Thanksgiving

Today we had Thanksgiving at my husband's niece's house.  We had an awesome time with the folks who came.  Thanks once again for the hospitality, Camie and Joe!!!  Tonight we hit the Black Friday trail.  We decided to try Target and the line was literally wrapped around the back of the building and back out front by the time we got to the door.  We got there about 8:20 and the line was already around back of the store.  I figured we wouldn't get anything we wanted, but we actually got almost everything we were hoping to get.  I also have to say I have experienced a couple of Walmart Black Fridays in the past, and was way LESS than impressed, however, TARGET handled the crowd tonight in an orderly manner and the experience was actually GREAT for a Black Friday!  Thanks Target for being so organized, I enjoyed tonight's shopping experience!!!! 

My new granddaughter was born in September and is doing well.  I haven't had any time to craft lately, once again I'm running constantly at work and at home.  My computer has also been on the blink, but I hope to have some photos of my granddaughter to post soon.

Here is my crochet project from this past week.  Crocheted beanies for Baby Kimber.  The lighting was bad when I took this photo, and it was taken with my old iphone, at night.  The red looking one is really hot pink.  I haven't made any flowers to attach  to them yet.  I will add a photo later with the flowers I plan to add.  I am trying to make a hat in every color of Caron Simply Soft yarn that I have already, and have 5 made so far, with about 5 or 6 more to go.  The pattern is free and can be found here.  Teresa Richardson (the creator) has an online tutorial to show how she makes them.  I simply stopped at 16 rows instead of 21, and added a picot trim or a shell trim on each hat.  I have a couple more patterns I would like to try also, but this one is really fast and easy.  I can make a hat in about an hour. It is like chips, you can't make just one!   If I ever get extra time I could probably crank them all out in one day.

Babies and Boppys

My daughter is pregnant with my first granddaughter and I have been asked to make some baby things.  The first item on the agenda was a Boppy cover.  I got the free pattern from here. Here are photos of my first Boppy cover:

Next I will be finishing up some crib sheets. I have 3 partially done, and two more waiting to be made.  I just need to add the elastic at the corners of the first 3 and I will have those finished.   I have another Boppy cover cut out and ready to be sewn up and will be making several burp cloths and bibs.  I also want to sew a small baby quilt.  I have also been asked to make bumper pads and a bedskirt for the baby bed.  Glad I still have about another month and a half to complete everything!  I will be posting more photos as I get items made.

As promised, I took a photo of the finished desk.  It isn't a very good photo, as I was too eager to get it in place.  Our bed is King size and takes up much of the bedroom, therefore there weren't any really good angles I could take a good photo from. 

DD had her baby shower yesterday (I couldn't go, as I'm using the rest of my vacation time for when the baby comes).  I had Wal-Mart ship her the stroller/car seat set that she had been wanting.

Last night I made my own fabric softener.  I have been collecting various DIY "recipes" from Pinterest.  I have been making this fabric softener for about a month and so far, no problems.  Laundry comes out smelling fine.  The "recipe" is 6 C. Water, 3 C. Vinegar, and 2 C. Suave Conditioner (any scent).  I believe the recipe I "pinned" is from "One Good Thing by Jillee", whose blog I also follow now (find her on my sidebar).

Our 4th was a lot of fun.  No pictures, but grandson X had a blast shooting off fireworks with his cousins.  We got some pretty fireworks this year.  Thanks for your hospitality, Camie and Joe!  : ) 

It will be back to the salt mines for me today, but hubby will be at home, repairing his truck.  He has basically rebuilt the engine on his truck.  It started with a cracked head and went from there.  He decided as long as he was that far into it he would replace several other things. We are lucky that he can repair anything. When it comes to repair/maintenance/figuring out how something works, my husband is a genius!  : )  He is the most handy person I have ever known.

I have been refinishing a sewing desk for myself, so I will have a permanent place I can keep my sewing machine set up.  I hope to have final photos soon when the project is finished.  I am  proud of it, since it is my first attempt at refinishing furniture pretty much by myself.  I found the perfect small sewing desk a couple of weeks ago at a garage sale for $25.00.  I sanded it down, re-stained the top and painted the bottom part black.    Hubby helped me by wood gluing all the drawers back together (which had all been duck taped together by the previous owner, haha!)  I hope to have it fully completed by the the weekend and will take final photos to show.

Today is the anniversary of the day Granddaddy passed away!  We all miss you, Granddaddy!

Update

I honestly can't believe I haven't blogged for nearly a year!  I haven't been crocheting/knitting/sewing much, at all.  I have been knitting some "Grandmother's Favorite" Dishcloths lately so at least I haven't totally quit needlework.  I haven't had a lot of spare time in a long time, but hope to remedy that by next week.  Then maybe I can start sewing for my newest expected grandbaby, this time a GIRL!  Woo Hoo!  While I love all the Grandboys, a girl will open up a whole new area for me to craft for!  : )  My daughter has picked a room theme of hot pink and black and white zebra stripes this time......my challenge is to make her baby bedding and some room decorations.  I already have some items purchased and ready to work on, other ideas are perking along in my head, now just to get my current obligations out of the way this week to free up more spare time in the evenings after work and on the weekends. 

Last August, one of my friends introduced me to couponing.  It has been so fun!  I don't "extreme coupon" by any means of the word, but now I can get a lot of items for free and I can usually spot a pretty good deal more than I used to be able to do!  : )  Another thing to blog about!  Haha!  I also have become interested in browsing on "Pinterest".  That is a really neat website that you can look at anything you are interested in out on the internet in one place.  I have found numerous recipes, crochet patterns, sewing ideas, etc.  I have also recently been on a kick of "do-it-yourselfism" or as my kids used to tell me, "Mom, you are a granola girl".  Nowdays, they call it being "green".  Haha!  I have recently made my own Fabric softener, window cleaner, mosquito spray and so on.  I would like to find some more of the Foxfire books that my sister once told me about, but those are extremely hard to find.  I hope to be able to blog more again, too!    Have a safe and happy 4th!!!