Category: Fun

Before Shot of Our Bathroom

Marie Haigh9 Comments

It didn’t always look like this. Dan and my MIL will vouch for me. The floor was in tact during the holidays.

Two days after Christmas, I noticed that the floor felt funny, like it was squishy. Once the guests all left, Dan peeled a small section of the vinyl floor up. Sure enough, the wood floor underneath the vinyl was sopping wet. At first we couldn’t figure out what was causing the leak until Dan went downstairs in the basement and punched a small hole in the ceiling. It didn’t take long to realize that every time we flushed the toilet, water leaked down from the bathroom floor.

A quick call to the plumber fixed the problem: a crack in the wax seal.

On New Year’s Day, Dan ripped up all the vinyl floor that had been ruined from the leak.

Isn’t it lovely? groan.

Part of the subfloor needs to be fixed, specifically the section around the base of the toilet. The entire bathroom will need a new flooring, since the vinyl can’t stay like this. So we are going to use this leak as an excuse to remodel the bathroom with a new paint job, new wall cabinets, smaller vanity, tile flooring, a ventilator fan, and perhaps new lighting.

The tile that wraps around the entire bathroom will stay as is though. It’s in perfect condition and I like blue. Besides, why fix what isn’t broken?

The good news is that one of my neighbors is a contractor. I know he does good work, because he’s built our shed, the back porch, the front porch, and goodness knows what else.

Tomorrow if the weather is better (it’s raining now), I’ll head down to our local flooring store to pick out tiles. Dan is letting me choose which colors will go on the floors and the walls. He admitted to me that if it was his choice he would pick white or off-white. I don’t know how he can stand living with me. I adore color!

Warm Wishes and Unveiling of Presents

Marie Haigh8 Comments

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Day and a Happy Holidays the whole week long.

Mine was lovely, filled with food, friends, family, presents, and spiced drinks. What more can you ask for?

To start the holidays off right, I received a package filled to the brim with ornaments a few days before Christmas. 

They were handmade by Kelly Marie of Ellaluna. All of them were rapidly placed on the tree except for the lavender sachet (first ornament from the left). The sachet was dropped into my fiber stash; one can never have too many.

Yesterday was our first day of complete relaxation and as luck would have it, I woke up with a sore throat and head cold. Thankfully, I was able to spend the entire day in my pajamas. It was so nice.

Now that Christmas is over (well, almost over. Dan and I do swap one more present on 3 Kings Day), I can finally show you what I got my MIL.

It is a knitting needle case with an entire collection of double pointed needles.

I followed the basic design of the needle cases I own and just appliqued the numbers on. It was fun and easy to do.

In return, she spoiled me rotten: 1 pair of handknit socks, 1 pair of handknit slippers, 2 handknit bags, a handknit vest, a yarn cone holder, and the latest knitting book from Nicky Epstein, Knitting on Top of the World.

The Tigger didn’t come from my MIL. I have Tim, her sweet husband, to thank for him.

To think, I was just starting to cave to the sock craze and wishing I had the time to knit myself a pair of socks. MIL to the rescue! Instead, I can focus all my attention on designing something for the twin babies Dan’s uncle and aunt are expecting. Woo.

O Christmas Tree

Marie Haigh8 Comments

Guess what we did this weekend?

Here’s a hint.

We bought a real tree in the morning. It was only after we got it home and into the front room that we realized it was a bit too large for the space.
They always look smaller at the tree lot. Why is that?

Then, we spent the entire afternoon decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music.

Do you recognize the tree skirt?
This is the first year we get to use it. It fits the tree perfectly.

It wasn’t just the tree in the front room we decorated, we also decorated the shed tree.

If you’re counting, that is 3 trees decorated with one more to go.

Christmas Meme

Marie Haigh5 Comments

I stole this meme from Throws Like A Girl.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?Both. Some things are just not wrappable. Plus, handmade items are typically placed in decorated shirt boxes; you know the ones you don’t have to wrap.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Both. The fake tree goes up right after Thanksgiving Day or slightly before. The real tree is purchased approximately 2 weeks before Christmas Day. Plus, we decorate two trees outside in our yard.

3. Why are you willing to answer these questions? Memes rule.

4. When do you take the tree down? Shortly after 3 Kings Day, but never before.

5. Do you like eggnog? Love it! I make my own every year. For those of you who do hate it, know that you have never really tried it until you taste homemade eggnog. It tastes nothing like the store-bought-liquid-brick.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I’ll have to go with my first boom box.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Uncle Willie. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even try anymore. I just bake him something homemade.

8. Easiest person to buy for? My MIL. I think she would say the same about me. Being both knitters and fiber lovers, we just buy each other what we would want.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No, but then we have very few Christmas decorations outside of the 4 trees that we decorate.

10. Do you send your card by mail or e-mail? Mail. E-mail doesn’t count.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? It wasn’t the worst, but I was disappointed. One year, I had begged Dan to buy me a stand-alone mixer. He refused, saying it would ruin his reputation as a good husband. Husbands are not supposed to buy their wives kitchen appliances for Christmas, he said. Yet, under the tree on Christmas morning was just the right sized box. I was so excited. I tore the paper off only to find something that wasn’t my mixer: foot warmers. I love those foot warmers; I still use to this day. Still I was disappointed and told him so. Things have changed, last year I received the rice cooker I had asked for. Dan learned his lesson.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? When I was young, I loved Miracle on 34th Street, the original. Now that I’m older, I prefer the original Grinch.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October 1st with the goal of completing all my shopping by December 1st.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Oh, yes.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies!

16. Lights on the tree? Of course! Several strands go on each tree. Lights are not something to be stingy with.

17. Favorite Christmas song? I think it changes every year. This year, I love I Saw Three Ships.

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? Always home with the quick jaunts to nearby relatives. We went away one year and swore we would never do that again. We missed everybody.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s? You know Dasher and Dancer, Comet and Cupid. Donner and Blitzen … apparently not.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angels sit on top of both the inside trees. Nothing tops the outside trees.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both. Plus, we save one present to exchange on 3 Kings Day. Oh, does exchanging gifts with friends the weekend before count?

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? I can’t park in my “usual” spots at the grocery store or the mall.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Blue.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Smoked ham with molasses smothered on it

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?Little bits and bobs that I can decorate the home with: pictures, clocks, nic-nacs, fabric, ribbon, ugly angels, etc. or chocolate. Chocolate is always good.

Feel free to steal this meme. I’d love to read about your Christmas traditions.

World Series Wager

Marie Haigh5 Comments

As you know, my beloved Phillies are in the World Series. I have loved and hated this team ever since high school, which is a good many years ago.

I am confident that my Phillies will win the Series. So confident that I gladly agreed to make a wager with a fellow blogger, Tracie of Fibers by Tracie.

Though I have never met Tracie, I have long regarded her as a friend. I have been reading her blog for over a year now and have come to know her well. I came across her blog on the day that she resigned from her day job and decided to devote her time and energy into becoming a crochet designer. We have shared tips, tricks, what-not-to-dos, and encouraging words.

I am sad to say that Tracie is rooting for the wrong team in the World Series. So, she lives in Florida. That is not a good enough excuse to root for the Tampa Bay Rays. Everybody should be rooting for my boys.

The past few days I have been leaving ‘Go Phillies’ comments on her blog and she has reciprocated with leaving ‘Go Rays’ on my blog. Grrr. So, a wager was set.

If the Phillies win, which of course they are going to, Tracie will display the Phillies logo prominently on her blog’s sidebar.

Should pigs fly and the Rays actually win, I am obligated to post the Rays logo on my blog. The logo will remain up for one month. A stomach-churning thought that is. Let’s not think about that. My boys are going to win – by gosh!

Knitters at a Brewfest

Marie Haigh6 Comments

On Saturday, I attended a brewfest at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

This is a picture of the mural that was in the World Cafe. It reminded me of the Tree of Life in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

It was an Oktoberfest, featuring nothing but German beers.

I made it my mission to try each and every Oktoberfest style beer. By the end of the afternoon, I had decided that the following were my top 3 favorites:

1. Beck’s Oktoberfest
2. Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest
3. And, of course, the classic: Spaten Oktoberfest

While waiting in line for the fest to start and while meandering through the tables of beer, I ran into two other knitters. Both picked me out as a knitter by my Ravelry buttons.  

The 1st knitter told me about a new knitting store that she found in Newtown, PA. I’d share a link to the store if I could find it, but no such luck. She said it was called Slipped Knot. Has anybody heard of it?

Edited to say that I found information on the new store. The name of the store is Slip Knot.

Slip Knot
3719 West Chester pike
Newton Square, Pennsylvania 19073
610-359-9070

The 2nd knitter, Trish (this time I got her name), mentioned that she attended the Phillies Stitch-n-Pitch for the past two years. It was she who had knit a Phillies baseball cap. Not only did I know exactly which hat she was talking about, I had featured it on my blog 2 years ago, I told her how I had searched for the cap this past year but didn’t see it. Trish explained that she had given it to her daughter to wear, but her daughter was sitting in the bleachers up above us. Next year, Trish vowed to keep the hat herself and at least wear it for a few minutes. I’ll be looking for it. It’s such a fabulous hat!

Speaking of baseball, my Phillies are going to the World Series to play the Tampa Bay Rays. It starts on Wednesday. I am SO excited!

Baseball and Jo’s Brooch

Marie Haigh5 Comments

Before I go on about baseball and brooches, I want to thank everyone for their kind and generous comments about my tree skirt. It really meant a lot to me. I’m thrilled that you like it. Dan had said the same thing, but he’s biased and can’t be trusted.

Speaking of not being able to trust Dan, last night he told me he felt in his gut that the Phils would win the National League playoff series. This is the same man who informs me at the beginning of each season which is his favorite player on the Phils. At the start of the next season, that player is no longer on the roster. It’s happened 3 years in a row. Patty (Pat Burrell) is his new favorite and wouldn’t you know Patty is a free agent at the end of this year. So, don’t you see? Dan jinxes the players. I won’t have him jinxing our playoff hopes. I just won’t.

We did win last night. Hamels pitched a great game. Lidge had us all on pins and needles in the 9th inning, but managed to pull out the win. Score: 3 to 1.

I don’t have any pictures of the game last night, because we weren’t there. We watched the game from home with Jake bouncing between us every time we cheered.

I do have pictures of the game we went to see on Saturday, Sept 27th though.

Dan and I traveled into New York to catch a Mets game.

Allow me to set the stage:

It was the 2nd to last game of the regular season.
The Mets were 2 games behind my Phillies for the NL East Division Championship.
If the Mets lost their game, the Phillies would clinch the title.

The Mets were playing the Marlins. Guess which team I was rooting for.

Rats. I don’t have my baseball cap on in this photo. Well, take my word for it; I wasn’t rooting for the Mets.

By the 8th inning, I found it hard to not root for the Mets. No, I didn’t want them to win the title. I wasn’t feeling that generous. Yet, I was just amazed by the performance put on by the Met’s ace, best starting pitcher in their line-up. Johan Santana was on fire! He pitched a shut-out game on a 3-day rest (typically a pitcher gets a 5-day rest for you non-baseball fans). It was just a splendid and awe-inspiring performance by a very talented baseball player. As Dan said, “It was a privilege to be able to watch a game like that in person”.

Of course, later that day, the Phills won their game, clinching the title anyway.
The next day, the Mets lost their game and with it their hopes to sneak into the playoffs on the Wild Card.

I normally don’t write that much about baseball on my blog, but these next few days I may have a hard time shutting up about it. We’re in the playoffs, baby!

Just so I don’t alienate the non-baseball fans, allow me to show off what I did with Jo’s brooches, Jo of Blissed Out – that is.

I quickly sewed up some tie-backs for the dining room curtains and pinned the brooch on it. I think it adds a bit of whimsy to the otherwise formal curtains. Since Jo only sent me the one brooch in my contest winnings, I snagged the last brooch from her Etsy store for the other tie-back.

A Birthday amongst the Olympics

Marie Haigh9 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I have been spending a lot of time in front of the TV watching the Olympics. From basketball to soccer to volleyball to swimming, it’s been thrilling to watch! Of course, more TV time means more dedicated spinning time. So much so that I made my wrist sore from all the spinning.

I finally got the wool off of my spindle.

This wool came from the brown Shetland pencil roving I purchased on Etsy from Serentity Sheep Woolens. I spun it on my Jenkins Turkish spindle. It’s about a fingering-weight yarn. After the Olympics, I plan to ply the two balls together and create a DK-weight, 2-ply yarn.

What I learned from spinning this wool:
I love to spin!
I really enjoy the drafting process.
I like the spindle to turn slowly, allowing me more drafting time.
I should not try to spin anything over .75 ounces on my spindle. It makes my wrist throb.

Thanks to my wrist hurting on Sunday, I didn’t spin a lot. But, I couldn’t resist playing with the Sunshine fleece I have to spin for the Ravelympics Fleece to Fencing event. The rules behind the event state that I have to spin yarn from a fleece and then knit something from the newly created yarn.

I am using the alpaca fleece that I purchased from North Star Alpacas. Though Maple did recommend washing the fleece first, I read from other spinners that the washing step could be postponed until after the locks were spun. Guess which option my lazy self chose?

Yep, I just grabbed a few locks and slowly drafted them into something resembling a pencil roving. Then, I threw it onto my spindle. I was nervous at first, treating the alpaca like it was fine china. Once I got over my silly fears, it went fine. The ends of the locks tended to be wispy. I spent some time just pulling the locks back apart and redrafting/rejoining them together. Next time, I plan to try a little bit of greasy lotion on my hands and see if that doesn’t help tame the fly-aways.

I won’t lie to you. My hands were dirty after spinning for just a short time, but I am washable. I’ll wash the small sample of yarn later today to remove any remaining dirt. Hopefully, the washing will help the yarn to bloom as well, making it softer and more lofty.

I mentioned a birthday in today’s title. It would be mine.

Dan surprised me with an Irish tin whistle this morning for my birthday.

Recently, I have been trying to learn how to play the recorder again. Though I was pretty good at it during my middle school years, I apparently forgot everything. I explained to Dan that my ultimate goal was to learn my favorite instrument in Irish music: the tin whistle. Isn’t he the best?

Phillies Stitch and Pitch Night plus a Tag

Marie Haigh6 Comments

Tuesday night was Phillies Stitch and Pitch night.

 

I went with Dan who was unfazed by the knitters uot numbering the casual fans. He was just happy to see a Phillies game from the Citizens Bank stadium.

We grabbed food and Victory Hop Devil (local beer) first. Then, we grabbed the Stitch and Pitch goody bags.

Yes, that is Cascade yarn. The color is from their ‘Heather’ line and is #9459. I was going to get a solid color of lime green, but Janet, the knitter sitting to the left of me, wanted it since it was her daughter’s favorite color. I didn’t really have a preference. As far as I could tell, there were no ugly colors in Cascade’s line.

Most knitters consider Cascade a fundamental wool yarn. Yet, I’ve never worked with it. My fundamental wool yarn is Briggs and Little, mainly because my MIL lives in Maine near the Canadian border. She tries to visit Briggs and Little’s mill at least once a year to stock back up.

During the game, I worked on my 5th i-cord for the Christmas Tree Skirt. It was the most idiot-proof project I could come up with. It allowed me to watch the game and clap for any great plays and/or players without being worried about losing my place.

I finished it.

The only downside to the night was the fact that we lost 2-8 to the Marlins. We should have lost 1-8 because Vicky’s (Shane Victorino) home run wasn’t really a home run. It was a foul ball. Soon instant replay will resolve such issues.

It stayed a close game till the last two innings. The most exciting moment of the game came in the 3rd inning. Moyer, our pitcher, was struggling a bit and had loaded the bases. He struck out Amezaga to get the 2nd out. Then, he struck out Johnson to close the inning. Back to back strikeouts from Moyer is a rare sight. He is known as a contact-pitcher, so it was fascinating and just good fun to watch him mow two boys down.

This week, I was tagged by two of my favorite bloggers: Jo of Blissed Out and Nancy of Nancy’s Arts, Crafts & Favorites. The tag rules are as follows:

1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

I’m no good at writing random things about myself. Last time I received a tag of this nature, I refused to answer it just because I couldn’t think of anything to write. This time, I figured I would make a half-hearted attempt. So, here goes.

1. I own three parasols. All of them were purchased at the PA Renaissance Faire. Though I just thought they were pretty when I purchased the first one six (?) years ago, I quickly came to realize that they were as functional as they were pretty. Two years ago, I visited Disney World with my sister’s family in the dead of summer. Hot and humid doesn’t begin to describe what the weather was. Suffocating and unforgiving would be a more accurate description. I carried my parasol with me everywhere.

By the end of the week, I was the only one who was not suffering from some degree of sunburn. Now I never leave the house without a parasol on a sunny day.

2. In the 7th grade, I received an award for reading the most Stephen King books. I was so proud.

3. William Stafford is my favorite poet. Jane Austin is my favorite author. I have read and reread all their books.

4. My favorite TV series is Murder She Wrote. I currently have them cued up on Netflix and am rewatching all 12 seasons.

5. I hate the beach. I don’t like the sand fleas, the salt in the water, or the sun. Yet, we try to visit the Jersey shore at least once every summer. We don’t go for the beach. We go for the boardwalk, the arcades and the good food.

5 out of 6 is good enough, right? Right.

Onto the tagging of blogs:
1. Ivana – an amazing designer
2. June– spinner extraordinaire
3. Susan – a fellow knitter in nearby NJ
4. Bellwether – who answered all my Turkish spindle questions
5. Tracie – a crochet designer, recently published
6. Sisters Anne and Martina – both knitters living many miles apart (Alaska and Georgia to be exact)

I tried to pick blogs that I recently found or have not tagged in many turns. I read about 90 blogs. It’s hard to pick just 6.

Happy Independence Day!

Marie Haigh7 Comments

I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating our country’s independence! (Unless of course, you don’t live in the States. Then, I just wish you an ordinary but still wonderful day. Grin.)

Dan and I leave for Tennessee tomorrow morning. His father and paternal grandparents live in a large house on a lake in Talbott, TN (little town outside of Knoxville). It should be a relaxing weekend, minus the 11-hour drive … for one of us. The other one will be knitting.

Have you ever seen the Lion Brand’s “So much yarn, so little time” tote bag? Huge, right? Mine is stuffed to the gills with knitting needles, yarn, roving, spindle, and notions. The plan is to finish knitting my Christmas tree skirt. I only have one white tie left to knit. If I can’t finish one tie in 22 hours, someone should take the pointy sticks away from me.

Speaking of my tree skirt, I started playing around with more ways to decorate it. I wanted the embellishment to be non-breakable, flat in dimension and durable, since presents will be stacked upon it year after year. Plus, it needs to withstand abuse from children, pets, and the stifling heat (or freezing cold temperatures) found in our attic.

What do you think?

As you can see, I dipped into my button stash.

PS. The cookies are lemon almond cookies (with a Hershey’s kiss inside), drizzled with white chocolate. Even Dan liked them.