Mario pillow back side complete

Finally finished the back side of the Mario pillow. It's getting blocked at the moment, but hoping to get the border on both sides and finish it up over the next couple days. Alex's birthday is next Wednesday so I'm still doing good on time.

Are we there yet?

I'm totally geeked about the last HP movie!!!! I think my sister-in-law and I will have to have a serious HP movie marathon before catching the midnight showing of the movie. Why can't they show it now??????  Guess I'll just have to stick to the count down clock.
More countdowns at Widgia.com

Reverse side of Mario Pillow and other Mario related stuff

I finally came up with the design for the back of Alex's pillow. My gauge wasn't working for the Bowser scene, and just a castle seemed kind of boring, so I came up with Mario sliding down the flag pole with a portion of the original castle design & some fireworks.

I've actually already tweaked his nose & cap a bit. They both just really seemed to be sticking out really far. I also decided that Alex was going to need a blanket. I've made all my nieces and nephews one, so I can't leave him out. His blanket is going to be the Mario from the front of the pillow. Each of the squares from that design will be small granny square. Only doing the Mario though. Haven't decided on a background color yet, but I'll worry about that a little later. I have about 680 squares to make for the blanket, so may as well get started making the colors I already know I need.  This is going to measure approximately 4' x 5' before the border. Should look pretty good on his bed.

More Mario - Front side

Finally finished the front side of the Mario pillow. It was slightly taller than I was expecting, but that's ok. Now I just need to design the back. Alex loves doing the castle levels, so I'm debating between doing a Bowser scene and just putting the exterior castle image on it. Maybe I'll make up both and see which one the parents think he'll like better.

Mario is coming along

Sitting at the Peoria Chiefs baseball game, and of course I had to bring a project along. Mario is done, but have a couple rows of sky to do before working on the bricks.

Cubs Cards game

Saturday was a very long day. I was going to the Cubs Cards game in St. Louis with some people from church & had to be at the church at 10:45. I was actually on time even though I had to run up to JoAnn fabrics to grab another skein of yarn. I rode with Bruce & Karen Weir, Amy Lee, and Don Blumenshine. I don't know any of these people except by sight. I sat in the back & crocheted during the ride up & managed to finish up my niece's blanket for her 4th birthday.

We got to our seats in the stadium around 2:30, game didn't start until 3:15. I was razzed a bit by some of the other church members for my Cubs gear. Hey, I'm from Illinois, I cheer for Chicago. What can I say, it's easy to root for the underdog if you always cheer for Chicago. It was 95 degrees out, but at least we were in the shade. I wouldn't have made it if we had to sit in the sun. Cardinals got a 2 run homer in the bottom of the 5th, but then Pena of the Cubs got a 2 run homer in the top of the 6th & they scored 2 more runs. Went into extra innings. By the bottom of the 12th inning I was praying anyone would score because I was so hot, tired, thirsty, and hungry. Pujols of the Cards was first up to bat & hit a homer over the center field wall. I'm still not sure why Kerry Wood decided to pitch to him instead of walk him, but that's the Cubs mentality. Here's a pic of the Arch from my seat in the stadium.

We got out of St. Louis relatively quickly considering the traffic & stopped in Collinsville, IL for food to eat in the car. The ride home was uneventful. We got back to the church at 10 pm. I had told my friend Jolean that if we got back in time I would watch her boys so she & her husband Mike could go see X-Men: First Class. I sent her a text & she said they would still like to go. So, ran home, let Maddy out, grabbed the Veronica Mars Season 1 dvd I've been watching & headed over. Boys were obviously already in bed when I got there at 11. I just watched my dvds until they returned around 2:45 am. I got some homemade apple banana nut bread out of the deal too. Made it home, but had a massive headache. Didn't get to bed until nearly 4. It was a very long day, but glad I got to see a Cubs Cards game in person. Maybe I'll have to go again, but this time at Wrigley Field.

Nothing too exciting

Today wasn't overly exciting, but I got some things accomplished today. I didn't get to sleep until 5 am and woke up around 9 because I was hot. I'm still not sure why I had decided to turn the a/c off knowing that the sun shines in my window in the morning. Met Mom, Chloe & Conner (niece & nephew of my oldest sister Christa) for lunch at Ernie's Family Restaurant in Pekin. After we ate, we went back to Mom's house where Chloe promptly popped in the High School Musical 3 DVD. Oy vey. What poor acting. I thought the first movie was ok, the 2nd was worse, and I was very glad I had to leave during the middle of the 3rd. Yikes! But, Chloe is 10 and thinks it's great, so there you have it. I got home around 2 and my friend Jolean came over with her boys Alex & Zach. I'm going to be watching Zach while she takes Alex to speech therapy on the Wednesday's I don't work during the summer. The little man was pretty good. Got a bit fussy, but promptly fell asleep after I stood up and rocked him. Over all, not too bad for an hour and a half. Once Jolean & Alex got back, we talked while Alex played Super Mario Bros for the Wii. He loves Mario! We then met Jolean's husband Mike for dinner at Carlos O'Kelley's. I've only been there a couple times, but the food was good. Mike took the boys home after that while Jolean & I stopped at Dollar Tree before knitting group. I picked up a couple new Sudoku and Word Search books (one of which is Tinkerbell so I'm stoked about that). We had a new girl come to knitting tonight. Her name is Jenny & she was very nice. I hope she comes back next week. I really love knitting group. Although, Melinda & Erin's talk about running makes me want to give it a go. I, unfortunately, happen to be a fat kid at the moment & even the thought of running gives me an asthma attack. I may have to start by taking my 9 yr old dog Maddy on longer evening walks because let's be honest, no one needs to see this thing run. I really do need to get in to a shape other than round. Just not even remotely motivated at the moment. All my excuses of new computer build at work, new dog, winter, & move have all evaporated. Time to find some motivation. But until said time, I need to watch the first season of Veronica Mars that Jolean loaned me while I try to finish up the last 5 squares of Lilly's blanket. Tomorrow is work then going to see the midnight showing of X-Men: First Class!

New to the blogging world....well, almost

So, this is my first attempt at blogging that will hopefully not get me in trouble at work. My last attempt was a couple years ago via Myspace and, well, let's just say it didn't end well. I ended up completely deleting my page which was fine since I don't miss it. I think I'm going to avoid issues this time around by not giving my blog address to people I work with. I'm also going to attempt to not rant about work on here, but I make no promises.

I should be spending my time at home working on my latest (and greatest?) knitting or crochet project. I've got too many projects at the moment though. I'm almost finished with my niece Lilly's blanket for her 4th birthday present. Her birthday isn't until August so I have plenty of time for that.

I also just started a Mario pillow for my friend's son Alex who will be 5 in July. He's a huge Mario fan. I really should keep up on that one since I don't have a ton of time & I'm doing it Tunisian stitch. Here is the front design I made on Excel. Still gotta work on the back design. Not sure what I'm going to put there, but he always likes watching his mom go through the castles at the end of each level, so maybe Bowser and some fireballs. I'll keep posting as I go.