I Finished the bag a few days ago. I haven't felted it yet. Ii still need to make a checkbook style wallet to match. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do that:)
The needles weren't that bad. I think I over reacted a bit. At the time it really made me mad. I just kinda filed it down using my nail and it seemed to work ok. The needle was a crystal palace us # 15. I think the bigger they are the more susceptible they are to splintering. I do want to switch to addi turbos, the transition from cord to needle is just beautiful!
I haven't been posting that often... I guess I've just been busy. With what, I don't know. Leah is probably one of the reasons. She is trying to get into everything. What a busy body she is. She can't crawl or anything but I think she wants to. I can tell she is going to be right on Gabe's heels when she gets movin. I started her on solids a few weeks ago. She has now been eating bananas in the morning and I just started her on some carrots! I make all her baby food in large quantities, buzz it up in the food processor and freeze it in ice cube trays. That way I have it for later use and I don't feel guilty giving her that stuff from a jar. Have you ever tasted that stuff?! Its no wonder why kids don't like veggies, look what they were started on. My theory is that if you give them the good stuff early on they will love it. Gabe loves his veggies! Leah does too:
At first she didn't know what to think of them but now she loves them! I'm kinda bummin because she hasn't been nursing much at all lately. She loves her solids! I think the anti-nursing will pass in a day or two.
In the garden:
Well it has been very fruitful, or should I say veggieful. *grin* hehe sorry about that. I think my husbands humor is rubbing of on me;) Anyways... I'm making our third batch of tomato sauce, right now, I keep getting up to stir it. Last night hubby brought home some fresh mozzarella from work and we had caprese. The tomatoes are tasting so good this year! Add mozz, basil, oil, and balsamic vinegar to it and your taste-buds are in heaven:) I could eat that every day for a month! We also made some cabbage from our garden. First we cooked some cut up bacon and onions, then added the cabbage and once that was cooked down we added red wine vinegar. They make that at the restaurant we work at, its so yummy! I love it.
This month has been full of birthdays. Hubbys was on the 15th, my not-so-little brother's (he is going to be a freshman in high school this year) was on the 23rd and my dad's was on the 27th. It was pretty crazy for a few weeks.
Knitting news:
I sent out my secret pals last gift. And I told her who I am. So once I find out that she received her gifts I'll let you all know who she is! I'm so excited! I've had so much fun with the SPevent. I see that SP6 is starting up and I need to go and sigh up! I love it!
At my LYS the needles i needed were back ordered... Hopefully they will be there tonight! This will be our last knitting night on Tuesday, we will be switching to Thursdays. That will be nice for me so i won't have to leave early. I work on Wednesday mornings and i don't like to say out too late. Even though i usually cant leave when i really want to, the knitting and fellowship just pulls me in and i cant leave:)
My sock is almost done! All I have to do is the toe. I'll show you a picture when its finished.
I think thats it... Happy knitting to all!
Why?!
Why do you have to do this to me?
You make me mad. All you are supposed to do is help me make something wonderful and yet you splinter into the yarn and poke me. I even shed some blood because of you. I spend half the time picking little pieces of you out of my yarn. The yarn doesn't like that. I bet I could have finished the bag I was working on, but because you are so spiteful I have to put it off until tomorrow. I'm going to boycott you and all you siblings. NO MORE BAMBOO!!! I hate you all. Its Addi Turbos for me, from now on!
Yes today we are back to normal. Thank goodness. On Sunday morning we woke up to find our little Gabe burning up. We didn't even have the thermometer in for more than a minute and it was 102.7, and still going. Poor little guy. We gave him Gatorade and about a half an hour later we had red carpets. Not fun. Luckily the day before we had bought Bissell's little green machine from wally world. (thanks God, you must have known we were going to need it!) That thing works really well. Today he is completely back to his normal self. I hate it when you can't do anything for your kids, and I'm so thankful he is better.
Tonight is knitting night, and i can't wait! i need to buy a few things from my lys. 1: addi turbo's US#6 24 in. So i can continue on my baby hat designing=) (the right size needles would be a good thing) 2: some goodies for my SP! (sorry i can't tell you what I'm giving, don't want to ruin the surprise) 3: some yarn for a gift i need to make(also a surprise).
Question: When do we reveal who we are to our Secret Pals? This is my first SP event and I'm not sure how it works.
Oh yeah, yesterday consisted of me making zucchini bread and doing laundry. i didn't seem like a lot but it used up most of the day. Throw a kid or two in the mix and i was one busy lady! We had a lot of zucchini from the garden and i grated most of it up. I ended up with 12 cups. I froze 4 cups for a later day and used the rest. I quadrupled the recipe. Wow that's a lot of bread.Its a good thing i love to bake! I had to use 2 big bowls, 16 eggs, 12 cups of flour.... You get the picture. I'm bringing some muffins tonight to knitting, what would a knitting night be without food?!*grin*
I don't even know. Let me see....
On the 11th i went to Stitches Midwest in O'Hare. It was really cool! We(Amy and I) took a class on designing sweaters called "Where do they get those numbers", by Edie Eckman.(her new books) I really enjoyed it. Now if i only had the time to sit down and write a pattern... After class we walked around for about 45 minutes trying to find somewhere to eat. Finally we found one at the Hyatt. I wish someone would have told us that before we took a hike around Chicago. Then there was the market preview. WOW that is all i can say. There was about 300 different booths of all different kinds of yarn. WOW! i kept telling myself not to buy anything until i looked around more so i wouldn't spend all my money on something and then find something even better later.... Well that plan didn't work out all that well. all of the sudden we heard a woman over the loud speaker "ten minutes until the marker is closed". Then there was me thinking: "AHHHH but i haven't bought anything yet!!" Then i saw the coolest basket by lantern moon,(if you go and check it out its the one on the left) and i bought my only purchase of the night. I was kicking myself the whole ride home, i wish i would have bought some yarn. Amy kept saying that she spent enough for the both of us! Go check out her and all her new habu stuff! That was by far the coolest knitting experience I've had so far! Thanks Amy! Oh yeah, we were almost out to the parking garage and realized that we didn't take any pictures... So here i am posing at the last stitches sign. (take note of the cool basket=)
Alright now i promised a picture of the t-bar shoes i made to match mabel. I have yet to attach the buttons but here is a picture anyways:)
I have to throw in a picture of Gabe and Leah, I'm sure you've all missed them. i haven't posted in two weeks, bad bad blogger.
Leah is now able to roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy. She is also able to get up on her hands and knees and rock!
And who can really rock without a good pair of shades?!hehe
Cute eh?
Ok ok, back to knitting content. I'm trying to design a really cute baby hat, but I'm running into problems. i don't really want to say much about it until i have it complete. Hopefully you'll hear more about it soon. i can say that i lost count(after 7) of how many times I've cast on for it. So i put it down once again and picked up something i haven't touched for quite a while. My Sock! i turned my first heel!!! Its not perfect but my next one will be:) *grin* Amy came over on Friday night and we has a taste test of guacamole.
The content of the packets looked quite different. One had a bunch of white powder in it and the other had lots of yummy spices and had a more natural color to it. The latter of the two tasted better(its the one on the right). As the night went on, the one on the left got brighter green and it kinda scared us=) The other one was eaten.
I think that about wraps it up, i will work on being a better blogger.
Have a happy knitting night!
my garden, its growing like crazy. Here is a picture of the stuff i picked today, and its not even all of it, i gave some to my mom before i took the picture. Just an up-date:)
P.S.
you do know that you can click on my pictures to view them in a larger size... Right?! Just in case you didn't know that, and sorry if you did.
Now on to the real post...
I'm back! I had a really good time. Here is a bunch of pictures...
And some more:)
Why do vacations go by so quickly? I hate that. I wish we could have stayed there for a month! It was so nice to not have to be anywhere...We were only an hour away from home, that was nice for driving purposes and the kids! I was a bit disappointed that the lake didn't have a beach area to go swimming from, it was all kind of sea weedy and mucky near the shore. So one of the days we rented a pontoon boat and took it into the middle of nowhere and had our own private swimming area! That was a lot of fun. The only downside was despite the fact that we loaded the sunscreen(notice the picture of the sunscreen train) on we almost all got burned. And the next day or two we didn't want to be out in the sun:( i just started pealing yesterday... That's a bummer. oh well. We had bonfires at night, and ate smores. I even went fishing! I thing I caught 4 or 5 perch, that was our dinner on Friday night! I love being with family and look forward to next time! Then the whole family can come, they will all be state-side! Now its back to real life.
Knitwise I didn't get nearly as much knitting time as I would have thought I would, but a parent is never on vacation form their kids. Plus with my aunt and uncle there it was a good reason not to knit. It is kinda weird how i use to think of them as someone who had authority over me, but now we are just equal. I'm getting to know them on different level. Pretty cool. ... Sorry back to knitting, on my next post I'll have pictures of some t-bar shoes i knit to go with mabel, very cute. And pretty soon I'll have Leah model both the dress and the shoes for yall:)
I've really blown it now. Its almost been a week since my last post. What have i been doing, you ask?! i don't even know. Not knitting. i went to the LYS on Tuesday night for our knitting night. That was the last time i knit and before that it had been a few days.
I'm going to be going on vacation (leaving on Saturday after i get done with work) and it seems like i haven't done anything around the house for a year. or at least a week. i feel like i clean something and turn around and its messy again. i really don't want to come back to a messy house. I'm kind of obsessive about how the house looks. i can only let it go so far until i start to freak out inside and have to clean:) anyways I've been doing laundry, cooking, baking, cleaning, and re-organizing. My Aunt and Uncle (and family) are flying in on Saturday. We (my parents, little brother, one of my sisters, Aunt and Uncle... You get the picture... Are renting two lake houses for a week. Its kinda a family reunion. Not everyone can make it (sorry allena;( and fam) but it will be nice to get away for a week. Plus we will only be an hour away, so if we really need something we can come back. My uncle really wants to go to the restaurant we(hubby and i) work at. That will be fun, i LOVE eating there! Its not like working at some fast food restaurant where you never want to eat there. If i had the money I'd eat there every day, breakfast, lunch an dinner:) its so yummy, I'm drooling just thinking about it!
So that's me in a nutshell this week... Busy busy. I shouldn't even be on the computer... But i felt like i had too:) for all my bloggin buddies!
I'm looking forward to being on vacation, and not getting ready for it. i think i need extra vacation time just for preparing for it... Does that make sense?! i can't wait to just sit and knit, while hubby goes fishing and the kids are preoccupied by all the other people there:)
i should really go and continue in the chaos of cleaning and packing... I'm leaving on Saturday, hopefully I'll post at least once more before i go....
happy knitting to all!
Here are some pictures of Gabe...
Today was his first time playing on his new swingset! it's not fully complete, but its good enough to play on:) Also you can see that grandpa gave him a haircut tonight! He looks so cute with his little man hair cut... I've been meaning to have it cut because every time we were outside i could just see the sweat forming under his big head of hair. Poor little guy, it was about time!
i haven't knit much lately. i did however re-write the pattern so that i can understand and see it better. i guess its not uncommon to write a pattern like that. Where you have to do two or more shaping elements at the same time. i guess I'll just have to get use to it. i feel out of it. i haven't picked up the needles yesterday or today... i just been so busy, or lazy. One of the two:)
My friend Toni had her(2nd) baby girl on Tuesday! i went to visit her(and Toni, hehe) in the hospital yesterday. Such a cutie! Now she has 2 girls and 4 boys. What an amazing woman! Leah is 4 months old now and looks like a monster compared to her. Although she was a big newborn, i think 9lb 7or8 oz. I'm not positive. Leah was 8lb 11 oz, but she still looked big next to her. i almost forgot how small they start out as... Maybe its time for #3. Ha Ha Ha not yet! i need to wait until Leah is walking then we'll see:)
Maybe i'll knit some tonight...i've just been pooped lately...
Since i did one for Gabe i have to do one for Leah...right?!
Can you tell i love pictures?
Happy knitting to all!
Today I got an invation to join RAOK! How cool. I was beginning to think I'd never get in. I'm excited to be a raok-er and a raok-ie!
So this is the first thing we picked this year from our garden! 
Three nice big zucchini! The biggest one is about 10 1/2 inches long. I love having a garden, and can't wait until everything is ready to be picked. We are starting to get some color on our tomatoes. And i bet some cucumbers will be ready tomorrow.
on the knitting front I've gotten quite far on the tank, for the little amount of time I've spent on it. I almost have the whole right cup/side done:) i think I'll be happy with it. Although I'm a bit concerned about the low cut of it. There is a keyhole and I'm not sure if I'll be comfortable in it... But i guess I'll have to finish it to find out. i wonder if i wouldn't have ripped it out all those times if it would be finished right now... hmm. I'm giving myself a week if things go well.
We were going to go to Dairy queen tonight but when we drove by the line was so long it wasn't worth it. Maybe if they wouldn't have tore up the southside one they wouldn't have lost a customer... i was a little miffed. i was sad to see the southside one go... It was my first job... Well actually i had a paper route first, but it was my first real real job:) ahh memories. Anyways i was bummin because its super hot and humid and i could have really gone for some DQ. oh well.
Other news, friends of my younger brother moved about a week ago and left a wooden swing set at their old house. The people who are going to buy it didn't say they wanted it so our friends said we could have it! How cool is that! Its not to big or anything but it beats paying a few hundred dollars for a new one:) Today we(hubby and my dad, i sat and pretended to help) took it apart and moved it to our house. Its still in pieces but that's a project for another day. I'll be sure to post a picture when it's up and runin.
so much for posting every day... But i haven't given up yet.Last night our close knit, knitting group got together to eat, talk and knit. It was fun! I didn't knit too much because Leah was there and who can knit when there is a cute little baby that wants attention?!
She did sleep for an hour or so, and i was able to get some knitting done. This time i worked on the tank with confidence, and I'm pretty happy with is so far. Heather, one of our core members started a blog too... Go check her out! Give her a nice blog welcome:) I love our little group so much!
i need to gather together my sp's gift and send it out... i love this sp event! Its so much fun to get stuff for someone who enjoys knitting as much as i do. i only wish i could get two of everything and keep one for myself. You can never have too much yarn and knitting notions:)
So just a minute ago my hubby came in from mowing the lawn and gave me this:
How sweet is he?! That just made my day!
Or should I say ripping night.
I was further along on my tank before I left to go knitting than I am now. This short row thing has got me bummin. I'm not liking how it is looking. So I ripped out what I had done for a second time and looked at some books to see some different techniques. I gave up(I'm more of a visual person than a reading comprehension person) and went home a bit earlier than usual. I was upset. I'll have a go at it tomorrow, my head was starting to hurt. i think i might write the designer again and ask for some close up pictures of her tank and short row shaping. Who knows maybe I'll just keep going and in the end I'll end up liking it. Maybe its a design element:) hehehe. Well I've got to work in the morning and i should go to bed, but i think i might do some work on something simple... i think the scarf is calling my name.
Happy knitting to all and to all a good night!
Yes you get 2 posts in one day!My secret pal sent me a package that i received in the mail today! What a sweetie she is! 
Since i wanted to make all of my own dishcloths, she sent me some sugar'n cream yarn so i can have a nice variety! That's it, now i have to get down to business:) i think I'm going to look for some different patterns so they aren't all the same.
~Anyone out there know of any good sites to get some cool dishcloths patterns?!~
She also sent me some cool beads, because the stich marker thing is super addictive, a yummy candle that smells like strawberry shortcake(i almost want to eat it:) and a ME! bath ice cream! You put in the tub and it releases oils and stuff to pamper yourself in the tub! SP how did you know i needed to relax?! You're good! Thanks so much!
do you feel how i do? There is never enough time do everything you would like to do in one day. Today i have yet to shower, but on the plus side i have started laundry (five loads, two down, three to go:) made blueberry pancakes, with fresh blueberries. They were on sale 99 cents a pint! Hubby LOVES them. I've caught up on some blog reading, i can easily loose two hours by reading up on all the blogs i like to read, then there are new ones that i come across... oi. I almost need to set a timer. But what's the fun in that?! Now i decided to post on my own blog and then make some lunch. I thought you'd all like to see my progress on peek-a-boob:
Like I said before I started the two end knitting, here is a close up:
I'm not sure if I like it... And I'm not sure I'm doing the short rows correctly. I think I'll knit some more and if I don't like it I can always frog it;) I don't like the way that I'm picking up the w&t and knitting them when I come across them. It looks a bit sloppy. I'm going to ask my all knowing friend Amy. She always helps me with any knitting problems. She's the best! Thanks Amy for all your help!!! Love you girl!
Anyways I really should get off this thing and do some house work... And feed the boy. Maybe I can knit while he naps! I love nap time, Its the best!
Knit your hearts out!
Hi all! So this is me writing for the second day in a row! Woo hoo! Today i didn't knit at all... Yet. There is always time after the kiddos go to bed:) Sunday is our only day we can count on to have off every week. And it always goes by so fast. First we went to church. In our ABF(adult bible fellowship) we are doing a study on Effective Parenting in a Defective World by Chip Ingram, its pretty interesting so far! i think i can use all the information i can to bring up my kids to love the Lord and not be corrupted by todays society. Then we went to both my parents and the in-laws, for lunch and dinner. Now hubby is bathing gabe and I'm blogging. Then its off to bed for Gabezilla, dinner then bed time for Leah! Maybe I'll knit a bit and watch a movie or something. And that's that, the day is over and done with. Talk to yall later:)
Happy Knitting!
So I've been wanting to blog on a regular basis but that hasn't happened. I'm not sure if its laziness or what... I'm going to try to blog once a day... Cross your fingers. Even if its just a quick one. Like this post.
Knitwise I'm getting quite far on my tank! I've started the two end knitting part. Also there is short row shaping, which I've never attempted before this. Its going well... i think. I've ripped it out once so far. Hey, it's something I'm going to be wearing, and i want it to be as close to perfection as i can make it:) I can't wait until its finished... This is the first thing I've made for me, besides my purse, that can wear. The next project i want to make is the hourglass sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. Plus there is a KAL for it. I'll join it if its still going on when I start it.
P.S.
I have two dish cloths done... Many more to go!
Gotta jet!
So much has happened in the last week... Let me start where i left off.
On Friday i signed up for Stitches Midwest! The class is Where do they get those numbers? By Edie Eckman I'm super excited to go! Amy and i are going to go, and share a hotel room that night so we can go to the market at night and not have to worry about driving back. I'm a bit worried about leaving my little Leah... But i have been pumping and she does take the bottle well. i keep telling myself that i am a good mother and I'm not abandoning her. Plus he will be with her daddy and her grandma, two people that love her very much. I'm not horrible right?!
The other thing that happened on Friday was one of the coolest things ever! Before i gave gabe a bath i asked him if her had to go potty. And he did, he just recently started going pee pee on the potty, he stands up on a little stool. he kept saying poo poo (which for him usually means pee). After going pee i put him in the tub, and in a little bit he kept saying poo poo. So i got him out and stood him up thinking he still had to pee. Well he was patting his butt and saying poo poo, not thinking anything of it i set him on the potty. i took five steps into the kitchen to grab a washcloths came back to find him standing next to the potty, pointing in and saying poo poo. as i looked in i was so happy! My son had gone poop on the potty all by him self! i called hubby at work just to tell him, it was 8:30 (the busiest time in restaurant world) he said "cool" and hung up:) later when he got home he said that it brought a smile to his face, but he was really busy and couldn't talk. This is just one more step for us to not be buying those expensive diapers any more... Well at least not for two kids. Just so you know he hasn't done it again yet... i don't want to force anything on him.
This weekend I've felt like a social butterfly. On Saturday night hubby had off (very rare to have a sat night off, usually I'm by myself with the kids) so we went to a friends house. They also have a 2 year old and the two boys played so well. It was fun! Then on Sunday afternoon was our church picnic. It was at park and you had to bring your own meat and a dessert to pass. Later that night we went to a different friends house for a bonfire. We roasted marshmallows and ate smores. Gabe had a blast, and so did we. The only bad thing was he got to bed around 10:30 usually he is in bed by 8:30. Then yesterday was the fourth of July. We went to the parade witch it started to rain and we left early so leah wouldn't get soaked.
here is a bad picture of gabe and i, in the rain, going to the car:
she was in the stroller but that's not water proof so (after 30 mins or so) out in the rain it starts to leak through. Thankfully she was dry when we got to the car:) And of course we went to the fireworks last night, with some friends. leah was sleeping at first and woke up in the middle of them. They didn't bother her at all. This was gabes first time staying awake through them. He wasn't to excited about them... But he did like them. he kept saying arrr(star) it was cute. He again go to bed around 10:30, at least he slept in until 8:30 this morning:)
wow, i didn't think i had that much to write about... knitwise I've been making some progress on my tank. i have about 5in. Done. i really want to start something that is more intricate, but i doubt i have enough kid free time to work on something like that. We'll see. There's so much to knit and so little time to do it all in... i did make a washcloths out of Wal*marts Peaches & Cream. i realized that i had no hand knit dish cloths, and that i needed some. It went quite fast. My goal is to have no store bought dish cloths or washcloths in a few months...We'll see if that happens.
~Happy Knitting~
I haven't been able to post until now, but on Tuesday night i bought my first pair of addi turbos! I'm using them on peek-a-boob. They are the best circular needles ever. The transition from the cord onto the needle is almost un-noticeable. I love them! i really do think I'm knitting faster with them... But who knows.
I wasn't able to knit much yesterday, but i hoping that this tank won't take long. I'm now working on Wednesdays and Saturdays. i start at 7:00am and get off around 12:00 to 1:00pm.(depending on how much bread i have to bake) its not bad at all and we definitely need the money. I'm trying to stay positive about it. i do love baking and working while i am there, but the night before I'm not thrilled about it. as long as the kiddos are corporative and sleep a good amount of the night, I'm happy. But for the rest of the day i' m just exhausted. Plus there is always the household chores, laundry and cleaning and such... I've got to hand it to all the mothers out there who work full time(or even part time) and come home and keep working. Being a parent is a full time job in its self. Having time to knit is sometimes hard to do but i find if i make the time, even just 30 minutes a day, I'm a happier mother and wife.
So i don't know where all that just came from... I was just going to post about my new needles, and it just turned into a whole mom and working thing...
Speaking of mothers my mom just stopped by with a coupon for the bank(she works there). We are going to open up saving accounts for the kids, and the coupon give us 5 bucks! Free money! Is that an oxy-moron?! Free and money...You usually don't hear those words together:)
Ok well the kiddos are sleeping so I'm going to knit a bit to relax for the day:)
Happy Knitting to all!
