It flew by

Vacation, I mean. It just flew! One week at home always goes so much faster than one week at work.

We didn't do anything crazy since we're trying to conserve some cash, so we did alot of low budget things. We went to the park, bowling, a birthday party, and had Pi's cousin over for a sleepover on Saturday night. Pi and her cousin Michaela are only 8 months apart, so it was like having twins for the night. There was alot of giggling, playing, and squeals of "I love Troy!" That's the kid from High School Musical.

Michaela went to bed about 1:30 a.m. and Pi went to bed around 2:30. Those knuckleheads were awake at 6 a.m.! I was too tired to get up right away, so they helped themselves to a package of nacho lunchables for a pre-breakfast. LOL! Crazy kids!

Over the last few days, I've been finishing up some hats for the March charity blitz. I promised to make 25 but by Friday, only had 17. I debated on just sending the 17, but I hate to go back on a promise, so I finished up the 25th hat Sunday morning. I used the pattern that the blitz organizer provided...just 10 rows of simple dc with a shell border.





I also particpated in the blog contest over at Knits and Knots. Since the contest is over, I can show you my rain cloud. I didn't have blue thread, so I used the thinnest blue cotton yarn I had. This is a cute pattern! I'm going to add 2 magnets to the back as soon as I can get to the store and make it a fridgie.





I'm gearing up for April's Swap at Swap Swap Gals. It should be alot of fun!

Mickey #5

For anyone who thought that I'd been expelled from the mouse of the month club...you're wrong. In early February we had Mickey#4. We didn't even know we had him around...he got himself caught in a hidden trap leftover from Mickey#3.

As the end of March is almost over, we thought that we'd be mouse free in March. That was until Mickey#5 made an appearance in our living room(!!) and hid behind the tv. Hubby blocked all the doorways to the rest of the apartment and opened the front door. He then moved the tv and Mickey #5 ran out the door. Hubby figured he'd be back and set more traps. This morning Mickey#5 was found dead. Can't say I'm sorry.

We hate this apartment. Its been 7 months since we moved here. T minus 5 months until we can move again (if we can afford it).

Kudos to anonymous hubby for catching the nasty rodent. Anonymous hubby makes his first appearance on my blog! Well, kinda...



Let's move on to prettier things. The other day was nice weather, so we went to the park close to our apartment. Its the 2nd highest point in Brooklyn. Considering we're in South Brooklyn, the view of Manhattan is amazing.

You can see the Empire State Building in the middle. The Empire State Building is in midtown Manhattan, which is about 45 minutes away by subway.



Here's a pic that shows the downtown Manhattan skyline. That area is the financial district, including Wall Street) nd I work in one of theose buildings.



You can also see the Staute of Liberty from here. She's small but visible. That church on the left is where anonymous hubby and I got married.



The pictures are clickable if you want a closer look. Not a bad view, eh?

Progress, finally!

Oh yes, I'm talking about the Cathedral Window. I'd abandoned it for a few weeks, but you guys keep me accountable! A few of you have asked about the progress and that got my butt in gear, so I want to say thanks!
But before you get to see it, some other fun stuff.

I signed up for the Traveling Hook III charity project over at Crochetville (click the link to learn more). Anyhoo, Jimbo made a hook for this cause and also decided to randomly give away a hook for every 50 sign-ups. I was the first random winner!

The hook is gorgeous. Really, its a work of art. Its an "I"...my favorite size and the yarn just glides over it!! I feel very lucky to have a Jimbo hook of my own.



For Easter, we dyed eggs. Pi is learning to write cursive in school and decided she'd label the eggs with our names. I'm fairly sure her script is better than mine.



Rather than bake an apple pie like planned, I decided to make small apple tarts. I used the same recipe for the pie, but just cut the pie crust into bite size pieces and filled them. This was alot less messy for the kid and the leftovers were great for breakfast the next day. We popped them into the oven for 5 minutes and had them with coffee.



Now, onto the juicy stuff...the Cathedral Rose Window!

This is what it looked like the last time I'd worked on it.



This is what it looks like now!

I managed to finish all of section 2 since I've been on vacation. I wont lie...the end of section 2 had alot of cutting and reattaching which was incredibly unpleasant. Then all the sewing of the heptagons...ugh! A trip to the gyno might have been more fun! But I'm really happy with the results.

There are about a thousand little ends that need to be woven in under there. That'll be today's project.

If you don't see more progress posted in the next few weeks, please ask me about it and keep me on my toes!

Its a circus around here!

Well, not around here but in the Meadowlands in Joisy. Every other year, my dad takes the whole clan to the circus. Its always fun, though the wind was so bad during the drive, I nearly piddled myself! Did I mention I'm not much of a driver? Anyhoo, here are some highlights from the circus.

These clowns need better costumes.



We made it to the circus early enough to go down into the rings for the pre-show meet and greet with the circus performers. These jugglers were amazing!



I don't know what this bouncy tire shaped thing is, but I want one! How much fun is that?!?



The motorcycle riders in the dome. This has always been one of Pi's favorite parts of the circus. She was pleasantly surprised to see that two of the drivers were women! I'm worried she might run away to the circus to drive a motorcycle.



Don't our husbands wish we could do this?

The elephants! No matter how many times I see them, it always strikes me what magnificent creatures they are!

See ya in 2010 Barnum and Bailey!

Happy Easter everyone! My father and sisters were confirmed last night in a gorgeous Easter Vigil mass. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some pics up in the next few days. If I'm a bit slow in posting, forgive me, I'm on vacation this week and we will be running around doing kid-friendly activities. I have a feeling I won't be able to crochet as much as I'd hoped.

Hope everyone enjoys their Easter day!

And the winner is...

Kathy!!!!!!!!!! with the caption "Note to self: Soft Yarn when crocheting thongs."

Congrats Kathy! Please e-mail me your address and your prize will be in the mail. Thanks for playing everyone!!

After nearly a week of contest fun, I'm back to update you with some life and crochet stuff.

Pi had an easter bonnet parade at school and we had to make a homemade bonnet. I searched up, down, left, and right and could not find a plain straw hat. Not in Target, the mexican stores, or the chinese stores. I thought I'd find them in little chinatown, as lots of the chinese ladies wear the straw hats during the summer. But nope!

So, we improvised....with a styrofoam disc from the card store!

I cut a hole in the disc large enough to fit over Pi's head and wrapped it in green ribbon. We then took apart a .99c hand held wind-blower-thing (what the hell are those called? I can't remember!) that had plastic eggs and a plastic bunny. We glued the bunny, eggs, and oodles of flowers...Viola!



It was a hawaiin themed easter wreath. We thought it was pretty silly looking and not at all what the school wanted, but low and behold, the kid won first place in the easter bonnet contest! She's holding her prize in the picture. In her own words... "It was SOOO embarassing."

On the crocheting front, I've been dabbling a bit, but not too much. Its been too busy with my parents wedding and you know, life, to do much.

But since Easter is just around the corner, I made little bunny pins for the kids in her class. Not as fancy as the amis for Valentine's Day but they're cute and remind me of when I was a kid and someone's parent sent in something similar one year.



I found the pattern HERE

Since I mentioned my parents wedding, here is a picture of the happy couple.



I may or may not have made a toast. That toast may or may not have given credit to myself for their first union in 1980...since you know, I was the illegit child that brought them together in marriage. Heehee!

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter! Jesus is back!

Vote for your favorite entry!

Wow, I am amazed at all the awesome captions you guys made up to go with my stupid face! 16 entries in all!

There's a poll to vote for your favorite entries ~~~~>

You have until 11:59 PM on 3/20/08. I'll announce the winner on 3/21.

Thanks for playing guys!

**EDITED TO ADD**

I had a last minute entry that I can't add to the poll as it would erase the votes already there. So I'm going to post the entry here and if you want to vote for that one, you can leave a comment and I will count the vote. Thanks!

Caption 17 - "New hook? noooo, honey, I didn't buy a new hook. Gulp! Oh no I think I just swallowed my brand new $25 hook!"

My First BLog Contest!

Happy National Crochet Month!

In celebration, I'm holding my first blog contest. Anyone can enter (even you international folks)!

The rules:

1. Look at the picture
2. Create a funny caption for said picture.
3. E-mail your funny caption to christinacreations at gmail dot com. You have until March 17th to submit an entry.
4. On March 18th, I will post all entries in the form of a poll and leave the poll open for voting until March 20th. On March 21st, the caption with the most votes will win the prize. (scroll down for a pic of the prize)

Anonymous husband took this gooftastic picture of me a few months ago. While its a bit embarassing, we think its hilarious and open to alot of interpretations. My feelings do not get hurt easily, so please feel free to be as crass and direct as you like! Good luck!!





Here's the prize! It's a felted version of the Waves of Color Tote Bag by oldbaglady. Its made of Patons Classic Merino wool in natural, deep olive, and some orange color I can't remember the name of. It measure s8 inches across and 9 inches tall.



I won't post again until Marh 18th, so this post stays at the top!

Have fun!

Seven Random Things

Laurah tagged me!

The tag rules are:
1. When tagged, place the name of the person and URL on your blog
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write 7 things about yourself
4. Name 7 of your favorite weblogs
5. Send an e-mail letting those bloggers know they have been tagged
So here are 7 random things about me:

1. I see two of everything. Really! I've had double vision since I was born. Glasses help a little but don't take it away completely. My eye doc is still amazed I learned to read.

2. I hate feet. Hate them! I think feet are weird and gross. My husband is not allowed to touch my feet.

3. My favorite author is Stephen King. My dad gave me The Shining to read when I was 10 and I've been hooked ever since.

4. I skipped the graduation ceremony for my master's degree and I walked out of my bachelor's degree ceremony in the middle. Those ceremonys are boring and way too long!

5. I went to Europe when I was 16 on a school trip. I walked through Shakespeare's birthplace and went to the Louvre.

6. I'm a statistic...teenage mother. I gave birth to Piper when I was 19. Though, I was married (first husband) so I don't know if it counts.

7. I'm a certified bartender. Bartending helped pay my way through undergrad when I left husband #1 and was a single mom for awhile.

I'm tagging the following 7 people:

Sam, Jen, Kelly, Laura, Bezzie, Zarah, and SharkMeat

All About Hearts Swap and PIF

My internet blinky-indicator-thingy is working for now, so let's try to get this post up before it implodes again.

I got my All About Hearts Swap Package and PIF from Lesa today! She spoiled me!

For the swap she sent me, a wall pillow, a really cool letter C, a bear with a heart, 2 heart soaps, 2 heart cookie cutters, a heart tin with lotion (it smells great!), a heart bucket with chocolate heart candy (Yum!), pretty ribbon and tulle, and a really nice card.

Thanks so much Lesa! It really perked up my day!



Lesa also sent my Pay It Forward gift! Check it out, she made me one of her purses! Its gorgeous and super roomy! I love it! I'm going to use it tomorrow!



Thanks so much Lesa...I really feel very spoiled!

My cable company blows!

We're having a bad rain storm here, so my internet and phone keep going out. I'm getting about 5 minutes at a time if I'm lucky. Time Warner can go kiss me where the sun don't shine. For the prices they charge, you'd think some measly rain wouldn't be an issue.

Anyhoo, I got my swap and PIF from Lesa...awesome stuff, let me tell you. Since I can't be on for very long, its impossible to post pics right now. Hopefully I can update in the morning. Just wanted to let you know I didn't forget about you Lesa.

Cold Shoulder Capelet

Since my parent's wedding is coming up, I decided I should make a capelet for my dress. Granted, I don't even know what dress I'm wearing (or if they even fit anyore) but a solid colored capelet will go with anything, right?

That reminds me...besides trying on dresses that were sooo 15 pounds ago, I also need to pull out the massive amount of girdles I've got. I've got the girdle shorts, the girdle bodysuit, the girdle stomach flatener, the girdle push-up bra...a girdle for everything, ha! Nothing says special occasion more than making yourself a sausage in spandex that is supposed to smooth you out. I digress...

I made the Cold Shoulder Capelet from the SnB Happy Hooker. This was an extremely fast project.


(Pi was excited tonight and insisted on being in the picture)

I used 2 strands of Caron Simply Soft in black and a K hook.

I think I might change the ties. Right now they are just chains attached to the edges of the capelet. I've got some black and silver thread from ages ago that would look good braided and weaved through the neck area. I don't want to pull out my whole stash on a weekday to search for it, so I'll check for it this weekend.



Want a new use for hangers? How about face...err...holders? I didn't even give her any sugar!

Under the Sea Seraphina

I finished the Seraphina! This one worked up alot faster than the one I made in December. That's probably because of the boucle yarn and the K hook.



After pondering your comments and looking at this picture for awhile, I decided that this one will go to non-dirty Grandma for Christmas. I love the yarn, I love the self-striping, and I love the pattern...but this green is a smidge bright for me.

I have another full skein of this green boucle, so I'm going to see if I can trade with someone on Crochetville for a different color boucle.

Sam, I told hubby your mermaid comment and he laughed. Also, thanks for the link Ashley!

Since you guys responded positively to the contest idea, its on! Yeah baby!

I'm going to put up a picture on Monday, March 10th. You guys will be able to e-mail me your captions for one week, then I'll open up the voting for a few days. This will give me enough time to come up with a good prize. Mark your calendars peeps!