My boys

No pics of Betsy today ... sorry. I'll have to get one later. :)

Here's my baby all dressed up in one of my sweaters. LOL!



My oldest and my youngest - gee, it's a shame they don't like each other!



Here's my Andrew!

Fisherman Bangle Bag

This is an experiment - totally from scratch, inspired originally by Donna's Bangle Purse only it wasn't quite what I was looking for. Anyway, I started sketching some stuff, researched the popcorn stitch (which I had never done before - not sure why, it's super easy?!?), adjusted the cable she used, and came up with this bag. I'm not sure quite what I think and I'm even less sure what the aunt it was designed for is going to think.

Be kind - it still needs lining.

The front:



The back:



And next to my cat (who is actually pretty petite - only about 9 pounds maybe) for a size reference - it's about 14" wide.



The bangles (bamboo) are 7" wide; the yarn is just plain old caron pounder in off white; I'm going to see if I can find a matching off white corduroy to line it with the cords facing towards the outside so the smooth side of the fabric is on the inside of the purse. If I can't find a decent off white, I should be able to find a dark brown or olive green, which I think would also work.

Tension Tamers

Not what you think! LOL I'm talking about the crocheting kind of tension - even stitches. ;) I have been working on some thread projects and I find that when I start out I have somewhat of an uneven tension, so I started making some little things to help me get on track.

Here are a couple - you can definitely see a difference; the lavendar one was done first and is all over the place, with the red one you can tell I'm getting more comfortable working with thread.



The red is my favorite!

Another Christmas present done!

Oh, that feels so good!! This is the Five-Sided Pineapple Doily from Better Homes and Gardens "Forever Favorite Crochet" - I used size 10 thread and a size 5 hook - not even close to what they suggested, lol. Finished size is about 12" in diameter. I still need to block it and that's it - I'm debating framing it. Hmmm ...

Finally!

These are going in the mail tomorrow to my various ornament swap partners at Crochetville, finally! Took me long enough!



Everything there is off the top of my head - it took me five stockings before finally I found a finished product I liked - so the two on the left are my favorites. :) I like the hats, too, those were a lot of fun. I love ornaments that aren't of a traditional Christmas orientation!

Elegant Lace Stole

Another amazing pattern by Dot!! Thank you for your wonderful patterns, Dot - I love them! They're easy to read, easy to make, and always lovely.

Elegant Lace Stole

I used red heart in cherry red - it's for my grandmother - her favorite color is red and she's always cold - this is very wash and wearable yarn, so I thought it would work for something to throw over her shoulders. We won't be able to be there on Christmas, and are going to be possibly celebrating with my family in February, but I wanted her to have something to open ON Christmas since I know that's important to her.





I think another time I would want to use a more "drapable" yarn (like simply soft) but I wanted to use up stuff in my stash ... so red heart it was! :)

A hat for Justin

I was looking at the weather forecast for Syracuse yesterday and guess what I saw? Cold, snow and wind! So, I pulled out our box of hats and mittens to see what we needed. We're okay for mittens and gloves but only had hats for Brendan & Betsy. So, I'm scrambling to make one for the two younger boys so they stay nice and toasty.

This is completely from scratch, no pattern. It has small flaps on the sides and ties, since we all know that three year olds WILL remove hats when they can!

Doesn't he look thrilled? LOL I had to bribe him with scrambled eggs to get him to put it on with his coat and hat together.





I'm quite pleased with it - it fits him well and goes quite nicely with his coat!

We have been so busy!!

It's been 2 months since I've updated! Things are crazy - we have Brendan in cub scouts and basketball, and Betsy is in brownies, gymnastics and an arts & crafts thing. We attempted putting Andrew & Justin in a tumble tots class but that has been an out and out flop. Which is actually not a bad thing - that means that Saturdays are free days now.

Here are some projects I've finished - I have quite a few in the works, long ones (4 afghans going right now - eek) - these are all small ones, I just don't have a ton of time for crocheting.

This will be a Christmas present for the newest baby in the family:


These are scarves I made for a scarf swap at Crochetville:


My squares for Blue Squares Too:


A poncho I made for one of dd's friends - I love it, I think it came out really cute!


And a little fishy made out of ribbon - came up with this in a moment where I wanted a quick project but didn't feel like using yarn. LOL


A couple recipes - since it's been a LOOOOONG time since I've posted one!

Italian Beef Roast

3-4 pound roast - frozen (I buy the cheapest I can find, and trim off the fat before freezing)
1 large can (28 oz) diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
1 packet spaghetti seasoning

Place roast in crockpot. Lightly drain tomatoes, then pour over the roast. Sprinkle with spaghetti seasoning. Cover and cook all day on low.

I've added in frozen green beans (YUM - I just stick them in the bottom of the pot under the roast) and carrots (not quite as good) so that all I have to do is toss on some whole wheat noodles or some low fat crescent rolls in the oven and we have a full meal. Leftovers - the flavors get stronger as it sits; it's good shredded, heated in the sauce, and served over baked potatoes - the potato mellows the flavors, very yummy.

The leftovers freeze pretty well, too.

Shortcut Roasted Potatoes

2.5 pounds potatoes, washed and pricked with a fork
1-2 tbsp canola oil
french fry seasoning (can be purchased at big lots) or Mrs. Dash (for no sodium)

Bake potatoes in your microwave according to manufacturer's instructions. When cool enough to handle, cut into pieces. Dump into a 9 x 13 pan. Drizzle with oil, toss to coat. Sprinkle liberally with FF seasoning, then bake in a 500F oven for 15-20 minutes.

Happy Birthday Andrew!!!!

One of my babies is 5 years old today - happy birthday sweetie!!

Found it!

I agreed to test a pattern for Jessi ages ago - back before we moved! - packed the top, and then lost track of it after moving. I found it this morning, so here it is:

Sherbet Tank Top (Scroll down to the bottom)



I changed two things - I switched to a larger hook the last few rows so it would "flair" a little to fit me better, and did a row of sc around the straps.

Poofs, puffs, and bags

Very punchy today ... please forgive me. I just had one of those weekends were you just fudge around, do the few things that HAVE to be done, and hit Monday thinking "what on earth did I do?" Oops.

I did make two of Natalie's Econo-Shopper. Both in sugar 'n cream, both the small size - it took me a little to figure out how to form the bag - frogged the handle once, oiy - but I love the end result. My apologies for the poor picture, my flash isn't working - need to get my NEW camera fixed - grrr.

f

Filled with yarn - well, half filled with yarn; there are 11 balls of sugar 'n cream in it, it could have held twice as much easily. Amazing how much they can hold!



Today marked my first venture into making stitch markers - thanks to the findings Deneen sent, and some beads that I had (purchased a while ago for some forgotten project), I made these. Obviously a few kinks to work out, but I like them. :)



I also tried the Rose Bath Pouf at Crochet Me! - sorry no link, I can't get the page to come up, I'll try and add it later. And yes, I know that roses aren't blue.



And after reading on Drew's (The Crochet Dude) blog about Stuff on My Cat, I had to test the theory on my long suffering kitty.



She didn't move, not even an ear or whisker twitch. Interesting ...

Oh - a side note to my Secret Pal, and anyone else who may like to leave me anonymous comments - I've switched my settings to registered users only, and added word recognition; I've had a lot of problems with spam the last few weeks, every post has had at least one anonymous post. I can still be contacted through my email. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I like it ...

To anyone not clutter or craft-ly inclined, this probably looks like a nightmare. To me, though, it looks nice and cozy. This is my grandmother's washstand, and on it I have a devotional book, some projects, and my latest FO - one of Dot's Doohickeys! I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to think when I finished, but it was so practical (and I am constantly digging for a hook, needle, pen, or scissors in the mess that is my desk) I wanted to give it a shot.

Anyway - I LOVE IT! It holds my hooks nicely (the ones I use regularly - the others are stored away, I promise), even my P hook fits into the side; my needles go in nicely (and I'm thinking that if I made one out of wool, that would be useful for cleaning needles and pins?) and - this is probably my favorite part - my lovely new stitch markers from Deneen fasten on and make it look extra pretty, as well as putting them right within reach!



I apologize for not having a close up - for some reason I'm having a hard time getting a good picture of just that. This shows how nicely it fits in though! LOL

Forgot a couple of things ...

I received a wonderful RAOK package from a C'Ville Fairy - full of stitch markers! I had never made them before, never had any, either, so she sent me some she had made AND the fixings to make some of my own! Here's a picture - the beads are hidden away (all but three, to show a few) because they are proving far too tempting to Justin:



And here's the other scarf made with Target yarns - same configuration, 1 of the furry stuff (lavendar) and 2 of the ladder type yarn (aqua and a variegated with pink, peach, aqua and lavendar) and then a strand of pale pink WW yarn.



The skeins are different sizes I think - this time, I ran out of the fur about 2/3 of the way through, and then decided I was done when one of the ladder yarns ran out. Thankfully I'd gotten extra of the furry stuff. This one is just about 6' long. I think I like the one with the fall colors better of the two!

Whoa!

Lots of stuff today, including pictures, so you've been warned! :)

Last week involved us going to my dad's and helping to go through stuff at my grandmother's house. She's been moved into assisted living, so it needs to be sold - hence a big job for all involved. She built that house over 50 years ago - I didn't get through everything, but did get through most of what was really "necessary". I came home with an antique washstand, a garbage bag full of yarn (left one to donate) and another garbage bag almost 2/3 full of THREAD. Not yarn, thread.

We took a couple of pictures with her at the house - I don't think they'll be bringing her back, but we were trying to give her a chance to say good-bye to the house and to help her understand that this is a permanent change, she can't go back.



Top left: my dad, Justin, me, and Colin (my only first cousin)
Bottom: Brendan, Grandma, Betsy & Andrew

And this one is me with her in front of her house.



Ever want to amuse your kids but out of ideas? Buy a karaoke machine! I hate microphones, you couldn't pay me to sing into one of them, but the kids all loved it, especially Justin. He wasn't really singing the words, but he was trying to match pitches - very cute!



Today is the first day of school!

Here are my two school kids, very impatient with me because they want to get to their classes:



Here's Betsy in line - see the pretty lady in the black top? That's Mrs. D. Notice anything special about her? She's pregnant - with TRIPLETS!! And - just in case anyone is wondering - Betsy does indeed have a little bit of a black eye. She and Justin collided last week and that's her battle scar, lol!



And Brendan in line near Mrs. P (she's new to third grade this year):



And here's my sad Andrew, who really, really wants to go but missed the kindergarden cut off by just a month.



Just to keep things on topic - here's a crochet project. This is made of yarns from the Target "Dollar Spot" - I'm not impressed with it, it's very thin. I used four strands for this - two different "funky fringe" yarns (gold and a gold/orange/brown), a "fuzzy fur" (orange) and a strand of dark brown WW acrylic (HA I found a use for some of those 70s yarns!). I started with just the target yarns but ended up frogging and adding the strand of acrylic to give it some substance (it also makes the golds pop, which I like). I'm calling it my Halloween scarf, but I think it's good for fall. I think I would probably like it better if I hadn't added in the orange fur ...

If you use a Q hook (I used an S, so Q would be right for most people), and do rows of 6 sc, and use up a full skein of the fuzzy fur (there will be some of the other two left) you'll end up with a scarf about 5 and a half feet long. I haven't woven the ends in - I'm procrastinating, lol!



Here's a close up so you can see the individual strands ...

Where have I been??

I really, truly haven't disappeared off the face of the earth - just been out of town, and now busy getting the kids ready to start school tomorrow! I'll post some first day pictures tomorrow, along with a bunch of other stuff, including an RAOK package and some pictures of the kids and I with my grandmother, and HOPEFULLY I'll get all my squares for the square swap done so I can post a picture of those too! I only have two left so that shouldn't be a problem, lol! :)

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