July was another month of crafts, carillon, and generally having a lazy summer. Let's jump right in, shall we? Craft Updates I finished up the last little bit of the Grand Canyon project, and continued the stitch-a-long project (both pictured above.) I then began a new project, the Morning Glory pool from Yellowstone (pictured below). It requires 25 colors, and amazingly, even though I own so many DMC colors, I…

Ok. So, in the past two months, I've been posting about my new hobby - learning the carillon. Most people have never heard of it, and even if they have, they might not really know anything more than "oh, the pretty bells." Therefore, I thought I'd make a post to go into it, and give you some more samples of my beginner level playing!

This was a fun month, full of crafting, learning the carillon, and some partying with friends. Let's dive right in with the crafty update first. April Projects With the weather getting nicer, causing a certain 126lb someone to beg for walks, I had less time for crafts this month. However, I managed to complete this sunrise satin stitch kit and make some healthy progress on an Acadia National Park satin stitch pattern.

Project Updates After years of work, and at least 185 hours of crocheting, the main body of my All Skulls Blanket is (mostly) complete! This sucker is at least 7 feet long and weighs a ton. I still have to add a border around the whole thing, to encase those loose ends on the sides, which will take many more hours.

Rounding out my series featuring past projects is one last post focusing on different kinds of embroidery. You'll notice going through here that social media groups for crafters are my kryptonite! Cross Stitch Harry Potter sampler by Cloudsfactory; Alphabet Sampler patterns by Fangirl Stitches My mother taught me to cross stitch when I was growing up, and I had only done little projects, like bookmarks.

Welcome back to my next post highlighting things I've created in the past. This time around, I'm focusing on crochet projects! Crochet is NOT my favorite craft. I much prefer the feel of a knit fabric, but some projects are just easier to do in crochet, or that's the way the pattern was written. That's why you'll notice the majority of these items were requested by family members.

I thought I'd start a series of posts where I showcase some of my many past projects that were completed before this blog was born. Today, I'll take you through the highlights of my adventures in knitting! But First, How It Started My grandma Vatter tried to teach me to knit after she taught me the basics of crochet. However, she was very ill at the time and I my pre-teen brain was not catching on.

February ended up being a month for finishing many things. First up, some finishing touches on my raven tattoo: Then, I finished the antepenultimate block on my All Skulls crochet blanket, as well as half of the next block. Just 1.5 more decorative blocks left to go! I also finished the embroidery project showing the area snowfall for the last 50 years, as outlined in…

On my way home, today, Kim called me in a panic. An alarm was going off in the house and it appeared to be one of the carbon monoxide detectors. I was still a few minutes away, unable to help. However, I recalled replacing those detectors a few years ago. My heart sunk. I know I've been living on borrowed time with the furnace, waiting to replace it and now I've waited too long, endangering our lives.

January started strong. I returned from a road trip to see all the Florida National Parks just in time to ring in the New Year. Then I spent some quality time sleeping in, watching TV, and crafting. I finished this 5" statin stitch kit from Vika of the Delicate Arch from Arches National Park. I love her kits because the design is printed on a high quality canvas, which makes it super easy to see where to stitch and get everything to line up.

This year, consider ordering your Girl Scout cookies from a trans girl scout to make their day!

If you're a crafter, you know about constantly having more projects than you can possibly work on. In this post, I'll share with you all 13 of my current WIPs (works-in-progress) in various stages of completion, from not-yet-started to almost done. My goal for 2025 is to hopefully finish more projects than I add to the list. It will be interesting to do this again at the end of the year and see how I did.

In 2010, I wanted to get a dog. For some reason, I had my heart set on a Great Dane. So, when I was asked if I would foster a little, two-year-old, blonde, longhaired dog, I said "absolutely not." However, after some cajoling, I finally agreed and Hope came into my life. Right away, she asserted herself as a lap dog, as evidenced by my very first photo of her, even though her size pushed the limits of the definition of "lap dog." While I might be smiling in the picture, I was not smiling a few hours later when she slipped free of her leash and took off for most of the night.