A few pics. No really!

Look what we FINALLY got here! I actually managed to not buy anything. I know, I was impressed too.

Enjoying some watermelon:











The fruit of Jake's labor (he made like 12 of these):












A sock I test knit and really enjoyed!:











That's it for now, I swear I'll start blogging more when I'm back at work! lol. 2 more weeks!

It's a happy day to be a Momma!

See that, my boy's crocheting. He says "Now can I be the crochet dude?" I hope Drew understands. I'm so proud, I think I have a little tear.

I finished up the pattern for Purse-Onality and it is off to be tested. I swear I was going to start right back with a 2nd sock or the 2nd mitt but I got sidetracked with this little guy:











Meet Sheldon. Hehehe, Shel(l)don. He has clothes too! A Pirate outfit, cowboy outfit, police man, sheep... too cute!!

That's some Good News!

My Purse-Onality design was bought by the mag and will be published in March. I. Am. So. Excited!! It was for more $ than last time and they bought it without having to see it first. The pattern is almost done and will head to testers shortly. This makes me doubly excited to send Sweet Summertime for the May issue!

In truth I haven't touched yarn in almost 2 weeks. First I got sucked into Twilight, then I had to read the rest of the saga rightnow!!! I finished that a few days ago and felt like I would rather read than sew or knit or crochet so I read Pride & Prejudice and finished last night. Actually it was after 1 so it was this morning. Time to quit the books for now so I can get some sleep! My yarn hiatus has made my fingers so sore, see... NOT over use! Maybe they are also mad at my only using sock yarn for a while. Maybe if I made something with thicker yarn they'd be happy?

Speaking of yarn... I went to the yarn shop last week and they were having a sale!! I spent $18 and got 1 skein of Tofutsies in a purply/pink and 3 (!) skeins of Worsted weight Angora Rabbit/Wool blend. Big skeins too! I now have almost 300 yards of the stuff. I have been thinking on what to make with it, but I haven't decided yet. The normal price on that stuff is $19/skein so it's like I bought 1 and got 2 more plus sock yarn free!! Oh Happy Day. lol.

Sean is Sir Sneezy today, hopefully the allergy meds will kick in so we can go to a friends b-day party. He has also just discovered the wonder that is the yarn winder. He is so funny.

Jake is counting the days until he will be a 3rd grader. 2.5 to go.

Well, that's it for me, more later and pictures, right.

No pics yet but I just HAD to share this:

I was reading Laurie's blog and I had to share it with you because the video is absolutly hysterical. I have tears in my eyes and yes, I was singing along. (Mom, wait til you get home, you will need speakers).

I finished the girl quilt (it needs a bath but is waiting for it's mate) and I finished sewing together the quilt top minus the border. I have been dreaming up (literally) the quilting edging I will do since I dont think that hearts will do for a boy... I've decided to do little sailboats connected by a wave-y line. Cute, eh?

I also finished the 2nd purse cover after a minor crisis of the couch eating my only K hook, but thankfully I was able to find it inside the couch's rusty innards. I need to add a few bits of hardware to both covers, take pics and have it all put together by Monday. No rush or anything!

I knit a bit on the 2nd mitt and the 2nd sock, but not too much.

I am watching the Knit & Crochet Today granny square episode, with Drew even though I've seen it before. Mostly because I'm bored but also because it amuses me to watch someone on tv that I "know" through the innernets. Also, his granny is much cooler than normal grannys.

Oh, and before I go I wanted to share that my pirate hat pattern from the Knit calendar (according to Ravelry) has 115 people fave'd it and it has 40 projects. Well, 39 since mine is in there too. Cool, eh? I thought so.

Have a great day and I really will try to post more tomorrow with pics.

progress

I am still pretty bored, but with Travis' weird schedule, I have the kids on the weekends and he's home on Wed/Thur. It's pretty whacky. But, I have managed to have a little time to myself! I am on the binding of the girl baby quilt, I did the quilting and it came out pretty cute. I did a connected hearts thing on the borders and although they are not the MOST perfect hearts in the world, I am still pretty proud of myself. Today during AMC I may start cutting the pieces for the boy baby quilt. The fabrics aren't as cute as the girls but still pretty adorable.

I am about 1/3 done with the 2nd fingerless mit and only a couple inches into the 2nd Brainless sock. I did get a start on the 2nd purse cover, but I am running out of time on that one, so that is where I will concentrate in the next couple days.

My 2 aunts are coming into town in the next couple weeks so that is exciting. It'll be nice to spend some time with them, I just need to work on being ready to drive by then. Doc said 2-3 weeks, today marks the 2 week point so that is promising.

That's really it for me for now. Hopefully next time I'll have some pics to show off.

Lesson learned on day 2 of boredom

I have heard that you should wash your fabric before turning into a quilt but as we all know, I am lazy. I know I NEED to wash it before the actual quilting so I tossed the 2 quilt tops (the convention quilt and girl twin quilt) and their respective backs into the wash with woolite on gentle (I'm not a COMPLETE idiot! har har). I didn't dry them, just brought them to the living room and started pressing them.

As an aside, I must say it is a nifty feature on ironing boards that they can be adjusted to short so I could iron sitting at the couch. Moving on.

As I started looking at the convention quilt I noticed in a few places where the seam had come undone. Uh oh. Not a good thing at all. I am really not sure how I'm gonna fix it, and thankfully it's only on that quilt and not on the baby one. The backs pressed nicely, so did the girl quilt. Any thoughts? I am thinking of stippling some thread with a backing of scrap fabric and turning under the frayed edges as I go, that way when it's actually quilted it will look like it's supposed to be there. I dont think I'd be able to deepen the seem allowances on just those spaces and have it look normal so I don't think that is an option.

Sigh. Oh... I did finish one of the mits and started on the second, did I mention that already? Boredom = addlebrainedness.

Tommorow afternoon I watch a little friend so his Mommy can go on a job interview. 5 yr olds are easy peasy so nothing strenuous I'm sure. He'll be happy to bounce on the trampoline I'd wager. Let's keen Jen in our thoughts that she gets a job quickly!

That's it for now, have a great day. I wonder what new and magical things I will learn tomorrow? I did not pray to be taught a lesson! Lol.

Bored already

I've watched 2 episodes of All my children, I'm on my 4th knit & crochet today, 2 knitty gritty's and a quilt in a day. I have a 24 which I need to watch today before tonight's episode, or I could hold it until tomorrow and watch them both back to back! Hehehe. Back to back Jack. lol. I kill me.

Anyway, surgery went well, I'm just pretty sore and very restless. Even at night taking my happy pills I cannot manage to fall asleep in less than 3 hours without adding my normal sleeping pill. Last night I took both and did fall asleep quickly but was up at 12:30 and it took over an hour to get back to sleep. Maybe it's the percoset and I need to just try to deal with taking the IBs? I'll try that tonight.

In yarny news, I've gotten a few rounds away from finishing th efirst fingerless mit. I like how it's coming out, but I did see how I managed to be unable to count to 4... Oh well, who likes evenly spaced cables anyway? lol. I just need to remember to mirror them on the 2nd mit... maybe then I can call it a "design element"! I have only a couple weeks to get the 2nd bag cover done for the mag and send it out. I keep procrastinating because I feel like I will have SOOOO much time on my hands that I dont want to do everything at once.

In quilty news, well there isn't any. I have all the fabric for the boy blanket, I am not super thrilled with it though. It's pretty average, if that makes sense. I really love how the girl blanket came out and I hate to be disappointed with this one. Too late now since it's not like I can drive my arse over to the fabric store! I think they are due middle of June but with twins I'll be lucky to get to the middle of May. I guess I really need to get a move on, eh? At least the pattern goes quickly.

That's really it for now. Thank you for your well wishes and good thoughts. More later.

Ready of not...

I went in for pre-op today and the vampires took 7 vials of blood. I got a nifty new green wrist band for blood typing and instructions so I am all set for surgery on Tuesday. Wonder if I can get my doc to hold the sock in progress? Hmmm. I also went in today to meet with the surgeon about the lump and he said it's just dense breast tissue and nothing to be concerned with and see you in 4 months. I am happy with that.

I have started the thumb gusset for my mitt and the round and round bit of the foot on second sock. I have not finished picking fabric for the boy twin's quilt, nor have I gotten the batting for the other 2. Maybe this weekend. I have a May deadline for the the twins and September for Convention so that's a good thing.

Speaking of fabric, I have been undergoing a major project in ironing and folding my bits of fabric and grouping them by color. I dont even have my yarn so organized! This is a good project so that I can actually see that I have 9,000,000 different greens and only 3 blues. Apparently I'm a green person... who knew?

No real plans this weekend but get the house in "guest condition" since I will have guests next week and I will be out of commission. Let's just hope that my 3 days in the hospital wont = tornadic activity on the homestead.

That's it for me, have a great weekend and I will try to post on Monday.

Pictures of done stuff.

I finished the top for the convention quilt:










I also decided to make baby quilts for my boss who is expecting twin grandbabies - one of each kind! Here's the top for the girl:









I am getting fabric together for the boy quilt. The girl one was easy, I picked the butterfly fabric and the rest fell into place. I will look for a inspiration fabric for the boy one soon. I need to get some batting for all 3, and the girl quilt already has backing and binding strips ready to go. I am still contemplating binding and backing on the convention quilt.

I did get some work done on my newest project - fingerless mits for my mom at her office. I've got about 2 inches done. I was going to keep it a suprise but I have an amazing lack of restraint when it comes to things like this! Those that know me are laughing right now!

I do have a pic to share of Sean. On Friday, he and Jake spent the day with my in-laws. Apparently they were trying to juggle. Sean, being the most graceful child he is succedded in losing an argument with the coffee table:











I am working to get my desk in order and all my poop in a group before I am out for 8 weeks. I will keep blogging from home but will have limited access to pics.

I hope you had a great Easter. More tomorrow, maybe I'll remember to snap a pic of the mits.

A Scheduled outage...

I finally got the call to schedule my surgery, I'll go in on 4/21 and emerge minus some girl parts and on heafty drugs. I am looking forward to the After since this before sucks! I normally dont ask for prayers for myself but I will now, please remember me on that day and couple days after.

Moving on... I didn't take any pictures to show and I didn't finish my quilt blocks - I have 1 more side on each one, then they just need to be sewed together and some borders added. I am still thinking about backing. I have a couple ideas in mind and I am looking forward to playing with them in real life instead of just my head!

At lunch I finished the crocheting of my purse cover, but I was not able to sew it up since I didn't have a tapestry needle with me. Tonight that will get done during tv. I also started a pattern that I had intended for my Mom for birthday, having forggoten about the birthday socks and I will see how it goes. Now I'll just tease and say maybe she'll get it, maybe I'll keep it! lol.

Tonight I intend to shampoo my carpets in the living room and dining room. Woo hoo, joy. But, I'd rather it done now than have to stare at dirty carpets for the next 8 weeks!

That's it for now, have a great day!

Over and out

I finished my brothers quilt and it is on the way to the post office as we speak! I am not thrilled with how it turned out and I hope that I will be able to improve my skills on the quilting portion. For the convention quilt I am researching how much it would be to send it out to be quilted and it looks reasonable, now to convince my boss it's a sound investment!

I brought my purse covers to work on at lunchtime today, but it is kind of freeing to not have a very pressing project to finish rightnow.

Not really much to say today. Maybe tomorrow I'll have some pics or something. Until then, have a great day.

Weekend notes

This weekend was so much fun. Saturday we had a play date and there were more than 10 kids that showed up. I am waiting for more pics but here are a couple.

Sean on the slide enjoying static cling:










Little ones playing baseball:









I got a lot of work done on the Convention quilt. I only have 1 more color to add, so maybe half hour of work, then borders. I haven't decided on the borders yet, I think I will add some sort of mixture of the fabrics that are already in the quilt, the ones I have leftovers of anyway. Here's a pic of what it will look like once I add the dark blue:









I am trying to get a quote on having it quilted for me since my brother's quilt looks so messy and this IS for a fundraiser. Hopefully it will be reasonable enough for me to get my boss to pay for!

I got most of my first cover done for the purse and I like how it's turning out. I have some ideas for the other one too but I will have to play with it to be sure.

Well that's it for me for now, Have a nice Monday. Tomorrow is my doc's appt so this is my last day to obsess about it~

Play Date, wii fit, quilting

Play date yesterday was so much fun. We had a really good turn out and I think that everyone enjoyed themselves. I got in some exercise running after Sean and pitching baseball. I also got in 30 mins on the wii fit between the hula hoop thing and step classes. I'm pretty sore today so I'm staying away from it. I am really noticing a difference in my energy level (well not today but in general) with getting in some exercise almost every day this week. I am down about 3 lbs this week so I am pretty thrilled... and that is with eating taco bell 2 times!

Today I am going to Jen's church, she's singing a solo and I'm looking forward to it. We'll grab lunch afterwards then I'll head home. Jake is going with my MIL to the base to go shopping so it's just me and Sean.

Maybe this afternoon I'll get out and till up the area for the corn since that really needs to be transplanted soon. I have the area mostly done, I just need to finish up and mix in some soil. Hopefully it shouldn't take me more than an hour.

In quilty news, I have not finished sewing the binding down on my brother's quilt but it's getting closer, just 1 short side left. I did start working on the Convention quilt. It's a log cabin in tan/brown and blue. I got to the 6th side out of 13 (including the center). I really like how it's turning out and it is going pretty quick. Including cutting the strips I probably have 2 hours in it and that is for all 12 squares. I've got a 1 more set of strips not cut but the rest are ready. I am really enjoying it. Now I need to decide if I want to try to do the quilting myself again or have it sent out. Hrm. I have no idea how much something like that costs. It may be worth a little investigating. I'd hate to have it not sell as well because I am a crappy quilter. Decisions decisions.

That's it from me, I'm gonna go get some frosted mini wheats. Have a great Sunday.

A happy place

I've had a rough few days mentally relating to some strange doctor stuff and I wont really know what's going on until Tuesday when I have a consult. I am the least patient and most paranoid person that I know so this does not sit well with me.

However, yesterday when I was between test appointments I went to Joanns. Joanns is my happy place. I spent over half hour fondling yarn and browsing quilting fabrics. I have needed to go and get some springy yarn for the purse and this was my opportunity. Not rushed, no extra "helpers", it was nice. I chose CotnCorn (a blend of cotton and corn) in a peach and verigated peach/brown/white for one purse and a chunky verigated teal & white for the other. Happy Springy colors and I'm looking forward to working with them.

I also got 4 fabrics for the Convention quilt, differents shades of brown from almost white to really dark chocolate. I also cut most of the strips and did the first round of sewing. I actually got a lot done for the time that I had and I'm pretty proud of myself. I could have been taking a nap but nope! I sewed.

In other yarny news, I had started the 2nd sock of Brainless but at doctors appt #2 yesterday I realized that I was relying on my brain instead of the pattern and had to rip out the 1.5" I had done and restart. Oh well. I've got a teeny tiny bit back to done but not too much.

In other quilty news, I am almost done with my 3rd side of handquilting Kerry's quilt. One and a little bit to go. Yay!

That's it for me, have a great weekend.

Sean sings the abc's and a quilt block

Here is the other quilt block I finished. I need to re-figure out how I updated my virtul design wall with my done blocks. Maybe tomorrow.

And here's Sean doing his ABC's. He is So funny now! Enjoy and have a great day.

A very news-worthy day...

I got a note from the Editor of the crochet mag and she likes my design. Yay! However, she would like to push it to the Spring issue instead of the Winter issue, and I'm ok with that. It does mean that I need to re-create it to be Springy. I see some yarn shopping in my future!!

So, I take that as not No but Maybe. And I'm ok with that!

Lots of pictures, none of yarn.

This weekend went really well. We had fun and I got a lot done. Let's review:

I started and finished a Dear Jane block. My first that was paper pieced. It's B4. I also just finished B1 at lunch but it is pictureless for now.









I also took some pics of sprouts... the tall ones are corn and the short ones are cukes. I took some of the carrots, broccoli, cilantro and chives but they are almost too small to actually see in the pics. Maybe in a few days.











We went Strawberry picking on Saturday. We had a really nice time and came home with 2 of those big blue bowls full plus 2 big onions for the low low price of $5.


















And after strawberry picking and cleaning and cleaning and cutting and cutting and storing... we went to Mamaw and Papaw's house. What'd we do?

Jake did this:












And Sean did this:











I got some video and will try to get it on youtube later on. I had my doc visit this morning, just an annual but we had some long discussions about the next couple weeks. We found a lump but he thinks its a cyst. Sono and mamo for that on Thurs morning. My lady issues need to get resolved now so sono for that also on Thurs and surgery consult next Tuesday. I'm praying everything will be ok and if not that I will be strong enough to face my fears.

Jake has SATs this week and I am hoping that he'll do a good job. He did really well on the practice test so hopefully that means he's ready.

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

a sock picture

Here are some pictures of my sock mid-lunch knitting. This is an all-over then an "up close" of the cables.












I have knit another inch or so on it since this pic, and I've almost reached the point where I'll add the ribbing. I am thinking of a big 2" ribbing, since I think it'll help make them stay up pretty good.

I didn't have a chance to work on the quilt last night, instead I watched Castle from dvr during Mr. O's speach. Tonight is 2 hours of Idol so I doubt I'll do it then either, unless I can do dinner quick and have a little time to sew then have the 2 Idol hours to hand stitch it down in the back which I figure will take 4.3 years to finish. We'll see how it turns out.

No sprouts in the garden yet but I'll be sure to take some pics when there are.

working on it

I was home sick yesterday with the blahs, so tired and sore and generally feeling icky. I have not gotten most of the sock done, I have about 3 inches to go and I like it. I dread the second sock, because this isnt an easy one, but I like it anyway. Hopefully I'll not have another singleton. However, I could wear them together... one blue and white and the other pink and purple. Think anyone would notice?

I also got the quilting done on my brothers quilt. BOY do I suck at that! It is not even remotly even in any way. I have the first side of border pinned on, I'll try to work on that while I'm busy ignoring the president.

In gardening news, I got it planted. I do still need to get another tomato so that I can have a pair... we need 2 to tango. All of the seeds that I planted had already sprouted in my little windowsill greenhouse. I used 2 boxes(corn & cukes) that are 3x1ft plus 2 round pots 9-11 inches (tomato & chives / cilantro) and a bigger round pot that is like 2ft across (broccoli / carrot). The carrots and cukes are smaller sizes - pickling cukes and some fancy name for midget carrots so hopefully they wont get too crowded. When the corn gets 6-9 inches tall I'll have to move them to the ground, but I have a little time before that happens.

Lets see... sock, quilt, garden, ok. Still nothing from the mag, but hopefully soon! I'll try to show off my sock tomorrow.

It's really all for you

My wonderful husband found this bit of awesomeness somewhere on the internets and shared it with me. Because I heart you all, I will share with you... because there is nothing that knitters and crocheters love more than sheep!




As for my own progress, I have about finished turning the heel, so working backwards, the heel flap should be next. I'll try to take a pic of it on... since I can do that with toe up socks... to show you. I have a luncheon today so I probably wont get any knitting done then.

This weekend I'll be planting my garden out back. Hopefully I wont kill it before I get some veggies!