Posts Tagged ‘picture’
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. :)
“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 think that Jeff had a nice Fathers’ Day. He opened his presents first thing yesterday morning. We gave him a Barnes & Noble gift card (because he loves to read and is always purchasing new Star Wars books), and we also put together an “office kit” for him. The idea is that he’ll have a box of useful things that he can stash inside his desk drawer for during work and when he works late (which is most days, unfortunately). We included a notebook, pens, gum, mints, sour candies, snacks, bottled water drink mix, aspirin, Tide to Go, medicines, change for the vending machine, money for breakfast (or dinner!) in a hurry, lip balm, and lots more. Guys certainly don’t always carry those things or have them on hand, so we thought that it would be helpful. I also wanted to include a picture of the three of us and maybe a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card, but I just ran out of time. :( I wish that I could have bought him a new notebook computer, but that’ll have to wait a while.
We went to church, where I volunteered to help with childcare during the service. I was assigned to the infants’ room (yay for snuggly newborns!). I was the only one there, and there was only one baby ~ an adorable five-month-old girl. She was so content and fell asleep in my arms. I rocked her and rocked her … it was so peaceful and nice. But then, two more infants showed up and everything just kind of fell apart. :( They all started crying at once, and all of them wanted to be held. I thought that I could handle it, but then I started feeling badly (like a failure) because I just really couldn’t. My friend Ruth in the one-year-olds’ room next door rescued me (thank you!). We paged one of the parents, and then a nice girl came over to help me. I think that I would totally suck at caring for triplets.
After that, we cooled off with some ice cream at a really cute little gift shop/ice cream parlor. I had “Cappuccino Kahlua Calypso” (two scoops on a cone ~ yum!). It was cappuccino-flavored ice cream with Kahlua-flavored swirls and bits of toffee. It actually made me laugh because when I was a kid and my parents would buy me an ice cream cone at this neat shop in Nashville, IN, I would inevitably drop one of the scoops onto the sidewalk. But not this time ~ I’ve had more practice. :)
We then came home and had an actual lunch. And just pretty much did stuff around the house after that (family chore day, LOL!). We called our dads (it was the first Fathers’ Day without my grandpa ~ so sad). I still can’t believe that he’s gone. I also found myself thinking about this special dad and wishing him well on his very first Fathers’ Day.
Off to clean … we have a lot to do before our Fourth of July cookout and a friend’s visit at the end of the month!
How did your pet(s) react when you had children? Our kitty, Little Beast, was pretty skittish around Lucas when we brought him home from the hospital. (When I was pregnant with him, Little Beast definitely knew that something was up. I remember her acting differently ~ snuggling with me a lot more and also being apprehensive around my belly.) And as he grew older, she became a bit more interested but overall still stayed away from him and was very cautious. I remember laying Lucas down on a soft blanket on our living room rug so that he could roll over and do “tummy time,” and Little Beast would sit as absolutely close to his blanket as she possibly could ~ but she would never touch it. Someone suggested that Jeff should bring one of Lucas’s hospital hats home and let Little Beast sniff it (so that she could get used to his scent), and we did that ~ but I’m not sure whether that worked. I’d heard all kinds of stories about cats jumping into a baby’s crib, but that never happened to us.
As Lucas became a toddler, though, it was a challenge teaching him how to be gentle with Little Beast. We came up with a cute little song (to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”): “This is how we pet the Beast, pet the Beast, pet the Beast … this is how we pet the Beast, so gently with our hands.” He did a really good job overall (although sometimes he would try to ride her like a horse, pull on her ears, or pull her tail). And now that he’s much older, he does just great with her.
Well, Little Beast basically got pissed at us for deciding to procreate again. LOL! :) I’m sure that when we brought Meredith home from the hospital, she probably said to herself, “Oh crap, another one!” She generally just hides from the kids. Meredith seems to love kitties, though, and she is very good at being gentle with her. It’s awesome to hear her giggle and see her smile when she interacts with Little Beast! She won’t eat bananas but adores cat food, and I don’t get that. And she enjoys dumping cat food into her water dish. But here lately, she has gotten a lot better about that and doesn’t seem so interested in playing with the cat’s feeding dishes.
Anyway, I used to take tons of pictures of Little Beast, but I don’t really anymore. I feel badly about not paying nearly as much attention to her now as I did before having children. I’m lucky if I can remember to feed her in the mornings! I used to cuddle up with her on the couch while watching TV, and now my lap is filled with a little boy and a little girl! :) She’s getting older, too. I’m finding it difficult to admit, but … she was about six months old when we got her in 1998, and that was 10 years ago. We actually had to move her litter box up from our basement to our master bathroom because she has been peeing in our upstairs hallway. :( It absolutely stinks now. We’re not sure whether she’s getting old and tired and doesn’t want to make the trip downstairs anymore or whether she’s getting confused and thinks that our beige carpet looks like her litter box. Anyway, I think that it’s helping the hallway problem. Our bathroom smells now, though. :(
Today, I came across a site all about pets called ZooToo. It’s seriously like Facebook for animals, LOL! :) You can sign up, create a profile for yourself (along with a picture), and of course enter information and select a picture for your pet(s). If you’d like to see my public profile, it’s here. You can invite friends to join or browse for friends based on pets and common interests. There are boards where you can discuss pet-related news. There are also pet volunteering opportunities listed, and you can affiliate yourself with a particular animal shelter or rescue center. You can also find and rate pet services (such as groomers, boarders, etc.).
So as I investigate this site further, it makes me realize how little attention I’ve been paying to Little Beast as of late. I really want to work on that. She’s part of our family and has been with us through so much! And now, I should probably get going and make sure that she still has some food in her bowl, LOL! :)
