Ruffle Scarf Complete and Blogoversary!

Hello Friends,

I am still here! As you many remember we are building a new house and also put our current house up for sale. Due to contant showings of our house to potential buyers I have not been able to crochet as much. This is mostly due to have to clean up each day and not being able to leave my projects out and about. I have some great news though.... we sold our house! The hooks are back out and I am ready to go!
Today is also a special day for me as today, January 25th is my 1 year Blogoversary. I cannot believe a whole year has gone by.

Since starting my blog I have 69,986 visitors and I am so grateful to have people around the world to share my life of crocheting, knitting (somewhat), and living life with. My post popular posting is the pattern for the Never-ending Scarf (Infinity Scarf) with 2,784 pageviews - most likely due to being posting on Ravelry.com but I thank each and every one of you for visiting my pages and sharing in the crochet fun.

Since I sort of became a scarf factory this past fall and winter, I think it is very fitting for me to share my most recent scarf with you - a ruffle scarf. This will be sent out to my mom tomorrow morning for her to enjoy.

I followed this pattern to crochet the scarf: http://www.tipjunkie.com/how-to-crochet-basic/ scroll down to the middle of the page for the pattern. Some of the ladies I work with made this with the knit version of the pattern and thought it was much easier to knit it. I tried to knit it at first but my knitting skills are not up to par, so I picked up my hook and found crochet was much easier. I also like that the crochet version looks less like one long cylinder ruffle and more of a bunched ruffle. Either way I think they are both great patterns.

I used Red Heart Boutique Sashay Yarn which is just about out of stock everywhere. I was able to find some online but the rest of the colors were back ordered. This color is called Mambo.

I hope you are having a fabulous week and enjoy this lovely Wednesday.

xoxo Susan

New iPhone and Waiting for a Special Delivery of Yarn

Hello Friends,

Thanks for stopping by. We have a three day weekend, with Monday off in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. So I have been preparing for a nice day off tomorrow filled with hooky fun. Unfortunately my order of yarn has not arrived yet. I am waiting for an order of Red Heart Boutique Sashay yarn to make some ruffle scarves. The box should arrive some time this week so I can try out my hand at making a ruffle scarf. The ladies I work with found the yarn before Christmas break and made some lovely scarves.

From Red Heart Website

Yesterday I judged a science fair for middle and high school students in Fort Myers, FL. It is called the Thomas Alva Edison Science Fair. If you remember my posts over the summer (here and here), Thomas Edison and Henry Ford each had a winter estate in Fort Myers and had a great impact on the area's growth. The students had some impressive projects showing great promise for our next generation of scientists and inventors.

As I was on my way out the door to go to the science fair, I dropped my cell phone. My phone was old and a flip phone which is considered ancient for a someone who uses technology and has to keep up with technology as part of my job. The phone broke into two pieces and was not salvageable. Ordinarily I would be fine going for man hours without a phone, but yesterday I went through the day with a sense of panic. We have our current house on the market (up for sale) as I was worried I would miss a call from our realtor regarding a showing of the house to potential buyers. Luckily I did not miss any important calls and was able to go to my wireless provider and get a new phone. I got the iPhone 4s and it is WONDERFUL!

I waited as long as I could (obviously, it look a complete break of my phone for me to get one). I waiting so long to upgrade because I knew once I was connected to everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, I will forever be doing something, no more being idle.

It really is an amazing phone as I've been smitten with it for the last 24 hours.
Happy MLK Day!
xoxo Susan

Warming Up

Hello Friends, 

The weekend is finally here and I hope to be able to work on some of my WIPs. This past week I was making more hats to fill orders on owl hats from my etsy shop. When the orders come in, I have to put my other projects down.

I am working on another little neat owl thing that I hope to be able to show you at the end of the weekend. It looks nice so far but I do not have that "it is going to be GREAT" feeling yet. I think once it starts to take shape a little more the feeling will come. Nothing more exciting than a new WIP that will be extra cute.

Although the temperature will not really count as cold, the temperature did drop so I made some yummy cups of hot chocolate for J and I.

My blogiversary is coming up and I must get a few WIPs complete for my one year mark. Keep your fingers crossed. Have a fabulous weekend.

xoxo Susan

Winter Farmer's Market Now Open

Good Morning,

The days cannot get any better here in Southwest Florida. The temperature is in the mid 70's (degrees F) and the sun is shines all day. Our semester started yesterday so I have to spend my days indoors for a few days to get things going. One of the best things about the nice weather is the winter farmer's market is back. I was lucky enough to pop over there last week and was delighted to see all of the goodies.

January and February are the peak of strawberry season and these strawberries were the best ones I have ever had. They were completely red not a white part to be had. You could eat the whole entire thing in one soft bite.

I will be going back for more this coming week.  They were perfect for a snack by themselves or with some greek yogurt.

 My crochet time has been consumed by some hat orders from my etsy site. Whenever I least expect it, orders start coming in. So two more owls hats are just about done. I have shared so many owl hats I think you are probably getting sick of them - boring!

We did get two days of cooler temps and I caught my hubby on the couch with my ripple blanket. It does feel lovely. I am working on making it much larger so it can be used the opposite way.

Happy Tuesday,
xoxo Susan

A New Year

Hello Friends,

I been MIA for a whole week. Time just slipped away. I have been preparing syllabi and getting my courses ready for our semester which begins on Monday. All of the courses I am teaching are online so I need to have everything in line, or I guess "online" haha before the semester starts. Face-to-face courses required less up front time as online ones, but I do enjoy online courses very much.

Anyways, I also got the Windows 7 Security Virus, not once but twice now. So my posting and computer skills have been a little limited lately. So, I am going to share my Pinterest link with you. You probably have seen it being thrown around on blogs, facebook or other online arenas. If you have not joined you MUST! You will not regret it. Pinterest is like your "Favorite Places" list or "Bookmarks" except, you can find things easily because there is a photo there!

I have already made some yummy food from recipes I found from Pinterest like this:

Here is my version:

The really turned out quite good. I added some garlic powder to add some more flavor. If you want the recipes click on the first photo (Pinterest Photo) and once you get to the pinterest site, click on the photo again, this will take you to the original posting of the article. Isn't it great?!

You can also collect photos of great crochet and other crafty things like these:

If those photos do not make you want to go check out Pinterest, then I do not know what will  :)
If you do not log in with a facebook or google account, or get invited by a friend, I heard you will be on the waiting list for a while. If you need an invite, send me your email and I will send you an invite.

Happy Weekend,
xoxo Susan