I have a short attention span

I am terrible at having so many projects going at once, not just crochet even.  Not just crafty stuff either, household things.  When I moved into my condo it was full of stuff and on top of that I had my own stuff, so packing up the previous stuff and then unpacked my stuff kept me pretty busy, but I was very easily side tracked, so while sorting through things I would come across an item and find a use for it in another part of the house and go put it away and start working in that part of the house, seriously this went on all of the time, I had to make a list to keep myself somewhat on track :)  Now see even typing I go off track!!  Back to my crocheting, I saw fabulous gloves last week while cruising around the internet, I think when I was checking and updated by links over there on the sidebar in fact and came across someone looking for a pattern to make these pretty things!

So sweet!

I loved them and thought they looked so fun and heck I have so much yarn, but well life has a way of making me forget things IF I do not write them down or pin them!  I have found though that things that are meant to be tend to cross my path again and it just so happens that checking on some pages yesterday I ran across Me MaDonna  and she had figured out her own way to make the gloves herself.  Clever girl!

Her finished version.

Instant love I'm telling you and this time I pinned them AND remembered them later at home.  I went digging for some bits of yarn to see if I could give them a go and was very pleased that I could indeed do something without a pattern and pretty random.  Ok the picture is crap, but I love the gloves, I have this one close to done and excited to get started on the second one, going to go digging in my Sister's stash on my way home tonight because she has some chunky yarns that I don't.  When I showed Katlyn this morning, she liked the colors, but said they really needed to be worn with long sleeves.  

Officially the worst picture ever!

So that's my update for today, again still not done with Steven's Bender hat, sigh that poor hat keeps getting shoved aside.  One day, one day!

Back to work now!  

Listening to:  Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crue

Almost forgot a title.....

Ok pictures as promised :)  I pulled out a heart pattern last night that I printed awhile ago to make a heart garland and of course never did, but decided last night I wanted to try the heart and see how easy it was.  Conclusion, super easy and could have continued on the next round of the pattern but I like the size in is now after 2 rounds. Not sure if I will continue on making more or not, but we shall see.

Little heart I whipped up last night using cotton yarn

Katlyn wants a flower for her black & white striped beanie, but doesn't know what color she wants it in.  I had this Malabrigo out already and the bright orange of it is striking so I whipped up a flower for her....no go on the orange.  I guess I will try purple tonight and keep this pretty little thing for myself!

A flower for Katlyn's striped hat in Malabrigo, Tiger Lily

Now these are the square I played with on Saturday.  First up is colors inspired from Cath Kidston, I again saw a blanket on  Pinterest  and loved how it looks and am pretty enamored with the line anyway (and Greengate, but I will have to move out to England to get it apparently!)  Fished through my stash and did a granny square.  Don't know if I will ever continue but I like making granny squares up in fun combos for a new blanket inspiration!

Inspired by Cath Kidston colors

Here is another smaller granny that I had written out on a "granny's to try" post-it that I have.  2 solids rounds, a variegated round and then a white round.  Can't recall if I saw this combo out in the internet world  or not, it's not pinned on my board so I can't remember!  I think I like it, I might have to do more of these little squares and try putting them together and see how it looks.

Red Heart Yarns, Pink Camo, Lt. Raspberry and white

Up next is the gray beanie that I am trying to turn into a Bender hat for my Son.  Almost done with the basics, just a couple more rounds and then ear flaps.  Everything else will be add ons, the eyes and the antennae.  I put up a picture of Bender so there is a reference, I am making just his head above his teeth.  I have a sketch I drew up somewhere.....let me find it and take a picture.  Ok found it!

My sketch

Gray beanie base for the Bender hat.

This is Bender

There we go, my official crocheting update.  Nothing major but cranking along!  Hopefully get the beanie finished up with the basic hat bits and start on the ear flaps tonight.  It will be good to get this done since I wanted it for a Christmas gift and here we are into February already!  

I need to get a swap package together too of reds and pinks as I was informed that my partner has already gotten my package in the mail!  I have scouted the yarn and just need to order it now.  Best be off and get something done today before my boss notices I'm not typing for him!

Listening to: Breakfast in America by Supertramp

Superbowl Monday

First things first, I have no crochet pictures, even though I completed the black & white striped beanie and made 2 different sample granny squares...I forgot to get pictures of them!  I was cooking this weekend and getting ready for Superbowl, so tried to cram my normal weekend duties into Saturday.
I have food pictures :)  I am liking food photography at the moment, so food plus my iPhone are kinda my thing right this moment.

Soon to be salsa!

I couldn't resist how pretty this looked in my red colander after I washed them up.  All shiny and so full of color!

Jalapeno Crescent Poppers 

Found these on Pinterest a few weeks ago and pinned them to my food board, had to try them!  So good, I made them pretty spicy adding more then the called for jalapenos, but I like spicy and so did everyone else at my Sister's.  I also made BBQ Chicken Wings at my Daughter's request and a 7 layer bean dip.  My Sister made Corn Salsa, Guacamole and Sliders.  Plus we had the assorted cheese/salami/cracker tray and chips & dips.  Even the game was exciting this year.  I managed to crochet through most of the game working on Steven's Bender hat (haven't taken pictures of it since it's just a plain gray beanie right now.)  

Kid enjoyed the game ^.^

I finished off a star blanket yesterday that I stumbled upon while looking for some green yarn.  Decided Kid needed a new blanket, that's it in the picture that he's laying on.  The blanket had been sitting incomplete for quite awhile now and since I had completed the last of the navy blue round, all I needed to was snip and sew in the loose bits and fortunately I had done the sewing in of ends as I changed colors so it took 5 minutes and Kid had a new blanket.

Almost time to go home for the day so I better get things locked up!  

Listening to:  Seven Days of Lonely by I Nine

Happy Friday!!

Excellent that it's Friday.
I have things to do and really nothing like the weekend to get them done!
I am nearing completion on the Black & White Striped hat for Katlyn.  So that will be off the hook either tonight or tomorrow and just need to get a flower made for it.

24 rows total on this with 4 bands of each color stripe.

So yeah, that's my wonderful fun filled post for today, pretty exciting stuff right!  I have been cranky lately, probably that's just from missing my boys.  I need to take a trip, though Christopher is planning to come down and bring Brooke for a visit right after Valentine's so there's that to look forward too, I always love to play with Brooke and am gathering crafty ideas to keep her busy and get new art from her....wicked Grandma I am :)

Happy Friday!!

Listening to: Awake by Disturbed

Bright and Cheery

According to Puxatawney Phil we will have 6 more weeks of Winter.  Living in Southern California I am wondering where Winter is in the first place!  It's a bright, sunshiny day here in the San Fernando Valley with the temperature at 72 degrees right now, so if this is Winter now I wonder what the next 6 weeks have in store for us!

Now for this evening the DVD I ordered came in the mail today

One Piece Collection 4

We watch a lot of anime lately.  My Daughter loves it and has gotten me watching all these shows and quizzes me on the names of characters!  Seriously hard too, because they are not names like Harry or Ron, they are names like Kyoya & Tohru and I seem to have this hard time remembering them properly and my Daughter finds it amusing.
On the bright and cheery my sister brought these in for me today

Seriously, my love for polka dots is crazy :)  And they're red to boot!  Happy me, I am taking them home and fishing out the perfect vase for them to sit so pretty on my kitchen counter!
I have no picture of crochet, but I have managed 3 rows today on Katlyn's black & white beanie all while she was doing the driving, first to school and then after school.  So soon, very soon it shall be done and I can get the flower on.  I am in a swap this month and my partner loves project bags, so while I was going to do a heart garland this being February and all, but now I may just whip up another project bag!
Nearly the end of the day for me, so I better clear off my desk.

Listening to: Winner Takes All by Sammy Hagar

Weekend Update

Ok here’s a late weekend wrap up, late only because it’s Tuesday and not Monday.  I start my weekend well enough equipped with a list of to do’s....BUT (see how big that just got!) I never seem to get them completed, oh I get the regular things done, like laundry, but I never really get much more done.  This weekend I had a list, I stuck with it and got 95% complete by Monday night! So my weekend extended a bit I suppose, though I did work Monday, but by golly I was getting that bloody list checked off last night!  The most time consuming thing on the list was my hair.  I do my own coloring and it was crazy overdue!  Roots were BAD, my pink was faded and I needed to do some bleaching because I had not done it the last few times and my hair grows fairly fast.  Ok, get home last night and immediately change into clothes for hair dying, have to of course start with the bleaching of the 2 inch roots underneath everything, so that the pink will be all there at the roots as well.  Bleach on, get the trash down, get the recycling down, Katlyn makes dinner for us (how nice for me!) Throw a load of laundry in while dinner is cooking, play with the puppy and check out the newest hat I am working on. (The black & white stripes for Katlyn) After dinner, I’m on to the next step in the hair coloring process, now I know that I don’t have quite enough of my favorite pink that I use and the place that I used to get it has gone out of business and the other beauty supplies don’t carry it!  Ugh, it’s fine I have some leftover HOT neon pink from Katlyn’s experiment, I can mix them together.  I mix and decide since the hot pink one is so much pinker then the one I use normally I pull out the jar of purple I have from another Katlyn leftover (she changes her colors whereas I stick with pink) figuring I could put a dab of purple in and darken the pink a bit.................HAHAHAHAHA........no!  Does not work that way, the tiny bit of purple added makes it purple, crap!!!  I show Katlyn and she insists that it’s fine and pink!  Ok I put it on, still looks pretty purple to me, but she still believes it will be pink.  I get that up and processing and then complete the black step and hurry up and wait for it all to process!  Shower and hey guess what, that purple is flippin’ purple!!!! Damn it!  Now I have purple hair in spots because of the bleaching and dark purpley/pink for the rest and of course the rest of my head that is black is itching liking crazy as it does for about a week after dying. *sigh* I have fairy hair, I just need wings!!  This is what happens when I put off my list!  I will be going to the beauty supply this weekend and hoping that they have a product that works the way Punky Colour does or I will have to order it online and live with purple fairy hair for a couple of weeks!
Ok enough whining I shall post pictures from the weekend now :)

Reading and Crocheting Saturday morning.

Wanted cupcakes and decided I needed to take picture of the process

It's so red

Just playing

All baked, too bad they don't stay as red as the batter

The start of dinner

Sponge Bob mac & cheese (my Daughter had to have it)

Notice no pictures of the hair dying, I'm clever like that!  I will see if I can get a shot of the purpley mess I've made :)
That's it, I'm wrapping up for now, I am working on the hat for Katlyn, it is simple black & white wide stripes and will have a flower attached when she picks the color that she wants, though I might just make a few different ones and put pins on the backs so she can change the flowers as she chooses.  Rereading Harry Potter from the beginning, we watched the movies so many times that I thought it was time to read the books again from the beginning, I was rereading the Deathly Hallows but I changed my mind and am back at the beginning.

Listening to:  King Nothing by Metallica

Mindless hookin'

Just what I need to do and maybe get me out of a rut.  Though honestly I'm not in that much of a crochet rut because I have huge amounts of ideas running in my head at pretty much any given moment! Ongoing projects,  Katlyn wants a striped beanie with a flower...ok, Steven's Bender beanie...coming along, Samantha's blanket...coming along slowly.
Then there are the ideas!!  Oh so many of them, first off it never helps that I spend too much time on pinterest, because the fabulous things I see and pin end up in my head as well!  I have a green blanket I am designing in my mind for my Niece Danielle, a rainbow beanie I want to make, and hooded clock that I want to make but haven’t found just the right pattern yet, a gorgeous purse, some heart garland...just endless things and really I never get anything started.  I second guess everything, every color and end up not doing anything, wandering.....ok well on to something simple and mindless and a great stash eater! I found this on pinterest (of course)

http://teawagontales.blogspot.com/2012/01/bit-of-kitsch.html

I love that's it's simple granny squares and yet lots of colors!  Maybe if I start a granny blanket I will get some much needed anchoring!  I suppose it can't hurt to try anyway!  

I am doing some housecleaning around my blog as well, getting rid of outdated links and moving things around a bit.  I am going to have to design a new header picture as well, since I can't seem to get the one I have to fit across the entire top, hmmmm.  I have some more changes coming too, just getting them worked out!

Listening to: I Said the Wrong Thing to the Right Girl by Keel