Doilies, kids and cats

Okay, one doily, three kids (Andrew was sulking and I couldn't get a picture of his face, lol) and one of the cats.

Cinder has been very affectionate since her last venture from home - she says good night to all the kids at bedtime (follows me around, hops on their beds, and makes a general nuisance of herself) but today is the first time she was actually laying on them. I missed getting the camera out when she was on Andrew, but her she is with Brendan - she stayed there for a good 45 minutes, and I think he would have stayed there all day with her if she had! He isn't feeling too well; I think maybe she might have been taking care of him.



You can see here just how happy she was with him!



Justin was watching, but we (I) kept him off the bed - he wanted to climb on Brendan! He was VERY jealous of the cat, I think; he thinks of Bren as his own personal property!



And lastly, the "Gift Doily", which pattern I pulled from an old doily pamphlet. It still has a lot of imperfections in it but I'm slowly improving - those picots almost killed me though, I need to find out where exactly in the chain you are supposed to slip stitch through; I'm not sure if I was doing it right or not. It ended up 10 3/4" - the book said it should be 9"!! Oops, lol!



My allergies are bad today - I have terrible vertigo, despite taking my typical medicine regimen; it's making it hard to do the things I wanted to. I'm just going to have to take things slowly and try and stay hydrated - that's another thing these allergies do, they take away my appetite and any appeal that drinking water has.

Happy Anniversary ...

to Mike and I! It's 9 years today since we were married! We look so young in our wedding pictures!



Mike had to go to work early this morning, so I pulled out my crocheting (no point in going back to sleep, and didn't want to clean and wake up the kids early - ha, excuses, excuses, lol). I looked up after a little bit and there were our felines, curled up on the bed next to me. This is very unusual - not for them to be on our bed, but TOGETHER anywhere! I had to snap a picture!



And MOM! Thank you so much for our anniversary gifts - she sent us a gorgeous kitchen scale (badly needed one) and a kitchen aid food processor!!! I am so excited, I can't wait to try them out!

Classy Lassy and Artsy

... The names of the scarves I made yesterday and today. I need a better name for the "artsy" one but what are you going to do? I named it that because it is kind of "artsy" in nature - lots of different textures in it; there are thick and thin yarns, fuzzy and not fuzzy, wool and blends. I think it came out neat.

Classy Lassy is about 4 1/2 " wide and 5' long; Artsy is 5 1/2" wide and just over 6' long.

Both scarves:



Classy Lassy:



Artsy:



Close up of Artsy:



It has been so humid here - not hot, but the humidity makes it miserable. We spent most of the weekend trying to stay cool and not stick to everything - I left a receipt on the counter and with the humidity, when I pulled it off, it left behind a layer of paper, almost as if I'd glued it on. Blech.

The kids go back to school on September 7th. Betsy has Mrs. D, who was Brendan's teacher last year - we are all very excited about that! She's a wonderful lady! Brendan has a new (to third grade) teacher who I know Mrs. D was trying to get for him, so we're hopeful that third grade will be another good year. Andrew is working on some of his letters (at home) and writes a very neat A now. Justin is acting interested so I need to decide whether to include him in the lessons or come up with some just for him. He's eating much, much better these days, but we're definitely seeing some of the terrible three's (which, IMO are worse than the two's) - he's still our sweet Justin a lot of the time, but when he's bad - oh, he is BAD.

Sending all you who are reading my blog a cheery "thank you!"

Dishcloths!

I finished my dishcloths for the Dishcloth Swap at Crochetville. I need to tag them still, but they are crocheted with ends woven in and to all intents and purposes done!!



The colors are a bit off; the bottom left three are peaches, creams and a light green, and the bottom two on the right are pink, cream and blue; the top colors aren't as bright and garish as they appear and the part that looks black is actually a forest green. I have no idea why the are SO off since I took them in daylight.

My friend Elizabeth sent me a surprise to thank me for making the bunting doll for her little girl - E you really didn't have to do that, it was a pleasure to make. She sent me the Flavored Gift IngenuiTEA Set from Adagio (you all know I LOVE their stuff!) and I am in love with that silly thing! The kids think it's great - we made herbal iced tea this morning and they got quite a kick out of it. Funny story - FedEx messed up, so Adagio reshipped and I got the original order this morning so now I have two - what to do with that second set, hmmmmmm ...

Happy 3rd Birthday Justin!!!

My baby is three as of 12:10 AM this morning! I am so thankful he is a part of our lives. Here he is, half asleep, but still excited and giggling after being sung "Happy Birthday" to. And, of course, in his favorite spot - mom & dad's bed! LOL

Afternoon in Newport

This weekend was hot and humid. To help cope with it, we ended up going down to Newport Saturday afternoon and climbing on the rocks. It was a lot of fun - still hot and sticky but much more bearable than it was at home! You can climb around the rocks - there aren't any "formal" paths or boundaries, other than the fence around the old fort.

Just to give you an idea - this picture shows just how humid it was, even on the shore. This is NOT a "bad" camera shot, that's the fog and humidity.

Bunting Doll

A good friend of mine was looking for an appropriately sized "baby" for her daughter, so here's one. Pattern can be found here - be aware that there are some errors in the pattern but they are pretty easy to pick out.



I used some leftover yarn from her baby blanket for the head (directly underneath) - that's caron simply soft off white, but I have no idea on the make, name, brand, whatever on the other yarns I used. They're inherited from my mom's yarn stash.

All in a weekend (and other bits)

The kids put on a "play" for me with some of my old finger puppets - they found them in one of the boxes of stuff from when I was a kid.



See the little white tip of Daisy's tail on the left? She dozed there the whole time! LOL



Camping was a bust - all the campgrounds on the south shore were full - but we did get to a beach in Point Judith.

We made friends with a monarch butterfly (we have around 50 pictures, different poses, of this same butterfly!)



Pictures of the kids at the beach - it was chilly, and the "sand" beaches in the area were closed, so we ended up at this one and threw rocks into the ocean. The kids got a HUGE kick out of finding the biggest rocks they could and getting their dad to throw them in!









And ... last but not least ... my weary traveller, glad to be home ...



Yes - she got out again. This time, for a week. I'm not sure WHY she does this, she gets back home and meows and mushes and cuddles and rubs around everyone and is SO glad to be home I can't fathom why she gets these urges to go. I really dislike this trend and hope that we can break her of it.

Unexpected visitor

Look what we found on our sunporch (courtesy of kids who forget, sometimes, to close the doors - I'm just glad we found it before the cats did!):







I felt so bad for it - it made a few attempts to get out (ie. fly through the glass) and then I picked it up to help it (yes, I know you should handle wild things as little as possible) - then it just clutched my finger for awhile and wouldn't fly away. I couldn't believe how soft the feathers on its head were!

Miserable Day

Down in the dumps. Things have just not gone well this weekend and today was the worst. It has been 8 years today since my mother died, too, so I'm feeling sad on that end.

I'm hoping tomorrow is better. I can't wait for this day to be over. I was going to post some pictures from the beach the other night but I find I just can't right now; I'll have to do that another day.

Just a little something

I haven't made a post in few days so here's a little something:



That's the comfortghan, edged in white but not completed (edging again and joining - using the flat braid joining method (sort of, lol) - with purple). I'm about halfway done with the second edging/joining. Oh, and for those who are curious, I did all but four of the squares - the lavendar one, the yellow/red/blue one, the blue variegated one, and the blue one right above the purple square with the red flower. Can't wait to get it done and SENT!

Trip to the dentist today. Brendan and Betsy both had fillings - Brendan's was bad but he has bounced back just fine - Betsy on the other hand had no pain whatsoever but now is a little crankpot because she doesn't like being numb. She's such a girl, lol. I go back in a couple of weeks with the younger boys - Andrew is adament that he does not want to go, and Justin getting x-rays and a check up - umm. That ought to be interesting. He could surprise me though and be a perfect angel, we'll see.