Happy faces

Look at these lil' viola faces. Aren't they the sweetest? My yearly gift from Penny. I came home from the hospital to these sitting on my bench. Mark potted them up for me. And this ole junky stepstool thingy, I love it. That rusty/tacky thing to the side of it is a metal twin size headboard I got from along side the road several years ago. LOL I do love my rust!

Then yesterday, I was gifted with this gorgeous pot from Penny's boss! Now how sweet is that? Mary is a wonderful person and she has been so good to Penny, but come on! Taking on the extended family? That is beyond the call of duty. And come to think of it, I don't even think she is technically Penny's fulltime boss now. Just a dear friend. They really made my day. I was feeling a bit of a pity party coming on and they snapped me right out of it! Who can be sad looking at so much beauty. Mark bought me the rockybunny this year at Lowes by the way. He said when he saw the quilt on it, I needed it. Was in the outdoor settythings section.

I hope I wrote back and thanked everyone for the encouragement for Monday. Not heard back from the dr yet. Do not really expect to til mid next week. Stuff takes time. It went much better than they predicted. I didn't bleed alot. Ewww I know. Had to stay 6 hours in bed at the hosptial after the procedure. The hospital has called every day since to check on me. That makes me feel both good and bad. Good they are on top of things and care, bad in that did they think I was going to have issues? LOL Just been totally wiped out is all. Not even crocheted. BUT I did watch my Survivor last night. Note to Beverly's dd Mary...yaya for March Maddness being over for us! :o)

"There is more to life than increasing it's speed." -Mahatma Gandhi

Dishcloth Swap = Great!

Here are the goodies I received from my Hand-Dids dishcloth swap. Kate sent me the blue knitted dragonfly and crocheted heart, Christie made us all beaded bookmarkers with our names and made me the springy floral, Vicki knitted up the textured blue/green. Penny and I both waited until we recieved all 3 squishes to open. It felt like a holiday. I think Kate did the same thing. Shoot, I think it was her idea. LOL The next exchange will be needlekeepers. Cannot wait.

Monday I have to have a liver biopsy. Blech. Not a huge deal, just dread it. Whisper a pray if you think of it please.

I have been awake the entire night. This is going to mess me up for sure. Had a crazy headache that just would not let me sleep, even though I begged it too. I was more active than usual on Friday and Saturday, working on my house and the wedding flowers. Trying to get ahead since I know this coming week will be pretty much recovery from the testing. So I am realllly tired out. I didn't even take a rest on Saurday! Heading off to bed again to give it another try. Here is hoping.....

Have a sweet Sunday everyone.

Fat Quarter Fonts

I received my winnings from Terry over at Atkinson Designs today. Her brand new book/cd set. It looks like a great book. Thank you Terry!

Sad book

Sad sad book. The Friday Night Knitting Club. And I passed up a quilting novel to buy this. My book buying dollars are not spend willynilly either. Like EVER! LOL I had time on my hands at a long running over appointment the other day. Gave in and bought a book. We are library people thank you very much! Penny is my personal shopper library lady. Scoping out the books I found this one. Started reading...not bad, got more involved in it... Then I told Penny about my purchase. Her reply, you are not going to like the way it ends. She knows me, cause I hated it! I will not spoil it for you, but #1. Have tissues at hand. #2. Plan on staying up all night to finish it. #3 Be on the waiting list for the sequel.

I am making yogurt cheese. Will let you know how it turns out. I have chives in the garden I plan on adding, so this batch will be a savory spread. Penny turned me onto it because I have been talking about wanting a yogurt maker and the things you can do with it. I am using the Stonyfield plain low fat yogurt. After only 2 hours, I have emptied about a cup of liquid whey from the bottom bowl. More than I thought. I am thinking it will really be yummy and much MUCH lower in fats than my beloved cream cheese. sigh

ps: And I hate March Madness. Just makes me mad! Knocks out my Survivor.

Wedding bells...

Or maybe it is just my high blood pressure? Either way probably. April 11th is getting closer and closer.

We got all the invitations for Heather's wedding completed and mailed today. Glad that is done. She is figuring out that weddings are alot more work than she EVER thought!!! I have got to get to the flowers and completing her veil now. A small amount of shopping needs to be done yet. I need new black shoes. I kid you not, my single pair of black shoes are 16 yrs old! And I love them, but yes. They are very outdated. Have a lil gold thingy on the top. But nice classic pumps. And I have worn them to death. The heals look great and so do the toes. I bought good when I bought these and they have been worth it. My mom told me to toss them as soon as I got my new black shoes. Cause she knew I would go back to them. LOL She is a shoes/clothes fanatic!!! Me, the polar opposite.

Prayers would be appreciated for my Aunt Geneva (late 70's). She is in critical care with pulmonary distress. A sweet woman, one of our favorites. Fighting for each breath must be so horrible. We love her and she is very close to our daddy. I know he must be hurting badly.

I am still dreaming of tulips and spring flowers. The picture is of the lil pile of mini daffodils by the back door. They always pop up first. They are the brightest yellow!

The smile of a child

My sister Debbie is so good to me. They took the baby to the local pizza/playland for the first time last week and invited me along. It was a whole bunch of firsts. Jaidyn's first ride on the merry-go-round. Riding the little cars. She was in love with the Bozo figurine. Wasted her precious kisses on him! Won a few tickets to redeem for balls and candy. Just watching her made me feel better. Who can be sad or sickie with that smile to see? Precious she is. Children are such a gift from God.

And I saw my first robin red breast today. He was taking a bath in a mud puddle nekked as a jaybird he was! LOL Sorry, my feable attempt at humor. LOL

Ready for spring

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments the past couple of weeks. I really appreciated them. Me and my head have been going around and around. It has been winning! But I am in a better pain management plan now. It was me, not the doctors. I just hated getting 2 shots a week for pain. But over THAT. Cause I obviously cannot function on just the one. I have gone throught this before, me being stubborn is good sometimes, then others....not so much. Hush up all those that know me and are laughing and shaking your heads. LOL

I haven't done too much of anything. Not much crocheting even! Except while hanging out with my bro-inlaw this past week while he was in the hospital. He is home now AND my mom-inlaw. Different hospitals. But they are doing much better. So that is a good thing.

Thinking on spring. Tulips and pansies, no mud, plucking weeds, planting flowers and plucking more weeds. Do you see a pattern? LOL But I like to pull weeds. Silly I know.

Picture says it all

Having a time with my head. Be back soon!

UPDATE: Thank you everyone for your sweet wishes. This has been a long headache, like a couple of weeks. It just happens like this sometimes with the tumors and my blood pressure being too high. But it is all good, and this too shall pass.

Does this blog make my butt look fat?

Well what I mean is....do you like a one color background? LOL There are so many options to choose from. The pretty pretty layered ones. White only. I have tried them all. Can not light on just one though. I really like my header, carried over from my website. But it the background that has me all tangled up. I want something that is easy for all of us to read. And catches your attention. So...what do you have?

Oh and tonight is my Survivor. So please do not call me between 8-9 central time. I think it is central time. Honestly this fall back/spring forward nonsense messes me up. So if you do call, just expect to leave a message! I missed last week cause I was sick and in bed. And we have a tv in our room, but just couldn't take the screen and noise. The first time in many many seasons I have missed the first one. So sad.

Catch up with you all soon!

Doing the happy dance on one foot!

And those who know me, know what an accident in the making THAT would be. LOL

But check out that heel flap people. LOL Now with everything there is a learning curve. I know the next pair to make the size down. AND no long cuff. It looks loose at the heel from all the ons/offs it has had. I think when it isn't all stretched from the turning in and out from sewing seems closed and finishing off ends, and washed, it will be snuggly. This yarn has more stretch in it that I thought it would. I like how it looks and they are very soft. So...smaller size and shorter cuff on next pair. But I am very happy with my first one. I honestly didn't think I could do it. Now I have to lay the yarn aside until I get my tatting homework done. I just couldn't quit until I had the first sock completed. Lots of notations on my pattern too. It looks like I am studying for a test! LOL Cannot wait to get the second one completed though. I know it will go much faster now also. I was second guessing myself on this one alot. And recounting stitches a billion times over.

I called my mom and told her I was a rock star. That had her laughing alot :o)

What I Have Been Doing

18 dish cloths from cotton

Started a pair of socks from Bernat Sox in pink camouflage. Festive! LOL

Four pairs of baby booties. I love the Beatrix Poter kitty face buttons! Two pairs are infant size and 2 pairs are 12-18 months size.

Wind and Rain

Sounds like a song title from the 70's or 80's. But it is the weather today. And what wind!!! MAN it is fierce. I am not a fraidycat girl at all about the weather. But I am not liking the wind flatlining the side of the house! Or me while I am outside manning the stupid sump pump in the yard. This is to keep my world aka playhouse from flooding. Poor lil Toby is just sitting around with his legs crossed. He hates rain and isn't wanting to go out in this. Smart boy! I had to pick him up as the WIND was picking him up earlier. That bad it is. There is stuff all over the road and my yard I have no clue who it belongs to. Maybe it will blow home? I am sorry for those in OK who just had twisters go there. And all those poor people in Australia with the horrible fires. God bless them all.

My sweet friend Debi just had shoulder surgery. I would appreciate it, if you hopped over to her blog and sent her some love and encouragement. She is a huge charity quilter and this is going to be hard on her to ease back for awhile. Just thought she might use some extra support!

Stay safe and dry wherever you are.

In this issue

of Create & Decorate magazine, is my Bunny Shoe Nite Lite.

This makes me happy.

Good til the last drop. Or not.

I made Heather this sweet scarf and fingerless glove set. The yarn was super soft with a halo to it. And pink! So am thinking she will like it. Had a bit left over from the last skein.

Thought I would use it up to make Baby Jaidyn a lil cloche style hat. Used every inch I had. Not a smidgen left. The idea was to save it for next winter. Cause it just looked toooo big for her now. Even looked big on the pineapple. LOL Penny and I went over today for a bit to watch her. And I thought, oh just take the hat now. They can fold up the brim.

Hahahaha Not so much folding up and as pulling down. It is way too small for her. Her poor lil ears. Where was my mind?? That is sooo sad looking. We just kept laughing. I left it for her Teddy Bear. It fit it just fine. Guess I should have taken a pic of that. LOL But seriously, I thought it would be too big. I have just forgotten how much she is growing. Love that happy smile. And this is after she had just vomited up her lunch. EWWWIE! Left Penny with THAT clean up. It was bad!! I got the fun job of giving her a bath in the tub. She loves the water. And has such a sunny personality. It sounded like she said Angie a couple of times today after a bit of prompting. Okay, me chanting.....Angie, Angie, Angie...Probably said it so I would hush up. :o)
Here is the latest set of felted bags I made. The mini is just under 3-inches. I am so in love with these buttons. I need to see if they have gotten any more in. I know I will be sad when I run out and then cannot find more.We have 60 degree temps here. The snow and ice is gone. And the mud has taken it's place. Not so pretty. Poor lil' Mr. Toby is missing his snow! He tried to find even a tiny bit of ice this morning. We need a slight rain to clean everything off. The cars are filthy and the roads and drives worse. BUT the sunshine rocks! I have 2 windows up for a bit of cross breeze to freshen the house. Even turned the ceiling fan on low to stir it up. Let our germs out and the neighbors in. LOL It is probably a crap shoot over who's is worse.

Hope everyone is having a sweet Sunday.

Wool Yarn for Felting

I have been asked what type of yarn I use for my felted bags. I use the Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks. I have had the best results with the solid and not the heathered. I have not tried the kettled dyed yet. Hope to soon though. All the colors have been quite yummy I have used. Just remember, you must use 100% wool. No acrylic added. Just plain wool.

The technique for my felted crochet is pretty simple. I use a size F or G hook. Half double of single crochet stithc. Both photos are of hd. My tension is very tight normally and this is a good thing when you are felting. You do not want a loose tension. I have also found that going around with a single crochet will make the item not felt as small. In regular work, I like to give a finished edge, but with a felted piece, I try to not do that.

My felting process is very simple. I place the piece into a garment bag if it is small. If it is a larger project I do not. Set the water level on small and the temp on hot wash/cold rinse. I use a tablespoon of laundry soap and 2 tablespoons of baking soda. You want all the agitation you can get, so you need to add either some jeans or some other heavy clothes. I do not use towels because I do not want the crochet to get fuzzies on this. Bedding sheets work also, remember you are using hot water, so think shrinkage. I run the washer through the complete cycle. Remove your project. If you are satisfied with the texture and shrinkage, the you are done. It you want it to be tighter or smaller, repeat the process. I do not use a dryer for my projects, EXCEPT for large purses. I do then just to remove the soppiness. Lay your item out on a flat surface. Make sure the corners are even and the piece lays flat. Now is the time to pull and tug everthing into place.

This is a bag I made for Michelle in 2007. You can see how much it shrank! (I need to go back and add tags to my first year+ of posts). I used 8 balls of 110 yd Wool of the Andes for this. You do not have to worry about the handles coming off. They felt solid with the base. Which is great for carrying heavy items. I think I added a pocket to it also. To do this, just crochet a rectangle and then use a chenille needle to sew it in place before felting.

Right now I am working with a soft pink, a new color for me. Will post a pic when I am finished. I hope my simple instructions will encourage someone to try felting. To do something new and different.

If you have any questions, just ask. If I do not know the answer, maybe one of the other readers will. I would like to make some felted houseslippers soon for my mom. Oh my so long "wanna do" list. LOL

Hope you are warm and cozy wherever you are.