quiet

almost TOO quiet.

Too hot and too tired to do much else but lie in 8 inches of kiddie pool water and let my boy pour water on my head.

So things have been neglected.

Things like knitting and cooking and therefore blogs.
And now with the onset of Heat Wave II: electric boogaloo, this seemed as good a time as any for a quick update.
There was, despite the neglect, a few strides made in the name of knitting progress.
Sleeve # two of the Elsebeth Lavold cardigan is now complete:


And what better way too pat myself on the back than with a quick Top Down Child Raglan?

(resting atop another neglected love of mine. Can you see the dust? Terrible.

What the hell is with me and this pattern? Is it somehow all a part of a master plan to create a tribe of children in matching though various sized hooded tunics, weilding heavy wooden clubs and sporting berry stained cheeks and mud streaked legs running wild through a post apocolyptic desert waiting for Mel Gibson to try to fly them out in a rusty shell of a futuristic flying machine?

Well, obviously.

On another note, check out CN8 (local Boston TV) on Tuesday at 7:00 PM for a live interview with my husband and several other people involved with the production of the first children's book he's illustrating.

Yeah, baby. T-to-the-V.

And this is what being a tourist looks like.



Complete with a trip to the Hip Clothing Store, H&M.

Because I'm the mom and I said so.

Long awaited reveal of the Vacation Knitting, reluctantly modeled by my suddenly vocal 2 year old...("no, sweater mama. NO SWEATER!")



Yes. I made him pose.

As you may notice, this is another example of my penchant for this top-down raglan from Knitting Pure and Simple (too lazy and slightly feverish so no link for you.)

Birthday party #2 was a raging and low-key success.


And I learned that children are suckers for stuff on sticks.
(see the long stabby rods of fruit below)
And green frosting.


This party's cake took the form of a yummy carrot bundt cake, with green cream cheese frosting, and matching vegan cupcake sidekicks, so noone was left out.

So that should about do it for the birthday shenanigans.

...for a while, anyway.

07/03/06

So there was a Party.

There was a lovely party at my mother's house with wonderful friends and family and swimming and sliding and running around like maniacs.

And then there was the CAKE.

A 3 foot high, 3 dimensional giraffe cake with buttercream frosting, chocolate spots and fruit leather ears, standing on a bed of green frosting and green shredded coconut.

Now you may wonder Why?
Or How?
Or What the hell is wrong with you people?

The truth is that we may be a little crazier than we had even knew.

And that my Step-Father is the kind of guy who says "Giraffe Cake? Great idea! I'll go out to the wood shop and build a wooden armature for it!"

And that my husband is the kind of guy who understands the physical make up of many creatures and can easily sketch them onto pieces of wood to be cut out and arranged properly.

And that I am the kind of gal who will spend many hours baking yummy dense and sticky yellow cakes and giant vats of butter and sugar and food coloring for enough frosting to cover a 3 foot giraffe cake and all it's wooden structural elements.

Combined we are a birthday force to be reckoned with, and who may have inadvertently ruined birthday-cakes-as-we-know-them for my 2 year old, who now has an exceptionally high bar for the rest of his birthdays.

Whoops.

Behold:
















Now I'm off to plan birthday party number 2 this weekend for our friends and family here.

Anybody have a wooden elephant skeleton kicking around??

How to pass time without knitting

Vacations are good.
Vacations in VT are very good.
Vacations in VT with 4 adults and 3 toddlers and 2 dogs for 1 week in a tiny, itsy cabin are better than you might think.

We spent the past week with some of our favorite people in the world here:



We were tough:


We were sneaky:


We ate watermelon:



(OK... we did some knitting, but took no real pictures so it will have to have a post all to itself in all it's finished glory)

We Kabobed some Shish:


And we were pirates:


And one night we stayed up too late and caught fireflies:




It was pretty spectacular



And then the boy turned 2.

And there was a party.

Oh was there ever...