Fat Bottom Bag Finale!

Well, it's done.  I finished off the fat bottom bag and am very pleased with it,  yea!


I went ahead and got handles from Joann's - they were thirty percent off - and am very glad I did.  The black bamboo handles go nicely with the texture of the purse and the zebra lining.

Thanks to the Happy Hooker book for this great pattern, I can't wait to start another one.


I've already bought the material and yarn and handles for more Fat Bottom Bags!  Wheee!  (Forget dishcloths, this is much more fun!  whee!)

This is page two of the bath mitt craze I was in for a while.  Here's a few more.  Some I designed, some are from the book called Fun Time Bath Mitts (see link below)

Don't know why this photo keeps coming out sideways, darn it.  It doesn't look like that in the window on my computer.   ugh.  In case you can't tell, it's a rabbit.  lol.   Mom did ask what it was supposed to be so I'm never sure if it's only my own imagination that makes these things look like the creature I intended them to be.  ha.

Yep.  It's a pig, my own idea cuz I do love little piggies.  I have a collection of them as a matter of fact.  For years, anything and everything that had a pig on it that a friend or family member happened upon, became my gift for Christmas or birthday that year.  I have so many piggie things I can't keep them all on display (thank goodness!)  I even had pig dishes and tableware.  lol  Can you imagine what someone on a diet might think when I served them their lunch on a dish with a 3-D smiling piggie face on it?  LOL.  No wonder I don't have anymore friends.  ha.

This one is my own idea too, obviously.  If you use your imagination (mine must be incredible!) you can clearly see that this is a zebra, right?  Yea, right.  It looks more like the result of a piggie and a zebra mating with an owl.  I call him my zigbra.  That makes no sense, either so it goes right along with this wannabe zebra.  On to the next mitt.... Quickly please.. ha.

Okay.  I have two different opinions on this one.  My boyfriend and nephew say it looks like a punk rock bear.  I say it looks like a lion which was my intention.  What do you think?









Okay that's it for now, more to come soon.  I don't want to crash your computer while it tries to download too many photos so I'm limiting them to a few a page (do computers still do things like that???)

Bath Mitts R Us

I guess I've been slacking on blogging about anything, I was overwhelmed with too much stress and had to take a break.  During that break, however, I did a lot of crocheting.  Bath mitts are fun, fast, and allow me to get creative and relax, take my mind off things (like the dogs, cats, Mom, my kids, my b.f., the house, my car, grocery shopping, paying bills, working, not working, blogging, not blogging....  you get the idea)


Here's some of them, they are all available in my etsy store. 

(Mom saw this one and said, Since when do owls have whiskers?  - Thanks Mom.  It's supposed to be a kitty.  - Mom rolls her eyes and says "Ooooohhhhh."  That was it.  lol.  What a character she is.  )

Assuming you can tell this is a duck, I'll tell you I wanted it to have certain texture to look like feathers.  I used a simple star-type stitch that worked perfectly for what I wanted.  (see closeup below)

And what's a duck without a tail?  lol  Mom giggled pretty nicely when I showed her the duck tail and feet.   lol









I should post the stitch pattern for this on a new post, it is a good one for any type of dish cloth or wash cloth or bath mitt.  It is dense, textured for scrubbing, and the cloth is still nice and soft when wet so there's no uncomfortableness when bathing.  The stitch also moves along real easy making the mitts or what have you very quick to stitch up. 






More bath mitts to follow!  Wheeee!!!   (can you tell I'm having an exceptional day?  There is someone here to sit with Mom and free me up to do whatever I please.  Yea!    )

Hooking My First Fat Bottom Bag; The Beginning!

 First part done; deciding on lining, before handle flaps added...

Decision on lining done - took all of half a minute.  Thank God my daughter likes zebra everything.  It would have taken much longer to figure out otherwise.

Adding the lining to this bag is going to be a bit more difficult than I first anticipated but it's not going to be impossible.
What do you think???

 Now I have to make the purse handles - see below for my choice in those, and add the handle flaps, then I'm done!



This Fat Bottom Bag can be found in the wonderful book, The Happy Hooker.   The book, my friend, is about crocheting and has a lot of humorous paragraphs that have big sexy implications that make one smile a lot while reading how to make a special stitch or instructions for a pattern, such as the one in the book I used for this bag. 
I've not found a bag quite like this one and am very fond of it's style and ease in making.  Our craft store is twenty miles away so I went to a local 98 cent Plus store and got some co axil cable and couplers to hook the ends together to make handles for my bag.  I got the material for lining at Walmart - a half a yard was plenty with some left over to make a cell phone pouch and even a zippered pouch for money or whatnot.


I am giving this one to my daughter -- she's the lover of all that is zebra.  heh, heh.


Here's the beginning, starting with adding lining, before the handle flaps are added...


Okay, well, crap.  My son took his digital camera to work with him today so I guess I will have to post photos later on.   (sigh - how dare he.  heh. heh.)

Caregiver Notes: Barely Functioning

Since my last caregiver post about Functioning Under Stress, I have not taken action to do what is good for me.  I haven't gotten  counseling, seen my doctor, nor have I followed my own advice and desire to read anything supportive about being a caretaker or about Schizoaffective Disorder.  I have failed myself and am failing my mother and the rest of my family.


By not taking care of myself I am not able to provide my mother with meaningful or even merely entertaining conversation.  I feel as though she is bored and wanting for attention which I am incapable of giving her.  The best I can do is sit with her to make sure she's "okay".  I fix the easiest meal I possibly can which could consist of nothing more than opening a can of baked beans (which she really loves) or making a turkey sandwich.  A simple sweet potato with butter on it is luckily one of her favorite dinners and falls into the "cancer food" category.  It is also great for roughage which she needs regularly due to her diverticulosis.  For breakfast Mom loves her "Heart to Heart" cereal and plain yogurt with fresh fruit diced into it  - it's also where I stir in her crushed medications.  I don't think I've cooked a "real meal" in months.

The guilt I feel for not being more to my mother than I am is overwhelming me.  There are so many things I can make myself feel guilty about, valid or not, I will find a way to blame everything on me - especially when my psychiatric symptoms are this bad.  What I need is a couple of weeks in the hospital to get stable but I can't leave my mother to do that.  Right now even out patient is not possible because there's no one trained to take care of her while I'm gone for six hours a day.

I made a step forward today and called Mom's medical insurance provider and talked to an In Home Care Representative.  She has gone ahead and written an order for Mom to get a home health aid to come in twice a week, four hours at a time.  There's some progress.  By having someone come in, even just to sit with Mom, it will reassure me that she will be getting some companionship and have a watchful eye over her so I can get out for a bit without worry.  Maybe I'll be able to get  back into therapy with my Psychologist for a while.  Lord knows I need it.

signing off for now because those voices are messing with my head again.

Links that  lead to books about Schizoaffective Disorder:

When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, and Providers
Schizoaffective Disorder (The Infinite Mind, Vol. 315)
Understanding Schizoaffective Disorder
 Schizoaffective: A Happier and Healthier Life
Schizoaffective Disorders: New ResearchLiving with Schizoaffective Disorder