Nutcracker Anxiety

Pumpkin Girl has Nutcracker auditions tomorrow.  She’s a little nervous even though this year she’ll know 2 or 3 other girls with the same audition time.  One of her fellow sheep from last year’s production is in one of her ballet classes.  I heard them discussing which parts they hope to get, who is going to be there and wondering if their cartwheels are good enough to land them the gingersnap roles.

Actually, the whole studio was abuzz with Nutcracker speculations.  The auditions are city-wide, not just for our studio, so it’s anybody’s guess as to who will be cast as what.  Most of the younger girls (Pumpkin’s age) will be cast somewhere, it’s the advanced classes that really have to worry.  Still, it puts one on edge, no matter what your age and skill.

In addition to the natural nervousness that auditions bring, the traveling ballet company is different this year than in years past.  That means different costumes, different roles, different ways of casting the children.  There may not even be any gingersnaps this year, or they may be taken from the pool of children that are slightly older than Pumpkin.  Or maybe the gingersnaps won’t need to do cartwheels.

I’m trying to be a good ballet mom.  I’m trying to emphasize that the most important thing is to have fun.  Go to the audition, pay attention, smile, dance and have fun.  Whatever part you get, it’s a chance to dance on stage with professional dancers, a live philharmonic orchestra and in front of thousands of people.  No matter how long her ballet career is, she will always have this experience to look back on and remember.

(Ask me how I feel in a few years when she’s old enough to compete for the role of Clara! )

So off we’ll go tomorrow, me swinging a bag with knitting, her swinging a bag with ballet shoes, both with visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in our heads.

I hope we have fun.

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Heat, Holmes and Hats

The hotter it gets, the less I blog.  The less I blog, the more  I knit.  Feet propped up, cold water within reach, watching HGTV and knitting.  Could be worse.  I’m kind of addicted to “Holmes on Homes.”  (What’s up with all the shady Canadian contractors, eh?)

Philip may be getting annoyed with Mike Holmes and his proper way of doing things because it’s costing him time and money.  We’re having built-in bookshelves put in our music room.  Nine foot beauties that run from one wall to another.  The thing is, they will permanently and forever cover up a heating vent on the floor and will cause an electronic thing to be removed from a corner of the room.

After countless episodes of Mike telling me how things should be done, I was insistent on finding out if we could just close the vent or if it needed to be rerouted or something.  So I made Phil leave messages for our HVAC guy to find out the deal.

Do you have “guys”?  Now that we own a home, we have guys.  HVAC guys, landscape guys, hardscape guys, a wood guy, a drywall guy and now a cabinet guy.  I’m planning on sticking their business cards in a binder labeled “Guys”.

Reminds me of when Bip was a baby and we had this shadow box thing of mini Korean theater masks hanging in the hallway.  We passed by it every time we went into the bedroom.  He liked them a lot and when he started talking, he’d point at them and say, “Heh!  Guys!”

What was I saying?  Oh yeah, the HVAC guy.

So Kevin, the HVAC guy informed us that the easiest and cheapest solution to the soon to be unusable floor vent was to have the cabinet guy just cover it with a piece of sheet metal.  This would be fine and not cause the shelves to heat up and burst into flame, or need to be torn down at a time in the not too distant future to get at the vent and close it off properly.

Then there’s this electronic thingy mounted into the corner of the room.  The corner which will soon be covered by the bookshelves, of course.  Phil has dismantled it so now it is just a couple of wires hanging down, attached to a tiny little computer looking panel. He says he can just cut the wires, tape the ends, shove them into the hole in the wall and call it a day.  And you know, it’s not that I don’t trust him, but yeah, I don’t trust him.  Why does the Talking Heads song “Burning Down the House” keep running through my head?

So I’m making him at the very least, call a handyman and have him come over and advise.

He’ll probably cut the wires, tape the ends and shove them back into the hole.

So, my whole entire point of this blog post is that it’s been rather hot, so I’ve been propping up my feet, watching HGTV, filling my head with construction horror stories and knitting.  Knitting funny hats for our new baby, to be exact.

Did I tell you we’re having a boy?

Well, arriving as he will, at the end of October, he’ll need a pumpkin hat.  I’ve actually made 2 of them this summer, a newborn size and a toddler size for our friend Sam in DC.  Here they both are, with Bip’s big-boy pumpkin hat for scale.

And since we live in Colorado, he’ll need some sort of hat for the first 8 months of his life, so I made him a Sweet Pea hat.

And a funny stocking cap for Christmas time, so he’ll look like a right jolly ol’ elf.  My model here is Amy, our Bitty Baby.  The hat still needs a ginormous pompom at the end to pull off the look.

So, in review: heat, Holmes, guys!, hats. Questions?

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Final Batch

Well, final batch for now.

This little cupcake really isn’t so little, but it’s tasty looking and really cute!

I used good ol’ Red Heart Super Saver white for the cake and Berrocco Plush for the frosting. The pattern is available here for free: Cupcake.  I made some changes to the original pattern, but my notes are downstairs and I’m too lazy to go get them.  If you’re interested, let me know in the comments and I’ll post them. (The cupcake is knit, not crochet.)

Next up is a strawberry ice cream cone!

Another free pattern from the same designer as the cupcake:  Ice Cream Cone. It’s important to note that there is no hook size listed, but I ended up using a G.  If you’re going to make this, I suggest getting the Starbucks sample cup that goes in the base first so you can check the size of the cone as you go.  I had to add more height to my cone to make it fit.   I don’t think I even wrote down what I did exactly, but if you need help, let me know and I’ll walk you through it.

And continuing with our theme of pink  food, here is a frosted donut.  Mmm…donut!

Another free pattern, of course:  Donut. It’s supposed to be a pincushion, but I left off the sprinkles/pins so it can be a toy instead.  Maybe I’ll make myself one for my sewing basket.

One more from the designer of the ice cream cone and cupcake, it’s a Bakewell Tart.

I’d never heard of a Bakewell Tart, but it was too cute not to make.  Here’s the pattern (scroll down past the kitties):  Crochet Bakewell Tart. And click over here to find out all about these little goodies:  Bakewell Tart.  No modifications on this one.  It did have to wait a while to be stuffed while I figured out what to use on the bottom to give it structure.  In the end I used a clean fast-food drink lid, cut down to size.  I also taped over the straw slit so it wouldn’t be an issue later.  Oh wait!  I didn’t use a button for the cherry (?) on top.  Instead I crocheted 4 single crochets in a loop and sewed it to the top before stuffing.

Ok, so that does it for now on my toy food.  Quick, easy and portable plus using cheap yarn makes them affordable and gives you a ton of left-over yarn for the inevitable requests that you make them for friends.   Personally, I love the instant gratification that comes from a finished product after only a couple hours of work.  As opposed to that sock that stares at me accusingly from its’ project bag.

The rest of my craft projects can be found under the category Getting Crafty.  That’ll give you the first part of each post.  To read the whole thing and see the pictures, just click the title of each post.

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About the Bear

He was a hairy bear, he was a scary bear.

(Ha! Did you see what I just did?  I described him with adjectives!)

The children and I had been at the park across the street and on our way home I saw that bear investigating our neighbor’s tree.  He was three houses from ours, so he wasn’t exactly between us and safety. Still, he was cause for concern.

We stayed on the park side of the street and as we came directly across from him, I waved and said, “Hi!”.  I was hoping to install a “friends, not food” attitude in him.  Well, he took one look at us and took off behind the house.  Before we reached home, we saw him re-emerge from behind another house about two doors down from ours on the other side.  He crossed the street and disappeared behind those houses.

Once  home, I did a little bear safety research.  Turns out that I did the exact right thing in waving my arms and making noise.  That’s when I found out that bears can open lever-handled doors and get in windows.  But generally, they’ll only do that if they smell food, but not humans.

Tami Nomad asked me what to do if a hairy, scary bear is lurking around your door. Beats me!  There are lots of things to do to make your home less inviting to bears, mainly keeping your garbage out of reach, keeping pet food inside, and cleaning your grill clean.  If they don’t smell it, they won’t bother you.

At least in theory.

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More Tasty Treats

I just can’t seem to stop making these tasty treats!  Do you think it counts as my daily dose of fiber?

First up – a lopsided apple.  I don’t know why it’s lopsided, but Bip doesn’t seem to notice and he’s the one who asked me to make it.

And now, some cherry tomatoes on the vine –

These were requested by Pumpkin Girl who eats cherry tomatoes like chips.

Now for the far less healthy food. Like an ice cream sandwich –

Yum!! Ice cream sandwiches are like my most favorite things ever.  Too bad I’m lactose intolerant.

I’m also a fan of chocolate cake.

In real life, this is about the biggest, fattest, tastiest looking piece of cake you could wish for.

These projects came from the book Tasty Crochet.  Love this book!! Out of 33 patterns, I want to make 32 of them, which is pretty rare for any kind of pattern or craft book.  At least for me.  You just need basic crochet skills and there is a small glossary in the back if you’re like me and can’t remember how to double crochet from one project to the next.  The crochet instructions are clear, though a couple of times the assembly instructions made me scratch my head.  But if you look at the picture of the finished project, you can figure out what to do.

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Mountain Lions, Coyotes and Bears…

We’ve been living in Colorado for one year now, can you believe it?  It’s a little different, living  in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, especially for someone who grew up near the ocean.

Here are some of the things we’ve learned this year:

1.  Do not leave your trash cans out on the curb the night before pick-up or bears will get into them.

2.  Only mountain newbies forget to drag the trashcans back to the house after trash pick-up and leave them out over night.  Bears will check to make sure they are really empty.

3.  Don’t forget to close your garage door at night, especially if you have a chest freezer full of deer meat.  Bears will get at your freezer and steal your meat.  This happened to a neighbor.

4.  The police are very reluctant to come and assist with the removal of a bear eating deer meat in your tree.

5.  That lovely rubbed-oil lever-handled door knob you just installed in your back door?  Bears can open it to get at the kitty treats inside.  And by kitty treats, I mean the actual cats.  Keep yer backdoor locked, ya flatlander!

6.  The dry creek behind the house is not actually dry and is a great attractor of wildlife.  Like a spotted fawn and it’s mother…

and a raccoon out late at dawn and needing a nap.

7.  Where there are deer, there are mountain lions.

8.  Did I mention the bears? Here’s one at our neighbor’s house a couple of months ago.

9.  The dogs we hear howling at night sometimes are not dogs.  They are coyotes.  They live in the bluff across the street.  This one:

All these wildlife spottings have sparked this daily conversation in our house:

Boo: I’m going to get the mail.

Pumpkin Girl and Bip, without hint of irony, sarcasm or emotion: Don’t get eaten by bears!

That’s love, right there.

—–

This post was brought to you by Mittens the Cat, who wants to remind you to keep your lever-handled doors locked.

Cats are friends, not food.

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Quick Crochet Projects

We finally got our a/c units put in last week.  What a difference!  We put a spot cooling a/c into each of the upstairs bedrooms and they each have their own remotes to control temperature and fan settings.   The bedrooms are now comfortable retreats while the rest of the house is easily cooled by ceiling fans and open windows.

I’m not doing much blogging lately because with the warmer weather and my growing belly, my feet start to swell if I sit too long without propping them up.  Nothing to worry about, just need to keep them up.  So I’ve actually gotten more fiber crafting done lately.  I dug through my patterns and cheap, acrylic yarn and made a bunch of little projects.

These little guys are kitchen scrubbies, made with the cheapest, scratchiest acrylic yarn I had.   Nothing wrong with inexpensive, acrylic – it can be wonderfully soft and easy to care for,  but normally I only use the extra-cheap stuff for kids crafts.  And when it comes to dish scrubbies, the cheaper and scratchier, the better.  These are really easy to make and they work great at scrubbing the dishes.  The pattern is free and can be found here: Spiral Scrubbies.

I also made these tasty treats –

Oreo Cookies!!! At first glance these actually look real and then you feel let down because they are just yarn.  Good thing there aren’t any real Oreo’s in the cupboard or the fake ones could incite a riot of Oreo bingeing.  But they are incredibly easy and fast to make, too.  I used whatever white acrylic yarn I had stashed away but I had to go out and buy the brown.  I went to Michaels because I kept seeing or hearing ads about their new, expanded yarn department.  Well, apparently by “new and expanded” they mean “greatly reduced, with many of their long-time brands, colors and yarn weights gone.”  Not impressed at all.  I did however, find the brown I needed, so all was not lost.  At least I no longer need to travel to a different state to get to my closest Michaels.

Anyway, back to the crochet cookies.  That pattern is also free and can be found here:  Crochet Oreo Cookies.

I’ve got other tasty treats that are mostly finished, but are waiting for the perfect plastic base and/or to be stuffed.  The fiberfill is w-a-y down in the basement, so hopefully I can make it down there soon.  I’ll post pictures when I finally do finish.

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Recovery Mode

We went on a cruise last week, did you miss me?  My in-laws decided to take their three children and their families on vacation with them, so off we went, all 14 of us.  It was a good vacation, even if we went to the Mexican Riviera in the summer and my sister-in-law looked at my belly and asked if I was having twins.

Here’s me and my belly with my two oldest children in Cabo San Lucas.

Boo had a spectacularly good time since he stayed in a stateroom with his two uncles and his boy cousin, who is also 11 years old.  We dubbed their room, “The Man Cave”.  I felt sorry for their female room attendant.

Pumpkin Girl was thrilled to have a rock climbing wall on board. She even entered the children’s rock climbing contest and came in 4th – behind three 11 year old girls! Here she is, on her way to the top:

During our days in port, Bip went to the kids’ club.  It was actually his choice and it seemed a little strange to leave him behind while we went ashore, but it was a good decision.  It was hot and humid and all we did was walk and shop.  He would have hated it!  Instead, he got to play games and have fun and eat pizza for lunch.

But now we’re home and in recovery mode.  Laundry is done and suitcases are put away, now we’re trying to get back to normal.  Ballet classes have started back up again and I seriously need to see about getting some school done.

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Oops, I Did It Again

Do you know what the temperature is at the weather station just two blocks from my house?

100.6 F

Yeah, baby.

Though the official city temp right  is 96.  So now who’s all smug about living in the foothills with the view and the woods and the creek, and not on the other side of I-25, which is the hot and dry plains.

Did I mention I don’t have air conditioning?

Did I mention I’m pregnant?

Yeah.  Yay me!

It’s a well established, scientific fact that where ever I live will experience immediate, catastrophic and record breaking heat.  If I’m pregnant, it’s even worse.

So here I sit, sweating it out, feeling slightly nauseated and cursing the day we moved into Pioneer House.  Really – who doesn’t have air conditioning in this day and age?

I closed all the windows at 8:45 this  morning in a vain attempt to keep the cold night air in.  I banned all use of the oven or the stove until the situation gets better.  I’m willing to slip the a/c guy an extra $2000 in cash under the table if he’ll move us up to the top of his two week waiting list.

I can’t believe I did it again.

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Thoughts in My Brain

Just some random thoughts since I can’t seem to put enough together to make a whole post.

*Being pregnant with your fifth at age 40 is much different than being pregnant with your first at 28.  Though I think it has less to do with my age and more to do with the current batch of children who need to be schooled, fed and chauffeured.

*We tried to determine the gender of the baby today.  We saw two arms, two legs, a face, a two-hemisphered brain and could even count fingers and toes.  Baby even waved happily at us…and kept his or her little ankles crossed.  We poked and prodded, but that little one would not give up his/her secret.  I’m not quite 18 weeks yet, so it was a long shot, but now it’ll be another 4 weeks until my next appointment.

*Is it possible for cats to be moody? Not just normal cat aloofness, either.  I mean like, being all, “love me, love me, scratch my head, give treats, love me…”, purring just at the sight of you, weaving in and out of your legs one week, then all walking away as you get close and giving you the stink eye the next week?  Our still-not-spayed mama cat is like that.  Could she be hormonal?  We do plan on getting her fixed, we just want to give her time to adapt to being taken away from the only home she’s ever known.  You know, before subjecting her to major surgery.

*Speaking of cats, I found the perfect way for Pumpkin Girl to keep her room clean!  The cats live in her room.  Their food and litter is in the bathroom across the hall, but they spend most of their time with her.  She reads aloud to them and cuddles them and pampers them like the little goddesses they think they are.  Plus she has a giant window seat in her room where they can perch and look down upon humanity.  Anyhoo, as a result, her room gets a little furry.  So every other day she has to clean everything off of her floor and vacuum.  Plus, she is learning that anything that she leaves out is fair game for the cats to attack, scratch or nibble.  I’ve never seen her room look so good for so long!

*I’ve never seen an episode of “Lost”.   I didn’t care for “24”.  Thus, my life continues as normal this week.

*I downloaded a bunch of ’80s songs on iTunes, and then rediscovered my CDs.  I already owned most of those songs.

*Phil was complaining that he’d put on some weight (bringing him out of the “skinny” category and into “normal”).  Pumpkin Girl blithely told him, “Don’t worry, Daddy.  Everyone gets a little winter blubber.”

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