GTA Donations April 2011

Did you see my previous post of Peyton’s cupcake hat? Well, the pink in this sweater and hat set is what was left over from that. I knew there wasn’t enough of it to make the whole set so I did the rest of it in Pound of Love White yarn. I like the way it turned out. Should make a nice little set for Easter.

 

Remember awhile back I got a really good buy of a box of yarn at my local Goodwill? This is made from yarn from that box. It is Jamie sparkle yarn and it was pretty fine yarn so I used 2 strands, one of white and one of light pink. I like the way it turned out. This was the first time I’d made one of these cocoons but they seem to be pretty popular with some of the moms nowadays so I thought I’d give one a try. Kind of hard to see the sparkly in my picture but it’s there!

 

 

Last summer I think it was, I started posting about a bright stripes baby blanket I was working on. It kind of got set aside as a UFO for awhile but I finally picked it back up and finished it. All of the brights are mostly Red Heart Super Saver yarn. I knew I didn’t have enough of any one of the colors to make something so using them up in this blanket turned out nice so they didn’t go to waste. Sure helped use up some of my scrap stash.

These two sweaters and hat are made from one skein of yarn. It’s another of my good buys from Goodwill. I remember I only paid 88 cents for the skein but can’t remember exactly what the yarn was. I THINK it was a sport weight yarn, I do remember it was Bernat and the color was called something like buttercup. It’s very soft and should be nice against a baby’s skin.

This rectangle blanket was fun to make. I’m not big on making blankets, I just don’t have the patience so I don’t make too many of them but this one wasn’t bad.

Last summer when our God’s Tiny Angels group was having our sweater drive, our group leader put everyone’s names in a hat that contributed sweaters for a chance to win a prize and by golly I won! Was ever excited! I won 10 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver yarn and this blanket is made from some of that yarn. Haven’t figured out what else I’m going to make out of my winnings yet but you can bet it will probably something for the babies.

For this little blanket I did the middle in double crochet then I did rounds of granny square or shell stitches, just to be different :)

 

 

Some of the hospitals like the little diaper shirts so I made two of them with Pink Pound of Love and edged them in white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little burial set but fortunately I had enough yarn to make a blanket to go with all of it. Again, very simple but made of soft Pound of Love again. I’ve included a close up of just the gown and hat.

I had a partial skein of the green I Love This Yarn left over from another project so I made the bodice out of it and finished the rest of it off with white Pound of Love.

 

That’s it for this time. Wish it was more but the old carpal tunnel and pinched ulnar nerve sometimes limits my crocheting so I just keep on doing what I can, knowing every little bit helps.

Family Wedding And Pics Of Peyton

My daughter in law’s sister Erin renewed her vows with her husband Mitch on Saturday. They got married last June in a civil ceremony, kinda quick, he’s in the Army and they couldn’t live together on the base without them being married.

So, on Saturday they returned home from Fort Riley so they could renew their vows and have a nice reception. Lots of people came.

 

Little Miss Peyton, my grand daughter, was the flower girl. How cute is that??

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here she is with her daddy and the ringer bearer.

The little stinker is on the go ALL…THE….TIME!!

She never slowed down once all night. She just walked all over and ran most of us adults ragged, lol. Gosh, to just have a tenth of her energy :)

 

 

 

Of course, Grandpa had to feed her some wedding cake! She has a hollow leg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then she had fun with Grandpa throwing her up and down and catching her.

 

 

 

 

 

This is towards the end of the night when she was finally getting pretty tired and kind of grumpy. She still wasn’t done walking around though and was a bit unhappy with Grandma holding her.

All in all, a very nice time.

Start On Painting Living Room

On my last post I blogged about the great deal I got on Valspar paint at Lowe’s. Well, I got started on painting the living room, bit by bit, at my own slow pace, lol.

This is how the half wall between the living room and kitchen looked before I started painting.

 

 

 

Here is how it looks after painting. Rocky seems to enjoy it :)

I think it looks better. It warms it up and brightens it up in here.

Weekend Finds And Deals

I did my usual weekend running around with my daughter yesterday and found some sweet sewing patterns at Goodwill.

This is a very vintage (1981 copyright) pattern that I got for whole 88 cents. It’s a size 2, which is a bit big right now for Peyton, since she is wearing 18 month sizes right now, and she is pretty petite, but by the time I get something made, it should fit. I’m thinking the sleeveless one would make some really cute sundresses. I’ve got all kinds of cute little prints materials that would work just fine. Then I was thinking the sleeveless one would be cool as a jumper if you made it in something like a corduroy material. I’m not big on sleeves, only because I usually have the dickens of a time putting them in. Oh, and the other great thing about this pattern, it’s never been cut! So, I thought maybe I could make templates of the pattern on freezer paper to use instead of cutting up the original. You figure, it’s 31 years old and it might be kind of fragile, wouldn’t want to ruin it and not be able to use it!

This is the other pattern I got ( for 88 cents). It’s sizes 3 through 6x so I have lots of time to make something from this one, lol. The package says there’s one piece of the pattern missing. I haven’t gone through it yet to see which piece it is, but I should be able to make something in here. The copyright on this one is 1990.

 

 

 

Isn’t this cute? I found it at Goodwill too! It doesn’t look like it’s ever been worn. It’s a size 24 months, so still a bit big, but she’s growing fast, so eventually…..

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went to Lowe’s. Daughter was looking for a dishwasher, I was going to buy paint. Awhile back Valspar paints had a deal on the internet where you could order a sample jar of their paint FREE if you were one of the first 1,000 to sign up daily for something like a week. You also got a coupon for $5 off the purchase of a gallon of their Signature paint. I’m a night owl so I had no problem getting in and being able to sign up on time every day. I have multiple email addys so I signed up three times and got 3 samples! AND when I opened the boxes, one of them had two of the $5 coupons stuck together, so I got FOUR coupons! Woohoo! They are good until May 31st, so there was no rush to use them. I was waiting for our local Lowe’s to have a sale on their Valspar paint. Well, instead of a sale, they had a mail in rebate for $5 off each gallon. So, after I send in my rebates, and using my coupons, I actually ended up getting $10 off each gallon! I bought 3 gallons so I can paint the living room and the long hallway going to the bedrooms. Now granted, their paint is NOT cheap ($31.99 each for the satin finish, plus tax for a total of $33.88 each). But let me tell you, I’ve used cheap paint and I’ve used Valspar, and the Valspar is worth EVERY PENNY of the extra cost. It has the primer in it, so when you paint, it covers AWESOME in just one coat and goes on really smooth. And no, no one is reimbursing me for my gushing testimonial, I’m just that impressed with it. So doing the math, using my coupons and rebates, I got the paint for just under $24 a gallon. The gold patch on the top of the picture is the color I got. Actual color is a bit “warmer” than the picture looks. Just so tired of bland eggshell walls, and wanted a bit of color, but nothing super drastic that would put the hubby into a tailspin, lol.

Got my haircut this weekend too in amongst all the running. It’s back up to chin length, much easier to take care of.

Sad But Necessary Donations

God’s Tiny Angels received a request from one of our hospitals for burial or “angel” gowns for 1-3 pound babies.

Unfortunately there is a need for burial sets for babies who got their wings too soon. Sometimes I find it hard to make these, but then I think of the comfort that my small effort gives to a family who is going through one of the toughest times in their lives, and it makes it easier to create something nice for their baby during such a difficult time.

This set is fairly simple, but I made it with pink and white Pound of Love so it would be soft and trimmed it with just a few pink buttons. Simple but nice.

 

 

My second burial set. Again, made of Pound of Love yarn which I love for the softness of it. Again, very simple but nice and comforting. The pearl and lace decorations I added came from some trim I harvested from an old dress and were just too pretty to throw away. I knew someday I’d find a good use for them. They just seemed like the perfect addition to make this set special.

This set is made from a soft pink baby yarn. There wasn’t a label on it so not sure what brand, etc. the yarn is. I’m sure it came in a box of my yarn finds at Goodwill.

I added some white daisies with pink centers that matched the yarn hoping it would make it not quite so plain.

 

 

 

 

 

I made this little set from white Pound of Love. I’m thinking this set could be used for a girl or a boy, as they do use gowns for the boys too. I added a small bit of trim with white and green gimp to fancy it up.

 

 

 

 

 

My final set for now is made from some vintage Lion brand Jamie baby yarn. It’s variegated with pastel shades of blue, pink, green and yellow. It also has a slim thread of shimmery yarn in it. Because of the multi colors and the shimmer, I didn’t add any embellishments because I thought it might make it look too “busy”.

 

 

 

Some people find it hard to make these sets because of the circumstances for the need for them but I don’t really mind making them. They work up pretty fast, even for a slower crocheter like me. I don’t usually make a matching blanket for the sets, simply because they just take me too long to get a blanket done. I feel I can help more families this way and you can usually find a pretty blanket to buy to go with the set. The last thing these families need is to worry about trying to find clothing that is small enough for their angel and I can only hope my little gowns and hats will bring some comfort to them in such a difficult time in their lives.

Crocheted Baby Wrap Dress

As many of you know, I belong to a group called God’s Tiny Angels and we make clothing, blankets, etc for needy babies. One of the ladies in our group, Louisa, posted a pattern that she created to our group for this wrap dress.

It looked like a pretty easy pattern so I thought I would give it a try. It worked up really fast and was very easy to make.

I think our group leader Danette is going to post it to the pattern page for God’s Tiny Angels. When I find out if it is there or not, I will post a link.

Peyton’s Cupcake Hat

Peyton’s mom asked me if I could crochet a cupcake hat for her.

So I did a search on the internet and found more than one pattern. Each one had something that I just didn’t quite like about it so I used them for my “guides” and came up with my own version. Mom said it needed to have ear flaps and ties because Peyton would just pull it off otherwise.

My pictures aren’t as good as I’d like them to be but you get the idea :)

Peyton is about 16 months old now and her head measured about 19 inches around. I made it a bit big so hopefully it will fit her for awhile.

I used a size G crochet hook. Her coat is pink and brown so I used those colors. The pink is Bernat Satin 3.5 oz worsted weight acrylic yarn and I used about half of the skein. The color is called Flamingo. It’s a bit lighter than my picture shows.

The brown chocolate cupcake part, the earflaps and ties are made from Caron Simply Soft Eco 5 oz. skein. The color is, what else, chocolate! I used a very small amount of this, maybe a fourth of the skein if that.

Of course we had to have “sprinkles” on the cupcake so I used pink, cream and white pony beads and sewed them on with the pink yarn.

Sorry but I didn’t write down the pattern as I went along because I was winging it and I know I frogged some as I went so I probably wouldn’t have gotten it written down correctly anyway.

Hopefully I’ll get some pics late on of her wearing it and will post them when I do.

Blizzard Of 2011

Well, we ended up with 18.4 inches of snow, way more than we usually see around here in Eastern Iowa.

Here are some pics of what I saw in the neighborhood.

This is the drift we saw when we opened the garage door so we could get the snow blower out. Hubby figured he would try to snow blow even thought it was still snowing heavily and blowing pretty good. We thought it might make it easier to clear it all off later on if we got some of it now. Ended up it didn’t make much difference because most of it just drifted back in.

Snow hanging off of the edge of the roof on the front of the house. This was taken about 9 PM on Tuesday February 1st.

This is looking down our street about 4 PM Tuesday. Before the snowplows ever even thought about coming by.

Here’s the same view about an hour later.

Remember the snow hanging off the front of the house? Well, I took this picture out our front room window. The snow hanging off the roof is about 2 feet long.

This is our neighbor’s patio on the house behind us. Doesn’t look  to me like they are going to be using it or going out their patio door any time soon :)

Looking out our garage door about 7 AM Wednesday morning. Lots of drifts and the overhanging snow has increased dramatically. It had stopped snowing pretty much by then but it was still pretty windy.

Slightly different angle looking out the garage door. Drifts almost up to the bumper of our truck.

This is looking up the street in the other direction.

Drifts next to the truck and looking towards the street. No snow plow by yet as this time. See my poor mailbox out there near the curb? It’s on a 4 foot wooden post so that gives you a bit of an idea how high the drifts are.

Rocky says he’s hunkering down for the duration under this nice warm quilt hanging down off of the love seat. Do not disturb me!

So, that’s the blizzard of 2011 for me. Did you get hit by mega snow or ice too? Let me know. Truly hope we don’t get another one of these this winter. Luckily, we are retired and don’t have to worry about trying to get to work and we live on an “emergency snow route” street so we are one of the first streets to get plowed out in our city. Not so much for people living on the “side” streets in the area. The snow stopped about 7 AM Wednesday morning and as of 1 AM Thursday my daughter says the plows hadn’t been down her street at all yet. I hear on the news many of the side streets aren’t going to even get a single pass until sometime Friday. Really feel sorry for all who had to get out to go somewhere this morning. I saw our one neighbor across the street from us HAND shoveling his drive way at 5:30 this morning. Took him about an hour and a half.

More Snow ARGH!

See that spot in the middle where it says QC? That's where I am. I snagged this graphic from one of our local news stations (and might I say one of the best meteorologist teams ever). They are usually right on the money. They are saying this will be a storm of "historic amounts".
                                                                 G.....R.....E.....A.....T.
We are used to snow here in Eastern Iowa, lots of it, but not usually the motherlode all at one time.
Guess I shouldn't gripe cause I heard close to 30 states are going to get hit with this storm in one way or another, be it snow, sleet, ice or rain. But gosh, I'm OVER winter already, how 'bout you?



Where Are You Spring?

 Are you as ready for spring as I am? No more snow, no more cold. Guess I’m just having the winter doldrums. So, here is a pretty picture of a beautiful rose to try to help brighten up your dreary winter day :)

Old Family Pictures And A Journal Of Sorts Part 1

I was digging around on my computer looking at old pictures and decided maybe I need to start posting some of them to my blog here and tell the story behind each one as a sort of historical journal for my kids.
I know some of these pictures they have probably never seen.
So today I am starting with mostly pictures of me. Then as I go along on future posts there will be pictures of my brother, parents, grandparents, and of course my kids :)
The majority of the pictures in this post were taken in Davenport, Iowa where I was born and raised. Also, they were taken back in the day before digital photos. Most were taken with old Brownie cameras. And the pictures from back then were usually black and white and printed on paper that had little scalloped edges.

 

This first picture was taken in 1955. I'm guessing I was about 6-9 months old. Not sure but that's my best guess judging by the length of my hair and my size.

This picture is my mom Elva. It was taken at Christmas time 1958. I remember that we lived in an upstairs apartment on West Second Street in Davenport near where the main post office is now in 2011. We didn't come from a well to do family so I usually remember the "good" Christmases. This was one of the good ones because I remember getting a doll that was as tall as me and she had hair that you could comb and she had her own wooden bed to sleep in. I think my dad made the doll bed. Wish I had a picture of that :(

This picture was taken in 1958. My brother Bobby was 6 and I was 3. I remember the picture was taken on the front stoop of the apartment building that my dad's sister Aunt Mary and her husband Uncle Art lived at across the river in Rock Island, Illinois. Us kids always looked forward to going there because we got to ride across the Rock Island Arsenal bridge, which is still there today. It was the first bridge built in our area and the trains would ran on the top of it while the cars went across the river below. It's part of Lock and Dam 15 on the Mississippi River and it has a swing span that would open and s---l---o---w---l---y rotate around to open so barges and boats could lock through the dam. Sometimes it took as much as a half hour for the span to do a full rotation. In the summer that got to be pretty hot because back then our car didn't have air conditioning. So sometimes we would all get out of the car and walk along the bridge to the swing span and watch it open and the boats and barges going through.

This picture of me was taken in 1959 making me 4 years old. I know my cousin Ronnie took this picture in the kitchen of his parents house (Aunt Alice and Uncle Harold) down on West Third Street in Davenport. Ronnie always was taking pics of us kids.

This one was taken in 1971 and I was 16 years old. My best friend was Evelyn and her mom's boyfriend Tony had a corner grocery store on West Second Street which is where this pic was taken inside of. Back in those days, neighborhood small family owned grocery stores were the norm. We didn't have the big super centers and such back then. I do remember there was an A&P grocery store up on Fourth Street. I used to ride my Schwinn banana seat long front prong bicycle to the A&P to get groceries for one of the older neighbor ladies. Ya like the granny glasses? I started wearing glasses 4 years before that when I was 12. I remember my first pair of glasses were plastic frames and they had those gosh awful pointy edges.

This was taken a year later in 1972. My dog Charlie was half beagle and half dachshund. I bought him for $5 from a friend who couldn't keep him any longer. That was a lot of money for a 17 year old who was working part time after school at the neighborhood drug store for a dollar an hour. And how about those lovely pants, lol? I made them in home ec class and wore the heck out of them. They were high class style then!

This is my mom and dad Elva and Frank. The picture was taken in 1980 and was one of the last pictures of my dad before he passed away in 1981. They were both in their 60's then.

Well, that's it for this round of reminiscing. Will try to do part 2 soon!