It's Christmas time!

Harper got a fake present at Gymboree- but she knew how to open it- that was amazing!
why do you even try to put the hat on?

Second Santa....first was more believable....

First Tree

Harper's First Thanksgiving!

Merry Christmas Baby!

Harper is Cute

i was sick on monday...so i layed prostrate on the floor and pointed it at my adorable little girl for a bit...

OMG! 10-30-08 Harper Crawled!!

She is doing even better now- but it's amazing how fast everything happened! one minute she crawled...the next she was sitting up by herself....and now she will pull herself up to her knees in hre bed....time to lower the matress!!!

now- when she doesn't want to sleep she just sits up and bangs on the wall and screams like she is being murdered....great, huh?

a little late...i know

So on August 23rd 2008- Venus Got Married!

Nick, Harper and I all drove up the 101 to SLO County to see her! (Of Course we stopped at EVERY yarn shop up till Solvang!)

Venus got married in a barn in Coyucus. It is a cute little beachy town. that has a little farm area on its edge. We had so much fun, besides yarn shops, we also went to the Green Acres Lavender Farm in Atascadero. That was awesome, they have a little giftshop with some nice little gifties.....i had fun.

Harper had a hard time though- it was her first roadtrip and at 6months all she really knows how to do is show us when she is uncomforatable....which she did.... a lot.....

All in all we had a pretty good time. Got to see my friend of 22years....if you can believe that....we met when i was 5...! wow.


Now.... about the yarn hopping:

I went to Santa Barbara- and i visited 3 yarn shops there. the Loop and leafhttp://www.loopandleaf.com/ was so nice! i really wish we had a shop like that down here. I don' t think i would ever leave! This place is a tea house and a yarn shop! And it was the purr-fect place to hunker down with a good yarn and a cup!

Next i went to the Knit&Purl boutique http://knitsb.blogspot.com/-owner is very nice, cute store! i got a project bag made by a local artist-i luv it!

cardigans - nice people- a little crowded, nothin too unique. cozy….

Village spinning - smaller then i thought- but still wonderful! Got LOTS there. Apparently the sage cotton crop failed! So there is no hope in recreating the baby blanket that i knit Harper. I got white organic cotton instead..... :(

Rasmussen’s (cause it’s close…) - upstairs-half yarn half quilt- good prices, nothing too special yarn wise.

Eileen’s treasures -skipped 4 time hope to visit on the way back yarns at the adobe -omn

Scarlett Skein -awesome! i loved it! great people, great yarn, great prices! i wanted to stay and hang out for hours!!!!

Ball & Skein- skipped for time.

Sept 6th Happy Birthday Dad

Saturday September 6th was my Dad's B Day. We celebrated on Sunday with a southern fried dinner. Nick started smoking some ribs early, and we had sweet iced tea, fried okra, fried corn, cornbread, and of course- Bananna Pudding w/ vanniloa wafers for desert. It was great to have Tommy and Sarah (lil bro and lil sis) together....except for the part where they gang up on me and talk about all the horrible things i did to them when we were young.....drat them.

Here are some pics of the fam.......

Sarah, Me, Dad and Tom

Nick, ME, Harper, Dad, Tommy, Sarah

Harper and Dad

Sarah & Tommy

A lil Pic of the Lundy Fam....

A Rare picture of Tommy Holding Harper

a not so rare pic of Sarah holding Harper....:)

Dyeing for Kool Aid

GLOVES ARE NOT OPTIONAL...... :)

We dyed with Kool Aid last night. Stephanie and I got down and dirty. The dirty part mostly because we used the gloves sparingly. P.S. Gloves are not a suggestion. J

I purchased some Peruvian Highland Wool from the Morro Fleece Works on my trip last weekend to see my fiend’s wedding. (more on this later.)

Yarn…….I got 220 yards for $7, pretty sweet. We wrapped it about 10 times around our elbow to hand, then tied them into skeins. First mistake, both of us failed at tying loosely. I was really trying, and in Stephanie’s defense- I forgot to tell her not to choke the yarn to death. We got 25 cute baby skeins. 6 of which we did not use.

Kool Aid….. Kool aid is not as plentiful as it was in my youth. The nearby Ralph’s had only 2 flavors! Lemonade, and Tropical Punch, which even though the wrapper is blue, is actually red. Go figure.

We started with 9 colors. (Thanks to Cool Splashers from Disney)
Strawberry
Black Cherry
Tropical Punch

Orange
Lemonade
Lemon Lime

Pink Lemonade
And Grape.

Just and FYI- Grape looked black- kinda crazy- so we (having way too much tropical punch, and accidentally making 2 of them, decided to pour a little grape into one tropical punch to see what would happen.

Even thought the norm amount is 2 packets to 50 grams of yarn( that’s 1 packet to 25 grams), we put one packet for 4 grams of yarn, that’s right like 6x more then we needed! This resulted in highly saturated colors- we liked this. So there.

After we put hot tap into each cup we used a chop stick to stick the yarn in, and swirl it around.

Then into the microwave for 2 min a pop. Then a little rest for the lazy yarn, and another 2 min. most of them took just 2 2min segments.

Once the water is clear, or semi clear, time to take them out to rest and cool. Then I used hot tap, and my gloves to rinse out the kool aid. Then I used a little hand soap to clean it with, and then we hung it on a hanger in the bathroom to dry.

We tried to make variegated in 2 ways. One: we used a baster for color disbursement. This was clumsy and difficult. I think it would be better done with food dye.

And two- Stephanie tried the half in method of putting half the yarn in 2 cups. She used Lemon Lime and Pink Lemonade, oddly the green wicked up the yarn, and pooled in the pink- but say on top…..it made the yarn that was in the green very bright, then lighter, then into a dark pink…..i think it would have been better had then cups been the same size. But it turned out better then the baster, which eventually muddled.

Then it was getting late and I had sniffed a lot of kool aid fumes, so I put a skein still twisted up into a mixture of grape, black cherry, and tropical punch, and another skein, still twisted up into remainder of the tropical punch powder. That was kinda gross, but I was experimenting. This is what happened, which surprised and delighted both Steph and i.

Here are all the colors. the lighter green is misxed with Lemonade, but it really didn'e make it much lighter. the burnt orangly ones are made from black cherry and orange in different quanities. the reds are tropical punch, strawberry, and cherry with some grape that did nothing. the darker red is Steph's "verigated" black cherry, orange and lemonade. the burgundy one is black cherry, then grape, then the 2 crazy ones i explained above, then pink lemonade, then my "verigated" lime, pink lemonade, and lemonade.These are my faves. :)

Here are some fav links for Kool Aid dying: they helped me:

Knit Picks

Knitty

http://fiber-mama.blogspot.com/2007/12/kool-aid-dyeing-part-2.html
http://www.snowangels.com/sketchbook/?page_id=418 http://stringativity.blogspot.com/2006/10/koolaid-day-and-geekdom.html
http://stringativity.blogspot.com/2008/04/weaving-and-dyeing.html
http://keeponknittinginthefreeworld.blogspot.com/2006/10/kool-aid-dying-tutorial.html

Hey Mikey! I think She Likes it!

So lately Harper has been more interested in the world around her. Noticing when Mommy or G-ma take a bite to eat. Since she is sitting up when supported now- i thought we could try a little food. Here is a clip of Harper's first bites from a spoon! She had Gerber Pears.

This is a pic of her SECOND bite. this was Rice Cereal with BMilk.
Hey Mikey- i think she likes it!!!!!!!!

Haper rolled over bothways for the first time Tuesday July 29th!
Here she is talking- she started this yesterday Aug. 2nd :)

WENT ON THE KNIT AND CRUISE AT ALAMITOS BAY YARN CO. It was really relaxing! so great to sit and knit for 2 hrs with no baby. I love my meetup group! the people are so awesome to hang with! we had a great time- and we want to do it again, maybe rent our own duffy and have a hubby drive it! This way we can do it on a weekend!! great idea! We could have a parade!

Below: HAPPY 4th from Harper and her cousins Erin and Landon!

Yarn Hop - Alamitos Bay & Liscat

So we went on this awesome yarn ho on saturday. I got lambs pride from Alamitos Bay Yarn Co. http://www.yarncompany.com/ It's one of my favorite shops, 1- for layout, 2 for quality. i like the way it feels. However Liscat's http://www.liscat.biz/home new shop freaking rocks my socks right off! i wanted to hide in the back and live there! It's like the owner, Katrina, reached into my yarn shop dreams and made it a reality. If you are nearby- you have to go!

<=====LISCAT

this is what i got on our trip......

Lambs Pride for Hedgehog. I started the hedgehog Sat Night and finished Tuesday Morning, crying baby and all! It was pretty fast!

and here it is: (no name for it yet- Diane has tramatized me on nameing my animals)

Don't get me started on issues i had with this. Lets just say- if you make this, try to get the funfur to be similar to the felting wool. And pink and black look a little like hairplugs. But Harper likes it! i also got this for Hedgehog #2..... i have higher hopes for this one.

and here is some handpainted Arucania- very nice!

I am on a "yarn diet" of sorts...it's called "single income family" so i spent about $40 for the day. i also got this wonderful water bottle at Liscat!

and on the baby front....Harper is not rolling over! Yeah she did it like 3 times 2 weeks ago, and now, it's like she forgot! I guess I should be happy that she will stay imobile a little longer...but i really like it when she learns new tricks! :) We used some special cradle cap shampoo on her and it makes her hair greasy! see.....

more later...gotta go feed the baby.....again.

I'm Baaaaaaaack

Ok- I will try to keep this up. it is my goal. P.S. I now have a baby. She is the cutest baby on the planet. and is making little noises that mean- "hey- get your butt over here and pay attention to me before i cry" as i write this.....so here is a recent video...

Here are my current WIPs-

Log Cabin Blanket & Harper

and a Central Park Hoodie! (First Sweater Ever) woohoo