Crochet Me Crazy

We started the day off with the vet coming. I got to watch Andrew get his "procedure" done. Wow...poor Andrew...that's about all I can say! I took a video of the surgery but don't worry, I won't be posting that here! It was really sad watching Andrew go down when they gave him the anesthesia. I was praying for him. Just so unnatural to watch a horse go down like that.

Then, Mrs. Grain and I spent several hours working on building the raised garden beds. Well, I just helped her mostly. I held the boards for her while she cut them with miter saw. She's a very handy gal! Then, Alison and I had to run to town for Alison to make a delivery of cards to the store in town that's selling her cards. They've been selling very good and getting a lot of interest! Shoot...I wish I would have taken a picture of the card display while I was in there. I'll get one next time I'm in. Next, we went to the stables to see Princess and the new baby llama, Lema! She was born this week!



I forgot to mention that Jeff went to pick the kids up at youth service Tuesday night. He decided to drive his truck since it's not getting used very much. Well, one of the youth was backing out of the parking lot and hit Jeff's truck! He's got a pretty good dent in it now!



I've gotten really bored with hexagons I was making to turn into a purse. I'm trying to finish them but I had bought this pattern so I've been working on this. I guess I really love scrap projects because this could make a really nice scrap afghan if you made a bunch of these and sewed them together.

Alison got to help move the cows this afternoon on horseback! We went to town for groceries today but we tried to hurry back because she didn't want to miss out!

They are starting just starting out here. You can't really see them very good because of the sun but it's such a pretty picture anyway. (If you click on the picture, it's much better)



Almost to the pin now...


How fun was that?



The cows are in...




The cows had to be moved to separate the bulls for the vet who's coming tomorrow. After tomorrow, they will no longer be bulls...but steers. The vet will also be turning the baby horse, Andrew, into a gelding tomorrow.

I'm about to go take my shower and head to bed and Jeff still hasn't gotten home from work. He apparently had a very bad day today but I haven't got to hear about it yet.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

I woke up to a soggy morning. It dried up though and became a lovely day. I was busy catching up on mounds of laundry today since I didn't get done for the past two days that my husband was off of work. The ferrier came today. Went down to the barn and talked to him for a bit while he worked. He's an interesting guy and always has lots of philisophical things to say. Alison has the baby llama on a halter now. I go down and scoop llama poop and she works with her...her name is Metzel. I should take some pictures of her. Other than that...pretty uneventful day.

Since I don't have anything interesting to say, I'll share something I read in the Maggie Weldon email today. A little Crochet History for you!

Crochet University - History of Crochet : Maggie Weldon, Free Crochet Patterns

History of Crochet

Crochet is a method of using yard or thread and a hook to create fabric. The word “crochet” comes from the French language, meaning hook. While most countries use the term “crochet” to describe this process of making fabric, Norwegians call it “hekling”, the Dutch call it “haken”, the Danish language refers to it as “haekling” and the Swedes call it virkning. An actual origin date for crochet is not certain, but there are some references that date back to the 16thCentury. According to crochet expert Annie Potter, the art of modern crochet was developed in Europe where the French called it crochet lace and the English called it chain lace. Lis Paludan, a writer and researcher from Denmark, searched for the history of crochet in Europe and found several theories for the origin. Evidence that Paludan found shows this art form either originated in Arabia, South America or China. The problem is that no one has been able to find an estimate of the date of origin, making it difficult to determine the historical beginnings of crochet.

Other forms of handwork that are similar to crochet include knitting, weaving and embroidery. These arts forms have documentation that outline a historical time line of origin, but crochet does not have this same historical dating. Crochet started to become popular in Europe in the early 19thcentury when Riego de la Branchardiere began designing and duplicating patterns for people to use. This style of crochet is often referred to as Irish crochet, and is among some of the first documented

What a perfectly boring day yesterday was! We got up and went to church, ate lunch, dropped Alison's friend, Phoebe, off at her mom's shop and then headed home with Michael's friend, Morgan. The boys did leather in the RV all day and Alison cleaned her room. Jeff slept ALL day in the $6 chair. We had the day off. I didn't do too much of anything. Went and layed on Alison's bed and watched her sort through clothes for awhile. We fed the horses peppermints through her bedroom window in the RV. I loved on my deer and checked Facebook and my blog like it was the empty refrigerator. I did a few rows on my afghan and made another hexagon. Hmmm....nothing too exciting.

Now, today was a different story! We spent today digging in the dirt! We are so excited to start working on the garden! Jeff dug up the dirt and smoothed it out with the Bob Cat.


I should have taken a "before" picture. There were tons of thistles in there. We have lots more work to do but we made a great start today!

Ah....the horses, cows, and llamas are fed and I'm just sitting here on my porch with the sound of chewing all around me. It's a bit on the cold side here but not too bad if you are in the sunshine. The girls and I went to the thrift stores in town today and made some other stops to say hello to people. I bought me a couple of sheets to start cutting for a rag rug.

Yesterday, Alison and I went over to stables. I showed Mrs. Stables how to do some stuff on the computer and how to cut the material for her to crochet a rag rug. It motivated me to want to make one too! I called my sister to tell her I'm motivated so if they can start cutting up my mom's clothes, I can make the rugs I promised. My mom left behind a lot of clothes and the idea was to make a keepsake rug for the sisters from her clothes. You know how you remember what your mom wore. Alison is already grown attachments to my clothes. She has a night gown that I wanted to throw away because it was so thread bare.

Other random stuff going on....we've got a baby llama that we separated from it's mama a few days ago. We have the baby in a stall and the idea is to start taming it. Alison has been working on her and today her and Phoebe made some headway with it. They were able to get it to stop running away at times and pet it. The llama should do better and better the more we mess with her.

Also, we have two baby cows! The steers will be separated in the next week or so...so we don't have anymore babies! These were really unplanned babies that no one was expecting!

Um....let's see what else....Jeff is happy because today is his "Friday". He has tomorrow and Monday off! The first two days he's had off in 6 weeks! He'll have a day to work here at the ranch and a day to rest.

I've been working on making some hexagons to make this purse I found on this blog:
Almond Blossom Bag

The picture is really terrible on the colors. They also don't really look like hexagons...they sorta look like circles!



My scrap yarn ball box was filling up so I have also been working on adding that yarn to my scrap afghan.

I'm so sleepy tonight I can barely stay awake to type this post so instead of the blog post I had planned to tell about my day today I'm posting a draft I had typed and saved but had never posted. I will say real quick that I was happy to see that the chicken was fine this morning when I let them out! Thank God!

My son amazes me....I barely got this picture of this purse he finished. He caught me taking the picture and kept trying to grab it.

Front

Back


This is his first purse. There is an error on it where he messed up. I noticed it right away but Alison and her friend couldn't find it so I won't point it out. It is amazing either way...

Now this is another project in the works. He is making a suit of armor out of leather. I'm not sure why but he likes it. This is one arm of it. He's designing each piece. That alone I wouldn't be able to do. He has always been very good at constructing things.



I finished going to the posts on my blog and adding all the tags. I may have missed a few but there should be alot more crochet projects tagged on my sidebar now!

Finally!! I still haven't taken the pictures I wanted to take of it. The plan was to have the kids hold it up for me to get a good picture of it. It's big so it's hard to get the whole thing! Anyway, here it is laid out on my bed!



Prairie Star Afghan - Free Pattern

Ah, tonight I went to put the chickens up and the chicken roost had fallen over on the ground and there was a chicken pinned under it! I thought it was dead but when I lifted it up, it got up! I hope it's okay and I'm really hoping I don't find a dead chicken in the morning!

I've still been searching around online for yarn for the Blue Star Afghan. I've found it is very difficult to try to pick colors online. The very small pictures samples of the yarn colors make it very difficult to try to coordinate the 5 different colors I would need for my afghan. I was very delighted to find that the Red Heart site gives you the coordinating colors for their yarns! I think this is the blue multi-color I will use on my Blue Star Afghan. Blues Classic Yarn | Red Heart I will use white and I am considering the other 3 colors as the Skipper Blue, Pale Blue, and Blue Jewel or I may just order my varigated online and look for the coordinating colors in the store. I hope I'm not getting in over my head trying to make this afghan!

The owner's 4 day party is over. It's quiet here and everyone has gone home. Yesterday, Alison was hired to catch, groom and tack the horses for the owner's and their guests to go riding. They were all tired so she paid Alison to do it for them.

What a GORGEOUS day today was! It was so warm I had to change into shorts! It was Alison's best friends birthday so she came over and they went horseback riding. They also decided to go swimming!! Not that warm but you know how kids are...they can take it. Then, we decided to go the State Park for a pic-nic. Then we walked around a little bit...



It sure is nice there when it's not crowded with people. We came home in time to pick up Michael and take him to Wednesday night church. I drove on from there to take Phoebe home, then back to pick Michael back up.

I do have some crochet stuff to post...time just keeps getting away from me. I will FINALLY be posting pictures of my completed Prairie Star Afghan!

Today did NOT feel like Sunday. Jeff was off yesterday and worked today. I guess I will have to get used to it when Jeff starts getting different days of the week off that aren't necessarily the weekends.

Michael and I went to town for groceries today. Alison went over to her friend's house to bake some goodies. Her friend's mom's new coffee/gift shop is grand opening tomorrow so they were baking stuff for that.

I've been obsessing a bit over a new project. I can't remember if I mentioned this or not but I'm about to start on another afghan. I was first obsessing over which pattern. I have quite a few afghan patterns that I have always loved. I think I have it pretty much narrowed down to this one....

It's called Blue Star Afghan and it's from the book Herrschner's Blue Ribbon Afghans
This, like the Prairie Star, is one of those afghans that I have always loved and wanted to make someday. I always change the colors of things but I even love the colors on this. I won't be able to start this right away though because I have to locate the yarn first. I can't believe they don't give you specific yarn colors or brands on this! That is the part I'm having trouble with. I don't have a place to buy yarn close by and I just can't get a good enough look at the yarns to order online. I looked at Wal-Mart today but they didn't have a good enough selection. I've got to come up with the varigated color first and then match the rest of the solids with that. I have to get the colors right on a project this big. I am a little bit NERVOUS about starting this, however. I'm glad I did a little reading about it online first because I discovered that there are apparently a lot of ERRORS in this pattern and in this book in general. It's a little annoying to spend money on a published book and then find out it has so many errors. I did find a page of corrections online and apparently Herrschner's will send them to you if you request them. Even with the corrections, I had read on a crochet-along thread, that people still had problems with it. I'm just thankful I found this out BEFORE hand! I don't know how long it will be until I can get to a craft store to buy yarn so I'll have to find something else to keep busy with until then. One thing I plan on digging out is my Star Coverlet I abandoned working on in the RV for lack of space. I've asked Jeff to get it out of storage so I can sew that together.

Oh,

We've been helping the owner's out here get ready for their big party. Yesterday I washed out the stalls and blew off and washed off the barn porch. I don't know who's birthday party this is but they are really going all out. There will be people here from Saturday through Wednesday. Today they moved the chuck wagon from the 1800's that has been restored out in front of the barn. We went down there to help them set it up. Michael knew how to tie the kind of knots they needed. One night they are having a chuck wagon dinner.

We had a BIG day scheduled for trail rides at the stables tomorrow. Maybe over 40 riders but it rained last night and there is a large percentage for heavy thunderstorms tonight and a 50% chance of rain tomorrow. We are going to have to make a judgement call on whether it will be safe to ride tomorrow with all the mud but it's really not looking too good. It's really bad timing for the rain which may cause us to have to turn away that badly needed business. Jeff switched his off work day from Sunday to tomorrow so he could go do the rides for them. The good news is that this is his last week of only 1 day a week off! Next week, he'll have Sunday & Monday off and then it's the work 6 days / off 2 day schedule! Yay!

I've been trying to find some type of joining method for my yo-yos. Everything I see is Join as You Go where you join on the last round...my yo-yos are already finished. I tried some braid joining methods but the videos were confusing and it ended up warping the shape of my yo-yo. Also, I don't know that I want all that extra yarn in between my yo-yos. I like the simplicity of just the yo-yos joined together so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I better stop making so many yo-yos because if I have to sew these together I'm not going to like that.

Today I tidied up my yarn bag that I had been using the yarn from to make yo-yos with by winding it into tighter balls with my yarn winder. The bag was overflowing and I was able to condense it quite a big by rewinding a lot of the loose balls into tighter, smaller balls. I love my yarn winder.

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend! Looks like it's going to be a messy one for us but thank God for the rain!

I'm still making yo-yos I think mainly because I haven't had time to sit down and figure out another project to start on and I need something to keep my hands busy when I sit! (Possibly my son got his inability to sit and do nothing from ME?? :) I can waste many idle hours on the computer though! Anyway, I was looking through some yo-you quilt books to give me some ideas. I found THIS on the back cover of a quilt book:

Of course, who knows if I would ever finish this! It would take forever! I could make it sort of a life-time scrap project and maybe I would be done with it by the time I DIE and hopefully my kids wouldn't donate it to Salvation Army! LOL!

I do LOVE the yo-yo's though!


It would be impossible for an afghan of any kind made out them to be ugly! I am partial to the scrap look in crochet!

Quiet day around here today. I tried to clean up around the house today. I was thinking...what has happened to me? I used to be a neat freak and now I am able to leave messes around for days! It's impossible to keep dirt off the floors. I could vacume & sweep 20 times a day and still have it. I guess that's the price you pay when you don't live around cement streets and grass yards.

Later on in the afternoon Alison and I went for her to spend time with Princess.

We stayed up there for a long time. We came home, ran in the house and changed clothes and went to church. Jeff worked really late tonight again.

It was Alison's morning to feed the horses but Alison was sick this morning so I got up and did it myself. I started to get Michael to do it but I figured I needed to try to do it myself. I used to do it when we first moved out here but I've got intimidated when they moved the 3 extra horses from next door. I don't really like dealing with many horses...I'm more of a one horse at a time person! I was a little sneakier about it to avoid dealing with some of the pushier horses. I put out a flake of hay by the barn at our house to distract the greedy ones. Then, I was able to get each horse in its stall one by one. I don't like putting grain in the baby Andrew's stall when he's in there because he's got no manners. I did it though. I let out the horses and scooped the stalls today myself too. That's Michael's job but sometimes it's just easier to do stuff yourself. Alison was feeling better today but she still felt kinda weak. I made her take it easy today but then by the afternoon she was wanting to go to dance. She didn't want me to make her have to miss YOUTH tonight!

I also gave Michael a badly needed hair cut today. Even he finally admitted he needed a hair cut! I find it difficult to cut his fine, blonde hair but since he generally wears a hat all the time, I figured I could get it done if he could just be patient enough to sit there. In the end, it looked really good...maybe one of the best jobs I've ever done on his hair!

Michael helped Mr. Grain do a bunch of stuff today. They filled feeders and unloaded a bunch of hay. Yesterday, he helped Mrs. Grain do some stuff up at the cabin. They are doing a bunch of work and cleaning up around here from some big shindig they are having out here this weekend. Apparently, they are going to have people staying in all available housing.

Well, I played around with making some crochet yo-yo's.



I saw this Crocheting in Georgia: Miss Golie's Bedspreads. You should go take a look at this bedspread! It's amazing and completely handmade!
It inspired me that you could make a crochet version of this. I did a sample of two different versions to see which one I liked better.
This one looks better but it uses more yarn.



There is a free tutorial for this online here: Yo-Yo Puff

I actually prefer making this one but it's not quite as pretty.



However, on the 2nd round, you need to replace the CH2 with a CH3 so you don't get that goofy indention on your yo-yo. I'm sure you can see it in the picture. It's pretty noticeable to me. I got the pattern for this yo-yo from the book
25 Throws, Wraps, and Blankets to Crochet by Melody Griffiths



Anyway, I ended up making 4 yo-yos today but I'm not sure about this project because I don't know how I would join them. I guess you could just plain old sew them together but that would be no fun at all. I'll do a little searching to see if there's something on the web about how to join them.

Here's the hat I finished that was inspired by the wiggles hat. It really needs a cherry on top and maybe some sprinkes. I don't know if that is going to happen with this one though because I've lost interest. I jotted down the pattern while I was making so I could share wit you. Hope you like it.


Wiggle Cupcake Hat

I Hook
Worsted Weight Yarn - Pink, Brown, & White
Row 1) With Pink - Ch 4, 11 dc in 4 ch from the hook. Join to beginning ch 2 (12 dc)

Row 2) Ch 2, dc in same space, 2 dc in each stitch around, Join to beginning ch 2 (24 dc)

Row 3) Ch 2, dc in same space, *Dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc, repeat from * around, Join to beginning ch 2

Row 4) Ch 2, dc in same space, *Dc in next 2 dc, 2 dc in next dc, repeat from * around, Join to beginning ch 2

Row 5) Ch 2, dc in same space, *Dc in next 3 dc, 2 dc in next dc, repeat from * around, Join to beginning ch 2

Row 6) Ch 2, dc in same space, *Dc in next 4 dc, 2 dc in next dc, repeat from * around, Join to beginning ch 2

Rows 7-9) 9 Ch 2, Dc in next stitch and each stitch around, Join to beginning ch 2

Row 10) Ch 3, Skip next dc, *dc in next dc, Ch 1, repeat from * around, Join in 2nd chain of beginning Ch 3

Row 11) Ch 2, DC in each stitch around, join in beginning ch 2

Row 12) Ch 1, FPDC around same stitch as join, DC in next dc, *FPDC around next DC, DC in next stitch, repeat from * around, Join in beginning FPDC (not the ch 1)

Row 13-18) Repeat row 12

Row 19) Ch 1, Sc in same stitch and in each stitch around, join in beginning sc.

Fasten off and weave in ends.

With White, add a row wiggles for your "frosting" to the row with the Ch 1 spaces.

Turn the hat sideways with the top of the hat facing the right side. On the bar formed by the DC on the row, join with a slip stitch, ch 3, now DC 3 more DC on the same bar.
Now turn the hat counter clockwise where the top of the hat is facing the left side now. 4 Dc in the bar of the dc below it. Continue this around until you join in the beginning Ch3. Fasten off and weave in ends.

My creative juices are flowing. I'm getting the urge to make an afghan again. I don't know what getting into me lately! As long as I've been crocheting, I've only made 3 full sized afghans and two of them have been since we've been in this house! Well, I'm not into boring afghans. I've been browsing patterns tonight and have several prospects. I really like this one by Red Heart and I am going to make this one but I don't think it's the one I'm going to do right now. I want something really stunning and gorgeous.

Wedding Ring Quilt Crochet Pattern | Red Heart

While I was looking, I ran across this pattern. Yet another Red Heart pattern. They really put out some good stuff. Anyway, it's a placemat but I don't have plans for that. I'm thinking of doing this with several strands of yarn and making it a rug. Maybe several strands of different shades of browns and tan to make a tweed look. Anyway, we'll see...either of these projects will involve buying yarn so I might not be able to start right away.

Oval Placemat & Coaster Crochet Pattern | Red Heart

Anyway...spent the day in town today getting groceries. Alison started feeling sick to her stomach. Still not sure what's going on with her. She's felt bad the rest of the day and we didn't even go to dance. Tonight she broke out with some type of rash. Not on her whole body but there are welts. It looks like some type of allergic reaction or something.

I got up to look out the window and see what that noise was and it was sleeting! My first thought was, I'm glad it's out day off from feeding the horses today! Then, the sleet turned to snowing for about 10 minutes...then back to sleet. It all melted away to a sloppy mess by the afternoon.

I've got the cupcake hat finished. Picture and pattern for that on the way tomorrow!

Wiggly Crochet Hat

1 - Ch 4, 11 dc in 4 ch from the hook. Join to beginning ch 2 (12 dc)

2 - Ch 2, dc in same space, 2 dc in each stitch around, Join to beginning ch 2 (24 dc)

3 - Ch 2, dc in same space, *Dc in next dc, 2 dc in next dc, repeat from * around, Join to beginning ch 2

4 - Ch 2, dc in same space, *Dc in next 2 dc, 2 dc in next dc, repeat from * around, Join to beginning ch 2

5 - Ch 2, dc in same space, *Dc in next 3 dc, 2 dc in next dc, repeat from * around, Join to beginning ch 2

6 - Ch 2, dc in same space, *Dc in next 4 dc, 2 dc in next dc, repeat from * around, Join to beginning ch 2

7 - Ch 2, Dc in next stitch and each stitch around, Join to beginning ch 2

8 - Ch 3, Skip next dc, *dc in next dc, Ch 1, repeat from * around, Join in 2nd chain of beginning Ch 3

9 Ch 2, DC in each stitch around, join in beginning ch 2

Repeat rows 8 & 9 four more times.

Add your wiggles to your rows with your Ch 1 spaces.

Turn the hat sideways with the top of the hat facing the right side. On the bar formed by the DC on the row, join with a slip stitch, ch 3, now DC 3 more DC on the same bar.
Now turn the hat counter clockwise where the top of the hat is facing the left side now. 4 Dc in the bar of the dc below it. Continue this around until you join in the beginning Ch3.
Follow this procedure to fill in all your wigglies!



Make yourself a pom-pom to sew on top. You now have a very festive looking hat. Would be very adorable on a little one!



Enjoy!

I was inspired after my first row of wigglies that it would make cute "icing" for a cupcake hat. I'm working on that now!

The owner's horse, Belle, gave us some problems today getting her in her stall to feed tonight. She let her out in the yard to eat today and every time Michael or I tried to get within a 100 feet of her, she would take off! Very uncharacteristic for her as she is a very well trained, expensive horse who usually doesn't act up. She usually goes right in her stall without much prodding. I had to go get her mother. She thought about running from her too but then thought better of it. She got her and put her in her stall. I think Belle ruined her chances of getting out to the green grass tomorrow!

It's cold today and I tried to stay inside as much as possible. I had to bring Alison to her friend's house to practice her dance and Michael needed to go to town but after that I spent most of the afternoon crocheting. I started on the new pattern I bought on Etsy. I came to a problem in the pattern though and I have written the author about it. I believe it's an error but I'll wait and see what she says. So I had to stop progress on that, Then I remembered I had plans to try figuring out how to make a Wiggly Crochet hat so I started on that. It's pretty easy to do. Just make the rows of mesh for your wiggles and ta-da! This is as far as I got today.



I'll finish this up tomorrow! I might be able to get this pattern written out for you too.

Another thing I got caught up doing tonight was going back through old blog posts and adding tags. I started at the beginning and saw that there was (and still is) a WHOLE LOT of untagged crochet content on my blog. I would love to get it all tagged but I can see this is going to take me awhile. I didn't use the tags when I first started blogging. Of course, it was interesting to read old post and what was going on. Boy, has life changed and we have had a good life! I had to laugh when I read this blog post though....
Crochet Me Crazy: Stash Flash!
It was my yarn stash! Oh my goodness, I have probably 3-4 times that amount of yarn now! Little did I know how much it would grow! He he...
I also noticed that before I posted this post...there is 1000 BLOG POSTS on my blog! Wow! Well, you have to at least give it to me that I have been consistent. I started this blog back in 2005 and here I am still blogging in 2012 -- 7 years later! Wow, and still crocheting too....

My poor husband finished his last job at 10:00 pm tonight. Since he had an 1 1/2 hour drive to come home, and would have to wake up at 4:30 and drive that same 1 1/2 hours again, he just decided to sleep in his truck. Boy, can't wait for this training to be over so he doesn't have to make that drive! I don't know how he's doing it. He's exhausted.

Well, goodnight --- my sweet daughter is sleeping with me tonight since Daddy is gone!

Well, this works up really fast. I started this yesterday and managed to finish it up today. I had a couple of partial skeins of some baby yarn I need to use so I made this. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it! I guess throw it in the box with the rest of my completed projects! I still need to sew some tiny buttons on the back though. I don't have any so that will have to wait.

Here's where you can find the free pattern for this little lovely....Ravelry: Angel Wings Pinafore pattern by Maxine Gonser

Alison tried to rest today. She slept in because it was her brother's day to get up and feed horses. She did her school work and then wanted to get a ride in on Magic before we went to see her horse, Princess, at the stables. We hung around the stables for quite awhile. I picked Gracie a huge feed sack full of grass and Alison spent time with Princess. She took her to the tall grass growing outside where the horses are kept, brushed her and fed her some grain.



We stopped for a Subway sandwich on the way home. I drove back home and prompty left again to take Michael to Wednesday night bible study at the church. I'm such a bad parent...he wanted to go and I didn't feel like it so I dropped him off! Jeff was going to go straight to the church on his way home but he only made it for the last 5 minutes before it was over. He had a bad day today because he said he would have been done an hour earlier but he locked his keys in his van! It took him 20 minutes on hold to get someone from the company vehicle help people...then another 30 minutes for someone to get there and unlock it.

Alison is ready for Mrs. Grain to teach her something new on Magic. She can do everything she taught her with saddle and bareback. She's been riding bareback alot and she said she can tell it's getting easier. They say it's good for your balance which I guess is true. You can only do it for so long though because it hurts your hiney after awhile.

All we hear all day from Michael is him hammering away in the RV doing his leather work. He has started a Facebook page and an Etsy Shop but I am waiting for him to list more items in his shop before I reveal it here on my blog. He only has one item in there right now. At least he's been selling enough and working the goats enough to pay for his hobby! These purses he is making are incredible! I love them but he says he has way too much time and $$ invested in the purse. It's going to have to be a high dollar item! I tried to get a picture of it but for some reason the picture wouldn't come off my memory card....hmmmm...not sure what's up with that!

I couldn't resist this picture of Magic and Ellie Mae standing at our gate today when we were leaving...I had my camera in my pocket so I took this picture of them

We woke up this morning to find that every single horse was in the owner's (the Grain's) yard! She called us and said she needed help getting them back in. Alison was already on her way down to feed and I ran to jolt Michael out of bed. We have a Houdini horse, Magic. He can open any of the gates easier than I can! One of the gates didn't get clipped so he apparently opened that one and then another one to break them all out to the grass in their yard! You can't just latch the gates. You have to make sure they are bungeed or clipped with a hook or he will open them right up! He's a smart little fart!

I'm up a little bit later than I should be tonight but I'm outside on the porch with Grace just a few feet from me eating her hay. It is such a gorgeous full moon tonight. You don't even need a flashlight on a night like tonight. It was so pretty, I tried to get some picture of the moon when I was out letting horses out and putting up chickens. The pictures just didn't work though.

Jeff is passed out in my $6.00 chair in the house. He had to get up at 3:30 this morning to be in for a meeting. Well, the good news is that it looks like he only has to drive 90 miles to the office for 3 more days! Then, they are supposed to start routing him local. What a relief that will be and then more relief will come when he starts getting a weekend and a day to rest instead of the one day off he's getting now which he still has to work through around here. Even more good news is that they are going to be opening an office in the closer town that we grocery shop in which is only 40 minutes away!

I was reflecting today as I was doing some of my running....I drive through some of the most beautiful scenery. It's like a little paradise out here and I try to not get used to it. People drive from miles around to come be out here. I'm proud of ourselves that we did it. We kept out goal in mind and stuck it out and now finally things are coming together. We decided where WE wanted to be instead of someone else deciding for us and dug our heals in and made it work. I'm so glad we didn't give in and move back to the city. Every single one of us would have been miserable. I can't breathe in the city and I spent all my time wanting to escape. Well, I don't have to escape now. I enjoy the wide open spaces, the animals, the days outside in the sunshine, and the starry nights.

Tomorrow, we are going to take it easy around here. We may go see Princess tomorrow but other than that, we have no plans to go anywhere! So goodnight all!

Well, I got to try out my mug cozy today and I have to say, I like it! I think it really helps to insulate and keep your coffee warm just a bit longer. I made another one today:



Here is a tutorial for making one.
All About Ami - Cup Cozy Tutorial
She has lots of pictures and such. I didn't make mine exactly the same method, however, my finished product looks very similar.

Well, Sunday, which is basically the weekend all rolled into one day for us is over :(
Jeff was really tired this morning but we still got up and went to church. The kids wanted to go. I guess it's good when your kids are dragging you to church instead of the other way around. They were having a lunch after church so even though we really need to get home, we went to that and stuck around way too long. We still bowed out early. They were voting on a name for the church when we left. Jeff needed to get some hours in here at the ranch today. They were out moving brush piles to the road to be put in the chipper shreader. One of the park ranger we know from the park visited the church today. He was telling Michael they are already taking applications for summer jobs in the park so he needs to get his application in. Michael always wanted to work at the park but has only done so on a volunteer basis since we lived there. Good geez...that kid needs to learn how to drive. I don't know how I'm going to manage getting both kids to their jobs this summer and do the work out here too. Summer is looking more and more daunting to me!

It was rainy and cold today. The girls waited for it to stop raining and then went horseback riding again today. Can't keep them off those horses! We have one hurt horse out here right now. The girls noticed she was limping really, really bad yesterday evening when they fed. When I drove up they were walking her up to the barn to put her in a stall for Mrs. Grain to look at. She looked at her last night and she's still in the stall today. Not sure if this means a vet visit or not.

Want to see my $6.00 La-Z-Boy Recliner? Can you believe I only paid $6.00 for this? Jeff went and picked it up for me today.



I knew if I waited, something would come along! It's a solid piece of furniture and maybe later we'll sand down the wood arm rests that are a little beat up. It reclines and the foot comes out too! For now, it looks like its staying in the living room.

Well, tomorrow I have to get to town to go grocery shopping, then dance, then 4-H meeting. There goes tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

I woke up to a very chilly morning and took Michael to work goats again today. The girls had to get up and feed the horses for Michael since he was going off. They took a ride after the horses were done eating and then I took them (Alison) to see Princess at the stables. Then, they had to go to the church for a singing rehearsal for the Valentine's Banquet. I hung around town waiting for them to get finished. And hey, I bought a lazy boy recliner rocker for $6.00!! When I asked the price and she told me, I had to get her to repeat it. It's old and it's been recovered but it's a good solid chair and is comfortable and it's not terrible looking, especially for 6 Bucks! I'll either put it in my bedroom or see if we can fit it in the living room. When Michael called for me to pick him up, I had to make the trek back out there where he was.

My girl, Gracie, is more precious to me than ever! She seems very content and happy. Jeff said when he comes on the porch around 4:30 in the morning, she comes over to see who it is. When I get up and go outside on the porch to drink my coffee, she comes over and I've noticed she's been sleeping when I'm on the porch in the morning. I think she stays up "watching" at night a lot and she feels comfortable once we're up and about and the dogs are out. She doesn't pay the dogs any mind anymore. They run around and bark and chase squirrels right beside her and she just looks....

Here is her sleeping yesterday morning....


I would say she's the most spoiled deer on earth with her apples, carrots, grain, hay, corn and grass we feed her every day but I know she's not because I saw a You-Tube of some people that have a deer that lives in their house and has her own bedroom!!! Check this out....
Dillie, the Pet Deer
I have all manner of little animals visiting my yard now. They have figured out where the food is! I have a whole slew of squirrels and all kinds of birds every day and I've just noticed that we have a little gray bunny visiting every night. I guess they are coming for her grain and corn.

Well, I had fun making this coffee mug cozy yesterday.



I think I will make a couple more of these. It was fun to make and I like it. Once again, I didn't use a pattern. I just looked at a picture of some others....really simple to do. I did have to increase because my cup is tapered but I think I will make some for a standard coffee coffee cup. I didn't get to use it yet! My son apparently used it before I did and it is was already in the camper this morning when I drank my coffee.

This week has gone so fast!! I've been busy running Alison around this week. After she's done with her school work, I've been driving her over to her friend, Phoebe's, house every day. Between that and running her around to dance classes, youth, etc. it seems I've been running a lot. Her and Phoebe are rehearsing a dance they have made up to perform at a Valentine's Banquet the church youth group is putting on. It's going to be awesome and they are dancing to the song "Forever Love" by Francesca Battistelli. Alison has been sacrificing horse riding this week to get this done! Hopefully they will have a good turn-out. It's a fundraiser for the youth group! Today, they got up the courage to ask their dance teacher if they can borrow some dresses to dance in. She said yes, and she wants to see their dance. They are going to show it to her on Monday.

Well, I finished these fingerless I've been working on for several days. I went ahead and made a quick hat to go with it to use the rest of that skein of Homespun. That's all of that I have. The tiny bit that's left will go on my scrap blanket.



Now, I don't know what I'm going to do....remember my Wiggly Square? Well, I had been thinking of using that same concept on a hat. I might fiddle around experimenting with that tomorrow if I have time. Should probably go child-size on that because what adult would really want to wear wigglies on their head? :)

Here's my sock monkey hat! It's so cute!!

I do think that it needed bigger or more noticeable buttons for the eyes though. I decided to go outside today to get the picture to see if the color would turn out better...




Here's the free pattern I used. Well written, very easy pattern. I changed my ears a bit because I was going to run out of yarn if I didn't.

Crochet in Color: Just Another Sock Monkey Hat Pattern