The icebreaker, and Craft= FAIL!

Hello!
And welcome back! Huh? You've been here all along? Oh... maybe it was just me then.
Where have I been you ask? Here, around, wherever.
Being holed up in the house with baby all week with rain last week should have inspired blogging, I know but I was busy with other things. Like making things, and starting to make things, or trying to make things and failing horribly.
I had the brilliant idea to make a play iPhone for Adelaide since she loves how mine tastes so much, so I really wanted to sew one for her.
Well until this gets cleared out:

even sitting down at my sewing machine is out of the question.
So I decided to crochet! Now, I've never really crocheted anything except a giant circle, so this project might have been out of my league. However, I tore apart an old hat earlier in the week and ended up with a length of black yarn, and had found some dark gray lying around so I thought it was meant to be!
With no pattern, and no clear idea of what I was doing, this is what I came up with:


I worked for hours and as I finished, turned to Eric mournfully and said, "This looks like Adelaide made it!" which he thought was hilarious. Me, not so much... it was 1am. And I had been working on this sad lump of old fraying yarn and felt since dinner time.
I was heartbroken, wanting to make something awesome and fun for my baby, so she could have her very own phone to drool on and all I gave her was a choking hazard.
So, I decided (in the light of the next morning) that I shouldn't take myself too seriously, my precious gift is for a 6 month old who doesn't care if she's playing with a Tiffany necklace or a clump of dirt so long as she can put it in her mouth. (I reinforced some of the "apps" and tacked down some of the yarn before I gave it to her of course.) And the decision to share my pitiful failure was made.

I am working on other things that I hope will be more successful. Like this:


And these:


I've also been slaving away outdoors trying to turn our overgrown rat's nest of weeds and ivy into some semblance of a yard where we can all play in.
This is what I have so far:


We have a thriving vegetable patch, berries, a flower bed that spans the length of the house, and grass in the front yard! GRASS! This time last year, all we had was a dead tree, lots of ivy, and weeds. Oh, and rose bushes that are doing much better this year.
Soon we will have grass in the back yard as well, and more trees. I have oh so many ideas and plans for the yard but most of them may have to wait until the dust of other renovations projects have settled.
Now you will excuse me while I go pull my child out of the dog's kennel.