Crochet Me Crazy

We're having a slumber party tonight! Alison's friend is spending the night and the owner's went out of town for the night so we have ALL THE DOGS tonight! :)
We went and got the dog beds and we're just going to have a big old house full tonight! Mose is so funny (the black Lab)...he's a very energetic hunting dog and he's always knocking stuff over with his tail!



I need to go to the grocery store severely but I did have the stuff so I made sausage balls and the girls made themselves some of the buttery popcorn I've ever seen! (I think they used a whole stick of melted butter!)

I went to the wedding today. It was a gorgeous day for a wedding today!




It was a very small wedding with just a few family members there. Alison played the wedding song perfectly!

We went back to their house afterward for cake that Alison and Phoebe baked and decorated last night.



They did a fabulous job!

There's a wild animal rehabilitation place we're going to call about Grace. She's sweet as ever. I feel so bad for her though because we bring her to the garden every day and she hates being in there by herself. It's a ways from our house and I walk down there and sit with her but I can't sit with her all day. She relaxes and starts walking around and eating when I'm there. She gets very distressed when I leave. Deer are herd animals and they need company. Mr. Grain's daughter was here this week and she found a place about an hour and a half or two away from here that takes wild animals that can't make it in the wild. I'm going to call them and see if they have a suitable environment for her to live like a deer in and maybe have some company. Mr. Grain said he would make a donation to them if need be so we're going to explore it. I'll miss her but as long as she's happy, it's all good. In the meantime, tomorrow Jeff is going to try to find some rolls of wire that might be laying around the ranch here and try to put up some temporary fencing on our yard so we can leave her here where we are near instead of bring her to the garden during the day.



Well, I hope everyone is having a safe and happy New Year's Eve whatever you may be doing!

What I did today:

Sat with my little deer, Gracie, off and on today because she loves the company.

Normally I leave my tree up until New Years, but I took the decorations off the Christmas tree because the tree is starting to die and my ornaments keep falling off! Having a real tree keeps you from procrastinating!

Cleaned up tons and tons of Christmas tree needles. (Please, I'm tired of cleaning!)

Washed and put away several loads of clothes.

Added a few motifs to my Prairie Star afghan here and there.

Thought about making a grocery list!

Thought about how bad I need to mop.

Started reading the book "The Yearling" (How fitting that its about a deer) Yes, I'm now reading books that I should have read as an adolescent but I didn't become a reader until later in life and now I want to see what I missed out on.

Sat on a big rock behind the house and looked at the view because it's so pretty.

Missed hearing my daughter play the piano because she was gone today.

Re-arranged my crochet spot. I was feeling some dissatisfaction with my set-up. I was using the top of the wooden dog crate as an end table/crochet hook, etc. holder but I traded it for one of our TV trays. It's puts my stuff up a little bit higher plus I was able to fit my magazine rack (for patterns I'm using) under it and also get my yarn basket within reach. Now, I can't reach my lamp...but oh well, obviously, I can't have everything!

Thought about how I can fit another chair in this living room. Our living room is really small and there's not enough room for our whole family to sit on the couch so it's kinda like musical chairs around here....someone is the odd man out. It's getting old. I'm figuring out that if I can get the bookcase out of here, we could fit in a chair. Just can't figure out where in the world I'm going to fit that bookcase. (No one likes any of my ideas but I suspect it's because they don't want to move it!)

Okay, so I did a lot of thinking besides doing -- lol!

Bad news: Found out that Alison will NOT BE ABLE TO SHOW PRINCESS this year in 4-H because we missed the validation! Nobody informed us that we needed to be at this. Poor Alison...I haven't talked to her since she found out so I don't know how upset she is. She went over to her friends house today to spend the night and get ready for a wedding tomorrow. Her friend's mother is getting married tomorrow and they are baking a 4 layer cake for the wedding! It's going to be a small wedding and Alison will be playing the "Here Comes the Bride" tune on the piano! I'm proud of her for learning it herself in the past week just for the wedding. Yay, Alison!

Well, good night ya'll!

Well, a diamond here, a diamond there. That's about how I've been working on my Prairie Star over the past few days. I'm so close to the end that I really want to sit down and work on it. I think I will get to work on it quite a bit today because I'll be home all day today. I was thinking that you could really do this as a hexagon baby afghan. Just stop right here and make those diamonds sticking out as half diamonds instead. Just picture this in baby colors.



When this afghan is finished, I'm thinking of putting this afghan in the consignment shop in town. I've sold some of my beer can hats there. What do you think a good price for it would be? She marks the stuff up from what you want for it quite a bit so it might be tough to sell there though. It's worth a try though. I could at least by my yarn to make myself one in different colors.

7 hours of cleaning yesterday and 7 more hours today... two people cleaning for a total of 28 hours of cleaning over the past two days! I am literally even a little bit sore tonight. My legs are sore...I guess it's all the squatting and getting up, bending, leaning, etc. It's not possible for that house to get any cleaner than we left it. I don't think there a spot in that house that we didn't touch. We thought we'd be there less time today because we had 3/4 of it finished but the stuff today took a long time. Jeff spent most of the day cleaning windows inside and out and we brought the pressure washer and he cleaned bird poop from the window sills outside. I cleaned and mopped the living room, dining room, and cleaned the kitchen. Lots of furniture to move so it made it tougher. I also had to clean the refrigerator, oven and microwave so that took some time. I'm tired and glad that is over with! I think we're going to charge them $350 but that's less than the $15 a hour people told me to charge. Either way, if they want us to do it again, I'm going to tell her up front it will be $15 and hour next time. It's just not worth it for less. I did not enjoy that at all. I don't know how people do that every day! Of course, I am extremely anal and perfectionist. That house is spotless.

Well, I wish had something more exciting to say but that's all. I just cleaned for two days straight. I'm tired, taking 2 melatonin, and going to bed. I might even try to sleep in tomorrow. I doubt that is going to happen though!

Goodnight everyone!

Here's something very interesting for my yarny friends to look at! Look at all of these yarn stashes! Someday I will have all my yarn in one place!

Knitting Nooks & Storage Ideas ~ The Loopy Ewe

Well, we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned today until we couldn't take it no more! 7 hours today and we didn't finish so we have to go back tomorrow! We are 3/4 of the way done. Kitchen and living room tomorrow and the large porch and outside windows. I do not want to be a cleaning lady...I'm way too much of a perfectionist for this job. Now, people are telling me we need to charge a minimum of $15/hour for cleaning and that is the going rate. Maybe it'll be worth it after I get paid....ugh..

Long day in San Antonio today....Actually, we got home earlier than we ever have from a day in San Antonio. I wasn't going to go since we have no money but Michael had a gift card for Tandy Leather Factor he got from Mr. & Mrs. Grain for Christmas. It was an opportunity to go to the store and not have to pay shipping so we all went. We browsed around Hobby Lobby while Jeff was at his interview. I drooled over the Hobby Lobby "I Love This Yarn" yarn. It was even on sale :( Oh well, that's probably the yarn I'll use for my next Prairie Star Afghan. I love that I Love This Yarn! (He He...pretty good name)

We got stopped by a police officer on the way home for not turning our turn signal on a 100 yards from our turn! We were trying to figure out why in the world he was stopping us because we weren't speeding but thank God, he didn't give us a ticket. He was pretty nice except for all the nosy questions they ask you now days....they seem to think they need to know where you going, where you've been and why. Not sure what that has to do with anything. Oh well...he wished Jeff good luck on getting the job!

The job interview went quite well but it's not the first job interview to go well and nothing come of it --- hope this one works out! So...not much more on that subject...no use in getting prematurely excited again. They did say they don't like to keep people waiting so hopefully we'll here one way or another pretty quick. If he gets it, Jeff will have to drive to San Antonio every day for 3 weeks for training. That'll be enough to make him grateful that he'll only have to drive there one time a week after that!

Jeff & I are have a job cleaning a house tomorrow for some people with a second house here. It's a twice a year job! LOL! They have someone clean before they come twice a year. Our friends used to do it and passed us onto the owners. They don't seem to care what you charge them and haven't even asked us so we're debating what we should bill them. My friend said they won't blink at two or three hundred dollars. It's going to depend on how long it takes us...we haven't even seen the house. We have to clean windows inside and out and stuff like that. I'm not really looking forward to it but it'll give us some desperately needed cash. God seems to provide one way or another just when you think you might not have grocery money the next week! Seriously...manna from heaven!

Well, got to go get some stuff done around here before bed. I need to cut up Grace's bedtime snack and bring it out to her. (A sliced up carrot) I enjoy my quiet moments with my little deer in the warm hay barn on a cold night.

Have a good week everyone...is it seriously Tuesday already??? Wow.

I finished a round of the Prairie Star! The long side of the rectangle is done. Now, I have to fill in to make it a rectangle. I'm liking it but the colors could be better. Not good but not bad either. Now, that I have this one made, it will make color selections on the next one a lot easier.

Hmmm....maybe a double wedding ring afghan next? it's another one of those afghans I've looked at for years and said I would like to make some day...Not sure....

Someone posted this on Facebook and I liked it so much, I wanted to save it here on my blog!


I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

We were invited to the ranch owner's house for Christmas Eve. It was sorta a low key get together and they invited a couple of our neighbor's that we know as well. It was a lot of fun getting together and getting to know everyone better. They served a WONDERFUL prime rib with horse radish sauce from a cow raised right here on the ranch. It was absolutely scrumptuous! They were amazingly generous and gave us gifts....really, it was quite nice. Both of the kids got nice shirt jackets and the kids and I all got very generous gift cards. Michael for Tandy Leather Factor and Alison and I for a local store. Jeff got money...a generous amount I guess you could call a bonus pay! Really, we are very blessed to be here. We have a mutually appreciative relationship with them...we appreciate them and they appreciate us very much as well.... very lovely people.

Today, we served basically a meal of appetizers....we didn't even end up cooking the steaks like the planned. We decided we'll just make those tomorrow. We just can't eat as much as we used to ... any of us.

Grace is really getting fast. I'm watching that leg and even though she seems to be using it more than ever, I'm worried about that hoof. It's just dead and I'm hoping it's not spreading up her leg. She's losing some hair above it now. I guess we'll just let nature take it's course and see what happens. She still uses it and she's getting faster and faster. She pretty much runs from everyone but me now. I go in there and she just follows me around...puts her head on me... wants me to scratch her... feed her. As long as it's just me and her alone...she's as relaxed as she can be. I guess because since she's moved to the barn, I'm the one that pretty much takes care of her. I usually go see her several times a day and sit with her.

It was fun for awhile but I sure am glad to be back home! A visit to the big city gets to me pretty quick...all the people everywhere, the traffic and crazy drivers! I'm sure it was much worse because it's Christmas. Geez...you put your life at stake driving on Austin highways! We went to a free trail of lights that was organized very nicely. They had school buses shuttling people to the trail where you got out and walked the trail of lights with various displays put on by local businesses. They moved the people very fast and we barely had to wait. We went to my friend's house and they ordered pizza. We hit a couple of thrift stores on the way home. One thing I really, really miss is thrift stores! Jeff found some jeans at the thrift store so God was smiling on us because he usually doesn't find jeans at the thrift stores. He was down to two pair of jeans.

Alison is working on teaching herself to play the Bridal Chorus on the piano right now. She is going to play it at a wedding on the 31st! She's using trusty ol' You-Tube tutorial to help her play two hands. It's a small wedding but she'll get to play it in a church.

Good news....we're going to San Antonio Tuesday with Jeff because he has a JOB interview! The job that he had the phone pre-interview for called him to come for an interview. If he gets this job, he will be installing satellite TV systems. They were hiring in our area and he will be dispatched to the jobs from his house. It's kinda funny that he'll be installing satellite systems and we don't even watch TV in our house! We gave up TV after living without it for so long...we decided we don't want it back. Too addictive, time wasting and keeps you from doing other things plus there's not much on worth watching anyway!

Well, this is certainly not feeling like it's only a couple of days away from Christmas! Tomorrow, I'm going to start some preparations for some of our food. We're just having a few little snacky things that we all like...taco dip, sausage balls, and I'm making my twiced baked potatoes to go with the steak Jeff is going to make on the grill. We don't normally eat steak but we've had someone gift us some steaks so I think Christmas is a good day for it.

I pray you all have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Well, Jeff has had two different job interviews this week. One of them, he apparently didn't get the job because we have never heard from them and they were supposed to make the decision last Friday. I'm guessing they decided he was over-qualified for that job and wouldn't stick around. He had a phone pre-interview today for another job. Maybe, just maybe, something will come of this one. They said they are going to go ahead and run the background check on him. Anyway, I'm not getting my hopes up.

It's Alison's birthday tomorrow! I've been trying to figure out how we can do something special and not spend much money so we ended up deciding to go spend the night with my friend in Austin. It'll be fun to go to civilization for a day. We're going to go look at Christmas lights and take her out to eat. Alison can take a bath in their jacuzzi tub. My son is going to stay here and do our chores and take care of our deer.

Well, hope everyone is having fun getting ready for CHRISTMAS!

Well, here's another creation inspired by "Pinterest"! LOL! They actually did these last week and I can't believe I forgot to post this! I found this post in my drafts! Anyway, the girls had a good time making these Reindeer Cupcakes! They made a whole bunch of them.

Um....then, apparently they got bored decorating the cupcakes and they decided to decorate themselves!



Silly girls! I'm glad they are so easily entertained! lol

I found this online but no mention of who wrote it so here goes...thought it was cute. Only my fellow yarn lovers will understand!

You know you've been crocheting too long when:

1. You need to rent or buy a separate dwelling just for your yarn, patterns, etc.

2. Your family tiptoes around and is quiet when you are "counting" (lest they end up killed outright for making you lose your stitch count)

3. Herrshners, Annie's Attic, Mary Maxim and the Needlecraft Shoppe all know you by first name only and have memorized your credit card details

4. You cannot go through metal detectors because you have so many hooks stashed everywhere in your luggage, your purse, etc.

5. Strangers mail yarn and unfinished projects to you without asking first.

6. Caron and Lion Brand are fighting over which one of them can hire you as "Poster Crocheter" in their new ad campaign.

7. Your computer's memory is maxxed due to the number of websites for crochet that you have bookmarked as favorites.

8. Your email inbox exploded due to sheer volume of Internet crochet list email.

9. You know more people by their email address than their actual names.

10. You win an award in mIRC for staying online the longest in a crochet chat room

11. You have more tools that your Significant Other.

12. Michaels and WalMart give you Frequent Customer discounts.

13. Your local yarn store owner knows exactly what skein of yarn you just ran out of the moment you show up in their parking lot. They also know what row you should be on by now.

14. You own more yarn by weight than you do furniture or motor vehicles.

15. The IRS and state tax authorities allow you to declare your yarn, pattern, hooks, etc. as dependents on your tax returns.

16. When someone mentions UFOs, you automatically think of Un Finished Objects (as in unfinished crochet projects) rather than extraterrestrial transports.

17. You have more yarn in your closets, storage lockers, garage, etc. than Herrshner's main warehouse has.

18. You have had to explain to non-crafters the difference between crochet and knitting more times than you can count.

19. You can crochet perfectly while fast asleep.

20. Your family decides they've had enough of your hoarding and hooking and has you kidnapped and deprogrammed.

21. You cannot find your family amongst all the boxes and bins of yarn and patterns around your home.

22. Your family files a class action suit charging the yarn manufacturers, pattern publishers, etc. for causing you to abandon them (alienation of affections).

23. Strange men call and show up, having heard a "hooker" is available at this address.

24. Because of you, yarn and patterns have now been declared an illicit substance by the FDA and DEA. They find you and throw away the key.

25. You write in abbreviations only, thanks to reading patterns for too long.

26. Instead of counting sheep to sleep, you count stitches.

27. You intrigue Martha Stewart by having every item in your house crocheted, including your furniture. You make her jealous because she didn't think of this first.

28. Even when they take your yarn and thread away in hopes of curing your affliction, you grab anything; dental floss, wire, packaging twine, weeds, tinsel, etc. and start crocheting with it instead.

29. Everyone you know has something you crocheted but in a strange color combination because they failed to specify a color preference, and you had so much scrap yarn to use up.

30. When it was time to tent your house to kill termites, etc. you crocheted the tent from plastic grocery bags cut into strips.

31. You taught one of your children to crochet a chain but did not tell them how to finish off; you now have a 5 mile chain "string" lying about.

32. You realize you practice a craft where the phrase "the end is near" actually has a positive meaning (your project is nearly finished.

33. You chastise people who call a crochet hook a "needle".

34. You got fed up with the unhelpful and rude craft store clerk at your local yarn store and crocheted her to her cash register in the middle of the night, stuffing a ball of yarn in her mouth so she wouldn't yell out.

35. You frequently get charged with carrying concealed weapons without a permit because you carry crochet hooks around.

36. You determine that you can eat Cheetos and crochet at the same time by using toothpicks to pick up the Cheetos so they don't stain your fingers.

37. You get a patent on how to crochet with chocolate. You also develop a chocolate that cannot melt and stain your yarn.

38. If you stacked your yarn from end to end, it would stretch from here to the Sun (96 million miles or so)

39. You crochet during dental treatment.

40. You win a fashion award for crocheting people's hair into interesting hairdos.

41. You win the lottery and spend the whole darn thing to buy Lion Brand Yarns' stock, a sheep farm in New Zealand, and spinning lessons.

Besides all the normal chorse, we had a big 18-wheeler load of hay come in today. They unloaded about 500 bales of hay.

Then Jeff had to try to figure out what was wrong with the manure spreader that was acting up last night when he was trying to empty it. Turns out one of the welds broke loose. Hopefully that will be back in service shortly because we need that spreader! That was pretty much a whole day right there.

I'm making great progress on my Prairie Star afghan...I'm getting down to the last row on the sides. It gets a little trickier once you get done with your star part. It's not hard, you just have to pay attention to what you are doing because the placement of the direction of the diamonds changes up on you. I almost hate to finish this afghan...I've really enjoyed making it! Pictures soon!

“If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever. If it doesn’t, then it was never meant to be.”

Well, I think it is getting close to time to release Grace. She's getting harder to handle now. She's wanting to wander a lot more. This morning we went on a walk. She kept getting further and further away from home. I was afraid to let her go because I still don't think she is ready and I fear she will meet a bad fate. I also didn't want to let her go without taking the bandage off her leg. I got her back close to the house and she followed me back into the yard but I can see the day of release is coming close. I just hope she doesn't think she can wander around and then me come and get her out of trouble like we've been doing. Once she leaves, she's on her own that's why I would rather her be more healed. Today, we left her in the garden area where she had room to roam around. Tonight we took her bandage off and decided to leave it off for the night and see if she tears herself up tonight. She is really getting a lot better at getting around. If we can keep her for another week or two, I think she's going to be okay.

Today, Jeff went on a job interview. Nothing too exciting but it's a job. Maybe we'll hear back from them. They were supposed to make a decision today but we haven't heard back from them. Jeff is probably way over qualified for the job.

Alison wanted to go see Princess today. It's been a long time. We haven't gone because its been so rainy and muddy. Well, we decided to just put our mud boots on and go today....It was a complete muddy quagmire there. It's still very, very muddy here at our house too. When I fed the horses this morning, it was hard not to get STUCK in the mud or not to slip and fall down. I'm tired of having 4 inches of mud on my boots everyday.

This recipe was one of the new recipes I found on Pinterest that was on the meal plan this week. Here is the original link for the recipe.

Chicken Parmesan Bake

The only problem is that you have to listen to the video to get the recipe so I jotted it down on an index card as I listened.

In a 9 x 13 baking dish put 2 TBSP of olive oil and 2 cloves of crushed garlic.
Add hot pepper flakes.
Fill dish with boneless skinless chicken breasts (approximately 5-6)
Add 2 cups of Marinara (I used canned spaghetti sauce)
Sprinkle with basil.
Add 4 oz. grated mozarella & 2 oz. of grated Parmesan Cheese
Add croutons (I used a whole bag and family requested more croutons next time)
Top with 4 oz. of grated Mozarella Cheese and 2 more oz. of Parmesan.
Bake for 35-45 minutes until chicken is done.

YUM!

I have a friend is thinking of starting a craft store in town. She asked if I would be interested in teaching a crochet class. Hmmm...I'm sorta an introvert so it would be a challenge for me. I've never taken a craft course of any kind so I'm thinking about that and how I would go about it. She was thinking I should charge $10 an hour and require them to buy their supplies in her store. Not sure how it should work, maybe a class on chain stitch and sc and another on hdc and so on? Or I thought, maybe teach a class on mastery of chain stitch and single crochet and then come up with some small project they can complete in sc so they will be motivated. I was also thinking maybe a class on crochet pattern reading for people that know the mechanics of crochet but don't know how to read a pattern? I was thinking the more things she can offer inside the store to bring people in would help....demonstrations and maybe craft groups to meet there. I'm open to any ideas! Feel free to email me with ideas or suggestions! The more I think about it, the more excited I get...it could be fun! We'll see if she actually gets the store open...

Ah, it's miserable weather this week. It's slushy mud everywhere. We have been sitting here inside and not wanting to go out. Of course, my car has been inoperable since last Friday. I think he finally got it fixed today!

Then, we found out that someone has gotten our debit card number and was charging things to our account. One charge went through but we caught 4 more that were pending for about $700. They wouldn't have gone through anyway because we don't have that much money! LOL! Well, the bank cancelled the pending charges and reversed the one that went through. Don't know how they got the number as we rarely use our debit card anyway since we rarely have money in there. If it's not one thing, it's another!

Last night was the first night that Grace didn't sleep in the house. We have a large hay barn right beside our house and we put her in there during the day since it was raining. You would think she would have an endless supplies of food to munch on but contrary to popular opinion, deer do not eat hay! She's laying in it and has hay bales all around her and she doesn't touch it. It's a grass/alfalfa mix! She seems to really like it in there so we decided to see how she fared in there last night. She's such a picky eater...she needs a large variety...We have been gathering branches and various green things and laying them around in there for her to browse through. She has corn and various types of grain. We let her out for a little while the rain let up a little bit yesterday and she munched a bit and then went back in the barn on her free will. Today, I let her out and she followed me around! She knows I'm a protector for her.



We decorated our Christmas Tree last night!



Alison was taking pictures...Michael & I don't like our pictures taken...HA!



I have several crochet projects going on right now. I'm working on a Christmas project that I'm not extremely motivated on....can you guess what it is?... NOT!! Ha! Ha!



I also got started on my Prairie Star again last night.



My shawl is finished...

Well, here is the finished Bulky Fisherman Afghan!


Maybe I should have used a darker color...but the texture of the stitches wouldn't have stood out as much. This afghan has already seen a lot of use even before I was finished with it. It's very warm and comfy.

Now, I need to get back to my Prairie Star afghan! Before I do that, I'm going to see if I can come up with something my son has asked for. He wants me to crochet him a hat to wear over his baseball cap with a slit for the bill in the front. I'm really terrible at designing patterns but I'm going to give it a shot.

Well, now that the excitement of the dance show is over and I'm not busy I felt sad today realizing it's almost Christmas. This year is going to be hard for me. I feel so bad that there are things my kids need and I can't buy them. Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays. We always spent the whole month of December doing fun stuff...making crafts and ornaments, decorating, baking and cooking. We would make stuff for our neighbors. I know Christmas isn't about the gifts, but we all know that when you have kids...it's a big part. Let's be honest here and I had just as much fun getting them gifts as they do opening them.

Well, we've had this lovely tree in our living room for several days now but we still haven't decorated it. Mr. & Mrs. Grain (the ranch owner's where we live) gave us this tree.

We thought we had lights but apparently the lights didn't fare too well last Christmas when we had the tree outside when we were living in our RV. I guess the tree fell over one too many times! Jeff has been fighting the lights today. Hopefully, he'll get that figured out tomorrow.

He's also having set backs trying to get my car fixed. He can't get the belt on because it's too tight of a squeeze so he's having to make his own tool. It involves welding and it's been raining every day so he hasn't been able to work on it. We're glad for the rain but I'll be glad when it's over. It's been rainy and COLD every day for days and days.

Well, tonight I was about to take a picture of my finished Fisherman's Afghan when I went to grab my camera, it wasn't there. Apparently, one of my little camera thieves has been using it so I guess it'll have to wait!

Speaking of beautiful...here's our little Grace...

It's only 7:00 and it feels like 10:00 to me. I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight! We just wrapped up the weekend of Alison's performance. Jeff and I ran the concession stand tonight. There's no way I can even express how amazing they were tonight in the show. We are very proud of Alison...she did amazing! She danced in 6 dances this evening and did one dance on full pointe (a first)! It was an exciting weekend!

Well, it's been getting used like crazy even with all of my loose ends waiting to be weaved in. Everyone loves it because its so warm. Unfortunately, the dogs seem to love it too! Anyway, I took it to Alison's dance class last night with me. I figure if I brought nothing else I would be forced to weave all those ends in! Well, I'm happy to report....Mission Accomplished! Sorry, no picture yet. I've decided that I will not add the tassels like the pattern calls for. With all our animals, it's just not conducive to our lifestyle so it still needs a simple border to be truly a finished project. I will be adding at least a single crochet border all the way around...we'll see what I come up with.

This weekend is the big show! It's called "A Series of Lessons & Dances". It's going to blow this little town away. The girls are so good! Alison had full dress rehearsal tonight.

My car broke down on the way home! Thank God, I made it to our road and we still had a cell phone signal so Jeff came and got us. We *think* it's just a belt came off. I hope so anyway...that's the last thing we need right now!

How about my little dear deer, Grace? Well, today she started wanting to roam so we went on a little walk. She was pulling her bad foot and we ended up about 100 yards away from the house and UP a hill!
See her way up there?.....She did it herself!

Well, we spent the rest of the day running around like we were chasing a two year old! LOL! It wasn't that bad but she was really getting around today. We ended up putting her in the fenced in garden area for a while today where she would be safe. They have a very large garden area that is fenced and there is a lot of weeds, clover and stuff for her to munch on in there. One thing I have learned about deer is that they like a big variety in foods. She likes stuff but she doesn't want too much of one thing. She LOVES carrots but after 4 or 5 baby carrots, she's done and wants something else. We try but it's hard to imitate her grazing in nature. Now, we are having to start to deal with new wounds on her good leg. She had cuts that she got on the barbed wire that she keeps licking and opening up. Now, we have to try to treat those as well. She's a little mess!

Alison has been making Christmas cards -- here's a few of her creations....

I could have sworn that I posted this recipe but when I went to check my tags I didn't see it. Well, I either didn't post and thought I did or I may have posted and forgot to tag it so now it's lost in blog land! I wanted to share this recipe because it's one of our favorites.

1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken - cooked and shredded (I don't measure this)
1 can of Garlic and Olive Oil petite diced tomatoes
1 can of Enchilada Sauce
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can chopped green chilies
1 clove garlic - minced
2 cups water
1 can chicken broth
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
For Garnish: Grated Monterrey Jack Cheese, Sliced Avocado

In crockpot, combine shredded chicken, whole tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chilies and garlic. Add water, chicken broth, cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper and bay leaf. Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours or on High 3 to 4 hours. Add cilantro. Garnish with cheese and avocado and serve with home fried corn tortillas. -- Delicious!

Note: I made this last night and it was hotter than normal but I couldn't figure out why! As I typed this out, I realized what it was...I used "hot" enchilada sauce! My husband loved it....me, not so much. I couldn't taste the blends of flavor with the hot so I like it better with the mild. So, anyway it's up to you!

I've been thinking about something but I wanted to see what people think about it. You know how blogger is always trying to get you to sign up for Ad Sense? Well, I've almost done it a few times over the years, thinking of giving it a try. Then, I end up not doing it because this is my personal blog. I'm not trying to be a professional blogger or anything and I don't have any control over what would be advertised...so I'm still not sure whether it's the right thing to do or not. Well, now I'm thinking about it again and maybe trying it out to see if it could generate any revenue at all. Anything at all would be a help for us. So I'm just wondering, does it bother you when people have ads on their blog? Do any of you have AdSense on your blog and is it worth it?

One of my dear readers was asking what "Pinterest" is since I've been talking about it a lot lately. I'm not typically someone who jumps on every new bandwagon that comes along. I acually went to look at Pinterest site a few times before I got hooked. They call it an online "Pinboard" which is actually kinda like bookmarks only with pictures! You can have numerous number of "boards" and name them whatever you want. I have a board for Christmas craft ideas, Organizational stuff, Cleaning Tips, Cool Crocheted things, Recipes I want to try -- just to name a few. Anywhere you are online, and you see something you want to "Pin", you just hit your pin button and save it to one of your categorized boards. The cool part is that it's like interactive bookmarks -- it will also show you other people's "pins" which is how I've been finding some really neat stuff I wouldn't have found otherwise. You can follow other people with the same interests as you or you can just follow individual boards that people have. You know how you save stuff in your bookmarks but you just end up with a list of websites and you can't remember exactly what it was until you go back and click on it? When you open up your Pinterest, you will have a whole page of thumbnail pictures. When it shows me what other people have been pinning, pretty much daily I see a good idea or learn something new. For instance, I had no idea that you can grow green onions by putting the white ends in a glass of water in your sunny window seal. I also was looking up how to make caramel dip for apples. Well, I found out that not only can you make the caramel dip, buy you can also make caramel itself with an unopened can of condensed milk. Heat 8 hours on low (completely submerged in water) in the crock pot. Cool down in the fridge and you will open it up and have caramel!
So anyway, that's my explanation of Pinterest.

Here's a cute little ice skate pattern I found on Ravelry. I might whip one of these out for the Christmas tree!
My Paperclip Ice Skate Ornament pattern by Suzetta Williams

I think Grace is getting the drill down now. She only tried to stand up one time last night and we think it was because she had gone potty. Jeff woke up and changed her towel and she was fine. She can't stand up in the house at night because she can't get traction on our floors. She knows we'll bring her outside in the morning.

Busy day today...It's 10:30 pm and this is the first time I've touched my computer all day! Even though it's really past my bed time, I'm just now sitting down at the computer. Little Grace is here beside me on her blanket resting peacefully. She is such a little sweetie. She is still doing good. We've let her walk around on her leg today. She gets around slowly and lays down when she gets tired. Then she'll get up when she's ready. We are still bringing her in at night. I don't think we'll feel good about leaving her outside until she is healed. It's a lot of work...I do a whole lots of sweeping and vacuming and washing! I have to wash her towels and blankets every day. At least I have a washing machine now here in my house. I do have to take the blanket up to the barn to wash because my washer isn't big enough. Oh well, if she makes it she'll probably go away and be a deer but people tell us she will come back and probably bring her babies here where she knows they'll be safe. We were talking to a guy tonight that was telling us they had a pet deer that they took everywhere with them. He said they used to take it on their boat with them. He was a buck though and when he grew up he got aggressive and left. He would come back and look at them sometimes. I'm glad Grace is a doe.

Alison and I drove to town today for groceries. I had to go to a couple of Farm Stores looking for the horse feed we use out here and some other errands. We had to hurry and get back for Alison to get to dance. Long classes all week this week. I took her to dance and Jeff came into town and we went to an open house at our boss's antique store. We hung around there and then went to eat chili at their house. The weather is cold, cold, cold! Just way to cold for me...Jeff has learned how to get a really hot fire going in the wood stove. We NEED the wood stove on night's like tonight. If it wasn't for that thing, I'd be freezing to death. We got up this morning to the frozen world outside.

I know it's not snow but this is Texas! I'm not snow person. The coldest morning since we've been here. We went around busting all of the ice off the troughs so the animals could drink. It's supposed to be another cold one tonight. Thank God for Long John's!

Oh, and remember the sock bun I told you I was going to try out on the girls? Well, it worked! Unfortunately, it rained the next day so even by the time I got around to taking this picture, the curls had relaxed a bit...




Alison edited this photo of Grace but she really is wearing the reindeer antlers!

Good night! I'm going to go climb under my electric blanket and go to sleep!

Well, we spent the day agonizing over what we should do about Grace yesterday. I hate these kinds of decisions. I mentally prepared myself to possibly have her put down today when we took her to the vet. We got better news than we were hoping for! I really needed some good news! The vet said that she wasn't as bad as she was expecting. She said to keep cleaning it every day, start letting her walk around on the hoof without the splint, gave her two shots of antibiotics and said we'll see how she does until Monday. So we came home with our little deer after all! She got a lot of attention at the vet's office. I think they were surprised at home tame she was. She didn't fight at all. I wasn't sure how she would do for the car ride but she didn't give us a bit of problems. She sat down on the floor board and even stood up and few times and looked around. She's really a little jewel. She's not out of the woods yet but at least she may not be a lost cause! Mr. Grain was happy and is going to pay for the vet bill.

So now I'm going to need my computer for my meal planning -- thanks to "Pinterest!" Today, my son looked at my computer and said..."Hey mom, what is this Pinterest site for...oh, hey that's a good idea!" .... Exactly.... Ha!Ha! I've found me a little slew of new recipes on there I'm going to give a try. I'll post them if I find any really good ones! If you want to find me on Pinterest...I'm Crochet Crazy on there!

Here's a fun site I found today for crafters! I clicked and it took me to a tutorial on how to make a wreath out of book pages! Be inspired!
Random Tutorial Generator

As good as Grace, our little Axis deer, is doing...we've come to a realization today. Her foot is not going to heal...if she is going to be okay, I think they will have to amputate it. It's not getting blood flow below her wound. She really did that foot in trying to get it out of that fence! Even though she is going to the vet tomorrow, I was very worried today because in my mind, do you take a deer to the vet to have her foot amputated? I told Grace's benefactor, Mr. Grain, today what we have realized. I asked him if he wanted the vet to call him and let him know so he could decide whether he wants the expense. Well, he said no, for us to make the decision and have them put it on his bill. Well, I guess tomorrow will be the moment of truth. She is an amazing little girl...she is just as healthy and normal acting as she can be and doesn't seem to realize her foot is rotting. We are all very fond of her.

Oh my, I have discovered "Pinterest"! I have been finding so many cool things there...crafts, recipes, cool ideas. The stuff just keeps turning up! It's totally addicting! One thing I found on there was how to curl your hair with a sock! I tried this on my daughter and her friend tonight. I had a hard time with it especially on my daughter's hair because it is sooooo long. We'll have to see how it worked tomorrow after they've slept with the socks in their hair!
Here's the link for the tutorial: How To Use A Sock To Get Beautiful Curly Hair Without Heat | A Spotted Pony

Alison has had her friend over all weekend this weekend. Today, they spent time making friends with the cows. There is a baby cow out there that is apparently very friendly...I refuse to go pet him and make friends with him because I know what will eventually happen to him. I can't be friends with my food... They say they are going to get him to let them ride him and then buy him and put him out at her friend, Phoebe's ranch! LOL! We'll see how that plan goes!
The baby's name is "Prince"

The dogs and Gracie are pretty used to each other now so I'm not having to be as viligent in sitting with her like we have been. The good news is that she is going to the veterinarian on Monday! Mr. Grain is going to pay for her to go. He's a kind mnan and I'm happy about it because even though the leg isn't getting worse, it's not getting better either. I'm really attached to this little deer. I hope they can help her!

I did have time to work on my shawl for a little bit today. It is finished all except for the fringe! I'll post pictures of that as soon as I get it done!

Busy week this week...my daughter has dance rehearsals every day this week and her show is this weekend! Her grandparent's are coming to see her dance this weekend!

I do apologize for my lack of crochet content on my crochet blog, but alas my crochet blog has become so much more for me. I have never been any good at keeping a journal but my blog has become a priceless record for me of what is going on in my life. One day, when I have the funds I will print my blog in a book format. We won't forget all the adventures we had! This little deer is one of them...she has been very time consuming but so very fun! She got up by herself today while we had her in the yard. So she still seems to improve every day but I am a little worried about her because she has started gritting her teeth tonight. That means she's in pain. The owner came home today. He said we can take her to the vet after the weekend. I think she really needs to have that leg treated. It's doing okay but it's a very bad wound and it would really be good for it to be stitched and of course any other advice on how to care for her. We are cleaning and wrapping the wound every day but it still bleeds but it's all the way to the bone.

Ernie had to be rushed to the vet today. Michael found him wallowing around and he had gone after a porcupine! Michael rushed him up to Mr. Grain's house (the owner). Michael went with him to hold Ernie for the 40 mile drive. They had to sedate Ernie while they removed approximately 40 quills from inside his mouth and head. They said he probably would have died if Michael wouldn't have found him.
Here's Ernie (before porcupine attack):


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So True~

Sometimes I wish life had a break pedal! Oh my goodness, it's December 01 today! I know this month is going to get by me way too fast. Alison has dance classes every day next week, then her show and then December will be half way over!!

Okay, there is a very sweet little story unfolding over here. You know we have 6 dogs here. Well, we've have quite a zoo here at times with all 6 dogs and now the Axis deer! We've been pretty much making the dogs stay away from her. They were curious about her and wanted to sniff her. Well, they make her nervous so she would bite them! Most of the dogs are staying clear of her except for Pete. He's not giving up so easy but he wasn't being aggressive. He just was always trying to ease close to her. Well, today I caught him laying by her in the yard...as close as she would let him get.

Well, by this evening they are buddies. They were licking each other in the face tonight and Pete layed with her on her blanket!




It was the cutest thing I've ever seen! When we took her outside tonight, he was sticking around her. I really think he's going to protect her! It is so sweet... The owner's are not going to believe this when they get home!

Well, everyone but Michael went to town today to get some groceries. Michael stayed home and did "deer duty". When she saw us leaving, she made her little deer noise at us. That was pretty much it for me today. We came home and put up groceries, did our nightly chores and then tended to Grace (the deer's name). It is astonishing how much she improves every day. Today, she was really starting to get around a lot better. She needs some help with that leg still. She's funny ...she'll move all her legs but that one and then try to move it a little bit...and then look at me for me to help her. Tonight she was took her outside again to stand and we decided to take the splint off to see how she did. She manages the leg better without the splint and she'll put weight on it and it doesn't seem to bother her...we don't know if it's okay for her to put weight on that joint when it's bent. It automatically bends. It's really looking like she is definately going to walk by herself very, very soon. The problem is that we can't let her go off until she can get up all by herself. If she falls, she's toast out there. We'll see what our boss says when he gets home tomorrow. He knows about the deer and was concerned about her. He even suggested to take her to the vet. He's a big animal lover so maybe he'll have some ideas. If we could put some wire on our fence, she could walk around in the yard and be safe to walk around. Oh well, we'll just take it one day at a time and see what happens I guess.

Well, the good news is that I did find the Simply Soft yarn I needed at Wal-Mart to get going on the Prairie Star Afghan again. I only bought one skein...should be enough...I hope -- lol! Well, there's more where that came from if it's not. Luckily, it's a "No Dye Lot" yarn and I couldn't tell any difference from my sample I brought with me. I think I'm going to try to stick with working on my shawl before I get back to the Prairie Star though. I'm close to finish on the shawl and I'm afraid I'll lose interest if I leave it now. It's not the most exciting thing to make.

Well, our little Axis deer is still doing good...she's a little spoiled though! She sat outside again today but we brought her in again for the night. She is really quite funny...she doesn't like the dogs. She will nip at them if they get too close so the dogs have learned to leave her alone -- lol!

Today we got our Christmas decorations up except for the Christmas tree! It's a bit over-kill for our little small living room but Alison loves our decorations...and I have a lot! She insisted on finding a place for everything so it looks a little like a "Griswold" Christmas around here. The owner's wife said they wanted to give us a real Christmas tree so I didn't get our fake one out of storage. I'm a little bummed about Christmas though. I really love giving gifts at Christmas and it really is going to be difficult for me not to be able to. It will be the first time ever...even last year we managed a modest Christmas for the kids. I know Christmas isn't about presents but it still brought me a lot of joy to do so. Oh well, you never know...you never know what's in the store...maybe Jeff will get a job and it will change.

I've made some decent progress on a shawl I started. I'll try to get some pictures taken soon.

I've been searching for a really quick and easy shawl pattern. I've never made a shawl before because I just don't have much use for them personally. I have a friend that is a big Ebay seller and she told me she can get a lot for a crocheted vintage looking shawl with fringe and if I made one, she can sell it for me. So I figure, what the hey..it's worth a shot. I found one that I've started on so I guess that's what I'll work on while I'm waiting to get the yarn to finish my Prairie Star Afghan.

There's no time for crocheting today though because of our little Axis Deer. She tamed up very quickly last night. She takes great comfort in us now. She is soooo sweet. She loves to lick and be scratched. She ended up staying in the house last night...yes, we are suckers. It was really cold last night and we figured it's easier for her body to concentrate on healing itself when she's not wasting energy on shivering to stay warm. Michael slept on the couch in the living room and she slept on the floor. Someone needed to be there in case she tried to get up because she falls down. Then you have to get her situated back in a comfy position. Michael said he woke up about 4 times when she tried to get up. It is encouraging because she does seem better and stronger today! I really would like to see a happy ending for once in one of these endeavors! We took her outside today and let her try to stand. She actually stood for a little while by herself once we got her back feet situated right....she seems much better than she did yesterday.

We do think she may have a break just above one of the back hooves because it bends the wrong way when she tries to stand on it. So we made a splint and put it on it. Maybe the little girl will be able to walk even if with a limp. Tonight, she's even more calm and relaxed in the house. She seems quite content and happy in my living room! Ha! She just sits there and looks around...eats and drinks. She's hardly trying to get up now. We can do whatever around her tonight and she doesn't seemed phased by it.

Today is my birthday ... I, um, got a REAL LIVE DEER for my birthday from Michael! LOL -- No, really though...Michael got me a padded Chef's Mat to put in front of the kitchen sink. It was a really busy day today. The ferrier came this morning and the owner's are out of town so Jeff had to move horses from the pasture next door. More horses than normal to deal with today. He was supposed to have Jury Duty today but he called and they had cancelled it! Good news but he had to go to Kerrville instead to fill out applications for two jobs he's applying for. We're hoping one of the two will pan out... gotta do what we gotta do.

Tonight, the kids surprised me with a cake after dinner!


Apparently Alison stayed up late after I went to bed last night to bake the cake. Alison gave me a gift...some really pretty iron horse head book ends.


I love my family....

Look what Michael brought home this afternoon! Ahh...another hurt animal. She is an Axis Deer so she is not regulated by game laws from what I read online. She's actually pretty big! I hate it because I don't like it if they die. Well, this little girl is really strong and alert. She's eating and drinking but she has a hurt legs. Michael found her hanging and tangled in a fence. So now she's in the living room. We bandaged up her leg. We don't know how bad the leg is but I guess we'll just wait and see what happens. That appears to be the only thing wrong with her. She's actually pretty big! We're going to put her in a horse stall for the night.