Freebie day

Once again it is time for a freebie for anyone that uses my memories suite scrapbooking software. Just copy and paste this link for your freebie. And remember, if you click the banner on the side of my blog, you will save on the purchase of the software.

http://mymemories.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=2db59f577e9668b002ca5c0af&id=a665a7fd46&e=e2e2002f16

Easter candy...yum!

Does anyone else buy candy they know the kids don't like much just so they can have part of it? No? I'm the only one? Ha!

Knitting

On the needles
I started one project this week. It is a Stephen West design called the Colonnade Shawl. I will add a pic of my progress at the bottom of this post. You can also see it in my ravelry projects. I am about halfway finished. I'm not sure I am loving my choice of colors, but oh well! It is the first thing I've made just for myself. It is also the first pattern I've made with a lace section. Wish me luck!

Almost finished!

First off I will tell you about my knitting.

On my needles:

I am a handful of rows away from finishing the baby blanket I have been working on for the last three weeks. It will (embarrassingly enough) be my first finish of the year. I got out of the crafty habit for a while, but now I have no idea why! I am so excited. This blanket and the quilt my aunt helped me make will have pictures taken and ready to be posted as soon as the baby shower in may is over. I wish I could show them off now, but they are still super secret gifts.

UFOs:

I still haven't finished the skirt that I started knitting for my daughter last year. I put it up and haven't worked on it in months. I plan to start on it and finish it in the next month or so. I would like her to be able to wear it when the weather starts to cool down again this year. If I wait too much longer it won't fit, so somebody needs to yell at me occasionally to work on it!

Also the sassy stripe socks I started last year didn't get completed. I took them out of the purse I had them in and my bamboo circular needle I had them on was broken and most of the stitches of one of the socks had fallen off. You might not remember, but this was my first attempt at socks. I went with two at a time, toe up on one circular needle. I ended up making the heel too soon so they didn't fit me. I am going to frog them and start over. I didn't like how the pattern I had chosen was turning out anyway, so they weren't a big loss. I am sad about the needle though. I really need to get a project bag or two!

Future craftiness:

I plan on knitting some vanilla socks with my sassy stripe yarn, hopefully in my size! I also had promised to make some slippers for a friend late last year but never got them cast on after I finished my Christmas knitting. In addition to those two projects and Serenity's spiral skirt, I want to learn to crochet. I started learning last week and hope to take time to learn at least enough to make some hats and baby booties. I also have a few more super secret gifts to make for my best friend and hope to get them done before the baby shower.

Now for gardening and cooking!

Garden:

I still have most of my seedlings alive! Some are looking a little sickly, but I have transplanted some to bigger pots until I can get them out to the garden.

I haven't gotten the garden ready yet. By all zone maps for my area it is still too early to put them out. I need to find someone with a tiller soon, though, so I can get everything tilled up and figure out where I want to plant everything. Last year the squash and tomatoes took over the garden until I could barely walk through without squishing something. I need to plan it out differently this year.

Also I have to figure out where I want a strawberry bed. I bought ten strawberry plants and want to make them a nice bed that Joey won't mow over. I went today to my aunts farm and collected some rabbit and chicken droppings to mix in the horrible clay dirt we have and also some pieces of wood to place around the perimeter of the bed to protect it from Joey. I got a good amount of straw for the bed and still need to go back and get more for the garden after it is tilled. The straw plus the landscaping fabric I used in the garden last year made the weeding a breeze.

Cooking:

As for cooking, I haven't tried a lot of new recipes. I found a nice chocolate oatmeal cake recipe and a butterless oatmeal cookie recipe on allrecipes.com that turned out well. I made them to share with my friend who is with child and deserves some sweets occasionally.

Tonight I didn't feel like making a big meal since it was still close to eighty outside at dinner time, so I threw together some ingredients I had on hand and made a one pot meal. I started with some wheat spaghetti noodles. After they were cooked to almost how I like them, i drained them and I added some frozen bell pepper and onions, frozen chopped spinach leaves, a jar of spaghetti sauce with mushrooms, and some baked chicken I had in the freezer. Cooked it until everything was hot. I had thawed out the frozen ingredients mostly so it didn't take long. It turned out great!

If you are wondering about the frozen chicken, I had cooked six pounds of chicken at the beginning of last month. I always stock up on boneless skinless chicken breast every month because we love it so much. I decided that it would be nice to have some on hand already cooked so on days I didn't want to mess with a time consuming meal I could just throw that in with some pasta or rice and add a few frozen or canned ingredients and be done. I finally got a cast iron stovetop grill a couple of months ago and love how the chicken tastes when grilled on it, so I grilled up three pounds and also baked three pounds for variety. I cooled it, cubed it, separated it into one pound servings, bagged it and threw it in the freezer and have been loving it!

I can't wait until the garden starts producing some fresh veggies for me!
Then I will be able to have fresh ingredients instead of frozen or (ick) canned.

I think I have rambled on long enough for tonight. I don't have anything ready for review right now. I have a few crafting books I want to read and review soon, as well as some magazines and podcasts. If anyone has anything specific they want to hear about, feel free to let me know either on here or on ravelry. I am anonymous76 on ravelry for those that don't know already. Also you can email me at ahume08@gmail.com. I love hearing from my loyal tanglers!

Until next time.... Happy crafting!

Freebie day!

Here us a freebie for anyone that uses the scrap booking software my memories suite. I haven't figured out how to make a clickable link on this blogger app yet so you will have to copy and paste. Sorry about that!

http://mymemories.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=2db59f577e9668b002ca5c0af&id=3cb5e6676f&e=e2e2002f16

I am back finally

Yes it has been around five months or so since my last post. I do apologize for that. I have no computer or laptop that works right anymore. I do have an iPhone now though! So I am going to try it this way. Please ignore any typos or capitalization errors that you come across. I have horrible fumbley fat fingers and always seem to hit the wrong letters.

OK so I am going to try to be more organized with my blog from now on. I am going to separate it into sections. Knitting, cross stitching, any other crafty thing, reviews, gardening, cooking, and family life will probably be the normal segments. I will try to keep the same order so anyone can easily find the section they want to read.

I won't talk a lot today about much of anything. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am back. I plan to update weekly. I will try to blog every Sunday night but some nights will be later than others. I am working on a few projects right now but most of them are super secret surprises for my oh so pregnant best friend so I can't really talk about them as she tends to follow my blog when I remember to post. I am knitting a baby blanket and can only show the color to you because that is all she knows about it. I am also going to learn how to use a sewing machine tomorrow so I can make a cute quilt kit that I have had for a year or so and never learned to make. There are a couple of other things I am making for her, but she has no clue what they could be so I will have to wait until after her baby shower in May to share them with everyone. I think I might put everything in my que and post pics on ravelry as she is not on ravelry, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

As for my gardening and cooking.... I am still trying out new recipes often and tweaking some to suit myself and my family. I will try to share recipes I find and pictures of what we like. My gardening bug has bitten so I have started a few seeds indoors and am looking forward to getting my garden tilled and prepared for the transplants. Also Bobby has agreed to help me build a cold frame, which I have been wanting since I took up gardening last year. I would love some raised beds and a greenhouse but that will have to wait until we are living somewhere more permanent. We don't plan to continue renting this tiny, falling apart house for very many more years!

Oh! I have a new addiction! Podcasts! Need I say more? I just started listening last week and have came across some good ones. The The Fat Squirrel Speaks is a great video podcast, as is studentknits. I also really enjoy Mommy Needs Yarn, Laugh Love Knit, and knitpurlgurl. Please recommend any that you like. The iTunes search pretty much sucks and I am mostly finding them by hearing about them from other podcasts. As for audio podcasts there are so many good ones I have run across! Just to name a few favorites so far: Knit 1 Geek 2 is awesome, knit.spin.cake is great, knitting rose podcast, the pagan knitter, tvknittingpodcast, with pointed sticks, Yknit, commuter knitter, craftlit, high fiber diet, and The Knit Wits are all great. I think The Knit Wits podcast stopped, but I just started from the first episode so have a lot to listen to before I get to the last one. Again, if you have recommendations let me know. I can't get enough of them while I sit and knit. I also am so totally addicted to one called We're Alive. It is a zombie survival story which is beautifully voice acted and mesmerizing. I find myself knitting furiously while sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what is going to happen. The sound of the creepy zombie calling the others to attack raises the hair on my arms! I am also really into a few more various audio podcasts like Talkin Walkin, Rooster Teeth Podcast, Ronna and Beverly, and The Horror. I like humor, horror, and crafty stuff. Wish I could find one that mixes all three.

The other new thing I am into as of yesterday is plurk.com. I joined so I could follow The Fat Squirrel and studentknits on it, but am already liking it a lot. I am ahume08 on there if you are on there as well.

I am going to end this for now. I need to learn how to add pictures and captions with this app. I will try to upload many pictures that I have taken over the last six months. I have some good ones of food and family. I also want to start reviewing some knitting books and magazines and maybe websites. Also I might talk about shows, movies, and it books that I am into. Who knows where this will go!

For now I leave you with a Happy Crafting and a Thank You for sticking with me!

and the winner is....

We have a winner! The winner of my first ever giveaway is...

Xeihau (Sara)!!!!

Congratulations to my winner and I hope she enjoys this wonderful software. A big thank you goes out to everyone that entered the giveaway, as well as to everyone else that commented on my post. THANK YOU. You all make it fun and rewarding to have a blog.

As a reminder, there is a code that anyone can use to get ten dollars off of the software. It is : STMMMS37866 Feel free to give this code to anyone else that might be interested in this software.

Until next time, my wonderfully tangled tanglers.... Happy crafting!

STMMMS37866 

A day in the tangled skeins of my life: My first Giveaway and Review, and my awesome yard sale finds

A day in the tangled skeins of my life: My first Giveaway and Review, and my awesome yard sale finds

I am choosing a winner tonight from everyone who commented on the above post with a name of an item off of the MyMemories.com site. If you haven't entered yet, this is your last chance! Just go to my previous post and comment on it with the name of the template or pack or whatever that you like most. I will choose the winner tonight and contact them. Then I will let everyone know via blog post tomorrow morning. Good luck everyone!

My first Giveaway and Review, and my awesome yard sale finds

I am hosting my very first giveaway! The product is called My Memories Suite v2. It is scrapbooking software that is as easy to use as it is fun! I had never even tried scrapbooking before and never thought to do it on my laptop, but now that I have I think that I am hooked! I downloaded and installed it tonight and immediately made an album featuring my daughter. It is her Princess Diva album! Here are some of the pages from it I made using this ==> software.

Getting back into the groove

I have been knitting on my socks and now I remember why I put them away for a little while. I enjoy knitting, I really do, but it gets boring! It seems to be the same thing over and over. I love learning new things, but once I learn them they aren't new anymore. So then they start to get boring. That is why I put away the sweater I was working on, because the row after row of stockinette stitch got very tedious. Then I started on my first pair of socks and had to have a challenge along with the learning to make a new thing, and decided to make them two at a time, toe up, on one circular needle. Then it got boring. Then I decided to make a cute swirl skirt for my daughter. Fun, fun, not so fun, boring, repetitive, tedious. Then it was springtime and I wanted to try for a garden and I put away my knitting stuff and my cross stitch stuff (oh, did I forget to mention the eight cross stitch projects I started and then forgot about?) to try my hand at gardening. You are starting to get the picture, right?

Well, I have been working on the skirt again now that the socks are starting to get boring to work on more than a row or two at a time. I have dug out my cross stitch WIPs and have them ready to work on. My garden is starting to produce less, so I have more time to work on my crafty things. I am still out in my garden a few times a week. My tomatoes are getting bigger and I still have hope for a few red ones before frost hits. I started some more herbs to try to grow indoors, since all the ones outside died before they really got to grow (the poor dears). I haven't been experimenting as much in the kitchen lately. I could only do so many new squash recipes before Bobby finally got burned out on that veggie. He was the only one to like squash until I began to grow it and find all kinds of recipes using it. Now I, and the kiddos, enjoy it as well.  Below are some pics of our kitchen adventures this summer!

Serenity making porcupine balls

Salmon and Garlic Roasted Squash Spears

Salmon and squash again

Chicken, squash, zucchini, roasted red peppers, and tomatoes over bowtie pasta

Tilapia Montreal with garlic roasted squash spears and mashed squash

Check out my mutant cucumbers in the bottom of the pic

My cucumbers never did do well. They all turned out to be pear shaped and we called them cucumber grenades half the time. They tasted fine, just looked funny. You can't tell how big my squash usually were by these pics, but they were usually really good sized and so tender. Loved them. Have some in the freezer for this winter. The okra never really produced enough for us to use. I ended up giving it to my grandma. In the pic above, the okra was almost as long as a banana. i forgot to pick that one for a few days! The beans produced OK after the bugs stopped killing them. I only got about a cupful from each plant. I left the Anasazi beans on the vines to dry. I have quite a few out there right now. They took a lot longer than the garden beans or the kidney beans to start producing. But wow, they really took off.

Anyway... back to my crafting. I finally have my HAED pattern kitted up and ready to go. There were around 89 colors to gather, so it took me a long, long time. Thanks again to everyone who sent me floss! It was such a huge help to me. I am going to wait until January to start on it. I am doing a challenge with some other people that I am in groups with. We are together in a group on facebook called CrossStitchCrazy2012. We are doing a challenge that I have seen some others do this year, which is start fifteen projects on the first fifteen days of the year, and then work on the all year long and try to get them all finished. I am looking forward to it. Not only do I get to work on my HAED chart, but also a few of the kits the kids got me for Christmas. YAY

The many beautiful colors for my HAED chart, the QS Emerald Dragon

The HAED design I am going to work on soon called the Emerald Dragon

OK I am going to end this for now. I hope to have more to show you/tell you soon. I haven't been taking many pics lately, but will try to get some good ones soon. Wish I had a good, digital camera instead of my crappy phone camera!

Well, until we meet again, my craftiest of crafters.........Happy Crafting!

Squash bugs, pickles, and boredom

There still hasn't been anything new to report on my crafting. I am just too lazy to start up again, I guess. I am mostly sitting around on facebook or reading all day. I am doing pretty good on my reading challenge. I have read 93 books so far this year. I think that count includes a few short stories I found online by my fave authors. I am still experimenting with new recipes. I have been cooking different kinds of fish. Who would have guessed I would end up enjoying fish! It still isn't my favorite food, but at least I no longer hate it.

My garden is still doing all right. Most of my cucumber vines have died. As soon as they started growing some cucumbers, the vines dried right up. So did the cucumbers. None made it to more than a few inches long. I brought one in before it yellowed and Bobby picked it up and said "hey, I didn't know you could grow pickles!" Then he laughed his rear off. It really did look like a pickle. I really need to get some pictures transferred to my computer so that I may share them on here!

The biggest problem I have had with my garden are the squash bugs. I know that most people would just pick them off the plants and kill them, but I cannot bring myself to touch them. I have made a soap spray and I go out and spray the plants every time I see some, and I scrape off the egg clusters when I find them. I had to cut off and pull up half of the only zucchini plant that was producing because of these bugs. I am wondering if I had some of those vine borer bugs in there too. The plant was half dead and kind of gross looking. It is doing a lot better now. I thought it would die after I cut so much off of it, but it is looking pretty healthy.

I think that is probably about it. Not much else to talk about. My kids are doing pretty good in school. Serenity is in second grade and reading on a fifth grade level. She has already surpassed the reading goal they have set for the end of the year. They test on words per minute by having the kids read a short excerpt from a story for a minute. The goal at the beginning of second grade is fifty some odd wpm and for the end of second grade is eighty some odd wpm. Serenity is already reading at 128 wpm. Yay Serenity! Of course her retelling score isn't up to goal yet. She is retelling the story at around 33 percent and the goal for the year is 50. I think she needs to slow down on the reading and concentrate more on the story itself. I am still proud of her. She read her little tushie off all summer at the library and started getting into the juvenile sections to pick books instead of the little kids section.

Joey has started to navigate away from manga and YA books a little and has been reading a lot of Stephen King books. He, too, is doing pretty good in school. So far he has a C in French, a B in Biology, a C in English, a D in Algebra, an A in interactive media, and I think a B in intro to 2 dimensional art. If he had actually did all of his homework and turned it in, his grades would be a little higher in a couple of classes. I told him that with it only being the first few weeks of school, he really can't be slacking off on that stuff. I was angry at first, but when I looked at the grades he has received so far, I realized it is the zeros he has received on an assignment here and there that has made his grade so low. If he works harder, then he will have all A's and B's in his classes. So instead of being mad at him, I am just going to ride him a little harder about actually doing his homework and showing me proof that he did it.

All in all, my kids are doing good in school so far. I am going to push Serenity a little more on math and science to try to get her more equal in her education. I would like to see her get the opportunity to skip grades like I had when I was around her age, but that is not going to be my goal. I just feel like she is unbalanced and I want her to be able to do math as easily as she can pick up a book and read it. I have a program on the computer to help Joey with his French and I guess I should find one to help him with his Algebra as well. I feel that he is able to do better, and I want him to have the tools with which to succeed at his classes.

OK. I think I have rambled on enough. I will end it with a thought.......

(I didn't say I was going to share the thought with you though!)

As always, Happy Crafting!

Long overdue update!

Well, I haven't been doing anything, so I haven't had anything to tell! I quit my job at the Dollar Store and have been sitting on my butt doing nothing. Haven't knit anything in months, nor cross stitched anything. I am about ready to get back into it though. I have been working on my garden. Only been harvesting summer squash so far, but have cucumbers and zucchini growing and almost ready to harvest. I have about six tomato plants that still haven't done anything. They are getting big though and I still have hope that they will produce before the first frost kills them off. All my herbs died, so I am starting over and am going to keep them all in the house. Started some sweet basil, dark opal basil (or some name like that anyway), some cilantro, a couple parsley, and some more chives. I will baby these and hope they don't die out on me again.

I even have some corn growing in my back yard! I had a bird feeder out there for awhile before I got rid of my income, and I guess the cracked corn that the birds kept throwing out decided to grow. It is funny to see the seven or eight stalks growing out there. I am going to see if it ripens and I will harvest it for the squirrels.

I have been experimenting on a lot of different recipes. I have a long list of recipes that I still want to try. I wish I had been taking pictures to share with anyone that still might read this blog. Some of the dishes turned out quite lovely. Tonight I made some garlic roasted summer squash and some mediterranean salmon. Everyone liked it, even Serenity and the neighbor girl! LOL.

Well I will end this for now. I am hoping that with the kids back in school I will get back into crafting and blogging. I miss everyone I used to chat with. I haven't even kept up with my yahoo or ravelry groups. It is way past time for me to go back and say hi to everyone.

Until next time my flawlessly faithful tanglers....... Happy Crafting!
(or Gardening or reading, or whatever hobby you got going on)

just another sleepy want-to-do-nothing day

Well, I haven't been keeping up with my blog like I did at first. I haven't been doing a lot of anything lately :) Here is an update for whoever wants to know what I have been doing lately.

I did manage to find a job at the Dollar General Store. I start Tuesday! It is only part time for now. The assistant manager is leaving and if I do a good job as a cashier, then the manager plans on moving me on up to the assistant manager position. I hope that means more money LOL. It is so weird. I haven't worked a steady job in years. I am so used to being a stay at home mom and doing nothing but what I want to do when I want to do it. It is going to be hard to get back into being an employee! I am looking forward to it though. I miss interacting with people other than my kids and my man!

Hmm... other than that there is not a whole lot to share really. I mostly have been reading a lot. I have managed to do a little knitting. I have a couple of pictures of the skirt I am knitting for Serenity. It doesn't look like much yet. I messed up on it a little and didn't catch on for a while, so I am just going to go with it. It just makes one stripe bigger than the others and one a lot smaller. I don't think it is going to bug Serenity at all, so I am leaving it as is. Here are the pics:

Other than that, I haven't been working on any of my crafty things. My socks and sweater are sitting around, watching me sullenly, wondering why I lost interest in them. My multiple cross stitch WIPs are trying to act like their feelings aren't hurt as I ignore them daily. I am a horrible crafty momma lately! I know they will be there when I am ready to get back to them, though, and am not in a hurry to get them finished. I am just in a different obsession right now :) My gardening.

We borrowed a hoe, a rake, and a tiller from my aunt and uncle a couple of days ago. Also a bunch of straw to lay over my garden. We worked for about three hours and got all the grass dug up an moved off of the spot I picked for my garden. Bobby did most of the hoeing and I mostly raked up the big clumps of grass and roots and made a nice worm hill. Any worms and night crawlers we dug up went into the worm hill. The hill is up against the fence that is around my garden patch, so a few of them will likely find their way back into my garden. Bobby managed to till up about half of my garden before the storm rolled in. He covered it with a tarp for now, hoping that any roots left from the grass will die. I have a couple bags of manure/hummus mix that I want to work into the garden before I mulch it with the straw. Most of my seedlings are about ready to be transplanted out there now, but the rains don't want to stop long enough for us to finish getting the garden ready. My uncle came today and picked up his tiller, so we will have to do the rest by hand, I guess.

I have barely been able to move these last couple of days LOL. I am not used to all of this physical activity. I started out with the hoe and really worked my muscles with that. Then, by the time I was done with the raking, my arms where so weak and quivery that I could barely use them. I woke up yesterday morning with my back and legs hurting so badly that I could barely get out of bed. It was actually kind of funny. I need to work on getting into better shape, before my garden kills me :)

I can't wait for the next few dry days so I can finish up out there. I am an impatient gardener. I want everything to magically grow overnight and start bearing. I am ready for some fresh tomatoes and carrots. I am eager to have some fresh, homegrown zucchini to use for baking. Also, this year is the first time I have ever tried herb gardening. I can't wait to have some fresh herbs to use for all the recipes I want to try. If I could wave a wand and have everything ready, I would! But, I have to try to be patient and let everything grow. Let's hope I don't manage to kill off all of my plants before they can produce! I do not have a green thumb at all! So far, so good on the seedlings though. I was surprised by how many seeds actually germinated. Some of the seeds I had were from a couple of years ago. I am keeping all my seeds in the freezer to try to keep them longer. That way I won't have to go buy more next year. Also, I am going to try to harvest my own seeds from whichever plants produce the best this year. I am so excited to actually have a garden! :) I haven't had one in years.



So I will end on that rambling note. I hope to have some great pics of my garden after I get it all planted, as well as some more of the spiral skirt I am making. Here is a link, if anyone wants to see how it should look when I am done, or if anyone is interested in purchasing the pattern:  knit-spiral-skirt

So that is it for now. Until next time my tangled tanglers... Happy Crafting! (and gardening for you that like to garden!)

Knitting pattern: How to knit an English bulldog - Knitting - Canadian Living

Check out this link:
Knitting pattern: How to knit an English bulldog - Knitting - Canadian Living

This is the cutest bulldog! I need to make me one, since I cannot have pets where I live.

How I wish for sun and a good planting day

Well, I haven't been keeping up with my blog lately. I haven't been doing a whole lot of anything these last few rainy weeks. I have read several books, came across a couple of new authors and got reacquainted with a few I had read before, and started a new series. I have been slowly knitting on a baby cocoon. I have not been doing any stitching. Me and my cycles LOL. I have been cooking a lot of new dishes. I think I will post a few pics of my cooking. :)

I am finally learning how to make omelets! Here is one with bell peppers and onions, cheese, black olives, and mushrooms. Bobby likes his like this :)

My first attempt at making chicken enchiladas. We all loved them. I ended up with enough filling for 24 enchiladas. We ate on them for three days and were sad when we ate the last one!

This tasted better than it looked :) It is chicken leg quarters baked with potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms covered in a cream of mushroom soup mixed with chicken broth. Even the kids liked it!

Bobby and I loved it. Joey liked it. Serenity doesn't seem to like anything like this. It is Chicken, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, and orzo. Tasty and colorful!

My first lasagna. It looks weird on the one end because Bobby wanted some black olives and mushrooms on his and not as much cheese. It ended up feeding us for two days, plus I have half of it stored in the freezer for a lazy day :) Once again, everyone but Serenity liked it.

Other than the new recipes, I have mostly been cooking my normal foods. BBQ pork steaks, garlic and herb mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese went over really good last week. I made some of what I was raised calling Italian Spaghetti or Goulash night before last. Still eating left overs :) Of course, Serenity doesn't like it. It is just some pasta with ground beef, onion, garlic, italian seasoning mix, and tomatoes. I used canned whole tomatoes with sea salt and cut them into chunks. Good ole comfort food.I didn't cook anything special for Easter. The kids spent the night away from home so Bobby and I just ate leftover red beans and rice with sausage that I had decided to try to make the night before. It turned out okay. I prefer the stuff out of the box. I just need to get the seasonings right, I guess.  Tonight it is just beans n burger for supper. Couple cans of pork n beans cooked with hamburger and onions. Of course I salt and pepper everything I cook :) Usually add garlic powder to at least half of everything I cook as well. I have been trying to experiment with different seasonings, but we usually come back to the same stuff I always use LOL

Enough about food before I have to go cook something! Kids are doing good. I can't believe they both have glasses now. Joey got his a couple of weeks after Serenity got hers. She needs hers for school and for near activities and Joey needs his for school and for far activities. How are my kids always opposites in everything? It boggles the mind!

Joey had to go have an ingrown toe nail cut out last week. That was fun to watch. I had seen it done on Dr. Oz, but not in person before. Today is a check up to make sure it is healing ok. The podiatrist put some kind of chemical on it to keep that part of the nail from growing back. Let's hope this works so he doesn't have to go through it all over again! Want pics of that too? LOL Joey took a couple, but I think I will spare you all from that image!

I have been waiting for this rain to stop and for the ground to dry out enough to till it. I am going to try to have a garden this year. I started some seeds about two and/or three weeks ago. I also bought a tomato plant and had one given to me as well. I have already had to transfer the tomato plants to much bigger containers. A few of my bean bush seedlings are getting too big for their containers that I had to move them into. I hope I can get everything into the ground before they give up on me! I also have some chives starting to grow, some baby carrots, a few bell pepper plants and a couple of banana pepper seedlings that have poked their heads up. About five watermelon seedlings are looking all happy in their container so far. I can't wait to see if this stuff actually grows for me this year! I wanted to do the tomatoes upside down and had some buckets ready for them, but I think they are getting to big to easily transplant them into the upside down buckets. They might be too big to go through the holes now. I don't know yet.

My tomato plants have taken over my kitchen table :)

Some of my seedlings

another view of my seedlings :) See my happy watermelon seedlings in the green container!

I got an awesome box of yarn from a lady this week. It was a Pay if Forward. Basically like a RAK (random act of kindness). How a pay it forward works, for you that don't already know, is someone sends something to someone that needs it or could use it, or just really wants it, then in return that receiver, when they are able to, will do the same for someone else someday. Hopefully I will be in the position to sooner rather than later. I have been looking for a job recently, as Bobby is out of work right now. I might stay in the workforce once he has a job again. It would be nice to have some extra money occasionally. Also, if I don't work, then we will never save any money towards getting married and eventually moving out of this crooked leaky house with the irritating drain problems :)

Lots of little bits and pieces along with the full skeins. I love it!

Some of it was sent for a specific pattern I have for a skirt for Serenity. She loves purple!

 I have written a children's story that Bobby is urging me to send out to see if I can get published. He also suggested making it into an ebook and selling it online. I am not sure where to go with it. His brother would like to illustrate it. If I go that route, I may do the ebook thing. If not, then I guess I need to have it looked at, edited, proofread, and all that and get it sent off to a lot of places that will say either no, or give me no response at all. Yep! I am a pessimist LOL Any suggestions on what I should do, and how are greatly appreciated :)

Until next time, my happily tangled tanglers...... Happy crafting!

If I only had a brain!

So this is just a quick note to anyone interested. I am an idiot! LOL I get an email message every time someone comments on my blog. I always reply to that message thanking the person, answering questions, or just rambling as I tend to do. Today, I noticed that the address that my response went to is that persons name at no reply something or other. That means no one has gotten the messages I sent them! Right? Dang that was a lot of wasted typing, plus everyone must think I am so rude, not even bothering to thank them. Well here is a super mega THANK YOU to everyone that reads my blog, follows my blog, or comments on my blog. I apologize for being so... well .... me! I do appreciate everyone's comments.

Thanks again and Happy Crafting!

Been sick, but still knitting :)

Just a quick update here. I have been sick for several days now, but have been knitting on my first attempt at a sweater, plus decided to just jump in with both feet (so to speak LOL) and try sock knitting. I decided to try two at a time from the toe up on one circular needle after reading all the different ways to knit socks. It is going pretty good so far. I did manage a little cross stitching last week as well. Here are some pics. Also my little girl had an eye exam Monday and had to get glasses. She got them Tuesday. Wow that was quick. I am including a pic of her wearing them as well :) I love pictures! Here we go:

Isn't she adorable!

My pooh bear and tigger stitching is getting along pretty good!

This is what I got accomplished on my socks on my first day (Friday)

Here they are again after working on them Saturday.

As you can tell, they are not going to be identical. I don't mind. Just my crazy socks. I had to skeins of the same yarn, but the pattern didn't line up no matter what end of the yarns I started with. I have seen some pics from where people did this deliberately, so I decided that it wasn't a bad thing :)

I don't have a pic of the sweater yet. It still just looks like a nothing. Just a rectangle of white stockinette stitch. It is so boring doing the same thing over and over. That is why it is taking me so long. I can only do a few rows before I am bored out of my mind. I can't wait until I get to the more complicated part of the pattern!

So that is about it on this update. I am going to Indianapolis on Monday for Lobby Day on Tuesday. I am a Community Cancer Advocate for American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network (or CCA for ACS CAN for short) and volunteered to go to speak to our state representatives and such about passing the statewide smoking law that is up for discussion. I hope they pass so that people will be a little safer from second hand smoke in our state. It will mostly just make restaurants smoke free, but we would like to make every public place smoke free. Other states have managed to do it with no problems, so why can't we?

So anyway, there you have it. My update on my knitting, stitching, and life in general :) I apologize to whomever it was that said it was a Tigger's tale about a pic of my Pooh and Tigger stitching WIP in a previous post. I agreed that it was. LOL I am silly. It was Tigger's arm. I guess I was not thinking straight that day. I haven't gotten to his tail yet. It is a fun stitchy project and I have not been working on the others. I only worked on this one on a day earlier when my soon to be brother in law was visiting. He decided he wanted to learn, so I gave him a little beginner's kit and while he learned, I stitched on my Pooh bear one so I could show him what he was supposed to be doing. I can't explain stuff very well, but he watched while I explained and he picked it up pretty quickly. It was fun. Who would of thought a 23 year old guy would even want to learn to cross stitch around here. Most guys around these parts think stuff like that is sissy stuff and better left to the womenfolk LOL. Yep we are a bunch of rednecks here.

Ok. So I will try to get some more good pictures for the next update. I hope to have more done on my socks and maybe go ahead and take some pics of my sweater. I will try to get around to some more stitching as well. My cross stitch projects just kind of fall to the side when I am knitting and reading. I think it is because they take so much attention from me, and I have adult ADD or something.

Until next time my faithful tanglers...... Happy Crafty! (I hadn't said that in a good while LOL)

CatiaCrafts.com - where crosstitching becomes fun!! Counted Cross Stitch Designs by Catia Dias.

CatiaCrafts.com - where crosstitching becomes fun!! Counted Cross Stitch Designs by Catia Dias.

Everyone should go join in the SAL! It looks great.

A nice pick-me-up

Just a short update today. Both kids have been sick with the stomach flu and I haven't worked much on my stitching or knitting. I received a nice pick-me-up in the mail today though, and wanted to share!

One of the yahoo groups I am in does a fun Bingo game. Whoever wins gets a nice prize from the host of the game and then in turn becomes the host for the next one. So I won the last one which had a bird theme and am now hosting a wolf/fox themed one. Anyway, I got my prize today and wanted to share pics of it. It is a nice kit from Dimensions' The Gold Collection Petites. It is called Chickadees in Spring (goes along with the bird themed Bingo I won) and was designed by Bradley Jackson. I also received a really cute card with it. Here are pics of both!  Until next time my tangled tanglers.... Happy Crafting!

 It says: You deserve a cookie.

 Inside it says: Okay, maybe two. Congrats.
Isn't that the cutest card ever?!

The kit is pretty cute too :-)

A Great Day (too bad the weather is gonna change again)

I am going to start off by telling everyone about the photo shoot! :) The photographer that wanted me to knit some props for her offered to take photos of the kids since she needed some photos to flesh out her portfolio and because I made her a couple of the baby hammocks. I think she also probably felt bad for us because she knew we couldn't afford the school pictures this year. :) She is nice like that.  Anyway today was the day we picked to shoot the pics. I think they turned out great! Here is a link to go view them on her business' facebook page: Serenity and Joey on Reta-Li Images so please feel free to go 'like' the pics and the business! I think she did an awesome job. I also think I have adorable kiddos :) Here is a pic I took of her taking a picture of Serenity:

 We had a lot of fun today. 

I haven't been doing a whole lot of knitting or cross stitching. I do have some progress pics to show of my cross stitching WIPs and a couple of pics of my newest knitting finish. I have been spending most of my time reading still. If you notice my goodreads widget on the side of my posts I have a goal of 125 books I want to read this year. I have already read over twenty so I don't think I will have a problem meeting that goal LOL. I read about a book a day when I am in the mood. I have reread some of my favorites and am reading some by an author I hadn't previously heard of. I am also listening to the audio book of Under The Dome by Stephen King. It is great! I listen to it while I knit or cross stitch and also as I lay down to go to sleep. Anyway, here are some pics for ya!

I liked how this second baby hammock turned out. It is twice as thick and soft as the first one. She liked both, so she got both. :-) I think I will make some more and see about selling them on eBay or etsy. I am not sure how much to charge for them though. I have seen them going for around 45 dollars and higher on etsy. 

I am also working on my first sweater. I started it a little over a week ago. It was a vintage kit I got really cheap on eBay. It isn't for me, as the largest size it had on the pattern was a Large and I haven't fit into one of those for about three years now (or longer) LOL. I was afraid I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish it if I tried to make it any bigger, since it was from a kit that came with the yarn. I don't even know if they make that kind of yarn anymore. Anyway, figure it will be excellent practice to get used to knitting sweaters. I eventually want to try making myself one. 

The kids are home this week from school and the weather is going to be nasty the rest of the week, so they will probably drive me insane! So if there are no more updates for awhile, you know I am in a padded room somewhere, rocking and crying for my knitting or something to read LOL. We did have a good weekend this last weekend. Took the kids to a nearby park to feed the ducks and geese on Saturday. Then we grilled out Sunday. It was fun. Monday wasn't too bad either. We got to see Bobby's brother, whom we hadn't seen for over a year. He lives in Texas and works out of the country for long periods of time, so doesn't have a chance to visit often. We only got to see him for a couple of hours, but it was a treat. He looked too thin, but he has been working long hours so I am sure that it is taking a toll on him. Serenity was especially delighted to see him. She thinks he is just the ultimate in uncles. She misses him always and asks when he will come see us again. I know she is seven now, but it is still hard for her to understand how far away he usually is and that he can't just pop over to visit like he did when he lived and worked closer.

Well, I think that is it on the update this week. I wish I could update a couple of times a week like I originally wanted to, but my life just isn't that exciting. :) I don't want to bore everyone after all! I hope to settle back into my stitching, as I really like seeing progress on my pieces. I am still trying to get my stash built up, so have been looking on listia and on eBay for cheap floss, yarn, patterns, and books. I joined a RAK group on Ravelry and a nice lady is sending me some things. I am eager to see what I get! I am like a kid on Christmas whenever a package comes for me in the mail. I hope that someday I will be in the position to RAK people too. I know how much it means to me to receive something off of my wish list, and I want to be able to make someone else happy in the same way. I feel selfish sometimes if I join a group like that. My kids need new summer clothes and here I am asking for crafting supplies. I know, though, that the kids will get all that they need and at least some of what they want from Bobby. He makes sure that they are well taken care of. It might not be the name brand items that a lot of the kids have, but that is fine with them. Serenity is young enough not to worry about that stuff, and Joey is old enough to understand how much stuff costs. 

I have put clothes for them on several wish lists also though, so we will see what happens with that. There is a great website called Gail's List a Wish and it is a community of mom's that help each other out with this type of stuff. Here is a link: List a wish if you are interested in joining. We received a box for winter that had clothes and other necessities in it from a nice lady on there. I haven't been able to ship clothes or anything, but have had some coupons for baby formula that I sent to someone that needed them. Also if you haven't heard of it already, there are groups called freecycle all over the country that you can join to give and receive items. If you have stuff that is still in decent shape, like clothes, furniture, appliances, then you can go list them to give to people that are in need of them. If you are looking for anything, you can post a want on there and if anyone has what you are looking for, they will let you know. I have given and received many kinds of things on there. That is where I got a lot of my yarn at first. One lady had a large tote of yarn odds and ends and gave me all of them, another lady needed some so I shared them with her and she in turn gave me some rug yarn that she would never use, along with some almost brand new jeans for Joey that didn't fit her husband. See how it works? It is great. 

OK. I will stop rambling on now! I hope to have another update soon. I will also take some pics of my progress on my sweater soon to post. Until next time my tangled bunch of tanglers..... Happy crafting!

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Check out this blog! There is a great giveaway and it is easy to enter. I subscribed to it myself, as it looks like a great blog to keep up with. Here is a link: giveaway, for the love of wool: 3 month yarn club subscription worth 100$ « lanitium ex machina