Month: May 2012

Well my daughter had another Mother’s Day surprise for me…

It seems she’s created a play, and has given me (and her grandparents) tickets to the upcoming attraction. Which will be held this Saturday. My daughter has quite the imagination, and it’s something I’ve encouraged her to develop at a young age.

At the age of four, I’d regularly alternate between reading stories with her, and having something I called “creative story telling.” During creative story telling, the story teller was given two topics, and we’d have to create a story from that. The topics could be about anything. My daughter generally gives me generic or obscure topics (one time she asked me to write a story about banana and pink)  and expected me to start creating a story as soon as she revealed them. 

My stories are usually dark…

Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King both were big influences on me as a child. Partly because I was drawn to sinister tales, and I do enjoy their writing style. By the time I was nine, I’d read all of Poe’s writings. I can still think of how my mother would tried to suppress my desire for these books, by monitoring what I got from the library. That didn’t work too well. My father had the complete collection of Edgar Allen Poe, and he wouldn’t take those away from me. 

Initially, in our storytelling, I changed my stories, they weren’t as grim, although elements of my style could be found within the story if you paid attention, but I modified them a lot/ Because I knew they’d be too scary for her. Trust me, I know, I told her one after she’d begged and although she liked it, it scared her a bit.

initially I was the main one weaving stories from the two topics. However, in those early days, I’d draw my daughter into the story, by asking her opinion on what should happen, and eventually asking her to continue. When she’d stumble, I’d offer suggestions familiar to her, and sit back and listen as she’d take off; occasionally I’d give her helpful suggestions, and I always praised her efforts. As her confidence grew, she no longer needed me to assist. She would make up a story as soon as she knew the topics.

I must say it’s nice to see my daughters writing get to the point where she’s actually writing plays. It’s not the first one I’ve had the honor of attending either, and hopefully it won’t be the last. Although I wasn’t expecting this additional mother day gift, I must say I’m thrilled. It’s so nice to see her take advantage of her God given talents

These days my daughter likes my darker tales, and begs me to tell them. Currently I’m working on a series with her, and writing down what I’ve told her immediately after she falls asleep. My daughter becomes animated while writing her stories, as she told me, “It’s as if I’m actually living it, mommy.” I know what she means; I feel the same way when I’m creating stories.

But back to Mother’s day…

Giving gifts from my stash of crocheted items

You know… I almost forgot one mother, and that was my daughter’s piano teacher. Whoops!

Fortunately, I have crocheted several items over the past month or so, and a few items I’d made with her in mind. These items; kindle covers, phone cases, facial scrubbies, and additional bookmarks. Were made without patterns. Well, I take that back, these patterns came from my head. In fact, with a few I’d drawn out sketches, and just followed those to make my “pattern”. I didn’t frog (rip out) these crocheted items, since by the time I made these items, I wasn’t making mistakes with my finished crocheted projects. I’m very critical of myself. Much harder on myself than others are if I’m to be honest,  so I  knew I wouldn’t be ashamed to give my crocheted items to others. 

I made another mothers day present for my mother…

This afternoon, when my daughter, and I returned inside from being outdoors. I thought of an additional present I could give my mother, and so I took out one of my crochet hooks, and made her a phone cover for her android phone. She recently got a smart phone, and hasn’t purchased a phone cover for it; now she doesn’t have too. I used the star stitch. I’m a fast crocheter, and before long I had completed the crocheted phone cover. I didn’t take a picture before I gave it to her, but I’ll be making more in this way, since it turned out so nicely.

You know what I’ve been thinking about? Knitting, mainly so I can make the teeny tiny sweater from Coraline the movie. But, I’m still having a lot of fun with crochet, and my knitting needles are set to the side collecting dust.

Why should I knit? I know how to do it, and do it well. Crochet is the new craft, so I’m devoting my free time and energy to that. There will be plenty of time to pick up my knitting needles again. Which will most likely happen when autumn is on the horizon, after all I still have a gorgeous cardigan that I want to knit, and few knitted socks that I want to make for myself and others….