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

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  

Summer Va-ca!

While I am not fortunate enough to get a Spring, Summer, or Winter break at this stage of my life (seriously, to those who want to complain that they’re breaks are over, be thankful that you have them – some of us are stuck working all 12 months!), Jonathan and I do always try to find a week during the summer to get out of town!  DC has what can only be described as an oppressively humid Summer so time on the beach is ALWAYS welcome!  We’ve spent many weeks in Southern Florida in August over the years, and have checked temperature daily – typically about 10 degrees cooler on the beach thanks to the lovely breeze off the Gulf….not to mention spending the day in a biniki and flip flops is totally acceptable!

Our first vacation together in FMB - back in August of 2005!!!

I’m happy to report that this year’s trip is quickly approaching – by this time next month I will hopefully be sitting on the beach with a biiiiiig cocktail in my hand.  Nothing better in my book!

View from downstairs

Ft. Myer’s Beach – HERE WE COME!  I am so looking forward to 8 ½ days, 8 nights on the beach with the sweetest guy I know.  Spending our days enjoying Estero, Sanibel and Capitva Islands, mid-day  naps, the foods of SOB, Doc Ford’s, and the Mucky Duck to name a few, and the gorgeous sunsets over Sanibel Island. 

I love enjoying the gorgeous sunsets from the sandbar!

The entire summer and remainder of 2012 is going to go sailing by on me at this point. 

“Why?”, you may ask?  Well –

1. Prior to May 18^th – pack up my cube and files at work in preparation for an office move
2. May 18^th – day off from work to travel down to Stafford, VA for a family wedding
3. May 20^th – Mount VernonSpring Wine Festival and Sunset Tour with friends
4. Memorial Day weekend – drive home Friday 5/25 at 2 p.m. when my office closes, spend a little time with my family (that I haven’t seen since Christmas), drive both the convertible and Jeep back to MD on Monday 5/28
5. Work May 29^th-May 31^st
6. Leave after work on May 31^st for Ft. Myers Beach, FL – see ya’ll on June 11^th!
7. July 20^th – day off from work to head home to celebrate the wedding of a couple of good friends
8. August 3^rd – IDINA MENZEL at Wolf Trap to start the celebration weekend of 1 year of Wedded Bliss (How can it already almost be a year ago that we got married?!?!?!)
9. August 23^rd-August 27^th – trip to CNY to spend a long weekend with my Mom and Dad
10. September 1^st – beginning of my “black out” period for any time out of the office through the end of the year!

See?  Now, add in the fact that this is likely our last summer in the region, and I think we’re going to be very busy!

Patriotic Crochet-a-Long

I came across a GREAT blog last week and I couldn't resist trying out this Star Coaster pattern!  Now I must admit, I see loads of great patterns online, but most of the time, I print them, get home and I find them impossible to follow for one reason or another.  That or the pattern is so close to something I already [at least think I] know how to do well, that I just use the pattern that I've already committed to memory.  This past Friday night that changed for once (or maybe for good!)  These stars are so easy to make!  With just one color they only take me about 10-15 min to make (I'd say 15 if we wanted to include the time it takes me to complain about weaving in ends and then actually doing it).  Megan talks in her post about having until July 4th to make the 4 coasters....well over the weekend, I not only made a set in R-W-B but I made a 2nd set in my favorite shades of pink!

These have been wrapped and sent home to my Grannie has an early 4th of July gift.  She decorates her house in red white and blue for the summer and I just know she'll love these!
Those who are Guilder Alumni reading this - am I the only one that really thinks the ones with the blue on the outside looks like it belongs on a Guilder costume?  LOL not sure why I think that on one but not the other but I see what I see :o)
I didn't have all 3 colors in cotton for these, so the Red and Blue are RHSS and the white is the speckled ILTY with the silver thread.  Really adds something extra to them!

Set #2 are not quite finished yet (as you can see, I've left my "favorite" part yet to do!).  I actually made these ones first because the cotton was close by.  One of the veregated ones I tried to use a magic circle on thinking I could get the center hole smaller.  The whole is just as big regardless and it actually made the coaster a bit "flimsy".  Now I know.  The plan is to have these finished up and wrapped to give my Mom while I'm home over the weekend.  She was here this past weekend and has already seen them, but it'll be a surprise for her none the less!

I got to work this a.m. and ordered some veregrated R-W-B IKTY from Hobby Lobby and then loads of cotton in new shades (well new to me) from JoAnns so I can continue to produce these!  I don't think I've ever made 8 of anything without hating that I was stilling making them so I I think I'll keep going and stock up on gifts for use throughout the year!


As for my other crochet-a-long that I mentioned last week, here's my progress on my ripple:

This little Swedish girl is LOVING the color combo and while I didn't put any work into it until this a.m. before work, I plan to make some progress this week while I'm waiting for my new stash for the Stars to come in the mail!  This one started with Pammy Sue's ripple pattern.  This is also a perfect example of starting with a pattern on find in a blog, and frogging it to use a pattern I'm more comfortable with!  Pammy Sue yours that you posted looks great, and the pattern makes sense to me, but I was crocheting too slow trying to remember what I was doing, which was just about enough to drive me crazy! :-P