I quit!

Last Friday the 23rd was the last day of my year long maternity leave, but you won't find me trying to put together some work outfits, checking on my day care arrangements, or planning knitting projects for long commutes and lunch breaks. No Sir-ee Bob, not me!

That's because, I am leaving my job!

{My office back in 2005 before I took my first maternity leave}

Yup! Effective immediately, I am a stay-at-home mom and (when I manage to ignore the financial pressure that comes with making that kind of decision) I am filled with glee and giddiness because as much as I really enjoyed my old job and all it's rewards, I love my new job even more. And I know that I will never have nor can even aspire to a more satisfying, rewarding or enjoyable job then caring for my little guys and being right there beside them cheering them on every single minute of their lives! Because that's the kind of mom I want to be to my two sweet as pie little guys and they deserve nothing less.

{That's me on my last day at the office when I was pregnant with Julian.
I was tear-y because I was already thinking that it might be my last day
at the office and how much I would miss my job...
of course, I hadn't even met Jujube yet!}

I have to admit though that it is crazy scary to think of what life will be like as a one income family. Crazy scary. And yet, in another way, leaving my job was one of the easiest decision I've ever made. I discussed it with my boss and friend (a really understanding mom of 3 herself) a few weeks ago, and when it was done and I hung up the phone, I suddenly felt like I grew wings. Fully free to be the kind of mom and housewife extraordinaire that I want to be for my family. And I am so stinking proud of myself!

This just feels so right through and through. And of course, it means there will still be time for knitting at naptime and designing after bedtime. {I should note that Stephen and I are working really hard at redesigning my new pattern site and hope to re-launch Buddy Bags and make Hickory Dickory Dot available from the new site in the next few days as planned - more on that next time}.

Just because I'm staying home to care for my little ones doesn't mean I can't exercise my business acumen and put my other talents to work, right?

Cheers!

How about a crane for his Cheerios?

Well, another week, another cold. And this time, no one was spared! All 4 of us were sniffling, sneezing, coughing, whining and complaining all weekend long! Not. Fun. Luckily, we should all be breathing easier in a day or two and I an get back to the important task of figuring out the wings for my knitting tattoo (BTW, I will put up the pattern for you when it's all done, hopefully by next week)!


In the meantime, I thought I'd show you some pics of Julian modeling the Rowan Yorskshire Tweed Chunky yoked sweater (it's the copycat sweater from Ann Budd's 'Handy book of sweater patterns') I knit for him in the fall. I had put up the photos on Flickr but don't think I got to blogging them. So here goes...

I think it's my favourite sweater of all the special knits I made for my boys. I just love everything about it, including how it makes my Jujube look even more irresitable. Even when his goofy gene (inherited from his father, see proof here) is in full effect as it was during that photoshoot. Oh, how I love my boys. They always find a way to crack me up ;0)



Like the other day...Julian and I were talking about how Lolo's first birthday is coming up and how fun it would be for us to make something special for his birthday. I was thinking of something along the lines of maracas or a noisemaker that I could make and Julian could decorate. We've been going to The Music Class on Saturday mornings and Lolo sure loves those egg shakers so it seemed like a great idea to me. Though Julian had some other ideas...

After thinking it over for a minute at lunch on Saturday, it suddenly hit him! The perfect gift to make for his little brother: what about a crane for his Cheerios?

Well, Steve and I just about fell off our chairs laughing at that one. He also did the crane motion picking some Cheerios from Lolo's high chair as he said it. Of course, what better gift for a 1 year old! How can we have missed it ;0)

Any ideas on how we can make either?

PS - did you see how I snuck in those mittens? I made them for my sister this Christmas using the leftover yarn. Actually, I ran out of yarn for the second mitten so had to frog back the first and get creative with the stripes. Sooo something my grandma would have done and my sis loved them! It's really too bad that Rowan disocntinued that yarn...

Knitting!

I am thrilled to report that both my kidlets are on the mend! Well, Lolo is still teething and Julian is still 2 years old, but at least there are naps again and that means there is knitting again! And not a moment to soon, I was really in need of some yarn therapy ;0)



I finished Lolo's Get Ziggy (the blue thing ;0) and then put it aside a bit to knit a winged heart tattoo! A what? A tattoo! I wanted to come up with a cool Valentine's day project when the idea struck (perhaps it was a Miami Ink commercial?) and naturally I had to put everything else aside for days while I spent countless hours trying to come up with the right decrease sequence for the perfect heart shape. And the right cast-on, cast off combination for the 'ribbon'. And the right font for the writing. Then it occured to me that I was perhaps falling off my rocker and since I couldn't figure out how to do the wings anyway, I put it down too and sought out something fun to do with the kids...

Turns out that my little town turned the big 4-0 this weekend and being the cool town young family town that it is, the City put together a 40hr winter carnival starting with an evening fireworks display, snow sculptures, fire jugglers, an iglootheque pulsing with dance and techno oldies, and even a bon fire set up by our local fire department. After a few weeks of being cooped up in the house with sick kids, this was just the thing! The weather was fab, our neighbours brought along some coffee and doughnuts to round out the experience, and the kids delighted in being out at night! Julian actually thought it was halloween since that's the only other time he's ever been for a walk after dark. LOL!

The best part, we left our house on foot at 7pm and we're back home to tuck in the kids by 8:30pm. Extra bonus: half our kids fell asleep in the stroller on the walk back home so we got to skip the sometimes tedious bedtime routine and Stephen and I got to snuggle up on the sofa together to watch a movie.

While I knit ;0)