Christmas is almost here

I almost can’t believe that Christmas is in 4 days (and today is almost over!). I actually have most of my shopping finished. Just a few little things and some stocking stuffers are all that’s left to buy.

 

There are still gifts to be wrapped, but I love to see the tree with our decorations and the white lights. Sorry to Jacob who wishes we had colored lights on our tree.

I’ve had a great time making crochet gifts for my family.

Here are some of the dishrags I made. I plan to  make many more of these in the coming year.

This is the long scarf I crocheted for my nephew, Elder Sam Jones, who is serving a mission in Indiana. It was a first for me with Tunisian crochet.  I hope it helps to keep him warm in his new cold climate.

I also made 2 other scarves for a couple of my sisters that I forgot to get pictures of….1 for Beverly and 1 for Margaret.  I need to get that camera warmed up for my Project 365 I’m doing again in the coming year.

Do you remember the hat in the book from this post? I began making it for my sister Suzee, but it’s on hold while I wait for the library to get that book back in stock so I can see the pattern again. LOL.

We are keeping pretty busy around here. Jason just spent the last weekend working. At work. I missed him.  The kids are now on Christmas vacation (I refuse to call it ‘Winter Break’) until the 3rd of January. I’m so excited that I’ll get to sleep in on my days off!! 

Earlier this month Jacob went to a Sweater Social at church for the youth. Jason pulled out a sweater from storage that was knit for him by his mom years ago…totally “old school”.

He won the prize for “itchiest sweater”.

Jared had his Winter Strings concert at Desert Vista. (That’s him behind the only kid without a Santa hat)  Beverly and her daughter Kaity came with me. The concert was fabulous.

Jason got us a fire going using the dead tree branches we had to cut off the trees that I almost killed (they didn’t get watered for half of the summer since I didn’t realize we had a drip system). Olivia and Jacob came out to enjoy the flames. I used a night time setting that kept the lens open longer and it gave a cool affect with the embers coming off the fire.

Just this past weekend was the annual Lundberg family brunch. It was great being with my family. Of course the recent tradition of our little statue was continued.

His newest addition are the little tassels. Kaity is quite the creative girl. Yes, we are strange, but each year someone gets this guy in the gift exchange and has to add something to him and re-gift him the following year. I just want to make sure everyone knows that I plan to have him reside at my house when he is retired.

With the weather being so nice, Jason and I finally went shooting again. This time we took Beverly and her son Stephen with us.

It’s always fun to go shooting.

And just so you know…

we have a guard cat that keeps the ammo.

So Thankful

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday. I might even go so far as to say it is my favorite, but because my sons aren’t ever here with me for Thanksgiving, it defaults to my second favorite.

I thought I’d list a few of the things I’m most thankful for:

*********************

a loving and forgiving Savior

being married to my best friend

my 2 sons

my husband’s 2 daughters

a silky cat named Elvis

a home where we feel comfortable

family time together

creative talents

a nation where we are free

*********************

 

It is now officially the Christmas season and I still wonder how it got here so fast. Right now I’m busy making gifts and hoping to get everything finished that’s on my to-do list.  I’ve had to put my latest crochet project on the back burner.

My loverly hexie blanket (ala Lucy at Attic24) will be there to pick back up when I’m done with everything else. Even unfinished, I’ve enjoyed using it since it finally got cold here.

Jason’s mom came down from Montana for Thanksgiving. The girls got a few great days with her and got to help make mom’s fabulous cherry pies.

One thing that I’ve been super bad about lately is taking photos. I plan to do Project 365 again in 2011 since it’s been great looking back through all the pictures from 2009. This time I might just use this blog to keep all my photos and journaling. That would improve another thing I’ve been super bad about…regular blogging.

That’s it from me tonight… I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and that you’ve had much to be thankful for.

Not tired of it yet…

My youngest son (Jared) asked me last night if I get bored doing the same thing over and over. He was referring to me crocheting. I told him that I only get bored when I’m about half way done with a project and so I start looking around for what’s next.

I’ve been having some back spasms this week, and luckily only had to go to the salon on Monday, so I’ve had lots of time to rest and ice the back. I thought it was the perfect chance to finish the color blocks throw I’d been working on since some time in September. I FORCED myself to just do it. And last night I finally got that darn thing completed. It even took a turn in the washing machine (I’d accidentally gotten some peanut butter on it).

I call it my Lucky 13. Each strip has 13 blocks and I’d really planned to do 13 strips, but couldn’t muster up the will to do those last 2. It’s a good size for a lap throw measuring 45” X 47”.

I went to my local library branch looking for some books on crochet and picked up this book

and was quite intrigued by the motif on this hat

and so I grabbed some yarn and struggled through the directions.

  I had a tough time with some of my slip stitches so I guess I need more practice. I’d like to do up 3 more and make a pretty pillow using them.

I’m hoping to get Jared’s ripple finished some time in the next week.

I set a one foot ruler on it to give you some perspective on the size. It’s 59” wide and is just about 47” long so far. It needs to be long enough to cover my six foot tall 14 year old. I’d be further along if I could just pay better attention. I’ve undone at least 10 rows throughout this. I just undid 3 1/2 rows last night when I realized I had one set of increase stitches off by one stitch and had thrown the rest of the pattern off.  I’m using Susan B’s Easy Ripple pattern.

Oh, see those lovely pots that my yarn is in? Those are hand made by Jacob. He’s in his second year of ceramics class and there are some really great things coming home lately. I’ll have to gather them together and take some pictures to post soon.

I guess I’d better get hooking so I can start my next project.

Hey, what has Crissie been up to?

I’ll bet you’re wondering what I’ve been doing with myself since I haven’t taken the time to keep up with my blogging. Well, I thought it would be nice to have another update using as many photos as I can. Now doesn’t that sound nice?

First up I’d like to share with you one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen driving on the freeway.

You don’t see this every day.

Here’s another  shot as I was going by. I wonder where it was going?

My oldest son Jacob got a hole in the toe of his shoe. I didn’t have the funds to get him new ones, so I did a Frankenstein patch job. Don’t judge.

This is just a random picture of my cat Elvis. I have lots of pictures of him.

HEY, what’s that out on the fence?

Oh, it’s a lizard sunning himself. You’d better run away before my cat sees you and plays with you to death.

Our downstairs powder room was painted this dark shade of green when we moved in. I’ve never really liked it,

so I painted it. My sister Beverly said she liked the green paint better, but I love how bright it is in there now.

Then I went out to the family room and put some of that paint up to see how it would look. It was such a nice improvement over that ugly interesting faux finish we inherited that I painted the whole fireplace wall with it. Soon I will paint the rest of the family room/kitchen with the darkest of that gray-beige paint shown on that paint chip.

Oh look, it’s Elvis.

Here is where I’m sitting right now, except the desk is messier since I took this picture.

I’ve found that I have a new addiction to yarn shopping. So many afghans, so little time. It’s kind of sad, but I sometimes can’t fall asleep because I’m thinking of the next project I want to crochet.

 

This throw needs at least 2 more strips and then I need to put a nice edging on it. I think it will go nice with the new color I just put on the fireplace wall.

I hope it doesn’t spoil the surprise for little Holly, but this is a baby afghan I crocheted to give her for her birthday this month.

I’ve blogged since this, but these are the awesome brownies that my youngest son Jared made me for my birthday. I love that my boys can bake. They will be very popular if they go off to college after high school.

Yesterday we had a HUGE rain storm. Some areas around Phoenix even got hail the size of golf balls that broke windows and damaged cars. If you look closely, you can see a rainbow just to the left of center. Don’t worry, no drivers were injured during this photo-op. 

And there’s that darn cat again.

For the love of crochet

I have a new passion. It’s crochet. I’m not sure why it took me this long to find out that I would absolutely love it. I remember learning to make a crochet chain as a youth. And that’s about all I could make. I mean, how much fun is it to have a bunch of chains laying around?

Lucky for me, I would sit in the salon break room with Alicia and watch her crochet project after project. One day a couple months ago I asked if she would teach me how. Soon after, my sister Suzee came over and gave me some pointers to make crochet easier… and now I’m totally “HOOKED”.

My first project came about from my practice stitches. It turned into the longest scarf in the world. The edges weren’t even and my tension was terrible. But I loved doing it! And that meant that I wanted to know more about it. Enter GOOGLE. I found some fantastic blogs and tutorials. It was total Eye Candy for me. I happened upon Attic24 and almost drooled over her work. Her most current project was her Granny Stripe blanket. I really wanted to try making one. Happy Birthday to Jacob because he was the proud recipient of my first official crochet blanket.

I had a terrible time making my edges straight, but it was such a joy to make. I learned a lot during this project.

Here is a photo of the blanket during the making stage. Elvis gave his stamp of approval by flopping down on it.

Even before I finished it, I was looking at what to make for my next project. I picked up a little booklet from Joann craft store with 10 afghan patterns.

I got to learn some new stitches on this one. It’s a lap blanket size afghan.

Now I’m almost finished with a crocheted bag that Lucy from Attic24 shares a how to. It’s to hold my traveling crochet projects. I’m not in love with the variegated yarn I chose and plan to do another, but next time in many different colored yarns and change color on each row (ala Lucy Bag).

 

In case anyone is wondering what to get me for my birthday this Monday, I would LOVE to get yarn. And lots of it. Thanks :o)

Oh brother

I feel it coming on. The empty feeling, like there isn’t anything to look forward to. That almost total lack of enthusiasm for anything. Some call it depression, but I refuse to go there. Right now I feel like Charlie Brown when he said, "Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, 'Why me?' And the voice says, 'Nothing personal your name just happened to come up.'"

I look around my house and I realize that it is in the same state that I am. Makes me wonder if I am creating an outward expression of what’s going on inside. And if that is the case, could I reverse this funk by perking up my house? 

And so begins the list making (I love to make lists). Some of my lists are filled with things that I want to do, but aren’t totally necessary. Like painting the downstairs half-bath. It’s a very unflattering shade of green and I’ve hated it since we moved in. Then there are the lists that have all the important things. Like scooping the litter box and mopping the kitchen and finally getting all my clean laundry put away.

I have a sewing cabinet inherited from my mom that I started to sand and prime so I could change the ugly 70’s style wood stain to lovely white paint. I started “fixing” it years ago. Last weekend I moved it into the house so I can finally finish it and get the sewing machine put away (it’s too darn hot to work outside right now). That job is on the top of the list I am making now. The only problem with this item on my list is that it seems like it will take such a long time to finish. This could be why it’s never been completed. That cabinet needs to get done so I can look forward to the fun stuff. And get out of my funk. Who knows, maybe just the act of getting busy on it will make the sun come out again.

Charlie Brown also said, "This is my 'depressed stance'. When you're depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you'll start to feel better. If you're going to get any joy out of being depressed, you've got to stand like this."  Nope, not going to be a Charlie Brown….at least not today.

Happy Birthday Jacob

My first born is 17 years old today. I know that you hear a lot of old people say how fast time goes by, but I am NOT old. I will tell you this, time has gone by SO fast.

 

This is a scanned photo of Jacob when he was only a year and a half old. Look at those bright blue eyes!

I found other scanned images of him on various birthdays past (these were the days before digital cameras - or at least my knowledge of them)

I LOVE this picture. His cousin Christy is helping with the blowing out of the candles. Too cute.

I’m not sure how old he is here. This one is a good find since it has my mom in it. I sure do miss her. I’m sure she’s checking in on our Jacob.

Seven years old. Jared is really adorable getting in on the picture action.

Eight years old. I love the looks on the kids’ faces that are in the ‘blowing out of the candles’ photos.

12 years old. (obviously a digital camera in use here) I was dating Jason at this time.

This is just last year (and gone are the days of the fancy store bought birthday cake). I’m sure that cake tasted better than it looked.

This is Jacob just 2 weeks ago. He looks like a man. Gone is the little boy.

Happy Birthday Jacob dear. I love you.

Summer Vacation

This year for our family summer vacation, we went to visit Jason’s sister Betsy and her family in California. They live just outside of Sacramento in Granite Bay. As is our norm, we drove straight through the night to get there. Thankfully it was only 12 hours and not the 22 it takes to get to Montana.

Our family of 5 took up a lot of space, but the kids happily slept each night on the trampoline.

Unlike the nights in Phoenix, the nights in Sacramento get nice and cool. You definitely would NOT try this where the overnight lows are in the 90’s.

Betsy and Jim have a great yard complete with big diving pool, a duck and chickens. I’m pretty sure someone got in the pool every day we were there.

Even the duck went swimming a time or two.

Jim is pretty funny…and obviously not afraid of duck poop.

Jared was glad that Parker had an X-Box to play.

Looks like Parker is taking a break while Jared plays…

One of our day trips was to Old Sacramento. Cool old town buildings right next to the river.

Another day trip we took was to San Francisco. Betsy said to be sure and bring jackets since it gets cold there even in the summer. Everyone followed her advice except Jacob. And he got COLD. Especially when we went on the cable cars.

When we crossed one of the bridges to get there, I snapped a couple photos. It was pretty foggy.

 

Here’s some of our group coming out of the parking garage.

 

There’s Alcatraz Island in the distance.

…the kids posing with a new friend.

Jared, Jacob, Brittany, Jessica, Olivia,

and Parker. All the kids wanted to be “Standees” on the cable car.

Betsy & Jim had to sit.  

And so did Jason & I.  I’m so glad we got the opportunity to do this.

On our return cable car ride, Jason and I both got to be “standees”. I was right in the front and had a great view (and it was really cold!)

Many thanks to Betsy, Jim & their kids for putting up with all of us for a week.  Jason & I hope to host the Burman family at our house if they take a trip to Phoenix.