Michigan Adventure and a scarf, cause it's Michigan!

Yesterday we were at Michigan's largest amusement park, and honestly, I think it's Michigan's only amusement park, so it's kinda a shoe-in for largest.  Anyway... I, of course, was thinking of you yesterday and took a few pictures.  Now, of course, without my secret spy glasses (please send me a pair for Christmas!)

I could not get a lot of the pictures I know you would have loved to see... for example:

the man with the 1 giant dreadlock (it looked JUST like a coughed up hair ball!!)  coming off his chin!  It was HUGE and the Mister was all like "how does he eat with that thing?"  Well, we found out later when we saw it tucked into his shirt!  Although I wasn't able to take a picture of this dude, I did the research and this is a visual for you, pretend one of these dreads is hanging off a mans chin and you're got the mental picture:

The sexiness was EVERYWHERE yesterday. 

 There was the woman in the wave pool who had 1 side of her bikini top TOTALLY off of what it was suppose to cover.... HELLO!  The people that I'm positive were Edwards cousins (come on people, EDWARD from those vampire books: Twilight).  These WHITE people had NEVER seen the sun till yesterday, I took 10-15 pictures of them, but they were so clear they wouldn't even show up- weird, hun?

The men with pierced nipples, the crocs, the too small bikini's... it was a people-watchers paradise.

Since I do NOT have my secret spy glasses, you'll have to settle for these:

See how utterly GORGEOUS it was yesterday?  !

Lots of parents scream at their kids at amusement parks, that place was full of family love!

I handed the camera over to the Mister so he could take a ton of action shots of darling and I riding this super huge and scary baby coaster:

(we were in car #2...)

and that concludes our series of darling and I on the coaster.

Thanks honey!

Ok, I did get 1 weird picture.  See the girl in the yellow shirt with a kid handing down from her back?

I have NO idea what she was doing but she was dragging this thing around with that life guard dude, and that trash-sweeper dude.  We watched for a long time but never saw anyone giving it mouth-to-mouth or anything, so I think it was just a group of weird-o's.   See the nice man (below) on the right with his kid? He grabbed the kid by the shoulder and was like "don't you see that woman taking a picture of those weirdo's? stay out of her picture before I beat you!!" Parental love, it was ALL around!  Thanks nice man for only getting part of the way in my shot!!

All in all it was a great day even though on the way home I realized the ONLY ride I went on was the mini-baby coaster... Oh well!

Oh and Darling ate this yesterday:

1/2 cheese burger

1/2 order of fries

1/2 root beer float

(she and I split lunch)

1 blue gator-aid

1 bag mini cinnamon and sugar donuts

1 order deep fried crab cheese

1 deep fried egg roll.

Today she's eating only salad and fruit!!

and because I promised, my scarf:

How much do I love Debbie Stoller and her Stitch Nation?

Only 9 more rows on this baby!!

Have a great day!!

Crochet skirts!!

I have some images from my childhood that are burnt into my memory... the time we went camping in a pimp van, and my 6'1" dad slept down the middle of the floor while my mom drove around the campground so she could run the A/C at 3 in the morning... the time we went to a 7-11in California and saw a microwave for the 1st time... the time I smashed my finger in the hatchback of a Pinto... but perhaps one of the most memorable memories is a pair of baby blue crochet pants.  I'm happy to report that I was NOT the one wearing them, nor was anyone in my family.  My best friend and I were in girl scouts, it was an eclectic bunch to say the least (and be the nicest).  I don't want to be cruel, so I'll go easy on my story.  Our leader, though wonderfully nice, really was quite tacky.  We made quilts of old polyester pants, no lie!  One evening as we were wrapping up another night in the moldy basement of the local library, our moms started filing in to pick us up.  Now, we had 2 of the sweetest girls ever in our troop, sisters in fact, and they were 2 of the 3 kids from a local family.  Let's just leave it at - they were the family everyone in town knew, perhaps missing a couple sandwiches from their picnic, if you know what i'm sayin'?!... So their mom shows up and is sporting some BABY BLUE crocheted pants.  Now remember gals, I was born in 1969 and was in 5th grade at this time- WAY before Madonna, Brittany and Christina were shakin' their money makers and showin everyone what their Mama gave 'em.  Sooooo, when this Mom shows up in her baby blue's and her big ol' white granny panty's are showing between the stitches, I thought I was gonna DIE!  That mental picture is stamped so strongly in my brain it's like it was yesterday!  The granny pantie's scarred me and that's why I will only be wearing a thong under my crocheted skirt when I pick Darling up from social activities!!

This is from: Stitch'n Bitch Crochet The Happy Hooker  by Debbie Stoller.

When I saw this skirt, "Violet Beauregard" by Heather Dixon;  I knew I HAD to make it!!  

When she mentioned it was only the 3rd project she had attempted, I KNEW I could do it too!

I started searching for this exact yarn, but wasn't having any luck.  It's cotton and I could only find these colors in acrylic....Ewww!  I'm somewhat of a fiber snob- the thought of wearing a plastic/acrylic skirt gave me the creeps!

I found some cotton yarn at Hobby Lobby, not the exact colors, which makes me sad, but if you know me at all, you know I want to dive straight in and am not going to look for months.

I know it looks black in my picture, but the main part of the skirt is going to be deep plum.

The accent colors are the light plum and lavender.

Last night I got the 1st round down, which was a beast!  I know, I know... my life is so hard working on this skirt... but speaking crochet, it WAS a rough round.  Now that I have that 1st row, the rest will go easy (thankfully, because I probably would just give up if it was all that hard, sad, but true.).

THEN, I got online to check out the "Crochet Today" site (cause I'm officially a crochet nerd!).

http://www.crochettoday.com/patterns/

Oh, who is in ❤LOVE❤ with this "Boardwalk Skirt?!?

So now I am stalking Joann's till the magazine comes in!!  The Mister was nice enough to sign me up for 2 years of this magazine, after I sold him on the benefits of subscribing instead of paying rack price for magazines!!

Any other crochet or knit geeks out there? (and I say that in the NICEST way possible!)  I'd love to hear what you're working on!!

I haven't forgotten about the chandelier, but this is the week before the last week of school and it's full of game days and picnics and field days and stuff that cuts into my craft time, so... it's in the studio and it's being worked on, but, of course, it's not done...

Happy Day gals! and don't forget....

a little plug about my BABY HAT DRIVE 

As most of you know, my daughter was adopted from China and I left a little piece of my heart there.  I'm collecting hats to keep the children and babies warm in the winter.  Many live in orphanages that are without heat.

1. make a baby hat, toddler hat, or kid sized hat (you can take the non-crafty way out and buy one if you must)

2. email me at: chinamommy_04@yahoo.com for my address.

3. I'll take care of shipping them to CHINA next fall.

any questions- please feel free to email me!!

Friday!!

Wow,  how was that for a creative title? Nothing like stating the obvious!

So, I'm TRYING to drink more water... I'm someone that is rarely thirsty, I'm just not, I'm the camel girl of West Michigan.  I drink my cup of coffee in the morning and then don't really have another drink until I'm eating a meal- weird, I know! I've never had a big gulp, I gave up pop/soda years ago and with these invisalign braces I'm doing now, if I drink juice I have to floss and brush after, so...i don't!

To make a long story longer... I was sitting here drinking my glass of water, when the inevitable happened- I had to go to the bathroom and WHAT do I see when i go in there?  No, not the normal unflushed braggings of darling daughter, but this:

little clippings of BLACK hair on my hideous "mauve" countertop (NO, i did NOT pick it and hope to send it packing SOON!!)... Hmmmmm!???
I look IN the drawer...

and yes, we DO got2b playful!!
what is that below those headbands and that baggie of elastic ties next to the scissors?

HAIR!!!  BLACK HAIR!!  No??!!.... Darling??  Cutting her own hair??
I was just bragging recently that my child had NEVER cut her own hair... 
do you think she missed the hair-do of her toddlerhood?

Aren't those bangs the kind that would make Vidal Sassoon weep....?

  The fact that it's only about 20 tiny clips of hair, make me pretty sure I wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't left the evidence- she's going to have to cover her tracks better if she expects to get away with stuff like that- I was raised on Magnum PI and learned the way of the sleuth!

Ready for the granny square update?

  I know you're waiting on pins and needles...

Let's review:

this is last Friday:

this is THIS Friday! I've doubled my amount.  I also realized I didn't like the "baby yellow" that I used for the far right-middle row square.  I went back and got a golden rod color (can't remember the actual name) from the Debbie Stoller "Stitch Nation" line, I like it MUCH better!!

BOTH crochet headbands are IN the shop!! and more coming!

light lime green cotton

Lavender cotton yarn- both with glass beads sewn on!

Easter Banner still available finished or as a DIY kit!

and this guy?.... 

I don't know, he's just awesome!

Welcome new followers!!
101!!!!!!