Murano Glass & other thoughts

So as this year quickly comes to a close I am enjoying memories of my trip to Italy this past Sept. I'm getting closer to finishing Adriana's afghan. I've got a pattern in mind that I wanted to share with everyone but just because Caron has a contest going I thought about expanding the scarf pattern into a baby afghan. Once I have the stitch count settled I think I'll work it up for January's charity challenge. (I belong to an online crochet group and we have charity challenges from Jan. through Oct. & have expanded to an unofficial Nov. cc.)
Anyway as I deal with my crocheting and my reading (currently into JoAnna Carl's Chocoholic mysteries) and attempting to stay on top of things has been fun.


We had arrived in Venice and had our time to ourselves to settle in & get ready for dinner after a wonderful dinner we had a good night before our next day ... we were told what time to meet following breakfast and we all gathered together in time to get on a boat (you either travel by water taxi's or you walk over bridges lots of stairs & lots of walking around Venice) but to get to Murano Isle you must take a boat. When we arrived our guide met us and brought us through to explain how the furnace's were dealt with before the availability of gas furnaces. How the wood was brought and stored and handled. Then he explained that the whole family was involved. When he was a child of 10 yrs his job was to ck on the furnace & make sure it was burning hot enough. We saw some piles of rejects (yes they too have items that they tried and either did not have the design work or something else caused them to reject it) so an area where there was lots of broken glass. While he was explaining things to us we were standing outside in a courtyard and there were beautiful mosaics hanging on the outside walls. This first picture was hanging inside just as we left the building to enter the courtyard. The next 4 pictures were taken outside and the last picture you see our guide.

So after this we had a great time inside another area where one of the glass masters put on a demonstration for us. More pictures to follow later this week.

Wishing you all frog free projects :)

Less than a week to a Brand New Year

Are you frantically wrapping up this year of 2008? Are you looking ahead to all the possibilities of 2009? Can you believe how fast the year flew by? Seems to me that as a child I always thought the year dragged by until finally Christmas arrived in all of it's glory. As a young adult I noticed how it seemed to speed up a bit but now (and for a while the truth be told) I believe you can blink a couple of times & have the entire year fly by... why you merely get started and before you know it spring time rolls around with all the "spring cleaning" (which I might actually do this year! LOL) As you take the few minutes to admire the flowers just beginning to bloom you'll notice that Summer arrived unfortunately Summer doesn't seem to stay as long as we want it to and it isn't always as warm as it has been in the past. Makes using the swimming pool a bit hit or miss depending on the actual warmth of the day. Just as you decide summer really did show up & might stay a while Autumn rolls on in with a bit of cooler air making using the swimming pool more of an adventure than it should be and the cooler air has you already thinking of all the landscape work that needs to be done in order to prepare the yard for winter. Don't want to be caught unprepared! Next thing you know Winter shows up with force. Colder temperatures makes clothing choices for you and you begin to dream of Christmas with all it's wonderful traditions.

For me Christmas became way too commericalized years ago. I stopped decorating. I stopped caring about all the hoopla that was associated with Christmas and began thinking only in terms of this is more about the Birth of the Savior of the World and less about what someone gives me or I give someone else. Don't get me wrong I still see the beauty of giving a gift to someone and sharing the love of God with others in this manner but I don't think every toy that makes the top ten list needs to be under the tree for the kids nor does every new gadget that comes out just in time for Christmas need to be under the tree for the teens/ or even the adults.

With our youngest son's birthday January 1st I always look forward to the beginning of the new year. His only request was that we don't do anything fancy this year ~ he'd rather rest if possible. He's always busy with something and he'd like a really low key kind of day for his birthday. And I agree with him he should have the kind of day he really wants.

Well I just rec'd a text message requesting I do something so that requires me to actually get my day underway. I'll post some pictures Monday and tell you about my visit to Murano Glass in Venice then.
Meanwhile I hope you enjoy your post Christmas bargain shopping & all your projects should be frog free so you can get more accomplished.

Merry Christmas Yay that's today!!!

Before we leave to go see Adriana open her gifts and then head over to see Kyla & Kami open theirs. I thought I would wish you all a wonderful day. A day full of love & joy. With the economy the way it is I understand many will be having a day with less gifts or perhaps with no gifts to open. But if the true meaning of this day were being celebrated then it won't matter about the gifts or no gifts what will really matter is being able to spend time with someone we love. It is more about how we treat one another with thoughtfulness, kindness and yes common courtesy. All to often we allow the holiday season (whether we celebrate Christmas or not) to be an excuse to be frazzled and exhausted and all out of sorts with our own emotions that we strike out at our loved ones and then feel like the day has been ruined. Which it can be simply because everyone gets overly tired and all we should do is take a deep breath and relax. Let everyone else off the hook for rude behavior and forgive them for being overly rushed & exhausted, forgive ourselves for being that way too and then look beyond all of that to give ourselves the chance to enjoy the time being spent together.

In spite of all the rushing around and the "pressure" building up yesterday I managed to get the laundry done, along with 6 pies before leaving to watch the girls. While there I did manage to fall asleep almost every time I worked on the afghan. Last night I had gotten the afghan to the size I had planned on making it all I needed to do was trim it and be finished. But to be honest with you I found it lacking. Yes it was the size I had planned on but I just felt it was too skinny. I wanted it larger. So I made the decision to continue working on it until it is a more acceptable size. I finished the scarf for Kyla and packed my tote bag with the afghan & extra yarn. So out of all the things needed to be done yesterday I finished all but 2. I still need to work on the afghan for Adrians until I like it's size. And I need to finish her new snuggle square. That I can probably finish today.
Tomorrow I will pull out the pictures and share with you about our visit to Murano Isle. That was so much fun!!!
For now I wish you all a very Merry Christmas & a relaxing day spent with loved ones.
(and of course frog free projects LOL)

Christmas Eve Morning....

Do you feel the pressure? Last night instead of finishing up my crochet projects I went to my son's house to deliver the ham & turkey my hubby purchased for our Christmas day meal (which my son will prepare and we will all enjoy at his house)... but once we arrived there we were invited to go with them to see the "Festival of Lights" (light display done in Albany, NY for charity) ... we've done this with them the last 2 years so this makes our third venture to "see the lights" and of course how could I say no to Kyla & Kami who both asked us to go with them???

So today's agenda includes all of the crocheting that I had planned on finishing lastnight along with the pies I planned on making for tomorrow, laundry, and now I have an idea for the Caron Naturally Baby contest ... the one I just read about which was supposed to be over but they extended the deadline so now I have until January 31, 2009 to purchase & make a baby blanket to help support Project Linus & possibly win the contest. Ummm well maybe the scarf pattern won't be available for a while. I do see potential in turning this simple scarf pattern into a larger project, say ... ummm, like a baby afghan.

Maybe I'll escape all the pressure (oh did I fail to say we have to go babysit for a part of the day and still accomplish everything listed above??) with some memories of Venice. Ahh yes I remember it well. We landed in Venice & were met at the airport, where we waited while our entire group was gathered together, with our large piece of luggage taken care of we were responsible for our carry on luggage. We walked (about 10 minutes) to the dock and caught a boat to our hotel. About 30 minutes later we arrived at our hotel ... very nice digs by the way! The only complaint is that I'm really out of shape and therefore much heavier in weight, body shape than I should be and the shower was a teeny tiny corner thing that I just (and I mean JUST) fit into and out of with a bit of care. We had the rest of the day to relax go explore as we wished until dinner when we would have an orientation meeting and then walk to a restuarant nearby. Everything was delightful. And the information was very interesting in that it was a way to get to understand most of the paper work we were sent in advance & most people read but did not really "read" ~ you know how your excitement can keep you from really processing the information you are looking at ~ like you know what they were telling you but oh did you know that? Was that in the paperwork?? Really? Oh I guess I didn't see that when I was reading it all earlier.

Anyway I loved it all and enjoyed it all and would do it all again in heartbeat. Well with a few minor adjustments of course but I'd still do it all again.

Here is a quick view of one side "street" canal of Venice & below that is a picture taken just outside the local restaurant we ate at for our first dinner in Venice as a group. The food was yummy.

I'll leave you with this as I go and prepare pies before the day gets away from me!!! Oh wait I'll throw in a wash load first then prepare pies. (Thank God they are easy pies!!) Pumpkin (the canned pumpkin where you add two ingredients mix together & bake in an unbaked pie shell and the other is a bit more time consuming but easy none the less ... Chocolate pudding pie. Cooked pudding is the only kind for me so I will be stirring a lot for about half an hour!!! But it is so worth it in the end.

Wishing you all a great day (oh rats I just remembered not a single gift is wrapped yet.... the list keeps growing!!!) and of course a very Merry Christmas tomorrow, Frog free projects too!!!

Progress update & random thoughts

Adriana's small afghan is almost done ... meaning I have a couple more color bands to work before trimming (about 3 hours work? left??) ... I like it more as it grows so I may have to revisit this pattern for some of the baby gifts I need to make.

I want to share about my trip to Italy. First off I managed to sleep on the plane on the way there which is really unusal for me. For the first time I traveled & did not suffer from jet lag. We (meaning my mom) had booked our trip through a travel agent and through their discussions it became clear that the trip my mom wanted could be provided by Gate One. Most of our fellow travelers had booked through Gate One directly online. I found our trip to be excellent from beginning to end. And yes there were the usual bumps along the way but they were not happening to me. One couple had problems with their luggage being destroyed enroute which required them to deal with replacing one large piece of luggage before we left Venice. They said that their clothes were fine just the luggage was ruined & could not be used for the rest of the trip. Then as we progressed he was fighting a cold. I felt terrible for them.

But enough about someone else's trip!!LOL

Venice was just as beautiful as I remembered. It was so nice to sit in the lobby of the hotel and look out at the water, and boats. Ahh I can almost picture myself sitting there once again. I really enjoyed everything. (I did manage to avoid the smells that can accompany living so close to all that water!!!)

Above is one view of the lobby ... those are fresh flowers in the glass vase. And below is one view looking out of the lobby.

And yes it was beautiful weather while we were there. The one thing is that it was a whirlwind of activity and exhaustion. LOL well from my way of thinking. I'm out of shape and there is no getting around that. So for me all that walking was fine as long as I didn't have to stand around too long inbetween all the moving. And more importantly as long as I was able to rest afterwards with my feet elevated. (allows me a fighting chance against the edema)

More to follow. Pictures too. I had so many to chose from it is difficult to put them all here. :)

I thought I'd spruce up the old blog page yet again trying to find what works. The first attempt at making my blog stand out got to me, the second attempt took longer to get to me but all the colors was just too busy. I'm going to give this simple straight forward look a chance & see what happens.

Again I'm looking for readers so if you're out there please let me know. Still not one comment ... I've ck'd and everyone should be able to leave comments I hope you haven't had any problems.

I'm happy to report that Kami's scarf is finished, Kyla's is underway, Adriana's snuggle square & very small afghan are both underway as well. With all the snow we've had today will be another day of cozy snuggling in my chair with my crochet projects ... need to finish the girls things before Christmas morning.!!!! The pattern I wanted for Adriana's afghan is missing in my piles so I opted for the granny ripple. Every other time I attempted to work this pattern something didn't work out correctly (my errors of course) and I never got past the first two rows. Which is strange because once you work the first two rows the pattern is established & you repeat the second row until the aghan is finished. Then you trim all around. So currently since this will be a very small afghan (about 44 length x 28 width) for a toddler bed it will be finished on time.

Again the free pattern will only be posted if I get 5 or more comments so please take a few seconds to speak up & let me know you are out there.
Wishing you all frog free projects.

Comments = pattern

So far not one person has left a comment so I guess no one wants a free scarf pattern. Or because it is so close to Christmas everyone is preparing for the holidays so they couldn't leave a quick comment.
I will post a free pattern for the scarf I'm making for my granddaughters (which could easily be worked for an adult simply by making it the length you want) if I have 5 to 10 comments (yes from different people not 5 from one person!!!)
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year ... if you don't celebrate Christmas then I wish you well for this Holiday season.

Creative thoughts flowing freely ...

So I've finished Kathleen's beret & two scarves with flowers. Lost the little booklet that has the pattern I planned on using for Adriana's afghan. Picked up (from my stash) the yarn to make a scarf for Kyla... and all of a sudden had a wonderful idea on how it should look. Will take pictures and possibly share the pattern. If you want me to share the pattern leave a comment. If I get between 5 & 10 comments asking for the pattern I will share it with all of you.
I love how it looks right now and since it is for a 4 yr. old it only needs to be about 44 inches long. Even though she wanted "red" I had to go with what would work with her coat (red not really a factor) so I plan on using some red in the fringe.
Anyway leave me some comments & I promise to post the pattern for this cool scarf.

16 days to the New Year....

and what do you have to accomplish before that? Well around here we have Christmas shopping & crocheting to finish up. And some how some way we need to get our priorities set so that everything that is really important is taken care of before time gets away from us.

Lost my mind trying to understand some things but found my mind when certain things were brought into proper perspective. Lost my mind around the hustle & bustle but found my mind again when the hustle & bustle belonged to someone other than myself.

Christmas is not about the gifts we give or about the gifts we receive ~ at least it should not be about them. Christmas is about the ultimate gift that our loving heavenly Father gave to a lost & dying world. Christ was sent from heaven above to live the life of a human man from birth to adulthood to know what we go through and to set the example that we can live a Holy life if we chose to follow Him. We need to decide what is this "holiday" season all about and how will we handle it for our own lives & families. Now as for gift giving I'm not saying don't give gifts ~ after all our example came from God Himself who gave His only begotten Son that we may chose to believe and have eternal life & not perish. Since God has given all of us the ultimate gift we can show our love for others by giving thoughtful gifts to those around us. Christmas isn't anything with out Christ! Gifts don't need to be expensive to be "good" ... they can be simple gifts from the heart. Last year my granddaughter made me a "book" ... she drew the pictures and told her mom the story, her mom had her write one word on each page. It is one of my favorite gifts that I have ever received. It came straight from her heart and was such a delightful gift to read. I hope she thinks of me that way again. With the economy so low and everyone hurting moneywise I think we need to get back to simpler ways of celebrating. Baking and sharing our baked goods can be very thoughtful gifts along with basic needs being met through our gift giving. Practical gifts that meet a need in someone's life is a great way to go ...after all that is the example of our Loving Father ~ He gave the world His only Begotten Son ~ nothing more practical than a way to be forgiven of our sins so that we can spend eternity with our creator.

I see the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 as a way to stop & reflect on this year and to decide how I would like to see myself living in the new year. What changes will you make to see your dreams come true?
Wishing you all a very thoughtful day full of joy & happiness.

Ice Storm Hits close to home...

Thank God we are very fortunate! All last night we heard the sound of cracking branches & trees as they came crashing down all around us. At one point my husband (who tends to be a light sleeper) jumped up & said he couldn't see if the tree that just crashed down hit his car (oh woe to have only a one car garage for a two car family). Of course it's so dark outside you can see that something had fallen & it was so close to the car that it certainly could have landed on the car & you wouldn't know until daylight.
As dawn arrived and the sky started to lighten up so we could see more out of our windows (mind you still no incentive to clean my windows) and there seems to be lots of branches down all over. Not just in our yard but in some of our neighbors yards as well.
So of course that is not all one sees when looking out at the yard. Everything is coated in ice. Even the grass blades are ice coated. The tree branches look so different when coated in ice.
Everything shines and glimmers and yet in spite of how pretty it may seem the danger is very real. Now that things are calming down the aftermath is still being dealt with. Downed power lines, downed trees and branches and those that are falling still due to wind or finally the weight of the ice topped with snow taking it's toll.

We were very fortunate. Our power did go off but came back on fairly quickly considering how many people are still without their power. And although branches and a tree have fallen they have managed not to damage our property (so far & God willing it will remain that way)... I express my prayers for those who ended up with property damage due to this storm.

On to crocheting so of my day away. Wishing you all everything you have need of and may you find this time of year full of joy, peace & goodwill towards all men!

hello is anyone out there?

I'm seriously wondering how to encourage people to leave comments. Especially with questions in them regarding crocheting.
I guess the dynamic of my blog has completely changed since it had to move from Lion Brand's site. Perhaps I have ventured to far into what is/has been happening in my life aside from the crochet projects?

Currently I have finished the beret and one scarf for Kathleen working on the second scarf then will make the flowers that adorn the scarves.
I donated 3 baby sweaters for the community outreach and still intend to make at least 2 chemo caps since they (the caps) are the primary focus of the outreach this year.

Last week I went into NYC and met with two online friends ... had a bite of lunch and hit the Smiley's Yarn Sale (held in the Holiday Inn on W57th Street in Manhatten)... only intended to purchase some much needed baby yarn but went a little overboard and then saw the ribbon yarn in a lovely purple which made me think of my sister in law so I purchased that as well with thoughts of making her a simple wrap. The time spent with friends was the absolute best! Meeting Connie in person for the first time felt so strange since I already felt that we knew each other so well from all the online communication & phone calls. I had the honor of meeting her beautiful daughter and wonderful husband briefly before we ventured off for our day together.
Of course Maria was with us ... really loved seeing Maria again as I had met her a couple years ago (& not for the yarn sale) when I had brought my mom & one of my sister in law's to the city for some shopping in the diamond district. Maria was able to meet up with us at John's (great pizza place!) So with Maria as our guide off we went. I'm still working out the kinks my body took on itself while I lugged my great buy until we stopped & I purchased a small shopping cart to put all the yarn in then dragged that behind me. As I told my husband when I got home the cart was a necessary purchase or did he prefer they found my body dead on the streets of Manhatten? LOL Seriously if I didn't have Connie & Maria with me I would not have been able to manage. They were super company and I look forward to when we can meet again. Maybe next time we'll arrange to meet at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio? Who knows???

Current wim's for Christmas still ... small afghan for Adriana (alot of the yarn I purchased was for her afghan & snuggle squares) and a new snuggle square ... one of hers is slowly being loved to pieces. An afghan for Kamryn who turns 2 this Feb. (she is already being potty trained and doing an excellent job of it!!!!) Sweaters or some other baby item for the new babies expected this spring. (My niece and several friends all due in or around March).

Current wip's that have been on hold : my shrug which should not take forever to finish, Angie's sweater that really needs some serious attention paid to it!!

Wishing you all frog free projects.

Crochet plans & other delusions ....

So yesterday I did not go shopping with my mom ... that would mean I would accomplish more with my crocheting right? Not! I did begin the beret and did manage to get to the tenth round.

I just need to be more realistic in my plans and as in all things not procrastinate. Well then there you have my major delusion. Me not procrastinate? Not likely.

Anyway today my plan "& I state that loosely" is to spend the day crocheting. Until someone calls & says I need you can you do .... whatever fill in the blank accordingly.

A true procrastinator does not need the phone to ring in order to find any excuse to put off a project. Hence my house looks like a it should be demolished & rebuilt ... I need to really just throw away all that junk mail & other garbage that has been allowed to take up residence in my home because I've been too busy to deal with it just yet ... but then again I never know when I'm going to need that for some odd reason or other?...

Delusions of accomplishment or deadlines I'm not sure which but I do know I will manage to finish my most important projects because I will work on them and get them done. (that is easy to state because they are easy enough projects and not some major afghan sized project!!!)

Second day of the last day of 2008 ... make the most of it won'tcha ya?

Wishing you all frog free projects and still waiting for those ?'s or comments.

The Last Month of 2008

December first what shall we accomplish on this first day of the last month of the year? Well I don't know about you but my plans are to help my mom with her purchase of a new VCR or getting a DVR from the cable company & installing whichever one she selects. Anyway that is the morning's activity plan.
This afternoon I fully intend to settle into crocheting I have 3 things I need to make for Kathleen & today I will begin those items and possibly finish two of them if I'm left to myself.
I hope my "plans" remain my plans without the usual interruptions but what good is having a plan if it can't be changed around as life dictates?

I hope you all have a great 1st day of the last month of the year! Accomplish something wonderful with your day. Make the most of each day we have left to 2008 ~ 2009 will be here all too soon.

Wishing you frog free projects :)