Scalliwags and Scarves

Our little scalliwags were here for a visit from Monday to Wednesday.  We all had a great time.  Munchie went out to play on his boat....

...where Poppa gave Grover a helping hand.  They put some sand into the boat, but there wasn't enough to play in.....and Munchie was happy just cruising around.  I think he decided that being a boat captain would be easier than that gardening career he had been considering.  Meanwhile, Little Smiley went trudging around the yard with Mommee....

....he's getting really good at that walking thing!  Later Poppa and Munchie headed into town to visit Great Gramma....

...OOPS!....I was a little late getting out to the driveway with the camera!  But - there they go in Poppa's big truck.  This gave Little Smiley a chance to play with the toys all by himself and to interact with Squeegie too!

A couple of cuties!  Soon it was Wednesday afternoon and it was time for me to change the toy room back into the parlour....

.........which took me a few minutes!  When I had everything back into its place I went looking for Poppa and found Squeegie relaxing on the patio.........

..........and Poppa had decided we should just go out for supper..........we were both worn out from having those active little boys with us..........but it seemed too quiet when they were gone.

The scarf project is off to a good start....so far Taffy has five participants lined up......Mommee, Auntie Colleen, Auntie Denise, Auntie Muffy and Gramma have all sent e-mails.  I have one scarf almost finished and am looking over my stash to start the second one.  I am having lots of fun - thanks to all of you!

End of Slippers: Beginning of Scarves

Well, I was right - Mommee took about two minutes to choose her slippers.  She chose this pair.....

........and put them on her feet immediately because the floor was cold in the computer area in the unfinished part of our basement - she is on the desktop because I am on the laptop!  Hee!  I call Mommee's pair "flower garden", they are natural and delicate like her.  And, of course this left one pair for Gramma.  That is this pair....

.....which I'll call "artsie flowers" in honour of Gramma's wonderful artistic abilities!  In case you haven't seen her artwork and would like to - visit her blog at lindamsart.blogspot.com

And, now that the slippers are finished it is time to move on.  The feature of the next giveaway will be scarves and anyone who is interested please e-mail Taffy.  Her e-mail address is taffy.robert@gmail.com

When you e-mail please indicate whether you are interested in fashion scarves for office and leisure wear, or if you prefer good old-fashioned warm scarves for Canadian winter neckware.  Taffy is looking forward to your e-mails!  Thanks for reading and for participating.  My stash is slowly shrinking and I would like to continue with the giveaways until it is depleted - your help in that direction is appreciated - not to mention - I enjoy the chance to knit!

Warm and Fuzzy

Auntie Denise has picked her slippers............they look like this...........

..........I think of this pair as Ice Cream Sundae............but with a taste of fuzzy.  I hope Auntie Denise finds them cozy and warm this winter!  Now it is Mommee's turn to pick..........and since she is here visiting - that shouldn't take too long!

Slippers are going!

The first two picks for slippers are finished.  Auntie Colleen was at the top of the list and she picked these:

Mommee kindly posed with them on to show them off to their best advantage.  Then Granny picked and she chose this pair:

Green is her favourite colour - so I wasn't surprised...and I think she will like them - they are quite soft and warm.  Now I have sent off the three remaining pictures to Auntie Denise...I'll keep you advised.

Rave Review

I sent the slipper pictures to Auntie Colleen and I have to admit I felt pretty happy when I read her e-mail this morning.....
"Wow!!! These are amazing. This is the hardest choice ever. I've spent untold time now trying to decide. Criminey. What a beautiful beautiful job you've done. Every time I pick a pair, there's another it breaks my heart to think of not having."


So to make a long story short - she has asked for extra time to make her choice.  Of course, after a review like that I said of course!  Hee!


Squeegie was more than happy lately when Poppa arrived home from the grocery store with a whole box of donut holes.........

.....he had been asking for these for weeks and was "over the moon" when he got them.  After chowing down about half of them, he went outside with Taffy to guard the tomato plants from any marauding groundhogs!

The tomato plants (and the little pepper plants in the first pot) are much larger now and have some little flowers on them - Hurray!  In the front yard I couldn't help but notice how much larger this little chinese tree had gotten.

This tree was just about two feet tall when we planted it last year and it is now taller than me!  And, it is so pretty and delicate.


So........scarves are next.........and I have started one while I await Auntie Colleen's decision on the slippers............more soon!

Slipper Giveaway

While Poppa is outside getting ready for Munchie and Little Smiley to come for a visit tomorrow....

..........I took a few minutes to finish off the last slipper for the giveaway.  I took them all upstairs for their photo shoot......

........and then I sent the pictures off to Auntie Colleen who is at the top of the list this time!  I'll let you know when I hear back from her.

The Big Reveal

Finally...here are the pictures of the finished room for our little boys.

This is taken from the doorway...and this is the other end....

Since these pictures I have added a little shelving unit at the end of the crib, to put a few little toys on.  And I think Munchie's bed needs a dust ruffle since the bedspread can't hang down because of the side rails - but other than that it is done!  What do you think?  Speaking of the little boys - they are coming for a visit on Monday!

I discovered another cute picture of Munchie helping Daddy to put some plants in their front flowerbed...

He did a fine job and got all the plants in place while the adults watched...

That's the neighbour from across the road (Mike) with Mommee and Poppa supervising Daddee and Munchie!  Speaking of flowerbeds...........Auntie Colleen's roses are also out and she sent this lovely picture.........

......which I think is beautiful, but she describes it much better.........
"I love this rose in our garden. To me, it is the love child of apricot and lemon."


My peonies are trying to compete.....

...with the lupins for my attention.....

..........but I think Poppa's front deck is also resplendent at this time of year.....

........I love summer!

Guess Where.....

...........Poppa and I went on Saturday????!!!  Here is a hint....

..........yep!  We went to Munchie's house.  As you can see, Munchie and Little Smiley got a pool.  Little Smiley isn't really that fond of the water, but Munchie still loves it!  We had a nice visit....those little boys keep everyone busy and on their toes!  Daddee barbequed some big juicy pork chops and Mommee steamed vegetable for supper on Saturday - it was sooo good.  Little Smiley enjoyed all of it...

...and Munchie did too.  He ate all his supper and then....

........he was so tired after his busy day that he curled up on his chair and went sound asleep.  Poppa and I stayed the night.  The next day was just as busy.  After a long walk to the playground Munchie decided he was tired of walking and looked for an alternative means of transportation....

...he started with his Elmo trike, but that seemed to require some expenditure of energy....

.........so he thought he would try his hot rod, but it needed air in the tires...........so..........

....so he finally settled on his electric car - which Daddee can operate with a remote control and Munchie could relax.  Meanwhile, Little Smiley had found his own method of getting from place to place....

on all fours!

While we were in Timmins, my roses came out........

........this beautiful big red one and.....

........and the pretty little yellow sweetheart roses too!

We have one more participant in the slipper giveaway........Auntie Denise has put her request in too!

Hello!

Whew - we've been quite busy running around and doing errands and getting people to appointments.  Finally - here I am with a few spare minutes!  We went up north to visit Aunt Muffy and Buddy.  Poppa loaded her summer tires into the back of Monster.

We stopped for gas in Gravenhurst - a lovely little town north of our place.

They build huge chairs there!  The gas there was about the same price as at home - and we grabbed an Egg McMuffin at the nearby McDonalds, and carried on northward bound.  The scenery on the trip was beautiful!

And eventually we arrived.  We met Aunt Muffy and Buddy and proceeded to a service center to get the tires installed for them.  I had a hard time getting Aunt Muffy to stand still for a photo....but, I did manage to sneak this one in the parking lot.

On the way back to Aunt Muffy's place we saw this critter...

After a nice visit with Aunt Muffy and Buddy, we made our way to the hotel and turned in - weary after a long drive and a big supper!  I checked out Aunt Muffy's little finches - she has a lot of them, and they are really cute - different colours and quite chirpy!  Their apartment is really nice - a large living room, large kitchen with dining area and even a laundry room!  But, I digress.  We had a good rest - the hotel was very quiet and we slept soundly.  Early next morning we stopped in to say Good-Bye to Aunt Muffy and headed south.  The scenery on the way home was equally spectacular.

Imagine spending weekends or summers in that little cottage on your very own island!  The whole drive was scenic and enjoyable - except that we ran into about 10 of these....

Long lines of stopped traffic - due to men working - yep - construction zones where the traffic was reduced to one lane on a two-lane highway - which meant delays of course.  However, the good side of that was the chance to finish a pair of socks while we drove along!  I guess that's the first pair for the next sock giveaway!  But - that'll be a while yet.  Meantime I have four people signed up for slippers; Gramma, Granny, Mommee and Auntie Colleen.  Anyone else interested?

Meantime - I bet you are wondering how Poppa finished off that room for the little boys.  Well here is the next stage.

A co-ordinating paper on the bottom and then some moulding to highlight the two patterns.  Then some border for the ceiling....

....move in some furniture.....

........we had a few more finishing touches before it was complete, but it was getting closer!  The final pictures will be in the next blog - since they're still on the camera right now!

Here are a couple of pictures from Munchie's last visit with us..........

.......Munchie tried on Poppa's slippers.........

........and Little Smiley tried out the Pooh rocker.  Oh my - they grow so quickly!

And finally..........here is an incredible picture from Uncle Shaun's camera.

Auntie Colleen says: "While Shaun was out walking, he had a sensation of being watched. So he looked around and look who he spied! She'd already spied him. She let him take photos and then a video. He was the one who walked on, not wanting to stress her. We wonder if she stayed because there was a baby nearby. Isn't she beautiful."  Indeed - she is!

All Done This Round

Munchie was here on the weekend, so I can finally show you some more of the work that Poppa did on the room for the little boys!  Remember he was measuring the wall?  Well once he had finished that, and we had visited Home Depot, then waited a few days...........and this was the first step (after painting the trim of course!).

And that completed the top half of the room!  Of course, Poppa finished the room before the little boys came to stay for the night -but I haven't got the rest of the pictures downloaded off the camera yet!  I also haven't downloaded any of the pictures of their visit - though I was too busy to get as many as I would have liked.

The sock giveaway came to a close while Mommee was here.  Auntie Denise has the second to last pick and then Mommee got the last pair.  Auntie Denise phoned and said let Mommee pick and she would be happy with the last pair.  So.........Mommee got these....

and Auntie Denise got this pair..........

..........I hope they are both happy with their socks!  As you can see, once again, the pairs are not perfectly matched due to variances in the sock yarn.  That's the risk of having socks made from my yarn stash!  But - it also makes for great conversations with your questioning friends about your socks not matching!  Have fun everyone - and thanks for participating!

I had a few conversations with Momme and Auntie Colleen and I'm hoping the outcome is a fairer process for choosing during giveaways!  I made a list of the people who opted into this last sock giveaway.  I started with those who came in after 6:30 as requested in the order they e-mailed Taffy.  Then I started again with the people who opted in at other times and added them to the list in the order they e-mailed Taffy.  At the end of this process I had a list of eight people.  And between the three of us we came up with this idea.  Since Gramma had first choice this time, she will move to the bottom of the list and the second person will move up to first place - get it?  This way everyone will have a chance for a first pick.  So, as soon as Taffy has received a confirming e-mail from anyone who is interested, I will e-mail the pictures to the person at the top of the list and the giveaway will be started. I will still e-mail all those on the list regarding the next giveaway so they are notified in time to confirm that they want a pick.  Does that make sense?  Now, the idea is for me to deplete my stash so I can start again with all nice new yarns!  So - the next giveaway will be for slippers.  Anyone who needs/wants a nice pair of warm, cozy handknit slippers, and is not fussy about texture or colour is cordially invited to sent Taffy an e-mail  (taffy.robert@gmail.com) to let her know.  I have one pair finished now, and I will make enough for a pair for each person who has notified Taffy by June 20th.

We are heading up north tomorrow to visit Auntie Muffy and deliver her summer tires - so I will be off-line for a couple of days....but I'll try to post once more before we leave and again as soon as we get back home!

Only Two Pairs to Go!

Auntie Colleen didn't take long to pick her favourite pair of the three pairs left.  She chose this pair.

A rather interesting pair that don't really look matched.  They did match - it is the results of the variegated yarn I used that gives them that un-matched look!  She'll like them, they're wonky.  It is a good job that some of you people like wonky, since a lot of these socks made from left over yarn turned out that way. The last two pictures have been sent to Auntie Denise for her perusal.  I really hope she likes at least one of them!