Spring has sprung!!

I know a lot you are still under snow but here in Texas the flowers are starting to bloom and they are so pretty. In my yard I have a couple of Daffodils coming up, one's that actually did not bloom last year but I cut down a couple of shadowy dying trees so now the flowers are seeing new light, literally.

The turtles were taking full advantage of the warm sun too. I just think it's so cool how they line up, nearly on top of each other, to sunbathe.

My last nature picture is a quintisential Texas picture...well, one of them anyway. Vultures in a dead tree. I thought it was cool, even though they are likely one of the ugliest creatures I've ever seen in life!!

On a design note, here is a closeup of something I've just finished. I like the colors of it. What do you think?

31 hours until my mom lands at DFW airport. I can't wait to see her! "Miss ya mom!"

Save Friday Night Lights

I don't do this often...or ever as a matter of fact but SAVE FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS!! Sign the petition to save the show. It's the only show my husband really loves!!! So click on the picture and sign a petition to save it!!

It all starts somewhere.....

Well, I was looking at the patterns on Crochet Pattern Central at the 12" squares and lo and behold...there was mine! Ok, maybe to others it's not a big deal, but to me, it's certainly a start. I'm very proud to be on there......so thank you CPC, for adding mine to the other great patterns on your site!

In other news, I"m counting down the days until my mother gets here....6 days and counting. I can't wait.

My cat had 6 kittens yesterday too but one was still born. That was sad. The others are doing very well and, of course, so cute!

I got my copy of C&C's Wrapped in Soft, in which I crocheted the Ribs and Scallops Cardi for TheCrochetDude. It looks awesome and I'm thrilled about it.

I've been working hard trying to come up with new things to design. My son says I'm a bit OCD when it comes to things and that it's like I get obsessed with the things. Well, I don't know about being obsessed but I do know I put my whole heart into whatever I do and I hope that will help it pay off in the long run.

Have a bright day everyone and thanks for stopping by!!

Nothing like it.....

First, you hear the beep of the UPS lady (I have a lady, not a UPS guy). You go out and get a box. Bring it in the house. Kids yelling 'ooo what is it? what is it?'. Me yelling...'it's mine, go away'. I open the box and what do I see? YARN!! Ahhhhhhh, there's just nothing like it, is there?

I bought some cotton yarns NY Cotton and TLC Cotton Plus because I have some ideas floating around in my head that I NEED to get swatches for. And the RH Soft for something else I have in mind. I got them all from Knitting-Warehouse.com. I just love them!!

After reading The Crochet Dude's blog this morning and he was singing the praises of the 365 Crochet Stitches a Year: Perpetual Calendar

It is a great place to get ideas for new things, and the awesome catalog of stitches is .... is....well, it's awesome!! I have it littered with bright pink sticky-notes with all kinds of new ideas floating around in my head. Hmm, I'm guessing they want out because floating around in my head can't possibly be a safe place to be...yikes!

On a very happy note....my mother called me yesterday to tell me that she is going to come down for a visit, by plane, on her own, and stay for a week. Now, this may not seem like that big a deal, but 1. keep in mind that my mother has never flown, and 2. and an ever bigger deal, is that mom has never been away from my dad for this long in over 40 years. Dad can't get away from work but mom is missing us (we miss her big time too) so much because they weren't here for Christmas because of her hip replacement surgery. She is arriving on Feb 26th, which happens to be her birthday. I can't wait. I really need some mommy time!!

Watch out! The flood gates have opened!!

Have you ever noticed that we get stuck in a rut and just do things the same way over and over again? I'm no different. That is until recently, when I decided to try my hand at designing instead of just crocheting. Someone recently said to me "once you have released the damn of creativity you'll have so many ideas flowing" and he was right....I'm amazed.

I've had ideas pouring out of me. I'm even surprising myself....which is a good thing. My biggest concern is that I don't accidentally duplicate something...that would be heart breaking.

I also just made my very first square pattern. I'm going to put it on my 'free patterns' page, which I've made but not put anything on yet. Stay tuned though.....

Ok, I have to get back to work. Time to turn my brain on and see what I can come up with. What a scary thought!!

The pinky toe wins!!

I have tossed thoughts around for a while now about maybe possibly submitting one of my designs to a publication but of course had absolutely no idea how to go about it so I left it on the back burner...wayyyy in the back.

Of course, the very first thing I'm proud of designing is my Apple Tea cozy and that really got me into doing things on my own. How does this work? How does that work and so on? Then the cardigan I made for Drew (TheCrochetDude) Emborsky came out. I remember how interesting it was working on it. Soooooo......

I asked Drew a few questions and told him I had recently dipped my baby toe into the designing pool. The first tip he gave me...join The Crochet Guild of America because is the hub of all things crochet. And one of the best parts of joining is their mentoring program.

To make a long story short Drew (hangonasecondwhileIsitdownandshakethemarblesinmyhead) offered to be my mentor. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? Sorry for yelling, I just can't contain my enthusiasm. I'm just so excited about it, I can't tell you!! He's already been such an amazing help to me and giving me tips that are invaluable for someone starting like I am. I mean, I admire him so much and what he's been able to accomplish and now here I am with him in my corner... wow....that's all I can is WOW!! I just hope I don't disappoint him.

I also have to give a shout out to Kathy at Crochetmania. She is the one who encouraged to start designing my own things. She always had faith in me and pushed me to do it. She knew it before I did........thanks so much Kath!!

Now...to get the rest of my foot wet.....................

Presenting: Ribs & Scallops Cardi by The Crochet Dude and crocheted by ME!!!

Here it is!! Presenting the 'Ribs and Scallops' Cardi. I crocheted this for The Crochet Dude in late summer but couldn't tell anyone because of publication rules. But now I can shout it from the rooftops!!

This was such a nice cardigan to crochet. It was made with Red Heart Soft in Seafoam Green.

The picture on the left is that actual publication photo. That is the actual sweater I made in the photo. So cool! On the right is the sweater before I mailed it off to Drew. The lighting makes the colors look different but it's the same one.

It is available for purchase at Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby and Michaels for sure....according to Drew. Or online at the Coats and Clark Website. I haven't got mine yet but you know I will have to get one of my very own!! If you see it anywhere let me know please!

Edited...picture on the dress form donated by TheCrochetDude aka Drew Emborsky. Thanks Drew.

Here is what the cover looks like.....

The sun still shines....somewhere

Another dreary day here in Texas....cloudy, rainy and cold but somehow I can still smile. Putting on a happy face is not that hard to do today. Hubby has been gone for a couple days and he's on his way home now...should be home in about 6 hours...so I'm happy about that, I actually missed him while he was gone...go figure.

Also, I talked to someone on the phone who I hadn't spoken to in .... hmmm... this might give away my age... 25 years. He was actually my grade 6 boyfriend...the man (well, a boy at the time) that I got my first kiss from. You know how girls are....that kind of thing we don't forget. We just found each other again on the internet (isn't it a wonderful thing, this thing we call the world wide web?) and have emailed for about 2 weeks and now have been able to talk on the phone. You know, through the years I've always thought of him and wondered how he was and what he was doing and, frankly, if he ever thought of me. Even though that is all irrelevant, it's makes you feel good in your heart to know that you made a difference in someone's life, whether you were trying to or not. He actually told me he thought I was brave for liking him when we were young.... while it made me go 'awww', at the same time it made me glad to know that I had made a difference in his life when he needed it. I guess it's the whole 'it's a wonderful life' thing. You just never know what you mean to people. It warms my heart.

See, I'm the type of person who will give you a second, third, twelfth chance and then be ready to give you another one. My hubby on the other hand is a 'you burn me once and I'm done' kind of person. I'm not saying he's right and I'm wrong or vice versa but I wonder about what an empty place my life would be if I had just cut people out of it the first time they crossed me. I can remember my mother telling me one time that she didn't understand where my 'feelings' came from because she nor my father are like that.....must be from one of my other lives.....lol.

Too trusting? Maybe. Do I wear my heart on my sleeve? Definitely. Do I get hurt because of it? Of course. Do I regret it? Not one bit. All I can think about is what I would be missing out on if I closed my heart away from everyone. It's just not worth it for me. If, for every time I get hurt I can feel love from someone, it's worth it. Naive? Possibly. Will I change? Not on your life!!

It's Grey's night....fingers crossed

Well, tonight's the night. Grey's Anatomy night. Thursday January 10th. Let's hope the sweaters don't end up on the cutting room floor. Wouldn't that be just the most embarrassing thing EVER!?!

Just wanted to show you something new I've made. I kinda think the sunflower is too big but I did sell it so ...... I do think I'll make one with a smaller flower though, to see how it turns out.

I'm going to be making a bunch of different cozies ..... my own cozy line..lol.

I know I'll be sitting, with the rest of my family with my eyes glued to the screen tonight when Grey's Anatomy is on. Who made it? How does it fit into the story line? Who's having a baby and why did it HAVE to be yellow?? So many questions, the will hopefully be answered tonight. Fingers crossed!!

Resolution schmesolution...

Here it is, 2008.....hard to believe.

Of course, like everyone I've been asked if I've made any resolutions for the new year. Nope, not this year. HOWEVER....

I was watching The Biggest Loser the other night, as I have for most of its 5 cycles, usually while eating a snack...and something flipped the switch. I started to cry, how sappy is that? I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired all the time and the reason for that is my weight.

As I told my husband, when I was 9 months pregnant with my son 8 years ago, actually right up to the day before I went in to be enduced, I walked 4 miles a day (1 there and 1 back twice a day) to my kids school. (BTW, my hubby and I don't have any biological children together). Now, I get all huffy and puffy walking 1/2 mile up to the dock near our home.

So that was it for me. For some reason it's there, it's clicked. I told hubby (who is diabetic and smokes) that I would love for him to do it with me but I didn't NEED him to. I've started walking the dogs every night to the dock so that's a mile (there and back). I'll walk that for about a week and then put the 'marker' farther up and so on. DH did walk with me last night but not the night before....so he's trying a little bit anyway.

It's time..........
What about you?