Catching Up

Of course there has been crafting going on:

This was inspired by this post on Laughing Purple Goldfish. Just a warning to those who get dishcloths from me: you may be getting ones like this this year. I am also working on a rug for the craft room and/or kitchen based on this design, too. This on is all in cotton yarns, the rug will be in double strands of acrylic yarns.

I have also been working on the Crochet a Granny Square a Day 'til the End of May project. These are some more I have done:

and

and

There are more but I am not so good about taking the pictures in a timely way, and I will have to sort out which are still waiting for their close-ups.
I have decided that I will border them in an off-white yarn before I join them together. Perhaps they will be a poncho, or a shrug or a bag or two. Their final destiny is still up in the air. They are getting quicker to make as I have learned the pattern and overcome my own difficulties with it. For instance, I now know that the center should not be tightened until I have finished row 2. The first two stitches of row 2 are much easier that way.

I have also been working on some swaps for swap-bot. These are for the Striped ATC swap:

and these are for a handmade zentangle postcard swap:

We were allowed to do something beyond a plain black and white tangle, if we wanted. I tried coloring these according to the recipients' color preferences in their profiles. It makes me nervous to send these out. Did I get the size and weight right? I back them with plain paper after I'm done to write the address on. Will that stay stuck on? Always happy when I get the ratings for handmade postcards. Well, for anything, but especially those.
The picture is a bit fuzzy. Sigh.

The Thing About Musicals

The thing about musicals is that that never happens in real life.

Thank You

Mom Mosaic and Mother's Day

For some reason I am thinking about Moms and Motherhood today.

1. The Mother & Child Union, 2. A Massachusetts Mother And Her Four Children, Including The Newest One, 3. mom and grandma in 1953, 4. kiss your mom today, 5. Off to visit mom...back soon!, 6. ~~~FLICKR MOMS, FLOWERS FOR YOU, TAKE ONE AND ENJOY IT ON THIS MOTHER'S DAY~~~ WE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL MOTHER'S DAY.

I also wanted to share this beautiful bouquet of flowers I received for Mother's Day from my son:

Two Hershey's kisses bottom to bottom and wrapped in cellophane. Aren't they pretty?

My daughter gave me the Tim Hawkin's DVD "I'm No Rockstar." We had to stop it a few times so our sides could rest from all the laughing.Here's a little preview:



Heather loves the Fire Ants song which you really have to see in it's entirety to appreciate.

Chocolate Chip Goodness

We love the kitchen in our new house. For the first week after we moved in we didn't have a stove and the microwave had a hole/burn mark in the screen on the door so we weren't comfortable using it. Once we got the new stove and microwave we have been doing more cooking than usual.
The first thing Heather made in the oven were these cookies she had recently discovered. They are the best chocolate chip cookies I have had.
The guard where I work sometimes brings in his wife's banana bread which is the best I have ever tasted. So when I saw our bananas getting seriously spotty (btw, why is it that you can buy a bunch of bananas and be lucky if you even get one because your family practically inhales them and then after a few weeks of that, they won't even touch the next bunch of bananas? In my family there is no middle ground.), I went to allrecipes and searched for banana bread thinking I would find something that looked like Maria's. Instead, I found this (Maria's has no chocolate). Delicious. I did use butter instead of the shortening and since I was out of walnuts I used pecans. The pecans were very good, but I will try walnuts in the future.
Hope you enjoy these recipes or that you find something else you enjoy at allrecipes. The reviews are really helpful in finding just what you are looking for.

It's Another Mosaic Monday

I've got granny squares on my mind.



1. Crochet Pillows, 2. Mamy Bag, 3. crochet scarf, 4. 14 :: 30, 5. Granny Squares - #7 & 8, 6. A Granny A Day 11, 7. babette blanket - finished!, 8. Granny Square Tote Bag, 9. Granny Square blankets 2

Yummy Leftovers

Several nights ago I made spaghetti for dinner and ate the leftovers for lunch the next two days. The sauce out-lasted the pasta.
Meanwhile, I had sauteed some sliced summer squashes (zucchini, yellow and a small speckled pale green squash) with some chopped onion (first in the pan) and chopped roma tomatoes (added at the very end to just warm them). This was all cooked in olive oil. After dinner there was still some left so I put it in a plastic container with the leftover sliced green onions from the baked potatoes.
Two days later I thought, why don't I mix that with the extra spaghetti sauce and have that for lunch. I just mixed it together in a bowl, heated it in the microwave and threw on a little grated cheese at the end.
This was so good, I may end up making it deliberately for dinner soon.

By the way, I don't really have a recipe for spaghetti sauce but this is my formula:
Heat up a large fry pan on the stove. If you are using meat (I usually use plain old ground beef, if I am) start cooking it breaking it up into small pieces as you brown it. Meanwhile, chop about half an onion and fresh mushrooms, if they are on hand. Saute with olive oil or in the fat from the meat in the same pan. Add a spoonful of garlic from that jar in the refrigerator or a clove or two of fresh garlic, chopped, just as the onions are getting translucent.
Add a can or two of diced tomatoes, some tomato sauce and/or paste. What you add here depends on what you have and how much you are making. Add some oregano and basil. A dash of red wine is nice, if you have it. We usually don't. Sometimes I add a little (1 tablespoon?) sugar. Taste it first.
Let this all simmer while the spaghetti cooks. Stir occasionally.
Nothing fancy or authentic but it is a tasty sauce that everyone likes and it can be adjusted to fit what is on hand and what your personal tastes are.

Found Dolls

It feels a little bit like Christmas to keep finding things I had put in the back of my mind as I keep unpacking and organizing things. All of these dolls were made some time ago from library books. Sorry, I don't remember which ones. I do remember I had trouble with the pattern for this one:

I am no great sewer (that looks so wrong), so it seemed like a big deal to me, but I am sure to most it would be an easy adjustment. She was made as a gift for my mom, and has since come back to me as she tries to cope with allergies and has been eliminating things that might collect or hold dust. I do not know her name.
The second two are Henry and Marie Yvette.

He is from Kansas and was a doughboy during the Great War. While in France he met Marie Yvette, who likes to be called Yvette. Even with her bobbed hair and that entirely too enticing beauty mark, he could tell she was a sweet thing and language proved to be no barrier to love. They were married in France and now live and work on his parents' farm in Kansas. They are very happy.

Two More Spirals

Here are the spiral granny squares for yesterday and today. I am not catching up but at least I am not falling farther behind.

I really like these colors, but I don't have much of the dark red so this -- the one on the right -- may be the only one with that color.

Found Crocheted Things

Where did all this stuff come from? Anyway, I am still in the unpacking/organizing stage here and I found a few things I thought I would share since I haven't made my granny square for today. It is on the list and I still have more than three hours in the day, but the sun is not shining so I won't be taking a picture of it until tomorrow even once I make it.
But I do have granny squares:

These were an experiment with two strands of baby yarn. The idea was to use one strand that stayed the same for all rounds and to change the other with each round. Together they also demonstrate that just because a yarn is labeled with a certain name (baby, sport, worsted, etc.) does not mean it is the same thickness as another yarn with that descriptor. I would still like to do something with this idea, but it would have to be something other than an afghan.
I also found some random granny square bits:

The tension on these is so much looser than the way I crochet nowadays that I will probably just use them as starting points for scrumbling.
Speaking of scrumbling:

These will definitely be used for scrumbling. They were made several years ago when I had first heard of freeform crochet. Our library used to have a wonderful book by James Walters that had wonderful information about crochet and how it works. It has been lost. Sigh. If you are interested in crochet and you ever see a book by him, do yourself a favor and get it.

Four More Today

So, now I am four closer to catching up and slowing down to "a granny square a day 'til the end of May" as the challenge says. Maybe when I get to that point I will start adding the border since I am pretty sure I will go that way. If I can decide on a color. And if I have enough in my stash since one of the reasons I am doing this is to use up yarn not have an excuse to buy more yarn. In this picture you can see the difference between the red yarn in the one square (lower left) and the deep orange in the other three.
All of the squares are sitting in a stack on the edge of my dresser with the ends hanging over the side. Their shape reminds me of a jellyfish though I don't think I have ever seen this colorful a jellyfish. Unfortunately, it is in a tight space and I couldn't get a picture of the uneven ends which really give it that jellyfish-look.

Aren't the colors pretty though? I like them. Usually I like to weave in all ends as I go, but since I'm still not completely sure about the border, I am letting myself enjoy the build up of colors as I finish each square.

Three More Yesterday

Here are three more granny spirals that I made for yesterday. Just didn't have time to get them up here then. These are also following the one color change at a time formula. The one on the right actually has a deep orange rather than red band in it. Couldn't get the color to come out right in the photo. There has been a good response to them on flickr.
I crocheted a couple more yesterday after taking this picture, so let's see if I can get them up today. It feels good to be working on a project.