Four new starts, a bad storm, and a friend's loss

Well I have survived the storm. I still don't know how much damage it inflicted in our small town, as I don't have a car available in which to drive around and gawk. My grandmother said that several houses near to me lost their roofs. I know that we were without electricity for a short while. The town about four miles from us got hit harder. School was canceled for the kiddos today. Power outages and all that debris and downed power lines were the deciding factor in that, I am sure.

Around two this morning we huddled in our little space between bedrooms which is the only place that isn't an outside wall. Still was facing some windows, but from a farther distance than anywhere else in the house. This was the first actual tornado warning that we have had while in this house I think. I know we get a lot of watches and stuff, but usually the warnings are farther away. We got some pillows and blankets and had the kids lay down on the floor and I sat by them with my laptop and a comforter trying to track the storm in between power outages. Bobby went from door to door, watching the storm's progress. It was a tense half hour or so. Then the kids went to bed and everyone but me slept peacefully the rest of the morning LOL.

The saddest news I have heard in a long time was given to me around lunch today about one Bobby's friends. This man has been so excited over the last nine months or so, because his wife was expecting a baby. I am not naming any names, as I don't know if anyone knows them and it just seems rude to be blogging about it. But it is such sad news and I have been almost crying off and on all day even though I don't actually know this couple. Anyway, he went out of state this morning on a job. His wife whose due date was sometime in March, was driving to work this morning when she was involved in an accident and had to be life flighted to the hospital. I was so sad to hear that. Then Bobby texts me to let me know that the baby didn't make it and that it wasn't looking good his friend's wife either. How sad is that. Why is life so very unfair? And for this poor man to get this news while he is out of state and have to hurry all the way back here not knowing what is happening and not being able to be there at her side.
I am getting all teary eyed again. I cannot imagine what he is going through. Bobby is depressed from the unfairness and cruelty of life and I am too. How can someone survive not only losing a baby days away from it's due date (which to me somehow seems even worse than having a miscarriage early on or something) but to maybe lose his wife as well. I don't even want to try to imagine how devastating that is.

Well, I need to stop dwelling on it. It seems so petty somehow to update my progress on my projects, but  I am going to do so. I have stuck to my schedule of starting one each day of the week and then I plan on working on them on the days I started them on every week until they are done. Here are pictures of my starts.

This is my Thursday start called Welcome Friends:

Here is my Friday start called Cow Whimsy:

Here is my Saturday start called Kittens with Ornaments:

Here is my Sunday start called Pooh and Friends Balloon Ride:

I like this one best so far. It is a larger one, but the small amount I did takes up more space than the larger amounts of stitches I have done on my Paula Vaughan over the past few weeks. I love 14 count Aida LOL.

Here is my Monday start. It is called Hang Your Heart:

I tend to want to keep working on something until it is done, whether or not I am enjoying it. I was stressed while stitching today and wasn't enjoying it, so I forced myself to put it away for now. Why do some of these kits come with the blunt needles and some come with the sharp needles, yet they are the same material? I placed that needle into my skin several times today, trying to stitch while thinking of the storm last night and the poor lady and her baby, and while trying to pay attention to Serenity and her reading to me and trying to get my son to get along with her. I finally gave up and have been knitting while mindlessly watching day time TV.

Well, there is my update. Hope I didn't bum too many people out.

Until next time, my tangled tanglers.... happy crafting!

Long overdue update!

It has been way too long since I updated my blog. I was going to update a couple times a week, but the last couple of weeks I haven't taken the time to. Here is what I have been up to recently.

I haven't been working on my cross stitch project. Every time I think about it, I get a headache. I don't know what the reluctance is, but I figure that since it is a hobby, then I should be able to take my time and just work on it when I please. I did start a cute little stamped cross stitch project last night. I thought maybe a quick project would get me back into the stitching mood. It will be a really quick project. It is so cute! It is a Stitchables kit called Calico Cat (#7503) dated 1984.  I always thought I hated stamped cross stitch, but I guess it all depends on the size and the subject. It came with the printed muslin fabric,  4" hoop/frame and all that. I get to learn a new stitch too, as it calls for some satin stitch, which I have never done. Here is a pic:

I have been knitting almost every day, as usual. I am working on a frilly scarf from a free pattern I found online. A lady in the knitting group that meets locally once a week gave me some really nice yarn. It is Mini Mochi, which I never thought I would get to work with. It is a bit out of my price range. She didn't have the info on it, but it looks like it might be their Purple Dawn colorway (is that the correct term?). She gave me two skeins of it, as for some reason she just didn't like working with it. I love it. It might be an odd choice for the scarf to some, but it told me that it wanted to be used for that pattern LOL. It is going to take all of one skein and part of the second to make the scarf and I am considering just using all of it and hoping it doesn't make the scarf look weird by adding a few rows.  Here is a pic of it on the needles, but it is hard to picture what it is going to look like off the needles.

I also made up my own pattern for a baby long tailed pixie or elf pom pom hat. I didn't have a pattern for one so I looked at some pictures of other similar hats and went from there. It didn't turn out perfect of course, but I think that I learned a bit from the experiment. It is too small, so my daughter is getting it for her baby doll.  Here is a picture of it on her baby doll :

I wasn't sure if I wanted one pompom or two LOL

I am going to make a few more small cross stitch kit starts and am going to work on one every day. At least that is the plan. I have a calendar for just my projects now and every day of the week I will work on a specific WIP. For example (since I cannot explain things to my satisfaction the first time LOL) since I started my CAT stamped kit on Wednesday, then I will work on it again next Wednesday. I really want to work on it today, but have decided that this is the way I am going to do it, unless I decide to do it differently! I never actually know what I am going to do until I do it. So it will be a surprise for us all! Here is the pic of the ones I want to do:

There are a few of the little kits my kids gave me for Christmas. Aren't they sweet! I love how most of them have frames. There is the Imagine that by Designs for the Needle. It is # 6105 You Grow from the year 1989. Then next to it in the pic is Whimsical Christmas with a couple of cute kitties playing with ornaments. Looks like it is made by a company called what's new inc. I don't see a year, but most of my kits are from the eighties. Let's see... under the kitties is a kit from the New Berlin Co. It is Welcome Friends by Lois Winston. It comes with the frame and lace and all that. The date on this one is 1987. Under that one is another one by the New Berlin Co. It is called Hang Your Heart. Came with the frame and lace and all the doodads. It is dated 1986. to the left of it is the Wire Whimsy called Cow Whimsy by Karen Avery. This one is slightly less vintage as it is dated 1994. What makes a kit vintage anyway? That is how we got so many for me, they were all marked vintage and were going really really really cheap on listia and eBay. Anyway, the last one is called Pooh and Friends Balloon Ride. It says adapted by Symbol of Excellence A Leisure Arts Company. So I am assuming it was sold through Leisure Arts originally. This is one of the larger kits I have. It has a finished size of 11 3/8" by 5 3/4: or a frame size of 13 3/8" by 7 3/4" OK enough with the boring (for some) stuff!

Oh, I just remembered that I never shared my Crowned Glory KAL finish. Yep I finished it! I was so proud of myself. Now I just need to learn to block stuff. No plans to do so at this moment though. Here is a pic of the finished scarf:

Not much else going on in my crafty world. Now on to my life. I did get some nice things for Valentine's Day. I thought he would forget, but he drug his sick butt out of bed on that Monday and went to work, mostly so he would be near a Walmart. He went after work and bought me some real flowers (first time ever from him), some truffles in a beautiful box, some macadamia nut turtles, a wonderfully soft and fluffy heart patterned throw with a heart shaped pillow, and a really sweet card. Some of you might think this sounds more like gifts for a teenager than a grown woman, but he knows how much I love this stuff. I didn't get stuff like this when I was a teenager so it kind of makes up for that LOL. Anyway, I felt bad because all I got for him was the FM transmitter for his birthday and a Valentine's Day/Birthday card from me and a card from the kids. He absolutely loves the transmitter though. I hated that he spent so much on me and all I could afford was this little twelve dollar gift, but he says that since he is the one that works and has an income it makes sense that he  spends more on me. Besides that, the only thing he really wanted was that transmitter. It works so much better than he thought it would and he talked about it for days. You might think he was doing that to make me feel better, but he doesn't ever say things just to make a person feel better. I wish he would sometimes!

Kids are doing good, both in school and in their health. I am the lucky one that has been sick for a month! Couldn't afford school pictures this year so am currently trying to win a contest on facebook to win them a free picture package. If anyone wants to help they can go to http://www.facebook.com/ReTaLiImages and 'like' the page and then go into the CONTEST Photos album and 'like' either my son Joey's picture or my daughter Serenity's picture. Voting is open until February 26th. Thank you in advance to anyone that votes!

I think that is all for the update for now. I will be finishing the scarf soon I hope as well as starting another cross stitch project, so I will try to update again soon. Until then, my crafty crafting friends....

Happy Crafting!

Valentine's Day, Bobby's 25th birthday, not much going on really

There isn't a whole lot to report on this update. Bobby is sick just in time for his birthday tomorrow. Yep his birthday is Valentine's Day if I had forgotten to mention that before. He is going to be 25 this year. I told him he is getting old and I may have to trade him in for a newer model! Of course, if I went for anyone younger than him, I would have to start trolling my son's high school. Ewww. Anyway, all joking aside, I hope he feels better tomorrow. He is going to go ahead and work, even though he only made it out of bed once today. I am keeping him medicated for his headache and sore throat. I woke him up long enough to eat something and take something for his headache and then he was back asleep. It made for a lonely yet peaceful Sunday. Both kids were gone and he was in bed all day, so I just sat in the living room without even the TV on and worked on my cross stitch. Didn't get a whole lot done on it for the amount of time I put in, but that is ok. I was going to work on it some more tonight, but ended up with a big knot in the floss and decided that my eyes were too tired to mess with it. Here is a pic of my progress so far:

So far I am not thrilled with the half stitches it calls for. It says in the directions for this chart that I am to do all full stitches and quarter stitches with two strands of floss and to do all other stitches with one. I took that to mean that the half stitches were done with one strand, but it just doesn't look right to me. I am going to go ahead with the one strand for now, because I don't want to run out of floss. But I might go back and go over it again with another strand later if I still think it looks like it isn't right.

I haven't done any knitting this weekend. Weird, huh? Usually I knit a little every day, but I took yesterday and most of today off. I spent yesterday with Bobby for the most part. We dropped Joey off at his grandparents to see his dad and his half sister Hailey and went to Wal Mart to get Bobby's birthday present he wanted. We stopped at McDonald's for Serenity to use her gift card on a happy meal and then went to KFC for us to eat. Then we dropped her off at the bowling alley in Oakland for a birthday party. Then we were alone for the rest of the night, as both kids spent the night elsewhere. Of course for most of the night Bobby was working on the house. He is setting it up so that the lights go on and off automatically as we go in and out of rooms. We have a remote control for all the lights and appliances also. It is kinda nifty, now that I am getting used to it. It was also a lot cheaper than I would have thought it would be. So while he did that, I got most of my floss for my HAED wound onto bobbins. I have 38 of the 89 colors so far. I am spending a lot of time searching ebay and listia for floss for it. I have plenty of time to get all the floss since I want to get quite a bit more of my current cross stitch project done before I start it.

So that is about it on this update. I don't have any plans for Valentine's Day. I cooked a nice roast and vegetables tonight in the crock pot, so I won't have to cook tomorrow,except for the birthday brownies. I might put those off if Bobby isn't feeling better tomorrow after work. No point in making him his favorite dessert for his birthday if he isn't going to feel like eating it. I wonder if he got me a card or anything. You never know with him. Some years I get cards and gifts for what seems like every holiday, and then some years I don't even get a birthday card LOL. It all depends on if he remembers to get to the store. His intentions are usually good. He intends to go buy me a card or gift, he just tends to forget until the day of whatever occasion it is and then he feels like a jerk because he didn't have anything for me. He is a sweetheart, really. You just have to dig deep to find the sweetness sometimes HAHAHA.

I hope all of you crafty tanglers out there have a great Valentine's Day, whether you are single, in a relationship, or whatever the case may be. Until next time... Happy Crafting!

All the bad things turned to good

So I will start off with my good news and then move on to my progress on my projects.

First off, Bobby bought me a new washing machine Friday and had ordered a heating element that was to be delivered on Saturday. He managed to get his car running in time for me to have my car to take my daughter to the doctor Friday also. He will still need to have it looked at, but for now it is running.

My new washer makes me so happy. No more filling a washing machine by hand. No more fiddling with the knob to make it run through a cycle. No more belts squealing. Just a good washer that runs great and has a three year warranty on it. YAY Bobby.

The heating element came on Saturday morning, even though the weather everywhere was bad and it took the most circuitous route ever planned by Fedex. It came here to Indiana from Ohio through Kentucky and Tennessee. How out of the way do they have to go? Anyway, now my dryer is running and drying even better than before. YAY again for Bobby.

My daughter is fine. She has quite a cough and is taking an antibiotic, but will be able to go back to school tomorrow. Of course, now my son is sick with a high temp and won't get to go to school tomorrow. He will stay in his room and take a fever reducer here and there and mostly sleep or read. Unlike his sister that insisted on staying glued to my hip from Tuesday morning until today LOL. I love them, but after a while I need some Me time. I am glad she is feeling better and was worried when it seemed like it was getting worse Friday night. Now it is just the cough and no fever with her, and a cough and a 103 fever for my son. YAY colds! Of course I am still sick and both ears are still all wonky to where I can hardly hear, but I am starting to feel better too. Here is a pic of Serenity taking her temp for the hundreth time to make sure she was fever free and had to go to school tomorrow LOL.

So almost everything I was upset about in whiny post is all taken care of now. Still probably won't get a honeymoon at all, but that is ok. I can wait on that until whenever it is in the cards. I did manage to not only get my food stamps back, but they actually increased a whole 19 dollars a month. That means I am now feeding my family of four on 40 dollars a week. Nineteen dollars doesn't sound like much to some, I am sure, but for us it is another six days or more of meat. Depending on the sales. I use around one pound of meat a day for dinner for us. That is usually it, unless I am cooking something that will last more than one day, like a large meatloaf or pot of chili. Cereal usually for breakfast and maybe a peanut butter or bologna sandwich for lunch. When bills aren't as high or something, we tend to take the kids out once a week for Subway or Taco Bell or something like that. It might not sound like much to some, but we enjoy it.

Now on to my projects. I finished my fishie washcloth. The pattern ended up being called Betsy Bass by the designer, although we thing it looks more like an Angie the Angelfish or something. Here is a pick of the washcloth. I haven't woven in the ends yet, but other than that it is finished!

I worked on my cross stitch for a little bit on Saturday and a little while on Sunday. Messed up a few spots, but I don't know if they are that noticeable. I left some of the stitches as they were, as I had not noticed them for quite a while and didn't want to have to do the whole section over. I had missed a row and ended up with a couple of white stitches where ecru was supposed to be. I haven't been using my magnifying glass, as I am getting used to all the tinieness of the linen, but occasionally I need it to see where I have messed up or something. I guess maybe that is why I messed up in the first place. I think the minor mistake isn't going to mess up anything all in all. I just worked around the couple of stitches and got back on track. Here is a pic of the progress since my last post:

I guess I stitch different than almost all the people that I have had the chance to look at their WIPs. They all have complete parts of their pattern done at a time. Looks like they work from left to right or top to bottom, completing all the different colors the pattern calls for in the area they are working on. I, though, work with a color until either I am done with that color for a good ways along the pattern, or I run out of floss on my needle. Then I pick another color that is close to where I left off, or get another strand of the color I was using. If that makes sense to anyone. I don't know if there is a 'right' way to do these, but I just goes with what feels easiest. That could be why I mess up, not the whole not using the magnifying glass!

Bobby didn't see a whole lot of difference at first, until I pointed it out. I told him that I had almost doubled what I had Friday and started showing him and he was like OK I see it now. I am not sure if he did see it, or just wanted me to shut up. Whatever! Serenity oohs and aaahhhs enough to keep me happy!

I didn't work on anything else over the weekend, so now I am back to playing catch up on my place mat KAL. I only have two days to catch up on, so that won't be too hard. Then there is the other scarf KAL I haven't started yet and the one I haven't worked on. I am going to work on all of that tonight. At least until the Benadryl knocks me out!

So until my next update, my faithful tangelers..... Happy Crafting!

Cry baby day (or Life Pretty Much Sucks!)

If you don't want to hear all my crappy problems, please feel free to skip down a few paragraphs to get to my progress on my knitting and cross stitch WIPs and finishes! LOL

OK, so as if it wasn't bad enough that we lost our small amount of food stamps that we bought our groceries with, other crap is going wrong pretty steadily this year. For you that didn't know, we are poor folk LOL. We were getting 141.00 a month in food stamps and that was what I was feeding our family of four on pretty much. Bobby would go and get bread and milk as we ran out, but other than that, the food stamps were it. I would buy what was on sale at the beginning of the month and make it last all month. I got paid late in December for twenty two hours of work and it was enough to make us loose the food stamps. YAY

So that was a bummer, that we were going to have to come up with grocery money at least in the month of February, until I could maybe get the food stamps back. Then the washer decides to break down last week. Bobby tried to fix it himself, but the best he could do was run the hose over the washer and we fill it up manually, so we have to pay attention to the cycles. I forgot the first time and it tried to rinse with no water and ended up breaking off part of the agitator fin thingies. Anyway, so either way that was what we had worked out.

Then this last weekend I was so excited because we were going to Michael's to get me a scroll frame. We made it a whole six or seven miles from home before Bobby's car started acting up. It dies anytime you put on the brake. After pulling over facing a huge drop off where they are building the new highway, we discovered it dies when you put it in reverse as well. So he had to push it backwards until it was far enough away to be able to turn it around. It was fun getting home with it dieing every time he touched the brake!

So we went home and got my car, since he really wanted me to be happy and get my scroll. I was disappointed when I got there because I had a list of stuff I wanted to get while I was there, but they were out of or didn't have most of what I was looking for. I should have went to Joann's probably. I never made it to Big Lots either, but that was OK. I did get a magnifying glass with a light and it really helps me on that linen fabric. Such tiny little holes!

So, now we are to Saturday night. Bobby spent all night working on our projection TV we got for really really cheap a couple of weeks ago (I think it was 50 or 75 dollars!). We couldn't pass up something that big for that cheap! We didn't know about the washer or car yet, so don't think we were just throwing away needed money LOL. It was a little cloudy, so Bobby looked up how to fix it and bought the stuff he needed. Well, it didn't work the way it was supposed to, and now he can't get the colors aligned or something like that. So now we just have the thing sitting in the living room, not in use, waiting for us to find a way to fix it. SIGH

I worked on my cross stitch Sunday and some knitting Sunday night. I was bummed about the car and the TV so I didn't update the blog or do much of anything. Monday rolls around and I spend some time on stuff. I finish my double knit hat and start on my scarf KAL again. I was happy when Bobby got home with the mail. I got my new longer circular needles set and the dress I had got for a little over $5.00 for Serenity to wear, before I knew that Bobby planned on eloping!

Of course, one of the needles was broke when I opened the package. After waiting for three weeks, I felt a little let down, but it was a size I have no use for in that length anyway, so oh well. But that dress. Gosh Serenity was so happy, but then I had to open my mouth about us not having a wedding after all. She cried for a half hour straight and is still depressed. I told her she could wear it somewhere else, but she had her heart set on being a flower girl. I feel really bad for letting her down. Of course, with everything going wrong, the elopement and the following honeymoon isn't going to happen anyway.

Now I am up to last night. Joey wanted me to wash his gym clothes so he could have them today at school, and I stayed up late making sure they were washed and dried. He always waits until after I do a load of clothes before he asks me to wash anything LOLYAY

I finally got to bed around five in the morning, just to lay there and toss and turn. I fell asleep around six and woke up at six thirty to get the kids off to school and found Serenity with a fever. So she is laying here beside me, watching a movie, totally miserable. She isn't one to sleep off an illness, so we will both be up all day watching TV. No nap for me.

Now I am done telling you why it is cry baby day for me. I kinda want to cry over everything, but I won't. Bobby is already upset because he did his taxes Friday and he is only getting about five hundred back. He got a lot more back last year. He was going to use his tax return to take me somewhere for our elopement and honeymoon. Now that looks like it isn't going to happen. No marriage this year I guess. I told him that we could always get married by a judge and then take a honeymoon some other year. He is disappointed though. Now, with the car and the washer and dryer he is super stressed.

Did I mention his birthday is in less than two weeks? His birthday is on Valentine's Day and I want to get him something special to cheer him up. But I know I need so save any child support I may get, fingers crossed that I get some, for groceries and bills. So I will probably try to make him something and get him a card. He says he doesn't want anything, but I don't want him to feel unloved on his birthday.

OK, now I will stop with the depressing stuff. I just had to get it all out! I feel a little better now. I am putting a couple of pics of Serenity it the new dress on here, just because she is so pretty! Here they are:

So, as I said earlier, I finished my double knit hat. I am not too thrilled with it. I messed up in several places and didn't see them until it was too late to even try to fix them. Also the top was going all pointy. I don't know why that happens exactly, but I increased my decreases and stopped doing the non decreasing rows in between the decreasing rows (if that made sense) and that took care of that problem. Here is the finished product:

Not too bad for my first ever double knit project. It is funny that it sits so high up on my head (it barely covers the tops of my ears) but on Bobby it comes all the way down over his ears. I have a huge head, I guess. Anyway, the most noticeable mess ups are on the silverish side and he will only wear it with the black side out, so it turned out OK. He probably will never wear it, but he will keep it forever because I made it. Isn't he sweet!

I also started on my Crowning Glory scarf again. Remember that one? I had to frog the whole thing and was really upset. The second attempt (or actually about the tenth of you count all the false starts where I messed up on the first few rows) is turning out pretty good. Let's all keep our needles crossed that I don't screw it up again!  Here is a picture of it. I am loving how much easier it is on the longer circular needles.

I also started on a new washcloth KAL last night. I am loving washcloths right now. They are interesting to make and are a quick project. I love seeing completed items and knowing that I made them. Quick projects like washcloths give me that happy feeling. Here are some pics of the washcloth I am working on. I can't wait to get some more of the pattern in my email tomorrow! I cannot tell what it is going to be yet. I thought maybe some kind of heart pattern, since it is February, but not I am not so sure. Isn't that exciting!

I have no idea why one picture is sideways LOL

Today, I am going to start a place mat KAL that started last week. I didn't have the yarn or needles for it until now, which is why I am a week behind. Luckily she is only sending out rows on weekdays, or I would be even farther behind. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I haven't done a place mat before.

I also want to work on my cross stitch project today at some point. I only managed another twenty something stitches Sunday before my eyes got too tired, even with the frame and magnifying glass. I will be happy when I am totally over this cold and able to get more than an hour or so of sleep at night. I hate being tired and cranky and making everyone around me miserable LOL. At least Bobby babies me some, so there is a bright side to being sick. I am just too headachey and cranky to appreciate it usually. Here are a couple of pics of my progress on the cross stitch:

That is about all there is. You are now totally up to date on my life! I am grateful for my faithful tanglers. I am hopeful that I won't be so whiny in my next posts. I am glad that you put up with it (or skipped most of it)!
I hope you will feel free to leave some comments, whether they be on the WIPs or my life. Until next time...
Happy Crafting!

Almost sleep, scroll frame, and elopement

So I ended up taking some generic Benadryl last night with dinner and it made me so tired, but my ear and head ached less so it was worth it. I had only gotten about three hours of sleep total yesterday after vacuuming and shampooing the living room carpet, so I can understand that it was partially lack of sleep that made it hit me so hard. Anyway, long story short, I did not do any knitting or any cross stitching at all last night. Usually I do a little every night, so I feel like I am behind on some self imposed deadline or something. Wow, I hate that feeling.

The worst part? I didn't even sleep good. I woke up every fifteen minutes all night long. I did the same thing the other nights I have managed to sleep this week. I am becoming easily irritated. Oh well, I will get over it.

My fiance, Bobby, went to Michael's and Menard's last night after work and bought stuff to make me a homemade scroll frame for my cross stitching. We thought it would be cheaper. All we needed was a couple of little knobs, a couple of cheap dowel rods and some bolts of some sort.We already had some wood pieces that he could cut down to make the rest of the frame. I can't tell you specifics of the hardware he had to get, but I know he grabbed some 3/4 in by 36in dowel rods and was going to cut them down into two 12in and two 24in rods for my frame so I could change the size as I needed to. The problem? He doesn't have a workshop or anything, so he was out in the cold trying to cut the pieces of  wood we had (I don't know if it was oak or maple or what) with a handheld saw of some sort and could not get the pieces cut correctly. He spent a long time on it before giving up in frustration and telling me he would just buy me a scroll frame from Michaels. The best part is that the dowel rods he had would also fit in the frame he had seen there, so that means I will end up with three different sizes! YAY!

Does anyone have any suggestions as to which brands of scroll frames are the best? I looked up some on several different sites and they all look the same to me. Here is one I found on Amazon. I am assuming that they are all about the same as this one. Of course, eventually I am going to want one of the ones on a stand, but I will wait until I have more money and more experience at cross stitching.

.Homecrafters Deluxe Hardwood Scroll Frame 6 Inch x12 Inch


Now, I am sure you are wondering about the elopement part of my title. Well, most of you don't know me well yet, so you wouldn't know that we have been planning on getting married this summer down in his home state of Texas. I have been finding stuff on listia and ebay and freecycle to use for the wedding, as we are some broke people and cannot afford even a used wedding dress or a real ceremony. Not whining, just stating facts LOL. I had bought a bunch of different white and white with pink flowers from the Dollar Tree and put together some pretty bouquets and my best friend was going to make a beautiful wedding cake for me. I have been planning this for over a year already LOL.

Now, though,  Bobby has pretty much decided that we should elope. I thought he was kidding the first time he mentioned it, as he was the one so adamant about having a real wedding, since I have always wanted one. My first marriage was at a courthouse in front of a judge that I didn't even like, and was over in about a minute and didn't even feel real. So, he wanted to give me a real wedding with the walk down an aisle and a wedding dress (of sorts) and a bouquet and cake and all that. Now he keeps hinting around about elopement, which is fine with me and would be a lot less stressful when it comes down to it.

He was sitting at his computer desk a couple of nights ago and I was watching a rerun of a Glee episode, the one with the Glee wedding!, and I asked him jokingly (as he hates Glee) if we could have a Glee wedding. He looked at me and said "I thought maybe we would elope. That I would take a week's paid vacation and we would go somewhere and spend it alone, without the kids."  What?!!! I told him that it sounded great but that the kids would be disappointed because they were planning on being in the wedding. He thinks that they would get over it pretty quickly. So I am going to assume (and hope the old saying doesn't hold true about that word) that he is planning something. Sweet!

I told him I was going to blog about it and he said not to mention specific dates. So I am assuming that he is planning to do it before the originally planned July date. I am so excited. Especially since it seems that it won't be as long an engagement as I had originally thought it would be. For those of you that don't know us well, he didn't propose until my last birthday.  We had been together for four years and I thought he would never get around to proposing. We got into this big stupid fight because he didn't spend hardly any time at all with me on my birthday, and then when he got home a little after midnight that night (so okay, technically it wasn't my birthday anymore) he dropped down on the knees and proposed. I didn't even know what to say at first I was so shocked! After saying Ok, I proceeded to texting everyone I knew a picture of the ring along with the news. He helped me take a few good pictures of the ring to capture the color right. He even told me to change the status on my facebook, even though he hadn't told his mom yet and I knew she would see it. He is the sweetest.

Do you see why I call this blog a day in the tangles skeins of my life yet? If not, then you will eventually. My life gets way more tangled and confusing then it has been lately. Have I mentioned that I am friends again with my ex boyfriend that I hadn't seen since I started dating Bobby and that Bobby is okay with it since my ex boyfriend used to be one of my closest friends ever, and that my son's dad is back into his life for some reason, while my daughter hasn't seen hers since Christmas? LOL Ok I will stop there.

I hope to accomplish some crafty things today, but I also have to finish cleaning the remaining carpets at some point today, and there are some errands I have to run. So we will see what I actually get done. I can't wait until Saturday, when I get to go pick out my scroll frame and also get to pick out some more yarn, and cross stitching supplies. Being broke people, as some of you probably know from either experience, or from knowing other broke people LOL, I don't actually get to buy this stuff new usually. I am always on freecycle asking if anyone has stuff they are wanting to get rid of, or I am on listia or ebay getting kits no one wants, or boxes of mixed partials of yarn. It makes me happy, whether it is new or used or unwanted, so it doesn't matter to me where it comes from. It is still exciting to get to go to a crafty store and look around, knowing that this time I actually get to buy something :) Usually I am just looking at stuff and getting ideas about what I might want to do in the future. I love finding new free project sheets when I look around too. It is like the fun little surprise in a box of kids cereal. They are already enjoying the sugary deliciousness of their cereal so the treat is just that added bonus. Yep, that is how I feel with project sheets. I am already loving just being in the store and viola, a project sheet I didn't have already. YAY! HAHA yep, I am weird.

So I will stop my random ramblings now. Thanks for being my faithful tanglers. I notice that for some reason my comments section is working where it wasn't before. I must have finally got a setting right! So feel free to leave as many comments as you want to. I love hearing from everyone, either on here or in the groups I am in. Any suggestions, constructive criticism, hints, ideas, or just 'hey how ya doing's are welcome. Until next time..

Happy Crafting!