Blog hiatus

I faithfully read my blogs a few times a week, but I haven't realized that I didn't post in over 2 months! Wow.
Time is really flying these day. Between work, my MBA classes (which have been CRAZY!), and my husband's back injury and work schedule, I've had no time to sit and breathe!

The kids are keeping me on my toes and I've been trying to crochet as much as possible. Simply Hooked by Amanda is going slow & steady, I've gotten a few regular customers now and I'm buying lots of new patterns that I'm hoping to find the time to try out one of these days!  


The current "hot" item is the elf hat. Everyone seems to love them and I have a bunch that I need to finish up.  I'm traveling to San Francisco for a conference next week, so I hope that I can spend some of my "quiet" time getting projects done. 


Here's a few photos of my elf hats and some of the kids too! I hope all is well with you all!

Candy Corn Beanie

Double Shell Beanie with Flower

Go State! PSU-inspired Elf Hat

My adorable monster on Halloween night

My Beautiful Snow White

Christmasy Elf Hats waiting on their braids

Simple crisscross scarf

I got an order for a scarf from a friend of mine and I was given freedom to create.
Well, I looked around for patterns and decided to combine two elements that I found to make up my own scarf. I couldn't think of a clever name for it, so until then it's just the simple crisscross scarf!

Here it is:

I really like it!  I use the cross-dc method (not really sure what it's called!) and hdc rows.

I'm not really good at writing up patterns.. if I can write it out in a coherent way, I'll be sure to share. Basically I did a row of Hdc, a row of the "X" stitches made with dc, a row of Hdc - change colors and repeat.

To make the "X", I skipped one st and dc in the next, then dc back into the skipped st and repeated this across. I assume if i use a chunkier yarn, the "X" will be more pronounced and look less like a V.

An interesting twist on Sheppard's Pie- Low carb style

Sheppard's Pie is one of those meals that we all love. Victoria calls them Irish Tacos, which I think is so funny - but yet it makes sense to me.  We haven't attempted to make Sheppard's pie since I started following LCHF but it's been mentioned a few times. Well, I had the solution - I'd make mine with cauliflower.

So - Derek made up the meat/gravy/corn mixture and I steamed cauliflower and got the potatoes boiling for mashed potatoes.  The only problem was that I didn't let the cauliflower get mushy enough so it wasn't creamy mashed cauliflower, but more of just tiny bits of cauliflower on my "Sheppard's Pie". 


We layered the meat/gravy/corn mixture on the bottom of my 8x8 dish and then also in a smaller baking dish.  I layered cheese on top of the meat mixture for each and topped the larger dish with mashed potatoes and the smaller dish with my mashed cauliflower. Derek was pleased because there was still quite a bit left for tomorrow's lunch, and I even had lunch leftovers from my cauliflower version too.


I do have to say that I'm not sure this would work for you if you didn't enjoy cauliflower but I love it and it was a great alternative!

Losing Track

Well, it's been a while since I've been couponing. I haven't had the time to organize, clip and shop properly and it's beginning to really take a toll on me.  I was doing so well, saving around 50% on each trip and then I just fell into such a slump all around that I haven't kept up with it.  I need to restart and really get moving with it!


I've also been losing track of this blog. This space use to be such a great outlet and lately I just feel like I haven't had the chance to breathe, let alone blog!!


In general, I just feel like I've lost track of life itself... Derek and I have had crazy schedules and it's wearing on me. Coming home from work to see him for about thirty minutes before he's out the door for work... and weekends, what are they? We did have one weekend together -and we went to my sister-in-law's camper, but that was a long trip too!  I'll post pictures soon of the adventure!


The next "free" weekend we have is August 27, when we will take a trip to visit our family so Derek & his dad can get in some fishing before summer is over. We also plan to take the kids to Knoebel's one last time before it closes for the year.


I have so many things on my list of things I want to do/see/visit, but time is slipping away.
I'm nearing the end of my second quarter of the MBA program and I can't believe I'm one-fourth of the way done with the program. Less than 2 years between me and my new degree. While it feels like a long time to wait, I'm sure it will be here in the blink of an eye.

Ta-Da: Pink, Cream & Green Dream blanket

In early June, a good friend of mine had commissioned me to make a blanket for a friend of hers who just had a sweet baby girl. We looked over the bedding the baby had and decided to go with pink, cream & green colors... my friend dubbed it the Pink, Cream & Green Dream blanket and I loved the name!

This blanket has been a slow going process. While making it, I had an order for 10 boutique bags with flowers and a few other bags scattered throughout... Overall, it took me 7 weeks to complete. I love the color combo and again, I used the Granny Stripe pattern from Lucy with some slight modifications.

The color pattern was simple: pink, green, cream, green, pink, green, cream...and it continued.

It is 68 rows long with a cream hdc granny first-round border topped off with a pink scalloped edge.

It measures approximately 44" x 38"


Isn't it gorgeous?!