Happy thanksgiving!

Yes, it's a day late but a hippy thanksgiving to everyone!

Weren't to mike's parents yesterday for dinner...it was a nice evening with excellent food and company! His family are all great people.

I have been crafting like crazy lately...got bitten by the crafty bug which has been missing lately! Did some bead work...the picture is of a bracelet and a watch I made. Both turned out lovely...i got complimemts at work on the bracelet...will wear the watch this week for the first time.

Also made some more snow flakes, korknisses, working on a doily wip, and trying to finish a few other wips...progress! I have to start using some of this yarn up....mike was a little in shock when he saw how much I have lol

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Sunday afternoon football

mike is at work today so I am sitting on the couch watching sunday football and working on some wips. First up that I actually finished is the attached granny square baby blankie.

Been working on this one for a while...would finish a round or two and then put it down for a few weeks. Finally devoted some time and got it finished. No recipient lined up for it yet...wait and see I guess!

Yay for the short week! Been a while without some days off with nothing big planned to take up the time. Will go to mike's parents for thanksgiving then relax at home the rest of the weekend....perhaps put up some christmas decorations!!

Hope that everyone had a great weekend!

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Birthday cake anyone?

Here is a picture of the cake I made for my niece megan. I forgot to take one so I had my sister take a phone picture and send it...better pics coming in december when I see them again! Megan loved it which is all that matters!

Downside...my other niece abby liked it as well....i see another one in my future....ugh!

Off today to mike's nephew s birthday. I had a friend bring some kinder surprises (kids chocolate eggs with a toy inside) for me to give him...hopefully he likes!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

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On our way to Wrigleyville

To watch the Bears game with friend of mike. Should be a nice evening.

Bren crafting up a storm. Finished the birthday cake for megan and forgot to take a picture...blonde moment. Have finished 5 more flakes and almost finished a granny square baby blanket...3 more rounds yay!!

The next month is going to be super busy. Going up to green bay for the packers game, a trip to europe, thanksgiving at mike's parent's home, christmas at my folks in michigan, illinois for new years...busy busy busy....and I have to work some during all that travel!

What is your holiday schedule like this year?

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Early snowfall!!!

Here is the second flake of the season! Am going to wait and block all that I finish at one time Rather than one by one! Not sure how many I need to finish in total....depends if I give them away as decorations on christmas gift tags.

Most of my christmas shopping is done. Rather easy this year since all the kids have gotten season tickets to six flags great america!

Have a great day!!

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Recent events....

First up is a picture of me at a wedding I went to with mike a few weeks ago. Second is me with the cheesehead head gear for the green bay packers game I am going to in december. Third is me with the niece and nephew in front of the demon roller coaster which was megan's first upside down coaster...she gets her no fear from me of course. Crafting pics son...none were on the phone!

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Just another day....

Wow...three posts in under a week....setting a record for 2010 lol

The day was as normal as it gets in my life...work, work more work followed by relaxing on the couch and catching up on the phone with an old friend from high school.

Started another snowflake, might finish it before bed. Do need to finish the nieces birthday cake...her request this year was for a yarn cake...turning our cute so far!!

Realized that I have a ton of wips that are almost done...just need the finishing touches on them...might get some projects done woo hoo!

I did finish some bead work this summer - will take pics and get them posted!

Have a great day y'all!!

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Visited the land of cheese!

I started the morning with a visit to church at 730 then it was up to wisconsin to visit the land of cheese. I am going in december to watch a green bay packers game so I bought 2 cheesehead hats for me and mike to wear on our trip there....need to keep our heads warm!!

Day continued with some football watching, muffin making and some snow flake making!

I have been itching to thread crochet so today I pulled out the tiny steel hooks and whipped up a snow flake...i have missed thread work!

Have a great week everyone!

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Hello Fall!

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!!

Let the summer begin!!

Well it is finally June and my last few days of aloneness! Is aloneness even a word?? It is now!

On Thursday my room mate from College Ashley will arrive. We have our 10 years college class reunion this weekend. We will spend some time together before heading down to South Bend. No, not to the University of Notre Dame, but to Saint Mary's College - the all-female sister school of ND.

Then on Monday my super long house guest arrives! My friend Zory will be here starting Monday for 2 whole months! What great fun we will have together! She will be up here for work, and I have lots of work trips planned, but we will still have a wonderful time with each other!

The granny blanket continues to grow as I complete round after round. I think that I am about 5 rounds from the end...yay!

I also found some time to work on the Swifter Cover and that is almost finished as well! Hopefully I will find some inspiration and ambition this summer to create some smaller quick to finish items. My niece Abby has asked for more yarn food for her birthday, so I need to get busy with that one asap! I am thinking some bacon, cookies, tarts, potatoes, cherries, bananas, apples and some other veggies. *sigh* What a list! Anyone want to contribute? lol

Well, I must get some cleaning done around the house....I was sidetracked after work with a dinner date and then organizing the garage which now looks great.

The FUN of home ownership

Well....everyone always said that owning a home would not be easy.... I am slowly learning they were in a way right!

 

I have been painting and cleaning up the yard the past few weekends.  It is starting to look nice, but there is still more to go!  I need to paint still my back hall way, and put together the office now that the painting in there is finished.  I painted the door frame and door into the garage and then looking at the garage itself I shudder and want to paint that as it is white but tons of black streaks and marks on it. 

 

I am going to have house guests starting June 3rd and continuing straight through August!  My friend Zori will be up from Argentina for the summer for work.  Then while she is here my sisters are coming over with their familes for a weekend and then my Dad mentioned bringing the little ones over for a Friday Fun Day at Great America amusement park.

 

Crafting you ask?  I am working on a Swifter Cover as well as finishing up the Granny Square blanket.  My Craft Room is slowly being orgranized.  I need to finish putting things away in that room as well as decide on shelving....I am still debating putting in floor to ceiling book shelves / organization on one of the walls...perhaps before that though I am going to paint that room as well!  It is a dark bluey green which I would like to lighten up a little bit!

 

Well, work is calling and I need to get out on time tonight...it is the finals on Dancing With the Stars..can not miss that!!

 

 

May already????

Woosh! Here goes another year just flying by!

The job has been picking up speed and travelling has begun. I've gone twice up to Canada and I know that there are a few more trips in store over the next 3 months.

The house continues to develop. With the help of my parents I've painted my office and almost have that room finished....still up is some spot paintingm woodwork and of course installing bookshelves - can not have an office without bookshelves right?

The craft room has taken the backburner....I have organized my craft books but still need to decide on shelving etc for the yarn and other miscellaneous tools.

I did decide that I needed to use up some of the yarn so I decided on working on a blanket. I started a Granny Square Baby Blanket in Periwinkle, Rose and White. I am about 1/2 way finished - I work on it each night for about 10 minutes to unwind right before bed. Yes, I am procrastinating on making the Star Afghan again.

I also found several UFOs floating around as I unpacked my books and went through some of the yarn totes....I figure I will be guilted into finishing them eventually.....then again maybe not! ;)

Recent Crafing Pics

Mental note....never ask the parents to take pictures of my projects....for this is the result...

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.

Here is the Granny blanket in its finished glory:


I spent the night organizing the garage - still lots of boxes and papers in it to deal with. I then watched the Olympics some as well as did some laundry and dishes. Not a totally productive night, but a sinus cold is slowing me down some this week!

Two posts in one day...wonders never cease!

Happy President's Day!

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!

Finally Finished!

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.

As promised....

I finally fulfill a promise...pictures!

Where to begin right?

Well, let s start with the house for today.....more picture will be coming once I find more time - this weekend was rather filled with taking down all the lights and decorations.

First, from the outside - during the day and then all decorated for Christmas....

While I have been living in the new house almost 3 months, I am still getting it put together and looking like a home. Furniture has slowly been added, so I now have the majority of what I needed.

My dining room set came from my Grandparents - after my Grandmother died my Grandfather gave to me her formal dining room set as seen here....

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!

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

 

 

 

Roll on 2010!!!

The year has started and its off to a roaring start!

 

After some last minute Christmas "play yarn food" knitting and crocheting I am ready to see what 2010 brings me in regards to creative urges.

 

Top on the list is to start an afghan to match the colors in my family room.......just as soon as I finish that pesky Baby Blanket I've been working on for ages....that is on my list for this weekend since I am taking it easy!

 

I am going to be sad to take down my Christmas tree.  I had several snowflakes I had made decorating the tree...hopefully next year I will be able to have even more ready.....assuming I don't give them all away like I tried to do this year!

 

What is on your 2010 Creative To Do list?

 

Aside from the afghan and snowflakes, I foresee lots of play yarn food for my youngest niece, along with scarves and hats and several doilies and household decorations for the new house.

 

Happy Crafting!