Pixie Purls

Tomorrow I might just get to go be by myself for 5 hours, or well sort of by myself. I have a hair appointment and it's nearly an hour drive there and back, and then it always seems to take 3 hours to do my hair (but he's good so it's worth the wait) so it always adds up to nearly 5 hours. The husbeast is well enough to watch BG while I get my hair done. I know I'll probably start falling asleep halfway through, but it will be some much needed-me-time. I'll bring my knitting, and work on sleeve #2.

I can start to seam if I block the back and the first sleeve...

I have a lot going on right now, I have to make some decisions about work and when I am supposed to return, I'll be in a wedding in about 2 weeks from now, and we will be flying on a plane with BG for the first time. She got better from the flu pretty quickly. She never had a cough or sniffles like the husbeast, but she did indeed have the flu (pedi tested her). Husbeast still sounds scraggly if he talks, but he's on the up and up. I'm very much looking forward to getting my hair done, and I am also excited about taking some weekly indoor swimming lessons with BG hopefully in march and if we like them maybe another class after that. I think this week has been the worst week ever, mostly because I had no one to help me with BG and I had a lot I had to do and take care of.

I had been thinking about getting some professional 6 month pics taken of BG, and then I realized that the price of DSLRs has come down and the amount I would spend on photos nearly the same I could spent on a Canon Rebel XTi, so I ordered one figuring I could take nearly as good as photos, or at-least adequate ones. You know me, I am a gadget geek and I have wanted a Rebel XTi for years now. They are only like $500 now (though a nikon D40 is even less) and my dad is a little pissed I didn't get a nikon. I'm a little annoyed at the lens's available from canon but maybe I just don't understand lens's well enough but I got a really nice one for it but I'm not sure if I should have gotten it now. I got the 28-135 but it seems so huge I am wondering if I made a mistake and should return it. Nikon's apparently have macro/wide-angle lens and I don't think this one I got has wide angle though I thought with 28 it would be. It's very confusing.

Posted by pixie at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

I finally finished the back for the minimalist cardi, this leaves simply 1 sleeve left. I think I'll start seaming before I finish the other sleeve, for some fun. But the sleeve shouldn't be too awful after that back, which was awful. No shaping. Wow I don't want to knit anything without shaping for a long while. Shaping makes things so much more fun and less boring.

So the short version of the story is the husbeast had some issues with his gallbladder and the flu at the same time it involved a trip to the ER (for him) and BG had to come with me as I had no place to leave her at the time. So then BG got the flu from him on sunday I think it was the morning she had a high fever. So then this morning we all went together first to a doctor for DH and then a doctor for BG. So far I am not showing signs of the flu, but I am exhausted. I can't imagine if I had to be dealing with work right now with all of this, and I thank my lucky stars I am not working right now. it would have made it far worse and more stressful, or i would have had to take a lot of days off but mostly i think i would have been more tired them I am at the moment.

So I will take my vitamins, eat and drink and hope I don't get sick so I can keep taking care of everyone. What a miserable blog entry huh? But hey I finished the back of the cardi, huzzah that is truly wonderful. So off I go to take care of everyone, as best as I can, which I'm afraid isn't enough but it'll have to do.

Posted by pixie at 06:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

...you wash your face with hair conditioner
...you go to get gas and when you go to retsart the car you realize you never put it in park (oh yeah and there was a baby in your car too, however you did put on the emergency break, thank goodness for that habit huh?)
...you hear the music on a toy which isn't in the same room as you, let alone even on, yet it still echo's in your mind and you swear you hear it and even start to hum along

It's even more apparent your tired when all three of these happen on the same day. The husbeast is sick and may require surgery, I'm tired, the weather is nasty, and while I am up to the armhole shaping on my cardigan it feels like I knit-knit-knit and have no progress at all.

But atleast BG is laughing, and has even started to shake her head no, however I am very sure she doesn't know it means no. It's funny to watch though.

Posted by pixie at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I'm going to go explode now...

Posted by pixie at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

When the husbeast came home last night he brought our regular weekly sushi take-out, but he also had a dozen of the most spectacular pink-fushia roses I have ever seen, and a bottle of wine. I was in total shock, I had decided to expect nothing as I feel embarrassed to say he gave me nothing for my birthday, and nothing for Chanukah/Xmas. I had asked him when Baby Girl was born to buy me a piece of jewelry, as is the jewish tradition, at-least in my family. I wanted something I could give Baby Girl when she was old enough to take care of it. After making sure my sister, aunt, and mother gave him some crap about not getting me anything for my birthday (they weren't mean!) we went out a few days after Xmas and he got me a pretty sapphire necklace with 3 stones on it, one to represent each of us. So now even if I'm not with Baby Girl I can wear it and touch it and think of her.

So I was shocked when he came home with flowers, and NICE flowers even! I did a little dance around the kitchen and took photos as the husbeast getting me flowers is certainly worthy of photos and dancing. I'm hoping he did something for his mom after I sent him about 10 reminder e-mails and handed him some magazines and sent him various links to think she might like. I'm not sure how to get him to be better about gift giving. Sometimes nagging him works, and sometimes it doesn't. Men are so weird.

I am going to be in my very best friends wedding a few short weeks from now and I'm sort of freaking out about that. I'm anxious about how things will go with Baby Girl and if she'll sleep okay while we are gone, I suppose it's not the end of the world if she doesn't but I have never been away from her very long so I suppose this will be a nice way for me and the husbeast to go do something together and have a little freedom.

This month has felt a lot different with Baby Girl. I feel more "joy" in being with her. It's like I am more "awake" if that makes sense. I think I've gained some confidence and come to some specific conclusions about babies. 1) All babies are different 2) because of #1 any advice anyone gives you no matter how well experienced they may be can be complete crap because your baby is DIFFERENT then their baby 3) even good advice from your own mother should sometimes be ignored because when you try what they suggest and it doesn't work you might feel like your doing something wrong (even if they would smack you for thinking such a thing) but it's a natural feeling and the truth is ALL BABIES ARE DIFFERENT! 4) #1 is particularly important to remember in regards to sleeping habits or sleeping abilities 5) Reading books may help but they can also frustrate you. All the books say it's good for babies to be to bed by 7pm or around then. BG used to go to bed each night at 8pm, then one day she stopped and now it's best to put her to bed at 8:30 or 9:00, if I attempt to put her to bed earlier she does fall asleep but ALWAYS wakes up half an hour to an hour later, and then it takes another 2 hours to get her to sleep. She is fussy after around 5pm but it gets the worst around 7 because I KNOW she needs to be asleep, but I also know if I get her to sleep she will just wake up again shortly. I do try every few weeks to let her to go bed at 7:30 or 8:00 just to see if she still is doing the wake-up stuff as for 6)) BABIES CHANGE their habits fairly often, they may still be the "same baby" but they often will change when or how they go down to sleep easier, or nap or how long they will sleep.

For the past week BG wakes up every 2-4 hours at night. She normally will go 12 hours and only wake up once if at all to eat.

So now that I am more confident I think I am able to enjoy her more, and enjoy life more. It's not so much wondering if I did something different would it be better. Even if I had let her "fall asleep awake" or "put her down sleepy" which was dang near impossible in the beginning, she still may have had trouble falling asleep on her own now because of #6. So while I still ponder and wonder certain things I don't worry so much.

I just wanted to capture some of those thoughts for my one purposes, if you have made it this far, thanks for listening!

Posted by pixie at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

... that I ordered extra yarn just in case....

Posted by pixie at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

After hearing on Ravelry that there was a new yarn shop up in Northern Georgia I had to go! It's now the closest LYS to my house, and I hadn't seen any reviews in the blog-sphere yet so I thought I would oblige.

I went on today (friday) as I couldn't image not going someplace today, it was 60 and sunny and wonderful. Of course I don't need to buy yarn, but I should support a new business shouldn't I? We also found a lost check I didn't realize I had received from work so a little treat was in order.

Knots of Yarn is adorable. I was very happy with it! it's nice and spacious and has loads of yarn that I hadn't heard of before, and lots I had. They had Mmmmmmalibrigo, Rockstar and other various Tilli Tomas, loads of Plymouth, Noro, and lots of german yarns I can't spell or remember the name of. She had ROVING, lots of neat pencil roving, wheels that looked to be for sale, looms, and loads of crochet hooks, nice ones with wooden handles of a brand I have not heard of but that looked really nice. She also had wooden circulars by a brand I have never heard of but they too looked nice.

She had Buffalo roving and yarn, and buttons and pretty glass-handmade shawl pins. Colinette kids, and some of those neat little knitting/felting kits I've seen in all the hip yarn shops. I was very pleased and will be back. Also Baby Girl was babbling up a storm and one of the women said "oh she's talky isn't she" and I quickly apologized and they assured me there was no need and as I checked out said "You'll come back and see us again next time, won't you?" to Baby Girl. So they get mad points for being so sweet to me with my Baby Girl in tow, I always get a bit stressed when going into stores with her, I want to have a semi-decent shopping experience myself but when you have a baby that is simply unpredictable. Sometimes it goes amazingly well, and sometimes you just have to leave and come back later. It's mostly difficult because you have to divide your attention on two things at once.

They don't have Debbie Biss or Rowan but I was almost happy they didn't. This mean they had other stuff, and lots of nice other stuff! I would recommend stopping by! The staff was friendly and helpful.

In other stuff, Baby Girl is 5 months as of yesterday. I haven't written about her as much so I thought I would update you in case your interested. She finally is very aware of her feet. Around 4 months she had kicked stuff for 2 days in a row and then never did again. Now she's back to kicking things and she even likes to grab and hold both feet at the same time. It's so cute. She does "sit ups" all the time now so I guess she is working on sitting up. She loves to swirl and wave her hands through the air and look at them, she's been doing that for weeks now. She has been able to roll back to front for a long while, and had a week of being able to then roll back to her back.. but after thwapping her head twice on the bathroom floor while doing this, she seems to have given it up for the time being. I had her on two bathrugs laid out together while I showered, but when she rolled she made it farther then before and I just didn't get to her fast enough. Bad mommy!

Here she is holding my little Amigurumi bear. I'm not happy with the bear as he/she is still too big, but I'm determined to finish it and atleast let her play with it. I'm going to call it "wasabi" bear because of how green it is. I hate to go down a needle size as those clover comfort grips don't get any smaller, so I might have to try different yarn and see if that helps. I ordered the eyes from Japan and I really like them.

There is the "back" to the minimalist cardi, shug-shug along!

Posted by pixie at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The whole family went out to vote today, and Sydney got to vote with me. I am covering up her ear so the sound of the camera won't wake her up. I won't say who I voted for but my husband and I voted for different parties, which always amuses me.

I only knew to vote today because carrieoke voted. Color me stupid but with all the talk on TV about "delegates" I thought it was some sub-set of pre-registered representatives who got to vote (aka the "delegates") so I didn't realize I could vote. I've never voted for "preference" before as the voting website called it. I wonder how many other people out there don't realize they can vote either. I risk being made fun of but honestly it's not like on tv anyone said "get out and vote" at least not at the times I watched. I wish the news out here was more like the UK, they often show people out doing things and commenting, it's like 50% of the news out there when I visited. Here in the state it's some dude in a suite telling you what is going on with a pan shot of a building or maybe some people doing something, but I would like to hear from the PEOPLE more. So thank you Carrieoke as because of you I voted and so did my husband. It also didn't hurt that a new voting location has opened and I could literally walk to it if I wanted too.

Did I mention it's 70 degrees today? I figured out my word press problem was my using safari, which makes me want to go smack the word press developers in the head with a tire iron. I also had more then one offer to go searching for those hair elastics in Australia, the blog world is a wonderful thing and I feel so lucky to be a part of it. It's a community of wonderful people. I wish you all lived near by and we could all go out for coffee or tea, and knit together.

As for knitting I am working on the back to the Minamalist Cardi. I want to finish it before spring comes so I can wear it, with it's 2/4th sleeves it will be perfect for when its a nice but chilly spring day. I was very nervous of running out of yarn so I ordered a little bit more form Art Fibers while they still had that color lot, and I might have to make some fingerless gloves from it or even a scarf if there is enough left over all together. I've picked up the Pi Shawl a few times but I really want to focus on the cardi. Oh and my cat actually started to eat some of the icelandic yarn. I had to scream at her and then go hide it away so she couldn't find it. Bad kitty!

Posted by pixie at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

could anything be LESS intuitive? I added a photo to the beginning of an entry and it magically deleted all of my parapgraph breaks. It's not my knitting blog (luckily for ya'll who don't like run on paragraphs!), I would like to smash things! I've only ever used movable type, and it's SO much easier!

Posted by pixie at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I have a question for anyone reading this who live sin Australia.

I have been on a journey for years, with my curly hair. Yes, a journey! All the elastic hair ties in american, even the stupid ones that say they won't hurt... do indeed pull at your hair and hurt.

When I was in Australia at "Witchery" (I believe thats a chain store out there like Banana Republic is here) at the front desk checking out there was some lovely little hair ties in a bin. I purchased a few. I have one left (4 years later!) and I really want more, they don't snag or hurt at all. Do you know of anyplace online to buy those same hair ties? I can post a photo if needed. I would also be interested in a swap/trade of some sort if they aren't available online and someone was willing to go pick some up.

Oh look, they do still have them! Witchery Hair Elastic, however $30 is way to much to pay for shipping. I think it's possible to send something that light for much cheaper...

Posted by pixie at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)