Thanksgiving in the Black Hills

Well this Thanksgiving we decided to go to the Black Hills... for those of you that don't know my sister lives there. We Had a riot! My oldest son Tyler and a friend of ours came along this year with Jason and I. We stayed at the Robins Roost Cabins as usual and stayed 5 nites. We got there on the Wednesday before thanksgiving day later at nite so we just hung out in our little cabin and played games. Thursday my sister had to work on thanksgiving so we went exploring... we cruised out to The needles highway only to find that the road was closed because of snow. So we turned around and drove through the Custer Wildlife loop. And did we get a treat! We actually got to see huge herds of buffalo! Also some antelope and wild (sorta) donkeys! It was a fun day! It was a bit cold up there... about 20 degrees or so.

Can you tell we had fun??? So did Jake our lab... he wasn't sure what to think of the donkeys!Anyway... Friday was more exploring check out this pic of where there was a fire up by Mount Rushmore a few years ago.

Here we all are at Mount Rushmore....

Then on Sat. we had Thanksgiving Dinner.... Me and my sister stayed at the house and cooked and Jason, Brad , Tyler and Myles went to the Moonshine Gulch and had a good time. And we had a great thanksgiving supper that evening! Sunday we went and got a tree permit from the forest service for $10.00.... so off we went into the woods in search of the perfect tree! Here we are cutting it down and dragging it back thruought the forest to the truck. Me and Jason cut down a 18 footer.... needless to say we had to trim it down when we got home!

Are you a Turkey?

Tyler (my oldest son)was a day before turkey day baby... and this is the first year since he has been born that his birthday is the day before Thanksgiving. So he is a 23 year old turkey tomorrow! I can't believe he is going to be 23. That make me how old??? LOL! We are all loading up in the truck and going out to the Black Hills for Thanksgiving. My sis lives in Hill City and We will be doing Thanksgiving at her house. We will be driving out there on Tyler's birthday...what a way to spend your b'day! But it will be fun when we get there. Already have several things planned. Thursday we will go mess around... Janelle... my sis has to work on Thanksgiving. Friday is More messing around and ending that nite going to Deadwood to eat all the crab legs you can eat... Lucky thing they also have prime rib and chicken on the buffet, cause I HATE crab legs! I am "Crabby" enough... why risk it! But everyone else loves them. The bad thing about going along with the Crab leg frenzy is it takes these leg lovers FOREVER to get full! I sit there FOREVER! I think I may go gamble for a while while they gorge themselves! Maybe I can win enough to pay for the crabs! Saturday we will be doing thanksgiving at my sisters .... and we can't wait! She has called several times with menu preparation... and it all sound yummy! But I am wondering what cheesy artichoke squares.... guess that is a new Thanksgiving food! I write more later on those after we try them. I also will be doing a 2nd photo shot with my nephew.. I took his graduation pic this summer but we were thinking since they have gotten some snow this week it would be fun to have a couple of snowy pics too! And last but not lest... we are going out into the forest to cut down our own Christmas tree. We did that last year and me and my sis also make some garlands and door swaps with fresh cut pine and fresh pine cones! I will write an update on the festivities when I return! Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

A shawl for me!

Good Day to everyone! I just joined a CAL on Crochetville and I am going to finish my shawl / wrap for ME! So I thought I would include pics of what I have done.... I need to put on another whoe row of the pattern repeat and I need to figure out a edging for it.... Any ideas?

Raulf and Alf???

Sorry.... Had to post again... I almost forgot to show everyone one the most recent photo op at my home.... I call this one "Ralph and Alf"!



For those of you that don't know who this is... it is my husband, Jason! I thought it was a hillarious pic! They look like twins, huh? same nose... same teeth, same "burns".... SAME!

Weird Cracker moment!

Ok.... Here we go again... another 'weird Jackie moment''. I had a dream last nite That I went to the Goodwill store and I got this really cool "prize"! When I woke up... though... I couldn't remember what the "prize" was! So I got up and informed Jason, my husband, that I was going to the Goodwill store today to pick up my "prize". He looked at me like I was crazy....expecially when he found out that I had dreamed about it.. needless to say he is getting used of these "weird Jackie moments". So off I went. to collect the trophy. Check out what I found for my "prize"! It is better thatn I thought it would be! YARN!!! YAHOO!!! Here are some pics.... all this for $10.00! I really did win GRAND PRIZE!

Is This too cool or what???

Also I wanted to add a pic of the "Loop and Lace Mile a Minute" Afghan I started last nite... I really like to way it is starting to shape up!

Crochetville Swaps!

I havent' posted in a while and I really wanted to show you my wonderful packages that my swap partner have made for me.

I am going to start with the two most recent ones.... I don't know why it has taken me this long to figure out to use my blog to show off my prizes!

This purse came from Amy (tiga) . For the Autum purse swap. Isn't it gorgeous? I love it! It is made with such great colors and it is really nice and soft too!




And These wonderful scarves came from Angel (ladyinthemoon) For the winter scarf swap. They are both way awesome! And I can't wait to be able to use them.... Although it is getting a bit colder out! It has rain continuous for the last 4 days! And it looks like more tomarrow!

thought I'd share...

I was just thinking about the purse swap.... and I found these photos of the purse I designed for the spring purse swap... and thought I would share them. This purse went to Canada. I used a recycled blue jean legfor the body, "fabric" yarn for the flap, thread crocheted the flowers and the fringe, and used my spool knitter and some suede yarn.

I finished on time!!!

I am soooooooo glad that I finished my purse on time to send to my partner in Florida! This one is for the Autum purse tote swap. I always wait til the last day or so to send my swaps and yes I did again! Today was the last day to send... And it did make it in the mail today! YAHOO! Here is a photo of my "Groovy" purse I crocheted for her... I made the body of the purse with hemp and the handle, flap and fringes out of thread. My Partner said she really like the 70's retro stuff so this is my interpetation! It is a CrackerJackie's original. And I also sent her this little pansy purse for her 5 year old little girl! I sure hope they like them!

I also sent her a sluch purse that I had sewed. I will try to post a pic of it on here before to long.

Today I had a pretty good day... I may have stayed up to late crocheting and may be a bit tired so I guess it time to be off to bed! Nite Nite!

Grandmother's Flower Garden

This is a ghan that I crocheted a while back. It's called "Grandmothers Flower Garden" It was alot of fun to crochet all the little hex's.... BUT putting them all togather stunk!!! I bribed my mother to help sew them all togather! She really likes doing that stuff so guess what? I let her!

These are a couple of bookmarks that I crocheted. I LOVE doing book marks!!! They are like instant gradification! They don't take to long to make and they are great to have on hand for gifts or to stick in an envelope with a quick note to my friends!

I am really proud at how these fridgies turned out! I made up the pattern as I went. They were sent to my swap partner on crochetville.

Today has been a long day! After work today My mom came up to Sioux Falls and cooked supper! Meatloaf, baked potatoes, and fresh sweet corn! Yummy! It was nice to not have to cook!

I have been trying to do my meds different lately... and it's not going very well. The pain meds that I take during the day are making me very tired and don't seem to be working as well as they did. And the muscle relaxers that I take at night are making me so groggy that I can hardly get up in the morning. It stinks that I have to take any of them.... but it is better than cruches. I feel like a drug addict! I have been having to take like 5 - 8 pills a day.... this coming to me who used to take ibuprophen like twice a year ... maybe! The doctors still have not figured out what is going on. I did have a lab test come back positive... it was called HLA-B27. They tell me that it is a genetic code marker??? I even talked to the doctor about it and it is really complicated. But.... my new chest ex-ray came back good... they said there were no signs of any diseases! That is a good thing! YAHOO! After the last ex-ray and biopsy I was a bit concerned. But things are looking better, now if they could only figure out the deal with my legs I would be happy!

Anyway.... I am off to do some crocheting! Later Tater!

Intro to me

Since this is my first entry I will introduce you to the family... Pets first...

"Jake" is our yellow lab and this is a pic from last winter.... isn't he sweet?

And Arial is our ragdoll cat... I call her princess. She is a very cuddly kitty.

And then there is Lu... the black tomcat who is 15 years old and still catching rabbits!

Here is a pic of me and my hubby Jason. This pic was taken last summer at my sister, Janelle's graduation from nursing school. The graduation took place at Mount Rushmore. Which was fitting since both of her boys Hudson and Nash work at Mount Rushmore!

So I belive that I may be truely addicted to swaps. I think that it may be that you know that the person recieving it really know and appreciates the time, effort and creativity that goes into a project. People that don't crochet or knit don't always "get it". So it makes me happy to send my creations to someone who really will love it as much as I love creating it.

On a different note... about my day... I woke up today at 1:30 in the afternoon! ( yeah I know) But I was up til 4:00 in the morning ... doing what you may be thinking... truth is ... I was crocheting a scarf for my swap partner and it was turning out so nice that I really wanted to see it done! Anyway, after I washed my face and brushed my teeth, I made a huge pot of Potato Soup. It was only 60 degrees out today so it seemed to be soup weather. The recipe I have is really yummy But it makes enough to feed an army! I brought a bowl to my neighbors Jean from Apt. 103 and to Al in Apt 105. Jean is an 84 year old lady that does get out of her house and Al is a bachlor who works for the railroad. Then I called Maxwell and told him to come over and pick up a bowl for him and Tyler to have. I still have 3 containers of soup in the fridge. I also made Meatballs for Mason' birthday tomarrow and tacos for tuesday. So I did a half of a weeks cooking today. Mason's birthday is tomarrow... He is going to be 16! I can't belive it... my "baby" is 16. Anyway... Mason and I took jake out to lake Alvin for awhile so he could go swimming. He had a great time, That dog just loves the water!