January 19-20, 2013 Weekend, Another Family Member Gone too Soon, a Pair of Boot Scoot-n-Boots, and a Couple of Scarves

This last week has been pretty rough on our family; first off my Mom was trying to recover from the death of her brother and a cold, then I got sick and stayed home from work 2 days. Then we received a phone call on Thursday that my cousin Mike Casteel had passed away. Mike Casteel was my Mom’s brother’s (Uncle Wayne’s) 3^rd son who was just 52 years old in May. I was just 4 years old when Mike was born. I remember when we would travel down to Oklahoma to visit my Mom’s parents we always got to see the Casteel boys. I loved naming them all off; Marty (who was my age), Mark, (who was Jackie’s age), Mike, Micky, and Matt. It wasn’t until I was in high school that my Aunt and Uncle had another child but this time they had a girl and they named her Marnita. I always thought it was so cool that all their names started with an M and I could never say just one of their names without saying all of them together. Marty, Mark, Mike, Micky, Matt, and Marnita. Today I will be traveling to and from Oklahoma to say goodbye to yet another family member gone too soon. All of those cousin sayings on Facebook are so true, after your brothers and sisters your “Cousins” are your very first friends. Goodbye for now Mikey until we meet again.

This last weekend was very uneventful since I decided to stay at home all weekend to try and recover a little more from this awful upper respiratory virus that I have. I think I need to buy into some Kleenex stock since I have gone through a couple of boxes all by myself. (I never could figure out how one person could generate that much mucus.) Anyway I managed to make a pair of Boot Scoot-n-Boots designed by Elizabeth Alan, The Lovely Crow patterns. I love the way these little boots work up and who can resist a pair of little cowboy boots? I made them for the baby shower that I couldn’t attend on Sunday.

Then I finished up the Strawberry Lace Scarf that I started on Wednesday morning. I wish there was a better way to photograph the scarf. I think after I block it I will probably put it on and have John take pictures of it that way. Anyway I love how it turned out.

Then I decided to start the Daisy Chain Scarf on Saturday evening. I am now working on the daisy edging and decided that each daisy needed a bead in the center of the flower to weight it down. I tried to crochet them without beads and all the flowers flip and flop around and I didn’t like the looks of it. I can’t wait to see all the different colors of glass beads just hanging there in the center of the daisies.

I just mentioned to John that I needed some beads for my scarf and he immediately brought me this wonderful box of glass beads. I love how they all look sitting in their little space. They remind me of those glass marbles that my brothers used to carry around in those velvety marble bags with the drawstrings. Does anyone else remember marbles and marble bags? My brothers used to love to play the game of marbles and I loved watching them play (because they didn’t let me play very often). Anyway, regardless if I had to stay home this weekend recovering from my illness I think I made the most out of the time that I was sitting up.  🙂 

Here’s my nephew Zach in his bearded hat. I love that Zach loves his bearded hat and it looks like it fits him perfectly. Zach’s wife Jessica is a professional photographer so I requested a professional picture of his hat on him and here are the results. Thanks Jessica for the cool glamour shots, I love, love, love them.

So how was everyone elses weekend? I would love to hear all about it.