Happy New Year!

Well here we are with just a few hours of 2009 remaining. I wanted to take a moment to blog one last time before the year ended. Why you say? Well so that I can reminisce about the past few months of my life. I think I accomplished several things this year not the least being that I learned how to crochet by teaching myself! I absolutely love to crochet! I've made many crochet items, an afghan, several angels, many granny squares, several amigurumi items,several hats, three teapot cosies, a pair of slippers, a few scarves and several other items. I can't believe that I crocheted so many things or that they turned out as well as they did.

This year I blogged for the first time, started my own blog, joined facebook, crochet soiree, and crochetville. I follow several bloggers, but most important is that I've made a couple of great online friends.

I found a crochet designer that I really admire and actually went out of my way to meet in person while on vacation. She's become a dear friend also and her name is Tamara Gonzales. She does Tamara's blog on the Crochet Soiree website. I've started a group there for her called the Tantalizing Tamara group. We talk everyday and we've had swaps and contests and we're about to start a new project of Tamara's after the first of the year. It's a great group of people and besides being Tamara's #1 fan, I've made a very close online friend in Molly Wilson who has her own blogs here on the web, "Crocheting my best with my worsted". What a talented and sweet person and great friend to have.

With all my medical disabilities, I managed to survive back surgery. All in all I'm not going to complain too much about this past year, but rather dwell on the positive things such as crochet which has happened to me.

"May your 2010 be a number 10".

Lookin forward to making new friends and learning things this year.

Christmas

Oh my but the days are just flashing by and Christmas is just a few days away. I hope you will take a moment to stop and listen to the Christmas music that I have downloaded for your listening pleasure. Do you all have a huge Christmas planned or is it going to be a small affair, maybe just the two of you? We were thinking it would be just the two of us but received a phone call from one of the granddaughters asking if we could come pick her up for a few days at Christmas. Now mind you I've only been around this granddaughter(my husband's stepgranddaughter) once and she's now 20 yrs. old, but I guess we'll go get her on the 23rd and take her back home on the 26th. She told her grandfather today that she loved to cook so I think we'll turn her loose in the kitchen and pray for the best. It will be nice having some company at Christmas this year, next year we'll have many more I hope. I've got two sons from previous marriages and one of them has three girls and I'm hopeful that they will all be close enough to come home for Christmas. My husband's oldest son from a previous marriage is the one with the stepdaughter that we will be having a visit from this year but I'm hopeful that he and his family will also be close enough to come home for Christmas. I know that the granddaughter who is coming to visit loves to do crafts with her mother and I'm hoping that her mother has taught her to crochet. If she has I'll let her pick some projects that she would like to do and let her choose some yarn from my stash. lol It will give me a good excuse to go yarn shopping after Christmas now won't it? lol

We made Pumpkin Butter this week and if you've never tried it you should. What makes this Pumpkin Butter so special is that it's sugar free. I mailed one jar out to one of the granddaughters in the package I sent to all three of them 'cause she loves pumpkin pie but doesn't eat the crust. lol I told her it was just like having the pie without the crust. I know she'll try it and when she does I bet she tells me that she wants a bigger jar of it! Lucky for her we made some in pint jars. lol (Oh by the way I didn't tell the gdd that the pumpkin butter was sugar free and made with splenda) My sweet husband made pancakes for breakfast this morning and I had it on my pancakes, yummy.

I hope everyone finds this Christmas to be a magical one and that you never forget that tiny child who was born on Christmas day. Please don't forget our military men and women both past and present and pray to God that he watch over them and if they are active military, give them victory and bring them home safe. John 3:16....For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son.....that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.   Merry Christmas!

If you've taken a look at the blogs I'm following you would probably say I'm a bit excessive. Well I can't help it 'cause every time I find a new crochet blog I've just got to add it to my list and also I come across blogs that I like personally for different reasons. Anyway I've got them all listed here on my blog so that you might give them a look see and determine whether or not you might be interested in following them, but predominately the blogs I follow have something to do with crochet. Today I found a really new and really great one, it's Leisure Arts! I bet everyone who looks at this blog has purchased at least one craft book that Leisure Arts has published! Their headquarters are in my state, Arkansas, Little Rock to be exact. I've done the look around on their blog and really liked what I saw. They'll be doing a lot of talking about designers they are publishing and give us inside peeks at what's going on and coming out in print. You can take a look here:http://www.leisureartsblog.blogspot.com/

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Getting Ready........

It seems that everyone is getting ready for the big day, the day when everything halts in this country and hopefully we all take a moment and remember exactly what we're celebrating and let the joy and the wonder and the belief that on this day a tiny babe was born who we and countless others before us call "Emmanuel". Yes that day is Christmas and we prepare more for that day than for any other day of the year. I have recently been crocheting angels, and it seems that the more I crochet, the more I find someone to give one to. A very dear friend of mine, Molly of crochetingmybestwithmyworsted.blogspot.com/ gave me the pattern and I just love it 'cause you can change the color of the angels dresses (for lack of a better word) and match those colors up with the favorite color of the people you are giving them to. Pretty neat huh? I also made a "Hello Kitty " purse for the daughter of a swap partner of mine that I just felt would really enjoy it. This pattern was also easy to do and is a pattern of Lisa Gentry, out of her "Hooked for 30 days Ebook" I really feel that homemade or made from the heart gifts are always best don't you? Stay tuned as I babble on about the crocheting that I'm doing and some of the friends I'm making along the way. A friend is to be cherished.

Welcome

Well my goodness but this year has just flown by! I'm not ready for a new year to begin, 'cause there's so many things that I didn't get accomplished. I've been working diligently on my crochet granny squares and have finally finished all of them for the one swap which was a "huge" job. We each ended up crocheting 73 -8" squares plus a little crocheted gift at the end, all done in basically a three month time frame. Whew! Plus I made three tea pot cosies, a scarf, eleven flat angels, a hello kitty purse (WIP) , a hat, and a few other things I can't remember. Not bad for someone who just learned to crochet in January of this year is it. And that's what I did in the past three months! These are just a few pics of projects:

I'd like to take a moment to give you all a laugh if you will go to: http://dancingsantacard.com/?santa=390547 Trust me you'll find the funny in this one. Merry Christmas!

Also I ran across a wonderful December calendar from Garn Studios this morning and I'm gonna pass it on to you as they have some knitted and crochet patterns for free that might just fit into your Christmas gift giving or your Winter projects so go to: http://www.garnstudio.com/julekalender.php?lang=us I think you will enjoy it and you can email it to a friend.

More blogging to come so stay tuned! Barbara