Well, our Crochetville summer secret pals have been mailed to us, and the fun begins Sunday, May 1! I can’t wait! I’ve already set up my dummy e-mail so my secret pal won’t get e-mails that give me away…mwa ha ha ha!! Also, I’ve had some time to figure out what would be good to send to my secret pal, so he/she will be pleased with the goodies. Gotta love those RAOK wish lists! 
The Crochetville dishcloth swap also starts Sunday, and I think I’m almost ready to send mine out to my swap partners. I can’t wait to see the lovelies I get in exchange for the ones I made!
I’ll definitely be posting pictures of my swap and secret pal goodies!
I’m tired; I had two final exams yesterday (one went till 9:00 pm) and one this morning at 8:00. I’m usually still sawing logs at 8 in the morning, so this morning’s test was a bear for me. I ended up taking a nap with Sami and slept till my hubby woke me up to take William in for his First Communion practice at church this afternoon. My baby is growing up~~he’s 8 1/2 years; he’s receiving his First Communion tomorrow morning (again, I’ll do my best to post pics) and as a gift, he received a suit jacket, two ties and a cross tie clip. He’s really excited about the whole thing.
Also nice for all of us is my parents-in-law and grandmother-in-law (Mom, Dad, Grandma to hubby and me~~they don’t mind me using the familial terms) are down from upstate NY (think close to VT state line, not Buffalo~~they’re WAY more north than Buffalo!) for the weekend’s activities. They were just down in December for Sami’s baptism, and have once again made the long trip for a special event in our lives and those of our children. I truly love these wonderful people like they were my flesh and blood!
Well, I’ve actually got a few small pieces finished in the last couple of days. I’ve gotten a total of 5 dishcloths, 1 fridgie, and a Pay it Forward pot done. I’m also in the middle of a second fridgie and still trying to decide what I want to do for the next dishcloth and fridgie!
Anyway, I’m still waiting for my pot to dry, then I’ll take some pics and hopefully get them posted tomorrow. In the meantime, here are a few of the bags I’ve done over the last year or so. Click on the pics to see a larger view.
The first few pics are from “Trendsetting Totes.” I’m not sure about the name of a couple of the bags, but here they are.
In Bloom, with matching cell phone case~~done in Red Heart Super Saver in Windsor Blue/Painted Desert; Casual Chic, with an added bottom piece~~done in 100% cotton yarn
Mini Duffle; In Vogue
The blue bag was made from Red Heart Super Saver and used as a diaper bag for my 2 year old son, and the black one is made of black nylon cord from JPCoats.
This one is from a freebie pattern from Hobby Lobby and was made to coordinate with a short-sleeved sweater set I made. The rose was an addition, and I also painted the handles. The bag is made in Peaches N Cream and Sugar N Cream cotton yarns.
Bernat Bag in Med. Green/Toucan. I want to make a couple more in Wine/Cardinal and Navy/Blue Jay.
I’ve done a few other bags also, but either gave them away or just haven’t done pics of them. Next round of pics: ponchos & hats!
Well, this sounded like so much fun and a real excuse to buy yarn. 
I went to Wal-Mart tonight and bought a cone and several balls of cotton yarn for making dishcloths for the Swap. I’ve decided that I’ll use the same colors for several cloths, but will use a different pattern for each one I do. That way, I’ll get some true variety into my crafting.
I also bought some little do-dads to use in the Secret Pals swap for the summer. I hope my secret pal likes his or her stuff!
Anyone with a spare “Fridgies” book? I’d really like to include some matching fridgies with the dishcloth swap and would be most interested in a book to help give some ideas! Thanks!
Yay! I’m a villager now and can participate in swaps!!
In trying to use up some of my stash, I’ve signed up for a dishcloth swap and summer secret pals. I’m definitely going to have to get creative for the summer secret pals, since I’ve pledged not to buy any yarn for the month of May…should be interesting!
For the dishcloth swap, I’m going to HAVE to run out and get some more cotton or I’m not going to have enough variety! Looks like I only have one more week to get my cotton…YI!
at Crochetville. One is a challenge group: Stash Busters, where we have all promised to refrain from buying yarn during the month of May, forcing us to use the yarn we’ve stashed up for who knows how long. I’ll have to post before and after pictures of my stash. May’s SB button: 
I also joined the anti-UFO crochet along (or CAL). This group is dedicated to picking up those poor neglected UFOs (unfinished objects) and putting them out of their misery by either finishing them or frogging them (rip-it, rip-it, rip-it!). I’ve posted one of my poor UFOs as my first frogging project…I’m sure I can use the yarn somewhere! Buttons: 
Once again, I have completely redesigned the look of my blog! This time, though, I used a template from Chris, of Course. Her blog templates come with the Blogger tags already coded in!
I also disabled comments on the posts, but I added a tagboard. Please feel free to leave comments there, but let’s keep it clean!
I made a couple of new buttons and posted them; if you take one of mine, please copy it to your own server and link back here. Thanks.
Not much happening on the crochet front. I finished my freeform piece and decided that my next set of freeforms will be a nursery set in pink and green rug yarn. I’m currently working on a baby dress pattern and I’ll post it to my patterns blog once I get it finished.
I finished my first freeform project! My little scrumble turned into a beautiful piece of crocheted art and is now hanging on my living room wall. My husband even said he thought it turned out nice and adds to the living room.
I’ve called my piece “African Elephant Ear.” As I was working on it, the piece reminded me of the shape of Africa. My 8 year-old son, William, said he saw an elephant’s head when he looked at it. By the time it was done, I could see a leaf from the elephant ear plant. Hence the name “African Elephant Ear” was decided on.
You can see him in his working stages here on my personal web site.
Here he is: 
