Mini Swap

Our Mini Swap package has arrived from Norway! Strikkelise and her children sent the most amazing things! Thank you so much!



Elsie spent a great deal of time learning where Norway is and looking at pictures on Strikkelise's blog.



She was thrilled to open the box and discover everything wrapped in pink!... the most perfect color in the world!



The Hello Kitty barrettes are a big hit. She immediately put them in her hair. She took them out to sleep, but has them back in again this morning.



All the goodies....


.... and some magazines for Mommy! Which I absolutely love... and may have to figure out how to purchase an international subscription. The pictures are so beautiful.

There are also these really, really cool metallic pencils. They are kind of fat, but have a triangular cross section so they don't roll off the table. Genius! When you go to the manufacturer's website, there are all kinds of triangular pencils!

Thank you, thank you!!!!

Sewing

The basement is now usable although still not organized. We are leaving for vacation to Hawaii on Monday.... Yay! It is cold and raining here in Portland with occasional sun breaks and snow.... which means it is cold and wet in general. Hawaii is warm and pleasant, so it should be a wonderful change of pace.
In preparation for the trip, I've been sewing up a few things. I made Elsie and couple of pairs of shorts and this great little top...




I need to make her one more in pink, of course. It is from the book on the left....



This is the first project I've made out of one of these books. All of the instructions are in Japanese, but the pictures have numbers that indicate the order you do things. I had to read it a few times to get everything right. The elastic length for the back was a complete guess, but it seems to work.... AND it sews up in about 20 minutes with no interruptions... about 45 minutes with a pretzel run, a glass of milk, and multiple diaper changes.

Painting, painting

In an effort to finish one project in this household, we are focusing all efforts on Miss Elsie's new room. My hands ache from holding a brush and roller. We put the final coats of paint on and did all the touching up yesterday. Today, the floor received two coats of paint.



The walls are, of course, pink with a brown floor. I will give the trim another coat of white paint tomorrow... and if it all dries in time, she will move in Tuesday night. The little lady is so excited! The room has an official cubby hole/guest quarters, large closet, and a little princess alcove. Once everything is together, I will post pictures.

I'm so anxious to get the kids' rooms squared away. Ewan will not fit in his bassinette much longer. I think we have 3 inches of space lengthwise. As soon as Elsie is installed, we can set up the crib and he can take over the nursery.... and the spouse and I can have our room back!

Prose to the Toes

Oh you little toes



You elude me



I squawk and growl at you



You wiggle back temptingly




Maybe someday I will catch you

First Bouquet of 2007

Spring is officially on its way!!!!
Here is the first bouquet of the year....



The daphne opens a little more each day and smells wonderful. I would love to buy a perfume that smells like it.



Apparently while I was gone last week, my hellebores came up and started to bloom, so I whacked off a couple of blossoms to enjoy inside.

Trip to the farm

The kids and I just returned from a week at the farm. It was so nice to get away.



It was feeling very spring-like there. Is was fairly warm and had rained for several days before we arrived making for some amazing puddles.



My sister and I were experts at puddle depth and mud consistency. However, we would occasionally leave a boot behind in the mud and return home with one boot and one very muddy sock.




The last day was very sunny, but windy. Elsie and I walked all over the place taking pictures and inspecting puddles. It was just warm enough and just enough sun to really feel like spring.... of course making me want to get home and do spring cleaning. Airing out the house, washing drapes and blankets, and putting away the flannel sheets is one of my favorite things. It's a signal that gardening season is coming and that the outdoor rooms will be back in use soon. I posted the rest of the photos on Flickr.




We were at the farm during Valentine's Day, so did not get to celebrate with the spouse who had to work, but was able to have a week's worth of nights of uninterrupted sleep. That clever man surprised me with these chocolate bars:



... and he made the chocolate bars to boot! These are not rewrapped store bought bars. He went to the local candy shop and bought the ingredients, took trial bars to work for people to sample, and then made three perfect chocolate bars with yummy ingredients. Of course, being a graphic designer, he made the fantabulous wrappers.
Thank you, honey! I love them.

Recovering from colds

We (Elsie and I) have had colds. She, like most kids, is recovering at a much more accelerated rate than I am. My rate of recovery has been greatly slowed by lack of sleep. The Little Man is now snacking twice at night instead of sleeping through which he had been doing three weeks ago. This morning, after another restless night, Elsie greeted me by the side of my bed with a hacking cough at 7:15am. "Hi, Mom. It's time to go downstairs." Then she walked over to Ewan and made sure he was awake too. I sent her downstairs and said I would be there soon and tried to doze off a bit. When I did manage to make it downstairs, I was confronted with this....



One entire roll of toilet paper transformed into a Ghost Fireplace. She was using her "IMAGINATION" (saying while making the shape of a rainbow with her hands). Thank you, SpongeBob. Oh well, it's better than getting into something sticky or messy that requires water and cleaning products to remove. It has remained up the entire day. We have just not used this doorway in order to preserve the fireplace.

The good news is that the stair construction crew were here today and the stairs are almost finished. YAY! Only one more day of sawdust generating mess, and it will be over. I sent them outside for the majority of their cutting, but I forgot about the sanding. At least they vaccuumed everything before they left tonight.

Moving in to the Basement!

The blog has been a little quiet lately. We've been gradually moving into the basement studio! Yay! We had to seriously clean out the guest room/Elsie's new room, because we were having house guests this weekend. Nothing like having company to make you clean... and boy, did this house need some cleaning. Anyway... Elsie's new room is fairly empty, so we are ready to commence with the floor painting. There is a LOT of stuff in the basement that needs sorting and organizing, so I'll post pictures in a bit. The stair guy is coming today to deliver the wood for the stairs. Maybe by the end of the week we will have official stairs and not these scary, temporary, open treads which, by the way, are becoming loose and wobbly.
My dearest and oldest friend, Ilena, came to visit this weekend with her family. We saw the Egypt exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, did some shopping (Anthropologie was amazing and inspiring), lots of eating, and a tour of some of the local skate parks. I completely forgot my camera, so have no pictures to post.
so I'll leave you with these images from the Anthropologie website:




I'm feeling the spring cleaning/spring redecorating urge... but I need to finish some other projects first.

Beautiful Foggy Morning

It is an absolutely gorgeous morning today. There is fog and the sun is starting to punch through making everything all hazy and glowing.



The sunlight is starting to fill the house. I love mornings like this. I have a good cup of coffee, beautiful sunlight, going to do a little knitting before taking a conference call at 10am. The joys of working from home.

The snow is still here!

It is still beautiful and white here this morning. The temperature is a little warmer than yesterday which makes it nicer outside.



Elsie was so excited and couldn't get outside fast enough, but had some wardrobe difficulties. What is it with 4 year-olds and getting dressed!?!? We had all of her clothes, socks, hat, gloves, scarf and coat located and in the kitchen. I told her to change into her clothes and we would go outside. "Yay!" she squealed. Next time I see her, she's running through the house in her pyjamas with her hat, scarf, and gloves. "No, you have to put on the clothes and the coat. The gloves go on last." Next time I see her, she's streaking through the house in just her underware. Which, to me, seems just the opposite of where this project should be heading.



Eventually we get the clothes on, but she insists on putting the gloves on BEFORE the coat, hat, boots, and scarf... which means she can no longer use her fingers to put on and zip which causes great distress to the Elsie not to mention the mother as well.



Finally after several arguements and undressing and re-dressing of parts, we are dressed, organized, have Ewan in his down bundle bag and loaded into the pack and off we go!
Elsie took this picture of Ewan and myself...

Yay! Snow!

It rarely snows in Portland... or snows long enough to make everything white... but it did last night.


... and it is still snowing! We could hardly get everyone bundled up fast enough to suit Elsie. I think she would have run out in her bare feet.

I was practicing with my digital camera over the weekend. I took this picture which I like except for the shadow across their eyes...


They sort of look like two masked super heroes. I'm getting better with adjusting my shutter speed, now I just need to be more aware of shadows and light.

Finished projects and Christmas goodies...

No... the finished project is not the basement. If that were the case, it would get it's own post with very large letters. The finished project is the pink wrap sweater that I made for Elsie. I finished it just before Christmas.



I feel a great sense of accomplishment after finishing my first sweater.



I really want to make one for little Ewan now.



I found a great pattern for a boy's sweater in the February issue of Vogue Knitting Knit.1. It has an intarsia skull and crossbones on it. I don't know if I'm ready for intarsia, but I might as well jump in.

I received some wonderful craft/project books for Christmas this year. From the spouse....



apparently he wants my knitting to head in another direction...



Aren't these mitts gorgeous!

These are going to be my next knitting project that I start. I love the ribbon. The whole book is fabulous! The lingerie inspired pieces are great.
He also gave me....



For those of you who have visited the Sublime Stitching website, here it is in book form with pages and page of transfers! And pockets in the front and back to store the transfers after you have torn them out of the book. Each transfer can be used several times.



And from my sister with whom I obsess about Amy Butler



The book comes with all the patterns too!



I know now that I will never be bored or run out of things to do.... which is just the way I like it.

A little more painting... a little more priming

We have added a green wall to the basement and the first coat of paint on the floor.



It has never looked this clean EVER! Miss Elsie thinks it's a wonderful place to practice her dancing.



One more coat of paint on the floor tonight and the big areas are finished. I still need to paint the doors their individual colors. They are all primed and ready to go and the paint has been purchased... now it's just getting both kids to cooperate long enough to paint a door.

New Year's Resolutions

I usually don't set New Year's Resolutions, since I seem to fail at following through. So this year I picked two simple ones:
1. eat more vegetables and fruit
2. make more time for crafting
The first one is a much easier way of saying "loose some weight" and "get healthy" and "feed my family better". So instead of three separate resolutions, it is just one. And one should be easier to keep instead of three.
The second one should be extremely easy once the basement is done and my weekends and spare time aren't spent painting. I also received some wonderful craft books for Christmas which have some amazing projects in them. The corallary to resolution number 2 is to actually FINISH the craft projects. Sometimes I have several things going at once and nothing gets done.

I did a little recycle craft project over the holidays. I had this beautiful pair of cashmere gloves that had holes in two of the fingers. As I was wearing them for the last time, I was wondering what I could make out of them with only eight fingers available for use.


Spiders have eight legs... so I'll make something spider-like.



I washed the gloves in hot water a few times to felt them up a bit, but this cashmere didn't shrink up too tight. They did start to get hairy, which looks weird, but feels wonderful! There is a thread bare section on the bottom of one of his feet. I'm thinking of giving him some toe pads out of wool felt. He looks a little plain but Ewan likes him. He likes to fall asleep with the spider next to his cheek.

Painting until you cramp

We have been painting like maniacs the last four days and are now taking a break. The basement is now sporting a beautifully painted ceiling, stairwell, and studio walls. The bathroom was painted last month. We still have the doors, the floor, and the trim left, but the transformation is amazing! We burned through our Wagner sprayer that we bought eight years ago, so we had to splurge and buy a brand new $300 paint sprayer. (It costs $79 per 24 hour period to rent, and we have several projects in line that require spraying, so we decided to buy one.) If anyone is thinking of purchasing a Wagner sprayer- DON'T. Most of the parts are plastic and after a certain amount of time replacement pieces are NO LONGER AVAILABLE!



After we finished yesterday, the entire family collapsed in a heap and took a nap. I have finished projects to post and Christmas treasures to blog about, but I'm going to take the rest of the day off. I'll catch up on my posting later this week.

I loaded all the basement photos into Flickr, so you can see the progress in order. When one is absolutely worn out from working on a neverending project, it's nice to be able to go back to pictures from the beginning and see just how far the project has come.

Holiday Hecticness.... and general craziness

My blog has been terribly quiet for the past couple of weeks and regrettably craft and holiday free.
Here is why:
The week of Dec 4 my freelance client called scheduling work for me and lining up a very important meeting than I am to attend in Boulder, CO on Dec 21.
Dec 11 and 12- working on freelance project
Dec 12- am contacted by another company looking for a freelancer; they want to meet me this week on Fri, Dec 15
Dec 13 and 14- First client at my house for a 2-day working meeting with baby Ewan screaming off and on
Dec 14 (evening) and Dec 15 (afternoon)- Trunk Show for Mister Judy (product line that I do with my sister)
Dec 15- Other company calls during Trunk Show (which unfortunately is not really busy) and wants to come over and shop the show and interview me at the same time; of course, I say yes. During the interview the cat barfs on the floor, my daughter spills an entire bowl of dry (thanks goodness) Cheerioes on the floor, and baby Ewan screams the entire time I present my portfolio. The client (who has a 2 yr old and a 5 yr old) thinks the interview went really well and hires me on the spot- maybe he didn't notice the complete chaos of my surroundings
Dec 16- Beginning to worry that I might not get Christmas scarves knitted in time. Attend Holiday Open House any way with in-laws and at least get to see Santa

Dec 17- some knitting, some freelance work
Dec 18- I was asked back in November by a professor at my university to help moderate a school project. Today is the deadline. I spend a few hours reviewing student's projects and making notes. I also have now run out of yarn for one of the scarves and go back to the store. They have it in stock but it just arrived and is in a box in the back. They ask "Can you wait 72 hours?". The US Postal Service shipping deadling is Dec 20 and I'm supposed to be on a place Dec 20. I buy replacement yarn and start to reknit.
Dec 19- Make a store visit with Mister Judy product and consign a small grouping to Zenana Day Spa. Spend 2 hours on the phone with university professor discussing grading. Spend many hours at computer and on phone preparing for trip to Boulder.
Dec 20- Get up at 4:15 am. Taxi picks me up at 5:15am. I board plane at 6:20am. Somewhere over Wyoming plane turns around and goes back to Portland due to bad weather in Denver... all this while I am knitting furiously on the new scarf. I call client when I'm on the ground to advise him of the situation. He instructs me to Fed Ex all items to the office in Boulder. Spend the rest of the day wired on caffiene completing projects for shipment.
Dec 21- Meeting is cancelled in Boulder due to weather. I spend a little time on the phone, but finally have a day off! I knit like a mad woman and finish the scarf! I wrap and pack the last Christmas gifts, pick up Elsie at preschool and head to the post office. Upon returning home, I collapse on the couch and nap and watch movies with Elsie. The spouse has taken baby Ewan for the afternoon to run some guy errands.
I am now focusing only on Christmas now. I still have a few things to make, but am not doing any more shopping or errands. I want to decorate my still naked trees and a make a stocking for Mister Ewan.... it feels good to breathe.

Pretty Sparkly Trees

There is nothing like an aluminum christmas tree. They are so sparkly and pretty. And when someone walks by and creates a breeze the little "needles" wiggle and glitter and sparkle. I need to devise a way to have a gentle breeze blowing on ours so they sparkle all the time.



Seasons Gleamings is an excellent resource for inspiring images of metallic trees. I really like this one with the blue background (like our living room walls) and the red balls.



The trees came in colors too- green, blue, aqua, and PINK! The pink ones are rather rare and are always terribly expensive at the vintage shops. Maybe someday I'll get lucky and score one at a garage sale. Speaking of lucky, check out the tree that Mary scored in a dumpster! What a find! I love her ornaments inspired by her son.

Christmas W.I.P.

Miss Elsie and I set up our forest of aluminum Christmas trees yesterday.



It was quite a work out with a 4 year old and a hundred or so individual branches and paper sleeves. I was sweating by the time we were done.



Her attention span wasn't really geared for three trees... more like one and a half, but she stuck with it. I still need to get out the rotating lights. The one thing I wish we had was a rotating tree stand! That would be so cool.