Baby blankets

Two more finished blankets and I am almost through all of the yarn that I have in my closet.  Well, at least almost through all of the bits and pieces of it.  I still have a few skeins of white and other things that I'll actually use when I make wedding gifts and that kind of thing, but these are the leftovers that have been given to me and have been left from various projects and have been too good to throw away, but not big enough for a full sized blanket.  And I've looked and haven't ever really found anything for "scrap" blankets that I've ever thought looked nice, that have ever looked like anything other than what they were, a way to get rid of scraps.  Somehow it didn't seem right to put that much effort into making something that looked like it was made of junk.  :)  Anyway, I've been happy with the results of all this, and I think it's been nice to "gift" people I know with all these little blankets.

Bridget asked me what I was going to do once all the yarn was used up, since I would now be known as the lady who gives baby blankets, and once it's gone when people have babies, what am I going to do, pat them on the head and say "congratulations, too bad I used up all my yarn..."  Heh.. I might have to keep my eyes peeled for yard sale type yarn.  Yikes, what am I thinking?  :)

Little pink and white afghan, for the Cleverlys

Full view, this one only took a day and a half.

This is oneof those bubble ones, green bubbles on one side, white on the other

Full size shot of the bubble ones.

Ladybug blanket

I just wanted to post a picture of this little ladybug blanket before I forgot to do it.  It's been fun to make, and even though it was cute enough without them, adding the little family of ladybugs in the corner makes it adorable, to me.  :)  Plus it's using up some more of the stockpile of bits and pieces of yarn, too small of amounts to do anything full sized, but just the right amount sto do small baby blankets.  This little blanket is just right for tucking around baby in a carseat.

This blanket is kind of a light sage green and off white, the ladybugs are black and red.  They look really nice on the green and white background.  They're just a little pop of color.  It was a little bit of a pain to make because there were something like 150 or so little squares that had to be put together, but it was worth it.

Plus I've learned how to add captions to the pictures in my blog.  :)

Ladybug baby blanket

closeup of ladybug family

Karen is finally coming. :)

So I have finally been able to talk Karen into coming for a visit.  She will be here tomorrow night and I will take Friday off of work so we can hang out.  We actually don't have any real plans, so we'll play and laugh and just act like kids again.  I don't work on Mondays so we actually have four whole days to be silly.  I think that's enough time to drive Gary and the kids crazy.

Other than that, I still am not sleeping very well. I have a hard time going to bed at night, and there are times I wake up with my heart pounding as I think of what MIGHT have happened to Jason, and what might have happened to a whole lot of other people if Jason hadn't been where he was.  But overall it's beginning to get better.  Except I notice that I lose my temper easier, and I really have no excuse for that.  Hopefully I'll get nicer.

I have gone through the pictures on my phone and I was happy to find that a lot of the photos of afghans that I have made in the past, which I saved in my comcast folders (erased by a stupid hacker) were still there.  I am going to post them here, so I apologize to everyone for having to look at them, they're not new but they're a few of the blankets that I have made over the last few years and given away.  It's not all of them, but at least it's a few.  I can't believe the pure maliciousness of someone just deleting emails for no reason like that.  Oh well, what's done is done.

Jack's blue and white one, I made one like this
only orange and white for Isaac.

Shawna's, for her wedding

For Jared and Shylene's baby

Alice's white blessing blankie 

Isaac's red white and blue blankie

One more finished blanket

This one is for Nate and Sarah B.  Gary will take it to Utah when he goes.  It's pretty lightweight, but it'll be a nice "tuck around" one for the carseat.  Very pink, but that'll be good since they're having a girl..

The weekend of July 20

It's been a long, tense weekend that I won't soon forget.  Along with the rest of the world I have watched the world change yet again, and not for the better.  But on the other hand I have seen acts of heroism that have shown what people are really made of.

I found out that my son was the officer who arrested the shooter.  I know the split-second timing of the events could have been different, and the outcome could have been so horrendous.  How will this affect him in both the weeks and months to come, and in the long term?  Will it devastate him?  Will he be able to overcome the horror?  I'm kind of scared for him.  I know he's strong, but who can deal with that kind of terror without losing some part of himself?  I'm worried about that.  I hope he knows himself well enough to know if and when he will need help.  I hope that help will be available for him.

But most of all, I am so proud of him that I can hardly breathe.  He was afraid, so scared (and rightly so) but he ran into the fires of hell not knowing if he would come out alive.  He ran in, not knowing if he would see friends and family again.  He ran in to fulfill his duty as a police officer, an oath he took as an officer of the city of Aurora.  He simply put his own life on the line in order to attempt to put an end to the act of terrorism that was going on in a place where people were supposed to be safe.  A place where children and families were supposed to be able to have a good time together.  A place where a lunatic had descended and opened fire.

Bless your heart, Jason.  Words will never be able to express my gratitude for your willingness to put yourself in the line of fire in order to make this world a better place for the rest of us. I love you so much, and I'm also grateful for the forces that kept you safe.

I think I'm becoming addicted.

I have two more of the blankets finished and come to think of it, I only needed one more.  Plus I've already started another one, but that's okay because I've found out about another woman at work who is 20 weeks pregnant.  (Someone had to tell me.  She does NOT look pregnant.  I don't know why other women don't even look pregnant when they're halfway through. By that time people were always thinking I was ready to pop...)

Anyway, the green one that was supposed to have ladybugs ended up NOT having them because Bridget observed something about it:  The yarn and design are too delicate for the ltitle appliques that I made.  The ladybugs would have totally overpowered the blanket and although it would have still been okay, it is actually a pretty little blanket, and the ladybugs need to go on a cute blanket.  That will make sense to some of the people who read this, but not everyone.  Here it is, folded in quarter.  The edge of this one is all lacy and pretty, added a lot of visual interest, I think.

Anyway, the other one that I just finished today is another one of those bubble ones, this time mostly blue with a little bit of "soft white" added in.  When I started making it, I made it WAY too small, so I had to add a lot more border to it, but that's okay because I think it turned out kinda cute that way.  This one should be nice and warm.

And all is not lost as far as the ladybugs go.  I have some little squares in light green and off white that I'm going to put together in some sort of pattern and attach the ladybugs.   It's a heavier yarn and a "cuter" look as opposed to pretty.  A better fit, thanks Bridget!

At work I've been accepted into a study for type 2 diabetics, something about, "What works better to help maintain blood sugar control, education or exercise?"  Duh...   Anyway, the group I got put on is the "exercise" group, so I get to use the gym at the university for five months.  Yay!  Plus five or six weekends they will put me on a study diet, which is not that great but at least it means someone else will cook for me for three days each time.  I've done that before for a different study, and although the food isn't wonderful, it's edible and it's certainly easy.  Gary doesn't mind either, because it measn he gets to eat whatever he wants that weekend too.  (Boxed macaroni and cheese, pickled beets, all kinds of nasty stuff.)

And on a totally unrelated note, why is it that I can be dozing off in front of the TV all evening, but when it's time to actually go to BED I am wide awake and I could stay awake till 3 a.m. with no problems whatsoever?  Do we ever outgrow that "oh goodie, I can stay up as late as I want to!" mentality?

That's all I've got to say about that.

Getting ready for the 4th, and finishing another baby afghan

So I'm working on Monday so I can get an extra day off while the Utah families are in town.  I already have the 4th of July off, but since no one will have arrived yet, it'll be nice to take my regular day off on a day other than Monday and use it when we can all be together.

The girls (Melissa, Andrea, Carolyn, Audrey, Bridget, and I) are going to Taco Bell on Tuesday so I have no idea what the men folk will eat.  Hopefully something disgusting so I can feel all justified.  :)  (Like I need justification...)  Tradition says we should have a cookout for the 4th, but it's supposed to be almost 100 degrees all week and that just doesn't sound fun to me.  I would rather have monster deli sandwiches that everyone can build for themselves with a nice platter of fresh fruit and some chips.  That actually sounds really good to me.  Especially if I can find some nice ripe avocados.

Also, I have finished another baby blanket.  I think that's six done and at least one more to go, maybe two but I'd have to find that list of all the pregnant women I know that I'd like to give them to.  This one is really thick and warm, perfectly sized to tuck around a baby in a car seat.  And since there's  alot of pink in it it's obviously for a girl.