Spring is here, time for a "Royal Rainbow"

Here's "Royal Rainbow". I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

I wasn't sure whether I should continue with the rainbow or add the black in. I added black.

The colors are so rich and bright. I love it. It'll be listed on Tuesday.

Dreaming Big

Apparently there's a website called Name Your Dream Assignment where you can win money to do exactly that. Gale Zucker's entry was brought to my attention and I thought I'd pass it on. You have to vote today if you want to help her out. There's something about working with animals and livestock that brings a satisfied smile to my face. Check out The Heifer Project as well, they provide livestock to families so the parents can make a living and send their children to school. Pretty cool.

The Damage

I dyed a skein of yarn in the morning before the destruction and mayhem began... Coleus. It's waiting for reskeining and I'll post a picture then.

Photos of the damage done yesterday...

Here are my new stairs.

Apparently they *almost* didn't get done "in time" and he almost called me to tell me not to come home last night. But he got them done. The first thing he said was, "We made a lot of progress, it's looking really good." So I said, "That means you ripped a bunch of things out." He didn't argue.

That's my son peeking from the upstairs set of stairs onto the main level. The other pic is my daughter in the kitchen while I was on the stairs. Obviously we don't have risers yet. Ds was a little cautious coming down the stairs this morning. First he called me to carry him down because he wasn't sure what to think, but then he traversed by himself.

But oh, man... you should SEE the DUST!

I can't understand why it's everywhere. The dining room just isn't that close to the stairway. I suppose it's between the living room and kitchen, but still. Dust EVERYWHERE. And I'm not real excited about it.

We've got a couple piles of debris as well. This one is in the addition, it's the sheathing, etc. from the outside of the house. We have to use the other door because there's too much in the way of the door.

And this one is in the basement. I'm particularly not excited about this one. If you walk down the stairs into the basement (directly below the see-thru stairs) this is on your left. It's what is left after he got ahold of the block wall with a cement saw and maul.

This just scares me because there's no longer a door at the top of the stairs so no way of keeping the kids on the main level. Our stairs go down and turn to the right, so this is right to the left of the landing. They could just hop right off into that. I doubt they will, but if you're a mom you understand. Moms have unreasonable fears all the time.

So that's where we're at. Dh just got home from drill, he said he mopped everything last night, so all this dust was just lingering in the air and settled while we were sleeping. That makes me feel a little better at least. :) He has already cleaned off the dining room table.

The additional space will be nice when it's done, and boy... will I be glad! I think I need some knit therapy. I got a great big bag in the mail yesterday from a mom on DiaperSwappers I'm trading with. I'm knitting her and her girls some slipper socks and she made me a knitting bag. I need to fill it with yarn and go someplace for some knit therapy. That'll make me feel better. Actually, I don't have time for knit therapy, I've gotta hit the sewing machine. 4 diapers to make by Friday, that's my goal. They don't take long, I've just gotta convince the kids that sewing is a good idea. They seem to like my attention. :)

Why I'm Not Home

Call me crazy. I'm not at home, I took the kids and left to my parents' for the afternoon (and evening). I think I'm a pretty reasonable person, and think I have been a very supportive wife lately. Our house is under some major construction and my darling husband has been doing most of the work himself. He's a busy guy. If you've been reading long you know he's a firefighter, which he does on top of his "real" job. So he's busy. He's also a carpenter and does residential remodeling for said "real" job. He goes into people's homes, tears out ugly and icky things, and replaces them with pretty and nice things. This is where the conflict comes in.

I'm a saver. I'll admit it. I prefer "saver" over "pack rat", because I'm not quite to pack rat level, I get in moods where more things end up in the trash, but reusing whenever possible is important to me, for budget and environmental reasons. Dh isn't a saver. He's a thrower. "What is this, I don't know, I'm just gonna throw it and pretend like I've never seen it if she asks." Part of this I think is because he's used to doing what's easier, and he doesn't foot the bill. And there's something to be said about the price of labor, it often costs more in labor to have a guy reuse a door in a new location than it does to put a brand new one in because reinstalling a used door is labor-intensive. Well, labor is free in our case, materials are what we're paying for, which really is beside the point. The only way this is relevant to why I'm not at home is because he's a carpenter and used to ripping people's houses apart and they're okay, and even excited about it.

Me... not always. I was okay with him waking me and the baby up early this morning with noise. I dealt with him ripping man-sized holes in every level of my house.

I even quietly went out to our (detached) garage and found the fan, opened up windows, and ventilated the house when we couldn't breathe from all the exhaust from the gas powered cement saw. I got a little frustrated when I was sweeping up 40 years worth of dust that fell out of the ceiling into my living room after he tore the drywall out (overhead in the picture above), but the last straw was when he started ripping the stairs off. Yes folks, ripping the stairs completely off to rebuild the stringers. With 2 small kids home. See, when you're working on someone else's house, you communicate with the homeowner on what is going on. They're given a schedule and the lead carpenter tells them what's going on. "So, Mrs. George, this week we'll be breaking holes from the house into the addition so we can get things prepped for the electricians. Oh, they'll be here next week." The problem is, Mr. George is both lead carpenter AND homeowner. This means the homeowner is fully apprised of all aspects of the project, but many of these details elude Mrs. George. Why, might you ask? Because she's busy caring for 2 small children, working part time, trying to run her own small business, and frankly just can't nurse a sleepy baby while hanging siding.

They'll supposedly be done by tonight. If I have to walk on stringers (the part that the treads sit on) to get up to my bed tonight I'll not be a happy lady. You still think I'm reasonable, right?

Just Diapers

I have been waiting to post until I could take some good photos of my newest excitement around here. Maybe tomorrow.

Instead I'll just put up some diapers I have finished. I'll be listing them for Tuesday's stocking. I just think diapers are so stinkin cute! I also have one in a froggy print that I finished up today.

Apparently I only have the elephant one in the computer. I'll get more on. Here's an "old" one, one I sewed up several months ago:

Oh, and other news, I'm currently actually writing up the Tweets pattern. I hope to have it tested in a week or so and then have it available. I haven't decided whether I should offer it free or charge yet. I just can't get over how cute they are...

Some Finished Projects

I have promised to post pictures of a few things here lately and have fallen short, so for this late night post I'll give you the gory details of a few projects I've completed lately.

First off is the first of two pairs of longies I made for a trade. These are knit in Purewool's "Chocolate" colorway and are a newborn size:

These are for the same trade but are a 6 mos size. These are the ones I was having major creative block for. Once I figured out what I was doing it went pretty well. I think they turned out pretty cute:

And this is the felted purse I made for a friend. I mailed it to her and she loves it.

Now she wants one in summer colors but isn't sure exactly what she wants. I was thinking maybe blue or green with some sewed on felted flowers. That would be fun and summer-y.

Dang, I should go to bed. I just got home with the kids from hanging out at a friend's house. Dh is working overnight tonight but he's planning on working on the house tomorrow. So he'll be up making noise probably earlier than I'd like, plus I'll have to make the guys food (suppose I should "pay" them SOMETHING for their free labor). Man, it's cold in here. It's only 37F out but we keep our house cool to save on the heating bill, especially at night. Now I'm rambling. That's what I do when I'm tired. :)

SPRING!!!

Man, it's finally here. Yesterday it was in the 60s, today it's mid-50s and we spent a good portion of it outside. We were supposed to have a playdate this morning so we went to the park (no one showed) and played for 45min or so. It was a little chilly because the clouds took our sun away. It brightened up this afternoon and we spent another 2 hours at the park behind our house. Both kids are sleeping soundly right now. Yes!



So I said I was going to make a shirt, well here it is:

It was pretty fun to make, to create something different. The boot prints go around the back and back to the tent. It's size 6-8 children's. Being from Minnesota I especially appreciate the mosquitoes. :)


I want to try lino-printing. You make printing blocks out of linoleum tiles and use them on textiles (as if I need another hobby). There are a few good tutorials out there, a really good one on Jezze's blog. I think I need a few tools before I can do it effectively, and right now I'm holding out for dh to make me a couple swifts (especially after all the wrangling I did today to get Retro skeined properly) so the tools will have to wait. *sigh*