Polar Express Christmas 09

Can't believe its been so long, geesh I guess I fell off the face of the earth..lol
Well it sure has been a busy time, lots happened, but I'll spare ya the details and just say I can't wait for the New Year and sure hope that it is a better one!

Do hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and
I wish you all the best for the New Year 2010!! May it be a great one!

I'm trying something new here as far as posting a video. I wanted to share our Polar Express video, so bare with me as I try this to see if it will work or not as I've never done this before. (it worked, yea!!)
We do this every year, but I never knew how to post it and this year Mike was able to make the video a little shorter and this sure is alot easier then mailing out CD's..lol The video isn't that long and because its dark there are day still pics afterwards to see more. This is the second year for our bridge, but the mountain is new and much bigger than the old one. Also next year will most likely be totally different as we just bought some new houses. On with the show.....Thanks for checking it out too ☺

The Meet Up

Last week was a very exciting week for me as I had a great ravelry friend and fellow group member from Lisa's Designs come out to Vegas. Woo-hoo, I had something fabulous to look forward too and be nervous at the same time..lol Yes, I'm alittle nervous when first meeting people, nothing against the people, just the way I am, anyways...
Linda came out for 2 weddings plus to meet up with Mike & I. On e wedding was Sunday and the other Friday. We looked forward to Tuesday (the 4th) that was our day. We met up with Linda, better known as stitchwhiz623 on ravelry, over at the Mandalay Bay near the Shark Reef/Aquarium. After introductions and gift exchange, ( she came all this way and brought a gift for me -Yarn with bag),
we had decided to check out the Aquarium. Got to see and hear all about all different kinds of fish, sharks, etc...Oh an even to interact with stingrays. Well we kinda lost each other in the darkness of the aquarium, but Mike & I waited and kept up with texting, sorta seems they got snatched up in the gift shop..lol which of course Linda gave me another small gift. You see when we first went in they took our picture
so on the way out Linda and Mark stopped to get that. She also gave me a huge key chain , really neat and nice memory piece of the great time we had. The pic is the same as all of us here. That's my Mike in the ball cap behind me, the tall gal..lol
From left to right is goes Liz, Mark and then Linda with Mike behind her and me next to Linda with Dan on the far right..think he might of been afraid my purse might get him..lol We really had a great time and had a lot in common too. they may come back in December, so we're looking forward to spending that time together playing tourist ourselves..lol maybe go hit Valley of fire since it will be cooler that time of year.
We had lunch at the Red, White Blue and then of course did our Photo Op for our group friends. So this is Linda and Me before we parted ways. We kinda wished we had found some of those fancy Masks to wear just as a joke shot first...but we didn't so here we are, alittle worn but still standing.
Thank you Linda & Mark for meeting up with us and Thank you Linda for the gifts!



I'm putting this pic of the yarn here as I am in love with it. Its Jitterbug in Adonis Blues and I love the way its working up, yes I already have a project started with it..but now I want more...lol as I'm hoping I don't run out.

Doggies

Girls were out the other morning enjoying pretty much another hot sunny day, but its still early and only in the 90's. Birdies caught their eye...I knew Lady would be a bird chaser, but wasn't sure about Coco. She usually just looks...Birds were fine, girls were just watching as the birds saw them and decided to stay up in the tree and wait til the girls went in so that they could enjoy the feeder. I finally found my container with the last of the seed in it and decided to finish it up. Filled up the make-shift bird bath too..lol my upside down container pot with drain catch on top filled with fresh cool water, as long as the girls don't drink it all..lol













This is a pic of what we do when we wait in the garage for daddy to come home. (on my days off)

I pop the garage a bit, turn the swamp cooler on and the girls watch for dad, well Lady does at least...lol Coco ducks and peeks, though she is trying. I kinda wonder myself what it looks like from the other side..lol Maybe one day when someone else is home, we'll find out.
Finally Coco did it...sorry the pic is dark.
I couldn't find the other so it must still be on the camera. Mike was able to get this one and that bump on to the right of her is Lady..Lady lays first and then Coco always lays right next to her and usually their butts are touching..lol Sill girls!
That's really about it as for them, we've been busy cleaning up stuff that keep happening...lol If its not one thing, its another. Oh well..such is life I guess!
Enjoy your soon to be weekend and Happy Dogs on Thursday to you all!!

Summer

I found this beautiful Summer poem and thought you might enjoy it too.
(And it's very well written)


"Summer"

a poem by Abigail Elizabeth McIntyre










SHIT!

It's Hot !

Tough times don't last...tough people do!!!

Crafts, Cars & Animals

Wow, sure has been a while since I posted anything except doggies, but speaking of Doggies, they have been great lately, all seem to be resting at this moment. Coco wouldn't let me get a pic of her. She moved every time I tried, but I have Lady & Dyna, yea, Dyna actually laying on Mike's chair right behind me. So good to see her back to normal and joining the rest of us.

In the meantime I've been crocheting crazy again. Got quite a few things finished up and one big one in progress (but no pics on that one).

So for the Fo's I have made a child's "Muff".

This was a quick small project and worked up nicely!

Then I made a "Girlie Girl" to hold all those ribbons, clips and hairbands and decided to show it at work. I wound up giving it to Jo for her granddaughter who is a real girlie girl. Jo is going to dress it all up with new bows, hairbands, clips and barrettes and give it to Natalie for her birthday. I also gave her this Kitty purse as Natalie LOVES Hello Kitty. The purse went over fantastic, everyone commenting about it and jealous cousins...lol It really made my day when Jo told me how everyone just commented so much about it.

I thought I would show a pic of the new engine that has had us in turmoil since getting it. This was taken right after putting it in the car and before it got blasted with anti-freeze the other day..lol I have to laugh cause I really just want to cry..all the money we've been putting into this thing to have it not working correctly. This heat wave of weather hasn't helped either.

We really haven't been able to drive the car much. Its just been overheating something fierce. So Mike has been going over different things and reading quite a bit and checking out a few things too. After checking into things he found out the car had the wrong transmission mount on it which made the engine slant back more, making fan not work like it suppose to. Once we put the correct one on, the engine is now sitting more level and the fan is working better to draw the air through the radiator to keep it cool. Engine temps only got up to 221 on a short drive the other day. Yea, that's high but we're going to wind up ordering an aluminum radiator as it would cool alot faster then what we have. Besides that temps beats the 260 something it got to when the hose broke open the other day and we had to pull the car home.

So right now until we get the new radiator we'll just be taking the car on bowling nights, its not that far away and its a short drive about 6 miles. So that really about all that's been happening lately. Other than hot weather, anyone with snow or cold temps be my pleasure to take off your hands...lol Hey we did get alittle bit of rain during the night so that's good, don't get much of that too much anymore.

Well, gotta go for now...Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great rest of the week!!

Innocence With Creativity

The look of innocence with a crafty twist is what we found yesterday when we returned home from work.
The culprits.... Lady AKA Buggers & her sidekick Coco AKA Coco-bear

Though these close up faces don't look as innocent as they could be, they are the most recent since Mom has taken a short break from blog posting. Lots going on car wise and craft wise, I guess my girls didn't want to be left out. They wanted to be crafty too!

A little background, I have a small basket sitting on the floor next to the shelf and my desk that has been untouched since it was put there (about 1 yr.) until yesterday. You wouldn't even know the basket was touched looking at it, but one very creative doggie decided she would sneak some stuff out of this basket and something off the shelf, only to leave a trail of creativity behind. Kinda hard not to laugh but I did. I know their just getting back at me and gave me a reminder that I need to get my things organized and out of their reach. They've been so good lately though the last couple weeks have been alittle crazy with not alot of doggie attention.

So here is where I show some of the creativity that my girls have and some clean up I have today.

This was Lion Brand Incredible that I had not quite full skein left with some small Christmas sweaters and mitten stockings. These are 2 that weren't savable.

This was a full bag of tiny thread spools that I've had for a long time. There were about 10-12 spools, the pic shows 5, I did find 1 more under the ribbon yarn, I haven't checked under the sofa yet...My girls sure do love there fibers!

Now here's where creativity and a first time at getting into bottles..I don't even know where these were, but I'm assuming from the basket.

I guess they wanted to decorate their doggie donuts to be more fashionable...lol, nothing like hot pink sparkley's (hope that's a word, if not it is now). Coco's donut had the most "pink" and no sequin's and this blinding one is Lady's....the blinding part is a big green sequin like disc from one of the chewed up mitten stockings.

There is alittle bit of Hot pink sparkly goop too, but pink isn't Lady's color.

Neither had any on there mouth or tongue so I believe it was just chewed up caps and then into the donuts and then ended dried up to the ribbon design. I did notice a small amount on Lady's nails, she loves to paw stuff.

So this is what was left of a Twinkle Writer that I don't even remember having.

So today while we play, mom will be washing up the doggie donuts and hope that the inner stuffing tubes aren't glued to the fabric. I'll be checking under the sofa too, plus I'll be putting my "stuff" up.

Sounds like a fun day, doesn't it...lol

Happy Dogs on Thursday to you all!!

Getting Back on Schedule!

Oh my gosh I've missed so many DoT posts, its not funny..I've gotten to read the last couple, but haven't had anything to post.

Now you would think with me home again now on Tuesdays & Thursday, I'd have the time. Well my girls are still getting use to it as they follow me around, probably wondering when I'm leaving again. Because of that we've spent alot of time outback. They mostly chase each other around and start biting each other..lol

I'm also trying to get things around the house organized again, its been so long and I have yarn boxes everywhere. The place needs a really good organizing, so I decided since I have shadows that I'll do a room at a time. Everybody wins!

For awhile it was just Lady walking around or sitting like here with the furry green squeaky bone which we call her baby... its right there by her front legs..for awhile she would just walk around with it and cry, but now its the bedroom toy again and she won't let Coco have it.

Now with me home when I get busy doing stuff I usually find the gals resting somewhere like this...

I hope to keep up with the picture takings again, so many times I wish I had my camera in my hand...not too often I'm ready to aim when they are tugging..We got the girls this harder material Frisbee and they both just love it. They got it ripped on one side and were chewing it up, so we cut that part off..every now and then they get to tugging on it. Lady will take it and Coco comes along and steals it, then the tugging begins..I'll have to start bringing the camera in the living room with me. Its just too cute and funny! Coco is not afraid of anything, except people...lol but, I'm just glad we found something they both like and play with together.

We also get Dyna lurking about during all this sometimes..lol

I know, this is a doggie post, but I just had to include her too.

Her and Coco are gonna be best pals I think, as Dyna is always around her and always out and about.

Now bedtime there is definitely a ritual.

This is the girls every night when its bedtime...of course they have to jump all arond first and make the blankets a goofy mess...lol

then they wait for us to get in thats when they reposition themselves for their nightly belly rubs, though for this week or so Lady wouldn't let me in hardly at all. When she did let me slide in, then she slept right next to me or down on my feet. Not sure what was up with her, but glad she's back to normal now. That about updates whats been going on here. Still adjusting to being home alittle more, feel like a friggin yo-yo..lol I'm sure it won't be long till the girls are sure of the new schedule..I think its gonna stay this way too, for them!

Happy Dogs On Thursday Everyone!! Make it a great day, we are ☺

Meet Hannah

I would like to Thank you all for the birthday wishes, I sure do appreciate every one of them! As promised I finally got a pic of my gift that I asked for. didn't want to mess up the last post adding it in, sometimes blogger can be a pain.
I would like to introduce Hannah!











She is from Savannah..lol honest, really she is! and Hannah is her name.
May be silly, but this is what I asked Mike for, he even let me pic her out. He says, "she needs a wig", so I told him he can do that for Christmas..lol I'm just happy now that I have a model to try things on. Her ears are even pierced and she has a small neckline for trying on necklaces. I can't wait to make her some clothing & accessories! Will be fun and we can share them..lol She'll probably wear the hats more than I though, unless I come across one I don't look too silly in.
Well back to my relax and chill-out day! Hope you all have a good one too!!

My Birthday Horoscope!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me..lol Can't wait to get a pic of my gift I asked for. Hopefully by the end of the day I'll get it posted, but in the meantime and just out of curiosity Birthday Alarm gave me a free sample Birthday Horoscope reading....not too sure about what it says how I approach life, but that inner me is almost dead on...I do crave change, and definitely get bored easily!! ☺I sure hope my mind see what it says about it..lol sometimes I wonder...just something fun, sometimes they are kinda right and sometime not, but the inner is a ringer!

Section 1: How You Approach Life and How You Appear To Others
Forward-looking and progressive, you are a person who supports change, innovation, and human advancement, and you are often strongly committed to a humanitarian cause or social improvement. You are extremely aware of the interconnection and interdependence of all people, and are always relating personal issues to some larger framework. You see the political or social ramifications of personal actions, and you wish to contribute something of value to the world, or at least to your community or group.
Section 2: The Inner You: Your Real Motivation
You are, in many ways, an eternal child. Your mind is bright, alert, curious, flexible, playful, and always eager for new experiences - and your attention span is often quite brief. You grasp ideas quickly and once your initial curiosity has been satisfied, you want to go on to something else. You crave frequent change, variety, meeting new situations and people.

More FO's!

More FO's..Woo-Hoo! Suddenly I feel a little caught up..lol

I finally finished up a few more projects from Lisa's new e-book, "Hooked for 30 Days" (30 designs in 30 days). I give you one sweetly dressed up baby doll all in Lisa's Designs. She is wearing Grandma's Peek-a-boo Bonnet & Booties from the new e-book along with our June CAL which is called Sissy Pooh Sundress, as I call mine Pansy Pooh as its made with Peaches & Creme Dk. Pansy.

I love how the colors swirled stripe and that must have happen cause I had to downsize the pattern alot!

Next i finally put a button on the Beautiful Saver! Nice size small bag and I've been thinking of putting a small handle on it, but you could use it for so many things..I may use it int he winter when I bring extra sugar packets with me to the bowling alley, this way they would stay together in one area of my bowling bag..lol could be a make up case too or fill it with nail polish and other nail items and you have a nice gift bag. Turned out really cute I think.

Next up is the Save the Humans Market Bag...two words of warning on this and that is "its huge". I only did half the rows it called for as it was so big. I filled it with only 3 big items and it was on the heavy side, sure wouldn't want to carry it around too long. Its a great bag though, it stretches and I think it'd be a great beach bag. Here it is empty

and then filled with 1 small bag of dog food, 1 large cereal box and 1 big canister of chocolate mix. It still had room for more, though my arm would not say so..lol

Whew, now on to the next run of projects. I just had some more of my yarn order (from bowling winnings) come in, but I haven't got pics yet. I really need to get my craft room set up to accommodate all the new yarns. I think I still have 2 more to come yet...lol

Got to go print out today's e-book pattern, slippers and 2 different designs.

Hope you all have a good one, let me know what your working on?

Update, FO's, Patterns & Doggies

Well I seem to keep missing my Thursday DoT posts, so I"ll add a pic or two of the girls towards the end. That will change too.

My Lisa Designs group over at ravelry has been busy lately as the moderator and designer herself, Lisa Gentry, has published a new e-pattern book... called Hooked For 30 Days - 30+ Crochet Designs In 30 Days. Each day she will be adding a new pattern to the e-book . Today she is half way there.

I have done 2 patterns from this new e-book so far...Here is "Wishy Washy Dishcloth"

Just so happen to be Memorial Day weekend so I did mine in Red, White & Blue.

Here is one of the projects I got to name and adopt-Oasis Painted Pedi Socks

First time for me working with a stretch yarn, but I used Patons Stretch Socks in Plum. They turned out really nice and fit like a glove and are very comfy. I just printed out a couple more of the patterns as I get the updates everyday.

I"ll be doing "Save the Humans Market Bag" next, just need to pick a color cotton to work with.

Now another FO and my second pair of actual socks. Sweet Feet done in gypsyknits, sock it yarn colorway called "Galaxy".

I had intended to make these just to see if I could, especially seeings that I had to convert UK to US stitches..easier then I thought and there is the proof.

Sylvie at work fell in love with them, she likes greens too :) So I had her model them and unfortunately only had the camera on my cell phone to take the pic. Very easy pattern and I, me, actually read a chart pattern. I'm thrilled to death and can say Lisa's group and her patterns helped me there! So you can still teach an old dog new tricks..lol and Sylvie got to keep the socks :)

Now I'll be doing the Sweet Feet again, for me in my colors, Lord knows I have lots of sock yarn here.

Now I thought I had more pic to show but they must still be on the camera, so we'll go right to the girls....boy have they been great! Lady has managed to climb over the gate every morning so we picked up another travel type water bowl so she is not without water. So far she hasn't chewed it up..lol Lady won't climb back over like she did the first time, so I'm thinking she may have hurt herself some. She's funny, when we get ready to leave in the morning she'll sit by the gate and some mornings Mike will just let her upstairs, knowing she'll climb over anyways. Coco keeps an eye on Lady, but from downstairs, they do have lots of toys to keep them occupied, though things will change soon there too.

When we're home they do everything possible to stay with us, as soon as we getup, they sit or lay..lol

Like Lady here..I got up and she got in.

When I'm in the kitchen I have my shadows. They are

wherever I am, though this particular day they were under my feet so bad I said in a really loud voice "girls, out of the kitchen" and this is where I found them.

They were still kinda in the same area, just out of the way..I hated to keep stepping on them but I guess they understood..such smart animals.

They won't have to feel like shadows anymore cause last week I was told that tomorrow, June 1, I am put to part time. Kinda sucks, but at least I still have a partial job. It'll only hurt a while money wise, but for the girls its great!

So that means I should be back to posting regularly, I hope. Well, if you made it this far, Than you for stopping by my little corner of the world. Do hope you all have a great week ahead. Make it a good one!

Happy Memorial Day!

Some FO's Recently Finished

Wow, its been a long time since my last post of projects. Its not all dogs around here, but it sure has been busy and somewhat brutal lately. We'll get on with the projects first as I actually have alot. My Lisa Gentry Group over at ravelry has had those hooks flying with finished projects. All these FO's are Lisa's designs. Most recent is my Swing Jacket done in Bay Print from Red Heart. I fell in love with the colors and though it worked up alittle stiff, a good washing softened it right up. I just need to find a nice pin or do a fancy button, haven't really decided yet. The pattern ran large so I wound up frogging and starting over to make a size Small. (and it fits me) so I have some skeins left which I made a hat with just to see how it would look. The hat is called "Palermo" with flower. which Lisa has 2 hat pattens for this month contest and I'm reading too much into the other one and having a devil of a time with it, but I think at lunch today I finally got it! We'll see when its done.

Next I have a short scarf. Lisa calls this scarf Centennial Chains and its named after her town recently having their Centennial Celebration. (I'll try to link that when ravelry is back up). There are so many possibilities with this scarf, but I only had enough to make a short scarf and my lovely 4 legged fur baby had to be enticed with treats to sit so well. She is such a good girl, but I couldn't do it on my own, she is looking at Rob who is holding the treat..lol

I do plan on making more of these as you can use it for a belt, a long scarf, short scarflet, even a headband and I'm sure there are more ideas out there too.

While doing the above projects I was making these...

Beaded Flamboyance these were so easy to make, it really took longer to pre-string the beads. I have a few more of these to make as they are easy to change to make earrings and ring like I did, though for me the ring next time will be thinner and not such a big bead..lol not where I work. I wound up taking it off as I kept catching it on everything. I didn't have enough of those beads for a necklace, but I will be making a set for myself and my DIL for Christmas.

We tried our hand at Hairpin Lace too...boy I learned that before actually learning to crochet a granny square when I was younger. I remember helping mom makes strips for afghans, so this was a brush up course more or less, took me a few to get it started but once I did, I had no problems at all. This is Lisa's Earthy Sun Hairpin Doily pattern.

I had some leftover color that semi goes with my kitchen. I took a finished pic with my cake plate on it, but you can see it better in this pic, while it was blocking. Cake plate was empty but still blocked most of the doily. I am currently and have been for awhile now trying to make the Hairpin Top, though I'm going tunic length with mine. I'm still working on strips, it seems to be the project that sits more..lol I also am working on and almost done with Crochet Twisted Wrap. I'm using the yarn I won in my Dec prize package from Lisa. I hope to have more projects posted soon as I still have a few here that need finishing.

I know I missed a couple doggie posts, but I will have one this week, as we finally have some pics to show. Krista came down with the grand kids so of course doggies go hide...lol Coco is still afraid of them so she's been a mess here lately, no picture taking in a while now...Krista went back home, but the kids are still down here at her moms for a couple more weeks. Don't think coco likes anyone who doesn't live here to come over. Nick came down yesterday, nice surprise for Mothers Day and Coco wouldn't go to him at all either. He's only been gone about 2 and half months, but she finally did let him pet her when he was getting ready to leave..lol silly pup.

We had to add another gate to the stairs. Coco's been bad upstairs, but now Lady thinks its a game or something as she climbs over the gate everyday and lays on the landing..lol This morning Mike opened the gate to let her through before we left, she was headed tat way anyways..lol Oh them doggie woes...but can't blame her if she needs a break from the Coco-mo. Think that's it for now, sometimes I feel like I left my brain somewhere, I know I'm behind on blog reads and haven't e-mailed my friends hardly lately. Get on here and pattern hunt or search for stuff and time just goes by, especially when getting on ravelry...wow.

Do hope you all made it this far and if you did I do hope your Mother's Day went well. You all have a great week ahead and I'll be back here Thursday!

Happy Mother's Day To All

Good Gils Turned Bad

Happy DoT!! What a surprise from this morning...lol
Yes, my girls were both bad, bad girls! We know both of them did it too. I believe Lady for the height and Coco for the chewing, though I'm sure Lady eventually joined her with playing tug-a-war!

Early this morning we looked in and saw a couple crumples of paper on the burgundy carpet in the living room with the paper roll near it all. (I recognized the handle) We figured okay, Lady did the high part and Coco started to play with it, no problem, wasn't much of a mess....well it gets better, but let me explain the newspaper before you all get the wrong idea....

I had taken some newspaper a few years back and rolled it all up and then blue duct taped around the bottom part as for a handle to hold...we use to use it to lay across the furniture and the dogs (then Storm & Lady, as a pup) would leave the furniture alone. We always thought that maybe Storm had had a bad experience with newspaper as a pup before we got her as she would stay away from it, all you had to do was just show it. Lady would always go by how Storm reacted. They never did bother anything where this newspaper roll would lay. Well that is until now....lol If you follow along this is what we came home to..

pic 1 maroon carpet

Pic 2 stairway

and yes, there was a trail all the way up..

Pic 3 the top of the stairway landing

I know these don't look bad, but there was lots more of it and it was everywhere, but most on the stairs and top of the landing..The tape held up real good and it was still a roll, just really bad chewed on. Took me 5 times emptying the vacuum..lol

Here's my girls while I was taking the pics of the fun they had....think their wondering if mom is mad at them..lol Is that the "did I do something wrong face?"

Glad I had the camera to block the smile that was on my face...had to be the weather, cloudy, dark and dreary...hard to be mad at them, but they didn't get the coming home treat, though they did get ice cream way after dinner. I figure its just more wood our stairway gets to keep on...lol We did over the weekend take the leftover flooring from the kitchen and Mike & Rob put it on the middle landing in between the stairways. So far so good, other then them tearing alittle at the wall. We need to put the baseboard back on and that will stop that problem, only we need to go get some..lol So long they don't hurt themselves I'll be happy. I figure if this is the worse they do, we're good :) Really hard to be mad at those cute faces and all the love they have waiting on us to come home...so to me they are really Good Bad Girls!

Happy Easter!!

HAPPY EASTER !!












My bunnies may be gone, but I still have my Marshmallow bunnies :)
May you all have a very blessed day!