Teapot Troubles

I am a tea drinker. I don't really drink coffee at all (unless I'm looking for some caffeine). I usually make 2 pots a day; one for breakfast and one for lunch. Each pot gives me 2 large mugs of tea.

Over the last three months I've broken three teapots.

The first was a cute chinese-style pot TKHubband got for me. This was my everyday pot because it was the perfect size, made yummy tea and had a strainer that fit in the top so I could easily use loose tea instead of bags. I think I dropped something on it.

The second was a tall indigo-coloured pot with hand-painted snowflakes on it. I usually used this one when we had company. I could make a BIG pot of chai in it. The handle broke off while I was washing it and it fell into the sink, breaking the spout off and into two pieces.

The third was a very pretty white teapot with blue flowers on it. I got it at our T&T Supermarket. It's shaped like what I consider a traditional victorian teapot. Yesterday, it was sitting on the edge of the sink and I brushed against it and it fell into the sink chipping the top edge and cracking it down the side (I didn't notice the crack until this morning).

I've had all of these for a while, but the rate I'm destroying them has me a little worried. I still have three more, but only one is the right size for everyday. Of course, it's an enamel Corning Ware one, so it shouldn't break as easily as the rest. It's got the blue cornflowers on it. TKHubband's Gramma G bought it for me because I loved hers so much. One of the others is a very cute tea-for-one set (with the cup on the bottom and the pot nesting inside it). It's not really a very practical pot, but it's very pretty and cute. My last one is another BIG pot shaped like a bee hive with little bees attached to it.

I think I'll have to go teapot shopping. I have seen a really nice stainless insulated one which is tempting, but I also really like porcelain ones. Then again, I saw a snazzy glass one. (Yeah, I wonder how long that would last, the rate I'm going!)

Yawn. Stretch.

Hello again!

I know it's been a while...I decided to ease slowly into the new year...yeah, that's right. ;)

Now that I've upgraded my Blogger and settled into the routine of school again, I hope to post regularly. I have lots of stuff to upload and it's going to take me a while, but I'll give it a shot.

Ciao for now.

Twas the day before the day before Christmas...

The living room is a jumble of gifts and wrapping paraphenalia. A few years ago I bought a large amount of Christmas wrapping paper after Christmas when it was marked down. I'm finally coming to the end of it; I think I have enough for this year. It's nice and strong. I love wrapping presents, but I've been so spoiled by this thick paper, that I know I'm going to get frustrated wrapping the last few with the cheaper paper. I'll be tugging on the paper and ri-i-i-ip. I guess I'll be picking up a bunch more next week. :)

The kids are finally out of school, and wham! it suddenly feels like Christmas. How weird is that? I've been decorating, wrapping, playing Christmas music for weeks and wondered why it still didn't feel like Christmas. Half an hour after getting home from school with the kids, and I'm thinking, "Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming!"

My Christmas cards and letters are finally all signed, addressed and stamped and stacked by the door, waiting for me to take them to the post office this morning. Yes, they're late. They're "New Years cards". :)

We've been going through the Brandy Beans. We're not big drinkers, an occasional glass of wine, maybe a Ceasar when we're out for a fancy dinner, but when it's "Brandy Bean Season"....look out. :) They're just so yummy.

We're having Christmas tomorrow with TKHubband's family, and then there's the Christmas Eve service, so I have to get everything that's left done today. Pumpkin Tarts, Candied Yams, wrapping presents, mailing cards and gathering everything together so I don't forget to take something to either my in-laws or the Christmas Eve service. I think I can manage it. I think I might even be ready for Christmas morning already! Well, except for the rest of the presents I need to wrap...

Progress slowing...

...to a halt.

I still haven't sent my Christmas cards. I haven't even finished the newsletter I will put in to let family know what we've been up to. I made 30 beautiful cards and they're still sitting here.

This year, they are New Years cards and letters. That's okay, right?

I love this!

Saw it first at Anywhere But Here.

You may have noticed...

...some old posts popping up like they're new. Well, they've been saved as draft since I wrote them waiting for me to get the pictures off the camera. So, now I've finally uploaded the pictures and those posts are terribly out of date! Since the craft one, I've started several things and finished a couple. Since the snow one, it's all melted away and it snowed again last night! (just an inch, though)

I'm really going to try to update more often, I've just been distracted by Christmas planning, organizing and baking.

Top of my list is getting more pictures up. I do have a few really good pictures that I should share, but I procrastinate too much!

So, we've had some snow...

I love snow. Growing up here in the Pacific Northwest (BC-ers call it the "South Coast"), I was very aware that "we never get enough snow". Most times we have a green Christmas, and some winters we don't get any snow that "sticks".

Common comments about winter weather here:
"It's snowing, but it isn't sticking."
"The snow's sticking! But it'll rain tomorrow."
"Wow! It snowed 4 inches!"
"No, it isn't snowing."
"No, sweetie, it still isn't snowing."
"No, sweetie, it still isn't snowing. Maybe it will snow tonight."
"No, sweetie, it looks like it isn't going to snow this time."

:)


The kids are definitely enjoying the snow, but it's warming up now. In a few days, when the rain comes, our deep snow will slowly, surely melt away.

sigh

So, what have I been doing?

Finishing.




















Finishing.










Finishing.



















(I don't know why the top picture is sideways...Blogger did it.) So, yes, I finished my Ballet Wrap Cardigan from Interweave Knits! I finished it at the Womens Craft Weekend, which was my goal. Yay! I like it very much. The sleeves might be a tiny bit too long (I'm a shorty), but they haven't been annoying me yet, so it should be okay. I also crocheted the ties instead of knitting them. To be honest, I was tired of knitting this yarn. The sleeves just about made me nuts, they seemed to take FOREVER! I couldn't bear the thought of knitting two ribbed 50 inch ties that were only 7 stitches wide. The yarn is textured, so I don't think it's obvious (and especially not to non-knitters).

I also finished Monkey-Boy's Rainbow Blanket. He loves it very much, but still wants his "white blanket", which is rapidly decreasing in size. I decided to make him a new blanket because the blanket I made him as a baby is falling apart. That's what happens when you chew on a crocheted blanket. I'm not heart-broken because to be honest, it hadn't turned out how I wanted. I think the pattern was actually written for bulky-weight, not worsted weight, so it was quite loose and airy - not the best for a toddler who drags it around everywhere. It looks terribly ratty now. Of course, he still loves it, so as it disintigrates, it'll just keep getting smaller until he gives it up. His Rainbow Blanket uses the same stitch, but with a smaller hook, so it's a lot denser and should hold up better.

The booties and hat were way too cute to not make. This is the first time I brought home a knitting magazine, dug out the yarn and cast on the next day! My friend just had a little guy and he's tiny, so I made the 3-month size and I think they'll fit him in the new year.

I've also been making some Christmas gifties, but I've just wrapped them and I forgot to take a picture. Oh well, I'm planning to make some more.

3-day vacation

Well, I'm off to a "Women's Craft Weekend" at Timberline Ranch! For three days, I will be without TKHubband and the monkey-children. I'm not sure what I'm going to do! :D

I'm going with my mother-in-law, my future sister-in-law and her mom. We're all rooming together, which should be a lot of fun. I've packed too many projects because I don't really know what to expect. 4 bags for a 3-day camp...Well, okay, one bag is my sleeping bag and pillow, so that doesn't count. One bag is my clothes (the smallest one). One small suitcase for my card stuff, one large tote for my yarn projects (largest bag) and two small boxes with my scrapbooking stuff (these will fit with my yarn stuff later). That's not that bad...right?

Everyone's meeting here in an hour to load up our van and then it will be maybe an hour's drive to the camp. Unfortunately it's rainy and dark, so the drive won't be great, but I'm sure the company will make it fun.

Time to cook dinner for the monkey-children and TKHubband. Then I have to clean out the van a bit so it'll be ready to load.

Have a great weekend!

Remember our war veterans and soldiers tomorrow on Remembrance Day.
(Really, we take our freedoms too much for granted.)

It's November again...

Fall is the busiest time and is also the time of the year when I have the least amount of energy.

I think the energy thing is because of all the stuff starting to pile up: birthdays, holidays, school stuff, etc. My energy is stretched in more areas. Well, that combined with the tilting of the northern hemisphere away from the sun...
I don't really notice the evenings getting earlier through August or even September, it's when the rains come and the time changes in late October that it surprises me how dark it is so early (and yes, it surprises me every year...talk about short term memory!). :)
So, November is dark. No Christmas lights up yet, and it's dull and gray most of the days because of the rain and it gets dark around 5...maybe 4:30. (Now, I can't really complain about it because in the summer, well, it's sunny until nearly 10.) But I sure notice the lack of sun this time of year on the "wet coast".

I'll have to take the kids outside to splash in the puddles. That'll probably help a bit. :)

We're back from the great white north

:) I had to say it. We did have snow in Saskatoon while we were there and it is north of us (by quite a bit actually).

Now we're back and I have laundry and unpacking and grocery shopping and photo organizing and photo uploading and blog reading and blog posting and meal making and lots of other stuff to do.

Pictures definitely to come!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're not having our celebration this weekend because we're travelling to Saskatchewan for a family wedding. The in-laws left yesterday by car and we're leaving tomorrow by air. We're going to have a BIG family celebration on Wednesday there. Then, of course, there will be the BIG family celebration at the wedding!

I thought I'd list a few things I'm thankful for. These are in no particular order, really just how they came to mind.

God, Family, wonderful friends, TKHubband, our monkey-children, our (pretty decent) health, our church, the kids' school, their wonderful teachers, TKHubband's job, our climate, our house and big yard, our cats, nice yarn (yes, I know, it's a weakness), flowers, trees, thunderstorms, doing crafts with the monkey-children, my computer (time-waster that it is), home-made cookies.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Morning Conversation

"Mom, it's morning-time, but the sun isn't even up yet!"
"I know, isn't that funny?"
"Maybe the sun is really, really, really, really, really, sweepy [sleepy]."
"Oh, maybe."
(yawn) "Me too."

Summer Trip to the Island

So, I've been playing with Flickr a bit more and added a couple more pictures. I've made a set for our summer trip to the island. I will be adding pictures to this set as I upload them.

PS: Eventually I'll update my sidebar...it's very out of date. :)

First day of preschool for monkey-boy

First day of preschool for monkey-boy
Originally uploaded by TKHousewife.

Monkey-girl is 'helping' Monkey-boy look at the book on his first day of preschool.

I was a bit worried that Monkey-boy would cry or be clingy for the first few times. He isn't too keen on Mommy leaving him (unless Monkey-girl is staying with him.) Everything went really well and he loves his school. He's even got a 'best friend' already. As he says, "I have two best friends now [monkey-girl]! You and C!"

First day of school

First day of school
Originally uploaded by TKHousewife.

First day of school pictures, as promised.

You can't tell from this picture, but they were both really excited about going to school. And really happy, too. They just wouldn't smile for the picture. I have 5 pictures of this pose and they are either looking confused or have really fake-looking smiles. Oh well, maybe next year.

In Through the Nose

This is TKHubband here, with my second-ever blog entry. So if you're wondering why this post seems a little different from the standard fare, that would be why.

Our monkey children tend to cry a lot. Maybe we're failing as parents, but I prefer to think it's genetic. Anyway, one tactic that T (TKHousewife) has used a lot to get the tears to stop is to get the sad little monkey in question to take a deep breath in through the nose and then let it out through the mouth. The trouble is that it doesn't work. Maybe it used to work at some point in the swirling mists of the distant past, but if it did, I have forgotten about it. T is nothing if not persistent, though, and so the monkeys are quite familiar with this ineffective technique. Who knows, maybe it works when Daddy isn't around.

The monkey children are currently aged 4 and 5. An interesting thing about kids that age is that they find potty humour supremely hilarious. T says that boys of ALL ages find potty humour funny, and there may be truth to that as well.

A few days ago, Monkey Boy was set off about something during dinner. I don't remember what it was, but he was inconsolable. I decided to try something new. I told him, very seriously, to take a deep breath in through his nose, which I demonstrated for him. He ignored me completely, to my utter unsurprise. Then I told him to let it out through his bum, at which point I made a long, loud raspberry. Yup, at the dinner table. The effect was instant and dramatic. Uncontrollable tears transformed into fits of laughter, and then to, "Again! Again!" from both of the monkeys.

I performed this breathing exercise a number of times, ending with a grand finale that involved thrashing wildly in my chair with the force of the primary gaseous release, followed by a few after shocks. Yeah, at the dinner table. I think T was laughing, too, or at least I hope she was. She hasn't left me yet at least.

In the days since then, "breathing out through my bum" has become a magical cure-all. Forget about sissy stuff like kissing it better. The phrase, "Take a deep breath in through your nose" is now 100% effective. The crying stops, and the monkey's eyes twinkle in anticipation of what's coming next. Ah, the power of potty humour. I should tell you sometime about how I made Monkey Girl laugh so hard that she actually threw up (yeah, I felt bad) by pretending, repeatedly, that she scared me so much that I peed my pants.

Announcement

I have a Flickr page now! This way I'll be able to link to my online pictures instead of uploading them to blogger. Yay!

Here it is.

(For someone who used to have a computery, technical job, I'm sure easily amused by minor technical advances on my blog!)

I survived the first day of school

Pictures to follow...

Blah, blah, blah...what a bore

Bah! Things have been too busy lately.

I DO have some cool pictures of our trip. And some pictures of craft stuff. And August garden pictures. The monkey-children have been keeping up with their regular antics. I guess there's just too much to blog about... :)

Once the monkey-children are in school, I'll (hopefully) be able to get the posts up more regularly. Monkey-girl is going to Kindergarten again and Monkey-boy is going to "Junior Kindergarten" aka preschool. Friday is the first day for both of them, so I have a couple more days to get ready.

Today, Monkey-boy has his preschool music class, but Monkey-girl's dance class doesn't start until next week, so I'll have to bring a craft for her to work on during his class. She is starting to hand sew (with the felt pieces that have holes for the yarn) and has made a purse and a hand puppet, so I think I'll introduce her to real needles soon. She's almost 6 and has good fine motor control, so I think it'll be okay. She's already asked me if I can teach her how to do the blanket stitch because she likes the way it looks. (Oooo! Then I can make her a little pincushion, needle holder, etc! Maybe I'll make one similar to this...and maybe that's a little too clever for me.)

Lately in the evenings, TKHubband has been playing Oblivion on the Xbox 360. (The title of this post is a quote from the game.) So I sit beside him on the couch and knit! Yay me! I have finished the back of the summer top I'm making from KnitPicks Shine Worsted. Then I realized that I miscalculated the amount of yarn I bought, so I'm waiting for my order to come to do the fronts. I figure if the colour is from different dye lots, it will be okay because the only place you'll notice is the side seams...and it probably wouldn't be obvious anyways. Since I have to wait to work on that project, I'm back to working on my cross-over cardigan from Interweave Knits. I'd finished the back and both fronts and then stalled on the sleeves. I think I just got a bit tired of it, but now, I'm pretty excited to get it finished as fall is almost here and I want to wear it!

Monkey-girl is going to be a flowergirl in a wedding this fall, and I'm going to make some crinolines/petticoats for under her dress and for the other girls. I was thinking of buying some, but to buy them online with shipping costs/time/etc, I'd be worried that they wouldn't fit, or other stuff would go wrong. Then I thought of renting them from a bridal store, but they want $50 each to rent them!!!!! Yikes! So, I'm going to make them. It's very, very hard to find patterns for crinolines. Unless you know where to look. There's one discontinued Butterick pattern that you can buy from their website, and I saw one on ebay. That's it. So, I looked through the costume patterns and finally, thankfully, found one that will work and will be simple to make (cheap too). And the fabric store had a special on, so the pattern only cost me $2.99! YAY!!!!! I'll go get the fabric one day when both kids are at school...