Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Cheeeeeeese!!

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No, the photographer wasn't on his knees! He's 5 and short :o)

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

70% of a promise

I do have pictures of Ella. I don't have pictures of my hair. Well, not exactly. I had a rough day today, and while you can technically see the back of my head in the following pic...

I have a scarf tied around my head (which incidentally doesn't match my shirt but whatever) and you can't really see too much. It was done this morning, really it was! But after a windy day walk, a few rounds of Chutes and Ladders, some laundry, and your general kiddie horseplay my 'do was through (LOL). In hopes of distracting you guys from the fact I promised hair pics here's a chubby baby shot

Did it work?


Either way here are a couple more shots of Ella. Close up

and wrapped around the boys


Her stats:
The pattern is Ella from Knitty. I used Brooks Farm 4 Play in the Poppies colorway and Denise Interchangeables in US size 10. It took me 2 full skeins and (no lie) about 7 inches of the third! The pattern was knit as written except for omitting a repeat in section 2.
This was an awesome pattern! I would love to do it again with maybe a different weight and fiber content of yarn. It went by quickly and I never got bored, even towards the end. I highly recommend this shawl...can't say enough good things :o)

Late Sunday night I decided to put two very bright colors of KnitPicks Shine (purple and green) together to make the funky tank top out of Adorable Knits for Tots. But my gauge was different, and I wanted to knit it in the round, and I was only using two colors. I guess you could say it's not the funky tank from Adorable Knit after all...LOL! I've dubbed this little creation 'sweet grapes'. The colors remind me of grapes and although 'sour grapes' is a little more catchy and also the first thing that came to mind, my little man is waaay too sweet to wear something called sour grapes. A little corny I'll admit but who cares?

I'm trying to decide if I want to join Sockapaloooza this time around. Anyone else joining? I think it would be pretty cool to recieve something handknit (socks no less!!), and the time frame is right...I just need to stop being wishy~washy and do it I suppose.

I'm also warming my fingers and wrist up for the Knitting Olympics! I think I'm going to join the Plain Old Sweater team as I'm not doing anything particularly fancy(a Ribby Cardi) even though *I* see it as a challenge and isn't that what this whole thing is about? The whole Olympic thing is pretty funny because the hubby and I have this long standing joke about sports. I watch countless hours of football, ESPN, football, basketball, and football. Did I say football? I always tell him one day knitting will be a competitive sport and he'll have to watch it on TV with me. So when I told him I had joined I got a bit of an eyebrow raise. I told him not to worry and reassured him that he didn't have to actually watch me knit my sweater but cheering me on is always welcome. My girlfriend threatens her husband as well, but with scrapbooking.

Wouldn't that be something...*sigh*

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Would you lookie here!

Ha! I've been tagged...twice! Call me a dork if you want but I've never been tagged before so I'm excited :o) The requests came from Kim and Pam, and are slightly different so I've merged them together.

Here goes nothing...

4 jobs you've had:
Supply Technician
EMT
Surgical Technician
Unit Deployment Manager

4 movies you can (and have) watched over and over:
Goodfellas
Full Metal Jacket
Toy Story
Billy Madison
*You know, there are more in this category and I had a hard time narrowing it down to 4. Netflix is my friend!

4 TV shows you love to watch:
24
Rescue Me
Grey's Anatomy
The King of Queens
*When The Sopranos comes back it will be at the top of my list!

4 places you've lived:
Bronx, NY
Queens, NY
Tucson, AZ
Southern MD (DC suburbs if you will)

4 places you've been on vacation:
Jamaica
Mexico
Las Vegas
San Diego

4 websites you visit daily:
Bunch o' blogs...thanks Bloglines!
Yahoo...news, weather, etc.
Knitty Coffeeshop
Delphi Forums

4 of your favorite foods:
Chocolate! (anything sweet really but chocolate tops the list. It makes me particularly happy.)
Shrimp
Fresh baked bread with lots of butter(thanks for that one Kim)
Cheese, glorious cheese :o)

4 places you'd rather be right now:
Jamaica
Tucson
Getting a facial, massage, and a pedicure
Somewhere that there is someone to cook and clean for me. Oh, and do my laundry.

Ok, who to tag? I understand that some folks are kind of touchy when it comes to this sort of thing. I don't want to piss anyone off so if I tag you and you don't want to partake, don't. On the other hand if you read here and it looks like fun have at it!

Catherine
Shelagh
Amy
Nik

Today was a busy day for me. Not only did I finish Ella (yay), but I went and got all my hair chopped off this morning! When I woke up this morning I decided it had to go. I've been wanting to get it cut for a while now but to be honest I was scared. I've got very curly hair which I wear natural...no color, perms, heavy goop...and for some reason this puzzles a lot of hairdressers. Unfortunately when it comes to salons you usually have to 'pick a side' and my hair is neither 'black' or 'white' in the traditional sense. I say traditional sense because those are terms that I have heard from actual hairdressers. If you ask me, people should learn how to do *hair* period but I digress...

Anyhow, I really like how it turned out and I'll have pics of the new 'do and the wonderful Ella tomorrow!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Love is...

Staying home from your weekly knitting get together and making cream cheese brownies

to be enjoyed after a dinner of onion dijon crusted catfish, collard greens, and cornbread. Why all the fuss? Because it's my dear husband's 29th birthday!

Yeah, yeah...so I robbed the cradle.

Monday, January 16, 2006

The Mommy Wars

Why is it that a woman's worst critic is another woman?

I was blog surfing and came across a discussion that I can't for the life of me find again. It was about an article that was discussing women who, upon graduating from college, said that they had made the choice to become homemakers instead of entering the workforce. There were lots of comments and lots of ideas about the article. But the ones that really got me were the women that made it sound like they were throwing their educations (and lives for that matter) away to be stay at home mothers. One even went as far as to say that she would *never* depend on another human being. Wow.

Through the years, women have fought hard to be able to do what they wanted in life. There's 'take your daughter to work day'. We've drilled it into the heads of little girls everywhere that they can be whatever they want to be. Well, did whatever they want to be only apply if they aspired to carry a briefcase?

I worked for years. I was in the Air Force when my two older children were born. We utilized daycare. I had to take business trips. It worked for us for a while.

When we relocated to MD from AZ I decided I really wasn't crazy about my line of work. We decided I would stay home and go to school, which lasted until I got pregnant and now my last year is on hold. I'm ok with that. I'm also ok with depending on my husband, and the dependence is not only financial. I depend on him to be there for me, to help me with the kids, and to be my best friend. He in turn depends on me. Could you imagine all the stuff he would have to pay someone to do if I (goodness forbid) dropped dead?

I depend on my friends, I depend on my sister, hell I depend on my cat to curl up with me and make me feel better after a hard day! Anyone who says they don't depend on others is pretty lonely.

All that said, I by no means don't think a homemaker shouldn't have a plan for herself. I'm prepared in case of the unexpected. Everyone should have a plan, working women included.

It's funny, while there are definitely stay at home dads out there you don't hear the same kind of hoopla. Why? Well I think it stems from a man's ability to mind his own business. A man couldn't care less what the guy down the street is doing, even if he doesn't agree with it. Women? It's almost as though we have to belittle the choices of another in order to feel good about the choices we've made. I think that's sad. We'd be a force to reckon with if we all just stuck together.

So...hey to all the women out there! Be supportive of your sisters. Daycare is NOT evil and women who work are most certainly raising their own children. Women who stay home are not uneducated doormats. Homemaking is not something you fall into by default. A stay at home mother's job is important too.

With this being the new year, lets try to free our minds and be a little more accepting of ideas that are different from our own.

Ok, I'm done :o)

This past week we had a birthday..

We've got a five year old! Although according to him he 'still feels four'! We let him choose dinner and took him to Toys R Us and let him pick out whatever he wanted. So we would up with pizza and some dinosaur castle that took DH all Saturday afternoon to put together!

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see how excited folks get when they're about to eat cake?

Even Isaiah got in on the action...


Since My oldest turns 7 in February and they hang in the same circles, we're going to throw a joint party. Of course Chuck E. Cheese was the first suggestion. I'm trying to talk them into the skating rink. The skating rink was *the place* to be when I was growing up, and to have your birthday party there was too cool. I guess I'm getting old.

Knitting news. Ella. I should be done soon...

I left out a repeat because I thought it was big enough and also because I wanted to make sure that there wasn't the slightest possibility of running out of yarn!


Next I plan to cast on for either Clapotis or the Ribby Cardi as part of the Behind the times KAL. Perhaps I'll do both? I really want to do the Ribby, since I've had the yarn forever and I need a cardigan that I wouldn't be embarrased to wear out of the house.

DHs birthday is on Wednesday. Maybe I can talk him into a skating party??

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Shorty's got it goin' on...

The fine ladies over at JenLa sent out a casting call for the ugliest avatar. Boy are there some ugly ones! Just as I was going to go make one at Yahoo I came across this post and, well, look at it! Need I say more? I had to get over to eLouai's and make my own 'candygirl doll'

Now, it's funnier when it's animated (I think the cat is being violated by the short girl in the tiara~how I'm not sure), but it can also make your head hurt and I'm pretty sure you all can get the gist of the fug the way it is.

'Tell me I am beautiful or I will get flying Chucky to beat you with a giant lollypop and send lil' miss freaky to your house to hump your cat!'

Seriously though, there are no less than a million different avatar combos at that one site alone. Do people really put that much thought into this stuff?

Monday, January 02, 2006

KAL fever!

I've got it!

With the new year comes the natural urge to rid yourself of some of your clutter. Now before anyone's panties get bunched up I am only referring to the sacred stash as clutter for lack of a better term (or because that's how DH refers to it). While I love to surround myself as much fibery goodness as possible, sometimes too much yarn makes me anxious. Projects for which there is yarn already earmaked in the stash can feel like just another obligation...like laundry or dishes. Or maybe I feel like I just can't knit fast enough to knit everything I want and still keep up with the current knitting trends. I have the yarn for a Cozy, Branching Out, a Ribby Cardi, Rogue and even a Turtleneck Shrug. Then there is the Zephyr for a FBS,the Lion and Lamb on it's way (from a swap) for a Clapotis, and the 3 balls of Cathay that are (also) on the way to keep the 5 balls I already have company until I'm ready to knit Orangina. How in the world am I going to accomplish any of this?

I guess the first step would be to not buy any more yarn. Ok, are you done laughing yet? Since that's probably not going to happen I vow to at least slow down. Step 2 would be to gather with like minded individuals, giving me a cyber kick in the pants to get knitting!

I've been knitting on Ella as part of a KAL on Yahoo. This is a great pattern! And the yarn? Oh my goodness the yarn is something else. You must check out Brooks Farm and check out their yarn. This stuff is gorgeous!! I'm enjoying every minute of this shawl.

I've joined the Behind the Times KAL which should prove to be a lot of fun and quite helpful in my quest. Branching Out, Clapotis, Rogue...heck, just about everything in my queue...fall under the heading of this KAL! A bunch of us plan to start Clapotis very soon and we've got someone starting Branching Out. If you've got a project that you *missed the bandwagon* on come join us :o)

Last but not least there is a KAL in the works for Teva Durham's Turtleneck shrug. I don't know too much about it yet but I know I've been eyeing the 'sleeves without a sweater' ever since I got the Scarf Style book and I can't wait to knit it!

Lots of stuff going on at the Busy house in the next few weeks. Three birthdays and an anniversary all coming up. For us life doesn't quite get back to normal until a couple months after the tree comes down and the decorations are put away. But more about all that later...I'm off to knit a little on Ella!