Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Thank You SP 8!

My lovely SP from SP8 sent me this super cool crochet hook holder. I love love love the fabric. I already have it hooked up with my tools (heh heh) and it rocks. No more pulling out half a skein of yarn as I grab a hook from my bag. Both of my SPs rock, I hope I'm pulling my weight with my own two recipients.





It was a very trying day today with JCC. He was just plain ornery. Below is a pic of him finger painting before he decided it was fun to clap his hands together after dipping his hands in paint. I have white walls. :( I think I'm going to need to make finger painting an outside activity.



I received an email today from a friend from my freshman year at college. It contained a link to her blog and her roommate's, both of whom were very good friends of mine at the time. She is now working on a masters in social work and the other is living on a farm in New Zealand. Neither has children.

Reading their blogs has me contemplating my own doings. It's rather bizarre as I don't think anyone from highschool or college would have expected me to end up the SAHM. I don't regret my decision to have children younger than most professional women do, but it does set me apart a bit from my peers. The majority of women I associate with are quite a bit older and wiser. I'm pretty sure I'll never go back to writing code, and homeschooling will take up much of my time in the future but I'm not sure what the future beyond children will hold for me. I have herbalist desires but that requires quite a bit of study -- it is definitely a far off aspiration.

We are having another storm. A rather strange one in that I can see some blue sky as it thunders and lightnings. I am holding off on taking pics of the garden as everything is about to burst into bloom. Hopefully I'll have some good shots next week.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

New Haircut

I'm not sure what I think. I like it in the mirror but it still looks a bit soccer-mom-ish. Maybe I just have that kinda look. However I don't like the way it looks in the pic below. It's a good enough photo (minus the lamp sprouting from my shoulders) just not what I see when I see myself. Maybe it's a weird angle or something as usually I'm happy with the way I photograph. Ug. Chris is not yet fond of the new cut. JCC likes the colors but doesn't think it's short enough -- he told me he'd cut it for me. :)

29!

I am officially 29. I was thinking about it yesterday and on a purely theoretical level I felt it should bother me as it seems like 29 is an awfully adult age, but after thinking about my life I realized I'm pretty much an adult. I still have a totally sophomoric sense of humor (and husband) but otherwise I'm pretty responsible. So after I figured that out I was over any remorse at getting older.

Over the weekend we had a lovely combo birthday/beginning of summer party and then on Sunday JCC and I did some garden work and then had Thai for dinner. We are blessed in this part of Cleveland with a bunch of yummy Thai restaurants and a new one had opened in Coventry but alas it did not live up to the glory that is Mekong River. (Still good, just not spectacular.) Yesterday Chris got me a latte, some cupcakes and an iTunes card to celebrate my official birthday. (I got the spinning wheel last weekend.) I had a blast downloading songs and I do think an iTunes card is an almost perfect present -- there's nothing to dust, nothing to clean and you get to have fun listening to different music as you decide what to purchase. And on top of all that my lovely brother and sister-in-law sent me these:



They are stunning in person.

Today we had our ugly tree removed and it provided great entertainment for the family:





And some goofy pics:



Wee girl learned how to sit up last week and found her voice. Unfortunately she likes to exercise her new skills at 4am, but at least it's only for a few minutes.

I'm getting my hair highlighted/cut later today -- I'm thinking I'm going short. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Thank You One Skein SP!



I got an awesome package from my One Skein SP yesterday -- a beautiful blue skein of Cascade 220, an Oklahoma postcard, point protectors that look like socks and two homemade bottlecap magnets that actually hold up stuff! (We have lots of magnets but they rarely are strong enough to hold up JCC's artwork. These do!) And it was all wrapped up with bright shiny paper. Lovely -- thank you! The blue is wonderful too, I'll have to post a pic of our bedroom as it's that shade.

What's next is for Shannon. This is roving. It is the cleaned wool off of a sheep fleece. The darker pieces are from Alpaca. Spinning is the process of taking pieces of this (drafting) and making yarn.







This is wee girl in mid-roll as taken by JCC. He loves to take pictures but usually they are close-ups of everyday objects. They're pretty funny.



Lastly, this is JCC in my helmet and apron. After I took this picture he asked to see it and then commented that he looked pretty. :)

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday's not until next Monday, but here is my early present:



And a close-up:



Obviously, beginning spinning was a hit. It's a Louet S15 that the instructor was selling off for $75. It's been in a middle school classroom so it could definitely use a new finish, but otherwise works fine. Especially considering a new one is 5x that price.

My first skein:



Ugly, isn't it? This is the stuff I'm working on now, I'm trying to keep myself to 15 minutes/day while the munchkins rest or otherwise I'd do it all the time.



I have the wheel going in the right direction and am getting better at drafting thinner fiber but I'm still putting way too much twist on it. I'll have 5 minutes of not wonky yarn and then it all goes to hell and I don't know what I'm doing different. But, as I have a fleece (Tunis) coming I'm sure I'll be better after spinning 4 lbs of roving. :0

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Still here, still knitting washcloths

What can I say -- they're fast, fun, and usable. I sent the last one I made off to my secret pal so now I'm doing another for us. But I haven't been knitting too much -- we've been doing lots of playdates now that the weather is nice. This area of Cleveland has a ton of great playground and parks and we're trying to visit them all.

I've also been spending more time exercising -- I'm trying to hit 1000 minutes for the month. That's not a lot but I like a goal and making/filling in spreadsheets so this works for me. Who knew that Excel and an ipod would get me liking to exercise.

I'm eagerly anticipating my spinning class on Sunday! I can't wait. :)

Monday, June 12, 2006

Pictures!

We had a fun weekend -- Parade the Circle on Saturday and then lounging outside on Sunday. (Well, ACC and I lounged, Chris and JCC worked on a model airplane.) Some pics. . .


ACC lounging


JCC on his "motorcycle"


In the saucer

Continuing with my love of fast, usable projects is my first crochet project -- a potholder!


I love crochet!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The Mail Carrier Delivers

2 packages awaited me after a trip to the library and lunch with Daddy at work. First up is my Secret Pal 8 gift. She kindly included a yarn decorated note, a large bag of M&Ms, 2 boxes of Junior Mints, a stitch holder, yarn thimble, needle connectors, a list of knitting tips from her LYS, pretty blue post-its and a super cute pot holder (for kitchen knitting 201; 101 is, of course, washcloths.) What's really cool about the double layer pot holder is that on the back in purls is the word "Home". :) Very sweet. I will take a picture of it next time. Thank you Secret Pal! (Off to stalk knit bloggers and figure out who is from Fitchburg MA.)



Next up we have my new blue cover for my ipod. I've been exercising a lot (well a lot for me -- meaning daily) and this comes with an armband so I don't have to fear it plunging to its death off of the elliptical machine.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

More Washcloths

but I won't bore you with more pics. This one is yellow/white and it is a small mitt (I just did a 3-needle bindoff at the top and then seemed the side) for JCC. The boy loves to clean. He happily did the dishes today using it. We made my most favorite muffins (banana chocolate chip) but I set the oven at 450 instead of 350. DAMN IT. Amazingly, this is the first burned thing I've had to show JCC. We were still able to eat some of them but they aren't nearly as tasty when they're charred.

I'm still plugging along on my sweater. I'm trying to get the other side done before I make another washcloth. :)

Small children and I have been very busy lately -- last week we hit the Natural History Museum, yesterday a cruise down the Cuyahoga and in between we've been to the farmer's market, had brunch at Tommy's, did some gardening, etc. We've also been doing a bit more cleaning than normal as our big mutt is blowing his coat. I'm vacuuming every other day or so but it looks like it's been weeks since it's been cleaned. I'm also finally washing the windows as our Black Locust (which I learned at the Natural History Museum is an invasive plant) is finally finished blooming and this marks the end of all of the major pollen dumping. I hate cleaning windows. I think it's the perfectionist in me and as I always find a streak somewhere on them -- it drives me nuts. But I'm doing a room a day and have 4/18 windows done. :)

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Another Brick in the Wall or Still-life with Warshcloth



These are too fun to knit! My existing rags (microfiber) are getting kinda dingy so I think I may make a ton of these. The brick colors were unintentional -- they were the ones on clearance at Joann's.

The garden looks great but it just rained and of course I didn't get a photo before hand. I have blooming my climbing rose, the peonies, rhodie (still), veronica, compact viburnum (which is decidedly not compact at 7 feet tall), exberry azalea, and all of the annuals. It's very colorful.