Holy Moly

I know, I know, it’s been forever since I last posted….again, but it’s been a VERY busy year!

January through March, not only was I working full time Monday-Friday, but I also spent my time after work (5:15-7 p.m.) split between two different local high schools where I was choreographing their high school musicals (“Damn Yankees” and “Anything Goes”).  Then from 7:30 until 10:30-11 each night I had my own rehearsal for the French Farce “Boeing Boeing” at the Lucille Ball Little Theatre here in Jamestown.  The link above takes you to the full Facebook photo album for the show, which was an absolutely BLAST to be apart of!  I hadn’t done a straight play since middle school, with the exception of scene work in my college Acting classes.  This was the first "challenge" that peeked my interest in auditioning for the show (after the fact that the show is a RIOT).  Next came the fact that I was cast as Gretchen, the German stewardess.  I spent 6 weeks working tirelessly to master the best German accent possible.  I still love throwing it around every now and then ;-)  And the final “challenge” that I overcame during the rehearsal and performance process during Boeing was announced to our friends as follows:

A few thought we were getting another dog, but we did not!  This October, we are expecting our first baby!!  I realized I was pregnant about 3 weeks into rehearsals and was 10 weeks pregnant by the time the show closed.  Other than our parents, no one knew until the end of March about the baby’s arrival.  I had to tell my director, and good friend, a few days before Tech Sunday because my flight attendant dress could not be worn w/o the jacket without my belly starting to show (more of a carb baby that actual baby pump at that point LOL)! My counterpart in the show also figured it out one night and was great about keeping my secret until I told the reminder of the cast closing weekend.

I enjoyed every second of all the theatre work I did this spring.  I was EXHAUSTED 90% of the time and had to drag my nauseous self to every step of rehearsals that I had on a particular night, but once I was there I felt just fine 99% of the time.  I think if I’d just gone home every night after work I would have done nothing but sit on the couch like a blob feeling horribly sorry for myself!

Plus, we found out the end of May that

Our summer has been very busy.  In addition to slowly trying to get ourselves ready for the baby’s arrival, Jonathan and I are both busy running our family business, Panama Rocks Scenic Park for our 2^nd year and the 130^th year since it was founded in 1885.  We have been having a great summer so far and have seen a wonderful increase in the business over last year.  I am, of course, still working Monday-Friday outside of the Park so that we have a steady income and health insurance, and have still kept very active with marketing and choreography at the theatre.  There’s no slowing me down just yet – in fact I’m getting ready to start rehearsals next week as Choreographer for “The Addams Family”, our annual fall musical.

In June, Jonathan and I were fortunate enough to be able to get coverage for the Park’s office, and took a week off and went down to the beach.

My in-laws currently own a condo on Estero Island, Ft. Myers Beach, FL and we hadn’t been down since June of 2012.  They have decided to sell the condo for multiple reasons so this was a combination last trip before the condo sells, and Babymoon.  It was a wonderful, relaxing week on the beach filled with lovely memories of our first vacation together, honeymoon and now babymoon (plus a few other vacations in between).  We will certainly still vacation in Ft. Myers Beach in the future, but it’ll never be quite the same.

There was crocheting from my favorite spot in the world (the condo's lanai), virgin Mojitos at Doc Ford's, amazing sunsets, a growing belly, sunset selfies, LOTS of ice cream, the most incredible rental car in all the land (2015 Mustang Convertible) and a tan & growing baby bump!

Oh August 6th, Jonathan and I celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary.  Still hard for me to believe that we've been married for 4 years already, and yet only 4 years.  Here's a very detailed collage of pictures from us from the past 11 years that I posted to Facebook back on the 6th - you should be able to click on it to see more detail if you're interested in seeing how we've both aged over the past decade ;-)

And here are me, and the "girlfriend", as I've been calling her, at our Anniversary dinner last Saturday night:

As far as crocheting, I didn’t really do any during my first trimester.  I was too busy, too tired and too nauseous to  really have any desire to do so.  My nausea went away around week 14 and I’ve continued to putter and play with multiple different projects since then.

From July until December I have 7 babies, including my own coming into our lives (6 girls by the way and only 1 boy – GIRL POWER!!) so I have some little projects that I’ve been working on since June on that front, but nothing is actually finished.

Then, a co-worker of mine returned to work last week so I whipped this up real quick over the weekend for her baby-girl (another girl!!) to wear this fall:

This caused me to be bitten by bit of a "fall crocheting" bug that still hasn’t let up this week!

Over the weekend, Jonathan and I were fortunate enough to get a day off from the Park (first one since June 28th when we returned from the beach) and went to Chautauqua Institution for the day.  We set ourselves up for a picnic in the shade by the lake and I started crocheting this scarf:

I'm not exactly sure what this stitch is called, but after you chain your width you do a sc ch1 then skip the next stitch.  Starting on Row 2 you continue the same sc ch1 pattern with each sc going into the ch1 space of the previous row.  I half thought this was called the Moss Stitch, but the quick Google search that I just did proved me wrong.  Anyone wanna help me out so I know for future reference??

The past couple of nights I’ve been pulling out half finished Owl Hats from last fall, and some additional colors to stock pile on these for gifts & orders, and spent the past two lunch hours this week crocheting the whites for the eyes on as many hats as I can get made.

Two days progress - if you’re curious it does take me about 5 minutes per eye J

I also have the most AMAZING blanket for myself that I’ve been working on since early June.  I’m obsessed with it but don’t actually have any photographs of it to share right now – will have to be sure and take a few soon.

Last, but certainly not least, I did finally pick a pattern and yarn selection for my baby girl’s baby blanket.  I was ridiculously picky in this process but have an inspiration photo that I love, that Jonathan instantly loved, and all of the yarn just arrived earlier this week.  It’s a new to me pattern that has been making it’s rounds on some of my favorite crochet Facebook pages for some time now – hopefully I pick it up quickly!  I also have purchased multiple photo prop patterns for our newborn photoshoot with the little one in October.  I haven’t started on these yet either as I’m waiting on some clothing that was also purchased to arrived to make sure that my yarn matches accordingly.

So, as you can see, we have been VERY busy up here in our little corner of Western New York!  Sorry it’s taken me so long to post anything.  I’ll try and be better as I finish up some projects and have exciting news to share!  I still read all of your blogs, almost daily, and Pin and print loads of patterns and recipes to try!

"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 - still catching up

First, let's just pretend that I remembered to hit "Publish" last night and that it's not already Tuesday, okay?

Okay.

I'm still working to catch up on my January days for my mood blanket.  I posted to the Facebook group last week how I have caught up on remembering all my moods from earlier this month.  I do continue to add to this journal daily, but with all of the other projects that I've been working on, I just don't have enough time to get everything done I wanna/have to do (nothing new there!)

Here are my "moods" from this past week:

1/20:  EXCITED - got to see some great friends for a final Christmas get-together of the season.

1/21:  TIRED - out too late the night before enjoying the company of previously mentioned friends!

1/22:  THINKING OF GRANNIE/SAD - watched a beautiful, pink sunrise on my way to work, which always makes me feel like Grannie is looking down on me.  I also had very odd dreams the night before that involved Mom and I going through things in Grannie's house and finding these hidden "gifts" with notes addressed to us from Grannie.  I put gifts in quotes as they weren't large gifts - but things like beautiful pieces of wood that had naturally occurring designs in them, and the notes explaining to us why she'd picked them specifically for each of us.  Like my Mom's had a pattern in it that almost looked like a flower so Grannie had mentioned in the note how it was like a Brown Eyed Susan for her (my Mom's name is Susan, and she has brown eyes, so Grannie really cherished the Brown Eyed Susan's that she had planted in her gardens).

1/23:  EXCITED - Mom and I went to see Kellie Pickler in concert at our local Ice Arena

1/24:  FRUSTRATED - all of last week had an underlying theme of being a bit frustrating for me.  Both personal and work situations had me ready to crawl out of my skin in frustration and everything collided and reared it's ugly head by Friday.

1/25: SNOWY DAY - no, not exactly mood or feeling.  But don't you ever have days where the sun shining makes you smile?  Or you love looking out windows that make you feel like you're inside a snow globe all day?  Or the rain puts you in such a funk that you feel like screaming?  Well, the weather does this to me, so it's almost like the weather is a mood; it definitely can have an affect on mine!  Most of Saturday, I spent inside the house working around - mostly in our bedroom, which has 5 windows on 3 walls so it was the ideal opportunity for me to enjoy the snowing and blowing that was happening all around me!

1/26: CRAFTY/PRODUCTIVE - while I did have to spend a little bit of time yesterday getting our laundry finished for the week, we also had our first official Panama Rocks meeting of 2014 and I set myself up to be VERY productive with custom orders- like my SNEAK PEAK SUNDAY photo! 

Osa's contribution to our meeting was snuggling my foot to keep me warm :-)

By Sunday we also had enough snow that we had to send Jonathan out to snow plow before more snow came.....and while Sunday was our "warmest" day for the foreseeable forecast, I sent him out with nothing but his EYES showing!

 So really, it was a productive day for him too ;-)

He came in looking like a "Alla-ka-zanie" snow monster!  (sorry, I know only 3 people are going to get that, but I HAD to say it LOL)

So WHERE does my 2014 Mood Blanket stand at this point?

No, these aren't the hexagons for the past week based on the moods listed above - it's just all the furthest I've gotten so far...period.  I can't figure out how I messed up the pattern on a third purple hex on Saturday morning and I honestly haven't picked it up again since.

Here's to having more real-time progress to share next Monday - you know, ON time!

BIG Announcement

Jonathan and I will be moving the end of May 2013!  After almost 8 ½ years in the DC metro area, we will be returning to our favorite little corner of WNY…..Panama, New York!

I [sadly] gave my notice at work 3 weeks ago, and have just 3 short weeks remaining while Jonathan only has 2 weeks of his student teaching internship left!  3 weeks from today my parents arrive in town (extra hands to finish parking, and enough adults to drive all cars back to NY).  3 weeks from Tuesday we pick up our U-Haul, the movers arrive by 9 a.m. and hopefully by 1 p.m. on May 21, 2013 we will driving 2 Jeeps, 1 convertible, and 1 U-Haul the ~400 miles HOME!

The house that we will be moving into is on the property of Jonathan’s parent’s tourism business, Panama Rocks Scenic Park.

This, truly, life changing and exciting move has actually been in the works for almost 18 months now.  Conversations about whether or not it would ever happen probably starting as far back as the summer of 2007…so to say that we are ready would be an understatement.  In 2011, while in the final stretch of wedding planning we were faced with the decision of where Jonathan would go to school for his Masters – Maryland or New York.  Obviously, we chose staying in Maryland where Jonathan attended Johns Hopkins University while we continued to work and save every penny possible. 

Back in January we took our nextbig step toward the move; we started remodeling the house.  FOLLOW THIS LINK to read about how in 1885 the park was founded, how a farmhouse became a summer hotel, and a bit about the work that has been done by my in-laws since they purchased the property in 1979.  If your cup of coffee (or glass of wine) is big enough to keep you reading the History of Panama Rocks, you will read more about how half of the hotel was winterized in the late 1980’s.  This is where Jonathan and his sister, Jessica grew up, where my in-laws currently live, and where we got married. 

The process that we began in January 2013 was to winterize the 2^nd half of the house that has been unused (other than for storage and guests when the extra space was needed). 

The work that we have done so far is depicted in the “before, during, after” pictures below.  Many hours have been put in by an amazing team that demoed the original horsehair plaster walls, wood lath and electrical wiring from the early 1900s.  Our Master bedroom, my craft room, [half of the bathroom], one future kid’s bedroom (2 small hotel rooms where we took down the divider wall to create a larger bedroom….will be used for storage for the time being), and the upper stairway/hallway have been rewired, insulated, dry-walled, and primed.  Our Master Bedroom also has been painted an amazing light blue that changes color depending on the time of day and level of sunlight coming in from any of the FIVE windows.  While Jonathan and I were home in early April we started work with my Dad to build frame for the doors to our closet, which as you can see below is still a work in progress ;-)

Starting on Monday the final stage of hooking up the electric to our side of the house will begin, in hopes that we will have power [and lights] when we move home.  First on the list for June is to finish our closet and replace the wood floors in the Master Bedroom and my craft room.

We have A LOT work ahead of us but are so very excited by the outlook of making this home our own:

***don't forget that you can click on each of the pictures below to make them larger***

Hallway walking in our Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom Closet Area

My future CRAFT ROOM - one day will no doubt be my favorite room in the house!

2nd Bedroom - A.K.A. "storage central"!

Upper Half of the Stairs 

***don't forget that you can click on each of the pictures above to make them larger***

I’m sure the next question that most, if not everyone, is asking is “what will you do in NY?”  Well, we are hopeful that Jonathan will be able to find a teaching job; putting his hard earned Master’s degree to good use.  I have been job searching, applying and in the beginning stage of interviewing as well.  This summer we will also be learning the ins and outs of running the Park, and enjoying a much needed change of pace that only a village like Panama can give you.

For now, I think it's time to get back to packing - we're MOVING IN THREE WEEKS!!!