Picking Up An Old Friend Again...

Remember me?

I ran low on yarn while working on this project (Rainbow Scrap Afghan) and had put it aside.

But yesterday I gathered it together to work on it again. 

 This is the back of the throw. 

 It has a beautiful texture all on its own.

I love the feel of this throw - it's so soft and surprisingly light-weight...so far.

It's worked in single crochet (front and back loops) with long treble crochet stitches thrown in for the pop effect.  

You can find this pattern in an Annie's Attic Crochet booklet (#879548) entitled, "scrap crochet" - the designer is Glenda Winkeman.  

I'm out of some of the green and blue shades and low on others so I will have to decide to go forward with the colors I have remaining or try to find the yarn. 

 Finding the yarn may prove to be difficult since I didn't write down or save the yarn labels. 

 Duh...will I never learn.

Wish me luck!

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Yes...I Built It!

While watching the Republican Convention last night I finished my...

 Color Burst Foot Stool Cover !

This is the first time in my life I have ever watched any convention.

I would suggest less "talking heads" and more actual convention coverage...I want to hear the speakers.

I really liked Mrs. Romney's speech - I would be scared to death to get up and talk in front of millions.

Back to my foot stool cover...all I can say is...

"I Built It !"

And I did just fine without any government assistance or regulation.

Others may have inspired me and created the stitches but it wouldn't exist if I didn't put the thought, time and effort into it.

God Bless America!

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My Doggie Plates

I love dogs!

God created the most perfect companion for mankind.

I found two beautiful dog plates to put into a lovely black iron plate wall hanger - a gift from my brother and sister-in-law.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a third dog plate so I substituted this golden fleur-de-lis plate.

I love to hang plates on walls.  

Do you have any plates displayed on your walls?

(Source: Pinterest)

We've never had a cat... and I'm more of a dog person... but isn't this black cat beautiful?

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Strawberry Reds

Worn strawberry red pastry rolling pin handles... memories of my Mother making pie dough. 

 Her old red biscuit cutter used so lovingly over the years. 

 Vintages items joined with my pretty red flower mug and red crocheted white daisy potholder.

First strawberry shortcake of the summer...oh, so delicious.

(Source:  Pinterest)

Here's another beautiful crocheted flower throw I found on Pinterest. 

 This may be my next project - if I purchase the pattern (here). 

 It's so unusual and beautiful.

(Source:  Pinterest)

Elmo taking a bath/shower!

LOL !

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Born To Shop

As long as it's not grocery shopping, I love to shop.

Friday we drove to Malvern, PA to visit Wolfe's Brass and Decorative Hardware to look at new entrance door locks and handles for the Pella front door, sidelights and storm door we recently ordered.

This is a fantastic store!

I had picked out a brass door handle/lock fixture on their website that caught my eye before our visit.

 They had a large selection to choose from but my favorite turned out to be the one I liked on their website. 

 I wanted to have a lifetime solid brass finish. 

 Pella suggested we do not buy any brass handles/locks from the big box stores as the quality for those products isn't as good (i.e., internal parts of plastic rather than solid brass) as ones at specialty stores.

I loved all the glass door and cabinet knobs they had displayed.

This one is stunning!

I love the black in the glass.

I think one of these would be beautiful on any of our doors.

I love bunnies! 

 Aren't these bunny book ends just sweet as can be?

These aren't glass... but I do have some fancy cabinet knobs I used in my kitchen. 

 Two turtle ones on our kitchen island...

And two bunnies on the cabinet above our stove.

So should I buy those daring bunny bookends?

OK...I must stop thinking about them and concentrate on the reason we visited the store in the first place. 

Focus on choosing an entrance door fixture Sandra!

(Source:  Pinterest)

But I want it all !

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Second Time's A Charm

Yes...practice makes a difference!

I liked adding the two new colors to the foot stool cover...black and yellow.

And I didn't even plan to have the three rounds of red come out even with the edge of the foot stool top. But it's just what I wanted.

The next step is to continue with my colors down the side of the foot stool. Instead of increasing stitches now I will decrease. 

 At least that's the plan.

I'm so pleased with how nice and flat the circle is on my second version. 

 I'm writing down the pattern for my Color Burst Foot Stool Cover as I go along this time too.

Yesterday while in Pinterest I saw a granny square lined basket that was so cute. 

 The thought popped in my little brain that maybe my first foot stool cover attempt - that failed miserably -would fit instead into one of my baskets as a liner. 

 I had this basket in our living room and the "cone head" hat fit perfectly in it.

I didn't have to throw it out!

I keep a pair of our slippers here. 

I'm so happy that all that work didn't go to waste.

Today I found a Ravelry companion iPhone app named "Wooly" that allows you to download photos from your iPhone directly into Ravelry. 

 I've used it already and it works great.

Just a note - it's not a free app - it costs $2.99. 

 If you crochet or knit, and you haven't joined Ravelry, you should because it's free and it is a wonderful tool for tracking your projects.

You all had great suggestions on what was in our huge box. 

 But nobody guess right!

We backed the pickup truck next to our deck to unload "it".

We put "it" on sliders to move through the porch and into the kitchen.

We tilted "it" and with Hubby below "it" and me above "it"... we carefully slid "it" down our basement stairs.

We made it to the bottom without breaking anything or hurting ourselves.

Hubby started to unpack it. 

All he had to do was put the roller feet and door handles on.

Have you guessed what "it" is yet?

"It's" my new Horn cabinet sewing cutting table that weighs almost 300 pounds!

"It" fits beautifully next to my sewing machine with still lots of room to open out the leaf.

That's all for today folks!  

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Winging It Doesn't Always Work

After all that work it wasn't a flat circle! 

 This is what I get for not bothering too lazy to look up the math formula for a flat circle.

I could smooth one side down and the other would pop up.

(It's not funny!)

OK - it is funny!

See how bad it is! 

 It's a hat for a cone head! 

 LOL !

I couldn't frog it because I had sewn the ends in already. 

 I even tried thread sewing the petals down. 

 I think I knew I had a problem when I had to do that but I guess I was hoping it would work out in the end. 

 Ha! 

 Fat chance!

Hubby and I had a good laugh over my cone head "hat".

Starting over....

Before I started my second foot stool cover I searched the Internet to find the math formula for crocheting a flat circle. 

 I found formulas for 12 stitch circles that were helpful and started again using the formula modifying it for my 8 stitch (8 petals) circle.

I worked out to ten rounds using the formula ~ and it didn't look bad ~ but I realized I would have to frog back to round eight on this circle and add additional increases to keep it nice and flat. 

It doesn't help that two of my yarns are thicker (red and green).

After the eighth round - for each additional round I crocheted two petals then checked it for "flatness" and added increases as needed to keep it flat.

I also added two more colors too - black and yellow and went to a larger hook (J).

So far it's working. 

 Nice and flat.

So even though I started off using the math formulas starting at the eighth round I still have to "wing it" but at least the formula got me off to a better start.

Can you guess what this is?

I'll tell you tomorrow!

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Sunday Drive in the Country

Sunday we took our travel van out for a drive to beautiful Lancaster Pennsylvania. 

 Our van has been in storage and hasn't been driven for a few weeks so we like to get it out. 

 Plus we wanted to get out of the house too.

Lancaster is about an hour drive from our home. 

 It's a well known Mennonite farming community in a huge valley with the most beautiful scenery.

On our way home we stopped in Strasburg (est. 1773) at the Strasburg corner store for a delicious home-made ice cream cone.   

 A single cone dip was very generous!

Click (here) for things to do in Strasburg.

Apparently much of the filming of the movie "Witness" with Harrison Ford was filmed at a near-by farm.  

(Built 1754)

On the way out of town I tried to take some photos of the historic homes from the van. 

 Not easily accomplished in a moving vehicle. 

 The day was overcast too so the photos are a little dark.

Strasburg is a historic town - just a crossroad in the countryside. 

 They have tiny front yards landscaped beautifully.

You can take a ride on a real stream engine train in Strasburg and visit this huge fantastic indoor and outdoor train museum.

Back to the adorable homes overflowing with pretty flower boxes and brick sidewalks.

America flags proudly displayed.

Even log homes.

Shuttered windows and cute porches.

Iron fences surrounding tiny flowers gardens with brick pathways.

More log homes with blooming flowers and patriotic flags flying in the wind.

We weren't the only ones out for a Sunday drive!

(Source:  Pinterest)

Such a cute, big eyed kitty!

Hope you enjoyed a little tour of Strasburg, PA!

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