This week's pix

Saturday I sewed my friend's Birthday gift. Her b-day was last week and I didn't have time to sew her the apron till yesterday. I hope she likes it.

Friday I finished my Octo-rattle, only as i was sewing on the legs I ran out of room for the eigth one so he only has 7 legs... go fig.

Thursday - I stuffed a new cat toy inside the octopus before sewing it up. so when the reciepient shakes it it makes noise. I think it turned out really cute.


This week we were supposed to take pix of lines, color and something black and white. (or use our photo programs to turn it B&W) I decided to take a photo of some pictures i have hanging in my living room. The middle one is me and my DH and the top right is my In-laws, the bottom right is my BIL & SIL the bottom left is my Sister and BIL and the top right is my Mom and Dad. I'm missing one more photo of my other BIL & SIL i have a frame waiting for it though...
anyways that's all for now. I've got a superbowl party to get ready for!

Today's picture

Today was a really really dreary day... can anyone blame me for wanting to stay in?

I need glasses!

Do you need glasses? I do! It's been about 2 years since I've gotten new glasses. I found this place online that sells glasses for $8! that's a crazy cool price! I personally like the darker square-ish rims. Not sure what draws me to that shape but I just love it. kinda like these This website has very stylish glasses to choose from. I'm thinking I'm going to have to shop here after my eye doctor's appointment. Even if it's just for sunglasses. So I can wear just plain sunglasses instead of those HUGE one over my glasses. Yeah that nerd in the next car over is me no longer!
So why not go check them out?
Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case!

(this post will be paid for soon through pay per post)

Ravelry and Rearranging.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to rearrange my stuff. So the Superbowl party we'll be having this weekend is a good reason to do some rearranging. I spent most of my night yesterday doing just that. I was able to hang up my Christmas present from my brother. He got it in China. I have another one that he got me in Korea. I love them. If I had a ton of money I'd redecorate my living area in that oriental design. I love it. I've always said I want a Japanese house with the sliding doors/walls. I love it all! I just want you all to know that should anyone surprise me with a makeover for my house. (I doubt that will happen)
anyways that's my picture of the day for Monday. which was day 49
Sunday my photo was ravelry's designer page. I love ravelry and this is another reason why. You can upload your PDF patterns and it's a store. Right now they only have it open to free patterns. I really like is that it gives you stats as to what was downloaded and when! how awesome is that? Over at etsy I have my pattern for sale. I hope to write more patterns for sale once I'm not working all the time. Which will be soon! Well I've got hungry mouths to feed. gotta go.

Today the girls and I went outside to play. I snapped a bunch of photos and then handed the Bub the camera as I tried sledding.. she snapped today's Photo of the day... you can see she caught a bit of the lens cap in it, but I think it give it a fun effect.
This week we had the "assignment" of taking a photo of our feet, time, and a person. I was able to take all of them. you can go see them on my flickr page.
Wednesday the Bub had her Awana Grand Prix. She didn't win really. But she had a lot of fun! and she informed me that she is starting a car collection. Since the Grand Prix is for the T&T club she figures she'll get 6 cars total. She designed and painted her car all on her own. She even named it The Purple Flame! She cracks me up.
Over at Ravelry I've joined 2 new groups Sock Wars. Which I'd joined the very first one but had to not be a part of it since since we were moving and things were a little crazy. and the 2nd one i missed by a few months. sooo #3 it is! Here's the yahoo group if you're interested in joining.
The other group I joined is Hat Attack. it's similar to sock wars but it's with hats (hence the name) And it starts Feb 9th! so hurry on over and join, they have a yahoo group too. A friend of mine had a baby on Wednesday so I knit her a hat. But really it was a gauge knit so I'm ready and armed for this attack!
So are you going to join?

Finally finished!

Today I finally finished my niece's Christmas gift. I hope that she likes it. If the bead grabbing it the min I was done and running around with it is any indication I think she will! I decided to do the spiral mouth.I'm not sure if it looks good or not but I like it.
I took a couple of photos. I won't bore you with all of them. Just two. there are more over in my flickr acct, along with my project 365 photos. Today's is the face shot of this monkey.
Anyways enjoy.

Pink is the theme of the day

Pink and Coffee that is! I added the coffee part. I'm always craving coffee lately!
this yarn I dyed using coffee and some koolaid. I wanted a darker brown but I kinda like the light brown, well it's growing on me that is.
Pink and brown is one of my favorite color combinations. Add the green to the mix and it's another color combination I like.
anyways that's it for the day.

Monkey See, Monkey Do....

This is a monkey head. I've sewn his nose on and now I'm stumped for his mouth. I could do a straight line across the mouth part but I'm thinking that's not enough character.

what do you think?

This is a weekend catch up for Project 365
Today it snowed, which is kinda weird b/c just last week it was 69-70 degrees! It's so sad, the swing set is so lonely these winter months. I think most swing sets are lonely. When we went to the park last week all the swings were off the swing sets. I'm not sure if that was for the winter or if that was b/c people were misusing them. Who knows? yesterday I worked on my bro's pac man mittens. I think I was annoying my DH b/c he had to keep trying on the mittens. They're going to have a flap so my bro can use his fingers while snowboarding etc.
My 365 photo for Sunday is the bread I was making for dinner. I am so in love with my new book! the recipe i used was the baguette recipe modified just a tad to have whole wheat flour and make rolls. Our company LOVED them.
Saturday, we went to greensburg to see the new Veggietales movie. they loved it. On the drive there I used my favorite time waster.... the DS I got for Christmas. But I couldn't play it too long b/c I started feeling sickish. so I just talked with my DH as one should do from time to time... LOL
So for the most part my weekend was pretty boring. I must go to bed.

Knitting Class

I always love Thursday nights. Today the pix of the day is where I teach my knitting class.Tomorrow, (and every Friday) my LYS is starting a sit and knit from 1-3PM, I'm wanting to go. Hopefully I won't still be working.
Some of you may have been around this blog a while, so you know that I really didn't want to move here to J-town. But since finding this LYS, I'm enjoying it a little more. It's one of those few places that I really feel comfortable and at home. I'm so thankful to have a job teaching there. We're just coming off the slow down for Christmas so I'm hoping that my classes will fill up.
I just realized I have 99 projects on Ravelry. That's wonderful! I wonder what number 100 will be.... any suggestions? I guess I could always knit or crochet something from my queue... LOL but actually I have to add some of my Christmas projects so it's probably going to be something I'm already working on.
Oh BTW Yesterday's pix is of my dash in the car. Wednesdays are busy days at our house. And yesterday I found myself in the car. So I snapped a pix. I really like how my car lights up.

70 Degrees today

Today was unusually warm here in J-town. So we went to the park to play. The girls really enjoyed it. I think they've been feeling cooped up lately so this warm weather was much appreciated. Though it was weird b/c it still got dark around 5 so we had didn't get to play as long as we do in the summer. My pix of the day was right after Beady climbed up the ladder all by herself. (of course I stood behind her to catch if anything should happen) I also took some photos of them sliding down the slides which, they got a kick out of. When we came home they demanded to see the pix I took and then proceeded to laugh very hard at each of the photos.
Today I'm a bit tired. Actually I have been for a while now. So I'm trying to remember to take my vitamins. I'm really bad at remembering those types of things. Though I think that my tired-ness is from emotional things. I mainly loose sleep over my job these days. But we're not going to talk about that today.
My photo of the day for yesterday and the day before are FO's! NOTE to my Sister: You may look at these next photos but you may not tell, show or speak of them to your kids. You may however, gush about them in the comments of this blog. (wink wink)
So Yesterday we have an amigurumi penguin. Isn't he cute? I changed the wings b/c I wanted them to look like wings not discs. I also didn't add the feet. So this cutie ball like toy, is for my niece. The girls really liked it and kept asking who it was for. I guess I'll just have to make some for them. WHOO HOO! I love ami's! I used red heart soft yarn and found the pattern here. I'm not sure about that yarn, but it's good for kids b/c it's machine washable so you don't have to worry about stains etc.
For my nephew I made some alien finger puppets. This pattern is in the Crochet Today Jan/Feb 08 go get the magazine today! It's by Regina Rioux Gonzalez, her blog is Monster Crochet. I heart her designs, they crack me up. The pattern also has another puppet but I didn't make it b/c my nephew only has 5 fingers on a hand, as do most boys. So I figured 5 finger puppets won't overwhelm him. Though he's a pretty smart kiddo. You can look at more of my photos here. I think my fave is the one-eyed octopus.
I only have 3 more Christmas presents to finish then I can start my Secret Prayer Swap Socks and my Hello Kitty KAL...
I must apologize to you non-ravelry people out there, a lot of those links are to Ravelry things... so go ahead what are you waiting for? Join already!

It's all about the B-day, baby!

Yup today was my B-day. For my day I wanted to visit Kathy's Kreations in Ligonier, PA. I took this pix while driving by so it isn't the best pix but it's my day 26 pix. That LYS is awesome. It's huge and the women are wonderful. I'm already plotting showing up for a knitting night sometime, it's really not that far only about a 30 min drive and it's a lot bigger than my local LYS so maybe more people my age would be there. The whole area is so cute, we're totally planning on going back in the summer to walk around the town and visit the store again. (plus when Jess visits I'm so taking her there!)
Stupid me forgot the camera when we went into the store so I don't have too many photos. We had to park a couple of blocks away, and for fear of my DH pushing me in the car and driving away like a mad man, I didn't go back and get it. LOL I think if you ask him it wasn't that bad. The girls gave him a run for his money. Luckily they had some coloring books and puzzles for them to play with while I walked around petting the yarn.
I finally walked away with a watermelon tape measure, 3 skeins of Tatamy Tweed, and 2 addi turbo needles size 1.(my b-day present to myself) I bought two b/c over at Ravelry my Christian Knitters group is doing a Secret Prayer Sock Swap. Where we get a partner and they give us something they would like prayer about. While we're knitting their socks we're praying for them, kinda like a prayer shawl/sockapaloza smoosh. And when we send our gift package we reveal who we are. So much fun! Anyways I'm going to do the 2 socks on 2 circs b/c I have MAJOR second sock syndrome. Hopefully that will remedy it's self! I'm so excited about this swap. I can't wait to get started.
NOTE:I am not allowing myself to start until my Christmas things are done. Yes I'm still working on them! (only 3 more to finish)
For my b-day gifts from my DH and the girls I got two things I've been wanting. The girls got me, The Bourne Ultimatum. To complete my set of those movies. It's really good if you haven't seen it. (all 3 of them are). From my DH I got the Local Breads book I've been wanting for oh so long. I think it's partly b/c he wants home baked bread and b/c I sent him my amazon wish list! LOL I just started reading it and I'm totally in love!
Well I've got to go and get reading, knitting, crocheting and everything else I need to do. Have a great night!

working it.

I really hate the thought of working out. Well right now I do. Though I keep telling myself that the first couple of steps are always the hardest. Hopefully soon it won't be as hard as it is to get started.
I have to say I LOVE the way it feels when I'm done. Something between ruling the world and a good sense of accomplishment.

I'm tired, but I'll be back another day.

Snow Day 23

Yesterday it started snowing and it was still snowing this morning and off and on through out the day. When I got home from work I took this pix. The fresh white blanket is so beautiful! sorry it's a shade view. I wasn't wearing boots or a jacket so I was staying on the porch. Right now it's 9 degrees out! Supposedly, tomorrow it's supposed to get down to -6 tomorrow with wind chill. Cold weather = good knitting. Actually for me you could add anything on that cold weather side and it would equal good knitting for me. (I'm sure I'm not the only knitter out there who thinks that.) Well I'd better get off and finish up some stuff.

Today was a day OFF!

I actually got a day off today. Well not completely. My youngest has a cold so I stayed home with her so not to infect all the kiddies at church. Though I think that's where she got it b/c she really didn't go anywhere else this past week. OH well. We spent the day watching movies and just trying to rest so we can get better.
I (instead of watching Barbie the Princess and the Pauper for the millionth time) played this game Trace Memory, so that is why it's my Pix of the day. (I beat it too) It's a story game that you have to figure out riddles and other things so it was fun for me. I got it for real cheap used too so that was fun!
It was really nice not having to do much today, it's rare. I knit some too, but nothing finished. I'm still working on some Christmas presents so I may wait till I send out the packages to share pix.
well I'm off to catch up on things. (at least try to!)

Aprons, and Shawls OH MY!

There are going to be many photos in this post so i won't bore you with my project 365 photos for the days I missed. But you're welcome to go look at them here.
I've had a busy few days and I'm still not done. Christmas eve I was a sewing fiend. I made two aprons. the one I had to finish on Christmas Morning. The blue and black one I gave to my SIL she put it on immediately and wore it the rest of the day. (makes the crafter's heart happy!) The apple one I made for my MIL. Her kitchen has apples in it. I also finished my DD#2's apron. She got a kitchen for Christmas. I had started the apron long ago, but then my sewing machine broke.... Now that it's fixed I can finish things I've left go. I'm thinking of making a few more aprons for different people. A friend of ours is having a birthday at the end of Jan, so i may get started soon. (see I'm trying not to procrastinate too much that is...) Though I've still got tons of Christmas presents to finish. But for some reason I just can't seem to want to knit. GASP!! I know. I think it's b/c I had to pump out so much over the last few weeks I'm on holiday overload. So some of my original ideas for gifts are on hold till next year and now comes the simple solution. (not to mention quick seeing as Christmas is over...)
Last Sunday we went to visit my Grandma. we only got to stay for one night but I think she enjoyed it anyways. I made her a shawl b/c I wasn't sure how cold or warm it would be in the nursing home. I used 3 strands of the Homespun and did a simple v stitch. It turned out really soft and heavy so I know if she gets cold she can stay warm. (Sorry it's a bad pix the lights in her room aren't the best.) It's getting harder to visit with her b/c her memory is going and repeats a lot of things, not to mention it's hard to see her like that. We do want to visit her as much as we can while there is still time. I know that sounds so horrible but it's true. I'm so thankful that we live only 2 hours away so we can get away in a day if we need to. I told my DH when it snows we have to go for the weekend and have a sledding weekend away from it all. Her house has no phone or cable so it truly is away. Which usually is what life calls for every so often... Once a month would be wonderful. But i doubt that ever happens.
Tomorrow my DH and I are going to use one of our gift certificates and go on a date! it should be wonderful. I always enjoy the dates we go on. If we could get a "date" for a week that would be wonderful... hmm.. have to ponder that!
Well i've got to get going since it's way past my bed time.

Going Dark... for a few days.

I will be gone for a couple of days. But I will continue taking photos for my Project 365/52. I wanted to share with you yesterday's photo and today's.
I took a photo of my present from my DH. Most of you don't know but I love surprises, most of all at Christmas. Unfortunately being a naturally born sleuth... (LOL) I'm exceptionally good at guessing what I'm getting by looking at the present. My DH gets so angry when I do figure it out and so I try not to. But lets flash back 2 years ago when my DH got me a Camera. He wrapped the box all pretty and then proceeded to say "look here's your gift" showing the present. To which i promptly said "oh good I've been wanting a camera" (all this by just looking at the present). I can't help it I'm good. It was a small compact rectangle box..and my camera was dying a slow death. Not to mention I know my DH.
Last year when we were going to my parents to surprise them for Christmas, I was in charge of packing the car. Being a wonderful tetris player and a sort of pack rat (not too bad though) I'm excellent at packing car trunks. Anyways, my Dh brought out my gift and I was excited to see it b/c I knew it was a new coffee pot! My DH must have saw my face b/c he got all huffy. And I didn't even say a thing! But he did surprise me last year with a beautiful necklace. He also didn't show it to me wrapped.. LOL . This year he told me he wised up b/c he wrapped my gift with a pillow in a bigger box. But I'll tell you what, I think it's a Nintendo DS with animal crossings for the game. We'll see b/c I'm not telling my DH that I know.
Today was sewing day. I made a crayon roll. which this is the only photo I took before wrapping. I'm horrible at forgetting to get the final product picture. Even though my sewing machine was fixed (for a pretty penny) I think that there is something wrong with it. Well I have 2 more crayon rolls and a few other things to sew for people but I'm working on a shawl for my grandma since we're going to visit her.. she don't have any Internet! GASP... I'll talk with you when I get back. (christmas eve night)

Finally my First round of Gifts

I finished my first round of gifts. Before I wrapped them all up I had to get in some free labor.. er I mean the girls helped me to make our ornaments this year. I got the idea from my friend Kelly. She, I think, got the idea from another friend. Since the girls are OBSESSED with snow globes this year. (I blame Santa Clause3) I thought it would be a perfect ornament to give out this year. They turned out really cute. That is my day 9 photo and day 10 is this bright "fruit" colored cup cozy (as the bub calls it)
We gave it to her teacher b/c she likes fruit colors. You know red for apples, orange for oranges and yellow for lemons... need I explain more? I made 3 coffee cup cozies and put all kinds of goodies inside to give to my co-workers and the bub's teacher. I snapped a ton of photos and thought I would share with you what I put in each cup..
cup things, like packets of cup o soup, coffee, purell, and a gift card. when I wrapped it, I attached an ornament.
Our family members will also get an ornament and also some friends of ours. The girls really love making them and it makes a fun tradition.
I must get off and go finish the 100 million other gifts I've got waiting in the wings...

In time for Christmas?

Yummo here's my pix of the day. It seems to be fueling me these days as I'm in craft mode major. (sorry if you can't see the pix really well, it's a dark one)
I have finished the coffee cup cozy that I shared with you yesterday and I'm about halfway through another one. Then I have one more of those to make and those are done. After the cozies I will finish my Grandma's shawl and a few more necklaces. Actually I made 2 more necklaces last week. I've yet to photograph them though. One is actually wrapped and all ready to go out to a friend so I'll have to get her to take a pix for me. When I'm done with all the necklaces I've got some crayon and marker rolls to sew, and a few other sewn things I'm not going to talk about b/c it's a surprise. After that I've still got a few stockings and a baby blanket to finish. I think that's it... all supposed to be done in a week?? All my family should know by now that their gifts will be late just to stretch out the Christmas holiday. LOL
Well I'm watching the biggest loser finale and I've got things to make.

Today is for Knitting

Today is my day to try and finish up all those knitted gifts for teachers etc. I swear next year I'm starting in October. I'm seriously feeling the crunch! Which is why this photo is also my Photo for my Project 365/52. This is what my days, this week, will be filled with.
So I got the idea for these from 1. Ravelry (the cozy)and 2. My sister (filling it with cool stuff) who got it from a blog out there. If it's you're blog please LMK it was you! Anyways I'm going to finish these Coffee Cup Cozies and put them on a mug filled with goodies. I.E. Purell, tea, coffee, box o chalk, candy canes.. etc. Anyways, must got finish, and I've got Christmas Cards to mail yet... EEEK!!!

Experiment in color part two.

I was away from the computer all day yesterday. First I started at my WW meeting and I thought I'd take a pix of the scale for my own motivation and for my Project 365 pix of the day. Then we ran to the store to pick up my DH's last Christmas gift. Then we headed home to get lunch. As the girls watched some Christmas movies I dyed some yarn. But I'll have to talk about that in my Experiment in color part 3. So for my part 2 info I made another collage. The first pix is a pix of all of the yarn together that I dyed. In order The first green I dyed using about 12 or so Lemon-lime mix ade. The second I used some leaf green Wilton's cake dye. The 3rd was foliage green (if i remember the name correctly) Wilton's cake dye. The blue's I'm not so happy about. I used some Wilton's cake dye that I got in a Spiderman kit. so it was just called dark blue. But the blue didn't dye evenly it has some light and dark areas and some purpleish-pink shows through. the 2nd and 3rd blue photos are the same skein. you can see the light blue did the same as the dark blue. you can see the unevenness of the dye. I'm not sure why it did that. any comments? the last blue I used 15 berry-blue mix-ade, it dyed evenly so i was happy about that. after I was done dying this batch I went to the store to get more of the cornflower blue to get that dark blue color I got the last time I dyed. That's what I was doing when I dyed yesterday.
Oh that last photo is a stocking that I made for my BIL for Christmas. We're living in Steeler country people!
Speaking of the Steelers, today my photo of the day is of the fam in their Steelers garb watching the game. Go Steelers! too bad they lost.
The weather isn't nice lately. It was raining/snowing/slushing this horrible crap. So we stayed home all day today;. Which was nice b/c we totally needed a day off. I was able to get the girls to go through all their toys and pick out 20 each of them to keep the rest are boxed to give to goodwill. A friend of mine does this with her children (all 6 of them) only she does 10 each. Their room looks so much nicer now and the girls were so happy to "find" their most prized toys. After Christmas we'll give them a month with their new things and then have them decide which ones from the old ones need to go to make room for the new toys. Though they're not getting too many new toys a few book though. We don't have a limit on books. OK I'm rambling...

Day 3, 362 to go!

POPCORN! my favorite snack! I love it so much and so do my children. My sister however does not.... sigh I'm not sure what's wrong with her. LOL

I love it so much I got a Whirley Pop Popcorn Popper and I use it all the time. I love it b/c I can use little amounts of oil and still get that wonderful flavor!

Some 365 eye candy for you. These portraits are awesome! go and look through the previous year. It makes me wonder what they were thinking. I love them. Don't they inspire you to take wonderful photos this year?