Latest project - finished and delivered. And another WIP.

This is what I have been working on for the past few days... It is a 5-sided baby blanket for one of Princess Junior's nurses who is due in April/May. She is having a boy so I wanted to use blue as the main color. I used Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn" so it's nice and soft.

This is what I did for the edging. I didn't want to use scallops or anything "frilly". I really do like the way this looks. It can be tedious but it's not that hard and I think the result is worth it.

The main thing is that she really like it.

And I'm looking forward to working with the cotton yarn I am having dyed. This is what one of the skeins looks like... I love it!!!!! I have some wool in the same colorway being spun with a ply of white. And the woman I am getting it from has some bamboo blends coming in that I can have custom dyed. Those will be great for Princess Junior because of the bamboo's antibacterial properties.


Right now I'm working on another 5-sided blanket. It started out as a oblong "square" but I couldn't get it to not cup in the middle. For some reason I am not having that problem with the 5-sided version. Go figure. I didn't like the color pattern on the square one either so I took advantage of the frogging and am doing it differently. I'm using some soft yarn I got from Mary Maxim a while back. I am getting ready to weave the tails on. I usually do that after doing a bunch of rows rather than at the end of each color change. I may experiment and see if I can do the corded border in five colors! :)

Semi-snow day

As expected, county schools called off for today. But Dak still had to go to school because they didn't call off college classes. They rarely do. I guess they figure college students are better drivers on icy roads. Go figure.

But they did delay the start of school by two hours so he got to go in a bit later. This is exactly what happened a couple weeks ago on the first day his class met this semester. Only today they were due to give speeches. That always throws a wrench into things because they have to make X number of speeches and it throws scheduling off.

Let it snow, let it snow, LET IT SNOW!!!!!!!

YES!!! I feel a hot cocoa and movie night coming on!!!!!!


This is what's coming down outside my house. It didn't look like this when Dak and Chatty left this morning about 10 am.


This is what the yard looks like now. Med supplies arrive today so there will soon be footprints and handcart wheel tracks leading up to the ramp.



About one and a half to two inches and still coming down. You can see the flakes coming down in the picture. County schools closed early today and I'd really be surprised, no, shocked, if they didn't close them for tomorrow. Almost all of the surrounding counties already have called off school for tomorrow. There was even a bus accident this morning, one slid off the road. (No injuries but buses are the main reason they close the schools around here.)

I'm glad Princess Junior doesn't have any appointments this week but I do have to go out later... have to pick up a couple prescriptions. But I'm going to wait until Dak gets home to run out for it. Might need to get some milk for that hot cocoa too! And gotta hit the Redbox for the free Monday movie.

What??? You don't know about Redbox's free movies on Monday??? Check out www.insideredbox.com and sign up to get the latest news and promo codes for FREE movies! How cool is that!

He's DRIVING?!?!?!?!?!?! NOOOOOOOOO!

GamerBoy is my baby. Yes, he's almost 20 but I don't care how old he is! And I know that this milestone was inevitable but still... like I said, he's my BABY.

He signed up for a driving course last April. He is starting to feel the squeeze as he only has a year to deal with the course work and tests before his class fee won't cover anymore and he has to pay it again. As long as he has finished the class work and study time and has his name on the list for the actual in car work he is covered. (And if he has to do it again he knows he has to pay it all! We already help pay the first time and a year is quite sufficiant to get that done.)

So he has been feverishly studying the AAA book, the states's driver's handbook, and making notes. Today I took him to the class and he tested on the first 5 chapters of the book. His scores were between 80 and 95 and he says 70 and above is passing. He has another week to study before the next class.

Yesterday Dak took him to a local church that has a large parking lot and put him BEHIND THE WHEEL!!! I didn't go with them and I have mixed feelings about that. I would have liked to have seen him drive for the first time but I probably would have made him nervous or cried or tried to grab the wheel and step on the brake. :) Probably a good thing I didn't go. But Dak said he did really good.

Did I mention that he is drooling ever time he sees a corvette??????

So???? She sews... So what?????

I'm always envious of someone who sews. I have a machine. I even have an embroidery machine. And I have sewn before. But I haven't been able to access either machine (the one has never been used!) in ages so I can't really say I sew.

But my friend Terri can. And she is on an apron kick. Very practical. And she is offering to use her skills (practice makes perfect) to make an apron for some lucky person. Go here and check out her giveaway.

It's warmin' up here!!! (at least inside)

We have HEAT! (I'm so glad you can't see me dancing!) The A/C guy was out and fixed the problem and he didn't even have to do it in the rain! When he got her I asked him what it would run to have a digital thermostat that we had bought several months ago installed. He said that if it was a "blah blah" type (I can't remember what he called it) he could just go ahead and do it while he was there and make it part of the service call. THANK YOU!!! It made the final bill a little less painful. :) But it was still way less than replacing the entire heat pump!

We had bought the thermostat thinking that it might help keep a better control of the temp and help out economically. Dak has it set now and has LOCKED it! Both Chatty and GamerBoy tended to play with the old one a bit, adjusting it to their perceived needs. :) That is now a thing of the past. Only Dak and I know how to unlock it to change a temp setting. evil grin Hehehehe... Eventually we will get it completely set up and programed.

What I like most about the new thermostat is that it has a vacation feature - you can set it and go on vacation. WOW! If I had known that all we needed to do was get a thermostat with a vacation mode and we could go on vacation I would have bought one AGES ago!

We aquired a yard guest yesterday. Chatty says that a puppy (that will grow up to be a BIG dog) followed her home. He (she?) has been on the front porch most of the time since then. It is a cute dog, chocolate brown and probably a retriever or a lab, but it's not our dog. We have told Chatty to ignore the dog but you know how that goes with a kid and a cute puppy.

Today was garbage day and during the night the dog decided to check to see if we had left any pizza behind in the box we threw away. It also taste tested the remaining plants in my water garden on the porch and there are now plant strands and dirt clumps all over the porch. Granted they were dead plants but they were in the container and it wasn't a mess. I'm glad that was all the dog got into.

Chatty thinks she has an idea where the dog might have come from and went there to go check with them. Hopefully that is the right place. Evidently there is a house in the neighborhood that has a fenced in yard and the gate is open. Chatty tried to put the dog in the yard and latch the fence but the latch is broken. She has a dentist appointment later this afternoon so she will walk the dog down to the end of the street (about a mile) and then her dad will pick her up in the car and they will go to the appointment. Hopefully the dog will find it's way to it's own home.

GamerBoy has been very helpful the last few days. He installed a new, locking doorknob on our bedroom door. He knew we had gotten the doorknob set but hadn't had time to install it. Then this morning he went outside and cleaned out the dryer vent of some nesting materials that had been placed there by birds or small animals. It should make drying clothes a lot faster! We have a vent cage/cover that we'll be putting over the vent outlet but that I want Dak to do that since it involves putting holes in the house itself! But we really do appreciate that GamerBoy pitches in and does stuff like this. He is really maturing. A good kid!

It's Cooooooold!

Something I didn't mention before... we have been having a temperature issue here at the palace. Our heat pump seems to be on vacation. Not a good thing for the realm when the temperature is in the 20's! Granted, it has warmed up a bit, at the moment it's 42, but that is still a bit on the cool side for all of us, not to mention way too cool for Princess Junior. It's like we traded in our upgraded insulation for classic medieval stone.

It's been this way since about Wednesday or Thursday. We noticed that the outside unit was making an odd noise. Dak did some internet research and we switched over to the emergency heat. We then set about trying to confirm if the home warranty was still in effect. We really didn't have any paperwork on it and weren't sure.

To make it even more fun we had another temperature issue. The refrigerator. Things weren't quite as cool (or frozen!) in there as they should have been. And it was possibly covered by the same home warranty. It took until this past Monday to get through to the right people only to find that neither was covered so we're on our own.

Dak called and arranged for someone to come out and take a look at both problem appliances. The Refrigerator is now fixed. $205 and change but that is much better than buying a new fridge! Especially since the one I'd like is $2,300!!! :)

Now we are waiting for the A/C people to get here. It's a rainy day, nearly 100% humidity called for all day, but when I spoke to them on the phone they said that they would still be here. Better them than me!

To warm up here I just finished a small blanket for Princess Junior. Here it is...



It's a nice, warm, soft and slightly fuzzy yarn. I still have a lot left over so I might make Princess Junior a "matching", but smaller, lap throw for when she is in her wheelchair. I didn't follow the pattern exactly. I just did a scalloped border instead of the one in the pattern as I didn't want it so lacy on the edges.

And then to warm ME up... Dak and I stopped by Wal-mart last evening and I happened to pass a clearance rack that really caught my eye. It was full of lightweight fleece night shirts. What sold me on them was that there was a bunch of purple ones and the print was CUPPYCAKES!!!!!!!!



I wore it last night and it was just fine. A lot of times I will change nightgowns in the middle of the night because I get too hot but this one really is just the right weight of fleece! And I LOVE cuppycakes!

And speaking of cuppycakes... I should have a picture of one I am crocheting soon. 0 calories!

Life is so fragile...

This request isn't for me.And it's not for Princess Junior either. But it is partially on her behalf.

One of Princess Junior's day nurses has been gone for a week. She is back today and I just found out why she had to leave. Her 34 year old son was murdered last Tuesday morning. He left behind a wife and daughter and two children from a previous marriage.

Things like this are so sobering. Talking to friends yesterday I told them of four children on the support groups we are on for Princess Junior that have passed away in the past three weeks. This morning there was another child added to that number. They range in age from a wonderful 18 year old to a beautiful full term baby who didn't survive birth.

Those always hit me hard. Please send good thoughts and prayers their way to help all these families through these rough times.



Thank you!

It's always something...

Things have been hectic here... I've been trying to keep up reading blogs but I know I've let some slide by. And I haven't posted here.

Life here has a way of doing that. And it seems like everything happens at once. One day we had two different docs call and offer us cancellation appointments at the exact same time. We couldn't take advantage of either one because of an already scheduled appointment! We had to cancel an appointment on Tuesday because of the weather and it had already been rescheduled once! Now she doesn't go back there until late February. :(

Princess Junior's appointment for Botox was tomorrow at 2 pm. It was scheduled wrong and had to be moved to 10:45 am. Because of the change (we can't miss this one! This one is really important for her.) we had to cancel an appointment scheduled for 10 am for Dak and I, and Dak will not get to go, having to take Chatty to another appointment at 11 am instead.

We had a insurnace issue earlier this week and were panicing because it mean that Princess Junior, the one person in the house who really HAS to have a doc on call, didn't have a pediatrician. I think it's been sorted out now. We're just waiting for the "official" phone call.

And we are having a nursing shortage. Still trying to cover the 7p to 10p gap but a nurse that doesn't live far from us is picking up most of those. A regular day nurse had an out-of-state family emergency and won't be here for a few days. So far they have covered one day, a new nurse is orienting in Princess Junior's room as I type and will pick up tomorrow (Sure... start her off on a day with a road trip!) but they are still looking to cover Sarurday and Sunday day shifts.

Meanwhile we are still dealing with other family menbers and issues. How fun. :)

Wrangle those keys, woman!!!!!!

I ran across the cutest idea that could help me whittle down my key chain to a more manageable number of keys. Right now there are about 7 gazillion keys on my key chain. Heck, it's not even one single key chain! Sweet Irie is hosting a giveaway and the prize (actually NINE prizes!) is your choice of one of her handmade wristlet key chains! I LOVE the Cuppy Cake one! But if I win I might have to choose the Fishy one... A very HARD, HARD decision!

Check out her blog HERE and enter the contest! And thanks, Sweet Irie, for being so generous!

Throws and scarves...

I posted some scarves and throws on the Princess' blog. All proceeds will go to her building fund.

And thanks to all who have submitted recipes! We still need more so keep them coming, please. :)

Kitty slippers... and stuck trucks...

No, I've not gone nuts and started making slippers for the cats. But GamerBoy was in talking to me a little while ago and he had one of our two cats in his arms. The cat in question is the most patient/skittish cat I have ever seen. And that is a weird combination. He runs from us all. Angel can be sleeping on the back of the sofa and I go to pet him as I go by and he will run and hide. Now I have NEVER done anything to this cat to make him afraid of me. If it wasn't for me this cat wouldn't even be here (I got him as a Father's Day gift for Dak.) GamerBoy, on the other hand, has never been cruel to Angel but has carried Angel around like a dirty rag since we got him. And the cat puts up with it! He can drape Angel around his neck and walk around and the cat just stays there. GamerBoy had Angel laying on his back in his lap. Angel's position was semi-curled into a ball, fluffy tail in the air. While in that position GamerBoy was studying the cat's back feet. He asked me why there was so much hair sticking out (Angel is a fluffy cat!) between the footpads. I admitted I didn't really know, maybe to keep the pads warm. After about a minute of silence GamerBoy looks at me and matter-of-factly says "Kitty Slippers!"

Yes, they are "Kitty Slippers". That makes perfect sense to me! :)

One of our neighbors is a trucker so there is, on occasion, a huge 18 wheeler on the street or just the cab of the truck parked in the yard. The cab was a source of entertainment today for GamerBoy. The yards here are all slopped a bit some how. The yard in question slops up from the street and they had pulled the truck into the yard nose first. Well, even though you would think that all wheels of a vehicle would stay on the ground we have had rain lately and evidently the engine end was heavy enough to sink the front end into the water softened ground a bit. Just enough to make the back wheels, the real working end, NOT touch the ground. So when you step on the gas the wheels on the truck go round and round, round and round, round and round. But also go no where. :) We could hear the truck's engine revving and revving. GamerBoy was watching all this in amusement. He kept coming in to give us updates. Finally he said they called in reinforcements and used an SUV and chain to get the back end down enough to get the wheels on the ground. Now the wheels on the truck go round and round and outa town! :)

Yoga in a chair??? I can do that!

A friend of mine mentioned a giveaway on her blog that caught my eye. Both Dak and I need to shape up (Yes, round IS a shape but not exactly a healthy one!) It's from I Never Grew Up - Three yoga DVD's from White Mountain Center for Yoga & Therapeutic Studies -Daily Yoga Practice, Restorative Yoga Practice AND Chair Yoga Practice. My back would probably be able to handle the chair yoga!

So if you are so inclined click on over there and check it out. If you cross your fingers for me I'll cross mine for you! :)

WIP

I started using some cotton yarn to make a rectangular throw for Princess Junior to use as a wheelchair throw for her legs. I didn't like the way it was drawing up in the middle of the longer sides so I frogged it. Her nurses don't know it yet but they will have a surprise soon! I am now using the yarn to make Princess Junior some washcloths. Please excuse the picture, I uploaded it directly from the camera. :)


I really like the pattern and I have another pattern or two I'll be working on too. Heaven forbid all her washcloths be the same pattern! ;)

Short and sweet...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If any of you that visit would like to help with a project...

WE NEED RECIPES!!!

If you would like to participate in this project you can find out more and how you can participate on Princess Junior's blog. Just click here.

I could become addicted!!!

Today I got a very special package... It was the copy of "Crochet Me" that I ordered from Linda Permann's Etsy store, HopeForJasenn. I see several projects that will be added to my list!



Then there is the added bonus that came with it. A skein of Nashua Handknits "Julia" yarn in a beautiful blue, Aqua Fog, and a Crystal Palace BAMBOO crochet hook, size H. The yarn is wonderfully soft. I've never worked with Mohair or Alpaca before so I can't wait to try it out. I could easily become addicted to it. I'm thinking I might get a couple more skeins in a couple other colors and make a throw pillow. I LOVE pillows, ask Dak. And I love bamboo... sheets, hooks, stalks... any form of bamboo. I am a VERY happy camper. :)

Linda's store will be closed for a few more days but will re-open after the new year starts. Check out the things she has available to help raise funds for her special brother-in-law. HopeForJasenn

Yesterday evening I made Dak a birthday cake. A wonderful, absolutely beautiful, picture perfect pineapple upside-down cake. Ok, I'm tooting my own horn here but it really was beautiful, the most perfect one I have ever made! Dak and GamerBoy watched me flip it out onto the plate and there wasn't a single problem. Well, there was one small problem... Here is the picture I didn't take.


I forgot to take a picture of it. I didn't use traditional yellow cake mix but I used pineapple cake mix instead and substituted the pineapple juice from the pineapple for the water that it called for. And I filled the little spaces around the rings with crushed pineapple. I had batter left over so I filled cupcake liners and then put a dollop of pineapple and a cherry on each before baking. It was really mist and yummy! And Dak said he liked it so that's what counts.

Something I did take a picture of is some of the coasters I made recently.


The original was the start of a circular afghan but I got side tracked because I liked how it looked and was trying to think of what I could make for Christmas presents. :) So lots of people I know got sets of coasters for Christmas. And now I'm trying to make a set for us.

I'm still working on the new shawl. What? I hadn't mentioned that??? No, I don't think I did. It's the CocoBay Shawl. I made one before (a gray one that I currently have thrown over my shoulders) but I got confused and didn't finish it like the pattern called for. This time I'm going to try and be good and follow the pattern exactly. I'm doing this one is in a teal/pink/white/green variegated with the cluster and ruffle sections in a coordinating pink.


Hopefully I can pull it off this time.

Found: One set of keys - well hidden!

I think it was a conspiracy but the lost keys have been found. I asked Princess Junior's nurse this morning if she had found her keys and she said she had. She said she was embarrassed because they were in a pocket she hadn't checked. Personally I think she did it on purpose just so I could go by the post office to drop some things in the mail that I had forgotten to mail while Dak and I were out. :) But if that's her story...

Today is Dak's birthday. He is now... older than he was last year. I gave him his present to open last night. Two Princess Junior coffee mugs! He loves them!

These and other things are available as fund raisers for Princess Junior's room. CLICK HERE

The idea was for Dak to have his coffee in one this morning but GamerBoy made him (and me and GamerBoy) a most excellent breakfast of french toast with maple flavored sausage patties. Dak didn't want that to get cold while he made the coffee (GamerBoy doesn't do coffee) so he had a soda instead. (I had suggested the french toast because I knew that Dak likes it. He didn't used to but now he likes french toast better than pancakes. He just forgets to look for it on menus because pancakes are usually offered as side items or more advertised.)

Last night we watched "Mama Mia". I now know why a friend of mine said she sat through it swaying her arms and singing along. We even played it with the sing along option but we're not sure that was much, if any, different than the regular version. I enjoyed it but had a really hard time listening to Pierce Brosnon singing. OUCH! Dak liked it too and he isn't a big musical fan. (I am!) I let Princess Junior's night nurse watch it after we went to bed and her day nurse is watching it now. I'd say I got my dollar's worth on that one. :) Today we are going to watch the new Eddie Murphy movie "Meet Dave".

Is it too early in the day for popcorn???????

Anybody find a set of keys???

Dak and I had to run out this evening and we were gone over shift change. We were surprised to come home and see two cars still in front of the house. When we went inside we found out why they were there. Princess Junior's day nurse couldn't find her car keys! She says that we'd know them if we saw them. She is a Betty Boop fan and there are several Betty Boops attached to the keys. We had 5 people looking but haven't found them so far. So I drove her to the mall and one of her kids, who has a spare key for her car, was going to pick her up and, I guess, bring her back here so she could get her car. Hope it works out. She is on the schedule for day shift tomorrow.

I have a question... Since when did gun control have anything even remotely to do with being racist??? I was behind a vehicle earlier today that had a bumper sticker on it that said "Gun Control = Racisim" Huh???? I just can't get my head around that one. Am I the only one that doesn't get the connection?

We exchanged family presents today. We had all 5 (6 counting in-laws) kids together. They gave Dak a t-shirt that reads "First National Bank of Dad" and underneath that "Sorry, we're closed" LOL... Firstborn and her hubby gave me a pink fleece jacket that they got in San Francisco on their honeymoon. I think that is WAY cool. She knows that SF is my absolute favorite place. She even brought me back 2 packets of sourdough starter. I love my kids! :) Dak had written a poem and I formatted it and put some graphics with it and printed it out. We framed them in cool glass frames that say "Family" on them. Ironically that is how the poem starts. Dak had forgotten that the frames said that when he wrote the poem and was worried that he hadn't out a title on the poem. I think the frames titled the poem perfectly. Anyway, that is what we gave the kids.

TIme to settle down now. We picked up "Mama Mia" and "Meet Dave" from the Redbox at Walgreens when we went to get some Princess Junior med supplies this evening. (Gas is down to $1.40.9 now!) And the pizza should be here anytime! After eating we'll watch one of the movies and I will work on the shawl I started last night. Not sure if I will keep it or not but I'll post a picture when I finish it.

Have a nice evening all...