Bliss Beyond Naptime

Slippy Slippers and Spring Spin Challenge

I made some slippers and have confirmed the origins of the word 'slipper'. Love our stairs but whooooa, can't wear these puppies while going up or down. I slid down and one thing about strawbale walls; gorgeous, incredible insulation but damn they can give you wall burn! So these are now designated downstairs wear. These are a free pattern here: Aunt Maggie's.

Think I got knitting out of my system for a little while so on to spinning whilst we continue on with our Battlestar Galactica watching addiction after supper. Blonde Chicken came up with the idea of Yarn Everyday for April. Think I will participate to stock up the shop as well as the brick and mortar store here in town that is requesting more yarns for tourist season.  So if you're up for the challenge there is a Rav group here. Wish me luck!

Girly Girl

It' fine time for Edie's 2009 Spring Frock. I let her pick a fabric from the stash and a pattern from Girly Girl style (this is a cool etsy shop where they have heaps of such books with such awesome titles). I lovvvvve Japanese crating books. I love the smell of them. They smell like what I imagine the streets of Tokyo must smell like kind of like how the smell of burning garbage takes me instantly back to Peru. I love the models and the poses they strike; holding pretty surreal objects like toasters or taxidermied bunnys and looking so ho hum about it. No big deal. Just holding a toaster. Waiting for my toast.

I love making sense of the pattern supplement. Staring at it until the pieces jump out like those posters in University days with Jimi Hendrix's face hiding in a sea of squiggles and the poster seller just standing there beside you whispering "just relax your eyes... you're not relaxing your eyes" over and over again until you finally see Jimi or you at least say you do. While I stare I also like to pretend in my head I'm reading Japanese. Makes me feel so cosmo.

 The dress was done in one nap interval. She was so excited. It's been a flowery weekend for her. The first blossoms have popped out in her garden and she's been giddy ever since she spotted that. I tried to get her to hold a frying pan for the photo shoot but she refused. I exlained why and everything. We compromised and she picked out an obscure hat that you can't even see because she stared up at the ceiling the whole time as her interpretation of the direction "look ho-hum".

I used bias tape for the neckline/tie in lieu of fabric and hmmm... not too happy about it looks a little budget but Edie's thrilled because, duh - it's pink!

This one felt good. Took me back in the day when my mom would let me pick out a project from one of her German Burda magazines. Then the next day I'd have to explain at school that the plaid knickers and matching tie set (the tie was secured around my neck with an elastic band so I can stretch it out while I talked to my junior high girlfriends as a nervous habit) will be all the rage in five years because that's how advanced fashion-wise the Germans were on us. I had lots of explaining to do. My mom made me a collection of five knickers and matching tie sets! Ah... spinning wheel just keeps spinning round and round.

BJs

Nothing like the aroma of fresh cheese in the morning. I get carried away when Craig hands me a prop in our photo shoots. BJ's. As in Bamboo Jammies. These are pretty damn soft but were almost the death of me. I don't know if it's just been a week of distraction or what but as I told Edie as she was playing beside me as I was I sewing these  "Mama could have made ten pairs of jammies by now!" And she laughed her head off. For some reason she found that soooo funny.

My mom gifted me a whack of bamboo fabric when I told her that Fabricland is now carrying it. This one felt like the bamboo sheet set I was this close to buying when I was in full on nesting mode right before Kale was born. I didn't have enough for both top and bottom so had to go with just the bottom. Size small. I'm a medium. So when I kept screwing up this basic, basic project I could have kicked myself in my bamboo swaddled butt in the end.

Ugh. Just noticed they're a little see through (read with a thick Spanish accent: and so whaaaat. Who doesn't wear undeewear? - That's what my mom said when I mentioned wedding dress number three she made me was see through. No wait it was - who doesn't have neeples?).

One other thing I recently observed about myself, I love to talk whilst I rip zee seam -  just to diffuse the frustration maybe? I don't know but  I left my best girlfriend a few messages this week - "just seamripping again. Seam like a good time to call. Ha, ha". Then I would resew it all crazy like and then at one point they somehow turned into MC Hammer Jammies (MC Jammer Hammies?) rip, rip, rip, call my buddy, blah, blah, ooops! Other stupid mistake  - I better get off the phone now. Cut, rip, rip. The jammies were getting smaller and smaller. And, in the end, they are sewed up side ways if you can believe it. You can see it on the outside seam. And at this point I don't care. They felt pretty nice to sleep in last night. Dreamt we were sleeping in bamboo sheets. At least my lower half was.

Spring Birds

So we've been in a springy mode around here. Reading the gardening books, designing the 2009 gardening frocks, getting our minds around how truly blessed we are to be living here, living out our dream. Above is a special score I got from Posy Gets Cozy as a special gift to myself a few years ago just because I love myself so.

 

We finally took down Edie's Valentine montage from her bedroom window and were lucky enough to find a Mama Robin willing to lay a nest down and give us a peek into her mad procreation skillz. Edie's very stoked about seeing her eggs. An interesting experience witnessing her exercise her patience muscles. When's the robin going to lay her eggs? When is she? When, when? Eventually her short term memory muscle lost out on that arm wrestle and we're on to the next segment of our day.

I told her probably in a few days. Mama will lay three robin-egg blue baby capsules and a few weeks after that, when Edie inconspicuously checks under her butt, perhaps there will be babies three. This is kind of a flight-stimulator training for when we get the laying birds. Egg collection will fall under the jurisdiction of an Edie chore (I've always had this fantasy of saying 'not till you do your chores' like Ma always told my imaginary friend Laura Ingalls while I was growing up).

Then it was time to put the Easter tree up. I asked Edie to look at it with awe in her eyes for the camera:

 

I told her,"hmmm, not quite awe. Looks like you're scared. Try with googley eyes. Like how Kale looks at you."

 

There we go. Experiencing deja vu? Here's a two year old awe-struck Didi:

Spring Rolls

I woke up at 4:00 am to the sound of what I thought was the first spring bird but it was Kale's little nose squeaking. Change is in the air. He use to wake me up with the sounds of winter pig; snorting and rooting. So damn cute! Here's the little piglet-bird swimming in some merino I've been dyeing in spring flavours (no fiber has been harmed in the making of this blog post).

The winner of the Rebar cookbook is (drum rolling, Craig's eyes rolling, Kale's rolls rolling, everything's rolling)...:

3

Random numbers generated Mar 20 2009 at 7:46:41 by www.psychicscience.org.
Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magic.

Mind you I had to randomly generate three times because it appears like Diablo seemed so devilishly wrong to most of you. It's actually a drink recipe in the book. I'd post it here but that may violate some copyright rules. Let's just say it's a carrot juice concoction with a wicked jalapeno kick. The correct answers were Chocolate Cocoa Puffs and Granny Candy. Thanks for playing and congratulations to Carrie!

We have a big day here. We're going to "town". Kale's first time in the car for this long - a forty minute drive plus some hustle and bustle for I'm forced to renew my driver's license. In my perfect world we'd never have to leave the vicinity of our township. Wish us luck. Luckily Craig's coming so I can sit in the back with Kale and mesmerize him with my hot pink knitting needles. He LOVES watching me knit. I just cast on some slippers using Aunt Maggie's Slipper pattern. Suppose to be stupid quick. Should be done tonight I bet. It is Pizza and a Movie Night after all (though I'm going to play my mum card and request a batch of organic chicken wings from the restuarant - crazy craving). Love Fridays!

Vest Intentions

Ummm... yeah. I see the stray trying to escape to my armpit over there by the shoulder and there are huge gaps between the stitches and the flowers look like a colony of  rare South American slugs crawling toward  my ear to nest and build a population of cyclons in my head (ooooo... we just started getting into Battlestar Galletica here by the way) but, you know what? It's surprisingly comfy!

This is Isobel a French Girl pattern. Love these patterns. Super basic but oh so Frenchy. Like when Craig and I went to Paris and were super bitchy at each other but then he asked me marry him anyway. Le sigh. So, I call this Iso-smell because of the slugs flowers. It's a perfect top layer for chilly morning coffee suckage. Once the swelling goes down in the chestal area in another two to three years or so it should somewhat cover the front of my body too! Until then, I just do my good 'ol morning yoga: hunch in front of the computer, type with one hand, coffee in other. Now the vest will just have to play halfsies with the coffee hand.

Oh yeah, I made the eyelettes to0 high on the back me thinks (this is why I need a dressform!) but that's okay, I learned a lot from this one. Pretty close at the top of the queue (after some slippers and a vest for Kale) is another French Girl pattern; Margeaux. I'll be spinning the yarn for that one too. Though this time I'll have no shame and will be using my huge orifice to the maximus (my wheel has the biggest orifice I could find to accomodate art yarn spinning) and hopefully that'll avoid the gappy look here on the back of Iso-smell. Now my favourite part, starting a new knitting project.  Exciting but the rush's a bit muffled by that intoxicating smell of spring in the air!

Back on the Bus Again

(edited to clarify contest rules because according to my publisher (Craig) they're the most confusing ever~!)

I was sent to a public high school because my parents felt that my catholic junior high school friends were a bad influence on me and I was heading straight toward a life of debauchery and sin (sorry Gnat). So despite my tears and 'I swear I'll's",  off to to the high school that my older brother excelled in I go(for the above reasons plus there was a school bus that picked us up close to the house because you know all about the sinnings that go on on public transit.)

One of my first days there I was in band class and everyone had to introduce themselves. I was all ears (and overbite - that's what clarinets do to those in the middle of their impressionable years) because the only souls I new were the drunk girls my catholic junior high school buddy introduced me to so I won't be lonely. Now THAT's the real story how I was lead down the path to debauchery and sin (thanks Jackie). And this guy (I'll change his first name to protect his identity but he real life last name has to stay as is because it's the punchline) says "my name is Carlito. Carlito Rebus. Like as in back on the bus again". I thought that was sooooo funny. And I laughed so hard with my huge overbite shining in the sun. I was one of the cool kids as you can imagine. He was funny. That inspired me to change the explanation of my maiden name. "It's like don't bump your head. Hey, duck!"

So there's the long winded introduction to the next contest. The title reminds me of Carlito. I'm giving away this amazing cookbook from a Victoria restaurant that's super famous here in Canada. It's full of vegetarian recipes and Goddess knows I love me a good cow (blue, blue, blue rare) but this cookbook's mmm-good. Contest deets:

1. check out the shop.
2. type in the word "rebar" right beside the search button at the top of the page. Hit the search button.
3. From the items that pop up try to guess which one is not named after a recipe from the Rebar book.
4.  Add your guess in the comment section of this post. ONE GUESS and ONE COMMENT per person please! -  just to make things fair.  There are two correct answers.
5. I'll draw using a random number generator on Friday morning until I hit an entry that has a correct answer. I will then post the winner on Friday's blog entry.

Imagine. You too could be feasting on a Sensitive New Age Sloppy Joe right now and I'm not talking about Craig (bummer, I sold that yarn already - that was the best recipe name in the book). Good luck!

To Do to Ta DA!

It's just about spring equinox and along with the occasional snow melts there's that whiff in the air of major to do lists to jot down. Indulge me here.

• Of course, every proper list begins with what's next in the knitting basket. I have yet to knit Kale something. I know, I know. What kind of Soulemamawannabe am I? SO, like any good wannabe, I'm going to whip him up a vest like the one Soulemama made for her little guy (our guys are the same age. She got pregnant, then I had to get pregnant. Wait a minute. I got pregnant first! SHE'S the wannabe. Cool.) Poor little guy. There he is on his first date and he didn't have a stitch of handknit to wear. HER mama whipped up a cute little dress for her. Please don't call the authorities on me. I try my best.

• Speaking of vests, I have to finish my Isobel that I started back in January. I am so close yet so far. I ran out of yarn so had to order some more merino roving. It has since arrived and I spun up a skein yesterday and I shall resume knitting it tonight while we watch season one of Project Runway just to make sure there are no weird skips on the dvd before we post it up on Ebay. Our duty to society.

• Oh yeah, Mama also needs some new slippers. All my favourite socks are bust now. Even my beloved Monkey socks pictured above are composting away in our pile. I'm on project destash still so we'll see what I can whip up from there. Holy crap, everything on my to-do list is related to knitting. How about if you're on Ravelry you just check out my queue there and if you're not, oh my gawd! What are you waiting for? Knitter's paradise. Sign up for the waiting list already!

• Move away from the knitting. We are researching and deciding on animals. For sure chickens (those are chickens, right?). Then we're deciding on some kind of milk-giving device other than me. First we were thinking cow but then it's hard to knit cow fiber. Maybe a pig to help with plowing the field preparing it for bigger gardens next year. Really it's all about the food. We're buckling down and trying to raise/grow as much of our own as we can. Edie's really into this project too. She phrases it "then we don't have to go to the store for x, y and z anymore!". Interesting how she hates shopping almost as much as I do.

• To help us with this grand endevour, as some of you may know from past posts we're members of the local Farmer's group. There are monthly meetings with workshops ie chickens, greenhouses, seedsaving. We're going to host the next one in April so the oldtimers (as in farming long time) can tour the land and help us with this blank canvas to decide optimum sites for chooks, sheep etc. I'm kind of nervous/excited about this. There's going to be somewhere between 20 to 40 people here for the potluck. I'm better with smaller numbers but this will be a good excercise in de-analization for me, if there is such a word.

Much more to do including a book club we're partaking in, my sewing frenzy for my spring 2009 collection soon available in my shop and spring fiber fun. Might have to have a part two-do list. HEY! Tomorrow's the debut of my first newsletter so if you want to receive it and along with some special top secret passwords on discounts on my store and heads up on giveaways sign up now (right there on the right margin) before you sign up for ravelry. Ta da for now.

Just a Boring Horse

There's a saying around this house; only boring people are bored. So when Edie whines those lovely words, first I say the family saying then if they're uttered a second time, and I'm really needing a few extra minutes to finish up whatever it is I'm elbow deep in, I tell her to get out one of the toy craft books. The book she chose this time was Creative Play for your Toddler two to four year olds. The deal is she can pick out one of the toys from there and after I'm done putting the bread in the oven, posting my  blog entry, braiding my armpit hairs or whatever, we'll start working on it together. We also have an edition for babies so when Kale gets fussy we have him flip through those pages.

This time she picked out this horsey because the dolls of the doll house need a horse to pull around their carriage (you know, with the peak oil crisis and everything. But this is a HAPPY blog!!!). Cool how the morning sun makes the horse look like a bit of a blue hair.

This photo sucks but had to show you the girl in action (the horse is a girl - we are quite positive of that, being pink and all). Edie rigged a carriage out of a gift bag filled with toy blocks that serve as seating and an elastic I cut out of skirt lining to reign in Pink Beauty. Ha, Boredom! Take that!

Goldilocks and the Three Hairs

It's been a while since we had a Kale post. Since the last time I captured this elusive creature on film, he has grown a massive head of delicious golden locks that you just want to lick! Just joking you. Edie and I were playing around with how he'd look with her hair then mine. He's still sporting the same three hairs we've left you with last episode. The only thing different is he weighs probably about ten times more. Seriously! My mom sent us some jammies for him size 6 - 9 months. Just on the cusp of being too small! It's like sausage casing on him! He's three months old, people. Behold the power of booby juice (can't be a post around here without that b-word these days - seems to help increase traffic, strangely).

And wouldn't it be cool to have a kid around here that looked like me? Here's a nod to his Peruvian heritage (here's my mum: He looks like a leetle churro).

So I know I promised (and you're all awaiting for with abated breath) my first newsletter at the beginning of the month but I'll be working on that over the weekend and hopefully everything will be good to go by Monday. There are just a couple of projects I have to finish giving birth to over the weekend so I can offer an explanation over the newsletter. Is that a bad sign when your works need an explanation? Man, the ideas that are coming to me. Craig was up all night holding me (naked of course) rocking with me as the 'idea contractions' were hitting me like waves, over and over again and we just sat there rocking and crying together while I wailed "chocolate.yarn". Just a hint. So you better subscribe to the newsletter before Monday is all I'm saying.