Blackberry Z10 Phone (I WANT!!) (April 8, 2013)

Oooh, I would love to be the proud owner of a Blackberry Z10 phone.  I got to see and hold one for the first time this weekend and I must say that I was impressed.....even though the phone was not powered on.

It FEELS like a good quality product!

Does anyone else have one yet?

I would love to hear from anyone who has this phone and what you think of the new Z10 phone!

**Please comment below; I always enjoy hearing from you!   :)  :)

(I really need to wear some makeup when I am off from work!)

This is the price offered at Sam's Club.  But I think I will make my way to an AT&T store to see one powered up first.  This was only a sample splash screen on the one I am holding.

Hyacinths!! Gotta Love Them!! (April 8, 2013)

Hi everyone,

Well, I bought some beautiful hyacinth plants this weekend.  This is my favorite bulb plant as the blossom clusters are very fragrant and the flowers are magnificent!

I need to do some studying to see how to care for these bulbs in Louisiana during the non-blooming season.  My Amaryllis I just leave in the ground all year, but I don't know about these.

I can't wait to see how the unopened flowers look on the younger bulb plants!  Hopefully, they will open soon!

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April 9, 2013:
The blooms started to open this morning and by this evening, they looked like this!   They are a solid color pink and that wonderful fragrance is starting to happen!    :).  :)

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April 13, 2013:

Yesterday and today, the pink blossoms are fully opened and VERY fragrant!  The purple blossoms on the other bulbs have begun to shrink and are not fragrant anymore.  We will see how long the pink ones will last.  I have no idea how long the purple blossoms had been open when I bought these.

I did find some material on these bulbs on the LSU AgCenter website.  They are like tulips and in the months of November and December, they have to go in the refrigerator.  Which means that I will have to keep them in pots instead of in the ground near my amaryllis bulbs  :(

But then again, they should look spectacular in a nice flower pot.  :)

Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions below in the comment box.  I love hearing from everyone!   :)  :)

Blue Crochet Skirt (April 4, 2013)

April 4, 2013:

New project! I am making my first skirt and I am naming it, "Blue Crochet Skirt".
I found this at http://www.ivelisefeitoamao.com.br/2013/03/saia-em-croche_11.html (April 4. 2013) titled, "Saia em Croche."


In this picture I have 3 of the motifs made.  I am working in the ends as I go so there will not be a lot of them to sew in at the end.   I don't know if I need a drawstring at the waist or some sort of elastic.  This is new territory for me and I will figure it out later as I go.

I am using a 4/2 size cotton yarn from a 10-pound cone which I bought off of Ebay a while back. I hope this yarn will work well for this project. I am using a Clover hook size D (3.25mm).  Here is a link to that previous blog post:
New Blue Green Yarn What to Make With

But please, if you have any suggestions on the waistband, please comment below.  I would appreciate it very much.  :)

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Now I have moved to the first sampler section.  I ended up with 48 ch-5 spaces but after several rows of this, I decided I wanted the skirt to flare out just a bit more and have more crochet fabric in it.  

Also, I have it laid out on top of a knit skirt which has a little more flare to it and I am trying to match the crochet skirt to that one.



After ripping out the sampler section back to the 2 motif rows, I worked extra stitches in to make 72 ch-5 spaces.  I think that this will work now with the extra fabric flare in the skirt.




See how the skirt is flaring out now?  Since I have 72 ch-5 spaces, I will need a lot more of these motifs in the design.

I started the motifs row last night will watching The Hobbit which was just released on Blue Ray (AWESOME MOVIE, by the way!!)




More to come later.......    :)

Here is a close-up of the motifs.  I have 8 motifs in each round at the top of the skirt and 18 in each round further down towards the hem or bottom of the skirt.

The top or waist of the skirt is on the left side of this picture:

Below is the 2nd section of motifs.  This is the section with 18 motifs in each round.

Here is a single layer of the skirt:

And I am now starting the next rounds of sampler stitching at the bottom of the skirt:

 I have a green knit skirt from my high school days and I slipped it under the Blue Crochet Skirt, to see what it would look like with another color behind the crochet stitching.

I just need to figure out if I want to add an elastic to the waist or if I want a drawstring.  I don't know which would be best but I think an elastic waist is the way to do this.

Also, I am not sure if I need to sew in a skirt lining or just wear it over another skirt.

What do you suggest?  I would love to hear from you!  :)   :)

 This is the bottom edge.  I worked single crochet stitches for one round in the last round of the chain-5 spaces.  Then I followed up with a round of double crochet stitches and single crochet stitches.

This is the impromptu waistband.  Since I do not want to use a drawstring on the waist, I would like to somehow figure out a way to put elastic in this skirt.....maybe make some sort of casing tube for the elastic.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions below in the comment box. I do appreciate them and I love hearing from my visitors!! :) :) Have a great day!

Pinterest Pin-It Button Added FINALLY!! YES!! (April 4, 2013)

April 4, 2013


This is an update to my post about this on two days ago, April 2, 2013....

As you know, I have been trying to figure out how to get that little-bitty (how can it be so annoying??!!) "PIN-IT" Pinterest button on my blog pages.  For the past several weeks/months each time I have referenced the help files at Pinterest, I would follow their directions exactly, hightlight the codes they said and pasted into the appropriate pages on my blog's layout screens.

Then I would test the "PIN-IT" button myself only to have it direct me to ...... nothing.......no pics, no reference to my blog post ..... nothing.

This is basically what I looked like each time:






My frustration turned more to this......



 

 ....... until I was finally ready to do this!:

  

BANG!!!!!

But seriously, this would not solve that little "PIN-IT" button problem.

So, instead of resorting to this on an inanimate object......

...... I asked my son for help.  And he obliged    :)  :)  But even he had problems with Pinterest's help files.

After about an hour and after much blood, sweat and tears, my son was able to help me figure out how to add a "PIN-IT" button on my blog posts.

After jokingly adding that he didn't get credit, here is his profile picture on facebook:

I would not have been able to do this without his help.  Thank you, dear!   :)

So now, if you would like to pin from my blog to one of your boards, all you have to do is to hover your mouse over the picture you want to pin, and the "PIN-IT" will appear in the upper left corner of the picture in which you have your mouse arrow hovered over.

Like this:

Here is the ONLY coding which would work:

<script type="text/javascript" data-pin-hover="false" src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script>

Son said that we had to change "true" to read "false", in case a visitor to my blog wasn't running a certain javascript (pinit.js), in their browser automatically and that they could utilize this pinning  function too.

Well, it's been a looooooonnnnnnnggggggg time coming on this!  I hope everyone has a great day and thanks for visiting my blog.

PS:  Sorry for any duplicate emails which my email subscribers may have experienced....we were saving things a lot after making changes and it didn't occur to me until halfway through this, that the feedburner might be kicking out emails each time.

How do I add a Pinterest share link on my blog?? (April 2, 2013)

April 2, 2013:

Okay, I have been trying to figure this one out for a few months now, but I have to finally ask.  What better way than to just make a blog post.

Here goes.....


How do I add a Pinterest share link to my blog posts here?

I have combed through the settings on blogger.com, but they seem to have a gadget for everything EXCEPT Pinterest.

Please comment below if you know how to do this.  I already have a Pinterest board up and running for about a year now.....I just can't seem to get that little button where I need it on my blog share links.

Also, if I need to type coding, I am not sure what to type either.

Any help is greatly appreciated.  Many, many thanks!    :)   :)

Pineapple Centerpiece Doily (A Maggie Weldon Design), April 2, 2013

Greetings everyone and welcome!

    Here is another doily which I completed recently but I did not take any progress pictures (I regret this since because of the way which the doily is worked between the pineapples on two of the rounds).

But here is the finished doily.  I chose to make this in one color although the pattern by Maggie Weldon is worked with the pineapples being a light pink color.  I was intent on using up some nasty, rough, "which-I-will-NEVER-buy-again" Red Heart size 10 cotton thread.  This stuff was awful and extraordinarily difficult to use because of the rough finish!  Take my advice....don't buy it.  I know it's a good price for over 1000 yards, but save your money for a better thread like Aunt Lydia's and such.

However, I do like this doily with two colors instead of one and if I make another one, I will definitely use two colors!

Here is my doily in one color:

This FREE doily pattern can be found at:

http://www.maggiescrochet.com/pineapple-centerpiece-free-pattern-p-1817.html#.UVsJj6KmhYQ

Here is what the doily looks like made with two colors:

Enjoy!  This is a fun one to make!!!  Good luck and please leave me a comment below.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting my blog!

Curly Qs Doily...FINISHED IT!

February 21, 2013:

Well, I must have been bitten by the "doily-making bug" lately as I am working on another doily.   I have not made a doily in many years, but I always had a fond place in my heart for working on these.

This one is called "Curly Qs" from the book, Favorite Throws & Table Toppers to Crochet.  (Please ignore the fingerprints on my Blackberry Playbook--they are somewhat visible in the picture).

Do you remember those twisty crochet ponytail ties from the late 1970's which moms would crochet out of yarn, for their little girl's hair? These twisty things are in this doily and I am looking forward to making that part.


I am on round 4 in this picture:




















Stay tuned--more progress pics to follow. :)

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February 24, 2013:
As promised, more pictures.  This doily is somewhat challenging (but not too difficult), and is a lot of fun to make.  I did have some problems on Round 10 which resulted in having to rip and re-crochet this round about 3 or 4 times.   I had to "frog it" .... you know......rip it, rip it, rip it!

Part of this next series of photos are of Round 10 and the Curly Q and the picture tutorial of how these curly Qs are made are placed on this round:

Here is a video I made with the help of my two sons, John and Patrick (my microphone man and my camera man for this).  This video doesn't necessarily show you "how" to make the individual stitches such as chains, double crochets and single crochet stitches.  Rather, it shows you how this curly q stitch is formed.

March 5, 2013:

I am almost finished!!  Yipee!!  There are 28 rounds in this doily and tonight, I am on round 27.

These photos are of rounds 21, 22 and 25; round 22 is the last round of curly Qs:

If you have made this doily or are in the process of making this one or are considering making this doily, I would love to hear from you!  Please leave a comment below in the comment window.   :)