Hickory Dickory Dot Sweater

I have officially finished the Hickory Dickory Dot Sweater by annypurls. It's for our friends, Sarah and James (and Sadie) who are expecting their first child due September 24. I don't think my sweater is nearly as cute as hers, however I used yarn that probably wasn't as nice. I get worried about using yarn that is too expensive for a baby. They either grow out of it quickly or get it terribly stained and you can't throw a lot of the yarns in the washer for a good scrub. If anyone has found a good DK yarn for baby items that is not TERRIBLY expensive, let me know.

While at Jujube&Lolo, I discovered anny has a new pattern. Yay! It's called Duck Soup. I really want to make it for Ethan, but I'm a little worried it looks too girly. I wouldn't make the closures multi-colored. I think that would help lessen it's feminine effect. What do you think?

E's Birthday Party Invitation

So, as my good friend Ellen pointed out in my last post, I didn't show a picture of Ethan's invitation. Here it is.

I am selling ones like it that I will customize with your child's silhouette and colors in my Etsy shop: www.inviteddesign.etsy.com

Happy Birthday to E!

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's been a month and a half since my last blog post, but it's not like I've been sitting around twiddling my thumbs. So here's what I have been up to ...

Knitting: I am almost done with Hickory Dickory Dot by anny purls. I'm just finishing up the mouse and deciding if I want to put a squeaker in it before I finish seaming. I'll post a picture of it when it's complete. Next on the needles: A sweater jacket for me! My first. Here's the pattern I'm using: DROPS Jacket

Invitations: I guess you can say I have started an invitation business. This has taken up most of my spare time. It's too much to go into now, so I'll save that for a later post. Maybe tomorrow.

My son's second birthday: Yay! Ethan turned two! With all of my efforts towards designing invitations (which I really have enjoyed) I was totally the slacker mom about the E-Man's second birthday. I couldn't really even decide on a theme. I was torn because he really likes cars. However, we got him a train set because he loves playing with them at other people's houses and has really started to say "CHOO! CHOO!" whenever we're driving or walking and see trains. On the other hand, he's totally obsessed with balls. So the theme became "All things that roll" I made his invitation and lined the envelopes with paper printed with little cars. I love to make cakes, so I totally stole the idea of this train cake and made my own. Here's mine.

OK. So mine isn't as fancy, but it's OK. I used my Grandma Young's Lady Bird Johnson Chocolate cake recipe which is one of our faves.

The weather here in St. Louis has been beautiful for August so we were lucky enough to be able to have the party outside. Here's some pictures from the day.

That's my husband's tortoise, Buddy. (Notice I say my husband's tortoise. He came with him in the marriage.)

So, Ethan wanted to play with "Daddy's Lawn Mower" (it's really a blower) more than anything else. Eventually, we had to put blower "Night. Night" "Bye. Bye. Wawn Wower."

He can finally rip wrapping paper. Yay! He eventually got the hang of the present thing. Here he is playing with his Thomas book from Aunt Lynn and Uncle John.

How cute is my niece?
These are the lion cupcakes I made and brought to school for his birthday. I got the idea from here. (I'm such a cake hack.) Ethan doesn't like cake...I have no idea what is wrong with him, but I figured he would like the candy. Plus, I wanted to hear him say "Wion. RAARRRR!"
He's a good "rarrr-er".

So that's it for the birthday. I can't believe my little love is two.

First Carnival For the E-Man

So, my son is going to be a daredevil. (Worried sigh.) On Thursday and then again on Friday (because we forgot our camera- doh!) we went to the Webster Groves Community Days Carnival. I have always LOVED carnivals, so much so that I would happily hop out of the car on my way to dinner to take a couple rides. We decided to take Ethan to the carnival thinking that he would like the lights, but expecting that he would be too scaredy to go on any rides. So, when we got there and saw they had several kiddie rides, we decided to start small with the train. By the end of the night he was giggling through the "Bigger Kid Kiddie Rides" that even sort of scared me. Here are some pictures from our revisit on Friday (which was WAY more crowded and crazy than our visit on Thursday.)

Everyone has a little 15 year-old in them, right?

At one point in time, I could have called myself a "reader." Unfortunately, five plus years, a child, a full time job, knitting, designing, not to mention trying to fit in maintaining a house, bills, cooking, cleaning, and spending a few moments with my husband, I find if I do pick up a book, it takes me a very long time (as in months) to finish it. But that was not the case with this book.

I think you can say I am officially obsessed with "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyers. I read it in a couple days ... and those days were work days. The entire time I read it, I felt this overwhelming sense of guilt that if I AM ACTUALLY READING, I should be reading something that would be more "beneficial" (whatever the hell that means) to me. I dunno, like maybe I should finish some of the books I *should* have read in highschool like Tolstoy (whom I have never read). The reality is I think I want to read Tolstoy because it is representative of a specific historical time and a plight of a people who helped create a foundation for what we have today and I find the idea of that compelling, but when I actually sit down to read Tolstoy, eh, it's not as interesting. (I'm saying this having not read anything by Tolstoy, so it could be completely gripping for all I know.) On the other hand, reading "Twilight" for me was like drinking a Cherry Coke -- something I totally enjoyed doing, but not sure if I should be expending my calories on something so unsubstantial. I realize that's not very nice to say about the book, and I kind of feel sorry for saying that, especially after having read Stephenie's inspiration behind her book and really relating to her plight as a mother trying to complete a project that she was passionate about. Another thing to feel guilty about: wishing for bedtime or naptime for your children so that you can work on your own selfish, creative obsessions. That's an entry for another time, though.

Regardless of my guilt issues, "Twilight" called to the younger girl within me and reminded me of what it's like to love and live passionately -- something that I'm sure we all forget how to do as time goes by. Unable to say goodbye to Edward and Bella, I'll be picking up Twilight's sequel tonight, New Moon.

Ellen's Bachelorette

So, my lovely friend Ellen is getting married in less than two weeks and I am going to be in her wedding. A couple weeks ago, my co-matron-of-honor, EB and I threw her a Bachelorette Party at Dave & Buster's. Ellen is a little Freaky Friday over games. I am too -- especially board games, but I digress. Here are the invitations I made for her party. I was trying to go with the video game theme. If it had been a shower, I would have made her a bride cake that looks like the pixel bride, but it wasn't so, oh well.







I also designed her wedding invitations, but I'll let her post them on her blog first. I also made here Save the Dates, that you can see at the following link. Ellen's Save the Dates

I would really like to start doing this on the side. I was a Printmaker in college, so this is right up my alley. It sort of bridges the gap between art student and sorority girl, both of which I was and both of which left me feeling conflicted.

mom

I miss my mom today. Everyday I miss my mom, but today there is a familiar ache and longing that accompanies my normal everyday wistfulness. I have a picture of her pinned to the board above my monitor and I’ve probably looked at it 30 times and it’s only 10:50. Because I’m missing her so much today, I’m allowing myself to indulge in remembering her details. I normally don’t do this because it’s comforting and painful at the same time – comforting when I first remember the way her hair grows at the nape of her neck, or how her pores looked on her cheeks and her nose, but then painful when I realize that the only place this is recorded is in my memory. So then I stop thinking about her. I also worry that thinking about her details too much will damage them. Sort of like handling a piece of silver adds tarnished fingerprints that change its composition. I should probably stop now and concentrate on my work. Maybe this is what it's like to get old or to know that you have alzheimers. I wonder if everyone is afraid of losing memories.