New Truck

Dh decided that I needed a new (to me) vehicle, so he recently purchased me a cute little 2000 Ford Ranger Super Cab to drive! I know it probably sounds weird, but I have always wanted a little pickup, and now I finally have it! After all, I AM a Texan! :)

We got the truck just in time to go visit my dd and the grandtwins down at South Padre Island for the grandtwins 1st birthday. We had a fun, action packed time while we were there! We got to go out to the Island one day, another day we visited the Brownsville, TX Zoo. The third day was an all day long outdoor birthday party for the boys.

Still no crafting content for the blog right now. With my ds and oldest gs still living with us, I don't seem to have any free time anymore. My sister and her hubby stopped by last Sunday (unfortunately I was not home, but my dh was). They dropped off a news article about my Mother's family, who have been continuously farming land in Crosby County, Texas for over 100 years! It was really interesting and informative!

My computer finally got to where I couldn't even get on it, so rather than buy a new one, and in order to save money, dh wiped the hard drive clean (gulp!) and had to re-load all the software. He saved a lot of my photos and patterns awhile back, so I hope I can find everything again sometime. For now, I have no photos to add to this post, but hope to be back with pics of the new truck and some of the pics of visiting the grandtwins.

Fishing

This is my oldest GS with one of his good fishing buddies, Sonny.

This is the fish he caught all by himself today, with no assistance or coaching from anyone (even Sonny)!

Still no new crochet content to report....but I've been reading as much as possible. I am currently interested in Michal Connally's books, and also books by Jan Burke. Each author has a series going, so I am enjoying getting to follow the characters. I got new photos of my dd and the grandtwins recently.

I am still not giving up hope about being able to get back to my crocheting soon.

Computer issues

I can't believe I have been away from posting so long! I'm still having a few computer issues, but hope to have them cleared up by this coming weekend. Also, coincidentally, at the same time, my crocheting has come to a screeching halt. I had started a Diamond Ridges crochet hat for my oldest Grandson, am still in the middle of working on Zero the Ghost Dog, need to finish the spider web lines on the Spiderman-ghan, and am now wanting to make a pair of houseshoes I saw made up on Ravelry. My Valentine's Day was very nice, I got beautiful peach colored roses from dh. Notice the heart shape of this one below:

Last weekend we took our son and oldest GS to Fossil Rim at Glenrose, TX. It is a wildlife preserve that you can pay to drive through and see the animals roaming around. They sell a small bag of animal feed for each car, and we had a profusion of Zebras, various kinds of deer, and Ostriches sticking their heads in the car windows wanting food! We had a lot of fun and hope to go again soon.

What I have been doing lately.....

I finally added the band to the the Swirls cap. It is kind of hard to see, but the button is visible. I haven't done any more crochet at all since then, it has been very busy at my house. The only free time I have had lately is right at bedtime, and I have been reading a lot instead of crocheting. I have been reading a series of casino/gambling mysteries featuring Tony Valentine by author James Swain. They have been enjoyable reading so far. I am currently on the fifth book of the series, called "Mr. Lucky" and am waiting on the library to notify me about a couple of others by him.

Swirls Cap

This is the Newsboy cap I mentioned in my last post, finally finished and modeled here by my gs, X. It is a free pattern that I made for my dd, but she isn't here to model it, so X was kind enough to humor his Grandmother. My hat doesn't seem to sit on the head like others of the same pattern that I have seen on Ravelry, so I don't know if I did something wrong, or what. I used a smaller hook than called for (G), but otherwise made the pattern exactly as written. To me this looks more like a Train Engineer's cap (at least on him)! :) I am hoping when dd receives it, it will look more like it is supposed to when she tries it on. (Hopefully, she will send me a photo). I think I just had it set on his head wrong. I also feel like the brim is too wide from side to side. I think if I make another, I will try a smaller brim. Overall, I liked the pattern, and if I had time to sit down very long to work on anything, think it could be made in a day. I used one skein of Red Heart "Lipstick" yarn from my stash. I want to go ahead and make the band that goes across the front also, I think that might help it look more like a newsboy cap, too.

Updates

I haven't updated in way too long! Christmas was fun, and we had lots of company. All my grandchildren got to come, after all. I didn't finish the Spiderman-ghan totally, but it is still high up on my to do list! My grandson, X (who it was made for) and my son moved to Fort Worth recently, so now I will get to see him all the time, and he has already been reminding me to finish it! :) I have also started a "Zero" the Ghost Dog, and a Newsboy Cap, both for DD, (no photos yet) that are both nearly completed, as well. I'm haven't been doing so great on working on the baby afghans that I have started, though. Hope to have photos later this week.