Monday Morning Mish-Mash

I had forgotten how time consuming owning a puppy can be.  It's much like having a baby--they require constant attention and I have to watch him with an eagle eye.  We've had a few accidents and lost one cell phone charger to chewing, but other than that, I cannot be more in love with this little guy.  He makes my heart happy.

We took him on Saturday to get his first shots and his first worming treatment.  While we were waiting, I noticed that he was scared to death of all the yappy Chihuahua dogs, but he desperately wanted to make friends with all the huge dogs.  There was a gorgeous pure-bred pit bull and a GIGANTIC Mastiff who were very tolerant of tiny Cooper climbing all over them and chewing on their ears.

Needless to say, with all the extra attention and training Cooper requires, I haven't done much crocheting since he came home with us last week.  The only thing I've finished since then is a small blanket for him.  It's nothing fancy, just rows of dc and a border made up of five rows of hdc, using this neat pattern that looks like it's been knitted.  Cooper loves his blanky and it often travels with him between his basket at my bedside and his spot in the living room.

I have a tonne of half-finished projects that I work on for about ten or fifteen minutes at a time, when he gives me a chance, including Mother's Day gifts for my MIL (obviously this is going to be a big late), a birthday present for my mother whose birthday is in June, and two baby afghans that need to be finished by August. Hopefully the little stinker will give me a bit more time to finish!

Monday Morning Mish-Mash

(Okay, so it's more like Monday Night Mish-Mash.)

I had a very lovely holiday weekend.  The kids were home with me from Thursday on, and they'll go back to school tomorrow.  While I love spending time with them, I have to say that I'm rather glad they're going to be gone again.  Does that make me a horrible mother?

Anyway, I didn't really get a lot of crocheting done this weekend.  I was too busy playing with the kids and cooking for the Passover seder we had Saturday night at my MIL's house.  The Bunny Army from the last post was passed out to all the kids there that night and were a big hit.  I ended up keeping the little brown bunny for myself because he was just too cute to part with.  He's hanging out on my computer desk now with the hookapotamus.

I did finish one project, one I made just for myself and just for fun.  If you've read my 'About Me' page, you no doubt discovered that I number turtles amongst my favourite animals and I found the cutest pattern for a turtle softie on Ravelry.  So I made her.  And I love her.  :D

Meet Amaryllis.

This week, I'm anticipating some lovely visits from the UPS man, who should be bringing me yarn from Herrschner's.  Two of my friends asked me to make them some things, so in exchange for buying the yarn for me, I promised them pretties.  It's a pretty good deal, I think.  I'm also starting on a baby afghan for another friend, and a sleeveless hoodie for my niece.  Phew!  I can't wait!

Monday Morning Mish-Mash

First, I'd just like to extend a big thank you to everyone who's helped spread the word about my fundraiser to send Girl Child to the World Finals for Odyssey of the Mind.  It's been on Twitter, Facebook, other blogs, and even Pinterest and Google +.  I am so amazed and down-right gobsmacked that people I don't even know are caring this much about the academic dreams of a girl in Arizona, who they'll probably never meet or see.

Secondly, I'd like to also extend a GIANT THANK YOU!!! to those people who have donated money so far.  We went from $0 to $150 overnight and seeing those emails from PayPal telling me that there have been donations reduced me to tears yesterday.  You donators are angels and it means more to me than I could ever hope to express that you've given your hard-earned money to help my family out.  But we're not out of the woods yet, so keep Tweeting and sending the notice out on Facebook, Pinterest, your blogs, whatever you can do.  It's so appreciated!





In other, more crocheting news, this weekend was a pretty busy one for me.  I continued work on my Klimt socks, some ice roses for another Nerd Wars challenge, and found time to make some cool little drawstring bags and one half of a pair of slippers for Girl Child.

The blue and yellow bag is a little makeup bag that matches my new purse (photos of that when I get it back from my MIL, who is currently lining it for me because as we all know, I am sewing impaired) and the brown one is for The Man, who needed accessories for his monk costume, something he wears every Hallowe'en and to the Renaissance Festival every year as well.

The slippers were a spur of the moment thing.  Girl Child was complaining of cold feet yesterday so I decided to raid the Yarn Box and came up with yellow and brown yarn that sort of reminds me of Bananas Foster.  Plus yellow is one of her favourite colours and I have lots of brown left over so voila!  Half a pair of Bananas Foster Slippers.  I have to wait to borrow her feet to make sure they fit before making the other one.

Send Hannah to OM World Finals!

Monday Morning Mish-Mash

Remember how I've mentioned at least twice now that I'm teaching myself to knit?  And that the whole reason I'm doing this is so that I can make socks?  'Cos I have a fetish, a thing, a longing for funky socks and if I could make my own?  Wow.  That would just be amazingly cool.

My knitting skills are possibly years off from trying this, so in the meantime, my tootsies are cold.  I decided that I needed some slippers or something and searched through Ravelry and found this awesomely neat and simple pattern and whipped up a pair last night while the kids, the Man, and I were watching Dr Who.  (I LOVE YOU DAVID TENNANT!)

They are super comfy and keep my feet warm and best of all?  I can just toss 'em in the wash when they get dirty!  Oh, and I made 'em myself, too.  That's always kinda of a cool feeling, huh?

Monday Morning Mish-Mash

This is the pic spam edition of Monday Morning Mish-Mash.

Lots happened this weekend.  I cleared out my queue of a few projects, took the kids to the park, did some more work on my final book in a five-book series, finally figured out how to knit AND purl in the same row, and vegged out on the couch with Fat Cat and a lap full of fluffy, cuddly-soft yarn.

Scarf I made for my MIL

Detail of scarf.  Pretty, simple pattern.

The table in my studio, covered with the essentials.

Fat Cat with his favourite blanket and a bit of finished scarf.

Girl Child at the park

Girl Child at the park wearing her favourite (and coolest!) t-shirt

Boy Child wishing Mum would stop taking photos all the time

Monday Morning Mish-Mash

Hello!  Hope you all had a fabulous weekend and got to spend lots of time doing what you love.

I managed to accomplish quite a lot this weekend.  I finished crocheting my bag and made some hair scrunchies for Wally and Girl Child, to go along with their Valentine's Day gifts.  I still want to line the bag with some flowery fabric and maybe sew in a little pocket to hold my Burt's Bees lip balm and my cellphone, so when I'm totally done with it, I'll post a photo.

Some of Girl Child's scrunchies

Some of Wally's scrunchies

The rest of Wally's scrunchies

I also started making these great self-watering planters and began teaching myself to knit. I'm not finding it as easy as teaching myself to crochet, probably because there's two needles to keep track of, but I have faith that I will eventually get it.  I'm learning mainly so I can knit socks, since I have a fetish for funky-coloured socks.  ;)

Monday Morning Mish-Mash

Hope you all had a fantabulous weekend.  I sure did--I got lots of crocheting done, made a special trip to the post office to get B's baby blanket and Melissa's bag in the post, and went to Michael's to pick up some yarn and drool over all the (expensive) natural fibres and gorgeous colours.  I have quite a few works in progress, but at least two of them will be done within the next two or three days, provided I can find the time to get them out of the way.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I decided to make gifts for the kids in my life.  As you might recall, Girl Child and her cousin Wally are receiving these fabulous little containers in which they can put their hair doo-dads, jewelry, Barbie doll shoes, whatever.  Well, I couldn't leave Boy Child, Wally's brother, Badger, or the newest cousin, Cecil, out, now could I?

So, I decided that I would make Boy Child and Badger amigurimi aliens.  I finished Badger's yesterday evening but haven't started on Boy Child's yet.  I discovered in piecing the alien together that my stitching (non-crochet stitching, that is...you know, with a needle and thread?) is really sub-par.  I suppose it's a good thing that I enjoy crocheting and not needlepoint or cross-stich.  I'm afraid I'd be horrible at it!

Badger's Alien, made with Sugar n' Cream 100% cotton yarn.

Cecil's Valentine's Day gift from her Auntie Fi is a teddy bear.  I have developed an addiction to making amigurumi.  They're so much easier than I ever thought they could be and at some point in the future, I'll be making myself a sea otter and a fox.

Cecil's bear's nose

And finally, I used up a bunch of left-over yarn bits to make some granny squares.  I have no idea what to do with them, since I only had enough yarn to make four of them.  Perhaps I'll get a big square of fabric to back a pillow and then use these as the front?

Maggie's Square

Blushing Grannie

Circle of Friends

Standard Fare Granny Square

In case any of you Eagle Eyes spotted the copious amounts of cat hair on my backdrop, this is the reason:

My studio is often invaded by one of the furry kids, in this case it's Fat Cat, our flame-point Siamese.