A New Addiction? Hmmm...Maybe

For the first week after my husband's surgery, my mother-in-law came to stay with us and help out any way she could.  Now, unlike some unfortunate wives, I have a great mother-in-law and enjoy her company.  We actually have a lot in common but the most obvious is our love of crafts.  So of course, since she was going to be staying with us for a week, she brought along a couple of projects that she has been working on, one of which is a latch-hook rug.

Now I've seen the standard latch-hook rug kits in Hobby Lobby in the past but I've never actually tried one.  Most of the time, the available kits are more simplistic patterns like smiley faces, tie die spirals, ladybugs, etc.  I was looking for something a little less cartoon-ish or child centric.  Before ordering online, however, I decided to go ahead and see what kits were available at Hobby Lobby since it had been quite some time since I last checked.  Much to my surprise, I found a really pretty kit of Daisies and Poppies.  I snatched it off the shelf (it was the last one) and headed home with it and my brand new straight latch hook.

 

I started separating the threads of yarn as soon as I got home and realized just how big my new project is going to be.  There's a LOT of small pre-cut yarn pieces in the box!  My Daisies and Poppies rug is going to be approximately 36 inches by 30 inches.  Pretty good size for my very first latch hook project!  Apparently, in this case, I didn't believe in starting out small!

 My mother-in-law was nice enough to help me get started and showed me how to use the latch hook.  I'm still trying to figure out how I want to proceed with completing the design.  My mother-in-law prefers to work one column at a time while the directions state to move horizonally, row by row.  I actually think I am going to try doing small blocks at a time but that may change as I move along.  If anyone has ever tried this craft, I'd love to hear how you prefer to proceed through the pattern.

My Handsome Pip...

...And sweet Casey

Oh, and I would be a terrible fur-mommy if I didn't mention that my sweet Casey and handsome Pip also helped with my new project.  Pip especially loved the yarn and had to make sure that I was separating the colors correctly!

I'm not sure just yet if this will be my newest craft obsession/addiction but I definitely am looking forward to seeing how my rug progresses!

Pots, Plants, and Pillows, Oh My!

Today I finished purchasing my plants and accessories for my backyard patio.  I added new pillows and a tabletop fountain to my set-up this year.  I spent the afternoon outside, listening to music, potting my plants, and trying not to get sunburned.  It was only about 84 degrees but humidity was up and, well, they don't call this place "Hotlanta" for nothing!  In the sun it got quite warm.  Luckily, there was a nice breeze blowing and I was mostly in the shade.

Tomorrow I think I will focus on my crafts again.  Rain is in the forecast for the afternoon and evening and as we all know, that makes for great crafting weather!  I hope you are having a great weekend and find some time to work on your projects.

 

Garden Time with My Furbabies

A Sunny Pot for a Sunny Spot

This weekend I finally got around to planting a few flowering annuals and grasses in my containers for my patio.  I'm a bit late this year as I normally have them planted during the month of April once the danger of frost is pretty much over in our area.  With my husband's diagnosis and surgery over these past three weeks, I just haven't really thought that much about gardening.  However, with my hubby on the mend, and my mother-in-law here to help keep an eye on him, I went to a local nursery and grabbed a few plants to add to my existing collection of hostas.  I ended up coming home with full sun plants instead!  Ha!  I guess I'll have to head back at some point to get some partial shade plants to go with my hostas since they are for partial shade areas. 

I sat outside in the beautiful 75 degree weather on Saturday and potted them with the assistance of my furbabies, Casey and Max.  We enjoyed the afternoon sun and warm breeze, while my hubby napped on the sofa and my mother-in-law did a little needlework.  Casey was particularly interested in sun-worshipping while Max played with his outdoor kitty toy and lounged in the grass.  They would periodically come to see what I was doing and of course, make sure I was doing it correctly.  Quality control is a hard job after all.

 I chose to go with a yellow/orange and pink theme this year and hope that it will color-coordinate with my deco mesh wreath that I'm making for the front door.  I have it laid out on my table but haven't glued it just yet.  Maybe this will inspire me to finish it.
 

 





Casey




Max

 

  Happy Memorial Weekend!  I hope that you all have time to reflect on this special day and enjoy time with your families.





WIPocalypse 2013 - May Update

For the month of May I didn't do a whole lot of cross-stitching.  My hubby unexpectedly had surgery this past week and I just simply did not feel like working on my crafts in the couple of weeks leading up to the surgery.  He came through the procedure on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 with flying colors and is doing well.  He's been sleeping off and on throughout the days this week so I've had some time to work on my various WIPs.  Though I don't have a lot to show for this month, here are my WIPocalypse updates.


1.  "Cross Stitch Gold" Magazine's "A Day to Remember" card series by Durene Jones.  I am stitching one of the six funky birds for a card design.  The main portion of the bird is complete with only part of the back-stitching left to do.  I hope to finish it very soon.

The previous stopping point

Current progress

2.  "Cross Stitch Crazy" Magazine's "Crazy for...Dragons" pattern by Maria Diaz.  I started this one last week on May 17th.  I know, I know...another WIP!  But I just couldn't resist.  Maria's dragons are just sooooo darn cute!  I picked out one to make for a birthday card and tweaked the colors just a bit.  I know eventually I will probably make a couple more of these cuties, including the one shown in the title from the magazine.

My starting point

Current progress

Happy stitching until the June update on the 23rd!

Rag Time!!!

I've been working on a spring/summer fabric "rag" wreath for my Calico Craft Designs Etsy shop and thought I would share a pic of my progress thus far.  Then I realized that my camera is still not linking to my computer and I'm having trouble downloading my photos.  [sigh]  I suppose this will be another post that I have to revisit in the future when I have a photo to add.  :-)  Oh well!


UPDATE AS OF 5/24/13:  I finally got the photos to download from my camera.  Yay!  Here are a couple of the wreath I have been working on.