November 29, 2003

Happy days


Latest skating lesson news is that little Miss Zoe has earned her 3rd badge!!! :) The stage 3 badge is awarded to skaters who master backward gliding skills. e.g. backward glide two foot to one foot, two foot turn forward to backward. So you can count on the fast that she is way ahead of mommy and daddy on her skates! LOL! ;) She only has been learning the 3rd level for 3 weeks now, I can't believe how fast she is learning, who knew skating would be something that she would have a talent for when we first registered her. :) We were told that Zoe's teacher is one of the best of all the one's they have, she only teaches the CanSkate program and usually up until the 3rd badge too. Luckily Zoe gets to keep her as a teacher still because on wednesday's she is one on one with her teacher and on fridays, Zoe joins two other girls, since they all got succeeded the level 3 test today, they will all keep on skating together with the same teacher. I just think her teacher is the sweetest of them all, so I am happy Zoe gets to still have her for the time being.

I started a hat for myself using the Kureyon yarn. Can't wait to show it off, looks good and the colors are so beautiful! I am using the same colorway as the booga bag I knitted. This weekend I might felt the bag or wait until I knitted the felted mittens for myself, we'll see if the mood strikes or not! Still need to buy some silver grommets too.


One last proud mom note, Lucas went on the potty all on his own last night. Then this morning he ran to the bathroom and did his business again! Woohoo! Kids are growing up, Lucas might potty learn and succeed in the near future. Carl promised he would bring Lucas skating if he went potty three times today. Ok maybe it's a bribe but it sure is encouraging him as he keeps saying he needs to go two more times before going to skate! ;) After weaning him a few months ago, it is a pleasure to see our youngest grow up so much. He talks a lot more these days and is just the happiest boy ever. At this time I am proud to see both kids doing so well, it is like a band-aid on the pain I went through after my august miscarriage. Oh and as you can see he thinks crochet rocks! ;)

Enjoy the last weekend of november! ;)

Posted by Jo at 09:41 AM | Comments (3)

November 28, 2003

booga-long


Just finished the 6 feet long i-cord! OYE! Luckily I don't hate i-cord as much as others! ;) It went fast while playing cards one evening and while watching The Bourne Identity movie. Bag should be felted this weekend, can't wait to start using it! LOL! Now I can start one of my millions of other projects! ;)

Kids are at daycare for a full 6 hours today. WOOHOO! So dh and I will go shopping and maybe I'll end the day with a new pair of jeans that fit! Been gaining weight, nothing fits, oh I just love it. At least Value Village has tons on clothes, so I should find something in my size! ;)

Yesterday's skating competition was fun, Zoe loved seeing the little skaters in costume! She can't wait for her lesson tonight and the kids we went to see skated well, his mom was shocked that we came to see him skate. She was overwhelmed by pride when he finished his number, I was happy she wasn't alone to see him. Made me proud to be there and support her too. :)

hugs, wishing everyone a great weekend!

Posted by Jo at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2003

just a regular thursday


So today, is just a slow day, nothing much happening yet. This afternoon is my crafting class, we are starting a little Christmas theme. My class will be cut short as I will leave earlier and go encourage a 9 year old boy skater at his 1st competition. :) His mom doesn't know I am going, I can't wait to go to my 1st figure skating competition. It goes on until sunday so Zoe will come with my on another day, she will go wild when she sees all the skaters with their costumes. :) After each skating lesson, we always stay a tad longer to see the bigger kids skate. She just loves seeing them spin and jump and secretly I love it too. ;)

Knitting-wise, I am working on my i-cord handle for the booga bag, am about 4 feet along so it should be done today. Last night I thought about making a bag for Zoe's skating teacher, she's around 16-18yo and is so sweet to her and us. Of course I have no clue what colors she likes, so that's a little problem right now. If she doesn't like the bag, she could always just give to a friend or something! LOL! I think teens are into tote bags, right? I was thinking of doing in Cascade 220 maybe, the main color would be black and then a big bold stripe right in the middle, red or something. I might try to have Zoe ask her teach for her favorite colors! LOL! I just have no clue if she would appreciate a handknit gift, this would be the 1st knitting gift I would make. A part from knitting 2 hats for dh's boss, I have never knitted for others.


Was surfing around on the Skate Canada website and found two knitting patterns I like. I think Zoe would be so proud wearing that sweater and it's not too kid like either. The afghan is cute too, a LOT of work though so I'm not sure I would have the patience but again, it's neat! :)

The sun is out here, wishing a fun and safe Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends! :)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 11:09 AM | Comments (2)

November 25, 2003

new day, new project

Pictures and more pictures.


First is a ball I knitted this morning, as you can see someone came to steal it as soon as it was done. LOL! Notice the freshly cut bangs on Miss Zoe, Lucas also got a buzz cut by daddy today. If you are interested in making balls for everyone you know, you can purchase the pattern at my good friend's website: Little Turtle Knits. NO I do not get paid to say that, Theresa simply had been a GREAT support when I first started knitting and I try to encourage her biz as much as I can. :) Check our her soon-to-be released Learn to knit kits, gets all your friends addicted to our favorite hobby!


Then the Booga bag, still needs the i-cord handle to be knitted. My 1st sock using the Cool Sock Warm Feet book, this is the Timberline Toes pattern. OH, just to make things interesting..... (sigh!) I wanted to unravel the provisional crochet cast on and noticed that the live stitches were dropping.. Oh dear, so I guess I didn't quite get the cast on and now I sure ain't frogging the sock. Grrrr, not good. Oh MY goodness!!! I JUST realised my error... I did a provisional crochet cast on when the pattern said a freakin TUBULAR cast on. My error is that they said to refer to page 110, which is about the provisional crochet and page 111 is about tubular. ARGH! So... what should I do now?

I wanted to say a big thanks to all the comforting thoughts and messages people have sent me in the past few days. I am sorry if I had worried people, in this household we always say that we never know what will happen from one second to the next. Today though all is well, our family just couldn't be better. I use this blog to voice my worries and am sorry to have made people scared for us. Guess I never thought people could be so concerned about us but it is true that in the past months I have made great friends in this blogging world.

hugs and thanks to all for their support. :)

Posted by Jo at 03:37 PM | Comments (3)

November 24, 2003

Toronto, the end

This is the last entry of the weekend in Toronto. Pics might be added another day, I have been lazy! LOL!

Tomorrow, back to more regular blogging about knitting! Yes, I have knitted since Toronto! Just wait and see what. :)

Monday,

Woke up bright and early, we want to make the most out of this last day in town. So off we walk to the Eaton Centre, we need a new bag to bring bag our new stuff. 1st stop breakfast, we stopped at Saint Cinnamon and got some coffee and a sticky chewy incredibly deliciously sweet pecan cinnamon roll! They are the best just a tad still hot from the over. Oh my, my mouth waters as I type this! LOL! We were eager to start shopping but stores only open at 10am and we had time to kill, so we basically walked around the mall and outside too. We went back into it and found a store that sold mostly bags and luggage, perfect, just what we wanted to buy after all. Well... they had some luggages on sale that had the VIA Rail logo printed on them, since we took the Via Rail train to come to Toronto it was almost to fuuny to see those. So, we bought two! LOL! A matching his and hers set, aren't we just too cute. ;) The bags have wheels in the bottom, with a handle so we can pull your bag when it's to heavy or convert them into a backpack too. So we happily went back to the hotel, check out was at noon so we still had some time to prepare. Got all our stuff into our new luggage, put my new Booga bag project in my little handy backpack so that I could knit whenever I had the time. We wanted to get our bags checked in for our train that would leave 12 hours later, no use having all the heavy gear with us and slow us down all day. ;) Took the subway, I just loved taking it and got off at the train station. We thought we had to pay to have our bags taken in at the luggage 'daycare' but if we wanted to have our bags on a seperate wagon on the train then it would be free, being cheap, I mean frugal, we went with the free option.

Dh got a call and he would have to go work for a few hours. I took this time alone as a sign.... must go find more yarn! teehee! So I hopped on the streetcar all on my own and went back to Romni Wools! :) Then, I just stayed there for as long as I could. LOL! Looked through all the Fiber Trends patterns, all the hats and then kids patterns and sadly they didn't have the Fiber Trends #AC-16 pattern in store. The seller did still help me with the wool I should get for the pattern (best to buy wool in Toronto, than in Montreal), silly me just don't have a pattern to go with my wool! :-P Then I walk throughout the store and got some cute printed sock yarn the brand is called Sisu, which I never heard of previously but the colors were fun so I went with those. I splurged on bamboo dpn's simply because I have never used any bamboo needles before and hear the yarn nice to knit with. The customer service at this store is AWESOME, the seller was almost as excited as I was about my purchases! LOL! Oh wait, now that I have some yarn for socks, I need a pattern to knit some. Since I wouldn't have access to the internet all day and was eager to try out these new needles I needed a pattern. There book collection was really nice, I got to read though many books I had heard about on blogs. I spotted a books and knitting with printed yarns, now there's an idea. I have seen before some Regia/Opal/etc. socks that just didn't do justice to the stitch pattern someone had knitted with their yarn or sometimes printed yarns just look funny in a certain pattern. I know I already have some Regia at home and plain old stockinette socks can be boring when knitting a few pairs in a row. So I did buy that interesting books, it's from Lucy Neatby's and is called Cool Socks Warm Feet. I guess it's a pretty good book, as I have seen a few bloggers buying or referring to it since I got back. I wouldn't have thought of buying this book before hand, a book about socks? A 128 page book with only 6 patterns for socks in it? Well, I do not regret my purchase, it is mostly a how-to book about socks and talks about everything in it to achieve socks that you will like AND that will FIT! ;) After saying my goodbyes to the Romni staff and saying that I hope to come back some day, which they didn't seem too worried about. I left and started my walk back to the Eaton Centre to meet back with Carl. Ooooh a Second Cup coffee shop was just on my way so I stopped and got myself a yummy vanilla latte, it was just the drink I needed to put some beat in my walk. LOL! I was smiling at everyone, couldn't have been happier at that moment. I saw where Arton Beads was (apparently a neat beads shop) but it was packed and it said no drinks inside. Since I had just bought my latte, I sure wasn't going to throw it out! ;) We have nice beads stores in Montreal so my main focus was really all about yarn in Toronto.

Once I get to our meeting point, I call dh just to learn that he is in the mall too. So we meetup and I happily show off the Sisu yarn I bought! LOL! We went at the food area and while he ate sushi (OMG! I even tasted sushi...) I went right at it with my new yarn and started swatching. I decided that I liked the fabric the 3mm dpn's were giving me so I didn't have worry about going back to Romni for another set of smaller ones before we were leaving. The rest of our day was spent just walking around shopping and sightseeing. We went back to the CN Tower but only at the gift shop, found a coffee mug for my mom and I got a postcard for my friend Crystal. Wrote to her and sent it right away. We then went for supper at Taco Bell, woohoo! Should've gone more often but we just didn't have time. I thought Taco Bell was a nice fast food option from the regular hamburger and fries places. Wish we had one in Montreal, I love mexican food and a little taco always makes me happy. ;)

So the day went by and the evening flew by even faster, it was weird seeing that our time in Toronto was getting shorter by the minute. We went into Union Station pretty early (9pm, our train is leaving at 11:30pm), dh was eager to hop on the train again. LOL! We went right to the 1st class lounge and I just knitted away on my booga bag. Dh went for a little walk around the train and the subway terminal he came back and said a few restaurants were still opened. We walked around and checked out the food available to us. LOL! I went for cinnamon sticks (which are basically cinammon roll leftover that they cut into strips) they were served with cream cheese frosting, oh my goodness, fat-o-rama heaven! LOL! Dh went for a sub sandwich, we are very into sub's these past few weeks, eat some at least once a week. Finally when we got back to the lounge, I stole half of dh's sub and then we shared my cinnamon sticks. Still time was like frozen, soon enough we would have to board and leave this city that has made my wildest dreams into reality. Ok, so many dreams weren;t that wild! LOL! I still didn't think they could all be realised in a weekend.

The ride home was fun, we had a beer in the lounge car, then went to sleep. It was still a weird night to sleep, it's not all that easy to sleep in a train but hey, it's fun. Carl woke up at 5am and I got up a tad later we ate our lovely breakfast while talked to the Via worker, she was the one who was working in the lounge car and sold snacks from a little window. Us 1st class people get free breakfast both those in coach have to pay for coffee or snacks so she sells them. She was a true sweetheat, couldn't believe how gorgeous my Noro Kureyon yarn was, said it sure was worth the cost. LOL! See why I liked her? ;) I love little jars of jams, our breakfast had some and dh told her how I thought the little jars were so cute. Well once someone has finished their breakfast they have to throw away the jars even if the seal isn't broken. Well.... I ended up leaving the train with 8 tiny jars in my bag. Little things like that make me happy, it didn't costs anything but it sure made my stay in the train a tad more happy.

Once we got into the Montreal train station, we had to run, get our luggage and take the metro/subway right away. Why? The public transportations were on strike, there was a metro and bus service from 6-9am and then 3-6:30pm and then 11pm-1am. If you miss the time slot, you'd have to wait a few hours before taking the public transport. NOT very fun, this strike has lasted a long 7 days. Luckily today everything is back to normal. It sure makes you realise how much you depend on public transport when living in a big city with no car.

Thanks for reading about my weekend in Toronto! :)
------
I was lucky enough to have lived my dream, my expectations were exceeded in every possible way and I can NOT wait until next time Carl and I get to travel together. Hey, I love my kids but leaving them for the 1st time ever for a couple of days has rejuvenated me and made me feel that *I* am a person, other than a mom and that I am lucky to have Carl as a life partner. This weekend has helped us see that we truely do love each other and it was nice to remember it! LOL!

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 05:27 PM | Comments (3)

November 22, 2003

sorry

To those who are eager to keep reading about my Toronto weekend, I am sorry for not having updated more often. After spending the greatest weekend of my life, I have had to endure the worst week of all. Things aren't too good and I am freaking out. Anyway, I am posting a part of sunday on TO but it's not finished.

It is very hard to have motivation to write about happy events when everything else has fallen apart.

Sunday

WOW! Woke up after nine hours of undisturbed sleep, I usually don't even sleep that much but it sure feels great. Once we get out the door the 1st thing we do is ask the front desk for a good hearty breakfast recommendation, the sweet desk clerk suggests Eggstacy and to try the Eggs Ranchero. We will not be disappointed at all, both Carl and I tried the Rancheroo. YUMMMY! This restaurant only serves breakfast and lunches, it has a great menu of everything you might want to eat first thing in the morning, the plates sure are filled to the max. This will prove to have been a very wise choise, as we get to save and skip lunch. LOL! My plate included, a 3 egg omelet with cheese, a spoon of sour cream and hot salsa on top, hash browns, thick sliced toasts (they have like 10 varieties of breads to choose from, poor girl I have her repeat them at least 3 times) also 2 small pancakes were included (you have two choices of maple syrup on the table, either regular or cinnamon coffe). It that a hearty breakfast or what? I can proudly say, that *I* ate my whole breakfast and dh didn't! LOL! ;) One of my little quirks is that I like to bring back souvenirs from anywhere I go too. When we paid, we asked if we could buy a menu, which was basically a laminated placemat, of course the owner wasn't too impressed with my demand and simply gave us one! teehee! See my planned worked, when you surprise people by saying you would be willing to buy a menu, they usually give you one and think those French Canadians sure are weird! ;)

Off to go shopping we go, the Winners store we noticed the previous day should open, it'll be fun to walk around and see what they have. I love shopping at the same store in Montreal, it's the kind of store that has many name brand merchandise but sell them for less (similar to TJ Max in the US). Well dh got lucky and found a sweater, pants and some socks, then we found me a new winter coat!!! Yeah! :) I was actually tired of my winter coat and to find one in Toronto is the great souvenir I could bring back! ;) Walk back to the hotel to leave my old winter coat there and Carl changes into his new clothes, he's so happy about them. We walk to the Eaton Centre because soon enough we will be meeting up with Kate. Today is the Santa parade and the streets are filled with kids and happiness, I still get a little happy when Santa arrives to the mall, it means Christmas trees start to get decorated and lights are everywhere. It's nice to go shopping when the malls are decorated. Back at the Disney store, I still resisted buying anything but it was SO hard, they even had a 20% rebate on everything in the store. ARGH! Luckily though it was 3pm, which meant I HAD to get out of the store to meet Kate, I waved to her as I was leaving the store. Since I had just bought a new winter coat, I knew she'd never find me based on the coat description I had given her the previous day while we talked on the phone.

So uh.... meeting Kate was ackward for all of about 1,675 seconds. LOL! Right away, we had things to say, like, let's run out of this mall while we still can and off we went to Starbucks for a little bagel with cream cheese and coffee/pepsi snack. After 45 minutes, dh had to leave to go work (maybe he thought I would be safe alone with Kate by then!) ;) Then we stitched and bitched! LOL! Talked about anything and everything but mostly about knitting of course. We both laughed a lot, Kate has so many stories to share, she is the kind of gal who did just about everything. We are very different people and it was amazing just listening to her talk, I'm more of a quiet one, trying to never make waves around me. Kate creates waves, good ones, of course! ;) It was fun chatting about Knitty, Interweave Knits, yarns, patterns, designers (hey, she is one of them, after all!). ;) It's amazing how knitting can bring two people together, in other circumstances, would I have ever met Kate, maybe who knows but to have a hobby in common made things easier for us to meet. Being very motherly towards me, she didn't want to leave poor little Jo all alone in this huge city, so we started walking and walking we did, almost made it to Romni BUT Kate is on the yarn diet so it is best that we didn't walk more! LOL! Instead we stopped again in another coffee shop, talked more, knitted a bit. Talked about blogs we like to read, about her job with Spinrite, how Montreal is different to Toronto. So maybe one day I will be able to show off my own city to Kate and her family, sadly enough she could visit the no so hot yarn stores we have here. It might make her appreciate the fine chance she has to be living in the same city as Romni Wools.

Posted by Jo at 08:54 AM | Comments (8)

November 20, 2003

Toronto, the weekend of a lifetime.

This weekend I got to live my dream, it isn't often that everything happens to be perfect all at once but when it does, you make sure to fully enjoy it. :)

At first, I did think it wasn't going to happen, how can something so great, happen to us? Then dh didn't make it to Zoe's skating lesson on friday. After her skating hour, he called and ask that I start packing, he'd be home shortly. Well... time did pass by but dh still wasn't home, I really started to think this weekend wasn't meant to be. Our train was to leave the station at 11:30pm, either we were on it or not. You all already know from my previous post that we DID make it on the train though! LOL! (Hey, I'm trying to add drama to my story!) ;) We took a taxi with our bags, to get to the train station faster, I did get to buy a magazine for the trip and chose to get the latest Interweave Knits. We went to relax a few minutes in the 1st class lounge at the train station, it sure was an exciting experience for us! LOL! It's not like there's tons to do in the lounge, mostly it has leather chairs, free drinks and tv to watch. It sure did help build our anticipation for the night ahead though, what will it be like to sleep in a moving train?

Finally we were invited to board the train, our room was the tiniest space I ever saw. Once settled in aka throwing our backpacks on the beds, we went to the lounge wagon. The view from the train was magical, all we could see were the lights from the city that was sleeping by now. Soon enough and even though we felt like staying up all night, we went to bed. I was almost more excited about sleeping in the top bunk bed than the fact that we were sleeping in a train. Well.... if only I had gotten over that excitement, instead, I stayed awake most of the night tossing and turning and just day dreaming about the weekend ahead. I had researched some places to see, eat at and stores to stop by on the internet, I was also recommended a few addresses by some locals and had studied many maps to try to get a 'feel' of the city before getting there.


Our morning wake-up knock on the door let us know it was now 7am, got cleaned up, dressed and went to eat our complimentary breakfast at the lounge cart. People, Via Rail employees like the travellers were all so nice, we talked around with just about anyone over breakfast and some much needed coffee. Around 8:20am we arrived at the Toronto Union Station, we were now in a city that would keep us dreaming for the next few days. :) We got our gear together and left our backpacks at the luggage "daycare". LOL! We didn't know where we would sleep yet so lugging the bags all day would have been pretty heavy and of course, would have slowed us down. No time to slow down as dh had to work this weekend after all. ;)

From the Union station, there's a loooong corridor that goes right to the CN Tower. Carl was so excited to go there, I thought it would be boring but I was wrong, you do get pretty excited once you are so high in the sky and see everything. It sure makes things in perspective, we got to see where the Eaton Centre was and also spotted a few of the hotels I had on my list to check out. We then went shopping at the Eaton Centre, which is a LOT bigger compared to Montreal's Eaton Center. Maybe it's because they had so many stores I never shopped at, like: Old Navy (LOVE that store!), Gymboree, the Disney Store. I also made sure to include on my list a few restaurants I wanted to eat at, like Taco Bell and especially the Red Lobster!!! The chain has closed it's restaurants in Quebec, I used to love eating there. So..... in our weekend we actually ate there twice! LOL! Also they pitched in a free Red Lobster baseball cap as a souvenir for us, how can you not like them! ;)


After a quick lunch, we went on the hotel hunt to see where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights. I had checked out some prices online but since we didn't want to pay with credit cards, we couldn't reserve a room prior to getting there. Also I wanted to see the hotels before choosing which one we'd be at. Just the attitude of people towards us made us strike two places off my list of 5. Then there were prices that were just too much and smoking rooms weren't what we were looking for. Finally we found the Days Inn, which was situated at a great area for us to still be close to everything by walk. Hey, they even had a poor but sadly we never got time to go in for a swim. The room was brightly colored with NO flowery bedspread, instead there was a cheery striped comforter on the bed and it looked like a young hip room. Which was better than those grannie's boring grey/brown rooms from other places. From our 7th floor room we could see pretty well all the surroundings, it was pretty nice to see. :) The hotel has 23 floors but still we got the attention that a smaller hotel would give to it's guests. We never felt like they were overwhelmed by all the guests. There were many liberals there as Paul Martin was being named prime minister the exact same weekend. I ever heard a rumor that he was staying in the same hotel we were. Oooh..... must be a good hotel, right? LOL!


Then... Carl suggested we take the streetcar to Romni Wools. Yippeeeeeeeee! Going to Romni was my whole excuse for coming on this weekend away from home! LOL! I couldn't have been more excited to go there. Once we got in, I kept telling dh, look, look, LOOK!!! They have everything I ever saw online, patterns, yarns, needles, books. Look Carl, touch this yarn, wait touch this one, oh oh oh and wow NORO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES, they had the Kureyon I had only seen online, I sure ain't going to be on a yarn diet while I'm in TO! LOL! Had already planned my budget for yarn and I did VERY well by not blowing it on the 1st day. LOL! Since I know that in Montreal I do not get a good service, a good yarn selection and that they are over priced, I made sure to have enough yarn to keep me busy for a while. ;)

From that day, I got FOURTEEN balls of Kureyon yarn, yes that much!!! Hey remember, I don't know when I will make it back to this city, I want to be sure to have enough yarn forever! LOL! The Kureyon yarn is for: a booga bag (hey, everyone's doing it, so you know I just gotta try my own too), scarf, felted mittens, hat combo to brighten up our cold months ahead! :) Got the FiberTrends felted mittens pattern and the Noro Kureyon cable scarf pattern. They had the scarf in store and it looked even nicer than the pictures I had seen on the internet. Since my memory isn't too good, I got the scarf pattern so that I could make it once I get home. I went to the store's basement and got to touch oodles of coned yarns, roving and anything I could put my hands on. LOL! They had the softest of chenille's in there but I left it as I didn't know what I would even knit with it. The staff couldn't have been nicer, for a saturday the store for buzy with customers but still the 3 sellers there were very friendly and didn't seem at all stressed out with everyone there. Apparently they get many customers from Montreal go there, I explained that it was VERY easy for me to understand why. They laughed when I told them how LYS sellers would look at me weird when I would inquire about bamboo circular needles. "Oh dear, those needles simply do not exists. Where did you get such a crazy idea?" Romni, of course, sold said needles, also pearl, rosewood, casein and Brittany needles that I never have seen before. When we paid, I thanked everyone there for their time, friendliness and simply for having this store exists! LOL! Yes, I was a tad over excited by the whole experience! ;) I would be willing to save money just to go back the Romni and take a class or two of knitting. They simply exceeded my expectations, to have people who love their job working in a LYS is the greatest of all. I LOVE Romni Wools!!! :)

We went back to the hotel to unload off all this yarn, I almost didn't even want to go supper after all but hey, I couldn't pass up the opportunity of checking off one more thing from my list, so seafood for supper it is. Walked, walked and walked to Red Lobster's then walked back to the train station, got our bags and oooh, walked some more back to the Days Inn. Then I called Kate to see at what time we could meet the next day aka sunday. It was SO weird talking to someone I only know from blogging, I was too excited to talk straight and kept searching for my words. LOL! We did hit it off right away on the phone, so I wasn't too worried about when we would meet up. Again, if all goes wrong we can always just sit and knit! LOL! While talking with Kate, dh made some new friends in the hotel's lounge. Then they were off for a few rounds in the bar and I went to an internet cafe for a half-hour. By that time I was VERY tired, still couldn't believe we were in Toronto and the kids were home, that I got to shop at Romni and even took the streetcar. LOL! Our day had been perfect, Carl had made new friends in the bar and they were having a grand time. I took the opportunity to sneak back into our room and start playing with my new Kureyon yarn. :)

For a first day in TO, we sure didn't get too bored! LOL! ;)

Posted by Jo at 11:07 AM | Comments (6)

November 19, 2003

JO!!!

For the very 1st time on this blog.....



I present to you ~JO~ aka my very own self. Kate has reassured me that I am not as scary as I have let people think. LOL! This is hopefully enough to keep you hanging until I am done with writting about my trip to Toronto. You are warned that it'll be a VERY long post!!!

What can I say, it was a terrific weekend and I can't forget any details! ;)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 11:55 AM | Comments (10)

November 15, 2003

Toronto part.1

Having the blast of my life here, didn't sleep much on the train from excitement! Bought some Noro yarn, was delirious in the Romni yarn store.

I am HAPPY! :)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 09:54 PM | Comments (7)

November 14, 2003

choochoo

Train tickets are bought!!! I am sleeping in a train tonight AND taking the top bunk bed! teehee!

Posted by Jo at 01:03 PM | Comments (3)

new craft


Anyone heard about embroidery on paper? I saw it for the 1st time at my mommies crafting class, a mom showed us cards she had made. Pretty neat, so what's a girl to do? Run to the craft store and buy a kit! LOL! You can't tell but there's more work in these cards than you think. I made a gift tag and a bookmard already and it's pretty fun. Also it's a nice change from knitting, which still hurts my wrists. I think of it as cross stitching on paper! LOL! ;)


Keep your fingers crossed, this day may end up with me sleeping in a train on my way to Toronto!!! How I hope this really happens! :)

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 01:47 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2003

Snowflakes all over


To keep with my holiday theme today I present to you snowflakes! :) I LOVE snowflakes, so cute when the 1st ones of the season fall but less sweet when you see them fall 6 months a year.


At Make-a-Flakeyou can create your own snowflakes, just like when we were kids, except no mess to pick up after! ;) I just wished the kids liked virtual scissors as much as real ones. LOL!


Why not add some knitting content to this!? Have you ever noticed that Dale of Norway patterns, often have snowflakes on them. oooooh! Yes, I have noticed too. LOL! Maybe a fair isle hat would be a nice project to learn to knit fair isle.

Oh dear, I have so many idea all at the same time, I have a scarf design in my mind. I know scarves are usually boring but not the one in my head. ;) I need to get more wool to swatch and see if I can get the idea in my head into reality. I want to learn about fair isle more, intarsia (even if I know it will be a pain). Finally the best of presents would be a year long knitting class. Steeking is something I am terrified about. Sure I might be afraid for no reason but until you try it, I don't think anyone is comfortable with the idea of cutting their own knitting! ;)

Toronto is still in the plans for the weekend, I will only believe it once we get there! LOL!

Have a great day, today is my crafting class, we are making soups/cookies/granola in a jar recipes. :)

Posted by Jo at 08:23 AM | Comments (3)

November 10, 2003

wish list

With Christmas only a few weeks away, I thought I would come up with my *dream* wish list. Not that I would share this list with dh to get anything from it, it's meant more as a fun list to dream. It's a dream list, no budget, no nothing and it is meant to be fun. Ok so here I go.



- Trinity rings from Cartier


- Kanuk winter coat

- a NICE local yarn store

- a new bed (tired of sleeping with our futon mattress on the floor)


- Dr Martens shoes

- a family picture of dh, the kids and I

- holiday cards from friends


- move into my own house

OH and BIG news flash, well.... maybe. There is a possibility that I will spend the next weekend in Toronto! A part from yarn stores, anything I should look out for, maybe thrift stores or cheap and good places to eat! How I hope this really happens.

Posted by Jo at 08:59 PM | Comments (5)

November 08, 2003

red and purple


Still slowly knitting the red cable hat, I wish it was mine! LOL! Today it is freezing cold here and little snowflakes started to fall last night. The kids couldn't be happier they are saying Christmas will be here soon. To stay in the same theme we went to see Santa arriving at the mall this morning. Now Santa gets here by helicopter, it was fun to see, cold but the kids had a blast! I'm so happy our Christmas gifts were bought back in july, it's one less expensive we have to do before the holidays. Of course I will probably buy dh's gift on Christmas eve but that's ok! LOL! ;)

I'm still wondering if a Leap Pad is in Zoe's future, I saw it at 20$ less at a store and it's kind of affordable now. Well at least it qualifies as a Christmas gift worthy toy. Would it really make Zoe want to learn to read, would it help her or would it be war between her and Lucas, fighting over this said toy. I had started to show Zoe a few syllables but I'm just not consistant so she hasn't progressed since. She doesn't "get" the sounds the sounds letters make like: b-a-t, bbbb-aaaaa-ttttt. So she is learning simple sounds like to-ma-to. Except we are starting with french! LOL! Poor kid, she almost never speaks english, that wouldn't be helping her. ;) As the weeks go by I am getting more and more nervous about registering Zoe to kindergarden. I know she is VERY eager to start school but at the same time, ever since she was born I have been looking into homeschooling. It was an option dh and I were talking about before she ever took her 1st step. I don't know what to do. Expect more posts like these until january, that's when the school registration will take place. ACK! How do you know what is best for the kid's education when they will be 5yo? My main excuse right now is that getting all the books and curriculum to homeschool costs a lot of money. So that's a lame excuse but hey I'll think of more. LOL!


Oh and once again Zoe got a little reward at her skating lesson. Every kid got off the ice holding a little ribbon, on her's it says "Today I learned to glide on one foot". She was so proud, as she is now skating with other kids of her age or a tad older. She was the little social butterfly talking with the girls, really too cute. :)

Posted by Jo at 06:03 PM | Comments (4)

November 07, 2003

more non-sense

Well dh left this morning for another weekend of work out of the city, we're hoping he'll be back by supper time on sunday. I find it so hard when he leaves for a few days. Our bathroom is somewhat done! LOL! The new walls in the shower have een installed but another wall only has beams on it. The tile flooring still needs to be ripped out and another wall still has the old tiles on it. It sure is a work in progress! LOL! At least dh has re-installed the bathroom door 5 minutes before leaving. ;)

Wrists are still killing me, turning a door knob with my right wrists kills me and that's not the worst wrist either. I'm trying to take things slow but I am itching to knit, so I very slowly started the 2nd cable hat. Last night, I felt like a "real" knitter! LOL! I bought Eucalan for the 1st time. teehee! It's mostly used for wool soakers but I guess it's good to wash wool projects in it too. I went for the plain old Eucalan with the pink top, guess I'm the weird one who actually likes the scent of encalyptus. :)

Other than that, not much news. I noticed that there's a whole in the felted fuzzy feet slippers I had knitted and have been living in for the past few months. Time to make new ones maybe. I need to knit myself a hat, not sure what yet, also a scarf! LOL! Nothing fancy, I might try that multi-direction pattern everyone has been trying. No I don't feel very original these days. Just so un-inspired from not knitting, I feel so slow, out of my normal knitting routine. Ok, cross that out, I think I'll design (YES, V. you read that right!) my own hat and scarf combo AND I'll buy expensive yarn because *I* deserve it! :stomping foot!: Ok, also because Canadian winters lasts about six months and they are pretty cold, so why not knit up something to my own taste and use some warm wool to keep me cozy! Oh.... just got an idea, off to play with PaintShopPro! :)

If anyone has the 1st issue of KnitIt! they are tired of holding on too. Please let me know. :)

Have a great weekend, tonight is Zoe's skating lesson, her 1st full lesson as a level 3 skater. BIG grin! :)

Posted by Jo at 04:41 PM | Comments (1)

November 05, 2003

More renovations


Renovations are going well in the bathroom, Lucas even got the hang of taking out nails with his hammer! He's so willing to help daddy, it's adorable! :) Took all the wall tiles out, they were green and about 1"X2" so there were tons of them. Then got to rip out the walls, dh has put new "walls" in (forget the correct term. We have a new shower head and 'handle' to control the heat of the water. We'll re-tile the floor, a new sink and cabinet should make their way to out house next week. Of course in the middle of all of this, dh needs to go back to work out of town for a few days! LOL! Hope he finishes before he leaves.


See the niiiiice blue badge? Well that is Zoe's 2nd skating badge, the glide forward! Yippppeeeeeeeeeeee! :) This was a total surprise, the testing is supposed to be done in December and she already got her 1st badge a month ago. I can't believe how fast she is improving.The CanSakte program says: the Stage 2 badge is awarded to skaters who master forward gliding skills. e.g. Forward half sit glide, two foot jump gliding forward. I am so proud of Zoe, she is doing well at her lessons, loves going to the rink twice a week. I think her teacher really helps Zoe strive, they work the program all hour long, she doesn't play as much catching bubbles likes other kids. Sure it's fun but Zoe is having her own fun, she gets to learn how to spin of ice and let me tell you, Zoe adores spinning! :)


As a little treat, we rented Finding Nemo. LOL! It's cheaper than buying the movie and gives us an indication as if the kids would really want us to buy it. It's funny when we went to see the Nemo movie, we had seen it in french. Renting the movie in english tonight, made me realize that Dory is name Dorothy in french. LOL! Here's a link where you can see who are the voices behind the characters.

Taking a break from knitting is doing good for me, it's an excuse to get to some finishing touches on a few projects, I hate seaming and weaving in ends. I can let a project down for a few months well all is needed is to weave an end or two.

Wishing you all a great day,
hugs :)

Posted by Jo at 10:32 PM | Comments (4)

November 04, 2003

uh oh!

November the 4th! If you are the parent of a toddler you have been waiting for this day to come and it is finally here! Yes, go, run to any store and buy the Nemo movie! YEAH! :) I'll wait before we buy it simply to be sure to get it at the best price! LOL! Some places are offering a colouring book, a flashlight or a kids game. I really liked to see Nemo when it first came out at the movies. I know Lucas will be scared at a few places but I think he'll really be into the movie, as he LOVES the dozen of goldfish we have in the aquarium. Zoe is really eager to see the movie again. :)

On the knitting front, the 1st cable hat is done, this pattern really knits up quickly. I won't be knitting much more this week as I am taking an obligated break for a few days. First, my wrists are killing me, they'll hurt everyone once in a while but it's the left wrist they really pains me. Just waving hello, hurts, so I'll be relaxing for a few days. Also (just too make sure I wouldn't knit) I helped dh start out bathroom renovations. Dh even let me take off the tiles from one wall. So I was banging with a hammer on a screwdriver to help the tiles fall from the wall but in the process scraped 2 of my fingers. Right at the center knuckles too, so it hurts when I bend my fingers, you'll be sure that I can't hold yarn, nor knit like this.

Sure this makes for a boring knitter's blog entry BUT I can't say that I care. I am more than just a knitter and we will get a new bathroom out of this too! LOL! Dh will still let me play with his tools but this time I shall wear protective gear, it was a good lesson to the kids though! Playing with tools is dangerous kids, see how mommy was hurt? Then my two littles nurses proceeded to make me feel all better with colorful band aids and many kisses that melts the pain away.

Posted by Jo at 01:41 AM | Comments (4)

November 02, 2003

post-halloween


Halloween was a blast, the kids went out in the evening, Zoe as a "fisher-woman" and Lucas as a firefighter. In Quebec firefighters wear yellow coats and pants. Lucas had a black coat, just like the ones the FDNY firefighters wear. By the end of our trick or treating a fire truck passed by, one fireman noticed Lucas and scream "a fireman". Everyone in the truck got there head and arms out and waved at us like crazy, they were so happy to see him. It was really cute! :) Then there was a man who smiled at us, he was also a fireman and was very happy to see that Lucas was wearing a black coat as it's not like our local firefighters coats.

He got plenty of candies, the kids went to bed led and I woke up the next morning with a cold! UGH! I was miserable but nothing a dose of Tylenold Cold couldn't take care of. In fact today, I don't even have any cough symptoms anymore, just tired but that's regular for me! LOL!


I started working on the 1st cable hat for dh's boss. (Here's a link to make cables without using a cable needle, trust me it's E-A-S-Y!) It's going well, the yarn is 100% wool and hopefully he won't run it through the washer or else it'll felt! ;) Went to a yarn store on friday and got not so nice service, then paid 1$ more for each of the 5 balls of wool I puchased. UGH! I had to buy them now though, I sure wasn't going to go back to the LYS that gave me awful service earlier last week. So now, I'm out of two yarn stores, it's the 2nd time I pay 1$ for each ball of yarn I buy. It's not fair that I have to pay so much extra, when the service isn't very nice in the end. Prior to going to the store, dh had called to see if they had Galway wool instock. Nope, we don't carry that here, said the voice. Sure enough, I knew I had seen some there. We went to the store anyway (it's not like there are many other yarn stores in Montreal), I walked right up to the Galway and chose the colors I wanted. The seller proceeded to tell me they never had any bad comments about this said yarn in the ten years she's been selling it. Hummm, why did she say, they didn't have any on the phone then? Do I not looking worthy to buy yarn or what? ARGH!

Today is a rainy day, we got up pretty late at 9:30am (when you have kids, that's LATE!) lol! It's passed 1pm and still we are just hanging around the house doing nothing. It's just one of those days. ;) It's supposed to rain for the next two days too, oh well, we'll find an excuse to get out soon enough. Tomorrow dh was to have the day off but unfortunately his boss called bright and early to have him come in. SIGH! I had already made a few plans to make the most out of our day. I still haven't gone to the clinic with the kids to get a final diagnosis about their asthma, I find it hard to believe they have it. Maybe they do but we were only told by one doctor and then other doctors we saw just went by what they read in the kids medical file. Anyway, it's easier for me if dh could tag along at the clinic because I'm always forgetting to ask stuff or forget half the things that were said in the office by the time we get out. I guess they aren't really in crisis right now, they simply have a cough so I don't want to doctor to say it's from asthma as an easy answer. Why is it so hard to get good service, either be at the yarn store or the kids clinic.

Rant, rant, rant! I tell ya, I'm on a roll! ;) Yeah, like WHY do people read my blog anonymously, what's the purpose of hiding when all you are reading is a simple blog about knitting. Silly thing is I know exactly who is doing this, most likely the same reader who used to come by my blog 5 times a day just to see whatever. Silly I tell ya. LOL!

hugs,

Posted by Jo at 01:24 PM | Comments (8)