Crochet Me Crazy

Jeff went to caulk a storage unit in return for a free month's rent on our storage unit today. He was gone for several hours and Alison and I did a little bit in a mother/daughter bible study book I bought for us before Christmas. We went outside under a shade tree. It was VERY WARM today! Then Alison took me on a walk to show me where her and Michael were fishing yesterday.

You can see the fish in the water...

She said it was very pretty and wanted me to see the big Cypress tree.

We saw this snake sunning...

I don't know what the actual temperature was today but it felt like it was in the 80's today in the sun. When we were on our walk I was wishing I had on shorts! It was an all around good day today. Alison helped me make dinner. We made hot sauce, green sauce, and tacos for dinner. The hot sauce and green sauce I make a whole lot and we eat on it all week.
Jeff and Alison talked daddy into going fishing with them tonight. I went down there and read a book while they fished. They caught several little fish but nothing worth keeping.
Jeff gets up and is working drenching goats tomorrow.

Today was my husband's birthday! The kids were gone fishing and goofing around at the river for most of the day. We lazed around most of the day. I spent time looking through afghan patterns and trying to pick out a pattern I am willing to commit to. I'm really eyeing some Fisherman Crochet patterns. Might be good for me since I have a tendency for boredom. Then, we hung out at the neighbor's campfire with them earlier in the evening. They all went inside and we threw some fish on their campfire. It was not, however, fish that my kids caught! Michael didn't catch any fish but he did catch this....




Alison said it was swimming around in the water and she told him to "Catch it"...of course, she didn't think he really would. He just leaned down and picked it up by its tail. They brought it back to show us and then they went and let it go back at the river. He's kinda cute and yucky at the same time!

Yes, I know its bright! I just wanted to make this scarf - Crochet With Cris: Pointed Granny Scarf [Pattern] I hate making scarves without hats to match so I made a simple child size granny square hat to go with it. Another items to throw in the box!

Took advantage of a the extra time today since it's a non-ballet day. Alison wanted to go see Princess.
She got groomed and de-ticked....


Princess is enjoying the ear scratch....



She got loved....



She did perfect when Alison rode her...even better than yesterday. Princess was paying very good attention and listening so good today! It's always makes Alison so happy when Princess does good...and Princess knows it.



I'm not sure what would happen if we had to leave this place. I know it will break Alison's heart to have to leave this horse.

Sorry, to bore all you non-horsey people. Maybe I should start a separate blog for all my non-crochet stuff. Email me at summerysmile@yahoo.com if you would like a link for the personal blog that is non-crochet related.

I was feeling a little blue this evening. The kids and I walked down to the river tonight. They threw their poles in the water...we never catch anything though except teeny-tiny perch. We stink at fishing.



PS: I added 5 new blogs to my blog list to the left and I removed 3 blogs than hadn't been updated in 6 months or more.

Well, I inquired about the dog today and they found the owner! I was very glad to hear that he had been reunited with his owner. Not bad...less than 24 hours and he was back home again. They were praying for "Gunner" to come back. So the story had a happy ending!

This is crazy but I'm thinking about making an afghan. I don't know why I would want to start something big like this in the RV. I've been crocheting all these years and I've never made myself an afghan. I'm looking through my patterns. I might not do it right now but I'm thinking about it.

I have a finished project to post but I'll do that tomorrow...right now, I'm going to sleep! G'night all.

Princess, that is. No dance today so we had a little more time than just "hello". Alison brushed her and rode her.

As far as the dog goes, he disappeared yesterday and Alison went to the office to mail a letter and came back and said they had him tied up there. They fed him too. She said he went nuts when he saw her. She went back up there and asked them and they said they had called someone who had posters up to see if it was his dog. His dog has been missing since Christmas though. I doubt its the same dog because this dog hasn't missed a recent meal. I'm thinking someone from the office took him home with them because he was gone when the office closed. I'll inquire about him later.

Jeff and I went to Hondo last night to buy groceries while the kids were at youth services. We dropped them off and then headed on our way. Our neighbor's picked them up for us. Nice evening driving without kids being loud in the back seat!

This dog showed up at our campsite yesterday. We went about our business and went to see Princess, then took Alison to dance and we didn't bother with him.
We tried to run him off because I didn't know if he would try to eat our little dogs! Then, last night, he came up out of the dark while my dogs were going potty. My dogs about went nuts and he ran off and then came back. That's when we realized he is very friendly. Then, he runs off into the dark and comes back with his CHEW and wanted to play!! Where did he get that from? A stray that brought his own chew? It's obvious he belongs to someone but he keep sticking around here. He's well fed and is wearing a collar. We checked to see if he has a tag but he doesn't. I get up this morning and he is still out there!

See him?? I'm peeking out the window and he's out there making himself at home on our carpet - lol



We didn't feed him. We know he would never leave then! He's hungry though...he keeps sniffing around looking for food. I don't know what we are going to do about him...we can't keep that big dog in our RV! I feel bad for him. I hope someone didn't dump him. Sigh....



Here is a kleenex box cover that I finished last night. You can find the free pattern for this at the Royal Sisters Blog: Granny Tissue Box Tutorial

We enjoyed our visit with the grandparents this past weekend. The kids were extremely bored while they were there but I know they enjoyed seeing their grandparents and great-grandmother. It felt like we were staying at the Hilton! Alison and I enjoyed take baths and the fact they have GREAT water pressure. It was so easy to rinse our hair and not worry about running out of hot water. Oh, the little things.....

It's good to be back home though.

On the way home, we plotted our route to go see my mama's grave and also stopped to say hello to my friend I've known since I was a girl there in my hometown. We continued on our way and got home about 8:30 pm last night. The got to work putting away the THREE large garbage sacks full of clean clothes that I had washed while we were there! LOL ---

I've never quite seen anything like this.

Shauna Richardson

Just sitting here killing time while at the in-laws house. They men are watching a movie. Nana is already in bed and Alison is visiting with her great grandmother in her room. I haven't been on the internet since we got here. Just thought I'd check in on the online world for a bit tonight.

We are enjoying our visit. Feels like staying in the Hilton! Alison is enjoying long, hot baths every night. All my clothes are washed and packed and ready for our trip home tomorrow.

I've been searching for crochet inspiration. I've gone through my patterns and picked out a few things to start on. Maybe I'll have time to crochet in the car on our trip.

We are going to visit Jeff's grandmother and parents tomorrow. It's been a long time since we've seen her and it seems like there is always some reason or circumstance why we can't go. We have decided we just have to do it. She's getting old and has had some recent health problems. So we're planning on loading up in our fuel efficient "Turdcell" (as we call it...it's a Turcel...lol) and take off. I've got an embarassing amount of dirty laundry to bring with me.

Alison has been wanting to go see Princess but we didn't have a car yesterday. Jeff took our car and the truck is giving us problems. It wouldn't start. Jeff got the truck running today and took it. I'm trying to get the kids to finish up their school work quickly...then we're going to go say HI to Princess.

Alison is doing good in school this year. We started her in High School level Biology this year and I wasn't sure if it would be too much for her. (She's technically skipping a grade in Science by doing this). She's making A's so far! It looks like we're above grade level in all subject except Math...she's right on schedule for Math.

I've had a long enough break and I really need to stress relieve myself. I'm having a creative block on what to do though. Nothing is calling me to make it right now...hmmmm...

Hats, scarves...nah...not in the mood.

I started a Christmas stocking that I never finished. Maybe finishing something would make me feel better.

Alison starts back to ballet tomorrow. She's very happy about that. Stock show is over. Time to get back to the nitty-gritty of school work.

We're going to visit Jeff's grandmother and parents this next weekend. It feels weird that I would normally be getting clothes washed up to pack. Not so this time...I've already warned them that I'm bringing all my dirty clothes with me to wash at their house! LOL -- All the sheets are coming off the beds and everything. I will leisurely do laundry there and come home with a car load of clean clothes and sheets. Now that's a switch isn't it...usually, I leave for a trip with a car full of clean clothes and come home with a car full of dirty clothes!

Happy Monday to you all tomorrow!

I took those pictures of Alison's belt buckle but she said she needed one of her and the belt buckle and Princess.

So here's Princess as we are on our way out to greet her...

She says "Oh, hey guys! I see you coming. I'm just chomping down on hay right now. What's up?"



Here she says, "Hey Alison! I know you!"




Then, she says "Oh, hey what's that you got there? I've never seen that before! It's so shiny and pretty!"



She kept checking it out....hmmmm....interesting.



Yup, we did good, girl....

We got quite a shock today! The county agent called us at about 12:30 to make sure we were gonna be at the show barn today at 1 pm. We weren't planning on going anywhere today because everything was over for us. Alison had to rush to get dressed and Jeff and her went down there to see what was going on. I didn't get to go because my hair was wet because I had just gotten out of the shower. She had to be there because she had won Showmanship for the Horse Division!! We were so surprised! I didn't get to see her get her award!!! WAAA! Actually, it's just what she worked for the most. She put in lots and lots of hours working with Princess! Princess was probably the youngest horse there although I didn't see ALL the 23 horses. She got a belt buckle and a $200 scholarship for the local college here. It is soooo cool and I'm so thrilled that all her hard worked paid off for her.

It was a lot of fun and a great experience for Alison showing Princess today! Alison placed 5th of 5 horses though! There were 23 horses but they broke the Mares off and there were only 5 mares. We were at the stables at 7:30 this morning where we did the final touches to Princess.....she got her hooves trimmed and painted. It was a bit of a let down today though...not really because she placed last but because it wasn't anything like we were led to believe it was. Alison really didn't get to do any of the stuff she's worked with Princess on. What she should have been working on is just standing there. That's mostly all they did. The judge apparently didn't like Princess at all because she went down the line saying what she liked about each horse and she didn't really say anything about Princess. I don't think it mattered one bit the grooming or the showmanship. All she looked at was the horse itself standing there. The 4th place horse had dirt on his back. Alison got a 5th place ribbon and a ONE DOLLAR Bill! LOL -- It's all okay though. Alison had fun doing it and she definately had fun spending all that time with Princess grooming her and getting her ready. I'm no horse expert but Princess was the still the prettiest horse there (but I'm very biased :) I am so proud of Alison for what she has accomplished this past year with Princess.

Princess was pretty alert while we waited....



1st Place Horse....



2nd Place Horse....This is my favorite one besides Princess



3rd Place Horse....



4th Place Horse....



5th Place Horse....Our Princess

Well, Princess didn't end up getting a bath today. We went down to the barn and decided not to do it because the barn was open and there was no heat. We had hot water but it is so cold today, soaking her to the skin in this weather wasn't worth it. Then, we decided to take her to the local show barn where they say the horse show is. We were all pretty amazed and disgusted when we saw where they are planning on having the horse show. It's just a small grassy area behind the show barn. The grass was up to our knees. Of course, Princess is going to try to eat grass. We were amazed and thinking surely they are going to at least mow the grass??? It's not that big of a space either. I'm concerned about 23 horses in there. Princess didn't do as good here as she did at the arena. Praying that this goes okay tomorrow. I hope Alison is one of the last horses to go in so she doesn't have to stand there in all that grass trying to get Princess not to eat as long. Well, they did start mowing as we left so at least the grass won't be at her knees. When we got back to the stables, Alison practiced stopping and working with Princess in grass, which we normally never do. You don't expect to have those type of conditions showing a horse. When Princess would try to eat she would stop her and circle her if she got an attitute until she stood there with no problem. Let's hope she remembers this tomorrow! Alison won't be able to circle her during the show.

We have a busy day today for the final preparations before the big day tomorrow! This might be "old hat" for some people but not only Alison's first time to show a horse but she's never even seen a horse show before! Big Spring Ranch is letting us use their heated barn that has hot water today. It's too cold to bathe Princess outside so we are loading her up to bathe her over there. Last things to do are file her hooves and clip her back fetlocks. Tomorrow we will get up early to make sure she's clean and brushed again and paint her hooves with hoof paint so they will by shiny.

Please pray that everything will go smoothly and safely tomorrow at the show. I am a bit nervous because anytime you are dealing with animals, they can be unpredictable so there is always risk involved. There is 23 horses showing tomorrow. The part that makes the the most nervous is Alison being in there with her horse and all those other horses. I feel like Alison and Princess are very well prepared. They have worked together a lot and have a good working/trusting relationship with each other so I'm sure everything will be fine. I just pray for safety of all horses and kids at the show.

I've been toying with the idea of starting an online shop on Etsy. I'm not sure that stuff will really sell though. I also don't want to sell things that are extremely time intensive to make because people don't tend to want to pay what a handmade item is worth. Even my slippers that I am selling at the consignment store, I let them go for $10 a pair. I'm fine with that on those particular slippers because I bought the yarn that I made those from on clearance. They were just sitting in a box anyway. However, if I were to start making them and purchasing the yarn at retail (they are made from the soft, expensive, novelty yarn from Hobby Lobby $6-$7 per ball) plus you add the 2 hours it takes to make them, and it's just not worth it. I always have people tell me I should sell the things I make, but I'm just not convinced that it would be worth it. I've sold my aluminum can hats for $10. For now, while I'm having fun making them then I can accept that, but cost of materials and 2 hours of work....not much profit in that at all. Anyway, I've considered this before and the idea ended up falling by the wayside.

After all that work, this is what our beautifully groomed horse looked like today! Ha! Ha! We had a big rain last night. Of course, we were expecting it but it was still pretty disgusting timing.



I really can't say that I've done any crocheting at all this week. I dropped those hats and a few pair of slippers in the consignment store earlier in the week. I stopped in there yesterday and she said she had already sold 2 pair of slippers.

Alison said "That was so fun!"
We spent the ENTIRE day today with Princess. We started at about noon and we brushed, conditioned, scratched, bathed, pampered and Alison worked with that horse all day long. After her bath and the show-sheen, she looked like a different horse! The color of her coat was so much more vivid without all that dirt in her. At about 4:30, we loaded her up in the trailer. I've never seen her go in a trailer before...she loaded up beautifully. We got out to the Big Spring Ranch where she was alert and not so sure about the new place. The girl out there was a pro with horses. She clipped Princess up with the clippers. Princess did wonderful during that too. She got a little upset toward the end and actually side kicked the girl! That was a shock for all of us to see because I have never seen Princess act like that before. Alison also got to walk with her and practice in the arena there. I'm glad we did that. I know Alison feels a lot better about the whole thing now. I think she is going to do just fine next week.

Yesterday Jeff worked on the job for the dentist. The kids and I went up to the stables and Alison brushed and worked with Princess. I think Alison has a lot to be proud of regardless of how well she does at the show considering she was a city girl who has never been around horses until the past year. Princess is a beautiful horse. She is setting up good for Alison.



This morning Princess went to the vet to get her Coggins Certificate. We didn't end up going with them to take her. After she got back Alison worked with her some more and we all worked on getting her brushed down really well and put lots and lots of condition in her mane.



Tomorrow, we are taking her to Big Springs Ranch where a girl there is going to help up get her all groomed up and clipped and watch Alison work with her as well and hopefully give her a few pointers.

The bad ne4ws is that I'm hearing that a terrible arctic blast is supposed to be hitting us some time next week! This couldn't be worse timing.

Here is a video of Princess getting her treats today for a job well done before we let her go

Last night Jeff got the call from a friend that they had shot some nuisance raccoons that were attacking peoples goats. (I didn't know they did that!) They left them at the stables for Jeff to pick them up if Michael wanted them. Well, of course, he wanted them! So they go pick them up at about 11 pm last night and come home with 3 raccoons in a trash bag. They come back and Jeff tells Michael he'll have to hang them up for the night until he can have time to skin them out the next day and then he comes inside. Jeff comes outside this morning to bring Alison to feed her goat and finds the raccoons dangling from a rope which is tied to the bumper of his truck...right in the front of our campsite! He had taken them out of the bag so there they were for all the old people to gawk at while they took their early morning walks! LOL -- I'm just imagining what all these people were thinking. I did have a lady catch me outside later on this afternoon and ask me if those raccoons were real that were hanging there this morning. I had to explain that my son, who is an aspiring taxidermist, had hung those there. Anyway, Michael got them all skinned out today and they are tucked away in the freezer now. He is happy as a lark. He finally has the money saved up to buy his forms to start the actual process of mounting something.

I close my post with more hats...

I think I'm getting even quicker at these. I can practically make them in my sleep now. I sold the another one to someone in the RV park. They bought the Coca-Cola one. I'm going to try to make a trip to town and see about getting a few into the consignment shop in town and see if I can sell some of them to give myself a little pocket change.

Time to get back to school and normal life...whatever that is - lol The kids started back to school today. We've got a lot of work to get ready for Alison's stock show next week!! Yikes! Tomorrow, we are going down to Big Springs Ranch where they said we can come watch them work on grooming a horse tomorrow. Thursday Princess goes to the vet to get her Coggins certificate. Then, we we can load Princess up and take her to Big Springs Ranch where Alison can practice with Princess in their arena one day soon. Hopefully, the girl there will give Alison some pointers and may even pretend to be the judge for her. Alison has never even been to a stock show before!! She's such a brave girl.

Here are the latest hat creations...

We spent New Years eve over in the "room", as we call it. Everyone brought snacks and finger foods and desserts and we played games.

Here was Michael and Jeff's table where they played Mexican Train Dominoes...



Here was Alison and I's choice of the more exciting game of Uno Attack...



Michael loves to play pool with his wood-turning buddy....



Michael made some Soto walking sticks last week and has been giving them as gifts. He game one to our dear friend, Mr. Clubine...



Today, there was a lunch at noon sponsored by the RV park. The park provided the ham and we all brought pot luck dishes. I made sure to eat my black-eyed peas this year. I got to thinking...maybe that's the problem! I haven't eaten my black-eyed peas for the past few years!