Snow Day

Yesterday we got dumped on ... a bit in the morning - enough to get outside after breakfast, run around in the backyard and make a snow man. This is Abby's first real experience with snow, and probably the first one Jake will remember. They both ate snow, made snow angels, and of course make the snow man with Mommy. I had fun and wasn't too terribly cold since it was just above freezing while we were outside.

By the time naps were over the snow man had warmed up enough to tip over. But shortly after that it started snowing again and hadn't stopped when we went to bed around 11 last night.

This is what our backyard looks like today:

You can see that there is about 6 inches of snow on the table and just beyond that you can see the snow man 'corpse.'

The kids really want to go out and play in the snow again but they don't understand that it's too cold...currently our thermometer reads 16 F so it will have to warm up a little before they can go out...unfortunately it's not supposed to get much warmer throughout the day (or tomorrow for that matter).

The Little Things

Last night the wind was blustering and blowing and causing the power to flicker. I personally love windy days with swirling leaves out the window...as long as I am warm. I thought, gee it might be fun if we lost power for just a little while. Sure enough the power blinked out around 10ish or so. The kids were already in bed so no fuss on that end of things and Brian and I lit a few candles and played a game of Cribbage and headed to bed. The alarm thing wasn't a problem since, like almost everyone else in a developed country, we have cell phones (though we have no actual coverage at our home and have to use our WiFi in order to make calls). However I did start to miss a few of the little things, like heat, and the ability to cook food. I am certain that when our stove needs replacing we will be upgrading to a gas stove and that will no longer be an issue but heating a house so large will be a different story, especially since I have no clue how to make my gas fireplace work without flipping the switch on the wall. I am sure there is a way and maybe this will be motivation to figure it out.
Anyway it got me thinking about how much of a pain in the ass it would be to go on with modern daily life without power. If we were thinking long term here there are several things: forget the tv and computers that is just extra but the basics such as heat and cooking would require a gas stove and a wood burning fireplace (or at least any easy way to light my gas one). The refrigerator would work too keep things cool for only so long, however I guess I could buy blocks of ice to keep in there. I would have to get out my old, non portable phone. The fish tank would have to go. Dishes would be done by hand and hot water would be a major challenge. I do have a gas BBQ that I could use for cooking and heating water (though the process would be slow as any sane person knows this can't be used indoors). Washing our clothes would be a much more challenging process as well, but could be achieved.
Anyway you get the picture its all 1800's and stuff but really it makes sense why people had to work so hard from sun up to sun down just to get the 'little things' taken care of.
Our power popped back on around 8 this morning and I was very happy to feel the heat conveniently blowing out of the floor vents and was able to plug the computer back in and re-connect. I think I'll do a little more to be prepared for future outages that may last longer than a few hours.

A good idea. I think I'll steal it.

I am an avid Yarn Harlot reader and back at the beginning of the year she got her stuff together and made her own sock club. The idea is that she has tons of sock yarns and lots of sock patterns in mind to go with the yarn, so she tossed the yarn and the pattern in a zip top bag and put them all on a shelf to grab at random once per month so at the end of the year she has a lighter stash and 12 pairs of socks. You can read about it here.
Janel over at Spindlicity thought this was a good idea and has decided to do it with unspun fiber - her link is here.
I thought Stephanie's (Yarn Harlot) idea was a great one and liked that Janel was doing it with fiber so I have decided to get on board with the idea, however for now I am sticking to projects already begun so that I can clear up some space in my craft room. I have all of my projects in their own baggies already with a wide range of sizes (some are in sandwich bags, some are in comforter bags) and styles (spinning, knitting, quilting, etc.) to choose from. I have many more than 12 but plan on making at least 2 or 3 of them into Christmas gifts for this year.
If I finish all of my already started projects I will clear at least 3 cubic feet of space (this is a lot considering it's in a closet, and is made up of stuff that can be compacted pretty well). So...here is to a year (+ 2 months) of FINISHING things.

Captain Obvious

Captain Obvious here to inform you that: There is, in fact, a lot of urine involved in the rearing of children.

Thank you.

Fly By

Here is a quick pic of the sweater with the buttons on...it went off in the mail today to it's tiny intended wearer.Loved knitting it...

Backyard Visitors, Crafty Things, Halloween

We have had several backyard visitors lately, only one of which I have managed to get a photo of. The guy I captured on camera is here:
A cute little common tree frog that I rescued from the children and placed on the branch of one of our backyard trees. The others have been birds. A couple of small ones and then there is the great bluebird that comes by. It's color is so vibrant and I just wish I could get a photo of it but every time I try to sneak up to get my camera it flies away. I am nearly ready to just sit with camera in hand but it only comes by about once a week.

As for the crafty things, there have been several. First I combed up some fiber I bought while at the Puyallup fair for the Sheep to Shawl...I ended up with these rolags in addition to the combed fiber:I decided to spin one up and I LOVE the color progression...however the way it looks in the hank:is so much better than when knit...
that I think I'll spin it more randomly, rather than in color order, or at least make much shorter color changes because the blocks of color remind me of 1970's appliances, but the yarn itself reminds me of fall. I'll try that and we'll see what I come up with.

I have also been doing a bit of sewing. First up was remaking some costumes for Alexis. She bought a couple from a lady on Craigslist and was sorely dissapointed...they were overalls for Super Mario Brother's but they were basically felt that was handsewn, which is fine, it just wasn't done well at all. here are a couple of shots of the originals:

Basically you have jagged edges, the button holes are just slits in the fabric, the buttons are the wrong color for the characters and the legs were simply hacked off at the bottom, they were not even cut to the same length on each leg and the straps were of variable widths.Here is what I ended up with after about 3.5 hours of my time:Buttons of the proper color, EVERY edge finished, legs the same length and hey look at that a hem:After finishing for Alexis I did some mending on the costume we bought for Abigail because she was a tad small for it but now the wings fit and the dress stays on her shoulders...here are my cutie pies in their costumes:Jacob orignally wanted him and Abby to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat in the Hat, but chnaged his mind about a week before Halloween to be Buzz Lightyear, so Abby got to pick out a costume. She didn't care what it was as long as she got to wear those wings. We decided she was a fairy princess.

And last but not least I whipped out a sweater in a couple of days...I have been dying to make a project out of the new book I got while up on Orcas with the kids and I dug into my stash and found enough of the yarn from Jake's sweater left over to make an infant size for Mason. It only took a couple of days (real time it only took a few hours - around 5 or 6) and it was a ton of fun to kit...I may try to adapt it into an adult size it was so fun and easy.and it's cuter with the buttons on, but I took the picture before I had bought the buttons...oh well I'll have to try to remember to post a pic later.

TTFN.