It's 10:28 pm -- NEGLECT

Okay, I have been completely a slacker. I totally neglected you and for that, I am SORRY! Lots going on around here. I just found out my mom has multiple clots in her legs from her pelvis to her knee. I am super worried about that, so if you are the praying type, pray for my mommy.

I have been working on a new adventure for Fridays on my blog. It is going to be called "Fabulous Floral Fridays" and each Friday I will feature a stamp set or stamp that is a floral and at least one card I have made with it. I am really excited about this. This will begin next Friday, so if you have lots of floral sets, plan to dig them out and let's get stamping together!!!

I bought a carpet steamer today from Sears. It is a Hoover and it seems like it will work well. I am working on getting the pee out of my carpets because Dobby is mostly trained but he occasionally will pee in one of his frequent peed on spots, and I need to fix that situation. Plus, I needed some retail therapy because of this stress and the above stresses.

I just was crocheting right down until a few minutes ago. I finished the blanket . . . a baby blanket in a week! WOOHOO! I am so glad I can send it with M tomorrow. His sister is going to love it. Well at least I hope so because I worked myself into a twitch this week, either through tiredness or because of the detail of all that work. My eye has been twitching for at least 24 hours now. Here are a couple pictures. It is just two rows of double crochet (dc) and two rows of treble crochet repeated over and over. Then I did a row of single crochet around the outside and a picot edge. Really simple, but I hope she likes it. I used Caron Simply Soft yarn, which I adore for baby blankets -- it is soft, but not weird like some baby yarns can be. It also has this awesome shimmer to it that I just love. I picked up a book on crochet from Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and that is where the picot pattern came from. I taught myself one other thing from it so far -- I love the book -- it is SO easy to figure out because there are pictures to help! I will post my cool square I made another day . . .

ETA: The book is called "Crochet School - A Complete Course" and is by Sterling Publishing Co, Inc. -New York. The picot border can be found on page 110 of that book. I used a "G" hook.

I also made a paint can to give baby McKayla as well. I had never done a memory can before, so it was all new to me, which made it fun and challenging. I ended up using Scotch brand double sided tape, and so far it has held, but I ran out of my red terrifically tacky tape and did not have time to run to the store to get more. Inside of the can, I put infant tylenol, baby wash, baby lotion, baby socks, an infant tooth and gum brush, chocolates (for mom), a note pad to make note of the milestones and matching pink pen, a little matchbox to save some hair from her first haircut, mylicon (love the stuff -- lifesaver for gassy babies who can't burp), a baby bib that says "I love Mommy," a sleeper from old navy (pink and white striped), and I think that is it. I barely fit it all in. I hammered the lid on and it is done. It should be hard for my hubby to mess it up. I used chipboard letters and covered them with paper and sanded the edges (super hard with tiny letters -- totally would not recommend this). The ribbons are just proof that now I can match practically any paper with the bazillion rolls of ribbon I have. WOOHOO! The poem on the top reads:

Baby Books are great ideas,

but sometimes you’re too busy.

Living with a little one

can put you in a tizzy.

Milestones pass too fast at times

to find the proper page,

so jot a note of each event

with date and baby’s age

(like “took 3 steps on June the 1st”

or “teething - 5th December”).

Then drop it in this memory can

to help you always remember.

Sorry the colors are so bad on the photos, but it is almost 11 pm and pretty dark here in Phoenix, so obviously I could not use natural light, and since it is leaving tomorrow at 5 am, I decided to take photos anyway. It is very vanilla on the top piece if that helps you to get an idea of the colors more true and accurately. I hope she likes it!