This weekend

I went shopping this weekend. Since I have a new job, I need new work clothes and everything else.

The results:
3 pants
3 skirts
1 dress
6 blouses
4 cardigans
4 tights
5 bras
7 panties

I spent a lot of money. Whew!
But I needed to.

We also went to the art crawl this weekend in the crossroads art district downtown. LOVED it! I likely would've had more fun if I had gone alone, rather than dragging the fam along, but I had a great time. I especially loved the Studio B. Walking in, I could smell all the leaves that were crunchng under my feet and that really set the mood for me. I love the smell of autumn. I bought my sister-in-law her birthday present there. There was a place for the bambinos to play while I browsed. I loved what they were displaying. LOVED it. So did my mom. She tried to find the artist because there was a painting she wanted to buy... but no luck. Now I know what to look for when buying her a Christmas present though.

My other favorite place was Digital Labrador. AMAZING photography was on display in there. Nothing that was for sale, but definately something I would dream about having in my home one day.

Also, I just signed up for my free trial of Netflix. CANNOT WAIT TO START GETTING MOVIES! My computer will not play the automatic downloads, so I also ordered a streamer. I already have over 200 movies in my queue. I plan to spend most days after work watching movies and knitting. It sounds glorious to me. Just glorious.

Oh, and church today was wonderful. The music is always good, but it was phenomenal today. Church made me happy.

I am full on the inside...

And broke on the outside...

But happy.

After all, it was not too long ago that I was full on the outside and broke on the inside. This is much better. Much. I am grateful.

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Okay, the mandatory Halloween pictures have been posted.
Now it is time for a new blog! Yay!
I have not been blogging as frequently, but there have been many changes in my life.
1. I got another new job. I am an accountant. It pays well. That makes me happy.
2. I have been focusing hard on learning to knit, and I am even doing a knit-a-long. Yarn makes me happy too.
3. I had conferences and both of my kids are shining examples of what a student should be. That makes me PROUD and VERY happy.

I saw the new Okuriomono project by Christian Houge today. Gorgeous work!





And, finally, I have a lot of plans to stay busy in the upcoming days.

Friday, I am going to the Crossroads for the First Friday Art Walk. I plan to take my mom and the kids. We'll find a new interesting place to eat and look around at everything in that area. I have been in KC a year now and I STILL have not visited too many places. That is about to change!

Saturday, I am taking the whole family to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. We have been several times. (I love it there...) There are a few exhibits that are new though that we have not seen yet. Wolfgang Laib's Without Place- Without Time- Without Body is one. It is basically a sculpture of hundreds of mounds of rice laid out in a grid, including five mounds of luminous yellow pollen at the heart of the work. The photography exhibit will be Hide & Seek: Picturing Childhood." The photography exhibits are always my favorite anyways, and I like the premise of this one... capturing childhood on film. (*smiles*) last but not least: Worldy Luxuries: Repitition in Renaissance Textiles. I admit, I am obsessed with textiles anyway, and I particularly love textile art.

Then, in a couple of weeks is Thanksgiving. I have family coming in, so I will be slaving in the kitchen for hours, so that we can spend 15 minutes devouring all that we see. But it will be worth it, because I will have my brother and sister-in-law there. Along with my mother and the kids. I love Thanksgiving!

The day after Thanksgiving we are heading to the Crown Center. My family and I will jin the crowd in welcoming Santa Claus as he arrives by horse-drawn carriage at the Crown Center Shops entrance. He'll make his way to Crayola Christmas Land, where he resides until Christmas Eve. And who can blame him! Crayola Christmas Land sounds like tons of fun! Children can play on super-sized Crayola products, while waiting to tell Santa all their holiday wishes. While we are at the Crown Center, we will also visit Santa's Gingerbread Village. Three locomotives travel through a Santa’s gingerbread village in the North Pole, all created by the chefs at The Westin Crown Center and Hyatt Regency Crown Center hotels. See the reindeer stable, Santa’s sleigh garage, the elves’ dorm, a doll, rocking horse, and ball factory, and even Mr. & Mrs. Clause’s home. Three tracks of garden scale trains from Hall’s Station help deliver the magic of Christmas. we will cap the evening off by attending the Mayor's Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. According to the website: "The 100-foot-tall Mayor’s Christmas Tree, one of the nation’s tallest, is the centerpiece for an illuminating holiday celebration. The tree is a symbol of the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund, which is dedicated to assisting the city’s less fortunate." (By the way, many of these descriptions came from the website, since I have never been and can not describe it on my own...yet!

Then, on the following Saturday, I plan to take the whole family to the Union Station with me. We will go see the Andy Warhol exhibit along with the Chocolate exhibit. Details on both of these exhibits, if you are interested, are here.

Finally (the last news I have for now) I just got tickets to see A Christmas Story: The Musical. We are going to that in December though. I enjoy watching the movie every year, and I am looking forward to taking the kids to see the musical. (They both LOVE plays and musicals and ballets.) I even got FRONT-ROW SEATS! Yay!!!

So that's it for my updatage.

The rest of our time will be spent at home knitting, at church, at the library, at work, and maybe sometimes at the movies... like normal...

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Remember, I promised Halloween Pictures?

Here ya go!

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Halloween Spirit

I finally got into the Halloween spirit. The kids and I went costume shopping last night. (Last minute, I know... like I said JUST got into the Halloween spirit...)

We had so much fun looking for their costumes. Lily wanted to be something spooky, so she is a vampire fairy. Miles wanted to be a character, so he is Skeletar. I had no idea what I wanted to be, so I did a whole lot of browsing.

You know what I found? I'll tell you.

I found a whole bunch of really slutty costumes. Even the plus sized costumes were really slutty. I am a MOTHER! I cannot wear any costume that starts with the words "sexy", "naughty", or "sassy". That eliminated all the costumes but THREE. Small selection, huh?

I am going to be a chicken.

For not having much selection, I should be upset that I had to resport to being a chicken...

But I am not! I am really looking forward to being a big chicken! I want to wear my costume RIGHT NOW!!! I can't wait!!!

Carving pumpkins and decorating tonight. Then I am going to try the dog's costumes on them.

Be prepared for a large photo blog of Halloween stuff next.

Yay Halloween!

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Slip Slip Knit

So, I mentioned a while ago that I was teaching myself to knit.

I got casting on down pat first.
Then I learned the knit stitch and I mastered that by doing a garter stitch scarf.
Next came purl stitch. I could fnally make patterns! Basketweave and ribbing were well within my reach.

Learnng these two stitches made me feel confident and like I could maybe knit something that was NOT rectangular.

So, I picked a jacket.

THIS jacket, actually.



Then, I bought my yarn. I am using Reynolds Lopi, like the pattern said... only in a dark blue color with red flecks that almost makes it look purple. It is an icelandic wool and it is a little scratchy, but it was working well.



Then, I found a knit along on ravelry. Yay! I was right on target.

Ths weekend, I cast on. Since I am a beginner, I am slow. I got the whole seed stitch bottom band done and I started the bell pattern. Today, I got a couple repeats of the bell pattern done. That is not much, but the bell pattern is hard for me. Row 1 of it involves more than knitting and purling (which is all I know). I have to increase and decrease by using yarn overs and K2TOG and (the worst) SSK. I agonized through that row each time. I felt like I was arm wrestling the stitches. It was terrible, but progress was being made.

Then, my son saw my circular needles while I was doing laundry. I had left them sitting on my bed. He thought they would make good num-chucks and started doing his pseudo martial arts with them. My knitting came off the needles. He felt bad and tried to slide them back on, completely destroying all the progress that I made.

I picked it up. I counted the stitches and rows and tried to figure out where I was. Bella the shi tzu saw me doing this and thought I was challenging her to a game of tug o war. She grabbed one end of my poor, almost salvaged jacket. I tried to yank it out of her mouth. I quickly figured out that if I wanted to save any of my work, that was not the approach to take though. So I pulled the dog on my lap and held her head in my hands and tried to pry her teeth open. Everytime I got it away, she grabbed it again.

Eventually, I got my knitting back. All that is left is the bottom band though. None of my hard work is there. And the bottom band is dsconnected from the rest of the yarn.

So now my son has a blue-purple ninja bandana that he can tie around his head.

And I have to order another skein of yarn lest I be a little short when I start over on this project.

I WILL have this jacket though.

Maybe not by the end of the KAL... but I swear I am going to get through this!

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