Can't believe it!

OUR COMPUTOR IS FIXED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now the only problem is...........I have not taken any pictures of the lastest projectst that I have finished and they have all gone to their respective owners.(not to mention I am posting this at my office and there is not way to download my camera here) Darn it! So I will just tell you what I have done.

I have made 4 hats but they really are cool. If you google "turning a square hat" you will be able to see the hat that I have been making. I have made 3 for women and 1 for a man. I love this pattern and it is quick and easy to do. I can finish one in an evening no problem.

I have made 2 sets of mittens and if you google "peekaboo mittens" you will see that pattern that I have made. They also are quick to do. I can do a mitten a day! I love quick projects that look like they took a long time to do.

I have also done 2 scarves and am designing a third now. I don't like plain scarves so I find stitches I like and then put them together for a unique look.

I also have made 4 necklaces, 3 bracelets and 3 pairs of earrings that will be auctioned off this weekend for our Catholic schools "Mardi Gras" fund raiser. I will be anxious to see what they go for.

I have also found a shawl pattern I want to make for myself and I know it will take a long time to complete but I think it will be one of those projects that you work on for a while and then lay down and do a quick project and then pick it up again etc. If you google "shipwreck shawl" you will see a lovely picture of it. I have not decided what color I am going to do it in yet but will need to make that decisioin soon as I have a nice discount at our LYS until the end of April. Now you might be asking yourself why does she get a nice discount there. The reason is............................................................ I have signed up to take a magic loop sock class. I know I have made several pairs of socks using the magic loop method but I am just not comfortable with it yet and am hoping by taking this class I will get all my bugs worked out! So that is how I got the discount on yarn. Sweet!

On the home front, my DH has finally retired and is really retired this time. It is nice to have him home again and not have to watch him run himself into the ground by being at the office 50-60 hours a week. That was crazy. But I am very proud of him as he managed to get a lot of things accomplished for the church in the 2 years he worked there. He is leaving today to go to Vegas to see his mom so he will be truly on vacation this time!

Not much else to tell all of you.

If any of you have a great pattern that is needing to be knitted or crocheted please let me know. I am really in the yarn mode right now and love trying new patterns.

God Bless!

Guess What

Guess What? You will never guess it so I will tell you. Our main computer is still on the fritz! We have had it in the shop several times and it never acts up for them. Well, this weekend it kept rebooting on my DH and he said he was just going to keep letting it go until it BROKE!. Yesterday morning we tried to turn it on and it officially will not turn on anymore! So now I think it really is broken and now maybe the shop can fix it for real.

This is frustrating to me as I have so many pictures I want to post on here and can't because of this little techno problem. So let me tell you what I have been up to.

I completed a hat for my DH

tp://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/2008/07/turn-square-pattern-now-available.html

This it the website you can go and see it. I am really impressed with the one I made as the yarn was kind of a self striping and when I got it done it looked like one of thos real fancy intarsia hats! So after I completed that I decided to make a whole set of the hat, scarf, and mittens for a loved one. I can not name the person as I know they read my blog and I want it to be a surprise for that person. Here is the web site where you can see a pair of the really neat mittens that I made.

http://katjaquilt.blogspot.com/2008/10/peek-boo-mittens-finished.html

They allow your four fingers to come out so you can still be dexterous or they can stay inside of the mitten and stay warm. I finished the hat and one mitten. I have the thumb on the second mitten to do as well as the scarf and then I can gift them out.

In all the time that I have been posting on this blog I really have not ever run across anything that was hard for this left to overcome. Well.............I think I have finally found it. You see, I knit right handed. (this comes from learning to crochet first and being more comfortable with the yarn in my right hand than in my left hand) Now this may not seem like a problem to you. Well, it didn't for me either until I finished the first mitten and had to close it with the Kitchener stitch. Now you may be asking yourself "sooooooo?" Imagine that. You just found the magic word............SEW!!!! You have to use a needle and yarn to do this stitch and if you have knitted right handed you have to complete the sewing shut of the blasted thing right handed. I am sure my family had a good chuckle watching me try and sew with my right hand! Thank goodness I have a tongue as it was sticking out and twisting all the time I was doing it. I managed and I think it looks pretty good too.

Other than that I am really not doing much else. I need to get busy beading as I have promised someone more jewelry for an auction at our church next month. I have not even started designing it yet. Guess that will be the next thing on my list once the winter set it finished.

Just thought I would keep in touch so you would know what I am up to and that I still don't have a blinkin' computer to post pictures on. ARGH!!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful time of year

The last week was so wonderful. We got our grandaughter on Wednesday and had her until Saturday night. Her parents went to Florida for her daddy's Christmas Party. Hum, my parties are always right where I live! Anyway, She was a joy to have for those days but now I realize why I had children when I was YOUNG! Although I don't condsider 56 ancient it really seemed old while chasing and playing with a 4 year old.

She had a dance recital on Friday night and it was soooooo cute! Of course the entire recital lasted 2 hours and her group was the next to last dance! Poor dear was backstage for almost 3 hours. She was so tired when I went to get her that all she wanted to do was eat and go to sleep.

After she left on Saturday my hubby and I looked at our house and realized that we had done absolutely nothing to it for over a week!!!! EEEK, it was a total mess. I told him I had been trying to deep clean one room each week but seems like I had kind of slidden off that wagon. So on Sunday we finished our Christmas shopping and then we attacked the house. I actually found my kitchen and dining room! Then I went into our office/pool room. Now let me set the stage for this......

Our computer died about 3 months ago. We already had a new tower so we installed it. As I have said in my past posts the new computer kept dumping everything. So we had to take it back to where we got it. Well of course it would not do anything for them. Finally one of the guys that works with my hubby took a look at it and rearranged and pushed in all sorts of cards ands stuff ( I really don't understand all of the techno jargon I just push a button and hope things turn on). Well it works wonderfully now. SO we got it all set back up. Needless to say in the process we had to move all sorts of furniture to get it done and now it was time to put it all back in place. We got that done and then I looked at the computer area and realized that it had not been gone through in some time! So I attacked it. I was amazed at the stuff I found! I shredded 2 bags full of old bills. I filled one of those hugh 33 gallon bags with old computer discs that we have not used in YEARS! It was such a refreshing feeling when I was done.

Also this past week the battery on my car died! Luckily we had my son's truck but only until Saturday (when they came home) SO my lovely husband got my new battery all done on Saturday and I am so happy. I Love my little car and love to drive it. I don't care much for hubby's car and even less for my son's truck! But they got me to and from work for a week.

SO tonight we have a Christmas Party at our Priests' home, tomorrow I finish wrapping gifts, getting stuff in the mail that needs to go out and go and visit my mom and give her, her Christmas and Birthday presents. (her birthday is Christmas Day). Wednesday I start on the laundry and getting our clothes together for our trip to TX. Thurday I will finish up the laundry and start the packing. FRiday I will get off work early and go pick up my Grandaughter from school and have some last minute fun with her. Saturday we are off to TX to spend Christmas with our youngest Son and his family.

Hopefully I will get some crafting time while I am gone but if not it will still be there when I get home. At least I can knit while on the plane!

I hope all of you have a blessed Christmas and very wonderful New Year.

It is coming.................again

Gosh, I guess I should check out my blog more often. I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. But then it seems I always say that. Anyway, I have been on facebook so much that I sometimes forget about my blog and all of you that rely on it to see what is going on with my life.

First and foremost...........our home computer is sick. Really sick. In the shop sick and it is brand new. Seems the memory in it was corrupt when we got it. So now it is in the computer hosiptal getting all better. I can not wait until it is back. I have a new Adobe program to install on it so I can start to download pictures again. (the sad thing is, the pictures on my old computer are locked up and I can not get them out of ther!) Then I can start putting pictures back on here again of all my crafty things that I have done.

In the yarn front...........still working on my mom's socks but did finish my DD socks. Have 2 prayer shawls in process. One is knitted and one is crocheted. I made a couple of hats for my Grandaughter for the chilly days we have ahead of us. I want to make a couple of scarves to match her hats too. I think that is all the projects I have going on in the yarn area.

Beading area.......I have made so many necklaces, earrings and bracelets! I can hardly keep track of all of them. I have used copper, brass, gold and silver and love all of them. I think my favorite is copper but it is hard to find and not too many people appreciate the color of it as it is hard to coordinate with clothing. My next favorite is the antique brass but that too is hard to find but much easier to match to clothing. I made three sets to sell at an auction last month and they did really well and pulled in a lot more $$ than what it cost me to make them. The proceeds went to a great cause. Our St Peregrine's Shrine. I have done a bit of beading for Christmas this year but can not tell you what it is as most of the people they are for read this.

So what else has been happening to us? Well, we went to Las Vegas in October for our 34th wedding anniversary and the 1st anniversary of my Father in Law's passing. We have been keeping busy with work and family. My mother ended up in the hospital with a blood clot in her leg. She was there for several days but is home now and on medications for the next few monther to make sure this doesn't happen again. We had Thanksgiving at our Son's house and had a wonderful time. I decorated my mom's house for Christmas and am still working on mine trying to get it ready for the Christmas season too. We are getting ready to go to Texas for Christmas. Our son in the navy is moving there the 18th of this month and they bought a house. So we are going to help them paint some of the rooms and do a bit of remodeling. This will be the first Christmas we had spent with them in 9 years! So we are looking forward to that.

My husband has turned in his resignation from his job at the Church. He is ready to stay home and get some honey do's done and truly enjoy retirement. This will be his third retirement and hopefully his last one! It will be nice as he will be able to pick up our grandaughter from school each day too and it will give them a little together time that they seem to cherish.

I hope that this year has been good for all of you. And I pray that all of you will have a wonderful 2010!

Merry Christmas and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!

Yup, still here

So sorry about the long spell since I last posted on here. It has been a really crazy last 6 weeks. I know you probably really don't care what all happened but I am going to tell you all anyway. (evil grin)

As you all know we had a grand time in Chicago visiting our son and his family. It was so hard to leave them but they are moving to Texas in December so they will be much closer to us and for that I am thankful. It will be much easier to go and visit them and we can do it more often.

So in comes September. I am happily knitting on socks (it is still well over 100 degrees here). I have completed the pair for my Daughter and am working on a lace pattern for my mother. They are a lovely self striping pattern and I really enjoy watching the colors come thru.

We had a Marian Conference we attended in September that was 3 days long. It was wonderful but ate up our whole weekend so it was a scramble to get all the laundry done and housework caught up during the next week.

I was fortunate enought to get to go to a Casting Crowns concert in September also. I have wanted to go for the past 2 years and I finally got the chance. We had to drive for almost an hour to get to it but is was really worth it. The thing lasted almost 3.5 hours! FOr those of you that don't know, Casting Crowns, is a christian rock band. They are just great and they were proceeded by Matt Redman who is also awesome. Needless to say I am already making plans for the concert they will be giving next year!

We received a call from our Daughter the middle of September stating she was moving back home as her marriage had dissolved and she did not want to stay in Albuquerque. So she moved home the end of the month and had to leave for her job 2 days after she got here. I just hope none of you are planning on coming over for a visit anytime soon as the house is just a bit of a mess. She got most of her things gone thru before she left and even took a whole load to GoodWill. But there are still some things we need to find a home for and won't really be able to do that until she returns from her job the end of October!

So we think things are going along great at this point when I get the call that I need to take my mother to the ER as she has a blood clot in her leg. So off we go to the hospital and my Daughter in Law meets us there so she can help with anything that she can. We are thinking she is only going to be in there for a day or two. NOOOOO, we are not going on 4 days and it looks like she will be there another 3-4 days until they can get her blood clotting factors where they want them. She is not at all happy about the stay there but we have all told her it is the best place for her at this point until they get the Coumadin levels right and she has to stay on a Heparin drip IV until she is discharged. So I have been spending all my evenings with her as I know it is so boring there and she gets very lonely too.

One thing about her being in the Hospital.....I finished one pray shawl and am starting on another one. It is a bit chilly in her room so the pray shawl feels good on my lap.

So no we are approaching fall here in the valley of the sun. We have been promised that we are done with the triple digit temperatures for the rest of the year. So we are staying in the high 80's to low 90's during the day but are dropping into the
60's at night. It is a bit brisk out when I go out to water the flowers in the morning. This morning I even wore a sweatshirt to go out there! (Ok, all you back east, quit laughing)

Still have not figured out the camera so still no pictures to post. I promise once my life gets back to normal I will be posting something on here other than words!

Oh yes, we are leaving in a couple of weeks for Las Vegas for our 34th wedding anniversary and the 1 yr anniversary of my Father in Law's passing. (it was on the same day as our wedding anniversary).

Have a great week/month and until I post again be crafty!!!!!!!

(I am also on FaceBook now under Marsha Schug Noce so you can join me over there and follow me closer as I am on there daily)

Home sweet home!

We are back from a wonderful trip to the Chicago area to see our son and his family. We were gone for 2 weeks and loved our time away to be with family that we only see once a year. Lucky for us they are going to be moving to Fort Worth in December so maybe I can get to see them 2-3 times a year then over long weekends. That would be so nice. Hopefully this will be the last place they will be until my sone retires from the Navy. We will wait and see.

While I was gone I did manage to finish my DD socks. I also started on another pair of crew socks for my mom. I am not posting pictures until I can figure out what is going on with my photo album on the computer. It has locked up on me and there are over 500 pictures on it that I need to put on a CD. But once I get things taken care of I will post some pictures.

I am back at work now trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel and hoping it is not a freight train. Seems like I just finish one project and 3 more pop up. Such is the life of a medical biller. Our work truly is never finished.

I had some down time last night so I worked on beading. I had not done much before we left. I managed to get a necklace, bracelet & earrings (all matching) done. I started on another set of jewelry this time in copper. I have never worked with copper before and am enjoying it a lot.

While in Illinois, we went to Gurnee Mills and I found a bead shop there. (imagine that!) I found something I had never seen before. It is called Blistered Pearls. What it is, is, the actual oyster shell with a pearl that has been embedded into the shell (blistered). I bought several of them and made corded necklaces and gave one to my DIL, one to my mom and I kept one for myself. I made sliding knots in the cord so it can adjust in length. (I found the instructions on the internet) I told the people at the bead store that they had some really nice stuff. They asked me where I was from and I told them Arizona..................well...........Then they procede to tell me they have a store just blocks away from my office!!!! And here I thought I had discovered and different shop than we have here. Oh well!

Not much else going on in my life. SO will close for now and wish you all a great crafting day!

Off we go

Sorry, no pictures this time. I have lots of them taken of all the beading I have done in the past month but do not have the time to download them and upload them to by blog. Plus for some reason I can not get into my Adobe Photoshop. It has me locked out and I have put in the unlock code several times. Oh well. I will work on that later.

So some news for anyone that cares.

We just had a new roof put on our home and then had the whole outside painted. It looks so nice now. We have been in this house for 21 years and this is only the 2nd roof but the first time we have had the house painted. So it was exciting picking out some new colors for the house as I was really tired of beige and brown. So now it is Terracotta sand and spiced berry. Sounds kind of exotic huh? Well it really boils down to deep berry for the trim and warm sand for the main part.

On the crafting front, I am almost done with my DD socks and of course will start another pair as soon as these are off the needles. I have several pairs of needles but find if I put more than one pair on at a time none of them get finished in a timely manner. I have also been beading up a storm. I have made 6 necklaces with matching earrings as well as some bracelets to go with them. I have not been crocheting at all this summer as I really like to crochet the prayer shawls and with the temps outside reaching up into the 110's I am not in any hurry to put a bunch of yarn on my lap!

We leave next weekend for Chicago to go and see our son that is in the Navy and his family. They will be moving from Chicago to Fort Worth this December so they will be a bit closer to us and it will be much easier to go and see them then. They will be in Fort Worth for 4-5 years and then my son will only have 3-4 years left in the service before he can retire at the ripe age of 39!

We just got back from Las Vegas earlier this week. We went to see my mother in law and just to get away for a few days and relax. We had a great time and stayed at Sam's Town this time. We had never stayed there before but have decided that is going to be our new place of residence when ever we go up there to visit. People there were so friendly. Even the hotel guests!!!

So I will not be updated the blog until towards the end of August. Hopefully by then I can figure out how to get back into my Adobe program and retrieve my pictures so I can post some on here.

Enjoy the next month!!!!