Life's a Beach

We had a great day at Wasaga Beach. I found the free parking lot that I always park at (though it's been a couple of years) after nearly stroking out at the $16 that the main beach parking lots were charging. Seriously ... on a week day?!? There was some sprinkles that we sat through then when thunder started about 1/2 hour later I made the girls pack it in. By the time they had made the 1st trip to the truck and come back the thunder clouds had passed by so I gave in to the pleas and we stayed another 3 hours!
Amanda is so photogenic & a beauty already! The picture of her running in the waves makes me think of her in a Survivor challenge - she'd totally be the smart, hot chick!!!
After a shower to get the sand out of all the places that sand manages to get I sat outside & watched Kerwyn toss the ball against the side of the garage. I love watching him. He has this cute little habit of examining the ball for defects then wiping it off on his shirt if he misses it.
I took a picture of me before we set out - the hat is a classic Chic Knits bucket hat.
I made progress yesterday on China Clouds & Mystery X & got a bit more done today at the beach on my Creatively Dyed Sweet Spot strip. I love how this is patterning!!

Sorry about that crazy pink yesterday - I don't know where that came from. Trying something new - again - today!!

In Like a Lion

And so loud was March's roar that, for only the 2nd time in recent memory, afternoon buses were canceled. Which would have been great except that I was in Alliston for the day (defensive driving course. I know. I think that considering we made it to the class without incident we should have just been passed and been allowed to go on with our day - but what do I know? Don't answer that!). Fortunately I didn't waste my time - I almost finished the 2nd sleeve on the Silk Shrug. It doesn't look like much, but trust me - it's a lot of knitting. It starts at the 1st sleeve and, following the line, goes through the back and into the 2nd sleeve. I'm just about at the cuff.

I had arranged with Kyle to go to a friends' house - they live a few blocks from his high school - and about 4:30 I ventured out to fetch him & Brandon. It was actually very calm in Angus & Cty Rd 90 wasn't closed - how bad could it be? Well, the Lord protects children and fools and we were all in the van. This is what it was like about 10 minutes out of Angus & it was like this all the way to Barrie, all the way home & for about the next 2 hours. Kyle & Brandon shoveled and snowblowed in an expression of gratitude for me coming & fetching them. Safely. They were both kinda of impressed (is any teenager really impressed by anything that their mother does?) by my blizzard/white-out driving skills. But honestly, I would have let them in the safety of Crystal's care if I had known that it was that bad out.

On Sunday I also did some stitching on my Châtelaine Mystery X. I'm working on February's chart, so I'm a little behind, but it's not a race. I don't have to be a speedy cross stitcher; I much prefer a leisurely pace and basking in the artistry of it. Yeah.

My Day Off

If I truly want a day off I have to leave home. Fortunately my friend Ada is a willing host and we always have a great time together. Sometimes we go out yarn shopping but mostly it's movies & knitting, cross stitching, beading; comparing, sharing and enabling.
Ada brought me back a scrumptious skein of baby alpaca from her recent trip to Peru. From the way she talked about it, I was expecting a small, bitty skein - certainly not the 150g skein of laceweight that I received!! And it's a natural white so I can dye it before or after I knit it!!

I shared with her all of the work knitting that I'm doing but can't show anyone (she can keep a secret like nobody's business!) and tempted her with the STR & LL that I bought down at Lettuce Knit.
I spent most of the day stitching on the Mystery X cross stitch. It is worked in hand dyed threads, metallics and a generous smattering of beads. It's so exciting seeing the design growing and watching the colours playing off of each other. I still have more to do, but January is young yet.




I came home tired but well rested & ready to be a single mom for 3 weeks. Kerwyn is off on another trip to China tomorrow. It's a long time, but I have quite enough knitting to keep me busy and Amanda has started her home schooling so I'm sure that the time will pass quickly.

Meet some of My People

They're not knitters but they're family so you love them anyway.

Uncle Grant (my mom's brother)

Aunt Pam (his wife)

Daphne (my sister)

Daphne, Uncle Wayne's head (another brother of my mother), my dad & I playing Solo. This is a great game - I don't know anyone outside of my family who plays it so I try not to forget how to play intelligently in between Gatherings.

There's more relations but Amanda was the Photographeur du Jour and this is what we've got. Amanda had a great time with her cousin Chantal; Kyle solved a wood puzzle that my uncle Wayne had made. It seems simple enough but making a square out of those shapes was a lot harder than it looks. Kyle was doggedly persistent and didn't give up - way to go Kyle!





Here we are in the first few minutes of 2007. This is the first year that we've allowed Amanda to stay up & she had Kaylie over. MMM had the Top 50 Guilty Pleasures videos - mostly 80's stuff. Talk about memory lane - it was great!!








This is Linda Gibbons. She is an advocacy consultant and is helping me work through the IPRC & IEP process so that Kyle can have some consistent help at school so that he can be more than just "full of potential". It's an exhausting dance - you have to give a lot to have a meaningful collaboration and it's reassuring to have someone with experience helping me learn the steps.

I got this lovely package today. I have signed up for Chatelaine's Mystery X - a year long cross stitch mystery. I'm hoping that I will be able to keep up each month. Some keeners already have their January piece stitched; I'm going for a more leisurely pace way slower than that. ECC did a really beautiful job of packaging this up - it's almost a shame to have to break it open. They even put in a set of needles!!

I will take some un-informative pictures of my knitting tomorrow!!