Thursday Thanks

• Big boy back at school.
• Some time to get a few things done.
• Some kids that have taken to learning to knit easily.
• The perseverance of those that haven't got it quite so easily.
• A kinder teacher that let me do a parent help after 2 weeks of having to keep crossing my name off.
• A break now from term activities.
• Great reports.

473/1000

PS...  even the dog is sick of the rain!  Juneau barely moves if she can help it.  

Addictive Knits

It's crazy when you find a pattern & you just knit knit knit...

My current pattern is the mukluks again.  I love doing them in the variegated yarns.  This one was in a new yarn at work called Crazy Days.  I did the second largest size this time & they are a bit small for me with a pair of socks on underneath.  I really like this yarn to knit up.  It's a 12 ply yarn apparently though it isn't really a great  deal thicker than the coloured ones I did last week.  That was a 10 ply but knits more like a 12 I think. 

I think these are going to be a Christmas gift for a friend anyway.  I think they would make an ok gift.  

Taking Stock - June

Making :  slippers for anyone that cares to wear them.
Cooking :  simple home cooking after a couple of weeks of crazy meals.
Drinking :  herbal tea at bed time.  Chamomile really does seem to help.
Reading:  Mercy Street   -  Tess Evans
Wanting:  normalcy.  
Looking:  Forward to the holidays
Playing:  Candy Crush
Deciding:  what to knit next.
Wishing: I didn't feel so tired.  lol
Enjoying:  watching episodes of The Bill on iview.
Waiting:  for a new series I can binge watch.
Liking:  the movie Inside Out.
Loving:  the movie Zootopia
Pondering: things to do in the holidays, kind of...
Considering:  a birthday cake creation.
Buying:  birthday presents.
Watching: Love Child season 3!
Hoping:  we don't do much in the school holidays
Marvelling:  at how kids recover from sickness/stuff so quickly...  
Needing:  more hours in a day
Smelling: chamomile & honey
Wearing:  all my knitted stuff!  but not quite all at once.  lol
Following:  kind of, half following Masterchef...  
Thinking:  still about our hospital time.
Admiring:  both of my boys teachers this year...
Sorting:  just stuff that accumulates on the bench tops!  
Disliking:  customers that are on the phone in the shop.
Opening: parcels of Lego Disney minifigures.
Snacking:  anything I can find at the moment! 
Helping:  some of the interested kids at our school to learn to knit.  
Hearing:  a lot of complaining & arguing......  argh.
Worrying:  how will BJ go at school this week.  
Celebrating:  DJ's birthday next week.
Forgetting: not as much as I would have thought this month!
Winning: not much on the mother front these days it seems!  lol
Sneaking:  chocolate as usual

26/52

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

BJ - feeling so much better & keen to get out & about again.  A lovely play at the park on a cool but sunny winter's day.

DJ - happy to enjoy so normality too after a crazy couple of weeks, running & spinning off some of that never ending energy!  

More Mukluks

It's amazing what you can manage while sitting waiting for a boy to do his school work on a morning.  Lucky I don't home school though as I really don't have any patience for that.  Neither do the boys!  

This wee little mukluk is one I managed in a morning while listening to BJ read or while he did other school work.  It's for work with some left over yarn from there.  It will look cute sitting there.  The yarn sure looks pretty for a little girl too.  

But wait, there are more of course.  Bigger ones!  I did these in one & a half days!  Amazing what you can when you are listening to reading, while it is bucketing down outside & you just don't feel like moving much at all.  I would have loved to put an extra couple of rolls on the top of these but I worked it out to the three on the first one by the weight of the ball.  I figured I would get the pair out of one 100gm ball which I did, with almost nothing to spare.  That's pretty good really.  Not sure if I am keeping these yet, or sending them to a friend.  They sure look cool though.  I like colour!  

Thursday Thanks

• A boy that is much brighter & just about back to his usual self.
• Amazing nurses & doctors. 
• Really, our health system is pretty darned great!
• The ever present Elmo in hard times!
• Gifts from Capes4Kids that kept BJ going...
• A hubby that could come to visit plus bring supplies & spend time with the young one.
• A little boy who is so easy going that crazy weeks don't seem to bother him.  
• Understanding teachers.
• Family that help out at short notice.

466/1000

25/52

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

BJ - Recovery is getting there, he is better in himself.  His camo hospital gown & his Minecraft cape from Capes4Kids sure made a lot of difference...  & then there is Elmo of course...  been with him through the hard times since he was about 2...

DJ - So busy all the time, action games with dinosaurs & transformer type things...  was a trouper this week with all the crazy things going on but still his imaginative, entertaining self.

Hospital Knitting

Fortunately with a sudden extended stay in hospital I did go prepared with a bit of knitting.  Also fortunately for me, Stuart came over on Friday for the afternoon to hang out with BJ so I could get out for a bit.  A walk to town meant I could hit the wool shop there & get the orange yarn requested by BJ for his slippers.  I almost got them both finished while there too. He's pretty rapt with his new mukluks.  

I had actually started a pair for DJ just before we had left.  I did do one of these in hospital but I didn't have the other ball of yarn with me so couldn't finish his pair until today!  I did well using stash wool for these.  I made one at home first to try the pattern & to see how it was constructed but it was too small for him so started the next size.  I now have one lonely little slipper that I really need to make a match for...  soon...   DJ is rapt with his though.  

Edited to add this on Wednesday...

Last night when I finished DJ's slippers I put them inside his bedroom door so he could find them when he got up.  Tonight when I went to put him to bed I found them in that spot again but with tufts of dog fur in them!!!  I asked him why they had fur in them...  "so they keep me warmer" he says!  Stuart & I nearly doubled over laughing...  Yes, it makes sense...  Was funny to see he had put them away this morning in that same spot after he got dressed for school, but with the addition of the fur inside!  bwahahahaha...

Late Thursday Thanks

• My amazing boy.
• So brave & strong.
• What courage.

457/1000

New Socks... Again...

Another pair of socks for me.  This was using up some nice yarn that I had bought on Etsy a while back.  It's really nice & I love the same but variegated reds in it...  It's called Hawaiian Red Dirt.  Think I should go to Hawaii & see for myself.

Up To Date!

Ok, this lot of pics brings me up to last week.  Week 24 is fused & on the way.  

The first 5 are sewn on already.  

24/52

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

BJ - Birthday boy having a little party with friends.  American style, the milkshakes in the big fancy glasses were a hit.  

DJ - Having the bestest ever time playing with his big brothers friends too, also enjoying his lunch.

Birthday Boy

So my big boy turned 8 yesterday.  Far out the years are moving along quite briskly...  He had an early morning start before school.  A little pizza party with his grandparents that evening & today a little party with 4 school friends.  He's enjoyed himself & been spoilt of course!

Train Ride?

A few more of the squares, looking cute (although a little blurry...  ekkk)

Thursday Thanks

• Safety from the storm & floods.
• Miracle of our neighbour's 2 cows surviving in our river.  
• The floods weren't worse...
• Community spirit in difficult issues.
• Good days for our little family. 

454/1000

Flood Fascination

The water is receding which is good news...  

This picture I showed you the other day is followed by a picture from today.  

The foreground is the willow.  Then the row of trees through the centre of the picture that are actually the river edge...  

You can see a smidgeon of the river in the shiny light little bit on the left hand side of the picture about a third of the way down....  We can see our fence here under the willow tree.  The willow will be in a duck bath for a few more days I expect...  

Week 20

Another weeks worth finished.  These are going quickly now as there isn't much hand sewing for me to do.  The boat is one of my favourites.  Just something about it that I really like.

Rainy Days = Flood

As lovely as the rain has been after drought conditions I guess this was inevitable now.  Flood.  The river at the back of our property.  So this willow tree which we see close up is at the end of our paddock.  The next row of trees is where the edge of the river actually is...  so the flats of fields along here are under water.  River is huge right now...  

The view to the right of the top picture is this.  The trees through the centre of the picture are the edge of the river.  So the water right up to the grass near me is kind of bad...  There is a dam on the right of this but that's all.  That black irrigation hose is stuck around a fence post.   The fence post actually disappeared altogether.  But the last I looked tonight before dark, the post was showing about this much again.   

So with this lovely weather, the last few days have seen me get one with my sewing.  Week 19 is here.

23/52

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

Crazy weather day so pyjamas & a movie day it is.  

Cute Knit

Last week at work I decided we needed a sample of this wool.  So I grabbed a ball & a pattern for the yarn. Cast on while it was really quiet.  Only ended up with the banded knitted over the course of 2 days at work but finished the rest tonight.  A nice yarn really.  Some really nice varigated colours too.  

Thursday Thanks

• Great days at work.
• Time with friends.
• Knitting up stash wool.  
• Helping teach the children at school to knit!  Such fun.
• Success in birthday shopping!  Was getting a bit worried about that.

449/1000

Sewing Weather

Finally got back into my sewing & catching up on a few weeks worth of these squares.  These are the last 5 from week 18.  The other 3 are sewn on the quilt to finish the previous round.   It's coming along...