Summer is here!

Ok, now I know I promised that the next post would be about the blanket I am making for my neice (which is ALMOST finished, by the way!), but I just had to write about my baby boy finishing the 1st grade! We went out last night and bought his teacher a present for being such a wonderful teacher. Aubyn said he wanted to get her some candles, and I found this really cute wall hanger that said "A journey that has a thousand steps still starts with just one." Or something like that....I can't remember it exactly. But I thought it was pretty. So we ended up with both. :-) Anyway, I wanted to go into the school with him this morning, because the silly person I am, I wanted to take a picture of him and his teacher on the last day of school. So after Aubyn was dressed and ready to go I asked him if he wanted me to walk in with him to take a picture of him and his teacher and do you know what the little rat said???? He said "I would rather you didn't." Exactly like that. When did my 7 year old start talking like an adult? Now I know I probably would have embarrassed him. I am a photo hog, and everytime I convince him to pose for a picture, I end up saying "Just one more? No really, just one more, please?" So I can understand him not wanting me to come. But I really wanted that picture! I can't wait for the day when my children will be old enough to just humor me. :-)

Birthday Boy

I tried and tried, but my camera just wouldn't take a good picture inside the cafeteria at my son's music program, so instead I am posting photos from Aubyn's 7th Birthday.



Here's Aubyn and Maddie on the way out the door to take Aubyn to school. Notice the container of brownie bites that Aubyn is taking to his class to celebrate his birthday. Also, the clothes he is wearing were a birthday present from my mom and dad.


Here's Aubyn waiting to open his pile of presents from my husband and I.
Notice the big smile on his face after seeing the Nintendo DS he has been asking us for since about a year and a half ago!



Here are all of Aubyn's friends enjoying some pizza at Peter Piper.

Here's Aubyn sitting in the middle of a large pile of presents from all of his friends. :-)

Aubyn's theme this year was soccer. He picked out his own invitations and insisted that I order a soccer cake.

Now, the candles on this cake were really cheap, and they weren't intended to be trick candles....but he had to blow and blow and blow to get them to go out! It was quite entertaining.

On a side note, the blanket I am making my step-neice (well, I consider her my neice, but I say step-neice just to clarify which neice she is) is almost finished. I have 4 out of the 7 rows joined, and I expect to finish it up in the next few days. It's looking really cute!

It's Raining, It's Pouring....

Out here in Arizona we rarely see rain, let alone hail, so it was big news today when it hailed up a storm...HAHA, I know that was lame!

I'm not sure you can see it, but that's actually hail falling like rain. You can see it piled up against the wall like snow.


Well, my son, Aubyn has a music program in a little bit, so I need to get Maddie's shoes on and get ready to go. I plan on taking my camera, so if I get some good pics, I'll post some later! :-)

The End of the (Blanket) Line

Ok everyone, this is the last post with my old blankets in it. Enjoy!


I made this blanket for charity. It is one big granny square made out of scrap yarn. This was the first time I had tried making a blanket out of a big granny square, and I think it turned out ok. It ended up being the size of a lap blanket.

I made this blanket out of leftover yarn from a blanket I was making for my son. (If you saw in an earlier post, I made a pink and purple blanket for a little girl having heart surgery; well, I made my son one just like it in red.) This one was also dontaed to Project Linus. In case you didn't figure it out, I LOVE Project Linus. LOL

This blanket was also for Project Linus, and was also made with leftover yarn from another blanket. You can't really tell, but there is a stripe pattern going down each column.

This blanket was made for my friends, Josh and Rachael. Now, this blanket was originally intended to be a wedding present, but I was in the middle of another wedding blanket at the time and could not make this one. So then I thought I would give it to them for their 1st anniversary, and again ended up having another project going when this one was due, so poor Josh and Rachael ended up getting this around 18 months or so after their wedding. I'm sorry you guys! Also, you can't really see it in this picture, but there is a grape vine pattern in each pattern row. The picture does not do this one justice! I think it is so much prettier in person!

Ok, that's all the old blankets I am going to post. Not a bad collection for 5 years or so, huh? The only problem with having this hobbie, is my grandma sends me yarn ALL THE TIME, so I have TONS of it. I have three blankets other than my step-neice's blanket that have been started and not finished yet. I suppose I should get them done after I am done with Paris' blanket....but my friend is pregnant, so I am going to start one for her instead. LOL

Sarah, anytime you are ready for a craft night, let me know!

Yarnhog has left the blog!

Blanket Mania

I am back again with even more blanket photos! Have you had enough yet?

I made these two blankets in 2005 for my friend, Idalia when she was pregnant with her first child. (And there's my Maddie sneaking in to another photo!)

This is my first attempt at making baby hats. It ended up looking really cute, but I don't think baby Alex wore it more than once because it was so small!

This is another blanket I made for Project Linus using scrap yarn. And again, my Maddie had to be on the blanket while I was taking the photos. LOL

Let me just say that I LOVE this pattern. I found this heart pattern online at a free pattern site.

I made this blanket in 2006 for two of my friends that were getting married. These were their wedding colors. I had so much leftover yarn that I made a smaller version of the same blanket for my daughter. It's still one of her favorites!

My grandma sent me a bunch of scrap yarn when she cleaned out her closets and this blanket is the result. I found this pattern on a

free pattern site and this blanket was donated to Project Linus.

Ok all, I know you're all sick of blankets now, but I promise there are only a few more left for the next post! I swear!

More Blanket Photos!

Upon request, I am posting a few more photos of blankets I have made. These are from the early years, so they might not be the greatest looking! Just warning you! LOL

I made this blanket in 2003 for my nephew, Austin. I figured that since I made his sister one, I should probably make him one. Since he was older, I let him go through patterns with me and he picked all the colors out himself. It was a lot of fun!

I made this blanket in 2004 for my daughter. I loved the ripple pattern, but my gauge was WAY off. It was supposed to be a baby blanket, and it ended up fitting a twin size bed. LOL

I made this granny square blanket out of scrap yarn that I had laying around. I donated it to Project Linus in 2004. With all the scrap yarn I have right now, I could probably make 3 or 4 more!

I made this blanket in 2005 for a friend. I love how the ruffled edge turned out! It was my first time experimenting with borders, and I think it turned out nicely. :-)

I made this blanket in 2005 for the daughter of some friends. She was getting ready to have heart surgery. Her parents said she took this blanket to the hospital with her and had it on as soon as possible after surgery!

My own daughter is in the photo. Maddie loves to sit on the blankets when I'm trying to take photos. :-)

Ok, that's enough for this post. I'll post the rest in the next few days! Hopefully I'll have a new one finished by next week!

Blanket Stress

Ok, so I've been working on a blanket for my step-neice for the past couple of months. It was supposed to be done for her birthday, which was May 9th, but with all the craziness lately it didn't get done. I got a one week extension on it, because she ended up being at her mom's the weekend of her birthday, so I was excited! And then I found out that she has a dance recital this weekend, so I actually won't see her until the weekend of May 31st! Yay me! The only problem is I want to make something to auction off at the golf invitational (read below!). I found a crochet pattern that I like and started to work on it, but after a couple of days of working on it, I think it's impossible to get it done in that amount of time. So I think my mom and I are going to tie a quilt or two instead. Either way, it's looking like my step-neice's blanket still may not get done by the new deadline, so wish me luck!

DCR Invitational

A few months ago a man my husband used to work with named Don Racine had a stroke and is now in a full time care facility. He is not married and has no family to speak of, so some friends of his are organizing a golf invitational to raise money for his care and recovery. It is being held on June 1, 2008 and will start at 7:00am. The cost is $75 to play, and includes lunch, practice balls, and green fees. Please let me know if you are interested in playing and I will email you the forms. An auction is also being held, so if anyone has any items they would like to donate, please let me know!

For more information, please contact Cal Nelson at:
P.O. Box 623
Cave Creek, AZ 85237
602-526-5065
joncal@hughes.net

Blankets - cont'd

Almost two years after I learned how to crochet I finally made my oldest child a blanket. I was pregnant with my daughter and had already begun her blanket, when I realized I had never made my son one. Well I couldn't have that! I worked my behind off to finish his blanket by his birthday. He was really into Mickey Mouse that year. He had a stuffed Mickey that he took EVERYWHERE, so I thought it was fitting that I make him this blanket. He loved it!

I made this blanket last year when my sister was pregnant. The heart pattern I got off of the internet, but I made the rattle and the letter patterns myself. This blanket may look familiar to some of you...I taught Sarah this pattern when she wanted to make one for her friend at work who was pregnant.

The teddy bear blanket was quite a challenge! I promised my Grandma this blanket would be ready for our family reunion in June of 2007. We have a family auction and use the money to help fund the next year's reunion. Anyway, the very day before I was set to leave I was at my mom's enlisting her help sewing the bows on! It turned out great, and my Grandma couldn't bear to let it go to anyone else, so she bid on it herself. :-)

I started this blanket in 2007 for my friends, Sarah and Bret. I actually had Sarah look at the patterns I had and pick a few she liked. I was soooo hoping she would include this one on her list, because I had been dying to try it! I was very excited it was one of her favorites! I finished it in March 2008, and Sarah and Bret's wedding was on April 25th. So I got one done on time, for once!

Okay people, that's it for this post! I am currently working on another blanket, and if it turns out well, I may share it with you later! TTFN

Blankets

I have only been crocheting for about 5 years. I fell in love with it the very first day. I remember being at my mother-in-law's house and watching her make a blanket. I asked her if it was hard to do and she said "Come over tomorrow and I'll show you." That was all it took. She taught me the basic stitches and I made samples of them all. But I really wanted to make a blanket. So I went out and bought some books and stitch guides and finally settled on a flower pattern for my neice, Tatum. I finished it right before her birthday in September of 2003.

Not bad for my first blanket!

I made this blanket for my hubby. I finished it in January of 2004. Being one of my first blankets, some of the stars have sadly started to unravel, and we keep this blanket up high in a closet! I have since learned how to tie off my ends better! :-)

There are more blanket photos to come!

Birthday Mania

Hey all you blog fans! I am sure the few people reading this are friends of Sarah or Aimee, since I don't know ANYONE else on here at the moment. I am new at this blogging thing, so all you professionals need to take it easy on me!

It's been a crazy month or so. My family and friends have a TON of birthdays in April and May and between all the birthdays and Sarah's wedding, I have been a little out of sorts. But in a good way! ;-)

I know it's only the first week of May, so you may be wondering how I could've celebrated that many birthdays already....you don't even want to go there!

I'll see if I can break it down for you a little: My friend, Allison's birthday was April 5th, and my hubby's was April 8th. My brother-in-law's birthday was April 21st, and we left for New York on the 22nd. Sarah's wedding was on the 25th, my sister's birthday was April 29th. My own birthday was May 3rd, my mom's birthday AND my nephew's birthday were on May 5th, and my son's birthday was yesterday, May 6th.

If that weren't enough, my sister recently married a man who has a daughter from a previous relationship. HER birthday is on May 9th. Plus, Sarah's birthday is May 12th and my friend Aimee's birthday is May 13th. (For those of you linking here from Aimee's site, I know her birthday was yesterday as well. I know another Aimee that spells her name the same way!)

Birthday Mania has been keeping me pretty busy. I am looking forward to Summer!

Please stay tuned for my next post. As soon as my hubby brings me home the photo CD's he has in his car I will be posting some pictures of blankets I have crocheted.