Weekend fun

This weekend, my nephew came over.
He is almost exactly three months younger than my son. They're best friends.

I'm worried about when these two become teenagers. Surely, they will cause tons of trouble. Right now, they bond over having younger sisters. Oh how they despise younger sisters!

Speaking of sisters, doesn't little sister remind you of a little actress in ET? (with her 70s style coat and pigtails.)

This weekend was all about chillin with the homies. My nephew was over, but also the neighbors came over, too. Here they are playing basketball in the driveway:

At one point, we had 9 kids roaming the house. And it was a mess at the end of the day! How does one have the neighborhood peeps over AND keep the house clean?
My new rule was going to be 'play outside only,' but there is a snow front coming in. And my husband said, "what if it is 20 below?" I mean, this is Minnesota after all.

Oh, look at Jake. Silly dog put on one of my knitted hats!


Off to do more knitting... I am working on lots of goods for a Spring Boutique (a portion of my profit goes to these charities: www.freedom.firm.in and www.hopeschool.org) and the HandmadeMN show in the Spring. I'll be giving you sneak peeks in the following weeks ;)

AND!!!don't forget to leave a comment on my giveaway post to enter to win one of my very first clutches I patterned. To make it easy, here's the link:
http://gildaknits.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-rad-clutches-up-for-grabs.html
I'll announce the winner this Wed, the 22nd.

peace xxoo,
Gilda

gnomes and pretzel buttons

I have a fondness for Gnomes. Anything gnomes. If I could, I'd fill my yard to the rims with garden gnomes. The reason I can't is because, well, my collection has gotten that big yet and, also, I have two dogs that would knock em over. But I have an appreciation for a garden gnome garden. I really, really do. When Gnomeo and Juliet came out in theaters, uh yes, I was sooo there. And when I saw this really cute gnomey fabric with a gnome garden scape, I HAD to get it. And what did I do with it? I made a skirt for my daughter.

Cute, right?
And then I made her a cute gnomey hat with a bow. (to match this coat I just bought her.) (Girls size, clearance for 14.99!!!!!)

Oh yes, I've been doing lots this past week. I also have some goodies that will soon be going in the store:

And, look, we made valentine buttons! (found on pinterest)
Here's a quick recap:

What you need:
square pretzels
hershey hugs
m&ms (I used raspberry. I didn't even know such things existed, but they are soooo yummy!!)
optional: wax paper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 200
Unwrap hugs, place on to pretzel
Line up on (wax paper) cookie sheet
Bake for approximately 4 minutes, or until hugs are soft (but not melted!)
Press m&m into each hug
Cool in fridge (do not take off cookie sheet until cooled. Chocolate can be messy!)
Enjoy!

sickies, reading, knitting, and doing lots o cleaning...

Oh my goodness.
What a weekend.

Now, what you must know about me is that I am a self diagnosed hypochondriac. When I was younger, I used to spend hours looking into my mother's Medical Book, which was about 500 years old and 2000 pages and falling apart. Every time I looked into that book, I could diagnose myself with whatever ailment I thought I matched the symptoms. A cramp in the leg? I needed an amputation! Thirst? I had diabetes. And on and on. Thankfully, I do not have that book to look upon when I feel the need. Unfortunately, I have the internet. Anyway...

On Friday, my husband drove to Canada. So, the two kids and I planned to make a weekend party of it. Friday night, we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and ate pizza.
Friday night, my son got sick. All night.
Saturday, we all rested from the night before.
Saturday night, we had pizza again, but this time watched Judy Moody.
Saturday night, my daughter got sick.
Sunday, we all rested from the night before.
Sunday night, I got sick.
Thank goodness my husband finally came home from Canada so he could tend to the kids.
Monday, I rested.

So, you can see how I have spent the weekend considering all of the possibilities of how this had happened. We could have had food poisoning. Or the NoroVirus, which apparently is going around. We should have gone to the ER. I am surprised we did not go to the ER. We could have died.

Just when I had it pin pointed to the pizza as the culprit, who gets it? No one other than my dear husband.

Today, he is resting.

Time to break out the disinfectants. And do laundry up the wazoooo. Bleach, here we come....

So, needless to say, I have not done much knitting. Nor have I wanted to. But since I was feeling better yesterday, I did throw something on the needles:

Just some mossy stitch mitts.

I should have just cast on with with some chunky yarn. I need some quick gratification.

(Please email me if you have a source link for this img so I can give credit. thx.)

Oh and I finally bought Cutting for Stone for my Nook. (Thank you to all who recommended it) I have a feeling I am gonna be a cryin''


whew, now, on to preparing for my daughter's 6th birthday party this weekend.

*tulle - check
*mounting for tulle - check
*handmade bunting - check
*tissue paper for handmade flowers - check
*princess music - check

Linking up to one of my favorite bogs these days:

hallo.

Hallo is my new way of saying hello. It's an Irish thing. I got it from my new favorite book, Tara Road. And that book, by the way, is written by the same author who wrote Circle of Friends. Remember that movie? It was so good, I had to read the book. But it was a loong book. As was Tara Road. Back then, I wasn't into BIg books, but now I am. So, hmm, there's a tid bit about me I bet you didn't know;)

Anyhoo, how was your Christmas? In my house, we say, "Christmukkah." This year, Hanukkah was on the 21st. Usually, I wait to put up the Christmas tree until after Hanukkah, but this year there was no way, no how I was gonna wait THAT long! So, poor Hanukkah got a back seat to Christmas this year. My husband did make some Kugel and latkes though. If you ever want a good latke, you should come to my house on the first eve of Hanukkah. My husband makes a mean latke. Totes!

And this year, we did things a bit different. First of all, we had a Christmas eve party at my older brother's house. He was a bit tipsy (in Ireland, they say pissed up. I've always thought that was funny!) and fun! We had my mother on the skype. And we had a dance party in the cleared out dining room. Then, we had performances by almost everyone. I did a magic trick. (I do have one magic trick I've always kept up my sleeve for when I work with kids. I can turn one penny into TWO. Really!) My son played violin and my daughter sang. 'Twas a very good evening! Here's a little collage of the evening: (note the last picture - that's all the garbage from opening presents!)



This year, I decided to do presents differently, too. Instead of buying the kids a BUNCH of presents that just end up at goodwill after a month, we bought the kiddos one big (expensive) present each and one small gift from Santa (and stocking stuffers). I spent about what I normally would, but the reactions were the pleasantest of all the years so far.



For my birthday (which was this month) I got photoshop from my husband. I have no clue how to use it. I've been using Picnik.com (love, love, love picnik!) so switching to photoshop has been really confusing for me. It took me about 8 hours to figure out how to add actions (presets). So, after I figured that out, I started practicing with my knitting photos. And then I finally listed a few items in my etsy store. whew. I have sooo much to learn. So, if you have any tips, let me know!



In the mean time, I have two random funnies:

1. My daughter calls chess CHEST. And that makes me giggle!
2. Here's a cute knitting cartoon that I passed around on facebook. I hope you like it as much as I do: