Dreaming of a White Christmas

Living in FL, I'll be dreaming of a White Christmas for a loooong time! But, I don't have to dream about Tunisian Crochet Hooks anymore ;) Now I just need to learn how to use them ;)

Like knitting and crochet, with some determination and a lot of practice, I'll be able to cross that off my "learn such-n-such craft" list. I've seen it on Knit & Crochet Now and Knitting Daily and loved the way the final results lookd. Gorgious!

All in all, it was a good holiday! Plenty of leftovers for lunches and snacks. Unfortunately there were no leftover latkes :( I would make more today, but I'm tired! I baked for almost a week straight and then there was all the cooking and cleaning, and picking up last minute stocking stuffers, and running to the post office (and so on and so forth). Then last night Munchkin wakes up at 1.50 for a bottle and a diaper change. I had been asleep for 90 minutes at least. Good thing too, since I didnt get back to sleep until after 7.00! Really glad husband had the day off! He got up with Munchkin this morning and Mommy got to sleep a little longer!

Today is a busy day filled with more clean up, washing towels and all of Munckin's new clothes. Next year I want self-washing dishes! Or at least a dishwasher that runs on electricity, rather than my own two hands. All this busyness and all I want to do is "test drive" my new crochet hooks! Ack! What's a crafty mom to do?!

A breather

I finished the shawl yesterday. Funny thing is, all I had to do was bind off and weave in the ends. It wasn't procrastination, it was a cranky munchkin the night before. I also finished something for my mother for the holidays, but that one I can't post a picture until AFTER she's seen it. Still loads more to get done before the holidays get here .. and hoping I can get it all done! (Also need to include time to ship so everything gets there in time!!) This year December just snuck up on me!

I know .. I know! I should get a move on rather than be on here. But 5 minutes with my morning coffee is a nice way to start the day. Ok, so prior to coffee was packing Matt's lunch box, making the coffee and filling his to-go mug, changing the baby's diaper, emptying the dish drain and then giving it it's weekly scrub down. So .. 5 mins to blog and have coffee is a nice thing indeed! (Well, maybe 10 minutes - LOL)

Unplanned day of "leisure"

I had every intention of getting things done around the house today. Honest I did! I even had to loads of dishes washed by 9.

So .. where does the wrench in the works come in? I had Goober start a load of his laundry. Everything was fine until 1/2 way thru the 1st dry cycle. I was in the living room and heard "thumpedy-thump" coming from the laundry room. I take everything out of the dryer to see if anything is stuck, ope. I restart the dryer and it's still banging away. I take everything out of the dryer and restart it .. STILL making noise. So .. either a belt is loose somewhere, or something didnt get emptied out of a pocket and is clanging around the inside of the machine. And now I've got a load of warm partially dry clothes in the dryer and a load of wet towels hanging out in the washer. Ducky!

Oh .. and did I mention that the car STILL wont start? Turn the key and I get straining followed by draining. Lovely! It's not like I'd planned on leaving the house today, but Munchkin has a doc appointment this week. And since it's a 90+min drive in one direction it's not like I can call a cab.

Munchkin has yet to nap longer than 10 minutes, so that puts sweeping and mopping on hold. Seeing as he's awake, I'd vacuum, but Goober is out cold. He spent the night at his mother's last night. He was STILL up at 11PM playing online games on her computer. That's WAY past his bedtime on a school night. But what does she care, she only sees him 2 nights a week and every other weekend. sigh

So .. what have I accomplished besides 2 loads of dishes (and w/o a dishwasher, yes, it's actually doing something)? Well, I've made up for all the frogging on the shawl. I haven't done it ALL today, I stayed up a bit later than planned last night working on it. But (*fingers crossed*) I'll finish without incident tomorrow :) And then I might make one for myself as I looooove the feel of it! Light weight and totally snuggly!

*ouch!* There's no hurt quite like ....

... having to frog a 2'x2.5' section of knitting that took DAYS to do! Having to sit and rip and rip and rewind the ball and rip and wind and rip and wind until I got to that dreaded dropped stitch. I hate you dropped stitch!

So .. now it's back to knitting that 2' long section and then the remaining 2-3' I still had to go prior to frogging! So, I've been sitting on the couch while munchkin naps with my knitting in my lap and the crochet owl hat next to me. Then after knitting for a while, I'll put it on the other side of me on the couch and then pick up the hat. Crochet for a bit, rinse, repeat. And all this while working on homeschool with Billy, washing a load of dishes, taking out the trash, and trying to figure out why the car wont start.

Never a dull moment in this house! HAHA!


The definition of multi-tasking .....

And then there were two

Matt & the boys just left for the flea market, leaving munchkin and I at home. Except for the sounds of Logan babbling while he's watching "Kipper" and the washing machine going, the house is pretty quiet.

It's 70 here (and still an hour before noon), so I think I'll open the windows up and get a nice breeze going thru. I'd love to just sit and put my feet up, but this is prime time to get the housework done (dusting, sweeping, mopping, washing the dishes, etc etc).

Maybe later I'll get to put my feet up. After Matt and the boys get back and the chaos of moving furniture to put up the tree is over and done with. Funny that it's 70 out ad we're putting up the tree. Moved to Florida in January 08 and I'm STILL not used to all of this. It's made even "funnier" by the fact that the Kipper episodes munchkin is watching are all about snow! Haha! Maybe next year you can see/play in the snow, munchkin!

"Victory Shall Be Mine!"

YES! YES! YES!

I finished the Lemon Hat! It took quite a bit of tweeking, but I got it!
[INSERT: Happy Dance]

There's nothing like that sense of accomplishment (and relief) when it finally comes together. I really would have hated to see this one end up in the UFO pile! (for non yarnsters .. that's UnFinishedObject) At some point in the process of making it, it either became a labor of love or something I became hyperfocused on that I HAD to finish. OR maybe it was a combo of both. But ... whatever it was .. here's the final result :)


(More photos can be found on NRD's facebook page and in the Etsy shop)

Bells .. Lemons .. Whatever!

I had planned on making some bells for ornaments. Instead I started making another baby hat (Yeah .. I dont nkow how it happened either). This one will be a lemon. I've got the body of the lemon done. Now it's a simple matter of getting the "greenery" done & attached to the top of the hat.

Did I say SIMPLE?! I've tried crochet and I've tried knit. Utter failures, both! I can picture it my head .. why can't I just make it! Maybe it's because I actually got sleep that it's throwing me off. Maybe it's that I told my husband "yeah, ok, you make the coffee" and now I'm all jittery. (I'm surprised his coffee doesn't dissolve the spoon when u go to stir it!!) I don't know why I just can't get it. But that doesn't make it any less frustrating!

Maybe I should have just gone with the bells ;)

So it didn't go as I planned .... but ...

Ok .. so the day didn't go quite as planned. I never did get to play with the yarn like I'd hoped. I logged off so Goober could do school and went to look at my boxes of yarn and bins of all things crafty and tried to think of a better way to organize it all (rather than open and close boxes). But the wee one woke up.

Then there was laundry and dishes and mopping. And trying to get my blog set up so I could link the NRD facebook and get my Mini Etsy on there. So .. atleast I got that accomplished (Thanks Randi!)

On the bright side .. I've had an order in the shop. Always exciting when someone finds one of my items purchase worthy. :) It always puts me in a creative mood too. I'm thinking bells .. something with bells .. something holiday festive. :)

We shall see .......

And so it begins .. in a blog

Ok!  So ... NRD has now got a blog! :)

As if I didn't already have a full plate, I got the insane idea this morning to start a blog for NRD.  I'm chalking it up lack of sleep due to a teething 7 month old ;)

Nelly Rose Designs .. what is it and how did it start:
NRD is a little home business I started so I can work from home.  It's a hodge-podge of knit, crochet, sewn, artsy, stationery, photography .. all but the kitchen sink.  I need that .. no disherwasher here. 
I opened shop in March of 2009 on Etsy.  But the ins and outs of how it started probably come from all the crafty goodness as a kid including my dream of going to FIT after graduating high school.  I never made it to FIT.  If I could go back and change it so I did go .. I wouldn't.  Sounds bonkers, I know.  But if I did that, my feet would never have touched the path that led me to meeting my husband who keeps me motivated, inspired, and gives me a 100% honest answer when I say "What do you think?"

I've been sewing forever.  My first project was when my Grandmother helped me make a stuffed animal that used an old pair of pantyhose as it's face. Since then, I was hooked!  Pattern, no pattern - it doesn't matter.  I love sewing :)  I even made my own wedding dress (sans pattern and NOT white). 

Photo: Randi Krog Belseth
Cloudberry Fotografiskeglimt



But I've always wanted to learn to knit and crochet.  So, in the beginning of 2009 I went to Joann Fabric and bought a teach yourself to knit kit.  It came with a book a set of #6 and #8 knitting needles, a stitch counter, some stitch markers, and a stitch holder.  It took me FOREVER to learn to cast on.  It's laughable now, but was SOOOO frustrating then!  I never read the entire book and I wonder what ever happened to it. 

Watching the TV show "Knit & Crochet Today" fed my need to knit, and picqued my interest in crochet.  So .. I went and got some hooks.  This time around I didn't get the teach yourself book.  I just watched what they did and copied it (same as how I learned to play the drums).  About a month ago we got cable and I'm hooked on the show "Knitty Gritty" now too.

And now it's time to let my home schooler get back on the computer for his live lesson.  Which means a 2nd cup of coffee and loosing myself in some yarn until he needs help or the baby wakes up from his nap ;)