A bunch of blogs

I've found a fair number of new blogs that I've recently started reading regularly. (I need to update my sidebar lists.)

Most of them are crafting blogs because craft stuff is what I do to relax.

(Weird thing about me, I find that I'm too perfectionist to use music - playing piano, singing - to relax. If I hit wrong notes and stuff, I have to work at it to get it 'right', so while it is an outlet for my emotions, I don't necessarily relax doing it. Also, Monkey-boy still freaks out when I sing or try to play the piano: "No Mommy! No Singing! No Mommy! No play piano! No!" while he physically pushes me off the piano bench. Obviously I'm not playing or singing enough!)

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is there are some very creative people out there with blogs (yes, I already knew that). Right now, my favorite new read is whipup.net. They have several contributors that cover all topics related to crafting. From art to needlecrafts to functional items, they've got it all. I have to check it everyday to see what new crazy/wonderful thing they've found.

More later....

Busy, busy, busy

Why is life so busy?
(No answer required)

Anyways, I'm going to try to update here more frequently; I've been a bit lazy about it the last while. I'm finding it easier/simpler to read others' blogs, so I don't bother updating my own. Even though I have lots of stuff going on that makes good blog fodder. ;)

So, check back later....there may actually be something to read.

Love and marriage

Monkey-girl: Mommy, are you supposed to marry someone you love?

TKHousewife: Yes.

Monkey-girl: Oh, well, I don't love N, but I still want to marry him.
(N is our next door neighbour, a year younger than Monkey-girl.)

TKHousewife: Why do you want to marry him?

Monkey-girl: Because he's a boy.



Should I be worried?

Lack of posts for the next week...

...not because I'm not posting (like normal), but because I'm off to visit my folks on Vancouver Island! Yay!!!!

I'm going to convince them to take me and the monkey-kids up a mountain so we can play in the snow a bit. We haven't had much snow here this winter, and the sled I bought 2 years ago still hasn't been used.

TKHubband is staying home and working...he doesn't get spring break, though he does get a break from us! :)

More adventures of Kitten

So Kitten likes the garage. Maybe it gives him a sense of adventure to wander around in it. Fuels his instincts to hunt spiders or styrofoam peanuts in the wild unheated depths.

Of course, after a couple of hours, he's waiting by the door to come in when we open it. Kind of the "Okay, I'm done now, let me in, I'm freezing" waiting.

It's amazing what a little medicine will do!

Due to many late nights in a row, the cold bug I had mostly fought off returned with a vengence. :(

I was wandering around here feeling so 'poor me' yucky. Then I decided to take a decongestant.

Now, I don't feel too bad at all!

Decongestants are my friend.

Project status

Way back here in November, I listed out some of my 'current' craft projects and mentioned that maybe I wasn't being realistic. Well, I thought I should update my list:

Projects in progress:
* Monkey-girl's needlepoint stocking (stitching 90% completed)
* Homespun crocheted shawl - DONE!!!!
* Seed-stitch knit chenille kerchief - ripped out
* Crocheted ribbon purse - DONE!!!!
* Needlepoint sampler I forgot I started 10 years ago (80% completed)
* Crocheted doll dress - DONE!!!! (plus another one)
* Beautiful cross-stitch tree sampler for me (20% completed)
* Christmas presents (40% completed, decided to gift them whenever)
* Funky knit socks (5% completed)
* Stunning black layered wrap skirt for me (I have all the stuff I need)

Future projects:
* two baby blankets for new babies I know - DONE!!!!
* knit cropped sweater for me
* knit wrap sweater for me (35% completed)
* cuddly knit sweater for monkey-girl
* monkey-girl's crocheted afghan for her bed
* oodles of cross-stitch kits hiding in my closet
* snazzy pants I bought a pattern for
* snazzy wrap top I bought a pattern for

Plus, I've returned to working on my wedding scrapbook...it's only been 10+ years... ;)

So, all-in-all, I've actually accomplished quite a lot in the last three months!

Our cat, the packrat

We have a 5 year old girl with long hair. Thus, the normal state of our house is that there are hair elastics ("ponies") everywhere.
During the last 6 months, or 9 months or year, whatever, the ponies have been disappearing. It's getting to the point that I can't find the colour pony I want to match Monkey-girl's outfit. (And she used to have a LOT of ponies).

We know where the ponies have gone.

The psycho cat (Kitten) steals them and piles them into his food dish. What's up with that?

(He also likes pipe cleaners and pom-poms.)

Internal Monologue

But Monkey-boy, that was going to be my bagel.
Hmpf. Now do I make another for me, or should I just wait for him to not eat his?
Because, I don't really want to eat two! I am, after all, trying to cut down on the 'extra' eating.
And I'm hungry...I don't want to wait.
Sigh. I guess I can just wrap his up if he doesn't eat it all.

But I don't like to clean...

You are Dishcloth Cotton.You are a very hard worker, most at home when
you're at home. You are thrifty and seemingly
born to clean. You are considered to be a
Plain Jane, but you are too practical to
notice.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

We're ba-a-ack! **UPDATED**

We had a great time at Disneyland!

We got there Saturday night, and checked in to our hotel just in time to watch the top of the fireworks from our room door.

On Sunday, we got up and zipped over to the park right away. It was crazy-busy! Apparently, the secret got out that Superbowl Sunday is a slow day. Even though it was our longest day, we didn't do as much as the next two days, just because of all the people. Monkey-girl got her face painted as a butterfly and it turned out really cute. I'll try to post pictures later. We watched the Fantasmic show Sunday night, and though it was pretty cool, it wasn't really worth the crowds in my opinion. If we had a better view of it, it probably would have been better. Then we tried to get over to Main Street to watch the fireworks. After all, Fantasmic and the fireworks are the only reasons to go on a weekend on the off season. The wind was so calm, the smoke didn't blow away, so the top half of the show was completely blocked. We were glad to have seen it the night before.

Monday and Tuesday were excellent! I don't like crowds, so that is why we like going in February on week days. The weather was hot (for us) and even though there was some smoke and ash from the fire on the Anaheim hills, we had a great time.

On Tuesday, TKHubband's parents took the kids for part of the day, so us big kids could go on some big kid rides. We did Space Mountain twice, Thunder Mountain twice, both sides of the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain (yes, I sat in the front and we got soaked).

Monkey-girl decided she loved Jessie (from Toy Story 2) this trip and we got a couple of great pictures when we found the Jessie character by Thunder Mountain.

Monkey-boy (who loves flying rides and spaceships) decided he loved Star Tours and we took him on it three times! If anyone mentions "Light Speed", he says, "Where's my space ship?" and then runs around the room with it yelling, "Wight speed!"

Both kids also adored the Buzz Lightyear ride. (Okay, all of us loved it!) And I got the best score of any of us - picture to follow. It's great that they have computers there for you to e-mail your pictures home (with a record of your score)...they just need a few more of them. Even in the slow times when there was no line-up to get on the ride, there was a line-up at the computers.

UPDATE: I won't mention who is with me in the spaceship for her own protection. ;)


We got home Wednesday night just after 8pm and now things are mostly back to normal. Monkey-boy said to me yesterday, "Mom, I want to go to Disneyland and go on the space ship ride!"

It will probably be a while before we go back again, so we're planning to make a collage of pictures of the trip for their room. That will help them remember the trip better as they get older.

Evening out

Last night I went to a women's dessert night at our church about Becoming Alive Inside. We had an interior designer talk about basic design principles (which I was happy to find I knew most of them) and then we had a talk from Debbie Fortnum. What a wonderful woman. She talked of how many (most?) women are dead inside (spiritually), and what we haven't realized is that we have lost hope. We need to connect or reconnect to God, who is the source of hope. (She put it much better than me.)

Of course, I had to buy a couple of her music CDs...she wrote a song based on Jeremiah 29:11 which happens to be my favorite verse. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I had heard this song on our 'local' Christian radio station but had never realized she lived here in the Lower Mainland.

She also has talks on CD available from her website and check out her biography.

Mmmmmm....Cinnamon Buns

I'm making cinnamon buns, and pan buns and a loaf of bread. Yay me!

I love home-made cinnamon buns. Almost all the 'bought' ones I have had are way too sweet. The exception to this is the IKEA ones. Those are heavenly with their cream cheese icing.

My favorite ones are just like my mom made when I was growing up. Regular bread dough (she used to make all our bread and buns by hand each week as her mom did), rolled out, buttered, brown-sugared, cinnamoned, rolled-up, cut and placed in 9x13 dish to rise and then bake.

We used to unroll them and put a little extra butter along the cinnamon part as we ate them.

Mmmmmmm....I can't wait until these ones are done!

Another beautiful painting...

at Anywhere But Here.

I might have to buy this one too!

Finished Objects (FOs) - Updated

Update - here's a picture with bad lighting.

Yesterday was a day of finishing stuff...

I finished a doll dress I had been (putting off) working on for quite a while. I made the doll, too, so she's been nekkid for too long. I still need to add the ribbons and buttons.

I finished the back of my wrap sweater (Yay me!), so now I can start the fronts (Yay!).

Ummmm.....

I finished sweeping the floor (does that count?)

I finished the fringe on the shawl for my Gramma....it's more like an extra wide scarf than a shawl...(okay, I finished that today, not yesterday, but I started finishing it yesterday)

I'll have to take some pictures and then update this later.

The sun is shining!

Quick!
Go outside!
Jump up and down!

(We've had 25 consecutive days of rain here...we're a little stir crazy.)

We're going to Disneyland!

Yay!

I have to admit, I love Disneyland. The first time I went was 10 years ago as part of our honeymoon. It truly is a happy place. :)

TKHubband is booking our holiday with the travel agent as I type!

Wheeee!

I just bought some art!

I bought an original watercolour painting from Kris at Anywhere But Here. She's trying to make some money to buy herself some music equipment.

Go, look!

Grief and music

This evening at worship practice, we did the song, "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman. This song always makes me think of my good friends' mom who passed away a little over a year ago. We started singing this song in church and small group while she was sick with cancer. I found it very difficult for quite a while to sing the bridge, "You give and take away, You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be Your name". It was hard to sing it before she passed away, and it was impossible for me to sing that part after she passed away. Not because I didn't trust that God knows what He is doing and His timing is perfect, but because it hurt to think of her not being here with us anymore.

Over the last year, it has gradually become easier to sing. I still think of her every time.

Oh! That's my hand!

TKHubband and I love this story. It makes me giggle every time I think about it.

Last year in the summer, TKHubband heard the following through the baby monitor in the kids room.

monkey-boy: Aaaaaaaa! It's a spider!
monkey-girl: Where? Where's the spider?
monkey-boy: Right there! There's a spider!
monkey-girl: Where?
monkey-boy: Right there!
monkey-girl: Where?
monkey-boy: Right there!

(pause as monkey-girl gets out of bed and goes over to monkey-boy's bed)

monkey-girl: Show me. Show me where the spider is.
monkey-boy: Right there! Right there!

(pause)

monkey- girl: Monkey-boy. That's not a spider. That's your hand.

(pause)

monkey-boy: ...ooooh! That's my hand!