• May 28, 2010

    Just waiting for paint to dry…

    I figured I’d use the time waiting for my nails to dry to type out a blog post. A french manicure with hot purple tips. Oh yeah. Not a lot is new, but I’ve felt really busy. Last week was my birthday. Ryan took me to Kawaii Crepe. It was delicious. Most of all I was really impressed at their comprehensive branding. It is so simple to do things like use branded cups or even a logo, but so few places here do it. I had a good birthday and now have a lot more yarn. Yikes! On top of my darngoodyarn.com order which I am still waiting on, I placed a knitpicks.com order and went to Ram Wools yesterday. Most excitingly, I got the set of Harmony needles I wanted. Oh yeah, and Ryan took me to Where the Wool Things Are and I got some Dream in Colour Smooshy (in Happy Forest). I set out looking for patterns for it, and then remembered the pattern I mentioned in my last post, the Kai-Mei socks which are made in that exact yarn (even the same colour). So instead of finishing my projects like I had intended, I rushed out to buy Sock Innovation and started on them. I’ve been to busy to do much on them, but I am halfway through the first heel. I appreciate that the more boring part of these socks is the first part, I always get bored when the end is all the same. Like the sleeves on the sweater I still have to finish. At least I have 8 or so months to finish them. And everything else. Dear family, I hope you like hand knit presents!


    Tomorrow my sister and I are going to see Sex in the City 2. I know, there’s been lots of bad reviews, but I could really use some sitting in a theatre, relaxing, and watching something silly time. And eat popcorn. And if there is time, a trip to Sephora beforehand.

    The boys are doing so well. O has been a bit cranky with his bottom teeth coming in, but even when he is cranky he has lots of smiles.B has calmed down from his terrible two attack, and has become a lot more reasonable, which is a relief! And he grew an inch in the last month. No wonder I’ve had to put aside so much of his clothes. Not much else going on really. All is well. As usual, B just gets more and more expressive every day. And O is getting bigger and cuter. Anyways. Now I will get back to my nails, knitting, and Mall Cops: Mall of America.

  • April 29, 2010

    More things I have learned from Wife Swap, and sweater-itis

     This is B pretending to be me, shoes and shopping.

    Some more things I have learned from Wife Swap:

    • Homeschooling means sleeping in and laying in bed while the kids work. I like bed.
    • I should do family yoga, but only in the dead man’s pose for 45 minutes, during which I should secretly sleep.
    Anyways… so I have almost finished the second sweater for O. I have just the sleeves left, but I hate sleeves, so when Ryan mentioned that I should knit something for someone he knows having a little girl, I put the sleeves aside for now. I am making another little sweater. Even though I swore I would not. But it’s so cute and girly, but  in a reserved way. I’m knitting it in a darker grey with jewel-y purple and light pink flowers. And I decided to make the sleeves short. Because I am sick of sleeves. And it’s for a spring baby. I picked up some really cute buttons for it, I am excited.


    O spent a half an hour giggling at me this morning, it was so cute. And B all of a sudden is speaking in longer (5-6 word) sentences, which for the most part are grammatically sound. He talks pretty well for his age, he just only talks when he actually has something to say. O on the other hand has all the makings of a crazy talker. The personalities of those two are so different. We finally measured B the other day, and he is just shy of 39 inches. He is going to be taller than me in no time. We all spent the morning lounging around, it must be the gloominess. Even O did not want to be held and was happiest propped up on the couch. Which was good for me, because he must be going through a growth spurt, because instead of his usual 1-2 wake ups at night, he woke up 6 times. Ugh! At least he goes right back to sleep after. 

    B and I broke out the glitter paint Monday, it was pretty fun. He can only paint for so long until the getting messy part really gets to him. Mostly though, he is all about the cars and trains and things that go. We draw cars a lot. I really need to improve my car drawing techniques, I swear I draw them just as I did in early elementary school. 

    I think I am about to enact phase two of better food in the house, which is making more things, like crackers and cookies and snack things. I found a recipe for goldfish-like crackers which I am going to try this weekend after I pick up a new battery for our food scale. I really need to find some time to sit down and figure out what I need to make. I figure, I’ve been wanting to bake more, but don’t really have much reason to, so I should put my baking skills to good use making more “whole” foods for around the house. In more exciting baking news, I finally found a reason to bake a cake (a BBQ at my mom’s tomorrow), so I am going to make the Red Hot Red Velvet Cake from the Baked cookbook. I have been wanting to make this one for a while. I am especially excited about the cinnamon frosting. I am going to make the cake tonight, and then frost it during nap time tomorrow.

  • April 8, 2010

    It goes on.



    I feel like this sweater will never be done. Even a baby sweater on small needles is too much. In the meantime, I’ve knit one mitten and a quarter of a scarf. But today I went back to the sweater. It’s not so bad now that I took a break, and I think I will make it to the hood. I was not so sure a week ago. I picked up an extra ball of brown yarn which I will need to finish the button band. As I was working on it I thought that I really liked the look of the inside. I am contemplating maybe finishing it inside out (which would then of course, be right side out). I have until I seam the sleeves to decide. In truth, I really want to finish it so I can start the next sweater (which is on size 8 needles thank goodness) which has a lot more going on in the pattern so it won’t be quite as monotonous as endless stockinette. If it were not for the stripes I might go bonkers. 

    See, the inside is really pretty. I’ve always liked the look of the working side of striped stockinette.  I will wait till the hood and button band (but before I sew on the buttons) are done done to fully decide. And the extra brown I will have leftover goes perfectly with a hand-dyed yarn I recently bought, so I can make something really cute there.

    I think I finally have some sort of notion to put together my desire to document together with my thousands of dollars worth of drawing and photographing skills. I’m really excited about this. But more on that to come later.

  • March 23, 2010

    I keep thinking it's Thursday or Friday

    Today I broke out the new art stuff and B and I went crazy with the foam stickers and googly eyes while O slept after lunch. And the glitter glue! Kids art supplies are the best. Tomorrow I think I will break out the safety scissors. Which were really really hard to find, and in the end, I could only find the zig zaggy kind like scrapbookers use. O still sleeps enough that I get a fair bit of uninterrupted time with B, although that is slowly changing.
    I went grocery shopping on Sunday, and somehow, the total was $99.06, which is significantly less than usual. It might be because I went through the flyer (or circular, as Ryan informs me most people call them outside of Winnipeg, although I am not so sure), and made a very detailed list and made a meal plan to go with it. And I stuck to it.We’ll see how we are still doing on Friday. Which I keep thinking it is and am sorely disappointed. Ryan went back to work full time today, which means even less sleep and longer days.

    B had his first dentist appointment today. He has a pretty bad looking chip in his front tooth, so I made Ryan call up the dentist and take him. I am too scared of the dentist. There was a dentist in the strip mall in front of our old place, and sometimes they would open the door for fresh air, and just the smell would make me panic. So anyways, B went to one of those kids dentist places, and he had a good time playing, and seemed to have a really good experience, which is important to me. And the chip is not worth fixing, and all of his other teeth are just fine.


    I finished the main body on the sweater I am knitting for O, now for the sleeves. Sleeves always feel like such a chore after the main body. I just want to finish this sweater so I can move on to the next! And some other projects. And I really need to get back into taking more photographs. I really really want to create a documentary work, but I just can’t figure out what exactly to document. I explored a few ideas while in school, but they never quite seemed right to me. I guess this is something I will have to really think about. I should probably start by revisiting some old ideas and figure out what is going on there. I think I have about 100 rolls of film in a binder, I started scanning them recently with a film scanner, but got distracted by the littlest one. I find that I get so caught up in the theory of taking photographs that it makes me too self conscious and aware of my intentions and their effects to make anything proper. These are things I could go on about, but would make me seem too crazy-nuts.

    I finally caved and bought a mint green nail polish. I shouldn’t have. It’s streaky and makes my hands look like hospital walls. I don’t need to be wearing anything that enhances my pale skin. But I read that there are more Revlon scented nail colours. I bought one of the fruity ones in the fall, and I must have looked crazy sniffing my nails. Spring pastels just do not work for me, bring on the summer brights! I love bright purples and fuchsias!