Happy Friday GiveAway!

Happy Friday!!! I am so glad it's Friday. Another week from hell here at work. Nothing is ever easy anymore is it?

Well one thing that's easy today is that I am having my very first give away! I should have had it way before now but you know the old saying - 'Better late than never'. :o)

AND I am giving away two items today to two lucky people! The first one - I am giving away my 'itty bitty animals' book. This book is all about crocheting small animals with #10 thread. There are 15 patterns.

The second one - 'Crochet blocks in a box'.  This is unique. There are patterns for 50 blocks in this box. It was a bargain for me so I want to pass along the bargain to you! :o)

All you have to do is be a follower and leave me a comment. How easy is that?  I will pick the lucky winners Monday or Tuesday with the random number generator and announce them on my next post. Good luck and Happy Friday! :o)

I hope your weekend is safe and wonderful and everything you wish it to be! Cya soon.
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Leo The Lion Hearted

Happy Tuesday! I hope this post finds everyone well and happy.

My little Leo, as the title suggests, is very Lion Hearted. He thinks he is bigger than life and sometimes knows no fear, as Jack Russells tend to be.  But it's a totally different story when storms come through.

Yesterday when I came home from work Leo was not in the window, where he usually is when I pull up the driveway. I get scared when I don't see him there. He's getting up in years. He's getting very clumsy and sometimes hurts himself when he jumps and misses his target.

I came in the house and called for him, he didn't come. I got really scared then. He wasn't in my chair, he wasn't on the bed. I walked into my bathroom and there he is laying on the floor and when he saw me he got this look of total relief on his face. 'Ohh...you're home!!' And then he was so happy to see me. And the further I go in the bathroom there is stuff scattered. The waste basket has fallen over, the cleanser that was on the edge of the tub is in the tub, the shower curtain is half in, half out of the tub, the bath mat is scrunched up on top of the a/c vent.  My little Leo The Lion Hearted had to endure a storm by himself and was so scared he ended up in the bathroom. From the looks of it he jumped in the bathtub and then back out and layed on the floor until Mom came home.  I laughed at him and he jumped up on the bed barking at me but came when I called him so I could hug him and scruff his fur up. He's so funny sometimes.

My crocheting hasn't been much. I went to the dr. yesterday because three weeks ago I was stretching at work and something in my right wrist/palm snapped. I felt it and heard it. I have been hoping it would heal but I'm not that lucky. It's been bothering me so I finally made an appointment to see my doc, who in turn has to refer me to the specialist. They're supposed to call me for an appointment. I think it is probably carpel tunnel. After all, I'm on a computer all day. And then I go home at night and crochet until bed. Lately not so much but as much as I can deal with. HR told me that it's a work comp claim, but I don't know that I want to claim it as work comp. I guess I'll see what the specialist has to say when I go. I'm not looking forward to it.

I think I told you my niece was living in Turkey as her husband was stationed there with the Air Force. She had told me about how amazed she was with Turkish women crocheting and all the beautiful stuff they made. She became friends with some and would watch them while they crocheted. His duty there is up and he's been reassigned to San Antonio, TX. She had my sister (her mother) send me a couple of items that she brought from Turkey. I guess she had given them to her and my sister knew I would appreciate the crocheted stuff more. I just love the towel. I think the thread is #20 but the work is beautiful. I can't figure out the placemat but I think I've seen this stitching somewhere. The front is the same as the back.

She told me that they didn't use patterns, that she ever saw. They just crocheted from what they had learned to do probably since they were young. Amazing.

Duty calls for me. I've been swamped but it's all good. Have a wonderful day and I hope the rest of the week follows suit. Cya soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Little Things

Hi! I have been so swamped and busy lately. There is just not enough hours in the day sometimes. Work has been very busy. That's a good thing though. I'm very thankful to have a job.

Crochet wise I've just been doing little things. Madge has a good sized wardrobe for now. And a thought just hit me...I wonder if I could crochet her a suitcase for all of the clothes I've made her.  Hmmm. :o) So I've been working out of my scraps bowl to make her clothes and what not. I'm trying to bust some of it and I'm getting there. I didn't realize my bowl was running over with scraps until I went to clean out my corner.

I also started a door draft snake for my sister with scraps and ya know what? What I thought would be a relatively easy project is not really that easy. When you start getting so big with it it's hard to crochet in the round because you have to kind of hold it up to crochet and your hands and arms get tired. I can only work on it so long before I have to put it down. I didn't get any pics of it yet. I'm not really liking it and I told her I would make her two. :o( lol. It's turned out to be one of the most awkward things I've ever crocheted.

This is my 'Fall Guy' (with long hair). He is made totally out of scraps too. I should have made his arms and hands out of either the green or orange. They're hard to see.

Last night I made another key chain fob (is that what they're called??). This one is a tad bigger than the last one. I crocheted 16 sc across and 16 rows. Then I edged it with sc and fastened off. Then I started crocheting a flower in the center of it. I like how it turned out. Then I chained 20 or 25 in maroon and came back down the chain with slip stitches and when I got to the end I went right into sc's on the edge and went all the way around and tied it all together when I got back to the slip stitched part. This is the end result:

Last week I was outside watering plants and I felt something fall on the top of my foot. I looked down and this cute little caterpillar was on me. So I brushed him off with my other foot and all of a sudden the top of my foot started stinging where he had been. It continually got worse. So I took a pic of it with my phone and posted it to facebook asking if anyone knew what it was. No one did. I googled 'stinging caterpillar' and this is what came up - saddleback caterpillar - (or packsaddle) with a pic of the same caterpillar that had stung me. Apparently I'm not as bad as others are with the adverse reactions to this cute furry little creature. Apparently some people get very ill.  And just yesterday my older sister posted that her husband had gotten stung twice by one and she asked him what did it look like and it was the same kind of caterpillar that stung him. I've never seen one before this year but they are throughout the eastern seaboard all the way up to Massachusetts according to a couple of the articles I read. Who would have thought it??

Fall has fell. lol. It feels sooo good! And we are getting glorious rain today. We need it so bad. Not as bad as Texas but we still need it. I'm not ready for the cold but it's been nice to be able to open doors and windows and let the fresh air in.

I hope your day is wonderful and full of love and laughs. Cya soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxo

The Land of Madge

Well, kind of. :o)  She now has a face and she also has a chair to sit in. I am in the process of making her some more clothes.

The last pic is something that is so easy to make. I thought I might make some initials on keychains for Christmas presents.  They are quick too.

That's about it for me today on the crochet front. I had something happen Friday that I have had to deal with and am still dealing with. I lost my wallet Friday morning and didn't realize it until lunchtime. I know where I lost it - between work and the mailbox, and I know when I lost it - 7ish Friday morning.  In it I had: my work key card and ID, drivers license, ss card, bank card, 3 credit cards, gas card, concealed weapon permit, over $100 in cash (which I never carry cash, but I sold an A/C unit out of my shed a few days prior and had the cash in the wallet), my very first drivers license (age 16), my health insurance card, 3 vehicles insurance cards, AC Moore card, and odds and ends that I can't begin to know what all I had in there.....I can't remember. No one has returned it. They probably took the cash and chucked the whole wallet. My first driver's license is sentimental to me - I had lost it and my dad had it and gave it back to me about 4 or 5 years ago....he passed away a year ago. The rest is a pain in my rear to get back. Most of all my bank card. I can't do anything without it. It takes 7-10 days to get a new one. Of course that was the first thing I did was call and cancel that and the three credit cards. The gas card had a pin on it so that was a useless card to them.

I was so upset Friday after discovering it was gone. I had ridden my scooter to the big mailbox that morning (which is down the road about a quarter mile from work) because the parcel I was sending out was too big to fit in the slot of our work mailbox. I had put my wallet in my front pocket (like a dummy) instead of my back pocket, and it must have fallen out on my way back to work. Like a bigger dummy I had left the back door cracked so I didn't have to use my key card to get back in the building. If I had closed the door I would have realized it was gone right away and went back looking for it. 5 hours is a big window that you're just about assured you won't find it, someone else did and wasn't honest enough to at least turn the wallet back in and take the money and run. This is the first time this has happened to me. I was truly sick inside when I realized it was gone.

So now my mind has been constantly going since to figure out what I need to do to make sure this NEVER happens again. I hope this hasn't or it ever happens to you. It's horrible - a horrible feeling, a horrible process of getting everything back, minus the cash that no one can afford to lose.

I hope the rest of your week is good. Cya soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Happy Holiday Weekend Friday!

I walked out the door this morning to come to work and what do you know? It was 69 degrees!! Oh my...it feels soooo good. I know that's a sign of things to come but I will take it one day at a time, thank you very much. lol.

Well I made it back. I finished the hat I made for Holly (my lovely co-worker who helps me out when I need her to). I have to tell you though, that this is the FIRST piece of crochet that I have done FPD.  For some reason it always intimidated me and I didn't realize the pattern that I had printed out used that stitching. I didn't read the pattern, I liked the way the hat looked and printed it out. Which by the way came from Crochet Princess blog. Thank you Beth!
Holly wanted a dark blue hat. When I went home I found a couple of different darker blue skeins in my softee box. One was a variegated skein that I won from Paula back a while ago that I put in my box. I actually won 2 skeins and had made another hat with the other skein......it's in this post. So here are the specifics:
Bernat Softee Chunky yarn, color is Denim Ombre, it's Bulky 100% Acrylic, and the skein was 2.8 oz/134 yards.  I used the whole skein and didn't totally finish the pattern. Round 16 was done in hdc & round 17 was done in sc, then fastened off.  I think she will like it.  (Holly if you are reading this it's on your chair in your office :o) With a card and a note inside saying 'Happy Baby Bump!")  She told me a secret yesterday.......no one else from work reads my blog so it's safe for me to tell here. Yay Holly, Keaton & Emily!!!  Emily's wish of a baby will soon be coming true. She'll have her very own baby brother (hopefully) or sister. I will be making booties soon......that's a given, just won't know what color for a bit. :o)

So back to the FPD....I got baby sidetracked. I can tell you that Front Post Doubles are not my favorite stitch to do but I now might try other patterns with it in there. This particular pattern calls for every other row consisting of fpd then regular dc every other stitch. You have to be paying close attention to what you are doing and not paying attention to what's on the tv. :oI  I discovered, well after the fact, that on my first row like this that I had placed two FPD's side by side, instead of the FPD then dc then FPD.  It was too late, I was not going to frog it. Sorry Holly.....it's not perfect. :o) It's pretty though! lol.

Please excuse my pics. The lighting is again crap even though it's under flourescents. The first hat pic did not show the colors good so I took a couple more with me modeling.......they still don't show the stitch definition like Beth's pics do on her blog.

I'm also sending my grandbabies cards with little somethings in them today. I do it every so often & I love doing that. It's so they don't forget that granny loves them very much. :o)  I'm also sending Jen that red, white and blue doily that I did a while back.

Ok ya'll......have a great weekend. I wish rain for Texas, I've done another rain dance for you Pammy Sue.....I hope it works. I wish quick and speedy recoveries for those affected by Irene...I feel for them. And I wish everyone else answers to what they have in their wish bags at the present. Lots of love in the least. Cya soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxox

A New Venture For Me

Happy Friday Eve!

I am not one to fall too easily into weight loss deals......Weight Watchers, etc. But I am sooo tired of all this weight I have gained since I quit smoking two years ago. I am not happy with myself at all. I'm tired of being fat. There....I said it......fat.

I freely admit it. I wear fat clothes to cover it up. A lot of people that know me say 'You're not fat, you're tall.' Well, yes, I am tall. But I am very good at covering up what is disgusting when I look in the mirror. I have gained 35 pounds in 2 years.  I am over 5'8". I won't tell you my weight but trust me, I am 35 pounds overweight for my height.

My age has something to do with it also. My body a while back started that middle age spread and my metabolism has slowed down a lot.  As well as I have a desk job so I don't get much exercise during the day. Then I go home, sit and crochet while listening to the news, go to bed 7ish to get up at 4ish. It's a vicious cycle.

Another factor is that I LOVE to eat. I love food. Always have since I was a kid. I am weak when it comes to food.  I was talking to my youngest sister last night and she's the same way. If bread is sitting there staring at you, you have to butter it up and pop it in your mouth. She does a lot of eating out so the bread is her biggest thing. She's been doing Weight Watchers again, and had started working out while her husband was gone for a month, but now that he's back she quit working out and going out to eat a lot. We are weak.

So I came across this Body By Vi. It's a 90 day challenge and it's shakes that you drink. I was really skeptical (as I am about a lot of stuff like this) but I actually know someone through someone that knows quite a few people in this area that have lost a lot of weight with this product.  And I know...if you take the weight off fast, chances are you will put it back on just as quick with added weight to boot. 

But here's my thing - I have been hovering at the weight I am now for quite a while. I don't eat a lot and fluctuate + or - 2 pounds. (as long as I don't binge....you know...eat a whole pie, a whole cake in a few days) I've actually resisted doing that for about 9 months now.  IF I can lose the weight I want to lose and keep on the path I am currently with my eating habits, then I should be able to maintain my weight once it's gone. PLUS I have the wingflyer that I've been riding every day to get exercise. Which by the way is working out pretty good. I am getting better at making it around the building without my legs, knees and butt muscles screaming. Actually the butt muscles aren't bothering me now. I'm working up to taking it around to the other side of the lake and back by the end of this new venture.

I'm going to take the 90 day challenge and try to lose some weight.  Wish me luck huh? I really, really, really want to be able to wear the 90% of clothes in my closet that are just sitting there because I'm too fat. I'm tired of wearing fat clothes. I want to look good for my 54 years of age and I'm not going into this blind. I've been around the block a time or two, this isn't my first rodeo. I'm looking forward to a slimmer, trimmer me. :o)

On the crochet front - I'm working on a hat for someone here at work that helps me out when I need her. She saw a pattern yesterday, that I had printed out, on my desk and asked if I would make her one. It's half done. I also started to make a chair for Madge to sit on. I had seen a pattern for chairs somewhere in my blog travels and didn't print out the pattern so I started my own and used the hard cardboard insert for #3 thread for inside the bottom of the chair. It was very interesting crocheting the closed up top with the decreases down to the middle of it to fasten it off. It's kind of pooched down a little bit but I figure I can make a small pillow to sit in it to even it out. Madge is still sitting there looking at me without a face. It'll come together soon. :o)

I hope to have more pics to post tomorrow but if I don't I hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend! Cya soon!
TTFN
Kat
xoxo

PS/I couldn't remember if I have posted the owl pic or not before. I spotted him in my backyard one weekend not long ago. I made a fool out of myself and was eaten alive by skeeters trying to get some really good pics of him.  He's gorgeous isn't he? I haven't seen him since but I've heard him. Leo could be his dinner!  He's huge. And a beautiful creature.  This is one of the many joys of living in the woods.