Soap

If you are related to me, you most likely got a bar of soap for Christmas this year.  I've made several batches since the first batch way back in August.  Jeremy made me a mold that makes 6 "average" sized bars.  I figure I'm mostly just making it for us, I don't need some huge mold that makes a bunch.  I made some a few weeks ago, Peppermint Oatmeal. They need to dry and cure for 4 weeks before we can put them to use.

unmolded and ready to be cut 

cut bars laid out to dry

Those look a bit dark in the center, but after a few weeks of drying, they are a beige color throughout.  I made some yesterday, Cinnamon Beer Soap.  I'll have to see how it turns out tomorrow when I cut it.

Christmas 2013

I have a few pictures from Christmas 2013.  The girls, especially Grace and Anna, grip and rip so quickly, I can't keep up while taking pictures and I usually don't know who gave them what!  Jeremy had to work Christmas Eve night and Christmas night.  I helped the girls put out the cookies and milk for Santa and we sprinkled reindeer food in the yard.  We opened all of our gifts when Jeremy got home Christmas morning.  A few pictures...

A few days before Christmas 

Leah didn't want to put on her jammies, but ran to get in the picture

Grace in action 

Leah showing me her peppermint stick, love that face!

Anna and her money tree

The girls are currently hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Yearout.  Jeremy's working today and I just don't know what to do with myself in this quiet, empty house!

More knitting!

I've been knitting up a storm, as usual, lately.  I have a few things to share.  First is a cowl I made.  I originally made it with buttons on one short side.  I wore it once and didn't like it with the buttons when compared to the original pattern, blah, blah, blah.  So I ripped back the button holes and made it a circle cowl by grafting the ends together.  I like it much more this way.  However, I would still like to make this similar to the original pattern where it knits up a bit stiffer.  I have the yarn and it's on the list...for someday.

my Brick Road Cowl

And I made some socks (what else is new?).  The yarn I picked happened to sort of match the holiday season, so these are my Christmas socks.  I like how the red and yellow kind of did a stripe-y, pool-y thing.

I knitting another pair of socks (again, what else is new?!), and a gnome hat for myself.

Three-fer

Today you get a 3 for 1!

Friday was Grace's birthday and we let her open presents that morning.  We also had cake for breakfast.

Then we went out to see Frozen 3D at the theatre on Friday night.  I've never seen a movie in 3D and that was pretty cool.  I thought the movie was pretty good as well.

Monday was the girls Christmas concert at school.  All my pictures turned out crappy...except one that wasn't blurry...although it's a little kooky.  Anna's pretty intense and Grace is elsewhere.

The kindergarteners sang 3 songs and did a good job.  The 1st and 2nd graders put on a little play, but you couldn't hear what most of them said.  Which isn't a very entertaining program.  While at the school, we picked up Anna's gingerbread house.

She said it was a sad gingerbread house.  Can you see the eyes and non-smiley face on it?  Click here to see Grace's kindergarten gingerbread house.

Grace

Eight years ago today I became a mom for the first time.  Grace was born in the afternoon on a cold, snowy day.  And I couldn’t have been more in love.  Watching her grow and discover herself and who she is has been a joy.  Of course, there’ve been the challenging times and the “piece of cake” times.  She’s grown into a young lady who loves school and reading, writing and math.  Hates fish and sweet potatoes and is scared of the chickens.  She knows which buttons to push to make me mad and also the buttons that bring smiles to my face.  I wouldn’t give her up for the world.  I few pictures through the years….

Don't think less of us because we had cake for breakfast this morning!

A Birthday Party

Thanksgiving happened to fall between Grandpa Y's birthday and Grace's birthday.  We took the time to celebrate them together while we were all gathered for turkey day.  Grace scored some books and an archery bow.  With the nice weather, they went outside and did some shooting.  I think Jeremy may have had more fun with the bow than Grace, :)

Tuesday Randomness

On Sunday we took the girls out for pizza, then we went to see Free Birds in the theatre.  I think the girls enjoyed it, even if it was super loud.  How they managed to eat a bucket of popcorn and cotton candy after just having lunch is beyond me.  Leah fell asleep on my lap during the previews and didn’t wake up until the movie was over and we were leaving.

Lizzy has figured out how to scale the fence in the front yard.  She’s hasn’t gone too far that we are aware of, but we’ve had plenty of dog mishaps and don’t want it to happen again.  So Jeremy rigged up a bit of electric fence to go on top of the chain link.  Both he and Lizzy got zapped testing it out.  Hopefully we will only have to keep it hot for a bit so she knows not to climb the fence.  Then just keep it up on the fence, but not hot.

The chicken coop now has permanent electricity.  We always ran extension cords so the chickens would have heat lamps and to keep the water from freezing in previous winters.  Jeremy and his dad got it all wired so we don’t have to string extension cords anymore.  This has been about 7 years in the making!

Most of my Christmas shopping and crafting is done.  Time to start wrapping and take stock of what I have left to do.

Olympic rings socks

My latest finished project, Olympian socks.  They have little rings that remind me of the Olympic rings.  It also reminds me of faux cables.  And it's hard to take pictures of your feet!  They are are boring brown/green/blue color which will go perfectly with my drab wardrobe  :)

A Black Eye

Those 2 year olds at Leah's daycare are a rough and tumble bunch.  I don't know if it has to do with the fact there are 3 girls and about 10 boys.  Leah's always coming home with "ouch reports" along with bite marks and other boo-boos.  Her latest turned into a black eye.  The photo's don't show it clearly, but it's her right eye.

this was this morning

this was this afternoon

And I also caught her writing.  It was super cute, so I had to include it here.

Menagerie

Just a few bits and pieces so you at least have something to read :)

We and Lizzy had been going to dog training; it was a 7 week course.  She "graduated" a few weeks ago.  She may not be as awesome as the dog the instructor brought to class, but she knows a few commands.  When you strap on a leash, she knows its time for business.

I've been knitting some socks, which i don't have a picture of yet, but I also started a button up cowl.  I had quite a few opportunities to knit the day I started it.  This was all done in one day.  My friend says the yarn is so ugly it's pretty.  Ha!

Some Knitting

I got some wonderfully soft baby alpaca/cashmere yarn that has been waiting for the perfect project.  Since it is so soft, a scarf it was to become.  I found a lovely pattern on ravelry and cast on.  The knitting didn't take too long and I washed it up and blocked it this weekend.

Falling leaf pattern

And here is my lovely model showing it off.  And I can't wait to wear it!

Pumpkin Decorating

My work has a pumpkin decorating contest.  Me and all the girls entered a pumpkin.  Anna got a second place and Grace got third place in their age group category.

 Grace's spiderweb pumpkin.  It started to cave in on one side and the web got a bit loose.

 My mummy pumpkin.  I thought it was uber cute, however the judges didn't think so :(

Anna's caterpillar pumpkins; she called it Little Spot.  Mommy fail, I didn't get a picture of Leah's, but we gave her a Sharpie and let her have at it.

My one observation is, why does hot glue not work so well on pumpkins?

Halloween

Last night is the scariest night of the year.  This year it was only made a little more spooky by Jeremy watching several Halloween movies in the last week.  The girls each had a party at school.  Then we went to the mall and went around to each store and picked up some candy.  Then we hit about 7 houses before the big ones were too cold and ready to go home.  By then the loot was piling up anyways.  Without further ado, the costumes!

Grace as Cleopatra 

Cleo with Ms. Ladybug

Anna as Dorothy, complete with Toto

A monkey, banana included (check out the pocket on her right)

The ladybug was Leah's school costume; the monkey was for trick or treating.  And I'll wager you can figure out who the warmest one was last night.

My work puts on a pumpkin decorating contest each year.  This year our family won some prizes...more to come on that later!

Carrots

Remember when I showed you the clump of carrots that the girls helped plant in this post.  We decided to dig up a clump and check it out.  We have several more clumps we're going to leave in the ground until the first frost.

Check out the twisted mess, er mass, of carrots.  It was like taking apart a jigsaw puzzle when we separated them.  And totally unrelated, but requested, a pic of Leah in her birthday shirt from great-Grandma.