Happy 2nd Birthday Joanne!

Watchmen Hat

I have been making several different types of hats to sell at Heroes Con in June.  Mike suggested that I try to make something based on the button from Watchmen.  I created a basic hat and played with the logo and made templates to cut out the face and blood splatter.  It turned out pretty good.  I will post the pattern after Heroes.

Capitals Tour Update

 

Reached my next destination on the tour this week on Monday.  

Next stop: Columbus, Ohio.

Princess Time

Tonight after getting out of the bath tub, Joanne decided that she wanted to wear a tutu dress Grammie got her.  Here are some pictures for Grammie to see her little princess.

Hobby Lobby Goodness

 I used the gift card I got for Christmas today and ordered some yarn from Hobby Lobby.  I so wish the closest store was not two hours away.  A bit far to travel for yarn.  But I ordered yarn for the Harley Quinn hat and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles masks.  Can't wait until my box arrives.  I am sure it will have lots of bubble wrap.

Hook salute!

Capitals Walking Tour '99 and Beyond

Capitals Tour '99 and Beyond

I started keeping track of the miles I walked and biked on the stationary bike at the gym back in 1999 as a way to motivate myself to lose weight.  I am over half way through the tour now in 2012.  I will post monthly updates of my progress as I work my way through the last of the virtual walking tour of the state capitals.

• 1999 - walked 154 miles
• 2000 - walked 302.8 miles
• 2001 - walked 315 miles
• 2002 - walked 324.9 miles
• 2003 - walked 10.9 miles (lost data on this year)
• 2004 - walked 553.6 miles
• 2005 - walked 1320.9 miles
• 2006 - walked 1460.6 miles
• 2007 - walked 1362.9 miles
• 2008 - walked 827.2 miles
• 2009 - walked 825.6 miles
• 2010 - walked 796.6 miles
• 2011 - walked 1456.5 miles
• 2012 - walked 563.7 miles so far

Tour route for the virtual walking tour

1. Sacramento, CA to Carson City, NV - 166.4 miles (Reached: Jan 2000)
2. Carson City, NV to Boise, ID - 438.7 miles (Reached: Jun 2001)
3. Boise, ID to Salem, OR - 475.4 miles (Reached: Aug 2002)
4. Salem, OR to Olympia, WA - 159.8 miles (Reached: May 2004)
5. Olympia, WA to Helena, MT - 629 miles (Reached: Mar 2005)
6. Helena, MT to Salt Lake City, UT - 483.4 miles (Reached: July 2005)
7. Salt Lake City, UT to Phoenix, AZ - 663.2 miles (Reached: Jan 2006)
8. Phoenix, AZ to Santa Fe, NM - 526.8 miles (Reached: May 2006)
9. Santa Fe, NM to Denver, CO - 391.1 miles (Reached: Sept 2006)
10. Denver, CO to Cheyenne, WY - 100 miles (Reached: Oct 2006)
11. Cheyenne, WY to Bismarck, ND - 607 miles (Reached: Mar 2007)
12. Bismarck, ND to Pierre, SD - 210.7 miles (Reached: May 2007)
13. Pierre, SD to Lincoln, NE - 467.5 miles (Reached: Oct 2007)
14. Pierre, NE to Topeka, KS - 166.8 miles (Reached: Nov 2007)
15. Topeka, KS to Oklahoma City, OK - 292.9 miles (Reached: Jan 2008)
16. Oklahoma City, OK to Austin, TX - 387.6 miles (Reached: Apr 2008)
17. Austin, TX to Baton Rouge, LA - 430.8 miles (Reached: Jan 2009) 51% done
18. Baton Rouge, LA to Jackson, MS - 173 miles (Reached: May 2009)
19. Jackson, MS to Little Rock, AR - 263.2 miles (Reached: Aug 2009)
20. Little Rock, AR to Jefferson City, MO - 350.1 miles (Reached: Dec 2009)
21. Jefferson City, MO to Des Moines, IA - 271.9 miles (Reached: Apr 2010)
22. Des Moines, IA to St. Paul, MN - 244.8 miles (Reached: Sept 2010)
23. St. Paul, MN to Madison, WI - 262.2 miles (Reached: Dec 2010)
24. Madison, WI to Springfield, IL - 264.1 miles (Reached: Mar 2011)
25. Springfield, IL to Nashville, TN - 383.2 miles (Reached: Aug 2011)
26. Nashville, TN to Montgomery, AL - 281.9 miles (Reached: Oct 2011)
27. Montgomery, AL to Tallahassee, FL - 207.1 miles (Reached: Nov 2011)
28. Tallahassee, FL to Atlanta, GA - 268.4 miles (Reached: Dec 2011)
29. Atlanta, GA to Lexington, KY - 370.9 miles (Reached: Feb 2012) 77% done
30. Lexington, KY to Indianapolis, IN - 188.5 miles (Reached: Mar 2012)
31. Indianapolis, IN to Lansing, MI - 249.7 miles
32. Lansing, MI to Columbus, OH - 256.1 miles
33. Columbus, OH to Charleston, WV - 168 miles
34. Charleston, WV to Columbia, SC - 356.2 miles
35. Columbia, SC to Raleigh, NC - 225.5 miles
36. Raleigh, NC to Richmond, VA - 172.2 miles
37. Richmond, VA to Annapolis, MD - 141 miles
38. Annapolis, MD to Harrisburg, PA - 137.5 miles
39. Harrisburg, PA to Dover, DE - 92.5 miles
40. Dover, DE to Trenton, NJ - 112.7 miles
41. Trenton, NJ to Albany, NY - 195.6 miles
42. Albany, NY to Hartford, CT - 113.6 miles
43. Hartford, CT to Providence, RI - 75.2 miles
44. Providence, RI to Boston, MA - 50 miles
45. Boston, MA to Concord, NH - 67.9 miles
46. Concord, NH to Montpelier, VT - 115.9 miles
47. Montpelier, VT to Augusta, ME - 191.4 miles

Route Total Mileage: 12,847.4 miles 

Crochet Inspiration: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I have an idea for making something for the show in June based on the might four.  Will keep you posted on if it works out or not.

Crochet Inspiration: Dalek Hat

 

I have had so much fun crocheting the tardis hat by the designer I found on Ravelry that I am going to try the pattern she has for a Dalek hat too.  Going to try it in the basic gray and black which is the traditional color combo for this fun Dr. Who villain.   Going to go diving into my yarn stash to see if I have yarn to make it up as well in the new colors that were shown in the last episode they were in on BBC America.  Should be lots of fun.

Completed Project: Tardis Hat

This was a fun hat to make.  The pattern is by Acquanette Ferguson and the pattern is listed on Ravelry.  I am making another one right now and I am tweaking things a bit.  I am making three rounds of single crochet for the black section where the words Police Box go.  Stitching over the double crochets was a bit tedious and does not look too good in my opinion.  I am also going to do rounds of single crochets for the white / blue changing section of the windows so the blue will be hidden better.  This is a great pattern and very easy to follow. 

Crochet Inspiration: Slimey the worm

Every time Joanne watches Sesame Street I just love it at the end when Oscar reads The Adventures of Trash Gordon to Slimey.  He is so cute in his little stocking cap.  My current project I am crocheting is using orange and yellow yarn.  I plan on making a crocheted version of him with the left overs when time permits.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

2010 Daycare Photos

I was going through some old pictures on my computer and found the file I had downloaded the pictures Rachel would send since we first started taking Joanne to her back in August 2010.  It is hard to believe she was ever this small.

08/05/10

08/10/10

08/23/10

08/27/10

09/10/10

09/21/10

09/23/10

 

09/23/10

10/05/10

 

Brandon's Bunny is completed!

Finished this little guy on Saturday.  He will be headed to parts unknown this week for my co-workers son.  It is amazing how the military gets mail to where ever the soldier is at the time.  Bye, bye little bunny.

Bunny for Brandon

One of my co-workers son is in the Navy and is out somewhere on a ship right now.  She is making a care package for him for Easter and asked me to make him a smaller version of the bunny I just made based on CopperScaleDragon's pattern.  Brandon and his wife are also expecting and just found out it will be a boy this week.  So the bunny can be on loan to him on the ship until he comes back home.  Then he can give the bunny to his son.

Almost done with the second half of the bunny.

This little bunny has to be complete and ready to hop in the box on Monday so it might stand a chance on making it to Brandon on time.

This is so cool!

While going through my e-mail newsletters today, I came across Aesthetic Nest's post about seaming your work.   The mattress stitch is so going to make this afghan happen!  I have already planned on lining the back of the afghan with a very light material to hide all the sewing stitches of the chains.  This will also help hide the seaming work.  Looks like I can break the base up into four equal sections and then seam them together.

This is looking like a more doable project as time goes by.  Will probably start the base right after the fair in October because it will probably take me at least three months to crochet the base.  

Dreaming of Pollock

For the last three years I have had the idea in my head about crocheting an afghan inspired by one of Jackson Pollock's drip painting pieces.  I had planned on make tons of little granny motifs and try to make the afghan look something like my favorite piece, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30).

 

This week I have finally come up with a better plan for crocheting this afghan.  Pretty bad I am planning next year's state fair project now while in the middle of making all of this years items.  But this has been bouncing around in my head for years and I guess it just will not go away.  LOL

The thought of making over 600 small granny motifs and then sewing them all together was sounding less and less appealing.  So a new idea came to me while driving to work, my best planning mode lately.  My plan is to single crochet a base and them make random lengths of chain and attach them to the base to try to mimic the painting.  

Pollock's pieces are very large, have never seen one yet, so I am going to try to make the afghan have the same presence.  I am estimating the afghan will be four to five feet wide by ten to twelve feet long.  Will have to measure my open space up in the bonus room to see if I will be able to lay this thing down on the floor to sew on the chains.  

Since this is going to be such a big project, the afghan will be the only item I crochet for the 2013 NC State Fair.  I am guessing the base will take me a couple of months to complete.  Not sure if I will be doing it in sections then sewing them together.  Will have to do a smaller test version to see how bad the seams will be.  

This project has to stay on the back burner but at least I have it written down now so hopefully I will stop dreaming about making this thing now!  

Hooks and Needles Salute to you all!!

Marshmallow bunny for Easter

I have seen CopperScaleDragon's pattern for this marshmallow bunny several times and have always wanted to give it a try but never have had the chance to do so.  Since I was not able to make anything at Christmas for the other kid's at Joanne's daycare last year, I wanted to do something for them.  The original pattern was too small for my liking.  I played with the pattern and got the bunny to be 13" tall.  Thought that would be a great size for the 2 year old's to play with or sleep with.  

I am trying to be thrifty with my yarn purchases so I am using the left over yarn from my multiple color afghan for this year's state fair.  I have a pink one done so far that will be for Joanne.

I have three girls and one boy to make one for at daycare.  I will be using a fun green, blue, purple and yellow for these.  They work up very fast and are fun to make.  I might tweak the pattern again to make them a bit smaller so I can make a small, medium and large size of the bunny.  The smaller ones would be easier to turn out to make to Online Angels.

Sock monkey is complete!

I finished assembling my sock monkey last weekend.  I thought Joanne would get a kick out of playing with him, but that did not go so well.  I tried two different times and she wanted nothing to do with Mr. Jiggy (named after my favorite NHL goalie not that crazy dog on HOBH.)  

I brought him into work to show him to one of my co-workers and one of our sales reps wanted Jiggy for her grandson in FL.  Penny was going to see him later next month and thought he would love him.  Since I had to do something to get him out of the house I agreed and sold off Mr. Jiggy to his new home.  Joanne loved the purple hippo I crocheted for someone here at work so much I will have to make her one to replace the sock monkey. 

Freshly completed sock monkey hanging out in the recliner.

Jiggy hanging out at work with me.

Elmo in Space

Elmo visits NASA

Joanne is so going to love looking at Elmo all over NASA.

Park visit request

We are thinking a high of 65 degrees warrants a trip to the park!?  Is
this okay with mommy?
 
fease?
 
Love,
Joanne

This came to my e-mail this morning.  How could I say no!   

Happy Mardi Gras!

Weekend Family Outing

This weekend Mike, Joanne and I went to the flea market at the NC State Fairground on Saturday to see what we could see and to get our big walk in for the weekend.  

Joanne wearing my hat.  

Mine was better than her's apparently.

Then we went over to the JC Raulston Arboretum so Joanne could run around after be tied down in her now too small umbrella stroller.  There was a wedding going on when we got there so we went to the back and worked our way back up to the front.  Joanne had lots of fun running everywhere she shouldn't be.

Joanne and Daddy playing in the Zen Garden.

Adventures in tree climbing.

Somebody did not like this at all.  Hence the blurry picture.

Manual Photography Cheat Sheet

I am so going to use this one!

Cheat sheet done by Living in the stills.

Movie Wish List: Ghost Rider 2

I so can't wait to see this one.  Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengance

Sock Monkey Goodness

While cruising around looking at sock monkey fun, I came across these fun items:

You can make this cute skirt for your girlie sock monkeys by Sock Monkey Fun!

Here is a cute idea to monkify your water bottle by Posh Pooch Designs.

I love the fez on this little guy at Sherri Crochet & Crafts. $$

 I just love this flower sock monkey by Sarah Flagg.

Who wouldn't love a Mr. T sock monkey.

Love this sock monkey themed fabric from The Little Fabric Shop.