Pecan Festival Queen Contest

Sunday was the Pecan Festival Queen Contest.

Here are the 5 contestants lined up before it started.

Small T is 2nd from the right.

Small T being introduced.

Small T in her evening gown.

The winners....from the left...Destiny was 3rd runner-up, Miss Congeniality, and the Talent Winner; Marissa was the Evening Gown winner and 2nd runner-up; Small T was 1st runner-up (she also tied for the talent winner); and then Carissa was the Interview winner and also Pecan Festival Queen.

Thus is my girl...so proud of her.

Here we are together.

And one last shot of Small T.  :)

Nails...

I spent a couple of hours with Small T this morning and our good friend, Miss D (soon to be Mrs. D as she's getting married tonight).  Small T is competing in the Pecan Festival Queen contest tomorrow and Miss D gave Small T a french manicure this morning so her nails will be at their best.  As always, whenever we visit Miss D she wants to wax someone.  Today it was my turn (whether I wanted it to be or not).  So...I now have beautiful eyebrows and no mustache for awhile again.  *sigh*  Waxing and I are NOT best friends.

Dresses

Last weekend, Small T and I went shopping for a dress that she would wear in the upcoming Pecan Festival Queen contest.  We ended up finding two possibilities.  (Please excuse her appearance...she just got out of ball practice when she was modeling these...and she would be horribly embarrassed to know that I have posted the photos here).

 This is the one we really like.  It looks so much better in person than in this photo.

This dress was $100.  A real steal.

But this one looks cute too.  She'll probably use this for a dance or for Prom this year.

This dress was $150.  A very good price for a Princess dress.

We ended up spending $250 total for the both of them and I thought that was a very good price considering last year's dress was $500.  I'm glad that we finally have a dress for the contest and that it didn't take a lot of work (and money) to find one.  The contest is in 2 weeks.

3rd Runner Up

Yesterday was the Pecan Festival Queen Contest.

 Here's Small T.  She's in the middle.

Small T was 3rd Runner Up and also won the Evening Gown competition.

She's on the left in this photo.

I think she's beautiful!  :)

What I've Been Up To....A Misc. Adventure....

I've had a lot going on since my last post.  With two kids in high school, we're always busy in the evenings but it's been even more hectic than normal with 3 ball games each week.  I like it that my kids are involved in sports and school activities, but we've had absolutely no downtime at all.  Not even on the weekends.  I did manage to find a bit of time to try a new recipe this past Sunday.  It's for Taco Soup.  You can see what it looks like in the photo below.  I tweaked it a bit and I'm sharing the recipe.

 Taco Soup (recipe adapted from the Taco Soup IV recipe found at allrecipes.com)

note: this makes a huge pot of soup...and I mean HUGE

3 lbs of ground beef (this is basically a family pack of it)
1 large onion, chopped
2 (29 oz) cans of tomato sauce
2 sauce cans of water
1 (15.5 oz) can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15.5 oz) can of whole kernel corn, drained
2 (1.25 oz) pkgs of taco seasoning mix

In a large pot, brown ground beef and onion; drain grease.
Add tomato sauce, water, beans, corn and taco seasoning.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or so.
Serve with corn chips, shredded cheese, and any other condiments such as sour cream and black olives.
Yum!

 I've finally finished the baby blanket I was working on.  I also have the pattern wrote up.

 Here's a closer view of the stitch pattern.  

 Another view of the blanket stretched out on my couch.  Here's the free pattern.  Hope you enjoy it!

V-Stitch Baby Blanket (free pattern)

size is approx. 30 inches by 36 inches.

Bernat Baby Coordinates yarn (it takes approx. 1 and 1/2 skeins for the blanket)

G crochet hook

ch 123.  (blanket is worked in clusters of 11 stitches plus 2 for turning)

Row 1- work v-stitch (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in 8th ch from hook, sk 4 chs, *work v-stitch in next ch, sk 4 chs, repeat from * across until you have 5 chs left.  sk 4 chs, dc in last ch.

Row 2- ch 3, turn.  work v-stitch in each ch 2 sp across, dc in 2nd ch of beg ch 2 (turning ch).

Row 3- repeat row 2 for pattern, working last dc in beg ch 2 of previous row.  On the last row, do not fasten off yarn at end, you'll go straight into working the edging.

*I worked 48 rows total for my blanket.

For the edging,

Row 1-ch 2, work 4 dc in corner sp.  Then, working down the side of the blanket, put 1 dc in the 2nd ch of the ch 2's, and 2 dc in each ch space, down to the next corner.  Work 7 dc in corner sp.  Then working along bottom of blanket, work 1 dc in each ch 2 space of the v-stitch, and work 4 dc in each ch sp, across to the next corner.  Work 7 dc in the corner sp.  Then working up the side, put 1 dc in the 2nd ch of each ch 2 and 2 dc in each ch sp up to the next corner.  Work 7 dc in the corner sp.  Working across the top of the blanket, work 1 dc in each dc and in each ch 2 sp across.  At the final corner, work 2 more dc  and join to the 2nd ch of the beg ch 2.

Row 2- ch 2, work 1 dc in each dc around.  In the corners, where you worked the 7 dc, work 3 dc in the 4th dc of the 7 dc group.  Join with a sl st to the 2nd ch of the beg ch 2.  Fasten off, weave in ends.

 I made a sweater and cap to go with the blanket.  I used the same yarn - Bernat Baby Coordinates.

For the sweater, I used this pattern http://susan.kraus.net/pages/pattern4.html.

For the cap, I used this pattern http://mkcarroll.com/blog/2007/12/25/basic-crochet-beanie-baby.html.

 This is a weird photo, isn't it?  LOL  Small T is a contestant in the local Pecan Festival Queen contest this weekend.  She has to do a talent, and she's going to do a dance, but there's a unique twist on it.  She's doing it in the dark, with glow sticks attached to her clothing and face mask.  She has rehearsal tomorrow evening and I just did a quick fix of her clothes (with the glow sticks and reinforced packing tape).  After tomorrow, I will have to sew the other glow sticks on the clothes.  So, this photo is her sweat pants and sweat shirt with the taped on glow sticks.  Now, the photo makes sense.

 I also played around with another pattern.  The pattern can be found here http://jellywares.blogspot.com/2010/11/jelly-xmas-star-tutorial.html.  I think I like the purple one the best, but Small T likes the gray one.

Then yesterday, I started working on the Camo baby/toddler blanket that has been ordered.  I'm using my pattern called the No Holes Sc Square.  The woman that ordered this blanket wants something that her grandbaby can't get his fingers stuck in.  Normally, this pattern would end with a 6 inch square.  However, the squares needed to be bigger for this, so I added 5 rows to make it a 10 inch square.  If anyone needs to know the stitch counts for these last 5 rows, please leave me a message.

So, that's my update on a few of the more interesting things that have happened in the last 2 weeks.  I've got to go get dressed (I just had a shower) and head to the school.  I'm subbing in P.E. this afternoon.  :)  Have a good day everyone!

Raffle Winner

Look what I won!

I was EXTREMELY happy!

I've been buying raffle tickets at every home game for the past month hoping to win this lovely hope chest for Small T. It's a tradition in our family to give a daughter a hope chest for her 15th birthday and that's coming up in April.

Our teacher's organization was raffling off this hope chest to raise money for the annual scholarship fund.

Not only did I add money to the fund, but I also have a hope chest for Small T now!

Woo Hoo!