A Book!!

I just found out that my cousin has self-published a book!  Personally, I find this to be super-cool... my cousin is only a little bit older than my eldest son which just makes it that much cooler to me.  Anyhow - if you feel like checking out his work, his book is available for purchase at LuLu.  I just want to do my little part for him, to market his book.  Oh, and Happy Mothers Day to all of you wonderful Moms out there!!!

Thanks for checking in today - I hope you have a wonderful day, week, month, year and life!

Plastic Bags

I just read about this on another blog, and had to share. Now, I am not as passionate about not taking plastic bags from the stores as others, but I do have a few canvas bags and I do use them. Love them actually! They hold a lot, the handles don't cut into your hand, and so far I haven't paid for any of them! I even entered a contest and designed a bag - you can go vote for my bag by clicking here. Every vote is truly appreciated! Anyhow - back to the original post; apparently, Washington, D.C. has instituted a plastic bag tax (five cents per bag) and thus has reduced the number of plastic bags going to landfills by 19.5 million per month. Yes, you read that right - NINETEEN AND A HALF MILLION PER MONTH! (They also raised $150,000.00 in the process, which is awesome but not as awesome, In My Humble Opinion, as the number of bags they DIDN'T use!) Personally, I had no idea that many bags could be used in 6 months, let alone a single month, and this was just for Washington, D.C.! I have never investigated how many plastic bags are used by people, so I do not have a frame of reference. I can tell you that I don't throw away plastic bags - I save them for re-use. I do have plans for making welcome mats and grocery totes with some of my bags, and maybe someday I won't ever get them from the store again! Oh, and you can bet that I'll be picking up some of those mesh bags from the Dollar Tree next time I'm there (as mentioned on the above-linked blog). Yes, this post is rather short, but sweet - and I just had to share my amazement with all of you!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you have a wonderful day, week, month, year and life!!

Update

I'm posting today! I know you all must be very excited! There are so many things going on all the time, I have a hard time keeping up with everything. I very often wonder how I ever managed when I worked full-time, since I am a stay at home Mom now and run out of time to get things done. I do appreciate all of you that visit my little spot here in blog land, and those of you that follow (even though there isn't much going on most of the time!) - so thank you all very much!


I do have several crochet projects I'm working on, mostly squares I'm making for swaps. Once I get some of the "cooler" things I'm working on finished up, I'll be sure to post pictures of them. I did sew up an outfit for my daughter a couple of weeks ago - she loved it! It was a fun little project, and I was glad to pull my sewing machine out - even if it was just for a little while.

 

I also received the most AWESOME package from a dear friend last month! Robin, thank you very much! She sent me all sorts of really cool stuff... here, check it out!




Thanks for stopping by today, it was great to have you visit!

I hope you have a wonderful day, week, month year and life!!

Another Proud Mom Moment!

Yes, it's true! I have another Proud Mom moment!!



This time, the honoree is my second-born, his name is Michael and he is 15 years old. He has been trying to learn the art of crochet off and on for the last few years. A few months ago, his interest was sparked yet again, and he asked me to show him some basic stitches. I chained a few, I showed him the double crochet, and off he went! It only took two rows (very short rows, I think about 22 dc's is all) before he was ready to start a scarf!



He picked out some colors from my stash, and I showed him how to change colors. He finished it up the other night, and he is so proud of his accomplishment! (I'm proud, too!)



He got all the repeats done he wanted to do, he figured out how to do a button-hole all by himself, picked out a button and everything!



I showed him the basics of the half-double crochet stitch, and how to go along the side of the rows, he did up a quick border, put the button on there, and viola!! His scarf is all done!



He did 99.9% of the work; I did an occasional stitch in the very beginning to show him how to do a double crochet, then I did a stitch to show him the half-double crochet, but he did all the rest himself. Don't you think he did a great job???

What an Honor!!

I just want to say THANK YOU so much to Ghost for this award! She has awarded me with the "Sunshine Blog Award" - WOW!! I don't even post very often - seems like life just gets in the way so much for me, I never ever expected to win an award!! Especially for inspiring people... since I very rarely even manage to put a post up, I can't imagine the posts are all that inspiring when I do - so the idea that someone finds me inspirational is just amazing to me! I do believe I'm blushing!! One of the things I enjoy about Ghost's blog is her ??Fact of the Moment?? - which today was "From the age of thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size." - I read that and thought "WHAT?? You mean I'm seven years into shrinkage already???" Sure doesn't seem like it, with my seemingly endless battle of the bulge! Shouldn't I be able to actually see some shrinkage by now??? Ah, well - maybe someday I'll win this war! Thank you again for this award, I do so very much appreciate it... and now, to follow the rules of acceptance, I need to name 12 blogs where I find inspiration - shouldn't be too difficult, except for the "only" 12 part! Oh, and before I forget - here are the rules...

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

2. Pass the award to 12 bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Okay, so here goes - my personal dozen "diamonds"... (these are in alphabetical order)

1. Lucy at Attic24
2. Tina at Beansie Babbles
3. I hope I'm allowed to pick a winner that was in Ghosts' list, too... Tammy at Coffee n' Crafts
4. April over at Dishcloth Diaries
5. Lora the Eclectic Nana
6. Tea from the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains
7. Paulissa at Knotty Musings
8. Chase from Oh! The Cuteness
9. Liz of Rose Vignettes
10. Caroline, the Kansas Hooker
11. The Laughing Willow of the Laughing Willow
12. Amber, the Yarn Pixie

Of course, Ghost is another one of my favorites!! I also read Wormie over at Hooked on Crochet... I guess the choosing of "just 12" isn't as easy as I thought it might be!

Thanks again, Ghost!! What an honor and a fun little thing to be a part of!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day, week, month, year and life!!!

Stick it to the Man!

Just a very brief post for you today - I would love it if you would check this blog out, and this blog post specifically!! Any chance you get to create this lovely little darling, go for it!

RAINBOW SUNSHINE PLUSHIE

This is just the cutest darn thing, I'm sure you'll enjoy! Looks easy enough to make, too, that I might just try it myself... the story behind it is way cool, too.

Okay, that's it for me right now! Take care all -

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day, week, month, year and life!!!

Proud Mom Moment

Hey all - I just wanted to let you all know how proud I am today! My eldest, William, signed up to join the Army Reserve, and today he left bright and early for his first "weekend warrior" training... he's just 17 and a half, he won't be 18 until July... and he's a Junior in high school. Yet, he decided to join the Reserves - and even though I know he won't be called to go anywhere until at least he's out of high school, that doesn't diminish the pride I feel knowing he felt the call to serve his country... I actually come from a long line of Service people. My dad, my grandpa, my other grandpa, my step-dad, 3 of my uncles, my ex-husband, his brother, my cousin, just to name the ones I can think of off the top of my head. There are probably a lot more that I don't even know about! I looked into it when I was in high school, but I've always had an issue with my weight so I didn't join. Looking back, I should have just bitten the bullet and lost the weight way back then and gone for it - but if I had, there's a very good chance that NONE of my kids would be here, so I won't be going back to re-do any of this life of mine (even if I could)!!!

Not really too much more to report on today - I have done a few small things recently, a hotpad, some coasters, a tawashi and a couple dishcloths were the most recently completed crochet-related items I've made. (The pattern for the heart dishcloth can be found HERE. A big thank-you to April over at Dishcloth Diaries for designing such a fun pattern!) I'm also working on making a dozen 12" squares, then there is a scarf I've got in the works, (I actually have 3 scarves in the works - I might want to get busy on those!) along with a myriad of other projects I'd love to see completed... oh, and I still have to work on getting our tax stuff together (yay).

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have a wonderful day, week, month, year and life!!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! I have not posted in quite a while, and I do apologize to anyone sitting there with baited breath waiting for my next post! I just wanted to pop in real quick and say HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable entrance into 2010, whether it was spent with friends and family, or if you went to bed and let the new year come in all by itself - as long as you enjoyed yourself and were safe, that's all that really matters now, isn't it?

We had a very enjoyable time at my neighbors house - played a couple games (Guesstures and Apples to Apples - the younger ones also enjoyed some games on the Wii), ate Mexican fare and rang in the new year with noisy horns and a quick kiss to our significant others! It was quite a nice time, for sure! The only down side is I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures of the festivities. Oh, well - it was still fun!!

Wishing you and yours a prosperous, happy and healthy 2010 -