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

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 ;-)