HOPEFULLY SORTED

 

Oh my! What an ordeal it has been to rectify my email issues! I simply couldn't deal with it for a few days as it was too much for my exhausted brain to deal with. I was a bit like an ostrich. After a while I realised how isolated I was without my email access,  which is absolutely ridiculous. However, my only social interaction, apart from family , is " talking " with bloggers.  I cleaned out my inbox, outbox and every other box but I still didn't have enough storage. Eventually I worked out that it was probably all my gallery pics, then I found a heap of videos I had of my eldest grandson when he was younger. After much ado and many hours, alternating between the main computer and my laptop, hubby and I cleaned out the videos after putting them on a memory stick and voila! There was no way that Microsoft was contactable with an actual human to talk to. There was a 1300 number but that was just a highly caffeinated robot speaking a million words a minute which I barely understood and had to listen to 3 times before I realised they were saying to go to a website! No option to speak with anyone! Grrrrr. My BP was sky high that day.

So, after all that hoohah , I got motivated to finish my grandson's Crocheted blankie. Ta dah! Finished last night.

I haven't felt like reading much the last few weeks but I did finish this book and have started another. My reading mojo has now returned.

I am sorry if I missed any emails during my hiccup and hope to restore my version of social interaction now. Thanks for visiting.

CATCH UP

 I haven't posted for about 5 weeks as my mum had a fall playing table tennis and broke her hip. After 2 weeks in hospital followed by a week in rehab then a transfer back to hospital with an infection , she came home on Monday. Juggling almost daily hospital visits taking dad to see mum , ensuring he had everything he needed at home alone, and hubby who was unwell the first week or two, I had no time or energy to crochet or sew anything. 

Now I am catching up with all my overdue appointments before needing to take mum to her post operative checkups and dad to any medical appointments.  I have not been sleeping much, an ongoing issue which has worsened, and my BP is currently being remanaged.  I had an iron infusion yesterday and have been experiencing a few FMS flare ups due to the stress.

2 days ago I realised I wasn't receiving emails . I can send them but not receive them. I have no idea how to fix the problem and can't access the emails I had received earlier. So, if you are trying to contact me via email I am not receiving it and apologise if any emails have been unacknowledged. 

Little progress has been made with my grandson's blanket but here is the latest pic.

I shall try to catch up with all your latest blog posts soon. Today is a day of housework catchup while hubby is out for the day. 

YARN, FLOWERS, CAKE AND CROCHET

 

I was so happy when the yarn arrived from the UK a few days ago so I can get back to crocheting my grandson's green blanket. 

I do love the organza bags they come in and use the larger ones to store my finished crocheted blankets. I also ordered 3 extra balls for the blanket I have been working on as I underestimated the amount in my stash . It seems to be a common problem for me. Here is my progress before I put it away to continue my grandson's blanket.

It was my birthday on the weekend which sneaked up on me. I thought it was next weekend until my dear mum reminded me lol. She insisted on organising afternoon tea at my home , bringing everything ( except the champers) and organising my eldest daughter to bring a cake. So, I was blessed to have my gorgeous parents, eldest daughter , son in law and my 2 grandsons celebrate with me. 

 

Hubby brought home some beautiful roses on Friday. They are a deeper red than shown in the pic, absolutely beautiful.

My parents gave me this lovely cyclamen. I don't have a good history with cyclamens so I hope I can nurture this one better.

Sadly, my youngest daughter and her partner had other things to cope with. The vet was coming to their home to say farewell to their much loved cat who had ongoing health issues for the past couple of years which they had tried to overcome but eventually lost the battle. They gave him some very comfortable and pampered extra years. One of my own cats passed away several years ago on my birthday too. So, it was a bitter sweet birthday but one I hold dear because both my parents were able to celebrate with me as well as my other daughter and her family. 

Pets are always in our hearts just like our family.

CROCHET PROGRESS

I have 3 UFOs in progress at the moment. Little Lucy still needs her borders sewn on and my pandemic quilt (  Wish You Well..Gail Pan) just needs borders cut and sewn on. I also have the Woodland Secrets awaiting sashings. Have I spent time in my sewing room? Nope. I walk in there, take a look, ponder which to tackle first and then walk out again. I guess my sewing mojo has taken a holiday. Thus my crochet progress. 

I am having difficulty trying to work out colour combos and where to place them but I just work it out as I go. I am eager to get back to my grandson's blanket but this one is keeping me busy until the yarn arrives. 

Happy crafting. 

OOPS

Oops...I miscalculated the amount of left over yarns in my stash for my grandson's green blanket. Now I have come to a stand still until more yarn arrives that I ordered yesterday. I still have a few ends to sew in so some progress shall be made. Here is the blanket so far. 

 

I crocheted the 1st large block of my other crochet in progress . Instructions for this block required turning it to the wrong side to crochet some rounds but I cannot work out why. Any experienced crocheters out there know why? 

All 9 blocks of my quilt have been finished. 7 appliqued and 2 plain patchwork.

When I was sorting out the fabrics for the sashings I realised that they are all very busy patterns and I think the over all quilt really needs some plainer fabrics to make the blocks stand out. I have already decided to do plain borders instead of the busy patchwork borders but it looks like I need to find somewhere to shop for some fabrics, something I haven't done since the pandemic. A lot of quilt shops have closed down here so I shall need to shop online or go to Spotlight.  Wish me luck! 

GREEN IT IS.

 

My 3 year old grandson's favourite colour is green so I gathered a variety of green yarn to crochet a blanket for him like I did for his big brother in blues using a different pattern. It wasn't easy to decide how to arrange the different greens so after putting a couple aside I eventually  just started crocheting hoping it would come together. My daughter saw what I had done and was of the opinion that the colours would look okay once the blanket grew. I agreed and kept going. 

Like quilts, it is amazing how different the same designs look using different colours. This is the same pattern as my Springfrost bkanket.

The past couple of weeks I have read these 2 books. " An Unorthodox Life" is a 2 season doco series on Netflix and " Brazen" is Julia's bio. 

Time for me to get back to my UFOs as I tend to put crochet first. I am seriously addicted. 

FINISHED

 

Ta da! My Springfrost blanket is finished. There are 7 border rows and I love the final white one.

The top photo depicts the true colours. I couldn't straighten the blanket out for the floor pic but you get the idea.

My 3 year old grandson wants a green crocheted blanket. I made a blue one for his older brother when he was about 2 and a half years old. The extra green yarns I ordered from the UK arrived a couple of days ago but I forgot to order an off white one to add amongst the greens.

One is more blue than I thought so I shall put it in my stash. Now I have the tiresome task of working out what sequence the greens should be in. I have a whitish ball of yarn to add but it may be a bit stark.

Maybe I will put the yarn aside for a while and finish the last needle turn block for my UFO quilt.

I couldn't do much yesterday due to a migraine and it has been a bad week with my FMS, sleeplessness and industrial type noise all around us with constant building still going on. Today is a bit quieter apart from some hammering  so I am resting up while I can. 

I hope you are enjoying your weekend.