All I Want For Christmas!

I have been keeping an Amazon wish list for all the things I am hoping for this year.  Jason and his parents thank me for it!  Here are some of the items on my wish list.

Knitter's Pride Dreamz Interchangeable Knitting Needle Set

Since I am constantly buying new circular needles for my knitting projects, this would make a perfect gift.  All the needles I could ever need with all the cord lengths I could ever need.  This is my most coveted gift.

Fruit Infusion Pitcher

I drink a lot of water and this would make drinking water even more fun!  You can fill the inner tube with fruit, herbs or whatever you like.  I can think of a million different flavors that would make drinking water an easy task:  Cucumber and melon, mint, strawberry, citrus, etc. etc. etc.  I also asked for a single serve water bottle with an infusion tube.

Rush Clockwork Angels DVD

Rush is my favorite band.  Ever.  I try to buy and hang on to all their DVD's and this is the newest one that I want to add to my collection.  I saw this concert over the summer and it was awesome.  I NEED the DVD to re-live that concert.

Dearforms slippers

You can always tell when it's time for new slippers when the dog chews your old ones (damn dog).  I am very particular with what I like:  It needs to have a back, but not a half-back.  I like my toes covered and I like sheepskin or something warm lining the inside.  I think the above slippers will work quite well.

Knitted Toys book

I have been loving knitted toys lately.  I made several as Christmas gifts and this book has some really cute styles that I could knit as well.  I have tons of birthdays coming up and that snake on the cover would be fun to make for one of my boys.  

I have a few more items on the list, but the things in this post are the ones I want most.  Hint hint Jason (not that he reads this).  

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Anniversary

On Monday Jason and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  To be nostalgic, I pulled up our wedding pictures to remember that day.  You can enjoy these pictures too!

Happy Anniversary babe.  Here's to another 77 more years!

Catch Up - Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

This is mostly going to be a picture post.  That is way more fun than a wall of text anyways.  For Jack's first preschool outing, we went to the pumpkin patch.  We went last year as well but it's still fun.  We all had a good time and both kiddos enjoyed picking out some pumpkins.

For Halloween, I really wanted to dress the boys in a theme.  I thought characters from Yo Gabba Gabba would be cute since Cal is obsessed right now.  And then I considered super heroes.  And then I considered Mario and Luigi since Jack loves Mario Bros.  In the end, just picking two cute costumes won out.

Man did Jack and Cal have an awesome time.  Jack knew exactly what to expect.  Cal immediately understood after the first house.  He realized that hey, if you knock on this person's door, and yell something, they will give you candy!  He would run up the steps, knock on the door multiple times and thrust out his bag.  It was adorable.  The weird thing is that people had no clue what he was.  I mean, his costume isn't that unknown is it?

I love celebrating holidays with my kids.  They make it so much more fun.  And to see their reactions to things is precious.

Knit, Purl, Repeat

The last knitting post I did was at the end of August.  There is probably no way I will be able to post all the projects I have done since than.  Too many and I will likely forget some.  But I will try!

I loved the Just Enough Ruffles scarf I made for my mom so I decided to try it again. This time with a variegated yarn.  I wasn't sure who I was making this for but it was fun.

Just Enough Ruffles scarf using Berocco Comfort worsted weight in Raspberry Tart

My friend asked me to knit a hat for her.  She had the yarn already purchased and I just needed to find a pattern.  She requested a slouchy cable hat.  So I came up with this pattern.

Lemon Curd Slouch

I don't know what the yarn was since she purchased it in Alaska but I love how it turned out!

I don't know how it happened but I have really gravitated towards hats.  I am known as the "hat knitter" by a few people.  I think it's because they are quick and easy to work up.  Continuing on with the hat trend.......

Someone from a message board that I frequent was on the hunt for a knitted baby hat.  She doesn't know if the baby she is expecting is a boy or a girl so I covered all my bases.

Trio of baby hats

The owl hat is this pattern.  I don't recall what pattern I used for the blue hat but I do know that the pattern didn't call for the pom pom, I added that after the fact. The pink hat is this pattern.  I actually started the hats using a pima cotton yarn but I didn't like how they were turning out.  I instead switched to some baby specific yarn but I don't recall what it was.  Again that is what happens when you are working on too many projects and don't write them down!

I had some leftover yarn from another project and decided to put it to good use.  What else would you do with bright orange yarn?  A pumpkin of course!

This hat is actually my own pattern (sort of).  I used a random child's beanie I found on Ravelry and another pattern for the stems.

I believe the stem pattern is from here.

Now, when you have a ton of leftover green yarn, what do you do with that?  Jason requested I make him a beanie, so I did.  Super simple, super easy.  I don't even have the pattern linked because I just knitted it.  I casted on what I thought was a good amount of stitches and just went from there.  This picture is not very good.  The color looks grey when it's really more Kelly green.

I am knitting most everyone something for Christmas and I asked my sister to pick something she would like.  She picked a beautiful hat and I was so excited to knit it.  We went to the yarn store and she picked her own yarn.

Audrey Hat in Malabrigo Rios Purple Mystery

This color is more of a deep purple but I love how you can see the subtle stripe in the yarn.  This was one of my favorite things to knit.  It is always nice to knit with a high quality yarn because it is soft, easy to work with and just beautiful.  My budget doesn't allow myself to use $13 skeins of yarn often though.

Another Christmas gift I made was for my aunt (she doesn't read the blog) and I love it.  I found this pattern and HAD TO have this exact yarn.  It's discontinued so it was a bit of a challenge.  I hope I am not out of touch but I feel like this cowl is exactly her style.

Rainbow Twist in Malabrigo Rasta Arco Iris

It's funny because this is actually the second twist I made.  I wasn't happy with how I seamed the first one so I took all the stitches out and started over.  The seam on this one is much more clean.

I had started another project using some leftover Madelinetosh yarn but I wasn't happy with it.  I need to be at least 90% happy with how a project turns out otherwise I start over.  I took out the scarf I had started, unraveled it and made this cowl instead.  It knitted up so fast and it matches the winter hat I made for myself last year.

Bella Cowl in Madelinetosh Vintage in Carmine (discontinued)

This was my first project using a lace pattern.  Lace intimidates me.  I found an easy one to start with and it was amazingly easy.  I won't be intimidated anymore!

My coworker is due to have a baby this month and I wanted to knit the little guy a hat.  I am very proud to say that this is my own pattern.  I made this one up myself and if I ever get around to it, I will publish it here (in case I have any readers who are knitters).  I wanted to use up some other yarn I had bought and I wanted a striped hat.  This one was so easy.  I made it in a larger size so it would fit the wee one as he grew.  I love how it turned out.

Striped baby hat - A Pachey original

The stripes are in groups of 6 and I added the pom pom to make it more fun. The yarn is a soft pima cotton from Cascade yarns.

I am currently working on some dishcloths as Christmas gifts for my mother-in-law, Mamo and probably some other family members who I will not name.  I bought Lion brand Kitchen Cotton yarn in super fun colors and am working on this pattern series.

Here is one completed.  I have about 10 more to do before Christmas - not hard considering they only take about 2 hours to knit.

This hat is for my uncle for Christmas.  It's in a simple cable pattern with a good quality yarn.

Fisher Cable in Berroco Vintage in Cast Iron

I have many other projects in the works.  I have a hat for my cousin's fiance, something pretty for my cousin, an awesome teddy bear for my nephew, a dinosaur for my other nephew, a stuffed pig for my cousin's daughter and something for my older sister and her husband.

Lots of work ahead!  I can't post some items because I do want them to be a surprise but I can't wait to share all the finished projects!

Monday Miscellaneous

Man has it been a while since I posted.  Sorry about that.  Life has been busy and quite frankly, I haven't had anything interesting to write about.

Here are some randoms from our last couple of weeks.

* Jack is LOVING school.  He really likes going.  I wish he could go every day but I will be happy with twice a week.

* In case you were wondering, food-wise, not much has changed.  My kids are still picky and don't eat a lot of dinner most nights.  Even after changing how we do dinner, they just won't eat.  I fix kid-friendly dinners and offer them two things on their plates that I know they will eat.  They aren't starving, so I guess that is good.

* A couple of weeks ago, Cal had some weird virus that prompted two ER visits.  He had a very high fever and no other symptoms other than not sleeping well and fussy.  No cold, no ear infection, no vomitting.  After 5 days of 103 and up to 104.3 fevers, it finally broke and he had a slight rash on his chest.  Diagnosis?  Likely it was Roseola.  No fun dude.

* Apparently I missed Cal's 15 month well-baby visit (bad mom).  I brought him in for a delayed 18 month and he needed 5 shots.  Oops.  However, my shorty is almost 34 inches tall (75th percentile) and 25 pounds (35th percentile).  My kids and string beans.  The pediatrician was impressed by how much my kid talks.  He talks all the time.  He is starting to string two and three words together and it's adorable.  Seriously.  I had him say "Bye Bye Stinky butt" (to his brother) and he said it perfectly.  He is like a parrot repeating everything we say.

* I am knitting up a storm as usual.  I have a long list of Christmas projects to do.  I will do a separate post soon with all the things that I have made.  I even made up a pattern!

* I just booked our weekend anniversary trip.  I am sooooo excited!  We are staying at the same hotel as last year but upgraded our room just a bit.  We have a room with a view which is cool. Sad to say that the thing I am looking forward to the most is sleeping in.  I plan to sleep past 6:00am and just be lazy.  LAZY.  Oh, and spend some time with my husband too.

* We took the kids to French Prairie Gardens on Saturday.  We usually go to a different farm for fall activities but this year, we did something new.  The kids had a blast!  We would have stayed longer had it not been for the yellow jackets that kept bothering us.

I really need to start posting more.  Seriously, I have been super slacking.

First Day of School

::SOB::  I have a preschooler!  Although Jack went to school last year, it was not as structured or as "official" as this year.

I have a preschooler.  He is so big!

Jack was lucky enough to get the same teacher and TA this year (I applied for that specific class) and he is thrilled!  He adores Miss Vanessa and Mr. Jacob.  He will attend twice a week for two hours at a time.  I am so glad the school is less than a mile from our house.  Drop off and pick up is so easy.

I took the pictures below and Jack had no problem getting settled in for his first day.  He walked right in and sat down at a learning table.  He was also really glad to see some of his friends from last year.  There are three other returning students in his class.  Again, the boy to girl ratio is way off!  Last year, out of 10 students, 2 were girls.  This year, out of 12 students, 3 are girls!

Here's to an awesome year at preschool!

My big boy.  My goodness!

Something's Gotta Give

Something's Gotta Give.  Wasn't that a movie?  A pretty good one if I remember.  Those words are exactly how I am feeling lately.  I am mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted.  I need a break.  A break from the world.

This probably sounds so selfish considering there are people out there that work harder, do more, have more kids, etc.  But I am tired.

I have been toying with the idea of getting away for a weekend with just ME but that probably won't be happening.  With the holidays coming up and budget, the most I can probably swing is a sleepover at Nana's for the boys.

As you probably know, I work from home.  This is an ideal situation for me and I chose it by taking this job, however, I am literally with my children and husband 24 hours a day.  I work in an office, yes, but it's a small house we live in. I can hear what is going on.  I hear the crying, the playing and occasionally, a kid will make their way into our office (bedroom) and ask me for something.

After I log off from work after a 9 or 10 hour day, I cook dinner.  Then I do dishes, get the kids ready for bed and tidy up the house.

Jason is a stay-at-home dad but he doesn't do any housework.  That is the main reason we hired a house cleaner once a month.  Our house cleaner does the deep clean that I just don't have time to do.  I pick up the slack and do all the laundry, dishes, wiping down of countertops, vaccuuming, etc. etc. etc.  I do all the grocery shopping, bill paying, errand running, school drop offs, pick ups, etc.

There is a solution to the paragraph above.  Ask Jason to do more.  This is a conversation that we have had.  He offers to do more.  I need to take him up on it.  I just need to ask but I am a martyr.

Besides housework, we have free-time issues.  I rarely go out with friends.  RARELY.  I do run errands and get out of the house and have some "me" time on occasion, but it's almost always when the kids are napping.  And it's only on the weekends.  I need to make more of an effort to get out for me and with friends.  I have been doing this recently.  On Monday, I went out with my sister for a girl's day.  I went walking with my friend last night after the boys went to bed.  I am considering taking a knitting class.  My cousin and I are planning on signing up for an exercise class of some sort.

I need a break.  I want one day to sleep in, wake up on my own timeframe and drink my coffee and watch Food Network for a little while.  I need a break from 6:30am wakeups, Disney Jr. and making a million meals.

Sorry that this post is so whiny.  But it's how I have been feeling lately.  Again, I know some people never get a break from their kids or get to sleep in, but I am stretched too thin for my own sanity.