FINALLY, poncho pictures! Here is Arenne in her poncho, she has it on with the seams out in this pic. Please excuse the rowdy hair, we were growing out their bangs, and the pics were spur of the moment. These turned out a lot better than I expected, and have been great with spring outfits. The only issue is that they are stretching, but I expected that. Will probably end up cinching them up with ribbon at the necks. 

Here is Abbie in her poncho! My first real knitting project, done with Chunky USA. 

MY GIRLS ARE SIX YEARS OLD TODAY!

Holy moly, it is so hard to believe!!!! Col and I went shopping yesterday to get them special birthday outfits, they were ADORABLE going off to school. The boys and I are going to go have lunch with them at school, they are are really excited for this, while i can't wait to see them I am dreading the school lunch. ;)

We are bringing cupcakes (Barbie) for their snack at school today, and later picking up a cake(Barbie) for the dinner with our parents tonight. On Saturday we are making a special trip to Omaha to Build a Bear workshop, wheeeeeee! The boys will be staying here with my parents, and the girls are VERY excited to be going to build a bear and having us all to themselves.

They also get birthday crowns at school and there was much discussion over whether the new headbands would interfere with the crowns. It's too much!

I finished the booties! Yeehaw! Being the pattern rebel that I am, I am very proud of myself for reading a pattern and sticking to it. Still working on the camera, but will take pics when I can!

Happy Birthday Abbie & Arenne!

Update

I went and made my first ever...

BABY BOOTIE!

Now to make the second one.

TV Dinners are

supposed to be easy to make, so why is the plastic part of the ordeal so tricky? Here you have this pre-packaged, quick dinner. Definitely not gourmet, but sometimes that cakey stuff just hits the spot. You take it out of the box and proceed to spend 20 minutes just in getting the plastic opened in the right spots and closed in others. Can they not serrate the edges around the compartments that need opening? But noooooo, you try to carefully cut open that square, until you get tired of it and decide to tear the rest open. Of course, invariably, you tear off half of another compartment that is supposed to stay covered. I'm not entirely sure that any of this actually matters in the outcome though. Especially when your corn has slid stealthily into the cake. Hmph.

Still going on the poncho, although my hands and forearms are tiyad! It has ended up somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 inches in width, and the farther I go, the heavier it gets, in spite of the yarn being fairly thin. It is very soft and yummy. I was starting to question how the striping would look in the end and had thoughts of turning it into a wrap, but I came to my senses and am going ahead as planned. This is one of those times I'm happy for my post-kids weight gain, as I won't be swimming in it.

I also started some Little Man nephew pants, using Dot's pattern for Drawstring Baby Pants
The problem is that I was going to use Bernat Cotton Tots, and had to adjust the hooks for gauge, and then realized I was really not liking that yarn to be used for little guy pants. I also had added around 7 stitches SIGH, so for now they are stuffed in a drawer. I am thinking I will retry with yarn to fit the pattern and go from there. Today I am googling for sweater patterns for the cotton tots. I should have enough of the yarn to do a sweater and hat, and possibly some booties. I may end up getting started on the star blanket instead though.

I am also hoping to get motivated to figure out the camera uploading problem, but really, I am just not seeing it happening today. We'll see!

Here is the beginning of the poncho I am doing for myself, with the Peruvian Alpaca from Elann. After about 6 froggings I think I finally have it. 

Thanks for the Welcome!

to the Crochet Blogs Ring. :) I'm so excited to be part of it.

Sorry for the abcense of posts lately, apparently when it rains it really does pour. I was finally starting to feel better on Monday, but then my youngest came down with something very rotovirus like. You can imagine how bad the house smells, I'm sure. Annnnd to top it all off my scar on my eye opened up-due to the cold in them etc and I am again in a lot of pain there, having trouble seeing and very frustrated with all of it. The doc tells me I have an infection in it as well, so no comfortable contact on this go round. Yippeee!

Enough with the misery, and onto yarn related things. I finished the ponchos, but not in time for church on Easter. I worked on them throughout the day and the girls were wearing them by evening. They are very soft, and for my first knitting project I am pretty proud of them. I will have to get pics and hopefully coax my camera into uploading.

I started a poncho for myself, knitting, with the Peruvian Alpaca from Elann. I bought it because I wanted to try working with it and I am totally in love with the colors. Hopefully my work will do the poor yarn justice. The flip flop project is ongoing, I still need to write down the dimensions for my mom's bag and felt it, and get started on the nephew projects. My sock is still just a toe. I also started another dishcloth. Queen of unfinished projects, that's me!

Hopefully I can jazz this up with some pictures again soon.

Must Finish Ponchos

The girls are way excited for their new ponchos, and I am furiously knitting away trying to finish a panel and a half so I can get them sewn together for...

TOMORROW.

Sheesh, why do I do these things? WHY?!?! Still sick, but I actually left the house finally. Still waiting to feel miraculously better. Holding out for the Cadbury creme eggs I have stashed out in the car with the rest of the Easter bunny stuff I bought tonight-how's that for even more last minute? As soon as these kids are asleep I am going to fully enjoy those chocolatey gooey eggs. Mmmmmm. I mean, after these kids are asleep and these ponchos are finished. Yep, that's right.

One poncho strip KNITTED

three more to go. Sheesh. The pressure is on, Easter is almost here, and although I have gone much faster at this knitting thing I am not sure if I will be fast enough. We'll see I guess. It's funny how cumbersome the knitting needles feel compared to my crochet hook, but it's fun learning, and I am (mostly) enjoying it. Binding off this strip was a little trickier, but I got it okay.

Still not feeling the greatest, but I am slowly getting better, please let me be feeling miraculously better by tomorrow, I've had enough! It's a nice grey, rainy day and we are all lounging in our jammies, thanks to the first day of Spring Break. No having to get up and get dressed and hurry out the door, hooray!

Even sicker.

Started knitted chica poncho over, this time with pink and size 13 needles. Much happier.

Bleh, Sick Again

My nose is stuffed up, the cold is in my eyes, and my throat is all scratchy. But! I am still plodding along with the knitting. Needing the gratification of an actual project I decided ponchos would be the way to go, and since the girls need some to go with their Easter dresses and I have a ton of Chunky yarn, I was all set. I pushed and shoved and annoyed my friend Venus into doing a poncho knit-along with me. She is using larger needles and I am jealous, I love the way hers is turning out. Mine is going pretty well, especially for being the second thing I've ever knitted-the first being my test swatch. Let's hope I can churn out two of these babies or I will be madly crocheting away the Saturday night before Easter.

My camera has decided it is tired of uploading the pictures and is apparently taking a vacation.

Last night Mr. Blue and I went out to a show to see some local bands, the main purpose being to see the boys of Splenetic. We used to be part of a music promotion company, called joeisapunk.com and Splenetic was the band we had signed to our record label, we eventually gave up the company because we all had way too much in the way of real lives-jobs, bills, kids, and the like. Since then we haven't been able to make it to many shows-being a grown-up sucks sometimes. Splenetic had been on a lengthy break due to the drummer breaking his arm, and losing one member and adding another. They ROCKED the house last night and I was so proud of them, very good to see them on stage-or at least the Legion hall floor. Another of the local kids, who had moved here a year or so ago, has now formed a FABULOUS band, For Today, and WOW, just WOW. David-the local kid-drums and sings and seriously, it's insane. They are looking for a drummer so that David can get back to running around the stage, but to see that kid drumming and singing is nuts. I am really proud of all of them, it's taken a lot of hard work and perserverance, but they're doing it. It was good to see an Omaha band, Hollowcore, who we'd had up to play awhile back, amazing show. However, it was sad when they asked for Alice and Chains fans and only five of us hollered out. Seriously, these kids didn't even know the song Dirt. I'm not THAT old, right? Sigh. I am. I knew it when I went over and very nicely reminded some kids not to shove each other into the soundboard. Our friend Ryan looked at me and said, "You know they are wondering WHO BROUGHT THEIR MOM!" lol. I've decided we need some shirts for the kids that say "Not your mother's mosh" or "Not your sister's mosh."

Oh my goodness I am KNITTING! Holy moly. Using Stitch 'n Bitch and tips from my good friend V I have actually knitted something. Double cast on, knitting, AND binding off. Wowza! The pic quality isn't great, it's from my camera phone. (Please tell me it hides any mistakes.) 

Jenny's poncho, for as much trouble as I had with it it turned out really cool. 

Finally pictures of the finished ponchos, out in the light so you can see the colors. This is Tawnya's, it's driving me up the wall that it is on me crooked, but you get the idea. You can also see Colin in the background trying to make a getaway. 

Here is the bag for my mom all put together, complete with handle, I am really proud of how this turned out. Can't wait to felt it! 

The flip flip project has begun! 

Dishcloths, how exciting! I haven't weaved in the ends on the smaller yet. Made these with Sugar n Cream. 

The bag is finished

except for felting, WOOHOOO! I can't wait to felt it, but I am trying to write out a pattern for it. As I am pattern challenged this may take me a bit.

I also finished my first dishcloth, plain, but useful and am working on another. Mainly because I need them and why go out and buy some when I have lots of Sugar 'n Creme and can make them myself!

I finally have all of my projects caught up, aside from the old old old ones. Next I will be starting the flip flop project, patterning (is that a word?) and felting this bag, and making dishcloths. Woohooo.

Be prepared for another onslaught of pictures, hopefully soon.

What a lovely day. A big, huge box of yarn, some knitting needles, and a crochet hook. AND what a deal I got it for. SO exciting. 

For us? Nope, all for mom. These are the CHEESE faces. My big box of yarn, knitting needles and a ginormous crochet hook AND my new yarn tote! 

Don't faint from the schock

THE PONCHOS ARE DONE! THEY ARE DONE!

Oh my, finally the sister poncho project is finished! Well, mostly, now I need to take pics, pack them, and mail them off. Whew.

Jenny's proved pretty challenging. She picked out a Red Heart yarn, it's really cool looking, but as you know Red Heart is a sort of stretchy, heavy yarn. Sooooo, when I joined the seams the chained bottoms of the patterns stretched waaaaay out. I had to stitch them up again. I guess it's more reinforcement, eh? I am so glad to be done. I'm sure my sisters will be glad too.

I also finished weaving in all the ends on the bag for my mom, now I need to sew it together and felt it. Woohoo. Then it's onto the fun fur flip flops. I bet you can't wait.

Box of Rain is the BEST! She sent me this very cool crochet hook holder and my very own Boxy dishcloth, blue with a cat. :D I LOVE THEM. Especially as I have no idea when I would have learned to operate my sewing machine well enough to make my own. 

With perfect timing

I realized as I was posting that Vacation by the GoGo's was playing on launchcast. God has a great sense of humor, eh?

Ah what a Saturday

Not much sleep last night, swimming lessons for the girls this morning. A stop at McDonald's for lunch on the way home and then trying to get all of these munchkins to lay down and rest. You would think this would be easier, as the girls had spent a lot of time swimming, and the boys had been playing and climbing and running. Not so. They have now spent the afternoon subverting my best efforts. They've also decided that today will be a complete let's not listen to mom at all day, we'll just distract her by getting into all kinds of things and causing trouble. yippee.

I have a massive headache, I am tired, I am crabby and Mr. Blue is over at his brother's. Oh he will pay, yes he will. Well, not really, but it's fun to think about. So, here I sit, headphones on, crocheting, err, well typing away, while chaos reigns in the background.

The kids are fighting and hollering and all out of sorts and tonight we have a dance show of the girls. It's been much anticipated, the first we've ever done, but I'm now having visions of our rag tag group staggering in, disheveled and ornery, and the boys staging mutiny in the audience while the girls are so tired they don't even remember why we are there. Let's hope not.

I've finished one of the strips for Jen's poncho, about 1/4 of the way into the second. Please let me finish soon. Please.

Yours Truly,
Lisa who is dreaming of a lovely life where she can sit in fabulous little coffeeshops reading the latest books and crocheting away, all while her lovely children play quietly and happily around her, gazing up with love.

Question Time!

Thanks Jennifer! I have questions to answer, woohoo! Here goes.

Questions for Lisa:

1. What makes you choose a crochet project? Do you choose the yarn or the pattern first?

Wow, this is kind of a hard one. Lately it has been out of necessity, hats for the kids or myself when we need them, slippers because my feet were cold, ponchos for my sisters because they want them. You get the idea. Most of the time I choose the yarn first, and like to wing it without patterns.

2. Do you crochet more for yourself, or others?

At this point it's about even.

3. Tell me how you met your husband.

I met him at a telemarketing center we both worked at. Never thought he'd notice me, but he asked me to go see REM, one of my all-time favorites. I knew it was love. (okay, not really, but I sure liked him an awful lot.)

4. What is your favorite yarn, and what are your favorite colors to use in projects?

Favorite yarn, wow, that's tough. I haven't used too many different yarns yet, but my fave so far is elann's peruvian highland wool. I think the alpaca will overtake it once I use it. Colors I tend more fall colors, like darker blues, greens, purples, and reddish/maroons. Blue and green are my favorites.

5. And of course, how did you learn to crochet? What was your first project?

I learned to crochet at the same telemarketing center I met my husband at. One of the older ladies took me under her wing and taught me how. First project was an afghan, I believe I showed a pic on my blog, it was much wider on one end that the other lol.

Those were harder than I'd first thought, thanks again Jennifer!! Now for the credits.

The string attached to me being interviewed:

Here are the rules for this Blog-a-thon. I'll offer to interview the next how many ever people to respond to this post that will follow these rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me."

2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than the ones below.

3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

I am working FURIOUSLY

on Jen's poncho. The first strip is ALMOST finished, woohoooooo! Jen mentioned that next week is supposed to be cooler there, I would love to get the ponchos out to them in time, but wow, it's Thursday already. Thursday night, no less.

I'm also hopelessly addicted to these MTV reality shows. It started way back when with The Real World, and has just snowballed. I sit with my jaw dropped watching Sweet Sixteen. Completely bizarre. Kids really live that way, it's nuts. And they found enough of them to make a series about?! Sheesh. They've come a long way from legion-hall renting with a dj and helium balloons, eh? At least with the twins we can probably sneak in a two for one. ;) Right now I am watching Power Girls, apparently about girls who work in PR for Lizzie Grubman. All I can think of when I see Lizzie Grubman is the whole crashing into the nightclub thing. I guess that'll get you noticed.

I started a hat for myself tonight, out of Red Heart Symphony. MMMMM, very soft. I was having a good time, until I glanced over and saw the poncho strip. Poor, sad, letdown poncho strip. Back to the grindstone.

I've decided that

frogging while wearing new pajamas is not so bad. They are comfy, bright colored, and NEW. I lova pajamas, love them. I'd wear them everywhere if I could get away with it. Sometimes I do wear them, even knowing I won't get away with it.

So, here I sit in my new jammies, feeling spiffy in spite of MORE MASSIVE FROGGING on Jen's poncho. Sigh. This will now be the fourth start on this particular project. FOURTH. Bigger Sigh. In the meantime, the sisters are getting ants in their pants about WHEN these ponchos will be done. Biggest Sigh of All. So, I am determined to make some major progress on this thing THIS VERY WEEK. If I can stop needing to pull out all the work I've done on the damn thing.

I am committed to finishing projects. COMMITTED. I must finish this poncho and the bag for my mom. MUST. Next up are flip flops for a big family vacation to California at the end of April. We are all incredibly excited (hang on, I am mentally blocking out the picture of us on a plane with four small people.) I get to see my sisters, AND my grandparents who have not even MET my youngest child and saw the third on the day he was born. I. CAN'T. WAIT. We are doing a baby shower for T while we are all out there, and my other grandma is coming along as well. I thought it would be cool to make us all some fun fur trimmed flip flops. So, my sisters, my girls, my mom, my grandmas, and myself will be wearing matching flip flops. Furry, fuzzy flip flops. YEEHAW! Maybe it will start a trend if people see that many of us wearing them.

I also REALLY want to start a poncho for myself-I've had the yarn forever-and a bag for V. AND something for my nephew. If I can find a cute boy baby pattern in crochet. Still in search of the perfect thing to make him. Oh, I also need to finish the baby blanket and at some point the sock. More than likely the sock will suffer for awhile, by the time I finish everything else we will be into summer and I will not be able to even THINK about putting on a pair of socks in the heat.

Here is Tawnya's poncho, all finished. This pic doesn't really do it justice, as you can't see the colors, and it's on me, but you get the idea. ;) I have had to frog Jen's first strip, AGAIN, because it wasn't wide enough. *sob* 

Soo, I was a crackwhore and have taken FOREVER to ship Deb's order so I made her little guys some hats too. Here is my Drew modeling one of them. These are the same as the hat I made for my brother.  

Beeyootiful, the slightly off, ugly, comfortable slippers. You can see I went a little higher on the second one, live and learn! 

I FINISHED TAWNYA'S PONCHO

I did! Don't faint! Yeehaw, I am so excited. I'll try to get a pic of it later, but you'll have to remember that my sister was blessed-or cursed?-with much bigger boobs than I was. Now, onto Jenny's. )

Well, well, well

Where have I been? Sheesh. You start to count on a blog and then BAM the person up and disappears. No posts, nothing.

hehe.

Okay, I am here faithful readers. All, um, 2 or 3 of you. The weekend has been busy. I don't think of Thursday as the weekend, but I'm including it in this paragraph about my weekend. So there. I am in a bunco league. Yep. Sure am. It is incredibly fun and intense and I am having a BLAST. I am one of those dorks who becomes friends with her mom, and her mom's friends. Now, remember, I am not quiiite 30 and my mom is 49. See? (The sad part is that I almost typed that I was 20 and she was 40. Wow. We sure are growing up.) We have it at the restaurant I work at, so the food is great, as is the beer, or iced tea. I actually won for most wins with the first game. Yeehaw!

Then, the days were full of seeing family, going to the gym, and eating, sleeping, and cleaning. The kids spent time with our parents, which means the house was a little quieter for a bit, we took naps. Well, he read, and I crocheted, but we were laying down and almost asleep. I taught the girls to dribble a basketball, they each hit five bounces! and took them swimming, it was cool spending time with just them.

On to the crocheting. I weaved in some more of the ends on the bag, but not allll of them. A girl can only take so much. I have mainly been working on Tawnya's poncho, which is sooooooo close to be done. I had to add some extra to the first strip, because as earlier noted the second was a little wider. I did get the ends weaved in already though, pretty proud of that. OH! I finished the second ugly slipper. My slippers are hilariously ugly, I love them. Very soft, comfortable, and of course, different in their own special ways. I got a pic, but the camera isn't uploading lately. Hmph.

Slipper Gone Wrong! I had no idea that working on the second slipper would prove even funnier than the first. Apparently I think that my left foot is considerably longer than my right. Off to frog... 

It is even funnier OFF of my foot. LOL 

My first ever slipper. I think it is pretty ugly, but it is very soft and comfy. Works for me! This is what happens when your feet are cold and you have yarn. Now I just need to make another.

So this is almost 30

Mr. Blue and I and the whole family are members of a health club now, thanks to a very, very nice Christmas gift. It's fabulous, the daycare is very cool with all kinds of fun stuff to do and very well staffed. Mr. Blue and I can drop off the kiddos at the daycare for up to TWO WHOLE HOURS while we workout. Mr. Blue has been working out more than I have-the whole eye injury/broken nose/health crap have held me back a little. I had a hilarious moment of shock at how much older we are when we were sitting next to each other, pedaling away on the reclining bikes-he watching the news on the tv, and me crocheting away. Yes folks, we are now entering the 30's. Mr. Blue has a leg up on me as he is turning 31 in April, I will be 30 in October.

I found a special extra bonus today at the health club. In the little food bar/cafe/whatever the hell they call it they have a couple of my most favorite things. Pretzels and nachos. Yes, with the not quite cheese whiz that isn't spicy! Heaven, I tell you. AND they are cheap. Right up my alley. I love it. I can now go to the gym, drop off the kids, work out, and then add the calories back on right there at the same place AND with stuff I love. Life is good.

You're probably wondering if this is still a crochet blog. It is. I am furiously working on my sisters' ponchos and sewing in the damn ends on the bag for my mom. I keep having to put the bag down because it gets so tedious. Plus I have to keep the scissors hidden from small peoples' views. On a not so great note, as I was working on Jen's poncho I realized that the wood Size K hooks I have are leaving the pattern a little more stretchy and not so tight. Apparently there is some slight difference. The sad part is that I gave both of my metal K's to my cousin's daughters who I have been teaching to crochet. So, I am starting over. Sad, but true. Thankfully I hadn't gotten too far on it.

More blogging

because sometimes I have a hard time shutting up. Really. I know you probably don't believe it, but it's true.

I am CRABBY. CRABBY I tell you. It may have been the end sewing that was the last straw. I am so very tired of picking up after the kids, and of hollering/cajoling/bribing/pleading at/with them to help. It gets very, very old. I know that I signed up for this when I started having these children and then I completely cemented the deal by having four of them, but sometimes I am just way over it. Don't get me wrong, I am the mess/clutter QUEEN, it's part of the OCD-really and truly, that part isn't a joke, even if I love to laugh at it, but sometimes there is a big difference between your own clutter and other people's. Especially little people's. Little people like to just run wild through the house, like mini tornados, throwing things all over the place. It's crazy. They love to get into things, tear things to pieces (usually small, tiny bits of paper), and scatter various foods wherever they see fit. Hmmm, a bowl of cereal? Well, this MUST be thrown into the air so that it can fall all over the living room carpet that is threadbare from the repeated vacuumings. Why look at this bookshelf! These books shouldn't be stacked here, what's wrong with these parents? Don't they know books should be spread all over? What's this? A toy with lots of pieces? I MUST take the toy apart and then spread the pieces to various rooms so that later I can tear apart the toyboxes in search of said pieces. Oh and look at this! Why, it's a skein of yarn! I know I am absolutely not ever, ever supposed to play with mom's yarn, but this is just begging to be unwound and pulled around the house.

I won't go into their thoughts on crayons, pencils, pens, markers, and GASP, scissors. And don't thing any of those things are accessible. I could put them in a safe, then duct tape the entire safe, just wrapping and wrapping the tape around it and these small, devious people will STILL be able to get in.

I suppose I should be happy that they are smart and creative, and I guess I could try the earth mother approach that they are just exploring their world and encourage their freedom. I could do this. If I had a maid.

Sewing in the ends

on a stripey, good-sized project is of the debil I say! Sigh.

I spent much of the weekend, when I had time, working on rectangle #2 of Tawnya's poncho. Making progress. Of course, because it's me, this one is looking slightly bigger than the first. Ah well. I did realize that if it seems small, adding rows would be pretty easy, so that's a relief.

My eye is healing well, thank goodness. The pain is pretty much gone, just a little scratchiness, and my vision isn't up to par yet. But, it's MUCH better. Whew.

I will leave you with this, and if you are a crafty hore at SM it will look familiar. ;)

You know you are a hooker when your pencil cup is full of crochet hooks.

I've put down the sock

and picked up the poncho. I have got to get the ponchos for my sisters finished and the bag for my mom done. I HAVE TO. As much as I really, really, really, really want to make a pair of socks. Really.

I need to weave in the ends of yarn on the bag, sew it together, and then felt it. I keep toying with the idea of not weaving in the ends, but I just think it will look better overall if I do. I really dislike weaving in ends though and this bag has a LOT of ends. Felting will have to wait at least a day, since I need to get some laundry done, but that won't be a problem since it will take me that much to weave and sew.

I finished one of the rectangles for T's poncho and am working on the second. Then it's sewing it together. After I'll need to do both of J's rectangles, as I only have 1 started. The biggest challenge with this is making them the right size. I tried to guage it when they were here last, but it's tough, and now that they are in California it's a little hard for them to try them on in progress. And the three of us are all completely different sizes, so that's no help either. We'll see, I guess.

After these, I need to finish the blanket for my NEPHEW! *huge grin* and make some socks, yeehaw! I know V is also waiting to see what I come up with in the way of a bag for her, hehe.

On the eye front, things are progressing well. I am now without the contact and NOT in excruciating pain, hooray! Still scratchy and a little pain, but nothing like it was. Mr. Eye Doctor has said it is healing really well, the only problem is that my vision in that eye still isn't that great. Well, it wasn't to begin with, but he means with my glasses on it isn't that great. I go back Tuesday for another check-up. And, I still have not stolen any numbing drops, I can safely say pain did not turn me into a junkie theif!

What's this? A sock! Yes, yes it is. Crazy fool that I am I have started my very first sock, even though I am mainly seeing through one eye.

I've made progress on the stripe bag for my mom. The colors are still coming off really dark in my pics and I don't feel like messing around with it to make it look better. I may frog out the latest stripes, the blue one is just too big. Thankfully, I'm now able to crochet, I've found the looking down is much more comfortable for me, but I don't have enough focus to read. 

Aren't I pretty? I took this yesterday, and if you can beleive it I look worse today, the eye is a lot more swollen. Picture it, fading blue hair, and a big ole puffy, swollen eye, oh yeah baby. 

WOW, I have comments!

And they aren't from people I already know lol. Thanks everyone!

As you might have read in the comments on the last post I have a scratched cornea, courtesy of the same two year old who broke my nose a few months back. This kid is tough I tell you. I made it through my other 3 children's toddlerhoods with nary a major incident, but #4 shows no mercy. While wrangling him into his snowboots Big C flung up an arm and hit my eye. OWWWWWWWWW! I knew it was bad. Scratched cornea, big time. I've had four kids, a broken leg, and a broken nose but this one appears to be THE most painful. I have a contact on it, like a bandaid, which is helping a lot, but I'd like to go break into the eye doctor's right now and steal some of those nifty numbing drops. I had a hair or something in the contact, and ended up having to take it out, which then led to putting it back in. Let's just say it wasn't fun. At all.

Now the 4 year old is still up, Mr. Blue has conked out, and I'm still hurting too much to sleep. I really wish I had a bigass painkiller/sleep med. Sigh.

It was feeling a little better today, prior to my 2nd eye appt and I did get some crocheting done on my sis's poncho. It's very frustrating to not be able to read or crochet.

Now, I am off to hope the 4 yr old crashes and I pass out from sheer agony.

So many projects, so little time

I'm still working on the bag for my mom, and the ponchos for my sisters. Primarily the bag, and I cannot wait until I get it finished. Partly because felting is just way too much fun, and partly because I've totally made up the pattern for this bag and really hope it will work.

Been having more pain, I'm guessing this is what's called a "flare" in my line of illness. Yippee! I definitely did not get as much crocheting done as I'd wanted to. Housework be damned, as usual.

It snowed again today, I wasn't expecting it and it was really light, but covered the ground fast. The kids were pretty excited about it, and I was glad the girls wore their snowboots to school. If they don't, they don't get to run around in the snow at recess, and really, what fun is it to stand in the snow?

We watched 24 tonight, I am TOTALLY sucked into this show, it is way too intense. It also goes way too fast and I hate it when it ends. Mr. Blue's habit of shouting, THIS IS IT, IT'S OVER! right at the very end of it is really driving me up the wall. I was barely past the floor molding when he first started doing it, now I am definitely touching the ceiling.

I was really missing my cat today, and it's been like 5 years since he passed away. I really miss having a cat, and was having some serious want to run out and get a cat RIGHT NOW feelings. Then, I reminded myself that I have four children who I have a hard enough time keeping out of trouble and cleaning up after, and adding a litter box, cat hair, and cat claws to the mix wouldn't be the greatest idea. Sigh.

Aren't my bears just too much?

Okay, so maybe they are, but I love them anyway. The bear on the left was given to me by a bunch of great friends at Sybermoms, when I started having all of my whacked out health stuff. They sent me a box of fun stuff that totally made my day. So, that little guy has been sitting up on my desk for about a year now.

Then, my friend Jen made me the cute little bear who sits next to my other bear-it just now occurs to me I haven't named either of them, and I have names for EVERYTHING. Jen knitted the little guy and I am just in love. She helped us out in the Sybermoms auction for the Tsunami victims by participating in the bracelet smackdown and offered to knit things for those who purchased braclets from her. She rocks, as do the other smackdown participants. :) Jen, who is known as Pierced in our little corner of the internet is an amazing knitter, and has recently taken up crochet. I swear this girl was born for needlework. You can check out her work here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/stitching_bitch/

Aren't they cute? 

The colors are very dark, but here is a shot of half. The strip off to the left is one of the sides, the bottom is the dark piece under the stripe piece, which is either the front or the back. I'm going to sew the pieces together at the end, hoping to get a more square shape this way. 

My hands are sore

but I'm pretty sure it's worth it. I am working on a bag for my mom, out of the Peruvian Highland Wool I had gotten from Elann. It is working up really well, and I am hoping I have enough yarn leftover to make one for myself. Except it might be a little weird to have a purse that matches my mom's. Althooough, the last time I bought one it ended up being the same one my mother in law had just bought. I guess this would make things even, right?

I am going to felt this bag, and I can't wait! I made up the pattern, which usually ends up being much easier than me trying to actually read a pattern. But, then I want to write it down, in case I do make one for myself. I'll have to remember to do it before I felt it, so I can count the stitches and rows.

And the biggest news right now, I am going to have a NEPHEW! WOOHOOO! One of my sisters is pregnant, this will be my first time as an aunt to one of my siblings' kids, I am waaaaay excited. I did really want to make those cute little mary janes, but I'll just have to find another little girl baby somewhere. I am really happy for her and her husband and way too excited. :D

Currently I have this bag, the ponchos for my sisters, and the baby blanket waiting to be finished. The bag will be first. I hope, at least.

This is a close-up of the striped bag I am making for my mom. I had to brighten it a bit, so the colors are actually a little darker in person, but this is to give you the idea. 

Four hats in two days, woohoo! Here are the hats I made with the Lion Brand Chunky USA I had gotten on sale. Drew is wearing his hat, in navy and red, Spiderman colors, and Colin's is yellow and black, Hawkeyes, of course! The hats they are holding are for my brother in law, actually navy and gold for Michigan, and then red and black for my nephew.