the snowman

so beautiful!

fake it til you become it

This is such a worthwhile 20 minutes.

Baby panda in DC

Yesterday the National Zoo had a baby panda born. How cute is that. The panda cam might be too busy but bookmark it and you can maybe see it later! On a musical note. My first chorus rehearsal was today. I hope they think I'm as crazy as I am. Trying to get them to really articulate those consonants. It's hard work! Knitting? what is that? Hopefully by October I'll be in a schedule where I have some time to do some crafts. Between this work thing and my kids life, I have none of my own. It's ok though, can't get in trouble that way!

how cool is this

School has begun! Tomorrow starts the third week with kids! I can't believe it . But I'm LOVING back at the elementary school and I can tell that the kids are happy I'm back too. :)

My daughter went in the week before and helped me decorate a bit. She colored all my solfege hands that I found on pinterest I've found some fantastic things there and it only gets me more and more excited for school. Mom had a birthday on Friday and I have a special package for her.... not telling yet. boys are playing baseball again.... and the daughter is playing soccer. She is also in her school's marching band and jazz band and choir(s). The last is dependent on her audition results from last week. Maybe I'll find some time to blog again, now that I feel as though my life is returning to me.

had to share

in the ravellenics I earned a few medals. Not as many as I had hoped but I guess enough considering we were on vacation at the time as well. Hat Dash - 2 Lace Longjump - 1 Frogging Trampoline - 1 Cowl Jump - 1 Holiday Hurdles -1 Colourwork Cross-Country - 1 Single Skein Sprint - 2 Baby Dressage - 1 Shawl Sailing - 1 Synchronized Stashbusting- 4 I guess not too bad... Can't post pics yet as there is a gift for someone who reads my blog. trying to prepare for school both physically and mentally.... not being too successful! Oh and I have a stress fracture at the top of my tibia so my workout schedule has been interrupted until further notice (and just when I was beginning to drop some pounds)

moving

the stash back to its home. This makes me realize that I REALLY may not buy any more yarn. I have lots of gorgeous recycled yarn that I've been sorting by weight. And tons of commercial yarn, so it's a moratorium. Actually I haven't bought any in over a year (of course I've knit next to nothing) but not even more sweaters to frog (unless they're cheap and 100% cashmere, preferable DK or heavier) Well, even that would be hard because I haven't been to the thrift store since forever either. I'll post a picture when I'm finished but DH bought these shelves and filled 40% with clear rubbermaid storage bins which are filling up quickly (with recycled yarns :))

the stash started like this

then the basement looked like this

and the new picture has yet to be taken, but it'll be a beauty.

And hopefully, the room I'm painting will be complete soon. I want to leave it steampunk but DH wants to box out the pipes.

I forgot to mention the little friend that came to visit us the other day His cardinal parents were flying around encouraging him to take the leap. The neighbor's dog scared him to death. He is so sweet.

off to weed the garden a bit then move more stash.

TGIS

Thank god it's summer!

It's all about baseball. DS1 is on his league's all-star baseball team. They have a game Tuesday night. They lost their first so depending on the outcome it could be their last or they could play again on Thursday. I'm hoping for the latter. He's done remarkably well this season and I'm insanely proud of him. He was Snoopy in his school's You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown musical as well so we had a hoppin' spring.

DS2 played baseball as well so we were at the field almost every night after school and play practice!

I am headed back to the elementary school to teach and couldn't be happier. I need to get started on making awesome lesson plans. The new books are in my car.

My kids have kept me insanely busy with their schedules, but I guess that's what keeps me young.

My latest project that just finished blocking and drying today is a birthday gift for a friend that I hope to see this weekend.

Pattern: Citron

Designer:Hilary Smith Callas

Yarn: my own handspun targhee cross 2 ply (from a raw fleece)

Weight: fingering

Color: swimming pool blues (kettle dyed with BerryBlast Kool Aid and medium and dark blue Wiltons gel)

Needle: US6

Yardage: less than 600

I hope she likes it. It's only my 3rd project that I've made using handspun. The 2nd was this gift for DH for Christmas, which he wears but I'm not completely happy with:

Also not the most clear picture. That was with 3 ply BFL undyed except for the trim which was romney dyed with coffee.

I haven't knit or spun much in the past 2 years being at the JHS... Hoping that will change with the school change this year.

Well my list of summer projects is growing. And we'll have company for 7 weeks or so, so rather than type more I should get cracking.

still alive

lots has happened and no time to blog.
THe most recent being the daughter's 12th birthday. It fell on a girl scout meeting night so she had her cake there. Then on Saturday she took a friend with the family to Red Robin for diner and to see the new Journey movie (in 3D of course, aren't all new movies released in 3D now?)
Her family party was last Sunday and her request was that in lieu of cake we have cupcakes. (too much cupcake war challenges I believe) So we decided on making both vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. Each with it's share of a chocolate surprise inside and each with raspberry filling.

To differentiate between them, we used pink silicon baking cups for the raspberry filled ones, iced them with raspberry buttercream icing, and topped them with a fresh raspberry.




The chocolate surprise cupcakes had tie-dyed buttercream icing. I did it with a lesson I saw on pinterest (admittedly some of my free time has gone there)





The rapsberry cupcake filling came from the recipe found here but I combined the idea for this frosting along with this recipe for an incredibly delish frosting

Much of the rest of the time has been spent helping the kids with their school projects, trying to set up the craft room in the basement and lots and lots of school preparations and grading....

I have knitting to talk about but I'll save that for another day!