Scallop Edge Dishcoth (My original pattern)

Scallop Edge Dishcloth

(Crochet)

Materials:

1 ball Lily Sugar 'n Cream (100% cotton) -- I used Sugar 'n Cream Stripes in Lime Stripes

Size H hook

Tapestry needle (for weaving in ends)

Ch 31

Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, *sc in each ch across.* (30 sts.)

Row 2: ch 1, sc in st, sc in each st across.*

Rows 3 - 33: Repeat row 2

Row 34 (shells around): ch 3, 3 dc in first st on left side of dishcloth, sk next st, sc in following st, sk next st, 4 dc in following st, *sk next st, sc in following st, sk next st, 4 dc in following st,* around entire dishcloth. Sl st in ch 1 of beg ch 4.

Fasten off.

Weave in loose ends.

Finished dimensions:

Approx. 9.5" by 9.5"

Crochet Time: 1 to 3 hours (depending on ability)

I'm So Lame

I really, really need to blog more. The only thing I've been doing is updating my reading lists..... The title of this one says it all: I'm so lame!!

The Goings Ons

I wish I had more time for you 'o blog of mine! When I come home, I don't want to do anything except freshen up, change into something comfy, eat supper, and either read or crochet (and listen to my podcasts). Once and a while I peruse Facebook but it can trap me quickly (and for a long time) so I'm trying not to go there during the workweek.

I WANT to write more. I NEED to write more. My outlet is wrapping myself up into my crocheting or the book I'm reading. I want to go somewhere else, not relive the day I just had. Once summer comes, I'll have more to write about in here (I already do now, un-school-related but it takes energy) and I'll write once again with whatever passion I have for writing.......

"Harambe" Baby Blanket

As winter is full-force upon us, I have been, of course, thinking of warmer days. This May will be my school's second annual Harambe (coming together). It is a mix of a school concert, showcase of talents, etc. that is held in a local park. 

It was in the spirit of the 2009 Harambe that I designed my own baby blanket pattern (albeit a very simple one) in Paton's Melody. This blanket will be worth about $200 and I hope for it to generate a lot of cash in the Harambe raffle. This money will be put back into the Harambe.

My Latest Crochet Items

I feel awful about hardly posting at all in the month of January! I have been busy, truly, I have been!

My projects started with the white sweater (third picture down), then the pink variegated sweater (bottom picture); both for myself. I then worked on a "Warm Winter Wrap" for a teacher at school who has cancer and very susceptible to the cold during her chemo treatments. I am quite proud of myself on that one: I finished it in less than a week!

I don't want to rant and rave about how things are going at school, so I won't. All I'll say is this: It's been very stressful and tiring. There, that's it. No more crying on my part!

Update: The Shower Curtain

Waaaayyy back in August, I messed my cotton/linen shower curtain up by washing it (see my blog about it HERE). For Christmas, I asked Momma Claus for a new shower curtain and, here it is! My brother so kindly bought us a new rug to go in the bathroom as well. Much, much better!

P.S. The beautiful washcloth on the counter (which matches perfectly with my new decor) was handmade by my dear friend Roxy. You can see all of her items for sale at her etsy site: http://birchtreestudio.etsy.com.

Office Redo

It was time!

One of the things I wanted the most for Christmas was to rip up the carpeting in our office. It was a light color and getting grey and stained in some areas. Since our house is hardwood throughout, I knew that there was a beautiful floor hiding underneath that nasty peach carpet. The fact that my brother was coming out to visit for a few days, clinched the deal; Pete and I decided to take advantage of his strength and willingness to help. The job only took one day!

BEFORE

Mmmmmm..... Cupcakes!

It's that time of year! Baking, baking, and more baking! Tomorrow is my last day of school before Christmas and I promised my students (all two dozen of them!) that I would make cupcakes.  Last night, I made 34 cupcakes (25 for school and 9 for us at home). Tonight was "Decorating Night." Here they are!

Mmmmmm..... Pies!

My father is so hard to shop for for Christmas. The stuff he wants is "big ticket" kinda stuff and well, Pete and I don't have that kind of cash. After thinking and thinking about what I can get him for Christmas, I remembered how much he likes pie. Homemade pie. Fruit pies. Well, my mom doesn't really cook or bake all that much so the pies my father gets are usually from the Wal-Mart bakery (yuck). Sooo.... I decided the best gift I could give him was four homemade pies!
From left to right:

I made an apple pie (using Macoun apples -- what a great flavor!), a pecan pie, a cherry/blueberry pie (that boiled out while baking; it was mess central!), and a pumpkin pie (custard style. Passed down from Pete's grandmother). These babies are all wrapped (Saran that is!) and have been put away in the freezer. I'm going to give them (frozen) to Pop for Christmas.

What a wonderful way to spend my snow day today!!

Yeah, I know......

I've been BUSY!  School has been NUTS! I've been practically living there.... Once things calm down (i.e. Christmas vacation) I promise I'll post more!!

25 and I'm Still Alive!

I am at 25 students and have lived to tell about it! Hooray. Knock on wood, my three new ones this week are pretty good and have transitioned nicely. I am feeling the pressure however, especially since our buzz-word this year is "accountability." How ironic.

Rough Day

I got a call last night about one of my student's 3-year old brother who got run over with a lawn mower. His foot got caught and was distributed all over the lawn. The family dog got a hold of some of the pieces and my student (his sister) saw the dog with a piece before the ambulance arrived. It was an emotional night and morning. She's doing okay though. Read the story HERE. 

At lunch, I found out I'm getting ANOTHER student. That makes 25! I'm going to check over my contract later on to see what the wording is because 25 is my cap. We'll see!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Phew! I haven't had many moments to stop and catch my breath these past two weeks. I have been constantly on the move!  Where to begin? 

Extended Day.

Yep, I took an after-school tutoring job. I just couldn't say no ($45 an hour and I stay in my own classroom!). Our "Extended Day" program is twice a week (one hour a day) for students in third, fourth, and fifth grade who need an extra little boost in reading. My district is doing this to better their scores on the CMT (Connecticut Mastery Test) and for No Child Left Behind. My group includes 9 third graders (7 of my own and 2 from the other class). We're practicing fluency by doing Reader's Theaters and reading (and singing!) song lyrics. I've downloaded children's' songs like "The Green Grass Grew All Around" and "Boom, Boom, Ain't it Great to Be Crazy?" and Beatles songs (which they LOVE). We're doing "Yellow Submarine" and "Good Day Sunshine." Since I don't (and can't) sing, I play these songs via my iPhone into my classroom tape player/radio. 

Conferences.

Thank God they're over! Last week was conference week. I had to meet with 22 parents (plus have a phone conference). Each conference lasts 15 minutes. You do the math. Wednesday our conferences were scheduled from 6:00-8:00 p.m.  We had a half day of school and, stupid me, I decided to stay at school to get work done. Well, I did get plenty done but boy was I fried come 8:00! Especially since I had been there since 7:00 a.m. Needless to say, on Thursday I came home for 2 hours in between the end of school and the beginning of conferences. Friday was our last conference day, our "early" day as our conferences were scheduled from 1:00-3:00. I, of course, had a parent say she couldn't come at her scheduled time of 2:30 but wanted a 3:15 appointment. I relented. Pete, God bless him, took me out to eat at the Olive Garden that night.

 

Wood.

Yes, we're still getting wood. This past Saturday (day after my week of conference Hell) we did a "quickie" run to my parents' house for a load and a little bit of splitting. We knew it was going to rain mid-afternoon and evening and we wanted to make the most of the dry weather. We got back to our house around 2:00 p.m. and it had just started to drizzle. We figured we'd unload our wood anyway. Well, the drizzling stopped but, in doing so, it began to do something else: pour. Yep, you guessed it! We stuck it out and continued to unload our truck and stack the wood (outside, mind you) in the pouring rain. Pete and I were both soaked when we finished. We haven't gotten wet like that since our mid-winter window well fiasco in 2007!

New Students.

Yes, that's students, plural. It's not like I had a big class to begin with! (Ha Ha!). I am now up to 24 kids. The biggest third grade in my district. (We have, let's see, 17 or 18 third grade classes in my district. Geesh, what an honor!) Yesterday I was running around like a mad woman trying to get folders, pencils, name plates, etc. all in order. The custodian never came in to adjust my new desks and one of the lockers I was going to use was stuck. My two new ones (a boy and a girl) seemed like they had a good start. The boy has a lot of baggage (attacking people at home with kitchen knives and screwdrivers, among other things) but has had a lot of intervention and is hopefully on the mend.

Leaves.

The bain of my existence!! The weekends are filled with wood cutting and Pete's days off have been filled with, you guessed it, foul weather. Our yard was a complete disaster and, to make matters worse, we have to do his mother's yard too. Pete's days off this week (Thursday and Friday) are predicted be very wet. We can't do leaves in that! Seeing as today was a holiday and I didn't have school, I resolved myself to do the leaves solo. I was prepared. After talking to my mom this morning at 7:00, she told me that she and Pop were going to come out and help me. Hallelujah! I began my intense raking at 8:00. I raked out all of my flower beds and gardens and finished at 10:00. I then called Pete and had him walk me through the process of starting our backpack leaf blower. I then operated that baby until my parents arrived at 10:30. All three of us then blew the leaves in our front yard into the woods (they too, both had backpack blowers). Shortly thereafter, we moved into the back yard and created two large piles closer to my neighbor's yard. On the other side of the yard, we again blew the leaves into the woods. When we were finished, we went back to the piles and raked them onto a tarp. We then dragged the tarp into the woods. We repeated that about 8 times in the back and about 4 times in the front (we had a large pile closer to the house). We came in for a quick lunch at noon and then we were back out. We finally finished at 2:00 this afternoon.  Phew! Oh, yes, we still have to do mom-in-law's leaves. Perhaps Sunday? Maybe in the rain? Ugh!

As you can see, I've been....

Busy,

Busy,

Busy!

It's Election Day

I have performed my civic duty and now it's your turn....

GET OUT AND VOTE!!!

This is an important and very historic election and I am glad to be a part of it!

Feedin' Time

Left to Right:

Chloe, Nicky, and Hannah.  I just had to share this!

Wood, Wood, Wood, and More Wood!

Wood:

It's coming out of my ears!  Every weekend for the past month (or more perhaps, I've lost count) we've been cutting, marking, splitting, loading, stacking, transporting, unloading, and stacking again.  We're keeping the seasoned wood (ready to be burned) on our screened in porch. Here's our "Quick Grab" pile next to the kitchen door.

An "aerial shot" of our piles at the back of our porch. We've currently got 7 rows....

Here's our "reserve pile" outside; this is the wood that we'll be burning come January as it's not quite seasoned yet. When our porch wood is depleted, this is the stuff that we'll use to "re-fill."
Our truck fashioned with homemade sides for extra wood carrying capacity. Without this baby, there'd be no wood burnin' for us!  (Of course, if we didn't have the truck payment, we'd have no problem paying for oil!)  But, why pay for oil when you can have the satisfaction of knowing that YOU were able to heat your own house and get a lot of exercise while doing it?!  We wouldn't have it any other way!
Yes, it may look like a lot of wood but, it's not!! We're heading out again next weekend and several more will follow suit.

Wood, wood, wood, and more wood!  What's fall without it?  :)

Another Weekend in the Woods

Weekend after weekend after weekend in the fall is spent at my parents' house cutting and splitting wood.  Last Saturday (Oct. 11th) our friends Roxy and Dave joined us during one of our wood cutting "adventures." Roxy has since posted about that day and, since she's already done the work, why post twice? Click HERE to read (and see!) all about it!  (There's also a rather funny video involving my brother, a chain saw, and a really bad location ~ check it out!)

Newport, RI Wedding

The long awaited day has finally come!  Pete and I were invited to a very formal wedding in Newport, RI on October 17th for one of Pete's co-workers. As the wedding was a Friday night wedding (5:30 ceremony), I knew we had to dress the part. Starting in June, I crocheted myself a shawl and long skirt for the occasion. Since I could not find a matching top (the black yarn I used in the skirt was an odd colored black), my mom and I went to Joann Fabrics and bought the fabric for my top. My mom then sewed my top for me. I then made a pair of earrings from the same beads as on my shawl.  Everything was handmade except for my shoes and purse! :)  We got Pete's Ralph Lauren suit at Macy's in September.  He wanted a nice suit complete with a vest. It was not easy to find and we ended up paying a little more than we wanted but, did he look dapper!!

This first shot is of the ceremony site in Newport. The ceremony and reception were held at Belle Mer on Goat Island.

Just as the sun was beginning to set over the water.... The ceremony began a few minutes after 5:30.
Enzo and Katie right after the ceremony.  (Pete works with Enzo.)

Inside of Belle Mer during the reception. There were about 250 people at this VERY Italian wedding. We figure it was around $200 per person. It was quite the place!

Here we are with the famed Newport Bridge behind us. (I always blink during pictures.....)

Our table.
Outside during the reception. I was getting tired of sitting and needed to stretch my legs. There was A LOT of dancing going on but, since this was an Italian wedding, they were dancing to songs I've never heard in ways I've never seen. Pete and I just stayed at the table and watched. There was dancing in between the courses of the meal. It was amazing!

Overall, we had a very good night. We left around 10:30 and drove back to my parents' house. Most people were staying in Newport but Enzo had told Pete a few weeks earlier that the hotels were around $400 a night. We opted for the cheaper route: a commute back to my parents' house and a good night sleep in my hometown!

Sounds from the Wedding (We were outside)

Hooded Baby Blanket

Another project completed! I crocheted this hooded baby blanket for one of my teacher friends who is due in December. It was made from one ball of Lion Brand Pound of Love (White).  The edging is Bernat Worsted in Soft Yellow.

The stitch pattern was very easy but creates the look of a popcorn stitch. The hood was made by increasing the double crochet stitch row by row. The hood was sewn onto one of the corners of the blanket.

The pictures aren't the greatest; there's something to be said about taking pictures in natural light vs. incandescent light. :)

My next project (which I started last night) is a sweater, complete with pockets and buttons, as a Christmas present for someone in my family. I am using Caron Simply Soft Tweed in Off White and a "J" hook for that project.

Wood Cutting Weekend #2

Another weekend of back-breaking work is behind us.....

Next weekend, we're going out with the truck to take this load home with us. We wanted to leave it split for a week to "air out" before taking it home to stack.

All of this split wood comes from the oak tree that Adam and Pete cut up last weekend. While Pop and I split, Adam and Pete were deep in the woods cutting up a second tree. We'll split that one next weekend. We've got four other trees that are down so we'll be at this for a while longer!