the chicks with sticks

Another Muffin Tin Monday

2010-12-20T18:20:00.005-05:00

This one was fun (again, as always!).

I took inspiration from the ones already posted (such creativity!)

How do you make ordinary meatloaf, veggies and potato fun??

Turn it into a "Muffin Tin Monday" meal

From top L-R

12 Drummers drumming (pretzel sticks)

11 Pipers piping (i totally stole this--mashed potatoes "piped in" with a piping bag)

10 Lords a Leaping (what makes my daughter leap with joy? candy! sugar!) (Jujubes)

9 Ladies Dancing (Musical notes made with fruit leather)

8 Maids a Milking (Milk)

7 Swans a Swimming (Meatloaf, packaged in a tin foil swan ;) )

6 Geese a Laying (Slice of Egg)

5 Golden Rings (Ring cookie)

4 calling birds (Chicken wing)

3 French Hens (French cut Green Beans)

2 Turtle Doves (Turtle chocolate)

and a Partridge in a Pear Tree (sliced pear)

The Princess was happy!

My son got all the same food, but he doesn't like his food in the muffin tin ;)

(p.s. It looks like a lot of food--its little bites of everything--I actually find that she eats more when it's Muffin Tin Monday. She ate everything except couldn't' finish her chicken wing. She also has to wait for the chocolate/candy part until she's finished the rest)

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-12-13T18:21:00.004-05:00

Muffin Tin Monday blog can be found here

I have participated in Muffin Tin Monday's once before and had a blast. I just had forgot all about it. I "liked" the page on fb and saw that today was "Holiday" theme. There were already some great ideas posted and that got me thinking.

I was planning meatballs and rice anyways and after that, it was easy.

I put 3 meatballs together to make "snowmen" but ended up making better snowmen for dessert.

Meatballs (which I joked with my daughter was Reindeer poop), Rice=snow, Sliced carrots=Snowmen noses, Beans=Evergreen boughs.

I then cut up a waffle to try to make it look like a Christmas tree (I tried, it kinda worked)--completed with a star on top.

The best was dessert

A marshmallow snowman with pretzels for arms, chocolate sprinkles for eyes, small piece of carrot for a nose, a black gumpdrop cut up for the hat and held together with a thin piece of spaghetti inside!

The snowman was laid on top of some "Christmas lights"--cut up chocolate marshmallow square.

It was fun, Princess loved it and is begging me to do it again next week.

Hi from sunny/not sunny Florida!!

2010-01-09T13:09:00.001-05:00

For our 10 year anniversary back in October, my MIL offered us her time share for a week.

She picked a place in Ft Lauderdale and we arrived Friday the 08th for a week in the sun/not sun.
Apparently Florida is having record breaking cold temperatures.
Don't laugh-- I know there is not snow here like back home, but there has been snow in Florida, orange crops are freezing and iguanas are falling out of trees (They are cold blooded ad when there is a cold snap they fall right out of the trees).

Monday morning it was colder in Miami in the morning than Juneau Alaksa--no joke!

So, the first full day here it was cold and rainy. We managed to get to town to buy groceries right before the rains hit.

Andrew looked at maps and travel guides and figured out if we took the trolley--we could get to the grocery store easily, and for 50cents.

We had a nice big walk before finally hailing a trolley--took some pictures on the way.

A pink house for Brenna:

(these signs make me laugh)

The grocery store:

(We took this picture for the kids too--they LOVE the movie "Because of Winn Dixie"

We had a great lunch at a seafood place (Clam Chowder and Clam Fritters for me, burger for hubby)...and came back.

We got to do a video chat via skype with the kids and family who were visiting with Hubby's brother and wife in Toronto.

We also had our first hotel/microwave cooked meal:

Not bad!

Butter Chicken

2010-01-01T18:25:00.003-05:00

This is my Sister In Law, Lindsay's recipe (Hi Lindsay!)

We tried it out tonight and it was awesome!!!

(The highlighted sections are the ingredients she omitted when making it.)

I also tried to make Roti, recipe from here.

(I think I need more practice with that one)

Butter Chicken

* 4 chicken breast

* 2 tbsp butter

* 1 1/2 cups chopped onions

* 1 tbsp minced garlic

* 1 1/2 tbsp grated gingerroot

* 1 1/2 tsp chili powder

* 3/4 tsp ground turmeric

* 3/4 tsp ground coriander

* 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

* 1/2 tsp ground cumin

* 1 can (28 oz/798 mL) diced tomatoes, drained

* 1 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

* 1 tbsp brown sugar

* 1/4 tsp salt

* 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

* 1/3 cup light sour cream (not fat-free)

* 1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

* 1 tbsp cashew/almond butter

* Hot cooked basmati rice (optional)

Directions

1. While chicken is baking, make sauce. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook slowly, stirring often, until onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Add gingerroot, chili powder, turmeric, ground coriander, cinnamon and cumin. Cook 1 more minute. Add drained tomatoes, broth, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

2. Transfer the sauce to a blender and purée until smooth. Return puréed sauce to pot and heat. Stir in sour cream, cilantro and cashew/almond butter. Add cut-up chicken and mix well. Cook just until chicken is hot. Serve over hot basmati rice, if desired.

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T19:24:00.005-05:00

If there is anyone reading this blog still (almost 3 months with no blog post...ick)

Happy New Year to you!

I know a lot of people have had a rough 2009--ours has been somewhat stressfull with some things going on with Aidan..but we are happy and settled with life right now..things could always be worse.

I'm not usually one to make resolutions...I aim to improve my life whenever I see the need... but this is a good spot to post some Knitting/Spinning goals.
(pictures to be added later)

This year saw me attending my first Knitting retreat--it wont' be my last!

I dyed yarn for another Sock Club and would welcome any opportunity to do so again.

I started a Wool/Fibre Club and that has been resurrected , starting in January for 2010.
(I have been asked to start a yarn club also..that is a big possibility!)

I aquired a floor loom and hope to get some time to use it very soon (tomorrow too soon??)

Goals:

Knitting: Knit more from my handspun--that's the point of having handspun right? I always seem to have little bits..either not enough for a project, or too chunky for what I want..which leads me to my next goal

Spin: with intention for projects. Plan out my spinning and do my very best.
Learn some new techniques and practice them (ie; woolen long draw) bu at the same time have fun with my spinning--fun yarns, artistic yarns!

Process and spin my first sweater from a fleece (I have several fleeces sitting, waiting to be worked on--some a very generous donation from a friend, as well as one that I purchased with a specific sweater in mind)

Yarn in general: Dye in more volume and with inspiration. I see colours everywhere and get ideas for things that I don't jump on right away. I need to strike when the iron is hot and motivate myself to do better.

:)

Learning: I want to do more in the garden, want to learn to weave and make some things, sew with patterns and make things that I will use!

What are your crafty goals??

Blog, I have a blog?

2009-12-15T09:01:00.006-05:00

Wow, 2 months...okay.

Let's just dive right back in.

There has been some Knitting--but I"m in Christmas Knit mode now, so no pictures.

There has been a lot of dyeing.

I got a new Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend that is dreamy..

Here's what I did on the first day:

and I tried some Masham wool--different..
Haven't spun this up yet, but I intend to!

Those are the pretty pictures for now..more Christmas Knitting pictures to follow after gifts have been given!

Show and Sale

2009-10-22T13:46:00.006-04:00

Every year my Spinning Guild hosts a show and sale.
I haven't participated in the sales part the past 2 years (first year I didn't have anything made and last year I wasn't able to attend).

This year I had some things in that sold (yeah!)--I didn't get pictures of them before submission though :(

This guy I made from some Handspun local Shetland..and stuffed him with wool

(it's a Sheep in case you can't tell :) )

These are some little baby mittens I whipped up the night before--Handspun Targhee, from this same yarn.

I also put in a baby had that I had knit last year but it didn't get entered:

The wool is from the Spunky Eclectic Club (last Easter I believe)

I spun on the Sunday afternoon and helped clean up.
It was a good weekend, sales were down only slightly and everyone seemed to have a good time!

Next year, I need to get going early (hear that self: get going) and have a stash of different things.

Mittens

2009-10-07T19:53:00.002-04:00

This was the fastest Knit I've done in a long time.

I was playing around with making some mittens out of handspun, but the yarn was not good for the pattern and it was a bit fiddly.

I found a pattern to try, cast on, kept knitting and by the end of the night I had one mitten half finished.

(the colour is truer in the first picture)

Cast on the next one the next night and almost finished it...Knitting in the car while on the way to the Spin In, finished it up last night and today made the thumbs.

Done!

The yarn was spun from this wool

From Lori at "FromtheWoolroom".

It's a Targhee roving, in the "Sangria" colourway

Yummy, soft, squooshy.

Yeah mittens!

My People!!!

2009-10-06T19:53:00.000-04:00

This morning I piled in a car with some other Spinners/Knitters and went on a road trip to Cambellford for the 20th annual Spin In!

I've never been before, but it was tons of fun.

The Warkworth/Campbellford Spinners GUild has been hosting a Spin In for 20 years--a day to get together for all thigns fibre, buy some things, make some new friends and SPIN.

This is Lori, owner of the Black Lamb in Port Hope.

I saw her as soon as I walked in the door and showed her my sweater :)

We had our names entered in a draw for some awesome prizes/gift baskets at the end of the day, received a cute little lavender sachet and we were off to Spin.

I bought some bumps of roving from Kim at Cornerstone Fibres (I have bought some wonderful Corriedale from her before and loved it).

This is what I spun all day.

I am going to ply it with this (this is me, branching out of my colour scheme)

I'm going to make a very warm wonderful shawl.

I also bought some new black dye since my other stuff is giving me fits.

I saw Alvin Ramer (THE Alvin Ramer of Wool Combs fame) and his lovely wife Barbara Anne

Lots of food....mmmm lamb burgers

lots of people

(This is Muriel with her sister, who doesn't Spin and was gracious enough to give Muriel her wool door prize--for Muriel to Spin and give back!! ;) )

This is a picture with just some of the people there (I couldn't take in the whole room)

There were more than 100 people sitting down at any given time, and more people that came and went throughout the day

lots of fibre everywhere.

(3 Alpaca Farmers, Yarn Store owners, Shepherds with their fleeces, Dyers, makers of things)

and on the way home, we may have stopped at the Worlds Finest Chocolate store... (amazing chocolate that is so inexpensive that you want to buy the whole store...)

*Sigh*

It was a good day

Bloggety blog blog

2009-10-05T11:48:00.006-04:00

So, I used to be a really good blogger.

I'd blog every day.

I seemed to have content..pictures, exciting things to report...

Where has that gone??

I am aiming to do better, and am going to try this:

Got the idea from here

We'll see how it goes!
:)

Today's post is all about the fibre-y stuff

I love yarn.

I love fibre

I actually said a few weeks ago: "I have too much wool"

and meant it

I have stopped buying yarn and fibre (and have for a while now), I don't' belong to the Spunky Eclectic Fibre Club anymore (I loved it, but it was getting to be $$ since my Etsy store isn't hopping right now)...and I wasn't taking the time to spin up what I have.

I have purchased a couple of fleeces, been given some fleece, participated in a Sheep to Shawl and brought the leftovers home...

I dye yarn, therefore I have many pounds of sock yarn around....

BUT: I love it all...

It makes me happy.

This is my new love:

My first batt

My friend Karen scored a drum carder and wheel in a super amazing auction sale (actually, someone else found them, but Karen brought them home ;)

She let me borrow the drum carder to try out some stuff

I dyed up some Superwash Merino/Nylon blend and carded them together.

Yummy

It's basically the Goth Punk Princess colourway that I've dyed in yarn and fibre before...

Soft

Yummy

Anyways, more fibrey stuff

Tomorrow is the 20th Anniversary of the Campbellford Spin In and I get to go!

We cancelled our monthly Spinning Guild Meeting since a lot of us are going to the Spin In.

I'm going to be wearing this:

and will show it to Lori of the Black Lamb, since I purchased the Fibre from her store

Sweater~

2009-09-17T12:39:00.005-04:00

I finished my handspun sweater and decided to enter it in the Fall Fair.

It won first prize and best in show for the Handspinning/Knitting division!

Here are some pictures from the "photoshoot" (ie: 7:30pm before it went off to the Fair)

also, I had a little helper..he was matching my hand positision as I turned around..it was too funny!

I also entered my February Lady Sweater, which one First Place and Judges Choice.

I had a little crochet Lamb which places 2nd.

I didn't make my "famous" bread this year--no time--I was working on another project..which will be revealed soon.

Brenna made a Princess Ballerina key chain and got first place also! (She's very excited about winning $5)

(old Pic of February Lady Sweater--taken by Brenna--I think I need a new photo shoot!)

First day of school

2009-09-08T11:32:00.000-04:00

aka My baby is growing up.

Aidan is almost 4.5 and started JK this year.

He's been so excited waking up early and asking every day to pack his Spiderman lunchbag.

During this past summer he participated in a School readiness program that ran 8:30am-2pm daily and was teaching routines, expectations units on Math, Nature, Science etc (in Kindergarten terms)

He had a blast and still asks almost every day whether he can go back to that classroom.

I made them some special Cinnamon buns and packed up their lunches.

He was all ready to go early, had his backpack on and let Daddy do his "Dude hair"

He didn't quite want to sit still for picutres, but he gave me this classic Aidan face.

(We like to make faces at eachother at dinner--when he's crabby I know that little game will get him laughing)

Princess Brenna has decided that her best picture is taken when her head is almost sideways--it's her "cute face"..

We got there with about a minute before they were to line up. Brenna agreed to look out for her brother and they held hands over to the line.

We decided we would walk in to show Aidan where to put his backpack...there are 5 kids in his JK class and it's a split with Brenna's Grade 1 class--so they get to be in the same room!

They sat on the floor, were fine and then we left....

We let Aidan choose his dinner for first day (Just as we did with Brenna) he chose Subway and was nice and tired at the end of the day!

Sweater progress

2009-08-26T11:21:00.007-04:00

I have been making great strides (or great arms) on my Handspun sweater.

Funny thing, when you actually sit down to Knit something--you make progress.

(Pardon the pool hair)

I love being able to try on the sweater as I go (note to self, don't try on sweater with the needles still in it while it's small enough to just go over your sweater....Others have tried it...it doesn't work)

Since this picture I have finished the back and one sleeve..One or two more nights and this baby will be done!

I am happy to report that I will NOT run out of yarn. This is not me being hopeful--I know for a fact that I will have enough yarn. I left the bottom on a holder (not finishing the ribbing just yet) to let the rest of the skeins go for the sleeves. I had allotted myself 2 skeins each for the sleeves, and used only one for the first sleeve.
YEAH!

I will add a bit more length to the back and the figure out what to do with the collar. Looking back (actually I thought of it at the time) I should have done a provisional cast on for the collar--which would leave me " live" stitches to just pick up and knit later....but we shall see what I come up with.

Blog blahs

2009-08-11T09:41:00.003-04:00

I don't know about you, but I totally think my blog needs a new look. I have tried to tweak things myself and usually end up wrecking everything and having to start all over. I just don't have the time or knowledge to putting into making this space prettier. So, I found this contest where you can WIN a blog makeover!!! Click on the pretty button below and you will be taken to the designers website to see all that she has done!

(p.s. please excuse the overlapping ads--the button she has is longer than my typing screen will allow--see I need help!!)

A Winning Weekend

2009-08-08T10:54:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday was a busy one.

I was off to Kingston for the annual Kingston Sheep Dog Trials and the Sheep To Shawl Competition.

I was on observer two years ago when we won the Lendrum Wheel (!!) and was a Spinner this year.

The team consisted of 4 spinners and a weaver. We received a raw fleece (unwashed, unbrushed) and have 4.5 hours to Spin/Ply for yarn and weave a shawl to a specific measurement.

We received last pick of the fleeces this year (Not sure what kind of fleece it was--either a Romney or Texel I am told), a long stapled white/natural fleece, very very sticky with Lanolin.

Sandra brought her Wool combs which were a lifesaver.

I had purchased a dog brush to help with combing tips, but fully combing the wool made it so much easier--It took out more of the dirt/hay etc and got rid of harder spots in the fleece--so as not to have "lumpy" yarn.

Sandra or Muriel combed while we were spinning, then Sandra plied and gave the yarn to June Anne for weaving.

June Anne chose a natural/white, orange and green warp for the loom--which the Judge later commented made her think of "Sipping Margaritas".

We had fun, lots of people came in to see what we were doing--and we had Colleen this year who walked around an answered questions while we worked.

We finished up in the nick of time, wondered if we had a long enough shawl (it becomes smaller when you take it off the loom)--and waited for the results.

Kingston completed first with a pretty blue and white shawl that was woven to appear like waves.

Belleville had a beautiful warp of handspun--natural, a denim blue (hand dyed) and dark grey/black that was spun from dog hair!

They had challenging shawl that was put together on an angle to make a natural drape around your shoulders--they finished last as they needed the extra time to put their shawl together.

The Judge awarded us first place (!!) and we all received fibre from the Wilton Fibre Mill and Cornerstone Fibers (Both booths were conveniently right there so we could spend our money $$)

We had a blast and I would do it again next year!

While I was in Kingston, my daughter was competing in her Soccer tournament and made it through to the Play offs on Sunday

They had a very good team this year and I really liked their Coach (the Principal of a local public school) as he taught them some technique, encouraged them to learn new skills and was very encouraging--overall they played well all year and came in 3rd overall.

My daughters words after losing Sunday (Their only loss of the year): "Now we get TWO medals--the "Thanks for coming out medal" and a "Thanks for playing medal" and ice-cream--can we get ice cream now??"

The game ended just before a crazy storm blew in with lightening and torrential rain--the other games that were still going on, halted for a 1/2 hour to let the lightening blow over.

So, I came home with bags of fiber and a really cute apron (They were giving us a discount and we all bought one), Daughter came home with 2 medals and some ice cream

A great weekend :)

Update: Our picture was in the paper this past week

The weekend of all weekends

2009-08-06T11:19:00.025-04:00

So, let't set up the story

My sister bought a Spining Wheel from Susan's Spinning Bunny last year (awesome customer service--SUsan's husabnd actually dropped the wheel off at my sisters door because he would be nearby)

So then my sister received an e-mail about a Knitting/Spinning retreat for this summer.

She sent me the link months and months ago--didn't say a thing, just sent the link.

I have never been to a Knitting retreat. I've never taken a Knitting class. I've never done anything Knitterly related (except buy, knit, read etc)--so I was excited.

There was the financial hurdle to overcome--so I started a Fiber Club.

THe customers who purchased my Club bought my way to the retreat!! (Thanks ladies)

Hubby's work is busy, usually with weekend plans and activities for his "other job".

He did have an event to attend, however because of the awesome Spouse of his co-worker, he took the kids with him and they were well cared for.

The only hurdle left was how to get myself there: If I drove the car, Hubby couldn't do his work event, If my sister met me at the border we'd miss most of the first day.

All the details with work, the car, my son's summer school etc etc all worked out beautifully so that this past Friday we met Michelle at the Syracuse mall for a pick up/drop off.

Some bad directions and construction put us a bit behind, but after some luggage/wheel switch and some hugs good bye and we were off in the pouring raing on our way to Ithaca NY for an awesome weekend (we didn't know yet how awesome, but we were so excited)

We had some, um, trouble navigating the route to the highway in Syracuse (I seriously believe the roads are like a small intestine)--we kept following the signs, which would lead us to nowhere, we'd turn around and find the sign pointing to another direction.

It was stressful

but we found our way

Due to a strange warp in the time/space contiuum, we were only a little bit late (we missed intros and nametag making)--but caught up quickly.

About an hour in we realized that no only were we amongst "our people' (Knitters with a Captial K) and that our brains might explode with awesome sweater design.

The whole theme of the weekend was that we would purchase yarn (from Susan or on our own) or spin yarn to make a custom fitted raglan sweater.

We knew we needed to think about design elements (cardigan, pullover, cables/lace etc) but that was all we knew.

Once we got started measuring (necks, arms, etc etc) we were told that this sweater pattern could customize to fit our specific measurements (no back gaping because you needed to fit the front, no to tight arms or gaping sleeves or seaming!!)...we loved it.

Our hotel room was beautiful,

The "Lounge"

with the best pillows ever (we seriously contemplated buying them from the hotel and taking them home in our suitcase)

There was an awesome Swag Bag

with awesome stuff in it-- (click on the picture to go to Flicker to see the notes)

Swag
Originally uploaded by thechickswithsticks.

Friday night was awesome food at the Moosewood .

I had big plans for swimming/hot tubbing, spinning and Knitting --but like a true tired Mommy, I fell asleep sitting up in bed with Knitting in my hand.

Saturday we received our custom fitted patterns from Cathy Chesnut (a Knitter, Knitting Teacher, Pattern designer extrordinaire).

That's TeAntae, she's a very excited Knitter

MIchelle and I were so excited we had written a song that we sang for Cathy (we actually wrote it Friday afternoon but since we were still in the "get to know you stages" of the weekend we didn't sing it until Saturday)

If you want to hear it, you can click on the mp3 link in this blog post (Thanks Louise!!!)

So, just before noon we cast on for our sweaters---

Susan and Cathy were there to help with the pattern and make some suggestions (ie: how to knit a firm button band so that it doesn't sag and pull when you button it up--amazing)

a great lunch and we were off to Susan's house/store to shop and knit away the afternoon.

I bought some awesome Merino/Bamboo, some Merino/Cashmere and some Superwash Merino for socks (her prices were amazing and her hand-dyed, you guessed it--amazing :) )

We sat and knit,

met the bunnies

were awed at Susan's view

Chatted and then some people needed to head for home.

The rest of us went out for some seafood (I had crab stuffed shrimp wtih rice and lobstser sauce..mmmm) and we all decided to knit at the table

(Dark picture--the sun was setting and we were outside

(MIchelle is wearing her "Hey Teach" that she just finished!)

This is Jane and Delia --they were the other set of sisters on the retreat!

Delia's face is saying "I think I knit too far on my sock"--so what's a Knitter to do??/div>

Try your sock on at the table.

Sigh...What a great weekend

We laughed, we ate, we knit, we ate, we talked, we ate--amazing

So, for a first year doing the retreat--it was a smashing success

I thought it was well organized, Susan and Cathy are great teachers who compliment each other beautifully.

My sweater progress on the way home:

Michelle is camping this week at WA, and I took a picture of her trying on her sweater-yeah! It totally fits! (of course it fits--we have an awesome pattern)

So that's my big old blog post about the amazing weekend.

Can't wait to do it again next year (right hubby? right Michelle??)

What I have been up to.

2009-07-28T18:39:00.007-04:00

Some more secret knitting (another test knit for a book that I can't show you)

well, I can show you this:

Other than that, I have been swimming with the kids, playing, doing crafts and Spinning.

My sister and I are going on a Spinning/Knitting retreat here this coming weekend!

I"m so excited.

I bought 2 pounds of Superwash Merino Fibre from Laurie at the Black Lamb when I was there for the Spin Out.

I planned out my spinning--decided on 10wpi for my finished yarn, to be worsted weight (as requsted).

Spinning 3plies at about 30 wpi takes a long time

(For non spinners: Plies are the number of pieces of yarn wound together, WPI means wraps per inch--30 wraps per inch wound together to give me a yarn that is 10 wraps per inch finished yarn--which is worsted weight yarn=good sweater yarn and the size yarn that the retreat requested we have...make sense??)

Yardage so far:

I am hoping all this works out--my original math brain thought it was on track...My revised math brain thinks that I am going to run out of yarn.

We shall see what happens.

If all else fails I will either:

a) buy more fibre from Lori (oh sad, I'll have to go back and look at her entire basement full of pretty things....or

b) Knit my sweater with short sleeves

We shall see, we shall see.

More spinning.....

More Summer Fun

2009-07-14T18:30:00.016-04:00

Last week we went to my Mother In Law's cottage near Brockville Ontario.
The past few summers have not been easy at the cottage, since it's on an island it is surrounded by water and rock cliffs. We were constantly trying to keep an eye on both kids and keep them out of trouble (ie: "NO, you can't go to the boathouse by yourself, No you can't play in the boat" "No you can't walk down the cliff" "No you can't go canoeing by yourself")

This year was fun and relaxing and as always a great time with family

True to this summer--it rained a little bit every day. It was nice to not have hot hot weather and we experienced the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen

These pictures cannot do it justice--it was bright and beautiful
There was even another rainbow which is hardly visible--but there.

We had music by Uncle Geordie,

lots of fishing,

swimming

and new this year--TUBING!

Grandma bought a tube and the kids had a blast.

Little man (who has no fear) was jumping off surf boards, the boat and the tube in the middle of the lake!
Princess B took some warming up (okay, some bribing from mom)--but she had fun and was soon begging to go again.

They played hard and slept hard

(I was playing around with the camera one night and took this shot, at midnight with no flash--pretty cool huh?)

(oh and this is the nightlight--cool things you can do with a camera)

I enjoyed being on the boat, having some afternoon naps and read two books.

The Black Donnelly's described the famous feud and the "end" of the Donnely family. I had always heard of this feud but didn't know much about it. The book was written in the 50's s and included information from people who had actually been alive when it took place.

I also read The Memory Keepers Daughter--amazing book.
It tells the story of a Dr who delivers his own twins and when discovering that his daughter has Down's Syndrome, sends her "away" with the Nurse to live in an institution. (This also was in the 60's where DS kids were thought to not be worth raising). The Nurse cannot bear to leave the child so she takes her away and raises her.
The writer tells parts of the story from the perspective of the Dr, The Mother (who doesn't know her baby girl lived), the surviving twin, the Nurse and gives depth to every character.

That was our week.
and this was my favourite picture from the week:

Spin-In

2009-07-12T19:46:00.001-04:00

Today Princess B and I went for a drive to Port Hope to visit the Black Lamb and we got to see lots of Spinners who were gathering for a Spin In Public Event.

I needed to buy some Superwash Merino for a sweater I am spinning and I wanted to buy some undyed fibre to dye for my Wool Club, and my store.

It was nice that the Spin In was that day too--I got to meet some "online friends"

Cindy Cole and Matt, who I "know" from Plurk and Ravelry

They had planned the even and people had been Spinning all day by the time we arrived.

First of all I shopped in Laurie's basement o' fibre (seriously--an entire basement full of fibre--the colours were awesome and she has a lot of undyed fibre)

I came home with this:

2 pounds of Turquoise Superwash Merino for a sweater for me

1 pound of "PINK" Superwash Merino that Princess Brenna spotted for a sweater for her

some lovely Superash Merino/Nylon for dyeing.

Matt gited me some Red and Black wool which I plan to spin into a hat for Aidan.

School's out!!!

2009-06-27T15:52:00.008-04:00

School was out for Princess B on Tuesday and it's been crafts and swimming ever since.

This week B learned to swim down to the bottom of the pool and get the dive rings:

We made fireworks the other day--with cupcake liners, paper, paint and markers.

I found the idea here
(We didn't have black paper, so we did it on white and Princess B decorated the sky later)
These were mine:

She saw an infomercial for these Bendaroos. a few weeks ago and it seemed like fun--so I ordered them
She spent 2 hours yesterday afternoon creating things.
The first thing she made was for her brother (awwww).
Knowing he likes Spiderman, she made him a "mask" and a Spider which she put on his bedroom wall.

She made flowers,

bunnies
(This she modelled after a bunny from a Japanese craft book)

birds and more!

Today, my sister, BIL and nephew are coming to camp for the Family Camp week--so we are going to be out there and back every day.
A summer of fun indeed!

:)

Summer's here!

2009-06-18T08:40:00.012-04:00

(The first 3 Strawberries from our garden)

Well, maybe not officially summer, but it feels like it.
Hubby did a super fast, super easy opening of the pool this year--which is great since we've had some really sticky days already.
Princess B is excited to come home from school and swim before and after supper.

Little man has been taking swimming lessons (A Birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa)--and is using some of his new skills (floating, gliding, swimming on his own)

Start of summer also means Soccer season!. Soccer us HUGE in this area (Hockey is big in the winter, but in the summer--Soccer is it)

Princess B is playing in the under 7 league and is very excited to play for the McDonald's team (Free ice cream cones, dontcha' know)

Little man is not playing this year, but gets very excited to put on his soccer shirt and cheer as loud as he can. He also likes rolling around on the grass!

I've also been Knitting (again, I can't show pictures--so that is really boring), and making stuff.

Oh wait, I can show a picture of this:

It's a little Knitted Acorn bag that I test knit for a fellow Plurkie (Plurk is like Twitter but WAY cooler--Twitter makes no sense to me, I cant follow the conversations. Plurk is laid out like conversations and e-mail--all the responses stay together. I 've been on it for a year and have made friends, sold stuff from my Etsy store by posting there first--test knit stuff, etc etc--Join, it's way cool)

So, this Acorn bag is a cute little project bag that you can take your knitting along in--space for a skein of sock yarn, needles etc--Cute little handle on the top!

So, Erin should be releasing the pattern soon--You can see her pattern specs on Rav here

I've made a lot of bread lately, and some homemade yogurt from this tutorial.
I'm not a fan of plain yogurt (I find it too sour)but I can eat this plain--it's that good.
I've mixed some with strawberries and I love it!

So that's what I've been making....(My brain has so many ideas lately, no time and/or hours to do the things I want)

Oh--I have made some soap for the first time in a long time.
The bug hit me one day and I whipped up a batch of Bamboo/Teak scented soap.
(It sounds strange--but I have a Bamboo air freshener that smells so light and fresh that I wanted to find a soap scent to match).

It's naturally coloured with Chlorophyll and smells divine!
:)

Dear blog:

2009-06-06T17:54:00.006-04:00

I love you, but I don't have a lot to say.

I have test knitting which I can't show you yet.
I have not been doing much other than sleep and/or try to catch up on laundry (if I do laundry every day, why do we still have more?)

I will feed you pictures of bread:

This morning's bread---yummy (Basic Boule with some Rosemary thrown in the batter)

I tried this egg/toast combo that was posted on the Bread Book site here:

Thoughts: Next time, my dough needs to be smaller and thinner--mine was thick and ended up like soft bread (I am not complaining!).

I had to cook it a bit longer and ended up cranking the oven up to 400 (I was preheating for bread also).
It was really good and a nice way to get an egg in for breakfast!

One day a couple of weeks ago, Princess B wanted cinnamon buns (the ones from the store with the frosting you pour over)--but I knew I could make better.

I didn't end up using a recipe from the book for this, as I didn't want to make up a new batch of dough.
I used my Step-Mom's amazing sticky bun recipe (from a sourdough starter) and added both cinnamon and chocolate chips (It comes with it's own syrupy-yummy addictive sticky sauce)

(Contrary to popular thought--that is not a sugar bun with sauteed mushrooms)

I have use the pizza dough recipe:

and the Vermont Cheddar (No pictures as we pretty much devoured it when it came out of the oven)

I've also made a baguette (hmmm no pictures of that one either..)

So, the bread is amazing, I am in love with the book.
AND AND AND They are developing a new book full of healthy recipes, gluten free breads etc.

:)

Oh, and in case you want to try out the basic bread, I found this youtube video which gives the basic recipe.

Enjoy!!

(Oh, and the amazing Chef/Baker who Co-Authored the book commented on my blog a few posts back!!!)

Busy Saturday

2009-05-30T22:19:00.011-04:00

After about 4 days of rain we had a nice sunny day and managed to get some things done.

I started off by being lazy and sleeping in (!!!) and then took Princess B to buy roses.
I knew I wanted something fragrant, easy and hardy--I came home with 2 "Little Devils". I don't like the name, so Princess B renamed them "Rosie" and "Pointy"

This is a shot of the front before today's work (I really needed a picture of the real before--before my friend Carol came over to help me dig out trees, cut down bushes, dig out Lily of the Valley, take out rocks and prune.. it was a serious jungle.

Anyways--before:

and after.

I put some Red Cedar mulch down and have a bag left which I think will go on the side flower beds.
Princess B wanted to pick out some pink flowers--and after dissuading her from a Hibiscus tree and a Clematis, we put these in "her" flower bed.

We also planted some Daisies that had been given to us by a friends' son (He is a whiz with plants and has helped me figure out what some of my flowers are)

I also ghetto rigged a Topsy Turvy out of one of the buckets the Rose bushes came in.

I tied the strings inside the bucket so they wouldn't interfere with the plant growing beneath!!
I had a foam circle that I put around the stalk on the inside to protect it and keep the moisture there--and included some shredded newspaper to block the holes and some good dark soil and compost!
:)

I also harvested some Rhubarb today (some--this is less than half of what we have out there--Shoe for scale:)

I have a request already for a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie..I have dreams of Rhubarb cake and Rhubarb punch....

Hubby mowed lawns and started the process to open the pool..It was a very busy, but fun and productive day.

Oh, and I also finished Princess B's other skirt and sewed a new one for her from some fabric she has been eyeing:

Better pictures in the daylight tomorrow.
The fabric was from some I received from Freecycle, I used elastic that belonged to my Mother, some thread that was gifted to me..a very fun and frugal project!

I think my skirt will be next...stay tuned

Bread

2009-05-16T15:31:00.005-04:00

For my birthday, my Dad and step-Mom got me this book.

(that looks really small--It's called "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day:)

It is amazing.
If you like to make bread--you need to get it. (Either buy it, or see if your Library has it to borrow first)

Basically--you mix together bread ingredients for 5 minutes, let it sit for 2 hours the first time--then you can use the dough for 2 weeks and there is no kneading, no sitting, not rising--just bake.

This was the first loaf:

Just a basic loaf--so good. Crusty outside, all soft in the inside.

The second loaf I decided to add cheese and minced onions (not really following the recipe, since the cheddar bread calls for sugar in the actual mix, I didn't do that)

(The cheese looks really orange, it's just the flash)

I didn't even wait for it to cool down--the butter totally melted on it, it was so good.
Princess B calls it the "best bread ever!"

They have food recipes to do with the breads too (stews and soups etc etc)
There are recipes for chocolate bread, rolls, pizza dough, baguettes, cornbreads etc etc

I'm in love, and probably will get as big as a house from all the bread I'm going to eat
:)

Random

2009-05-12T16:47:00.013-04:00

Food, kids, Knitting, stuff....

The weekend was great--parties (plural), Grad, Mother's Day, swimming, Birthdays, Lost dog/found dog (long story short: We think my sisters RIDICULOUS neighbour called the pound when my blind half-deaf dog went outside to pee without a leash on.....seriously...four hours later after searching and trying to figure out what to do, we found out he was safe at an animal hospital and it didn't cost us much to get him back....Dear Neighbour: You stink)

On a happier note: My sister Erynne is a College Grad! (just has an internship to finish this summer!)
My nephew is getting bigger
Princess B lost her first tooth on my Birthday in the middle of the Grad party:

(the "big girl tooth" has been growing in behind for a few weeks now

She's pretty happy:

I got the movie I asked for from hubby,
I ordered myself a pattern for sewing

My sister knit me an AMAZING shawl

I received some awesome sewing scissors and an amazing bread book from my Dad and Jacquie
(Can I say amazing again?)

This is the bread:

Which takes all of 5 minutes to put together, sits only as long as it takes to heat up your oven, the batch makes enough dough for 8 loaves..did I mention it only takes about 5 minutes?
No kneading, no sitting, no proofing, no waiting---bread, in 1/2 hour.

I treated myself to a couple of things for my birthday.
Coolest mug evah:
Empty of coffee/tea it says:

Full of coffee/tea it says:

I've wanted that mug for so long, it's been sitting in my cart at Ravelry.com for months now

If you don't know about ravelry.com and you are a knitter/crocheter/dyer/spinner GET THEE OVER TO RAVELRY.COM
The wait is only a few days (back 3 years ago when I joined it took up to 6 weeks)--and it is totally worth it.
What do you use it for?
Let's say you want a free knitting bag pattern--just click click patterns/bags/free gives you a ginormous list of free patterns

Let's say you have 200 yards of bulky funky yarn and you don't know what to do with it:
clicky clicky on yarn, 200, bulky and it will show you patterns and projects that others have knit with those specifications.

Have a question about a pattern you are knitting, look up the people who are knitting it, the places that they have posted questions etc.

I love love love Rav

Amazing...

So, more treats:

Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Lucy colourway.
(Named after Wendyknits kitty Lucy)

A cool bag that zips into a little pouch (I bought one for my sister last year and needed one for me) (blogger, why is this upside down?)

Some Sari Silk remnants for art yarn spinning

Yeah!!!

We're off again

2009-05-08T11:51:00.003-04:00

Away for the weekend to my Sisters Graduation, My Birthday, my Nephews Birthday and Mother's Day.
I have more secret knitting (Test knitting) that I can't show but this picture warms my heart:
(pardon the messy hair--bath time came later)

She wanted to do knitting with me the other day--picked up her knitting and started.
She then got distracted and wanted to use her knitting machine to make "lots and lots" of doll clothes...She's like me--instant gratification girl.
:)

Clubbin!

2009-04-30T10:16:00.003-04:00

I have decided to try my hand at a Fiber Club.

The first ever ChickswithSticks Fiber Club listings are up at my etsy shop and my Artfire Shop

Choices are for a 3 month club, or a 1 month installment.
Shipping is included in the price listing!

:)

Another crazy girl weekend

2009-04-28T12:42:00.005-04:00

and again I can't really share photos, to protect the innocent and the guilty.

I had a great weekend in Kingston at Springarama (info on the sidebar) with some of "the girls" from Church.

We ate, we pranked, we slept a bit.

The speaker was Hilary Price--amazing! She was funny, insightful, a good speaker and a great Teacher. I don't think I've ever taken so many notes at a conference before.

The music was very special to us, as the Worship Leaders, Trinity, are all from PE County.
They were amazing!!!

I had a great time in my morning session and made a necklace in the afternoon.

Saturday night we were treated to a visit from "Ma", who made us laugh so hard we forgot to breathe.

She even shared some love:

and really, those are the only pictures that I can share. I don't have the group shots--anyone? anyone? (Danielle that song is for you!)

One funny thing I can share. In the folders we all got little perfume samples. Mine was, interesting:

and really that's all I can share. The rest of the stories and pictures are getting locked in the vault and will not be shared.
:)

More Birthday Fun

2009-04-20T12:57:00.008-04:00

So hubby's family came this weekend for his annual big fundraiser event, and to celebrate with little man.
We had gifts, balloons, more cake and lots of fun!

I spent the last few days cleaning up the house, the little man spent his days making more messes and not napping.
Thursday afternoon after picking up Princess B, I found this:

Once the family got here we decorated with balloons on the ceiling:

More family arrived and we had cake:

Some more gifts: (They know what he likes--trucks and cars and Diego)

(He also got a Peter Pan movie, which he wasn't sure he liked--but now runs all over the house
saying "I can FLY!"

I had some kind of mutant bug this weekend--really sore throat/fever chills and general falling asleep sitting up, so I missed the fundraiser and Church--but after much napping and Advil--I fell a bit better.

Spring is coming!

The kids played outside a lot this weekend, they even put swimsuits on and made a water slide with the hose (brrrr)

Little man is growing up out of his naps (He is 4, so it's fine with me)--but now has taken to wanting to "sleep" everywhere but his bed:
(He loves pretending to sleep and thinks it's hilarious and will pose quite willingly)

I love you monkey!

Easter

2009-04-16T23:21:00.004-04:00

This year we met up at my parents house to do Easter all together--it was wonderful!
We decorated cookies, did Easter eggs, went to the park, had food and fun.

We also got to visit my BIL and SIL and nephews for a surprise party for my SIL's birthday!
She had no idea that her house would be filled with people when she came home.

The kids had fun with the eggs--I learned more colour theory and had a fun just being together.

We celebrated a bit for Little man's birthday--he wasn't too sure about the singing (overwhelming) but talked about "my Happy Birthday" all weekend and was excited to see family.

My sister/BIL/nephew bought him a Star Wars ship with characters which he doesn't let out of his sight and the Grandparents bought him Swimming lessons which he starts next week.

It was a great weekend full of fun, family and food!

Updates galore!

2009-04-07T06:48:00.009-04:00

There has been knitting, there are not great knitting pictures to post.

It's hard to take pictures of yourself in a new sweater and hubby and I just haven't got around to doing photo shoots.
(Picture taken by my 6 y/old with the 3 y/old running for the camera)

This is the completed February Lady Sweater. Knit with Cascade 220 (my fist time using that yarn and I loved it) that was gifted to me...

Once I got the hang if the pattern repeat-it went quickly. It's warm, I love it.
I used some old buttons that were my Mom's--gives it a nice touch,I think.

I have a couple of test knits that I can't post--which makes the Knitting content part of Knit blogging difficult.

What am I to do....
Pictures of dyeing:

Pictures of Soap! (Apparently Blogger likes sideways pictures of soap)

I have been wanting to make this Strawberry Soap since I first started making soap a year ago.
I finally dove in and am loving the results.

It's make with real Strawberries, some yummy Strawberry fragrance that I bought and some red colouring.

I also made some Patchouli Soap. I love Patchouli--this is a nice light scent--not the overwhelming 60's dirty hippy Patchouli. Spicy, light, and fresh.

Looks good huh??

School fun

2009-03-12T17:53:00.000-04:00

Not sure if I blogged this before, but Princess B switched schools over the Christmas Break and now attends Sonrise Christian Academy.
The School Principal contacted Andrew a week before Christmas to discuss the possibility of the kids attending and we jumped at the chance.
We decided to switch her over Christmas since our Friends' son is attending JK this year and they are int he same class.

I had fun this past week helping with a school trip that was to the Sugar Bush at Westlake Willows.
Sophie and Scott have some Maple Trees on the property and have tapped the trees and made syrup for a couple of years anyways.

They, as always, were great hosts!
We had a tractor/wagon ride (or 2) to drive around the property to spy Maple trees.

They have hot-chocolate and coffee (not for the kids!),

S'more making stuff, a bonfire and a station where the kids could actually drill into a Maple tree and practice putting a spout in!

They also got to come home with their own bottle of syrup with their face on the label!

It was SO COLD that day that the sap was not running, but we got to see inside the boiler (actual name??) at some sap from the previous day(s).

It was a great day--the kids had so much fun, and so did I

Thanks so much!

A weekend of crazy...fun, that is

2009-03-11T11:18:00.011-04:00

I went to my sisters this past weekend to attend her Church's Ladies Retreat.
I drove down on Friday morning--(with a stop in Kingston to pick up some Corriedale wool from this lovely vendor).

We had a couple of hours before the event started--so we went shopping. We sprayed perfume on ourselves, I bought an awesome Green jacket that actually fits across the shoulders (glee!) and I fell in love with the Christmas Tree Store once again. (Hello: Spring Shrubs for $3.99??)

We had a great time Friday night at the retreat--and the pranking started right away.
(Our entire suite--2 rooms--were Saran Wrapped, all the towels and toilet paper taken)

We had a Bridal Shower for one of the girls the first night, complete with some fake gifts...and decorations.

and a special guest (one of the College guys dressed up as "Patricia")

I had some tricks of my own (courtesy of my girls from my Church)--however we may have crossed a line or 2 during the weekend.

We stayed up waayyyy too late but had a lot of fun.

There are more photos out there (mine are posted here because Facebook will not let me upload pictures for some reason)

Saturday afternoon I found my most sought item: A duvet cover for our bed. I have been searching for years for one that is not $200, or so thin that the dog would scratch through it.
It is a nice dark brown, sturdy and I paid $10 for it, not the $150 that was suggested.
SCORE

We had a lovely dinner Saturday night with my sisters BIL who is leaving for Iraq soon and will be gone for 9months.
It's been a while since the family has seen him--and I haven't seen him since my sisters wedding 9 years ago.

We stayed up way too late again looking at old yearbook photos and trying to find old friends on Facebook.
After a great sub for lunch and some crazy pictures

with my nephew (we are pretending to slip on the wet floor--note the cool new Green Jacket!),

I had a much needed nap and drove home.
Hubby had taken the cord out of the car, so I couldn't attach my Mp3 player for podcast listening-so it was all radio all night.
I heard some great documentaries about Bob Dylan and The Beatles.

I didn't get nearly any knitting done this weekend but since that time have finished one sleeve on my February Lady Sweater. I only have about 25 pattern repeats for the second sleeve and then I'm done....

:)

I love thrifting!

2009-02-23T12:18:00.003-05:00

haul
Originally uploaded by thechickswithsticks.

I totally scored Friday night when I went to Value Village.
Here, I have never found a store with amazing deals like my sister can get at Goodwill--but this was exciting for me. (this is a flickr picture--click on it to go to flickr to see my notes)

I like reading blogs. I read a-lot of blogs (I have 255 feed in my bloglines). Some of those update every day, some every few months). I read a few in the morning, a few at naptime and a few at night. Some are rss feeds for etsy stores--so I click over to look at the pretty yarns/rovings/whatever.

I have loved reading the blogs of crafty mamas over the years. (that's 5 different links) (and another knitter/sewer/thrifter) Knitters/spinners/dyers/sewers/artists/photographers--they all have their unique touch and I love seeing what they can do.

Inspired by Soulemama--I want to take those vintage sheets and make pajama pants. I want to learn sewing techniques but dont' have $$$ to buy fabric (and my huge garbage bag of scrap fabrics and quilt tops that I got from freecycle accidentally got thrifted to our local shop--ugh).

Hubby thinks the prints are weird--and they sort of are--but I like them.

I foudn many more that I wanted--but had to restrain myself.

Now I just need to get my sewing machine back in proper order (bottom tension is messed up and I can't seem to figure out how to fix it--I've changed the tensions settings over and over)..and then I can get crafty.

Valentines Love

2009-02-17T09:09:00.004-05:00

So hubby and I went out Friday night for our typical date (which I love, not complaining at all)--
Dinner at Montanas, Movie ("Taken" with Liam Neeson--really good), Coffee at Starbucks (Espresso Truffle--never tried it before--YUM), and home.

We also went to a potluck with Church people at a friends' home--it was fun and the food was great.

I decided to have an impromptu sale in my Etsy shop--posted it on Plurk and made some awesome sales.
LOVE to all of you who bought things!

We had a nice weekend of some sitting around, some putting things together (new bed!), cooking (I made dinner for our small group this week--lasagnas, salads, cakes and all the fixings), and hanging out with friends--Great weekend.

Monday is the new Holiday: Family Day, in Canada. (Not all of Canada, I just realized as I posted that link)
Hubby took the day off and we just hung out. He read a book, I read magazines, we drank coffee--the kids played happily.

I went to our local LYS in the afternoon as I was invited by a friend to attend the 4-H club class, where they were learning to crochet Amigurumi sheep.
It was fun!
I have crocheted once before--made a hat for Janna.....but ended up helping the "lefties" figure things out.

I sat last night with my pattern and hook and finished the sheep. (I have to put him together today). I made several false starts (I can't yet "see" my crochet stitches to know where I am in the pattern) but made it through the pattern while watching 24 and Heroes.

I have a confession.
I have not knit in a week. I don't' know what is wrong with me. Last week while hubby was working in the evenings, I would put a movie on and try to work on my FLS. I kept making mistakes (don't watch action movies, or movies with subtitles while doing a lace stitch pattern)--and having to rip back the same 6 rows.
After that, I think I just didn't feel like it
(I'm on Day 7 of the headache that wont' go away, and the mysterious cold symptoms that don't get worse or better--the muscle/bone aches, sore throat, sneezing, sinus headache--thing)

So, I feel better today--Little man has "the barfs" (as my nephew likes to say)--so I think it will be a quiet day (Princess is at school)

Sweater mojo--here I come
(Really, it's silly to finish a sweater when it's too warm to wear it--so I need to get it done NOW)

:)

Things that make me happy

2009-02-07T20:47:00.004-05:00

So the January blahs have turned into the February blues for me...
I can't wait for the sun to start shining.

I tend to get cranky and complain-y around this time of season--but instead of complaining, I"ve been refocusing myself to think of the positives and things that make me happy.

I am very blessed. Our family is healthy. Hubby's job allows me to stay home with the kids and has allowed us to remain in this community.

We have been blessed that Princess B (and A when he starts) can attend this school.
We have a car that works (well, it's in need of a big job--but (YEAH!) covered under warranty.) and live a town small enough that we can walk where we need to.

I have a hobbies I love (knitting, spinning, soap making and dyeing) that give me a little spending money to do more of the those hobbies.

I have won free yarn, stitch markers, knitting books, CD's, DVD's, a diamond cross pendant and my new favorite contest win:

A digital/video Mp3 player!

and I have been doing my homework Mrs Cylka--see:

BSG Season one--Ep 1
(I have them all on the computer but could not figure out what program I needed to burn them--this way I just attach my player--drag and drop it over and wait for it to convert the file format for me).
I love this thing and am very thankful.

I am thankful for the things that I have.

We live pretty inexpensively--I'm glad that we have always done so, because when the economy is the way that it is and we don't have money to spend--I can shop in my own yarn stash, watch movies borrowed from a friend, get furniture and clothing from Freecycle, find crazy bargains (A $2 t-shirt and $2 skirt from GT boutique) and do things at home that make me happy.

I'm also trying to find more ways to live simpler-make my own bread, use up food before I shop (I'm going to try to only shop for essentials like milk/juice/etc and try to use up all my freezer/cupboard food before I shop again..)

Birthday Girl!!!

2009-01-29T14:00:00.000-05:00

Today my Princess B turned 6!!
(Six?? How can she be six already??)

Here she is going off to school

They happened to have a Winter Carnival that day at school--games, hot chocolate, a movie, a 9 foot sub and fun fun fun!

We had the family (minus hubby's Dad, who is still in Thailand) here for the weekend.
Princess B is all about horses lately (she asks me at least once per week if we can move to a horse farm)--so she had a horse cake:

(Please excuse the wonkiness of the cake--the icing was sketchy and kept running off the cake which made the ears not stick etc etc, plus now that I look at it, the nose looks weird--anyways--it was good)

My sister went to town with Strawberry Shortcake goodies (2 bags full!!)

(Here is Princess B wearing her apron and headband and serving tea)

We had a blast--and the best/biggest gift--Ballet lessons from Grandma and Grandpa Bull and a Ballet outfit (A real leotard (seen above) and tights and shoes!)

She actually started Ballet last night (She took Ballet 2 years ago at the same place with the same teacher and actually remembered some of it)

One of her little friends from her former school is in the class--which makes if fun!

You've come a long way baby!!

I won!!!

2009-01-20T14:52:00.003-05:00

I won I won I won a contest.

Chris from Stumbling over Chaos usually has a lot of links to bloggers that are having contests and/or giveaways.
I have won some things before because of her awesome linkage.

This, by far, is the best one!

There is a music blogger in Toronto who was giving away 2 mp3 players--one to an American who entered his contest and another for Canadians.
I won!

I won an 8gb mp3 player with video playback!!
I'm so excited. He e-mailed me this morning and is going to put it in the mail as soon as he can find a box.

Yeah!

Thank you Chris, thank you chromewaves, thank you Phillips.

Favourite things

2009-01-20T14:36:00.004-05:00

Not all of my favourite things..but some of the ones from Christmas.

My BIL lives in Toronto now and knew that I, um, "like" yarn--so he googled yarn shops, walked to Lettuce Knit of all places and found this:

He told the shop girl that I liked knitting, that I dye and spin my own stuff--she suggested the bowl and I love it.
(He also had thoughts to give me my own dot.com shop--but that might be for another day)

My Dad and step-Mom know that I am obsessed with socks and they bought me these beauties:

complete with reinforced nylon thread in matching pattern--cute!!

They also bought me a book that I asked for:

Love the Harlot.

My sister--knowing that I love orange, that I love hats and that I love Serenity and Firefly--made a Jayne hat for hubby.
Hubby having no idea what/who Jayne is could not figure out why I was so excited.
I was more excited when I opened my gift and found a matching hat!

We are too cool, no??

Funny thing: I made A an R2D2 hat for Christmas--but he won't put it on ("I no wear that Mommy")--but do you think you could get the Jayne hat away from him???

Warning, long post...with pictures

2009-01-07T16:09:00.021-05:00

I really need to come up with a new theme besides the "I was away again and did you notice".
But that's how it has been lately. I have been at home 3 days between December 18th and January 06th. It has been busy.

My Grandfather died on Boxing Day and my sister and I booked flights to go to Vancouver for the funeral. We had to travel from my Dads to my house for an overnight (to get my passport) then to her house then flying out New Years Day (surprisingly easy for what I thought was going to be a busy day).

It snowed at my sister--we were going to shovel--but it was really deep:

That's from just overnight--it's up to my knees.
So my sisters amazing neighbour came over and used his snow blower to clear the driveway. He looked like a J Crew model (no hat, not a hair out of place, just effortlessly clearing the driveway)--so Kinneared him:

I brought a sock and a hat to finish and a sweater to start. Not much was accomplished as Murphy's Law of knitting was with me and I had glitchy-glitches all over.

We no sooner sat in the Syracuse airport and I picked up my knitting then my needle broke. (please ignore my hair--it has a mind of it's own)

I wound yarn on the plane to start the February Lady sweater and after a couple of false starts, got to row 5 where I realized that the pattern was not going to tell me how to do the button hole, but rather link to a website to show me. (Note to self: when starting a new project away from home be sure to actually read through the pattern first). Sigh

The committal and funeral was easier than I thought it would be--He lived a long and happy
life-and although we are saddened to see him go, I know that he's re-united with my Mom and Aunts and his first wife, and that makes me smile.

We had a good time with family--talking, eating, drinking endless pots of tea, eating some more--seeing my cousins' adorable baby and then more eating.

(He's eating the tap while having his bath)

There was knitting--my sister finished a sock,

my cousin had knit a scarf for his new girlfriend (and was subjected to endless adoration/teasing from us), another cousin has knit 10 hats for her brothers this season--and she might have the sock bug!.

We walked, we talked, we found a yarn store--I may have bought some flat feet (wheeee!)

We got snowed on, rained on and had fun navigating streets that don't' get plowed

(Vancouver area has way way more snow than we do--it never stopped the whole time we were there).

We reminisced, told stories and learned a lot about our family.

Over all, I'm so thankful that my sister and I were able to go. We spent some quality time together (It's not the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling, but it was good).

We knit in airports,

We danced in airports,

kinneared some annoying people
("Like OMG YOU went skydiving too?? Yeah, right...a ha ha, right!" FOR SURE!--for 2 hours")

met some nice United Airlines workers (upgrades and free checked bags)...saw some interesting people...some cute babies and played airport games.

(oh and took pictures of our names on the screen--I know, i know--I got camera happy--we'd bee )

On the knitting front-- I did get some access to the internet and figured out the button hole, and have accomplished some of the sweater.

I think it's going to be a good sweater. I've realized that I should probably never knit a pullover again--since I get cold/hot/cold/hot all within the span of 10 minutes.
Cardigans it is.

I did almost finish hubby's Morning Coffee Toque. I was spinning/knitting it on the sly since it was a surprise Christmas gift. For some reason it's looking quite large even though the spinning was as close as I could get it and the pattern/needles were the same.
I think it will work out.

While I was gone, Hubby and my MIL did some major cleaning up/organizing and hubby did a closet reno I am very thankful for.
He made my closet wider (sounds easy--but had to cut a beam in the wall of our old house and join it to another beam and drywall and fix all the antique trim)--then he installed a new closet shelving/organizational unit which I'm in love with.
Best of all, my bedroom is clean clean clean, there is no laundry mountain for me to climb, there is no laundry anywhere in the house to do...
My Christmas tree and all decorations are away...

THANK YOU!

on the down-side, the kids have been really sick all week. Princess B has a very sore throat that might be strep--not sure but she has some drugs now.

A has major congestion to the point that he can hardly breathe or keep his eyes open--this was him all week:

(he's so sick, but he's posing--this is his "I pretty sick Mommy" face)

I need to get into the habit of regularly posting, and regularly showing pictures of what I am up to.
I have some test knitting to do that I can't show full pictures of--but I'm sure some stealth up close of the colour shots, would be okay.

Stay tuned.

Christmas.

2008-12-31T13:39:00.004-05:00

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!!!)

We're home..

2008-12-23T19:29:00.005-05:00

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!

Yes Virginia, there really is a blog

2008-12-17T11:09:00.006-05:00

(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...

:)

How to decorate for the Holidays

2008-12-03T23:18:00.005-05:00

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??

Secret gifts

2008-12-02T09:36:00.003-05:00

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 .
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 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.

:)

It's all over

2008-11-24T17:19:00.004-05:00

ANNIE is all done.
I had a great time and I'm sad that it's all done...
My sister, Dad, Step-Mom, MIL, Hubby, daughter and friends (from near and far) were all able to come and see the play--THANK YOU ALL!!!

I hope to be able to do some more theatre soon!!

So, for knitting I don't have a lot to show.
I have a secret knitting project
and so far 3 secret dyeing projects and some soap that people have asked me to do!
Fun!--It will be a while before I can show it off--so I have to remember to take pictures now and then reveal after Christmas. Not great for blogging purposes--but great for creative juices.

I just got some soap oils in the mail today--Lavender, Patchouli, Vanilla, Christmas Blend and Pumpkin Pie--Can't wait to get started.

So--be prepared to see pictures of soap on this blog soon.

Wow

2008-11-19T10:36:00.015-05:00

Has it really been that long since I posted??
I should get in the habit of just posting a little at a time.
Problem is, I never seem to have things to blog about anymore.

There is a lot going on, but for some reason I don't' think it blog-worthy.

Anyways--the ANNIE play has started and is going well.
Opening night was amazing, the other 2 nights were good, but with minor flubs (mostly on the the cast would know)
Our friends daughter is playing ANNIE and she is amazing--she had her lines down within the first few weeks and she is flawless :)

I gifted the handspun green hat away at a baby shower on Saturday to a friend who is due in January.
It was a Strawberry Shortcake shower and it was so much fun.

My sister was here for the weekend and she helped me with some edging to make it more "Girly" (she crochets, I don't really know how)

I have a cold that is knocking me down still. I've had it two weeks and If I could just stop coughing and/or get the yucky out of my lungs I'd be happy.
I've learned something--the stuff that is in cough medicine that makes you not cough?? I can't tolerate it.
Dextromethorphan is a narcotic that some people react to. (Apparently it has the same chemical make up as Ketamine and PCP--who knew?)
I'm one of those people.

I took some stuff 2 weeks ago to stop coughing at night so I could sleep--I only slept for 4 hours and was up from 4am onward totally wired, dizzy and weird feeling.
I bought some non-drowsy, expectorant on the weekend, read the label and thought it was fine and took some Saturday night (because I coughed on stage opening night and was upset with myself)--went to bed at 2am and was up at 4am..wired and feeling dizzy.
There is a Dr who is in our play (we have a lot of scenes together) and I asked him and he explained about Dextro and that it can cause manic and/or dizziness etc reactions to some people...yep...that's me.
No more.
So, the coughing continues and I hope that I feel better by the weekend for the second round of ANNIE.

I have been knitting:

I finally finished the Skull and Cross Bones socks for Kelly that I have been working on forever.

Cotton/elastic yarn is not my friend.
She likes them and as soon as she put them on she said "I've never had a sock fit that well"
aaaah the beauty of a handknit sock.

I have also made a cowl for myself out of some beautiful yarn I got at a Fibre Mill.

Our Spinning Guild took a tour for this months meeting.
The yarn--gorgeous.

This is Merino Soy/Silk called "Molten Lava"
You can't really tell but the colour is not flat at all, it shimmers and shines with different reds, oranges and touch of gold/yellow.

I got some Alpaca for Socks

(blogger why do you insist on changing my pictures to be upside down??)

Some Superwash Merino Sock Yarn

and some Cotswold for Spinning.

I could have done more damage, but I know that I can go back again sometime.

The tour was so interesting and I loved every minute of it.

The cowl was a nice fast knit and I'm looking forward to wearing it...because...
We had our first snow.

(that's actually frost but you get the point)

It snowed for a few minutes Sunday morning but it was so warm it melted right away.

Yesterday afternoon it snowed hard for about 10 minutes and then stopped.
We went to a friend's house for dinner and the snow at their house stayed on the ground.
We played outside with the kids before dinner and I had my Morning Coffee Toque on, my Alpaca Mitts, an Alpaca Scarf and my winter coat
:)

Then, Sophie and I headed of to the resurrecting of Craft night:

We met at Chris' house and even had virtual Janna with us:

(Gmail now has a videocam/chat feature and we had fun talking knitting with her for a bit)

I was working on a sock (some of my own dyeing that I'm not showing yet) but got stuck as I was just winging it and couldn't remember how to do a gusset top down ..
So I snuggled Sophie's baby and drank some good coffee.

My soap fetish continues.
I am in love with the hot process technique that lets you use the soap the very next day!

I bought some soap molds from someone off of Ravelry and am loving them.

My first batch of HP Soap was Pumpkin Spice
(coloured with tumeric to give it a yellowish colour)
The smell is amazing--I love this soap.

Second batch:

Peppermint Energy Soap
(Made with peppermint tea, with real peppermint leaves and Peppermint Essential oil)
I've tested this one too, it makes your skin tingle in the shower.

I hope to be able to start selling my soaps soon (as soon as I figure out shipping--don't' get me started on Canada Post again (why oh why can I ship a package to Europe cheaper than across my own country??) )

So, that's the big update from me.
Not much Christmas Knitting I don't' think.

I don't' seem to have many ideas..

What are you knitting for Christmas???

Weird things meme

2008-11-06T10:37:00.002-05:00

I've done this one before. but I've been tagged again..so I will try to make my list different.

1. I smell my McDonald's cheeseburgers before eating them. (I have no idea why, started when I was a teenager--I LOVE the smell of them--I open them up and sniff them before I eat).

2. I have my own special way of putting condiments on my burgers--it has to be in a certain order (Maybe I just have a weird burger thing).

3. When I was younger and my parents would be out at Church for meetings, my sister and I would make ourselves weird dinners--fried mushrooms with garlic, bacon wrapped pineapple--all snackish food.
These days, if I ever am alone for a meal I like to think of weird combination of snack foods that I can turn into a meal.

4. I like to sing song lyrics in general conversations (with friends/family). My sister and I both do it with our kids.
For example if someone ends a sentence and it reminds you of a song--you just start singing--no explanation.

5. I have a comforter/blanket that sits on my couch that I have had since I was 5. It's bright green/white and has orange butterflies on it. I have no idea why it's so special to me, but I have repaired, re-stuffed and re-sewn this blanket over the years and I still use it almost every night when I watch TV.
My Mother once threatened to throw it out (because It was ratty) and I almost cried/panicked and that's when I started the repairs.
Even more strange: There is a scene in the Jodi Foster Movie Contact where as a little girl her Father is tucking her into bed at night--she has my blanket!! The first time I saw the movie in the theater I actually yelled out "that's my blanket" (okay, now I am stopping to wonder how many readers are unsubscribing themselves from my blog because this is just to silly)

6. I like to take the first sip of coffee in the morning with my eyes closed. I don't' know why-makes that first sip taste better!!

Okay--cant' think of anyone to tag that hasn't been tagged yet. If you are reading this and would like to play along--put a comment on this post to let me know you've played too!

Spinning and Stuff

2008-11-03T20:31:00.006-05:00

So we have a new camera--and hubby has taken it away on the last 2 weekends that he worked.
I have been knitting on Kelly's socks and doing some spinning.

Behold:

It's the Spunky Club Fibre for September. Finn is the breed and the colourway is called "Acadia"
I spun it thin and it is destined to be socks!

I spun up some of my own hand-dyed Merino/Alpaca. This was my first dye and spin of this fibre and I liked it alot, although I found it a challenge to keep the singles from breakin and then letting the twist out while I was trying to make a join.

(umm apparently Blogger is doing that pictures must be sideways thing...can't fix it)

I called this roving "Because You are Greek" because even though I've never been there, I imagine the water to look that shade of turquoise.

Does it look Greek Sophie??

I also spun and knit up some gloves for Princess B. I told her I was going to make her some more mittens and she said "Yes, mittens, but y'know with fingers".

I modified an adult pattern I found here:
I'm not sure why the fingers look so pointy, but they fit and she is happy and I am happy.

Once I get the socks done, I will get on to some Christmas Knitting. No big plans for this year but I have some thoughts.

Halloween was fun!
We had a party at our Church--the Youth put on a party for the little ones for an hour, and then had a party of their own afterwards.

Little man as Spiderman and Hubby as Indiana Jones:

Princess B was a "Fairy Ballerina"

I went as Noah'a Ark. I pinned 10 pairs of little animal finger puppets all over a brown t-shirt and pants. I had a rainbow taped to a Knitting Needle that I held over my head.
We had fun and we all wore things we had around the house!

There was a doughnut eating contest where the kids had to eat doughnuts that were tied to strings and hung from the ceiling. Princess B did really well!

Little man just liked the doughnuts :)

That is all that is new and exciting around here.

My play continues, we are now at the 4-5 practices a week stage..
"The sun will come out, Tomorrow...."

There has been knitting.

2008-10-21T11:22:00.005-04:00

This past weekend was our Guild's Annual Show and Sale.
I was spinning Saturday but didn't actually put anything in the sale (Bad bad knitter)
I tend to knit for projects, for deadlines and for myself--these ladies--they work hard to put together things that people will love.
It was a good day and the items were gorgeous.
Next year I need to do better.

I did make up a couple of hats, but didn't end up putting them in.
One was from the Spunky Club's "Think Spring" Fibre Club, my handspun.

the other was from the "Olive Bark" roving I got from Insubordiknit a while back.

I made some of Saartje's booties, (PDF link) but they ended up big and although I spent time with my washing machine, they did not felt down significantly.

I plan to use them as a baby gift for Hubby's co-work whose wife is due in a month (I will continue to work on the felting part).

I have been knitting furiously on Kelly's Socks--they are turning out so cool (of course I will never knit with cotton/elastic again--I love you Kelly, but this yarn is killing me).
(Friend Kelly has a wool allergy and for the past 2 years I have been wanting to make her something that won't make her break out in a rash--see this post)

Other than that I have been spending my time with the socks while watching Firefly.
We had to buy a new camera last week (amazing that we got almost the same camera for 1/5 the price we paid 3 years ago)--and I saw the box set on for $29---so I told hubby that I had to have it and it could be my Christmas present if he wanted.
He said "You'd actually watch that more than once".
Um, hello--You need to come over to the dark side, there is Mal and Kaylee and Janye's hat, and Jaynestown...and--oh well they are all good.

My sister is watching them too! Now I just need the movie for Christmas and I"m all set.
(and then Michelle, once you've watched the whole show and the movie, then this will make sense)

That is all for knitting/geek news.

Cruise!

2008-10-15T23:04:00.006-04:00

Cruise!!!!

This is my blog entry for the Girls' Get-A-Way Cruise sponsored by : Christian Women Online

Thanksgiving

2008-10-14T08:36:00.002-04:00

So....
we had a great Thanksgiving but have no pictures to show for it because our camera is dead.
It's only 3 years old...but the good thing is that prices on digital cameras have come way down so we will be able to replace it.

We visited Ottawa and Lac St. Marie Quebec and saw the most amazing colours in the trees.

We had a full Turkey dinner with 3 kinds of pie (I ate too much dessert) and had a great time with Andrew's family.

Princess B is at school today and I have laundry mountain and unpacking to do, VOTING today and Play practice tonight.

I didn't really knit much this weekend--didn't really get much of a chance.

I finished a handspun baby hat last week and am working on some booties to go with it for the Spinning Guild Show and Sale this weekend.

In other news: My sister started her own blog.
We realized that sometimes we like to enter the same contests and/or comment on blogs and it seems like we are the same person at times (we're not, really)...
and my yarn dyeing is getting a bit bigger etc etc

So..go on over and say hi!

I'll keep her linked over in the side bar too (once I remember how to do the html...new blogger has spoiled me)

Fall fun

2008-10-11T12:45:00.005-04:00

Last Sunday was a very busy day..full of fun, food and family time.

We went apple picking (this is now 3 years in a row for me--I'd never done it before!) at a new orchard and it was fun.

There were 4 families in total. Aidan fell asleep in the 10 minutes it took to get there so he and Andrew stayed in the car and napped together.
Princess Brenna had fun and spent more time hanging out with the "big girls" than she did picking.

I am not always sure of what apples to get, so usually just put some of a few varieties in and hope for the best!
The kids have been eating them like crazy--Aidan likes to take a bite and then get another one..

I love Fall. The leaves are changing very quickly and everywhere we go I see so much colour! I love it.

We are leaving in a few hours to head to Ottawa for Thanksgiving weekend with Andrew's family--and I'm hoping to make a pie before we go....We'll see how that goes down.

Happy Thanksgiving Canadians!

9 years!

2008-10-09T16:13:00.000-04:00

Dyeing

2008-10-02T16:18:00.007-04:00

I'm dyeing to show you (ha ha) the yarn I dyed for Robyn's Nest October Sock Club--but I can't just yet.
The orders are in and I'm just waiting on a final tally before sending the yarn off....all will be revealed shortly.

I had hubby print up some new yarn cards/tags for the yarn and I'm very happy with them.

Robyn herself is designing the pattern. Fun!

I went to Spinning Guild yesterday and spun up most of the Spunky Club August Fibre:

It's called "Thermograph" and mine is mostly pink. Princess B asked me to knit her a dress, but will settle on some mittens and a hat.

:)

and in weird news--we had HAIL today!
It has been cold and rainy so all the yarn I am dyeing is not drying very quickly--but this afternoon it was sunny with a bit of a breeze so I hung yarn outside. It rained about 3pm (on our walk home) and then about 5:30 started HAILING like crazy for about 2 minutes.

Last night I watched 3:10 to Yuma while I re-skeined yarn. Pretty good movie. Usually I'm not a big fan of Westerns, but this one was good and not a typical Western (ie: cliches cowboy stuff with the predictable ending)..
I joined zip.ca for a trial membership and am loving it so far--I've only watched 2 movies, but they send them very quickly.

(and apparently I am a huge dork as I had NO IDEA that Christian Bale was English--I've watched him all these years but apparently had never heard him speak in an interview, until I saw a special feature on the DVD).

Parenting post

2008-09-30T14:42:00.007-04:00

Skip this post if you don't want stories of kids and messes.

So, my FIL is here helping to finish painting the outside of our house.

The kids were happy with some new toys from my nephew and then we decided to paint inside.
Usually painting with Aidan is a disaster because he just paints his hands and his clothes.
We've been going to playgroup for a few weeks now and he has been doing well--putting the paint smock on himself, painting only on the paper, cleaning up messes etc.
So yesterday they are painting and I took a load of laundry upstairs.

As soon as I got to the top of the stairs I heard Brenna say "Uh, Mom--Aidan is PAINTING HIMSELF"

So I go back downstairs to this:

*you can't see all the paint in his hair-but it's all purple*

Which then became this:

I leave the bathroom to scrub purple off the walls and come back to this:

This is Santa and Mrs Claus (they named themselves).

So the day goes on and I'm putting clothes away in Aidan's room and a cloud of white puffs up from his drawers.
I notice a white film on everything (the floor, the dresser, the bed, the clothes).
I find out that on the weekend he dumped and entire bottle of baby powder all over his room.

Hubby had vacuumed but didn't get it all nor did he know--there is now a PILE of powder throughout his drawer.
So--full drawer of shirts had to be washed....

Sigh..
kids.

So, sorry for all the crazy posting--I had it all up in my brain to write these posts out but didn't.
:)

Busy weekend

2008-09-29T13:37:00.000-04:00

Princess B and I drove down to Rochester Friday night to attend my 10 year College reunion.

The concert that night was AMAZING and was put on by one of my favourite bands: NewWorldSon.

There were not very many people there but we had fun dancing in the aisles.

I had a blast

with this kid: (my nephew)

The kids were so cute--asking the guys in the band for their "autrograph" and telling them their favourite songs.
A late night and a lazy morning (including me spinning on my sister's Babe wheel!!!) then a fun day with the kids in the bouncy castle at the Homecoming event.

I saw some good friends at the reunion, missed the people who weren't there and then drove home late to be back for Sunday.

Sunday--our new Pastor started, we had about 35 guests to Church and then was hubby's big Fall fundraiser event with food and music and mostly involved me chasing Little Man in a big field.

Whew...
I didn't get any knitting done with my sister.

I have the yarn and the beads for MS4 but have yet to start. I think everyone else is on clue 3, but I'm not in it to keep up, just to have a chance to knit some lace and learn to knit with beads.

:)

If you get the chance, you should check out this video below.
The drummer of NewWorldSon did an amazing drum solo and proceeded to drum all over the stage--on mike stands, chairs, the guitar etc etc etc.

My new love

2008-09-24T13:27:00.002-04:00

I finished my hat!

I am so in love with this hat.
So much in love that I wore it all morning and then the kids fell in love with it and took turns wearing it. I'm sure it was because I said to them "see my hat?? I finished my hat don't you love my hat??" about every 5 minutes that they realized they should agree with me :)

It might be a little big:

But I shall LOVE it even more when the cold weather starts.

I can tie up the side flaps or tuck them under when I don't want to look like a lumberjack or Jayne.

The pattern was fun, my yarns were not the same weight, so the grey Shetland was puffier and kind of overshadowed the Orange handspun.

I don't' care.
I love this hat.

I might never take it off....

Unexpected blog break

2008-09-21T20:17:00.011-04:00

Did you miss me??

Where have I been??

I'm just not making the time to sit down and write anything.
School, "Annie" rehearsal, stuff going on at Church, meetings and other family events have kept me away from blogland.

Let's look at pictures:
Here is the baby sweater that I entered in the Picton Fall Fair, that won 2nd prize:

It was knit about 7 months ago with my nephew in mind--and has now finally been sent off to him. I hope it still fits.
It's the Hickory Dickory Dot pattern from Juju and Lolo (Anny Purls). I knit this as a test knit for her pattern which is now available on her site.

Yarn:
I did a yarn trade with Chrissy of the Manic Purl Podcast. She mentioned my Tealicious yarn in episode 3 of her podcast, and I reminded her recently that the yarn was still up for grabs in the shop.
She traded me for this:

It's her own hand-dyed from her new shop YarnSprout. It's a Merino/Seacell blend dyed with natural dyes. It's called "Chocolate Raspberry Mousse" and I just LOVE it.
She also gave me a cute little stitch saver keychain (which is a crochet hook to catch those dropped stitches, while on the go).

I finished up a skein of handspun:

It's Superwash Merino in the "50's Diner" colourway of Turquoise and Red, that didn't sell in my shop.
It's very squooshy

I started a hat from my handspun:

The orange yarn is from my PippiKneeSocks roving in the "Peepers" colourway.
The grey is hand-washed, hand-carded, hand-spun Shetland fleece from a local Shetland farm.
It is a 3 ply yarn, my first attempt at long-draw spinning. It's not too bad, but I could use more practice--which is good because I have to card and spin a lot more yarn to finish this hat.

The pattern is the Morning Coffee Toque, by PippiKneeSocks.
I can't wait to finish it

:)

I am still skeining away to finish up the dyeing for Robyns' Nest--the October Sock Club and another colourway for her shop.
Go here and buy a Sock Club spot if you are so inclined :)

Other than that, there is not too much going on (ha ha--as I think of my list of things to do: skein yarn, dye yarn, manage the family stuff, take care of Church responsibilities as Chair of our Board with a New Pastor starting next week, Play rehearsal, sleeping somewhere in there).

There is not much knitting going on--I actually only have 1 sock project on the go (GASP, SHOCK) and have yet to pick out my fall sweater.

I was thinking of this:

and had decided to start--but then realized that I really don't like pullovers--there I said it.
I love sweaters, but I tend to wear one in the morning when I'm cold, then take it off an hour later after chasing kids and overheating, then I want it when I'm cooking and then I'm too hot again.

Cardigans are good for me--so I think I might knit this

or this

Which one do you think???

I can't decide.
I have 6 skeins of Cascade 220--so I can't knit up a huge sweater. I have been looking around on Ravelry and these ones might just work.

I'm still undecided but I have time since it's not cold here--yet

:)

Prizes and I'm a dork.

2008-09-08T14:25:00.008-04:00

So this weekend was our local Fair.
Hubby had to be there to run a booth for the YouthPark.
We went as a family for 2 hours on Saturday. The Kids did some rides , we had some fair food and looked at the crafts.

I got to see the results of my entries:
1st Place for my Picovoli
2nd for my baby sweater (not blogged as it was a test knit and is a gift)
2nd for my Forest Canopy Shawl (1st place went to a fellow guild member who made an amazing Faroese Shawl out of Mohair/Silk)
1st place for my bread
and my socks got "Honorable Mention"--apparently I forgot to weave in a couple of ends inside--oops.

I spun at the Fair Sunday afternoon from 12:30pm-5pm and got to have some greasy food (onion chips and a chocolate milkshake for lunch--yum), bought some Lavender Tea and linen spray from a local vendor and got my Candy Apple (I always have to have a Candy Apple every year from the fair)

I was wiped when we got home, took a short nap while listening to Lime and Violet and woke up when they said my name.
If you download Ep 70--you will hear MissViolet talk about me dancing at the hospital (yes, I did that) and they talk about my store.
Oh and there will be a youtube video of me dancing--sometime in the near future :)

Shownotes are here.

I have to go back and listen to the rest of the episode, for the stuff I missed.
EDITED TO ADD: Here is the video:

Hubby and I are going out to a fancy dinner tonight in honour of the RCMP ride coming to town.
It's part of the YouthPark project as well--so we get to be VIP's.
I miss the actual performance tomorrow as I have my first rehearsal for Annie.
I am very excited to be part of this play.

So..I have to figure out what to wear tonight and spiffen up the house (is that a word??).
:)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2008-09-02T12:35:00.003-04:00

Okay-not really.
I joke.
I do look forward to all the adventures that Princess B will have at school this year--but I will miss her.
She has been excited and scared about school.
Some of the tantrums and resistance this past week is about school--she does recognize that which is good.
One of her friends is in her class and even though she refused to go to the school last week to meet the Teacher (didn't matter, Teacher wasn't there)--we spotted the Teacher in the yard before the bell and the "line up place" is the same which helped calm her fears.
Today she ran off when the bell rang without a looking back...

What a difference a year makes:

Little man and I have been to the park and played and watched a movie--he is taking his nap and I hope to get some housework/yarn work accomplished

:)

Tootin' my own horn

2008-08-27T21:53:00.003-04:00

First of all--I have finally dyed and swatched the yarn for Robyn's October Sock Club.
Go here and buy a slot.
:)

I am very excited to have some of my yarns out there.
As well, she is ordering some other yarn that I am soooper excited about.

Wanna see a picture of the Club Yarn?

Psst. Did you actually think I would give you a picture of it??
Silly bloggers.

You will have to wait until they are all sent off to their new homes.
:)

I am also super excited about an audition I went to tonight.
i audition for the local Theatre production of Annie.
I have always wanted to be Annie, but since I'm not 10, I had to audition for an adult part
:)
The singing went well (which shocked me because I was nervous) and the script reading was short but fun.
I'll likely find out on the weekend whether I have a part or not.

Fingers crossed.

:0

Alas, no knitting to show

2008-08-22T09:53:00.006-04:00

Hubby has still yet to take my picture with the shawl.
Something about him always working and not home during daylight...

We did go to Canada's Wonderland on Tuesday with the kids and it was so much fun.

Princess B went on her first roller coaster, the kids had fun at the water park.

Little man crashed out in the stroller, we saw a Dora show and had a blast!

I am knitting a sock that I can't show you because I am swatching my hand-dyed for Robyn's Nest

I am dyeing up yarn for her store and AS WELL I am the one dyeing for the October sock club.
Go on over and buy a spot.

We have been e-mailing back and forth and had a colourway which is beautiful (can't show you, swatch-sock) but not great for showing off patterns.
So...back to the dyepots for a new colourway....I'm excited to try to have something we both love.

We leave for my sisters tonight for her Birthday weekend and my step-Sisters Birthday as well.
A weekend of knitting and tea drinking and swimming and spending time with all the family.
Yipeee

and I got my hands on Book 14 of the Stephanie Plum series...which means that I've read 16 books (the whole series minus 1 I am still waiting for at the Library) since the middle of June!

Have a great weekend
:)

A day for gettin things done.

2008-08-13T20:42:00.009-04:00

Yesterday we went out to the camp to find my Dad and Step-Mom but they were golfing so we played at the "rainbow park" for a while. Kids were happy.

While Aidan slept, I harvested my first batch of compost from the worm bin!
Here is all the wonderful compost:

And for those of you who are totally grossed out--I use gloves whenever I touch the worm bin or worms and the gloves stay outside. When done properly, a worm bin does not smell--at all.
No, really. It smells no more offensive than fresh dirt.

I weeded the entire garden while waiting to put the worms back in the bin and found these:

Little potatoes from my garden!
I think all the rain had washed the soil away--so I put some fresh dirt on top with the compost and will let them get bigger.

Then I made a nice roast pork with cooked veggies including all of these carrots that came from the garden:

Then when the kiddos were sleeping and hubby was working I soaked the Forest Canopy Shawl for blocking. I didn't' actually get it blocked because Princess B had a nightmare and I ended up cuddling her a while.

I also finished the Picovoli, finally: (only a year in the making)

(craptastic picture with self timer as no one was around to help me with my photoshoot)

I like this tank.
I was very scared that the LionBrand CottonEase would be too thick to drape well and that my mods didn't work out.
For some reason, even though I measured myself and recognized that the tank is supposed to have negative ease, I made a size that was going to be too big.
So, I put more shaping in the bust/waist--which worked out well.
In the end I wished I could have added more length to the bottom but I didn't even have enough yarn for one more row....whew.

I like it I like it I like it.
Also, I think it will soften up with washing.

I like it.
(Did I mention that?)

Speaking of taking pictures--have I mentioned that Aidan is camera happy? Ever since he was a baby if you left the camera anywhere he would find it.
It was in my purse the other day after Princess B's soccer tournament and I just put the card in the computer and found about 35 pictures that look like this:

Actually a lot of them look like ceiling or his finger which he likes to stick over the lens. But what I noticed was somehow he was able to figure out how to turn the flash on and off--so you get variations on a theme.

This one is my favourite:

I love cute feet pictures.
That was a busy day...but it felt good to get some stuff done.

We are now getting our side porch rebuilt and the contractors wife came over to talk flowers with me. They are friends of ours and she is going to help me pick some flowers and do some landscaping in the front yard next Spring.
Yeah!

So, now I think I will go and block that shawl and hopefully have some more pictures to share tomorrow.

Pray the Olympics

2008-08-08T11:39:00.002-04:00

I have spent a lot of time prayerfully considering how I respond to the Olympics. My hubbo is a swim coach and is eager to watch the swimming this year. My son vaguely remembers the oo-lymp-i-kits from when he was two and can't wait for the diving. I respect the athletes and the hubbo's position on supporting them and not focusing on the politics. I am being called to another action.
I will be praying the Olympics. Each day as the boys watch the ceremony, the events, the stories, I will be praying for different areas of concern, from Human Rights, for Christians who are imprisoned for their faith, for the young people deprived of freedoms, for Tibet, for families etc.
I will be knitting a simple pattern (still uncertain what) so that I may be quiet in prayer as I do so.
Whatever you decide, consider that ""None of us are free until ALL of us are free" and drop over here or here to see what others are doing during these next few days. Me, I'll be praying.

Olympics

2008-08-08T10:06:00.002-04:00

So the Olympics started today.
I was watching the parade of Nations with my daughter and explaining what the Olympics are (and trying to explain to her why Mommy is not there as an athlete...)

I have mixed feelings about these Olympics.

I know one of the athletes for Canada and I know how hard she works every day to be the best at what she does.
I know the pride that athletes feel representing their country whether they win a medal or not.

I know the sacrifice that some countries make to send their athletes to compete.

But I am torn...
I am not in support of China. I am appalled that there has not been more discussion or outcry about their Human Rights Violations.

But--Pippi posted something about these sentiments on her blog, and now Bev offered a challenge for bloggers to feature something about Tibet and to remind us all that:
"None of us are free until ALL of us are free"

You can read more here and here

Pippi also dyed some yarn in a colourway called "Free Tibet" which was inspired by Tibetan prayer flags...
Awesome idea...

Hamster Brain

2008-08-06T22:38:00.004-04:00

Ever feel like a hamster? Running on a wheel and never getting too far? You wash the same dish, the same shirt, pick up the same toys, here the same stories, attend the same meetings, etc, and the scenery doesn't change? Well that is not me. I am a running hamster all right, but I am running in traffic! So much is buzzing by me right now and I am trying not to get run over.
Hubbo and I have a lot we are trying to balance: family health issues (not us, but extended family), hubbo working over-time, Grandpa moving up from Florida, sister moving in, loving and supporting our friends who are struggling with serious family and marital issues, and church work which has increased exponential since this time last year.
Please hear me when I say I am not complaining. Hubbo and I look around at the struggles of others and we feel so blessed in our own little home. We are healthy, our son is a joy (though a trying joy at times), we like our work, love our church and we are growing in our relationship like never before. We can't even say we are busy compared to many around us. We simply feel like God is asking a great deal of us right now and we want to serve Him as best we can. To that end our only prayer for ourselves is strength, endurance and energy. We KNOW that He equips those He calls. We are looking forward to taking some us time probably into October when things are back into routine to regroup as a couple.
OK, now onto knitting which is why you read this in the first place. I am knitting steadily on a scarf for Grandpa (hasn't lived in New York in 20 years, expect he might find our winters a bit nippy) out of Sean Sheep and using this stitch pattern. It give a 2x2 rib look without having to purl (yeah). I am interested to see how a hat would look using the same stich- would it pull in too much?
I am knitting a basic pair of cuff-down socks in this. If you buy the yarn I do rec getting the pattern as you will undoubtedly cast on too many stitches otherwise. While on the needles they look like little elf socks, but fit nicely and are super cute.
I still have my first handspun project on the spindle/needles. I am happy to report my sister has loaned me her Babe spindle and I am anxious to see how it handles.
So I knit, I swim with Giraffe, I read Stephanie Plum novels, and watch many, many softball games. I will leave you with this:

A week in review

2008-08-05T12:21:00.007-04:00

aka what we actually did while we were gone.

We spent from Saturday-Tuesday with hubby's Father at his house/chalet in Quebec.
We swam and ran around outside, ate great food and Princess B and I actually snuck in some time in the hot tub.

The other grown ups played tennis and golf while I chased Aidan around the many outside balconies. :)

My FIL is become a great gardener with his limited space--our evening meals contained some veggies and herbs that grew here:

The last morning, we had the best poutine EVER for lunch and Grandad took the kids for a spin around the gold course (Aidan is crying because I dared to try to sit beside him to hold him IN the cart)

Then we headed off to my MIL"s cottage, which is on an island near Athens Ontario.
The Island has been in the family for about 70-80 years and my MIL has been going to that cottage since she was a child!

The cottage is a great place--and will be even better next year when my darling son will understand that out ever door is either a cliff or water--which is not for jumping in/on/over to test your flying skills.
So--no sitting in the hammock for me this year, but I did get 2 books read and spent lots of time with my SIL (and hubby) up from Arizona and my BIL (Home for good from Europe) and
HIS FIANCE.
We are going to have another member to our family....
she's an artist (check out her site) having just graduated from OCAD and is setting up her studio in Toronto for the Fall.

So Wed-Sat was spent chasing a small boy, swimming, boat rides, canoe rides, ice cream, visiting with all the relatives that we only see in the summer.

Then home again.....

What a great week!

Yeah

2008-08-04T13:36:00.002-04:00

Home
and internet
and coffee
:)

So, I am climbing laundry mountain--which isn't too bad--just shake out clothes (shake out the cockroaches), wash, fold, put in drawers--kinda like regular laundry except it's all the same stuff I just washed and folded a week ago.
I have had small trips to the store--the cashier recognizes me and thinks I'm weird...--but no real food in the house since hubby has to go out to events during the only time we are home and store are open.

I fell asleep knitting last night while watching part of Munich, which then turned into Jacob the Liar (really confusing to my sleepy brain as to why Robin Williams had anythign to do with the 1972 Olympic kidnapping).

I figured I should get my Picovoli finished while it is still summer. (So happy that knotionsmag.com has the pattern now that Magknits is gone. Not happy that I lost my pattern with all my measurements and markings on it...)

and speaking of Knitting Magazines.. have you seen it?
AMAZING
I 've been waiting, counting down the little circles for about 45 days or more and then it opened while I was gone and w/out internet.
Wow.
Patterns--wow
Articles--wow

So, shawl is still needing to be blocked...need to have a flat surface that kids don't touch...hmmmm

we'll see what I can find

We're home

2008-08-03T08:44:00.002-04:00

We're home.
I read 2 books, finished my shawl (needs blocking)...

had lots of swimming, boat rides, canoeing, family time....now I have:
no groceries
cockroaches in my luggage
a big mess to clean up

but as Princess B said at dinner last night *Sigh* "It's good to be home"

:)

If you need me...

2008-07-27T15:24:00.002-04:00

this is where I"ll be.

Not really--more like chasing kids around an island.

We are off to visit hubby's family for a week--in the woods and on an island.
I have packed way too much knitting and 2 books.

See you sometime Saturday

It's going to be really clean around here

2008-07-24T14:04:00.003-04:00

I'm a soap making machine.
Okay not really a machine, but I'm having fun.

I made some more coffee soap the other week in my new molds (The soap got stuck--who knew you had to have a liner or something-but the soap turned out pretty good anyways)

2 nights ago I used essential oils for the first time and made Patchouli Lavender soap:

It's not the greatest picture (taken at 10pm)--but there is a hint of green (I coloured the soap) and it smells wonderful.

Last night I made Lemongrass soap--with fragrance oil and real Lemongrass leaves (?) in it. I coloured it to a nice earthy brown.
Yummy.

It's really hard to wait a month to use these soaps.

So, I have on hand:
Coffee soap
Chai Tea
Chocolate Goats Milk
Patchouli Lavender and
Lemongrass

I think either Green Apple or Cucumber is next.
or maybe Chamomile Mint

:)

2008-07-22T07:02:00.002-04:00

Want to win a handmade quilt?

Go here, but fast, the contest ends tonight (Tueday) at midnight.

Progress

2008-07-17T18:18:00.006-04:00

Nanners socks are done:

First actual skein for Tour de Fleece:

It's the January fibre from the Spunky Eclectic Club. It's Icelandic fibre that I spun as a single on my Antique Quebec wheel.

More Nanners sock yarn for the store:

I'm now working on the February Spunky Club which is South African Fine fibre and ooooh I love it. I've spun up two bobbins and will be plying tonight when hubby and I finally get around to watching Spiderman 3.

My son is obsessed with all things Spiderman and from the collection of t-shirts we have inherited from my nephew, he can wear a new one every day.
We found and old DVD of the tv show at the library which he watched every day for a week.
I sing the Spiderman song as his lullaby at night (he asks for it) and today we had his first dental check up, made easier by the fact that they had a Spiderman soft toy that he could hold and a Buzz Lightyear toothbrush.
(Seriously our Dentist is awesome with kids--I was expecting a fight to hold Aidan's mouth open. Dr B just said that he had to check to see if the toothbrush was the right size, and held it near Aidan's mouth and he opened right up and even let the Dentist put his fingers inside to check his teeth)

Spiderman saves the day....

To the T.dot

2008-07-14T11:45:00.005-04:00

I had to take a trip back to Toronto this past Friday and was bound and determined to find Lettuce Knit. (Last time I got lost in the construction and then had to come home)

I dropped some clothes off at friends' house, went to my appt and then braved the busy traffic to get to the store!
(I have never driven in Toronto before. I have driven PAST Toronto, but never in the city).

So, a 15 minute drive (per my google map) took 45 minutes and I was afraid that the store would close.
I navigated Kensington market (crazy crazy--tons of people walking everywhere, one way streets, bikes that just go and don't look at cars..)

I found the store and then had to do another turn around the block to find parking.
I FOUND PARKING...a free spot.

So, I didn't spend long in the store and didn't get pictures of the actual store (I know, bad blogger) You've seen it before on the Harlot's blog)--the store is seriously tiny--but they pack in a lot of awesome yarn.

I bought one thing that may or may not be a gift so I wont' blog it.
I bought an Elizabeth Zimmerman book that I have been wanting for a year

and of course, some sock yarn.
I wanted to buy something that I couldn't' get locally--something that was different.
Some Art Yarns UltraMerino---(colour 123)

the colours they had were awesome-there was one that looked like pink and chocolate cake.

I think I had a Megan (owner) sighting on the way out--and that was it.

I was very close to this:

and then this happened:

I was driving downtown (seriously right downtown) and was stopped at a light and then a little birdie decided to land on my window, scrounge on my windshield for food and then flew away right when the light changed--it was so cute.

I had a good day. I caught up on podcast listening.
By the time I left Toronto and navigated through traffic it was 6:30pm and I had yet to have had lunch. I found a mall (the really weird thing is that it was the same mall I visited a year ago and had no idea I was in Oshawa last time--I had no idea where I was but for some reason knew exactly how to get to the mall)

I did some shopping and had some sushi (wahoo) and Starbucks (wahoo X2) and came home.

A good day.

Next time I would hope to bring someone with me, or meet up--it's much more fun that way!

It's all about me

2008-07-10T12:23:00.003-04:00

I just had my 100th sale in my little store!

I had dyed up some nanners yarn for myself and then people showed an interest so I dyed up some more.
One has sat in the store a couple weeks but now it's off to it's new home~!

Also, I totally forgot to blog about this previously:
My store was mentioned by a Canadian Knitting Podcast.
Chrissy is the podcaster behind the Manic Purl Podcast.
The episode is #3 and show notes are found here.

Fun!

Tour de fleece

2008-07-08T22:48:00.002-04:00

I've decided to join again.
I did it last year when I was a new spinner.

Now I think I am able to set some actual goals.

My personal goals are to spin through my Spunky Eclectic Stash and try something different in the spinning.
I have not spun up some of my club shipments due to being frustrated with my wheel. (it's hand made and sometimes it comes apart and/or the wheel becomes difficult to treadle).

I have been spindle spinning some wool in the Toronto colourway--just spending a few minutes her and there.
I decided to finish that yarn on the spindle, as one of my goals.

I also sat down last night and played with the tension on my antique wheel and spun about an ounce of singles, laceweight from the January fibre.
I figured out the tension!
I hadn't spent much time on this wheel because it would either over twist or not pull onto the bobbin.
I loosened it fully and then tightened just enough to get what I needed.

I think the yarn will be pretty and I hope to use it for my first singles project.

I was telling someone last week about my "ghetto" lazy kate for spindling and since I had it beside me outside yesterday I decided to take some pictures.

Full spindle cop:

My supplies:

After filling my spindle I wind the singles onto empty toilet paper rolls with my ball winder.

Then I use this set up to ply:

and then I end up with something that looks like this:

I love this colourway.
I can't wait to finish it.

Princess B had a play date at our house for most of the day today and I went to help a friend with her lawn tonight (until everything died and we went inside for ice cream--too bad eh?)
So, I didn't get any spinning time today save for about 5 minutes.

I hope to get the singles done tomorrow night if I can just sit down and do it.

Where in the world..

2008-07-06T00:34:00.000-04:00

have I been.

Actually, I've only been 15 minutes from home-but it's been busy.

It was Family Camp week this week and my family was visiting (my sister, cousins, aunt/uncle, dad/stepmom, bil/sil and 2nd cousins galore. plus camp friends, college friends).

The kids were in morning sessions, I had the chance to sit and knit with my sister, we hit the beach every afternoon and there was more knitting at night.

I finished one nanner sock and am working the gusset increases on the second. (the sock is not on my foot because I had to cast off w/out a darning needle to do my usual sewn bind-off and the cuff is too tight)

I am pretty tired from all the fresh air, late nights, early morning and general running around.

My throat feels like sandpaper and I was so tired this afternoon but unable to nap.

My newest book series addiction is keeping me well fed. I'm on book 7 and only started 3 weeks ago. (total beach trash books--brainless but laugh out loud funny)

So--the socks are the only thing I've been knitting.

I have been spindle spinning a bit.

My goal for the Tour de Fleece is to finish my Spunky Eclectic Spindle project and then spin up as much of my club fibre as I can.

This past week there was a Ladies Craft Show and tell and my sister and I brought our knitting and spinning. I brought the wheel to show a friend and ended up doing a little demo.

It was fun to show people the spindle as well.

Tonight I got almost a full ounce on at one time--and I was sure that it was going to fall off and I could see it getting into a big tangled mess--but so far, so good.

So, regular posting will return (ha ha regular) and then in another few weeks it will be another week away for hubby's actual vacation.

What have I been up to??

2008-06-20T20:32:00.009-04:00

Dyeing some yarn:

Ordering more. I have a sock club to dye for (not my own but I'm thinking about trying one) and need more yarn.

Starting some socks (They are bananas, it's a Plurk thing)

Visiting some friends in their new house (they had been in for merely hours when I showed up to spend the night)

This is Janna amid her kitchen trying to find her dishes (how many boxes of Steve's spices did we find??)

This is their house when I left in the early morning:

Princess B had her first ride on a school bus as the school took ALL the kindergarten kids to the Beach for the day. They weren't allowed to swim but they did get to dig in the sand, find animals and go on "adventures" (not sure what that means, but she had fun)--I think she had a good time:

Andrew had his birthday yesterday but he had work and other things to do--so we went to an end of the year BBQ and then he took Princess B to soccer as I had a meeting at the Church.
Not the greatest birthday but we are actually going to celebrate tomorrow.

Friend's of ours had their baby girl (Go look at the pictures, she is just gorgeous!!).

Hubby is out tonight with a friend, the kids are in their rooms (sleep HA!) so I am going to do some dyeing and couch with my new sock.

:)

I've found something more addictive

2008-06-15T16:57:00.006-04:00

than facecrack.

It's PLURK.

Thanks to Wendyknits and miss violet I have been plurking for a few days, and it's fun.
Basically it looks like a timeline and you can type messages and people respond.
It's instant (like instant messaging) and you can type whatever you want:
ie:
thechickswithsticks (thinks) plurk is addictive.

One fun thing is that Wendyknits released a sock pattern only to those on plurk--so fun!

So, if you'd like to give it a shot-- follow this link here to join as my friend!

Knitters Represent

2008-06-14T11:49:00.007-04:00

It's WWKIP Day!

Last year I partook with a friend at a local coffee shop and this year I did it again with another friend!

We decided to meet up for coffee and just sit and knit for a bit (there are NO events anywhere near us, so we improvise)

I met another knitting friend on the street, and a la Harlot, had her hold the sock.

Vic and I had some coffee and moved to the comfy couches....

...where another couple joined us to read the paper--and then....
she pulled out her knitting.
She didn't know it was WWKIP Day--but we chatted about all things knitting, the county and the fact that her mother has a radio show where she talks about knitting!!

They have a boat and are sailing around. They also have a blog.
I pointed to the LYS (visible from the coffee shop)

and then she let me blog her.

She has a sock knitting blog post here.

Lovely lady--I am going to try to find a vintage knitting pattern for her.
Anyone heard of the kitty hood? It's a hat knit all in one piece that has a neckband, covers the ears and has ear knit on the top.
Apparently it was famous years and years ago and she cannot find the pattern anywhere.

Anyways.
We then went on to Princess B's last swimming lesson, had an ice cream and ate the first 3 strawberries of the season.

What a great day!

The End of an Era

2008-06-12T12:14:00.010-04:00

aka
The last craft night on the Fry.
So....our very very good friends are finally at the leaving stage.
This Monday they pack their house and will be gone.
It's been a long time of saying good bye and not saying good bye.

Steve has been in Toronto at the new job since December so Janna and the kids have been selling the house and getting packed for the big day.
Monday is that day.
Last night was the last craft night at their house (aka on the Fry).
Some people couldn't make it, but we had a big turn out last week.

I was trying to figure out what pictures I could take--when it was just Janna and I left.

The laptop--is always on and we use it to check knitting patterns, sewing directions, g/chat with others that can't make it and use it for funny YouTube video breaks (my favourite is linked here)

Janna blogging me blogging her

The sewing machine. Where I learned to sew things--a bag, a sock fish and then I actually sewed something myself at home (gasp)

and the house....
this is how it looks when I leave at o'dark thirty in the morning (after craft night phase 2 has finally commenced--missed you Sophie)

So.......
.......there are no good-byes.

I will get to see them on Tuesday as I drive the boys to their new home and stay over (am I the first guest?? Huh? huh??) for an appointment in Toronto Wed.

You know it's hot when.

2008-06-10T08:17:00.003-04:00

It's a little game we play with our google tags. (Half of my friends are on gmail and we change our taglines to talk about what we are doing each day)
One friend said that she knew it was hot when she went to get coffee out of the thermal carafe and it was still hot--from yesterday.
I have had melty butter in the cupboard, but last night after soccer I gave the kids some limeade before bed--and in 20 minutes, it turned. Went all weird and the pulp stuck together. EWWW

So, Friday I was complaining that it was 23C in the house-yesterday it was 30C in our house--outside it was 30C with a humidex of 37+.
To channel Paris Hilton: "That's hot"

We are fortunate to have a pool.
We are fortunate that hubby has worked on the pool for 5 days straight to get it ready.
Sunday afternoon was first swim of the summer (expcet me, for some reason the 1 bathing suit I own is missing)
Yesterday I did swim (in shorts and t-shirt) with the kids.
It is going to be a long hot sweaty
can't do anything because it's too hot summer.

On the knitting front:
I have almost finished the final repeats on the Forest Canopy Shawl.
I want to make it bigger--but then might not figure out the edging.

I have made 1.5 more pattern repeats in the Kelly socks (Hi Kelly)--but they go very slowly with stretchy cotton yarn.

I hope to have something done soon--I don't' want to touch wooly wooly wool these days.

The garden is going well.
I haven't blogged about the garden this year yet...
I bought 3 tomato plants from Vicki's Annual Sale.
I also got an eggplant--last year's didn't to well , so I'm hoping this will be better.
I have garlic (some to use and some to replant in the fall), beans (the kids did bean plants at Church one Sunday), radishes (not really coming up), Carrots (didn't come up at all--how hard are carrots?), Squash and another squash (was supposed to be cucumber--that is the section it was in with all the other cucumber plants--but it's a blue hubbard squash).

I put lavender in (since my seeds don't ever want to grow)

Basil and mint (I have had a mint plant that I bring in each winter and put out again next year and have been doing that for 3 summers but this winter I forgot to water it at all, so it needed replacing), peas, lettuce, potatoes.
and finally 1 Kenya corn plant.
While we were in Kenya I used a corn kernel in a lesson for the kids one day. I kept the kernel and decided to plant it this year--and it's growing!!

:)

Summer Knitting Goals

2008-06-06T11:34:00.004-04:00

The heat is one.
It's 23C IN my house today
We had a picnic outside since Daddy is home. (Actually Princess B says: "We are having a picnic and YOU can help us get the food if you want". nice eh?)

So, I'm thinking summer knitting.
I have sock on the needles (always)
I have to finish the Picovoli--soon-ish would be nice.

Skeins her Way is having a summer knitting goal contest.
But my number 1 knitting goal:
Lace

I have started the Flower Basket Shawl (ans haven't worked on it in more than a week)
but I want to do a big shawl--an intricate, drool worthy, heirloom shawl.

I was thinking Icarus-but there are so many.

What shawls have you knit that you absolutely loved???

Happy

2008-06-04T12:59:00.003-04:00

Things that make me happy:

Happy Kids

Good Breakfast:

Daddy's home

What to say what to say

2008-06-03T19:42:00.010-04:00

Hubby has been away since last Wednesday and it's been busy around here.
2 kids, school, soccer, Church, shopping, sleepovers, swimming lessons.
The days have been long (mostly good days with a couple of really yucky ones in there--unhappy kids, unhappy Mommy--ick).

Thursday night after Princess B's first soccer game (she is number 5)

I cast on a pair of handspun socks (while supervising a sleepover where they stayed up way too late)

Not my handspun, but from MerlintheCat.
I scored it on a super sale in the Spring and for some reason even though it has been getting warmer around here I wanted warm woolly socks.

(OOOH she has more handspun sock yarn for sale--for $15.00--someone stop me)

I used a toe up recipe from The Twisted Sisters Sock Book (love love that book) and it was cool.
The heel they call an hourglass heel, but it actually is the same short row heel that Priscilla Gibson-Roberts does, as I learned it from Alison.

I finished them Saturday--not bad for three nights of knitting.
I split the ball in half and just knit until the yarn was gone--it comes really tall up my calf, not that you can really tell in the picture.
I love the way it sort of stripes with the pink.

Other than that--we have been getting our Porch fixed. Originally it was supposed to be just floor boards but we found out that the supports are rotting and may not have lasted much longer (ie: porch and roof over porch falling down)

See the space--that is where the support beam is not attached to the porch. Nice eh?
We figure that the porch may be as old as this house (108) because of the way it was constructed--but not sure.

Princess B went to her friends house Saturday all day until Church on Sunday and it was very quiet around here w/out her around.
Little man had fun splashing in his pool/sandbox (the naked part was his idea)

We ate the 2 carrots that were growing in the garden from LAST YEAR:

That's about it.
I have done some dyeing, had some sales and won't get to go to my Spinning Guild meeting tomorrow-but am looking forward to craft night with my favourite birthday girl.

2008-05-31T12:42:00.003-04:00

First off, I am a bad blogger.
Now I feel better and can write this post.
Yesterday we had a wonderful visit with my cousin, his wife and their two boys 4 and 2. It was such a blessing to have that time with them. I had not seen them in 5 years- since the day of their wedding and had never met those gorgeous boys. The boys played with Giraffe for 5 hours without a fuss, acting like they had know each other for years, while the grown ups got caught up on family news and the like. I hated to see them drive away that night. I walked back in the house to put Giraffe to bed and what do I see on the kitchen counter, untouched for the entire visit- my camera! How can you have a family visit and not take a single picture? I am a bad blogger.
They are planning another visit in November and I am committing to taking a picture every 5 minutes.
My family is such a blessing and this visit was especially meaningful as there has been distance (miles and emotional) over the past few years between the families and now we are getting back on track. God is so good to them that love Him.

In other news, hubbo is back on nights after 3 years of days. He is adjusting well already, I on the other hand am unable to settle down to sleep without him there. I know this too will pass. Giraffe is trying to get used to being quiet in the mornings to let Daddy sleep- he is now at least old enough to try and be quiet.
My job is just crazy right now and we are feeling the pressure of deadlines and major undertakings as we are counting down the days til summer break (yeah summer). But I am loving it more and more, enjoying the supportive staff, the amazing (and challenging) kids we are working with and the job itself.
I am planning to take myself out for a treat today, maybe to a yarn sale or fibre fest if I can get the details. I need a little break from Giraffe who is overtired and unpleasant right now.
Later