05.10.10 :: 175 weeks old

Sean is 175 weeks old today.

The backyard fence was finished today.
You can see where the line was where the fence was before.
It was moved 4.8 feet back (and it’s 68 feet long).
It’s a lot more roomier!
The plant you see in the middle is my neighbours’ plant, they’ll be moving it.

Next project, next weekend is to turn the earth in the garden and get planting!
I cannot wait to get started on my vegetable garden.
I can already smell the fresh salads we’ll be eating all summer.

Today’s Link Love:
- Love this Modern Outdoor Planter. I do have space in my backyard, but that’s just gorgeous.
-This headband, which is on sale here.
- These cat nip toys are too funny.
- Love this lovebird print.
- Too bad my husband isn't into funky ties, I love this vintage camera one.
I already have a small Seatbelt purse, in black, but I love this messenger style one.
- This owl pillow is just too darn cute.
- Love this @ pendant!
- I love this lady silhouette journal.
- I am a HUGE elephant lover. I love this silver pendant.
- And of course these matching earrings.
- Love these Knitting Nerd decals. I still have some left to sell - if you are interested in any - please message me they are 5$ CAD each. I have Knitting Nerd, Knit Girl, Crochet Geek all in white & black.
-These glasses pendant is wicked neat.
- This Gummy Bear Kissing Necklace is just too cute.
- These Rose Garden Mary Jane booties.
- These Kimono Baby Booties.
- Oh and these Watermelon Baby Booties.

I’ve been doing some more spring cleaning in my life, and putting the trash by the curb where it belongs and metaphorically it’s garbage day tomorrow. Feels great. Less stress. I couldn’t be any happier. Sometimes you just need to go in new directions in life, and I can’t tell you how happy it makes me. I am truly blessed that I know whom my true friends are, and they stick by me no matter what. I may not be perfect, no human is, and that makes me who I am. I can honestly tell you that I am in a much happier place in my life as of lately, and dumping this trash at the curb, just made it even that better. I’ve never been more confident in my life, than NOW. TODAY. For tomorrow. And the future.

And let tomorrow be even more beautiful.

05.07.10 :: Yarn P0rn Friday

After some delays due to the weather over the last few days (rain), our fence project has been started. We’re moving the fence back almost 4 and a half feet, to extend our backyard larger. (See here for full details on why). I am hoping that the fence will be done on Monday since it wasn’t finished by today (as promised). I also hope that we get some decent weather so that the cement holding up the posts dry properly.

I’ve been working on the 5 hour baby sweater. I’ve managed to get the point on the body today (way advanced from this image as both sleeves are now done) where I’m at the part in the pattern just before the garter stitch edging at the bottom of the cardigan. However, I feel that it’s a tad too short in length for the body, so I think I’m going to do a few more rows in stockinette stitch before I do the garter edge bottom. How many rows I will do – that I don’t know yet. So since I’m not sure, I worked on a new project that I started last night.

I started the Multnomah shawl. (My Ravelry Project). I’ve had this in my queue for almost a year now (since August 20, 2009), and after talking with one of my pen pals in our letter writing (yes! actual pen & paper writing!), she has convinced me that it’s a quick & easy knit, and I should make one. I’ve been itching to cast on another shawl, since having misplaced my Ishbel. I say misplaced, because I know it will show up, it has to. I know it’s in the house somewhere… just need to figure out where that somewhere is. I hope it’s not off having a love affair with the remote control that we lost that still hasn’t turned up.

For today’s edition of Yarn P0rn Friday, I’m featuring the gift I got from Bea while we were in Vancouver. She picked up this skein of Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in Saltwater for me, at Three Bags Full. This is my first skein of Sweet Georgia. I’d heard of this yarn before, even inquired to get some into the shop, but she went on a dying hiatus for a while. She’s back dying now, and it didn’t work out for timing, but we almost got to go to meet Felicia in her dying studio. Kim Werker tried to hook us up, but unfortunately it just didn’t work out. Can’t wait to try out the yarn. Thank you so much Bea for the lovely yarn for my birthday!

Speaking of yarn, I’ve been doing some Spring Cleaning, and I have some yarn listed on my Trade/Sell Page on Ravelry. If anyone is interested in any of it – please let me know. I will be adding more shortly, but this is what I was able to get listed so far. I hope some of this yarn can go to homes where it’ll get knitted!

05.04.10

I received a wonderful package in the mail today from Lauren.
It was for a swap she had me in on Ravelry.
I got some lovely super chunky Debbie Bliss yarn.
I would love to acquire one more skein,
as there’s only 82 yards in this skein and I only have one,
but it seems like it’s discontinued.
If you have any you’d like to de-stash, message me for a trade?

She also knit for me these lovely Fishtail Wristwarmers.
They fit like a glove. Pun intended.
And they’re purple!

Tonight Jamie & I had tickets to Game 3 Habs vs. Penguins.

The Habs played very well the first 2 periods. Going into the 3rd period the score was 0-0. The Penguins score a goal at some point in the 3rd period and we just couldn’t tie the game for a possible win. So now the Pens are leading 2-1 in the series, but it’s not over yet. Game 4 is Thursday night, and I’ll be rooting on the Habs. GO HABS GO! I have faith.

Last night I started knitting the Baby Boy 5-Hour Sweater, because I had the itch to cast on something wee tiny and a quick knit. It’ll go into the gift pile since my boys are slightly too large for a 0-3 month old sweater. I’m using Mirasol Hacho in Sapphire Jade. I have 3 skeins, but I wonder if I can get away with just using 2? I guess we’ll see. I’ll post some progress photos soon.

Today we left a deposit to move the back wall of our backyard fence just over 4 feet back. We installed the fence in late spring 2008. We decided to not put it where we’re moving it to, because the land behind our fence has a servitude with both Hydro-Quebec and Bell Canada. If they need to go to the poll behind our house, and put up a ladder and or the poll knocks over or somehow they damage our fence, if it’s in their servitude area, then we’re responsible for fixing the fence or doing any repairs necessary. If it’s on our property before their servitude, if they damage it, then they will pay to fix any damages. Well, the chances of them doing any damage is actually rare. But 2 years ago after just moving into this house, we were like “Why take the chance?”. My next door neighbour came to us a few nights ago and told us that he heard on the radio a lawyer or a notary talking about a case that he was dealing with where the neighbour behind was maintaining grass/land that actually belong to the guy back to back with him, and if he maintained it for 5-10 years or something like that, then the guy maintaining could claim the land as his, and get it added to his property servitude. Well, the guy behind me actually planted a floral plant RIGHT behind my fence on my property. And he’s been cutting the grass last year too there, since he sees that land from his house/patio, and if he didn’t cut it, it would look bad, etc. No way did I want him claiming almost 4 and a half feet for himself, so Jamie & I decided that we’ll bit the bullet and cost and move the fence back. We called the same fence guy who installed our fence 2 years ago, and he worked out a decent price, and he’s starting tomorrow (hopefully, rain providing), to move our fence back. I asked the neighbour behind to move his plant, but if he moves it before May 24th it could die, so we promised him that the fence guys would NOT touch the plant, and he could come onto our property after and remove it when the time is right. We also promised him that the fence when moved would NOT touch his property, nor the property line, and that it would be 1 inch in. The guy behind me is such an a$$hole, let me tell you. He had me on the phone just before, (he calls at like 10:45 pm when he knows we have 2 small children) to tell me stuff I already know, and go on about how he’s a mechanical engineer or something and he knows about distance in servitudes and the fence better not touch his property (as he wants no responsible for paying for any of it, or maintaining it, etc). I wanted to tell him to go where the sun don’t shine and to never call my house at this hour again. I can’t wait for the day he sells his house and moves. Hopefully a nice couple will move in. Their son (I believe they only have one) is about my age and moved out, so any day now hopefully their house will be a little too big for the 2 of them and they’ll want to move. I like being surrounded by nice people, and not negative, condescending mean folk. Ahh, thanks for listening to me vent.

04.15.10

Drive by posting in Random Thoughts:

- The contractors are done their work! They honoured their word of being out of here before the weekend. YEY!
- I’m still reading (and really into) Spin by Catherine McKenzie.
- I love this photo of Bob. You know, the Ravelry dog.
- Saw this cute tutorial on how to make a pillow dress for. What a cute DIY project!
- Habs Won tonight in overtime 3-2 against Washington. Whomever said we’d lose 4-0 in the series was WRONG! GO HABS GO!!
- I love Les Savonettes de Minette. I’ve given their soaps before as gifts. They’re so cute. Handmade in Drummondville, Quebec.
- I can get lost for hours on this photo editing site.
- Free pattern for a Crochet Flower Hot Pad.
- This knitting machine is made out of Lego! How cool is that?
- I am up to date now (finally) on Parenthood. What a cute show about 4 siblings and their lives as parents.
- If you’re looking for a free book (in PDF format), and you like vampires, here’s a link for you.
- Working hard on both Babette & Jamie’s socks.

04.12.10 :: 171 weeks old

Sean is 171 weeks old today.

Since the contractors started work on our attic today, I had my mom take Sean to swimming this morning. She got this great photo of Sean jumping into the water. The kid is fearless! At 2 and a half year sold last summer he was jumping (with a life jacket) off my parents diving board into the deep end of their pool. I’m so happy my kids are fish. Fearless of the water is the way to go.

Today the piece came to replace the SD card slot on my Nikon D60. I am SOOO happy that it’s back to the way it was before now. No more broken door. It took a lot more than just 2 screws to get the new door in & the old half broken door off. I was sweating it out for a bit there too – because the piece came with no instructions on how to replace it, and I couldn’t find anything on the internet. However, it’s fixed, and I will never break the door again (knock on wood!). At least now I know how to fix it!

As I said before, the contractors started working on our house today. It’s such a mess in here. (I can’t wait for them to be done in the attic). They said they should be out by the end of the week. Phew. I’m hoping that’s the truth this time. Last time (for the bathroom) it was supposed to take 2-3 days and they were here over a week).

The kids played on an old laptop that my dad gave them when they got home from school today. Mack was having fun typing letters into a Word Document. (It’s the only software that works on the computer).

He looked so serious composing his text.

Sean says he “checks his email” on it. (Though, he has NO idea what email is). Monkey see, monkey do.

I’m 7 chapters in (just over 100 pages) into the book I’m currently reading. I seem to be reading this one a lot faster than I read the last book I just finished. I’m really enjoying it, that’s for sure. It’s funny, light, and chick lit (my genre of choice). Very excited to see what happens next in the book.

march three :: 89 weeks old

Mack is 89 weeks old today.

I kept both kids home today from daycare. Mack had his 2nd dose of flu shot today, so I spent the day with both boys. It was really nice. We coloured and watched some tv, and ran some errands.



One of the errands was to return bottle cans to the grocery store. Each can is about .05¢, unless you put in a beer can, it’s a little bit more (we had one beer can in there, which someone drank & left at our house – we’re not huge beer drinkers). Sean had a field day putting in all the cans into the machine. It gives you a green light to enter them (like green for go) and a red light while it’s processing the can. Sean was excited playing the red light/green light game. I should remember this for next time. I swear, it’s an activity to keep him occupied. Good to remember. The basket height was tall enough for him to stay seated in the child section of the basket, and put the cans in. I would have broken my back if I had to hold him up for 12$ worth of cans at .05¢ a piece. (I’ve been having some back pains in my lower middle back for about 2 weeks now… trying to fix it and figure out where it started from). Some days are really painful to sit/drive. There was a day last week that I am not sure how I made it home from work. I was in that much pain.



After getting some groceries, dropping off some parcels at UPS for work and all that fun stuff, it was time to go home. The kids were getting restless, as they hadn’t napped today at all. Next time, mental note, do NOT schedule a vaccine or doctor’s appointment during Mack’s naptime. He didn’t nap today, and he’s usually a good napper, so this just threw him off completely. Cranky children are not fun at dinner time. Food gets thrown, not eaten. Thank heavens my house is getting cleaned tomorrow. It looks as though a tornado hit my house.

The roofer came by today to check things out. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with me roof. This is fantastic news. However, there is a ton of things that needs repairing in my attic, that the contractor didn’t even know about, so we’ll have to take care of that, and it looks like it will cost us a bit more than it would have if it were just the roof and the attic needing the repairs we were already aware about… but we need to take care of this as soon as possible. Apparently we’re losing a lot of heat and once this is fixed, we should definitely notice our heating bill to reduce drastically over the next year. The water in the attic which caused the mould (which is NOT anywhere as bad as we thought it was) is due to escaping heat and it forming into ice on our roof and something else about condensation. He explained it to me but with the 2 kids running around the house sitting on each other, I didn’t catch everything he was trying to explain to me. In any case, he wrote down names of guys in case I needed it if my contractor is unable to do any part of the work that we need done. We also discovered that the plumbing stack (for the plumbing for the entire house) should be vented outside, but whomever did work up there broke the stack and now it’s venting in our attic. (Which equals even more condensation). We’re going to be getting this all fixed. As soon as possible. There’s also a hole in the attic, which had insulation thrown over it (to hide it probably) and that hole in the floor of the attic looks right into our furnace room which is in the basement (4 floors below). Fun. This is also letting heat escape. The guy went up there and took a picture of what was in my furnace room, to show me that he can see right down there.

This evening I hung out with Jamie and worked on Sean’s sweater. It’s coming along nicely. It’s my first time working from a chart and it’s my own design, so that’s fun too. Though I’m not too fond of all the pencil that is rubbing off on my hand. I think I’m going to make a photocopy of the page just so I can mark it up how I want, and not have to worry about pencil smearing all over my hand. I usually write out everything from the chart, before I start to knit, but this time, I’m using the chart. I kind of like that though. It’s interesting, but I am able to keep my place. I’ll show you progress of the sweater tomorrow.

I have a book that I am looking for. If anyone has it and are done with it, can you please let me know, maybe we can work out a swap or something? Or I could just borrow it. It’s not available from my 2 local places I order from (Amazon.ca & Chapters.ca) and my local library doesn’t have it either.  The book title is:- The Go-To Girl by Louise Bagshawe.

This cleansing in my life is starting to make me feel a lot better about life. I’m starting to feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulder. It’s coming all together now, and I’m not sure why I didn’t wake up a long time ago. I think in order to really come full circle I’m going to cut out a lot of things that I’ve been doing as well, just to bring me back to a calm & peaceful place. All the running around I’ve been doing, has really caught up to me and has made me really exhausted. I need to take a step back & relax. Bring life back to a place where it was more simple. It’s only what’s best for my health.

march two

The roofer is coming tomorrow to see the roof and attic. Tomorrow I’ll have more answers on that. It seems that because of our slanted roof, it was super easy for snow to melt off of it, and we’ve been having a few days of mild weather.

I worked today in the office and it seemed as though the day passed by very quickly. Some days are slow and some days pass by very quickly.

This evening I went out with some friends and they made me realize I should come first. That I need to stop pleasing other people and please myself first (myself includes husband & kids). What kind of person are you? Do you take pleasure in pleasing others first before yourself? Do you care what other people think of you or do you not care at all what other people think? I’ve been always one who gives not expecting to receive anything back at all and I’ve started to not care what other people think of me. I feel like maybe my happiness is being compromised because of this. I’ve also realized that I need to cut a lot of stressful crap out of my life. I hope to be doing some major cleaning in my life. It’s just nice to know that there are people in my life who are on the same page that I am in life and who understand me for who I am. (And by same page, I mean both in thought and in path of life (married (or have been married), kids (though this is not a huge part of it, but it does help to have a few friends who are going through tor have gone through he same thing in life that you are), responsibilities, etc). I think these changes will only be good for my mental health. It will also give me more knitting time once I organize time management. I honestly think this will help with a lot more than I think. (Anxieties, Insomnia, that sort of thing).

While I was out this evening, I worked on Sean’s Sweater. So far, it’s coming out as planned.
It’s honestly going to be one heck of a sweater…
I can’t wait for Sean to see it!

I just got noticed that my hotmail sent folder is too full! I didn’t realize that it was backed up from 2007! I started deleting all the oldest emails first, and we’ll see how fast I can clean it up so that I don’t get this issue. I had no idea that they had such a restriction with the amount of sent messages they’d save. I guess it’s taken me 3 years + to find this out though. you know what though, it’s probably a good thing that I should clean out my sent folder. I don’t need any of the sent emails from that long ago anyhow or from today for that matter. For emails that are important to be kept, I would definitely take precautions to make sure that they do get kept.

february twenty-four :: 88 weeks old

Mack is 88 weeks old today.

We left the house this morning to find a lot of snow. I know they’d been calling for snow, and that’s why the roofer didn’t come by today to take a look at the roof on the house. I am hoping that the snow melts away with the rain they’re also calling for, as I need to get my roof fixed as soon as possible.

However, as much as I don’t want the snow to be here right now (due to the roof), it’s still very pretty the way it falls on the branches and is so clean & pretty. I love photographing snow. So hard to photograph as well!




The guys finally finished the bathroom today! It’s done. It’ll be cleaned tomorrow morning & then we’ll be able to test it out. I do need to go to the hardware store and buy a massaging shower head for the stall because they destroyed the original one when they demolished the fibreglass shower stall we got rid of.

I love the new shower. I can’t wait to try it out!

I went into work today, I was surprised to see that my office was pretty clean, my manager had taken care of a bunch of stuff while I was out of the office last week. The driving was a bit slower than usual due to all the snow that fell, though the roads weren’t bad at all to drive. People drive slower than usual (and worse than usual) when there is snow.

This evening I went out with some good friends (hi M.E.C!) for dinner. We made sure we were sitting near a TV as the Team Canada vs. Team Germany Men’s Hockey Game was on. We won (7-3) and it was a good game. I worked furiously on my February Lady Sweater. I am now done rows 150-152 to conclude the 26th Gull Lace Repeat and then started on the Garter Ridge Edge at the bottom. I worked 10 rows of garter ridge, which brought me to just over 1 inch of the 1.5 inches required as the pattern states. Will be able to start on the sleeves tomorrow! I can see the end in sight. I can smell it! And when I’m done, not only will I have completed my first adult sized sweater, but I will have completed it in about 2 weeks. Two weeks. That’s crazy! I’ll show you an updated picture soon!

february twenty-three

I watched 2 movies today. The first one was Did You Hear About the Morgans? It was really cute. Sarah Jessica Parker was actually knitting in one of the scenes! I wonder if she knits in real life? Very cute. The movie was really cute as well. I enjoyed it. I like both Hugh Grant & Sarah Jessica Parker. The second movie I watched was Up in the Air. The main actor was George Clooney – hadn’t seen him in anything in ages. It was also a really cute movie.

Worked more on my February Lady Sweater. I’m now done rows 138 to 149 which is now 25 Full Gull Lace Repeats, starting on the 26th. I like my sweaters long, so I'm still going a bit longer. I will keep trying it on after every Gull Lace Repeat to see where I’m at. I’m supposed to be stopping 1.5 inches before the end as there will be more garter ridge at the bottom.I’m not there yet. I don’t want a sweater that is too short. I’m also not sure how this yarn will block because everyone is saying it grows. So I’m torn. Some people have even said that the yarn holds a bit of it’s memory… so I’m going to wing it, it seems and hope it’s not too long/big after blocking.

So there's good news today. It’s really just our luck with the mould in our attic... firstly, it’s contained to 5 sq feet. Secondly, it's luck that we opened up Mackenzie's closet ceiling to go into the attic that way, or we would have never have found the mould (the entire attic is insulated, so only by opening the floor, did we find it).

The only bad new is that the company that did our roof in 2005 went bankrupt the year before in 2004 (the guy must have given an illegal warranty). Not sure how to approach that legally, but I'm waiting to find out if there is anything we can do.

The lady who owned our house before us, (we bought the house Nov 2007) passed away in August of 2008 (I found her obituary online through google). Though, the money from the sale of the house, had to of been left to her children... so we need to find out who the estate was left to, and maybe we can go after them.

Now it would be for the ceiling/attic repairs (they will have to tear down Mackenzie's bedroom ceiling/closet) and we'll have to call in a new roofer to come fix the roof. But... we’re so lucky that it’s not the entire attic covered in mould, what he thought he was looking at yesterday was just water stains on the wood, but there is no actual mould (yesterday he went up with a flash light and today he went up with work lights). And, it looks like it's NOT going to be a $40,000-$50,000 job, which was my biggest worry.

The contractor that is doing our bathroom *thinks* the issue on the roof as to why it’s leaking water in, may just be that the flashings need repairs, so that would be on the cheaper side of what could have been with the roof. Though, I am having a roofing company that has been around for years come to take a look at my roof, hopefully sometime this week – snow depending. (They’re calling for 5-10 inches of snow tomorrow). As soon as the roof is fixed, we can have the contractor come back in and fix the attic.

My contractor was explaining to me that some guys who do roofs, are frauds. They are in business for 3-5 years and then go bankrupt and then open up a new company to avoid the warranty on the roof. You see, roofs generally have warranty when work is done for 10 years for labour and 25 years for the shingles. So, in order for them to avoid their warranties, they close up shop and no one can go after them for the warranty. My contractor said to make sure I call in a company that has been around for years. The one I called has been around since 1985. The reason that my roof is leaking is probably because the guy who already had closed up shop, did a crap job on my roof, just to collect that cash. The lady that was living here was elder, and he probably took advantage. Not cool.

Anyhow... luck is on my side today. This could have gone really badly.

february twenty-two :: 164 Weeks Old

Sean is 164 weeks old today.

Today was a catch up on work day. I still made time though, to do my work while watching 2 movies. I saw Valentine’s Day which was really cute (and was loaded up on a ton of actors) as well as watching the movie Leap Year, which was totally cute as well. I think Amy Adams is really cute (I’ve seen a few other of her movies as well).

There has been work done today on my February Lady Sweater. I’ve now worked on rows 125 to 137 which is now 22 Full Gull Lace Repeats, started on the 23rd with row 137. I still would like it a little bit longer, so I will be working more repeats. I don’t like my sweaters too short. I hope it works out perfectly. Once I’m done this part, I can start on the sleeves, which shouldn’t take too much time, so I think I can totally finish this sweater before Sunday (closing ceremonies).

My bathroom is promised to be done by tomorrow. I’ll believe it when I see it. When the guy went up into the attic today (we had to create a trap door so he could even get up there. It was odd to us that there was no trap door in the house to begin with. We discovered the ENTIRE attic is covered in mould. Now, not only is there mould, but there is something else with the pot lights and the insulation that is a fire hazard and is not up to building code. So tomorrow we're going to see if we can find the source of the mould, and see if it's because of the roof (which was re-done in 2005) or if we have to go after the previous owner of the house. We'll also have to determine how old the mould is. What a disaster! It's a shock that none of us are sick from the amount of mould that is in our attic....!

We'll know tomorrow after our contractor goes up there with his work lights and a camera. Hopefully they can tell where the source is. Since there was no trap door we suspect that maybe they "sealed it up" to sell the house because maybe they knew about the mould. Why the inspector we hired to inspect the home upon placing an offer didn't notice that there wasn't a trap door (because I just pulled out his report) nor was there any mention of the attic period in his report, is an entire other story... I'll know more tomorrow. All I know tonight is that it's REALLY bad.

Ahh, the joys of being a homeowner. I’ll know more tomorrow. No point in speculating more now if I don’t have any answers just yet.

february nineteen

I don’t often photograph my cat. He’s usually off doing his own thing or sleeping. Today he kept me company in my office. He cozied himself up next to some books that I have to sort through and kept me company. It was nice having him around. He’s such a beautiful color, and I love his unique patches. He’s such a good cat. (Except at 4 am when he’s trying to sleep on my head or vomiting on my yarn – yes, he’s done that).

The guys working on my bathroom today did all the grouting. There’s just the install of the fan, the light in the shower and the door to put on, and then paint my entire bathroom. They’re supposed to show up at 10 am Sunday morning to continue. What I don’t get is why they’re going to paint the bathroom first, to then put a hole in the wall for the fan and a hole in the ceiling of the shower for the light to have to touch up the paint. Doesn’t it make sense to do those things first then paint? Well, they know what they are doing, so I trust them. We chose a grey color with a hint of blue in it for the bathroom, which will give it a nice change from the beige that we’re sick of in there. Change is good. Now they’re saying that they should be finished by end of day on Monday. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Today I watched a ton of movies. (And took care of the never ending laundry). I started off my morning by watching Then She Found Me. It was an interesting movie with Helen Hunt, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler and Colin Firth. Then I tried to watch The Namesake but it wasn’t for me. It had even more subtitles than the movie I watched yesterday (Raman Girl) and I just couldn’t focus. Maybe I’ll try another time to watch it. Then I watched Margot at the Wedding. It was alright. Nothing I’d watch again. Nicole Kidman, Jack Black & Jennifer Jason Leigh were in it. Then I watched the movie Dedication. It was a movie with Billy Crudup, Christine Taylor & Mandy Moore. It was alright (about a children’s book author). Lastly this afternoon I watched 2 Days in Paris with Adam Goldberg & Julie Deply.It was half French and half English (no subtitles), but that’s okay with me. It was alright as well. These were all movies that were on my list to watch for a long time. Then this evening, Jamie & I watched the Chris Rock movie I Think I Love My Wife. It was a cute romantic comedy. Steve Buscemi was in it as well. Today was quite the movie day. I don’t think I’ll be able to do these movie days again for a while. It was nice being at home while the house was being renovated.

I’ve been working on my February Lady Sweater. I will be starting the 12th repeat in the Gull Lace pattern tomorrow when I picked it up tomorrow. While movie watching today I worked on clearing out my entire email inbox, which I was very successful in doing, so I didn’t get much knitting done at all. It was much long over due to clear out my inbox and it feels good that I have done so. From what I’ve gathered from my research, it seems like most people have knit between 22 and 24 Gull Lace Repeats before the garter bottom, so if that’s the case, I’m half way to the bottom. Then there’s just the sleeves left after that. I have faith that I can finish this sweater before the Olympics end. Just wait and see!

This morning when I dropped off Mack at daycare his teacher asked me if he still naps/sleeps in a crib at home. I told her yes, because he does still. He’s only 20 months old. Sean moved into a big boy bed at 2 years old (just a few days after his birthday). I asked her how come she was asking and she told me that it was because I said that he naps on the weekends at home his usual 3 hour nap (sometimes even longer). Anyhow, she said she had thought of something, because Mack only sleeps maybe 1 hour at daycare every day. She said that today she was going to try to put him in a “crib like surrounding”. Basically she said she’d take cushions and mats, and make a “crib” for him. She had tried that once before with another child she used to have in her class and it worked. Well, when I went to pick up the kids today from school, I asked her about the napping situation and she told me that he napped the entire 3 hour naptime. Phew! Glad that is solved. He’s been coming home all week cranky because he hasn’t been napping properly. I am so relieved there is an easy solution to this.

february eighteen

Today I only got the chance to watch one movie – Raman Girl. Rhoda had recommended this movie to me a while ago, so I finally got the chance to watch it. It’s one of Brittany Murphy’s last movies, released in 2008. She was super cute in that movie. It had subtitles for some of the movie, but other than that, it was a cute movie. I also finished watching last night’s episode of Nip/Tuck, which I fell asleep watching last night. Boy that show is getting even more messed up than ever. Does anyone know if it’s the last season? I think I heard that, but I’m not entirely certain if that’s true?

My February Lady Sweater is coming along!
Today I managed to knit on rows 73-84 this evening, which is now 9 full Gull Lace Repeats.
However, I took this photo before knitting more on it.

Lovin’ it.

Today I finally found some time to put up some decals in Sean’s room to surprise him. He had no idea about the solar system that I put in his room on his wall.

He did know about the alphabet decals, because those he got for his birthday. I lined them on his wall along the top. He loved it. I think decals are so great because they’re removable.

The shower is now all tiled. It’s coming along. No way is this going to be finished by Friday. Now it’s maybe Monday or Tuesday. Ah… gotta love contractors! I just want it to be finished already.

The good thing about being at home is I had the guy come today (since I was home anyhow) to replace the humidifier on our furnace. He was finished late afternoon. When Jamie got home from work, there was a flood in our furnace room, the humidifier was leaking. So we called the guy, he told us how to shut it off, and they’ll be back first thing tomorrow morning to fix the valve. It’s a good thing that Jamie went in that room to take a look at what they did, otherwise we’d never have known it was leaking. We do go in the furnace room, as we have an extra fridge in there, but we never go behind the furnace, where the humidifier is located. I can’t wait for that to be working again, I’m tired of waking up with dry (and some time bloody) noses. And Mack’s skin (eczema) might clear up a bit once that’s working too (here’s to hoping).

february seventeen :: 20 months old / 87 weeks old

Mack is 87 weeks old today & is now 20 months old. I can’t believe he’ll be 2 in 4 months.

Today I watched Coraline. I had started it once before but got distracted & never finished watching it. It was well done and really cute. Also too “old” of a movie for my kids to watch. Maybe when they’re older. I’m a fan of Dakota Fanning, who plays the voice of Coraline, which was nice. I like Teri Hatcher as well, and she played the voice of Coraline’s mom. John Hodgman, who I talked about yesterday “the PC” guy, played a voice in the movie too (the “other” dad). I also watched Dakota Skye. It’s an independent film that was made in 16 days! I really liked the main character, and the guy she falls in love with is a cutie. I really enjoyed the movie, however it was a little slow. People have said that “Creative concept, touching and original script and compelling performances make this the "Juno" of 2008.” I disagree. I enjoyed Juno so much better. I then watched the movie Martian Child with John Cusack. His sister was in it as well. (Of course she was). Amanda Peet was in it too – I like her. Also Sophie Okonedo is in it, never seen her before, but she’s a cutie. And the little boy in the movie, the Martian Child, was just adorable. Very cute movie, also a little on the slow side. I also got to watch the movie Numb. The movie was alright, about a guy who has a dysfunctional life.The guy is played by Matthew Perry. Lynn Collins was in it too and I think she’s really pretty. Saw her before in X-Men. Wow, today was a real movie day. I worked on tackling one more thing off my to-do list today, since I’m stuck home because of the bathroom renovations. I tackled putting all my printed photos that were waiting to go into an album in chronological order and then put them into the albums I had for them. Let me tell you, that I will never get behind on that again. It was quite the job. I had photos to organize from August 2008 until now. It was pretty much everything since just after Mack was born. Life with 2 kids…! Putting away photos into an album wasn’t a priority anymore after having 2 kids. So prints got made, ordered, brought home, and put in a pile “to do later'”. Let me tell you that I promised myself I really won’t do that again. Photos come home, photos go right away into the photo album… or a pile-up will occur again. I am really trying to work on my procrastination habit to break it.

The contractor miscalculated the tiles he needed for the bathroom shower floor. We’re 50 (small) tiles short. This means that he couldn’t finish today and I hope that it does not mean that it’ll take an extra day to finish my bathroom. Right now he said “maybe by Friday”. I hope that it doesn’t extend to “Maybe Friday or Monday”… ugh! I’ll wait to see what they say tomorrow when he comes back.



Sean came to me this morning with his tools in his pants. He had them lined up all the way to his back. There is even a hammer in there. He was so cute. My little contractor. I need to make him one of these tool belts. It’s one of the projects that I have lined up for my trip to BC this spring. My sewing guru Cynthia will help me make one, cuz she’s the best.



I love paper. Notebooks. Stationery. Note cards. Anything paper related. I found this awesome (never used before) notepad on my desk in a cubby when I was cleaning up. I’ve had this for years. I bought it while I was still in school. Not sure why it never got used (but that’s a whole other story). Well, I pulled it out, took off the plastic and now this sunny notepad is on my desk and will get used. I am thinking about making March a “Not Buying It” month. I did this once before, either at the beginning of last year or the year before. One month not spending any money except on food & medicine (if needed) & any essentials that I must buy for the kids. I’ve done it before, I can do it again. Because I have willpower. I will also go through my things and find 10 items that I’ve bought and never use – and them use them. That sounds like a great plan! Don’t you think? I’ve done that before. It’s fun to do that little game.

Because I worked on photo organization today, I didn’t get the chance to knit during the day (though I should have instead, but didn’t). I did get to knit this evening and I’m making great progress on my February Lady Sweater. I’m now (tomorrow) about to start the 7th Gull Lace repeat on my sweater (which will be the start of row 73). I find that this knits up very fast. I’ll take a progress photo tomorrow.

I’m addicted to listening to K.D. Lang’s version of Hallelujah. I love it. Wasn’t it just amazing?

Well, I’m off to go crawl into bed and catch Nip/Tuck on FX at 11pm.

february sixteen :: Link Love

It’s been mild for the last couple of days, and finally today it got a little bit chilly, so I pulled out my Canadian Olympic Mittens to wear. They’re fleece lined and so cozy. I got them as a gift from my in-laws for Christmas. I love the someone made a pattern to knit them!

Go Team Canada! We won our 2nd Gold medal today in Women’s Snowboarding! Keep on winning them on home ‘turf!

The bathroom renovations are coming along. Right now we’re waiting for the plaster to dry. I also need to pick out a color to paint the bathroom. Time for a change in there. The contractor is bringing over a swatch book tomorrow for me to choose a color.

Yesterday I watched the movie Love Happens. It was a little slow, but cute nonetheless. Jennifer Anniston was really cute in this movie as Eloise. Nothing I’d watch again though. Today I watched the movie The Invention of Lying. Very interesting, but nothing I’d ever watch again. There were a couple of big name actors in this movie, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe & Tina Fey, but nothing fantastic. I didn’t hate it though. I love that the “PC Guy” (you know from the Mac commercials) John Hodgman was in it as the Wedding Commissioner. I also watched Paper Hearts. I think Michael Cera is such a cute kid. It’s too bad that he & Charlyne Yi broke up after 3 years of dating. They’re so cute together. I also then watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. There is no way that either of my kids would have sat through this movie, it’s a little too old for them. I thought it was cute. Also not really a movie I’d watch again. There was a lot of good voices in this movie, such as James Caan, Mr. T!, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Lauren Graham & a few others. It seems like I’ll be stuck home for the rest of the week as the bathroom renovations, which was supposed to be done by today, may only be done by… uhm, Friday. I’m not complaining, being “stuck” home means I get to knit, which is good during the Olympics, with a deadline! At least over the next day or so the humidifier will be replaced as well. The guy may come tomorrow if he gets the job he’s doing at my parents house done on time, if not, it’ll be on Thursday. Who knew they had to replace their humidifier as well. The company that is doing it is based off the island of Montreal, so hopefully they can kill two birds with one stone and do it at the same time in our area.

Isn’t this rug the neatest thing you’ve ever seen? Must find yarn that large!
I was told it could be sailing rope.
Hmm, interesting.

Progress on my February Lady Sweater. It’s starting to take “sweater” shape now that I’ve put the sleeves on separate cables (love knitpicks options cables for this), and am working up the body. It’s coming along lovely. Have knit rows 53 to 65 completed today. I’ve done a full 4 repeats of the Gull Lace (including the one repeat before the sleeve stitches were separated). I am currently on Row 2 of the 5th Gull Lace pattern. If I were to ever knit this again, I would knit the last stitch of every row through the back loop to give it a nicer edge. I am not liking the edge. I may have to add a simple crochet border to it afterwards, to hid the edges. We’ll see when it comes to that at the ends. I only thought of this now.

- This photo makes me smile.
- This is the coolest Olympic ad ever.
- I love that this product still allows you to use broken crayons. I’ve been keeping broken crayons to DIY.

I’m beat. Had dinner with some friends tonight at a local joint I hadn’t been to in a while. We knitted (I made great progress on my Feb Lady Sweater, it's good that the lace pattern is so easy that I'm able to knit in public on it and talk at the same time), chatted, had good laughs and enjoyed each other's company. It’s time to go to bed, the kidlets will be up early tomorrow. I treated myself to some Strawberry Cheesecake for dessert and it was absolutely delicious. Totally worth every calorie. Ah, life is beautiful!

february fifteen :: 163 weeks old

Sean is 163 weeks old today.
He was a super star in his swimming class this morning.
He put his head under water whenever necessary.
He’s my little fish.

Today’s progress as of mid-day on my February Lady Sweater. She’s coming along.

My buttons are ready. I picked them up almost a year ago at the Knitter’s Frolic in Toronto.

I even tried it on. Though, it’s a little hard to see what’s going on due to the cable on the needle getting in the way. Though, I’m loving it so far. The color is gorgeous (a beautiful teal). And I’m really enjoying knitting with my zephyr tips.

Saw this dog wearing a knitted hat on a fido ad. This hat reminds me so much of this hat on Ravelry! Or even this hat. This hat is quite similar as well. It’s very cute in green. The dog’s got the right idea!

Renovations are coming along with the bathroom. It’s going to take longer than expected for it to get done, which I had a hunch this would happen. The cement has been laid down and now we’re waiting for it to dry. They’ll come in tomorrow do something, put down some more cement and then wait for that to dry. The fan needs to get installed, and we thought there was access to the attic, which there isn’t, so we’re going to have to create one, so that our house is up to code. (And if we ever need access to the attic, we’ll have one). Not sure why this house was built without access, but that’s another story. There’s still tiling to be done, the shower door install, and painting of the bathroom (since they took down some of the wall to open up the shower stall to let in more light, we need to fix up and paint). I just need to decide on what color to pain the bathroom. Not sure yet.

Since I was home today keeping my eye on the renovations, I decided to continue with my office clean-up. It’s coming along very well and I’m doing a huge purge. Call it early spring-cleaning? I’m not even sure how I’ve acquired some of the stuff that I have. Anyhow, I am making a very large pile of stuff and some of it will probably get donated. I really don’t want to chuck this stuff out because maybe it could be useful to someone else. I really am trying to de-clutter, and I think I’m doing a really good job of it. It feels very good to do this. Even the re-organization of my things on my desk, for example is very uplifting, if you could believe that. I’ve even chucked things that I am not sure why I was even keeping. And you know what? It felt fantastic. I recommend you do it. You'll feel freer too. Go on, free yourself. Clutter doesn’t do good to ones life, I’ve come to understand.

Off to go watch some tv with Jamie (24 is actually new tonight) and continue working on my February Lady Sweater. Only 13 days left before closing ceremonies and I totally want to have this sweater done so I can achieve gold for Team Montreal! I can do it. I know I can! I’d like to be reading to finish my book, I’ve still got more than halfway to read in my almost 700 page book, but my spare time is going towards reaching the end of my first sweater ever. The book will still be there when the Olympics are over, but the challenge of finishing my sweater before Feb 28th isn’t. Priorities!

february twelve

I stayed in today after taking the kids to daycare to oversee the work that was going on in my house. We had the plumber come in today and re-work the pipes for the water under the floor, instead of around the back. You can see the way the pipes were in yesterday’s post. Upon ripping up the old shower and having the plumber look at all the piping he said it was very badly done. These are the things you don’t see when buying a house. Thank heavens we are re-doing it. He said we could have started to have problems later on. Not 100% that we would have had problems, but most likely. I can’t wait for it to be done already.

When the guys left today, they did a pretty good job cleaning up. You would never have known they were here, unless you saw the actual shower stall in the bathroom. I was worried because my cleaning lady was just here on Thursday morning about 2 hours before they started ripping up the bathroom. Thursday night they left a mess, but upon leaving for the weekend it was all cleaned out.

   Today I prepared to start the knitting olympics!

It was time to put a new “collage” in this picture frame that I had other yarn in for while, so I decided to scrounge up some leftover bits in the appropriate yarn colors, and make something for the olmypics. I think it’s cute.

My skeins are wound. Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon. I can’t figure out why, but one of the skeins was divided in 2. Not so happy about this. I do have another skein left in my stash, but I didn’t wind it, just in case I don’t need it.

I swatched. I got gauge. I needed 18 sts in 4 inches in garter ridge. Got it. Check.

 
And I cast on just after 9pm EST (6pm PST) as allowed in the rules. This evening I made it to row 14 and now I’m going to head up to bed in a few to get a good night’s sleep so I can continue knitting tomorrow. I’m knitting the February Lady Sweater (My Ravelry Project). It’s been in my queue forever and I’m finally getting to it. 16 days left. One sweater. I can do it and get gold! This will be my first sweater for me. It’s about time, right? (Ps- That’s a blurry Wayne Gretsky on the tv getting his torch light).

I learned something new tonight. I learned how to do a one row button hole as suggested in the pattern. I found this youtube video. I am a visual person, so videos are awesome. I wrote down the instructions and will be able to do the other 2 buttonholes the same way. Gotta love the internet & youtube.

Are you doing the knitting olympics? If so, what’s your challenge? I’ve never knit an adult size sweater, so that’s my challenge. It may be a little crazy to knit one with 16 days left… but I think I can do it. And if not, at least I’ll have tried, right?

My in-laws came for dinner tonight, bringing my step-MIL’s meatball sauce. We made pasta. It was so good. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I enjoy her cooking. I’ve never made her meatball sauce before, but I’ve made her meat sauce one. Speaking of which, I have frozen meat in the freezer and we’re due to have a new batch of sauce. (Just need to find the time to cook).

The kids had their valentine’s party at school today. They got some nice cards from their friends & teachers. I keep these sort of things in their baby box. I want to make each of them a memory box so that they can decide later on in life if they want them or not. Keep it for their wedding day or something. I think it’ll be a very nice keepsake. Do you have anything like that for your children? Anything you do that is unique? I’m always looking for neat ideas. Do share.

I was sad to learn that Sean’s best friend will be moving to the next class as soon as he’s back from his trip next week. (It’s his mom’s 40th birthday today so they left to Cuba for a week – lucky them). Sean’s kind of upset that his friend will be going to the next class, but there is still one more child older than Sean to move before Sean would move. Plus, I love Sean’s teachers, and even though I know Mackenzie will be going to that class by the fall, I’m not ready for Sean to move classes just yet. Sean’s best friend is an October baby and then there is one more child in November that is older than Sean who was born in December. He’ll still get to see his best friend in the school yard when they play outside, but as far as activities, Sean’s class does them (Science, Dance, Music, etc) with Mackenzie’s class, as they are the 2 youngest classes. He’ll be okay. I just know it.