Happy Early Mother's Day!

My family celebrated an early Mother's Day today, so that we can all use tomorrow as a low key, relaxing day.

I actually finished the shawl for Mom on time. Its the Alleghany Moon Mobius shawl from Amazing Crochet Lace by Doris Chan. Here's what it looked like on Thursday night. I don't have proper blocking materials, so I used my trusty ironing board.



I was really worried that my acrylic "blocking" wouldn't work, but as you can see, it did!



Here's Mom with the shawl on. Its a perfect fit!



Why couldn't I have been born with her hair?



My mother's day gift to dirty Grandma was to treat her to some pampering and a haircut. She was feeling pretty good after her haircut. She told the stylist that she was ready to look for a man with.... alot of "meat." Yeah, she actually said meat!



My uncle and his baby were in town, so we also got to visit with the cutest baby on earth, Jaylianna.



After visiting with my Uncle's family, we headed over to my cousin Jeannie's house for a Pre-Mother's Day bbq. It was small and cozy, with only about 20 people there. Pi loved the old fashioned wooden swing attached to a tree in the yard.



A bird made a nest in my cousin's window. She's not sure what kind of bird layed these eggs, but she's guessing a Robin. Its pretty neat that she can watch the progession of these egga right out of her window!



I get along best with animals and munchkins. I've been surrounded! The non-Christina-spawn children in this pic are my cousins. The three of them decided to have a sleepover, so Pi isn't home with me now. She's a mother's day flatleaver! The dog is a pug named Ally, who fell asleep in my lap.

As Ally was sleeping on my lap, she threw a loaded fart. Oh yeah, the dog took a small crap on me! Go Ally! I had to clean off my pants and pray I didn't smell too bad until I could get home, shower, and change clothes. Its not a Mother's Day celebration without someone crapping a pair of pants. Usually, its a baby, but not today. Lucky me! haha! :)

Happy Mother's Day my friends!

Meme fun

I've been tagged and also promised Lesa I'd answer some questions for her. If you're not a fan of meme's, feel free to skip this.

I was tagged by Amanda and 2Kute from Crochetville with the same meme.

Here are the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.3.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, here are seven facts about me:
1. I'm double jointed in my feet and wrists.
2. I get fainting spells on the subway if it is too crowded, so I take an early, local train to make sure its fairly empty.
3. I dreamed of owning a crayon factory when I was a kid.
4. I sometimes talk in my sleep.
5. I have a flower tattoo on my right shoulder blade. The petals spell Piper. I designed it myself while I was doodling in a college class.
6. I used to pluck my hairy sideburns. I've given it up, since I realize they're not too bad.
7. I've also got nose hair. Hubby and I share a nose hair trimmer. (can't believe I admitted that, hahaha!)

Here are the answers to Lesa's questions:

1) What crochet hook size do you find yourself working with the most without even thinking about it you find yourself picking up the most?
An "I" hook. That's what I learned with and feel most comfortable with.

2) What is your favorite thing to crochet the most?
Baby stuff! Its fast and always cute.

3) What would you like to crochet that you never crochet before?
I'd like to make myself a sweater or cardigan. I've only made a sweater in kid sizes.

4) Do you think you will pass down your love of crocheting down to your kids/nieces or sisters?
I hope so! Pi shows some interest already. She can chain and do single crochet. Her interest comes and goes, so I'm not pushing it. I hope she decided she likes it enough to continue.

5) What is the craziest thing you ever heard someone say to you about you crocheting?
My dad tells me that crocheting makes me a "grandma."

I received my swap swap gals swap!

I received my Swap Swap Gals package from Caroline yesterday! Its an awesome swap package! Me encanta!!!

She sent me a large fat bottom bag in one of my favorite colors - pink! Its a cool coincidence because my maiden name means "pink" in Spanish! The size rocks because as anyone who's ever seen me carry a purse knows the bigger the better!



She also sent a change purse (Pi keeps eyeing it) and the cutest little bird. My husband assumed the bird was a chicken or a rooster since I'm Puerto Rican. He's such a cracker!

Check out the lining...pink camoflouge! With pockets! I can't sew a lick, so the pockets really impressed me!



Here's the flower with a brooch in the middle. I love purse bling.



Speaking of purse bling, Caroline also attached a cute heart keychain (Pi is also eyeing that).



Thank you so much Caroline! The package is wonderful!!!

If anyone was curious what shawl I mentioned to Joyce in yesterday's post, its this one from Amazing Crochet Lace by Doris Chan. Anony Joyce and I e-mail each other back and forth a few times a week about our crochet projects and things we have in mind. I mentioned that I wanted to try this one for my mom for Mother's Day.



Time is short, but I think I can do it. I'm going to use Caron Simply Soft in dark pink instead of what's recommended. 1. Because that's what I have on hand with enough yardage and 2. Mom wears alot of black, so I think a pink shawl will pop with her all black outfits and 3. She's always complaining how cold her office is, even in the summer.

There are 20 pattern repeats, so I figure if I do 5 a day starting today, I can be done by Friday and let it lay flat on Saturday for minimal blocking. I say minimal because acrylic doesn't always block well, but it doesn't hurt to try.

What are you peeps up to for Mother's Day?

Traveling Hook III

The Traveling Hook III arrived at my house last week all the way from Canada, eh! I first gave it to my friend Desiree, who made 4 squares and then I had it for 5 days and made 10 more.

I think the hook enjoyed its visit to NY. Here's the hook gazing at the view from work. The cloesest bridge is the Brooklyn Bridge, the second one is the Manhattan Bridge, and the third one is the Williamsburg Bridge.



I originally tried to put in a slideshow or some kind of collage here to make this more compact, but it didn't work. Its my figgy brain I'm sure. See what happens when I don't have coffee? So I apologize, but you'll have to suffer through the 14 separate pictures.

These 4 were made by Desi

All of the patterns were found at crochetpatterncentral. This was alot of fun for a great cause!

Some personal notes:

Joyce, I forgot to bring the book home to get a pic of the shawl I want to make. I'll post it soon, I promise!

Caroline, I received your package today and its wonderful! I'll post pics in the next day or two! Thank you!

Swap Swap Gals Purse Swap

My Swap partner, Lesa, confirmed that she got the swap package I sent her in the mail, so its safe to show now.

The theme was purses. I really enjoyed this swap, as I tried a few things I might not have otherwise given a go.

Here's a pic of what I sent...in addition to the 2 purses I sent a bag of chocolate candy (not pictured here), 2 crochet dolls with stickers for Nellie and Nesa, a set of purse handles, a skein of Lion Brandy Lofty, and a tear off of purse patterns.



The purse done in Patons Classic Merino Wool in the color rosewood is the Chic on the Halfshell purse by The Crochet Dude. Its the perfect size for a set of keys, cell phone, and small wallet.

This green purse is the Honeycomb purse from Joanns.com. Although you can't really tell in the picture, the handles are white with a marble finish.



The downside is that its the most poorly written pattern ever! If not for some serious help from AmyS over at Crochetville, it might not have been finished. My honeycomb pattern isn't as neat as the picture in the pattern, but I'm proud that I managed to get through it!



Here's the lining of the Chic on the Halfshell purse. Definitely a challenge due to the shape but I'm very glad I lined it!



If anyone's interested, the pattern to the small dolls are here.

Other than that, not much else is going on. Its still raining here in bklyn, so no sign of bees. Work has been nuts and tomorrow will be no exception.

A cool thing for you Law and Order fans...they're filming at my job tomorrow. They've been filming there a few times a year and this is the second time they're back this month. We've had various films crews in and out, like the Nanny Diaries. I'm pretty sure its because the view of Manhattan from the bosses office is sweet. While I'm babbling about movies and famous people, I should mention that Erin Brokovich came to our Christmas party. Due to one of the things we sue for, she sometimes flies in and gives assistance.

Ok, I'm babbling now and I'm sure its due to being over-tired. Time for me to crash.

Fun at Loews

Its been raining since Saturday, so the Stalker Bee and his army haven't been around. Thank goodness! Hubby and I looked under the porch and all over the yard but can't find the hive. Our backyard shares a fence with our neighbor to the right. He has a porch that has a dark enclosed spot underneath and a lush garden, which makes us think the hive is next door somewhere. His porch is close enough to ours that is seems reasonable that the bees would be territorial of both yards. I'm just glad they haven't been around.

I've been working on Krystal's Daisy Square pattern this weekend. I've been making about 2 a week since January, some weeks more than that. I thought if I worked on them slowly that I wouldn't get sick of them, but its taking so long that I'm upping it to 4 a week. This blue and pink one is number 48...only 32 to go. Ummm...did I say only? Slap me!



Hubby and I decided that we wanted to try and grow some of our own veggies. Neither of us has a green thumb, but it doesn't hurt to try, especially with produce prices so high! We headed to Loews to get some seeds, but decided on starter plants instead. They were only $2 each and give us a head start.



We bought a tomato plant, grape tomato plant, cucumber plant, basil, and green pepper. We've re-potted them all (in leftover pots of other plants we've killed over the years, oops!) with fresh soil and plant food. Let's cross our fingers.

Speaking of my black thumb, remember this plant? Its dead. :X

While at Loews, I remembered a post from a woman at Crochetville who mentioned that she had made a bag out of plastic twine. Her husband had brought it home for a project and she used the leftovers. I had to get a few balls while I was there! Hubby looked at me a little strangely, but I'm used to that!



Its called Dazzle Twine and is $0.98 for 200 feet of twine. I bought 4 balls to experiment with. I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but it will probably be a bag of some sort.

On the way out, we noticed a flea market. Hubby is a sucker for flea markets. He can't pass one without looking. We found dvd's for $2 each.



Pi begged for The Polar Express. The other three are Star Wars dvds! We bought Episode 4, 5, and a bonus info dvd. The seller didn't have Episode 4, but I'm sure we'll score that sooner or later. Hubby and I love Star Wars. Episode 2 was one of our first dates (though we agree that Episode 1, 2, and 3 are nowhere as good as the original 3).

Have I shown my true dorky side now? Yes? Good! Nothing like being honest about one's dorkiness.

Since the bees are taking a break, I wanted to show you one thing I do like about this apartment. There is a gorgeous tree in the backyard that blooms full, pink flowers.



Isn't it pretty? I love this tree!

Stalked by bees.

You know, real bees are not nearly as cute as cartoon or stuffed bees.

We're being stalked by bees. Big, bad, ugly bumblebees.

We got this 2 bedroom apartment with a small backyard back in September. We figured it would be a stretch for us, but we felt the kid should at least have a backyard to play in safely. She'd never had one before. It got cold before we could enjoy it too much. Now that the weather is getting nice, the backyard is infested with bees.

The bees must be making a hive somewhere nearby but we can't figure out where. We think it may be under the porch. These are no small bees mind you, but super fat suckers. At first, we'd be in the backyard and they'd just fly by. Thoughts of "damn, there's alot of bees lately" passed through my mind but that was all. But the suckers are smart and have decided that this is THEIR territory and they're going to fight us for it.

As of today, the bees are winning.

They're stalking the door to the backyard. Really. When we open the door to the back, there is always a bee hovering right there. Its not flying around, oh no. It's hovering. Right. In. The. Doorway. Its waiting for me to make the wrong move....mocking me... just try and come closer Chrissy. I hate being called Chrissy and since the bee obviously hates me, I know this is what he's thinking.

Hubby read online that if you spray bees with soapy water, this will weigh down their wings and they'll eventually die. Whoever wrote that article needs to be tarred and feathered because it didn't work.

Hubby filled a spray bottle with soapy water and started spraying Stalker Bee. Stalker Bee freaked out and must have called the calvary because the Backup Bee Army promplty arrived. Hubby resorted to spraying them through the window screen with no luck. Not a single dead bee. They're probably back in their hive right at this moment, planning their revenge. The queen bee is probably mapping out their strategy, in between laying 30,60-000 eggs of course (talk about fertility).

I don't know what to do next. Is this something the landlord should handle? Do I pay for a pest remover by myself? I'd really rather not have to pay for it. Do I call a beekepper who will want them since there is a shortage of bees supposedly? I would gladly learn to raise them (and their honey!) if we didn't have a 7 year old that wants to run wild in the backyard.

Or do we start The War of the Bees and duke it out til only one of us is standing or in Stalker Bee's case, hovering? I read that one of the best methods is to torch the beehive...with a torch like in the movies. Anyone that knows me undertands that Chris + fire + clumsiness = BAD NEWS! If it comes down to that, I have a feeling the bees will win.

P.S. - Just want to thank you guys for good thoughts and prayers again. They seem to be working. We got word that FIL is actually doing a bit better! We don't know what that means for the long run, but some improvement is better than none!

Also, I want to thank Rachel who has chosen my name for her new online crochet magazine. Check it out HERE.