Some Favourite Gifts And A Headless Bear

Well we all survived the sickness of last week and everyone is back to normal. Yay, sometimes when everyone is sick like that it feels like its never going to end.

I thought I would post some photos of favourite Christmas presents I got this past holiday. They arent in any particular order.
This Knitted Flowers book came from my mum. There are lots of cool flowers in here. There's something for every kind of knitter. There are easy flowers, difficult flowers, flowers you can felt and even flowers to make from felted knitting that you just cut out. Im sure I will have to make something from this book to add to future projects. The felted flowers in particular I am anxious to try out.


This necklace came from my lovely sister. I have worn it many times since getting it. The beads are fun to fiddle with when you are wearing it. You cant even help yourself. I think its the textures and they are very slidey if thats even a word hehe. Thanks big sis for the cool necklace.


These are the pointy toe black leather boots that I got from my husband. It took me a while to get use to the heel on these boots because I usually wear chunky heel boots. I think I have the hang of it now although now I have said this I will probably fall on my butt the next time I wear them. These are alot more comfortable than I thought they would be and look really good with jeans.


This is my knitting pattern calendar that I got from my husband. This is where I got the pattern for the knitted rings. There are alot more patterns that I'd like to try in here. I still have my knitting pattern calendar from last year with lots of patterns I like in that one too. Aahhh so many patterns and not enough hours in the day.


I got this big box of yummy hot chocolate from Megan. It has 28 packets of this hot chocolate we discovered last year. Isnt the bear on this box just the cutest. Doesnt he make you want to drink his hot chocolate? I know that why we first started drinking it hehe. This hot chocolate came in very handy last week when I had a sore throat. It hit the spot just right when I needed it most. Thanks Meggy for the cool pressie.


Now I promised a headless bear and here he is. I am knitting this bear to take to the yarn shop as soon as he is done. The pattern came from the Debbie Bliss Simply Baby book I borrowed from the library. I think I am going to have to copy this pattern before sending the book back because its been fun making it and I can see myself making more of these. There are two reasons this bear is headless right now. One reason is that when I was sewing up his parts the other day I discovered that I had somehow made one ear smaller than the other. I will now have to figure out which is the right one and detach the wrong one and reknit it otherwise it will drive me crazy that one ear is smaller. The other reason he is headless is because I need to buy some brown felt to cut out a nose and some eyes and sew them on. I like to sew the facial features on before adding the head because I find it easier to finish off and hide the ends. I wont be able to get the felt until probably next week so this little guy will have to be headless for one more week before he looks all cute. He was knitted using the mint green wool that I had used for the bag I tried to felt and then discovered this wool doesnt felt. I think I like it much better as a bear. I still have a pretty big chunk of this yarn left over so I can make something else with it. I will have to post of picture of the bear when he has a face and head attached.


I got a call the other day that my bear that I ordered a long time ago from the Falconer Yarn Loft from handspun alpaca yarn is all finished. Now I just have to pay him off. I am so excited to see how he looks. It will be even more exciting to bring him home. I have to get my shelves that I am going to use for all my yarn, bears and knick knacks so I can display all this stuff and my new bear will have a cool spot to sit. I guess these things come with time. Another good reason to get my Etsy shop up and running to try and make money for this stuff hehe.

This Is The House Of Sickness

This week is the week that everyone but Megan is sick in our house. Victoria started being sick on Saturday and cant quiet kick it. I got it on Sunday but was just bad for one day. I am just left with a cough and half a voice right now. Joe got it on Sunday night in the middle of work and is sitting along side Victoria being the sickly twins. Victoria was doing better on Tuesday so she and I went to preschool because I was to be the parent of the day. The kids in her class are dropping like flies with this virus. One of them had to go home because she got sick and others were complaining of not feeling well. It was one half who had it the week before and others who were in the middle of it or getting it. Its crazy. Yesterday Victoria seemed to be back at square one so we decided that we would take her to the doctor just to make sure it wasnt worse than we thought. It turns out she just needs more time and rest and she should be good. Her cough isnt coming from her chest and we just need to keep doing what we are doing. He did give us some extra tips on things that would help so we have an arsenal of things to use right now. I prefer to not use drugs to heal and do it the natural way if at all possible. This doctor seemed to be on the same wave length even without me telling him my thoughts. He suggested dark honey for the cough, saline drops for the sniffles and a vaporizer at night. We forgot to get the dark honey yesterday but she now has Tylenol, saline drops for her nose, Vicks Vapo Rub for chest and a vaporizer and humidifier at night. We also bought some Gatorade, juice and lots of soup for fluids. If this doesnt kick it then I dont know what will hehehe.

During all this madness I have been knitting up one of the bears from The Knitted Teddy Bear book. The knitting part is easy, its the sewing up part that is freaking me out. If I dont sew it up nicely then its going to look crappy. I just finished doing all the body parts last night. I have to pin them and steam them flat before sewing them up. Once they are sewn up they will need to be stuff and put together. I will have to buy some special teddy bear eyes and sew the claws and face. I also have to knit the dress that she wears. Slowly but surely its coming together. I feel bad that I was given this stuff a while ago and havent got a finished one yet even though she said take my time and get them to her when ever. I will have to call her and let know that I havent forgotten and they are being worked on. I would also like to check up on the bear that I am having made for myself. I think she has forgotten. I hope not.

Oh well I better get back to looking after the sick people and see if they need anything. I hope everyone else is feeling healthier than we do here.

Knitted Rings

These are the knitted rings that I have made so far. I have put them in the order that they were made. They are so much fun to make and the possibilities are endless. A second person has told me that I should sell knitted rings as well. Maybe there's something there. The last one that I worked on I knitted a little ribbing in the back so that it would be more stretchy to fit different sized fingers. I have really skinny fingers or ET fingers as my sister will tell you. I think the ribbing worked well. I think definitely when you knit these you need to use thinner yarn. The last one that I knitted I like but I think it would feel more comfortable on your finger if the yarn was thinner.
So what do you think?

I Havent Disappeared!

After being really busy at Christmas time and hibernating after that I am finally able to get on and type something.

We all had a very good Christmas in our house. Christmas Eve with all the family went off without a hitch and everyone had a good time. Christmas day was just as good. This year I was able to talk to all my family members and even my Dad at 3am. Hmmm one of these days I will get the time difference right hehe. Tomorrow the children go back to school and Joe goes back to work. Its time to start turning those pesking alarm clocks again grrrrrrr.

I got some very nice Christmas gifts this year. Some of them were knitting related. I will have to take some shots of some of my favourite gifts. I got a Knitted Flowers book from my mum which has given me all sorts of new inspirations for creating. I got a calendar set from Joe with a knitting pattern just about every day. I couldnt resist and already knitted a pattern from the collection. I have so far knitted 3 knitted rings for myself. They are so easy and fun. Definitely a stash buster and instant gratification project. Tomorrow I will post the ones I have made. Im sure they arent the last. Joe has suggested that I add them to the list of things I sell because he could see how much fun I was having making them and thinks lots of people will like them. Let me know what you think when you see them tomorrow.

I have posted a couple of pictures of Christmas presents I gave away this year. This first picture is of the felted bag that I gave to Victoria's preschool teacher. Her name is Molly so I thought she would like a big M on her bag. She just loved it and we received a thank you card from her the other day saying how much she loved the bag and scarf.


These are the socks that I knitted for Megan for Christmas. The colour is called Choco Cherry and the match her new PJs perfectly. She says they are oh so comfy. This girl just loves socks. She got 19 pairs of socks for Christmas and do you know what she tells her Dad she wants for Christmas when he asks a couple of days ago, YUP, SOCKS!


Victoria got her purple socks which I have yet to take a photo of. Im not too sure if I like how these came out. Because I couldnt try them on her while knitting them as they were a surprise, I got the length a bit too long even though I measured the other socks I had made her. Oh well she likes them and they match some PJs her Grandpa bought for her.

The other Christmas gift that I have shown a photo of is the scarf I knitted for Lindsey. This scarf was completed and wrapped on Christmas Day just in the knick of time so I forgot to take a picture of it. If she ever wears it to our house I will have to get a photo of her in it. Its very very soft, light blue and very very long. I may have gotten carried away on the length of it but at least she will be able to wrap it around as many times as she wants hehe.

Im not very good at keeping New Years Resolutions but this year I am really going to try hard to keep the ones I have thought of this year. My sister has lost 13 kilos doing Weight Watchers and I have had a huge points list all printed up, in plastic sleeves in a folder for about 2 years and never started. So if Kylie can do it then so can I. Im not really overweight to much but I would like to be fitter and be more conscious of what I eat. I think the Weight Watchers point will make me make healthier choices than eating what I want, when I want. I am also trying to drink at least 2 litres of water a day. I dont drink water enough and I think its a good idea to start. I have started doing the points thing today and I think I did pretty good. I am also trying to kick the nail biting habit that I have had forever. A big thing that I want to accomplish this year is opening up my Etsy shop. I have drooled over doing this for 2 years and I dont know what has held me back. This is the year I am just going to jump in the deep end and do it. I would love to make some money to help buy the things that we need to make our new house the way we want it. Now I just have to stick to my goals and not give up.

Ive Been Busy Christmas Knitting

You may be wondering where Ive been lately. Ive been busy getting Christmas gifts all knitted up for christmas. Here are a some that are finished.

This black pair of fingerless mittens that have a cable pattern up the centre that you cant see were made for Victoria's bus driver. I gave them to her today. Victoria had fun helping me wrap the present. I hope she likes them.


Last week Megan found out for the end of basketball season they go to Pizza Hut and do a sock exchange. I said why dont I make a pair of socks. I can do a pair for about $2 and they will be different from everyone elses. She really liked that idea and told me to pick out yarn with lots of crazy colours in it. This is what I found. I think this is crazy coloured enough, dont you? It was fun knitting with all those colours. I think Megan wanted to keep them for herself. What she doesnt know is that I am knitting her a pair of socks in the same style but in this cool yarn colour that is called Choco Cherry. I am halfway done with one sock so far. I started them last night. I decided the girls are not getting fleece blankets made by me but socks instead. The reason for this was because Megan found a fleece blanket she really liked while shopping so I scrapped the blanket idea. We went to buy the blanket last weekend only to discover they had sold out. Hmmm back to the drawing board on that one.


The next three photos are of the scarf that I knitted for Victoria's teacher. I love the colours in this yarn. I want to keep it for myself or get more of this colour if I can find it again.




Tonight I am finishing off embellishing the green felted tote bag that is also for Victoria's teacher. I cut out an M from a red felted jumper that I am using for a bag. I appliqued it onto the bag and I just have to put red buttons at the points where the handles meet the bag. I will take a photo of it tomorrow before I wrap it up. I am off to help out for the afternoon at Victoria's class. It should be interesting. The girls and I made cookies to take for the kids as a snack. Peanut Butter cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies. The Chocolate Chip Cookies came out a bit of a disaster but I think I saved the day a bit. I have no idea why but the bottoms burnt on every one of them even though we followed the directions. While they were still soft I got a knife and cut off the tops of them and threw away the burnt part. Not so pretty looking but at least edible.

To finish off my Christmas knitting I have to finish Megan's socks, make Victoria's socks, finish Lindsey's very soft blue scarf and cut and sew a felted bag. Hmm I think thats all I can think of. I also have to get the house all clean and sparkling for the big family Christmas Eve dinner at our house, make the butterscotch popcorn for the people I am giving it to as a gift and make tons of cookies to try and make up for the lack of cookies that arent here this year because Joe's mum isnt here to feed the cookie monsters hehe. Im sure it will all get done in time if I do it all just right. I am holding off on the cleaning until the weekend because if I do it too early it wont look like I did anything and I will have to do it all over again hehe.

I hope everyone else is having fun with their Christmas preparations. This Friday we are hoping to finish up our Christmas shopping. The girls are so easy to shop for. Our only issue is what to pick out of all the things that they would like. Im sure that whatever they get they will love. Im going to try and get at least one more post in before Christmas with finished projects.

Oh yeah we got a package from my sister today with wrapped Christmas presents in it. It was very hard to put them under the tree and have to wait until Christmas day to unwrap them. My Mums package should be here soon and we will have to do the same thing. It will be worth the wait though. Its so much more meaningful to open them up on the day. Its kind of like they are here when we wait for Christmas Day. They would kick our butts if we opened them early anyway hehehe.

Can You Believe it? Its A Post With Pictures!

I sent the hat and bootie set to the customer today and managed to remember to take a photo of it to post on here. Hopefully this is what they had in mind. I was told they wanted it pink and lavender coloured. I wasnt sure if it meant the colours mixed together like this or solid colours put together. I just thought doing it this way would make it have pink and lavender all over and it would look pretty.


These are the black mittens that I made for Joe's Grandma. She hasnt picked them up yet so I dont know if she likes them. It is very hard to photograph black things and see the detail so I apologize for the bad shot hehe.


Now that I have those orders out of the way I can concentrate on the knitting gifts I want to work on. I am half way through knitting the funky fluffy scarf for Victoria's teacher. I like how the colours look. I think I will have to make one for myself hehe. The yarn only cost $2 in total so I think its a bargain. Tomorrow we are finally going to start our Christmas shopping. We dont usually start this late but Joe has been working hours and hours of overtime to have money for bills and presents. Hopefully next week he will be able to slow down a bit because the boy is pooped. It will be nice to feel like we are getting somewhere with present buying. Last year we decided that it would be a good idea to buy the girls presents first and then do everyone after, that way we knew that the most important people on the list definitely had their Christmas wishes fulfilled. It seemed to work really well so we are going to do it this year. They have really easy wish lists this year. Nothing that is really expensive or hard to find. Megan did put down a Nintendo Wii but we already told her that they are hard to find this Christmas and if she got that then she couldnt get anything else. She doesnt care if she gets one for Christmas or not because she knows that eventually we are getting one. All Victoria cares about is if she gets Hungry Hungry Hippos or not hehehe.

Yesterday I started making all the calls inviting all the family to our house for Christmas Eve. So far everyone I asked has said yes. I was very surprised. I still have a few more people to call and then we just have to find out what dish they are bringing. It feels kind of organized. Its a strange feeling hehe.

Well I better get going. Lots of stuff to do and not much time tonight left to do it in.

Yeah I Know, Ive Been Slack

A thousand times I have thought to write on her and havent. Perhaps its all this chilly weather we have been having that makes me want to curl up in a snuggly blanket and not do much. We keep getting weather advisories for bad weather coming but it never gets as bad as they say. One day they will get it right.

Let's see what have I been up to. I think the last time I wrote on her it was close to Thanksgiving. What can you say about Thanksgiving. The food was yummy. I can say that. Joe's dad was very erratic in his moods. One minute he was being all sweet and nice and the next minute he was screaming at children. When we ate dinner he turned the tv off and wouldnt allow any music so we were all sitting there in silence. It was really weird. You could just hear everyones cutlery and chewing. Lindsay, James, Joe and I were trying not to laugh at the end of our table. This was the first Thanksgiving without Joe's mum around so a big difference this year was that before we had even left he was putting on his shoes and getting ready to go visit his girlfriend or one of his girlfriends. We took the hint and went home. We are definitely going to have the family over to our house for Christmas. We dont want to go through that again. Oh one thing was good. I made some of my mums butterscotch popcorn to bring over and everyone loves it. They couldnt get enough. James said I can give him a bucket of that for Christmas and he would be happy.

Knitting wise I have been working on a couple of orders that I got. Yesterday I finished up the mittens for Joe's Grandma. I hope she really likes them. Its pretty chilly so I think she will be over to pick them up pretty soon hehe. I also got an order from the knitted things that I have on Louella's Goodies website. Its just for a baby hat and matching booties but its still an order. The booties are made and Im almost done with the hat. The hat is taking me longer than usual because I am using teeny tiny size 2 double pointed needles to knit them. Once those are done I have Christmas present knitting to do and try to get a bear made for the yarn shop. I am making Victoria's teacher a scarf and giving her the first felted tote I made. Im thinking about putting an apple on it but I dont know if thats too cliche. She is kind of young. Maybe I will put an M on it because her first name starts with an M. I want to knit Victoria's bus driver some fingerless mittens so she can keep her hands warm while driving in this cold weather. I am thinking as well as the fleece blankets that I am making the girls, I am going to make them some socks. Victoria just loves her pink socks that I knit her and I think Megan would love another pair to wear to bed. I was also thinking of making Lindsay a scarf in the extremely soft light blue yarn that Walmart is trying to get rid of. If they have 2 balls of it left in that colour when we go shopping then Im going to make it for her. That girl is always cold. One day I would like to make her a big fuzzy blanket because she needs one hehe.

We are almost done with our Christmas decorating. For those of you who dont know, my husband is Christmas Crazy!! We call him Christmas Elf Joe. He has more Christmas CDs than anyone I have ever known and when we decorate we dont just put up a tree. Its an all out effort but it looks pretty in the end. There are lights all around the celing, things on the walls and shelves and since we moved to our new house, lights outside as well. I will have to take pictures once the extravaganza is completed. Every year Joe and I take turns on picking the lights and tinsel that go on the tree and the lights around the room. This year was my turn. I chose to have clear lights and very sparkly gold tinsel on the tree, multi coloured lights with sparkly white tinsel around the loungeroom and the red/green lights with silver tinsel in the dining room. Its all very shiny. Christmas is always fun with Joe around. He makes you want to be in the Christmas spirit.

Well I guess I better get going. I have some aprons I am suppose to be cutting out right now for the Girl Scout Troop. I promise the next post will have pictures and be written within this week.
I hope everyone is getting into the Christmas craziness like we are.