Monday, June 26, 2017

Busy June post

I'm back and this is loaded with pictures.  Busy June indeed!  Started off crazy and is just now settling and it's the end of the month! First I'll start off with the other 2 mouse ears that I did for my Granddaughter and Daughter-in-law.  I didn't want my Son to feel left out so I whipped up a mickey head pin in camo to wear on his hat.  He was less than impressed.
Headband #3
Headband #4

Manly Mickey ears
Day one of vacation had us at Disneyland and of course Katlyn and I took a selfie while on the tram (with our ears of course)
Day 1 vacation
Lines were long since our vacation coincided with Grad Night which apparently runs during the day as well, who knew!
Happy family time
The weather was wonderful though so we just smiled and enjoyed ourselves.
Christopher and Katlyn in Toon Town
Katlyn and Brooke
Day 2 we were at California Adventure, still lines because again Grad Night but still great weather!
Day 2 - Brooke and I on Heimlich's ride 

Always in a line

That's Brooke and Alysha's car (top right)
All four sets of ears held up beautifully even being stuffed into backpacks during rides throughout the 2 days.
Parade time at California Adventure
Day 3 we headed to Universal Studios and Harry Potter!!  So much happiness there!  Brooke got picked in the wand ceremony so that was special for her and here she is learning some spells with her new wand.
The wand chooses the wizard...
Katlyn and I got passes because he price for 1 day vs. lots of day was reasonable, so we will be venturing back soon.



Day 3 - At Hogwarts 
Day 4 is Magic Mountain.  Fortunately the closest to home and opened the latest so there was sleeping in time because let me just say I was dragging!  Disneyland is about 90 minutes away so that's a lot of traveling as well as walking.  My Fitbit was very happy with my steps!
Superman
I can honestly say I am officially too old for Magic Mountain!  While I love roller coasters, some were just a bit jarring to my poor head and the hike around the park is insane!
Day 4 - bye-bye Magic Mountain (forever)
Day 5 of vacation was the road trip up North.  I drove, Katlyn and the dogs slept!  
Sure they get to sleep
Saturday the Balloon Festival which normally runs right over the house made a change and the balloons went in the opposite direction which I was pretty bummed about.  Got this guy when he was getting air.  It was pretty windy so I thinking that's the reason for the changes.  Sunday I didn't even hear them going up so they may have been grounded with the wind.
Cute Bee Balloon
Katlyn and Christopher went to Beerfest
screenshot of Katlyn's snapchat
The rest of vacation was hanging out with my Grandkids and just enjoying not walking 10's of thousands of steps!
Kasyn is a nut
We watched movies and I worked on Kasyn's Eater of Yarns blanket.
Eater of Yarns
Tuesday was Brooke's 9th birthday (yikes!) and she wanted to spend it at the beach so off we went.
my birthday girl enjoying her day
Kasyn loved the beach as well
Birthday dinner at Applebee's (Brooke's favorite)
Kasyn's ketchup face
Then cake and presents at her other Grandparents house
I can't believe she's 9 already
Home Wednesday!  Worked on my temperature blanket a bit after unpacking and getting laundry done for work.
Temp blanket
Whew!  Busy busy!  All of this plus packing offices at work for the big move in July.  Crazy month and I'm not going to freakout that I will be unemployed around September....sigh.




Wednesday, May 31, 2017

....End of May

Made it just in time to get another May post in.  June is shaping up to be very busy.  Starting on Monday we are off to Disneyland, Tuesday California Adventure, Wednesday Universal Studios, Thursday Magic Mountain.  That's a LOT of walking!  Friday we drive North.  Yikes this is going to be a crazy vacation.  Saturday and Sunday is the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Festival and Brooke's Birthday is Tuesday, then we head home on Wednesday.   Don't think that there will be much in the way of updates during the next 2 weeks.  I know that there will be very limited crochet time.  I will of course take a bag with me to work on in the car during the drive times and the road trips up and back.  Unfortunately I cannot work on my Friends squares in the car so that will be on hold until I get back.  I have a made a bit of progress though, the weather cooled off during the last week that I could play with yarn again. 
upside down and backwards, but progress
it's growing!
the mess during each row
On Friday a pair of mouse ears appeared in my Facebook feed, you know I jumped on those babies!  Oh my goodness, the cuteness!  Went in search of headbands Saturday morning and started in on the first set.  Had to hunt down my hot glue gun as well, but man the finished product is awesome.
Saturday's group shot
Flowers
More flowers
Two finished headbands down!  Working on 2 more for Brooke and Alysha as well so all 4 of us girls (Christopher said no to wearing one) will have crocheted mouse ears at Disneyland and California Adventure next week.

I guess that's it for now.  I will of course be taking pictures so I will get them posted as soon as I'm able when I'm back.



Monday, May 22, 2017

Too hot to crochet!

 So this weather was just too hot the past weekend to touch any yarn.  I really tried but just the thought of fiddling with it made me sweat more then I was.  Hot flashes are not helping either!   I had a plan to get this square done, but alas it did not happen.   

slow going
Since there was no yarn play I will just show off photos of my dog and grandkids :)
Kid Saturday night bedtime
Sunday morning, Kid didn't really want to relax after their 6 am walk!  He doesn't care when I say I'm going to lay in bed until 7.  He just plopped on me while the other 2 dogs went back to sleep.
Judging me or trying to sleep....
I did some gardening since my balcony is mostly in the shade, still too hot but the plants were very overdue for clean up and repotting.  I got all the plants cleaned up and the balcony swept clean of leaves.  I bought 2 bee loving plants on Saturday and got those repotted and ready for the bees to enjoy.  I have a Brisbane Box tree right in front of my unit and it's full of bees right now so I'm hoping they will enjoy my new flowers too.
Here's yesterday's weather at 2 when I checked for my temperature blanket,  yikes!
Sunday at 2:00...boo!
I wasn't in Windsor this weekend but my Daughter-in-law sent me kid pictures.  She was babysitting my Grandson and Brooke enjoyed driving him around in her Barbie jeep.
Sunday afternoon in Windsor
I am hoping to get some crocheting in this week because I am getting behind on things I want to get done!  That's it for today though.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Still in May

The last week as been slow for the most part.  A few things working on as always but not a whole lot completed.  I gathered yarn for square number 3 of the #ChaosandChopSueyFriendsCAL and started winding bobbins.
Bobbins at the ready
Of course once the bobbins were done I couldn't help but start just a little bit!

The beginning
 Um yeah, this one's a mess of bobbins!  So many color changes for each row.  My patience just might not hold up for this mess!

Mess
I have found that to keep the mess to a minimum that I must weave the ends after each row or two because if not then the mess is overwhelming and I really want to enjoy this blanket and not have it end up in a bag in the back of my closet as a wip!
Neat & Tidy
I had a nice quiet weekend with Katlyn working early in the day on both Saturday and Sunday.  I got things done on Saturday so that I could spend Sunday (Mother's Day) crocheting and reading.  Didn't end up that way, I got distracted by little things that turned into big things throughout the day so I didn't really sit down to crochet until 2 in the afternoon and since I needed to play catch up on my Temperature blanket from the past week, that's what I did.  
Temperature blanket up to date
So nothing huge, but got somethings done and enjoyed the slow week that it was. 
Pleased that I have another post in May!  Still working on it becoming a habit.

Monday, May 08, 2017

Welcome Monday

Blah, but oh well off we go into a new week.  Not a whole lot to post about but I'm trying to get into the habit of both posting and photos, so these small posts will be the stepping stone to that habit! 
Onward to the weekend update.  I started bright and early on Saturday so I could get this turkey square done.  Didn't finish it, because I did lots of things on Saturday.  I worked on it in the morning until Katlyn got up around noonish and wanted to go to breakfast.  So off we went to our favorite diner and then ran to Target to pickup a few things for the house.  Came home and played catch up on my temperature blanket.
Saturday's view
Sunday was much more productive for the turkey as you can see.   I worked all day and right up until bedtime to get this one completed!  Going to start the next square tonight, well get my yarn box filled with the proper colors and get the bobbins ready anyway.  
I went to Joann's after work on Friday and picked up the balance of colors I needed for this blanket since they were on sale, so unless I run out of a particular color I should be good to go to the end. 

Ta-da! (The hat is actually burgundy
I love this photo, I love the colors and the organization of it and I think I will have to have a craft room such as this!  Now I need to find those baskets! 
NOT MY PICTURE
Short and sweet today!  I'm off to find clothes pins!




Thursday, May 04, 2017

Caught up....mostly

 Back again with the rest of yesterdays catch up post.  We are now up to April 2017! 
I belong to a couple of crochet groups on Facebook and at the end of March a post popped up that was a Friends CAL, WHAT?!  How did I miss that!  Anyway, I jumped right on that bandwagon and bought the pattern from Chaos & Chop Suey on Ravelry.  Started as soon as I had the yarn for the first panel.  I'm doing a mini c2c which is hdc instead of dc.  I'm also using Red Heart Super Saver instead of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn as Angela does.  With this panel I used Vanna's Choice Brick for the rust color because I couldn't find anything close in RHSS
4/9/2017
4/16/2017
 And ta-da!  Panel #1 complete
4/28/2017
 I love the couch and have the next one started.   I joined the CAL very late into it, so officially it's over, but there are still many working on it in the FB group so I'm not bothered.  
 My 2017 Temperature blanket is coming along as well, I love these colors, they all play nice together.  
Done through March

Done through April
It's getting hot, so May should be interesting!
Now on to the WIPS.  I have several going (of course) so I took a photo last night of these 4.  They are more Eater of Yarn blankets.  The top 2 are similar with their random colors, the difference is the size, left is queen size and right is toddler.  The bottom 2 are less random, left is twin sized in girlier colors and the right is only 3 colors, black, gray and red.  These will be set aside for a bit since it's getting so hot out.  They are too big and heavy to work on in the Summer!

top L for Steven, top R for Kasyn, bottom L for Brooke, bottom R for Chris
I also have some other WIPS that I will get photographed and posted so I can keep track and hopefully get them finished up.  I started a Bullet Journal this month so they will go in that as a collection.
Next up.....#2 in the Friends CAL.
4/30/17
 And the halfway point, this has more bobbins!  Of course more bobbins means more ends to weave in.  I am keeping up on the ends as I go though so I don't have to do them all at the end.
5/2/17
 Last but not least for the day is just a little thing to use up all those small leftover bits that I seem to accumulate.  It's tiny right now and sits in a shallow bowl on my nightstand.  I'm doing a regular c2c and dang it's not pretty, but the dogs will love it if no one else does.