A rough June

Good afternoon all! Hope this update finds everyone healthy and happy. :)  It has been a rough month to say the least, but thankfully it is almost over, and better days are ahead. June, especially Father's Day, has always been rough to get through for me and my sisters. This marks the 27th year of our Daddy's passing, so we always feel the pain of missing his physical presence a little bit sharper in June. My older sister feels it even sharper as she lost a dear friend on her birthday many years ago also. I guess the blade just wasn't sharp enough for me, so June decided to sharpen it's blade on me as well. In the early morning hours, about 12:30, our precious princess Coco (our littlest dog) was being the bravest little guard dog and barking at 3 dogs outside our back fence. She was tiny, but she was fierce and she wasn't the typical "ankle biting yapper" that most small dogs are, she only barked when there was something amiss. She was taken from our back yard and our lives forever by a vicious owl. :'( We were all heartbroken and devastated as she was such a sweet precious puppy, who blessed our lives for the 5 years we had her. It was a horrid way to spend Father's Day, and it is forever doubly marred for me. We will forever and always love and miss you Coco!!! <3 <3 <3 I vowed not to fill my blog with any sadness, however, I felt I owed you all an brief explanation for my long absence from updating my blog.

I am STILL trying to get into a new routine since my work hours have changed to 8-5. I still get up at the same time every morning, but seem to be going to bed an hour later LOL This does not do me any great favors, as I'm totally exhausted by the time Friday rolls around. Hopefully soon, I'll have a routine down and will have more updates of hats and journals for you. I do have 3 new hats to show off and I spent most of the day cutting fabric for Journey Journals. I now have a stack of 101 pieces of fabric cut and ready to cover journals. I still have 3 large pieces of material to cut yet, may do some more this evening just to get the fabric all cut and stacked and off my hubby's pool table ;) I'm sure he would appreciate that, God bless him, he is so patient with me and my craft stuff lying about all over the place! I know school sales will be starting soon, so I'm keeping that in mind because we can get composition notebooks a lot cheaper by the case when they are on sale.

So here is the first hat for you, I just simply LOVE how this one turned out....will have to add links later on as I don't have them on my desk top computer. A ladies lovely green summery hat. I found this pattern over at MNE Crafts where you will find lots of patterns!

A ladies pink breast cancer awareness sun hat is up next. I found this pattern over at Craftsy , they have free patterns and patterns for sale on that site.

And I finished up this man's camo surface braid hat this morning. This pattern was found over at The Laughing Willow.

I think they all turned out pretty great, and I'm anxious to get back to making more hats, so won't spend a lot more time on updating. I am still planning on having a Journey Journaling "get together", just haven't mapped out the "when" and the "where" of it yet. If anyone has any ideas on this, please feel free to contact me through my email or text me if you know me well enough to have my number ;)

I send my love and prayers to all with this posting, life is so very short, whether it be for us as humans, or for our pets (we love and treat them as our family because they are) as animals. Losing one of our family members is extremely painful and heartbreaking for those of us left to carry on, yes we know that they are waiting for us on the other side, but the loss of their physical presence will always be a pain that is felt sharply. Please love and treat each other and your pets with love, dignity and respect and always spread kindness wherever you go, you never know who's life you will touch or what battle they are fighting. Until my next update may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.....<3

The Believe Show radio interview and other happenings...

 

Good afternoon all, I hope this Saturday finds everyone in great health and spirits! :) A couple of Sunday's ago, I was privileged and honored to be on The Believe Show on KVSL and interviewed by the lovely Barbara Bruce! It was very exciting to share with people who were listening, what my passion is, and that of course is Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals. I am not as computer literate as I seem to think I am, so I am unable to share the interview in my blog. :( But if you would like to listen, please shoot me an email and I will send it through email to you if you'd like. :) I am so very grateful for that opportunity, and appreciate Rob Welch making that connection and helping spread the word for Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals. What an inspiring journey he is on, as well as, the lovely Barbara Bruce . I could never express my gratitude enough for all their help and all of the help God has blessed me with!

It has been a busy couple of weeks, just with "life" getting in the way of my crocheting ;) Seriously though, I did make a man's hat and I had a special request from my sister in MD to make a hat for her friend's niece who is going through her 2nd round of treatments. You can check out her face book page here Holding Hands for Haley , sending my prayers for a swift recovery for this precious little girl!  I will be making another hat for her maybe tomorrow morning and sending them both out next week. I was able to also complete another another man's hat this morning, and it was challenging to say the least, but I persevered and finished it! Let's just get to sharing the pictures of our latest creations, shall we?

First up is a man's sound wave beanie. I love how this turned out!! You can find the pattern over at The Crochet Zombie where I have found and used  several of her pattern's for the men's beanies. :)

Love when I can get free patterns that are quick and easy to work up, quicker to make, more I can get done to donate! Next is the hat I made as a special request from my sister in MD, it is a girl's big bow beanie. I combined a couple of patterns for this hat! I used the pattern for the big bow from Persia Lou and the hat pattern itself came from CroCreations .

And last, but not least at all is the hat I finished up this afternoon. A man's lattice stitch beanie, that was a challenge to begin with! When I bought this yarn, I thought that these colors would look really cool together, well that must have been the Floridian girl in me coming out because if you are a Miami Dolphin's fan or a Florida Gator fan, this hat would be perfect for you! :)  I started it early this morning, and then got to the "lattice" portion of the hat....yeah, I had to go work out my frustration by cleaning the kitchen because I just couldn't figure it out :( By the time I got that done and sat back down to work on it, I had figured it out in my head and it was a breeze to finish it up. I found this free pattern over at Rheatheylia.com .

That is all the photo's I have to share with you for this update, unless you want to see pictures of my Vegas vacation with my honey....LOL  I'm just kidding, you can always check those out on my facebook page, this is strictly for the hats and journals for Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals.

I want to get some more journey journals covered this weekend. My goal on these, are to cover as many as I can and then have a Journey Journaling party get together! Then we can have a fun party creating the fronts of the journals. What do you think? I've been working on this idea for a while now, just have to set it in motion...well it has been in motion, just S-L-O-W motion....LOL :D

I have many thoughts running through my brain this evening, so maybe I will just leave you with this.....

Sending you all my love and prayers, all who needs it, and all who think they don't need it, because we ALL need it!! Until my next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within......<3

I believe, do you?

Good Sunday Morning all! Sitting here drinking my coffee enjoying the quiet of a sleepy morning. Have not even been outside to greet the sun yet :) I am hoping to have a productive day today in getting a few things done, I have a bookmark waiting for me to put it together as a late birthday present, a man's hat that I still must make (I've been trying on this hat all week) and of course the never ending miscellaneous household chores.

The title's on these posts are kind of hard to come up with sometimes, but today's was pretty easy! I believe that kindness could change the world, I believe that true love is never ending, I believe that positive thinking changes everything, I believe that we are here to learn how to love one another, I believe in the power of prayer, I believe in miracles, I believe in angels and I believe that with God ALL things are possible! I feel that everything happens for a reason and if my decisions are good then the outcome will be beautiful. A long time ago, I used to be such a negative person, I would worry all the time about things I had no control over, I could never see the light at the end of the tunnel and if I did, it was usually an oncoming train! LOL  I have learned that it is not healthy to be that way and that negative energy only draws more of the same! I am a much happier and positive person today and I am constantly striving to be even more so! I accept my flaws, after all I am human and I still fall down and need some help getting back up, but I don't let my flaws rule my life and the way I think anymore! I believe everyone of us can become a better person than we are right this minute, all it takes is a little positive thinking and a whole lot of prayer and faith! I believe, do you?

Speaking of believing......I'm super excited to tell you that today I am going to be interviewed live on a radio station!! How AWESOME and EXCITING is that?! :) I am hoping to spread the word about this beautiful group and what we do, and with faith and the power of prayer, I will get some help crocheting these beautiful hats!! I will be on at 4:30,. and you can actually check it out live on the internet at KVSL Radio Station Show Low , just click the link and then click the Listen Live button! They also have a phone app you can download if you'd like to listen and you won't be near your computer! :) Isn't this EXCITING!!!!!!! :D A GIGANTIC thank you going out to Robert Welch for all his help in making this happen! I am blessed to know you, and thank you for all you do and share! You are a blessing to this world!

I am always busy making hats, sometimes it takes a while to finish one up due to ripping it out a couple of times, and I do have 3 new hats to share with you today! First I'd like to share a surprise donation that I received last week in the mail. It is so nice to come home to a little surprise in the mail for Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals, it's like Christmas in the middle of the year!! A HUGE thank you going out to Belinda Cook for her donation of yarn and buttons for more hats!! I couldn't do this without each and every one of you helping by donating, supporting and encouraging me!

 

 

Okay on to the creations for the last two weeks, I'm so sorry there aren't more, but trying to make it more the best I can! First up is a man's camo hat. Yes, it truly is camo, just not the typical camo that we think of LOL I think I made this pattern up out of my own head because I really like the stitch.  

 





Then I decided to try my hand at this beautiful bow beanie for a lady. I love the minty green color of yarn, or sea foam green....baby green maybe....I do love how this turned out. I found this pattern over at Bob Wilson 123. Lot's of great patterns there!

And then I went to a "go to" pattern for a ladies scarf hat because I was so frustrated after ripping out my man's hat twice. So here is a ladies hot pink scarf hat. You can find this pattern over at Ravelry , they have a lot of free patterns!

I went to Hobby Lobby for the hot pink yarn, and I was such a good girl walking out with only one skein of yarn! They have the SOFTEST yarn there and I think this will be my yarn shopping stop from now on. I have always thought that Michael's was a little better priced (they are a little less expensive), but Hobby Lobby had such a great selection of colors and the softness of the yarn they carry is just fabulous! I couldn't stop touching the yarn, ha ha ha!

I must bid you all adieu, so I can get busy with everything I need to do today, time is marching on without me! Remember to spread kindness where ever your travels take you and smile, you never know who's life you will change with just those two simple acts. Until my next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.......<3

Frequent updates sometimes escape me!

Good evening all and welcome if this is your first time visiting :)  I haven't updated in a few weeks, but I have been busily crocheting away, this I promise! ;) I really do apologize for the infrequent updates, I get so busy sometimes just trying to keep up with myself and my own brain that my thoughts sometimes just fly out of my head almost as soon as they fly in! LOL

I have a few thoughts and feelings in my mind and heart that I wish to share. I am missing family this evening, family that lives in Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Spain...well all over really, even here in Arizona. With that being said, I must also state that just because I don't correspond or talk to or have someone on my Facebook page as a friend, does not mean that I don't still care and miss that person or persons, because I do. We all at some point in our lives have to take steps to protect ourselves and remove unnecessary drama from our lives so that we may continue to move forward on our own journey. They have their own journey also, and maybe at some point in time, their journey and your own journey may coincide again, but until that time keep them in your heart and prayers for safe travels and send your love and positivity to them. <3 We were never promised that life would be easy, just that it would be worth it! I send my love and prayers to ALL my family and friends, near and far...you are loved and missed greatly! <3 

And now, my mind is drawing a complete blank LOL Well let me show you some recent creations and maybe my thoughts will do another "fly by" and I can catch them!! :D While my sister was visiting, I found a beautiful country patriotic red, white and blue variegated yarn and I decided to make a man's hat out of it. Now you can't really see the detail in the band, but it is kind of ribbed, and please forgive me this evening, but no links to patterns right now. I may have to come back and edit this later to add them. So, first up an adult's patriotic colored beanie. This pattern was found over at Red Heart.

Next up is a hat inspired by my sister, Lulu because she loves to wear black, but she also loves hot pink too! A ladies hat that I call Lulu's Inspiration. The pattern for this hat can be found over at Crochet Me and I have used this pattern before, a great go to pattern!

Then I made a man's golf hat, but was really unhappy with how large this hat turned out, but hopefully it will fit someone's head!! ;) I found this pattern over at Bob Wilson 123.

Lastly, I have a "pinspiration" for you, I looked at a picture I have pinned on the Pinterest website and decided I could do this very easily (besides they wanted me to order the pattern or the hat itself). So here is a ladies side tie beanie that was made without a pattern.

I am currently making a man's beanie the same way. I pinned a picture of a hat that I really thought was pretty cool, but the pattern would have to be ordered from London, so I think I have it under control without it! ;)  And this hat is awaiting me to return to it this evening, and hopefully NOT have to take two row's out because of a mistake made two rows down LOL

I leave you with these thoughts this evening. Stay tuned for other exciting happenings in our beautiful group! Until my next update....May the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within! <3

Lazy Sunday's are BEST

Good Morning to all on this beautiful Sunday morning! It is a beautiful day here in AZ with a slight breeze keeping it comfortable outside, last week it just got downright HOT and it is just too early for that. I say lazy Sundays are best because for the last few weekends, I have been running into myself coming and going, so this weekend has just been a weekend of relaxing and working on hats and the baby blanket which MUST get done within the next two weeks so that I can get it shipped to Spain. I knew Jaxson would make his arrival this weekend and I was not wrong, he arrived 4/13/14 (Spain is a day ahead of us here in the States) at a healthy 7lbs 8 oz. <3 For those of you who don't know, he is my 2nd "pretend" grand baby :)  I always say pretend because his parent's are like my own, his Daddy grew up with my son and I've always looked at him as my other son <3 I'm sure that Jaxson's big sister Quora will be a great "helper" to Mommy!

Happenings of this week abound! I created a specific page for Hats from the Heart/My Journal Journals on Facebook, you can check it out here Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals if you like, please feel free to like and share! Sharing is caring and you never know who's heart you will touch or who may want to help us out. I'm excited that I have 69 likes so far :D!! I have been blessed with a couple of people that I don't even know (met through cousin in law on facebook) that want to donate and thank you never does seem to quite cover the generosity of people I have come in contact with. I hope they know that I could never express my thanks enough but the deepest heartfelt thanks goes out to all those that support, donate, encourage and inspire me to continue our journey <3!

I also send my prayers up for my second family for comfort and guidance in their time of need. Too often we get busy with our lives and forget that time is flying and that none of us know when our time is up in this earthly realm. My blog is not meant for any sadness, but as a reminder to us all that life is very, very short and we should love and appreciate those surrounding us and live each day as if it is our last, for all too soon our lesson's have been learned and our time has come to a close. One other important reminder to all, do not feel guilty for other's choices that they have made. If it comes to the point that you must let them go, then let them go with grace, wish them love and happiness in their lives, let go and let God.

Now who wishes to see what my little hands have been creating this weekend? I was asked to make a hat for a friends Mother-in-law's friend who has cancer and it took me 4 days to finish it, but I did! :)  I tried a specific pattern twice and had to rip it out because try as I might, I just couldn't get the pattern to work out correctly. So after the second time of ripping it out (even my hubby said, "maybe you better try another pattern") I decided to go back to the drawing board and find another pattern. :) She wanted sunflower yellow, but I couldn't find any yarn in that color (it's springtime and that color apparently just went away until fall) so I found a daffodil yellow and decided on a denim look flower with a denim button in the middle. You can find this pattern over at Meladora's Creations and here is my resulting creation.

My next hat was a bit more challenging, thank heaven's for video tutorials! :)  This is a man/adult cabled beanie. I don't think I could have figured it out from a written pattern at all, but once I got the hang of it, it went fairly quickly. I found this on YouTube and as you all know I have pins all over Pinterest that take me to different sites for the patterns.

And the last one created this morning was a ladies brimmed/baseball hat with shrinky dink plastic heart buttons (created by my little sister). The pattern was found over at Miss Knittles Knit & Crochet on facebook.

Oh my, I just remembered one I almost forgot to post a picture of *gasp* how could I forget this one? A lovely burgundy ladies beret with an antique~ish button. This pattern was found over at Elk Studio where there are some lovely free patterns.

I told you I had been BUSY!! :D Now, I must bid you all a beautiful Sunday and go put another load of laundry in and run errands, but please stay tuned for more updates coming soon! :)  Until my next update may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within....<3

Blessings of Generosity

Good afternoon all! I hope your Sunday is just as relaxing and semi~lazy as mine has been :) After an extremely long and busy Saturday, it is most welcome to just sit and get a new ladies hat started and just take my time doing household "chores". My sister came over yesterday and spent the night to help me create Journey Journals for our two boxes of child/young adult hats going to Houston TX. The best laid plans seem to always fall apart, because I had to drive all the way to Glendale to give my Baby Girl a ride to pick up her vehicle from the shop in Phoenix LOL  OMGness, I thought we were driving to Flagstaff!! ;)  No worries though we got it all done and then had a lovely lunch and visited the bead store in Tempe, oh my those beads are expensive...even more so than yarn! :/ Yes, my sisters and I are very creative, but boy do we have expensive hobbies!!! :D  We then sat for a bit and created half of our journals, then went birthday shopping for my beautiful Baby Girl, then back to create the remaining journals. Busy, busy, and even more BUSY!! :) I was sad to see her go home so early this morning and it always brings to mind my wish that my sisters lived closer together....


Other thoughts on my mind today....How blessed I am! I was able to talk to my sis in MD last night and she let me know that ladies/friends of hers that see my hats on her facebook page have been inspired to make hats and donate them to their local cancer centers/wards. I don't know how to put in words how deeply it touches me that I inspired someone else to make a difference also!!! <3 I am also extremely blessed to have generous people in my life, without their help I wouldn't be where I am and this is for my family, friend's and a few people I've never met before....Deep gratitude and heartfelt thanks to all of you who inspire, support, help, donate and encourage me on this wonderful journey!!

But, the feeling it gives you inside is amazing!!! <3

Now, I bet you thought I did not have anything to update you with huh? I do, I do!! I was able to finish my little Shark beanie finally, and it is cute!!! Yeah, I have no idea why I went on a "sea life" inspired binge for a couple of hats, but I did...I never question, I just go with it!! Here he is...Sammy the Shark...I was able to find this pattern over at Manda Nicole's Crochet Patterns and I just love him!!

Ahhhhhhh, LOOK at those teeth!!!! :D  He obviously has a great dentist!! ;) Ms. Deb has also created a beautiful spring colored hat (not that our Spring is very long) and I just love the combination of green and blue...

And lastly, here are all our creations of our Journey Journals, and the three beginning pictures were created by my sister in MD.

Hopefully you can see them, sometimes my phone camera doesn't do very well with the pictures, but it is definitely MUCH better than my little digital camera! :)


I am thinking that I will be creating a facebook account specifically for <3 Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals <3, as my little group page on my own account is getting rather large (30 members!! YAYYYYYY). I hope it will generate more traffic to the group and get the word spread farther. I know their are many groups out there that do the same thing our group does, but everyone has to start somewhere!! :)


OH, I just remembered....the tally of hats going to Houston TX is 51 hats and 15 Journey Journals! Hopefully next year the totals will be bigger! :) I will close my ramblings for now and get back to work on my ladies hat...until my next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within....<3

Sunday Musings

Happy Sunday afternoon!! I'm feeling a little lazy after taking the necessary time this morning to clean my house, it was beyond needing it. I have a tendency to ignore the house cleaning when I'm focused on being creative :) And of course, the pups needed necessary attention also, their nails were extraordinarily long and our Yorkie's hair was way too long also. That meant Pedi's for both pup's and hair trim for the little one. What a busy day it has been, wait....I think I have been busy ALL weekend long! So, I guess I am okay with being lazy for the last half of my day :D

I was surfing the web in one of my "break time" moments and clicked on the website of Halos of Hope. WOW!! I was very proud of myself, because I could peruse their website and see the total of how many hats are donated to them or by them and not be discouraged at all. PROGRESS!! Maybe one day I will have that many hats to donate around the country, but for now, I'm okay with making a difference, no matter how small, in my little community and in Houston, TX. I am where I am supposed to be with this ongoing journey and I know that when it is time for our little group to grow, it will (and probably by leaps and bounds). So for now, I am beyond proud and happy to be in the place I am and doing what I can do to help and bring a smile to someone in need. :)

I was just counting up the children's hats that will be donated in the first week of April, and so far the total is 50 hats!!!! No Journey Journals yet, but this will change (as my sister is coming up to help me put some together) and I will keep you all informed of the total tally of both. I would love to have 10 more hats to add, but I know for myself that is kind of impossible for me to do with all of the many other things I have going on, especially when I HAVE to get some journals made to stuff in these boxes for Houston!

I DO have some pictures to share with you of some new hats...you didn't think I was just going to yammer in this update did you? LOL First up is 3 hats made by Ms. Deb, and I just LOVE all of them but especially the lace look on the multi hued hat and the fuzzy look of the brim on the pink hat :)

Next up is an adults swirl hat and my sis in MD said it reminds her of blue peppermint. Now I tried hard to follow a pattern that I found over at The Crochet Zombie and I started out pretty good, but by Row 4 I just simply could not make sense of the directions (my brain could have been on overload at that point), so I kind of did it on my own and feel that for not following the rest of the directions, it looks pretty darn good :)

 

And last but not least, is a child's Octopus hat that I threw together before starting my dreaded house cleaning LOL! This was a "pinspiration" with only a picture to look at (I just can't spend money on a hat or pattern when I know I can recreate it myself). I just love her curlicue tentacles!!

I WAS able to cut quite a few pieces of fabric to cover some journals with, but the wrists just will not allow me to squeeze that glue bottle this evening to put some together, so next weekend I will be the "Glue" queen and hopefully will not glue my fingers together ;) I am so happy that my creative slump is now over and I'm back into the swing of things, even if I am behind (this is normal for me, right?) in birthday and baby gifts LOL

Now I must bid you all adieu until my next flurry of activity produces some pictures for your viewing pleasure! May the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.....<3