A Table for Two

I have to tell you about my time out with hubby last night for our anniversary. 

I had no idea where we were going.  All he told me was that maybe if we left early we could walk around some of the shops near the restaurant.  Because of getting the kids situated we didn't have a ton of time to shop, BUT he did pull into one store. A YARN SHOP!!! He took me yarn shopping for our anniversary!!! Have I mentioned I love my hubby?!?!?! LOL If we had more time I may have picked out more, but this is what I left with.

On to our dinner.  I love Italian food, so he found this nice Italian restaurant about 1/2 hour from where we live.  REAL Italian, not someone who sells lasagna & shells (although, on any given day, I'm all for that too) .  For an appetizer we ordered bruschetta.  I'm not a huge bruschetta fan, but this was amazing!  They seared the bread on a charcoal-fired, outdoor grill.  Heavenly!

Dinner was amazing (sorry, no pic).  Many years ago, our hope was to go back to Ireland for our 10 year anniversary.  That was planned at least 2 children ago, so let's just say, maybe another year. lol.  So for dessert we decided on "Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake".  Amazing! 

Love spending time with my hubby.  We have so much to be grateful for, and we love spending every moment we can with the kids, but it's so nice to be alone for a couple of hours.  I look forward to many more anniversaries to come.

Wordless Wednesday

My newest pattern that is for sale in my etsy store.

I've Been Featured!

I know this is my personal blog, and not my crochet blog, but I'm so excited!  Julie, over at RedHenStudios, had a blog entry today that included one of my afghans, which made my day :). I think this is a first for me and I'm honored, considering it's my own design. Here's the design she featured, but go over to her blog and check it out.

Thanks again, Julie!

Wordless Wednesday

I am going to have so much fun making things for her :)

A Heart for Adoption

My friend Kimmie from Over the Moon with Joy has an amazing heart for orphans. They have 7 children (6 have been adopted) and are in the process of adopting their next daughter from Ethiopia.  I would like to help them raise the money they need to bring this little girl home to her new family.  I will donate all proceeds from the sales of either my patterns, and the afghan(s) I have for sale, to their adoption fund.  If you would like to help Kimmie out you can purchase any of my patterns directly in my etsy store. Make sure you visit Kimmie and tell her you made a purchase from me (Kristine) to help support her and/or leave me a note when you checkout in my store.  I'll make sure the funds go directly to bringing this little girl home to her new family.  Here is a picture of some of the items I have added.  I will be adding more soon.

Bubble Textured pattern

Fan Squares pattern

Quick & Easy Blocks pattern

Shades of Blue pattern

Post-Stitch Heart afghan or pattern

Preemie Basket-Weave pattern

Quilt Blocks pattern

Textured Star pattern

Purple Patchwork pattern

Winter Warmth afghan or pattern

Autumn Bloom Afghan is for sale.

Pattern will be available shortly.

Jackpot !!!

One of the things I have challenged myself to this year was to not buy anything at the craft store (primarily yarn & pattern books), but use up what I already have. The idea was to save money and de-stash my stash. I did give myself a small budget in case I needed something to finish a project, but other than that I'm going to see if I can make this work. My weakness is yarn, especially if it's on sale. I have an 18 gallon tote in my closet, plus a draw organizer full, so I have plenty to start with. But in the back of my mind I wondered if any of it would work with the projects I have planned.

I'm going to change topics for a minute but stay with me. It will come together.

Many of you know this, but some may not. I am due with baby #6 in the next few weeks. The other day I decided to go down in the basement to pull out the baby clothes and wash them. Because this is girl #5 I have plenty of clothes. I've learned over the years to label bins by size & season to make things easier. Plus, I also have all the bins in size order to make it easier to find the sizes I am looking for. (I'm not quite this organized with other areas of my home :). So, I get down in the basement, go over to the kids clothes and on the very top of the infant stuff there is a bin with no label. My thought was......"Hmmm??? There's nothing smaller than 0-3 months. Why would I not have put a size label on this?" I opened it up and I was like a kid in a candy store.

It was an 18 gallon tote of yarn, plus I found at least one crochet hook in there! As you can see by the picture I have tons of pink (don't forget I have 4 girls), but I didn't even remember putting it there. This has made my de-stashing much more fun. I thought I was going to find baby clothes. Now I have something to look forward to. I wonder what other bins of yarn I've forgotten about. This year may not be half bad after all......

Crochet

I love to crochet. It is so relaxing. I just wish I had more time to spend on it. My mother taught me when I was 5, but it wasn't until after I was married that I picked it up again. Believe it or not, after a few tries, it was almost like riding a bike. After many years of searching for 'just the right patterns' and not being able to find what I wanted I decided to try designing my own. It was difficult for me to try it. I like to know how things are going to turn out....and I don't like to make mistakes, so to go out on a limb and try something that doesn't have a pattern was a stretch for me. I'm glad I did. If nothing else it has taught me it's ok to try something new.....even if you do fail. Most of my patterns are basic, and so far all are baby afghans, but I'm always trying to take my designs one step further.

If you would like the pattern to any of them just send me a message. I'll be more than happy to share them with you. I will eventually try to add them to the blog. The only exception is the very first picture. I started making this from a pattern I bought, but the directions were wrong, so I improvised & created some of it freehand. But because of copyright laws on the part I did use I cannot share that pattern. All the rest are baby afghans that I have made for friends.


This basket-weave afghan was my very first design. A friend of mine had a preemie (10 weeks early) and I could not find a preemie pattern I liked. So this pushed my hand at designing. If you like it the instructions do include re-sizing info.