Barbie Stuff

A Barbie purse, to be exact. I have been crocheting Barbie furniture lately. (For a friends daughter.... long story...) I sent her the dishcloth I was knitting while we were in Colorado this summer, and her daughter thought it was a rug or blanket for her Barbie Dream House. LOL So I said, "I can make her something for her Barbie house..." (I used to LOVE crocheting Barbie stuff.) I don't think I ever even had a Barbie, growing up. I don't remember it at all, if I did. So, I don't know why I like making Barbie dresses, now.... I used to crochet Bed Doll dresses for everyone in my family who was a little girl. I made one for both of my nieces (I since have two more, who never did get Bed Dolls), I made one for my sisters.... I don't think anyone kept any of them. And, I think I got burned out from making them. (That was the only patterns I had for a while.) Anyway~~~ I don't know where this came from, but I made up a purse for Barbie. You can find the pattern at my other blog. :) I took a picture of the 'frame' (plastic canvas sewn together) of the blanket chest I made for her. Which I since have finished. I also crocheted a rug. Now all I have is the chair to do. My six (soon to be seven) year old said 'Can you make me one of these? (The blanket chest.) But different?' (sigh...) Then, I got out my latest issue of Crochet World, to show him the tent and sleeping bag patterns. (Sigh again...) And I crocheted him a sleeping bag. Now all he needs is a guy that fits... (Sigh...) I won't even tell you about going onto ebay and looking at the 7,000+ pages of G.I.Joes and action figures, then doll houses, then Barbie accessories (didn't look to see how many pages there was of Barbie).... Then crochet patterns for Barbie... It's no wonder I never finish anything... AND I am going to make a sleeping bag and tent for my friends son, too. (So he doesn't feel left out. He's really a sensitive kid... Even though he is all boy.) :) So, I will need to get more camoflauge (sp?) yarn to do that, too. Well, someday I may have pictures of the whole finished sets. Stay tuned...

Blueberry Muffins!

... dishcloths, that is... :P I have been knitting more dishcloths. I knitted the off-white one first. Then I thought, "Duh... I should have knit this in blue, for blueberry?"

Oh well. If you have a Ravelry account, you can find the link here for this dishcloth. If not, you can find it at digknittydesigns dot blogspot dot com. With a 'www' in front. :P




Is anyone else craving blueberry muffins now?...
I did make some muffins, although they aren't blueberry.... (In case you thought you were going to see some yummy blueberry muffins, from my blog post title...) They are 'Fat Free Zuccini' muffins. I think it is kind of misleading when they say these are 'fat free'. They are still loaded with sugar. And doesn't the body convert sugar into fat?..... Technically, they don't have any fat in them, but... Someone gave us a bunch of vegetables from their garden. My son did some work for him. He paid him a little bit, plus gave him all those vegetables. Tomatillas, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets (yuck), carrots, and two big zuccini. Which is all grated up and in the freezer. So far we have had two loaves of zuccini bread. (My 17 year old made some.) I just stay out of his way in the kitchen, and tell him 'Do whatever you want but you're cleaning up the mess.' :P He is pretty good about that. (Although, the dishes might not be *totally* clean after he washes them, but.. that's a whole other thing..) Anyway the zuccini bread was good. He googled zuccini bread recipes (before I could even get my cookbooks out to find some for him), and did it all on his own. Anyway, we also had some of it on the grill, and then I made a Chocolate Zuccini (Bundt) cake. It was okay. Everyone else said they liked it. (They were probably just trying to be nice...) ;) It was all right, but the frosting was kind of grainy to me. It was super sweet. I could barely finish the one piece. These muffins are too sweet, too...

Anyway~~ I also crocheted some more leaves... in more 'traditonal' leaf colors? I should have taken a picture of all the "leaf rubbings" my six year old did yesterday. He did two pages of 'traditonal' fall leaf colors, then decided he was going to make them ANY color. LOL He made a hot pink leaf, a black one, a blue one... Too funny. Maybe I'll take some pictures of them today.

We used to do leaf rubbings every fall. It is kind of ridiculous doing it here, but... Still kind of fun. Even if the leaf we used is still green!

I hope you all are having a nice day. :)

Guess What? I'm Still Here...

... am I getting on your nerves yet? :P

Yesterday, our 17 year old had all of his wisdom teeth removed. :0 I could not believe how fast they did it!! His appointment was at 10:30 am. We got there at about a half hour early. They called him in at 10:15. He was done in just a little over a half an hour! ALL FOUR. A dentist appointment isn't even that fast. I was shocked. I was all ready to camp out all day; I brought a book to read, the two younger kids brought stuff to do (PSPs).... I hadn't even gotten into my book yet, and they were done. So far, he is doing all right. They gave him a prescription for vicadin :0 but we didn't think we should get it filled. (Is it just 'us' or isn't vicadin pretty strong for a 17 yr old?...) Well anyway I gave him one of my pain pills for my back. It's 'Hydrocone' ? (something like that). It just is basically the same strength (IMO) as two Tylenol. And he's been putting the ice pack on. He couldn't brush his teeth til this morning (ew...) This morning he also swished salt water in his mouth (they told him to do that). I guess by the third day it's the worst (for swelling, bruising,etc....) so we will see.

Here is a WIP I have going. I finally am working on the Earl Grey socks. I was really getting into them, and I just haven't picked them up again, since the day I started them... I actually have been busy and tired, so I really haven't had the motivation to do anything... I shocked myself again when I actually figured out something was wrong with the pattern (without looking at the pattern site online, or checking Ravelry first...)! After all the ribbing, you will work two rows of the cable pattern.... It should be: "Next Row: K1, work pattern, knit 28... work pattern, knit 27" The pattern had 27 and 26, but I don't think she added in the M1's from the previous row. So, I am almost done with one cable pattern section (?), this is when I first got started... I will have to take another picture soon (if my camera will cooperate...)
This is a quickie project I did somewhere in between everything. Someone who is on two message boards I am on (her username is Serena on Crochetmania, and Gran on Crochetville) has been sending me little goodies in the mail every now and then. She had sent me some leaflet (?) patterns a while back, one of them was 'Autumn Leaves'. I just love autumn, and I really miss it. We don't get autumn here at all. So I crocheted one of the leaves... They are fridge magnets but you could probably use them for anything.. appliques, whatever. When I was in Michigan, I bought some variegated yarn at WalMart in Fenton one day that just looked like Fall to me. I never looked at the color, it's Fall! How weird... My brain sometimes semi-works, eh? ;) I made this to send to one of the people I sent things to on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation; I have recently quit Crafting for a Cause-- for a while, anyway... I wanted to send her a little something with the letter telling her about that... I will probably make myself one of these, too. I think they are cute. Thanks Serena/Gran!! *Hugs*

Another F.O.

And they're socks! Holy cow. These are for my husband. I wonder when I started these... They might be the fastest pair of socks I've ever finished. I already cast on for the Earl Grey socks, but... I am already worried I won't know what to do. The pattern isn't a row-by-row or section-by-section pattern. It's just kind of vague. I want to try more kinds of sock patterns, though. So maybe I will keep on with it.

Blog It While You've Got It...

I guess. (The internet, that is...) :P Someone we know asked us over for dinner last night. She had a few crocheted rugs around her house. I asked her if she crocheted them. She said no, her Grandmother did those. Then she asked me if I crocheted. I said yes. Well then she asked me if I might be able to help her with something. I said maybe (I have had people ask me to fix things that were not able to be fixed, before...) Her cat had gotten to this rug and unraveled it. I thought there might be enough yarn to finish it with, but there wasn't. So I used some rug yarn (needleloft) that I had. It wasn't an exact match. But.... here it is, finished. :)

And up close. You can see the difference. I used an H hook and tried to crochet tight as I could, but it still turned out bigger than the original. I think part of that might be that it is worn and used for so many years... Oh well. I called her and told her all this and she is okay with it, she said she just didn't want it to get unraveled and worse. It makes me want to make a rag rug now. (Like I don't have enough projects right now, to finish...) I have wanted to make one forever.... Maybe someday.

Here is another project I recently finished. A 'Snow-Yo Man', from Gardener's Ramblings. :D Isn't he cute? I realized I forgot to put three buttons on the snowman's body. Oh well. He's still cute, to me.

Our six year old ~who will be seven two weeks from Wednesday!! :( said, 'It looks like marshmallows' :P (he loves marshmallows). Well that's all for now.... I hope you are all having a good Monday so far.

Well, I'm still here....

Since I don't have much to blog about, I thought I'd post a picture of an old pair of socks I knit for my husband. (Yeah, my camera works whenever I could care less... But whenever I really *want* it to.... Grrr!!) I knit these a long time ago. Must have been Pre-Digital camera days for me, because I'm pretty sure I don't have a picture of these. Unless it was just so long ago, I forgot?.. He never wears these socks. (I am knitting him a second pair, which I have posted about here a couple posts back.) I hope he'll start wearing them both. He said 'It's never cold enough.' I told him, 'Nice try. I knit you the first pair when we lived in Michigan or Colorado, and you didn't wear them there, either....'

I know I didn't post it here yet, but we are going to be getting rid of our internet soon. For a few different reasons (it's my husband's idea, not mine...): It's a big time waster (especially for me!), and a distraction (especially when I am supposed to be doing homeschooling with the kids right now...); for financial reasons, and other reasons... I will probably have to go up to the library every once in a while to check out all my sites: Ravelry, Crochetville, Crochetmania, and all my blog friends' blog updates :) .... It just won't be the same, but.... Maybe we have gotten too used to it, and need to step back for a while. What did I do in Pre-Internet days? I remember cleaning a lot more, and spending more time with the kids (yikes). So I think this will be a good thing for us right now.

I also forgot to post in my last blog update about all the other animals we saw in my Dad's backyard: Coyote (saw one walk through the backyard like it was nothing--we also saw one somewhere else while we were driving, it was just out in the middle of a field). Deer (I think I posted that), sandhill cranes, and a skunk! It was pretty cute, but it sure did smell! We actually smelled it before we saw it-- that night about 2 am, it sprayed somewhere around the house. My car smelled like skunk for days after. Yuck.... Now that I think about it, I hope I didn't smell like it!... Oh well... No one said anything to me, so I must not have. :P

My Dad is supposed to be coming home from the hospital tomorrow. For a 'trial period'. ??? I guess, to see how he does getting in and out of the house, and around the house, by himself? I KNOW he is not going to want to go back into the hospital, after being home. He has been acting very rudely to the nurses and doctors. I won't go into that, but... I don't know how it will all work out, but... I'm sure I will hear about it this weekend. (Sigh....)

Three weeks ago from Wednesday, my "baby* will be seven years old! :( I told him I am going to stop feeding him so he won't grow anymore. He said 'Mom. I would die.' ;P I said I wouldn't do that, I'm just joking around with you... They grow up so fast. The twelve year olds' voice just got deep like overnight! I don't know if I like that!....

Well I will be around every now and then. I don't know if I will be able to blog much anymore. I guess we'll see. Take care, everyone. :)

Phone Pictures....

.... Since that's all I have left from my trip. :( We'll see if these work okay.... While I stayed at my Dad's, there was a lot of wild animals we saw coming through their backyard everyday. This was a turkey we saw the day before we left. It came right up by the house. Was probably getting bird seed on the ground from all of my stepmoms' bird feeders. :) It was so cool. Another day we saw a mama turkey, with three babies, out towards the pond. I don't know if this was the same turkey or not, since it didn't have any babies with it... This is a baby chipmunk my twelve year old caught! (He used two sticks to pick it up.) You should have heard me, 'Don't you dare hurt that baby chipmunk!' He put it up on the table. It was shaking really bad. I said 'Don't put that up there, it's gonna walk right off the --' (table) (It fell off.) :( I said 'Go put it back where you found it, it's mama is probably looking for it.' Well later on that day, I heard a bunch of commotion outside; so I went over to the sliding glass door and heard that Buddy (my Dad's dog--he's a Border Collie mix and is the BEST dog on earth!!--except for this....) got a baby chipmunk in his mouth. It was apparently already dead. :( I told my stepmom about the kids finding it earlier; and I hope that they didn't do anything to hurt it... (I didn't tell her how it fell off the table... I know they didn't hurt it with the sticks, they wouldn't intentionally hurt an animal like that, but...) Anyway she said it was probably already injured, or they wouldn't have been able to catch it. Maybe. Well, here *was* the cute baby chipmunk: Poor baby chipmunk... :(

And these were taken at the mill pond in our old town. Tons of geese and ducks... (The big ones spreading their wings are statues in the water...) You can see the bridge going over the pond (this is where I took the last picture, from)

The geese will come right by you, but not look at you or come to you.

And here is a view of the mill pond, from the bridge that goes over the pond... (With the top of my six year olds' head in there, too...)

Guess I should have taken more phone pictures, in this case, huh? Oh well... Just thought I'd share some of them here....

Projects From My Trip....

I bet you didn't even know I was gone... :) I went to stay with my Dad while he had surgery in August. I was there almost three weeks. He made it through the surgery fine, but then had other complications. He is an alcoholic, so went through DT's and they put him on a detox program. They kept him sedated, because he was so anxious and his heart rate kept going up, his blood pressure kept going up... Then, he developed pneumonia. So he was (and still is, I think) on antibiotics for that. Long story short, he will be in the hospital probably another week from when I left (Friday); then in a physical rehab facility for two weeks after that. So.... I decided I couldn't stay there another month. I was able to help out *some*, though.... I drove my stepmom to the hospital a few times (she doesn't drive highways), tried to help with cleaning the house, some... Made dinner a couple times... And if he is in the rehab place, he will probably be well enough to get around by himself when he gets home. (The whole reason-- mostly, besides wanting to be there for the surgery in case anything happened-- that I went, was to help him out after he got home from the hospital..) I think besides getting him to walk by himself, the big thing now is getting him back to himself. When he started coming out of sedation, he was really out there!! The first day I walked in his room after he was *awake*, I said, 'Hey! They have you sitting up now! Have you been able to walk around at all?' (Not knowing anything about how he really was doing at this point...) He said, 'It's against the law' I laughed and said 'No it's not, I'm walking around, aren't I?'.... Things like that. It was distressing.... The nurses said it is because he is in what they call a 'Med Fog'; because he was on so many different medications, he is 'foggy', and should come out of it soon. But because his liver isn't like as a normal, healthy persons' liver (from being an alcoholic since he was 16 years old), it may take even longer than usual for his body to get rid of all that stuff...
Anyway~~~ I only brought a few projects with me to work on. My Simply Striped Shrug. This is my progress so far. :)

My socks, which I started for our twelve year old son (I wanted to knit socks for all of them). He said he doesn't want them. :( So, I asked my husband if he wanted them. He said yes. (I don't know why he wants them, when he doesn't even wear the ones I already knitted him!...) I was going to make them for the 17 year old, but I have another pair in mind for him. I already have the pattern & yarn to make him the Earl Grey Socks. So, here is sock #1 of pair #2 for my husband....

I also worked on some more magic ball hotpads. I finished one other one besides this (which I gave to my stepmom). I took a picture of it, but my camera ATE all my pictures!!! I am so mad about that. I had 65 really cool pictures of the whole trip. It has done that to me once before. I want to smash it. Anyway, the other one was more black and white and blue... It was pretty cool. This is the second one I did...

This is the back. Here is the front:

Kinda crooked. I also did a couple more ballband dishcloths:

The brown-ish one is for my sister. Don't know about the blue one yet. I have a pile of dishcloths going. I was going to donate them somewhere but haven't decided yet...

Another idiot dishcloth.

When I was in Michigan, I got to visit lots of family. Two of my Aunts (well, three-- I saw one of my other Aunts at Target while I was there-- she works there :P). My one Aunt; I used to live with for a while, til I graduated from high school.... She had a lot of these dishcloths, she buys at craft shows. She was showing them to me. I said 'Oh yeah, I make those a lot'. She also had these really cool crocheted scrubbies. She gave me one (I should take a picture of it). I wanted to try and copy it; but don't know if I will ever get around to doing that... It's made out of some kind of mesh stuff. Mine is purple. I think she had a yellow or green one, too. I got to see my nephew. :) He's going to be walking any day now. He's only about ten months old, too. Our oldest walked at ten and a half months old. (My sister--my nephew's mama-walked at nine months!) So he might be an early walker, too. Well that is enough for today, I think. As much as I don't like living here, it does feel good to be *home*!