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.

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.

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!

New Start

Yes indeed it's been awhile.  I will get started with things I whipped up since I last posted and speed up to current projects.  

MARCH 2016

Leprechaun hat for Kasyn 

St Patrick's Day

Bunny Beanie for Kasyn

Easter Bunny

JUNE 2016

C2C Cupcake blanket for Brooke

She loved it

JULY 2016

Started a 4 color ripple & a squishy throw with Bernat Blanket yarn & worked on my temperature blanket.
Went to my first Yarn Hop as well!

New ripple for Alysha 

Squishy Bernat Blanket yarn 

Temperature blanket

 Brooke & I enjoyed the 4 stops in Sonoma County's Yarn Hop

Yarn Hop Haul

JANUARY 2017
Finished my stash busting Eater of Yarns blanket!  It turned out gorgeous and massive  (over hangs tall queen bed)  Katlyn stole it for her bed.  I used so much yarn for it and loved working on it.  It was so much fun to see how the random colors came together.  Very bohemian.  I got my Sister hooked on this method and started her own.  I have 4 others started as well.  One for Brooke in girly colors, twin sized.  Another random colored large one for my son Steven,  1 for Kasyn toddler sized and 1 for Christopher using red, black and gray.  It's too hot right now to work on any of them but I'm hoping for Christmas presents!  

Eater of Yarn on Katlyn's bed

Started a new Temperature Blanket.  2016's model only made it to August 3, 2016 before failure due to color choices.  2017 color choices with the help of Katlyn

2017 color/temp sheet

We use the 2016 failure for the dogs

Kid doesn't care about the colors

Well I can't get Blogger to cooperate with my any more so I will end this for today before I get angry and delete everything!  Tomorrow will be current projects and then we will be caught up!

....photos and more!

Here we are the 2nd week of January and I haven't posted since September!  Oh dear....I will do a quick picture update from the last couple of months!

Things I've completed, still working on or newly started!

He likes to hang out with me

Pumpkin hat

Santa c2c

Katlyn got a new puppy, she was found tied up in an alley with no water with the temperature outside above 90.  She was approximately 3 months old according to the vet, malnourished and had to take medication for some aliment that I can't remember, but she is now a bouncy, healthy, near 6 month old puppy who is slowly destroying my house! 

New puppy

Now on with the new boy in the family who is seriously the sweetest baby ever!  Born September 20th 

New Grandson!

My Son the shark

He's so tiny!

Candy Corn Hat

Boob Beanie

Katlyn turned 21

2 Grandkids now!

the growing blanket

Me & Brooke

Lunch at the mall

recycled silk yarn - Darn Good Yarn

Snowman c2c

a quick headband

He came down for a visit!

family photos

oh this face!

turkey hat

he likes it

Christmas gifts

all done

another gift

slippers - literally finished on Christmas!

I think all the photos above have explanations enough for a quick update. 

Now on to current projects!

I started this blanket on December 30th, with the idea that I could use up some of my yarn.  I have so much and it just sits in plastic tubs in the closet, so I figured I could use up some of it and make a new blanket at the same time with no pressure of Christmas or any other holiday to finish it up.  So I make a very long starting chain, I think it was 196 chains with 2 strands held together and an M hook (9.00mm) It's going to be huge!  Here's what I'm doing, hdc in each ch/st across with a 2ch turn at the end of each row.  I do 2 rows and then switch out 1 of the colors and have that on repeat until I get it a length I like.  The first picture is the start of the first row, which I do my hdc's in the back of the starting chain.  It's is a pain, but I do like that it doesn't look like the starting row.  The picture below it you can see how the blanket has advanced in just a couple of days. 

first row is always the hardest

On January 1st I started a temperature blanket.  1 row daily with the color depending on the outside temperature, usually I go with what the temperature is when I walk the dogs in the late afternoon.  Maybe next year I'll do another with the temp at noon.  It's Southern California, I'm not sure how much of variety I will be getting once it warms up a bit.

day 2

That's it for now, I've been taking daily pictures of the temperature blanket and lots of pictures of the Eater of Yarn blanket.  I want to spread it out on the bed for a large shot but my bed has a dark duvet cover and since the damn puppy ate my quilt that was light colored and I used for many photo shoots....sigh.  I'll figure something out!

Listening to:  Something by The Beatles