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Baby Blanket for my first Grandson

Last April, I learned how to crochet from my friend Nicole. After learning some basic stitches, I went home to practice. I started out with a simple scarf and did a couple of those figuring out along the way what was right and what was wrong. After the scarves, I wanted to start making something simple like a baby afghan. I found a book of beginner patterns and this was my favorite. The pattern calls for five colors which I did in the beginning, making three of the same thing. But when I found out my son and his wife were expecting a boy, I modified the original which had pink and purple in it to just the blue, green and yellow. So while this is the fourth one I've crocheted, it's the first designed for a boy. I gave one of the first ones I did to my hair stylist who is expecting her first granddaughter in a few months. I can't wait to see my new grandson in just a few short weeks!

Happy 15th Birthday, Cassidy

I made this card today for Cassidy's birthday. I used Stampin' Up supplies and one Martha Stewart punch. Papers used are whisper white, melon mambo, daffodil delight and DSP Razzleberry Lemonade print. Punches used are oval, scalloped oval and Martha Stewart Double Edge punch called Linked Trim. Ribbon used is Crushed Curry dot ribbon. Stamps used are Eastern Blooms and Warmest Regards phrases. On the back piece of Melon Mambo I used the Polka Dot Textured Embossing Folder in the Big Shot. I colored in the flower stamp with melon mambo and soft suede markers. Also I stamped the Happy Birthday with soft suede. When I punched the edge I turned the punch upside down so as to make sure not to punch off the edge so I could thread the ribbon. The ribbon wraps around the whole card so as to tie in the middle.

Some fun for Cassidy's birthday was her coming home early from school after her final exams and having to spend an hour searching for her pet gerbil, Henry, who had escaped his cage and went down our basement stairs and into the food storage pantry where he hid well enough that we had no idea where he was until we were searching for a while and he happened to come out of the pantry and Cassidy was able to see him before he turned and hid back in the pantry. We were able to catch him and put him back in his cage with his buddy, Charlie. We have forbidden Dad to go near the cage since he has a habit of leaving the door open so they escape.

Birthday Card for Sandy

Today I made a card for my daughter-in-laws birthday tomorrow. I used Stampin' Up and Martha Stewart supplies. Items used: Papers - whisper white, melon mambo, and pear pizazz print; stamps - hydrangea from Bloomin' Beautiful and Happy Birthday from Warmest Regards; ink - soft suede, pear pizazz, and regal rose and black; ribbon - melon mambo dot ribbon and the dot textured impressions embossing folder. Punches used are oval, scalloped oval from stampin'up and the Martha Stewart Linked Trim Double-edge punch.

White paper with stamped image is 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" square, green is 3 1/2" square and melon mambo is 3 3/4" square. Pear strip is 5 1/2" long by approx. 1 1/2" wide. Stamped image is mounted with dimensionsals and the happy birthday is mounted with double thick dimensionals.

I used blender pens with the ink colors to color the picture. Also used basic gray for shading around the outside.

Gerbils and crocheting

It's been a while since the last post. Yesterday morning as I was cleaning I came upon one of our gerbils dead in his cage. We have only had him a little over two years, so this wasn't really expected by me. My husband looked at him closely when he got home and determined that he died of natural causes as his teeth were too long and apparently preventing him from eating. This probably also was the cause of all the blood on both gerbils on Saturday night, as he must have injured himself and his buddy Gus was trying to help him and got bloody also. Poor Gus doesn't know what to do being alone now. For better news, yesterday afternoon my good friend from church, Nicole Rasmussen, taught me how to crochet. She taught me some basic stitches and then wrote down the name of a website with free patterns to get some from, and then I came home and printed a couple. Started a scarf last night and am having good luck with it. It has two colors and I can't wait to get that done. Went to JoAnn's today to get more of the main color yarn and bought some other colors and a pattern book of baby afghans. As soon as I practice on a couple more scarves, I will start trying afghans. Once I am done with the first scarf, I will post pictures.

Scrapbooking

Last Saturday, I went to a National Scrapbook Day event held by a friend and fellow Creative Memories consultant, Donna. It was from 9 to 5 and I got 28 pages done. That was a great amount for me. It ended up being all of the pages I had done in my power layout box which was perfect. Then yesterday, I did some more pages here at home. Used my new Jumbo Wavy Square cutting pattern and that was cool! I love the new Jumbo patters (circle, oval and square)! Wonder what CM will come up with next...Richard has replaced some of the things on his ATV trailer which were ruined in last Friday's day of horror. He took the tongue box off and put it out on the curb for trash pickup on Monday night, but a neighbor boy saw it and came and asked if he could have it. So he ended up taking it instead. I think he will probably just bang out as much of the dent as possible with a hammer. Last night's Relief Society meeting was about gardening tips and organization tips and ideas. Loved both mini lessons! This year gardening is reduced to just berries. The nice thing is that they take up lots of space and they are perennial. Can't wait for the raspberries and blackberries to come on so I can eat a bunch and learn to can some jam as well.

Tongue Box takes a licking

I think today is secretly Friday the 13th. Richard came home at lunchtime to hitch up the trailer with the ATV's to go register the one from Utah. (It has to be inspected at the DMV in person). Richard got home and hitched the trailer to the truck and then while pulling the trailer out of the garage he runs the trailer into the side of the garage door ripping out some of the trim around the edge. He nails it back on, but it doesn't look perfect now. Then after several tries of getting it out, he unhitches the trailer and manually moves it over and part way out of the garage and then re-hitches it up. We left and on Ballantyne road in front of Countryside neighborhood the hitch comes off and we have to pull over on the one wide spot on the road next to an empty patch of land full of weeds and wildflowers. This is when Richard realizes that in hitching up the trailer he forgot to put down the black handle on the top of the hitch, but he had hooked up the chains and the cord to work the lights. So now he had to drive one ATC off the trailer to raise the hitch up out of the dirt and put it back on. The tongue box was smashed in by the truck hitch but luckily no damage to the truck. The trailer hitch has a small wheel that took a beating as well as the bar the wheel is attached to which part of that metal was ground off by the road. That smell is not very good. All in all, he damaged the garage, and the trailer in several places. We did manage to get it registered though with no more mishaps. Needless to say he won't forget this day for a long time to come!