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.

Hello

So, I guess I need an update of sorts.  Not really much lately, worked on blankets, road trip North, etc.  Pictures tell a better story though.  

Weaving in the ends of the Vintage Stripe blanket took forever!  Since the weave is a bit more open and the color changes were so often, I had to be a bit more careful about where I was weaving.

Nearly done

I added a navy border, super basic, single crochet around and then a half double crochet around that.  Easy enough and wrapped up for a boy.

All Done and wrapped

Up next to finish is the corner to corner, which while I love the pattern and the yarn for this, I don't like that I didn't do a bit of planning with how the stripes ran through this.  Oh well, lesson learned and it's still lovely.

I do love my yarn bowl

Brandon and Patryce came down for a quick visit 2 weeks ago, well they actually came down to go to a concert featuring Brandon's favorite band.  Either way, they hung out with me!

he bought swag!

Did a bit of planting.

new succulents

my view while having coffee

Time to hit the road.  Brooke turns 7 and we gotta be there!  We left right after I got off work, so there was plenty of daylight to crochet, for awhile at least.

I like when I'm not driving

Selfies with Kid

On Friday we were off to the go kart track,  I forgot my phone and decided to play with Christopher's while he was driving.  What better way to play then to take selfies with your sons phone?

..

We had a busy Friday and ended with margaritas and Cards Against Humanity

Katlyn was tired :)

Saturday was all about the birthday girl!

selfies on the way to play

Christopher helping Brooke

Christopher and Katlyn

Brooke going up the wall!

Christopher at the top!

Titus in the ball pit

Brooke in the ball pit

Brooke and Titus 

We all gathered after the play place at Alysha and Christopher's for a bbq.   Had a family filled time!  Should have gotten my kids together for a photo, darn!

my Son Jesus :)

Whew, busy weekend...well 3.5 days!  Time to head home.

adding the border

It was hot on the way home.  102 degrees outside and while we were riding in an air conditioned car, the sun was blasting through the window which made the dogs too hot on their side of the seat, so I made them some shade with Katlyn's car blanket.  Max very much appreciated the shade. 

he's happy in his shade

Kid on the other hand just liked my lap!

lazy dog

So there we go, an update of the past 2 weeks.  Home this weekend with cleaning and crocheting to do.  I have the corner to corner finished, just need to get it measured and photographed.  I will be working on the lego blanket next.  It's small bits will not have to sit all over my lap which is good because the weather's going to be hot!

May has arrived

Been a busy bee and I like it.  I tend to come up with ideas all of the time, but of course I am always in the middle of a project when these ideas come to me which means I always have more then one project going on at any given time. Examples to follow because I've been taking pictures!  

I always see these fabulous granny square blankets on Pinterest and always want to do them, but of course they take time and planning and whatnot...but what if I did a scrap one?  Oh goodness the possibilities are endless but I really wanted random and simple.  I decided that I would make little one round squares in leftover bits of yarn I have.  Only requirement is that it's acrylic yarn and worsted weight so there is consistency in all squares.  I haven't much planned the size quite yet, but I have a good start on little squares.  They will actually be 2 rounds, random colors and a third round in mustard yellow.  I am looking forward to the finished product.

little squares

The 3 stranded baby blanket is coming along.  Works up pretty quickly and it's so squishy!  So easy to do.

a sea of stitches

This here is my random ball of yarn, did I post this before when it was much smaller?  Maybe back when I started it in March...no matter, its grown!  I hope that I will be able to come up with some creative to use this on when it's bigger.

random yarn ball

So as I said in the last post I made a flower garland to hang above the fireplace.  Here are pictures of the flowers and one of the overall look.  I just switched between the red and turquoise and put them on a chain of white.  Took a few tries to get them all even, but got it done.  

red

turquiose

strung up

Here is a photo of the beast hook in action!  3 strands and that hook!  

working away

Went on a road trip North for the gender reveal of my newest grandchild and this was one of my travelling companions 

smiley faced Max

Was a quick trip but Max got some snuggley time in with Brooke. 

Max and Brooke

So the gender reveal had everyone guessing and was a fun time at the park.  The cake was filled with the color to let everyone know and the box had balloons to match as well.

Patryce & Brandon getting ready

Patryce opened the box and Brandon didn't cut the cake, but grabbed the corner of it....he was very excited :)

Yay!  It's a Boy!

Boy blankets it is!  I also have a Nephew who is having a boy in July that has requested a blanket too.  Time to get home and get going on these blankets!

Decided while fueling the car I best get some snacks for myself because 400 miles without something to snack on is a shame.  I know this because I did it on the way up, only had a horribly crunchy granola bar and water.  The trip back I wanted to be prepared!

road trip snacks

So back home and finished up the 3 stranded blanket, really need to figure out my photography skills better for these blanket shoots, can't seem to get a decent shot off anymore.

trying to get a good photo

Now Brandon LOVES legos, always has and is super excited to have his child play with legos...of course this will be much further down the road then he thinks but he's still pretty excited about this!  I have a lego backpack pinned on my yarn board over on Pinterest that I would like to make for Disneyland, I thought this might be a great idea for a blanket too.  Hmmm, well the actually brick is easy enough to whip up, so I did 3 and outlined them in black so I could test them out and get a feel for them.  Turns out I like them, Katlyn likes them and Brandon is going to love this idea!  I did the measurements and the math and figured out I need 42 squares of each of the 4 colors I'm going to use.  Red, blue, green and yellow, basic colors all outlined in black and then I will put them together.  Yep a crazy hot mess of ends to weave in and yikes I'm feeling it already!

3 lego bricks ready for measurements

I came home with new succulents as well and did a fair amount of playing in my plants over this past weekend.  Got them cleaned up and watered and made a new planter out of some new ones.  Overall everyone looks good, I've had one plant that I got from Lowe's 3 weeks ago not do well at all, I don't know what happened but it just started dying, I pulled it apart and got the only bit left of it repotted, hopefully I am able the save it.  Also 1 I got from Home Depot in Windsor, Stein decided it looked like a tasty treat and I came home to bits of it all over the floor, stupid cat!  I hoping that it will survive as well.

updated indoor garden 

newest planter with the 2 struggling

I decided that my finished blankets need a bit of ribbon, but don't have any ribbon wide enough.  I do have a spool of white tulle that is 6 inches wide...scissors at the ready and tada!  Made a lovely wrapped up blanket.

all done and ready to gift

Since Saturday was all about plants, I made Sunday about crochet. So after running errands I settled on the couch with my coffee and yarn to work on things, I chose legos, that is until Katlyn got home from work and asked for some hair flowers for her coworkers. 

into my weekend!

a few hair flowers

Monday night I grabbed my basket with my Water Lily blanket bits and while watching wrestling got blue added to some flowers.  One day this will be a blanket...one day!

a lovely sight

There we are, a proper update for the week and it's still early in the month!

Listening to:  Lonely Is The Night by Billy Squier