Monday Musings

I hope everyone had a blessed weekend :-)

Ours was pretty quiet. Saturday, I met with the other ladies in our church to discuss possible avenues of ministry we can work on together. Wanting to include some fun in our meeting, I taught the ladies how to make a couple of basic cards.

We had our friend's car again this weekend. I did something I haven't done in 7 months: drove somewhere by myself! All I did was go to Hobby Lobby, but it was exciting. Okay, I was scared to death, too. Seven months is a long time to go without driving. But I made it there and back without any problems, so I treated myself to a pack of paper and a skein of I Love This Yarn in Mulberry (it's much prettier than it looks in the picture).

Tim had to work overtime on Sunday, so the girls and I relaxed at home. I'm making a preemie baby cocoon that uses the cross stitch. It gives it a woven look. If I like it when it's done, I'll write up the pattern.

That's it on my end. I'm off to start the washing machine and the school day.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source: http://www.kdelap.com/blog/2014/6/21/garden-season

TUSAL

It's Totally Useless Stitch A Long time! Here are my orts for the month of June:

My yarn orts: not too shabby. I've had some crochet progress this month.

My thread orts: It hasn't changed since last month because I haven't done any cross stitching for a month. Scary! I'm hoping to change that for July.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Challenge #17: Summer Project

This week's challenge for the 52 Week Crochet Challenge hosted by Red Berry Crochet is to celebrate the first day of summer by making a beach or summer project.

I'm not a beach person and now live several hours from any beach, so I made a couple quick summer projects instead.

 Three different sun hats for the Bean. She needs something to shade her face when we take our evening walks.

The Summer Sun Hat from AnnaVirginia Fashion was the simplest to make. I followed the pattern almost exactly, just eliminated round 10 so it wouldn't be too tall. It's a little big so she can wear it all summer. It's made with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Grape.

The Granny Stitch Sun Hat from My Merry Messy Life took a couple tries. It's not a difficult pattern, but I had trouble with the gauge. It's supposed to be for a 3-6 month infant and calls for a G hook. After working the brim and a couple rounds of the granny stitch with a G, I realized it was way too small for Alex. I pulled it out and started over with an H. Better, but it won't fit her for long. I stopped working the granny stitch at round 11 so it wouldn't be too tall. I also changed the brim pattern a little. I wanted more ruffle so after round 3, I did one round with two half double stitches in each stitch. It's made with Red Heart Super Saver in Sunshine Print and Bright Yellow (that may not be the exact name but it's close).

The Baby Ruffled Sun Hat was a fun pattern; I like the cross stitches. It came out too short, but several people on Ravelry said they had to add a round or two to make it tall enough; that's what I ended up doing. I added one extra round of cross stitches. I probably should have added two, but I still like it. It's made with an unknown pink and white variegated baby weight yarn. 

I'm linking these on the Stashbuster Link Party at Linda's Crafty Corner.

Any plans for a beach or summer crochet project in your future?

Thanks for reading.
Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Tickled Thursday

Ever have one of those days (or weeks, or months...)?

Source: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi00NTM3MDJmMTgzNjI2YjUw

Source: http://myhoneysplace.com/my-favorite-quotes-updated-often/5638_384539101651724_1701341094_n/

Have a great day :-)
Thanks for reading.
Blessings :-)

My WIP

My work in progress this week?

The Bean! I'm taking advantage of the time I have to constantly take pictures of her. Before I know it, she'll be a preteen who runs every time the camera comes out  (otherwise known as Hope). Although lately, I've been getting this expression when I take her picture. Why are you always putting that thing in my face, Mom?

Her hair is getting long in the back. I love rubbing my face in its soft fuzziness.

But, alas, she remains bald as a billiard ball up front.

She loves her daddy; he fascinates her.

She loves to eat and have stories read to her.

 But she's not crazy about bedtime. I'm awake! Really! 

She prefers taking naps in her vibrating rocker chair.

She thinks baths are interesting.

But she dislikes the whole getting dressed process. 

She's my sweet little Alex.

And this sums her up perfectly :-)

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source: https://www.facebook.com/joyofmom

Two Tuesday

Source: hooksandyarns.blogspot.com

Two Things I'm Grateful For:

1. Looking at all the flowers in bloom. I can't smell them, but I love looking at them and touching the petals.

2. Diaper donations. A friend's niece's baby had a large growth spurt and didn't need these size 1 diapers. She brought them to us hoping we could use them. Of course we can :-)

Two Patterns I Think Are Neat:

1.Sunny Flower Mini Mandala

OK, I'm jumping on the Mandala bandwagon. Everyone's making them now. I haven't made one before because I didn't know what to do with it, but I have a project idea for these little ones. She has a couple more mini mandala patterns on her site. As soon as I finish at least one of my larger WIPs, this will be my next project.

2. Springtime Showers Sun Hat

Most of the time I don't like wearing hats because they're meant to be snug. This one looks nice and loose so I can see myself wearing it.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source: http://reallycool-pics.blogspot.com/2012/02/brilliant-positive-quotes.html

Monday Musings

We finally got some rain yesterday. Lack of rain was never a problem in Florida, but I've discovered how important it is here. 

As the rain was pouring down, we look out the back patio door and see the dog (who's supposed to be going to the bathroom) playing with something by the fence. And this is what we discovered.

A fledgeling baby mockingbird! We were afraid to disturb it in case mama bird wanted to come back, so we brought the dog inside and watched through the glass. The bird hopped around the yard and took refuge from the rain under this tree. I ran out to get the picture and saw mama and daddy mockingbird in the peach trees.

After some research on the internet, we found out it's customary for mockingbird parents to push the babies out of the nest at about 12 days old. They can't fly for several days yet, but they take shelter in bushes and rely on mom and dad to bring food to them. This means we have to keep the dogs in the house except for bathroom breaks for the next few days. That should be fun; they both prefer the outdoors.

I made Crockpot Lasagna Friday night. It was good, but I didn't like how soft the noodles were. Next time I make it I might only boil them a few minutes before adding them to the crockpot. I got the recipe from this book.

Tim and I have been taking our evening walks around the neighborhood again. We managed to get a picture of this bunny before he hopped away. It's not the best shot because I didn't get too close for fear of scaring him; the zoom is all the way out but it didn't focus very well.

Hope finished her mosaic. This was the piece before she did the grout.

And here's the finished mosaic. I love the contrast it has with the black grout.

I've made three more preemie cocoons this last week. 

The top left one in Red Heart Melonberry is the Sunshine and Shells pattern from Beatrice Ryan Designs, The pattern is for a newborn so I modified it a little to make it for a preemie. I used an I hook and worked the pattern through round 5, then skipped to round 8. I repeated round 8 until there were 18 rounds total before doing one round of single crochet and one round of single crochet with picots.

The top right one in mauve in TLC Amore (or Red Heart Plush, I get the two confused) is the Blue Skies Cocoon pattern from Dly's Hooks and Yarns.

The bottom one in Red Heart Monet is the Preemie Ripple Cocoon from Suzie's Stuff. This one worked up the fastest but it's really tiny. Babies come in all sizes so hopefully it'll be OK, but I think I'll go up a hook size the next time I make this pattern.

I made another four preemie hats, too. All four are the same pattern from The Dainty Daisy. The top two have pattern option B, and the bottom two have pattern option A.

I'm linking these Stashbusters on the Stashbuster Link Party at Linda's Crafty Corner. 

 

That's all I have going on right now.

Have a marvelous Monday!

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/87/9a/1c/879a1cba9048442a330a6af7eea5a576.jpg

Walking Around Waxahachie

Some friends from church let us borrow their car for the weekend. It was really nice to get out as a family; I've been going a little stir crazy this week. Yesterday, we drove south to Waxahachie and walked around historic downtown.

I wandered around the scrapbook store, something I've wanted to do for a long time. It's a great store; I'm sorry I forgot to get pictures inside. 

There were a lot of interesting shops. I liked the owl display in this one. Tim inadvertently photo bombed my shot. See him in the mirror?

We loved the architecture of the historic courthouse. It was built in 1897.

Here are some more shots from different sides. I love the faces carved above the columns.

We had a disgustingly unhealthy but extremely delicious lunch at a philly cheesesteak place. My only complaint was they didn't use enough cheese.

One of the shops, Mosaic Madness, was right up Hope's alley. She loves anything to do with art. You choose a chipboard shape and turn it into a mosaic with glue and bits of glass and stones.

Her work in progress. She's finishing the grout on it today so I'll wait to show you the finished product.

We found a nice paved walking path on the outskirts of downtown. We only walked about a half mile but saw some interesting sights.

These painted barrels were at the beginning of the section we walked.

Poor kite. It never had a chance.

Biggest lizard I've ever seen outside of a zoo! It's tail was another two or three inches.

We thought this was a little odd; the section of path we walked ended in a cemetery. The path continued for several more miles, but we turned around at this point because it was getting late.

It was a long day but very enjoyable. Here's Tim and Hope posed on a caboose displayed outside the old train depot. As for Alex?

She slept in her stroller most of the day. The life of a baby :-)

Thanks for reading.
Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration