November 18 of 30

This afternoon I went to the local annual craft fair (which I haven't done in years). I picked up a few things for the new house: (actually all from the same artist)

A Honey To Do List for Jamie. I need to find the perfect spot in the house to hang this.

A cute powder room lady for my new powder room which is "ensuite" to my office. (Great location for any pregnant woman!)

And this sheep - that I thought was SUPER cute. I will be putting her in my yarn room, once it's finished and cleaned and ready to be used. Almost there!

It was nice to walk around the craft fair with my mom, Sean, Jenn and Jakob. Jenn was wearing Jakob and got a lot of attention! Sean also had people stop him to talk to him. (Probably more than I would have liked!) I also got a picture for Sean's room of some boys playing hockey that I think was hand drawn. It is very nice. It actually says Sean's last name on the goalie's stick - I think that's why I purchased it!

Sean's room is ready to rock 'n roll - well his temporary room. We set it up as the nursery, so that we don't have to transfer everything over there in the summer when his sibling is born. When his sibling comes along, we'll transfer him into his new big boy room. (Which will be a play area for now).

Tomorrow I must tackle laundry and the kitchen. While I was out with my family tonight, Jamie stayed home and went through ALL the boxes in the garage (which was a dumping ground upon doing loads) and brought boxes into their appropriate rooms. The garage is looking better, and at least we know where some items here. There is a LOT of cleaning that will be needed to be done, as well as putting things away. Tomorrow I have my sister coming over to watch and play with Sean so that I can continue on with unpacking. (And then maybe I can eventually resume to knitting!)

Today I am sending you over to my friend Cynthia's blog - She's making the same blankie that Yarn Ball Boogie made for Scout. Recently, she used Robyn's Nest's October Sock Club colorway for some squares. Look how gorgeous they turned out! WOW!

Thank you all for the comments on the nausea. However, I've been told that Camomile and any type of Mint teas are NOT good during pregnancy, as they cause you to contract resulting in a miscarriage. So I think I'll be avoiding those teas, even if they are my TWO fave flavors of teas.

Today I leave you with a video of Sean discovering my ball winder. A future knitter? LOL!

November 17 of 30

Today has been a super long day, but we're finally officially living at the new house. YEY!

Our moving company is the official movers for the Montreal Canadiens as well as the Montreal Alouettes. (As per the logos on the side of the truck). I 150% recommend this moving company if you are in Montreal and are planning a move. The guys were super awesome, and very careful with our stuff. They started off at our old house at 8:45 am, and finished up just before 5pm. It was a long moving day, and including travel time, it was 8 and three quarter hours to move us. pretty much 4 hours in and 4 hours out. (Plus travel time).

All the stuff you see piled in the garage, we'd done previous today. Also there was a LOT of boxes and stuff already in this house. They couldn't believe how much stuff we had already moved on our own.

Of course the cable guy didn't arrive today until 4:10pm. They had given me a slot of 7:30 am until 5pm to be home for them. It took the guy over 2 hours to do work, as he had to completely replace the internet and tv cables outside of the house on the pole, as they were completely destroyed. Wonder what happened there? Thank goodness I don't get charged by the hour for that service! I figured they'd either show up at 7:30 am, or last call of the day. Last call it was.

This morning also didn't start off so nicely. Just as the alarm guy showed up to install the rest of our system he took down from our old house, we had just lost power. I lost power for about 2 hours this morning, but thank goodness he had a power drill and was able to start working. Just not my morning! Especially since I couldn't sleep last night, and stayed up watching TV on my computer until about 3:30 am. I kept seeing shadows and was a little bit freaked out. First night alone in a new house, go figure! Tonight will be Jamie's and my first night together in the new house.

Let me tell you, I cannot wait to be 100% unpacked. There is stuff EVERYWHERE. To the point that I don't know where certain things are. The last time we moved, I labeled EVERY freaking box with a number and it got typed into a list, and the list told me where things were. This current move happened SOOOOOO darn fast, that things got packed, and nothing labeled. But unpacking will take me some time. A) Sean doesn't let me do things when he wants to play, and b) I find myself very tired lately (zonked, wiped out) from being in my first trimester.

Tonight we went out for dinner with my parents and it's rare that I cannot finish a plate of ribs after eating a salad. I'm finding myself very nauseous during this pregnancy. I didn't get nauseous once during my first pregnancy, but no two are alike. I find myself nauseous for three quarters of the day, and I'm really not liking it. Does anyone have any tips as I'm not really a cracker eater. Not really a fan.

November 12 of 30

I managed to get 2 full truck loads today in my mom's 4x4. Today was the only day I have her truck this week, maybe on Friday if I'm lucky. Our duplex is getting very empty, which feels good, because there is still stuff here, and I just need to get through this week and make it til Saturday. Saturday is the big moving day, when the big moving truck company we hired comes and brings our furniture over to the new house, and we'll be officially living in our new house. I am very excited to get the heck out of this house, let me tell you. Knowing I'll be in a single dwelling home, and not attached to other people, as well as not having to share our driveway, oh, I'm very excited about that - let me tell you.

I am behind on my blog reading. I am behind on my emails. I do try to sit down and email back a few at a time, but with the move, it's getting to be harder and harder. Also - being in my first trimester of pregnancy, I am EXHAUSTED. I forgot what the first trimester is like. And moving doesn't help the situation.

Tonight I went to pre-natal aqua, and it was nice to get into the pool. Tomorrow I hope to make it to Sean's swim class, as we missed last week due to having to be at the new house. However, since getting home from this class, I'm beat. Sean just fell asleep (as we watched Heroes on tv tonight) and I'm going to go crash in a few minutes. Heroes was f-ing good tonight. Wow!

I am thinking about perhaps attending the Montreal Knitting Guild meeting tomorrow, but I don't know what is going on tomorrow. Jenn's trying to convince me to go - and I definitely want to - I just don't know if I'll be tired or what. Also - I don't know what's happening with Sean or Jamie, so I need to plan that out as well.

With moving right now, I find myself taking less and less pictures, but I'll definitely take some tomorrow. I promise! The basement is just about done, so I'll show a progress photo of that. No knitting got done today, so no progress report on that. I do want to decide 100% what colors I will be doing my nephew's Drive Thru, so I can start on that, Xmas will be here before I know it.

I have some new products to load into the shop in the upcoming week - I hope to find some time in between moving boxes. There is some awesome stuff I know you will all just love. I am very excited about it myself!

I do have to tell you that the December Sock Club kits are for sale. The dyer this month is Dyed in the Wool Handmade, our very own Maggie from Toronto. She's a genius with the dyes and we are very lucky to have her dying the December club kits. Better snatch yours up fast before they are all gone! The kits will be on sale until December 1st, 2007, going out in the mail mid-December.

Off to go catch some Zzzz's....

November 9 of 30

This morning I went to check on our new house, as I had left a few things there that I needed for this weekend. It's my nephew's 5th birthday party tomorrow, and since it's a not really a short ride away, I needed to make sure I had everything I needed with me. For example diapers. I ran out here at our old house, and had a brand new box from Costco at the new house.

Progress on the basement is good! I took this picture to show you the difference in color. The old hot pink/lighter pink to the new beige and darker beige. The space you see here with the beige used to have a shelf thing hanging off the wall that was sooo hideous, we took it down. The wall needs some repairing and some moulding, so there is still some work to do, but here is the other wall that looks nice:

I really like the color that I chose for the basement. The room to the left is the furnace room, and the room to the right is my not-yet-transformed Yarn room. That will get done next week.

I finally booked the movers today, they'll be hauling our furniture to the new house next Saturday. Very excited about that. I can't believe how expensive it is to move. We've moved before, but never with this much furniture. It's a damn good thing we're doing the rest of the stuff, because it's disgusting how expensive it is with just furniture, and nothing else. I really hope that we do not move for many years to come.

I've also taken care of sending payment for the snow removal, very important! We've shared the payment for the last two winters with the rabbi next door whom we share a driveway with, but never been happy with the service. Each year it was someone different. Neither were good at what they day. This winter, I'm using the same service that my parents do, and I once babysat the guy's kids with my sister (many eons ago). So I hope to get good service this year! And a clean driveway and walkway.

Did you know that if you own a Canadian passport issued in the last 6 years and are a Canadian citizen living in Canada you can apply for a speedy passport? It's like drive thru at McDonalds for passports. That is good news to me, especially since I have a week and a half until my current passport expires. You don't need a guarantor, nothing. Just 2 passport pictures taken in the last 12 months, your old passport & payment. How fantastic!! No more standing in line!!

I should be able to check my email from my sister-in-laws house, so I'll be able to blog too, but not sure about photos. You may have to wait until Sunday for that, when we get back. I cant believe the little guy is turning 5! I have a 3-3.5 hour drive ahead of me, so I will hopefully get some progress on the monkey socks! Not sure I really want to bring along any other project.

November 7 of 30

Monkey Progress as promised. I am LOVING them stripped! I wasn't sure at first, but I do love them. I'm almost through 4 of the 6 pattern repeats on the leg. It's a nice easy fast knit. I'm not liking the double yarn overs, but c'est la vie.

Me testing out the new mirror in the hallway bathroom for Self Portrait Thursdays with Sean. I hung a painting up in the bathroom, and I love it there. It used to reside in our den at our old house, but Jamie wasn't too fond of the painting.

I received my first piece of mail ever at the new house today, and it was a swap package from Karma Kitties. Thanks Bertha! She sent over an extra skein of Berry she had, and some Charcoal that she'd gotten in a swap from someone else, but had no use for it. I see another Drive-Thru in my near future. They are addictive! I'll probably do a 4 year size for Sean, and then when we find out the sex of baby number 2, I'll make some more!

Today my new kitchen sink got installed. Got a garborator, and the 2nd tap with the black knob is an instant hot water faucet. Instant Tea! No more boiling water! I grew up with that at my parents house, so very excited to have it at the new house. It's almost good to go. Just need an electrician to come in and hook up the electrical part to the garborator and the hot water faucet. (Hopefully sometime this week).

I was in need of a soap dispenser (actually two), and found this lovely blue and green one to match my ensuite bathroom.

And I found this really cute one for the main hallway bathroom. Now I just need to find a cute one for the powder room. I didn't see a third I liked, so I'll keep looking. Maybe I can find a sheep one (since the other bathroom is white).

My bedroom is done painting. I love the color. Just love it. Glad I chose it. The white doors are to the patio off my bedroom and the open door is my walk-in closet (another 2 features of the house I LOVE!) Sean's room is also done being painted. Tomorrow the painter will start on my basement, which is hot pink right now, and will become two different shades of beige. After the basement is painted, he will start on my yarn room. I can't wait to see it transformed! Hopefully by next week it'll all be done.

Today I was at the new house to let the painter & plumber in for 8 am. I'm ZONKED now. I can barely keep my eyes open. I didn't have a second to rest my eyes today. I did work at the new house all morning, and took care of calling the heating company, electrical company, that sort of thing. I hate sitting on hold! My mom took Sean out for a bit in the morning, and then I brought him home with me in the afternoon when I had to go meet the moving company for an estimate (which I'll find out tomorrow how much it'll cost) and the bank for the Rabbi who is buying my house. They need to come to see that the house actually exists, since he's American, and never been a customer of the bank of which he applied for a mortgage with. This is to ensure that it's not mortgage fraud or something. I've only bought a house before, never sold, so I have no idea what went on behind the scenes at the seller's house when I bought. Now I know.

Then my mom picked up Sean after an errand she ran near my place, and I did an errand near my house, which was easier to do with 2 hands free, and then went back to my new house to lock up behind the plumber (the painter had already gone). I worked on the November Sock Club Kit stitch markers (just a few more sets to go!) and then met up with my family for dinner for my brother & grandmother's birthday dinner. They both share today as a birthday. Happy Birthday again to both of them!

I was just adding my Monkey's to Ravelry and typed my name into the "Purchased At" field, and my shop popped up! That is soooo exciting! I have no idea who added me, but that is tres cool:


I am zonked. I forgot what the first trimester is like! Plus, I've been up since really early and now it's getting really late! I have to be up early again tomorrow to follow Jamie to the dealership to get rid of his old Jetta, so that he has a ride back home afterwards. We just want to get this car off our hands, and he's selling it for parts. I do NOT want another parking ticket on it, so it must go! Speaking of the parking tickets, you can now apparently pay your parking tickets online! I thought that was pretty neat. I was going to waste a stamp and waste a check, and then saw you can pay online. Sounds like a plan. On top of paying online with a credit card, I get 1% cash back on my credit card, so even better! Christmas this year is going to be great (you get the 1% back on your December statement!) (They owe me some Christmas shopping this year!!)

Oh, before I go, yesterday was a bad luck day.. today... good luck. Not only did a find a quarter in my driveway (yeah, I know, it's just a quarter, but it's 25 lucky pennies!), I won 10$ on a scratchie bingo card. YEY! I know it's nothing, but it's something! Right?

ps- Thank you to EVERYONE who left a comment on my previous post. I have EVERY intention of emailing each & every one of you back individually. It just won't be tonight.

November 2 of 30

Today was a long day. I left the house in the morning with my mom's truck packed and dropped Sean off at my parents house. She babysat Sean all day (no complaints there!) and I did 3 loads all day to the new house. Angela met up with me during the 2nd load. Somewhere in there the guy from the plumbing company came to see about our gaz line from the gaz tank to bring a line to the kitchen for my gaz stove. I refuse to go back to electric.

I honestly think that we'll be able to move in a lot sooner than the 3rd week of November. The moving company (for just our furniture) requires only about 48 hours notice. That's cool. I really want to be out of the city and living in our beautiful new home. I'm starting to hate our duplex more and more just because of the little things. We did a great chunk of stuff today, between my 3 loads in my mom's truck as well as the 1 full load Jamie did in his car.

This evening I went to the market and picked up dinner for the 3 of us (Angela helped me all day, which was really nice). I also got the November Sock Club pattern printed. The kit is now just waiting on the yarn, which is being mailed me to me shortly. Very excited to get those out in the mail! Those who bought it, are really going to like it!

Sean ended up sleeping at my parents house tonight, and I'm going to do a load tomorrow morning to the new house, then give my mom back her car (which I'm loving by the way, minus the fact that it's NOT standard!! I can't stand driving an automatic car!) I'm meeting someone over at my new house tomorrow morning, so after that I'll go and pick up Sean, then come home and pack some more!

That's it for today, nothing more than just packing and moving boxes! (And we'll probably hear about the sale of our house after the weekend is over, since it's Shabbat right now, and they won't do anything about it on Shabbat).

No knitting again today, no time!

Going to pack 1 more box and then hop into bed and watch some TV with Jamie.

44 Weeks

Sean is 44 weeks old today. The 2nd top tooth is about to pop out, you can now see it. The first top tooth is clearly cut through, just needs to grow now. I hope the 2nd top tooth follows just as quick, so they grow out together!

Today was a rotten day but in the end was better, but still not that great. I don't even know where to begin.

The people buying my house. They are assholes. Assholes that didn't even have the human curtosey to apologize.

You see... they scheduled a house inspection for the house they are buying for 10 am. 10:15 comes. Not even my agent is here (which is okay, because he didn't have to be here on time). 10:30 rolls around. My agent shows up, but the buyers, the inspector and their agent are not here. 10:45 am, their agent shows up. We call. We don't find the buyers. We eventually reach them. They thought they were going to show up around 1 pm when the inspector was done. 1pm? From 10 am?? An inspection does NOT take 3 hours.

I'm pissed at this point.

We finally reach the inspector. He zips over from the other side of the city. He's here by 11:40 am. The buyers finally show up around 12:30pm. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who are these people? Apparently they think the world revolves around them.

The guy buying my house, I found out today is a Rabbi. I guess he must have not liked the fact that I walked around in a TANK TOP with my tattoo on my shoulder exposed. Oops. Didn't know he was a Rabbi until after. (Getting a tattoo if you are Jewish is a sin). I'm a non-practicing Jew, so I don't follow the "laws". I eat cheese on my hamburgers. Those who keep kosher don't mix meat with milk. They have seperate plates for milk and for meat.

Anyhow, let's get back on track.

The all finally show up, and the inspection is done. The Rabbi literally tries to find stuff wrong with the house. He goes every everything with the inspector. To the point where he is pointing out bricks on the outside of the house. Uhm, the house was built in 1951... what does he expect? It's not a brand new house.

Also - the wife started bitching that my crawl space where my yarn inventory is stored, along with all of Sean's outgrown clothes, etc... is still jammed packed. You see, there is the start of "rough" in there, (plumbing) and they want to renovate it into a bathroom. No one told me that I had to clear out the room, so I didn't.

They were really rude, and started talking about renovations about taking down walls with the inspector, when he's not a contractor, but it was starting to get late, and Sean, would not take a nap with too many people around. I was getting really annoyed. They finally left around 1:30pm, but stayed outside of the house talking to the inspector.

Anyhow..... I have a 100% feeling that the Rabbi is going to try to knock down the price of the house, when it's time to lift the condition of the house inspection on the sale of the house. However, both my agent and their agent know, that I am not budging from the price that we've already agreed upon, because I'm not losing out money because they want to renovate. That's not my fucking problem.

I am so mad today, that I'm using the word fuck. I'm sorry to those who do not like that word.

I had to sit on my couch for about an hour afterwards, and let Sean crawl around the den and play on the floor, so that I could calm down.

I totally wasn't expecting an apology for the fuck up ont he time today. I know the way he is, and I knew that an apology would not happen. Though, after the sale of the house goes through - if it still does - and the notary has the check for the house, I may open my mouth, because someone has to say something. Tell him that an apology for the fuck up on the time today would have been the human thing to do, but that I see he has no class. I'll figure something out, but I'm not afraid to open my mouth to a Rabbi who thinks he's the only person in this world that matters. Honestly! At one point today, he told his agent that he "doesn't work for her, so don't talk to him like that".... (when she told him that we were sitting here waiting on them for the house inpsection or something to that effect). My mouth dropped!!!!

So now, my entire crawl space is in my basement, and there almost isn't a pathway to walk!!! And my day was wasted literally.

This evening though, in good news, I got the keys to my new house. I officially own my new house. I brought a few things over there tonight (like toilet paper and cleaning products) but tomorrow is the first official day of the move. VERY excited about that! Angela is coming over to help me move. Thank goodness for best friends! After the signing at the notaries office, my father, mother, Jamie, Sean, and my dad's two friends went out for dinner, which was really nice, but it was really chilly in the restaurant, and I've been cold all night since.

The funniest part of my new house - the Re-max agent that was selling my house to me (My agent is Century 21), lost the keys to my new house. He didn't want to show up empty handed to the signing, of course, so a locksmith changed the locks to the house 30 minutes before the signing when he realized that he lost the keys. So Remax paid for a job I was going to do myself! I'm sure he'll find the keys tomorrow. LOL. I'm going to be changing the locks again when we move out of our duplex, and put a high security lock on my new house, which we're taking from our current place, but until then the new lock on the door (backed up by our alarm system) is a-okay for me!

I've listed the December Sock Club kit on the site. There are still 3 spaces left in the November sock club for those of you that may still want it. I'll leave them open until the weekend, but please if you want - act fast! December's kit will be dyed by Dyed in the Wool Handmade a Canadian Handpainter! Also - my Hallowe'en Skull Stitch Markers are 50% off. Those also will shortly be removed from the site, so if you want them - act fast!

October 22 of 31

Today we had the house inspection done at the new place. As soon as we hear that the chimney piece is fixed, we'll lift the condition on the offer on the house, and then arrange for the deed of sale for me to get possession of the house. The only major issue was the chimney, and the real estate agent who is selling the house for the family, said he will take care of it immediately.

Here is the gorgeous FALL scenery from my new balcony off my new master bedroom. GORGEOUS, ain't it? I can't wait. The leaves changing colors is just simply gorgeous!

Ignore the HOT pink and lighter pink. I have NO IDEA what the old owner was thinking, but my new basement is pinks. That will change as soon as we get possession of the house. Paint colors have already been chosen. You see the room behind the pink walls? That will be Robyn's Nest storage for yarn in stock on one side of the room and the other side of the room will be my stash room! I need to add a door to the room to keep Sean & the cats out, but this will be my room. I also think there is enough room to put my sewing table. It should fit beautifully in the corner of my "Stash" room. (The panels on the back wall are the boxes for the electricity. That's where I'd go if a fuse was blown to re-set it. The ceiling needs some jip rock and plastering.

This is the left hand side of my new "Stash" room. I think I plan on keeping the lower part of the shelving, but witht the top half I hope to do something like this (below):

I saw this "set-up" online somewhere, and want to use a set-up like this. I have a lot of ideas for my new storage space, and I'm looking forward to getting handy with some tools!

This is Sean's adorable face before I left him today. He is sleeping at my parents house tonight, as we had the habs game tonight. I totally forgot that Sean has his 3rd aqua class tomorrow (We missed the first one because I forgot and we missed the 2nd one because we went to the doctor, and we'll be missing the 3rd class tomorrow because he's still on antibiotics). And now that we're moving - I don't even know if it's worth it anymore. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if I can get some sort of refund... Ugh.... this sucks. But I don't really think I should take him in the water tomorrow just in case his ear infection isn't totally gone. I don't want it to get worse.

Tonight Jamie & I went to the Habs games. We kicked the Bruins butts 6-1. It was a FANTASTIC game. And I got a lot of knitting done on Sean's Drive-Thru sweater. It's easy to knit stockinette at hockey games. Anything tricky is too hard to do in the seats there. Anyhow, silly me forgot any of my cameras at home tonight, so there was no photography tonight at the game.

I did however want to show you progress (6 of 8 inches done on the size 2 Drive-Thru before you start the sleeves & yoke) and my lovely Habs jersey (mirror reflection so it's backwards).

I think Zeus is ready to move to the new house - what do you think? This is the first box that will get packed with some DVDs.... I think that's the easiest thing to start packing.

There is a super cute photo of me, as well as some super cute photos of Sean on Not An Artist's blog today. Go check it out.

Tomorrow is the agents Caravan at my house. It's when my agents (Century 21) invite ALL the agents from other companies that are interested in seeing my place to come. From this website it says: "Hold Agents Caravan - Agents sell what they know. In order to get other agents interested in your house an Agents Caravan, for agents only, is held during the week usually at lunchtime. I will invite all metro agents to attend and provide food and drinks. This will give your home a higher profile with those agents who attend." Uhm, I'm supposed to have food & drinks here? SHIT... maybe I should bake cookies in the morning??

ps- A week left to purchase your November Sock Club kits! You get yarn dyed by Pixie Riot, a pattern by designer Erin Vaughn and some gorgeous matching stitch markers made by Robyn's Nest (me!). Need a gift for your Secret Pal? The colors are just stunning...!