Swamped

It's mainly of my own doing, so I won't complain. Here is a little preview of one of the many things I have up my sleeve.

Summer School

I have a ton of stuff to blog about. Baby stuff, fiber stuff, good stuff. I don't have time due to things such as a nine month old baby and summer school. You'll have to wait until the weekend. In the mean time I have had several super fun kids books come across my path in the past week or so. I thought I would share.

A sweet sweet friend of mine came across Derek the Knitting Dinosaur by Mary Blackwood, Kerry Argent (Illustrator) and knew that Little Sir and I needed it. It is adorable. He even drinks tea.







If You Were My Bunny
by Kate Mcmullan (Author), David Mcphail (Illustrator)
I found this one at a children's consignment store. I love it. The author has written new words to some well known traditional lullabies as if the parent animal were singing to the baby animal.



Good Boy Fergus! by David Shannon was recommended to us by a nice neighbor (who we don't know) while we were out walking. He was running and saw our dogs and Little Sir. He told us that we needed to get this book for Little Sir, that it was about a dog that was the same breed as Logan. Turns out, Fergus is actually a West Highland Terrier, not a Cairn Terrier, but he's pretty dang cute none the less. We don't have the book yet, but from what the helpful runner said, it sounds as if they have the same MO.
Any other wonderful children's books that I need to know about?

My Pattern in the Wild- or Link-a-Thon.

Ms. Knitting in Mind has knit up my Rhapsody in Lace and Ruffles (ravelry) in ShibuiKnits Baby Alpaca DK from Knit/Purl in Portland.

She blogged about it HERE- go an see her beautiful photographs of it. (Which are beautiful both because she did an amazing job knitting it (that color is perfect) and also because she did a great job photographing it.)

Then

She went into Knit/Purl to show them her beautiful creation and they blogged about it HERE.

I love it!

Nine Months

• 28 inches tall
• 18.4 lbs
• big noggin
• super stinkin' cute!

Two Full Weeks

That would be how long it has been since I last posted. Here's why.

1. Needed to get ready for 1 week long vacation with 8.5 month old.
2. Throwing a baby shower for Lucy (good thing too, he's here and he's adorable)
3. My house has to be clean for baby shower.
4. I need to make a giant mess of my house in order to get ready for trip
4.5 Go Crazy
5. Clean house
6. Leave for vacation about 6 hours late (we were driving)
7. 2 hours from home realized that I brought my camera, I brought my lenses, I forgot my fully charged battery on the charger.
7.5 Purse lips in frustration at self
8. Spend 1.5 hours on the phone determining that there is not a camera shop within an hours drive of Seaside, OR.
8.5 Pout and declare that I will move there and open a camera shop.
9. Consider not taking Little Sir on his first outing to the beach because I can't document it.
10. Snap a few shots with a hijacked camera (thanks S.)


I like sand mama. . . I think.


We don't know the extra guy in the photo, he just jumped in. No, No, that's the Duke's Cousin, T. His fiance'e was the photographer that actually showed up ready to shoot. (Oh- and he gave her her ring while they were there- congrats you two!)

11. Enjoy the rest of the vacation (with short periodic sulky moments when I want my camera.)
12. Realize that baby is off his schedule, but not too bad.
13. Save all homework for the day after returning home- they day of class.
14. Send baby and husband away to watch cousin play basket ball.
15. Go to class.
16. Come home at 9:30pm and wonder where baby and husband are.
17. Give husband dirty looks for keeping baby out too late when his schedule is all ready off.
18. Get mastitis.
19. Suffer.
20. Think that you really should go to the doctor.
20.5. Don't
20.7. Entertain husband's family at home.
20.8. Don't care that they house is a wreck- feeling too crappy from mastitis to care about much.
21. Feel more or less better two days later.
22. Go with husband and baby to watch cousin play more basketball.


Cool photo, huh!


The spectators- very important to any game. Hey, at least we know how to support our team. We even brought our own mascot! (He's the cute little one.)

23. Stay out WAY too late again.
24. Go through lots of guilt about keeping baby out too late and making him grumpy.
25. Spend the entire next day diligently trying to correct previous days' parenting mistakes.
26. Think it's going pretty well.
27. Get knocked off the parenting pride step when baby won't go to sleep until 10:30.
28. In the midst of baby not sleeping take part in volunteer's conference call for FSA conference.

Yes, it has been a tough re-entry after vacation, but the vacation was great (minus the forgotten camera battery.) I love the Oregon Coast. It's beautiful, and peaceful and somehow it's easier to breath there.
Little Sir got to meet several of his family members for the first time and had lots of smiles, cuddles, and general adorableness for everyone.
I bought yarn. I made it to four yarn stores. I didn't really buy anything amazing, but I have some fun projects planned. A new family tradition is in the works (and it revolves around yarn, what could be better?) I will share more later.
To keep you in good spirits, though, I'll show a little of what I found in

Astoria (Custom Threads)

"Smart Wool" destined to become a vest for Little Sir.

and

Raymond (A Willapa Connection)

Brown Sheep's Nature Spun Sport thinking it wants to be some fingerless gloves.

Oh yes, and one more vacation tradition to share.
The Duke and I always buy more salt water taffy than two people should ever eat in a lifetime, let alone the couple of weeks before it goes stale.


Come on over and get yourself some. We have lots to share.

Mama, It's toooooo HOT!

When it's 90 degrees F with no air conditioning, the poor baby isn't his usual happy self.

It's Ok, the Mama knows what to do.


One BeBe Pod + One Big Bucket + Cold Water + One Naked Baby = HAPPY!

Little Sir and a Little Knitting

Ok, we will start out with the knitting, so if you are sick of photos of my adorable baby (just don't tell me) I won't torture you.

With the whole BPA hullabaloo I took care of Little Sir's baby bottles and after I took care of that I look at my 5 year old Nalgene bottles which are scratched, dented, and fairly well beat to death and decided I had better take care of what I drink out of as well.

A friend had told me about these tops for canning jars. I had seen other "greenies" using glass canning jars as their water containers. Ok, all well and good, except for one minorish detail. I am a total klutz. There is a reason my Nalgene bottles are so beat up. Well, knitting to the rescue.


pre-felting


post felting

I figure that this jar cozy will provide at least some protection in the inevitable event that I drop one of these, but more importantly, if the jar does break, at least the pieces of glass will be contained. Remind me, I'll let you know how it works.

Now. . .
For Princess P. and anyone else interested in this adorable little boy.












OH- those eyes!

1930's Marital Scale

70 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

I got this off of my friends, Darin and Liz's, blog. You should go take the test, it's seriously hysterical. I lost points because I:
"wear read nail polish" and
"wear pajamas instead of a nightgown"
among other things!

Oh and guys, there is a test for husbands too. . . I'll let you know how the Duke does after he is done taking his well earned nap.

First Father's Day

Here is the Daddy Duke and the Baby Boy on their first Dad's Day.

It's unfortunate that an angry barber did a number on the Duke's hair yesterday, just in time to commemorate the day. I guess it just makes Little Sir's shirt that much funnier. (For those of you who haven't had a chance to meet our family- it's funny because Little Sir looks nothing like the Duke.)

Here is the Daddy King and the Baby Duchess. (Yes, the little "boy" dressed in pink is me. Sorry Mom, I know you thought all your babies were cute, but at least you got cute grand babies.) Judging by how old I look this was probably even right around Father's Day.

Oh yeah, Dad, you were so cool (and the 70's were just a little bit creepy.)

And just for a little added cute factor, here is Logan and Little Sir bonding. Look close, it's kind of hard to tell with the striped duvet cover, Logan is resting his head in Little Sir's hand.

That is some serious cute right there!

Happy Father's Day to all of you Dads. We love you!

Things I Like

Time for a things I like post!

Have you all heard about Spoonflower?



It is a website that will allow you to design and print your own fabric. Isn't that so freakin' cool! As you can see from their logo they are still in beta, which means that you still have to be invited to use the website. Get on the list here. In the mean time you can keep up with them via their blog. I've all ready designed and ordered my first fabric. I can't wait for it to get here!

Check out these darlings.


Aren't they adorable. They are hand knit in the Shetland Islands by Andrea Williamson. Her other things are really great too.

Lastly, I am belatedly joining the yo yo craze. I went looking on etsy for some inspiration. Who knew the simple yo yo could be so versatile.


Frame a few of them and you have instant art.


You can wear them.


In more than one way.


More than two ways, even. (Is this not amazing and a little bit strange at the same time.)


I love this guy.


Seriously! People are so very creative.

An Owl and a Cowl

I needed a break from socks. I also needed a break from thinking about my knitting. It is rare that I knit a pattern just as it is written, but this is just what I was looking for. I had some lovely Malabrigo Worsted that had been marinating for quite some time now. I saw Melissa's lovely cowls and was inspired. I knew what I had to do!



It took just one skien, just as the pattern (Thanks Nova!) promises. I have another skien left over that I will use to knit a matching hat. Oh, and if you think it is strange that I am happily knitting a cowl and a hat in June, you should check out our less than summery weather.

Next, I want to warn you to be on the look out for flying pigs and snowballs in hell. I have completed a project done entirely in crochet.



When The Queen was staying with us when Little Sir was first born, she bestowed the nickname of "Owlet" on him. This is because when you would go to check on him in his crib he would be laying there, still as can be, peering out of the darkness with huge, unblinking eyes. He also would pucker his lips as if he were about to say "Whooooo." (Oh, remembering the cuteness just kills me!) Well he doesn't 'silently' whoo whoo anymore, but we still marvel that he blinks less often than seems possible.

Any-whoooooo (he he) he clearly needed a toy owl. Much thanks to RoxyCraft for the adorable pattern. (Even if I did have to crochet!)



Whooooo Whooooo!

Birds of Flight

Ok, I am not a proponent of any lottery, but have you all seen this commercial? Well, probably most of you haven't because many of you don't live in Washington so let me help you out. It is hysterical! I love it.



Doesn't that penguin look like he is really enjoying himself?

As Promised

A little knitting, and little spinning, and a little more spinning.


This little bit of knitting that will become a little purse for someone.


It's difficult to see in 2-D but it's a really neat stitch knit from some of my hand spun.


This is the rest of the Optium, Navajo plyed just like the first batch.


There is only one problem. I bought a new flyer. I like the new flyer. It goes faster than my last flyer. I also spun the last batch on my old flyer. I spun this on the new flyer, at the same pace. Um- OVER SPUN! Ah well, it's still lovely. We'll see how it knits up.


A bit more knitting.


Behold! My first hand knit socks from my own hand spun yarn.


Check out those perfectly mismatched stripes.


One more just to let you know how much I like them.


I've also been a good little knitter. I am ready to turn the heel on the second Kaffe Fassett sock.