Nothing new to report

After frogging a zip up cardigan I am knitting for my son 3 times I think I might be coming close to the home stretch.  I just need to get to the store for the zipper and I am out of white sewing thread so not much in the sewing department has been going on.  I wanted to post something though so when I saw this I decided to play along...

The ABC of Me!



A - Age: I'm 33

B - Bed Size: Queen

C - Chore you hate: Ironing

D - Dogs Name:  Copper & Sadie

E - Essential Start of the Day item: Coffee with creamer

F - Favourite Colour: purple

G - Gold or Silver: Both

H - Height: 5ft 7inches

I - Instruments you play: Dabble in piano (very beginner stuff), want to learn to play guitar

J - Job:  Custom report writer

K - Kids: Daughter-6, Son-3 1/2

L - Living Arrangements: Live in a house with my husband, kids, two dogs and two tortoises

M - Music You Love: Too varied to pick just one genre

N - Nicknames: alas none

O - Overnight Hospital Stay:  Both of my children had pyloric stenosis and had to have surgery at 5 weeks of age, first time I ever stayed at a hospital.

P - Pet Peeve:  People that are habitually late
Q - Quote from a Movie: My family is full of movie fanatics so we would be here all day if I started spouting quotes :)

R - Right handed or Left: Rightie

S - Siblings: 2 brothers and one sister, all younger
 
T - Time you wake up: 4:30 am to work before the kiddos are up


U - Underwear: Silky and Lacy. Depends :)

V - Vegetables you dislike:  Brussel sprouts

W - Workout Style: I used to run and I am trying to get back to it

X - X-Rays You've had:  My elbow that I broke in college

Y - Yummy Food you make:  Enchiladas

Z - The best place to Visit - I haven't been enough places to say
 
Play along if you want I would love to read about all of you!

Read more...

Counting down to Christmas

Tomorrow starts the countdown to Christmas....this is a repost of a meme I did a couple of years ago and I love reading other peoples answers.  So I am reposting my own responses and hope that some of you join in on your own blogs.  25 Days till Christmas.

1. Wrapping Paper or Gift Bags? Both, depends on how close it is to Xmas morning :)

2. Real tree or artificial? Real. The day after Thanksgiving we load up with friends and head to the mountains to cut one down.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take down the tree? New Years Day I'm over it so everything comes down.

5. Do you like Egg Nog? Not to drink but I made some cookies last year with an egg nog drizzle that were fabulous.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My first Walkman when I was 11 or my first cabbage patch doll (total toss up)
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No. We have a huge Christmas village that has been added too over 13 years and it is slowly taking over the house :)

8. Hardest person to buy for? My mother-in-law

9. Easiest person to buy for? My kids

10.  Mail or email Christmas Cards? Mail

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Every Christmas Eve we watch It's a Wonderful Life

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge

13. White lights or coloured? Clear

14. Favorite Christmas Song? Do you Hear What I Hear by Bing Crosby. It was the one Xmas CD we listened too religiously at Christmas time when I was growing up.

15. Travel or stay home at Christmas? Stay home. We traveled for every holiday when I was growing up and so now I stay home.

16.Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? Yep, but I have to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in my head to do it.

17.   Angel or Star on the top of the tree? Neither, it's a glass tree topper from a local store

18. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning? The kids can open one on Christmas Eve but everything else happens in the morning.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Seeing Xmas stuff in October

20. Which looks best, theme trees or homey trees? Homey trees, handmade ornaments, stuff from my childhood, definitely homey

21. Gingerbread or Sugar Cookies? I like sugar cookies better and we make a gingerbread house.

Read more...

July

We are edging towards the end of July and like most of you we are in full summer swing.  I have small whispers going around my head because school will be starting in less than a month and I know that all this relaxed busyness we have been experiencing will go the way of the dodo and in will slide the routine of school.  I have been doing what I can to keep my kids busy and therefore exhausted come evening.  Filling our days with beach time, swimming, park days, library time, baseball games, and camping. 

My washing machine died this week.  I got a quickie 'degree' from the University of Google :) and took my machine apart bit by bit and discovered that the broken bits are deep inside and the parts will cost almost as much as a new machine.   $%#&*^  I was kind of hoping my machine would last longer than 5 1/2 years.  So the laundry is coming down the hall and threatening to take over my family room, our days and nights have been filled and therefore we haven't gotten a new washer and company will be here Saturday.....ahhh.

I don't feel like cooking and so many of our meals have looked like this...

What do you think?  Finger food is always a fave around here and it sure makes cleanup easy. 
This month also marks eight years of marriage for me.....eight years??? How did that happen.  I still feel like I am only 25 or at the very least just a couple of years past.....27 tops.  2 kids, 8 years of marriage, a mortgage, a couple of career changes and a partridge in a peartree :)

Here is where I was for my first wedding anniversary

Not to shabby eh?  This year?  Well we had two stolen hours while the kids were at grandma and grandpa's so we had dinner at a  local brew pub.  Maybe it isn't as glamorous as the eiffel tower but we still had a fun date.  I hope to have finished knitting content soon but until I do I'll be at the pool :)

Read more...

Happy Friday

I am looking forward to a little pampering this weekend.  Some home spa remedies, tea, and a book.  The superbowl is on Sunday and we have a four year old birthday party in the morning and a party to attend in the afternoon/evening for the big game so I am going to indulge myself a little bit this Friday afternoon in anticipation of my busy Sunday. 

I have this book to peruse and hopefully find some good moisturizing masks because this winter is drying my skin out beyond belief. 

I am going to make copious amounts of tea to sip while I start a new book. I know green tea is very good for you but it is not a favorite; this one from Good Earth with mango, peach, and pineapple is fantastic hot or on ice.  But my first tea love is chai tea and I always have plenty of that on hand. 

I have this book list I posted last year.  Seventy-Five books every woman should read.  Sadly I haven't read anything in the last year to make the list a little smaller.  So I have The Left Hand of Darkness to start on my way to whittling down the list.

Anything fun on your list of things to do?

Read more...

September

Well hello again. I seem to have fallen off the wagon in my quest for 30 days of balance as far as posting is concerned. I can say I feel a lot better after just saying the words out loud, or in our case writing them down. I think just shifting my attention to the problem helped shine a little light on it and make it not seem so bad. All of your encouraging comments helped a lot. It always makes things easier when you realize you aren't alone. So thank you!

I have been making lists and reading books and trying to carve out a little time for myself. Life seems to be about priorities and I am just shuffling mine around and getting them straight. School is starting for my daughter and my husband, although in his case he never stopped for the summer....I will be so glad when his doctorate is finished up! Anyway I have been in nesting mode. Getting my fall recipe books out and piling up reading books. You know the drill.

The party came off without a hitch. My fantastic sister showed up Friday night and we transformed our downstairs family room into a pixie hollow of sorts. The walls, yes all of them, were covered in green sheets, tablecloths, curtain sheers, and then we hung felt flowers from fishing line all around. White twinkly lights behind the curtains helped finish the effect. We made fairy wings and pirate hats and there was a tinker bell pinata full of loot. The best part? Besides my daughter having a great time, it was knowing that by Saturday afternoon my weekend was in front of me with the party behind me ;)

So now onto September for the knit-a-long. Well Ms. Zimmerman has underclothes for September. Now maybe you wear a lot of woolen, knit, underclothes....but I don't. So I am declaring September a knit what you want month. A knit-a-long free zone if you will. Since I haven't done as much knitting as usual....I have the clean out every last closet before it's cold bug, I am going to finish those dang bears and get started on some fall sweaters for everyone around here. As well as finish up some wips. What are you working on this fall?

Read more...

Balance

Things behind the blog have been a bit hectic lately. I have been trying to find some balance. I have noticed a shift in many areas of my life. A feeling of being overwhelmed and not nurturing myself.

I am hoping to shift my focus and attention and find appreciation and gratitude. Maybe try to slow down a little. Quit seeing the half empty and try to see the half full. I think a bit more selfishness on my part is required. Conscious selfishness. Conscious living.

My camera hasn't been touched in the last few weeks with the exception of the picture from the last post. I have recipes to share and projects waiting in the wings but the lack of energy. So I am kicking off 30 days. 30 days to look at the beautiful things in my life and maybe even the not so beautiful. My Days need some balance and I think my spirit needs a little nourishing. Do I sound like an Oprah show? It's just that I never thought I would wake up in my early thirties feeling tired, drained, and a little bit unrecognizable to myself. I think this has been looming on the horizon for awhile and I am just finally admitting it to myself. So here goes 30 days of my life for me to try and really see my life and appreciate all that's good. Hopefully you won't be too bored for the ride.....and yes there will still be knitting thrown in :)

Read more...

Home

Thank you so much for all the good wishes for my trip....it was a blast!! I stayed at Palm's Place in Las Vegas. The theme of the trip was 'do whatever you want'. It consisted of laying by the pool, reading this book, napping, more lounging, and then going out at night for nice dinners in non-kid friendly restaurants :). A much needed restorative trip to get me in the right mind-set for summer. When I got home late Friday afternoon there wasn't much time for me to acclimate back into mommy mode. I did some quick hellos we had dinner and then went off to a baseball game. Saturday morning I woke up and my daughter, my sister, and my mother, met up with my aunt and three cousins to go see The Lion King on stage. WOW! If you have a chance to go I highly recommend it. My daughter was not a fan of the packed theater and all the "strangers" around her but the minute the lights went down and the animals came down the aisle next to us she didn't make another sound. After a 2 1/2 hour drive to the theater and then a turn around home that evening I haven't done much the last two days. Today has been a lot of laundry and kind of gearing up for the week. Getting back into the groove. I didn't do much knitting on my trip but I have a few things to share and hopefully I'll get some pictures in the next day or two. Now I'm off to do some much needed catching up on all your blogs!

Read more...

Happy New Year!

Finished Knitting 2008
Originally uploaded by At Home Mommy Knits

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday (if you celebrate). I took an unplanned hiatus from blogging, work, and you know my general schedule. It was really nice to completely unplug (metaphorically and physically) from the usual day-to-day. I ate way to much and had a lot of really nice quality family time.

After all the gluttony of the holidays I feel energized and ready to tackle the new year. I don't really have an opinion one way or another about resolutions. I have been catching up on my blog reading this morning and realize that some people are for and some against. I think for me after the lazing about of the holidays I feel very goal oriented. I don't do well with self-imposed deadlines. I hate the stress of it and it removes some of the joy for me. I think I'll just categorize any goals or resolutions as intentions. A little more of the middle road :)

Incidentally I created that little mosaic up there to gather all of my finished knits from 2008 together. I just wanted a visual on what I had accomplished thus far. I have some knitting intentions for 2009. I would like to make a lovely lace shawl, more sweaters, and maybe some socks. I am looking into photography classes because so many of the photographs I see on your blogs are beautiful and inspiring and I would love to learn how to capture that beauty in my own world. I am hoping that in 2009 I can take time to pause and really live in the moment. I feel like I do too much rushing around at times.

I want to thank you for stopping by this spot and sharing a moment with me. This blog was started (under pressure from my sister thank goodness she did) with no idea if I would actually continue with it or not. I read on Leslie's blog from one of her earlier posts that she was a secret blogger. I think she wrote about how to tell people that she made things, took pictures of them, and then posted it on the Internet. Her feeling was that people would say, you do what??? why?? That is exactly how I felt when I first started blogging. Now my blog is something I look forward to visiting and I receive as much joy sharing with you my triumphs and failures as I do from reading about yours. Thank you all for letting me in this world and sharing.

Read more...

Xmas Meme

I saw this and thought it would be fun. Join in if you want :)

1. Wrapping Paper or Gift Bags? Both, depends on how close it is to Xmas morning :)

2. Real tree or artificial? Real. The day after Thanksgiving we load up with friends and family and head to the mountains to cut one down.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take down the tree? New Years Day I'm over it so everything comes down

5. Do you like Egg Nog? No

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My first Walkman when I was 11

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No. We have a huge Christmas village that has been added too over 13 years and it is slowly taking over the house :)

8. Hardest person to buy for? My mother-in-law

9. Easiest person to buy for? My kids

10. Mail or email Christmas Cards? Mail

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Every Christmas Eve we watch It's a Wonderful Life

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge

13. Clear lights or coloured? Clear

14. Favorite Christmas Song? Do you Hear What I Hear by Bing Crosby. It was the one Xmas CD we listened too religiously at Christmast time when I was growing up.

15. Travel or stay home at Christmas? Stay home. We traveled for every holiday when I was growing up and so now I stay home.

16.Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? Yep, but I have to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in my head to do it.

17. Angel or Star on the top of the tree? Neither, it's a glass tree topper from a local store

18. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning? The kids can open one on Christmas Eve but everything else happens in the morning.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Seeing Xmas stuff in October

20. Which looks best, theme trees or homey trees? Homey trees, handmade ornaments, stuff from my childhood, definitely homey

21. Gingerbread or Sugar Cookies? I like sugar cookies better and we make a gingerbread house.

Read more...

No words...

Suzanne at Yarnhog gave me this award.

I am so new to the blog world and have found so much joy out of so many blogs. I went from not really understanding blogs to having a blogroll that requires a lot of scrolling down to get through. I am touched beyond words to say how flattered I am to get this, especially from a blog that I look forward to reading everyday.

As part of the rules I get to nominate five blogs that I enjoy reading. Since Suzanne has already been nominated I will pass along five more blogs that I look forward to each morning.

The rules for award acceptance are as follows: 1. The winner can put the logo on their website/blog. 2. Add a link to the person who gave you this award. 3. Nominate at least 5 other websites/blogs. 4. Provide links of the nominated websites/blogs. 5. Leave a message at each website owner that you've nominated.

I am nominating:

Gabes was one of the first blogs I started reading and I am continually amazed at how creative she is and how much she manages to get done while running her house with three small children.

Mary is a fantastic knitter who always has great posts that include fun recipes, finished knits, and many other things.

Philigry is another blog that I enjoy. She has amazing crafting skills and manages to get it all done with three children under the age of six.

Knitterella is "graphic designer with a passion" to knit according to her bio and all I can say is her posts are fun and creative.

Zebra Knits is full of fantastic knitting and gorgeous photographs and she makes the most amazing quilts.

Thank you all for keeping me inspired and entertained with all your lovely blogs!

Read more...

Meme

I was tagged for a meme by Mary. I love reading these because I am always curious about people and probably just plain nosy :)

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.Here are my six random facts:

1. I am the oldest of four kids, one sister and two brothers, my youngest brother is 13 years my junior. He is affectionately referred to as the "bonus" baby.

2. My name is Andrea after an actress from some show my parents watched while my mother was pregnant with me. That's their story but they can't seem to remember what show or what actress.

3. I met my husband when I was eighteen and a freshman at college. He is 4 1/2 years older then me and we did not hit it off at first. In his version I walked up and insulted him. In my truthful version he was arrogant and kind of a jerk. Two years of friendship and he grew on me and we started dating. We've now been together 11 years and he still cracks me up and is my best friend.

4. I have a crazy love of math. I buy math puzzle books to do for fun. I know, I know, my friends and family make fun of me all the time.

5. My favorite food is Mexican food of any kind and it must be accompanied by either a margarita or an ice cold beer.

6. My two best friends I have known most of my life, one is my younger sister, and the other I met when we were both eleven.

There you go six random things about me. I am tagging

Kate

Knitterella

Kathy

Sheepish One

Jane

Annie

If any of you don't want to play no worries, but I hope you do :). I'm glad I had this meme to post because I am in the middle of WIP, ADD knitting hell and am trying to get a grip on things to post. Have a good Monday!

Read more...

Wedding and other musings

Before anything else gets said I want to show you a couple of pictures of my daughters flower girl dress. My mother made it can you believe it? Here is a picture of the front. She made a bow tie and cumber bum for the ring bearer out of the purple that she used here for the cumber bum on the flower girl dress. Unfortunately the ring bearer wasn't in a cooperative place by the time the wedding took place and so we don't have any pictures of him.

The skirt on the dress is layered in tiers and to my daughters delight twirls out beautifully on the dance floor.

It was made using a Butterick pattern and was perfect. The wrap that I made was never used due to the surprising heatwave that occurred that weekend. Rumor has it that the temperature was about 15 degrees above normal. Needless to say no wraps were needed. I would like to add that though the day was warm and the night as well, by the time the ceremony had started a cloud cover had taken hold of the sky. It was a perfect temperature to stand and support my sister in marriage. No one was "melting" at the altar. The rest of the evening progressed that way. There was never any need for sweaters or wraps but it wasn't unbearably hot as well. The weather gods took pity on my sister and blessed her wedding day. She was gorgeous.

I would also like to take a moment and stop to smell the flowers.

Since starting this blog and subsequently treading out into the world of blogging I have started feeling more grateful and living more consciously. What I mean by that is I am someone who feels very comfortable with structure. I like lists and schedules and a clear cut idea of what needs to get done. I enjoy crossing things off my to-do list as much as I enjoy creating the list in the first place. Since having children I feel like I am always rushing from one list to the next. Birthdays, holidays, trips, entertaining. All of these things have taken on a whole new life now that I have two small people to plan for as well as myself. The lists are taking over. This blog has helped me to slow down and enjoy more. I still have lists. This last trip for the wedding and then our two-day vacation afterword provided me with plenty of opportunites to make lists. My blog though has forced me to sit down and think about what I want to blog about and what is going on in my life. It is encouraging me to make my days enjoyable with my children and friends so that I can share it all with you. Photographing projects and taking the time to write it all out forces me to sit back and enjoy what is going on instead of rushing off to the next item on my list. I find myself planning fun knitting projects or searching for a new recipe in the hopes that I can in turn share them with all of you. It has turned the mundane into an adventure and I would like to thank everyone out there who blogs for this epiphany.

Read more...

About Me

I have learned to love knitting because I get a real sense of accomplishment with each project. I think I suffer from a mild form of attention deficit because if a project takes too long I can quickly lose interest. My mother and sister both enjoy sewing and I can only seem to get enough energy together for a Halloween project. I sew my kids costumes but that is as far as my sewing skills go. All the cutting and measuring and pinning, it really is too much for me. I have found that being home with two small children knitting is much easier. I can pick it up and put it down easily. There isn't a lot of clean-up between or during projects, and for the most part it is very portable. I encourage anyone out there looking for a new hobby to look into knitting.

Read more...

When I first created this blog I did nothing more then sign up for the account and then sit and wait for divine inspiration to descend upon me in the form of small anecdotes and interesting knitting tidbits that I could impart. As I said earlier I was not a blogger peruser or writer when I first created this site. And so it has sat untouched for almost a year. I wasn't completely lazy during that time I gave birth to my son and stayed busy juggling a newborn and a toddler all with a husband in grad school (I don't recommend that schedule to anyone). Back to my point, in the last few months I have started reading a blog. Not a knitting blog, just the blog of an author I enjoy. It started out with wanting to look up more information about her and when I googled her her website came up, it is a daily blog. Along with her blogs she has other information but I found myself glued to her blog. My morning routine now subsists of stumbling from bed, getting a cup of coffe and logging in to her blog. I read it everyday. Since this newest addition to my daily routine I have decided to start writing my own blog and sharing my trials and tribulations and maybe some good tips now and then about knitting. Since quitting the corporate world and staying home with my kids I have found at times that I crave adult interaction and my husband, while extremely supportive, doesn't want to sit and discuss the latest knitting book I picked up or if I should add a cable in my current project. I'm hoping that people will find and enjoy what they find here and maybe my world can expand a little more. Until next time...

Read more...