A Completed Goal: Animals Finished

I finally stitched up my last animal!! Boy has it been a little bit of a ride, trying to figure out which animals I would do and if I had the yarn to do it.

I finished off the animals with a Boston Terrier, a teddy bear and another lion. They turned out super cute.

 I hope that they will bring happiness to the intended children! I hope their parents will be able to choose ones that will fit their children as well.

I'm not sure what else to say, except I made my goal of twenty-eight animals and I look forward to the hopefully positive feedback I get.

Course once an animal is made another pregnancy is announced...but I hope to get one to everyone!

New York, New York

Well, admittedly New York was not the first choice for a vacation. We had dreams of spending our days on the beach. But with my pregnancy, yes we're pregnant! We decided to stick closer to home.

But being an American, who would want to miss all the sights New York had to offer?

Time's Square

We went to Broadway and saw the ever popular Wicked show. It was fantastic. An elegant theatre, with fabulous props and singers.

It fulfilled our expectations. If not more, even though they were not the original cast to preform it. Ben and I could not see any reason not to go to Broadway while in New York. Especially a musical.

Rockefeller Center

We also saw the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Which had a wide array of classic art from around the world. It was an expansive, impressive museum. One, if you get the chance to go to New York you should see!

Such art pieces included famous paintings of George Washington crossing the Delaware River and Mary Cassatt paintings.

There was also an interesting armor exhibit, showing different elaborate pieces of armor from England to Japan. 

Not only was the art nice to look at, but the Museum itself was clean and had accommodations of cafes in case you were hungry.

We also visited the classic building of movies and prestige, the Empire State Building. This particular building has been in such movies as King Kong, Sleepless in Seattle, An Affair to Remember and Miracle on 34th Street. 

Though it was cold, we went all the way to the top and saw basically a fantastic view of New York from a bird's eye. 

What else did we do? We went to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across it. It was a nice little jaunt where we took pictures and just enjoyed the city views. 

Brooklyn Bridge

I got a fair picture of the Statue of Liberty from the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately we were unable to go Liberty Island because of hurricane Sandy.

Another neat place we went to was E.A.T on Madison Ave. We enjoyed a very tasty dinner of chicken pot pie and meatloaf. Those dishes sound run-of-the-mill, but they were far from it!

There was a excellent wait staff and the service itself was good. Course we were one of the few people eating dinner when we first got there.

New York has not strayed from it's original melting pot atmosphere. While we were there one of the many languages we heard was French! We almost felt like we were back in France and fell back to our few French language skills.

Besides French, I'm certain we heard Spanish, German and Italian. It felt as if all of Europe decided to vacation in New York.

But it makes sense. Where else would you visit if you were from Europe? Plus it probably would only be one flight, depending on where you were from in Europe.

Our trip to New York was fun, but it also was exhausting, walking everywhere! We did use the subway, but much like Italy, the subway was kind of far from each destination. You had to walk, no matter how far you were from where you were headed.

The subway is the cheapest way to travel throughout the city though. I wouldn't have any idea how much a cab ride would cost for every single destination we went to. I'm sure much more expensive then what we spent on the subway.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our little jaunt through New York. I hope to see you next time for more crochet!

March: From Squares to Strips

One day I suddenly had the urge to finish my master bedroom blanket. So, much of my time was spent carefully sewing squares together.

I decided to sew them together instead of crocheting them together because I wanted the blanket to look clean, as opposed to looking as if it were a patchwork quilt.

It's going to look great after its done!!

Here is what it's going to look like (sewn together of course).

 I designed the format for the blanket myself, all the while using squares from Vanna's Choice pattern book.

Unfortunately after all the strips were done, I came down with a horrible 24 hour stomach flu. Which did not help future crochet.

A Few of the Strips.

Then there was a big trip to New York to think about. I will tell you all about our mini vacation in my next post.

All in all March was a busy month, planning for our trip and getting through sickness.  I hope to have the blanket done this month.

Thanks for joining me! See you later.

Amigurumi Toy Box: Review

I have been working hard on finishing my little animals to give away. Now I am so close I feel it is time to give the book I'm using, Amigurumi Toy Box a look-see.

Amigurumi Toy Box is by Ana Paula Rimoli. Like her book Amigurumi World she takes you through her journey in creating each animal.

 Along with each picture and pattern there is a short paragraph explaining why she chose to make that particular animal.

Before I purchased this book, I was already excited about creating the new animals. I had only read what she had written about them!

The patterns are written in word form and are easy to follow. She also gives instructions as to what color of yarn to use, if you are making the animal as she has.

Also, for the beginner crocheter, there are instructions on how to do each of the stitches used in the book.

The beauty of amigurumi is that anyone can learn how to do it because of the simple stitches and the easy circular motion of each of the patterns.

If you are a fan of Ana Paula Rimoli, do not fail to get this book! The pictures are fun to look at and the anecdotes are fun to read.

Plus, if you are a part of Facebook you can show Rimoli your creations! Which almost gives the book a more personal touch because you can contact the author.

But nonetheless if you are a beginner, do not fear because Rimoli makes it easy for you to follow her patterns.

It is an enjoyable book that any crocheter would love to have in their library.

Muffin Craving

Lately  my husband and I have been talking about muffins! I don't think I have baked anything for a long time, so I thought I would find a good recipe and try to recreate it!

I found a lemon poppy seed muffin recipe in one of my newer cookbooks. Actually the cookbook is from my church which I received a couple of months ago.

I decided on lemon poppy seed because my husband stated he liked those the best. 

 This recipe only needed a few things like lemon cake mix, poppy seeds and vanilla pudding. The liquids were orange juice, oil and eggs.

First I put in the vanilla pudding and lemon cake mix. Next I put in the poppy seeds.

Lastly I put in the oil, eggs and orange juice.

Mix it all up!

Put it in some muffin pans. Bake! Out come beautiful golden brown muffins.

After they came out of the oven we tasted the delightfully fluffy and lemony muffins. Whoever created the recipe sure knew what goes well together! Plus it was a nice way to spend an afternoon. 

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you all are well!

Lots O'Squares

I have been working on my master bedroom blanket for quite sometime. I am finally making headway on it though!

Each square has an amount I'm aiming for. For instance my silver blue square's number is 32 and I reached that today!

 The linen color squares have to most to make, as they have two "rows" in my design. But I am nearing the end in creating those as well.

Dusty Blue

Lately I have been very determined to finish my projects already in progress. I am also almost done with all the stuffed toys I planned to make. After the bird I'm working on I think I only have three more to complete!

Linen

Silver Blue

Then I most definitely will move on to my next project. A baby blanket I have been dying to do since I got the book its in. I already have the yarn for it. It's just a matter of putting it together!

First things first though. Finish the stuffed toys! Er, finish the queen sized blanket!

My Design

Well I hope you all are doing well...I am even with all the snow! (We got LOTS of snow again, snow day for all!)

Happy Little Tugboat

I have made it a goal to have all the amigurumi toys done by the end of this month. This week has been no exception.

I started and finished a cute little Tugboat in three days.

Isn't it sweet? Hopefully one of the newborn boys will get it. There have been a lot of girls lately in the Sunday school class, but I think they will have a lot to chose from.

The next on my list of toys to do is a horse. I have started it and have already finished the ears and head. I hope I can finish it in a small amount of time.

Part of a hoof and leg.

I like the colors I chose for it. I had a variegated yarn left over from when I made the teddy bear. I used that for the muzzle and as the pattern dictates, will also use it for the hooves.

Then I  used a dark brown that I have had for many of the animals I have produced. Amigurumi is a good leftover yarn user!At least when you have the semi-appropriate colors in your stash. Which has been the case for some of the animals.

After the horse I hope to do a bird and maybe another lion. We will see. Until I see you again, later!