Checking In

Well, we're in the thick of flu season, but I figured I could sit at the computer while holding a little and give a small update. I don't have a lot of pictures to go with my update, so I'll entertain you with pictures of my littles.

• Aside from the flu, it's been a bit of a crazy month. David went back to work after being on parental leave. Being our fourth, I've lowered my expectations a whole lot as to what I can accomplish the first two weeks, so we went into survival mode and we made it through.

It looks like Micah is about to give Hannah a "wet willy"

•  Is there anyone out there not tired of winter yet? We have had spring fever for a month (at least).

Abby's getting into posing for pictures and Malachi is in his "uniform" super hero costume

The Gingras littles' album cover

• Hannah is three months old today! Wow! 

•  April is looking to be a fun month filled with celebrations. I won't be hosting a party this spring like I usually do (there are plenty of fun events to go to), but David and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary this August and there are rumours of a party. This pretty much means that I have something to obsess over plan for months to come. I LOVE IT!

Poor Hannah... what happens when she doesn't see

or maybe she does know

•  I am looking for a dress. I found a cute pattern, but I don't sew clothing. My David says it's time to get my feet wet in that department, but it's intimidating to me. I need a seasoned seamstress to coach me through the fitting process. I did find a blog sew-a-long for that specific pattern, so I might struggle through, but if you're reading this (in Winnipeg) and want to help, please let me know!

• In actual news, the girls got their ears pierced a few weeks ago. It was a special sister date and they both did great.

Cold Saturday morning dance party (in their dancing clothes)

•  David did some ingenious arranging in the living room. We needed to reclaim our third bedroom as a bedroom again, so the office and craft room needed to be evicted. I want to show you, but need to take some good pictures and that requires time to clean up better. It's been a disaster area around here, but I am slowly attempting to catch up. Hopefully soon. 

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day

Well, that's all for now. It wasn't all that exciting, but it's where we are right now. Hope you and yours aren't buried in a flu cycle and your snow (if you have any) melts!

TaDa!

I have finally declared my first crochet afghan FINISHED!

I began last winter and I wasn't 100% sure that I would even have it in me to finish a large crochet project, but I did it! I was inspired by this afghan when I saw it on Pinterest I thought to myself "I want to try one like that. By changing stitches often I won't likely get bored with it." Not having $80 to invest in yarn all at once, I grabbed a skein of red that I had already and decided that I would use it up and when I ran out I would go buy another colour.

Teal came next, then hunter green dark purple, grey, fuchsia and orange. This is where I really began to like my work and became a little bit picky. The orange I bought I didn't really like how bright it was in comparison to the rest of the colours. I left it after only one row, though I do enjoy the contrast right there.

I also didn't like the first section of red I did. The colour was nice, but it was a different texture than the rest of the yarn I had used and it was bugging me. On a whim I ripped it out. This almost wrecked my afghan! I was freaked out for several hours as I tried to salvage what I had done. I managed to save the blanket and replaced the red with chocolate brown. The seam between the two colours is horrendous, but my "fix" turned out kinda pretty as I crocheted a thin row of lilac right over top.

Chocolate brown then red (in the same brand and texture of yarn), cornflower blue and lilac finished the bottom. After the orange came navy and light green to finish the top. I then did a single row of kelly green to begin a border and finished with the dark purple. The process of this blanket was fun for me. I loved making it up as I went. Somewhere in the new red section, I got a book, Crochet Stitch Dictionary and my rows became even more thought out and fancy. Up to that point I surfed Pinterest and YouTube to decide my next stitch and often learned new stitches for a change. My favourite section (for detail, not necessarily for colour) is the cornflower blue. I love how it turned out. I added a little heart to the corner and eep!

I've come a long way in skill since I first began and you can visually see the difference in the skill level throughout the blanket. It's also quite a bit wider at one end than the other, though blocking did help some. I am so proud of the project, though and won't change another bit of it. The lighting wasn't great for these pictures and so, the flash kinda skews the colours, but I couldn't wait to show you, so these will have to do. Just for one, I've added one with my newest model, Hannah...

I turned off the flash so I wouldn't blind her, so it looks really dark here.