Happy Hour and Last day at Mayo recap

Well I am officially done with Mayo! My last day was four hours long and it went really fast. I've never been happier getting up to go to work. Some people didn't know it was my last day, some didn't know I was leaving.

After finishing work up *as much as I could with all the best wishes and interruptions I got* I had to head downtown to pick up a copy of my medical records to take with me, turn in my parking tag, turn in my gym parking tag and sign a form saying I was quiting my membership, then we headed over to Boomer's Bar and had my Happy hour with some of the people from Mayo. I had a wonderful time just relaxing and chatting about many random subjects from 2 until 8:30pm...that was the longest I have ever sat in a bar, but It was so much fun.

I will miss the people I worked with and the problem solving part of my job the most, but I am ready for a new adventure.

We are now in St. Cloud enjoying Jeremy's family Christmas weekend. We have the moving truck at home, and about 85% of the house packed. Oh well, it will get done. The moving date is approaching fast and that is making me so pumped.

Well off to watch my husband, his brother, his dad, and his brother's girlfriend play Rock Band.

Last Day at Mayo

Today is my official last day as an employee at the Mayo Clinic! I will miss most of my co-workers, but will not miss the politics of the Lab I work in. I work 8 am to Noon. I don't know how much I will actually be able to get done, because people will interrupt me I am sure, but I guess that is for my boss to figure out. They aren't hiring someone to replace me, so I feel for the rest of my team as they will have to cover my job until management figures out who is going to do my job in the future.

So I am up early trying to motivate myself into packing more...I'm definitely sure that packing is the worst part of moving...

Off to the kitchen!

Later!

Merry Christmas

Today was a wonderful day. We woke up early because my niece and nephew saw that Santa had come and left a bunch of gifts on the coffee table for them. (Our tree and Christmas stuff is all packed and ready to be moved.) So we got up and all watched as they unwrapped Santa's gifts. It culminated with two presents, Santa delivered a Nintendo Wii, a game, and extra controller. They screamed. It was the best reaction I have see in a long time.

I received so many great things. My mom gave me a flat grill pan to go on the stove and some die cuts for my Sizzix machine, My sister Candi gave me Harry Potter 3 and some stamps, My husband really topped out, he got me three Nintendo shirts, and three video games: Pokemon Emerald Green version, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Legends of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (all for my DS Lite). I am most excited by the games because of the long trip ahead of us that is only 6 short days away.

I bought Jeremy I am American and so can you, Steven Colbert's book, a Legends of Zelda shirt, a Nintendo winter cap, and a Mario Cart Remote control guy (for his desk at work).

We must be headed in the right directions - if you look at our gifts to each other. We had really good food, played a game of Hand and Foot, and relaxed with different movies. Jeremy fell ill this morning, he's very congested and is running a fever. So he's been in bed for most of the day. I hope it's not a long sickness as we don't have much time to pack.

I work tomorrow 6:30-2:30 and then just half a day Thursday from 8-noon. Then I am done!

I am so ready. Yesterday I walked in to work and there were 75 things for me to do that have been sitting for two days. It's frustrating because that is almost a normal workday's worth of work. So by the end of the day I had a record day for resolutions ("things to do") I did 177 resolutions.

I am not looking forward to working tomorrow, I am hoping that if it's slow I can leave early and come home and help pack more.

Home coming and work crumminess

He did make it home Thursday. His plane landed in Minneapolis at 3 pm, but the flight from MSP to Rochester was cancelled due to dense fog down here. So he got delayed until a 7pm flight...but the weather just got worse and the 7 pm flight got cancelled as well. So the airport actually got a bus for the five flights that were cancelled and bused them all down to the Rochester airport. Jeremy got back into town at 9:30 instead of 6:30.

But he's home and things are good. I am at work today and I arrived to find my inbox full of crap from the weekend. I am ready to turn around and run out the door (and probably would if my dad were not at my house -- he would chew me out for leaving work). So...I sit here fuming because my co-workers don't care to cover for me while I am gone...and all the while I am thinking "good luck" to them all because my boss is not replacing me...

Sigh...I have one full day left wednesday and a half day on Thursday...and I just want to call in sick for them all.

Well back to work so I can go home and enjoy a Christmas Eve dinner and presents openning...

I can't wait! More later as I have tomorrow off.

He's coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeremy comes home today. He hops a flight at 9 am in Seattle and I will go to the airport and pick him up at 6:30 pm....


I am very excited to have him home! Today at work is my "exit interview" with the head honcho lady of the lab. It should be interesting to see how things turn out at that meeting. Other than that, I got all my Christmas shopping done except for my dad. He is hard to buy for. So...Any ideas what I should get him?

Weekend Adventures

Friday I left work and zoomed up to Minnetonka to spend the night with my best friend Nia. She had her first baby last week and I wanted to get some baby time before moving so far away. Gracen is the sweetest baby and smallest baby I have ever seen. We hung out at home and watching Harry Potter 2 and 3 and just cuddled with baby. She is so tiny and cute with long skinny legs you can tell she is going to take after mom and dad. I can see her as a ballerina already!

Here are some pictures:

Wide awake!

Proud Dad Brandon and baby Gracen

Mom Nia and baby Gracen

Puckering up!

Practicing for future pictures.

The best seat in the house

All curled up and cute

Plumb Tuckered out!

bake sale and tie-blanket

So I stayed up to a very late 3 am yesterday working on baked goods for a bake sale at work today. I wasn't tired so I just kept going. Total for the one day sale was a bit over 1800 dollars that goes to a gentleman I work with who is fighting Lung Cancer!
Merry Merry Christmas Gene!
Here is what I contributed:


I packaged People Puppy Chow, Raspberry Divinity, Pretzels with kisses in them, and these beauties: Chocolate Cherry and Pistachio Chews:


Here is a picture of some cookies my mom and I experimented with last weekend:
Yummy Little Almond Sandwich Cookies:

And tonight I made the tie blanket for the lady at work. It went very fast tonight. I worked on it from 7:45 to 11:00 with a break somewhere in there for a half hour.
And here is what the back looks like:

Yay, another project done.
Now I can relax and bit then pack for a trip to go see Baby Gracen up in the Twin Cities tomorrow.

happy anniversary Mom and Dad!

Today is my parents Anniversary:

Are they cute? I think I will miss them the most when I move.

craziness...

We are moving in 18 days!

that is insane...wow...lots to do, and more things on the list.

I'm off to work on some bake sale items for work tomorrow.

then to pass out and wake up early to probably do more.

Sold!!!!!!!!!!!

We have accepted an offer from a couple that would like to buy our house! Our closing date is New Year's Eve. So now comes the rush of the next 18 days to get the house packed and be ready to move out. We're starting the new year on a big adventure.

I get to put my two week notice in tomorrow... I've been running around in circles I am so happy. Now if I can just get a job out there...


WHOOPPIE!!!!!! Can you tell I'm happy?

crafts and cooking

First off I want to say that this morning I finished the baby sweater for a lady at work. She loved it, and mom knit the socks to match. I love the buttons on this sweater:

I spend a good chunk of the weekend before last baking while it snowed outside, then this last weekend mom and I went Christmas shopping.

Okay so I have a bunch of pictures to add here. I will explain all...

This is my new sweater I got this weekend. I love the neck line!

These are Caramel Shortbread bars, I love how they layer.
This is Raspberry Divinity that I have made. This was the first time I made it and though it turned out well, I'm not sure I would make it unless requested to make it.

Gingersnaps, one of my favorites Grandma Ellen used to make all the time.

Cornflake Wreaths

This is the bowl of goodies I brought to my neighbor who plowed me out twice the weekend before last.

Now for more future crafts:
There is a lady at work who as asked me to make her grandson a tie-blanket for Christmas. This is the fleece I picked out:

birthday wishes!

Welcome to the world:

Gracen Rae Lighter

6 lbs 8 oz 19.5 inches long

born 12/7/2007 12:01 pm

Congratulations Nia and Brandon on your little baby girl!

I can't wait to meet her!

winter kindness

I am very fortunate to have wonderful neighbors that know I am alone in my home. This weekend past we had a big winter storm and I was gearing myself up to spend most of Sunday shoveling my way back into the world for work Monday. We Saturday afternoon while I was baking away in the kitchen I heard a loud sound coming from outside. My neighbor Ed had already gotten half my drive plowed with his snow blower! I was really happy, so I put together a gift of homemade goodies from the afternoon's work in the kitchen and tromped over with them.

I spent Sunday outside getting rid of the ice since the sky decided after snowing it would like to rain. I fell twice...said nuts to this and went inside to plan my next attack. Ed laid down as much salt as he had left after doing his driveway and I was able to get 1/4 of the drive de-iced. So I ventured out of my garage and down to the gas station for some more salt. I returned home and emptied one of my two bags across the drive.

Then Tuesday it snowed again...making it home from work took me 20 minutes when it usually takes me 5-10 minutes. I was planning my early morning of shoveling around 830 pm and again I heard a familiar sound. Ed came out again and plowed me out! I love this man.

So I slept better...however I woke to the sound of the city snow plow coming down our road...and low and behold he plowed me in! So I changed out of my work clothes, into jeans and boots and layers of warm clothes and grabbed my trusty shovel to attack this mass. I got tired really quickly...and the other neighbor asked if I needed to go anywhere for the day. I told him I had to be to work at 9am. (it was 8 am) He said that I should just make a path big enough for my car to get out and he would finish it while I was at work! Thank the Lord! So I am being provided for while Jeremy is gone. But snow is in the forcast for tonight and tomorrow, and this weekend...

I am ready for spring!!

My Grandma Ellen

Today would have been my grandma Ellen's 98th birthday.
Here is a picture of her when she was young:Ellen Wilhelmina Olson VanDerWerf

Wasn't she pretty? Holidays always remind me of her. Especially Christmas when she would make each of us 11 grandchildren and the 5 sets of aunts and uncles sugar cookies with our names written in frosting on them.

forboding

I'm not too sure but I think it's bad when I get to work and sit down at my desk and I have the overwhelming urge to get up and go back home.

That's never a good way to start the day.

I experimented with a cookie recipe last night. I will post pictures tonight and talk about them.

Living alone

I have been living alone for two full days now. I'm not used to it yet. With the house being so clean I don't feel like I should do anything that would make more cleaning for me to do. So I've been drawing and playing spider solitare. I finally cooked something tonight (first time since last week).

Jeremy is doing well in Seattle, finding his way around and exploring new restaurants that we both will be going to when I finally get out there. He is enjoying his new job and I am so happy that he is working for Nintendo.

Work is work, It was a busy and hard day for resolutions but I ended up getting all but four of them done. A total of 111 resolutions today.

It's amazing how fast you grow accustom to having someone around and then when they are away how jarred your life seems, empty almost. I'm doing well though for my husband being 1600 miles away. more tomorrow...

wacky weekend

So we went to Jer's Aunt's house yesterday for his family's traditional Thanksgiving. Man was that turkey good. We were there for a bit, and Jer finally told his family that we were leaving, and they were really shocked but excited. They asked when Jer was leaving and he said "tomorrow". So we came home and cleaned some more. I got up at 7:30 this morning to start cleaning more...Jer was up by a record time of 8:30 (for a Sunday that is unheard of). We worked really hard, vacuumed the entire house again, I cleaned the bathrooms again, we moved more and more stuff to the garage, finally at about 12:40pm we walked through the house as if we were the ones looking to buy, and our verdict was yes!

So we left feeling like our house was ready to be shown to potential buyers. We swung over to Best Buy because we bought a point and shoot camera and the guy forgot to add the service package on. After settling that, we headed to the mall for Jeremy's final Minnesota meal. He got ManchuWok (orange chicken is his favorite) and I got A & W. We stopped in at Zales to see if his watch was back from being repaired (it wasn't) and then headed out to the Rochester Airport to drop him off. He is now on his way to MSP and then out to SEATAC airport and Nintendo!

I have returned home to a pristine 4 bedroom house, Now what? It's very quiet and odd.

Who wants to come over?

My Brother's blog

Welcome to blog-land DAN!

Now we just need to get dad blogging and it's the whole family!

Mexican Thanksgiving Scramble

Today was the day we had our official Thanksgiving planned. We had decided to make home-made tortillas, refried beans and the fixings instead of turkey and stuffing. So this afternoon Candi (my second sister) and my mom rolled up 52 balls of carbs... I was sleeping because of course today I woke up feeling rotten. While we were finishing up getting ready for dinner ( mom was rolling out the tortillas, Candi was cooking them, and I was cutting tomatoes, olives, and cheese) my phone rang. It was Edina Realty looking to see if they could show our house on Sunday at 1:15 pm. Well that changed the plans for the evening. Since dinner was finished the whole family (Jer, myself, Dad, Mom, Candi, Hailey, and Logan) have been cleaning the house from top to bottom. We've moved furniture, moved lots of stuff to the garage, went through clothes to be donated, and clutzy me split my mom's glass of raspberry wine right on the floor in the living room...sigh...always me...

Anyway, I'm now tired, but there is still much more to be done. The food was fantastic, in fact I'm thinking of having a couple tortillas now!

Happy Turkey/Ham Day

I am currently at work, with three resolutions in my inbox and three samples to track in...then nothing...

I'm so thankful for people covering most of my shift today!

Then it's home to eat ham and scour the ads for shopping chaos day tomorrow.

Hope you all are safe and enjoying some form of good homecooked food!

awesome co--worker

Well "Swanksgiving" is tomorrow (see Erin's blog to find Carla's blog about the word swanks) and it is my holiday to work. However this morning my co-worker M. came over and asked if I had family coming into town...I do indeed I told him, and he said that he would like to save his vacation time so he wanted to work for my shift tomorrow! Well I checked my own bank of vacation and realized yes he could work for me for 5 of my 8 hour shift. I was 3 hours shy of having the whole day off. But the assistant boss approved the coverage switch so I only work from 8-11 am tomorrow!

I then have the rest of the day and Friday off! Which is a great thing since Jeremy is flying out Sunday from the Rochester Airport to Redmond. He will be gone 3 weeks and then they are going to fly him home around the 20th for Christmas break.

Yay he's going to be home for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is the major thing I am swankful for. I am also swankful for an extra week to clean our house as the holiday pushed off our "Realtor Walk-through" from yesterday to today.

edit: if you read my post earlier...I apologize for the typo...I'm so sorry!!!!! If you didn't see it...swank heavens for that!

microwaves stink!

I am disgusted with our microwave. When Jeremy and I came back from our camping excursion in July, our microwave didn't work. It would light up, turn on, spin around, time everything, but no heat...

we finally got around to calling a repairman over this because of selling the house and everything...

$220 to repair!

stupid expensive electronics...

sigh...hopefully we can get out of the house before anything else happens.

update on the house cleaning

We have all the upstairs but the spare room cleaned. We still have the downstairs to do as well. Jer got up early and went out to "rake" mow the lawn and just as he finished with the last bag and it started to snow/rain. We then hauled all the bags (in two trips) to the compost site and made it home to shovels some food in and welcome our Realtor over to start the paperwork for selling the house. Tomorrow he is bringing by the official for sale sign. Tuesday his team is coming through to give us pointers on things we should pack away and how we should rearrange furniture or things.

it's thanksgiving week... mom and dad are coming wednesday and so are Candi and the kids and maybe Erikk...so our house is almost clean for them but clean for the showings too...

i'm tired, can I have a break now? tomorrow is the complete downstairs...and work...

Samurai Bunny Beginnings

So one of the things I am doing to get ready for going to Washington is to learn as much computer science as I can as well as hone in my drawing skills with the graphic tablet my husband got me for Christmas a couple years ago. It's almost like learning to draw all over again, probably the main reason I haven't used it as much as I should have.

Anyway I picked it up tonight and decided to draw:
So that is my Samurai Bunny as it stands right now. I am going to come back to it and continue to work this picture as the days pass and I am all alone in the house. If you want to see more things I have done, see my blog links and click on My Artwork.

shopping and cleaning

The never-ending job of cleaning and preparing for our house to be officially on the market is tuckering me out and it's only been two days. Jeremy was feeling the same way after vacuuming out the garage and rearranging things, so we went to the mall for dinner and browsing. We hit the usual GameStop for him - they have new carpet, a new counter, and a reorganized store. We oogled the different games we wanted, then headed out the JC Penny for some browsing. We ended up finding three pair of pants for him for work, and one teal sweater for me. That's a red letter day because I usually don't find things that fit or look good.

Yay for new sweaters.

Birthday Wishes with snow

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN! I hope you are having a wonderful day. It's snowing down here...just for you...and maybe so we don't have to do yard work...


Welcome to year 26, it's been great for me, hope it's great for you too!

BIG NEWS REVEALED!!!!!!!

Jeremy accepted a position at a new company. He will be working for Nintendo. That's right, home of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Princess Peach, Koopa, Bowser, Wario, and all their friends. This job is obvious not in Minnesota. It is in Redmond, Washington. We're moving!!!!! Hence the Realtor, housing selling, major cleaning jobs going on, and the reason I am not at my job today.

Jeremy helped me get the books packed, we have four overstuffed shelves of books so there were many boxes. I went through the pantry and cleaned that up, did the dishes, and now am trying to decide what my next plan of attack is. I have already taken and pared down my closet to half of what was in there (stuff I haven't worn in 1-2 years). We need to move so much stuff out of the house to get it sold...it's going to be a long couple weeks.

So Jeremy starts at Nintendo, believe it or not, the week after Thanksgiving. He will be gone for three weeks (basically right after Thanksgiving to right before Christmas). I will be work on getting the house ready to sell (it will be on the market as of Tuesday)...and keeping in clean and still getting prepped to move across the country. I am also trying to prepare myself with as much computer information and graphic design information as possible because the recruiter at Nintendo asked me to send my resume in too...

I haven't lived outside of Minnesota for more than 2.5 months at a time in my entire life. This is so exciting. My best friend from high school lives four hours south of where we are going to be and that's so awesome! I have extended family out in the area as well so I hope not to feel so homesick.

so...life is a roller-coaster and Jeremy and I are gripping on for dear life trying not to fall out.
Please pray for the perfect buyer to come along quickly that would like to buy our house for what we posted so we don't have debt when we leave Minnesota.

Holy moley, batman!

So we're putting our house up for sale. That's part of the big news. And the realtor wants to take pictures of our house today. Problem? I've been gone since Wednesday, and my house is a sty. So I will be cleaning all night long, and packing....and cleaning.

Holy crap this is craziness.

Project Runway

So I turned on the tv when I got home tonight and realized that the new season of Project Runway starts tonight on Bravo. This coupled with the weekend of sewing made me get my sewing machine out and set it up to finish a few things that I didn't get to finish at quilt retreat...

PROBLEM!

I forgot my iron at camp. sigh... I guess it's not so bad. I believe I am going to go out and get a new iron anyway (since the one I got was older and I'd like a new one like my mom brought to Quilt retreat that was Teflon and had a retractable cord.

Plus those major changes I was talking about are presenting a million things that I need to do personally. I would like to say, NO the major change is NOT me being pregnant. I repeat, I am NOT pregnant. But I can say I am happier than ever to go to work these days and as bad things happen there I am able to shrug them off and just turn the volume up on my I-pod.

Yesterday I had my final post surgery checkup and I am happy to say I don't have to use my Vacation time to go to the doctor anymore.

Photos from the weekend

So here are some of the photos from quilt retreat. To see all the ones I have upload go to:

my flickr site

Here is the mittens my Mom, sister, and I made at quilt retreat. I love them They are made out of old wool sweaters that have been felted and cut out.

Here are the cloth napkins my mom taught Tia and I to make. Mine are the center ones, mom's are the snowflake ones, and Tia's are the floral ones.



This is Jan, I love this lady. She is a wealth of Knowledge and I learn so much from her every time I go to retreat.


Kristi had this strip quilt that she worked on all weekend. I love these colors. They were a theme for many projects being worked on this retreat.

Erin's mom was making these Westies Dogs. I love them too! the texture of the white fabric was brilliant for the dog fur!

And now I shall be done blogging for the night. See Erin, Kristi- you have created a monster - 3 times in one day!

sadness

It is with much sadness that I say that I have officially returned the 160 G I-pod to Bestbuy today because my teeny tiny 30 G I-pod is back from being repaired.

I am sad because it held so many songs, books, and podcasts that I never even got it filled to a quarter of the way full. I did get a shiny new 30 G but it's small...so tiny...

now begins the process of what shall go on this small I-pod and what must retreat back to the server whence it came.

sigh...good by Marian Zimmer Bradley books, goodbye Harry Potter series, and goodbye most of the Podrunner and Ask a Ninja Podcasts.

someday batman...i will have my revenge!

things are changing

I did not get the pictures uploaded last night because there are big things happening here in Rochester on Emerald Lane. I can officially declare anything yet, but check back later this week and you might find some huge news and excitement going on.

I miss quilt retreat after one day of work. Can't we retreat most of the year and work for three days twice a year?

I think that should be Kristi's campaign platform!

Who's with me?

quilt retreat

I am home from the quilt retreat with a little bit done and lots more to finish. I worked on my turning twenty red,black and white quilt and got all the pieces sewn into blocks, now I just need to square them up and sew them together. I also started on my tablecloth that I have fallen in love with and have a bunch of embroidery to do on it before I can sew the pieces together. My mom brought the patterns for making placemats and napkins and I finished all 8 napkins and 2 of the four placemats before I had to leave. I also took a class on making mittens from felted old wool sweaters (I love them!)

I can say this year the hardest part of going to quilt retreat was the drive home. I was more tired than I felt when I started out but pulled over passed the cities for gas and got a snack to keep me awake.

I came home to find Jeremy excited to have me home, the house look much like I left it (excluding 3 more knives in the sink) and to feel really happy to be home. I snuggled up down stairs in my new Wood Lake zip up hoodie and watch Night at the Museum with Jeremy. It was hilarious - definitely on my must own list. I fell asleep watching another movie and woke up at 1:30 am to Jeremy telling me to go to bed upstairs. Man I missed our bed.

I will post pictures of progress from the quilt retreat tonight. Hope you all have a good Monday back from retreat.

apologies

I had no idea that people were checking my blog (people other than those that share the same parent as me). I apologize for the lack of posts. Now that I know that you are out there...I will strive to be more attentive to my blogs.

I am quilt retreat this weekend. I have brought a suitcase of stuff to work on and am enjoying the time away from work. I was surprised and mostly happy to wake up to the light flaky snow coming down, the view from our cabin was gorgeous. I will post pictures once I get home and shrink them.

A group of trooped into Grantsburg to stop at the local Ben Franklin and made a pit stop at the library to get our "fixes" on the internet.

If you have ever tried and found a second blog I have about experiments in the kitchen, here is the link:


http://kitchenstoriesetc.blogspot.com

That is where I experiment with cooking, baking, and eating.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle **cue G.I. Joe Theme song**
Back to the sewing machine!
Check back soon, I have resolved to be better about updating!

winnie the pooh Stack-n-whack quilt

So this Easter weekend I got my Winnie the Pooh Stack-n-Whack quilt near complete. I cut and attached all the sashing and cornerstones around the blocks, then sewed the pieces together to form stripes and rows.

My mom helped me get the batting and backing onto the quilt and safety pin it together so now all I have to do is quilt it and do the binding and I am finished with my first quilt.
I have three pictures showing two of the blocks: then the finished quilt top.

Stack N Whack Hawaiian Style

I am currently sewing together my second stack-n-whack quilt top. It's Hawaiian fabric I got from the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby.

Here are a few pictures:

Here is my workspace as I work with quilting. I transform my kitchen into the cutting area and the dining area into my sewing and ironing stations. Works pretty well (unless someone wants to eat)!
Here is a picture of my pattern for the Hawaiian Stack-N_Whack. It is pinned down under four layers of the same fabric. Takes the most time to do this.


Here is my first block sewn together. Neat huh? I am excited to get the rest finished. Off I go...

More pictures later!

Quilt Retreat

Here are some pictures from quilt retreat...It is a little deviation from crochet, but it's quilting...which is still ok... I went for four day, Thursday through Sunday to a camp in the middle of Wisconsin and quilted all day long. It was a fun time and I can't wait to go back in November.
This is an image of my first quilt block I have ever made. I am making a fishes and waves quilt for our upstairs spare room.



This is a picture of one of the ladies from the quilt and what she was working on. It is a beautiful quilt she had seen a picture of and decided to make it. It's amazing for her second year at quilt retreat. I am thinking of finding something complicated and fun to do next November.

This is what I refer to as trouble times three, or the three amigos...they are the funniest women I have ever met. Don't ask what they are doing...you probably don't want to know.

Here is an example of how I was inspired at Quilt retreat. This was a Turning Twenty quilt that I loved the fabric of, and I was so inspired that I went out and got red, white, and black fabric to make my own.
This is the fishes I complete up on the wall where all complete works go at quilt retreat. When you finish, you hold your work in the air and people clap, and use clappers and bells, and then you hang it on the wall, it's inspiring to see all the works around you.

quilting weekend

I spent the last four days at a camp in Wisconsin. We quilted and crocheted and knitted, and scrapbooked...I will post my pictures soon.

baby hat and on the hooks

I finished a baby hat from The Happy Hooker yesterday. I started it in the car and finished it last night at my parent's house. Now I am making a blanket to match. At the end of April my sister is helping host a silent auction for money towards research on the genetic disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). She usually crochets sweaters and blankets and quilts lap afgans or baby blankets. This year I am hoping to get a few more of my crochet items done to help the cause.

Two pictures:This is the hat I finished. There were suppose to be braids off the end of the ear flaps but the yarn I used frayed easy, so I left the braids off. I am thinking of adding a row of single crochet around the outside to make it complete and make up for the braids.

This is what is on my hook, a blanket to match the hat. I like it. I have deviated slightly from the pattern, but I also didn't check my gauge right away and this is a bit smaller than it's suppose to be (the yarn selection being lighter and smaller than what was recommended.)

I have to get back to working on my recipe scrapbook exchanges, so I can then use the next to days to crochet and get ready for a quilt retreat. More later.

Crochet Hook Caddy

Here is the latest project I have just finished. Three projects down and many more to go. The pattern I found at Sarah Anns. It is a caddy for my crochet hooks and other notions, needles, sissors, tape measure, stitch counters, and safety needles. I took pictures of the caddy closed with the decal of the 6 petal flower from an earlier post: and one picture with the caddy open with all my things I have so far in it:


I am very excited too because my eldest sister, Tia, has some duplicate needles for me. Which is great for me, since I now I have a caddy to put them in! I am getting an E, I, J, K, 0, 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Plus she has a big bucket of Red Heart yarn for me! I am really excited to get a big stash.

Granny Squares

This is a WIP (Work In Progress). It's going to be a Granny Square afgan. I have 13 squares done right now, and have 137 more to go. The pattern is another one from The Happy Hooker book. I don't think I am going to make it a color bar one, like in the book, but I am using the pattern with Jewel tones in Red Heart yarn. These are the colors:

6 petal flower motif

Here is something I was experimenting with, a 6 petal flower Motif for an afgan. I believe it's my first WIM (Works In Mind). I like it so much I think I am going to make a huge blanket out of a bunch of them.

I found the pattern at Lion Brand Yarn's website. You need to sign up for membership (it's free) but then you get linked to a TON of free patterns.

Anarchy Hat

After finishing the scarf, I wanted to make something smaller that would be quick, but just as fun to make. So when I was out on Valentine's day i found this great book called:

Stitch and Bitch, The Happy Hooker, by Debbie Stroller

I was leafing through the book in the store and saw this hat, and had to make it for my husband for two reasons. 1. It's an Anarchy A hat, which is his favorite symbol, and 2. there are 42 rounds on this hat, which is the ultimate number (see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.)

So I started it last night, and it was a fast and easy pattern of mainly single crochet. I finished it late last night and here are two pictures of the hat. The first is one of my husband, Jeremy, wearing the hat while he sleeps. Who knew, it doubled as an eye mask!The second picture is a detail of the A:

I was really impressed with this pattern for it's quick build and easy. I am thinking of making another one in red with back trim and black letter. We'll see.