Summer Storm

Summer Storm
Originally uploaded by JAMma Gramma

I love summer storms. They are exciting and outrageous and scary. The clouds building up and the not knowing exactly what is going to happen is exciting.

Cupcake Burger

Cupcake Burger, originally uploaded by JAMma Gramma.

OK - So I saw this on BAKERELLA's web site and thought that I just had to try this. They are so cute and they were a lot of fun to make. The bun is a cupcake and the burger is a brownie. Of course, the "burger" had to be topped off with ketchup, mustard and lettuce frosting. It's hard to see, but there are sugar cookie french fries in the back.

Wet Heads

Wet Heads, originally uploaded by JAMma Gramma.

Abby & Daddy having fun dipping their heads in the pool. Derek had bought Abby a slip and slide for her 5th birthday, but she really isn't the slip and slide kind of girl. So back to the store they went and came home with this pool. They had fun dunking their heads in the pool together, then shaking the water off trying to get each other wet.

Abby's Afghan

I started today at 3:00 am and left for Bismarck to help prepare breakfast for 250 National Guard members. This was a really early start to my day, and I hadn't really planned on staying up all day. I thought that I would get a good nap in somewhere. When I got home I mentally made a list of some of the things that I would like to get done today. Things like update my blog (I have lots of entries to make, just haven't taken the time to write them), update my flikr page, balance my checkbook, maybe dust and vacumn the house. Then I looked at this pile of crocheted squares that was waiting for me to sew them together and finish the afghan that I am crocheting for Abby. I thought that I would sew a few together and get a couple of strips done today.

Needless to say, I just couldn't put it down. I've been working on this project for quite a while now. According to the pattern, it was supposed to be 15 squares. When I had finished those first 15, I decided that it was not going to be big enough and I would need to make at least another 15. That was hard to get motivated for, especially since I had thought that I was going to be done the first time. It took quite a while to finish the next 15 squares, but they finally got done. Anyway, after working on this all day...here is the finished project. It was made from a pattern in Vanna's Choice, Heartfelt gifts book. I modified the pattern a bit. As I said, I doubled the size and I added a border. I'm kind of anal, and I like things to be more symmetrical, so the border made sense to me.

Here's the finished product. I can't wait to see Abby in May and give it to her. Purple and green are her favorite colors.

"a new year begins, and life once more offers the bright, pure joy of possibility." anonymous

I'm going to try to make a commitment to myself to blog this year. I started to last year, posted one blog and that was it. In my defense though, it was an extremely busy year. We were gone most weekends in the summer, then were trying to get the house ready to sell. That involved every spare minute that I had, getting things packed and moved. When the sale fell through in October, we did some redecorating and have decided to stay here. I still have about half of my household goods in storage. It started to snow, before we were able to move everything back in to the house and it hasn't quit yet. Then the holidays came and went, and now here we are in January again.

Today is the first time that I've had absolutely no commitments to be anywhere or do anything for a long time. I've enjoyed the day mostly being lazy, but I did manage to finish up a couple of projects that I had started. The first one is an afghan that I crocheted for Jeffrey. It's a sampler afghan. I found the pattern in "Vanna's Choice - Heartfelt Gifts to Knit & Crochet" pattern book.

The second project that I was finally able to finish is a crocheted top for Macy. I started this last spring and it ended up getting put aside when things got so busy. I'm hoping that it still fits, when I finally get to give it to her. This is a free pattern that I found on the web.