no more apologies

Peer pressure. Blog pressure. Bleer Pressure?

I always feel guilty that I don't have tons of pictures to accompany my posts. Truth be told I love to take pictures but I don't have a little point and shoot to capture some of the day to day stuff. All of the blogs that I always visit have lots of pictures of the dinner they made, the latest knitting/craft project they're working on, kids, etc. I'd love to do the same but I'm just flat out exhausted, and the thought of having to do more photo related work stresses me out. I started the blog to write about what was going on in my life and knitting that I've done. But I feel guilty about not having pictures to post so I don't write. It's a vicious little circle.

Today we finally had the birthday party for my daughter. Poor thing was born in the middle of January which just isn't conducive to get-togethers. Inevitably someone is sick or there is a snow/ice storm and this year was no exception. We had planned to have her party last Sunday but we had about 8" of snow last weekend so we post-postponed it to today. She wanted to have a tea party (which she had last year too). The girl is nothing if not consistent :-) However it was a tea party with a Cinderella theme since my girl is positively obsessed with Cinderella. For the last two Halloweens she has gone as Cinderella. We have not one, not two, but three Cinderella costumes. And every single day she carefully brushes her hair and wears the exact same Cinderella headband which came with her first costume.

We invited five other little preschoolers over to the studio for the party. After everyone was there they had the option of changing into dress up clothes and then we proceeded with the glamour girl make-over. We painted fingernails, put on make-up and curled their hair. After a brief fashion show I then took pictures of each of the girls.

Then it was on to tea time. My wonderful husband had helped me prepare the tea sandwiches ahead of time. We made chicken salad sandwiches cut into little triangles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into heart shapes and cream cheese and jelly sandwiches cut into circles. We also served a veggie tray to get in something at least a little nutritious. The tea was actually Arnold Palmers (1 part lemonade 1 part iced tea), requested by the birthday girl herself.

While the girls munched on the goodies I quickly downloaded all the pictures and did a quick Photoshop job on them and then printed them out on our little Epson PhotoMate. Then I slipped each 4x6 into a little clear acrylic frame I got at Wal-Mart.

For cake I made a Cinderella cake of course! I have a special pan I bought a number of years ago to make all of the Barbie-style cakes that the girls always want. It's taller than the Wilton pan, and makes the perfect size cake. I did do something new this year though and used fondant for the skirt over the butter cream.

Sabrina had a great time at her party as did all of the other little princesses :-) It was a super busy day but fun. Now we're at home recovering from all the non-stop running of the weekend.

Last night I did manage to do my gauge swatch for the Drive-Thru sweater (I did finish the ballet slippers but I still need to buy the soles to sew on the bottom. But knitting-wise, they're done!). I had started to cast-on and then remembered I hadn't done the gauge swatch yet. So I reluctantly tore out the cast-on and then started the gauge swatch. Good thing I did, I ended up having to go up a needle size to get gauge. Can not imagine how frustrated I would have been if I had started working on it without having gauge!

Tonight I'm going to finally get down to work on it. I've decided to make the cardigan version and will be knitting it in her favorite color, sunshine (a.k.a. yellow). The contrasting stripes of the yoke will be lavender, light green and light pink. And since I've decided not to pressure myself any more I'm not going to promise photos. Knitting is suppose to be relaxing and enjoyable and I refuse to turn it into another obligation or job by giving myself one more thing to do on my to do list. If I feel like taking pictures I will but I'm not going to apologize about it any more.

I am so cold...

Brrrr. I. Am. So. Cold. I haven't felt my toes for most of the day. We had a sleet storm set in on Friday and it settled in for the weekend accompanied by snow and wind. Good times! Normally I would have enjoyed the pretty look of everything blanketed by snow but we had a big bridal fair that our company participated in this weekend. This meant I was walking around in dress shoes in the snow and muck. Today I walked across the street to get some lunch and my shoes swallowed about a quart of snow each. My poor little toes still haven't recovered. Even with the terrible weather attendance wasn't too bad at the show.

It's been a busy week getting ready for the show but I did manage to get some knitting done. I finished the second yellow ballet slipper and started on a hot pink pair for my older daughter. I just have the two by two ribbing to do on it and it will be finished. Then I'll just have the second pink one to make and I'll be done with the ballet slippers. I think I've decided to knit some Sweet Mary Jane slippers for Christmas for some of my aunts. After whipping up several of the ballet slippers I think I'm in the swing of the knitted shoe thing. I'm even thinking of adding some beads to the slippers for a change of pace to glitz things up too. And like every good knitter my list of projects I want to knit seems to be getting longer and longer. I've also ordered the pattern for the Drive-Thru sweater. I'm looking forward to making one for one of my daughters.

And as usual, I haven't had a spare second to snap any pictures at all. I'll have to get some after I finish the second ballet slippers and they can model them together. Did I mention we got a dog? He is so cute but I fear he'll be full grown before I can manage to get some pictures of him as well.

Off to dish up dinner. My sweet husband made a batch of chili in the crock-pot while I was trudging through the snow around the bridal fair today. I'm going to curl up on the couch with a warm bowl...

Finally, a few pictures...

I tried the finished ballerina slipper on Sabrina this morning. Although a little big it does fit and she's very excited about it. I think I'm going to look into getting some slipper bottoms to sew onto the bottom. Now it's on to the second slipper!

Happy New Year!

Wow. Did I really last post in September? No wonder I have been banished from some if not all of the webrings I belong to. To say that things have been busy is an understatement. We moved the studio to a new location which needed lots of work. We pulled up the old carpet, painted the ceiling and walls, built a wall and put down new flooring (not necessarily all in that order). Between that, the kids, work, etc. there has been no time!

Now that we're pretty much settled in though things are getting a little less crazy. I did manage to get a little bit of knitting done but didn't get any pictures. I made a little hat and baby bootie set for my business partner. However, in my usual procastinating self I literally finished the booties minutes before I left the house for the baby shower. I'll try to get pictures of the items actually on the baby after he arrives :-)

In other knitting news, I made lots of progress today! I knitted the first half of a pair of the Twinkletoes ballet slippers for one of my daughters. It was a learning experience for me, I had never done short rows or the cable cast-on before. Felt good to learn a little something new and get a little more knitting experience under my belt. Tomorrow I'll cast on for the second half of the set and hopefully finish it up before this weekend. Then I'll be doing another pair in a different color for my oldest daughter. I'll try to get pictures as well. I find that I usually post to the blog (usual? Did I just say usual? Who am I kidding, I haven't posted since September?!) after my entire family is asleep and getting out all of the camera gear, etc. would wake everyone up. Going to have to try to do better on that....

Let's see, what else has happened since I posted last.... Oh! My darling husband built a big wooden barrier to the huge, dirt-filled planter that had been the source of much grief and vacuming. I'm happy to say that we no longer have a fine layer of dirt all of the front of the house now. My son has now moved on to much more interesting pursuits since his indoor dirt pit was taken away. He is now busy trying to reprogram the heat/ac control pad whenever we aren't watching. There's nothing like waking up to a house that is 68 degrees in December! Or noticing that instead of just turning the heat off he is now going the extra step and turning the AC on. Good times!! We may have to buy a little plastic lock box to go over the heat/ac controls. That should be a charming addition to the decor, always looks so delightful in every school or office I've ever been in. Maybe my husband and I could even leave each other notes taped to it like you see in every church, "Do NOT set below 71! (also please take out the trash)." I always read all of the hand written notes in the churches, they do amuse me so. I'm always hunting around for the electrical outlets and light switches to take the wedding photos and frequently run across the notes. It always strikes me as funny just how angry the notes can be in a House of God. I came across one on Saturday that was quite lengthy and detailed about not leaving the lights on after a week night event as the lights don't turn off automatically and "WILL STAY ON UNTIL I COME IN THE NEXT DAY AND TURN THEM OFF MYSELF." (the all caps were actually written over twice to make them that much more bold for the reader or the inconsiderate, irresponsible, electricity-wasting church member going to the panel to make a lighting adjustment)

In holiday news I'm trying to decide what to do for Christmas next year. This year I was so busy that I bailed on making some of the things I had planned and went with gift cards instead. I'm thinking of starting the holiday stuff right off the bat, working as quickly as I can and then moving on to more of the things I want to make. We'll see, knowing me I'll just meander through the year and then start getting anxious about Christmas in August...