Busy Busy But Nothing to Show For It!

The monsters are on Spring Break.  For mommies like me, that means a steady stream of playing referee and entertainment director, and slave driver, since I am on a (mini) mission to get some spring cleaning done. Ha!  One day of trying to motivate them to help and I caved... so much for that grand plan!

Spent a lot of time making stuff this week, stuff I love, stuff I'm proud of and would definitely love to share.  However, this stuff will soon be on its way to Canada to greet my homegirl for her birthday, so it will have to be shared later!

In the meantime, I made a tiny bit of progress on my giant granny square blanket.  I still haven't decided exactly how "giant" it will be; as it is now it is still too small for a good two-person snuggle couch blankie so I've still got some work to do.  I'm loving the colors together...reminds me of a Monet.

Happy Thursday!

A Teen and A Toddler

Whew!   Finally sitting down after a chaotic start to March!  Babygirl was born 10 years and 1 day after Shorty so we have our own little version of March Madness going on around here the first part of March.  The fortunate thing about the craziness of celebrating two birthdays is that it has disallowed me the agony of coping with the fact that Shorty is now officially a teenager!  Lucky for me, she’s a great kid so thus far I am not concerned about “teenage drama”, but boy, it is amazing how quickly the time has passed!

ERL used his Cake Boss skills and made this fabulous cake for the fairy obsessed Babygirl! 

I have had plenty of crafty failures and successes for birthday gifts.  First, I attempted an ambitious (for me, anyway) project of making Babygirl a sweater from this pattern here, which I have had in my Lion Brand favorites for forever but have been too chicken to attempt.  This is the first time I’ve made any real apparel, and it was much easier that I thought it would be!  The flowers are of my own design after several failed attempts at motifs found around the Web.

Now if I could just get her to wear it….

Shorty decided she wanted an afghan, and since A. I have never made an afghan before and B. she knows how bad I am at finishing big projects, she was very sweet and understanding in accepting that there was no way it would be completed in time for her actual birthday.  So I spent a fair amount of time on Ravelry trying to find the perfect pattern, and she and I decided on this one, which is just lovely and 12” squares seemed much more manageable to me than 6”.  However, it appears that this pattern may be more above my skill level than I’m willing to manage.  Or it requires much more attention to detail than I can manage.  Either way, with three kids running around it’s pretty hard to get quiet time before I’m deliriously tired.  I’ve completed three squares.   The first I knew right away was wrong, and is not pictured because Babygirl has snatched it up for her baby doll’s blankie. 

One of these things is definitely not like the other.

I say “uncle!” and Shorty has confessed that she prefers the look of a giant granny square blanket (relief!)  I’ve decided to use the rest of the yarn I had picked for this to make myself a giant granny square blankie for the couch, and will let her pick her yarn for her very self.

I’ve got a couple of other WIP’s going on right now, and will (hopefully) be sharing soon!

Treasure Hunting

I've been in a bit of a funk, craft-wise.  I have no excuses for not making anything, seeing as my house is starting to be taken over by craft books, magazines, patterns, supplies, etc!  I have a "to do" list, but none of those items seem like much fun right now...finally, yesterday, found some inspiration at a thrift store and I'm back on track!

On the subject of thrift stores, I have long avoided them, due to those dreaded blood-sucking sensations that have swept the nation (and beyond!)...BED BUGS.  I'm terrified of them, and unfortunately, thrift stores are a great way for them to make their way into your home.  I set it aside yesterday, and found a little hole in the wall store a few miles from my house.  Unfortunately, this store did not give a great first impression.  Stinky.  Very stinky, like way worse than the normal dead peoples stuff and unwashed clothes smell.  Smelled like dead people and the armpits of a hundred unwashed fourth graders.

 I was in search of interesting frames to alter for all the embroidery and cross stitch I've been planning to do, and had almost given up, when out of the corner of my eye, there was a huge bookshelf.  A huge bookshelf full of crafty stuff!  All kinds of yarn, hundreds of sewing patterns, and these fabulous finds:

Not only are they absolutely charming designs, the packages are unopened and the patterns are uncut!  Yippee!  Now the only problem is having too many to choose from.....