Late Night Blogginess

First I have just got to say that half a pot of coffee before bed is probably not a good idea. BUT it's a good thing that I am impervious to the effects of caffeine and will be ready for bed as soon as I finish this post. :)

I know that I promised Saiya's first birthday pictures but have yet to upload them. I'm hoping friends and family will post soon so I can can just use those pics seeming as how I was so busy helping the little stinker open her gifts and wasn't the one behind the camera. But I have at least one picture that I can share that was take by Saiya's Godmother, Charlotte,via cell phone. :) I thought it was a good picture seeming as how Saiya is wearing the little sweater I made her, wearing a matching headband that Charlotte made her, as well as a flower clip that I had made that was was o so cleverly clipped onto her headband, and in the background, on the table you can see the bear I bought and it is wearing the sweater that I knit for it. Knitted goodnesssssss and Saiya precioussssssss! (Maybe this is the caffeine talking here...) Anyway. Still can't believe I have a 1 year old. But another thing that just blows my mind is that in February... Brodey will be FIVE! And on Saturday I will be 1 year past the half way mark to 50. Just can't believe how time is flying. OH and might I add that my mom had a birthday just this last Sunday?! I love how close our birthdays are because for three weeks we get to eat birthday cake! LOL!

Another fun thing... I worked at my favorite yarn store this last Saturday :) I can't work as much as I'd like to because of my radio job and daycare issues but when I do get to work there I am a pretty happy camper. I look at things as I help customers and put things away and plan what my next purchase will be. Needless to say that by the time I leave there I practically have already spent my paycheck. I am hoping now that I have stocked up on some yarn I will be ok for a few weeks while I work on orders, Birthday, and Christmas knitting. But if Malabrigo orders keep pouring in there... I don't know if I can resist. Malabrigo makes up at least 45 percent of my stash and lately she has been getting in SuperWash which means this soft, wonderful, gift from above, yarn can be WASHED! <3 LOVE IT!

Anyway... I taught a man how to knit. A successful, married man, with a simple interest in the art of knitting. It seems that many people think that knitting is for the female and for the elderly and if you're a male knitter than you must be of the non heterosexual kind. (sorry. trying to be politically correct here... can I say gay?) Well, here is your wake up call. :) Knitting knows no boundaries. It is not exclusive to any age, gender, or sexual preference. It is all inclusive and I was quite thrilled to finally teach a man. Rock on duder!

Yup. Guess I should go to bed. I don't know why I think staying up late won't make it hard for me to get out of bed. Seems I wake up at the absolute latest time and then I'm wishing I wouldn't have slept that extra 30 mins that came in 9 minute time increments. Seriously... like that is rest? May as well get up. Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah. Done.

Love you ALL,

Caren

Catch-Up

So last week I wrote a post about the "Kidd" couple. They showed up late Wednesday night and stayed with us until early Monday morning (which was yesterday). That was quite the stay but so much fun and hard to see come to an end. We did quite a bit in the time they were here and unfortunately am not able to upload photos from my camera but I had one on my phone that I was able to post. The picture posted was from our Kidd/Willy date night which was this last Friday. Usually David and I are at Celebrate Recovery on Friday nights but we had the night off from leading and thought we would take advantage by going on a date sans the kiddos. We went to Poor Boys Steak House for dinner, Bowling after that, and then to Metro Coffee Co. for a little pick me up so we could watch Xmen 3 when we got back home. It was adult time full of uninterrupted laughter and conversation. So Thank you Grammy for watching our kids! lol It really was a fun night.

Brittany and I didn't get to go yarn shopping like I had posted in the previous blog. :( it's not that we didn't try because we did! We got to my favorite LYS and she had closed for a little bit and we were on a time crunch. We ended up just walking down to ToyTown and browsed while we sipped on sodas that we bought from the Sandwich Bar. And we dropped in to visit my friend Emilee at The Jade Elephant which was fun, partially because she was so in love with Brittany's Kentucky accent. lol "You're so cute! Say something else!". If there is one thing I can count on when I see Emilee, it is that she will make me smile. :) So it wasn't a total loss though we didn't get to drool over malabrigo and other fine fibers.

I was in such a rare form yesterday. Apparently I had become so use to having a full house that I became quite lonely after they left. David went to work, Allen and Brittany left for Idaho to continue their road trip, Brodey went to school, and so it was just me and Saiya. Much different compared to the house full of people that i had over the last 5 days. I just felt unsettled and my anxiety kicked in. I cleaned, I grocery shopped, I hopped on facebook for a little bit, I watched a movie... All of these things to either distract me or relax me. I tallied up a lot of the unease and anxiety from the 1.5 pots of coffee I had and my lack of water intake. Between caffeine and missing the company... I was feeling not quite like myself. Today? I feel better! Still miss the company but now I don't feel like I could hop through a window and run down the street screaming like a mad woman.

Saiya turned 1 year old a couple days ago! I'll be posting pictures soon of that in my next blog. Her party had such a great turn-out of family and close friends. We tried to keep it small being that we have a fairly little apartment and lots of people that love her. lol What a blessing! She sure was tired by the end of it all and went to sleep without a whine or a peep. Must have been all that cake and excitement. :)

I did a little weekend project. I'll knit something in between orders as a way to clean my pallet I guess you could say. Something easy that doesn't make me think super hard. I found this hat pattern online from DullRoar and just had to make it! I thought it would be perfect for fall and it seems that fall is just around the corner. The hat pattern is called "Meriwether" and is a sweet slouch hat that just kind of drapes on my head.

I have an order that I will be shipping out on Friday so I've been busting my tail to get that done. On top of that I have been planning and shopping for Christmas knitting. I don't knit for everyone but only for family and maybe a close friend if I have time! In my family, birthdays land at the end of the year as well as Christmas, so that can get challenging because I usually knit for birthdays too. Maybe I'll have to do something differently here.... *shrugs*

Well Off I go before I talk about EVERYTHING and have nothing left to post about later on. I hope that you all had a great weekend!

Love you All!

Caren

Kidds

Meet Brittany and Allen Kidd! :)
These two wonderful peoples are visiting us all the way from Kentucky!
A congratulations to them cause they just got married 9/10/11!
They will be staying with us for the next couple days and we couldn't be more thrilled to have them.

David and Allen have been friends for years. Even in the time of B.C. (before Caren! ha!).
They have that kind of friendship that there is never a question of where one or the other stands in the other persons life.
There is just that knowing, regardless of the lack of communication they can always pick up where they left off and be just as tight as they were to begin with.
It seems that these kinds of friendships are rare but that is what makes it all the more special and why I appreciate and respect the friendship they have had over the years.

We met his darling wife Brittany for the first time last night!
Her and Allen have been together almost as long as David and I have been so I had heard plenty about her. (all good things of course!)
I always get a little weird (for lack of a better word) when it comes to meeting new people.
I may struggle to find something to talk about...
to maybe find a common hobby or interest...
But Brittany...
So easy to get a long with and talk to!

Don't know what all that odd worrying was about cause all turned out just fine.
I feel like I've known her forever.
And might I add... her and I are going YARN SHOPPING today!!!!

I'm thinking we will be a pretty tight KNIT group for the next couple of days while we just soak up our time together and thank God for bringing us all together to remind us just how special of thing we have going on here.

Brodey is so excited to have them too, though he has yet to meet them.
He was sleeping when they got to town and was up and out of the house before they woke up this morning.
But he was certain to tell me this morning that it was not okay for them to be sleeping because it was morning and they needed to come out of their room to talk to him. lol
Then he informed me that he likes them though he has not met them yet.
What a little character.
I sure love him!

Looking forward to posting more about our time with this awesome couple!

Hope you all have a good day!

Love you ALL!

Caren

CONGRATULATIONS ALLEN AND BRITTANY KIDD!
GOD BLESS YOU IN YOUR NEW JOURNEY AS HUSBAND AND WIFE!
LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS GOD SO LOVES US AND LET YOU NOT FORGET THAT LOVE WHEN THERE ARE TRIALS, BUT EMBRACE THE GROWTH AND STRENGTHENING THAT COMES FROM IT AS YOU TRUST IN GOD AND RELY ON HIM AS ONE.

WE LOVE YOU!

Wishful thinking

Ok. So as I was cleaning last night (till 1 a.m. mind you) and trying to get some things pulled together. I was forced to dig into the mess called "My Knitting Corner".
This corner is desperately trying to escape to other parts of the apartment and I tell you what... It is getting mighty difficult because it has turned more into a business, crafting, knitting corner. I moved out a chair that was sitting there and replaced it with a desk so I could work from my laptop easier and not have to worry about it falling off where ever I set it down.
Well, between yarn, paperwork, books, magazines, and other crafty things knitted and non-knitted related...
I'm running out of room fast in this tiny corner.
I pulled a couple pictures of a couple of craft rooms that I liked from the wonderful worldwide internet database.

I love the space and organization.

The yellow one is super bright for me but I'd love it if it were a different color.
maybe one day I will have a room of my own that can be a craft room/office.
But for now I am thankful for the space that I have and will make it work for the time being.
Just seems that we are out growing our apartment.
Maybe we need to look at having a yard sale...

I have a fun Knit Princess comic that made me giggle.
Hope you like it!

Have a good day!
Love you ALL!

Caren

Highlights of the Week

I'm pretty sure that I am done knitting for Saiya's birthday.
A week from tomorrow my little girl will turn 1 year old and I've been working hard to knit her all that I had planned.
One thing that I ended up knitting her was not in my original game plan but I figured I needed to do this before she gets too old for them.
Booties!

They are pretty big so she will have some growing room and I am planning on taking puffy paint to the bottom of them so she has some traction for walking.
They were super quick to knit up and are actually done on straight needles!
You knit them flat and then seam them on the bottom and up the back.
Pretty cool how that worked out.
The pattern is called "Cabled Booties" from the book "Vintage Knits for Modern Babies".

Brodey completed his first week of Pre-K!
I didn't get super emotional as I got him ready for his first day of school. lol
He on the other hand got very upset when he realized that he was going into the classroom and not the main play room.
His little fit landed him on the steps, outside for a little breather while he re-grouped.
Needless to say I think I did better than he did and when I left I worried more for the teacher than for him.
We made it through and every day got easier for us.
He loves going there and its fun to hear about all the the things that he is learning about.
He is always sure to correct me when I say "pre school". I just kind of chuckle cause he says "No, Mom. It's SCHOOL".
He corrects me EVERY TIME.
He really is growing up.

My job at KUYO radio has been pretty fun lately as they have been using me a lot to record a lot of their on-air ads!
To be honest it was kind of weird the first time I recorded because I feel like I'm talking to myself in a microphone but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it and the awkwardness of trying to convincingly read the script is start to disappear.

Our new dog?
Well he is doing well.
Our cats on the other hand...
Steve has been a mess and LaLa I think is doing better than her sister.
(Yes, Steve is a girl)
Guess I just don't know how to get Steve to come down to actually eat and what not.
Every time she is down Ruger goes after her and instead of standing up to him and taking her ground to show him who is boss... she runs away all hissy.
Ugh.
LaLa on the other hand has been quite brave and walks around as though nothing has changed with little confrontation between the two of them.
Praying that things will lighten up in that area with Steve though.

Guess I should get off my bum and clean up for the day!
Hope you all are having a good weekend so far!

Love you ALL!

Caren

Introducing....

Ruger!

(pronounced Roo-Ger)
Corgi and Jack Russell Terrier Mix
male
3 yrs. old.
And I'm pretty sure he was named after a gun.

Meet my new little friend!
Or fur baby.
Whichever.
He came to me last night from a family that just recently moved here from Michigan but couldn't keep him due to housing restrictions.
It was one lucky facebook post that brought this little guy into our family.
But I must say that I feel bad for the family that had to give him up.
I can imagine that it was incredibly hard to let him go and I'm sure today they are thinking about him and missing him greatly.
I hope they find peace in knowing he is with a good family that loves him very much!

I took some time today to look at some knitted doggy goodness and found a few cute things that would be fun to knit.

I love this dog leash!
It's felted and full of color!
I would probably make it more manly looking so my husband could at least tolerate using a knitted leash.

A dog bed!
I thought this looked perfect to cuddle in.
If I were a dog or a smaller human I would totally sleep in that!

Last but not least...
This super cute hooded dog sweater!
I may not make this exact one but I know that I will definitely be knitting one up for him.
The winters are super cold here and he is short haired so it would only be appropriate to make him one.
I'll probably buy one too for the days of more severe weather.

I saw more things that I could knit like:
Legwarmers
snoods
Booties
collars

But I picked my three top favorites that would probably get the most use and do well at serving its purpose.

Well, if I ever get around to knitting any of this I will be sure to post.
My goal though is to at least knit him a sweater.
And if I can't find the time... I can buy him one.

I hope that you all are having an awesome Labor Day!
Be safe!

Love you ALL!

Caren