Irony

Is messing up the coffee because you're under-caffeinated. I think it's time to cut back.

My boy is a rock star.

Check this out. I'm so proud of him, it was mesmerizing to watch his hands, and see the right strumming to the beat and the left zipping over the fingerboard (neck...sorry, violinist...and I use that term in the loosest possible sense...writing this), all while he was singing the lyrics (correctly) to two separate songs, all I could think of is...















"Wow. That's my kid. I made him. Wasn't he just born a little while ago?"

OK I'm waiting for it to upload, so in the meantime, some pics!


Cutie-tiger striped doggie sweater. It's a long story, here it is in a nutshell - The colours are my older daughter's soccer team colours, and




Oh my God. did I mention we have a mouse? Or probably mice? I was sitting here typing away and I swear I saw something out of the corner of my eye. The problem is that I can't stop looking over there, even though I know I'll scream my head off if I actually see something for sure.


OK, deep breath. Back to tiger sweaters. On the soccer team is a little girl who just got a teeny weeny pomeranian/chihuahua mix puppy, and he is so cute. Yes, I'm still glancing at where I think I saw the mouse. Anyway, my precious child volunteered me to knit the dog a sweater. So I cast it on Friday night, and sure enough the dog's 'mom' said she'd heard a rumour I was making this. So then I bragged (because I am such a loser) that I could probably get it done for Monday's game.

So of course I finished the thing tonight. The seaming on the bottom is a bit dodgy, there are only about 4 rows after the leg opening. I think I should probably rip that back and re-do the chest and make it a bit longer. But then I keep thinking, "it's for a dog", and I don't.

Here it is:





















It actually only took about 2 hours of not-particularly-concerted knitting. I did weave in the ends as I went, and you can see as I got to the base of the sweater I started realizing how many ends there were going to be, hence the large black stripe.

I am such a dork

I just programmed my library card number into my blackberry so that I can quickly request items without having to go to my purse and get my card. Breathtaking in its dorkiness, eh?

Gah. It took so long to download pics that I quite literally forgot what they're about. Sheesh. I am completely discouraged on this blogging thing, what a pain in the ass. Oh well, at least there are pics here, I just don't have the hour right now that I need to put it all together. I'll edit soon.

My favourite things

A while ago I posed about mason-dixon knitting and was trying to say that I just can't believe that something this good was there all along and I took almost two years to find it. It's seriously briliant. I've been reading the Yarn Harlot for so long now that I can't remember where I first heard about it. I even read the entire back issues (back blogs? previous blogs? what do you call those?) and it seems this blog was around for over a year before i, a fairly avid (albeit new) knitter found out about it. It seems inconceivable to me. But lately, through a cooperative I'm in, I've learned there are many other coveted WAHM items available. The quality is great, what you receive is handmade, chemical free, preservative free, and reasonably priced.

My goal is to spend 90% of my Christmas budget supporting these moms, or doing something handmade.

Anyway, to do that, you need to know where the best stuff is - here's my list so far:


Here are a couple of other gems:

www.bluehousesoaps.com - they make sumptuous, gorgeous soaps, in delicious fragrances, I'm not kidding it is nirvana. Wow.

Face of the Wave - their wool wash is fantastic - I especially like Dina's Hippie Madness, it's just spicy and sweet unbelievable. I also like their facial cleansing oil, this is a cool new way to wash your face.

Ravelry - I have no idea if you've been living under a rock, but if you have, this is a link you simply must click on. But be ready get heavily addicted.


Butterfly Buggas Don't let the cutesy name fool you, I almost did not order from this WAHM because the name really put me off. But so may people were raving, I decided to put in an order, and I am so glad I did. Her teas are just out of this world, and the melts are SO good, just the right amount of fragrance, and I've used a uarter of one so far with 3 votives, and it's barely used. Such a good value..

I think I'll keep coming back and editing this post with new finds. I love finding this stuff, I hope someone gets me a ton of these goodies for Christmas. If you're reading this blog feel free to let him know at danrroch at hotmail dot com!

Random Photos

I can either do ravelry, or here, or facebook, but I never seem to get all three completed before I completely lose interest and start reading decent blogs instead of working on this piece of crap. Oh well, it's my piece of crap, so I'll keep on publishing these things and you can just check out the fascinating knitting and kid pics.



Ahem. Ok, here we go - my first shawl. Yarn is ahhh crap I can't find the photo on my computer. How about some kid pics! Here is a photo of Katja with her ribbies clippies hair clip in her hair. I am thinking of making some of these myself, they're cute and look quite simple, they're just little hairdresser clips with ribbon glued on, and a bit of foam on the clip to hold it in the hair. LIkely a waste of my time to make them, since Katja refuses to wear them for more than 0.0012 of a second. Her hands go up to her hair at random intervals during the day, even if it's been days since I tried to put one in her hair. I got these on the crunchy cooperative yahoo group that I am a member of. We buy stuff in volume and everyone saves huge money. But they're addictive.
































And here is Katja wearing her squeaky shoes and amber necklace, playing in her Bilibo. All of which I got on crunchy cooperative.

































OK I admit I have a teeny tiny problem. I'll deal with it just as soon as I send paypal for this Blue House Soap order I just placed. My mailman (woman) must hate me.

The Business of Being Born

I missed the movie, but saw the trailer, and it looks powerful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DgLf8hHMgo

I will embed it once I figure out how to do that.

Aha! Click on the CODE TO EMBED IN YOUR BLOG and copy it, then paste it in your blog. Completely moron-proof. Which is not to say I didn't have to google it to figure it out. Moron-proof, not Nicole-proof. When did I become such a techno-dumbass? I used to be on top of this stuff.






Which makes me think it's about time to write that birth story. One of these days. For now, here's what a woman looks like a few seconds after giving birth naturally.














Here's the sweetest thing in the world - Katja's bassinet, all ready with the blanket I knitted for her in it....it's one of the first things I ever made.


















But wait...what's that slip of paper in the bassinet? (Which, incidentally, was in Meredy's room during the birth)

She's not the worst baby in the world.

I was complaining last night about how I can never leave my baby, within an hour my husband is phoning me, saying she needs me. I felt resentful. I was angry at my husband because he couldn't handle her. I was jealous of my friends with their freedom - all of THEIR husbands were at home putting THEIR babies to bed, and I showed up late, and had to leave early, because my baby SUCKS.

Today I was tired, and headachy, and I was trying to vacuum and baby was whining becuase she hates the vacuum. I was pissed off because I hate it that I can't vacuum because she cries, and I hate it that I have a messy house and I never get to stay out for more than an hour and I need to work more and it's not happening because now she's having 45 minute naps. And she was whining and I got mad and I picked her up and sat her down on the couch, not gently, and left her there while I finished the vacuuming. Then my husband came up and picked her up, surprising me, and I felt really ashamed because I wasn't being nice to her.

Tonight just before bed I read my favourite blog. I don't usually have these epiphanies when I read knitting blogs, but Stephanie really makes me think.




She was talking about children, and how they're people too, and how those people need their mummies, some more than others. And as I read it, I realized, it's not ME. I'm not putting up with this baby because I'm a sucker and I can't figure out how to make her sleep better without me. And she won't settle for Dan, not because he's not trying hard enough, but because she's stubborn and wilful and knows what she needs. It's not just what she wants, it's what she needs, and thank goodness she's persistent enough to remind us where our priorities should be right now.

My baby is fine. She's perfect. She just needs her mommy. A lot. More than most kids, definitely. And that's just the way she is right now. And what am I going to accomplish by trying to break her from that? I'll probably traumatize her. You should see how excited she gets when I come home after walking to the store 15 minutes away. She squeals, she jumps up and down, oh my God it's unbelievable, why would I want to detach from that? It's priceless, it's pure joy.











So no, I don't need to work those extra hours, I need to cut back on my spending so I don't have to work those hours. I don't need to go out to girls' night, I can host it here. I don't need to get mad at Dan when he can't get her back to sleep, I need to love him for trying so hard and help him figure this daddy thing out.

I'm going to log off, and go upstairs, and cuddle my baby in my bed and stop thinking about what everybody else thinks. She's perfect.



BTW - The photos in this post are about a month old, by the way, when we went to Chicago. I'll put some new photos up as soon as I can find the #$!#^% USB cable. And that stands for a word that starts with mother and ends with ucking. But this is a G-rated blog (more or less - the party last night was a passion party...oh my...)