We Were On A Break!

Yes, once again in our on again off again relationship, 5 A.M. and I took a little break!  (Scared ya', didn't I?)  It wasn't like we actually broke up.  I just decided to see other times of the morning... like 7 and 8... ok, and in a couple weak moments, 9... but that is over now.  5 and me are back and better than ever!  Well, back anyway.  Skinny Pilates Lady seemed happy to see me.  She didn't say so, but I think she was.  I'm pretty sure, though, that Super Skinny Pilates Lady was secretly laughing every time I had to do a "level one move."  The lady in level one, with the walker and the oxygen, she was just happy to have company.

Ok, so enough of that.  See what happens when I wake up that early!  I get delusional! 

Really, though, I have been very busy lately.  My life has been a blur of hospitals (not me, my Mom) and doctor's offices (this time, me... and my daughter... and my Mom).  Everyone is doing pretty well now, though.  God is good and I love the (sometimes crazy) life He has given me!

I have found one good thing about hospital waiting rooms.  They give you plenty of knitting time!  I finally finished the giant tote bag!  I lined it and everything.  Not bragging, just really pleased with the way it turned out!

It is, of course, for sale on Etsy... http://www.etsy.com/listing/96051452/knitted-tote-bag-beach-bag-crafting-bag

Here are some pics of it...

Here it is!  Wooden handles and everything!



Here's the lining!  I hand-sewed it.  Don't be too impressed, I was just to lazy to figure out my sewing machine!  :P

 I am currently working on a baby sized Easter hat.  I thought that was a good plan, but then I realized Easter is like, 2 weeks away.  So, maybe someone will buy it next Easter!  :P 

Did Alexander the Great Do Pilates?

So, this morning Skinny Pilates Lady told me that I feel great and I am ready to go conquer the world!

Yay me!  I didn't know I wanted to conquer the world.  I also didn't know that pilates could make that happen.

I am just picturing Alexander the Great (because I'm a homeschooling mom and everything is a history lesson) doing pilates with his soldiers...

"Come on, men!  Keep those abs engaged!  Check in with your body.  Is it still there?  Do you have your swords and your war elephants?  Ok, lets go conquer the world!  But first, a nice soothing stretch... ok, now let's go conquer the world!"

Ok, enough with the pilates induced hallucinations, back to the world of knitting...

I have channelled my inner Irishwoman in an attempt to sell something on Etsy for St. Patrick's Day.  It was supposed to be a coffee cozy, but it was a little small.  So, now it is a cell phone/gadget cozy!  :) 

You can find it here.

Have a great day, do some pilates and go conquer the world (it's what Alexander would have done)! 

Marker Boards and British Pilates...

So, continuing with my theme of making stuff out of old junk, I made these marker boards...


By the front door





Above my husbands desk



Daughter's room



School room

I just used old picture frames (make sure they have the glass still in them) and put decorative scrapbook paper and stickers in them.  Then, you write on the glass with dry-erase markers! 

I found the idea on this blog a while back.  If you make one, make sure that the paper you put in isn't too dark and the pattern isn't too busy, or you won't be able to see the marker.  You can put lined paper in there, too, so you can write lists easier.  Also, I found that the markers work best on the really slick, shiny glass.  A couple of these have some kind of finish on them that is supposed to keep down glare, but the markers don't seem to write on them as well.

With all the crafting and getting lost in the "big city" this week, I haven't had as much time for exercise.  So, today, I figured I'd get back to it.  I chose a different pilates workout on Netflix (I <3 Netflix, by the way).  I had never seen this pilates lady before and I found out she is British.  I'm not sure if I loved the workout.  It was one of those very calm... kind of sleepy... but at the same time making your muscles want to run away and die kind of routines.  Of course, everything sounds better if you say it with a British accent.  Also, for some reason, when I was done working out I had this strong urge to drink a cup of tea and watch a PBS mini-series!  Actually, I always have that urge, I'm weird like that!  :)     

Have a nice day (and go watch some British T.V., it's awesome)! 

So, it's a little late...

Yep, I overslept.  I have a ton of really good excuses, but who cares.  We have officially taken a week off of school (because my daughter has been sick).  So, I guess I can get a little extra sleep.

Of course, that meant I didn't exercise today. 

For those of you who don't know me, except here in blog land, I want you to know I'm not usually the major fitness type.  It's just that when I realized I weigh more now than I did when I gave birth to my daughter (I mean before the birth, not after) and that eating entire packages of Oreos wasn't going to change that fact, I figured I should do something about it.

Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into a weight loss blog, or a me-telling-everyone-else-in-the-world-how-they-should-look blog.  Actually, the only time I mention it is when I am complaining about Skinny Pilates Lady.

Speaking of Skinny Pilates Lady, I think she is losing her mind.  She's starting to say the weirdest things.  I know she is just in my T.V. and she is pre-recorded (so, she says the same thing every time).  Maybe I am losing MY mind.  Hmm, how much does your brain weigh?  Maybe that's all I have lost so far!

Anyway, Skinny Pilates Lady keeps saying things like, "your core muscles are engaged" (I swear they should have been married by now.  Whoever this guy is, he must just be leading them on), and, "the breath is super-energized" (like putting the word "super" before something should make me really happy about it)!  Yesterday, though, I witnessed her craziest moment.  She actually said, "Take a minute to check in with your body". 

????

Check in with my body?  Is she afraid it got up and left?  Or maybe just part of it, like...

"Ok, check in with your body.  Are your legs still attached?  Were your legs attached when you started the exercise?  If they were attached at the beginning, and they are not attached now, you may not be stretching correctly.  Perhaps you need to go back to a level one.  See Sarah back here at level one (you know, the one on the walker with the oxygen), her legs are still attached..." 

Ok, maybe I have been thinking about this way too much.

So, to change the subject, on to knitting.  I had a really cool knitting encounter yesterday!  You see, usually when I go out and take my knitting (which is pretty much every time I go out), either people just try not to stare at the weird girl in the corner playing with her yarn, or sometimes they will ask what I am doing.  Sometimes, they are knitters or crocheters (or would like to be), so that leads to some pretty good conversations.

But, yesterday.  Yesterday, I had my daughter at her doctor's appointment and I was with her in the exam room waiting (and kintting, of course).  When the Doctor came in, I put my knitting away.  Now, I thought he might politely ask what I had been doing, but I didn't expect him to really care (or even know it was knitting, for that matter).  Well, he looked at my knitting bag and said, "Ooh, what are you making?  My sister-in-law (his brother's wife) is a knitter and she wrote a knitting book!  It was a best-seller on Amazon!"

Wow, wasn't expecting that!  So I looked her up and it looks like a really great book.  I guess she featured patterns from popular knitting bloggers (woo-hoo, knitting bloggers!  I love other people who love to knit so much that they can make an entire blog out of it!). 

Here is the book!

http://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-Knits-Personalities-Blogosphere/dp/1605295906#_

and here is her blog...

http://www.julieturjoman.com/blog/posts/

So, you never know what fun you might get into if you carry around a bag full of yarn!

The Yarn Fairy, The Tooth Fairy and Big Brother (I mean Skinny Pilates Lady)...

So, lots going on around my house in the last couple of days.

Broken shower (always fun)... lost tooth, my daughter, not me (that's where the tooth fairy comes in)... good friend (the yarn fairy) bringing left-over yarn to my house that she was going to just give away (and of course I will take because, for one, you can't have enough yarn, and two, apparently I'm like Mikey.  I'll knit anything).  So, thank you Yarn Fairy, you know who you are!  :)  

As for the tooth fairy, even though my daughter no longer believes in her (yep, she's 8 and the cat is out of the bag about pretty much all magical creatures), she still wants the dollar and still wants us to put it under her pillow in the middle of the night!  What's that about?  I thought when she figured it out, I could stop this.  Don't get me wrong, I am glad she still wants some of the childhood magic and wonder, but why the one that you have to do in the middle of the night... fishing under a pillow for a TOOTH (at least we put in a plastic bag)... trying not to wake her up... even though she knows its's me... and to top it all off, she flops around so much, the dollar gets lost somewhere under the bed before morning!  Oh well, how many teeth could she have left, anyway!  :P

So, with everything going on, I didn't exercise for 2 days.  I figured I better this morning.  It's actually getting easier and I kind of like Skinny Pilates Lady now.  Of course, they all loved Big Brother at the end of 1984, but that didn't make him any less evil!  But, don't worry, I'm not bitter. 

Last thing, it looks like little orange thing #2 is really going to grow up to be a hat! 

By the way, for all the non-knitters out there, those sticks in the top of the hat are double point needles (used for knitting round things, like hats), not some kind of Medieval torture device!  They don't stay in there forever.

:)







That Which Doesn't Kill You...

So, the old saying goes, "That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger."  Well, I survived another pilates workout and I didn't kill Skinny Pilates Lady (I know she's just on the T.V.), so I guess we are both stronger this morning!

I wonder what it says about, "that which makes your legs feel like they are going to fall off"?  I'm going to go with "makes you stronger".  This has to be doing something!

So, I finished the sad orange furry thing that never became a hat!



 For sale on Etsy, by the way!  http://www.etsy.com/listing/91182988/orange-and-white-furry-headwarmer-cowl

Now I am on to another orange thing that WILL become a hat (I have 2 big skeins of this yarn, I could make a hat for an elephant)!   

I don't know why I have been knitting so much orange stuff lately.  I know this hat is more for fall.  Of course, where I live, you can't tell what season it is.  There was ice everywhere two days ago, now it is getting ready to thunderstorm! 

Speaking of which, I should probably get off this computer!  Bye!

Exercise, Knitting and Barbie Dolls...

Yes folks, that's my life right now.  Excercise, knitting and Barbie dolls. 

I actually did exercise this morning.  I managed not to think mean thoughts about skinny pilates lady.  Now super skinny pilates lady in the back corner (you know, the one doing level 18 while the rest of us are on level 1 following the older lady in the other corner with arthritis), yeah her, I wasn't exactly thrilled with her.  But skinny pilates lady tells me I'm "super-energized" and my "core muscles are engaged", which is good I guess.  Maybe my core muscles were lonely.  If I keep this up, they should be married soon!

So, knitting.  Yeah, looks like my little orange thing from the last post isn't going to grow up.  :(  Sadly, I only had one small skein of that particular yarn and I don't have enough for the top of my hat.  I know, that's why you are supposed to plan these things out... buy the yarn in the pattern... actually follow a pattern... but where's the fun in that?  See, if you do it my way, you are always surprised!  Maybe it will be a hat, maybe a purse, or maybe some strange UFO (Un-Finished Object) that you find in the back of your closet in five years and wonder what on earth you were thinking.  Either way, it's more interesting than that other way.  You know, the way where you actually finish what you are making and it looks like the one in the picture.  I mean, how boring is that?!  :P 

Oh well, maybe my little orange thing can be a head warmer.  At least it will be half-way grown up, like a teenager.

What's left... oh I remember.  Barbies...  Let me start off by saying that Barbies are great (if not a little ridiculously proportioned).  I have just never been all that into them.  I mean, I had them as a kid.  I even had one that was a rock singer (she came with her own real cassette tape, we were high tech in the 80's).  I just haven't thought much about them in a couple decades, or so.  Even my daughter hasn't liked them much until recently.

But now... I am a Barbie interior decorator... really.  I know a lady that collects Barbies (big time collector) and she wants me to make Barbie rugs and bedspreads and pillows.  Does Barbie need two pillows, or just one big one?  Did  her and Ken ever get married, and if not, should I really be promoting that kind of activity in a Barbie house?  Maybe I have thought a little too much about this... that's what happens when you wake up at 5 A.M. 

See, I told you it was too early!

Second Day...

Things I have learned in the last day or so (yes you can learn a lot in a day, especially when you wake up at ridiculously early hours)...

1. I have to come up with new titles for my blog posts.  Let's face it, "First Day" and "Second Day" sound cute now, but if this blog thing goes on a while, "One Thousand Two Hundred and Thirty-Ninth Day" is just going to sound stupid.

2. Apparently most of my ancestors got up at about 5 in the morning (fed the chickens, milked the cow...).  Of course, most of them are dead now, so I can't really say that it did them a lot of good.  I might not be quite as bitter about it once my coffee has kicked in, by the way.

3. I cannot exercise two days in a row.  I don't care what skinny pilates lady says, if I try it this morning I will literally not be able to move by 10 A.M.  Just as a sidenote, I also learned (thanks, dear husband) that I have been spelling exercise wrong.  I fixed in on my last post, so don't go check. 

4. Ok, there is no #4, what do you expect?  I only had one day!

On the knitting front, here's what I am working on right now...

I know, it doesn't look like much yet, but I think it's going to grow up to be a hat... a very shiny, furry, orange and white hat.  Keep an eye out for it on my Etsy page soon!  Talk to you again tomorrow ("Third Day")!  :P