Crochet projects and your input

When I was about 10 and Mom and I were in a craft store, I was staring at all the colorful yarn lining the wall, and then and there I knew I must crochet. I got a hook and some yarn and a crochet book and happily left the store, most likely imagining all the cool and professional stuff I would make. :)  Weell, even following along with the book, all I learned was the single crochet. In a square.  I couldn't make out what in the world stuff like "sc1R, YO2, hdc in BLO, ch2, dc in FLO" meant.  But that didn't stop me from making all sorts of terrifying pot holders.  Only a grandma would lovingly gush over a horrible mess of yarn that looked more like an outline of the United States than a square, and tuck it near the stove for the next time she needed to grab a hot pan.  Eventually I saw just how awful my projects were and turned to other hobbies.


Mom and I were in the States a couple of months ago, and I was visiting with my friend Lur who is a crochet genius.  I watched her crochet for a while, and tried to remember just what was so hard about crocheting. So...yes. I got a hook and some yarn at a craft store, only this time I *scuffs foot* wasn't exactly the most optimistic about how my projects might turn out.  Thankfully, I saw that now I could follow a pattern and learn new stitches just fine!  My projects still might look like a 10 year old did them, but I'm loving it all the same!  Here are just a few stuff I've done lately:

A doggie\monster hat

Simple beanie with scalloped edges

I love hats! This is my favorite because it's a beret, and it's mesh, so it's not bulky.

Queen Ann's Lace scarf

:') A lil hippo.  I may or may not talk to it...

Whenever I'm able to get supplies easily I want to learn to knit as well, along with getting good enough at crochet to hopefully sell some stuff here and there.

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I wanted to check in with y'all and see if you have any ideas of what more I should do with this lil ol' blog!  Is there anything you want to know about? Should I do vlogs more often? What should they be about?

Also, I want to do a giveaway, but since I don't have anything to actually give away at the present, what do y'all think about a blog design giveaway? I am by no means a pro, or even super good at it, but I love making headers, and makin' stuff look pretty!  It could be your choice of whether you'd like just a header, or a redo of your whole blog.

Tell me what y'all think!

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happy weekend!

Things I love

...okay, I have to say it - I've been loving Pinterest. There are so many good ideas on there for just about everything imaginable. Plus pretty pictures! :)  I've been loving finding things like these...

So many pretty things, yummy recipes and ideas for crafty stuff!

All of us need a reminder sometimes to:

A climbin' the hill

A few days ago, Luke, Carey, Jake and I decided to climb a different hill that's near our house.  I think it was only about 3 miles round trip, but this hill was steeper, and the brush was thicker!

We came to this ravine here - isn't it pretty?

"So I don't see any way out of here...where should we go? ...Yeah, I guess you're right, we'll go up!"

 Once we got out of the ravine we found the road again

 It started to get steep right here

 We're soaking up all the green we can before things turn completely brown

Me and....half of Luke's face.  It's hard to get both of our faces in it since he's so tall!

 There was no path at all, or even any areas that weren't a complete jungle of thorns, so we just went through it!  I still have part of one in my leg that I need to dig out......

 We finally reached the top! Here's Jake in his awesomeness.

 Luke and Carey admiring the view

 I wish you could see exactly how enormous this rock is!

 Luke in his awesomeness

Yeah, I'm the oddball in this group!

Luke, me, Jake.  (Just to clarify, Carey is just a friend and coworker, no relation)

I zoomed all the way in onto the "little" hill that we climbed before

 Here it is again...our house is at the base of it.  Annnd, the sun was really bright.  I felt like laying on top of the rock and soaking up some sun like a lizard.

Didn't take many pictures coming down because we were too intent on not falling and dying\being careful not to get our eyes poked out by branches and thorns.

 

We got back sweaty (and stinky. You're welcome you guys) and a bit tired, but it was so much fun!  As an added bit of entertainment I got to sit on the couch that evening and pick ticks off myself, heh heh.  "Begone bloodsuckers!"  Okay that was gross, and I kindof made it up.  I only found one on my leg as we were hiking, muahaha.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's up the hill we go!

A couple days ago Dad, Carey, Luke, Jake and I went climbing up the big rocky hill that's near our house.  In a 1\2 mile, we ascended 500 feet!  Here are a few pictures (All climbing pictures courtesy of Dad!):

 The view - how gorgeous is it!  The house with the blue roof towards the bottom right is our house.

 The rocks are huge!

 Luke, Carey, Jake and I.  I'm such the odd one out, hehe!  Those guys have so much fun together, what a hoot!  Thanks for making me laugh so hard my stomach hurts while I'm trying to haul myself over these rocks...

 Bonnie, Mom and I went into town the other day to have a bite of lunch, and so Bonnie could have a checkup.  She's so brave!

Bonnie lookin' cute while she gets blood drawn

 Er...the toilet.  After one has been used alot, it's a toss up as to which is more preferable - tile or dirt.  I'd have to go with dirt though, because you could slip on the tile, hit your head and get knocked unconscious . Great!

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Happy Day that celebrates Mothers!

It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've posted. {Ahem}  Nothing like a holiday to get another post out!

Ah, Mother's Day. Where would any of us be without our mothers? Yep, you said it!

I realized that somewhere along the way I refer to her exclusively as "The Mom" (or sometimes "Mum").  Never plain "Mom", but The Mom.  She loves me, she always has, and always will.  She's The Mom.  

(Hi The Mom!)

Dear The Mom,

Thank you for all you do for everyone every single day.  You're such a wonderful example in so many ways - I hope that someday I can be half the person that you are. Thanks for being my parent for all my life, you're definitely firstly that, but now you're also my friend. I love you. Thanks for always making me laugh and smile, teaching me and loving me, even though I do strange things like try to waltz around the kitchen with you every other day.

Love, Linz

She feeds us, cares for us, and wipes our foreheads and gives us water when we're sick...the list goes on and on.  And all the while loving us, even with our weirdness quirks.

I mean, she puts up with us every day!

Even when we do things like wear cowboy hats just because we're watching a Western movie. 

  (I think we learned it from you, Mom!)

So today, I'm singing along with Mr. T..."Mother, I'll always love her...there is no other!"

 

(And mine's the best. You can't have her! Heh heh. Sorry.)

Running Route

I've been wanting to take some pictures of the scenery, and of where we go running, but when we're actually doing a more serious run, I never want to tote along my camera, so Luke and I took a bike ride, and I was able to finally get a few to show you!

 A nice downhill towards the beginning of our route...and it turns into a nice uphill when we're almost home on the way back.

 I actually love this uphill!  It's not super long, so I like to try and power up it.

 A while after the hill, there's a nice straightaway.

 A nice downhill

 The seemingly huge uphill that used to seem to take forever to run up!  It's not so bad now though, thankfully!

 

  Then I didn't take any more pictures until we were headed back to the house.  Isn't the scenery pretty?  It's the rainy season right now, so things and green and lovely!

As a side note, make sure to check out Cookie Monster, since it's just been updated!  And as a "not so side" side note, you really should go look at Luke's blog, because he has some really great posts!

Happy birthday, Candice!

Today is my friend Candice's birthday.  

Ah, how far we've come together!  We used to play with baby dolls, and nail polish, and convince the others to play dress up with us.  Now we talk every chance we get , even though we're separated by many miles.  We also have an insane number of nicknames for each other.  Alot of mine involve some form of 'Punkin'.  But let's not get too far into that...

We love to skype!

Happy birthday, Candice!

~Eye Heart Ewe!~

Iringa

Here are just a few pictures that I hope you'll enjoy!

 Driving down to Iringa.  I think Panya wanted to be the figurehead...

This is how Don and Axe spent their time.

This is how Panya spent her time.

Or this...(what a cutie!)

Since there was no AC, we had all the windows rolled down the entire trip.  It was a liiiittle windy! 

 This is our backyard.  Note the handy little spigot in the middle there...

 The front yard!  Isn't it pretty up there?  The scenery is definitely different than in the North.  

Heh heh.  We have two mango trees, and the dogs snack on the fallen fruit all day long.  Panya has a fat little mango belly!

Going running with deh boys!