Hot Wheels Wreath

Last night was not my night to knit or try to change the contents of my Ipod Nano. Neither project went according to plan.

As I was working on the shawl, I looked down and realized that I had made a mistake. Just a small mistake. 15 ROWS BACK! So I frogged it and put the project down. Knitting while frustrated and ticked is not a Martha Stewart "Good Thing" moment.

So I wanted to add some podcasts to the Nano. Found out for some strange reason that I had run out of disk space. Gee, it could be that there were about 30 songs on there twice! Took forever to fix it too. Itunes is not the most intuitive program. Wish they'd at least emulate Windows Explorer or something for moving stuff around on the damn thing.

But today things turned around. Not with the above projects though.

When I became a room mom (read this as "got volunteered and still don't know how to say no to teachers") for my son's first grade class, who knew that my mad crafty skillz would be needed so often? There is a Fall Festival on Thursday and there is a themed wreath competition between all the classes. Guess who got to decorate and come up with a theme on just a couple of days notice?

So, this afternoon I got busy. I figured that this is after all a fundraiser and that parents try and win these things by buying more raffle tickets. I also kept in mind the pressure that little boys can exert on unsuspecting parents. I decided on a Hot Wheels theme cause every boy I ever met - young and old, goes crazy for cars.

I had one grapevine wreath to work with that the school provided. I bought 10 cars, 1 bandana with flames (for the background), 1 bag of stickers, 1 small monster truck, 1 hot wheels candy dispenser, 2 rolls of yellow satin ribbon, and two rolls of this shiny garland stuff with stars in red and blue. Oh, and one $10.00 gift card to Toys R' Us.

Here is the result of a couple of hours of labor on it (done during youngest's nap time of course and only burning myself once with the hot glue gun.): Click on photos to enlarge.

Here with too much light from flash that makes the cards too shiny to read.

Here with not enough flash so that it's a touch blurry.

I defy anyone to say that if they were a little boy they wouldn't be squealing for this! Personally, I know this to be true since Eldest already got himself into mucho trouble over this project. Whining about how he can't have even one car and kicking the carpet on the floor over it is not the way to win and influence mommies. Just sayin'.

Close up of the ribbon on the wreath.

Close up of the center of the wreath.

You can't see it, but there is the coolest bandana as the background in the center.

Close up of the baby who not 10 minutes ago was in full on temper tantrum "I'm damn mad cause I was told no and want the world to know it" mode and wasn't nearly so happy after he took a swat at Mommy and she swatted him back. I'm glad to say that while he wasn't smiling, Mommy was smiling just fine.

2 Product Recommendations

2 product recommendations for you:

First, let me say that I am in no way affiliated with the companies that develop and market these products. I am strictly a happy consumer.

1. Shark Steam Blaster

I have tile floors in my kitchen. I love my tile floors. What I don't love is the Georgia Red Clay that sinks into your grout and never comes out. You can't get this out by mopping. It's just not going to happen. If you live in a place where you don't have red clay, let me know, I'll come live with you. Just count your blessings, trust me.

So I borrowed this steam blaster from my folks on the off chance that it might work.

I'm absolutely amazed at the difference. This are the same tiles in both the before and after shots.

Here's a couple of before shots:
Ick! The grout looks nasty

This just grossed me out. I wiped away the excess water caused by the steamer and look what happened to the towels. The one on the left was ivory. Blecch! What scares me is that I have mopped within the last couple of weeks. The thought of the baby playing in this filth just makes me sick. But! Look at the after pics.

Now here's what it looked like after just one pass over the grout and tile:

Wow, what a difference!

It needs to be done again as you can still see a little clay in the grout, but not today. My back is killing me now. I have a huge freakin' kitchen with breakfast nook and the tile is in there and then goes into the hallway and laundry room. It took me forever to go over all the grout in these rooms.

Gee, I guess I'll just have to go sit in my favorite chair and knit. Poor me.




2. Holloway House Quick Shine


This stuff is so fantastic. I thought that my hardwood floors had seen better days and were going to have to be completely sanded and redone. Nope. This stuff makes your hardwood and tile floors shine like crazy.

I used this after I finished up the kitchen. It looks so awesome now.


Now that I feel like I've done something productive, I think I'll go get that knitting done. Have a great weekend!

WIPs and FOs

I got some Finished Objects for you today!

First off, I finally blocked the Annie Modesitt Silk Corsett Top. This may be one of the nicest pieces of clothing that I own. Fits like a dream too. As long as I hold in my stomach. Note to self: Eat less, Exercise more.

I got a great deal on the buttons. Buttons are not cheap. There are twenty of them on this piece. I found some simple pearly buttons that were 6 for 90 cents at Joann's. The hubby thought this was outrageous until I told him the usual price for buttons, some of the cheaper being 3 or 4 to a pack that costs $3 or $4. He has absolutely no clue the cost of anything. Obviously he is not the one that does the shopping in the house, huh?

Here's the stats:

Pattern: Annie Modesitt Silk Corsett Top
Yarn: Bamboo by the Bag from DBNY (Discontinued Brand Name Yarn) in Cobalt
Needles: Sz 7
# of times frogged before success: 5
# yarn balls used: 1.5
Total Cost: Around $10.00 - Not bad, don't ya think?

Ubiquitous Bathroom Mirror Pic

Second up: Laburnum Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks w/ a picot edge. Probably won't do the picot edge again. I don't think I really like it. I do absolutely love the colors in this yarn though.



And here is the new WIP: The Clementine Shawlette from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. I'm using Lion Brand Micro Spun in White for this one. I take back what I said about acrylic yarns. They are not all bad and this one proves it. It glides on the needles like buttah and is so incredibly soft. I'm going to have to pick up some more of this and make a simple sweater out of it. Just for me, natch.

I'm a little further along than this now, but this was the pic I had.

No, it's not a tie, it really is going to be a shawl.

I'm new to chart reading. All the instructions that I am comfortable with are written out for me or are at least combined with charts. This is the first pattern that I have done that was chart only.

I had a really confusing moment on this that stalled all progress. For those who may have a similar problem:

There is a point where the pattern kind of stair-steps in for a decrease. I was stumped on what I needed to do. What I needed to do was nothing. This is called a "no-stitch" part of the pattern. I just needed to start the whole thing with the next stitch which was a knit. The decrease came in the middle of the row. I was used to seeing the decrease on the same row as the yarn overs. This row just leaves out the yo's and voila! the row takes care of itself. Thank you to the folks on Knitty who helped me out with this!

Need new WIPs

Can you believe it? I currently have absolutely nothing on the needles. For some unknown reason, both of my WIPs managed to get finished at the same time. I'm getting edgy already. My fingers need something to do.

So what did I do? I made the mistake of looking at the yarn sale board over at the Knitty Coffeeshop. I now have some yummy Colrain yarn coming my way to make the Minimalist Cardigan from Fall 2007 IK. The subtle color of the Grey/Olive yarn will be perfect for this cardi.

Here's the Grey/Olive yarn:

Minimalist Cardigan

AND I need a shawl for this one summer dress that I have. I bought the yarn for that on Monday.

So, now I need to get to work. I need to cast on and make my Dad some socks as well.

Duct tape can fix anything

Well, our luck (my hubby says there's no such thing as luck, but I think he' full of crap) turned for the better on the weekend. Eldest had a wonderful birthday weekend. There were presents, family, a moonwalk and fireworks galore and no major disasters (barring one incident with a face scratching cat, of course - Eldest was safe, youngest, not so much.)

I'm afraid the moonwalk was not all that we hoped for and once blown up was not like the picture that I posted previously. There were a gazillion small holes in it. The previous owner did not take good care of it. I need to buy a lot of official patch kits for it. But! There's a reason that my Dad says that duct tape can fix everything (he also says the same about kerosene, but that's another post.) I now present to you, The Official Redneck Moonwalk!

Check out that duct tape!

Eldest loved it anyway and had a wonderful time.

My dad took this wonderfully unflattering pic of me eating a celery stick.

My knitting totally sucked this weekend. I made the mistake of picking up an old ball of acrylic yarn to take and knit with while I was at my folks house. It made my hands ache so bad I pitched the whole thing. Note to self - ditch all synthetic yarn! Not only does it squeak when you knit with it, it doesn't glide on the needles. That's reason enough for me to become a yarn snob. Even if it does cost a few pennies more!

Free Breast Augmentations!

That's it. I'm moving to Australia and joining the military!
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22424066-2,00.html

Little black rainclouds

I'm starting to think there's a little black rain cloud following me around. It's not like we're not already having financial troubles or anything and stressing over that.

Well, I got a phone call yesterday around 2pm from the eldest's school. It seems some older, bigger kid came running around a corner and mowed the eldest down. When he fell, his wire rimmed glasses tore a nice gash on his forehead. I got him, practically threw the youngest out the car door at his grandmother's and headed for the doctor.

I wanted to go straight to Scottish Rite hospital but the hubby said to call the doctor first and see if they could take care of it. I called the doc on the phone and they said "We can't do stitches, you'll have to take him to Urgent Care" and they gave me the phone number. I then drove to the Urgent Care place. Once there I heard "I'm sorry, but we don't take your insurance." So, I called the insurance people as I got back in the car and was told to go to the next location. Got there finally, and was told "We can't do this, you'll have to head to Scottish Rite hospital."

By this time, I was absolutely fuming. All I wanted was to at least get the Eldest some kind of pain meds and then stitches. Of course it was 4:30ish. I had to go and fight afternoon Atlanta traffic (rush hour starts at 3:30) to go to the hospital. I should have done what I wanted to do all along and head straight there.

We finally got someone to look at him. It turns out the gash on the forehead was almost down to the bone. Poor baby. He was a real trooper the whole time. He got 10 stitches in his forehead. He was absolutely starving during all this and they wouldn't let him eat or drink the whole time we were there (which was a while). He hadn't eaten since 11:30 that morning. We didn't get home until after 8:30pm and he was losing it emotionally thanks to low blood sugar, exhaustion and the trauma of it all. And to top it off, I forgot to grab my knitting out the door. Although, I did get to watch the doctor do some stitching on the kid and that was so cool!


Here's the eldest in all his stitchly glory:



That was yesterday. But wait! It gets better.

Today around 5pm I walked into the garage and it was flooded. Turns out, the hot water heater busted and water was everywhere. We flew into action and started throwing towels and blankets down and moving boxes around. Our garage is packed with boxes and junk. not good. You know things are bad when the emergency plumber comes over and says "Holy Moly!"

I am trying to contain the kids inside now and stay out of hubby's way. He's not the happiest nicest person right now. Stress pretty much brings out his evil side.

Do we have cash to pay for the past two days? No. But we do have a credit card! yeah for credit cards!

On the bright side, we get a nice shiny new hot water heater! Maybe, just maybe, I will be able in the future to take a shower and not get scalded or have my body painfully soaked with cold water when someone flushes the toilet. Got to love the bright side!

Annie Modesitt Silk Corset Top

Well, I had a choice yesterday. I could blog or I could knit. Knitting won. But only because I was so freakin' close to finishing the Annie Modesitt Silk Corset Top. Except mine is done in bamboo, not silk and was worked size 7 needles, not size 6 as called for in the pattern. I have to do the single crochet around the neckline today and I still need buttons, which I plan on getting this afternoon. I also plan on getting some grosgrain ribbon to sew in behind the button band to stabilize the opening and keep it from gaping. I may end up sewing the two sides together if the grosgrain plan doesn't work and just put it on by sliding over my head. We'll see. This thing is so beautiful. I'm very proud of myself. I didn't think I'd ever get this project this far.

Word of warning to the beginning knitter about this pattern:

1. Annie is a damn genius when it comes to yarn and sticks, but this pattern is not written for beginners. I consider myself somewhere in the beginning Intermediate range of knitting skills and it took frogging it 5 times for me to finally get the pattern. She assumes that you already know how to knit.

2. Some of the directions were not self explanatory. The mini-cables come to mind. Simple once you figure out which stitches to cable, but she doesn't exactly point this out. She also is not very clear on repeats of each section and how many times to do each.

3. When you do attempt this pattern, use lifelines and lots of stitch markers! I could have saved myself a world of trouble if I had bothered to do this after and or during each section of the pattern.

4. Also, it is critical that you look very closely at the long written out instructions about each section as you go along. This makes you have to constantly flip between the beginning of the pattern and the charts/knittese (my own made up word for knitting language).

5. This pattern requires concentration. This is not a pattern to do in the company of others while chatting. Also not good to do on the side of a basketball court when the basketball players are all 6 and 7 years of age and have no control over the ball. just sayin'.

6. One more note about the pattern. This comes in a .pdf. It prints out really wonky too. I know she mentions how to put it together, but this never worked for me. I just cut out each page, put it in the right order and made a booklet out of it with staples.

Those things being said and warned about, I loved this pattern. It's beautiful all knitted up and you don't get bored during the knitting process. (Possibly frustrated, but not bored.) I learned a ton of stuff during this project, mostly about reading my own knitting.

Here's some pics of the corset so far. Please remember this has not been completely finished and has not been blocked.

Overall view. pre-blocked

View of the lace-worked ruffled bottom edge./pre-blocked

View of the Neckline - pre-crocheted. pre-blocked

Knittingfool

This post is mainly a note to myself, but feel free to look this up yourselves!

Thanks to the Knitty forum, I found a fantastic site for knitting stitches. As described in the forum, it's kinda like the online version of the Barbara Walker treasuries. You can see it here at the Knitting Fool.

Pavarotti and Sting

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Sting fanatic. I absolutely adore his music, with or without The Police. What they probably don't know is that I also really loved to listen to Pavarotti. The man had the voice of an angel. Nobody did it better. I was so sad to learn of Pavarotti's death a few days ago.

Today I found a video on YouTube of them both together. I really love this. They blend very well together. It's surprising considering the vastly different music genres that they represented. This was done in 1992 and I could watch it over and over.

big score!

Today was such a fun day. Today was the day that the committee of the Lil' Lambs Closet consignment sale got to shop for goodies. We get the first pick and usually the best stuff that comes through the doors on both toys and clothing. Of course we work our proverbial behinds off to get that privilege though.

I got a major score. A Moonwalk/Slide Combo! It was $95. Around these parts, you can't even begin to rent one of these for a day for that price. I'll be able to use this for both boys' birthday parties for years. I was thrilled at this buy. Yes, it was a much bigger purchase on one item than I would normally buy, but when you stretch the price by several years, wow. And, my brother can borrow it for his kids too. My kids don't know about it yet. We're taking it to the lake for Eldest's birthday on the 15th to surprise him with it. Well, it'll be a surprise if we can keep it hidden. It's rather huge.

It looks similar to this when blown up:

It's not a castle though. I'll post pics when we've got it up and running. Cool!

Wake me when it's over

I'm tired of the second sock. Second Sock Syndrome has arrived. I just want this sock to be over and done with. I've only got about two inches or so left on the leg and then it'll finally be over. It's not that I don't like these socks or that I'm tired of the color of the yarn or anything. I think I'm just tired in general.

Wake me when it's over please.

*****

I finally finished organizing my consignment sale stuff and got it turned in and now I'm concentrating on my actual committee job of dealing with the phones. When a sale begins, we have a registration and the people who want to sell their kid stuff get a seller number. Once we are out of numbers, well, we're out. However, these people I deal with over the phone, just don't get the concept. I can't give a seller number out if I don't have one can I? I even say that plainly on the voicemail that they listen to. Still, they beg, they plead, they demand, they get mean or they try reasoning to get one of the numbers. I crack up at the reasons they use to try and coerce me into giving them a number. An couple of examples of a voicemail like this would be:

"Hi. I'm XXXX XXXXXXX, and I'm a church member so I should be given a number. Mrs. VVVVVVV said it would be ok."

or,

"Hi, I'm BBBBB BBBBB, and my neighbor's uncle's cousin's children go to the preschool there. So, can I have a number?"

*****

Let me tell ya, Widget was a huge help in the organizing of the clothes I had to sell!

Everything looks fine from under here!

Happy Birthday Post

Happy Birthday to my Computer Geek Baby Brother! He's 32 today!

new toy

I got a new toy in the mail yesterday - a ball winder. Did I get to use it? Well, yes and no. It did get used, just not by me. I did get a new cake of yarn out of it and got to see the new swift in action.

Everyone get in on the winding

My parents brought the Westie (named Minnie Pearl) to visit too. She and the youngest watched it rain for a while. It amazes me sometimes what babies find fascinating.

This was too cute not to share.

Dogs!

This might be one of the best knit sweaters that I've ever seen. Go check it out. Someone's got a great imagination.


Remember the exploding dog I spoke of in my last post? Well here she is in all her Chow/Shepard fuzzybutt goodness:

Hi, I'm Jette and my hobbies are exploding and chasing cats

I'm also into begging for whatever you're eating

And this is her furry counterpart, Cessna, the Spaniel/Beagle alpha dog. Yes, we named our dogs after airplanes. We figured Jette was bigger and faster and Cessna was smaller and slower and somehow the names just stuck. We had Jette first and someone else had already named her. When we brought Cessna home from the pound, she just sort of took over the leadership position and now runs the entire household.

Hi I'm Cessna, but you may call me boss mama

First, Next and Last

First Up: Child update - better, but not all there yet. All I'll say about that.

Next Up: Consignment sale madness is here! Check out the wreck of a dining room. Imagine the opposite side of the room and the back wall and most of the dining room table looking roughly the same and you'll have an accurate picture of what I am trying to sort, enter on a spreadsheet and tag. AAAAHHH! And this is just the winter stuff folks. There's almost as much summer clothing in the attic. Ick! Please ignore any dog hair that you see on the floor. She exploded on the floor. (She's a chow mix and it's really frickin' hot here and instead of shedding outside she did it inside in about two hours. God help me.) I promise it's been cleaned up. I have to try (really hard) and look at it like it's black roving as I vacuum it up or I'll completely gross out. Thank goodness the rest of the house is hard wood or tile. Can we please get those organization, cleaning people from tv to come clean this mess up? Also, the dog whisperer guy while we're at it. Maybe he can train her to roll and shed somewhere besides my dining room carpet. The rest of the house looks quite different. just so you know.

Help!

Last Up: Knitting! If you've read the previous couple of installments in my life, you will know why this sock is going so slowwwwlllyyyy. So, here to brighten up the sock with a little luxury is an emerald green velvet background. Of course the sock is inside out, cause I wanted it that way. That's just how I roll dude.

More for the hypochondriacs

Update: Well, last night was not fun for Mommy. Youngest's temperature spiked at 105.5. We were up with him watching the Wiggles in the middle of the night while giving him a sponge-bath and filling him up with Tylenol. He's back down to 101 and much better as of this morning. Not completely happy, but not listless anymore.

More for the hypochondriacs out there: Who Is Sick? Here's the write up for it:

"Misery loves company, and if you're a sicko who can't find any good real-world company, you can now turn to the virtual world with the Who Is Sick? database. This fun beta site maps out illnesses, showing you who's got what (runny nose, cough, fever, headache, muscle ache, stomach ache, or whatever) and where. It's a beta site, so the interface can be buggy at times, and it's hit or miss whether any sickies have joined up yet from your neighborhood. Still, it's a good little time-waster-and when you're sick, it can be oddly comforting to know that others nearby are suffering the same symptoms."

Obviously, knitting is down to a crawl at this point. I am in the middle of the heel now though.

hy·po·chon·dri·a

hy·po·chon·dri·a (hī'pə-kŏn'drē-ə)
n.

1. The persistent conviction that one is or is likely to become ill, often involving symptoms when illness is neither present nor likely, and persisting despite reassurance and medical evidence to the contrary. Also called hypochondriasis.
2. Plural of hypochondrium.

I may be one of the worst hypochondriacs in known existence. If someone around me sneezes, has the sniffles, has a temperature (that's a fever for those of you not raised in the south), has aches and pains, headaches, etc. I start feeling some of those same symptoms. All too often I manage to talk myself into being sick. It's tragic, I swear.

Why do I bring this up you ask? At around 2:30 am, the youngest child alarm went off. He was inconsolable and burning up at 102 degrees. I got lucky and got him back to sleep in his own bed at around 3:30. Today he was absolutely horrible to live with. Still had a temperature, had a runny nose, was grumpy and Mommy could do no right.

By 5pm I could swear I was starting to get the same symptoms! Jeez. That's just what I need.

I would have gotten a picture of the little miserable creature, but I was afraid that if I got my camera out he would pretend to be one of those arrogant superstars that grab cameras and smash them. Besides, it's hard to grab a camera when you have to hold a 20 month old all day.

UPDATE (11:59pm): Two hours ago we were frantically trying to get his temp. down from 105 degrees. It worked somewhat (much better), it's around 100 degrees now. Depending on how well he sleeps, you might be getting another update in a few hours. PS - the hubby just started complaining of phantom aches, it totally cracked me up. There's two of us in the house!

New Yarn

New yarn! This will be used to make a pair of socks for Dad for Christmas. There's more yarn coming in the mail and a new toy! I'll show ya as soon as I get it!

Sorry, dark pic. Click to enlarge and see more detail.

If it can be climbed while holding a chocolate chip cookie and wearing pajamas, then it should be climbed while holding a chocolate chip cookie and wearing pajamas!

After going off on some major tangents, we now return you to your regularly scheduled knitting blog:

"The house has gone to pot, but my knitting is proceeding fabulously"

Today, it's Progress Report Time!

First, Evening knitting: After numerous debacles with the Annie Modesitt Silk Corset Top, I think I've finally figured it out. I'm so glad I frogged the first one. I found a major error that I made the first few (or 4 or 5) times. I'm not talking about the kind of error where you realize that, oops, you have an extra stitch on your needles and you just k2tog to fudge it. Nope, this was one of those big 'ol mama, never going to be able to recover from, errors.

I am finally reading this pattern the way it was meant to be read. Please don't ask me why I didn't get it the first couple (or bazillion) times around. What's that funny colored line going through the project, you ask? This time I got smart and put in a lifeline. Can ya see it? I figured that if I have to frog back, it's only going to be a portion this time and not the whole friggin' thing!

Coming along nicely now, thanks for askin'

I'm amazed at all the things that I am continually learning with my knitting. Not just new techniques, but really learning to read the stitches. As a self-taught person, I don't exactly do each technique the way others would, but the results are the same as long as I pay attention.

One thing that I've noticed is that when I'm working in the round, whether it be socks or sweaters, is that I knit through the front loop and everything is fine. However, when I work flat, evidently I do something a little wonky with my purling and end up having to knit through the back loop to keep my stitches from being twisted. I figure as long as I pay attention, I'll be just fine. I just have to be careful with those patterns that say to knit through the back loop and do the opposite. Does anyone else have these kinds of issues?



Second Item, Car Pool Line knitting: . Almost ready to start the heel.

The second sock proceedeth thusly

Imponderable of the Day: Why, with all the toys that are overflowing out of every pore of this freakin' house, must a baby play with (and in) a box? Do houses really have pores?

Cuteness in a Pampers box!

Interesting, yet scary

This has absolutely nothing to do with knitting or family, I just thought it was neat. I spend a lot of time roaming the internet. One of the sites I go to is called Digg. I found this through a posting on that site.

Now, I knew that you can trace an IP address, I just never knew how. Now I know. You can go to this site here and find out more about it and other neat stuff, or you can watch the video below. What I find interesting about this, is that any and every site that you visit (not interact with, just visit) collects your IP address.

Yes, even the bloggers like me can see 'em. I'm only going to do this to my Mom to freak her out though, not you. I promise. But Mom's are fair game! :)

They could trace you to either your residence or work place using this technique. The government has been doing this for years. Hackers have been doing this for years.

I know that there are ways to hide your IP address and if you want that information you're gonna have to Google it for yourselves cause I don't have a clue. But, for every way that I learn how to hide it, I'm positive that the hackers (who are usually smarter than you and me put together) and the government have figured out how to get around my hiding it. So what's the point?

Interesting yet scary huh?

Adblock

Trace Any IP Address Or Website! - video powered by Metacafe

Apt huh?

Truly Apt huh? (If you're confused, please see previous post.)

click to enlarge

Stuffed pig's feet and potato chip salad

Do you truly appreciate how your parents can affect you for the rest of your life?

My Dad used to work for Eastern Airlines before they went defunct. While checking everybody in as they arrived for their flight, he got tired of constantly hearing "what's the meal on this flight?" So, one day he answered "Catfish, grits and jello." Needless to say he got some funny looks, but the people quit asking stupid questions.

I, too, get the question "Mom, what's for dinner?" every night as I'm cooking. You'd think that the eldest would learn to stop asking this question.

The other night I made stuffed chicken. The way it was wrapped suggested the look of a hoof. I also made au gratin potatoes from a box. When asked the inevitable question, I answered "Stuffed pig's feet and potato chip salad." You should have seen the look on his face.

Another time my answer was "Dog food with fish poopy water (from the aquarium of course) to drink."

You really would think that he'd quit askin' wouldn't ya?

blogiversary

AAgghh! Would you believe I missed my blogiversary on August 8th? Not only the first anniversary of my blog but the first anniversary of my first ever knitted Finished Object! I was so proud of that first FO. Even if it was done flat in Red Heart acrylic. I proved to myself that I can do this knitting stuff!

Yep, I've been knitting for approximately one year now. Man, it's gone by fast and I've learned a ton. Thank you all you Knitty and Craftster folks for all your assistance in the learning process!

Supervisor Widget says what a great idea this blog was that she had!

Seriously great day

Today was a seriously good day. I ditched all motherly duties and responsibilities, foisted them off on the hubby and went shopping for makeup and purses and cheesecake. We're talkin' serious heaven here folks.

AND, I got a sock off the needles:



Taking a picture of a sock on your foot and making sure the picture is clear is not the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. The second sock is already on the needles, but may take a while to complete since I'm only working on it in the afternoon school car pool lines. Oh the joy of being a knitting mom. Doesn't my life sound exciting?

So, I'm going to make myself sit down in the evenings and start working on the corset again. I got seriously bummed by ripping it off the needles 4 times. I WILL finish this. I want it, I have to have it and I will look so sexy-fine wearing it too! :)

Lookit Mah New Toy!

I was in a Walmart the other day with my Mom and the eldest. We were in the craft section looking at some baskets (the Westie needed something to contain her ever growing amount of toys.) I was in site of but nowhere near the yarn section when I heard a small voice saying very loudly "Avoid the Yarn Temptation Mom!" Now really, I would never ::cough:: ever ::cough:: even dream of looking at yarn. really. No more VeggieTales morality stories for him.

***

Lookit Mah New Toy!

Shea's New Yarn Swift!

My awesome friend Darrell made me a Yarn Swift! For free! Or at least close to it - I did take him out to lunch for it. He's amazing! Not only does it work, it's collapsible. I'll need to make a case to hold it, but I'm so stoked about this! I've already ordered some new yarn so I can play with it. :)

He got extra brownie points from the 19 mo. old. The kid loves anything that spins. He's spent tons of time whirling this thing around. He thinks it's his and not mine!

Garfield Wannabe

Does your cat do this? How do they breathe like this? It can't be comfortable can it?

Hi, I'm Tiger and I'm a Garfield Wannabe.

Earricuss Gigantus

Messiouss Babious + Mosquitoe = Earricuss Gigantus

This is what happens when a 19 month old and an itty-bitty mosquito rendezvous. You get a hugely swollen ear. Notice how it's standing straight out from his head! When the youngest woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon, he had a huge Dumbo ear. I rushed him to the doctor to find out why my baby had elephantitus of the ear. The doctor just glanced at him and said "oh, it's just a bug bite." So, $30 dollars spent to be told he had a bug bite. lovely. The swelling is still not completely down, but it's getting better.

Sillius Boyius with new Glasses

Yesterday was a lovely comedy of errors. First, found giganta ear on baby. Second, made Dr. appointment. Then, left 20 minutes early to pick up eldest from first day of school. This part was HELL. Very unorganized pick up situation due to construction and first day confusion. This resulted in us being 20 minutes late to the doctor. Only to be told about the bug bite.

Oh Well. Today was much better. Thank God. I actually got two repeats done on the sock I was knitting in the car pool line.

Happy Dance, New Sock

Use your imagination for a moment and picture me at this moment doing a major happy dance. YIPPEEEE!!! School has started once again!

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY.

Ok, I feel better now. I was sick to death of hearing "Mom, what can I do?" said in a whiny tone of voice. When I made suggestions, they were never the ones Eldest wanted to hear. I swear, People with no children will never understand the joy that school starting again can bring.

Proud of himself!

I promised I'd show the new sock that I'm working on. This is from Charlene Schurch's book, Sensational Knitted Socks. This is the Laburnum Socks. I'm using the red and purple yarn that I dyed here. I've been itching to try the yarn out and see how it would work up and I love it! Lookee - stripes! Even the gray is getting in on the act. I'm impressed. I wasn't even looking to make self-striping yarn.

OOOH, AAHH!

Look closely at the terrible Microsoft Paint addition to the photo. See, I do my best knitting if I have something to listen to. The Green is what I managed to do at my Mom and Dad's last week during idle chitchat. The Yellow is the heel I completed watching Mission Impossible 1. The Red/Blue was done watching M.I.2 Have I told you how much that movie sucks? Consider this my first movie review. (Yes, if you didn't know before, you know now - I'm like umpteen dozen years behind in movies.) Why did I get so little done? I walked out of the living room after about 20 minutes or so. I left the hubby to torture himself with the rest of the movie.