Monday, February 28, 2011

oh MAN!

I forgot to take pictures this a.m.!  *sigh*
Ok, so to say that I was running late this a.m. would be the understatement of at least the week!  Good golly I could not get my shiz together today!  So many things I should have been doing during the commercial breaks of the Oscars....and one of them was taking pictures of what I made/was working on yesterday!

First of all.  I gave up on my "textured" afghan.  Saturday afternoon I wasn't in the best mood and had a funky feeling towards by bobbles so away they went!  I started back over with my favorite peephole chevron that I've used a lot (I just did the math to make it 8 stitches vs. 6 or 4 like I've done in the past).  I'm still using the same color combo and order as I was planning before, but haven't gotten as far yet as what I frogged.....so still no picture to share!

I'm totally not ready for babies yet, but I love baby yarn and making baby gifts!  1.  they're smaller :-) 2. the yarn is so darn soft, like ALWAYS and 3. it's all so cute!!  I've made this set before, about 3 years ago now and it was gender neutral.  I've also made a couple additional hats w/o the blanket, which was what my plan was yesterday.  As the hat was almost finished I was so in love with the "little boy blue" yarn that I was using (Vanna's Choice Baby) that I decided to make the little bar seat blanket as well!  Of course, I didn't originally buy enough "little boy blue" for this so I'm not almost out of blue, but the finished project is already looking SO GOOD!  By the way the pattern I'm using if from my fav crochet book that taught me FINALLY how to crochet almost 5 years ago now.  Sorry I can't get to an exact picture to show, and I'm not even sure what the pattern is called off the top of my head today....maybe I'll be more prepared tomorrow!

My plans had been to share my progress with you today, stop at AC Moore tonight for more blue yarn and then have a finished product to share and mail out by the end of the week.  Well, I forgot to take pictures and we're under all these crazy Tornado warnings for the evening commute which I'm not really in the mood to drive him.  Ideally I'd like to get home before the hail starts......but yea, not a very successful attempt at sharing or blogging today - sorry.

Blame the rain and my lack of sleep due to the only so-so Oscars last night.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

whoops!

Sometimes the strangest things keep me up at night.  Last night I woke up around 3 a.m. laid there realizing that I hadn't linked my pattern for my new blanket here yesterday.....not exactly life and death important here, but it kept me up for a bit.

This is the pattern that I'm using for my blanket (that I'll be keeping for ME)  I did not make much progress last night.  If anyone has any tips/suggestions for making puff stitches as they are to be made on this pattern PLEASE let me know!!  I spent over an hour last night trying this, getting out my stitch pattern book and trying every kind of bobble, puff, and popcorn they talked about.  I got about halfway across the first row using a bobble (5 dc).  I like it, but of course I'm always going to have a right and wrong side to this afghan how, which I don't know how I feel about quite yet.

If someone can tell me between now and 6:30 tonight a better way to make a puff I will seriously be your new best friend!  My issue has been that by the time I get alllllllllllllllllll those loops on my hook, I find it IMPOSSIBLE to pull through 8 loops!  I've tried to do this "looser" but have not been successful.

Still no interesting picture to post....

Maybe this is why I rarely make things for myself, I over analyze to the point where I'm rarely happy with what I"m making for myself.  I'm not this critical when I make things for other people (which sounds really rude of me) but everything always turns out great and makes me wish I was keeping it for myself!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

the start of something new (and big!)

I seem to be in a bit of a "funk" as far as getting going on a project since the holidays.  yes, that sounds ridiculous, it's almost March and I'm still not over all the craziness that was last minute crafting for Christmas.  Forget about getting up early to continue the crocheting to the Today show before work - most days I'm lucky if I wake up in time the shower...don't worry I've moved to showering at night and wearing my hair up  most days, I promise I don't smell funny.

I also keep realizing that I never posted pictures of Jon's finished blanket.  I finished it towards the end of January while Jon was in Belize but this is what happens when I decide to want better quality pictures on my camera vs. my phone (i.e. I never upload the pictures onto my computer so that I can share them).  In case you haven't noticed, I never blog on the weekends, I'm rarely on my laptop at night or on the weekends.  After spending 40+ hours a week starting at this box at work, I have zero desire when I get home at night.....has made some of the wedding planning a bit tricky, but I'm trying to be better and at least continue the planning at night when I get home!

So this is already getting a bit long winded.....sorry about that.  The point of my title today is that I think I didn't a bigger project to really be excited about!  I made some scarves for me in January and did finish up Jon's blanket.  Then February has been a bit of a mess.  I made the birthday presents I showed you all in my last post, but other than that all I've really done since re-organizing my yarn stash is keep wanting to make something with the yarn I've rediscovered, but never get started, finish something or have the energy for everything in between.  I just have so many great ideas while I sit here on my lunch each day.  I print patterns and go home in the intentions of making it a better night.  Then I get home, have dinner and I can't make the yarn colors work for the pattern I'm looking at.  You saw my stash, I have no good reason to buy ANY yarn right now.  So I give up, curl up on the couch with Jon and just try to relax from the craziness that is work in 2011 and wedding planning at the same time (seriously, planning a wedding that's happening 400 miles from where you work and live is more than a full time job, and I already had one of those before getting engaged) 164 days to go and every day it's always something new.  I'm trying to stay positive and enjoy it while it lasts, I'm only doing this once and don't want to look back and regret not enjoying the planning.

Ok, honestly, I'm not going to ramble on anymore about the afghan I started last night.  I have no pictures to show, it's only 2 1/2 rows and still the first color of the pattern.  It took about an hour of online searching to come up with this baby, and now I'm looking forward to working on it more and seeing how it looks in my colors of ILTY (which was purchases to be a blanket back in August....no pattern in mind other than a ripple back in August so I'm pretty happy with what I picked).

I really think working towards something bigger like this for me is going to be great.  Jon constantly expresses how much he likes the blanket I made him (honest I'll get pictures up one of these days) and I really enjoy using it.  I'm hoping to enjoy having something this special made by me for me and that this will help me pick it up each day and work on it just a bit more.

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I'm enjoying how fast the week is flying by when I didn't work on Monday....now, if I only had all the work I need to have done at this point done!


Thursday, February 17, 2011

Weekend wrap up

I wish I had a better excuse....I'd even be happy to give you all a different excuse other than work, life and the wedding taking up so much time, and leaving me so busy that it's already Thursday afternoon and I have yet to post pictures of what I made over the weekend!  *sigh.  The reality is that this is unlikely to change in the next 5 months....it'll likely get worse as we get closer to the wedding, but I'm going to try my best for at least 1 post a week.  After all, I still sit and ready each of your blogs during lunch each day, and I always have ideas rolling around in my head that I plan to go home and work on, but more often than not I'm too exhausted when I get home to pick up a project, or if I do carve out some time to crochet, I don't get as much done as I used to (sleepy minds and body make for slower fingers)

I had already missed one birthday on my team back on February 3rd (of all people our MD, and I felt terrible about it!)  We also had a birthday on Valentine's Day so I believe I mentioned in my last post that I planned to have gifts for both them of when I came into work this week.

The stress of work, life and wedding planning resulted in what turned into a KILLER migraine on Saturday morning (bad enough that my forehead was bruised Sunday morning) so not enough house work got done, and zero crafting got done until Sunday evening.....not even close to what I had planned way back on Friday afternoon.


These spa clothes went to our MD.  I had made that set for 4 for my boss during Secret Santa and she was really amazed by them, so I knew she would enjoy them possibly more than a scarf, etc.  My first intentions were to make 4 in different colors, then 4 in 2 sets of color and ended up with these 2 that match.  I just didn't have another 2 hours to give to them.....she loved them either way so as I expected it may be, it turned out just fine!


This scarf, using my favorite pattern, was for a Recruiter who had fallen in love with my Infinity Scarf and always talks about wanting to learn how to crochet and how much she loves homemade gifts.  This is actually a "sea blue", the picture is a bit dark I know....sorry about that.  I honestly worked until after 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night finishing the scarf and spa cloths and then got up early on Monday morning to sew in ends, take pictures and wrap them so just not enough time to redo (or even look to see how poor of a job my camera phone was doing!)  She LOVED this too - I really hope that she's still working with us come Dec and that I get her for Secret Santa this year - I already have her gift picked out!

I've collected a list of birthdays for the team, 1 to make some soft of baked good and 2 so I can keep making small little gifts for everyone.  I think it's going to be spa cloths primarily for those with last spring/summer birthdays.  It's fun to have a variety of people to be gifting my work to as it gives me an opportunity to use some patterns that I normally wouldn't have anyone to make something for, allows me to buy yarn I wouldn't usually buy AND I supposed I should be using the yarn in my stash first ;-)

Just found out that Jon wants to go out with the boys tomorrow night after work.  Worked out perfectly, I was kind of dreading the conversation of telling him how this was what I planned to do tomorrow after work! It's funny how frequently we're on the same page w/o talking most days <3


Oh these are my Valentine's Day roses too, I'm a bit behind on so much!

Ok, I think I should pop off my heels and go for a quick walk in our 70 degree weather today in DC - if nothing else, stop up to Starbucks for an ice coffee!



Final side note - Maybe what I really need to do is try to write something up over the weekend when I at least don't have work getting in the way....

Friday, February 11, 2011

NEXT weekend

I know right?  2 posts back to back?  hold onto your chairs ladies and gentlemen it's pure madness!

I had to write just a quick 2nd post about this event that I'm participating in next Friday night.  It's actually exactly how I planned on spending tonight, but I'm not ashamed to be like this 2 Fridays in a row!
This week I'm so exhausted that I can barely hold my head up and think so there was no way I had any plans to do anything tonight other than sit on the couch in jammies.  I have 2 birthday presents that I need to get done by Monday (Sunday night really so I can wrap them) and given all that I said I want to do this weekend in my last post, I think it's best that I get some work done on these tonight.....as it usually is for me, crafting becomes a bit of "work" up against a deadline like a birthday, or a birthday that happened a week and a half ago :-S

There is always the possibility that I'll get home, change, have a drink and dinner and do nothing other than play Wii and pass out early :-)

have a great weekend everyone!

Last weekend's project

Ugh....where does my time goes these days?


Oh yea, I'm planning a wedding :-)


Sadly very little time is spent crocheting since 2011 began.  When I do sit down with the "itch" to crochet I either HATE what is being produced or I'm too tired to work long enough to see progress...I'm working on a few birthday presents right now (one is over a week late because I couldn't even find the desire to crochet during the Super Bowl this year) which I hope to have done by Monday and I can then finally get back to posting about finished projects and those that I'm currently working on!

Around mid-January I decided that I wanted to reorganize my yarn stash.  I had my yarn in about 4 different places due to "what it was for" (i.e. crocheting, plastic canvas, current projects, projects started but never finished, etc.)  I started to notice that I was going to buy yarn I already had and after doing this 2-3 times you realize the system you have been using is no longer WORKING!  So I set out to store all my yarn together.  Regardless of what I bought it for, unless it was a project started that I knew I would finish soon, it was being put away by color.  This also required a LOT of frogging and rewinding of yarn.  Given how sore my right tricep and shoulder were on Sunday and Monday, I'm thinking I need to find a way to register for an electric ball winder as a wedding present!  Jon could care less, but I WOULD LOVE IT!

Here are some pictures of how Saturday's progress went (once I was home from picking up my mom's Mother of the Bride dress):
This is the "before shot" of my craft closet.  We currently live in a 2 bedroom apt. so the closet in the 2nd bedroom (which is our study/"the quiet room" as my mom calls it) is where all of my crafty stuff is "supposed" to live.  As you can see by the line up of bags on the bottom left of this picture, that doesn't really happen!


A good deal of my yarn was living in 5 drawers of an Ikea dresser than was purchased to store just that.  After about 2 hours of pulling everything out from the dresser, the closet and going through what was in the living room, separating it by color, and frogging projects dating back to when I was in college I was left with what you see on the futon in the 2 pictures above.  It's the same yarn in both pictures, just took pictures from each side as the blue and purple in front was too tall :-)  I proudly made Jonathan come into the room at this point to see my BEAUTIFUL collection of yarn because I do think it's beautiful and having a collection of yarn isn't something you get over night.  It's taken years of sales, unfinished projects and just a yearning for new yarn to end up with all of this.  Makes you feel like a true "crafter"....doesn't anyone know what I mean? Or am I just as crazy as Jon thinks I am?  He told me it looks like a yarn store and I proudly said "I KNOW!"  He just shook his head and went back to the living room :o)




By the time I took the 2 pictures above this ENTIRE project had been taking me much longer than I ever thought it would.  You should know that the poor quality of these photos is because it was now dark outside and my cell phone camera and flash can only create so much magic!
I LOVE THESE BOXES from Ikea.  Sadly I should not be bragging because Ikea has stopping selling them! I was devastated when I found this out and ended up having to buy something else, and re do my living room wardrobe storage in order to have the 9 sitting there full of yarn.  They work perfectly.  The yarn is not 100% as perfect as I would have liked it to be....some colors aren't paired how I would have liked them but I had to go with what would fit where.  They're all a tight fit for now, but I think that's a good thing.  As I start use this more and more there will be more and more room (either just in general, or to buy more - take your pick!)

 Here is the finished product for the night!  I cropped out the top half of the photo because those shelves weren't touch at all.  The 16 cubes have been redone in a way that I'm happy with for now but the study is still all tore up and I've got to figure out where all my washed material for sewing is going to go.  Thing is, if I could get the 2 boxes of clothes that are to the right of the book shelf out of this closet and back into the bedroom area where they belong I'd have LOADS more room.

Didn't do much with on this on Sunday, I really just did some picking up of my clothes and week old laundry from the bedroom.  Everything is in a state of chaos lately.  It drives Jon crazy and it drives me crazy too but I'm trying my best to get it all done and that's really all I can do.  I think we both appreciate it when I try.  I hope to work hard on all this again tomorrow (reorganizing really doesn't give you back more space, even when you're not throwing lots out - it's fantastic!) so that Sunday can include some "Holly time" (i.e. crocheting) and enjoying the 50 degree weather that's coming our way with a run and some suit shopping in downtown SS!

P.S.  Work has been mentally and physically challenging and exhausting this week and I just don't have it in me to sit here and proof read what I just typed.  I apologize for any grammatical errors, etc.