All posts tagged books

Books and Clothes

by ohdessa on April 12, 2010 in art, knitting with 1 Comment
We went to the Millenium Library yesterday morning. What a fun building. B did not get the point of going to the library at first. He kept saying “Books, buy it,” no matter how many times we tried to tell him that we could borrow them and did not have to buy them. He was so amused by the elevator and all of the chairs. O mostly slept. We took out a few books for him, one of which, I Am Not Sleepy and Will Not Go to Bed, he has become so attached to that we might just have to go to the bookstore and buy it for him because I think it might be getting woven into his bedtime routine. It’s really cute, I love the cut+paste collage style. I got a few knitting books, I am especially excited about The Knitted Odd-Bod Bunch and The Baby Knits Book. I also got a couple of books on mittens, because I  love making mittens. I’ve been looking for the perfect knit jacket pattern because I have been wanting to knit one of those vintage moosey-style jackets for B for a while (ooh! Look at this fish jacket!). I finally found it in The Baby Knits Book. It’s a plain knitted jacket that I can base the pattern on, and then I just need to come up with a design to knit on it. With at least one Moose. That will be my next big project after this current sweater and the Manda Ruth sweater for O. I *hope* to finish the hooded cardigan this week.


 My sister got back from her trip to Montreal today, so we went over to my mom’s to hang out and eat pizza. She brought me back some pretty nail polish. I am especially excited about the Diamond Base coat. I have been looking for a good base coat, since I just use Orly Bonder right now, which is great for making nail polish stay on, but not so great for strengthening. Maybe the diamond dust will save them. I had to cut them super short the other day because I broke a few really bad. She also brought back some amazing H&M clothes and Converse Runners for the boys. I LOVE the fish runners. B kept going “Neeebo,” and made me put them on O. And the Star Wars sweater is really amazing. I think Ryan is a little jealous. H&M kid’s jeans are so great. They come in great styles and washes, and last a really long time. I think B wore the same pair for over a year, from 1-2 years old, they grow with a kid that well. And they are still in good enough condition that O can wear them when he is old enough. Best kids jeans ever.

Katya has good taste in kids clothes. There is another Lightning McQueen shirt, but B insisted on wearing it to bed. Which is where he is. Poor guy has a congested nose and at least two molars poking through. I think we will take it easy tomorrow, maybe do some drawing. I finally bought a roll of kraft paper to start drawing again on. I prefer starting on a neutral base instead of white paper, because I really like to build the colour up from nothing. The paper really lends itself to a wholly different sort of drawing, and I really think it’s a major component of my aesthetic and it really informs my use of colour. It also is a great paper for working with chalk and oil pastels, which I just happened to come across while cleaning. Maybe B and I will oil pastel tomorrow. And play with cars of course.

I am vacuuming while writing this.

by ohdessa on March 25, 2010 in Uncategorized with No comments


I can’t say enough how much I love the Roomba. It’s vacuuming for me right now while I eat lunch and type this. Pretty sweet. I have only pulled out the real vacuum once since we got the Roomba.The boys are both asleep, B just went down for a nap and O is due to wake up at any moment, and I am enjoying soup and Jello. Like an old lady.


I finally went to Chatters the other day and got some new nail polishes. I finally found OPI My Private Jet. I have been looking for this one for a while. Not only did I find it, but I found the original holographic version. They have come out with a new version since, and it is not as pretty, as I loooove the holographic glitter. This is probably not very exciting to anyone else. Ha. I also picked up OPI DS Divine. Best part was that all the DS polishes were on sale. It was a good shopping trip. We also went to the Chapters next door, and B looked at books. Well, rather he played with “Thompsy” and then looked at books once he realized they had Cars: The Movie books. I of course fawned over all of the beautifully illustrated children’s books, and B picks a Cars book. That’s how it goes. It’s a start. I’ll get him hooked on mid-century modern inspired illustration yet!What I really don’t understand is why does B get so excited about the Thomas table when he has one at home.

B’s cars book came with stickers inside, so yesterday we set out to make our own book. I folded up some construction paper and got out some crayons. What resulted was “Lightning McQueen Drives.” B put stickers down and made me draw roads for them and then filled in some more colour. I would then ask him what was going on, and write it down. It was fun, and B seemed really proud of it.

I finished the first sleeve on the sweater, now for the second. Ugh, sleeves. It just feels like I should be on to something more exciting already! I am going to try to finish the second sleeve as quick as possible. I am getting ansty about moving on to other projects already! And I found out Ram Wools is having a 25% off sale, and I really really want to go. I should probably add another really in there. I think this year I am going to make more Christmas presents. I know it is early to think about Christmas, but when you are making things, it is best to start as soon as possible. I always want to make Christmas presents, but I always feel that whatever I make won’t be good enough. But then I realized I make good stuff. Seriously I have way to high expectations of myself to let myself make something I can’t do really well. Or let myself do something sub-par. So yeah, we’ll see how that goes. I mean, we live in Manitoba. Everyone needs mittens. Ask me in November how much I have done. Ha.

On living in a toy box.

by ohdessa on March 21, 2010 in Uncategorized with No comments

I spend a lot of time in our living room. When I say a lot, I really mean it. This is mostly due to O being so teeny tiny and liking to be awake at strange hours on top of having to be awake all day. Our living room, or rather I should say, living area, is very large, and loosly sectioned off into three areas. In one area, a little nook, is the tv, coffee table, and couch. Adjacent to this is the kid area, probably the largest of the three, and the most infectious, spreading toy cars all over the place. The third is the dining area. One of my biggest pet peeves in our place is that the dining area is carpeted. This sucks with kids. It sucks a little less after buying Ryan a Roomba for Christmas. It’s like a robot dog that does not get sick (This is a cool guide to Roomba “songs”. And it actually works pretty well! B was just warming up to the Roomba after being scared of the vacuum for a long time, when I stupidly brought out the big clunky one, and now we are back at square one and cleaning up is a lot harder. But I digress. The part of this whole paragraph relevant to the rest of this blog post is the second part of the room, the play area.

The play area drives me bonkers! Because it is such an open area in a main part of our home, I want to keep it clean and organized, which feels like a losing battle. It just feels like there is too much! I put a bunch of toys in storage now, especialy ones that B is too old for and O is too young for, but it was not enough. I really really need to come up with a storage solution that looks a lot neater. I have been wanting this Ikea bookshelf for ever, but I just cannot justify the Ikea shipping. The Trofast system would also be perfect in that area. A lot of things would probably be better than the mishmash of storage I have right now. I wish I could find rolling boxes for under the Thomas table. I like that table, it seems like the perfect height and size for all of B’s car and train play. The play area feels like a work in progress, but I just want it to look better! Maybe that will be my next weekend project.

Most importantly, I have to try not to buy anymore toys! It’s easier said than done though. Looking at toy cars has become a part of our trips to the mall or Walmart. And B has a face that is hard to say no to, and I like looking at Hot Wheels with him and trying to find the coolest car. I will say that yesterday we went to both a toy store and Walmart, and left without anything or a fuss, so it can be done. I did get some art supplies, but those don’t count, they are more of a consumable product anyways, and they get stored elsewhere. So Ryan and I have declared that we will not buy anymore toys until Christmas. And then it will be good quality stuff, like one or two Plan Toys play sets instead of a lot of smaller stuff.

B is getting back into books. I think this was spurred by our new nightime routine, in which he gets to pick out any book he wants, and then I read that and two more while he sits in bed right before I turn out the lights. He is really into Bernstein Bear books right now, us having inherited Ryan’s childhood collection. The last book is always I’m Not Scared, about a little owl out in the woods with his stuffed Owlie, whom he claims is the one who is really scared of the dark. It’s a cute book for a little guy just realizing he might be scared of the dark. Later today, time granting, I am going to sew B a toy Owlie so he has a friend in the dark, I think he’d really like it

My favorite moment of the week was right before I put B to bed last night. He had found my childhood Care Bear (Bedtime Bear) that I slept with every night until I was far to old. B got the same one (but modernized) for his first Christmas, and he sleeps with it every night. When he found mine, he got really excited. He told me they were the same, and showed me all of the things they had in common, like noses, tails, hearts and hair. He then sat them on the bed to read stories with us (and he made sure they saw every page) and then fell asleep with both of them. It was precious.