Celebrating Peanut

Today we had a little party for my Peanut. She turns 3 on the 24th. It's so incredibly amazing to think that 3 years have gone by so quickly. It's something you always hear, something that's so cliche' sounding, but really, the time does just fly by. She's the sweetest little independent thing~

Here is her cake:

Here is her happy reaction to seeing it:

And here are some adorable photos of her opening gifts and playing with her sister.

It is tradition for the birthday girl to go with daddy to the store to choose a ballon, tablecloth, plates, napkins for decoration for her party. Peanut had chosen the blue Barbie princess theme cake. She them switched gears at the store and went with My Little Pony themed goodies to decorate for her party. Then, she gets home and says, "Mom, why did you make a blue Barbie cake? I wanted a Pet Shop cake." Ahem You're lucky you were so cute when we presented the cake to you honey. (Says the mom up until 12:30 letting cakes completely cool before she went to bed after 2 long days of selling at a garage sale!) ;)

"Lemonade!! Arrrg!"

"Lemonade!!" :)
Originally uploaded by bethanygknits

Today we had the neighborhood garage sales. A neighbor came to sell some of her things too, and Goosie wanted to do a Lemonade Stand. So, she colored a sign, I broke out the Crystal Light, and those girls really sold the lemonade! I think I did 6 pitchers. Had to borrow cups from the neighbors because we ran out. They made $11-12 dollars I think. They were very proud. :)

Today is also World Wide Spin in Public Day, and International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so we did those things too. See my wheel back there? I had so many inquiries and really interested people! It was much fun. I even commissioned a yarn order! Woohoo!!

Taught my neighbor to knit too-how awesome is that? Couldn't have asked for a better day.

Goosie Goes to Preschool!

Today was the big day~I woke up early and got ready. I stopped Peanut from waking Goosie up and we went down to make pancakes. I fed Peanut...still, Goosie slept. A full 50 minutes later than she usually would! Then she came down and said, "That pancake smell woke me up!"

We had Mickey Mouse pancakes and bananas. Then we washed up, brushed teeth ("Can you do it for me this morning mom?"), got dressed, did hair. She was so excited. "I go to school today!" Derek got Peanut dressed, I washed her up and did her teeth and hair too. While I was doing that, Derek took the "first day of school pictures". Little sister did jump in for some, and they are all too cute to me.

We got to school 5 minutes before they open the door to let us in. Waved at new friends. Then Goosie found her locker and put her backpack in it. She instantly found her nametag and put her folder where she was supposed to. Goosie had made her teacher, Mrs. J., a picture of the two of them and had written her teacher's name on it, so Goosie gave that to her. Mrs. J. pulled Goosie aside and asked her to write her name on it, which she promptly did. She felt way special.

Then she chose a table and sat down to color, and off we went. It was a little sad (we cried last night as we checked on her when we went to bed), and Derek kept noticing and saying things to make me tear up more! But we took Peanut for a doughnut, got a balloon for when it was time to pick her up from school, did some "school work" with Peanut at home and colored and made her a folder too.

Time came to pick up our big girl and she and her friends were outside waiting with backpacks on. She was smiling so big, waved goodbye to her teachers "See you Wednesday!" Her teacher said it was interesting to see the skill level of the kids..."Goosie is waayyy up here" she said. We got in the car and Goosie told us how it all went:

"We colored and then got on the carpet and sang three songs and read "The Kissing Hand" and then we made our hands and put a sticker there! They were too wet to bring home, so my teacher said the next time we could-we used paint-and then we played outside some and had snack with teeny little cups of apple juice. I drank mine right away! And Goldfish crackers. They were tasty. And we sang the "Twinkle Star" song and did some things with our hands-like that...And I didn't get any paint on me!"

:D She had a good day. We had lunch and came home to rest-mom too! She ended up in bed with me because "I'm not tired and I promise I won't be crabby!" But she fell asleep watching me sleep. Peanut woke and then I did too, and I lay there a bit watching my Goosie next to me. I swear she grew as she was sleeping too.

The Beautiful Things in Life

Still Growing 8/31/09

Still Growing 8/31/09
Originally uploaded by bethanygknits

Do I mean the kids or the sunflower? Yes. :)

The Big "I know I haven't posted in a while" Post--picture heavy

Well helloooo~ It's me again. I have good intentions and then the day is done and no blogging. But I'll at least catch you up. Starting August 6th, I finally pulled together some ideas of what to do for Derek for his birthday. We were trying to avoid spending money, and that coupled with the fact that Derek typically gets himself whatever he wants, it is difficult to buy gifts. (that sounds kind of bad-he doesn't spend if we're watching it well, he just sees stuff and gets it when we are able to buy ;) I want to thank the ladies at the Reclaiming the Home group on Ravelry, who helped point me in the right direction, and then Derek's friend Ryan personalized the ideas which are all related to World of Warcraft goodies. So, here:

The girls painted a Happy Birthday Daddy! banner:

I copied some WoW art and framed them:

More copies for decoupage on a box:

side

back

front

inside with some goodies

mana, health, gold and damage

healing potion, hearthstone and character stones

all in the box in pouches I made

Rune of Teleportation and Rune of Portals, in case he needs to bust out of work really fast

knitted, felted and needle felted zipper pouch with the Alliance symbol on it (not yet finished, needle broke!) (and, Alliance Lion or Cowardly Lion? You choose. He was happy though :)

And, um....green proto drake cake. Yes is it. Squint. See?

The girls also painted rocks for him and little figurines (a pig and a treasure chest) and got him WoW game cards. :) It was a very geeky birthday and he had tons of fun.

We've also been watching nature. We had gone to City Knitting and the girls saw this and wanted me to take a picture:

And, lastly, while we did not plant sunflowers this year, we still got one. We're keeping track of how it's growing and we're excited for it to bloom.

8/13/09

8/21/09

8/26/09

So that's where we're at. :) I have to go get the cream puffs out of the oven...mmmm!

Fiber Fest, How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways...

Today I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival, after some confusion on my part of what weekend it was, and I had a marvelous time. Saw lots of people I knew like Beth Smith of The Spinning Loft, Rita Petteys of Yarn Hollow, friends I knit with, Christne, Vallerygallery, AllyB-all on Ravelry. There was a meet up that included CoggieTM of The High Fiber Diet Podcast, and her mother-in-law (oh no. Her name escapes me. Is she "No Broom" on Ravelry? Or is that just what her Ravatar says? Dang...Sorry, MIL!), and Deborah, who's Rav name escapes me as well. Tim, and Ladybugknitter (Lori) and her son and husband (who makes the great swifts and sock blockers at Hornshaw Woodworks. There were also the Zombie Prom Date Knitters, who all get lumped together because I won't remember everyone's names, except Knitswithsnot, 'cause how can you forget that name? ;) And Spinsanity, the lovely spindle maker. Here are some of those folks:

Phew. That was a lot to remember, and forgive me if I forgot you! But I must move on and tell of all the goodness at the festival. I didn't take pics of the booths, because you can imagine it. Big buildings packed with goodness, right? People all over the place, struggling to see every single bit of colorful, soft, fun things they can. It's heavenly.

I took a spin through the first vendor barn, then the second. I ran across the booth where Rachel (AKA my8kidsmom on Ravelry) had some of her goodies from her farm. She wasn't there at the time as she was getting a fleece judged, but I came back to meet her later. She was lovely and her products are wonderful. I bought some Finn from her. mmmm (And, check her blog to see how she did with her fleece! Give her a couple days though, think she's still there until tomorrow.)

But that was actually my last purchase. Well besides the elephant ear I was asked to bring home. :)

I started with a list of things I wanted: a needle felting kit-

Check.

Some tan/brown blended yarn for Derek for some socks--no check. :(

But I found some orange Wensleydale locks to play with!

Then I saw these. Seriously, I couldn't pass them up.

Plus, Nevernotknitting/Alana has that adorable sweater called "Sheepish" and I am just smitten with that sweater. So these had to come home.

Then I wandered to the animal barn, where I met Murol.

Murol is a very sweet baby llama who lives at Queso Cabeza Farm and came to greet me and was sooooooft, so I took part of her home with me. :) See her back in that picture up there? Well, here's what it looks like now:

Well, about 4 oz. of it anyway. :) I also brought home some Zoey, a grey baby llama who wasn't at the festival today, but this was so lovely it was not to be passed up.

I even have a plan here~I'll blend that Finn from Rachel with this and then make a vest that I saw at the festival. Wow--a real plan!

Next I saw my first sheep shearing. It was amazing really. This guy didn't have big forearms like the shearer that Itsjustmeghan saw though (and yes, that really went through my mind). (BTW: I went to link to the shownotes for that episode, but didn't search for it. It's there, somewhere. ;)

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw these for sale. The whole bags. It was tempting...

I also checked out the bunnies, who are always so adorable. This one was my favorite:

Next I purchased some wonderful smelling potpourri for sachets and discussed a lovely scarf that was knit from silk hankies without spinning the silk first! It was really light and gorgeous, but forgot to snap a pic. Guess I have to knit one up and show you myself. :)

And finally, the last thing to share is a spindle I purchased. I have been longing for a new one and one that was beautiful, that wasn't too heavy/light, that I'd want to use. And I found it. In the Handspun by Stefania booth, a Driftwood Spindle that I fell in love with. Low whorl, zebrawood whorl with a bobinga shaft, 1.1 oz of gorgeousness. If you look at the spindle shaft, there is an email addy on it for direct contact, but I was unable to locate a website. I'd think going through Stefania is the best bet if you are interested. It's fantastic-spins forever!

So that was my festival experience. I was inspired by so much and I feel full-satisfied-with all the fibery goodness and all it's accessories. The animals, the friends, the hordes of people that all know the secret of the fiber arts. *Sighs contentedly* I have to get going on some projects now so that I can move on to more! I have fiber to clean and card and spin and knit and wear, and I can't wait!

Oh, I did find some things to add to the Christmas list though! heheh...