december sixteen :: 78 weeks old

Mack is 78 weeks old today.

I ended up going into work today instead of yesterday. Though, I went to Mack's last swim class for this session. We actually made it this morning. It had been a few weeks since we'd been to his swim class, due to runny noses, eye infections and even sometimes too much going on, that we just didn't make it. It was nice to see a friend that we had made in that class, and I got their number and we said after the holidays that we'd get together. They're from Argentina and their son is 15 months old now.

I got some wonderful stitch markers in the mail today from a knitter on Ravelry. We did a trade. I sent her some of my Scrabble Letter Earrings in her name initial, and she sent me these really cool tatted stitch markers in exchange. Knitters rock. She has no website for selling her markers, but I ams ure you could contact her via Ravelry if you were interested in some. I just have an address and email with the markers.

Tonight I went knitting/crocheting with my knit/crochet group. I actually crochet tonight! I was working on some last minute touches on some gifts for Christmas/Stocking Stuffers. Such as:

Specs:

Pattern: Hackie Sack (My Ravelry Link)
For: My nephew for his stocking at Christmas
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Stripes
Hook: 3.5 mm (E)
Size: Just Right.
Timeline: December 16 2009
Modifications: Didn't make the hackie sack as large as the pattern called for, as I eliminated 2 of the increase rows. I felt it was too big if I would have continued.
Opinion: I hope my nephew likes it. I will let you know after Xmas!

Tonight was our 2nd annual "secret santa" style holiday gift exchange. Eugenie had gotten my name, and this is what I received. A really cute bagel plate (Can't wait to have a brunch), some tea, and a really nice book called Childhood Treasures: Handmade Gifts for Babies and Children by Caroline Zoob and Caroline Arber. It's a really nice book, I cannot wait to sit down and read it. Thank you so much Eugenie! I love everything. Though, I do have to admit, the bagel plate is my fave. It's just perfect and really neat!

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I was nominated for Best Canadian Craft, Cook & Other Activities Blog for 2009! Please vote for me in 1st place here! You have until Saturday, December 19th, 2009 to vote. Thank you in advance! And thank you for reading my blog!

july sixteen

Today my mom took Sean to daycare as I was able to get Mack down for a morning nap, he was just really cranky this morning, so back to bed it was. Some mornings he takes another nap, sometimes not. I guess depending on how tired he is? Well this morning, a morning nap was needed.

I ran some errands this afternoon after Mack got up, with my mom. I ended up finding a twin sheet set for Sean's bed for 7.50$ after liquidation! It was 25$ and 70% off. I wish they had more, as I would have picked up another set for Sean and some for Mack once he's in a big boy bed. Sheet sets (twin size) go for anywhere above 25$ from what I've seen, and the three that I picked up last month for Sean (but didn't open yet), were around 29.83$ a set (all from Walmart - Diego, Cars, Sports... you're paying for the brand/name). I think before I open the Walmart ones, I'll look at another Zellers to see if I can find any more of the liquidation sheets. Ideally, I'd love 2 per kid. And right now I have 1 set. It's cute too, it's just got measuring tapes on them, so it's got yellow rulers, and number running all down it. Sean loves numbers, and that's the first thing he noticed when I showed him the sheets. Wow, if I could get more these, I'd be able to get 4 sets for the price of 1 from Walmart. I'll definitely look around. I'm the queen of deals!

Did some more errands, picked up some gifts we needed for upcoming birthday parties (we have one in 10 days and another in August and I needed a gift for a birthday party we missed earlier this month). I love shopping for girls. The party we have in 10 days is for a girl. I don't get to shop for a girl ever having 2 boys, so it's always fun to do for a party we have.

Picked up Sean on our way home, and was disappointed to see that he again had a neutral face checked off for Behavior. I really need to catch his teacher in the morning to ask about it - since when I get him at the end of the day, all the kids are outside, and sometimes his main teacher is gone already for the day. His other teacher is on vacation, so it's been the sub there when I pick him up in the playground, and she has no idea. Hopefully it's nothing bad, or I am sure I would have gotten a phone call. I had sent Sean this morning to daycare in a pair of long pants and a sweater, and now it's boiling hot. Good thing there was at least a tshirt under his sweater. This weather really doesn't make any sense at all.

After daycare we hung out in the park for a bit before supper.

Mack's already ready for the new football season. GO EAGLES!

Getting some knitting done on my Clapotis, while the boys played in the park.

Sliding fun!

We had this & that for supper, throwing together things we had in the house. Sometimes, this & that is good. I also made a huge salad from stuff from the garden. Agian tonight, it was 75% from our garden (lettuce, tomatoes, green onions) and 25% not (cucumbers). Yum!

Sean actually went to bed tonight without any problems. I have no idea why when I'm home alone with him he causes a huge fight with me to go to bed, but when Jamie and I are both home, no problem, he goes to bed. Very frustrating.

Tonight Jamie & I watched Tv. We caught up on Tuesday & tonight's episodes of Big Brother, and then we watched some Gene Simmons Family Jewels as we also had 2 epsiodes from the weekend to watch. I worked on my Clapotis:

Mid afternoon progress shots of my Clapotis. It's a little larger now, from having worked on it this evening. So I'll just have to take more progress photos soon!

I am LOVING the color. I love the way it's knitting up.
Clapotis' are awesome in variegated yarn.
Never again will I knit one in a solid.

Oh! There's some new stitch markers in the shop!
Star Happy Faces.

And Happy Face Stitch Markers.
Something fun to add to your knitting!

july eleven

Today was a horribly rainy day. I don't know if we'll ever see a real summer this summer. It's been pretty much spring like weather since... well, winter ended. But today, the rain really poured down!

I finally got a moment to hang up the picture frame that Cynthia made for me which she sent in our birthday swap package. I had the perfect spot for it too! In the corner of my bedroom on top of the little table that we have in the corner. I love it here. Just need to find the perfect photo to go into it though, of the 4 of us, since it has all our names on it!

Late morning today my friend Mindy came over. She is in town visiting her brother, who happens to live around the corner from me. I haven't seen Mindy in ages, not since I lived in the city. She has since moved to Toronto, but it's been at least 2 years, since she's been with her current boyfriend for 2 years now, and that's been since she's been in Toronto, I believe. Funny enough, her brother, who she's staying with, his son is in Mack's Tuesday morning class. This week I actually clicked very well in class with Mindy's sister-in-law. She's a real sweetie. Small world! Mindy came by today for about 2 hours with her boyfriend, whom I got to meet for the first time, and after a tour of our house, we just chilled in the playroom, so the kids could run around the playroom and we could still be comfortable as we have couches in there. It was really nice catching up with her.

Around lunch today, an Ottawa Knitter dropped off the Traveling Stash bag at my house. She contacted Montreal Knitters asking who wanted it for their knit group. Someone else replied before me, but she got back to me stating they never got back to her, so it was for the West Island Knits if we wanted it. It's like 3 bags (1 is a garbage bag) full of yarn and a few magazines. We're going to have a stash party soon, so that West Island knits can go through it, and add to it, and take what they want from it. Then, it'll go to the next city, since it's the traveling stash bag. I've already got an Ottawa knitter who is on her way to Moncton, NB at the end of the month possibly picking it up to take it there for me. If it's too much stuff for her to bring, she'll take what she can, and then the rest will go to Kingston, Ontario perhaps. I may be going to Kingston later this month/next month.

Sean refused to nap again today. I haven't had him nap a proper nap on the weekend in a while. It's really horrible. He naps Monday to Friday at daycare, why is he fighting them at home?? Does anyone have tips on what I can do to get him to nap?? I'm really not sure what to do anymore, I feel like I've tried everything.

Since it was pissing rain, we hung out in my bed this afternoon with Sean and Jamie too, and we watched some TV until the dish signal failed (due to the weather). Then, to entertain Sean we put on youtube on Jamie's laptop in bed, so that Sean could watch video clips of shows he liked. (The kid seriously has his own playlist, LOL). We felt like staying in bed, and we don't have cable on our bedroom, only downstairs and in the playroom. We still had internet though, so youtube videos it was!

Jamie and I both didn't feel like cooking tonight, and it was not barbecuing weather at all, so Jamie went to go pick up our fave pasta dishes from a local Italian place that has whole wheat pasta dishes. I had my usual whole wheat vongole (seafood sauce) and it was delicious as always. The boys shared a tortolini dish and devoured it to every last piece. Of course feeding them anything with sauce is a disgusting mess, but it's cute anyhow. I fed Mack tonight instead of him feeding himself, as I wanted to minimize as much mess as possible.

Because Sean didn't nap today he got very cranky late afternoon. I made sure that both of them were in bed, sound asleep before Jaime left for hockey tonight. I needed the few hours of peace and quiet tonight. While Jamie was at hockey I worked on my stitch markers that I promised as RAK's (Random Acts of Kindness) on Ravelry. There was a handful of people that asked for stitch markers in their wishlist, so I made some for about 8 people, and those will go in the mail next week.

april three

This morning Sean woke up at 5:45 am. Not sure what that's all about, usually I'm the one who is waking him up in the morning. I managed to convince him (after changing his diaper) to come lie down in bed with me. He then wanted to watch TV, but I convinced him to keep quiet so that daddy can sleep another hour (Jamie gets up every morning at 7 am to start his day).

This morning after dropping Sean off at daycare I did my usual check-in at the nutritionist. As of this morning I'm now 21 lbs down!! I've passed the 20 lbs mark! Whoot! Only 14 more lbs to go to reach my goal. I can so do it. Though it's taking a bit less willpower now than it did when I started this, but, it's still freakin' hard. Wow. TWENTY ONE POUNDS! I love seeing the scale get lower and lower and lower each week. This week, I've lost 3 lbs from last week. And I've lost a total of 35.2 inches off my body. I pulled out my Robyn's Nest tape measure with my logo on it.... 35 inches is LONG! I feel so good. It's great.

Music was cancelled today as the music girl has the flu, and next week there's no music either as it's Good Friday. Mack misses his music friends. Oh well, it'll resume soon enough!

So today we stayed in and I did some things around the house, including fixing my purse. I got it 2 years ago at Roxham, and the strap used to be über long, but it ripped in 2 places, so I cut the strap, and (below) used a skirt pin and voila, a bag made new again. I tried contacting the girl who made is on numerous occasions and she kept putting me off "later, later, I'm busy".... so screw that, I fixed it temporarily myself. (Until I figure out how to use my sewing machine properly for stuff like this).

I did some dying around the house today, was playing with colors, and dyed up one of my Knit Picks Sock Blanks. I have a colorway name in mind for this one, but I'll share it at a later date. I want to make sure it works before labelling it. Though, I'm not really sure how to wind this into a cake, as it's double stranded, so what I'm afraid of is a tangle. Anyone have any advice from experience with winding from a blank that is double stranded?

I also made myself some Habs stitch markers. I saw something similar online, and since I had the beads at home, I went ahead and made some. I won't be selling them in the shop (to not step on the other girl's toes who does sell them), but if any of my friends want to get some, please let me know, I will do personal requests for sets. Can't wait to find a project to use them for...

Usually on Friday nights my in-laws come over for dinner, but they're über busy with taxes right now (they do people's taxes) and are going to be busy until the end of April pretty much. We will see them for Pesach & at Easter, but other than that.... we'll have to wait until after May 1st. They do taxes in their free time (they both still work at day jobs) and so I cannot request them for babysitting until after tax time is over. But that's okay, we do have other "babysitters". (My sister, my parents, etc!). So far I've never left my kids with anyone but family (except twice with Jamie's best friend and his girlfriend - but Jamie's best friend is like family to him). I really should look into babysitters that are non-family - incase one day I do get stuck and need someone. (Though I do have some friends I know I could count on if I was ever really stuck).

So tonight, I continued playing with yarn & dyes, and I'm all dyed out right now. (Though I'll probably play with some more dyes tomorrow). I think now I'll go hop on the couch and knit some more on my step-mother-in-law's vest, I would like to give it to her on Thursday when I see my in-laws for Pesach.