Charities

I've been looking through all kinds of crocheting communities and found a really awesome charity that could use the blanket I originally made for mom and dad!!! A woman who lives in MN is going to the Pine Ridge Res in August and will be taking with her a van full of supplies for the winter. She's looking for people to help make blankets and scarves for people there and I CAN DO THAT!!!Thinking about it, I totally have enough yarn in my stash to make at least 2 scarves and I can send her the blanket I made for mom and dad, plus I'll totally have enough time to make at least one more. :D*feels good*

Learning

I'm beginning to think that perhaps I need to rethink the blanket I crocheted for Mom and Dad. Now that I'm learning new stitches and how to combine them, the blanket I made for them is looking...well, plain! I feel bad giving them something so simple when I'm now learning how to make more intricate items.I'll think about it and make a decision soon! Perhaps a good compromise would be to give them the first one, with promises that another will soon follow?

Clay 'n Latte Adventures

At Chuck E. Cheese on Monday, Mom decided to make a voyage to Cafe & Latte in Vista, next to Krikorian Theater. We hadn't been, but had talked about it for almost a year. Mom figured that with Dad in Branson this week it would be a great activity for the gang.

Catie Joy came over to babysit Owen (I love her!) and I was off. They don't open until 11, but having Catie over early gave me a chance to weigh in, grab a Starbucks, and read in the car for 15 minutes before going inside. It was so nice. No running around like a mad woman. I looked composed! ;)

Mom, Heather, Jared & Isaac were at the door promptly at 11am and I met them there after seeing the doors open. Jared & Isaac both picked out dogs to paint, Heather chose a very cute mug, Mom found a large oval serving bowl she loved and I decided on a charger plate.

Isaac was having "a day" and after 15 minutes he was "all done" and "ready to go". Jared worked on his for almost 2 hours and ended up turning a rose on the dog's belly into a wound that made the dog shed a tear. It was the saddest looking dog I've ever seen, and I'm not quite sure why you'd want to paint that, but whatever. Heather found a hydrangea stamp that didn't quite turn out how she thought it would, and improvised after that. Her mug turned out beautiful, though I think she will have wished she put more color on it once she sees it. Mom found inspiration in a demo bowl that the owner painted. She changed the bright palatte to more muted tones and did a great job on it! I also found inspiration, but in a 3/4" cut out from a catalog. The plate is very Mary Englebreight and so cute. The outside is yellow background with flowers, bordered on the inside by blue check with black words saying, "You are Special!"

These things took forever for Heather, Mom and me to make. We didn't end up leaving for lunch until 3pm. Good gracious! My hands were a little shaky at the end due to the late lunch, and I was wishing I had brought an LA Lite to snack on.We get our booty back on Tuesday after 5pm (so Wednesday) and I really hope they turn out! :D We all agreed that when the fam comes out at Thanksgiving that we'll have to do it again... but minus Isaac.

Stamped Cards

Okay, these are the pictures of my favorite cards that we made at the stamping thing. *proud!* I hope to get a picture of my beautiful plate when we get it back... and at some point, I'll document the blanket I made and the new cool stitches I'm learning.

Oh the things we find

I'm hoping to look around today and find some online articles and instructions on crochet. I added another 15 rows to Mom's blanket last night, but still feel like it needs... something! Maybe I can find a cool stitch to add to the edges.

In going through my craft closet I found my stash of plates and tile cutters for doing mosaics!!! YAY!!! That'd be a fun project to do this summer. Perhaps I can make a couple of stepping stones for Mom & Dad's new house. Or, I could do one or two for Heather & Spencer.Vania is 11 weeks pregnant, which gives me 29 weeks to make her baby a blanket. Surely I'd finish it in time! ;) I'm considering waiting another few weeks to see if they're planning on finding out the gender of the baby. However, you can't go wrong with a light green. Green is neutral for babies! Then again, so is yellow and purple. I dunno. I may just see if there's a variegated yarn out there that doesn't swing too boyish or girlish.

I'm currently searching for the Adobe Photoshop disc. Oooh, I hope I can find it!!!

Stamps and Samurais

Last night Bryan, Owen and I hung out with Mark and Josh. It was movie night at Josh's place and I brought along my blanket, hoping to get some work done on it. After getting back from dinner at Pei Wei's we put The Last Samurai in the dvd player.I normally don't have any problem crocheting while watching movies, but this time it was hard! Perhaps because it was dark and also perhaps because the movie was actually good. :P In any case, I added one last row of red and then went on to do 16 rows of the beige/cream color. I love adding different colors to projects. It makes them look all beautiful and stuff. :)

Today Natalie Richardson had her Stamp Camp party-type-thing. I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd heard from Natalie and Crissy that it is a ton of fun and you get to make cards while you're at this thing. Being that it was only $20 and I was aching for some girly-stuff, I signed up and actually attended even though I was surviving on 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Barring the confusion at first and lack of prep, I had a good time!We made 8 cards (2 hours my left foot! We were there for 4 hours.) that look really incredible and I learned about stamping and different techniques to use. I'll try to reinstall Adobe Photoshop on the computer and then put some up here for posterity.

Being that I'm in the "Party Planning" Business as some people like to call it, I must say that I'm very watchful of what other consultants do at their shows. This consultant was knowledgeable and seemed to have a great teaching ability, but frankly, she never sold me on why I should use their stuff. There was no talking about her company and why it is great. She never explained why I can't live without their stamps, ink, paper, paraphanelia. I brought home a book with me, only because it has layout ideas in it. After looking through it, I'm still trying to decide if it's worth the time and effort to actually order something from this woman.

Why am I doing this?

My parents are moving to Branson, Missouri on July 19th. For the past 3 years I've worked with my parents out of their home office, bringing my son to work with me for 2 of those years. Now that they are moving I'm going to be staying at home with my little man, Owen, who is almost 2 and will be working on my Pampered Chef business. It's a real change for me and I'm hoping not to totally crack once they're gone. My family is incredibly close and I recognize that I'm going to need something to do.That's when I decided that I could have fun learning more crafty things and keep an online journal documenting the neat things I make and the progress I'm making on them. Wahoo!

I enjoy crochet, cross-stitch, scrapbooking, and the occasional venture into beads. I currently have a sewing machine, though I don't know how to use it. I also would like to learn more about crochet as I only know one type of stitch. It would be fun to learn new scrapbooking techniques, too. There's a really awesome store near me that has classes. There are a lot of things I'd like to learn!

I started crocheting a blanket on Monday. It is made of barn red yarn, which I plan on stopping and putting a large chunk of cream in the middle, flanked by more red. It is 100 chains long and is done in the one stitch that I know. :P (Someday I'll learn more about the lingo.) Okay, enough for now! Must run!