Randomness on Mother's Day

    Today is Mother's Day, and yesterday was my beloved Hubs' 50th birthday. Some years they both fall on the same day. And yes, I caught myself a younger man. After nearly 26 years, it makes no difference anyway.


   Our son, and my youngest child, Jesse, is away in the U.K. for a karate tournament. He should be back tomorrow evening, according to his fiancé. I know it's silly, but I was worried. This was a huge tournament, and even though he is an experienced martial artist, and holder of a 4th degree black belt, I still worry about him.


    Even though he was busy with his tournament, he managed to send his dad birthday wishes, and Mother's Day wishes to me. I can't wait to see the videos that were taken of his fights. He won 1st place in his division in sparring, but didn't win Grand Champion. I hear he lost the last fight for that honor. So he came close.


   I was looking through my photos today, and found a couple of funny ones. Sara had tried on a couple of my wigs and took photos of herself.

    I should get her to try all the others on too. There is also a very funny one of Jesse in one of my wigs, dressed in his paintball gear. Well I can't find that one. I thought it was in my files on my laptop.


    I had a ball babysitting for Owen this week. He's getting so big. He likes to stand up on your legs and all you have to do is hang on to him for balance. He's not good at balance yet. He can't even sit up by himself, but he loves to sit, and stand too.


    But you really have to be careful. The other day, after his daddy left for work, I Owen was sitting on my leg, and I looked away for a second. The little turd spit up all over his bib, and it puddled on my pants leg. Nice. No sound at all, just a wet feeling on my leg. I looked back and there it was!

    I seem to have lost any interest in crafting right now. I have made more than a few cat toys for the craft fair/flea market. I just realized that's next Saturday! AARRGGHH. Oh wait, I'm ready! No need to worry. Anyway, the cat toys are fun, and I hope I sell bunches of them. All other crafting is in a time out. That happens sometimes, you just don't feel like doing it for a while. Sort of like blogging.........


   

A Baby Blanket Rant

    This one has been brewing for a while. All of my fellow crafters know that there's nothing more special than making a blanket for a wee newborn babe. I have noticed in the last few years, however, that there are no photos forthcoming from the new mommies of their tiny little bundles of joy wrapped up in all of our hard work.


    After all these thousands of years it apparently has been determined by medical experts that babies are not to be covered by blankies while sleeping. No more bumper pads in cribs, no toys of any kind. Nothing but the baby, in very heavy jammies, in the crib. How, I ask you, has the human race survived? We all laid our babies on their tummies to sleep. Now that is forbidden as well.


    I may have told this story already, but I feel the need to repeat myself. A year and some months ago, my daughter had two friends who were both pregnant. Coincidentally, they have the same name. One's baby shower was in November and one was in December. I made for them both my signature baby blanket. However, I didn't want them to be exactly the same. So I made one the usual twelve pointed star, and the other I made a circle. They were both lovely, if I do say so myself.


    I decided in my mind which mommy got which blanket. However, at the last minute I changed my mind, and the circular blanket went to the first baby shower. It turned out that the Yarn Goddess spoke to me that day. For the mommy whose baby got my circular blanket had also gotten a round bassinet! The blanket was the surprise hit of the shower.


    I know my blankies are well loved and hopefully used, but speaking for all my fellow crafters to all new mommies: Please lay the baby on each hand made blanket and snap a photo for the crafter. Post them on facebook, or send them in an email. All we crafters really want is to see our hard work underneath that adorable little baby.


   All crafters, I believe, would like to know that their efforts aren't being kept all folded up in a drawer, never to be used. We want them to be used and even abused. We want to see them with spit up stains on them, or even worn out!


   Speaking for myself, I won't be making any more baby blankets. And that makes me a little sad. With any luck, the two ladies will read this and get my blankets out and photograph their adorable little girls sitting on them, or dragging them around. That's all I really want.

   This Rant is now at an end. Thank you, and Good Night! Please keep in mind that it's tired and I'm late.....
   

Another Craft Confession

    I have strayed, my friends, from the goodness of the yarn. I have been making those silly little rubber band bracelets. There is a story here, too.


   I had seen the loom things at Michaels Craft stores, and thought the asking price was too high. So I didn't get one. Then last week, after surgery, Hubs and I were in one of the chain drug stores, where they have a lot of the "As seen on TV" stuff. There amongst the junk was a rubber band loom! It wasn't the same as the one from the craft store, but it was about 40% cheaper. So Hubs bought one for me. I think he was probably under the influence of post surgical pain killers...


    We brought it home, and I began playing with it. As part of my learning experience, I went online and watched some how-to videos, produced by the craft store. I managed to make several kinds of bracelets, but it was difficult. In the videos, they were using the more expensive loom, and I could see how it was better than the cheapo one I had bought. I decided I needed not one, but two of those looms.


   I wanted two because the fancier bracelets looks silly with the design part only covering the top part of your wrist, and the rest was just a chain of single rubber bands around the back. I wanted the design to go all the way around my wrist.


    So the other day, when I was out running errands with my beautifully pregnant daughter Sara, we stopped at Michaels and I bought the two looms. That evening, I connected them together and started following the directions for the one bracelet I had already made.

    It turned out perfectly, and wrapped all the way around my wrist. I was very pleased. It's the one on the left in the photo. I just got finished with the other one, when I took the photo. That one gave me a lot of trouble. But in the end I figgered it out.


    My Hubs thinks I am ridiculous for blogging about this. It is crafting, after all, even if it was meant for kids, it's still fun.

Simplicity

    I really do prefer simplicity in my patterns, be they crochet or knit. By simplicity, I mean all instructions are clearly written, in order, and easy to follow. I dislike having to think, or figure out what to do next. I craft to relax, and if I have to think about something, or try to figure a pattern out, I can't relax.


    I have reached the point with the skull shawl at which I must think about it too hard. I have attached the eyes in the second section of skulls. At this point, in order to continue, I need to have three or four pages of the pattern spread out in front of me, and interpret what I think the designer intends. And not even using the words, but the photos to do so. That's just too darn much work. I have lost interest in this project for now.

 

     And here is a photo of the pattern sheets I need to keep referring to!

    However, my beloved and insane feline friend Ozzy has taken a liking lately to the felted bags I made. I keep finding him trying to curl up inside them. And since I've been using them as project bags, he's usually on top of yarn. So I've decided to make him a bed based on the bag. Bigger base, and shorter sides, with no handle. Something easy and mindless. I had some black and some gray wool in my stash, so I'm using them together. Simplicity at its finest. Maybe now I can relax.

I'm hooked for sure now...

   The other day, as I was playing farmville, they added something new. Normally I can take it or leave it, I do play a lot, because I'm bored. A while ago, they added a dairy, where you make different products to fill orders. Wonderful.


    Well, now they've got me. They added something called the Yarn Barn. Where you harvest cotton, wool, angora, and alpaca fleeces. There's a carder, and other stuff. Just like the dairy, you have to make stuff to fill orders. I am powerless to resist.  Here's a photo of what it looks like:

    This sucks in the biggest way, Hubs already thinks I spend too much time on facebook...  So now I'm fantasy crafting as well as really crafting. Is there a group for this yet?? Thanks so much Zynga.