Granny Square Sampler Afghan-a-Long

At the beginning of the Summer Blair of Wise Craft started a Granny Square Afghan-a-Long, and I had grand plans to join in each week and square-a-long with her. The summer got away from me, in a good way,
so instead I started two days ago, and now we're cookin'.

Week 1 - 

Week 2 - 

Week 3 - 

Week 4 - 

Week 5 - 

This evening I hope to finish up the Week 5 squares (the second photo should have 3 squares in it) and maybe even get a start on Week 6.
The best part of this is that I had 9 colors of cotton and cotton blend yarn in my stash and only had to supplement with the lighter gray and the two rusty colors to get to the required number of colors.
The hardest part (for me) is that there hasn't been any info as far as I can see about the finished product.
What it will look like and how all of these different sized squares will fit together in the end is a mystery.
I learned to crochet when I was 11, my grandma taught me, and I was an avid crocheter until I learned to knit in my 20s. It's been some time since I was ensconced in a crochet project, and it feels pretty nice.

4 months

Yep, Youngest, I can't believe you're 4 months old already either!

Down in the River

We took another trip to my favorite part of Saint Paul this week.
It was so different from the last time when all of this was completely flooded.

These Summer days are dwindling away.
School starts in about 3 weeks and there's a lot of beach-going and woods-walking and fair attending to fit in between naps.

Keep Calm and Craft On/ Yarn Along

Joining Nicole and Ginny today.
Last weekend a friend of mine got married.
It was a second marriage for both of them, and since they would be combining their two established households choosing a present to get them was a little challenging. Who needs one more crystal vase?
So instead, I made them a milk jug cover.

It began as a circle of linen (hence the wrinkles), I used an 8" round cake pan for a template.
Then I did a single crochet around the edge with crochet cotton, folding the edge of the linen under as I went.
Next, I went around with a couple more rounds of crochet, and then beaded each point so that the cover would have some weight and won't be blown away if they decide to use this outside.

I finished up with a monogram of the happy couple's initials.
I wasn't actually able to finish this up by the wedding (she sheepishly admits) but it'll be on its way to the newlyweds tomorrow.
I am reading a new book, The End of Illness by David Agus.
It's full of great information, but the writing is pretty dry, and occasionally feels like a corporate seminar.
Dr. Agus is an oncologist, and though he keeps saying that the book is not about cancer, it's been mostly about cancer so far.
I read this amazing article today about a possible new treatment for cancer without chemotherapy.
Awe-inspiring times we live in.

What are you crafting today?

Beautiful Weekend

Yesterday the fam got into the car and joined many friends at a beautiful wedding in Wisconsin.

The weather has turned around here, it's been a long hot, HOT summer, and yesterday something changed and it's pleasant outside, even leaning toward the chilly first thing in the morning and late at night.
What a wonderful day for a wedding and today it's a beautiful day for the Hubby's birthday.

Love One Another and Be Kind

Sometimes it's hard for my children to spend time together without getting on each other's nerves.

It may be hard to believe, looking at their sweet faces, but it's a daily struggle for each of them to remember that the other one is a person with feelings, just like them.

O.K., this one is doing just fine, I just had to add a gratuitous cute baby shot in here...

So we implemented a couple of family rules at the beginning of the Summer, which we repeat daily, sometimes many, many times. 

Love One Another & Be Kind  and 

Treat Others Like You Want to be Treated.

 This week we started making a poster that we can hang up in the house to remind ourselves of the first rule (which is useful in nearly every situation)

Beyond the end outcome of having a poster to remind us of our family rule, the making of this project has been great for the kids.
Having something that they can do together that is creative, ongoing, and quiet has been invaluable to the sanity of the house.

A Fifth Lamp Kind of Morning

Yesterday I woke before dawn to nurse the Youngest, and since I have been having a tough time falling back asleep I went for a walk.
The walk turned out to be about 4 miles; I crossed one bridge into mainland Saint Paul, and came back across the other one.
I did a cursory search for the camera, but since it was 5:45, and I hadn't put it away, we didn't connect.
I was a little sad about that, because the moon was huge and pink and beautiful.
Flash forward to this morning, waking before dawn with the Youngest again, who was having tummy troubles and I decided to take another walk, this time with a tiny, sleepy pal.
We didn't make the loop this morning, just a quick jaunt over to the fifth lamp to see what we could see.

I could make this a habit.