Planet M Files http://planetmfiles.com Welcome to Our Planet! It's filled with kids, dogs, and crocheted guinea pigs! (A real guinea pig, too!) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:54:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 A Beachy Love Thursday http://planetmfiles.com/2010/09/02/a-beachy-love-thursday/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-beachy-love-thursday http://planetmfiles.com/2010/09/02/a-beachy-love-thursday/#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:54:30 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=8026

Happy Love Thursday!

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/09/02/a-beachy-love-thursday/feed/ 3 Rhode Island Boats http://planetmfiles.com/2010/09/01/rhode-island-boats/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rhode-island-boats http://planetmfiles.com/2010/09/01/rhode-island-boats/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:54:36 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=8017 I’m still trying to sort out my $2,000 per month health insurance.  Hopefully these photos from vacation will keep me in a good frame of mind!  I’ve missed visiting all of you.  I’ll try to visit later today!

These photos were taken at Fort Adams State Park in Rhode Island.  They are overexposed because I didn’t take into account that I had my sunglasses on and so I was thinking they were exposed just fine!  Ack!  I tried to fix them in Picasa.

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/09/01/rhode-island-boats/feed/ 5 Fun and Not Fun http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/31/fun-and-not-fun/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fun-and-not-fun http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/31/fun-and-not-fun/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:44:05 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=8014 We had a fun mini vacation!  The problem is, we came home to the monthly bill for our health insurance.  It has been raised to $2,000 per month, $24,000 per year!  It makes me sick just looking at those numbers.  This comes at a time when my husband has had very little work for the past year and a half.  I don’t have time to post any photos of vacation today because I’ll be researching other insurance alternatives.  Wish me luck.

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/31/fun-and-not-fun/feed/ 4 Breathe http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/27/breathe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=breathe http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/27/breathe/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:48:38 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=8003 You can click on the photos to see them larger.

I’m not sure if it’s visible at this size, but in this first image there’s a spot that looks like dust on my lens.  It’s not, it’s a dragonfly caught in flight!

Deep breath in, let it out.  Okay.  That’s what I’m doing now to calm down from a bloggy panic!  I happily logged on to my blog today to discover all of my posts and pages were GONE.  AAAAAAAHHHHHH!  A little more than two years of blogging, gone.  I needn’t have worried one bit.  All it took was a chat with Neil at my host and a little repair work on his part and all is back in order!  Thank you, Neil!

This weekend is our one tiny little summer vacation.  I hope you have a great weekend with lots of rest, relaxation and fun!  See you on Tuesday!

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/27/breathe/feed/ 7 Summer of Frogs http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/26/summer-of-frogs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=summer-of-frogs http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/26/summer-of-frogs/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:20:43 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=7978 Our pool ruins are a great habitat for frogs and toads.  This summer we’ve raised tadpoles and that turned into tiny tree frogs.  We also have some frogs are are larger than the tree frogs and they stay in or close to the water.  They are super quick but my daughter managed to catch one to visit with for a little while!

You can click any photo to see it larger.

Here she is holding her little buddy.

Then, he hung out on her lap for a while.

He grinned for the camera.

One last pose on his way back to the pool ruins.

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/26/summer-of-frogs/feed/ 4 Nearing Summer’s End http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/24/nearing-summers-end/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nearing-summers-end http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/24/nearing-summers-end/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:56:19 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=7964 You can click on any photo to see it larger.

We’ve been busy buying the necessary school supplies, backpacks, lunchboxes and clothes.

We’ve been checking out new schools, classrooms, lockers.

Getting in the “before school starts” dentist appointments.

Getting a 9th grade schedule fixed so my girl doesn’t have two different English classes every day.

We’ll be going on our mini two night vacation this weekend.

We’ll visit a college while we’re there.  My high school senior’s first college visit!  I think it will be crazy.  It’s the weekend that the students arrive.

And, we’ve been roasting marshmallows in our pool ruins.  Because this is where memories are made.

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/24/nearing-summers-end/feed/ 5 Mushrooms http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/19/mushrooms/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mushrooms http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/19/mushrooms/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:14:43 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=7956

It’s amazing how fast these sprout up when we have some rain!

How is your week going?  Mine is going too quickly.  Most of my summer weeks go by too quickly!

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/19/mushrooms/feed/ 10 Free Crochet Guinea Pig Patterns http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/16/free-crochet-guinea-pig-patterns/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=free-crochet-guinea-pig-patterns http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/16/free-crochet-guinea-pig-patterns/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:46:22 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=7907

I have been making crocheted guinea pigs for a long time.  Almost all of the guinea pigs I crochet have one front leg that is a different color than the other four legs.  That is because my daughter’s guinea pig, Cheeks, had one front leg that was white, while his other three legs were black!  Cheeks was a very well loved piggie!

This is the first time that I have converted one of my patterns to a PDF file.  This format will make printing the pattern easier for you!  You will need a PDF reader, like Adobe, to be able to open this file.  The Adober Reader is free through the Adobe website.

I’ve created a pattern for the adult guinea pig and a pattern for the baby guinea pig.  I hope you enjoy them!

Adult Guinea Pig Crochet Pattern

Baby Guinea Pig Crochet Pattern

If you have any questions, you can leave them in the comments or email me: gayle at planetmfiles dot com

Don’t miss a pattern!  Subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on Twitter!

Visit my free pattern archives for more crocheting fun!  I am beginning the process of converting all of my patterns to PDF files and will add the PDF links to each pattern post as they are created.

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/16/free-crochet-guinea-pig-patterns/feed/ 8 Crochet Guinea Pig Announcement! http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/13/crochet-guinea-pig-announcement/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=crochet-guinea-pig-announcement http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/13/crochet-guinea-pig-announcement/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:21:52 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=7888

Many people visit my site for my crochet patterns.  Since the beginning of my blog two years ago, I have received many emails and comments asking for my crochet guinea pig pattern.  I made our herd of guinea pigs about 5 years ago and never did write down a formal, complete pattern.  Until now!  Yes, finally!  I’m going to post it next week!  I’ve taken lots of photos of all the steps and made the pattern a PDF file to make it easy to print out.  I’m a little slow when it comes to computer stuff, and I need to find out how to post a PDF file, but I think that should be possible.  So plan on making your own herd of piggies soon!

]]> http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/13/crochet-guinea-pig-announcement/feed/ 7 First! http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/11/first/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=first http://planetmfiles.com/2010/08/11/first/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:13:43 +0000 Gayle http://planetmfiles.com/?p=7881 I daydream about sun warmed tomatoes fresh from the vine.  Here’s our first!  I’m thinking a tomato salad with basil and olive oil, a little salt, some pepper…

There are two more tomatoes that should be ripe by dinnertime tonight and it will just be my youngest son and myself for dinner.  My daughter is going to a sleepover at a friend’s house and my husband is taking our oldest son and a friend to a concert three hours away.  They’re staying overnight in hotel there.  It will be so strange.  I don’t think I’ve been away from my husband for an overnight since our youngest son was born almost 13 years ago!

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