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Thursday, April 25, 2013

FREE PATTERN - crochet boyfriend beanie: Alex

I like this beanie a lot. It's super quick and easy. And the hdc's make it stretchy, comfortable and versatile.













Materials:

2 oz bulky (5) yarn
Crochet hook size N (10mm)
Yarn needle

Rnd 1: Ch 2, work 8 hdc in 2nd ch from hook; join with a slip stitch to 1st hdc. (8 hdc)
Rnd 2: Ch 1 (does not count as hdc here or throughout), work 2 hdc in each stitch around; join with slip stitch to 1st hdc. (16 hdc)
Rnd 3: Ch 1, work 2 hdc in same stitch as joining, hdc in next stitch, *2 hdc in next stitch, hdc in next stitch; repeat from * around; join with slip stitch to 1st hdc. (24 hdc)
Rnd 4: Ch 1, work 2 hdc in same stitch as joining, hdc in each of the next 2 stitches, *2 hdc in next stitch, hdc in each of the next 2 stitches; repeat from * around; join with slip stitch to 1st hdc. (32 hdc)
Rnd 5: Ch 1, work 2 hdc in same stitch as joining, hdc in each of the next 3 stitches, *2 hdc in next stitch, hdc in each of the next 3 stitches; repeat from * around; join with slip stitch to 1st hdc. (40 hdc)
Rnd 6-15: Ch 1, hdc in each stitch around; join with slip stitch to 1st hdc.
Fasten off.
Use yarn needle to weave in ends.
Wear it while drinking the warm beverage of your choice!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Cookie-filled Sandwich Cookies

So I am waaaaaay behind. I had a stomach bug last weekend that just knocked me down. I can function through just about anything except a stomach bug. It's incredible how behind you can get in 3 days. It's like I'll never catch up.

On the bright side, we had food day at work. :)

I was going to make chocolate-chip dip...and then I decided I had a better idea.

You need:

1 box (8 oz) cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips
2 boxes of chocolate chip cookies
almond bark


Set out the butter and cream cheese to soften. Or, if you're like me, buy them at the store and make these as soon as you get home, lol. Cream the butter and cream cheese in a medium bowl. You can use a mixer, but I used a fork. Apparently the amount of time it takes for me to finish shopping, driver home and unload groceries is just enough to get cream cheese soft enough to mix with a fork.

Stir in the brown sugar, powdered sugar and vanilla.


 
 

Once these are well mixed, stir in the chocolate chips. You can stop here and use it as dip if you want, for graham crackers or pretzels or whatever. But trust me, if you continue on, you will not regret it.
 
If you are feeling really ambitious, you can make your own chocolate cookies. At 9:00 at night, I was definitely going for store-bought.
 
Spoon a thin-ish layer onto half the cookies and top with the other half.


Lotsa cookies! (Please excuse the glaring foil pics. Found out I was out of parchment paper after I got back from the store.)



 
Leaving them like this is great, but for food day, I wanted to pretty them up a little bit.


So I half-dipped them in chocolate almond bark. I don't have a double-boiler, but I have two saucepan that work ok.
 
Perfect!
 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Some days

A woman at work quit today. Normally a non-event.

She just returned from maternity leave, worked less than a week and quit.

It's reawakened this terrible desire I have to be home with my daughter. I have nothing against working mothers. Some mothers are happier and better mothers when they work outside the home. I am not one of those people. I would make a great Donna Reed. I was made to be a homemaker and it kills me that I can't.

I am so lucky that my daughter can stay with family. I am incredibly grateful for that. I am so lucky in so many ways. I like my job. I like my boss. But I hate going there. I hate it every day. I can't help thinking of all the things I am missing-about how her life would be different.

I would give up anything to be home, but we're already as close to the edge as we can stand. The only thing left to give up is utilities.

I can deal with it. I have no choice and it's really not as bad as it could be. Not as bad as a lot of people have it. But every once in a while she is in a stay-home-and-cuddle mood in the morning, or we had a troublesome night and both want to sleep in, or some slight imagined dig (like the Mother's groups all being at 10 in the morning), or someone I know talks about their stay-at-home-mom day and there's nothing I can do but mourn the missed opportunity.

So today I will sit and cry and look online for work-from-home jobs that don't exist until 2 in the morning. Tomorrow I will go to work and I will hate it. And I'll do my best to make the most of the 3.5 hours I will see my child tomorrow. Saturday we will sleep in all the way until 8:30. We'll eat cinnamon rolls. And I'll try to remember to be grateful for all the things I've been blessed with and let go of the things I can't control.

Until next time she is in a stay-home-and-cuddle mood in the morning, or we had a troublesome night and both want to sleep in, or someone I know talks about their stay-at-home-mom day. And one day she will grow out of stay-home-and-cuddle-moods. And that will be a new thing to try to let go of.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Well done

 
Quote day!
 


Now, this is one I struggle with. I'm good at making plans. Good at figuring out how to do things. Good at seeing the steps needed to get there. Not so good with the doing.

Even when it's small things. I'm good with the build-up, but my follow-through needs work.

At my day job, I struggle through it and manage to finish things. With Tangled Arts....well, I'm working on it. But it seems like in my personal life I have all these lofty goals that I never accomplish.

I think it's a combination of 2 things: laziness and indecisiveness. The laziness, I think is self-explanatory. The indecisiveness is because I can see so many possible end-goals that I can't choose which path to throw myself whole-heartedly into. Like those Choose Your Own Adventure books - I always read every possibility. Sometimes I started at the end and traced the pathway backwards to find the one I liked the best. But in life...well, I guess that's not an option. I'm not unhappy. I am content to be halfway to 30 different goals. At least it keeps life interesting.

But for the girls...I suppose what I hope for them is if they find a dream they can give their whole self too, that they have the courage to do it. And they don't let anything stand in their way, not anything or anyone and especially not their own insecurity. I don't believe that all their dreams will come true. But if they try hard enough and don't get discouraged, I believe they can have at least one.

FREE PATTERN - Jill

Wow! I meant to post this yesterday and I ended up working on my leaky roof instead. Good thing, too, because it's raining now. Fingers crossed for leak-free bedroom!



Materials: 
bulky (5) yarn 
     Color A 
     Color B
Crochet hook size K/6.5MM Yarn needle  

Round 1: With Color A, ch 2, work 8 hdc in 2nd stitch from hook; join with slip stitch to 1st hdc.
Round 2:  Ch 1, work 2 hdc in each stitch around, join with slip stitch to 1st hdc.
Round 3: Ch 1, 2 hdc in same space, hdc in next space, (2 hdc, hdc) around; join with a slip stitch to 1st hdc.
Round 4: Ch 1, 2 hdc in same space, hdc in each of the next 2 spaces, (2 hdc, hdc, hdc) around; join with slip stitch to 1st hdc.
Round 5: Ch 1, 2 hdc in same space, hdc in each of the next 3 spaces, (2 hdc, hdc 3x) around. Join with a slip stitch to 1st hdc.
Round 6: Ch 1, 2 hdc in same space, hdc in each of the next 4 spaces, (2 hdc, hdc 4x) around. Join with a slip stitch to 1st hdc.
Round 7: Ch 1, 2 hdc in same space, hdc in each of the next 5 spaces, (2 hdc, hdc 5x) around. Join with a slip stitch to 1st hdc.
Rounds 8-10: Ch 1, hdc in same stitch and in each stitch around. Join with a slip stitch to 1 st hdc. Switch to Color B at the end of Round 10.  
Rounds 11-14: Ch 1, hdc in same stitch and in each stitch around. Join with a slip stitch to 1 st hdc. Switch to Color A at the end of Round 14. 
Rounds 15-16: Ch 1, hdc in same stitch and in each stitch around. Join with a slip stitch to 1 st hdc.  
Fasten off.
Use a yarn needle to weave in ends.

Next week....well, it will be Kara:












or Alex:












I haven't decided.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

It's what we DO

"Isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do."

I have to admit, I am not a big Jane Austen fan. I appreciate her work, but I'm never going to pick it as an entertaining read. I find that I do like Austen in small doses. This quote from Sense and Sensibility is a keeper.

I think we are tempted to define ourselves by how we think. And I think we want other people to define us by what we say. But that just isn't the truth.

You may consider yourself charitable because you think charity is a good idea. That's great, but when is the last time you practiced it? You may say that you care for someone, but is it coming through in your behavior? And we all know about saying "no offense" before you say something offensive....yeah, that doesn't work.

The way you behave has the ability to influence your world.

You are only one person, sure. But you are one person, and I am one person, and that guy over there is one person, every singly person you see in the bus window is one person....People like to talk about their ideals, but too often it just stays as talk. If everyone acted on their ideals, how different would the world be?

Another way to follow through with your ideals is with your money. You invest in what you love. I was in a Sunday School class one time that irritated me to no end. It was a class full of older people bemoaning the current state of the world. You know "these kids today" and "when I was a kid" and it ended up coming around to "I remember when every place was closed on Sunday" Now, I don't have an issue with business open on Sunday; I really have no opinion on that. But these people clearly did. At least in their speech. The thing that stuck with me was how many of those people would go to a restaurant or the store after church - supporting the very thing they claim to dislike. Isn't that silly? If you think businesses should be closed on Sunday, I don't think you should patronize businesses on Sunday. Businesses exist to be profitable. If there is not profit in something, they won't pursue it. I think if you think violent video games are bad, you should not buy violent video games, even if there are settings to reduce the level. The companies who sell that game don't know you are dialing down the gore factor. They only know you bought the game. If you're willing to spend money on it, you must support it, right?

What do you think of yourself? Do you believe yourself to be kind or do you admire kindness? Then endeavor to engage in kind actions and avoid those that are not. Do you believe yourself to be trustworthy? Then try your best to only do trustworthy things. Thoughts are powerful and words are powerful, but actions are what people will remember above all other things.

You show your true self through your actions, so make them count.