Not a good weekend...

It's been a... let's just say it's been a weird weekend.

Of course, as all weekends do, it started last week. Tuesday we got a phone call from Firstborn telling her dad that her mom had opted to not continue dialysis. Needless to say she was a bit upset. She and Skellyson came over and met up with Chatty and they went to the hospital to see their mom. Their mom said that she would continue the dialysis if they could/would move her to another hospital. (She didn't like the way the hospital she was in did it and said it was less tramatic and painful at the other hospital.) Without the dialysis they gave her about two weeks to live.

Friday we got another early morning call. Firstborn again. Her mom was not going to be transferred to the other hospital (they considered her medical stable so no reason to transfer her from a hospital that was giving her the same treatment they would) and she had been moved to a local hospice facility the day before. Again Firstborn and Skellyson came and got Chatty and went to see her.

Saturday morning we got another early morning call. Their mom had died early that morning. So now Dak and Chatty and Skellyson are on their way to the middle of the state to the funeral. Dak will be there for the kids but at this point doesn't plan to attend the funeral (It's a weird family dynamic and he wants to make it easier on the kids.) They visitation is today and the service tomorrow. He will be home tomorrow night.

This quick chain of events necessitated some fast arranging. Dak had finals to deal with. To deal with it he needed a video camera and mine uses those cute little mini-DVDs. Good but there are not long enough to tape a whole class. So, since he knew that I wanted a different camera he offered to let me use some summer pay to upgrade to the style I would rather have (one with a hard drive) and then he could use it for the class. So last night we went shopping (quickly, since it was Sunday evening and limited possibilities) and came home with a new camera. Now I will probably use the camera more!!! (And be more pressed to get the DVD drive fixed on the laptop.) And I'll go pick up the camera from the school later this evening and Dak can grade them tomorrow.

I opted to stay home from the trip to mid state because we have had some nursing issues lately and I wasn't willing to leave Gamerboy on his own to have to deal with a cancelled nursing shift that doesn't get covered with us out of town. The scheduled night nurse for Saturday didn't show. As far as we know she didn't even call the agency o say she wasn't coming and they weren't able to reach her on any of her contact numbers either. So Saturday night we had no nurse. Gamerboy jumped right in like a champ and helped us out.

Our day nurse (who had worked a 12 hour shift already) came in about 4 am on Sunday morning instead of the 7am she was scheduled for. Then the same night nurse was on the schedule for Sunday night. What to do... The office still couldn't reach her so they start trying to fill in the shift. Since our day nurse came in early she left at 4 pm.. (She was going to be leaving at 4:30 pm anyway so not a big difference) and as of about 6 pm we still didn't have a night nurse. We did get a call a bit later saying that another nurse that has worked with Princess Junior before was going to come out early in the morning (5:30-6 am) and the day nurse that left at 4 was coming back in about a half hour or so and cover until he got there. YEA!!! Hopefully there won't be a hitch with tonight's nursing. And I think the nurse who came out to orient on Friday is going to fill in some of the slots that will be open. Over all we have a pretty good crew.

I was planning on posting a link to a cool way to join granny squares. I will do that but it will be a few days. I will have pictures too and might have some pictures of some WIPs that are coming along.

Gonna try and settle in with the yarn and relax.

Sunday...

It's quiet here. Oldest son arrived for a respite visit (he needs some space and time to think) early this morning and he took Chatty with him to work tonight. Gamer Boy took Dak with him this evening to do some practicing behind the wheel. He now has his permit and is just waiting to get the driving portion of driving school finished. Until then he is practicing with us. I went with him last night and it was driving in the dark, tonight with Dak was semi-rain. It was raining when they were getting ready to head out but by the time they got on the road it was just dealing with wet roads. Dak says he did well. He did well last night too.

On Friday we took Princess Junior to her physiatrist for her Botox injections. (More on that with pictures here.) We are dealing with some minor fevers now but, from what we have read, that isn't connected to the Botox.

I've got a couple new projects going. Just what I need, right??? The first is a circle centered granny square. I'm making it for Princess Junior so am just adding more and more squares as I need to, joining as I go. I'm using a pale pink for the centers with a light gray border. I'm calling it her polka dot blanket.


Then I saw one of the start blankets in bright pink and red and white. I was hooked there. I'm not using a white white but stuck with the red and pink. The pattern is from
here. I made the sections larger than they were in her pic but I don't like it and I'm going to frog a bit of it and go to her color pattern as I think it shows off the colors better. But this gives you and idea.


So off I go to frog...

Happy Mother's Day everyone.

Hope all the mother's out there have a great Mother's Day! Enjoy your families!

Finished! No longer WIPs... YEA!

I finished the spiral granny. Here it is. I did a couple rows of black half double, row of half double light pink, row of alternating 3/3 half double light pink and dark pink, then a couple more rows of black. Now this is folded in four. There are five squares down and four across. so it's a decent size for one person.


Then this is the blanket I made with the left over yarn. A five sided blanket just big enough for Princess Junior. Again, in half double. With a 4 row wide black border and a final row of scallops.

It's her birthday today so we gave it to her this morning! You can go to her blog to see more about her birthday.


I'm still working on the circle for Gamer Boy but have also started an elongated granny from a pattern from Minisoda at Crochetville. That is in a red, black and light gray. I'm really liking the color combo!

Spiral Grannies continued

Ok, I've changed the goal on this one several times. I never wanted to make a big blanket. More something to throw over Princess Junior or over my legs. I had twelve squares done but didn't like it. It wasn't big enough so I made more. I ended up with twenty squares and I like it better now. And I had all of the original twelve connected and then realized that I didn't have them all oriented in the same direction, like I wanted to. Sigh... So I ended up with lots of little bobbles of yarn rolling around on the bed as I took all of them apart and put them back together again. This time I paid attention!

As I mentioned I was going to do, I used Drew Emborsky's "Dudessembly" to put them together. I had to alter things a bit because the squares weren't the same size as what he wrote for but I couldn't have done it without his helpful instructions.

The twenty squares (5x4) are done and together and now I am working on the border. I do see something that I probably would have done differently but I was not about to take the darn thing apart again! I think it will look ok anyway. And it will be a bit bigger because of the border too.

Here is what the squares look like connected. I'll post the finished piece once I get it done and all the ends dealt with.

Peep, Peep, Peep... PEEPS!!!!!!!!

Ok, I'll admit it. I LOVE PEEPS! How can you not love this face?????



Yes, I know that Easter is traditionally when you see them but I am so glad that they are now available for other holidays (and I have found a website to order from year round!) They even come in Orange Creme and Chocolate flavors. The only ones I will not, under any circumstances, eat, are the black ones that come out at Halloween. Not going to do those. Ever.

So I was thrilled when I came across the store GOODKARMASOAPS in the course of my online travels. Blaire has some really cool soaps including lego block soap, exploding frog soap, geode crystal soap, and light up soap balls! Way cool!!!

But what I really liked were her PEEPS! She had created a PEEPS soap that looks just like the squishy marshmallow blobs you find in the stores! A bar of 5 so you can cut/break one off at a time to use, just like you would pull one off at a time to eat.

But, alas, they were only in the traditional yellow. And I'm not really a yellow person. So I wrote and asked her if she had considered making other colors. She thought this was a good idea and a short while later I opened a box and out popped pink and purple PEEPS! Aren't they cute????? And they smell so good.



So keep clean and check out Blaire's Etsy shop GOODKARMASOAP to see all the fun stuff she has. And she says that 50% of her proceeds benefit local animal shelters.

Is your baby a Good Baby baby?????

(If you follow Princess Junior's blog you will see that this is a copy of what was posted there. But I wanted to let everyone know about this so please excuse me if you read it twice.)

I want to tell you all about some new "equipment" that Princess Junior now has in her arsenal. I can't even remember for sure how I stumbled across it but there were several things that struck me and I decided that I wanted to try it. When I arrived I was very impressed.

Princess Junior will most likely be in diapers for a long time. Diapers = the inevitable rashes. We don't have to deal with that often but when we do, we need something reliable. And what mother wouldn't want something that is not packed with things that aren't necessarily good for their child's skin?

What did I find??? Why did I ask if your baby was a Good Baby baby??? THIS is why...

Introducing the Mayron's Good Baby product line!

When I found this online what struck me first was that it was co-developed and created by someone I had actually heard of, Melanie Mayron, the actress I loved to watch in the TV series "thirtysomething", and not by not some big corporation that also makes furniture polish and drain cleaner. Then I read some more and saw that she and her dad really did have the credentials to do this. It wasn't just some Hollywood "star" slapping her name on some product in exchange for an occasional check.

Melanie cared about what she used on her children. She didn't want the chemical laden products that flood the market. She is in the trenches with this one because she believes in the products! And part of the proceeds from the Good Baby line go to support Womens' Health Research in honor of her mother, a breast cancer survivor. How cool is that!?!

Melanie and her father, David, have spent years developing a great product. David was an Assistant Director of Pharmaceuticals and Manager of International Pharmaceutical Services at SmithKline & French Laboratories. In 1988, he founded Mayron Research Laboratories, Inc., a contract laboratory specializing in formulation of liquid and semi-solid pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and personal care products, and re-formulation of products that need improvement in stability, texture or taste. He even holds a patent on the time-release tablet, among others. I know my son, who suffers from migraines, would thank him for that one!

So... what's so special about Good Baby? Simple. No Paraben. No sodium lauryl sulfate. No DEA. Just clean, natural ingredients including essential oils, vitamins, and anti-oxidants in the aromatherapuetic tradition.

When I first opened the tube, what impressed me was that it didn't smell funny. It was a nice clean, fresh smell! That was refreshing! And when I put some on the back of my hand, it went on smooth and wasn't at all sticky. Exactly the kind of thing I want for Princess Junior!!!

The barrier cream is currently available in tubes and in handy travel packets!


As you can see by the photo at the top of this posting, there is a complete line planned. And I have it on good authority (thanks, Melanie!) that there will be a new product launch in the next month or two. I know I'm looking forward to it!

So be sure and check it out! You don't have to be a baby or have a baby to use Good Baby. There are loads of reasons that it can be used by people of any age. I know when I was a teen I would get chaffing because I didn't listen and change out of a wet swim suit. I wish this stuff had been around then!

And, to quote a certain celebrity mom... ...you don’t have to be a baby to use it. After all, we’re all somebody's baby.

Calling all gardeners! (And wanna be's with space issues)

I just ran across something that I think is really, REALLY ingenious! A real space saver for those who are space-challenged for gardening - maybe no yard space available or no sun in the area where they could garden in. Problem solved!!! Check out this space saving garden idea! I would think that besides on a house you could install them on the side/sides of a shed or garage or other out building... and I can see where this idea would also be usable on the outside edge of a deck... Sort of a border along the railing. Anywhere they could get the appropriate sun. The deck rail is where I am thinking about using it. (Ironically, in following the links on the site I found that using it on a deck rail was the original incarnation!)

Besides being used for small veggies I can also see it maybe being used for seedlings... something to start bigger plants in.

I wonder if the neighbors would think I was crazy???

I've got BUDS!!

My thumbs are defintely NOT green. They never have been. Oh, I've been lucky a few times. I once had a Christmas Cactus that I basically ignored and at one point it had over 65 blooms on it! I guess I put it in the right window.

Last year I threw some bulbs I had in some pots. They were probably not the current year's crop of bulbs and I really didn't think anything would happen. But they grew!

Now I know that there are somethings you are supposed to do to bulb plants at the end of the growing season... cut them back, dig them up, seperate them, maybe even all of the above. But when I put them in the ground that is usually where they stay. So much to my surprise there were new green shoots popping up a couple weeks ago. And now those green shoots are starting to show signs of blue flowers!! I'm gonna have FLOWERS!!!


See the color starting to make it's way out. I love irises!!!!


Some day I'd like to have more and in more colors too! Pink would be nice.

I'm still working on Gamer Boy's spiral. I have been alternating between the spiral grannys and his spiral. Both are pretty big projects. But I am enjoying it. I saw a small afghan pattern in a really cool stitch that I liked in a new magazine but I don't like the border they used because it is too open for my taste. I might try and figure out another way to edge it but that will have to wait.

Wow! I love this square!!! A spiral granny?!?!?!

Ok... I'll admit it. You might not believe this but I hate to make something that is in lots of pieces and has to be sewn together. So while I love making different Granny Squares, I hate having to finish the project. I have even considered soliciting someone from one of the crochet groups I'm in to pay them to finish it for me. :) But this is a square that I might not have that problem with because I absolutely LOVE this square!

I really, really, really like the swirl pattern but we only need so many round blankets. (Although I do have some ideas on making something larger that will end up as a square. We'll see if it works out.)

A Granny Square and a Swirl all in ONE??? YES!!! The original pattern is in four colors. I didn't want to do that many so cut it to two and am bordering each square in black. I think the swirl shows up very well like this. If you want to try it yourself the pattern is at Crochet Me. And look around while you're there!

And I'm probably going to use "Dudessembly" (click here) by Drew Emborsky to put them together. Check out his other patterns too, he's a great designer.

Moving soon.....

Did I ever mention that hubby did something really sweet for me a short while back? Well, he's done many sweet things but this was totally unexpected and a really big surprise!! He bought me my own domain! So we are working on getting things transferred over there. Will let you know when we're all moved in. But I'm not hurrying... I want to get things nice and tidy before I invite everyone in. :)

Don't box me in!!!

I just can't seem to get away from the odd shapes. Above is the wool that I bought that I had custom spun. It started as a granny square but I didn't like the way that was shaping up. It just wasn't laying flat. So I frogged it and started a pentagon instead. This seems to be going well. I am still getting used to the white in all of it but that's what I asked for.) It is growing on me and I think I will be happy with the finished product.

And I finished the bamboo throw I was working on for Princess Junior to use in her wheelchair. Everyone is amazed that it's so soft and then REALLY surprised when they learn it's bamboo. If I could that is all I'd work with!


This is the center of it. One half is brown and the other is pink. Then I wanted to "finish" it on the edges so I did a few more rows of brown.


I like the way it turned out. It's about 30 inches square. We have an unexpected appointment with her surgeon on Monday so we'll get to give it a try!

I'm still working on Gamer Boy's throw and he asked about it today. I hope to have that done soon. I just got a couple new patterns but I'm going to have to be good and not touch them until I get his throw done.

Even trees need to stay warm!

I have no idea where this photo originated. It was sent to me in an e-mail. Obviously it's some locale where the evenings are chilly and the trees need sweaters. Has anyone seen this picture before??? I've heard of guerrilla crocheting but this is a little extreme.


Maybe that is what I'm doing wrong with my trees... I'm not keeping them warm in the evenings!

Hopping in with TWO (maybe) finished projects! YEA!!!!!

Meet Hoppy. I whipped her up last night to give myself a break from the pink and purple five-sided throw I was working on. She is about 5 inches tall and I stuffed her pretty full. Gamer Boy took her in to the Princess and she seems to enjoy looking at her.

Then I went back to working on the five-sided throw. And guess what? I FINISHED IT! Well, maybe. Here it is!


It is about 48" across at the widest points. Starting at the center I alternated between doing 3 rows of each color and two rows of each color. Then I alternated doing the center row of every other three row set with spaces. For the edge I just went to doing a few repetitions of single rows, alternating colors. I have been debating doing something else around the edge but I haven't figured out what yet. Any suggestions?????


And now that the blanket is pretty much done... you know how bunnies multiply....

Wanted: Fashion Coordinator

Ever watch those wacky wedding shows on TV? Some of them are hilariously funny. I ran across a web site that has more of the same. Scroll down a bit and take a look at some of the wedding attire that has been considered fashionable (I guess) over the years.

My reaction to some of them "What the heck were they thinking?!?!" Check it out here.

Computer maintenance

Ok, this is something we all need to address at one point or another. If you're anything like me it gets put off, usually because it takes so lone and is so involved.

That problem has been solved! This is a simple (and very safe!!!) cleaner that only takes a minute and doesn't load any sort of spyware or other kind of program on your machine!

Click here: Online cleaner You will be glad you did. Leave me a message about what you think!

Keep clean!!! Oh... and I don't think this is a were-skunk.

What next!!! Extreme cuppy cakes!!!

I love cuppy cakes! If I could, I would have different flavors here every day. Perfect size, no waste (but plenty of waist, if you know what I mean). So because of that I reserve them for special occasions.

For those of my friends that are also cuppy cake lovers... Take a look at THIS... Unbelievable!

For the men folk (those that are too macho for cuppy cakes) there is THIS.

Sigh........

I borrowed this from Alessandra at Just Be Happy, who borrowed it from Devina at The Woolly Fairyglade who borrowed it from Sian at Diary of a Tinyholder and I agreed that I also thought it would be a lot of fun to do!

Rules: Use the first letter of your name to answer each question. They have to be real places, names etc. Try to use different answers if you have the same initial as someone who has already done this. You cannot use you own name for the boy/girl question.

1. What is your name? Janet

2. A four letter word? Jamb

3. A boy's name? Joshua

4. A girl's name? Jordan

5. An occupation? Junk Collector

6. A colour? Jade

7. Something you wear? Jumper

8. A beverage? Jack Daniels

9. A food? Jelly

10. Something found in the bathroom? Jaccuzi

11. A place? Jamaica

Play along if you want! Have fun!!!!

To pink or not to pink...

In rebuttal to my friend, Terri's, recent comment on my apparently surprising color choice. I would like to prove that not everything I put my hooks to has pink in it.

Today, while Gamer Boy was working with the horses, I began work on the four-color spiral he requested. And there is no pink in site! See????


Now, Terri... you are getting very sleepy... your eyelids are getting very heavy...

New edging????

Last night I finished a small lap throw for Princess Junior to use in her wheelchair. Ok, it's not finished finished. I still have to block it. But the big part is done. And, yes, of course it's pink.

I just did a HDC solid granny rectangle but then put a 3 row secondary border adding a fur yarn followed by a 3 row border of the original yarn. I wanted something tighter for the final row so did a row of SC but still wasn't happy with it. So I slip stitched all around the edge. When I got back to the beginning I pulled it through to the other side and did it again, working the opposite direction.




I like the way it almost looks like a cord! It definitely tightens up the edge and I'm not sure yet if it is too tight but we'll see.


Now I'm back to working on the light pink and lavender five-sided throw. Not sure yet how big that will be. And I'll be starting Gamer Boy's four-color spiral soon too.