Got the munchies, anyone?

The Plumber and I do OK, financial wise, most of the time. God has been good to us, and things always seem to work out. For instance, we really wanted a Kirby vacuum, but no way could we afford the 1600 bucks. Sunday we stopped by a yard sale before church, and found a Kirby for 25 dollars. The Plumber has been wanting a bike, and found one at another yard sale for 4 dollars. And sometimes, God knows I need a good laugh.
I am a BIG user of Freecycle. If you don't know, Freecycle is an online group that you can join and give things away for free, or get things for free. Almost all major cities (and a lot of smaller ones) have a Freecycle group. I have received a toddler bed, clothing, craft magazines, drywall, cloth diapers, and even a swingset, all for free. Of course, whenever I have things that I no longer need, I try to pass the mojo along, pay it forward, and all that.
So last Monday, when I saw an ad for a box of magazines, I thought, Wow, that would be great for the kids to use in school/art projects! The woman sent me her phone number for directions. When I called she said that she had a few different kinds of magazines, and would look around her house to see if she had anymore. When I stopped by to pick them up, a man answered the door, and handed me the box of magazines. I happily ran back to my van and peeked inside to see what was there. This is what I found.



I laughed so hard I cried. I can't believe that was it. No other magazines. Just High Times.
Now the kiddos can make a chart labeling the different qualities of good and bad marijuana. What a great science fair project!

Or what about a bong collage? How proud I would be to hang that on the fridge!

In to the garbage they go.

In other news, the socks won first place at the state fair, and so did the hat! The hat also won Judge's choice. I am so excited! I am proud of my knitting, and do it for my own personal enjoyment, but it is nice to have some positive feedback in a contest type setting. Yay!

I have been flirting with the idea of getting a tattoo (Can you hear my parent's screeching?) so I got a henna tattoo at the fair, just to see how I liked having a design on my body for a little while. If I got one, I would probably get it on my foot, but since it's not permanent I got one on my hand where I can see it all the time. I love it!

Getting Ready for my Sister's Wedding

As I hemmed the boys' suits, they burst with excitement over being ringbearers in the wedding.



Yesterday, we all realized that we didn't have any pillows for the ringbearers to carry, so I ran out and bought some fabric, trim, and buttons and kind of winged it. I cut out 12 inch squares of this fabric, sewed the bead trim onto two of the squares, then sewed the second side onto each of the squares. After stuffing, I sewed a button onto the middle and tacked a ribbon on to hold the rings. I am not sure what kind of fabric this is, but if I had to sew a whole wedding dress out of it I might have to stick my head in an oven. It is beautiful, but it stretched and slipped like crazy. Two pillows were enough of an experience with it. Here is one of them, the other one is exactly the same. Both pillows together ended up costing around 19 dollars for supplies.


And while I have been crafting for the wedding, hemming pants, and trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to do my hair, my overwhelming pile of laminated cards that need to be cut out for homeschooling has been sitting on the dining room floor, taunting me. This isn't even half of it.


Tomorrow is the wedding. Can we pull it off with no major accidents, oversights, or embarassments? Can I somehow split into two people and manage to be the photographer and Maid of Honor at the same time? Who knows? Stay tuned.

A fun little meme

5 Things in my Freezer
1.Salmon from a guy The Plumber works with
2.Frozen bread dough
3.edamame (the only vegetable my children beg for)
4. Juice
5.ice packs that I never use but can't bring myself to throw out
(I know that many of my friends thought that something crazy like placenta or afterbirth would be on this list, but no. I just like to look at it, I don't bring it home with me after giving birth. Or at least I haven't yet. I have seen some neat posts about placenta prints and umbilical cord art. You will NEVER see me going THIS far with it though)


5 Things in my Closet
1. My grandfather's baby clothes
2. A scary number of craft projects that I have thrown in there and tried to forget
3. gift bags that haven't been used at least 5 times
4. Paint cans
5. Coats that don't fit anyone but haven't been thrift stored or taken to my mother's house for storage

5 Things in my Car
1. rock hard bagels that have been thrown under the seats by the kids
2. candy wrappers that have been thrown under the seats by the kids
3. happy meal toys that have been thrown under the seats by the kids
4. spare diapers
5. crumbs

5 Things in my Purse
1. a little travel game for the kids if they get crabby when we are waiting somewhere
2. napkins for wiping noses
3. wipes for wiping faces
4. A Pirates of the Caribbean action figure
5. an emergency knitting project

5 Things in my Diaper Bag
1. uh.....diapers
2. toys
3. emergency knitting project
4. emergency candy bribes
5. a drinking straw (not sure why)

It's been a madhouse around here lately. My sister is getting married on Saturday, and we are doing most of it ourselves, so there is a lot of prep work going on. I also decided to make a quilt for her on Wednesday. The shower was Saturday. That's 4 days to make a quilt! I pulled it off, with about 30 minutes to spare. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of it, but I'll stop by her house on Tuesday and take some.
I am also gearing up for the school year to start. I homeschool my kids, with the oldest in 1rst grade and the next oldest doing preK this year. I bought a montessori curriculum, and am really excited about it. It is mostly cards for sorting and matching, etc. The price was around 900 if it was laminated and cut, or 450 if you laminated and cut the curriculum yourself. I couldn't understand why they would charge so much just for laminating and cutting, but after a week of laminating and cutting, I'm beginning to wish I had paid the extra money. (I could have never afforded this on my own, but Alaska has programs where the state gives you 1600 dollars per child per year for homeschooling. You can use it on any schooling related purchases, activities, etc. ) I do have access to a laminating machine for free through my homeschool program, but the kiddos go crazy if they have to stand in a 90 degree copy room for longer than 10 minutes. So I've been doing it in chunks of time that I can get a friend to watch them, or bribe them with some type of treat with a high sugar content. Then after they've gone to bed, I cut and cut and cut and cut. I have a 10 inch high pile of cardstock that needs to be laminated and cut! I have only done maybe 1/5th of it, and was hoping to start school next week. It's looking like that's not going to happen though. I am hoping that things will calm down a bit after the wedding, and I will be able to get more done. I did sign up for the Sockret Pal exchange, sounds like fun and the amounts that you have to spend aren't quite as daunting as some of the others that are around. Since I have been too lazy/tired to take any crafty pictures, I leave you with this little slice of cuteness.

ARRRRR!

A finished pirate hat, matey!



Yarn: Cascade 220 and Galway
Pattern: We Call Them Pirates from www.helloyarn.com
I started out making this for my brother for his birthday, but The Plumber said he wanted it so it is for him now.



And what is this? The Chucks Cabled Socks by Eunny! They are DONE! These took forever but I am so happy with how they turned out.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces for the variegated cables and white sock yarn (that I can't find the label for) for the background.
By far the most complicated knitting project I have ever done. You really have to be on your toes for these, but they are stunning. Also the first time I have used Lorna's Laces, and I am in love!

C wanted me to take her picture, so I worked her into the sock photo shoot. Please disregard my messy, messy house.



Of course, W couldn't be left out and wanted his picture taken too!


I am taking these downtown today to enter them in the Alaska State Fair. This is the first time I have entered anything, I think it will be neat to go and see my knitting on display. But hey, I'm easily entertained.

Clearing my Conscience

I've had several projects hanging over my head, bothering me with their, "When are you going to finish us? Don't you love us anymore?" etc., etc. Well, I've had it. I want them gone! My options are:

A: Pull them out, get back into those grooves, and finish them, while putting all of the really awesome fall projects from Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits even further down my "TO-KNIT" list.

Or...

B: Cut my losses and chuck them.

Which do you think I've chosen?

Take this for example. A journal cover knit on size 1s in itchy alpaca. The different colors are different brands and different gauges. For some reason I thought if I pretended not to notice they would all play together nicely. This is black hole knitting at it's finest. I would knit and knit and it never seemed to get any bigger. And when I joined the pieces I had to scrunch and pull them in a very obvious "doesn't really fit" kind of way to make them go together. Plus, the colors? ICK. It looks like a baby pooped on it.


I bought this cotton yarn and dyed it with RIT dye. The color came out horribly uneven, the skein tangled in the dye and took days to untangle, and it softened to an awful, floopy texture. All of the nubby bits that gave it so much character before washing started falling out all over the place. I ignored these problems, hoping they would go away, (Don't I always?) and started to knit a baby blanket. I used needles that were too large, and a basket weave pattern that didn't show up in the textured yarn.


And this is where they are now.


I feel so much better! A huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Now all I have to do is finish those cabled socks by Monday and I can start something new. (Before you ask, Of course I still have other projects going, I just don't hate those...yet)

Ooh, Baby

So remember all that talk about trying to dress nicer even though I am home all day? Yeah, it lasted about 24 hrs. One sleepless night and day of housecleaning and the pajama bottoms found their way back into my heart. I ran out of Diet Coke today (gasp), so as soon as the Plumber got home from work, I decided to run to the gas station and get one.

Plumber: You're going to go looking like that?

Me: Yeah, and don't be suprised if a celebrity sees me and decides he can't live without me.

Plumber: If The Rock saw you like that, he'd be all over you.

Me: Oh, yeah. Or maybe that hot guy from CSI. He'd definitely want this.