Wednesday, June 30, 2010

My newest thought....

So now that all of my baby knitting is done I have been searching for a new project...lately I have been thinking about knitting a pig! I love piggy banks and while I have never been one to really collect stuffed piggies a knitted pig has been on my mind! I have searched a few patterns but I am not sure if I have the ability...other than hats I have never knitted anything that is round-ish and since I am circular-knitting inept I am wondering if I can do it on straights? Of the patterns that I have found two really have stuck out-Lola the Pig and Piggywig. I really love these sweet little piggies and could really see them sitting on my bed next to my GIANT Green Bay Packer pillow my niece made for me for my birthday 2 years ago...I think this weekend I will be buying size 2 and 4 needles to CO and try...hmm...I will keep updating!




**PiggyWig is a pattern by Miss Aine**

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Baby Shower

The Mommy-to-be looking beautiful!!




The baby shower was a success! And all my knitty pink and brown? My NIECE loved it!!! Ok, so let me start at the beginning...

Of course, I slept in and everyone was mildly freaking out because I had the KEY (yes, the KEY-all caps for being a pain in the ....well a pain!) Anyway, set up did not take long because there were not a lot of decorations. Not having a lot of decorations is something new for me. The last few baby showers I "helped" throw I drove myself crazy with decorations (one niece had handmade ABC blocks) but this was actually a great change of pace. Of course, not everything went smoothly because shortly after I arrived I realized that the KEY did not work for the kitchen so....we could not get to the sink or the ice machine! It was ok though because at least the bathrooms were unlocked and there was a water fountain. It was not long before the guests started to arrive or so I thought but really it was the baby's daddy's family with MORE food. Oh, I made these great BLT tomato bowls (recipe at the bottom of post!) There was all kinds of food! Little sandwiches, vegetable trays, a watermelon full of fruit that was shaped like a baby carriage....the mommy-to-be was happy as a lark to see all the food!











<---Cake by Grandma










It was great seeing all the generations together at the baby shower. The mommy-to-be was surrounded by her great-grandmother, her grandmother, her mother, her aunts (that's me! and some other aunts), her sisters (well, two out of 4-one was sick and the other is a Marine serving in Afghanistan), her cousins, her nieces and nephews, and her best friend! And that was just the mommy-to-be's side! THE GIFTS!! Oh, she got tons of gifts including a crib and a stroller...but that's the important stuff (well, not to me!) My pink and brown knitty stuff that was the highlight! I found a really cute pink milk crate and filled it with tissue paper. Then I added the cardigan, the blanket, the booties, the 2 bibs, some diaper wipes, lotion, powder, and a few other things. It weighed a ton! I was so happy when she picked up blanket and put it on her tummy!













Overall, the shower was great! Despite all the problems with the key and being locked out of the kitchen and me having to wait 4 hours outside in the heat (and then 2 more hours to return the key) it was well worth it! The mommy and daddy-to-be got everything they needed to complete their nursery! She is 34 weeks as of yesterday so it will not be long before I am writing about the birth of Kylie Rose!












Here is the recipe!!!!







**BLT Tomato Bowls**


Ingredients: Roma tomatoes, lettuce, bacon bits/crumbles, croutons, and ranch dressing

1. Cut Roma tomatoes in half and scoop out insides.
2. Fill Roma tomatoes with lettuce and top with bacon bits/crumbles. and croutons. Add ranch dressing.
3. Chill and serve!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Pre-Baby Shower Mess!!!!!



As my previous posts have mentioned I am in the middle of a pink and brown knitting frenzy! I have been knitting in those two colors in order to make gifts for my niece's soon-to-be born little girl. On the list to knit was: a blanket, booties, a cardigan, and a hat, along with cross-stitching on two bibs. The deadline for the deluge of pink and brown knitting madness was June 20th, 2010-Father's Day-or now forever known as "THE DAY OF THE BABY SHOWER!!"

Friday, June 18th, 2010...


The baby shower is in two days and my fingers hurt from all the knitting...but it's ok because it will be worth it...my niece is going to love all of her little pink and brown baby items. I just finished the bibs and I love them!!




Saturday June 19th, 2010...
My sister and I were doing last minute shopping for the baby shower and discussing details when suddenly a thought occured to me! THE KEY!! I was in charge of doing one thing...getting the key for the building where the shower was to be held and I FORGOT!! That's right! On a Saturday, when the office where the key is located is closed, I remembered that I was supposed to pick up the key! My sister and I began scrambling around trying to find someone...anyone...who had a key or who knew someone with a key. Luckily, we got ahold of the librarian in the building next to where the shower was to be held. She informed us that there was a party being set up next door. My sister and I rushed over there as fast as we could! These poor people were in the middle of setting up for a wedding and all of a sudden two strange women rushed into the building! We must have looked like a couple of fools as the whole story "fell" out of our mouths. The nice lady agreed to let us have the key as long as we came back at 8:00 pm and showed her our receipt.
At 7:45 I showed up and the parking lot was PACKED!!! So I parked my car and waited....and waited....and waited....until 10 pm! When the party was finally over and the building cleaned up to woman gave me the keys. Boy, was I relieved! I had been feeling awful ALL DAY because I had almost ruined the shower and added stress to my poor pregnant niece!!
Next blog will have pictures of all the pink and brown goodness I knitted and the cake and a full description of the shower.....

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Pink and Brown continues....


Sunday is the big day...THE BABY SHOWER....not mine but my niece's baby shower and I am in a knitting fever! I have completed the blanket, the booties (all 3 of them, lol!) and the cardigan (it is still in pieces) and now the hat is on the needles (a new pattern that I am excited about! A wavy pattern!) I am beginning to feel the knitting crunch but am so excited about completing all the projects! This also explains my lack of posting on my blog--knitting! I am now convinced that I am addicted to knitting because despite being overwhelmed with knitting projects, I am already looking for a new project! I may need knitting rehab...I will go gladly as long as I can bring my knitting!
I am also beginning to worry about my 8 year old niece because for a couple of years now she has been begging me to teach her how to knit. I have kid needles but she is a lefty and it worries me that I do not have the skill set to teach her. On the positive side, I figured out a way to keep her ADHD underwraps in the car with me-winding yarn! Today I had to go pick up her brother and she wanted to go with me but as soon as she got in the car she started whining and fidgeting. I had two skeins of yarn in the car and gave them to her and said "Make them into balls!" She stayed still, AND QUIET, the entire time it took her to make those two skeins into balls! Forget about buying an electric ball winder-I have an ADHD kid at my disposal!!!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Logan and Carmen's Preschool Graduation



Tonight is a big night for the family: Both my nephew, Logan, and my great-niece, Carmen's, preschool graduation. Logan is 4 yrs old and is CRAZY for Iron Man! He loves dressing up and is smart as can be! He loves school and did excellent in every subject! He is my next to the oldest sisters son and the only boy...his 3 sisters are all teenagers...so he knows how to be sarcastic, too!!! Logan is the love of my sisters life! She says she loves all of her children equally but I think because he was born when she was a little older, she had a little more time to enjoy him.


Carmen turned 5 in March and is my nieces oldest daughter. She is beautiful, smart, funny, and fun to be around. She loves her grandma (my oldest sister) more than life itself. I swear, when my nieces were little my sister never was as close to them as she is to her "Bay-bah." It is so sweet to see them doing hair, nails, watching tv, scrapbooking, cooking and a hundred other things they do together.

Both of these great kids graduate tonight from preschool and even though they went to two different schools, they both get to walk across the same stage tonight. I am excited for them. The flowers in this post are flowers that I think represent the sense of joy I feel at thinking of these two great kids growing up...beautiful and full of hope.
Congrats Carmen and Logan!!! Kindergarten is next!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Pink and Brown Continues....

I recently finished what I like to call the "Blanket That Never Ends" which was a fantastic feat! Seriously, for a pattern called "Very Easy Baby Blanket" you can't imagine how un-very easy it was...it started as a gift for my nieces upcoming baby shower--JUNE 20th--and it looked like a good idea, on paper! But as I started knitting this monster blanket I realized I wanted it thicker so I added a skein of white to the TLC Baby yarn I had bought...and then it wouldn't blend right and then there was a knot right in the middle and then I skipped two very important steps to the pattern and then I had to *rippppp--rippppp--riiiiippppp* over and over because it just didnt look right! ARGHH!!! But it is done! Finally! After the baby shower I will be posting pictures of this monster blanket-oh and by the way I absolutely LOVE this blanket and the end result is everything I wanted! So now I am moving on to the next phase of the gift and this is the matching booties! So far they have proven to be as interesting as the baby blanket-I knitted up one and started on the other...ahhhh beautiful but wait a minute what's wrong with the first bootie? Is it...? Oh no! It is! It is completely unraveling!! What!!?! How?!!?? Why is this yarn out to kill me? I have been nice to it and bought it (even though it was more expensive than most that I buy) and it is being made into baby gifts and why is this happening? The baby shower is in 13 days and I still need to make a hat, cross stitch a bib, and now remake booties! Oh and I was going to try and knit bibs for the first time!! Ok, so I admit I am a last minute knitter and I should be knitting now instead of blogging but truth be told I find this to be an interesting new facet of my knitting! I can complain and not have to see my family look at me like I have grown a second head because they have no idea what I am talking about! *SIGH* My complaints are now purged and I feel better...so I am now off to knit a 3rd bootie for a baby with 2 feet!!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

First Blog Post!

I am so excited about starting this blog! I have been thinking about it and researching it for a couple of weeks now. I got the idea after watching the faces of my family members glaze over for the millionth time when I was talking about my ideas for making this or that. I knew I needed to write my ideas down so that I would remember them and be able access them whenever I want. I also liked the idea for this blog because I can access it from my beloved BlackBerry! I admit it freely- My name is Cathy and I am a BlackBerry addict! Besides knitting, reading, writing, do various other arts and crafts projects I am on my BlackBerry...so being able to add blog posts and pics from my BlackBerry was perfect!
My family is a very big close-knit clan that is filled with strong, opinionated, confident, heroic women and men that love those crazy women! I have a ton of nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews (with more being born all the time!) In fact, my niece is cooking a little girl right now that I am making all kinds of yummy pink and brown goodies for...knitted blanket, knitted booties, knitted hat and bib, and painted wooden picture frames, etc! It is because of all these wonderful people that I am who I am!
So this is it for my first blog post!