Simply Beautiful!

Fall is my favorite season of the year and I'm thoroughly enjoying the view from my front porch every day.  These two trees are beautiful!

Busy...

As always, it's been busy around here.

 Last Thursday found us road-tripping to a college visit for Small T.  This was a fairly big trip.  4 hours of driving each way.  But, we were able to stop and visit with my Mom and my sister Lea and her family for a bit, so it was even better.

 I finished up the Simply Soft Chocolate wrist warmers.  This is the first Christmas gift I've made this year.  I'm behind.

 On Saturday, Big Daddy and I took my sister Annie to the Boo...z Bash here in town.  $15 got you 12 different vendor stops of beer tasting.  Think a good sized shot glass of each one and there were 2 to 4 beers at each stop.  Everyone was taking "selfies" so we took one too.  Big Daddy was clowning around.  lol  By the way...in addition to being the Boo...z Bash it was also Annie's birthday.

 After the Boo...z Bash, we hit one of the local bars for the Halloween party and costume contest...."Diaper Guy" won.  That's him and I in the photo.  I think the person that took the photo must have been seeing funny since the photo is blurry.  lol  Only problem is...I can't remember who took the photo.  geez.

 While at the bar for the Halloween party, we were tipsy enough that we sang "A LOT" of karoke.  This is my sisters Dea and Annie.  I couldn't get in the photo as I was taking it.  lol

 All evening at the Boo...z Bash everyone was taking their photo with the Big Pecan.  So on the walk home from the bar, we took our photo with it too.  lol  Drunken ladies!!!

 The next day found us all hung-over from the previous night's escapades, so ... we had a belated birthday party for Annie.

 I quickly made a cute little hat and slipper set for a friend here in town to send to a 9 year old girl with stage 3 cancer.  I'll have to find out the patterns so I can post the links.  I used Simply Soft yarn in Soft Pink (I think).
***Edited to add....The pattern I used for the hat is called Pretty As A Package and you can find the pattern by clicking here .***
****The pattern for the slippers is called Women's Crochet Ballet Slippers and the pattern can be found by clicking here .  I altered it just a bit to fit a smaller sized foot.****

 I've been carving pumpkins.

 And gourds of some type.

 And more of each.

 And this is what my front steps look like now.

I have more carved pumpkins on the porch that I'll light up on Halloween.

 I brought out the Scrap Afghan that I had been working on and finished up all the inner circles and even hooked a few more together.

 I've added 16 or more rows to the pink camo knitted baby blanket.

 I road-tripped with my sister Annie this morning in the wee hours to her General Manager meeting about 2 1/2 hours away from where we live.  I enjoyed the Fall like scenery though.

 I started another set of wrist warmers.  This time in Simply Soft Grey Heather.  These are another Christmas gift in the making.

And I broke out the 13 bags of Halloween candy a bit ago so Small T could have a piece of chocolate.  I'm ready for trick or treating now.  I live in a prime spot so I'll most likely run out of candy pretty quick.  I normally have about 15 bags of candy and end up running out for more.  But I've put them on a candy diet this year.  lol  13 bags.  That's it.

So...that's pretty much my week in a nutshell other than ball games, working at the farm, and so on.

Things...

I've been busy out at the farm the past couple of days so I don't have a lot to report in the crafting area today.

 I started a set of fingerless gloves for one of my sisters.  I hadn't planned on making any of my Christmas gifts that I'll be giving this year, but I always end up changing my mind.  This is the first gift that I'll be making.  I'm using a pattern called Toasty and you can find it by clicking here.  I usually make the pattern called Toast because it doesn't have the thumb hole but this time I'm going to stretch my limited knitting skills and try the thumb hole (which is the Toasty pattern).  I hope I can figure this out (with the help of youTube).  :)

 I finished looking through a huge pile (not shown) of my crochet books and patterns this morning.  I was looking for some inspiration as I'd love to have something "new" to try.  The pile of stuff above is or contains patterns that I would love to try.  I'll look through them again and whittle the pile down even more.

Now this.....this is a graph that I printed out last year and I had intended on making it into a crocheted tapestry for my son, Medium J, for Christmas.  I didn't get around to it last year, so I figured I should sit down and write out the crochet instructions this morning.  This is the hardest part for me since my eyesight is so bad.  But once I get it wrote out, the crocheting part goes really, really fast.  I will add that I've got 14 rows of this wrote out so far.  It really strains my eyes, so it will probably take me a few days to get it all wrote out.

So...that's my update on my crafting for the past couple of days.  I still have scrap afghan I'm working on, but it's sitting in a bag staring at me and waiting it's turn patiently.  I also have the pink camo knitted baby blanket waiting for some attention.  I worked 10 rows on it last Saturday and will probably take it in the truck with us while we are traveling the next few days.  The scrap afghan will have to continue to wait its turn.  lol

Crocheted Spock Ears

If you haven't guessed it by now, Little Ty is going to be "Spock" for Halloween.  I found a pattern for crocheted Spock ears and they are just the trick.  If you are interested in the pattern, you can find it by clicking here.  The tricky part of the whole pattern was matching some yarn to Little Ty's skin color.  I think we came pretty close.  As far as the pattern goes, I switched up to a size G crochet hook.  Now that the ears are done, Little Ty is ready for Halloween.  His costume is finished.  We just have to add black pants and shoes out of his closet.

Halloween Costume

I've been working on Little Ty's Halloween costume this past hour or so (for school and trick or treating too if he wants to go).

 I bought a blue shirt and have been coloring the neckline and sleeves wrist cuffs black with a permanent marker.  Which works quite well.

 Then, I printed out the emblem and taped it down really good to a stiff piece of board.  Then attached a safety pin to the back of it.

And this is what I have so far.

I'm getting ready to work on the ears next.

Can you guess who he is going to be?

Little Ty

I took this photo of Little Ty last night and I couldn't resist showing it off.  He's so handsome, isn't he?  And growing up quickly.  And he looks great in a robin's egg blue shirt!

Big Daddy

*Somehow, I forgot to publish this post, so I'm doing it now.*

Tuesday morning, Big Daddy ended up having some heart issues again and ended up in the hospital.

 He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

It could be the IV in the foot.

Yuck.

But, he's back home now and looks like he might be getting a pacemaker in the near future.

Filling Orders

Yesterday and this morning, I have spent all of my free time filling a couple of crochet orders.

This is the first order.  It's 2 small spider webs, a candy corn bunting, and 3 ghosts.  These will travel with us Wed. night to Springfield for delivery.

 This order will be delivered tomorrow.  It's for one of Small T's friends who is expecting a new baby sister very, very soon.  She loved the white and gray set I made for Olivia and requested a pink and gray set for her new little sibling that's set to arrive.

This little crochet combo is so cute that I felt it deserved a couple of more photos.

 The hat.

The booties!  :)

Divine Hat (Stash Buster Project)

Little Miss Olivia's mom really liked the Divine Hat pattern (found here) but it's an adult sized pattern.  So I did a bit of tweaking on it last night and came up with a pattern for a newborn baby.  Here's what I did.  Work rounds 1 through 4.  Then work round 5 five times total.  Then go to round 17 and work it twice total.  Then follow the rest of the pattern to the end.  I think next time I will work round 17 just the one time and see how it turns out.

I used Caron's Simply Soft yarn in Woodland Heather for this hat.  The yarn came out of my yarn stash, so this project ends up being a stash buster too!

Baby E

Look who came to visit last night.  Baby E.  She didn't want her photo taken so I had to take one while she was asleep.  She's sure growing.  I may have to come up with another name for her because she's not Baby E anymore.  :)

Button Flap Beanie and Posh Baby Booties (Stash Buster Project)

Yesterday, I finished up another set of hat and booties for Little Miss Olivia.  

This set matches her baby blanket that's on her bed.

My niece-in-law likes non-traditional colors in earth tones, just so you know.

 The little hat is called the Button Flap Beanie (in size 3 months).  The free pattern can be found here .  I used Caron's Simply Soft yarn in the color Bone.  The two little clear brown buttons were out of my sewing box.

 These are called the Posh Crochet Baby Booties Pattern.  You can find the pattern by clicking here .  These are also done in the Caron's Simply Soft yarn in Bone.

I had a bit of trouble deciding on the button(s) to use on the hat.  I even took photos of each button and asked opinions before making the final decision.  lol

 These were the two clear brown buttons.

 This was a black button that looked like a marble counter top.

And then there was the brown wooden button with a tuba on it.

In the end, the two little brown buttons won out simply because I didn't want the hat to look to boyish.  But I liked the tuba button the best.
The yarn I used for both of these projects came out of my yarn stash, so these count as stash buster projects for me.  :)  Yay!

Zen Baby Hat and Baby Boots

It's taken me a few days to finish these things, but I finally added the flower to the 2nd baby boot today.

I absolutely love these two items!  ;)  The colors are just grand.

 This is called the Zen Baby Hat and it's a free download on Ravelry.  Just click here .

I used the Baby Boots Pattern for the booties.  You can find the pattern here . 

These are what the boots look like before adding the flower.  It's the same flower on the Zen Baby Hat.

 This is the first boot I finished.

And then both of them together.  :)  So cute.  These are for little Olivia.

Pig

Small T was heading out the door this afternoon and said, "there's a pig in the yard".  We all went to look and guess what....there was!

 Him and his little dog friend too.  :)

I walked "little pig" home and he oinked all the way.

Let me say..."Where else can you see a pig in your yard?"  I love the town I live in!  ;)

Pet Peeve

I'm about to rant a rave for a short period of time, so...pardon me, please.

These are the first three potatoes that I peeled and sliced in half.  I was sooooo mad.  I bought the 10# bag of them on sale for $4.99.  That's expensive!  I cannot believe the price of potatoes lately and then this is what we get for the money????????????????  Geez!

Thank you for letting me vent.  :)

1st Game

Tuesday night was the 1st Junior High Basketball Game for two of my nephews.

 Little Ty (#15) is shown warming up.

"Oh G" is #24.

"Oh G" scored 2 of the last 4 points needed to win this game.  He made both of his free throws.  I was so proud of him!

Easy Crochet Baby Hat

I have finished my 2nd hat of the day for Little Miss Olivia.  I think it's just darling!  I wish I had a little baby of my own to dress in some of these things, but thank goodness I don't.  lol  I'm way too old for that anymore.  This hat is called the Easy Crochet Baby Hat with Crochet Flower.  The link to the pattern is here.

I used the same yarn as the previous hat so I won't go into the details on this post.  This hat worked up really fast and the pattern is easy to read so don't hesitate to make one of your own.