Merry Christmas!

So... the world DIDN'T end. The Doctor saved us!!!

Ah, I love this time of year; I'm such a dragon though - every year I want to sit and be bestowed with all my presents, mounds and mounds of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not greedy, I just love my treasures!

This year is going to be quiet today and tomorrow, all of our kids are with their other parents; so we're postponing our Christmas & Birthday festivities until Friday & Saturday. Fortunately enough, this will give me the extra time needed to finish up some hurried crochet projects for the kids.

I do plan on posting pictures of these gifts later next week, but not just yet as I don't want the receivers to know what they're getting!

Tomorrow is my 35th birthday (again...) and not only do I have to wait until Saturday (usually waiting until after supper kills me!) but I have gleaned enough information (thank you, Riley) to believe Amazing Adam and I will venture forth to see the new Hobbit movie! YAY! Gettin' our geek on!

Then I received enough phone calls from Michael's the other day when Amazing Adam took the kids shopping to believe that I may receive some crochet tools for Christmas. Very sweet, can't wait to see what they came up with!

On Friday, Amazing Adam and Riley decorated the whole living room by themselves, I sequestered myself in the bedroom crocheting. They did a great job. I'll take/post pictures with a Christmas in Review post next week.

Amazing Adam and I essentially started and finished all our other shopping last week, mostly on Saturday; but my goodness are kids expensive! Because we did most of our shopping together he knows everything that he's getting from me, which is alright - at least this way he was able to get the right size and really decide if he liked it or not.

Every year I always wish it could be more and every year I realize it was just the right amount. Just enough to make everyone happy and to  remember that it's not all of the presents that make it wonderful, it truly is the time spent with the ones you love.

Happy Christmas and Merry Birthday to everyone!

Crochet for a Good Cause

I've always been interested in finding a charitable way to donate my time in a crochet format; unfortunately it's either too complicated, too time consuming or it asks for knitting (pfft!).

However, I've begun following Repeat Crafter Me mostly for the adorable and easy patterns she offers, but today I saw that over the weekend she made a post about Sandy Hook Elementary School. She shared a site that is gathering hats for the surviving children in the school that experienced that horror. Her blog post can be found here ; it contains a link to the preferred pattern and guidelines for the beanie hats; which can also be found here.

So, rather than getting caught up in the media hype and propaganda, remember the name of a victim, hug your kids, tell everyone that you love them; then put on a stupid holiday movie and start moving that hook. I think this is a brilliant idea, every child should feel that someone does care and not all people are out to hurt others.

Above all else, remember that a day should never go by without telling those that you love, that you do love them; and never let the last thing you say to someone be an angry word. You never know what is around that next corner.

12/12/12

Here it is - December 12, 2012.

I don't really have anything interesting to post; I'm basically just trying to keep up with everything before the holidays. Shopping is no where near "started," I'm hoping to be able to make presents for the kids & family this year. I started a commissioned piece last night with a due date prior to Christmas.

So, how about a year in review? Well, not really, but maybe things I've found myself thankful for over the last year; the year of the Dragon, a time of good fortune. Within the past year I've discovered that this "good fortune" tends to come with mixed blessings or in a way that the "good" part of it aren't really discovered until some time later.

I'm thankful for a family I love and adore. My daily life is surrounded by an immediate family that is pure chaos and love. Amazing Adam and I have known each other since we were knee-high to a grasshopper, been friends forever, and have finally brought each other a relationship full of love and laughter. I've found someone to rely on and that I look forward to spending time with every day. I'm more spoiled than I realize and I can only hope I thank him enough.

Amazing Adam!

The kids we have between us are like sugar and spice and everything nice, but definitely are snips and snails and puppy dog tails, and all covered in a nutty crust. I can't remember a day where I haven't laughed or smiled over something they've done or said.

Aurora, Riley & Jacob - Summer 2009

As the oldest, my Riley (13), is growing up fast, has started middle school and is seeming to have only a few bumps as he's adjusting. Still playing trombone in band and doing really well. He's starting to show interest in things that Amazing Adam enjoys like Magic: The Gathering, he's even going with Amazing Adam to run errands and just spend time with him. I love watching them together, it warms my heart. However, he's also showing signs of becoming a teenager. Lord, help me! I told him a long time ago that it was my job as a parent to piss him off, so if I do things that make him angry or upset - that just means that I'm doing a good job. There's been a bit of that lately, nothing too horrible yet, then again he is only 13.

Riley & Friend, Fall 2012

Darling Aurora (7) is next, and is a ball of bossy, crafty, crazy energy. She's definitely the type of child that if it doesn't fit - force it! She's in 1st grade and absolutely loves her teacher and has even shown interest in a little friend at school; declaring that she's going to marry him. Yeesh! She's doing quite well with her spelling and has become quite the little writer, claiming pages and pages upon pages of paper at school to write stories. This made Amazing Adam quite proud, as he too enjoys the written word.

Aurora, Fall 2012

Little Jacob (5) isn't quite as little as he was when I first met him; all curls and giggly baby; now he's all boy, burping and farting at his sister just to freak her out; construction vehicles and garbage trucks. He started Kindergarten this year and is going great! He also enjoys going to see his teacher, she was Aurora's Kindergarten teacher last year.

Jacob, Fall 2012

Our parents are amazing. Always willing to help us out if we need to stretch between paydays, watching the kids before and after school, being a wonderful sounding board for basic life drama. Then on top of it all - they get along! I can't express how wonderful it is to spend a holiday or birthday with both sides of the in-laws in a joyous and fun atmosphere. I can look forward to family gatherings with a lot of moral support and love. I thank my parents and Amazing Adam's parents for everything they do for us everyday.

Then with both Amazing Adam and I being gainfully employed enough to meet the family's daily needs, I am also thankful. We may not have much, but it seems to be just right for us right now. Beyond our daily work requirements Amazing Adam is officiating his second wedding ceremony tonight for two of our friends, it will be his first same-sex marriage and we're looking forward to it.

Likewise, I'm starting my crochet business. Sometimes, I feel as if I have no idea what I'm doing or what I'm supposed to do; so for now I'm winging it. I've sold some things in the past and have continued to sell things recently; with word-of-mouth, business cards and some casual networking, I'm hoping to build something I can enjoy and be proud of.

Looking back, I am surprised at how many positive things I am fortunate enough to have in my life. I'm looking forward to 2013 to see what the future will bring. Either way, as I'm surrounded by great family and friends, anything is possible.

Hooray, Productivity!

With the craft fair behind me, I've been selling off my remaining stock with 50% of the proceeds sold on this last Friday to benefit our office's Christmas Family. It was our best bake sale event for the year. Even my crafty cohorts of the jewelry persuasion did the same donation. 

There has been a lot of yarn flying around our department too, causing me to go through withdrawals. I picked up a hook at work for about 15 minutes last week and almost immediately found a calming force coming over me. It has become like a drug! Therefore, I entered into this weekend with a vicious craving to crochet. 

I started working on some hats. One I started earlier this last weekend and finished quite early Saturday – before 6:30am I do believe. I decided to give it to Aurora, as I have hopes to update her unicorn hat and I had to find a way to get her out of it!

 

Then I used a pattern I had on hand (originally for snowman hats) for baby hats with ear flaps, being that babies are wobbly & squirmy, I didn't really want to add strings or braids so I made corkscrew curls at the ends of the ear flaps. I was able to get 3 sizes done on Saturday as well! 

 

 

One weekend after Halloween Jacob came home wearing a red and white striped shirt – basically the perfect Waldo shirt. This gave me inspiration for a Waldo hat pattern I found; however with it being so close to Christmas I decided to invert the colors and make it a holiday hat. It is also quite cute, but a bit too tight for my kids to wear, although I was able to convince Aurora to model it for my blog.

The sixth and final hat made on Saturday was a variation of Aurora's pink hat, this time in blue with stripes and a pom-pom on top. For some reason Jacob doesn't always want to wear his Viking hat, so I thought this blue one would be great for him. He loves it and I was lucky enough to get him to almost be still enough for one picture.

 

The pattern I found that inspired the pink baby hats and the Waldo hat were found were on one of my new favorite blogs: Repeat Crafter Me. She has the most adorable patterns! There are a few more that I'm itching to try.

Last night we attended a family Christmas gathering in Seattle, although I brought my yarn with me I spent the time relaxing with family members that we see all too rarely. It was a year ago that I received my Yarn Drum from Amazing Adam's mom, it has literally gone EVERYWHERE with me since that day. I absolutely love that bag, and couldn't be more thankful for such a thoughtful present from her. 

In the meantime, my business cards are going out, items are being made, orders are still being taken; I mentioned it previously, but if someone needs something for Christmas delivery, this is the last week I'll take them - with fee for a rush job. Feel free to contact me to discuss the options. 

Next project to start immediately: a commissioned Cuddly Cthulhu and I need to find inspiration for baby boy items. I'll be the first one to admit that I've been working with too much pink lately; problem is that I want to get rid of some of the yarns I have in pink! There's soo much of it!

Craft Fair - DONE!

Well, one down - finally! Thank you to all friends and family that came by to support us. Both my co-workers had beautiful jewelry that looked dazzling on their displays. Also, a huge thanks to my son, Riley, who actually was a big help as I frantically tried to make sure we had everything, arrived 90 minutes late, then tried to figure out the spastic layout of that school. He was pretty awesome during the day.
As I'm sure more seasoned vendors could tell me - I didn't make as much profit as I had hoped. Oh, well, I received a lesson on pricing. I had a few cozy/coaster sets that sold at the original pricing, however as soon as I dropped the price to $1 in the last hour they went much faster, a lot of lookie-loos that first came by earlier in the day did end up returning to get them as well. That was a nice surprise.
Business cards were taken. Received a lot of compliments on the photo slide show I had running on my tablet on the table. I talked with everyone I could, offered to take special orders... I hope that some of these people will come visit this blog or e-mail me.
On another note... I felt pretty good for most of the day! No frantic racing for the bathroom, no icky tummy; which was an incredible improvement over the last 3 days.
Mom was adorable! She hurt her knee the other day, but she still showed up limping all over the place doing not only her shopping but networking for me! She was able to make contact with another vendor that's involved in a craft fair vendor group that does 4 shows a year (seems reasonable - but could drive family crazy!). However, to have the opportunity to learn from more seasoned vendors could be a grand education. That will definately be something worth looking into. Then when that was all done and her shopping finished, she bought a platter of cookies for all of us working at our space. So sweet!
Mom also gave us the best comment of the day. As she arrived, she became the first customer for Riley and I. She bought a cozy/coaster from me and a game of Magic: The Gathering from Riley. As she finished her transaction with me she turned towards Riley and said, "Ok, Ri, show me one of your magic tricks." I died - it was so cute and sweet! However, she quickly learned what she got herself into as she turned to me about 5 minutes later asking if I have ever played it. I know better, not my speed, I just like the artwork on some of the cards.
So, for roughly 8 hours of "sales", a little cash in my pocket, I now plan on taking the rest of my stock to work where I'll set it up there to sell, 50% of the proceeds will benefit our office Christmas Family.  I still need to get rid of some extra yarn that I have so here come more hats!
Thank you again to everyone that stopped by yesterday, I had a great time meeting everyone.