Tag: family

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The New Lab Puppy

It was a busy weekend here as I know it was busy at your house as well.  We had a great time at my Mom’s. My brother was down visiting and we had an incredible time working together. My mom has recently moved to a smaller home in the area. She had tons of things that all needed to find a new home and we had a great big huge sale to help her get rid of them.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and the garage was stacked with boxes of things. We all pitched in and by Saturday afternoon her garage was swept and empty. Simply an incredible afternoon was had by all. Here are a few action shots of the one thing we came home with. Kids can sure talk you into things that you were pretty sure you would never do again, like have another lab puppy in the house. They simply chew everything up for years and years.2014-10-25 13.27.31 2014-10-25 13.30.14Our daughter put a collar on her before we decided she could come home with us. Her owners were ready to give her to a new home. She just wandered up to the garage in the middle of the sale and lay down on the dog bed that was for sale. She made herself at home and slept pretty much all day. She was tired after howling under our window most of the evening on Friday. After a bath and a visit to the vet, she is now named Daisy and seems much happier. She just needs some extra food for a little while and she should be doing great. She didn’t cry too much last night but seemed to settle down pretty quickly.2014-10-26 17.43.01-1So, we are adjusting to having Daisy at home, and while one of the other dogs is a bit jealous I think things will settle down pretty quickly. I am not getting much crochet done with a new furry baby in the house that seems to need constant attention. Here is a pretty picture of her face.2014-10-26 11.56.27Daisy is very content and so are we. I hope to get back into the swing of things later this week.

talk to you later,

Karen

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Giant Crochet Blanket

I call it a giant crochet blanket but not because the blanket itself is huge but the hook and yarn are. Here is my newest ta dah! I love this blanket! It is huge, soft and dramatically striped in cream and black. The stripes run lengthwise and make a beautiful dramatic statement. It is a bit like the  huge gigantic knit blankets that are now all over the internet and Etsy. I have been dying to crochet a huge one as well. It is a work out as the yarn is heavy, the hook is huge and the bigger the blanket gets the heavier everything is.

Here is it in its beginnings. The giant hook lying next to my sewing shears.

giant crochet blanket

giant crochet blanket

Here is a photo to give you an idea of the scale of the crochet and the hook!

giant crochet blanket

 

This blanket is crocheted out of acrylic yarn and not wool roving like so many of the giant blankets. It is crocheted and not knitted. This is the first wooden hook I have ever used and I am starting to like the feeling of it. The wood warms up in your hands. The thing I didn’t like is that it is thicker than a broom handle and felt clumsy in my hand. I chose a simple pattern since I wasn’t used to working with such large scale yarn or hook. Each stripe is about 1 skein of yarn. The yarn is super soft and not itchy since it is crocheted out of any acrylic. The yarn was a bit slippery and wanted to slip off the hook. Here is the blanket in all of its glory.

giant crochet blanket giant crochet blanket giant crochet blanket

I love this giant crochet blanket! It was fun to crochet and I love trying something new. It will be for sale in the Etsy shop, soon. I am offering the ability to crochet this blanket in a variety of colors and sizes for a wonderful custom gift. It all depends on the availability of the yarn. I did have to pry this blanket out of the hands of my family as they thought it wonderful and soft.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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I’m Hyper – Procrastinating This Morning.

Today: quite frankly I am procrastinating, I am hyper – procrastinating! I’m not even sure if that is a word. According to Merriam Webster’s online dictionary this is the definition of Hyper

Full Definition of HYPER

1 :  high-strung, excitable; also :  highly excited
2 :  extremely active

and this is the definition of Procrastinating.

pro·cras·ti·nate

verb \prə-ˈkras-tə-ˌnāt, prō-\

: to be slow or late about doing something that should be done : to delay doing something until a later time because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy,

Ouch, that hurt! It is how I feel though. I am intentionally lazing around and resting. The weeks have been filled with RUN..Run… Do this and do that! I need down time, my body craves it like I used to crave quiet (when I had four little people in the house.) I have done some of the chores that were screaming for attention yesterday; laundry and some picking up. I have some unpacking to do and some dishes to do. I have yarn I bought yesterday that I can’t wait to get my hands on. I have a bunch of photography for the Etsy shops and then some Christmas gift creating to do.

hyper-procrastinating

I have tons of things that have to be done, some errands and so forth but I am being a procrastinator on purpose. I’m not thinking or planning or scheduling. I am not considering the clutter in my house. Well, yes I am but I am ignoring it willfully. I am doing something incredibly difficult for me to do; sitting. I know that I will have to jump up and go and do before long. Chores, errands,  sewing, crochet and life calls, but for this little while I am going to sit and rest. I am adding white space or margin to my life. I have not had a chance to do this since our vacation in August, or at least it feels that long ago. Do you remember when I talked about margin? I have had two cups of coffee in bed and then some poking about on the internet with no specific purpose, a little thinking about this or that, and I ordered a music book for my daughter.

hyper-procrastinating

I have been taking stock of my life. Looking at what is truly important and while I haven’t reached any conclusions I do have some renewed purpose. I think I am back on track and headed several degrees into a better direction. You remember geometry class where you learned that a degree off of the right direction would put you miles away from your destination. Life is like that as well. So I am puttering into the right direction again. The photos are from our vacation this past summer. The last time I got to sit and just be. I am ready for a bit more of that time off.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 Well, if you want to read what I wrote about Margin you can find it here: http://www.chocolatedogstudio.com/2014/02/04/margin/

PS. It is now Friday and I wrote this on Thursday. I am still procrastinating. I guess rest is what I need to do right now in between life as wife, daughter, mom and chauffeur.

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Dashing in and dashing out

These days it seems that I am just dashing in and dashing out. The days are overwhelmingly filled until the time I fall exhausted into bed. It is just for a short time and then life will sort itself out again into a more respectable and livable rhythm. I apologize for short and non existent blog postings. I have great peace and I am so thankful that it is NOT health matters, or personal tragedies that fill my time and life. So, all is well at our house and home. I leave you with these photos of some bibs that I had a chance to sew on this past Monday.

Dashing in and dashing out Dashing in and dashing out Dashing in and dashing out Dashing in and dashing out Dashing in and dashing out

My happy Autumn crocheted pumpkins.

Dashing in and dashing out

Some color inspiration for a blanket for the future. Such a beautiful aqua and orange and this would make a wonderful blanket.Dashing in and dashing out

Some lovely warm infinity scarves that I crocheted the past few nights. What are you working on these days?

Talk to you later,

Karen

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New crochet blanket

Crocheting blankets have filled my mind lately.  I found these beautiful yarns at the store and just had to put them into a new crochet blanket. Aren’t they beautiful?

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I can ‘t decide what blanket pattern to use for them. It will be stripey, I think.

I love this one by Black Sheep Wools.  It is simply a gorgeous granny stripe blanket!

It would also look beautiful as a granny square blanket made up of solid squares like this one.

I love this blanket from Littletinbird. It makes me so happy!

I love this pattern by Laurence Meriat. It is found on Ravelry. There are incredible options for crochet blankets and I can spend hours exploring each one.

 

talk to you later,.

Karen

 

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Friday DIY Gift Countdown

If you are going to create gifts for your family for Christmas it is time to start creating! Fridays for the next several weeks will include a DIY Gift Countdown. This weeks DIY gift countdown if for the guys in your life. My guys are all college age or above and I have no babies in my life, though I will include them. Here are some of my favorite ideas that use supplies I already have on hand. I will also have to buy some supplies as I am trying to personalize their gifts as much as possible.

A paracord belt!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32YAvNdYvAM

A personalized coffee cup for my guys!

http://diyopolis.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/94/

I am counting on the fact that one of my guys is too busy to read his Mom’s blog but I will be crocheting this for him for Christmas.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/doctor-who-season-16-17-crocheted-scarf

So there are a few of the guys things I will be making this year, but I am also looking at these ideas as well.

I have made these in the past and will probably whip up a few new ones for the gang this year. I am also thinking about making a couple of these for some of the family., in more masculine colors, but not reversible.

http://www.newgreenmama.com/2010/12/reversible-messenger-bag-tutorial.html

I am also going to make some of these quick fingerless gloves and add hats, without the hearts and in a more masculine color.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/178258980/crochet-fingerless-gloves-pattern-pdf

Also a couple pairs of these.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/164527383/pattern-diy-fingerless-gloves-crochet

I had better get started as time is running out and there are others in my family that I want to crochet for.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

 

 

 

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Life is Busy

It is one of THOSE weeks, when everything converges and happens at the same time! So it is incredibly overwhelming but I think I can squeeze some crochet in between all the other activities. I love busy but this is a bit much!

Here are some lovely peaceful photos from our days at the beach. 2014-08-05 19.56.36 2014-08-05 07.08.20

It rained just a bit every single day! It was wonderful to sit around and play a board game with everyone involved. There were the 7 of us and my Mom. Our oldest son and his wife joined us and it was wonderful to have everyone under one roof eating meals together.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Early Morning

Vacation was incredible. I didn’t crochet any at all over the last week. In fact, it wasn’t until yesterday that I even picked up a hook. I did work on this a couple of times over the week.

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I woke early the first morning at the beach and got in a little stitching time while everyone else was still asleep. It was incredible to watch and just to experience. I managed to finish one end of the table runner, not both. So while I didn’t finish it as much as I had planned, I did get a bit more done.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Summer Fun

I was doing my morning check up on my computer this morning and discovered this post    http://time.com/2855449/parents-kids-college-tips/   from Time. Since we are sending two kids off to college this fall, I read through it to see if there was anything I needed to do. Well, anything I needed to do besides buy him everything under the sun. It had the normal things, make sure they know how to do laundry, make sure they know how to cook some basic food, buy them something special before they head off. There were also some great suggestions about doing fun things to build memories. We are doing these things this summer and we will do more later in the year. 2014-06-15 20.47.51-2

This is a photo of the impromptu marshmallow roasting that happened yesterday. We had a good time before all the kids disappeared back inside the house. We hope to take a vacation later this summer and also do some more spontaneous fun things this summer as well. I really have to plan the fun or it doesn’t happen.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Cleaning up

You know how you start to look for an important piece of paper and it isn’t to be found, ANYWHERE. I have had that problem three times in the last four months. I have been been putting off working on our files since we moved to Iowa. There is so much that we just dumped in a drawer or cabinet when we moved back. I have been letting things like filing and organizing slide around here. I am an artist/packrat type person, my husband is the Engineer/keep it we might need it one day person, and together we have children that are a wonderful combination of our two personalities. We have been drowning in clutter. I would really like to say that I had planned organizing today several weeks ago and as it came up on my planner I got right to work. HA! Really, I am procrastinating doing something else.

Here is the before photo. I hate to share it but we are real people around here.

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Umm, the toilet paper is for noses and dog ears.

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This is the top of the dining table and my drafting table height desk, which I love but I had given to hubs to use when we moved back in. We have a spare door that belongs on the laundry room door but doesn’t work when you actually have a washer and dryer in the laundry room. So, it has been stored in the house in another room and was just waiting for this use. 2014-06-13 13.55.50

Here is the door on top of the filing cabinets, which are full of paper, which is the reason I started this anyway. The other reason I started this was to do this with our common everyday papers.

http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2012/09/home-organization-101-week-4-office.html

Isn’t it beautiful! I love how organized she is. So, I set out to do something along the same lines without running to the store. I have set a challenge for myself for the year to do as much as I can without buying new organizing things. I love her color coordinated notebooks, and it would look so much more put together but, I have a busy, busy life, and I won’t get it all together and keep it together long enough to do this.

2014-06-13 12.37.12This is my take on her organization method. I also added a front piece on each binder because, and there are two of us using these, and it would help to have directions. The perfectionist in me wants to rip that label out that is cut crooked and fix it. I am NOT going to obsess about this. IF this system works then I might revamp it later and pretty it up.

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Here are some after photos of my desk and his desk. I am working on the files on his desk, so it is more cluttered than mine. I also wasn’t sure where he wanted his white board hung.2014-06-13 13.55.50

The green and red box is for paper to shred, which should open up some room in the file drawers. My Mom sent me this great link about which papers to keep and which to shred.

http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Money/Personal-Finance/Managing-Household-Records.shtml

To keep it all real, here is the photo of the table that I am still decluttering. Why does organizing always make things look worse before it looks better?

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I am excited to have a landing pad for my laptop. I am determined to spend less time on the screen and more time with my family. So, I am going to try to treat my laptop as a desktop. We are also washing the dog beds and dogs. We did sweep and mopped thoroughly. The floor had been in bad condition since it had been raining, and the dogs have had access to this room only.

Talk to you later,

Karen