Meet Tommy

This is Tommy the Turkey.  He sits at about 8 inches tall.

Legs add another 6 inches.

It took me longer than I thought possible to get his feathers situated on his fanny.

His home is on my stereo in the kitchen.  

It's fun to see him sittin' there!

He was so much fun to put together,

I think I need to make another one:)

Pumpkin Painting

Just For Fun

Balloon refrigerator magnet

This was actually harder than the pumpkins.

But it's a fun addition to our over-run fridge!

The balloon itself is 3.5 inches long and 2.5 wide.

Snowman Gift Card Ornament

I had fun with this snowman.  It's 8x5.5 inches.  I was too lazy to get up to see if I had orange felt to make the nose.  But I had the orange yarn!  So I crocheted the carrot nose.  A whole three stitches!  I also didn't want to get up to find red felt for the hat.  So I used my slip stitch trick with the red yarn.  I struggled putting the mouth on, too.  But it'll have to do.  Hand stitching just doesn't work for me, no matter how much I try:)  I might have to have Brynn do it for me.

Whale

This whale was a pattern I tried in order to see if it would be easy for the YW to make.  It's not.  It's about 3 1/2 inches long and a pain in the finger (the pointer one, not the middle one) to stuff.  But it's cute, even without fins or a mouth!   Emma thinks I should add those to it.

Just for fun!

Wanna Buy a Craft?

That's Terry's idea for the blog title.

I've decided to try and make every bookmark in my book.   Just because.  This one is supposed to be longer than it turned out.  It wasn't until I was into it quite a ways that I realized I was using the wrong size hook.  So instead of having 5 full hearts, I stopped at three.  It still ended up being about 8 inches long.   I now have the right size & will try it again!

I like how elegant this one is.

It's a "scriptures" bookmark for sure.

Kara picked out the colors for this bookmark.  It's light pink thread with hot pink ribbon.  And Amber, the bow isn't on the wrong way.  It took me DAYS to figure out what you were saying!  I'm slow, what can I say?   But the next time I make this one, I'll put the bow on the other way, just to see how it looks.  Then I'll send it to you, o.k.?  I'm taking your color request!........

On November 7th, our Relief Society is having a craft day.  I volunteered to teach crochet.  I was going to just teach how to make those hot pad/pot holders.  But when I learned the Young Women were invited, I thought they might like something a bit less "domestic" and a lot more fun.

So besides the hot pads/pot holders, I've made crochet kits for pumpkins and candy canes tree ornaments.  The pumpkins are about 3 1/2 inches (and not tree ornaments) and the candy canes are 4 inches tall.

FUN FUN!

Happy Halloween!

The squirrels are getting older.  Duh!, you say?  Let me explain.  For years, carving out pumpkins was not desirable to them (or me).  They were happy with painting and decorating their pumpkins into witches, ghosts, farmers, etc.....   Not this year.  Every one of them wanted to carve them.  Even though most of us are sick, we took the opportunity to go get some pumpkins.

It was a beautiful day yesterday!  Sunny and cool.
We set up a table outside &
Terry helped the girls cut and clean their pumpkins.

Emma conned dad into cleaning out hers.

Such an awesome dad!

YUMMMMMM!

I can hardly ever get a picture of Kara smiling!

Emma's a natural at it, though.

Livvy posed for her picture after a nice bubble bath.

So this is the only one I took, as she's fighting a fever, still.

These pictures were all taken after dark last night.

Brynn likes the scary look for her pumpkin.

MOOOWAAHHAAAHHAA!

HAPPY SCARY HALLOWEEN!!

Addicted?

O.k, so I'm not crocheting blankets right now.  But I HAVE to be doing something therapeutic.  I wanted new hot pads/pot holders for my kitchen.  They never wear out, I just wanted some different colors.  I like the sage green & yellow.  They are very refreshing.  But I like the "oatmeal" one because it makes me think "cozy, warm" when I see it.  And I do love oatmeal:)

These are curly hair bows.  Some are short & fat, like a pine cone.  Others are longer & thinner.

The girls like wearing them in their pony tails.

This is my first attempt at making a bookmark.  It's crocheted with size 10 cotton thread.  It only took a couple of hours.  This one is 9 inches long & 2 1/2 inches wide.

This lizard bookmark was simple.  It's made with baby yarn & measures 6 inches long (from tip of tail to nose) and is 2 inches wide.  The hardest part was sewing the legs and eyes (buttons) on.  

This bookmark is my favorite out of the three.  It's crocheted with the size 10 thread, like the first bookmark.  Then I wove the 1/4" ribbon down the middle.  Thanks to my mom's fine bow making lessons, I tied it & sewed it right on.  This prevents the whole ribbon from slipping as well.

This is definitely MY bookmark and currently in use in "Leven Thumps Book 3".

My girls love all of them and want them.  But for now, I'm just holding on to them.  I have a few more designs I want to try whenever I can remember to get the right size of crochet hooks from the store.

What do you think, am I addicted?

Good Reading

I am a reader.  Love to read.  About 2 months ago, the girls & I went to the poe-dunk library to check out some books.  I had a long list of books I was interested in that I'd written down over the last 6 months.  Of course, poe-dunk land is on a "delivery by donkey" rate and every book I looked up at the library was checked out.  So I did the "on hold" request for every one of them.  It was so long ago that I'd forgotten what I asked for.  Last week two of them came in.  Just in time for the holiday weekend (Columbus Day, not that it matters).

I could not put these books down!   They were suggested to me by my sister-in-law-in-law (thanks Stacia!).  From page one, I was hooked.  And because I'm not at all good about explaining what books are about, I attached a link to the author's website where you can read just a bit about them.  But even those descriptions don't do them justice.  But if you click on the titles of each book, it'll bring up critic's opinions of the book and they give you a better idea on the content.

I want to get them for my own book collection.  I could read them again & again.  Brynn is even giving The Hunger Games a try.  I can't wait for the 3rd one!!

The Hunger Games & Catching Fire (sequel to The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

I saw them at Costco today for $10.29 each!  
Gotta get 'em


http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/works.htm

What To Do? (Part 2)

Since my posting of What to Do? (Part 1), I've actually accomplished quite a bit from that list.  I now have a dining room corner that is totally "Home School" free!    I have also attacked over half of my mending pile on my sewing machine.  I'm down to just one pair of pants left.   I have been able to learn more on Kara's guitar and I've chosen a medley to learn on the piano.  Very satisfying.  Terry took pity on me and mowed the lawn yesterday.  It looks awesome!

So here's a continued list I'm working on for the next couple of weeks:

Clean out the rain gutters.  O.k., I already did this like a month ago and it only took me one hour!  It's amazing how much faster it goes when everything is dry & not yucky-smelly-wet-with-little-pine-trees-sprouting in the gutters.

Trim back the blackberry bushes.  We didn't harvest any this year.  I still have jam from last year's crop.

Rake out the leaves and weed the lane.  Never ending.

More bush trimming.

Organize clothes & pack them away!  Actually, I've added another 2 containers to this pile.  It's now 5 1/2 feet tall:)

Mt. Charity has got to GO!

My catch all pile on my dresser needs some sorting, too.

I just CAN NOT stand to sit at night with nothing to work on.  So I pulled out this Chick pattern just to see if I could actually do it.   I had fun with it!  I wouldn't even let the girls see what I was working on.  It was a mystery.

I finished sewing all of the parts (eyes, beak, wings, feet) on today.  The girls will get to see it when they get home from school.  My favorite part is the bonnet.  But maybe that's because it's my favorite color: Lime Green!

This isn't on my list.  But I had to include it because it's Terry's first attempt at a Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler.  It was so yummy!!!  He did a great job and it smelled sooooooooooooo good!

I'm thinking by the time I get everything on this list done, I'll be able to function with my spare time without concentrating really, really hard!

What To Do? (Part 1)

Now that I'm not spending every spare minute crocheting blankets, I'm finding that sometimes I am at a loss of what to do with my time.  You wouldn't think it would be hard to find something to do, but I do.  It's a change in my daily routine, which always takes me longer to adjust to than I'd like.

So to help myself overcome my paralysis, I've made a list to remind me of things I can do.

Label the home school supplies and SEND THEM BACK!!  Emma, Kara, and Livvy are all attending a different elementary school.  They are all having a much better experience with their teachers:)  I'm LOVING my 6 1/2 hours a day of freedom.

Catch up on mending clothes.  
Not my favorite thing to do, though.

Learn how to play the guitar.  Kara got this one for her birthday.  So I'm trying to learn how to play it and then teach her as I go.  So far, it's slow going.  My 12 string guitar had died and I'm debating whether or not to get another one.  All the girls enjoy learning the guitar, so we could use another one.  But I'm still going back & forth with the decision.

The backyard lawn needs a haircut.  Too bad Locks of Love doesn't accept grass!  This picture was taken 2 weeks ago.  And no, I still haven't checked this one off the list.

It's been so long since it's been mowed that the kids have worn a trail in the grass from the trampoline to the play ground.  Brynn has also informed me that there are a lot of slugs in the grass, too.  Ick.

Play the piano.  I miss just sitting and playing for enjoyment.  I've ordered a lot of new music, including duets, to learn.  I am also teaching piano lessons again.  I teach all my girls, plus 3 children in the ward.  I'm enjoying it and am still amazed that I can keep a regular after school schedule to allow the time for practicing/lessons every day.  There are even times when both pianos are being used simultaneously.  And it's not even duets being played!  It teaches the girls how to really focus on what they're doing.

Making cookies.  I'd forgotten how tasty oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough was!  Yummmmm.