It is often said that being a parent is amazing and wonderful but I don’t think you can realize how true it is until you are living it.  The thing that I like best is seeing my son try and do things that he’s seen done.  Or apply something he’s learned to something else.  Children’s minds are so amazing.  I’m always wondering what’s going on in there because I see him taking things in and processing them.  Every so often my son does something that is so utterly sweet and special and he has no idea.  To me, witnessing those moments is the joy of being a parent.

Joshua has been helping me water the outdoor plants.  It’s been so hot (already), really I use it as a way for him to cool off and have some fun.  My plants are getting a wee bit trampled in the process but they’ll grow back.  I hope.  Anyway, he watches me with the hose and the watering can and he helps me fill the watering can and carry it and tip it over.  And he loves to put his hands in the water as it pours out.  Typical little kid things.

Yesterday, I was watering some of the indoor plants and when the watering can was empty (I’m no fool) I let him play with it.  I turned around to see this.

It was one of those squeeze your heart type moments.  I don’t know why he thought to “water” the books, but he was so methodical and careful about it.  He did all three shelves, and hit various books on each shelf.  I think it is one of the absolute sweetest things I’ve seen.  And of course it doesn’t hurt that he was showing off those baby thighs which are my favorite baby part!

Again, I wondered what was going through that little brain of his.  What made him apply what he’s seen me do with the plants and flowers to the books.  It doesn’t really matter.  I’m just glad I saw it happen.

I hadn’t intended to be “gone” so long.  We went on vacation for a week at the beginning of the month and the next thing I knew, it’s practically May.  I’ve also worked every weekend for the last three weeks so that makes the time zoom by for me.  Anyhoo…

We went to Portland and Vancouver for a week.  Two days in Portland, then we drove up to Vancouver, BC, for the weekend.  Friends who live in Tacoma, WA, met us there and we rented a condo for all of us (4 adults, 3 kids).  It was fun!  Overcast and a little rainy, but we made the best of it.  Vancouver is beautiful.  It’s a smaller city than I imagined, very walkable, kid friendly with some great food and beer.  We enjoyed visiting with our friends and having the kids play.  We drove back to Portland, and spent two more days there and then headed home.  Portland was also wonderful.  Cute neighborhoods, also very walkable.  Some great parks that Joshua enjoyed.  It was also rainy and overcast but that didn’t stop us.  We drove out to Multnomah Falls and explored the Columbia River Gorge area one day.  We spent one afternoon walking in the Pearl District.  I found a needlepoint store, knitting store, and fabric store all in a row.  I was in heaven.  We went to Powell’s Books which was amazing.  I think we could have spent hours there, and also a lot of $$$, but we limited ourselves to one book for Joshua.  The bookstore was so amazingly organized.  The kids section was huge.  Bill and I certainly enjoyed it.

It was a nice vacation.  Not fabulous, but nice,  Great to get away from our daily routines and spend time together.  I really wanted to explore some place new.  It just ended up being more driving and time in the car than we planned on and was about one day too long.  Joshua was so good considering he was almost always strapped into something and the places we stayed were much smaller than home, with far fewer toys and no furry friends.  But he was a trooper and a pleasant little travel buddy.  Funny thing though, when we walked into our house, both Bill and I thought “this place is huge” after all the hotel rooms and small condos we had been in.

The Pacific Northwest is beautiful and I would definitely go back and explore more.  Preferably when the sun is out.

And it would have to happen on a national holiday.  I was sitting down with my knitting and the Blackhawks game when “crack”.  knitting needle in two pieces.  Bugger.

My interchangeable tip cracked.  And that was my only set of size 5s.  Grrr…  Thankfully it is not the end of the world, just an inconvenience.  I am knitting off a size 4 tip, and knitting with the size 5 tip.  After every row, I have to remember to switch the tips.  Grrr…  I’m so close to finishing a project that I didn’t want to lose a few ours of precious knitting time.

On a happier note, Happy Easter!

Hope you had a lovely day!

…to bring you something new.  Lace.  And Cashmere.  Yum.

Two weeks ago, I saw this yarn at the store.  We have previously carried the Art Yarns Cashmere 1, but I hadn’t seen it in the gorgeous teal we now had in the store.  (My photo does not do the color justice.)  Of course I had to have it.  Two of it, actually.  I want a long scarf and wasn’t willing to sacrifice width for length.  Instead, I sacrificed some dinero.

I was itching to cast it on.  Forget the fact that I am in the home stretch of a sweater and have two linen stitch scarves on the needles.  Tonight I casted on and did a full repeat of the pattern.  It is soooo nice.  Sooooo soft.  I’m going to put it down for now to finish my sweater, but I’m excited to get back to it.  Did I mention how soffffft it is?

I know, you’re probably pretty tired of hearing all my weed talk.  But not as tired of it as I am of pulling weeds.  I will say that I have made significant progress.  I can see the end in sight.  And I have about 6 days to get there.  I was getting pretty mad about having to do all the work by myself.  Not that there’s really anyway for Bill to help me seeing as how he works all day and our evenings just fly by.  A week ago Sunday he watched Joshua while I pulled weeds and they carried my buckets of garbage to the curb.  That made the job so much better.  They did the same on Saturday, and Bill was even able to help me clear out a little section.  So I got my help!

Here’s a before picture, but it’s more of a halfway done picture.  I had already cleared out a section on the left.  The weeds are so tall you can barely see 3 earthboxes up by the fence.

And after…

And then this was Saturday’s project.  Anywhere where there is dirt there used to be weeds.  I got to about the third stepping stone.

This is what I have left, plus around the house to the right which I haven’t photographed.

It is progress and looks so much better.  By the time I finished I’ll have to get started again.  I’m going to have to be much more disciplined in the maintenance.

March, as a result, has become the month of the weeds.  April is going to be the month of the living room.  I have a couple of things to finish up in there (shelves to hang, pillows to make).  It looks nice but needs that polish.  I’m going to make that my goal for the month.  Then May will be the month of the master bedroom.  I’m not talking major overhaul, just working on some of the details that make a nice room look great.

And speaking of great, Bill picked up a couple of orchids at the farmer’s market.  I love how they look.

These colors make me happy!

Spring has sprung here in the South Bay area.  Actually, things have been blooming for about a month already.  Including weeds in my yard.  We’ve really only landscaped one part of the front of the house so that’s all I really pay attention to.  There’s rocks around the plants, but we never put liner down first so weeks pop up.  I’m paying the price for not keeping up with the weeding during the last couple of months.  Surprise, surprise, now I’m finding the job overwhelming.  I just do not like to do it.  I don’t like worms and bugs and I especially do not spiders.  YUCK.   Anyway, last week I finally decided to get started on the job.  I’m doing it in short bursts, sections at a time.  15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever time I’ve got.  Today I finished the front of the landscaped part.  Now the “yard” area is bad.  It’s all rocks, but there’s tons of weeds there and I don’t really want to use weed killer (chemicals) and I don’t really want to pull all those weeds which won’t kill them either it will just make it look better.  I’ve still got to figure out what to do there.

Hmmm…  Which part is done, and which part isn’t?

See those green tufts in the rocks?  Weeds.  What is visible in the photo is nothing compared to what you don’t see.  But aren’t my guys cute?

And the backyard.  I can’t even stand it.  We’re going to have the backyard redone this year, but I don’t know what to do in the mean time.  It is out of control.

I have been cutting lots of fabric.  I cut fabric for two Swoon quilts.  I ended up buying some new fabric for the QAL with my friend, but the solid fabric is coming from my stash.  At least I’m using up some stash fabric.  The other fabric is a Halloween print I bought last year.  It’s very cute and playful and I think it will be fun.

Then, I was inspired to do a different quilt based on this picture.  My quilt with be a little different since it is not all HSTs.  I drew it out and have it all planned and the fabric is cut.  I am a little short on my solid color, I need 10 more squares.  It is sold out on fabric.com and I went to one fabric store yesterday.  I have another store to check out, but if I can’t get it there, I do have a backup plan.    This quilt is being done with all stash fabric which is part of the problem.  And I have ideas for so many more quilts.

I did another paper pieced star.  Again, happy with how it turned out!  I have fabric cut for three more.

So many quilts, so little time.

Or rather it is what I didn’t do that I am proud of.  This past weekend was Stitches West.  It’s a huge knitting convention close to my house.  I’ve lived here for almost four years and never been.  I lived in Maryland for eight years before I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival.  Anyhoo, I really wanted to go to Stitches this year.  Find out what all the excitement was about.  But I have yarn coming out of my ears and I knew that going was going to mean more yarn.  I am out of room in the yarn armoire and I don’t want to have the stash spread beyond the armoire.  So I didn’t go!  Which isn’t to say it didn’t cross my mind every day.  I was ready to throw Joshua in the car on Friday and go.  And then Bill telling me he’d watch the baby while I went on Saturday or Sunday made it so hard to stay strong, but stay strong I did.  I even went so far as too look at the vendor list.  Instead, I went to the store to check out new shipments that had come in (Koigu!  Tosh!) and I did add a few skeins that way but not what would have come home with me from Stitches.

I couldn’t resist this Koigu yarn.  It makes me so happy.  Not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I LOVE it!!

However, next year I am all over Stitches.  In preparation, I’m going to spend the rest of the year knitting down my stash so I have room for more good stuff!!!  I picked up a sweater I started two years ago.  It freed up no room in the yarn armoire.

I needed some sort of protector for my landing strip.  It’s the place where we toss our keys, loose change, things we need to grab as we head out the door…  A lacey thing didn’t really fit, and I wasn’t feeling something very quilted and I’m loving the chevrons right now.  So I made a simple little crocheted edge placemat.  Thank goodness for this tutorial.  This was about a 4 day project, abut 2 hours a day, that took a week.  One day to cut fabric, one day to sew it together, one day for part 3 of the tutorial and a final day for part 4.  I like it a lot.  Certainly not perfect (not sure it’s truly rectangular but am too lazy to check) but it makes me happy.

I finished a shawl this week.  Started cutting fabric for a new quilt, inspired by this one.  Picked up a sweater I started about 2 years ago.  Have done a ton of laundry.  And have been constantly entertained by my family.

I’m going to go peek in on my little guy who’s fast asleep and then spend some time on my sweater now.  Later!