Jo Knits!

Lucky, lucky! :)

I have finished the 2nd row of letters on the Alphabet blanket. I try to knit 10 rows in one sitting, that way there's a little progress each time I knit on the blanket. Since all I want to do is stitch, let's say it's not going as quickly as it should.

I also completed my first cross stitching piece. Lucas couldn't be any more pleased and now I can start on Zoe's piece, actually I started two for her. It's never too late to start a birth announcement for your own child right? Hopefully I will finish it before she turns seven! LOL!

After having our share of bad luck and down time it seems like a breath of fresh air just blew over all the bad stuff. Finally!

On saturday Zoe and I went downtown for some fun girly shopping. After stopping by Garnitures Dressmaker tp pick up a few stitching accessories. We went shopping for Zoe, this girl adores trying on clothes and looking at herself in the mirrors. Let's just say it takes twice as long to have her try on something because she constantly checks herself out in the full lenght mirror. LOL! We went just for fun, so no purchases were made but we are on the hunt for an age appropriate swimsuit for this summer. Let's just say that there aren't many that I would want her to wear at the local kiddie pool.

While we were away my mom got two phone calls for Zoe, one was telling her she won a contest for Princess JellyBean bath products (this is not a usual collection, they only had it for Easter). Then the other phone call was to know if she (and us as a family) would be interested in tickets for a skating show. Hummn.... let me think... Y-E-S!!! As soon as my mom told me about it, I screamed yes in the telephone, hung up and called Carl at work. Since he works on sundays, I wanted to make sure to give him enough time to ask hs boss to finish early if possible. We didn't tell Zoe until an hour before we left for the ice show, both kids were really happy and I... well I've been on a cloud since the phone call. LOL! Sneaky mom that I am... Zoe still doesn't know about the contest she won, we'll get her prize after school and let her flip out right on the spot. teehee! She's going to love her prize of sparkly bath products and whatnot.

Yesterday afternoon was fantastic, we went to see Stars on Ice and I just LOVE figure skating. Our seats couldn't be better ones, especially when you consider they were free. LOL! We were seated where tickets are worth 90$ a place, I was dying to go see the show and had even checked online the day we received the phone call. It just was meant to be, like my mom says: if you wish enough for something, it just may happen. We got to see up close Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Jamie Salé & David Pelletier, Jeff Buttle and Joanie Rochette, even more skaters too but those were my main favorites. For the first part of the show, my eyes were filled with water, I just couldn't believe our luck, to be sitting here at the Bell Centre and see these skaters I have seen many times on tv. I think the kids thought it was neat to see Buttle and Rochette after I told them we saw both on tv during the Olympics.

The second part of the show was just as magical, there were big screens at each corner of the ice where Scott Hamilton would interact with the skaters on the ice it was really cool. There's an incident where a cell phone rings and it's Scott on the screen calling a skater on the ice, it was very funny. ;) We also saw a video of many skaters and their kids, it was so sweet to see.

For me this was one of the best events in my life, I love skating and seems that I have shared my love of the sport with the whole family. The show was magical and people really do enjoy their job working on the show. Made me realise, if you like what you do, it'll show. :)

hugs,

A perfect day,

This week I had a perfect day, Carl had the day off, Zoe was at school and Lucas had a lunch date at McD's with one of the mom's day out teachers. Lucas went to the barber shop to prepare for his date, he goes into this old italian owned place. The older guys had a kick out of learning about his lunch date, he got a nice cut and gel to spike his hair. ;) It was sunny out so Carl and I just went on a no-where walk all afternoon.

First we stopped by Les Brodeuses, which is a museum/store for needlepoint, pretty interesting but not as much as La Cigale Brodeuse I have visited recently. I didn't buy anything but learned they had classes which might be something I'd look into at another time. Then we walk a block or two to The Original Fairmount Bagel Bakery, they have been making and baking bagels here since 1919. You see them rolling by hand each bagel and can buy them fresh out of the wooden oven, nothing is more enjoyable than a hot bagel! ;)

Our walk brought us to Les Touilleurs a fancy kitchen supplies store. If I ever feel like buy a signing pasta timer, this is the place to go. It even signs different tunes for different times, who knew this even existed. LOL! They had artsy cake pans and copper pots at 648$. I may pass on those though. ;)

We walked a few HOURS and once we got home we had our 2nd bbq outside, the 1st one we did on Easter day. Nothing makes a day more perfect than having smores for dessert. We also found double skewers that let you toast two marshmallows at once, how great is that? LOL!

Now I have been knitting and finished my first cross stitching project but it'll have to wait for another day. We just got a very exciting day to get though and I'll share about all our wonderful stuff later on! :)

hugs,

Easter 2006

We had a lovely Easter weekend, for one, Carl had two days off. Since starting his job in january he has never had two days next to each other off, so that made for an extra special Easter day. :) Usually he works one day, one day off then works four days, one day off and his days off are not on the weekend so the kids miss out a bit on hus presence.

These smiling kids were just about to go for their annual egg hunt in the yard. They had a blast, I had so much fun looking at them running around. By the end of the day, everyone barely ate chocolate and the kids each gave us adults a few prizes from their loot. So sweet! Today we went to the grocery stores and got some 50% off easter cake. There's nothing I like more than traditional white cake with buttercream frosting, yet we got merigue frosted cake and oh my goodness. I am in love!!! Good thing we only bought one... LOL!

Signs of spring cleaning #1: deleting more than 50 links from your Bloglines list. Feels great, I had way too many on their anyway, now I have less than a hundred and hope to keep it that way. I did create a new folder for stitching though. Some amazing blogs fall under that category now. :)

Stitching and knitting updates soon.

Wishful thinking!

Last sunday was the local S&B meeting and once I got there, I picked up my needles for the 1st time in two weeks. Have I missed knitting? Not really, I discovered that knitting can be put aside for some time and still be loved in it's own way. Since the meeting, my project has been put aside and I might pick it up before the next or not. Anyway, the picture above is the Flower Basket shawl using 100% baby alpaca. It's a nice pattern but it's best not to put markers between repeats as you will have to move them when decreasing. Without the markers, I keep forgetting to do the repeats though. LOL! I never win! ;)

This is my new goal, as soon as I finish the Disney piece I can start this fairy project. What a great way to motivate myself, find something you want to stitch even more than the previous project and stitch, stitch, stitch to the finish line. Both kids are happy to get their own project. I can't believe all the things I have learned online, some patterns are soooo beautiful, someday.... someday. ;)

Ever heard the expression, be careful what you wish for? Well, I keep saying I want to move, away from my childhood house, away from this neighbourhood, away from this city. Well, we may move away from this province too, now there's a surprise! Carl has received an offer that would make us move either more than 1300km or 2400km away from here. At first I freaked out, I mean I have live 95% of my life in this same house, with the same neighbours, same surroundings. Yet I am very excited about going somewhere else and make it our own home, have a life of our own where no one knows our past, our whole lives. Just start new in another place. Now, the negociations begin, in the end it may work out or not but I do not fear moving anymore.

Also this change of life would be good for us, we wouldn't survive from one paycheck to the other anymore. We'd actually get to save for a better future for the whole family. Both kids are very excited, which surprised me, they are more ready than me to leave. Kids can be surprising, my own shy daughter said it would be a great opportunity to meet new people, she is six years old, how can she be so wise? Google has been a major help in figuring out most of what I needed to know about moving to a new povince, cost of living, what schools to register the kids. Now I wait but at least I'm prepared to attack as soon as we get the green light.

Lucas concentrating on orange paper, notice the yellow behind him and the goldfish. I think this works for Project Spectrum, right? ;)

hugs,

Spinning isn't always a got thing

My head is spinning and if I add fiber, I just might get yarn. I can't believe all the bad luck we've been having, it's getting totally unbearable. I've been loosing my marbles all week long and if I get just one more bad news, I'll go c-r-a-z-y. Again tonight after making sure, not once but twice about something, we power walk 45 minutes to a place and get there exhausted but happy to be on time. Then, of course... get told something totally different than what was said on the phone. I think I am speaking another language than most people or something. Now I get to wait 2 months with deception in sight. Argh!

Carissa has been a great inspiration for me for the longest time. She's recently turned to stitching and I joined her in this little venture. My piece is REALLY basic but makes my son SO happy that I could be making him the toughest project in the world in his eyes.

The knitting and I are now in complete fight, I am changing charts for the baby blanket and keep avoiding to pick up said blanket. I don't think I have spent more than a week without knitting a stitch since I started 3.5 years ago. I need to get a move on it though, I really want the blanket to be done with before the baby is due! The kids thought I was having fun with the exacto and glue stick but man, it'll still bother me once it is done.

Now when all seems to go bad, the best thing to change a bad mood is skating. This was probably our last time of the season. Last friday Zoe, was invited by a classmate and her big sister to go skating. This is probably the 1st official play date Zoe's ever had, she was invited at her classmate's birthday party and her family really enjoyed Zoe's presence. One of the big sisters decided to invite Zoe to go skate with her friend, they all had a great time. Zoe was gone four hours and had a blast, little did we know, they spoiled her with McD's for supper too.

So anyways, it felt really nice to glide on the ice one last time, I really have missed having the kids in skating lessons this year but I had to respect their choices. This past weekend was a tough one, the skating club was having the annual show and I couldn't go for financial reasons. Since september I've promised myself I would go even if the kids weren't in skating anymore. I have missed it so much, although I haven't missed the drama around the skating club's people. I have missed seeing Zoe smile each time she stepped on the ice, the pure pleasure she has skating around. I have accepted her decision to not take part in skating lessons this season, nothing would be worst than to force her into something she doesn't want. This summer I'll be a soccer mom, Lucas (and maybe Zoe) will play twice a week and frankly I don't 'love' soccer. He (perhaps they) will have a blast, we'll cheer him (and her) on like crazy but it just won't be like sitting at the rink.

I'm sporadically posting until I feel better or the urge to share new occurs. I'm just not loving knitting or just about anything else for the moment.

hugs,