The Giving Flower

On Tuesday we landed safely in Boston and then headed to Cape Cod to lounge on the beach.  Well, to be honest we were lounging on the beach the first two days, since then it has done nothing but rain.  We’re keeping in good spirits by putting together lots of Lego and playing with Playmobile, which should surprise no one.  Here is just a look at the first two days we’ve had.  (I’ve finally figured out my father’s computer enough to resize my pictures.  I can’t edit them, so what I take is what you get.) 

Yes, you are seeing things correctly, Alida and I have red painted toenails and Alexander has pink.  He insisted on it.  And then in his next breath he’ll tell you soccer is a boy’s sport and it would be funny if girls played.

We also found this guy patrolling the beach.  Can you believe the nerve of him to flop his big belly down in the sand just to bug us?  These kinds of jelly fish are not normally found around here, so I had to get a picture.  I don’t think I have to tell you how much I don’t like jelly fish.  yuk

I was able to knit some Lilly of the Valley socks with Regia Silk on the plane with absolutely no problems.  If I get around to it, I’ll get a picture of them because they are turning out so pretty.  Thanks for all of your suggestions and help.  I’m glad I had bamboo needles.  Let’s just hope they don’t check my bags on the way home.  In the meantime, I’ve been sneaking in some knitting time working on my bitchin’ mittens.  Here they are taking a break on my beach towel enjoying some of Alida’s freshly-baked sand birthday cake which was made with lots of love.

I figured because Dave, who is from Boston, is sponsoring this mitten-along then I should knit them while in the area.  I also hope to remember the warm sunny beach when I go to wear them this cold winter.  I’m off to knit and hope the rain stops soon. 

Just a little notice that I’m leaving tomorrow for the States to visit my family, one whole year without them leaves me with some serious withdrawal symptoms to overcome and this is the only and best remedy. Hubby’s staying home to hold down the fort, feed the cats, and earn masses of money.

I hope to update my blog and check my email, but you never know what life will be like when I’m having fun. I’ll see you all definitely when I get back. Do I have to come back?? Oh gosh, I’m not even there yet and I already don’t want to come home.

Here are just a few more little things we finished today before I packed away my machine.

Three more tea cozies because I just love these things.

And as promised, Alexander’s Mimi bag which he sewed pretty much all by himself. I’m so proud, can you tell? The stitching is really quite straight for a five year old. He told me exactly what kind of bag he thought Mimi should have-blue with flowers, which was the most important part, then came the two handles.

Now if my hand-made gifts aren’t good enough I’m prepared to face my family with chocolate and coffee. This should be cause for happy faces, I hope. Here’s the loot.

Now just after taking this picture little man took hold of the camera and snuck such great pictures in that I had to share them. I did not help him at all because I was too busy packing all of our junk.

Here is a little mosaic I put together over at Flickr. Go over there and try it out, it’s fun.

I’ve also joined Dave’s and am planning on making these mittens from the book A Gathering of Lace.

I’m bringing them with me to the beach along with a sweater and thousands of socks to knit. I should be busy.

One last note

Kittie, our Maine Coon, has been having trouble jumping and walking this past week so we decided to take her to the vet this afternoon. It seems she could have either hurt herself jumping from the scratching post or she could have hip problems, which she is much too young to have. The vet gave her some pain reliever to take for a week to see if this could possibly be the cause of the waddling. I hope it’s nothing serious, I’ve been so worried about her all week. This of course comes right after getting both cats vaccinated and Kittie’s ear infection treated. What’s next?

First and foremost I would like to thank everyone who leaves comments on my blog! I have gotten so busy lately that brushing my teeth has become a scheduled event and believe me you want me to brush my teeth. Because of the chaos, I’m not able to answer everyone’s email even though there are so many that I would love get back to. Thank you, I really do love getting each and every one of them, so don’t stop because of my negligence!! Please!

Another thing that has really been pulling me down right now is the fact that I’m a bit under the weather. About 2 weeks ago my best friend (who I had had lunch with the day before) called to tell me she had scarlet fever. Last weekend I started getting sick and then Martin jumped on the boat and of course the kids didn’t want to be left out so they joined in on the nose running cough party. I’m doing better now but my sinuses don’t like me much these days. My teeth are hurting. Ouch. I just love Advil cold and Sinus-I need to buy more of this when I’m in the States. Of course, the thought of me flying with scarlet fever has driven me to be tested for it this past week but the results won’t be in until Monday and that’s the quick test. Anyway, enough of the complaining, let’s get onto some knitting goodies and some pictures-you know they are worth a thousand words and who has time to read a thousand words?

This is what my jaywalkers looked like yesterday after finally finishing them.

As you can clearly see, the one on the right was just much too long. Click for bigginess. (By the way, I don’t have spell check so I can make up as many words as I please, right?)
So last night I ripped the right one, re-knit it and ended up with this pair.

I’m still not sure if they are the same length but they will stay for now.
I like them.
I don’t love them.
I’m glad I’m finished with them.
I think next time I knit a sock, despite the fact that I have a size 41(10)foot, I’ll knit the sock in the smaller size. I just need it a bit longer not wider. Talk about cutting it short, this is what I was left with.

I’m just getting used to breathing again, that was close.

Oh and if you’re wondering why the stripes don’t match at the bottom but they do at the cuff, you’ve obviously not been religiously reading me and need to go back to this post to catch up. ;o)

After doing all my sewing and finishing my socks, the thought accorded to me that we will all be at the beach with head gear and sunscreen to protect us, but poor Baby Born doesn’t have anything to protect her bald head, so I whipped up this hat.

It looks a bit like a rain hat although the pattern said sun hat. Oh well, Alida is sure no sun will get in poor Baby Born’s eyes. That’s all that matters.

There is a soccer-themed street fair about 4 blocks from us so we headed over for some World Cup craziness this afternoon. The kids desperately wanted to go on this carrousel and there was just no saying no to these two.

Just in case you’re wondering, we have not started packing, in fact all we’ve done is written a list. We were discussing bringing the suitcases up from the basement when Alexander decided he absolutely had to sew a bag for his Mimi (grandmother). There will be pictures of that tomorrow as he hasn’t quite finished it.

Just one more thing before I let you off for the night. I went out today and bought bamboo sock needles and I’m casting on tonight for my in-flight knitting. Thanks to all your helpful comments about knitting on the plane, I’m hoping bamboo and a started project will keep my knitting safe by my side for the duration of the trip. If not, I’ve got my envelope with the stamps packed just to be sure. I think it would cost me just as much to send them as it would to buy new ones. Maybe I should re-think this.