Tiff Crochets

Bored today at work so I’ll torture you with randomness. 

• I think she’ll make a great Mrs. Gates.  How cool that they’re making a sequel!  Even though it was rather far fetched, I loved it.  Being a history buff and all, how could I not?
• Already did the Complete Your Album thing from itunes.  I needed the rest of Toby Keith’s White Trash with Money CD.  I know, I should have better taste in music, but I can’t help it. 
• I finally added a few of my buttons over there in the sidebar.  Now that I have Photoshop Elements, I should have a few more soon.  I also need to add back buttons of others some time soon.  I should do it now since I have nothing.else.to.do. 
• I left my current project at home or I’d be finishing up Laura’s top right now.  It’s going to look great!  I’m so excited about it!  A real, live garment pattern!  Cotton Ease rules.
• Opening Day is Monday.  I have tickets for the Easter game against the Cardinals (won’t be cooking Easter dinner for the fam - woohoo!!!). 
• I’ve effectively wasted two hours writing this.  Not bad.  Toodles!

After about a year (or more - probably more) of discussing adding a new addition to the family, Andy finally agreed that the girls could use a new friend around the house.  Meet Shiloh.

She and her three brothers were born on January 18th.  She’s curious, sweet, and talkative.  Shiloh and the girls bonded immediately.  They spent yesterday afternoon making and breaking lego houses.  They would build a cute little house and then Shiloh would pounce. 

Here she is supervising her kitty bed in progress -

And her kitty bed complete with little pink and black kitty toys -

If I were to come into an inheritence between now and April 19th, I would want to be the top bidder on this - Jane Austen portrait

I am not a NCAA basketball fan, but I am a UNLV Runnin’ Rebel I’ll be diligently watching the score tonight in the Sweet Sixteen.  Go Rebs!

Any teachers out there have any tips for writing a Philosophy of Education?  I’m working on my teaching portfolio.

I’m working on a new crocheted top for Laura using Cotton Ease.  I need bags of this stuff. I mean BAGS and BAGS of it.  It’s oh so soft and forgiving.  I love it and need more.

Tomorrow’s my CGOA chapter meeting.  Hopefully I will quit ripping out Laura’s top and decide on how I want the neckline so that I can have something to show for my efforts the past few days. 

Can’t think of anything else to add before the end of the day.   Toodles!

Today I begin my unintentional soup taste test.  What happens when your gone from work for a week?  You bring a soup from home that’s the same as the soup waiting for you at work.  So, tomorrow I’ll find out if Progresso is actually better than Campbells Select (I teeter between the two when shopping).  Right now, I’m pretty impressed with the Campbells, but I still can’t finish a whole bowl which is awesome.  I would prefer they come up with a better system for removing the metal lid though.  I do not want to wear minestrone.  Ever. 

I just opened Bloglines for my first visit in a week.  563 entries????  If I pace myself, maybe I can start blog commenting again.  Since I started this post with the intention of posting vacation photos, I’m down to 384 entries and have commented on two.  I know I can do better than that!  I’m also working too (strange enough - being back at work and having to work) so it’s taking me awhile to get this post finished. 

My knee and thighs are killing me.  My mom and I took the girls roller skating yesterday afternoon.  Maddie was so excited and then devastated when she just couldn’t stop falling down.  She whined all evening when she sat down.  Poor hiney.  I fell once thanks to a button or something on the rink getting caught in my wheels, thus the hurt/bruised knee.  My hips were sore by the time we quit, but I’m feeling it in my thighs.  Not that it’s a bad thing!  We’re tentatively planning to start going every Sunday afternoon.  It’s good exercise and the girls enjoy it.

Okay, since I’ve been working on this all day, I’ll end with vacation photos.  I’ll put more up in an album later.

There was a gaggle of geese at the lake house.  This one was napping on the beach early one morning.

It rained off and on Sunday through Wednesday.  This view is from the deck of the Llano River and Packsaddle Mountain. 

Thursday it was beautiful and warm so we played in the water all afternoon.  Unfortunately, the rain caused what was beautiful blue/green water to be brown, but it was nice to be out in the sun.

The four of us went out for new hair cuts.  Both Laura and Maddie (and me for that matter!  I had about 10 inches cut off though.) had a minimum of five inches cut off.  Yes, Sam is a teenager.  Just look at that look.  It speaks teenager.  Avoid looking too closely at me please. 

What may look like a normal sized nest is actually the home to this adorable, from afar, bald eagle.  I believe it’s parent(s) had to be close by due to the high number of much more professional photographers on the side of the road between Burnet and Llano snapping photos.  This photo is extremely zoomed in.  We were at least 500 yards away.  Apparently there is a growing bald eagle community in the Texas hill country that I need to find a little bit more about.

That’s it for now!  I’ve got to finish up here at work, but I’ll have photos of my crochet progress soon.

The girls and I are off to my dad and stepmom’s lake house for the week.  I’ll be enjoying the 80 degree weather on the sandy beach by the water, crocheting a lot I hope!

 Be back on St. Patrick’s Day!

 I leave you with a few photos of my cat, Buffy.

What?  I’m sitting near one of your many yarn stashes.  Gotta problem?

How many times do I have to tell you that when you’re on the floor, I must lay on top of you so that my 20+ pounds of goodness makes it hard for you to breathe?? Quit making me get off.  I’m not kidding.  While you’re at it, quit taking my picture d*&m it.

Lots of photos today!  Since I lack actual crochet photos most of the time, I probably should save a few for next time.  Nah.  I’ll forget that I have an uploaded surplus and one day when I go through cleaning out old photos I’ll find them and be pleasantly surprised, but I’ll most likely have no clue where they’re from or what they’re supposed to be. 

1.  I’ve joined the Sweet Pea CAL.  I’ve only just started the second row.  See?

I’m using Classic Elite Flash in Monterey Magenta.  I made one for my mom two summers ago in Cactus Flower.  This is going to be one of my projects that I take with my next week on my spring break getaway. 

You can join up too over at Crochetville.  Click on the pretty button made by Amie over at Nexstitch (the shawl’s by her too).

2.  I’m slowly (I mean slowly) making progress on my crocheted table runner.  My plan is to start recovering the chairs in a few weeks into a much more neutral color than it’s current Seventies orange tweed.  If I do, I’ll be more inclined to finish this up so that I can have an especially pretty table.  I’m going to need the matching placemats too if I switch back to using the bare wood.  The girls are still messy at dinner time.

3.  I have an inch to go (woohoo!) on my Chinese Charm bag from Debbie Stoller’s Stitch & Bitch.  There’s some fabric shopping to be done next week.  I’m using Patons SWS in Natural Plum.  The color isn’t quite as pink as you see it here. 

Every time I hear Clay Walker’s song called ‘Fore She was Mama reminds me that all of those keepsakes from high school and college really need to be gone through soon.  The girls are curious creatures, much like their mama, and there are some things that are better left to memory.  The concert and rodeo was as enjoyable as ever.  Here are some photos:

Just like one of my other long-time favorites (George Strait), Clay rides out on his horse to start the show. 

I don’t know how many people showed up for Saturday’s performance, but the following day, Hannah Montana and the Cheetah Girls broke the attendance record, bringing in over 73,000 fans.  I miss the Astrodome, but I love how we’re closer to the field at Reliant Stadium.  (It turns out Saturday’s performance had 61,228 sold tickets.  Still a full house though!  I’d prefer it any day to 73,000 screaming giggly girls 12 and under.)

Finally, we made a quick walkthrough of the livestock show, entertaining Maddie with the various kid-sized activities, like mini-barrel racing.  I’ll be heading back to the livestock show on Thursday with Laura’s class on their field trip.  I have to remember to pack a sack lunch both for her and for me, although I finally found my long-lost favorite food vendor since I was little so I’m tempted to sneak away for that instead (chicken on a stick - don’t ask, I don’t know why it’s so fascinating to me).

Tonight, there will be photos taken of my progress.  I promise!!!

We’re off to the Houston Rodeo tomorrow to see Clay Walker (after watching the actual rodeo of course).  Because I’m going with my wonderful “loser” cousin, Sam, I changed my punkymood to reflect our mutual “loser” status (it’s really more of a term of endearment for us.  really.  yes, I am a dork. :) ).  She’s fourteen and because we have two extra tickets, I may end up sitting with her and one or two of her friends.  I think my Aunt is getting out easy by sitting with a four year old (Maddie) in her seats.

I promise pictures of things soon.  Purchases that I made while in Dallas last weekend for Andy’s 30th birthday, slow arriving purchases of very beautiful yarn, maybe even a work in progress or two.  I need daylight for decent photos so I’ll try to snap a few this weekend.  Maybe even photos from the rodeo, but I’m horrible about taking my camera and forgetting to take pictures.

Here’s a photo of us from the big birthday party at Billy Bob’s in Ft. Worth.  We spent most of our time standing around talking (lots of lawyers), which meant that I smiled a lot and met lots of new people.  I would have preferred to be dancing the entire time, but it was still fun.