I know it’s not Spring, but the rain and melting snow feel so good right now. It feels like a sunny Spring day, even though it’s gray, cloudy and raining like crazy outside. I guess I’m just projecting how I am feeling on the inside onto the outside. It’s a very good day today. I almost feel 100% again. I’m even feeling up to baking bread once again. And Dylan is up and off of his two day death bed, thank goodness, and the dark circles are no longer ringing his poor, sad, feverish eyes. You know your teenager is sick when they come home hours before their curfew on a friday night, and then stay in their bed the entire rest of the weekend without eating anything more than a slice of bread, and sleeping for almost 48 hours straight. Gracen is fever free and only has a tiny bit of her yucky cough remaining so she is back to her usual mischief and goofing. And all of the other kids are also in fine health, for which I am very grateful. It’s nice to feel normal once again. I truly hate being sick, and it’s even worse when your little ones feel just as miserable.

Craig  worked hard this weekend and got a lot more done on the house. We are close to moving the two little girls into their room once we move the computers into the newly set up office that Craig worked so hard on this weekend. Most of the maple cabinets are in and ready to be filled with all of his office-y type stuff. My sewing area is partly set up as well, except I will have to wait a little longer to bring over the white cabinets for my area as it will take at least two, maybe three trips to bring all of the pieces over from my parents garage where they are being temporarily stored. In the meantime I am trying to start on a project or two here and there, so maybe Ruby will get her dress this week and can show her funny little face soon. It’s much too cold to wander around in just your knickers and socks, so I had better get a move on her clothes.

There is a new little friend at our house.

Her name is Ruby.

She doesn’t have a dress just yet.

Only her knickers and a pair of socks.

So she’s a little camera shy.

She was quick to turn her head.

I could only get a picture of her skinny little back.

Sassy little girl, isn’t she.

All that pretty black hair.

She can’t wait to show you her new dress.

I had better hurry and make it for her, she’s anxious to meet everyone…

As with every home there is always work to be done and projects to be finished. Our new house has been no exception. We were able to do a lot before and right after we moved in, but there are still several projects we have left to tackle before we can really get fully settled and everything unpacked where it needs to be. We have been working on these projects as we go, and by ‘we’ I mean Craig. I have no idea how to do most of this stuff, so I’m grateful Craig does. Recently he was able to to frame, sheetrock and mud our new closet wall, and hung our closet door. Then he hung the door in one of the secondary bedrooms in preparation for knocking down an odd plywood wall that had been built in the hallway, effectively eliminating any hall access to that same bedroom it so that currently the only way in or out of there is through our closet. That will shortly be remedied this week once Craig pulls that wall down when he has more time.

Then he installed a keypad deadbolt on the door to the room right off of the front entryway.

That room ha been used as a dumping ground for boxes and stuff that we need to go through but haven’t had the time to deal with. Well, no more. We are halfway through the junk and ‘this close’ to being able to set it up for what we had originally intended. A shared space for Craig and I, with an office for him and a sewing room for me. It has been so long since I even sat down to my sewing machine and serger, I can hardly wait to get it all out again and set up so that I can get to my projects. Oh, to have my fabric out on shelves in front of me, at my fingertips, and no longer packed away in various totes. And I have two insanely adorable doll patterns I simply have to get to. My two littlest girl won’t be this little forever, and I want to get those dolly’s made and done for them before they’re too big for such things. And can’t I tell you how desparate I am for an apron. I have the perfect apron pattern with the perfect apron fabric, just waiting for me, and I seriously need to get it done. Have you seen what a mess I am in the kitchen? It’s not pretty. With all of the baking and cooking I’m doing, I need to protect my clothes from the constant mayhem, it’s getting bad in there. You should see me with the flour. Messy. Very messy. It needs to end soon.

I dragged Gracen and myself to the Dr. this morning and we both have the Croup. And can I just say that we are beyond blessed that so far Gracen has not needed any breathing treatments. Such a wonderful thing. And I had no idea adults could get the Croup, but apparently they can, just some sort of adult version of it. So we are both on our new medications, and hopefully on our way to feeling better soon. My Dr. said its the seaon for Croup and RSV, so I am hoping for only good health and no yucky sick bugs for all of you! And even better news (for us anyways) is that Mathes has not had Croup all winter long, which is a first for him in his enitre little life. Hooray for small milestones and miracles!

Ugh. We’re sick. And I hate being sick. Really, really, really hate being sick. At all. Even a little bit. But here I am, hacking and coughing my brains out and sounding like a frog died a violent death in my throat. Seriously, do I have to sound like this? It’s bad enough that I have seriously alarmed my poor husband with a bad fit of coughing four different times, but do I really need to sound like I’m channeling the spirit of Barry White when I talk too? And even with all of these horrible spasmodic fits of coughing, you would think it would be a bit of an abdominal workout and I would have whittled even one inch off of my baby ravaged midsection. Nope. My tummy is still in dire need of a tuck. Stupid overstretched abdominal muscles. And I’m not even the worst of it. My poor little Finley and Gracen are both sicker than sick. My sweet little babies, still cheerful and goofy even though they feel like total crud. And Haven couldn’t talk for three days straight with her sore throat. It was eerily quiet without her little chatter, let me tell you. Mathes managed to escape the worst of it and only had an ugly fever for two days, but happily no cough. And so far Ciel and Noah have both come away totally unscathed, the lucky ducks. Craig was the first one to get this ugly bug, so while he was the first one down, he is also the first one back on his feet and doing great. And I’m just jealous of him. How long is this stupid bug going to hang around? Stupid bug. Stupid cough. Stupid fevers. Stupid sickness making my little ones feel crummy. It could be worse though, as this really is the only really bad illness we have had to deal with all winter. So I am grateful. Irritated, but grateful. I hope everyone else is in better health. If not, then I wish you the speediest of recoveries, and you have my utmost sympathy too. Ugh, being sick really sucks.

I finished the afghan for Haven last week. I love the plummy magenta. I love the pinky violet.  I love the way the afghan turned out in all of it’s classic ripple pattern glory when all was said and done. And very best of all, Haven loves it. It’s been extra nice these last few days since she has been so darn sick, she has needed a nice snuggly blanket to help chase away the chills fromn her fever.

And finishing her afghan was what allowed me to spend my time obssessing over making those frilly socks. Quick projects like those girly socks are always a fun distraction. Although I would love to try my hand at some amigurumi.

Like this sweeter than sweet cupcake…

or this adorable little bear…

 or this funny little lamb…

 They look like they would be fun to make, and I know my kids would start putting in requests as soon as they saw even one of these. Maybe they work up really fast, I can hope right?

I have always loved Raggedy Ann and Andy ever since I was little, so I thought is was extra fun when my sweet sister-in-law Korby sent my kidlets some ‘Raggedy Ann and Andy Adventure’ videos a couple of years ago. There were 4 different videos, each with one 30 minute episode on it, which my little ones totally loved watching. Somehow we lost all but one of the videos (darn packing and moving), so I figured I should look for this on dvd. As it turns out there are two dvd’s out there (woo hoo!).

See, look at how happy they are, they are having so much fun with all of their reading, waving, smiling, and frolicking. They’re beckoning to me so happily with their cartoonish faces to come on in and join the raggedy fun. So of course I now own both of these dvd’s. It’s not my fault. It was the happy faces. And the waving. And the beckoning. And the frolicking. And the cartoonish-ness. And don’t forget the raggedy fun. Sucked me right in.

Oddly enough, I was able to find my video tape of ‘The Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure’  shortly after we moved into this house. I probably need to find it on dvd though, and soon, as my tape is looking pretty beat as it is. I grew up watching and loving that movie, so for me it’s a childhood classic. And the fact that my own kidlets love this movie too? It makes my little girl heart want to burst with little girl happiness. And it also tells me I have successfully brainwashed my kids into loving Raggedy Ann and Andy too. Because that love and raggedy knowledge will get them really far in this life, right? I’m pretty sure it’s on some final test somewhere. Or at least a multiple choice. Maybe a pop quiz? What is it with me and my raggedy love? Seriously, could I be any dorkier? I didn’t think so either. Psst…tell everyone about the new girl.

Yeah, yeah, I know, do I really need another project? The answer is yes. Duh! After some inspiration from several sources, I decided to set about making some frilly embellished socks for my two youngest girls. All it took was a steel crochet hook, some white #10 thread and a package of simple bobby socks from Wal-Mart, and I had the socks worked up in no time. I didn’t follow any specific pattern, I just made it up as I went. I’m posting it here as a kind of jumping off point for anyone that wants to give it a go, but please know I have never written a formal crochet pattern before that was intended for anyone else to read except for myself, so if it stinks or is incoherent, I apologize. And if you can decipher my ramblings, well then you know that there are modern day miracles after all, right? I also added a few pics to illustrate where I started just in case I didn’t explain it well enough. So here goes:

I worked on my sock with the cuff folded over and the toe pointing upwards. This is the edge you want to crochet on. Give it a stretch and you can immediately see the spaces for your crochet hook-

 I thought it might be trickier to get the needle through the socks edge to start my first row, but it’s as easy as pie and there is nothing to it.

Here is the start of Row 1 and how it most likely will look as you begin-

Here is what the finished pair look like-

Frilly Girly Socks

Materials:

-size 6 (1.80mm) steel crochet hook

-skein of #10 white crochet thread (or any color you prefer)

-1 pair bobby socks with cuffs in your choice of color (I used white)

Row 1: In the top edge of the sock sc all the way around the top edge of the sock. Try to get into to every space with a stitch, but you can skip over some if you need or want to. (The more stitches you get in, the more of a ruffle you will have in the end, so if you want less of a gathered effect, skip over more stitches. More gathers? More stitches.) At the end of the row, slipstitch to join. Ch 1 and do not turn.

Row 2: Sc in each stitch around. Slipstitch to join. Ch 3 and turn.

Row 3: Sc in the third ch sp. *Ch 3, skip two spaces and single crochet in the third ch sp. Repeat from * to the end. (At the end, if there are less than 3 spaces, then just chain 2 and single crochet in the last space available.) Ch 3 and turn.

Row 4: Sc in the second ch sp (again, the middle of the chain from the last row). *Chain 3 and sc in the next middle ch sp. Repeat from * to the end. Ch 1 and turn.

Row 5: Sc in each stitch around. Slipstitch to join. Ch 1 and turn.

Row 6: Sc in the first two ch sp. *Ch 3 and sc in the very next ch sp. Sc in the next two ch sp. Repeat from * across.  Slipstich to join. Fasten off. Weave in ends.

For the second sock, repeat rows 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 the same as you did with the first sock.

This is the results of the above pattern. It’s fairly ruffly and lace like.

I also made a second pair of socks using this same pattern except I didn’t sc in as many spaces for my first row so it had less of a gather to it, then I skipped Row 4 and went right to Row 5 and sc in each chain around. Then for Row 6 I worked a picot stitch where I slipstitched in the first two ch sp, *Ch 2, slipstitched in the same ch sp as the ch 2, then slipstitched in the nest three ch sp. Then repeated from * to the end and fastened off.  You can see the differences in the pic below. It’s not quite as ruffly and not as lacy looking as my first pair of socks, but still frilly enough to dress up the socks.

Ok, I hope that made some sense. Frankly you can pretty much make it up yourself as you go, like I did, adding what you want, and leaving out what you don’t. As long as you have the crochet basics down and are fairly comfortable with winging it, you can pretty much do what you want here and end up with some really cute socks.

If you have ANY QUESTIONS please leave me a comment or email me and I will answer it as best I can. Like I said, I am new to writing down what I actually crocheted for others to read so I appreciate your patience.

Happy crocheting!

Yesterday afternoon Mathes managed to somehow cause our giant 36-inch behemouth of a tv to pitch forward, fall out of the armoire cabinet and crash to the floor. All within a few feet of his baby brother Finley who was watching the whole thing, miraculously not directly behind his big brother where he would have normally been, waiting to help with whatever mischief Mathes was into. Finley loves mischief, because Finn loves to be right in the thick of things when it comes to his siblings, so I am still freaked out by this whole thing. Freaked out because Finn was right there. Freaked out because Mathes was right there. Freaked out because that tv is so darn heavy and huge. Ugh, it makes me so sick to think about what could have happened. I am so grateful everything is ok.

I had better clarify though that I know the dangers tv’s can pose as they tend to be very top heavy, tippy, and dangerous, so my husband and I have always taken all of the precautions possible with our tv’s, shelves, dressers, and all of those tippy kinds of things. For those of you that know me, you know I was raised by Mr.Safety himself (my Dad…seriously we call him that), so I always tend to go above and beyond when it comes to this kind of stuff. And our kiddies are climbers so we’re prepared, we made sure this would not happen. And yet it did. We’re still baffled as to how Mathes managed this whole thing, and even he hasn’t been able to give us much of an answer or explanation yet, I think it was as big a shock for him as it was for me.

So let me take a minute to urge you to please check on any tv’s and/or other tippy and top heavy items in your home and make sure they pose no danger to little ones.  I seriously thought we had taken all of the right precautions and that we were safe. I was obviously wrong. We were very lucky. Sadly I have read of many instances where others were not so lucky.

So the tv has been carted off to the garage until we can take it to the dump. I don’t care if it can be repaired or not, we cannot safely have it in our home. With tax return season upon us we will soon be the happy, and very safe owners, of a wall mounted tv. I never want to have to worry about this again, so the tv armoire will either be repurposed elsewhere in the house or given away. Although this wall mounted tv solution will still leave us wondering where to safely put the dvd player so that it’s out of reach of these little monkies of mine. Honestly, what is a mommy to do.

Craig and I totally blew it and missed our anniversary the other day. Well, ‘completely forgot’ is more like it. The only reason I remembered was because my sweet Aunt Joan emailed me a little note wishing Craig and I a happy day for our anniversary (thank you for the well wishes Aunt Joan, you rock!). Yeah, my aunt remembers, but we don’t. Boy, are we a couple of dummies or what. Oh well, we are still happy to be together and still in love, which is what really counts. And since Craig has been willing to keep me around for this long and put up with me, I can only assume he just might keep me for a few years more. Here’s hoping right?