Sunday, March 9, 2008

The weekend's almost over? Already??

Here it is, Sunday morning. Where did the weekend go?? My daughter is a Girl Scout and I'm the troop leader. Not for much longer, I don't think. I've been doing it for the past four years, now, and I'm burned out on it. I'm worried, though, that if I don't keep leading the troop, it'll disband. Though is that really so bad? I don't know...

Anyway, it's Girl Scout cookie time, so the past two weekends my daughter and I have been doing the site sales (you know, when you see the Girl Scout troops in front of your local grocery store, trying to guilt you into buying cookies with their cuteness??). Today's the last one for our troop, thank goodness!

I finished Kimberly's hat on Friday.... Pictures will be posted as soon as I take some. Although I realized after it was complete and I was staring at it wondering at how big it was that I'd forgotten to change needle sizes after the initial band ribbing. Oops! Maybe I'll get another skein of yarn and do her another hat just like it and give this one to charity.

I've also started working on completing a baby sweater I'd started a few months ago and had stopped working on. I didn't like how the sleeves were turning out, so I'd set it aside. Now I figure I'll try to finish it up just so that it's not taking up space and my needles that have been tied up with it!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Sick & Potty Training


It was only a matter of time. The kids keep bringing all sorts of germs into the house, coughing on me, sneezing on me. But I'd been fortunate enough to avoid most of their illnesses....until yesterday. It's not too terribly bad...I've definitely had worse colds before, but it's draining. All I want to do is curl up and go back to sleep, but alas...if I did that, no one would keep the baby from peeing or pooping on the floor!

Yes, I decided that, even though I wasn't feeling so great, it was time to try potty training Little T. He'll be 3 in June. I'd like him to start preschool in the fall. We've had two successful pees so far, and a bunch of failures, including one poop on the floor. Eek! But we won't give up. At least not until nap time, which is in about an hour. :)

I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon working on the hat my daughter wants me to make. It's coming along quickly, now that I've had my "Ah ha!" moment in altering the pattern to be knit in the round. I even
had Little T model it, which is why it looks big on his head (and he's not wearing a shirt due to the potty training thing...he's running around pretty much nekkid all day today). I'll try to work on it some more later when my energy has been sapped and all I can do is sit on the sofa. :)

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

My First Post

Well, I decided to start a more public blog than the one I have on MySpace, mainly because the only people who see my MySpace stuff are my close friends and family. Most of them, I don't think, would appreciate my ramblings about my hobbies. Not to say that you, dear reader, will, but if you're here and reading this after checking out the welcome text describing what this blog is pretty much going to be about, then maybe you can appreciate my ramblings!

This is my first post, pretty much just to get something up here. I'll be prettifying the layout and adding more photos and info as time permits. But for now, I'll just tell you a smidge about myself and leave it at that for today.

I'm a stay-at-home mom with three, beautiful children. I have a daughter and two sons...all three years apart from the other (i.e., my daughter, K, is the oldest, her brother, Little J is three years younger than her, and my youngest, Little T, is three years younger than Little J). The older two are in elementary school, but the youngest is in preschool for half days three days a week and home with me the other two weekdays. This can make it a bit challenging to pursue my hobbies, and I try to only knit or craft when all three kids are in bed for the night or playing together nicely (which doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like!).

I'm married to a wonderful man, Big J. I know, everyone posts that their spouse is wonderful (usually). But seriously...I'm really fortunate to have found this man. He's a great dad and a fantastic, considerate hubby, who tries to support and encourage my various crafts, even if he doesn't always understand my fascination with them!

Big J has a pseudo-hobby of restoring pinball machines. He purchased an old Cyclone pinball machine not so long ago and has been working to restore it. I've been drafted to repair the painted playfield. Unless you're a pinball hobbyist, you may not know what I'm talking about! I won't say anymore about the pinball, right now. I'll wait until I have some photos downloaded from our digital camera to post and show you.

Currently, in the knitting department, I'm working on a hat for my daughter. I made this hat:

...for my youngest son. She liked it so much that she asked me to make her one, too. Hers will be made with a variegated yarn. I haven't taken photos of it yet. Her hat is a lot more challenging, too, because the pattern was written for flat knitting. I'm attempting to knit hers in the round because I really hate seaming. :) This is the first time I've tried to take a flat project and knit it in the round, so I've been making a TON of mistakes and having to rip out rows of work at a time to get things right. The good news is that I'm writing down how I've altered the pattern to knit in the round so that the next time I make this hat, I won't have to reinvent the wheel!