As done as I can be

If I ever say I'm going to paint a room again..shoot me. At least if its a room with wainscotting and mouldings. What a pain in the arse.
The painting is as done as I am going to get it. Lots left over so I am thinking that eventually the cellar way will get a fresh coat. I am wiped. Was trying to get everything just so for when HM got home tonight but as I was reassembling the room he arrived home. VERY impressed he was too until he looked at the floor. Oops.
As soon as the light fixture is replaced and the books in the case I will snap a picture and post it. For now it just feels good to be able to walk through my livingroom again without tripping on something from the breakfast room.
The whole room looks so fresh and vibrant now. I am really happy with my choice in colours. Now, for new window treatment........

Sweater woes

I don't have enough paint to apply a second coat of green so tomorrow I will boogie over to Canadian Tire for another can of my colour. Since no further painting could be done today, I decided to sit down with Ben's sweater. From talking with my mom and Barb I was sure I was supposed to cast off some stitches for the armpits of the seater before I could work whats left of the front and back separately. Eventually i got it all straightened away and was working on my second row of the front but something was nagging at me. Something about this just wasn't right. My original intention had not been to cast off armpit so it was still niggling that something wasn't right about it for this sweater. I pulled out the pattern that I am basing this sweater upon and sure enough..no casting off for armpits..body pieces are straight. ARGH!!!!!! It took me almost an hour to get back to where all my stitches were on one circular needle again, in the correct number and none dropped. Then to knit back up again to where I can work the front and back separately I had to laborously go through a first row of twisted wonky stitches from the frogging and pick up. Finally said row was done and all stitches were smoothed and straightened. I did another just to feel better. NOW I am ready to knit half of my 180 stitches onto a pair of straights to work the front while the back is held waiting on the circs.
Why am I doing this the hard way??? one might ask, and to be sure it is a good question. I have a pattern, why not follow it? The answer is just that I wanted it done in the round rather than in parts (because I hate purling and if I can avoid it I will) and I wanted it made to fit the wearer, not just to the dimensions of the pattern. So by combining the independence of Elizabeth Zimmerman's techniques for making sweaters in any size and the shape of the sweater in the pattern, I am hoping to create a sweater that is uniquely Ben's.

The first coat of green is on

I am exausted.

Me so haaaaappppyyyy

My Marla is back! My Marla is back!! She called me tonight cuz she's baaaaaaccckkk!!
She and her family were on their 3rd annual winter "cruise" down south since January (they have taken to leaving their sailboat in Florida for the summers now so's they can cruise in the winters)and I have been at loose ends without her being home where she usually is. I almost called her at least once a week only to go"DOH..down south". She called me once from somewhere in the Caribbean and I had the occassional email. Just..not..enough..
But NOW??! She's back and all is once again right in the world......or at least as right as my world gets. Plus, she gots a new vehicle!! Really NEW, not new-ish! Now I don't have to worry that her ass is gonna drop out on the road like everytime she drove her old van. Oh my Gods its a wonder the poor thing still moved!! I can't wait to see her new family wheels. Squeee!
I am very content this evening. Could be the AWESOME roast beef I made that had HM raving in honor of its awesomeness and him begging me to remember what I did and do it like this everytime...or it could be the red wine I am sipping now. I'm betting its the wine...and the raving was very nice too.

Work commences

After about 2 hours I have 2 walls primed and about 1/2 the crown mouldings. Slow you say? Well..lemme tell ya...

First I had to find my step ladder. Turns out, its broken. I hoped it wasn't tooooo broken and after I got about 3 ft of moulding primed, and it turns out it WAS too broken (paint spill number one). So I cleaned up sloshed and dripped paint and put the broken ladder outside and headed to RONA for a new ladder. At RONA noone seemed to be available to get a ladder down for me and so after waiting for service from the people with "SERVICE" on their shirts that seemed to be scurrying everywhere but in my direction, I took matters into my own hands. A youngish man came along and asked if I wanted some help (he didn't work there) but I said, I got this far on my own I may as well finish it. He laughed and said service was not a thing easily come by at this store.

I grabbed another pack of plastic sheeting, checked out and headed home. Got back to priming mouldings and trim.

The kids came home. Then I had "help". Eventually the kid next door called and the boys left to play. Then I finished up priming these two walls, cleaned up paint off the floor and took these photos. I remember now why I hate painting. Its never as simple as I think its gonna be. Or as easy. And always muuuuch messier.

It would be so much easier if the room was empty of all furnishings so that I could maneuver easier. Maybe thats my problem. Too much stuff in the way.

Thursday

Today I got a great deal on some man sandals for HM. Klondike Timberline sport sandals that regularly sell for $69.99 on clearance for $19.99. $50 dollar savings..not too shabby. The Easter Bunny will bring them and they will be excellent for on the boat (non marking sole) or hikey walks. I bought my primer and my ceiling paint, rollers and plastic for covering furniture and floor. Now I have a conundrum..what to do about the ceiling medallion?
This is a smallish room with crown mouldings and there is a ceiling medallion from which hangs a rustic style chandelier (NON sparkly..looks like rusted iron with little linen type shades over the bulbs). Right now this medallion is painted the same colour as the ceiling.
I was wondering if it would be a home decor faux pas to A) paint it same as walls, B)antique it with wall colour or C) blend wall and ceiling colours to make a lighter green and antique it with that. What would Debbie Travis do?????? Probably leave it same as ceiling..... sigh.
Another case of bath tub cat poo today. HM hit the roof and demands the culprit be put to death...as soon as we figure out who the culprit is. Its still looking like its Flash even though she was out all night. It wasn't there when HM got up but was there when he went for his shower (after she came back in and ate and after (possibly)Miss Kitty had gone out). So its not looking good for Flash.
The sweater is going great after fixing the stripes. I am in the home stretch of the colors across the chest and then comes arm pit casting off, so I am told. Woohoo.
Remember my book that I couldn't get? Well, I ordered a different one now since I had the gift card an all. Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmerman. This is the 3rd of her books that I will have in my collection and I had ordered it in the hopes that The Baby Surprise Jacket pattern was in it and/ or the Adult Surprise Jacket Pattern. They aren't. (doh) The Bog Jacket pattern is though so thats good cuz I likes that one too. I talk about this as if anyone but me cares but its my blog dammit and I care!
Also, a can of paint tipped over and fell on my big toes a couple hours ago and it STILL HURTS. Poor Ben ran for cover when the screeching curses started..literally! The child RAN.
I am a bad mother.

Invasion

Spring is on its way if the recent temperatures are any indication. With the warmth comes damp and with warmth and damp come the invasion of sowbugs in my basement.

Our basement is one of the finished variety and very comfortable indeed. Alas, under all the "finished" there still lurks a basement and like most basements, its a great place for common household bugs.

I have been vacuuming and laying down non-toxic bug dust along the baseboards in an effort to diminish the numbers but so far not so good. They are still finding their way out of the darkest recesses to creepy crawl along my family room floor, the laundry room floor, the laundry tub (big sink), and yes, even upstairs in teh kitchen if the truth MUST be told (they come out from under the cabinets and baseboards). Its icky. Its creepy. I want it OVER ALREADY!!!!!!

The good news is that they are not disease bearing harbingers of doom. They are just sow bugs. Its just that they keep coming out and they have too many legs which is what I hold against almost all bugs. I don't want to resort to scary toxic methods of pest control, but jeez louise enough is enough.

I have never lived in a house with so many sow bugs. Back on the homestead my bane's were earwigs and shingle flies with the very occassional surprised silver fish, larder beetles, or centipede. MUCHO spiders in that house though which would explain low numbers of creepy crawlies.

Ugh...I have the shivers...bleahhhh

The Colour..she is Picked!!

I have chosen a Debbie Travis paint colour from Canadian Tire to purchase later this week. The name is Chinese Jade and I am really liking it. Its not too bright and has the earthy feel that is prominent throughout this house with its cream, chocolatey brown, goldeny sand, and terracotta. But the terra cotta is going. CJ is definitely GREEN but not "Oh my gods my eyes make it stop!!" green. And its several degrees lighter in colour than what is on the walls so its going to brighten the room considerably.
HM and Ben constructed the table and chairs from Ikea last night (174.99!!!!!!) and I love it. Simple rectangular table with smallish ladder back chairs. On of the ladders of one of the chairbacks got broken by HM when he fell on it so it has been Gorilla Glued and later I will remove the tape to see how the bond turned out.
I am so itching to get started priming the room. Mostly because it will take me away from having to frog back Ben's sweater..hee hee. Avoidance is my middle name!!
Speaking of sweaters, we come to YARN. Ariadne is having a St Patrick's sale. 25% of selected green, whitish, and orange yarns in honor of Irish-ness. I am drooling over Inca Gold Warani yarn in the colour Clover. Mmmmmmmmmm. Loving that color so much. Want it for ME. Mememememememememe. I am afraid of how much I would need for me.
Speaking of which..the diet she is not going so very well lately. I want yummies. I want chips and cookies. The want is strong. I have been weak. I admit it. sigh.
Oh well. Such is life.
Oh, and Sudog? NO ! Sucking hairy monkey balls does not have ANYTHING to do with my cat's nethers!!! That would be "sucking Monkey's hairy balls". Totally different.

Monday

This morning was lightly busy what with the return of Routine and all. The boys are back to school after their week off and this house is blessedly quiet.
Monkey had a vet appointment for vaccinations and was not thrilled at the whole experience. Eeek! The place where they stick me with sharp stuffs and stole my tomcattery!! he meowed.
Then we stopped at the petshop top get new food for the kitteh horde in this house. Monkey is ready for adult food and the girls are way fat at this point in the winter so they are being introduced to Nutro's Natural Choice for Indoor Cats, since the girls are fat and Monkey is an indoor cat. Let's hope it takes!
I found a solution to my sweater problem (Meg's Jogless Jog)but I still have to rip it back. I'm just glad I found a way to fix it.
Last night the guilt over buying furniture got to me and I couldn't sleep. HM says he has more guilt over spending money eating out than buying furniture for the house and in his words "How freakin' long do I have to wait to have a bedside table again? Isn't 13 years enough??" Also, he made the point that its furniture not some useless fun crap that we'd break or get tired of and dispose. Good point.
See, I can spend SMALL amounts with little to no guilt and not really think about how the smalls add up to bigs. But big amounts make me woozy. Woozy and worried. Woozy, worried, and guilty. Why? I have no idea. So while I could not see my way clear to fly home for my aunt's funeral, furniture is here longer than a weekend and goes toward the family home not my own wants. But I still feel guilty. ARGH! I guess I'm just not really used to being able to do this on occassion yet. Also, everytime we start feeling like we are movin' on up, something yanks the rug out from under us and we hit rock bottom again.

Ok..on to other stuffs like..Wallpaper off gassing VS Latex paint off gassing...Which is the less toxic and environmentally safer choice? Does anyone know? I read that natural fiber wall coverings are better than your run of the mill vinyl wall paper BUT thats not happening here. My choice is latex paint or wallpaper...If anyone has advice, post it in the comments .
I have commenced a new pair of socks for HM because he loves his sockses sooo much. These ones are done with a 6 ply sock yarn that takes a 3 to 4mm needle size and they are knitting up waaaaaaaay faster since I am not ribbing the whole leg. I guess if ya want socks from me ya deal with them being plain ol' stockingette because A) purling annoys me and B) purling slows me down and 3rd) I need everything done 10 minutes ago so slowing me down is bad. Thus, bit o' 1 and 1 rib at the top and then its stockingette the rest.
I found a video online on how to knit small diameter stuffs like socks with two circular needles rather than 4 or 5 dpns (double pointed needles) as I do now. I wonder if I can figure out the two socks on two circulars with this video? Karine offered to show me if I can get to Wednesday nighter on Monkland that she is at. I could go this week if I am not too tired. Its the getting up next morning to get the boys ready for school after being out for the evening that gets to me and makes me stay home. I really enjoy the Wednesday night gatherings though..hmmm.
Ok..thats it..I am so tired I could cry and with the guys gone ALL day I think I will forget about house work and take a snooze.

After some recovery.....

.... I can now discuss what was purchased at Ikea. We went a little wild but its not like we do it every day and it is furniture, not..say..shoes!
We went in and got an awesome bookcase thats taller than me, 2 bedside tables because we never have had any and the upside down Duraflame logs box I was using wasn't very chic (as if we care about that), a rug for the sofa/coffee table area cuz it was only $49 and I liked it, drawer organisers (cool), a new dog basket for Blossom the amazing sleeping dog, ummm...oh yeah, a smallish table and chairs for the breakfast room ( a table and FOUR chairs for $179!! C'mon how do ya say no to THat??). On payday I am getting paint come heck or high water. That room will be done come April. We also picked out new bureaus for our bedroom and will move the mismatched stuff either to the family room or kids bedrooms. Man..I has bedside tables!! I feel like such a grown up now. Heeheeheeee.
Ok..Galactica is on .. Gotta book.

I Can Live With This

I took the super villains quiz and was labelled as Mystique. Cool.

---

29%
Mr. Freeze

---

29%
Two-Face

---

26%
Catwoman

---

23%
Green Goblin

---

22%
Riddler

---

21%

Sometimes motherly, sometimes a beautiful companion, but most of the time a deceiving vixen.



Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

Weekends.....

Why is it when you are really really looking forward to a day it manages to suck hairy monkey balls???!!
Saturday was meant to be my serious reintroduction to the world of down hill skiing. I gots mah new bootses, I gots mah new skises, I gots a lesson lined up.....I's ready! AAAAAnnnnnddd it RAINS! Still, we head out ever optimistic that the trip north will turn said rain to snow. It did....kinda... Snow and ice pellets and rain..I think this is what we call SLEET. grrrr The slopes sucked big time...very very slippery and granular on a hard base. Lessons? Cancelled. We coulda just stayed home and saved the almost 3 hour round trip to the soundtrack of bickering brats. At home I have earplugs. At home I can separate them. sigh
Oh..did I mention my wonderful new boots? They do not pinch my legs and cut of my circulation at all. Nope instead the drive daggers of agony into my arches until I am near in tears. Apparently NEW ski boots do this until you break them in. Noone told me this, but I was comforted by the fact that I was not alone in my pain because HM bought himself new boots too. HA. Misery loooooves company. So, how does one break in new ski boots before using them for skiing? Anyone? Anyone? Hints required here.
By the time I got home I was tired and headachey and in need of a nap so I disappeared for a few hours to my bed. When I re-emerged I checked my email to discover that my book order from chapters used books was being cancelled because, even though the website said they had the book Here Be Wyverns available from another vendor, turns out they DIDN'T. I am seriously upset. I really really wanted that book with a want that is stronger than strong. A want that is sick and wrong in its wanting. I WANT THAT FRAKKING BOOK.
Friday night I went to Effiloche and it was tres francaise this week. I understood almost noone or anything and my pal Andre Anne was absent. She has laryngitis. That was okay though! I am meant to learn more french and the best way is in a french atmosphere. The fly in my ointment was the noticing of a big honking mistake in my color worked stripes. ARGH.. I have to rip back between 2 and 3 inches. Add Frioday night mistake finding to saturday's comedy of horror and we come to Sunday....
The weather today was/is beyond glorious. 10 degrees Celcius above zero with a light breeze. Ice and snow melting off the roof and walkways. Sunny sunny sunny. While enjoying my morning coffee I called Barb to straighten out my knit problem. She wasn't there. Thats ok. I call Julie. Julie is having a ball of a time renovating her daughter's bedroom with great success. I look around my morning room..paint chips and smears on the walls, catnip all over the floor from Monkey and his herb dependency problem, general scruffiness..and I hit my wall. That was it..I'd had enough.
I didn't cry. I didn't rant....much. I was just so frustrated that things were not progressing as I wanted. I wanted things to go MY WAY. Much sighing and whinging and flailing of disgruntled limbs. What I really wanted to do was lay on the floor and thrash and kick but like I said, it was kinda gross from all the catnip and cat hair.
No paint yet....no longed for book on its way...this called for a trip to.....dahdahdah daaaaaaaah

IKEA!

Ikea...Swedish store of opportunity and yummy cinnamon rolls. MY happy place. Ikea. I love you. You make everything better. sigh :OD

Sweater Progress

Still loving the yarn and the colours (they are not as bright as the photo would suggest)but iffy on the youngling's choice of colour work pattern. Seems heavy to me but hey..I'm not gonna be wearing it. Now my question is Can I utilise a different colour pattern in the area I am working now without it looking tooo patchworky and goofy?I'm leading into the blue work now and would like to use a different pattern of red in the blue band. This working will take me to the arm pits where I will divide the sweater onto different needles for the front and back, joining by sewing at the shoulders then picking up and knitting for the set in style sleeves. I am thinking some blue near the cuffs and on the collar would be a good way to tie it all together. Already I am itching to make another sweater.....hee hee hee.

I Had To Order This

I just HAD to. How cool is this??! I ordered it from Chapters' used book section. Now I must wait impatiently until it arrives. I don't know if I'll survive.

Incase you wanna see Valcartier

http://www.valcartier.com/page.aspx?GP=223&SID=241&LA=EN

There are photos and some video footage of what its like. If you ever want a fun trip in Canada, make this a destination.

Tuesday and pictures

We has gots SNOW
After Valcartier with much hat head.
Monkey had some catnip this morning and after beating up the scratching post he needed his rest. He is about 6 months old now.

Holy Schmoley what a weekend. Busy-ness did ensue and us grownups are wiped.

Saturday was more digging out from Friday's deluge of 34 cms. Then the menfolks had karate class, returned and headed for the slopes. I dawdled around, chatting with my Barbara, and eventually book shopping at a used book shop in Laval. Sunday was a travelling day.

We left home and headed for the Quebec City area to visit HM's papa and step- mere. Snacks and drinks were had and then a magnificent roast beef dinner. honestly, the lady makes a kick ass roti du boeuf. I can only dream of making it as good as her and i have her recipe! HM's step bro and younger bro were in attendance as well. Bro was in the area for some reason..I think to have a couple of days snowboarding fun and step bro lives in the area. It was a lovely time, seriously. Much laughter and chatter. I hurt everyones ears and brains with my French (or my version of the language)but HM is actually impressed and amazed at my progress since we don't speak French in this house as a rule. So there, an old dog can learn newish trick to impress the older dog.

Then it was off to the hotel and the hotel pool. Upon returning to our room the kids announced they were hungry again so HM did a McDonald's run for everyone. About 3 or 4 hours later I was yarging mine back up in the bathroom. Yuck. I did not sleep well at all.

Monday= Valcartier Village De Vacances!!!! Upon rising we discovered we forgot Ben's medicine at home. This is not good. Without his Concerta Ben becomes possibly the most annoying and sometimes dangerous to himself organism on the planet. His impulse control is next to nil and his volume goes way up. He can't seem to hear us very well either because his brain is racing too far ahead and he's trying to catch up. tantrums happen over next to nothing such as telling him not to stick his head under the tow cables incase it gets caught, or in my worst case scenario version, cut off. Oy. Tempers flared repeatedly and much deep breathing was employed in an effort to calm ourselves. Despite this set back, we had a fantastic time. Of course, I forgot the camera in the car. We slid, and rafted, and even did the much feared Himalaya slope. YES! I did a Himalaya run!! And I screamed like the terrified girl I am. Its a very steep, fast slope and you had to go in groups of a minimum of 6..I think either for stability or because of yesterday's crowds. My hat blew off about halfway through that one but my knight in dented armour retrieved it for me at risk of life and limb and much snow in his boots.

What a sweetheart.

Around 3:30 us grownups were tired enough that it was time to go ( after about 5 hours there) and we hit the road, stopping for drinks and snacks. There were major episodes of blowing snow on the highway all the way home, some quite blinding but you dared not stop incase the moron speeding up your tail rammed into you as you slowed. It was a little unnerving and the backseat soundtrack of Ben (mostly) and Cameron didn't help.

We arrived home to happy pets and our pet sitters were actually there too for their after supper visit. There was a bad smell in the house that I put down to one of our kids trip to the bathroom on arrival but soon I discovered the cause.

One of the cats showed its displeasure at not having an automatic human door openner here for the warmish weather by dropping a load in the upstairs bath tub. In his outrage HM demanded "Who was it??" 'What am I a forensic poopologist now???" was my reply but we both think it was Flash. She's the only one that is rude enough for that especially since we had two very nice and clean litter boxes in the laundry room. She can be very nasty.

So that was our big overnight trip in celebration of March break. Oh, and I think I added one two inches to the sweater in the car!

Friday Night

We soooo got dumped on today. I mean by snow. Again, I forgot to take a picture but believe me, shovelling the driveway was not very fun. Yet it could have been worse...
We put the kidlets to bed around 9ish this evening and donned our gay apparel to shovel out since the snow had stopped and the plow had gone by. Our home is lovely and sits on a corner lot, and our driveway has two entrances. Twice the shovelling. We did the end at the front of out home and then walked around the corner to the other end. Why didn't we cross the yard? Because the snow is over our boots that way!! We gots snow, baby!!
On the other steeet end of the drive, the plow had been by but has not yet, at this writing, cleared the street back to the curb. We were looking at a lot of street to shovel before we hit driveway. So we plodded on with the scooping and tossing of cold white stuff. A couple of houses down a snow removal tractor was at work clearing a driveway and man was I jealous. Soo jealous. The snow removal guy must have felt my tractor lust because he zipped down to our place and cleared the end of our drive way out!! Then with a merry wave off he went to do his next driveway. All told he was done in maybe 1 minute thanks to that handy dandy gigantic snow blower. How friggin' awesome is that!!
Of course the plow will fill it all back in on its next run through, but I'd rather only do it once rather than give my self a heart attack or sprained back twice.
Monsieur Deneigement, je t'aime!!!! Merci beaucoup!!! xxxooo

Because Barb told me to post pics

In real life the blue is not that bright and the red is more brick like.





Benoit picked the pattern because it looked like trees. I didn't tell him he was looking at it upside down so I knitted it his way.







I gots a new basket for all my knitty stuffs!! I loves it sooooooo.

Thursday

We are to be getting snow, according to the radio. Lots and lots. I hate shovelling.
Went to the grocery store today because yesterday was payday and I have kids home for the next 10 days and needed to stock up on munchables, did NOT go to prepare for a storm in any way. The line ups were larger than I would have liked. Preparation for snow may entail bringing in some firewood incase the power goes out.
Sweaterwise, I have completed the colorwork and now am just knitting the red in the round until its time for more blue. So far so good. The mistake I did make isn't very noticable in the first row of blue and I am NOT frogging back to fix it. Would EZ frog all the way back because of two misplaced stitches of red???? I think not. She'd say it was a creative interpretation of the chart, I bet. At least that will be my excuse. If I had noticed it closer to the occurence I would have ripped back but since I was on the homestretch of the colorwork, fuhgeddaboutit.

Cute stuff

I enjoy various cutenesses like Cute Overload and the latest one to come my way I Can Has Cheeseburger? that I found via Sween at Space Monkey Pants. Filled with pictures of cute animals etc with sometime HILARIOUS captions. www.icanhascheeseburger.com
Fun stuff.