Yesterday was the Habitat for Humanity build I volunteered for. The house was being built for a couple and their four children who are currently living in a small two bedroom apartment. The day started off bright and early at 8am and I was surprised to see so many people just show up on the site. I think maybe the free disney tickets for the give a day, get a day program may have contributed to the turn out. The site manager had to turn away all the people that showed up un-registered. Too many individuals on a job site can be dangerous and there is a process and waivers that need to be signed prior to volunteering. Overall I would have to say it was a great experience that will help a family out and I would gladly do it again in the future.
This is the front of the house. That morning there were a couple people that went on the roof to finish putting up a couple remaining shingles. While we were there some “professionals” were inside hanging the drywall.
Our group spent the entire time setting up the frame work for the driveway and sidewalk so the concrete could be poured. There was a lot of wood and stakes that needed to be pounded into the ground. Lots of measuring, leveling, taking apart and redoing went on that day.
One of my main jobs was to dig out the round thing the level is resting on which went down about 2 1/2 feet and raise it about 6 inches, the same with the larger rectangle box you see in the photo above (after the task was complete). The round thing was the main water line for the entire neighborhood. One wrong smack with the shovel and there could have been a lot of angry people.
My scale and I had a conversation this morning and lucky for it I like what was said. I’m down 5 pounds and slowly working on losing 10 more. Unfortunately I have one weakness and it is icecream and gelato. This specific one is my ultimate favorite. I just had to stop myself from licking the monitor, that’s how freaking delicious it is.
The latest additions to my collection of fabrics. I haven’t decided on what I am going to do with them but they are lovely to look at for now 
It seems like I have been working on this bunny forever but I know I haven’t since I have only been crocheting for about 3 weeks. I am hoping to finish it up this weekend and get it ready for a giveaway so stay tuned.
And onto other non- crochet related things… I finally dusted off my sewing machine (who has been sadly neglected the past few weeks), let’s just say it was on vacation. What can be better than hedgehogs and mushrooms? Absolutely nothing! If anyone happens to see any hedgehog or mushroom cuteness out there let me know because I probably NEED it.
I finally finished this bear, his name is Walter. He was made from the bear pattern by LuvlyGurumi. The pattern was very easy to follow, I added my own touches to the face and think he turned out rather cute. I would like to get my hands on the froggy and penguin pattern one of these days as well. So many ami’s so little time.
I’ve started collecting a bunch of patterns to work on over the past few weeks. I have also been adding to my yarn collection and am in need of a storage solution. Right now they are sitting nicely in my cupcake bag but it is staring to overflow.
I am very sorry for all the crocheting posts but at the moment it is my current obsession. I took a trip out to the local yarn store, it was a little out of my way but I like to support local small businesses when I can. I thought I was prepared. I had researched online and made a list of 15 colors I had wanted, I was getting tired using the same 5 colors over and over. Once I got to the store I found out they only had 4 of the 15 I needed….hmmm I mean wanted. If you can count you can see in the picture there are actually 6 (I grabbed 2 on the spot colors as well) it’s not an optical illusion. I never realized how expensive yarn could be, I wish I had started with the cheap stuff but I can’t go back now. I guess I will need to get the remaining colors I need online which will save me a little money.
Who knew crocheting could be so damn addicting. I finally finished my first large project after many long hours. I think the photos of amigurumi are misleading, they don’t look like they would be so time intensive. For this project I chose a cactus design that I got out of the book “Amigurumi World, seriously cute crochet” My favorite part was the cactus flower, I used two tones of pink which gave it a little more dimension.
I promise it is a cactus even though it looks like a pickle.
After three days of crocheting this is what I have finally come up with. I used a pattern from the book “Amigurumi World, seriously cute crochet” a free version can be found here http://amigurumipatterns.blogspot.com/2009/03/little-cafe-con-lech-cup-from-amigurumi.html I wish I could say it was easy but it was not! I started many times only to find out I had done something terribly wrong so it was back and forth, crochet…take apart…crochet…take apart, you get the picture. The fact that I really didn’t know how to crochet to begin with didn’t help my situation but after hours of searching the internet for instructions and watching a bunch of grainy videos on youtube I figured it out. I’m not hopeless after all…
I must be getting the hang of this, the wee little cupcake only took a few hours.
These amigurumi’s are turning out very small. All the yarn I picked out should have been a little thicker but I really liked how this cotton felt. I’m using a “F” hook for anyone that is interested. I still have a dark brown and a lovely green to try out next but I am going to try and get some thicker yarn so they turn out a little bigger. I still need a lot of practice so I’m sure I will make good use of all this yarn I am starting to collect, hopefully one of these days they will be good enough to swap currently they are a little too wonky.
