Stashbuster #6: Blooming Flower Cushion

 I finished my Blooming Flower Cushion. I had too much fun making this! I started it Tuesday night, did most of the crocheting yesterday, and stuffed it and slip stitched the pieces together this morning. This is the front.

And this is the back.

I forgot yesterday to tell you what colors I used: Plum Pudding, Shaded Dusk, and Green Tones, all Red Heart Super Saver. They're 5 oz. skeins, and I used about 50% of the blue and green and 75% of the purple with an I hook. I didn't have a pillow form so I used fiber fill for stuffing.

Hope wants one (or two) for her room now. Her birthday is in April so I have some time to get the right colors (dark purple, teal, lime green and white) to match her room and make a set.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Thursday Tickle

Source: http://cheezburger.com/6402335488

I can see my dog doing this to the baby in a few months!

WIP Wednesday

We've been pretty busy the last week, so I've only made a little headway on my crochet.

A few more rows were added to the Ferris Wheel Blanket...

A few more rows were added to the Drop in the Pond Lapghan...

A couple more rows were added to the Yo Yo Blanket (one of my UFOs from last year)...

And, of course, I started a new project. I have an illness, I know. I like to start more than I finish. This is the Blooming Flower Cushion from Attic 24. I decided the living room needed some color; we have a black couch, tan carpet, and white walls. This should help.

I've been doing lots of reading; I recently finished Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult and The Cat Who Sniffed Glue by Lilian Jackson Braun. A trip to the library yesterday yielded me another stack of books to conquer.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Two Tuesday

Two Things I'm Grateful For:

1. A new day. We all have those days that make us growl and want to crawl back under the covers. But they pass and, if we're lucky, we get another shot the next day.

2. Feeling my little bean moving around. With two miscarriages in the last 4 years, every movement is a miracle.

Two Patterns I Think Are Neat:

1.Sweeper Cover.

I need to make several of these. I prefer my Swiffer to a broom, but I hate using so many cleaner sheets. 

2. Owl Dish Scrubbie

In case you didn't know, I'm an owl freak. Anything owl is for me :-)

No, I'm not a domestic diva, picking two patterns that are cleaning related. I'd rather do anything other than housework! But I still think these two are neat.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Ugh!

Ever have one of THOSE days? 

Where the kid won't do her schoolwork without major attitude?

Where you drop or spill everything you touch?

Where the internet only works for 10 minutes at a time without crashing and requiring you to run to the garage, unplug the modem and router, count to 10, plug them back in, and wait 5 minutes before you try again?

Where the cat decides how much fun it will be to throw litter and poop around the room and you can't clean it up because you're pregnant and getting the kid to do it requires an act of God?

And this was my morning! 

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day :-)

Hope the start of your week was better than mind!

Thanks for reading my rant :-)

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/quotes_translation.asp?id=431

Photo a Day Challenge January 6-12

Here are my photos for the Photo a Day Challenge this week. I missed a few days so there aren't that many.

January 6: Happens Every Day

This happens every day, several times a day in fact: Sugar waiting patiently for me to open the back door so I can let her run around the back yard. Can anyone say "doggie door"?

January 7: Upside Down

Missed this one. Couldn't find anything interesting around the house to flip upside down and photograph.

January 8: Lucky Number

Missed this one, too. I don't really have a lucky number.

January 9: Natural

My favorite photo from this week. This is one of the pear trees in our backyard (at least, we're told they're pear trees). I love all the spindly, bare branches. And the fog that day was really thick so it made a nice background.

January 10: Manmade

After our day of maternity clothing shopping, we had dinner at Cheddar's, one of our favorite restaurants. They bring you honey butter croissants to start your meal. Yum, yum!! So good they melt in your mouth. (A big sorry to all of my dieting friends for this one!)

January 11: Looking Down

Another one I missed. I had a great idea for it but forgot to actually take the photo, and, of course, the idea didn't come to me until late at night. Oh well.

January 12: Colorful

One of my current WIPS, the Yo Yo Blanket. I know a lot of people find it tedious work, but I love making all the little yo yos with scrap yarn and attaching them. I find it very soothing.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

It's Rally Time!

Today was our Regional Rally. It's an all day conference the jewelry company I work for has every January. It was exciting (and a little scary!) today because it was our first Texas event. We're used to going to the Florida events and knowing about 75% of the people; out of 1000-1500, that's quite a bit! Today, out of about 500 people, we knew 4.

But we had a great time. The training was really good and the new jewelry is gorgeous as always. It felt great to be surrounded by excited, positive people and get lots of encouragement for the coming year. That's what I love most about what I do; they never talk about numbers. They talk about how much worth we all have because we're made by God and how much we're loved.

And, bonus, the weather is starting to warm up! I needed a coat this morning but not a heavy one, and I didn't need gloves or scarf or hat. The sun was actually out most of the day, too. Amazing!

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source: http://myhoneysplace.com/my-favorite-quotes-11/969434_10151795418470622_1909102342_n/

New Experience

With his new job, Tim is off on Fridays so we usually spend them running errands. Today was no exception, but today's errands were to places I've never been to (or it's been 12 years): we went maternity clothes shopping.

With Hope, I didn't show until the end of my 7th month (common with a first baby, I'm told). I made do the last 2 months with a few regular dresses and two pairs of stretch pants. I think I might have had a couple of maternity pants, too; these were bought at a thrift store.

Now, at almost 21 weeks, my regular clothes are getting a bit uncomfortable. So we started the day at a little resale shop in Dallas.

It's a fairly new shop, but they did have a small selection of maternity clothes. I was able to find 2 pairs of pants, one casual and one for work.

We went to the Town East mall in Mesquite next. That was fun because we'd never been there before, and it's a really big mall. We shopped at Sears first; I found 3 shirts on the maternity clearance rack. All of them can be worn with jeans or with my work pants.

Our last stop was the Motherhood Maternity store. That was definitely a new experience! I was worried the prices would be astronomical, but they really weren't bad. I found a shirt on the clearance rack and a nice dress that was regular price but not very expensive. Both of these are good for work.

Here are all my new duds:

From Motherhood Maternity

From Sears

Shirt from Sears, pants from Ra Ra's

I think I might need a couple more pairs of pants, but, other than that, I think I'm set for the second half of my pregnancy (fingers crossed!). 

I hope everyone had as productive of a Friday as I did :-)

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Stashbuster #5

I finished my Shell Infinity Scarf and am quite pleased with it. It's made with I Love This Yarn in Berries with an H hook (smaller than the pattern calls for but I wanted smaller stitches). It's very soft and squishy and makes me happy :-)

I also learned something about myself yesterday. People with OCD shouldn't make pom poms. As strange as it sounds, I never made pom poms in school. I learned how to yesterday with YouTube videos and a couple of tutorials on websites. Now, a pom pom should probably only take 5 minutes to make, if not less. And I think I made the actual pom pom in about 2 minutes.

Then I spent the next 15 trimming it.

I'm not kidding. I kept trimming and turning it and trimming it and turning it. Every time I thought I was done, one little strand looked a little too long and needed a snip. I finally finished it and attached it to another stashbuster I'm working on. 

Maybe I'll leave the pom pom making to my daughter, Hope. It might be less stressful.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Thursday Tickle

Source: http://www.lespetitesgourmettes.com/random/friday-funnies/

P.S. Yes, I do this :-) And it's driving me crazy because I haven't memorized the layout of the new stores here in Texas. Yes, I know I have problems :-)

WIP Wednesday

It's another cold, drizzly day out. I hope you're staying warm wherever you are :-)

With the Christmas decorations gone, the house is looking bare. Tim hasn't had a chance to hang any pictures on the walls, so I decided to add a little color by hanging my heart garlands.

Forgive the darkness of the photos. We have two small lamps in the living room for light and they weren't bright enough. And the pictures were almost black with the blinds open. But you get the idea. The house still has that "just moved in" look. Hopefully we can fix that over the next couple months. The pattern can be found here on Ravelry and a more detailed description with step by step photos can be found here at Cherry Heart.

Other than my multiple UFOs listed in my sidebar that I've been dragging out of boxes and trying to resurrect, I'm working on two small blankets.

This is the Drop in the Pond Lapghan. I've made one before and I really like the pattern. I'm using Red Heart Super Saver in Black and Aran Fleck and I Love This Yarn in Burned Pumpkin.

And this is the Ferris Wheel Blanket; the pattern was created by one of my favorite bloggers, Debi at Dly's Hooks and Yarns. I'm using Red Heart Super Saver in Aran and Coral. Funny how I seem to be in an orange mood lately.

I'm off to do laundry and check on the kid's schoolwork. 

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source:http://inspirationalfamousquotes.blogspot.com/2014/01/have-awesome-day-and-if-that-doesnt.html

Two Tuesday

Two Things I'm Grateful For:

1. A big fenced in back yard. This is a nice bonus to our new house; we didn't have this in Florida so taking the dog out required a leash. Not terribly convenient at night or when the weather's cold. With the thermometer barely reaching 30 today, it's nice to just open the back door and let her run!

2. Putting away the Christmas decorations. I love Christmas, and I love to decorate, but by the time January comes around I'm ready for it all to go back in the closet.

Two Patterns I Think are Neat:

1. Shell Infinity Scarf

With the cold weather, I'm wearing scarves a lot more. I'm making one of these now, and the pattern is very easy and very pretty.

2. Slipper Socks

You've seen this one before. I've made a lot of these in the past, but it's still one of my favorite patterns. I wear mine every day. Another good one for these cold winter days.

Today's Inspiration

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/quotes_translation.asp?id=442

Stashbuster #3 and #4

 I actually started this just after Christmas, but I'm counting it for this year's totals because most of the work was done this year. I figured with the baby coming in 5 months, I'd better get started making him some things. It measures about 24 inches across, and I used Oh My! yarn from Plymouth. The pattern can be found here.

 I finished the hat for Tim. This one should fit him a lot better. It should also be warmer; I used Country Loom, a nice, bulky weight yarn. I made the pattern up as I went; if anyone wants a pattern for an extra large hat, I'll post it.

This Florida girl is still adjusting to the cold; it started out at 18 degrees today and has made its way to 30 degrees. I don't think it's supposed to get any warmer today, so I'm staying inside.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Stashbuster #2 and January Photo a Day Challenge

 Hope wanted a winter hat so I made her this one today with this pattern. It was supposed to be for Tim (originally, Hope wanted a purple one), but it came out a little small for him (he has a big head). Hope decided she really liked the color and the fact that it was a little loose on her head. So, it wasn't a wasted effort. I'm making Tim another one with a different pattern and thicker yarn.

January 2014 Photo a Day Challenge

I'm doing the photo a day challenge again, but I'm only going to post the pics once a week; that way it's not so obvious when I miss a day :-)

January 1: Lunch

 

Purple spaghetti, anyone? This is what I was doing at lunchtime on the 1st day of the year: untangling yarn. It was a nice new skein; with just one pull, the entire center fell out into a huge tangle. Fun :-)

January 2: Begins With G

 

These are our two Girls: Cinnamon (left) and Marshmallow (right). 

January 3: My Town

This is the entrance to the DeSoto Town Square. It's really nice; all in one complex we have City Hall, the local theater, the Civic Center and the Library. Oh, and a nice parking garage. It's very convenient and only a few blocks from the house.

January 4: Words to Live By

 This is one of my favorite verses. Good thing God has plans for me; mine never seem to work out right :-)

January 5: Found

 

 We found this little desk and office chair on Craigslist for free. The desk had a couple of cracks in it but some wood glue made it good as new.

All the daily prompts for the Photo a Day Challenge can be found here.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source: http://permanentsunshine.tumblr.com/post/6657813094/neverfaraway-god-doesnt-call-the-qualified

First Stash Buster of the Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful first day of the new year! I found a hook among the boxes and some cotton yarn in my stash and whipped up a couple of Crazy Cloths (pattern here). I'm joining the new Stash-Busting party on Linda's Crafty Corner and, hopefully, adding this post to the link party (I've never tried to add something to one of those so I hope I do it right).

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Happy New Year!!

Source: http://www.nocturnar.com/fotos/welcome-2014/

“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!”

William Arthur Ward

Source:  http://thinkexist.com/quotations/new_year

Whew! Finally able to take a breath...

The last three months have been a whirlwind to say the least. Thank you for all your kind comments and prayers; I know they helped :-)

Over the next couple days, I'll go into more detail, but there are two major events that have affected our family since my last  post:

Here's our little bean; I'm almost 18 weeks along and so far so good. Baby looks healthy in all the scans so far, and, other than 6 weeks of miserable nausea that kept me in bed, I've been feeling pretty good. 

Source: flagpictures.org

As of two weeks ago, the great state of Texas is now our home. Tim applied for, was offered, and accepted a job with the City of Dallas as a mechanic for the fire department.

So, those are the biggies for us. I hope everyone out there in the blog world is doing well and having a wonderful Christmas season so far. I'm hoping to catch up with your posts soon.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)