get crafty

This weekend I squeezed in a lot of crafting time around the usual activities of running and cleaning. I am trying to stay on top of my crafting ideas so that I am not rushing around and stressing out when birthdays or other gift giving holidays roll around. I got started as soon as we returned from Nebraska for Christmas and have been plucking away at new projects, old projects, and for a change, me projects.

Here is a glance at what I have been working on this weekend!

One of the blogs that I follow, mooglyblog.com, is hosting an afghan-along. This is the first square of the afghan. Every two weeks a new square is revealed and at the end of the year I'll have all of the pieces needed to make a 4'x6' afghan! This is my me project, one that I'm doing just because I can.

Another project that I worked on this weekend was a baby doll for one of my nieces. Her birthday isn't for quite some time, but as I mentioned, I want to stay on top of my gift-crafting game so that I'm prepared in the event that life gets in the way when birthdays are actually here.

Here is another birthday gift for another niece. It is hard to come up with ideas for the girls as they get older, but I think that this sparkly infinity scarf is one that will please the oldest of the girls.

Last but not least, here is a project that I have been working on (verrrrry slowly) since I returned from Costa Rica. This baby blanket is for a niece that isn't a baby anymore, but she is still my baby girl. If all goes well, it will serve well for a 4th birthday present.

frogger

I wish that I were talking about the old Atari game. It was one of my favorites, in terms of video games. Every rendition of it that I have played since Atari went out of style just hasn't been the same. Instead, today's frogger is the result of something else that I love to do - crochet.

There is a very special little girl in my life that has a birthday coming up on Friday. While I cannot spend her special day with her, I can send her something that was made from the heart, and not just purchased from the store. This morning after going on a short hike I spent the bulk of my day crafting this little guy (and taking breaks here and there to do some grad school reading and writing). 

Happy Birthday Maddie J!

One of the things that I enjoy more and more, as I crochet and do more amigurumi projects is being able to make something up and go with it. Patterns aren't necessarily needed any more, because the base of these projects are pretty universal. I decided that since I know this little girl loves her daddy's aquarium and the little friends that live in it, I would send her a little aquatic friend. I hope that she likes it as much as I do!

life

Sometimes, it happens. Life takes over no matter what your plans are. When I started this blog at the beginning of August, my plan had been to write a little something every day as a means of reflecting upon my teaching experiences and life in general. The highs, the lows, and whatever happens in between. Friday evening I decided that while this was a fantastic idea, sometimes I also just need me time. Or we time.

On Friday, after work, I ran around town trying to complete some errands - some I completed successfully, some not so much. I got home and was able to stock the fridge with hazelnut milk (my newest food addiction) and put quarters away for laundry. I had failed at getting the mister and I registered for a race at the end of September, due to the chamber closing early and then only having registration forms for the bike portion of the weekend of events, no signs of the ones for the half marathon. Life, it happens, and not always as planned.

That evening the mister and I did something unusual for the school year. We sat back, ate some delicious homemade lentil lasagna, and watched a movie. Yes, we relaxed. Knowing that we had a long weekend in front of us we didn't feel pressure to knock out just a little bit of work before hitting the sack. We looked through our Netflix queue and finally watched The King's Speech. It was well worth the time out from our busy lives. During the movie I also finally finished making a blanket for a friend of ours from Costa Rica who is due to have a little girl any day now!

Yesterday morning I went about my normal Saturday morning routine and checked off a beautiful 10 mile run through the high desert. During the last couple of weeks we have had a lot of rain for the desert and I was surprised by the abundance of green. I was also fortunate in that it was an overcast morning so I did not need to battle the heat of the sun, though I did have to deal with some stomach problems. Oh well, life happens, and you keep on keeping on. I finished up my 10 miles in just over 2 hours, which I was quite pleased with (the last mile was accompanied by the howls of coyotes in the distance). This is my longest run on record in well over a year, after battling injury after injury. 

After I left the trails the mister called and we decided to go to Albuquerque for the day. This is once again something unusual for us. I think that I went to Albuquerque "just because" once last Thanksgiving with friends, but the two of us have never done it. Sure, we've been to the city since moving here a little over a year ago, but for things like going to the airport, to run races, or for medical appointments. Yesterday, we shopped. I the past year I have lost a little over ten pounds, and therefore was in desperate need of clothes that fit me well. We also took care of some things on our list that we've been putting off, such as buying new towels and other basic household goods. We topped off the day with a delicious Japanese/Sushi dinner. It was a true treat for us.

And now, life goes back to normal. This morning I worked out and cut tags off of new items and prepared things for laundry. The mister threw together some home fries and a crustless veggie quiche. We are moving past our 36 hours of "freedom" (granted by this long weekend) and settling into work: grading papers, updating student data folders, creating newsletters for the month of September, reading for grad school, doing household chores. 

We may take a break from life on occasion, but it always finds us in the end. Enjoy your long weekend (if you are fortunate enough to have Monday off)!

crafty

Making some tactile letters for my kinders

Sunday fun day! Or something like that. I finished all of my "need-to-dos" around the house this morning, which meant that I had an afternoon to do one of my "want-to-dos." I love to craft in my free time and have been perusing alphabet patterns on pinterest for quite a while now. Today I had a chance to try one of them out.

This afternoon I made it through a capital and lowercase a and a capital b. I've mostly followed the patterns that I chose, but make a few modifications here and there. I've been using my stashed bits and pieces of yarn from other projects and should end up with some bright colored letters for my students to use as they learn their alphabet. I'll continue working on my letters until I have a complete set of capital letters and a complete set of lowercase letters. I'm pretty excited about bringing these new tools into the classroom!