Pooh Hat Set

I wanted to make him pooh for halloween, but figured I'd put my efforts into something he could use all winter long. The scarf is supposed to have bees flying around, but the pictures are funky (the actual bees are a little weird looking, too.)

Frog Hat Set

Last year, I discovered crochet animal hats.
I made a friend's little girl and boy a lady bug hat & puppy hat. I made my little boy a frog. Dave thought he looked rediculous, but that didn't deter me from dressing him in his frog hat set all winter long.

Pooh Halloween

Crochet Wallet

I couldn't find a wallet to buy that fit just what I wanted :

• compact as possible
• spot for keys
• cell phone holder
• money & change pocket
• plenty of space for credit cards
• not ugly

So I looked around online and found some examples of some. Instead of using a pattern, I just used the ideas and made it up as I went along.

First of all, I wanted something pretty, so I used laminated holy cards for the front and back. I used a hole punch around the edge of the card and crocheted around it. I continued sewing across to double the size for the back side.



Then I flipped the front over and sewed a change pocket.
I tied this off and made a credit card pocket and divided it in half, tied it off and and set it aside.


I started on the cell phone holder as a seperate piece, which is the back side of the wallet the same way with a holy card and a hole punch. I only made this wide enough for my cell phone and then started making it into a rectangle box. The back of the box is the credit card pocket. (this view is of the depth of the cell phone holder compared with the front of the wallet.)


I attached the two pieces together and put a key chain in the stitches to clip my keys onto when I go out without my diaper bag.

The last picture is of the wallet open so you can see the front and back sides. I put a tie on it and have been tying it closed using the key chain, but I intend on buying a zipper to zipper the whole thing shut.

Plaid Shawl

I've been walking around in it, so you may have seen that I have it finished. I told you when I started, so you can see how it turned out. I'm pretty happy with the results, considering I just learned to knit last winter. Dave may think I look silly, but someone else's opinion rarely keeps me from wearing what I want. I LIKE IT!

I made a Scottish tam to match...but it REALLY DID look ridiculous. Dave's just relieved that I agreed with him about that. Ds#4 looks cute in the tam, though.

Knitting Plaid

This is my latest project (I love Lion Brand's website). Ever since I learned to knit last winter from this lady at KnittingHelp.com ...I've really enjoyed it. It's exciting to learn to do new things... She has free lessons on video on her website!!! I found her VERY helpful and easy to understand! I don't think my poncho (what's the specific difference between a poncho & a shawl, anyway?) will turn out quite like this one...but I'm going to try.

Crochet Headband

Using #3 cotton thread and an "F" needle, I whipped this up last night in preparation for the 4th of July. The main band is 2" wide (about 10 rows) and 10 1/2" long (about 50 stitches across). Each tie is 12" long (about 55 stitches). To make it just a little bit fancier (I know it's pretty basic), I took 5 stitches of the ties and made them into a "V". It would have been better if I tapered off the last 2 edges where the "V" comes together so that it's only 8 stitches wide, instead of 10 -- but it doesn't noticably pucker.

Christmas 2006

At the MNI (Mom's Night In) I was working on an evening's work, while I teased everyone in the room. Ruthann is such a good sport. I gave it as a Christmas present before anyone got a chance to see the finished project, so I thought I'd show it to whomever cared. The middle flower is actually a baby blue, but the colors got messed up in the pictures somehow. It looked even cuter on my neice. This is the pattern I used from Lion Brand Yarn. I crocheted from about 8pm - 1pm (poor Lisa - I didn't leave her house until 1pm!) Dd10 suggested I sew a vine going around the crown of the hat. I liked the idea alot! (What a creative girl!) My FIL posed for a picture with the hat - he didn't quite do it justice...

This Christmas I've been wrapping presents in all my dad's paper and his cheesy stick-on bows that I inherited from his house. It's with joy of the continuation of his life and sadness at my loss and hope for the future that I do this. Every wrapping session has brought tears and lots of emotion. Each time I stick one of those bows on (I'm a curly ribbon kind of girl myself) I can't help but think of him. I've got one more session to go, and I'm sort of putting it off.

All this emotion has really helped me examine my own parenting and focus on the areas that are lacking. So far, I haven't made much progress which is emotionally draining to see all my faults and not be able to push past them to "just fix it". I am continuing to pray about it and am confident that Jesus will walk hand-in-hand with me to accomplish this most overwhelming task of learning to love as He does.

We are doing the O Antiphons, but I couldn't find a house to do it with, so we're just singing them with our Advent Wreath lighting at dinner. It's a lovely prayer - finding new (although old steeped in tradition that I never knew - so, new to me) names for Jesus. www.wdtprs.com/blog/

There is a little-known fact about the order of these ancient O Antiphons. This
is not apparent in English, but it can be seen clearly in the official language
of the Roman Catholic Church: Latin. The Latin versions of each of the titles of
the Messiah: Sapientia (Wisdom), Adonai (Lord), Radix (Root), Clavis (Key),
Oriens (Dawn), Rex (King), and Emmanuel (Emmanuel). Take the first letters of
each of the titles and write them backwards, thus counting down the days of the
feast: EROCRAS or "ero cras." This means in Latin "I will be (here)
tomorrow".The song "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" is simply a slightly modified sung version of the seven O Antiphons.

Many questions have been going around about Christmas plans. We usually have Christmas with Dave's family early because one of his brothers takes his family out of state. We did that one last weekend (thus the hat). We'll try something new and see if it works for us. Dave and I will split up for Christmas Eve. I'll take the girls to my step-dad's family and Dave will take the boys to his Grandma's celebration. There's things we each like about each of the parties, but going to all of them is too much for us. I'm not exactly sure why, but I've been better at saying 'no' this season to all sorts of things. I think I'm still pretty busy dealing with pain from my dad and only have so much space in my brain to care what anyone thinks - therefore I end up with what I think is best weighed with what I actually want. Trying to please people doesn't even weigh in this year. Good or bad? I'm not sure - but more relaxing! I'm not sure if we'll go to Christmas Mass (it sounds so redundant since the original meaning of the word Christmas was really Christ's Mass) before we open presents or after - or in the middle. After Mass and presents at our house, we'll end up at my mom's about 3pm. Dave has the next day off, so we can rest and enjoy each other. Then we have a Christmas party with my extended family the next weekend, friends over New Year's Eve and my neice will spend the night that week before school starts.

So.... we're not as busy as in past years, but still a little busier than Dave and I prefer. It makes January a lovely month, along with the fact that dd10 will become 11! OH, and we'll take a few days up at an Inn that we love then, too. Actually, the kids are paying for it with their combined allowances they've saved since July.