Weekending!

I had a spectacular long birthday weekend. B took off Thursday afternoon so I could go to my massage appointment and then he stayed home Friday as well for my actual birthday. My loveliest of lovely friends, M. Bloom, sent me a birthday package. Inside was a beautiful handmade birthday banner, ivy leaf necklace, lusa organics lavender lotion bar, lusa organics lip balm, and two beautiful peg dolls (which have been confiscated by my littles).



On my birthday I woke to happy children - it was amazing. We went out for breakfast, went grocery shopping. I went knitting at a local yarn store with my step-mother (as I do most Fridays). There were sweet treats and many birthday wishes. I'm sure we did other things. But the weekend has made things a bit of a blur. The kids resumed their cranky ways (can we be done with the teething now, please?) and much sleep was lost by all. It was still a great weekend, though.

Saturday night I started a crochet Pikachu for the Beast. He's.. well.. he deeply loves all things Pikachu. He wore a giant Pikachu backpack around a store over the weekend. We didn't buy it and he was a bit sad. So I thought I'd make it up to him.


(Ravelry details here).

Now, of course, the Imp wants one as well. During my search for inspiration I put together and Etsy treasury for all things Pikachu. You can see it here.

Birthday!

Today is my birthday! To celebrate I'm offering 20% off everything in my Etsy shop. Just use the coupon code "Bday31" between now and Sunday night. I'll deactivate it before I go to bed - this will likely be between 11pm and 1am (Eastern time).

Pictures of my lovely day will be forthcoming - B killed the camera battery and it must charge!

The Surprise Revealed!

Okay. I only got two guesses (and both hats - which I sort of meant for you to think). So I suppose it wasn't all that fascinating to anyone but myself. I am, however, so wickedly pleased with the end result that I am positively giddy.

Here's a hint:


And here, my ferocious Imp:

(Ravelry notes here)

Yes. Tiger stripe longies, indeed! The tail was made using a modified version of Emily's C is for Cat pattern. Well, the cat's tail, at any rate. It is removable thanks to two buttons sewn into the back of the longies. Now, my oldest is asking for a knit tail to put on his jeans.

Yes. Today I win.

Yarn Along - scrappy style!

Joining Ginny at Small Things again this week.


Reading The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig. It's the last of the Pink Carnation books that are out. Another (Garden Intrigue) should be out next month, though! Yay! Knitting.. well, I'm not going to tell you what it is. That will be for a later post. You're welcome to guess, though!



These are the scrappy longies I finally finished! Woohoo! Well, minus the drawstring. But I'll get to that. Amazingly I had some yarn left over (hence my current project). These were made with some lovely hand dyed yarn I bought from The Sitting Tree a very long time ago. It was my first "real" yarn purchase, I believe. And it was sitting on my shelf making me feel guilty for not knowing what to do with it. Once I rearranged my yarns I noticed that I had a bunch of scrap balls of other oranges and some brown. What could be more perfect than scrappy longies? Especially since my little boys just keep getting taller! So here they are - unwearable until the drawstring is made, but already much loved by everyone.

Monday in pictures.

10am popcorn - the cure for crankiness.


(Ravelry notes here)


This is my life. Never ending diaper laundry.

Weekending.

Or Sunday, at least.



Can I tell you how much I love that the Imp can entertain himself sometimes? The legos all over the floor, not so much. But the moments of quiet are pure bliss.



I'm waiting for the sunshine to hit my front window today. Shop update coming soon!



The Elf and I have been reviewing his history (Story of the World: Volume 1) by filling in a timeline. It is *slow* going. There's a lot he's forgotten. And yet he amazes me with how much he remembers (sometimes with a little prompting). We're somewhere near Cyrus the Great right now. The fall of Rome seems so very far away.

Oh! And how could I forget? I have a birthday massage on Thursday! Okay, pre-birthday. It was the closest I could get. Do you have any idea how much I'm looking forward to this? B bullied me into making the appointment, assuring me that he'd find me the money for it. Here's hoping I can enjoy it without feeling too guilty!

Late Yarn Along

Joining Ginny at Small Things again this week.



I haven't been knitting. Scroll down to see how I spend my free time these days. It's sad and pathetic the time I give to little peg people. Anyway. The longies look exactly as they did in my most recent post. I started (and finished) a test knit for Emily in the evening. I'm nearly done (re)reading Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig. It's another book in the Pink Carnation series.

24 hours

I've more or less weaned the Imp. It's been two nights since I last nursed him (we were only nursing to sleep, anyway). I suppose I should feel emotional about this, but I don't think that I do. We've had nearly three and a half years of breastfeeding (nearly two of which have been tandem). I think it was high time we were done. Given his ready acceptance of this, I suspect he feels the same way. I am very thankful that he does not resent the Beast for continuing to breastfeed (aside from the first month of the Beast's life, we've never had rivalry about it). Anyway. It seemed like I should document this.

Weekending

This weekend in pictures. Because, honestly, I don't seem to be in a very positive mental/emotional place these days. It's safer - and nicer - to stick to the pictures.

Yarn Along - FInally!

Joining Ginny at Small Things again this week.



I took this picture for last week's yarn along. The longies still look about the same. I just haven't really been knitting (I am excited about finally using some yarn I bought from The Sitting Tree at least a year ago). The book, however, has changed. I'm now reading The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. It's.. interesting.




This is that purple shawl (here). I think it looks much better blocked and dyed.



These are just another pair of scrappy longies. Whee.

But now my eternally cranky children are being.. well, cranky. Thus ends my first blog post in almost two weeks.

A note.

I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know that I'm still around (there have been a few concerned emails). Within 36 hours of spending the day with a houseload of people at my father's for Christmas, my two littlest boys got sick. Things have just sort of spiraled downward from there. Thank all the gods (and really, my step-mother), I was given a copy of Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes book for christmas.

At the exact moment of the beginning of the new year, I was trying to get a coughing, snotty three year old back to sleep. I can only hope this isn't setting the tone for the coming year.

We're recooperating. Elderberry syrup and tea flow here like water. Oatmeal and soup are the foods of choice to soothe our raw throats.

Has any of this led me to amazing resolutions? Well, not exactly. My goal for 2012? To make more tissues (we use cloth). Our small supply just can't keep up with five dripping noses.

With luck, I'll be back in a few days. With pictures (of knitting, of course!) and memories. Until then, you'll find me snuggled with a little boy - tea in hand.