We Had Visitors:)

This past weekend, my brother Dan and his girlfriend, Emily, came up to spend their spring break exploring Philly. They did some museum tours while Tim and I were working on Thursday and Friday, but we all went to the Eastern State Penitentiary and downtown Philly together on Saturday. Here are some of the photos from my digital camera. I took my Rebel along, but film has a slower turnaround period:P

Boathouse Row in Fairmount Park

The Philly skyline from the Art Museum stairs.

The wall of one of the first cells we went into at Eastern State Penitentiary.

Al Capone's cell at Eastern State.

One of the oldest cell blocks at Eastern State.

 Creepy dentist chair in one of the abandoned cells.

In one of the cell doors that led to a solitary confinement exercise yard. I couldn't stand up.

The inside of a model of the second floor of a cell block. With Dan peering in the opposite window.

 Emily and I trapped behind an iron door!

Making use of some graffiti on the outer wall as we were leaving.

Making Dan and Emily look tall. (Front Street)

Ringing the Liberty Bell.

And we ended the day with dinner and video games at Dave & Buster's.

This weekend, we're headed to Pittsburgh to see the Penguins play against the Flyers. The last regular season game is next Thursday night. It's also the last regular season game at the Melon Arena, so they're giving away commemorative aluminum tickets. I'm a little jealous that we missed that by less than a week. It's the first time we've been to Pittsburgh, so I'm excited to get to photograph a new city:)

Busy!

So we've been busy lately with visiting friends and family, as well as couch hunting, and I haven't really gotten to any projects yet. But I have been practicing my tatting. By the way, going from crochet to tatting is like going from doing math in pencil to doing it in pen.

Anyway, we got to go up to visit Tim's brother, his wife, and our nephew on Saturday while it rained.

Here's Tim and Zach. Zach is drawn to gadgets:P

Here's Zach with aunt Jessie after a few trips through the box tunnel his Mommy built him.

After visiting with Tim's brother and his family, we moved on to look for couches at a nice place called the Dump in Oaks, PA. Well, when we got there, we realized that we were OUT. OF. GAS. And the only gas for miles is at a BJ's, which requires you to have a membership to buy gas. So, that BJ's membership we were thinking about? Time to pay up. 

So we left the area couchless, but we did manage to find a box of 600 NEON BENDY STRAWS.

On Sunday, we went to the Raymour and Flanigan outlet down the road from our apartment and found a nice fluffy couch that we had them pull from their stock. We brought it home today and moved it all the way to our top-floor apartment with the help of a nice neighbor named John:) And we're lounging around now, watching Home Rules on HGTV.

Ahh...It's good to lounge:)

Owls!

I'm usually a giraffe person, but the owls here made me want to pick up some felt on my way home from work...

Found here.

Found: Shamrock Garland Crochet Pattern

When I was looking for festive projects to fill the gap left by completing my Christmas blanket, I came across this cute little shamrock garland at Suzie's Stuff.

I made about 20 little shamrocks while we were driving around hunting for a couch this weekend. And it took about 10 minutes to chain everything together when I got home. So I now have a nice little hand-made, festive garland for my cube at work:)

Here is a close-up of one of the shamrocks:

I found the pattern here.

The weather has been beautiful here the last couple of days. We took a break from couch hunting on Saturday to take a walk at Valley Forge and it was wonderful to get some fresh air. Even though we live in the city, we still like going for walks in the evenings to get away from computers and fluorescent lights.
Hope everyone is enjoying the weather:) It's supposed to hit 60 tomorrow! Flip flop weather at last!

The Christmas Blanket is Done

I like finishing projects. Especially this one, since it's the first blanket I've actually finished, EVER. I've started several, but they never get done, and I actually salvaged a few of my unfinished blankets and re-wrapped the skeins to be used for something else when we moved. I'm more of a scarf or baby blankie kind of crocheter.
Here's the finished result, complete with Jack's seal of approval:

Again, this was an alteration of the Worsted-Red Blanket pattern at Bernat.com. I wasn't a fan of Row 2, so the entire blanket is made up of Row 1's. I also continued it until it was about 6 inches longer than the pattern recommends (I have a tall husband), and finished it off with a row of single crochet.
I used I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby (about 6 skeins) in one of their multi-color Christmas yarns (Victorian Ombre). It's really soft and the blanket feels like it's already been broken in and washed several times.

We're happy to see a total lack of snow in the forecast. I'm done with winter and am definitely ready to move on to spring. When I was walking out of Joann's today, I felt a warm breeze and actually stopped walking because it felt so good. And then I realized it was just the heater over the door to the store. Then I felt a little silly and scurried away to the turkey and swiss from Fresh Market that was waiting for me in the car:P
It's supposed to get up to 50 degrees this weekend. We'll be out and about hunting for a new couch, so maybe we'll get to enjoy some of the sunshine:)

March is National Crochet Month!

How do you celebrate National Crochet Month, you may ask? Here are some ideas:

-Wear your crocheted items! It's still cool enough out to show off your favorite scarf.
-Teach someone how to crochet. Pass on the art to family members or friends.
-Make items for charity. There are many great organizations that will accept handmade items.
-Finish that project that's been gathering dust in the closet.
-Learn a new trick or try a pattern you wouldn't normally try.
-Crochet a blanket or other item and send it to one of the troops overseas.


For more information, check these links:

The Crochet-Along at the Crochet Guild of America
The History of Crochet According to Wikipedia

A few charities that accept crocheted items:

Caps for Kids
Project Linus
CareWear

Happy National Crochet Month:)