Monday, December 21, 2015

Around the Bases CAL

Hello all! Hope your week is off to a great start!  After I did my last blog post, I realized I had forgotten to share my Around the Bases CAL with you.  I've been finished with it for a while now, but keep forgetting to post about it.  It was a fun CAL to do.  I'm so glad I joined in!  I have started CAL where squares are made, but then I always fizzle out on the squares.  This one was nice because it was in rounds, so when it was done, it was done.  :)  Thanks for stopping by!!


Monday, December 14, 2015

A Little of This and a Little of That

The time keeps flying by!  I see it's been almost a month since I last posted.  I've been keeping busy crocheting and getting ready for Christmas.  We recently celebrated our youngest grandchild's birthday.  He will turn 3 on Christmas Eve, but we celebrated a tad early.  He loves airplanes and had an airplane themed party, so I made him this hat.  I didn't use a pattern. I just winged it.  No pun intended.  lol  I'm not pleased with the plane's wings, but he could tell it is a plane, so that's what is most important.

The following items were made to order.  The colors in the pics aren't very good.  I used my tablet to take the pics, and the lighting wasn't right, etc., etc.

I've been crocheting lots of Christmas presents, too.  Can't show you most of them, but I will show you what I made for Adelyn and her dolls.  Her mommy has already seen them.  ;)  She has two American Girl type dolls, and they need some winter coats.  I found a pattern online for the coat and hat, and then I made a hat for Adelyn to match.  The pattern for the doll coat and hat can be found HERE.

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  I took a timed pic.  It's fuzzy, but it's better than no pic at all.  I just can't get over how quickly the kids are growing. -sigh-

Yesterday we did some cookie decorating.  I make sugar cookies, for Christmas, every year, and then go on the search of some decorating helpers.  :)  In this pic Lawson and I are talking about our matching spatulas.

I doubt I'll be posting again until after Christmas, so for those of you who celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!  And for those of you who celebrate something other than Christmas, I wish you Happy Holidays!  :)  Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, November 16, 2015

Some Crochet and Some Etcetera

Hello all, and I hope you're all doing well.  All is well with me right now, and hopefully it stays that way.  There is a stomach bug making its rounds and I'd just as soon it does not find me.  I can hope!  lol  

The vendor show was this past Friday night.  It was only for two hours and I cleared $87.  Better than nothing, and it isn't too bad considering that not many people ventured out for it.  Also, the location was only about 5 minutes away, so very minimal gasoline costs as well.  I sold two hats, some dishcloths, hair bands and some appliques.  Here are some of the things I had for sell.

Dishcloths/Washcloths/Hot Pads

Hair bands.  I actually had about twice this many as I made more after this pic was taken.


 Cotton Rounds (none of these sold)


Cup Cozies (again...none of these sold)

And here is a pic of my vendor area.  I also had a couple scarves, some boot cuffs, headbands and doilies for sell, but people just weren't interested.

Now that the vendor show is behind me, I am taking a break from crocheting those kinds of things.  I am working on my Around the Bases CAL again, and I want to work on some Christmas presents as well.

I watched the grandkids on Saturday while their parents went out of state for a funeral.  This next picture shows two of the reasons I scrapbook.  :)  I loved that they were looking at the book, and I also loved that she was reading some of the journaling on the pages.  Most adults don't bother to read the journaling...although they really should.

We also had some fun making pom poms that day.  :)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a good week!!

Friday, October 16, 2015

Beautiful Fall and a Duck and a Pig!

Here in western Pennsylvania Fall is in full swing.  It is gorgeous out there!  It is to get pretty cold this weekend, but yesterday I went out for a walk. I was out there about an hour or so, and took tons of pics.  I've narrowed it down to these few so as to not bore you.
I headed out our back door and went down this path at the edge of our back yard.

This is what is on the other side of that path.  Pretty, isn't it?

This next picture is the view from our front yard.

I also wanted to share with you these crocheted hats I recently made for an order.  
Santa Grinch (It was hard to get a good pic of this one.)

Pig and a duck hat for twin one year olds.  The pig is for a boy, so I gave it touches of tan so it didn't scream "girl".  lol

Oh, and I want to share one more pic before I go.  I took this pic on Sunday when Rick and I were out for a drive.
 
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!!

Friday, September 25, 2015

Around the Bases CAL

Hello all, and thank you for your kind comments on my last post.  This week I've been working on my Around the Bases CALs.  I ended up starting a second one last Saturday when I was at my daughter's place. I took pics of them outside today, but the lighting wasn't quite right.  You'll still get the idea though. :) 
Here's my original one.  What looks to be black in this pic is actually navy blue.

And here is a pic of the second one that I am working on. It's actually a denim blue color, light yellow and white.

Today I started working on some clothes for Adelyn's 18" dolls.  Not sure if I'll give them to her now, or wait until Christmas.  I might do a little of both.  I'm thinking if I make a couple things now, and give them to her now, that I can see how they fit the dolls.  Then, if need be, I can adjust the hook size or whatever.

In answer to one of the questions that was asked last post, Rick is 59, so he isn't at retirement age yet.  Also, he most likely won't be retiring for a long time anyway, if he does find a good paying job. For a couple decades he worked for a company who didn't do 401K, so we had nothing saved that way. I don't work outside the home because of my health issues. We shall persevere, though. :) 

They're giving free flu shots tomorrow morning at the small, local medical center, and Rick and I are hoping to be among those who are "first come, first served". They have 100 shots to give out.  Here's hoping we each manage to get one.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend!!

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Crochet and Coal (or lack thereof)

Hello all! Hope this finds everybody doing well, and in good spirits!  Let's start with the "crochet" part of the subject title.  I thought I'd share, with you, my latest crochet projects.  First up is this doily I made.  There is no pattern for it.  I just tinkered around and did my own thing.  I held two strands of number 10 thread together for the entire doily.

Next up is my Excellence doily.  The pattern info is directly on the pictures.  I love this pattern!  It is great for using partial balls of thread, which is what I have done in this one.  I have since started one in Fall colors, and hope to share it soon.

Last, but not least, is my CAL square.  I am participating in the Around the Bases CAL.  For more information, check out the following link: https://keitopalette.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/around-the-bases-crochet-along-cal/  It just started this past Sunday, so it's not too late to start.  Here is mine, which includes the starting square, and the first rounds.  I will be alternating these colors throughout.  I'm using all Red Heart Super Saver yarns.  The following is the link for the square I chose to use. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/kata  I wanted a flower for my center, but didn't want a heavy, bulky flower, so this one seemed perfect for what I wanted. With this CAL any square can be used.  Again, for more information, check out the link I posted earlier in this paragraph.

Now for the "coal" part of my subject title. On a not so happy note, my husband lost his job on Friday.  The coal business is on a huge downhill spiral in our country (dh worked at a coal cleaning plant), and things are not looking good.  Coal, and coal related, companies are shutting down right and left.  Definitely not a good thing for many of us. I won't go all political on you, but suffice it to say I don't agree with some of the things that are going on in our government right now.  :(

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Mermaid

Hello everybody!  Hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying your week!  Right now I'm enjoying mine by staying inside where the air conditioning is.  I was out mowing earlier today, but it's too hot to be out there now if a person doesn't have to be. 

Thought I'd share one of the birthday items I made, that I couldn't share until now.  Adelyn's birthday party was this past Friday, so now that she has the mermaid blanket I made for her, I can share it with all of you.  I used three different colors for this afghan, and therefore had to change colors each row.  That was a bit more tedious than I'd have liked, but for my Adelyn I'll do most anything. <3

Here is the afghan right after I finished it.

And here is Adelyn, at the party, with her mermaid afghan.  The colors in this picture are more true to life than in the previous picture.

Here is a candid shot of Adelyn with the mermaid afghan.  <3

If you'd like to make a mermaid afghan, too, click HERE for the link to the free pattern.

As always, I thank you for stopping by!  Have a great week!!

Monday, June 29, 2015

A Festive Occasion

Hello Friends, and thank you for stopping by!  Hope you all had a nice weekend!  Mine was very wet (unlike a lot of years, we have gotten a lot of rain this June), but nice as well.  On Sunday we had the bridal shower for my son's fiancee.  There were many in attendance, and it was a beautiful shower.  The first pic shows how the mantel was decorated.  We had it at a county park lodge building. My daughter made all the decorations for on the mantel. :)  I ordered the 16x20 print of the couple back in October.  Got a great deal on it at Shutterfly. At the time I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, and it turns out it was perfect for this occasion!

I'm mainly sharing this next pic so you can see the pretty decorations we made.  My daughter made the paper rosettes, and I made the tissue paper pom-poms.  This picture was taken when Brandon had to answer questions for a game.  I just noticed the baby doll in the pic.  That had nothing to do with the game...it belonged to one of the little girls.  lol  ;)

And here's the happy couple.  :)  They'll be getting married in August.

And now for some crochet. :)  The first two pics are of the towels I made for Carrie for part of her shower present.  No pattern...just did my own thing.


And I think I forgot to share this pic the last time I blogged.  I haven't been getting much thread crochet done because I'm working on birthday presents for the grandkids.  But I managed to squeeze in some thread flowers before I went to Laura's place to dog-sit recently.  Pattern info is directly on the pic.


Monday, June 22, 2015

Fields of Clover...and some Crochet

I'm back from my stay at my daughter's house, taking care of their dog while they went camping.  I actually came home Saturday night, but on Sunday Rick and I had a 45th anniversary party to attend.  I have been busy most of today, but decided to take a break and do a blog post. 
Behind my daughter's house, right now, is a gorgeous field of clover.  And you know what that means, don't you?  Butterflies!  I was in heaven!  lol  
No butterflies in this first pic, just the pretty flowers!
Butterflies!




This Killdeer stopped by on Friday as I was getting their mail. :)

The bluebirds were quite busy getting food for their babies.

Even Ollie enjoyed the clover field!!

Laura's Columbine

My "helper" while I was there.  ;)

Couple more pretty wildflower shots.



And last, but not least, the crochet I managed to get done while I was there. First up some dish/wash cloths. The pattern info can be found directly on the pictures.  All crocheted items are done with cotton yarn.

Some coffee sleeves

And a few of the stretchy headbands.  I put little flowers on these ones this time.

I also made some ice pop holders for the kids.  This is a pic I posted on Facebook via Instagram.  I'm anxious to see if the kids like them.  I put the props back in Laura's fridge when I was done with the photo shoot.  ;)  There is no pattern for these.  I just did my own thing.  :)

Well, I best go work on supper.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Enjoy your week!  :D