Just can’t let go

I like going out to eat. We’ve had to cut back on it of course but we still manage to go out a couple times a month. Though instead of the Japanese steak house we go to Buffalo Wild Wild on ‘kids eat for 99 cents’ night

easter candy

You Are a Cadbury Creme Egg

You're the type that stole little brother's easter basket so that you could have MORE CANDY!

What Easter Candy Are You?

TV shows I have loved

The question this time on the Sweet Shoppe blog is to list 5 shows you have seen every episode of.

I am spoiled for choice if I reach back into the mists of my childhood

1. M*A*S*H

2. Little House on the Prairie

3. Star Trek

then coming into the 90s

4. Babylon 5

5. The Next Generation

6. Voyager

then more recently

7. Star Trek Enterprise

8. Firefly

9. Eureka

10. Rome

Ok, so that is 10. There are more but I’ll stop here

what’s the word

Your Word is "Fearless"

You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it! You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing. Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities. And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary.

What's Your Word?

no. not one bit is this my word.

Sweet Birthdays

SSD is having a birthday party & they want us to tell them how we celebrate ours.

In may family now, a birthday is YOUR day. You get to call the shots, within reason. Obviously you have to go to school & do your homework, should the birthday fall on a weekday and I’m not driving you 3 hours to the Air & Space museum on your last minute whim (though you can choose to plan that ahead of time). You get to pick the meals & the activites you want to do. The TV is yours to control. If you want a party we’ll have a party. If you want to go out to eat, we’ll do that. If you want to spend the day playing Wii Lego Star Wars & eating chips, fine. It’s all about you today.

This is a reaction to my own birthday celebrations as a kid. My birthday was in summer, during baseball season and baseball was a religion in my house. NOTHING was more important than freaking little league. So if my brother had a game on my birthday, the birthday celebration was moved to another day and I resented the hell out of it. I have one birthday a year. He has a couple dozen games. Seriously would missing one matter that much?

So I make it all about my kids on their birthday and DH makes it about me on mine.  DH’s birthday is Dec 31st, making it all about him in the face of New Year’s Eve is a bit of a challenge but we try.

resolutions

You Will Keep Your New Year's Resolution

You planning on making a resolution that's smart, attainable, and perfect for where your life is.

Will You Keep Your New Year's Resolution?

cupcakes

Right now I like the crochet kind of cupcakes best. They are easy to make and have zero calories, plus you can keep them forever & they don't go bad.

I have to make about 30 of the normal kind Sunday.  Monday is DS2's birthday and I have to take 20 to his class for a party, then another 10 or so for when we have friends over that night for a pizza party.  They will be chocolate with white icing and rainbow sprinkles

shopping test

You Are a Reluctant Shopper

You really don't enjoy shopping. For you, it's just another chore.
You approach shopping systematically. You research what you're going to buy and come prepared with a list.

Of all the types, you are the most likely to not buy things you don't need.
You try to de-emphasize stuff in your life. You find shopping and buying things to be a rather empty experience.

What Kind of Shopper Are You?

I don't know how it came up that way. I enjoy shopping, though perhaps it is that I enjoy browsing more than buying.

A quick glance in my closet will show that I buy plenty of things I don't need

my snow test

Your Snow Test Says You're Independent

You feel like something good will happen to you in the next few months. You don't really like to work, unless work feels like play. You only are successful when you are doing what you love. You are an independent, individualistic person. You thrive when you're doing your own thing. Your biggest worry in life is your family. You stay up at night thinking about them. When it comes time to relax, you really indulge. You are all about your favorite comforts.

The Snow Test

time to start again

I'm not good with new year's resolutions because I tend to view every Monday as a day to begin again.  Most of my resolutions fall under the broad category of "BETTER".  I will be better at keeping up with the house cleaning. I will be better at sticking to my meal plan. I will be better about clipping & using coupons. I will be better at not snapping at the kids.

My resolution for this year, if you can call it that, is to not just say I'll do better, but say HOW I will do better.  I will make a cleaning schedule, I'll put the coupons with my groery list, I'll count to 10. Whatever I need to make it happen.

New Layouts

I've done days 1-3 for Journal Your Christmas so far

Procrastination

These are the Christmas cards I haven't mailed.

I'm sure most of you are thinking "So what? It's the 3rd of December, just go to the post office tomorrow & it'll be fine" Those of you who know me in real life might be wondering about the fact that it is only December 3rd and I yet I have cards in envelopes..... you are probably thinking to yourselves "Wait a minute! I'll bet those are LAST YEAR's cards that you never got in the mail!"

Well, you would be wrong.

They are cards from 2005.

Yes, that is right. I am now entering my 4th year of card mailing procrastination.

These are the cards I bought in 2006 but never got around to putting in envelopes.

These are the cards I bought in 2007 but never even opened the box.

This year I'm not even going to bother buying the cards in the first place.

The problem is one of stamps.

I never have any, or if I do they are 4 cents less than current stamps, so I'd have to put a bunch of 1 cent stamps on the envelopes because I am not about to waste $5 worth of stamps just because they are underfunded.  But given that I never got the stamps on the envelopes when I only had one stamp at time to deal with, the odds of my getting 5 stamps on an envelope are quite low indeed.

Then there is the problem of getting them in the mail. Because remembering to put them in my mailbox is asking way too much of me.

I'm rather surprised I don't have stamped, yet still unmailed cards lying around from 2004. But I think I did manage to get those sent out in early January 2005.

More pages for the calendar

I finished the calendar today, uploaded it and ordered it from Cafe Press. I like their design better.

It's day 2 of Journal Your Christmas. It was a weather related prompt so I was out bright & early taking photos of the frost. I also spend about an hour taking pictures of the ornaments that don't fit on our tree, the paper, boxes and bags I use to wrap gifts and a stack of the gifts that I wrapped today. I guessing they will be a topic down the road & I will be out of town for 10 days at the end of the month so I'm taking tons of photos of things now in anticipation. If there is not wrapping related prompt I'll just add an additional page.

Now that I have started the project again this year I can see where I may end up with a few extra pages because of including the travel, the Solstice and photos I have taken of things that didn't end up as a prompt.

Here are the last calendar pages

I made these pages with Kim Hill's Storyboard set and her Companion Phrases sets, both available at Scrapbook-Elements. I also used a few kits by Eve Kipler, Zoe Pearn, Melissa Bennett & Kristin Cronin Barrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Pages for my mom's calendar

I've been busy getting this calendar together. I'm getting it professionally printed this year at Artscow, rather than do it myself, so I must be on the ball about this.

I made these pages with Kim Hill's Storyboard set and her Companion Phrases sets, both available at Scrapbook-Elements.  Some of the pages also use kits by Lauren Grier, Misty Cato & Eve Kipler at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Dodecahedron

This is my amigurumi dodecahedron. 

I adapted the pattern from Berroco, found here, to make it amigurumi.  I ended up with 2 different patterns, one makes the points more rounded & the other more pointy. I used the more pointy version I used a ball of some worsted weight cotton that I have had for years and a 3.50 sized hook. My dodecahedron ended up about 7 inches in height and width.

Rounded point pattern

Ch 3, 4 sc in 2nd chain

Row 1 - 2 sc in each sc around - 8 sc

Row 2 - sc, (2sc in each sc around) 7 times - 15 sc

Row 3 - sc around - 15 sc

Row 4 - (sc, 2sc, sc) 5 times around - 20 sc

Row 5 - sc around - 20 sc

Row 6 - (sc, sc, 2sc, sc) 5 times around - 25 sc

Row 7 - sc around - 25 sc

Row 8 - (sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc) 5 times around - 30 sc

Row 9 - sc around - 30 sc

Row 10 - (sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, sc) 5 times around - 35 sc

Row 11 & 12 - sc around - 35 sc

Leave long tail for stitching - 4"-6"

 

Pointy point pattern

Ch 3, 4 sc in 2nd chain

Row 1 - 2 sc in each sc around - 8 sc

Row 2 - sc, (2sc in each sc around) 7 times - 15 sc

Rows 3 to 5-  sc around - 15 sc each

Row 6 - (sc, 2sc, 2sc) 5 times - 25 sc

Row 7 to 9 - sc around - 25 sc each

Row 10 - (2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc) 5 times - 35 sc

Row 11 & 12 - sc around - 35 sc each

Leave long tail for stitching - 4"-6"

 

Now for assembly,which I find challenging to explain,even though it is really simple once you see the pattern, so I have photos to help

Crochet 12 points, using whichever method pattern you prefer

Mark one as point one. Stitch another point to it, joining 7 scs together, using one of the point's long tail.

Take a 3rd point and attach it, using it's tail to 1 and 2, with 7 scs on each point, for a total of 14scs joined

Attach 4th point to points 1 and 3 as before.

Attach 5th point to points 1 and 4 as before.

Attach 6th point to points 1, 2, and 5, for a total of 21 scs joined, completing the bottom circle.

At this point you can probably see how the rest of it will be assembled.  Take point 7 and attach it to points 2 and 3 (or any 2 points really), for a total of 14 scs joined. Attach point 8 to points 7, 3, and 4 for a total of 21 scs joined.

Continue attaching points 9, 10, and 11 this way (11 being attached on 4 sides for 28 scs)

Stuff the dodecahedron as firmly or as loosely as you prefer. Leave all the loose ends of tails inside. If you used the more pointy shaped version of the points, be sure to get the tips of the points well & firmly stuffed or they will squish flat quickly. Once you have it stuffed, attach 28 scs of the 12th point, stuff the 12th point and stitch the final 7scs closed.  Weave in the end of this tail.

Scrapbook Saturday

Visit MammaDawg for more Scrapbook Saturday

Home again

Had a blast at Great Wolf Lodge for the most part. Mayhem had some seriously whiny & sulky moments that were a bit much. He didn't want to do anything, go anywhere, just sit in the room. Then he'd ask how long we were staying & pitch a fit that we were leaving the next day because he wanted to stay longer. Sorry, kid but you can sulk around a bedroom at home for free. Other than those moments though, we had a lot of fun. I have 208 photos taken at a good distance, with low lighting, to prove it! Havoc completed 3 MagiQuest adventures and went several times on the boggie board. Mayhem collected the final runes he needed to start doing MagiQuest adventures and spent a lot of time running around the tree fort. I went up a great many stairs, a great many times, lugging a single or double innertube each time. My friend Mel and I were on an exercise mission - THIGHS OF STEEL! DH did a lot of boogie boarding and chasing Mayhem around the treehouse

So now I am home, with 3 loads of laundry to do and a kitchen that is mysteriously full of crumbs when it had been wiped down & swept before we left. Despite bringing my computer with me and logging on Sunday night & yesterday afternoon, I have about 200 emails, I am behind about 150 Entrecard drops, need to read about 1000 posts in the SkinnyJeans forum, about 75 threads on SSDs forum, a huge number on Raverly, god only knows how many posts in my blog reader and I haven't even looked at the mom blog boards I visit. I'm seriously considering marking everything read and starting clean. Maybe reading stuff from today and marking the rest read.... I'll probably end up skimming everything... I did read my Twitter DMs, responses and about 40 of the most recent Tweets, so do I feel I am caught up somewhere at least.

Weekly Winners will contain many heavily altered photos of Great Wolf Lodge and *gasp* probably no dinosaurs. They did not come with us.

hhmmmm...

I think I know where the crumbs in the kitchen may have come from.

Scrapbook Saturday

 

This is my dad when he was about 6-8 months old.  Today is his 70th birthday.

Bragging on my fab crochet creativity

That'd be sarcasm, BTW

I finished the amigurumi octopus for Havoc. He chose the rainbow colored yard for it

I've been experimenting with how to create different shape effects with amigurumi and I created a bunch of mushrooms while doing it.

Then I decided to focus on making something for a friend to keep the bad energy away and I made this traffic cone

  

Then I got my hands on some googly eyes and the mushrooms gained some personality.

The traffic cone became an angry traffic cone

I think he is just the cutest thing ever.

The traffic cone came about as a result of 2 things. First I was going to make a witches hat for a little crochet person I had made recently (There is no photo of said person because it seems to have vanished & I am pretty annoyed about that because I never wrote the pattern down & now have to start over) The problem is I really didn't want to do all those close stitches in black (3sc in a circle, then 4sc, then 5 sc, etc - pain in the butt in black yarn & I am over black yarn from the penguin). The other thing was a friend of mine was joking that she calls traffic cones buried safety witches. (witchy humor). Last night those 2 thoughts met in my mind and decided to make a traffic cone & try & square off the rounded hat brim corners. Then I glued on the googly eyes. Cute but it needed something. This traffic cone is a gift for a friend who is dealing with some negative stuff in her life & I figured what better to keep unwanted things away than an angry traffic cone.  So I was sitting here thinking I was pretty clever typing this up when it occurred to me I had seen crochet traffic cones before. I googled it and sure enough -  Alicia did it first. Hers don't appear to be angry & have different eyes, but it is the same idea.  Hers are stuffed & mine isn't but I think the next one I make will use her idea of sewing it to a crocheted square. I wish I had remembered this before I started experimenting with creating a cone on my own. Would have saved me a bunch of time. But I was googling crochet witches hat and not traffic cone.

I'm thinking of selling the mushrooms & the traffic cones on Etsy, along with the little bags that I make.

I'm saving up to buy a D40 camera & every little bit helps, plus I have a huge stock of yarn already so the set up costs were covered long ago.  I just need a name. I like The Magical Mushroom or something to that effect but I haven't had time to go out & see what is already & use. Any suggestions would be appreciated