WIP Wednesday

I've been working on various small projects this last week. I'm up to round 27 on my doily:

I made some hats for the Waxahachie Children's Home (one of our church ministries):

My cross stitch progress has been over the last month:

Collection: I finished the quilt and started stitching the cabinet.

Next Trick: I stitched a lot more of the toilet paper (yup, that's just as weird to type as it is to read!)

Lid Up: I stitched a lot more of the toilet.

September Bear: I'm almost finished with the center blue section.

February Bear: I finally finished all the patches and started stitching an arm.

March Bear: I stitched a lot of the patches and all of the buttons.

August Bear: I'm a little more than halfway finished stitching the center ecru section.

Sunflowers: Not much progress here. Just a few stitches on the third flower.

God So Loved: I stitched the word LOVE (except for the backstitching) and started working on the sky.

As you can see, my needle's been a lot busier than my hook this month. I'm hoping to find a better balance next month; I have a lot of crocheting to do before we start the Mini Rings of Change CAL.

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Photo Credit

CAL Details

I've decided to host a Crochet Along to make this gorgeous blanket. It's called Mini Rings of Change and you can find the pattern here on Ravelry.

This is designed for Turtle Crocheters like me. In that spirit, we'll be starting it December 26 (I'm making mine for myself, so why not start the CAL on my birthday?) and going until March 31-ish. This gives people (mainly me!) time to finish any lingering projects and do some Christmas crocheting. You can also gather any yarn you need if you want it a specific color.

If you like the look of it but prefer to use thread, no problem; this works up nicely as a doily, too. If you click on the link above, there are several examples.

This should be fun; I'm looking forward to it.

Only 62 days until we start!

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

TUSAL

It's TUSAL time - Totally Useless Stitch A Long hosted by It's Daffy Cat.

I forgot to take the pictures until this evening, so they're a little dark and blurry. Oh well.
I'm quite proud of my thread orts; I've been doing a lot of cross stitching lately.

On the other hand, my yarn orts are abysmal this month. I've been completely focused on my doily; I just finished round 26. I'm still enjoying it, but I've slowed way down.
That's all I have. It's not even 9:00, but I'm tired.
Thanks for reading.
Blessings :-)

Two Tuesday

Photo credit

Two Things I'm Grateful For:

1. Better health. My cold's finally on its way out; I just have some sniffles left. Alex is still sneezy and sniffly, but at least she's happy.

2. Getting back to a normal schedule. On top of being sick for most of the month, we had a huge anniversary celebration at church that required a lot of prep work from everyone for several weeks. That's over, so I'm enjoying the small breather between now and the holidays.

Two Patterns I Think Are Neat:

1. Mini Rings of Change

Round blankets are so pretty. The bright colors in this sample are gorgeous, too. I'd love to host a crochet along with this pattern if anyone's interested??? If you prefer thread to yarn, you can follow the same pattern to create a doily instead.

2. Grumpy Cat

I LOVE Grumpy Cat! Michaels sells a stuffed animal Grumpy Cat, but they want $22! Crazy. Although I hate amigurumi, I may have to make this. A friend at church has offered to sew the pieces together if I crochet them. Tempting...

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Photo Credit

Still Here, Still Sick

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I don't quite sound this bad because I'm overloaded on cold medicine. And I can't stay in bed all day because the baby has a cold, too. But you get the point.
I hope you're a lot healthier than we are :-)
Blessings.

Monday Musings

Thanks for the well wishes. I'm feeling better, but I've reached what I call the Grumpy Sick Stage. I feel well enough that I want to get back to normal activities (teaching school, cleaning, cooking, crafting, etc), but still sick enough that when I try, I get tired very easily and have to rest. That irritates me.

I did get a lot done on the doily. I'm getting ready to start round 22. The DAL (Doily Along) is being hosted by Pammy Sue at Scotty's Place.

In January, I'll be joining Debbie's Super Duper Ultimate Crazy SAL hosted by Linda at Stitchin With My Furbabies. I chose the cross stitch patterns I'll be stitching (a new project to be started each day in January and February) and I've been gathering the rest of my supplies a little bit at a time. 

I'm going to take a nap now.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

 

And the Winner Is...

Six entries to win the yarn.

And the winner is....

Charlotte from Charlotte's Web!!

Yay! Congratulations!!

Thanks to everyone who entered.

Charlotte, please email me your mailing address at bookworm187@earthlink.net.

I joined a Doily Along hosted by Pammy Sue at Scotty's Place. I'm using Aunt Lydia's Bamboo thread in Zen Green and a size 4 hook. I'm just about to start round 9. 

It's a gray rainy day today, and my husband was kind enough to share his cold with me. I'm going back to bed. Have a good weekend.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

I Love Yarn Day!

There's a holiday for everything, isn't there? Well, according to the Craft Yarn Council, the second Friday in October is I Love Yarn Day. So, besides playing with yarn all day, the best way I can think to celebrate is to have a giveaway.

How would you like to win four skeins of Red Heart yarn? Two in Shades of Brown, two in Carrot. All you have to do is leave a comment on today's post letting me know what you would make with it. I'll draw a winner at the end of the day. Good luck!

1+1+1= & State Fair Part 2

What does
      1 cranky, teething baby,
        1 sick husband,
         and 1 broken casserole dish lid (my favorite one) equal?
 A stressful start to the week!

Oh, well; today's a new day :-) Enjoy some more pictures from the Texas State Fair.

We made a stop at the aquarium on the fairgrounds; Hope's friend volunteers there and we wanted to say hi. These moray eels are so creepy!

Hope enjoyed petting the stingrays. We used to do that at Sea World in Orlando all the time.

Alex had an intense stare off with a grouper.

Outside the aquarium was a sculpture garden. My favorite was this cactus with the faces.

Tim and Hope liked the bucking horse made of wrenches, pliers, locks, hammers, etc.

Of course, I had to spend a little time in the Creative Arts barn. There was a lot to look at! I only saw a small portion, but I took pictures of my favorites. This doily is gorgeous! Hope asked if I could make one like this; I told her yes, if there's a written pattern not a diagram. I still can't read those things.

I love the colors in this cross stitch piece. And all the different kinds of birds.

This mosaic is amazing! It's made of painted rocks and shell pieces.

Of course, we had the standard fair food of corn dogs and cotton candy. But we always try to find something new and different. These are Amazeballs (no, I'm not making up the name!). They're chocolate cake balls sprinkled with bacon bits and powdered sugar. They were so good!!!!

So that was our trip to the fair. It was great fun, and we're already looking forward to next year.

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

State Fair Part 1

We had a lot of fun at the State Fair yesterday. It was our first time going, and we were amazed at the sheer size and amount of things to do. I took a lot of pictures, so I'm breaking them up into two posts.

Of course, we had to see Big Tex.

I love the paintings on his boots. He talked and waved, too; that was cool.

 Tim and Hope rode a few rides together. 

 

Alex was in a good mood all day. Her shirt says "Don't Mess With Texas Babies" :-)

She played her first carnival game and won a little stuffed fish. Unfortunately, it fell out of the stroller some time during the day.

 We saw the dog show (see the little blur in the arch? really fast little dog!),

the pig races (Dale Swineheart Jr won this one),

and the ostrich races (weirdest thing I've ever seen!).

More to come tomorrow!

Thanks for reading and looking.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

 

Lights Out

This was us last night. At least for a little while. A big storm blew through about 4:00 and knocked out the power. Most of DeSoto was without power until 8:30.

It really wasn't bad. Hope and I played board games until Tim got home. He dragged out the generator and plugged in the refrigerator so the food wouldn't spoil. Because we have a gas stove, we were still able to cook dinner. Other than being a little warm, it was an enjoyable evening. 

I'm off to make invitations for a big church function we're having in a couple weeks.  And tomorrow we're going to the Texas State Fair in Dallas; our neighbor was super sweet and gave us tickets. I'll bring the camera so I should have some photos to share Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

What I Should Be Doing vs What I Am Doing

Photo Credit

It's 1:30, and I have been a total lazy bum today. I did do some crafting (cross stitching), and I'm not wearing pajamas. The kids are dressed and have been fed. So I'm counting today as a win! 

Seriously, I need to get off the computer and do some cleaning. Anyone else get sucked into the black hole that is the computer? I was just going to read a couple of blogs...that was an hour ago. And Alex is sleeping. Considering she didn't do that AT ALL yesterday, I'm counting my blessings and enjoying the peace and quiet. I love spending time with my girls, but when the small one is cranky and screaming because she hasn't slept and won't sleep for fear of missing something...

OK, seriously, I'm getting off the computer now. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll have something more interesting to say.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)