What's Going On?

Halloween was awesome!  Sorry no pictures...we went store diving.  Many of the stores in the area like Publix even Marshall's had Halloween crawls.  Then we ran out of gas!  Yes, in the middle of a busy thoroughfare the car sputtered and died roughly a mile or so away from the nearest gas station.  It had been rainy but the rain gods had smiled upon my husband and he made the trek rainfree and dry.  I put on the flashers, told the kids to be quiet more than a few times and got cramps in my fingers from crossing them after near hits from the drivers attempting to turn into the businesses (mostly restaurants) in which our van was conveniently blocking.  Now how about when my hubby was just crossing the street with the gas can a cop car finally pulls up behind us?  Nice timing, LPD!  Nearly thirty minutes of constant swaying between speeding cars and you finally decide to come and make sure no one hits us!  Our gas hand had been going up and down all week confusing us as to how much gas we had in the car.  Now we have a pretty good idea...hubby's gotta get the floater fixed.

Well, after that debacle we went back to our neighborhood, my husband entirely too pooped to contemplate any more store diving.  We gave out candy.  My kids enjoy this because they get to jibber jabber with all of their friends, give out candy and wear their costumes.  No complaints about not doing the "real thing" because they were having just too good of a time.  Thank goodness.

Fitness-wise...I pulled or sprained something in my right oblique/lat area this morning.  My husband wanted to rest more so he didn't go with me leaving me to my own devices.  Well, I'm extremely motivated and really pushed myself.  Apparently too much, as it were.  I did go to town with the side bends and I even added the captain's chair as my core is getting much stronger!  I didn't feel pain until I got on the row machine.  I made it through my reps but did feel pain.  I took a longish break and went on to the tricep machine (you sit and pull the handles up to work the triceps).  I didn't make it too far on that.  My side hurt entirely too much.  So then I went and cooled down on the elliptical. 

It wasn't until I got to work that I realized I might have an issue.  My side ached to the point of pain.  After an hour I got a bit more concerned.  Around 11 I was really concerned because the pain turned into a burn prompting a call to my husband.

"Sounds like you might have a minor pull.  Did you do proper form?"  I grumbled about him not coming with me to make sure I did things right but he didn't want to hear that.  He berated me for not paying more attention to my body and not trying to cram everything in.  Well maybe I did try to cram everything in to the point I cannot identify what exactly caused me to pull it.  It hurts.  Aleve be damned and the pain relieving wrap be damned!  I am in a great deal of pain still so obviously I did something that is going to prevent me from working out.

I went by the local school district office to view my daughter's artwork there.   She had been bugging me all week to remember and today was the last day.  So after the gym I went over there (grumbling about the traffic all the way). 

My budding young artist and her watercolor Charleston-style house!  She doesn't like the picture but she guesses "it will do" (her words).  She's been in the state fair and the local art museum also.

I'm knitting hats!  I got some books from the library and I am presently making a beanie from Chic Knits for Young Chicks.  Updates to come!  I need to get something done for Nanowrimo...I haven't written a word on my novel yet. 

Crochet for Halloween

It's about that time of year again.  Halloween.  It isn't something I celebrate usually for a variety of reasons.  It has proven problematic with having four young school-aged children, however.  Now we make sure they get their share of candy  but we do not allow trick-or-treating, at least not in our neck of the woods.  We have done similar types of outings such as trick-or-treating in the dorms at my alma mater (we missed it this year) or having the kids give out candy to children who are doing it in the neighborhood.  They aren't content with doing just that this year.

I've found a list of stores that are participating in trick-or-treating on Halloween.  They will just have to be content with that.  We carved a pumpkin last night, something I hadn't done since I was fifteen.  It was relatively easy.  I only had one of the four bother to help and even she eventually abandoned me in favor of Candy Crush.  She did pick the design and take out a handful or two of the seeds...that was it. 

Here is our (my) creation.  Scary, isn't it?  I adore it because it looks absolutely hilarious from the street, and we are the only house that has one so far.  We may do another one...I'm aiming for a vampire or black cat.  It remains to be seen.

The children wanted costumes (of course they did) for Halloween and I made it abundantly clear I wasn't buying a single one.  So I'm making two of them, my stepdaughter can crochet and make her own (with my guidance) and I don't know what the boy is going to do.  He's going to have to figure out Freddy Krueger all on his own.  So we have a Clawdeen Wolf from Monster High who can't match worth a darn and a vampire.  Their costumes are pretty much the same aside from one wanting to be black and blue (the vampire) and one wanting to be mis-matched.  So I tackled Clawdeen Wolf first.  The ears are easy so I focused on the top which I made in pink and black.  The skirt is in purple.  I told her she could forget about those boots.  Then I made the blue tank top for my little one.  I ran out of black yarn so I couldn't finish until yesterday.  Here they are!

 This is my little vampire (or vampress...who taught her that word!).  She absolutely loves this halter.  I don't think I'll have enough time for her skirt so I may have to settle for a pre-existing one.  She didn't seem to mind. 

 Okay, this doesn't look exactly like Clawdeen Wolf but she didn't care.  She only cared about the colors and the style.  She loves the tank and she loves the skirt.  The skirt is supposed to have ruffles all the way up but she was happy with this (thank goodness). 

The pattern for the top came from the Slice of Sweet Halter pattern on Crochetville!  The skirt is the Tiered Ruffle Skirt from Ravelry!  The girls chose what they wanted...I would have been more original had I started these earlier.  I know for next year.

 I'm teaching my girls how to crochet now.  My vampire has mastered chains and single crochet and is intent on making me a skirt!  Well who am I to discourage ambition!  Have at it baby girl! 

I am having temporary withdrawals from lack of new yarn acquisitions.  Okay I just made that up as an excuse to get more yarn.  I've been partly content.  My gift basket from Lion Brand yarn came through not too long ago from a giveaway I won back in January, and I had fun with that for a couple of months.  The novelty has worn off and I need new yarn to tickle my fancy. 

Christmas is coming up!  Or what I call the biggest yarn stash buster of the year!  I am aiming to make hats and scarves for local hospitals and assisted living homes in the area so I need to get started right about now!  I will hold off on making purchases until I have successfully whittled down my rather large stash of yarn.  Well at least that's the plan...


Updates coming soon!