I guess I updated just the background a bit. Gotta do something about the banner now. See if I can get creative at home with Photoshop.
I can't believe the purple bracelet sold this afternoon......... cheered me up.
Yikes, this template is so outdated........ it's still winter but this is looking too Christmasy. When will I find the time? Just be patient with me........ okay? Pretty please........
In summary.......... week #2 of return to work is still going rough. I'm settling more into work and the demands of it but I'm still coughing and not feeling 100%. Add the lack of a good night sleep and it's tough.
I miss my knitting. In 3 days, I managed to knit one short row heel............ one friggin' little short row heel. If I do get time to sit down without kids draped all over me, I'm usually too tired to even lift my arms. I know...... it will take some time to get adjusted. I just didn't think it would be this frustrating. Just wait - next week will be better.
Since I don't have knitting to show off, I'll just keep showing off my jewelry. This bracelet is also a result of my sick days last week. I think this turned out so very well:
Well, you know, purple is my favourtie and I like the bold statement it makes. Of course, it's for sale. I should start wearing some of my own stuff....... even if just for advertising. :-)
Lunch time.
While I was sick, I did have time to create some more earrings and a couple of bracelets. Today I'll show you the earrings:
These are fun and a bit unusual. I love the copper and the green swarovski pearl combo. I think they are totally awesome but I don't wear too many earth tones, so I listed them. I really need to start keeping some of the jewelry for myself though or how else will I advertise?
I'm feeling better, Erika is better.............. all sounds good? Well, now JR is really quite sick. Can't break his fever. As much as I'm okay with going back to work, there is nothing worse than leaving your sick baby for someone else to take care of, even if it's family. This has caused me tons of tears already.
Better go make dinner now. Things do have to get better......... maybe not in the next few days but hopefully toward the end of next week.
My back to work week couldn't have had a bumpier and rockier start - in point form, here are a few of the glitches:
#1 - my boss didn't even have to courtesy to say "Welcome back, it's good to have you back" and by Wednesday I finally "broke" down and went to talk to him. Now that's not a reflection of what he thinks of me or my work (or at least I think so) - it's just his personality. He didn't even think of it - all business all the time - mind you, when I finally went to see him to talk about some stuff, he commented on my lovely choice of clothes. Go figure. I know I'm a bit sensitive about this but it really hurt my feelings.......... a lot.
#2 - by the time I went to pick up Little Miss at daycare on Monday, she was sick. She had just started throwing up, was running a high fever and was lying there on a little cot with a wet cloth behind her neck.... I felt so bad for her. She ended up on a wicked dose of antibiotics and of course, hasn't been to school all week. Evan took her to daycare this morning because she seemed fine yesterday but within the hour they called me to pick her up. She is now sleeping again.
#3 - so why was I home to pick Little Miss up from daycare? Well, I got the same miserable thing that Little Miss has and I've been home from work since yesterday. Wednesday night, I hardly slept because I had the chills all night long, yesterday morning and all day long, I had a fairly high fever, controlled by Tylenol most of the day and today, although I'm a bit better, I wasn't ready to go to work yet today. So my first week of work, I managed to be there for 3 days. That kind of made me feel pretty bad.
#4 - JR has been coughing but it has been improving. We're actually surprised that he stuck it out at daycare all week long. He's doing really well there so that's good.
So, it's been a rough week. I haven't touched a knitting needle all week. I'm feeling very unsettled and very worried about what the future holds. I know we'll eventually settle into a routine but it will take us a while.
I did manage to make a few new pretties and the first one that I just listed on Etsy is this lovely pair of Valentine inspired earrings. I called them Have a Heart Earrings.
I quite love these........ they are very pretty, dainty and light. The hearts are sterling silver and so are all the other components. The beads are Swarovski crystals. They sparkle and dangle.
I was going to take Little Miss to school even though daycare sent her home. She didn't seem that bad to me and I was thinking it was maybe a bit of an act but she's been sleeping every since we came home so maybe I need to believe that she really isn't feeling very well. And for myself............ I should just go and take a rest, too. Have a great weekend.
Well, after 13 months, I'm back to the grind............. work that is. Things went about as smoothly as they could this morning. I didn't sleep more than about 2 or 3 hours last night. As a result, I feel exhausted and am not much good to anyone around here. I'm taking the day to get settled and then I'll work on getting caught up on all the changes that happened over the past year. My office still feels the same. I'll have to get back into a regular routine that includes getting out for walks or to the "Y" at lunch for a little workout but I'm excusing myself this week. Just time to get accustomed to being a working Mom again. The kids seem to be handling it okay so far. We'll see how it goes as the days and weeks continue. I'll most definitely have to be very organized and I have no idea how much time I'll have for any knitting, beading or anything else I enjoy doing. That bothers me a bit because I do need that down time but even in the weeks leading up to my return to work, I hardly had an evening where I actually got down to sit and pick up the needles. I think I'm in for a bit of an adjustment - probably an attitude adjustment as well. Probably have to lower my expectations somewhat - especially my expectations of how much stuff I'll be able to get done. Mostly, that probably means sticking to my stash knitting - why buy new yarn when you don't even have any time to finish any of the things already on the go?
I'm okay with being back on the working train but today I'm not sounding too enthusiastic........... and that's just because I'm tired.
Check back in a few days.
How do you like these new stitch markers I created and listed today?
I LOVE SPRING Stitch Markers
I think these are perfect for top down raglans because you can mark the beginning of the round with the heart and the other 3 raglan increase points with the plain markers. Those were really, really fun to make. It was a miserable day out and between getting JR to the doctors, getting his shots and Little Miss complaining of stomach cramps, this was the best creative remedy for the winter blah's I could come up with.
Tomorrow I'm getting ready for the 1-year old birthday party. Of course, Little Miss has been trying to blow balloons and decorate the house with streamers since yesterday.
To pick one picture of them all:
The day he got to come home from the hospital was really the day that our lives together started (3 weeks after he was born). Today my little guy is one year old and I'm reminiscing. At 9:10 pm, I was totally recalling the events of the night one year ago. An unexpected turn of events.................
JR, you've brought so much joy in your year with us. Lots of laughs, some tears and even some frustration but all of it is good. Mommy and Daddy love you tons and your big sister thinks the world of you.
Little Miss has been decorating the house with streamers all afternoon long. His party isn't until Sunday. :-)
I'm excited about this huge mile stone, of course, I'm also a little sad that the baby time is over and gone. He's moving straight into toddlerhood.
Happy Birthday, Bud...........
Today was JR's first intro into daycare. It went okay. Maybe not as well as I hoped for or expected. Unfortunately, I walked out to a crying little boy. Consider this though - he wasn't crying because he was really upset by anything except that one of his new little friends started wailing about something so just in sympathy, he decided he needed to chime in........... full screams of desperation. Yikes. They'll have fun, especially because one of the little girls apparently cries a lot. I hope he gets over his feelings of empathy soon - at least as far as crying at daycare is concerned. No need to be the hero in that case. :-) When I retrieved him, he was crying but apparently the story went that he was fine and playing away until yet someone else started crying. So as long as nobody was crying, he was happy and content but as soon as someone's tears started flowing. We'll see how tomorrow goes........ except we're supposed to have another snow storm so who knows whether I'll be driving him anywhere tomorrow. See, it's been cold....... this is a thermometer in celcius:
Little Miss had saking lessons.......... her first skating lessons. We think she did great for her first time. Every time she fell, she got up again:
And just a gratuitous picture of the little guy:
In 2 days, this little man is turning one year old. Where did the time fly? Where is that tiny little infant? No longer a helpless infant but a true to form troublemaker little boy. Once he walks, we're in so much trouble. 
Little Miss is making a birthday gift for her little brother. Here it is in progress. The pens are fabric pens and came as a set - pens and shirt - from Walmart.
Of course, my artist, is going well beyond just colouring in the picture. Mind you, I have no problem with letting her express her own creativity by not staying in the lines only. It's her shirt to make for her brother.
On the knitting front, I just cast on for the first sleeve of the marble cardie. I don't think I can knit two sleeves and a big ribbing around all the edges with less than a week to go before I start work. I do think I made nice progress and I can't wait to wear this with a pair of black pants. Mind you, I do think I will have to continue my WW journey a bit longer before this will fit properly but we'll see when it's finished.
2 fronts, 1 back
I also started something exquisite. Oh, a long time ago, I got an awesome scarf pattern from Li over at Life's a Stitch. She came up with this great diagonal Herringbone rib scarf pattern and I've been wanting to give it a shot. Well, here's my oh so scrumptious version of it:
It's a reversible scarf but I'm only showing the diagonal rib side. The yarn is way beyond wonderful. It's Peter Rabbit from Fleece Artist. It's 70% Angora and 20% Nylon. The softness is amazing. I bought this last April at International Fiberfest from Knitopia. I barely had enough money with me.... I spent all my spending money for the day on that yarn because I couldn't resist and it's a dream. Very fuzzy, with little hairs flying everywhere but oh, so soft.
Tonight I had to switch from that to 100% acrylic....... yuck. Little Miss decided that her little animals needed a blanket and she pulled out an ugly, ugly ball of yellow 100% acrylic so I could make her the blanket. Talk about a difference........ but I love my little girl so she will have her little yellow blanket. She has all these little beanie babies, they all have names, they all have families - she has woven quite the intricate family network of fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and grandparents and cousins. It is amazing how she keeps them straight. Back to that acrylic ball of yarn........ it's the stuff that would never be displayed on my wonderful stash shelves...... it's the stuff that's hidden deep, dark in the closet somewhere.
One last thing about knitting............. here's something to consider - a knitter's meet-up: Look down the sidebar and click on "Spring Knitting Retreat". I'm not sure that I'll get much support at home to go away for a weekend at this point in the game. I mentioned it and it didn't get much interest. I would like to go though. The economical way would be to get a bunch from the Lower Mainland to go in one vehicle in order to share ferry costs. But that doesn't solve my problem quite yet and that is that I've never left my children over night, with the exception when I was in hospital just before and after JR's birth - but that's a bit different than galavanting off to a knitting retreat. Compare that to the fact that I was given a wonderful gift certificate for services at a place called Spa Utopia last February for my birthday and I yet have to make an appointment to go and take advantage of it. It expires in February.
Oh and one more knitting thing......... I decided to get back to the Chain Links sock pattern that I designed last summer and I did a bit more work on it, edited it a bit more etc. and decided to offer it up as a hardcopy pattern in my Etsy store. I've listed it for $4 US and the cost of shipping a letter. As a blog special, if someone mentions "Blog Special" in the comments to the seller, wait for an adjusted invoice as I'll sell it for $3.50 US and mail it for free. I've only listed 2 copies to keep the listing fees down but in the earth shattering event that those 2 copies should sell, I'll just re-list more. Not a chance that I'll run out as long as there is ink in the printer.
Now a bit more about my chain mail ventures - I created these Valentiney looking earrrings:
And here are my first attempts, in stainless stell, at a weave called the Byzantine weave. It goes by other names as well but I'm too tired now to look them all up. This chain has so much potential and I have many plans to incorporate beads and gems into it. Very, very neat and very addicting but quite time consuming.
If you're still with me, I commend you. That was a long post but I think I've covered all the bases now. We'll see if the snow storm really comes through. It would really suck as travelling is just always so treacerous around these lands when it snows and the stuff from last week hasn't melted on the side streets yet.
It's sunny and cold............. actually, it's gorgeous out. I just spent my morning while JR was napping wasting time in front of the computer though. Now he's about done with his nap and I'm debating feeding him some lunch and then taking him out for some shopping. He needs warm winter type clothing for daycare ie. a little snowsuit and some boots. I should be able to get some stuff on sale.
Updated the Slim Down 2007 blog this morning. Hope on over if you're interested at all. It'll probably be pretty boring but hey........... whatever keeps me going I will do and writing about it does help.
I just made a new pair of earrings but I haven't photographed them yet. They are reminiscent of Valentine's Day earrings 'caus they are silver and red. They are not perfect though. With the chainmail stuff, ring size is extremely important. I could go into all the math behind it - of course, I'm a numbers kind of person so I've been persuing all kinds of technical info on how to figure this all out. So anyways, one size of my rings is just a tad too small. We're probably talking fractions of a mm. So as I said.... cute but not perfect. I'll take a pic and post them later.
Maybe I'll even get some knitting pictures but I find that a work in progress (mine anyways) when all you can see is miles of stocking stitch is rather boring in the grand scheme of things.
If I didn't need some of the essentials like food for dinner, diapers and stuff like that, I wouldn't even venture out today. I'd love to stay at home. Have a great weekend. Bundle up and stay warm.
