Yay for play!

Last night we had a playdate with some kiddo friends named Aria and Mason. Aria is younger than Lily, Mason is older. Poor Mason fell asleep before we came over and the kid was knocked out like a teenager. He slept through most of the visit. Lily enjoyed climbing up the stairs, petting the dog, pointing at the kitty cat and most importantly, playing with Aria. Lily was kinda obsessed for a while with trying to hold her...Aria doesn't completely need to be held, she little but quite mobile. They played with a ball and kinda chased each other around for a while...climbed under chairs and other places little ones like to hang. Lily actually spent some time in the dogs area....she climbed in a kept trying to shut the door. She seemed offended that the dog wanted to be in his house...I guess she thought that was her new spot. We ordered some pizza...I managed to break one of their plates on accident...I picked Lily up and turned and my elbow knocked it off the table....I felt really bad and kinda stupid...but it happens. I'm excited because Janette also likes to do crafty art type projects. There was a few projects I've pinned on pinterest to try that she has completed and hanging up. Not going to lie, I'm kinda jealous. I'm hoping to spend some time with them during the off season and get some of my own craft needs taken care of!

I'm happy to say that I did finish my cleanse with AdvoCare. I started off strong, got a little off track, but still finished well. I'm glad I don't have to drink anymore of the fiber, but by the last few days I was able to down it pretty fast and without much distress. Physically I do feel a lot better, post-cleanse. I'm still drinking my Spark, daily...which reminds me I need to order some more! If anyone is interested, please contact me on facebook!

I've made some good headway in some projects that have been nagging at me for some time now. I really hope to be able to continue the progress and finally get some craft show items done. I also need to lock in some more show dates...It's going to be a busy fall, but I want it to be fun as well!

Much Love.

Good weekend/last full time week

We had a pretty busy weekend and I liked it. Friday evening we drove over to Smyrna to drop off a hat I made to a happy customer! We got home and played with Lily for a while until bedtime. It was a nice way to end the week.

Saturday, Dan headed off to work for a few hours and Lily and I played and did some cleaning. We played with dolls and in her princess tent. We watched some episodes of David the Gnome together. I crocheted here and there when I could and she played by herself for a while. After we ate lunch she laid down for a nap. I finished a few cleaning type things and then I laid down too. Why not!?

I woke up when Dan got home from work. We hung out together for a little bit and then got Lily up. We decided to take Lily on a walk at one of the parks by our house. I didn't realize this until we got there, but it's actually part of a larger greenway that goes for several miles.

 At first, Lily wanted Dan to carry her most of the way, but once we got her down and walking, she thought she was pretty cool stuff!

She ran for a while then walked. We stopped along the way and looked at some flowers too.




Lily thought was was pretty cool. We eventually found ourselves at a bridge. I had no idea any of this was back here. We've gone to this park before and lived near it pretty much the entire time we've been in Nashville.

We spent a little bit of time hanging out on the bridge and checking everything out. Lily really seemed to enjoy this. We watched the water for quite a while. Eventually it was time to turn back. We didn't pay very close attention to the map when we started out, so we didn't actually do the loop. We didn't know what all we were getting ourselves into and we didn't bring the stroller with us. We decided to head back to the car. Lily ran and walked most of the way back to the car with a flower in hand. 

We decided to swing by Big Lots and just scope a few things out for Lily's upcoming birthday. We didn't really find anything that we wanted, but we did manage to score Lily a kids swimming pool for next year for $4. Not bad! 

We headed home. Lily was about ready for a nap by the time we got home and the timing couldn't have been much better. We got her to sleep and headed outside for the next project....removing the car! 

We found a guy to buy our wrecked car last week and I'm happy to say we made and cleared the final payment! Woo hoo!!! No more wrecked car and no more wasting money on it! I'm so glad we accomplished this. The guy came over with a friend, we loaded it up and sent them on their way!

It was a huge sense of relief as soon as he pulled away. Add this to our list of accomplishments for this year!

Lily's nap lasted long enough for us to get the car gone, then it was dinner time and cuddles. 

I don't really see this as a comfy position for watched TV, but Lily and Dan seemed to be enjoying themselves. The hung out like this pretty much until her bedtime. I was glad they got to spend some good time together. Dan has been around a little more the past few weekends and it sure does make it easier on me! I was able to get quite a bit of crocheting accomplished, which is great because I have a large order that will be due at the end of Sept. I was glad to make some solid progress on it. 

Sunday wasn't nearly as exciting as Saturday was, but that's okay! Dan got up and headed into work for a few hours. Lily and I hung out, watched a few episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (from when I was young) and we hung out and had our own cuddles for a while. When she started to get restless she got up and played in her tent for a while. I took those few minutes to get some more crocheting in...I always have some sort of project to work on...I suddenly heard this little voice saying, "Help, help." I get up off the couch and Lily has "fallen" into the outside of her tent and she's "stuck." This quickly turned into a game that I kinda had to stop her from playing because I didn't want her tent to break. It's been a lot of fun for her to play in and I'd like to keep that fun going.





She got restless from playing with all of her usual stuff, so Mommy had an idea of something new to try. I pulled her highchair into the living room and got a little bit of Daddy's shaving cream out. This turned out to be quite a bit of fun for both of us. I kept trying to draw things, but she just kept erasing them as I went along. All in all though, it was a fun time.

Another day of heart-breaking news...

Well a few hours ago I saw a story on FB about a reporter and photog killed in the middle of doing a live-shot. Live...on the freakin air...they were not in some war-torn country or in the middle of riots or something else of the sort...they were covering a story and the guy just walks up and kills him. The most recent reports say it was a disgruntled employee. He fled in a vehicle. He attempted to kill himself but from what I gather is still alive and in critical condition. It looks like he was made at the reporter for making "racist" remarks about him and angry with the photog for "reporting him to HR" after only working with him one time. Who knows where the truth lies...I had the pleasure of working in a TV station right after college. I was in the in-studio camera op and I worked some overnights in MC. I cannot imagine what it would have been like for the crew, all those people in the studio on headsets when this went down. They've mentioned that both of these victims were in relationships with people who also worked at the station...my heart is just broken for them. I spent a little time sending some messages to some people I used to work with and go to school with that currently work at a station. I'm not sure there is a safety precaution that could have prevented this. When I was an intern I used to go on live-shots with the guys that cover the Live at Gurley Leep spots. It was honestly kinda boring at times. We'd do our shot and then sit and wait for our turn again. I'm sure that when it comes to fires or riots they have strict protocol to follow as far as how close/far they can be from a situation...but that was not the case here. These two people woke up today, had their coffee and set out to do a live shot and BAM. Gone. Tragic, senseless and sad.

Look up and live.

Much love.

Family weekend! (Finally!!!)

Well, we finally had a family weekend like I've been wanting to do for a while now! Saturday morning we all got up and around and took off for Mt. Juliet. We got Lily's 2 year old pictures done along with a few family poses. While we were waiting for the pictures to be ready, we did a little bit of shopping in JCPenney's! I got a few items I needed and a few that I wanted. We finished up and headed down a few doors to Jo-Ann's. Omg....they've been having a sale and a lot of the yarn I was hoping to purchase was out of stock! I was able to get a few things that I needed, so that's a plus. We headed home. We thought Lily would either fall asleep in the car or shortly after we got home. This turned out to not be the case. We made and ate some lunch. Daniel mowed the lawn and did some general yard cleaning. Lily and I played and boy did we play hard. I found a little bit of time to get some crocheting done. I started working on the Virus Shawl. It's super popular right now and works up nice and quick. I was happy with the progress. We thought Lily was getting sick, but I think now that it was just allergies. She kept refusing to nap and finally she went to bed around 9pm. She was up allllllllllllllllllllllllll day long!  Sunday was kinda similar. We got up and all kinda hung out and cuddled on the couch. We watched some episodes of David the Gnome and I made bacon biscuits for breakfast. Dan spent some of Sunday cleaning out our old wrecked car, taking pictures and posting it for sale. I was pleasantly surprised at the response. By mid afternoon Sunday we had tentatively sold the car. The guy was nice, he asked if he gave us $100 now if we'd hold the car for a week so he could get the rest of the money. Daniel and him talked it over and put it in writing. He said if he doesn't show by Sunday, we made $100 bucks. I was pretty pleased with this. It would be great to get out from under this car payment in the month of August. Starting in about 2 weeks I go down to part time at work. I've saved enough money to pay the rent for the 4 months I'm part time, if I also didn't have to pay a car payment, that would only work to improve the situation. Especially since Daniel's hours will also slow down as it gets colder. I feel more prepared for off season this year than I did last year, and that's a nice feeling!

Just like that....it's been a whole week....

It's so easy for this to just fall by the wayside, especially when it really hasn't become any sort of habit. I've been busy working a few crochet projects. I'm working on making some more dolls similar to the one I posted previously. I've also been making my way through this cool bear. 

I'm not loving his eyes...they snap on tight and I really should have put some white around them or moved them closer together...If I could just pry them apart I might be able to fix it, but so far no luck. At least I'll know for next time, right?! And, this is a gift so as long as the kiddo loves it, who cares what I think, right!?


I started my Advocare cleanse this week. It's a 10 day program that is working to getting my body into a healthier state. I have to say I'm not a fan of the fiber drink and the first day I made the horrible mistake of mixing it with just water....oh god it was awful and I'll never do that again! Second day I used some lemonade and it really wasn't so bad. Overall I feel pretty good. I need to continue working on eating healthier, but steps are being taken at least!

I am excited that we are counting down until Lily's 2nd Birthday and I need to get my shit together an do some real planning. It's not going to be one of those crazy ones like on tv...just a simple party for a 2 year old...I think we'll go to a park, have some snack and cupcakes, play with some bubbles or balls and just let the kids run until they are tired. Nothing super elaborate....just a nice day with some fun people!

Cece Drake is A?!?!?!!??!?!

Well, I stayed up wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too late last night to watch the season finale of PLL. We now know the question that has burned in our hearts and minds for years, the story arc has worked it's way back around and many questions HAVE been answered. There are still a bazillion questions that are unanswered, but I was okay with last nights reveal. There was always a few things that bothered me about Cece, most of which I discuss with my friend Sarah. One of the main ones that sticks out is that the first time Cece meets the girls, she ALREADY knows that Hanna has a history of shoplifting...this was a nasty habit that Hanna picked up AFTER Ali was missing when she became friends with Mona. This isn't something that Ali KNEW about Hanna...at least as far as we know Ali didn't know this about Hanna...but Cece did....she knew because it was Mona who spilled the beans to her in Radley when she was taking a lot of medication and unaware of what she was saying or who she was saying it too.

One of the unanswered questions I have is who came up with this "game"....does the game have rules? Are there other people out in the world playing this game...how does one explain a game of torture to another person and that other persons is like ''oh wow, count me in?!'' I mean I saw the years of anguish that Cece was put through at the hands of her parents....although we don't see Mr. D really interact with Charles, the little that we do see is skewed from both perspectives. I am very interested to see who actually killed Mrs. D if it wasn't Cece. I think the general fandom doesn't think it was Jason...Ali was in NY with the other girls...Peter Hastings can be shady, but not sure how killing Mrs. D would really benefit him personally.

I would like to say that Mrs. D must have the good genetics...Cece, Ali and Jason are all stunningly similar even though Jason has a different father from the other too.

Well, that's about all I have time for right now...and if you aren't a fan of PLL I am sorry that you won't understand this post at all probably.

Much Love.

Another weekend passes me by...

 Friday evening I was playing outside with Lily on the swing. Daniel was inside making dinner and BBQ sauce (so mostly making messes...). As Lily was swinging she looked off to the side and I saw this red blood spot on the white of her eye. I called Daniel out to look at it. Our friend Bill also stopped by so I asked him to take a look. My first thought was that she burst some capillaries. I called my mom to see what she thought. I also called my Daycare lady to see if she fell or played a little too hard. Everyone thought I should go ahead and give the Docs office a ring. This is where I kinda ran into a problem. I called and it rang and rang and rang...No answer, no vmail. It literally rang until the phone just stopped. Okay, next I tried the emergency room. I was getting a little upset this time, especially when the lady on the phone at the ER told me they can't give medical advice over the phone. Of course my brain has already leaped to worse case scenario and I'm worried she'll go blind. My husband suggested I call a former co-worker who is a nurse...figuring she can at least give her 2 cents if we should go to the ER or not. Lily was fine btw, she wasn't crying or scratching. In fact, she didn't seem to notice it at all. After talking to my friend I calmed down and we ended up talking crochet for a little bit. I decided to just watch her carefully, but relax and call the Doc in the morning.


We got up in the morning and had an easy start to the day. She seemed totally normal and her eye even looked a little better. That made this mama feel good. I called the Docs office, not really expecting anyone to be there and someone answered this time. I was able to take her in right away. We got dressed and ready drove to the Doc's office. I'm a nervous driver most days it seems anymore. I was driving MY old car, which I've somehow managed to become afraid of driving. It's not nearly as pretty as it used to be, it has some body damage that we have been meaning to go get fixed among other problems. We made it safe and sound though, no problems. We also didn't have to wait very long in the waiting room.


Miss Lily weighed in at 31 lbs. She got to do the big girl scale this time. They didn't do height this time around since we came for a specific reason. We'll do all of that next month at her two year appt. We sat in the waiting room and waited for the Doc. She played with some toys and checked out a book.

 She finally let me get a picture of her eye. It's wayyyy better in this picture than it was when I first noticed it. The Doc said we were all right with what it was. Burst capillaries. I asked the different causes of something like this....he said even laughing too hard can build enough pressure to cause this....also straining to poop. Either way I was glad she was okay. She did a good job.

We got home and had lunch, played a little bit more and she took a nap. That gave me time to work on a project. I'd made all of the pieces of a doll during the week and needed to sew her together, which is my least favorite part, mostly because of my not so great sewing skills.

I really had a great time making this doll. I tried sewing eyes on using yarn, but I just couldn't get it quite right, so I scrapped that idea and just went with a blank face. While this is a bit on the boring side, the person this gift is for is a small baby and it's probably best that I don't include small pieces that could be chewed off or swallowed. I choose the colors to match the little princesses' room. I'm so excited for Christmas. I hope she loves it as much as a baby girl can!

   Part of the reason I got this pattern was for the hair. I've never done hair like this on a doll before because quite frankly, I didn't realize HOW to do it...once I got the pattern I flipped straight to this part and had a half & half, DUH/A-HA moment. It was so easy...why hadn't I thought of that before??? I stuffed the bun a little bit extra and gave her puffed sleeves as my ode to Anne of Green Gables. The only weird thing about this pattern is the unevenish number of points it creates. When I was sewing the arms on, I was trying to fold the blanket part so I could space them evenly and realized it was a little off. Oh well, She's a lovely doll and I'm excited to make more!

 I'm happy to report that I started another doll last night and I've already finished the dress and arms. I'm going to need to hit up the craft store to get some more flesh colored yarn. I also need to look into the various shades I could use. I want to make some that are made to look like the Princesses...and then some that are just themselves. I found a great pattern for what I'm hoping will be the more boyish version of a doll...although I don't care who wants a doll boy or girl. As long as they are loved and happy, that's the most important thing I could ask for.

I'm getting excited for the quickly approaching craft show time. I need to lock in some more dates and get real about this happening this year. I spent a little bit of time over the weekend going through some of my items from last year and the even we did earlier this year. I needed to get an idea of what all I really need to make. I have a lot of left over items, so I'm not going to panic, I'm going to fill in gaps and make some fun items that I really hope will sell. I know this isn't a full proof way of making extra income, craft shows can go great or not, but I have so much yarn on hand already, I mind as well give it the old college try.

I somehow found a little bit of time this weekend to watch a few movies. I watched a few of the X-Men movies, The Hobbit, The Life of David Gale, and I didn't quite finish J. Edgar, but I was enjoying it. I also finally finished PLL book #4. Although I've already read the 5th book, I'm going to read it again now that I am going in order. I still have a ways to go before I run out. I'm super excited for the summer finale tomorrow, but sad the season went by so fast! At least by this time next month I will be part time and I can watch a full 6 season binge. Daniel will hate that. LOL.

Oh, according to GMA this morning I'm in the 1% of people still using LOL....my birthday is creeping in fast and that didn't help me in the 'I'm getting old' department.

My nephew had an accident and had to have surgery last week. He's doing well and he's been released. My sister in law and family will be staying with my father in law for a while. It's probably for the best and I wish him a very speedy recovery. I was excited to be able to send a stuffed monkey, coloring book and crayons up to his room to help keep him occupied during his stay. He's a strong boy, I know he's going to be okay. His mommy reports he's been a total champ!

I'm kind of going through this weird melancholy state right now where I'm not really able to get excited for anything. I'm not really sure if there's a good way to explain it in words, other than the bigger part of me is okay with things staying the same way they have been on a day to day basis...and there's just this little tiny voice that's begging for some kind of change...I can just barely hear it sometimes, but I know it's always there. Hopefully, I'll snap out of this blah mood soon...Starting today I'm working alone in the office and in less than a month I'll be part time, so that's something great to look forward too, but at the same time I see all of the things I need to do to get from A to B and I'm right back to blahhhhhhh....being able to just put it out in words does help a little bit, makes me feel not so lonely about the whole time. It's hard to explain to people that nothings wrong I've just lost my mojo for now.

Wow, I'd hate to end on such a downer, that's no good...um, let's see....OH! I've gone most of a week without drinking Mt. Dew and I didn't die or kill anyone! YAY!

Much Love.