Pixie Purls

I was shopping for holidays gifts when it occurred to me a good idea for my nephew Brett would be a SNOW SLED!! LL. Bean sells a cool looking foam one for $28 that is safe for little kids (hence the foam construction) and I found myself desperately missing snow. I loved snow days as a child, I have so many happy memories in the snow with my neighbors, two sisters. I wish I had some photos to scan.. they are around someplace... probably the garage. I remember one year Laurel lost her tooth in the snow and cried so much because you know, you need that tooth for the tooth fairy. Finding a tooth in the snow, well thats near impossible. I miss the snow so much.

For those of you who arn't from the south, did you know down here people call grocery carts a "buggy", yes thats right a buggy. I always thought of a buggy as something that a horse pulled. My good friend from NC used that term, but seeing as how I rarely went to the grocery store before being home so much, I thought it was isolated to her area, she lives in the way out boonies. Well now when shopping I often here people, or store employee's use the term. I nearly went into shock after my first big shopping experience a few weeks ago. I called the husbeast up "baby you wouldn't believe but they ALL USE THAT WORD!!!" he laughed and was like "Really? Wow!" He was as surprised as me. I suppose we are naive!

I did a little spinning over the holiday weekend. Crappy photos sorry, it's Flawful Fibers. It spins up very well, I really want two bobbins full so I can ply and see how it comes out. I don't think I put in enough twist for a navajo so I'll just have to 2 ply it off the two bobbins.

I also did pretty much all of my Holiday shopping over Monday and Tuesday at the mall, knowing we would actually be going to Virginia for the Holidays I thought Sydney needed some sort of cute dress to look cute in all the photos, I found her something classy and cute. I'm pissed because the shoes cost as much as the dress ($24) and even thinking about taking them back, but they kinda complete the outfit don't they? Baby shoes are dumb, they just fall off...

I have all the presents wrapped and I want to go out and get our tree this weekend so I can put everything under it, the only person left to shop for is my nephew Aiden. For Sydney's first Chanukah I got her an American Itty Bitty doll. Out here they have his gigantic American Girl shop that has a bistro in it. The mall food SUCKS big time so I figured I would give it a shot. I had salmon! With cappers in a creamy sauce! It was dang yummy! The trick is to NEVER go on a Saturday into that store, it's scary.

As for knitting, it's been a bad week for baby girl and me, she's had it a bit rough and when I've had free time I've just spent it starring at the tv, shameless! Oh if you still haven't checked out LIFE that new show, omg you so should! THey are airing an extra episode after Hero's on monday, so if you watch Hero's don't change the channel and check out Life. I really think you will like it. It's just so different.

Posted by pixie at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Who knew Thanksgiving would be so fun! The husbeast and I got to spend time together, he came into baby girls room and would watch her so I could take breaks (showers, eat etc) and then sometimes when I was feeding her he brought his laptop and sat with us. All the while a big kosher turkey was cooking in the oven. At the last 30 minutes once the turkey was done he took the baby in the moby wrap because she was fussy and assisted me while I cooked potato's, green-beans, gravy and yams. During all this she fell asleep in her wrap and he was able to put her into the swing where she slept until halfway through our meal. So far at home anytime we have attempted to eat together she's been awake and one of us had to hold her. He did an excellent job on the turkey!

It was nice to do the cooking with my husband as a team, all the while keeping an eye on baby girl. I have been kindle obsessed all day, I have simply been glued to the Amazon reviews which there are in total at this time over 500 reviews. It's funny because maybe 50 of them are from people who own the device. I have seen two negative reviews from people that own it, and dozens of 5 star reviews from people who own it. I am so excited about it. The possibilities are endless. Knitting charts, knitting patterns, directions. Anything you can store in a .html, .txt or uncomplicated .pdf file can be converted onto the Kindle. FOR FREE! You can also pay .10 cents per file if you don't want to have to connect it to your computer. It also includes free wireless internet. Granted the browser isn't going to be fully functional but the reviews seem okay. I've already sent two knitting patterns through and once my device arrives I'll let you guys know how they transcribe onto the kindle.

Sydney had a huge day today! She grabbed things, on purpose! She's been able to hold things in her hand for a week or so now, but I doubt she knew she was doing it. Today she was batting at the light up butterfly on her boppy mat like she's been doing the last week but I watched her grab a wing and hold onto it, then she did it when the husbeast was looking and then while changing her she grabbed the tag on it and pulled it WAY down and I was able to catch a photo because I had the camera next to her waiting for such an opportunity! I was very excited about this so I had to share even if it is so very very not knitting related, but this entire POST is not knitting related, except now I have said the word knitting two times, oh make that three!

So we celebrated thanksgiving in our PJ's and had a very relaxing time, the cooking wasn't nearly as laborious as we both had imaged.

Posted by pixie at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Oh I have so many things to be thankful for this year! I was walking out to check the mail, with baby girl in tow when a passing neighbor said as she ran by "Looks like you have a lot to be thankful for". That was all she said, and she kept on running. It's funny the random things people say to you in passing. Honestly life has been such a world wind or rather so very focused on this very finite thing I hadn't yet stepped back to look and realize, I do have a lot to be thankful for. It was just another holiday going to pass me by, all I had been thinking about was how my husband was going to attempt to cook his first turkey, and do we have all the supplies we need because stores are CLOSED on thursday. Baster, check, canned yams, check, meat thermometer, check, turkey, check.

I was so excited this week, I did the OS update on my mac, one of those monthly type thins that sometimes shows up in my updates window. It added two very cool features. Spell check, in EVERYTHING. Just the other day in some passing blog/flickr comments Marnie mentioned to me how Firefox had the spellcheck plugin and I was thinking, wow yeah I need that. Just like magic the next day my OS gets an update that puts spellcheck into any form field, regardless of the application! No plugin needed, WAHOO! They also updated the page search/find functionality and it's very "pretty" and makes it super easy to find the item on the page your search for. I often ctrl-f when I want to find a word on a long page of content. So wow, hopefully now my blog posts will have less spelling errors, the ones it can find anyway hah.

Tonight is like a Friday night. The husbeast is working from home tomorrow, and then has the next two days off after that. I am so excited for a long weekend with him, it means I can convince him to leave the house more! Seeing as how we finally have our taxes done, and my husband pretty much ate my return because of his complex contractor taxes crap, we agreed I could get a present for myself as I WOULD have gotten a nice chunk of change back, but instead it went into what he owed for last year. So anyway, back to a little treat for myself, as I am a technophile and I never got an iPhone (I'm still boycotting them so no rush there). Something very cool... I am so very excited to get to use this, from a Usability perspective in particular. The Amazon Kindle.

It' really funny that it has 400 reviews and it's not even OUT YET, I am only trusting the reviews from beta testers... the rest are people complaining it doesn't have color graphics which I think is funny, and another guy saying he wanted to use it for work and to read business documents so complaining about that which also amuses me as thats obviously not what its for though from what I read it's not that hard to convert PDFs if your technically inclined. I just hope Amazon learned a lesson from Apple and doesn't go cutting the price 2 months from now. They are actually sold out so I have no idea when I will get mine.

Here is Sydney doing her best Britney Spears impersonation, damn paparazzi.

Its okay though, she's hired a new bodyguard to protect her.

GOBBLE GOBBLE YALL!! Wish us luck on our first turkey cooking adventure! Oh and I finished that danm sleeve!!! Now I have to cast off and start the left front, but all I can think about this week is SPINNING, maybe this weekend I'll get some time to!

Posted by pixie at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well it's finally gotten chilly around here, with a few 70 degree days thrown in just to mess with your head. I ran by work yesterday to say hi to everyone. It was mostly like no time at all had passed, which I think is the most interesting thing. I suppose 2 months isn't a really long time anyway when you think about it. It seems like to me in life either a whole lot changes or not much changes.

So just in case I forget to blog before thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving! I'm still working on my sleeve. I am reminded why I never finish knitting any sweaters, because of those dang sleeves. I can't wait for next summer and more tank tops. However just last night I was letting the dogs out and I got such a nice smell of the crisp fall air. It's a very particular smell. All the leaves here have begun to fall and have mostly all changed color. It happend very rapidly because it was hot for so long. Some have even fallen while changing.

So I sit often and think about what the next 4 months will bring and how nice it is not to have to be at work, and have nothing work related to even think about. I wish in this country there was some sort of rule that after 5 years of working at the same place everyone gets a month off, every 5 years! How wonderful would that be? I bet people would be happier and more productive. Everyone needs a break from the 'same ol same ol' every now and then and a vacation isn't the same thing. A vacation is an opportunity to do something you have have always wanted to do, it's not a break from everything. Thats why so many people come back form vacation tired, hah.

Having a true break is first have a week or so to just recover from life, and then having days pass you by and know you don't have to do anything or be anywhere tommorow or the next day. My situation is not exactly like that as I do have something very important to do every day all day, but there is still that wonderful feeling of "nothing" looming over head. I've had to remind myself there is no rush, you have no reason to need to hurry home today, no reason to worry if you don't get to all the things you want to, because you have tommorow and the next day and the next day. It reminds me of summers home from schook las a child.

Here is baby girl in her first dress!

Posted by pixie at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Do you have a moment you can look back on and say, "that was the happiest I have ever been." Well I have had moments like that, but if you asked me what the MOST happiest moment was I would have a hard time thinking of just one, and now I realize why. For me atleast, each "happiest" moment is soon to be replaced by a happier one, and I know that in my future is more happier moments then the last. I mean how sad would it be if your happiest moment was BEHIND you?

Some of my past happies moments include (Attemping to put them in order that they happend); Singing in a talant show in elementry school, writting and directing my own play in High School, working for Nikelodeon at a theme park and getting to be in a live show (notice a theme here hah), getting into Art School, winning portfolio show at graduation in Art School (AA Degree). Graduating Cum Loude with my BA from a liberal arts college, Getting a BA, making my goal amount of money at work, getting promoted, becoming officially an "Information Architect" a title I wasn't sure I could ever obtain. Speaking at a conference about Usability. Doing Usability for a living. Meeting my husband, while still in college. Moving into our first home, coming home with Toby, and Willow (our dogs), getting married, every holiday and celebration with my family (easy to take for granted!), traveling to London and Paris, Traveling to Australia, Getting pregnant, Having a baby, and now I give you the current Happiest Moment of My Life:

Whats your current happiest moment?

I'm up to 8.5 inches on the sleeve, I am lost on sleeve island with no end in site!

Posted by pixie at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)

Well it has been 2 months and life certainly is different around here. In some ways it's not different at all, then in other ways it's a total 180. It is all good in my mind!

The husbeast kept using the Moby Wrap and told me baby girl fell asleep in it the other night, so I've used it some more and what do you know but she's fallen asleep in it twice now for me. It's perfect for 7pm at night when she's fussy and wants to be held but I get tired easily. This takes a bit of the load off my arms. Babywearing is wonderful, I think all hositals should send people home with one of these wraps, all it is is one long piece of cloth.

Last night something crazy happend, baby girl slept 10 hours straight. She woke up when Toby barked, but quickly fell back to sleep, and I heard her fuss around 3am, I checked the monitor and she went back to sleep and so did I and when I woke up the clock said 6am. I was in shock! I have no exptation for it happening again or happening regularly but man was that cool! I personally slept 7 hours for the first time in 2 months!

Back to knitting, I remember why I hate sleeves. They are so boring!!! No shaping, soooo boring!

I need to get to 12" and I'm only at 6". Check out the cover of Wild Fibers, that guys sheepwearing lol! Cute little baby sheep! I baked some blueberry muffins today, and a wild thought occured to me. Instead of using the premade mix with the freeze dried blueberries, I could put in FRESH blueberries. What a CRAZY thought huh?? I would like to try that sometime soon, not sure if there is a trick to it or what sort of mix to use with it that has that blueberry taste but doesn't come with the blueberries already in the mix. It also said on the back of the mix you can use it to make pancakes... mmmmm yum!

Posted by pixie at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Today was a true Friday. I got to knit, and even get a defalf latte at starbucks. Baby Girl and I decided to go to Target and pick up a few things. Target seems to be my new second home these days.

It was so pretty that when we got home I took a blanket and sat outside for a little while. Look at those pretty leaves! It was I think around 65 or 68 degrees today here in Georgia. After a horrible dry/hot summer I am loving this weather.

I wish every day of the week could be as calm, and pretty as today was!

Posted by pixie at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)