weekend round up

What have I been doing, seems like not a lot when I think about it. This weekend we had friends over for dinner, which was fun. This necessitated a trip to the Italian Supermarket, hmmmm yummy. Really not a good idea to go there too often, things are very tempting.
Sunday was a nice peaceful day, apart from the gentle reminders to certain people to finish their homework before we could watch a movie, this included me. Yes, I do my homework the day before I go back to class, its the only way I remember what we are studying!
We watched Mission Impossible 3 and I started some new knitting. This may or may not be christmas knitting so I am not saying what it is, the knitters amongst you can make a guess.

The christmas socks are coming along, though I am not up to speed with some other people, there is no way I could knit a sock a day. I recently counted the pairs of socks I have knitted, in 2 years I have knitted 20 pairs, maybe next year I will manage one pair a month.

The beading is coming along, a bit slowly though, the sale is on Thursday so I really have to move on up a gear….or two.

I have 3 more bags cut and ready to sew this morning, if I promise you pictures tomorrow that means I have to do it, so feel free to nag.

I think I have cracked a front tooth (grinding my teeth) and I know my dentist is really busy before the holidays, so I am hoping she can squeeze me in somewhere……okay, off to work……….

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I’m off to London…

….to visit the …… fairy princess. My darling little niece left me such a sweet phone message the other day I had to try and go visit, so my flights are all booked, the boys and Jim are organised. So the first week in December I am off, free for a few days, well apart from all the girly things I will have to do. Better start getting supplies in now starting with a big packet of glue sticks, that girl LOVES to stick!

We have had a couple of days of sick boys here which is not too much fun, still waiting for blood results for one teenager. A huge art project has been taking up MY table for the last few days, so its now gone and I might manage to do something, though we are having dinner guests tomorrow so we may need it to eat off!

Christmas presents will have to be finished to take to London rather than have my Mum take them home, that kinda cuts the time frame by about 3 weeks. My brother got an IOU for socks last year, which was because he requested them 2 weeks before christmas, but I better finish these for him soon.

I have finished one Fetching mitten in Jakes yarn, I am still not convinced they are nice but he likes them. I got new needles to knit the other one as the metal needles were hurting my hands, though I could only get long bamboo ones here in 4mm so might do a little swop with my Mum when she arrives at Christmas as she doesn’t mind them a bit longer.

I bought this while I was in the yarn shop today, I think its new as I haven’t noticed it before, I thought it might make a nice colourful hat for my niece.

No2 son is off to celebrate Thanksgiving with his friend tomorrow so I have a Chocolate Fudge cake to make, better get to it…….

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And Finally

A long, long time ago I was raiding my friends craft cupboard for some ribbon for a present when I came across some small pieces of fabric. The conversation went like this:

“When did you buy this?”
“Ages ago”
What are you going to do with it?”
“Don’t know”
“Can I have it?”
“Of course you can….if you make something for me with it!!”
“Sure”

And then a long time passed, there was a little piece of machine embroidery on one piece of fabric, a little piece of ribbon embroidery on another, I had found a nice floral and a couple of green ginghams to match. All the bag pieces were cut and most of them sewn together, then it was put in the project basket and covered up with other projects.

So when am I getting my bag then my friend asked, soon I promised.
Today she asked(nagged) me again, I said but its a spring bag, she said I don’t care it will match my new jacket. How she knows this without seeing what I have done with the fabric pieces, I don’t know.

So dearest nag, here is your finished bag, you do realise that now I have to get it packed and posted to you, thats always a problem!!!! You may have to wait a little longer…….

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More Pink


and purple, I am trying to break out of the pink theme but it does look lovely with grey.
There is very grey weather out there today, so pink beads and a felted flower
was just the thing for cheering up. I made seven though and by the end was a
bit sick of poking a hole in my finger with the very lethal beading needle.

I started making these flowers when I was thinking of embroidering a pink flower onto the grey pinstripe fabric I bought recently, there was something about the grey wool that needed a little injection of something different. So while I was trawling through some boxes I found these curls that I bought from Fyberspates. I thought they looked exactly like some kind of mad chrysanthemum so I needlefelted the middle onto a piece of felt then sewed on a brooch back to attach to the bag.

This bag is brown lined with silk, just the thing for holding knitting….
I am feeling like a little production line…..so next!

Jamie says thanks for all your birthday wishes and nice comments.

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Cake

Today Jamie is 17, Happy Birthday babyhow did that happen, only the other day you were a cute little boy.

So as is tradition in this house the birthday boy got to choose cake, Jamie of course thinks he is still 5 and gave along list of cakes he wanted to have that got whittled down to just 4.
So yesterdays baking session produced, the above fairy cakes, chocolate chip cookies, banana cake and chocolate fudge cake, can you see a little theme here. This child is a complete chocoholic sugar junkie, though right now at 6’1″ he can get away with eating his own weight in cake!!

In the search for a photo, I realised that most of the photos of all 3 boys there is at least one of them making a face or doing something to one of his brothers or dressed up. I seem to have spent a long time with one or other of my children dressed as a superhero or the occasional fireman or cowboy!
In recent photos of Jamie there are a huge amount of grumpy faces, so one of the wedding ones is all I have with a smile.
He asked for chicken risotto for dinner so I must get to it, I am looking for a volunteer to chop the onions though….

My Mum received the needles and the ball of Noro I ordered for her on Thursday, it arrived on Saturday morning, great service as usual from Getknitted. She was very chuffed to get a parcel as she has been a bit unwell so a little cheering up was necessary.

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Red add yellow…..


add turquoise add purple makes…
really ugly wool. Jake had a lot of fun with some
aran wool and some kool aid one day, but I am really not
liking knitting with it. The combination of the wool and
the metal needles is very squeaky! What do you think ugly or not?

Its very dark here today so the pictures are not fab, these are the beads I was working with today, though I have made a few pairs of earrings too.

My mum is nearing the end of her second sock, they are for my brother for christmas (last year) so we were talking about a new project for her, I suggested she knit a pair of Fetching. She likes them so has printed and laminated the pattern ready. She has terrible arthritis in her hands so can only knit a little at a time. I need to look for bamboo needles for her as I am sure they will be better. There is no wool shop nearby, when I was a teenager there were at least 3 decent sized wool shops in town and one in the village where she lives, now nothing, its terrible.
Off to search for needles, tomorrow I am definitely writing my christmas list, promise.

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I’ll do it tomorrow

Yesterday someone told me how long it was till Christmas, I am now kind of freaked out, so freaked out you would think that I would have worked my butt off today, making stuff for my christmas markets and at least made a list of gifts. No, I didn’t, I went to bed to nap.

I had plans to do lots of stuff, dig out fabrics, cut out bags, make some bracelets that are sitting all ready to go, nothing. My husband is home for dinner tonight, a rare occurrence, did I cook something nice, no, nothing…yet! I did spend a lot of time working out how I could knit a jumper for Barbie, top down instead of in 4 pieces like the pattern, I gave up, it was making my brain hurt too much.

I think this is actually quite normal for me, I think that the more things I am supposed to be doing, the more things I actually spend time doing or thinking about doing and achieve nothing.

I did sweep half a dog from the floors today, the warm weather/heating combo is making the dog shed hair like crazy, though tomorrow I do have to clean as I have a friend dropping by in the afternoon, she is a friend of the clean house/no children variety and the state of my apartment might completely shock her.

This is yesterdays earring pile, there needs to be more, tomorrow okay…..

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What a day….

Yesterday started off in a quiet unassuming way, I walked for an hour with the dog and my friend and her dog, Hi Clare!
I went home and beaded for a while and chatted with another friend. I then beaded while chatting online with my mum, Hi Mum.
I then got ready and got ready to drive into the city as I had heard on the news that the bus and trams were on strike. The normally 15 minute journey took about 35mins, it was chaos everywhere, cars jumping red lights and blocking roads.
I thought it was worse because it was lunchtime.
So I knitted and chatted for a couple of hours and planned my route for picking up all 3 boys at different schools. Only one of them has a phone so he was the only one who knew that I was coming to collect him, so it was always going to be hit and miss whether I got them all.
When I left the cafe the city was grid-locked with traffic, complete chaos, one driver jumped a red light to cut in front of me, had no place to go so just blocked my entrance onto the main road, so then I was blocking the traffic from the other direction.
Driving in Grenoble centre is sometimes pretty hairy, but when something goes wrong and everyone is in a hurry its a complete nightmare.
A journey that should have taken me 15mins took 45mins so then I was late to try and catch no2 son. Jamie spoke to the kids outside school and Jordan had left already, presumably to walk home. It is a pretty long walk about 5.5km.
So then I had to fight back through the city centre to get to the bus stop where Jake catches the bus home, we got there eventually and there he was, totally oblivious to the chaos, just waiting, got to love that laid back child.
So then the search was on to see if we could find Jordan in the chaos. No chance, then of course we got stopped at every red light, there are lots, at every one there were only room for one or two cars to get through. By this time my little old car was having a little trouble, it was a bit overheated and was really not happy. The thought of breaking down on the main boulevard surrounded by traffic was terrifying me, so I prayed all the way home.
Got there okay, no Jordan, this is about 1hr 20mins after he finished school. I called all his friends no-one saw him leave, he didn’t walk part way with any of them, nightmare. He finally showed up very tired, 2 1/2 hours after leaving school, he had apparently waited around for 1/2 hour then headed off home, poor boy.
So there was a little knitting, some beading so pics later when its light enough. Today I am not leaving the house.

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No time

Tram and bus drivers on strike, driving in the city chaos, lost one child for a few hours, knitting tomorrow………..

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Its all pink


This scarf and fingerless mitts I just finished for my oldest niece, its actually for her birthday, which was about 2 months ago. I did buy part of her gift then had no idea what else to buy her. It is really hard to choose gifts for people when you live very far away, but also who you have no contact with anymore. I have seen her once in the four years we have lived here, so I really don’t know her anymore.

Jake did ask me if the mitts were for him because I am in the habit of knitting pink things for him. Eh not!! He does want a pair the same so I will have to see what I can do. Not likely to be this week as I am feeling a little snowed under already and its only Monday. Marie, who I got all the fabric from is an artist and she is having a little exhibition type thing at her house and she asked me if I would take over some of my stuff to sell, it is of course this week so have to get my butt in gear and do some more work. I did come home today and make 6 pairs of earrings but I have to do a whole lot more.

One of my friends commented that I was being “nice” when she read my blog, I think she meant that my normal sarcasm wasn’t quite making it into what I was writing. Other than that she meant I wasn’t bitching and moaning like when I talk to her on the phone!!

So now I am going to moan, nah not today, I do have a few moans to make but can’t be bothered today am too tired and a bit brain-dead, french lessons get me like that, can’t think straight afterwards.
I know I promised sock pictures but the feet the socks belong on were not home in daylight hours for a photo and the indoor flash ones are rubbish. So maybe tomorrow or wednesday. Tomorrow is knitting bee day, so if you are Grenoble we will be in the Cafe Leyritz see ya then, and I will try to remember the camera.

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