So I think I don't blog anymore because we're all on Ravelry and I share all my crafts there for the most part. Other than that my life isn't very full of interesting stuff so I feel like I have nothing to share. Also I'm so busy yapping of Facebook that I just have nothing left. Are you guys on there? And do you farm in Farmtown?

If that question makes no sense to you that's good. Farmtown is a little Facebook game that is ridiculously addicting. For a while there I was playing more than I was crafting. I know! The horror right? But things seem to be back to normal now...

I also started to get back into reading. I used to read all the time. Seriously, ALL the time. Like stay up all night engrossed in a book. Then I completely fell out of it. Then I never had time. But this year I've been trying to get back into it. 1 because I like it and 2 because really, I just feel smarter if I read (even if it's trash). I'm not reading anything brainy but I am reading and so far I'm sure I read more this year that I had in the last two. Which is kind of sad because I'm sure the total count is less than 10. But hey, it's progress.

The kids are doing well. Ashleigh and Sam are both 15 now and fully engrossed in the teen angst that we all love (HA!). Em is 9 and fully engrossed in trying to have teen angst. She will be the death of me but I've been saying that for 6 years now so I'm sure you all know. :)

We've been having a good summer despite Em's new schedule and the crazy weather. I for one am not complaining. I'm pretty sure we made it to the beach 4 to 5 out of every 7 days so far and I've been sleeping like a baby when the night's have been cooler. Plus we've only run the AC like 5 days which makes me want to do the happy dance.

And that's where we are. I'll try to blog more often. I promise. I hope you're all doing well, if there are any of you all left out there. ;)

Oh and you should know...

that my kid totally wore that dress the other day. And it looked cute and it didn't come apart at the seams and no one gawked at her goofy dress. Yay me!

Deneen tagged me. I suspect it was mostly to see if I'm still out here or not... I am and I'll gladly play along.

7 things you might not know about me:

1) I made myself learn to love coffee because I think it's cool to drink coffee. It's a good thing I don't think cigarettes are cool anymore...
2) I said something bad and jealous to my kid the other day because I was pissy that she had to leave again for her father's. Now I feel really bad for her.
3) I love my house. (Ok you might know this but I hated my last house a lot so I like to say it. )
4) I secretly listen to all the songs I tell my kids they can't hear. Eminem is one of my favorites.
5) I don't have a favorite color. I like them all. I like them best when they're all together.
6) I love shopping for school supplies and always want to buy myself new notebooks and pens and binders.
7) I am petty. Very. If you annoy me I will intentionally irk you because why would you annoy me? But it doesn't mean I don't love you. :D

Non yarn crafty goodness

I've been working on little bits of stuff. A new dress for Em. My sewing skills aren't all that but I'm getting better. I only had to call my mother once on this one...



It even almost fits. Em's excitement at having to try it on just once more is evident in the pic and she couldn't stand still long enough for me to pin the hem up so that still needs to be done.


And I put in a zipper! YAY ME!! The zipper works and looks good so I'm ecstatic. The top floppy part is awating a few buttons but that something that I'll have to learn after I get the proper piece for my machine.


Plus I made up some more fleece hats and scarves... So super easy. Love them. I made up 5 hats, 2 scarves and 2 neckwarmers in a morning.


They were a huge hit and now I'm getting requests from the kids at school for more. :D

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

At least in this house it is. I talked to a woman today who "just really isn't into Christmas." I've never met anyone like her before, lol. Seriously. She said she hadn't had a tree since her kid was 10 and he's all grown up now. She was a complete mystery to me.

I love the trees, decorations, songs and presents. I'm feeling a little low on Christmas spirit so far but still, my tree was up as soon as humanly possible after Thanksgiving. It's a pretty tree, I just wish I had to know how to take a great pic of it. Not an easy task as I'm sure most of you know.

I haven't crafted anything in the way of presents. It's a shame really as I know my youngest child and mother would both like afghans. Ash requested a scarf, which isn't totally out of the realm of possibilities yet and may just get done. But there is no one else I think would want anything or care to receive anything homemade. Ok, so I don't know that they care to receive anything else we gift them with but at least I'm not completely invested in their reactions this way.:)

We're very busy here but the snow and harsh cold haven't hit us yet so all is well in the North Country as far as I'm concerned. We filled the tank in my van for under $40 today. I almost fell over. I've got a little shopping done and am ahead of my normal schedule. Life is good.

I hope all is well with you all!

Happies

-Peppermint Mocha Coffeemate
-Friends
-Cat Naps
-More friends
-Learning to prepare ahead of time
-Driving on sunny days
-Understanding
-Cardigans
-Confidence

It's a sunny, coffee-filled, busy but good, day here in the northern most parts of NY. I'm feeling settled and on the right track and optimistic today. There will be days soon when my attitude tanks but today I'm basking in the happiness and blessings around me. I wish this feeling on all of you out there in blogland. :)

Oh M'gosh I Did It

I voted. First time ever. Signed my name, filled in the circles, made the choices. I'm totally a grown-up now...

Happy Halloween!

Emily carved our pumpkin this year with just the slightest help around the eyes. We think is't pretty awesome. :)

Emily is going to be Mary from Little House. She will also tolerate being called Sarah plain and tall. But please do not refer to her as Laura or little pioneer girl. Picky, picky. :D



Ashleigh may or may not be dressing up. She keeps changing her plans and so I don't have anything to report on her quite yet.

Hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

Hi

I just wanted to say "Hi". I don't know who out there still checks in here but Hi. I miss you guys. It used to be such fun reading blogs and laughing with/at each other and seeing you all on the message boards. I can tell that things are busy and moving on for everyone. Blogland is a quiet place these days.

Or at least I thought it was. My bloglines updated today and a bunch of blogs had multiple postings from this past month. I think I suffered a little lag because I hadn't seen some of thos postings but I had seen others. It's a little strange.

Things in my world are normal and mundane and the bad isn't really that bad in comparision to other peoples lives. Today I'm being pissy and whiny about people who just never come through for you but I've decided that in this case that's my fault more than theirs and so I'm even pissier over that. :)

I'm crafting although not really making anything. Working on sewing a costume for Em, knitting a bag and crocheting a blanket. It's been fun to just play with yarn this month. I don't especially like the bag so far and it may go to the frog pond but it was fun to knit it.

The kidlets are doing well. My girls are growing up and I find more and more that I'm not so fond of boys at this time in our lives. ;) Who do these little men think they are calling here for my precious babies? They should all take their cooties and leave us alone, we don't want none! But I guess that's the downfall of having such beautiful daughters. Right?

So, how ya all been?

Here it's been busy, busy and since I know I'M not nearly as busy as everyone else I'm sure that anyone who reads (or used to read) this is crazy busy. I hope you're all getting a chance to enjoy the last bits of summer though. Or these first bits of fall, depending on where you are.

I am. I love fall. The coolness, the baking, the colors, my new hat...


The girls are doing really well this year. Emily has elected to drop some after school activities so we're down to just Scouting. Ash is trying more new sports this year and has started with volleyball. I know she's enjoying it but so am I. I think this should be an all year sport because it's my favorite and I really enjoy watching. She's also tried out for drama and is excited about that. I think she'll be good at it and hope she gets a part.

The hubster and I are doing well too. Nothing greatly exciting happening for either of us at the moment but nothing greatly devestating either so I'm ok with that. We're all pretty content at the moment.

I hope you are all doing as well!!

Amazon

I love Amazon. I order from there ALL the time. I had no idea though that they sold single issues of magazines. I've been looking for this one:
since like the first day it came out and everyone was all agog over the cover blankie. And I looked here, there and everywhere. I was about to post on every message board, website and blog I frequent that I needed someone to find it for me, and then discovered it on Amazon. Selling for the cover price and free shipping.

Really, Amazon is my hero today. :)

I forgot to say

That you (all of you, any you that is reading this) should really make this French Baguette Recipe because WOW it was good!

Soapy and Sudsy and Seems to work

So the laundry detergent is all right. I don't know where I got the idea it had to gel, but it didn't really gel at all. It's got some gelled looking particles but mostly is really liquid-y.

I don't have much to report on it's effectiveness because well, yesterday was laundry day and I did all of our laundry using up the last of the Tide. But today I took all the sheets and blankets off the beds and washed them. And they look clean and smell clean, in fact despite Ash's repeated remarks that the detergent looked gross, she did say that she really liked the way her sheets smell now. But of course they're sheets, it's not like the showed visible signs of dirt anyway, so I can't say it's like miraculous that they're SO clean now... But I'm thinking of sending the girls out in the mud next time it rains just so I can really see how it works. :)

But I'm more than happy that for about $10 I have the supplies to make about 10 batches of detergent. Each batch looks like it'll be the equivalent of a jug of Tide. Not too shabby, I say.

Crafty (sort of) Homemaker Fun

I've seen this idea floating around and then Stacey posted about it and another friend made it so I thought "Hey, I'm willing to give it a try."

Homemade Laundry Detergent

The Ingredients:
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha finely shredded
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
water
2 gallon container with lid

The process:

Heat 6 cups of water on the stove, toss in grated soap, stir until melted. Then add in the powders and dissolve.

Now put 4 cups of water into the container, mix in soap mixture, top with 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir well.

Now let it sit and set up into a watery gel for 24 hours. Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry.

Now I've heard it's good stuff but I still have to wait the 24 hours before testing it out.

So the Crocs are here. I did get the strappy sandals, although I was tempted to get the flip-flops. And the new canvas flip-flops look alright.

So anyway, I got the sandals and they're alright. They don't make my foot look any skinnier but they're cute from the side and just laying on the floor. :) And I've been wearing them for two days straight and those nubby things on the sole are barely noticeable. I haven't done any serious walking in them and I did refuse to wear them to church but so far they're alright. And hey if they never stink and never wear out I'll consider them a decent buy... Also, I bought them with birthday money so they were kind of free... :D

And I also think original clog Crocs are terrible and let me be clear that I would not buy them for me. But they're cute on little kids I think, until you get the jewelry stuff for them. Then they're not. lol

Don't it figure?

Um, I finally bought a pair of Crocs and they were no sooner delivered than I came across a Newsweek article declaring them the bane of society... Crap!

Hey again :)

2008_07270001
Originally uploaded by ZingyZoid

So this is my house... I thought it just looked nice in this pic so you get to see it. Plus, really, it's fairly clean here so let's show it off. :)

I'm having a problem with my camera so I was snapping random pics trying to figure out why they won't upload and this was one of them. I really like my house. Except for that huge blank space above my couch but I can't figure out what needs to go there...

Besides that I spent the day uploading Stash pics to Ravelry. There's nothing like looking your addiction in the eye is there? I went through a serious buying or twenty... And somehow, I thought I needed to own about 5 different DK weight yarns in varying shades of peach. I'm not sure what that was about but it makes me laugh now. :D

Deserter

I am a deserter I know. I haven't had anything to say in a while though. All the crap on here before just seemed so negative and I was sick of thinking that way. I really just wanted to put all the whining behind me and start afresh. Then I found I had nothing to say when I wasn't complaining, LOL.

But I have been reading other peoples blogs though I never seem to comment. It's not that I'm not interested I just feel like what I have to say is fluff and filler and not really going to have any sort of impact so I don't say anything.

So in the meantime what you've gotten are project updates. And really that's what this blog started as so it's not THAT bad right? ;)

Pastel Ripple

Yarn - Patons Bumblebee Baby Cotton, DK weight
Colors - Wild Rose, Daffodil, Sweet Green, Morning Glory and Pansy
Yardage - Each ball = 123 yards. I used 2 balls of each color plus a little extra pink.
Size - 35x40
Pattern - Easy Ripple

Patons discontinued this yarn some time ago but I think they replaced it with a their Beehive yarn although the colors do not appear to be the same. I really liked this yarn though, no splitting!

Sister Sprites

After I finished the first Sprite I knew I could do a better job so yesterday and today I worked up another one. I'm much happier this time around. I used a smaller hook and got a tighter fabric and less stuffing peeking through. Also, her clothes are just cuter... Big Sprite is getting a make over later. :D