New Home

Hey everyone! Just posting to let you know that I have moved blog homes. I am now located at www.tangledviolets.wordpress.com. See U there.

I love back to school

It has been great having the kids back in school. Don't get me wrong I love my time with them but it is nice having some time to work without dividing all of my thoughts between the kids and work. I can do one thing at a time. Here is what the first day looked like.













And the second day. Max is watching her to make sure she is okay.




Yup Nora was sick the second day and by the weekend Lucia was too. Serge came down with it the week after. We made it work though. Serge's job is less than flexible now so it is all on me. Whew it is busy! But it is all right.

Busy

I have not been around because we have been so busy. My kids have been everywhere...dance class, soccer, art, etc... We have also been on vacation. Plus, I have been teaching and facilitating at a group workshop. So I am tired... Here is a pic to tide you by. I will also be presenting a finish a day until I get through. More stress equals a lot of finishing.

Ill finishes

I am recovering from a lovely week long bout of influenza. It seems everyone in the house has had it in the last month. But, because of my extended stay at home and the inability to look at my computer screen for long, I was able to complete two different projects.




OK really, I completed these a few weeks ago, but who is counting. These are ponchos created from an old Lilly pattern book. The girls chose the colors separately. Oddly enough, they chose the same colors for their ponchos minus the base colors. They are funny little beings. They were completed with Lilly cotton yarn. I have lots left over for dishrags.

This is a blanket that I made for a friends impending wedding. It is made from a Lion Brand Pattern in Lion Homespun Tudor. I hope they like it.

Starting

We started all of our garden seeds today. We decided on many different types of flowers, peppers, and tomatoes.



The girls were very active.



Serge on the other hand...

Earth Hour

Happy Earth Hour! We will be enjoying candle light and Monopoly.

Look it is done

Here is our new room. I am rather proud of it. We have already broke it in. If you look closely you can see random stuff around.



This is the furniture. The girls have already discovered that the ottoman will work for a bed for them. Very cute.



Here is a pic of Serge's chair. Of course, being the man that he is it is fancy.



And our pretty new curtains. Thank you Pier One for saving me from a long, boring sewing project. Serge thinks that because I can, I should. I beg to differ. I am crocheting curtain tie backs. Just a little piece of me in the room.All in all the room is very comfortable and we love it. Finally, mom and dad space.

Happy Valentine's Day

I got to spend the day with the kids. It was great fun. Our favorite part of all of the time we spent at the coffee shop. Serge decided it was high time he got some pictures of me with the kids since usually it is the other way around. We counted. I think we have roughly 10-12 pictures of me in the last ten years where I am not graduating, pregnant, or acting as backdrop to a child.

This is a picture of me with the kids. I thought it was pretty funny because I look so worried and they are all so random:)

Painting

We have big plans for this weekend. We are going to paint the rooms and go furniture shopping. Honestly the rooms look so much even when they are just covered in primer. Here we are getting started.




I figured it would be best to just get it out of the way and let the girls paint a bit. We knew they would do it anyway. It is always better when they do things in front of us, instead of trying to do things in secret. Much cleaner.

After a while Serge's attention wandered and he began to play with the camera. This is not unusual for him. Very cute Babe.



What do you think of the color?

Bye Bye Wall Paper

The wall paper is gone. Look! The wall paper is gone.



Now for the priming. Got to love oil based paint. Look at Serge go. What an adorable man.

Remodel

Well, Serge and I have decided to work on another room. Really two rooms but they are both a part of our bedroom (otherwise know as mom and dad space). We started out with this.



Okay, so this is a little bit after we started. Let me put the wall paper into context for you. The bottom part is forest green striped with gold. The border is antique maps of Pangaea. The top part is forest green snake skin print. I am not sure who made these decorating choices, but there you go.

Serge and I just keep telling ourselves we will get all of the wall paper off eventually. So far we have one wall done.

Dance Recital

Look! We are at a dance recital. The girls were adorable. Nora of course worked very hard to stay with the other girls. Lucia, of course, seemed to have her own routine.

Mom's hats

I have been working on hats for my mom for some time. She has ovarian cancer and is now losing her hair due to the chemo. (Don't worry she is doing great. They were able to remove all of the cancer.) I made five hats in all, but I only have pictures of two. Here are Chase and I doing a bit of modeling. I don't have the other pictures anymore as she already has them. I can't wait to send these to her.



Chase wanted me to say that this is not the hat he would chose to wear. It is not his color or style. Hm. I think he looks cute.

I have also been working on this for myself.





It is a Pi Shawl by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I am completing it with unspun Icelandic Wool from School House Press. I love this yarn. It is a bit tricky to work with at first, because it pulls apart. However, I am finding it very therapeutic because I have to have very steady hands or risk the yarn breaking.

The next day

Another day of really, really low temperatures, so the kids were home again. They were great and well behaved. The fort did the trick. The played all day. There were snacks, cleaning, and Connect Four intermittently as well. Mainly though it was all fort. Here is an adorable photo of the kids sleeping in the fort. They slept there all night. The dog even slept with them. The thing that I get the biggest kick out of is that not only did we create the fort, but the kids decorated and furnished it as well. They crack me up.

Snow Days

A moms guide for Snow Day survival. My lovely husband is working in Orlando, FL this week and our school has closed because of extreme cold temperatures and I had the kids home. So think 48 hours of full on kid time. This is what I did to survive.

First, engage the children in home improvement projects. We are removing some horrible wallpaper from our sitting room.



Second, play games. Get the children to play as many as you can.





Third, when you can't take the noise anymore. The computer. Never let them play for more than an hour though. If you do that, it makes the kids more crazy than the pre computer time. Don't ask me how I know.



Finally, when all else fails, nothing works better than a fort. The kids and I had a great time. We missed daddy but I loved every minute with them.