Crochet Me Crazy

I file my pictures in folders according to dates they were taken on the my computer. As I went back to look at the first pictures of the year looking for my crocheted projects, I realize this has been probably one of the most unproductive years of crocheting I've ever had. It also took me down the trip of memory lane of the last year. The first pictures were of my empty, spotless house right before we sold it, my husband 30 pounds heavier, and the first RV park we lived in Houston where I had my nervous breakdown after it hit me that our house was really gone and we didn't know where we were gonna live! Wow, my old kitchen with all the comforts of home....

The pictures took me through our move to the Teas Hill Country where we met nice people and animals and where my daughter met the love of her life...Princess.



Then, there was the blur of the quickly passing summer of cleaning cabins, picking up trash and working hard in the state park.




There was lots of fun and learning and months filled with hope and fear. Also, many new friends and interesting people were met.


Alison got to start back to dancing...


So many mixed feelings and emotions about the past year. I am grateful for so much. Despite the craziness of the past year, there's no way we could have bought the experiences we've had over the past year. I just pray God will continue to give me the courage to move forward.

My New Years Resolution in next year is to strengthen my relationship with God and my family. I want to have the same attitude and trust in God no matter what the circumstances of my life are.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year! May you all find peace and joy the following year no matter what life brings your way!

More hats....the first one took a little bit of arm twisting to get my husband to model it.





Now, I hate to have my beautiful daughter modeling a Budweiser hat but she was my only available model.

Okay, it took me about 15 minutes to weave in my ends and crochet the brim. So, the total time it took me to make the hat was an hour and a half.



I did all of this not only to answer some questions I have received about the hats but also to figure out how long it is taking me to make one. I rarely sit down and crochet something start to finish so its sometimes hard for me to guess how long it actually takes me.

Now, I wonder why are most of the beer cans blue? I'm going to get very tired of blue.

I joined the panels together. This took me about 5 minutes. Next, I crocheted the crown of the hat. It took about 10 minutes.



Then, it took another 10 minutes to join it to the hat...



Now, I've spent an hour and 15 minutes on the hat so far....

Now, all I have to do is weave in my ends and add my brim. I'm definately on target to finish this hat tonight, right after I finish cleaning up the dinner dishes.

Okay, so our hot water heater quit working last night. Alison and I had to go over to the public bath house to take our showers last night. I get in the car to drive over and the car won't start. Thankfully, it was just one of the battery connectors was loose. Jeff is looking at the water heater today and it looks like its just the switch that is bad. He and Alison just went into town to buy a new switch. Good news is that he came back and said he got a call from one of the flyers he put out in town. Someone wants a quote.

Now onto the hat.... I'm ready to punch the holes using my pre-made stencil.



It took me about 5 minutes to punch the holes into all 6 panels. So now I've got about 20 minutes put into this hat so far.



After I punch the holes, I round off the corners with a pair of scissors. Panels are finished and I'm ready to start the easy part...crocheting!
First stage of crocheting around each panel takes me 5 minutes per panel.



So,now after crocheting around each panel I'm spent 50 minutes on this hat so far today.

I'm going to get a Bud Light hat made today. I went outside with my cup of coffee this morning and spent 15 minutes cutting my washed cans.



Cut off top and bottom of can with a razor knife and scissors



Now, I'm going to lay my stencils on my can and cut my panels out. Some cans you can only get one panel our of because of where they are on the can.




Here are my 6 panels that I need to make my hat with. This took me 16 minutes to do.



Now, I am going back inside to post these pictures, wash some dishes, cook something for us to eat. The rest of the steps to make the hat I will do inside throughout the day today.

Here is the pattern I have been using for the aluminum can hats. I am changing the brim on mine though. I am doing straight double crochets around with no increases because I don't want the flare.

Crocheted Can Hat


Modeled by my lovely daughter...

Hey, I'm getting really quick at these beer can hats! The lady I sold the other one to wants another beer can hat...she wants the variety of cans again so I'll have to take a walk around to the can corrals tomorrow. Pretty convenient that I live in an RV Park with recycling corrals all over it where everyone throws their cans!

Jeff worked for the dentist today. It's supposed to rain tomorrow so he can't go back until Wednesday or Thursday. Then, he has to wait 7 days for the caulk to seal for 7 days before he can go back and paint it. Hopefully, the dentist will be ready to start on the next job shortly. He asked Jeff he could be in his pit crew if he wanted to when he races cars. They didn't have time to talk about it in a whole lot of detail but he says he pays for your travel, food and hotel when he travels to drive in these races. It pays a little. Hmmm...interesting things seem to come our way. Might be something to experience if you don't have anything else to do. We could do that or maybe join the circus or something -- just kidding!

Here is a carving by Michael.

Today, he went in search of Soto for Grandma Bev at the stables. He said she wants a walking stick made out of Soto. He came back with some and then went over to our elderly neighbor's to see what he thinks. (He's been recently making walking sticks) He left Mr. Clubine with some Soto and came back to work on that stick. He carves a bear on the end of it.

Finished the pop/beer can hat order. I brought them over to her this afternoon and got my money. She loved them. I'm going to continue to make some more of these. Maybe I can sell some around here.




Two other hats I had made a little while back but hadn't had a chance to get pictures of yet.




Starting on the next beer can hat now.

Trying to make a difficult decision again. It really wouldn't be so difficult if my daughter's heart wasn't so inner-twined in this decision. Mr. Stable seems to be unhappy with how we are taking care of the goat. We have been trying to do what the county agent told us to do but he and Mr. Stable don't agree on what should be done. It gets complicated because everything we have read on the internet and 4 other people that raised goats have told us NOT to do exactly what Mr. Stable has told us to do. However, it IS his goat so we've felt obliged that we should listen to him in the beginning. Then, the goat wasn't gaining weight so we decided to go with the County Agents advice which was no hay, no corn and remove the other goat so we could monitor what our goat was eating even though Mr. Stable wasn't too happy about it. County Agent said he will get hungry and eat the show goat feed once he realized that's all he was going to get. Everyone tells us they will fill up on hay or corn and not eat the show goat food. Two people have told us flat out the corn would mess up their digestion. In the meantime, Alison has been spending her own money feeding this goat. It makes me feel uncomfortable as it is their goat and I don't want to seem ungrateful. It's our own mistake for getting ourselves into this to begin with. We shouldn't have tried to do this with someone elses animal. Today, Mr. Stable cussed at Jeff and was extremely irritated with him because he came too late to feed the goat. Jeff came home very upset. We don't treat people that way so its pretty upsetting when people act that way to you. Be irritated, say whatever you want to say like a civil human being but to cuss him out in front of a bunch of people is really uncalled for. Needless to say, we are still required to act right no matter what other people do so we're trying to make a conscious decision about what is the right thing to do instead of act on emotions or in defensiveness. Also, we need to do right by Alison and not set a bad example for her. She is completely aware of what has all been going on. The goat actually gained 2 pounds the last week we weighed him and he has never been without food at any time since we've been feeding him. Now, we are trying to decide if it is time to just cut our losses and forget the whole thing. If the decision only affected me, it would be a done deal. I don't need the added stress to my life at this point in time. It's Alison I'm worried about. It's really not her fault all this has turned out like this and it's our fault for letting her get into this situation to begin with. We'll need to buy more feed soon if we are going to continue with this. She will have to put out more money into a goat that may get sifted anyway. We certainly don't have the extra money to help her out with it. She has more money that we do at this point! LOL

The good news is that Jeff has a small job to do tomorrow for the dentist in town. It's only about a day and a half of work but at least its something. Also, Christmas Eve we went up to the stables to do one ride and more people showed up and ended up doing 9 riders that day so Jeff got a day of pay for that. There is our grocery money for this week! Talk about manna from heaven.

Well, hope everyone has a great week enjoying the last week of 2010. Can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us. After the past two years...2009 the difficult years with my mama ending with her passing in November 2009...which quickly brought us into this past year of 2010 with Jeff being without work...I can't help but hope this next year will start to look up for us. Maybe this next year will be our year!

It rained and a cold front blew in on Christmas Eve. Our Christmas tree made it fine outside all month until Christmas Eve. It blew over and we had to get the presents in side. We planned on opening presents outside but it was too cold this morning! We had a very simple Christmas. Jeff got up and cooked breakfast. Alison likes pancakes but we didn't have pancake mix... so he did it the old fashioned way and made his own mix. We went over to a friend's house who are from Ecuador and ate lunch. Not the traditional Christmas dinner. No pies, cookies or dressing! I guess we saved ourselves from gaining that 5-10 pounds over the holidays this year! She gave me some "hongos" to start the yogurt making with. I'll be posting about that soon. We went over to the clubhouse room tonight and the guys played a game with the old people while Alison and I made Thank You cards. She's going to send cards to her birthday party guest. We closed out the day with a campfire and hot chocolate.

2011 here we come!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

May you have a beautiful day!


BRRRRR....It's COLD here!

Caroling with a bunch of sweet, old people! LOL Well, Alison always tried to talk us into going Caroling in Houston and we would never do it. Well, tonight she got her wish. We went around with them and caroled to everyone in the RV park tonight. It was priceless.

We went over to the clubhouse tonight and I worked on my hat order. I'm making two tin can hats for a lady in the RV park. Alison and I also made these snowflakes. I failed on mine. Alison made this tonight.


They are a lot harder to make than I thought they would be! They are just cut out of plastic canvas.

Michael is still over there now working on one and watching Prince Caspian on the TV.

My special, sweet, sensitive, beautiful,loving daughter turned 14 years old yesterday. I thank God often for the blessing he bestowed on our lives and hearts through Alison. In the darkest of times, she always brings a bright spot because of her sweet, gentle and caring spirit. She's an amazing girl and nothing short of a gift of God...sometimes I call her my "salve" because her sweetness really has a way of soothing in difficult times.

Okay...so now that I've been all sappy...we planned a little party for Alison last night. Alison worked very hard planning and found a bunch of games to play she looked up on the internet. I had her make her list of supplies she would need for the games. Alison invited 3 girls from dance and instead of having a slumber party, we just were going to have a "late" party over in the community room at the RV park. I couldn't figure out what kind of food I was going to have without spending a fortune...then, I remember Jeff had bought several large bags of fajitas meat when it was on sale at HEB for $1.00/lb. It was in the freezer so we decided to invite several of the eldery couples in the RV park over to eat fajitas with us, have cake and sing Happy Birthday to Alison. The party didn't go too smoothly though. One girl couldn't come because she was sick. The other girl came but had to leave early and the other girl didn't show up until almost 10:00 pm. So we spent the first party of the party trying to hold off on some of the games until the 2nd girl got there. Then, we found out the 1st girl was leaving early with only 45 minutes notice so we tried to hurry up and do as much as we could before she was picked up. Then, the other girl showed up as the 1st girl was leaving. We were pretty much wrapping it up by then. We told her we were pretty much finished but we could do smores. So we did that. We didn't really get to do all the thing s we had planned at the party. Alison was pretty disappointed but she handled it well. It was still a good day all in all. We stayed up late watching a movie with Alison after everyone was gone and I was so tired today.

We went into town to get a few groceries and a couple of things for Alison's birthday party on Tuesday. She's inviting 3 girls from dance/church over Tuesday for her birthday. We went window shopping and checked out a few of the little boutiques, gifts shops and antiques stores in town. Normally, we go in on Sundays and nothing is open. There are some cute little stores in old buildings in town. It was fun just looking around. We came to go the a Christmas party at the RV park this evening. They had fajitas for dinner and then we had a Chinese Christmas gift exchange. There were 46 people participating so it was really fun. Everyone was stealing gifts. I came home happy because I got a quilted bag that a lady in the park makes! Jeff actually stole it from somebody for me. I was hoping to snag her gift! I love it!

I can carry my crochet around in it. I also got a pretty pot with a plant in it.

The plant was stolen 3 times too and I got it on the last steal. Everyone liked the pot. Alison got a really soft throw and pillow. Michael came home happy with a Winchester 37 in one multi-tool.

All the gifts we brought were crocheted things I had made. Everyone seemed happy with their gifts. A lady that got my crochet slippers came up to me afterwards and wants me to make her two beer can hats and and two more pairs of slippers. I already have tons of slippers made I can show her but I'll have to make the hats. I told her she would have to supply the beer cans!

Sadly, the little baby kid goat took a turn for the worse yesterday evening and she died in the night last night. I am actually very relieved that she died on her own because we started having conversations last night about putting her down today unless something changed drastically in her condition. I really didn't want to have to make that decision so I'm very glad that God decided for us. I am still in amazement of that little girl and how strong she was. I just don't think we got the thiamine treatment started soon enough. Even though she had showed signs of improvement, she was just already too weakened to recover. Well, now I guess I can have my life back!

Alison is still sick in bed this morning ~ I hope she can recover soon because she really has a lot of work to do to get ready for the stock show! Sometimes I wonder if this was not such a good idea doing this with someone elses animals. Now, Alison has so much invested in this -- time, work, her own money, emotionally -- it would take something drastic for me to make her pull out although I have wanted to at times. We are working with the 4-H director and taking his advice on how to get her goat to gain weight. It's been a struggle because we get different advice from different people. We have to have a plan and stick to it and also this has to be Alison's project. If she fails to get the weight up, it needs to be because of her choices and not because of someone elses. Her being sick in bed is just another kink in the plans but Jeff has been taking care of the goat in the meantime.

Well, it's really amazing that this little baby goat is still alive. She just keeps fighting to live. She is an amazing little girl. We are on our last resort of treatment for her right now. After a lot of reading and all the other things we have tried, we believe she has goat polio, which is a Vitamine B1 deficiency, and talked to the vet. He agreed it sounds like it could be. We couldn't afford a vet visit and we were thankful that they didn't ask to see her but we were able to buy the thiamine that she would need from them with a prescription. It was extremely inexpensive -- only $3! She had her 2nd dose today and she has shown two signs of improvement. He said to watch her today/tonight and if she shows more improvement, we can come get some more thiamine injections for her tomorrow. This little kid goat has been taking up a whole lot of my time.

Jeff worked at the ranch that he got the baby goat at again on Monday. He comes home and says he thinks he lost his cell phone while they were out on the guys little ranch vehicle. We drove back out there on Tuesday. And it is WAY OUT THERE and VERY REMOTE. We took the car instead of Jeff's truck to save on gas and we are luck our car is still in one piece after some of the bad spots on the road. Some of the spots were so rocky and bad that the kids and I got out of the car a walked so the car wouldn't be as weighed down and hit something underneath on a rock. The rode on the trunk most of the time because there were three gates to open and close on the way out there. Once we got out there, we spent hours walking back over all of the trails that they had drove on. Of course, on the very last trail that we hiked...we found it! My legs are sore today from doing all that walking!




I had gotten very behind on laundry because of the baby goat. Yesterday, I went over to a friend's house who said I could come over and wash laundry there anytime. It took me all day but I was thankful to get caught up without it costing me a fortune. I had extra laundry because of the baby goat as well. I may start going over there once a week to do a load to save some money on the laundry bill since Jeff is barely working.

Alison started feeling real bad yesterday. She spent most of the day in bed as well as today. Now, I've been having to take care of two babies! (Alison and the goat) My throat started getting soar on one side yesterday. It woke me up in the night last night. I've started my Vitamin C/Oregano regimen and taking Ibuprophen which eases it a lot. Other than that, I don't really feel sick.

Something else that I am amazed and exited about~ the friend that I was visiting and doing laundry was making yogurt. Now, I have made yogurt before but I have never heard of such as easy way or the method she was using. She had live cultures that looked like little tiny sponges in a glass jar. She didn't know what they were called in English. She said her friend gets them from Columbia. Your pour milk in the glass jar with these little sponges and in leave it. You will have yogurt in about 8 hours! Then you strain them out and rinse them real good and keep using them over and over again! They will continue to grow and multiply if you continue to make yogurt. I have done searches on the internet and I can't find anything anywhere about these or what they might be. Anyway, she is going to give me some of them. I didn't get them yet because I need to get an appropriate glass container and a strainer before I get them from her.

Now, I'm trying to get my brain around planning something for Alison's birthday on Tuesday!

Here is a picture of a hat I never got posted. I've had this done. I haven't had time to work on anyting for awhile now.

This whole weekend has been a non-stop blur. The sleep I have been getting seems like its not good sleep and I still wake up tired. Alison had rehearsal Friday night. Saturday, Jeff's parents drove down...we left early for Alison's dance show. There was a lot of drama going on up there. The lady who was sewing the costumes didn't have our girls costumes finished. When she showed up with them an hour before curtain call, she said 6 of the girls would not have there costumes. Alison was one of those girls. The dance teacher was very, very upset...the dress lady was very upset and defensive about the whole thing. She didn't seem to see why everyone was so upset. They had to go dig up something from the dance studio for our girls to wear. The dresses the lady made didn't have leotards in them and they had to wear these "granny panties" thing under them and you could see their stomachs through the sheer material of the skirts. It turned out great for Alison and the other girls with missing costumes in the end because the dresses they got to wear didn't show their stomachs and were beautiful dresses. They were all very happy about it in the end. The costumes that she did have made were pretty poorly done. Their sashes weren't even hemmed. The were just cut strips of materials and were all fraying before the end of the first performance. The show went very well though and Alison danced beautifully. After the first night's show, the grandparents wanted us to come eat with them in Uvalde where they were staying in a motel. By the time got Alison changed and squared away after the show and we had come home to check on and feed our baby goat, it was pretty late before we even got to eat. We got home very late...around 1 am. Tried to get some sleep but Jeff still needed to wake up with the goat in the night. Alison had another performance today and we were invited to a friend's house this evening. By the time we got home from dance, fed Alison's show goat, came home to take care of baby goat, we ended up not going over to the friend's house after all. The baby goat was really, really improving but she's showing symptoms of another problem now. We have more challenges to overcome now but I'm too tired to go into all the details here now but let's just say we are learning a lot about baby goats. Our friend who has nursed a lot of baby goat to health has been helping us with getting supplies for her. The little girl is a quite a little fighter. We're doing the best we can to aide her. She sure is going to be a sweetheart if she makes it. She's spoiled to pieces.

Here are a couple of photos from Alison's dance.

Alison with Nana & Papaw

Jeff and I set our alarms for every two hours last night to feed the baby goat. Alison got to sleep because I can't afford for her not to be rested up for her show tomorrow and Sunday. Alison has been fighting a cold all week. The little goat seems to be a little bit stronger today but she is still very wobbly. We just got finished bathing her. She was a complete mess but it seemed like it was much too cold and she was too week for that last night.



We're meeting with the 4-H guys today at the stables to talk about both of the goats today.

He's been having a good time hanging out with all the old men in the RV park. Wednesday night he was up at the community room until about 10 pm playing games with all the old people. Today, he got his school work done earlier so he could go over to the neighbor's where they are "turning wood" on the lathe. Some of the old men will come over there and pull up their lawn chairs and watch. Some days it feels like a Normal Rockwell picture around here!

Michael came home with his project tonight...it had broken on him.



This is a coffee scoop he brought me. He didn't make this one.



Pretty cool, huh?

He is so tiny! Not much bigger than a small dog!




Exactly what Alison has been wishing for! It's not exactly good timing to be bottle feeding a newborn goat with Alison's dance show coming up this weekend but it's what we got. Jeff spent the day at a ranch helping drench and worm hundreds of goats. This little guy's mother died giving birth to his brother. They think he was born last night. His chances for survival are not for sure. The owner said we could try and sent us home with a bottle and goat formula. Alison has been wanting to bottle feed a baby goat. She just needs to be prepared that he may or may not make it. Jeff is on his way home from a friends house that has goat colostrum and goat milk in their freezer. They have been through this many times before and are giving us some pointers. His chances are much better if we get colostrum in him.

He's been having a good time hanging out with all the old men in the RV park. Wednesday night he was up at the community room until about 10 pm playing games with all the old people. Today, he got his school work done earlier so he could go over to the neighbor's where they are "turning wood" on the lathe. Some of the old men will come over there and pull up their lawn chairs and watch. Some days it feels like a Normal Rockwell picture around here!

Michael came home with his project tonight...it had broken on him.



This is a coffee scoop he brought me. He didn't make this one.



Pretty cool, huh?

Well, Alison certinaly took much better pictures than I took of the birds!