...and again

So we will start this off by showing of the first of the 3 baby hats that I have done over the last 2 weeks.  I really need to start taking better pictures.  I think most of these are done in low light and that just doesn't do these hats much justice!  This first hat is a super quick hat to make.  The pattern I believe is called the 30 minute baby hat in fact.  I don't have the pattern in front of me so not sure.  Anyway, super quick and easy, though my flower has only 4 petals and the pattern flower has 6....really no idea how I manage that, but I like it!  This is done in leftover cotton yarn that I have bits and pieces laying about just for these quick little projects.

Baby hat #1

Next up we have a lovely shot of delicious ice cream, this is what my Sister came back with when she went out for diet cokes at lunch time!  Crazy girl, but damn it was good and one of my most favorites from Baskin Robbins!

Baseball Nut

Oh yes and it's been hot, of course it's Southern California, so it's never cold, but man it was HOT!  When it gets hot we head for the pool!  Ahhhh! 

Pool time.

So fun by the pool requires drinks and salsa!  I bought the drinks but made the salsa!

tasty pico

Now on to the next hat.  Again, poorly lit so entirely too grainy, but I tried!  This is a baby turban that I made sort of from a pattern.  I had to do adjustments because I used a chunky yarn and a much larger hook then the pattern called for, but it worked out nicely.  

Baby hat #2, with creeper photobomb!

So this past weekend, Katlyn and I went over the hang out at my Sister's and play some cards. Nothing says family game night better then a raunchy card game!

wine & CAH

Now up is hat 3, again low light because well it was night and we were outside playing cards.  I wanted to get this last one done before I left so my Sister had all 3 in her possession to take to the baby shower in a couple of weeks.  Done with my part!  Well sort of.

baby hat #3

My Sister is making blankets and decided that one of them needed flowers and since she doesn't know how to make flowers, she gave me yarn and a request for a dozen flowers.

they look like little fluffs of vanilla ice cream!

The yarn is super soft and super bulky so when I worked up a flower to show her, we decided that 9 would be plenty.  

9 fluffy flowers

I think that about covers it.  I believe Sunday (after wrestling of course) Katlyn will be leaving to go up North until mid month when I go up for Brooke's 6th birthday!  That leaves me with a whole lot of time for the new books series I recently started and more crocheting!

Listening to:  Flirting With Disaster by Molly Hatchet

Hump day.....yeah!

Well I have a few projects going on in this post.  Weather here is hot so I'm doing small things and still need to get multiple baby hats done and my Niece informed me she is expecting a boy in September and would like blankets.  So on with the posting!

got my flat circle

Got my flat circle figured out and got down to the business of covering a jar.  Worked up pretty quickly once I got it situated.

Ta-da, jar cover complete.

My candy jar is bright and cheery on my desk now.  Valentine hearts all covered up!

Next up is the start of a minnie mouse hat that is slowly coming along.  slowly, because I really am not fond of working with black yarn in the evenings.  It's the worst when I am doing my increases and have to count every stitch and make sure I have the right number.  It's a bit easier when I am just going round and round with the the increases, I can pretty much do that blindly.

I hate taking pictures of black yarn projects

Next up just some random photos of things since my last post!  I take photos of my animals amusing me, or food or whatever I'm doing at the moment, so yeah....pretty random.

This is Kid, Kid is a silly dog.  He likes to sit on laps, mine or Katlyn's doesn't much matter to him, just needs to be touching one of us.  On this day, Katlyn was doing something on her iPad and had pulled a pillow onto her lap.  Kid took that as a challenge or maybe he thought it was a blanket (he likes to snuggle under blankets) anyway, he burrowed under the pillow and made himself comfy on her lap.  Weirdo!

my dog is so weird!

Fruits are plentiful right now and great for snacking so I have been keeping assorted ones on hand when they go on sale at the market.  Katlyn's happiest with her grapes, but I love fresh berries.  

berry time

My Brother was in Vegas with my Mom and Sister, for my Sister's birthday bash, so Danielle was home alone.  We joined forces to watch May's wrestling event.  Had a great time, good food and made plans for me to host June's event.  What does one make for a wrestling viewing party?

Food and Extreme Rules!

Mother's Day was this past Sunday and my oldest Son sent me a lovely box of strawberries....chocolate covered ones!  So very tasty!

Mother's Day gift

I have a lot of yarn, I mean really entirely too much yarn that I will probably never use up.  I donated 3 or 4 bags of it to Goodwill last year and I still have a crazy amount.  Since I am looking to make a baby blanket or two for my Niece, I thought it was a good time to sort through it and see what I have on hand.  I have plastic bins that I keep semi organized by color, but I have been just shoving random skeins into bags and stuffing everything on top in my yarn closet.  I started by pulling out bags and bins.  Emptying the bags onto my bed, which of course encouraged Stein to come help me.  His idea of helping was pawing each and everything that moved, which prompts me to tell he to knock it off and try shooing him off the bed, which Kid hears and comes to investigate by jumping on the bed with Stein.....really not helpful!  I did manage to get a bit of organizing done, at least got the yarn into the proper bins.

He thinks I'm a crazy yarn lady!

I found this forgotten project in my closet as well.  It's the True Blood Water Lily blanket that I started back in June of 2012.  I found the white and pinks flowers parts in one bag, along with a green skein and the blue yarn in another bag.  All of the pink and white flowers were done so I pulled them out and have now started adding the green to each one.

making circles into squares

What a handy project for the 100 degree weather we've been having this week, I pull out a flower, add a round of green and plop in in the basket. Got finished up with all of the white ones last night.  Next up the pinks. 

 

Basket of goodies!

Another food picture, brought my lunch last week in a cute little bento box set up.  I didn't get all fancy, but it's still cute.   Doesn't get used anymore with Katlyn no longer in school.

lunch at the office

So there we go, my update of the past couple of weeks.  I am getting crocheting done so hopefully I will have more pictures as I go along.  I will get pictures of the baby hats as well and of course the baby blankets.  I get free rein on blanket colors so it shall be fun!

Listening to: Stay With Me by Rod Stewart

Living day to day

Easter was this past Sunday and to enjoy it even more I made cupcakes....with peeps on top!

Peep cakes!

So of course we went to my Sister's house to have dinner and hang out with family, which means I brought a hook and yarn to play with while conversing with everyone.  Really had nothing in mind other then having to whip up some baby hats for my cousin due in August, so I started fiddling a bit and this little guy popped up.  Didn't get much further as there was fighting over who I should give it to, yes I have a crazy people kind of family.  Just set it aside because I really didn't know what I was going to do with it and didn't want any hurt feelings.  On to baby hats!

Really no idea what it will be

When I packed my yarn bag before leaving the house, I just threw in a bunch of random cotton yarns to figure things out later on.  I liked this yarn previously for a baby hat and pulled it out for another hat.  Really easy peezy hat pattern for a newborn in my bag along with yarn, I was good to go.  

Start of baby hat

Now I have the hat finish except for the addition of a flower and button.  I will do pictures of the finished hat upon completion.   I have a list of hats besides the baby one that have been requested, so hats will be flying off my hooks for the next little bit which works nicely as the weather is heating up and hats are small and don't require my lap!   

Now yesterday while at work I pulled out a jar to put some Easter candy, just a regular lidded jar but it has little valentine hearts all over it, so I thought I would do a cozy to cover the hearts and keep it on my desk.  I grabbed a ball of cotton from my stash this morning and got to work.  Didn't really work out so well the first time out of the gate!

supposed to be a flat circle!

Ripped it out and started over, much better and I will have pictures when it's all done!  Suppose that's it for now!  Off to cover this jar!

Listening to:  Stranger Than Fiction by Five Finger Death Punch

Oh to relocate....

I want to live in a land far away, like Scotland.  Where I can wear my scarves and hats and wander the fields and snuggle under a blanket in the evenings with my Kindle on one side of me and yarn on the other!   Adventuring out in the dewy mornings and taking photos in the mist, gardening in the yard, collecting eggs from my chickens....I like my dreams.  They are good dreams.  So basically I want to live where it's green and damp and cooler then California and where I can crochet my days away!  

There it is, out there in the universe now :)

Long time no see!

A couple of things going on.  Decided I wanted a slip case for my iPad and had a large skein of lime green cotton hanging around....

The beginning of an idea

I liked that the color was so bright and cheery and really reminded me of spring, so I came up with the idea of a flower on the front.  A bright white daisy and went to JoAnn's to hunt down a couple of ladybug buttons.

Adding the flower

I was pleased with the results!

All done 

Stein however had other opinions!  I got home the next day and my iPad was on the floor!  Fortunately the iPad was still inside and undamaged, though I couldn't say the same about my new cover!  Damn cat wanted those buttons really bad, glad he didn't get them off though!  They are now reattached sporting tiny teeth marks!

Stein chewed the buttons!

Found a cute scoodie pattern that was originally meant to be an Yub Nub, but Katlyn requested it become a fox.  So fox it shall be.  She was out of town for 2 weeks so it has been sitting earless until I can get the proper placement for them.  I will work on them this evening since we will be parked in front of the TV watching the 2nd Hobbit movie which was released today.

fox scoodie

Got Katlyn's Nilesy pillow all completed as well.  I found the perfect sized pillow form at JaAnn's when I was hunting buttons so I got it done up and had it sitting on her bed when she got home.

Nilesy complete

Started 2 new projects, Brandon requested a scarf and I am making a Honeydew pillow to go along side Nilesy.

New projects

I need 3 different oranges for Honeydew's pillow so while gathering yarns for Brandon's scarf I came across a couple and worked up the tiny squares since I only need a few of them and I could have the orange to use for Brandon's scarf, since his request was it should be a "frankenstein" scarf.  Made of whatever yarns I pulled out.

I had to make a trip up north to pick up Katlyn and of course enjoyed time with my gorgeous Granddaughter!

Dinnertime with Brooke

we don't take enough pictures together

The drive home was easier because Katlyn was doing the driving and I was able to crochet which as makes for an enjoyable passing of time!

working the scarf on the road

With Katlyn being gone for 2 weeks the animals missed her!  this is Stein's new favorite spot to sleep!

Stein likes to sleep on Katlyn

There we go visual update.  I have new requests for hats from Brooke and from a Cousin who is expecting so I will be getting more yarn gathered for projects.  Of course all this is being done in between reading, so many books!  And to top it off, the month of March had so many books go on sale or release that I blew not only March's book budget, but April's and half of May's....sigh.  Good thing I have a large unread collection on my Kindle and there are so many free ones available.  I dread if any on my wish list have price drops, May's budget is not all that big and there are books releasing!  Only 23 more days!

Listening to: Drift & Die by Puddle of Mudd

2013 ended

I've had a pretty busy last few months.  I made many, many things for Christmas gifts but unfortunately, didn't take nearly enough pictures!  Everything I made was well received though (I think so anyway) so lets' get on with what I do have pictures of.

Up first is my Nephew's Rainbow Dash inspired pony hat. No pattern, just me winging it.  He loved it and wore it all day when i gave it to him, so a success! 

Riley's pony hat

Next is Katlyn's super secret project that I worked on like a mad woman.  64 2x2 squares into the Minecraft face of Nilesy, a favorite of hers from the Yogscast.  I didn't get the whole thing completed by Christmas as it will be a pillow soon, but got it the front and most important part done for her to open.  Others in the room had zero idea what in the world it actually was, but Katlyn knew and was pleased.  Can't wait to get it put together for a completed photo!

Nilesy

Now we have a beanie that I actually made for myself.  It is based on another Yogscast member, Sjin this time and I am very pleased with it.  I have other ideas for other members waiting in the wings.  Sjin just happens to be my favorite, well and Rythian but I could only do one at a time.

Sjin beanie

Katlyn needed a case for her iPad, so I whipped this up for her to use.  Man we really are geeks at my house!  

Zelda themed iPad case, waiting for buttons

I did an Advent for Katlyn this year in which I gave her a present for the daily until Christmas.  This Pokeball scarf was one of the gifts.  My Sister-in-law also requested one for my Niece so I made a total of 2 of these cute scarves.

Pokeball scarf #1

All those flowers I made turned into this scarf for a friends Christmas present.  Just attached them to a love olive yarn and done!

Not the best pic, but all flowers included

Now 2 scarves I finished, but did not get completed pictures of were for my Sister and Mother.  Same scarf, just different yarns.  The one pictured is my Sister's.  My Mom's is done in teals and purples.  Silly me for not getting pictures.  

scarf semi complete

So I think that about gets everything caught up for now.  I am working on the back of Katlyn's pillow with quite a few projects in the works....and by works, I mean my headspace!  

wrangling projects to post

I'll be back.