WOW
Well what have I been up to. Not too much really. I tried to go to school but that did not pan out. I started but then had to take a leave of absence until January. Everything for a reason right? So I have dealt with that for the past couple of weeks and now things are getting back to normal. So what am I working on.......

Handmade Fimo clay stitch markers. Cool Huh?

Two squares that I have made for the friendship afghan. I have to put up pics of the ones I got too. I just remembered that. Sorry.

Oh this. Well I tried to make a poodle. Keats saw this kit at Target and asked me to get it to make it for her. I did and I did. I was watching a show and this is what happened. I sewed the ears on the bottom of the head so that is upside down and backwards then I sewed the head to the butt, and upside down at the bottom of the butt not the top. Then I sewed the tail to the bottom of the head part so that instead of sticking up it is hanging down. After that I put it aside and called it a night. I tried to take the sewing out but with this type of yarn you cannot see the stitches so I could not get it off without cutting it off and afraid to do that as so to unravel the whole thing. LOL. I blame it on the fact that my little purple accessory bag with all my notions in it is gone. GONE. I got home from this last trip to NJ and I have not seen it since. I had it there and now I cannot find it. My sis says she did not find it in her house either so I do not know what happened to it. All my Chibi's my cable needles my Kacha counter my fave DPN's everything even my Lantern Moon sheepy tape measure. SOB!!! I am so lost. On top of that remember the 15 cables a panel sweater for my SIL well the Katcha counter was keeping track of my rows and now that I cannot look at it I don't know where I am row wise and have not worked on the sweater at all. On top of that I am almost done with the second river rapid sock but do not want to finish it as my chibi's and needle threaders are in that bag too and I cannot bear to kitchner with anything else. SOB!!! Hence the making stitch markers and not really knitting. The poodle came with all necessities in the kit even the needles so that was really why I tackled that.
The upside down backwards sewed to the butt head with out support. LOL way too funny.

BTW not that anyone needs to know or actually be told but I totally am so very stupid. I was getting out of moms truck wearing flip flops and caught my right foot big toe nail on her door and ripped it off. Wanna talk about pain. OMG. This is where the stupid part comes in. What am I upset about, crying about, hurt about. The fact that I ruined my pedicure and now my toes look funny. Plus it will take forever for the nail to grow back and look good and I won't be able to have a decent pedicure for months. Stupid right. But this is me and I like my feet and I like my feet to look pretty. So this really hurts me knowing that I have now have an ugly nasty deformed toe that will take forever to look right. I am so stupid Not to mention such a GIRL.

Finally it is a picture of the completed River Rapids sock with the sock swap dyed yarn from Ashley. Isn't this pattern perfect for this yarn and color. I am so in love with this. These blues are perfect for this pattern, it really looks like river rapids flowing.

On an incredibly Happy or Sad note. Today my baby turned 5. 5! I cannot believe it.

I feel so old.

I cannot believe I have a 5 year old. It still boggles my mind. She had a wonderful birthday and is very happy and very excited for school tomorrow. She went one day last week for a half day, then the next 3 days for half days and after labor day it is up to full days. She is so excited.

I have the rest of the second river rapids sock to do it is almost up to the heel. Also I joined the Sock Wars. I so cannot wait for that, it looks like total fun. Plus I joined the friendship afghan. You get a list of others who joined and then make a square to send to each person on the list. Then they all send you one square as well and in the end you should have enough squares for an afghan. I love stuff like this. It lets you connect with others in something that will last forever. It will be filled with memories. Well off to bed I have to get the little one up really early to get her ready and fed before she has to catch the bus. And if I dwell on it too long I will so start crying.

 

IM ALIVE

I am alive and I am still here. It has been so so nuts. I still had my SIL kids and then I got sick and hurt myself. Then I had to do a suprise party for my MIL and SIL who turned 60 and 40 respectively within a week of each other. Not to mention that the SIL whose kids now practically live with me flaked out on me and I had to do everything by myself. Then the day after the party I left to go to NJ yet again. I got home. Crashed> got ready for today, The open house day at school. The first day, Sob!!! I am so proud of her but I do not want to imagine myself having a kid in kindergarten.

Knitting wise.
I have finished a sock in the river rapids pattern with the cake dyed yarn from my sock swap ashley. It is so cool. I love this sock. Sorry no pic today as I finished it while I was in NJ and I left it there so my sis has to mail it up to me. LOL. I started a sweater that my SIL (the one who just turned 40)gave me the pattern to as a hint last year. It is gorgous but. Each panel has 15 cables on it and it is slow going and tedious but when this is done it will rock. It is not my fault it wasn't done in time for the birthday party the pattern she gave me was incomplete and I only have the cables and then half the front no neck back or sleeves. So I do have a pic of that and once I get the rest of the pattern it will be more complete hopefully. Enough chatter here are some pics.

Look at how killer that center cable is. I love the look of this.

Biker Baby

Here is her 5th birthday present

Our first day going to kindergarten and meeting the teacher. Tomorrow is the first day alone for a half day. I know I will be crying. I'm such a sap. OK need to watch rockstar. Pics of sock tomorrow.

Everyone has got to take 2 mins to watch this video of my 4 year old singing her latest fav song. 1985. It is so worth it to watch this. It is only 47 secs long and make sure you have your volume turned up.


  

This cat loves to wedge himself in places. His favorite place to sleep is my bathroom sink. Got to love foamy crafts. It has been the one thing they can do and will leave me alone for five minutes. I just found out that I get to have all the kids this coming week as well. I thought this weekend was the last of it but I was wrong. Was I asked if I could take them. NO! It was just assumed I would. I love being taken advantage of. I don't know what to do as I have an appt tomorrow with a school admin office to see about going back to finish school. I arranged for my mom to take my kids. I know she won't take the other two. They are quite a handful. She is taking my kids but she is taking them to the office with her so I cannot ask her to take the other two as well. I told my SIL all this and she said well figure it out. Her bf is working and so is she, and she needs me to watch them. Well I need this appt so I can go back to school and better myself. Too F-ing bad. I hate people assuming oh Barbara will do it. We don't need to ask if she is busy she has no life. UGH!! Now I guess the kids will have to go with me. How nice.

I love my June sock swap yarn. I wanted the perfect pattern for it and I think I found it in the river rapids pattern. I am so loving these. These are keeping me sane and calm with out killing a kid. Thank you Ashley
 

I have had my SIL's kids for the past 3 weeks. Her bf is working out of town and she works early mornings so the kids spend every night with me and most of the day as they don't want to go home. They go home around 1 in the afternoon and come back around 3 or 4. Sometimes they don't go home at all. So I have not been able to get anything done at all. I keep cleaning. Cleaning and cleaning. I must pick up my living room 5 times a day. The poor baby cannot get down and crawl it is so bad. I have done 3 times the amount of dishes, cooking, and cleaning. I'm starting to go nuts. I hate cleaning (who really doesn't) I mean I don't mind straightening up and doing most stuff it is enjoyable and relaxing. Once a week. NOT 5 times a day. Every once in a while I can sneak in some night time knitting in bed but that doesn't last long. I have been trying to do some of my unfinished projects. Right now I am trying to finish the simply lovely lace socks. I love this pattern. I think It is taking me so long because I wasn't thrilled with the way the color came out and plus I made the biggest one listed and it is still really hard to get on my foot. I don't really have big feet. They are about an 8 1/2 slightly wide but not grossly so. That is part of the reason why I just kinda slowed down on them. I think I will give them to my mom. I was going to try them again with a different sock yarn but my LYS doesn't have a large selection of sock yarn and I am way too impatient to order it of the internet. Maybe I will try it with my sock swap yarn. It might work as the colors are light. I just think this pattern is no good for a multicolored yarn but if I find the correct needles maybe I will try. Right now I do want to finish uncompleted projects. Yeah uh huh, sure, until I see the next one that I cannot resist :-) I love Happy Meal stuff. I wish this fit my head.
4 kids= pandemonium. I have cleaned this living room 5 times a day, and still I get this.
Since my nephew has been here he has wanted to learn to knit. At least I feel like I got something accomplished.

 

A blankie for my dirt monkey toe.Lil monkey out of Happy Hooker
It came out so cute and it looks just like the sock monkey my MIL made for Lana.
My blankie!
Lana is very much a blankie baby as she cannot sleep unless she has a grip on one in her hand. She was very happy with this latest one. I gave it to her straight out of the dryer and she hasn't let go since. I am so glad she likes and uses it. My other one wants and then never uses or wears the stuff I make her. I was starting to get a complex.

 

Anybody up for some sherbet? This is Julie's prize yarn finally on its way to her. Sorry it took so long we had some family issues.
This is the pictures of the tote bad I made while I had a broken finger.
The inside lining.

 

Since I was so very upset that I could not get tickets to see Pirates on friday. Every theater every show sold out ( not to mention that I live in the sticks and cannot do online ticketing, but that is a grip for another day) so since I had at least a 4 hour drive on Saturday to bury my father in law I made this so I would have it to take it with me Sunday since I was going to see the movie sunday come hell or high water. On the drive I made this and finished it and felted it when I got home and I did take it with me sunday to see the movie. Which btw I loved, loved, loved. It was really good. So check out my Pirate bag made using Hello Yarn's pattern and Brown sheep lamb's pride worsted. It got way fuzzy in the machine. Needed trim and shave.
After trim and shave. Not too bad if I do say so myself.
Hubby went fishing Monday. Here is his big catch LOL!
Later he did end up catching the biggest fish for the day which was a bass. He was so proud.

 

Some pretty purple fireworks to help kick off july. I hope everyone had a happy 4th. Air time!
I made a jello flag cake thingy.
I don't really think this needs words.
BTW I did find my camera (thank god!) I was hidding in one of the many pockets in my diaper bag. Finger is still hurt so no knit progress to show. Will try to show pics tomorrow of bag and stuff I sewed at least.

 

Well I made it home. For the most part the trip was uneventful. Except for falling as I was getting in the car Friday morning and badly bruising my shoulder and breaking my right ring finger. Just what I needed. On top of that I don't have any pictures because I seem to also have lost my camera while I was in NJ. It was a fun trip let me tell ya. So I don't have any pictures and there isn't any knitting going on due to the broken finger. I have been sewing. I made a cute tote bag last night. But alas I cannot show it to you. I am going to go mourn my camera now. We have been good friends for the past 3 years.

The winner of the quiz contest is Julie! Since all of 3 people took my quiz I put the names in a bag and let K pick one and she picked Julie. Congratulations Julie. I sent you an email so if you can just get back to me with your snail mail as soon as I get home from NJ I will get it out to you. So much for that huh? At least I know 2 people read me :-) Tatts for now.

Well Im off to NJ tomorrow morning. Bringing Brioch and Boogie Baby socks to work on. I will be back friday after we see Superman. Happy crafting.!!

Not too much knitting going on right now. Too much else to do I have to make yet another trip to NJ. This is the 6th one in 2 months. Ugh!. I have made some progress on Mermaid but not enough to tell in a pic. I have also made progress in the simply lovely lace sock. And I started the Brioche Bodice pattern from the latest IK. Will put pic up of those soon.

Now here come some of those pictures that put me in Bad Parent Hell. I know that must be where I am heading not just for the content of the pics but for the fact that I also felt necessary to take the pictures. LOL my kids will love me when they are older!!

So here come some more of the bad mommy pictures. Now in the next two mind you baby is sound asleep. Check it out...........
 

Isn't life rough for kiddies and kitties?

These are just too cute for words.
They love each other.

 

My MIL made monkeytoes a sock monkey, and she girled it up. Baby loves this. She lights up everytime she sees it. My MIL is so crafty with a sewing machine I am so jealous.. See the purple bow and dress. Isn't that the most adorable thing. Well aside from the kid :-)