Adventurous Oval - FINISHED!!!

HOORAY, HOORAY, HOORAY!

I've completed my PK Oval

and it's SO pretty.

I LOVE IT!!!

It even looks beautiful from the BACK!

Happy, happy!  Giddy!!!  

Dance, skip, hop!

(Yes, I'm excited.)

This doily is from my marvelous

Patricia Kristoffersen book,

Absolutely Gorgeous Doilies.

All the doilies in the book

are done in white only.

My color choices were

white, variegated, delft blue, and yellow threads

and a size 7 hook.

My other 2 posts on this doily were:

Adventurous Oval

and

Adventurous Oval-continued 

Click on either link to read

more about the

creation process.

Decorating a Boy's Room

I've been wanting to paint my boys' rooms

for several years now.  But I want them to 

be BEIGE.  Not yellow or rosy beige.

Just plain BEIGE

I keep procrastinating because the last

time I thought I had picked out BEIGE,

it looked like Chocolate Mousse

once it was on the walls.

And that's fine in my kitchen:

'Cause that's where you eat

Chocolate Mousse, right?

And it's ok in my feminine bedroom too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But for the boys' rooms,

I don't want

Chocolate Mousse.

I just want BEIGE!

So I consulted my interior design friend.

She has a gift with colors.

I told her I wanted a cowboy theme

in one room and an army theme in

the other one.  

So she brought me some color cards

of some beige paints she likes.

And she brought me these

for the cowboy theme.

(Isn't she great?  

Her name is MaryBeth)

So now I need to decide how to use these fabrics

to accent the room with.

Any ideas???

The Bomb

There is always some kind of fun going on at our house.  My boys invent games all the time.  One they have played off and on through the years is The Bomb.  

They have all sorts of board games.  Some times they play by the rules and sometimes they make up a completely new game that doesn't even resemble the original.  

That's how it is in the case of the The Bomb.  In this game, they use our game called Perfection.  (If you are not familiar with this game, it is a battery powered square box in which you depress the center and set the timer.  Then you place shapes of all kinds in the correct spaces with the goal being having all pieces in place before the timer buzzes and the depressed insert pops up and throws the pieces out.)   

They place the game ('bomb') in different rooms throughout the house in strategic positions.  They then depress the insert, reset the pieces, and turn on the timer.  

Then it is all chaos as they run away and hide, waiting for it to 'explode'.

Then, of course, when it goes off, there is much screaming and laughing.  And then they fetch The Bomb and cart it off to a new demolition site and start all over again.

I love their inventiveness.  It makes up for the screaming (usually)!

Caryn's Bonnet

I made this sweet bonnet

for my 1st great niece Caryn
and for a very good friend's baby.

It is the same bonnet I made for Ava, tweaked.

I wish the pictures had turned out better.
The pink variegated was so bright.

It was a beautiful contrast with the white.

Again, that book is:

The Complete Guide to Thread Crochet

designs by Terry Kimbrough

Leisure Arts #3225

As the title indicates,
this book has more than
just baby crochet.

It also has 2 nice sweater patterns,
one of which I'm working on, in beige.
It also has a doily pattern,
bookmark patterns, and more.

Ava's Outfit

I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality,

but I did want to show you this sweet set

I made for my niece, Ava.

I love the flower motifs designed into this set.
I also love the ruffle effect.
I haven't had much in the way
of ruffles, ribbons, or girly frills,
as you may imagine, since
I was blessed with 4 boys.

But I sure enjoy making sweet
things for other people's girls!

Pattern:  Baby Set

The Complete Guide to Thread Crochet

designs by Terry Kimbrough

Leisure Arts #3225

Hook:  Size 7

First (and so far, only) Quilting Project

I mentioned in my afghan post that I don't seem to be able to start small on anything.  My quilting experience held true to that M.O.  I learned to make a log-cabin quilt pattern from a friend's grandmother.  (This same wonderful woman also taught me how to quilt it by hand when I got that far along on my project.)

Picking out the color combination was the first task at hand, and quite daunting to a crafting novice I might add.  Thankfully, that same friend was embarking on the learning-to-quilt venture with me.  So she helped me out with my color choices and by persevering through the process with me.  So I jumped in with both feet and got started.  This same friend, another friend, and I started a once-a-week sewing night.  This helped motivate us all to work on our projects.  :0)  (Friends are worth their weight in gold.)

To help me in my endeavor, my mother gifted me with a quilting kit for a gift, complete with rotary cutter and cutting mat.  (My mother really is quite wonderful!)

Well...

as I got started, I noticed I had way more materials strips than I was going to need for just my quilt.  Hmmm.  The next thing I knew, I was planning to make my sister a quilt that looked almost exactly like mine except for the edgings and backing.  So...now instead of learning to make a quilt and persevering through that, I had upped the ante to TWO quilts.  And I did end up going and making a few additional fabric choices to that end.  (Why, oh why do I listen to myself???  This was back in the day when I was not smart enough to consult the calm, steady DH and get his astute judgment in the matter.  Frankly, I'm still not always that bright!)

I'm glad to say that I did persevere and my sister and I do have matching quilts.  But I really do wish I would not go into overdrive so easily!!!

Here are the pictures of the quilts.   The first quilt is mine.

 In this picture you can tell that the backing on mine is 

the same fabric I used on my final trim.

Side view.

My sister's quilt, as I was giving it to her:

It was worth all the extra trouble!!!

XOXOX

Dried Apricots

 Yesterday was all about drying apricots.

It was quite a process.

I borrowed a food dehydrator from a friend.

Then I commenced to slicing, pitting, and de-stringing

the apricots.  I pushed their backs forward and

tore the halves in half, making quarters, of course.

These quarters had to go in a citrus bath for 5 minutes.

Then onto the dehydrator trays...

And into the dehydrator,

Then came lots of checking and WAITING...

and checking and nibbling and WAITING...

and checking and switching trays and nibbling

(as you might suppose, nibbling

was the BEST part!)

and taking a few out

and turning them and nibbling

and WAITING...

and so on and so forth,

until...

finally,

they were dry,

(around 10 hours later).

Was it worth it???

You'll have to ask me later,

when we start eating them!

Right now, I'm not sure.

With all this, I haven't had too much time

for hook work, but...

I've made a start on a pink pair

of Kay Meador's crocheted sneakers.

I'll let you know when I get to the pink part!