Chives!

I can't believe I grew something! So, I have a famously brown thumb. People have long teased me that if we lived in pioneer times, my family would have wonderful toys and clothes and furniture, but nothing at all to eat. This is pretty accurate. Or, at least it was until about 20 minutes ago. Little one and I planted some seeds. Chives. I have never done this before. So we filled a bucket with dirt and put in probably way to many seeds (is one packet per 1/2 gallon bucket excessive?) and we dutifully misted them daily. The packet says that they should sprout in 7-9 days. Well...that came and went and our faith that we would have chives began to waver, but we kept at it, and 16 days later we have cute little shoots. 20 of them! We are so excited. We grew something here! Well, now I am all puffed up from this success and we are off to the local hardware store to buy some seed packets for outside. Because lets be honest, you can't feed a family on chives alone. Or can you? hmmmm.....

Blinking at the bright bright daylight

So, the last what month and a half (!?) I have had back to back to back colds. Yay first year of preschool. I feel like I have slept through Halloween, and Thanksgiving. I don't want to jinx anything, but I think I might be on the other side of the sickness now. By golly, I am not, I mean NOT, going to miss Christmas and Hannukah. This is the most fun time of the year for me. I am sewing and knitting and cutting up loads of bits of paper like a fiend. Sorry, no pictures. Most are gifts, so under wraps (haha!) until January.
I did manage to peek my head out every so often for a day or two over the past few months...Here are the highlights.

Went trick or treating...we hit about 6 houses. The first one, little one wanted me to ring the doorbell, hold her hand, and say "trick-or-treat" by house number 4 she was running up to the door "HURRY UP MOMMY!" and banging until they opened it (promting a very brief talk about patience.) She had a great time. Came home and ate 8 M&Ms, watched The Great Pumpkin and went to sleep. Next morning, she forgot all about the candy!

My little niece turned 3! Can't believe it. I mean she just got here! It was a Tinkerbelle party, and my fabulously talented sister (in law) made the most amazing cake. She was out-to-there pregnant too. Where did she find the time and energy? I think she has a secret plutonium supply that she just dips into evey now and then. In addition to the cake...there was glitter! Glitter tag. I don't know if it went exactly like they planned, but let me be the first to say, it rocked. The kids were just dumping bags of glitter on each others heads. They were running around so thery were all quite sweaty, and the glitter stuck. HA!

Went to Waterfowl Festival, where our town shuts down completely to celebrate ducks. I love this place. Little one and I went to a Dock Dogs competition where the dogs jump off a platform into a pool and try to jump the farthest. It was so funny, but the big hits of the day were riding a school bus for the first time and eating a gingerbread duck. You know, with a 3 year old you never know exactly what is going to set them off and make them crazy. So, little one spends about 10 minutes picking out her favorite gingerbread duck -- it has to have the perfect face and be the same color all around the edges. Yikes. She finally finds the winner and we buy it. We sit on the curb to eat it and before she can take it out of its little baggie, drops it on the ground. Its little neck snaps and its head falls off. AAAAK! I just watch her face. She stares at it for a minute, looking at its shattered body and then...bursts out laughing. Cool. I like her sence of humor!

I peeled and chopped 18 apples and cooked some apple pie filling. It rocked! We made 4 pies worth of filling, the remainder we put on anything that would hold still. Pancakes, biscuits, ice cream. So yummy and we still have 4 pies worth left! That will make christmas baking E-Say!

My little niece was born! Yay! We have been waiting for you, tiny peanut, and we are so happy you are here! We can't wait to see you this weekend!

Ah, one more thing. When you are sick, this is the best show. Ever.

Happy Halloween and #27 & 28 for my list

Make cheese.
Learn the accordion.

Too cute not to make

Gotta try making this. Maybe put one in this. There is so much great stuff out there to make!
Found another something great to make, and another! Ok, time to turn off the computer and bust out the glue.

Ok one more. That's it. I swear.

Goals and ideas: 121 things in 1210 days

Through my ridiculously congested blog surfing today, I came across this. I can't help but think this is a great idea for me too. A chance to focus on things that I want to do for me, my family, my friends and my community...So, to borrow an inspirational idea (and organizational structure) here it goes:

The first 26

Knitting
Knit lace with lace weight yarn
Knit myself a sweater
Send 20 baby hats to Children's hospital at Egleston in Atlanta
make these Inca Alpaca Mitts
submit original design to Knitty for consideration
Steek

General Craftyness
learn a new medium
participate in Project Spectrum
do a swap
sew a growth chart for little one
Get 3 artscout buttons

Green
Learn to compost
Use a clothesline on sunny days
Plant a food garden

Gifting
Give handmade gifts (made by me or someone else)

Ballet
Get back on pointe shoes
Take a class in New York

Lifestyle
Get up 15 minutes earlier, make a cup of coffee and start the day before anyone else is up.
Walk to Homeschool Co-0p at least 2/4 times a month
Make a calendar of everyone's birthdays
Take little one on walks atleast once a week
Make a nature table
Organize playroom and make it cute
Paint Kitchen
Decorate little one's room as a garden
Read Walden

Result!

I am so proud.



In another, somewhat unrelated thought, how do I get this over here?

Elephants, bears, and monkeys -- oh my!

This weekend I had my first solo table at a craft show. It was a little bit John Watters-esque. I got there and set up with my dad -- he made me laugh like a crazy person, and we thought for sure we would be asked to leave before the show officially began. Well, things kicked off at 10 with an accordion player (!!). It was pretty cold on Saturday, but with my fingerless gloves on, I managed to get in some knitting. Also, a steady stream of friends stopped by to chat with me, making the time fly by. A few highlight moments...

Smokey and the 911 Elephant stopped by to say hello...

A man with a tiny monkey strolled by -- it was his hat that caught my eye first...then the monkey.

Little one and my Sweetie pie came over and hung out for a while too, although for little one, the draw was the playground.

So, not the most...er...lucretive of shows, but all in all a nice way to spend Saturday.

Oh, and HANDS-DOWN the best popcorn I have ever had. Two bags full.

Also, started the mass production of tomato sauce. There is this really nice woman at the farmers market that gives me all of her battered or bruised tomatoes at the end of the day. I take them home an make sauce out of them. Usually she has 4 or 5. This time, she had an entire file box full of tomatoes! So...

9 bottles of sauce! Thanks Crystal! (ok, you can tell by the date on the jars that I did these last weekend. I just forgot about telling you until today. So, pretend that I did it this weekend and wonder -- where, oh where does she find the time to do all of this!)

Also, just started working on little one's Halloween costume. She wants to be JoJo -- nice easy costume. Started sewing up the pants last night. Here is the fabric .

I took 2 colors of flannel and made stripes then cut the pants from that. More pictures to follow as the costume progresses. I just realized that I have to have it finished by Saturday. That is when the town parade is, and trick-or-treating at the shops.

As usually happens this time of year, when the weather goes from 80 degrees to 59 degrees in the course of 2 days, we all have raging colds. So, we have been hanging out, not doing much today -- couple of painting projects and the like. Can't wait to have my nose stop running.

Going over to the fam's house for dinner tonight. I'm going to bring the lasagna and some rolls (never made this kind of roll before. I'll let you know how it turns out.) This is my Gramma's last night in town before she heads back out to Arizona. I miss her when she's so far away. Her visits always fly by. They are just too short. Even if they were longer, they would still be too short, you know?

I think it's time to shape the rolls. If they turn out pretty, I'll take a picture. If they turn out nasty, no one will know but us, ok?