Happy Leap Day!

Leap day, leap day! Once every 4 years we get a leap day!
Today was a great day. My classes were great, I started the decreasing on my sock, and Hubby bought me candy! HA HA!
This week was really great and went really fast. It was bitter cold today, but the sun was shining. We got hit with a lot of snow on Tuesday night. Wednesday I went with a friend to get my ear pierced again. I love how it looks... it feels better today, but it hurt a bit the day I got it.
I've been trying to put together a new program for one student at school and it seems like that has taken a lot of my time. I have been relaxing this week however, with some serious time logged into Final Fantasy XII. I love it!! I bought it when I was in Japan last time and I haven't played too much, so this week I have been really playing it whenever I can! HA HA!
This weekend I have nothing planned and I plan on enjoying my no planned weekend! ^_^

Last Days of Vacation

My wonderful week long vacation is almost over. It has been a great week. I was treated to a night of skiing with my mom. I got together with friends for lunch. I bought some Silpada jewelry. AND, of course, I knit!

The past few days I have been working my tail off to get my house cleaned up and in order. I am such a messy person at home, and at school I'm all sorts of organized. It's odd how that works out. So, my parents' shelves in the basement have totally motivated me to get stuff put away. The problem has been finding homes for some of our stuff. I learned about organization boxes and have totally gotten on that bandwagon! I'm very pleased with how much I have accomplished here!

I finished my Market Squares bag and have used it a few times. Here it is while it was drying:I was telling myself that I needed to at least get to the toe decrease on my sock before I started this great little vest pattern... that didn't work out so well. Today, I am working on the sock to get to the decrease and my vest is on hold (yeah, right, like that's going to last....). I LOVE new patterns. They are exciting and new. I want to work on the new stuff because it's something different from what I've been doing! I love how my sock looks, and I really do want to finish this second pair of jitterbug socks!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, too many patterns, not enough time!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Today is my Nana's 83rd birthday! I called her to see what she is doing today. She already played golf (she said she was the worst of the bunch...) and she had plans for dinner. Her dinner plans have been cancelled due to a bout of flu that is going around. So, she's just relaxing and reading a nice book. Maybe her girlfriends are going to take her out insted. I hope that I'm as spry as her when I'm 83!!!!! Happy Birthday Nana!!

Sushi, Chinese Food, and Other Updates

Yesterday, I bought some sushi after the guild meeting so that Hubby could see if he liked it or not for our trip in Japan in August. I got some tuna, a tuna roll, a samon roll, and a crab roll for him to try. He eat all of it and said that he could eat it. It made me happy that he wants to try it, and he can eat it.
Then, he said that he had a taste for Chinese for dinner. Since it was Chinese New Year... well, we knew the New Year's menu would be great! It was so funny that while we were there we ran into my friend Monica and a few of the belly dancers! I was so suprised to see them!! Hubby and I had a great dinner and hopefuly the year of the rat will be a good one for us!
At the guild meeting, we made needle felted name tags. It was my first time to needle felt, and I am totally in love with it! It was easy, and fun! I admit I was nervous that I was going to stab myself with the needle, but no wounds! I made a funky name tag that I can now wear at guild meetings!
My parents came again today and we have more shelves! I love it!!! We now have shelves on two walls and a lot of our stuff is up and off the floor. I was so excited to get all my Christmas stuff in one place so I can get it out with ease next year! I even put together a box of Halloween stuff and got it on a shelve! Things are coming along nicly down in the basment!

Still Sick and Still Knitting!

Another day home sick = another day to sit and knit! I finished the bag!!! It's huge and amazing. Here it is:
I called my friend to see how to knit the i-cords at the same time. I got them started and now they are crusing along:
I also worked on my jitterbug sock:
I'm feeling a lot better tonight. My meds have kicked in and even though my Dr. said to stay out the rest of the week, I'm thinking I'm going back tomorrow (two days and then a week of vacaiton... I can handle it!). I love all the knitting I've gotten done, but I do miss my kiddos and tomorrow is Valentine's Day! It would be nice to do some fun projects with them for the special day! ^_^

Snowy Days and Home Sick

Yesterday we were blessed with a snow day (well, more like a "it's too cold to go out day", but whatever....). I was going to call in sick anyway, but luck was on my side, so I got a free day home and I was sick. Oh boy. However, there were benefits to this. Here is what I did all day: I'm three tiers away from the end of the bag! I am so in love with this project! I still need to do the handles, and my friend said that she'd show me how to do 2 i-cords at the same time to make it go faster. Since, I'm home sick today too, I think I can get it done today!!! That would be awesome!

On Sunday, my folks came up to help me with this:This loveliness, is my basement. What a mess!!! My parents have been come up to help me get my house in a clean and ordered shape. I've learned that if I want to clean it out right that sometimes that means making a bigger mess so that you can really see what all you have. So, to help me get in order, here is my dad building us some shelves along one of the walls down there:

My dad built us 8 feet of shelves so that my husband's train set would have a neat and ordered home (not the middle of the basement floor where it had been living!). Here it is now that the train set is all stored on our NEW shelves:It still looks a bit messy, but they are coming back this weekend to build another set of shelves, and another round of ordering our chaos. I'm really happy about all this becasue I can't spend a lot of time in the basement due to some servire allergies. My max time down there is about 10 minutes, so it's nice that they can come and help me. Mom has been the task master when they come and she gives me jobs so that I'll stay out of the basement (if she dosen't she knows I'll be down there trying to help anyway...).
Today, my plan is to call the doctor and knit. I was suppost to do a spinning demo for the foruth grade, but I called the teachers last night to let them know that it might not happen today. It looks like tomorrow is the day it will happen! I hope I can make it for that, becasue it's really something that I enjoy!

Crafty Updates

So I'm slowly progressing on my Market Squares bag! I've now finished the 6th row, so I have 9 more tiers to go! Here's how it looks now:I have a long way to go, but I am really enjoying this project! It's very rewarding and it looks great!
Today I thought I'd whip up something different! I pulled out my crocheting stuff, and whip up a wire beaded bracelet. It was so easy and took almost no time at all. Check it out:I used 26 gage balck wire, and misshaped red stone beads. It only had three rows to it. I got the pattern from Crochet with Wire by Nancie M. Wiseman. I found this book at the library on a whim and thought it would be something fun. This is the first project in the book, and it's wicked easy! There are some more advaced things in it and I'd like to try them at some point in the future (that may be tomorrow....).
I woke up with a bit of a cold today, so crafty stuff is as strenuous as today will get for me!

Some Cleaning Help

Today my parents came up today to help me with some cleaning up. I'm trying to get my house in order and nice and neat. We seem to have a lot of stuff, but it's not orginazed very well. I'm really good at putting things in piles, but not cleaning it and finding it a home. I admited to today that we have the space for our stuff, however I don't know how to utalize the space that I have. It was nice to have Mom here to help me. We also weeded some stuff out for a donation bag. My parents care planing to come up agian soon so that I really get a handle on everything messy here! ^_^

Can't Stop!

On Wednesday I went over to my friend's house to get another lesson on my Market Squares bag. She got me going on the second tier and showed me how to make the joins nice and pretty. I was so into it, that I'm now on tier four! I can't stop!!!! My hands are tired, but it looks so cool, and I want to get to tier five so I can see all my colors together. I was a little worried about my color choice when it was on tier three, but now that tier 4 is added, I'm so in love with how it looks. Check it out:Tier one is the blue, tier two is the green, three is the orange, and four is the red. Five is a dark blue/purple color. It should add nicely to the mix.

Hubby's Birthday

Yesterday was my Hubby's birthday. I got him a cake, a card, and a bottle of champaine that we enjoyed after a lovely dinner. His birthday gift was the Rascal Flatts tickets, so he had no gift to open.
Today it was freezing rain and now snow. It was not the best day to go out, but I didn't have any kids due to reginal scoring day at our distiric. I'm looking forward to a great weekend of knitting my market squares bag. I'm now on the third tier and I hope to get to the fourth one by tonight!