Comparative Interior Decorating

Not too much knitting to report...the baby blanket that I'm working on is slow as molasses in January (smallish needles + mosaic pattern = tedium...quelle surprise)

I've found a couple patterns for Ellery's mohair cardi. Both of these are Sublime patterns:

Little Whisper...


And Angelique...


It's funny, but at Ellery's age, both the largest of the little girl sizes and smallest of the ladies sizes pretty much fit with only minor alterations. Personally, I'm leaning towards the ribbed cardigan, mostly because it breaks my heart to see the gusto with which Ellery knots her wrapped hand-knit sweaters.

In case you were wondering how painting weekend turned out, here are a couple "after" shots of the girls' rooms.

Ellery's room in all of its purple glory (gory?...Ed.) Despite appearances, the room is actually a bit tidier than its usual condition.



Gillian's room in Agent Orange. The large navy rectangle on the wall is a temporary curtain while the orange and white awning stripe curtains sit waiting on my sewing machine. That's Nemo lying across Gillian's pillow...our decorating inspiration.



And finally Clare's room. Interesting contrast in decorating style and relative tidiness to the sisters' rooms. Sort of looks like a room at the Sheraton.

A Tactical Error on My Part...

In order to give E and C something to do at my parents anniversary party this weekend, I appointed them official photographers with my new camera. Relax, the camera is fine...the pictures are not. I don't have many usable photos from the event, so here is an action shot of the VERY LONG drive down!

Gilly and Haley




Monday was a school holiday, so we stayed home and decorated Easter cookies!


Oh, and a million thanks to Elizabeth...lookie what arrived today! Anyone have a cardigan pattern suitable for an almost 11 year old girl that can be made with 10 skeins of mohair?

Testing, Testing...1, 2, 3 Testing

I'm testing a new camera. On Wednesday night, I tried to photograph Gillian's Valentine's Day treats for her classmates. Gilly and I baked some fancy cupcakes and decorated them with a selection of candies, then placed them in protective sleeves on pink plates, where we covered them with large sheets of aluminium foil and shaped them into giant Hershey's kisses. We even made little paper tapes for the top with "Happy Valentine's Day, hugs Gilly"...on them. They did turn out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

You will have to take my word on that, because when I tried to photograph the little beauties I discovered that one of my offspring (who shall remain nameless, but is very surprisingly NOT Gillian) killed the digital camera. Normally, I could fathom a life, however meaningless without a digital camera, but it's my parent's 50th Anniversary party this weekend and the ability to snap a few pictures seemed called for.

Anyway, DH and Clare went out this morning and picked out a new digital camera. DH is a camera afficianado and understands phrases like "film speed" and "F-stop", but I wanted a camera that I could toss in my handbag, snap pictures without "fiddling" with anything and not have to specifically include on my homeowner's insurance policy.



Here it is...the PowerShot A570IS. Pretty simple, way more features and much better pictures than the old camera...and it costs about one quarter as much...ouch! Amazing what 7 years does to digital camera techonology!




Very little knitting to report...I finished Clare's multidirectional scarf and am slogging away at the Central Park Hoodie and a Baby Blanket. Both are pretty large projects not suited to lap knitting, so I need to put something more portable on my needles...but not socks...

More pictures after the party...

I Winned

I was Elizabeth's 100,000th visitor and look at what she is sending me as a reward...


Isn't it lovely...plum coloured mohair! I'm guessing that when it arrives, Ellery will pounce on it, after all purple is HER colour. It might make a nice cardigan to go over dressier outfits...hmmmm

Knitwise, I'm still slogging away at the Noro Kujaku scarf...the end is in sight...

And I did make it out (despite a series of snowstorms that have earned us three "snowdays" in the span of a week) to Knitty's Roundtable Yarn Tastings. It was a great chance to check out the newly opened Purple Purl and sample some yarns that aren't even in stores yet.

Oh, Dh and Boo finished painting Boo's room...Agent Orange


Gilly painted Haley too...



It's bright, but the room is starting to take shape and Gilly seems very pleased with the results. I guess that isn't surprising, Gilly's first love (and first word before language regression) was...



Ojo from Bear in the Big Blue House. Gilly never really had an interest in the show, but she loved Ojo so much and so violently with "love bites" that we went through half a dozen before she reached the age of 4!



Boo and Ojo...just before diagnosis...


And Boo's Ojo chair, modelled by Clare and Mimi the WonderPoodle. It's really a Papasan chair covered in orange fun fur, but it's Gilly's retreat.




Anyway, the orange is in place and Boo likes it an that's really all that matters...