"darlin' don't you go and cut your hair..."

my sister cut my hair and no one has said a word. punks.

chair buddies

today angie's girls are playing at my house so that my mom and sis can get some shopping done. jack pulled his rocking chair up to the little recliner. the girls thought that it was great that they were all sitting in a row.:) pictured: jack, nole, eme.

face painting

i am having a fab week. my sis is here with her 4 girls. yesterday we painted Christmas ornaments. the girl's ornaments are angels and jack's is an elf. then i painted the girl's faces. elerene painted a lady bug on nole's face. she is a very naturally talented artist and i am very curious to see if she is the next generation of artist in our family.

what i painted on my face is a little joke. that's what my dad wrote on the back of his lawn tractor with reflective tape letters. ha ha. i am holding my little niece elles. she is a little over 2 1/2 months.

cheesy love

this photo is a bit cheesy. o well. i never get my photo taken with jack. so i took it myself. i was wearing a black sweater, then i put the black scarf i knitted for claire on. so i look like a big shadow.:) i love the colors. look at that sky! and i STILL love my green walls. peace out.

Christmas is a comin'

oh. are you as jazzed about Christmas as i am? shopping yet? baking? i have shopped a bit. i have 5 lbs. of butter in the freezer waiting to be made into sandbakkels, scandinavian almond cake, sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, etc. i decorated my arbor today with 4 fake pine garlands and i will hang the 2 fake pine wreaths as soon as i figure out how i want to arrange the red velvet bows on them. so, soon. i listen to Christmas music all day long. only the old school will do. elvis, dean martin, bing crosby, frank sonatra, nat king cole, ray charles, and the muppets. can't wait to get jack's photo taken with santa again. it is the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! last years photo is precious. jack looks like such a jolly chubbers. ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

oopsie

lauren's etsy shop address and soulemama's aren't working. i will look into it when i have more time. sorry.

updated blog -- viola!

hello. you might not have noticed, but i updated my list of favorite blogs. there are a few of my fave old blogs, but there are some new additions and some have been dropped because they never write anything anyway.

please check out lauren's shops. she is an amazing artist i went to school with. she is selling prints now, so, can you say afforable Christmas gifts? and check out soulemama. she is a mom living in maine who is amazing. she knits, cooks, gardens, homeschools, and has a book published. and more. check her out, it's an amazing read. enjoy.

i love hot liquids in the winter

hot peppermint tea, a nice vanilla chai, cocoa, a mocha... i love a hot drink in the winter-time. i am so happy today. i haven't bought an espresso coffee for months. i have been making them myself for a few months now on my home espresso maker (thank you, angie!). today i splurged. my mother, jack and i made a short run to aitkin to hit the bakery and a store for fabric. i decided to go buck wild and get a coffee too. you would have thought i was going to buy a bag of weed (disclaimer: i have never had a drug. just caffeine. i swear!) i was so full of heady, illict delight.:) we went to the bakery first. just so you know how nuts i went, i will list my purchases. i bought: a loaf of uncut "kitchen bread" for 90 cents!!!, a loaf of swedish rye (anise makes it swedish), a dozen hot dog buns, a lemon jelly roll, 6 toffee cookies, 6 m&m cookies, 1 carmel roll with nuts, 3 custard filled doughnuts, 2 raspberry bismarks, 3 glazed raised, and 3 sugar cake doughnuts. it all came to... $14.45. sooooo cheap. i dashed across the street to stash my huge bags of baked goods in the car and came back for my baby.:) while i was gone my mom bought huge bags full of baked goods, also. i swear, i felt like a plundering pirate with bags of booty. i gave jack a cookie as soon as we got to the car. he was begging for it! he says "cookie" now. and i dove into the doughnuts. then i got the coffee. then i moaned and groaned and yelled until i think i scared my mother. today was a very good day. a very good day indeed.

lavendar dolly blanket

i am knitting a little lavendar dolly blankie for one of my nieces. depending on how swiftly i knit this one, i might make one for each of my sis's girls, or this might just be eme's b-day gift. i might even try to freehand embroider on it. i think white swirls would be cool. i wish i could make one for my niece, claire, but she is 8 going on 28. if you know what i mean. she wouldn't care for a dolly blanket. i made her a lovely fuzzy black scarf, though. i am quite in love with the fringe.

heirloom goblets

my auntie nancy came over to visit today with her granddaughter. auntie brought a surprise with her... a box of china! eeeeee! good surprise! the box had china from my grandma, great-grandma, and great-aunt. i am supposed to share with my sis. i will, but i am prepared to drive a hard bargain for these little goblets that i have fallen in love with. don't you just love china? especially heirlooms?

oh what fun to do a little girl bonding!

second day hanging out with my recouperating mum. how nice! today i brought over the peanut butter cookies, again, and remembered to leave them with her.:) i also made us some homemade pizza. it really is not very difficult. we watched a chick-flick and a half. i knitted. jack puttered about. i also helped mom by picking up stuff, bringing her the remotes, cleaning up spills (thanks, jack.), and bringing her lots of diet coke! tomorrow i might try the chocolate cake in the microwave recipe. what fun! usually i only have jack to enjoy chick-flicks with. poor soul.:)

please pray for jack

my jackie has strange pink blotches all over his body. i am thinking he is having an allergic reaction to his wall-e bubble bath yesterday. he looks pretty weird, but he seems to be fine. please pray for the poor little guy. as for my mom, she is doing great! she got discharged from the hospital yesterday and she and my aunt decided... to come home! i spent the first part of the day with mom, knitting and watching an old cary grant movie. thanks for the prayers.

please pray for my mommy

today my mom is having surgery on her hip. i am sure that all will go well... but i would appreciate your prayers. we all have a positive attitude about this surgery. hopefully when mom heals she will be the shopping-machine that she once was.:) also, we are looking forward to the crochet/knitting parties and extended visit from my sis and her 4 girlies. mom has 3 weeks off! how cozy! so glad i have my days free! so glad i enjoy my night job!

don't forget. please pray for my mom.

obsession

i am obsessed with knitting right now. obsessed. i knit all the time. i have knitting in my lap right now. i couldn't sleep this morn and got up at 4:17 am and knitted.

andy asked me last night if i "even like it" with junior high scorn in his voice.:) yes, andy, i do. it is calming, productive, and yarn can be had for cheap. what's not to love? so there.:)

right now i am cranking out wash cloths and scarves. hey, hand knit wash cloths go for about $2.50 around here and scarves for $15. i am definitely thinking of making some to sell. and, i have inspired my mom. how cool is that? she just bought a crochet hook. she knows how to knit and crochet. she is going to make herself a scarf and a sweater while she is recouperating from hip surgery this coming week. and she says she will teach me how to crochet. well, ok!, but not until after i have exhausted this wash cloth and scarf business. Christmas presents! oh, and i have been thinking of knitting blankies for my niece's dollys. wouldn't that be nice?

anybody else obsessed with knitting/crochet? or anything else? collecting those little clown dolls on qvc?:)

jack's first sentence

today i am super busy cleaning the house. i have dusted, cleaned the bathroom, folded laundry... but in the midst of all this drudgery (which i don't really mind. what can be bad about cleaning your very own house?:)), jack did the amazing. i had given him his wooden tool box to play with. he hadn't played with it before and i thought he might need a new challenge. i was in the bathroom. he comes in, holds up a wooden screw with a wooden nut on it and declares, "i did it!!". i am so proud. not only are his motor skills immpecable, but he just made his first sentence. Praise the Lord!

my mommy goes ballistic

just checking in on the internet-world. thought maybe i would add a little note about that bench i painted yesterday. apparently grandma (telephone, telegraph, tell-a-grandma-lou... the fastest forms of communication?:)) told mom about my red bench/her old green bench. mommers was a bit aghast. well, i told her i was thinking of painting it. i believed i mentioned it. i think the last consensus was that i was going to paint it black. whatever!:) it will look great in my sunflower yellow walled foyer with the black "slate" laminate floor and the my dearly departed aunt sandy's painting. the painting has a black background and has yellow, orange and red flowers. i think that color scheme sounds tied together, don't you? and anyway, mum has a red bedroom. talk about a big committment. i just painted a bench.

spankin' fresh bench

my mother gave her her old bench. it has storage under the lid, hooray! the bench is charming and i totally needed one for my foyer. i was not terribly crazy about the green color. my husband had some red paint that he borrowed to my gramps. gramps painted his chicken coop. it is fabulous. since there was some left over, i decided to use the beautiful FREE chicken-coop-red paint. i am so glad we had one last (perhaps) day of wonderfully upper-60's weather. tonight it is supposed to rain. praise God for this one last chance!

good knitting weather and... a painting in his hands!

it is about 69 degrees out today!!!!!!!!!! can't believe it. sat on the bench outside my grandparent's chicken coop and knitted while jack amused himself with the coop door.:) could have stayed out there for hours, but was starving for lunch. i opened up a ton of windows in the house. may go back out there to knit after i make some chocolate chip cookies.

today i got the postal notice that the painting i bought from my friend lauren's on-line etsy store was at the post office ready to pick up. !!! so excited. i packed jack into the car without even any socks on, just shoes. had to wait for them to open from their lunch break. come on!... when we got back to the car, i ripped open my package. inside was my painting and odds and lovely ends. i had a little flash of epiphany. took the painting (in frame and ready to be hung!) and handed it back to my son in his carseat. wow. that was amazing. i think that was the first time jack has held a painting. it meant so much to share that with him. i will have to teach him all about art this week. we'll go on a gallery tour of the house.:) maybe i will even paint something. shocker.:)

blonde nursery buddies

jack had a great time last night at the "halloween alternative sleepover". there was a lot of: kids, food, noise, games, and candy. mostly the party was in the Church's basement. at one point i had enough of jack escaping to climb up and down the stairs and i corraled him in the nursery. i asked the little boy on the right, joe, if he wanted to come play with jack. then the little boy on the left, ben, came in with his sister. i knitted while the boys played with the toys and devoured the candy from their treat bags. i think this photo is funny because ben almost looks like he has a trickle of blood coming out of his mouth like a halloween vampire. in actuality it is a stream of chocolate drool. at one point i told joe i thought he had enough candy and he might get sick. he scowled at me and shoved another piece in. i just laughed. let his mother worry.

mommy's little baker, part 2

here we go again! jack and i made 2 batches of sugar cut-out cookies yesterday for the "halloween alternative" sleepover. what a great time we had. jack really liked the dough. when i wasn't looking he grabbed a HUGE hunk and shoved it in his mouth. i thought he was going to be sick FOR SURE. nope. he also liked playing with the cookie cutters.