Hello Blog

I have no shortage of pictures to post here lately, I just have to upload them all... That's the "hard part".  There is a sale on kitchen towels at a store here. Only 69 cents each. I couldn't not buy some, at that price.  They're for the Kitchen Project I mentioned... I got a few balls of dishcloth cotton, to make dishcloths to "match".

I was thinking and somehow remembered the rooster hotpads I had made for my Etsy store. (That no one bought..)  I thought "Why not send those, too?"  I looked for the bag they were in (and eventually found it), and there were two dishcloths I had made in there, too. Bonus. The one on the bottom right is the 9 patch cloth. I think the other one is the Tweedish Cloth, but I could be wrong..  There's the link for the Tweedish Cloth, anyway. :P  The Mermaid Tail Dishcloth I am knitting is taking me forever... Probably because I haven't been knitting very much on it, and what I had done I had to frog because I kept messing up. First I had too many stitches, then I ended up with two less?  I think I figured out what I was doing wrong (well, one thing- besides not paying attention and trying to play games on Facebook while I was knitting)  I was at the end, doing an extra yarn over and then slipping it over. But at the end you are just supposed to do one knit, or two...   then I messed up again somehow I slipped the yarn over stich over four stitches. So I had to rip out two rows and re-do that. Then I had only slipped half of the yarn over for one stitch, had to go back and re-do that...   This cloth is irritating me.

Anyway, here are the rooster hotpads I was talking about.  They would go with the rooster towels I posted above. :D  I might go back and get all the rooster towels they have left.  My kitchen is roosters, and I was thinking about sending one of these with two towels to Alice (someone I sent things to in Crafting for a Cause Group, which is no longer a group..)  I still keep in touch with her every now and then though..

I also found a whole bag of dishcloth cotton!!! YAY!!!  I knew I had more dishcloth cotton than what was in my drawer. But I can't remember anything/where anything is, anymore..  I was so happy to find this.  This was a bag that were possible future rooster hot pads for my Etsy store. I have a brown one started in there, too.

Another silly thing that made me happy yesterday, I found these at JoAnns.  I wanted something I could slip on to the front of my work, and take out again easily. And I saw one someone had on their Mermaid Tail dishcloth they were knitting, and thought I have to find some like that...They were $3.99, but they were $1 off so only $2.99. Yay... 

And this is the progress on my scrap C2C.  I have all along been making them square for the OB Unit. But I wanted to send this one to OST/CPS for Foster Kids.   At first I thought I will just make it bigger than 40 inches. Then I remembered seeing others that were long, like twin sized (or bigger) in a Facebook group I am in for these blankets. I thought "I should do this one like that."  So that's what I'm going to do. I am aiming for 66 x 90.  :0   It's only 46 inches across, so far.  So I have 20 more inches to go. Then up..

Don't ask me why, but I made some Lego Crayons a couple days ago...    (I know why, because I wanted to send them to someone for their son.)  But now I have to do something else for their daughter, too. I used to have a heart shaped mold we did crayons in (but it melted when I put it in the oven)...   :/   Maybe I will just make some muffin crayons..

We took the boys to get hair cuts last weekend. Eli wanted to go too. (His hair is super long--- Or I should say, was super long..)  I didn't know he was going to get it all cut off!! I was surprised. He looks like a different person.  I don't care if he has his hair long, or short. He just looks so different.   :)

I thought I would post a picture of our bush (one of them) in front..  It has yellow flowers all over it. They smell so nice.

And, we have buttercups everywhere!!  Oh, I should have posted the picture of the field behind us. It is covered with them.  I picked these from our yard, before my husband mowed the grass. I should have picked a bunch. But this bottle only can hold so many. :P

And my rhubarb plant. I finally put it in the ground...  And my "garden" rock.   Not much of a garden. But, it's a start..

RAOK's And A New Dishcloth WIP

Sue sent me a little puffy in the mail the last time she wrote me.  Stationery pack, tea bags and spice packet to mix with rice, and stickers.  I loved it.  It's so nice getting extras in the mail, it really makes your day.  So when I wrote her back, I wanted to send her some, too. :D

She loves making teddy bears, too. So when I saw the teddy bear card set I had to get it for her. I was going to write her on it, but then I thought why not send it to her and write on the stationery she sent me instead?  :)  Remember the stamps I posted about getting? Well they were specifically for sending tea packets in the mail..   This is the tutorial I used.  I didn't have/couldn't find the sticks; plus they wouldn't be very practical to send in the mail. But I wish I could have.  This is another cute one, but for more tea bags, and a lot more work..  And another cute one.  For sending little gifties in the mail.. Or to co-workers, or whatever. Maybe for little place setting/party favors.  I also saw a coaster someone had done on Ravelry.  And tried to copy hers..  But in different colors. For Sue's tea mug.  

And this is a picture of the sticky notes/notepads I got her, at Target.  I loved them.  She sent me a message saying she got the puffy, so I can finally post about it.  :P

I started a new dishcloth, the Mermaid Tail Dishcloth. It's a free Ravelry download. I am making dishcloths to send to the elders on Pine Ridge, for the Kitchen Project.  Anything "kitchen", dishcloths towels, scrubbies. Dry soup mixes, salt/pepper shakers, coffee..    I got five kitchen towels yesterday, they were only 69 cents each!  I should go back and get a bunch more, at that price!!  And I got three balls of dishcloth cotton, to make "matching" dishcloths. (Sort of matching..)  I should have taken a picture of them. Maybe for my next post..  Anyway, I kept making a mistake somehow/somewhere and ended up with two less stitches.  I ended up ripping this all out and re-starting.  Not doing anything else while I am trying to knit..    I also got a pack of scrubbers. I love mine.  

Dishcloths and Drives...

We went for a walk (it turned out being more of a massive hike than a walk) this weekend.  I wanted to bring a "Car Project" (even though technically we were in the truck).  I thought "dishcloth", then "four corners".  I love that dishcloth it is my favorite. So I went and got my pattern and needles and yarn..   (It's about an hour drive to where we went).   Realized it has the invisible (also called provisional) cast-on.   Sigh....   I forgot how to do that. So. I cheated and just did a regular cast on. I love this cotton.  I don't remember where I got it. Probably Hobby Lobby in Tennessee.    Anyway that's why I have those pants on, for walking..

Then, I finished it.  :D  It's for the Kitchen Elders Project (I forget what it's actually called), in a group I'm in on Ravelry.  I used to make spiral scrubbies to go with these. But...  I made myself one once. And they don't really "scrub" very well. And, they stink after a couple uses. So you either have to run them through the dishwasher, or wash them with laundry.  But they don't really scrub well.

This is where we went to walk, it is SO pretty there..  I wish these were scratch n' sniff pictures because it smells sooo nice there, too. Like woodsy and flowers...

Some wildflowers...   I don't know what these are but I see them everywhere. On the sides of roads, all over. I googled them and what I found that looked like these was called Wild Scotch Broom?  I don't know if that's what it is or not. I think it's so pretty.

Another wild flower..

And these.  :)

A picture of the reservoir..

Another shot..

It's so peaceful (when there aren't a thousand screaming kids there)..

A little waterfall we found (we turned around here). We ended up hiking (and it was a hike) for an hour.  Lots of people walking their dogs there. One was such a sweetheart. She was 11 years old and out of breath, but she was so sweet! I loved her.  I wanted to take her home with me. (Duke and Jetta wouldn't like that probably..)

We've been driving to different places, to walk.  We went to another park on Tuesday and walked. This one was just a walk, and only a half an hour.  I should just walk here. But...  There's a lot of traffic.  A lot of people do walk here though.

I also started another four corners dishcloth for ME.  :D  I love this dishcloth and thought, "I'm going to make myself one."  I googled youtube videos for provisional cast on and did it for this one.

I finished it today.  I got the cotton specifically for my kitchen. I will tell you why... 

My kitchen was always "red" and "roosters" (used to be apples; too, but now it's just roosters).  Well we moved so much, and have had so many different counter tops, and kitchens..  Now we have the worst kitchen counter tops of all. Blue.   Ugh...  How do you make "red" and "rooster" go with blue? (Unless you get blue rooster stuff.. But all mine is red.)  So I was looking at dishcloth cotton; and saw this one and thought, "That might just work.."  It has blue in it, it has like a burnt orange, yellow...

It kind of ties everything together.  :P   Oh well. I love my new dishcloth anyway. I can't wait to wash dishes with it.  And to make some more. But I need more variegated dishcloth cotton.  Maybe I'll do a "picture" cloth meanwhile..  I am almost done with the teddy bear pillow, too. I just have the nose to crochet, then sew everything together..

Two New WIP's

After I finished the Lamb Pillow/Toy, I wanted to crochet a bear. I wanted to do a Scrappy Bear. But...  Since I've been using all my scraps in blankets, I don't have much of a selection.  Then I thought about making a pillow. Since I'm all about the cuddly toys.  So I started a Bear Pillow yesterday. I crocheted one before.  Hopefully this one won't take me as long as that one did- over a year. For some reason I think I sewed a fabric pillow to put inside that one. Maybe that's why it took me so long..  

And actually, I did start a bear, too. A Care Bear!!! O.M.G.  I used to hate the Care Bears.  I think I was 19 or 20 when they came out?  My younger sisters were into all that..   I am doing the Funshine Bear. I actually had the exact yarn called for in the pattern. So that worked out good..   I'm crocheting these both for OST/CPS on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  For foster children..     I am also doing two blankets for them, too. One is the Scrap Strips blanket. Which I posted about already...

The other one is a C2C scrap blanket.  Can you tell it's my favorite go-to pattern? I think I have it memorized by now...  :P  Oh wait, for some reason I remember talking about the yarn I started this with. Maybe I did post about this?..   Yup, I did. Well I know I haven't taken a picture of how far I got (last night)..   

And, a picture of Duke giving us "The Baby Seal Eyes" this morning...   He wanted to go outside. Again.   He stares at you with the baby seal eyes, and then sticks his neck out; it is so funny.  Like staring at you isn't working, so he has to emphasize that he is staring at you; and what do I have to do to get your attention?... 

I Have Something To Show For Myself..

I actually have two FO's..   This is a Lamb Pillow I finished; I don't know, a few days ago. I had been wanting to make one forever, I thought they were so cute. And I think it is even cuter in RL (Real Life).  I just love this pillow...  I call it a pillow.  It is kind of like a small pillow.   There is a horse, cow, bunny, and a pig, too.  From the Barnyard Buddies pattern book. Which is out of print. But I found mine on ebay.

And, I finished another C2C baby blanket for the OB Unit..   I am kind of in Limbo about sending them anything any more.  (Sigh...)    Long story.  I got a note from the nurse who we address the packages to. (I got one, and several other people in the group got the same note as well). It said basically there isn't room to store things, we don't have as many births now, don't send for six months.  ???  Well the mods of the group have been trying to contact the hospital to confirm this/see what is going on...    They spoke with this woman's supervisor/boss who said that isn't true, keep sending things.  I haven't said anything in the group. But someone else did. She said she didn't want to send things she spent time making if this woman is going to hide them somewhere in a closet for six months...   Well, I wanted to add to that:  What has she done with all the things we have been sending?  The whole thing makes me just think a million things and wonder what is going on....   Is she keeping the things people send and selling them?  Yikes...   It also makes me wonder if she is competent enough to be a nurse.  WTH is going on?...   I had already had this one started though. So I finished it.

I guess I will wait for further word from the mods...  I had a sweater started to go with this but now I have zero motivation to finish it.  This was the major charity I make things for...    Kind of bummed about the whole thing. But then I decided I guess I will work on other things..

Sometimes you just need a huge cup of coffee. Even though you already had two cups..  It's FRIDAY, though...  I am so happy.  Can you tell I hate getting up early?...   This morning I woke up earlier (Fridays are late start at my son's school) then when my alarm was supposed to go off, but I felt like I slept in forever. I guess that's good.   Anyway~~ After finishing the lamb pillow, I wanted to do a bear.  I kind of wanted to do a scrappy bear.  But...   I also kind of wanted to do a pillow pal...   So...  I am going to crochet a Bear Pillow. I finished one of these before. (In off-white- which wasn't very smart, to send to Pine Ridge. But..)  I saw some cute ones on Ravelry and someone did a red one and a purple one. I love it.  So I am doing a red one right now...

Of course I had to show some cookies I made this week..  I think I made them this weekend. Sunday.  Or Monday.  They're long gone now. They are Old Fashioned Iced Oatmeal Cookies. I think that is the recipe. All the same ingredients/amounts... I hand wrote my recipe so I don't know..  (I do not ever line the cookie sheets with parchment paper, I just grease them..)

Square Making Day

I said yesterday was going to be "Square Making Day"...   So I got some yarn I had in my stash, and my 99 Granny Squares book, and went out on the back patio with my coffee to have some fun. (I really live on the edge, don't I?)  

I started #68.  I wanted to do a twelve inch square. So I kept just adding to it, doing row 6 again, then row 7 I think...  But I didn't like how the square was coming out.  It was more rounded than square.  So, I ripped out back to the last row of the pattern (or until it measured six inches.)  You can see how they are more round than square here, too.  I decided I wasn't gong to do any more of that square.  But I got two finished.

Since the squares aren't supposed to be holy (so the blankets will be warm), I decided to do this square. Framing A Flower square. It's a six inch square, but I just kept going until it was twelve inches.  It is still a little bit holy. But not too bad.   I got one finished last night. I was still working on it, and my husband came home from work early. I wanted to go get my prescription switched to a new pharmacy (I have to get it filled before Sunday). (This is a long story... Which seems to be the "story of my life"...) ~~~  I have one more month left on my pill. So when I went to the pharmacy last time (lst month-before yesterday), I asked the pharmacist about the new law in Oregon (I don't know if it is nation wide, or just Oregon but I read something online about Oregon having this new law..) that you do not need a prescription to get birth control pills. (I have to be on them for "health reasons").   She said yes that is true. But..  They did not have anyone trained yet in their pharmacy; and they wouldn't be trained until the end of June.  ??? Okay...   So, I started googling where CVS is here...  Only two in the whole state????  And I will not go back to Walgreens, ever.  So...  I started thinking what other pharmacies I could go to. There's a Safeway (they have a pharmacy)...   When I went to Safeway one day this week, I just asked the pharmacist/ told her my situation.    She said the same thing with them, they don't have anyone trained yet. (Trained for what? I am thinking...)  But, she said another pharmacy in town does. (Yay!!) So, I wanted to go there and see, and wasn't sure what time they closed/if they would even be open Saturdays...  So, I wanted to go before dinner.  Well they do have someone trained (two technicians, even!) and they switched my prescription. I found out what they had to be "trained" for..   I can't just switch my prescription and just get it refilled, I have to have a consultation (they have to be trained to do the consultation.)  See how complicated things are?  This was the other problem I had, I couldn't just go to a doctor to get an exam/get my prescription refilled. Because no doctor will even see me here, because I don't have an Oregon drives license???? (Which is why I wanted to do the whole switching pharmacies around thing..) I went to get my Oregon drivers license a couple weeks ago, but I failed the test!!! OMG.  I couldn't believe it. But you would believe it, if you saw some of the questions on it! I have never even HEARD of some of the "laws" or things on it..  And, so... not knowing. or having even heard of such a thing, I didn't get the question right.  :(   Or get my drivers license...       But, I got my pill situation figured out/taken care of for now. That's one of the things I have been meaning to do..  (Even though it costs $13 more at this pharmacy-rip off- than my last pharmacy. I had a coupon to get a discount on your prescription- that I used at the other pharmacy- but I need to find it)   I think it's strange that this pharmacy has two technicians trained, but the big name store pharmacies don't..   Just saying. So anyway when we got back home/dinner over/dishes done, I finished this square..   And since the morning, I found two other skeins of this same color. So I definitely have enough to do more in this color..

In my last blog post I mentioned how the Butterscotch Cookie dough wasn't even good enough to eat...  I took a picture of it (but forgot until I uploaded them...) So I thought I would show you how "not good to eat" it looks...   That's the cookie dough.  You have to refrigerate it for at least an hour.  Which reminds me I may have to go back and see if I wrote the whole recipe out. Because what I have written on paper is just the ingredients/ oven temp and how long to bake..  

I posted about my butterfly "thingy" that I love. I thought I would take a better picture of it.

3D shot.  

This is one of our apple trees. We have two. This one is the bigger of the two (and so many flowers!!). We will need a ladder to get to the top of this tree.  Lots of birds live in this tree.  Or hide in it, before coming to my bird feeders.

Close up of the flowers..  I hope we get lots of apples (and they are good to eat!). I want to make apple butter. It's one of the things on my "list" of things I want to make.  :)

WIPs and FIPs

I was in the mood to blog today. But I didn't have any pictures to post. So... I went and took some. Lol.    I used to crochet (and knit) a lot of squares. For different projects/groups/reasons...  I was in Knit-A-Square. I really liked that. But.... It cost so much to send the squares to Africa. :(  I eventually had to not be a member when my husband got laid off of work...  And, I haven't been on the site where I used to do friendship squares or comfortghan squares..  But I really miss making squares. Strangest thing ever, I know... But, I do.  I don't know why. I think it's because you are just making squares. A small, quick "project", but you are still making a difference.  (Well if its for charity, you are.) And most of what I crochet or knit for, is for Pine Ridge Indian Reservation..   So.  I joined a new Ravelry group for Pine Ridge, making afghan squares.   Called Afghans for Pine Ridge. Well the button says that but then it says "Afghan Squares for Pine Ridge". That's what you do is make squares..   So I remembered this book and got some printed patterns out and looked on Ravelry...   :D  Today is going to be "Square Making Day".  I am all caught up on everything else I "need" to be caught up on... And I've been doing things all week. So today is "Me Day".  And FIPs is "Future In Progress" ??? I don't know, it rhymed with WIPs.. Maybe it should be FWIPs. Future Works In Progress..

Anyway, this is one of my "WIPs"...   I started another C2C baby blanket. This one I actually started while we were still at the apartment.   But I got it out and started working on it again. I don't know if I will send this to the OB Unit or to OST...   The yarn is pretty scratchy.  I can't remember what that variegated is.  I keep thinking "Red Heart Fiesta" or something...    I don't think that's it.  I knitted a pair of socks for myself with it. I will have to look through my projects/blog..  Oh, Red Heart "Strata", that I got through a yarn swap.  I wonder if they even make that yarn anymore?...  Anyway, that was the last of it. I have been trying to use up my "stash"..   

I got two more squares done on my mitered squares blanket. :)

This is the second strip of my Scrap Strips blanket for OST...   I love working on this one. It's just no thinking, only crocheting. Using whatever is left...   I found a bag with a bunch of scraps with my rag rug in it. (Fifth picture down.)  I took the rug out, and used them for this.

Duke things he's the King...   At least he's "kind of" on the blanket..   The dogs are ruining the couch.  And the blanket.

Going to start some squares...:D