SMS winner!

I won a big bag of zippers from Moira at Crafty Moira. I had Gracie take pictures while I was doing something else. Now I have to figure out what to do with them!

Brady's first birthday

My sister was insulted that I hadn't blogged about my nephew's first birthday party. So I'm gunna. My nephew Brady just turned 1. He had a jungle-theme birthday. My sister really knows how to throw a party! There were signs and balloons, great food and lots of people. My family really hadn't gotten all together in a while and many of us were there. Brady was tired, but he had a blast playing with all the kids, though he really didn't get the present thing. The other kids were very eager to help Amanda out getting everything unwrapped.Here is her blog post about it.

Crochet a long

These are what I've finished so far. I think my blue is too light, and I'm not feeling the pattern so well. I still have one more to make. I may try another set if I can find a darker blue.

These are the balls of yarn I'm using.

HOT!

So we get home from spending the day with my parents and sister and nephew and it's 90 degrees in our house. My husband has been home all day. WTF!?! I asked him and he said that I usually keep it so warm he didn't even notice. It's 90 degrees you passive-agressive mf'er! Just when he shows some spark and withitness and signs of maturity, he does this shit. He ran out to get a filter, thinking that was going to solve the problem. Dumbass. Now he's calling the home warranty people, which he should have done as soon as it hit 85. Not that I'm perfect, but geez!

Little girl apron

My friend Joyce came over a few nights ago and we crafted. Well, we ate hamburgers first, then we crafted. She worked on the baby blanket she's crocheting and I worked on this apron for a birthday party. It was my first time making a ruffle. I need to get some fray check to use on the bottom. Or just work on technique. It needed something more, so I put the roses on it. Very cute for a little girl!

Crochet-a-long

Megan at Crochet Every Day is doing a crochet-a-long with patriotic star coasters. And the pattern is totally something I can do! So I'm going to. I'll work on them on the airplane going to and maybe coming back from Peoria. Here is the pattern!

More Wisteria fairy

She's coming along. Although I still haven't gotten all of the thread I need. There are 2 that aren't at Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's. Is it special or what? I need to research it a bit to see what's up. Still at least 1 more trip to the store for her thread, but I'll work on that later. She's taking a long time. There's no instant gratification with cross stitch. I'm going on a trip this week. Should I take her with me and work on her? I was thinking about taking my crochet, though I'm not working on any big projects, just practicing with washcloths and such.

Aprons

I cut out aprons from 2 pairs of blue jeans. One for adults and one for kids. If I can finish one before Saturday, one of the kids will be for a gift. Maybe I can work on it while Gracie is at church.

Adults

Kids

Books I don't so much love

I found this at the library. It is part of a series that I started a few years ago. I read the first one and that was ok. I didn't get into the second one and stopped, but I picked this up because I wanted to check in. It was a DNF for me. I can accept a lot of things. Demon-possessed warriors talking about getting some "some-some" - which is not even the right slang and it's pretty pitiful slang at that really irritated me. There were other issues, but not a series I'll continue to pick up. I also got another by this same author - I've read others of her books and they were ok, so I'll see how it goes. I also need to finish Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward before it needs to go back to the library.

Book signing

It was a lot of fun. A great day!

My friend Joyce was able to go and it was nice to have someone to pal around with. We started with lunch with my sister, mom and Gracie then went to Houston. We started there @ the Galleria. I had a Victoria's Secret gift card and Joyce wanted pillows for her sleep number bed. Then we went to World Market, then to the Chocolate Bar. We had dinner @ this yummy place call

ed Cafe Ginger. I didn't get a picture of our complete meal, but here is about half way through. Yummy rolls and shrimp skewers for an appetizer.

Then we went to the book signing. It was very nice. The book store obviously has a lot of experience with these events. It was the first one they've hosted for a paranormal romance author, but it was well-attended. It was fun listening to the conversations about books and authors I actually read. Nalini Singh was really good too. She had a question and answer period and then signed the books. Of course my battery was dying in my camera so my actual pictures aren't all that great. But the experience was nice. She's the first person I've ever met in real life whose blog I read. All in all a great day!

Watermelon smoothies

I love watermelons. It's my favorite flavor. They make summertime awesome! We bought 2 seedless watermelons today for $5. I took one of them and used the ice cream scoop to make balls then froze them for awhile. Then I attempted making a watermelon smoothie. Good idea. Gracie loves watermelon too. The first attempt was bad and went down the sink. I tried to make it all protein healthy and put a scoop of strawberry protein in it. Totally ruined the flavor. Unfortunately. I hate to waste. The second attempt was better, but not perfect.

Here is what I did:

About 2 cups of frozen watermelon balls

about 3/4 cups watermelon juice (as I scooped the balls, I drained the juice into a cup.)

1 scoop Splenda

1/2 cup homemade greek yogurt

Ice

a few splashes Amaretto sugar free syrup (I'll use less next time)

a few sprinkles lemon-flavor jello

Gracie and I are enjoying them now.

Sunday/Tuesday/Wednesday

I took Gracie to the spray park on Sunday. She had a good time. We met a friend of mine and her daughter there and they had fun too.

Tuesday was a long day for me. I think because Scott woke me up early. Bad husband during summer break! Scott took Gracie roller skating, she played in her pool and we went to watch a movie @ a local library.

Wednesday was another long day. We started out going to a Bible class for Gracie at church. While she was there, I went to Big Lots and Family Dollar for the first round of shopping. After I picked G up, we went to Taco Bell, then to TSO, then to the library, then to the dentist, then to the grocery store. It was a huge shopping trip. Our larder was bare and we had some legit needs. Now we have fruit and crackers and yogurt making in the crock pot and chicken cooking in the oven.

I did find this out about myself - if you mark it down to $1 - I will buy it. Crackers, chips, cookies - Big Lots sucked me in. Also - book buying is an illness. No wonder we have so many books. I moseyed into the book sale room at the library. I tried to pick up a book that I already have both the ebook and the audiobook. What's wrong with me? We just went through our books again to weed them out.

Wisteria Fairy

I've been making more progress on my fairy. I've been planning on making this cross stitch for a year or so. I've made lists, gone shopping etc. I still don't have all of the floss I need. And I've lost some of my packets. It's a little frustrating and hard to do with not all of the materials, but I'm persevering. I have to finish it before I start anything else. And I do have other plans :)

First day of summer vacation

We spent it cleaning the playroom. It was a wreck. A disaster. An embarrassment. It's a lot better now. We worked hard. Scott was off and I put him to work.

This corner shelf thing was a horrible wreck. I revamped it to make

it my sewing table. My sewing machine is right beside it, with another craft closet beside that.

This doesn't really look better. There is still some work to do. We have a lot more stuff than we do places to put that stuff. The desk will probably be in the middle of the room as another surface. A few of those boxes are full of trash. Gracie has her own closet for craft stuff and some toys. It's better. I like it.

More granny squares

Not the prettiest ones. I worked on these while Gracie was watching a movie @ the library.

Crochet

I made these at school waiting for kids to finish their exams. I'm trying to get more granny squares done so I can grow my afghan. Maybe I should institute a special day to post the granny squares I've done that week. I'll try to come up with a cute name. HA!

Etsy

This is my first etsy purchase. I was looking for some strawberry shortcake fabric to make something for Gracie's party goodie bags and this was cheap and free shipping. It got her super fast too. Now I have to decide what to do with it.

I also got some rooster fabric. I plan to make my friend a blue-jean apron with it. She's all of 24 and a total maw-maw as far as decor goes. I'm growing her collection of chickens and roosters. It's a lot of fabric though. I may have to whip out some coasters or placemats or something too. Because really, where else would I use rooster fabric. Maybe I'll make her some curtains.

More Booty

I won this giveaway from AMKreations. I'm a new follower there through the SMS giveaway and I'm looking forward to learning from her! The fabric is lovely and I can't wait to use it for girly things for Gracie. I've never really thought of myself as a quilter type. Too precise about measurements, too fiddly. But this book makes me want to make one. The examples are really too country for me, but even me, without any sense of eye for color and all my taste in my mouth, can see how beautiful the patterns can be with some bright contemporary fabrics. My goal is to make the first beginner one without the appliques. But - I can't start until I have the craft/playroom set and I've finished this cross stitch fairy I've (not) been working on for months. It's beautiful but slow going. Sewing has much better instant gratification. So stay tuned later this year for a quilt. Or at least some blocks ;)

I also won this giveaway from Jen @ I believe in love. Pretty, pretty. Jen is living in Texas at the moment with her family on a break from missionary work in Africa. I enjoy reading her bits from her family as well as her faith.

Booty

Gracie and I went to our thrift shop Saturday morning to see what we could see. I ended up with 2 summer dresses that fit me really well and a pair of jeans I want to make aprons from. We also got a bunch of pretty fake flowers, our favorite decoration to put in vases all around the house. I also found a belt.

We also went to the little farmers stand to see what fruits we could find. I knew we wouldn’t eat a whole bucket of anything, so she made us up a mixed bucket of some orange things, peaches and cucumbers, and a watermelon. We’ve been enjoying those a lot.

Friday during our shopping around, I found 2 plates at Big Lots for $3 each.

And I can't even stay frugal at Wal-mart. The one in Orange still sells fabric and has remnants! I got some plain white, plain yellow and some precious bumble bees on yellow. I can't wait to use them!

Giveaway

http://www.wildflowersandwhimsy.com/2011/06/500-follower-giveaway.html

Here is a giveaway to win a custom made dress. I just followed her. I hope to learn some things. I've never made anything for me, but I want to start.

Gracie room redo

>So I’ve been nesting (according to Scott). With my friend’s help, we’ve rearranged the kitchen, the living room and Gracie’s room. Her room needed a little help. We moved some stuff out. We changed her dresser, which was broken with no Scott skills to fix. This weekend was the big re-do. And I was a little intimidated. I started Saturday with washing her walls and doors, thinking that might get the crayon off. It didn’t. But it did prepare the walls for paint. I taped off part of her wall from her closet to the other wall and painted a coat of chalkboard paint. I painted the outside of her door, then touched up the door ways and the white shelf on the wall. Then I left it. Sunday morning I painted the other side of the door, then after church did a second coat on the chalkboard paint and the lavender on the walls. Fortunately the color blended in well and I don’t think we’ll need to repaint the entire room. We still need to move the furniture back and put stuff back on the walls, but I’m pleased with the result. The crayon marks are gone. The paint tape didn’t seal well and there are border issues with the chalkboard, but we can get molding or some kind of something to put around it.

This is me unapplying hardware to paint the door.

This is what the door looks like pre-paint.

This is Grace being told for the upteenth time not to touch the painted wall.

Little condition problems but I fixed those.

In a fit of frugality I decided to spray paint the door knobs instead of buying new ones. I'm not sure how that's going to hold out. I think there's a male gene involved with putting these suckers back on. Because I'm having trouble. With the knobs, the light switch cover and the outlet cover. Scott, save me!

What a productive weekend!

I don’t know what I’ve been doing differently, but I’ve found the energy skinny people are reported to have. That’s the most common question – do you feel better? Well, for the past several months, no I haven’t. I’ve been sluggish with no energy. But now, wow! I can’t sit still. Scott calls it nesting. Whatever it is, I’m so glad it’s here.

Saturday I got up early intending to wash down Gracie’s walls because this was her room re-do weekend. Scott hid the cleaner from me, so I folded laundry and started cooking. This week was payday for both of us, so I was able to go to the store. I cooked a chicken Friday night and took it apart Saturday morning. It made 5 big dishes and 1 small soup. Then I made chicken stock in the crock pot. I also made 2 bags of beans over the week. With the beans and stock, I freeze them in 1-cup increments and use them in recipes when I need to. The beans mostly go in my dishes, but chicken stock is useful anytime.

So I cooked, then I started on Gracie’s room. I’ll post more of that on a separate post with pictures. It seemed so intimidating, but it didn’t end up that way. By the end of the weekend, I’m pretty pleased with it.

We went shopping around Friday night and she was getting all excited about picking out her own door knobs, then looking at bathroom fixtures and kitchen fixtures. She told Scott that the one in our bathroom was so ugly. She will be a force of nature someday.

We went to a kid’s birthday party Saturday and it was a lot of fun. She had a blast, but it was hot hot hot!

I ended up doing things I needed to do and things I wanted to do. I even started on her dance scrap book. Talk about amateur hour! I started on bias tape for an apron I want to make soon. And I have ideas going. I’m very happy about that.

Book signing

I'm so excited! I'm going to a book signing next week in Houston for Nalini Singh. She's from down under and is coming to the states on a book tour. I called yesterday to order the book and I'm #14 in line. Wahoo!

I've got more posts coming. I just have to sit down and format them. I'm going to work Safe Graduation tonight. Crawfish and staying up all night. Can't wait!

Books I used to love - Soulless

<------- This is an excellent book. I read it because of the buzz. It was great. Funny, original, steampunky, etc. Fantastic. Listening to it was great too. I got the second book, but put off reading it because I wanted to savor it. The second book ended on such a horrible cliffhanger. I was so pissed. I read the 3rd book, but that's the last one I'll read. It was not good. The second book was good until the end. So disappointing. It's been over a year and I'm still not over it.