My Fat Feet!

Well, It's May 22nd. I'm 38 weeks today and still hanging in there. I'm ready...my feet are totally swollen and I'm just ready to get this baby out!! Any day now, please. :-) Ignore my narsty flip flop tan, LOL

The wedding came and went this past weekend and I made it through. Valerie got a picture of me all preggo and in action, it's too funny. It was a really nice wedding and my girls (my sister and Paisley) looked so beautiful. It was nice to see my family as well. My parents, brother and his girlfriend came back to my house to stay with me Sunday night, we took Paisley to the fireworks but it turned out they were cancelled due to high winds. It was nice to have the company anyway and we ended up having a movie night.

Last night I also finished the second heart blanket, which is going to be a shower gift for a friend. It turned out great, I just need to wash and block it a bit. I also finished the Jaywalker ankle socks a few weeks ago but have yet to post about them. I love them but they bother my feet right now with them being so puffy and all. :-)

Happy 25th Birthday to my sister as well, her wish was for me to have the baby today but it looks like it's not happening. Te he. :-)

Getting Ready!

As of today, there is officially only 5 more weeks until Rowan Gail Johnson is expected into the world. I've been eagerly waiting to reveal the name on my blog and couldn't wait any longer. We've had the name picked out for months but I never spilled the beans on my blog. We wanted something different and nice like our Paisley May Johnson and it just stuck, believe it or not it was actually the first name I picked out of a baby name book I purchased from work and Ron and I both immediately like it. Hopefully the ultrasound techs were right when they said it was a girl, *LOL*.
I had a visit on Friday with my family doctor (who if all goes well will be delivering the baby) and then a visit with my OB on Monday and baby is head down and engaged and man I've been feeling it, I've been so achy down there. I've been spending some time yesterday packing my hospital bag and tonight I've been packing the baby bag. I'm doing up some baby laundry right now and it's kind of exciting because it's all clothes that have been given to me so when I bring them up to fold it will be a surprise. I don't have a dresser quite yet, so I'll put everything into the crib that Ron set up 2 weeks ago for me. Paisley's officially switched rooms as well, I can't remember if I mention it in a previous post or anything but we gave her a princess pink room (colour is called Cherry Blossom) and baby will be getting her old room which is canary yellow with bugs painted on the wall. She needed a big girl room and something a little less babyish.
:-) She absolutely loves her new room as well and I found Disney Princess wall stickers at the dollar store, so we just need a few more sheets to finish the room off.


Onto knitting...


I'm nearly finished my Jaywalker ankle socks and I've started a baby sweater for a baby shower that I've been invited to in June. I'm doing the Raglan Baby Sweater again and unfortunately it's coming out alot bigger then I expected so I may not be finishing it. I'm using knit picks shine DK, and it's super soft so it's kind of a bummer but perhaps I need to find different yarn, I'm undecided as for what to do just yet. I still really love that pattern though. I also want to do another heart blanket. My friend is having a boy, so it'll be some shade of blue, I just haven't decided on the yarn that I want to use for it yet. Come to think of it, she is my sister's really good friend and the one that is getting married on the 17th of this month and I'm taking the wedding pictures for her. It should be interesting since I will be 37 weeks preggo at the wedding. Good thing my sister-in-law Valerie is helping me out of the kindness of her heart (and I mean really thank goodness!!!)


So as you can see I've been keeping quite busy these days. We also just came back from a weekend up in Owen Sound visiting my family. Ron finally got to come with us and he was glad too because he hasn't seen my family since boxing day. It was a nice weekend and Ron had his new laptop to play with and his world of warcraft so he wasn't entirely bored when my sister, mom and I were doing stuff. My brother and him did some things too, so I think over all it was a good weekend for everyone. He even enticed my brother to purchase the same laptop this week. Ron's back on the road until next Thursday, but I can't wait for him to come home. There's some comfort and knowing he's around when I'm so close to having a baby, kind of scary. I sure hope he's home though because babies come when babies come, eaaak!!

*edit* Here is one garbage full of clothes that I have went through, there's still one more to go! Wow!!

Finishing things up!

Last night I finished up the Heart Blanket. It looks great and the size is perfect for the stroller/car seat, I blocked it all out and it measures 24 1/2 " x 29 1/2". I absolutely love it! :-)

I also finished the Easy Baby Cardigan for my friend at work. We're meeting up sometime on Tuesday so that I can give it to her.

Now I've started a pair of Jaywalkers and I'm making ankle socks instead since the weathers been so wonderful. I was going to use the Lorna's Laces I got for my birthday but I think I'll save that for when I do a full size pair of socks. I'm using Opal Cotton that I had in my stash. I've never made ankle socks before, so I put the sock up to my ankle as I was knitting it and ended up doing a 2" leg before starting the heel. It seems like it's going to be okay, but we'll see.

I've been keeping busy! Paisley and I have been spending alot of time outside with it being so nice out lately. She just wants to be with her friends, digging in the dirt, riding her bike or jeep...anything outside, she's such an outdoors kid. I've noticed it makes her pooped out at night, so it's worth it letting her run a muck.

Well, that's about it for me for tonight, need sleep......

Sunny Days!

Since I've messed up my blanket and need to tink back a few rows, I thought that I would take a break from it for a night. I got into the "Itty-bitty Hats" book again last evening and knit up the Upside Down Daisy Hat. Man is it ever cute! I also got to try out a new technique...sewing on an applique and it didn't turn out too bad (for my first try). I used some Lily Sugar Babies cotton that I had sitting in my stash that Rhonda gave me a long time ago. I thought it may be too heavy but apparently I was wrong and it looks just fine. :-)


I Can't wait to try this on a baby!!!

This beautiful weather's been great, I hope everyone that's having it right now is enjoying. It's so nice to not have to wear layers out. Have a great weekend. :-)

Excited!

Yesterday I picked up my stroller and car set set. It's a Graco and literally in MINT condition. I bought it off our store manager for $100 and it's only been used for maybe a month. There was a little dust on it and tires a bit dirty but that's it, it's freaking perfect! What a sweet deal. It came complete with the base for the car and everything. I still have Paisley's "old" stroller and car seat but it's seen better days (got a lot of lovin') and car seat did not have a base and the sun visor also went missing somewhere.
I remember when I got my stroller for Paisley it was an exciting moment and ofcourse it is again. I'm getting stoked now! 55ish days left until the due date, wow!

I was knitting away on my blanket last night and realized that I made a mistake a few rows past, so I tore out 3 rows. I screwed up the seed stitch border and it was ribbed instead...fug!! Got it all fixed and then was looking at my
blanket again and several rows down I had done it again, but in the pattern rows. I can't bear to leave it either, it just bothers me so much. I guess I'll take it out to Rhonda's place on the weekend along with the Easy Baby Cardigan I need help fixing. For right now, all my knitting is on hold so I casted on for another pair of Ruth's Perfect Baby Booties to go with the Cardigan for a friend at work who just had her baby Feb. 29th. One bootee down and one to go, but I thinking I'm going through blanket withdrawl. *LOL*
For the Easy Baby Cardigan I'm using Wendy Peter Pan DK, it's such a nice yarn for the price, very enjoyable! I've used it before, but the more I knit with it the more I like it. 55% Nylon and 45% Acrylic blend! It has a nice feel to it and it's got alot of give, I'm not worried about the sweater not fitting her little guy, that's for sure!

Well, I guess it's back to my house cleaning. I only have 45 more minutes of quite time until I have to go get Paisley at school. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend, it's supposed to be very wet here in Southern Ontario but I'll try and make the best out of it. :-)

Knittin' Hearts!

I finally started the heart blanket that I've been wanting to knit for baby. There's only one problem now...I can't stop knitting it!! I guess that's a good thing though, it's going to be done nice and quick. The original pattern was six blocks wide, but I wanted a slightly smaller blanket for going over the car seat, so Rhonda cut the pattern down for me and it will be 4 blocks wide instead and I'll probably do 5 blocks up. I'm really happy with it so far and I'm loving the pattern. Rhonda was so kind as to chart it out for me and I've been using the chart exclusively and haven't even looked at the actual pattern.

Pattern: Heart Blanket by Carole Prior
Needles: 4.5mm (although I could have probably went up a size)
Yarn: Pingouin Pingostar (Rhonda had this in her stash and gave me this yarn for the blanket)

Paper Bag Fun

Today Paisley & I had some fun after school with some paper bags we bought at the dollar store. A great rainy day activity. :-)
Along with the owl and the sheep Paisley also wanted to make a Giraffe
but he didn't make the photo shoot because Paisley's 2 hands were occupied.

I finished the hat for baby as well, I didn't end up restarting it either. Valerie stopped by the other day and I got her opinion on it being too big and decided that it should be fine so I finished it up last night. Don't mind the ribbon, I left it a little longer because I'm not sure how big I actually want the bow to be. Water baby is so kindly modelling it for me. The pattern I used was out of the "Itty-bitty hats" book I got for my birthday. It's called "Ribbons", except the pattern had 4 or 5 eyelet rows with ribbon. I thought that was a bit much so I chose to do only one eyelet round.
Paisley sweater is pretty much done, I just want to take a picture of her wearing it so I'll probably post that next time.

Hope everyone has a good weekend! It's supposed to be nice here in Southern Ontario. Sunny and high of 13 degrees Celsius tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that! Paisley and I are going for dinner in Fonthill at our good friends The Carr's (I've mentioned my friend Becky a few times on my blog, her parents live in Fonthill). This is a rescheduled dinner from last month that got cancelled due a huge snowstorm here. It'll be nice to see them all!

I also springed up my blog a little bit by changing the colours around, I'm liking it so far, green's good!

Really...where does the time go? (Picture Heavy)

Wow, a whole month went by and not a single post from me. Rest assured, I've been keeping busy though. March Break was spent up in Owen Sound, I got to hang out with my sister and mom while Paisley got to play with her cousin Lucas and also got practise in for when she becomes a big sister, she was holding and feeding her little cousin Reece (who just turned 3 months) all week long.
My birthday came and went on the 17th of March. Spent a quite weekend with Ron at home, which was nice. The day before my birthday, we went out to Rhonda's place and Ron made everyone dinner, shish-kabobs and rice (one of my faves) man were they ever tasty. I was also given my birthday gifts too. I got some new yummy sock yarn (Lorna's Laces) and I absolutely love the colourway. I think I may have found a pattern too! I also received "Itty-bitty Hats" by Susan B. Anderson from Rhonda and Valerie gave me 6 balls of yarn to make a blanket for baby, she recommended the pinwheel blanket as she made it a few months ago for a friend who was expecting, so I think this yarn also has a pattern to go with it. :-) Thanks again Ladies for the wonderful gifts. Ron & Paisley bought me a compact digital camera as their present I have my Canon digital SLR, but I really wanted something I could just slide in my pocket for walks to the park in the summer and also especially for at the hospital when I have baby I just didn't want to lug in my huge-ass camera for the birth-day. Shoppers had a wicked special the week before Easter on Olympus FE-220's (in blue) for $88 and couldn't pass up on that deal.
Good Friday was spent with my parents and brother, they came up for a visit and brought me a birthday cake and money card since they missed my actual birthday. I'm putting the money away for a new stroller-car set combo. Easter weekend was a strange one. Ron was working and out west and Paisley spent Sat-Sun at Rhonda's because I was working the whole weekend. Late Saturday evening I got a call from my sister wondering what I was up to and she came from Owen Sound with her kids for an unexpected visit. It was nice to see her though because I was feeling kind of lonely with Ron & Paisley not being home. She ended up staying until Tuesday afternoon so we had a really nice visit. Then Ron came home that evening (a day early) and unexpectedly and that was a nice surprise too. I miss him oodles when he's gone, so a day early was okay with me.

I have been knitting! On the weekend before my birthday, I was going through some old patterns at Rhonda's and fell in love with an old Beehive for Barins pattern, it's just a simple Crossover sweater for baby. Rhonda happened to have some Lilac coloured baby yarn that she so kindly offered to me for the project and I got started right way. It's all finished now, I just want to give it a wash and possibly iron the decorative edging on it so it lies nice and flat (damn acrylic!!) I also knit up Sartjee's Bootees with left over yarn and I was working on a hat, but it has come out too big so I think I'm going to have to frog it and restart with less stitches arrgg, and for the second time. I'm taking a break from it right now and trying to finish up Paisley's Top Down sweater. I also have a few other things on the needles like the Easy Baby Cardigan for a friend at work, but I have put it down for the moment. I've been getting side tracked very easily these days and startitis is really bad!! Don't mind the pictures of my work as they are not great shots, I was in a hurry and just wanted to get a picture of them up here.

I'm now over 30 weeks pregnant so this past weekend was my last weekend at work, I'm down to less then 10 weeks (65 days) until my due date. It's crazy how fast time flies. Now that I'm going to be home every weekend and most importantly when Ron is home, we have some major spring cleaning to start doing. Paisley wants to switch rooms and go into the room that is currently our spare/toy/knitting room and give baby her old room. I'll be moving the knitting stuff over to baby's room I think, I'll need the closet space in Paisley room. I also have boxes and boxes of girls clothes to go through and will be deciding what to keep and what to give away. It's going to be busy and I loathe organizing, it's always been my weak thing. So wish me luck!!

I smell chocolate chip cookies

Since the hubby has been away, I've been finding myself in the kitchen baking tasty treats(since he usually does it). I used to bake alot when I was younger but I got away from it over the years and I forgot that I'm not bad at it either. I'm much better with the baked goods rather then cooking that's for sure, my idea of dinner (lets take tonight for example) is a spring mix salad with cucumbers, tomato, celery, carrots, bits of cheese and chicken breast. Nice and easy, I make spaghetti alot too, I'm sure my little P is getting sick of that. I do miss Ron alot for the good cooking, he's a great chef and makes excellent food. He'll be home Thursday sometime, so I may be able to score a meal or two when he's home (fingers crossed because I'm hungry, *LOL*). Okay back to the kitchen here, Paisley and I decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies (our all time favourtie cookie). I found a recipe online and cut all the ingredients in half because Paisley and I DO NOT need that many cookies, infact there's too many as it is so the neighbour kids might get some tomorrow. I did that last week with the chocolate cake that I baked, I sent over half the cake for them. The idea of a sweet treat is that I just want a taste, not eat it all and besides with being pregnant and all I don't want to blow up like a blimp with all this baking. :-) It makes me feel good to give it away too and I really hope my recipients enjoy it. The cake was damn good and the cookies were also awesome as well. Mmm!

Paisley wanted to take some pictures of her and my belly tonight. Don't mind my strechy marks, *LOL* I got them after I had Paisley and now they're all popping out again. Trying to touch them out on photoshop tonight does not sound like my idea good time to me but they're still fun pictures so I'll put 'em up anyway. :-) On Thursday of this week I will be 26 weeks pregnant, it's actually crazy how fast the time goes. I've been really thinking about the 3-D ultrasound lately and would kind of like to have it done. So I told my mom about it the other day and she said she'd give me some money for it for my birthday (which is coming up next month on the 17th) if it was something that I really wanted done. There's a place that does it fairly close by, so I'm really considering it. Ofcourse I have to talk to Ron about it. I'd only be wanting the most basic package(as it is quite pricey). I don't need the"memory dvd" or anything like that and I'd be happy with just a few pictures. It's funny, because a few of the girls that I work with had it done and I said I would not be having it done and thought it kind of ruined the surprise but now that I'm further along in my pregnancy I'm changing my mind and sort of excited about it. I think it will be fun, I just hope Ron goes for it. :-)

As for knitting, I'm still plugging away on Paisley's top down sweater, I've just got the sleeves left to knit which shouldn't take long at all. I've been just slacking and dying to start baby stuff. I'll post pictures of knitting stuff soon! I also finally got to give Kira (the girl I worked with who had her baby boy at the beginning of Jan.) the raglan sweater I made for her little guy Robbie. She's supposed to email me a picture of him in it. She also LOVED Ruth's Perfect Baby Booties, I can't wait to see him in the ensemble.

Well, I suppose that's it for now. I'm feeling alot better after being sick earlier this month. The antibiotics definitely helped me and hopefully I won't be getting anymore colds this winter.

Road to Recovery & A $4 find

By yesterday I still was not feeling good at all. I was also still stuck at my parent's house in Owen Sound and not feeling well enough to drive home yet so my mom sent me over to the hospital to get looked at. My sister gave me a ride so I wouldn't have to pay for parking. I checked in at triage and then nearly 2 hours later I was finally seen by a doctor (2 hour wait...not bad for the hosptial I thought??). He pretty much took one look at me to know what was up but still gave me a quick exam by checking my breathing, ears and such. I guess I have a sinus infection, so now I'm on anti-biotcs for 7 days taking 3 a day. I called my dad for a ride when I was done and he swung by wal-mart which is on the way home and I ran in to get my perscription filled (hubby's benefits have not kicked in yet, damn!!) while I was waiting the 15 minutes for filling I strolled around and came across a clearance rack of jackets. There was a nice tan jacket marked down to $4, I thought to myself this can't be right, $4?? I would totally purchase this coat for that price, heck I had $4 in loose change in my wallet. The size of the coat was even generous enough to accomodate a growing belly. I carried it in my arms and back over to get my presription and to think about whether or not I was going to purchase the coat. $17 later I paid for my script and I was walking out to the check-out ready to get my change out to buy this sweet deal and I saw the line up. It was lined up so long at all the check-outs, I would have been there for a 1/2 an hour at least. I didn't want to keep my dad waiting so I put the coat back, bummer....
I woke up pretty early this morning because sleeping is still slightly uncomfortable with my nose being so stuffy that I ran out to the dollarstore for a few items. The dollarstore just happens to be right beside wal-mart and I thought how funny it would be if this lonely $4 coat was still on the rack the next day so I decided to venture in and find out. Sure enough it was in the exact same place I had originally found it so off I went with it to the check out. As the cashier was ringing it through I was 1/2 expecting it to come up at a different price/more money then on the sale tag but sure enough it came up at the $4. I just bought myself a $4 jacket, LOL how sweet. :-)
Paisley and I also made the journey home back to Hamilton today, just in the process of relaxing, unpacking and getting the house warm. It's freaking feezing this place!! Yikes. Taking my time though because I am a bit tired. Ron will be home tomorrow around lunchtime and it's Valentine's Day, I'm excited. Paisley and I have cards for him!! I can't wait to see the hubby, he's been gone for nearly 10 days.
It's nice to be home, LOL but I miss my mommy. She took good care of P and I this week and it's weird to be home with just Paisley and I now. We'll probably go back on March Break for another visit or something.
P.S. spell checker's not working so pardon my mistakes I have made throughout this post. :-)

SICK!

Well, yet again I have caught another cold, and it's a real dosey this time and by far the worst I have gotten so far. Paisley was sick for the majority of last week and had a slight eye infection. I ofcourse get everything 10X worse then she does because I had full out pink eye by Thursday night. Before I got really sick, I brought her up to my parents place in Owen Sound, so now we are stuck here until mommy is feeling a little better. We are also snow-stayed at the moment although it is nice and sunny out here now. I'm going to make this a rather quick post as I am still not feeling 100%.
This was the scene yesterday up here in Grey-Bruce county. Very little visibility as you can see.

Not too much knitting has been accomplished these days but I did manged to get a scarf knit for a neighbour who so kindly came over to help me shovel my drive-way on Thursday before my trip up to the parents. This scarf got knit up before I started feeling to terrible Friday night at my brother's hockey game. I also got my Mom's socks done before I came up for the visit. Don't mind my crummy pix, my mom's camera sucks! :-)

A Sweater For Paisley

Today I got an email from Rhonda telling me that the pattern she ordered for us came today. We were looking for a top down sweater pattern for children in worsted weight yarn, she found one on Cabin Fever in just a plain raglan design which is just perfect. :-) I've already cast-on for the project and started the collar but now I have to put it on hold until I get a 4.5mm- 40cm circular, my stitches are starting to slide off my dpns. Unfortunately I only have a 80cm circ in that size and it's a bummer because I'm on a roll. I think it's going to be a fast knit once I get the needle. A few weeks ago Rhonda de-stashed a bunch of yarn to Valerie and me and I ended up with 7 or 8 balls of Patons Cotton in a light pink colour, so this is what I'm using to knit Paisley's sweater with.

My mom's socks are also well on their way to being done. I'm on the heel of the second sock right now, I just ran out of yarn and have to attach a new ball on. They should be finished in no time, I'm planning on making a trip up to see them in a little less then 2 weeks so I want them off the needles by then.

The fact of how much I miss Ron really hit home last night. Around 1am Paisley woke up crying hysterically. I asked her what was wrong and she said her nose hurt and then about a minute later it started bleeding. She's had nose bleeds before, so we cleaned it all up in about 10 mins but she was still upset then she started hacking up nasty clots. This is when I started getting panicky, my heart was racing all I could think of was this isn't right, but is it normal? Should we go to the hospital? We got our gear on to go, car keys in hand and I thought hey, am I over- reacting? Maybe I should call telehealth? I tried calling my mom first because I used to get really baaaad nose bleeds when I was little but no answer, so I proceeded to call telehealth. The nurse asked me a bunch of questions as they always do when you call and she told me that what was happening to Paisley was normal and that I didn't need to worry, (pheeww...that made me feel better) but that she may have a bit of a tummy ache from swallowing blood as the nose was probably already bleeding before she woke up crying. I would have felt kind of silly going to emergency over that, so I'm glad I rationalized myself into calling. I'm a big of a spazzoid when it comes to stuff like this and Ron usually is around to calm me down but I didn't have anyone. I also had to take apart our vaporizer because it wasn't working and of course I have no tools, I don't know where half his tool stuff goes. *LOL* In the garage some where I suppose, so I think I need my own little set of screwdrivers to keep inside the house so I know where they are at all times. The nurse that I spoke with wanted me to set the vaporizer up to add some humidity to the house as the dryness is probably a big cause of the nose bleeds. I some how fixed the vaporizer with all the wrong tools and got it going up in the bedroom, I put it on again for her tonight and I'm hoping it will help because I don't want a repeat of last night. Did I mention that my mom called me back after I was off the phone with telehealth? Ofcourse she told me everything was okay and that happened to me many, many times when I was kid. Who knew? I guess I do now. :-) I sure miss Ron though, he's been gone since last Tuesday night and he probably won't be home at least until the end of the week but I'm not completely sure (I guess that's the life having a trucker for a hubby?). I know I can't wait for a hug though, I need one. :-) It's just going to take some getting used to with having him gone for so long.

A Nice Surprise

After running errands and picking Paisley up from school I came home to a nice surprise in my mailbox the other day. I've been used to the usual bills and such, but not anything really good. The envelope was address to me and was sent by Robyn from Knit & Purl Mama. What could it be? :-)
As soon as I got Paisley into the house and we got undressed from outside, we opened it together. Inside was a cute card that read "Congrats on another girl! Please send girl power our way. We find out soon. Hugs, Robyn" and 2 identical diaper vests (one in 0-3 months and the other in 3-8 months). She and her husband are also expecting their second child about a month after us. I just wanted to send out a huge thanks to Robyn because it really made my day getting that, so thoughtful of you and aren't they ever cute??

I'm still plugging away at my mom's socks. I've completed one sock now and I'm onto the next. With Ron being gone with his new job, it seems like I've had plenty of time to knit and I'm still managing to keep the house somewhat tidy as well. A friend at work also asked me if I could knit her a sweater for her son who will be born sometime in March. I sent her a few patterns to choose from and she chose the Easy Baby Cardigan from Knitting Pure & Simple. I can't wait to start this project!



I've also been doing a little reading, I got the book with a Palmer's Cocoa Butter gift pack that was on clearance at Shoppers last weekend. We've been talking about names and we have a few that we like but nothing we've solidly decided on. At least we're agreeing on names this time. :-)

They say it's a Girl

Just wanted to quickly post that I had my ultrasound today and apparently we are having another little girl. :-) No boys in this gene pool I guess, oh well. Now the quest will be a name..........
They charge for the ultrasound pictures nowadays, $3 for 2 pictures. I was surprised! Ron couldn't be at the appointment with me, so I really wanted to get a picture for him to see when he's home on the weekend, plus too...isn't getting a picture a part of the whole pregnancy thing??

Update on my Christmas socks, they are done. I'm wearing 'em and they're super comfy. I have another pair of the cable twist socks on the needles as we speak for my mother.
I took Paisley out to Gramma & Grampa's tonight so that she could tell them the news that she would be having a sister and I acquired new stash, Rhonda was giving away a bunch of her acrylic and some cotton stuff, a whole green garbage bag stuffed full. Tomorrow while Paisley is at school I will be trying to fit it all into my storage drawers.

Sorry about my rather large header as well, that is a WIP and hopefully I'll resolve the size of it soon. :-)

LOL

Jennifer --

[noun]: A real life terminator

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap!

For Christmas Paisley got one of those little Disney fish aquariums from her Great-Aunt and Uncle. Ron & I set it up a few days after Christmas and we took her to the pet store and she pick out 2 fancy goldfish and we put it up in her room, we thought we could trust her with them up there. On 2 occasions she was caught feeding the fish and EXCESS amount of flakes so we confiscated the aquarium and put it downstairs. The water got all cloudy and after a week of it being up, Ron had to drain 1/2 the water and put fresh water in it again. We went back to the pet store a few days ago and we got different food for them, some goldfish pellets. Ron thought this may be easier for Paisley when feeding them. I really didn't think they liked them too much, but every morning I would come down and it looked as though they had eaten them all. The water still had a slight cloud, just as it always had but each day it seemed to be getting worse. Last night I noticed that the black bubble eye fish that Paisley named Roxy seemed to be struggling, he wasn't swimming around and just acting strange. I took the lid off and looked into the water and the smell was unreal, it smelled like a stagnant pond, there even seemed to be "things" floating around in the water. After talking on the phone with my mother, she recommended me to check the filter. I pulled it out only to discover that it was CAKED with slim and and food. This stirred up all the grime in the water even more, poor fish still struggling. My next step was to get them out of there and into something clean because the tank needed to be COMPLETELY cleaned!! I found a very large and clean bucket and filled it with water that was about room temperature. Lucky for me from days of working in a darkroom, I had a thermometer so that I could make sure that the water was indeed okay to drop the fish in. Paisley and I searched through the kitchen to find some thing that we could scoop the fish out of the dirty water with and transport them to the clean water. Finally with quick thinking on Paisley's part, she grabbed a slotted spoon which did the trick and we got them in. The black fish immediately started swimming about and acting more goldfish like. They seemed happy again, confused I'm sure but happy! We even got the snail that Aunt Valerie and Dave bought for Paisley into the clean bucket of water. Next was getting that fish tank cleaned and nice again. Using HOT, HOT water and some vinegar (I didn't want to use soap), I scrubbed everything down, rocks and all. There was a thick layer of scum underneath and on everything. I scrubbed out the grubby filter unit and got all the rocks, Ariel, the tree and pump all set up. It was time to transport the poor fish into the cleaned tank. I slowly dumped the bucket of clean water fish, snail and all gently back into the aquarium then I plugged everything back in and got the pump running again, all I had to do was add a little more water just to topped it off. I got the water to an appropriate temperate then added it and it was complete, aquarium IS Clean!! I really wish I had've taken a before picture of this mess. EEAsssh!! :-) Alot of precious knitting time wasted, but innocent lives were spared. Sadly, I really think that Roxy would have died over night, sally (orange fish) was doing better then Roxy but it was still not a good scene. Today I'm on a mission to get them goldfish flakes. :-)

The Cutest Damn Baby Booties EVER!

I've made several pairs of baby booties in my day and never really liked any of 'em, some were too fiddley and some were too old fashioned. I found this free pattern while surfing the next last night and it was perfect...literally, the pattern is called Ruth's "Perfect" Baby Booties. I made these to go with the raglan baby sweater I made for my friend. I'm working on my second bootie right now and should be done it tonight. I'm in search of just a plain hat pattern now too because I think I will have enough yarn left over for one. The sweater is all finished now too and I love how it came out, my picture doesn't do the colour justice though, it's alot more blue then that it acutally looks.
I'm on a roll now, but as soon as I'm all done with the baby stuff, it's back to my socks. I need a new pair to wear!

So Samantha was asking how the baby belly was coming along. So far, so good! It's just really starting to pop out now, I will be 19 weeks on Thursday. Sometime this month I will be having the 20 week ultrasound. Hopefully they will be able to tell us the gender then because I'm anxious to know, I couldn't go through my whole pregnancy without knowing...I'm not good with surprises. Besides, I'd like to think about names before the kid is actually born. Any guesses on the gender?? I will keep you all posted. :-) Almost half over!!




****Update (January 9th): The ultrasound is next Thursday, Jan. 17th, whooohooo! I've also changed the picture of the sweater above, couldn't stand it. Booties (Paisley HAD to pose with 'em) and hat are done too, it's ready to be gifted, I wonder if she's had the baby yet. ****

Settling Down

It was a really busy and eventful month in December for us and now we are finally starting to setting down into the New Year. I hope everyone had a great Christmas & New Years, ours was fantastic as always and nice to be with our families. Santa as well as pretty much everyone else spoiled Paisley. She did VERY well. *LOL*
My sister also had her baby nearly a month early on December 17th, she weighed 5lbs10oz. She had to spend 10 days at the Hospital in London because baby Reece was having some respiratory problems at first and then some feeding problems but on boxing day Reece got to come home. She's as cute as a little button and I can't wait to get a little picture of her up here. As I probably mentioned before I was knitting the Seamless Yoked Baby Cardigan for her but it's going to be much to large (at least for a few months) so I think I need to cast-on for something smaller really soon, I'm just searching for the perfect pattern for her.
For Christmas I got the knitpicks collection of all the sock needles I could possible ever need, cascade sassy stripes sock yarn and some regia sock yarn from my MIL Rhonda. I think I got spoiled too. :-) I started putting the needles and sock yarn to good use by casting on for a pair of my annual Christmas socks. Last year I did jaywalkers with opal yarn that I got for Christmas. So this year I wanted to find a pattern simple enough to show off these so called "sassy stripes". I went through some old patterns and found the Cable Twist Socks from Hello Yarn and remembered that I really wanted to try this pattern and cast-on for it. One sock down!!

I was also thinking about Ravelry the other day and decided to check on my invite, only to find that I got my invite in October and the invite went into my junk email and I never received it. So they immediately sent me another one out and I was all set to join Ravelry. I'm just exploring it all now and getting everything all set up. Alot of time is being spent on it these days, *LOL* but I thought I should probably post on my neglected blog. :-)
Well, I think that's about it....wait...
I cast-on for another baby sweater for my friend's little guy (due really soon, possibly already or if not this weekend for sure). It's called Top Down Raglan Baby Sweater. A very quick and easy knit. I'm already to divide for my sleeves, front and back. The sleeves will be going on stitch holders ASAP. :-) I will be defiantly making this pattern again!!!