Crafting Progress

Here's an update:

Knit Ballet Wrap Cardigan: Back and both fronts DONE! So, maybe 60% done. Sleeves, tie and assembly to go.

First pair of knit socks: DONE! I made them for monkey-girl.









Paton's Bohemian Vest (oh, so soft!): Cast on plus 2 rows. Now, before I get in trouble for starting yet another project while I have so many on the 'in progress' list, I have a reasonable explanation. This is my 'take with me' project. It requires little thought, so it is great for doing while I wait for stuff (kids' music/dance classes, doctor offices, etc). Most of my other on-going projects are a little too large or complicated to just pick up and do whenever with limited time and space. (I'm using 11110 Indigo Indulgence.)

Everything else....ah whatever, it's spring, I have to play outside whenever it isn't raining!

Spring!

I love spring.

(Yes, I know, I love fall too....get over it.)

My lilacs are just starting to bloom and it's definitely a good year for lilacs. They're covered.

The one in the backyard gets completely neglected by me (poor thing). I prune it only so we can walk past and to give flower bunches to friends. But look at the flowers on it! (Sorry for the bad picture, it was early in the morning and the lighting isn't as good as it could be.)

The one in the front yard gets more attention because, well, everyone sees it and I don't like my gutters full of leaves.

I also have lilies coming up! (You can just see some of them under the lilac in the front yard.) I've never grown lilies before! My sister-in-law gave me lily bulbs for my birthday in March, and I didn't procrastinate (much) before I planted them, so now they're coming up! I'm very excited.

I also have bought a couple of trays of bedding plants for my planters on the deck and for the garden beds. I know I'll need more, but I want to know what I want/need before I buy too much of anything (like normal).

AND I dug all the weeds out of the 'rose garden' that was here when we moved here almost 10 years ago and I'm going to put in a bunch of freesia bulbs and other pretty things. (Yeah, it didn't happen last weekend as planned.)

Oof! Long post, I'd better stop before I break something! :)

All shiny and new!

Look at that! Look. At. It. It's a beautiful thing!
It's a fence, you say.
But look! It's standing up! All together! Not falling over and apart!

Our neighbour with whom we share just those 2 pieces of fence got it redone last week. The fence around their entire yard had completely disintegrated over the last couple of years (except for the section along our other neighbour who has a big dog). And they had come around last summer/fall to find out if all the neighbours who share the fence (I think 5 of us because of the layout) would pay 1/2 of the shared parts. We've been letting it just fall apart over the last 6 months or so because we knew it was going to get done.

Now, the rest of our fence looks bad.....

Why are fences so expensive?

Betta Betta Bo-betta...

So, here's the latest saga of the Betta fish....

Too much algae.

Turns out I was feeding him too much (and I know not to feed fish too much!) He needs 3 freeze-dried red grubs per feeding...it would be nice if the fish food manufacturers would put that on the label...course they wouldn't sell as much fish food then.

Once I get the water tested I'm going to get a small algae eating fish (I don't remember the name right now) and maybe a couple of other little fish that do well with Bettas. Once everything gets established, I'll post a picture.

It's Friday, it's Friday!

And the weather is going to be lovely this weekend! I'm going to plant the rest of my spring bulbs (freesias, I LOVE freesias, and some anemones), some bedding plants I already picked up and some seeds because it's just cool to watch plants grow from next to nothing. :)

I'm also going to a "Creative Loop" seminar at our church tomorrow morning where I'm going to a workshop on vocal harmonies. I'm pretty excited about this as I love to sing harmony, but I think I have a mental block on how to do it. (I understand the technical aspects and can harmonize to hymns, but can't seem to figure it out 'on-the-fly' with modern songs.)

Right now, I'm smelling a lovely pork roast cooking away in my oven. YUM! I'll have to finish this off and hurry up and make the apple sauce and mashed potatoes. That's a rule, you know. If you make a pork roast, you must make apple sauce and mashed potatoes and gravy. :)

My favorite salsa

1 medium-large tomato (or 2-3 Roma tomatoes)
1 sweet pepper (red, orange, yellow or green)
2-3 green onions
1 handful cilantro (or to taste)
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-3 Tbsp lemon juice
cayenne to taste

Cut up the tomato and pepper in 1/4 inch dice. Slice the green onions and roughly chop the cilantro. Combine all together in a bowl. Add the salt, black pepper, lemon juice and cayenne and stir well. Serve with tortilla chips.

If you're making this ahead of time, leave the salt out until just before serving, it tends to pull all the water out of the tomatoes and makes a lot more juice.

When I make this, I don't measure. I just sprinkle on the salt and cayenne and drizzle with lemon juice. Then I adjust to taste. Once in a while (if I have very not-sweet peppers) I will add a pinch or two of sugar.

If you want, add a hot pepper as well. (I don't anymore because my body has issues with day-old jalepenos.)

My son will eat this with a spoon (he's 3 1/2) it's so good!

I'm a Blog-Mom!!!!!

I can't believe it! I only have about 3 people that read my blog on a regular basis, and I have blog-offspring!

Mylifeonablog is my friend LM's blog that she just started! I can't wait to see what she writes!

Go on over and give her a warm welcome!

I heart Winners (the store)

Or maybe, I should just stay away from them before I spend all our money.

Today I went to Winners to find a birthday gift for a little girl in Monkey-girl's class. I've always found good things at the store nearest me whether kids clothes or toys for good prices. My store has rearranged a bit, and now (and I don't know how they did this) there is even more good stuff in there!

I easily found a present for the birthday girl and a couple of must-buys for my monkeys, though they'll have to wait to play with them (probably just until Easter). And I saw some really cute green summer shoes, and some other ones and a couple of cute tops I'd like to try on. AND they now have their Petite sizes very clearly marked in their own section!!!!! I'm short and can NOT buy 'normal' sizes...this is a really big deal for me. :)

Luckily for our bank account, I can't clothes shop with the monkeys in tow, and it's the start of a long weekend.


sniff

Kids and mud

Why must kids muck in the mud?

Okay, I was a child once, I remember playing in mud as a kid. I remember making mud pies; mixing stuff together to make 'cake', etc. But I NEVER smeared mud on my friends and had it smeared on me. Never. Yucky. Besides, I had long hair and the thought of getting mud in my hair was . . . (shudder).

TKHubband feels quite the same way about mud.

How then, did we get a child who was easily coerced by her dear friend C (a boy) to have a 'mud war'? Yes, Monkey-girl, not Monkey-boy was the one smearing mud and being smeared with mud. There was more mud on C than on her...which means she was doing much more smearing, but still....

...the water ran black when I washed her hair.

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.