Look at My Loot!

Depite the pouring rain today, we went to Word on the Street, an outdoor book and magazine festival, held downtown just outside the Central Library. For the first time ever, I was able to snag a book bag for the book bag treasure hunt. In the past, I've always gone too late to buy one of the 250 available bags to collect the treasure hunt freebies, but not this year. I can't believe what I've been missing all these years, because this is my loot collected from some of the participating exhibitors today--lots of bookmarks, pens, books, and magazines, of course, but also extra book bags, (including a knapsack), a kids DVD, a sampler music CD, and one of my faves, a loaded Starbucks card that came with the purchase of the treasure hunt bag!


The festival was super fun with lots of authors and interesting literary types to talk to and many book-related activities for the boys. It was just too bad that I couldn't collect from the entire list of participating exhibitors, but the book bag was still well worth the $18. The wind and rain, unfortunately and eventually, got a little too uncomfy for the boys. I was sensing the meltdowns coming on fast and furious from every direction, so we had to head for the car.


On the crafting front, I've been crocheting booties--just trying to get the design right to match my basic crochet hat design. (Crappy photo, I know.) Not only have I had requests, but I've got two nieces or nephews or one of each making their debut in April, 2008! Can't wait!

Hats to Finish

Tell me. So where is all the extra time to finish all my projects now that D is in Kindergarten full time? The custom orders are growing and I need to make more inventory for the store. And I don't even want to mention the UFOs all over the house! I finally managed to squeeze in some time to work on hats this morning, (my favourite time in the day to do so) after dropping D off to school and finishing dishes from last night's birthday celebration. (Our little R is now three!!!) But pretty soon, it will be time to get the panniers ready for work after lunch and play-doh time with R.


Here's R just outside the beautiful McGill Library in Burnaby from last week. Vancouver's civic strike is still on, so there are no libraries open in our city. It's hard to believe that it's been about 10 weeks now without our local libraries!

First Day of School

Looking a little unsure of what full-time school is going to be like, D will surely enjoy all the social aspects of what academic life has to offer. I'm thankful that he already knows many friends going to the same school, many of whom he already knows through preschool and/or other community activities. We're even trying to incorporate biking to school--at least one way anyways, to avoid using the van so much. I actually push R in the stroller while D rides now, but we'll hopefully all ride together in the future. In the meantime, I can't wait to continue more of this:


with only R hangin' out with me all day. Yes, I finally dusted the wheel off to try some of my Shetland wool. In two more days, gradual entry into Kindy will end and D will be in school all day!!!

2007 Summer Trip

Here's a brand new mosaic of our annual summer trip to Tofino and Saltspring Island. Go ahead and click on the mosaic image to enlarge. This year was special for we had arranged to go on the trip with my dearest childhood friend and her young family. We actually ended up having a family reunion of sorts with my friend's mother and sister's family joining us too! A fun time was had by all with many chances to "catch up" with one another's lives in between chasing all the toddlers and the pre-schooler. We stayed at the Clayoquot Field Station for one night and then moved over to the super kid-friendly Crystal Cove Beach Resort where we camped for three nights. To end our trip, we travelled to Saltspring Island to attend the renowned Saturday morning market and stay at the comfortable Wisteria Guest House.

Sadly, very little knitting or crocheting took place during our trip, (despite having brought more than one project with me) but I did get inspired to spin again after buying a bag of dyed fleece from Willowcrest Farm at artcraft. Too bad I did not have my drop spindle at that time.

The Relaxing Drop Spindle

After an emotional and exhausting month without time or motivation to post, I recently found something new and exciting to practise -- spinning yarn using a drop spindle. I have tried using a drop spindle once before in a beginner's spinning class at Birkeland Brothers, but failed dismally at it. But when the family went on the annual PNE outing this past weekend, I had the privilege of being shown how to use a drop spindle at the country store in the Safeway sponsored exhibit. Every year, I look forward to visiting this exhibit with the spinners, animals, petting zoo, and in particular, the country store where I admire and touch all the yummy sprinkle-dyed wool fibre by Shades of Narnia. Fortunately for me, the owner of Shades of Narnia happened to be working that afternoon and gave me the demo of spinning on a drop spindle. She made it look so easy and relaxing that I just had to buy the drop spindle/wool fibre kit. I got the hang of using the drop spindle fairly quickly at home, but really can't say that I've mastered thin, even singles on it quite yet. Here's what I have so far, and that's with a gazillion interruptions. Look at the pretty colors! Is it a coincidence that the yarn I'm spinning are my blog template colors???!?