Saturday, December 11, 2010

Coffee with a good Friend

Saturday morning usually is very quiet and low key around here... kids in pajamas, eating cereal, cartoons on the tv, me knitting and hubby reading the newspaper drinking coffee.

Well, this morning I changed it up a little, and stepped out for a couple hours to meet with a good friend of mine. We took a bit of a walk to my local LYS, where we wandered around touching and stroking and ooohhhhing and aahhhhing yarns for almost an hour! We both walked out with a skein of Malabrigo worsted (mine is blue Oceanos and Shannon bought a beautiful purple she is planning on making into an 198 yards of heaven for her Mother). Shannon also bought some fun fur for a gnome beard. :)

Then I found $5 on the sidewalk as we were walking to the local coffee shop!!! We went in and discussed my quilting extravaganza that will be starting this week (I plan on making 2 twin size quilts for 2 of my teenagers for christmas). Since Shannon has made a few beautiful quilts in the past, I really wanted to pick her brains about them.

What I really love about getting together with Shannon is how comfortable I feel with her. I've known her for 10 years now, and although we don't talk or get together often enough, it's always like... I don't know, I can't even explain it... it's like she's always on the same wavelength as I am. I completely get where she's been and where she's going in life, and I think she feels the same with me. It's like... if I could have chosen my sister, I would have chosen her.

Thanks for driving all the way down here this morning Shannon. I loved seeing you today, it was the perfect start to ensuring a wonderful weekend.


OH, and she made me this for my tree:

DSC06495

it's at the top of my tree, just to the right of the bottom of the angel

DSC06499

see it?

:)

Monday, December 6, 2010

To Do List started.... 19 days to go

My To-Do list

* Get Christmas Tree and Decorations out of basement
* Put the Christmas tree up
* Decorate the Christmas Tree
* Find the recipe for Grandma & pa's Christmas cookies
* Make list of ingredients required and them make them
* Think about making some more different cookies as well
* Package & gift cookies to friends and family
* Finish all of my Christmas knitting
* Finish shopping for items that are not hand crafted
* Fill out bazillion Christmas Cards
* Distribute Bazillion Christmas Cards (after locating address lists from last year)
* Buy eggnog and rum and enjoy a nice drink
* Remember that this is a time of happiness and cheer

Saturday, November 27, 2010

That time of Year

My To-Do list

* Get Christmas Tree and Decorations out of basement
* Put the Christmas tree up
* Decorate the Christmas Tree
* Find the recipe for Grandma & pa's Christmas cookies
* Make list of ingredients required and them make them
* Think about making some more different cookies as well
* Package & gift cookies to friends and family
* Finish all of my Christmas knitting
* Finish shopping for items that are not hand crafted
* Fill out bazillion Christmas Cards
* Distribute Bazillion Christmas Cards (after locating address lists from last year)
* Buy eggnog and rum and enjoy a nice drink
* Remember that this is a time of happiness and cheer

Friday, November 26, 2010

Birthday

Well, last weekend was my birthday. Thank goodness it's over for another year. My eldest came over, and one thing I'm really grateful for is that my husband offered to make dinner and told me to invite my favoritest person in the entire world, my friend Shannon, and her family.

So, last Saturday, hubby was cooking in the kitchen and I was sitting in the livingroom chatting with my buddy. Her hubby was in the kitchen with mine, and her kids were hanging with mine. :)

We shared stories, and projects, and the love flowed (as did the wine). I don't see Shannon nearly as much as I would like to, but when we do get together, it's always like no time passed at all. I also follow her blog and her projects on a knitting site we are both part of, although she doesn't post updates enough there for my liking :)

So, with my spirit refreshed with great friendship, family, food and wine - I welcome another year. xox

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Factory Fresh (again?)

“Laptop issues again?” hubby asks as he walks by me.
“yeah babe, some Admin restrictions. Having an issue installing software or viewing images”
I’m on the phone on hold with HP service. It’s been about 25 minutes. I’m getting cranky so I hang up. No sense being cranky with some young kid who happens to get my help desk call.

I go to the HP website and go to the Customer Service chat help. This seems to go faster and in no time there is Kalam typing a “Hello, how can I help you?”

I type that my hard drive died a month or so ago and HP replaced it and reinstalled everything, but did more after the factory fresh and changed/updated some settings because I was getting Administrator access only error messages. So, he advises that I make a ‘new account’, transfer all my files to the new account, and then delete the old account. At this point, I ask if it would be better for me to just do a System Recovery and go to Factory Fresh after backing up my stuff. “No, no, no… not necessary. Lets make new account first.”

So, 80 minutes later, a new account is made and my files are copied over to this new “Lynn”. I go ahead and deleted the “Admin” account. Then I go and try to install jzip (the program that started all this Admin crap) and still get the same error pop up box about Administrator permissions and to contact my Administrator. I AM THE FUCKEN ADMINISTRATOR!!!! It’s a home laptop. There is only ME!!!

I back up the 3 files that I’ve added since my last back up, restart, and go to System Recovery. “Are you sure?” pops up. “Yes, Factory Fresh this time, please” I speak back to my laptop, hoping against hope that I don’t end up throwing this piece of lemon out the window.

Well, 40 minutes later, I’m Factory Fresh and getting all my files back in order. The first one I install is the jzip. No problem at all now.

Thanks for a serious waste of my afternoon HP.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Knotty but Nice Hat

I finished a Knotty but Nice hat for Sebastian. You can find the pattern at http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter09/PATTknotty.php I love this site! Free patterns, with a new newsletter out every 4 months. I'm going to ask S if I can post a pic of him modelling it! lol, lets cross our fingers.

Kids are at TwaeKwonDo right now. They are both brown belts, and doing very well. I just wished they would practice a bit more.

HUMPH!!! Never ask a man for his opinion in regards to something knitted. Hubby just said that the Knotty but Nice hat is too girly! And now S is worried about it... well, I guess I just knitted myself a hat. :(

Knotty but Nice

Saturday, October 30, 2010

My knitting area

There have been some changes around here lately.

#1 - I bought a new chair - an Ikea Poang with a black cover. (We put my big armchair out into the sunroom)
#2 - I bought a new shelving unit - an Ikea Expedit with 8 cube spaces.
#3 - I organized my yarns and magazines and books and printouts!

ta da!!!

knit corner (1)

and a closeup of my shelf...

knit corner (4)

Well, what do you think of my knitting corner?

Woodstock Fleece Festival

Last weekend I went on a bit of a road trip with a good friend of mine, Shannon and a couple buddies of hers. She came and picked me up on her way to Woodstock! An hour and a bit in the car on the way up, and we were immersed in fleece and wool and all kinds of yarny goodness!

Since I'm not working right now, i had told myself that I wanted to walk around at least once before buying anything! And I did. But I still came home with 4 purchases! A beautiful skein of madelinetosh Pashmina in Terrarium - a sport weight yarn that is the squishiest, softest yarn ever!

And I also grabbed a skein of Dye-Version in Rustico - it's a beautiful autumn russet colors, almost looks like different shades of fire!

And, I bought 2 skeins of curly yarn - lol - it's yarn that has a bit of a knotty bubble to it... don't know how to explain it any better. One is Fleece Artist, Kiss Curls in shades of red and orange, and the other is a dark purple from Wellington Fibres.

Woodstock purchase

order: Madelinetosh Pashmina, Fleece Artist, Wellington Fibre, Dye-Version

and another shot of the Pashmina after I retwisted the skein

Pashmina

Thanks for a fantastic day Shannon, Rochelle and Kim! Let's do it again next year! :)

Halloween

I remember Halloween as a child. The lead up to it was so exciting, maybe because it was my Father's birthday as well. I remember one year, a bunch of older kids were out egging and toilet papering the neighbourhood. When our house got hit, my Dad went out running after those guys! OMG, it was hilarious! He came home about 20 minutes later, huffing and puffing, his face completely beet red! We had to sit there waiting for him to get his 2nd wind so we could do his cake. lol!

Halloween does not hold the same love for me since his death. I used to spiderweb the whole place when the kids were little, and big scary posters all over... but now the kids are bigger and it's become more of a melancholy time for me. Not depressing, just sad.

Happy Birthday, Daddy. I love you and miss you alot. xox

Monday, October 11, 2010

Happy Birthday/Thanksgiving, Melissa baby!

My little girl turned 20 on Saturday! Thanksgiving weekend has always been her birthday celebration weekend. So lucky, a turkey for her birthday every year. ;)

The year she was borne, I went into the hospital and it was still the end of summer. The leaves were all still green. When I came out 5 days later, after 2 fierce storms blew through toronto, there were no leaves left on the trees. It looked like I had missed Autumn all together. Not only that, but I missed Thanksgiving. :(

This year (as normal), we celebrated twice. Once at her grandma's on Saturday. There, we sat outside in the sunshine, soaking up the 22 degrees celcius heat.

Today, was a little cooler, but still a beautiful day.

I put the turkey in at 9:30 this morning, and we were eating at 5:30.
Turkey, gravy, biscuits, cranberries, stuffing, potatoes, carrots, squash, green beans, mushrooms, creamed corn and then afterwards apple and pumpkin pies with cool whip and vanilla ice-cream. mmmm, mmmmm!

Happy 20th Birthday sweetheart! I love you, and hope all your wishes come true in the coming year.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Work

Job Application

Yesterday I filled out a job application. The blurb on the company website stated: "(deleted to maintain confidentiality) focuses on creating and maintaining a workplace of choice, where its people are recognized and valued. We focus on creating a workplace where people enjoy the challenge of their career, create and engage in best practices and are treated with respect."

Damn, I really want to work for a company that recognizes and values its employees. Where I can go and be treated with respect.

Wish me luck!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Toe up socks - ugggg

well, it seems that although I do prefer to knit my socks toe-up, they sometimes do not work for me.

For instance, I've been knitting socks for my youngest daughter. I finished a pair, but they were a little too big in the foot area, so decided to rip the toe out and re-do it. That's fine, a little fiddly... but do-able. BUT, I didn't like the fix. In fact, I hate the fix so much that I may just rip it out again to redo it.

So, I started a new pair. Just finished the heel, and am now working on the leg pattern, and at the last fitting, the foot section is AGAIN too long for her foot. So, I'll have to rip the toe out and re-do it again.

What the hell is going on here? Why can't I do a sock toe-up???

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Aeolian

hmmm, some comments I received were great, some mentioned it's halloweenish because its orange.... go figure.

Anyway, I love it. I love the orange. I love the beads. I love the size of it.
Aeolian

Galaxy comes to life

Well, it took me almost a year from start to finish, but it was worth it.

Introducing .... In the Pink. A beautiful design by Izzy - http://izzysknits.blogspot.com/

In the Pink

The joining of the pieces was the most difficult part of this project (for me anyway) and stalled this out for a very long time. The actual knitting probably took 6 weeks or so.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Zetor shawl finished for my Mother in Law

Whew.... finally finished!

This was a tough one, cause it's acrylic. And the only reason I did a shawl in acrylic was because it was for my Mother in Law. I realized early on that anything I made for her would have to be wash & wear. :)


Two full months of summertime knitting.... my hands were literally sweating working with this yarn... although, you know what?

It's freaken gorgeous. It turned out really nicely.


Once I cast off, I tossed it into the washer on gentle cycle for 2 minutes, then spun it. I then pinned it out on my king size bed. After it fully dried out, I stretched it out a little more, straightening the spine (didn't realize it was so crooked until I saw the pic above) then steam blocked it. Well, truthfully, I steam 'ironed' it. Pressed very gently, but I ironed it to kill it. :)

I hope my MIL loves it!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Knitting, work, life

I’ve been knitting a lot. Even my dear husband has commented on it lately. (My response to him is “you watch a lot of sports, I knit. What’s the problem?”)

One of my recent projects was massive! Aeolian Shawl (can be found on knitty.com)was an eye opener of new things… it was a beautiful shawl done in a soft orange lace-weight yarn with mother-of-pearl beads and nupps (nupps are a 9 stitch bobble). The last 4 rows of the shawl took me 10 hours to do! The bind off alone took almost 2 hours! All I have to do is block it. And because of the shape of it, it’ll be another huge undertaking to block it, so that will have to wait for the week-end.

I finished a pair of socks for Annaliese, but they were too big. So, I cut the toe back to redo it, and now after fixing the toe and grafting it together, I hate the shape of it. So, I started a new pair. Not sure what I’m going to do with the ones I just finished though….almost considering running it through the sewing machine to fix the toes…

My 1 year contract runs out next Friday. I think I’m going to fix up my kitchen while I look for something new. Repaint the walls. Put up another shelf for storage. Maybe I’ll purchase a butcher block type of table on wheels… either repaint the floor, or buy some ceramic tiles for it…

Kids are going for their BROWN belts in TwaeKwonDo on the 27th. Unbelievable… my little karate kids!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY GIRL!

My youngest baby turned 11 today.

I remember her birth so clearly... out of 3 babies, she was the only one who broke my water to start the labour process... 10:30 at night, and it felt like I'd pee'd my pants... and couldn't stop dribbling... ;)

I told my hubby (although at that time we weren't married yet, but had been together for 5 years) that I thought it was 'time'. 10 long hours later, and there she was... my littlest... my last... my reese pee... when she was borne, she was perfect! the reddest, cupid bow lips.... dark (because it was wet) curly hair, huge dark blue eyes... that looked right at me when she was put on my tummy....

hubby was having difficulties with my camera, so I had taken it from him and recorded her entrance into the world (only her, mind you)

Today, she is swimming in 6 mile lake, 3 hours away from me... and although she called me and I sang to her and told her how much I loved and missed her, DAMN it's hard to be away from her... she's my baby... she should be here.... blowing out her candles....

We (hubby and I) had actually told her she couldn't go up to the cottage with her bestest friend from kindergarden.... but she really wanted to go... and she got mostly ALL A's in her report card, so we finally caved in and allowed her to go away for a week, even though we would miss her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Annaliese baby girl. I love you. Be safe, play safe, but have fun - which I know you are having.

xoxo
love mommy

Happy Birthday, baby

ps... she is 1 day old, and was just meeting her 2 year old brother (who was wearing an "I'm the big brother" t-shirt...), her oldest sister (who was 9.5, was off getting mommy a glass of milk

;)

Saturday, June 26, 2010

G20 protest

Unbelievable that this is happening in my neighbourhood. That I'm a prisoner in my own home because it's too dangerous to go out. There are thousands of people outside - and the sad part is that it's only a small portion of those people who are not there for valid reasons... but to cause fear and make trouble. Who the hell are these Black Bloc trouble-makers? They're not protesting anything. They just want to cause trouble. Damage property. Hurt others.

I wish the police would grab this a$$holes and break some heads. These Black Bloc's are not citizens here. They should be charged and thrown into a jail - what message is this sending to the leaders that are meeting this weekend? None.

The news just stated that tear-gas has been used. People are hurt. Peaceful protesters are turning back so that they are no longer a part of the same crowd as the Black Bloc.... who are trashing windows, throwing mailboxes into the roads to block the streetcar tracks, throwing objects at police....


G20 damage

Police car set on fire at king / bay streets, burning out of control with no sign of anyone coming to put it out.

I can say that it will not be a nice/happy walk into work on monday... passing all these business' that have now been damaged by these trouble-makers.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

magic


blocking
Originally uploaded by lynn893
Magic....

blocking lace is pure magic.

fresh off the needles

I finished Springtime Bandit. A beautiful design done by Kate Gagnon Osborn. You can find the pattern here... kelbournewoolens.com/springtimebandit.html

It took me 35 hours to knit it.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

First commissioned project


Natali's shawlette
Originally uploaded by lynn893
1st of all, permission was granted by designer to sell this item. Thank you for this beautiful "10in2010 shawlette", Janine Le Cras.

I started this on May 28 and finished the knitting on June 16. This took me a total of 25.9 hours to complete. Whew...



I hope Natali loves it. ;

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Blackout

I left work at 11:30 for lunch. Went down to the foodcourt, grabbed some chinese noodles and spicy shrimp, went out and sat at the Cloud parkette for 40 minutes.

Went back to work, wondering why Yonge Street was SOOO crowded. Got to where my building is and the police were directing traffic because the lights were out.

Went into my building and it's dark... and the elevators are all open, but dark...

Went to the conceriege and asked what happened. Security advised me that there was a power outage! So, I grabbed my cell, and called up to our receptionist. She told me that it was dark up there, and that they were waiting to hear back from the president about closing for the day. I asked her if I should walk up the stairs, and she told me not to bother, to go home!

So, I'm now at home... 1:41 in the afternoon... going to finish that 198 yards of heaven that I frogged back yesterday.

Have a great day!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

OMG, it's back!!!

My blog is BACK! after being hacked, and then deleted/suspended by gmail, it's finally back!

Blog... I promise to start using you more often, because I missed you. xoxo

Friday, May 7, 2010

Hair

Yesterday I decided to go and get my hair trimmed. It was to a place I had been to before, so thought ‘Lucy’ would again be able to perform to my high standards. I went in and we spoke for a couple minutes. I told her that I wanted a bare trim of the actual length, but that I wanted long layers for the thickness at the back. I also told her NO bangs (my hair was pretty much all one length) but that the sides were a little too long and I wanted them trimmed into a {here I used my hand and showed her what I wanted because I don’t know the term for it – I started cutting the air, from below chin level down to bewb level} and she nodded and knew what I wanted.

So, she’s cutting away…. And the phone rings so she stops and answers it…. Then comes back and continues cutting…. Every 5 minutes or so, she had to stop to answer the phone! (about 6 times total). Each time she came back, she went to a different area than she had been before she was interrupted.

Oh, and she scratched my cheek with the scissors at one point, and poked me in the eye with the end of the comb at another point!

Anyways, towards the end of the cut, when she was doing the front/sides, I stopped her and told her that I wasn’t liking what she was doing to the front/side area. She was doing a shaggy almost straight across cut just below my chin, instead of doing a slant so it falls softly from below my chin down. I literally took the comb off the counter and combed out the side and showed her (using the comb) where/how it should be shaped (almost straight down - kind of slanted though). She ended up going way shorter than I wanted to compensate for the "straight across” portion of the cut.

When she ‘finally’ got the right side done (not to my satisfaction, but I wanted her to stop cutting), she went onto the left side, and proceeded to cut it straight across again! I stopped her right away and said to her “what are you doing??? It’s supposed to be slanted (from nose to bewb slope, not straight across from lip to ear). So. She started cutting again… and now… her hands are shaking….

So I touched her arm, and told her we were done. She was just fucking it up more, in my opinion anyways. So, this weekend, I’m going to try to fix my hair myself. Uggg… fucken hair dressers…. I fucken hate them all.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

100th project on Ravelry!

I'm about to cast on my 100th project this weekend on Ravelry!

I've decided to let the majority vote rule my 100th project. I set up a listing of the shawls I plan on doing this year in the shawls forum (linky) and will go by whatever is chosen.

Stuff...

Kids are off on March break and I'm at work. uggg... so, I decided (late, I know - but better late than never) that I would take tomorrow and Friday off. :)

These past 2 weeks have been tough at work. We did a major office shuffle, where I ended up moving (with my group) to the other end of the office. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had ordered enough packing boxes, but they only ordered 30 for 10 people, and I needed 25 just for all the files that my department has. So, I ended up filling 5 moving boxes to the brim, and lugging them down the hallway, then emptying them just to bring them back to fill them again... it took me 5 hours to move my 4 - 5 drawer filing cabinet contents in this manner. Then I had to get everything organized again for my department. ugg... the only good thing was that the next day I was complaining that my back and my hands were killing me, so one of the office assistants gave me a certificate for a pedicure at a spa near the office. So, I went over my lunch and got my feet some lavish attention :) Ahhhh, I love my feet being rubbed and pampered.

So anyway.... tomorrow hubby and I are packing up the kids and driving an hour away to go and look at mattresses. Why? Because my $3,000 Sealy Perfect Sleeper has a 3.5inch deep dip in it where our body impressions are, and it's no longer possible to get a good nights sleep. And Sleep Country will not honor their warrantee with us because their delivery guys bent the bed in half to get it up our stairs, and when they did that, they bent the bottom framing wire. And, because I didn't realize the damage done until a year later when one of their guys came in to measure the body impressions and mentioned there was a 'dip' in the foot of the mattress - the warrentee is void. So, we are driving to a little mattress shop outside of Toronto to do our buying... and I'm telling everyone I know about my defective king size bed that cost over $3,000 and didn't even last 1 year. After mattress shopping, we're going out for lunch. Not sure where, but we are! :) Anyway, hopefully we can pick something out tomorrow cause I wake up every morning feeling like I'm 85... full of aches and pains and still sorely tired.

My father-in-law finished his physiotherapy this week. Now he just needs to get himself more active and figure out what he's going to do for the next 15 years of his life (hoping he has that much time). He is constantly complaining that he is bored. But, he is still off-balance and it's hard for him to go for walks by himself because he is scared he might fall down. He has gotten back to about 80% of where he was before he had the stroke in November. But, because he has calcium growth on his spine at his neck, he cannot turn his head very well. This in turn is probably the major factor in his dizzyness.

Eldest daughter is moving into a basement apartment! She's finally getting out of the little one room she's been renting (and hating) for the past year and taking over my mother-in-law's basement. It will be great for Eldest Daughter and great for MIL as well. They will both help each other out hugely - one monetary wise, the other with a more homey atmosphere to live in.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

2010

OMG, where did last year go? I honestly have a hard time believing that it's 2010 already.

What did I accomplish? New job (a contract position, but still a job), lots of knit projects completed, home repairs done, kids in twae-kwon-do, son with drum lessons.

All in all, a good year gone.

Hopefully this year will bring happiness and a loss of 10 lbs my way. :)