We Did It

Last night was DS's first ever Pinewood Derby. He placed first in two heats, and third in the other two. But he had a blast and his car was really cool. DS and DH worked hard on it, and it was a good father-son experience for them.

Before the Derby, I also finished one sock! My first sock ever!
I know I said I was gonna do the 2-on-1 method, but I had a brain fart and got my circulars at Wally World. The only circs they had in the store. I thought the package said 5 and I didn't read the length. Well, it was 5 mm, which is a size 8 for those of us who don't understand why American measurement can't be like the rest of the world. So the needles were too big and too short for what I had envisioned, so I made do. I did one sock at a time and scaled down the pattern. And instead of these being regular socks, they're now more like slipper socks. Here's my progress.

Thursday night.

Friday morning

And these two are Friday evening.

I'm now on sock two, which I can hopefully get done no later than tomorrow morning so I have time to wash the acrylic to soften it. Comment and let me know what you think.

I need an Eight Day Week

Sorry it's been a while. The Gregi are over-booked, as usual.

The Pinewood Derby is this Friday, so DH and DS have been working like crazy to get everything done. The final assembly will be tonight, and hopefully they're still under the weight limit.

A somewhat distant relative passed away and the services were Thursday. Went to escort Nana and reconnect with cousins I haven't seen in 15-odd years. Why is it that it takes a funeral to bring family together?

And yesterday DS seems to have had a stomach bug. Her food went in one end, then came out both ends the same consistency it went in. It's bad when taking care of your children makes you want to throw up.

So, after all that excitement, there is still no rest for the wicked. Tonight is PTA, tomorrow is Resident's Association, Thursday is Pinewood Derby weigh-in, Friday is the Derby itself, and Saturday Sunday is AK's (daughter of Mrs K) birthday party.

For AK's birthday, I picked up a cute outfit in her fav color, purple. I also bought some purple/pink/pastel colored yarn to make a pair of socks to go with the outfit. I've never made socks before, and I'm going to do these using the 2-on-1 method with circular needles. (BTW- Also bought another pair of needles) So wish me luck. I'll try to have pics posted regularly so you can see how they're coming along.

I feel bad about posting this, as the quality isn't that great. It feels forced and rushed, but I am commited to my once-a-week resolution. Plus, it's taken me two hours to write this cuz I'm also making Pork Chops Pizzaiola at the same time. Now I gotta go start the rice and wake DD up so she eats before the PTA meeting. Whew!

Adventures

First of all,thanks to Mrs. K for telling me about JoAnn Fabric, thanks to Pam for blogging about Knit Kit, and thank God for little miracles. Now on to the rant.

Yesterday was an adventurous day for the Gregi. First, DD went off to Nana's and I headed south to check out JoAnn Fabric in Princeton on Rte 1. Google has the location wrong; it's right before the QB Mall on the southbound side.
So I walk in and the first thing I notice is the great selection of fabric. Clean and organized, no bolts falling off shelves or cloth dragging on the floor. Second thing I notice is boxes of Lion Brand Yarn. Big boxes of Homespun and Vanna White. Of course I have to go check it out.
The boxes up front had yarn cheaper than the Michael's in North Bruns (closest to my house), so I decide to check out the rest of their selection. Yarn Sale! Pound of Love was on sale. Bernat's baby stuff was on sale. Wool Ease Thick and Quick (which I'm using for DH's sweater) was on sale. They even had some delicious sock yarn marked down, but I've never made socks, and don't own needles smaller than a US7. But I was thinking about it.
I make myself step back and look at the yarn section. JoAnn's has great price, great variety, but not a lot of quantity. There were tons of different colors of Homespun, but no more than three skeins per color. They only had two skeins of the Wool Ease I'm using for the sweater. JoAnn's is now my "go to" store for scarves, but I'll have to find another store for blankets and (hopefully) future sweaters.

So I finally got my fabric, and headed north after spending WAY too much time in that store. Into the land of customer service to return some overly pink clothes I got for DD from well-meaning friends of MIL. If any of you are reading this, DO NOT take all the tags off. I went to Penney's in EB, and they refused to takes things that they obviously carried because there was no JCP tag on them. They did take a onesie and a 3pc set for almost $30 in store credit. I got a nice onesie, a feetie, and two 3pc sets. The cashiers were nice, but I was stuck with four outfits that didn't fit and I didn't like.
I then went to Kohl's where the outfit I returned was marked down to $4.20. The customer service lady laughed at me, but I found two pairs of pants for $3 each and didn't mind throwing in the extra $1.80.

Now it's DD's turn for an adventure. I head home, pick up DS from the bus stop, get DD from Nana's, and head to SB to visit DD's buddy JB, to give them the unreturnable clothes. JB was born 19 days before DD, and her grandmother lives in my development, so the two have become friends. It was their first playdate, and it was adorable. They were smiling at each other and talking baby talk and playing on the mat together. At one point, DD had her hand stretched out and JB was sucking on her fingers. Awwww!

Here they are at Christmas (DD's the tiny one on the right)

And here they are yesterday.

Huge difference, right? And JB has a big sister who is the same age as DS, and they were having so much fun DS didn't want to leave. We all had so much fun that we made tentative plans to hang out Monday.

I've got a new LYS, DD's got a playdate buddy, and I can finally finish my blanket. I'll try to post pics and pattern tomorrow, seeing as MIL's going out to see her sister this weekend so it's gotta get done soon. Also, looking for a good scarf pattern. I wanna do cables on the self-striping yarn I picked up at JoAnn's for my uncle who's birthday was yesterday. E-mail or comment, let me know what ya got.

Another UFO (Unfinished Object)

I finally finished knitting a project on needles. I was on a knitting high, until I tried to find flannel to sew to the back of the throw. Unknown to me, Rag Shop went out of business! WTF? Where am I supposed to find a decent variety of fabric?

Since I use Michael's as my LYS (the nearest good one I know of is in Bridgewater), I know they don't have any fabric beyond bandannas and felt. I drove to AC Moore in EB, got some good yarn for a sweater for DH (another rant for another day), and went looking for cloth. ACM has large squares for quilting and flannel pajama bottoms, but no bolts of anything. I almost bought the pj's with the intent of using those, but it wasn't worth the time and money.

I haven't spoken with anyone at Michael's, but according to Mary at ACM they have no plans to carry bolts of fabric at this time. She told me to try WalMart. Now, our local Wally World had a horrible selection of costumes this past Halloween. I bought a set of long underwear this past fall, got it home and realized the top was not in the bag. DH had ripped the plastic when he opened it, and Wally World refused to accept the return, claiming it had been washed and blaming me for the missing piece. You can understand my reluctance to look for fabric there, let alone buy it.

So, to ease my angst at Wally World and Rag Shop, Auntee gave me the address and number of a fabric shop in Somerset and Nana told me to try a place on 22 in Plainfield. This is way too much work for a 4ft x 2ft piece of flannel. So until I get a chance to hunt down some fabric, the throw is now a UFO. So back to the afghan and starting on my first sweater ever.

BTW - Battery in camera died, so no pics of afghan for now. Will update soon.

New Year's Resolutions

2010 is finally here. I've been waiting for tis year all my life, as I hit the next big milestone of turning thirty. But for now I'm still 29.95

I've started blogs before, but never got past the second or third post. So first resolution: Post to my blog at least once a week. Between managing the lives of DH, DS, and DD, as well as trying to keep my own sanity intact, I can't commit to any more than that.

Second resolution: be a good housewife. Yes, I know it's unusual, but let me give you a little background. My mother and her mother (Nana) (who both live in NJ) worked outside of the home, and both were surprised with my decision to quit my job the summer of 2006 and become a SAHM. My dad's mother stayed home to raise her four kids, but she lives in VA and only has happy things to say to me. But that's another rant for another day.

Anywho... my mother not being domestically inclined and me not having a lot of SAHM role models growing up or now, being a housewife is a trial by fire. Trying to keep on top of laundry, cleaning, homework, appointments, cooking, and taking care of myself is very overwhelming, even at the best of times. DH, who's mom stayed home with him til 3rd grade, is appreciative, helpful, and uncomplaining as long as he has clean underwear.

Third resolution: get out more. I am what my Nana calls a Social Butterfly. I love meeting new people and doing new things and just being social. I just can't seem to find the time to do that anymore. I used to sing karaoke every Friday night with the guys from Mobile Music, but besides being tired as hell when 9pm rolls around, it's just not as fun as it used to be. So I need new stuff to do. When the weather's warm I want to take DD for walks in her stroller. I want to start a knitting group here in Deer Brook, or at least at the local library. And I need to spend more time with DD's godparents, who are wonderful people who put up with me taking forever to return phone calls.

Final resolution: keep up the good work. I quit smoking for DD, I've lost forty pounds over the last two years, and I finally got the filing under some semblance of control. I can't let things go back the way they were. I just gotta put one foot in front of the other, and hope that I don't wobble too much.