72/365

I finished crocheting the preemie gown last night, and then wove in the ends and added the ribbon today. I think it came out very sweet and elegant looking. I am now officially out of baby yarn, so I will have to buy more before completing any more of these charity projects.



I have been trying out the free samples of soap nuts that I won back in December. I'm not sure if they are actually cleaning the clothes, but I can detect a bit of a smell from them is permeating the clothes. I'll write moer about them after I use them for a week or so. It kind of feels weird to be using such a natural soap product in the wash, and then throwing everything in the dryer with a chemical laden dryer sheet.

Nigel is home! That last enema worked and he pooped out some sort of rubbery squishy material that we are thinking came from one of the kids' toys, as well as the barium th evet had used for the contrast Xrays. I think it might have been one of those stretchy spiders, as I have caught him chewing the legs off of those. One day I thought one of the cats had some sort of horrid worm infestation when I went to clean the litter box and suddenly saw long bright pink tube-shaped things sticking out of the poop. He's breathing normally, eating again, and isn't acting like it hurts to jump on/off the furniture.

Hubby and I are very thankful that between the two of us, we have been scheduled for 14 mystery shops next week with GFK. That will help catch up from the blow that vet bill dealt us. Thank you for your prayers for our kitty. The vet said that he prayed before he went to bed last night that Nigel would pass whatever it was that was causing him so much pain and discomfort, since he didn't want to go have to go in and do surgery on him today. He has had several cats come in over the last month that have swallowed foreign objects and needed surgery... including one that had swallowed over 30 inches of ribbon. As you can tell by my crafting and projects posts, I have a lot of that kind of stuff laying around the house... ribbon, yarn, thread, etc. This is a big wake-up call that I need to try to stay harder on keeping the house picked up, lest little Mr. Eat-Everything-In-Sight gets a hankering to gnaw on some other forbidden item!

71/365

Sierra got her stitches out today! She is healing very well from her tumor removal, and is back to being her darling playful self. While we were at the vet, I checked in on Nigel. He is breathing easier and appears to be more energetic, but still isn't eating much and hasn't had a bowel movement. The vet said that he wanted to do another enema, and it looks as though he is spending another night.

Since one of the only ways to get my mom up and out of bed for the day is to take her somewhere, I told her I would take her to the thrift store if she got up, ate breakfast, and took her pills. I was hoping to find more skirts for me, but came up empty. Of course, I did find two below-the-knee length adorable denim skirts for Cecilia and Abigail. They've been twirling around in them and talking about how girly they feel wearing them! $2.60 well spent.

I started this little preemie gown yesterday. I'm at 9.5" long and it is supposed to be 12" long, and then I need to do the little edging and trim around the chest and neck. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

Last night:


And tonight:


Once you get the hang of the skirt pattern, it is an easy project to pick up and take around with you to work on in those "little moments"... the waiting room at the vets, while giving the girls their spelling tests, or waiting for things to come out of the oven... Like the yummy cornbread I am about to go enjoy with my leftover pork and beans!

69/365

I had to take Nigel to the vet today. He's been having labored breathing since Saturday; you can watch his sides suck in and out. He just hasn't been himself all weekend long, not wanting to play, ignoring his food. The vet at first thought that maybe he ate something he shouldn't have, like a piece of ribbon, but so far the xrays haven't shown any blockages, persay... though he did say it took longer for the barium to exit than it should have. He doesn't have a fever, so it's not an infection. The vet kept him overnight, so hopefully I will find out more tomorrow.

After going to the vet, I had to take my mom to pay her phone bill. While we waited in line, Niko got to play a video game.


I completed another preemie hat. This brings me up to #5!
I made Bev's Summer Hat with the flower toppers from here!


I also worked on another project that I will share with you tomorrow... here's a teaser though: I saved about $70 by DIYing!

66/365

We had a semi-busy Saturday. Sabrina and Abigail had to be at another local elementary school this morning at 8 a.m. for the "Great GATE Escape". It's a once-a-year event for all of the 3rd-6th graders that are in the Gifted and Talented Program. They had a great time and were so very excited when we picked them up at noon.

They both got to do a class on Geology cupcakes and learned about the different layers of the Earth, and then they had separate classes for the second session. Abigail's session was on Origami Math. She made a whole bunch of different origami sculptures... a piano, a swan, a house, a rabbit, and a box. Sabrina's second session was in Technology, and she learned how to do a PowerPoint presentation. They're both looking forward to the GATE summer program now, where as before Abigail was thinking of skipping it because she wasn't sure if she would like it.

Here's a random picture of my hubby smushing my sweet Henry baby. Henry is such a docil cat, and will just lay limp in your arms while you do stuff like this. Nigel... not so much.


Cecilia finally lost that snaggle-tooth. She bit into an animal cracker at snack time and it really started bleeding. I promised her a McDonald's ice cream sundae if she would just let me pop it out. She finally agreed, the tooth came right out with barely a tug, and we both enjoyed a hot fudge sundae.

Is it too early to start singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"?

I started, and completed, my preemie hat for March. This one is from Bev's Bumpy Hat for preemies (and newborns). Sorry my picture came out so yellow... I'll try to take a better picture when it is light out tomorrow. I really liked this pattern, it was a very quick work-up and I love the little bumps!

63/365

Poor Cecilia stayed home from school today with a fever. She slept most of the day. I would have gladly just stayed home and babied her all day long, but we had to go out and pay some bills that were due today. While waiting at a stop light, I glanced across the road and...



Did you read that as "Bland" Hawaiian food at first? Because I did, and I was totally busting up. No wonder they went out of business!

While dinner was cooking, Sarah-Michelle sent me a link to another hair styling blog. Cecilia saw this one up on the screen and asked me to do it to her hair. I think it came out pretty cute for a quick attempt! (I need to get some clear elastics.)


Update on the wool-eater blanket:
It uses a LOT of yarn. I used up all of the purple (one skein) and variegated (two skeins), and have also used up an entire Red Heart skin in the pink and have had to start a second one! (Thanks Gloria for sending me a skein of the light raspberry - you saved me a trip to Walmarts! Yes, I say Walmarts and Kmarts and my hubby hates that I add the S on the end.) I will probably have to buy one more skein of the pink to get it to a good "throw" size, which will make it a total of six skeins for a rather small blanket! I am so used to crib sized blankets that only take 2 small skeins.

58/365

My English class started this morning. I don't have much to say about it yet, since the hour and a half we were there was pretty much just filled with attendance and wait lists and adds. I do have an assignment due next week... I have to write at least a one page autobiography introducing myself to the class. We are also supposed to read two short stories from the text book. It's been a very long time since I took a writing class, so I hope that I do well in it.

When I got home from school, I did not get to collapse on the couch as I had planned. One of the limbs on my Dad's lemon tree had broke under the weight of hundreds of lemons, so we had to spend about two hours cutting off branches and removing as many ripe lemons as we could so that more branches didn't break. The branch that broke was about six inches in diameter to give you an idea of how heavy the branch had to have been! We filled two wheelbarrows to overflowing with lemons, boxed them up, and set them on the curb. They were all gone within an hour.

I finished a second preemie hat for this month. It was a super simple one that I just worked on for a minute or two here and there while waiting for programs to load and such. It's just rows of BLO double crochet, with a pompom on top.


Here are the three hats that I have made so far this year:


Why is it that little boys always have such gorgeous lashes??


He makes mine look so puny:


Our plans for the weekend include buying textbooks, going on a 16-mile ride, making homemade pizza, and bribing the teenager to mow the lawn.

49/365

Dishes. Laundry. Cable company. Walmart. Fresh & Easy. Food 4 Less. Lots of errands and tasks completed today. I was surprised when the girls came home from school (the short week threw me off and I forgot it was minimum day) and announced, "You've got company!" They had brought home one of Sabrina's classmates (and her mom)... and my sink was full of dishes, and my couch was covered in laundry... Great first impression, I am sure. The kids all played for awhile, and next thing I knew I had two of the neighbor girls running around the house too. Oh well, what's that one poem? About how when the kids grow up, we won't remember the mud tracking through the house, but we'll remember the giggles over mud pies? Mud pies, ladybug funerals, giggling over popcorn and ghost stories... we're making memories, not magazine photo shoots here!

More progress on the blanket... watching American Idol keeps me somewhat entertained. I decided to start emphasizing the pink since I am fast running out of the other colors, and I can buy more pink, but when the other two are done, they're just done. It's starting to get pretty warm and heavy working on it... which is probably why I never finished making the full-size and growing granny square that I had started for our bed a decade ago.


It did NOT rain today. The mountains look gorgeous all covered in snow though! Here is a picture that the paper ran today:

Snow... it's fun to look at, but I'm glad I don't have to live in it.

the Wool-Eater blanket

Here's a link to the Wool-Eater blanket. It is written in Australian/UK terms, but it's really simple to change it to US terms. Just cross out the "double" in front of every "doule treble" as that just means a treble stitch in US terms. I used Microsoft Word to make the substitution for me so that I wouldn't get confused while reading the pattern. The third and fourth rows are repeated throughout the whole blanket. If you have any questions, please email me and I will help you through it!


Here's a picture of the original blanket:
Photo courtesy of Sarah London's blog.


I really love how graphic and vibrant it looks, and can't wait to make it again in a better colorway... I just wanted to give it a try and had this old yarn to use up!

47/365

I completed my first mystery shop in quite a few years today. I think my last one was a Kinko's shop about 6 or 7 years ago. It was pretty fun, and I like getting paid to go out and buy a sandwich (that they'll also reimburse me for). If you would like to sign up for this company, here's a link: GfK Mystery Shopping. I also got an invitation from them last week that was to do an audit of an electronics store, but it was a very involved, long process of scanning items in a store that would have required about 12 hours of hands-on work... that's not something I can really commit to until Nicholas is in school. It would have been a nice opportunity though, as it paid $125!

I also got invited to participate in a market research focus group through FocusFwd. It's an online bulletin board that I have to log in to and post each day this week, and if completed successfully it will pay $100! That rocks.

Here's a picture of my progress on the "acrylic eater". I didn't get to work on it much today, so this is only about an hour's worth of work. It's almost the size of a couch cushion now, and I'd like it to be big enough to be a good lap blanket at least. I'm hoping there is enough yarn for that!

46/365

I started a "wool-eater" blanket today, and am really enjoying the pattern. I wanted to use up some leftover acrylic (that's oh, about 15+ years old now), so that is the purple and the variegated yarns. I picked up some "soft raspberry" Red Heart to add a 3rd color to the blanket. Abigail has already claimed ownership of it because of the purples in it.

I can totally see this in a lot of pretty colorways and would like to make more. I'd also like to try it in some really soft baby yarn, or at least some Simply Soft as this scratchier Wintuk and Red Heart yarn really does a number on my hands!

35/365

February's preemie hat. So sweet, so tiny.

The pattern is from YouCanMakeThis.

27/365

A toddler sized Lacy Shell's poncho for Sarah-Michelle's little Amelia. Made with Caron Simply Soft Eco in Lilac Bud, size I hook, with an added drawstring at the neck (so that it can be adjusted to not fall off her lil' shoulders). This was a very quick project! :)

26/365

I finished my cable hat today! I am so proud of myself for completing this project, as I had some issues reading the pattern and almost quit on it several times. I'm very glad that I did finish it though, because I love it!

I used Caron Simply Soft Eco in Soft Taupe, an I hook, and only did 3 rows of the edging for the band (I felt like 5 would have been just too long). It's a very thick warm hat, and I haven't taken it off all day long!

25/365

We didn't really do anything today, just sort of lazed around the house. I did get the grocery shopping done. I was looking forward to cleaning up the house tomorrow, but had forgotten it's a 3-day weekend for the girls... I'll be lucky if I get anything done now!

These are just a couple of cotton washcloths I finished this week. I am trying out a bunch of different patterns for those since finding a big bag of cotton yarn in the closet (part of a friend's yarn stash that she gave me when she moved).

16/365

I'm working on the cable hat, slowly. I've really been focusing mostly on getting the laundry situation under control, and have made a lot of progress, but it hasn't left much time for crafting. I just started the 6th row, but need to work on it when the kids aren't interrupting every 5 seconds so that I might mess up or read the wrong line of the pattern. Ah well, baby steps! At least I'm not putting it off any longer!


Sorry for the pitiful picture - if you haven't noticed, about half of the pix on this site end up being taken with my cell phone! ;)

12/365

1. Make Dh breakfast and lunch
2. Make kids breakfast
3. Make girls school lunches, do hair
4. walk girls to school
5. read blogs/craftster/email
6. go through and edit my blog to include labels
7. eat breakfast
8. empty dishwasher
9. fill dishwasher
10. do 30 min on WiiFit
11. deal with chicken broth from the crockpot (skim off the fat, strain, package) - made 7 "cans" worth!
12. start laundry load
13. put fresh hand towels in the bathroom
14. Fold and put away load of towels
15. start boiling one 10lb bag of chicken leg quarters
16. make lunch for me and niko
17. wash rest of dishes by hand
18. remove chicken pieces and strain chicken broth, set aside to cool - bag broth (7 more "cans" worth, plus 5 cups of broth to make tonight's rice!)
19. clean up mess in hallway
20. pick up girls from school
21. start work on Abbi's hat
22. take Abbi to the Dr to get stitches out
23. deal with all of that picking and packaging for the chicken (made 4 packages of 2 cups shredded chicken each, plus 2 cups for dinner tonight)
24. chop cilantro and onion for dinner
25. finished Abbi's hat

I am tired. I got almost everything on my "to-do" list for today done though!
Still left on the "to do" list are:

put away laundry on couch
pick up floor in my bedroom
pick up floor in kids bedroom
tackle the kitchen counter tops
wash sheets

I'll start back on those tomorrow. I think I have done enough for today! (well, I'll load the dishwasher before bed!)

Just updating my goals list!

1. Sew something with a zipper. (Pillow tutorial.)
2. Conquer buttonholes.
3. Figure out how to purl, and knit something.
4. Crochet a poncho for Abbi. (And matching hat.)
5. Crochet a pair of socks.
6. Athenian Scarf crochet-a-long. (Broomstick lace)
7. Crochet a preemie hat each month to donate. ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 )
8. Crochet a cabled hat.
9. Use WiiFit at least 5x each week for 30 minutes.
10. Log in to Wellness360 regularly and keep track of food and exercise.
11. Use the vintage apron pattern that I bought last year from eBay and make myself a kitschy adorable apron (see #2, conquer buttonholes).
12. Finish the little cowboy quilt that I started 4 years ago.

Poncho Completo!

My post on Craftster: Flying Purple Poncho Eater

ETA: Oh yeah, I wanted to mention something else! In finishing this poncho, I learned a new technique for joining yarn. Because the first skein ran out in the front of the poncho, I didn't want to do anything that would be too bulky, like what usually happens when I knot it or overlap the ends of yarn. I also wanted something that would be strong enough to withstand my "horse" roughhousing around. The Russian Join worked out beautifully! If you haven't tried this method yet, give it a shot! I think I will be using it from now on.

10/365

My body aches. Evidently my WiiFit workout yesterday was a bit more than my body expected after over a month off of it, but seeing the numbers continue to drop will be worth it in the end! I have done WiiFit every day for the last 5 days for at least 30 minutes.

I started Abbi's poncho today. I'm sorry for the bad lighting, but it's already dark outside, so all the colors are coming out wrong with or without the flash. I'm about halfway done with it already! I was able to work on it while watching TV last night, while sitting in the van today, and while at hubby's office while he did something with a router or some such computer equipment that has lots of stuff plugged into it and can only be unplugged when most of the staff is at home enjoying their weekend. At least the children behaved and played relatively quietly while we were there... they took a little duffle bag full of books, coloring books, markers, and small toys.


Tonight was the largest Full Moon of the year. It was also the "Wolf Moon" according to Native American lore. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of it, but it was definitely bright and big!

9/365

I completed 1/12th of my preemie hat resolution for this year. Here's the first little hat, hot off the hook:


It's made out of 100% cotton yarn (Peaches & Creme, in Sea Mist), but I think I will make the rest of the hats out of regular old baby acrylic, which I think is actually softer. It was a super quick pattern though, and I expect that I will use it again.

I used most of the rest of the ball up making a poncho for Sabrina's O.G. doll. This is the same pattern that I want to make Abbi's poncho out of, so I wanted to try it out and see if I could read the pattern easily enough. It went off without a hitch, so I'm good to go! I bought the yarn for her poncho today. It's Caron's Simply Soft Eco in Mulberry Mist.