Tag: Michael’s

Birthday Weekend

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

Thursday I ran away from home and escaped for the weekend.  Really Ken loaded up my car and drove to Indiana to spend time with my middle daughter.  Friday her and I ran her errands and went to Joann’s.  While she shopped in other stores, I sat in the car crocheting.  I finished off a fleece throw for her.

For the weekend, I finished a fleece throw and poncho, two hats, two scarves, two sets of wristers, and a clutch purse.  I also finished off a beret I’d experimented with and needed to make sure would fit her.  It was laid back and relaxed when it came to crafting.  I created a new pattern and finished another one for publishing.  I may think about creating a pattern for one of the sets I made – I haven’t decided yet.

We watched the Good Witch movies, The Expendables, season six of Downton Abbey, and the two How to Train Your Dragon movies.  There were a couple of Penguin / zoo movies too.  We also checked out the Good Witch series.

It was calm, fun, relaxing.  We played Word Chaos on our phones together.  This meant she would start a game and when she got stuck she would pass it to me – or vice versa.  We are both now addicted to the game.

We stayed up late, slept late, and tortured the cats.  Saturday we went to Michael’s and a couple of other stores.  Sunday she baked cookies, I helped by putting them on the cookie sheet.  By evening my car was packed up (mostly) and all we had to do in the morning was put the last couple things in.
Monday she went off to work and I came back to Wisconsin.  The drive was fine, traffic was good and road conditions were excellent.  By the time I got home, all I wanted was a nap so I took one.  I expected to not sleep last night but I did.

While I spent my birthday driving, the weekend before was fun, relaxing, and enjoyable.  I stayed long enough to annoy her without staying too long.  I got about a third of a container emptied so progress was made on the LARGE pile of yarn I’ve got for her.

It was a nice little retreat for me.  I hope it was for her as well.  We laughed, talked, spent time together crafting, and just being together.  It was a nice weekend and a nice break for me.

Weekend Options

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

The weekend looms in front of me with a large list of things to do.  It is pay week so that means all the normal errands.  In addition, I want to go to Michaels for their sale.  They are having a sale on crochet cotton which I use a great deal of.  It’s on sale for 97 cents.  I downloaded their app for my smart phone and got a 20% off my entire order coupon.  This means the crochet cotton will be about 78 cents a skein.  Normal price – anywhere from 1.97 to 2.50 or so.  It is a deal I can’t pass up.

I also have to go to the DMV to renew my license.  This promises to be an interesting event.  Ken is going to go with me.  Hopefully we can accomplish both this afternoon.  If we do, it will leave tomorrow for errands.

Sunday I’m going to my niece’s bridal shower.  I’m so happy for her.  I can’t wait for her to see the gift I made her.  I hope she likes it. 

It will be a busy weekend and yet in my head I’m planning out what else I might get done.  I am nearly done with my student worker’s wristers.  I hope to finish them tonight.  After they are done I’ll turn my attention back to my daughter’s afghan.  My hands aren’t as bent with arthritis.  I can actually make a fist and tighten it with only a small amount of pain.  Her project is not portable.  It will not travel well.  The yarn is delicate and fussy, though exceedingly beautiful. 

If I end up going around while Ken does errands, I’ll probably through a crochet project in a small bag and take it with me.  I have four going on right now and only two of them are overly portable.  Ironically I wouldn’t take any of the current ones with me.  I’d probably take the left over crochet cotton so I could work on trivets or dish towels. 

It promises to be a busy weekend and I’m hoping it will also be a productive one. 

Craft Focused Day

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

After meeting my mom and sister to get our paperwork signed and notarized, I contacted my niece.  While waiting on her to arrive, I worked on all sorts of writing administrative things.  I got a lot done and then she showed up.

We played in my craft room for a little bit before we wandered off to Michaels.  I enjoyed – very much enjoyed – our time shopping at Michaels and the other stores.  Both of us needed stuff from Staples.  Since it’s two doors down from Michaels we hit there first and then Michaels.

I love sales.  I love yarn sales and I love wandering up and down aisles and touching different yarn.  I didn’t buy a single full priced item at Michaels.  It was all sale items.  I found pretty yarn both crochet cotton and regular yarn.  I filled in colors for my crochet cotton I didn’t have and even found some blues to make Stephanie happy for the items she requested.

  
We found good stuff for an afghan for my niece.  Her old one fell apart (it’s only about 20 years old) so rather than fixing it, I’ll be making her a new one.  Don’t worry people who are in line ahead of her – she isn’t butting in line.

While at Michaels we wandered the bead aisle so my niece could get some beads for some of her projects.  I’m hoping this means I will get the stuff she promised to make me.  It is always fun to wander through the bead aisles.  I like beads, I just don’t have a lot of skills when it comes to making the jewelry.

JoAnns was our next stop.  We wandered around quite a bit.  I actually didn’t spend a lot there.  Got a small package of yarn and a single skein.  My niece however spent a lot more there and got lots of goodies.

Picking up lunch, we came back and chatted the afternoon away.  After she left and Ken went to bed, I worked on daisies for the girls in Georgia.  Virginia requested purple and gray.  I was tired after all the shopping but I still tackled some more of her daisies.  I listened to Witness in Death and started working.  I was tired to begin with and after two I just wanted to go to sleep but I stuck with it and got the last six done for her.  Now I have to move on to Stephanie’s color choices.  I have a list and will be tackling them today.

Ken and I are watching Justified, since there is no football he plans to watch today, we may finish off season 5 and switch to Babylon 5.  At least that is my hope.  While we do that, I will work on the daisies for Stephanie.  I also have two infinity scarves to make so if I get bored with daisies, I can switch over and see what I come up with for the infinity scarves.

It was a good day yesterday.  I enjoyed the time with my niece.  I enjoyed making the daisies and listening to an audio book.  Today will hopefully be as productive and as enjoyable.

Yarn is wonderful… Yarn on sale – HEAVEN!

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting

Recently, Vicki asked me to make a few things for her to give to her co-workers.  They are small items and I don’t have a problem.  She emailed me the colors and I went to my lovely wall of yarn.  I pulled out all the colors I had but I discovered I didn’t have them all.  This meant I had to go yarn shopping.

As you saw in the last post I also made a scarf for Ana and in doing so I used up one of my colors is Sashay yarn.  I love the colors of that particular scarf.  I actually wrote down the color so I would remember it the next time I bought yarn. 

It became obvious to me that I was going to have to go yarn shopping.  The types of yarn – ruffle and crochet cotton – I needed do not go on sale often.  My thought was I’ll start with what I have all the colors for and see how far I get.  Ana came to visit and after seeing her with the scarf I realized there was a lot I wanted to try with that same color.  The ruffle yarn is $5 – $6 per skein and crochet cotton is about $2.25 per skein.  This is an investment. 

I get emails from all my favorite craft stores – Michael, Hobby Lobby, Joann Fabrics, Herrschners – letting me know about specials and sales.  Herrschners runs yarn sales all the time but I hadn’t seen any with these two items in particular.  Then I get a Michael’s email – I’ve just been deleting without looking at these (it’s a time thing) but for some reason I looked at this one.  Good thing I did – they have both these yarns on sale. 

The other issue then is money – I was looking at my budget and thinking I really can’t afford to go get a lot of yarn.  I’ll have to keep it to the bare minimum.  This is just sad because if there is a sale on crochet cotton in particular I want to buy all the colors I can because I go through them quickly.  In my head I was considering payments for the week and having this internal debate about being good and not buying yarn and splurging and buying yarn. 

As I realize I am of course going to do the responsible thing, I got a payment for editing.  Perfect!  I can now splurge a bit on yarn.  It’s been a crummy week for me – sinus infection, lack of sleep, weather induced pain for my arthritis – I’ve been a lot grumpy this week. 

Last night I determined I was going to stop at Michaels on the way home from work.  Their store is not user friendly at all.  From the door that doesn’t open automatically to the narrow clutter filled aisles, this is a store that is difficult for me to get into and move around.  I took my scooter though and grabbed a basket – that was not fun – but I get back to their yarn corner and just had fun.  I grabbed all the colors I needed (except for one that I’m not sure they even make).  It was fun to look at the colors and think of the things I would make and who would like what colors.  I think I rolled around the two aisles several times looking, adding up money, and enjoying selecting the colors. 

I didn’t buy one thing that wasn’t on sale.  I saved $21.  I didn’t break my budget.  I got five skeins of the ruffle yarn and twenty plus of the crochet cotton.  I picked some colors for specific people, some because I knew I was out, and some just because I liked them. 

When I left the store, I felt wonderful.  My mood was happy and I was looking forward to working with the yarns.  I even started one of the projects for Vicki last night.  Now I have to get the colors organized for my projects for Vicki and the rest need to be added to my wall.  I do think I’ll be using one or two of the ruffle skeins this weekend too. 

My weekend plan – after the errands are done – dvds, crochet hooks, yarn… heaven!!!