News and New Things!

Wait!! Don’t go! You are in the right place!

I know, it’s all shiny and new over here. I needed a new look. The old one was a little too chaotic for me. I really like this look. I’m not quite done, but I like where it is going.

I am also going back through a lot of the old patterns/tutorials/videos and such. There are images to fix and tags to attach, and just lots of behind the scenes stuff that I really didn’t know when I was just doing this as a hobby. It’s a lot of work, but I have the house to myself for the weekend, so I should be able to put a big dent in it.

New things!! Lots of news and new things to share with you.

The first month of 2015 is almost over, and there has been so much awesomeness already! I don’t know that I will get it all in here today, but here is some of the fun news of the last 3 weeks.

I’m sure most of you have noticed this one already, but the very first block of The 2015 Moogly Afghan Crochet-Along is my Tamara’s Kismet Square!!! I have the niftiest friends! Actually, all the squares in this year’s CAL will be from a group of wonderful designers that I spend a lot of time with on social media. I have even had the joy of meeting several of them in person, including Tamara. 🙂

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Quite of few of my free crochet patterns are listed on All Free Crochet (AFC). This year is the second year in a row that I have been listed in their Top Bloggers of the year! Actually two of my patterns made it into the 100 most popular patterns in 2014. The are the One Hour Spiral Scarf and the Stop and Stare Shawl. Yay!!

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I was quite excited about the Flamies 2014 (“The Flamies are the Flaming Hook of Justice Awards, also known as The Crochet Awards.”) So many awesome ladies that I am just pleased as punch to call my friends earned awards!

The Best Crochet Blog: Moogly! {Tamara Kelly}
~ AND ~ The Best Gloves: Midnight Fingerless Mitts by Moogly
The Best Crochet Youtube Channel AND The Best Crochet Instructor: Bob Wilson 123 {Claire Sullivan}
The Best Ornament: Pineapple Snowflake Tree Topper by Crochet Memories {Cylinda Mathews}
The Best Amigurumi: Amamani Puzzle Balls by Dedri Uys
The Best Garment: Andromeda Peplum Vest by Doris Chan

AND!!! My wonderful, amazing, loving, talented, funny, crazy, Crochet Mom won the big one, and I could not be more excited:

The Lifetime Achievement Award: Kim Guzman

**Kim said she wasn’t sure how to take it, being lifetime and all. I told her it just means that even with decades of awesomeness left, she is still more awesome then the rest of us. 🙂

There were more awards given, but those are just the ones given to my friends. I really am so very blessed to have such friends and colleagues. Sometimes I wonder how I ended up with them.

I will always remember a conversation I had with my father my senior year of high school. I had narrowed down my college choices to 2. One offered the best BFA in costume design in the country, and one was a university with a wonderful theatre program that wanted to add a BFA in costume design onto their list of available theatre degrees. They had contacted me and asked if I would be their first student in this major. The first was going to cost A LOT, the second was giving me a free ride, grant money for room and board, and a work study job for spending money. I asked my Dad if he wanted me to go to the second, because the first was SO MUCH money. He told me it was my choice. I thought it would be prestigious and fun to start a new program with the second school, but I would have so many more resources from the first. Dad asked me “Do you want to be the big fish in the little sea, or do you want to swim in the ocean and see how big you can become?” I chose the ocean. I still choose the ocean. Here I am, with the BIG fish, I may feel like Dori sometimes, but I “just keep swimming.” One day, I will be a big fish too. Thank you Dad, even if I didn’t show it, I really was listening and thinking.

With that, let’s transition into some fun home and family time!

This was some time last week. Doug started to talk, and Kyla new exactly what he was about to say. She figured if he could not speak, then it wouldn’t be bedtime.

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When my mother first got her job with the DoD, teaching on military bases abroad, they had only just bought a new car. I promptly totaled my beloved 10 year old Ford Escort station wagon with 120,000 miles. His name was Ralph, and he was my trusted friend. I still miss him.

Anyway, it worked out that I bought my parents new car, for what they still owed. It was a 2003 Ford Focus hatchback. When we bought Thor (my 2004 Chevy Trailblazer), the Focus went to Doug because he drives more and it got better milage, and because I was the one usually driving with the girls, so back doors were really a good thing. Well, the Focus has been on it’s way out for some time. It was literally falling apart. Let’s take a look:

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Top left: air bag that still will work, but the cover is curling. Top right: the window hand roller (yes, it had manual windows) broke off just as Doug finished rolling the window up 2 weeks ago. Middle left: that wooden contraption is the only thing keeping the front seat from being the back seat. Middle right: the center council is gone. Bottom left: that rearview mirror has been knocked off and repaired so many times, that we eventually just stopped getting it fixed (as a matter of fact, the morning after my Dad dropped the car off to me, I went out to go to work, and it was hanging off. I hadn’t even owned the car for 24 hours and someone hit it and drove off) Bottom right: about a month or so ago something metal popped out of the seat and ripped Doug’s coat.

Well, when Doug came home 2 weeks ago and told me about the window, I just looked at him and said “Do you want to buy a new car this weekend?”

Can you guess what he said?

So last weekend we went to the dealer who sold us Thor. He is a Doug’s Step~Father’s friend. Doug’s family has bought about a dozen cars from him. He calls my mother~in~law the president of his fan club. There is a lot of loyalty going in both direction there, so it was a no brainer to go to him. We knew we would get a great deal without having to haggle, and we knew we could trust him.

This is what Vada thinks of car shopping.

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It took a while. We looked at several cars. The first was a new Chevy Cruze with all the bells and whistles. As in Holy Batman!! “Where does he get all those neat toys?” It had been used as a courtesy car, but it was still considered new. So the price was knocked down to $17,000. I really didn’t want to spend that much, but I would have if that was what Doug wanted. We both keep our cars for a long time. They are at least 10 years old before we replace them. This was actually the first time I have ever replaced a car BEFORE it died; but I knew that Doug was driving to NH this weekend, and I really was starting to wonder if the Focus would make it, or if it would do that cartoon thing where you are driving along the car just sort of implodes. So… $17,000… that really was a great price, but it was more than we wanted to spend, and it was a little tight inside for Doug, he’s not exactly a small guy. After looking and comparing and looking and comparing and me reassuring Doug that unless I flat out say “no we can not afford that one” he could choose whichever one he wanted, Doug finally chose a 2013 Hyundai Elantra with only 20,700 miles on it. Tony gave us an AMAZING deal. Here it is below, next to the Focus.

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Now, when we were sitting in the office with the finance guy, Kevin, he asked us about the Focus. We were trading it in, and they were giving us $300. Really, that was about 3 times what I thought it was worth. The conversation about the Focus went like this:

Kevin ~ Has the car you are trading in ever been in an accident?
Me ~ (with no hesitation and no shame) Yes, several. I even set it on fire once.
Kevin ~ …
Me ~ You are just going to junk it, does it really matter?
Kevin ~ For $300, no.
Me ~ Is that the first time anyone has ever told you they set their car on fire.
Kevin ~ (slightly amused) Yes.

FYI: I do get the good drivers discount on my insurance now. I had a REALLY bad year in many ways the first year I owned the Focus. But after the first year, the Focus was never in another accident when anyone was in the car. Considering everything that car went through, it is amazing it lasted 12 years.

Doug said he feels like this is the first “adult car” he has ever owned. It is a really nice car. It’s pretty roomy inside, and gets great mileage. So it will be our family trip car as well. All four of us are comfy in it, which was a big part of why Doug chose it.

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When we got home, this had arrived in the mail.

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Doug got a new (to us) car, and I got fancy yarn! Isn’t it pretty. Yes, I did hug it when I opened it. Yes, Doug did laugh at me.

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