Bunny hop!

I did it! I did it! I finished a project! Sure it's small and mostly mindless stockinette, but I'll take what I can get ;0)

It's the bunny tail hat from 'Itty Bitty Hats' knit from two strands of Elann Baby Cashmere in the Serengeti sand colourway. I used two balls for the 3 month size but my gauge was a little off and the hat is already too small for my growing boy. The cuff keeps rolling up his ears! So off to the gift closet it goes...

That's right! My lemondrop is already growing out of his clothes! It seems to be going so much faster the second time around and I feel like I don't have the time to take it all in. Life is just sooo much busier with two somehow...or maybe it isn't so much that there are two of them but rather that one is a busy toddler who just wants to hang out with mommy all day: play doh, colouring, snuggling, swinging in the backyard, playing in the sandbox, kicking a ball, taking walks around the block, putting puzzles together, singing songs... He's got so much on his agenda everyday and likes to hang out with mommy which is sweet and wonderful really except that it leaves few precious moments for me to hang with Lolo and just take it all in.

I've been quite blessed with another patient and sweet child and perhaps even more blessed that my boys see the wonder in each other. Julian just loves his brother and is constantly going up to him to say 'hi Lolo, how are you today?' with his little southern accent (we really don't know where he got the accent but it's really hilarious!) and kissing or petting his head. At the mall today, when Lolo got a little agitated, Julian casually reached over and held his hand. In the car, he sang a little song for Lolo to help him feel better. And Lolo? Well he just loves lookin' up to his older brother. So sweet ;0) And this week, Lolo smiled at us for the first time! A big toothless grin. Sigh. I'm completely head over heels in love with him too.

My heart is so very, very full.

Seven or eight?

And now for something completely different - a meme! I've been double tagged by Amanda and the Yarnhog for the 7 (or is it 8) things meme.

Here are the rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged.

Here's goes:

1. I (heart) Lowney's Cherry Blossoms. When I was a little girl, we lived above a convenience store which was run by my dad and every once in a while, my dad would let me choose anything I wanted in the store. I would take my time and carefully consider every item but invariably selected the delectable yellow box. I still get a thrill everytime one magically appears on my nightstand (thank-you dada ;0)

2. I always order the same things at restaurants. When we were dating (back in the day when we used to actually go to restaurants!), my husband and I were famous in more than one restaurant for eating slowly (too much gabbing and laughing) and for always ordering the same things. We were regulars at a few places where the waiters didn't bother asking us what we wanted anymore and just brought it over!

3. There's no place like home ;0) No matter where I am and no matter what I am doing, I would rather be home because I love that place. It just fills me with joy.

4. I'm such a bad gardener/plant keeper that I once killed ivy! Isn't that stuff supposed to be fool proof? Well it's not annyproof! It only took me 2 weeks to over water it to death.

5. My favourite colour is green. No, orange. No, pink. No, aqua! That's why I don't have one of these these yet ;0)

6. I'm trying hard to be green! I've always been conscientious when it came to the environment but was moved to action after seeing An Inconvenient Truth. At our house, we put out one bag of trash per week (incluing diapers) and 3 or 4 times that in recycling, we have energy efficient appliances, heat with hydro-electricity, only use our dishwasher when entertaining a crowd, use green cleaning products and laundry detergent (by Shaklee - LOVE that stuff ;0), have compact fluorescent bulbs in our most frequently used fixtures, commute by train (our car only gets used on weekends and a tank of gas lasts us a month!) and consider the environmental impact of our choices. And I feel really good about all of that.

7. I don't like odd numbers and the letter "V". Never did. Don't know why. They're like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Weird, eh?

8. My favourite song to sing to my children is 'Edelwiss'

Now for the tagging bit...what about you? Did you do this one yet? Wanna do it? Okay then, TAG, you're it! Heehe ;0)

Mother's day and Lolo's stick

The weather has been splendid around these parts lately and we've spent lots of time planning and working on outdoor projects. We set up a cedar swingset and sandbox in a corner of our back yard for Julian last weekend, had a family friend over to discuss plans for a deck extension, had a fence installed, purchased outdoor fabric to replace our swing canopy and cushions which were completely destroyed or blown away by a severe windstorm last summer, purchased a garden in a box for our flower bed out front and a lilac hedge to disguise our fence... and yesterday, on the occasion of mother's day, we all headed for our front yard to plant a wee cherry tree seedling to commemorate Logan's birth. The tree was a gift from the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and honestly I'm not sure how well it will do considering it is just a twig really. But we will nurture it and care for it the best we can.

I really like the idea of planting a tree to celebrate the birth of a child. Stephen's parents have two great big trees in their backyard planted when he and his sister were born. When Julian was born, Stephen's father took a new shoot from Stephen's tree and planted it in another corner of the yard for Julian. It is such a wonderful tradition and I am very proud to have Julian's and Logan's trees in my front yard, even if Logan's tree is more of a stick for now ;0)

I had a great mother's day too. Julian and daddy made a beautiful card for me and I got orange gardening gloves (my favourite) with lots of seeds to plant a children's garden in the corner behind the swingset. It gets full sun so I thought we'd try growing some sunflowers. It'll be a fun project for Julian and I to tend to this summer and I can't wait to plant them.

Stephen and Julian have already dug up the grass and put in edging and topsoil so we'll be all set for planting next weekend. I can't wait. I am however a novice gardener and need some help. I've never planted anything from seed before and am not sure about the diagram on the back of the seed packages.

It says to sow 3" apart on the left side but the diagram on the right shows the plants spaced 18 inches apart? Huh? Which is it? 3" or 18"? This brown thumb (I'm a plant killer) would appreciate any advice she can get ;0)

And finally, a little mother's day knitting miracle: we were rushing to get the kids dressed up for church on Sunday and I couldn't find a pair of shoes for Logan. Lots of singles but no matching two. I searched high and low and deep into the dark recesses underneath our bed and not only did I find another giraffe shoe just in time, but I also found this:


It's just enough leftover brown cashmerino aran to finish my monkey! I can feel this bad knitting karma thing starting to turn around...

Phew!

Knitting mojo

It's bad people. Really bad! I've noticed that it's been a little slow around knit blog land lately so perhaps it's not just me. Between chasing around the little guy and the little little guy and the amazing weekend weather we've had lately, there's been little knitting happening around these parts. And it seems that everytime I actually get to sit down to knit something, disaster strikes. My knitting is so not happening. See what I mean?

Here's a little tour of my knitting hall of shame. First up, the really cute ball from Fiona McTeague's knitted toys book. You'll remember that I tried to 'improve' on the pattern by knitting it in intarsia. Well that was a disaster. First off it was a pain to knit and when it was all done the 'joins' were too loose and the stuffing showed through. So I tried to tighten'em up by seaming from the inside. That made a mess on the outside. I cursed. A lot. And threw the whole thing out. I don't want to spend my knitting time trying to fix a project I don't love. Right? (Though looking at the picture now it doesn't look all that bad...perhaps I was too quick to discard it...)

Next up. A knitted monkey (also from Fiona's book). The pattern is simple enough and it is looking cute...except that I ran out of yarn! I knit him up using leftover Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in brown leftover from my Olympic cardigan and didn't have enough yarn for the legs and tail. Not good. I'm not sure I want to go through the trouble of hunting down an extra ball of the stuff (unless of course any of you have an extra part ball of it laying around?) so I think this one is gonna have to remain unstuffed for some time. Plus I sewed his face on crooked and it bugs me. I'll have to fix it but since I don't have the yarn to finish it anyway it's going back in the knitting closet for now.

Next up, lemondrop's cardi. I finished both hoods and joined them together with an applied i-cord (cool, eh?) but after I picked up around the hood and started knitting it as I had planned (again 'improving' on the pattern) things didn't work out and I just can't give it enough attention to figure out where I went wrong. I think I'll just have to follow the pattern afterall...and fast too so that Logan can get to wear it before he outgrows it ;0)

What else? Oh, well there's Stephen's anniversary sweater which still needs a sleeve and a half. And a felted puppet I tried to wing but which was uncomfortable to use so I started ripping it out already. I also cast on for a broadripple sock but it's too big so I'll have to rethink that one too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I seem to have lost my knitting mojo and need a fool proof project soon before I fall deeper into a knitting funk. Perhaps the bunny ear hat from 'Itty bitty hats' will do it for me...

Happy knitting ;0)