I just got this call today from the Creative Show in Toronto.....


Congratulations to our 2008 winners:

$450 Steam Press compliments of Singer Canada Allyson Susko, Ajax ON

it's not a serger but I'll take it!!! ha ha

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing weekend spent with family and friends!

I thought I'd do a list of some of the things I am thankful for....(this is not all inclusive!!)

- the time I have spent on maternity leave...it has allowed me to bond with Greyden and watch him grow and explore his world. He has gone from a wiggly little lump of giggles to a stretching, walking (close!!) determined little guy. He has such a strong personality, making those around him both laugh and cry! It has also given me a better peak into Caleb's world. So much has changed for him since I left work in February. He's now a big brother, we've moved, he's started school, he's formed and lost bonds with friends and family. He is growing into such a sparkling little kid. Every where we go his personality shines, and his contagious smile and big blue eyes catches people's hearts.

- my husband, who no matter how hard a day its been, always kicks me out the door every Friday night for knit night. Who makes me coffee every morning. Who can drive me totally crazy, but also keeps me sane!

- the fall, the weather the cooling off of the earth as we prepare for winter. I love the colours, the smells and the flavours of fall. Going to the farmer's market and picking out squash and apples. Rotating Caleb's pumpkin in his garden getting ready for Halloween. The crisp mornings, and the sun as it burns off the frost.

- the roof over my head. Living in your mil's basement may not be everyone's cup of tea but it has allowed us alot of freedoms the past few months. It has given us some physical and emotional security in very uncertain times.

- the repitition of a good knitting pattern. The knit and the purl, the in and the out. The odd twist, and wrap of yarn overs and cables, and the eventual satisfaction of a finished object.

There are probably a hundred or more things that I should be listing, but if I keep going I'm not spending time with those things listed above. So I'll finish with this....What are you thankful for? Are you thankful for the small, seemingly mundane moments and things in your life as well as the big? Are you taking the time to notice these things? The incredible orange leaf, laying on the blacktop driveway, when you hop into your car? Those little God moments that He puts in our everyday path, to make everyday matter, not just the big days. For those I am truly thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Caleb had his first day of school yesterday. What a day! He got up in the morning and immediately wanted to put on his school clothes. He was so excited, this is something we've been building up to all summer. It was a half day in the afternoon, so we spent the morning slowly preparing and getting ready. Picking and packing his afternoon snack, showering, packing his new school bag.

As we set out on the walk to school, it was a beautiful fall day outside, perfect for the first day of school. For once in his life, he didn't dawdle. As he walked ahead of Len and I, he looked back and said, "Mom, you and Dad are slowpokes and I am a fast poke." We got the message and hurried up a little.


We rounded the corner and walked the few feet up Lincoln Avenue, he reached out for our hands, slowing down just a bit. He looked up and said, "I like you Mom. I like you Dad." We stopped at the front of the school for a few obligatory pictures of our big boy.


No longer a pre-schooler.

Next stop Kindergarten class. His excitement was mounting, as we set off to the back of the school, to the specially fenced in area for the JK and SK kids. Again, as we rounded the corner, he slowed, this time dropping right back. We could sense his hesitation. I grabbed his hand and reminded him that he was going to have so much fun, and we would be back in a few hours.

The three of us quietly waited with a few other parents and their kids, all us exchanging shy quiet smiles. I think we all felt nervous and excited, hoping for the best for our children but a little afraid, as well. Would our kid be the one to cry and want to go home? Or would they even notice we weren't there?

The bell rang, a few minutes of chaos. Caleb's teacher dismissed her morning class to their parents. We both wished Caleb the best, big hugs, and sent him over. His teacher turns, big smile, welcomes Caleb and puts him at the front of the line.


A few more minutes rounding up the last of the kids. Len and I stood there and soaked in the moment, studying his face. He's got his serious face on, but we can see he was nervous.


He stood so still, even when some of his older friends from Parks N' Rec walked past and gave him big waves. They didn't even get a smile.

Everyone is finally organized and together, his teacher leads the line into school. Len and I leave. As we walked away, we both choked up.

Someone asked me if he looked back as he went into school? I don't know, I don't think so. I couldn't look. We sniffled part way home. The house was strangely quiet for the remainder of the afternoon. Its not as if he's never gone away before, but this was different. This was putting him into the hands of strangers, introducing him to other kids and their influences. The good and the bad that comes with that. This was the beginning of packing him up everyday and sending him off to school until he's 17 or 18.

When we picked him up, the first thing he told us about school was that some girl knocked him down at recess. His teacher said, "Welcome to Kindergarten." He had storytime, snack time and he got to wear his new running shoes. He made some friends, but he can't remember their names. He had fun. Nobody cried.

And he missed us.

Stash that is. Amanda and I had an awesome time at the Stitch n' Pitch in T.O last week. We swapped and gawked more than we knit, oh, and we did catch some of the game to. I've uploaded some pics to Flickr so you'll have to check them out. Special cheers to Haley from Knitomatic who has potentially upgraded my future scarf to a small sweater, ok maybe a shrug or poncho. But still gratefully received!!! And while we are on the subject of Haley...check out her Wychwood Beautifucation Project. I have got to find some ugly poles!!!!

I'm so excited! I'm meeting Amanda today to go to the Stitch N' Pitch in Toronto. Its going to be so much fun! I'm picking her up right after work and we are going straight there. When I spoke to her yesterday we were not sure what projects we were bringing. Amanda told me that what she wanted to bring only needed a tonne of ends woven in...then she realized what she was saying! Eureuka! Now she wants to pass the project up and down the rows and have everyone weave in an end or two until done. She may be onto something!!!

I'll post pics to flickr!

Holy Smokes has it been so long since I last posted. Last time I posted I was suffering ridiculous pregnancy insomnia, the time posted was 4:49 am! ACK!

Happily since that time, our beautiful baby boy, Greyden Kenneth Jack was born on Valentine's Day. Labour was very quick. At 3:30 pm I was knitting in a rocking chair, and Greyden was born at 4:30 pm. My doctor barely had time for the nurse to throw a stool under her to sit on. Len was absolutely amazing, knowing exactly how to make me feel better and when. My mom attended again, as she did with Caleb. We ended up a few extra days in the hospital, as Greyden became jaundiced really quickly and had a stubborn fever, so they shipped him to the special care nursery. But in keeping with the holiday theme, we came home on the new provincial holiday, Family Day.

Caleb loves being a big brother, as a matter of fact when he came into the birthing room afterwards he asked, "Am I a big brother now?" He absolutely adores Greyden. He hugs and kisses him all the time, he's very gentle too. His big brother job is to sing to Greyden when he cries, and rock his cradle or chair.

Check out my Flickr pics for pics of the boys.

I've got itchy feet...well I think I've had them for some time, but I think I've finally resigned myself to a cold hard fact. I think its time to break up with my blog, I've been thinking about it for a while now. Sorry, its you not me.

I keep visiting all these other blogs and they are so pretty, and they have pictures, a beautiful colours and mine's just blah. I believe the turning point was converting to mac. Now that I have a mac, I have to do all of my blogging using html for everything, including photos. On my mac I've fallen in love with dragging everything. The html is so tedious that I don't blog photos any more, I don't even use bolds or italics. Over the past years I've told myself that when I'm not working I'll "fix" my blog, strip it down, implement some coding etc. etc. but it's never gotten done. (darn family time!) So now I'm patiently waiting to migrate, maybe give wordpress or typepad a try...something pretty. I deserve something pretty don't I!

I was just wondering who the pregnant one is in the house!?

After dinner tonite, Caleb started asking for dessert. After telling him we didn't have any dessert, he cuddled up to me and asked for cake. I told him we had no cake. Then he asked for ice cream. I told him we had no ice cream.
Then he says, "I know!
Pickles! Can I have a pickle for dessert?" So of course, I let him.

Pardon my french...but Holy crap! In case you missed it on Ravelry, they've posted the world's biggest yarn stash. I couldn't help but show it to Len, with the clarification that its NOT a yarn shop he was looking at but someone's basement. It's bigger than many yarn shops I've been in. But now Len is a little nervous, he wants to know if my yarn stash was going to get that big. Get me a house baby, and I'll see what I can do!

We took Caleb to the Santa Claus parade tonite. Unfortunately, we were pretty mellow about getting there, so we just saw the tail end of the whole thing. Santa passed, and I enjoyed the amazing look on Caleb's face, as he watched his very first sight of Santa for the year. As Santa ho,ho'd away, and the parade ended, Caleb turned, put his little face into my jacket and began to cry. Feeling guilty that we had been late and had missed most of it, I put my arm around him and asked him what was wrong......

He looked up to my with his big teary eyes, "Santa didn't give me a present."