Colorful Cloche Hat

For Christmas, my mom got me some really nice, soft bamboo yarn in a couple of different colors. One of the colors was variegated with pastely rainbow colors. I finally decided on what to use it for and created something for myself with it. I found this cloche pattern on Ravelry that I really liked and here's what I created. I made it in one evening, so it works up pretty quickly with bulky weight yarn and size K crochet hook.

An up close shot of the finished product. I love the "ribbon" detail. That's what made the hat for me.

Detail of the "ribbon" and bow. I would have increased the number of chains from 132 to 140 maybe to make this a little longer.

The hat on its owner. Sorry for the bright glare.

The hat is nice and heavy. I've never used bamboo yarn before, but this kind from Think Bamboo is super soft and easy to work with. Of course, my girls really liked the color and now want to wear Mama's hat. I have a little of the yarn left, so I might use some as trim on a scarf or something.

The Gospel According to LOST by Chris Seay

Coming into its sixth and final season, LOST has grabbed the attention of millions of viewers who have followed the season from beginning to end, on the edges of their seats the entire time. Some viewers just watch and wait to see how it pans out, but others see many spiritual and psychological undercurrents and try to figure it all out, and one of those followers is Chris Seay, author of The Gospel According to LOST. But Seay comes at the series from the angle of an evangelical Christian.

If you are a diehard LOST fan, you may be drawn into Seay’s exegesis of the spirituality in the show. I was entertained enough while reading—it is a very quick read—and I enjoyed how well-written the book is, but the content is just not my thing. I love movies and music and occasional TV, but I don’t always pick it apart to discover cool connections between pop culture and God or the Word. If it happens, I think it’s awesome, and it happened for Chris Seay with LOST.

If you haven’t watched LOST, this book may pique your interest. Seay explores the lives of the main characters showing the connection they have to people from the Bible. Some of the time, it seemed like a major stretch for me, as if he were reading too much into things. But if you think that way, this book will probably grab you more than it did me.

To purchase this book from BooksChristian.com simply click here.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

50th Post

Wow, It's been a long stretch since I posted anything on here. First, there was Christmas up in Green Bay, and then we were in Kansas City for a week at the IHOP onething conference, which was so much fun! After that, life just kind of went on autopilot for a while. Lately, we've been considering moving to Milwaukee much more seriously, so I spent much of my online time searching Craigslist for homes to rent and reading up on the various neighborhoods there (because Milwaukee is known for being a pretty violent city with a lot of crime).

It's amazing how segregated the city is. The far northeast area is very well to do; the east side is hip, trendy, and composed mostly of college students or mid- to upper-income folks. Then there's downtown which, well, I think just has more bars and colleges. The N, NW part is the "worst part of Milwaukee." I don't know if it has that stigma because it actually is or because it's the African American section. Then you go south of 94 and it's like a whole other world: it's the Hispanic part. There's few areas where the three groups meet. I've heard there are large portions of Russians, Middle Eastern people, etc, but I'm not really sure where they are. We looked in two neighborhoods: East side was pretty much out because of the sky-high rates. Just over the river from the East Side is Riverwest, a very hippy, eclectic neighborhood that's got it's crime, but is also waaay cheaper and very convenient to everything. It borders "the hood" so there is spillover crime from that, plus, college kids come over the river to look for all their drug needs. We checked out some places there, and block by block was so different. One block we looked at a duplex on felt sort of sketchy. One block over and a few blocks down was a whole different feel. So strange. Most people say stay inside after dark unless you're in a group. Well, I feel that advice would apply no matter where I lived in Milwaukee, so whatever. I liked it there. I like living in a not all-white world. I don't want my girls growing up around only white people, because in the world, we're the minority, if not in this nation. Also, I want them to be safe.

The other neighborhood we're checking out next week is Bayview. It's mostly working class, and is a pretty cool area. I read somewhere that it's where all the "punks" are. Fewer students and more Hispanic. We drove through it yesterday, and I just really liked it a lot. But, then we thought. We have to come into O-town 5 days a week anyway, since my husband works for the church here and has a lot of meetings and stuff throughout the week; plus our daughter just started ballet here, AND we have this incredibly amazingly awesome deal on renting this house that is like 3 times the size of anything we could get in Milwaukee. But, it's still suburbia. Pros and cons to sort out. Maybe we'll move, maybe we'll wait, maybe we'll just commute. Only God knows. I just wish He'd let us in on what's up His sleeve for us sometime soon.

Ok, I'll have another post soon about a book I just read for Thomas Nelson. I got it for free for joining their blogging book review club, and I need to post my review before getting another book from them. Look for it soon. And please pray that we'd have insight and wisdom to know what to do about moving. Thanks!