What happened to the month of July?!

Hey guys, I know I only have about 6 of you regularly reading here (Hi Mom!) but I have kind of vanished for the whole month of July!  OOPS!  So, July was a kerfuffle and I'm not sure if August will be much better... I have been slammed outside of crafting and I have been working on a lot of large projects.  So it was hard to even think of things to say on top of just not having time to say much...

So the first week that I missed posting...  We were working on the ceiling leak, my Darling Husband was home and we were trying to get things done around the house.  Week two my computer died...  It died and was killing me because we had some issues with MS and getting my new hard drive up and running.  These last two weeks have been spent doing things around the house, adjusting to my new schedule and trying to find 10 minutes for some time off...  All of this while fighting insomnia...

So, a little "About Carrie..." I have issues with sleeping when my schedule gets thrown around willy nilly...  For the last few months, my schedule has been some super early (for me) mornings with no naps and no set time for going to bed mixed with super late nights and sleeping overly late to "catch up".  What that ends up doing after a while is my body can't figure out when to sleep and will kind of freak out and just not let me really get sleep.  Even when I sleep during the day - so I'm not a zombie- I can only get at most 4 hours.

Most of the time when it is a freak out like this, I am pretty good to be up.  I will cook, clean, craft...  I will do most of the stuff that I would normally do in the morning.  Sadly, this last month it hasn't all been nights like that.  Many nights, I have sat on the sofa in the living room staring at the TV with no idea what I was even seeing.  I couldn't function at all.

So, needless to say, July wasn't a bust, but it was super hard for me to find time to write and keep up with doing things around the house.  Hey!  I also needed time to make things worth sharing!!!

August will be prep for being gone for a week, being gone for a week and then getting things back together again.  I am hoping that I will have time to post, but...  I will have the grand-kinder the week before and the week after our trip, so I am going to be pretty hemmed in on what I can do.  I am taking a slew of patterns with me, so I will have things to work on while flying and during down time.  DH is rolling his eyes already.

Some exciting side news.  I got my entry tickets for the SC State Fair!  I entered into just shy of 100 entries.  I have 16 projects completed and another 16 started.  This won't be a huge turn out for me, but I am excited.  A few years ago I submitted over 115 items but I was doing baking and canning that year.  I won't be doing any foods this year.

-LOL! I couldn't find a post it to cover my address and that is this post in progress on my screen-

SO ON TO THE FO AND WIP SECTION!!!!!

So, since Nilla Waffer has joined us Grandma has gotten kinda kicked out of the living room...  So I have been working at the computer in the study while they watch TV, play and demolish my whole living room.  There are pros and cons to this arrangement, but it does make working on blankets so much easier!

I have finished my blue and gray granny blanket.  I used a different join for this one.  It is a join as you go in granny shells.  I have to say that I really like the join!  I just need to block out the blanket now.  I think I am going to think of this one as my Dude's Granny Blanket.

I am sort of annoyed, I got my size wrong on this, so I actually have 11 extra squares to start my next blanket with...  Cue the massive eye roll.

I also found ANOTHER giant Rubbermaid tote of scraps in my workout room.  So, I split the tote up into colors and neutrals.  I am not quite sure how so many little and big boxes of yarn have stayed hidden for almost a year and a half...  I hope that I don't find another one someone where... 

I have taken the colors from sorting and finished a Giant Rainbow Granny Blanket.  This ended up so much larger than I meant to make it...  Oops!  It is so pretty though.  I really like how it turned out.  I am hoping that my friends Michael and Mark let me gift it to their daughter (she is one, so I will be asking for parental permission to store a 5.5 foot square blanket until she is in a twin bed at least).

I had enough of the colors left in this bin, I have already started in on a C2C version of this blanket.  I am up to the yellow now and the first side ended.  I love how this one is turning out.  With the granny, I let colors end into corners but didn't worry about the round.  This one I am keeping the color changes at the sides.  I am hoping that it doesn't mess me up with using some of the smaller balls.  I was about 8 blocks short on the first yellow ball I added in to do a second row.  Frogging almost a whole row was so sad...

I have needed some instant gratification with yarn (OBVIOUSLY!) so I have been making some of these balls.  This is such a fun pattern!  I had a bit of the spangled red left over after using it in two blankets...  So I wanted to finish it off.  I got 8 balls out of it and white from the neutrals box.  I also made the green and pink set for the grandkinder.  I gave my friend Michael a pink/red and a blue/yellow for her daughter.  I also made a set for my friend Peggy to have for her grandkinder.  So, I made 16 of them this week.  I think I might give them out as Christmas gifts this year.  Many years ago, I used to give out ornaments to our family and friends as gifts around the holidays.  These are so much fun, I think everyone's tree has room for these guys.


The pattern is over here at The Secret Yarnery.  It is called Holiday Accordion Ball.  Also, while you are watching her tutorial  I would recommend going and watching her Vlog/Podcast.  Her life is super interesting and I have gone though this whole week and started working my way through her whole channel.  I joined or am waiting on acceptance in her Facebook Groups.  I am just gonzo for her channel.  It has kept me working on the C2C so far!  Check her out.  If nothing else, you can go and be super jelly over her yarnery...


So lastly, I don't think I am going to share pictures, but I have done over 15 scrapbook pages.  Too many have the grandkinder in them and I really don't want to wait for me to edit their cute faces out for posting here...  I will however share my shelf in the living room where my books are living.  I still need to title the book spines.  Right now we are just color coded.


So far in 2018 I have completed 71 groups/things.  I have spent $109 on stashables.  Most of those have been things for card making or scrapbooking.  I didn't really have much in the way of embellishments going into this, so there has been need of some things.

I am going to sign off here with a picture of Pippin.  This was taken while I was scrapping one day in the craft room.