More pictures of Bessie (upper left), Jo (upper right), and Mattie (bottom).  Here's to weeks of enjoyment and hoping for no little dwarf hamster babies!

We might just be the stupidest 2 people in. the. world.

I can't believe we got talked into this. 

Chuck's class got a gerbil as a class pet this past week.  He has been BEGGING for his own gerbil ever since.  We finally gave in tonight to just take them to the pet store just to look; and we came home with not one, but three dwarf hamsters.  Derek was the one who was so hard to convince; but he seems to be the one enjoying them the most.

They are supposedly all girls.  The one at the top is Jo and belongs to Nate.  She is by far the fattest and laziest.  He bought the cage with his birthday money, so these gals are going to stay in his room and he promises to clean the cage and do everything that needs to be done to take care of them.  How long do you think that will last?  The little lady in the picture above is Mattie and she belongs to Matt.  He, of course, named his pet after himself.  I think she might be the smartest, as she was the first to figure the wheel out.  And lastly, we have Bessie, the psycho of the group who tries to escape anytime Chuck gets her out of the cage.  You can tell by her disheveled hair and crazy eyes that she's trouble.

What I've been up to

Well this has been a craptastic couple of months.  We have been more sick this season than ever before, I think.  The past two weeks we've had a combo of viruses attack.  Some kind of stomach bug and than another virus with a fever for a few days followed by an insane amount of coughing.  Boy #2 stayed home last Friday from school, boy #1 stayed home Monday, and now boy #3 has been home the past two days.  We have an old house that the windows have been painted shut, so no airing it out.

The good news, though, is .... Spring has sprung in Georgia!  I've been able to leave the doors open and the kids have been non stop outside (when they're not running a fever).  Here is some shots of their new favorite pastime.

There happens to be some dried out vines hanging from one of our trees in the backyard.  The kids moved a play castle underneath to reach it good and then do their best Tarzan move.  I know it's pretty hard to see my boy; with his camo on he blends right in.

More good news - I got a job!  It's part time and working from home.  The kids have already spent my upcoming paychecks for me.  They are wanting to save them up and go to Disney World.  Guess who the girls are wanting to see the most there?  You'd think Cinderella, Ariel, or Belle, right?  Nope, they want to see Alice from Alice in Wonderland.  They LOVE that movie.  Can you imagine what a trip to Disney for 8 would cost?  I don't want to.


Of all this, I think the thing I'm most excited about is the 5th and final Fablehaven book is coming today!  Did I tell you how much I have enjoyed this series?  I'm telling you, it's Harry Potter good.  It came out yesterday and my UPS guy should be bringing to my door around 5ish.  I hate being the last one on his route.  Alas, I know what I'll be doing tonight and for the next couple of days!

If you like fantasies, or have kids who love to read - these are some great, clean books.  Two thumbs up from me.

If you have kids, I'm sure you've found them sleeping in some crazy spots.  This one tickled me enough to grab the camera and I'm sure my eight year old won't appreciate me putting this on the blog, but what can he do?

When my husband went to check on the kids, Charlie wasn't in his bedroom.  He found him in his older brother's in a toy bucket.  Isn't that funny?  And look Mom- the rag quilts are being used!

Skew Socks

I thought the socks were going to be the death of me.  I fell in love with the Skew sock pattern on Knitty when it came out a couple of weeks ago.  When I looked on Ravelry and saw the close to 400 versions of Skew by other knitters, I was inspired.  I found the perfect yarn and set off. 

This is how my adventure set off.  Cast on for my first toe up and it was a little exciting learning a new cast on.  Darn, I dropped a stitch - had to unravel and start again.  Drat, the stinking perfect color yarn splits like crazy and with all those increases it's driving me crazy; dropped another stitch and had to start again.  Decided to move to DPNs since they're a tad more pointy on the end.  Finally get past the 8th or 9th round and have crazy huge ladders, frog yet again and start over for about the 6th time.  Decide to use another yarn that won't split so much.  Takes 3 hours to wind 400 yards of yarn because I have still not bought a yarn winder.  Finally cast on with new yarn, and decide to use 47 inch size 2 circulars by the 7th round, realize I have one more stitch on one side than the other; since I'm not too far into the sock decide I'd rather frog again than backstitch.  Cast on for 30th time, probably about 10 rounds into it, pull tight at join to keep the nasty ladders away and my STINKING YARN breaks!!!  I finally did get it started and going great, once I was up to 72 stitches, I changed to my new HiyaHiya 9 inch size 1 needle.  It is now going along great and I lurve the 9 inch needle.  Did you notice I started with a size 2 needle?  Well I didn't mean too, and with all the problems I had I wasn't about to start over yet again.  Yes, I can tell - hopefully it won't feel crazy once they're done and all cute on my feet.  Look at the top left side and you can see the point when I changed to the appropriate needle size.

Now that I've complained about my stupidity with trying to start these socks over and over and over again, let me tell you how cool these socks are.  I love the way it's coming together and I love the Zen Yarn I changed to.  I can't wait to see how they turn out.  I'll leave you with one more picture to see the side view.

Poncho

I finished this last year, but never did add the fringe and never did show it to you all.  It's the children's poncho  pattern made with Knitpicks merino wool (so soft).  I started making it last year for my youngest, and when it was finished; she, of course, hated it and refused to wear it.  Red did, however, loves it; but it's a little too small for her, especially the neck opening. 

It was my first time using Knitpicks yarn, and let me tell you - I wasn't dissappointed.  It is so soft, and got even softer after washing it.

More on hair and more on *BOOKS*!

I mentioned a few posts back that my little one cut her hair again.  I thought I'd put a picture to show how minor this one was; hence my forgetting to tell my Mom about it.

Do you see the little chunk missing where I pointed the arrow?  You might also notice what a horrible job I did on trimming her bangs.  The good news is, with a rubber band in her hair and me properly using the scissors to fix her bangs, you can hardly notice the blunt cut she made.

Allright, so enough about hair this week.  Let's move on to books.  You may have noticed that I added the Amazon widgets on my sidebar.  I am going to try to make a few cents with this.  So .... if you ever need to place an order through Amazon; please do it through my blog to help me fulfill my wish list.  That means you Kim, Rhonda, and Darla - I know you all love Amazon as much as I do.

I've been reading a lot lately and have read a few ho hummers; the best by far that I've read in a few months has been a kid's series that my son has devoured.  It's called Fablehaven and so far there are 4 books with the 5th coming out next month.  I would say it is equally good as Harry Potter.  They are packed FULL of adventure and excitement.  If you and your child is looking for a great new book by an up and coming author, check out Fablehaven (Boxed Set): Fablehaven; Rise of the Evening Star; Grip of the Shadow Plague.  I'm on the 3rd book and am having a hard time putting it down to do my housework.

New book!

If you've read my blog for long, you'll know that I lurve Farbenmix patterns. Now Sabine Pellohn and Nancy Langdon have written a book! I got it a couple of weeks ago when I was down with the flu and it certainly lifted my spirits; even though I didn't feel like pulling myself up off the couch to sew.

It has 10 patterns in it including the Feliz Party Dress which I'm dying to sew for my girls. I think that will be their Easter dress this year; and I'm hoping to stop by Glenna's to buy some Amy Butler Love to make it with.

There's lots of other very frilly and funky patterns in this book with very colorful images. And true to the European fashion, they use very crazy fabric combos. I'll definitely tone down the things I make, but I know I'll be getting a lot of use out of this book.

I *love* this little girl

This little sweet thing is my youngest. I don't know if I've ever met anybody who loves life more than her. I'm telling you she is one crazy child from the things she wears to the way she wears her hair - she fixed it herself in the above photo. I probably failed to mention that she yet, again, cut a chunk out of her hair last week. It's become so common place that I forget to share it with people anymore. She begged me to shave it off like I did her older brother's hair. When I offered to take her to the beauty shop to get it in a bob, she declined saying she wanted very long hair now.

Today she has been carrying around a boom box (do they still call them that?) around with her from room to room listening to Weird Al Yankovich. Her favorite song is one called Jurassic Park that she knows all the words to and one day I'll catch her on video singing at the top of her lungs. Her second favorite that I've heard 40 times today is Bohemian Polka; it's Bohemian Rhapsody sung to a polka beat and let me tell you from experience, it can grow a little tiring.

I can have her showered and "super shiny clean", as my redhead would say, and within 5 minutes she will look like she's been dragged through the woods by a pack of wolves. She climbs onto the counters looking for candy or snacks in the upper cabinets and if she can't find anything, she'll grab a spoon and eat sugar directly out of the bag.

She drives me crazy sometimes, but I'm so glad she's my daughter. She truly keeps me on my toes and makes life FUN. Plus, she gives the best hugs!

haircut

My poor boy looks so cute with longer hair and I love it. It reminds me of Joey what's his face from "Gimme a Break". Do you remember that show? He always begs me to cut it, and I will only trim as I see fit. Well, it had gotten even too long for my likes. He has asked me for the past week to please cut his bangs because they were in his eyes. I finally cut just the bangs yesterday and he looked like a little Amish boy; so I had to give him a full on proper haircut tonight. I must admit, he's pretty cute with a spiked up do, too.

Happy Valentine's Day

We have had a great weekend! It started with a four day President's Day weekend for the kids. Then we had a great snowfall on Friday. We usually don't get much snow here in the south. But it just kept falling and falling and was so beautiful.



The kids had so much fun playing, and Charlie got to make his first snow angel. Three of the boys even made a snowman all by themselves. I think the pine straw and leaves mixed in from our unkempt yard add a special touch.



The best surprise of all, though, was when the these arrived on my doorstep Friday afternoon from my Valentine. Aren't they pretty? I think they are the most beautiful flowers I've ever got.



We had Filet Mignon tonight for a special Valentine's Day dinner by candlelight. The kids thought that was the best thing ever and wondered why we don't do that every night.

The best part of all is .... they're predicting more snow tomorrow!!!

Flu

The flu struck our house last week. It got half of the children and me; and a few of us are still feeling the effects.

Some of the few things that helped me make it through the week were my fleece gown my Mom made me several years ago, the butt ugly but oh so warm wool socks I made, and the hot tea my brother in law, Robert, brought me back from a business trip to India. The leaves looked an awful lot like spinach after steeping; but was a delicious green tea that soothed my aching throat.

Quiara Tunic Shirt

I made another Quiara shirt last night, this time in the tunic version with hood. The fabric is more from my Mom's closet that she didn't want anymore; so in other words ... FREE! This is one easy pattern. The only problem this time was this funky stretchy fabric. It was stretchier in some parts than in other parts; and it kind of stretched out in the neck when I added the hood.




My model wasn't quite so cooperating as the previous post. Although, the more she pouted, the more I made her stand there and pose. Don't let her apathy fool you, though, she loves her new shirt.





Finally a semi smile.



And then a full blown smile when the dog comes in. Nice that she smiles for a mutt and not her own sweet mother.



I didn't realize that Mom had promised this fabric to Red for a skirt, so I made one little girl mad in the making of this shirt.

Not knitting, but knit shirts

I don't know why, but I've always been a little intimidated by knits and never felt I could sew with it. I thought I'd give it a try, though, after my Mom de-stashed her closet and gave me all her knit fabric. It was a perfect opportunity to finally try the Quiara shirt pattern from Farbenmix. As with all Farbenmix patterns, the seam allowance is NOT included. I found, however, that I shouldn't have added it. I kept taking off and taking off more in the shoulder to make it fit just right. Because of that, though, the body is snug - but still super cute.

I used a rolled hem on the short sleeve edge and along the bottom of the shirt for the rippled effect; and instead of hemming the sleeve, I just used the 3 thread overlock. Very easy and very fast.

What's great about this shirt is this: Red had fallen about 20 minutes before the pictures below were snapped and insisted she couldn't walk. She had literally been crawling around from place to place with her right leg dragging behind her. As soon as I pulled out a new shirt for her to try on and model; she jumped up and the following are just a FEW of her many poses she so sweetly gave. (Please excuse the pizza on the face).












I will definietely use this pattern again and I'm not quite as afraid of knits anymore. This was so easy and took less than an hour to make, even with all my fixing and taking in.

Rag Quilts

My Mom has a major fabric stash. She has been cleaning out her three closet fulls of fabric and decided she has way too much flannel (among other things). So she threw a Help Me Get Rid Of My Stash party and invited a few friends over to make some rag quilts. Kind of like when your friends come over to help you shuck corn or shell butter beans. Don't you have friends like that?

There ended up being seven of us and at the beginning of the day, we had all seven machines going.



This was the "fun" table. My OLDER sister, Kim, is the one on the right with her long time BFF Kimberly - known as "Kim's friend".



We had five machines set up in the Dining Room. This is my Aunt Judy, which isn't really her name, but that's what we grew up calling her. You can see my trusty Pfaff 1471 (the older brown and cream) that I wouldn't trade for 10 brand new sewing machines.






My boys love my rag quilt that my Mom made for me several years ago; so Mom decided to make one for each boy's bed. It takes 80 squares (each square consist of 3 flannel squares sandwiched together and sewn together with an "X") to make a quilt to fit a twin size bed.



Once we had a huge stack made, Judy moved to the bed to arrange the squares while the rest of us kept sewing squares up. Then a couple of us moved to sewing up the quilts while Judy adjusted and arranged. It was quite an assembly.



My Mom working on piecing a quilt.



Kim and Kim's friend at one point were extremely pleased with themselves because they figured out how to work on the same quilt at the same time one two different machines.



The girls begged and begged for Judy to quit sewing and play with them. Of course, her being the cool aunt she is, she did. Judy was the fun aunt that I would go and spend the night with when I was younger. She would take me to movies and give me all her old makeup. I'm not so sure why the girls chose Monopoly; but she obliged and let them think they knew what they were doing.



At the end of the day; nine hours later and two ladies down we had five rag quilts done! Four quilts went home with me and one went home with Kim for a lap quilt to cuddle up with watching TV.



I do have a lot of work ahead of me. I still have to cut all those pesky seams and then wash them to have them ravel up. The boys couldn't wait, though, they are sleeping with their new quilts tonight!



Many thanks to my husband for coming home early and getting the boys off the bus so I could stay and play. I love you, babe.