I am on a mission

See this bin? Its filled with bits and pieces of yarn from baby blankets and afghans I made over the years. I decided that the closet could use one less bin and to do that I came up with a GOAL-To make as many baby blankets as I can, using what I have - not buying any yarn to finish it off AND a PERSONAL CHALLENGE.

And I have alot of yarn.

Thus far, I have crocheted a total of eight baby blankets - 2 have been given away. One to baby Sam who really needs it in Brooklyn and the other to my pal Holli to give as a shower gift. Love that. 

Some of the blankets are straight up - one plain color on the blanket and another as an accent on the ruffle AND now I have made blankets that are pieced together with whatever leftovers I could find.

It has been an amazing process and I have to fight my conservative instincts in not getting really wild with the blankets, thus my CHALLENGE. Thus began the rebellion.  The varigated yarn is is the middle *gasp* of the square pattern to help stretch the blue. I left the edging less ruffly on this one. While boys can do ruffles sometimes its good to change it up, and I was kind of running out of blue.

I thought I'd stretch one out so you can see - as the artfully draped really don't show the whole picture. Now this is the next rebellion as you can see it was wild. I mean soft white totally different than white white. LOL. However, this will come as a shock - I was running out of white. So this pretty varigated yarn totally rocked it out and its near the to the corner when I realized the white wasn't going to make it. I saved a bit of the white for the itty bitty corner edge to make it in my mind cohesive and having enough varigated for the ruffle edging.

Getting quite bold here as the reds/pinks actually match better than what this light shows but if not, oh well - I love this one and I think its just so much fun because not only is varigated brought in but there are two other colors *gasp* I am getting quite edgy here.

And my last fav so far - I noticed that I have quite a lot of that green and pink going on. I do take requests or try to match the nursery if I can - and I must admit I quite like being the rebel and mix and matching the colors. I have always been worried that if its too wild maybe it wouldn't get used. Know what? I think I'm over my bad self about that. LOL. 

And here is one in progress. I am a one trick pony as I use the same pattern each and every time. Why? Because I don't have to think about it and its very relaxing not to have to figure out what a pattern is trying to tell me. This is called the crazy brick stitch and the highest count is 6.  It starts as a VEE and turns into a SQUARE. It is then completed, except for the edging. No piecemeal, stitching necessary. Love that. 

Tomorrow I shall attempt to share the pattern if you like. 

I need to work out the logistics. 

*laughing*

this should be good

Busy Busy papers

I'm not sure if this Bella Blvd paper could get any busier but I love it. It's so much fun to look at and see all the cute non-scary Halloween stuff. I tempered it with some less busy stuff and a good strong photo that pops off the papers. Adorable grandkidlets helps. Actually all is Bella Blvd except for the Recollections washi tape that helps to bring your eye to the photo and that adorable one-eyed purple people eater that is on a spring. Different colored sparkly thickers bring it all in. Sully 'n Boo. Doesn't get any cuter than that.

Go graphic!

I love all kinds of designs but I have to say I love graphic.

It's clean and regimented.

Sometimes its fun to line things up and sometimes its fun to mess things up.

And I decided that lining things up would be fun and perfect.

I had originally printed the 4 instagram photos on 4x6 photo paper

as well as the 4x4. And I had every intention of leaving it that way.

Until I looked closely at the photos.

Those kidlets totally crack me up.

And their posing is of super hero standards for sure so I felt 

those photos would be showcased more whacked up.

And they are and now each one can take the stage.

Jillybean soup wins the day!

Studio Calico stamp, arrows, geo tag and astrik.

The thickers are now missing some E's.

Washi tape and paper strips bring it all down.

Watercolor and enamel paints oh my

Some more instagram love going on and its a fun photo of Amelia. I used bits and pieces of left over papers for this and love and the transparency was a fun addition. I started the base with flinging paint around - 3 colors; grey, pink & reddish mist. I forgot to take a photo of it mostly because it was taking FOREVER to dry and I was getting annoyed. LOL.

Most of the paint has been covered up.

 What I wanted to point out was the golden color - I took the idea from Ashli (SoaphouseMama)  when she used it to highlight this page she was making and it added that little something to it. I used it at the bottom to help highlight that area. This was the 3rd alpha thickers I pulled out - getting frustrated with the lack thereof of alphas I needed. I did a play on words of the title (thanks April) in order to make it work. I only had 2 t's and needed one for cute. And I lacked an E so therefore whacking off part of an ampersand - and wa-la an E (I didn't have a 3 in the pack). Woo hooo!!! The A at the top can start off the title or just be A for Amelia (AND she's 2 in the photo). Genius. LOL!

And then a splash at the top to bring it all together. Its really not hard, just smoosh your brush in the color and then smear it where you want it. I am happy to report that I am slowly working my way through a stash of flowers that I've had forever. And I still can't remember the mfg. of the huge one - I do know its not one of the top flower makers.

Doing more stuff I never thought I'd do.....

 Everyday at Crossfit is adventure and its fun to see what I'm going to accomplish that day. The workouts change however, the people in the class mostly remain the same; coming and going as schedules allow. The people that workout in the boxes are Crossfit's best weapon.

Let me tell you about my first day. I walked into the box and there warming up were some goodlooking, very fit, YOUNG people. Heavy Sigh. To my shock, when they unbent from their various warm ups, they introduced themselves, and then chit-chatted while continuing their warmups.

AND then came that first for-real workout. 

Some of it was a blur, okay ALL of it was a blur, however, I remember the end because I'm huffing and puffing away at situps and I hear my name being called to come on- because I know you'll be surprised that I was last. I only had 9 to do and I'm flat on my back and struggling to get up. WELL..... one of the ladies runs over and holds my feet-because now I'm flopping around like a fish on dry land, another lady flops down beside me (remember this was after doing HER workout) and says "do it like this" and commences to sit-up with me, and another one counts - which is a good thing because anything above ONE by then was a crapshoot.

Well how can you NOT finish! 

I completed that workout, totally exhausted, crazy amazed that I did it and finished it.

And I couldn't wait for the next day. How could you NOT with support like that.

And that my friends is the crossfit community.

I'm not quite sure what I was doing here except lifting and my weight is increasing. (I know-shocked me too).

And I believe this is some sort of press its 45# which is a new PR for me.

Back squats are not my favorite mostly because I don't do them well. I'm kinda like a weeble, I keep tipping the wrong way.

And a Modified rope climb. The last time I climbed a rope was in high school. We'll just mosy past the math on that one. I start on the floor and pull myself into an upright position.  Needless to say It was a struggle at first

until I finally figured it out. I had to PULL. doh! I did take a timeout to do the happy dance because I was all like dayam I did it. 

Wall balls are everyone's favorite. NOT.

 Along the wall are my new pals; Joan to the right (we started together) then Paulla to my left, Lisa and Kristy.

See I did it so fast they couldn't catch the toss. LOL! Females need to hit first line. I decided that I just need to be taller.

And wipers - its just like it sounds you lift your legs and sweep side-to-side while remembering to keep your arms and most especially the weight up.

Honestly I had visions of a reverse faceplant here because I remember my arms were like wet noodles and getting the weight up in the air was a total nailbiter for me at this point.

I also figured this is how the trainers get all the chalk up off the floor. 

Instagram love for your pages

I'm becoming very fond of instagram photos and printing them

in a square format is the key. These are 4x4 size and

 I forgot I was putting them on an 8x8 page. 

However, a bit of tilting and overlaying solved the problem.

Okay - raise your hand if you know these are Christmas pictures.

My hand is not raised and I had to ask. Sigh.

So much for my powers of observation.

Anyhoo, the papers sort of work for Christmas as the base paper could be 

Christmas trees and the red basic grey also works.

The rest is Studio Calico - I'm trying to use January's kit because

February will be here really really soon.

Like tomorrow.

Can't wait.

When you're mojo up and leaves

What's a scrapper to do.

This happened for several days. Ohhhhh....

I'm baaaackkk!

SORTOF.

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Had a breakthru today and sometimes when the mojo

packs its bags and heads out I 

haunt the galleries, videos and old mags that I still have

and then when that doesn't work....

I go back to the basics.

There's nothing snappy about this page except that its done.

It looks great.

Its a bit different for a baby page.

Working with some instagram photos - I printed them 4x4 size.

Dug into Studio Calico for the majority of embellies

except for the bottle cap I purchased at a flea market and I'm 

running out now. Have to hunt for more.

Little bit of washi and those adorable saying strips.

The check is an aside because everyone in the Murphy family

loves diners. Well who doesn't really.

So little Sam is grandbaby #9.