Current WIP's

I have a few WIP's that I didn't frog over the winter. These are the ones that I felt like continuing to work on, for some reason or another.

WIP #1

 Granny squares in Aran, Buff, and Cornmeal. I'm still trying to decide if I want to add another color (not really) and how to sew them together. I really like these colors put together but I can't seem to find any of the Buff and Cornmeal yarn in the stores around here. So...I'm in limbo on this at the moment. All of these squares were made with yarn from my yarn stash. Now I'm out of these colors and have to buy some more.

WIP #2 

 These are the Knit A Block A Week blocks that I started in January of 2014. I had so much work in them that I hated to frog this project. So I picked up the knitting needles again and finished the blocks last week.

 After putting them out and a lot of rearranging, this is the final layout for the blanket when I started seaming the blocks together. I'm glad I took a photo of this as I referred to it often.

 This is a quick photo of the finished blanket. I absolutely love it! So does Small T. She has requested a knitted chevron blanket in white, gray and light blue for college. *sigh* I've never made one of these, so it should be interesting.

WIP #3

 Turqua granny squares with white centers. I used the yarn from my stash, thinking that I had a lot more of the Turqua. But no...I can't find any. So this project is in limbo until I buy some more yarn. Shouldn't be too long though.

 A gratuitous up-close photo of one of the squares.

WIP #4

 The Pink Camo knitted diagonal baby blanket. I finished this last week, but haven't taken a photo of the completed baby blanket

WIP #5.

The Cherry Red and Heather Grey chenille throw. This is in the beginning stages and I started it with yarn out of my stash. I think I have some more of it downstairs, but I haven't been down to search for it yet.

More WIP's without photos:

The first one is a white knitted baby blanket that I'm following a more complicated pattern on. I've never tried anything other than a basic or easy knitting pattern, so I'm hoping for the best with this.

The next one is a Seabreeze color baby cardigan that is crocheted. I'm actually to the part where I can sew in the ends and add the button.

Then I have a soft yellow baby dress that is crocheted. I'm only about 1/3 of the way done on this one.

These are ALL of my current WIP's.

Prom Season

The month of April was Prom Season around here.

 Small T attended the Northwestern Prom with Curtis.

 Then a week later, she went to her own prom with Royce, a fellow classmate.

 The three cousins, all dressed up for prom....Small T, Awan, Z.

They didn't try to color-coordinate, I swear. It just happened.

Prom King (Joe) and Prom Queen (Small T).

Changing It Up

Over the course of the past school year...

 I went from being a blond...

to a ginger!

My mom said..."I haven't seen you with red hair since you were little".  You see, I was a ginger until 2nd grade, then my hair went blond like Small T's. Crazy, right? But, I'm loving the short red hair!

Frugal Meal Tip

After the family graduation party, I had a gazillion hot dog buns left over. I didn't want them to go to waste, so I looked for creative ideas for using them up.

 One of the things I did was to make the buns into garlic bread. It was easy to do and tasted just fine. I made up some garlic butter and spread it on the bun halves. On one of the pans of buns, I added some Italian seasoning as well. Then popped them into a hot oven to crisp up. Yum!

Here's a photo of the frugal meal I put together with the garlic buns. I cooked up the small portions of pasta that I had, added spaghetti sauce, then topped it with cheese. Underneath it all was a reheated leftover hamburger patty from the BBQ.

Tasty and frugal...what more could you ask for!

My Last High School Graduate

Five days after my last final, Small T graduated from High School.

We kicked off the celebration weekend with a huge family BBQ on that Saturday.

Here's Small T holding her cake up for a photo.

Two of her cousins were also graduating and we all partied together.

Z is on the left, Awan in the middle, and Small T on the right.

These three were in the same class, in the same school.

Z belongs to my youngest sister, Annie, and Awan belongs to my second youngest sister, Marie.

Could any three kids look so different? Crazy, right?

The next day, Sunday, was graduation or commencement.

 Here is Small T receiving her scholarships.

 She's receiving her diploma.

 And now she's graduated. Look at that smile!

 Once again, the three cousins. :)

 The three moms with their children beside them.

 At the actual graduation party we held for her. I love this blue dress she is wearing and she's also got on the pearls that my uncle gave to her when she was 13.  Every girl needs a good set of pearls, in my opinion.

 Her graduation cake, cupcakes, and a small photo collage.

It turned out to be a wonderful, yet hectic, day.

Congratulations Tianna!

I'm A Sophomore!

I'm proud to say...my first year of college is over...and I'm now a Sophomore!

 First semester...I got all A's.

 Second semester...I got all A's. Which was much harder to do.  Trust me. The classes were more challenging and I carried 6 more credit hours than I did the first semester.

I had a few road bumps along the way.

 Back in September, I stubbed my toe in the corridor at school and when I was stumbling along, I fell into the wall and broke my arm. It was a huge pain in my neck since 3/4 of my classes were computer heavy and involved massive amounts of typing.

Then during second semester, I broke 3 vertebrae in my back on February 22nd, then I fell down the deck steps in the rain on March 18th and broke my ankle.

I haven't had this many injuries since I was 17 and involved in a terrible car accident.

But, all that is over now and I'm on summer vacation and working at the pool once again. It's my goal to update my blog regularly until I head back to school in August once again.

Thanks for hanging in there with me everyone! :)

Homespun "Crocheted" Doll Blanket - Free Pattern

A few weeks ago, I felt the need to make a crocheted version of the Homespun Knitted Doll Blanket.

I gathered up a bag of mismatched, but somehow related, yarn balls and set to work.

I used a size K crochet hook and started out with a ch of 58. Then it was "sc in 2nd ch from hook, and in each ch across". "Ch 1, turn. sc in each st across". Repeat each row until you have the desired length. The border/edging is a basic sc worked in each st around, with 3 sc in each corner st. I worked several rows of this. Then, I wove in the ends and it was finished. TaDa!!!! Another lovely little doll blanket pattern to share. Hope you like it. :)