Still Life: Day One

I have been feeling a bit bored with my posts lately, so while checking out Diane's (whose posts never bore me) at Mackville Road today, I saw she joined this group for a week of still lifes. Instantly I thought, this is what I need. A bit of inspiration. This is perfect because not only am I bored with my goings on here, but also the same goes with some of the photos I have taken lately. Here's to getting my butt in gear . . .





On the plus side, I have begun The BIG BAD Baby Blanket. More on that later.

A Finished Object (Finally)

Here it is, The Fountain Hat, aka my best hat yet. I don't have much luck with hats, the sizing is always off or a stripe is totally misplaced, but this pattern was great. It was extremely easy to follow and was a pretty quick knit. The pattern called for ShiBui sock yarn, which my LYS does not stock so I opted for Koigu partly because I love it and also the colorway was perfect for the recipient of this hat. The lace pattern gets a little lost in the color variations, but it is such lovely yarn that I don't mind.

We had the most beautiful blue skies here over the weekend so most of our days were spent outside.
Not a necessarily eventful weekend, just hanging around the yard and exploring. Matt & Henry spent
much of Saturday morning trying to clean out the garage (how do we accumulate so much?!?). We actually
had people stop thinking we were having a yard sale! I did offer up a few things for sale or asked them to
make an offer, but alas, no takers. So, now I have some things to post on craigslist and on freecycle and
inevitably a hefty trip to Goodwill.
Yesterday we hiked a new trail at Red Top Mountain. It was a short trail because with the boy in tow there
is no other way. I would rather a one mile trail take two hours and let him explore and wander off a bit than
make him hurry and try to keep up or stick him in the jogger stroller. The trail was nice, much of it was a
narrow peninsula on the lake so we had great water views. On the way to the point there was a small bridge
where we sat and snacked on some oranges in the company of a friendly goose. When we did reach the point
there were many rocks and boulder just right for sitting or climbing, your choice. No pictures of our lovely hike
though. Some days I just don't feel like lugging the camera out to the woods. I really need to get our small
camera fixed for those kind of days. That way I would have some good pictures of a goose and fearless climber.
By the way, that said fearless climber is definitely not me. I have a semi-recent fear of heights that I can not explain.







Oh, and I gave in to temptation and wore the elastic pants today! (Mainly because nothing else comfortable was clean) :)

Wardrobe woes

I am not a fashionable person. I wish I were, but it's just not in me. I would rather buy yarn, books, and food than buy clothes.
With that said, I do have to admit that I get frustrated quite often with what is available to me in my closet. For instance-my favorite jeans (these are my nice pair, also) have a hole in the knee. My other pair of jeans that fit also have a hole in the knee.
My other pair of jeans are almost two sizes too big and have to be worn with a pretty baggy shirt to hide all of the jean bunched up under my belt. Since I don't buy clothes very often I have a pretty small rotation going on and that gets a bit boring and honestly a bit depressing at times. Which is kind of where I am at right now.

Which leads me to this: I am ready to wear my maternity clothes! I remember with Henry's pregnancy I was so excited to wear maternity clothes and have my belly showing, and it seemed to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get to that point. That's not the case this time. I am not showing yet so have no need to wear them yet, but at least they are clothes I have not worn in a while! Plus I feel like I have a new wardrobe because my friend Pamela just gave me a huge bin of her maternity clothes to borrow. Now my maternity wardrobe is about 3 times the size of my regular wardrobe.

All I can say is bring on the belly, baby (although please, please try to leave the butt unaffected) . I am in need of a change.

The Week in Weather

It's been pretty crazy here as far as weather is concerned. Within the past week to week and a half it has gone from being in the 40's to being in the 70's. No jackets have been necessary. I wore shorts the other day! Actually, Matt calls them short pants because they come to my knees. Whatever. All that means to me now is that I am going to have to start shaving more regularly. Darn.


Last night downtown Atlanta was hit by a tornado. Downtown. As in CNN, Philips Arena, Centennial Olympic Park.
The St. Patrick's Day parade was cancelled, too. I think most events scheduled for around here were cancelled.



We had some pretty bad thunder storms pass through early this morning. There's nothing like waking to the sound of hail pounding on the windows. As of right now a good portion of Georgia is under tornado watches until 7 p.m.. We have already spent a good 30 minutes hunkered in the garage. I really wish we had a basement. We have so much stuff in the garage that I am not sure it would actually be any safer than a closet on the first level. We contemplated all of us putting on our bike helmets, just in case. So, to say the least, we will be hanging around the house all day since sirens are going off about every 30-45 minutes. Luckily we ran errands this morning and got some goodies to make (cereal cranberry bars).
Here's to hoping that the storms pass without too much damage and that everyone stays safe!

A Hiking We Will Go

Yesterday (and today, for that matter) the weather was unbelievably nice. Warm in the sun with a touch of chill in the shade. Henry and I had a few short errands to run. I decided afterward we would pick up some sandwiches and fruit and head on over to Kennesaw Mountain for a spur of the moment picnic and a little hike.
We went to one of the fields, hung out on our blanket and shared our lunch and played around in the grass for awhile. I could hear a bunch of frogs so we went on an unsuccessful frog hunt. The boy loves frogs. I think the pond was across the railroad tracks and the brush on the other side was to thick and tangled for us to traverse it. We turned around and headed for a trail. Not more than 5 feet onto the trail, Henry seemed very timid. This was a bit unusual. I was a few steps ahead of him and he just wouldn't follow me. I went to him and he held my hand for a short distance and then stopped walking. He was acting a little nervous, which in turn made me nervous. I had never experienced this with him before. He is normally so fearless. I urged him on a few more steps but I could tell he was not comfortable. This was so strange to me. I was also anxious because I didn't want him to feel afraid to go into the woods, but I didn't want to push him either, I picked up and kept walking. There was an uprooted tree lying next to the trail and I think the exposed roots and chunk of ground around it may have been a big factor in his trepidation. We got closer to it and he seemed pretty interested, then at that moment a train came by on the tracks near us and it was over. Henry has never seen a real train that close up and he did not like the noise. He covered his ears and started doing this whiny noise. I gave in and we turned back for the clearing where he was much more at ease. There we continued to frolick and play and just be plain old goofballs.







I found it a bit strange that his nervousness was so contagious. I have always been fine with going out in the woods on my own. I know Matt has been concerned with me taking Henry to certain parks on my own, so maybe that was somewhere in my subconscious. I did realize that we had gone out there and hadn't told Matt where we were going, which was not the brightest thing to do, just in case. I called him shortly after getting back to the field. My biggest concern was Henry's feelings. I want him to be comfortable in the woods, with me or on his own. We normally go hiking at Red Top Mountain and we can't keep him on the trails-he just tramples over and through everything. Maybe it was being in a new place. I'm not sure. We'll try again this weekend.

For the Peanut

A glimpse at what will soon become the Big Bad Baby Blanket (i love this blanket).
Beautiful Koigu. Apparently I am on a Koigu kick.

Abandon Sock!

Yes, the sock has been abandoned, but for good reason. Not to say it won't be picked up again, but I needed the break from it.
It has been tossed aside so that I may knit a hat or two for a great family friend of ours, Shirley. She has MDS [Myelodyplastic Syndrome] which is apparently similar to bone marrow cancer. She has been receiving treatments which are causing her hair to fall out, hence the hat knitting. Her immune system is very weak and she has to stay indoors most of the time. When she and her husband do venture out (usually a movie, or the grocery store) she wears a mask. They can't really allow anyone into their home who doesn't need to be there so they do most of their socializing via the phone or emails. I know this is difficult for them because they are two of the most beautiful, loving people you could ever meet and they love being around their many friends and family. I joked to my Gramma that it is a good thing that they don't just love each other, but that they really do like each other. Her husband sent an email that said 'they may be hermits, but they ain't intellectually dead', so if you have read any good books or seen a great movie lately, please pass the name along to me so that I can let them know. I've been reading the same books for about 3 or 4 months now so I can't pass on a lot of variety if you know what I mean.

I had been having a difficult time choosing a hat for Shirley partly because I am not much of a hat person. Yes, when it is cold I want to wear a hat, but as far as style goes-I opt for warmth and maybe a color I like. Beyond that, well. . .
So for Shirley I wanted to make a hat that was practical and stylish and hopefully flattering on her. My Gramma says she likes lavenders and blues so that helped. I just hope the pattern doesn't get too lost in my yarn choice. I just couldn't resist this yarn and I love the colors. I have a few more hat patterns queued up on Ravelry that I may choose for Shirley. I'd like to make her as many as I can crank out just to give her some choices. I just hope they fit.
For the first hat, I chose to make Fountain Hat by Katie Himmelberg, which is a free pattern at knittingdaily.com. The yarn I chose was Koigu KPPPM in p305.



***on a side note, if anyone could give me a pointer on how to shrink my header image-i am dumbfounded. i have tried everything i know how to do. i mean that is one big header image***

Let Me Rephrase That

I'm sorry. Did I say tip-toeing? I believe I must have stubbed my toe and am now crawling back to my blog world. Sheesh! I'm almost embarrassed, but I have already forgiven myself, so I hope you will do the same.

I have been exhausted for the past month and a half. So far, this pregnancy has been exactly like Henry's. No sickness, a few physical discomforts every now and then, and just being tired. All. The. Time. Not only has this space been neglected, but also all knitting, housework, picture taking, and most communication with anyone outside of my household. Fortunately, I feel the energy levels rising up and I am on the verge of a triumphant return to normalcy. At least until that little bump shows itself. (oh, I can't wait for that little bump!)

So, since I have no knitting news to share, let me tell you about my wee little boy. He has been growing like a weed and so has his fearlessness. He is a climber. Now he is a climber with absolutely no fear. He has been discovered on the kitchen table countless times and is now climbing the shelves in his room (while somehow navigating around the humidifier). Yesterday, while I was making lunch, Henry was playing in the living room. This is normal. I hear tinkering on the piano keys. Again, normal. Then, I realize it has been quiet long enough for me to go, "hmmmmm". This too is fairly normal. So, I peek my head around the corner and what do I find? Yeah . . . the boy is sitting on T O P of the piano. I am pretty sure those were some twinkle toes tickling the ivories. Absolutely, no fear on his part. As for me, well, he does make my heart race but he can sure put a smile on my face in a hurry.

This is a tricky road for me because I don't want to show him the fear I feel when I see these things. I am glad he has the confidence to try. Somewhere I read about a daughter saying her mother never told her "be careful" instead she was told to "pay attention". (I think I read it in 'Last Child in the Woods') I have had to work at adopting this because I found myself saying "be careful" way too often and I believe "pay attention" has more meaning and value. All I can say is that I foresee a mini rock climbing wall (or something of the like) in our very near future.