mother nature's joke or is it friday the 13th?

so we waited, and we waited, and we waited - through bad weather, sick kids, weekend working overtime - for the PERFECT weekend to have our girls weekend and just look what Mother Nature had in store!!



grrrrrrrrrr is all I have to say
the nb girls will not be leaving today......fingers crossed for better weather in the morning - the forecast is not promising.....

Happy Easter !

home in the 'nish for Easter weekend.....enjoying the snow (?)..... family..... and some much needed quiet time......

<'Nona bunny pic to follow>

SOLD!

So from day 1 when we moved into 172 Rennick Rd Mike and I have been talking about moving. Why....we're not really sure - it's a nice house in a new area. Perhaps it's because we live on a street, not in a neighborhood.

Late in February I found a place in Riverview for us to take a peek at. So we went for a look and were drawn to this house, no not from the peach, lavender and Toronto Maple Leaf blue paint, it was more to the kitchen and the fact that the house felt like it was in a neighborhood. Mike went off to Texas the following week and we both kept thinking about ' the new house'. Everytime we talked 'the new house' came up. What we would do - what the yard would look like - how Mike could cook in that kitchen. So when he came back from Texas we talked about putting in an offer. A week or so later we made the offer. Four short hrs later we were the 'potential' new owners of 153 Callowhill Rd. Now to sell our house.....

Saturday, Sunday & Monday we cleaned - not that we live in a hovel or anything but having a clean house and having an open house clean house are two very different things (this we've learned during our various visits to houses). On Sunday our agent came by and we signed on the dotted line - our house was officially on the market.

Mike has decided to take Wednesday off to clean the dreaded basement and I was off at work. At about 4 my phone rang- it was Mike - he sounded stressed. "Can you come home right away?" I thought something had happened......sort of.......we had a showing for 7 that night.

We frantically cleaned from 4 - 6:45, at which point we shuffled off with Fiona in tow. We daydreamed as we drove.....maybe we'd only have to show the house once.....can you imagine? What was it going to be like to have to keep the house like we didn't live in it? How long was this going to take? So around 9 we arrived home - exhaused and settled in for the night.

Around 9:30 our agent phoned - I thought just to follow up, you know....how did it go? did they show up? But no she laughed - she had an offer for us! WOW, so now I can't sleep. In the morning we made a counter offer and by noon the house was SOLD.

That was March 8th, now it's March 27 and the sign on the lawn looks like this.....


Tomorrow is the home inspection on the 'new' place and then......PACKING......we move in June.

change is good.....

So many things seem to be changing lately, well in the last few months....

In September, not long after my excellent weekend in the 'nish Tracey delivered a baby boy, Sean MacDonald (not to be confused with Uncle Shawn MacDonald) a baby brother for Malcolm.
I decided that a job change was necessary to maintain what sanity I had left. So the job search began, it was short and 4 weeks later I started a new job back with my old company (see a theme here right!). It's a new position with the company and is partially defined with the remaining definition to come from me......

In early October Sandra also delivered a baby boy, Owen Patrick, a baby brother for Sadie. I'm a terrible friend as Sadie will be 2 in April and I have only met her once. A trip to Halifax in certainly in the cards.

In late October Brenda and her family moved into a new house and in mid November Brenda delivered a baby girl Cate, baby sister to Laura and Emma.

In December my brother-in-law and his girlfriend got engaged and after a whirlwind planning session over the Christmas Holidays, are getting married in July, 07/07/07 to be exact - how lucky!

So much change around us - but all of it good. Hopefully this is a theme we can stick with.

Labor Day Weekend

So we had a wonderful Labor Day weekend in the 'nish. Busy but great.
I arrived MUCH later than I expected on Friday night (work,....grrr) and rolled in around 9:30. Stopped for a slice at the Wheel, the students are back in full force. Wow do I feel old, all the new students & I'm ready to celebrate my 10 year reunion! http://www.stfx.ca/
Mom & Dad had company until 12:00 and then Andrea and I sat up until 2:30 giggling and carrying on. I haven't spent nearly enough time with her lately and although one evening was not nearly enough it was good. Sisters do a body good.
Up early on Sat and a trip to town with Mom & Betsy. No big purchases, just two balls of Patons Jaquard in denim. Off to the ENSE with Sarah in the afternoon and supper with Gramma Jean & Aunt Rita in the evening.
Sunday was another busy day, an afternoon of swimming, water skiing (Andrea was successful - I was not) and tubeing. A dinner at 6 and a quick baby shower for Tracey's new bambino. Can't wait for his/her arrival.
A weekend is never enough time, even a long weekend. How can we get back to the 'nish??

back to the grind...

so here we are back in MonkeyTown after an enjoyable week off.... 4 day's in the 'nish, a trip to Halifax and some well deserved rest.....but a week is never long enough

friday after work we made our way for home and then an early start on Saturday. andrea & gabe hit the road for sherbrooke at 7:30 - hair, hair and more hair and after a detour of sorts with no cell service (is Liscombe to far? STOP I have signal!) they make it to the bride and her entourage in time

the wedding was beautiful and the rain held off until we were well undercover at the lion's hall although some thunder made it's way into the vows I think

we stayed at the Sherbooke Village Inn - quaint would be an apt discription I think (tee hee) we had a few drinks, shared a few laughs (some probably better kept to yourself) and Sarah and I danced the night away, all in all it was a very enjoyable time

......way up West

this is a really late post.....but you're reading that correctly not way out West but way up West

Easter Monday my sister and I took a trip to MacAusland's Woolen Mill up west on PEI. What a teriffic place, lots and lots of beautiful wool at very nice prices. But what a trip.....it was 2 hours from Andrea's place in Meadowbank, you would certainly want to pack a lunch & have a large amount of wool you are looking for.
The store is upstairs, actually above the working mill. The sell dyed wool by the skein in addition to more natural colors that they sell by the pound.
Andrea and I stocked up on the wool that we're going to need for our Weekend Getaway Satchel (Interweave Knits Fall 2005) if we can ever clear our plates enough to get working on them.....
Yet another project waiting in the wings, watch for the post

pillow for my new grown-up couch

at christmas my husband & I decided that we needed a 'grown-up couch'......not a futon, not a hand me down from someone else but a real honest to goodness, first owner couch.

so being an indecisive as we are it was going to take forever to find one; he wanted leather, I wanted a sectional, everything was sooo expensive... until the flyer from the Bay arrived

the flyer arrived on wednesday & we had a new couch on december 31, New Years Eve - Happy New Year.

since the arrival of the new couch I've been trying different things to make a leather sectional look more like 'us' - I treated myself to the weekend knitting book and there it was a knit throw pillow. i've changed the colors around a bit to go with the pillows i've already purchased (light blue silk pillow with brown polka dots) . i've been working on the back side but i'm excited to get working on the patterned side

i'll post my progress if I ever find the time to get everything done - too much knitting NEVER enough time

babies, babies everywhere

So about three or four weeks ago I got two emails from my very bestest girl friends announcing that they were both going to be come mothers again this fall. For Brenda she will become mother to a brood of 3 in November & for Sandra their family will grow from 3 to 4 in October. Added to the already expectant Tracey, with #2 due in early September the little ones in my circle of friends will grow from 8 to 11 very quickly! Not to mention a girl at work is expecting in August and our next door neighbor in July.....babies babies everywhere.

Needless to say I have to get crafting to get everything complete in a timely mannner! I'd love to be able to wait and make gender specific items but based on work etc it looks like gender neutral all around. HOWEVER this WILD Baby Blanket is far from neutral! I think it's fun, I'm not into typical baby blue and soft pink. Hope the recepient enjoys it as much as I did knitting it.

trip to The Loop

my husband & I took off to Halifax for a little road trip on May 22......he had some running around to do and I had some shopping I wanted to get in but I had seen a posting for The loop on the internet and was determind I was going to visit.

it was a fantastic spot, little Maggie meets you at the door....they have lots of interesting wool & a wool winder (I had never seen one before) where they wind the hank of wool for you so it's 'knit ready' when you get home.

i treated myself to a skein of Lambs Wool/Linen/Flax yarn that came with a pattern developed by one of the shop owners. it's very interesting, I can't wait to share the final product......I'll be sure to post when it's finished.

puppy banditos

Our puppy is sooo black that sometimes it’s hard to see her coming & going so I like to make her some scarves to brighten her up. Since I’ve started making them she loves to wear them and will strike a pose when she's all dressed

'shrug' pour my souer

My sister Andrea is the crafty one, she’s always making gifts for folks and coming up with the most creative ideas. So this past Christmas I was determined to stimulate my creative juices and make something for her for Christmas. It took a long time to find a pattern for something that I thought I would be able to complete and that I thought she would like, so when I found this shrug pattern on the Berocco site I gave it a try. I had to start from scratch a couple of times but I was pleased with the final result. I think she was pleased with it as well from her reaction on Christmas morning.

sock fever

Over Christmas I developed a case of sock fever!
So here it is my initial sock attempt. At Christmas I admired my cousin Meaghans sock knitting with ‘Magic Sock Yarn’ so of course I had to go out and get some of my own. Although I didn’t splurge on the European type that makes several patterns in the socks, I decided to start with some Patons Striping yarn. I’m a little disappointed with the striping, but it looks kind of funky and I like the colors. Knitting with such fine yarn and small needles is slow going but it sure makes the time pass quickly.

little black clutch

Tried this one with Bernat Lana Wool, it didn’t felt up as thick as I would like but I would certainly use Lana if I was going to make something to wear, it’s much softer & cleaner than the B&L wool

first felt

Felting, felting, felting; so here is my first attempt at felting, the shape did not turn out as expected but it’s only my second knitting attempt in a long while as well so I guess total satisfaction with the piece was a lot to look for
Knit with Briggs & Little it felted up fairly well, but I’ve been told that other wools felt up nicer