Crochet Me Crazy

We did it! We actually made 114 tamales this weekend! It was a lot of work and I think I will be pretty stingy with my tamales but it was worth it for the amount of tamales we got. They taste great though! We'll freeze these guys and be eating on these for some time.

Here is the recipe we used with step by step instructions; however, we ended up with WAY more tamales than the recipe said we would get. That's not a bad thing though. We just kept making them until we ran out of meat and corn shucks. I have some extra masa left over that I put in the freezer.

Three of the goody bags for Alison's birthday party are finished.





Then, I got a little distracted...Yesterday we lost all sanity and went to the mall!
I have no idea why since we have no money...I told the family I just wanted to get out and see what was going on in the world. I don't know...sometimes it just feels good to walk around all that "stuff" and not buy a single thing. Well, I did NEED to buy one thing and that was a winter coat for Alison. She has the same coat she has had for the past 3 years which was given to her by a friend and was real roomy on her when we got it. The zipper finally broke. Apparently, because of the cold snap everyone else had the same idea to buy a new coat too because there wasn't much to pick from and we didn't have much luck. Too bad we don't need a bathing suit...they had plenty of those! She decided she doesn't like the mall yesterday! Yay! She hates the styles and all the annoying, rude people. Everyone else in the family had already figured that out but she was the last one to come along so now its unanimous. Now we won't have to go to the mall until next Christmas! I asked my kids if they would like me to drop him off down there to go "hang out" like the rest of teens but they said "No Way!" Gee, they are such strange kids. So my kids are telling me...well, mom you wanted to see what was going on the world and we wasted our day. No we didn't....we learned that we don't need anything at the mall and sometimes I just need a reminder at what great and awesome kids I have! Then, just before we went home and were lamenting that its not looking too good for Alison to get a coat this year...Michael mentioned Burlington Coat Factory. Oh, was he sorry....we loved his great idea! Our family went into to Burlington Coat Factory for the first time that I remember. We found Alison a very reasonably priced, nice, very warm coat there that she liked. It's going to be much warmer than her last one.

Anyway.....another worthwhile thing about going out yesterday was that I saw some really pretty scarves in a department store selling for $18 each....no hats, just scarves. I loved the puff stitch so I cam home and made this hat. The scarf is on the hook now. I don't think I'm done with this pattern though. I want to make it again using vertical stripes of color. The solid colors with show off the pattern of the stich more.

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The pattern for the hat can be found here:
Puff Stitch Hat

Although it did snow today, it was a bit of a disappointment from what we were expecting here at our house today. It came down quite hard at time and quickly melted. Alison was getting her hopes all up watching the news this week in anticipation of some actual real snow. No snowmen or snow angels were made at our house today :(
It was very pretty to watch though!


It's a pretty sad testament that my children are out in the snow and neither one of them are wearing my crocheted scarves or hats!

I got three of the crochet party goody bags finished. I started on them yesterday so I should be able to get all 7 of them all finished in few days. Pictures coming tomorrow!

This is a pretty big bag! It think it turned out really cute. I think I have the person in mind to give this to that will really appreciate it.

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight. I'm not putting all my decorations up this year. I had packed everything up in storage since I thought we were moving! Can't bring myself to haul all that stuff back home again.

It's supposed to SNOW here tomorrow! Too bad we already hauled our wood pile off in preparation for our move!

I have been thinking about how to have a very, very low cost birthday party for Alison's birthday that is coming up in a few weeks. I think I'm going to crochet little bags to use as the goody bags for the girls...about the size of a cell phone so they can use it for a case or whatever ever little trinkets they might want to use it for. I'll just put in a few pieces of candy and consider the bag itself the party favor. I guess I'll need to start making a pinata soon and Alison is going to make her own invitations. We will take the girls on a trailer ride to look at Christmas lights around a nearby neighborhood. I'll borrow my neighbor's heart shaped cake pan and make my cake. Alison wants me to make pink heart shaped rice crispy treats for the trailer ride.

This is a little gift bag. Not crazy about this pattern. The top of the bag is so narrow it was almost impossible to get his eyes and mouth sewed on. That's why he doesn't have a nose. It was just too much to try to embroider a nose on. A glued on felt nose may be in order here.