Running

The last while has been pretty ridiculous.  I feel like I've been running around constantly!  We had some unusual stuff pop up and that had us rearrange pretty much everything.  When it all settled down, I expected things to slow down a bit and get back to normal.

They didn't.

With our Christmas season soon to kick in (yeah, I know, it isn't even Halloween yet, but I'm a crafter, which means getting started requires more time), things are just going to pick up.  Throw in my husband's health issues and Eldest's new job, and I find myself heading out about 3 times a day.

Did I mention Eldest has a new job? :-D

Locally, the job market seems to be picking up dramatically.  I'm seeing "help wanted" signs everywhere.  Part of it is because businesses are looking for more staff for Christmas, but it started picking up before that could be considered the reason.

Eldest had dropped her resume off at a few art stores, but they haven't been looking for much lately.  Then she filled out an online application for Michaels.  She specified a store that we usually frequent.  A day or two after she finished submitting the online application, she got a call from a different store.  They called on a Wednesday, asking if she could come in for a Thursday morning interview.  She walked out of the interview with a job!  She applied for, and got, a job in receiving.  They asked her to come in on the Saturday at noon to do some paperwork, saying it would be about 3 hours.  She finished the paperwork after about an hour or so, then they put her to work in the back!  Her first shift was 3am on the next Monday, and today she just finished another shift with a 3am start.

The down side of a 3am shift is that the buses stop running at 1:30am and don't start again until 5:30am.  Which means I have to drive her.  She could take a cab I suppose, but the cost is prohibitive, and we don't exactly have reliable cab service in our city.  There are plenty of cabs out there; their service just sucks.

I don't mind driving her, though.  I tend to be up late anyhow, and it gives us a chance to chat.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make up for the lost sleep by sleeping in.  Whether it's running errands that are time dependant, needing to pick up Dh from work because his back has gone bonkers again, or whatever, I just haven't been able to get any real sleep.  The things that need doing aren't a problem; it's just that I'm not getting any chance to catch up on things in between, whether it's my email, my course work or just plain sleep! *L*

My crochet classes are getting sign ups now, though.  I had my first official class, and it was a blast.  I've got classes booked every week; it's just a matter of getting people to sign up for them.  I've finished the first part of my instructor's course and have started on the second part, but with all the running around, I've accomplished little.

We've had some issues with our van, though.  Some weird electrical gremlin is affecting our lights, inside and out, and it's getting worse.  For the first time in 2 years, I contacted the dealership asking about our coverage for that (if the coverage we paid for does cover it, it'll only cost us our deductible.  Otherwise, I have no idea what it will cost to fix), along with a couple other questions.   After 2 yrs of no claims against our roadside assistance, we were supposed to get some money back.  I was told to talk to the insurance company and they had no idea what I was talking about.  What they had was a different type of coverage, and it would require claims free to 2015.  Which means if we get our van fixed using our coverage, we lose the rebate.

We were supposed to go into the dealership on Thanksgiving afternoon to talk about that, including the possibility of a trade in (that would allow us to have lower interest rates, though I doubt it would have given us lower payments).  The dealership has moved since we bought that van and, while I had a vague idea of where it was, having driven past it some time ago, the salesman gave me directions to the entrance, which isn't on the main road.

We never found the place.   His directions sent me someplace else completely. This actually exemplified why I had numerical street systems.  Dh tried calling for directions while I drove around, trying to find the street the salesman told me I should take (it turned out to be an avenue), but after following the directions from the receptionist, who somehow got it in her head that we were coming from a different direction, we got to an area that was primarily residential.  Dh even used google maps on his phone, which was so vague, I still didn't know where it was supposed to be.  We decided to just go home.  Dh phone again, this time to leave a message for the salesman we were supposed to meet, but the receptionist couldn't get past his name (a French version of a common English name).  He was so pissed, he gave up trying to leave a message and we just went home.

Once home, I looked up the place online and that's where we found out that the place was no where near where we were told to go, and that the avenue (not street)  their entrance is on didn't even extend to where we were told to go - it was cut off by the residential area we saw, instead.

So I fired off an email to the salesman explaining why we didn't make it, expressing our unhappiness, and asking the one question they weren't addressing, even after asking 3 times; did our coverage include the sort of electrical problem we described.

It's been 3 days and he still hasn't answered.  I don't think he will.

So now I'm driving around with a van with only one headlight in the front, one set of lights in the back, a break light that pops on and off, sometimes dinging, sometimes not, at random, a left signal that blinks at double time, but not sometimes doesn't turn on at all anymore, and a right signal that sometimes becomes a left signal, then back again on its own.  I've already been warned that trying to track down a problem like what we're having can be extremely expensive - and that's before the cost of repair. 

Beyond this, I'm really happy with our van.  I have no real desire to trade up, though if it would have resulted in lower payments, I would have been okay with that.  I'm just ticked that we're not getting our questions answered, and then that weird runaround, and now no contact at all.

Irritating.

Well, I'm feeling myself fall asleep as I type this, so I'd better finish up.  Not that I can go for a nap or anything.   Time to go do dishes, then dirty them up again to make supper.  Assuming I don't get a message from Dh asking for a ride, which I expect will happen within the next half hour.

*sigh*

Things are picking up

Well, our busy season seems to be kicking in faster than usual this year!

This whole past year has been an odd one for us.  Some things dropped off entirely, such as our park days and Youngest's singing lessons.  Others are new, such as her guitar lessons, while still others just aren't what they were, such as our library days.  Those have gone from regular one-day-a-week things to perhaps none one week to 3 or 4 visits the next!  The kids are as likely to go without me these days - or even without each other.

Of course, having Raider King living with us for a while changed our habits, but that's to be expected.  Now that he's got his own place, things just haven't gone back the way they were, really.  Though I suppose I never really expected them to.

This weekend is a double whammy for us.  Our co-op is doing another garage/craft/bake sale.  I don't know why I bother signing up for a table.  Only the very first one I did was any success - and I was one of the few that made any money!  The others have been utterly dead.  I really ought to set up in actual craft sales, rather than our co-op sales, but the craft sales that are around are pretty huge and require a substantial amount of money to book a spot.  For one of them, there was a group of my fellow crafters that considered getting a spot together, but at a cost of $400, it was just too much.  The crazy thing is that, even though they have so many people booking spaces (for some local crafters, these two sales a year are all they do!) at such a high cost, the place still charges an admission from customers just to walk in the door!

Anyhow.

So I've got the sale on both Saturday and Sunday.  Meanwhile, the art festival Eldest is booked for in the summer is having an advance "block party" sale to promote the event.  It's very small, with space for only a handful of artists to set up, so it was great that Eldest could get a spot at all.  It's just for the one day, and the hours are the same as for my sale!  Which means Dh is going to have to do the driving to get Eldest and her supplies out there.  She's been busy choosing and preparing which paintings she will include for this small sale, with some framed pieces while others are without.  For those, she picked up some special plastic bags to protect them.  Though Dh will have to drive her, he won't be able to help her set up.  His back went nasty on him a few days ago.  He ended up missing three days of work and is walking with a cane again.  He's banned from lifting anything right now.  Even driving will be uncomfortable for him, but the alternative is for him to sit with my stuff at the sale, and that won't be any easier on his back than driving.  It'll be okay, though.  Eldest needs to figure out how to set up in the spot she's been allocated (and a good spot, it is!), and it'll be easier for her to figure it out on her own, anyhow.  Hopefully, he'll be able to swing by later on, though, and take over at least long enough for her to have a bathroom break!  That's the down side of these events.  Unless you've got someone with you to help out, you're stuck watching over your own merchandise for the entire time.  Granted, the artists tend to keep an eye out for each other, and are known to watch their neighbours' stuff so they have a chance to get something to eat or answer the call of nature.

Youngest might be joining me off an on over the weekend.  She's got a few of her own pieces in the sale, too.  Of course, anything of hers that sells, I'll keep the money separate for her.  Like my stuff, however, hers really should be in a different sort of sale.  She's got a lovely triangle shawl in the sale that was made with a really neat yarn that has a metallic thread running through it for a bit of sparkle.  It has to be priced to at least cover the cost of the yarn, and that stuff wasn't cheap.  Garage sale goers, on the other hand, do tend to be cheap - after all, bargains are what people are going to garage sales for.  That this is also a craft and baking sale doesn't change that much.  People still aren't likely to care that something was hand made with high quality materials, excellent workmanship, and is an original design.  That's boutique stuff.  Well, I hope at least her little child-size hats sell.  They're adorable.

On top of all this, I have a new job, of sorts.  I've been hired by a major craft store franchise to be their crochet instructor and, if things go well, may even start teaching other crafts as well.  The reason I say "of sorts" is because I won't have any sort of regular hours and get to make my own schedule, to a certain extent.  The classes are a new thing for the store, so there are none actually booked.  Until then, I will be doing the occasional demo.  That part gets paid by the hour at minimum wage.  For the classes themselves, I'll be paid a very generous percentage of the registration fees.  Meanwhile, I'll also be taking a distance certification course at home through them.  I only need to do the first two levels to get the instructor certification, but if I can do the third level as well, I will get to include the word "professional" in there, too.  That part of the course requires, among other things, designing a garment - something I've already done, so it's no big deal for me.  The main part for me is that my name gets into a database for North American instructors, which opens me up to other possible contracts.  Looking over the course descriptions, there's nothing in them I can't already do.  Of course, the group that runs the course gets to determine if I'm actually doing them well enough to be certified.

I'm not too concerned about that. *L*

Dang it.  Just looked at the time.  I need to get up early to get a start on the sale tomorrow.  What am I doing still up at 2 am?  Time to go to bed!

Have a good night, all!

Officially done for the year

Well, that's it for this year!  At least on paper.  We've had our facilitator visit (which was a huge amount of fun, as usual. :-D), got our paperwork done for next year, submitted our receipts, and our school year is done.  We've decided to extend Eldest another year, rather than "graduate" this year.  It gives us access to resources she can use to help get her going with her art as a business.  We were even able to get her a laptop this year (and many thanks to Dell for letting us get it at the originally quoted sale price - a savings of some $400.  We ended up ordering it online, using a purchase order, and the guy that helped us was really great).  She has no plans to use it on the internet, so we haven't bothered setting that up.  It has the capability to do quite a bit, should she choose to.  In fact, I think it's better than our latest desktop!  The old desktop the girls had been using is basically a big paperweight right now. :-P

As usual, the official year end doesn't really change much for us.  Summer is always our busiest time of year for activities.  There's just so much out there!  That reminds me.  I have to find out if Youngest's guitar lessons break for the summer or not.

Dh and Eldest went geocaching again, in the wee hours of last Sunday morning.  Youngest got interested, too, so they went out again after Dh had a chance to take a break (Youngest is like me - NOT a morning person! *L*).  She had a blast!  They are now on geocache as a team, and plan to go out regularly.  One of these days I'm going to have to go with them, just to take pictures of some of the interesting places they're finding in the process.  Eldest was telling me about their last trip out, which took them into the river valley, exploring a park we've passed through, but never checked out.  It's always amazing to be wandering around the woods, with nothing to tell you you're actually in the heart of a major city!

Hopefully, my summer will be busier.  I've just been hired as a crochet instructor at a local Michaels!  I'm pretty excited about it.  It's not exactly regular hours, though - I will have classes as people register for them, and the franchise is just getting into these classes (they're also going to be having knitting, beading and scrapbooking classes).  I'll be taking a certification course at the same time, and the hours I teach will count towards completion of the certification.  So far, I've only done a single demo, which was fun, but I spent more time answering questions on where to find things around the store than about crochet!  Though there was the one woman who asked advice about making a baby blanket as a gift, so I ended up helping her make some decisions and choose a yarn.  I hope that works well for her.

I'll have 4 different courses to teach (each a 2 1/2 hour class) for different levels, from bare bones beginners to more advanced techniques and stitches, and I get paid based on how many students register for the classes.  If things go well, I hope to be teaching at least those 4 classes a month.  It might take a few months for word to get out that they're available, though.  I can make myself available to other locations, too, even just as a back-up instructor.  Once my certification course is done, I'll be in a database for all of North America as an instructor, too.  The course I'm going to be taken is Levels I and II, but there's also a Level III Professional available that I will want to take as soon as I can.  For that one, I'll have to design a garment (something I've already done) and take an exam, plus have a higher number of hours teaching to be done within a year. 

I'm really looking forward to teaching my first class - even though right now, it's so new, I don't even know what I'll be teaching (other than the specific stitches), and neither does the woman heading the program in the store that hired me!  The classes are already planned out for the instructors, including patterns and material lists.  I'll just need to focus on actually teaching.

We're still hoping to get a trip in to visit the family back in Manitoba at the end of the summer.  Not sure how that will work out, or even if all four of us will make the trip.  We're trying to set aside money for it, but with the gas prices going up so high and taking everything else with it (I'm going to have to increase the grocery budget again - which means cutting from somewhere else, of course), I'm starting to wonder if we'll be able to at all.  My parents were planning to have a permanent gravestone placed on my brother's grave a day shy of the anniversary of his death, with a mass and blessing from a priest, followed by a get together with friends and family.  There's no way we can make it out for then.  They haven't been able to find a priest available for that date, though, so they might have to move it to later on.  The permanent stone would still be placed before then.  We'll see how things end up working out.

Meanwhile, we're looking ahead to a summer filled with activity, from taking in as many of the local festivals as we can, including Eldest's art display, geocaching, and general out-and-abouting on top of our usual routine.

Hopefully, that means I'll be posting more often, too! *L*

Easter preparations

We've been well into our Easter preparations for the last while.  As usual, this includes our traditional Easter basket.  We'll be making a few additions to it this year.

For the usual items, we'll have butter, sausage, a small ham, salt and cheese.  We've also got a chunk of fresh horseradish root, rather than the prepared paste.  Tomorrow (er... later today, I should say) we'll be baking bread and colouring eggs.  We'll be making a egg and milk bread that will be baked into some fancy shape.  For the eggs, we'll be colouring some by cooking them in onion skins, while others will be made into "dragon's eggs" for the pre-shelled eggs.  We're not going to bother doing colouful dyed eggs this year.  For that, colour will be from the tiny candy coated chocolate eggs we'll be adding, plus some foil covered chocolate eggs - the only sweets we'll include this year.

One of the traditional Polish items we never really used was bacon.  This year we've decided to include prosciutto as a sort of substitute, even though it's really a ham.  We also decided to add a small bottle of olive oil and two types of olives.  It seemed appropriate, considering how important olives and olive products were in Biblical times.

For my crafting this year, I ended up doing stuffed, crocheted eggs.  I'm still doing them, actually.  They're quick enough that I can do a simple one in a smooth yarn in about half an hour. I'm making some using textured yarn, some with colour changes, and others are being given a texture through stitch variations. They're all a variation of the free Lion Brand egg cozie pattern (you will need to sign in to see it).  I skipped any of the embellishments to the basic cozie shape.  Instead of ending it with an open bottom, I stuff it, then add a couple more decreasing rounds, then close up the bottom while sewing in the the yarn end.  I'm rather happy with how they're turning out. 

We're going to try something different for our Easter dinner.  We'll be doing a leg of lamb, which is a first for me.  Will have to look up different recipes and decide how I want to roast it.  For the dinner, we'll also have some barscz - I'm cheating, having bought it packaged.  To go with the lamb, Eldest suggested doing broccoli the Julia Child way, which is always a hit.  I'll be doing polenta, as well.  Though it's considered an Italian dish, I remember my mother making it when I was a child.  We called it by a Polish word that translates as porridge, and it was years before I found out what I knew as a child and polenta were the same thing! *L*  I am planning to make the polenta on Saturday, then pan fry slices of it for dinner on Sunday.

We'll likely pick up a wine to go with dinner as well.  Hmm... we should probably pick something up for a dessert, too.  I'd forgotten about dessert!

My first string crochet.

Not too far from us is a Reuse Centre. I'd been meaning to check it out for ages, and the girls and I finally managed it. I had to ask how things work, since we'd never been there before. I knew people donated stuff, but not how people acquired stuff. It turns out that you can grab as much as you want for $2. The only thing is that they weigh what you've picked up, since that's how they keep track of things.

There was so much stuff there; books, knick-knacks, bin after bin of fabric sorted by colour, and more bins of all sorts of stuff. Youngest and I found one with yarn in it. There were a couple of spools of crochet thread in variagated colours. I got one in greens and another that ranged from pale yellow to bright orange.

Which meant I needed to get some tiny hooks. I ended up getting set of them, since I had no idea what size would be best. Then I went through a book of crochet motifs I bought a little while ago and settled on the pattern you see in this photo. The sample in the book was make with yarn, and the effect is very different. It's like a miniature doiley, measuring about 3-4 inches across.

I've decided on this year's Christmas decorations. I picked up a ball of white glow in the dark yarn and will be using it to crochet various shapes. I just need to find a variety of patterns I like.

Drawstring bag

One more post for today, and I'm all caught up.

I've been working on a crochet sweater for myself; a project that will take at least another month to finish. Every now and then, I have the urge to FINISH something. So I went through our basket of odd bits of yarn from an exchange we'd done in the spring, got out a new, large size hook I'd just bought, and made this.

It's a pretty basic drawstring bag done almost entirely in double crochet. I made it up as I went along. The base is just a flat circle, though with this yarn, it doesn't look flat at all. The flat part is just 4 rounds, then I stopped increasing and built up the sides until it was as deep as I wanted it. The top was decorated by first doing a row of single crochet, then making a row of small loops of 3 chains in between double crochets, skipping one stitch from the previous single crochet row. The final row was made up of 4 double crochet in each loop and 1 single crochet in each double crochet in the previous row. The drawstrings are just a pair of long chains, woven into a row of double crochets under the single crochet row. Although they're in the same row, I wove them under and over alternating double crochet pairs, so that they finished opposite each other. Then I tied the ends together and trimmed them to the same length. The bag is closed by yanking the knotted ends in opposite directions.

That left me enough yarn to make the tassel, which I sewed into the starting ring. I even have a tiny bit of yarn left over, much to my surprise. :-D

I gave the bag to Youngest. She loves it, even though she has no idea what she'll use it for. *L*

Youngest, meanwhile, splurged on some gorgeously soft chenille yarn in lovely colours and made some new scarves. I'll have to get some photos of them to post here. :-D

My daughter's creations

I finally got some pictures of Youngest's crochet creations. She was playing around with a basic mesh pattern I'd shown her and came up with these.


This neck warmer is done in variegated yarn. She did another version in green for her sister.








A back view of the neck warmer and it's button closures. The button holes are just the mesh openings.










This is the exact same pattern using some chenille yarn we got from a yarn exchange. She had just enough to make this and sew on the buttons.







The mesh openings required much larger buttons in this one.

I like the neck warmer idea. No long ends to get tangled up in, and they'll never slip loose.







She's also made a whole bunch of these wrist cuffs using the same pattern as the neck warmers, working in a round, for both herself and her sister.












She liked the effect so much, she made herself a pair of "sleeves" as well. With these, she started off the same width as the wrist cuffs and increased as needed as they got longer.

I think she did quite well! :-D

Finished

Last night, Eldest and I went up to the lounge where I assembled the pieces I blocked yesterday while we watched The Food Network and chatted with the security guard. Today, Youngest helped me choose the buttons for the flap closure.

I think it worked out well, for an experiment. I'd choose a solid colour if I ever wanted to make it again, though.

Making stuff...

For the past while, Youngest and I have been crocheting like crazy, it seems. I've been borrowing books from the library and trying new things, with some success.


This is an example of "some" success. My younger daughter, who is 12 now, is modeling it. The problem? Eldest is the one who asked for it, and it doesn't fit her. This was supposed to be a "one size fits all" cover. I deliberately used larger yarn than the pattern called for and a larger hook, as well as adding a bunch of extra rows in the body, to make it roomier. Even after blocking it, the body was much shorter than expected. The arm length was fine, though, and I didn't add anything extra there. The biggest problem for her, however, was the neck opening. This, too, was wider than in the instructions, yet she found it tight, the way is sat on her shoulders and pulled at the arms.

The joys of being built like a tank and trying to wear something being patterned for tall, slender women with no chest to speak of. :-/


Youngest saw this pattern for a capelet and asked me to make it for her. Again, it was "some" success. I used the pattern for the XL size (I should have been able to do it in M and she should still have had a roomy fit) and once again used a larger hook, though the yarn was the same weight. It *should* have been big enough to fit me, based on the instructions. It fits youngest just right, though the turtleneck opening is a bit tight going over the head. A couple of washes will loosen that up a bit more, though. Hopefully. She really likes it, though, and that's what's important.





Here, I'm blocking a work in progress. I've made several different small bags, but they've all been pretty much single pieces. No blocking or assembly of parts required, other than straps and buttons. This time, I'm making one that will need to be sewn together. Not visible in this shot is the piece that will be the sides and bottom, which is about 1 inch wide. After assembly, I'll be using single crochet to finish the edges at the top, then make a strap and add 2 buttons for the flap. I didn't use a pattern for this at all, just making it up in my head. I hope I got the proportions right.

I started a tank top for myself but so far have only finished the back panel. In this case, I worked out the pattern to a larger size - the pattern went up to XL and I increased it to the equivalent of XXL. I like my shirts roomy. When making it, I compared it to a shirt in the size I wanted it to be, and it was the exact same width, so that worked out. Unfortunately, it used up so much more yarn than I expected, I don't have enough to finish the front panel. Which would be fine except that the yarn I chose turned out to be discontinued, and now I can't find anymore. Not sure how I'm going to work that out. Until then, though, I now have the materials to make a sweater. In fact, I should have at least 1 ball of yarn extra - and it's *not* a discontinued yarn! LOL One the bag is finished, I'll start on the sweater.

Next, I need to get some photos of the items Youngest has been making.