Checking In

 

Hey y’all!  Popping in to say hi. Sorry I don’t visit much anymore. My days are full. I sure haven’t been sleeping like you-know-who above. :o)  He’s so dang spoiled rotten it isn’t funny. On a serious  note I think he was abused before he found me. There have been many times that I’ve reached to pet him and he flinches.  That can only be because of abuse.

A few weekends ago it was nice one Saturday so I left the door open just to see what he would do. Well, he came out on the porch very cautiously and checked everything out. Then he came off the porch, sniffing and checking stuff out. I was in the yard watering and all of a sudden I heard this noise and there he was, on the other side of the fence. He had climbed the corner post. No reason to fret. If it was meant to be he would stick around. So he checked out the woods for about an hour. I kept coming out to see if I could see him. I finally clucked to him (that’s how he comes to me) and here he came. Climbed back up the post, jumped down in the yard and came up on the porch and laid down. So I left the door open, came in the house and about 10 minutes later he comes strolling in. So I shut the door and that was that. Mister took a stroll. :o)  The only bad thing was that later on he went over to the door and turned around to look at me (like a dog would) as if to say ‘Well, are you going to let me out again?’.  Uhhhhh……no.   :o)

As to the crochet front, not a lot has been going on. I don’t know whether I am losing my interest or what but I just don’t have a fancy to do a lot of crocheting. I’ve done some little stuff, but not as much as normal.

These are some headbands for a baby, that I was asked to make. I like the smaller one best. These were done with Reynolds Kids Sunday Best yarn and a B hook. It’s hard to tell but that is a lady bug in the front. Not some of my best work. It’s squishy so the baby can hold it in it’s hand. And large enough that it can’t be swallowed.

This coozy is a tad too big. I made it with an H hook and cotton yarn. I should have used a G. The skull was made out of the Sunday Best with a B hook. (Reynolds Kids Sunday Best is a discontinued yarn that I really like)  I like it because it is a tad stretchy but not too much.  This will be donated for an event in 2 weeks to help a friend down on their luck. He lost his job and his girlfriend/significant other just went through congestive heart failure, pneumonia & last week came home from having a mastectomy. So we are having a benefit for them. They don’t know it yet. He’s not going to be a happy camper but he’s going to have to live with it. He’s helped out many causes in the past and now it’s time for us to step up to help him. (Glad he doesn’t read this) The next coozy will be donated for this event also. I have made a few of these in the past. I always have a hard time putting the boobs on them. I made the left one twice, pulled the first one apart, because it didn’t match the right boob. So I said the heck with it……

I guess it’s not bad for not using a pattern, but still. I don’t like it when something I make doesn’t come out like I want it to.

On the home front I have been watching a nest of Carolina Wrens on my front porch. Mama made a nest in one of my plants. She laid her eggs one day at a time until there were 5 eggs. They hatched a couple weeks ago. I’m mad……the babies flew off yesterday. All this nurturing I did and that’s the thanks I get!  lol….actually I have a friend at the house doing some work for me and he was standing on the porch smoking when all these little birds were flitting on the porch and he didn’t know what was going on until after they had all taken off. He told me about it when I got home. I was soooooo darn bummed.  I guess at least now I can tear the nest out of my plant. :o(  I have ‘empty nest’ syndrome……..literally. lol

And lastly, I have to show you my booboo. It’s not bad now. This happened Sunday night. I slipped getting in the tub/shower. Did you know there ARE some disadvantages to living alone?  lol My phone was in the living room. I’d hate to think what would have happened had my leg snapped. Talk about hurt! It immediately raised up while I was in the shower crying. :o)  It’s not a laughing matter. It really did hurt. I hate this getting old stuff. My right leg and hip and lower back have been killing me ever since too. One of my friends on FB asked me did I think  it was time for Life Alert.  :o(  Perhaps it is. It’s just that I’m not that old.

My thoughts and prayers today are with the people in Oklahoma. What an awful, horrible tragedy. So many babies lost in that one school. So many people hurting and gone. I watched a video on FB earlier of a woman who was in the bathroom with her dog sitting on a stool. It happened so quick and when it was done she was on the floor and her dog was gone. As they were interviewing her someone said ‘A dog!’. She turned around and there was her baby, under debris and couldn’t get out until she helped it out. I cried. She said that God had answered one prayer for her, and now he had just answered the other. I wanted to reach through and give her the biggest hug. I just can’t imagine being in their shoes.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again…..tell those you love how much you love them. They can be gone in the blink of an eye.

TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Not Much Going On

 

I haven’t been doing a lot lately in the way of crochet. This is basically the only thing I have accomplished since I last posted.  And it’s full of mistakes. 4 at least. 

I made this in excel. I have some modifying to do to the original chart. Starting from the bottom up it didn’t become obvious that I had made some mistakes until the top of Girl’s was done. If you have ever crocheted double stranded you’ll know that frogging isn’t easy. So I just kept on going.

Cotton yarn was used to make this. 4 balls of black (2 were partial balls, 1 full ball and part of a full ball). The ecru, pink and orange were from full balls and the purple and red were partial balls. It is 56 stitches, 85 rows plus the border. The ending size is 16 1/4 x 23 1/2 inches using an H hook. It obviously needs to be blocked. The bottom is a lot looser than the top is.

I wanted to do it in red, white & blue but decided to use the colors I had. It kind of stands out don’t you think? :o)

Today is a dreary day in SE GA. We are supposed to get some of the rain that TX and parts west and north of here have been getting.

Hope your week will be full and productive! Happy hooking!

TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Peace

 

 

As in world and the yarny kind.  All of the horrific events that have happened recently have saddened me beyond words. I feel so bad for everyone affected by them.  It’s not easy to say, because I know it’s not easy for the loved ones of those lost and hurt badly but I pray that they’ll be able to find peace and comfort in the coming days and the strength to pick themselves back up and carry on with life.

 

Kat
XOXOXOX

Blogger

I have to say that I dislike the new blogger. It is sooooo hard to navigate and find what you're looking for to change your settings.

Mike from Our Little Meadow commented yesterday about my word verification. I was like, what?? I knew I had turned it off when I was blogging as Hookin' It With Mr. Lick Lick. I thought your settings stayed the same with each addition but apparently not. So after much searching this morning I finally found it and changed it back to not having word verification. I hate that feature. They make it hard to recognize a lot of the characters.

So also, just to let you know, I do have another blog but it's not set up yet because I just haven't had the time. I secured Winged Heart Creations before someone else could grab it.

I got my cards on Monday! They're just simple front and back cards, nothing fancy. I was happy with them.

I wish I had more time in a day. I've had quite a few woodburning ideas come to mind and have written them down but getting to doing them is hard.

After the viewing last night I went with the girls (it was way after my bedtime) to a place called Gaffney's to get some grub. Awesome food. I never eat dinner and I shouldn't have last night. Mostly because I went to bed with a full stomach and the owner gave us some complimentary fried olives stuffed with jalapeno's, with a side of homemade pimento cheese.  OMG were those things good. I never would have thought that they would be. 3:00 this morning they decided to let me know that I must never do that again.

I also decided that I need to try and get out more on the weekends. I saw so many people at the viewing that I didn't know, due to the fact that I've become a hermit in the last couple of years. I'm going to try, that's all I can do.

Happy hump day y'all.  We're on the downslide to Friday.

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Happy, Sad & Funny

I made this necklace for Bella. I’m bummed because the colors don’t show true. The yellow is very bright and so is the green and orange/red. I used cotton yarn I had. Not sure what brands they are as they were scrap balls in my cotton tote. I need to make Kylie one. Hers will be purple but not sure what other colors I will incorporate. This was really easy to make.

They can wear them and turn it to which ever side they are feeling like. I hope I don’t get in trouble with their mom. :o)
And I would like to introduce you to the latest member of my immediate family. Meet Mister, formerly Missy. And the story goes that she (he) showed up at work and I thought she (he) was feral. I started feeding her (him). It didn’t take long for her (him) to warm up to me and before I knew it she (he) was outside my work door all day long, crying to get in. Or under my car. So before I got in trouble at work I caught her (him) and brought her (him) home. So at first she (he) was outside. Hector was not a happy camper that he  had been replaced. He made it horrible for her (him). So I made an appointment at SNAC (Spay Neuter Alliance Clinic) in Ridgeland, SC to get her (him) fixed before a pregnancy resulted. I was also afraid that she (he) was FIV positive (had feline leukemia). She (He) had a few of the symptoms. So I had her (him) tested first to see if she (he) was. If so then I told them to put her (him) down before the fixing went on. They said they would call if that was the case. I took off Thursday and Friday from work because I had to have her (him) there at 8 am and pick her (him) up at 8 am the next morning if she (he) wasn’t going to be put down.  Well, imagine my jaw dropping surprise when I went to pick her (him) up………..she was a he that had already been neutered!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I was so dumbfounded.  I have no clue how old he is but he does weigh 10 pounds. He is sweet as can be too. So his name was changed from Missy to Mister.  I felt so dumb. I had even made a cute little flower with a name tag to go on top of the cage I took him in. So now he is a spoiled rotten Mister (can you tell???), who loves me to death. This picture is sooo darn funny. He is sitting in the chair laying on the top of the tower sleeping. He was that way for over an hour. I’m thinking that Mister was probably dropped off at work. Or in the surrounding area and found his way to me. I’m such a sucker for animals. I couldn’t not feed him. And my work is right next to the interstate. So he is mine now.
Oh, and that dang Hector has sprayed my front and back door. It stinks to high heaven. I tried cleaning the front door with bleach but it’s still there.  I think maybe he has come back and resprayed because it’s really bad. Any suggestions?

I have more to tell you about the passing of a friend of mine but it’s still rather raw. The viewing is tonight and the funeral is tomorrow. Someone my age. Have I told you lately how much I hate death? :O(
I hope your week is a good one with lots of sun on your face and a smile to match the brilliance of the sun.
TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Belated Hoppy Easter!

 

I hope you had a wonderful Easter! Was the Easter Bunny kind to you? Did he leave you all sorts of yummo treats?  He didn’t leave me any but that’s ok. I don’t need them. :o)

I took a bunch of pictures of Miss Bunny but I guess these would be the best 3.  I made her for a co-worker who is due with her 2nd child very shortly.  We had a shower here at the office last week and I wasn’t going to have Miss B done in time so I made her a 3 strand Never Ending Granny in ILTY soft pink, pistachio (pistache is what it says), and soft blue.  I used almost all of the skeins up for the one blankie.

    

 

It was hard to get a really good up close picture of it. It’s really pretty though, and softy. I think Miss Charlotte will like it.

Other than these I have been working on hats. (What’s new??) I made another Wingmen hat and a couple of other hats for the doc’s order. I ordered cards last week too. My friend told me that the doc took one of the hats to a local kayak place and they wanted to know where they could get some and that they could probably sell a bunch. So I ordered the cards to look a little bit more professional. We shall see where it leads.  I had talked before about opening an etsy shop but that obviously didn’t happen. It’s still rolling around in my head. I’ve seen some people not do well with theirs so I want to see how the hats do locally before I go through the time and effort to list them there. I searched etsy for hats made like mine and only found one shop that the hats are close to mine with the exception that they are shorter in length than mine are. And he sells them for a little bit more than half of what I sell mine for. 

I may be changing the name of my blog again because I ordered cards in the name of Winged Heart Creations. The reason being is that I don’t want to be limited to crochet only. I dabble in wood burning (my first creative love) and making things from wood so I could list stuff like that as well.

Is it spring yet????  I hope so. Things are blooming. We just finished another round of cold. Hopefully that was the end of winter. Today is rain, as is most of this week here in SE GA I think, according to the weatherman, but that could change too.

May your week be filled with love, laughter and everything wonderful!

TTFN
Kat
xoxox

PS/You can find the pattern for Miss Bunny here.  The Never Ending Granny can be found on this page, scroll down to the bottom and find a link for the free ebook.

Spring?

 

Spring has not exactly sprung yet. I thought it was well on it’s way but we have a prediction of 30’s for two more nights this week.  What’s up with that? This is the south for Pete’s sake. (Who is Pete anyways??) (And I’ve already put my plants out!!!)  :o(  Although the pollen has been bad the last couple of weeks, hopefully with the rain that’s expected this coming weekend it will be the end of the tree pollen. But I’m betting not. I’m tired of my car being covered in that fine greenish/yellow dust.

I have been crocheting a little bit. I’m actually ahead of schedule on a couple of birthday projects and behind on a baby project. The below E is a birthday project for my son. It’s just a simple table mat. I charted it out in no time, then wrote out the line instructions and to crochet it was real quick and easy. And I discovered this morning that I must have accidentally thrown away the line instructions. :o( They weren’t with the chart this morning and I know I had them together yesterday. I used Peaches and Creme cotton yarn and an I hook. The finished dimensions with one round of sc all the way around on it are 13 inches across by 10.5 inches down. Guys are so hard to make anything yarny for besides afghans and such so I thought this would be something different.

Along the same line I made two smaller table mats, if you will. I happened across the chart in my internet travels. I also wrote out the line instructions on this as well because it was easier to write it down and follow than to look at the chart and try to remember how many stitches of each color to crochet in the next row, and what row I was on. Plus it’s too easy to get lost for me. With the written rows I can crochet them then mark them off on my paper and I know exactly where I am quickly.

The yellow and black was the first one I crocheted. It’s a birthday present for a friend of mine’s husband in FL.  I hooked it with an F hook. Of course it’s smaller than the E mat above. I don’t have the dimensions with me. I’m thinking roughly 9x7 but I could be wrong. I loved it so much that I immediately made a larger one in green and purple with a G hook. I included the chart with where I found it. If you look at the chart though, you’ll notice that it’s off on the left side. I just added 3 blocks to make it even and center. :o)  I will definitely be making more of these. And more than likely with a bigger hook to make the mat bigger. On each of these, the ball I used to make the skull was the ball that I used the less yarn on. That’s with carrying the yarn on each line under the green. So I was thinking that I might be able to reverse the colors and get two mats out of two balls of color. I haven’t tried it, but I’m wondering if that would work.

Did you notice the chair that the skull mats are sitting on? I am going to cover it in crochet. It’s slow going. I only have one bar on the chair done,  you can see it in the pic. I have a piece almost done for the bar on the bottom side of the chair. It’s weird because it’s real easy to make too long the piece that you think is going to fit, so that it doesn’t fit. That’s why it’s going on the bottom side bar, because I started the row thinking it would fit the bar just below the one that’s finished and after 5 rows it was too long to fit there. I almost frogged it, but found that it fit the side bottom bar perfect. I can’t wait until the whole chair is done. This is a do-in-between kind of project that I can work on a little at a time when I get bored with the other works in progress that I have. It will be a ‘chair of many colors’. Random leftover yarns will be used to cover it. I’ve had this chair for many years, don’t even remember when or where I got it. I do know that when my daughter was in 1st or 2nd grade she wrote on it that she loved a boy named Michael. You can still barely see it on the back of the chair. The chair is all wooden.

I won something! From Crochet Today! It’s a stitch light. This little thing is handy dandy. It’s a powerful light that you can wear, turn on, and if you’re old like me and your eyes are getting bad, even with glasses on, you can see your stitches. Now I can use more black yarn and be able to see where my stitches are.  The strap on it is adjustable, and see that little pouch like thing on there?  It sits behind the light and has a zipper on it. They also sent me two yarn needles in this bag. You can put stitch markers or yarn needles or whatever your little ol’ heart desires, in it.  How awesome that I won this?! I’m not very lucky at winning things but I managed to luck out on this. :o) I like it. Do you know what else you can use it for? When the electric goes out. You can wear it and have full use of both hands. The light is very powerful. I was amazed at how powerful it is. Thank you Crochet Today!, I love it!

I also have written down a pattern for a shower gel holder (Bath and Body Works shower gel) made with cotton yarn, except I haven’t tested it but part way into the second one I’m making.  I like this. It holds the gel and when you need to use it you just tip it over, squirt your gel and the bottle stays in the holder. It also gives you more room on your shower caddy. It’s simple. I just need to get my rear in gear and finish the second one so that I can be sure the pattern is right before I post it. The pattern fits the B&BW shower gel bottle but when you run out of that you can fill the bottle with other shower gel if you wanted to and re-use it. I just had too many on the shower caddy so I needed room.  I have 4 different brands of shower soap/gel in there. (I know, I’m weird…….I’m like that with my shampoo and conditioner too. I don’t use the same brand day after day. Just can’t. I have that one, two different Caress and a different smell of B&BW)

I also have been working on some hats to donate for the BG’s. I would show them to you but I’m doing them exclusively for them for the runs for door prizes. They have skulls on them. :o) And of course I’m still fitting in hats for the doc’s Christmas order. I have the order half done. :o) I have a couple of other crochet ideas swirling around in my head. I hope they come to fruition. Sometimes what you think doesn’t always come out to the hands. At least not me. I can see something in my mind and try to recreate it through my hands and for some reason it just doesn’t work. But I’ve got plenty to keep me busy so I don’t worry about it too much. And then things like the shower gel holder just all of a sudden pop out. It all works out in the wash. :o)

Happy Spring! Where ever you may be I hope your flowers are starting to bloom and bring forth some color and joy to you!

TTFN
Kat
xoxo