Jedi Robes

Max really wanted a Clone Wars party for his birthday. And he wanted some more boy dress-up wear. So, courtesy of these great instructions, I made two Jedi Robes for his party. Cute, huh?

There were also two clone helmets (one from a year ago, one from a Captain Rex costume I got him for his birthday, which he really really wanted but has yet to put on).

Oh, and Colin made those excellent lightsabers out of pool noodles and duct/electrical tape. Very fun and hugely popular.

First week of First Grade

First off, Max and Abbey had their last full day together - we'll miss you Abbey!

And then, school began. First day photo:

And here's what I saw when I went to pick him up after extended day:

Fully engrossed in playing with a new friend. It's working out fine, so far!

Lunches:

(he didn't eat any of those cute cheese leaves)

(the mac 'n cheese was too dry and came home uneaten - we'll have to figure the Thermos thing out)

Like the napkins? I sewed them up the night before (not my fault, I ordered the fabric 2 weeks ago, but it didn't come till Tuesday), and he's been liking them. The fabric line is Rocket Scientist from In the Beginning fabrics. Seemed so Max, had to have it. But he didn't need another quilt, so napkins it is!

Now we're all enjoying lots of downtime at home, and getting ready for a full week!

Veggie kid?

Max tells us that he doesn't want to eat "dead animals" anymore and wants to be a vegetarian. He's pretty earnest about it (although tonight when the veggie eggrolls were yucky and he knew that the chicken ones he had last week were yummy, he became practical rather than principled, and chowed the chicken ones). So, um, now what? I was always thinking "well, at least he's getting enough protein, even if he doesn't eat his veggies", but now what? He's snubbing all dinner ideas beyond ramen & spaghetti - hardly balanced & complete meals. He's not a tofu fan... Aside from his already-favorite and already-veggie corn dogs from MorningStar farms, what do I feed this kid beyond PB&J?

Any ideas?
Think it'll last?

Halloween

A little pictorial tour of our Halloween weekend.

Wednesday: Boy, carving pumpkins is hard work!

Friday: Trick or Treat at Mom's work - with Abbey in the lobby.

Ready for real trick or treating in the neighborhood. He decided on Wednesday that instead of being a police man, he really needed to be an Airplane Director. So, I whipped up a safety vest (complete with reflector tape) on Thursday, and Colin made red cones for some blue flashlights and dug out some cordless headphones for ear protection. Pretty cute, if we do say so ourselves, and very original. Not as original as the blueberry, but hey - it was recognizable this year - the flashlights were the real key to the costume.

Neighbor Paul's huge pumpkin - he grew it himself! And he gave Max a cool pumpkin too (see above).

All the kids assembled for neighborhood trick or treating. We have a Chinese Princess, the Airplane Directory, R2D2, Luke in a flight suit, and Spiderman!

Friday night: enjoying the haul.

Saturday: Halloween Party with some pals (not all pictured): in addition to R2D2 and Luke (out of uniform), we have the mushroom, the Hulk, and a Fairy.

Sunday: Jammies all day, and playing with his favorite pumpkin named "Enterprise". Whew, that was a busy Halloween!

Sleep (lack of) and Trips (not taken)

Current effort making sleep difficult: get Max into his own bed all night long.

• Last week - awful! Not much sleep for me or Max most of the week. Cranky mom, cranky kid.
• Weekend - not bad! Escape valve of "okay to come in Saturday nights" seemed to help a lot.
• This week - much better. Two nights of staying in his bed (Monday, continuously, Tuesday, just one break for a snuggle). Too bad I'm now trained to wake up at 2 & 4 am every night. So now it's my sleep schedule that is the problem!

Trips that aren't getting taken:

• Considered a quick trip to Leavenworth for this weekend, looking for snow. Couldn't find an appropriate room, decided it was too much hassle anyway. Holding out for a drive to Snoqualmie on Saturday to see snow. Maybe it'll happen.
• Considered a spring break trip to Orlando - mostly so Max could see Kennedy Space Center. Thought, heck, why not see Disney World. Priced some packages, got extreme sticker shock, read the Unofficial Guide, decided it was a big hassle too! Scratch that vacation.

Other news:

• Observation: shouldn't tease others about blog breaks - it causes them on your own blog.
• New on the needles: Gathered Pullover in Knit Picks Telemark Colonial Blue. Getting gauge, but it seems too big. Hmm. Need to measure again.

Hats are Easy-Peasy

A friend had a baby. I needed a gift asap. I realized that I had cute pink/white variegated cotton yarn, just a ball, enough for a little baby hat. I like hats. They're easy-peasy and super quick. All it takes is the right circumference, and the rest you can pretty much make up. I used a pattern for the sizing and decreases, but did some modifications for fun... and ain't it cute?





And boy, did I cut it close on the yardage (see, it was one ball, but I'd swatched with it before, so it was more like 3/4 of a ball). See photo above right for how much was left when I finished the decreases. Ooh that was close. Now I just hope it fits the little kidlet.

Specs

• Yarn: Trendsetter Yarns Scoubi Du in color 054 (Pink stone wash)
• Needles: Addi Turbo size 6, 16 inch circulars, plus bamboo size 6 dpns
• Pattern: Borrowed sizing & decreases from this one, but the hat itself doesn't really look much like it ;-). Thanks for the sizing, though!
• Modifications: Added eyelet row about an inch and a half up, skipped the top knot when I ran out of yarn.

In other news, I think I neglected to post a picture of Max's cool new loft bed from IKEA.

After spending the first night up top, he decided he'd rather sleep on the floor underneath. And after I ironed the canopy up top, he decided he didn't want that on the bed. Ah well.

Blueberry's candy haul

A picture says it all.

The Blueberry!

Max the blueberry very much enjoyed his halloween and ALL the candy he got. Hoo boy did he get a lot of candy.

Before T&T at Riley & Reed's house:

Being a blueberry at ours:

We couldn't seem to get a picture showing just how darn cute he is in this. Ah well, you'll just have to imagine. And he's so happy to have a blueberry costume. Who knew?

So ugly it's cute, or just plain ugly?

So, I got this yarn. It's a little homely. Just a funny color combination (what looks grey in the picture is really olive-y/dusty green, then there's that mustard yellow and rosy pink). But it was $3/ball at Ben Franklin, and I was tempted. I think it's so ugly, it's cute, but others have their doubts. What do you think?

I'm using it anyway (it's Skacel's Schulana SuperCotton), to make into this: Elisa's Nest Tote. I think it's turning out great. The yarn is fun and stretchy and oh, the wild color combo. Wacky!

Oh, and did I mention that I went back and bought the rest of the balls they had (only 6). Not to mention, I'd also bought two backup yarns, in case I didn't like that one.
Hmm. I think I officially have a "stash" problem now. AKA, big useless piles o' yarn waiting to be made into something. Plus, too many projects on the needles. Max's hoodie is waiting for me to figure out if I've messed up the sleeves. Then I'll get going again. I've given up on the felted bag for now, cause if you do combined knitting, and you knit in the round, you end up twisting stitches all over the place. Yick. So, I went to "regular" knitting and it's slower and frustrating. So, sitting on the needles, gathering dust, until I decide that I should just knit it flat and seam it.

Aside from that, some more quilted postcards. One for Teri:
And one that I think I'll keep:

We've been busy making stuff this summer! Here's a snap of Max relaxing after a hard day of berry picking and jam making.

This batch set up. Yay!

Kite House - Longbeach

We had a great time at the Kite House in Longbeach. Can't say enough great things about the house - beautiful house, beautiful views, and the kids adored it - had some fun kid-friendly furnishings in addition to the elegant ones. Anna called it "Max's house" and Max wants to go back this Friday ;-). Took us two days to figure out the iPod they had as a stereo system, but that's just 'cause none of the four of us have one (yikes, how uncool of us!).

Typically for the WA coast, 'twas overcast & windy when we arrived, only warming up the day before we left. Here's what it looked like most of the time. Max didn't seem to mind.

Brr!

We enjoyed a little wading (cold and sandy made that not Max's favorite, especially after the rash & blisters he got from one too many splashdowns plus too much sand in the beach shoes) and a whole lot of kite flying. And we all shared Kris' book from the library, since Colin and I had forgotten to bring any reading material and the Vogue and Coastal Living issues lying around the house could only last us so long.

Plenty of downtime while working on kite assembly...

Here's Max exploring the dunes around the boardwalk the day we headed out of town. Much sunnier! (Note that all pictures feature Max in one jammie top or another - still his favorite attire. Anna favors pink dresses. To each their own!)

All in all, great place to stay, and going with another family made it loads of fun.

Jo Jo done, ballgame

First, the finishing! Got Jo Jo all put together, and washed it a bunch more (maybe too much! It got a wee bit stretched out) and wore it! I think it's okay, but I definitely need to work on fit. The straps are too long (even after I frogged back and shortened them before blocking) and the body is a little loose. Funny thing about cotton/silk. No give while you're working with it, but the fabric sure stretches when you wear it. Hmm. Still love the color, and still love the cables. Not sure this was worth the price tag if you just go by the finished product, but I enjoyed working on it. Not too bad for a learning project, I suppose. Maybe it'll grow on me. It has potential for over a top, under a jacket wear. Definitely can't be on its own.

Specs:

• Yarn: Rowan's Summer Tweed: Smoulder
• Pattern: Rowan's JoJo
• Needles: US size 8
• Modifications: yarn substitution, some short row shaping for the bust, adjustments to length & width given that the pattern didn't come in my size.

Next on the needles, one of those felted bags. Oh, and I made two little rice packs for boo-boos, and sewed one more circle for my circle quilt. Been busy!

In other news, this weekend Max went to his first Mariner's game. Here he is with Dad.

Max enjoyed the hot dogs, red vines, fries, and cotton candy (my oh my!) and covered his ears whenever people cheered a hit or run. His favorite part might have been watching the trains in the train yard on the way there & back though. We'll work on the game comprehension too - not sure he understood anything that was going on. Ah well, fun for all!

Jo Jo is Blocking

I'm so excited! Jo Jo is finally blocking. I was knitting so quickly when I started, and then I slowed way down, so this took 5 hours to knit 1/3 of the front and a month and a half to knit the rest. Ah well, life gets in the way of the knitting sometimes. Here's Jo Jo blocking with a little help from Max.


And here's a closeup of the cables. This yarn (Rowan Summer Tweed) is fun, and I didn't have trouble working with it, although as others have reported it really doesn't have much give and definitely is full of straw and other vegetable matter. I fell in love the over-saturated color, but after doing the swatch I knew I'd better wash it out well before attempting to wear anything knitted with it. I put the knitted piece into the sink to wash and the water turned majenta! I think I rinsed it about a dozen times, and finally got down to a very pale rose color. Since I'm planning to wear this with a white shirt underneath, I think it was worth the trouble.

And just an aside - Max loves his PJs so much lately that that's all he'll wear. I can talk him into adding overalls, socks, and boots when we go outside, but inside, it's all PJs all the time. Here he is mid-morning today in the dino-jams that cousins Ethan & Fiona sent when Max had his tonsils and adenoids out.

Color and Joy

We had fun at the Art Festival at Max's school this weekend. A quick snap, thanks to my friend Stacia: