Lastly we made a pretty sweet card for Bug's Granddad. After tracing his hand to cut out the foam pieces and cardstock I helped Bug cut the long strips for the inside. We glued three sheets of paper together because Bug kept saying it was too short . . . I had to cut him off after we hit three. I added the yellow strip around the whole thing to keep the hands together. *Inside reads: "THIS MUCH!" |
Bug and I spent the week before Father's Day crafting. We've got it down to a science... Bug plays while I get things set up and I call him over when I got to a part that he could help with. He loves his safety scissors, helping with the gluing, & "coloring." I loved this card design so much I used it for my own father! This was another post I started abut a week ago...technical difficulties and life got in the way!
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So InsideNoVa partnered with Ashley Furniture to put on a Build-a-Snowman contest. The grand prize being a new recliner from Ashley Furniture. We submitted my mom's Lorax, that I suggested because Bug's favorite movie right now is The Lorax & because when I was super little my momma instilled in me the importance of knocking heavy snow off of trees to prevent them from breaking...she really does "speak for the trees!" About a week after we submitted our Lorax the site was open for voting. It was kind of a pain in the butt to vote because they required a registration that asked for your email and phone number along with creating your own profile on the site. I know that some people didn't vote simply because it took more time than the facebook contests that only you require you to "like" something. But even with that annoyance we got 40+ votes fairly quickly. I created a facebook event and invited everyone so they could easily get to the link. My dad did the same and soon we were doing pretty well. We started off in 3rd place but overtook to claim second in the first day. The contest allowed registered users to vote once a day for a week, the contest set to expire at 11:59:59 on St. Patrick's Day. As they days went on our vote total steadily increased...but so did another the votes for another entry. Now I have to admit that I would probably vote for that snowman if my own weren't part of the competition. I wasn't surprised when I saw it take an early lead and stay there. From time to time we looked like we were closing the gap and during the last day of voting we were as close as 15 votes behind. All of our friends and family rallied behind us and kept banging out votes. Then this snow zombie launched up almost 40 votes. It was pretty disappointing. Several of my father's friends started speculating that it was getting fake votes and even that it wasn't from Virginia. At first I dismissed these claims and starting to resign myself to the fact that we were gonna lose. Even if we ended up losing I was super happy and grateful for all the support we got. Then one of those friends said they found the same picture at a website called Alaska Commons. I wasn't sure if that meant but thought I'd check into it a little, if just to put the whole thing to rest. I started off using Google Image Search where you can upload a photo and search for it online. The zombie snowman showed up 300+ times online. Now, that could mean nothing at all. Zombies are pretty popular right now and it's easy with all the social media sites out there for photos to be shared thousands of times in less than a day. Then I heard from my dad that he followed the Alaska Commons appearance to George Takei's Facebook page and when he looked into that he found this comment: "Colleen Kittrell - this was taken near Neosho, Missouri, and posted Feb 27. I didn't take it but Neosho is about an hr from here so I reposted it. I didn't send it to George, but I'm glad he saw the humor in it. March 3 at 4:06pm" I did some more checking on facebook and found the same photo on another page, Alien Invasion Zombie Apocalypse Fitness, which again credits it to Neosho, Mo. Clicking on the photo from there I got back to the original post, Joplin Zombie Defense Network, which is dated Feb 26th and once again says it was "Seen today in nearby Neosho MO." With all of that it seemed obvious that the person who submitted the photo had stolen it and claimed it as their own. Even if the snow zombie belonged to the submitter part of the contest rules stated that the winner had to live within 60 miles of Leesburg, which just makes sense considering that the prize is a recliner that they'll have to ship. I wrote up what I found and submitted it via a feedback form. I wasn't sure what was going to happen but I hoped that they would at least consider the evidence. Well, I didn't have to wait long. Within minutes both my father and I received emails from editor of InsideNoVa and the Marketing & Events Coordinator letting us know that the zombie snowman was pulled from the competition. It turns out that beyond the evidence we had found they also said there were more than 200 suspicious votes from different email addresses, but from the same IP address. Now doesn't that seem like a lot of work to cheat at a snowman building contest? With that out of the way we were clearly in the lead. With only 30 minutes left till the end the snowman in second place only had 112 votes. When the clock struck midnight... WE WON!Another month starts...time to learn from January's mistakes and make less of those for February. I really love the way my new pattern for my sister's legwarmers turned out. The only thing to decide right now is which way they should be when I close them up. I'm leaning toward vertical lines but I'm just not sure yet. I figure I'll wait until the month is almost up before I make the final decision...and maybe my sis will weigh in with her opinion by then. Anyway, I also added another crochet goal since the legwarmers went so quickly. For a while now I've been looking for camouflage yarn. I asked my friend, Jenna, what color scarf she would want if I made her one and she requested camouflage with possible accents of "safety orange" if I could find it. The orange was the easy part but none of the green & brown yarns looked right to me. I found one skein that I figured would have to do a couple weeks ago and have been looking for a second skein since then. I went to A.C. Moore on to use a 40% off coupon that was about to expire. I walked down the aisles not expecting to find the yarn for Jenna's but then I struck gold... That's right, it's for real camouflage yarn! So freaking perfect. Now I just have to find the right pattern and figure out where the orange is going to go. I'm thinking either fringe or a border. Any thoughts?
Beyond that crochet project I've got several other goals this month. First off, I'm going to start on the first of at least two short stories for the month. I've got a really sketchy idea for the story but I figure I'll just start writing and see where that takes me. I'll keep you guys updated on my word count and possibly the subject matter... Second, I've got a few websites I plan on updating/revising this month. One of those is for my sister but in order to get started on that one I need her to answer my fb message...hint hint if she's reading this! Last, I plan on conducting two family history interviews. One with my grandmother, Mimi, and the other with my father. I should have done Mimi's yesterday while she was over but the Super Bowl kinda made that not so possible. On that note, during the 3rd quarter the Super Dome (where the game was played in New Orleans) lost power for about 34 minutes. The Ravens had been dominating the game, which honestly made it not so interesting since I wasn't really rooting for either team, but when the power came back on the 49ers made an impressive comeback attempt. Unfortunately for the 49ers fans they didn't quite make it all the way and the Ravens won 34-31. I just wanted a good game and the second half was definitely that. I plan on giving all the crochet gifts I made last month to their owners soon and after I do I'll post up the pictures and patterns on my Brag Board! Bug is waking up so I'll say bye bye and catch you guys up on Wednesday! We're down to the wire now. I've got a little over 24 hours to completely finish two pairs of legwarmers to make my goal for January. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...
Yesterday I completed one legwarmer while Bug napped. At least I finished it according to the pattern. I hadn't stitched it up to make the tube yet, decided to start in on the second one so I could fit the first to my momma (she's a wonderful model!) when I got home after work. I made really good progress on the second before Bug woke up. Side note: Bug has gotten really into The Lorax. We've watched it during lunch and snack enough times to have seen it almost five times all the way through. Thankfully it's a really cute movie. Probably the best adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book yet. When my momma came home with my nephew, no school for him today so he spent the night last time & came with me to Bug's house, I tried the first legwarmer. My momma has normal legs. This pattern must be for twigs. Today during Bug's nap I completed the patterned directions for the second legwarmer, minus the decorative edge. Now tonight the plan is to measure my momma again then add the appropriate rows to both legwarmers. If I can get them both completed tonight I'll have one set left to do. And an adjusted pattern to follow. In a perfect world I would at the very least start that second pair tonight before bed. Fingers crossed... After I posted the last blog I was able to finish the 16th row before I needed to head to bed. On Friday while Bug napped I made it to the last edging row before he started to wake up. Those four rows went extremely fast actually. It was a relief after what I've struggled with making this gift. I know in the end it will all be worth it though! When Bug woke up it had started snowing again. By the end of his snack there was about an inch or half inch on the ground and driveway. Not enough to go sledding again unfortunately but enough to play with. I got the shovel from the garage and we pushed it around the driveway in rows collecting snow. It was very very powdery so it came up easily. Bug loved it! I love watching him enjoy the snow. When I got home after work I didn't have time to start working on that last edging row instead I had to run out and get some baby gifts. My friend Judith's baby shower was Saturday and I pushed back getting a present for way too long. Thankfully the main roads were pretty much fine and I just had to take extra care on the neighborhood roads. I started out at Target. Judith had a little girl (she came early so the shower turned out to be after her birth) and I kinda went overboard with the adorable little girl clothes. But it was so much fun! After that I drove over to McKay's were I pick up several board books. They have an amazing selection for super low prices (some I bought were only 75 cents) and I love helping to build baby library's! When I finally made it home for the night I tried to find a gift bag to fit everything and failed. At first I kicked myself for not picking on up while I was at Target but then I saw some fabric bags hanging on my doorknob. My friend Dana is an amazing artist and seamstress and for MAGFest this year she made several things to sell at her own booth. Among them were these really cool bags. My favorite are her Mario Bros bags that have a large Mario Mushroom on them...honestly I cannot do them justice so head over to Dana's etsy shop, Creatively Tinkering, and check them out. I tried one of the mushroom bags first but it was too small so I moved on to the loot bag. Perfect fit! And Judith loved the bag and the presents! The baby shower was awesome. My friend Summer picked me up so we could carpool and the shower was at Judith's grandmother's farm near Leesburg, Va. Snow started falling when we got there and continued throughout the entire party. It fell super slowly so the picture it made outside was beautiful. Icing on top of the cake is that I won the door prize. They had everyone self address an envelope so Judith could send out her 'thank you' cards easier then during the gift opening portion they had Judith pull one envelope out and she picked out mine! I got a super cute travel mug and some packets of hot chocolate. It's so funny that this year a travel mug was one of the only things on my Christmas/Birthday wish list so now I've got two!
After Summer dropped me off back home I picked Kiki's present back up. The last edging row took longer than the previous four did combined but Kiki's present is finally FINISHED!! After I publish this blog I'll start on my sister's legwarmers. I'm thinking I might do a couple more searches before I settle on the right pattern. I've never made legwarmers before and since she lives in Long Beach, California I can't exactly get her to try them on while I'm making them. Although I guess I could make my mom model...hmm, we'll see. Oy vey. one of these days I'll get it right. The yarn I initially wanted to use for Kiki's present is not working out. I fell in love with the yarn the moment I saw it at The Red Thread a few weeks back. It's actually the banner photo at the top of this blog. You might be able to tell that the yarn changes from super thin to very thick which looks very cool and the color/sheen is perfect.
At first I thought it was just going to be a little harder to work with it but when I got to the 16th row of 18 I stopped and realized the yarn was not laying flat at all. And that's when I felt like crying. I pulled it back and figured out that I had completely misread the pattern on several rows. Yeah, wanted to cry again. Instead of attempting it again I went out a bought normal yarn and the progress is going so much faster this time. I plan on using the yarn I tried first at some point but I'll have to do a little research to figure out what pattern to use to make the most of that yarn. On Friday Bug turned 2. Kinda blows my mind that he's two already. On April 18th we'll celebrate our 2 year anniversary and I've loved every minute with him. Saturday my mom and I went back to Bug's house for his birthday party. We were happily surprised to see some friends down from New York and it was a great party. On Sunday I grabbed up my nephew since he didn't have school on Monday and his parents still had work. Yesterday my mom and nephew came with me to Bug's house. We got to start the day off a little late because Bug had a routine doctor's appointment. Again we got to see our friends from New York before they left for home. Our plan was to go swimming at a local aquatic club but that was squashed when we found out they weren't open for public swim in the morning. We then decided to try the play area at Ikea. I have very fond memories of the ball pit there when I was a kid. No such luck. First off Bug is in the process of being potty trained (and rocking it!) but he's not there yet and my nephew was 2 inches too tall. Instead of trying at a new place we walked around Ikea. My nephew and Bug had a great time trying out the furniture and then the toys in the kid area. And when we got back home Bug basically passed out after lunch. Today we got back into our routine. During Mason's nap I got several rows of Kiki's gift behind me. It looks great. I'm only on row 7 but already it looks longer and lays like it should so that's a huge relief. And maybe it's because I've basically done the whole thing once before or maybe it's because I'm using the right yarn this time but I find the pattern a whole lot easier to follow. I actually don't have to check the pattern every few stitches for once... So that's the long & short of it. I sincerely hope I don't keep this kind of thing up all year! Right after I posted my last blog I started in on Katii's scarf. I got half of what was left done before I had to pack it in for bed. Yesterday during Bug's nap I finished both Katii's & Jamie's scarves. Whew! Not only did I finish those two scarves but I was able to add three rows to my gift for Kristy before Bug needed to be woken up. That's where my progress stopped for the day because right after work I headed to Jammin Java in Vienna, Va to see Pierce & Grace Pettis. On the way I stopped by Haymarket to pick up Tam then Leesburg to get Erin. My cousin Julie met us at Jammin Java to finish out our group.
Today it was back to the grindstone. I made good progress on Kristy's gift...I got about 1/3 done during Bug's nap, which is good considering I have to refer to the pattern almost every other stitch. I didn't get much done after work again today because my nephew had his first every choral concert. It was adorable. I'm thinking I'll make it through at least two rows before I head to bed. And I don't want to go to bed too late. We'll see! Back on track as of tonight. Feels good that my screw up didn't cost me more than a day and it definitely helps that I had three free days to work. I could really use that hand massage, Ryan...sigh, a girl can dream.
My sickness also seems to be letting up. At the very least it's better as the day goes on, I'm not 100% but thankfully I'm good to get back to work on Monday. I miss my Bug. Jamie's scarf version 2.0 is finished and Katii's (the last of my cascade scarves) is just one row of single crochet then joining away from being completed. Feels good to have five scarves completely finished. I've got one scarf left to go but it's for me so I'm going to push it to the last project for this month. Tomorrow I'll finish up Katii's scarf which shouldn't take very long at all then start on the legwarmers for my sister. Those projects should be interesting considering that I've never tried crocheting something like this before. I think I've found the right pattern to use for the legwarmers but of course that could change once I actually start crocheting. I knew I'd hit this at some point...the scarf that I'm working on is for my awesome friend Jamie. While it's a gift (late Christmas) she already knows it's coming and picked out the yarn so I'm not spoiling anything by sharing the picture and story.
The pattern for the cascade scarves I've been using says to chain 170. Most of the time I follow patterns. Most of the time that works out just fine. But I like my scarves long and so some of the time I add a few chains on to the start or keep going for a few more rows. I've been adding several chains to this particular pattern but with the last one, for my friend Jade, I joined the ends to make it an infinity scarf. The longer I look at it the more I love the look it creates. The cascade scarf itself is very pretty but I personally think it's even better in the circle. So here's the problem. I started Jamie's scarf yesterday while Bug napped. The biggest downside to taking care of a child is the very real possibility that each time he gets sick I could get sick. As of Jan 18th I'll have been with Bug for 1 year 9 months and up until this week he hadn't gotten me seriously sick. This week he gave me the flu. I still love my Bug even when he's giving me bugs...bad pun, I know. Yesterday I was starting to feel it during his nap while I was chaining Jamie's scarf so instead of adding my extra chains I stopped at 170. I didn't notice my mistake until earlier this afternoon. I had the day off work because Bug is with his paternal grandparents, thank goodness cause this flu is kicking my butt. When my momma got home from work she showed me that she was wearing the cascade scarf I made her for Christmas and asked if I could join the ends to make it an infinity scarf since she liked Jade's so much. At that point I was starting in on the second to last row on Jamie's scarf so I paused for a few moments and got the yarn for my momma's. When I laid down my momma's scarf next to Jamie's I realized just how short Jamie's was and I wanted to hit my head against the wall. Instead, I finished my momma's then pulled back Jamie's scarf. Which means just a few hours ago I started Jamie's scarf all over...when it was basically finished. I love and hate that. Hate that I've wasted hours almost finishing a scarf that has to be started over but I love that I'm going to make it right this time. And I'll love it even more when it's finished. I'm gonna keep on working, hopefully get it at least halfway done tonight but first I've gotta go take more meds. Fingers crossed this flu goes away real quick. Much thanks to my sis, Erin, and Fiona Apple for my title today. It's funny that Erin picked the line holding that phrase to put as her facebook status today. See, back at Christmastime I received a brand new laptop computer as my Christmas bonus...seriously, my job rocks. It came with Windows 8 which has many new features and one of those happens to be a free subscription, at least for right now, for Xbox Music. With that I can type in any artist and hear music just from that one person/band or pick the dj option where the program also plays music similar to the artist/band I selected and I've been listening to straight Fiona for the past two days actually. When I'm crocheting it provides a great rhythm and I can sing along without losing count. When I'm just watching Bug, almost 2 yr old little guy that I've been nanny to since he turned 3 months -not his real name = duh, it's nice background music, with little to no swear words depending on the song playing, that we can dance to in between playing with the million toys this kid owns. Speaking of my day job, one of the big perks is the downtime. At least at this moment Bug is still taking a fairly long nap for me...up to 4 hours! During that time I've been able to bang out a lot of projects or at least a lot of progress on projects. Yesterday I used it to complete the second of my four cascade scarves, today I made it almost to the last row of my third cascade scarf. Now this downtime has a downside, (see what I did there?) from time to time Bug gets me so tired during the morning that all I want to do during those hours is sleep. Most of the time I push through that cause I suck at taking naps...I almost always wake up more groggy than I was before and that is not a good thing when you've got to take care of a kid, but it can take a little while for me to buck up & get to it.
So as of tonight (provided I actually finish messing around with this damn site) I'll have four of the six scarves finished with the fifth scarf started. If I can actually keep a deliberate pace then I will actually meet my goal for this month. |