Crochet Me Crazy

For all of my crochet friends, I will have little time to crochet over the next month since we are moving. I have to figure out how I'm going to organize being able to crochet once we move into the RV. I have an idea where I can keep at least a little stash of yarn in the RV!

Jeff accomplished a whole lot on the garage today. He's still out there right now working on it. Alison and I sorted and organized her scrapbooking supplies. Tomorrow, I think we'll work on her room.

Just Alison and I went to a "trunk or treat" at a local church tonight for her to get some more candy. She went as a kitty cat tonight. She just comes up with something on her own every year. We don't buy a costume or anything.



Apparently, this "trunk or treat" is a new thing that just came up this year. Never heard of it before. I like the regular fall festivals better. Good thing we went to the one last night. This one you just stand in line and they give you candy. Alison is so shy and un-agressive, she'll stand there with her bag while the other kids are shoving through. Alison did get a lot of candy though...way more than we need! That's about all we did and then came home. It was fun!


By the way...a note on the "big hair" that is funny to me...Alison was really really amazed when I got her hair so puffy! She just couldn't believe it! I thought it was so funny that she was so amazed...I told her I grew up in the 80's. You'd be surprised what you can do with your hair with a pick and a can of good stiff hair spray! LOL

Jeff had to spend most of the day fixing his truck today. At least the truck is fixed! Found out oregano oil works well if you get stung by an Asp. Jeff got stung while he was trying to fix his truck. He came in the house asking for whatever I had in my arsenal. I immediately put Oregano oil on it. The pain stopped immediately. I haven't heard another word from him about it and he didn't have any swelling or any problems with it since. We had heard an Asp sting could be pretty bad....not really sure but it seemed to work well.

We broke down and took Alison to a Fall Festival tonight. We had told her we weren't going to go this year. I really hate Halloween and wish it just go away. She's been so stressed about moving and worrying we won't have time to go to Thanksgiving at Aunt Kathy's this year, we figured she needed some decompression time and a bag full of candy! LOL She brought a friend and they got a lot of candy! Alison is a happy camper now! Michael was tortured by the whole experience! LOL

The papers are signed and we are moving unless something unforeseen comes up. We will be out of our house by the end of next month. Alison has been having some stress over moving. She's sad to move. It is a scary venture to be facing the unknown! I told her we will have a Very Camping Christmas! She wants to decorate the outside of the camper. We can even stick around here for a little while and let her have her hay ride birthday party that we always have every year. We will have a different kind of holiday season this year for sure. My main sadness is leaving my wonderful neighbors. Several families have become very dear to us and we will really miss them.

Saw my mama today. She was mostly napping when I went today. Her hand was swollen and they are going to have the doctor come see her this weekend.

Pray for us!

We are meeting with our realtor this afternoon to make a counter on the offer we received for our house. We're not willing do all they are asking so we'll see what happens.... If its meant to be, it will work out...if not, then its not the right buyer and we've got a new game plan.

We've been cleaning the garage all day and have made some good progress. Have to make a trip to the storage and get them to unlock the dumpsters so we can put some stuff in there.

Calgon, take me away! :)

I made these thread crochet flowers tonight. I had a friend ask me to make her some flowers for some hair bows she makes so I've been experimenting with getting them small enough and trying different patterns. I wish I had more colors in the stash to work with but I don't keep a large stash of thread since I don't use it too much. Thread really is a lot prettier anyway for something like this.

Jeff got himself a little job painting a room for someone today. I saw a lady looking for a painter in the homeschool group I am in so I told her to talk to my husband. They worked it out and he (and probably me too) are going to be going to paint her child's room next week. I'll probably go help him just to make it go faster. One neighbor wants to hire Jeff to re-sheetrock their garage and another job to replace rotton wood and some roofing. Gotta do something... especially since he got turned down by Domino's Pizza! lol

I took Alison to the Cypress Homeschool Association park day today and she had her friend come home with her so that was fun.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend! Perfect temperature, low humidity! We finally completed the fence we've been working on. Michael and I put up the pickets while Jeff worked ahead putting up the rot board and stringers. Jeff even used some of the old pickets to re-do a 12 foot section we share with a 4th neighbor which was really, really rotton. Hard to believe it actually looks much better now even using old pickets! The new fence is really pretty and the cedar smells so good...too bad it will eventually turn brown.

Hey, I keep hearing from people I give these to that their husbands steel these from them so these work for guys too! I figured out that I can get two complete bath scrubbers out of one 2 oz. ball of cotton yarn. Now, I need to see how long it takes me to make one of these. I believe I can make a scrubber in less than 1 hour. It's hard to judge since I usually don't sit for a full hour at a time.

The lumberjack showed up bright and early at 6 am this morning to cut down the dangerous tree in my neighbor's yard. They had an audience of happy neighbors watching in the lawn chairs. Ms. Joy, another neighbor, baked them a sheet cookie and they had lemon-aid, water, and sodas while they worked. It took them about 5 hours and we found out the guy has a 2 month waiting list. Stephanie was beside herself with happiness and the guy finally told her to quit thanking him ~ lol! Stephanie came over this evening and told me she couldn't believe she fell asleep on the couch this afternoon after they left and another neighbor came and knocked and woke her up to walk to the bus stop to pick up her boys. She has been so tired because she hasn't been sleeping good worrying about that tree. They had started sleeping on the couch because they were worried another branch might fall off and come through their house again. It was right over their bedroom. Obviously, a huge burden was lifted from them today! Anyway, it was a happy feeling for everyone now knowing that the tree is no longer a problem. Oh, and they also trimmed a bunch of other big heavy branches from other tree that were hanging low over her house. It was truly a blessing. So thank you very much to Grace Presbyterian Church here in Houston!!

Other good news is we got 4 sections of fence completed today. It was hot as blue blazes out there today. We got the rest of the fence torn down to get ready for tomorrow's work. Tomorrow the rest of the holes get dug and posts get set. We also hope to get all the old wood hauled out of the yard tomorrow. Then we'll be set to put the rest of the fence up and completed by the end of the weekend. Hey, I'm getting pretty good at swinging a hammer!

My mama turned 81 today. We brought her a balloon and some candy bars. We finally got to make her a little bit happy with a root beer and hot fudge sundae from McDonald's. She ate pretty much the whole sundae and really enjoyed it. Another sad visit to see my mama.



We got a little smile out of her...

People I've given these to tend to like these. I think I'm going to make up a bunch of these for Christmas gifts.

Free Pattern for Handled Bath Scrubbie

As you can see, its made from the same cotton yarn as the pot holder and pan handler in the post below. I made all three of these items with less than two balls of kitchen cotton. I still have a little bit left and I've started another bath scrubber. I might have to do the "puff" part of the scrubber in a different matching color of cotton if I run out. After I'm done with this one, I'm going to start making bath puffs with a full ball of cotton and see how many bath puffs I can get out of one ball of cotton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY-oqvixLFA

Michael's cousin posted Michael's video on his You-Tube page.

Alison seems to have out grown all but 1 pair of jeans and it was a little cool today! (You know the ones I sold for 50 cents at our garage sale) Today, we went out in search of a in-expensive pair of jeans for Alison. Now, I rarely, rarely, rarely go to Wal-Mart. Why? Quite simply, because I can't stand the place. However, we needed dog food so we went and decided to give the jeans a look-ey while we were there. Sure enough, they had CHEAP jeans...of course, everything is cheap at Wal-Mart....that's why everyone shops there! $10 L.e.i jeans...so we go about trying on size 14, size 14 slim, size 14 regular. Of course, some jeans she wears a size slim in, some she doesn't...you know you have to try them on! We told her she could pick one pair. She picks her pair of jeans and we go stand in the line to pay for our 2 items. The checker rings the jeans up and says he can't sell them to us because the machine told him the item is unavailable for sale. I patiently explained to him that they have a large display of these jeans with about 100 pairs of jeans on it just like them. Do I need to go get another pair? Nope...it's not gonna matter he says...they're not for sale. Excuse me? I actually think this is quite funny that I'm in a store I absolutely hate and normally would not shop in but I'm actually buying a pair of jeans here and they are telling me they won't sell them to me. I told him we just spent a lot of time trying on and picking out these jeans. He calls a manager over who tells me that I can't buy the jeans. The display isn't supposed to be there and they need to take it down. I told her they might want to get on that right away because we just wasted 30 minutes trying on jeans in Wal-Mart that were not for sale. LOL! Okay, that does it for me. One more reason to hate Wal-Mart.
We left the Wal-Mart back to square one and still needing jeans when I remembered I had a Kohl's gift card I got for Christmas in my purse! Yay! They had a sale going and we found a pair on the Clearance rack so Alison ended up with 2 pairs of jeans...and they're much cuter than Wal-Mart's jeans anyway so Thank You Wal-Mart! :)

I feel helpless to help my neighbor. A tree branch fell through their house last night. They have no money. Normally, we have been a big source of help for them in the past but we don't have any money to spend with Jeff being laid off so I don't really know what we can do. I've put out an appeal for suggestions on where to get some charity for them. If nothing comes through, Jeff is going to go over this evening and at least see what he can do to at least cover the hole since rain could be coming. And Jeff is recovering from the flu and he's still getting drained of energy when he works too hard. My neighbor has had quotes of over $1,000 to get this tree removed. This is the 2nd time a branch has fallen on her roof. The first one only went into the attic.





Previous roof patches from the last branch...

It's all we can do to keep well over here right now. Jeff came down with something last Thursday and was in bed for 2 days. By Friday, I realized how sick he was and agressively started treating him with vitamins, oils and my home remedies. He came out of the abyss that night and said he was actually delirious. I just knew he was sleeping like crazy and since we don't have a reliable thermometer, I didn't really know what his fever was. He's doing better since then but he's still week when he tries to do much. I really think he has/had the flu. Michael started coughing his head off Friday. He's not running fever though. The coughing really gets bad at night. Alison was the first one sick last weekend but she seems to be fine now. I'm keeping her full of Vitamin C and Oregano Oil so she doesn't relapse. Now today, I started feeling bad. I'm hoping I will be able to fight it off since I stay consistent on taking my Vitamin C and Oregano on a regular basis. I'm about to drink some tea made with fresh Ginger. I guess I will stay away from visiting my mom for a few days. I was reading online that you can still carry the virus 48 hours before you show symtoms and 48 hours after you stop running a fever.



Ginger Cinnamon Tea
Ingredients:

1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh ginger
6 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tablespoons honey
In a saucepan, simmer the ginger, cinnamon sticks, and water for about 20 minutes. Add honey and strain tea through a sieve or tea strainer.



Ginger Tea Recipe
water, 4 cups

2-inch piece of fresh ginger root
optional: honey and lemon slice

Peel the ginger root and slice it into thin slices. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Once it is boiling, add the ginger. Cover it and reduce to a simmer for 15-20 minutes. Strain the tea. Add honey and lemon to taste.
Note: Keep in mind that if you are making ginger tea as a home remedy during cold and flu season, sweeteners are not recommended.


GINGER ROOT FACT SHEET
Ginger brings relief to digestions troubled by motion sickness, morning sickness, and other causes; also an important circulatory remedy. Excellent remedy for dysentery. Highly effective for digestive complaints such as colic, nausea, gas, and indigestion. It is also antiseptic, making it valuable in treating gastrointestinal infections, including some types of food poisoning. Stimulates the circulation and helps high blood pressure. Increases sweating and helps reduce body temperature in high fevers. Aids respiratory conditions such as coughs, colds, and flu with its warming, soothing properties."
Ginger Root Cures:

Alison and I had fun making these little beaded bobby pins tonight. It's fun but we need some different beads. I'll have to see if I can find my beads I packed up somewhere!