New year, same ole' me.

Here it is 2014 and I'm still behind on my blog. I do apologize as I don't ever intend to stop blogging, but well.... What can I say?

So once again here I am: I've started crocheting once again. I even made a little business page on Facebook, which I do ok on. It keeps me trying new things and on track ( for the most part).

I'm trying to make a resolution this year to really blog more, take more pictures ( and as a bonus improve my photography), and to really branch out in my crafting. Oh and to carry my real camera with me. Having my phone has pretty much just enabled me to keep my DSLR at home. Not a good thing when I am lobbying my husband for a new lens for my birthday.

Because I'm a picture whore I'm throwing in some of the items I have made these past few months.

This was supposed to fit a newborn.. HA, more like a preemie. I put my phone next to it for size comparison. Also I sewed the ears on the wrong way. It's supposed to be a bear, but with the pink insides it reminds me more of a mouse. 

I eventually made 5 of these cute little hearts and made a little bunting ( no picture of the finished product as I am still debating on the chain portion)

A cute little monster hat for an adorable monster. 

I no longer will be having babies, but I cannot help but make baby clothes because they are just so adorable!!!!

Stitch's minion hat. Who doesn't love these little guys.

originally this had a face to go with it, but there were some, ahem, technical issues, that made it look like... well... a penis.. So blaze and muzzle were removed and it morphed into this. 

This is a little Amineko kitty 

(this is a free pattern, not mine, and it can be found here. ) So normally they aren't this small, but apparently I crochet very tight. I made 3 of these little guys. One for my mom, one for one of the twins and one for stitch. 

This is the twin's kitty. She loves Downton Abbey. 

This is Stitch's kitty. Who looks like Mr. Miagi. Wax on, wax off. 

This was the first one I made ( the purple, my mom's) It all started because my daughter asked me to help her make one, well yeah no good, because I apparently crochet so dang tight that my kitty is nearly half the size of her's ( the orange kitty). We used similar yarn and same size hooks. 

It's hard work being a yarn cat.. think i'll take a nap.

I made this adorable Jammie Dodger cookie ( also not my pattern, it can be found here) I had a grand idea to make 3-4 for Stitch's tea time, but she said no thanks mom. Brat.

Stitch has been obsessed. I mean OBSESSED with What does the fox say. Incase you have been living under a rock I will link the video in this post. So obsessed she made me put the song and video on her iPod so she can listen to it any time she wants. Did I mention she's only 3? Yeah, she's a diva what can I say. At any rate I made her this cute little hat and the day I made it, she suddenly decided that she no longer liked foxes... Fast forward a few weeks and Sunday she asked me to make her a fox hat. -_____- well played child. WELL PLAYED. Did I also mention I have no idea what she did with this hat? I don't. Now  I have to find it. Overall this is a cute hat, but the ears gave me a hassle. 

(also not my pattern and it can be found here, FTR I used Vanna's Choice for this hat, but in Terracotta and white and charcoal in Red Heart since that is what I had on hand, and didn't feel like running to the store for new yarn.)

Just in case you have been living under a rock for the past year. And I'm sorry if your child walks into the room while this video is on, because you will be forced to listen to it for many hours. 

Loads of pictures. Beware.

I've been a busy bee since my last post ( which I can't even remember when that was.). But let us not get stuck on what a horrible updater I am.
I've gotten back into crochet once again, and after seeing the cutest clay covered crochet hooks I decided to try my hand at it. Just for my hooks.

a scarf for my best friend

the beginnings of the Corner to Corner (C2C) blanket for my husband

a cowl I had made

A washcloth

CHICKEN

MOAR CHICKEN!!!

The shawl I made my mom ( the light made the yarn look grey but it was in fact blue

finished

Still working on this thing. It's a monster

another chicken

mustached coffe cup cozy

the beginnings of the teenage drama queen's blanket

action shot

starry starry night blanket started

happy halloween y'all

just need to sew on the stars. 

Rah Rah Ruffles scarf

still more to go on this sucker.

It's that time of year again.

Yup officially High School Football season. I'll let you in on a little secret. I. Don't really care about football in general. Yes I know. It's a huge sin, but well I don't. I mainly go because my oldest is in band and I usually just try to make it to half time to watch her perform. Otherwise. I probably wouldn't even entertain going. But alas I have no choice in the matter and I must attend.

I busted out my camera ( that did not have an iphone attached to it) you know my gorgeous DSLR and my 70-300mm lens that I love dearly. Sad to say I'm so out of practice. As the night progressed my pictures got more and more blurry. *sigh* Oh and clearly I could not pick my child out of a crowd because I took a ton of pictures that I *thought* were my daughter. And not one of them was. LOL. Dang those androgynous band uniforms. However at the 'magic hour' my pictures were great.

The last two I was trying to get Bolt in action, but with the confines of my seat and the people who just can't seem to stay seated I wound up getting a reunion of sorts in the background as well and my picture not quite how I wanted it framed up. Oh well. 

Speaking of spectators. I'm just going to rant for a moment. Part of the reason I hate going to the games is because the kids running up and down the steps of the bleachers. I mean literally thundering past us. We almost always sit on the end because with a 3 year old we sometimes need to make a quick getaway. And all night long there are kids ( teens mostly) who just are up and down the steps constantly. The old lady in me wants to trip them or scold them. Instead I sigh and give my husband 'the look' and get annoyed. /rant.

Well that is all for tonight. Tomorrow I am sure I will be back to post pictures of things I have been making lately. For now goodnight blogland. 

Nearly fall, well in theory.

I know I haven't been blogging as much, school sucked my 'free time' out the window. I went hard 2 semesters in a row, logging 11 classes and 33 credits in 28 short weeks. I took a break from school for now only because I sometimes feel so burnt out. I miss free time, I miss my toddler time, and I miss crafting, blogging, picture taking and just being. Already without the stress of school I've managed to finish 3 chicken potholders ( yup doing those again) a shawl, and nearly half way done with a blanket for my husband. I already have ambitious plans to make a few more blankets, some more potholders as well as some clay covered crochet hooks that I recently became obsessed with.

With all that said... August is halfway over. School is starting, ahh that magical time, and fall is fast approaching. Since I spent my summer stuck in a classroom, I'm looking forward to fall. The pumpkin patch, hot tea, pumpkin bread, halloween, cool nights and getting to use my scarves and wear jeans and my boots again.

Just keep swimming...

 I know it's been a long time since I made an appearance here at my blog, and I must say I don't know when I will be back after this post. I hope that I will make a bigger effort to post more often but…. well you know. Life.

I noticed my very good friend Sophie has been updating her blog and I thought, "well I can't let her blog alone!!!" so here I am. Feverishly typing a post when I should probably be studying or cooking or cleaning or something more productive.

I haven't blogged mainly because there just wasn't enough time in the day to be honest. I started school in January and before then well honestly nothing exciting was worthy of coming her to tell everyone. I kept my ramblings to 140 characters or less, so my twitter account became much more active.

I have already forgotten my point for this post *sigh* I leave you with this picture of an awesome mid life crisis car I came across while headed to school yesterday. I'll be back. Hopefully.

I have nothing witty to say here.

I've been sitting on a blog post for about a week now. I have things to say, I just feel like my thoughts are too jumbled to actually put the proverbial pen to paper. Or in this case, fingers to keyboard keys....

I'll guess I'll just go down things I've done since my last post. I totally totally started to regret my decision to not plant zucchini. All because of those stinking zucchini sticks. I love those dang things.  I still had my patch of dirt from last years garden, I asked the hubby to till it ( he did, isn't he sweet) and I picked up some Seeds of Change seeds.  Pumpkin, watermelon and zucchini.

I'm impatiently waiting for things to start sprouting... * looks nervously out the window at garden area*

I then made some zucchini sticks. I love this recipe, I do believe I even linked it once. Its fabulous. mmmm. onion dip.. oh sorry I'm back. 

I have pictures for this too. LOL I'll spare you though of my sweating zucchini sticks and my how to make caramelized onion tutorial I had briefly thought of posting. ( you can thank me later)

I also made chicken stock this week. That was fun and interesting. I had this carcass from a costco chicken that I didn't want to waste, plus I'm forever buying chicken stock in the stores. I really need to stop. So I filled up my pot with water, dumped my carcass in, as well as some frozen not really fit for human consumption shredded chicken.. or maybe it was turkey. I have no clue, that's why it went in the stock LOL. I had just bought some thyme ( for a thyme gargle the doctor recommended for the sick twin) so I threw some of that in there too. I pretty much threw whatever I wanted in that stock.. mmm stock. It was great.... except I started it at like 5pm. 

Spot the problem yet?? I have to let it cool before I can put it in the freezer. I'm such a genius... Needless to say I did not stay up all night waiting for the stock to cool. Fast forward to the next morning. Time to start freezing stock. Now I must admit I wasn't exactly sure how to do this. I mean i keep reading put it in ice cube trays and pop those in a bag... Except I usually use way more than just 2 tbsp of stock. Plus I only have one ice tray ( no judgment please). I would be freezing stock for a week. So I finally settled on some quart bags ( because I buy in bulk from costco) and I spot my Annabel Karmel baby food freezer thingy. Problem solved.  Sorry these pics are all out of whack and order. I'm too lazy to reorder them. 

Stock in my giant roasting pan. it was easier. Notice the paper towel wrapped around the handle ( sorry Rose yes I used a paper towel lol) my ladle kept falling in and getting all gross. I had to improvise.

my baby food freezer thingy, this thing holds exactly 2 cups. it was kismet. 

see 2 cups.

delicious chicken stock in freezer bags. 2 cups per bag

In the end I wound up with 22 cups of stock. 10 bags of stock plus one fill up of the green thing. 

The only picture I have of the frozen stock.. there's a reason of this. I'm about to fill you in. Soooo apparently it takes DAYS for stock to freeze.  I'm talking I actually went to my forum just to ensure that it would freeze because this stock was seriously NOT frozen after 8 hours in my freezer. In the end it did freeze ( literally 2 days later) and I stuck it in my deep freezer to be used at a later date. yum.

I went by my local Sunflower market ( i love this store) and picked up some blackberries on special ($.88 per 6oz container couldn't resist). All because I had a hankering to make blackberry cobbler. I swear nothing NOTHING says summer like blackberry cobbler. 

I love this market, I'm sad because Henry's bought it out a few months ago. While I'm excited to get a Henry's I'm sad to see the Sunflower sign go...

Mmmm blackeberries...

I love tools, I bought this for cookies and it blows, but it works great for stuff like this.

see all covered up.

blackberries just oozing to get out and in mah belly. 

lovely, and delish. 

Well, that was my week in a food nutshell. If your interested in the zucchini sticks with sweet onion dip. Feel free to click here. Enjoy

Blogging soundtrack: Keith Urban.