Crochet Me Crazy

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 I sit back at the Visitor's Center accessing the internet. Life is busy. The park is planting 80 some-odd new trees. We are taking on the job of watering them at least every other day. They only have half of them planted right now. It took Jeff & Michael about 2 hours to put 5 gallons of water on them yesterday. We're getting our 24 hours a week of volunteer hours in the park and also trying to make the mad rush to get stuff done we need to get done before Memorial Weekend when summer season starts and we work every day at the stables. Jeff has two outside jobs he wanted to do. Also, we are close to homelessness. The stables are putting in an RV site for us but time is running out. Jeff is out running around trying to find information about what kind of electricity cable they need to run. He said it looks like it might be expensive. Anyway...we'll just wait and take it as it comes I guess. Not much else we can do at this point in time. The park is pretty full and it doesn't look like they have a spot for us for the whole summer.

Michael is into a new craft right now. He's now making stuff out of leather.




He's quite good at it. It's pretty expensive to get supplies though. He put in an application for a job at the State Park. He checked on his application yesterday and the park superintendent said they'll let him know in about a week. They have budget cuts going on right now but he said they are thinking about letting someone go. It will be great for Michael if he gets that job. It will be his first real job and the pay is good for a kid his age. It's over minimum wage and he'll get lots of hours in the sumer. I told him if he does a good job, he could eventually get hired on full time and that's a great job out here. You are working for the state and get benefits. It's a good job for someone like Michael. His picture is on the Texas Outdoor Family facebook page from when he helped them when they were here a few weeks ago. He said that counts as his yearly picture! He hates having his picture taken!

The river is very low and the kids are trying to milk the last bit of swimming out of it. People keep saying they will eventually shut the river down if we don't get rain soon. Everything is dead or dying. Pray for rain for us!

Well, I'm still working on my cross stitch. I got me a magnifier to hang around my neck so that helps. I miss crocheting though. I love thread crochet but I'm not very good at it. I was tinkering around with the thread on the snowflakes but I've been looking around at my patterns for a pretty but easy doily pattern. I don't want a lot of clusters or treble crochets. I'm not that good at working with thread so I want to stick with basic stitches right now. I finally found this one!



It's an interesting design but only has basic stitches. I started on it this afternoon and so far so good. It should be my best doily yet. I've only made two others before and on my first one, my stitches were much too loose.

Here's a fun picture of Michael at the stables:

A Christmas Tree Skirt:



Two Mini Doilies:

I'm not doing a very good job of keeping this blog updated.

We just got back from a week long camping trip to Martin Dies, Jr. State Park. We had a really good time and it was so nice to get away in the RV after such a long time. We stayed pretty close to home since the gas prices are so high and my husband is out of a job right now. This wouldn't have been my first choice of where to camp. We swam, fished, rented a canoe for the day, and walked on trails. This lake has alligators so looking at the alligators was fun. We did have one scary event happen while we were there. A tree literally broke in half and fell in the road about 25 feet in front of where my husband and daughter were walking. It hit a power line and snapped the power line which fell right behind them. The grounds were out of power for about 5 hours. It shook Alison up pretty bad and she was trembling for about 20 minutes. Thank you, Jesus, for protecting my family.

They had a little bike decorating contest and then the kids did a bike parade on July 4th. They had various other games like a watermelon seed spitting contest, hoola hoops, bean bags toss, etc.

I have still been working on the filet name doily. I finished my letters and had started on the decorative part. I don't like it though and I don't know if I'm going to finish it. I may frog the decorative border, put some type of trim on it and leave it at that. It's hard for me to stay motivated on a project that I'm not happy with but I hate to rip all that out too! It will need to be blocked, obviously.



I made this little doily. I started that yesterday and finished it tonight.



It could almost be used as a coaster. I'm going to make another one to match for my dresser. I love doilies but I have only made two others before this because I don't really like working with thread much. I admire those that work with thread so beautifully!

Mini Apple Doily 

Find the free pattern for this here: Ravelry: Apples for the Teacher Doily pattern by Denise (Augostine) Owens

Bath Puff - top 


Bath puff - bottom 

Pattern for bath scrubbie is here: scrub



Evelyn's Slipper's - top view 


Evelyn's slippers 


doily