The Love Boat - Exciting and New

My favouritest sister gifted me these fantastic Comic Blocks showcasing 'a week @ work', and for the first time in ages, I am looking forward to work tomorrow morning and giggling with my co-workers as they pass by my desk. These blocks are mother-flippin' hilarious! My favourite is a little office worker on the phone requesting, quite seriously I might add, "I'll have an order of the strange flavor beef." How many times have I eaten really expired food in hopes that I might have a legit reason to call in sick???
Another reason I look forward to work this week is Charlotte Diamond is coming to town for her annual concert, and as always I have backstage access for me and the littlest. There are definite perks to my job. We've dusted off the ol' hug bug (above), and we've been busy polishing up on our favourite tunes.

Come on board, we've been expecting you!

N

Postcards from the Edge

We baked vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting and dark chocolate chips and marshmallows to celebrate our five measly days without television. It was a fun and delicious way to end the week. I am reminded that there are a ton of activities to do instead of watching t.v. shows night after night. I, myself, do not watch more than Law & Order, but truth be told, you can watch an L & O repeat on a different channel every hour. It's sweet! The girls swam, played with friends, strolled around the neighbourhood, went to dance classes, cleaned up the garden once the snow melted, took pictures, coloured 'drurings', read a pile of books, baked and just plain hung out with us and chatted, and they were so pooped out at the end of each day.
Can you spot the Bumble-B in the reflection of El's picture???

The transition back to screens has not been an easy one. The littlest is trying very hard to make up for lost time, and it has been more difficult than ever to pry her away. Go figure!

N

Green Home

It's spring cleaing time again, although you'd never know it here in Minnesota. It's supposed to snow today and/or tomorrow, which makes me question if global warming is happening at all. Ok, we all know that it is and I think that I can safely say that we all want to contribute to minimalizing our ecological footprint. One of the steps that I am phasing into our home is to go green with our cleaning products. I have in the past purchased Method brand products and quite like them but lately I've come across many options for homemade cleaning products that are not only kinder to our earth but much more affordable, and who doesn't like that? Plus, for those who have young ones or those with asthma in the family will like that these homemade cleaners are non-toxic and way less harmful than the store bought stuff.

One of my all-time favorite recipes for an all-purpose spray cleaner is the vinegar-water combo. Make your own by mixing one part white vinegar to two parts water in a recycled spray bottle. Add a few drops of lemon essential oil if you aren't partial to the vinegar smell and that's all you need for a non-toxic kitchen and bathroom cleaner.

For those tougher surfaces like bathtubs and stoves, mix together baking soda and just enough water to make a paste. Make just enough for your cleaning as the paste does dry out. Use this in place of products like Comet and Vim.

Small changes around the house will add up and contribute to becoming greener and providing an overall healthier home for our families. Treehugger has a great article here on going green with your cleaning and Eartheasy has more recipes for homemade cleaning products. And of course for us knitters, Treehugger has a short article on eco friendly yarn, which is being seen in more shops these days or online here.

Screens Off Week

I am committing a major offence by blogging today as this is the second day of our self-imposed Turn off the Screens week, but I am still catching up from the weekend, and we won’t tell the children. The girls were loafing around on Saturday, so I whisked them off to the dining room where I had laid out all the goodies to make paper bead necklaces. We used glue, knitting needles, magazine pages, and string. It held their attention for all of about 30 minutes, but it satisfied my need to have them up and doing something productive. It takes very little to make me happy. El was a good enough sport to take the pictures, and some very good pictures she did take.

Hopefully I will see you all again this week - I just need to do it on the sly!

N

Unwrapping Nature's Gifts

I am starting to venture outdoors a little as the weather warms up and the snow is melting, and I have begun to tackle the garden in my attempt at some spring cleaning. The littlest was helping me. Bless her dear little heart.We took a walk down to the river to see the flooding, and you can't see it, but the playground is somewhere in there.
The littlest is into meditating as well as designing fashion. I asked her to model the hat I knit up using the rest of my lavendar Cascade 220 Heathers wool, but instead we ended up getting a good giggle over her posing. The pattern is the Baby Hat with a scalloped edging from One Skein Knits. Love the pattern, and love the wool. Two nights of casual knitting, and it was complete!
And I was given a glass bird vase very similar to this picture by a very good friend as a gift for being really good (if I say so myself!) at hair colouring and just being a good friend too. Mine doesn't have those little holes - just one in the back. I can't wait to place it on the mantle with all my glassware and birds. I think this constitutes a 'bird' collection. Thank you, Heidi!

Toodles,
N

Knitting Pessimist

I always get excited when I find a pattern that I really want to knit and it's all I can think about until I can buy the yarn and cast on for it. Then my knitting pessimism sets in. I may do a gauge swatch and have all of the right equipment but I still question whether the project will be successful or not, especially when it comes to knitting a wearable garment. I get really wound up (excuse the pun) and measure whatever I'm working on about a million times. Does anyone else suffer from this?Over the weekend I casted on for the Drops cardigan. Here is the back piece, which has since been completed. Due to my knitting pessimism I bought cheaper yarn (Lion Brand Wool-ease Bulky in orange) , anticipating that if I fail on this project at least I didn't spend a small fortune on nice yarn. So far eveyrthing is going according to plan but I'm still measuring every few centimeters and I'm unsure whether I will even like the sweater once it's done. I know, I'm messed up. I think the only way to get over this fear of knitting faillure is to swatch, keep at it, oh, and swatch some more.

The Wheel of Fortune baby blanket it coming along. It's not as bright as I'd like (a little too much brown) but I'm considering doing a light pink crochet boarder around it once it's done. I'll have to figure out how to do a crochet boarder first though!

Hope spring has finally arrived in your part of the country because it sure hasn't here in Minnesota. Who has ever heard of snow in April? Sheesh.

Relax

Oh dear! Please excuse my absence. We have been very busy with the holiday and house guests and wedding planning but luckily we have made a lot of progress on the wedding planning end. The reception site has been agreed upon and the dress has been bought. I would love to post a picture of the dress but as the husband does read our humble blog every now and then, I don't want to run the risk of him seeing it.

Your cowls look so cozy and soft and lovely, N. I could use one of those here what with the spring snow we've been getting. We are supposed to get a bit more tomorrow and I'm hoping that that's it for the season or I will seriously consider moving!

T took a picture of the Easter butter lamb that I saw at the grocery store and just had to have. Has anyone seen one of these before? This was a first for me. Anything made of butter is great but butter in the shape of an animal is doubly great.I'm going to feel terrible cutting into the lamb but toast isn't going to butter itself I suppose.