Skipped October

Ok trying this again.  Yesterday I started this post and did all of the proper placing of photos and their titles and typed a whole mess of fantastic information and even saved a couple of times and then the next thing I know *poof* all gone and not to be found again!!  I really have no idea what happened but I was too frustrated to work it out yesterday so I shall once again attempt to get this done today!

Now where to start since I have skipped out of October all together.  Not much happened I suppose.  There was Disneyland, crocheting, rain and a road trip.  Those were probably the highlights, so let's get to it!

Disneyland is up first.  Katlyn and I went after they had decorated for Halloween because we never got there for it last year.  We had a blast (of course, it is Disneyland after all)  The weather was prefect and we actually got to ride Radiator Springs Racers finally!

Packed up for the day.

Pumpkin Mickey's everywhere.

On with a bit of crocheting.  I decided to get working on Christmas gifts and started a hat for my Nephew and then stumbled upon this pattern and dropped the hat in favor of scarf making!  Yay for Christmas gifts! Now let me say that the pattern is ridiculously simple and is forgivable in any errors and even states that errors are no big deal.  Ok fine...I made a mistake early on and just went with the flow, considering it really wasn't going to effect the finished scarf.   By the second mistake it was just too much for me to take.  I had somehow twisted it up causing it not to lay properly.  I made this discovery while working on it at the tattoo shop with Christopher.  I was not amused considering I was well over the half way point.  I frogged the whole thing while sitting there and restarted.  I would LOVE to say that I proceeded happily along and it is now complete, but HA fat chance of that!  Frogged again on the road trip home, but now have it under control and nearly complete!  Whew!

looks great scrunched up, showing no errors!

Start of Riley's hat.

Just a photo of a chicken, because well everyone needs to see a fabulous metal chicken while reading a blog! 

metal chicken!

Bees are a favorite of mine, I save them from drowning in the pool during the summer.  (true story!)  I had a blast at the San Francisco Zoo because they had a huge beehive that you could see into, fascinating creatures I tell you!  Anyway I digress.  Katlyn has introduced me to Yogcast videos on YouTube!  They play Minecraft and other games and record videos for the games and holy hell, these guys and girls are hysterical!  Anyway we were watching them playing Minecraft and they had a whole new thing going on with bees and trees.  So many bees it was funny!  I had downloaded a little bee pattern awhile ago and dug it out to whip up a bee for Katlyn. She found it amusing and the bee found a place in the bottom of the TV.

bee butt

Rained one whole day, yay, my car got a bath!

So Christmas projects...yep as usual I have more then one going on at a time.  Oh yes and Riley's hat has not pattern so I shall be making it up as I go after the beanie base is complete!  Always a good thing to challenge myself during the holidays!

project bag overflowing!

And again found another project to start, at least it's another Christmas present!  This time flowers are involved and again not pattern for the scarf.  I am using a couple of patterns for the flowers though.  

Tea and flower making

The flowers are fun to make, I'm using 3 different patterns and many different yarns to create the size differences and different textures.  I think this maybe fabulous when it's done!

flower production continues 

reading and flower making

stacking up!

Nine flowers done so far, just have to figure out the total needed to get the look I want and then they will be attached to a base.  If the whole thing fails, Katlyn loves the flowers so I fix them to a barrette so she can wear them in her hair or on a hat!  there will be no flower waste in my house!

9 done!

Went up to North for my vacation and on Saturday spent time with Christopher while he was getting line work done on the other half of his leg.  This was his second session and his third will be next week spent getting some fill in done.  This was my view for about 5 hours on Saturday, because right after Christopher was done Katlyn had an appointment with Nate.  Good thing I brought my crochet bag with me! 

Christopher getting his leg inked

Katlyn was next.

Pumpkin carving requires pumpkin, Safeway was selling these green and pretty gross looking "fancy" pumpkins along with the regular orange one.  Just couldn't bring myself to go green on a pumpkin!  We got plain old orange ones!

a "fancy" pumpkin

Navi all snuggled into the car seat

Thursday night pumpkin carving time.  Christopher opened up Brooke's pumpkin for her to clean out, she was less then thrilled!  She did pretty good but didn't want to touch the stringy bits.  I helped her with it and got it cleaned out and she started drawing.

using a spoon

Chris and his giant pumpkin

Brooke did the drawing all by herself and I did the carving for her.

Chris working on his

Christopher didn't know what he wanted to do, so I suggested a Minecraft pumpkin and after bit of googling this is what he drew up.  Turned out great! 

Minecraft pumpkin

Road trip home was uneventful, just cruised along with me crocheting while Katlyn drove and Katlyn playing Pokemon while I drove all the while we listening to podcasts of either Hat Films or The YogPod with the dogs sleeping in the backseat!

hookin' on the road

Getting home to the cats after a week is always interesting.  My Sister and Mother took care of them while we were gone but they just did drop-ins so that meant that Stein had a lot of alone time, never a good thing with that cat as he is quite the demon cat of the family!  I Stein proofed things that I could, moved my fish and my plants out of the living room and closed both bedroom doors so I could limit the damage he could do while he was bored.  I did not count on him DESTROYING my poor little bee!  Psycho cat!

poor bee

So there it is, my little story about my missing month!  Totally nothing exciting like I said...oh wait I did come home with bronchitis so YAY me!  Will get on my projects for a more interesting post next time, which hopefully will be sooner then December!

Listening to:  Rocket by Def Leppard

so many things

Well now I have many have been things going on lately I'm not sure where to go with this post.  The weather here is hot so a lot of pool time, but a bit hot for too much handling of yarn.  I of course am reading a lot.  Trying to keep up with all the book I actually have on my Kindle.  Which is near impossible!  I have gone over my Amazon wish list and cut off books that I wasn't a fan of the writing.  I like that you can read the first chapters in order to get a better feel for the writing, even though that doesn't always work.  I have purchased 2 books of late that I just couldn't finish.  I read the synopsis, I read the first chapters before purchasing and yet the books fell apart horribly.  I really tried to get through them both, but just not going to happen.  I actually feel a bit guilty not finishing a book once I start it, but I damn, life is too short to read bad books.  Anyway...enough of that, let's move on to yarn and things.

I have a bag full of squares, miscellaneous squares that I had gotten from a square exchange, years ago and a few that I had sampled up.  They have been bagged up for a good long time and really needed something done with them.  Idea...let's make a bag for my daily work stuff.  Grabbed a skein of pink yarn (just a random color) and started with a single crochet around all the squares I had chosen.  Hopefully it will turn out ok.  I will be lining it as well in order for it to hold it's shape better and so that small items don't drop out.  It is going to be a wild & colorful creation!

new bag

Katlyn's phone case turned out cute, well at least I think so...she isn't overjoyed with it, but she does use it.

anchor button added

So pool time includes poll drinks!  Yes indeedy!  Hot days, cold drinks in the pool, usually accompanied by a book while relaxing in the water!

poolside drinking

Home time with the pets.  Katlyn went out to sushi with my Sister and brought home a bit of leftovers.  While chatting with me and finishing off the bits of fish (yuck) Kid decided he needed to try some!  So Kid got a taste with chopsticks.

Kid uses chopsticks

The girl and I finally made it to the closest Barnes and Noble to us these days.  Gotta love a bookstore and the smell of new books!

So. Many. Books.

Christopher, Alysha and Brooke came down last weekend for a visit!  We had a great time...at the mall, in the pool, at the store, out to eat.  Just fun all around!

I like when I have visitors!

We bought new poolside cups that amused the heck out of us! 

My fancy cup!

Hanging out in the pool, on a dolphin!

happiness in a pool

Christopher also picked up his new puppy while he was visiting.  Brooke was quite pleased!

new puppy - Navi

So shopping was adventurous and prosperous!  Alysha and Chris bought me a new 46" smart TV...oh yeah baby!  It is awesome....really just so much happiness in a TV!!  Getting it home was the adventure because there were 5 of us...in Christopher's car, which is an Acura TL...not an SUV.  good thing I live fairly close to the store!  

new television!

Alysha asked for a phone case in purple, black and white, really the least I could do...of course I had already planned and bought the yarn for it, but still.

phone case

Home Goods on Monday...Alysha wanted to visit and buy a feeding dish for Navi that she had seen on a previous visit to the store near her.  They have some very cool stuff in that store, I mean come on, who doesn't need a ceramic head planter??

shouldn't everyone have one?

Brooke is now in Kindergarten and so smart and of course most adorable!

my pretty princess

I got Christopher's taco chicken finished for him to hang in his car!  Even managed to include the T-Rex charm!

taco chicken for Christopher

Got Alysha's phone case finished up, she chose a button and used it happily.  I forgot to take a picture of the finished product though and had to have her send a shot to me.  It really is not crooked, not sue what's up with the picture she took! 

Alysha's case

And for the final bit of the weekend...we got a new bunny.  Pet store + Katlyn + Brooke = no hope of bunny escape for me!  But seriously though...look at that face!

Merlin

That's it, yes a bit much, but that's what's up!

Listening to:  Le Disko by Shiny Toy guns

Yep, here I am!

So I came back from the great beyond...actually have not actually gone anywhere, just keeping busy.  And by busy I mean reading.......A LOT!  Seriously, I am close to 100 books read from April until today and have 45 unread on my Kindle and 88 on my Amazon wish list and that doesn't include the multiples in an individual series, which there are many on my lists!  I feel like a woman obsessed with reading, too bad I can't make a career out of reading!  So on now with hooking.  I am working up small projects, just getting them done as I keep getting requests for cases ranging from iPhones to iPads and all things in between.  Christopher bought a new car and wants a chicken for it, so I am making him a chicken.  his car is midnight blue and I found some cotton yarn with a lovely navy blue in it.  I also have a silver t-rex charm to add to his chicken, don't ask what I was thinking when I picked that up, just figured I could make it work somehow!

chicken for Christopher

Got a couch and a loveseat for the living room and now when I read Kid hangs out on the sofa with me, snuggled up somehow!

I read, he snuggles

Saturdays in July and August require pool time, so I head put to the pool at my Sister's with a book and a drink and maybe a snack :)

saturday afternoons

Saturday nights it's girls night at her house and we have been playing games, Apples to Apples and we found this game which is similar to Apples to Apples but oh the hilarity is so much!  Really horrible people indeed!

saturday nights

Went yarn shopping last week to grab some cotton yarn for a phone case for Alysha and they had big giant Bernat cotton skiens red tagged (only selected colors of course) so I grabbed a green one, because I have a love for lime green and for 6 bucks it was a screamin' deal!  Of course it was a better deal because it was actually $3 and not 6....oh so much happiness for me!

a bit of shopping

We acquired a new kitten last week and let me say, my plants...they are not so thrilled!  Anyway, his name is Stein and he is cute, but he's a kitten and I am crazy!

a new animal to clean up after

So the market bag I was working on forever ago (last post) well it's done and very cool.  Easy peasy to get done though I did redo the strap because the pattern called for it to be twice as wide and it looked ridiculous. 

market bag - complete

This phone case is for Katlyn's new Samsung Galaxy 4, I made her one already but that was before that plastic protector case came in the mail which has made the first one I made a bit snug.  This is Navy (even though it looks black) and white stripes as she requested.  

phone case in progress

My mother requested a case for her iPhone, so hers is on going as well.

phone case 2 in progress

This is the green cotton I picked up for $3.  Don't have a clue what I shall use it for, but by god it was necessary for the price!

2.97

And last but not least, this is the case I made for my Mom's Kindle.  Black yarn, blue buttons and a silly ittle duck on the front!

kindle case for Mom

That's it for now my lovelies...I shall try to balance my time better with books and yarn!  Still haven't finished Merlin or Supernatural!  My television never gets turned on!

Listening to: Control by Puddle of Mudd