Gorey ATC Swap

I swap with Swap-bot!

New swap I'm in.... it's going to be a huge, and I do mean HUGE, series. It's the Gorey Alphabet ATCs. See this link- Gorey Alphabet . It's super-cool and I'm looking forward to something a little outside the box. I'm thinking of quite a few ideas :).

Schleich Giganotosaurus give-away!

First off- NOT on my blog or by me! OK, that said- these things are so cool! I really love Schleich models. They are so detailed and nice. This dinosaur is very cool. It even comes with a little human to show the scale between the dino and the human. So, the wonderful person over at "Feisty, Frugal and Fabulous" is hosting a give-away of one of these cool models. That link takes you straight to the give-away page. To enter, just follow the directions. As you can see, this blog post is one of my additional entries :). I would love to win this for my little boy! He loves dinosaurs. What boy (or girl, in my case!) doesn't like dinosaurs?! Anyway- good luck to you, if you decide to enter!

♪ concert ♫

So, I attended another concert performed by the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra. They performed Polovtsian Dances, Violin Concerto, and Scheherazade. It was really wonderful. It was also the last concert of a very sweet lady I had the pleasure of meeting in my orchestra. We kinda hit it off. She's such a nice lady. She's moving to England. Anyway, I am honored I got to see her last concert here. AND- she gave me her tenor saxophone and I'll be getting an old flute of hers real soon. The tenor sax I plan on fixing up over time- no rush! I am *deliriously* excited. I have wanted a tenor sax forever! This is an old sax, too. I plan on shining it up, fixing it up, and playing the hell outta it! The flute doesn't work- or of I wanted to repair it, would probably be costly. So- I plan on turning it into a lamp :). My first lamp project! She didn't have it with her, but she'll give it to our friend Aaron who in turn will pass it on to me. Back to the concert- I adore Russia. I feel that in a past life, I had to have lived in Russia. Russian music is so expressive... it can be dark, scary, brutal... .or light and airy. I know that all music can be that way.... but Russian music just sort of emphasizes it. I had a great time and hope to see them perform once again!

Delicious desserts to share!

Ok bloggies- somehow today, i managed to stumble upon, but NOT using StumbleUpon, two absolutely mouth-watering dessert posts on this lady's blog. My mouth will not stop watering at the thought of these desserts!!!

The first I found is the "White Chocolate and Peppermint Covered Popcorn". It's popcorn, white chocolate, and candy canes!! How *simple* and how delicious-sounding. The original post can be found here:

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/01/07/white-chocolate-and-peppermint-covered-popcorn/.

I will post my own pictures of my process when I make it, along with any tips/advice/problems. The second one I found was also in this same lady's blog, as a link. She offers it as an alternative to the one above.... alhough, alternative? I want BOTH!

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/12/peppermint-bark-popcorn.html

I am thinking I will make both. My orchestra is ACTUALLY having a little Christmas party this year :). I'm sure it won't be extravagant, but we were told we can make and bring something.... so that I will! I also have ideas on a little Christmas gift for everyone ..... I'm SO nervous about that. I've never given a gift to 99% of the orchestra and I'm worried about their reaction :/.

Anyway- that's for another post. I hope you enjoy those recipes and look for future posts about my own experiences with them!

Friendship books

I swap with Swap-bot!


Ok, followers of The Blog... I am now into Friendship Books (or FBs, not to be confused with facebook, also FB or fb....). I joined a swap on the ever-awesome Swap-Bot for friendship books. This swap is newbie friendly, which was a relief. MOST all of the FB swaps I've came across have been for already established books. I've never made one before, so I never wanted to join any of those. I've been reading up on them and it seems like a small, quick, fun craft. I know I'll make mine decorated... but I don't require anyone decorate their pages... I understand that those are called "decos". Anyway- if anyone is interested in penpalling and fb's, please send me a message: histechnoangel at yahoo dot com. If I can remember to, I'll post some pics of the books I make. I've already received two. One was very easy to understand, beautifully done. The other is very confusing. It looks like the book is supposed to be sent back to me, instead of the person who made it. It already has my info in it! So.... I dunno what I'm supposed to do with it, since my name & address has already been put in by the person who made it. At any rate, this is still a fun new craft.

I feel kinda bad as I've completely neglected my crochet work. I've BARELY done anything. But, when we had our own place it felt like I had more freedom to do such things. I don't feel so free right now. Weird.... I can't explain why. BUT I need to get off my butt and get to getting. I have items that need to be made for gifts. I'm excited about that. My orchestra is actually having a christmas party this year. I decided, after much debate, that I will make everyone a gift. I settled on an ornament :). It will be music-themed of course. I will get something separate for the conductor and for my principal (first chair/section leader) clarinet. They are both instrumental (bwahahah) in helping me better my abilities. I want to do something special for them..... just haven't figured out what :/. If anyone reads this and has a suggestion, feel free to throw it at me.

OK I think that's everything at the moment. If I think of anything, I'll post more later! Have a great day :).

Election Day!!

Don't forget to Vote!!!

I just came back from voting, myself. I don't normally post political stuff, but I'm happy to post this. If it's not who you like, it's ok- no comments necessary. Just breathe and remember we're all able to vote for who we want! This is America!! :D Be thankful we have such freedoms as the ability to vote. Anyway- I just hope all Americans got out there and voted today.

The Shining ATC post *update with pic*

I swap with Swap-bot!

OK so I'm going to use this post for any pictures of the ATC. I will be working on it tomorrow... haven't done much on it, gotta get going!!! Come back soon for updates!

So here it is :). We were told to keep the ATC simple... make it look like something that could be used as a promo poster. So, this is what I came up with. We weren't supposed to have a lot of words, but honestly- I didn't want to just print out a picture of Jack Torrance and try to go from there. So, I typed up "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over... which if you know anything about the movie, is what Jack Torrance has been typing the whole time he was "working". I printed out the name of the movie. And then I took red acrylic paint and with a toothpick that I kinda flattened the point of, I painted (painstakingly) the words REDRUM. The girl who got it really likes it, which is the goal right? :D. Overall- I am very, very pleased with this ATC. Hope you like!

Halloween and current swaps

So- Happy (belated) Halloween, bloggies! I had a great weekend... we took our son trick or treating 3 times! The first was the mall event on Friday... I think in the future we might just skip it... we'll see. It's gotten to the point where you just kinda walk past more stores than get candy from. And- the Coach store gave out JUST a sticker. A gold one that says "coach". To KIDS for trick or treating! That was disappointing. Anyway, on Saturday we took the little man to the "Boo at the Zoo" event. It was great! We had a really nice time. Sunday, we visited friends/family and also took our son trick or treating around a neighborhood for the first time. He did VERY well! I was so proud of him. Oh, I should add that the little man was our little Hero. He went as Captain America! It was really neat- everywhere we went, on all three days, he was the ONLY Captain America! :D

OK so I have some crafts I've been working on. I finished my first ever "chunky page". These things are FUN! I thoroughly enjoyed trying to figure out how I was going to design it and all that. The theme for this first page is "Nightmares"... I chose spiders. Here's a pic of the front.


The silver beads on the right side are attached by craft wire... the beads spell out arachnophobia :). I love the spider flower. Those big spiders near the top are rubber spiders. There's a chipboard spider in the middle... some stickers... the spiderwebs are stickers as well... oh, on the bottom is some spider ribbon trim... lemme put a pic of that....


I don't know if you can see the trim on the bottom very well... but it alternates between a small squishy felt ball and a small little spider with orange eyes :). I got it at JoAnn's Fabric. It was a last-minute impulse buy, and I'm glad I did! I secured it on using some really decent fabric glue.









For the back, I kept it simple. I glued a red spidery scrapbook paper onto the back. I decided to add a glitter spider I picked up from Michael's. I like the addition of the glitter spider :). It gives it a little touch of "cute" to a "nightmare" page. I added my info and stuck a spiderweb sticker on the right side of the info.... just to add something to it.















So there is my first chunky page :). The thing I am currently working on is an ATC for Stephen King's "The Shining". I have an idea... but dunno if it will be lame. Think a mirror and "REDRUM" ....lol. We'll see! Hopefully I will remember to post pics. I realize I don't post pics of my crafts on my blog. For shame on myself!!!! I promise to attempt to include more pics of craftiness!
That's gonna be it for now... I need to get to work on the ATC!

Flaked on

So, of course I'm a member of the fantastic website, Swap-Bot. I join a few swaps here and there, so I don't get in over my head. I enjoy participating in swaps, and I put effort, thought, time and money into the swaps I make! So far, I hadn't been flaked on. Well- today I had to rate my very first 1, the lowest rating possible. It made me very angry, and sad. It was for the Song Lyric Journal swap, something I was really excited about! I chose the songs I filled my journal very carefully. Each song meant something and I explained it. I talked about things in my life. All of my hard work (I still don't know if the person received it...)... and I get absolutely nothing. AND- I find out that the host was informed of this person's flaking ahead of time. They should not have been allowed into this swap.
So, I'm just kinda sad... I had to rate my first 1 and it's not a pleasant feeling!

Looking forward to the weekend!

This weekend is going to be busy!!! Tomorrow, I'm taking my son to IHOP to get a free pancake :). I love IHOP..... my Dad runs our local one.. I used to work there (ugh lol). But I still enjoy going in and getting some good food. After that, we're going to go see Marco Rubio!!! He'll be in our area completing his last bus tour. I'm looking forward to it. Later that night- the mall's trick or treating! My son is going as Captain America...... he looks SO cute in his little costume. Saturday, we have to carve our pumpkins, finally! We got them tonight and didn't have time to carve them. That night we'll be going to the zoo for "Boo at the Zoo". It's a fun event that we've taken our son to every year. Sunday, we're not sure yet. The mall is where we usually take the kiddo, but the event is tomorrow. We'll try walking him around a few houses and to see friends and family of course.
I finished my first ever chunky page. I'm in this group on Swap-Bot called The Darkness. Someone hosted a chunky page swap that's going to last several months... enough pages to create a chunky book, I guess. It's my first time and I'm loving it so far... can't wait to send my page out... and get one as well! The first page's theme was "Nightmares" .... so I went all out with spider stuff. Spiders is more of a fear, I know... but I have had spider nightmares, so it doesn't matter. I chose to do it this way and I LIKE it! The next theme is "Nightmare Before Christmas" ... that happens to be one of my FAVORITE movies of all time! I sure hope I can do a good job on this. I am participating in another Blogger swap (hi, new followers!!!) and also doing an ATC swap... the theme is REALLY cool: Stephen King's The Shining!!! I already have my inspiration for it. Hopefully it works.
Oh I forgot- I'm making a Captain America shield for my son to carry around with him. I looked everywhere for a kid sized shield and nothing! None of the costumes came with one either. So, I get to put my craftiness to work for my little boy. Crossing my fingers that I succeed and it doesn't look lame!!!

Tonight's line up includes...

I am putting on Nightmare Before Christmas. For some reason, I have never shown my son one of my favorite movies of all time?! Anyway, while that is on, I plan on working on two hats... I want to make a pumpkin hat for my son and a Jack Skellington hat for myself <3. We'll see how that goes. There's so much stuff on my to-do plate. Luckily, hats take little time!
Hope everyone is having a fun Saturday and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Kiwi's Blogger Follower Swap #2

I have joined another Blog Follower "swap" on the awesome site Swap-Bot. This is my post for my new followers to comment on. So, to my new followers from the swap... ~* Welcome!!! *~ I'm happy to have you here. Feel free to browse around :). Don't forget to leave your comments!

So what's new, you ask?

Well- we moved. It was chaos, of course. It seems that no matter how hard I try to make our moving times a smooth time, it ALWAYS turns into chaos. Our landlord turned out to be a scumbag- he withheld $170 of our deposit from us.... so that REALLY sucked.
We're adjusting to life as it is now. I really look forward to orchestra practice now. It is SO much more of a "me" time than it used to be. We are always around someone at the house and it's nice to just get away sometimes.
I haven't done much crocheting. I had 2 squares to do for my square group swaps on Ravelry. I had to make one 6" and one 12" square. The 12" was interesting because it had to be done in bulky yarn. So, I used Lion Brand's Homespun. It was my first time crocheting with it, and took a few tries to get used to it. I am going to be making a few shawls with Homespun, so I hope I won't have any future problems!
I completed the song Lyric Journal. It was a decent attempt at it. I *know* I could have done better, but with the moving date so close to the due date, I didn't put 100% into it. But, it wasn't horrible by any means. I just didn't get to decorate it as much as I wanted to. I haven't heard from the person who was supposed to receive it if they got it or not. And, apparently I won't be getting one... the person supposed to send to me hasn't logged into Swap-Bot since August 18.... a few days before the sign-up closing date for the swap. I'm pretty pissed about it... it's my first time being flaked on!
I joined a new group on Swap-Bot, called The Darkness. It is a great group! I'm going to be making a page for what's called a "chunky book". Look them up- they are pretty cool! The theme for the first page is "nightmares". Should be interesting! In that group, I also signed up on a Stephen King's The shining ATC swap. Also going to be interesting!!!
That's all I can think of for now.... hope everyone is doing good!

This is MOVING WEEKEND!

So, it's finally here... moving weekend! Im tired and sore from moving stuff all week. I'll post updates on the few crafts I've squeezed in during this chaos... but I'll do that after we move. Just wanted to say Hi to anyone that might notice!

Deliriously amazing night

So, if you don't know, Im in the local orchestra here. We have a new conductor, who is purely amazing. He has another orchestra that he is the conductor of, called the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra. I have never been to any of their concerts, and he invited me to come out and see their concert tonight. So, I went and words can't express how much of an incredible time I had! They are a vastly, hugely talented group of musicians. I felt something deep in my soul. I need to get serious about playing my instrument. I need to strive to be THAT good. Anyway, tonight was so frekaing fantastic. I sat next to the cutest, funniest elderly couple who talked my ear off, but in a good way! I had some great conversations with them. I also talked with quite a few other people around me. My friend Aaron, the conductor, is supremely talented; a conducting prodigy, an incredible talent. Watching the relationship between him and the musicians was exciting.... the music was made alive and in your face! I felt dizzy from the pure pleasure of listening to great music and watching great musicians. I honestly didn't want this night, the experience of being there, to end. I am very very much looking forward to the next concert.

Contemplative

I have been brooding a lot lately. I seem to be stuck in a constant state of turmoil. Not to say I'm unhappy... just... well, as the title states: contemplative. I used to be so sure of things. Life hasn't been easy by any means. And, it still isn't. It never will be. But, I wish I could have some things become clear for me. I'm sure everyone wants that. But what do you do when something strikes your soul with the force of a semi truck? I don't see how you can ignore being struck by a semi truck. Well, this soul annihilating semi can come at any time, in the form of anything. It's hard, damn hard, when this incident happens. It may not be noticeable, it may gradually come to light. When I stood at the crossroads many years ago, I was SO sure of the path to take. I was confident, defiant, and no "voice of reason" would sway my decisions on anything. I find myself at similar crossroads, or at least approaching them. The voices of reason are absent, but I can imagine them here and what they would say. Again, I want to be confident and defiant, but I am not. I find myself screaming and no one hears me. Or, no one chooses to hear me. I know this sounds as if I am absolutely miserable, but that's not true. On the contrary, I am actually quite happy. There are things that are happening that aren't fun or happy, but the tiny small things really affect me more so.

What I'm Up to....

So, life has been slightly crazy lately. We are preparing to move. So, packing has been a huge time taker. I hate the packing process... makes me so sad!
I have been working on some swaps that I signed up for. I just made a blue star shaped dishcloth, with a plarn center :). I am currently working on two Halloween ATCs, "Horror Icon" is the theme. I'm doing a Frankenstein card and an Edgar Allan Poe theme card.
I just had a concert tonight with my orchestra. It was a great performance and I am looking forward to tomorrow's concert!
That's all for now, have a good night!

I lost followers!

Wow! So in the past week I have noticed that 2 people have stopped following me. I mean, I know my blog isn't FANTASTICALLY interesting... but I am working on it. I feel sad now. :(

Moving Updates

So, we paid our final rent. I was a bit sad to do so. We do like it where we are at. We are settled into a comfortable way of doing things. For the first time, our son recognizes a place as his HOME, and it's this place. I'm trying to help him understand that we're moving. I know he doesn't understand. He sees me putting stuff in boxes, but I'm SURE in his 3 year old mind he isn't concerned with it. Probably thinks it's just another thing that mommy does, lol. I'm betting, though, that when it comes time for toys to be put in boxes, he might start to really wonder. Then... moving day comes- he's probably going to be a bit freaked out.
If anyone is reading this, you might be wondering- "So, have you found a place yet?" Answer: NO. I found a place that was for $525 a month and I was so excited!! A 2b/2ba townhouse out by the mall. BUT they want just over $1k for the deposit. We SOOO can't do that. PLUS- I found out from my landlord that we will get our $500 deposit back from him AFTER we have moved out. At that point, we'll walk through it with him and then hand in the keys and get our money from him. So... yeah. Pretty much have stop signs from all angles and turns!!
Anyway, the in-laws offered the extra bedroom to us, of course. It's not my favorite option, but as it's looking right now- it's our ONLY option. We have no other choice, no money to do anything with moving! But, on the bright side- we can put the $500 away, and add some money to it each month and save up a little bit. And, this is going to sound COMPLETELY selfish.... but it'd be nice to have a breather. We don't do ANYTHING! We don't go anywhere! My grandfather died in June and I couldn't go to the funeral. Maybe we can take a short little weekend trip up to Massachusetts and at least say hi to the relations up there and visit his grave. I would like to venture into leaving my son with a trusted friend and maybe trying to have a date night with Randy. I think we are *seriously* needing some time for US. As much as I used to shrug that notion off, I am very much agreeing with it now.
Ok, so I think that's pretty much it for now. I was on a packing roll and then hit a brick wall. Now, I pack sporadically. I did a little bit earlier. I need to get on that roll again, though. Alright... I'm done talking now!

~Good Night~

Carnivale

So, I finished watching season 2, the last season, of Carnivale. What a ride! What a journey! How FANTASTIC this show is! I love *everything* about it. I can NOT believe HBO canceled it after only 2 seasons... it was supposed to go for 6 seasons!! I'm all for trying to get HBO to bring it back. I read that in 2007 there was some pitch work or something. I'd like to hear if there truly is going to be more Carnivale!!

Now, I am on to Mad Men.... just got season 1.... will start watching soon!

What else am I doing, you ask?

I wanted to make a separate post for the lyric journal... I thought I would talk more about it, but I said what I needed to and that seems to be that.
So, anyway... being the craft-OBSESSED person that I am... I have several projects lined up. I am making an atc card this week with the theme of the TV show The Office. It's either going to be an ad for Schrutes Farms Beets or it will be Dwight's ID badge :).
I am also working on toooo many crochet things LOL. The thing I am dedicating my crochet time to is a Spidey'ghan for my son... http://stitchnfrog.blogspot.com/2009/07/superhero-dream-catcher-afghan.html ... I started it awhile back and I messed up somewhere on it. It curled up at all the points (it's basically like a star'ghan).... well, I was very upset because I had to frog it (unravel) all the way... completely. I put it away for awhile. I started it back up the other week and didnt pay too much attention to it. We have a lot going on here with the inevitable moving day coming up next month.. I'm being industrious and starting the packing now, so it's taking a lot of my time and energy. Anyway, one day I randomly decided to work on it and I got to the point I had reached the first time. I read and re-read the pattern several times... it did NOT make sense! The pattern's author wrote that you have to repeat rounds 7,8, and 9 for the rest of the blanket. But you have to do it in a certain way. Round 7 is a small shell, round 8 is a large shell, and round 9 is large as well BUT it's only done in single crochet and black yarn... Rounds 7 and 8 are done in double crochet and you do a few round sin blue, a few rounds in red. So she wants you to repeat those 3 rounds, but in this way: 1 small shell round, 2 large shell rounds. It didn't and still doesn't make sense to me. I even wrote it out in many different variations trying to find SOME way to make the 1 small, 2 large to work. It is hard because you ALSO have to follow her color list for the rounds. Rounds 10-13 are blue... round 14 is black. I couldn't get it to work with the repeating 7-8-9 and following the 1 small, 2 large rounds. So, I had to re-write the amount of times you do the colors to keep with the repeating 7-8-9. Instead of 10-13 being blue, 10-14 are now blue. This allows for round 10- small, 11-large, 12-large, 13-small, 14-large... round 15 would be the black and it's a large round. So, see? I managed to find a way to keep the 1 small, 2 large. And now my son's Spidey'ghan is coming along *nicely*! I made it farther than I did the first time. I can see how nice it will be :).
Now on top of the Spidey'ghan, The Office atc card, Song Lyric journal, a blue dishcloth swap (crochet/knit a blue colored dishcloth) and an atc of Penny from The Big Bang Theory..... I am going to try to make it to some Farmer's/Flea Markets that are coming up in my area. I want to make a few items to bring.. but I think I will end up with more pictures than actual physical items. I also need to start thinking about my Christmas list. I'm not making big items, but many small things. I have a great idea... at least for all the females on my list. The only big item I will be making is the Seraphina shawl.... http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/donisfuff/croshawl.html ... this shawl is AMAZING! I am making it with Lion Brand Homespun. I hope to get more skeins of Homespun so I can make a few for some people up north... not naming any names in case I show those people my blog and they read this and then know what their gift will be!!! :)
OK I think this blog post is long enough now.... I wil make a post in the evening with my day 3 entry for my song lyric journal, and I will include what the previous 2 day's posts were. I hope to make a point to make a post with what that day's entry will be every evening!
~ Have a great day! ~

Song Lyric Journal swap

I've joined a few swaps on swap-bot.com .... but the one that I am enjoying the most (probably cuz it's the only one I am working on LOL) is the Song Lyric Journal swap. We are to write the lyrics of a song that reflects our mood for the day. You don't have to write an explanation of why, but I have been. It's been very relaxing and therapeutic. I actually leave it to the end of the day so my day can go completely by and I can experience everything of that day and then decide on the song. It's my new favorite part of the day. It's been really a very fun thing to do, and I actually think I will continue this after this swap is over.

Never ending

So, theDVDs have, for the most part, been organized, cataloged, and packed. Now on to the next big(ger) hurdle: my BOOKS. Oh, I do love books. My dream (one of them) when I was little was to have Belle's library from Beauty & the Beast. I thought that was one of the MOST romantic gifts ever! Anyway... my collection is far from as large as that, but it's still a daunting task every time I want to go through it. I'm now exploring the idea of an online library cataloger. Yeah, one like I used for the DVDs (called DVD Profiler). I read a blog post on http://kimbooktu.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/catalog-your-books-online-test/ about online book catalogers. This guy test drove four different sites. I had already seen the first on the list, librarything.com .... it looks pretty good and I think I'd be willing to pay $10 for a year membership (unlimited amount of books... if you go free, you can only do 200 books). The only pother one that sounded good to the blogger and to myself is gurulib.com. So now I need to decide between those two.
But, none of that really matters right now. I'm just going to write all the names & authors of the books down on paper for right now. I expect to have a very sore hand!!

Lots of things going on

So, my last post was in July, almost a month ago. I have so much going on right now! We thought our lease was up at the end of August and I spent a lot of online time looking at rental listings. Come to find out our lease ends at the end of September... even though we moved in August 15, 2009... our lease ends September 21, 2010. Very annoying. Especially since we are so sick of dealing with the condo association's board of directors. This is a group of bored old people with nothing left in their lives and nothing better to do than to harass the people that live in this very small condo complex. They have stolen from us and they have sent so many "notice of violation" notices to us for any little thing they can think of... if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, we were sure to get a violation notice for that!! *heavy sarcasm*.
Anyway... I decided to start packing up stuff. This, I feel, is very very smart on my half. I usually wait til a week or two before moving date and then start scrambling around to find boxes and to pack said boxes. Not this time! I have a good amount of boxes and I am spending my days packing them up. First packed- the DVD collection. I debated on if I should pack the DVDs this early.. but the collection is enormous.... my count so far- 430 DVDs! That's just the ones I could FIND. ^_^ I used a cool little tool i found online called the DVD Profiler to catalog my collection. Very useful!
I haven't had much time or inclination to do any crocheting.... I stayed up for 24 hours last Friday- Saturday chugging out a bear themed set for a friend's baby shower I was going to on Saturday. I made a bear hat with blue/brown in the ears, matching blue/brown booties, and an amigurumi bear with a blue/brown ribbon tied around his neck :). It turned out quite cute and was the hit of the shower!! But after that marathon crochet run... I needed a break. I only picked up the hook to make a 12" square and a 6" square for 2 different Ravelry swap groups I'm in. I think I'll make a separate post and put up the pics of the bear theme set and the 2 squares I made.
I'm logging off for now- I am going to call around different apartments and start getting prices and scheduling walk-throughs.... yayyyyy... lol.


~ Have a great day! ~

ATTN: my new Followers from Swap-Bot!

I want to say THANK YOU for now following me :). I have been waiting til I get some followers to start posting links to free patterns and all that.... I want to maybe host a CAL at some point. I do a lot of crafts and I post about them here. Anyway, please- if you are going to comment on my blog to let me know you are from the Swap-Bot blogger swap, please do so on THIS post so I can keep track and properly rate. I will edit this post to provide links to the blogs of my partners. I hope they take this into consideration and properly rate me, as well :).

Blogs I follow from the swap-bot.com Blogger swap:

** http://wwwtrainmama.blogspot.com/
** http://cookpotstories.blogspot.com/
** http://a-peachy-life.blogspot.com/
** http://blog.milpontinhos.com.br/
** http://observationsnsuch.blogspot.com/
** http://www.betterthanaked.blogspot.com/
** http://chrissygeeswap.blogspot.com/
** http://deidre421.wordpress.com/
** http://runawaymaggiemay.blogspot.com/
** http://ps-kampiscines.blogspot.com/
** http://allbetogalore.blogspot.com/

OK! So that's all my partners. I hope everyone checks out these blogs... some FANTASTIC blogs! I am amazed by the vast differences (and even similarities!) in the lives of all these people! It was really neat reading through blogs that I most likely never would have found had it not been for the swap.
And to my new followers, again: Welcome to my Blog!

Late night post.....

So, my son woke up around 1 am and is definitely NOT going back to bed.. yayyyy. Oh well. I guess I will continue to work on some crochet. I was working on a baby blanket and took a break from it; right when I was about to pick it back up, my son woke up, lol. So, we played around for a bit. Now, he is sitting behind me playing Fat Princess on the ps3. I'm writing this and debating on if I should go work on some crochet.... and if I do, what to work on? I have quite a few WIPs. I want them all to be done. But, I have some SERIOUS crochet ADD! I start one project, see another pretty project and start that, etc and so on! I gotta finish something here! I seem to only finish things when I have a deadline. Plus, there's my Christmas list to think of. I want to make the MAJORITY of gifts given this year. I have a somewhat idea of what to do for the females on my list.... the guys though, that's another thing.
Later today will be busy. We're going to my friend's son's 3rd bday party at 1pm. My mother-in-law's bday party is apparently today as well, although my question on "what time?" was never answered... and I am going to make a trip to the hospital to visit my friend who just had a baby boy the other day. I was making the baby blanket hat I'm currently working on for her son, but it's taking a super long time and I'm nowhere near being finished. I dunno what to do with it. I *love* it though. It's very soft and it's a nice color. I guess I could attempt to sell it.
Oh, and on a random note: I made fudge earlier :). My first time making it! I had this box in my pantry for awhile and just decided to finally make it. I'm not really a fan of fudge, but it's OK in small quantities... meaning I need someone to eat that fudge, LOL. It tastes good, though. I sliced it up and added it to french vanilla ice cream and it was really tasty that way.

Ok, I think this is where I shall stop... gonna go in the living room and do... something! I might just watch TV... we'll see! Anyway, good night!

The van problems.....

... are somewhat demystified! I took the van in to be looked over today and found out a belt is shot and that's what is causing the squealing sound. We were out of power steering fluid which was causing the whining and problems with turning when we started the car in the mornings. Also, the guy plugged some gauge thing up to a tube which I guess has something to do with the a/c and it did a quick test and showed that there is a "mechanical error" with the a/c. So.... I dunno what we can do about that.
In crochet news, I continued work on the newsboy cap I started on a few days ago... but I'm not liking it so far. The picture shows it being snug and rounded on the lady's head. Mine looks flat on the top, like a beret, and it is bulky and almost like a ruffled or pleated effect in areas. Not sure what I did wrong... but it's disheartening as I really liked the look of it and I *really* wanted a newsboy hat! Oh well. I gotta chug out a few quickie gifts over the next few days. Hopefully I'll get them done in time... we'll see.
Well, taking my son to go see a free kid movie tomorrow morning. I think it's Planet 51. I don't really care to see it, but it's free and *might* entertain him. I have errands to run after that (post office, AutoZone) and then hopefully coming back home to clean up the mess from my brother being here and then getting some crochet started.
Ok... that's all for now... Over and out!

This movie was AWESOME!!! I highly recommend it! Nic Cage was fantastic in his role. I love Jay Baruchel as the reluctant hero/nerd. He was "Hiccup" in How To Train Your Dragon, one of my other favorite movies of this year. Anyway- GREAT movie... GO SEE IT! :D

Now the rest of my day.. I dunno what to do... I guess I'll get some dishes done. I hate having to hand-wash the dishes. But, the landlord won't fix our dishwasher. Oh well, we'll probably be moving. I don't think we'll be renewing our lease. Lease ends sometime in August or September... yeah, I know! That soon!

I gotta do some laundry as well. Dadoren had an accident last night. His first pee accident in a LONG time. But, I think that it's my fault. I should have woken him up when we got home last night and made him go. But I didn't think about it.

I am hoping to get some crochet time in today. It's been a few days and that's precious work time. I have a lot on my plate for crochet work and I need to continue on it!

Haven't done much crafts....

Other than weaving the ends in on the granny square baby blanket and on the 2 squares I made for swaps, I haven't done much crafts or crocheting. I want to work on my son's Spidey'ghan and I want to work on a newsboy cap for myself. I also have an American Flag afghan that's a WIP for my cousin. A photographer friend of mine asked me if I would make baby items for photo props, but we have yet to get together to work out the details. But, I'm excited about that... I might get to work with mohair yarn, which I have *NEVER* worked with yet!!
Well this is going to be a really short post. We're getting ready to go The Sorcerer's Apprentice. If we see a movie before 12noon, the tickets will only be $4 each. So all 3 of us are going :). Hopefully the movie will be as good as it looks... poor Nic Cage has had bad luck lately!!

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Oh and I want to say thank you very much to my newest follower Judahsmommy... I followed your blog back at http://judahsmommy.blogspot.com/. I see you're from the Swap-Bot blogger swap. Well, welcome!!!

New "swap" on Swap-Bot

I just joined a new "swap" on Swap-Bot. I put the word swap in "" because we aren't really swapping anything. The whole point of this is to gain more Blog followers! Yay!! We'll get assigned 10 blogs to look at and follow. I think it's great! I'll have followers soon!

I swap with Swap-bot!



*As a note to my future blog followers, WELCOME! I'm so glad to have you here. Please share my blog with others! I will really get my page rolling once I have followers. I plan on doing a free pattern of the week and maybe even hosting a CAL at some point. Thank you again for following my blog!*

As promised...

The Ninja ATC I made for a Swap-Bot ATC swap. This went with the Pirate ATC I posted about previously. This and the Pirate card were my first ATCs and I'm very proud of them :).

It's like Christmas in July!

I got SO much stuff from such wonderful strangers this month.... I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and happiness that others would be so kind. I received a package of tiny little balls of roving each in a different color so I can use it to practice spinning. I also received a big thing of.. corriedale wool, I believe? It's undyed but the wonderful sender also sent some dye tablets so I can try dyeing, too. I asked on the Ravelry RAK group if anyone had any Lion Brand Homespun they don't want and I received 3 balls from a generous person. It is called "disco" and I really love the color :D. It's purple-turquoise-black. It's really cool! It's discontinued, from what I can find online. Too bad, because it's really neat! I'm going to use it to make a shawl or something similar for my father-in-law's lady friend, who is just the sweetest lady ever. They live in Cleveland, so I want to make something she can wear to keep her warm. I'm also thinking of making my mother-in-law something, for her upcoming birthday, with the parfait colorway of Homespun. But I dunno what to make as we live in Florida....
I did my first ever ATC swap. I sent mine out yesterday. Oh that reminds me, I have to upload a pic of the Ninja ATC. I received a pirate and a ninja ATC back... funnily enough, the person I got them from lives in Vero Beach which isn't that far from me AT ALL! I'll try to take pics and upload them asap. I'm pretty bad at the pic uploading thing. Takes me forever to get them on Facebook lol.
I'm going to find my camera and upload the pic of the Ninja ATC I made. :) That will be a separate post though. I'm done with this one for now!

Pretty happy

I completed my first ever ATC! For those who do not know, an ATC is an Artist Trading Card. It's basically a small work of art (can be anything, collage, a simple picture, a word, etc).... they are the size of baseball cards, which is where the idea originated.
Anyway, I joined a swap on Swap-Bot for a Pirate vs. Ninja ATC swap. The idea is to creat one Ninja themed ATC and one Pirate themed ATC. I made the Pirate one first and it came out AWESOME! I found the little compass in the scrapbook sticker section at JoAnns. It was The "O" in the word Boston. It was a 7 piece set and I took the ship from there, too. The island is named Teach Isle.... named for Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard :). I had a lot of fun planning this out... and even MORE fun making this! I have to make a ninja one now... My printer is out of black ink though so I'll have to see if my mom's printer works when we head over there today. We're doing a late celebration with them for Randy's birthday (which was the 5th). I made a cake and I need to frost it before we go over there. Anyway, that's gonna be it for now!


I swap with Swap-bot!

What I am working on....

I'm working on a small granny square baby blanket. It's 4 squares by 4 squares... so not very big. I just finished assembling the squares and now I'm gonna do a double-crochet border of white, followed by a half-double-crochet border of the pink variegated color I used in the squares, followed by a single crochet border in white again. It should look very pretty when completed! I'll try to remember to post a pic when done. This is all I'm posting for now... I want to get this blanket done.

Good Stuff!

Today was a good day. My brother and I took my son to see Tale of Despereaux for free today. I love that movie; it's just a feel-good family movie that's really cute. After that we went to Downtown Melbourne to a book shop and a thrift store.... I'm trying to find anything that can be used to make an ATC (artist trading card). Yeah... I've decided to delve into THAT now :D. It looks like So much fun, though! Have you ever seen one? It's a small piece of art. It can be anything at all. It's up to the person making it! Anyway, I am a member of swap-bot.com and I see ATC swaps all the time and I have really wanted to join one. I got my very first ATC card in my very first swap-bot swap (Newbie swap #4). Anyway... so while browsing swaps on the site today, I saw a Pirate vs Ninja ATC swap! So I knew I had to join. And, I did. So now I have to create my very first ATC cards. One is Ninja themed and the other is Pirate themed :D. I dunno though... sometimes I wish I lived in a big city... I browsed lots of things and didn't find anything that looked like it would do well on an ATC. I can never find vintage or cool ephemera either.
Anyway, I got some stuff though... a few Rolling stones magazines... National Geographic.. some decks of cards to create the ATCs...
Oh and I got a box of fiber so I can learn how to spin it into yarn! I would like to give a shout-out (that my millions of followers will hear right lol) to spinspanspun.etsy.com for the awesome bits of fiber! Now I have plenty of little bits to mess around with while trying to get the hang of spinning.
I'm still debating on posting a free crochet pattern of the day/week. I would like to get some followers before I start posting so I know what people would like to see.... otherwise I;m just gonna post things I like, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Alright well I'm going to watch Ghost Hunters and finish working on a baby blanket I've been working on lately. Bye!

Happy Independence Day!

Oh beautiful... for spacious skies.... for amber waves of grain!
Happy Birthday, America! I am still proud to call myself an American. No greater place to be! The land of opportunities! Wellll... not so much in this economy now, but you get the idea.
My day today has been fairly dull. Well, I got a "new" coffee table. Someone on craigslist.com was offering it and I got it! For only $10, too. It needs to be sanded and re-painted.... I might try to do something very creative with it though. I have thought about decoupage, but I don't want it to look tacky. I have seen some AMAZING decoupaged furniture and I want to do something AMAZING. :)
Then.. I braved Wal-Mart... on a Sunday... on a HOLIDAY! Didn't take me too terribly long though. I needed to get stuff for my husband Randy's birthday tomorrow. I am making him a root beer cake! ^_^ He's been really guzzling down root beer lately, so I thought it'd be perfect!
Now I just need to crank out some housework... there is just PILES of crap everywhere. Not that the 3 year old helps any.... well, he tries to help clean, but he doesn't like the idea that his toys need to stay IN his room ;). I don't want to go outside to lug the trash out to the dumpster.... we live in an apartment/condo and while our dumpster isn't TOO far, it's still is not fun to walk there holding trash in 85 degree weather! And it looks like rain, too.
Oh and I promised to blog about some crochet stuff.... hmm well Im working on a granny square baby blanket. It looks really pretty so far. I'm almost done with it. Other than that.... I think I want to post links to free patterns. I find SO many patterns! I wish I had some blog followers so I could post a poll to see what kinds of patterns people would be interested in seeing right now.... oh well. I am pretty much writing to myself right now since I have no followers LOL!
Ok I am done for now... like I said, gotta get some housework done. Bye!

I'm really bad about this...

So my last post was February! OMG I am so bad about having a blog. But I keep reading all these awesome little blogs and I really want to keep up with one of my own. I doubt anyone will even read it though..... oh well- who knows, right?
So... we're watching Kolchak right now. Randy got a whole season or something... so yep... Kolchak all night long, baby! He says I have to watch it with him cuz he watches whenever I put on The Big Bang Theory for hours on end.... what can I say, it's my favorite show!
We had a long day today. We stopped off at the post office so I could mail off a letter to my swap-bot.com swap partner... nothing fancy, just a 63 questionnaire... I think I was supposed to write more than I did... I only answered each question with a sentence or 2.
Anyway, after that, we went to a friend's garage sale and got some cool stuff. I got a brand-new book called "Dragon Rider". Looks interesting and I can't wait to start reading it. I got a puzzle and a book for my son about dinosaurs... a little toy boat for him to play with in the bath and a big world map. Oh and I got a Reptar toy! Reptar is the dino from the 90's cartoon Rugrats... I *love* Reptar! I think that's all we got....
After that we stopped to eat at Steak-n-Shake. We love that place. Low prices, decent food. Plus we got coupons in the mail. My favorite is the chicken melt.. Randy loves the Frisco melt... oh and FYI- the koolaid milkshakes they have there now are REALLY weird tasting!
I needed to go to Target to pick up a birthday card for Randy (bday is this Monday). Target's card selection is GREAT! I was very disappointed by Walmart's selection. Anyway, we went there and I got the card. Randy, Dadoren and I walked around and we picked up some stuff... we went to the register, got in line... cashier is taking care of the people in front of us and all of a sudden they move to the next register- the cashier and the people! No explanation why, so we just stayed at the register; the store was PACKED with long lines and we were NEXT in this line so we didn't want to move, right? Anyway, the cashier just starts taking people at the register she moved to! Again, no explanation to us or anything. So... I am going to call Target up and talk to a manager. I hate doing that sort of thing, but this made both of us so mad we left all our items on the belt and just left.
I need to go to Big Lots to pick up some stuff, so I'm going to leave off for now. I am going to post again tonight when I get back... I have more to write about... I want to talk about my crochet projects and stuff like that. Alright, bye for now!

Been a *LONG* time...

Ok WOW.. I completely forgot about this little blog page, even though I see many Blogger pages it never dawned on me that I DO have my own, LOL! So, I'm going to write several posts... just slowly updating and all that. i don't think I have any readers or anything but you know... just in case.
I don't really know where to even start. I'll have to organize my thoughts and start with one category and go from there. So much has happened and changed since I started this blog. I should have updated it, written in it every day. Would be neat to go back and re-read. Oh well, you know what they say about hindsight. -_-
For now, I have to finish cleaning up... I *WILL* be back later!!!