What I'm Up To!

Hello!

My computer is finally fixed, yay.  We replaced the motherboard and I've only been up and running with it for a couple days.  Yes, I wasn't computer-less, but like I've said before, the front computer is for shipping and day to day operations for the shop and I didn't like going very many places on the web in case I got a virus or other problem.  Broken computer = No shipping = No $, simple as that.

It's time to upgrade/change my blog background but I started with making the font larger so it would be easier to read.

I finally got out my hook and started a project!  It's a simple scarf for a friend, late birthday gift or Christmas gift.  It takes me so long to complete projects that I thought I'd better start now.  I got 2 skeins of LB Jiffy in a perfect color to match denim.  I'm using a J hook and the pattern is called "Crumpled Stitch", alternating a sc and then dc, sc then dc... and the next row you sc into the previous row's dc and then a dc in the previous row's sc. 22 stitches wide.  It's a KISS project for me!  KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.  That is what I need right now to get back into crocheting.

Didn't feel so great yesterday so one of my customers brought me a "Get Well" bouquet this morning!

It's been a whirlwind summer with lots going on.  I'll be back to share it with you.
Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

Yarn Bombing Day 2012

What is it about yarn bombing that I like so much?  I'd say it's about taking the ordinary everyday objects and making them special by wrapping them up in yarn!  It's just downright fun, creative and sometimes, just what one needs- to make something silly or to laugh at the silly yarn bombed stuff. 

International Yarn Bombing day is coming up quickly, it's June 9th.  I'd like to yarn bomb something again this year.  This is what I did last year.  But a flag on a car is normal.  Click to see last years post  I'll have to figure out what to do.  It would be fun to do a group project if only I had the time to join in or start one.  Work, work, work :( what is a gal to do?  

I know, go have a piece of chocolate.  Yum...I'll burn it off at rehearsal tonite.  My dance show is this coming Sunday and we have rehearsals every night this week.  Yeah!  I get to exercise.  Good news, I've been on a reducing diet and my pants are noticeably looser today.  I promise I'll only have one pc of chocolate candy and not blow my diet! 

It was nice having 3 days off.  I got out my sewing machine for the first time since the move and I had the Indy 500 on while I mended some clothes.  I love getting backlogged stuff like that done.  I needed to shorten the black skirt (costume) and had to do it from the waist otherwise the ruffle wouldn't be the same length as the others.  It's always a good thing to know how to sew when you are short like me; I need to hem almost everything.  The race was amazing.  I esp. liked the camera that is mounted in the car so you can see what the driver is seeing.  Technology at it's best!  

Have a great week!

What I've been hookin'

Hey!  Here's what I've finally finished.  These were supposed to be done as a Christmas gift for my sis but I only got one of 'em partly made and you should have seen the look on her face when she saw the yarn ball attached and more yarn balls in the gift box (she doesn't knit or crochet).  I mailed them off to her today so she could start using them now instead of waiting until we visited next.

Isn't that a pretty soap?  French milled lavender from France that I got from Tuesday Morning.  I love that store.  

Got sick last weekend with that darn head cold that's been going around and actually had a fever and by yesterday I started feeling much better and more energetic.  Haven't been sick for a long time, (I knock on wood).  Which is good because I can't call in sick as I'm the only one who can do all the jobs at the little shop.  We had some rain the other day which always clears the air and cleans everything and we've had the nicest 3 days of sunshine and warmth.  I need to transplant my indoor African Violets and I also got some Daffodils to plant in a pot this weekend.  They should be blooming by Easter or a little before that.  

Time to leave work and get to redbox and rent a couple movies.  Nothing much exciting going on over here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Victoria's Crochet for Summer

Hi!  I got to talking with a couple friends after work and so got going late just to find (on the traffic website I go to b4 I leave work)  that there is an accident and a few miles from there a small brush fire near the fwy I take to get home sooooo decided to blog instead of sitting in traffic.

Check out these Victoria's Secret crocheted apparel from their latest catalog.  Must be slave labor since the asking price is cheap for that amount of work.  I would have to charge waaaaay more for these if I would've made 'em.  Click on 'em and you can see the pics in more detail, the pretty stitches and the prices!

I like the tank top but I know it would be too low cut on me.  The shawl is pretty but they should also show the back since I would never wear it with the bandeau top and cutoff shorts!  If I'm interested in the shawl, I'd want to see it!

Well, I checked the traffic and it's cleared up so I'm heading home.  See ya!

Miss Daisy

Here she is, my final version of her.  Since I didn't find the perfect daisy for my project, I created one. 

12 petals and a 3-D center

Her petals won't curl as much after she gets blocked.  Next is to put her in a square and decide on some companion squares.  Don't hold your breath tho- since it takes me forever to finish crochet projects.

Hope you are having a special weekend with your dad, husband or your boys who are now fathers!

Last Weekend's Fun

Whoa, what a busy week since I posted last.  I have all these ideas to post stuff and then I just can't seem to make the time to do it.  Waa, waa.  Went to see Tamara dance at her recital last Sat. nite and she did great.  She was most concerned at all her costume changes (6) that she wouldn't have time and be late to the stage but it went on without a hitch.  I stayed the next day and we (my sis, Tamara, Jordan and Josiah, nephews 7 and 5 yrs.) hung out, ate, played board games, threw a big ball back and forth outside, walked to CVS and got Thrifty's ice cream cones, stopped by to get my mom's guest list for her party and picked up some really good Mexican food and then I left late for home Sun. nite.  Was I tired on Monday?  Yes.  But it was a good tired.

Here's my talented niece, she's 12 yrs:

Yes, she held still enough to take the pic!

And another shot, yeah!

Here's the only thing I got done in time for Yarn Bombing Day.  A little red flag that has traveled on my car's antenna since Saturday and has already gone 310 miles (498.89664 kilometers) and didn't come off!  A little windblown but here he is:

House repair update: I think my chiseling days are over.  I whacked my hand really hard with the hammer (by not paying attention, I'm sure it was my own distracting thoughts) that fateful Sunday morning (June 5th) and it got all bruised but it didn't stop me from doing my projects.  It began looking worse than it felt as it was only sore when I touched it and I know I didn't break any bones only blood vessels.  It swelled up and looked like I had a button under my skin (weird) but days later the bruising spread out and looked bad.  I was gonna take a pic of it and show you but, well, it was ugly and I figured you know what bruises look like and I didn't like looking at it and so you probably wouldn't either!  BUT just in case you were wondering it is greenish today!!!  After hitting my hand it made me mad, so I began hitting the end of the concrete piece with just the hammer to make it go faster and I broke the damn concrete thing about 5 inches instead of the 2" I planned on.  It worked out though and I'll show you my solution I came up with next week.  I got some of that concrete patch/sealant/calking type stuff in a tube to fix it the rest of the way, tomorrow.  That's it for now!

International Yarn Bombing Day!

You ask, "What is yarnbombing?"  It's where you take a yarn creation and apply it to something out in the world to make it prettier, softer and more colorful.  You could call it street art, yarn graffiti or random acts of knitting and crocheting.  Check out this website, yarnbombing.com for more info and this link explains how Int'l Yarn Bombing day began and this flickr page for more glorious pictures!

This Saturday June 11th, to celebrate and join in, take something you've made and put it outside for others to see and be a part of it!  I'm going to make some flowers and hearts to go around my car's antennae.  I don't have much time so I need to make a few things today and tomorrow morning and then have my car wear it while I drive down to my sis' tomorrow for her daughter's dance recital.

Here are some of my fav's that I stole from google images!

Wished I had known about this earlier so I could've found a group and contributed in a bigger way.  Why?  Just for the fun of it.  Happy yarnbombing day to you!!!!

Danny's Chevron Scarf

HOWWWDDDEEE!
Here's Dan's scarf that I finally finished.  Ironing it handled the ridges but who knows if it'll get the ridges again after it gets washed. Ironing gave it more drape and it made it just a bit larger, too.  This matches his hat that I crocheted over a few months ago.

When I got home on Saturday and was looking at the kitchen, I realized I didn't do the kitchen baseboards, darn.  I didn't work on that since I hadn't planned on it and all in all I was not feeling like doing much of anything and yet there is SO much to do.  I was having a tiny pity party for myself as all this mess about the house, everything and everywhere you look there is something to move, clean or fix (or maybe even throw away) and it's just overwhelming me.  I worked outside, even in the heat and potted the bromeliads like I planned to do and got that finished.  I was exhausted by nightfall and was listening to the radio, putting my clean laundry away when they announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and there was relief in hearing that.  Learning the evil mastermind was stopped gives us hope there will be less terrorism in our world now!

Have a great week!

Tracy's Crochet Gift

Hi! Tracy's present was a prayer shawl I made from a Bernat pattern that I started working on last fall.  I finally finished it last week.  The yarn is called Dante and is made by Berroco. This yarn is thicker (nubby) and then gets thin in some places and I followed the pattern in which you work from the longest part to the end (bottom) of the triangle.  When I got done with it, when it came to the end point, it was really too small.  Changing the yarn is what did it, I'm sure.  Me and my darn yarn changes.  Since I have very little time to actually crochet and then along with the fact I had to come up with a plan to make it larger, is why it took me so long.  I added 5 rows of dc down each side and some sc and pique stitch around the longest side and then added an edging on each side to match the bobbles/clusters and chains from the main pattern.  I like how it turned out and so did Tracy!  With each stitch I prayed she would remain cancer free!

These pictures are before I washed and blocked it.  I liked how after it was washed, it had more drape, was softer and opened up the spaces and it actually became larger, yeah!  I wished I'd have taken good "after" shots.

Can you tell I'm super happy I finished it?

 

Enough pictures yet?

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!

I love you!

Taken just before we headed out to the Faire!  More on that later.

I'll be back soon.

Little Weekend Plans

Howdy!  Looookie, I got mail.  From Michaels craft store a coupon, so that's where I'm headed now after work and the mailman brought my book.  Sign up at Michaels.com and every now and then they send you a coupon.  I don't get their mailer for some reason and I don't get the Sunday paper where they advertise.  
 
I also got this book on ebay and it came today.  Yeah, I saw the movie but I have a hunch...the book will be better.  Haven't read a chick book for awhile so this should be nice.  

Still gonna work on the kitchen cupboards and do a little gardening, read some of my new book, crochet a bit and of course CLEAN blah.  

I got going early this morn and already did the grocery shopping before I opened the shop.

Many of my customers were telling me that the Geraniums were so pretty so I took a pic to share them with you, too.

Hope you getta do something relaxing this weekend!
See ya ;)

Refinishing, Wool and Flowers

Howdy!
What I've been up to since it's been 10 days from my last post:
I had the shop open only 4 days last week as there was President's Day on Monday and then last Saturday was the yearly Camellia Festival and parade where they close the street off and nobody including the postal carrier can get to me so I have learned to just close up for the day as there isn't any business anyhow.

I worked quite a bit on the kitchen and figure 2 more wknds and the refinish part should be done, yippee!  The final reveal still won't be for awhile as there will be more sanding and painting nearby the kitchen and I don't want to decorate just to have to wash sanding dust from all of it, if ya know what I mean???

I washed allot of old wool suits and pants that the moths had got to (I plan to use them to make rugs and or felt type projects in the future) and then bagged them in plastic with a few mothballs just in case the soap and water didn't kill 'em all.  I will box them all up this week.  I'm talking here, quite a few woolen items: coats, jackets and pants that we inherited from different people and when they were hanging in my room to dry it smelled allot like wet DOG!  Sorta sad to cut them up as there sure is an amazing amount of handiwork that goes into all that sewing.

I came across some clothing items that I'm selling on ebay soon that all needed to be photographed.  That took a chunk out of yesterday afternoon.  I'm downloading the pics right now, 182 pics in all.  Out of all the pix, I'll only use a few of the best ones for each of the auction pages.

We've had a few days of rain so I didn't have to spend any time watering the potted or garden plants.  The contractors weren't able to come most of last week and that is putting me behind on planting in the bare spaces since the trees are gone now.  The last rain was a cold one and put snow on our local mountains down real low and it was so pretty on my drive in this morning and I wanted to take photos for you but the camera was of course, in the backseat in the tote bag.

I've hardly crocheted at all the last couple weeks.  I did find a Ravelry member with some green yarn I needed so when I get that I can start on my next project.

The worst cabinets, in front of the sink.

Without flash

With flash.  I can't wait to show you the transformation!

My violets are blooming so pretty right now.  Here's a few pics for ya.

Have a fabulous week!

It's Raining Now

We're supposed to get quite a bit of rain this weekend.  NOT looking forward to the drive home tonight.  My long time friend, Wayne came by the shop today and surprised me with pizza for lunch.  It's been a quiet week for the most part which sometimes is a good thing esp. in the case of the missing ipod package.

Here are the 2 books I got recently.  I love Scandinavian design and this book has some simple patterns to do in it.  I esp. like the bird motif on the chair pads and the pom poms are cute.

This book has pretty sweaters and I wouldn't mind making them all but I have to start out with the easiest one first.

This one looks nice on the model but I have a feeling that it would make me look like I had Popeye arms, hee, hee!

I want to make this one in ivory color.  It has 3/4 length, slight bell sleeves and according to the book it's an easy pattern and to be safe, I'll use the yarn it calls for in the pattern.

This is the yarn that I got from Big Lots.  I went and got 3 more skeins of the yellow the other night so now I have 6 and it will be mostly a yellow project.  I want to get green so I have to see where I can get it from.  Maybe Ravelry has someone who wants to get rid of one.  I have a plan for these but it's a surprise to be revealed later! According to the Lion Brand website I saved about $13.00 by getting it at Big Lots :)

Here is part of my small collection of Hedgehogs.  Most of my stuff is packed except these 2 until we move and I couldn't resist getting these garden gloves the other day, they have Hedgies on 'em!

I'm getting close to finishing the Chevron scarf and then I plan to start on the next project using my new springtime colored yarn!

I've decided to close on Monday, President's Day and continue to work on the kitchen.  I don't really feel like it but it has to get done and maybe I can get allot accomplished having Sat. afternoon, Sun. and Monday to whip it out.

That's all for now, thanks for stopping by and have a nice weekend!

Ha Ha on Me!

Hi there, I just have to laugh at myself, I'm just a toolin' along on the Chevron Scarf and then I noticed that if I continued the pattern the way I was headed that the ends of the scarf wouldn't be the same!  Hmmm.  That's what I get for not following any pattern except of course the basic pattern of chevron stitch. 

This edge is the beginning.

This edge would be the other end (except it would be blue).

Here I have it folded on top of itself. See how they don't match?

Now, if I were making it to butt up together (like making a circle or let's say a sleeve) then it would work out perfectly and seamless.  But since it's a scarf, I want the ends to match.  So I had to think of what to do.  I have now BECOME a crochet pattern maker, hee, hee.

My solution is to make two identical pieces and seam them together in the middle which would be at the back of the neck. 

I started the other piece last night and now the ends WILL match!

It's become a tad on the wavy side and I hope after blocking it will flatten out some.

I poked around Big Lots (store) last night just to see what good deals they had.  I haven't been there since last spring I think it was.  I was curious if they had any closeout yarn and sure enough they did.  I'll show ya my find, soon.  I also got a couple books last week from Joann's and I'll share those, too.

I hope wherever you are it warms up for you this weekend and you getta chance to go out and enjoy yourself! 

Helium Pups, Chevron Scarf

Look what I found at the grocery store this morning.  Wo(man's) best friend!  Sorta freaked me out at first.  When I went around the corner they moved a little and that's when I noticed them.  CUTE.  I want one, I WANT both.  Actually, I wanta REAL doggie or two or three. 

Adorable helium Doxies!

Here is the scarf I'm working on for Danny.  It's to match his hat I crocheted over.  It will mostly be the charcoal color.  I love the blue yarn, it has many different colors in it when you look close.  Far away it looks just blue.  I thought Danny would like these two colors together.  Now in the early mornings when he is out at the racetrack working with the horsies he won't be cold. 

This yarn is Lion Brand Wool-Ease in 115 Blue Mist.  The charcoal is Naturally Caron Country they are both wool acrylic blend.

 I've only done a few rows by last night but it's going faster now that I memorized the pattern.  Just an ordinary Chevron stitch in single crochet.

I worked 4 hours on Sunday removing the plants (to save them) that surrounded the trees that were removed yesterday.  My son was helping and we got soaking wet.  Of course it had to rain when that was the ONLY day I had to remove them.  I was gonna take photos this morning of what it looks like without the trees but there were cars in the way and other stuff so maybe the contractors will come tomorrow and I'll take pics then.  The big house even looks BIGGER now without the trees.

Happy day to ya!