Yes, another new blog

I know.

I KNOW.

And I don't blame you for thinking that.

Here's the deal. Not two days after I created this blog, I found out from my husband that we may be moving soon due to a job transfer situation. Not TWO DAYS. I figured I'd better get a new blog going that was not location-sensitive.

I'm well aware that I appear to be the biggest flake in the history of blogdom with all of the recent blog creations and transfers and whatnot, but I assure you that I am not. What I am, unfortunately, is a perfectionist to the point of near-ruin! I'm going to work on that - with YOUR help. If I can smell that a situation is not right, I just can't pursue it. I've simply wasted too much of my time in the last couple of years on well, learning experiences. As such, I suppose that time wasn't completely wasted but still I'm looking to build and grow instead of eternally repeating certain processes. What I want is someplace in blogdom to call home, to sit down and put my feet up and stay for the long haul. Someplace that so completely fits my life and my philosophy of being that nothing could our would ever make it irrelevant so that I might have to uproot myself yet again, losing cherished contacts and followers in the process.

I believe I finally found it! I love the Blogger setup that I found through High Desert Hooker, so I'm sticking with that. It's so very social, and everything's all linked (Blog Following, Google Reader, Analytics, Picasa, etc.). I'm giddy about it. I'll still be keeping this blog open as long as we continue to live in the High Desert for my high desert craft-related posts, but for the rest of it all, and for family posts, I will be at my new home for the long haul, Happymaking. I will also be transfering the placement of my non-desert related Etsy creations to my new Happymaking Etsy shop.

Thanks for sticking with me. We'll laugh about this someday.

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I figured out how to get Joe to eat vegetables!

I've been practicing baby led weaning with Lily, but seeing as how she's mostly been playing with the food and not actually consuming it, which is more or less okay at this age, I decided to buy some organic pureed veggies for her to try. (Yes I know I can make them myself, and I will give it a go next time around.) As a pleasant side effect of this process, I've discovered that Joe wants to eat anything and everything I try to feed Lily! He has been a typical toddler lately, not wanting anything except for yogurt, cheese, Cheerios, etc., and it's been worrying me to death. Now I see a light at the end of that tunnel! Next time around - green beans??

Is that carrot baby food in his hand?

Is that a baby spoon in my water glass?

Are those carrots on his face and *gasp* in his mouth?

And like 8 new baby spoons! Yay!

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6 x 6 Tag!

Holly Jahangiri over at Do I Have to Spell it Out tagged me with a new meme. Okay, she actually tagged another blog of mine, How to be a Woman, but since I haven't been over at that blog in centuries, she said it was okay to respond to the tag here.

Rules: Choose the 6th image out of your 6th picture folder from your computer and blog it. Then tag 6 more people to do the same.

Oh my Heavens, this does put the fear in me. Okay, going for a look now.

BOY did I luck out. I mean really. Not that this is such a great photo mind you, buuut. Well. Never mind.

In any case, here's how it went...

I went to "My Pictures" and selected the 6th folder, "Coachella 2006".

Then I selected the 6th photo starting from the top, going right.

And here it is, folks! Me thinking I'm being funny by pointing to the word "Virgin" in the sign above me. Before you judge me, please think about it for a minute. Does this seem like the sort of juvenile frivolity that I would have hatched up? Or does it smell more like my husband Dennis aka man behind the camera? Thought so.

Here are the folks I'm tagging:

Connie's View

Cindy Crochets

Crochet Liberation Front

Every Day Crochet

I'm Living Proof that God has a Sense of Humor (Love the new look, Helene!)

Who's the Boss?

Have a wonderful day! :)

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Joe loves our hat modeling sessions

Firstly, I'd like to take a moment of stunned silence to address the window coverings in the photos below. I did not pick them out. They were there when we arrived. I'm not good with windows - they scare me. And so they've stayed.

There. Now that we got that pesky business out of the way, I am compelled to let the world know what a wonderful boy my son Joseph is. Much to his father's chagrin, he simply loves our hat modeling sessions. Even when Lily is the model of the day, he likes to participate by grabbing whatever hat he can find and jumping into the shot.

Is that drool on his shirt? Yes, and that's okay. He's two for the love of God. Nice blowout flash on Lilyface, Heather.

If the hat doesn't fit, we must acquit! And thank goodness I learned after the previous flash fiasco.

This hat hasn't made it to Etsy yet. I've been trying to perfect my crocheted starfish. (It's going to be a beach hat.) But look how sweet Joe is - he's concerned that she might be falling forward in her Bumbo chair and is comforting her.

Here Lily, look at the flower Grandma gave Mom and Dad for their anniversary. You like?

Ahh, my baby boy. I love my little dumplings. Thank you sweet Jesus for plopping them into me belly!

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Free crochet and knit patterns at Quamut!

Quamut, Barnes & Nobles' "How to" site, is offering up all of their crochet and knit patterns for FREE throughout the month of February! Scoot on over there and snag some!

CLICK HERE for crochet projects
CLICK HERE for knit projects

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Hot Crocheter: Rachel Hunnicutt of Cornflower Blue Studio

Welcome to the first "Hot Crocheter" post at High Desert Hooker. As the animation to the left says, this series will highlight artisans who are redefining what it means to be a crocheter.

To kick things off, let me introduce you to Rachel Hunnicutt of Cornflower Blue Studio. I found out about her through this post at the Crochet Liberation Front. After a little investigating, I was able to locate the Cornflower Blue Studio blog, and a post entitled, "...and then I realized it was just a dream." I said WOW.

What makes Rachel a Hot Crocheter? Innovation. This piece, inspired by the sea and entitled "Ghost Reef", just blew me away...

I couldn't help but check out her Etsy art shop: Cornflower Blue Studio: felicity shop. You will find Ghost Reef there available for purchase, among other treats for the eyes. You might also be interested to check out her Etsy craft shop: Cornflower Blue Studio.

Thank you Rachel for sharing your talents with us and for tickling our imaginations.

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Potpourri of us-ness

Thimblelina was kind enough to watch Joe and Lily for a while so Dennis and I could get out to a Valentine's/4th Anniversary Dinner at Stefano's - the local "fancy schmancy" (Yuccatucky style) restaurant. It was a ton of fun. I had my twice annual nip at the wine barrell and dusted off my "good" fake Ugg boots. (Dennis, you lucky dog you.) She also crocheted this lovely heart for us as a gift. As you can see, Joe was thrilled to pose with the heart - this is the third pic I took and by then he was like, "Mom! I love you, but Grandma has a new Barney video that I want to go over and check out.".

I'm beginning to suspect that my gummy little baby girl Lily is starting to teethe. As such, I picked up a bag of bagels the last time I was at the supermarket (oh, who am I kidding - the market). I've read for years that frozen bagels are great for teething. Lily wasn't so sure about them and Dennis and I freaked out when we saw what appeared to be a tiny amount of gagging and threw the bad sucker into the trash. I may try again when I get my nerve back. Or not.

On Friday I looked down at my arm at about say...oh...6:30 PM and noticed that I had a "just in case" scrunchie there, along with the bead bracelet I transfer from arm to arm to denote which boob is primed for the next bout of nursing. "What's the big deal?", you may ask. Well, upon closer inspection you can't help but notice that I had my hair up in a clip that day. Sigh.

My bra is still in the washing machine. I'm getting antsy. I have ONE nursing bra, as they're quite expensive. I'd get another, but then we'd have to sell the van. Am I the only person who hates being braless? All the other women I know just loooove walking around without their bras on, and can't wait to rip those bad suckers off the second they walk through the door. I, on the other hand, feel horribly floppy and unsafe, kind of like how I feel the two seconds after I sit in a car before I put my seat belt on. So, until my bra is out of the dryer (yes, I can't stand to take the time to let it air dry) I will be here at home wide-eyed and uncomfortable. Yipes!

Wising you a good week. And wishing I could figure out how to "un-center" these last two paragraphs. Mox nix.

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Lily can "do" purple too!

Mom thinks she's so clever wrapping a snugglie around my neck to conceal my red shirt.



I don't know why she bothered. I look just as cute in my red shirt & the purple hat looks just as good set off against it!

This will be the first hat featured in the High Desert Hooker Etsy Shop! As soon as I get shipping figured out! Yay!

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Joe can 'do" purple

I'm just testing the "blog this" feature in Picasa. Joe put on the purple hat and scarf Thimblelina made for me a couple of years ago & was modeling it this morning. What a nut!

It just occurred to me (duh) that Joe found and put on this hat because I was taking a photo of Lily in a purple hat for Etsy. What a clever boy!

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Time to get my stuff on Etsy!

I keep waiting until I have a stash of hats large and impressive enough before adding them to my Etsy shop. Today I realized that that day only exists in my mind & will never come. It's up to me to make it come by:

1) Taking pictures of my creations to date. This is hard if you don't have a child's head the correct size to fit the hat. I have plenty of cute girl hats that fit well on my two year old son's head, but if I choose to use him as a model I think he'll find out somewhere down the road and (quite correctly) hold it against me.

2) Figuring out how shipping charges work on Etsy. Seems as though they're not based on zip code the way they are on eBay. You have to enter shipping charges per best guess, or use the USPS website to average out charges. Whee! How exciting! Not to mention that I want to ship out internationally, and that's a whole 'nother new ball of wax.

3) Actually adding my creations to my store & opening for business!

It probably makes sense to add things as time goes by instead of waiting until I have hundreds of hats backlogged, then trying to do it all at once.

Wish me luck!

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