We Had A Great Visit

Well I guess all my freaking out was over nothing, which is a good thing hehe. We had a really great visit with Megan's dad. Megan and her dad just had a great time doing things together and reconnecting. I think he realized that Megan is still the same whacky Megan only bigger hehe. I think Megan realized how much she is like her dad in looks and personality. We all went out to dinner and it was fun. Alot of people were shocked that we all went together but it is important to me that Megan feels comfortable with us all being together and its not awkward. They went to the movies, he went to Megan's church and met her best friend and her family and then he came back to our house to watch a movie and hang out. Megan was a little sad when he left but not too sad because she knows this time it wont be 7 years before she sees him again, more likely some time in the summer. Isnt it funny how your imagination and worries can be your worst enemy some times hehe.

This is one of my favourite shots from the visit. He would kill me for posting though hehe.


Aren't they cute together?


I took this one for Megan to put in a frame in her room. They also went to a photo booth and did some really cute shots. We are getting them enlarged and put in a frame that holds four photos so she can put those up as well.


Here is my slouch hat that I made last week. Every time Joe sees me wearing this hat he says I look like my mum in it. I like this hat. My only thing about this hat is that the band is kind of loose. I think I might have to thread some elastic in the band to make it a little tighter. I dont know why every time I knit hats there is something I dont like about how they turn out. One day I am hoping just one will work.


I took these hat photos while wearing the hat and holding the camera out to the side. I dont know how well I did hehe. It was definitely interesting attempting it.


We went to the yarn shop on the weekend to put some money down on my bear. He is half paid off and will be coming home with me one day soon. I also bought some Crystal Palace Kid Mohair that has all different shades of green in it. I have never knitted with kid mohair before. I had no idea how thin it is. I am knitting a prayer shawl for my friend. Her grandma just past away this week and her mother is battling cancer and probably wont be around much longer. I figure if anyone could use a prayer shawl it is her. I am hoping I get it done in time. We will have to see with it being so thin but the stitch is very open so I think it wont be so bad.

Things Are Going Good Here

Things are going well with Megan's dad visiting. The first day we just hung out here and caught him up on all the school videos and photos we had taken over the years. We showed him around our little town and he thought he was going to freeze to death in the 16 degree F weather we had yesterday. He was anxious for it to snow because he has never seen it snowing. This morning he got his wish and was very excited. Megan left this morning to spend her time with him and stay at the hotel. I talked to her tonight and they are having a grand old time just giggling together. Megan took some board games with her and is having fun whooping his butt in everything hehe. You cant wipe the cheshire cat grin off their faces which is sooo cute to see. It is so nice that so far all my panicking and anxiety was all just head games and its has just been a nice much needed visit. I am hoping everything else goes this well. Tomorrow they may be going to the movies and we are meeting up with them in the evening to go out to dinner. I dont think I took enough photos yesterday and plan on being photo crazy with these two every chance I get from now on. This is an opportunity I dont want to waste.
Here are some photos of them together. Victoria had to jump in on one because she has decided she really likes Megan's dad as well. She thinks he is really fun. He played ball, coloured with her and she even sat on his lap for a while hehe.

Knitting Has Been My Friend This Week

I just thought I should post something because I havent posted since last Thursday. Also it happens to be a great way to avoid doing the final cleaning in preparation for our visitor tomorrow.
Megan's Dad is coming tomorrow. This is a momentous occasion because they have not seen each other since Megan was 6 years old. She is now 13. Megan has been playing it cool all week and saying mildly that she is excited but she went to bed at about 8.30pm and is still up in bed at 11.30pm not able to sleep. I myself have been about 2 breaths away from an anxiety attack all week every time I think of him being here. I am happy for Megan that she will have her chance to spend time with her Dad. This is a good thing. This man tends to carry drama with him where ever he goes and I have been drama free for 7 years now. I am just taking it all one day at a time and breathing deeply. After going back and forth many times on what they are actually going to do while he is here, no one could give me an answer. They just wanted to spend time together so I had to nudge them into some sort of plan. Thursday he is visiting here and Megan is showing him around and stuff. From Friday until Sunday Megan is going to stay at his hotel with him and they are going to figure out together what they want to do. I wont be in the way and they can create whatever time together they want. On Sunday Megan is taking him to her church and introducing her Dad to her best friend and their family. After that I dont know but at least its better than, I dont know we just want to be together.

So the reason for the title of this post is that every time I felt stressed about this impending visit I have sat down to knit and its calmed me down immensely. I dont know what I would have done without it. I even got a funky new hat out of all that stress hehe. I knitted the free pattern from the Knit & Tonic blog called Le Slouch. Its a funky little slouchy beret type hat. I think they are kind of cute. I just knitted it out of Red Heart in the colour Teal. The yarn isnt special but I like the colour. I think I would one day like to make another one. This one is all done in seed stitch. I would like to see what a stockinette stitch one would be like. I will take photos of my funky hat in the next couple of days to show it off.

I went to the craft shop last weekend and bought some eyes and the pellets to finish off Horace The Bear and my knitting bag. I bought some sheets of the foam to try out and some cool material to line it with. Joe helped me pick out the material. I think I will start back on those projects when I am less stressed next week. This way I wont make any mistakes.

On our shopping trip last week, Joe took us out to dinner as a late Valentines Day surprise. Well I was completely surprised because we went to a chinese food buffet. Joe does not like chinese food at all and in fact every time I have a birthday or something he says you can pick where ever you want to eat except chinese food. So I was completely shocked when we pulled up outside the chinese buffet. Joe said I had the happy grins all through dinner hehe. Victoria loved it and kept saying all night how she wants to go back. Joe actually found quite a bit of food he liked but it wasnt actually chinese food. He liked the chicken nuggets, cinnamon buns and apple chips hehe. You know those chinese have a great reputation for their chicken nuggets hehehe. He even got very full eating there which is a good sign that we will get to go back again. Yay! Victory for us chinese food eaters in the house. I was very proud of Victoria because she tried lots of food she hadnt had before and loved all but the seaweed wrap on the sushi hehe. She does love to eat that girl. Thats how you know she is related to my family.

Works In Progress

So Im still working on the knitting bag and the bear. The knitting bag has kind of hit a wall though. I cut the plastic canvas into the pieces I needed and stitched them together to make the box shape. I sewed the plastic canvas box into the bag. The side looked floppy so if you look on the right I experimented with stuffing it before sewing the sides. I dont like how the stuffing turned out. I didnt even do the other side. I didnt finished sewing around all the sides because it bothers me how its turning out. I think I am going to undo all the box and take it out of the bag. It is sort of making the shape that I want but I dont like the weight of the plastic canvas and I dont like how even when I line the bag I will probably be able to feel the plastic canvas. If I pad the plastic canvas it will add even more weight just to solve something I dont like. I think the plastic canvas will work for other bags that wont require so much of it, such as just making the bottom stronger but I dont think it works for this bag. Tomorrow we are going shopping and I am going to go to the craft shop searching for something that will work better. A stiff interfacing that I can double up or perhaps my foam idea will work. There has to be something out there. So this is how the bag is looking right now until I come up with a solution.


This is the inside of the bag with the plastic canvas in it. When I cut the shape I also dont think I cut it wide enough because I wanted it to fit tighter in the bag on the sides and ends. So this will be something to keep in mind with the next thing I try.


This is what Horace looks like at the moment. All his pieces are pretty much done. I think I just have one ear left to knit and then I can start piecing him together. Some of the pieces, well actually all the pieces are strangely shaped so it will be interesting to see him come together. I will also be looking for plastic pellets and eyes while craft shopping this weekend so Horace can come together and be finished.


It finally warmed up around here a bit today. The sun was shining and the snow was sparkling. Victoria had fun throwing snowballs while waiting for the bus to pick her up for school.

Today is Valentines day so the girls had lots of fun getting stuff from their friends. We gave them their stuff early so they are still enjoying their gift from us. This was Victoria's first year of having Valentines Day at school. She had fun putting her name on a bunch of little cards to give her classmates. She got annoyed at me at home after school because we just handed out cards while most of her classmates handed out treats and she felt we should have done the same. I guess we cant win hehe. Megan came home with a bunch of stuff from her friend Brittany. The inseperable two. You wouldnt believe the big gift bag of things that she gave her. Megan gave her some stuff too but not like this. She was very excited. I got a big heart shape box of chocolates from Joe when the girls got their things a couple of weeks ago and we are going to a surprise place for dinner tomorrow night. Victoria will be with us, Megan is off to a friends house of course but I am dying to know where this secret place is going to be. I am giving Joe a super massage on the weekend which is always a good present for him hehe.

On Wednesday we went up the road to Samaritan House and put a $5 deposit on Megan's orange velvet chair. I wanted to get that done so that no one could come and take it. I feel better now that all we have to do is pay it off. Megan is too. Victoria is excited that she will be getting Megans pink chair. Now I just have to do a big clean out of Victoria's room to make a space for the chair. I cant wait until she gets Megans organizer so we can get her room looking neater.

Megan's dad arrived in America this week. He is here until April so at some point they are coming to visit. Megan told him that she has the week off school next week so they are talking about maybe coming then. We will have to see what happens. She is very excited. It will be very weird seeing them together. She is nervous about being with just him because she doesnt know what to talk about. I told her that she has to just deal with the awkwardness at first and the more time they spend together the easier it will get.

Well I guess thats about all I have to say. I have my fingers crossed the I will be able to solve my bag issues with one trip to the craft shop. Here's hoping.

Its Cold Outside Today

I think today is a staying inside and snuggling under a blanket day. The highest temperature forecast today is 12 degrees F, for those of you Celsius people that is -11. The lowest temperature is suppose to be 1 degree F which is converted to -17 degrees Celsius and this isnt even taking into account the wind chill factor and it is very windy and snowy today. I had to go to the store this morning for an emergency toilet paper run and it was pretty cold when the wind was blowing in your face. We do have to go to the store again later to pick up a few things we need for the week and possibly have some pizza for dinner. I think I will run there hehe.

Horace is coming along nicely. I have nearly finished knitting all his parts. He just needs the soles of his feet and his ears. Some of his body parts look a little confusing right now but Im sure they will make sense when they are sewn up. He cant be fully finished until I get some plastic pellets for his insides and some eyes.

The knitting bag has just been sitting there begging me to do more to it. I will have to work on it in the next few days I think. Its getting so close to the end.

The two Pavlovas turned out really well. Everyone just loved them. I didnt even get to bring any home. I was lucky I got a piece for myself. Several people now want the recipe. I think I will end up having to make more Pavlovas in the future especially seeing how Megan didnt even get any.

Megan survived her Girl Scout camping trip and apparently had lots of fun. She cant wait to go camping again April. You would catch me camping at this time of year hehe. They didnt stay in tents though. They stayed in a log cabin with a fireplace. Does that count as camping?

Well Im going to go get under a blanket with some hot chocolate and stay warm.

The Bear Has A Head!

The mint green headless bear now has a head and he feels much better. Last weekend I dropped him off at the yarn shop and she found a place for him to sit so he would get noticed. I also got to see my bear who is sitting in the window just waiting for me to take him home. He is very cute.


I have been working on two projects this week. I unraveled yet another jumper this week. This was one that I have owned for a few years. I bought it second hand and have never worn it. I figured out that its the yarn and the colour of it that I liked more than the jumper so unraveling I went. It is a very pretty robins egg blue. It is currently being knitted up into the Horace Bear pattern that I bought several months ago. I think he is going to be very cute. It is a very speedy project especially with the yarn Im using being so chunky. He is going to be bigger than the original Horace but I think I like that. Thats the good thing about knitting toys. It doesnt really matter what yarn you use to make it in because all it does it change its size and give it a different character.

The other project I have been working on is the felted knitting bag. I felted it last Friday, stuffed it and let it dry for a few days. It is currently waiting to be shaved before I attach the handles. I was talking to the yarn shop lady and she gave me some excellent tips on how I can make my bag more solid. She gave me a big stack of plastic canvas and told me how you use it so your bag will not be so floppy. I knew you could do it I just could wrap my head around exactly how. I am very excited to try this out and see how it works. Essentially I want my knitting bag to sit in a rectangular box shape. Then it will be lined and hopefully have a zipper if I can find one that goes with it and is long enough. Its getting there slowly but surely.

The other night I was having trouble sleeping. You know when you cant switch your brain off and every position doesnt seem comfortable. So while trying to fall asleep I came up with a brain storm on what sort of design I want to do with the green wool I just unraveled. Its all based on this clay pendant that I found on Etsy. I would like the lady to make me a button with the same picture and use that to close the bag. This pendant has a green background and a cute bird on it. I would then embroider the same bird but bigger in the light blue that its painted in, onto the bag. Thats my plan anyway. Sometimes when doing these things the plan changes as different things come up or different ideas are discovered.

Yesterday I went to my knitting group. There was a new lady who had come because she wanted to learn how to knit. It was just me there that day so I was teaching her how to knit. She was very new to it all. She did a pretty good job by the time it came to going home. She was very determined to get it and never gave up. She said I really helped her so that felt good. I havent really taught people how to knit before. It was weird because now I just do it so it was hard to find the right ways to explain it so it made sense. I think she will get it with practice. We have a meeting on Monday night and she might come so I would love to see her progress then.

Tonight I just finished making an Australian dessert to take to Victoria's story hour tomorrow. I am going to be reading the book Possum Magic to the kiddies. In the story it mentions a dessert called Pavlova. I told the ladies at story hour that I would read the book and make some Pavlova so the kids can try something that is in the book and also Australian. I also have to read this book about Kangaroos that I found so we have more than one story. They are then going to do some crafts with some Australian animals in it. Its always nice to share a bit of home and its a good excuse to eat Pavlova. I dont think mine will be as good as my friend Nerida's but I think I did pretty good making it from scratch. I ended up making two of them because there is a morning and afternoon story hour. I think the leaders and the librarian are more excited about trying the dessert more than anything. Megan is just bummed that she is off on a camping trip tomorrow and probably wont get any hehe. Fingers crossed all goes well tomorrow.