Grrrrr!

Not having a digital camera is really starting to frustrate me. Bad. I've made so many things in the last couple of weeks that I would LOVE to show off, but I can't! I would LOVE to put a little collage here of all the yellow, pink, and green things I made for the April/May Project Spectrum color triad, but I can't. And the Munchkins are looking so cute these days, but I can't show them off, either. Grrrrr. It may be a while before regular pictures are seen around here again, because things are tight, baby, but I have a couple of ideas to spice this little old blog up. Maybe. Just maybe.

I NEED To Be Crafty

Have you ever sat down at the end of a long, curve-ball throwing, stressful day and just wanted to make something? That's how I feel right now. This day has seemed to be the day that just wouldn't quit throwing punches. Now that the Munchkins are in bed sleeping, I should probably do the same. But all I really want to do is sit down and crochet something, or get out the sewing machine.

I don't know if it's the same for everyone (it is for some), but being crafty is super therapeutic for me. Working even just a few stitches of an afghan at the end of the evening makes me feel like I did something productive, even if I ran circles around myself for the rest of the day. And today, I definitely "chased my own tail" quite a bit. So I'm off to work on the Fire Blanket. It's almost done, too. Big difference from when I first posted about it. Maybe I can make some real progress, and that will clear my mind so that I can sleep tonight instead of stressing, tossing, and turning.

Do the rest of you do this too, or is it just me? Do you turn to your crafty projects at the end of the day for de-stressing? I know that I can't possibly be the only one. Tell me what you do at the end of the day to de-stress, I want to hear what everyone else thinks.

Mission Accomplished!

My seven blankies for Cyrano's Creature Comforts Drive are finally done. Finished, washed, dried, packed up in a box, and ready to ship to Holly in California first thing Tuesday morning. I'm so excited to be done, but kind of sad that the drive is over, too. Is that weird? I can't wait for Holly to open up the box.

*Edited to add* I did take pictures of everything, but they are on a disposable camera (stupid broken digital cameras!). As soon as I get the film back I will scan everything and there will be more pictures than you'll be able to stand.

Something to Share

I've really been getting back into my sewing, so I've been checking out a lot of sewing sites and blogs. While I've been browsing, I came across this cool site: craftideas.info. Be sure to check out the fabric and sewing section, there are lots of great ideas! Just thought I would pass this one along.

Working Against a (Sort-of) Deadline

I've spent all of my evening since the Munchkins were tucked in working on my sixth (!) blanket for CCCD. It's a 36 x 36 sewn blankie with double quilt batting, made from heavy fabric. It will be so warm! I didn't quite finish it up, cuz I'm tired, and it's about time for bed. I'll go back to it tomorrow.

I'm really excited that I passed my blankie goal. I wanted to make 5 to send out to Holly, and now I'm working on my sixth! Yay! I'm going to have to stop soon, or else I'll be paying out the rear for express quickie shipping to California. They will have to go out soon.

I wonder which charity project I will take on next now that this one is almost over?

A Picture!

No new camera yet, but I plan on buying one in the next week or so as a late Mother's Day/early birthday present for myself. The camera phone pics thingie didn't work out either. So all I have to show is the last pic I got out of my old crappy camera. It's the first blankie I finished for CCCD, and I hate to part with it, but it will soon be on it's way to California.

I may be biased, but I think it's gorgeous. It was cheap to make, too. Under 3 rolls of SuperSaver, so that's less than seven bucks! I've finished 4 more blankies (3 of them crocheted, 1 sewn), but I don't know if I will have the camera in time to take pics of those before I absolutely have to send them off. Fingers crossed!

No Pics=Boring

I hate writing posts without pictures. Really, I do. That's probably the main reason that I haven't been blogging much lately. See, when I finally got batteries for the camera, I managed to get two decent pictures out of it, and then it konked out all together. So, no more camera for now. But I may have found a way to transfer my camera phone pictures to the Internet, so hopefully the pictures will be back soon. (I wanted a new digital camera, anyway.)

As for the two pictures that I did get before the camera crapped out, they're up on my Flikr account. There is blog post coming about those soon, very soon.

Even though I have no real proof to back this up, I can say that I have been VERY crafty lately. I reconstructed some of my old clothes, and I'm cranking out blankies for CCCD. The deadline is less than a month away, y'all. I can't wait to show you all this stuff, I've got to go figure out this cell phone/web pictures thingie.

Good News and Bad News

Ok, here's the bad news first: I lost the batteries I bought for the camera, so still no pictures (I'm always doing silly things like that!).

The good news: I finally finished my first pet blankie to send to Cyrano's Creature Comforts Drive. I still have another that is almost done, and one that is about half-way. The deadline is only a little more than a month away, so I have to get moving to reach my personal goal of five blankets. I want to squeeze in a couple of toys if possible, too.

I promise that as soon as I find those batteries (or buy more) I will take pics of all these unseen projects. No matter how bad the lighting is. Really, I mean it.

Foiled Again!

Today I was going to post a pic of my favorite of the five projects. It's beautiful and sunny outside, and the lighting in my upstairs bedroom was perfect. So I ran downstairs, grabbed the camera, turned it on, and......
the battery light flashed snidely at me and the camera shut off. No battery power. Well, crap.

It's Sort of an Obsession

I've spent a lot of time lately hiding behind a crochet project, drowning my sorrows (!) (he, he) in thousands of tiny stitches. Hiding in stitches gives you lots of time to think, and I've been thinking quite a bit about my habits as a crocheter. For instance, my secret love of Red Heart Super Saver yarn.

In my last post I mentioned that I was working on five different crocheted and knitted projects. All five are made primarily from Red Heart yarn, and four of those are made from SS. One is Red Heart Baby Clouds.

I know that there are lots of yarn snobs out there, knitters and crocheters who wouldn't dream of making something with a cheap acrylic yarn like Red Heart. I, however, am the complete opposite. I love Super Saver so much for those exact reasons. It's cheap, it's acrylic so I can throw it in the washer and dryer, there are a ton of colors, it's easily available. I don't have a lot of money to spend on yarn, people. I wish that I could buy fancy-schmancy yarn from fabulous yarn stores and web sites, but the truth is, I just can't afford it. I have to put clothes on the Munchkins' back, you know. So until I win the lottery or land some sort of dream job, I am perfectly happy playing with the gazillion color combos I can make with good old Super Saver.

I know I'm starting to sound like one hell of an advertisement. But I'm not getting paid, I'm not getting free yarn (although that would be great). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've come to the conclusion that Red Heart Super Saver is kinda like my own super-cheap therapy. I hide behind my little RHSS stitches and ignore all the things I don't want to deal with. I can waste hours at a time picking out different color combinations from the gigantic bin of SS stashed in my closet. Maybe it's not the best way to go about things, but it's working for me right now.

OK, that's the end of my free love for the Red Heart company. I promise that when I have good light, I will take more pics of all these projects I've been hiding behind.

Dang It!

I seem to have developed a major case of crafty startitis (again). I currently have 5 projects in constant rotation, and so many more on the sidelines. Yet I keep finding more things that I want to make! Shoot.

More on one of my current projects tomorrow.

On Today's Agenda

- The Boyfriend pillow

- The Fire blanket

- SO MUCH cleaning!

Anything to Please the Munchkins

If Munchkin #1 ever comes across this Spiderman blanket, I am in BIG BIG trouble. She knows everything there is to know about Spiderman that there is to know, and she's only 4! If she sees the pic of that blanket she will know exactly what it is and probably demand her own Spidey blankie on the spot.

Oops, I think it's too late. I just added the Spiderman blankie to my list of to-dos for Christmas. It never hurts to start early, right?

(Link via Craft: Magazine)

Been Up To......

This is what I've been working on all week:



This is what I did last night:



This is what I made today:

I modified a pattern for a headband that I found at Happy Yellow House. I omitted the border and did six less rows overall to make it fit properly, and it's soft and comfy. Been wearing the headband since I finished it, before the kids came home from school. Quick, easy, and cute!

March UFO Challenge

OK, I'll admit it. I never even chose a project for the UFO challenge for March. What can I say, it was a hell of a month and the challenge was honestly the farthest thing from my mind. So I offer up a little something I did do, that I'm counting for this month just because I can.

I spent a lot of time this month hiding in my closet with my stash. While I was there, I actually tidied up a bit. I took a bunch of tangled-up yarn and half-started projects and rolled them up into pretty little balls of yarn. Much easier to go through now. The pic represents only a small portion of the untangling and organizing that I have started. I'm sad to say that the whole process is not over, but has only just begun. (I'm still counting it for the March challenge, though. I'm just saying.)

1200 HDCs

1200 perfect little HDCs=The start of something beautiful.

Still At It

I'm still chug, chug, chugging along over here.

I have this friend who likes to watch me crochet. Whenever I pick up my hook around him, I'll catch him staring intently at my hands. We always laugh about it, and he says that he's just amazed at the way my hands "fly". I love it when he watches me crochet, it makes me feel interesting.

Hello Again

I apologize for my absence over the last couple of weeks. Things here at Chez Busy have been rather, well, chaotic over the last little while. Chaotic, painful, and difficult. There are a lot of things that have been going on that I just don't feel ready to talk about here, not right now. There have been several injuries, including a shoulder infection that prevented me from crafting at all. Most recent is a wicked eye injurie. I have been trudging through the best I can, and thinking of y'all even though I haven't really spent any time with my computer at all.

I am happy to report that I finished the baby socks in time for my February UFO project, and there are pics to prove it, I'm just not up to messing with them right now. And I'm also working on some other stuff now. I'm going to try to update here again soon, and I miss you all. I will be back.

Lovin' the Little Things

Finally, a progress picture of the log cabin blanket. It's coming along well, although it's starting to feel a little slow now that it's getting bigger. I've set it aside in favor of working on a couple of other things. I will have to come back to it soon, though, because I'm not sure of the final date for Cyrano's Creature Comforts Drive.

I know that most people say that ripping out an old project is strangely liberating, but I would have to say that I didn't feel much of anything while sending these socks to the frog pond. I just didn't like them anymore. I'm really feeling these baby socks, though. I like the stripes better in small scale. This is the third or fourth pair I've made with Moda Dea Sassy Stripes, and I think the yarn is well-suited to the pattern. I've loved every pair.

I'm off to work on the baby socks now so that I can have them done by tomorrow. I will not default, I will not default, I will not default.

UFO Update

Remember these?



They are my new UFO challenge project for February. Let's face it, the Boyfriend pillow is not going to be done in the next two days. I don't want to default on the challenge, so I'm switching to these socks. I'm not really going to finish them, either, I'm going to rip them out. And make cute little baby socks out of them. I know I can finish those by the 28th. My friend is due in a very short time, and I want to get something done before the baby arrives. I'm not really in love with these socks anymore, so rippit, rippit it is! I probably wouldn't have finished them, anyway.

I have to mention a big Happy Birthday to my Daddy. My sister took us all out for a very nice lunch, and I was able to stop by JoAnn's and get the part for the sewing machine. Yay, bonus! Anyway, my dad says that he's 39 and holding this year. We got a big kick out of that over lunch. Sure, Dad. We all believe you. Age is really just a number, anyway. We love you no matter how old you are!