DeeDee's Musings

What you say, no thanks? What does that mean?

Well to put it simply, I am too green of a knitter to use size 2 mm knitting needles and figure out how to read a pattern that calls for a lot of decreases and more. LOL The Barbie outfit will have to wait!

I did buy the needles though. ;-)

Caleb loves the fabric store! A plus in his book on my part. I can see us visiting it a lot when he comes over. He hugs and kisses the yarn, even meowing at it. Looks in the books like a pro and ohhhhs and ahhhhs over all of the fabric, and notions. hehehehehe

Started back on my squares for the summer swap, the boucle baby yarn is going really fast. makes up for the tiny grannies on the other square.

Got my Dollie yesterday and it is too cute! She is on the dresser with the Barbies though I think she will like it better by the embroidery machine with the mammy Dollie. Pics to follow!

Knitting project going well and it is actually hanging down by itself now which is great! Starting the crochet skirt on Thursday evening. Friday will mail off my Dollie, the threads package and the Barbie outfit. Have two extra little ones this week, and going to sit with a sick friend during the meeting tomorrow night, so this week is jam packed!

See you later, its bedtime!

Here is Sophia's baby sister's Madeline Rose, outfit I made for her. The shorts are purchased but they match perfectly. I was so happy to find them and include them with her gift. Sophia is so funny!! We got her some Snow White red gloves and a purse with goodies in it and she had the best fun putting them on and posing for us. And the baby is too too cute!! Can't wait to love on her some more in the near future!






Here is the crochet top I was testing in the last post, all finished up. The Caron Eco yarn is sooo soft and even though I was afraid I was going to feel stiff and hot in this, surprisingly I was cool and comfortable. I would gladly make this again, and it took about 20 hours total to make. Pretty and easy to make! Try it out, you'll be glad you did. Its called Paris in the Spring, and you can find the pattern on Ravelry.







My first knitting project is a test garment for a new designer. I am not suppose to let any pics or details about it out yet, but I can ell you that it is working up quickly! I LOVE circular needles!




Kurt has been going back and forth bringing dirt to Nina and Nathan's land and Ryan has been busily spreading it out. I am sure once they get back from their race in San Fransisco they will be really excited to see the progress made! They get temporary lights installed soon so that means that they will be working into the dark sometimes.




Bonnie is working her 1st 6 hour shift! Yesterday she worked her 1st morning shift and the funny thing is she went in on Thursday thinking it was that day when it was Friday. hehehehe To be 18 and have a first job. I remember those days!!




August is around the corner and I will be losing one little one but spending more time out in my volunteer work with my friends! I am so excited!



Another thing I am excited about it I finally sent off the last two traveling scarves to their owners and now I am through! yippee lets celebrate! I love doing round robins, but when you factor in the money spent, over 100 dollars, on a scarf is kind of wasteful in this day and age of job losses and all. Its pretty and I love all of the hard work and will wear it with much pride and delight, but the cost factor is disappointing.



Will be knitting and finishing up my Dollie for a Dollie swap. I want to mail her off on Monday! Will post pics after she has received her Dollie. Just in case she pops over to see if I have posted anything on her. :-)



Gotta go now!

DeeDee

It HAS been a while since I have been here. Let's review what has been happening around here.

May:

My sister came down and I joined facebook to play farm town with her. The next thing I knew It was July and my crocheting had suffered ALOT! It was fun farming but I was going to bed later and later, not studying, not organizing and definitely not crocheting or sewing.

June:

One day assembly came and I hadn't made anything for me to wear. :-( So I took the next best step and went and bought some new things to wear, and it was something nice and fun to do! Kurt and I stayed an extra day so we could spend our 29th Anniversary in Houston. We ate dinner with Christy and her babies and even found some more fencing for my garden!

My poor garden, facebook had distracted me from watering and weeding and it was beginning to look pretty awful out there. But hey my farm on facebook was inching towards the 20 level and I was at the largest farm I could get. LOL My trees and animals flourished and I was feeling very proud of myself.

On the way home from Houston, Kurt and I stopped at Best Buy and bought me a new laptop! A Toshiba and it was wonderful! With the exception the graphics card wouldn't support Sims 2 and seeing that I was paying for it, and wouldn't be buying another one in this system of things, I wanted to make sure it was what I wanted. So 2 weeks later, almost to the time, we went back to Best Buy and upgraded to another Toshiba, 17 inches with a graphics card that would support not only the game I wanted but the future of websites. It has 3 gigs ram and 250 hard-drive. The other one had 2 gigs ram and 160 hard-drive another down for it. Its a pretty navy blue and the only drawback is 1) the 17 inch screen means either I make me a laptop bag or spend about 75 bucks on one. And 2) the navy shows fingerprints. And 3) it was 200 bucks more.

But it is the one for me.

So my other laptop, the IBM will now become the embroidery laptop with web capabilities to download directly to the laptop embroidery designs and connect to other computers as well. With a 60 gig hard-drive I should never run out of space for embroidery designs!! The original IBM laptop that was being used for the embroidering, will be transformed into a laptop for little ones to play windows 3.1 games on to teach colors, shapes and mouse control. Boy are their parents gonna love me!! LOL It has an a-drive (for those who don't know, it is a floppy disk drive to save your info onto, and a small hard drive, I don't even remember how small. hahahaha

July:

First part of July meant the big assembly and I still haven't made anything for me to wear, thank you facebook, so I just wore what I bought for June. Had a talk which directly spoke of facebook and that was my cue to drop it, even though I was at level 28, and my farm was something wonderful although a bit eccentric with it horse racetrack, its maze gardens and sandy beach area right next to a river of no return. Huh? The drama was excellent and gave me many insightful points on how to deal with family that leaves the protection offered us, without making it impossible for them to feel like they can return to us. **sigh**

Nina and Nathan bought some land, nearby, and when they sign the papers Kurt will start the site work. He is chomping at the 'proverbial bit' to get started. Within 1 week of leaving facebook, I have started crocheting again and trying to revive my garden outside. Within 2 weeks I started my first knitting project and organized my room so I can start sewing. I have been going to bed earlier and feeling much better about myself and even getting my studying in more. I have helped with a sister who is home bound, sitting with her during the meetings which not only helps her but me as well. It gives you a really good feeling to be there for others. I just wished I could have been there for Nathans Papa and Kurt's Uncle and Aunt.

August is coming and one of my little ones is leaving for pre-school. Though I will will miss the extra money, I will enjoy the freedom of one less little one to watch. One of the other ones comes just once a week usually and the other one is just 4 days a week. But all in all I have had a good run. I mean, we purchased a new air conditioner, my laptop, a new dishwasher, built a pergola where we can spend cozy fall evening under drinking coffee and visiting, many good times with my family, and much more, so its time to downsize the childcare and pick up my service, volunteering, studying, crochet and knitting, sewing, organizing my house and helping Nina and Nathan with their new home as well as spending more quality time with Kurt and Bonnie.

Well that's about it. Will show crochet, sewing and knitting projects next time!

Farewell facebook, the ride was fun and I learned a lot. Like keeping my time for myself and my family and strengthen my resolve to do what is right and important to live forever!!

The Pergola is almost finished!

Bonnie, Kurt and I worked on putting up the base and the 1st layer of cross beams. Course I took lots of pictures as they were working hard yesterday, but this morning I was helping Kurt to put the last two boards up so no pictures of the actual work being done today. But the semi-complete pergola is photographed.

Now to get the two upper layers and add them and we are done! Yea, then make the horseshoe and boccia courts and we are ready to play some games and relax with coffee or tea!

Here are the pics from this weekend:

On to my Stitching for this weekend!

Here are the bookmarks for the swap. Made two bookmarks of the same design, because one is for me. The one with the long flowing tail I made for my Nina because she liked it most.

Here is the breakdown of the pieces:

Here is the pattern, I wanted to share, and it’s not a hard bookmark and is easily adaptable to anything you want to add to it.

Bookmark base is made

1. Make11 chains
2. Single crochet in the 2nd chain and then across; 10 singles.
3. Chain 1; then 10 half double crochets.
4. Repeat until piece measures 8 inches. Finish off
5. Fold in half; Stitch together

For the flower base

1. *chain 7; Single; half double; double; double; half double; single *
Repeat from * to * until you have 8 petals. Join to make a circle.

For the flower center

1. Chain 3 join.
2. 15 half doubles in circle join; chain 1
3. Half double in same stitch as joined * half double in each next two stitches, 2 half double in next stitch* repeat until end of row, join; chain 1
4. Repeat row 3
5. Half double all the way around; join; chain 1
6. Repeat row 5
7. *Half double twice; decrease half double; half double twice* repeat until end. Join; chain 1
8. Repeat row 7 until you are down to 3 stitches. Sew up the center and tie off.

On to the Garden!

It is really growing, and the grass is growing fast too! LOL I just weeded the garden Friday and here today, Sunday, there are blades of glory everywhere. I think I will probably be in there all of the time pulling weeds. So if you ever need me and cant get me on the phone, I am probably in there fighting a losing battle of the wits. Hahahahaha

Here are the pictures from this weekend:

We had a visitor Friday, a beautiful fluffy bunnie. Just hopped into the yard and started munching grass. I would invite him into the garden to help me weed but I think he might have taste for other goodies.

He was so used to the yard activity that Nina was able to walk around the garden near him to where I was on the other side with out him even caring.

Here is his photo shoots:

Well that is it for this weekend!

Tomorrow I will be mailing off another traveling scarf, the bookmarks and my threads swap.


We are also going to be working on the pool, it is almost that time of year!



I shocked it yesterday and sprayed water at the poor spiders that have been feeding on the water bugs living in the 2 inches of water and leaves in the bottom of the pool.

Now the water is clear and all but one water bug are gone. Even a snail decided that the water wasn’t fit to drink. LOL

A full bag of shock and 2 inches of water took care of everything but the leaves and spiders. Hahahaa

Gotta go and make a Barbie outfit and let Kurt have his computer back.

See ya later!

Well it is Wednesday and was still a little too wet to bring the little ones outside to play. So they ran, laughed, jumped and played so hard that they were all out within 15 minutes of laying down.

So I got a sweet nap today!

Since we stayed inside, I got some crocheting done. Knitted my 1st bookmark for a group I am on; here is this link: Monthly Threads CAL/KAL . A fun group using Peaches & Creme yarns and threads. Also doing a thread swap and a crocheted bookmark. Will post a picture of the crocheted one tomorrow.

Here is the knitted one.

Not too too bad for a 1st one. Kind of looks like a banana, in a way. LOL

I only know how to to the knit/garter stitch so I am pretty limited. LOL I edged and made the 'handle' in slip stitched crochet, and embroidered the leaf and stem of the flower, and crocheted the lower using half doubles in a blue to greens sox yarn.

My partner's name is Flo, and she shipped from the Peaches & Creme address, so probably part of it, how great is that? She made a BEAUTIFUL red knitted bookmark, called Puka Puka Puka, a pattern designed for the list. Will snap up a pic and share tomorrow.

Here is the next to the last Traveling Scarf I am working on. Just have Virginia's scarf to finish and mail off.

I used the Sox yarn, doubled, in a picot ad archway stitch; from the book by Readers Digest The Ultimate Knitting and Crochet Stitch book. Was very easy stitch to make, using 'F' hook.

The tag is my 1st attempt at making my own tags and cards and such.

Here is Roo wearing her new halter! With her Mommy and her, moving after graduation from RN schooling, she has to get used to doing things the way they do at an apartment. Poor Roo, looks and acts so sad, just so we can take it off. She will get used to it.

Here are todays photos of my garden. Everything is getting so big and I have tomatoes!! Bell Peppers are right behind with a couple of little buds growing. How sweet! And the lettuce is really taking off! Cant wait for my 1st salad. :-)

Here is a shot of the whole garden, but it was getting dark so you really cant see too much.

Can you see the little Roma tomato up under the bottom set of the leaves? Yum-Yum!!

No garden, in my opinion, is complete unless you have some marigolds!

I love taking pictures of these guys! They are so bright and tall and cheery!

I just love these little polka dot looking flowers!

Here is our next project. Its going to be a pergola 10x10 feet, wide enough to house the round table and chairs and the weather-proof storage box that will hold the supplies for the bowling, boccia and horse shoes.

Huh? What do we need those for? And what is boccia?

Well we are putting in a Boccia court that will double as a bowling lane. And beside it will be a horseshoe court. The pergola is for those who want to watch and or wait their turn. Nice Huh? The boccia games is played like a game of marbles, with a jack and two teams trying to get closest to the jack and scoring the most points.

Here is what a pergola looks like:

 

 

Here is what the Boccia court will look like:

Here is Kurt digging the holes for the 4x4 posts. Such a strong handsome man!

Gotta go and watch some tv with my hard working hubby! Will post pics of the bookmarks tomorrow!