Feline Fridays

Ezra is super excited about Xmas. You can see it in her eyes.

Slippers!

The slippers for my dad are complete. Lily has put in a request for a pair of her own. As of late she has been requesting many things. First the fingerless mitts, next a new ear flap hat (I haven't started it yet) and now slippers. What does she think I do all day? Just knit?!?! LOL

Lotsa Little Xmas Knits

I've been a busy beaver getting all sorts of little xmas gifts (and one birthday gift) knit up. Here's what I have so far ...

Hats for my nephews:

A cowl for my sister; it's finished but I didn't get an FO shot of it:

Two more cowls, one for my friend Christine's birthday (purple) and one for my boss for xmas:

Slippers for my uncle (shown) and dad (not finished yet):

Four pairs of fingerless mitts, though I forgot to take pictures of the blue pair. Two pairs (purple and blue) are teacher gifts, one (black) is for the person I have at work for Secret Santa and the fourth pair (purple variegated) are the ones my daughter begged me for.

Oh and I also finished my Cygnus cardigan. It does still need blocking and buttons, but otherwise it's finished (and it fits!):

Right now I'm working on what I believe to be my last xmas gift (Dad's slippers). After that I am probably going to cast on for Ethan's Greyson sweater. He's pretty excited. 

Feline Fridays

For four years we have played host to an Elf on the Shelf named Jerry. He's a sweet little guy, doesn't get into much trouble, he just loves a good game of hide and seek. Monday evening Ruby found where he was hiding and helped expose him to the rest of us.

Fifteen

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of my motherhood.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, funny, intelligent, crazy son Owen!

My Famdamily is Awesome

We went to Michael's work xmas party today. Our family had a blast. Also, it was (there and back) over two hours of driving so I got one fingerless mitt of a teacher gift finished. :)

Santa was there, it was an open bar (I behaved) and there was a 'professional photo booth' ... here are our pictures ...

The first take.

Silly faces.

LOVE!!

Feline(s) Fridays

We usually don't put up our Yule tree until the 15th of December due to Owen's birthday being on the 14th and we like to keep the celebrations separate. However, on Wednesday Ethan asked Owen if we could put the tree up (no decorations) before the 14th and Owen said yes.

So far the girls have been good about the tree. Last year Ezra mostly ignored it. She stole a couple ornaments, but she didn't wreck anything. I didn't know how Ruby would react. She's a little bugger, so it could be anything.

We have a big Santa hat wearing bear so I figured I'd set it up beside the tree and keep my camera on the ready. The results, thus far, have not been disappointing.

Enjoy! :)

Ezra looking pretty in her holiday collar.

"Hey Ezra, what do you see outside?"

Pretty little girl with a long tail.

"The bear fell down on his own."

Om nom nom nom

Ruby is mischievous.

This looks like a comfy spot ...

All tuckered out from playing with the bear.

Blondes Have More Fun!

I've always been blonde, but as I've aged it has gone from a nice light natural blonde to a dark and dingy blonde. I've been having it bleached (or sometimes coloured, usually red) for about 7 years, but for the last year or so I have been growing it out. Yesterday I decided it's time to get back to blonde.

The before.

Waiting for the magic to work.

I had some pretty dead ends as well, so I had her take about 5cm off the bottoms and clean it all up with some long layers. I'm happy with the result. :)

The end result.

This little gaffer is Oliver. He's my hairdresser's kitten. He's only about 5 months old, but he's a big boy. He is so sweet. He likes to snuggle on laps under the cape while she's doing her client's hair. My lap was no exception. He got up, snuggled and purred like mad. Next time I won't wear black.

Oliver

Today Is The Day

It's really no surprise (if you can tell by the content, or lack thereof, in this blog) I haven't been running much lately. Like not at all. I can still run a decent 5km without dying, but my distance went from an easy 15km back down to an easy 5km.

Today is the day that all changes.

I need to find a way to make myself accountable, so I'm putting it in writing.

Today I begin my quest to train for another half marathon (21.1km). I'm hoping hubby will join me, however, if he doesn't that won't make or break my plan.

Wish me luck.

Feline Fridays

Ezra shows off her study skills. She's such a smart girl.

Knits, etc ...

Good morning and happy Tuesday!

Just a quick post update about my recent knits.

My co-workers are having a baby girl in January and her name will Lydia. I work with the woman of the co-worker couple, Amanda, she's a fantastic lady. She loves Beetlejuice, skulls, black and red and animals. So I decided to knit baby items to suit her likes.

Beetlejuice jacket

Add caption

My most recent FO is a cowl for my Mom for xmas. I used Lion Brand Heartland in “Hot Springs”. It is actually one of the better acrylics I’ve knit with. Very soft and not splitty at all. I don’t know that I’ve used any of the Lion Brand products before, but I can say I’ll likely use this one again. The pattern is Harvest Loop.

My newest knit is a Honey Cowl for my friend who has a birthday coming up. I'm about halfway finished, but don't have any decent pictures to share. This is the third time I've knit this pattern. It's a really great cowl. I'm using Wandering Cat Yarns Barn Cat in Wicked Nights.

Wonderland!

Michael started working for a new company a couple months ago. It's a really great company with a fantastic crew. He's really enjoying it. I'm happy for him. It's right up his ally. One of the nice things about this company is they understand how important family time is so two weekends each September they offer free tickets to Canada's Wonderland for employees and their families. The day we chose to go was Sept 10th. The weatherman was calling for rain all day (and even a tornado watch) but that didn't stop us. It poured down rain on our drive there, but we were not worried; we had our handy dandy Dollarama rain ponchos and were completely prepared to be soaked.

However, the rain stopped, and despite the mostly cloudy sky, the day was perfect. Lineups for the rides were short (the park was not very busy at all -- probably due to those tornado warnings). The longest we waited for any ride was about 10 minutes.

We took a picnic lunch to eat in the parking lot. Healthier and much less expensive than buying park food. And afterwards we went to the Pickle Barrel for dinner.

We all had a blast.

Ethan and I

Owen and I

Michael and I -- gotta love that windblown roller coaster ride look.

My boys and I being silly -- Our "That's a Scary Ride" faces.

Owen and Michael getting ready for the Behemoth roller coaster (it's a biggie).

Lily and I being photobombed by Ethan.

Lily and I

We're already looking forward to next year!! :) Next year maybe I'll go on the two biggest roller coasters (Behemoth and Leviathan) with Owen and Michael -- MAYBE. This year I was too chicken, and don't worry, they don't let me forget it. :)

Yes, I've Been Knitting ...

I drop a bomb of "we've got a new kitten" and then stop posting; what kind of human being am I for depriving you all of the furry cuteness ... well, here you go ...

As you can see, Ruby is awfully helpful with both posing with FOs and WIPs. What you cannot see is her proficiency with chewing the cord on my knitpicks interchangeables ... little brat.

Oh, and would you look at that?! I've been busy knitting as well. My cousin just gave birth to a little boy and my co-worker is expecting a baby girl in mid-January 2017. :)

Ezra -- not to be at a loss for attention -- has decided a good way to get mine is to hunker down on my laptop.

Lucky 13

Last weekend was a weekend of birthdays. On the 19th my youngest son, Ethan, turned nine. We had his birthday planned out for quite some time. He'd been target shooting with Owen using Owen's bb gun and getting pretty good at it, so we decided it was time for him to have his own bb gun. He was over the moon. We live in the city so he hasn't actually used it yet, but this weekend we'll be heading to a safe place for him to use it.

Nine year old!

On the 20th my daughter, Lily, turned thirteen. I was planning to get her a Pandora bracelet, but hubby had other plans. I had shown him, like I always do, a cute SPCA kitten that had come into my store for adoption. I don't show him all the kittens, just the ones I think are exceptionally adorable. He must have had an epiphany, because when I got home from work he decided we needed to get that kitten for Lily for her birthday ... we discussed we'd sleep on it, but I had the girls at work put the kitten on hold until noon. At 11am I said "well, have you decided?" and he had. So we took Lily to my work on the premise we needed to buy cat litter but then would be heading to the mall. The cage with the kitten on it said "I'M ADOPTED." Michael opened the cage door and started petting her while I grabbed the litter, and then I came up, plucked her out of the cage and said to Lily "She's adopted, but would you like to hold her?" Lily said yes. Michael asked my co-worker for a marker and wrote "To: Lily" under the "I'M ADOPTED" ... Lily read what he said, looked at the kitten, looked back at the sign and said "wait! WHAT?" Michael said "she's yours Lily" and this is the picture I captured ...

I then said to Lily, "she's yours if you want her, but if you don't want a kitten we'll get you something else." To make a long story short ...

Meet Ruby. She's a little ball of adorable mischief. She and Ezra get along swimmingly, and soon we'll be teaching her about the excitement of RV'ing like we did Ezra. The dogs like her too (and vice versa) but they like everyone so that was a given. :)

PS. Lily will be getting the Pandora bracelet for Christmas. :)