Charlie and Buster

Now that Charlie has received his Buster sweater I am able to share it with the world. And who couldn't ask for a cuter model? Look at those cheeks. Oooh my ovaries are twitching. This is such a cute sweater, and I get to knit it again for a friend whose baby shower is in Mar. Little Julian has already arrived, so we are anxiously awaiting their visit shortly. I hope he looks as cute as Charlie in it.
Knit Knack now has Namaste knitting bags, and of course I couldn't resist. It is in my favorite shade of orange and I am a little fanatical about orange (see upcoming post).
And here we are again with my dear old friend, The Philospher's Wool Southwest Sweater. I am so close to done. I think I will work on it a bit this afternoon. I really should give myself a deadline. Okay, it will be done by the end of Feb. No ifs, ands or buts. My mom has to have a chance to wear it this season.
When I am unable to knit the above mentioned sweater, this is the scarf I am working on. Perfect project for mindless knitting. It is a simple ribbed scarf in Malabrigo that dh picked. He wants it to his knees, and since he is 6'4" it may take a while. But it such yummy yarn to work with. I think I may have to make Mr. Greenjeans out of the remaining skeins. Off to knit....purses coming next.

Teenagers, sex, shoes and legos...not necessarily in that order

It was bound to happen. Even though I tried my best to stop it, my baby is now a teenager. I pray that as she enters this period in her life she continues to be the sweet, generous and selfless girl that has brought me endless joy. I pray that she remains on the diligent road she has traversed thus far and keeps focused on living a joyful, content life. I pray that she will always have the good, kind heart that touches all of us around her and that she is blessed with all the happiness and abounding love that she so greatly deserves. I am so proud to be your mom Madison. I love you. Happy Birthday. And now for some shoes. I mentioned the other night at Knit Knack that I had tried to photograph them all. I have now broken the 100 mark and have 103 pairs. Here are the boots (to which I have since added a box and a pair....hey an additional 30% off the clearance price is hard to pass up at DSW) 14 pairs of boots and....
89 Pairs of shoes. :)
And this is what I can be found doing on a boring Sunday evening. I decided to clean the playroom and go through all of Anthony's toys, organizing them and making sure they were all in the right place. The Star Wars stuff all together, the Playmobil stuff, the nerf guns, the board games etc...all in it's rightful place. And then I got to the legos.
For some crazy reason I decided to dump out the huge bin of legos that we have amassed since Ian was Anthony's age...so about 10 years ago, and organize it all. Amongst the legos were many things that did not belong.
You would be amazed what lurks under piles of blocks: a pinto bean, a barrette from when Maddie was a babe, magnets, numerous magnet numbers, and somethings I wish I could forget and was unfortunate enough to have touched.
Anthony even pitched in and assisted, well played as I worked diligently.
Three hours later, they were all sorted out. I could have been really anal retentive and done it by color. But I did it by reg. legos, flat pieces, people, little odd pieces, big odd pieces and stuff for making vehicles and stuff for making buildings (windows, walls doors). Now while this may seem like an incredible time suck, I must say that he has spent a lot more time playing with the legos now that he can find all the fun cool pieces. And anything that gets him away from the xbox is worth it.
Look at what a nice organized play area he now has. And since we moved the TV out of Ian's room and gave him a smaller one, all the kids are actually spending more time down here and I have peace and quiet upstairs. I didn't show the nice cherry bar in the other corner, but since I'm focusing on this being the kids' room I didn't want to give the wrong impression. On the far right you can see the air hockey table that Anthony got for his birthday, although all the kids are really enjoying it. So big A has his office, I have my craft room and now the kids have their own space. It is really starting to feel like home.

And now for the sex! Is this what's to become of us?

Houston we have a craft room

So here is the craft room! I am so happy to have it all done and everything unpacked. Now I just need to find some time to create in it. The cubes are great way to display some of my favorite yarn. The bookshelf holds all my craft books and scrapbook albums. And boy do I have a lot of paper. I really need to do some scrapbooking and use some of it. Here is my work area. Thank you so much to my BIL Ron for coming over last Fri to put my shelves up for me. I hope the lasagna payment was sufficient, although I benefited from that too. Well my ass may disagree. I fell in love with the red chair the moment I saw it and knew I had to have it to match the red decor. It is comfy as well.
This dresser holds a mish mash of things: fabric, paints, art supplies. Hanging from the shelf is some of my handspun yarn, such a great way to display it. The Ragedy Ann doll (made for me by a dear friend when I was a child) sits upon my basket of sock yarn.
This is inside the cabinet doors. The lower shelves are mostly the beads I use for making stitch markers and some for jewelry.
This is the closet, where the rest of my yarn can be found, along with everything else that didn't look pretty when in view. And of course Nietzche. The cats always find a way of getting in a shot or two.

The top shelves in the closet hold my fiber for spinning, knitting bags and stamping supplies.
Some up close shots of my favorite elements. That cute little sheep was found at Bath and Body works. He is very soft and smells delightful.
I had some messy fun decoupaging these letters. I think it took me a good 15 min. to get all the glue off my fingers.
This is the awesome desk calender dh bought me as one of my anniversary presents. Everyday is a picture of a different purse. (Yep, I have a thing for purses too).

Mmm. look at the pretty Touch Me Due on the bottom basket. I am a perv and fondle it often.
An altered canvas homage to my bff. I made her a matching one. Look I had blond hair!
Shelton the sheep, who I adopted at Serendipity in Buena Vista, sits a top my little cubbies that hold all sorts of crafty bits.

So there it is. My new dream space. I am so thrilled to have such a wonderful area to create in. I can't wait to get started.

So many shoes and a FO to boot.

First I'll start with the FO. I am just going to link to my Ravelry page for now, since the recipient is a reader and I have yet to mail dear Buster. I love how this sweater came out, so cute. I will post of pic once I send it for those not on ravelry.

And now for the shoes. Unless you are a new reader to my blog, you will undoubtedly know of my love affair with shoes that rivals my fiber obsession. Well my latest endeavor started innocently enough with a search for some brown shoes. I started by buying the pair adorning my foot (if you can find it) at Kohl's. They were the perfect running around shoes, durable, comfy and practical. Well then I realized I need some dressier brown shoes as well so a trip to DSW was in order. And 2 trips and 11 subsequent pairs later, yes not all are brown, my thirst is quenched for a while. I must explain that DSW was having a HUGE clearance sale, and that all 11 pairs purchased there cost me what I normally would pay for a pair or two if not on sale.

In fact the shoes almost cost the same as the 5 skeins of beautiful Touch Me Due. See it nestled here so lovingly amongst the shoes. Soon it will be the vintage velvet scarf from Scarf Style. I have been dying to knit this for myself and thanks to Christmas money it will be embracing my neck with it's velvety goodness in no time.
And a few close ups of some of my favorite pairs.


Dancing queen shoes!!!

Oooooh Guess what is coming next! My craft room pics! It is all done and I can't wait to share!

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!

Happy New Year! I know I am a bit late, but things have been pretty busy around here. We spent the last evening of 2007 together as a family dining at Mataam Fez. It is our New Year's Eve tradition and one that I enjoy immensely. Nothing says New Years like lamb rocks with peaches and honey, or a nice hot flaky b'stella. *drool* Madison then went to her boyfriend's house for a chaperoned party and Ian had his friends over at our home. They set off fireworks at midnight, I am sure to my neighbor's dismay. But they were here, and safe, and if all they are doing at this age is setting off fireworks, well I can live with that. Little A was sad that he didn't have a party to go to, but fell asleep quickly anyway. As did I. We usually go out as a couple after dinner, but this year Anthony was nursing a really bad cold, which is now finally subsiding. We snuggled in and watched the L&O marathon. Well, I wouldn't call it a marathon really since I fell asleep before the first episode was over and 1hr 15min before midnight. LAME. Dh woke me up at midnight with a kiss and then left to pick up Maddie. That is when the fireworks commenced. I don't know why they thought I would sleep through them. Silly teenagers. lol. The cats were probably less thrilled then the neighbors.

Today is my baby's 6th birthday! It goes so incredibly fast. Look at how cute and little he was. And now he is so big, but even cuter. He is just the neatest kid a mom could have the pleasure to parent. So full of energy, spunk, precociousness and charm. He is my joy, my heart, my baby. Happy Birthday Anthony! I love you so much.

Soon to come, shoes and a FO finally!!!!