Socks, socks, and yet more socks!!!

Well last night I finally bitched like hell quietly asked Derek why he hadn't tried on the socks I had made him yet. One of those socks is the one I shipped to him while I was up north so I was absolutely heartbroken a little hurt that he hadn't gleefully put the matching pair on immediately. He said it was because he was too damned lazy to wash his stinky feet his feet were too smelly for him to put them on. Like a good hubby, he must have sensed that I was pre-PMSing he went and got them and modeled them for me.
They are made out of an olive shade of Mission Falls 1824 100% superwash worsted weight. I used the same pattern I had used for his Tuffy socks. Lissa insisted on joining in the picture fun and made me take pictures of her with her Spongebob flip-flops. This wouldn't have been quite *that* bad, but she was showing off the dirty bottoms, not the printed tops!!! I didn't want to gross anyone out too badly so I left those off the post.
Then it was Alex's turn to model his camouflage socks knitted out of Bernat Sox in Army Hot. These socks were made months ago, but recently reappeared from their "safe place". I quickly got a shot of him wearing them before they return to their hiding place.
Lissa then asked me *again* to take more pictures of her. Since I was eager to get the ones I had just taken uploaded, I told her I would later. She runs and finds one of the socks I had knitted for the girls nearly a year ago, and one of the socks I knitted for myself. She puts on this mis-matched pair, and looked so adorable, so what choice did I have? She even ran over and got herself up on the chair that Alex had been using, and started posing for me to take many shots of her in her fabulous socks!!!

Bright Idea #237

Well unlike most of my other *bright* ideas, this one actually worked out, and didn't cost me a small fortune to finish stayed within a reasonable budget. The kids had trashed their old dresser. I *think* it had five drawers originally. At least two were gone entirely, and another one or two were missing the fronts. We had this dresser in the basement, so I got another one of my bright ideas, and decided to refurbish it a little and bring it upstairs. The process *did* take longer than I had originally planned, but I'm blaming that on being very tired this week from stocking rather than working on the reno at work. I had guesstimated that it would cost me about $25-30 to dress up the dresser, and I wasn't far off. The only thing I overspent on really was the hardware -- Derek talked me into spending an extra 50¢ per knob {$1.47 vs. 97¢} for ceramic rather than plastic -- for obvious reasons of course! 4 cans of spray paint, 2 green scrubby sandpaper sheets, 8 new handles, and several sanded-out kids later, we have a nearly new dresser for less than $35!

Here's me painting one of the red drawers. It looks like I'm getting ready to put another coat on my toes at the same time!
Here I am painting a yellow drawer. I wonder how well the yellow and red leftovers would mix to touch up those grey roots while I'm at it?
Here I am painting the dresser itself. It ain't a perfect job by any means, but it looks better, and is WAY cheaper than brush painting it. Plus the kids got to help me out, whether they wanted to or not. Alex and Lissa were the most enthusiastic about helping, which made sense since it was meant for their room!
I feel like I'm painting graffiti on the side of the dresser! Why is it that there isn't even one *remotely* flattering photo of me here???
This is what the finished product looks like with the new hardware and old junk on! You can see that the gloss finish is kind of uneven, but like Derek had said, it's not going to be long before the kids add their own touches to the dresser anyway!

Maple leaf socks - week one progress; FT clogs stash shots

Well I took a pic today of my progress on my Maple Leaf socks for the sock KAL. I have done 4 repeats of the pattern, and started the heel flap. I will be following the heel pattern from a different pattern, and will be reducing the number of foot stitches to about 64, rather than the 72 that the pattern states.
Like I needed any more yarn or patterns, I went ahead and bought the two Fiber Trends Clogs patterns, in adult and kid's sizes. I also bought the wool I'd need for a purple and pink two-tone pair for me, and a bright, Barbie pink pair for Lissa. I'm hoping to start these once my ML socks are off the needles.

Yarn Shots!

Well here we go. Yarn pr0n!!!

This is the Regia 4fadig I bought to make my Maple Leaf socks with, along with the pattern.
Here is a close-up of my progress on Day one of the KAL. I got the ribbing done mostly on the 30th, but the entire first repeat was done on the 1st.
Here is the sock yarn I got in my June sock-yarn-of-the-month surprise package from Ram's. I can't wait to get July's!

Lotsa socks!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

Well I went to Ram's yesterday to pick out sock yarn for the Maple Leaf Socks KAL I joined. I cast them on yesterday, and am nearly done the ribbing. I hope that the colour I chose will turn out nice. I'll post a picture later on when I've got the first repeat of the pattern done. I also bought the June sock-yarn-of-the-month. I'll take some pics of that and post them later too. Looking at the ball, it sould make a really cool looking pair of jacquard socks. Those will be my portable project once Derek's last Mission Falls sock is done sometime this weekend.

Derek finally got back late Wednesday from Edmonton, and he had brought me a present to make up for being gone so long right after I got back from up north. It's a gorgeous gold bracelet that he bought as a belated anniversary present {6th anniv was June 3rd, the day before I went to Thompson}. My weekends are now Thursday-Friday, so we went to the drive-in Thursday night. He's never been to one before, so it was a great opportunity to go. We saw Click and Nacho Libre. We had a wonderful time, and I can see us going again before the end of the season. I have tonight off for the holiday, so we can go out together on a REAL weekend night! The zoo is supposed to be free today, so we might take the kids there. Then tonight we need to decide what time we're going out to play pool since if we decide to go out later on, we can take the kids to the fireworks.

Scenes from Thompson

This is the view from my hotel room window, looking northwest.

This is the view looking northeast.

This is the river that basically marks the northern edge of town. This is where it turns from running relatively east, to a more northerly direction. At least those are the directions it is going here!


This picture was taken facing southwest, from the same spot as the above photo. That bridge leads into town.

Another photo taken from the same spot, this one facing northeast. That's one of the seaplane depots located on the river.

This is probably the most photographed building in Thompson. I'm not sure who painted the mural, but it's breathtaking. The "road" up to the building is a sled run in the winter... kinda scary considering I was standing on the shoulder of Highway 6 when I took this photo.


This is another one of the many murals to be found in town. It was on one of the main streets, between work and the hotel.

This mural is on a sister building to the one above. It was on one of the corners of the main crossroads, so everyone that goes to Thompson can see this one.

This is the beginning of the boardwalk to Pisew Falls. All you see is the big rock, and the bridge/ stairs disappearing into the forest.

This is what you see as you start on the boardwalk. You really wonder if there is an end to the forest, and a waterfall in there somewhere. You can't even really hear the falls at this point because the trees filter the noise so much.

Nearly the end of the Earth

To be honest, I forget what this area is actually called... the cut-off or something like that. The highway actually cuts the "lake" off. It's about 10 km north of town, so it's as close as I got to "the end of the Earth".

She's baaaaack!!!

Well I only popped online once during my stay in Thompson, and that was barely enough to combat my overflowing email inboxes, and get caught up with Lyz... like we didn't wear out our cell phones with text messages, and I didn't go through an ungodly amount of phone cards calling her!!! Anyway, I had to quickly post this scan of a postcard I got. I will get the info later on how you can order one too. The place where I bought it has gotten phone calls from all over the world asking about it!

Bright Idea #436

Well I had another one of my bright ideas this weekend. Yes... head for cover now!

My original bright idea was to get the yard work done on the front flower beds, but that quickly took a back seat when Derek and I forgot the landscape edging, and bought a new patio set instead! We had a wonderful barbecue Sunday afternoon, since I had Sunday evening off for Victoria Day. We bought a pretty small set, but it fits in perfectly with the scale of our deck. It ended up that one of the deck boards for the back step completely rotted out. Derek removed it and covered it up with one of the indoor/ outdoor area rugs.
After much discussion on Monday afternoon over what to do, we decided that our best and most cost-effective option was to replace the back step section of the deck. After quite a bit of figuring out how to do it, and what exactly we needed, off to Home Depot we went. We came home not quite $100 poorer, and with a bunch of wood and nails. It took the better part of the evening but we had a nice, new, and best of all SAFE back step by the time we all went inside at 9.

I talked to Wayne secretly, and we decided to go get some deck stain and surprise Derek by getting it painted before he got home from work on Tuesday. The bit of rain we got ended up giving us a bit of trouble, but Wayne got a good coat of stain on it before everyone got home from school. He put another coat of it on after supper, so it's all nicely protected until Derek levels out the boards that we needed to "fudge" in order make it work out for the best, and puts the skirting on the one side.

I painted the first board just so that I could say that I helped, but 99.9% of the job was done by him. Even though these are "in progress" pics, the finished job looks fabulous!

Now for your viewing pleasure!

The Evolution of Dance. This is 6 minutes of the funniest video that I've seen in ages. You are going to need the kleenex from laughing so hard! Make sure you have broadband since a 6 minute video on dial-up is just WRONG!! and you'll need your speakers on for this one too. It's kid-safe too BTW! Leave me a comment on how many of them you knew!

Lissa's sweater nearly done.

Here is a pic I took on Saturday to help me decide which set of buttons to use for her sweater. I've really been taking my time with the second sleeve. I got the first sleeve done in less than two days... probably a reward for being so good when I went to Ram's on Thursday to get the dpns. I've done the collar on the sweater, and woven a few ends in as well. The top button is a kitty cat, and the bottom two are a princess castle and crown. With encourangement from others, I have decided to go with the princess themed buttons.
I added this picture because the colours appeared different in the two shots I took. The pattern is from a Bernat booklet. The lilac yarn is Bernat Satin in Stardust, and the eyelash yarn is LB Fun Fur in Fiji.
This is a close-up of the buttons.

The countdown begins...

Well Derek just phoned me 20 minutes ago and he's on his way back with the kids. We're expecting him back around noon tomorrow unless he needs to stop to sleep. My guess is with those two in the truck with him, they'll annoy him awake, and he'll come straight home just so that he can go into our bedroom, and lock the door behind him!

Hello? Ram's? Do you have any Calgon in stock?

I think I need some Calgon yarn... Derek is about half-way to Alberta now to pick up two of our kids. I'm going to have an influx of teenagers here from about this time tomorrow until the end of August... Calgon, take me away!

Distracted to the point of destruction...

I don't know what's wrong with me these days... I've been in such a funk, that even Derek offering to buy me the braided breast cancer scarf kit couldn't snap me out of it, or at least briefly enough to *actually* let him buy it for me. Yes, that's right folks, I turned down the offer of the century {well at least the offer of the month or year from him}. I've admired that kit in my knitting mags for at least a year or more now, and found it at Ram's when we were there on Saturday getting the rest of the Mission Falls that I needed to finish his socks. Part of it was that it was $55, part of it was that I have several scarf kits, and scarves in mind already, and the most important part was that I just wasn't in the mood for *me* yarn.

One thing that's been bothering me some lately is the sheer number of WIPs I have. What's stupid is that I can't even promise myself that I won't cast on, or do a starting chain for any more. I started the UFO project to try and clear a few UFOs, and that made a teeny tiny dent, but I've more than made up for *that* progress by starting who knows how many more projects since. I can't even seem to focus long enough to concentrate on just one project to get it done. I want to become a more monogamous knitter/ crocheter, but I just don't seem to have the will power needed to do that.

So sick it's hilarous!!!

Thanks to a post on KH yesterday I discovered this site. There's a link to a church sign creator, as well as a warning label creator. Here's the ones I made up for Derek, Lyz and myself:

Why do I do this to myself? Episode 142

Well I've gone and done it again. I mentioned it briefly yesterday in my post, but didn't get into details... WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?!??!?

Here's the scoop: I'm doing up a new cardigan for Lissa, right? It's a really easy and really cute purl dot pattern, right? It should be really easy, and my precautions of doing a size 4 instead of a size 2 are unfounded, right? WRONG!!!

Since I'm so lazy about seaming -- my Skacel pinwheel pullover is STILL waiting for a few seams to be done -- I decided to do it up in one piece rather than separate fronts and back. Well from that decision on, this sweater has been a comedy of errors! Firstly, I neglected to deduct two stitches from the back portion, and only did one. That meant that I had to frog all the way back to the beginning after I had the first row done. Next, I didn't increase one stitch after the ribbing on the fronts, so I had to frog back three rows to redo that. Then I realized that I didn't put in the button bands, so I had to tink back and use my crochet hook to fix the stitches on each end for about 4 rows. Then, I had to readjust the dot pattern on the back, so that meant I had to frog half a row of work. The last mistake I made was neglecting to put in the buttonholes. That required frogging the border on one side back about 10 rows, and then reknitting it back up to my work using dpns... *PHEW!!!*

That was all within the first 2 inches or so of work! I'm at the 5 inch mark right now, and I'm putting it aside while I work the heel of my Cascading Leaves sock... hopefully this pattern of errors won't continue! I have to admit though, most of these errors have been caused by doing the whole body in one piece, and not fully reading the instructions for the fronts before going on. At least I had the forethought to do it up in a size 4... she will at least have a bit of a chance to wear it before she grows out of it... once I finally get it done!!!

This and that...

I've been so busy with stuff, and I still seem to be just spinning my wheels! I'm about half-way into my first sock of a pair of Cascading Leaves. It's turning out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. I will be turning the heel on them today, and then it will be smooth sailing to the end.
I started a cute dot stitch cardigan for Lissa out of some Bernat Satin, and will be putting a fur collar and cuffs on it with some LB Fun Fur Prints. The pattern for it is here, it's the pink one on the cover, and I'm doing it in lilac. I've changed the pattern to work it in one piece, and it's driving me nuts with all the silly errors I'm making because of that.
I've also got an afghan on the go. I'm doing up a ripple pattern for Derek in RH Comfort, Bernat Soft Boucle, and Bernat Harmony. It's turning out really great, and if I can stop working on other things at home long enough to make some progress on it, he might actually get it this year!!!
The last project that I'm concentrating on right now is a cute summer tote bag that I'm crocheting out of some Lustersheen I picked up... I still haven't decided if I want to do it double-stranded or not, so it might be getting frogged yet again!!!!

Spongebob and Dory

Well Monday was Alex's 4th birthday and we had a {UGH!} Spongebob party for him. As much as it nauseated Derek and I, Alex loved every minute of it. Here are some highlights:

Happy little guy with his cake that he picked out!

Lissa is as excited as Alex!

Alex's "couch", in his words... a loud, annoying "thing" if you ask Derek or I!

Gotta love a new bike... and the Spongebob clip-on watch! Alex got a new bike because Jackie had broken his old one on the weekend... poor kid had only gotten to ride it for an hour so far this year when it got trashed. =o(

On a sad note, we lost Dory on Monday as well... that's all three bettas gone to fish heaven now, along with Derek's neons which we suspect were sushi treats for his bigger fish.

The kitchen floor revisited...

Here's a few highlights of last week, and the finished product:

Firstly, here's Derek working away on the flooring. You can see the top layer of the old stuff that he's covering with the new subflooring.

Here's Derek in his usual pose whenever I take a pic of him doing something!!!

Here's a photo of the nearly finished floor. We still need to put up new floorboards/trim, and a coat of wax to seal the cracks between the tiles... but it's otherwise done. We're very pleased with how it all turned out, and even more pleased at how inexpensive it was!

Another pic of the floor. I tried different angles so that you can see it better.

Eight words you never want to hear...

"Wouldn't it be a cool idea if I...?" If you hear these words come out of my mouth, run, as fast as you can, do not walk, to your nearest fallout shelter. You just *might* be protected enough!

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 7:30 a.m.
I've just finished my last shift of the "week" at work and I had a bright idea overnight. The crud and mess behind the fridge and stove is unmanagable at best. Why don't I get some scrubbies and steel wool, and scour all that crap, even the stuff on the walls, and put a coat of wax down underneath? I know that the kitchen tile is 'no wax', but I'm going to be scrubbing the hell out of it, and it's not going to be seen anyway! $35.00 later, I'm proudly going home with a shiny new pail filled with cleansers in scents I like {instead of Derek's}, scrubbies, and other assorted heavy/ spring cleaning type stuff.

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 10:30 a.m.
I've removed all the crud from the top of the fridge, including the banana carcass with mouse poop all around it {how in the hell did those buggers get up there anyway??? Some questions are better left unanswered methinks}. I've pulled the fridge out and into the middle of the kitchen floor, and managed to control my gag reflex. It's amazing how much mess that spilled coffee, spilled milk, cheerios {for the milk?}, leaking water, and mice can make in one little space! Three pails of super-hot Pine Sol water later, and I've discovered that there isn't two layers of peel and stick tile on our floor -- there's two layers of peel and stick on top of old linoleum tile!!! The peel and stick under the fridge was all unstuck, so I pulled it all off. I have to find my bleach now to take care of the mould and mildew from all of the water and such. I call Derek at work since small repairs are required, here's the conversation: "Hi honey, can we go to Home Depot after work?"; {hesitantly} "Why?"; "I need a piece of ¼" underlay for under the fridge."; {fearful now} "Why?"; "I had another one of my bright ideas... I was going to wax the floor under the fridge and discovered that there's *three* layers of tile on the kitchen floor, not two. I had to pull up all the rotten tile under the fridge, and now I need a thin piece of wood to level it off again and fix it all up."; "I have enough underlay left from the fire, we can use that. But, we can go if you like to check out our options for the floor."

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 4:00 p.m.
I've gotten the fridge corner as clean as I can get it and pulled out the stove too. The girls are positive that Mom has lost her mind. Mind??? I have a mind??? Some damage there too, but not as serious. More importantly, I've gotten most of the grease build-up off of the walls that nothing but a Magic Eraser will remove {or painting will cover-up}.

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 6:30 p.m.
Derek has come home, assessed the wake of destruction that he lovingly refers to as "Da wife", and discovers that the leftover wood from the fire repairs is too small. We calculate the square footage of the kitchen to price out redoing the entire floor and off to Home Depot we go.

Dateline: Monday, April 10, 8:00 p.m.
Back home from HD with three boxes of peel and stick tile, spray foam, scrapers, and paint samples for the planned repaint this summer. Long discussion ensued at HD over tile choices... including the gorgeous high-quality tile that was on clearance half-price. End decision was to buy decent-looking cheap stuff since we are hoping to completely renovate the kitchen {including the foundation issues and moving the sink and such} in the next 5-10 years.

Dateline: Tuesday, April 11, 2:00 p.m.
Derek is home from the dentist, and my hands are beginning to function. Time to start scraping off the old tile. After about 10 sq. feet, the decision is made that putting a whole new subfloor on TOP of this mess would be much easier. A quick check of floor clearances at the back door detects that we will need to have a small sunken area at the doorway. Floor mouldings removed and trashed while waiting for the girls to get home from school. Measurements taken of what edgings we will need and new floor register for the cold air return, and duly noted in my day planner.

Dateline: Tuesday, April 11, 5:00 p.m.
Good deal on wood -- $12 a sheet; got edgings and a huge pail of screws -- a-home we will go.

Dateline: Tuesday, April 11, 8:00 p.m.
Oh crap, we forgot the heat vent!!! We'll need to go back for something, so we'll wait to run back to HD. Wood is going down nicely, and the kitchen is a *lot* less square than we thought! One fiasco with the new tiles and a full cup of coffee later, and things are progressing well. We might be able to finish the majority of it before midnight tonight!

Dateline: Tuesday, April 11, 11:30 p.m.
Done for the night. Decision made to put new wood even at the doorway. Clearances will be tight, but we can get a new threshold for the door and remove the weather stripping to prevent damage to the new tiles there. All that's left is a couple small cuts to bring the wood up to the edge of the basement stairs {requiring a stair nose piece}, using the foam to fill in various gaps, and laying the remaining tile down.

Dateline: Wednesday, April 12, 2:00 p.m.
All full tiles have been laid except at the top of stairs which cannot be laid until the last piece of wood is put down. Tile cuts by the sink are done so that I can get some cleaning and dishes done. The microwave cabinet is a heartbreaking mess. Even cleaned up, the kids have trashed it, and I can't stand looking at it that way. I still love the functionality of it, and wish that it still looked like it did when we bought it. I don't even know where to begin to repair the damage. Replacement seems to be the only option since I don't even know where all the pieces to it have disappeared to.

Dateline: Wednesday, April 12, 6:30 p.m.
At HD for our third trip in as many days. Returned the piece of edging that wasn't needed. Purchased stair nose, new threshold pieces, and heating vent to match the one by the fridge. Looked longingly at new hardware for the microwave cabinet {they still sell the ones we bought for the kitchen cupboards 2 years ago}, and discovered that the HD website wasn't *that* crappy when it comes to looking for microwave carts... they simply don't sell them! We're now sitting at approximately 10 times my original $35 purchase... I don't think I'm allowed to spring clean anymore!!!

Dateline: Wednesday, April 12, 11:00 p.m.
Another evening done in the kitchen. This *did* start off as a couple hour project to scour and wax the floor under the fridge, didn't it? I was supposed to be done before Derek even got home from work on Monday!!! Wood done by stairs, tile cuts done in that corner, and stair nose installed. Cut made for cold air return. After a game break, the spray foam was done, and the last few tiles laid that could be done.

Dateline: Thursday, April 13, 1:00 p.m.
All that's left to do now is to trim the excess foam, try to clean the tiles that got foam on them {Thanks honey for being the first one to make a mess like that... not me or the kids!!!!}, put the new threshold on the door and move the last of the stuff in the kitchen. I wonder if I will cook tonight? Nah!!! I have to work tonight!!! Happy weekend gone!