Happy Halloween!

Well day 3 for Daylight Savings Time, and someone barked at 5:00am! That's not a good thing. I'm just glad that JP also had to get up at that time, otherwise I'd be hearing about that for a few more hours. Anyway, I got up, let them out and went back to bed. I sure hope Jazz switches her little internal clock soon!

It's been -2 in the mornings, all frosty and chilly outside but our house is cold too. For the last 2 nights I've brought my Betta to sit on my night table hoping to keep him warm, during the day he goes to the office. I don't know if I can keep him warm all winter, maybe I'll wrap a gaiter around his tank at night. Am I going to have to do this until March?

And, I've only got 8 more rows left to knit for my mum's piano sweater, then you join a shoulder seam, knit the collar and sew her all up! I could have it in the mail by the weekend! Hang on mum, I'm almost there!

Daylight Savings Time

Can anyone tell me how many days it's going to take my dog to adjust to Daylight Savings Time? I'm tired of waking up at 4:30am, because she thinks it's 5:30. And I'm tired (already) of her wanting dinner at 4:30pm because she thinks it 5:30pm. That's what I like about the spring, I can wake up before her and it's not such an issue.

People have told me that it only took their cat 1-2 days to adjust. I sure hope Jazz's little routine will sync with mine very soon!

Brotherly Love Hat # 2

So the brown and blue hat didn't fit my brother too well, poor guy, he looks like he had to squish into it. So I set about making a replacement. This one is from a chunky black yarn - a mystery skein from my stash. I knit it on 5.5mm dpns in an alternating rib and cable, and tried to give it a flat top because he didn't like the pointy one. I'll get it into the mail today (or tomorrow). It's got an extra long ribbed section sho he can pull that part over his ears instead. What do you think?

Yesterday, we went to the store and I'm glad we went in JPs car because on the way it started to downpour and we even had snow in the rain! There was so much water coming down and on the roads. My car is getting close to needing brakes and tires and don't think it would have done as well, I'm so glad he drove.

Then, on the way home the skies opened up and it was blue, blue skies! This morning it's a gorgeous day, with lots of leaves on the ground and frost! I bet I'll have to scrape the windows outside and in on my car! Our first frost is so late. I still had dahlias and zinnias in bloom and green tomatoes out there. Well after today, I can do a whole new garden clean up! There will be some new casualties. And I can rake lots of leaves - they're late too. Don't tell anyone but I don't mind raking leaves. It's a great little chore that easily shows your progress and hard work. I just hate the one blister on my thumb from the rake, even when I wear gloves!

Fish+mystery=Fishtery. Fishtery Solved

So I have this Siamese Fighting Fish also known as a Betta. He lives in a "Fish in Space" aquarium - a crazy tank with a space station at the bottom, planets on the back wall and a space ship coming out of the front of the tank. We call him Zig Zig Sputnik.

I bought him around February/March of this year. Anyway, he was a always a happy little dude, eating about 2-3 pellets immediately when they were dropped in his water. But then about a week ago, he became listless. He wasn't eating, he was hanging around the top corner of his tank and he seemed to be losing his vibrant red and becoming a grayish colour. I asked the gals at the pet store who said I should give him some Freeze Dried Blood Worms, so I bought a small container but that didn't seem to change things at all.

I was worried about the little guy. I always tried to do my best to take care of my pets. I had done water changes and also added fish medicine but that didn't help. So I searched the internet looking for some help. Well, I came across answers like 'tuberculosis'. Apparently they have no symptoms and there's no cure. Great, that's a tough one. Next, I saw 'depression'. Ok, he had all those symptoms, but I wasn't going to stop there. Then, I saw a reminder that mentioned that they will also act like this if they're too cold, they are tropical fish after all. Bingo! Let's try that.

So I placed his tank on a heating pad. After a while, I didn't think that working, so I sort of wrapped his tank with the pad. His water temperature did come up and guess what? The little guy started to swim around again, and then he even ate! He made 'happy bubbles'! Gadzukes! He was just cold! Man, I get grumpy and listless when I'm cold too!

But then came the realization that I was not going to pay $$$ for the heating pad electricity for a $3 fish. So I had to look of other options. I decided to just bring him into my office where I am many days of the week. That will give him stimulation, plus the room's reasonably warm. Well on Friday, the little guy made up for lost time and must have eaten 10 of the blood worms.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Ear Flap Hat

Last Thursday my brother was telling me about a -3 degree Celsius bike ride and how his current hat/toque was not sufficient. After we hung up, I got started and created this eared hat from my stash and Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker - I combined the PDQ and the Boy Beanie.

I finished it by Friday noon and rushed it in the post. I was so proud that I was so speedy. Sadly, it didn't arrive until today...sometimes the post office lets me down.

But he's happy with it and he'll test it out shortly. So that's terrific.

Made of felt Yoda is

JP's son is sick today, so he went to pick him up from daycare to bring him to our house. While he was gone I decided to make the kid a little Yoda to help him get better; he's a STAR WARS fan (although I suspect it's fading).

This Yoda is made out of felt, stuffed and blanket stitched with thread, I just added his face with a felt pen. I can't seem to get a good photo - it's raining today, so it's rather dark outside, if I don't use the flash it's too dark and if I do, there's too much of a shine. I didn't realize felt had such a shine to it.

In case you're wondering, "MJ" stand for Master Jedi.

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After the boys came home, they didn't like the simplistic Yoda, so here's an "after" photo with his embelishment (including hair on the top of his head):

And, I guess The Kid's lost his interest in Star Wars and is into cars again thanks to a Need for Speed Xbox game . After all the requested alterations, he went looking for a box of Matchbox cars and his old track.

I guess that's what happens when kids are older and you only see them once every two weeks. And, I guess he's not that sick....

Monday, again...

"Monday again " sounds like something Eeyore would say. It's a rainy Monday, that's usually not good news in my job as it's weather dependent.

This weekend we went to the Abbotsford Collector Car Show at the Tradex. We were supposed to be there at 10:00 and then go for lunch with another couple. Well, I don't know which party messed it up, but the meet up didn't take place until about 1:00 and then at 2:00 the wife of the other couple says she must be home by 3:30 as she had to work that night. Since they live in Ladner, that meant they had to leave almost immediately, so no lunch with them. JP and I still went and enjoyed the very yummy blue chip nachos at Lou's Grill in Abbotsford. Yum!

Sunday I spent most of the day decluttering and then JP and I made a shepherd's pie from the leftover roast beef. I spent so much time going through papers and boxes that I didn't knit at all on Saturday or Sunday! In fact no crafting at all. However, JP and I did look at the Repro Depot website and bought some very cool vintage fabric. Can't wait for it to arrive.

It rained all day Sunday so I didn't mind being indoors; we haven't had rain here for so long, it seemed a bit odd to hear it. After being in the decluttering mood I am anxious to do more. But I bet I could go through bookshelves and cupboards, etc for 2 months straight if I made it a full time job ~ and we don't even have a big house, just lots of stuff.

From the what will they think of next department, check out this website : http://www.bettybeauty.com/

Isn't it amazing what we need marketed? Also, I like that we need t-shirts to communicate what's going on in our lives (see the above website, under products). How far will the t-shirt slogans go? Sayings like "I have 2 BMs a day" ? I just don't know.

What would your t-shirt say?

How about "I don't like t-shirts with writing on them" or something like that?

For all those magazine-a-holics out there, I picked up this book from the library:

It's an identification and value guide. It may sound boring, but it is quite interesting to review all the cover art from magazines as far back as the 1800's, and to see all the titles, and title changes. There is also a section on Paper Dolls, Illustrations and Advertisting.

An update - here is the status of one sleeve for my mom's piano sweater. The sleeve is going well and I look forward to each increase. The cuff is 2 knit in black, 2 purl in white. The whole sweater is Sugar 'n Cream Sport cotton.

After this WIP is finished, I think I'd like to power down and finish that Millennium Angel Cross Stitch. My goodness, it's almost 2007 and I'm still doing something from 2000? But it doesn't seem like 6 1/2 years have slipped by so fast. Where have they gone? And why so fast? What am I doing wrong? Is it just me?

Thanksgiving Dinner

Well tonight was our Thanksgiving dinner- me, JP and the kid. We had a loverly pot roast from the butcher shop with gravy, scalloped potatoes with cheese, brussells sprouts, broccoli, stuffing and cheese sauce for the veggies. We had buns but no one ate them and so far the pie hasn't been touched either. The boys seem pretty full so that's a good thing. I cooked everything from scratch except the stuffing.

Tomorrow we'll take the kid home and so far, I don't know how we'll spend our Monday.

I still miss the turkey and cranberry sauce, that feels more traditional to me, but this makes a whole lot more sense since turkey leftovers seems to be tought to go through. I have no problem clearing out left over roast beef, or gravy that's for sure.

I'll be starting the neck for the back of the piano sweater soon, in fact I may be able to cast off tonight. And I may be able to start the sleeves this weekend. One sleeve is black and one is white so there is tiny bit of variety. I'm trying to make it a priority since it's getting cooler and I'm sure my mom will want to wear it this winter plus I'd like to start on other projects and don't want another WIP hanging over my head.

I'd like to do another dog sweater and some socks - maybe the toe-up kind.

Package Received!

The birthday banner was received today, in time, one day before my s-i-l's birthday- yay! It's covered in beads and sequins, here it is:

Also received was the bagpiper's sweater, my own design, shown on my bear:

I made it nice and big in cream year with 4 rows of mini cables, it has long sleeves and a turtle neck, I sewed the bagpipes to the sweater. I know the hat doesn't really fit the bear, it can go over one ear or stay in the middle - that's a bit tough because I haven't seen the bear I'm making these costumes for.

I didn't take a photo of the witch's bottles that I made for my brother and s-i-l, they were an assortment of bottles with sticker labels to make them look like a witch's apothecary.

Monday already? October already?

Well by this morning the feeling has finally come back in my ring finger, thank god. I'll have to figure out if I can crochet holding the hook differently or if I need a pad on the hook or my finger to protect that nerve. (Edit: I was SURE I had posted on Saturday, but it's not here.... to update, after crocheting for 3 hours on Friday, the tip of my right hand ring finger was numb. And stayed numb all weekend. I was ready to go to the doctor on Monday)

I completed about 15 rows on the piano sweater and felted the bowl. I ran that bowl through three cycles of boiling hot water. I added jeans and stuff for agitation, this was the most I could get it to felt - you're supposed to have the stitches disappear. I must have bought the wrong kind of wool.

That's all the crafty things I completed. Over the weekend, I washed and folded all the laundry, and mowed the lawn. And did all the cooking. JP cut down my grotty old apple tree - poor thing was not well and probably pretty old. All the apples had blight-despite my attempts to prevent it, the stem was rough and open and it had a 50 degree lean to it. I hate cutting it down, but it was the best for it. Especially since all but about 15 apples had to be composted.

We went to Tony Roma's for ribs on Saturday night. I had a really good salad: greens, thin sliced apple, crumbled bleu cheese, cashews with a raspberry vinaigrette. Yum. JP's ribs weren't that good he said. All the other food was pretty good. It was nice to get out on a Saturday night. Okay it was nice to get out, period.

Before dinner, we went to the thrift store - I found this little cast iron bank. The coin goes in the cannon and shoots it into an opening in the wall (I drew a line to show you...)