Happy Memorial Day!

So, I had a pretty good weekend..
Probably would have been better if I hadn't had my heart broke but that was a minor detail...

I visited with my grandparents and aunt and uncle on Friday, then went to SC on Saturday for Christina and Evan's wedding. It was beautiful.. real simple and nice. It was SO good to see everybody, but a little overwhelming. I had a good time with all the people I love SO much. There was quite an abrupt, heartbreaking ending for me, but on the whole, it was a very pleasant experience.

Saturday night I went back to LaGrange, then on Sunday at church, MawMaw told me I should stay another day. So, Sonya, Jeremy and I spent the day at Callaway Gardens. It was beautiful.

This morning, I left to come home and spent the afternoon cooking and cleaning, then this evening we had some guests come over to celebrate Memorial Day. It was just what Memorial Day is supposed to be.. hamburgers and hot dogs, campfire, s'mores, bubbles, horseshoes..aaaaand fireworks. Maybe the fireworks weren't such a good idea. Ben almost killed us three times, and the evening ended on a pretty sour note when some guy from across the way came and asked us to stop and a few tempers were raised pretty high. But, it was fun.


Now, onto my most recent project..
I'm making a collection of boxes for my desk (when I get a desk) when I move to Winston Salem. I worked up the first one when I was in the car and/or lounging around in LaGrange this weekend. I went to join the edges, but it just looked awful when I joined it with slst's on the inside. I think I'll just sew up the edges on the outside. Next time, I'll make the bottom, and then just one more piece to be all the sides, instead of a bottom and four sides. Next, I'm going to start working on a round one in a different color.

And my next project I'll start on is gong to be a bib for Jamie and Francis' newest little one, Bella. I cross-stitched a bib for Lucy. I'm going to crochet one for Bella. I need to get started on it. She is beautiful, btw. They both are.
Anybody know of a good bib pattern?

So, I just got finished watching the season finales of Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. I have to say that out of all the finales this year, the only one I was impressed with was Brothers and Sisters.

Grey's sucked. The neverending saga of the Meredith-Derrick will they or won't they is getting to be about all I can take. I was really sad that Rebecca went back to her husband, but if Alex hadn't been so dense, maybe she wouldn't have.

I haven't watched CSI yet. It's on the DVR. Maybe I'll watch it before I go to work tomorrow.

Housewives was alright. I was intrigued by Bree's pregnancy. Or lack thereof. I honestly thought she'd slept with somebody not long before marrying Orsen and was carrying a love child of some sort. And it's my dream to see Gabby and Carlos back together. Speaking of which.. Carlos is SO sexy! And I was finally starting to like Edie. Do you think she really dies? I haven't heard anything about her leaving the show... ??

Brothers and Sisters was good, but it's always good. I love the messages that show ALWAYS sends about grace, perseverance, treasuring the little things, and living life to its fullest extent.

And, don't even get me started on Gilmore Girls. What happened there? First off, I'm waiting and waiting for the very last line, because I'd heard that the writer had had it planned for years.. But in the end they just trail off and are chatting about her new job in the diner. I liked the full circle thing, that they are back at Luke's, and Luke and Lorelai are back together (Thank God!) but I was waiting for that big finale. I did like when Lorelai was trying to loan Rory her sweater, and Rory said, "You've given me everything I need." Maybe THAT was the last line I'd heard about, but it wasn't actually the last line.

Anyway... I just wanted to share my thoughts on the finales. Any thoughts, friends?

A few WIPs and a FO

Or I guess that'd be WsIP.

Anywho.. So, here I am feeling like I'm in the middle of umpteen projects; I decide to post about them and take pictures of them.. and there are only two. Two to take photos of, at least. One is a crochet hook carrying case that I only have one row completed on, and I decided it wasn't enough to take a photo of yet.

I am currently working on a scarf and a hat that I'm making from an old sweater. Ah, I counted these as one WIP b/c I took only one photo, but it is actually two. Three, if you count unraveling the sweater and making balls of yarn from it. I count unraveling the sweater and making balls of yarn from it, so this is three projects in one. Anyway, it's this sweater I've had for several years, and when I first started unraveling it, my thinking on it was "I live in Florida, I don't need this big, bulky sweater." Well, that has changed, seeing as I'm moving to North Carolina, but the sweater was still bulky and ugly, and it needed to be revamped. It is currently survived in the form of a scarf I made for Karen's bday gift, and a scarf and hat I'm making for myself. Karen, I'll make you a hat to match, too! :-) Some people may think it looks sloppy, but I think it looks organic and... hobo chic. ;-)

Then there's my perpetual blanket. I've been taking waste yarn and crocheting a blanket with it, along with some black and white yarn. Just Red Heart simple yarn, nothing special or extravagant. I call it my prepetual blanket, because it won't be done for a very long time. Not until I've finished enough projects to have enough scrap yarn to have a complete full size blanket, including the black and white, which is just filler. May sound goofy or OCD, but the pattern is as follows. 100 ch black 100 ch white for first row, then waste yarn #1 until it's used up in dc, 100 dc black, waste yarn #2 dc, 100 dc white, etc. etc.

Finally, a FO. Again, with the revamping old items.. I took an old pair of mittens that my great grammy made me years and years and years ago, and I unraveled them. I like mittens and everything, but I don't really wear them, AND these were much too small. I made a hat out of them. Of course, there wasn't enough yarn to make a whole hat, so finished it out with a cute coordinating yarn. Then, I made a cute little flower (my first flower ever!) from the same yarn and added it as an accent on the hat. It turned out really cute, I think.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I could bore you with some more things I"m getting ready to work on, but you've suffered long enough.

Until next time....

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommies out there.

So, I've been packing lately, preparing to move in with Karen in Winston Salem. *Sidenote: I'm so excited to be moving in with Karen. She's going to teach me how to knit, because I've not had the patience to teach myself. I'm so excited to have a yarn buddy! And, I'm so looking forward to living with a sister I'll be accountable to, who'll push me to do what's best for me. Anyway... I'm not moving for about a month, but I'm such a procrastinator... I'm starting early this time, and maybe by June 9th I'll actually be ready to move. Anyway, it's been heartbreaking putting all my craft things into boxes. So far I've only had the heart to tape up the box with my cross-stitch stuff in it. And, my cake decorating stuff is packed away, but not quite taped yet. All my scrapbooking stuff is still out; I've put my yarn and crochet things into a box, but I haven't been able to close it up. I probably won't actually tape it up until the day I move. :-) And then I'll probably cut right into it the night I get there. :-)


I'm not a conventional yarn user. Last night, I spent an hour or two cutting up plastic bags, denim jeans, and old videotapes, and making them into their respective "yarn" balls. I plan to use the bags to make little boxes and such for my desktop. The jeans will probably be turned into a purse. I haven't decided what the videotape will be. I thought coasters, but would water ruin them? What are your thoughts? Hmm.. I could use the bags for coasters, too.
Next, I'm going to look for my old audio tapes and turn them into yarn. I mean, seriously, who watches VHS anymore, and who even owns a tape deck? Not me.

I can't wait to make my t-shirt quilt from all my Western shirts, because I'm going to take the scraps and make "yarn" out of it and make matching pillowcases or something!


Photos coming soon!

Good Reads..

I guess maybe I can also use this blog spot to share what I'm reading lately.
Who doesn't love to read?
Well, I guess lots of people hate to read actually, but I don't.

This weekend I had to do a lot of driving. I LOVE to listen to audiobooks in the car, so when I left Winston-Salem to come back home, I stopped at Edward McKay to find a lil' somethin'. I picked up Eat Love Pray: A Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'd seen it at the grocery store I worked at numerous times and always thought about picking it up. But then I'd think about how little time I have to read, how many other books I have who's bindings are waiting to be broken, and I just never made my way to the counter with it.
This book is actually quite unbelieveable. I wouldn't say I agree with much of what she says, but I enjoy it immensely. It is a collection of essays about her search for "everything." From good food to internal peace to pleasure to God, she spends two years of her life simply searching. My favorite line so far: "Congratulations to meet you," she says to God when she finally feels like she experiences Him for the first time.

Another book I'm working on (this one I'm actually reading and not listening to) is Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. One of my favorite books is one of his, it's called Blue Like Jazz. This one is written in a similar fashion. It's also a collection of essays about his life experiences. He writes as though he's having a personal, one-on-one conversation with the reader. I've learned so much about how to live my life from this man. He is wise and simple, and I love it. My favorite line: "That is when I realized the most terrible thing I'd ever realized: Santa doesn't wash his hands after he uses the bathroom."

In the beginning...

In the beginning, there was blog.
No, that's not how it goes.
Anyhow, here it is.
I've gotten hooked on knitters' blogs, and although I, myself, do not yet knit (though I plan to learn soon), I do crochet and papercraft, as well as tons of other types of crafts as well, and I wanted a place to, if not share my projects and ideas with others, document my progress on them for myself.
Thus, I become a blogger.
More to come...