Friday Loving, a day early

I love that I woke up this morning with no headache.

Sounds like a simple thing, but it is the first time I can say that in almost a month. I'm amazed at how good it feels to not be in pain. I've got a whole gaggle of prescriptions to make me normal (or atleast as normal as possible, some things you just can't fix). The pain relievers caused me to spend the first 48 hours on them sleeping, but now? I'm just on the preventative medication which makes my heart race and gives me insomnia. You should see how clean my house is now that I'm on physician approved crack! (I think I might be trying to make up for how dirty my house was while my head hurt).

So I'm loving no pain!

I'm also loving....

Big boxes for the imagination

3-D Glasses

And Spray painting old patio furniture

Although I might have created a monster here. The Greatest loved how the red chair turned out so much he decided he must spray paint the rest of our patio furniture.

I can't complain, it looks fabulous.

C'mon admit it. You wanna come hang at my house now!

Triple Fail

It is a little known fact that I've been known to hook a time or two. One could say I'm a hobby hooker. Jack of all Trades, Master of None, and all that jazz.

Now before my Father has an aneurysm I must point out that "hooker" is merely a pet name in the crafting world for people who crochet. Get it? They use a crochet hook to make things so they're hookers! Get it?!!!

Yeah.

Jokes are never funny when you have to explain them.

Anyways, moving right along from my funny fail,

I know my way around a crochet hook. And when I saw this project

I simply had to try my hand at it. How cute would it look on Pork Chop! I even had some olive green yarn in my stash.

I carefully cast on. I crocheted with all my might, the pattern on one leg, and crochet directions on the other. It had been a while and I'd forgotten how fast things work up when crocheted. This was going to awesome.

And the finished result is pretty awesome.

It just fits the wrong daughter.

I guess gauge matters in crochet too. *scratches head* Who knew? I ought to check it and see how far off I was. So even though Sweet Pea really likes it, this is a fail.

So I thought I would modify the pattern. You know, instead of checking gauge and going from there, I decided to just throw in a few extra increase rows, make it larger so it would fit a larger head. It was going to be easy-peasy!

Yup.

This is also a

So I abandoned this pattern, I mean, if gauge is that important, this is obviously not the pattern for me. I mean, obviously it was to fiddly. But Pork Chop still needed a new hat. One of the things I loved about the pattern was the tiny brim, so logically I turned to this pattern.

That's a friend of mine in the red hat. Isn't she cute? I've always wanted to make one of these hats. This seemed like my chance. My time to shine.

Guess what!

Gauge still matters.

I think I'll go back to knitting hats. *hmph*

So Far Behind

It is hard to get motivated to do anything when you wake up and the fancy-schmancy outdoor thermometer/clock thingie already looks like this:

Yup, that clock says 7:06 am. Later it will look like this:

I don't want to over state the obvious, but IT IS HOT. We don't wanna do anything but swim or lie on the couch watching Harry Potter movies in eager anticipation of the new release this week. I'm so excited to go see it. Did I mention The Greatest is taking me! We can not remember the last time we saw a movie together. Seriously! We actually sat and thought about it, and we thought some more, and we thought some more, and we drew a complete blank. The best we could come up with was Batman Begins, which was released in 2005. Now that is just sad isn't it? So Hooray for hot dates! I can still call it a hot date even if he's taking me to a decidedly non-sexy matinee showing on a Wednesday afternoon right? Not all hot dates have to take place on Friday night right? Oh well, after 11 years of marriage, I'll take what I can get.

But that is all neither here nor there because I really here to show off some Fourth of July photos.

I know, I know. I'm like a week late doing it. And I'm pretty sure there's some statute of limitations on showing off holiday pictures. I think it expires 48 hours after the event. But I went crazy with the holiday crafting this year and I must document the insanity.

See those cute kids?

I just love them. They're so squishy cute! And I mean that in the best possible way.

I love America. And I love the Fourth of July. And I want my kids to love it too.

But Fourth of July has a PR problem. It has fireworks. But that's about all it has going for it. There's no mascot, like the Easter Bunny or Santa. There's no candy like Halloween or Easter or Valentine's Day. There isn't even the promise of Grandma and unlimited deserts like Thanksgiving. Sure, it's got barbecues, but small children just don't get all worked up over potato salad and grilled meat.

Mmmmmm...........grilled meat..............mmmmmmmmmmm...............meat...........mmmmmmmmmm.....wait....where was I?

That's right..Fourth of July.

I want my kids to get all excited for it. I want them to understand what a wonderful nation we live in. Flaws and all, I love it and feel bless to be a citizen of the United States through the happy accident of my birth. But how to get my kids excited?

I came up with the perfect plan. It was so simple, yet so brilliant.

Halloween has costumes. Easter has new Sunday clothes. Christmas has new pajamas.

Fourth of July needed wardrobe!

I had two white pillowcases just waiting to be made into dresses. I found this cute tutorial for a dress for Sweet Pea (side note *when I made it she only offered the dress is 24 month size, she has since added larger sizes. I think the 24 month size is on the small side, but your mileage may vary. Overall it is way cute and a well written pattern, especially considering it is free*). Then, of course, we needed accessories! All in all I made one pair of earrings, three little white dresses, three rings, four bracelets, and five hair bows.

It worked just like I hoped it would. The girls loved getting all fancy in their new clothes. Meaty didn't mind getting shafted with a bracelet and ring (honestly, I could have puffy painted a flag on his shirt or something). We were all dressed up with no where to go.

The Greatest was working so it was just me and the kids. I discovered people just don't "DO" Fourth of July out here. There are no parades. Few events. It was kinda a non-event around here. I think it might have something to do with the fancy-schmancy thermometer thingie. Have I mentioned how HOT it is? Fifteen google searches and four reading of the local paper and I still couldn't figure out where to go sit to see fireworks. In desperation I called a friend who informed me that she knew the perfect place to see the fireworks: her in-laws front porch. It was so kind of them to let me and my invading army of cute crash their family gathering. (Thanks so much Wiffy! Love you!)

And a good time was had by all!

Facts I know and still choose to ignore

I know I live in the desert.

I know things succumb to dry rot out here.

I know any fabric left to the elements has a substantially shorter life expectancy here than it would have had in my old home.

I know that I am an average size girl leaning towards slender.

I know that I weight thirty pounds heavier when I've got a big ball of chubby kid on my lap.

I know all this.

And still.....

When you're sitting in a chair and it breaks, it wounds your soul.

My elbow hurts.

And my pride.

Shhhhh......

Are you as sick of the pool as I think you are? It is time for something new. It is about time for some knitting around these here parts. I have, after all, heard rumor that this is a knitting blog.

As you may or may not know I've got a small mountain of finished knits to show off. A mountain I finished almost six weeks ago. The stack of handmade loveliness sat in my family room for two weeks. I didn't want to put them away because I just knew I was going to photograph them...tomorrow. When I finally faced reality and admitted that they weren't going to get photographed anytime soon I moved them to my closet where they were safer, not completely safe, but safer, from sticky little fingers. On the shelf in a tidy pile they have sat and sat and sat. They've been taking up space in there for almost a month? What were they waiting for? What could possibly be keeping me from shamelessly showing off my fabulously brilliant knits with the world? What the heck was I waiting for?

I, my dear friends, was waiting for a good hair day.

That's right.

A good hair day.

And apparently I haven't amassed enough good karma for one yet. What do I gotta do? Sacrifice a child? Cause I'm almost there people. Almost.There.

So it wasn't a good hair day, but it was a clean hair day. Some days that's really the best I can hope for. The pictures are silly because The Greatest took them. Forgive me, they don't really show off the sweater at all. But you get the general idea.

Pattern: Whisper Cardigan, size M

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace weight

Needles: The pattern calls for sizes 7, 4, and 2. I might have used those sizes. Or I might have used a 6, 3, and 2. Although, come to think of it, I don't remember using a needle as small as a 3, or a 2 on this project at all. I have no idea what I used. I just don't remember the details. I know, bad blogger, no diet coke for me.

Modifications: None that I can remember. But I also can't remember what needle size I used, so I don't think my memory counts for much at this point. It is entirely possible that I might have modified the heck out of this sweater. I just don't know.

Review: First of all, let me just state for the record: The sleeves are actually the same length. I know they look like they're not, but they really really are. You're just going to have to believe me on this. Same Length.

I'm feeling mixed about this sweater. I love the light weight fabric of the sweater. I enjoyed the interesting construction. I love the slight roll of the unfinished edges. I didn't even mind the endless stockinette stitch too much. It made for great TV knitting. And *sigh* how I love lazy-bad TV watching-knitting. And let's talk for a second about the yarn. Oh how I loves me some Misti Alpaca Lace weight. Oh the sheen. Oh the soft. Oh the love. On paper this project is made of win!

I'm just not so sure about it on my body.

I might have been better off knitting the smaller size. It looks alright in the pictures, but after a few movements it starts to slid off my shoulders causing me to have to constantly re-adjust the sweater. I wanted to wear it over sleeveless items in the summer. I know it is hot, oh so hot, outside, but it can get downright frigid in the over-achieving air conditioning. This whisper light cardigan seemed like the perfect solution. It is such a shame I find wearing it too fiddly. I wonder if it will be better in the winter, over a t-shirt, if it would stick to fabric on my shoulder and not slide around so much. I guess I'll find out when it starts to get cold.

In late November.

So as we breathlessly await winter to discover the true wearablilty of this sweater, admit it, size problems aside, that is one fine looking piece of knitting.

Documentation

Sometimes you reach a milestone and you just need to document the event. I don't journal anymore, so my documentation occurs here. I hope you'll indulge me.

We had a milestone event yesterday.

Meaty is swimming!

Yes, I have added another fish to my aquarium.

My son is a special boy. I love him to bits and pieces. But he is also a bit of a frustratingly fearful boy. He doesn't want to try anything new unless he is confident beforehand that he will be good at it. Confidence is not his strong suit. Minor setbacks easily deter him. We've worked hard emphasising the importance of practice to him. But it doesn't seem to do any good. He rarely wants to try anything new. I keep hoping he'll outgrow this little personality quirk.

Now we just KNEW Meaty could swim. We knew he could do it. He's big enough, smart enough, strong enough and co-ordinated enough that he could do it. He just didn't. The only thing holding him back was Meaty. His Daddy has patiently been giving him short little lessons every night. Let me stress the PATIENT aspect, holding Meaty in three foot water, water Meaty could easily stand in, as Meaty shrieks and flails and cries that he's going to drown. At some point, frustrated from watching the lessons, I looked at The Greatest and jokingly suggested we just throw Meaty in the deep end. Well, I was mostly joking.

But yesterday was different. Something in Meaty clicked. Something in his head slid into place and he conquered the pool! Not just above ground swimming, but swimming with his head under water as well. Before yesterday Meaty refused to even put his face in the water and blow bubbles. But not now.

Getting ready with Daddy.

All Set.

Just keep swimming.

Just keep swimming.

Just keep swimming.

So proud!

And he swam all over our pool all afternoon. He was in the deep end. He was in the shallow end. He was above the water. He was sitting at the bottom of the pool. We swam races. He cannon balled. We all laughed with delight and pride.

He asked if we could go to the store so he could get a new pool toy, and I couldn't think of a single reason to deny him a reward. He worked hard, and he earned it! He wanted to go to the store all by himself with Daddy (that only hurt my feeling a little bit). They came back with this.

Predicatably he slept with it last night. As I tucked him into bed last night I told him how proud I was of him.

"Mom, I'm proud of me too!" he declared. And you could see the pride and self-confidence in his eye.

And that is worth a million new pool toys.