Humor – Page 3 – Mamas2Hands

Very Big Bears

August 11, 2014August 10, 2014Celebrating, Humor, Latest News2 Comments

Many of you have heard about my bear adventures up here on my mountain over the years. Bears come with the territory when you live on a mountain in the Colorado Rockies. We make decisions about when to take in bird feeders and how early we put out our trash for pick-up based on bear sightings in our neighborhood.

Last week when I took my boys shopping for back-to-school supplies they found bears they couldn’t live without. We were at our local Costco and they had 53″ tall cuddly toy bears. These bears are big, I’m talking crazy big. Big enough to completely fill a single twin sized bed. They were soft and squishy like over-sized pillows.

I had noticed the bears before, when I had been on solo shopping trips to Costco, and knew that my boys would love them. As soon as the boys saw the big boxes of them they made a beeline for them. “Please mommy, could we get one?” tumbling one off the top of the boxes into eager arms.

I was laughing “Where would you put it?”

“It could stay in my bed.” says Thing 1.

“No it could stay in my bed.” says Thing 2.

Quick look at me, “We would share.” says Thing 1, with Thing 2 nodding his head yes.

My next question “How much are they?”

“$29.99, so $30” says Thing 2, who is always quick to spot the price tags. “Is that too much?”

Inside I’m thinking, that really isn’t too much for such a large cuddly toy. And I’m remembering a very large cuddly toy I had wanted when I was about 10 years old that was $120 (with inflation it would probably be around $400 – $5o0 these days).

I smile, “Well, it would be fun to get one and put it on Daddy’s side of the bed to surprise him when he comes home on Friday from his trip.”

“Yes, Yes, Yes!” “That would be so funny.” boys are now bouncing all over and trying to decide which color of bear they want to get.

“Listen, we need to finish the rest of our shopping first because those bears are going to take up a lot of room in the cart” I now have their full attention, “So let’s shop and you two can think about what color bear you each want to get.”

Thing 2’s eyes become wide, “We each get a bear?”

“Yes, you may each have a bear.”

A small riot ensues until I remind them that my generosity might change if we don’t get our shopping done. Once all the rest of the shopping was finished and we are headed to the front of the store they had almost forgotten about the bears. Then I said, “Okay, go pick out your bears and we will go check out.”

They each picked out a bear as I tried not to fall down laughing. I offered for them to put them on the top of the cart, but they wanted to carry them to the cashier. Since the bears were almost bigger than them it was an entertaining walk to the register. Once we paid for all our purchases the boys decided the bears could ride in the cart out to the car.

One woman in the parking lot jokingly called out to me, “You’re making me look like a bad mother.” I just laughed.

Then we had the challenge of how to fit the bears into the car with all the rest of our purchases. The boys first thought that it would work to put both the bears in the passenger seat with them, but they were way too crowded. Only one bear was going to fit in there. Then I had a brilliant idea, I put a bear in the front passenger seat and buckled him in.

Once we got the bears home they were tucked up in the boys’ beds to be their snuggly pillows, I even tested out the comfort and they were great body pillows. I had no difficulty getting the boys to go to bed each evening.

When Friday rolled around, the boys were very excited to set up the bear surprise for their dad. The bears were carefully positioned on the bed with another little bird toy sitting on the brown bear’s shoulder. Then they had to wait for their dad to make it home from the airport.

It was all worth the wait, Dad was properly surprised and amazed. Then the bears were moved back to their beds, where they are continuing to be the favorite snuggly pillows for both boys.

Who knows, I may be using the bears to model some scarves and shawls over the next couple of months. I just hope the boys don’t decide the bears have to go with us on our next family road-trip, these are some seriously big bears.

Always Learning

August 8, 2014August 8, 2014Classes, Crochet, Humor, Latest News, TeachingLeave a Comment

Education is on my brain big time lately.

I took 4 awesome classes at the conference this year. 2 with the amazing Vashti Braha; “Tunisian Eyelet Meshes” and “Tunisian Filet Lace”. My other classes were knitting and knooking. The knitting class was “Russian Style Continental Knitting” with Galina Khmeleva. My Saturday morning class was the eponymously named “Knooking” with my good friend and enthusiastic teacher, Karen Whooley. I’ll be posting more about all the great stuff I learnt in these wonderful classes soon.

The main reason education is on my brain right now is that in less than 2 weeks I will be on the adventure of having a middle-school student. This also means either my husband or myself will be driving the boys down to Boulder every school day. That is anywhere from a 35 minute to hour-long drive. Just found out yesterday that my youngest’s school day will start at 7:50 a.m. Ouch! This means we will have to be on the road by 6:50 a.m. every morning.

Now to some of you that might not seem such a big deal. Clearly you are morning people. I can not be described as such and neither can my oldest son. Himself and the youngest do a little better with mornings, but even they enjoy a later start to the day. This means I am giving a great deal of thought to the best ways to organize myself. The goal being to make mornings the least painful for all involved.

There is a fun bit to all this back-to-school madness though. Going shopping for school supplies. We’ve acquired pretty much everything on the lists provided by the boys’ schools. I’m thinking I might need a trolley to convey it all to the schools on the first day.

As always when the back-to-school sales are happening I acquire a few supplies for myself. I especially like to get small scissors that I can take with me when I’m out and about and especially for air travel.

Then if TSA decides to take my scissors I won’t weep because they are my favorite Fiskars.

I will be learning a great deal along with my boys. Both of their new schools are going to be a huge change for them as well as me. Afterall, going from a school with a total enrollment of 25 students (at its largest) to one with anywhere between 500 – 650 students is going to be an adjustment.

I’m hopeful that having this more regulated schedule will contribute to me being more productive. One of the benefits of being down off the mountain so frequently; I will be able to spend more time at my favorite local yarn store, Longmont Yarn Shoppe. I’m planning on being there most Wednesdays during the school year from 10a – 2p. I’ll be teaching some classes on Wednesday’s as well as facilitating the daytime CGOA Chapter meetings on the 4th Wednesday of each month.

More information about the classes available at Longmont Yarn Shoppe can be found at the website: LongmontYarn.com. I’ll be teaching 4 classes, 2 will be offered on Wednesdays and 2 will be offered on Saturdays.

Saturday, September 13th; 1p-4p: Crochet Wrister

Saturday, October 11th; 12p-3p: Perfect Fit Crocheted Hat

Wednesdays, November 5 & 12; 10a-12p: Eleonora Shawlette

Wednesday, November 19; 10a-1p: Lovely Crocheted Lace Border

So if you are local to the area, come join me for some fun classes or just stop by Longmont Yarn Shoppe. And if you aren’t local but want to take a class with me, plan a trip out to Colorful Colorado and have some crochet fun while enjoying my beautiful state.

Lights, Camera, Action

March 23, 2014May 31, 2014Celebrating, Creativity, Crochet, Humor3 Comments

No, I haven’t gone Hollywood on you. But I am doing quite a bit of video work these days.

As some of you may be aware I am writing the “Technique 1-2-3” articles for “Crochet 1-2-3” now. Issue #11 coming out this May will be my first article in my new role. As part of this assignment I needed to make videos demonstrating the techniques.

I had been wanting to do crochet videos for a long time. But being a recovering perfectionist was getting in my way. Fortunately, the job offer from “Crochet 1-2-3” forced me to finally jump in and give it a try.

At first I thought I would need a fancy digital camcorder, then Kimberly McAlindin (the editor in chief at Crochet 1-2-3) told me that she recorded her videos with her smart phone. Really? That surprised me, and got me wondering how well my smart phone would work.

Last March I had splurged and purchased the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone for my business. I’m still exploring all the bells and whistles on it. I was delighted to discover that I could shoot good quality video with it. I still needed a tripod so that I could use both hands in my demonstrations. I figured the local camera shop in Boulder (Mike’s Camera) would have something that would work.

When I got to the shop I found the types of tripods I was looking for right away. There were loads of ones designed for use with the IPhone. Unfortunately the options for a phone as large as my Note were very limited. With some help from one of the camera specialist though we finally matched a tripod to my phone.

My Smartphone held in the tripod from the back. — My Phone held in the tripod from the back.

I wanted one of these with the bendable legs so that if needed I could grip it around the top of my regular camera tripod. This is the Joby Mpod Mini.

Smartphone in the tripod from the front. — Phone in the tripod from the front.

I really liked how this tripod allowed me to see the screen of my phone without any obstructions.

When I got home I started experimenting with how to get the right angle and distance from my hands for filming. The little tripod was great, but it wasn’t high enough off the table. My regular tripod was too tall for what I wanted. I know, it all sounds a bit Goldilocks.

Then I hit upon sitting the camera on top of a little box, perfect height, but it kept wanting to tip over and was wiggly when I was filming. I needed something sturdier. So I dug out a glass jar, filled it with pennies and decorative glass marbles to give it plenty of weight. Popped the tripod on the top and squeezed the bendable legs tightly around the lid. Unfortunately, when the camera was at the proper angle the little tripod and camera wanted to topple off the top.

Never fear, there is always Duct Tape (and mine is Purple). Taped up the little tripod and suddenly every thing was perfect. Setting up the rest of my “studio” was easy after all the tripod drama.

Currently my filming studio is my dining room table, nice big window to my left lets in loads of natural light and there is room for my backdrop, additional light and the necessary project supplies. Eventually I hope to be filming in my design office or art studio. Who knows it might be both locations, depending on the craft and technique I’m showing.

Check out the Crochet 1-2-3 website in May to see my first videos. For my first foray into the waters of video work I think they came out fairly decent.

A Little Indulgence

January 12, 2014January 12, 2014Crochet, Hooks, Humor6 Comments

Those of you that know my obsession with all things crochet will not be surprised by this news. I have many many crochet hooks. At last count over 200. I’ve acquired a few since that tally was made so that number has been surpassed, but I’m not counting them all again.

I’ve long confessed that I have a serious case of H.A.S. (Hook Acquisition Syndrome), and I am not looking for a cure anytime in the near or distant future. There seems to always be another hook I need to add to my growing collection.

I’ve been staying up late a lot the past week. My 2 boys missed returning to school from winter break, due to a nasty cold cough bug, so late at night is really the only time it’s quiet around here.

Last night the late night got me in a wee bit of mischief. I’ve been wanting a set of Hamanaka Crochet Hooks for some time. This desire was further fed by getting to see the hooks in real life when I took a class with Jennifer Hansen at the Reno Knit & Crochet Show in Fall 2012.

Then there was an ad in my email yesterday from Stitch Diva Studios showing the hooks. I had some Christmas gift money that I hadn’t assigned to any of my wish list as of yet, so I decided (after suitable internal debate) that I “needed” to finally get these hook.

One reason I have always liked the look of these hooks is the squishy triangular-shaped center handle. It looks like it will be ergonomically kind to one’s hand. Something I am going to be very excited to test when I receive my set.

I also love that there are 2 sizes of hook to each tool, so you can fit twice the hooks in the same amount of space as 1 regular crochet hook. Super handy when traveling and wanting to limit the weight of your luggage.

One reason I had put off purchasing these hooks in the past is that the sizes run a bit smallish (fairly common for Japanese hooks), the largest hook is a J-10, 6mm. But, I’ve been working with finer weight yarns quite a lot the past year, so the smaller hook sizes have become more useful to me.

Now I’ll just be watching the mail box like a hawk the next week waiting for my new hooks to arrive. I’ll definitely post about them again once I get a chance to use them. If you are too impatient to wait for my review and you want to try them out for yourself, pop on over to the Stitch Diva Studios.

Front or Back?

November 14, 2013November 12, 2013Crochet, Crochet Design, HumorLeave a Comment

Back when I first began to sew and crochet my mother and grandmother were my tutors. One thing that was always emphasized was that your work should be finished nicely. The back (or wrong side) of projects needed to look just as nice as the front. I have always tried to continue in this tradition with my work, sewing neatly and tidying up all ends of thread and yarn at the completion of a project.

Photo courtesy of Crochet World/Annie's Publishing — Photo courtesy of Crochet World/Annie’s Publishing

This year I found this habit to be rather a minus instead of a plus, when my “Greek Squares Afghan” was photographed for the August 2013 issue of Crochet World. If you look at the photograph above you wouldn’t notice, unless you knew, that it was photographed from the wrong side. So my take is now that it is a reversible afghan.

If you are wondering what the afghan looks like from the “right” side the above photo shows you. The crocheted joining (in brown) is supposed to create ridges that emphasize the multicolored blocks.

This is a surprisingly speedy project to work up. The afghan is made with 25 rectangles that are then crocheted together. All worked in bulky weight yarn so progress is quick for a generous sized afghan. Could even be made with only 16 blocks as a nice sized “lapghan” or child sized blanket. Each block is approximately 8 x 5″ and are easy to carry with you to work on individually.

My friend and “secret weapon” Val actually crocheted up all the blocks for the sample and I did all the joining and tail weaving. When I got the sample back from Crochet World I spent an afternoon snuggled up in it crocheting in my design office. It is super cuddly.

If you are wanting to make this afghan you may not be able to find the August issue on newsstands any longer. You can get back-issues or subscribe to the digital version of Crochet World at their website. A digital subscription gives you access to 2 year’s of digital back issues as well as the current issue.

By the Seat of my Pants

October 31, 2012August 8, 2021Humor, Kid Projects, SewingLeave a Comment

I had planned to get an earlier start on Halloween costumes this year, but once again it was a mad scramble to complete them.

My youngest had decided he wanted to be Kai from the Lego Ninjago series. I purchased a long sleeve red T-shirt for him from Target. He had his ninja sword and head-band that he got at Lego Land when we were in California for Spring Break last march. So we were half-way there.

I had hoped to make some red pants and a Gee style jacket for him from some red micro-fleece I had on hand (Kai is always dressed in red in the show). I took his measurements yesterday, but being a bit rushed when designing the sewing pattern for his jacket I left it a tad small. The body fit him okay but the sleeves were super snug, no way a T-shirt was going under there.

Solution? Cut the sleeves off the jacket, which also was more of a “faux” jacket that pulled over his head. Belt was easy enough to make, just cut a length of mirco-fleece.

Whoops, what about pants?

He had wanted to have boxy pants so he would look like a Lego “people”. So instead of having red pants I cut out 2 long strips of red micro-fleece and pinned them to some dark gray pants. So glad that I have lots of small safety pins on hand.

At first he wasn’t too sure about this short-cut, but after we got him dressed in his costume he was very happy.

Soon I will have more details about the cape costume I made for my oldest. Fortunately J was very happy with it, though ended up not wearing it the whole evening as it was a bit heavy. That is 2 yards of the black fabric you see in the photo above.

Rhinebeck – On my Bucket List

October 20, 2012October 20, 2012Creativity, Humor, Inspiration2 Comments

This weekend is a lucky time for all my Northeastern stitchy friends. Many of them are going to the Mecca of Yarnieness: The New York Sheep & Wool Festival a.k.a. Rhineback.

Before I joined Ravelry I had never heard of Rhinebeck, but now it ranks up there with 1/2 carat diamond solitaire earrings on my wish list (and is more likely to happen).

Honestly, I don’t really know what happens at Rhinebeck or what all is available to do there. But I’ve heard stories that make me want to go exploring.

There have been words like Sheep, Alpaca, Hand-spun, Hand-dyed and Garlic Artichokes used. Someday I am going to Rhinebeck, I mean Garlic Artichokes people! Wow!

In the meantime, all my stitchy pals that have made it to Rhinebeck this year. Pet a sheep and/or alpaca, purchase some gorgeous hand dyed hand-spun and enjoy the Garlic Artichokes for me.

Andee & Jan’s Big Adventure Part 2

October 18, 2012Celebrating, Chain Link, Chocolate, HumorLeave a Comment

As you likely can guess, the Part 2 of our adventure was the drive back to Colorado.

We planned very well for our departure and managed to be packed up, checked out and on the road by 8 a.m. We were just going to make a quick stop off the highway to visit a Whole Foods to re-provision some of the food we had eaten during our stay in Reno.

Of course, it wasn’t to be that simple. When we exited the highway I managed to take us in the wrong direction (I’m great at Geometry, total rubbish at Geography), fortunately we figured out that we were traveling in the wrong direction fairly quickly and got turned around.

Driving across Nevada was as boring the 2nd time around as it had been on the first. Added to the monotone of the scenery was that a haze seemed to be hanging over everything. But we had our music and lots of adventures at the show to talk about. We reached SLC at a decent hour (the sun was still up) and we had organized well for what we needed to bring to the room with us.

We each ate something for supper then had some fun snacking on chocolate. Had a bit of a “tasting” with the different flavors I had packed for us. Jan made me watch Football. Eek!

Next morning we were up and off quickly. Driving out of SLC we finally got to see the gorgeous scenery we had missed in the dark on the trip out to Reno. The hills were actually quite lush with lots of greenery as well as dramatic rockscapes. Many of the trees were sporting their autumn colors too. Jan was really enjoying the scenery, but since I was driving I could only give it a bit of attention.

The highways going out of SLC are very twisty and pretty busy, which I found entertaining. I think Jan was relieved when the traffic got lighter though.

We were having some difficulties with my I-pod player at this point so we decided to sing. A road-trip song I know well from way back is “99 Bottles of Beer”, but it didn’t really fit for us. So we decided upon a yarn related version. We used up an hour of our travel time playing with variations of words and singing them to see how well they worked. Jan finally came up with the version that we liked best:

99 Balls of Bamboo on the Wall,

99 Balls of Bamboo,

Take one down it needs to be wound,

98 Balls of Bamboo on the wall.

Of course, I had a terrible time getting it right. I kept messing up and singing the old lyrics. It was definitely entertaining though.

We were then getting to where the terrain was opening up, and we were enjoying all the rocky scenery. We stopped when there was a really long cargo train and took some photos. The gorgeous stone buttes were hard to do justice to. I fixed the I-pod issue and we had our tunes back to sing with, instead of our improvised counting song.

Wyoming was adventure free until we reached Cheyenne. Once again a combination of road-work and my geographically challenged mind created a bit of interest for us. We were still on I-80 coming into Cheyenne. We knew we needed gas soon and both of us were wanting a bathroom stop as well. So we pulled off at the first likely exit. Could not find the gas station that was advertised on the highway signage, only spotted it as we missed the turn to get to it.

Back we went on the next highway entrance. I’m not even sure what highway this was, though I spotted signs that said we were headed toward I-25 (our route we would need for going south into Colorado). We pulled off again and found a gas station, filled the tank and emptied ours. Then I decided it was time to invoke the Smart Phone.

I pulled up a Navigation Ap and we discovered we were actually very close to I-25, we just needed to get back on the highway we had been on and we would reach the I-25 South exit in just a mile. Yay! Back onto the highway we went.

Hmmmm….shouldn’t we have gotten to I-25 already? Look there it’s the “Sierra Trading Post” storefront. The scenery is becoming far less urban and more rural. Okay we are definitely going the wrong direction again. Pull off at next exit. Pull out Smart Phone. Yup, I-25 is back that-a-way. And back we go.

I was never so happy to see signs for I-25 South. Interestingly enough, once we were on I-25 the rest of the drive sort of flew by. The traffic was heavier than I am generally used to on Colorado Highways, I think we had managed to hit it just right for when many commuters are heading home. We made it to our exit with no more misadventures.

We took a slightly different route home from the one I had taken Janet down the mountain. She wasn’t going to get to see very much more of my beautiful Colorado (until I get her out here for another visit) so we took a “long-cut” to get to my house. It was getting on toward evening, but this route would only add 10 minutes to our drive. Fortunately my geographically challenged issues don’t apply in my familiar stomping grounds, which meant we were in no danger of getting lost again.

We drove thru the little town of Lyons, which Jan made me promise we would investigate further on her next visit, and then took the St Vrain Canyon to Peak-to-Peak Highway. The look of delight on Jan’s face as we drove the rocky winding road let me know taking a “long-cut” had definitely been a good choice.

We stopped and took some photos at one point, and realized that there was a climber on one of the rock faces.

Big-Rocks-on-our-Long-Cut — Red circle is where the climber is.

Looking at this larger photo you can get a feel for how big it is because the climber is just a speck.

Finally we were back home. We were tired but happy as we trekked up to the house from my garage. My family was all very excited to see us. Finally put the boys to bed and Jan and I sat on the sofa having our last face to face visit before her departure in the morning.

Morning I faced the hardest part of these visits with my dear Jan. Telling her good-bye until we will see each other again. Of course the best part is, I have a wonderful friend who makes me laugh and loves yarn and crochet hooks as much as I. It will be phone calls and emails until we get another chance to meet.

Does It Count?

October 16, 2012Humor, Latest News2 Comments

I have managed to blog everyday for the past 16, but today has been more than a bit challenging.

Box-of-Tissues — Say Hello to my Little Friend

I have caught a cold, or more apt to say, the cold has caught me. So I’ve been alternating between working on design projects and napping. As well as taking care of my family.

I don’t know if this sad short little post will count as a “real” post today. But it’s the best I can do.

Consider it a glimpse into the sometimes not-so glamourous life of a crochet designer with elementary school children.

Last Minute Stitching

October 14, 2012Chain Link, Creativity, Crochet, Humor1 Comment

Well today is nearly over, so I need a quick post. Here is a funny picture my dear Jan and I staged after the Banquet Fashion Show. I was pretending to be crocheting on the skirt of my Evening Seaside Gown. Which really wasn’t far from the truth, as I finished the last bit of stitching Friday night of the show.

The gown was a success on the runway during the Fashion Show and I even managed not to trip on the hem as I walked up the stairs to the stage. There will not be a pattern for this dress, though I will be using a lot of what I learned making it in future designs.