Special Weekend

We in the midst of a grand celebration this weekend - Angela's birthday!
It started today with her choice of a restaurant. She choose Joe's Crab Shack (good choice!).

Gary got to do most of the work on the king crab legs.

Tomorrow we bake a cake - triple chocolate with fudge icing (can you feel the calories just in reading the name?)

Sunday is "the day". There will be a little get-together in the afternoon complete with buffalo burgers on the grill and swimming in the pool. Yes, you read that correctly...BUFFALO burgers. She loves them.

Plus we're making homemade ice cream to go with the cake. (I'll be spending a lot of time doing laps next week as well as extra time on the bike.)

Stop by if you're in the area!

Fortunately I got the Pokemon plushies finished in time to give her on Sunday because her *real* present didn't arrive yet. (Why does tracking now come with a date it was scanned in but doesn't bother with where it was scanned at???)

Anyway, Torchic and Jiggypuff are done. Thanks again to Wolfdreamer for her terrific patterns. :)

Wednesday WIP

Oklahoma went straight from Winter to Summer with temperatures soaring to the high 90's every day. Lovely for enjoying our swimming pool...which we have been. But doesn't help the want to hold yarn.

Nevertheless, I have been crocheting.
Working on 2 Pokemon plushies for daughter's birthday (thanks to Wolfdreamer!). I need to get these finished by Sunday.

But most of my spare time has been spent playing with beads.

I have a chart underway for a beadweaving design that has been vegetating in my head for over 2 years. It seems like time for it to evolve beyond an idea, eh?
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Flower beds are starting to look like.....well, FLOWER beds. ha! Gladiolas have started to bloom despite the heat.


And another calla lily has bloomed.
Maybe I can do this gardening thing after all?

Wednesday WIP and tornadoes

After spending the past weekend with bronchitis, I am now rushing to finish this WIP. It's suppose to be published later this year in a Creative Knitting issue (happy dance)


Aother WIP I'm doing is for fun. Daughter has always been a Pokemon fan. I was delighted to find this blogger's site filled with wonderful crochet patterns of pokemon. So I started one for DD's June birthday (sssshhhhh!! Don't tell her!)


Wolfdreamer is truly an amazing artist with the hook.

And I'm knitting hanging dish towels for the RV. Not only do I need dish towels for the kitchen but I like the idea of being to secure them while the RV is in motion.


The last two WIP are part of my attempt to de-stash before the fall buying begins. That will be my 2 year anniversary from my self-imposed yarn diet. I am SO tired of this yarn diet. I see all this new stuff coming out and have to remind myself that I really do not need more yarn (of course, when did need have anything to do with it in the first place?)

Anyway, I am tired of talking myself out of the new yarns. As this fall is the 2 year anniversary of my self-imposed yarn diet, I plan to be happy that I have trimmed it down as far as I can by then. And I will allow myself to purchase yarn for specific projects. That's the stipulation - must have a project planned for the yarn I want to buy. I think that's fair. :)

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Big hug to all the friends and family for worrying about us this past Monday as tornadoes swept through our town Choctaw, OK. We were in the storm cellar when the sirens went off , and luckily the tornadoes missed our neighborhood.

Scarves for Special Olympics 2010

Being a parent of a disabled adult, Special Olympics holds a special place in my heart.

Scarves for Special Olympics was a huge success last year. Let's do it again. ;)

Pertinent info here

Crochet art

You have to see these amazing works of art through crochet. I need to hurry and finish the patterns I'm working on 'cause I want to do this!!

Knitting for Special Olympics

The Special Olympics need scarves for their participants. The goal is 5,000 scarves by January for the 2009 Special Olympics. This link gives further information including the pattern for both knitted and crocheted scarves.

As a parent of a young adult with developmental disabilities, I know this is a worthwhile cause. Can you help?

We're back....

....with a pile of laundry and sand in everything. But really - no complaints here. Peaceful walks on the beach (found quite a few shells including sand dollars)


Lovely dinners at our favorite seafood restaurant, a visit to my favorite vineyard, and a much needed rest.

Nothing on the needles, a couple of designs in progress on the looms. And I picked up Interweave Crochet magazine today.



I'm off to work on the pile of laundry since washers and dryers aren't that automatic.

Hookin' Month

Although I'm a dedicated knitter..especially socks...my first yarn experience was with crochet (hooking). Once I learned to knit, the texture of crochet stopped being as appealing to me. So I might finish one or two crochet projects a year (not counting bead crochet).

But today....I saw an advertisement for the next issue of Crochet magazine.



I'm loving the top on the front cover. Potentially something that I'd love to finish. OK, that project is enough to entice me to see what other projects are in this issue.

As I browse Interweave Crochet Magazine website with other project pictures, I find this...



Oooohhhhhh! I want to do those too! Looks like April will be a hookin' month.

Tapestry Crochet blog

I've been so wrapped up in knit and bead designs that I've not had time to crochet. Then I visited Carol Ventura's Tapestry Crochet blog. Scroll through....look at her new afghan design....then look at her post about the mandala's. Double WOW. There must be more time in the day somewhere!!

And since I haven't had a chance to pick up a crochet hook, I'm re-cyling this photo of the kitty bag designed by Carol Ventura and available from her website.

New gadget alert!

Every extra minute of the day is being spent knitting on loom. Nothing I can show you (oh what a tease!) - it's for a special project, ya know? ;-)

But I just have to mention these crochet hooks that caught my eye at Michaels last night whilst I wandered around the yarn aisles before teaching a Knifty Knitter class.



These crochet hooks have lights! Plus they're on sale at JoAnn's - here.

Howdy ya'll

Well, we made it. We're in Dallas. The drive here was really smooth....lovely weather. We pulled into our RV spot earlier this afternoon and spent some time "housekeeping" and settling in. A's job was to vacuum.



Most of this week will be spent visiting hubby's family and friends before heading to Henderson area (my hometown).

I have some FO to show! Round face cloth (knitted)



Pearl bangle bracelet (bead crochet)



And I'm ready to turn the heel on these models for SWTC knitted with one of the new colors of TOFUtsies



I love this color!

Since hubby prefers to do the driving during these road trips (and I'm just fine with that), I get plenty of time to knit, crochet, and/or read. Lucky me!