Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thankful

Turkey day. The day we stuff ourselves into misery. Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite days...mostly because of dedicated family time and the relative absence of the utter consumerism that is Christmas.

This has been somewhat of a stressful year for us. There was the bathroom remodel that took 3 times as long as originally thought. The whole pregnancy complication/bed rest/baby in the NICU thing. Work has been rough at times.

But overall, we're blessed with each other, a cozy house, and more food and clothing than we'll ever need. We have great friends and family. We have happy and healthy kids. Along those lines. the thing that I'm most thankful for is that we went from this:to this:

Sunday, November 11, 2007

One down, one to go

I didn't get quite as much done today as planned. I ended up not having quite enough fabric to make 2 pillowcases because of the way I laid it out. But I had a blast making this, and it was quick...only about 45 minutes to do the whole thing.

Here's a full shot of the pillowcase:and then a close up of the ribbon I added...grainy picture though.

I had so much fun making this. It's not perfect, but hey, it's a pillowcase. It's just going to get drooled on anyway. Not by me though...it's a birthday present.

Yay! I have to go get a little more fabric and I'll get the second one done this week. Then what shall I work on? I'm thinking about fabric napkins in a nice fall print for Thanksgiving. Sewing rocks!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Early morning and the house is quiet!

It's 5:45 on a Sunday morning. And I'm awake. Damn. Jack woke up about 4:30 to eat, and I haven't been able to go back to sleep. So instead of laying in bed, I thought I might as well get up and start my day. It just has to be a quiet start to the day, as everyone else is sleeping. Like they should be at this time on a Sunday morning. We have a small and creaky old house, so I'm pretty limited at what I can do. So I'll blog, then knit. Mostly I've been working on a pair of socks lately. It's the garter rib socks from Simply Sensational Socks. I'm not at all a good photographer, so you can't get much detail from the picture. Something about these colors reminds me of a stained glass window, so I've been calling them the "stained socks". Last night I finished the cuff of #2, so now it's on to the heel.


In the crafty world, I so badly want to become an accomplished seamstress. So far, I've made one whopping apron. But I've bought fabric for several other projects. I recently found a new website, The Sewing Garden. I want to make every single pattern they have. If the force is with me I might try and make a pair of pillowcases today, just using existing pillowcases as a template.


And one more thing that I've been incredibly negligent about. A couple of months ago, Kim tagged me as a Rockin' Blogger. I never passed along the next tag. So, 2 months late, but better late than never, right? My pick is Heidi. This girl is amazing. A crafty cloth diapering momma with her own little farm, Etsy shop and amazing handmade soap. Heidi, I want to be you.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Warning...Cute kiddos below

Happy November to you all. We're recovering from the chocolate coma caused by leftover Halloween candy here at out house. As always, I bought gobs of candy, because I'm afraid we'll run out. But we never do, so, well, I mean, that candy can't just go to waste (waist?)

Here we have the Decker kids all dressed in their finery...a fairy and a "Jack"-o-lantern


This was the first Halloween we took Catie trick or treating. There was a "Trunk or Treat" at the hospital, where groups handed out candy from their trunks to the bazillions of kids that lined up. The theory is that it's a safer environment, and all the people handing out candy were local business or health care groups. Fun, but the line was waay too long. I'm not sure we'll do it next year. Then we went to my parents' house...I think Catie had more fun opening the door for trick or treaters at their house than she did actually trick or treating herself.

And on the knitting front...when I was in St. Louis a month ago, I stopped at
Knitorious. This place is literally 2 blocks away from where I used to live. In some ways, it's good I hadn't caught the knitting bug back then, because I would have literally gone broke or starved had I lived that close to that store. Great place. At any rate, they had
Dream in Color yarn. And if you bought enough skeins, you'd get a free pattern. Well, needless to say, I bought more than enough. So I started on this

Yup, the Tulip Baby Sweater. It's so fun to make. There'll be some ends to weave in, but this is a blast. And it's going fast, which is always a bonus. This one is for a friend's baby, but I should have enough to make one for Catie. As well as the Rocketry cardigan for Jack.

I've been looking forward to this weekend and some uninterrupted (I hope) knitting time. I'm hoping to have the border and sleeves done by tomorrow. Cross your needles for me.