Oh goodness! Life has been absolutely nuts! Wedding preparations are in full swing...only 29 more days! This past year has gone by in the blink of an eye.
I have found time to work on a few stash busters...yarn foods, dish cloths and stroll working every now and then on the french doily and the star afghan. Hopefully once the wedding is done I will find more motivation!
Honeymoon is planned...we are heading to Mexico and an all inclusive Secrets resort....it will be nice to relax and destress from the wedding chaos.
Beauregard has finally stopped growing at 100 pounds. He is sassy and spunky and has a personality like no other! We had his hips xrayed for displacia and everything came up good to excellent which is a HUGE relief. We are still considering breeding him...need to figure out the next steps for that process, as well a consider getting a second generation our just taking a stud fee. Not sure my house would survive two huge puppies living in it.
Sorry for bring silent for so long....promise to write more often...and post wedding pictures!
Watching the game with friends...made a Ravens - 49ers Superbowl Cake. Marble cake, buttercream frosting...yummy!
Crafting does continue...working on a hat along with a few other small projects and if course still working on Steve's stocking....might be done by next Christmas lol
Finished with the beginners level if wilton classes...here is my final masterpiece! Thinking about taking another course, but with a new job and the wedding I do not know where I can find the time!
December already? Missed a few days, but that was mainly due to travel and crazy work schedules once again. Went back to michigan for thanksgiving and had a great time. Made a birthday cake for Steve's brother Sam who just turned 7. Did the wilton pan spiderman and it turned out awesome!
Sharing as well my Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes and ntt Wilton class #3 cupcakes which had some issues due to the frosting I choose to make.
Crafting you ask? Worked on some snowflakes as well as more poinsetta coasters for my Mom.
Happy crafting everyone!
Slowly starting to get out and organize my christmas decorations. With every box I open I find memories of my grandmothers. This box contained some of my Dept 59 houses...this one bought by my Grandma as a christmas present back in 2002 right before I moved to Belgium. Oh what memories these boxes contain....since I did not decorate last year inside, Steve has no idea what is in store lol
Baked my cake tonight for tomorrows decorating lesson....looking forward to it!
Happy Crafting!
I survived the first class...did fairly will if I say so myself lol The class is small - only 3 people which is nice. Spent most of the class talking about different methods and tools, but at the end got to practice stars and decorating cookies....fun! I won a carrying caddy for all my tools....will be able to keep evening organized and in one place now!
I have a few pictures to share from week one. Excited for this wednesday as we will be decorating a cake and learning more techniques...will be good to see how much I progress each week through these classes!
Happy crafting!
Well if you are going to let them eat cake, it might as well be decorated prettily right? So to make my cakes pretty I have signed up to take the Wilton Cake Decorating class number one at my local Jo Ann's!
The class starts tonight for 2 hours and then also for the next 3 Wednesdays! Super excited about making my cakes pretty! What fun!
Anyone taken these courses or have any advice to impart other than to practice practice practice?
Happy crafting...and decorating! :)
Spent the weekend back in Michigan helping my Dad put up Christmas lights. For those who do not know, my father fell off his roof back in April and has slowly been recovering. Knowing that he should not be on ladders and the roof again, we packed up the car and away we went. The dogs had great fun spending the weekend at my parents - lots of spoiling!
I also started work on my next project...a christmas stocking for Steve! Not sure if I will 1. Get it done by Christmas or 2. Ever get it done, but will have fun with it in the mean time!
Happy crafting!
Finally finished both baby blankets! Only took 4 months lol One is done using caron simply soft, the other Bernat Baby Coordinates. Both are granny squares with different color patterns and a simple shell border.
Hopefully they like them! We are going over tomorrow to see them so will try to take pictures then.
Have a great night everyone!
On our way back from a week in Florida. Had a great time...did all the parks - Universal's and Disney's. Been working on the second blanket for the twins...might actually get it done brigitte we get jones later today - yay!
Brought my snow flake materials with as well but so far none made...tis the season though! :)
Hockey tonight with Steve for our date night this week. Came to see minor league hockey - chicago wolves vs grand rapids griffins...I'm cheering for g.r. since they are from michigan about 30 minutes from where I grew up.
Valentines yesterday was great..very low key - Steve cooked dinner for me at home. It was yummy!
I'm still working on the blanket...need to hurry since baby Alyssa is now a week old! :)
The dog's are getting along great. Beau is now about 80 lbs and a total lap dog lol
Have a wonderful week! Happy crafting!
Had great fun last night making pizzas. We made our own dough, and then loaded up the toppings before throwing it all in the pizza oven! Both of our pizzas turned out great, and we had fun making them together! Can not wait until our next date night out! Attached are pictures of our masterpieces!
Forgot to mention yesterday...I entered a cake into the office superbowl dessert contest and it won first place! I made my grandparents lemonade cake...yummy! One of my favorite non-frosted cakes.
Have a wonderful wednesday!
Happy tuesday everyone! Tonight me and Steve are heading off to pizza making class! Signed up for a lesson in groupon...should be fun learning something new with him!
Things are going great between the two of us! Steve is officially moving in the end of the month when he can terminate his apartment lease. He and Lil' Bear haver been here now since new years without any issues. A smile is constantly on my face these days! :)
I am still working on the baby blanket. Finished 2 more squares last night...slow but steady! Need to think about what my next project is going to be!
Still have not organized the craft room and books...focusing on other areas of the house which need it more....i.e.last night I cleaned out the closet and dresser, getting rid of junk and garbage including 6 parties of old shoes...I told steve to hurry and throw them out before I changed my mind!
Have a wonderful tuesday everyone!
The year is flying by once again! Then again it usually does when one is happy and keeping busy!
Beau is keeping me busy, along with Steve's dog Lil'Bear...I will not say they are best buddies, but they are getting along...more so now then at the beginning! Having 2 dogs makes me almost want a third one...will wait though...Lil'Bear is 14 now, so in a few years will most likely pass away...will consider getting another dog then!
Crafting right now consists of working on a baby blanket for a co worker who is expecting a little girl soon. making a simple squares blanket, 2 sets of basic squares and then a third set of squares with a star pattern on them...pattern from a ball band.
I leave you with 2 photos...one of the squares, and one of Beau! Happy February!
Hello from the land of cheese...aka Wisconsin for all my non-us readers :) Came up for a long weekend with Steve you escape the winter blahs - at the Wilderness indoor water park. Had a great weekend so far - riding water rides and floating in tubes on a lazy river.
Spent the drive up working on a baby blanket for my co-worker Lorinda who is expecting a little girl. Steve made me promise to leave it in the car once we got here lol
Been thinking about getting rid of some of my stash of craft books - knit, crochet, needlepoint, cross-stitch etc...will let you all know once I sort them all out! :)
Beau is getting too be huge! At 5 months he is already 70 pounds! Will attach a recent photo - he is an amazing dog - great personality and super loving...also a guard dog...he has a stranger danger bark when someone he does not know is outside...does not bark at any of the neighbors though!
Tis a new year….and I am already breaking my resolutions! Every year I make them with all the best intentions in the world…lose 5 pounds….ok 50 to be honest, craft more, blog more often and even stay in touch more with friends. And then, every year I start to break them right away….at least I am consistent right?
Okay, I've not broken all of them….yet. I stepped on the scale this morning, saw that I had gained 8 pounds over the past 6 weeks. Darn trip to Belgium…WAY too much good food there…then add in all of the holiday eating…well it's no wonder I went backwards on the weight loss! But at least I know where I am starting the year at and I know that I can lose those 8 pounds again…the other 42 might be more of a challenge…well….really the last 12 will be the challenge…lots of running in my future I think!
Blogging more…well this one is always my challenge. Best intentions in the world aside, I just don't have the time to spend on the computer once I am out of work these days. Okay…spend on the computer blogging that is. I spend plenty of time on facebook which is how I am trying to stay better in touch with more friends…I can cyber stalk everyone to my hearts content. What did we do before Facebook? Oh, that's right, letters and the age old process of gossiping…so did you hear about so-and-so?
Crafting you ask? That's right, this is a crafting blog! I continue to work on a doily I started in Belgium…talk about procrastination right? I actually am making progress on it though! Over the holidays I made up some knitted Korknisses (Christmas Ornaments made from Wine Corks) and crocheted Snowflakes although I never did find the time to block the snowflakes! I started finally the Star Afghan again for the Family Room in colors to match the couch. I am also in the process of starting to make lots more yarn food. Decided that I needed a collection for my house and that the boyfriend's niece will soon be old enough for her own collection of yarn food!
Pictures? Right…ummm…will see what I can take the next few days and find some time over the weekend to post them up!
Happy New Year to all of you!
Kimberly
I think my last post welcomed the summer months....so this one is welcoming fall and winter which I am sad to say is rapidly approaching!
Summer was so full of friends, family and that horrible four letter word called work which totally kicked my derriere this summer. My hours were insane and I practically lived up in Canada half of June and July. It has calmed down though which is a good thing!
I was able to work on some crafts this summer, did some beading, and then did some crocheting and knitting of yarn food for the youngest of the nieces. Been working recently on a Cake Box for my niece Megan – she looked through my pattern books, pulled this one out and dropped heavy hints that this is what she wanted for her birthday. Its not yet finished, but have a week to go so it will get done! Mike (the new significant other) has to work tonight most likely, so I will have the couch to myself and plenty of time on my hands!
The house is slowly getting into shape. Did do some smaller projects over the summer – got my office almost fully set up – need to get a chair for the desk as well as some additional light in there. I will try to take some pictures so we can compare the before I moved in and the after I moved in.
Work is calling my name – will be in touch soon!!
Actually its rather cute with the face design! I'm planning to make some more of the bottom wafer cookies in "vanilla" and "strawberry" as well as a bunch of fruit and veggies.
Happy President's Day! I just love these public holidays where the kids all have off from school but of course my company does not give us the day off as well. There are all these great holidays here in the US that us office slaves have to...well....slave away during them....Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Columbus Day, Veteran's Day...if we were a more religious based country, we could have more of those holidays like many European countries have as well - Good Friday, Holy Monday, Ascension, Assumption, Pentecost, All Saint's Day...the way I figure it, I am being cheated of 10 nice days off of work...okay, so if you don't want to take the Religious holidays we could do like the UK and Ireland and have "Bank Holiday Mondays"
Ah well...such is life in the Land of the free and the overworked, overstressed overeverything!
Crocheting and Knitting continue. I've been busy working on a new play yarn food collection for my youngest niece. I finished up several tarts and cookies this weekend, along with 2 of her requested blueberries. I asked her what she wanted and as if she knew what I hated to make, she smirked at me and goes "Blueberries" Do y'all realize how tiny blueberries are??? So, I suffered through making up two small blueberries and the rest of the blueberries were "made" into a blueberry tart! Hopefully that will work for her! lol
Of course I forgot to take pictures of them all...they are still at my parent's house so I will see if my Mom can grab a picture before she gives them to Abby. If not, more are still on the way for her as I need to make her as big of a collection as my other niece has!
No progress has been made on the Star Afghan....I am still trying to mentally pep myself up to take on the task of all of those little granny squares and all of those pesky little ends that need to be weaved in!
I am feeling the urge to start crocheting with thread again as well. I might try another of my foreign language patterns - I always find those an interesting challenge, especially those in languages I do not speak at all, like Flemish or German! Thankfully a chart is a chart in any language and aside from deciphering exactly what the symbols represent the only challenge is in the special note sections.
Have a great week everyone!
With the never ending Baby Blanket! I did not really think that I would ever finish it, and yet let night I weaved in the last of the ends.
Overall, the project was really really easy - each motif was fairly simple....the only downside was the number of ends to weave in...which we all know that I despise doing. So of course I kept putting this project into a bag and shoving it in a corner - out of sight, out of mind! Occasionally guilt would get to me and I would start to work on it....only to be easily side tracked so back into the bag in the corner it would go!
I love the colors.....if I did it again I would probably make it larger by using more motifs.
Pictures you ask? Well, I am having slight technical difficulties in finding my camera cord - once it is found, picture will be uploaded.
I bought recently yarn to make a new Star Afghan in colors which match my family room. The first Star Afghan I made goes well with my living room chairs, so it has been moved out there permanently, so I am in need of another afghan for the family room to cuddle under. I hope that this time around the afghan goes much more smoothly for several reason. First of all is that I actually know now what I am doing - as a reminder the Star Afghan was my first Crochet Project that I started. Second is that I have the errata report which should help prevent me from going crazy wondering why the directions would not work correctly. Third and final reason I have written all out a graph with the color directions for using 3 colors like I did for the first afghan which should allow me to go faster since I will not have to think about color patterns this time!
I really want to do some thread work, so I might start a project there - perhaps some snowflakes and a doily.
I've also been busy on the house - putting up some pictures and rearranging furniture and plants. I need to go out and buy more hangings for the walls - I need at least a few more pictures in the living room / family room along with some thing for my bedroom....once I decide on what the color is going to be in the bedroom. The walls are a tan color, so I've been thinking about either going with a white or perhaps red and black accents.
Although I went to Michigan for the holidays I felt that I had to have a Christmas tree....here I am decorating it:
I spent some time this weekend finally crafting again. I finally got all the pieces of the baby blanket I am working on put together and started on the border - hopefully it will be done real soon! I also picked up some yarn last night.....I have decided to once again do the Star Afghan, but this time in colors to match my family room furniture.....hopefully this time will go a lot smoother since I have the error corrections which I did not have last time....talk about frustrating and wanting to pull my hair out!
Okay, have a great week everyone! Happy Crafting!
Howdy Ho Good Neighbors...ummm...do I have any neighbors left after my self imposed sporadic year + of non-blogging? I hope so! For those of you needing a more than sporadic input from me, I can be found on Facebook where you can stalk me to your hearts content...once you friend me that is! The e-mail address I use on Facebook is kaml19****at**** yahoo*****dot***** com hopefully that is not picked up by the spammers and I end up with a slew of spam mails now!
I had a reason for blogging today...and of course I got side tracked and have lost what I wanted to say...don't cha hate when that happens? It's like going to the fridge opening it up and then forgetting what you wanted to take out. Oh well, if I ramble long enough it is sure to come back to me right??? Or else I'll wake up at 3 am and remember then!
Snow season is in full force here in the Chicago-land area.....I blew out the driveway last night after work of a few inches of snow....only to be met this morning with what looked like 10 more inches of it...according to the weather guy we got over 6, but they must be using an oversized ruler because that snow came over the top of my poor little snowblower which was chugging and coughing as it struggled to deal with that much snow! I've been afraid to look out the window while here at work in case it is still snowing...I might cry as I know that I need to still blow my sidewalks off when I get home.
I got my new glass finally! After a year of broken glasses which entailed my only wearing contact for 15.5 of he 16 hours I was awake I saw the eye doctor and got some new ones. They have a funky retro rectangle shape and I love them!!! I'll have to get some picture of me wearing them.....its been a while since I have posted pics...this weekend....pinky swear promise!
Still can not remember what I wanted to blog......perhaps tomorrow I will remember!
Happy Crafting!!
Kimberly
I have arrived.
And that is about all I have to say =)
No, honestly its been a busy 9 days since I have arrived here in the Chicago-land area. Its been very busy as I got off the plance on Sunday, managed to get my car and apartment located, and then started work on Monday morning! Talk about no rest for the weary!
I am living right now in Glenview Illinois on an old Naval Air Base. My parents came to help me house hunt (more on this later) and while walking around the shopping area my Dad got to talking about how he could not believe that he was on the Glenview Base. I guess several of his old military budies had either been stationed at Glenview before shipping overseas or had gone to Glenview when they returned stateside. So for him it was really cool where I am living.
My parents drove over from Michigan last Thursday and we spent all day Friday looking at 13 different houses. Several issues popped up during the day - i.e. an electronic key not working, another key not turning the lock, but we were able in the end to see all but 1 of the houses on the list and then narrowed the list down to 4 possibilities. I am going back to re-visit the 4 houses today after work with a colleague to try to finalize my decision in my mind. I think I have it narrowed to 2 but I want to make sure about that as I can honestly see myself living in all 4 of the houses.
While I was still in Europe on my last trip to Zurich I picked up a magazine from a stand off the motorway in France. it showed a techinique called Hardanger - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardanger_embroidery Whqt gorgeous patterns qnd designs! I can not wait to try my hand at this - has anyone ever done this?
I have not had much time to knit and crochet since being back, but I did pick up some yarn. One of my new colleagues is pregnant so I thought to make up a quick baby blanket for her upcoming new arrival.
This is all for now! Enjoy the rest of the week!
And now for the real reason that you read my blog......crafting!
While I have been busy i have been working my fingers off whenever possible. I am almost finished with a baby afghan and I've finished a few thread projects here and there. Here are a couple of the things I've finished recently:
First up is a Jean Greenhowe design from her Little Men and Monsters Collection - a T-Rex which is sitting on my Dad's bookshelf currently back in the US. he was made using Wibra acrylic and took forever since I was too lazy to take the 10 minutes to sew him all together.
When I was in Spain back in April, I bought a Thread Doily magazine. It is in Spanish, but thankfully the designs are charted so I can just read the charts and figure things out from there along with my very basic Spanish skills I possess for reading the instructions. The first is a small design that I made as a starter Spanish Project using Size 10 Coats Eldorado White thread:
The second doily is way more advanced and ovaly! I loved the look of it as being something different. I first crocheted the round middle section and then added on the two ends before crocheting around the entire project for a few rows...novel concept eh?
I did hit a stumbling block on another small project I am working on. I've never seen this stitch pattern charted before and I can not for the life of me figure out how in the world it can be done based on what is written in the chart! And of course there are no descriptions anywhere on how to do it! I'll have to see if I can write out a portion of the chart and see if anyone knows how it can be done!
What else is on the hooks and needles you ask?
Why another doily, but this one is from a FRENCH pattern book with a Flemish pattern waiting right behind it! Also a few scarves (its summer I know, but I need these for gifts) and some dishcloths and patterns I am testing for others and creating for myself!
What is going on in your corner of the world?
We spent one day out at the beach - lovely time - nice and sunny and I enjoyed splashing in the water, even if it was FREEZING!!!!
Here are some pictures from Rome - first up me outside of Saint Peter's in the Vatican:
And next, a group shot of us with two Roman Soldiers we found outside the Colliseum! 
Last but not least the dishcloth - rather springy is it not? I also have finished almost a second doily - will get it finished and then block both of them at the same time along with some snowflakes I have done recently - nothing like putting it off huh?
I am slowly getting back into the swing of things for crafting. I need to pick up the needles again, which should happen soon hopefully!
My neice has requested more Play Yarn Food - this time she only needs 5 pieces of bacon, 2 doughtnuts and just a few grapes. She was so cute while asking that I could not say no!
I was touched by my nephew the other day. They got a new puppy and we were talking about how he was taking his stuffed animals. I said "oh no thats not good that hes chewing on your animals" to which Andrew replied most seriously "Don't worry Aunt Kim. Super Turtle and Charzon are up on my shelf where he can not get to them. The others were bought at a store, but yours you made for me which makes them super special!"
I did not think he really respected the fact that I made him something, but he does! I made him the little turtle probably 4 years ago, and with all his toys and junk I am surprised he has not lost it in the mess of his room / closet!
Okay, I am off for bed - have a great week everyone!!
