Buckeyes and quilts and crochet problems.

Twice a year my mom’s family sets aside a day to celebrate the culinary arts. Particularly candy and cookies. We had our annual cookie day a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t get any pictures of  the cookies I made. I just made peanut butter blossoms. The cookie part was Pillsbury and the blossom part was Hershey kisses, but let me tell ya, I  worked getting the wrappers off those kisses! My favorite cookie of all that is brought to cookie day is the one kindy my Aunt DeDe makes. They are german and made with black walnuts. Springerlies, or something like that, and they’re cut into the shape of stars. I take as many of those as I can without getting into trouble by my other aunts. And speaking of my aunt DeDe, this year my sister’s and I got a special present from her on cookie day. She made us each a quilt. Each quilt she made had a story attached to it of when she made it or where she got the material.

 My sister Karen and I are currently fighting over one. My sister won… for now… (evil laugh). My aunt DeDe laughs about it because she heard the story. –In the picture you will see the quilt on the end (to the right). It’s border is yellow. Well, that’s the one Karen and I both wanted but Karen claimed it first. So after we left that day, I called Karen’s cell phone and in a demon voice I said “I want that QUILTttttt….” And Karen busted up laughing so we were both laughing and having a good time with it and the story got around to my mom’s family who all come up to me telling me in a demon voice that they want a quilt.

Below are some pictures of my mom’s sisters who were there that day. And other pictures of cookie day.

 Now. Candy day is coming up this Sunday, the 9^th. I decided to make Buckeyes. I’ve never made them before. I called my mom the other night because the recipe called for paraffin wax. After hours of searching in WalMart I found some. But the box said it was household paraffin wax. One of the uses was to make candles. This is where my mom comes in. I called mom all panicked. Mom! My recipe calls for me to melt paraffin wax in my chocolate! I don’t want to make chocolate candles!! But she reassured me that paraffin wax would be fine for this recipe. So I did use it and my buckeyes look as though they are freshly dipped! They’re so shiny! Hopefully they won’t taste like wax buckeyes. Jason has eaten most of them now and he says they’re good. So I guess I have to make more. Actually, HE has to make more. Ha ha honey!

 Now onto my latest hobby. Crocheting. A hobby I will most likely give up soon enough. Let’s have a look at the different stages of my crocheting skills as they have progressed.

First, there is the chain. This chain is learning disabled.

 Second there is the granny square. That’s the phase  I’m working on right now. I can barely get a chain let alone a square. This one more resembles… a baby whale.

 It was right after this that I was getting frustrated with my yarn. Surely I could crochet! It’s the YARN’S fault that it’s not working right for me. And this is what I was able to do with the new yarn.

 Hmmm…Not a square. Maybe a tapeworm? But I felt more confident because I found better directions online. So I switched back to my old yarn. And this is the one I’m working on as we speak.

 Not bad! It took me about an hour and half to get that tiny thing crotcheted! And it looks too tight. This is a scarf for my pinky finger. I can’t seem to figure out where to go from here. Do I turn it? If I turn it where do I put the hook? *sigh.

Confused Crocheter.