The Third Annual Deepwood Ascension Festival Prizes

We've had an insanely busy couple of weeks around here, with last Saturday being the baby shower (my mom popped in last minute as a surprise!) and just yesterday was the Deepwood Ascension Festival, our major Dagorhir event of the year. My To-Do list keeps growing longer instead of shorter as I only have five weeks before the baby is due.

I spent the last week writing thank you notes and working on the prizes and cooking for the event.

I put together two grand prize belt flags for the tourney awards and three water bottle carriers for the gold raffle at the end.

Akkina arranged a menu of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, rolls, and a vegetarian dish and did a fabulous job coordinating the whole thing.

Jack and Morric put together four laser engraved leather belt flags for tourney prizes.

I didn't get a chance to take any photos as I was short on sleep and really only stayed long enough to help with serving food and clean up but I know people took photos

Today was a day OFF! After the insanity of the last few weeks, Jack and I both needed a day to sleep and recharge. I did some crochet, some cross stitch, a couple minor chores, and took a nap. I'll post again soon with crafty & baby shower updates (I received some beautiful handmade blankets that I'm dying to share) and with some photos of the event when I acquire them.

World Cross Stitch Day

I found out yesterday that we now have an official World Cross Stitch Day and it took place TODAY! I celebrated by neglecting my to do list after work today and settling in for an evening of stitchy goodness.

Before World Cross Stitch Day

At the end of World Cross Stitch Day

I was able to cross off about 700 stitches today, which means my needle was really smoking. I also somehow managed to throw together a quick lasagna for dinner. Pro Tip: Use leftover spaghetti sauce and no boil noodles for the easiest lasagna ever.

All in all it was a pretty relaxing evening. I might turn it into World Cross Stitch Weekend :) :) :)

A Weekend Away and a Weekend at Home

Last weekend was Rivendell's Third Siege of Imladris. Jack was originally going without me but I had a rough week at work and was going to take Friday off anyway to get our garbage disposal installed, so I decided last minute to join him. It was a weekend camping event but we stayed in a hotel in deference to my doctor's request, as she didn't want me sleeping on an air mattress at seven months pregnant.

I'm afraid that I didn't think to take pictures, but if you check out Elsea's Photography on Facebook,  there are close to a thousand photos from Siege available to view. This is one of Elsea's and is posted with permission.

Copyright Elsea's Photography, used with permission

Along the way, I finished off the most recent scarf and hat combo. This was a bulky yarn that is super soft and kind of curly and hard to crochet because the stitches are so hard to see.

I spent the weekend crocheting, cross stitching, and relaxing. It was really nice to get away. We didn't get any souvenirs from the vendors but I found this t-shirt set online while we were gone and couldn't resist ordering it for Jack and Baby. Its a sixth month sized onsie, so it will be a little while before they can wear them. 

Today was spent at home. I had planned to spend the day in my sewing room relaxing but somehow that just didn't pan out. I worked on editing embroidery files we'll need for our Deepwoods III event coming up at the end of August, so I'll be sharing some finished sewing projects soon. I did some easy chores around the house that needed to get done, a little crochet, and a little cross stitch.

Tomorrow the plan is church and a little laundry and on Monday I'll finally get my new garbage disposal installed. Finally. It was supposed to be installed last Friday as scheduled, but the basics is the plumbing company showed up a day before they said they would and didn't bother to call me to ask why I wasn't home. So I waited for four hours for them to show up last Friday before calling them and reading them the riot act. Their answer was "We'll reschedule you, just take another vacation day because we only schedule this between 8 am an noon." Ummm...nope. I hired a different company to come out after work on Monday and I'll be thrilled to finally get this recalled garbage disposal thing finished up.

Crochet Cables

 Greetings again! The last two weeks have been filled with all kinds of undesired tasks, reducing my craft time to almost nothing. I did however manage to sneak in a few minutes here and there, starting a new scarf using the new Red Heart Super Saver Stripes in Cool Stripes. This is the umpteenth attempt to learn cables and finally a successful one. I do like how the stripes are working out and will probably look into a few different colors of this yarn in the future. This yarn is a little coarse but I think it will be durable and the colors are very vibrant. The pattern I'm using is one I found on Ravelry. It is simply called "Cable Scarf by Laura Cracknell" and can be found here. Cables are a yarn eater but I'm hoping I have enough yarn for a matching hat.

I was also pleased to get the living room floor cleaned up so that I could take a photo of my progress on my C2C blanket. I've lost count of how many skeins I've used but I *think* I'm on skein 12 or 13.

Its well more than half done if you don't count the border, and I have a few more skeins on hand. Its also getting too big to travel easily, as it approaches the size of my queen mattress.

Slow Weekend Stitching

You would have thought that a four day weekend last week (thank you Independence Day) would have been fun and relaxing but it really wasn't. 

In the last month or so, anything that could break down and need expensive repairs or replacements has broken down and the culmination of this was my clothes dryer last Tuesday. It was a second hand dryer that we picked up a few years ago on the cheap at a used appliance repair store. A quick check of the model number showed it was thirteen years old with a life expectancy of ten years. I spent a chunk of July 4th in the laundromat, drying all the clothes that I had washed earlier that day and the rest of it shopping for a new dryer.

The upside of spending all that time in a laundromat is that I was able to make good headway on one of the hats I've been working on, and so I now present the latest hat and scarf combo. I actually really hate the colors of this yarn but was aiming for something that would appeal more to men for donation hats and scarves. I think in the future I'll stick to dark solids, like burgundy, brown, and blue, you know, colors that won't make me grit my teeth while working with them. Oy vey, I still have about 400 yards of this stuff to use up but I may just donate what is left to my church. The yarn is Herschnerr's Worsted 8 and I don't think they even sell this color any more.

When I purchased this yarn, I also picked up another variegated called "spice," a teal, and a sage green. I think its possible that I ordered the ugliest variegated that they had. I have learned my lesson.

In the meantime, I also had a page finish on Waiting by Tilton Crafts.

Magnificent Wizard has also been seeing some love lately.

I'm considering starting a sweater for myself. I'd like to make either the Overcast Sweater or the Hooded Sweater. Both patterns are by Maz Kwok of BeACrafter.com. They take similar amounts of DK weight yarn, so I've been spending my lunch breaks browsing yarn sites looking for the *perfect* yarn. I haven't settled on anything yet but it will come to me eventually. I'm also torn between buying some nice yarn so that I want to wear it when done or cheap yarn since its my first time attempting a sweater. Suggestions?