Photoless progress

Yesterday I had to stay home with sick Sean again. I think it's allergies, and that sometimes the allergy problems lead to the mucus stuff. I am going to ask his doc next visit if there is anything I can do on a daily or even seasonal basis to help him not be this way. Zyrtec finally made him stop coughing (well, stop-ish) yesterday afternoon after Mucinex and Robatussin both failed. I dont think it's the animals, but probably outside stuff because he's not constantly having problems, only sometimes.

With my time home yesterday, I watched Dora/Diego/Thomas and played with projects. I have finished the stripes of the afghan (except the end-weaving)and am more than half done with sewing stars together. I have made 1 out of 6 half-motifs. I should have the whole thing done this weekend. Yay!! I also did a little on the SuperShow second sock. I'm about 2 inches in or so.

I have some ideas for after I'm done with the afghan, but I'll keep the sock in my purse for a quick fix when I'm out and replace it with the 2nd blue sock thats been not done for 6 months or so. I really want to start working on a quilt. I have so much fabric but becides the Dear Jane I have no idea what to make. I watch all these quilting shows and they all look so beautiful and they make them look so easy, but I don't know. I will also be working on my Dear Jane since there is a lot of applique on that and I can do it while "watching" tv. I will set a goal of giving my brother a quilt for his birthday in March since he's moving into a new place. I just need to figure out what colors he'd like.... and hope I have them in my tiny stash.

Well enough from me, I have lotsa work to do today since I was out yesterday. Enjoy your weekend and be safe!

Updates.

I finally got the pic of Mom wearing her Christmas sweater. It looks so much better on a human than on a flat surface. The shoulders aren't nearly as odd looking on her than off! I love how it turned out, love the yarn and color and style. I am not in love with the too-big button holes but hey, easy enough to fix if she wants.













I have 6 stars and 1.5 stripes to finish on the American Flag afghan. Once the stars are done getting the blue, I will need to sew the together, add a round of crochet around the border and sew it to the stripes. Tada, done.

I have had the best time these last couple days with my folks and brother in town from NY. Of course I haven't taken any pictures, but I will remember today and tomorrow, I swear! I let my step-mom look through the craft fair bins and take what she wants. She gained an afghan, 5 dish cloths and a scarf. That means there is that much less in my shed. I guess it's a good thing, since I haven't been doing fairs, but still sad. Oh well.

I think that this year will be the year of the quilt. I want to make some for Christmas. Lofty goals since I've not made any ever, but hopefully I'll be able to do it. I have fabric for probably 2, not using the pieces for my Dear Jane. Speaking of Jane, I do plan to start working on her again once the flag is done. I have 2 second socks to make if I get tired of quilting. I also just ordered 2 #2 circulars to finally learn the "quicker", "Easier" method of sock making. Dont know that I believe all this but hey, hopefully I can learn a trick or two.

That's it for me for now. Have a great day!

Sniff.

So my folks and brother will be her in T-24 hours.
My floor is mopped and my laundry is done.
My to do list is long...
vacuum (again), pick up toys (again), clean the bathroom, kitchen, Jake's bedroom (and make it sleep-worthy for an adult), Sean's bedroom and the back patio.
I am off work tomorrow and will do the above instead of sitting on my butt and working on the flag afghan.

This morning was freezing here. No, literally - it was 24 when I left the house this morning. I had to scrape frost off my windows with a credit card. No, I don't have an ice scrapper - I live in Florida!

My nose is still stuffy (hence the sniff above) and I hate it! I hope it disappears quickly so I'm not sick with company.

I really don't have anything more to report, but next post should have pics of my family enjoying their time in sunny Florida. Sunny. Ha!

Today is the day!

If you have the knitting Pattern a Day calendar, you see my pirate hat. Can you believe it's been almost 2 years since I did that? Love you excel. I have a few other hat designs in excel waiting for time. And I am trying to figure out how to make a guitar chart... I know what I WANT to see but I havent figured out curves in knit yet! LOL. Anywho, more later with a sock pic I promise. I just had to share the joy of turning the page in my calendar and seeing it missing (mine is at home). It is a cute vest for tomorrow though - good thing since I have to look at it for 2 days.

The last 11 days, and then some.

Since I last updated I have had 1 day off and worked 88.5 hours. That was 11 days ago and does not count today's hours. It's been long and tiring and I need a nap, not like that is all that unusual. However, I do have lots to show. I will be brief and photoful. This begins at Sean's birthday "party" which was actually only us, my in-laws and brother in-law. Pretty pathetic, but he's 2 and I dont think he noticed. I will be putting up some video when I have more time, hopefully in the next day or so.

Boat Trip w/friends and family on 1/3 (me knitting a sock w/Sharon, Cliff and Sean driving the boat, and Jake spotting something really cool on the ground):

















Haircuts for Jake and Sean:












Sean's Birthday (my big boys, cake, closeup of cake not un-scathed, presents):


















This is Dave's gator hat and the one I made for his 4 year old that doesnt fit Sean... I made another one, and one for his other daughter but shocker... didn't take a pic. I have to make one for his wife and I will be done with blue, orange and white for a while.












Stay tuned, tomorrow I'll show you the SuperShow sock done and probably some other stuff. In other news, my folks and my brother are coming down on Friday. My house is about 80% clean enough. My brother will be on the bottom bunk with Jake on top. Poor brother. lol. LOL!!! It'll be fun. Bye for now.

An update

I am still working at the Fairgrounds with no internet connection, however I was able to finish the 1st SuperShow sock. I'd show you a pic but my photo software is at the office so you'll have to wait.

Today is Sean's birthday. Can you believe he's 2!! I have pics of his little dinner to show too, but it'll have to wait another and a half.

That's it from me for now. Have a good night.

Just a quickie

I wanted to make sure that I got on long enough to wish everyone a safe and happy New Year!

We are meeting some old friends for dinner at 7:30 then getting the kids and going home to probably go to sleep early. Woo. Hoo. Lol. New Years day I am off from the fairgrounds and will try to get together with other friends just to hang out and let the kids play. Probably not much knitting or crocheting done but that's ok. I have been working on the SuperShow socks, and have only about an inch left on the leg before I start the heel flap on the first one.

I am concentrating on the Flag Afghan at home during tv in the evenings, and the sock at work while it's slow. VERY slow!!

Well, that's it for me. Have a great day!

Presents!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas! I sure did, even if my littlest angel did have something to say about that!

Christmas Eve when we went to my in-laws to open family gifts Sean started complaining about his ear hurting. Ok, gave him some tylenol and off we went. For about the first half hour of being over there he was clingy but otherwise ok. For the next 2 hours he screamed. While we opened presents he screamed, while we ate cheese dip he screamed, while the Wii was getting set up he screamed. Obviously the tylenol was not helping (at this point it had been 3 hours since we gave it to him). So, off we go to the After Hours Pediatric place (which Thank God! was open). 2nd doctor trip in as many days. He has an ear infection and yes it did just come on so the other doctor is not a quack. Yay. Ear drops for pain and antibiotics. He still woke up 5 times during the night (not a fun turn of events this last week) but at least the constant screaming stopped and the drops were helping. He has started eating again and has held most of it down so that is a great thing. He has the sum total of 1 cup of milk since Dr K said to back off it on Wednesday and that cup was last night. I think he's getting better and thats a good thing.

Yesterday we went to my Mom's to open gifts with them and he did pretty good, even participating in the opening (complete 180 from the night before). But, we missed my Grandfather, who is not feeling well at all. Mom loved her sweater and I'd show you a pic but Travis took pics with his camera and hasnt gotten them to me yet. Soon though.

I do have pics to show you of my gift from my Mom. She made me a jean skirt purse. It is So cute!! I put my purse stuff in it this morning. It's lined with a suede-feel fabric and I am using the outside pockets of the skirt for my keys, phone and lip gloss, very handy!
















She and I had talked about trying to make one for months, I gave her the handles a while ago and this is what she did with them. I love it! I have 2 pair of jeans at home that are not wearable for different reasons and I want to make bags out of them. That may be a project for the near future.

I dont know if my Grandfather liked his chili pepper bowl but Grandma loved the market bag. I still owe them since only 1 of the pepper bags got done. My MIL said she liked her bowl too. I hope the market bags get used, they are such a great thing.

Now that the holidays are over I will start concentrating on the Dear Jane again, interspersed with a pair of socks I'm about to start and the American Flag Afghan.

No word yet on the submissions, I'll let you know if I hear something. Starting on Monday I'll be out at the fairgrounds for the SuperShow. I will have very limited internet access and probably wont be posting much. If I am not on before hand, have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Ok... so there IS an update!

My friend and co-worker Patty got me the Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar for Christmas. I was thumbing through and found this:









I remember submitting it quite a while ago and hadn't heard anything about it. It's not a paid gig but for some reason I had it in my head that you get a calendar for them publishing it but I guess I was wrong. Oh well, it's still really cool to be chosen! You can read about my original hat-making here. It really is a great first attempt at fair aisle.

Guess this makes published #2, eh? Ok, that's really it from me this time.

No updates but Merry Christmas!

Between lunch yesterday and part of NCIS last night I finished the rest of the white stars and did the blue border on 6 of them. I also finished wrapping the few gifts we had left. This morning I went through the market bags I have (had had forgotten about, oddly) and I realized that I had not topstitched 3 of them (I knew about 1 but not the other 2). I have 2 each for my MIL and Travis' brother and his girlfriend. I have to topstitch both of mom's and that leaves 1 extra that is done done and 1 that needs topstitching. They don't go together AT ALL, nor do they go with my Grandfather's bag (I had intended to make him 2 or more but am, sadly, out of time). I may give one to my grandmother to use as a regular tote bag (the done one) and save the other one for something else.

I did manage to get the doughnut dough made and in the fridge. I had to call Nanny to get some more information - like how do you make it into circles (doughnut cutter... whoops!) and is it supposed to be like batter or dough (dough). I had to do a little fudging because I didnt have quite enough white flour and had to add a cup or so of wheat flour. Hopefully it'll taste fine. I'll find out in the morning when I make them! If it works, I may pass along the recipe. We'll see.

As for Christmas, I am looking forward to going to Church tonight with the family. Travis works on Sundays so we havent all been able to go in quite a while. I am really looking forward to spending some time with the family and friends and of course gifts. I cannot wait to see how Sean does. Frankly, I'm a little suprised that he hasn't ripped into anything yet!

Today we will get out of work early but I'm not sure when. Travis is home with both boys so of course he says the sooner the better! But I have to gather the stuff together to make the pinwheels and baked brie. Did you know you can now get crescents in a whole sheet that is not perferated! What a brilliant idea! I have seen SO many recipes for appetizers and whatever for crescent dough but what a pain to roll it so you dont have the perfs falling apart. The recipe I'm using came with my Pampered Chef pizza stone. It calls for cream cheese, parmesan and some herbs and such but I'm using Alouette cheese instead. Same concept, different flavor. I've done it before and it comes out great, and with less ingredients.

That's it for me for now. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Thank God for His gift. Hold tight to your loved ones. Give the kids a great big kiss. I hope that Santa brings you everything you've wished for.

More progress but not enough

Here's what I made last night.

The front and back of a coaster for Damarys:












The inside and outside of the bowl I made for my MIL:













That little bitty coaster took me almost 2 hours to make. 15 minutes to determine my pattern and fabric and mark for cutting. 10 minutes to iron and cut. 15 minutes to sew (and iron and sew and iron and sew and iron). 10 minutes to sandwich w/inside felty fabric, mark little martini glass inside big square and figure out how to use the fancy embroidery foot and make the martini glass. 2 minutes to admire my work and look for the book on how to do binding & miters. 45 minutes to pin, sew, turn, sew, see mess-up, re-sew and cut threads. 45 minutes. !. My plan to replicate that 6 more times went right out the window. It's cute though, and she likes it and that's all that matters, right? Sigh. Stupid coaster.

I was obviously too busy on that to work on the stars, but did find another on on the shelf from when I was working on them before. I brought in the blue for the star borders and hope to start getting them whipped out at lunch today.

Tonight I'm making shephards pie and while that is in the oven I'll put together the batter for Mom's doughnuts. I wonder how I'm supposed to make them doughnut shaped? Hopefully that's in the recipe.

Sean is still sick. Yesterday afternoon I had to go get him at 4:30 after he puked all over himself and the snack table. When I picked him up, he also decorated my shirt and his other change of clothes. So much fun to have to pick up a perscription with a puke-shirt. Thank goodness it was drivethru! Travis just took him to the doctor and seems he has the flu! He did have a flu shot but apparently he got a different strain. Good news is that it's on the back end and should be gone by Christmas. Here's hoping!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and after work I have church at 5 then to the in-laws for presents and to the kids' God-parents (and God-brother's) house for presents. It'll be fun. I am making aloutte crescent pinwheels and I think a baked brie. Yummmmmm!

I will be at work so I should be able to post here. If not, have a wonderful Christmas!

Done done done!!!

I finished Mom's Sweater. Yippee!!!!! I'm really not sure what's up with the shoulders in this pic but I assure you that it looks good on an actual human. Damarys tried it on for me earlier today and it fit pretty good except it was a little tight under the arms. I will try it on Morgan this afternoon to see if she has the same problem. If so, I'll have a little cry and somehow figure out how to fix it. I am praying it fits her.

I have also finished all but 4 of the stars for Russ's Flag Afghan that I need to get done. I'll finish them plus get started on the stripes in the next day or so. I will see him in a few weeks at SuperShow and should have it done by then. OH... if anyone (in the Tampa area or will be 1/14-18) wants tickets to SuperShow, let me know and I'll get them to you.

I almost finished wrapping presents and am done with shopping. I need to make the doughnut batter (for Mom's doughnuts) probably tomorrow night because I won't have time on Christmas Eve and it needs to sit in the fridge overnight.

I also want to make my co-workers little quilted coasters. I'm sure they will be easy enough, and there are only 7 of them. The will be machine quilted with some of my scraps... easy peasy.

I bought the fabric and thread to make my MIL a fabric bowl and did all but the sewing last night. 2 different patterns of an aqua - like the rest of her kitchen. I'll do that tonight too since it should go quick (especially since I already learned to do the satin stitch and don't need to practice).

Travis wants to go to Christmas Lane tonight after a quick dinner but it will depend on if Sean is feeling better.

Ok, enough rambling (that was a lot, huh?) and back to work. Have a great day!

Oh my goodnes!

I have to share this. I was just reading the Yarn Harlot's blog and I laughed so hard (in my office!) that I now have tears in my eyes. You should read too. http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2008/12/18/fallen_and_cant_get_up.html

Enjoy.

Slow going... but no time to slow down!!

I am about 1/3 done with the 2nd front of Mom's sweater. I was only able to work on it for about 20 minutes at lunch since I had a few more Christmas cards to get done (only one left is for my brother in law - and I still need to make that one).

I forgot the other socks so I couldn't mail them out like I had wanted. I should have mailed the card seperate so they don't get suspicious, but I have it set to go in the package. Sorry for being covert but the intended reads this and no hints!! Also, Chrissy - I dont have a current address for you... so Merry Christmas via the innernets instead of via the mailbox!

This past weekend I broke down and told Cliff about the Cliffyghan. He was amused but I was pretty disappointed that it won't be done. I will keep working on it and maybe he'll get it next year. I also want to work more on making quilts for next year than yarny things. I dont know how it will go but I will give it the old college try. I did just find out that my Grandmother (that taught me to crochet) did a quilt for Homecoming - hand pieced, hand quilted! I did that with my little 9-patch practice square and it took me a month! I couldn't imagine all that hand-sewing!

I hope to be able to post a pic of Mom's sweater in the next few days - either the parts or (gasp!) sewn together! I don't know if it will fit Damarys and I dont know if I can post a pic of Morgan on here so it actually on a human will have to wait until after Christmas.

That's it from me for today. Tomorrow is our Christmas Luncheon (followed by the rest of the day off!) so I dont know if I'll have a chance to post. If not, have a great weekend!

Hat's done!

(Please ignore the absolutly flattering photo of me and just look at the hat!) I finished Tyler's hat last night around 9:20 and instead of staying up until 10 to work on mom's sweater I went to sleep. I know it sounds like I spent a lot of time on the hat, bu twe had Jake's Christmas play last night and didnt get home until 8ish, then kids to bed and such so I really only worked on it less than an hour. If I add the hour Monday, lunch yesterday (plus a little "break" in the afternoon) and an hour last night I make that about 3 hours worth of hat. I like how it turned out, fits great - goes over my ears so should on him too.

So, that along with the monkey and yak scarves are making their way up to the tundra to be with my sister and her children. Socks are on the way to my step mom and one other pair going to be with a new home (hope the fit). I am guestimating that I have about 5 hours or so of knitting to do on the other front plus about an hour of finishing on Mom's sweater. I will guess that I've put probably 40 real hours into it (maybe more) and will NEVER knit a SWEATER from SOCK YARN again... no matter how pretty it is! I also have a few more market bags to make and I did get the stuff to make some more fabric bowls - LOVE those thing!

Well thats it for me... back to work. Have a great day!

More progres... 9 days left!

I am about 75% done with Tyler's hat. Here is what it looked like before lunch:








During lunch time, I managed to get the rest of the straight knitting done and about 5 rounds into the decreases. It should be done this evening. Yah!! I didnt work on Mom's sweater but I am actually doing pretty good on it and once Tyler's hat is done I will get back to it. I'm listening to a webcast for work right now, so it gives me a little bit to play online and catch up on my blog-reading. Also today at work we did our cookie exchange. It really was fun to have almost everyone participate. And boy are those cookies good!

That's it for me. Have a great day.

Making Progress.

I have finished the 2nd sleeve of Mom's sweater and started on the 2nd front. I've got about 2 inches or so done on that, about 20ish to go. I have finished 9 market bags (I counted) and now I have to figure out who will get some.

I need to fill out Christmas Cards now that the kids pics are being printed. Maybe I'll be able to do that tomorrow. I also need to figure out something for my nephew for Christmas. He likes the Jets, wonder how quick I could make a hat? How about if I used fat yarn? Course I don't have fat yarn in green and white at home, but it's a thought. Of course he needs a hat, he lives in Antarctica, I mean NY. Maybe I could stop at Joann's tonight and get some yarn, give myself a few hours of Non-sweater knitting and get it done. Fat yarn + fat knitting needles + delusion = quick hat. Quick enough to be in NY by Christmas? Hmm.

In other news, I went to my grandparents yesterday and made some Christmas Cookies with my Mom. It was great fun, even if ONE of us can't read a recipe (who me?). I came away with some coconut macaroons and peanut butter blossoms but, sadly, had to leave the chocolate covered cherry cookies behind as they were a casualty. They tasted good but because SOMEONE is a dumbass, they turned out flat and runny and the chocolate didn't exactly COVER the cherries anymore. (Why does anyone allow me to do these things?) Tomorrow is the cookie swap here at work, bring in 2 dozen, leave with 2 dozen. Good trade I think. Love cookies!!

Wonder if this where I should mention that I really think I should not eat too much this Christmas and start really paying attention to a diet of some sort come New Years? LOL. Anywho, moving on.

Today is the deadline for Summer submissions at the place where I sent the thing. I really hope they like it (or them, since there are 2). I do, and that's all that counts... right? Yeah I didn't think so either.

Fabric bowl

Yesterday I stayed home from work because of some, um, issues and I got some work done on Christmas presents. I finished 1 market bag (Pop Pop's and it looks SO cool with the pepper fabric!) and I made him a matching fabric bowl. I had bought the kit on Shopping Day and it included the template, 1 piece of heavy duty fusible interfacing and instructions. I provided 2 fabrics for inside and outside and bright red shiny thread for the satin stitch and viola... fabric bowl. Now, my center could have been a little more, um, octagonal. But for my first go at it I think it turned out really cute. If only I had discovered this before I decided to make market bags! 1 hr on bowl (while learning) vs. 2.5 on bag. Add to that the fact that I want each person to have 3 bags.... do we see the problems that my math-challenged brain did not comprehend? Sigh. Maybe next year. I could do a set of 3 bowls in the same time as 1 bag. Wouldnt that be cute? Oh, pictures. Sure. This is from the top then from the side so you can see the other fabric on the underside.













I really love how it turned out. Now I just need to go and get more interfacing (a Joann's gift card would be fabo right about now!).
In other addled-brain news, I am about half done with Mom's 2nd sweater arm. I cound 13 days until Christmas, is that right? Sigh.

Well, lotsa work to catch-up on and a meeting to leave for at 1:30. Have a great day.

Food Pictures

Because I am nice I have decided to share some pics from dinner last night. Yummo!!

Sambuca Shrimp:









Portobello mushroom w/rosemary reduction (SOOO good!, I'm waiting on the recipe) over polenta:










Ravioli Gigante (slightly eaten). The fork gives you an idea how BIG these things were. There were 4:









And finally, the desserts we shared - chocolate cake w/Heath bar crunchies and lemon sorbet w/strawberries:









In Christmas knitting news, I have about 5 inches done on Mom's other sleeve. Yay... only, um, 19 more inches to go! Ugh. I make this C-16 days and counting. Sigh. Well, I'm moving much faster on sleeve #2 than I did on sleeve #, so that is promising anyway.

And speaking of crazy, I may have mentioned to our marketing director that perhaps next year for Christmas, instead of ordering our Board of Directors gifts at $80-$100 a piece, wouldn't it be nice if I could make them all quilts and he can give me that money? Yes, there are 32 of them, why do you ask? Wait, I'm in that count... 31! I don't have any idea how long it will take to do, and my theory is to make one as an example and figure it out that way. Of course, that would mean NO knitting or crocheting next year, Christmas or otherwise. Wonder if Mom could do without another sweater?

Monday

This weekend was nice and quiet. Especially Sunday. My in-laws took the kids to SeaWorld for the day so I spent some time working on my Christmas gifts. Sean got to meet Santa for the first time, he didn't cry, but didn't really smile. Oh well.

I finished the sleeve on Mom's sweater and started the 2nd sleeve. I mustmustmust be more diligent in my knitting or she won't have a sweater at all come Christmas. I also finished 4 market bags bringing my total to somewhere near 10. Not enough. Not nearly. Today at lunch I plan to work on the sleeve some more. I am hesitent to show another picture of sweater pieces that look like they belong on a barbie so I will wait until I have something sewn together. I have the back, 1 front and 1 sleeve so I can get a start on that side I suppose.

For this evening, Travis has been invited to a test meal at Portobello Yacht Club at the Downtown Disney Marketplace. I am SOO excited because since we have had to completly stop spending money on going out, a free night out is a spectacular thing! Especially to such a nice restaurant. Not sure what I'll get yet, but I have been eyeing the menu this afternoon.

That's it for me. Have a great day.