my crafting/ desk tour video

This is part 2 in a series of videos I made for you guys to make up being m. I. A.  I hope that you guys enjoy this is a tour of my desk and crafting area.  There will be another video later thi s week :)

update. (life house surgery ect)

It has been a blur of a summer!  I have been running my butt off.  I also had surgery and a couple weeks ago I got cRaZy sick...like temp of 103.4 sick!!!  I woke up and my temp got that high I called Benji home and he took me to the e.r. They said I had strep and Anaplasmosis (a tick born illness that makes you run crazy high fevers and your hole body hurt so bad you can hardly stand it)  It was more painful then childbirth I kid you not!  It took me a bit to get past that but I am feeling mostly back to normal.  I had calmister all last week and so four kids was too much to get much done.  :)  Besides being sick here is the updates on what is going on. 

I finally found fire monster a dresser.  It was from a little place 30 miles away they carry antiques and refurbished furniture.  I love all the little drawers on top the more I can break down the organizing of furniture the more likely she will keep it clean.

 I also grabbed this one for max james.  I Love this dresser.  It is super thick real wood.  This is a lifetime piece.

 We got new flooring (which happened in the middle of my strep/anaplamosis ) My old floors looked like this.

 New laminate flooring looked like this.

 Here is the dining room area.

 This is it now.

  The kitchen.

 This was the before long view of the kitchen

 This is the after.  I also moved the drafting table to the livingroom because my I got the rolling cart.

 The drafting table is where the sofa table was and the sofa table moved to the wall under the photo gallery.

There was lots of snuggles esp since someone finally fell in love with her little brother.  They have bonded and are thick as thieves.

 This guy has kept me busy being naughty as all get out.  I love him to pieces and can't believe he is almost 1!!!  Where does the time go.

 My flowers have gone insane and I have to show them off a bit because I killed everything I ever had before these.  Look at those petunias!

 My pansies and violets haven't faired as well as the weather got too hot so next year I will plant differently

 My begonias are insane!!!!   That is a bench they are on.  My impatients are doing great too

 Ben and Fire monster planted a hummingbird garden from seed.  This corner had chicken wire and the people who lived here before had it full of moldy leaves and dog crap! Gross!!!  So benji cleaned it out and they planted this.  It is coming along nicely.

 There is zineas, cosmos, batchler buttons,

 I also started knitting again.  I am currently working on show off stranded socks.  I am using pagewood farms yarn in peaceful.  I knit a pair of show off stranded socks for calvin and loved the pattern so much I had to make myself a pair.

That is mostly it.  I am going to try to get back to posting more regularly now that school will be starting in a few weeks.  I hopefully can stay healthy and get back into a routine :)

My comments are up and working again so please feel free to comment I would love to hear from you!

what I have been up to...

I have not had tons of fun things going on just busy summer business with my kids home. This wild man has been keeping me busy he finally has one tooth.

 This was a few weeks ago.  He still only has one but it is bigger and he looks like a little bitty hillbilly.

 and he has been causing trouble nonstop.  This is him sitting in my kitchen cupboard throwing things over his shoulder. (this is the cupboard my husband put the latch on btw)

 I am mama to one of the cutest little pitchers ever!  That is a three evening a week thing.

 I have been sprucing up the outside of my home. . This is the front steps.

I finally found a use for what we have dubbed "the potato bear".  It was a wedding gift from my mil.  We have had it in random places in all of our homes we used to keep potatoes in it and stub our toes on it..that was about it This is a much better use to hold my beautiful tuberous begonias.  ( that is one of my new favorite coffee cups from walmart I love it this quatrefoil one and I have the blue graphic one too)

 This is the front.  I am going to plant some hastas and other things in front but haven't got that far.

 These guys started out up by the house but they needed more sun.  I have always had a black thumb but these guys have stayed alive for 2 months!!

 This last weekend I also planted 3 hanging baskets this one in the front of impatiens.

 I have also been working on the back deck.  These guys have also lasted two months.  I have the palette Adirondack bench my hubby built me a few years ago back here. 

I planted these guys in the first round in april.  I used some beach buckets for planters and drilled holes in the bottom of the buckets for drainage.

 I love the pansies and violets.  They remind me of my grandma.

 This is the other half of our deck so far.

 This is another plant I potted that has lasted two months.  The two big pots on the deck had hyacinths originally and I transplanted those to the back yard for next year and added the decorative grass. 

I also have the other two new hanging plants I potted last weekend hanging back here.  One on either side o the door.  You can see the other in the picture with the grill.  They are petunias and I can see them outside my kitchen window. I can't remember what the ones in this picture are.  We chose these two because hummingbirds love them.  

 I like to sit out here mornings and evenings with my kiddos.  This is max last night watching his daddy mow.

 We were just hanging out relaxing. :)

That is all I have been up to.  Trying to fight back the mountain of laundry and pick up the things my kids litter through the house continually, while finding time to mow the yard. We planted a hummingbird garden in the back corner this weekend and if things start to grow I will let you know. But this has been my summer thus far.  What have you guys been up to.

Chunky cozy knit throw

A while back I made one of the arm knit throws and I hated it.  It was pretty much worthless.  Yes it was chunky and quick but it snagged all the time and was good for nothing but sitting there.  So I decided to unravel it and redo it with my own pattern. 

 I love how it came out.

I love how this came out.

It is soft and cozy and I love the way it looks.

 It is chunky and fuzzy and perfect.

Everyone loves it.

 Cozy chunky knit throw

Materials needed: size 50 needles

6 skeins homespun quick and thick yarn.

finished product was 42''x62''

guage was 4x8 for 6''

Start by taking 3 skeins of yarn at a time and winding them into a ball.  This will make it easier to knit from since you will be knitting three strands at a time.  It will make a huge ball.  this is after I had knit about half of this one.  

Cast on 30 stitches and knit across row one.  

(you can do a few extra stitches if you want it wider and shorter you can cast on 35) 

purl the next row.  Keep alternating knit and purl rows to make stockinette stitch. When you come to the end of that ball wind the other three skiens and tie in and keep knitting stockinette  until reached desired length then bind off. 

I found the easiest way to weave in loose ends with to just reach through and weave with my fingers.  

 This was super quick I knit it up in the length it took to watch two movies with my girls.  :)  I hope you guys knit this and It keeps you and yours warm and cozy :)

home progess (revamped lamps and diy) and back porch

I have still been working on pulling things together around my new home.  One thing that came up was that the old residents had put in a dimmer switch down stairs and they aren't rated to work with florescent or led bulbs so it was getting hot!!  Very alarming.  So a electrician came and put in a regular switch.  That left us with only bright lights down stairs so we moved our floor lamp down to the family room and I went to the goodwill and lucked out on finding two matching ugly lamps.  These were originally dark green with a flower painted on them. I took the little doohickey off that goes around the light bulb painted them krylon sea glass and got two lamp shades from walmart for 12$ each. 

I have them on either side of the couch.

I think they are cute and give off the perfect amount of light.

This lamp was too cute to pass up so I grabbed it a shade for 7$ at walmart too.

Another project that went up in our livingroom dining room area was this.  I took a frame that used to be above our bed in the old house lined it in chicken wire and spray painted it in the same color as the lamps.  I think it is cute and it pulls things together well.

The weather has occasionally been cooperating lately,  So we have been turning out attention to the outside space.  We got some plants to add color. A few for the front step.

And some for the back.  We got hyacinths, pansies, violets, snap dragons, and tulips.  I will be planting the tulips and what not in the yard once the ground is ready.

I also got two of these cute guys and painted them.

We moved the palette bench up to the deck.  We gave the deck a good thorough power washing and fixed any lose spindles.  I took some beach  buckets and drilled holes in the bottoms and we used those as planters I think it is super cute.

We also cleaned up all the cigarette butts, dog poop, sticks and other junk from the yard.  Last but not least we hung a baby swing from the deck for this little guy.

I would say it was a big hit.

Have a good day guys.