A gift for a friend

So my good friend's birthday is coming up and I've been madly trying to make her something by hand. Time is precious these days but knitting is my down time so I don't mind doing something. I hate the pressure though and I often worry if people will love a creation as much as I do!

Here's my options so far.

A scarf perhaps (Silk Ribbon Yarn by Mango Moon):

2. Or this cowl I made last year with silk roses in the yarn (mixed with Malabrigo).

Or maybe some socks made out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock:

Or maybe something out of this lovely cashmere/silk yarn from Tanglewood Fiber:

I just can't decide what she would like best. This is what I know about her:

1. She's beautiful inside and out.

2. She can knit but doesn't so she can appreciate hand knit gifts.

3. She likes things soft and casual...not buttoned up.

4. She loves her birthday so much she's instituted "Birthday Month" therefore a wonderful gift is very meaningful.

What do you think?

Sunflowers

Sunflowers.

Love them.

Love the colour.

Love that they grow without fuss.

Love that you can look up at them instead of down at the weeds.

Love the autumn when they grow and flourish.

Love them.

Sunflowers.

A woman in denial who is too old for cyberbullying

So I logged onto facebook today to discover a great and fantastic friend had posted pictures of me in my bathing suit. And tagged them. So everyone on facebook who is my friend or her friend got a notification that there are new pictures of me on facebook. Pictures of me in a bathing suit. Unflattering pictures of me in a bathing suit. I am not happy with my weight and my body but I hadn't really thought about how REALLY unhappy I am until I realized how many people who know me have now been alerted to the fact that there are pictures of me in my bathing suit. I lost it. I cried. I wrote nasty e-mails to my dear friend in my head. I thought about eating. Junk food. (but didn't...yet). Then I just wrote a nice polite message that said, "Great pictures from yesterday. Could you kindly remove the pictures of me in my bathing suit." And they were gone. This has given me great insight about cyberbullying and how such an innocent move can be so hurtful. The most harmless intention can be taken as meanness when written out of context or done thoughtlessly. Our kids don't have the maturity and ability to deal with their feelings. They may retaliate against their friends rather than ask politely. I could have gotten angry and posted an unflattering comment or picture about her, if I was 15. Or I could have talked to all our mutual friends about it and made them pick sides. Glad I'm not 15. And, I'm going on a diet. Yikes! Is my butt really that big!? Also, I think I'm done with facebook. I don't need this turmoil in my life. I'm simply too old.

I guess I got busy...

I haven't written a blog entry since June 2008! I don't even know why. My life has been crazy, busy and fun in the last 6 months. My biggest change has been CrossFit. I have been a CrossFitter since about April 2008 but I really got into it in July 2008 and have been doing WOD's (Work Out of the Day) on average 3x week. I am stronger, faster, fitter than I have ever been!
I'm still knitting, running and hanging out with my family...not much is new. Valentines Day this year was a highlight! I decided that I really didn't want to go out for dinner and spend tons of money so I made a gourmet dinner at home. I planned the menu and shopped and the whole family pitched in to make it nice. My husband and the boys set an elegant table using all our finest, or at least, all that we had and filling in with regular stuff if we didn't have enough. We have 5 place settings of my nice Denby pottery and 3 place settings of silverware (that isn't silver but stainless steel). Funny! They boys even dressed in matching outfits. No body ironed their clothes though because we were just staying at home, and no one felt like ironing. That's the difference between going out and staying in.
So now I begin a new attempt at being a blogger. Only I think from now on I am going to keep this as my CrossFit, Knitting, Family blog. Hope my life is interesting enough to read about.

Kids vs. Golden Retriever

10 reasons I think my kids should be more like my dog:

1. My dog always is excited to see me when I get home, bringing me gifts at the door (usually a smelly shoe, but she thinks it's valuable). My kids, grunt and raise an eyebrow, barely glancing up from their TV show, Nintendo or book depending on the day.
2. When my dog wants my attention she looks at me, dances around and tries to show me how much fun it would be to play. When my kids want my attention, they pick a fight with each other.
3. When I want to go for a run, my dog is always a willing participant, dropping whatever she is doing and running for the door. This is also always the moment my kids suddenly notice I am home and need a snack, a permission slip signed, help with their homework, clean socks etc.
4. My dog devours healthy, homemade food like it is chocolate. My kids prefer KD.
5. My dog thinks a good tummy rub is a gift from the gods and looks at me like I descended from the heavens when she gets one. My kids are holding out for a PS3.
6. When I trim her nails, my dog sits still. My kids think it's a form of torture.
7. My dog doesn't need braces.
8. When I want to go on vacation, I can kennel my dog. As far as I know, it is illegal to kennel kids but I haven't tested my theory, yet.
9. My dog doesn't have a hockey game at 8:00 am on a Saturday morning.
10. When my dog pees outside, the neighbours don't complain.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

This is Amber. She loves to run, chase balls, steal shoes, eat and sleep in the sun. Isn't she pretty? She's not really dead, she just looks that way. I saw her eat an ant today. Really I did. Ick. I am considering getting her a friend. Try as she might, she just can't convince the cat to play.

And this is my Patchwork Baby Blanket Work-In-Progress. Every stage of this blanket is taking forever. First the knitting of the squares (err...rectangles actually because I don't know how to measure). That took MONTHS because to be perfectly honest knitting stocking stitch rectangles completely bored me and I just couldn't get into it. I could knit a rectangle in 20-30 minutes and I needed 25 so 12.5 hours of knitting, right? Wrong! I would knit 3 rows, sigh, get a cup of tea, knit 2 rows, walk the dog, put on a load of laundry...you get the idea. Then, finally, I finished all 25 and I spent another week laying them on the bed and arranging and re-arranging them. I couldn't come up with a pattern I liked. Finally, voila, I came up with checkerboard with alternate border. Then it took FOREVER (2 weeks) to seam all the rectangles into strips, then seam the strips into one big rectangle. Of course the next stage, felting, was easy. Throw it in the wash. Done. Now, I have 2 stages left. I have to whipstitch along all the seams then blanket stitch around the outside edge. And finally, last but not least I will crochet chains and needlefelt designs in a few of the squares. I am planning a heart, a swirl and a moon. I might, might, might add the baby's name and birthdate if he hasn't finished college by the time I get to that stage. As it stands he is now 3 months old. I started it 6 months before his due date. Hope he likes warm, wooley blankets! He is a very sweet baby.

What did I do this weekend?

Well, on Friday we painted shirts:

Then on Saturday we went to the Kwantlen College School of Horticulture Plant Sale. They gave us a tour of their hydroponics tomatoe/eggplant/pepper/cucumber growing places. Very fun. We ate cucumbers and tomatoes right off the vine. Yummy. I bought geraniums, lobelia, some herbs, allysum and a few basket stuffers.

Then I went and watched the ball hockey game where my son's undefeated team faced the only other undefeated team and ended, disappointingly, in a tie. Both still undefeated. (no pictures)

Then we went to Fort Langley to pick up my niece from the Albion Ferry. And we bumbered around Fort Langley for a while, had a coffee (well, I had a coffee and she had a whipped fruity, creamy, blendy thingy). I found a little DIY kit to make my own bathroom. It took us hours of finicky glueing and a lot of laughing at ourselves but we finally finished it! Now I can't say I want my own bathroom. I have one. Awwwww. Isn't it cute. Look closely, there are tiny weeny little japanese wooden slippers sitting on the mat in front of the sink. And we wove the mat ourselves. It was just a piece of straw ribbon before. And see the towel and the viney plant. I made those leaves myself. Isn't it just so great? The shampoo bottles on the shelf are made of shiny, little beads. I love this bathroom! Except it doesn't have a toilet. Strange.

Then I went to bed so I could get up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and ride the skytrain:

(That's the "peace-out sign", not the bird. Look closely.)

Then we walked:

So we could join with 59,172 other people for North America's largest 10km run! This was my 12th (I think) time running the SUN RUN since 1994. I missed a couple of years but I do this almost every year. Even when I was pregnant, I ran (or waddled). And this year for the first time my boys joined me. And my niece and my student came too! The big boy, the student and I did the 10k while my niece and the little one ran the 2.5k mini run.

Almost there buddy! You can do it!

The burrard street bridge was a climb.

It was his first 10 k. He thought it would never end. There was a quiet determination lurking somewhere behind all the complaining. But he did it. The last 100 meters were a blurr as he sprinted to the finish line! Phewf. I was so proud.

What a great weekend. And somehow, in all of that, I found the time to finish seaming my patchwork baby blanket. And I felted it, blocked it and started the whipstitch and blanketstitch edging. I just may finish it. Pictures to come.