Babies

Happy Tuesday! It's a fine spring day here in the south. Over the weekend we had bad thunderstorms. I got a little over 2 inches of rain at my place. Although I had to endure Mr. Lick Lick's violent shaking and scaredness, we needed that rain badly to wash the pollen away. He was worse than I've seen in the past. I managed to give him some calming biscuits that have camomile and something else in them but they did not help at all. I cannot do anything at all while this is going on but sit and hold him as close as I can. The storm that came through on Saturday made him shake so violently I thought he might have a heart attack. It was horrible. I'm glad the storms are gone for now.

I've finished the baby blanky that I showed you a sneak peek of. I was kind of surprised at how it turned out. The stripes are not the same width. But it makes for an interesting blanky. All of the stripes are one skein each. I was going to put a boarder on it but opted not to. After much back and forth on trying to decide this, I like it plain like it is. It's done in diagonal box stitch. I really like this stitch but it sure is a booger when you go to decrease. It's hard to get used to after increasing on each row. I've never finished a blanket with this stitch so I didn't know how it would end and tried to envision it. It seemed like this blanket would never end. I was pretty happy when it did. :o)

I am working on an elephant for this baby too. Everything is done except putting on the legs and crocheting and attaching the ears. I looked all over for a pattern but didn't find any that I liked. So I made my own. I did write down all of the parts so far but I think I messed up the head as far as writing it down. And I think that, because I had done the head and didn't like it so I frogged part of it and put it down for a while and then when I picked it back up I forgot to write down what I did to finish it up. I'm thinking I'll have to make another one to make sure it's right. I'd show you it but I want it to be complete. So stay tuned for that.

In other news, I received my newest issue of Crochet! And guess what? As I'm leafing through it I get to page 42 and discover that I am missing pages 43 to 58!! I was so bummed. So I called them and they are supposed to be sending me another one out but I won't get it for about 2 weeks. :o(

I'm loving this spring we are having. It's an actual spring! Usually we jump from winter right into summer with only about a week of spring. Not this year. It makes me wonder what kind of a summer we are going to have. Probably riddled with hurricanes. The last 2 or three years have been relatively scant with big storms. With the unusual winter the whole country has experienced, it wouldn't surprise me one bit.

So that's all from me for now. As soon as I finish Mr. Elephant he will make his debut here. Most likely in the next day or two. He will be going to his new home this coming Sunday. :o)

I hope your spring has sprung and it's as delightful there as it is here! Cya soon!

TTFN
Kat
xoxoxo

Charity Squares, CrockPot Cake & Leo

 

Happy Tuesday! I hope this finds you all well and happy.

I took a little bit of time this weekend and crocheted some 7x9 squares for Stitchy’s call for donations of squares for victims of the last round of tornadoes that tore through Kentucky. I sent them off yesterday with a note. I’m hoping she will have time to photo them incorporated in a blanket. The two-blue one is parts of the peek blanky I showed. The two colors together are awesome.  And you can see that the other two are ‘different’. :o)  I just finished testing a pattern using the orange and yellow and had them on my table and this other lavender in Caron. I made the orange one first and loved the two colors together. So then I went for it with the yellow and lavender. I’m not too crazy about the yellow and lavender but love the orange and lavender.  All of them are spring colors and kind of Easter colors too. They were kind of a challenge to get to the 7x9 size requirement. I used an f hook and a combination of hdc and sc.

 

 

I’m still working on the sneek peek blanket. It’s that boredom thing going on. I have to do something else and come back to it. I’m starting to run out of time because there will be a baby shower around the 1st of April and I need to be done with it. I started a couple of hats to break up the boredom. One I finished and then I started another last night….although I didn’t get any pics. Sorry. (I counted my hats – 27 so far….my tote filleth up)

I did however get a pic of a crockpot cake I made Sunday. OMG. First ever one I have made like that and it was soooo good. It was so easy to make too. Here’s the recipe:

1 box chocolate cake mix
8 oz sour cream
1 cup chocolate morsels (I used peanut butter)
1 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 pkg chocolate instant pudding mix
mix it all together, spray crockpot with nonstick spray, pour mix in crockpot. cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. I went with the high and it was done in 3 hours. You will not be disappointed. I was going to make icing to go on top but decided that since I knew I was going to eat the whole thing myself (over the course of a few days) (comes with the territory of being a single female…lol) that I didn’t need it. And I was right. It was soooo moist. Less calories to worry about. :o)

We had a few bad thunderstorms Friday night and Saturday night. So Leo was, of course, freaked out. Jack Russell’s are pretty bad little dogs but they (at least the 3 I’ve had) are reduced to mush when a thunderstorm comes along. I got some much needed rain – an inch Friday night and an inch and a half on Saturday night. But I sure could have done without the doggie drama. I pretty much cannot do anything. I tried to sit in my chair crocheting and he crawled up the side of me panting like a little mad man and scratched the crap out of my side. I try to hold him real close and he just won’t have it. I went so far as trying a shirt on him and held it close so that it’s like a thunder shirt. Nope…that didn’t work. I love my baby but that is one aspect I will not miss when he’s gone. I’ve been through it with Misty and Pee and that wasn’t fun. They both used to jump in the bathtub to hide. It was a lot harder when I had them both and a storm came. And Leo wasn’t that bad when he came to live with me but once he saw Pee get scared on the first one it was history. He was scared too from that point on. He never liked fireworks. Jeff used to have a heck of a time with him. He lived in the city and the fireworks every 4th of July were not far from his house and Leo would be like this every time. Now he’s a country dog and thunder storms are his undoing.  I wish he was like this all the time:

In that pic he is sleeping with his head resting against the arm of the recliner.

And lastly is the pattern I was testing for. Mine is the second one in Melissa’s post. That’s what I was using the orange and yellow on. Cute little blanky. :o)

Other than that it’s been nice here weather wise (minus the storms). Oh…and Leo got out of the gate Sunday as I was bringing the wagon back in from taking the garbage down to the road. That’s the first time he’s gotten out. And he would not come back as I called him. He just kept on a going. So I went in the house, got his leash and necklace and started up the truck (which did not want to start because dummy me hasn’t been out there to start it up lately). As I am going down the driveway and round the bend there is Leo, sniffing everything and anything. So I honk the horn and he looks back at me like huh? Who’s honking at me?  I opened the door and called him, he made a circle around the truck and I told him ‘come on…let’s go for a ride’. He jumped right in! :o) Tah-da! Mama’s smarter than the average bear sometimes. lol.  His freedom was short lived but I bet he couldn’t believe his good fortune.

Anyways…I hope your week is full of love, life and laughter. Life is too short for it not to be. Cya soon!

TTFN
Kat
xoxoxo

Sneak, Snakes & Yummy

What a combination huh? Happy Monday y'all!

I will start with a sneak currently on my hook:

Now for the snakes. These guys give me the shivers. They are huge. And scary. Ones just like these reside in this state, in the woods, maybe even my woods! I've seen with my own eyes big ones here, just up the road from me. Another story...maybe I already told it early on in my bloggy days.  

It was a tad chilly Saturday morning. There were two sides of this exhibit and the other side was in the shade and those snakes didn't do a lot. But the ones in the sun were quite active. There was one determined that he was going to get out of that cage. It isn't the big one I'm about to show you. As you can see by the sign on his cage he is nothing to play around with. I didn't stick around for the show. Should have but I had things I wanted to get done Saturday and this place was about an hour from home. I didn't even eat any rattlesnake. :o(

I went mainly to check out the vendors, of which there was only one crochet vendor. She was a sweet little older lady. She had a lot of smaller dolls with crocheted clothes and larger crocheted dolls, some hats, cowls and blankets. I went early so a lot of vendors were still setting up. I did come away with a couple of towels, one that I bought because it gave me an idea that I will be using in my crochet. And I also bought a Going Green Lantern that is going on my porch. I don't have anywhere to hang it in the house. The one I bought is etched with a hummingbird on it. Great idea. I can't wait to use it.

Yesterday I raked my back yard. Bout killed me! lol. But before I did I made sure to get myself plenty of energy. I made a concoction of ready made pie crust, spoon slathered with Nutella, sprinkled with cinnamon and then rolled up and cut into pieces. I baked them about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. OMG. I ate the whole pan. I kid you not. So I thought I best get my butt outside and do some serious work because I know that whole thing went to my backside. Good thing I only had one crust and not two! I call them CinNutella Yummies. Warning: these are not for dieters, and you will eat the whole panfull if you are as weak as I. I love Nutella!!

And that, my bloggy friends, is what my weekend consisted of. All in all it was a good weekend. I got a lot accomplished. I know one thing, this time change is also kicking my butt. I feel like I haven't slept and could easily lay down and take a nappy. I wish they would just leave the time alone and let it be au-naturale year round.

I hope your week will be full of smiles and love. Cya soon!

TTFN

Kat
xoxo

What Happens When You Don't Write It Down

This is what happens when you don't write it down. You try to recreate something you previously made and it does not turn out like last time! I see a frogging in the very near future. But have no fear, I have a back up plan! :o)

Backup plans are good. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. It's best to have a plan c. Backup would be plan b, can't think of a word for c.





Of course the colors aren't good in my iPad pic, but this is dark purple grannies with a variegated purple and the top is a dusty purple.

I also started a 'lollipop' with the remainders of what's left from the grannies.




I thought about using this as the top of the hat, but it has the same amount of stitches right now as the total of the 6 grannies and there is a couple of inches to fill to make it a flat top for the hat. Sigh.....

I hate that the lighting doesn't do these colors justice. The stitch markers look good. lol





I also meant to show you my hooks that I have 'clayified'. (I know that's not a word) I have 3 or 4 more at home. Actually, know what? I have a pic on my phone. I'll edit this post because I have a few pics to show you. I just sent them to myself and will edit this after I post it. I have more clay to 'clayify' more hooks but it can be a pain. I get aggravated because I get the colors like I want but they have lines between the colors that need to be smoothed out and when you do that you lose the shape. I need to sand the stripy one down, it's real lumpy. Colorful though. :o) The all pink one was my very first one and I love it. It's wonderful to crochet with after adding the clay to it.

Ok, I'm going to post this so I can add the pics in.

So this is my total collection that I've 'clayified' so far.

And this is what I have done with my baby blues so far. The color is much better in this pic. Go figure, it was taken with my phone.

And this is  my  yarn basket! Can you see how the seafoam and blackberry hat was born? Look at the two of them together.


Happy Friday Eve to you all! I'm going to the Rattlesnake Roundup this Saturday. Never been but I'm looking forward to it. Going to check out the vendors mostly. (And eat rattlesnake) :o)

Have a wonderful day!! Cya soon!

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Chilly Willy Here

It was 37 degrees at the house when I left for work this morning. I hated leaving Leo outside but I have no choice. He has his little house with a bed and blanky in it so hopefully he went and climbed in and got snuggly til the sun warms up the air. Yesterday was very windy and cold once it cleared up. It rained all night long Saturday night and I ended up with 5 inches in the rain gauge! We needed it though. I think it made up the deficit for the year and worked on last year's deficit. Which, by the way, I found weird that once it turned 2012 they started all over. How can they do that when we were so far behind in rain last year? I think we had a deficit of like 9 inches or so to end 2011. All I know is that I got a bunch of rain this weekend. I didn't bring in my plants either......bet I'm gonna be sorry I didn't. :o(

I did work on a few things crochet wise this weekend. I started on one of my 2 commissioned dolls. And figured out that leaving out one round of sc in each stitch made the head more round than oblong. Who would have thought that one round would make that much of a difference? It did and I like it. Now I'm excited to get it done. I was kind of dragging my feet, but I do have until June to get this one done. There's no time restraint on the other one. And I did start on a blanky with the colors in my last post. But I'm not liking it, at all. And I forgot to tell you that the colors of the Bella DK are numbers 17, 18 & 19. I don't know what I'm going to do.....I do have time but I wanted to get it started so I can get it done way before the babe comes. Thank you, ladies, for your input. I will definitely mull them around because clearly what I started is not what I want. I may use what I've already got for a pillow cover to match the blanky.

I finished my seafoam and blackberry hat. I love these colors together.

While I was getting pics off of my phone I found one that I don't think I posted but talked about in a previous post. Maybe I did though and I just forgot.....if so please forgive me. It's the 'sometimers' flaring up again. This is the beginnings of two dolls. The one on the left is the one I was writing the pattern for as I went along. The one on the right is the one I finished that is the last one I posted about. That's the one with black hair and the kitty on the pants leg. My point was that both were done with the same hook and you can see the size of the thread. So......tell me how they ended up different sizes?? I am very perplexed. (I'm also curious to find the post I talked about this too and see if I did post this pic; don't you hate when that happens???). I followed the pattern that I had written up for the first one so they should have turned out the same size. If anything the thread on the right one is bigger than the one on the left so shouldn't that make the doll bigger, not smaller? I just don't get it.

Last this morning I want to share with you two pics I took early Saturday morning before the storm system came through. I went to Wally World about 12 miles from home about 7:30ish and took these pics while driving. I know, I know...I shouldn't do that. BUT...there was no one else around me and I took them while watching the road hoping they would come out good. And they did. I love sky pics. They were taken one right after the other, not a minute apart. Obviously the first one is part of the second one. Cool huh?

Well, my bloggy friends, time to do some catching up. I wish for you a wonderful Monday with a week full of warmy sunshine to follow! Cya soon!

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

On The Hunt

As I sit here with my door open listening to the rain I am contemplating a baby blanky. Among my other wip's I was reminded this morning of a little one coming into the world soon.

It is raining pretty hard here at the moment and lightening struck not long ago not far away and the Mr. came bounding off the bed to me. He is standing next to me just listening and looking around. He heard that. So his hearing may not be as bad as I thought, although that is an extreme sound.







I have had the weather channel on all morning and I am so saddened by all of the destruction and loss of life resulting from tornadoes. Right now is a line of storms from the tail end of this storm system coming through. There are tonado warnings in sw GA and the panhandle of FL, the storms are marching this way. I was out on the porch earlier right before the rain started and looking to the west (where the storm is coming from) I realized that I wouldn't know one was coming, until a tornado got right on top of me. Living in the woods does have it's disadvantages and that's one of them. I try not to think of it but it's hard not to when I sit here watching the weather channel. Anyways, my heart goes out to those affected by the storms. Once this system goes through it's supposed to get cold again!! 30's!!!! I can't believe it. Such a weird winter we've had.

So, back to the hunt! I have these colors and don't know what kind of blanky I want to do. Any suggestions? :o)




Of course my iPad didn't capture the true vibrance of these colors. This is Bella DK. Soooo softy. I have 3 of each color, almost 1800 yds of vibrance. I guess I'm going to do some looking through all of my books to see if I can see something that catches my eye.

I hope my northern/midwestern/southern bloggy friends are safe and sound from the mayhem. Bless those who didn't have and prayers to those that had losses. Cya soon.

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Spring Is Springing Forth

Happy Friday! I don't have a whole lot going on in my little corner of the world. I've been working on a hat and an elephant that I was quite miffed about. The elephant pattern that I found (can't remember where now) is a vintage pattern. It was the best looking elephant (real looking) that I found so I figured if I took it slow I could figure out the pattern. Not to be. I'm bummed. And of course I haven't taken a pic of it and it's at home, I'm at work. This is for a friend who is having a baby in the summer and she asked if I could crochet an elephant for the baby. So now I have to regroup and figure out what to do.

The hat is a double strand one in Caron Blackberry and a color called Seafoam that was given to me. Both colors were in my basket and I looked at them for quite a while thinking they might look ok together. I picked them up the other night and held them together and they blended quite well. Working the hat up I love how they look together. The blackberry kind of dims out the seafoam to make it look like a greenish grayish color but the greenish grayish color makes the blackberry stand out to be a bit more pinky color.



It's funny how separately they look differently than they do together. And who would have thought they would go together and be a pleasing combination? Maybe I should just toss colors in my basket and see what catches my eye.

As to the title of the post....tis the season of pollen. Early. I did take my plants out at the beginning of the week. Well most of them. There are a few that I kept in the house because if the squirrels get them I will be one unhappy camper. Last year a squirrel, and maybe his friends too, consumed some of my plants.

The weather has been quite warm. It is supposed to get in the 80's here today. After this weekend we are back down to 60's daytime and 40's night time. I'm not bringing my plants back in. What's out can deal with the 40's and not die. Oddly enough the ones I kept in are ones that I would have pulled back in not trusting that they won't be hurt by the colder temps. And my Christmas cactus have a few blooms on them again! It happens every year that when it's time to take them back out that there will appear a few wayward blooms that should have come out back in the winter time. That's just weird.

I didn't get much hooky done last night. I decided to sit down and use my iPad. I searched for craft festivals in GA. I found a site that lists all of the events in the state of GA for the year. Thinking that I could get a head start on figuring out what events I wanted to go to later on this year, and even know what ones to check out and maybe set up a booth for next year, it took me a while to even get through March and part of April before I gave up. I need a whole day to look and write down pertinent info.

I was surprised at how much it costs to go to these events. And the restrictions...holy cow. One event in my category (crochet of course) said that you couldn't bring anything that was made with a pattern. Really??? I can understand copyright infringement and all that, and I respect it. But there are lots of patterns out there that say it's ok for us to sell what we make from these patterns. And most of the time if not all of the time I make changes in the patterns to suit me. And so then that brings me to the point that I might have figured out a pattern of my own only to be close to someone else's pattern. Only I didn't write it down. It just boggled my mind. I think what I will do is go visit several this year in the surrounding counties and communities and get a feel for what would be realistically reasonable to be able to attend without having to put out a lot of money. I think I will write a post later on just what it costs to do this. I was amazed. And the other thing that I didn't think about beforehand, but understand why the rule is in place, is that you cannot pull up stakes and leave Saturday evening if you are not doing really good. You have to stay for the whole two days until they say you can leave or the festival is ended. Even if the weather is bad.

So yea, I have a lot of research to do. Though my first venture out to an event is next weekend at the Rattlesnake RoundUp in Claxton. As many years as I've lived here and I've never been to this event and always wanted to go. I am going this year and checking out the crafts vendors. And ask a bunch of questions. And maybe even come home with some goodies. Who knows? I do know that I'm going to have me some rattlesnake while there. Ever have it? It's pretty good if it's cooked right. It can be tough, like gator tail, if you don't know how to cook it. I'll try to remember to take some pics.

Well I hope ya'll have a lovely weekend! I hope it's all fun and no work! Cya soon!

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

PS/Next weekend is the time change!! Woohoo!! :o)