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)

Having a ball!

I started composing this post on Monday, but haven't been able to steal enough time away to finish writing and post it. Have you guessed yet? That's right! Stephen's parental leave came to an end after six wonderful weeks with the new family. Off to work he went bright and early Monday morning leaving me outnumbered by the boys for the very first time...


...and really it wasn't so bad at all. The boys were both on their best behaviour. They even napped together leaving me with a few hours to myself in the afternoons. I should have been napping too, but cooked an laundered instead. I tried to do some knitting but my WIPs don't lend themselves well to times alone with the wee ones. There's the anniversary sweater which frankly has me bored to tears (well not really, but you know what I mean) and the knitted ball from Fiona McTague's Knitted Toys which I started on the weekend while watching the worst sequel ever made, the kind that is so awful you just can't tear yourself away.



I should have been finished knitting this by now except that I decided to 'improve' on the pattern by knitting it in intarsia rather than the knitting the wedges separately and then sewing them together. I thought the intarsia would make neater joins (which it did) but it's probably not the best idea to knit a tiny colourful (read: attractive to kids) project with 6 balls of tangled yarn attached to it while you are home alone with a busy toddler and a hungry newborn! No wonder it's still on the needles ;0)

As for the boys, I was really nervous about how I would manage on my own. And while it's been trying and exhausting (I've been falling asleep on the couch after dinner), it's also been fun and enjoyable. Julian is such a sweet boy and is really a lot of fun to be around. And Logan is just beginning to be more aware of his surroundings which is really a lot of fun too. Except for an intense visit to the fence showroom, they've both been super good for mummy this week even if they didn't let me knit much of anything really ;0)

Plus it's been wondrous outside in these parts and we've been taking advantage and getting plenty of fresh air an sunshine which is great...except for Julian's swollen eye. Turns out the poor little guy is allergic to leaf mold and since we've been raking every chance we get (as has our entire neighbourhood) he doesn't stand a chance! His eye's been swollen for 3 days now and still seems to be getting worse and the medicine the doctor prescribed doesn't seem to help. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll magically get better tomorrow so we don't have to spend the weekend at the pediatric clinic again...