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Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Let's Catch Up

I'm sitting here with you and a cup of coffee, wrapped up in a blanket (because our house is COLD in the morning) and wearing my husband's slippers (because our kitchen floor has concrete underneath and is cold even in the summer). (Yesterday Michael said, "Someday we get your OWN slippers, Mama." Probably a good idea.) The kids are still asleep (!!). A lot has happened that I've been meaning to tell you about, so let's start with November. :)


Happy Dominic took awhile to get over the shock that there was a cake on his tray.

Gregory took it more in stride. Of course he got cake!

Usually he's the cleaner eater ... 


The twins had a birthday. It's hard to believe they're 14 months old ... they still seem like such babies to me. (As opposed to Michael, whom I firmly believed was on the verge of toddler-hood at this age.) We had a small party--just grandparents and godparents--and they obligingly wore their birthday crowns for about five seconds before diving face-first into cake.





This guy had a birthday too. 30 years old! November was a big month for us. :)

I would've loved to throw him a surprise party, but he would've killed me. But I did get to surprise him in other ways and throw him a party, so it worked out nicely. Several days before his birthday I went out to a "craft night" ... and came home with his best friend from high school who had flown in from across the country. His face was the best.

And because Keith has fond memories of story-tellers around the bonfire at a friend's house when he was a teenager, I also hired a story-teller who came dressed in a hat and cloak to his party as another surprise. I made a huge pot of chili, we had gourmet s'mores over the firepit (which we bought for the occasion and found out the hard way is not safe to use on our deck ... part of it melted!!), and a friend brought a bottle of champagne. There were tons of kids, and the weather was warm enough to be outside.



The other big thing that happened in November? Our bathrooms fell apart. One morning as I showered the soap rack just sort of ... fell off the wall. And then less than a week later the same thing happened with some tiles in the other bathroom. As I type this post I am waiting for the guy to arrive and install a new facet in the shower ... then hopefully tomorrow they'll start putting in the new tile. It will be nice to have this shower back; the one downstairs is functional but pretty funky.


This post is getting long and the kids are awake, so let's catch up on December another time. :)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Birthday Socks

Last year, I knit myself a pair of birthday socks out of Koigu yarn. They were beautiful (although a bit baggy about the ankles), and I decided that knitting myself a pair of new socks to wear on my birthday each year would be a fine tradition. So yesterday, after jumping the car battery (AGAIN), Michael and I drove to Knit One and met up with a friend, and I bought myself some yarn. 


This yarn is by Richard Devrieze, who used to work for Koigu. It's called "Oz Opal," a fitting name. I just love the speckles.

Recently I won a copy of Big Foot Knits and I was excited to use it to knit my birthday socks. I figured this yarn was pretty enough to be knit into a nice "vanilla" sock that fit perfectly, and all that stockinette would fly by so I could wear these on my birthday (Saturday).

So! Last night Keith helped me take all my measurements and determine my foot shape. Then I started reading the directions ... and as of now, I don't really have the time or energy to knit and measure two swatches (one of ribbing, one of stockinette) and do the math. It's not all that hard, really; but I just ... can't.

So I am casting on for a pair of Froot Loop socks instead. (I think Katie suggested this pattern to me?) Whether or not I will finish them by Saturday is anybody's guess ... maybe I'll just walk around wearing one sock all day. ;)

Still reading Dappled Things, just one more issue to go! The books are packed away (still ... sigh), so I started reading Anna Karenina a few days ago because it was what I had on my Kindle. I'm not sure a massive Russian novel is appropriate reading at the moment for me, but we'll see!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

birthday crown


I loosely followed this tutorial, using the instructions but not the pattern and a ribbon instead of elastic. (I also skipped the interfacing, although I'd bought some.) I had visions of sewing on felt leaves, but I realized that the crown pictured in the tutorial looked quite nice with its simple squares, so I imitated it.

A third of the time making this was spent setting up and then trying to figure out the darn sewing machine. (Stitch selection doesn't work the way the instructions tell you, apparently! Or maybe I was just reading them wrong.)

Also, I can't sew in a straight line.

But that's okay. I'm still pretty happy about this. We'll see if he actually cooperates and wears it. :)