Summer Schedules

Happy Friday everyone!!!  Nothing new to report on the crochet front, other than lots of ideas in my head and not enough time to do anything about it!  I've been dying to sew this past week too and I just don't have the time energy to get anything done after work! 

Our weekends (when we're in town) are typically spent at the pool, which means  LOTS of reading gets done.  Once I get into my summer reads (read:  chick lit/romance novels) I tend to not want to put my books down.  This means that most of my lunch breaks this week have been spent reading.  Even yesterday evening, at 95 degrees I spent almost 3 hours sitting on our balcony reading.

Similarly to how I crochet on week nights, I read until I drop and there's just not time for everything!

This weekend includes:

- 9 a.m. trip to the eye doctor as I'm out of contacts

- Saturday at the pool

- early Sunday morning trip to Wegmans (must be home with groceries put away by 10:30 a.m.)

- arrive at AT&T by no later than 11 a.m. (IT'S iPHONE TIME AT LAST!!!!!!!)

- MAYBE an hour or so at the pool Sunday afternoon

- Wedding in Falls Church Sunday evening

Somewhere I also need to find the time to finish unpacking from Florida, clean my bathroom and get all the vacation laundry ready to be done early next week - have to be packed for another highly anticipated weekend in WNY by Thursday night as we will be leaving straight from work on Friday evening!

I'm exhausted just thinking about it!  Could really use a nap, but I guess I've gotta get through the next 4 hours at work first!

Have a great weekend everyone - and try to keep cool  

Whoops!

How did I let this slip through the cracks?!??!  Debi from  http://hooksandyarns.blogspot.com/ was kind enough to award me with the Sunshine Award!  Thanks Debi!!  I know it’s taken me like a week to say something, but it did put a smile on my face when I received your message J

I’m terrible about nominating and passing these along, but I did want to share with you all the answers to the 10 questions that I have been reading about everyone else!

1.  Favorite animal:  cats - even though I'm DEATHLY allergic to them.  I'm basically a sucker for anything fluffy with a sweet face.  I also love dolphins and believe I may be part Flamingo (the other half would be kitten if you were wondering LOL)
2.  Favorite number:  13 & 18
3.  Favorite non-alcoholic drink:  coffee, diet coke, sweet tea (are you starting to notice that I'm not very good as just pick one of much of anything???)
4.  Facebook or Twitter:  Facebook (www.facebook.com/hljweston)
5.  My passion:  Jonathan, crafting, tap dance, theatre, my family, WNY
6.  Getting or giving:  To be totally honest - I like both
7.  Favorite pattern:  I think this changes based upon whatever project I'm currently working and/or obsessing over!  Some of my all time favorites include:
Pot Holders
Dishcloths/Washcloths
Ripple (I use and sometimes modify a chevron pattern from THIS book)
My newest obsession, as I mentioned last week, is the woven blanket pattern (side note - hit a small roadblock this morning regarding my previous plans for the dishcloths...I haven't given up, just need to wrap my OCD head around what my finished product will look like.  Don't worry I'll fill you all in once they're done!)
8.  Favorite day of the week:  Saturday - the weekend is just starting!
9.  Favorite flower:  roses
10.  Favorite country:  I'm a pretty big fan of living in the USA.  I'd also love to revisit England and France once day, and really hope to someday be able to visit Sweden, Italy, Germany, Spain and more!

A Preview and A Question

My obsession over my newly acquired blanket pattern yesterday afternoon, continued into the evening!  I opted to make a dish cloth out of the solid colors of cotton that I happened to have with me in Florida.  A smaller test project is always best with a new project right?

  

Here’s a sneak peak of what I created while watching So You Think You Can Dance last night.  I, of course, still need to weave in the ends and I haven’t yet been able to decide what to do about a border – anyone have a suggestion as to what color I should use for the border?  I was also thinking about making a set for 4 and rotating the color order (like start with blue for the next one, but keep the colors in the same sequential order) – I just need to play around with it a bit and decide exactly which 4 ways I’d like them to be, or if it would just be best to make them all the same…They crochet up pretty quickly which is great!  I was only crocheting on commercial breaks over about 90 minutes of SYTYCD so they’d go really quickly if I didn’t keep stopping to do my own critique of the dancing on my TV!

My obsession with this pattern will likely not end soon as I love the idea for a blanket for me, and have a  gift in mind and I think that it would make great placemats!  So many ideas – so many options!! – just not enough “Holly hours” in a day to get all of my crocheting done!

And my question for those of you who frequently crochet with cotton, especially making dish cloths – anyone have any idea why my first row always looks like this?

I’ve tried chaining normal, chaining loosely and chaining with a larger hook and this always happens to me.  I don’t ever notice it with acrylic yarns so I wondered what I was doing wrong, or if it happens to you as well!

Your input is great appreciated!

Oh!  And WELCOME to my two new followers yesterday!!!  I always get so excited to see new crafty friends!

All caught up!

So I’ve finally caught up on everything I’d missed in my “blog-i-verse” while on vacation, and I’m pretty well caught up at work.  I’ve caught up on NOTHING at home!  The luggage that made it out of the car so very very early on Monday morning is all still sitting exactly where it was dropped around 1:30 a.m.  Only difference is that most of the bags have been opened to locate something and there are a few items scattered around the perimeter of each opening.  I’m pretty OCD most days, but I’m so tired when I get home from work and so exhausted from trying to get over this blasted cold that I couldn’t care less that I have to climb over Jonathan’s suitcase in the middle of the living room floor, or that you have to turn a light on by my bathroom to make sure you don’t get a foot caught in one of the straps of the bags sitting there.  This morning while getting ready for work, I thought about how I wish I could put everything away then….but life doesn’t work that way, and honestly, the mess will still be there waiting for me when I get up on Saturday morning.  The pool in our building doesn’t open until 11:30 so I figure I’ll set my coffee pot before I go to bed on Friday night and knock out everything on Saturday morning.  Well everything except for all the clothes, shoes, etc. that need to be put away in the bedroom – I’m up HOURS before Jonathan on the weekends J

Still no new news on the crocheting front.  I do have my Florida project that’s 80% completed, but it’s a gift so I’m waiting until it’s finished to post.  I haven’t touched it though since the car ride – Monday night was spent posting vacation pictures to FB and last night I dedicated to painting nails and watching Downton Abbey.

I did find this AWESOME new pattern that I’m kind of drooling over at work today – I keep reopening the window on my computer to look at all the pretty colors!  I’d love to start this tonight……

1. “SERIOUSLY?!?!?! Finish the Florida project, or oh I don’t know, Holly, why don’t you at least work to finish one of the THREE blankets you already have started, or finally weave in the ends to this baby!”……*side bar – I brought the Seaside Stripe in a bag to FL with me thinking that if it was cold with the AC on one night I could sit and weave in the ends while it kept me warm.  Never even took it out of the bag (*head hung in shame*)
2.  Due to the MESS in my living room there’s no way on earth I’m digging through to get into my yarn closet to tonight….well, I could….there will just be a bigger mess come Saturday morning!

I think I better stick to some of what I’ve already got going on.  BUT as soon as I can walk right up to my yarn closet and open the door again – I’m making this blanket!!  I just LOVE it!

Maybe I’ll map out my colors in Excel today – nerdy, I know ;-)

We're back!

We got back VERY late Sunday evening (I guess it was technically Monday morning at 1 a.m....) and yesterday was a big scramble to get caught back up at work!

I did some crocheting while in FL, but doesn't have any pictures yet as the project is not quite complete.

I will share some va-ca though!!

Estero Island, Ft. Myer's Beach, FL

Almost Full Moon - it was cloudy the night of the actual full moon

Bowman's Beach - Sanibel Island

After dinner at The Mucky Duck - Captiva Island

Tommy Bahamas - Naples, FL

Rough Seas on a cloudy day

the condo

my choice spot for crocheting, and listening to the waves

We stopped in Savannah on our way north - Forsyth Park

Our room at The Eliza Thompson House

I took around 600 pictures on the trip - as you can see 90% of them were of the beautiful sunsets on the Gulf coast!

I'm working to catch up on everyone's blog posts from while I was away - I'm about 50% there....send me an email if something exciting happened that you don't want me to miss :-)