Week 46

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We only had one of our three children here and two of the six grandsons. But we had a great day and lots and lots of food!

After we ate, the boys’ dad picked them up and took them back to his house for the night. Hubby and I and Daughter C. watched movies and talked and talked. It was a nice evening.

I had to work Black Friday from 8 am to 5 pm, so I didn’t get to spend very much time with the company. Hubby and C. met me for lunch, though. That was nice.

Friday night the boys spent the night with their cousins, so I didn’t get to see them at all on Fri.  We had another movie night. I had to work from 5 am to 2 pm Sat.  Hubby and C. met me for “breakfast” that morning because my “lunch” hour was at 10 am. She was going to go home that day, but waited until I got off work so we could visit a little longer. I got to see the boys again and I took their picture.                     

Isn’t that a great picture! The tall one is going to be 17 next month! I can’t believe it.  We should have all the children and grandchildren here for Christmas. I’m really looking forward to that!

The sweater I started last week got frogged this week. I knew it wouldn’t fit if I left it the way it was. It took me a while to get it all ripped out, but then I stayed up until 2 am knitting it back again. I got it almost to where it was before I discovered my mistake.

Then something usual happened. I came across a pattern for a prayer shawl, realized I had the yarn for it, and put the sweater aside to start on the shawl. (I said it was something usual!) I knit on it every chance I had in between cleaning house, (well, I really didn’t clean house that much), baking pies, and fixing a turkey dinner. Then there was two movie nights in front of the tv which was the ideal time to knit. Anyway I got it finished and it turned out very pretty.

Back to the sweater again. I’ll probably knit on it till something else crosses my mind. Knowing me, it won’t be long. I got some more books from Annie’s Attic this week.

The four little white books at the bottom are books on Amigurumi. It’s a Japanese word meaning “knitted doll”.  All of these little “dolls” are crocheted however. Aren’t they the cutest things?! I’ve been iching to start them, but I want to work on them until I burn myself out on them. So I’m waiting to start on them until after Christmas.

I’ve got to get in the mood to start thinking Christmas now! It will be here before we know it. We actually had some snow on the ground Sat. morning when I left for work. Of course it was all melted and gone by the time I got off. The snow almost made it feel like Christmas to me, though. I wish it would have hung around a little longer. I think I’ll go play some Christmas music! Till next week. . . . . . keep those fingers busy!

Week 45

The weeks are getting busier and busier.  We’ve had a lot of birthdays this week. With so many birthdays right together, we used to have a big party for everyone. They would gather here at our house and have cake, ice cream, gifts, and a lot of laughter and good times. Not any more however. Two of the  grandsons live here, two in Jeff City, and two in K.C. It’s hard to get everyone together now.  I miss those ‘good ‘o days.’

We made a quick trip to K.C. this week to celebrate one of the birthdays.  Our next to youngest turned four. He’s getting to be quite a personality. Some of the cutest things come out of his mouth! The d-i-l cooked a beef roast for supper with potatoes and carrots. It was really very good! The meat almost melted in your mouth, it was so tender. We brought a little birthday cake, and the birthday boy liked it too, especially the icing!

He’s really into cars and trains — anything with wheels. We got him a car mat with roads and a race track.

 

He liked it, but I knew he would because Mom and Dad told me what to get. (Who knows their children better than parents,  at least while they’re little, right?!)

 Little brother will have a birthday next month. He’ll be one!

 

I couldn’t resist this pose! I think he likes to get his pix taken.

The next birthday was daughter C’s. She lives in Jeff City now, so I had to mail her gift. I gave her the stuffed cat made from an old quilt that she saw at the Ark. craft fairs we went to last month. I bought it right in front of her after I asked her which one she liked the best. I didn’t say anything to her about it being for her. I just bought it, put in in my bag, and we carried on. Then when we got home, I made a big deal out of hiding it from her when I was showing hubby what all I got. I knew she knew it was for her, but she never said anything. After I sent it to her, she wrote me back and said, “I knew that was for me!” I thought that was funny.

Over the weekend was two more birthdays.

 

Grandson #2 was born on his dad’s birthday. We didn’t have a party with them, but we run by their house after I got off work to see them and take gifts. The teen boys are getting easy to give gifts to. Just think MONEY or GIFT CARDS  and you can’t go wrong. So I bought a wallet, stuffed it with money, added a hugh chocolate bar and wham, instant gift!

The son-i-l was just as easy. We just gave him a card, but I’d bought him a gift certificate to be sent to his e-mail address from one of his favorite web sites. I sent it to the address I had for him, but it turned out to be his work. So he won’t get it till he goes back to work on Mon.  Oops!

This is Hubby and me with the birthday boy. He’s almost as tall as we are!

Here’s the rest of the family. Aren’t they a handsome bunch!

I have to mention something else that happened this week. Grandson #3 is learning to play the saxophone. That’s him in the pic above. He’s the one in the dark shirt. He tried out to be in the jazz band at his school and made it. Then he tried out to be in the Honors Band and not only made it, but made  first chair!  He was competing with other kids in all the schools here in the city! You can read all about it at Daughter’s blog.  I didn’t get to go to the concert, but I watched the movie that Mom took of him. I was soooo proud of him! He really is a natural, though. He gets him musical talent from his dad. You can hear some of Dad’s music here.

One thing that happened this week wasn’t so good. Hubby got a really high fever this week and we had to make a trip to the hospital. Come to find out, he had developed a urinary tract infection. Men don’t usually get those, but he sure did. They put him on antibiotics, so he’s a lot better now. He was pretty sick for a few days.

I did some knitting this week. I started a sweater and had the back almost done when I discovered that I didn’t cast on the  extra stitches after the bottom trim. I couldn’t believe that I did that!! I’ll have to frog it, or finish it a size smaller. That’ll be a LOT of frogging!  I really like that yarn and I wanted the sweater for myself. It won’t fit now, though, unless I add the extra stitches.  So I’ve put it aside for now. Maybe after a few days, my head will clear and I’ll be able to make a reasonable judgement on what to do with it.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Our plans aren’t really big, but we will have part of our family here for a dinner, so I’m looking forward to that. I wish I didn’t have to work the day after Thanksgiving but, in retail, that’s not going to happen!

Meet me back here next week to hear about our holiday. In the meantime, everyone have a great Thanksgiving, and don’t forget what the day is for — to be thankful. We all have something to be thankful for even if we think we don’t. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Week 44

Number One daughter had a birthday this week. I can’t believe we have a child who’s 42 years old! It doesn’t seem like I should be that old, let alone my child. She doesn’t look old at all. . . . . Isn’t she pretty!

 I don’t think I ever looked that good, even when I was young. We gave her the snowman picture as part of her gift. She saw it at a craft fair we went to a few weeks ago and acted like she really liked it. So I got it for her! She likes snowmen.

Dad and I took her out for lunch the day before her birthday. I was going to have to work on her birthday and I knew her family would take her out to eat, so the day before was the only time we would get to see her.

We picked her up at her house and she showed us all the changes that she and her hubby were doing to their house. They have new carpet, furniture, and a freshly painted bathroom with new art hanging on the walls. The color isn’t something I would have used, but we all have our own tastes. As soon as I saw it, (and got past the color issue) I thought that it needed something. It looked too… “thick” to me. The walls are textured — a project her hubby did several years ago. I’ve always liked the textured walls. But for some reason they just didn’t look “finished” with that “thick”  mustard color on them. Something wasn’t “right” to me.

Later that evening I was thumbing through a magazine, and suddenly I saw a picture of what I knew was in the back of my mind but just couldn’t “see” it in my mind’s eye. What the walls need is a randomly sponged-on effect with a lighter color. It would bring out the texture again, lighten up the walls, and add the depth to it so it wouldn’t seem so “thick”. All they would have to do is add some white to the remaining mustard color and sponge lightly and randomly all over the walls. Oooh, I think that would be soooo pretty! Should I tell her about my idea?

I had a fun day with some friends of mine from K.C. They came down to spend the day with me. We had lunch at the Olive Garden then went shopping at the Mall. We went to Macy’s first. They spent a lot of money and I enjoyed watching them spend it. We tried on hats, sprayed ourselves with perfume, tried on clothes and shoes, and kidded each other all afternoon. It was really a fun day! They dropped me off at my house at 6:00 and still had the long drive back to K.C. They’re already talking about another trip down next month to pick me up and all of us head to Branson to do some Christmas shopping. I told them I’m game! They’re fun to be with. . . . they make me laugh and I feel like a teenager again.

I had the motivation to finish up several UFO’s when I had to get my act together for the craft fair I was in last weekend. A kick in the ol’ butt, you know. It felt good to get some of them done and out of the way. After the show I finished another pair of socks that somehow was becoming one of those dreaded UFO’s.

As I was just finishing them up, Hubby asked me to make him a pair of socks that had the heel in them. (The socks that I’ve always  made him before were tube socks with no heel.) He hasn’t asked me very many times to make something for him, so I felt proud that he thought enough about my talent to request something. I found the yarn, (“something plain and dark”) and got this pair of socks made for him. He wore them the very next day!

I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a lot of birthdays along with the holidays the last two months of this year. (Oh my, I just realized what I just wrote — only two months to go in this year!) Two grandsons’, two daughters’ and a son-in-law’s birthdays this month besides Thanksgiving. Then a son’s, two grandsons’, a m-i-l and a sister’s birthdays besides Christmas next month! Yes, it’s going to be a busy two months for sure. To be continued next week. . . . . . .  

Week 43

I had a blast over the weekend! I was in a craft fair at one of our local churches.

It wasn’t a really big one, but a lot of people came to it. I even saw my sister and some friends I work with. As you can see, I had a lot of my crafts in the sale. Actually, I was disappointed that Daughter C. didn’t bring some of her crafts to help fill up the space. But as it turned out, I had a lot more crafts than I thought I had! I filled up my booth-space just fine!

I had a LOT of comments on my candy babies which you can see in the above picture. They are crocheted with stuffed heads and mesh bodies. I fill the bodies with candy and tie the arms and legs shut with ribbon. Just about everyone had to comment on them, but I didn’t even sell one! I took them to work to pass out, and they were gone in two minutes! Aren’t people funny?!?

This view shows the little shelf that I had all the fall items on. Didn’t it make a nice display? I didn’t sell too much off of it though. I sold the pumpkin and some placemats and one other little item. That’s about it. See the rack with all the afghans on it? I sold three of my baby afghans and one of the little pink blankets with the crocheted trim. One of the baby afghans I had just finished the night before the sale!

See the “Christmas” tree? Hubby made that and the one in the previous pic. I LOVE them! I can hang a LOT of ornaments on those trees! Just about everyone that stopped at my booth bought an ornament. A dollar is just a dollar but when you keep adding them to the jar, you’re rich before you realize it! I sold a lot of one dollar ornaments! In fact, I made more money at this craft sale than I’ve ever made at all the other ones I’ve been in. Not that I’ve been in that many, but over the years, I’ve been in several.

The main thing is that it was fun — a lot of work — but fun!  I enjoyed meeting the people and hearing all the oohs and ahhs over my work. The other craft vendors were soooo friendly, (but I’ve never met any that weren’t.) I’ve already signed up for next year! Now let me see . . . . . . . what were the most popular crafts . . . .?

Well, I’ve got some ideas going through my head! I’d better get to work. See ya next week and happy crafting!