Been a while.....again....

Yes, I know it's been entirely too long since I've posted, but I've been busy. We went to the truck show this past weekend. It was awesome. Still haven't gotten the pics taken off the camera and put onto the pc, but as soon as I get them here I'll post a few. I'm still working on the other American Flag afghan. I haven't had as much time to work on it here lately as I would like, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to get more work done on it this week to make up for lost time. My husband is currently looking into several different trucking companies for a job change. We've narrowed it down to about 3 so far. I'll be filling out some paperwork in the next couple days and getting it mailed off so that we can get the ball rolling....or the truck as the case may be...hahaha. Anyway, just wanted to let ya'll know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Hope ya'll have a great day. God Bless.

It's Hip to be Square.

Well, I told ya'll I'd get some pics of my little squares. So...here we go.

So...after some serious frogging this was the result...


Then I made one of each of the squares:

I need 113 of these....


I need 93 of these.....


I need 50 of these.....


And I need 8 of these....


After I get them all done and pretty and stuff I'll sew them together and will have a pretty afghan. The pattern that I'm using also offers a pillow pattern that I may or may not make. Depends on what urge strikes me when I'm done with the Afghan. Oh, and ya'll....please disregard the leopard print background in these pics. I laid the squares on my leg to take the pics and I happened to be wearing my pretty leopard print jammies! Anywho....know ya'll know what I'm working one...as well as what my jammies look like. So, go forth and make something. Have a great day and Bod bless.

Go check this out....

Okay....was wandering aimlessly around cyberspace and found another cool blog. By a lady named Laurie. She calls herself Crazy Aunt Purl. She's got a book and everything. She talks about her life, her cat, her friends, and her knitting. I've started reading from the beginning of the archives and have reached February '06 so far. I read one or two of her most recent posts...decided I liked the way she wrote and wasn't scared to reveal a bit of herself to her readers. She's also a fellow southerner!!! So, ya'll go check out Crazy Aunt Purl.

A'frogging we will go....

Okay so I told ya'll that I was starting another American Flag afghan. Well, I was once again wandering aimlessly through cyberspace, and found another pattern for a Flag afghan that I like much better. So I decided that I was going to rip out the 14 rows that I had already done on the other one and start all over again with the new pattern. The new pattern consist of lots of little individual squares that are sewn together. I like the look of this one a bit more than the other one. It's looks more cozy and handmade. Anyway, I don't have any pics made up just yet. I'll post some as soon as I get some. My brother-in-law made it to Fort Carson today. He left early this morning. Well, that's all I've got for now. Hope ya'll had a happy Easter. God Bless.

So it's been almost a week.

And I still have nothing of importance to discuss. I haven't found anything interesting during my many hours of aimless wandering through cyberspace. I'm in the process of making another American Flag afghan. My life is so totally boring. Anyway I guess I'll go out and wander around the neighborhood in search of Blog Inspiration. Have a Happy Easter and God Bless.

Been a while

Sorry about the brief absence, but I've been a bit busy lately running around like I've lost my mind. My afghan did make it to it's intended owner Saturday...all clean and washed and pretty. (I have pics, but still don't have them loaded on the pc just yet). We had a "family thing" at my mom's house Sunday. I gained a new sister-in-law today. I didn't get to make it to the wedding, but I met her Saturday and she's totally awesome. She thinks like me!!! After we'd been in the same room for about an hour we could finish each other's sentences. I promise I'll have pics up before we go to MATS at the end of the month. I have to clean out the camera so I'll have room for all the pictures I'll wanna take! Anywho, I'm gonna get off here and attempt to do something productive. Have a good one and God Bless.

Okay folks here it is....

Okay...I promised pictures so here they are:

The background


The Stars


The finished product:

It's Done!!!!!!

After hours and hours and hours and hours of hard work, frogged stitches, and sore fingers my American Flag afghan is finally finished. It looks okay...it didn't turn out anywhere near as well as I had hoped it would ( I had a hard time getting all the stars to fit.) All in all though I'm quite proud of myself for getting it done...and on time even!! So now, I've decided to make another one. I'm going to make a couple changes though...I'm going to use the same yarn and pattern for the flag part, but I'm going to use a sport weight yarn and a smaller hook for the stars....hopefully that will work out the not fitting issue. I've got some pics taken, but haven't put them on the computer just yet. I figure I'll do that tomorrow when I get done running around like I've lost my mind. So, until then...have a great day and God bless.

I found an interesting blog today

I found an interesting blog today. It's called "A Soldier's Perspective". I think EVERYONE should read this!! It's such an insight. There are some videos posted on there that are a bit graphic, but their brutal honesty about what's going on in Iraq is extremely touching. After watching one of those videos this morning, I stopped and prayed that God would help keep all our soldiers safe. It gives a REAL look at what's happening there instead of what the media WANTS us to see.

Now, don't get your drawers in a bunch...I'm not an extremely political person, I know that what the media ALLOWS us to see isn't always the REAL story. I'm just here stating my opinion. Some people may agree while I'm sure others will disagree vehemently. So, go check it out. You may be educated on some level. The blog gives reference to several other blogs that I haven't had the chance to check out yet, but believe me, I will. One that I have checked out is "Young Americans". Most of the videos that I was talking about earlier were made by the man that runs this site, Pat Dollard. If you're of a weak nature, some of these videos are quite extreme.

Well, that's all for now. Go check out these blogs....and God Bless.

I HATE MySpace!!!

I logged onto my MySpace page for the first time in a couple weeks just a few minutes ago....read a friend's blog post and found that she and her fiance split up. So, I was trying to be supportive and offer words of encouragement by posting a comment on her blog....but could I??? NOOOOOOO!!!! MySpace is ONCE AGAIN having technical issues. Seems like everytime I try to get on there and do something they're having a technical issue!!! I'm about this __ close to deleting my account and telling MySpace to stick it where the sun don't shine!!! I'm going to try again later tonite and see if I have any luck. If not I'm done with it. I'll stick to writing my blog that nobody reads and call it a day.

Almost Done!!!

Well I sat here and crocheted all day yesterday. I got all 50 stars done for my flag afghan. I got a double crochet border around it. I will be sewing the stars on either today or tomorrow. After that I'll wash it and take some pics and get them posted. Have a great and wonderful day!!

WIP update

Well...I've decided that I'm truly impressed with myself. My American Flag Afghan is nearing completeion. I have 25 more stars to make. After that I'll sew them on. Put a pretty white border around the whole thing, then wash it. I have about 7 days to get all of this accomplished. Please, keep your fingers crossed. If I don't get it done on time, I'm going to end up having to mail it...and that will end up costing me a small fortune....although it would make a nice Christmas gift...I think I'd rather just give the Afghan to Johnny before he leaves for Fort Carson. So in honor of my darling baby brother in law joining the Army and graduating AIT and all that good stuff I have some pictures I'd like to post here today. They are of patriotic nature so if that offends you then I suggest you leave and not come back.

And now, to honor my darling hubby.....I have a few more pics...

And finally...a pic of my WIP

On my own...again....

I know I've been gone for a few days, but this time I have a really good excuse!! My hubby was in for a couple days so I decided I was going to stay away from the computer while he was home. Now that he's gone again...I'm back. You'll have me until the 27th of March or so. Then he'll be back in. I can't wait. We're going to the Mid-America Truck Show!! I'm going to charge up every re-chargeable battery I can find to put in my camera and take loads of pictures. Then when he leaves out again I'll post them on here so you can see what the MATS is all about!

I found smileys!! Yes, I'm a smiley nut. I think they're just too adorable. I found some that I can put on my blog. Here, I'll show you....Now hopefully you can see that...if you're just seeing some sort of code or something then you should do a search for crawler smileys and download them so you can see it.

Well, I'm going to get off here and go pay my house payment. Then I'm going to come back home and crochet. I'm getting closer and closer to being done!! Have a great and wonderful day!!

---

Add these cool Smileys to your emails for FREE! Learn more at www.crawlersmileys.com.

Update on my WIP....

I've been diligently working on my flag afghan. I have decided that it will be a gift for my brother-in-law when he graduates AIT in March. I think he will like it. I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to do about the stars though. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to combine a couple different patterns to get the look that I want. Here are some pics.

Here's what the afghan looked like this morning:


Here's one of the stars that I've done in some spare yarn just to see how it would turn out.


Here's another star that I did using the same pattern but a different starting technique.


And while I was bored and taking a bit of a break from the afghan I did a search and found a couple snowflake patterns. Not exactly sure if it would look better in cotton thread than it does in the yarn, but I was entertained for a while trying to do them :-)

Here's the first one I did:


And here's the second one


Not bad for a first try I think. Well, I'm going to go to bed now so I can get up and do some more work on my afghan before the hubby comes home.

My WIP

Here are the pictures of my WIP (work in progress). I tried to upload them earlier but Blogger was having issues. Anywho...here they are...

This is what it looked like last night when I decided I was going to go to bed.

This is what it looked like as of noon today. Doesn't it look absolutely beautiful draped across my desk chair???

A close-up.

Really close-up. See the stitch detail?? Isn't it just wonderful???

I'm totally proud of myself. I'll get some more work done on it in the next day or two and take more pics as I go. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Update on my new project

Well, I've been working diligently (okay maybe diligently isn't the proper word here). Let's just say that I've been working on the Flag afghan for the past few days. I have made quite a bit of progress and am quite pleased with myself. I ran into a bit of a problem last night though. I had somehow managed to gain a few (5) extra stitches. Once I figured out how I got them I had to work out a way to get rid of them. Well, I did a little digging (called an older lady in my neighborhood and pleaded for help) and figured out how to fix it. I now have the proper number of stitches and can continue working without pulling out all my hard work (and my hair). I was going to post some pics of the work that I've done so far, but apparently Blogger is having some sort of technical issue and is not allowing me to upload pics today. Hopefully they will have it fixed later or tomorrow or at least sometime this decade. So I guess I'll go and do some more work and take some more pics and hopefully be able to upload them soon.

My new project.....

I have started a new project. One requested by my husband. It is a crocheted afghan in the form of an American Flag. I went today to buy the yarn and the hook (since I didn't have the right size). I've managed to get the first 4 rows done in the matter of a few hours. I think for the most part I won't have much of a problem....at least until I get to the stars. They are done separately and then sewn on. I will post pics as I get them taken so you can see my progress. Here's the link to the pattern if you want to see what the finished project should look like: http://www.allfreecrafts.com/crochet/american-flag.shtml Hopefully when mine is done it will look just as nice. If it looks halfway decent when it's done I may very well end up doing another one for my father-in-law. Well, I think I'm gonna go and finish another row before bed ;-).

Just Checking In

I have nothing new to entertain you with today. I've done a whole lot of absolutely nothing this weekend. I've cleaned up my house, chased the dog around the house, and worked on my knitting. I haven't even taken any new pictures with which to entertain you. So, I guess I'm going to get off here and see if I can manage to come up with a better post for tomorrow. Have a great day!

Okay so it's been a while....

I know it's been a while since I last posted, but I've been sick and am just now feeling up to sitting in front of the computer for any amount of time. I won't give you details but lets just suffice it to say that it's been bad. My husband was home this past weekend...Yes I know...bad time to be sick, but I didn't plan on things going that way. We did manage to get our taxes filed before I fell ill. Which is no small task considering all the receipts I had to add up due to my darling husband's chosen profession. Other than that, I've basically been laying on the couch taking up space....however I haven't been totally idle. I taught myself to crochet a (very) basic granny square. Here are a couple pics of that effort:


My first effort...not bad for a beginning I think...



And then I tried again with a different yarn....still not bad for a beginning effort.

After that I decided to break out my knitting needles and start something new. I've decided that I'm going to make a patchwork afghan. I may be biting off more than I can chew, but I'm determined to do this and actually get it done. Here's the start of it:



It will (to the best of my calculations) require about 72 of these pretty little squares, of which I now have 12. Yes I know, I've got a long way to go, but I figure I'll get it done by the time my little sister (who's 7) graduates high school :-). Well anyway, that's all I've got for now. Catch ya'll later.

Final Decision

I finally decided what to do with the poncho. I took a page from Cass's book (see Shut Up, I'm Counting) and made a shrug type thing out of it. She said the one she made was basically a large rectangle...so after ripping out my seams and then joining the two pieces, I sewed in a seam part of the way up on both sides for sleeves. Mine is nowhere near as pretty as hers, but it's quite serviceable. I tried to get my mom to model it for a picture today, but she wouldn't do it. So I'll have to wait and see if I can talk my husband into modeling it for me so I can get a pic posted so you can compare the talents of someone just learning to knit (me) with the talents of someone who is quite adept at knitting (Cass). Now for another picture or two of a totally non-related subject.

This is my mom's poodle/chihuahua mix puppy, Baby. Isn't she just too adorable for words??



Yet another pic of Sassy doing what she does best...

Oh, and speaking of Sassy, my mother, who is babysitting my brother's basset hound (Lexie) informed me today that if he didn't come get her soon she was going to come stay with me. Now, let me fill you in on a bit of information...I live in a really really small house. I barely have room for the hound that I've got...let alone another one that's just as big. But I guess if it comes down to it she'll be welcome here too. I have a soft spot for droopy faces and sad eyes.

Lexie, right after a bath....


Checkin out the place...please excuse the diaper...she was in heat.

Okay, well I'm gonna get off here and do something productive.

Because I'm neurotic....

Okay...wore my newly finished poncho today for the first time (still haven't got the fringe on it), and I'm glad I did. I discovered that I don't really like the way the poncho fits. I don't really know how to describe it...it's just odd. So now I'm sitting here contemplating what to do with these two quite large rectangular pieces of knitting. Maybe I'll take them apart sew just one end of each together and make a kind of wrap thingy...who knows. I'll sit and have a couple drinks and ponder this issue some more then I'll let ya'll know what I've decided. I mean if nothing else I can just completely take it apart and make something totally new out of the yarn. As I said, who knows. I'll keep you posted though.

Just a quickie...for now anyway.

The Recipe For Lacey

3 parts Panache 2 parts Dignity 1 part Flirtation Splash of Intellect Limit yourself to one serving. This cocktail is strong!

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

ONE OF THE TWO THINGS I WAS TAUGHT NOT TO DISCUSS.....

I was taught never to discuss religion or politics unless I wanted to start an argument quicker than I could blink my eyes....but today I was watching the news and just couldn't deal with the insanity any longer. I'm relatively neutral most times, but I just have to pitch a bit of a fit for a minute. After that I'll have it all out of my system (I hope).

Here's a clip about the first thing that got my panties in a bunch:

Police said a female suicide bomber killed 45 people and wounded 82 at the Ghazil pet market in central Baghdad. Another blast minutes earlier killed 27 people and wounded 67 at a bird market in southern Baghdad, police said. The U.S. military, which gave a lower death toll, said both attacks were caused by female suicide bombers and blamed al Qaeda. An Iraqi military official said the two women were mentally handicapped and the bombs detonated by remote control. Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Stover, a spokesman for U.S. troops in Baghdad,later told Reuters the U.S. military had seen no evidence to suggest the women were handicapped. Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi military in Baghdad, said the suicide bombs were detonated remotely by mobile telephones."We found the mobiles used to detonate the women," he said, adding the women were mentally handicapped. He did not elaborate on how the Iraqi military knew about their mental condition.

Now, what got me going about this, you ask?? First of all, the fact that these women, while it hasn't been proven, could have been mentally retarded...I'm not saying they were, but I'm also not saying there weren't. Just the thought of someone using a person that is mentally retarded as a bomb just totally burns my butt. If those women were mentally handicapped then they had no concept of the thing they were about to do. I think it's fucked up and wrong..pardon my language. Enough of that...on to the next thing that got me fired up.

Here's another clip:
"There are certainly some troubling signs, serious signs that the economy is weakening and we've got to do something about it," Bush told employees at Hallmark Cards Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri.

I think this one pretty much speaks for itself..but please bear with me for just a minute more...the first thing that crossed my mind when I read this was "Well no shit, sherlock"....I mean think about it...There are less and less jobs, more and more expenses, people are losing their houses, maxing out their credit cards just trying to make ends meet, and he has the brass balls to say "there are some troubling signs that the economy is weakening". Seriously..what the fuck?? I could have told him that. On that note I think I'm done ranting. On to a more pleasant note.

I've been knitting an extremely simple poncho lately and have almost got it finished. All that needs to be done to it now is putting the fringe on it. Hopefully I'll get that done sometime tomorrow and I'll take a couple pics and get them posted. But I do have a couple new pics of my puppy to share!!

Tell me this isn't a rotten mess.....


and this face...how could you resist such a face???


And just for shits and giggles...here's a pic of my hubby.

My First Ever Blog Post

Please bear with me for a bit. This is my first ever blog so I'm sure I'm bound to make mistakes. I've never really contemplated having a blog, but was asked the other day why I didn't have one. After not coming up with a very good answer I decided that maybe I should have one.

So, now that I'm here what am I going to put here? I as yet haven't got a clue. I like to do "crafty" things like sewing, knitting, embroidery, beading and such things, so maybe I'll put patterns or pictures of finished projects on here. I like to cook, so maybe I'll put recipes here. I'm totally in love with my husband (who's a truck driver), so maybe I'll talk about him some on here. I'm also the proud owner of a Basset Hound, so maybe I'll post pics and anecdotes of life with a houndie on here. Who knows. Of course as you can tell from the title, this is a spot for mindlessness, so at this point there's no telling what is apt to show up here.

On that note, if I'm lucky enough to have readers (I hope, I hope, I hope) I do hope that they will help me by offering suggestions about what topics I should post. Anyway, I think this is all for now. Maybe something interesting will happen before bed tonight and I'll be able to tell ya'll about it.

Oh, and one more thing, here's a picture of my pretty puppy girl: