chin up and muddling through

i had to move my work area to our living/dining space tonight because of some unforeseen project deadline-related circumstances.


so if i must be working late, i may as well keep some creature comforts close by: hydrangeas from the garden, candles, and just a little knitting. which reminds me, some tea would be nice.

and the olympics. this is the only time of day i ever get to catch up on the olympics. 


i swam competitively for the philippines when i was little. all the butterfly events make my heart race. all of them.

not so much whistling

listening to the late 90's music of my university days while i work makes me feel better.


fighting the "buy yarn now" twitch.


wishing i was knitting or beach combing or hanging with my family instead.


when i do get a chance to knit these days, my gauge is much tighter than usual.


time for some chocolate. yes. chocolate will make the work go faster.

right.

the way it's been

in the last two weeks, i've managed to work two workdays more than i'm technically paid to work. 


the workshop materials i've been working on have, this morning, been sent to the clients for the second round of reviews. 


my brain is mush.


i am so grateful to have a job. but i'm even more grateful its the weekend.


to celebrate, i really want to buy yarn. but i won't. (i bought patterns instead)


now, i'm going to take this little boy, who camps outside my office door because he's still not too sure of his nanny, out for a little walking date - just as soon as i've finished the need-to-have-done tasks i've set out to do today.

there will be no thoughts of the job-that-pays this weekend. absolutely definitely none.


enjoy your weekend!

knit parade on tour: gifted in the t-dot

been meaning to show you this. just because i'm extra proud.

a vest for my nephew

this was such a simple and quick knit! and i really loved duplicate stitching my nephew's first initial on the vest.

i'm thinking about doing matching vests for my babes, too... but i'm trying to assess their wardrobe to see if they even need the layer. i don't want to knit wastefully.

booties for a  new babe

i should've taken a picture of my old friend, when she was preggers, holding these booties. i finished knitting them in the car en route to see her (i held my breath the whole time while madly knitting the i-cords). the baby girl for which these booties were intended is now here and i'm so glad i left her the pair to cozy up to in early fall. i made them larger on purpose knowing just how quickly the girl outgrew the newborn pairs i knit her way back when (was that just a year ago?).

that's it for now. more coming soon, obviously.

{gorgeous moments}: yarn bomb sighting!

the day we went to spanish banks, the wife and i felt like going for a very long walk. so, after we'd had just about enough of beach combing, we walked from spanish banks to broadway and arbutus, with only two short stops in between (thank you solly's and thomas haas).

just as we were coming out of jericho beach's forest path (where the vancouver folk festival was in full swing), we crossed the street and happened upon a yarn bombing!

i was so excited, i squealed like a little girl who just got tickets to her favourite concert!

and then i proceeded to take some photos,

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just before clicking my heels and skipping away with my family towards home.

don't they just make you so happy? they make me downright giddy, anyway. 

think about it... someone, somewhere, perhaps a neighbourhood dweller, just thought it might be nice to decorate an otherwise non-descript fence around a patch of grass (that will likely be some sort of condo-cum-retail establishment... or parking lot) with knitted flowers! then this person (or group of people), dove into their beloved yarn stash and proceeded to knit each of these flowers, petal by petal, leaf by leaf, from scratch. and then, i imagine, said knitterly posse got dressed up in their finest mission impossible gear, in the middle of the night, to sew each flower (and cloud) securely in place so that passers-by can appreciate their lovely yarn art installation.

i certainly have no such initiative or imagination to do anything of the like. (i cuddle babes and clean up their vomit in the middle of the night. there is currently no room in my life for covert art installation missions.)

wishing you a fantastic weekend!

new heights of... late night knitting desperation

that's a headlamp, folks. a headlamp (a very pretty headlamp).

for late night knitting in bed... so as to not bother the wife because she typically gets up before dawn to get to work. 

(also comes in handy for checking in on the kids before finally surrendering to shut-eye)

i know. i shake my own head at myself.

(and i'm also super stoked. tee hee!)

gorgeous moments: stopping to look at the garden and pick up some garlic

the premise was an impromptu co-op board decision-quorum-meeting. but the happy consequence was another after-dinner family walk.

the kids got some after-dinner playtime in.

\

then, the wife and i each got 10 minutes to ourselves to drink in the  summer garden blooms.

the gardening committee tends to the gardens; among whom, are some pretty amazing ladies with a sincere love for fostering the beauty that grows.

one of those wonderful ladies gifted me two heads of her very own garlic. and i was so excited as all get out trying to figure out just how to use them in a dish to make sure they sing. (yes, i really am this enthusiastic about homegrown garlic. i've already  made garlic bread, garlic potatoes, and tomorrow, tomato sauce. pesto after). i was also given a single shallot bulb... which is most definitely going into a salad dressing of some kind.

(there are pears growing in the garden, too!)

outside of our little home, in the co-op common grounds, our very humble first-ever-vegetable garden is starting to thrive, finally. 

and "by starting to thrive," i mean, the basil looks like it's finally happy because it's gotten so warm. and apparently, two carrots are growing out of all the seeds the wife dropped in weeks ago. there are three tomato plants, and i am (still) hopeful they will yield a small crop to enjoy. 

(it's the one to the right. the garden to the left is our neighbour's. they are clearly growing more than two carrots.)

apart from herbs, we've never attempted to grow our own food. and by "we," i mean, that i pick the plants, and the wife and son get to do the gardening. i'm just not into earth worms and rolly polly bugs. or digging in dirt, for that matter.

gorgeous, sunny, summery evenings like these painfully remind me to stay in the present. they fleet far and fast through my fingers.


soon enough, we will be engulfed in our usual gray, watery, winter. 

soon enough, the toddler giggles will give way to tweeny, teeny, sarcastic cynicism. the arms that throw themselves up and around us so easily and carelessly will be harder to reach.

soon enough, there will be time to define leisure differently. there will be time enough to grow gardens and clean our home and do things properly.

here i must i must i must stay present. aware. and appreciative. especially for all the things i can choose to leave by the wayside now, so that i can enjoy the all the things that inevitably pass with the all-season wind.

mothering soundbyte: an exercise in patience

the wife, as overheard from my home office yesterday afternoon:

"son, come here. i'm hugging the angry out of you. i'm hugging the angry out of you. i'm hugging the angry out of you. i'm hugging the angry out of you. i'm hugging the angry out of you. i'm hugging the angry out of you."

i love her so.

at marineland, a few weeks ago now.

in case you were wondering...

the ocean beach does make a world of difference.

i can think of no other way to breath wide and really stretch the soul.

 

definitely very much worth the trek. (and a mighty trek it was without a car. a double stroller and a willingness to walk a heck of a long way help though.)

see? 

from the kitchen: root beer float anyone?

1 large clear glass 

+ 3 scoops of vanilla bean ice cream 

+ generous pour of root beer to top the glass 

+ four straws 

= happy slurpy faces all around.

happy friday! 

knit parade on tour: christening set (in which i begin by babbling about knitting and pretending)

so i've already managed to work an entire extra day and a half this week (at the-job-that-pays) and it's only wednesday. there are deadlines you see. and i was feeling all bummed out and broken about the fact that what i submitted wasn't quite what i wanted to submit for review, when i got my feedback and it was all the tiniest knitpicky formatting, terminology, stuff. apparently, the content and overall design of my learning materials were apparently (and i daresay impressively) sound, despite what felt like really grudgy crap work (because what i've been trying to do is squeeze a month of development time into 2 weeks).

so i did a happy dance! and to celebrate, i spent like, a good half an hour pretend-shopping for yarn at my favourite online haunts. i pretend-spent waaaay too much money (whole sweater and shawl yardages worth of the most exquisite yarns for each family member plus some for christmas knitting). which reminded me that i don't have that kind of money to spend. which isn't so much depressing because i'm not even allowed to buy yarn until next year.

except i did. i bought these lovelies in toronto when the wife and i unintentionally-intentionally went yarn crawling about the city.

aren't they purdy? i got the yarn at lettuce knit (where i happened to meet someone very cool and knit-famous who actually knows my pretend-blogger-bff's (soulemama and yarnharlot) and i played it so cool she didn't even know i knew who she was).

now, i only allowed myself to buy these blue moon fiber arts socks that rock beauties because my darling grandmother was so thrilled with the socks i made her, that she gave me some money! i know right? seriously? so naturally, i bought yarn. 

these lovelies are going to be shawl for me. i'm thinking mara or damson but the jury is still out because i have a bunch of hats and mitts and socks to plow through before fall.

and now for a small parade.

the girl's christening set

as you may have gathered, the girl got christened in toronto. i  made her a shrug and a hat for the occasion, my first forays into lace knitting. and i daresay i rather enjoyed it a lot. 

i wasn't crazy about the way the shrug fit. it was hard to get her into it... but love the way it looks. 

(photos taken by one the girl's godmothers)

i made some modifications to the hat pattern, intending it to be a bit more suited to the ensemble.

i wish i could show it to you... and i will, once i find it. (we haven't quite gotten organized since we've gotten back. on the list of things to do. right after the everyday stuff and the six load of laundry we always manage pile up by this time in the week.)

but the girl didn't end up wearing it at all anyway. firstly, it was an insanely hot day in toronto. secondly, the priest did not ask for it. which is a bit odd because he asked us for cap when the boy was being christened and we didn't have one. which is why i knit the hat in the first place. i'm hoping the hat will fit at least until the spring. because you know what they say about wearing white after labour day. 

the yarn i used was elisabeth lavold silky wool. and don't you know my love for silky wool blends just grew stronger.

i've still got some mawata. anyone know if i can drop spindle mawata? i'm gonna google it and pretend i have the time to add yet another hobby to my days.

knit parade: a dress for my girl

i had a lot of silly anxiety over just how many projects i would pack with me on our trip to toronto. i packed four. but finished just this one, while there, and assembled it today.

it's the elise sundress by jane richmond, knit with knitpicks cotlin. 

i am smitten.

it's such a simple knit. just around and around. 

and then you add the little crotchet details and all of a sudden it's all sweetness and light.

i should have probably made this one a bit longer. i should have also tried it on the girl as i went... but i know better for next time. and i do believe i might just squeeze another one out of my needles before the summer is over. 

i suppose it's fine for now... the mini dress length doesn't hamper her mobility. and she can eventually wear the dress as a top as her legs continue to grow.

another happy knit ending. 

us being us

just look at her!

she's at the beach and all she wants to do is get back inside the stroller. (practicing her parade wave, perhaps?)

just look at him!

it's all build, dive, and destroy all the time. (what is up with that?)

just look at the wife!

well... she is always lovely. but she does look a bit... mama bored shovelling sand into a pail (it was my turn to relax and do what i wanted. i think i took out my knitting and didn't actually knit.)

just look at me!

i've got that hands-on-hip, perma-exasperated look on my face, mama thing going on. (it was the wife's turn to relax. she read for a bit. but missed us so she walked up to where we were and snapped this photo.)

just us being us, really. 

i'm bracing myself for a difficult week full of deadlines and reviews at the job-that-pays. couple that with family life and well, let's just say that if i get some whole cooking in at all, and even a tiny bit of quality time with the wife, that'll be enough to make my week.

i'll be back tomorrow with some knits to show you. in the mean time, hope you have a fabulous start to your week!