what I carry around

Because I know it's the formost question on everyone's mind -- what sort of stuff does Kate carry around with her?

Well, I carry a purse to work, doctor's offices or other places where I may get bored and need something to do. 

 I've put my work mug beside it for scale.  My friend Betty Jo gave me this purse for my birthday -- it is GORGEOUS!  I get a lot of compliments on it.  It's a beautiful shade of candy apple red and yes, I have shoes that match.  3 1/2 inch peep toe pumps.  I look too hot when I'm sporting both of them. 

This purse holds a remarable amount.

1. A paper tape measure from Ikea
2. Notebook.  Work gave us these for something or other.  The paper inside is blank - no lines -- and quite good quality.  I snapped up any extras left laying around too as they are good sketch books.
3. Water Colour Pencils to draw with in my notebook
4. Calendar
5. Magnetic Dominos.  Not sure why I carry these around since I don't even know how to play dominos.
6. Sunglasses, from the dollar store because I lose about a pair a week.
7. Advil. Must have Advil
8. Hair clip
9. And another hair clip.  I always have hair clips, usually clipped to the front of my coat because I take them off when I'm in the car.
10. Hand sanitizer. Isn't this tiny bottle cute?
11. Floss.  Have floss, will travel.
12. Pen
13. Disgusting flavoured cough drop. Just in case I'm that desperate.
14. Cloth to clean my glasses.
15. Assorted store loyalty cards and library cards
16. Headset to my cell phone.  I never use the headset.

For most outings I don't take my purse, I put my stuff in my coat pockets.  I like my current coat because it has two breast pockets and two hip-height pockets so there is room for lots of stuff and I can keep it organized. Sorta.

1. Cell phone
2. Mini notebook full of lists
3. Pencil, so it doesn't leak
4. My wallet.  It has pockets on both sides and I put the carabiner on it so I can clip it to things.  I grabbed this out of my dad's stuff after he died.
5. Sam's birthday money.  We were shopping on the weekend.
6. My Worldly Wealth -- 25 bucks.  I don't normally carry such large amounts of cash with me.
7. Random receipts that I might need.  Or not.
8. Calculator, which I didn't think to position right side up for this picutre.
9. Hair clip, which was not technically in my pocket but was clipped to the front of my jacket.

Shall we get all Fruedian on what I carry with me?

I can make things!

Wow! It's been almost a month since I last posted. Hard to believe, especially since I took the month of February off work.  I really needed it -- besides some health problems (which are why I had the month off) I just need to be home and nest.  I spent my first three weeks sleeping and the last week saying "OMG -- I go back in a week!"

My month off wasn't a complete waste (besides the whole "getting better" thing) -- I learned to crochet!  I had crocheted a bit as a child but never got into it.  I've always wanted to knit but have recently decided that it's just not for me.  I have great intentions but no ability to actually create anything other than a scarf which slowly tapers into a point. 

I saw some cute little animals to crochet on this site and bought myself a crochet hook at the Dollar Store and scavanged some yarn from my mom.  The first thing I crocheted was this:

What is it, you ask?  It's, uh, a wrist band/bracelet, maybe a coffee cup cozy?  It's really just me practicing stitches then sewing a button on them.   

Then I made this hat:

A circle for the top then the sides crocheted on.  I think I did the top wrong but oh well!  I find it boring.  I'm planning to embrodier some evil daisies on it.

Next came a bag.

Don't you love the 70s colours?  Who knows how long Mom had this stuff hanging around.  It's a wool blend and I love how the varigated yarn turned out on the sides.  I "designed" this on myself, based on these bags from Ikea.  I'd hoped to have enough to take the sides to the top of then handles (I made the front and back first) but I ran out and there was no more in the stash.  I did have enough to make the flowers on the front, as I thought it looked a little bland. 

Digging through the stash I found some pretty baby yarn so I made this blanket.

As you can see, it has a pattern stitch rather than the straight single crochet of the others.  I really enjoyed making this, even after I discovered that the four balls of varigated baby yarn were all different!  I mean, I planned that.  Totally.  

Check out the edge -- figured that one out myself.  This will be a baby gift for one of Aaron's co-workers.

Then a special guy needed a hat.  A blue hat.  We found a pattern but it required a chunky yarn, which I didn't have so I used two strands of regular yarn -- blue and grey. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

That twisty stitch is on purpose.  Took me a while to figure out the pattern.

Where are the animals that originally inspired the crochet?  They will be coming . . .

9

Now this

has become this

Wonderful imagination, constant talker, cuddly nine year-old.  Smart, spacy and funny.  What would I do without you?

Happy Birthday Samwise Gamgee!!

Eagle Watching

Every year from December to March, hundreds of bald eagles migrate to the Annapolis Valley.  In January and February they have special "eagle weekends" with food and festivities.  They put out food for the eagles and you can stand around watching the hundreds of eagles feed.

Mom and I decided to go see the eagles but didn't go on the weekend as it would be too crowded.  We went on a Tuesday.  The weather was beautiful -- warm(ish) and sunny.  There were a few others there but not too many.  The eagles are fed between 9 am and 10 am.  We were late getting off and worried we would miss it. 

No worries necessary.  Apparently there is a pecking order in bird feeding.  First the seagulls, then the crows, then the eagles.  We were surprised to learn that the eagles waited for the other birds to eat first.  Also a surprise -- the eagles sound like canaries!  Not like great fearsome birds at all.  We waited around for an hour (it was warm, but not that warm) before leaving.  The seagulls hadn't started to eat yet but we were hungry!

We stopped at the local fair trade coffee shop.

Mom ordered our eats (hot chocolate for me, latte for her and some giant cookies), lovingly created for us by Doug, the barrista.

Just Us Coffee also makes fair trade chocolate.  I looked for job applications for tasters but only found free chocolate samples.  Yum!

They also sell items crafted by third world artisans, in addition to a little museum about how the average coffee grower lives. 

All in all, a good day.

Warming up the Windows

One thing I love about my house are all the windows and light.  I am a light addict.  However, it also means I need a lot of curtains.  I hate curtains.  The only reason why I have any is to save the neighbours' some embarrassment.  And to block the glare on the TV during the day.

Right now I have assorted sheets and curtains "artfully" draped over windows to protect our modesty.  I'm thinking of making some roman blinds though.  They seem nice and tidy. While I was poking around on the internet I found this neat tutorial from Instructables on creating an insulating roman blind.  In the pictures they have used a quilt.  How cool is that!  I think I'm going to be looking through some of my quilts with an eye to my windows.

Cinnamon Buns

I made a promise.  I promised Liam's best friend Aaron (yes, it's confusing) that if he took Liam to his place for the weekend that I would make him cinnamon buns.  He did his part (thank you thank you) so I did mine.

Here the dough is rising.

I love making bread or any kind of dough you have to knead.  This dough has egg in it, which seems to make it even nicer to knead.  I used this recipe to make the buns.  I would recommend for full Cinnabonness that more filling be used.  Also, instead of cream cheese icing we used dolce le leche, so darn delicious!  Plus, you get the added fun of wondering if the cans of sweetened condensed milk will explode.  Ours didn't.

Here is the only shot I got of the finished product. I was lucky to get this one.

total yumminess, if I do say so myself . . .

14

Who would ever believe that this:

would one day turn into this?

(you can't tell from this but he just dyed his hair black and purple)

Liam, the middle child, concieved after a loss, six years younger than one brother, five years older than the other.

At first he was a quiet child.  Too quiet.  We soon learned that with Liam, quiet is bad. (Noisy isn't that great either).

Too smart for his own good, no baby-proofing device could stop him.  He could turn on the oven and crawl in it in the time it took to answer the phone.  He could open the door and leave by the time he was two.  Thank god for the fenced in yard as he could get out of his crib (by somersaulting over the rail) when he was one.

When he was two he broke his bedroom window when put in there for a time out. He was obsessed with pots and pans and would only watch cooking shows on TV.

He came down with chicken pox on his 5th birthday.  He had to put up with a baby brother just when he was enjoying being the youngest.

During the "bad years" before his father and I broke up, Liam ended up being the responsible one to get him and his older brother off to school.  Too much responsiblity for an eight year old. (I did not learn this until after we split -- he and his brother hid much).

In grade 6, when the school decided he was too much of a handful to be in the classroom, all his teachers and principal told me that he wasn't bad -- he never hit, or bullied, or was mean to anyone, ever.  He just didn't do what he was told unless he felt like it. (I can identify with that).

Liam in the most like me and the one that drives me the craziest.  He is my best kid and my worst kid.  The one I want to spend the most time with and that I need the most breaks from.   He has the best sense of humour, is smart as a whip and an excellent listener (unless you are telling him to do something).

Where did 14 years go?

Happy Birthday, Wonderful Boy!

Giant Tube of Meat

Costos, how you entertain me.  While idly perusing the meat section I came across a GIANT TUBE OF MEAT.  I mean GIANT.  Hambuger of some sort.  I had to have it.  How could I go home and tell Aaron I had seen a GIANT TUBE OF MEAT and not bought it? 

How giant is this tube of meat you ask? 

This giant.

I was amazed.

Aaron was intimidated -- at first

But soon got over it.

Jack was unimpressed.

Aaron declared it to be family -- his first born.

His tasty, tasty first born.

We may have strayed a little off the "normal" path.

BTW, this is in our old place, the Morgue.

Cards I have Made

I've been on a card making kick lately.  Here are my latests efforts.

a thank you card for a good friend

a birthday card for another friend

birthday card for a co-worker

Making cards is so much fun!  Wait 'til you see the next bunch . . .

The Blues

I guess it gets like that sometimes -- the blues.  It's been a hard go lately.  The holidays weren't kind to us, what with it being the first one without Dad then me ending up in the hospital with some health problems.  I can't seem to get my equilibrium back.  I just want to sit and cry but a full-time working mom doesn't often get the opportunity to do that.  Some days breathing seems like more than I am able to handle.

I just want to be home.  In my home, doing home things.  I don't want to go to work, or visit, or shop, or anything other than be home. I want to make bread and sweep the floor and do laundry and do all those things that get rushed and neglected.  I want to burrow into my house and make it my home. Alas, I am what stands between us and living in a tent, in Canada, in the winter. So I guess I'll sing the blues.  Here's a little lesson in how to sing them.

Some changes and something mushy

Check out the new banner at the top. Made it myself, using just my wits. And my computer and this program.

I also made this



These are our favourite mugs -- Aaron's has Popeye on it (he covets Popeye's forearms)and mine I found abandoned in an empty suite at work.

And this for my mom:



That's Miss Kittee sitting beside her -- she's also in the banner at the top. I don't have any pictures of her and Jack (our other cat) together because, frankly, they don't like each other. They are each content to pretend the other doesn't exist. The shaggy haired child in the inserted picture is Liam, wearing what I have now declared my sweater. Hey, it fits me and green isn't his colour . . .

End of a long and miserific week -- hope your weekend is fabulous!

Things I have made

Lookee at me! I made some stuff. Pretty darn impressed with myself now . .




This is a necklace I made at my sister's in Toronto. It's a glass tile with decorative paper glued to the back, then a brad (or whatever they are called) glued on. The kit we bought had enough materials to make 5 -- perfect for my mom, sister, two neices and me!

10 things about me

1. I don't homeschool but I have. My eldest son was having trouble in grade 9 -- we had him tested and it turned out he was functioning at a grade 3 level and had been pushed through. And he was smoking pot on school grounds. So we pulled him out of school for the rest of grade 9 and homeschooled him. While working full-time. Brought him up to grade level but the damage was done to his feelings around school and after spending 3 years trying different schools and programs he dropped out. Hopefully he will at least get his GED someday.

2. I spent 20 years attending church in a big way. And I mean BIG. Totally committed, served on every committee, attended every function, had private devotion and Bible study, fasted, prayed, you name it, I did it. I don't do any of that anymore and I'm much happier, calmer, and am an all round better person and so are my kids. Not saying that church and religion is bad, just giving my experience.

3. I hate my job. It's boring but I'm only 10 years from retirement (with 22 years in) so I don't think it's a good plan to leave now!

4. I had a pony as a child. Every little girl's dream, except mine was evil. Kicked and bit and bucked.

5. I have limp and lifeless hair. Seriously, no hair product can give it life or volume. It is my burden.

6. I have a crappy camera. It's about 10 years old, which is ancient for a digital camera. No zoom, no NOTHING. Hence the crappy pictures. I am hoping someone (Mom, Aaron?) will take pity on me and buy me one for .

7. I love to read. Love, love, LOVE to read. At a recent high school reunion everyone asked me "So, do you still read so much?". I have my library card number memorized. I sleep with my books.

8. I hate noise. I love silence but seldom get to hear it. I am wearing earplugs RIGHT NOW to try to drown some out. The later it is at night, the less I can stand noise.

9. I would like to be a stay at home mom but fear that if I spent that much time around my kids blood would be shed.

10. I am not a particularly good mother. I don't do crafts with them, I let them watch too much TV, I yell too much, and I'm not above pouring syrup on their heads (but only when they pour it on mine first).

There, that's more than you ever hoped to know I'm sure.

Returning from a break

A looongggg break. I cite computer problems (the darlings broke my keyboard) and general laziness. Plus Christmas -- can't do anything over Christmas. But now I'm starting fresh. i have a new keyboard for my laptop and some pictures of cards I've made and of children I've made so I'm aiming low at one post a week.

Wish me luck!