Decisions + #StormNoa + #Easter + #Crochet Projects

This is going to be one of those posts where I jump from topic to topic to catch you up on a couple of things, so bear with me.

 

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I’m no longer part of the morning crew that does ACB Presents for the ACB Community calls.  I decided to step down so I can focus my energy – what I have of it – on helping out in other areas, in particular the crafting and cooking calls.  Though I enjoyed being part of the morning crew, crafting and cooking are passions I had long before the ACB Community was even a thing, and I feel like it would be better for me to focus my energies in those areas.  My last day on the morning crew was this past Saturday.

 

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On Wednesday we had one of those named storms: Storm Noa.

 

From what I can tell we only got a mild dose of it where I am.  But even here there were pretty strong winds, lots of rain, a fair bit of hail, and some thunder.  It was impressive and kind of fun to listen to.

 

I know some people would disagree, but I can’t help it.  I enjoy listening to storms.  Even if part of me feels guilty for enjoying listening to them knowing what damage they could be causing out there – especially in the areas that have it worse than we do.  But they always sound so fascinating, and there's something soothing about listening to howling winds and other storm conditions while curled up in a blanket indoors - bonus points if a cup of tea or cocoa is also involved.

 

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Since we focus our celebrations on the Spring Equinox, Kelly and I don’t bother with Easter.  But the rest of the family likes to at least acknowledge it, and Carl was in Wales for the Easter weekend (he hasn't been back here since this time last year) so some of us got together anyhow.

 

On Easter morning Carl and I spent some time with Mam.  Carl took us for a McDonalds breakfast (hash browns, a fruit pack with apples and grapes in it, and some orange juice for me) and then we hung out at Mam’s house with Mam, doing a whole lot of playing with Izi and Cai.

 

In the afternoon Carl and I hung out at Dad’s house with Wayne, and we played some word association games like we sometimes used to on long car journeys.  Then Dad made us a roast dinner (I had roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and onions, served with sprouts) after which Wayne and I went home.

 

It was a long day, and I’m sure you can imagine how excited Lilie and Logan were when I got home, especially since I’d been gone for most of the day.  Even Artemis seemed to be excited to see me come home, judging by how he was trying to get through the glass at the front of his vivarium to get to me.

 

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I’m still working on my crochet blanket, and have tried a new to me stitch pattern or two lately in both loom knitting and crochet.  Like with needle knitting, this just means using the stitches I already know to create a certain appearance.  I never bothered to keep the pieces where I was learning the stitches to be honest, but I had a go at them, and have the instructions, so I can make use of them for future projects.  Maybe when I’ve finished the blanket I’m working on I can do one of those fun kinds of blankets where you use different stitch patterns for the different squares? I could do one all crochet, or one all knitting, or – since it would work as long as the yarn and size of the squares were compatible – maybe one that’s a mixture of the fibre arts? We’ll see.

 

In the meantime, I did finish a couple of small crochet projects.

 

The first was this coaster made to look kind of like a cheese pizza:

 

 

The pattern we were learning from had an option for adding toppings to it, but I didn’t want to.

 

Anyway, the other thing I made was this white and blue bunny appliqué:

 

 

I haven’t decided what I’ll sew it to just yet.  Although, I’m considering taking the bunny and a couple of other little things – some shamrocks and some flowers – and stitching them to a cushion cover or something, so as to make a tactile throw pillow.  Again, we’ll see what I actually end up doing.

 

I did start working on a needle knitted scarf too, but I was literally only doing it to do it along with the group, and – since I actually wasn’t ending up working on it while on the calls anyhow – I decided not to bother with it for now after all.  I’d done very little, so I just frogged it, put away the needles, and put the yarn back in my yarn stash.  It's one less project to worry about for now.