They arrived!

Oh, my beautiful hooks arrived in the mail this afternoon! So, of course I immediately grabbed some yummy yarn and swatched away! The dark hook is the glorious Ironwood size G (yarn is Jaeger Roma in Fern). The lighter hook is the luscious Crabapple size H (yarn is Filatura Lanarota Puno in a Beaujolais sort of color) Aren't they lovely? They feel like a dream in my hand. The curve rests perfectly in my palm; they are oh-so-smooth and slide through the yarn "like buttah" I am now officially addicted to Jimbo's hooks!

I was the high bidder!

Now-- not one, but two of Jimbo's gorgeous hooks will be winging their way to me. I am very excited. I will be able to transform wonderful yarns into things of beauty with hooks that are works of art in their own right. I will definitly post pictures when I get them. Thank you Jimbo!

Shawl pin obsession

Yet another shawl pin. This one I made with wooden beads as well as some ceramic, glass and metal ones. I also used 26 gauge wire-- I think I prefer it with a thicker wire; the others I made are a little more stiff.

On another note-- I placed some bids on some hooks Jimbo has for auction on his blog http://www.jimbosfrontporch.blogspot.com/

Aren't they the most heavenly crochet hooks you have ever seen? Oh, I really hope I win one this time-- I'm starting to get a bit anxious!

Pretty shiny things for my shawls

Here are the 3 shawl pins I made the other day. I am working on perfecting how to make them. I use sanded and stained pieces of a dowel rod as the "pins" (well,except for the blue one, I haven't finished the pin for that one so I had to use a crochet hook, if I had used a DPN it'd probably work better). Now I just have to finish the 3 shawls to go with them. Hey, one shawl/ pin combo is actually for little 'ole me-- can you belive it-- I'm actually making something for myself.

Looking at things through a child's eyes

Yesterday, at 6:30 AM we had to leave the house to get my husband to the airport. I was tired and grumpy because I had to get up earlier than usual. I was stressed because my husband was going to be out of the country for a little while. As I bundled my girls in the car in the frigid cold weather my elder daughter asked, "Is it still night?" I said, "No, just very early in the morning it will be light soon." and she replied, "Cool, we'll get to see the sunrise!"

All I could think about was how tired and cold and stressed I was. It took my daughter to remind me to look at the positive. It made me smile. So, when you are in a bad mood or worried about something-- just think of all of the good things that are happening all around you. Enjoy life!

To market, to market...

I don't think of myself as super "green"-- but I really do like to bring my own shopping bags to the market. (Don't you just hate having all of those little plastic grocery sacks in the house? I swear they multiply and you end up with a bin full of them if you're not careful) Anyway, I digress. I like to crochet my own bags; I just pick up my hook and some cotton yarn and have fun-- I really enjoy making them up as I go along; they're really simple to make. Here are my 2 most recent bags.
The second one is done with fptr, ch 3, sk 3 sts, fptr all around and it seems more sturdy than the net stitch (sc, ch 5, sk 3 sts, sc) on the first one. I think I will use the fptr more it really keeps the bag from stretching out.

Simple Joys

Today my little one got to splash in puddles after we dropped her sister off at school. She got soaking wet, but I didn't care-- she was so happy to finally be able to do something outside. She laughed and splashed and ran around. She was so joyful; it made me happy to see her enjoyment. I hope this helps her attitude problem! I know I'm happy with the warmer weather; yesterday we set a record high of 59 and today the temperature is in the low 50's. Better than the high of 14 we had just a week ago!

Toddler Troubles! Preschooler Problems!

My 2 and a half year old daughter is making me absolutely insane! She's going through a particularly defiant and angry stage in her development and my patience is really wearing thin. She has been pushing and hitting her sister, screaming and flailing when she does not get her way, shouting "NO!"when I ask her to do something (like sitting down during dinner and other "unreasonable" demands like that). It is getting to the point that I do not want to take her anywhere-- even getting in and out of the car is a fight. I know "this too shall pass" but I'm not sure I can hang on until it does.

Now, my 4 year old is a handfull lately too! I taught her a new word the other day-- "Contrary".
I hear a lot of "I won't, I don't, I can't." We watched the Little Mermaid 2 yesterday for the first time and when it was over I said, "That was a good movie!" and she said, "No, it wasn't!" Now, she was smiling and laughing the whole time, but I guess she has to disagree with everything I say.

Maybe my girls have really bad cabin fever. It has been a very cold and snowy winter and we haven't been doing very much. I don't feel like leaving the house much myself, so I'm sure my attitude does not help. All I know is that I need to figure out what to do. I am loathe to take them out, however, because they give me such a hard time. It's a vicious cycle.

Well, here's a funny story, my 2 year old has taken to wandering around the kitchen during dinner. This has caused me and her father all sorts of grief-- proper family dinner is important to us. So she's dancing around instead of eating and we tell her to sit down and she says, "No, I the queen, I the bossy queen, I don't sit down." We got her to sit for a few minutes eventually, but she kept chanting "Bossy Queen, Bossy Queen." all through dinner. It's a good thing she's cute!

I didn't know going to the theatre was dangerous!

Yesterday my in-laws, husband children and I went in to downtown Detroit to see "Sesame Street Live" at the Fox Theatre. It is a beautiful old theatre, designed back in the good old days, with a marble staircase, gilt statues, velvet seats... it transports you back to the 20's. Well, I took my crocheting bag with me so I could keep my hands busy while waiting for the show to start (yes, I'm that obsessed!). As we were filing in I noticed there were metal detectors at the doors. "Hmmm," I thought, "I wasn't expecting that." When the security man asked to look in my bag I told him I'd probably set off the metal detector because I had a small pair of scissors (to cut the yarn) in my bag. I was told I could not bring them into the theatre so I had to bring them back to my car. I complied, rules are rules after all, but the whole experience has made me a little sad.

I assume there have been some problems with people bringing knives or guns into the theatre. (Either that or they were worried I was a terrorist or something.) I am not sure what they thought a suburban housewife with her family was going to do with a 5 inch long pair of scissors... did they think I'd rush the stage and give Elmo a haircut? However it is, it is a sad commentary on our society that theatres (and sports arenas for that matter) have to take such precautions to keep violence out.