Pics of yarn

Alright, so I thought that I would share my yarn stash so far. Keep in mind, this is just what I have purchased Thursday and Friday in-store. Not counting the stuff from Joanns and Herrschners online. The "boucle" skeins each make a baby blanket, hat, booties, and sweater, with some left over, they're that large. I'm probably going to get two baby blankets and two hats out of each skein though .. that way I can stretch them, and possibly make a set for my shop. Same with the rainbow classic. I have two blue/white and two blue/beige/white that will make a larger adult-sized afghan. I might go and get some more of the beige/blue/white so I can make one for our bed, as it matches our new bedspread. We'll see though =) The little round balls on the side? That's the felting yarn. I'm making child-size hats out of them. One hat each. The fun fur? That's just to embellish hat brims and afghans. Possibly scarves as well, if I get that far .. hehe. Thats about it ... I need to go start on the second custom order from my shop ... first one is done, but my customer would like a second one, so I'm ging to ship them together once I finish this one. I'm sure I'll post pics as well, just to document to myself, that I really AM selling items. hehe. Have a good Saturday!

Confessions of a yarnaholic: Part 2

It's now 3 in the morning ... and I cant sleep. I have a confession to make. After posting the yarn shots from Thursday, I wnt BACK to Joanns today. I got 7 (I think?) big skeins, and 8 of these balls, that are on clearance. I literally ran into the store at 8:55. They closed at 9. I had a mini shopping spree I suppose. These balls of yarn I guess "felt" when tey are machie washed and dried. I'm going to make a hat out of one ball just to see how they turn out, but from what I hear, they're great. Well, I just went to Herrschners site and looked around their yarn sale they are having. After throwing about $200 worth of yarn in my cart, I completely emptied it. I was only gettingthe yarn because it was marked down ... I didnt know WHAT I was going to make with the brands, colors, and styles, unlike earlier with Joanns. So, I just browsed their yarn selections, and they have these assortments that they throw together, of either 16oz or 32oz. There's no guaruntee what you'll get and if they'll match...which I really like! It's like a surprise as I open it! Well, it' only $2 more for the 32oz package, so I opted for that, and got a few of them. They also have it set, where if you buy in bulk, you'll save on certain yarns. Well, that pulled me in as well .. I bought three different colors on this yarn, and I already have projects lined up for them. I can't WAIT to get my package. Speaking of that, I think starting tomorrow I'm going to be staying at home. Tomorrow, we're possibly getting a couple packages from Best Buy (Bryans) Monday I'm getting a package from Amazon, Tuesday a package from Joanns, and Wednesday a package from Herrshners! Don't worry ..I'll be sure to post my new and updated yarn stash! Hmm .. Abigail is making a LOT of noise in her crib. I think sleeping through her last feeding of the night 5hrs ago is starting to take it's toll on her. She's sucking vigorously at her ring and pinky fingers, most likely on her right hand. I better go fix a bottle and feed her while she's semi awake, so she'll fall back asleep.

Before I go ... Emily has been doing SO good with going to bed with a dry diaper, and waking up with a dry diaper. It's one of those signs of potty training and I'm SO excited, however the last couple nights she's been waking up sopping wet. Same with tonight. I put her down at 10, and when I retired to the bedroom at midnightish, I went to check on her, and noticed she was soaked. Argh! So, I had to wake her up to change her and "sponge clean" her, change her bedding and disinfect her matteress. At least she went to sleep shortly thereafter. I DID have to whisper to herso she understood it was still "night night" time. Alright, enough of this .. bottle for Abbey then shower to help me relax and off to snoozeland I go (hopefully)!!!!

Abigail has Thrush and possible food allergies

I meant to say this last night, and even a few days ago after I took her to the doctor on Tuesday. Whoops! The nurse practioner stated she was concerned for the amount of formula she was taking in now, and how suddenly it went down. That's when we found out she has a little bit of thrush, which I guess, is a type of yeast infection. I have to give her some nystatin stuff via an eye dropper four times a day, and it has to be AFTER a bottle. I guess so it doesn't get washed away. Well, she's not too keen on the medicine, but the nurse I spoke to over the phone told me it's okay if she spits it out or swallows it .. as long as it coats the infected area. That's a relief I suppose. You can tell it's irritating her, and she makes a clicking sound in the back of her throat as if she's trying to scratch it. It's rather cute, I must say.

The Nurse practioner also mentioned that she could have food allergies, and ut her on Similac Alimentum. It ha no soy nd no cows milk in it, so if she DOES have food allergies, this will clearly fix the problem. However, there's a kicker. This Alimentum formula does not have a generic, and is the most expensive out there on the market. a small 16oz tin is $27.99! What a kicker! However, I spoke to a nurse yesterday to ask about generics or a cheaper version, and she told me that they would give us two more sample tins of it, and when we were done with them, to try her on Similac Sensitive, and see if she tolerates that. If not, then we're back to Alimentum. If she does well on Sensitive, we can try and wean her back to the regular Advance early shield we had her on. There's a chance that she's just not eating much due to the thrush, and there's no need to swap formulas .. we're two two different treatments at once, which at the time, I was okay with. As long as she was feeling better and eating he normal amount. But now that we are putting her on different formulas, I'm not liking it much. I have samples of the formulas we're putitng her on, which is nice, that we don't have to pay for them, but still. I'm going to be finishing this one can of Alimentum and put her back on the Advance formula, and wait for the thrush to go away. I think once the thrush is taken care of, we'll find out for sure if she has any possible food allergies. She's tolerated the Advance until now, so I don't think that's the problem. I could be wrong though, as I'm not a medical professinal. We'll just have to wait and see.

Confessions of a yarnaholic

Alright, so Bryan and I recieved a nice chunk of change from his mom. We had plans to use it to pay the truck down, trade the truck in, and get a van ... Well, lets just saythe dealer fiance manager we dealt with wasn't very nice with me. He kept hassling us, talking over me, and telling me to talk to my husband [Bryan] when I asked him question. Uhh, I'sorry, I'm asking YOU, not my husband. After taking all sorts of hassle and abuse for a good 15 minutes we left. So, now we have $16,000 *burning a hole* in our pockets. haha!

We are paying off all of our bills . and that leaves us with a little over $8,000 now, which we planned to save. However, we went on a bit of a shopping spree today. There are some REAL good deals going on right now, and I took advantage of them ... and plan to as well tomorrow. Bryan and I went to best buy to get some things for the truck, snce w'll be having that for a few more years to come. Then, we were off to Joanns! Now, I went to Joanns earlier today with the girls, and got SOME yarn, but the girls were getting fussy since it was nearing naptime, so I checked out. We went back after Best Buy .. and I got even more, and plan to check out one about 2 miles from our house tomorrow to get more. They are sorta forgotten when it comes to yarn, since this location is mostly fabric. You never know .. they could have a overabundance of clearance yarn, and in a variety of colors as well! Well, bought 24 skeins of fun fur, all 9 skeins of this pretty Bernat bling bling that was on clearance, and 6 LAAARGE skeins of their Sensations yarn. I'll probably go back for MORE of that as well...haha!. Ohh, and I also just urchased another 30 skeins in various colors online, since they don't carry them in the stores. Pictures are below of the yarn I purchased ... I got a REAL good deal on them, that's for sure, and I can't wait to get back to work on my hats! I have 6 done so far similar to this one, just in different colors. I will be putting them all on my shop shortly. I plan to do a summer sale, but I don't want to get bombarded with orders and then my shop inventory dwindles down to nothing ... haha. I'm in the process of scoping out charities to donate to as well using key words in the "notes" section. That's about it for now.





Oh! I ordered two books off Amazon earler, and purchased three others at K-Mart. From Amazon, I purchased In Faithfulness, He Afflicted Me for a read-a-long. The button is on my sidebar if you want to read along with us! I also purchased The Love Dare. Bryan and I have been struggling with certain aspects of our marriage. I'm almost POSITIVE that it's because of how our relationship started. It wasn't how I wanted it to go, and I think it really made a mess of things, filled us with empty promises and whatnot. I mentioned it to Bryan, and he's up for the 40-day challenge featured in it. We'll see how it goes. Its not like our marriage is on the rocks it'll help us practice unconditional love which in my opinion, everyone should do. =)

I purchased a Nora Roberts book, "The Law Of Love." It has two novels in one: "Lawless" and "The Law is a Lady." I LOVE Nora Robert's books ... two years ago, I went through four of her novels the week we were up at the lodge. I can just get lost in them. I also got "Laughter for a Woman's Soul" "Joy for a Woman's Soul" and "Chicken oup for Every Mom's Soul." Well, That's it for now ... Abigail is fast asleep, so Im off to bed myself. I need to call Dell up in the morning to see how they will be able to fix this keyboard! Since I pulled it out of the box, the keys stick and don't register, even though I hit them. I'm contantly going back and correcting my misspelled words due to it. Ciao!

From eating too much, to barely eating at all ...

Alright, I'm so at a loss right now. Abigail typically eats on average of 50oz of formula a day. It all depends on how active she is. Well, Since Friday, she's practically starved herself. She's gone down to about 15-18oz of formula a day. She had 14 TOTAL Friday, technically since Thursday evening (she had an 8oz bottle at 6:30p .. nothing until 10:30a!) `15oz Saturday, and 16 on Sunday. Today, she had 18oz. I'm starting to get a little concerned regarding it, she's acting relatively normal .. she's been extra clingy the last few days, moreso today than yesterday. There's also no fever, either. I don't know what's up with my little girl, but I'm concerned, and the nurse practicioner voiced her concern as well when she heard Abbey only had ONE diaper change today, and it was 3:30 in the afternoon. That wet diaper change, by the way, was when I woke her up this morning. She had a dirty diaper around 6:30, and I changed her once more before bed ... and all the diapers, were hardly wet! Ahhh .. I just needed to vent. I'm going to shove off to bed so I can get the girls up early tomorrow. Abbey and I have a doctor's appointment.

I FINALLY figured it out!!!

Soo .. I've been messing around with this for days now .. and I FINALLY figured out how to add videos!!! Whats even better, they're already on my youtube account, so I an just embed them straight here, instead of double uploading them!! Soo.. here's two videos of Abigail from this afternoon .. the first one, right before I changed her, the second, after .. hence why she's not dressed. I put her clothes on after I stopped recording, and before I fed her .. don't worry. ;-)

Cha-Ching!!

Alright .. so, I decided to open my Etsy shop. I had an account basically dedicated to Emily, since she was my only child when I decided to get an account. EmilysEnterprises. It's not really fair to Abbey, and any future children we have, so I decided to shut my shop down on there (nothing was selling after being on there for a month as it was) and made a new account. I put everything on my shop Friday, if I remember right ... and I'm VERY proud to say, I have sold my FIRST item!!! It's a beanie that I had made. I know it's June, but you never know .. haha! Someone actually bought it! So .. I'm sending that out first thing in the morning.

Also, within 30 minutes of me getting online to get the address from paypal and my reciept, I got a message from a friend from Pogo. She checked out my shop earlier, and is interested in purchasing some beanies!! I asked her if she wanted specific colors, since I just sold the brown/blue one ... and she does. So, I'm making two purple/hot pink ones, and two bright blue/lime green ones. I can't WAIT. I'm starting one now, and hope to finish it tonight. I'm also going to add another one to my shop in the coming weeks. Feel free to check my site out here.

I'm also in the process of adding a few charitable functions I suppose, to my shop. I'm not going to "announce" it though, until I get certain items up and psoted. I'll be sure to post it here, as well.

Busy busy busy!

Alright, so I'm trying to finish up three different afghans, two of which are going to go into my Etsy shop, the other, is to be shipped to Ohio to a friend. I've been up til about 2am the last few nights, despite Abbey havig her last bottle of the night around midnight, and then crashing. She's up at 8-9 the next morning, which is good that she sleeps through the night, but with me going to sleep around 2:30 or so, Bryan getting ready for work at 6, wakes me up, and the right as I drift off to sleep, Emily or Abbey decide to ake up and voice their appeals about being "pinned up" in their crib, I've been more than exhausted the last few days. Ah Well, I'll get used to it eventually, I'm sure.

I want soo bad to put Emily into her toddler bed. But, with the bi-annual family reunion coming up in a mere five weeks, I don't want to get her use to sleeping in a bed, and then sticking her in a pack n' play for the week that we're up there. It will be KILLER on us, when we put her down, and of course, with her being so strong willed (She MUST take after me there .. haha) she will scream and cry and throw a fit until she gets her way. And that's only if she doesn't climb OUT of it, as well. I still can't wait for that week. It'll be good to be surrounded with family and just be able to relax in a cooler environment.

Bryan and I are already trying to make plans to go to Greer which is about an hour's drive away, to get some of Aunt Molly's Homemade Apple Pie. We went to Greer, Az for our honeymoon, and we went to Aunt Molly's Lodge and restaurant for dinner the first night we got there. They closed at 9, and we walked in the door at 8:55. They were going to turn us away, but when Bryan mentioned that we had gotten married the night before, and just got to our cabin to start our honeymoon, they accepted us. Looking at how full the restaurant was, you wouldn't have known they were closing 5 minutes later!!
There was an elderly couple that was sitting in front of the fireplace across from us as we waited for a table to be cleared, and they commented about how 'in love' we looked. I said, well, we just got married last night ... and they got all excited. They were seated, followed by us, and before we could place an order for our drinks, our waitress brought over two champagne flutes and a bottle of champagne, and said, "This is from the couple over there, and they want to wish you a very happy and loving marriage." Bryan and I don't care for champagne, but we couldn't refuse! We toasted to them across the restaurant, and sipped away. What a nice gesture! The restuarant gave us our meals at 25% off, and two free desserts. We both decided on the apple pie, and when they brought it out, all you could do, was just stare at it! It looked like it came from a tv show from the Food Network! We slowly took our first bites, and ohh man ... we just melted into heaven! The pie was the best I've ever had! I've been craving it since we left ... and told Bryan numerous times, that we'll have to save up $500 to go on on overnight trip to Greer, just so we can have a slice of their pie. Well, now that we're going to be a mere hour's drive away, we're going to go there! And we're hoping that cousins and other family members would be interested in coming as well. Afterall, it's not like it's a date night for us ... we'd LOVE to share this little treasure with our family and friends. hehe .. I sorta got off track there ... Went from family reunion to my honeymoon location and thei delicious apple pie .. Snap .. I want apple pie now!

I'm in the process of ordering some patterns to make some afghans for Christmas. I can't wait to get them, and start the projects. Ohh, I've gotta share a story about this morning, to show how tired I was .. haha

So, Emily woke up at 8, and I went to get her some chocolate milk. I got a fresh sippy cup out of the cabinet, and after filling it up, put the cap on and handed it to her. Well, she dropped it in her room while she was playing with her toys. Well, she handed me her sippy cup, completely empty about 5 minutes later. I went to investigate, and turns out, her sippy cup leaked ALL of the chocolate milk onto our beige carpet! So when I grabbed the sippy to refill it with REGULAR milk, I noticed the problem -- I forgot to put the plastic plunger-thingy inside it to KEEP it from leaking. Oye!! WHat a klutz I was! So, after soaking up most of the chocolate milk with a towel, I shop-vac'ed her room.

Hmm, Abbey is starting to fuss, so I'm going to add a few pics and then get her out. She shouldn't be hungry .. she just ate 4hrs ago ... a whooping 7 1/2oz. Yeah, we're back to the 8oz feedings again it seems. *sigh* At least we know she's not malnourished .. haha!

Mommy's lil' night owl

Abigail has slowed down on her formula intake -- finally! She's been taking in 8oz bottles every 6-8 hours, with an additional 4oz and 6oz inbetween! We're looking at an average of 50oz a day of just formula! And spit-up ... there's NONE! Unless you "shake" her up afterwards, like what daddy likes to do. And by "shaking up" I do NOT mean shaking her literally. He just picks her up and does the whole 'airplane' or 'superman' hold, and makes her 'fly' through he house, MUCH too soon after eating. We don't know WHERE it's all going ... at her 2-month checkup, she weighed in at 10lbs 12oz. She's gained over three pounds in a matter of six weeks! Oye! Well, like I said, her feedings have slowed down. She now takes 6oz ever 4 hours, with an 8oz feeding around midnight that will last the whole night. She's still got her adorable rolls though!

I was in the process of uploading some videos (seven to be exact) of Emily and Abigail earlier, when the power went out. It got hot FAST (the high was only 95 today ... not even CLOSE to the normal of 103!!) inside the house, so I packed the girls, my laptop, and my huuge tumblng blocks afghan box up, and we headed over to my parents house. We were over there, enjoying the cool environment until 9, when we packed up and left home. I had been calling SRP throughout the course of the day to see if the power outage was still 'ongoing', and finally at 8:45, our area wasn't listed. The plan was toplug my laptop in over at their house, and use my phone as a modem to finish uploading the videos ... until my dad came home to set up his wireless internet on my new laptop. However, I forgot my blackberry cord, and wasn't able to do the phone-as-modem. Sooo .. the videos waited until I came home. I was hoping to share the videos tonight, but I wont be able to. Only one is uploaded so far. I guess I will wait for another couple days. I wasn't planning on posting tonight, but with the power outage and last nights shower issue, I decided to spill tonight. haha. I promise I won't make this a daily post!

Alright, so last night I was sitting here in Abigail's room, working on the afghan, when she started to move and wake up in her bouncer. She looked at me, and started smiling and making these cute red faces. Then, after about 5 minutes, you hear her, "exploding" in her diaper. Oh JOY! So, I let her sit for 5 minutes, so I know she's done, but she wasn't! She kept the 'explosions' going for 15 minutes! I was snapping pictures of her facil expressions while she was doing this, since they were so amusing to me, when she reached her hand down to her side, and when it came up, her white sleeve wasn't .. umm, white. Hmm .. I guess the Kirklands 1-2 diapers don't quite fit her ... I hate being in-between diaper sizes. Newborns too small, 1-2 are too big. Argh! They SAY they hold up to 15lbs! I guess not ... So, Bryan started the shower, and Abigail hopped in. he LOVES her showers more than baths! The water would hit her back, and she'd smile and stretch her legs out. I have some pictures of that, that I will share. Don't worry, this is a PG blog, so there's no nudity ;-)

After three attempts to put a video up, I'm surrendering for the night. I shall try again in the morning. Ciao!

Crocheting is my life ...

So, I've been devoting a LOT of my time lately, to this tumbling blocks afghan that I recieved as a Christmas gift. I'm using old scrap yarn, and the plan WAS to have it done before I went into labor with Abigail, but I didnt even have it STARTED! It's VERY time consuming, thats for sure, but I LOVE how it's turning out, and can't wait to see the finished product. I have scrap yarn that's just screaming to be used, and I want nothing more than to start a new afghan, but I know if I do that, the tumbling blocks will just be sidelined. I've been working on this for about two weeks now, but really concentrating on it the last three days or so. With Emily in her crib/room, babbling to herself, and Abigail asleep in her bouncer at my feet, I think I'm going to pick my crochet hook up, and finish this first panel. I only have 20 rows to to and it's done! It sounds like a lot, and I guess it is, but when I have time to actually sit down and work on it without interruption, it gets done, and fast! I have a total of two and a half panels to do after this one, and it wll be done. I'm not sure if I want to sell it on my ETSY site, or keep it for myself. Afterall it's my first real "complicated" and "intricate" afghan I've made, outside of the simple ripple and striped afghans I've been doing the last 17 years now.

Ahh yes ... Day two of Tanner's sick days. Emily has been leaving her food down where she shouldn't be, and while I put her down for her nap before cleaning up the trail of disaster she leaves behind, Tanner always manages to find the food, and eat it before I can. Well, yesterday he got into something, and has been sick. He sits at my feet, or if I'm laying down in bed, he gets right up in my face, sitting, and shakes. His whole body just TREMBLES severely, and he starts panting. His ears are always laid back, which is another sign he's not feeling too hot. Well, you'd think after yesterday, he would have learned his lesson. Nope. While I put Emily down again today, after being smart and picking her food up and sticking it o the changing table in Abigail's room, he got ahold of it. He got scolded BIGTIME for being on the changing table, as well as for eating the food, but now, he's sitting to my left, staring at me expecting me to comfort him since he's not feeling too hot again. Gotta love him. I scolded him earlier when he started showing signs of not feeling well, so he cowarded under the bed for about 2 hours. He's out, and expecting to get some love and comfort from me .. but guess again, my little chi-wie-jack! You are about to be locked outside so I dont stumble upon any 'surprises.' I will post a picture when I finish the first panel of my tumbling blocks afghan. I'm more than willing to make one for anyone that would like one! I only request that youeither supply the yarn yourself, or you give me the funds to cover the yarn, if I don't have the colors you like on hand. I'll be back tonight with pictures and a wedding story, I'm sure .. haha!

Starting our Family blog!

Hello!! I've been seeing a LOT of these family blogs lately, as well as ones for specific individuals, and thought I would start one as well! That way, family and friends that aren't near can check in on us and see what's new. Haha! Soo, where to start ...

I'm Ashley, I'm 24 years old and married to Bryan. We met November 7th, 2003, and have been inseperable since. We have made our fair share of mistakes, but it's only made us stronger. After a move halfway across the country, and getting homesick and deciding to return home, Bryan proposed on May 15th, 2005. We got married September 29th, 2006, and found out we were expecting January 2nd 2007! Emiy Rose Marie graced us with her presence on September 14th, 2007 at 8:27am. April 18th, 2008 we found out we were expecting again! Our EDD was December 30th 2008. However, it didnt last. We found on May 29th (one day after my birthday) that our precious baby was no longer alive. Our baby left us June 5th 2008. We found out we were expecting again August 2nd, and April 6th, at 2:24am, Abigail Longon entered our world! I have never been happier, that's for sure. Bryan and I have been blessed with two very beautiful, heathy girls thus far. I think I will wrap it up for now, so I can fiddle around with profiles and adding pictures as videos. The next few posts will probably be from the past, a wedding post, Emily's birth day post, and an Abigail birth day post, just so I can have a spot with these memories all in the same place. Anyways, Abigailis hungry, so I'm gonna go feed her, and u her down for the night before I get back on here. Goodnight for now!