I need your comments!

Ok, so I mentioned how I didn't like that lighter blue I started using for the 2nd Granny Square scarf I'm making. I also checked the brown vs. what was in the "stash" that I thought was darker and it turns out it's the same color!
Anyway, this morning I took a minute (or 5...) and dug through to find a darker teal that I was hoping to have. The last thing I need sitting around my apartment is a half used skein of yarn! I found a darker teal, it's Red Heart instead of Vanna's Choice, but actually after crocheting half of a square, I like how the center turned out so much that I'm thinking about switching over to all Red Heart...Please see below:

Unfortuantely it's kind of hard to tell the difference in the picture but on the square on the left, the blue is more of a "country blue" not teal at all. I ever think the darker teal makes the same brown look darker...weird.

I definitely like the darker teal (the Red Heart) on the right - I think it's because Red Heart isn't the softest yarn in the world and the "stiffness" once crocheted makes it hold the different stitches much better. I'm thinking that I may switch the cream over the Red Heart, if not all 4 colors as I would love to see if it would make the 2nd round "spokes" stand up more...if it doesn't, I'll go back to the Vanna's as it's softer for the cream, brown and pink (the blob of color sitting there...) and use the Red Heart teal (I'm fairly positive that Vanna's Choice does not come in a color that looks like this.



Please leave comments and let me know what you think! Now that the weather has finally cooled a bit to a normal fall temperature, I'm in the mood to craft once more!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

It's "finished" but I've been a bit uninspired...

Here she is in all of her lumpy, abstract glory! Yes, apparently this Christmas stocking is female....it will have Holly on it after all!



I actually got this finished up on Monday evening while watching DWTS vs. the laundry I needed to do. Luckily every laundry room from 8-11 (floors of my building, not hours...) was busy, so I got to crochet instead.

My thoughts are that I should not have whip stitched so tightly or with the stocking inside out...I'm using that as my "excuse" for the lumpiness that I believe you can only see upclose. As for the weird shaping where it goes from leg to foot I'm stumped. I followed the pattern to a T and it's all funny looking...hopefully when there are presents in it this holiday season you won't notice.

I gave up Monday night when trying to make the Holly leaves because my first attempt didn't go too well. This morning I was getting ready for work and thought that maybe I'd just cut out Holly leaves from green felt and crochet the berries...I like this idea but I really feel that it's a bit of an early cop out...I haven't even tried to crochet a 2nd time when it's not dark out and I'm drained from spending 2 hours finishing the crocheting and stitching together at the end of a long work day, nor have I attempted to make out of regular green yarn that doesn't have the silver in it - I think this would make it easier to see what I'm doing... I feel the pattern and my crocheting abilities deserve at least the dignity of trying one more time...

Problem is since finishing that on Monday night I'm having a hard time focusing on one project and actually getting work on it done. I tried to finish the cats, a very simple project that I seem to be bored by. I also started the 2nd version of the Granny Square scarf on Tuesday night, but quit after the first of 16 squares. It looks good on the "thicker" (not really thicker, just non-slippery) yarn, it's definitely holding it's shape better....I'm just not in love with the country blue color that I for some reason bought instead of a greenish teal. I think I need to make an AC Moore trip for a different green/teal and possibly pull out a darker brown from my stash before going any further.

I also keep thinking about making blankets. I've got this craving to work on a couple of different patterns I have in mind for the holidays but don't want to start them until the cats are done for Halloween, the stocking has a Holly leaf and I've at least got some control on the Granny Squares and colors (this is a good project to travel with so I'm ok with not having it done before starting a blanket).

It wouldn't be completely out of character for me to just pull out a bag of pre-picked yarn for a blanket and just start in...but I haven't. Probably because it's been unseasonably warm at almost 80 degrees and very humid all week. They finally turned the heat on last Friday when it was freezing but it's not OUT OF CONTROL hot everywhere in my apartment. I have barely been able to sleep the past 2 nights and want NOTHING touching me because I constantly feel sticky. The balcony door has been open when possible but when it's super humid out (raining cats and dogs most of yesterday) and there is very little breeze this really doesn't do much of anything than continue to piss me off that I'm so hot and make me have to listen to unnecessary noise outside. Yes, I'm tired and hot, I'm cranky at ridiculous things this week.

Obviously no work before leaving for work has been done this week. Lack of sleep, unnecessary heat all the time and crankiness have made me barely care about getting to work on time.

Thankful for air conditioning in my car, the fact that my office is still freezing and that the temp is going down tomorrow....maybe once I get my work done this weekend I'll be in the mood to crochet again!

Weekend accomplishments

I can not say that across the board I got a lot done this weekend...I should have spent more time working around the apartment than I did, but most if not all projects that I started were only about 75% completed. I did get a good deal of work done on crafts in my procrastination for all things work/cleaning related!

Saturday morning while catching up on Grey's and Private Practice from the past 2 weeks I got all those nasty little slippery ends woven in!



I almost did a little dance I was so excited to get to this point! I refrained and got to work on the border, which I insisted on having done before I would start unpacking!



FINALLYY FINISHED and I'm in love! I'm honestly very proud of myself as well. This is the most complex Granny Square pattern I've ever used, the first time I've joined squares as I worked (loved it!) and it's a project that's been on my mind forever and that I've had the yarn for FOREVER so it feels really great to have it done!! I think this one is going to Mom for her birthday in 2 weeks, I want to start the 2nd version with the thicker yarn first to see if that's really the one I want for me, or if I want to keep this one and give the thicker yarn one to her...Right now my plan is to start work on this during Rocky Horror Glee tomorrow :-)

I seem to be getting a hard time by a few over my listening to Christmas music so early this year. Part of my realization that I leave too many Christmas projects to the last minute means that I've already started making Christmas presents and decorations. I did some seriously damage at AC Moore on Saturday stocking up on red, white and green yarn. When you spend 2-3 hours working around the apartment but find yourself dreaming of your next project that you'd rather be working on...you tend to enjoy the accompaniment of some Christmas music to make you work just a smidge faster!

Saturday evening I got the white finished and started on the leg (all 10" of it) though I didn't get too far before crashing (I had been awake since 5 a.m.....the curse of falling asleep at 8 p.m. on a Friday night!). AC Moore didn't have Red Heart Holiday in stock, but they did have this lovely stuff in LARGE "pound of love" skiens so I'm using that instead. Crocheting with 2 strands at all times means a couple of things:
1. NOTHING will be slipping out of this finished stocking, it's crazy tight and stiff
2. Since I just have 1 large skein of each color, I've had to wind small balls of each color for my 2nd strand slowing me down a bit
3. I'm not used to crocheting with 2 strands with a K hook so the tightness and stiffness slows me down and gives me hand cramps quicker than I would prefer.

Last night I made lots of progress while we watched "The Princess and the Frog" (don't judge, it's a REALLY cute movie. Jon and I both thoroughly enjoyed it, laughing at many parts....it makes me wonder why Disney is so adamant about only doing Pixar movies now a days, the classics are so much better!)
Anyway, here is what the stocking currently looks like, not exactly a "stocking" yet....all your gifts (or coal haha) would go flying right out the back!!



Last night I set my alarm for my new plan of getting crafting done in the morning before work...then I couldn't fall asleep for what felt like FOREVER... When my alarm went off this morning, I laid there an extra few minutes thinking about how nice and warm my bed was and how much I hated mornings...I then remember I was getting ready for work; unfortunately it turns out the "getting ready I was doing" was a DREAM....it was now an HOUR later than when I wanted to get up. This only gave me about 10 min to crochet this a.m. (I also ended up about 40 min late for work...seems when I have my mind on crafting nothing else matters!!)

The "stocking" now looks like this:


All things considered that slowed me down, it's coming together quite quickly actually. I'm hoping to finish it up tonight during DWTS inbetween all the laundry doing that must be done tonight!

OH...on Saturday night I all the sudden had the urge to switch back to Halloween vs. going forward with Christmas so I drew, cut out and started these little cuties

I cut out 4...planned to stitch 2 this year and keep the other 2 filed away for next year but this is all the further I've gotten...might need to focus on finishing up this little one and his friend tonight instead of I'm actually going to enjoy them this week :-)

So close!

So who would have thought that instead of sitting on my couch bitching and giving those yarn tails the stink eye that if I actually sat there and worked on weaving them in while catching up on the phone with a good friend (she was on speakerphone) and then spending about 10 minutes before leaving for work this morning that I could get so many of those little buggers taken care of!! Seriously, at 7:05 this a.m. I was mad that I couldn't just finish it up - if I wouldn't have been late for work by doing so, I totally was have sat there and finished! But look so close!!



Yes, just 3 of those little guys to go! 13 done 3 to go! Pretty excited, I really want to get a border on it and be able to move onto something else! Oh and be able to wear that little beauty :-)

I made the realization/decision yesterday that I think that in order to get all of my holiday crafting done I'm going to keep getting up at 5:30 to get ready for work - even on the days when I don't have to be in until 8:30 as this will give me around an hour or so to sit and work on a project before leaving for the day! Now don't get me wrong, I'm really not that much of a morning person, but once I'm up I'm up and if I've got my coffee and a blanket I feel like this is a perfect time for me to take advantage of. Most nights when I get home from work, I don't get much crafting done after eating dinner as I'm just too tired from working all day and too full for eating ;-) This means I only get large chunks finished on the weekends, and that just really doesn't give me enough time to get it all done. Seems to me it's just much more logical for me to go to bed a bit earlier, get a full nights sleep and do some productive crafting in the morning!

I'm telling ya, I'm gonna be so on top of it this year!


Oh, and I believe fall is officially upon us. We went for a hayride and had a bonfire with friends last night. It was crazy chilly and if it wasn't for this guy, I would not have lasted!



It was cold, I'm exhausted for so little sleep last night and am rockin' the glasses and bun today but it was still lots of fun!

Now, if I could only figure out when it is that my apartment building would like to go ahead of get the heat on already!! It's October 22nd, I think it's fair to say that we're not getting another heat wave and will no need the AC again until spring! Even Metro is talking about managing another Snowmageddon if it were to hit again this year, TURN ON THE HEAT ALREADY!!!

P.S. that goes for my office building too - I'm wearing my scarf still and think it may be snowing behind me!!

I tend to procrastinate when it all seems too overwhelming....

We've been back from Florida since Sunday evening (got in the apt around 10:40 p.m.) and I've felt a bit overwhelmed by all that I could be updating on here....

First of all the vacation was AMAZING! As most of you already know, Jonathan proposed in front of Cinderella's castle on Saturday afternoon (10/9)!! The moment was truly amazing, I did not cry as many (including Jon and myself) thought I would have....instead I giggled for about 30 min....seriously could not stop laughing. Now I was not laughing in Jon's face like he likes to tell the story - I was CRAZY happy and that's just how the emotions came out....Jon also opened the box and the ring went flying out, through the fence and into the grass in front of the castle so while he was on his hands and knees looking for the ring before I'd even seen it, how could I not laugh and giggle! I ended up taking 930 pictures over the 9 days we were there and we had about 189 pictures on our photo pass so I have lots of work ahead of me to go through and get the ones I like the best posted on FB, and Picasa, and well....it just hasn't happened yet. I also need to order my CD of the photo pass pictures so that I can post them as well - there are some really great ones, including those taken during the proposal - they're coming, just keep an eye out for them!

My crafting has stalled a bit over the last few weeks, which always makes me sad. Too much time had to be spent packing for the trip and now I'm so tired at work by the end of the day that I crash when I get home (not to mention the baking that had to be done Tuesday night and my nail appointment last night). I'm still working to finish up my Granny Square scarf that I'm absolutely in love with! Problem is I'm at the point where I have 8 tails times 15 squares that need to be woven in.....yes 120 crappy like 5" pieces of yarn that are making my life hell! I worked on this a bit on Monday during DWTS, but only got about 3 squares completed on commercial breaks before I was too annoyed to continue on. I'm thinking that this weekend when I'm looking for a break from cleaning that I'll welcome this awful task over cleaning :-) Once all the ends are in, I've just got to get a SC border on it which will be a piece of cake at that point.

It's almost the most wonderful time of the year again, and I have many projects in mind that I want to get completed for the holidays. Each year I bite off more than I can chew and find myself by around 12/20 cutting out those projects that will not be done in time and still around 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve/Day am sitting up wrapping that final gift that is finally finished. The last 2 years I've even sat at Grannie's on Christmas morning frantically crocheting while it's not my turn to open a gift so that I can go home and wrap these gifts before Christmas dinner! The stress of all this last year made me swear to get as many projects done in January as possible so that it wouldn't be as bad this year....well only 2 things got made before I wanted to move on to something spring like or just took a break from crafts in general. I'm still thrilled to have these 2 made - it's 2 less hats for me to make now! Problem in each day I read my favorite blogs and get my favorite crafty emails and end up with more and more fun ideas that I wish working on could be my full time job! Since I started sewing this summer as well I've also purchased a great deal of material to sew gifts with on top of the standard crocheting and plastic canvas projects. It also doesn't help that all of my family members have many scarves at this point so projects have moved on to afghans and pillows which take much longer to make! After I get everything unpacked this weekend and the apt cleaned, I'm seriously spending as much time as possible over the next 7 weekends to get it all done at least before my birthday this year....I'll keep you updated as I go along, and will hopefully have pictures to share as I do!

Speaking of pictures, here are some of the Granny Square scarf that's giving me so much grief, from back when I was just having fun making the squares

As you can see in the last picture (bottom row right) how many tails there were just at 4 squares....this is the first pattern I've ever used where you join the squares as you make them and while I was hesitant of enjoying that at first it's been really great...I just think I should have taken the time to weave in my ends along the way too....maybe next time (yes, I love the pattern and colors so much I've already purchases similar colors in a different brand of yarn....which is a bit less slippery so weaving in will probably be better 2nd time around!)

P.S. Thanks to everyone for their congratulations to Jon and I! It means a lot to see so many people happy for us! <3 data-blogger-escaped-br="">

It's that time again = WDW 2010

Wow - I can't believe it's finally here! This morning I called Red Top and booked our cab for 6 a.m. tomorrow morning...taking us to the airport obviously!

This week has been a bit challenging for me.

1. I've been THRILLED to be working my first full official week as part of the Human Resources team! This has brought on some anxiety and stress in being my last week in the office before being out for 5 days and my first even day in HR in 6 weeks! I've struggled to get everything done and am down to the last 2 things on my to do list with 3 1/2 hours left before 5:30.

2. There is always so much work to get done before going on a trip. I worked basically non stop around the clock last weekend picking up, cleaning, organizing, decorating for Halloween, doing laundry and packing, and I thought that I'd have very little to do on week nights so that I could rest up and be ready for Disney! Well every night turned into a production that left me working non stop and by Wednesday I was becoming so stressed that I was no longer excited about Disney. This in turn made me VERY depressed and I almost broke down in tears at the nail salon on Wednesday night. Thank goodness for all the work off my to do list that I got done last night, I've been very excited all day today......this means getting focused work done has been all but impossible!

I've wondered all week long why I don't recall being this stressed out last year. I mean I was working at the same company, making the same trip - what could possibly be so different? Then, about 5 min ago I got on here and found my blog post that I remember typing up on my last day in the office last year before Disney. I remembering typing up a list of things I still needed to do and thought that might be beneficial to see today. The answer became clear very quickly why I was less stressed out last year - we left on Sunday, not Saturday! Now don't get me wrong, I'm actually thrilled to now see that we have a full extra day in Disney this year (now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure Jon told me this when we booked the trip....good thing I was listening :-) right? ha). It's totally making sense now why I was about to break down mid-week. I looked over the things I had to do last year as of Friday afternoon around this time and I planned on packing everything that night and then was going to clean and hang by the pool all day on Saturday.....no.wonder.

Now I wish they would let us go home early on this overly gorgeous fall day we're having! My co-workers want this to sit at a happy hour outside somewhere...I want this to go home and pack now and then do crafts all night to make up for my crazy ass week - ever the dork I am!

Have a great 9 days everyone, I'll be posting pictures via FB mobile uploads along the way to be sure to check 'em out!