The Return

After a brief hiatus, mainly due to the insanity of over scheduling myself, I am back. Maybe.

I've been a very busy MOM this month and have had very little time to be ME.... I am the volunteer coordinator for my daughter's school; which has involved, manually, inputting 500 students' parental information into an excel spreadsheet, organizing them by class, finding room parents and setting them up for the year. I am also on both schools' parent councils, a health action committee and I will be starting "Knit Club" at Eli's school, again,  next week. Plus, both kids celebrated their birthdays (Chey is now seven, Eli is eleven) this month and have, despite my best efforts to train them otherwise, still required feeding, cleaning and the occasional clean piece of laundry...... all of this has left me with too much to say and not one ounce of will to say it....

This is a N64 system given to him by his Aunty Theressa... BIGGEST.HIT.EVER!

I did get a few things for ME done.... sort of for me.... It does seem an awful lot like my ME time involves the kids and/or spouse, eh?

1) I finished Chey's BTSS (Back to School Sweater) for 2012, only a week late. Eli will not be getting a BTSS this year.... too many years of the sweater never being worn has finally taught me not to bother.... He will get socks instead.... eventually.



2) I have finished painting my Studio/Craft room and have big, BIG, plans in the decorating/organizing aspects. I don't want to share a peek... I think I'll wait until it's completely done... sorry. It will be worth it though, I promise.


3) We hiked up (well, part way up) the backside of Mt. Yamnuska (also known as Mt. Laurie)

4) We went to the Calgary Corn maze and I enjoyed a visit with one of my closest friends while the kids ran and played.

And the month is nearly over.... Wow.

Simple Handspun Sweater, oh... and a Birthday

My latest project is finished. A simple top-down, raglan, v-neck sweater knit with my own handspun which was spun over a period of about 6 months. I posted a bit about it HERE. I originally thought it was about a sport weight yarn, but it ended up being 10 WPI (wraps per inch) which is between a worsted and a DK.

I think I'll wear this a lot.... although, I can't decide if I want it a couple of inches longer........

On the non-knitting front, Chey had her 6th Bday last week. We had a simple BBQ at the beach and more presents on the actual Day..... I can't believe my baby is 6!

It was really windy, right when it was cake time, so I attempted to light ONE candle and have her blow it out before the wind got there..... Dale was in charge of the cakes.... he felt one cake was not enough for 6 kids and 4 adults.... so he bought THREE...... we ate less than one... and probably would have eaten only about half because none of the kids (except mine) even finished their cakes...... I know that anyone that actually knows Dale will not be surprised about his lack of self-control in the ice-cream cake dept......

Such a pretty, big girl.....

This is one of Chey's presents.... It's a glass sculpture necklace from a Saltspring Island artist called "Bling Squared". I special ordered a ladybug last year (it turned out so well that they added it to their regular line-up) and we were looking at them in the spring and she fell in love with the peacock.... so Opa and Cary ordered it for her....

 Someone knows what to get my Barbie, Doll, Princess, TOO GIRLY- hating daughter.... BUG KIT!! (Thanks Aunty Kim!)

 This card, from a grandparent who shall remain nameless (*cough* NanEB *cough, cough*) was hilarious.... Eli noticed it first and we all giggled......  Can you see why???

Bittersweet.

Today my baby girl turned FIVE. Five seems like a big deal because she is no longer a baby, toddler or pre-schooler.... She's a full blown little girl (and she's got the highs and lows of a full blown drama-queen to prove it!). Before I know it, she'll be a teenager and then BAM! she'll be gone..... off to conquer the world....

Ok... I'm clearly in a panic spiral here... I need to stop and take a breath, I've still got another 13-15 years (maybe longer if she goes to college nearby).... phew.

We decided to keep the birthday hoopla to a minimum this year. No big birthday party, just a special day for a special girl. She opened her gifts this morning and then her Dad took her to the pool for some fun Daddy-Daughter play time.

The Bday Loot.

Ladybug from Aunty Kim

Shirt from Opa & Cary
(had to be worn immediately)

Eli reading the cards

When she returned we worked on her Birthday cake. This is only the third Birthday cake that I've ever made for either of the kids (and Chey's first)..... I'm not much of a baker, but I was watching a lot of Cake Boss this summer. How hard could it be???

I baked a cake and did a crumb coat. Then I iced the cake with a base and a piped some decorative stuff on it.

Then the fun part started.... I decided that we would make bugs out of fondant to decorate the top of the cake. Fondant really is like edible playdoh... it was fun!! Even Dale got involved.

Once the bugs were complete, I added them to the cake. We make ladybugs, butterflies, slugs, snails, ants, a spider, caterpillars, a couple of flowers, some leaves a mushroom and a duck (Dale made the duck, I guess he didn't get the memo about the theme).

 
After supper we sang the traditional "Happy Birthday" and enjoyed......

Tomorrow is the first day of Kindergarten and I finished Chey's BTSS.... stay tuned for photos.....

BTSS 2009

Oh my... It's that time of year again...The Back To School Sweater (BTSS)...... and it's been slightly over a year since I started my blogging adventure and the first knitting project I talked about was Eli's first BTSS (the 2008 version). I learned a few lessons from that sweater..... mainly... do NOT knit a sweater for Eli in wool... it doesn't matter if we searched forevA to find a non-itchy wool and that he picked out the colours and yarn himself because he will NOT wear it..... He wore that sweater a total of three times last year and only when forced to do so...... so this year I decided NOT to knit another one. That decision remained firm, until I mentioned it to Eli and he looked disappointed...... Here we go again.

This year's BTSS is being knit in Cotton (Estelle Cloud Cotton, to be exact) and is my first fully calculated (no pattern involved but my own) top-down sweater. The plan is to have a kangaroo pocket in front and a hood (Eli LOVES his hoodies). I also wanted something to break up the green and settled on a silhouette of Pikachu (a Pokemon character) on the pocket (my own interpretation of Pikachu, that is). It should be done by the first day of school (which is August 27th this year), but is unlikely to be worn on that day as the temperature is predicted to be in the mid to high 20s (Celsius).

I've also finished another sweater since I last posted, Delphine from French Girl Knits(Ravelry Link), although my pattern came from Interweave Knits Spring 2009 issue. It was a super fast knit, finished in 6 days.











On to non-knitting news.... Yesterday was Chey's 4th Birthday party. She really wanted a "painting party" at our local Ceramic painting store UB The Artist and I was happy to oblige.

In front of UB The Artist	Birthday Girl!
Dino Cake and Fruit Centerpiece	painting her plate

Smurf Teeth

mmmmm.... cake