snowflake look delicious?
I made this EDIBLE snowflake for a cucpake gig I have tomorrow night that will be atop some Christmas cupcakes. It is made of Fondant and shaped with a snowflake punch. I let them set and then painted them with clear vanilla extract. Once dry, I brushed them with edible shimmer glitter. I just love them, and can't wait to see them on top of the cupcakes tomorrow! :) I'll be sure to post pictures of all the cupcakes from the event tomorrow, so be on the lookout!

Cupcake Coozie Crochet

There are a few things I love to do....

ONE
I love to bake and decorate cupcakes

TWO
I love to crochet

THREE
I love to get yummy drinks at the local coffee shop

Put all these together and what do you get???

A super yummy
CuPcAkE CoOzIe CrOChEt


I didn't have a pattern to work with, just an empty coffee cup (small) that I saved from the local coffee shop in town. As I was getting in bed tonight I decided that I wasn't tired enough to go to sleep yet, so I got out my yarn and crochet hook and got busy crocheting my new yummy cupcake coozie. It took me about 40 minutes to come up with my own pattern and crochet the whole thing. I think its pretty cute if I do say so myself! :) Now that I know what I'm doing, I plan on making a ton more and hopefully selling them at the coffee shop down the street, as well as in
The Clever Corner's Etsy Shop
www.etsy.com/shop/theclevercorner

Cowl Crochet

Hi friends!

Recently I moved from Southern California to Eastern Washington. As you can imagine there is a big change in weather from the two states. So.CA has warm and perfect weather year-round...and Eastern WA has definite seasons, including snow!

I've been here a few weeks now and it has snowed twice already. This week's forcast is said to be in the 30's. It has been fun being able to bundle up, but it got me thinking about crocheting again. It has been so very long since I last crocheted, but I thought it would be a perfect time to get out my needles, find a cute pattern, and get busy making something to keep me warm in this cool weather.

When I found the pattern I liked for a cozy cowl scarf, I got started. I spent a few hours working on it, and trying to refresh my memory on how to crochet again since its been forever since I'd last made anything. I've made a couple beenies, scarves, and afghans in the past but the stitches were basic and I didn't add too much too them. This time the stitches were still pretty simple, but I learned how to make button holes! It was actually easier than I thought it would be, but I'm still happy I could do it! :) So now my lil neck will be cozy and warm this week with the cooler weather rolling in...

Two different looks:





PS... This pattern was found online at Ravelry and it was free!

beach beauty

Sometimes you can find inspiration just strolling along...

A few days ago I was strolling along the beach with my boyfriend and saw something shimmering in the water. I of course had to stop and check it out! :) I bent over and found this beautiful broken piece of an abaloni shell. I'm pretty sure Dave thought I was crazy to fall in love with that little treasure, but after I explained my vision, he understood. So I pocketed the beach beauty and a few days later went to work.

As soon as I found the abaloni, I knew I wanted to make it into a necklace. It would be a special necklace too...one that every time I wore it would remind me of Dave and our first stroll along the beach together on that cool, windy, summer day. I began by picking out a couple beads that would accent the abaloni, then took some wire and did a bit of wrapping. And here is the final product...I just LOVE it, and I love the memories that go with it.

flea market frog art

My sweet friend, Thiam, and I spent the day at the Long Beach Antique Flea Market yesterday. The day started off with some rain, but turned into a BEAUTIFUL sunshining day! The two of us strolled along the rows and rows of vendor booths, looking at all the fabulous items we'd love to have but refrained from buying. We were very wise with our money (I don't have any to spend right now anyway! lol). I did, however, buy a couple items that I haggled for.

* never buy anything at the asking price at flea markets...they will always go down if you ask, even if its not as low of a price as you'd like. But don't offer too low of a price, you don't want to offend them...then you definitely won't get it at the price you hoped for.

At the beginning of our day at the flea market, Thiam and I saw this booth that had the cutest little crafts. At $20 a pop, we decided it was something we could make ourselves at half the price. So we were determined to find the pieces as we continued on our hunt for the day. Low and behold, we found all the supplies we needed. Thiam found enough to make each member of her family one, and then I found what I needed too.

And here it is...my vintage frog art:


If you don't know what a vintage frog is...its the base of the piece with the spikes. It is known as a flower frog. You put them in vases and then the stem of the flower when being arranged is pushed into the frog spikes...that way the arrangement will stay exactly as you designed and won't move around at will. Frogs range in price depending on the size, age, material, and uniqueness. I was able to get this one for $3 (instead of the asking price of $5).

We had to dig through boxes of letters to find the ones we needed to make our names...it took awhile, but it was worth the work. Because of the number of tiles bought, he gave us a good deal. Me = instead of $8 he asked for, he gave it to me for $3. Thiam = istead of $50 he asked for, he gave it to her for $30. I'm so excited to see all the ones she makes for her family. I decided not to write out my name 'Jody' because the o and d looked too similar, so I did my initials...I thought it looked more unique too.

So to wrap up...instead of buying a $20 item at the flea market, I made the same thing, customized to me, for only $6!! It literally pays to be creative and make things yourself! So get out there and get crafting!

Mother's Day

When Mother's Day comes around what do you want to do...See your mom, right? Well, since my mom lives in another state that wasn't possible for me. We did get to talk on the phone for a bit, that was nice. So since I didn't have plans with my mom, I decided to bake her a cupcake...and of course eat it in her honor since I can't really ship it to her lol :) I have the BEST mom in the whole world and I love her so very much!

LOVE YOU MOM!!!

cinco de mayo

I'm not totally sure why, but I LOVE Cinco de Mayo! Maybe its because I always make homemade tacos that are greasy and super delish!! Not only did I make those today, but I also made the cutest cupcakes! I was brainstorming on what I wanted these cupcakes to look like for this holiday and decided to make them look like little margaritas! I just love them!!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo mis amigos!!

Easter festivities

Spring has sprung and we celebrate Easter this day with cute baskets full of decorated eggs, candy, and sweet cupcake treats. Last night I spent the evening with my Aunt, Uncle, cousins, and my Gramma. We had lots of fun decorating eggs! We are a crafty bunch!

But the real reason for this holiday is not because the Easter bunny comes...we celebrate Jesus Christ's resurrection! May God bless you as you celebrate with your family and friends!

He is Lord, He is Lord
He has risen from the dead
And He is Lord
Every knee shall bow
Every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord