Well loved

I love to watch my girls play with the stuffies I make.

So what if they get worn or ragged, that's what I made them for.

And that is why I will continue to make them for my girls.

That, my friends, is a finish!

Finally, after a few months break from the hooks, I got back at it. This baby afghan was made for a friend who was expecting her first little one. The nursery was decorated in a Jungle theme and I thought the colors would go along nicely with it.

This stitch is so simple but creates a nice fabric for a warm blanket to snuggle in. It is simply sc in one stitch dc in the next.

The baby, Hunter, made his grand entrance on July 24th. His Mom was such a trooper, first child, no epidural, and 18 hours of hard labor.

I got the pattern and color idea from a afghan I found on Pinterest, and comes from Cap's Crochet & Crafts. I didn't follow it to a T but pretty closely.

The border I came up with on my own. To hook it:

Ch 4,

in the same stitch 3 tr crochet

skip 2 stitches and slip stitch.

repeat around the blanket.

After spending months away from the hooks it felt so good to feel yarn in my fingers again. I took a break to work on making hair bows and head bands for my girls and to try to sell. My seester and I took a table full of hair bows and headbands to a flea market in Pineville, NC to try to sell. After 5 hours in the 100 degree heat, booth rental, and gas expenses I cleared about $30.00. Totally not worth it! So all my ribbons, bows, clips, and headbands were put into bins and stuffed under the bed. Maybe I will bring them out again one day, but for now I will just stick with making bows for my girls.

I have a granny stripe on my hook and am halfway finished with it. Its going to be a Christmas present for my brother and his wife. I will show it to you hopefully soon. Also, I just want to say a thank you to all the followers who stuck around while I have been gone. It really means a lot.

TTYS!

Doing the Dishes....

I hate doing dishes! Point, blank, and simple. I have a dishwasher that is starting to loose its cleaning power, its probably about 12 years old. So anyone want to guess what I have been doing? Yeah, that's right, the *$#& dishes! I figured that if I had to stand and scrub that I could at least do it with a nice new dishcloth or two, or enough to fill my dishcloth drawer. These quick little projects pack some awesome scrubbing power.

This is a quick design I came up with to crochet these dishcloths and here is how I did it. They took me less than a hour to make.

Peaches & Cream

size G hook

needle to sew in ends.

chain desired width-on the red I started with a chain of 31, the multi colored I chained 26

1. sc in the second chain from the hook and each ch across

2. ch 1 and turn. Extended single crochet in each sc across

3. ch 2 and turn. HDC in stitch across.

4. ch 3 and turn. Backpost DC in the first stitch, Frontpost DC in the next. Repeat BPDC and FPDC across

    to the end.

Repeat rows 1-4 until the desired length of your dishcloth then repeat rows 1-3 for the end rows. Or if you want both ends to have a SC row repeat rows 3-1. I finished the edge with a round of reverse single crochet. Sew in ends and scrub a dub.

Hope you enjoy. Now I have to go start dinner which means more @*$& dishes to wash. Maybe tonight would be a good night for take out!

TTYS!

Sights and sounds of the Season.....

The big guy has come and gone and was very generous to my little ones.

Our "Elf on the Shelf" has completed his mischief mission for the year and hitched a ride back with Santa last night.

Christmas plays were performed.

Teeth were lost. Three in the last two weeks.

Stockings were hooked and hung. I made 26 of these little stockings from Sucrette and gave them out to classmates and students.

Gag gifts were given. I just love my favorite Sis-in-Law!

Presents were distributed, paper flew around, and squeals of delight were heard.

An afternoon horseback stroll was enjoyed (without the sleigh). This is my nephews horse, Cherokee, being led by my brother who celebrated his 35th birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday baby Brother, we love you!

A good time was had by all.

Our Christmas was

Merry and Bright,

and I hope you and your family

have had a wonderful day.

Much Love to each of you.

TTYS!

Christmas Hats

My girls were going to be in the Christmas parade in my hometown last week, so of course I had to make new hats for them to wear. Turns out they were not going to be in the parade (thanks Uncle Phillip for not registering in time :-D) but they got to wear the hats to enjoy the parade anyway. I used the Hat with Bow pattern I posted last year.

I love this picture! For once they are not fighting or pulling each others hair. Sugar and spice, HA! Everyday is like WWE Smackdown around here.

Snaggle tooth! The tooth fairy has made four stops here in the last month. Twice last week. If she has a tooth that is the least bit loose she will not give up on it until it is out. Thank goodness she has no more loose ones, Mama is broke!

I never get tired of looking into these baby blues.

I hope you all are having a good night wherever you are. Time to crack down only 10 more days until Christmas and I have hardly started shopping yet. On a good note, hopefully tomorrow I will have a ripple afghan finished for a six year old cousin. Hope to have a Ta-Da post this weekend.

TTYS!

To Infinity and Beyond.......

Ok, so there is no beyond, but I have made a couple of Infinity scarfs.

This little one was made using one skein of Vanna's Choice in Mustard. The pattern I used was Caron's Bellflower Infinity Scarf.  I needed another skein to make it long and able to loop around, but I didn't have one so a short one it is. It's very warm and would have probably been too thick looped around anyway. Has anyone else noticed that Mustard is a popular color right now?

Now for my second one. I made this one in about 4 hours on Friday. The yarn I used is Lion Brands Tweed Stripes in color 206 Woodlands. LOVE this colorway! This was my first time using a self striping yarn and will definitely use it again.  

I started out similar to the patter for the Mustard scarf, and changed up the shells a little. 

Here's how I did it.

-2 skeins of Lion Brand Tweed Stripes

-H hook

Start with a chain of 34.

ROW 1-

DC in the 4th chain from the hook.

*Skip next two ch's.

2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc in the next ch.

dc in each of the next two ch's.*

Repeat from * to the end. Ending with dc's in last two ch's.

You should have 4 shell clusters and 5 two dc spaces.

ROW 2-

ch 3 and turn, dc in next dc.

*in ch 1 space of shell- dc, ch 2, dc

skip to 2 dc's and dc in each.

repeat from * to the end with a dc in the last dc and a dc in the top of the ch 3.

ROW 3-

ch 3 and turn, dc in the next dc.

*in ch 2 space of shell-2 dc, ch1, 2 dc

skip to 2 dc's and dc in each.

repeat from * to end with a dc in the last dc and a dc in the top of ch 3.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 until you reach the desired length. You could leave this as a scarf or sew the two ends together to make a Mobius or Infinity scarf.  I hope I explained the instructions well enough, but if not please feel free to leave me a message.

I have dinner simmering away in the Crock Pot, Beef Tips and Gravy. Pammy Sue at Scotty's Place posted the recipe a while back. This is always a hit with my family. Basically you just add a package of beef tips, (I use the large pack, got a lot of mouths to feed here) and 2 cans of Beef Gravy. Throw it in a crock pot on high for 4 hours. I am going to cook some egg noodles and add them to it. Perfect for a chilly day. I am gonna go now and make a Butter Pecan Pound Cake. If you would like the recipe let me know, I will be glad to share.

TTYS!

I've been in the ripple!

A yarn ripple, not the bottle. But then again the evening is just starting! I decided to join up with Heather and Lucy's ripple-a-long. Just in case you haven't see or heard about it, all the info is here and here.

I am using leftovers I already have. I am sure I will have to buy more of the Sea Blue. I am using it as a main color and will put another color in between with the hopes of not using the same color twice. The pattern I am using comes from Lemond De Sucrette. Here is a link to her pattern. It is a chart, but very easy to understand. Similar to Attic 24's pattern but with a little more ripple. There is also a Flickr group, go check it out, join up, and start rippling.

This is a pair of shoes I fashioned in my favorite college teams colors. Garnet and Black for the South Carolina Gamecocks. I found the shoes on sale for $10, brought them home, and added polka dot grosgrain ribbon flowers. Go Gamecocks!

Gonna run for now. Time to get in to the ripple for the evening, maybe both kinds!

Hope ya'll are having a great weekend!

TTYS!

I felt the Earth move.....

So I am sure you have heard about the Earthquake already. Today I experienced it for the first time. I was in the pick-up line at school waiting on my Daughter to get out, cross stitching, and all of the sudden my Explorer started bouncing. I thought maybe it was the wind, nope just a slight breeze blowing outside. It lasted about 30-45 seconds. Weird, but not uncommon, for where I live. There is a fault line near me.  About 14 years ago we had a earthquake, I slept right through it. My ex-husband was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He tried to wake me up. I had just got my nephew Tyler to sleep, after being up almost all night with him having asthma attacks, and threatened him with bodily harm if he woke the baby up.

We are waiting to see what Hurricane Irene is gonna do. We are in the projected path of the storm, don't I sound like a weather girl. My freshman year of High School we were hit by Hurricane Hugo. I remember being in World History when the announcement was made that school was cancelled the next day. I thought they were crazy, but hey it was a day off from school, so I wasn't going to complain. Yet. It was horrible. Our house flooded, trees were down all in my yard, we were without power for a couple of weeks. Horrible I tell you! So from then on I have paid attention to hurricanes and their paths. My ex in-laws lived in Mississippi when Katrina came through. We left SC the day after Katrina hit, headed to MS to go help them dig out, with a 6 week old baby. Longest trip of my life! Thank God they had a generator, and very little damage to their property. They were very lucky.

I thought about the fact that 20 years ago today, I was starting my Senior year of High School. Feel old much? Gah, where has the time gone?

Not much happening on the crochet front. I tested a pattern for Smooth Fox last week. It is called Tea for Two and you can get the free pattern here.

I hope y'all are having a great week.

TTYS!

S words

Striping

I am still working on the Autumn Stripes blanket for my Aunt and Uncle's Christmas present.

Squared

I bought this variegated yarn with the intention of making a  lapghan for my Grandmother and never got around to making it. She passed away in May (another post on that coming soon), so now I am using the yarn to make my Dad a blanket.

Six

My oldest baby turned 6 last week. It is so hard to believe she is 6 already. It breaks my heart to see them growing so fast. I miss having babies, but love this age too. She had a party at the daycare with her friends. We also took her out for her birthday with the family, and then to Wal*Mart to pick out what she wanted for her birthday. 

Silly

Here she is showing off her silly face. Both of my girls can cross their eyes, I can't.

Sitting

Last week we dog sat this sweet little one. My seester and her family went on vacation and I got temporary custody of her female Boston Terrier, Angel. And what a little angel she is. She has the best temperament, and endured torture from my girls so well. She was put into a tutu, tried to be made to wear a tiara and high heels and just played along with them. I didn't want to give her back. They are planning on breeding her soon and I have already put my name in the pot for a little girl puppy.

 Steamy and Scorching

If you live in the US, you know what I am talking about and I don't think I need to go into details. :)

TTYS!

Yoo Whooooooo!

Good Saturday Morning to you all! I just wanted to show off this cute little owl I made yesterday. I got the pattern from here. I fell in love the moment I saw it and went straight for my G hook and some Simply Soft yarn and got to work.

The pink baby one is the original size as noted in the pattern. She is 3 inches tall. I didn't add the fabric to the front of her yet, but just couldn't wait to take some photos. The multi colored one is 7 inches tall.

Hello Gorgeous!

A little while ago I came across this blog, I love how she has taken small Ami patterns and just by using thick chunky yarn makes these large animals. So of course I had to run to Walmart, with the excuse to get groceries, and grab a few skeins of Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn. The yarn is cheap $2.97 a skein, but I lucked out and found 4 skeins of the hot pink for $2.50. This morning I have been looking on Ravelry and Crochet Pattern Central for other Ami patterns to try out, although I keep looking at that Octopus and am really wanting to make that. I have 2 skeins of Charlotte Blue and think I will start one with this.

I found another visitor in the bathroom this morning. I don't know what I am going to do with Maranda and her bringing frogs in the house. Maybe I should pull out my old aquarium and make a frog habitat out of it for her. I need to Google it, maybe. After chasing it around the bathroom walls I finally caught him and he is safe and sound outside.

This is my nosey little friend. It flew up this morning as I was taking pictures of the Owls outside to see what was going on. It seems every time I am out on the side porch it comes up, sits on the ivy arch for a little bit to see what is going on, then takes off. I think this is one of the birds that had a nest in our shrub on the corner of the house. There was 4 eggs in it, but something got the eggs, no trace of them. I am thinking a raccoon or snake had a snack.

Well I guess I need to go for now, time to get productive so I can get some hooking done this afternoon. I have dinner in the slow cooker already, a Boston Butt, cooking in Carolina Classic BBQ sauce. I am going to make some Cole slaw in a little while and enjoy a good ole BBQ sandwich for dinner. I hope ya'll have a great Saturday.

TTYS!

On to the next

I am feeling so accomplished these days. I got the blue and brown stripes finished and have started another afghan in the same pattern. These rows work so fast.

I love how the setting sunlight glows on the edge of the blanket in this picture.

I waited to late, again, to take the pictures but wanted to get them taken so I can wrap this up and take it to my cousin. I missed the baby shower this weekend, I was helping my Brother and Sister-in-Law move to the new house they have bought.

This is the next afghan I have started, frogged, and started again. I am making this one for my Aunt Donna and Uncle Kim's Christmas present. She asked me to make an afghan in Autumn colors about a year ago and I think I got them about right. 

The first attempt started with a chain of 210 and ended up being about a foot and a half taller than me. My Uncle is a tall man and would have still been way to long for him. My Aunt is just over 5 feet tall and I was scared she would tangle up and suffocate in all that. So I ripped it all out and restarted with a chain of 189, it is still long but better. I am doing a row of sc, granny stripe, sc in each color then changing to the next color. It really works fast and may just be my go to pattern when I need something done quick.

Now it's time to brag a little. I have lived in South Carolina my entire life, never would I want to live anywhere else. I am a Carolina Girl through and through. I tell everyone I was raised on three basic beliefs:

1. God

2. Family

3. South Carolina Gamecocks.

Last night the Gamecocks baseball team won the College World Series! This is the second year in a row they have won and I am so proud! Way to go Boys! Now its time to get ready for some Gamecock Football! I love College Football, could care less about Pro Football though, even with the Carolina Panthers less than a hour from me.

I hope you all are having a great week. We are getting ready for the 4th and all the parades, cookouts, and fireworks that go along with it. We have a small community near where I live that has a parade every year on the 4th and anything can be in it as long as it is decorated with American Flags. It is fun to see just what people come up with. My girls ride in it with my Aunt Ann and Uncle Phillip. She is on the four wheeler, he is on his Motorcycle and each take one of my girls. They love it!

Whatever plans you may have, have fun, stay cool, and be careful. Hope to see you here soon with pictures of all the fun, festivities, and fireworks.

TTYS!