Pictures, pictures everywhere

My parents neighbor is now in assisted living.  When I heard that she and her husband were making this move, I thought I would put together a comfortghan for both of them. So I sent out a request to the wonderful people at Crochetville asking for squares so I could put together one for Yvonne and Pete.  Sadly, while still collecting squares, Pete passed away. So I put together all squares in one afghan for Yvonne.  All pictures are clickable.

I took this picture of Tasha tonight.  I couldn’t resist taking one of her spread out like this.

And finally, we’ve apparently been having problems with our coke machine at work.  Personally, I think change is a good thing. If one doesn’t change, they take the chance of being left behind.  J wants to know if the machine has considered therapy.

 

Gifts

I can finally post pictures of some recent gifts. Everything has been shipped and opened. I didn’t want to show anything before then since the recipient reads this

Sarah was one of my college roommates and a wonderful woman. She’s getting married this fall to someone who seems like a perfect match for her. So their wedding present is this (all pictures are clickable):

Not only does she have the excitement of a wedding to prepare for, she is also expecting her first child with her fiance very shortly (within a month). So of course I had to send a gift for Tot. There is a little matching bunny hanging out on the blanket.

Tot will be joining big sister Paige. Growing up my Great Aunt Eleanor would always make sure the non-birthday child had a little something to open, usually it was cheese puffs or something like that. With this in mind, and knowing that there’s going to be a lot of attention on Tot when she arrives, Paige got her own presents.

Afghans

These two afghans I made for myself. The cream colored one is currently my primary bedspread since I don’t really need anything heavier at the moment. And if I do need added warmth, I just throw on a couple other blankets, including the whte and multi colored one.

Oy what a week!

Thankfully not the whole week, just part of it. I live in a one bedroom apartment on the 1st floor. The apartment above me is also a one bedroom with 2 adults, 2 children and one on the way. Yeah, so not legal and yes, the owner of the complex has been made aware of this.

Wednesday I was getting ready for work when I hear drip….drip….drip. I go into the bathroom and my ceiling is leaking, along the repair line from last years leak. I put a travel mug under it and call maintenance. Then a leak starts coming down from the fan and I put my garbage can under that. Not five minutes later I have a steady stream from the vent. I put the empty litter container under that one. Within 20 minutes, it looked like this:

Within 45 minutes it was 3/4 full. The apartment above me had water coming up from their toilet and a full tub. It took the plumbers all day to find the clog and fix it. I ended up with, in addition to wet carpet in my bedroom closet:

Lovely isn’t it? This morning included a call to animal control. An apartment in the building next to mine has this little dog (cocker spaniel size) that it leaves out on the balconey pretty much all day. In recent months the dog was out all night long and barking, it sounded like “hey let me in” barking. This dog was on the balconey yesterday afternoon when I took Ciera outside. I walked over and looked up at it and if it had stood still long enough I could have counted each rib. The poor dog also had spots of fur missing from it’s tail and, if I remember right, it’s hindquarters. Hopefully animal control was out today to investigate.

Sorry for depressing anyone. On the bright side, I got my doily from my partner at the Crochetville doily swap. It is very pretty and for some reason I didn’t see the apples until this morning. I’m still trying to figure out how I missed them

I have my partners complete, but I won’t post pictures until she has received it, just in case Everyone have a good weekend, here’s hoping for lots of wonderful weather all over!

P.S. I’m apparently having problems with photobucket this evening, the pictures either show up huge, or just show up as the code. So here ya go, direct from my computer!

Happy Saturday Morning

I’m sitting here multitasking as usual. I’m working on the doily for my partner at the Crochetville doily swap. Since I don’t have the pattern I’m currently using printed out, I have to sit here at my computer. I’m also scanning through a new blog, CraftyCarolinaGirl, mostly looking at the pictures of some pretty cool stuff. She does several differenty types of crafts and it’s pretty cool seeing the different projects she has posted.

J and I watched a new tv show this week, New Amsterdam. I remember seeing the previews for this show (Tuesday was it’s series premier) last summer with all the other previews. But I never saw it on the tv schedules for fall. I couldn’t remember the name or channel it was supposed to be on, and since I don’t have cable I knew it had to be on ABC, NBC, FOX or CW. During the superbowl I saw a commercial for the show and was excited to see it would start on March 4th.

If you haven’t seen the show, Amsterdam is the main character, he is about 400 years old and cannot die until he finds his soulmate. I keep thinking of Highlander while watching, but there are differences. For one, the Highlander never had to find his true love. And there were several immortials, as far as I can tell there’s only one with New Amsterdam. Amsterdam has apparently done several things during his long life, but is currently a NYPD detective. So each show has him solving a mystery while trying to find his true love, in New York (’cause there’s just so few women for him to encounter there alone).

The first episode had him having a heart attack on a subway platform. He’s convined his true love was on the platform and was even the doctor who tried to save him. J agrees with him. Me, I think it could have been any of the women he ran past while chasing down a guy to question. It could even be his new partner. After all, there has only been two episodes and previews for next week shows Amsterdam finding and meeting up with the beautiful doctor. That would be too easy for a show this new.

All right, back to doing laundry (since it’s so perfectly windy I can let my clothes dry outside today!) and crocheting. I really need to finish the two I’m working on so I can start the next couple, all deadline projects. Oh, and a co-worker (V) is found out Thursday what her first baby is going to be, so another co-worker and I will be coordinating on baby gifts to make once V shares the news with us this coming week. Happy weekend everyone!

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!

I hope everyone had a good Valentine’s Day. I was stuck working that night, so J and I saw each other very briefly. It didn’t bother me that I was working since I’ve never really been all that big on Valentine’s Day, J isn’t either which is nice. We kept things very low key, got each other a card. He got me a Peanut Butter Twix (since I had been craving one lately) and I got him a smallish Reese’s heart and a little picture frame. Nothing major, nothing break the bank expensive. Our anniversary is coming up at the end of this month and that to me is more of a celebration.

It’s sometimes hard to believe we’ve been together two years already. On one hand the time seems to have flown by at the speed of light. On the other hand, because we are so comfortable with each other (in a good way, I promise!) it feels like it’s been longer. I still thank my lucky stars everyday for him. And I’m very thankful to L for thinking he’d be a great match for me. So L, thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart

I haven’t been up to a whole lot of anything exciting. I’ve been busy crocheting as usual. I three current projects going, one of which is a very pretty doily. I signed up for the doily swap at Crochetville and I might give this to my swap partner. It depends on what s/he requests for colors and shapes. And as usual I will post pictures once I am able to.

I’ve also been busy sending out letters and making contacts for the auction. I stopped at my local Best Buy yesterday and spoke with the manager on duty. I am very excited to say that from the words he used and the impression I got, I should be able to get something from them to auction off. He asked what I wanted and I told him “I’ll be honest, I would love to have a tv or digital camera. It doesn’t have to be a high end expensive item either. But, I’ll take what I can get.” I don’t want to be greedy after all I received confirmation regarding another item the other day too. Mom works for the travel company for Great Escapes Vacation Club and they donated a certificate regarding one of their condos in the area. This is good for a week and has a value of up to $1500! I am really thrilled that they were so generous in doing this. I’ll get the paperwork tomorrow so I’ll be able to see what they are defining as area. As J pointed out since this event is taking place at a bike (motorcycle) fest, if GEVC counts Daytona as an area then this certificate will be a huge hit!

I’m still hustling my butt off to get donations. I’ve been very excited about the responses I’ve received and the generosity shown. If any of you knows anyone who would be willing to donate a service or product please let me know or send them to my Silent Auction website. Hugs and Kisses to all! I need to get ready for the day so that J and I can go find me some nice padded bike shorts. I tried on a pair recently to see what size I would need and they felt a little like wearing a diaper. However, if it’ll keep my butt nice and cushioned for those 150 miles, I’ll take it! Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Sea Snail!

I found Crochetville a few months ago and I love this site! The creativity of everyone is mind blowing! I recently got to test a pattern by one of the designers, KirstieMN and I want to show everyone. Please forgive the lips, they look a little funky. The facial features were left up to the crocheter, and I’m still working on how to make these look good. So here’s Lucy the Sea Snail.

It’s too late to think of a title

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I had the best kind, Mom’s fabulous foods and the wonderful company of family. The non-blood related people, they’re family too. J got me a beautiful pair of tanzanite earrings, which reminded me I still need to find a jeweler to reset my other pair. He also got me food storage set. I’m still trying to figure out where I’m going to fit everything in my Ki. I can’t even call the space a kitchen, it’s just not possible, one of these days I’ll have to take a picture to add. Mom and Dad gave me a wonderful new bathrobe, among other things. The only problem with the robe, it’s a very warm, soft, fuzzy fabric. And I live in FL. On the plus side, it’s supposed to cool down next week, so maybe I’ll get to use it then

On the crafting front I’ve still been busy. I finished the afghan for the silent auction. I didn’t have any other projects planned, but I was trying to think of what to do with all the blue yarn I have left from J’s afghan. If you remember, I bought 5 skeins the day after Thanksgiving as a precaution. Since I had run out of the blue and couldn’t find the brand I was using, the Red Heart was a very very very close match, maybe a slight shade off. So as a pre-caution, I bought 5 of them, and didn’t even use one to complete the afghan. I also have black left from it and the regular deep purple from the auction blanket. Those three colors are now in my current afghan project. They actually look very nice together, now, I just need to figure out what to do with it. I have an idea, but we’ll see.

I’m adding to my addiction too. Oh wait, that was a yarn addiction. So maybe my new discoveries are enabling my yarn addiction. You be the judge. I’ve joined the forum at Crochetville and I love seeing all the fabulous completed projects. Today I got my invite to Ravelry and I really don’t even know where to start. I’ve got lots to keep me busy and help the nights I work go by faster.

More Craftiness

Picture this: I’m sitting at home working (I have a part time job taking inbound sales calls, thankfully the company offers this at home!) and as I am taking calls I’m working on the afghan I plan to auction in April. Suddenly, I get the bright idea that I want to give snowflakes to some of my co-workers. But hey, it’s all good because I already have seven done. I only need about 20 total and I have about a week and a half to do them. And they don’t take me long. As long as people aren’t calling and throwing off my counting.

So, I got out my crochet thread, the little crochet hook (the one that always makes the one I normally work with feel huge after) and I started working. Oh yeah, and I also decided they needed to be sparkly and that would be done by adding beads. Have I mentioned that I’ve never done bead crochet before? It really wasn’t that difficult.

Then, I got the bright idea that one co-worker wasn’t going to get a snowflake. Instead, since this co-worker has had some stress recently, I thought I would make her something else. I found a pattern for a crochet reindeer at LionBrand. And I’ve spent a good portion of this week working on that. And, it’s finally done! So I can go back to the 5 1/2 hour afghan that’s already been longer than 5 1/2 hours. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is the reindeer and snowflakes.

I do have to say, I am very please with myself regarding the reindeer. It’s the first crochet animal I’ve done and I think it turned out well. The biggest issue I had was attaching the pieces.

I’ve Been a Very Busy Bee

Ok, make that a busy crafty critter! I finally finished J’s blanket. It’s only been in the works for the last 9 months or more. But in between that, I had a baby blanket come up. And a hat. And I decided I wanted a covering for my toilet tank and I wanted to make it so it would semi-match the shower curtain. And I had to finish J’s blanket as I was just itching to start my new project, a crochet afghan with a nice big hook. This one will be available to bid on and will hopefully be done very quickly. Since I’ve been so busy, I thought I’d share the fruits (ok, yarns) of my labor with everyone.

1st view of J’s afghan.

This has a better view of the edging. J says it looks to him like confetti and was done with all three colors together.

The covering I made for my toilet tank. My shower curtain is a navy blue with an suns, moons and stars in an antique gold type color.

Someone I know was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She was told that the type she had was a rare type, but if one is going to get this nasty disease, the kind she had was the best type to get. As a precaution, she is going through chemo-therapy. She’s not sure if her hair will fall out or not, so I thought I would make her a hat just in case. This is the first time I’ve ever made one, and it turned out pretty good.