"excuses" and Christmas crocheting

I'm just going to go ahead and ignore the fact that I haven't posted anything since March.... there are about 500 reasons why this is.
Okay maybe not 500, maybe it's closer to 10....in the past 9+ months I have (in no particular order):

1. changed positions (and desk locations) at my company, not once but twice

2. very effectively ran a super busy 1st summer for Jonathan and I at Panama Rocks Scenic Park

Opening Weekend

3. have performed in 3 shows, and choreographed 2 others in addition to 2 solo performances over the summer

May 2014 

October 2014

If you were paying attention, I mentioned involvement with 6 shows and only showed photos for 3. In addition to the ones shows above, I choreographed "Annie Get Your Gun" for a local high school, performed in a theatre fundraiser called "Home for the Holidays" and choreographed "Miracle in Bedford Falls" for the Lucille Ball Little Theatre"

4. taken on a Board of Directors position with the Lucille Ball Little Theatre of Jamestown, and began actively managing their website and Facebook page

5. took a trip to Walt Disney World with Jonathan to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of my 30th birthday - I could add about a bazillion pictures here that were taken, but I'll spare you!

Lunch on my Birthday was at Cinderella's Royal Table - IN Cinderella's Castle... DREAM.COME.TRUE.

Mickey Ice Cream is the best!  Really everything "Mickey-shaped" just tastes better!

6. continued working on the house remodel, which for my part usually is just about me moving boxes, reorganizing and excitingly getting to put things away.  Again I could show a million pictures here of our work in progress but they're probably boring to you since it's not your house, and really it barely looks as though much as changed.  I'll save them for now!

7. Celebrated our 3-year Wedding Anniversary (and 10 years together)

8. took a very last minute trip to NYC after winning tickets on Facebook to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular!

Walking around my old "stomping grounds" from when I went to college in NYC

View from our Time Square hotel room

[one of] my FAVORITE dances in the Christmas Spectacular!

AMAZING yarn from a really incredible store on the Upper East Side - if you are in NYC or plan to visit NYC - go there!!!

9. spend as much time with the puppies, kitties and Jonathan when I'm not at work or the theatre

Happy Heron for my 2nd year!

Silly date night selfies!

These dogs tho!  Good gracious I don't even want to tell you how many pictures of them are filling my iPhone!  I just LOVE them and all of their silliness!

Sunday morning poses!

"Dear God, it's me, Copper.  Please send roast chicken"

My babies on National Dog Day 2014

Not sure this one requires a comment....it does make me laugh EVERY TIME I see it!

10. crocheted as much as possible...looking back, on the last day of 2014, I'm honestly not sure if I crocheted a lot over the past year or no where near as much as in years past.  Based on the lack of pictures, minimal custom orders and lack of Christmas gifts I gave this year that were crocheted it feels like I crocheted very little.  In fact, looking back on some really ridiculously busy weeks and months at the theatre, I know that entire weeks went by where I didn't pick up a crochet hook!  But I know things were crocheted....barely anything that I can recall was finished and my list of ideas has grown 10-fold.  Definitely have to make sure I do a better job at photographing the work I complete in 2015 (we'll call than an official resolution - don't worry the 2015 Goals post is up next!)

A little Facebook stalking of my own page allowed me to find the following that I did crochet, finish and photograph since March:

Olaf-inspired hat for a Halloween Costume (completed custom order)

my own pattern

"Phittens" (completed custom order)

my own pattern

My Neon c2c blanket....still no where near done, but I just love the colors of this one, and the fact that I was sitting on my front porch in flip flops crocheting! 

PATTERN

Speaking of 'warm weather' crocheting - doesn't this look like amazing way to be spending a Sunday morning??

my own pattern

My first pair of Boot Cuffs!

PATTERN

The beginning of my Road Trip Scarf.  Everything but the border has been done for MONTHS, but the last time I picked it up, I couldn't understand the pattern so I gave up...it's still waiting for me, mockingly to finish

PATTERN

Crocheting accomplishments from Thanksgiving morning while watching the Parade and Dog Show

Cowl is a variation of this PATTERN

Boot Cuff Pattern is the same as above

Remember that AMAZING tower of yarn I purchased in NYC?

Well here is the hat that I crocheted for Jonathan at his request.  This was photographed from our hotel in Buffalo the night before we left for Disney.

my own pattern (just a simple dc beanie)

Here's a quick recap of what I did crochet for Christmas gifts:

As you can see, more detail and effort went into "collaging" and decorating this in PicMonkey than the actual photographing of gifts before wrapping hastily on Christmas Eve (yes, I was that person.  We arrived home from Disney around 2 a.m. on the 22nd and I had to work the 22nd and 23rd)

And, "why?", do you ask is it that I don't get anywhere near as much crocheting done as I'd like to on the rare occasions when I'm home and not sleeping?

Oh yeah, cause someone gets jealous he's not getting all of my attention at all times!

That's all for now friends.  I've had the blogging bug bad for a few weeks now so I hope it continues to stick with me in 2015!

Wishing you all a safe and Happy New Year!

Moody Monday - behind

I haven't given up on my mood blanket. I still love it, but time has not been on my side.

Life has taken a busy turn lately. I'm 2 weeks behind on crocheting my hexagons...

Last week I planned to be caught up by today but it just didn't happen.

Fingers crossed that by this time next week I'll have weeks 8-10 to share.

Moody Monday - week 7

Gah – the last week really slipped away from me!  Sorry to have disappeared a bit….I had been doing so well the first few weeks of 2014.  Between getting over being sick, catching up from being sick, and transitioning into a new role at work; I can’t seem to recall any free time had to blog, or crochet!

2/10: PRODUCTIVE – as I mentioned last Monday, I was a little ahead of schedule in my posting.  I spent Monday recovering from the last of the flu, but this was the perfect opportunity for some seriously hexagon crocheting in between naps, allowing me to catch up on all my days to date in 2014, picking a joining method, and I mapped out the size of my blanket (how many hexs in each row by how many rows to make sure the size come Dec 31^st will be proportionate with the correct number of finished hexagons for the year!)

2/11: HAPPY/PRODUCTIVE – Tuesday was my last day in my old position.  I had a busy day of wrapping up what I’d been working on, and leaving notes for the woman coming back into the roll.  I also got all of the final details on my new role, which was exciting and made me happy to start anew on Wednesday morning!

2/12: FREEZING – holy moly was it coooooooooooold on Wednesday morning!!!!  I was driving to work and started hearing this creaking and bending noise on the top of my Jeep.  I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but looked up at my temperature gauge and saw THIS!:

If you were wondering, this is 10 degrees colder than it was here during the first Polar Vortex back in January.  The creaking and [almost] snapping of plastic sounds reminding me of the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” when everything turns to ice.  I think it goes without saying that I had a hard time warming up most of the day.

2/13: SAD/FRUSTRATED – day 2 in my new position proved to be a challenging one.  I don’t like to be idle at work, and I had a day of forgetting that it takes time to get adjusted into something new, especially when it’s a newly created position with no previous job description and duties to follow!  I spent most of Thursday having a pity party for myself in this respect.  Completely illogical, but who said there’s logic behind our feelings??

2/14: VALENTINE’S DAY – we had a bit of a low key Valentine’s Day.  We’ve never gone crazy with this holiday, just small gifts and a nice evening together, which is a-okay with me.  I came home to red roses and a heart shaped gluten-free brownie.  There was wine, a lovely dinner, and an evening in front of the fire watching the Olympics.

Friday was also the day we celebrated Copper’s 1^st Birthday!  Since he was a rescue, who was found in a field, we’ll never know his exact birthday.  When he came to live with us this summer, they told us that his birthday was February 13^th.  The more I thought about it, I decided this situation had some wiggle room, and I made his birthday Valentine’s Day – cause he’s definitely my little LOVE BUG!  

This picture was taken yesterday evening; clearly his birthday weekend was exhausting business!

2/15: DREAMING OF DISNEY/THINKING OF GRANNIE – Jamestown High School’s music department left Friday afternoon for Walt Disney World.  Since then my Facebook feed has exploded with status updates and pictures from within the Resorts.  There’s student’s family members, and the fact that my in-laws are also currently in Walt Disney World, on a totally unrelated trip (my Valentine’s Day present will even be coming home with them this spring as it was purchased at the Polynesian resort!).  All these images of people that I know at the Happiest Place on Earth just makes me want to put on a Disney t-shirt, flip through photos from our previous trips, and listen to this (or watch these….)

or THIS!

Over the past day or two, my mind keeps wandering to my Grannie.  Just little things like something happens that I want to share with her, and I think to tell her on my way home from work….then I remember that I can’t.

2/16: LOVED – Last night we were sitting watching the Olympics while I crocheted up my hexagons for this week, and I said to Jonathan: “I don’t know what mood I’m feeling today!!  What is my mood??”  I spent the day out shopping/running errands, having a phone date with my best friend, finishing up laundry, playing with the puppies and crocheting.  Being productive and/or crafty was not really sticking out as my mood for the day, and I don’t have a color for ‘shopping fun’, ‘snuggling puppies’, ‘best friends’ or ‘excitement for pizza for dinner’ (yes, I have a color for excited, but it seems a little ridiculous to use this for the day just over the evening dinner selection…..)  Jon’s response was: “don’t you feel loved today?”, and I said: “I always feel loved”. 

Everything else with my blanket is still piles of hexagons that need the ends woven in on and to be crocheted together….as always, there are never enough hours in the day/week

I planned to start crocheting things together this evening, at least week 7's work....but in a brief moment of exhaustion; this happened:

Of course, the one that weighs around 70 pounds thinks she's a lap dog...

Moody Monday - week 6

Another week has come and gone, and I've made great progress on my Mood Blanket!

For starters:

I have finally caught up!  Everything to date (through today) has been crocheted!  As you can see, no ends have been dealt with (well, some have) and I still haven't started putting my blanket together, but progress has been made there as well!

I did all the math, many many times to figure out how I wanted to put my blanket together, and tested out Lucy's joining for Granny Squares.  Still not 110% on my joining decision, and wanted to just look things over one more time in the light of day (AKA: Saturday).

Here's what I crocheted for week 6:

2/3: NOT FEELING WELL - woke up last Monday morning not feeling well at all.  Hopeful that I'm not getting sick and/or catching whatever it is going around my office.

2/4: FREEZING / THINKING OF GRANNIE - the sunrise on my drive to work Tuesday morning made me feel as though Grannie was looking down on me

It was, again, freezing cold but I immediately thought of my colors for freezing and thinking of Grannie, and they really match this sunrise perfectly.

2/5: SNOWY DAY / EXCITED - more snow in WNY and some exciting possibilities arose at work.

2/6: EXCITED - Wednesday's excitement continued into Thursday with good meetings at work, in additional to a few meetings I had outside of the office.

2/7: SICK - ugh....drove home Thursday night with a migraine, woke up with it on Friday morning.  Started to cough while getting ready for work, and definitely had a nasty sore throat.  Everything went downhill throughout the day on Friday, but I made it through my day in the office, came home and just C.R.A.S.H.E.D.  sore throat, fever, body aches, and cough

*BONUS HEX* refused to miss the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics, even if I did have a flu.  I had to make a TEAM USA hex for the day as well!

2/8: TIRED / SICK - didn't feel as terrible Saturday as I did on Friday, I even made it to my 10 a.m. nail appointment.  Came home and took a 4 hour nap, slept through most of the Olympic events that night, and still slept a solid 8 hours.  I clearly needed all that rest to get over whatever it is/was infecting my system.

2/9: FEELING CRAFTY / SICK - woke yesterday feeling around 75%.  Spent most of my day crocheting and watching Dawson's Creek on Netflix.  Slowly getting better (even if my voice isn't fully back)

2/10: PRODUCTIVE - "technically" this hex belongs on next week's post.  But it was already in my picture before I realized this.  So, you're getting it tonight.  You may see it again next week, if I remember.  We'll call today's productivity a variation on overachieving!

Speaking of today's productivity, I've gotta show off my favorite hex to date:

TOO CUTE, right??  Jonathan asked me if the owl was because I was feeling crafty.  I told him it was because I bought an Owl [decoration] that day!  I'm just realizing now that the owl was supposed to be happy / feeling crafty, but that I crocheted it happy / thinking of Grannie.  Maybe she wanted to be part of today's crocheting - or she was a part of my crafty shopping trip with Mom back on January 18th.

Showcase Sunday

No "sneak peak" to show this weekend, cause I'm too excited to show off of my 2 new ETSY postings:

Are these hats not the cutest?  I'm just in LOVE with both of them!!  I wish I'd made the pink one in my size...or that I had a little girl to put them on :-)

They are between 18" and 19" in circumference - perfect for ages 1-3 (though measuring the recipient's head is the best way to ensure an accurate fit)

Both can be found at www.etsy.com/shop/craftyhollylouise - check them out today!!

Warm Your Space Wednesday - Valentine's Edition

I did it!  

I actually completed a planned project for Warm Your Space Wednesday and am ready to write about it on Wednesday.

If only I had gotten better pictures this weekend... Thank goodness for photo editing online... (there's always room for growth before next week, right?)

Isn't this so cute!!!  I just love it every time I walk through the kitchen!

I found THIS pattern just as it was posted last month.  I honestly can't even remember what I was doing/looking for when I came across it, but I immediately fell in love with it and new it would be a great way to warm my space this Valentine's season (yes, I do believe a season is in order for all things hearts, pink, love, and roses)  Everything was crocheted in Red Heart with Love in Candy Pink and an I-hook.

 

This shade is just perfect for Valentine's Day!  Over-the-top sickeningly sweet, perfect shade of pink!

As previously posted, it took me a few weeks to really get started on this project, but once I got focused and really started working on these they went so fast!  Sarah's pattern is super easy to read and I quickly had it memorized and cranked out the 13 necessary within two nights of crocheting.  I'd say that they could have been done in one if I didn't eat dinner and those puppies weren't so darn distracting, but neither of those is ever likely to occur in our house!

I'm not sure there is much more that I can say about these except that they just make me smile! 

*side note - totally loving on all the snow stuck to the trees in these pictures.  While I'm a little over the excessive cold, and am really sick of my sweater collection each day as I'm getting dressed for work, I just LOVE the snow!  Even when the slower driving extends my commute, I can't help but smile at the beautiful white flakes coming down and the winter-scape out my windows

**side note #2 - those spring like flowers were a lovely surprise from Jonathan last week while everything that was going on last week really had me down.  There are also flowers from my mother-in-law that are just out of the sight line of this picture.  As I mentioned on Monday, my family has been amazingly supportive and really know how to make a girl feel extra loved!

For any of you non-crocheters out there reading this, who would love Heart Garland for your home for Valentine's Day [2015], send me a message at craftyhollylouise[@]gmail.com  I sadly don't anticipate having enough time to make and ship these for your family's enjoyment this year (unless you're looking to use these year round / for an Anniversary / Birthday!  Then I'd be more than happy to work with you on timing!)  As always, color options are endless.

 

P.S.  Be sure to check out the adorable ideas Taurie has been cranking out for Valentine's Day, including Valentine's inspiration and this week's Warm Your Space Wednesday, found here.  And I sooooooooooo wanna make THESE!!!!

Two on Tuesday

Things making me happy as I head to bed this evening:

1.  time to crochet after work this evening, allowing me to catch up on Mood Blanket!

Here's my hexagons from week 5

 Still not fully caught up for January, but here's where I now am!  Totally having some anxiety over the order when it comes time to start connecting these - between similar colors and patterns that I don't want next to each other, I'm not sure what I'll end up doing!

2.  Our puppies are just the BEST

Osa and Copper were both very interested in hanging out with me while I crocheted this evening

Clearly, they were exhausted after a day of playing in the snow

Can't imagine he was chilly when laying that close to the fire, but Copper found himself the warmest location he could! LOL he cracks me up

Wouldn't it be great if there were enough hours in the day that I could work, crochet and still be able to take pictures when it's daylight vs. everything being dark, fuzzy and not quite the right color overall?  #agirlcandream