Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Christmas.

Was an adventure.
Hubby pulled his back out Christmas Eve morning trying to shovel the walkway.
I had some last minute running around to do (check the post office, get groceries, practise my song for Christmas Eve service...it was busy but we made it)

Princess B put the cookies and milk out for Santa--she wanted them under the tree.

Santa came and even put the star on the tree!

The kids had fun with stockings (stockings were provided by a wonderful, generous friend who heard my frustration at loosing my bag of goodies and came to the rescue--Thanks V!!!)

The toys were almost secondary to the stuffed animals that came in the stockings. A loves Wall-E and carries his little stuffed one around everywhere he goes.

Princess B got a knitting machine (which is also for Mommy to play with).
The first thing she asked to make "a shawl". When I told her we didn't have enough yarn yet, she was happy to try the leg warmers.

I also cooked my first turkey! (Well, first that we had ever eaten--I had done one before for a dinner fundraiser). I took a hint from someone on Plurk, and squeezed the juice of an orange over top of the turkey and put the orange rinds with some onion in the cavity.
It was pretty..it was good.

I also went all out with green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potato/apple casserole, crescent rolls, gravy and dessert. It was so good.

We had fun hanging around all day in our pyjamas, having an early dinner and watching a movie together. A great day.

Princess B is getting a pink room and we picked out paint and visited a friend at his new job on Boxing Day--then were treated to dinner at another friends house when we dropped by unexpectedly.

I am feeling very blessed and thankful this Christmas.

:)

(and very thankful that there was no sickness!!!)

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

We're home..

Did you miss me?
Did you even know I was gone??

We left last Thursday afternoon to travel to the Ottawa area for my BIL's rehearsal dinner.
Hubby was filming and we had a c-cold time in the church (beautiful old stone church, no heat turned on) and a nice dinner afterwards.
Friday morning (the wedding day) was full of fun (the kids had very little sleep) and some mishaps (the clear stuff in the shampoo bottle, not shampoo--it was oil--Princess B's hair needed some help)

A little while after lunch and we have a new member to our family!
(No pictures for us--we had to donate our camera batteries for my MIL to take pictures--but I"m sure we'll see some soon)

The snow was crazy, it was a long drive home--but it was a great day.
Saturday was spent playing in the snow (not me--bad knitter I have no proper mittens or snow gear)--I went to Walmart in search of 100% wool for mittens for my son. He has outgrown his other ones quickly.

I did actually find some--it says 100% wool but there is no yardage listed and no other info.
I decided not to use it for the mittens as I wasn't sure it was going to be water resistant.
I found some Sean Sheep (love that stuff) they only had 1 ball of the 100% wool and I was happy to have it.

1 night and 1 afternoon of knitting gave me these.

He won't wear them yet (this is the kid that takes warming up to new things) but my Princess says "I like green now, I'll wear them) and she did.

We had another adventure trying to get to Church on Sunday--what is a 5 minute drive took us 1/2 hour because the car would not defrost enough for us to see. We got about 10 minutes of Church (sad face) but it was worth it for the kids (Princess B did 3 crafts and got a snack in that time).

We left for my FIL's and had a snowy drive up.
Sunday was spent eating good chili and home made bread and warming up by the fireplaces.

Monday the kids tried out their new skis! A inherited B's old pair and she got bigger ones.


The day was not the best for skiing--it was about -35C with the windchill and they kept crying because it was so cold. I came to stay in the nice big warm lodge (in case someone needed to warm up or go back early)--but ended up in a smaller, not warm, no so nice lodge that someone had decided to have a pot party in (the fans didn't help).

The kids still had fun.

I finished a Christmas present, most of another project and cast on a second sock...

The kids played outside this morning and built an igloo, Princess B had a piggyback snowboarding experience

and then we had a long drive home (complete with car sickness involving a laptop ugh)

We are home, bathed and getting the house warm. I need to get moving to defrost our Turkey, find the missing bag of stocking stuffers and make sure I really am all set for Christmas!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Yes Virginia, there really is a blog

(for those who have no idea what I'm referring to--look here)
(Is there a Santa? Is there a blog?)

So, I'm trying not to show knitting projects on the blog (silly right, it IS a knitting blog) because they are gift knits and I don't want to spoil surprises.

So, I will show you some things that I can't believe I have never blogged before.

Remember the secret dyeing?? Remember that I dyed up a bunch of yarn for a sock club for Robyn's Nest??

I dont' think I ever showed you the yarn!

Here are the skeins waiting to be shipped:


Here is Robyn's post about the yarn and her sock pattern.

It was fun, I had a blast doing this club.

Plus--my $$ for the dyeing got me this baby:


This is my new electric skein winder from CrazyMonkey.

I heart this machine more than my dishwasher.

It winds the yarn off the cone (and can do 3 at a time) and will re-skein in less than a minute. (It used to take me about 5 minutes each skeining--so this saves loads of time)
Plus it's fun to use.

I had looked and dreamed of other ones but the price was right for this one and people have been raving about them.

Love love love.

So, that's it for sock news. I keep having dreams of some great colourways but life is getting in the way of creativity.

The play, family, busy busy and sometimes just feeling blah--keep me from dyeing at times.

I have some other projects I hope to show off soon though...

:)

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

How to decorate for the Holidays

Hubby tells you he has a meeting the same night as you do.
Hire a sitter.
Go out to meetings.
Come home to find tree up and decorated as well as nativity out, "accents" all over the house.


Scratch your head to figure it out.
Realize your 5 y/old has channeled her "inner Martha Stewart" and has decorated for you.


With the help of an awesome babysitter--the tree is up and done, the Nativity is set out and all the little other things that I usually put up (and some that I don't') are up and all over the place!



Seriously--the kid hung mistletoe! (does she even know what it is??)



Can we do it again next year??

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Secret gifts

So far this Christmas I'm not doing a lot of Christmas knitting for gifts.

I am doing some secret knitting and some secret other stuff (to be revealed later) and have had some requests for soap.

I love soap!

I am just working on the shipping methods and then will soon be able to put some soap up in my Etsy shop.

I can show you one secret Christmas gift:

My son is obsessed with R2D2.
My sister and I both love Star Wars (always have) and so does my nephew, and my BIL.
For some reason little man has chosen R2 as his favourite. He has little ones that he carries around all the time.
The Clone Wars episodes have been on TV and we have watched them with him.
I made a hat for my nephew for Christmas and was going to make the same one, until I came across this pattern.
I thought it would be better because it's just R2 and, honestly it was a really fast knit.

I used some acrylic I had laying around (some were not the same weight and so it's a bit puffy in parts). There is a little part that attaches to the front that is his "eye" or laser thing--it's so cute.

I have plans for some other homemade gifts, some spa type stuff and some sewing.

Inspired by this outfit that Sophie sewed, I went to this seller on Etsy and bought this kit.
Princess B picked out the fabric (she actually chose red--the child who eats, sleeps and breathes PINK actually chose red fabric).
She is excited about it (I didn't tell her that it arrived, I want to sew it and give it as a surprise for Christmas)--and with the resurrection of Craft night, that is a good possibility.

:)