Garter Brim Baby Hat

Here's a little hat that I knit up for LG right after she was born.  It was way too big for her in the beginning, but I figured she would grow into it.  Now she is about to grow out of it.  

When I started knitting this, I just wanted a simple hat to match the Saartje's Bootees that I made her.  She has long since grown out of the bootees and they are tuck away in a baby box.  I've gotten so much use out of this ball of Rio de la Plata.  Seven projects before I ran out of yarn hat to include another pair of socks that LG has just grown into.

I actually free-knit the decreases on this hat.  I didn't want the traditional spiral and really liked the Turn A Square (rav).  So I guessed how he did it and I suppose I guessed right.  It was really easy.  Just be able to divide your stitch count by eight, pair up the decreases evenly around the hat and decrease one ssk and one k2tog facing each other every other row and you get this.  I you don't understand what I mean, I'm just being lazy and this is why I don't write patterns.

Um... I don't mean to interrupt, but Mom....  you got a little somethin'... right...  No other side... Okay you got it.

We've gotten a ton of use out of this little hat and I will hate to see it go once her head has out grown it.  Though I am hoping that her head will stop growing at some point in time.  At her last check up she was in the 99th percentile.  I guess she got her daddy's head, all full of brains.  The big heads in my family are just our egos.

Okay enough of this already.  I want to go outside and play now.  I don't care if it's been raining.  You have to change my clothes ten times a day anyways.

Assembly Required

Last week was an awesome week.  Tuesday to be specific.  BG and I played hooky from school and went to the zoo with LG.  We had a good excuse.  My cousin from Utah was in town with his family and my Aunt came along, too.  If there were ever a good reason to skip school, I think that family we see once every few years is it.

The zoo was a blast.  I'll post about it after the next knitting post.

Afterward, we ran into a little hiccup.  I invited my aunt, cousin, his wife, and their four children to my house for dinner.  It was a very sad sight. 

We don't own a dining room table.  Everyone was crammed around my coffee table eating pizza and hot wings.

Don't get me wrong.  DH and I have both owned a table in the past.  I gave mine to my little sister when I moved to LA and DH's got ruined in storage.  It had metal parts that didn't do well when the garage got a leak in it.

When we moved to the new house, we finally had space to put a table and chairs.  Isn't it a beautiful space?   There is so much space that we could waste some of it and not even have it dent our regular routine.  This is also what this space has looked like since November.  We've had holiday dinners here, overnight guest, and never really needed a table.  Between the three bar stools at the kitchen island and my coffee table, we've gotten by.  It helped that our friends and family were used to us not owning a table for the last 6 years.

We really do need a table.  I hunted around for a while.  Drove to a few stores.  Some tables I saw were cheap quality and some were very expensive.   I dodge efforts by people wanting to pass their used furniture to us.  We are grown ups now and I think that our home furnishings should reflect my our style.

I finally found what I wanted at  a good price and good quality.  I love Ikea.  The people I talked to that have Ikea tables told me that they lasted forever, one table lasted 15 years and it was a hand me down when she got it.  She said it was still is good condition when she sold it.

After the sad incident of watching my cousin's family try to eat at my coffee table, I decided that I had procrastinated long enough.  It was time to buy a table.  I bought and built everything today and there was still daylight to spare.  But not enough light to get a good picture.

I love this table.  It's black-brown colored.  I love the farmhouse style and there are two leaves that we can extend the size for when people come over.  I also bought the bench for one side.  You can't really see it in the picture but I can fit BG and at least two other cousins over there.  I also have a couple of extra chairs for Gramma and Grampa.  If the BIL and SIL come with their family, we can pull the barstools over.  Oh, and I got all of this for about $500.  That means that I can afford a rug to put under it and yarn to crochet placemats.

Now I just need to finish all my WIPs, put a dent in my stash and then I can buy new yarn for placemats.  I already know what colors I want and where I'm going to buy it.  It's so hard to wait -said the procrastinator.

The Poppy Fields

On our vacation we stopped in a wonderful land called Oz.  We didn't check out too many of the sites, but we did spend some time in the poppy fields.  We are pretty glad that the Wicked Witch of the West had been disposed of by Dorothy.  Our schedule would not allow for a nap.

We drove through the Poppy Fields in Lancaster and the flowers are in full bloom.   For as long as I lived in this area, I never stopped to smell the flowers and it smelled wonderful.  I wasn't sure if was the poppy's fragrance or one of the many other different types of flowers growing in the fields.  It was almost citrus like.  Makes me want to plant a bunch of these.

None of these pictures do justice to the bright, neon orange that covered the ground.  We meet up with some friends that live out there and she said that this was a great year for the flowers.  She hadn't seen a year like this for a while.   The kids enjoyed running around and were covered in orange pollen by the time they were done. 

Mom, quick!  I can see the Emerald City!

Comfy Blanket II

I finished the Comfy Blanket II (rav) in time for the baby shower.  Actually a little early which is always good.   When I logged onto Ravelry to enter my dates, I realized that it took me a month to the day.  I think this is the fastest blanket I have ever made.  

It is the same Yarn Harlot stitch pattern that I used for the brown blanket.  I increased the edging by almost twice as much.  As a result, this blanket was even more fun to knit.  It was the perfect balance between the lace and stockinette stitch that I didn't get bored with it.  

I love this blanket just as much as the first.  The yarn, Comfy Worsted by KnitPicks, is super soft.  I was able to feel the brown blanket after lots of washes and it is still very soft, though the stitch definition was lost a little in the edging. 

I can't believe that the last three months of crafting have been dedicated to these blankets and I don't even get to keep them.  LG is a little upset about it, too.

What do you mean they don't belong to us? Chicklet @ 8 mths

Actually she's upset that she is sitting on the grass and not on the blankets.  This girl does not like to be in the dirt.  BG was the same way and now she collects rollie-pollies and snails on all of our walks. 

The Mommy Groups
I've been pretty active in the Red Group this month.  Trying to do something at least once a week.  It's a good thing because one organizers is wrapping up her job before going on maturity leave, another just went back to work and another is getting ready to go back to work.  There hasn't been much posted on the calendar. I'm still very happy with this group and love meeting new members all the time.

I haven't really seen the Blue Group.  Activities I wanted to go to have been canceled due to rain twice  this month.  I'll try again next month.  But honestly, I don't miss them.  I'm thinking about leaving just to take the confusion out of my schedule.  But then again, maybe not.

Cupcakes Done

We've been on vacation this last week, but it hasn't really felt like it.  My SIL and I threw a baby shower for my sister.  There was a lot of work that went into and I'm so glad to be done.  Once we got home, DH and BG went camping and the last couple of days have felt like my regular weekdays, LG and I hanging out together.  And trying to get her back on a schedule.

I had forgotten to take a picture of the dozens of cupcakes that we made and this eight are all that remain.  The fondant was a fun and easy to do and I think that I may mess with it again someday.  BG doesn't like to eat the fondant.  Surprise, surprise, a kid that wants regular frosting on her cupcakes.

The party was a huge success.  With all the fuss that went into it, the only thing that went wrong was the neighbor's dog got into the yard and our guest of honor disappeared for a little while trying to return it to the owners.  Oh, and there was cake.  Lots of cake.  Apparently the MIL still felt as if she needed to buy 2 half sheets of cake from Costco.  I felt a little dumb handing out cake and then cupcakes.  It wasn't my party and my sister didn't seem to mind, so we went with the flow.

Chicklet @ 7mths

Say what?  That's crazy mom.

Cupcakes

My SIL and I are throwing a baby shower for my sister this week.  We are having it at her MIL's house and I've been talking to her on the phone quite a bit lately.  Our first conversation always cracks me up when we started talking about the cake.  The MIL said something along the lines of, "Have you ever heard of Costco?  They have these cakes..."

Wow, Costco.  Huh, what's that?  I told my SIL and the both of us are pretty against the Costco cake.  She says they taste bad, I say that they are ugly.  About a week ago we got the MIL to concede and we are making cute cupcakes instead.  SIL thinks they are cuter and I think they are a lot nicer than cutting up a cake at a party that I would like to enjoy, also.

Thursday and Friday I did the practice run of making cupcakes.

I used to bake a lot.  My mother taught me before she died.  But she never got the chance to teach me to cook.  I joke about how bad my cooking is, but I was always so proud of my baking.  I stopped baking when we moved to LA because we didn't have any space in our house to make a mess like that.  Stepping into the baking arena again makes me a little nervous.  I keep thinking about this blond joke I tell...

Thursday we baked and ate half of the un-frosted cupcakes. I didn't burn down the house or anything, thank goodness.  Friday I decorated the remaining dozen cupcakes.  I also practiced a new skill that I have never tried before, fondant.  It's actually pretty easy.  I used this recipe, recommended by a friend and made a huge mess. 

The shower cupcakes are going to be chocolate with chocolate fondant and little pink hearts on the them.  And there are going to be three dozen of them.  It should be fun.

Knitting
I finished the Comfy Blanket Friday night and sewed in all the ends.  Pics still need to be taken.  I am so glad to finally be able to knit for myself and the kids.  I've already started on something.

The Blond Joke
Oh, and before I forget...

There's this blond. She's feeling ambitious and decides to throw a party and bake a bunch of cupcakes for it.  Getting in the mood, she ties on her apron, pulls out all the ingredients and then thinks it would be nice to light a couple of candles.  She has cupcake scented candles and it would really set the scene.  I guess she doesn't know that baking cupcakes will also scent your house like cupcakes.

She is very busy making a mess in her kitchen when she tosses a dish towel out of the way and it lands on a candle.

WHOOSH!  there is a big fire.

The blond grabs her cell phone and runs out of the house dialing 911.

"Quick you have to come to my house, it's on fire," the blond cries.

"Okay, maam," says the dispatcher trying to calm her down, " How do we get to your house?"

The blond replies, "Duh, in the big red truck."

Ba da dum.

Busy and Botanical

I'm back to feeling 90% today, so we are going to resume our regular busy schedule. 

Yay, it's library day!  I think that LG missed seeing her buddies last week and she has a surprise for them.  Crawling.  She is definitely crawling now and just needs to work on her speed.  It's so nice because she is so much happier when playing on her blanket.  Well, when she stays on her blanket.  She is able to move around and grab whatever she want to play with now.

Needless to say, my knitting basket is now in my closet upstairs and the video games box has been moved to a shelf in the computer area.  It was so nice of LG cleaned out all the old school papers and workbooks for me while I was writing the last post.  She's taking a nap right now.

Botanical Gardens
The girls and I took advantage of the free day at the local Botanical Gardens.  This gardens are a little smaller than the one in LA, but I think that these ones are much prettier.  They have more varieties of plants and it's well organized.  Plus, a huge new kids' play area.  Here we are at a waterfall in one of the rainforest areas of Africa.

One of the fun things about living somewhere new is discovering all the cool stuff to do.  Well, it's fun when you have someone to explore these new places with and you don't have to put in a lot of work to find them.  That is why I bought this book.

It's pretty neat and I recommend it for any mom that lives in one of the counties listed on the cover.  It doesn't have everything, I don't think any book could, but it has a lot.  You can search by county, theme, city, price, or one of my favorites, by month.  I just flip my book open to April and highlight anything that looks interesting and is our area.  For instance, did you know that April 28th is $0.31 Scoop Night at Baskin Robbins? 

I can even search for stuff up by the MIL's house so I'm not bored out of my mind while visiting her. Not that I'm saying grandparents are boring.  I used to hate going to my grandparent's house as a kid.  They were so old and dull.  Wheel of Fortune and watching grass grow.  They didn't get interesting until I was in my 30s, then they were gone.

Okay, enough with the depressing.  This book can even make grandparents fun!

February Easter

I hope that everyone had a Happy Easter.   I was feeling a little better, got some antibiotics.  Things can only get better from here on.

There was a bad side effect of being sick.

I've been feeling miserable since Tuesday afternoon.  Thursday I went to the doctor with a headache, earache, sore throat and a fever of 104.0 degrees.  He gave a Rx and sent me on my way.  Saturday night at 6pm I left the house for a Target run to get Easter Bunny stuff.  When I came back an hour later with only milk, BG said she "knew it."  She had figured out who the Easter Bunny was.  That is what happens when mom doesn't move for four days and HAS to go to the store the night before a holiday.

To tell you the truth, it's so much easier when they do find out.  We didn't do our egg hunt until just before lunch.  Yay, I didn't have to go out in the cold, dewy morning and hide eggs.  We did talk about how we are not allowed to not spoil it for the other kids or LG as she grows up.  I think that next year, BG is going to want to help with the bunny duties and that will be fun for her.

LG had a wonderful time playing with her eggs.  They were filled with all of her favorite baby treats.  She also got two new bouncy balls in her basket.  Balls are the best for chasing around the house.  She's not crawling, but she is boot-scooting everywhere and will find any piece of paper left anywhere. (as of this moment, she has pulled every workbook and school activity paper we have off the shelf in the computer area)

BG had a fun Easter Egg Hunt.  I was tricky and hide the eggs in harder spots.  She looked for a least 20 minutes if not more.  I only hide eggs in the backyard, but who knew I could find so many spots.  She had somewhere between 30-40 eggs and 7 of them she needed a little help.  Trees are awesome and at this age they assume I only hide 1 egg per area.  Good thing I didn't hide all the golf balls that the Easter Bunny brought, too.

It didn't stop at our house either.  We made our way up to Grandma's house.  I did a good job of hiding eggs in her yard and BG still needed help with 1 of the 14 eggs.  Though Grandma's eggs were cooler because they had chicks and butterflies on them. The tough egg was a ladybug and blended into the hiding spot.

The girls were so cute in their February Sweaters and I did manage to get a picture of the two of them together.

"Shh, it's really my uncle in a bunny suit."

So, LG wasn't feeling the whole Easter Bunny vibe that everyone else had.  We did take her away from her eggs to take this picture.  It seems that even with an entire day of both girls dressed up in their sweaters, this seems to be the only picture of them together.