Eat Your Frog!

Why does my kitchen look like this?

It's been so long since I've been posting regularly, so there are  a lot of things that I want to write about. I decided today to stick with one of the big things that I'm doing in my life right now. The cute kid pictures and knitting adventures will have to wait for another post.

(OK, just one...)

I haven't had very much free time at all over the last two to three weeks. Family emergencies, busyness with work (including some big projects coming due), a toddler who is reaching new milestones daily (like figuring out how to open doors...I'm not a huge fan), financial stress, general exhaustion...the list continues. Generally I can manage to balance everything, but with my daily goal of having a cup of tea and knitting (even for two minutes), I can tell that time and energy is in short supply when I haven't knit in more than a week.

Anyway, I was reading a funny blog a couple weeks ago and followed a couple links that were on the page. I eventually got to this website: http://52bites.com/. I'm in love! Tsh Oxenreider has essentially taken all the things that I want to focus on and created an e-book about tackling each thing in a manageable way. Her blog is www.simplemom.net and she describes the goal of her blog is to help her readers live more simply. How lovely is that? The idea is very attractive.

So. Back to the e-book. Tsh sells an e-book on her website called One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler. The cost is even simple...$5.00 US for an instant download of the book.

The book is written in 52 sections, one for each of the 'bites' that you can tackle. The sections are short and sweet. Some are more intuitive than others, some are more complicated. The book is divided into different themes: living green, living well, money management, organizing your mind, organizing your space, relationships, taking care of yourself, and time stewardship. Many of the 52 sections fit into multiple categories. There isn't one single theme or section in the book that I don't want to tackle. I actually have had the book open in a minimized window since I bought it, so that I can open it up and read it when I have a chance. I've been so busy lately, but can easily find three minutes to read a new section and think about how to incorporate it into my life.

To start, I tackled a few sections that were similar to things I already did (drink more water, carve out intentional downtime). Some of the sections I'm currently tackling are things that have been on my to-do list for a while (declutter your wardrobe, streamline your email). My clean kitchen is the result of #39, which is 'make a daily to-do list'...again something that I've always done, but with some great ideas of how to make it more workable (and guilt-free). Also, I use #1 every day, which is 'eat your frog'...one of my favourites, based on the quote from Mark Twain, "Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day." I'm looking forward to the sections on making a debt-free plan, creating an essential papers file and dumping your brain.

Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll end the post with a picture of what my living room currently looks like...always a work in progress:

Static!

Weekly Update

Oh, hello! Do you remember me? I can't believe it's so long since I've posted. I had such a good rhythm going but life seemed to get in the way. The funny thing is that the big reason I got derailed was because it was Spring Break and I had more family time. That's always the time that I plan to do more things that I really want to do, but in reality do less relaxing and have more organized outings.

So, my plans have been derailed for a little while but are now back on track. I think that as time passes and I'm not meeting a personal goal (about finances, exercise, sleep, etc., etc.) I feel that I need something big to jolt me back into the routine or as penance for not keeping up with my plan. To that, I say, screw it. I'm going to keep posting on my blog at least once a week and refuse to be sucked into guilt about not posting. For anyone who has known me over a long period of time, this shift from every-present guilt to acceptance and (dare I say?) compassion may be shocking.

Life has been pretty busy in the last five or six weeks. I'll post more about that in the next few days. I haven't been keeping up with my goal of knitting every day, only because I was sick and have been putting in a bigger effort to get more sleep. I have some ridiculous stories about keeping up with a two year old and almost-one year old (who said his first word today...Mama!...or more like MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA, while crying. But I'll take it!) and have had some photographic evidence of these travails, so keep posted for an update in a day or two. Or five weeks. Whatever, guilt be damned!

I've now started the tradition of colouring Easter eggs with my daughter, which is a tradition that I have previously (and, will again in the future) force my adult siblings and friends to participate in.

Weekly Update

Poets Cove Resort

I'm so excited that Spring Break has started. Our break began last Thursday and goes until April 9th. I feel so lucky that we get to spend this time off together as a family.

Some things I'm knitting this week:
I'm working away on my Sadie baby dress, which I'm making for my soon-to-be-born niece. It's really cute and I love the Malabrigo Sock yarn that I chose. The Violeta Africana colour way is pretty and doesn't pool badly (for all of you non-knitters, that means that the light and dark colours don't group together badly, so that the project looks splotchy).

I also just bought the pattern for Jared Flood's Tweed Baby Blanket. I know that I keep putting off my cowl design that I want to write up, but I realized last week that I have another friend who is going to be having a baby shortly, and I thought it would really be nice to finish a project before the baby actually comes. 

Some things I'm loving this week:

Poets Cove Resort

Good friends who volunteer to watch my kids. Overnight. When one of our friends heard that I had never been away from my kids overnight (M is 2 and a half years old and T is 9 months old) she suggested that she could watch them while my husband and I went away. It was challenging to get everything sorted but I was motivated. Pumping milk over a few days, since T is still nursing, cleaning, writing out instructions, prepping meals...all of it totally worth it to actually sleep through the night for the first time in 3/4 of a year.

Poets Cove Resort

We went to Poets Cove, which is a resort located on Pender Island, BC. We live on Vancouver Island, so it was a relatively short ferry ride for us. Of course, I was tired when I was reading the ferry schedule and we ended up taking the ferry that stopped at Mayne Island and Saturna Island before we actually stopped at Pender...a grand total of 2 and a half hours. I thought it was a short ferry ride so we didn't have breakfast first. We ended up raiding T's rice husk teething biscuits from our emergency car stash. After such a delicious, filling breakfast, we napped in our car on the ferry. I could tell my husband was tired when he slept through the ferry docking and three cement trucks backing on to the ferry, parking beside our car.

We made it to the hotel, where we napped, went for a walk, went for dinner and then slept through the night. Glorious! The hotel was really beautiful, as you can see from the pictures. Of course, we didn't see as much of it as we could have since we were sleeping most of the time. The island was also really lovely, with green, lush forests everywhere you look. We'll definitely be going back.

On a side note - our kids ended up not going to bed easily, waking up (between the two of them) four times during the night and M got up for good at 5 am. My friend was impressed that we do this everyday. I think it would be a great form of birth control for people to try once or twice. 

Some things I'm working on this week:

With the start of Spring Break, plus going away overnight, I decided that I was going to prep meals ahead of time and freeze them. My favourite way of cooking is the crockpot, hands down. I now have a freezer full of prepped meals that are kid-friendly, gluten-, dairy-, soy- and peanut-free, and can all be cooked in the crockpot. If I can muster the energy, I'll post what I did in the next few days.

All three pictures labelled Poets Cove Resort are from the Poets Cove Resort website.

Weekly Update

Well, I'm only a week or so behind with my weekly update, but who's counting? We've had a lot of upheaval lately but the dust seems to be settling. Just to add an extra challenge to our lives, we're going to host a small party at our apartment after work. My husband invited 35 people. I would guess that our apartment could comfortably fit 10. Maybe 12. I guess we'll be cosy!

Some things I'm knitting this week:
I finished my socks, which I love. When M saw them, she asked me for a pair for herself. I've been working on those when I have a few moments, but they're few and far in between. I'm sticking with my challenge of knitting every day...however, sometimes I'm picking up the needles at 1 am. That still counts though, right?

On the horizon, the cowl that I started a while ago. I love the pattern (created by yours truly) but need to size up the needles. I'm going to rip it back and start over, writing down the instructions this time.

I also just bought a lovely skein of Malabrigo Sock in Violeta Africana, a beautiful variegated purple. I'm going to make a little knit dress for my new niece (the very first one, after four nephews!) who will be born sometime in March. Hopefully I will finish this project before my niece turns 8.

Some things I'm loving this week:
This blog makes me laugh all the time. You know when you need a good laugh? Go check this out. I think I can relate to 99% of what she writes about. The only reason it's not 100% is because her kids are slightly older than mine. That's it.
http://crappypictures.com/

Posts I can especially relate to:
http://crappypictures.com/2011/05/what-it-is-like-to-change-diapers-illustrated-with-crappy-pictures.html

and this:
http://crappypictures.com/2011/07/my-cat-before-after-kidsillustrated-with-crappy-pictures.html

Making soap...I'll post more info soon.

Some things I'm working on this week:
Hanging on for dear life. While party planning.

Off to go wake up the kids from their nap. Just kidding! M has been crashing around in their room the entire 'nap' time and is now alternately yelling "MAMA!" and playing a trumpet.

Vintage Socks

One of my very favourite knitting pattern designers is Susan B. Anderson. She can do no wrong. I was an off-again, on-again knitter until I discovered her book Itty Bitty Hats. Now, as my husband likes to call it, I 'knitblog', which I think really says something about how she is so inspirational. Susan has a great series of Itty Bitty books as well as a very cute book called Spud and Chloe at the Farm. I don't have the last book yet but it's only a matter of time. Susan also has published many free patterns - not only is she a brilliant designer, she's very generous too.

Susan recently shared some of her latest knit socks on her blog. She had such a big response to the posting that she wrote down her personal pattern for making socks - found here (and here is the ravelry page). Although I've got a few other projects on the go or waiting in the wings, I had to cast on for this pattern right away. I dug out a skein of my precious yarntini Self Striping Sock yarn in Vintage.

Susan's sock pattern is a quick and easy knit. She has mastered the art of pattern writing. Her instructions are always crystal clear. This pattern would be perfect if you wanted to try casting on for your first pair of hand-knit socks.

The best part for me...Susan and I have the exact same size feet, so I followed the pattern exactly. Not a single change. They fit perfectly. I had planned on doing my weekly update today, but I decided instead that I had to write about my lovely new socks. Did I mention that I love them?

Weekly Update

This has been a busy, stressful week this week - hence, my Monday post is being written on Friday. Next week is another week, right? Trying to sort out lots of job stuff for next year, which will hopefully be resolved very soon. Also...we're going to be moving (very close by) in July. Big changes brewing in our household.

Some things I'm knitting this week:
Lovely socks. A great pattern (as always) by Susan B. Anderson, called How I Make My Socks. I especially love that I can follow her exact pattern because we have exactly the same size feet. I finally broke out this yarn, which I had been hoarding for a long time. It's Yarntini's Self Striping sock in the Vintage colour way.

Some things I'm loving this week:
Watching my kids play together. Having 'help' in the kitchen from my daughter. Learning to cook around M's food allergies (no dairy, no soy, no gluten, no peanuts).

Some things I'm working on this week: 
Keeping my sanity? Actually, working hard on keeping my personal integrity during a stressful time. Also, figuring out what I want and how to ask for it.

Happy (Late) Valentines Day!

While my husband and I don't really do a lot to celebrate Valentines Day (for example, I wrote down on the grocery list that I wanted a few bunches of red tulips - romantic, isn't it?), I had a lot of fun this year with Valentines crafts with my daughter. She made some Valentines cards to hand out to her friends.

We put up some Valentines stickers, but the windows still looked a little bare. Inspired by this post, we made our own hearts with crayon shavings. I didn't have a crayon or pencil sharpener, so I used a knife to create shavings. M helped choose the colours and unwrapped the crayons. Have you ever seen a two year old concentrate like that? T was a good sport and hung out with us while we worked.

M and her wild, wavy hair. T wanted to grab hold of the crayon shavings to stick them in his mouth.

Crayon shavings, before melting...

...and after.

I used a cookie cutter to trace heart shapes. We decided that we liked the pieces of waxed paper that had only a little bit of crayon shavings too.

Hope you had a great Valentines Day!

Weekly Update

I had a great birthday on Saturday. I treated myself to some new tea from Silk Road Tea. I got their Summer Shangri-La tea, which I absolutely love (you have to scroll down to the near the bottom of the page). I also grabbed two new tea cups that match my favourite tea pot. 

I was also spoiled by a good friend who got me a pack of three tins of Silk Road teas, as well as other very lovely presents from friends. Apparently when I ask for no presents, it means that everyone brings me presents. 

Some knitting this week:

-I picked up my First Snow Mittens again and cast on for the second mitten. The thing about mittens is that it's best when you have two that you can wear! I finished the first, which was all that was needed for the test knit. I put the project down so that I could do some Christmas knitting and haven't picked it up since then. It's knit from the bottom up, and so far I've finished the first two rows of snowflakes.

-I have a bunch of projects that I want to finish up, but when I saw that Susan B. Anderson posted a pattern for a pair of socks, I decided that I had to cast on for it. I have a skein of Yarntini Vintage that I've been hoarding, so I pulled it out and it's on it's way to becoming a very cute pair of socks.

Self-Striping Sock by Yarntini, in Vintage colorway.

-I still haven't sorted out the Square Upon Square pattern. I know that I wanted to change the pattern a bit but haven't had time to sit and work on it.

I finished my Forest Baby Pullover this past week and posted pictures here.  I so excited because I was able to finish off my Winterfresh Cardigan too. I LOVE it. I haven't had a chance to take any pictures yet, but it's one of my favourite projects that I've finished. I'm actually going to wear it today. Stay tuned for pictures.

Some things I'm loving this week:

-Valentine's Day! My husband and I don't typically celebrate the day, although sometimes we'll get each other a little gift, like some tulips. I'm really enjoying doing some Valentine's Day projects with my daughter, which I'll show tomorrow.

-T is getting more mobile by the minute. He's figured out how to roll, so when he's hanging out in our living room, he's all over the place. Today he also figured out how to make a clicking noise with his tongue. It's pretty cute to look over at him and for him to respond with a loud click and a big grin.

-My husband and I started dating 17 years ago, on February 16th. I just turned 34 years old. So, doing the math, I've now officially been with my husband for half my life. Wow!

Some things I'm working on this week:

-More cringe-worthy errands! I was easily able to do three last week, but want to do another three this week.

-I wasn't able to get together some boxes of donations last week, so I'd love to do it this week.

-Although I didn't make it to 8 glasses of water every day last week, I definitely drank more water. I'm going to keep going with this goal this week.

-Yoga. Hmm. I wasn't able to do this goal last week, so I'm putting it back on the list for this week. I did have two times in the last week when I had time to do some yoga, but went for a massage and out for a drink with friends (not at the same time!) instead.

That's all from me. How did you do with your goals last week? What does the week ahead look like?

Forest Baby Sweater

Although I have a  long list of things that I want to knit (my current ravelry queue is almost 400 items long), every once in a while I get sucked into a test knit. There's a forum on ravelry for people who design their own patterns to request help from other knitters to knit their design, to check if the pattern is accurate (fit, stitch count, do the directions make sense?, etc.).

I recently saw a test knit for the Forest Baby and Child Pullover by Helen from NEEDdesigns (I'll add a link to the pattern page when it's posted). Helen has a whole bunch of really cute patterns that you can find on her ravelry page here. I especially love the Array pattern - I might need to make one for M. You can find Helen's blog here for more info. (An aside - Helen is also a paediatrician who also has four kids. I'm assuming that she never sleeps!)

I was sucked right in. It's a cute little sweater that comes in many different sizes. I haven't knit much for T, and he's now 8 months old. I think the reason is a combination of not having as many cute little boy patterns to draw from plus now having two kids, multiplied by a series of many half-finished projects around my house.

Anyway, I saw this little pullover and had to test knit it. The clincher was that it's knit with two strands of worsted weight yarn (for any non-knitters out there, the bulkier the yarn + the bigger the needles = the faster the project knits up).

I dug through my stash and pulled out some Berroco Vintage yarn, leftover from my July Heat Wave Ruffle Wrap. The colour is called Gingham and is a nice, soft blue. I had some other Vintage that I could use for the accents (the colours were Mochi and Chambray). Overall, I knit the 12 month size sweater in three days, although I could have done it in two if I hadn't run out of yarn (that's how the stash keeps growing - knit a project using yarn from your stash, go buy more to finish a project, end up with more yarn in your stash than when you started!).

T was nice and cozy in his new sweater. Pretty cute, isn't it?

I love being able to test someone's designs. It also really inspires me to get my act together and publish my own...goals for next week, perhaps?