R.I.P. Mia 3-28-12

Mia, our Mama Hamster, died yesterday. She was Mama to 13 baby Teddy Bear Hamsters. Friend to us all (in our family). We will miss her.

Peace Headband

Well this is the Peace Headband I made for my friends daughter. She saw one someone had made on  facebook, so it isn't my idea. But I thought it would be pretty easy to do. 

I messed up on the peace symbol. lol

But it was easy to fix.  Here's how I made this headband. I used creativeyarns' Simple Crochet Headband, but I only did two strands instead of three.  Then, for the Peace Symbol, this is what I did:

G hook, two different colors yarn (same as the color you used for the headband, and a contrasting color).
*Do not join at ends of rows. Use a stitch marker or differen colored yarn to mark the first stitch of each round.
Round 1: Ch 2. 6 sc in 2nd ch from hook. (6 sc)
Round 2: 2sc in each sc. (12 sc)
Round 3: (2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc) around. (18 sc)
Round 4: (2 sc in next sc, sc i next 2 sc) around. (24 sc)
Round 5: (2 sc i next sc, sc in next 3 sc) around. (30 sc)
Round 6: (2 sc in next sc, sc in next 4 sc) around. (36 sc)
Round 7: sc in each sc around. Change to contrasting color when pulling up last loop of very last sc in round.
Round 8: repeat round 7.  Join at end of round 8. Fasten off.
I don't know how to describe how I did the peace symbol on the headband, but I will do my best. With contrasting yarn and hook, make a slip knot and pull it up in the center of the circle through the little hole, through the back, with the yarn in back of the circle. Put hook into next space (I did the straight part of the symbol first), pull yarn through to finish the stitch. You might have to fiddle with it to figure it out. Here is a good tutorial on how to do surface crochet: http://www.crochetspot.com/how-to-crochet-surface-crochet-or-surface-slip-stitch/
Sew the peace symbol onto the headband on the left side of headband, or wherever you like it best. :) 

Headbands

A friend of mine asked me if I could make her a headband she saw on facebook. It looked pretty simple. I found a pattern for a simple three stranded headband, and practiced by making a few for me. ;P  The simplest things are sometimes the coolest, I think. Since this was on St. Patricks Day, I had to make a green one. 

Then I thought, I should crochet a shamrock and sew it on. I was a little embarassed to wear this out in public. But my husband said it was cute so I wore it to go out for corned beef and cabbage. :)

And, I made a pink one, too. 

This is the headband I was practicing for. A Peace Headband. Only did two strands instead of three. I know I did the peace symbol wrong. (I fixed it later.)   I am going to post how I did the peace symbol, in my next post. I'm glad I wrote down how I did it, my friend said her daughter wants some more headbands. :) 

"Now I Am The Muffin Man"

I have been in the mood to bake muffins, like I used to, lately. At least once a week. :P  I was going to make banana chocolate chip muffins when I made these, but I forgot you had to let the butter soften first. So I made these instead; chocolate banana muffins.  I made some banana chocolate chip ones a couple days later. But I didn't take a picture of them.

Last night I made some French Breakfast Puffs.  These are all gone now. Didn't even last 24 hours. See why I make muffins, with kids that eat like food is going out of style? :P  When our two older boys were younger, whenever I would make muffins, (well, not all the time, but sometimes) I would sing, "Now I am the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man. Now I am the butter man, the butter man, the butter man.."  Remember that commercial? :P

Now look how big they are. :(  

Our oldest son Evan came over last night, and he brought some shirts someone gave him. They all tried them on. (Eon wouldn't let me take his picture.)  Evan thinks he is a Trekkie. Eli says "I look good". :P   Eon said, "Two of my friends in my class have shirts like this. But theirs are black." Then he whispers to me, "Girls like them."  Lolol!!! I said (with a completely straight face), "Do you think girls will like you if you wear this shirt?" Funny boys...   They crack me up. :P

Toe-Up Socks And A Note My Husband Wrote Me....

I have been in the mood to knit socks lately. Green ones. For about a month. Because I remember looking for green sock yarn when I got to go to JoAnns a couple weeks ago. (And I had been wanting to knit green socks before that..)  Well I finally was going to start some, with some yarn with green in it. But I couldn't get the right guage with the size 1 dpns I had. So I went to the LYS we have here to see if they had any bamboo dpns size 3. They didn't. But they did have size 3 dpns. AND, they had green sock yarn. :D Bonus.  I am using Wendy's Toe-Up Sock with Gusset Heel pattern. I had been wanting to try a toe up sock forever.  I did mess up on the pattern. Note to self: *Read what the pattern says to do~ Not what you think it means?*  I was knitting one row: "K1, M1, knit to the end" Then the next row: "K to the last stitch, M1, K1"???  I only did that for two rows, thinking "This doesn't make any sense". Then I went back and read the instructions... Duh.. :P   I must have needed two extra cups of coffee yesterday.   Well this is what I have done so far. It's been a while since I've knitted socks. And using the metal dpns is making my fingers go numb. :(  So I can't do much at a time. (Sigh...)

And look at the lovely note my husband wrote me last night....  :0 !!  On my new dpn holder.   It's kind of funny/cute...   I don't really care.  :P

Another Baby Afghan (In Progress)

There is a Baby Items Challenge going on at a Yahoo Group I am in. (Crafting for a Cause).  I wasn't going to join, because I get myself too stressed out AND I have to send the stuff. Well this time I told myself, "I'm ONLY going to finish what I have already started or almost done." Psshhh. Guess what? That didn't happen.  Well, it did. I finished it all. But, then I decided to make an afghan today.

To go with this sweater set.  :)  I figured, if I can finish a baby afghan in less than two weeks, I can finish it by the middle of April or so.  I am using a pattern which doesn't seem to be available anymore. It was on a wideopenwest site, called "Rectangle Square". I only have a little bit of the dark pink left, and a good sized amount of the light pink. So it will be a scrapghan.  I'll try & make it work. Then I will have three full layettes to send in. :)

Gangsta Leprechaun Wants His Gold Back..

This Thursday was "Hats Off To Reading Day". Well with it being so close to St. Patricks Day, I said to Eon, "Maybe you can wear your leprechaun hat I got you". (Love the Dollar Store...)  He said "Yeah." (And he wore his "Lucky" shirt, and his lighting up four leaf clover necklace, too...  And "sunglasses".  :P  I took his picture & he said "Post it on facebook and say 'Gangster Leprechaun Wants His Gold Back" lol! Where does he come up with this stuff?...  :P

Happy St. Patricks Day Everyone!

"I'm Too Sexy For My Milk Bone"

:P  Jetta used to LOVE her Milk Bones. I would say "Do you want a cookie?!" She would get so excited, and wiggle around and jump.  Then when I got the Milk Bone, she would go over to the carpet and sit, and put her paw up. Aw!...   Well then I got some "new" treats, (Chuck Wagon Chicken treats, or something?)  And she started acting like she was too good for Milk Bones. :(   Now all the Chicken treats are gone, so maybe she will like her Milk Bones again... :P    (Sorry for the blurry phone pic..)

The Circus!!

The Circus came to our town. It wasn't the Barnum Bros. or anything. But still...  For a little kid, whose never been to a circus before... :P  Eon got a free ticket (for him), at school. (I noticed later that the free tickets for children were all over town...)   We left a little too early. The shows were at 5 & 7 pm. Well I have never been to a circus before, either. I thought maybe the tickets might get sold out (in this town? -trust me...)  Well we got there, and the ticket window wasn't even open. So... We went to Walmart. 

Then we went to Dairy Queen! :D

Here's the Circus Tent.  I was secretly, I think; even more excited than Eon. I have never been to a Circus, either. :D

Waiting for Eon to finish his ice cream cone...  Sheesh. We should have gone to Dairy Queen first. It probably would have taken him the whole hour before the show started, just to finish that ice cream cone... :P

(My husband said he doesn't think he's ever been to a circus, either.. So it was a first for all of us.)

Going in....  (I hope no one saw me taking these pictures... lol)

Waiting some more, for the show to start. :)   I didn't take any more pictures than these. I did make a few videos, of some of the acts, though. They had pony rides. Eon wanted to go on one. But it was extra money.  (The ponies were SO cute!! My husband said "Do you want a pony now?" I said "Yes!" :P)  It was loud, and I don't like crowds, but it was still fun And they didn't have any creepy clowns either. (Bonus- for me, at least..) :P

Cake In A Cup

I made these for the kids last night. They like it, but I think it is gross.  The original recipe I got in an email  from an old friend of mine (who won't talk to me anymore).  This recipe is very simillar: 5-minute Chocolate Cake. It uses chocolate chips though.  :)

Eon eating his. He said it was too hot. :P  

A Last Minute Birthday Card

We got invited to our neighbors' 7 year old daugters birthday party today. I knew about it earlier in the week. Don't ask me why I didn't go buy a card earlier. Oh, wait. Maybe because my neighbor said not to bring anything. But, I didn't want to come empty handed.  So, one hour (yes, one hour) before the birthday party, I decided to make a card. I was going to go early in the morning to go get one. But, I do not feel good at all. I didn't even want to go because I really don't feel good. And Eon was taking forever to get in the shower & get dressed. (Like usual.)  Anyway, I decided to use kind of the same lay out as the baby shower card I did. But in girl colors. And a recent card making magazine I got had a page on how to do this lettering.  I used a puppy stamp of my son's. (Technically it is mine, but I let him have it..)  And, I gave her money.

I think Eon had fun. In fact, I am almost 99.9% positive he did. :)

The Bouncy House!

Unbelievably, he was the only kid in there at this moment.. :P 

I think even Eli had fun. He went home and got his frisbies and Nerf swords; and he went in the bouncy house. :P I think I might have had some "fun" if I had felt better. Plus, I didn't hardly know anyone. Except my neighbor.

A wolf spider (yikes) was on their front sidewalk.

And this one of their dogs, Brandy. She's a sweetheart. She's a Red Heeler; pretty old. I gave her a few scraps.  She gave me some kisses. :)

More Arts & Crafts Fun... ("Crayon Cakes" Again...)

Last night Eon wanted to make these. I said "Oh yeah... Those are cool."  :D  We didn't have many broken crayon pieces this time.

And, we probably should have made more in each muffin tin. They were pretty skinny. But I thought they turned out kinda cool.

The tops of them.  

Well Picky Mr. Eon didn't like them being skinny and some were "cracked".  Ugh...  So I said well just put one on top of each one & re-melt them.  I thought they looked cooler the first time. :(  But oh well.

He wanted to give one to his teacher.  :P  Poor teachers. Probably get a bunch of stuff from students that they're thinking "What am I going to do with this?"...  Lol. 

While I was googling how to recycle crayons last night, I found a couple really cool ideas. This one was THE coolest one: Crayon Heart Valentines. I need to get some glitter, and some heart shaped silicone molds.  :P  More cool ideas: How to Creatively Recycle Your Crayons. Cool lego people & lego blocks!! (I am not showing that one to Eon. I have no idea where to get lego molds... :P)   Cool Puzzle Piece and recycled crayon molds!  Man, now I just feel like a Lame Mom. :(   More recycled crayon molds, and cool layered triangles.  I do have star ice cube trays. Maybe I could use those next time. 

ETA: I found some silicone lego block and lego people molds on Ebay!! Eon is going to be so stoked. I think even hard to impress Eli might be stoked, too.  I just got the block mold, but maybe I'll get the people one soon...  :D  Now I don't feel like such a Lame Mom...  :P

Broccoli Ham Ring

This blog is turning into a food blog, lately...  I made a broccoli ham ring for dinner tonight. Something different. (And yummy!) I think the las time I made this (or the last time I remember making it) was for my sister-in-law's baby shower. That "baby" is now 13 years old. Anyway, I used this recipe: Broccoli Ham Ring.

Shamrock Shakes

The shake machine was down at McDonalds the other day. So tonight, I made us some Shamrock Shakes at home. This recipe is good: Copycat McDonald's Shamrock Shake. I also like this one: McDonald's Shamrock Shake Copycat Recipe. It's just basically making a shake & adding mint flavoring, and green food coloring.

Cup Caddy

Well I finally bought Carlinda's Cup Caddy pattern on Ravelry, about a week or so ago.  And yesterday, I finally got around to crocheting one.  I just love it. It's so cool. Little enough to put on a desk or bookshelf...  And hold all the extra pens or crochet hooks and other stuff that are laying around. It's a recycler and an organizer all in one. :D

I made this one in "Monet" by Red Heart. I have someone in mind to give it to. I didn't have any coffee cups in a matching (or simillar) color, though. So yesterday I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the Thrift Store. Eon always does. But Eli, I don't think wanted to...  (But he went.)   A girl asked me if she could help me find anything. I said "Well this is going to sound weird; but I'm looking for a coffee cup, in blue or purple/lavender."  She helped me find one on the top shelf. I said "I was trying to look up there, but I'm too short." :P She said she had just cleaned that shelf off that morning, so she knew what was up there. :D    Well when I got the cups home (I bought a white, "Circus, Circus" one, too) I untied the ribbon and cellophane off the cup (it had green peppermints in it) to wash it. I saw that it's a cup from Detroit, Michigan.  How funny~ I got a Michigan cup at a Thrift Store in Nevada?...  Lol.  I just thought that was neat.

I hope to make lots more of these, for gifts and one for myself.  I'm going to have to start going to garage sales for more coffee cups! :D

A Frog I Crocheted

I recently got a new little toy/ animal booklet ; at the new craft store in town. I figured I would check it out. I was surprised that they had yarn there, and knitting needles/crochet hooks..  I went there twice now. I was looking for some plastic canvas hearts to make the ears for my Baby Bunny Easter Baskets. I found some, and bought them. (But they weren't the right kind.) Then I thought I should probably spend more than $1. whatever it cost... And my back was starting to hurt really bad.  So I picked the animal booklet. This is the frog from that book. I didn't add the little red "warts" (?). I kinda hate doing French knots.  I made this with someone in mind to give to.      There's also a monkey in the book that I might do. Eon is into sock monkeys lately. (The monkey isn't a sock monkey, but...)

Student of the Month Award

Eon won the Student of the Month Award at school this week. I'm so proud of him.  I felt so bad, because I totally forgot about the Awards Assembly. :(  His teacher told me about it, but by the time I got into the car in the parking lot, I had already forgotten.  I have a hard time remembering anything lately. (I do have to say that it was the day of the Valentine's Day Party when she told me..) Anyway~ Eon won a Papa John's Pizza gift certificate for either a personal pan pizza or cheesy breadsticks, which we already used. (We got the breadsticks.) And a Dairy Queen gift certificate for an ice cream cone. Plus the award, necklace, a pencil.  :)  Pretty cool! I'm going to have to get another picture frame, for his award. :D

Two Winter RAOKs!

Not in the same day, but... I got two Winter RAOKs. Yesterday, I got this package from Mary Jo (TampaDoll) from Crochetville. :D  This was all stuff I had on my wishlist. Stationery, pens, anything bird or owl. And Strawberry Crystal Light. (And more!)  And a lovely seashell card. <3

I put the adorable owl next to my owl from lil-hippie (also from Crochetville). Now I have two owls from my friends at Crochetville. :)  Aren't they cute!?

Then today I got another RAOK from someone in MS!! This is another thing I have on my wishlist: Scrap balls of yarn! I call it yarn candy. :P  I am tying the little balls on to my magic ball rug.  Thank you MaryJo and FGM from MS!!! I love them both.