Posts Tagged ‘photo’
Please skip this blog entry if you’re not interested in knitting! :)
I was very excited about beginning the Berry Basket dishcloth pattern ~ hopefully as a Christmas present for my mom, who is a basketweaver. However, I messed up in a few places (no clue what happened). I ripped apart the entire thing and thought that I’d start a new dishcloth ~ using my own pattern. The border was two rows of K1, P1. Then, I did a row of K2, YO1 ~ followed by a regular knitted row after that. The third row was K1, P1. Then, another regular knitted row. I kept this up, but somehow I started getting 40 or so stitches on my needle (when I had only cast on 30!). The thing was starting to look kind of round, actually!
So, I cast off, then sewed it into a circle. Looked like a snowflake or maybe a wreath to me. I added a loop for hanging. Then, I added some green and red yarn, and voilà ~ a Christmas ornament to remind me of the year that I learned how to knit (or, at least the year where I screwed up a lot of knitting projects!). :)
Wouldn’t a Christmas tree with all knitted ornaments and some cranberry/popcorn garland be *so* pretty? Oh sure, maybe I’ll just whip that out in my spare time. :)
I’m *really* proud of how well I’m doing with learning how to knit. First, I put together just a small square for some practice, and then I tried another pretty new yarn. Sure, I’ve had to “frog” lots of times (did you catch that ~ I learned a new knitting word last night, LOL!). But I’m trying to be patient and go easy on myself because this is all so new. Last night, I practiced some purl stitches but was unsuccessful. I think that I need to watch a video online again in order to get it right. It’s so wonderful to have a craft that I can pick up so easily where I left off (which is essential when you have two young children!). When I get the purl thing right, I’m going to try my very first pattern: a waffle-stitch washcloth. It seems pretty easy, and if it turns out OK, it might be a nice little Christmas gift along with one of my handmade soaps. But I’m not getting my hopes up too high. I doubt that it’ll look as nice as the one in the photo! LOL! :) I want to see whether we have any cool yarn stores nearby, too. You know, all I really want to do today is sit on the futon in our bonus room and knit while the kids play. But nothing much would get done then, huh?
And now for a completely random note: I *really* admire people who enter the medical field. It’s something that I just couldn’t do. My friend Theresa is an xray technician in Indiana, and she has been working *really* hard with her career. It takes such a special person to care for others in that way. I have to take Meredith for the second part of her flu shot this Friday, and sometime I also need to schedule her lead check at the hospital (Luke had the same thing done when he turned two). I also have a routine physical in February, which I’m *so* not looking forward to! But it’s always good to get checked out. My cholesterol levels were *really* awesome last year, so I’m curious to see what they’re like now (hopefully the same).
Gotta go ~ this calendar project is calling my name. I’m *almost* done with it (which is a good thing, considering it’s already December!). I need to work on the cover and then print everything out to make sure that there are no mistakes. I’m waiting on some more information from our neighbor, too, in order to finish it. And when Luke goes to preschool this afternoon, Meri and I are going to make a grocery store trip. We are *seriously* out of food (unless a small box of brown rice and a few onions count, LOL!). Can’t make much with that!
Can you believe that the Christmas tree pictured on the right is made entirely from empty cans of Mountain Dew? My friend Cassandra in Minnesota sent me the e-mail forward with photos, and I couldn’t resist blogging it. I actually think that it looks kind of pretty! The two-liter bottle on top is such a nice touch! :) It looks like it probably took a long time to put together … there are wires soldered to the cans, and then somehow they’re hooked to the inner pole of the tree. I wonder how long it took for them to drink all of that Mountain Dew? Talk about a great way to recycle … and I’m sorry that I don’t know who created this Christmas tree, or I would give them proper credit here. (I hope that this isn’t a “hoax” ~ I probably should have checked out Snopes first!)
It’s almost 60 degrees here today. So nice! I went grocery shopping with the kiddos this morning (they were really good ~ yay!), then we took a walk around our neighborhood after lunch. (With the McDonalds that I ate yesterday, I needed some exercise ~ or some cheap diet pills, LOL!) Now that Meri is napping, I’m settling down to work some more on this quadricentennial calendar for our town. Later this afternoon, we’re picking up our next-to-last CSA share from the farm. Not sure what’s on tap for this weekend, but tomorrow I have to stop by our neighbor’s house to pick up something ~ and I’ll get to enjoy some “me time” on Sunday. We also have the Netflix movie “Kung Fu Panda” to watch. Happy Friday, everyone! :)
I’m glad that our family and friends are coming to visit us this weekend … that way, they can feel my wrath! LOL! :) Just kidding. My PMS has become full force today, unfortunately. I’ve been impatient with the kids (which I *absolutely* hate … I just apologized to both of them for my short temper). I’m just trying to keep the house clean in preparation for everything going on this weekend, but it’s difficult. There’s a lot that I intended to do beforehand, but time just kind of slipped away from me. I need to focus on the things that I *have* been able to get done, though, which is quite a bit. I just can’t wait to see everyone.
Here’s something that’ll make you laugh. Someone at my husband’s work put a life-size cardboard cutout of Sarah Palin inside his office. So, Jeff just called a second ago and said, “I’m bringing Sarah home with me.” Evidently it’s causing quite a bit of disruption in the office. :) So … what the heck are we going to do with a statue of Sarah? Maybe she can help hand out candy on Halloween? :) I actually think that I would *rock* the entire Sarah Palin Halloween costume thing. I’d need a black suit, black heels, an American flag pin … I already have the black glasses … I could wear some pearls and put my hair up … don’t you think that would be a great costume for me? :) Anyway, I told Jeff to stick her out the window as he’s driving home, to make it look like she’s waving to the people as he drives by. :)
Well, I have a three-and-a-half-year-old who wants to watch “Curious George,” so I’d better get going. And there’s more laundry to fold. And I need to take 15 minutes to save money on my car insurance. LOL! :) Oops, I almost forgot that Wordless Wednesday is today. Here’s a photo:
“Autumn wears her leaves like jewelry.” ~Author unknown
I couldn’t resist venturing out into the chilly air this morning and snapping some pictures of the beautiful fog. It was gorgeous ~ so calm and serene. Fall has truly arrived here!
Plans for today: finish my freelance editing assignment, clean, and prepare for our trip this weekend. Exciting, huh? I entered our destination into MapQuest, and it said that it’ll take us seven hours to get to our friend’s wedding. Yuck! I was thinking that it would be a much shorter trip! I hate being in the car for so long. But, I’m sure that the drive will be *very* pretty with all of the autumn colors. We’ll see what the GPS says, though. I can’t wait to take pictures while we’re there!
For my birthday last month, my parents bought me a brand-new four-cup Cuisinart coffee maker. It’s absolutely *perfect* because I’m the only one in our household who drinks coffee. Before, I was making an entire pot and throwing out most of the coffee because I only drink one or two cups. This way, I have exactly the amount of coffee that I want ~ and it also doesn’t take very long to make (a plus when you have two toddlers who need breakfast ASAP!). I’ve been alternating lately between Dunkin’ Donuts decaf and Green Mountain pumpkin-spice decaf (*so* delicious!).
Anyway, this morning when I opened the coffee maker lid, I made a *horrible* discovery. Our brand-new coffee maker has gone over to the dark side of the Force:
See how the lid is shaped just like Darth Vader’s helmet? Hang on a second … I’d better go check our food processor … it could be shaped like the Death Star.
I’ve been so busy today that I’m just now getting around to posting a photo for Wordless Wednesday. The other night, I gave Meredith a bath. Got her out of the tub when she was done, wrapped her in a towel, dried her off, applied lotion, put on a new diaper, dressed her in comfy pajamas, brushed her hair ~ the works. Then, what did she do? Ran down the hallway at breakneck speed and jumped right back into the bathtub. Fully clothed.
I guess that she’s just a “bathtub junkie” like her mama. :)
I ran some errands this morning and happened to see a *perfect* shot for today’s Wordless Wednesday. Problem is, I couldn’t really pull over anywhere. It was incredibly foggy along our road, and I disturbed a bunch of black birds as I drove past. They all headed over to a nearby farm fence to perch instead. Seriously, they all looked like musical notes on a staff! And with the farm and the fog in the background, it was just amazing. Alas, that beautiful photo was only snapped in my mind. Hope you like this one instead. I thought it would be fun to “quiz” you. :)
I felt so overwhelmed on Saturday. Between freelance assignments with looming deadlines, my ever-growing to-do list, longing for a little bit of a break, and not being able to accomplish much lately, it just all kind of “hit the fan.” I sat down and wrote a blog entry, mentioning at the end that my husband would be in Baltimore all week for a business trip.
A few hours later, my mom called. I knew that something was up, because my parents don’t usually call us on Saturday mornings. She asked me, “Do you have anyone to watch the kids while you go to your doctor’s appointment on Monday?” I said no, that I was just going to bring them with me (ugh!). That’s when my mom replied, “Well … would you like to have a babysitter?” Kind of puzzled, I said, “Uh … sure!” And then she said, “Well … *I* can babysit, if that would be OK!” Huh? My parents live in Indiana! All I could say was, “What?”
That’s when my mom told me that she was going to hop a plane the very next day and stay with us until Thursday. She mentioned phrases such as, “doing the dishes,” “working on some laundry,” “babysitting the kids,” “fixing some meals,” and so on. My eyes immediately welled up with tears. I kept saying, “Oh my God!” over and over. I just couldn’t believe it. We got off the phone, and I just burst into tears. She had absolutely *no* idea how much I needed something like this and what *perfect* timing it was. Jeff said that it was an answer to his prayers, too, because he was concerned about me having to watch the kids all week by myself. I was simply on cloud nine. We hardly *ever* get to see our families. Read the rest of this entry »
