A productive weekend

I'm a day late in posting this. As it turns out every once in a while you're impatient for a short week to be over with and the days actually fly by! I don't know where yesterday (Monday) went but I was definitely busy and the next thing I knew it was 5 p.m.! I'm not really complaining about this, I desperately want it to be time to go home and see my family. For those of you who don't know (probably all of you...) it's been about 6 1/2 months since I was last home which is a ridiculous long time for me to w/o making a weekend trip up to visit. I also haven't been home for Thanksgiving in 6 years, none of my family has seen my ring in person and Jon and I will be looking at some venues over the weekend - I have PLENTY of reasons to be excited to go home!!!

I would say that the entire weekend was devoted to working on Christmas presents, which it kind of was, but unfortunately most of Saturday was spent having nothing go right and really getting nothing finished. I did make some progress on Sunday, though maybe not necessarily on the projects I should have been working on but I'm happy with what was done. Sunday also brought 3 hours at the Wheaton mall shopping for clothes for Jon for Sunday and I spent a good chunk of the evening getting my clothes packed.

Below are pictures of what was completed/worked on from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening:



These are a Christmas gift using Marie Anne's pattern and Bernat's new Jacquard yarn, which by the way I am totally in love with!

I really love the idea, the pattern and like I said this yarn. I'm looking forward to one day making a pair for myself....probably come January. I think they will be perfect for my extra chilly office to make sure I can keep my typing at 80 WPM all day!

This will eventually be a hat and it'll be going to the same recipient as the fingerless loves. Hobby Lobby was not joking around when they named their yarn "I Love This yarn" because I really do love this yarn! It's much softer than Red Heart and provides many more colors. I've stocked up on quite a bit of it both online and when in a store out of town but this is my first experience using it. I look forward to experimenting with it more! Again, probably not until January.....

Harry Potter mania has been upon us. We borrowed the first 6 DVDs from our neighbor to prepare for Deathly Hallows Part 1, which we went and saw on Friday night in IMAX. Such a good.movie! I didn't "buy into" Harry Potter in college because I didn't want to get sucked unto the hype. I'm totally into it now and am loving it.

Saturday night was spent watching more of the DVDs at home and I worked on these:

I actually finished one on Saturday night and I believe my eyes were closed before my head hit a pillow on the couch. It had been a looooooooooong day of crafting and some troubling bumps in the road (like realizing that you bought 1 yard less material than you needed to making a Birthday present for your favorite, and only Momma....) Those snowman pants will not be a Christmas present.

The 2nd slipper was started on Sunday evening. I'm very close to having it finished, just never enough hours in the day! I can't relocate the patter online right now (I printed and brought home me with last week), I'll be sure to post the link when I get them finished and post that picture.

Like I mentioned, sewing was my big challenge on Saturday, but on Sunday morning I did get these finished:

They are AMAZING. So comfy and warm I can't wait to wear them while I'm home for Thanksgiving (it's too chilly for me in WNY after 6 years). I will be buying more fleece material very soon - who knew I would finally find something other than no-sew blankets to make with warm fuzzy fleece!!

I'm still plugging away on my spa clothes for Christmas this year. The best thing yet is that FINALLY found my acrylic G hook!!! I'm back at a pace I'm happy with at about 1 hour per cloth (I get distracted and look up at the TV shows I'm always catching up on during my night and weekend crocheting so I find this acceptable). Now that I'm happier with how everything is going I'm starting to come up with additional ideas of colors and gifts so I think I'll be crocheting with cotton a bit longer!

You've seen 4 of these before....I still haven't taken care of the ends on 99% of them, because I hate weaving in ends, but this may be the last time you see some of these as I plan on starting to give some away as housewarming gifts, etc. but new pictures will be coming of new colors and finalized gifts, etc over the next month.

There was also a 2nd pair of pants, flannel capri lounge pants to be exact, that were made for my Momma's birthday. Unfortunately I didn't remember taking a picture of them until after they were wrapped and packed! oops! I guess I'll just have to take a picture of them on her this weekend! I also made 2 matching pillow cases in the same material, just a different color background....one for her and one for me. Again forgot about the picture taking, they are currently wrapped with the pants. I'll take pictures this weekend and share.

Please don't judge any misspellings or typing/grammar errors. I'm still at work 15 min after I should have left trying to finish this up since I wanted to post it yesterday. I'm heading home now instead of proofreading and getting myself packed for my weekend at home!!!!