26/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year!  & we must be half way!  Wow!  

BJ - pulling funny faces, spurred on by dad...  

DJ - not quite mastering the funny face thing.  Hair cut on the list for tomorrow.  

52 project...

Winter Crafting

Not surprisingly there is still a bit going on about the house.  Knitting however is a bit slower for results than crochet & that's what I have been doing mostly.  

This is "Tea with Jam & Bread" which is a terrific pattern I bought on Ravelry.  Love it.  It comes with kids, men & women sizes.  Started small.  lol  It is really a basic round neck jumper.  The pattern does include little pockets on front & is done in stripes, but for this yarn I didn't do all that.  I have since got further than this.  This picture was when I tried it on BJ to measure it on him.  I still did it too long & had to frog some.  But that's the beauty of top down knitting!  I have just started a sleeve today after a week of ignoring it & doing a bit of crochet instead.  

Oh the yarn is Cascade Pacific Color Wave in 303.  It is coming up great with the variegation!  

The latest square for the CAL is Bringing in the Sheaves.  Such a lot going on in this square that it made it interesting & a bit of a challenge with all sorts of other things going on at the time.  Monday evening with no power sure slowed me down as I couldn't finish it like I planned & it ended up being Wednesday before I got to it again.  

I have a nice collection of squares so far, but still not enough for a decent sized throw so I will keep going with some more.  It's been nice to have some different squares that I haven't made before though!  

It's been rather miserable here but it is winter so I am not surprised either.  But good weather to stay in & do something with a needle or hook.  A couple nights under an ever growing ripple blanket is making me feel like that is moving along too.  Eventually I will get to the end of that, but it will probably be when I run out of a couple of colours that I think are now discontinued.  Darn that.  But still a bit to go before it's done.  Stay tuned for that one.  That's been good on the colder evenings to work under - except for the evening without power!  lol  

25/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year.

BJ - sent you outside for at least an hour before I would let you on the computer.  It's a gorgeous day & it's been 2 hours of mud so far.  

DJ - never an issue getting you outside.  Absolutely filthy muddy!  Such fun!

Linking to the 52 project.  

24/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year.  

BJ - concentrating on new Lego he got for his birthday.  

DJ - full of cold & bleary eyed, you were pretty miserable today, but we forced a smile with a bribe of a chocolate egg.  

Linking with the 52 project.  

And a Little Bit of Knitting

A new cowl!  I saw this being knitted at our last Ravelry group meet up.  The person there was test knitting. It has since been released.  It's the Rubus Cowl.  It came up really well though I think I need a row of the pattern less...  Bit bulky for me but it sure is proving its worth on our cold mornings at the moment.  

ekkk...  another picture of me!  (laugh lines & all!)

Little Bit of Crochet

 A little more play time in the last week to work on a couple of squares for the current CAL.  It's going well & I have a nice collection of squares growing now.  

Versailles

Merrian's Square

Ninjago Party Time

Well it is that time of year ago when we get our cake disasters happening!  Ok, this looks better than it really  is as you can't see the edges.   But the newly 6 year old BJ didn't care about holes in icing thank goodness.  

Yesterday was BJ's birthday.  We had a small party of boys after school which was a really terrific idea I must say.  Plus they are at an age where they don't need games etc for entertainment which was all the better.  The boys ate cupcakes (or not!) .  We kept the big cake for dinner time when BJ's grandparents & aunt came.  Two songs & two lots of blowing out candles!  Yay!  

I found a bunch of cool printables on line again this year, from the party invitation which was terrific!  Then the juice covers.  

Plus the ninja eyes...  These printed in pages of 4.  I cut them out.  Bought white bags & stuck on a colour A4 sheet to suit.  Near enough again for a 6 year old.  I wasn't totally happy with the colour difference but oh well, that's just me I guess.  No one mentioned the difference in colours.  (thanks grown ups! )  

Once again for the party bags I did add something more interesting & lasting than toys that just end up all over the place.  OK, they do the job of entertaining the kids & that's cool too but I prefer not to do that & do my own thing.  So a Kmart Ninjago dvd was a good option.  I did want a lego mini figure for each but the only ones out at the moment are the Simpsons ones.  Nope not happening.  Not starting with those as well!  I came across the Ninja Turtle figure pack in the supermarket.  That will do.  Some Ninja stickers & 2 very small bags of lollies.  That's it.  It's more lollies than I wanted to add really but oh well.  It's small.  The boys were rapt I believe.  

BJ had a great day!  He was very spoilt but had a great day.  

We are going to pay today though as I expect he will crash down from his extreme HIGH plus over tiredness...  All in the fun & excitement though huh?   Oh to be a kid & enjoy such things as parties like this again!  

23/52

A portrait of my boys once a week for a year.  

BJ - Your last day of being 5!  Where did my little guy go?  

DJ - You are such a cheek & can't do anything without showing it!  Not going to smile normal of course, even with your new lego from Aunty Judy!  

Joining in the 52 project eventually.  

Warm Hands

Just had to try these hand warmers on the weekend.  We have had a couple of cool mornings, & a couple of cold mornings!  Not quite so bad yet to be perfectly honest but apparently it is going to stay warmer than usual.  I don't know if that is good or not.  One reason it may not be good is that we don't get to wear our winter woolies so much!  But anyway, it seems the arthritis may be coming to some fingers.  So why not make some thing to keep them warm when it is particularly cold.  

These hand warmers were really easy if you are used to working in the round.  The simple 2x2 rib pattern all the way makes it look like cute cables without any difficult cable pattern!  So cool!  I did the size of the pattern for one & it was so small it was hurting my arm.  That was weird.  It was so tight on that my whole arm ached.  So I did it again with an extra 8 stitches & it was perfect.  So I have this nice pair now.  Oh I did add an extra 4 rows of pattern at the top end so it came up a little higher on my fingers. They don't take long to knit.  I think a couple of hours per mitt  - it just depends on how often you are interrupted by the boys!  lol  

Oh & I used Cascade 220 Aran.  So soft & squishy!  Perfect for hands!