7qt: Bright Spots in February

{1} My niece is the best niece

This week, I finally achieved my lifelong goal of becoming Auntie Em! Cannot wait to smooch those cheeks! (I mean, just look at them.)

Hard to beat the view this evening. Happy birthday, Madeleine! #bestbaby

A photo posted by Holly (@hollygphotos) on Feb 15, 2015 at 1:07pm PST

{2} Flowers for Valentine's

(I could really just stop at #1, but I'm told you need seven for this thing.)
I mean, I got real flowers, too (Which are still looking lovely, actually. Well chosen, husband!), but I'm pretty excited about these flowers. It's quite beyond any embroidery I've attempted before, but the supplies for the projects are mostly DMC floss, so if I mess up, at least I haven't put a lot of money into it!

{3} Sweater!

Real pictures forthcoming when good lighting and good hair days converge.

Finally finished off this sweater (at least, far enough to wear) this past weekend! There are still some loose ends on the inside, and I need to tack down my seam allowances and reinforce the sleeves. But I wore it, and it was awesome. Now I've got the colorwork bug, big time. I've got my eye on this, but I need to knit up some (many) unfinished projects, first.

I cut my knitting. Nobody died.

{4}

One of the questions people always ask me is how much money I save by knitting. I think my new answer is, "A few hundred dollars, if the website will let me zoom in close enough to count stitches." Seriously, though. Don't they just make you want to swoon? It almost would make February worth it.

{5} #LoveTHEONotreDame

My computer background for the past year. I read it in a 200 level theology class. #Augustine #loveTHEOnotredame pic.twitter.com/ZBmMET7Oup
— Erin Stoyell-Mulholl (@erin_sto_mo) February 12, 2015

It recently came to light that my alma mater has been thinking about dispensing with their core theology requirements in favor of checking that box with a "Catholic studies" type course or two in another department. Much to be said about that, angry letters to relevant parties, etc. But, it's been really wonderful to read the stories people have been posting on Twitter and this blog about how required theology courses changed their lives. Warms my little heart.

{6} Lent!

I put an exclamation point there, but I'm not really feeling it this year. However, two mornings out of three so far I've been awake (NOT of my own volition) and praying Lauds sometime around 5:00, so I guess I'm getting a little help. Can we at least make it 6:00, God? Monks pray it at 6:00. Thanks.

{7} Lenten Resolutions Booklet

If your Lent problem, like mine, tends to be half just remembering to do this stuff throughout the day, I've put together a little booklet (Prints on one page! Fits in your pocket!) so you can neatly check off the boxes each day, satisfy your OCD, and have a fruitful Lent all the way to the end.

Also, if you're looking for dinner ideas, Lucy has kicked off the festival of meatlessness for the year. Have a look at her recipe and the archives.

Find more Quick Takes here!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} Snowstorm Edition

{pretty}

This sweater, two years in the making, is almost done. If we have a sudden warm snap, you can thank me for jinxing any chances of wearing it this season...

{happy}

I suspect most of you got dumped upon once or twice in the past week. We got enough that DH got himself a snow day, and the wind stayed away, so it was nice enough to stay out in for quite some time.

Also happy: having a camera with a lens long enough to get these pictures from inside, wearing my pajamas. This was my actual perspective:

{funny}

Our sidewalk is shoveled, the neighbor's is not. At least one of the school children seems not to care.

{real}

A bit after the fact. Shockingly, snapping a picture of the actual flood was not on my mind.

Do you know what happens if you have an older washer and don't quite click the "load size" knob into place? A quarter-inch of water all over your floor is what. And just when you're thinking how responsible your four-year-old is getting, you will find him sitting at the dining room table, totally oblivious to the fingers of water slowly turning his chair into an island...

At any rate, thank goodness for Shop-Vacs and family with the foresight to give them as Christmas gifts. And said four-year-old did redeem himself by (perhaps too gleefully) tackling his brother every time he got too close to the puddle.


Find other {p,h,f,r} posts at Like Mother, Like Daughter.

Why that sweater has taken you two years to finish

8:00 p.m.: Finish your row. It's time to switch colors, but your thread cutters have mysteriously disappeared.  Get up to scrounge around for some scissors.
8:03: Walk past the kitchen. Those beans you boiled are probably cool enough to move along to the freezer.
8:15: If you don't do diaper laundry, you won't have anything to put the baby in in the morning. Go upstairs and get that pail.
8:16: Wonder if the recent diaper rash is due to the bar of Ivory you used in the latest batch of detergent. Go looking for something (anything) that isn't that or Woolite. Come up with an ancient box of detergent (like, possibly-left-by-the-previous-owners old), manage to chisel off enough for a load.
8:22: Husband offers to do the dishes from the beans, but you're pretty sure you can't deal with looking at even one more toy today, so you ask him to take care of that situation while you do dishes
8:30: No one's wiped the stove in recent history. Really cleaning it would kill your hands in this dry weather, but a quick swipe would be a good idea.
8:33: Step back. Well, crap. The kitchen literally looks bigger because the stove is so much cleaner. Probably should just bite the bullet and do the job right.
8:41: Maybe if you run upstairs and get lotion on your hands immediately, your skin won't turn into sandpaper...
8:43: Maybe not.
8:47: It's getting late; clear various projects off the table in order to have a place to pray.
8:50: Compline
9:00: Ignore dessert requests; time for jammies and toothbrushing.
9:10: Tuck in Thing One. Dad's still getting over the flu and has taken over kid's room for quarantine purposes, so kiddo is sleeping in his pup tent by the Christmas tree. This means everyone is banished to the upstairs rooms until he's out.
9:13: Thing Two is still going strong. Attempt to contain him in your bedroom, which really has no place to play.
9:20: Your sister calls to chat.
9:21: Now Thing Two is totally ready for bed this instant.
9:23: Change him one-and-a-half-handed while carrying on your phone conversation.
9:30: Make a valiant attempt to bounce and otherwise distract Thing Two while you carry on your conversation.
9:41: Resign yourself to saying goodbye and taking care of the bedtime situation.
10:05: Both kids asleep. Check out something online your sister had mentioned.
10:14: Chat with husband for a few before he checks out.
10:23: Make yourself a cup of tea. You have to babysit the kettle, so it doesn't start screaming with a kid asleep right next to it.
10:31: Bring your tea up to the computer. Fetch your project, too, and finally settle in with a good Netflix show to get some quality knitting time.
10:32 p.m.: Pick up your needles and glance at the chart. Realize you still need to change colors, and your scissors are all downstairs.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

You Won't Catch Me Saying I Never Win Anything

Not after today!

I discovered Big White Farmhouse through mutual friend Caitlyn, and was incredibly thrilled to be the winner of their birthday giveaway!

One of the best things about indie shops? The wrapping!

Really, if they'd let me pick anything at all in their shop, it would have been this recipe box! For all the things I do digitally these days, I'm still a great lover of hand-copying any recipe I'm going to use more than once, so I already have quite a collection of well-loved recipe cards, and I can promise this will be well used. (And it's so much lovelier than my old, too-small, cardboard box.)

It even has dividers! I'm moving on up in the world!

Do head over and have a look at some of their things (this apron has caught my eye...). And thanks again, ladies!

Hungry Caterpillar Lacing Toy

I always fall down on my resolution to hand make more of the boys' presents, so, even thought it meant pulling a couple late nights and being okay with some flaws, I was pretty pleased to be able to pull this project off for Peanut's birthday. (With apologies for the unintentional alliterations!)

It helped that the initial investment was super low (twelve pieces of 25-cent felt, a quarter-yard of cotton batting, plus odds and ends that I already owned). I find it a lot easier to get the planning phases of a project rolling if I've already got the materials in hand.

To make the pattern, I found the images from the book online, pulled them into Illustrator and created outlines of each. I made a mock-up of the pattern layout so I wouldn't get everything printed out only to find I'd scaled it too big for my sheets of felt, and then squeezed the pattern onto a few pages and printed.

The pieces are three layers quilted together; a layer of batting, (optional, but gives it a nicer feel in your hand) trimmed about ¼" smaller so the edges don't show and sandwiched between two of the felt pieces. I learned along the way that it's much better to cut the holes in all three pieces before assembly. They're a little less stable on the sewing machine, but it's almost impossible to get that hole cut nicely through all three layers otherwise.

Some of the pieces, like the caterpillar and the cherry pie, got details appliqued on before assembly, and some, like the watermelon and the lollipop, got details hand-embroidered in with embroidery floss. I did this after assembly because I had lots of road-trip time to work on it, but beforehand would probably make more sense.

The caterpillar has a piece of pipe cleaner (with the ends folded over so they won't poke through) to make him stiff enough to thread through the holes. A round shoelace connects him to his egg, which keeps the pieces from falling off the other end.

And here it is all together! One is still a little young to actually lace the pieces together, but he loves hearing the story while his brother and I send the caterpillar through the food with lots of giggle-inducing munching noises. As a bonus, the food pieces do double duty as kitchen toys!

7qt: Mama Ain't Got No Instagram

A colleague sent this to DH for Christmas. Six pounds. They are going to have to roll us out the door before we're through this.

Made it to Ikea over Thanksgiving. All our tall books have a home now!

My Christmas Tree Assembly Assistant. Only took us four hours to figure out we had part of it upside down. Also, I'm missing a wrench.

Fake trees go against everything I stand for, but you can pack a lot of lights on them.
Jesse Tree Ornaments here.

Fruit cakes ready to go in the oven, only about a month late. Maybe they'll just "be thirsty" (Bean's words) every day, instead of every other.

Bean found butterfly wings. Now I just need to find my sweater...

Who needs a playpen? "Oh, I'm just in da tent wif my brudder!"

Find other Quick Takes at the linkup!

7qt: Edel or Bust!

{1}

After seeing the price, I was on the fence about going to Edel, but my wonderful husband talked me into pulling the trigger. I must really look like I need to get away...

{2}

Bean turned four this past week, which was great fun, as I think it was the first birthday that he really got the concept of it being his birthday, rather than just knowing there was some sort of ado. All he asked for was a balloon, some licorice (one of his recent stories mentioned licorice), and a bag of marshmallows to share with his friends (whom we saw that day, thanks to a trip to South Bend). He did get a few more things (or more than a few, thanks to being one of only two grandchildren so far).

I was so enamored by his lack of materialism that I refused to let DH rush him through present opening. Which meant it took us approximately two-and-a-half hours. I may rethink that strategy in the future...

{3}

I started this sweater in July. July 2009, that is. And even after the knitting was finished, it languished for a year, for lack of buttons and the dread of weaving in all those ends. But I finally finished it, and I love it, though I think I was a size smaller back when I started...

{4} 

You may have heard once or twice that Advent is coming! If you're looking for something to do, you might have a look at the Jesse Tree Ornaments over at the Church Ladies'. You can get fancy with them, or you can literally send them to Kinko's (or whatever it is these days), cut them out, and be done. This reminds me that I need to shellac ours before we start using them this year, as Peanut has a penchant for putting whatever he finds straight in his mouth...

There are also some great Advent playlists and other devotionals over there; have a look!

{5} 

So, a few days after the birthday festivities, both boys woke up with a fever. The night before that, I had uncharacteristically found myself in bed before 10, so I was sure I was coming down with it, too. I made sure get off to bed early the next night, too. I successfully evaded the bug only to, irony of ironies, give myself an I-will-hurl-if-I-stand-up migraine from messing with my sleep schedule.

{6}

We're headed 600 miles away in a couple of days, and of course have zero things packed (except the snacks! Priorities!) due to the sick days. I'm also supposed to bring something for a baby shower, and at this point, my best bet for a side dish is a pineapple. I'm thinking maybe Costco will save my butt this time...

{7}

I'm out of timely ideas, so instead here's a Halloween costume pic!

Those cobwebs are decorations. Decorations, you hear me?

Have a happy Thanksgiving!