Me Time

I've found my new motto.  Seriously.

I'm scheduling myself some "me time" next weekend, starting with a pedicure.

Goodbye Summer

It's that time of year again.  Today was the last day of the pool season here in town.

Summer is almost over.  Fall is just around the corner.

New Projects

As if I don't already have enough to do, I started 3 new projects today.

 Another Homespun Doll Blanket.  I'm using some of my green, blue, white, and multi-color scrap balls of yarn for this.  Can you see some of the texture in the photo?  I'm loving it!

 This doesn't look like much, but it's going to be a crocheted infinity scarf.  I swear.  lol  It's a pattern I've got in my head and I'm writing it down as I go.

And this little piece is going to be another knitted scarf.  Another simple design in my head.

It will take me a while to get these done since my yarn time has been limited to just one day a week now.

Wrinkles

Even though I use sunscreen, the amount of time that I spend is the sun has really did a number on my face.  I have a LOT of wrinkles now, but especially on the left side of my face, which has more sun exposure.  I've never been very good at using products and creams on my face, but yesterday I started using two products:  an age-defying night repair cream and a daytime moisturizer.  I'm hoping to see some good results out of these products before I buy the full-size bottles of them.  They are quite expensive, but if they work, then it's worth it.

Here are my "before" photos.

 Can you see the wrinkles?  Yikes!

 This side isn't too awful bad...

but this side is HORRIBLE.

I'm too young to have this many wrinkles!!!

Bad Luck

Small T has had a string of bad luck this past weekend.

 She went to the Orthopedic doctor to get a cortisone shot in her foot and she ended up having a stress fracture.  *sigh*  She's so very upset over this.  She's the only Senior on the Softball Team and now she doesn't get to play.  Unless a miracle happens on Wed., when we go back to the doctor.

And one day later, her car is the victim of a hit-and-run.  It doesn't look too bad here, but it broke some stuff inside and the car had to be towed.  Since it's a hit-and-run, the cost of fixing it is out of our pocket.

Here's hoping that this week will be a much better week!

Gauge

Something I never do is to make a gauge swatch.  I know.  It's stupid to not do it.  But I just don't learn.

This past week, every time I get on Facebook or look at a blog, the subject of "gauge" is coming up.  So, I have finally admitted to myself that gauge is important and I will strive to do better in creating a gauge swatch BEFORE starting a new project.

Girls State Speech

 Last Wed., Small T was invited to attend the American Legion meeting and give a speech about her time at Missouri Girls State.  The American Legion Ladies Auxiliary sponsored her, so it was important for her to tell about her experiences and thank them for the opportunity.

I even managed to get myself reasonably presentable in a very short amount of time for the meeting/dinner.

Something for me...

I finally finished something for me.....

the Seed Stitch Infinity Scarf, knitted in Red Heart With Love.  The color is Blue Hawaii.  :)

The 20th

On August 20th, Small T started her Senior year in High School.

And Big C and I had our first day of college.  Together.  Sort of.  Big C changed his colleges this year and he's living at home and attending the Junior College that I'm enrolled in.  He's a Junior and I'm a Freshman (again).  We don't have any classes together and it's unlikely that we will.  We have completely different majors.  I'm enjoying my classes but it's a lot of hard work.  It's been 27 years since my last college class and things sure have changed.

The Beginning...

 I've started another Seed Stitch Infinity Scarf today.  This one will be for ME.  Yep, ME.  It's high time I made myself something.

I've been pretty busy today so this is all I've gotten done.  Yikes!

Another Doll Blanket

Today, I finished knitting/crocheting another Homespun Doll Blanket.

 The body of the blanket is knitted and it uses scraps of Caron's Simply Soft yarn as well as some white Sugar 'N Cream cotton and various types of Red Heart yarn.  I like the way it looks to an extent, but I regret all the ends that had to be sewn in.  It was a real trial.

The edging is crocheted.  I did 2 rounds of sc working (sc, ch 1, sc) in each corner.  The 3rd round is (sc in next 3 sts, ch 3) all the way around, working a (sc, ch 5, sc) in each corner.  The 4th round is worked in the ch 3 or ch 5 space as follows (6 dc in the next ch 3 sp, sl st in the next ch 3 sp), all the way around, but for the corners, you sl st in the last sc before the ch 5 sp, then work 8 sc in the ch 5 sp, then sl st in the first sc after the ch 5 sp.  I hope that makes sense.

This blanket was made using the same pattern as the original Homespun Doll Blanket on my blog.

Softball Beanie

Our High School Principal showed me a photo and asked me to make a softball beanie for her baby girl to wear during softball season.  So...I looked it over and came up with this.  I hope it fits.  This is a 6-9 month size hdc beanie with a cute flower (with ladybug button).  The "stitches"  were horrible to put in.  I ripped them out at least four times before finally saying "enough".

Hair

This week, I scheduled my yearly end-of-pool-season ritual....I got a body wave in my hair.  Yay!

 Looking lovely...waiting for the curls.

And here I am when it's finished!  :)  Love it!

OAMC

Last weekend, I traveled to my sister's house and did a batch of OAMC crockpot freezer meals.

I made over 60 of them and this is my half.  With school starting next week, the crockpot will be my best friend for the next 9 months or so.

A Senior

Small T is a Senior in High School this year.  Last week, she had her Senior Photos taken.  Here are a few that I like.  :)  I'm so proud of her and she's such a cute girl.

A Blessing!

Two weeks ago, while I was at the pool, Big Daddy threw away our coffee pot.  He said it had a leak in it, but I'm not sure if that is true or not.  It worked just fine that morning.  Anyway...since then, we've been without a way to brew my morning cup of joe.  I finally got tired of him "forgetting to buy another one" and bought one myself at the local store here in town.  I don't care if it was $10 more than I would have paid at Wal-Mart.  Cause really, I have to have some coffee in the morning.

So...welcome Mr. Coffee Maker to the Whitney household.  I hope we have a long and lovely relationship.

Boots and Headband

This past week, I've been finishing up a crochet order.

 I made these little boots.  I bought the pattern from the Lovely Crow.  It's called Baby Boot Scootin' Boots.  The only thing I have left to do to these is to sew on a Case IH emblem when she gets them.  These are size 0-3 months.

I made a matching headband.  I used the Genius Headband pattern off Ravelry.  I still need to add a Case IH emblem and a feather for this to be completed, but at least everything has been crocheted.

Homespun Doll Blanket - Free Pattern - Stashbusting for Stashaholics

Yesterday, I finished my latest pattern called the Homespun Doll Blanket.  I call it Homespun because I'm using up my little balls of scrap yarn, giving it that homemade feeling that I just love.

This blanket includes various types of yarn, such as Caron's Simply Soft, Bernat Baby Coordinates, Lily Sugar 'N Cream cotton, etc..  I chose several balls in various colors that I thought worked together.  The darker stripe is actually a darker purple.  There's lavender, white, blue, pink, dark purple, and a variegated pastel cotton.  Since all of this yarn came out of my stash, this is a Stashbusting for Stashaholics project.  Yay!

This blanket is knitted and has a crocheted border.

Here's what I did:

I took all my small balls of yarn and starting with one of them, I tied another ball to it, rolling it up into a bigger ball as I went.  By the time I was finished, I had all the colors tied together and wrapped up in one big ball.  When I was knitting the blanket up and reached the end of the yarn ball, I had to add a little bit more yarn, so I suggest having a few "extra" balls of yarn laid out to the side in case you have to do this too.

I used a set of size 9 straight knitting needles and a size G crochet hook.

To begin, cast on 80.   Knit each row for the entire length of the blanket.  My blanket measured 18 inches across and 18 1/2 inches long BEFORE I added the border.

The border is 4 rows of sc, with a (sc, ch 1, sc) in each corner.  I worked 2 rows of light blue, then 2 rows of lavender.  The 5th row of the border was a decorative one.  I did a (sl st, sk 1 st, 5 dc in next st, sk 1 st, repeat around) border and at times I did have to fiddle a bit to make the stitch pattern work out nicely for the corners, which was 9 dc in the ch 1 space in the corner.  But you can't tell that I skipped an extra stitch here and there.

So, that's the basic pattern for my Homespun Doll Blanket.  I have LOTS of small scrap balls of yarn and I've already rolled up my next big ball of yarn for another one of these.

Inspiration

Today, out of the blue, I was inspired to create something out of my head.  So, I'm starting a new little project of the "easy" variety.  Once I have it wrote down and all finished up, I'll share it with everyone.  It feels good to be "creating" something again.
***Edited to add....Instead of working on my other projects today, I "went to town" on this one.  This is what it looks like now.

Boots

Today, I'm working on these crochet baby boots for a lady here in town.

Wood Carving

On my way home from the pool today, as I was walking down the hill, I stopped to admire my neighbor's tree stumps.  You see, when he had his trees cut down, his friend worked some magic with his chain saw.  Have you ever seen anything like this?  It's amazing!

 I particularly love this!  It's gorgeous!

There's even a Morel Mushroom in the backyard!

Knitting

I have an "on the go" knitting project for this Summer.  It's another baby blanket and I take it back and forth to the pool with me every day.  If I have a bit of spare time when we aren't busy, then I'll break it out for a row or two of knitting.  Otherwise, it doesn't get worked on.

Alabama

The 3rd week of July, Big Daddy and I let Small T go on vacation to Alabama with a group of older kids from here in town.  Let me tell you, this was a tough decision to make.  For the most part, the kids are all pretty good kids, but every now and then, some craziness will go on.  So I was placing a lot of trust in all of them, including my daughter.

 Here they are....ready to head out.  (They drove down in two vehicles)

 While they were there, some of them went and did a few "fun" things other than just lying on the beach.  Small T really liked visiting the zoo.  Here she is, holding a Lemur.  She was also able to go inside the baby kangaroo area and pet some of them.

She even got to hold a baby shark that someone caught on their fishing line.  She thought that was pretty cool as well!

Ohio

The second week of July, Big Daddy took my sister, Lea to Dayton, Ohio to pick up her son, Nick, from college.  I'm not exactly sure where they are at in this photo, but they did a tiny bit of sight-seeing while they were there.  It was a rush trip, with the drive being 14 hours one way, but Big Daddy was back home within 5 days.  I couldn't believe how much I would miss him while he was gone.

Wisdom Teeth

Small T had her wisdom teeth cut out at the beginning of July.  This is the only photo I took of that whole scenario, because she made me promise that I wouldn't take any videos or incriminating photos.  It's a good thing I promised that because she was a wealth of hilarity with all the laughing gas and general anesthesia.  We could have won $10,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos.

My Helpers

This year, I have some added duties at the Pool.  It's the Manager's responsibility to clean the pools every day.  In the past two years, someone was hired to do specifically that job.  Not any more though.  It's a good thing I know how to do the vacuuming.  :)  I have to admit though, that I'm too weak to get the lid off the filter, so I have to bring Big Daddy with me for that.  In the process, I have taught Big Daddy and Medium J how to clean the pools as well.  Just in case.  And they both do a great job of it.

 Big Daddy finds that vacuuming the big pool is very relaxing.  I find this incredible.  I think it's a pain in the rear.  lol

Medium J does a fantastic job on the baby pool.

Beauty

Sometimes Beauty can be found in the most unlikely places.

Photo Gallery

Things I've made since Mid-June.