Feeling Like Me Again, Finally…

Today’s the first day that I’ve gotten out of bed and felt really good since I got sick, two weeks ago!  I can’t believe tomorrow is already February!  I feel like I’ve lost two weeks of my life…  It’s making me want to re-evaluate some of my commitments, which is always a good thing, right?

I’ve gotten some cute, little Valentine’s Day projects done.  First, another Spongebob reference for my silly little boys.  Have you seen the episode with "Wormy"?  My boys love Wormy, so I made them each one. (Had to use Valentine’s colors, cause they’re Valentine’s Day surprises.)

Here they are, hiding out in my knitting basket.  My boys are going to love ’em.

Also made them cute, very simple little cards and bought little hearts full of M&Ms.  I think I’m set for little boys and Valentine’s Day.

I have a couple other things in the works that I better not share here yet…

I did get around to putting together a couple scrapbook pages…  only because they were already assembled kits that I had put together for the crop a couple weeks ago. I didn’t get to go to the crop, so I’m finally getting around to putting these together.

This first layout is a complete rip-off of a sketch from Donna Downey’s blog.  I loved it and it was perfect for what I wanted to do!

And the second one is mine.  One of my favorite pictures of Scotty in a while.  He’s wearing the little hat that I made him and he’s busy, deep in thought, doing something crafty, at the kitchen table.  And big brother in the background…  Just a very sweet shot to this Mommy!  Love how the simple layout came together so easily too.  Also been slowly, slowly working on this:

Doodle is so excited about his "Bump" being done and I’m so un-inspired to work on it right now…but I’m slowly moving along on it.  He’s already named the little toy Zach.  (I have no idea…)  Hoping to finish him up this week and start working on my red/pink/orange PS stuff!

I’ve decided to pull out of the Oblique KAL.  I’m still very excited about making this sweater, but it just isn’t a good time for me.  Too many things already on needles that I’m dying to get done.

I’m going to get out of the house a bit this afternoon, have a lunch date with Mandy in a little while and need to get a couple things at the supermarket.  The boys have basketball after school.  Feels good to "join in the living day."  (line from a John Denver song.)

Hopefully I’m well on the road to recovery and I’ll just feel better and better from here on out.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  Thank you for all the nice emails, with get well wishes.  Made me very happy and thankful.

Hope you’re having a great day too! 

Monday Mosaic (pick-me-up)

Monday Mosaic (pick-me-up), originally uploaded by doo010101.

Having been under the weather now for more than a week, I’m in serious need of a pick-me-up! I found these sweet, spring-y, colorful shots on Flickr. How could these scenes not make one feel good?

Not Quite Back Yet…

For most of the past week, I’ve been in bed with the flu/bronchitis.  I can’t wait to feel good again and to do something fun and to have the energy to care…

Why didn’t I get a flu shot this year?

She’s Done!

Rainbow Bump is done and has been presented to Scotty already.  He loves her!

This was a really fun, quick project.  I’m really glad, ’cause I have to make another one now.  lol

Funny how she really didn’t have a personality til I embroidered the eyes in place…  Then she developed her own little aura.  Bee picked out the brown eyes and named her "Rainbow."

Next up, for Will, is a yellow elephant with blue eyes and a red scarf… 

Very weird-looking til you add the trunk!

I was just looking at the calendar.  I began swatching for this project late Tuesday, started the arms on Wednesday and finished on Saturday.  And I wasn’t knitting myself crazy either…  It was between other things and at my own pace…

What fun.  This is what it’s all about!  Making something for someone that you loved making and the recipient truly loves!  I’m a happy Mommy today!

Getting Ready…

Getting ready for a crop on Sunday.  It feels like it’s been a lifetime since I scrapbooked and I’m so anxious and excited I can hardly stand it.  We’re going to have so much fun!  Thank you, June and Nicki for inviting me!

Now, if I can only decide what to take for food.  (It’s a potluck)  Anyone have a suggestion?

Stuff Making Me Happy Today

My mother-in-law made this quilt and I think it’s beautiful!  I’m so happy that it was accidentally made to fit a king-sized bed.  lol  She told me it originally had been planned to be much smaller but she measured incorrectly.  (I’m so glad!)

I’ve begun working on Bee’s "Rainbow Bump"  and he’s so excited, making plans and coming up with names.  He’s so funny.  I’m a little further along now.  She looks like a tiny pair of pants and two little arms now…  I’m hoping to find significant time today to work on her.  (Yep, Bee has already decided that Rainbow Bump is a girl.)

Started a new, beautiful sock pattern.  See all those tiny, complicated little cables?  Look really hard and time-consuming?  It’s not!  It’s so easy and no cable needle required.

I transferred this sock to a circular, hoping that I’d love the Magic Loop method of sock knitting…but not so much…  I’m back on my dpns, however I dropped a stitch so I have to put it aside til I get together with K again.  (she can fix anything!)

I bought this Peaches and Cream yarn at Walmart yesterday.  I want to experiment with it.  I love the fact that it’s 100% cotton and therefore washable and dry-able, but I’ve seen some fantastic colorways (same brand) at Joann’s that would work perfectly for a friend’s baby sweater that I have plans for.  Haven’t decided on the pattern yet, but I think this will be the yarn.  I’m going to play/improvise and make a washcloth and see how this washes up.  I think I’m going to be pleased.

I just love this shot…  Sometimes I get lucky…  I just couldn’t part with this waste yarn because it was such happy colors…  So, I decided to take a picture and look what’s in the background…my baby dogs, sacked out on the sofa, trying to stay warm cause I probably had the back door open…  Love those fuzzy babies!  (and another pretty blanket made by my mom-in-law.)

I don’t know…  I like it.  It’s knitty and artsy and I can’t help it…  I like it.  (Scott wasn’t so impressed.)

But look, in the whole corner… in the grand scheme of the whole corner, it looks really nice, right?

I like it…my pretty little basket of yarn on the floor and my needles on top of the hutch…  I’m diggin’ it.  And I’m sure Scott will humor me and let me leave it there.  (he loves me.)

I just noticed the shoes by the back door.  I started putting them there when I was going out and watering the garden everyday…  I don’t want to wish winter and spring away yet, but I’m getting really excited about planning another garden and hanging clothes out on the line!   Bee just asked this morning when it was going to be summer break again…  He’s already making plans, I guess…lol

And lastly, I’m thinking about buying new linens for our bedroom.  On my list of things to get done this winter is to paint our bedroom and bathroom.  Last time I mentioned it to Scott, he said that he was getting tired of our linens.  So, if I can come up with the money, I think I’d like to go with blue.  I absolutely love this set (found in the most current JCPenney catalog) but I’m not convinced that such a light color is a good thing with two puppies and two kids…  I’m going to give it a little more thought.  But I really do love this set!  Tranquil–that’s the word it makes me think of.

Alrighty, I’m off to knit some, in between mommy stuff.  Have a great Thursday, everyone!

Still Thinking About…

Still trying to think of fun stuff to do for my three boys for Valentine’s Day…  I still have time to make stuff too…  I don’t know what I want to do.  I’m completely obsessed with doing something, though.  Even if it’s something small.  I usually miss Valentine’s Day, because my birthday is Feb 12th and my parents’ anniversary is on Valentine’s Day…  But I just don’t want to let it slip by this time.

Today’s the busiest day of our week.  I told the boys that, on their way to school this morning and they knew exactly what I was referring to:  school, basketball and Cub Scouts.  They barely have time to eat dinner and do homework on Tuesdays!  And I’m super busy with Mommy stuff today too—I’ve promised myself that I’d get some specific things done today, if it kills me!  Changing bed linens, grocery shopping, LAUNDRY, I’d like to cook something really nice for a late supper…  I found a recipe that sounds really yummy for mini-meatloaves that I’m dying to try.  I’ll post the recipe if it’s really good…

In other news, Scott’s taking Will to Scouts tonight, in order to weigh their Pinewood Derby car.  This is our first one and I must say, I think my boys out-did themselves!  They made a car to look like the ghost (hovering vehicles) from the video game Halo.

Scott did most of the carving and Will did most of the painting and cosmetics.  I’m so proud of him.  (I think he’s pretty pleased with himself too.)

In knitting news, I started a new pair of socks after trashing my toe-up.  Yes, I said trashing.  It was too narrow, too long, I don’t like short row heels and yuck-tired of looking at the damned thing!  I started a beautiful white confetti, cable sock last night.  It’s already gorgeous!  Also started swatching for Bee’s "Rainbow Bump" (toy elephant) this morning too.  He’s very anxious for it to be done already!

Ok, the first of many loads of laundry is ready to come out of the dryer.  What idiot decided to put my laundry room in the basement anyway?

Monday Mosaic

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Knitting Mosaic, originally uploaded by doo010101.

All these beautiful projects are things I want to make or I’m thinking about making. Aren’t they gorgeous? I need more hands and more time, I think!

Happy Monday, everyone.

Eye Candy Friday and other stuff

I’ve been thinking about Valentine’s Day a lot over the last week or so, trying to come up with ways to make it special for my honey and little boys.  I’ve been searching for inspiration/ideas…  If you have suggestions, do tell!

Project Spectrum starts in February and as luck would have it the colors are red, orange and pink…  perfect for Valentine’s Day thoughts!  I’ve already got lots of pictures in mind for the first color grouping that I’ll share when I’m a little further along.  It’s going to be fun!

I’m also getting really excited about starting my first sweater for me.  Nope, the yarn hasn’t arrived yet, but I joined an on line knitalong and reading everyone’s post about their progress is making me very anxious to get started!  CAN’T WAIT!!!

So, I mentioned yesterday that there were big changes in the works for Will and Scotty… 

It’s pretty obvious to me and everyone who knows us, that our boys have me wrapped around their little fingers.  I don’t know how it happened, but it has.

However, lately, I’m looking around and seeing that my precious children are really capable of a lot more than I think.  I still do a lot for them, not allowing them to do for themselves when they really should be.  This has been a recurring theme in my life, since the boys were infants.  I had friends in Iowa that would help push me along, supporting me during our growing pains and changes.  (Thanks Trish and Holly!)  And here, in Nebraska, I look at our friends’ kids and see things that I’d like to do with our boys.  For instance:  chores at home.  I did the whole chore chart/stickers/allowance thing this time last year.  It didn’t go over well.  After a week or so, the boys weren’t interested in getting stickers and money…  it wasn’t worth all the work that I was requiring of them and the time that it pulled them away from playing…  (And frankly, they’re smart boys, they probably knew that I’d still buy them toys with my money…)     This time I’m not going to do a chart, but I’m just going to ask them to help me out with normal chores, when  the need arises and if they do it, they’ll get allowance on Friday.  I told them Friday was payday.  I think they really dug that!  lol  They’ll each get 5 bucks and they’ll be required to put 2 in the piggy bank and they can save or spend the other 3.  Will was immediately upset because that wasn’t enough to buy a video game and so I explained the importance of learning to save up.   He understood.

So, the other big change for my boys is walking into school without me.  This one was hard on me too.  I’ve been putting it off for quite some time.  I like walking them in and helping them get their stuff together to start their school day.  But for weeks now, it’s become pretty obvious that I’m usually the only Mom in there.  All the other kids do it for themselves.  I thought Scotty would really have problems with this one.  (we started today) but turns out Will was the one who really had the worse time of it.  He cried and cried, said I was making him really sad…  Daddy had a talk with them this morning, about the importance of independence and that it was our jobs to make sure they grow up to be independent…  so I reminded Will about that and then made a deal with him…  I agreed that if he stopped crying and went in, that I’d have lunch with him today.  It worked.  Also helped that Mr. Jeffers (the principal) came to the door and wanted high-fives, at the last minute too!  They think Mr. Jeffers is totally cool!  All these pictures of the boys were

taken at yesterday’s basketball practice.  Neither kid was really excited about going back yesterday.  (the first practice didn’t go so well.)  But yesterday was a much better experience.  There were big kids there to help the coach and give more kids one-on-one attention and the kids got to play and have free time after class, just to attempt to make hoops and stuff.  Our boys loved that part.  I think they’re really going to have fun.  Do you always have to push your children?  Even if it’s fun activities that you know they’re going to enjoy?  Do they ever just get excited to do it?  Ugh!

Parenthood has been the biggest challenge of my life, by far.  I’m learning as I go, even if I choose not to practice what I learn.  I always, always do what I think is best for the kids.  I never knew I could love them as much as I do…  They are just awesome, awesome little men!

Wish us luck.

Thursday Morning

Seems today is the first day that I have the luxury to pick and choose what I do, in a very long time.  Nothing urgent, nothing has a deadline, not out of anything in the kitchen…  Of course there’s always something that can be done, but nothing that can’t wait til tomorrow!  And that makes me very happy.

I used to take "mental health" days regularly when I worked full time.  You know a day every 3 months or so.  I’d take off and just do whatever I wanted.  I don’t see anything wrong with it, if your work is good and you don’t abuse it.  Today I’m taking a day off…for me.  I’m going to ignore most of my "to-do" list and just have fun.  I’m going to take pictures and knit and read.  I’ve already worked-out and I’m looking forward to a healthy, yummy lunch.  It’s going to be a good day.

What am I going to read?  (apart from crafty blogs?)

Santa  my sweet husband, gave me a book for Christmas that I’ve been wanting for a very long time.  I hadn’t purchased it for myself, because it was going to be too expensive…  It hasn’t been released in the U.S. yet and shipping from the U.K. and the cost of the book kept me from doing it.

I’m about a quarter of the way thru it already and loving every bit of it.  (I knew I would)  Lots of beautiful pictures and inspiration in this one!  I highly recommend it!  You can check out the author’s blog here:  http://yarnstorm.blogs.com/ .

What am I going to knit, you ask?  Well, I’d like to finish the short row heel on my toe-up sock, so that it can go back in the car to continue to be my "waiting-in-the-car-for- kids-to-get-out-of-school" project.  I need to get it to a point that it’s just stockinette again…  so it doesn’t require much attention.  And while I’m waiting for some ordered yarn to arrive, to start on my first sweater for me, I might start planning one of these:

I KNOW!!!  ADORABLE, HUH?  Found them here: http://thimbleanna.blogspot.com/2007/05/more-knitting.html .  Completely irresistible, I think.  And although I know I have 100% wool yarn in my stash, I don’t have one of these fun, Spring colors…so I MUST BUY MORE YARN!  lol  I’m thinking it has to be the blue!  Not sure about the embroidered buttons, though…  Maybe a rub-on transfer on a flat button and I have some yo-yos around here somewhere that would work.  (I knew I made these cute little yo-yos for something!)   

Or I could make the orange or pink bag and put my felt flower on it…

Decisions, decisions.

So, I’m going to go get busy having fun!  Gotta pick up little boys at 3pm and they have basketball at 4pm.  Changes are coming for Will and Scotty.  I’ll post more later…

Have a great day, everyone.