Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Christmas.

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

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

Santa came and even put the star on the tree!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am feeling very blessed and thankful this Christmas.

:)

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

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

We're home..

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

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

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

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

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

1 night and 1 afternoon of knitting gave me these.

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

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

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

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


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

The kids still had fun.

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Yes Virginia, there really is a blog

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

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

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

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

I dont' think I ever showed you the yarn!

Here are the skeins waiting to be shipped:


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

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

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


This is my new electric skein winder from CrazyMonkey.

I heart this machine more than my dishwasher.

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

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

Love love love.

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

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

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

:)

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

How to decorate for the Holidays

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


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


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



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



Can we do it again next year??

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Secret gifts

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

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

I love soap!

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

I can show you one secret Christmas gift:

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

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

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

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

:)

Monday, November 24, 2008

It's all over


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.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Wow

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???

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Weird things meme

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!

Monday, November 03, 2008

Spinning and Stuff

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...."

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

There has been knitting.

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.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Cruise!



Cruise!!!!

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


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Thanksgiving

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)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Fall fun

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!

Thursday, October 09, 2008

9 years!

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Dyeing


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).


Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Parenting post

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.
:)

Monday, September 29, 2008

Busy weekend


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.