Little J turns 2! (No pics since blogger is having a problem. :( )

So last Wednesday night my brother comes home from school with my Mom in tow. Surprise visit! Which is very very cool since she lives out in sunny FL and we don't get to see her much. My sister didn't even know. Uncle T kept the secret well! It was very special to have her here for J's birthday and little niece A's dedication (Vineyard version of baptism).



So all was well until Thursday, when the stomach flu fairy came and bestowed her gift upon the family. So for poor J's birthday, we sat around the table, eating Jello in our jammies while little one opened his presents.



We cancelled his party for Saturday and ended up just celebrating with the family members who had already been exposed. A balloon guy my sister knows made a bag full of balloon animals for the kids to play with. Free of charge! What a nice guy! The cousins had a great time with the balloons.



Amusingly enough, J turned 2 on Friday, had his first real tantrum on Saturday and an even worse one on Sunday. At church. AND at my sister's. AND at my sister's church during niece A's dedication. Of course. He and I ended up hanging out in the cry baby room with all the babies singing songs to try and get him to stop crying. Turns out the boy has a thing for the show tunes.



Totally OT story about show tunes: My little 2 1/2 year old nephew L LOVES the movie Annie. He watches it every day, sings along and even acts out some of the dialog. My favorite story is when one day he very seriously looked his mother in the eye and said, "I love you Miss Hannigan." Just what every mom longs to hear...

I'm in! I'm in! I'm in!

I've been Raveled!

Come find me! My id is throwslikeagirl!

Same Knit Night, Different Knit Locale

Last night, we decided to take a little field trip from our usual knitting haunts, packed up our needles, and headed down the street to the DNote for a little drink 'n tink. And there was both. At least I did some tinking. Darn short rows. They even kept the lights on in the corner for us so we could knit. Anyhoo...

Here are some of our fabulous ladies, Marly, Nachaele, and Mary-Kay.

We had so much fun! The Metro Jazz Orchestra was there, so there was some dancing. I didn't get any pictures of that but Nachaele did.

Claudia's husband came too. He's knitting. With one hand even. Ok. Not really. I love Terrie's scarf. I may have to make one.

I think StacyZ should model all my hats.

Hooray Baby Hat, Booties and Urchin!

I made a little hat and booties for my niece, both from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I used some Crystal Palace Bunny Hop from my stash. I also made myself an Urchin from some Manos del Uraguay that was a gift from my friend Blogless Christie. It's a fun pattern, but being European it uses 7mm (US 10 3/4) needles that are just about the only size needles I don't have. I used 8mm (US 11) for a slightly looser gauge, but I'm still pleased with it. The stitches at the edges of the shortrows ended up elongated and although I like it, I'm not sure it's how it's suppsoed to be. I really tried to tighten up my stitches to lessen the effect, but it happened every time. I'm not sure if it was the yarn, the larger needles or my knitting. Hmm. It used a lot less yarn than I expected so I have plenty to make a scarf. Hooray! L was so kind as to model it for me...

Hooray Faux Cable Sweater!

So yesterday both of my children took a 2 hour nap. I'm quite sure this is a sign of the apocolypse, but rather than go hide in the basement, I squared my courage and finally put the Faux Cable Sweater together. I had been dreading it because I found the directions rather cryptic and even after I did what I thought it was saying, the yarn markers ended up in useless places. Basically I ended up looking at the picture and mattress stitching until it looked the same. I did have to knit an extra 4 rows on both faux cable pieces to make it meet in the back of the neck like it was supposed to, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with it. Hope the birthday girl likes it. She's been waiting almost a year. Yes, yes, she requested this sweater for her LAST birthday. I'm a little slow.

Cider Vinegar Fly Pool of Doom

The only down side to receiving heaps of lovely home grown tomatoes are the nasty tiny little flies that seem to accompany them. Now I am a fly freak. Can't stand them. The worst torture device for me would probably be to lock me in a room with tiny little flies and no fly swatter while L does her air raid siren cry. Anyway, one day I read a post on Purple is a Fruit, just about the funniest mommy blog ever, and she was talking about having a fly problem and her solution. A little cider vinegar with a little oil to break the surface tension in a bowl with plastic wrap on top. Poke a few fly sized holes in the top and voila! Instead Fly Pool of Doom! I have 9 flies already! It's probably a bit sadistic that I count. Just don't tell the DH. He's really more of a catch and release man. :)

Sometimes it's easy being green...

I'm always looking for ways to satisfy my inner hippie. My latest attempt was crocheting my own Market Bag from Knit.1's green issue. I switched the direction of the handles so that I could hang it on the back of my stroller for extra storage as well. The black bags are from Safeway of all places. They now offer shopping bags made of recycled materials for 99 cents! The price was right and they hold twice as many groceries as the plastic bags. Granted they're heavier then too, but hey, my arms need the workout.