April 2 2009

I'm sure behind with blogging. It's really been a long time since I last blogged. Wow. Not sure I'm so good at keeping it up as was my original intent. Ah well.

I originally intended to put my crochet & knitting projects on the blog, to keep track of things, post pictures, and maybe a comment or 2 concerning the pattern.

It's not that I haven't been knitting & crocheting, because I have been busy in that regard. I just haven't taken pictures of projects and most of them have been gifted.

Don't know when I'll post again; maybe when things slow down after tax season and I have something to show off.

September 1 Already!!!

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted. Where did August go?

I've been working on doilies, the yard (a lot!), and normal household stuff. Amazing how much time goes into running a home. There's errands, yard work, inside work, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of a husband.

My husband is constantly losing things, mostly because he does not put things away in their proper places, so they get misplaced. Everywhere. I usually find things when I'm cleaning. His desk is a disaster and I don't touch it. I could put a picture up, but that would just embarrass him, so I better not. It wouldn't do any good anyway as far as getting him to straighten it up.

We are doing home improvements, and at long last hubby is making some progress on installing hardwood flooring in our bedroom. We had to move everything out, and so the dressers are in the hallway, the mattresses are leaning against the far wall in the bedroom (we'll move them to the opposite wall when the flooring gets over there). We have new bedroom furniture that's been in the garage. When the flooring is done in the bedroom, we'll set up our new bedroom furniture. It would be wonderful if he could finish it this week. I am so ready. We've been sleeping in the guest bedroom for 3 weeks. I'm anxious to get back into my own bed.

I've joined the Autumn Secret Pal Exchange at Crochetville, and I definitely need to finish up the doily I'm working on and make some things for my Secret Pal. She says she needs kitchen towels and dishcloths, so I will get to work on some for her, and am thinking on some slippers too.

Hopefully I won't take so long to post again.

F&F Baby Dress for A

Haven't posted in quite a while, Yikes! Had such good intentions when I began, and I guess all kinds of other things manage to get in the way... or have priority over blogging; that's for sure.

Have been doing home improvements, painting, fixing things up, renovated a bathroom, and soon to start will be installing hardwood floors. Old carpet has to come out and you'd be amazed at the dirt that's under there.

Here's a picture of a baby dress I made for my grand-daughter with pink & white crochet thread. Pattern from a Fast & Fun Crochet magazine. Seemed a bit long in length, but I haven't seen it on my model so maybe it isn't. I sewed a pink slip to go underneath. Definitely needs a slip.

Now I'm working on doilies. I usually work on doilies in the summer; much to hot to work with yarn.

Spring Snow

What a beautiful snow we woke up to this morning! It was raining early evening, and as we were watching the news/weather last night, there was snow just south of us. Sure enough, when we looked out before bedtime, it was snowing. This morning there is a lot, about 3 inches so far, and still coming down!

We had a wonderful time visiting with son A & daughter-in-law V and of course our grand-daughter A. Here she is modeling one of the hats I made for her. V calls it her "Showgirl Hat."

We had a bit of excitement while we were there, locked ourselves out of their house, and everyone contributed to that except for me. LOL We were going out to dinner, son went to warm up the car, V and I took the baby & her things out to the car and I asked son if he had the house keys to lock the deadbolt. Just as he stated he didn't have his house keys and V said she didn't have hers either, here comes Grandpa to the car! Son asked "You didn't close the door did you?" Well yes of course he did! While we pondered our dilemma, Grandpa said let's go out to eat and worry about how to get back in when we get back. So that's what we did. Son's tools were in his truck and of course the keys to his truck were in the house. So we went shopping for a bolt cutter & a flashlight and ended up cutting the padlock to the cellar and son had to push an inside door from its frame in order to gain access. Afterwards the guys nailed the door frame back so minimal damage was done.


There was a bit more excitement too, some DUI sideswiped A's car during the night. We all heard the sirens but did not hear anything else (like the impact to A's car). A went out the next morning to run an errand and saw the damage. It looked worse that it was because there was a lot of black marking along the whole side of the car. Police were called and a report taken. I had to chuckle at A; he was so puzzled that there was NO NOTE left on his car! I told him that he may never find out who did it. Amazingly enough, the police came by that afternoon and rang the doorbell and told him they found who had hit his car. The sirens we heard the night before? The DUI had gone on to hit 3 more vehicles and he ended up in jail. (The 3 other vehicles were owned by members of one family; I think 2 were totalled and 1 had extensive damage.) The DUI has a green card, and so the vehicle he was driving was owned by someone else. Insurance company is working it out; that's what we pay insurance for. We told A that we watch enough "People's Court" on tv to know that you go after the vehicle owner; you can even sue the owner for the deductible. Son did tell us that it is not usually so exciting there. ROFL Very memorable & exciting visit!



There must be a baby boom going on! There are 3 ladies at Church expecting babies, one is expecting twins! A good friend of my son and his wife are also expecting, and my niece F is also expecting. My goodness! I have 1 afghan done and am working on another for my son's friend's baby. The baby shower for the Church ladies is at the end of this month and I just received the invitation for my niece's baby shower, also at the end of this month. I doubt my ability to make something for 5 more babies in just 2 weeks. I'm not that fast!!!

FYI I am a tax aide volunteer/coordinator and have been for the past 20+ years in my community. This is a very busy year what with the Stimulus Payment and many people filing who ordinarily are not required to file, but are filing in order to receive the SP. I am doing a lot of home visits and my phone rings a lot (it was ringing constantly there for awhile!).

Until Next Time

Has it been that long?

Wow, has it been that long since I posted? Where did the time go?

Well, I have been working on lots of baby things for Baby A. Son mentioned she needed hats, so I have been knitting lots of pink hats. LOL I also made her a shrug, and several sweaters.
We finally made it to VA this month to meet our new grand-daughter. She is precious, very alert, and of course looks adorable in her new hats. hehe I will try to get some pictures uploaded soon.

It's tax season, and for the past 20+ years I have been doing volunteer income tax assistance at my local Senior Center. I am very busy with that, especially this year since the IRS has announced a Stimulus Payment. My phone has been ringing off the hook. I can't possibly do appointments for so many people, so I'm going to set up some special days just to do the SP returns.

Will be back soon.

Baby A is here!

Baby A arrived December 20th at 2:23 pm, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20-1/4 inches long. She's beautiful!

God bless her and her happy (but tired) parents!

Grand-Baby A to Arrive!

We have news that Grand-Baby A is on her way!
It's going to be a loooong day! LOL
I can hardly wait!

December 8th

Not that I haven't been working on anything... still making clothespin angels, and also working on a shawl, but not very much.

With Christmas fast approaching, seems like we have been busy going places and doing other things, so I haven't had too much time to crochet.

Have been selling a bit of yarn on Crochetville, so have been spending time doing that, going through my yarns, taking pictures, posting the sale on C'ville, pm-ing & emailing potential buyers, packaging, going to the P.O., things like that. I have sold quite a bit, so I'm happy.... although there are still a lot of boxes and tubs full of yarn... some I'm not ready to part with yet.

The grand-daughter's due date is today, but no news from The Stork yet. I know her parents are ready and waiting. The last month of any pregnancy is the longest.

December 1st

I've been busy destashing yarn over at Crochetville and am pleased with the responses.
On the other hand, I took advantage of a yarn sale and free shipping at Joann's website and received my yarn yesterday. I bought Rainbow Boucle (11 ounce skeins) for $5 each and the regular price is $8.99 per skein. I love that yarn!

Still working on Thread Angels (see previous post). Mailed some out yesterday to good friends. I feel badly that I didn't send them something more, but I've been very busy making things for my Grand-daughter Baby A who isn't here yet.

Baby A is due December 8th and I can hardly wait! Hubby & I will be making a trip in January to meet her. We bought her parents a webcam so that we will be able to see her "live." We tested out the webcam connection last weekend and it sure was fun to see each other and talk live.

Mailed the package to my Holiday Gift Exchange partner at Crochetville yesterday so she should have it next week. Those swaps are certainly a lot of fun.

Thread Angels Ornaments

I've been working on crocheting Thread Angels. These little beauties are fun to make. The little dresses are made and put onto special clothespins which then can be simply pinned onto a Christmas tree.

Don't let the simplicity fool you. I timed myself and each one of these takes me 2+ hours to make.

I have a picture of all that I have made so far (and I still have a few more to make), plus a single picture so you can see one close-up.

Spiderman Afghan

Here is a photo of the Spiderman Afghan that I finished yesterday. Image is clickable.






The pattern stated to repeat 3 rows, which stated main color for 2 rows, then 1 row of black, which I did. On page 2 of the pattern, it stated that the color sequence was 4 rows of main color and 1 row of black.

The pattern directions were conflicting in this regard. What do you expect from a free pattern? I'm not one to read ALL the directions before beginning a project. So, my main color rows should have been wider. Oh well.

Painting & Crocheting

For some reason my camera is telling me that there is no memory card. Hubby says it may be in backwards but I can't get the little "door" to open all the way. So as soon as that is resolved I'll post a picture.

I've been painting interior doors in the house. Whrew, there are a lot of them, especially when I'm also painting closet doors. We are doing a bit of "home improvement." The doors were originally brown and after priming, I'm painting them white. Quite an improvement! I've been working on them for 2 weeks and still have 3 doors left to paint, though I noticed that several of the doors will need another coat of paint. Hopefully I will get that finished today if I don't run out of paint!

My latest project is a Spiderman Afghan. A friend of mine is expecting a baby in March (I think) and one of her other children thinks that they should name the baby "Spiderman." So she is referring to the baby as "Spiderman" although they are not going to know the baby's gender until the birth. I thought this would be a fun gift for the baby. I'll try to post a picture later when the memory card is figured out.

Baby Bunting

Here is the finished Bunting for Baby A.
Made with TLC Baby Sport yarn.
It made up very quickly.

Borrowed Hook

The same friend who borrowed my iron also borrowed one of my crochet hooks. She needed it to finish the edging on an outfit she was making for Baby A.

She brought over the outfit to show me (at the same time she returned my iron, see the post below titled "Don't Loan Your Iron to Anybody"), so I know she is done using it.

So I emailed her and asked her about my hook and she said she had left it in the cup holder in her car and to come by and pick it up next time I was out.

I had to go out to the P.O. the next day, and I stopped by to pick up my crochet hook. She said it was still in her car and to go out and get it. I told her that her car wasn't outside. Oh, she said, my husband must've taken it somewhere. No idea when he'd be back and I didn't want to sit and wait for his return, so I went home.

Yesterday my hubby had to go out and I asked him if he would go over and get my hook out of the cupholder of her car. He was apprehensive about doing it, but I assured him that it was perfectly okay. When he came home, he said there was no crochet hook in the cupholder. *sigh*

So I sent her an email to please let me know when she finds it.

Sure, it would be easier to just go buy another hook, but I live in a small town and there is no store where I could purchase one. Which is why she borrowed mine.

Crochetville Secret Pal Reveal

My Secret Pal for the Fall 2007 swap was Texasredhead! She has been absolutely amazing and an absolute gem of a SP. Here you see stitch markers, patterns, knitting needles, crochet hooks, a combination knitting needle/crochet hook holder, crochet thread, lots of yarns, sticky notes, herbal tea, a Chibi needle set, a hand-made ruffled hot pad, and a beautiful hand-made scarf. Oh, and don't forget the chocolate truffle!
Thank you so much Texasredhead!

Don't Loan Your Iron to Anybody

My good friend "D" asked if she could borrow my iron. Normally, I hate to loan anything to anyone. I take very good care of my things. And, after all (I reasoned), she is making something for my future grand-daughter A. So I figured, why not?

She said she would return it the next day; she just needed to iron a yard of fabric. So she said. That was Thursday.

On Sunday night, I sent her an email to ask if she would please return my iron because I would need it on Monday.

She brought it back Monday. It looked like this when she brought it back. Even the handle was dirty. Yuck!


She didn't say anything, like "I'm sorry to bring it back this way." Nothing. Believe me, when I loaned it to her, it was pristine.

And no, I didn't say anything about it either. We're friends. And she made something for my future grand-daughter A. But I will tell you I was shocked she brought it back looking like that.

Here's what it looks like now, after I cleaned it up. It took me a good half-hour to clean it up, including the holes (with Q-Tips) with a good iron cleaner.

Nobody will borrow anything from me ever again. Don't even ask. And no, "D" doesn't know I have a blog.

Baby Bunting

My current project is a baby bunting. It's going fast. Done in Red Heart sport yarn.

Here is a picture of the pattern.

Christmas Dress Details

This is the skirt detail. The berries are French knots. Notice how they are placed in the same locations on all the holly motifs.

The next photo is the back detail with pearl buttons.

Finished Red Afghan

Here is the finished Red Afghan.

Below are 2 pictures of the edging detail.

Red Afghan

I finished the afghan today. Horray!

Unfortunately, my camera isn't working for some reason. Will have hubby check it. So frustrating when things that are supposed to work, don't. *sigh*

I'll get a picture posted soon.