Tiff Crochets

The girls and I were in the library this afternoon for our weekly visit when I heard sirens in the distance.  Having grown up in Houston near the refineries, a siren to me means that there was an unexpected release of a chemical from one of the plants.  A siren in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area signifies severe weather and sometimes, if the weather is just right, a tornado.  I knew that we were under a tornado watch thanks to hearing the latest weather on the radio before entering the library, so I calmly returned to browsing our library’s amazing DVD collection.  A few minutes later, all of the library employees were gathered around the TV set watching the radar.  I was doing my best to stay calm to finish our library trip without stampeding for the door with freaked out little girls, but no, everyone had to start talking about tornadoes, which made the girls start talking about tornadoes.  After I reminded them that we would be just fine and would head home in five minutes, they returned to hanging out in the children’s section.

We all finished picking up our weekly goodies, checked out, and made it home almost a minute before the rain hit.  It was nasty.  The weather in Houston can be nasty, but this was nasty.  Then, after about five minutes, the rain ended.  Andy arrived home from work about 30 minutes later and said he had sunny skies the entire drive.  Boob.  So not fair.

I am so awesome!  The dishwasher was clogged yesterday and after a quick Google search, I found out how to fix it.  I didn’t attempt anything until today because I couldn’t find our allen wrenches, but after a few cranks, I completely cleared the clog.  Ha!  Andy came home and laughed at my celebrations, saying that I could do all of the handyman fixes now.  He thinks he’s funny.  I am not handy.  This was a wonderful fluke.

Maddie has lost both of her front teeth in the past week.  There goes her speech therapy for the rest of the school year.  Her therapist is going to have to be creative for the next two months.

I finished a quick shrug for Laura’s Molly doll last night.  I’m going to write up a quick pattern and post it on here and Ravelry.  Here are a few photos, along with photos of Maddie’s empty spaces.

I’ve seen this on several blogs recently, most recent being Sue’s so I thought I would give it a try.

Pick 10 of your favorite movies. Go to imdb.com and find a quote from each movie. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly and put who guessed it and the movie. No cheating!

1. You know, I don’t think I’ve got it in me to shoot my flatmate, my mum, and my girlfriend all in the same night. Shaun of the Dead - Melissa

2. I’ve been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow. Pride & Prejudice - Julie

3. I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they’ll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they’ll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it’s the sand of the coliseum. He’ll bring them death - and they will love him for it. Gladiator - Becky

4. I’ve hired you to help me start a war. It’s an prestigious line of work, with a long and glorious tradition. The Princess Bride - Amy

5. I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a *dwarf*. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object. This is Spinal Tap - Julie

6. My problem is that it’s 2 A.M. My problem is I’m asleep. I’m on a tour bus with eight stinkin’ men. Rule number one: Don’t propose to a girl on a bus, you got that? Rule number two: Don’t tell her it’s because you had a bad dream. Walk the Line - Melissa

7. You once said you liked me just as I am and I just wanted to say likewise. I mean there are stupid things your mum buys you, tonight’s another… classic. You’re haughty, and you always say the wrong thing in every situation and I seriously believe that you should rethink the length of your sideburns. But, you’re a nice man and I like you. If you wanted to pop by some time that might be nice… more than nice. Bridget Jone’s Diary - Melissa

8. Soon I’m gonna be sucking down piña coladas in a hot tub with six girls named Amber and Tiffany. New #8: In the old days if an agent did something that embarrassing he’d have a good sense to defect. Christ, I miss the Cold War. Casino Royale - Elizabeth

9. I’m no martyr. I did it for the money. But it’s not worth much if you can’t face yourself in the mirror. Respect is the ultimate currency. I was stealing from a man who traded his away for a few dollars. And then he tried to wash away his guilt. Drown it in a lifetime of good deeds and a sea of respectability. It almost worked, too. But inevitably, the further you run from your sins, the more exhausted you are when they catch up to you. And they do. Certain. It will not fail. Inside Man - Elizabeth

10. But the worst thing I ever done - I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa - and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life. The Goonies - Kimberly

As far as tags, I tag anyone else who would like to participate.

Edit: I’ve replaced 8 with a new quote because I just realized that #8 & #9 are from the same movie. I just like the #8 quote because hearing this person say my name made it sound really sexy. ;)

Before kids, I had no desire to try those strange little Peep things. The Easter bunny never brought Peeps to my house as a child and I was never curious enough to buy them once I had money of my own. All of that changed this year. I had to pick up a pack or two for the girls. I knew that if they were disgusting, as I feared, we could safely toss them and move on with our lives. Alas, this was not to be. Why didn’t anyone ever say that they were wonderfully fresh marshmallow goodness??? I hit the 50% sale at Target to pick up four more double packs of the purple ones. They aren’t quite as tasty as the pink ones, which I can’t explain, but there was no way that I would ever consider the strange neon orange ones. Too creepy in their little yellow boxes.

While watching Season 2 of 24 last night (hopelessly addicted, but tonight I’m choosing to watch this week’s Destination Truth and Ghosthunters instead of hours 10 am - 11 am and 11 am - noon), I finished a swiffer shrug. I will absolutely be making more of these. It was a quick project, lasting one episode, so roughly 45 minutes, from start to finish. I tested it out after taking the photo and was surprised at how well it works. It’s so much better than the little cloths that are intended for the swiffer.

Details:

Swiffer Shrug (Ravelry link)

Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Naturals (100% cotton ww yarn)
Hook: H, 5 mm
Time: 45 ish minutes

Next up will be her super awesome cotton dish sponges.

I’ve got a slow but quickly becoming a fast leak in one of my tires, since Andy is currently filling up the tire again after I just did earlier this afternoon. It looks like I will be heading straight to a tire place tomorrow afternoon for a fix. Yay! Bleh. Keep your fingers crossed that it keeps enough air through tomorrow afternoon so I’m not stuck at a high school on a Friday afternoon with a flat tire.

I found this via Rebecca. I also found it very accurate in many ways. Try it!

What Tiffany Means

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You’re most comfortable when you’re far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It’s easy to get you excited… which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don’t stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are loving, compassionate, and ruled by your feelings. You are able to be a foundation for other people… but you still know how to have fun. Sometimes your emotions weigh you down, but you generally feel free from them. You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic “Type A” personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you’re too busy having fun to care.

I’m spending this Easter evening enjoying a quiet house. The girls are tucked away in bed, Andy’s gone out but should be back soon, and I’m about to find a warm pair of pajamas before working on a little crochet project before bedtime. We had a nice Easter Sunday, complete with egg hunt, church service, and a huge meal. Our family tradition is to gift the girls with new warm weather pajamas on Easter and they both snuggled into bed tonight wearing their new gowns. We had a girlie movie-filled afternoon, watching both Enchanted and The Sound of Music. Just to break up the girlie-ness a little (okay, a lot!), I’m going to watch Shoot ‘Em Up once I finish.

The girls and I took a mini-break down to Houston last weekend to visit with the Mimi, otherwise known as my mom. It was a nice relaxing visit as usual and we took our time driving home on Wednesday, including dropping in on Big Sam. If you have driven on I-45 just south of Huntsville, TX, in the past 10 years, you have seen the statue of Sam Houston. The girls and I have nicknamed him “Big Sam” and they always wave on our way past. We decided to stop at the visitor center to get an up close look so I have a few pictures to share of our visit.

The girls posed with a piece of Sam along the pathway to the statue. I’m pretty sure they left my mom’s with decent hair. I swear they remove any and all hair accessories as soon as they’re in the car.

To put the photo in perspective, Laura is around 4′6″ tall.

Eek. I’ve been working on this post now for an hour and there is not an hour’s worth of read-worthy material. Of course, I do believe that there is never read-worthy material on this blog, but a few of you still come around. I’ve spent the past hour between here and Ravelry doing a group search for “crochet”. I’m on page 11 because I keep getting distracted. Sort of like my distraction by the pretty bright colors around here now. I needed a pick-me-up to get me back into crafting after months of being ridiculously busy so I thought the colors might perk me up a little. I need to do a little tweaking to get it more “me”, but as for right now, things look nice and ready for spring. Andy’s now home so I’ve got to hurry into the bedroom to put the movie on before he can stop me and force me to watch Baseball Tonight or Austin City Limits.

We had a nice little winter storm blow through last week leaving behind a few inches of snow for the girls to enjoy.  I was working at the high school when the snow hit and keeping the kids inside was a chore.  My new shoes had an unexpected workout while trekking through slush and quarter-sized snowflakes on the way to my car.  The house was beautiful after the snow fall.

The kids enjoyed digging out the winter gear stashed after our Christmas trip to Montana to make snowballs.

We spent a nice weekend with my grandparents at a local bluegrass music festival. I worked a little on a new design for the girls.  Hopefully, I can finish it within a few weeks in time for warmer weather and list it as a download.  Here’s a sneak peek:

I promised my stepmother new washcloths, so I worked on these while listening to music great Del McCoury on Saturday.

I’m off to catch up on a few shows taped over the last few weeks, including Medium, Jericho, and New Amsterdam.  Have a great week! 

Hi!  I’m alive!  Things were so out of control hectic during February in this household that I don’t think I have ever been so happy to see March arrive safely and on time (some times it does seem to arrive late, so thus, “on time”).  If only March would also behave and not bring a freak snow storm immediately following a nice, warm 80 degree day all will be well.

I’ve started a few new projects that I’ll try to take photos of tomorrow during daylight hours.  For now, I have pictures of an amazing complete rainbow that appeared after a storm about a month ago.  Bare with me, there are three photos so you can see the complete thing.

More pictures of the sky!  The girls and I sat outside watching the total lunar eclipse a few weeks ago.  This is the best photo that I managed to take over two hours.

I bought a few skeins of new yarns at my LYS last week and can’t wait to find my yarn winder so that I can play with it.  Until then, the yarn gets to play in one of the new baskets I grabbed at Target in their world marketplace 75% clearance aisle.  I picked up two skeins of Cascade Yarns Luna and one skein of  Bristol Yarn Gallery Lyndon Hill.  I think both will be used to make summer hats for the girls.

Is anyone else out there watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles?  I hope that it is picked up by Fox for a second season.  I loved the use of Johnny Cash in the big action scene.  I made Andy watch it with me this afternoon.  He’s mad that I watched the season without him, but we can never come to an agreement on a time to watch TV together, so I usually watch alone.  I was finally able to view Garret Dillahunt as someone other than creepy Francis Wolcott and accept that Brian Austin Green does not live perpetually in the 91210 ZIP code right as the season came to an end.

Person Francis Wolcott

Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts