Fun Stuff - Visual Personality

I actually like it!

I finished a project that I actually like. Yeah! It is made with a lucious wool yarn that is so soft. It is a little big, but it is so warm and I don't want to take it off. I actually finished this in the spring, but finally took a picture this week. Just thought I'd share.

We miss the summer concerts!

Wishing summer wasn't over... We loved the concerts at the park, even when it rained and we had to be inside. A couple of videos for your enjoyment! Don't laugh at my sideways video - I was just getting the hang of this...

Do-wap dancing


Sabrina's the center of attention...at least at first.

You've got mail!

Oh, the excitement of getting mail. Combine that with a birthday and Carter was over the moon! After opening the gift from auntie melissa today, the kids had fun playing in the box. Go figure. You'd think they would grow out of that by 4...




I lost my camcorder. How does that happen? It has to be around here somewhere!!! That's the problem with getting a big house with little storage. It could be anywhere!

Summer Swimming

Carter loves the water and had a great time in swim lessons this summer. Check out some highlights from his last lesson. He's jumping and swimming by himself! His teacher Eric calls him Welcome Back Carter, which Carter doesn't understand at all. Over the 8 sessions they shared all kinds of info - including the color/description of their houses, details of our upcoming camping trip, info on his family, the olympics, etc. Seems Carter was a chatty one in the class. He definitely had fun. Sabrina had a hard time sitting by and watching. I think this is the last time we'll get away with that.

Life Jacket Race



Show off


Jump!


Jump and swim under the rope!


Backfloat


This is our first foray into digital video. I used my camera to capture these videos and they turned out alright and it was easy enough to put them up like this. But I think I need to work on it....any ideas?

The Pony

Sissy in a pony tail! She is such a big girl and she knows it.

Sicko

We are so tired of being sick...going on week 4 of this terrible cold/flu bug and no sign of it letting up. It wouldn't be so bad if EVERYONE wasn't needy at the same time. And if we could go out and do something fun without fear of getting everyone else sick. Between the ear infections, pink eye, and the hacking that is going on around here - we are a sorry bunch.

But I've been very productive knitting - finished making another hunter hat I lost (after wearing it once...) and am getting close to finishing my shrug. Hopefully I can get unstuck on the shrug tonight - I made some modifications that are tricky to fix.

Carter is growing up fast all of a sudden. His vocabulary is growing exponentially again - he uses lots of suddenly, actually, prefer, and makes this weird clicking sound when he starts a new idea - where did he pick that up? He is loving preschool, mostly playing with his friends and the play dough. It seems like other kids are painting and creating lots of artsy things and all carter wants to do is the play dough. So this week I made some at home - Sabrina likes it too, but it only keeps them busy for about 10 minutes. Now, if I could just come up with 10 more of those ideas I might be able to really boost the productivity of this household!

Sabrina is so girly too. She brushes her hair out of her face in a very grown up way. Loves wearing dresses. And likes to pretend with dolls. I broke down and bought her a Barbie the other day - Easter Barbie was at safeway for $7 - how could we pass that up? Being home sick for weeks will make you buy just about anything to keep the kids busy and happy. She's so articulate now - she can communicate what she wants very well. But she is also little miss temper tantrum when she doesn't get her way. Intense, face bright red, arms wailing, scratching, angry temper tantrums. So watch out! Our mantra right now is "don't give in" "don't give in" "don't give in"...

But we have been enjoying the sunshine and dry weather. Today Jason cut down a cedar tree by our house - it was very exciting. And we've started our walks with the double stroller again - the kids like to get out of the stroller now and push it or just dawdle and that really reduces the exercise benefit of the whole walk. But it is good fun, so it balances out. The frogs are coming out and we walk across the street to a huge puddle/small pond where they are really loud. Sabrina loves all the different sounds - frogs, birds, airplanes, etc - she gets really excited when she recognizes them.

Generally loving winter and our house and the island. Life is good.

Finished but not loving it

Anyone who knows about my knitting habit likely knows that most things I end up knitting I'm not crazy about. I'm still learning why that is and as frustrating as it is, knitting is relaxing for me and something I can do while hanging out with the kids so it satisfies my need to 'feel' productive.

Take the latest:


I'm not sure why I thought a beret would look good on me. All the women in the patterns I looked at are so chic. And I'm chic (right), so then the beret should look great! Not so much. First it is huge. I have a big head but this hat is huge. Second, it makes me look like a blob. Not what I was going for. Jason just cracked up and insisted on taking a picture - so there you go. I'm about to rip it out and just make a ski cap. I really like the color of this yarn, I can't wear much green but I like this one I found in Hawaii while we were there. In case you want to make it, it was in the most recent issue of Knit Simple magazine.

Some finished objects to share:

I finished Teva's capelet and I hate it. The pattern was messed up - the shoulder shaping was confusing because somewhere along the pattern they forgot about 20 stitches, so that was frustrating. I finished it up as best I could but the shoulders looked silly when I put it on and the neck was too wide. It was a bit too short and it made me look like a blob. Not sure why I keep picking blobby patterns to make. So much for using up my stash. Think I'll make a vest with the yarn instead. Right now it is shoved in a bag. It was a good project to learn how to make cables, though, so not all is lost.

Things I'm currently working on:
Cowl neck from Last Minute Knitted Gifts - http://www.purlbee.com/cashmere-cowl/
And I love the Fitted Knits book I just got and cast on for these quick ones first:
Back to School vest - http://yarncrawl.typepad.com/fittedknitsalong/backtoschool_uneck_vest/index.html
Shug - http://yarncrawl.typepad.com/fittedknitsalong/twotone_ribbed_shrug/index.html