– but money isn’t everything

My girls heard a commercial on the radio the other night for some Big Box toy store. The announcer said something about how you could find everything you needed for the holidays at this particular store and my youngest shot right back with, “Well, thats a lie!”

So, we asked her what she meant by that.  She explained that a toy store could have lots of things we might want but nothing that we really needed. A toy store didn’t have our family, or food, or a home, or love and that meant that saying they had everything we needed was a big fat lie.

If you asked my girls what the best gifts are they will tell you anything handmade is better because it was made with love and it was made just for the person who gets it.  Its not a rote response, they do still truly believe this, as do my husband and I, and we hope that they can continue to hold onto that into their adulthood.

Now, they are kids, and of course they want toys and gadgets and holiday frippery,  hell so do I,  but they continue to ask each year for gifts that we can make for them and we are happy to oblige. Last weekend I was able to get Saeb’s new bathrobe, nightgown and slippers done, Re’s slippers are finished and her bathrobe and nightie are cut out, I should be able to sew them together later this week. Today I started on their new hat and mitten sets. Here is the cuff of Re’s mitten

I breaks my heart sometimes to know that we can’t give the girls everything that they ask for or even everything we’d like for them to have but I know that they do have everything they need to grow into the beautiful, wonderful women they will become.

I’m gonna keep chuggin along on holiday gifts, I still have SO much to do!

I hope you can all find some peace and quiet this hectic season to appreciate getting what you need and truly enjoy getting what you want.

Toots

– and you were laughing along

We had several mini projects/distractions over the summer. Early in August friends of ours were raising Monarch caterpillars – they do this every year – this year it was crazy! They have a friend who also raises them and he was going to be out of time when all the chrysalises were ready to hatch.

So, our crazy friends took over 200, amazingly jewel like, jade and gold chrysalises and hung them all over their mantlepice, bookcases and anything else with an edge.

We were lucky enough to come home with 4. We hung them outside so the butterflies would be able to fly free when they were ready and we waited.  

2 days later some began to lose their jade color and they seemed to darken to black until we realized that the shell had actually become clear and the dark color we were seeing was the butterfly itself, ready to emerge. It was all pretty cool.

It was really cool to see them climb out of their little sleeping bags, their wings all crumpled up and short and their bodies short and fat as well, and to watch them slowly pump all the extra fluid from their bodies out into their wings.

They each took about 24 hours from hatching to fluttering away and we had 4 females. The males have a little black spot on their back set of wings and none of ours had that.

Hope you had a couple fluttery moments of excitement and new beginnings this summer! For more info on Monarchs you can go here. Enjoy.

Toots

– Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Sorry, I sorta dissappeared on ya there for awhile

I’ll try to catch you up in small installments.

I made (and am teaching) crochet socks this fall.

I made (and am teaching {and am selling the pattern for[ Rav link]}) awesome slippers.

I got AWESOME mugs! See Malea, they DO match my kitchen. 

Really so much happened in the last 2 months its still kind of a blur. Just wanted to pop something up to let you know that I’m still here. More soon.

toots

– oh little girl!

Oh the frustration.

I am sitting at my computer, using it, but its not my computer, its some zombie version that looks and sounds like my computer but is totally missing its brain and is only driven by mad need.

My computer is NOT running from its harddrive, it is running completely from a CD, a 2 year old version of Ubuntu. I can access the interwebs and that’s about it – and I can’t do that very well because this 2 year-old program just doesn’t recognize a huge chunk of the java script that most pages are built with now

Argh.

Halloween was also tough for me. So much crammed into the day and we almost missed trick-or-treat all together and I never got pictures of the kids.

ugh.

I think I may try to participate in this whole november blogger writing thing but I’ll get into that more later in the week when my computer is cured of it’s current Zombie state.

man, I can’t even link to anything….

toots

-What I’ve known

Mmm, breakfast. Homemade almond and honey granola with banana. I had a hankerin for granola the other night so I made some. Super simple recipe that lends itself well to all sorts of additions and substitutions, next time I’m adding wheat germ and coconut. Pat and the girls seem to like it, looks like I’ll have to make a bigger batch next week.

I made a deal with the girls for the summer. We’d do all sorts of stuff if they’d give me one day a week for “work” – you know, playing with yarn. Most of the time this day will be Wednesday so I can get ready for class that night but I knew that today would be hot and Monday just wasn’t so we traded. With how busy we’ve been since the end of school I had forgotten just how much faster I work on projects when I have a movie in front of me. So, on monday I pulled up my Watch Instantly queue on Netflix and got back to work. I can not believe that for 16 years I have not watched Unforgiven. I sort of remember almost going to see it with my Mom but we never did. Why! This movie is …ah. Can’t explain. I’m already a huge fan of Clint Eastwood – The Outlaw Josey Wales is an all time fav of mine since childhood and I even forgive him for The Bridges of Madison County. Oh. When he ever takes that drink under the one lone tree outside of town – I cried. Besides, I adore Gene Hackman in everything. Miss Teschmacher! Go watch it again – good good film. This past week I have also watched Where Angels Fear to Tread – long romance with E.M. Forster for me (ask Pat about the Sunday afternoon I made him go to the Hofstra library with me and watch A Room With a View on an 8in tv/vcr – still one of my favorite us days), Little Children – excellent and hard to watch, and Broken English – gush! What is it about French Men?!? Melvil = Fergus?

I’m chugging along on several projects, the biggest being the crochet block blanket for the class I’m teaching this fall. I want the sample to be at Webs when the new schedule comes out so people can see what they’ll be making, more students sign up when they know what they’ll go home with.

I have 5 squares left to make, join them all and finagle a border. I’m gonna need more yarn. Good Thing I’ll be at Webs tonight. Right now I need to go pack up the afternoon snacks, towles and my beach chair so we can head out to the pond after lunch.

Toots

These are coming to me from Cyprus!

These are from LilyMoon. I love her little paintings.

These will work well with the color scheme in my

living room and they remind me of my munchikins.

Toots

I’ve been tagged by Rhonda, dang her.

Here is the meme:

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.

I almost never do these things.

1. My grandmother helped to deliver my husband and we were in the hospital at the same

time as babies even though he is 11 days older than me He was a runt:)

2. I love cheese. I am a happy girl with a hunk of VT cheddar or a wedge of laughing cow.

3. I love a tragic love story more than any happy ending

Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet, Arthur, Lancelot and Guenivere, but more the literary versions that what Hollywood puts on film

4. I would rather be bare foot – always

5. I love the way my husband’s skin smells – sans cologne or scented soaps. He just smells good to me.

6. I will melt over a man with any one of the following accents (none of which my husband has): Russian, Scottish, or Charleston SC.(Val Kilmer did a passable job with this one as Doc Holiday in Tombstone, I’m your huckleberry.)

7. I wish I could handle having one more baby but I know I can’t.

There you have it, 7 random things. I think I’ll take a cue from Rhonda and leave it up to you as to whether you feel tagged or not. If so, let me know!

Toots.

Peepers, y’all!!

I just heard them outside, across the road, in the stream!

Its officially spring!

Toots