Afghan almost done

This afghan is for my mom because when I was at her house this past summer I noticed one of the afghans on her couch in the basement.  That afghan is about 28 years old.  She also had the other afghan I made her on her upstairs couch that was about 10 years old.  Time for a new one.  I have a LOT of yarn in my stash that I wanted to get rid of anyway.  All the yarn in this afghan other than the green was stuff I had.

So what do you think?  Did you notice the big boo-boo in it yet?  About 90 rows ago I accidentally put two light colors together.  When I took this picture I just noticed it.  There's no way I'm ripping that much out, it's staying. Sigh.

I should have this finished either today or tomorrow.  Because we don't exchange Christmas gifts with my parents I'm just going to take it over there before the holidays, unwrapped.  If I wrapped it mom would think that she would need to reciprocate.  This is just my sneaky little way of giving her a gift.  Lol

A win!

Yesterday was a fantastic day (for a lot more reasons than whats in this post but I'll discuss that another time.) While I waited for my daughter to get out of work, so we could shop, I decided to enter a few sweepstakes just for the heck of it.  When I returned home later that day I noticed my name on Tonys Facebook wall.  I had to read the post twice before it sunk in... I won!  Haha! i didn't even know the sweeps ended that day.  Tony's is going to send me a wheeled backpack, pizza cutter, polo shirt, and 5 coupons for free pizza!    Who doesn't love free pizza?

Hoping to continue my good luck I purchased a mega millions ticket and a power ball ticket.

Have you ever won a sweepstakes?  I want to hear about it.  Keep entering sweeps, someone has to win.

Loreal EverCream sulfate free moisture system

This group of samples came in a Target beauty bag freebie not too long ago so I thought I'd give it a try today.  I've tried many. MANY, shampoos and conditioners and I have never recommended one.  Ever. Why?  Because they all contain the basic set of ingredients that strip the hair of natural oils and I end up with frizzy hair.  Same thing happened when I used professional shampoos on either mine or my clients hair.  That said, Loreal had a lot to live up to.

So how did the products do? 

The shampoo smelled really nice.  I had to use a little more product as I normally would have because I didn't get as much lather as I would have liked.  But it cleaned.  I don't think the product is supposed to lather up like other shampoos so its me who has to get used to using less.  After I rinsed I noticed that my hair wasn't as tangled as it normally is. My hair is almost to the middle of my back so tangling is a daily occurrence. 

The conditioner was WONDERFUL. What few tangles there were after the shampoo, were gone the moment the conditioner touched them. 

The masque I wasn't all that impressed with.  It didn't make my hair feel any different than what the conditioner did.  At least for my hair the masque isn't needed because the conditioner did such a good job.

After using all the products I combed through my hair and let it air dry because I wanted to see if my hair would frizz without the blow dryer interfering.

After my hair completely air dried I took a good look.  The roots of my hair weren't plastered to my head making it look flat. That's a good sign.  All of the natural curl in my hair was there so the product didn't weigh down my hair. My hair feels light and soft. As for frizz...there's a little bit, but no where near the amount that I normally have with other shampoos.  

That said, I will be buying two sets of shampoo and conditioner the next time I'm at the store.  If I liked the product I know my daughter will love it too.

Good job Loreal!

Holiday decorating

This weekend was all about decorating for the holidays and preparing for the Christmas party at my husbands work place.  We've been shopping for it for the past two weeks but now that Thanksgiving is over it was time to decorate.  We bought and put up three trees.  One in the entrance, another in the conference room, and the last in the cafeteria.  Previously the company didn't do much for Christmas, they had a tiny tree with a few bulbs and some homemade ornaments. I'm not sure who made the ornaments so rather than offend the employees by not using them (they're ugly) I put them on the main tree in the conference room where the company Christmas party will be held.  Then I plastered each tree with candy canes that the guys can eat whenever they want.

We also decorated all the tables in the conference room to make them festive for the party. It's a little early to decorate tables since the party isn't until the 12th but no one will touch them before then.

After all the decorating we had tons of candy canes left so we went around and put them on people's desks and work stations.  Finding a candy cane at 5 am on a Monday morning sort of helps with the Monday morning blues.

The decorating is all done but the gifts are still being wrapped.  I wrapped half of them yesterday, and have the rest to do tonight.  Boy that's a lot of work.  Especially when I'm not even invited to the party.  Lol

Hope your weekend was fun.

Do you coupon?

I used to be really good at couponing when I had a teenage boy in the house.  I had to because not only would he clean the cupboards out, but he'd bring his friends home every day to help him.  After he left for the military the grocery bill went wayyyyyy down.  To the point where it didn't matter a whole lot if I used them anymore because it suddenly felt like we were rich once he was out of the house.

Another reason why I didn't coupon much was because we lived in an area where the stores doubled to .99 cents.  Try and find a .99 cent coupon, I dare ya!  Almost all the coupons in our paper were .50 cents or less on a multiple item purchase for one coupon.  Talk about discouraging, the coupons were no longer worth clipping.

Now I have a Kroger in one of the bigger cities near us and they double dollar coupons.  Game on!  My youngest daughter and I shop together to help knock down the time spent in the store.  We have a game; we take fistfuls of coupons to the store and if we find an item .50 cents or less after the coupon, we buy it.  The pantry is starting to look pretty good and I've been sharing the extras with others as well.

Happy birthday to...

Gotta love insurance companies.  They are the most F'd up companies in the United States.  No one in our household has a birthday, instead the postcard complete with good health wishes on the back side, is for the previous owner of our house.  Normally it would be a nice gesture to waste paper like this but the previous owner of our house is dead.  You'd think the insurance company would know this since he's been dead for a year now.

Mr. Dead guy, if you're reading this Molina Healthcare sends you their love. 

Deer season

You know you live in a small rural area when half the population doesn't work on November 15th, but instead goes hunting.  Knowing that I fully expect to see the occasional dead deer on someone's Facebook status because some people just can't help themselves with showing off their bloodly handy work. When I see the photos I quickly scan down the page avoiding the photo.  I do not enjoy seeing a dead bloody animal.  However today I logged onto Facebook and discovered that the town where my mom lives has a wooden deer pole built in the middle of town with a bunch of dead bloody deer hanging from it.  Of course there were LOTS of pictures of the animals hanging there, both up close and further away so you could admire the kill.  ARE YOU FRICKEN KIDDING ME?  Thats disgusting!  The dead deer hanging there are no different than the dead animals that get killed by cars and left on the side of the road.

If you're going to kill something, process it and please, please, only share the photos with people who will appreciate your bloody handiwork.

Pink (blech!) baby blanket

First time ever making a ripple blanket.  The pattern is free and SUPER easy. 

http://www.handcraftingwithlove.net/yarn/pat-ripple.html

This blanket, and a few other things I'm going to make, are going to a young first time mom who has little to no support.  The boyfriend upon hearing he was going to be a dad, split.  The baby is due in March and other than what clothes my daughter gave her, the baby has nothing.  Thankfully the baby will be almost exactly a year younger than my granddaughter so my daughter will be passing on her baby clothes to the new mom.

Weekend projects

Another infinity scarf is on the needles.  This one is for my oldest daughter.  I don't think the pattern did this yarn justice.  The pattern kind of washes out the individual colors and made them look like one giant blue color.  The yarn I used is Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable, dragonfly.

Yesterday My husband and I picked up supplies for his company, as we usually do on the weekends. Normally we just put them in the office and leave, but Steve knew I wanted to see a particular machine run so he took me into the back to have a look at it.  The machine isn't quite ready to run but boy oh boy is it large!  I don't think this photo does it justice because most of the lights were off, but its somewhere around 400-450 feet long.  A football field is 500 feet long.  I'm looking forward to seeing it run soon.

Today we had record high temps (70) so Steve was outside hanging Christmas lights.  The weatherman said we may get snow tomorrow.  Boooooooo!  I hate snow.

Striped cowl

This cowl was supposed to be mine.  I put it on and realized that just because I like the colors, doesn't mean they look good on me.  So the cowl went on my daughters neck instead. 

This cowl was extremely easy to make, even if you're a beginner knitter.  The whole thing is done in seed stitch (knit 1 purl 1).  The photo doesn't really show it's length but it actually goes down to about the belly button area, and it doubles around the neck for extra warmth.  The yarn I used is Bernat Mosaic, in Ambrosia.  The whole project only took one skein.  Here's the pattern in case you'd like to make one for yourself.

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=412408.0&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=#

I liked the pattern so well that I have another one started, and another one waiting to get on the needles for a Christmas gift.



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All tuckered out

I think most of the country feels like Evy does after voting earlier this week.  The ads have all stopped but the signs remain in yards across my area.

It's the weekend!

Some of you have probably already seen the artwork my daughter drew on her face, but if not here it is. I have no idea how she didn't screw it all up putting it on in the mirror.  If I did that it would have looked like a transvestite on crack. 

Zipper is doing better today.  He even chased a squirrel and barked his head off when my daughter went to work.  He hates it when she leaves the house for some reason.  

This morning I finished making a couple pairs of mittens for Evy.  They match the hats I made her earlier this week.  Can't wait to see what they look like on her. 

Small world and a sick dog

Zipper kept us up all night long because he was crying and acting like he had to poop.  We kept taking him out but he wasn't able to go.  This morning he still wasn't better, he wouldn't eat or drink water either.  So I called a random vet that I found online and made him an appointment.  When the receptionist asked for my phone number she recognized my Ohio area code and remarked that her daughter lives in Ohio.  I asked where.  Turns out she's from the same town, and taught English to one of my kids.  The vet heard our conversation and joined in.  He and his wife (the receptionist) own the vet business.  Of course they were both dumbfounded why anyone would want to leave Ohio to come live in this little town. Lol. My thoughts exactly.

Zipper is still sick.  He got a shot and some antibiotics and was sent home to take a wait and see approach.  They're not sure if he swallowed a foreign substance or if he has the flu.  If he isn't eating by tomorrow I'll have to take him back for an X-ray.  The shot he gave him had steroids in it so that should increase his appetite.

I've never had to give any of my dogs antibiotics before but I figured it would be fairly easy, especially since they're sweet and Zipper loves sweet things.  I couldn't be more wrong.  When I tried to stick the dropper in his mouth he growled at me (a first) and then we did the tango trying to get him to eat it.  I ended up with more on me than in him. If nothing else it made him go drink water because he didn't like the taste in his mouth.