Celebrate!

I apologize for the lack of posts, though I doubt anyone out there is missing my posts all that much. With that said, this will be a picture heavy post of a whole lot of non knitting related stuff. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Friday, December 21st was my little baby's very first birthday! We had such a great day! Shawn and I reminisced about going to the hospital and thinking I'd be sent home rather than deliver. I honestly can't believe it's been that long. Of course, all moms say that. But I really mean it. It doesn't seem like I've changed diapers 365 days a year, or made 6 bottles a day for 365 days, or waken up to her happy smile:

Yup, that's what I get to wake up to! We started off the morning with Mickey Mouse pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Then we did some retail shopping at Beverly's, (Scout needed fabric), and then had lunch at home with Grandma.

That's when the real fun started, opening presents and eating cake:

She played with the boxes and packages more than anything. But the V Tech V Smile laptop was a hit. She loves the music and that it interacts with her.

This is from when we stopped by Shawn's grandmother house, both wearing sweaters I made them. (It's actually been "sweater weather" the past week or so.)

And let us eat cake! I stopped by a bakery on Thursday after my Dr. appointment to get my favorite chocolate chip Delcos. And since it's my favorite bakery I decided I'd rather pay for a great cake, rather than a good cake. And great it was. (We finished it off last night, Shawn and I.)

It started off with one finger.

Then she switched hands.

Then she became ambidexterous.

And then she just started shoveling it in at top speed.

She was a mess, but she loved the cake and we loved watching her.

Happy Birthday boo boo!

I've been staying quite busy with Christmas too. I'm glad I was into it more this year. Last year was just a drag. I was just too tired to do anything. But this year I've been rocking the Jingle Bell Rock. I did a little "extra" shopping for Shawn today. But I wanted to have one really special gift for him from all of us, so I bought a canvas and got to work:

It's a compilation of Jem's and my hands with Scout's little feet walking across.

At the bottom I painted, "We Will Always Hold Your Hand". I know he will love it. And I think it will look great in the bedroom.

I did, eventually, get my sewing machine back. $128.50 to fix the drive shaft and the timing. He also did a quick cleaning. All the same, what a way to start me sewing career. I started making a Wee Ones Peanut the Elephant from "Last Minute Patchwork", (which by the way, I love this book). I started off with some Quilter's Cotton fabric, in pinks and browns.

Here she is so far:

But that's the end of the good, because this fabric is so damn thin that it's actually fraying even though I was sewing on the 1/4" seam allowance. It still did me no good:

That there you see is the undertrunk where the arms meet up.

And this is the underbelly.

I'm really disappointed because I totally began to understand the construction and I was so excited to see it all sewn together. But the fabric was way too thin. I asked a lady at Beverly's why and she told me it was because JoAnn's doesn't always use high quality products, that's why sometimes they don't have the manufacturing labels on their bolts. All the fabrics I have, (of cotton), from Beverly's are way more sturdy and thick than the one's from JoAnn's. That disappoints me as well because I really prefer JoAnn's printed fabrics to Beverly's, (though I do like them, they just don't have as much of a selection).

Needless to say, I'm not giving up. I am going to try the elephant in a different fabric, (bought from Beverly's), and see what happens. And anyway, I feel successful in having worked this one out. Even if the fabric was crappy, I did good.

So that's what I've been doing. Among other things. I did meet with Jem's school staff regarding his IEP/504 and we did work a few things out and made modiciations in the class room. I'm happy about that. I'm also happy that he's washing my kitchen floor right now. I suppose I did something right!

That's all. Really. Knitting has been quite sparse. I had to restart the left front on my Bed Jacket because I increased in the wrong rows a couple of times, (my numbers were off). I picked up my Chevron Scarf at the Drs. office, but I admit I didn't get much done. Bandit ate the sleeve I was working on for Shawn's Cobblestone and proceeded to eat three Crystal Palace DPN's! You can't even imagine how irritated I was. Especially because this is the second time he's gotten into my knitting bag and tried to eat wool. The dog just might become sheep food!