MBOY

This month as part of my my "taking care of me" fun I signed up for an MBOY(magic ball of yarn) swap on MDC. I send out a few ball of yarn with 6 "goodies" to someone and I got mine in the mail yesterday. Totally cool huh?

L has already claimed the yellow and pink wool for some legwarmers and I am totally in love with the hank of purple and green variated. I'm thinking it may end up as a cowl or skinnyish scarf, but I'm still undecided so if you have an opinion, I'd love to hear it! The needle case is my other fav, I love the green and brown combo. I'm known to be very picky about my colors especially greens, but these are perfect, so happy.

Oh, and I thought you might like to hear about my wild thing....

....she's still wild.

Stitch and B*tch

On Friday I was forced to sit for most of the day, due to my knee going out (ouch!). To stave off my boredom I started (and finished) my first embroidery project that I got from Sublime Stitching which I loved! They have such awesome designs, I already have 3 more patterns that I just HAVE to buy.

Here's a close up for you, not to bad for my first embroidery and I definitely learned a lot!

I would have had a wonderful weekend if it wasn't for my knee injury and the fact that I had to do online car shopping. Oh how I loathe car shopping! So much money wasted on something that could just crap out at a moments notice. Can you tell I'm mad at my old car? Well, I am. Only 2 years since we bought it and it needs a new engine.

I am also not feeling the love for my knee right now, it hurts to walk, let alone dance. So, it looks like M and I will have to postpone the dancing class for another semester, so bummed!

Amazingly enough the other parts of my weekend were great! I got to go to my clog knitting class (and no that doesn't me we knitted and clogged at the same time which is what popped into mind as I typed that) which was a lot of fun. I'm learning a lot and am so glad I took the class 'cause I am WAY out of my league! Then M's parents came up and watched the girls and treated M and I to a play. It was so much fun! If only we hadn't discussed our opinions on what kind of car to buy first, total mood buster!

Oh, and I almost forgot (literally was about to push "publish post") I wanted to point everyone (all 5 of you that read my blog) over to knitsational who is having a blog giveaway this week ;)

Cake and Crafts

This week didn't go quite as planned, in fact it is by Gods grace alone that I am still sane. Instead of delving into some Valentine's crafts that I was looking forward to I spent my time searching for a new car and trying to entertain some seriously stir crazy girls. Fortunately, it did have some bright spots like when I made the apple cake from a friend to knit withYou'll notice that mine doesn't look quite as nice as hers, but that is what happens when you have to use bread flour instead of all purpose, it puffs up like a marshmallow. You can thank P for this, seeing as she dumped an entire bottle of garlic and herb into my baking flour, which was only annoying until I made parmesan and garlic biscuits, yum!


I also managed to take some time to do a few art projects with the girls


We painted Valentine pictures for M's office,

Made some pretty necklaces,

and I made a button barrette for each of the girls.


Even with all the gunk I had to wade through this week I am still in somewhat good spirits and very much looking forward to this weekend. I get to spend my Saturday learning how to knit felted clogs! Well, at least the first part in a three part class. I will also be doing some fun shopping for a swap on MDC and some not so fun shopping for a new car, but hey maybe I'll luck out and find something I love. Gotta stay positive or they'll eat me alive!

One A Month Challenge

Throughout the year time ticks by, daily schedules and routines take up the majority of our time and the rest is spent of either trying to catch up or trying desperately to get some "peace". I know that this is how I feel. Like life is one big rolling ball that sometimes I don't take the time to just watch it move; to meditate on the world around me and what I will be leaving behind. What have I taught me children about giving? About caring for others and how they should live in this world? Is what I find myself thinking a lot.

This year I have challenged myself to take time our to meditate on these things. To show my daughters through the work in my hands how much we can do in this life, if we only slow down and try. I know that this may seem like a lot for one little thing a month to do, but I believe it can. So often I will be sitting with my knitting needles, fabric, etc. and L will ask me "who's that for?" "when do they get it?" and that many times I will get to say that it is for someone who needs it more then we do, someone without a home. It is a lesson that she is learning well, through repetition little ones are taught so why not repeat kindness?

So this year I have challenged myself to knit one warm item per month for the homeless shelter. By December I will have my daughter help me bring all 12 of them to the shelter and with this little effort I hope to make a big impression on her little heart. Anybody else want to join me????

Much To Do, Not Much To Say

Could it be, something else for me? Why of course! I have been working on this scarf for over a month and just got it finished the other day. I just found it so boring that I just couldn't bring myself to finish the last 8 inches. Finally done now and I wonder if it will ever get worn, I'm not feelin' the love. Eh, whatever at least the yarn was on sale.

These are the legwarmers I have been working on for P, I hate them, but I think I will keep going. I bought some cheap acrylic yarn, because I wanted something self striping and super bright, but I'm not enjoying them. They look to big too. Hmmm....if I could afford more yarn right now I would just frog them and start over. I'm dreaming of them 4 stitches smaller in pink Portland Tweed......
Coming up tomorrow; something not for me :D

Back At It!

Back to the grind, trying to get back into the weekly rhythm around here. First thing that needed to be done was a mass amount of dishes and laundry, but after that was underway I made our weekly sandwich bread. Which I shamefully have not made since before Christmas. Here are the first loaves of the new year, not bad, just a bit bubbly.


While I'm at work swimming in a sea of toys and laundry I'm dreaming of sitting here in my favorite chair working on my new project.


Hope everyone else isn't working to hard and stealing precious moments to sit back and enjoy yourselves!

My Birthday!

You know what you get when you combine Christmas, New Years and my birthday in 2 weeks? One very relaxed crafty girl with very little done! I have been relaxing, knitting, reading, eating, and catching up on zzz's and my list of accomplishment to share with you is practically zilch.

My birthday was on Thursday and I had a nice low key day, I stayed at home with the girls, didn't clean a thing, and made a mess in the kitchen which produced a lovely blackberry pie. Then we went to my folk's house and had dinner and I was showered with a few much loved surprises. On Saturday I used my gift certificate(thanks mom and dad!) and went down to the local knitting shop t0 take a lesson on cable knitting. Check out what I made: Finally a hat for my cold little head! I'm really wishing I would have made it olive green, so I may have to get started on a second one. I have fallen in love with cable knitting and can't wait to do more of it. This hat was so much fun, I finished in less than 2 days!
While I was off knitting, my wonderful hubby was busy giving me my big birthday gift, what every women dreams of.........a clean house! He scrubbed the bathrooms, the windows, the kitchen, the walls and mopped the floors. My house is all bright and shiny especially with my big bouquet of Gerber daisies (my favorite). What a sweetie!

Oh and check out the awesome locally made necklace M had the girls get me.

And it's reversible too. I saw this at a craft fair and I guess M swooped back behind me and snatched it up. The girl also had an etsy shop, but I can't seem to find it, hopefully I will come across her card and update.
While I was taking pics of my birthday goodies I went ahead and got one of the journal M and L made for me for Christmas. Spoilt? I think so.

It's All About Me

Like so many others I have been taking stock of my life and thinking forward to the next year. What I want to accomplish, the changes I want to make, and what I really want to make my focus for the year. I'm wanting to take time for myself and grow as a person. I love my children and I would die for them in a heartbeat, but that doesn't mean I have to stop living. I seem to have fallen into the martyr position with my children always focusing on what's best for them even when I am unhappy. Mothering can be such a ruff place sometimes, you don't know where to draw the line. If you can give them the best then shouldn't you? At what cost? Do you jeopardize your self, your family, your sanity all for the sake of what is "best"? Well anyways, this is something that I have been thinking a lot about. So, starting at the beginning of this year I'm taking better care of myself and letting my kids suffer a bit. Haha, just kidding, there will be no suffering, but they may not like it very much.

I have signed up (as of today) for a couple of college classes one of which is Ballroom dancing with my hubby. I am VERY excited about this. It will take the place of our weekly date and by the end of it I'd like to buy a fancy dress and have M take me out dancing. I've also set some weight loss and health goals: lose 30lbs, going back to all organic (which I have let slip since cost increases) and cut out sugar (at least until I am no longer addicted again) and strengthen my core. We'll see how this all works out, it's all stuff I have done before and that I see as completely doable.

As far as crafting goals go I would like to make a few things for myself I have already started this at the end of last month, finally getting around to knitting something for myself.
Some yummy wool fingerless gloves that I finished up in just 2 days.

I have something else for me on the needles and I have my next 2 projects planned for myself as well. I have a purse halfway cut out that I hope to finish up tomorrow and you know who it's for? ME mwahhahhhaaaa!

My other New Years goals include knitting one hat every month of 2009 for The Jesus Center in Chico. They need warm things to give out every winter so this year I'm going to get a head start and hope to have 12 to donate by the end of the year.

Following in the footsteps of that goal I'm also planning to make one Christmas gift per month. So that I can give out even more hand made goodies next year. Christmas for my immediate family rocked this year, but I am hoping to gear more towards the extended as well next year.

Wishing everyone abundance and blessings in the new year!

Our Handmade Christmas

I am ready and willing to sound like a total child when I talk about how AWESOME our Christmas was, possibly the best ever! Who knew handmade could be so fun? So much time and effort was put in to the making, swapping, and the few things we did buy were truly loved and appreciated. We did extra work and bartering, and I weaseled a bit out of my allotted "grocery" and "household" budgets to pay for Christmas and it was far beyond what I could have purchased with a Walmart credit card.

It started off with the girls sleeping like logs and M and I tossing and turning all night from excitement. We were then awoken by load claps of thunder and flashes of light right above our house, so yeah we were up at 7am and the girls slept in until almost 8. Anyways, when they did come down they were fun and pleasant. They loved there gifts and were truly grateful (I know totally unexpected huh?)

Here they are twirling around in the tutu's M made for them. The crown is from a local handmade business.

When P opened up her cape, we immediately put it on her and she ran all around the house making it fly.
L was quite the princess with her "Angelina Ballerina Wand" which is just what she asked Santa for.
P loved her stocking from Santa although the favorites were this camera from an MDC swap and the candy.
M has been enjoying the hat and fingerless gloves I knit him, he has actually worn them every day since!
After the gift giving we had a wonderful snugly time
with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and a lot of lounging around enjoying the day.
Then we headed down to see M's parents were I was gifted with the most awesome gift, a new sewing machine! Oh, how I needed and wanted this, but gosh wouldn't have even thought to ask for it, it's just to much! M got me wonderful thoughtful gifts as well, I couldn't have shopped better for myself. In all I got 5 cookbooks this year, can't wait to get to using them all. He and L made me a journal too, I can't wait to put up picks of this.