Sweet Day

DOING: pausing while cleaning / organizing my office / craft room
LISTENING TO: Natasha Bedingfield, Pocket Full of Sunshine.

One thing I miss, since becoming a mom, is solitude. I was an oldest child in a family with six kids, and I liked to spend a lot of time in my room by myself. Playing gameboy, reading, writing, drawing... And then when I moved out, I had two roomies and enjoyed spending time with them, but I still relished time spent alone. I'm not a loner, I love being out with people. But I relish those little bits of time where it's just me, myself, and I, sometimes.

Today is one of those days. My mom works at a school, so she's off for the summer. So today, this Tuesday in the middle of summer, which happens to be a cloudy blah kind of day, I have solitude. Today I am listening to music, drinking coffee, and reorganizing my special room that I have the priveledge of having as just mine. That's something I really appreciate, and I should probably mention it to my husband how much. How rare it is for a wife and mother to be as lucky as me, to have this decently-sized room all to myself! It features a desk that wraps from in the closet beside the door, around the corner, and down a long wall of the room. My husband built this desk for me, a surprise that I designed in a 'some day' kind of way. There are shelves and drawers and special places all around this room for me to tuck all my crafting supplies and various how-to books. (I don't see a point in buying a novel unless it's a classic, but I love collecting books that tell me how to do things, and it must be contagious because my husband is starting to do the same.) And of course, pictures of my favourite and most beloved people, and those few trinkets that I pick up on a whim, scattered around as well. This room will be a great room! I just have to make it that way. It's so close to being all the way unpacked. Next I'll have to go out and buy some paint or something! I'm so thrilled.

Well, break time is over. Time to refill my coffee cup and get back to work!

First Birthday! but wait, there's more... I baked CINNAMON BUNS!!!!

My DD is turning one this friday! How exciting is that. There are two parties planned, one of them is on Saturday at the zoo and the other one is a joint party the monday after that, with a little boy who turned one a few weeks ago (they had a joint shower together too, which means we have cute pictures of them together at one month)... that one is 50% Gigantic Playdate, 50% Mommies Playdate. haha.

Thusly I am preparing mass quantities of food! I am baking, too, which is not something I've always done well.

I would like to request that somebody please send me a medal. The gigantic occasion? I made cinnamon buns. And they tasted Really Really Good.

This may not seem like such a momentous occasion, but trust me on this one, it is. Words cannot express. I have made so many failed, disgusting, raw, burnt, raw-and-burnt-at-the-same-time cinnamon buns... I honestly nearly ran down to the post office to mail my old roomate, who is now living a few provinces away, a cinnamon bun. Because goodness knows SHE would be impressed. She was there for most of those failed cinnamon buns. Poor, poor girl. No wonder she up and moved to British Columbia.

And lastly, while we're discussing how impressive I am, I finished the back of the cardigan I'm making, Gigi. This is another momentous occasion, but less amazing as it was not led up to by a gazillion failed cardigans. Unlike the cinnamon buns.

k2tog or dc

Do you understand one or both of those terms? I'm proud to say I understand, and can easily do, both! I enjoy knitting and crochet both, and don't prefer one over the other... they're both great. I just like them for different things. I like them both for their unique qualities and the different results I can get from them, and I don't find either one particularly harder to do than the other. I really don't understand the knit vs crochet thing that seems to happen a lot in the yarn-working communities. Maybe it just has to do with many ladies fiercely loving to bitch at each other? I've never been keen on that, myself. I am pretty good at taking somebody down a notch, if I have to, don't get me wrong. But I really don't enjoy other people making me feel small, and I really don't enjoy doing it to other people, either! I've been there, it sucks, and I'd just as rather avoid taking anyone else on the trip.

I'm working on two main projects right now. I'm almost finished one of them... a crocheted child's top by Lion Brand Yarn. It's for my niece, Morgan. It's her birthday tomorrow! I'm doing it up in Peaches N Cream cotton.

The other is still Gigi. It's coming along great, I've only got another 2 inches or so to go on the sleeves for the back. It's quite the project and it's taking forever, but I'm so in love with it. I can't wait until I'm done! It's a project I put down and pick up a lot. I go on little binges of it, you could say. And then I get sick of it and pick up a little project, like Morgan's top or Chris' hat. (Lidsville) ... actually, I'm not quite done that, either. Or rather, I'm done it, but not satisfied. I have to undo the brim and put some sturdier plastic in there. I figured I'd be clever and just massacre a milk carton for my own devices, but that really isn't sturdy enough to hold up the bulky yarn I've used. I'd better get on it, too... my DH is pretty excited about that hat. It's great to see that... he thinks my hobbies are cool but this is the first time I've ever really made him something, most of my stuff has been baby stuff, and he is super psyched.

TTYL! XOXOLOR

Sew cool!

How unbelievably cheesy is that title? Never mind, how unbelievably cheesy am I lately? But I'm loving it. I knit, I crochet (okay, I've crocheted since I was about ten), I cook and clean, and now I sew. I should sew myself a sassy little apron. I'm so domestic lately. Which makes me want to go off on a tangent, but I'll finish what I started first.

I would totally recommend anyone who happens to have access to a sewing machine and some old jeans to check out this link. I'm sure we've all got the basic concept of turning an old pair of jeans into a skirt, but this one really ices the cake. I had very little trouble doing this, and I probably could have done it all in one afternoon if I didn't have the wee one gnawing on my ankles and unravelling yarn and/or destroying everything in my craft room. I love that it's got the stylish flare to it, and it's a very flattering skirt. Even if the jeans you are starting with are a little snug, if they're low riders (which I can not pull off now that I've had the wee one, anyways) you can just hike the skirt up a bit that tends to be less of an issue. For myself, at the very least. The only thing I'd warn you about is if your jeans are more faded on the top/bottom than they are on the opposite (bottom/top) you are really going to see it. But still, that is fine enough for a casual skirt.

Anyways, off to my tangent. I find it a little ridiculous how critical women have to be of each other. I do not judge anyone for choosing to go the daycare route. I don't tell anyone they should not be working, that their child should be at home with them. So why do I get to feel like I'm a throwback for choosing to stay home? Why do I get to be a joke and a mockery to 'confident women' (how confident can you really be if you need to bring others down to build yourself up?) because I cook and clean and sew and knit? Just because I do these things, and choose this route, I don't think there is anything wrong with not being able to do those things. And I don't think there's anything wrong with choosing daycare, if you think it's right for you! I think that everyone knows themselves and their own child best. Not everyone can be the best mom they can be when they are at home! I'm still not sure that I am one of the moms that should even be at home. I question myself regularly over whether I'd be more cheerful and more loving and more attentive if i wasn't at home all the time. And I think that's where the problem lies... I bet that working moms do the same thing, questioning themselves. And they criticize stay at home moms and justify themselves by saying the child will be more confident later in life if they go to daycare. Why? Because if everyone were doing the exact same thing it would be so much easier to feel confident that you were doing the right thing!  Yes, some children may be better off in daycare, depending on themselves and depending on what their mom DOES when she is at home! However, some children may grow up happier if they are at home. It is a case by case kind of a thing! There are so many different factors, there is no general right or wrong answer. And as long as people continue to demand one, and criticize their opposites, everyone will be wrong, and we will all continue to question whether or not we're doing the right thing. If your inner voice says you are, and your child is happy and confident, then YES! You ARE doing the right thing... for You and Your Family.  Not necessarily for Them and Theirs, but for You and Yours, and that is what matters!

Why thank you, my dear....

So I had a pretty hectic weekend. I dyed my hair back to brunette, and then got it cut in a sassy Victoria-Beckham-esque bob. Much more 'me' than the blonde curls were. As a direct result of the torture my hair has been through in the past six weeks, it feels pretty fake. No hard feelings, though... it's much easier to style than when it was super healthy. You win some, you lose some.

Also as a direct result of this, people seemed to suddenly assume I was on top of things. Large and In Charge. Savvy. Well, this is all true, in the right circumstances. However, at a funeral of my great-grandfather where I knew nearly no one, and had no clue what was going on, this was not super great. Everyone should not be asking the clueless person what to do or where to be. I was just along for the ride, and had no idea who all the people who 'remembered me as a baby' were. I felt a bit silly every time somebody assumed I looked like a good candidate to ask about something!

Anyways, I pretty much did not see my DH (darling husband, for those not in the know) for the entire weekend. We were supposed to have some face-time on Saturday after the funeral, but then that didn't pan out after all... he had 'stuff to do' and I wanted a chance to visit with my uncle from the Island in BC. Haven't seen him in about six years!

It turned out that the 'stuff to do' that my husband was talking about was for me! I had some plans and ideas for my office/craft room that I wanted done sometime in the near future. Basically a wraparound desk that goes down one wall and partially into another, in what was once a closet. I also had inherited my mom's sewing machine, which is actually shiny and new but had a broken piece so my mom had given up on it and bought a new one. Well, my DH surprised me by building my desk and fixing the sewing machine! So exciting. This was a great weekend for me!

And to top it off I got a random phonecall for a job interview for a sales management position somewhere. I really have no idea what exactly the job is, to be honest. We'll see when I get there! They pulled my resume out of a database, gave me a quick phone interview (during which i barricaded myself in my toddler's bedroom while she screeched at me from the other side of the door. phonecalls tend to mean grandma or daddy, and she wanted the phone!) and liked the impression he got of me. Not sure I'll take the job, we'll see what happens! I'm not really looking hard for a job anyways, I enjoy working but I don't Need a job, so I won't settle for something that doesn't sound enjoyable!

TTYL folk!
Lor