Do You Pin?

Hi there!  Are you on Pinterest?  It's the latest web craze I think!  It is so inspirational though!  Full of so many ideas for so many things!  Amazing!  Some things are just so simple it is crazy how simple & how stupid I feel for not having thought of such a simple things myself!  Really it is amazing what you will find there!  

Some of my favourite ideas are following:

1.  Cupcake papers in a spaghetti jar!  Find more info here!  Quite a simple way to store them & you can see easily what you have!  

2.  Do you have pavers with weeds like this?  I did!  But I sprayed - well actually BJ sprayed them with the vinegar mix that is found here.  

3.  I love this!  Stu got a 6 pack of beer given the other week & I kept the box.  I won't put drinks in it, but I like the ideas of using it for packaging!  A bit of cute scrapping or gift wrap paper over the box & it has huge potential!  I was thinking maybe even a ball of wool in each 6 pack space!  Cute!  Something will come to me before Christmas, but in the meantime the reindeers are cute!  

The lolly bottles are cute too but not for Father's Day!  lol  

4.  This is one of my favourite ideas!  So much so that I actually bought the file boxes just yesterday.  Yes I am ready!  Bring it on!  I got one for each of the boys already.  BJ starts school next year.  OK so DJ doesn't for a few years yet but I can use the box for a few other things in the meantime.  It really is a great idea!  Save all their stuff for them & when they move out or you clean out, hand them a box!  lol  

5.  Do you like these little packages?  Aren't they clever!  & you know what?  They are made from a loo roll!  There are more ideas here!  

6.  How simple is this?  I am going to do this with the bits of ribbon I have strewn through a ribbon box!  Very simple!  It will stay fixed in place!  

So after all that inspiration have you joined Pinterest yet?   

New Colours

It didn't take me long to start on a new colour way for my next square sampler.  Well actually I did start these before I had finished my rainbows.  The first square here just didn't lend itself to my rainbow sequence of colours.  I had these 5 colours waiting in the wings for the right moment to play with them & so Crown Jewels was the first in the colours.  I really like these colours.  Quite un-bright compared to my last 2.  Quite orderly even.  I picked the colour pattern from a swatch I liked at design seeds & one that actually had the colours in the yarn range I like to use for these.  This was a square from our CAL recently.  It's a good one.  I really enjoyed doing it & will no doubt make more of them in the future!  

This was the next one in our CAL & is Tumbling Diamonds & designed by one of the ladies that runs the group on Ravelry.  It's a nice on & came up well with these colours too. 

I actually am in a couple of other groups that do squares too & hadn't participated in any of them yet.  I came across this one in the Melinda Miller group.  It's called Kiss the Bride & was nice to do.  Quite enjoying the colours & not having to do them in an order like the rainbows!  It's quite liberating & leaves me so much choice that it isn't exactly easy to pick what goes where but it's fun all the same!  I could always do multiples if I wanted.  So that's me once again!  

Happy Weekend to You!  

Ta-Dah

There it is.  My rainbow sampler square blanket.  Some squares were from the crochet-along.  Others I did because I liked them or because I needed to find some that suited the colour changes!  That isn't so easy!  Anyway it's done!  I need to not look at it for a while & I might like it.  Not sure where this is going to live yet though.

Last Of The Rainbows

Well I have been hooking along still.  I got a bit side tracked with some other colours & projects.  But I have finished 20 rainbow squares now.  Yay!  

This one is Brighter Daze.  I really like this square.  Was fun to make too.  

 Cluster Dome from the book 50 Fabulous Crochet Squares.  I did this one before & liked it.  I had a hard time trying to find a few more squares that were going to suit my rainbow colour sequence.  

 I hadn't done this one before  - Ruffle-Go-Round, also from that book above...  

I am currently doing the border on the blanket.  So stay tuned!  

Spring Is On The Way

With the changing weather, comes more time outside.   When I ask BJ what he wants to do he says, "Get mucky & have a picnic!"  But let it be said, you can't have lunch outside if he isn't mucky yet!  Nope, not going to happen apparently. He has definite ideas on how things should be done.  He obviously had a great time another day playing at getting mucky & then ending with a picnic.  So that is the ritual that he loves & wants to replicate each time.  I guess it is things like this that he will remember for fun times at home when he is grown up!  I hope so!  

We spent much of the time running around the yard being fire-people.  I was "fire-lady" for most of the afternoon, & having to follow behind in the firetruck.  Fortunately I didn't have to climb the apple tree to help put the fires out.  

DJ spent the time crawling about in his pajamas.  Yes, his pajamas.  I figured they were dirty anyway, it was going to be just the same to soak & wash them as a clean set of clothes!  He had a great time exploring, discovering new things like snapping sticks!  

The picnic consists of simple things usually like an apple in pieces with a treat to follow like BJ's favourite thing, Turkish Delight & a milkshake.  He really is one for following routine as he told me he had to have apple & "those chocolate things", though for the life of me I can't remember which chocolate things he was referring too!  

DJ had a great time playing in some mud & getting mucky!  He was more mucky than the big boy!  I think that is going to become pretty normal around here.  The wee one is Trouble!  Yep, big trouble.  He is also going to have his haircut shortly so he won't look quite so shaggy as this next time!  lol  

Happy Days!  

My Boys

We've had a bit of a chance for some outside play in between rain & cold!  I'm happy to send them out for a run or crawl around.  The wee one is the first into anything possible though.  Boy he is trouble!  lol

My latest square for the CAL is also done.  It's called Lacy Sun.  There are a couple that are finished in the CAL & you would not know that they are the same pattern.  I think this one is the most different looking yet between colour changes & stuff.  It was a nice easy one to do & really quite effective so that was a good choice!   Looking forward to the next one!

August Arrived

August!  Can you believe it!  I'd better start thinking about Christmas shopping!  Really, seriously, I should!  Actually I have...  I just remembered..  I did a pre-order for some things the other day.  Yay!  It will be here before I know it.  Also before I am ready for it!  

August brings with it new things today.  Pre-Kinder!  Uh Oh...  school!  Already!  BJ starts pre-kinder today.  I'm scared!  He's too little to go to school next year!  Isn't he?  I'm sure he'll be ready for it although scared of big & new things, just like his mum always was.  He doesn't like change.  AT ALL!  That's tough for a kid going to a big school I'm sure.  Apparently a public school is quite something to present changes often too.  I wouldn't know that as I didn't go to one.  But I'm sure he'll be all the better for it!  

After all that though I have still been playing along with my rainbow squares.  Turns out I am a bit behind in posts again.  I have a few.  Our CAL is still going along nicely.  Actually I'm being pattern picker for that now & posting the new pattern each fortnight!  Me!  Imagine that!  The first three are ones I have done on the weekend just because I wanted too.  When I am in the mood it is good to get an extra one or two or three done!  lol  Plus I also got rid of a couple out of my queue!  Yay!

The last 2 are the most recent from the CAL.  The Granny Bobble was the last square that one of the group had picked.  So then we had to refigure how the CAL was going to go.  The current Mod was extra busy so couldn't continue.  So I was going to try!  I changed the selection process for squares since there wasn't anyone else to offer favourites up.  The great thing about Ravelry is the queue or favourites lists of everyone. So out comes my Excel spread sheet (which I can actually use easily now!  Woohoo!  But that's another story!).  Where was I?  Oh yeah, excel...  I hunted down all the other participants in the CAL & listed the favourites.  So I found an interesting selection that are going to be fun squares to do in the future.  The first one was On The Huh which came up as the second favourite across the lists.  The great thing about the CAL is that you get an idea on different ones that you would never do as was the case with one, the Queen of the Squares.  She's done some amazing squares but only did this square based on how mine came out.  Her's came out awesome as we expected from the Queen of Squares!  lol  

Esther's Square

Arches square

Sundial 

On The Huh

Granny Bobbles

I may be able to do some of this bloggy stuff a little more now simply based on the fact that I am using a different computer!  Woohoo!  Honestly, blogging (& plenty of other things) had become a hard task on our dino-puter...  But someone updated theirs so we got their old one!  They thought theirs was bad.  They have no idea how good it is!  bwahahaha...  Compared to our old thing this is heaven!  So maybe I can resume some usual stuff without too much trouble!  I hate to think how long it would have taken me to get these 5 pics on here at once with that thing!

Anyway, enjoy your midweek, your new month & the last month of Winter!  Bring on the end of Winter I say!  Seeya!