Squared.

 Well, that's that. For now, at least.

I'm all squared out on knitting squares for a while. I do like dabbling in some mindless knitting for a bit but it does lose it's appeal at some point and then it's time to move on to something more challenging.

I now have17 new squares to add to the stack in this endless, never going to be finished, blanket.

(I think that brings me up to 65 now?) I'm in NO danger of running out of yarn scraps any time soon either - even after knitting up all these squares I still have a GIGANTO-HUGE bag of them left. It's like a magical bag of yarn that constantly refills itself when I'm not looking. (Something that would be better served if it were food..........or money. lol)

It's pretty crazy for me to only have finished a single pair of socks done at this point in the year (I usually have 3-4 pairs done by now) so I drug out this Cheetos-inspired orange yarn for a pair of socks. I'm going easy on it so far though so my hand doesn't start getting cranky. :(

Do you Hobby Lobby? I've always heard it's a great store to browse and I finally made it to the one that opened near here this winter. (Iif you consider 45 minutes away 'near' - which I do because I have to drive that far for everything that is good.) It felt very old school 90's craft store-ish to me in the sense that it carries everything that was ever made in the history of making things to sell at a craft store. But a lot more organized. And clean. (If that makes sense? It might just be me, but I've done a lot of shopping over the years at local craft stores that were like treasure hunts trying to find what you wanted, everything stacked up in piles, year after year. You never knew what you find. Each aisle was a mystery. lol)

Anyhoo, I wasn't there for any particular reason so all I ended up with is a cute polka dotted bundle of fabric quarters (perfect for small finishes) and an adorable little needle tin with old-timey stitching motives on it.  (Oh sure, there was more I *could* have purchased but I was trying to be good.) 

Unfortunately, that store is situated right next to a Joann's AND a Michaels so I'm going to be faced with an uncomfortable choice when I'm in that area again. Joann and I are pretty tight bff's and I've actually DATED Michael (read: I worked at one in the 90's). Not sure I can dump them for the flashy new Miss Hobby, even if she is pretty tricked out. lol

Monday, Monday.

I will have a bunch of new things up in the Bead Shoppe this week. Maybe tomorrow but possibly on Wednesday. (The weather has been mostly dreary lately so picture taking is hit or miss.)

In the meantime, I have other sorts of eye candy to post to keep y'all interested. I saw this July 4th finish post on the Snippets and Stash blog the other day and got inspired to do up some red/white/blue pillows of my own. I had just finished up the two June Blackbird stockings and was looking for something new to work on, something quick and this worked out perfectly. Stitched up two new things (the same ones as she did) and dug two old ones out that I finished agesssssssssssssssss ago that matched and made up some super simple pillows out of them to put in the basket on my fireplace hearth for the summer.

Go me for being all industrious and shiz like that! (Though I shouldn't pat myself TOO hard on the back for that because I'm mostly in a OMG MUST STITCH mode at the moment because I'm avoiding knitting on the NeverEnding Scarf of Doom. Maybe more on that later this week. Grrrr.)

The Old Glory pattern is by Heart in Hand, using whatever WDW threads that appealed to me and a scrap of god-knows-what-kind-of-linen. The pillow on the right was stitched up so long ago I have absolutely no clue what's up with it. (Sorry! I'm oh-so-helpful with the details, aren't I? lol)

Ditto that on this star pattern. Where did it come from and when did I stitch it? No answers to either of that, I'm afraid. Did I really purchase a pattern for something so small or was it part of something larger? A freebie? Hmph. My disastrously awful long-term memory is not  helping me out here. The pattern on the right is a cute freebie from Aubry, using DMC threads.

And finally and 'upskirt' pic for those that are into that sort of thing. :)

Just random fabrics pulled out of my stash. I like the flag one the best as far as looks but it doesn't have a very nice 'feel' to it so it's perfect for something like this. No more stitching for me this week, I think, after this because I really do need to commit myself to finishing that damn scarf. Grrrrr.

Finished up the Blackbird Designs stockings for May!

Which makes me seem all 'timely and stuff until you realize these came out LAST May, not THIS May. lol
Had no issues with these other than making a couple color substitutions because they either matched too closely to the linen and/or another color in the design. (Example: the tulips colors originally were pretty much the same exact shade of coral so I switched one out for Lancaster red instead.)

 I used my new fabric quarters for the backing fabric so here is a look at the other side:

(Hmm. Just noticed I didn't keep them in the same order for the back picture. That's a little confusing. lol)

Pulled all the stuff out to do the June ones and just need to get started on them now. One of the three designs I decided not to do because it's a stork/birth announcement design which I don't have any need for at the moment. So this batch should go quicker.........theoretically.......

It's been a bit of a crazy week.

The hubby had this week off on vacation so we've been here, there, and everywhere, did a bunch of shopping and had a bunch of great food.

 To that end, we finally managed to go to Bobby Flay's burger joint up at the casino. It opened up last fall and we've been meaning to go since but, enh, we're not really casino people. There are only two casinos in the state and they're both only 40 minutes or so away from my house but, even still, before this week I'd only been to each of them ONCE in the last TEN YEARS. I hate the cigarette smoke, I'm not enticed by free booze because I almost never drink alcohol, I'm bored with window shopping after about 15 minutes, and I'd rather spend my money on 'stuff' vs. pumping it into a machine that (let's be honest) is not going to give it back to you. (A long time ago the slot machines were sorta fun when they took quarters. There was something neat about the clink, clink, clink of quarters pouring out of them when you won your hand but they did away with that and now you either use a casino card or big bills. Pffffftttttt. Boring!)

But having only been to Mohegan Sun once before, it was interesting to poke around for a while. I'm pretty sure I was half asleep/dead the first we went (it was the end of a VERY long day) so I was fuzzy on the details. And Bobby Flay's place was pretty AWESOME. I even ordered my burger with CHEESE. Honest to goodness CHEESE. On my BURGER. I've never done that before in my life. lol (I don't like most cheese........which is putting it mildly.) But I picked a Santa Fe burger and it had 'queso' cheese to go with it's black corn tortilla chip/pickled jalapenos topping and I thought I would give it a try.

 I love that fake-as-anything Velveeta queso you make using Ro-Tel and, while I didn't think THAT was what was going to be the type of cheese they were serving, I thought all the flavors would blend together nicely. And they did. I was a little disturbed getting cheese on my fingers (gross gross gross) but it tasted great. It was definitely a one time thing though - I'm not suddenly a cheeseburger lover or anything. lol

Oh and I got to go to A FABRIC STORE TOO. It's been a long long long time since I've been to an actual fabric store. I love browsing through fabric stores but there are NONE around here. NONE. Even the Walmarts don't bother with fabric anymore. *sad*  I wouldn't go back to living in the city but I do miss the 'little' things sometimes like just being able to drive 15 minutes to a Joann's whenever you need a little trim or some buttons. (Shopping for that stuff online just isn't the same.) That being said, I have 4 big-ass storage drawers full of fabric from ages and ages ago when I DID live near fabric stores so it was mostly a looksy thing. Mostly...................

I did succumb to these two packs of fabric quarters. *pets* They were on sale and the green ones match the Blackbird stockings I'm doing right now. (I think they match anyway. They match INSIDE MY HEAD but I was going on memory. So that could turn out badly. lol Well see how it goes when I go to put them together.)