Saturday, February 27, 2010

Week 9 - Snowflake Saturday

Rather frustrated in the snowflake search this week.  Seems I keep finding links to patterns that are no longer available or the link is broken.  Many of the broken links are due to places like Hometown no longer hosting blogs!  Shame on them for just dumping all of those good patterns into cyber wasteland!  I, of course, am to impatient to visit the Way Back machine (AKA the internet archive) to see if some of the patterns I was searching for may have been archived.  Those that I did find, like 4 patterns being offered on Martha Stewart's site, just weren't appealing to me.  I prefer patterns where the design is the showpiece and not the blocking as that is my least favorite part.  Besides, if the blocking makes the design then if someone washes the snowflake and they aren't familiar with blocking, they lose the beauty!

After much searching, I came across this Crochet Snowflake Ornament, which is admittedly simplistic, but I am tired of searching today.

Love,

Friday, February 26, 2010

Bubble Jingle Teether

I am NOT going to be one of those bloggers that gives you a big list of reasons why I haven't been blogging.  Lets just leave it at "life got in the way" and move on from here.  I am back now and have returned with a new pattern to share.

I have promised my wonderful husband to start using my yarn stash and eliminate some of it before I go out to buy new yarn for new projects.  I know, what was I thinking!!  Still, a promise is a promise.  I decided to start by using up the misc. balls of yarn I have floating around.  So I gathered them all together and put them in a basket beside my chair.  I have made several baby booties and I have shared in a previous post using these, but I was aching to start designing again.  Problem was that I only had bits and pieces to design with and I didn't want something with a lot of ends to weave in and I have every weight of yarn in this basket from sock yarn to bulky.

After some time I came across a pattern for a little caterpillar that I thought was cute and it sparked something.  Next thing you know I had this pattern wrote up.  I will say it has met with Baby A's approval as it seems that every one I make finds it's way out of my basket and into her mouth.  I had hoped it would have enough texture to give an interesting mouth feel for the babies and apparently it does.  So here is the newest free Sunflower Original
 

You can download the PDF version of this on Ravelry or  by clicking above.  Hopefully this is the first of many new patterns this year!

Also, for those of you who remember from earlier this month that we were looking for a new vehicle since the truck had a major oil leak and my van was quickly becoming unsafe to drive, just want to share how God has blessed us.  This past Wednesday we bought this:
  
Our new 2004 Montana.  We have been shopping the local ad bulletin for 3 weeks now trying to find something in our price range.  Hubby wanted an AWD van due to the steep hill leading into our subdivision.  It is hard to find an AWD van.  We were supposed to drive about 1 1/2 hours from our house to look at a Sienna that day.  At the last minute God made it very apparent that the Sienna was NOT the vehicle for us (talked to the woman who owned it rather than the man and she said it had been sitting for over a year and had never been started during that time!)  So we made plans to drive and look at a truck that was 2 1/2 hours away instead.  This was on Tuesday night.  I went to bed and hubby stayed up.  He looked through the ad bulletin again and found this van listed in the wrong section (4 wheel drives rather than vans) and after looking it up realized that they were asking several thousand dollars less than the blue book value.  Wednesday morning we called hoping that we would be able to look at it that morning and God opened the door.  The gentleman had an hour and a half window that had just opened up that morning and we could check it out then. 
We really expected for there to be something wrong with it.  We discovered, however, that the man selling it was a Christian.  He buys vehicles, cleans them up and resells them in an attempt to supplement his income from the Christian School he works at so he can buy his wife her dream car.  This van had had one owner, a clean carfax report and was loaded.  Leather seats, 4 captains chairs, power everything (and it all works), dvd player, wireless headphones for the dvd player, and on and on.  Not only did we buy the van, but this gentleman has offered to take us to a dealers only auction to look for a truck for my husband as well!  God has so blessed us!  Just wanted to share with you.

Love,

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Week 8 - Snowflake Saturday

This weeks snowflake comes from Better Homes and Garden.  The instructions say to use pearl cotton, which is slightly larger than size 10 thread.  I plan to just use what I have, the size 10 thread, since I am not big on buying new stuff to complete such a small project.  Hope you like it!

Love,

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Week 7 - Snowflake Saturday

Being the day before Valentines day, I went searching for a snowflake with a heart.  It was a lot harder for me to find than I thought it would be.  Perhaps I should work on one for next year?  So I leave you with the only one I came across, from Snowcatcher again - Be Still My Heart. I like how the open sections look like hearts!

Love,

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Last minute valentines

I was really good this year about buying valentines for the kids to fill out and hand out to their friends, but I haven't yet bought or made anything for them!!  So now I am scrambling for some quick last minute things that I can make for them to go with their traditional box of chocolates.  Thought I would share them with you

a cute paperclip crochet heart bookmark

polymer clay heart beads that you can string onto a necklace

my own heart crochet bookmark

a Valentine centerpiece


and this one is a bit late to make this year but I REALLY want to make one for next year!  Might make a couple to use on the church doors.  A fabric rose heart wreath
Love,

Monday, February 8, 2010

MIA

I know, I know, I haven't been posting like I should.  I have missed some Snowflake Saturday posts and I really haven't been posting at all lately.  We were having some crisis situations with my oldest, K, and a lot of my attention was focused on that.  I really don't know how I am going to survive the teen years times 4!  The situation with K is more complicated in that her birth father, who has been absent most of her life, has recently decided that he wants to get to know her.

Problem is that I am dealing with some bitterness issues over that.  For me he took the easy way out and went and lived his life, usually not paying even the small amount of court ordered child support.  He unfortunately abused drugs during that time as well.  In the meantime, my husband stepped up when K was only 6 months old and took on the role of father for her.  We were married when she was 18 months old and he has been there for her through everything.  While I don't want to keep the birth father from knowing her, I am upset that he can legally waltz back in for the last 4 years of her life and have the same rights as someone who had been involved the entire time.  There is a reason that God tells us to reserve physical intimacy for marriage! 

So we have been in and out of court over this since he has violated the visitation agreement twice now.  Hopefully this is the last time.  It puts a lot of additional stress and hardship on K in addition to the normal teenage problems. 

We also have 1 vehicle completely out of commission due to a major oil leak, and the second vehicle is not mechanically sound either.  Fortunately a dear friend has loaned us a vehicle to use until we can get one fixed and a new one purchased. 

Add to that that S has worked 13 hour shifts M-F for the past 2 weeks and has spent the time he is home sleeping.  (remember, he works nights so that means sleeping during the day when everyone else is up and moving about the house).  Baby A, who had almost been broken of her pacifier is once again hooked on it.  I am not looking forward to trying to get her back to only having it when sleeping again. 

It has really been a crazy ride lately.  I trust that God will bring us through this though and that He will work it out for the best for all involved.  Me being the control type person I am though, I have a hard time sitting and watching and not knowing how it will end up.  Trust has always been an issue for me.

So i promise to try and get back to designing some patterns.  Currently I am trying to use up my odds and ends yarn stash.  That means lots of little projects and a scrap baby afghan are in the works.  It isn't until those are gone that I will allow myself to pull out full skeins from my stash. 

Just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten or abandoned the blog, just been really busy!

Love,

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Week 6 - Snowflake Saturday

I got lost searching for this weeks pattern!  I fell into Snowcatcher's Snowflake Monday posts and just browsed and browsed and browsed.  She has so many beautiful, free patterns on her site.  So rather than just chose one, I am posting the link to her Snowflake Monday patterns for you to chose your own!
Love,