Sparkly Scarf

I just finished a scarf...it's 2 yarns held together - the one with the metallic sheen is Lion Brand Mohair Magic (I think that's the name? It's mohair something...) Anyway, it's so soft and cuddly...kind of wish I were keeping this one for myself, lol! It just makes me happy :)

Oh and the bias knit stitch was very easy and gives a nice finished end...I was very happy with it.

Right now I'm working on a sweaterdress for my daughter...I'm hoping to have enough yarn leftover for something to match. I'm using Knit One Crochet Too's TyDy sock yarn, and I have 200 grams to play with. I don't know what I'll have leftover - enough for a hat, socks, or maybe a matching dress for dolly? That would be super cute!

5 More days until Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! The presents are now all bought and wrapped, and I have some Christmas baking to get to tomorrow! And at a balmy 70 degrees, today was lovely. I'm sure we're going to get payback for this weather in January :)

This is Lucy's newest favorite trick. We love it (sense the sarcasm?). She is SUCH a climber! She loves getting on the coffee table and has today figured out she can move things around to give herself a boost onto the couch. We just cannot keep this girl's feet firmly planted on terra firma!

Curtis is good. He's back to work and getting into the swing of things again. I have finished my Christmas knitting and am enjoying a little break. And some egg nog. I love egg nog! LOL.

We are so excited to drive in and see family...it's been too long! And our last visit was too short. I just wish we could coordinate our visits with all our extended family from out of town - there are too many people who we're going to miss because we're coming in later :( But I am very grateful for everyone we do get to see!

Weather update

It's 62 right now...they say it could hit 70's this week. I love NC!

We took the dog to the vet this morning - it was time for his bordatella booster, and I needed to get ears dewaxed and nails trimmed, and by the time I bought his flea treatments and heartworm meds...well, it left me reeling. Yuch. But hopefully we won't need to go back for a bit! The kids were...interesting to say the least. They sure enjoyed exploring the office!

I'm thinking it's a pizza night tonight. I'm tired and it's only 11am!

1st year compilation

Happy Birthday Big Girl!

Lucy's birthday was Monday! She is officially one now! YIKES!

Here she is with her first baby doll! She LOOOOOOVES her baby and squeezes her :) I love it!

YUM, cake! She actually only ate a few bites, guess she gets that from her daddy.

ONE! I have to compile my monthly growth shots to show how much she's grown!
Her cake! It may not be the prettiest cake ever, but well, mom's strapped for time right now and did the best she could :)
And here's a video of her new squealer shoes...she's fascinated with them!



Let's see, she also got a new rocking horse, a few clothes, a new lovie for night, her doll and some feeding supplies for the doll, and a Precious Moments birthday figurine (I couldn't wait to have a girl to buy those for!).

We had mops this morning - Lucy still isn't doing so well in MOPPETS. She loves her mommy, that one does. I dropped her off crying and they came to get me after 30 minutes that they couldn't calm her down. Of course I get my hands on her and she's fine. I was going to leave but decided to keep trying a few things and eventually she did start playing. She played for about a half hour (I returned to my meeting), but then lost it again. She is teething, and tired since she normally takes a morning nap, but I can't believe just how much she resists me leaving her! We came home and she went straight to bed. She's still sleeping!

Curtis went back to work today. I have chicken in the crock pot for dinner tonight - yum! I'm trying something new - whole chicken breasts with lemon and herbs. It smells wonderful!

Oh and for all you cold northerners - it's 61 degrees outside right now :) LOL.

Checking off the list

I've been very busy of late!

Here's a Christmas dress, size 8.

The finished wooly warm shawl

Christmas nights longies and matching hat

And the start of a sparkly black scarf

Busy busy busy! I'm still finishing a few Christmas gifts and have some ideas taking shape!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Right to our local WalMart :) Can't beat free! Santa came last year too, and they aways give us a free 4x6 print...waaaaaaaaay better than driving an hour to wait 45 minutes and pay 20 bucks to see him at the mall! And we walked right up - no line at all!

Toby was enthralled...Lucy not so much...

I think I am having a Betty Crocker day...Curtis suggested muffins for breakfast this morning and I didn't have any mixes here, so I whipped them up from scratch! It's not that I can't bake, it's just that I usually choose the quicker, easier road...but this morning we had apple cinnamon muffins from scratch and they were YUMMY! I'm also giving my new crock pot a whirl today as we're having ribs for dinner. Mmmmm! AND I'm baking Lucy's birthday cake today. It's baked and cooling now - I'll ice it later this afternoon.

There's nothing like the holidays to bring out the baking spirit :)

A Picture Post!

Ok, trying to make up some lost time here!

Here's Toby's new haircut...looks just like Daddy's! It took me a day to get used to it - he looks so grown UP with it!

A big toothy grin

Bowling night! Here's the soon to be grad himself!

Toby bowling

Ahhh, what could be better than a candy cane and a Christmas parade?

Lucy loved the parade :P

Future bandboy!

Santa!

We went to the Christmas parade today - it was COLD but fun! We also saw Santa and I have pics but they're not scanned in yet. Need to do that later. Anyway, wanted to get the pics out there!

Kudos to Curtis!

Curtis had his Masters oral examination today and passed!!!! YAY!!! He just has to finish writing the thesis paper and he will be DONE with his masters! Yay for him!

To celebrate tonight we met up with some of his classmates up in Raleigh for pizza and bowling. This was Toby's first time bowling and he had a BLAST. He cried when he had to let other people bowl. LOL. Lucy just wanted to get down and wander around the bowling alley! I have pics but they are on the camera and it's 11pm so they are staying there until tomorrow. I will work on getting them up though.

We have been so BUSY the last few weeks. I have had several commissions lately, and am finishing up a dress this weekend. I am so close to being down with my Christmas knitting too. Just a few little things to finish up. Christmas cards are out, and rounds 1 and 2 of Christmas cookies are done, AND nearly gone, lol. So much for all that work!

I had a ladies night out this week...we met at Bonefish Grill and had a great evening! THen Wednesday my MOPS today had a cookie exchange which was awesome! I wasn't able to make the one last year as I had just had Lucy and wasn't up for the time out, but this year I had so much fun! Then Thursday I turned the big 2-8 and am loving it. I think I may stick on 28 for a few years...it's a fun age so far.

Tomorrow is another Christmas parade and I really want to get the kids to see Santa sometime this weekend...if not, I guess we'll try for next weekend but we're running out of time!

If I get some time I will put up pics tomorrow. I just realized I don't even have pics of the finished Christmas tree up!

Oh and Lucy is talking up a STORM! She's saying Uh-Oh, Mama, Dada, some form of "I love you", banana, and Hi. She is so talkative! She's waving, nodding, shaking her head no...she is really becoming her own little person. She's a little on the demanding side too, lol. Wonder where she gets it....

Anyway, look for pics soon!

New video!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here's a new one featuring Lucy's favorite part of the holidays so far - the dancing! This is pretty much the racket we hear all day long! At the very end if you listen closely you will hear her new word - "Uh-oh!" She says it all the time AND in the correct context!

We're pretty busy this week - the holidays are always busy, but add in finishing up school and a thesis it is just crazy at times! We're hanging in there though :)

Enjoy the video! I'll add some with Toby later!

It's the Most Wonderful Time...of the Year!

Ah, Christmas is on the radio, in the stores...permeating the air! I love it! I used to be more of a Scrooge, but having kids has really made the season magical again. There is something about seeing Christmas through your kids eyes that just makes you feel like a kid yourself again!

On Black Friday I was up early (4:07am - the alarm was supposed to go off at 4, but someone who shall remain nameless hit the snooze before waking me up) and hit the stores. I was back home, laden with Christmas goodies, by 10am. We ate lunch and then headed out in search of the Christmas tree!

We go to a farm about 10 miles north of here. Why people go buy a precut tree for 2x as much when you can drive 20 minutes, find the perfect tree, and pay half the price is beyond me! Plus. wandering around the tree lot is half the fun - especially when it's in the 60's! I know I would be grouchy about it were it snowing, but I LOVE NC WINTERS!

Lucy loved wandering around the trees!

Here is the Perfect Tree...funny how it looks much smaller in the outdoors...

Notice the baby gate? Yes we are locking the children out of the tree this year. Yes, we could train Lucy to not touch the tree, but frankly...I'd rather use a gate this year. Next year she'll be old enough to understand better, but for my own peace of mind this year...we have the gate!

This year I bought a Little People Nativity Set to keep out on the coffee table where it can be used for decor, but at the same time the kids can play with it and I don't worry about it. Here are Mary, Joseph (well, a wise man playing Joseph) and baby Jesus in the stable.
And here's the part of the stories where the pirates come to pay homage to the new babe. LOL!

That was all Toby. He is hilarious these days.

It is also the time of year to keep sugar and flour on hand! Behold, the first sugar cookies of the season! Yum! Toby helped...he loves helping in the kitchen!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Curtis's semester is winding down, which means lots and lots of work for the next couple weeks. He's been very busy. We've had a rainy couple of days here...I was really glad we bought the tree on Friday as it's rained ever since. This morning we had 2 inches in the rain gauge! I need to go work on my Christmas cards...they aren't going to address themselves..I left them for a week just to see if they would, but no luck there! Still blank...

Take care and hope you're enjoying a nice start to the holidays!

Mmmmmmm Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are having a lovely day! We sure are!

It is a beautiful fall day here, just perfect for Thanksgiving. And we took full advantage of the weather to....GRILL our turkey! Oh yes we did and it was fantastic!

First, the finished product (sorry these are in backwards order)...

Our table...we had turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and cranbrery salad.

This was on the grill, about halfway through smoking.

Anyway, many kudos to Curtis! The turkey was awesome, and we have tons in the freezer now. I am so ready for a nap...

Tomorrow I am going to brave the crowds for Black Friday...wish me luck!

Sometimes Life sends you Lemons in the form of crock pots

Ah, yes, the demise of my beloved crock pot. It was a wedding present 5 (almost 6!) years ago...and I thought it would make it longer than this, but apparently she was D.O.N.E. Last night I was cleaning her up, preparing her to make her speciality: ribs today for Curtis's birthday. That's when I saw it - the crack. Running clear from one side to the other across the bottom of the crock. My first thought was it was more of a scratch, and while I wouldn't want to use it for food, maybe I could replace the crock and use the scratched one for dyeing yarn (yes, I have problems, I know). But I turned it over and the crack ran clear through the crock. You'd think I'd remember doing something to the crock hard enough to actually break it clean through...but nothing. I have been using it a LOT lately, but I've even been handwashing it rather than running it through the dishwasher.

Well, I was determined that Curtis would have his crock pot ribs for dinner today, so I ran to WalMArt after dinner to see if I could buy a replacement crock. No luck. Checked online - they don't even sell them in the size I need. Total bummer. So I resigned myself to making the ribs in the oven today and at some point replacing my crockpot.

So today I was making pumpkin pies and had just stuck them in the oven. Lucy was playing in the kitchen with me - in her exersaucer - and I was starting to unload the dishwasher. I reached up in the cabinet to put away a mug when I lost my grip and it tumbled down on the stack of dirty dishes on the countertop with a mighty crash. Glass was EVERYWHERE. Thank God Lucy was fine...I handed her off to Daddy and just stood there a minute surveying the damage. I have never seen so much glass in my whole life...and I didn't even know what it was from! I just started cleaning....and cleaning....and cleaning. Finally I got to the last bit of it and told Curtis I had no idea what had broken - I just couldn't picture anything sitting on the counter this big. It was way too much glass to be a cup...that's when Curtis asked if it was the crock pot lid.

Oh lordy. No question, that was it. I would never have thought a thick lid like that would shatter like that...I would have expected a few big pieces...not thousands of shards everywhere. But that was the guilty glass. So in two seperate incidents, almost 12 hours apart, I lost my crock AND the lid. Apparently she is done cooking.

I am just so thankful that neither Lucy nor I were cut...we were both right there and there was glass all around both of us. And that the pies were in the oven because I would have cried buckets if I'd had to throw them out for fear of eating glass.

Yesterday we went to a train show here in town. It was an event for the local miniature train hobby group - they have a whole scene set up in the basement of one of the local historical houses and once a year they let the public in to see their trains. We took the kids and they had a lot of fun watching the trains winding around the miniature scene. The detail was amazing!

Lucy at the train show

A picture of the track

Toby made this pilgrim hat at MOPPETS this week!

Last night the kids and I went outside to play for a bit...and it was chilly! So in the spirit of cold weather, Toby had his first taste of hot chocolate! Except he kept calling it coffee and after awhile we just quit correcting him. Of course this morning when I made a pot of coffee for Curtis and myself, Toby wanted some too! LOL!


Today is Curtis's 29th birthday! The kid woke him up wishing him a Happy Birthday...which would probably have been more pleasant had they not been climbing him :) So far it's been a nice day (for him, he didn't have to clean up the massive glass event), tonight we're eating ribs for dinner, then we're planning to take the kids to Coldstone Creamery for dessert (love their birthday club - free ice cream!)

Happy Early Thanksgiving to all!

Booties, Mid Shawl, and Penguin

Here is the start of a commissioned shawl:

A penguin for Toby for Christmas! I'm totally psyched about this considering I didn't think I'd have time to finish him up :)

Booties for a friend of mine expecting any day now. Aren't they cuuuuuuuute? Things that make you go awwwwwwwwwww.

I am working on the shawl, a couple Christmas gifts, and have some new orders coming in right now. It's a busy November - and busy is GOOD!!!

Still chugging along on my list of projects! I've had a lot come and go this month!

The Rainbow After the Storm

After 2 days of rain the sun finally peeked out just before dinner tonight - and to my delight, we had a rainbow! Now keep in mind this is the SECOND rainbow I've seen in the 5 years we've lived in NC...and Toby had never seen one before. He was so excited! Now it's "Rainbow this" and "Rainbow that"...Haha!


Today is Lucy's 11 month birthday! I can NOT believe that in just one short month she will be ONE! Aw, my baby is growing up :( She is so busy these days. She's a full time walker now. She really took off just over 2 weeks ago, and hasn't stopped since. She spends all day walking from one room to another, then back again. And when she makes stops in her room, she makes a special effort to get into her dresser and toss some clothes on the floor, usually keeping one sock to wave around while she does her rounds.


Toby had to get in on the picture action too, lol! He's so funny these days. He's always telling me something that he's seen or wants to see. Today he and I ran errands and he was such a chatterbox the whole time!

Last night we went to the Festival of Trees at the Carolina Hotel (think fancy shmancy Pinehurst resort). It's a yearly benefit for one of the Children's Centers where different organizations donate trees and all sorts of exciting auction pieces and they hold a silent auction over 3 days. There are all sorts of elaborate Christmas trees and wreaths, not to mention the neat things up for auction. Our favorite was a donation from our favorite saltwater dealer - a Nanotank reef set up; it came with fish, corals, crabs...everything you need! Of course WAY out of our budget, but fun to look at anyway! Santa was there too, but the line was ginormous and Toby didn't show a real Need to talk to Santa, so we'll do that one another time. I was really glad we went early because by the time we left it was starting to get quite crowded!

Tomorrow we've got big plans - the cable guy will be here sometime between 1 and 5 to exchange out our broken remote. The thing is evewn function, it's just that the battery cover is broken, so we need a new one. I just can't get over the fact that they're sending someone out - on a SUNday, no less - to give us a new remote! That sure is a weird one!

Well, it's getting to be bedtime (WOOHOO!), so that means kiddos to bed and time for mama to knit! Have a great fall weekend!

Finsihed Longies Sets

Despite the lack of posts, I have been busy! These longies and hats have been the project forthe last two weeks. I love them!

I was able to try a new technique on the American Girl Hat...Needle Felting! It's awesome and I'm in love! It was easy and I think once I have some more practice under my belt the possibilities are endless!

Pics from Portrait Innovations

These are the pics from Portrait Innovations last weekend...

Enjoy!

Some pics

Despite my protestations, it's happening. My baby girl is growing up. She has discovered (oh the horrors!)...the phone...

It's also getting to be that time...Christmas! Early bird that I am, I got a head start on my Christmas cards last week. I always try to take advantage of Winkflash's 40% off sale in October/ early November - ordered my photo cards for 23 cents each! Woot! I was bummed to see that I somehow blurred them a little (not the photo, when I made the cards, but it's not too bad).

Anyway, here are some pics from our Christmas photo session...

Last weekend we had family photos done. I haven't scanned them in yet, but as soon as I do, I will post them. I thought the pic turned out nicely. We also had a pic to commemorate Lucy's first bday. I can't believe it will be here so soon!

This weekend is the Festival of Trees...we've never gone before but I've heard wonderful things so we're planning to take the kids...and lots of pics!