The clap is growing by leaps and bounds.

Clue 2 is done on Secret of the Stole II.

Print o’the wave is looking quite long but has 13 repeats left to do before a border is added.

I thought I would post a few pictures of the wedding and rehearsal dinner.

Starting with the Bride and Groom.

I think they are crazy for taking pics outside, it was cold!

Here is a little moment between the Bug and her uncle.

And another of the Bug, who went around saying all day “I get to look like a princess like my mommy!”

Oh, you want to see what mommy looked like? (Sorry Will, I pulled you out of this pic because you looked totally whacky, but I looked good, you will be featured later.) This is of me, the groom (my brother) and my “other brother” John. Not featured is my “other other brother Will”

Also, here we are at the rehearsal dinner as well

Then a group shot, of the real brother, the cousin brothers, and a real cousin.

Now a couple of wonderful dancing pictures

Mom and Bro

Bro and TOO adorable cousin Monique

and Will and his wife Nikki, who look just fantastic in this picture if you ask me!

So I have always cut the Bug’s hair myself.  There seemed no need to get it done elsewhere since she really doesn’t have all that much hair.  But with the upcoming wedding that she will be in, I thought it prudent to get someone else to do it so that it turned under nicely and was even.

She has gone with me to the “hair cutting store” to see my stylist.  They have a pedicure area with a long bench that has lovely pillows and blankets on it.  When we go to my stylist, she goes up and lays down on the bench.

I told her that she would be going to get her hair cut, and the first thing she said was “Now you can go sleep on the bed!”

We talked a lot about going to get her hair cut since she likes to discuss new situations before she experiences them.  I told her that she would need to sit very still and do whatever the stylist told her to do.  Well when I picked her up at school, it seemed obvious that the whole thing wasn’t going to go very well.  She was grumpy and crying and there were tell tale signs that she had not eaten lunch.  She kept saying “Mommy, I am SOOO tired, I don’t want to go get my hair cut I want to go home!”  I told her she would feel better after chicken and fries, and indeed she was able to hold it together by the time we got to the salon.

The stylist called her back, and we got her up in the booster seat.  She had been talking to the stylist but once she was in that seat, she suddenly stopped talking.  The stylist told her she could have a little toy if she sat still.  The Bug wouldn’t even answer her.  She sat there, still and quiet, and I rather wondered what was wrong with her!  Then the stylist left for a moment, and Bugs head snaps around and she says “I am sitting VERY still so I can get a toy!!!”  OH, so thats what is going on!  As soon as the stylist came back, same deal, she was extremely still and did everything that the stylist asked her to do.  The stylist kept saying “We NEVER get toddlers like this!  This is so unusual, she is so good!  She is sitting so still!  I can’t get over this!  I work in a restaurant, children don’t act this well behaved!”  I was so so proud of my bug.  As soon as she was out of that chair, she was chattering away to the stylist and got to pick out her toy.  She so earned it!

We got home, and Bug wanted to go back again.  That went better than expected!

We drove past a hospital this morning as we had to take a friend to the airport before work.  The Bug wanted to know what that big place was.  I told her it was the hospital, to which she said:

“Oh, like where we go when we are sick, so we can get better.”

Well, accurate so far.  And then:

“Like if a mean dinosaur  bites us we have to go there so that Doctor can take care of us and make it better.”

Yup, just like that.

Spinning!

Yeah, I said I wasn’t going to spin until after my brothers wedding.  But with J away this weekend and the Bug spending some time with her father, I did get quite a bit of knitting done.  B’s sweater (which J is sure will NEVER be done) is being…..fixed. Sleeve # 1 was too tight under the armpit.  So I knit sleeve #2 to the correct measurements.  Sleeve #2 is done.  Sleeve #1 is ripped out and put back on needles and quite a bit of knitting has been done on that as well.  Add in some knitting on the baby blanket as well as the 2 lace projects, my poor hands were really feeling it by tonight.

So I started spinning this.   I’d take a picture but I cannot get it to look right.  I am surprised (as usual) at how much lighter in color this is spinning up.  I joined Mystic Light secret knit along, since I am loving Mystic waters so much.  Mystic Light will be using sock weight yarn, and I am thinking of using this for it.  Single ply. As it does rather remind me of firelight and summer evening sky.  We will see if I end up with enough yardage.  If not, I suppose it will make nice socks 🙂

And for those who suspect that I did nothing but knit this weekend…..I did a ton of cleaning, studied for class, and packed for the trip.  The best part was cleaning the Bugs room, which really really needed to be done.  We then moved her train set upstairs, as I had made a great big floor area for it, and built the biggest train track possible with the tracks we have.  The best one yet!

Now if only I can manage to not get the cold that feels like it is coming on……I suspect I will have to succumb to it eventually.

So I’ve been putting off going to the store.  I have…..potatoes left.  I thought we would have eggs, but when I went to the fridge, they were gone.  Either there is an egg eating fairy in my house or I used them all over the weekend.  I suspect the former.  😛

I don’t usually make potatoes even though the Bug likes them, because I do not feel that peeling them at the end of the day is a responsible use of my time.  Well, I didn’t peel them tonight either, just scrubbed them and boiled them.  I informed the Bug that the skins were just fine, quite good actually, and good for her body too.  She likes to ask me “does this food help our bodies?”  I informed her that potato skins taste good and help our bodies.

So she sat down to eat, she practically couldn’t keep her hands off them even though they were too hot.  She looks up and she says “Mommy!  These potatoes are ‘alicious!!!  Even the skins are ‘alicious!!!”

Later on this evening, I heard her saying “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit!”  Well, I have only heard that once or twice before from my mom, but I know we didn’t really teach it to her.  Apparently one of the kids at school hears it frequently and taught it to her.  Well she wandered about repeating this mantra, then wanted my attention.  I was, of course, knitting.  She bounces right up on my lap, gets in my face, and says “You get what you get and you KNIT KNIT KNIT!!!”

I don’t think we can even begin to call my hair color blond anymore, but apparently I retain the stupid gene that goes along with it.

Yesterday I had my first public speaking class.  I had not paid much attention to the class ahead of time, instead preferring to knit my heart out in anticipation that there would be a lot of study and prep time needed this semester.   So yesterday during work I realized I didn’t even know where the building was.  No problem, I had given myself plenty of time to buy my books and walk around campus.

So I looked up where my class was being held.  I didn’t really know of the building so I asked favorite coworker.  She said that she thought it was on the other side of campus from where we typically park.  That was ok, I had time, and I had my suspicions that she was right.  The only part of this that I didn’t care for was walking back to the parking garage late at night but I figured I could handle it.

So I printed out my class schedule, bought my books, and headed up campus.  Hiked all the way to the top of campus with a bookbag full of books and realized that I wasn’t seeing my building anywhere.  I walked back and forth a bit in an attempt to not have to ask for directions.  To no avail.  I stopped in the library and asked.  They informed me that the building I wanted was at the bottom of campus near the parking garage.  OK, no problem.  So I hike back down campus and go looking for the building.

Imagine my surprise when it was the same building I was in last semester!!!!!

Well, you have all been hearing much about Nicks next scarf, and the yarn for it has finally arrived.

It is very soft squishy yarn. I told Nick that it was much squishier and softer than his last scarf. Know what he said? Direct Quote: “ohhhhh now I want it now :)…. You can just send me the yarn and I’ll wrap it around me… ”

Yeah, thats a knitter in the making if you ask me!

And I got this sock yarn along with it…..it just SCREAMED Jenjen to me, somehow. Imagine my surprise when she contacted me and told me she was sending me a Neil Gaiman book, Neverwhere, authors preferred text version. How sweet of her to remember me! So Jenjen gets the socksocks:

We will see if I can manage to get them to fit being so far away.  Hopefully she won’t mind them being tried on by my coworker who has her size feet.

Snigs has tagged me for the 7 weird things meme. I am going to do my best but also pull in some expert opinions as well. Because I really don’t think I am weird at all, yet I am well aware that there MAY be things which the rest of the world would view as weird. On the other hand, that weirdness I do believe is well documented here, and I would assume we are trying to come up with weird things which people do not already know.

1. Sav thinks that drinking postum is weird. I may have to agree. She also thinks (and I quote) “I think its weird that you bloody well haven’t moved to Canada yet!!” And then finally she thinks it is weird that I don’t particularly like ice cream. I’ll give her that too!

2. Along the lines of ice cream is the fact that I don’t really like candy and sweets. You cannot tempt me with a candy bar. In fact, sitting right in front of me are 2 baby ruths and a milky way, but they have been sitting here since Halloween and I still haven’t been tempted by them. This does not include fine dark chocolate. I love dark bitter chocolates of the more expensive variety with a passion! But even then, just a bit at a time is good. I am rarely tempted to eat the whole candy bar in one sitting. Put a bag of potato chips in front of me though……….it will be gone!

3. I like to learn everything I want to know by myself. I taught myself to knit. I taught myself to spin. I do not like to ask for help from anyone if there is something I do not know. I do not yet spin in public because I do not believe I am good enough at it and don’t want anyone to give me any advice. The exception to this rule has been colorwork, I did ask my aunts for help this summer. Let me assure you I had reached maximum frustration level with it before I asked. I am pretty sure that this gene comes from my father. Although I want to learn everything myself, I want to teach everyone what I know. Therefore if someone wants to know something about knitting, I feel that I must be able to tell them. Or make a video. Probably I do this without said person even wanting the interference.

4. OK, now we must dig a little into my past to come up with a few more. I have a rather long list of places I have had pierced. including my tongue, and I had that done a grand total of 3 times. People who know me now are truly surprised by this. When all of my friends were out drinking and trying out drugs, I was decorating my body. I figured, if nothing else it wouldn’t have lasting effects. If I thought I could get away with it, I would pierce my nose again. Now that I don’t have allergies. (Hi Mom!)

5.    I am still in the midwest.  I think this is a little weird.  I don’t belong here really.  I haven’t family here and I often feel out of place.  I get homesick a lot, which is not weird.  I often think about running back home.  But the long and short of it is, I seem to have some sort of settled life here, as settled as it can be, so I persist.

6.    I knit.  Everywhere.  You may have noticed, but I don’t think many of you grasp the full connotation of this.   I knit in front of my computer when responding to emails.  I knit before class and after class and during breaks.  I knit during lunch and breaks at work.  I knit at stop lights when driving.  At home, I spin.  I spin while reading to my daughter.  I spin while watching a bit of TV.  I spin while holding my daughter on my lap so she can learn too.  I spin while stopping long enough to dress her dolls.  At this point, she TELLS me to go spin.  If I could figure out how to knit while driving, while at class, and while typing, I would.

7.    It has taken me days to come up with 6 weird things that you all don’t know about me.  Either I think I am normal, or you all know that I am weird.  Which in and of itself is a weird thing!  I won’t tag anyone on this one…..since I just recently tagged a bunch of people and Snigs has managed to tag anyone else I might for this meme.  If any of you feel like doing the meme, have at it and be sure to come back and leave a comment that you did!

She has had some really funny stuff to say lately, so I had better write it all down before I forget!

J just loves starbucks that he can hardly resist being there no matter what. I don’t like to hire a sitter during my “Bug time” and in regular fashion, I had not done so this weekend. Apparently last evening J had decided he wanted to go to starbucks so much that even having a 3 yr old tag along was better than no starbucks at all. So off we went. He got her some organic apple juice (I don’t want to think how price gouged that was!) while we sipped our mochas.

One has to understand that I wear contacts. So does the Bugs dad. I don’t wear mine often but she has seen me take them out or put them in. She calls them Tontacks. So we were sitting in Starbucks and she told me that her eye was hurting her. I pulled the hair out of her face in case that was the problem. She started rubbing her eyes and then announces “I think my tontacks are bothering me!”

This morning on the way to school we had this conversation:

Bug: “I smell tootie!”

Me: “I don’t, maybe it’s YOUR tootie.”

Bug: “I do not think my bottom smells THAT stinky!”

For the number of people who now find my blog because they want to buy postum, I should open a postum store!

Who knew that it continues to be such a popular drink!

I think these are about the cutest ever!

J found them on a recent trip, he got a pair in blue and a pair in pink.  She loves them and I giggle every time I see them!

As an additional scarf has been asked for in return for 2 lovely woodworking projects, I have officially ordered the yarn from knitpicks, color garnet heather.

SJ, Missdoh, and Phyllis, good luck 🙂

Turned out rather nice.

In the next few posts, I will show you a project and attempt to give you the reasons that it could be done first, and the reasons it might not be done first.

Thanks everyone for participating, I am enjoying this immensely!

What will Shells first finished object of 2008 be?

Will it be B’s sweater?

Will it be Mystic Waters?

Might it be Clapotis?

Should it be Print o’ the wave?

It really SHOULD be the baby blanket that doesn’t knit itself

It could possibly be the socks I started while waiting for my internet to be fixed. Pattern is Earl Grey by Yarn Harlot. (picture of socks I am knitting to follow)

Or it might even be the scarf I plan to knit for Nick in return for current projects he is working on for me, yarn not even bought yet!

Will it be a project yet to be started?

To add interest, I have decided not to show you where I am on current projects.

There will be a prize but it will differ according to who wins.  Yarnies will get handspun, non yarnies will get something else.

And no, even I do not know which one will be first. After all, there are way too many variables at this point to even guess. Compounded by my trip to visit my parents at the end of this month which always provides me with a little extra knitting time!