Update

9 of the 10 puppies made it through delivery. 3 girls, 6 boys. Please keep those fingers and toes crossed that the next few weeks find these little gentle giants thriving.

Finished one of Bubba's mittens and couldn't resist starting one of mine. Actually, it's a hand-warmer, not a mitten, because my house is getting chilly and my hands get really cold. Hand warmers mean I can still knit my evenings away while watching CSI and Bones.

I'm painting Bubba's new room today, green walls with a blue ceiling to match her new bedding. It's so cute...I even painted two lamps red and put rick-rack trim on the shades to match the trim on the bedding. We have to move her back into the center of the house to keep her warm this winter. Last year she had windows and was over a room we don't heat, her little space heater ran 24 hours a day to keep the room comfortable. Needless to say, our budget will not tolerate that this year. So....we're moving her into a room with no windows and it's over the living room, so she'll be warmer at a lower cost.

Doggie and Elf

The breeder we are hoping to get a puppy from is expecting 10 puppies anytime after this Friday. 2 month gestation period...I wish that's all I had to deal with (although, I only had one, not ten.) Please keep your fingers crossed for a healthy delivery and uneventful first few weeks. If all goes well, I'll bring my long-awaited Irish Wolfhound home the weekend before my birthday (and Thanksgiving.) I've already asked for the week of Thanksgiving off to both prepare for the holiday and spend a lot of time with the newest family member, hopefully making the transition into his/her new home easier.

On the knitting front, I've been doing the cutest elfin hats for every kid I know. Bubba Lou finally got hers. Coordinating mittens are in the works. Then I get to start my mittens. And maybe finish a few sweaters I have hanging around, especially since it's gotten quite chilly around here!

Bubba's hat as it's meant to be worn. She's a pretty willing model most days. Even if it's not for her. And Bubba will usually let me use a tape measure on her to "double check."

Bubba's new hat in "princess crown" version. I actually like it better this way.

The start of Bubba's mittens. I had one past the thumb last night, and realized it would have fit me. Needless to say, ripping out commenced.

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of fall, even if your not looking foward to the cost of heating your home this winter. I've already made pumpkin muffins and apple crisp. And chicken pot pie (it had been chilly when I baked the chicken, but was 80 degrees when I baked the pot pie.) I'm crazy, I need to loose 6 pounds, but I just can't resist fall food. Yummy.

Two months 'til my little girl turns 4. Bubba has picked a "teddy bear" theme for her birthday party and I'm already researching stand-up bear cake molds and decorating ideas. I think this cake will have to be chocolate...a red velvet bear would be gross. Think bleeding armadillo in Steel Magnolias, but for kids. Ick. I wish I had time to knit more...I have the cutest pattern for mini knitted bears, wouldn't that be the cutest favor for the kiddos? Too much seaming, to little time. The story of my life!

I can hardly wait!

I got the good news today that the breeder I've been in contact with is expecting puppies around Sept. 12th. That means a puppy for my birthday this year! You should have heard me this morning, I couldn't contain myself. I've been waiting almost 16 years for an Irish Wolfhound and now I'm getting one! I've got goosebumps thinking about it!

Unfortunately, BubbaLou thinks we're getting her one, too. Sorry pumpkin, one at a time.

Oh, yeah, and the sun was shining all day today and is supposed to shine all day tomorrow. I truly think things are starting to go my way. Grey skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face....

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Am I the only person sick and tired of seeing kids clothes covered in Hannah Montana, Elmo, and Dora? My daughter likes t.v., and I let her watch some. Not every day, not every week even, but yeah, she knows who Dora is (not Hannah M., thank goodness.) Will I let her wear Dora, Cinderella, and Ariel on everything she owns? No. Yes, she does have a couple of t-shirts with Tinkerbell and a couple of princesses (thanks to a trip to Disneyland I took a few months ago.) Mum got her a princess beach chair. That's where it ends. I wont' let Dora on my little girl's sunglasses or shoes, I won't buy her a skimpy bikini with the little mermaid on it.

Yeah, let's talk about little girl's bathing suits! I bought Bubba two very conservative tankini's from One Step Ahead. SPF50, covered her belly and back, didn't fall off her shoulders, but easy to pull down to go pee. These swimsuits are pretty big on her (the tops are okay but the bottoms would almost fit me), so I was in a major department store the other day looking for something smaller and on sale to get us through the rest of summer. I couldn't find a single toddler's one-piece bathing suit that wasn't cut with a "bra" top and low back, and every two piece looked like a miniature of mine (pretty skimpy.) Since when do 3 year olds need sexy swimwear? Don't we need to cover up their delicate skin, while still letting them play in the water? And why can't they sell one without a cartoon character on it?

I know every major retailer offered conservative 1 and 2 piece swimwear earlier in the season (didn't I buy some?), but I really think it's disgusting that what I found is even offered. I mean, really, do pedophiles really need encouragement? I'm sorry if I'm way up on a soapbox here, but toddlers in skimpy bikinis are not cute. Let's let our kids be kids, not mini-adults. They grow up too fast all by themselves anyway.

Vacation

We just got back from our first vacation in 2 1/2 years. Sy, BubbaLou and I went camping in York Beach, Maine for 4 nights/5 days. It rained almost every night and was beautiful every day. Not bad. Sy and I had a nice air mattress and Bubba had a fabulous new cot (Regalo travel cot) that kept us all off the cold, damp floor of the tent. Bubba was so well behaved I was in shock, I think she enjoyed the undivided attention. She slept very well, and for two evenings we were able to take a long walk and she fell asleep in the stroller around 7:15 and slept until about 6am. All in all the first camping experience with my young daughter was enjoyable.

That said, I hope we never do it again. I'm too old for that crap. Sy and I are actually going to look into renting a house on the ocean with my sister next summer and hopefully buy a camper and rent a seasonal spot the following summer. Our goal is to have me back out of work and home with BubbaLou the spring of 2010, and having a camper at one spot for the whole summer will allow us to get away for weeks at a time and not break the bank!

We took Bubba to York's Wild Kingdom and Amusement Park. I highly recommend it...the zoo and ride passes are reasonably priced for adults and little ones and you can go back all day long, lots of bang for your buck. All three of us was under $50, and we spent from 10am when the zoo opened to 5pm there (with a break back at the tent for lunch.) If you have older kids, the amusement park is open until 10pm, I think.

BubbaLou doesn't appreciate the animals behind fences yet (in her words "I see them on tv.) Feeding the ducks, goats and deer was more up her alley. More doing, less looking.

Then we took her to the amusement park and let her ride every ride she wanted to as many times as she wanted. We did every kiddie ride at least once.

My litte diva blowing kisses on the carousel. She did the Miss America wave, too. We had to do this one twice.


Bumper Boats-I think she just had fun steering around in the water. She said she "really like dis better than the other boats." Her first kiddie ride was in a boat going around a water track. Yeah, she got to ring the bell, but she didn't go anywhere. BubbaLou is all about action.

Then Daddy took her on the real bumper cars.

I couldn't get her back on a kiddie ride to save my life.
"No Mama, I need to smash people."
You could hear her out there shouting "Get that one, get him, get him!" It was worth every penny we paid for admission to see the joy in her eyes and hear the peals of laughter every time they hit someone or got hit. We had to do this twice and would have done it more if the lines weren't so bad, I guess everyone love the bumper cars. They also had a kidde ferris wheel that she rode twice, once before the bumper cars and once after. You could see the boredom in her face on the second go-round. Then we took her on the real ferris wheel, no fear in my little girl.

I'm really gonna be in trouble when state fair season starts!

Real Quick...

Here's what I called the hot cocoa mittens. Don't they make you think of steam and marshmallows? This picture doesn't really do them justice. They are a lacy outer mitten in dark brown with a mohair lining in white that fluffs out between the lace holes. Visit Melanie Falick to see all the mittens in this book, with better photographs.

Time...

Summer is melting away faster than an ice-cream cone in Bubba's hands. It started out so slow and wonderful and now I don't have a free moment of time. We're off on vacation for a few days at the end of this week, we're camping at the seaside. It will be Bubba's first camping trip...keep your fingers crossed for me.

I've been knitting off and on this summer. I'm still working on my white v-back sweater...it's a lot of stockinette on size 5 needles. I'm down to the sleeves (two at a time) and let me tell you, it's boring. Very boring. But the sweater will be beautiful in all white linen-drape (Rowan yarn my mom found on eBay for me...it's what the pattern called for and it's discontinued. Thank you and much love to you, Mum.) A good Mum will let you take your time in a yarn store. A great Mum will spend hours on the internet to find a yarn that's been discontinued for 3 years so that you can have the ideal sweater for summer. A great Mum will also understand and encourage your little fiber addiction. I like to call her the enabler. Her stash is still bigger than mine. I just finished a little sweater for a friend's new baby girl. Big sister will get a coordinating hat in the leftover yarn. I can' t very well not bring something for her (she got hand-knit socks for her last birthday...I know her Mom appreciated those little beauties.) Started another Rowan pattern in a hand painted rayon boucle yarn I got at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival. Not my usual colors (shades of peach-pink and olive-army-forest green) but I thought it was too pretty to pass up. It will end up a simple cap sleeve shell with a banded bottom (what's on the size 3 needles.) The band is about 30" of k1p1 ribbing on size 3's. Ugh. It's the kind of thing I take along on long car trips 'cause it's mindless and boring. I also got some 4-ply 100% cashmere in ivory that is destined to be these gloves. Aren't they delicious? I saw this book (Knitting New Mittens and Gloves) when it first came out and didn't buy it, how many gloves and mittens can one person actually knit? Then I found that yarn and I figured it had to be fate...the gauge was "close enough" according to my memory of the pattern and thankfully I was correct. Sent man out with Borders coupon to fetch said book. Great man, like Mum will go out of his way to enable my little habit. Bubba has also found a pair of "elfin" mittens that she wants and there's another pair that make me think of hot cocoa that I will most likely make.

I also just finished knitting this. The pattern is, what else, Rowan's Alpine Shrug. I couldn't afford the Big Wool, so I used Blizzard (extra bonus-my local yarn store had a 20% off coupon in the paper!)

When I have the patience required to seam it, it will hopefully look like this:
On the non-knitting front, I've got more lettuce in my garden than I can eat. Lots of peas, carrots are coming along nicely, tomatoes are on their way, and I'll have more pumpkins this fall than Linus. My kitchen now has drawers to put things in, my porch ceiling is sky blue, and the old bathroom has been ripped off the house. The new bathroom will be framed out by tomorrow, and hopefully we'll be able to afford to put the fixtures in next spring...we'll see won't we?
The woman I was hoping to get "my dog", Irish Wolfhound for those not in the know, from didn't get the litter she was planning on, and she put me in touch with another woman who just bred. Keep your fingers crossed for me...I find out mid-August if there will be a puppy for my birthday this year. Visit here, Shanachie, to see her beautiful dogs.