Dear Mom

(I thought I should share this here. I wrote this before her funeral and it went into the pamphlets that were handed out before the service.)

Dear Mom,

It is so hard to believe you're gone. Your presence remains so strong and I think that's because you made such a lasting impression on every person who knew you. If someone knew you for a few minutes, they were already a friend. If someone knew you a little longer, they quickly became family. You didn't just touch lives… you held them until you found a way to make them better.

The love and support you have shown me are so beyond measure that most people have never experienced an unconditional love like yours. People just don't know what it's like to have someone see the best in them immediately - and always. But I do, because you have always seen me in that light. I have been lucky enough to know this love my entire life and watch joyfully as you spread that love to anyone I welcomed into my life. It's amazing to watch what happens when someone who has never been loved that way gets the chance to experience it with you.

You are the epitome of love. You defined it, as it defined you. Our dreams became your dreams. With you, no dream was ever too big…and no achievement was ever small. You believed in us enough to convince us to believe also. Selfish was not in your dictionary… your concerns were always for everyone else's happiness. You were absolutely devoted to us all and selfless almost to a fault. I am glad you pursued this surgery in hopes of a better life. It may be the only thing you ever did for yourself. We support your choice and accept the outcome because we know you just couldn't handle the pain another day and needed to take this chance at a future.

There are simply not enough words to express how much I love you and how much I will miss you. The loss is indescribable. However, I will find peace because I know your suffering has ended. All the pain you have dealt with for 30 years, the worst of it unfortunately being at the very end… it is all gone now. Your body always held back your spirit, but now you are free…free to fly with the angels. I love you, Mom, forever and always.

Love,

Your Daughter, Christie

Sad

For those who don't yet know, my mom died unexpectedly on August 30th. It has really turned life upside down for me. I am starting to get back into the swing of things, spending time with friends and working on the new rental property in Estes Park...as well as Ian and I are moving in with my dad. We are keeping busy and there is lots going on... but I am just plain sad and really haven't felt like blogging. I will be back as soon as I'm feeling up to it.

Pattern Model

Can you believe it? The other day I got to be a pattern model :) I modeled several things for Marlaina (Marly) Bird who is a great knit/crochet designer. One of them is definitely getting used on the pattern... I'm the official face to the "Serendipity Shawl" for Bijou Basin Ranch :)

 

 

 

Probably the only time I'll ever model in my life lol :) But it was fun!

Random Life Update

My mom is having spinal fusion surgery this coming Monday the 22nd. Really hoping it helps her... it is also a scary thing for me because I feel like I'm seeing into my own future, since my degenerative condition is the same as hers (thanks, heredity) :-P She will be in the hospital all week, so I'll be hanging around there a lot. Maybe getting some projects done?!

Now for some more lighthearted things. I went to Charming Charlie with my sis-in-law last weekend and got 5 new dresses!!! Mostly with our Hawaii trip in mind (coming up in November), but I can also wear them here for the rest of the summer, and in fall with my denim jacket :) I only took a pic of one in the dressing room... snagged this baby from the clearance rack for $10!

I'll try to take pics of the others as I wear them. I got a purple dress, a blue, a red, and a white/pink. Yay! Phoebe has been super cute lately. When she snuggles like this I say she is in "stuffed animal mode":

Also, Amber gave me this chair and I put it in the guest room instead of the LoveSac (which was just too big for the room). Phoebe has been glued to the chair since its arrival!

Amber and I got together on Sunday. She continued working on her granny square blanket and has 3 squares done now:

As for me, I just finished up Ian's iPad sleeve today!! Now affectionately called the "iSweater" :)

As you can see, it's his color! LOL. He came home from work and already matched it. AND our house, apparently. So yeah, definitely the right color choice for him. That's about all the news for now.

Give & Get :)

First of all, we did go visit my father-in-law, Neil, last night. We got to hear some updates on his treatments and of course I gave him his blanket :) He is so exhausted from chemo, but even so, he managed to seem pretty excited about his blanket. He thought it was super soft, LOVED the colors, and said he would use it a lot :)

I'm so glad he liked it!!

When we came home and checked the mail, I had a little package waiting for me - the case I ordered from Etsy for my circular needles & DPN'S! Couldn't wait to try it out!

I'm really happy with it. Although I do already have a crochet hook roll, this girl makes them too.. but if she were to make one that took crochet hooks across the bottom as well as DPN's and then circulars up behind those, I would be all over that so I could have it all in one! I made the suggestion, so we'll see :) For now, I'm loving this.

Finished Blue Blanket

Finished the blanket for my father-in-law! I am so surprised - it only took me ten days to make! I wanted it to be quick and it definitely was! :) I managed to finish it up while we were camping this past weekend.

Working on the blanket at our campsite.

Ian trying it on for size in the tent (his dad is slightly shorter than him).

All finished!! Took photos in this pretty spot.

I haven't given it to him yet - hopefully tomorrow. I'll definitely post again when I get photos of him with it!

Bunch O' Stuff

As part of reorganizing the guest room, we went through the bookcase and got that organized too. Do you think we like books about Colorado?

Sat at Starbucks with Ian for a while yesterday and worked on the blanket :)

Got to use the new room today! Amber came over to knit. All 3 cats joined us. Can you spot them?

Big Orange was particularly helpful.

And some more blanket progress:

Neil's Blanket Blues

I put my other projects on hold this week to make a blanket for my father-in-law, Neil, who is going through chemo and is always cold. I finally found a pattern I wanted to use to I just went for it. It's been working up really quickly. I am half done with it now after just 4 days. :) Here has been the progression so far, starting with a picture of my father in law :)

That last one is the most current photo but I worked on it a lot more tonight and it's now half done (which is three pattern repeats)... well, half done according to the pattern. But when I get to the "done" point, I need to see how tall the blanket is and decide if I want to make it a little bit longer. I want it to cover feet to shoulders comfortably on him. I should have this done in just 4 more days or so though, assuming the extra yarn I ordered arrives quickly!

New Guest Room (Again)

Ever since we moved into this house, our guest room has been through several phases. First, it was the typical guest room with the double sized bed from our previous home. Then it became my massage room, and I let my massage table double as a guest bed (which hasn't been well received, lol). Since I am really not doing many massages, I wanted to change the room again. Yet I didn't want to go back to having the double bed because it takes up the entire room and it never gets used unless we have a guest staying with us. So, I set out to repurpose the room.

First I had to organize the closet so I could make room to store my massage table in it (just in case I want to give a massage!) This meant reorganizing all of my knitting & crochet stuff because it has really gotten out of hand. I pulled it all out of the closet and this was what I had to deal with:

Yikes. Well my good buddy Amber showed me the coolest stacking bins she got at Wal-Mart... so I went through everything and used some of those to get it all organized.

See? plenty of room to have my massage table in the back and all my bins stacked up in front. To the left of the bins is a reusable shopping bag which I put ALL of my project bags into. Here's a closer view of the bins:

In the top two small bins I have a bunch of small supplies like buttons, zippers, stitch markers etc as well as some spare straight needles (which I don't use anymore, but keep around in case I teach anyone to knit). I also have my cases that hold my circular needles, DPN's and crochet hooks. In the two deeper bins I have my yarn "stash", all of which is being used in current projects or a planned project that is coming up soon. In the bottom bin I have some yarn for upcoming projects, but mostly it is filled with my scrap yarn:

I did all of this yesterday. This morning Ian helped me go through the bookcase in the room and he got rid of a bunch more books - even priced them to be ready for my garage sale in a couple weeks :) We made room so that all of our Colorado books can go on one shelf (we have a TON!) and the top shelf is reserved for all of my craft books.
Oh and in the closet, we went through all the linens on the top shelf and kept only what we need, which left me some extra room for my sewing machine & sewing box too!

I'm planning to buy a few more bins so I'll be able to expand my stash and also include room for fabric and other sewing supplies :)

Then we moved out the headboard and all the massage room stuff, and brought over my LoveSac and IKEA couch which have been stored in my parents' basement. Now I have a nice lounging space AND the IKEA couch makes a VERY comfy bed.

I'm happy with the results! This will be a great spot to have friends over to knit, sew or do other projects.. it's a great "me" space when Ian's video games get too loud too :) And as a guest room, I KNOW this 'bed' is really comfortable (have slept on it myself for weeks at a time) whereas the massage table wasn't. It was a lot of work the past couple of days but I'm so glad I did it, and so glad my wonderful husband and dad helped me out with all the heavy lifting!

The best part is that, other than the bins for oganization, I didn't have to buy anything. I get to use stuff I already had :)

6 Squares Done

I have my first six squares done for my parents' blanket!








I'm going to be putting this aside for a little while to make a simpler blanket for my father-in-law who is going through chemotherapy and is always cold. I'll post pics once I get started on it!

Recent Projects!

One thing I've been keeping busy with lately- lots of crochet and knitting projects! I haven't posted about any of them in a long time so here I'll catch up on them!




A little something I am working on :) Some birthday gifts for my mom-in-law and sis-in-law. Can't reveal what they will be just yet. I'm using cotton yarn for the first time and I love all the awesome colors available in this brand (Lily Sugar'n Cream). This is the color combo chosen by my MIL and I just love it!

I'm also currently working on a big blanket project for my parents. Here is one square...





I made two whole squares and then decided to do some in tandem, so I've been working on the next four all at once:





These four are almost done now and I'll post a new pic once they are:) then I'll have six... The pattern has 36 of these so I'll do 6 at a time for the rest of it. Here is just an example of what I'm making...






I am using similar colors but in a different order, and my squares do have borders around them.
So this is a BIG project for me which I hope to complete within 3 months.

The last thing I'm working on is a cabled iPad sleeve for the hubby:





That's all I have to show for it right now. I already finished my own though, and I haven't shown that yet either so here it is!





That project was great- I learned cabling AND magic loop method!






While my friend Chrissy was in town, I whipped up these crocheted headbands for my aunt and grandma to wear to their Red Hat Society outings.






That's it for now but as you can see I've been enjoying myself!

First Sewing Project

Another craft to share! A while back I bought a sewing machine on sale knowing that my friend Amber (the knitting genius) wanted to make project bags and sew with me. She was so great at teaching me knitting that I assumed she could probably take a sewing idiot like me and get me to create something... and I was right!

We got together for a couple of days and worked side by side as she walked me through making a project bag (and she made one too).



The VERY FIRST THING I had to do was sew on the zipper!! Not an easy start!



But I just love how it turned out...





Thanks Ambs!!! Now I can sew!! Well, some! And I have many more projects I'd like to tackle when I can find the time :) For starters I want to make a zipper pouch to keep inside this bag for small items. I already have two more fabrics that go with these so that's what I'm planning to use!