Happy Friday! My Cousin Shirley, My Grandma Casteel, Another Owl Cushion, Two Baby Chicks, and Some Baby Grannies

I don’t know about you but I’m very glad it’s Friday. I’ve had a very busy week at work plus I had my February Crochet 101 class on Tuesday night. I really enjoyed teaching the 6 people that joined my class on Tuesday night. Five of them had never held a hook or yarn in their hands and one of them already knew how to crochet, her name is Shirley and she is one of my many cousins. Shirley signed up for the class and brought her friend along so that her friend could learn to crochet and not be alone. Three of the ladies work together and the other one is a seamstress. I was so happy to see all 5 of the ladies catch on so quickly and they were very intense on learning. I can’t wait to see them next Tuesday. My cousin Shirley is my Mom’s Mother’s Brother’s Daughter. Got that? Anyway, sometimes when we would go to my Grandma Casteel’s (my Mom’s Moms) house to visit, Shirley’s Mom and Dad would come to visit too. The things I remember about Shirley is that; in age she was between Jackie and Me. My memory of Shirley was a little girl with pretty red hair in a pretty frilly dress.  🙂 I’m so glad that Shirley and I have reunited after all these years and we plan on getting together more often. Not too long ago Shirley asked me what my thoughts were of my Grandma Casteel (her Aunt Nettie). I asked her “what do you mean”? She told me that she was quite frightened of her and that’s when I told her what I thought about my Grandma. My recollections of her were that she had her favorites out of her children’s families and they always seemed to be a boy. I also remember she baked the most delicious bread ever and always had several loaves baked when we would arrive at her house. I remember she would greet us at the door with her apron (I actually have one of her aprons hanging in my craft room) on with her arms outstretched for a hug. She must have known that we would all be hungry after the long 2 ½ hour ride (consisting of us asking my Mom a hundred times “are we almost there”?). Then we would all sit at or stand around her little metal kitchen table and chairs and eat bread, butter, and jelly. Grandma also had a crystal cup on her table that had spoons in it. I’m not sure what the purpose was for that cup with spoons in it but I always loved seeing it sitting there. Even though my Grandma was gruff sometimes and didn’t seem to understand children and their needs to be children, I still loved her and I miss her.

Anyway, now to the crochet; I finished the other owl cushion that I started last weekend. I really love how this one turned out too. I think there will probably be a few more of these in the near future.

Then I made these two little baby chicks. Someone asked me what they were for. I said I don’t know, I just thought they were cute. My friend Tami told me they would be cute covering those plastic Easter eggs filled with candy. I thought that would be cute too. The pattern I used was written by Zoom Yummy. The same person that created the Owl Cushion and Hearts that I made, you can find her pattern here.

I also decided to make some baby granny squares out of the Bernat Handicrafter Crochet Thread that I had purchased months ago. We-l-l-l-l after I made six squares I decided I needed more colors so I went back to Hobby Lobby and purchased more.

I’m not sure what I’ll make with the squares once I’m done with them, but I plan on adding a white border around each one. I really thought an afghan would be very cool but that would take me FOREVAH. So I might end up with a scarf, pillow, or baby blanket? Who knows? I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I love you all!