Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Hot Dog


So much for Saoirse being a vegetarian....


Saturday, February 27, 2010

Dear Emily

Dear Emily,
You have inspired me in so many ways over the years. I think your blog was one of the first blogs I ever read, long before I ever started one of my own, long before our November babies became toddlers, long before the Idea Room and Ravelry and French Press Knits. Long before the implications of the blog-sphere had ever creeped into my life, into my home, I stumbled upon your Little World and have been enjoying it ever since, and it goes without saying that finding this in my mailbox was a wonderful surprise!

A few weeks back I was having one of those excruciatingly difficult parenting days. Like a REALLY bad one, the sort that thankfully only comes along once or twice a year but literally knocks the wind right out of you and leaves you mentally and emotionally drained for a couple of days (anyone with teenagers knows what I'm talking about). Anyways, in the middle of all this I happened upon a lovely piece of snail mail. The best part was that I had already checked the mailbox earlier in the day to find nothing of particular interest because as it turned out Finn had brought the mail in and had then put my mail into my mail drawer (he's very thorough) without me knowing. SO, as I opened up my drawer to grab a piece of paper I was definitely NOT expecting to find a hidden treasure inside.......






Aren't these little hair clips just beautiful? Wouldn't finding these in your mailbox make even the worst of days seem a little brighter? I've come to realize that one of the most important things in life could very well be timing, and if there were ever a time that I needed to find a little treasure it was the day that these beauties arrived.

Thank you.

The Toilet


Here's Woody to give you a brief (and extremely accurate) glimpse into just how "FUN" toilet training is in our house.


Don't worry, it's never been used. At least not properly.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Music


In case you don't know, Maija is drawn to music. She carries a boombox around the house, she leaves cd's everywhere, and I swear she is the only child I DO NOT regret buying an iPod for (especially since I didn't actually buy it for her!), she'd wear that thing anywhere. She recently auditioned for the school musical and landed the role she wanted!

Until the curtain call you'll be able to find her sharing music with anyone who is willing to listen....

Fibered


I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a new blog. One that can be dedicated to all the crafty tinkering I do. One that can be loyal to my putterings around the craft (ahem "dinner") table. One that could relieve you all of my recent detour through my recent craft binges. Because let's face it, it's fairly obvious that I've been fibered and once those fibers get you they don't seem to let go.

But somewhere deep in my heart I have a fear that the only thing worse than having a blog in the first place is perhaps having two.

So here we are, me and you, 100 Fingers 100 Toes and a couple of zippers, and since I can't bring myself to start another blog quite yet, let's all make nice OK?

This was my very first attempt at a zipper and although there are some kinks to work out it went fairly well overall. I roughly followed THIS pattern to make a very cute, very nifty, very practical coin purse.



Millipedes


Yesterday we took a day trip to our public museum, and despite my deep seeded fear of anything with more than 4 legs.......


Nuala made a new friend.
(Oscar was having NONE of it!)

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Needle Felting


Just when I thought I couldn't LOVE knitting any more than I already do......


I learned how to needle felt!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Donuts


Let's talk about donuts, shall we?


After drooling over a pin cushion donut that I spied HERE I finally decided to indulge my cravings and make one of my very own. Well, technically it was a christmas gift for someone else, but it still satisfied my hunger for a little chocolate!

Triple Tub Time


I remember back when the twins were little and it was an epic adventure getting them bathed.
Then as they got older things got a lot easier, especially once they were able to truly sit up on their own in the tub.

Well, look who decided to join in the fun.....


The twins were a bit scandalized that they suddenly had yet ANOTHER person to share the tub with.


"No Saoirse!!! 'N' is FOR Nuala", Nuala told her sister rather sternly, without any attempt to hide her displeasure (especially since Saoirse had gnawed and dented the 'N' quite enthusiastically).


Oh well, there's always a 'T' nearby.

Be Mine


This picture makes me smile every single time I see it. On Valentine's day as we were all sitting around the table eating our goodies, Saoirse was completely content munching on the plastic high chair buckle.


We had a wonderful evening with our homemade heart shaped pizzas and this cute little cake.


Mmmmmmmmmmm.


Ruari and I also made these simple "candies"....


But, honestly, it was all about the cake.


After the pizza that is.



The twins have a new favorite: The pale green pants, remember? The ones with nobody inside them? The Lorax is also high on the list right now as well.


Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Organized


Look.
I know this is supposed to be a blog about kids.
It's probably safe to assume that you guys come here to check in on what all the niblets are up to.
Right?
I get it.
I understand.

But, and you'll have to bear with me on this, I have caught the craft bug and it is proving hard to shake. So for the time being you might just have to put up with a couple of crafty posts.

I mean, at least I'm back, right? (insert winky smily face here)........

And with that said, this will be the last craft reveal for a while, I'll get it all out of my system and get back to our regularly scheduled programing.

I think it is safe to say that my knitting has really taken off over the past few months. I've gone from digging through the acrylic bins at JoAnns to being on a first name basis with the owner of my favorite yarn shop. I joined not one but TWO knitting circles (thanks to Brendan for making this possible). I'm beginning to read charts and patterns that up until recently would have intimidated to yarn right off of my needles. And I am getting organized.

Here's what every knitter on the go needs: a binder.


To house all of your cute post it's and assorted 'notation' gear. I even put a mini calendar in mine so that I could keep track of project timelines.


The real bulk of the binder belongs to all of your patterns though.


The binder, which serves to house all of these useful tools, needs a house all of it's own however, and although I've been using whatever empty canvas bag I could find, I thought that maybe my knitting deserved a special sac to call home. So I set down the needles and brought out the sewing machine and with some clearance bin cloth I made my very own carry all. I am no seamstress, and I didn't have a pattern or any real direction, but I am very happy with my creation. I'm sure I made more than a few mistakes and certainly didn't work as effectively as I could have but it was still a fun challenge and I don't think anyone is going to be inspecting my work up close.


See the cute little needle pocket?


Brendan said to me as I was showing off my work, "I am always so amazed by all the cool stuff you can make even when you have no idea what you are doing", which I of course took as a compliment.


So there you have it, my last big craft post for a while. More kids coming your way soon. There is so much to update. Nuala is sick, like really sick, and we're going to the dr. today. Her fever started last Friday and was up to 104.8 by Saturday. I paged the dr. twice over the weekend, which is something I NEVR do, and have already spoke with the triage nurses twice this week. It's no good.

The saving grace through it all has been that no one else seems to have caught whatever she has, but you know how that goes around here......

The Twist


I recently made this seed stitch cowl with two skeins of the Malabrigo Twist yarn I couldn't resist at the yarn shop. It is unbelievable to touch. Unfortunately it wasn't quite RIGHT and I wound up tearing out every single stitch.


Not before Maija oh so willingly modeled the 'finished' product for me.


The twist has been returned to the yarn pile to keep this little guy company.

Julia


My cousin Vicki and her husband Nick just welcomed a baby girl into the world!
Julia Kathleen.
And while I do not in fact have any pictures of the gorgeous little thing, I did manage to snap a couple shots of her new little booties. I found a free pattern for these on Ravelry and knit them up speedy quick as soon as we heard she was a she.

Set For 10


Guess who's coming to dinner?


We finally dragged a high chair out of storage and voila.....


We now have a table set for 10.


Once Again

It's that time once again.
The Domes set up their train exhibit and the children flock to the rails.
We recently took a trip their with our play group and Oscar could barely move he was so excited. He just stood and stood and stood there.
Speechless.


And here's why you don't get too many peeks at me. It is nearly impossible to photograph us.

Monday, February 1, 2010

French Press Knits


I know I have been gone for a long time, but projects like this have been keeping me very busy:




I bought this lovely pattern a while back, but didn't get a chance to try it until this week. What a joy it was. It knits up speedy quick and the felting (something new to me) was really quite easy and fun. My first pair is still missing buttons but aren't they darling?

You can find out all about them at French Press Knits where the designer is actually running a giveaway this week. So go take a peek and you might even end up winning a free custom made pair to call your own.