Bag and Barney

**I realized today that I haven’t posted a new blog in a week!! Shame
on me!! Although this is prolly more like how it’ll be once I start school in a
few weeks. I hope to have time to blog and more than likely I will. Please be
patient with me if I miss my deadlines but I will try my best to at least post
once a week.**

Today I want to tell you a little about the projects I have been
working on lately. I’ve been crocheting purses. I don’t want to make hats any
more for fear that it will bring on more snow!! (NO MORE SNOW!!!) Crocheted
purses feel very spring to me, almost summery.

My first one was just a trial. I make 99% of my stuff without a
pattern. I try to get what I imagine to come into fruition. Sometimes I will be
half way thru with a project decided it isn’t working for me and pull it all
apart and start again. I have a bag in my craft chest full of these kinds of
little projects. There are squares from when I was learning how to make a
granny square and flowers from when I first learned how to make one and became
obsessed! I keep them around because sometimes they inspire new projects,
sometimes they become new projects and sometimes I just pull them apart for the
yarn.

So a few weeks ago I tried to make a purse. I crocheted a long
rectangle and added a funny looking net-style triangle to the end. Folded the
rectangle in half, stitched up the sides and made a handle. For the closure I
made, what else, a flower. Here’s what I ended up with…

              

I’m happy with it. Not thrilled but it’s cute… like for a kid. Why does
everything I make end up being for kids? I thought about this for a while
before I tried again. I started a new one thinking it was all in my head. It
didn’t work out the way I had planned. I looked like a hat, so I started over.
At this point my friend, CC, asked for me to make her a purse for her birthday.
It was just over a week away and her only request was that I include bright
orange in the color scheme somewhere. Knowing CC like I do I knew that this bag
couldn’t be too girly. I knew I would need a bag that didn’t have a flower
closure. I went to work.

After imagining it about a hundred times I started. I did the same idea
as with the first. I began with a large orange rectangle with a strip of yellow
thru the middle and extended to create the closure then instead of folding it
in half and sewing up the sides I made the handle. The handle was wide on one
end where it’d attach to the purse, skinnier throughout the actual handle part
and wide again where it’d attach to the other side of the purse. In essence the
rectangle made 3 sides of the purse; front, back, and bottom. The handle made
the sides. The button was an extremely simple add on, but it added lots of style.
Here’s how that came out...

 I’ll admit I am kinda proud of this one. It’s funky and I like it!

I took a little crochet break after this partially due to starting this
blog and also I was just tired. Then last week I felt inspired again. This time
I knew the purse I wanted and I wanted to make it for me. I started out
similarly to my friend’s purse. Except this rectangle was long and skinny and
small, like a couple finger widths small. Then I went around and around and
around stitch after stitch. Yes it started to look like a hat but it’s a big
hat, so there. I switched my stitch up for a few rows here and there to give it
some character. Finally I got it to the size I wanted. I decided to make it a
backpack style. Here’s how that came out...

I just love it!!! Don’t you??

Now to explain why the purple dinosaur got a mention in my post title.
I realized why I couldn’t get out of my kid stuff funk… I am surrounded by
Barney, Thomas, and Sesame Street!!! Is it any wonder I can’t think like an
adult!! My secret to making adult stuff is headphones to watch adult TV during
the day while I crochet and crocheting after bedtime at night!! That’s what
works for me!!!

Fantasy and Reality

All my life I have tried to figure out the difference between fantasy and reality. I grew up with a mother who lived in a fantasy world. She instilled me this idea that Prince Charming will come along and sweep me off of my feet and we will live happily ever after. While I love that I had dreams growing up I wish I could have seen the reality that was right in front of me.

For the first 8 or so years of my life I had the perfect family. I had my mom, dad, little brother and a new baby sister. One day my world was turned upside down. My parents were divorcing. My dad was gone. Then I was told the man I grew to know as my dad wasn't my biological father. Then to top it all off the "man" who was biologically my "father" wants to meet me, from behind prison bars.

Here I am thrown from a typical perfect family into one where my "father" is a convict. My mom kept me from the man I called Dad. Insisted that this was my new family, my "real" family. I was unsure of the whole thing but being only 8 it made things kind of hard to really hard to completely understand. I met this whole new side of my "family". People that knew I existed but that I had never met before, strangers that I was supposed to love.

I remember wondering why my brother didn't miss out on seeing our Dad. He got to see him and as hard as the divorce was for him he still had both parents. I was insanely jealous. I didn't know what to make of this new "father". I hated the fact that I had to visit him in prison. Towards the end of his sentence he was allowed furlough visits. He came and stayed with us for the weekend. He still felt like a stranger to me.

My mother got pregnant as soon as he was out of prison. Next thing I know there is a wedding being planned. My fantasy-living mother says that this the happy ending, this is where our family is going to be whole again. I wasn't so sure.

As it turns out I was right. Long story short- He was an abusive alcoholic. He ruined Christmas for the family one year in an alcoholic rage where he trashed our house. My mother took him back time and time again claiming that he was her soul mate and that she couldn't let him go. Finally she did and they split. They never officially divorced but a few years later he committed suicide. I was 15 when it happened. My reality sucked... I wished I could live in the fantasy world my mom did.

I never realized how out of touch from reality my mother was till later in life.

I guess I never had the experience of what a true marriage is like. I remember few things from my younger years with my Dad. Although having him in my life now is the best thing in the world. He may have missed out on some of my formative years but he has become one of my best friends. He has helped mw thru some major ups and downs over the last 10 years that we've been reconnected. I wish he could have been there the whole time and in my fantasy world he was. But in reality he is here now and that's really all that matters to me.

In my fantasy world I have always had the perfect family but in reality I think I do now!


**Dedicated to my Dad (you know who you are!) for inspiring me to write and being the best Dad in the whole world!**

Caffiene and Procrastination

<sub>This morning I woke up with big plans. I was gonna make a big pot of coffee, chug it back and get moving on some projects (that may or may not have been creative). Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I am sitting here in front of my computer. I made the coffee. I drank the coffee. I would rather sit here than do the cleaning (and creating) that I had planned.


I have been asked to create a diaper bag for someone who is having a baby in a few months. I know I can do it. I am planning on crocheting it by request of the mommy. I should be working on it but I have missed some of my fave TV shows and they seemed to be calling my name today. I have the bag all planned out in my head and I am sure it will be wonderful and all but I know it's gonna be a huge project!


I've been sticking close to home due to the horrendous weather we've been having lately. You would think that means that my house is sparkling clean and I have tons of meals being made from scratch. NOT!! I think I hit the winter funk. I am loving watching TV shows and checking in on the blogs I follow. I get tons of ideas from searching the internet, one of the best ones was the idea to start this blog.


Luckily for me the boys have been complying with my need to stay home inside out of the cold. As long as they have Thomas and Friends on the TV they are happy as clams. I've heard these movies about 8000000 times each and could prolly recite them word for word if I had to. They've become background noise to me tho. I am fortunate enough to ADD.


I was diagnosed with ADD around age 12 or so. Lucky for me I have found ways of dealing with this. Like this, I used to be easily distractable. I still can be but now if I really want to focus my mind on something I can. OR if I really want to zone something out (like annoying toddler TV!) I can with ease. I am unable to zone out my kids tho. I can be totally focused on something and the tiniest peep from one of them can ruin my train of thought.


If you ask Mr. Sarcasm this is a diability. He's a believer in the Cry It Out method of parenting. When the kids were babies he used to tell me just put him in the bed and let him cry and he'll fall asleep on his own. I can't do it. I can't relax while my kids are crying. I can't knowingly sit back and do nothing to comfort my children when I know all it takes is my loving embrace to make them feel better.


How many times in our childs lives are we going to be able to cure their pain with a hug? Not many. When they are grown and have bigger problems than being alone in their crib my hug might not be able to help as much. When they get their heart broken for the first time, or when their pet fish dies... maybe a hug will work. But when they are older and maybe I have passed on I won't be able to ease their pain with hugs. For now I can and I will!


So I guess even if I didn't accomplish what I had set out to do today I did accomplish something. I have given a zillion kisses and hugs. Told A-Roar that I love him about every 5 mins when he tells me. I have written this blog where I have reminded myself that I love my job... my-stay-at-home,-not-clean-or-cook,-or-make-any-actual-money-but-help-my-kids-grow-job.</sub>

Introduction

A Little Confession

I confess that I have no idea how to start this blog.

My Idea for This Blog

This will hopefully be my outlet. A place for my creativity to flourish. A place for me to ramble about the daily events that make up my life. A place for me to make friends. A place for me to get advice and critique on projects in my life. I love to be creative. To turn something old into something new. To turn a ball of yarn into a baby's hat. To turn a not so pleasant situation into a snarky yet funny story.

I think my life is full of random funnies. Hopefully it'll be funny to other people too.

Cast of Characters

ME~ I am a mommy and a wife. I've got this mommy thing down pretty well. The wife thing, if you ask my husband, not so much. I won't tell stories of a fairytale romance where I live with perfect children and a perfect husband. We are far from that and it will show in my stories.

Mr. Sarcasm~ He's my husband. We've been together 5 years and have 2 boys together. We come from totally different cultural and religious backgrounds. Some of the funniness will definitely come from me navigating his world!

MJ~ He's my oldest son. He is 9 years old going on 20. He keeps me on my toes and definitely has me scared of the teen years, as they seem to be rapidly approaching!!

A-Roar~ He's the middle child. He is 3 and a half with more personality than some people have in their little fingers. He is great for classic one liners that will literally make you ROTFLMAO!

E-Man~ He's the baby of the family(at least for now!) and the most easy going kid you will meet. At 16 months old he has the world at his fingers. If you give him even a tiny bit of your attention he will charm the pants off of you!! "Easy-E" as he is sometimes called is very laid back... for now.

Well I hope you will enjoy the ride with me and my family as I navigate the different parts of my life!!

READ ON!!! :) :)