Thursday/Friday Recap

Yesterday was...interesting and not completely in a good way. It started out with me helping S put on a sweater and the muscles across the middle of my back seizing up. It made moving rather tough. I loaded up with pain relief and a very hot shower and it helped to loosen them up enough that I could move without wincing in pain.

I had my dentist appointment yesterday. It started out with a check-up and I got a good report! My gums around where the cursed tooth was have healed up nicely and my over-all mouth health was good. She did some scraping because I swear that even if you have the most plaque free mouth in the world they still have to do some scraping to make you feel like they are doing their job. :-) My appointment was scheduled for 90 minutes but it only ended up taking 45 minutes, so yay me!

Of course my appointment to get my night splint fitted didn't start for another 45 minutes so I plopped down in the waiting room with my book. But my dentist is awesome (I never thought I'd say that!) and he squeezed me in between two patients. I was altogether finished about the time I was suppose to be getting started.

The night splint is...interesting. It will definitely take some getting used to. I didn't sleep well last night, probably because every time I rolled over my back would hurt and it would wake me up. Then I'd be aware of the splint and it would feel weird again until I fell back to sleep. I think tonight I will take something to help me sleep because I really need a good night's sleep!

Today I ran some errands and then met C downtown for lunch. I did a lot of walking downtown today and it seems to have helped my back loosen up more. I am almost back to moving normally. I will just need to keep getting up and moving around tonight before I go to bed to keep it loose.

When the kids came home they went out to play with their friends. J got invited to spend the night at a friend's house tonight. I think he will have a good time. We'll see if the boys get any sleep tonight. We don't have anything on the schedule tomorrow so J will be able to take a nap tomorrow if he needs to.

Yesterday I finished one of my knitting projects. I finished the Song of the Seas cowl. I took a picture although it still needs to be blocked.

I was winding up some yarn for the shawl I'm working on and it was such a disaster today. What should have taken me maybe 5 minutes ended up taking me over an hour. The yarn was so tangled that I had to wind it by hand to get all the tangles out. Then once I finally got the tangles out and started to wind it up it got tangled again! I got to the point where I just cut the yarn and made two balls instead of one because it was such a disaster. The yarn is silk but it doesn't have a smooth finish so it tends to halo as you're working with it. Those halos seem to catch on each other and for tangles. I finally got it done though. After I was done with that yarn I wound up some other yarn for a new project. Lucky for everyone that yarn wound up perfectly.

Shellac nails update: Today is day 3 with my shellac nails and so far, so good. By this point with normal nail polish I'm usually starting to see some chipping but I haven't so far. The only place I'm seeing any trouble is on a nail that had started to split in a way that my nail tech couldn't fix it. She buffed it down and the shellac has been acting pretty good as a patch. Today I did catch my hair in that spot  and it has started to crack but it's because of the split, not because of the shellac. The first day I was trying to be careful but by today I was doing things like I normally would if my nails weren't painted. Here's how they look today and vs Wednesday (for comparison). So far I'm happy with them. We'll see how they continue to do!

Wednesday Nails

Friday nails

Nails, Knitting, and Soccer

Today I went and had a manicure. I usually don't get manicures because a day or two into having my nails painted the polish starts chipping off. Even polish that's suppose to last 14 days only lasts me 3 or 4 days. But this time I went with the shellac polish. I chose a fairly neutral colour so that if it should start to chip it won't show up as much.

It's a nice light grey colour and goes well with the red I chose for my toes. I just chose regular polish for my toes because they seem to do better than my fingers, probably because I'm not constantly washing my feet like I do my hands. :-)  Anyway, I will be documenting my shellac nails from now until my next appointment in two weeks to see how they hold up. I'm rough on my hands, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I remembered today to take some pictures of my knitting projects. This is a cowl called Song of the Sea and I'm using my Sip-n-Stitch yarn for it. The pattern is suppose to look like waves, starting with small ones and then moving to medium and finally ending with large waves.

I'm also working on a shawl with some silk yarn that I got from Belfast Mini-Mills here on the island. The shawl is interesting because every other row you increase one stitch so you end up with a swirling curve. I tried to get a picture of this but it's tough because it's getting big. I like the lace sections that come in between the garter stitch sections. It ends with a lacy section and has a fancy edging. I'll get there eventually!

Last night S had her first summer soccer session. She and some of the other girls on our street are signed up although she ended up on a different team than her friends. But she has a classmate and a fellow rink rat on her team so she's happy. The people running soccer this year are so much more organized than last year. Last year all the kids got white shirts but this year each team has it's own colour shirts. Also, they only had six of the 12 teams come at a time so there seemed to a lot less chaos going on. They had two teams per field with a coach and a tween/teen assistant to help them. This allowed the coach was able to work with one team teaching them a skill while the assistant worked with the other team playing a fun game. Overall, I was very impressed with how the first practice went. I hope this continues through the rest of the summer.

Tomorrow I have not one, but two dentist appointments. One is a check-up to see how things are going now that my cursed tooth is out. The other is to see if the lab made my night splint correctly. I've been sticking to the plan that the hygienist gave me at my initial cleaning so I expect she will be happy with how my mouth is doing.  I'll find out tomorrow!

New Shoes!

New shoes were purchased today although not for me. The kids needed new shoes to get ready for the summer. Here in Canada kids have two pairs of shoes for school - an inside pair and an outside pair. In the winter the outside shoes are usually snow boots but at other times their outside shoes are just regular shoes. Having an inside pair of shoes prevents the kids from tracking all sorts of stuff into the classrooms.

J has just about worn out his outside school shoes. They have a hole in the side and he's just about worn through the heels to the soles. I took him to get a new pair of shoes to close out the school year.

The new shoes are lightweight and should hopefully last through the summer. We'll get him a couple new pairs of shoes in late August for school. His current inside shoes will become his "nice" shoes for over the summer since he amazingly kept them in good condition all year.

S also got a new pair of shoes. She requested shoes with laces instead of Velcro because she taught herself to tie shoes and has been practicing it at school. I expected her to pick the shoes with sparkles and glitter on them but instead she picked a rather simple pair (which were more expensive of course!)

She's very excited about wearing her new tie shoes to school tomorrow. I also had both kids try on their summer shoes. I was surprised to find that S's sandals, both her closed toe and open toe ones, still fit her. Of course J's sandals don't fit so I'll have to get him a new pair of those. I'll do that in another week or so.

In the knitting world, I finished a pair of gloves the other day because you know, winter is coming. I almost had to wear them yesterday since it was 8C/46F. On June 3rd. Yeah. Welcome to Canada. Anyway, here they are:

I'm not sure I like the buttons; they are pink the gloves are more a purple colour. I just placed them in the correct position for the picture. I'm thinking I may stop by the fabric store tomorrow when I'm out and pick up some different buttons. Who knows, I may still end up with the pink ones.

I've started two other projects in the mean time. One is a cool shawl made of a raw silk in a pink colour and the other is a long cowl. For the cowl I'm using my Sip-n-Stitch yarn, which is a bamboo wool blend. I'll take some in-progress pictures tomorrow since I just started the cowl and it doesn't look like much yet. I'll work on it tonight while we're watching Marco Polo unless we get our new fire pit going and sit out there for a while.

Today has been much nicer than yesterday. It was warmer and the sun was out which was a nice change from the cold, dampness of the past few days. J decided he wanted to ride his bike to school today so we let him. He met up with a couple of friends and they made their way safely to school and back home. He was tired when he got home but he had a good time riding his bike and plans to do it again tomorrow.

Tomorrow is suppose to be another nice day. I have some cookies to bake in the morning for the kids' Spring Carnival at school. After I deliver them I may have to go down to the RibFest they are having at the racetrack or else head out to the beach to our favourite seafood shack. If I don't make it out there tomorrow I will definitely get out there this weekend. I can't wait for one one their lobster rolls!

Tuesday is for Housework

Today has been a busy day. With S's friend coming over this afternoon I wanted to make sure the house was in order. Also, it just needed a cleaning. I cleaned all three bathrooms and ran the vacuum through the house. I also mopped the kitchen floor. Yeah, our visitor was only 5 years old, but her mom was coming to get her and I wanted the house to look presentable.

I also reorganized a few of my kitchen cabinets. I recently got an electric kettle and found that it was on one side of my kitchen (by the sink) and all my teas were on the other side, which just didn't make sense. I turned the cabinet above the coffee machine/kettle into a "coffee/tea station" and moved my baking things to the cabinet right behind where I do my mixing/'prep work for baking. I thought for sure I would go to the wrong cabinets today but actually I didn't, which tells me that things were in the wrong place before.

I did quite a bit baking today. I made a batch of mini blueberry muffins for S and her friend (okay, I may have eaten a few). I also tried out something new for me - yeast rolls. In the past I've made yeast-based bread, but that was usually in my bread machine. But S's friend's mom shared a 30 minute yeast roll recipe with me. The recipe can be found here. For my first time making them, they came out almost right. I think I didn't knead the dough enough before I let it rise the final time. I had to end up baking them an extra 5 minutes, probably because they were kind of dense. S was the only one who didn't like them. I think if they were lighter and fluffier she would have liked them more. I'll keep trying until I get them right because they were good.

I think I mentioned that I ran out of yarn making my GoT cowl. I had posted about it in a discussion thread on Ravelry. Yesterday evening I received a private message from the designer apologizing for the shortage of yarn and offering to send me another skein so that I could finish the pattern as written. That meant a lot to me, that she would offer to get me more yarn. I declined because my cowl is already done and honestly, I like the way it turned out. Mine is unique. :-) I thanked her for the offer and told her that I appreciated that she was willing to make things write. Good people do exist in this world.

I finished up a different cowl recently. I used Handmaiden's Sea Three yarn, which is a blend of silk and seacell, which is made from seaweed. It is very soft and should be warm in the winter. I just discovered that this yarn is discontinued, so I'm glad I was able to make something I like with it. I still have enough left to make a hat or a pair of mitts. Of course as I was taking this picture I discovered I managed to cross some cables in the wrong direction, but you won't be able to tell that when I'm wearing it. Also, I hid those mistakes when I took the picture.

The lighting in this picture isn't the best - the yarn is actually a little more purple than it looks here. I'll try to get a better picture tomorrow if there is some sun. It's suppose to be cold (8C/48F) and rainy tomorrow.

I am working on a pair of gloves right now - you can never start preparing for winter too early around here. I'm also working on a new shawl I'm making with 100% eri silk yarn from Belfast Mini Mills. Now that it's June, Belfast Mini Mills is open every day. I may have to make a trip out there in the next day or two to see what they have for this season. I'll do my best not to buy any yarn...no promises though!

Weekend Recap!

I'm back from our weekend of off-island hockey. It started Thursday with a ferry trip over to Nova Scotia. There are two ferries that shuttle people back and forth - a big one and a smaller one. Normally the big one is running but this time it was the smaller one. It had a nice observation deck on top where the kids played and ran around. It was windy but I do better with the wind blowing on my face. We went down below for a snack and I could feel the ferry rocking which messed with my vertigo. Going back out on deck helped a lot.

Once we arrived in NS we found our hotel and had some supper then it was off to bed for the kids. Friday the tournament began and J had two games. Both teams were really tough so J's team was 0-2 at the end of the day. We had a pizza party that night and the kids went swimming, which honestly, was all that mattered to them at that point. Saturday we had two more games and those games were more evenly matched but still no wins, which summed up the whole spring season. There were some tears at the end of the last game but once they got back to the hotel and into the pool they forgot about being sad and had fun.

Saturday night the team stayed up late and watched part of the Ducks-Blackhawks game. C was down with J and he said the kids burst into song when the American anthem came on. The Canadian kids knew about half the song which honestly is impressive. That is not an easy song to sing. They had a great time cheering and goofing around and the hotel staff was very patient with all the rowdy 10 year olds running around.

Sunday we came home, again on the smaller ferry. The weather wasn't the best - it was rainy, chilly, and very windy. I stayed inside as long as I could but it started getting really warm with everyone inside. Between the heat and my vertigo acting up, I had to go out on the deck for a while. I found a sheltered spot on the leeward side of the boat and hung out there. I was joined at various times by other people feeling a bit queasy from the rocking of the boat. One mom and daughter I know have problems with motion sickness, so they braved the chilly weather to keep from throwing up. It was nice to have company outside. :-)

Today I had to head back to the dentist. I got a call on Friday that somehow the impression they made of my bottom teeth was broken in transit to the lab and they needed to make a new one. At least this time I figured out how to keep from gagging on that nasty plaster stuff (although just thinking about that stuff makes me start to gag). It only took about 10 minutes to get it all done, so that was nice. I'm hoping this time they won't break it!

I also went out today and bought a scale for weighing my yarn. After the Game of Thrones cowl debacle, I wanted to know if they gave me the right amount of yarn and my gauge was off or if I was shorted yarn. I was suppose to have 300 g of yarn for this project. My finished project, which I ran out of yarn making, is only 290 g which tells me I was shorted yarn while I know others received over 300 g of yarn (they posted their weights on Ravelry). I suppose it could have happened to anyone but I will think twice before I decide to participate in other MKALs using that company's yarn.

This afternoon was a good one. The weather was cool (hello, what's up with that? It's June 1!) but the rain held off so the kids were able to play outside. We yard-hopped from one place to another until it was time for supper. The newest family on the block has decided that they are (probably) going to buy the house they are renting, which is awesome. They have a daughter S's age as well as two younger boys. They fit into the neighbourhood nicely so it will be awesome having them stay around for the summer. It's shaping up to be a fun one!

Christmas in May!

I had intended to post a blog yesterday but I was really busy running around trying to get errands done. And then by the time I got a chance to sit down it was so beautiful outside the last thing I wanted to do was sit at my computer. This morning has been busy too with packing up for our hockey tournament this weekend. There will be no blog for the next few days since I'll be out of town and I don't want to drag my computer with me. But before I go, let me show you my Christmas in May that occurred yesterday. :-)

When I came back home from getting the oil changed in the car, I found two packages on the porch. One was the yarn for my Once and Future King MKAL. When I ordered the yarn I ordered an extra set of lace-weight yarn because I was having trouble deciding which colour to use plus I found a pattern I wanted to do that used lace-weight.

This is how the Raven and the Fox yarn turned out. It is a 30/70 blend of silk and wool and should knit up really nicely. It has a nice shine to it.

The other colour I chose is Coral and Cream and it is also a blend of silk and wool but it has a totally different look and feel since it is a 50/50 blend. It has a more matte finish to it.

Those two were in one box. In the other box was my first shipment for the Sip-n-Stitch club I joined. Every other month starting with May I will receive a specially dyed yarn, some kind of tea, and a little goody. This month the tea is Marrakesh Chai and it is delicious! The goody is an adorable mug with the Unique Sheep icon on it, and the yarn is Sushi Sock yarn, which is a blend of bamboo and wool. The colour of the yarn is listed as Marrakesh, to go along with the tea.

Also, yesterday the latest issue of Sandman came out (finally!) and I swung by the comic book store to pick it up. I was also looking for the next book in the series that my friend gave me for my birthday. They didn't have it in stock but the nice woman at the store helped me pick out a couple of things to keep me busy until I can find book 3.

And after I went to the comic book store I was able to walk down the street and join C for lunch. The weather was beautiful so we were able to eat outside. Add that to the yarn and the graphic novels and it felt like I was having Christmas in May with all the fun treats! Let's hope the rest of the weekend is the same way. ;-)

Pampering and Knitting

Yesterday I did something I haven't done in a long time - I went and had a pedicure. I was waaaay overdue. It was fun to go and be pampered for a bit. I found a nice place not too far from the house where it's just the client and the owner. I chose a funky colour for my toes:

I will be going back in a few weeks to get a mani/pedi using shellac on my nails. I am very interested in seeing just how well the shellac holds up. I'm very hard on my nails - I can manage to chip long-wear nail polish in just days, including the new gel nail polish that is suppose to last 14 days. Last time I used it it lasted 3 days before it started chipping. I've heard good things about the shellac so we'll see.

Last week I went and had my hair coloured and trimmed and I forgot to share a picture of the new look. I went with a lighter base colour and added highlights. I'm always envious of my stylist because she can get my hair so straight. I can never reproduce it at home.

Today I had my first dentist appointment to start the night splint. Oh, what an experience that was. It's been years since I've had impressions done and they haven't improved it at all. The hygienist put the bottom stuff in and I immediately started to gag. It's that nasty oozy feeling that always does it. For the top she tried to make the stuff thicker so it wouldn't ooze as much but then she didn't get a good impression so she had to do it again. I did fine with the second top impression until it was time for her to remove it. Then I started gagging like crazy. I was a mess with my eyes watering and some drooling going on. At least I didn't throw up on her, although I will admit I was worried that I might. Everything after that was easy-peasy. In two weeks my splint should arrive and then I get to learn how to sleep with it in!

Tomorrow I get to take my car in for an oil change - wheee! It always seems to take longer than I think it should. I will make sure I take both my book and my knitting with me so I can keep myself occupied.

I finished my Game of Thrones Mystery KAL. It ended up being a turtlenecked shoulder warmer which is cool except for the fact that I ran out of yarn before I finished it. I still had 3 rows to go when I realized I would only have enough yarn to bind off. I double checked my gauge and it was correct so either I did something wrong or they shorted me on yarn. I have been reading comments on Ravelry and I'm not the only one who ran out of yarn. It's frustrating to buy a kit for a project like this and think you'll get enough yarn in the kit. I'm curious to see what the designer has to say about it.

 Here's what it looks like off and on:

I'm still waiting for my Once and Future King yarn to arrive. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow!

Saturday is for playing!

Today was suppose to be a rainy day but ended up being sunny although it was chilly. The kids had fun playing outside most of the day. J was invited over to his friend's house for a BBQ and lots of hockey and had a great time. He played hockey for a good 6 hours today. He will sleep well tonight!

This morning S had a friend over for a while and then we went out for lunch for curry - yum! S had her usual grilled cheese and I tried a different kind of curry today. It was good but a bit spicier than the kind I usually get. It is fun to try new things!

When we got back S went back outside to play with her friends and I took the time to do some house cleaning. I got the more public areas of the house clean - the living room/kitchen/dining room as well as the kids' bathroom. While I was doing that the neighbourhood kids were busy bouncing from house to house. They finally ended up all heading home around supper time. It was a fun day for them.

I finally got around to blocking my Outlander shawl. It turned out to be very long and rather skinny. It will make a good neck wrap in the winter.

I also finally finished my Citron shawl. That thing was a royal pain in the arse because of the sheer number of stitches involved. I like how it turned out but I will not be making it again. When it was laying out on the blocking mats J and C both commented on how it reminded them of a slice of watermelon. I think I'll call it my Watermelon Shawl from now on.

I got an email the other day that my yarn for my next Mystery KAL is on it's way to me. I checked the tracking and it cleared customs so it should be here in a few days. I can't wait to see the yarn. I had picked out a colour called The Raven and The Fox. This is what it looks like on the website:

When it arrives I will take a picture of it and compare how it looks. This will be my first time working with lace weight yarn from The Unique Sheep. I'm excited about it. Of course I have to wait until July for the MKAL to start. Booo!

A Glorious Friday!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. J went to school in shorts and S changed into some as soon as she got home. She had a blast playing with all the neighbourhood girls from the time she got home from school until supper, which was at least three hours. J got invited over to a friend's house and we haven't seen him for a few hours. Right as I typed that I got a message from his friend's mom saying the boys were out playing hide and seek with the other neighbourhood boys. I love that we live in a place with so many kids!

I had a busy day getting ready for tomorrow's trip. I did four loads of laundry (although two of them were rather small), packed clothes for the kids as well as myself, and started getting the food together to take with us. We're staying a few nights at a cottage that has a full kitchen and a grill so we're going to take food with us so we don't have to eat at restaurants so much. Also, that will allow us to make sandwiches to take with us on our adventures.

S has all her toys packed up and ready to go. J still needs to get his stuff together. If he doesn't get it done tonight he'll have to be quick in the morning since we need to leave early. We're going to take the ferry from the island over to Nova Scotia. It will save us a lot of driving in the car and J has never taken the ferry before. The rest of us took it last year when we went to S's doctor's appointment in Halifax.

In addition to getting ready for the trip I also made S an appointment to get her vision checked. They checked it at school and since it wasn't quite 20/20 they want us to have a follow up with an optometrist. I also finally got S signed up for summer soccer. It will only be one weeknight a week so that won't take away from beach time too much. Hopefully she'll end up on a team with some of her friends. I know she won't be on the same team as one of her friends because their birth years are different, but there's a chance she'll end up on a team with at least one friend.

I think S is a little disappointed that we're going away this weekend since her friend's parents are planning on opening their pool this weekend. S really wants to go swimming. I reminded her that she will have plenty of chances to swim this summer. She thought the other girls on the street were swimming tonight but so far I've seen them out front playing so I don't think they are going to go swim. I think we're the only ones out of our group of parents that are going away this weekend. Everyone else will be having cookouts and hanging out in each other's yards all weekend. I'm sure there will be plenty more weekends like that in the months to come.

I'm almost finished with my Citron shawl. The pattern calls for five repeats but I decided to do six because I want to try to use up all the yarn. If I don't finish it tonight I'll have to decide if I'm going to take it with me on the trip or not. I have a cowl I'm working on that I had planned to take, I usually don't get a lot of knitting done on trips where we stay in hotels but this is a cottage rather than a hotel. It has a living room in addition to the bedrooms so I'll be able to knit even after the kids go to bed. That will definitely factor into my taking one or two projects.

I'm not planning on taking my laptop on the trip. I haven't tried blogging from my iPad yet but I may try this weekend. So, there may or may not be blog entries. If there aren't, then Monday when I'm back home I should have a lot to share - I hope!

Stay at Home Wednesday

The weather this morning was kind of grey and the wind was howling for a while which made it rather cold out. I decided it was the kind of morning to stay in and catch up on Outlander and work on my Citron shawl. I'm at the point in the shawl where at times I have over 400 stitches on the needle. Since it is all knit/purl over and over it made my carpel tunnel flare up. I haven't had a problem with carpel tunnel since I was working which was over 10 years ago. I haven't missed it!

I was hoping to keep working on my Citron shawl tonight since it is getting close to being done but I'm going to have to take a break from it tonight. I did spend some time today looking for a pattern to be my travel project and I found one that has a lot of potential. I think tonight I will cast on and give it a try to make sure that it will be good for our trip. It's got a variety of stitches so I'm hoping it won't aggravate my carpel tunnel more.

C asked me to do his laundry today since he had to work and I was going to be home. I did it because I didn't want him walking around in stinky clothes at work. I even folded his clothes and that's when I discovered that there is a gnome that lives in either the washer or dryer that turns clothes inside out. I swear almost every article of clothing was inside out. This is the same gnome that squishes up J's socks instead of them being straightened out. I need to find some gnome remover to take care of those problems. :-)

I did venture out this evening to take S to her Girl Guides meeting. They practiced their end of the year ceremony for the girls that will be moving up to the next level (Brownies). S will still be a Spark next year so she got to help with the ceremony by waving a streamer over the girls that are moving up. I hope this ceremony is a little calmer than the induction ceremony. The kids were a bit crazy during that one and it took away from the whole thing. The kids seemed to be behaving themselves during the practice so we can hope that it will be calm during the actual ceremony. We shall see!

Unexciting Tuesday

Yesterday and today have been pretty regular, unexciting days. Everyone was out of the house but me so it was quiet and I was able to start catching up on some of the shows I watch. I got some laundry done as well as went out to do some errands. Pretty typical days.

The weather today has been icky. We've had rain off and on throughout the day with it coming down heavy at times. I took J out for a haircut this afternoon and by the time we came home a thick fog had moved into our area. The grey day makes me miss the sun. Later this week the sun is suppose to come out and warm everything up so maybe then I'll be able to sit outside and have my lunch or drink my tea and knit.

Speaking on knitting, I've been working on The Hobbit scarf. I've made it to around row 120 out of like a billion rows. Okay, maybe not that many but it is definitely a lot. I've also been working on a shawl called Citron. It's all stockinette stitch so while it is a little boring to knit at times it's a great pattern to work on when I want to watch TV while knitting. We'll be traveling this weekend so if I haven't finished it by then this project will go with me. I will bring another project with me because The Hobbit scarf is not good for a traveling project. 

If tomorrow's weather is like today's I'll probably stay home and figure out what travel project I want to take and get it started. I like to make sure I start travel knitting projects at home so I can double check that the yarn/needles are the right ones for the project and that it's going to be something I like. I don't know if there are any yarn shops where we're going so I want to have everything ready before I go.

I have been thinking that I will continue to do my blog but I may not be posting every day. On days like today when there isn't much going on I don't think I'll make an entry. We'll see how it goes. So today is a short post but then like I said, nothing exciting is really going on. :-)

Singing, Fish, and Knitting

I think spring has finally come and isn't going anywhere for a while. It was another beautiful day outside. J actually wore shorts to school - their schools are hot because they don't have air conditioning. We were over at S's school today for her spring concert. The theme was Garden Hoedown and it was very cute. All the kids had bandanas tied around their necks and carried sunflowers (made from paper plates). They sang a bunch of songs and did a dance to Cotton-Eyed Joe. I was lucky enough to see it twice and it was adorable both times.

S has her special helper day on Friday and she wants to take a picture of her fish Bubbles. Here he is:

So far he's doing well - eating and swimming around. He seems to be adjusted to his new home.

Yesterday was the end of the contest for the Solar Flare shawl. I came in second place and that's fine with me. I know how it should have turned out and I had some bitter thoughts from time to time over this past week but now I've moved on. No sense in dwelling on it anymore. 

I've been busy knitting other things now. I finished my Outlander shawl and should get around to blocking it tomorrow. I also completed the first clue for my Game of Thrones MKAL. I have no clue what we're making - the designer didn't tell us ahead of time and there are no clues in the pattern as to what we are making. It is a true mystery knit-along. A lot of people are speculating that it's a poncho or some sort of shoulder-covering cowl. I'm just going to keep knitting and find out. Here's what it looks like so far:

I've also been working on the Hobbit scarf. I finally finished chart 1! Of course after I had finished it and taken the pictures I noticed a mistake. Most people probably won't notice it so I'm not going to tear it out to fix it. I love how it's coming out and it feels good to actually make progress on it. Next up are the stone trolls and Rivendell.

I had started a long cowl with some Unique Sheep yarn I have but I just wasn't liking it so I frogged it tonight. I'll let the yarn rest for a few days while I figure out what I am actually going to use it for. I will go through my patterns and maybe poke around on Ravelry to see if there's something that catches my eye. I liked the pattern I was doing but it just didn't seem to be working well with the yarn and I couldn't figure out why. All I know is that I wasn't happy with it and I like the yarn too much to leave it in something I don't like.

Now I'm going to go eat half a chocolate muffin (they are big so half is plenty) and catch up on Gotham. We didn't watch it last night because we were busy watching the Caps beat up on the Rangers. Go Caps!

Another Busy Saturday

Well, hockey is done for this weekend. J's team tried really hard but they were just outplayed by every team they faced in this tournament. J scored the team's one lone goal in their last game and earned himself player of the game. They gave him an adult size L t-shirt as his prize. Even though it is huge on him he proudly wore it home.

I'm really proud of him and the other kids on his team. They kept trying even when it was clear they had no hope of winning. But more importantly, they are good teammates to each other. A couple of kids got hurt during the game (they were fine) but the other kids took the time to check on them and make sure everyone was okay. They also made sure to let their goalies know it was okay after the other team scored goals. They may not win any games but they are definitely winning in the good sportsmanship category.

Hockey pretty much took up the whole day today. This morning I managed to get time to print out my final clue for my Outlander MKAL but I had no time to work on it. I'll be working on it after the kids are off to bed. Tomorrow I get my first clue for my Game of Thrones MKAL. Normally for an MKAL you have a general idea of what you're making -  a shawl, a hat, etc. For this MKAL I have no clue what we're making. All I know is that it takes three skeins of yarn and a size 10.5 circular needle. I'm thinking maybe a cowl but I won't know for sure until the clue comes out tomorrow. Hopefully it will be something easy enough to work on while I'm watching GoT.

GoT is one of the only shows we watch that hasn't ended it's season yet. We watch The Americans and Vikings and both shows have had their season finale. I watch Once Upon A Time but C doesn't, and I still have a few episodes of that left. We've watched the entire first season of DareDevil already. It was excellent! I can't wait for the second season so Netflix, hurry up and get it made! I'm behind on Outlander (again, C doesn't really watch it) so I have a few episodes of that on the DVR waiting for me. We'll have to do some searching around tonight to find something to watch because there isn't even a Caps hockey game on to watch - it was an afternoon game and the boneheads lost. Ah well, the next game will be in DC so hopefully they will win!

Tomorrow is suppose to be a beautiful day so I hope we can get out and do something fun. J has discovered that a bunch of his friends just live across the big road and S had a bunch of friends on the street so we may not end up going anywhere but outside into the neighbour's yard. We do need to go to the pet store and pick up a fist for S's tank that I finally got set up. J wants to go along - I think he thinks we'll get a dog there but this pet store doesn't sell dogs. I think he just wants to see all the animals. S says she wants a betta fish or possibly a goldfish. I don't think she really knows and will decide when we get there tomorrow. Any bets on which she'll get?

Burger #8

The girl child was feeling better today although her eyes still looked red so we let her stay home again today. By 10ish her eyes were actually looking a lot better so we decided to do a short road trip. C needed some paint from a gaming store in a town about an hour away so we climbed into the car and off we went.

Of course when we got there the gaming store wasn't where it was. At that point we realized it was almost lunchtime and we were hungry so we pulled up the Burger Love list to see what was available in the town we were in. We found one we wanted to try - Let It Ride:

The patty itself is 6 oz but it seemed like more to me because it was very densely packed. Because of that it wasn't as juicy as some of the other ones I've had. C said it almost tasted like it was cooked from frozen. I hope not because I thought all the burgers were suppose to be made from fresh meat. The dryness of the burger was a counterbalance to the messiness of the rest of it.

As you can see from the picture, things were oozing out of this burger before I even took a bite. My first bite sent all the messy stuff squishing out all over my hands. Those messy things started with a bacon and sweet onion jam, which was tasty. The cheese is a 2 year aged cheddar which I had trouble tasting - it got lost in all the messiness. 

There was also a rustic tomato chutney on the burger - that's the stuff oozing out on the plate in the picture - and a black pepper mayo. Both had good flavour but contributed to the messiness of the burger. There was also a spiced Parmesan crisp on the burger but with all the sauces it lost it's crispness. The lettuce on the burger was fresh and crisp though.

The bun is a pretzel bun and it held up very well to all the sauces on this burger. It was fresh, soft, and definitely tasted like a pretzel. The bottom of the bun was cut thick enough to support the burger. Overall, it was a good, middle of the pack burger.

What wasn't good was the wait for the food to come. I understand it was lunchtime and it was busy but the restaurant wasn't huge. The wait for our food was long. It's the second time during Burger Love that we've encountered slow service while waiting for our burgers. This isn't the first year that Burger Love has happened so restaurants know that if they are going to participate in this they need to step up their service. I'm not expecting my burger to come out in 5 minutes, but a 30 minute wait for a burger seems excessive to me.

In dental news, I thought my gum was healed where that damn tooth came out so I started chewing carefully on that side because I need to get back into chewing normally. Of course that's when I discovered that I don't think it healed correctly and could possibly have a small area of dry socket going on. Lovely, right? Of course it's Friday evening so the dentist isn't there anymore. I'll have to wait until at least Monday to call them. I have an appointment Wednesday so they'll probably tell me that if I can tolerate it to wait until I come in then to deal with it. Thankfully over the counter pain meds dull the ache enough that I can tolerate it. Let's hope that continues.

In knitting news, I am one flame shy of finishing my Solar Flare shawl. Here's what it looks like unblocked:

I really like how it came out. I will finish up that last flame - it's the smallest one so it will go quick - and then I'll start weaving in all those ends. I'm going to try to get them all finished up by tomorrow so I can block it and get my final picture up so people can start voting for it on Ravelry. I want first prize! :-)

A Day for Knitting and Cooking

S was still sick today, so I opted to keep her home from both J's hockey game (they lost their game but the coach was happy with the way they played) and the birthday party she was suppose to go to. I knew she really wasn't feeling well when she didn't put up a fight about not going to the party. She usually will protest about not going but today she just said okay. Yeah, not feeling well.

To keep her occupied, I started teaching her how to make a friendship bracelet. She got a kit for her birthday but I was concerned that the embroidery floss in it would be too hard for her to start learning with so I whipped out some yarn and we started with that. She is getting the hang of it but she got tired/bored after a few rows and said she'd work on it later. I think it is hard for her to concentrate with her nose being so stuffy. At least the medicine I have for her seems to be helping control the cough which is triggered by the runny/stuffy nose. Too bad the stuff only lasts 4-6 hours. It would be nice if it was at least 8 so she could sleep well tonight.

Because I was home today and S was content to just play/watch TV/rest, I was able to get a bunch of knitting done. I finished the first clue for the Outlander MKAL I'm working on. Here's what it looks like through clue 1:

I was reading through the comments on the spoilers thread on Ravelry and a lot of people seem to be having the same thought I've been having - that the yarn and the pattern are competing against each other rather than working together. Also, the photo above made me notice that the yarn is beginning to pool as we knitters call it - the colours are clumping up. I'll have to see how that continues. I looked to see if I had a solid colour to use but I don't have enough of anything in the right weight so I will just keep going and see how it turns out. Worse comes to worse I tear it out when it's done and use the yarn for something else.

I also got work done on my Solar Flare shawl. I made it through the clue for the third skein of yarn. It's hard to get a decent picture because I don't have long enough needles to show it all off but this is one section of it:

I have begun adding in skein 4 which has a lot more red in it and it looks really good. I can't wait to see it all spread out when it's done. The designer is going to release the clue for skein 5 this week so I will be able to keep plugging away at this one. It's definitely taking me longer to do each clue than the Snow Queen did. I think it's because there is less lace work in this one.

I also remembered to take pictures of my recently acquired yarn. Here is the Casterly Rock yarn for the GoT MKAL:

Yup, it totally reminds me of the Lannisters. I'm excited that GoT starts back up again on Sunday. The MKAL won't start until May so it won't be competing with the Outlander MKAL so much. I'm curious to see what we make with this because it definitely is a heavier weight yarn - it calls for size 10 needles. Perhaps a cowl?

This is the yarn my mom sent me for my birthday:

 

The yarn on the left side is 100% mink yarn and the colour is Aegean. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for but I'm sure I'll find something. The yarn on the right is from a company Simply Socks and it's 600 yarns of my favourite Unique Sheep yarn - Luxe. It came in a really cute zip-top bag which I will take a picture of tomorrow. I've seen a shawlette/scarf pattern that would be perfect for this yarn.

I didn't spend all day knitting - I made supper this evening. I made Feta-topped baked chicken, orzo, and Brussels sprouts. We had hummus and tzatziki sauce with pretzel chips as a snack type side (I dipped my chicken in the tzatziki sauce). For the Brussels sprouts I steamed them until tender but not overcooked and then tossed them with Parmesan cheese and butter. The Feta-topped baked chicken is so easy to make so I'll share the recipe:

Feta-Topped Baked Chicken

Oven 350F.

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I use chicken tenders)

2 Tbsp lemon juice, divided

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp oregano

1 cup Feta cheese

1/4 cup diced red bell pepper

1/4 cup diced fresh parsley

1. Arrange chicken in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

2. Drizzle chicken with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano.

3. Top chicken with Feta cheese and drizzle with the remaining lemon juice.

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes (25 for chicken tenders) or until the chicken is cooked through.

5. Sprinkle with red pepper and parsley before serving.

I typically forget to buy the red pepper and parsley and it tastes fine without it. When I do remember to buy them I like to throw the red pepper in with the Feta cheese on top of the chicken before baking. I serve this dish over orzo pasta that I've tossed with butter and sometimes extra Feta cheese (yes, we do like Feta cheese around here). It's an easy meal and so tasty. I can even get S to eat the baked chicken although hers can't have any Feta on it. Silly girl does not know what she's missing!

What day was it today?

This morning I was beginning to think it was Thursday instead of Friday. S woke up early this morning saying she was hot, dizzy, and couldn't open her eyes. The eyes part is from the medicine we have to put in them for the pinkeye she had last week. Thankfully we've put the last drops in tonight so tomorrow morning should be the last morning for that problem. The hot and dizzy was because she finally got the cold the doctor told us about last week. She has a nasty cough and was feverish this morning. Thankfully some medicine brought the fever down. I expect tomorrow morning will be the same as this morning because it usually takes her a few days to shake the fever part.

C was able to stay home with S this morning so that I was able to head to the dentist. While going to the dentist isn't on my top 10 list of things to do, I know I needed to go. The hygienist used some ultrasonic cleaner on my teeth to start with than turned to the medieval torture devices, otherwise known as dental picks? scrapers? I'm not sure what you call them but she used them on me. Between the cleaning and having to keep my mouth open for a very long time, I'm sore tonight. Next up with the dentist is the extraction next week. While I want that tooth out I'm not looking forward to the recovery.

After my dentist appointment, C had to take his tire to get it fixed. I noticed yesterday that his one tire seemed very low...to the point where it was flat. He took the tire off yesterday evening and J discovered a nail in it. So C loaded the tire into my car off he went to get it fixed. J had a fun time yesterday helping C take the tire off. He wasn't home from school yet when C put it back on. Next time a tire needs changing we may have to let J help.

C ended up taking J to hockey instead of all of us going to practice since S is sick. And in a way, I was glad I didn't go, although I do want to see him on the ice. The weather this afternoon was icky - cold, windy, and rainy. Of course with the rain I always worry about water coming into the garage. When he got back from hockey, C made sure the channel he had created the other week was open for the water to flow down. So far the water has stayed out of the garage. We'll continue to keep an eye on it until we head to bed.

C said that J did well again at hockey. He is continuing to work hard and do his best. We hope he can translate that into having a good game tomorrow. I want to go to the game but if S is still sick we'll have to skip it. She's suppose to go to a birthday party tomorrow but considering how sick she was today, I doubt she'll be going anywhere tomorrow. I would like her to be well enough to go out to lunch on Sunday for my birthday and back to school on Monday because she is suppose to be the special helper on Monday. She has missed her past two special helper days because she's been sick both times. At least this time she got sick a few days before her helper day instead of the day before.

My mom sent me some beautiful mink yarn in shades of blue for my birthday. I will take pictures of it and the Casterly Rock yarn tomorrow when the light is better. I forgot to take the Casterly Rock picture this morning like I planned. I have also decided on the colour I'm going to use for my next Unique Sheep MKAL based on The Once and Future King. I decided to use the colour called The Raven and the Fox. It's hard to describe the colour so here's a picture of it:

That yarn base is different than what I will be using. Different yarns take the dyes differently, so I contacted the wonderful ladies at TUS to find out which yarn base in the weight I need will most closely match the picture. I was happy to find out that the yarn I wanted is the one that will be the closest match. It's a blend of wool and silk. It will be 3 to 4 weeks until my yarn ships, but that's fine because the KAL doesn't start until July. Yay for summer knitting! I will have to beach proof my project bags so I can take it to the beach with me. Ahhh...beach...with today's weather I can't wait for summer and the beach!

Burger #4...and other things

I got my linen closet and drawer cleaned out today. Two bags of linens went to the donation centre, as well as a bag of clothes that I'd been holding on to for a while. I thought I might want some of the clothes in the bag but since I hadn't even looked at the bag since I got my snow tires on. So the bag went in the back of the car with the other things and off to the donation centre they went.

Over near the donation centre is another restaurant that is participating in Burger Love. After checking it out online I decided it was one I wanted to try. I'll admit there are some that I have no interest in trying, but this one looked good. It's called the Ciao Bella and it is at Papa Joe's restaurant. Papa Joe's has one Burger Love in the past. I'm not sure if this one will win this year, but it was a good burger.

First, the patty - it is 7 oz and was juicy and not too dense. It was topped with crispy fried onions which were crispy! I'm not a big fan of onions, but these were good. It also had bacon, aged white cheddar and goat cheese on it. I didn't like the garlic goat cheese on the Sucker Punch but it worked on the Ciao Bella because of the other things on the burger. There was a sundried and Roma tomato chutney on it which went really well with the goat cheese. Adding to the flavour (not competing with it) was arugula tossed in housemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The goat cheese, the chutney, and the arugula all worked together to give it an Italian/Mediterranean taste. 

The bun, a toasted onion poppy seed bun, was hearty enough to handle all these ingredients. It was nice and fresh and the bottom bun was cut thick enough to support the burger, which was nice since the chutney was a bit drippy. The bun was garnished with a spicy pickled red onion (zingy!), a gerkin (tasty, and I don't like gerkins), a dried roma tomato slice (crispy), and a piece of candied bacon (delicious). All in all, I liked this one. I'd rank it in third place out of the four I've tried so far. Here's what it looks like:

I have to say, I'm loving Burger Love month but I am glad it is only for 30 days. Any more than that and I'd start to have burger overload. I know there are some people who have tried 10, even 20 burgers. Not me! I can only handle one every few days. My next one will probably be on Sunday.

Oh, I took a picture of the apron I won. I think it's cute. I'll have to wear it the next time I make potatoes. :-)

Tomorrow morning I am off to the dentist but it should be an easy appointment. They are doing my cleaning. Of course they will reschedule my fillings that I was suppose to have today. I kind of wanted to get that appointment over with but the dentist couldn't make it for some reason. Maybe they will combine the fillings with the extraction next week. I'll find out tomorrow.

New yarn arrived today for a MKAL that doesn't start until May. I didn't expect the yarn to arrive already but it did. The colour is Casterly Rock and I believe this will be a shawl or possibly a cowl. It's thicker yarn than I've been working with so it will be a nice change. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow when the light is better. I'm still working on my Solar Flare shawl - I'm on skein 3 now - as well as the Outlander shawl. The next clue for both KALs will be coming out this weekend, so I better get knitting if I'm going to be ready for them!

Too Much Going On

Today there is too much going on, but probably not in the way you think. It's actually been a pretty calm day - no after school activities. Here's how there's too much going on...

I started a new knitting project today. It's another mystery KAL (I seem to be into those lately). The theme of this one is Outlander. I like the pattern so far, and I like the yarn, but I'm not so sure I like them together. Here is the yarn:

It's a pretty combination of purples, blues, and grays and it's named Craigh na Dun after the stones that sent Claire back in time. And here it is knit up into the beginnings of the shawl:

I really like the pattern - it has reversible cables which is really cool. I'm just worried that there is too much going on with this yarn and this pattern. I'm afraid that the pattern will get too lost in the colour changes of the yarn. Perhaps as the shawl gets wider the colours will stretch out more and it won't look so busy. I think this pattern would look really lovely on a solid colour yarn. I'll wait until I finish the first clue and then decide if I'm going to tear it out and start again with a solid colour. I bought the yarn specifically for this KAL but if I'm not loving the combination, I won't hesitate to tear it out and use the yarn for something else and grab something from my stash for the KAL.

And speaking of too much going on, we went out for supper tonight and I tried my third Burger Love burger tonight - the Sucker Punch at Phinleys. Here's the picture of it:

Out of the three I've tried so far, I would put this one in third place. The burgers (it has two 4 oz patties) were juicy and not too dense. I would have preferred a single 6 oz burger instead of two patties. The crispy onion tanglers kind of got lost on the burger; I didn't notice any crunch in my burger as I ate it.

I wasn't so sure about the combination of the whipped garlic goat cheese and the cajun chocolate covered bacon. The bacon, well, it's bacon and you can't go wrong with that. It had a subtle chocolate flavour to it but I didn't notice any spiciness from the cajun part of it. The garlic goat cheese tasted out of place to me. Even though there was only a small amount on the burger, it seemed to overpower the other flavours. 

The Sweet & Smokey Cream Sauce and the Chipotle Molasses BBQ Mayo added more flavour to it and they seemed to be competing with each other instead of complementing each other. The Cheddar Jalapeno Kaiser was fresh but like the Dubster, the bottom bun just didn't seem hearty enough to handle all the burger. My bottom bun became soggy with the sauce and mayo combo. It was a messy burger to eat. The burger did come with a bubble gum sucker stuck into it. Since I don't like bubble gum, I will pass it on to J.

I'm glad I tried it because I had been hearing from people about how tasty it was but honestly, it wasn't my taste. There was just too many flavours going on and they all seemed to be competing with each other instead of working together. And honestly, after trying two spicy burgers first, I missed the heat they had. Of course, this is just my opinion and I know a lot of others out there have enjoyed it. I tend to judge the burgers by whether or not I would order them again. And the Sucker Punch goes on the not list. Next time we go to this restaurant, I'll stick with my usual meals.

Picture Monday!

The past few times I went to write my blog I forgot to transfer the pictures of the Easter eggs to my computer. Today I remembered. And I finished my Snow Queen shawl completely today - I got the ends woven in and blocked it and took pictures of it. So, today's blog will be a picture blog. :-)

First, the bunny eggs. S's in on the left, J's is on the right:

Next, the Creeper eggs, with J's on the left and C's on the right:

Now, it's time for S's tiger and chick eggs:

J made an Ironman egg and C did one up as Homer:

And last but not least with the eggs, my rainbow egg and C's rainbow egg:

But we're not done with photos yet. Here are the pictures of the finished Snow Queen shawl. I am amazed at how it turned out. I shared the picture on Ravelry and I am humbled by the compliments I am getting there. I can't take all the credit - the designer did an amazing job and the pattern was so well written that it made knitting this easy. I am really excited now about the next mystery KAL.

This one shows a bit of the details.

J had two sessions of hockey today but C was able to take him so I was able to keep S home. Her eyes are looking better but she still looks like she's been up all night with the amount of red in her eyes. I decided to keep her home from soccer today because of how they looked but she should be good for school tomorrow. She's not contagious anymore so it's just appearance now and they keep improving. I expect by tomorrow she should look much more normal - at least I hope she does!