A few pics from the yard.

I haven’t written anything in quite a while, and don’t plan on it now. I just wanted to share a few pics.

Me and my youngest two.
Jakey
Nicole
First green beans of the season.
Pathetic radishes.
The greens that supplied those pathetic radishes
Some random seeds growing in our pumpkin patch.
Lots of zucchini flowers.

Finished object and WIP

I have a co-worker who’s daughter is pregnant and due at the end of the month. I made a blanket for her other daughter’s first baby, so I had to do the same for her second daughter too.

The first grandchild was born over the summer and was a boy. The next baby is a girl. It must be so nice to have 2 grandchildren born so close together, and to have one of each gender. Here are some pictures of the gift blanket for baby girl.

My lighting is terrible, so the colors aren’t true to life but they’re close.

Now, here are some shots of my WIP. It’s another baby blanket. I’m not sure if it will be replacing the purple one, or just be another potential gift. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the purple one, since I was working with yarn from my stash and had to make a bluish edge to it so it would be the size I wanted. I should have enough yarn for current wip to make the right size blanket without another stash dive.

Halloween Decorations

We actually decorated for Halloween this year. The teenager and I did most of it. Unfortunately I’m not very talented, so it didn’t come out great. The teenager and his dad created this scene though.They created the spider out of mostly repurposed junk we had lying around. The eyes were new lights, but we can definitely use those for other purposes, and reuse them next year for decorating if we want to.Here are a few more pictures of our decorations. We haven’t carved our pumpkins yet, so pictures of those will probably be added later, or have a post of their own.

Added pictures of the pumpkins we carved a few days ago. They look better lit up at night.

Taking a little time to craft

I’ve been working on a blanket for a co-worker’s first grandchild. This is my third attempt. The first attempt was okay, but the foundation edge was curling badly. I just could not bring myself to give it as a gift. So, I started over, with a larger crochet hook for the foundation chain. Seemed to solve my issue perfectly…then I ran out of material! The blanket was too small, even for the car seat size I was aiming for. It was time to dig through my stash for another option. I found a lovely, soft and thick substitute for the cream colored yarn I ran out of. I was loving how the blanket was coming along, until I realized I was going to run out of that substitute yarn too. Rather than start over, I decided to use 2 strands of my variegated yarn and one of a thinner cream colored yarn to make a thick edge as top or bottom to the blanket. It won’t be as soft as the main portion of the blanket, so I will let the recipient decide which side to be close to the baby’s face.

I think it will turn out to be a decent car seat blanket. I would use it, but I’m not sure how picky my co-worker’s daughter is.

Having a quiet moment

The pond needed a bit of a fill, so why not sit a while and enjoy the peace and quiet?

The baby was/is napping, the two little boys are playing a video game together (loudly) and the teenager is in his room…doing who knows what. I don’t mind admitting that I need a break from the chaos of my middle children now and then. I swear at this moment I can hear the fighting through closed doors and windows. The waterfalls help, but the boys are CRAZY!

A few more sips of my coffee should be enough to prepare me to get back in there. 😉

Happy Birthday

My baby girl is 1!

Her birthday was a couple of days ago. We decided to take a little family vacation this weekend to celebrate.

We went to the New York State Fair. We got up as early as we could manage with 4 kids…we shot for a 4am departure, but we managed 5. The traffic was minimal at that hour, even on a holiday weekend. We made a couple of stops along the way, but made good time.

The traffic around the fairgrounds was insane! We didn’t realize we were going to be part of a record breaking crowd. By the way, my husband and I hate crowds. The video we watched before deciding to go showed minimal crowding of the spacious fairgrounds.

We did get to see something we hadn’t seen before…a newborn dairy cow. We didn’t see it delivered, but it was pretty fresh, with its umbilical cord still hanging. There was a huge list of the births at the fair. It was surprising to us how big they are. Most were around 110 pounds! I skimmed the list, and I believe 82 pounds was the smallest I saw.

The 3 little ones slept through a lot of the fair. My oldest, and husband got on one of the rides a couple of times, and before we left the little boys woke up to take a ride on a kiddie train.

Overall it was a pretty decent day. We had high hopes of it being different than the fairs we have been to in the past. In some ways it was, the amount of alcohol being sold was ridiculous and they had many more games/rides than our local fairs. Otherwise it was just like any other fair we’ve been to, pretty underwhelming. We did see these birds, that reminded me of cotton candy.

The next day we went to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. That was much more our speed. It wasn’t too crowded, and we LOVE animals. There were a few rain drops, but otherwise it was a very comfortable day. The day before at the fair was warmer and sunnier than we had expected. I got a pretty severe sunburn on my face/chest/arms and neck, my hubby had one on his head/neck and face and the 14 year old got it on his neck and cheeks. Thankfully we brought canopied strollers that protected the 3 little ones quite well. So, a cooler and cloudy day was welcomed.

We all agreed the zoo was the best part of our trip. We (by we I mean my husband) drove home straight from the zoo. It was a very long day, and our bed felt so good after 4 of us sharing a double bed the night before. My 2 year old really likes snuggling, and the baby wouldn’t settle in her pack n’ play. I hardly got a wink of sleep. Hubby didn’t get much more since he had to snuggle the 2 year old when I had to hold the baby.

Tomorrow is back to normal. My teenager goes back to highschool, we have my daughter’s 1 year physical and then I’m back to work on Wednesday. I hate how fast vacation goes.