Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Elusive Magic Loop

I've done it! After millions of tries( okay maybe not millions but a whole lot anyways) I have successfully magic loop knitted!!!

And We cleaned the living room and rearranged the furniture. Next objective is the kitchen! And I have completed a few goals I think, and am extremely close to another! I have started thorough cleanings, and we are doing not just a nightly routine but we have a general routine we follow all day every day! I'm getting a sewing machine on Saturday from my aunt, I've thrown away a good amount of stuff we either don't use anymore or were hanging onto for no reason, I have some of the yarn to make my lap blanket just have to find a pattern. I guess I didn't really accomplish this goal, Steve did, but the computer desk is mostly clean just have to go through a little bit more.And I organized my knitting corner in the living room. That should be everything so far.

I found out that my sister is coming back home for a few days at the end of March! She really likes the game Little Big Planet for the PS3 so I'm knitting her a sackboy. But rather than stuffing the body with regular stuffing we're going to put things in there to remind her of us when she's homesick or just misses us. I'll post pics of how it comes along and once she has it in her hands I'll post pics of what I put in there.

I'm about done with the baby blanket I'm making for one of my cousins. I hope to be done by Wednesday. Then I'll start on the hat and socks. Maybe I'll magic loop them. I'll probably have to wait for my knitpicks to come in though.

Which reminds me, We filed taxes today so I'll be able to place my knitpicks order soon and I can't wait!

Off to bed... Too much excitement for one day!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Broken Camaro and a few new shelves

Steve got the truck licensed yesterday and immediately had a job for it. An old friend had his Camaro break down on him on the other side of St. Louis and needed some help getting it home and us having a truck helped him out. Which took all day yesterday and wasn't accomplished so they came home. They hung out at the house for a bit before Steve's friend fell asleep because he works nights and hadn't been asleep in nearly 24 hours. So bright and early this morning they went and tried again and got it this time.

While Steve was busy with that I was at my neighbor's helping her with her project. She wanted to make shelves for her room and her kids room but wasn't exactly sure how to go about it. So we went to Home Depot and got all of the supplies for two shelves which came out to around $15. When we got home she sanded the wood down and painted one of the shelves and we installed the "L" brackets and knocked around on the walls to find some studs(many jokes were made, in between studs and screws and wood, we just couldn't help ourselves). We screwed the shelves onto the wall where they would be anchored on studs. I think the most fun of the entire day was joking about the fact that she got the screws from my husband and she's a lesbian. Eh well.

I found out that another cousin of mine is having a baby in 9 months so I'm making them a few things. I found a few really cute things and they wanted neutral colors so I already had the yarn in my stash. I also found a cool bag for my longer knitting needles because it's long and skinny. I asked Steve the other night if when we got taxes back I could spend around $80 on knitting stuff and he said YES!!! So I've been on KnitPicks because that's where I decided I wanted to get my stuff from and I figured out what I wanted to get. But you'll have to wait until I get my package in the mail to find out what! I'll even post pictures for you! I'm very very excited.

All in all it's been a pretty busy last few days here but I wouldn't have it any other way! I think I'll start on that baby blanket now so I have one baby's stuff done and can concentrate on the other baby's stuff when we find out the sex.!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Accomplishing Nothing...

I have been super super lazy and have accomplished nothing. I tried to learn lace knitting but my tension is too tight still so I have to work on that. The kids have been in bad moods so I'm not trying anything with them. Speaking of kids here is Jim's lovely gash...



You can see it there on his eyebrow. It was not fun getting this picture. He was sitting on my lap in the rocking chair which he loves to make rock so of course he wasn't sitting still, he kept grabbing after the camera and his sister kept trying to get in the picture. It looks a lot worse in person and up close. I'm constantly holding him so it's always right there staring me in the face.

We're getting the truck licensed tomorrow and Steve is already putting it to use. First he has to tow an old buddy's car home from the other side of St. Louis. Then, he's loading up a couch for our neighbors. He went grocery shopping tonight by himself and spent $100. I don't know how because he moans and groans every time I put something in the cart. But he did get good food that will feed a family of four for a week which is good.

Sadie put me up to possibly making a few ehow articles. The first I'd make to explain how I made my centerpieces from my wedding, and I figure I can do one on the bouquets I made for my wedding as well. Then I will be making my own yarn swift in a few weeks and I can write an article on that.

I didn't get any cleaning done today which means I have to clean two things tomorrow but I did the dishes last night so that was good.  I don't do dishes, ever.

I found the sweater I am going to make myself, so that goal is getting somewhere. I also found the yarn I will be making it with and I'm getting it in a few weeks!!!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Stabbed by A Knitting Needle

I know I'm a knitter, it was stupid. I wasn't paying attention. It happens.

I have a picture of the truck!







She's not the prettiest thing but I love it. It's just a work truck but all the same. We're hoping to get it licensed on Wednesday.

I forgot to get a picture of little man's gash but hopefully will tomorrow. Steve made some amazing dinner tonight. It was chicken and mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes and egg noodles all mixed together. YUM! We also made some chocolate chip bread with white and regular chocolate chips!

I'm about a quarter of the way through my dishcloth and about an eighth of the way through Nick's scarf. I showed Nick what I have of his scarf so far and he loves it. YAY!

I wanna cast on to practice cables and lace so bad and I don't know which one I want to do more but I know I have to wait until I finish something. :-(... sad.

I started to try and teach Ri to write the letter A but it didn't work so well. I then did alot of research and came up with alot of ideas. I think I'm going to start by having her trace things. I've begun to really go by a daily and nightly schedule and the kids are getting used to it and not throwing as many fits. Steve and I also went on a date of sorts so that's part of that goal.

Steve went to his raise committee tonight and got his raise as well as all of his fittings approved! I'm so proud of him, he does so well for himself. He said something about needing to work on something to show his soldering has improved though. Which reminds me his soldering iron was decommissioned the last time he used it so last night when he was fixing the CB radio in the truck he made a makeshift one which I must say was very good. And he fixed the radio.

Do you guys have any exciting happy stories to tell?

Sunday, January 24, 2010

1987 Chevy Custom

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but I made two posts the other day so that kind of makes up for it, right???

Well yesterday we got a truck. It's an old truck, yes, but it will do what we need it to. Hubby mostly wanted a work truck. We got a good deal on it and now he has a new toy. He's going to do a fair amount of fixing up on it and I plan on doing a fair amount of driving it. He had to have seen it coming right?

I also made the kids letter, color and number books yesterday. I plan on making an animal book, things that move book, senses book, body parts book, a family book, and an about me book for each of them as well. I was thinking for Valentine's Day me and the hubbs could to an I love you book for each of the kids as well. I might see about laminating their books eventually just because I've already had to replace the L page in the oldest's alphabet book.

Not a lot of progress has been made on Nick's scarf. I think I added half a square, give or take a few rows. I do however have about 2 more inches on my dishcloth. Darn being a slow knitter! Oh well, that's all for now. I will add pictures of the truck and little man's gash momentarily.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Sitting and Ibuprofen

So I called my doctor to day because I was having a weird cramp in my stomach and you know what he says? He goes just stay off your feet and take 4 ibuprofen every 6 hours. Alright doc I have no problem with this, this gives me an excuse to just sit and knit all day. Believe me that is just fine with me. But somehow I only got one row on my dishcloth done and I think 4 rows on the scarf done.

I was sitting today just like I was told. My kids, they had other ideas. One of the genius ideas was to fight on Monster girl's bed. Why? I don't know. But I heard it and headed in and got to where I could see them just in time to watch Monster push her little brother off the bed. I immediately went for him to see if he was okay and noticed something above his eye at first I thought it was dirt, on closer inspection it was blood. I sent the monster to time out to be dealt with in a moment went to the bathroom and got little man all cleaned and bandaged up. He now has a nice gash in his eyebrow that I'm sure will scar efficiently(should probably come up with a better story than his sister pushing him off the bed though, because what good is a scar without a cool story?). After making sure he was okay and giving him back rub and cup, I went to go talk to my little monster. She has always had the tendency to be physical, she has 4 uncles and lots of boy cousins. When we asked her what happened she said she didn't know. I told her that brother was going to be okay but that she gave him a big owie and that she needed to be nicer and more careful. I then told her she could get up when she said sorry and after about an hour, nothing. So I went in there to tell her to go to the bathroom and then make sure she went back into her bed. Well dinner rolled around and there was still nothing so I went to go get her so she could eat. She was sleeping... Dang kid fell asleep in time out. eh well...

Not looking forward to hearing from everyone and explaining to everyone what happened to little man. AT ALL. That's all for today though I think I'm going to go knit.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Crafting While Deprived of Caffeine

At 8:30 pm I am just now drinking my first dose of caffeine for the day. Seeing as I was up all day with the kids and went upstairs to let my kids play with the three girls upstairs, I, one, don't see how I could've over looked my caffeine addiction and second, how I survived with out any in the first place. Well anyway, I'm still here and I guess that's good although with my sinuses the way they are I kind of wish I wasn't.

We went to the library yesterday and got a load of books which I over course then got wrangled into carrying. Most of them were mine but still. Jim's doing better not coughing as much and all the gunk seemed to clear up but now Riley and I have it. Luckily she was already on antibiotics for something else so it can work double time. I really hate using antibiotics on her but it seems to be the only thing to ever work. We've tried all kinds of home remedies all to no avail.

I haven't made much progress on Nick's scarf lately, but I do have a picture to show you.



 Being as it's my first in depth pattern with a bit of difficulty I think I am doing pretty good. It's stretched out and looks funny but that's just because I am in the middle of working a square. When I first started I went really slow because I'd get to a certain point and decide it looked wonky and ripped it all out. I just decided to go with it eventually and it straightened out. Hubby says I'm moving right along but I'm not used to moving this slow. Eh well....

I didn't get any goals done today(darn). But I did get more rigid on potty training Riley. We've gone in and out on that though. I get really tough on her because I'm tired of her not going on the potty but then I get tired of being tough and get kind of lax about it again. She just doesn't care if she sits in a dirty mess. Well no I take that back she cares once you figure it out but if you notice something and ask her about it or she comes up to you she'll start going crazy but if nothing is said she doesn't care.

Jim did eat a corn dog by himself today with no incidents so that's progress there. And I found some yarn that I would like to knit my lap blanket with. I'm thinking of something simple but not mind numbingly simple. A cable blanket would be good. I'll find something good. The yarn is alpaca and the color is wheat. And I got some wool to try out making socks with so we'll see how that goes. I got a heck of a deal and didn't spend too much either.

I was looking around on the internet earlier today and found some really nifty stuff. I had been looking at another blog and she had made some really cute toys for her sons. Well as I read deeper it turns out that she follows a Montessori/ Waldorf parenting philosophy. Montessori is basically giving kids safe but free play where they can decide what to do therefore teaching themselves basic skills. Waldorf is nature oriented and uses a lot of nature friendly toys but is set up a lot like Montessori in that they are able to lead the way they wish to go and they can really use their imaginations. I really liked these ideas and even though I can't convert completely mostly because I'd probably go nuts but also because my kids are already fairly battery addicted. Waldorf does not utilize toys that require batteries. I would however like to partially convert. I found some good ideas on there for toys for the kids that would replace some of the battery operated ones we have.(I'm all for getting rid of anything that eats batteries and makes lots of noise.) She had sewn together a mail bag and pieces of mail, she even made little netflix dvd's and envelopes. She also made some play food. I only saw doughnuts but I'm sure I could find all sorts of things if I looked around. I hate plastic play food so if I could sew some up that'd be awesome because I could just throw them in with the wash every week to keep them clean. The thing that really interested me though was the sensory bin she had. She rotates what's in it all the time. Right now she makes colorful ice and puts it in the bin along with some water and arctic animals. Not too long ago she had like cotton balls and things that you would associate with Santa or Christmas. I also ran across when she had beans in it, to me it seemed almost like a sandbox(but the kids can't get in and no shaking sand from EVERYWHERE for the next week.) So I may try a few ideas on the munchkins.

That was a really long paragraph, definitely did not mean to blab on about that for so long. I'm going to go now though seeing as I have lots of scarf knitting to get done and I'm all stuffed up. Good night and well wishes.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Goals of 2010

My neighbor and friend Sadie has a list on her blog of things she would like to accomplish this year and I thought well hmm that could be kind of cool. It can keep me busy and give me direction this year and at the end of the year when I look back I can say I actually accomplished something this year. I will probably add to this list as the year progresses and update on what I've actually done at least once a week. Most I'll admit are mundane things but I wrote them down because otherwise I'll sit somewhere for an hour thinking there was something I wanted to do or buy or teach my kids and I won't be able to remember and when I do I'll be frustrated because it's not done already or because I hadn't thought of it. So here goes nothing.



1. finish potty training Riley
2. possibly potty train Jim
3. Teach Riley how to write her letters(0/26)
4. do a thorough cleaning of house once a week so that it no longer gets out of control(2/49)
5. set and follow a nightly routine
6. Knit myself something- have plan just need to accomplish
7. get rid of all the old clothes none of us wear
8. organize bedroom
9. get sewing machine, iron, ironing board, wii(1/4)
10. dejunk-started
11. get jim to feed himself- working with spoon
12. pick up a new craft
13. knit a lap blanket in a nice yarn- have yarn
14. get new glasses
15. finish Riley's first year scrapbook
16. make Jim's first year scrapbook
17. get third desktop computer set up and working
18. clean computer desk- almost there
19. make library bags for kids(0/2)
20. make dish detergent
21. not necessarily lose weight but get into shape
22. help Riley with reading
23. reupholster rocking chair and ottoman
24. learn how to knit cables
25. read all of Riley's Dr. Seuss and Disney books to her one a night(0/ALOT!)
26. figure out a better way to organize knitting stuff or at least get it all in one spot
27. have a date night with Steve at least once a month(1/12)
28. save up for a house

That's all for now I think. They're not in order by any means but I'm hoping I will finish them all and maybe even add some new ones. If you have any ideas at all please share. And sorry I stole some of your ideas Sadie but they were good ones!

7AM??? Really?!?!?!

So normally my kids don't wake up until 9- 9:30. Today my son woke up at 7, he's kind of sick,  and I gave him a  cup of milk and some tylenol to make him feel a little bit better. I was just about to take him back into his room and put him in his bed when my daughter comes to the doorway and says, "Mommy, I already woke up." So I got her out and now it is 7:30 and I'm sitting in the living room watching The Backyardigans. Did I mention my brother-in-law just left about 3 hours ago.

This week we're doing winter clean up, kind of like winter warm up. I've been going through all the stuff We've collected over the past year or so and throwing crap out. We did the kids room yesterday and I got rid of all the little pieces to bigger things that had already broken or that we couldn't find all the pieces to. I was even able to get rid of one of Riley's 3(Yes, 3, not my choice.) castles. And last night after spending all morning cleaning the kids room it was a mess because we moved all the kids toys in there so they of course went rooting through everything. But the good part is that before bedtime I was actually able to get them to clean it back up and put all their toys away.(does happy dance!!!). Riley also let me wash and braid her hair before bed without a fight, so no bruises for Dana. YAY!!

Today I hoping to get the living room done. Steve said something about switching the tv and the couch so we'll see if I can't get him to do it today. Maybe I can even get the Christmas stuff put in the shed. He said he wanted to clean his car but seeing as it's mostly tools it shouldn't take too long and I guess while he's doing that I can knit.

Oh my knitting! So I've been told that I knit into the front loop and purl into the back loop which is apparently backwards from what most people do. I've watched myself knit and I've noticed I do it too but I end up with the same finished product so I don't see a problem and it's comfortable for me anyways. I currently have a few projects on the needles. I have a scarf for my friend Nick. It's the Danica pattern from Knitty.com. That's what I've been working on mostly and I've been doing about a section a day but am hoping to speed up soon. I've also got a dishcloth, a large red and green ball for the kids, and a small brown ball. The brown ball may go to the cat...

I'm hoping I can get through today without dying or passing out.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Let me introduce myself...

I'm Dana! I've never done this before so you'll have to excuse me. I'm going to try and update this once a day but for now here's a few tidbits of my life. I live in Missouri with 2 kids, a husband, and a god awful cat. My kids are 3 and a half and 18 months old. My husband and I just got married in October 2009, we had dated for about a year and a half before we got married and had known each other for about 4 years before that.

My hobbies include knitting, crocheting, reading, cleaning(not the most favorite) and taking care of my kiddos. I just started knitting within the last year, my friend taught me how to cast on and to do the knit stitch and i continued to teach myself from books and the internet from there. I somehow ended up knitting the reverse way than most people do though and I'll explain that later. I taught myself how to crochet soon after my oldest was born by watching her grandmother crochet. I just watched her do it one day picked up a hook and ran away with it.

Hmmm... I guess I can tell you about some of my favorite things. I'll put these in a list because it's easier this way.

FOOD: Mexican
COLOR: I actually kind of like all colors.
CLOTHING: Sweaters
DRINK: anything with caffeine
MUSIC: Country
CANDY: Reese's
ICE CREAM: Vanilla
COOKIE: Chocolate Chip

I can't really think of anything else right now so ask me if you really want to know.

I don't really drink alcohol. I've never really thought of myself as a "bad girl". I've always been decent kid, listened to my parents and such, minus the getting pregnant at 16 part. I don't tend to regret anything and I try not to hold grudges. I have some of the best friends in the world and am more than proud to call them my friends. Some I even call family. My actual family tends to drive me nuts as I'm sure most do. I'm technically an only child but I have 3 older step brothers and 2 adopted sisters.

Besides crafts and stuff I play video games and a few card games with my husband. We have a PS3, PS2, a NDS for each of us, and are planning on getting a Wii very soon. Not too long ago he taught me how to play the original Dragonball Z trading card game and Magic the Gathering as well.

I am looking to go back to college soon. I was in college for Theatre and Business. I was looking for a concentration in Stage Management in Theatre and a concentration in Management Information Technology in Business. I had gone to SLU but will probably be retuning to somewhere much cheaper when I do return.

I'm going to quit for now though and I'll post tomorrow on my current projects and what happens with my day.