Crochet Me Crazy

Well, I hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday. I am up drinking my coffee before I get ready for church. Alison and I are going by ourselves because my husband has to work this weekend.

Yesterday I went outside to spend some time with Gracie.



At one point she laid down beside me on the blanket but I didn't get a picture of it because my camera had run out of battery. I love my deer.

Well, during out trip to Port Aransas the shops were full of all kinds of bracelets. Alison is into collecting bracelets now. I said....I can make those! So I was inspired when I got home to make these. I wonder if I could sell them in a shop around here? I wouldn't sell them for less than $5 each though but these are not made in china!



I had to use the beads that were available to me. I could get pretty creative if I had a craft store nearby!

I was walking out to feed the goats when I saw this...I had to literally turn around and go back into the house to get my camera.

It's not often you see this....Gracie and two of the kitties bedded up together in the same pile of hay!

We had a film crew out at the stables this weekend filming a movie on the ranch. I'm really unsure of the details of it yet. All I know is that it is a short film that will be entered into several film festivals. Yesterday we provided a horse for a couple of scenes where the horses just had to be tied. Late last night Jeff had to bring them 3 horses for a scene. It wasn't until 1 am that they started filming and Jeff didn't get back with the horses until 2:30 am! We are supposed to be bringin horses for a riding scene tonight....they are running behind schedule and it is dark and we are still waiting. I guess we're going to be doing this in dark?!


Should be interesting...none of these actors are riders.

I just realized that Thanksgiving is next week!! Holy cow....It really is ridiculous how fast the weeks fly by! I have a lot to get done!! I am excited though because we haven't had a "real" Thanksgiving in three years! I'm excited because we are having guests and I am cooking the real deal like we used to do before we moved....Turkey, Dressing and all the yummy dips and special things everyone likes.

Alison went to dance tonight for the first time since her accident....she was just an observer and will be just observing this week. Her foot looks even better today but it is still a little bit swollen. I slathered it with Oregano oil tonight and called Jeff to have him pick up more Epsom salt on his way home. We HAVE to get her better for her show!!

Next...I just had to share these pictures of my beloved Gracie....It's a big joke around here about me and my deer. Everyone says they feel second rate. I *do* really, really love this deer.

Those look good...can I have one??

Yum....my favorite fruit snacks!


Yes, I LOVE my deer....we are very close.

I've still been waking up early...can't seem to sleep much past 7 am even if I try. Plus, there's so many dad-blooming roosters running around everywhere out here...they won't let me sleep! Alison has been getting up pretty early too...she's trying to fit practicing barrel running on the horses into her day with everything else. She had a lot of reading to get done today and I threatened to not let her see Morgan tonight if he was able to if she didn't get it done. So she had to press through all that reading. We're reading Uncle Tom's Cabin in her history and it's not an easy book to read because of the dialect. Then, we had some people show up for a ride this afternoon so we had to saddle up for that. I cooked Chicken Parmesan Bake and "B" mad the sides and we went over and had dinner with them tonight. I had too much food cooking jst for me and Alison so we've been combining mealtimes when "B"'s husband is out of town. We keep the kids on limited contact during the week because of homework and early bedtimes but Alison and Morgan have been getting to see each other a little bit every night this week. The weeks are still going by fast. I'm still trying to get into a new routine and have time to sit down and relax and try to start crocheting again. I started on another little crochet thread project today...a star ornament. I guess it'll be a Christmas decoration. I still haven't been able to dig into any of my bigger projects. I have my Wedding Ring Afghan I need to drag out. But in the move I found my long lost Scrap star afghan I started so long ago but had to put away because I didn't have room in the RV to mess with it. It's calling my name and I actually think I'm going to get back to that one before I go back to the Wedding Ring! I spend a lot of my free time with my deer, Gracie. I feel like I have an infant sometimes with that deer. She's so attached to me and watches me like a hawk when I leave the yard and walk around the ranch doing stuff. She literally has separation anxiety when I'm not around which is why I had to move her quick. She does seem much better now that she's here with me though. I just feel really guilty if I don't sit with her....so, thank God for lap tops! I'm sitting in the yard with her now. Geez, if something ever happens to that deer, I don't know what I'm going to do! I just went to read about the breed since I really don't know how old she is. I've had her for almsot a year now and she was weaned when we got her so I'm guessing she's less than two years old. I read that adult size is reached at 6 years for females so she had a lot more growing to do! I also read the lifespan is 9-13 years, although zoo animals may reach 18-22 years of age. Hopefully, I'll have at least a good 10 or more years with her.

We are still not completely moved. Jeff got the piano, my dresser, and Alison's card making hutch moved over this weekend. I've been getting card loads of stuff every time I go over to the old house. It's kinda good because it gives me time to get everything sorta put away before we get more in. It's such a small place that it makes it easier. I've been putting in shelf paper in the cabinets and doing little things like that. We switched the oven out with the oven in the barn apartment this weekend because that one works better. We are going to be a lot happier here. We love the owner's so much and will do everything in our power to make sure this works out. We have good communication with them so we should be able to work out any problems that could potentially arise. Alison is happy as she can be...now she has the horse and the boy near by.

The BIG MOVE was Gracie! We got her moved over! Jeff was trying to figure out how to move her fence at our house so he could use the fencing at our new place. Finally, I said let's just move her and put her in the house...then you can tear it down and move the whole thing....it'll just be a lot easier and quicker. Well, we planned it all out, not knowing how she was going to do in the truck. She's ridden in the truck before but it's been a long time. Well, it didn't go too bad. She was moving around and panicking a little bit at first. I was sitting in the back seat with her since I'm the one she's attached to. Well, we had Michael drive my car in front of us so I would have my car. Jeff was paying attention to what was going on in the back seat with the deer and he rear-ended my car with his truck!!! My car is pretty smashed up now. Everybody is trying to get out and look at the damage and I'm just like....just go and forget about it, we have an uptight deer in the back seat! I don't want to get smashed by a hoof if she panics! So we drove on very slowly. We got her to her new home and I had to sit with her most of the day until she calmed don a bit about her new surroundings. Well, now she seems happy. Her yard here is bigger and she has more to eat. It's been fun watching her meet the horses and cats. There are a lot more deer out here. At night, I've heard her talking to other deer out there somewhere. I'm wondering if someday, I'm going to have a buck jump over the fence and end up with babies.

Well, I ran out of the thread I was using for my doily so I stopped. It would have been a lot prettier if I had been able to continue with the edging. It needs to be blocked.

Here's the pattern I am using for the wedding ring crochet quilt:

Wedding Ring Quilt Crochet Pattern | Red Heart

I started on it and it is a very easy to follow pattern. Looks like this one will go pretty fast. Sure am glad I bought the yarn for both afghans now!

Here are my colors I am using, even though the pictures don't really show them too well....



Here are the afghan "parts" I've made so far...



I will eventually have to sew all these together which won't be too fun!

here's the blue yarn I bought for my Blue Star Afghan I have planned for later.




It was a stay at home day today. I used the weed eater to mow my lawn today. All they have is a riding mower and I didn't want to scare Grace half to death using that thing in the yard so I just did it the hard way. My arm was trembling when I was done from holding the weed eater for so long.

Yesteray, I accidentally let Grace out of the yard. I was rushing to grab the phone that was ringing and the kids had left it in the RV. I didn't latch the gate and the wind blew it open. She always follows me so she was right by the gate when it blew open. She was curiously looking around and walked to the creek and looked around. I started to just let her go and see if she came back but then I thought about the hogs. She's still too little to be going around on three legs out there. I can't make her do anything so I treid to pick her up....WRONG! She's way to heavy for me to carry now! I tried but I had to put her down. I at least got her headed in the right direction and she finally slowly got back around to the yard again and came back in the yard. I was relieved. She feels safer in the yard. She was a little nervous out there.

It was another beautiful day. The Stable's came and picked up their grandkids and Alison went with them to town. I was home today so I spent a lot of time outside with Grace today. She loves for me to sit with her.


I went outside with a book and a glass of water....She came up and drank my water that was sitting in my chair arm rest (even thought she has her own). Well, thanks....I didn't want that water anyway.
I put out my hummingbird feeder because I noticed they've been coming around looking for it.
I went down to the garden for a little bit and Mrs. Grain and I worked on getting the irrigation system working on one of the raised beds.
I crocheted a bunch more flowers for Alison's cards...These little things are addicting and a fun little things to do when you don't have a lot of time.





Well, tomorrow's another week. I have to get up and take Michael to the stables tomorrow morning so he can catch a ride with the other guy to go sift goats tomorrow. A little jangle for his pocket that I'm pretty sure he's already got spent! LOL

Have a good week everyone!

What a nice day today was...Jeff was off today and we took it easy most of the day. Alison took went riding on Magic....



Piddled around most of the day and got a few things done but nothing stressful. Jeff added wire to the rest of the fence in our yard so now Gracie has the whole yard to roam around in. She ventured out into her new area a little bit. Now she has more grass to graze on. She tried to follow me out the gate when I left tonight and Jeff said after I left she ran around the yard for 5 minutes. She ran to look out the gate and then ran to the other gate. Are you sure she was looking for me or did the car starting scare her? Jeff said he's pretty sure she was looking for me. I'm going to have to take this deer with me wherever I move now. This adds a degree of difficulty to things now doesn't it? I love her so much though.




I even crocheted a little bit today. Alison makes cards that she sells in a shop in town. I decided to see if I could crochet some stuff for her to use on her cards. I'll post some pictures of the cards when she gets them made.



I took pictures of these potholders that I made a few weeks ago....



Here are a couple of new things my son has made recently...great job again!

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.

I was so glad to see Grace was okay this morning when I got up. Last night, we had a big rain storm with strong winds blow through. Alison's dance teacher's front screen door was blown off!! Yesterday, we knew it was going to rain so we set up a place for cover for Grace in the yard using hay bales and tarps. The problem is that she really wouldn't go in there all day yesterday. She seemed scared of it. So last night was trying to get her to go in there before the storm hit. She seemed nervous with the winds. I went to bed and then I heard it start raining...so I got up and went outside. She wasn't in the shelter. I got in the shelter and she followed me in. I sat out there with her for at least 30 minutes while she sniffed around and investigated. I watched her and waited with her until I saw she was finally relaxing and she laid down beside me. Then, I went inside and went to bed. I was hoping she would stay in there. The big part of the storm hit sometime later in the night. It woke me up a few times. So this morning, I went out and was very glad to see her nibbling her food in her little shelter and she was dry! Well, good...today she seems to like it in there now and is laying down in there. I'm glad that we finally have a place of shelter established for her that she accepts. As you can see, I love that little deer!



So anyway, this day slipped by pretty quick on me. I made another hat out of some Lion Brand Homespun I got in my thrift store yarn. That's about all I know to use Homespun for...or maybe some slippers but I'm not in a slipper mood right now. Lion Brand Homespun is such a pretty yarn but I really hate crocheting with it. There will be another beard hat coming soon though....I found a free pattern online I'm going to try.

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Very uneventful day today.... I actually didn't have any problems getting up a 5 am this morning! I do, however, have to get up earlier than normal again tomorrow...Michael has a job drenching goats (hundreds of them) tomorrow and I have to drive him out there. It's WAY, WAY out there. Jeff used to do this job but he can't now that he's working so Michael is inheriting it. Not bad money but it's sure not EASY money. Pray my son doesn't get impaled by a goat tomorrow! So....anyway, I'm tired and going to bed so here's some pictures from our day today...

Goofy Magic...he's such a SMART horse! He's very good at opening gates. He uses his lips like hands!



Now, that Alison can ride bareback...she's taking full advantage of the ease of riding without having to take the time to saddle.



My sweet, sweet little baby girl....

at our house this weekend! Alison had a ton of games planned and they were busy with that most of the day....balloons, shaving cream, water, flour...a real mess! At least it was a beautiful day for being outside today! We made a campfire in the yard and we sat outside and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs last night. It was a fun and successful party!







This morning they got up for their surprise! HORSEBACK RIDING!! They went up the mountain and had a little pic-nic. Alison has been waiting a long time to get the chance to ride "Magic". He's a well-trained horse that she'll be able to do all kinds of things on. She's excited because Mrs. Grain said that she can start riding him.






We had a bit of trauma this morning! Grace's foot broke off! It wasn't a pretty site but in reality, it wasn't that bad. It was worse for me than it was for her I think. We bandaged it up for now. I may call the vet and see what they say about bandaging. I don't want to interfere with her natural ability to heal. They seem to be pretty good at that. The wildlife place told us they sometimes even self amputate, they have a strong resistance to infection and are very resilient. I have learned that to be true! I guess was God's design to help them survive in the wild. Bless her heart...she's been through a lot. Yesterday, when we came back from a ride on the 4-wheeler, she was out of her fence standing in our yard! Apparently, something scared her and she jumped it! I brought her the leaves I had picked for her and she followed me back in. We haven't heard back from the Wildlife Rescue place. People are now telling me we should just keep her until she's grown and then release her. They say once she's full size there aren't really any predators (mountain lions but we rarely have those) and that she'll be like a cat that leaves but comes back to eat. We might do that but we're going to have to fence the whole yard if we do. Her space is not big enough. Anyway...we'll just have to see.

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!