VA Disability

Here's my boys and me a looooong time ago!

I finally did it. I had an appointment at the VA hospital to increase my disability rating. I've been listening to my one VA doctor for several years encourage me to do it but I just didn't have the energy to do it. My one condition is currently rated at 10 % but I have all the symptoms plus more than what the 60% rating is. The VA disability system seems to be similar to what I've heard about the Social Security Disability Program--deny, deny, deny and then after an appeal or 2 you get it. How frustrating and I think they like people like me who throw in the towel after the 1st time and don't appeal such as I've done in the past. This time I'm going for it.

Two on Tuesdays

I saw on Debi's blog that she is going to post 2 things that make her happy. I thought that was such a great idea and I'm going to copy her idea too. Here are 2 things that make me happy:

My chihuahuas-- Nellie Belle and Opi

The 2nd thing that makes me happy is chocolate (imagine that)!

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (14 November 2011)

I love, love, love crocheted slippers. Here's an interesting pattern for some. These might make a nice Christmas gift for someone on your list. Thanks for visiting!

Started Slipper Marathon 2011~

Every year, I crochet many pairs of these slippers to give out at Christmas time. Here are the first ones I finished making for this Christmas:

This pair is for a man

This is going with the Serene Seas Afghan I recently finished.

If you're interested, here's a link for the pattern.

Happy Crocheting....

Serene Seas Afghan

Afghan is totally done! A quick wash and a trip to the post office to send it to a special person as a surprise. I used this pattern. The pattern is quick and easy and by varying colors and width of "stripes" you have many, many looks to choose from. Thanks for stopping in and looking. I'm off to the dentist in 5 minutes. Y'all have a nice day.

This picture shows the colors pretty much as they are.

Finally, I'm here...

I'm sorry that I haven't been visiting many of your blogs lately. I still feel kind of under the weather although all my medical tests are coming out normal. Insomnia and horrible dreams when I do sleep wake me up several times a night. Tomorrow, I'm having my root canal finished and then I have to make an appointment to have a permanent filling put in. Anyway, that's enough of the not so nice news and on to something better.

We harvested our potatoes. Didn't get many I think because I had used some of the small, gourmet potatoes that had eyes on them to plant. Hubby didn't want to pile our tires higher and fill them in with more dirt; so........... we had a small harvest of small potatoes. I plan on steaming some of them one day next week as a side dish with supper.  Below is a picture of our small harvest and no, the darker ones are not souvenirs from Opi and Nellie Belle! The "meat" of the darker ones is actually a beautiful purple color. If you're wondering what tires have to do with potatoes, we plant potatoes in tires and stack additional ones on top as the plants grow and add more soil.

On to crocheting : I'm weaving the ends in on the latest afghan I'm working on. I'm only going to show you the colors and not post a picture until it is totally finished. I'm going to call it "Serene Seas."

Hope everyone is doing well and are staying warm....

Rose in Bloom Dishcloth

Still not feeling tip-top so I haven't been here too much lately. I have been working on an afghan that is a little over 1/2 finished. Hope to have a picture of it before too long to show you. Anyway, I took a break from the afghan and made this dishcloth when I was waiting at the doctor's office. I think it is cute enough to use as a small doily under a flower pot or something similar. I used a free pattern from Maggie Weldon called Rose in Bloom Crochet Dishcloth. The yarn I used is Peaches & Creme Orange Sherbet. Thanks for stopping in and looking. Hugs...

.Monday's Link to Free Pattern (24 October 2011)

Here's a pattern for a quick angel decoration to make for Christmas. Enjoy!

"Autumn Review" Afghan is Finished

Today I finished an afghan and I didn't even have to hide the unwoven ends in before taking a picture because it was a completely finished project!   I'm calling it Autumn Review. Here's a look at it:

The dark green stripes look brown in the picture but they are honest and truly green. The other colors are pretty close. I used the pattern/tutorial from Attic24. I crocheted a sequence of 3 rows of 3 colors until it was about the length I wanted and I ended with the same color I started with (green).

Tomorrow I'm having a root canal on my abscessed tooth. I hope to be feeling back to par by the weekend. Take care everyone and thanks for looking.

ps--I've already started the next afghan. I ended up having to squeeze in another one before Christmas.

I've Been Out of Commission Again!

Been down hard with an inner ear infection and abscessed tooth. Hope to be almost back to my "normal" state in a few days. Have to go to dentist Thursday for the third time and I'll be having a root canal on the abscessed tooth done. When it rains it pours.....sigh....

WIP Wednesday 12 October 2011

I actually have 2 things I'm working on. Last week I posted pictures of an afghan I'm making for a Christmas present. It's about 1/2 way done. Since I showed you a picture of it last week, I decided not to bore you with another one but rather to show you the scrap 'ghan I'm working on when I get the urge to use a different color. This 'ghan is wider than the other one so I'll be working on it and using up scraps for quite a bit of time to come. OK, here's the progress on the scrap 'ghan:

Click this button to see what some other folks are up to:

Have a great a creative day....

WIP Wednesday (05 October 2011)

This afghan will be a Christmas present for a dear friend of ours. He has been a true friend to us so I wanted to make him something special.

Click the button below to see what other's are making.




Take care...

Polka Dot Afghan Is Finished

I know I haven't been here lately. My medications have been switched around and my concentration is off and I sleep a lot more in "shifts." Anyway, I wanted to come on today and share some pictures of the afghan I finished for my brother. Here they are:

This is the pattern I used for the squares.

Thanks for being patient with me and stopping in to visit!  Hugs....

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (03 Oct 2011)

Baby bib

For All You Cat Lovers

I had a few giggles at the bully cat. Hope you enjoy!

Alternative Store for Groceries

DH hasn't been working regularly since late spring so money has been tight. As you all know, the price of groceries has sky-rocketed and continues to rise. I stopped by a salvage grocery store yesterday to see what kind of deals I could find. I found that you could not do a "regular" grocery shopping trip here but you could stock up on some great bargains. Here's a little look at what I bought.

"Nom-noms" for Opi and Nellie Belle's Sunday dinner. They were 50 cents each.

"Fancy' coffee $2.99 each.

Hubby's favorite-- a special yesterday at 2 for 99 cents

$1.59!

Only 39 cents!

25 cents each for these

Starbucks decaf for only $3.09

Pepsi and Coke products were 20 cents per can

Everything was in date. Some of the packaging was slightly damaged. I checked to make sure that if a can was dented, that the seal wasn't involved. The soda cans needed to be wiped off before I put them in the fridge because there was a little stickiness to them--probably opened cans slopped their contents on the good cans. You can probably tell that we're big coffee drinkers! I'm supposed to drink decaf but I will use the flavored coffee and mix it with my plain decaf. One thing I have learned not to buy at stores like this one is taco shells. I had bought a box that looked pristine--no damage or signs of being overly handled. Unfortunately, most of the shells were broken.

Hope that you have luck looking for bargains too.

Hugs, 

Sharon

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (29 August 2011)

Photo courtesy of Garnstudio

I've been into squares lately and when I saw this pattern I just knew I had to share it with you. I love the use of color in the sample shown and the border is very pretty imho. Check it out!

Happy National Dog Day!

Happy National Dog Day from mine to yours!

Opi

Nellie Belle

Update on Our Troublesome Neighbor Situation

In this post, I told you about the distress we feel from our one neighbor who literally stalks us with his camera when we're outside. He's taken pictures of me early in the morning when I opened my front door to my son and I was wearing my robe. He calls the police if a car is hanging an inch or 2 over the sidewalk when it is in our drive and well, you've probably read the other post so you know what we've been going through with him the last couple of years. Tonight, our other neighbor called the police on "goofy" because there was a car hanging over goofy's driveway. Of course, by the time the police got there, the car was gone. Anyway, the latest development is that goofy has a camera aimed out of his window, at our house round the clock the last couple of days. We've been advised by the police officer to go to the county attorney. He didn't know for sure if we had any recourse but the county attorney might be able to help us someway. Maybe since the police were called on him, he'll settle down. We'll see; otherwise we may have to take some legal action.

Monday's Link to Free Crochet Pattern (22 August 2011)

Here's an interesting pattern for slippers. Enjoy everyone!