Birthday!

8 years ago today we were blessed with a son. he has been the main source of laughter to all of us since the moment he was born. labour with him was fairly fast... 7 and a half hours. it started when i woke up that morning and was over at 2:37 when Jake made his appearance. i cannot even imagine life without my son ever again, even if one of my first reactions after i heard "you have a boy!" was "what do i do with a boy?!"

that's the little outfit he wore home from the hospital John's holding up to him. and after spending a little time with him, now i know what to "do" with my son and i wouldn't trade him for 100 daughters.

Jake decided he wanted to go get a Christmas tree with my mum, dad and brother today and have our cousin Elijah spend the night. here's some photos from our day.

Twilleys of Stamford Spirit mitten

sorta. it's coming along slowly because i feel guilty every time i pick it up to work on it... i really should finish the Christmas knitting first, right? but, ugh, look at it! the stripes are awesome! the wool is lovely to work with... so tempting!

i coloured my hair today. and the boy and i got haircuts - he wasn't in the mood for pictures, so i had to sneak that one while he was busy watching cartoons - just in time to look decent for Christmas.

new toaster

John enjoyed the fire stories the kids told him with excitement when he got home from work yesterday. the kids were happy to retell the whole tale before he could even get his shoes off.

maybe that's a good thing... because we all went out and got a new toaster. lol. a cool retro-ish one in an ugly blue (LOVE it!). $20. thank you very much Home Depot!

so no knitting to share. i've spent far too much time vacuuming, wiping, scrubbing and cursing (but in a loving way) the substance in fire extinguishers... who knew it got *everywhere*?

FIRE!!!!

holy shit. what a morning. the toaster caught on fire. everything is fine. the fire is out. no major damage (the bottom of the cupboard that was over the toaster is a little blackened, but nothing that requires much more than a good scrubbing and a little face lift). a lot of mess though - ash *everywhere*. and let me say that i will NEVER EVER EVER live without a fire extinguisher in the house. ever. without my ugly fire extinguisher i'm sure things would have gotten worse.

i'm just trying to calm down a bit before continuing the clean up. i'll go back into the kitchen soon to clean up the rest. and then shower and call to have my fire extinguisher recharged.

so... my PSA for the day... make sure you have a fire extinguisher in your house!

Austermann Step socks... done!

i hope my brother likes 'em.

stress relief... ahhhhhh

a "new to us" van. erg. a mini van. the epitome of parenthood. it took us ten years to reach this low. and i have to admit, it's pretty comfy! we always said we'd never do the mini van thing. it's so... domestic... it screams "we have kids! we are parents! we are no longer hip or cool!"...

yeah. but it's perfect. John's tools fit nicely into it with *loads* of room to spare, so it's great when he heads to work in it. the kids like the height of the seats (they can see out the windows!). and the room... ahhhh... it's rather nice to have elbow room... and elbow room to spare too!

erg... climbing into a mini van, no matter how big my gothy boots are or how dark my eye make-up is, just kills all hint of cool/goth/hip i might have had left at 31. guess i just need to accept it, stretch out and enjoy the ride, huh!

back to Woolly's i went...

i dropped off my charity mittens at Woolly's yarn store this afternoon (picture taken by my daughter... she's such a sweetie). and somehow the latest issue of knitscene followed me home. i think i'll have to find time to knit Stefanie Japel's "Turquoise Romantic" pattern in this issue - LOVE it!

a great morning was had by (almost) all...

lookie... my secret santa package!! it's from Carrie!!! excitement!!!!


inside were these lovely gifts... i almost didn't want to open them right away. i was tempted to leave them and put them under the Christmas tree because they looked so pretty all wrapped and festive!


look at this!! she cross-stitched a little ornament! i *love* this!!! it's going on the Christmas tree this year.


"hey mom, we'll help you open them!"


"oh. it's just knitting stuff."


*just* knitting stuff?! these kids do not have a proper appreciation for yarn or Nancy Bush do they. i am *so* excited to have received this book from Carrie... it's been on my wish list for*ever*! i love Nancy Bush! and the yarn... also exciting! i haven't ordered from KnitPicks because the shipping to Canada is crazy high. she picked the perfect colourway in the Simple Stripe sock yarn. LOVE the colours!! Jakob loves 'em too... after his initial "oh it's just yarn" reaction he decided "hey, mom, i would like some socks in that yarn!!" hrmm... i guess they have some appreciation for knitting if Jake knew right off the bat that this was sock yarn. i must be doing something right ;)



all in all... i LOVE my Secret Santa gift!! now i really really really have to finish my Christmas knitting so i can get to this stuff :D

simply irresistable!

i have no self control. i had seen Twilleys of Stamford's Spirit Wool online a few times and thought it looked beautiful in the pictures. i have used Twilleys of Stamford's Freedom Wool before and it was wonderful to work with... beautiful quality! (and no brambles, sticks or splinters to pick out of it Sharon! LOL.) i figured the Spirit would be just as lovely. when i walked into it at Woolly's yarn store in Shelburne yesterday... wow. i just couldn't resist!! i bought two balls to play with. i think i'll make mittens with it. i got colour 504... "Energy".


and while i was there i promised i'd make a pair of mittens for their charity basket. they gave me some yarn and i set to work right away last night. i'm doubling the yarn up with some left over acrylic i had and the effect is actually pretty neat:

just playing a little with the camera

a knit in action!

it's cold out there today! the kids don't seem to mind much though, do they :D. pay no mind to the cutesy-ness of the matching coats... my mom ordered them from Sears. they both have camouflage vests that go over the coats, but neither kid has found it cold enough out to wear both the coat and vest together yet. the coats, camo and all, are from the girl's outerwear department, but Jake doesn't care one bit... it's blue and has "army print", that's boy enough for him!

Juliet is wearing the Hermione hat i knit for her last year. the yarn is Patons Shetland Chunky. it's been through a lot. the poor kid had lice twice last year, the hat (despite the washing label on the yarn) has been through both a hot laundering and the dryer on high... at least twice. and has survived! thank goodness, because she loves her Hermione hat and i think if it hadn't survived our fun with lice i would have had to reknit it.

when stress attacks.

the kid takes advantage...


things have been stressful around here. John had a car accident a few weeks back and didn't get much from the insurance for his totaled car. he doesn't handle stress well. at all.

he bought a car with cash he was offered as help in mind. but now that the deal is done the offerer mentioned a condition must be met before the offer can stand, so John is politely refusing the help. i am not at all upset with the "string" that's been attached or with the offerer for attaching it (after all, it was nice that the offerer offered in the first place). i'm actually relieved John won't be taking up the offer, but coming up with that extra $ in just a matter of a day or two is not going to be easy.

when John gets stressed out he gets really irritable and sometimes nasty with the fam. it hasn't been the greatest week around here what with Mr. Stressed out and with me and PMS. so chilling out when he's off at work helps us get relaxed enough that his snapping doesn't get us too down when he gets home. we try not to get upset with him about it (which can be hard for me when i'm PMSing!), we just try to avoid him when he's this stressed out. i can't wait until this is all over, the new car is in the driveway, paid for and the stress falls to a more reasonable level.

i *know* it will work out fine in the end... we've been through worse and come out okay.

in knitting news, stress helps me knit a little faster than usual... my brother's Christmas Austermann Step socks are coming along nicely. i was so bummed while knitting the second sock to find a big old knot in the ball of yarn!! i had to unwind, wind, cut and generally mess around with it to get the stripes back in order so they'd line up nicely again.


and just to add a little extra "d'oh!" to the situation, Pick Up Sticks has added new stock and restocked the VvS yarns i have been dying to buy! perhaps after Christmas when things settle down a little financially i'll finally be able to order some yummy yarny (Canadian!) goodness :D

my knitting habitat...

yeah, John's right when he says "my" sofa gets messy when i'm knitting. every bag you see has some knitting in it... or yarn... or something knitting related.

good thing we have two sofas!

(psst... notice the finished Austermann sock in the foreground? and can you see that the second one has been started? just barely, but i have hope that the pair will be done before Christmas!)

growing too...

thanks to SnB last night i got some work done on the Austermann Step socks intended for my brother for Christmas.

i had some trouble finding SnB at Tracy's house last night. i read the email she sent a few times (she was very clear in her directions, i should have just printed it out instead of relying on my memory). we all piled into the car and i told John with confidence to find house number 296. so off we go. we get to house 296 and things seem a little odd to me, but i ring the doorbell anyway.

i think i disturbed the elderly lady. she was wearing a heavy dressing gown and didn't open the door all the way. erg. oops. wrong house. i apologize sincerely and get back into the car (thank goodness John decided to wait just in case it was the wrong house).

now we drive back home so i can read Tracy's email again. arg. i'm a dork. she's not at house 296... she's at house 269.

so off we go again to find house 269. John waits in the driveway again to make sure he's leaving me at the right house this time.

so i was late to SnB, but still managed to get some SnBing in before the night's end. Tracy has a wonderful home and her youngest daughter is just the most adorable little thing on the planet! Thanks Tracy :D


psst... did you see that Stitch Diva Studios has the new Sahara pattern available? i'd love this one - i have yarn i can use for it in my stash and everything! but i'm 97cents short (in my paypal account), so i can't order it just yet. and it's such a pain in the ass to upload cash into paypal - i'm not sure it's going to be worth the hassle to add $0.97. so i'll wait until i can afford to upload a little more than that. and honestly, i know myself too well... if i did have that extra $0.97 and ordered the pattern i'd just have another project to distract me from the Christmas knitting i really must get done.

growing...

it's approx. 27" square now.

what's not growing is my Christmas gift knitting. i'm going to have to force myself to put down the Log Cabin throw and finish the gift knitting... or i'll have to give away the log cabin and tell my brother, mother and father they have to share it.

i like getting mail...

and i like sending it just the same!

i joined a secret santa on a message board i've been chatting on since being pregnant with Jake. i did it last year and it was fun :) so i joined again this year... i had a blast shopping for my pal. i hope my choices make good gifts for her :)

i have been a bad gift knitter...

it's about 18" square already.

the yarn is my NY Yarns Gypsy. needles are size US 11 Addis.

it's addictive!

i feel guilty about not touching my the socks for my dad and brother and my mom's shawl/scarf and felted bag in two days...

not knitting...

but exciting just the same...

i'm not usually a handbag person. but when i first saw this handbag a few months back at the local Hallmark Gold Crown store i fell in love. it's just so adorable, ruffly, cute, girly, fun!

but when i looked at the price i just couldn't justify $44.99 (plus tax) on adorable, ruffly, cute, girly and fun.

a week ago, my parents told me about a temporary Ganz outlet in the city and they went on about how great it is... and mentioned something quietly about buying Juliet a skirt shaped purse. hrmmmm... the wheels in my head started turning a little. *could* it possibly be the same purse?

nah.

fast forward to today. John and i have to go down to the city to pick up the kids from my parents' house. hrmm... while we're in the area, might as well stop by the Ganz outlet, right? i was looking for some photo frames for a gift exchange and thought there might be a chance i'd find what i was hoping to find there. (i did... and now wish i had bought a couple more for my house because they're so great!)

first thing we see when we walk in the door... Maggi B bags. LOADS of them. CHEAP!! i don't think any of them were over $10 (but don't quote me on that, i didn't pick up every one and check the price). there were totes, purses, eyeglass cases, makeup cases, satchels, coin purses, diaper bags... you name it, it was there in a Maggi B bag. but no adorable, ruffly, cute, girly, fun handbag.

until i rounded the corner into more Maggi B bags... beaded ones, bohemian ones, grass ones... and... *the* adorable, ruffly, cute, girly, fun handbag!!! John just laughed at my enthusiasm. i immediately picked out my bag, checked the price and nearly fell over, just like the first time i checked the price in Hallmark... except this time the difference was $37.49.

yep. i bought the adorable, ruffly, cute, girly, fun handbag for $7.50. $7.50!!!

the only bummer is that i think i might have to hide it until after Christmas as Juliet is getting the same bag (with a pink bow instead).


(i wonder if i'll be able to make it back there before Christmas - before the temporary outlet closes... hindsight is 20/20 and i think i should have picked up a few extra bags/gifts to save for birthdays/etc next year!)

pictures

brand new yarn... oh so pretty in it's plastic just waiting to be used:


i'm making a shawl/scarf type garment for my mother for her birthday (January 2nd)...the yarn is Gedifra Crystal. it's a really funky yarn... slinky and shiny. i got 6 balls of the green and 7 of red on eBay last year.


Austermann Step socks in progress for my brother for Christmas. i'm not sure he's going to like them all that much... but money is pretty tight and i'm not sure what else to make him:




and a peek into life here. this is pretty usual behaviour when my dad visits... he just loves goofing around with the kids (he's stolen one of Jake's hats and the kids are trying to get it off his head here) :)

gosh darn batteries

i got yarn in the mail today! ten balls of NY Yarns Gypsy from YarnSupply.com. shipping from Michigan was only $5.30 and the yarn itself was inexpensive ($4.24 a ball). i did see the yarn cheaper, but by the time the shipping to Canada was added... ouch! i'm pretty darn happy with this buy :D

now i have 16 balls of this yarn to play with - i got 6 balls at a craft fair a while back. woooot! i was making a log cabin blanket with this yarn, but frogged it in favour of making a comfy cardigan. and i'm not sure if the striping in this yarn works for me for a garment. the striping and the chunkiness, that is, might make me look like a colourful Michelin man.

but 16 balls... and it's fun to work with, it's washable and i love the colour changes. could become either a cardigan or a log cabin throw.

i'll post some pics soon. the batteries in my camera *just* died... 8 hours to recharge them.

more socks in progress...

socks on the go. wooot! what would life be without socks in progress? these are coming along rather slowly though. they were all part of my Socktoberfest knitting and still aren't finished. i generally use size US1 for my socks, sometimes size US2. the small stitches and needles and repetitive actions start to make my wrists hurt. so as bummed as i am about it, i must put down the socks and give my hands a break.

the rainbow ones are Trekking XXL, colour 100 being worked in the infamous Jaywalker pattern. the red ones are Regia, being worked in a plain rib pattern of my own; they're for my dad for Christmas. and the green ones... oh the green ones... they are Fleece Artist in plain stockinette... and they are heaven!!

if only i had more money and could knit faster. PickUpSticks.ca has added some really marvelous new VvS handpainted sock yarns i'm coveting in a bad bad way.

and cuz i can, a gratuitous Fleece Artist shot:

felted handbags... getting there

before...

after...

now i just have to sew them all up, get their handles on, clean up a few edges...

the parenting adventure continues...

hrmm... can't see it?





...now? look closely.


so here i am, about 15 minutes ago, messing around a bit with my Flickr account... and i hear it. that soft yet high pitch 'oh no' from Jake that can only mean one thing. something has been added to the floor/carpet/wall/bed that probably shouldn't be there and he's upset about it.

no worries... how bad could it possibly be? i mean, between John and i, we've cleaned up some pretty awful kid-induced messes.

i go upstairs and find Jake at the top landing looking forlorn. as i'm walking up i hear "turn off the light, we'll be able to see it better".

ermmm... WHAT?!

i cannot possibly imagine what this mess could be that in order to see it better it would have to be dark. i'm a little nervous as i approach Jake.

"Hey Buddy, what happened?"

"One of my glow sticks sprung a leak!!!"... and he points toward my bedroom.

*my* bedroom. my *carpeted* bedroom. my RENTED *carpeted* bedroom.

crap. and there it is...

and the stuff SUNK right through the carpet fibers and is sitting right at the bottom in nice little droplets, out of reach. but that's okay, it's impossible to clean it. wipe it and it just spreads into a bigger glowing spot.

i guess i should count my lucky stars that they are dollar store glow sticks... the glow wears out of them fairly fast, it should be invisible by tomorrow night. i'll just have to remember it's there tonight and hopefully i won't get freaked out by the stripe of ominous green glowing dots when i wake up to pee at 4am. (believe me, it is brighter than it seems in the photos).

the adventures of having kids just never ends.

a rose by any other name...

Tracy... please email me and i'll send you my home address and details of where we'll be meeting in the future. artsyz(at)sympatico.ca i'm pretty sad, i have the feeling our group is a bit split by things. i think some of us will be moving out and some of us will be staying.

does anyone have Theresa's email address or phone number? i had her phone number, but with my incredible organizing capabilities (hah) i've lost it. i don't know if the invite to meet elsewhere has been extended to her yet (if she's interested).

a noni flower

pre-felt. it's funny and floppy and measures approx. 8 inches across. i'm trying to resist the temptation to felt until everything i intend to felt is finished. i have wool leftover from my mom's bag and the green toxic sausage bag, AND some left over Twilleys of Stamford Freedom... i think i'll use it up in a couple more bags. as soon as that's done i can felt :D but now that the noni flower is awaiting a hot agitating bath, i'm not sure i'll be able to resist until all of the to-be-felted knitting is done.

i think i'll put a couple of the finished bags on Etsy... what the heck am i going to do with a bunch of felted handbags?

SnBers

Thursday night girlies... my email address is artsyz(at)sympatico.ca if you can't get a hold of me by phone.