Happy Saturday!

Did anyone watch the Opening Ceremonies last night? If so, what did you think? I could barely stay awake till the end and definitely took a bit of a "nap" during the parade of ceremonies. Glad I saw the end cause the cauldron torch being lit and the fireworks were my favorite part!

Here a quick shot of my Saturday morning as I watch the men's cycling. This blanket is officially the slowest thing I've ever worked on!

Have a great weekend all!

It's a bird....it's a plane...

Nope!  Just the summer FLYING by!!!

Sadly this is just another quick update by photos today.  I still try to read everyone's blogs daily and I've been working on many projects (never understand why I insist on starting so many at once.....other than being distracted by all the pretty yarn and patterns)

I went home last weekend for the wedding of 2 friends and took MY best friend as my date!  Jonathan had to take the Praxis (State certification test to be a teacher) on Saturday so I traveled home alone.  Here are Jonathan's "good luck study shorts" that I made him before I left

Please ignore the white "stain" on his shirt....I'm zero for two on ruining t-shirts of his that he spills on....my mom was giving me tips on the phone last night - I've yet to earn my house-wife of the year badge :-)

I also made Grannie a Beach Ball Place Mat

it's much smaller than a standard place mat but the table in her kitchen is rather small, and she typically eats off an 8" plate so it worked out perfectly.  I'm still 100% in love with this woven pattern!  Again with the pictures I can't see to rotate!!!  Does anyone know what the heck I'm doing wrong?!?!?!

Here are some new photos of my dad's vegetable garden:

cherry tomatoes that are larger than golf balls!

the tiniest watermelons I've EVER seen - seriously smaller than the tip of my pinky

Pie Pumpkins well on their way to being amazing fall desserts

I don't know how he does it!  He's only fertilized once (with Miracle Grow) and they've been pretty close to drought-like conditions so even watering has been limited.  Most of the plants have doubled or tripled since I was just there 3 weeks ago - he truly has a green thumb!  I brought lots of veggies home with me to Maryland (zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, green beans, hot peppers, cucumbers, and new potatoes) - makes me very impatient to move home and have a vegetable garden of our own (along with his) - we complain every week at the grocery story when we see the bill and how much of our budget just went to vegetables that we could grow ourselves!!!

Part of my obsession with the woven stitch made me pull out skeins and skeins of yarn a few weeks ago, cause I was ready to make my own "beach ball blankie"  Of course, I never started it and now I feel guilty about the two blankets for myself that I started back in like March, and the baby blanket that I need to finish in the next couple of weeks....so my Beach Ball Blankie yarn is on my to do list to be put away this weekend.  Instead, I pulled out my Raspberry Wiggles that hasn't been touched in months and started to work on it again:

And if you looked closely at the link for Raspberry Wiggles, you'll see that I actually started it back in FEBRUARY....and never touched it again - total case of crafty ADD I believe!

Then I hurt my back the other night, was out flat on my back for about 36 hours (tried to crochet and couldn't) so I don't really have any progress to show other than what's above.

And in the back of my mind, that baby blanket is nagging me about how I'm going to have to race to finish it if I don't focus on it soon....so that's what I'm planning to work on during the Opening Ceremonies and the beginning of the Olympics (basically, until it's done!!!)

SUMMAH-TIME!

This summer is proving to be much busier than I was anticipating!  Not that I’m complaining, but I definitely envisioned many late nights reading on the balcony after work and every weekend spent at the pool….after all, I wasn’t planning a wedding this summer!  Instead I feel like we’re running non-stop!  Our schedule has left me with little crafty time, leading to today’s lengthy photo tour through my summer so far!

The weekend before the 4^th of July, we went home to see our families.

My Dad’s vegetable garden and the first Morning Glory of the summer:

Our campfire turned into a way to dispose of last year’s Christmas tree that had been hiding in a corner of the unused front porch…..*note: dead Christmas trees burn FAST

*Can anyone with an iPhone explain to me why I can't rotate my photos?  They're saved on my computer properly, but when I attach them they're flipping.....

As planned, and in true “Holly crafty gift-giving fashion”, I made THESE for Grannie for the 4^th of July – tying the ribbons on Sunday morning as Mom was ready to walk out the door for breakfast:

7 of them fit PERFECTLY in her kitchen window!  Sorry these pictures aren’t the best, I was taking photos directly into morning sunlight.  Doni, I love this pattern!  They work up super quickly – if focused, and if I’d started early enough the first night, all 7 could have been finished in an evening.  (I made all my reds, then all my whites, and so on)  I’m already envisioning ways to use these in the future for other holidays with a different combination of colors.

Speaking of the 4^th of July, we went near Arlington Cemetery to watch the fireworks this year.  We’ve had friends that have gone here in the past, but this was the first year we were able to join them.  We ended up seated behind all of the professional photographers, so we knew we’d picked a good spot!  Between the extra hot weather this year and all the people in the area who were still without power, the crowds were very light this year. 

Anyone who lives around or plans to visit the DC area over the 4^th, I’d TOTALLY suggest going here to see the fireworks!  We went to the mall like 8 years ago and not only was that view not as good, you pretty much have to spend the entire day camped out in a grassy, un-shaded area – in VA we had great friends that claimed our spot around 7 and we arrived at 8 (there was still plenty of empty grassy areas when we arrived as well)

Summer wouldn’t be summer without spending the 2^nd Tuesday of July watching the All-Star Game!  I finished these babies just in time for the National Anthem last night. 

I had some major drama with my sewing machine on Monday that I’d prefer to not relive….just like the results of last night’s game.

I do have some other crafty projects that I’m working on, or that have been finished but they’re to be gifts that I’d like to be a surprise….I recently got my parents to switch over to iPhones and I’m just not sure these days what exactly they’re up to and don’t want to ruin any of the fun J