Getting there

After a huge learning curve, I am on the way to getting my new blog how I want it. It has a very different look to this one, and I am having to abandon a couple of the widgets in my current sidebar, but I suspect that most people are here to read the posts rather than look at the stuff on the side! I like an uncluttered environment, so the new blog reflects that.

Wordpress successfully imported all the posts since I started blogging here back in April.

I am going to have to add my blogroll and knitting pattern links one by one, so that's going to take some time. I will leave this blog "live" for now.

Come and see me over at http://nicolaknits.wordpress.com

A new year, a new blog

Well, not really a new blog, but I am in the process of changing over to Wordpress. Reading a forum today reminded me of how crap Blogger is when you get a problem - it's impossible to get help and there's no way to contact a real person. I have had a dormant Wordpress blog for some time now and as someone was raving about how great their support staff are I thought it was time to change. Apparently it's easy to import all the blog posts from here into my new blog.

Of course, I'll have to set up the sidebar stuff again, but my techie son tells me he'll do it for me. So here I go, off to choose a fancy new template, etc. Wish me luck, and make a note on your computer that I'm going to be at

http://nicolaknits.wordpress.com

from now on, if all goes to plan.

Canadian Police Chase

I just heard about this on Ravelry today - it's hilarious!

Latest email jokes

My husband sent me these - I'm afraid I don't know where they came from, so can't give anyone the credit. The cartoons will look a bit bigger if you click on them.

Dove tree ornament

I had a nice surprise in the mail this morning. I received my dove tree ornament from Affectioknit. Teresa gave away 12 of these in a recent blog contest. My photo isn't very clear but the letter cubes threaded on the hanging cord spell PEACE.

We haven't been out to get a tree yet ....... maybe this weekend.

Grease

I watched an old classic this evening - Grease! It didn't disappoint! The video below is of the last song in the film, which you'll recognise if you've seen the movie.

The video above is a Lego stop animation of Summer Lovin' - just for a laugh.

New poll

I have a new poll over there in the sidebar. Please take a few seconds to vote.

December starts tomorrow. A month of many kinds of celebrating - in our home and extended family, we have 6 birthdays, our 21st wedding anniversary, our Solstice celebration and a company party (tubing at a ski resort).

Phew!

Blogging

I started a new thread in one of the forums in Ravelry today. I asked people what keeps them interested in reading a blog. This is what I like about a blog...

Regular and frequent posting. Chatty posts. Knitting content. Pictures. A picture of the person who’s posting so I know what they look like. Decent spelling and grammar!

I have an evolving list of blogs that I read. At the moment, there are probably about 25 on the list, but every now and then I will go through them and if I haven't seen anything new from a blog in weeks, I delete it. Also, if I find that the posts are uninteresting or uninspiring, I delete it too. What do YOU like in a blog?

I finished another small knitting project today but it's not something I can show you yet. I also made more progress on my Marble vest - I love it when the rows get shorter and shorter - it feels like I'm knitting faster! I'll have to get a photo of it tomorrow.

And I've been playing around with red and pink Elann Esprit tonight. The red yarn left over from the mother-in-law socks should be enough, when supplemented with the pink, to knit some yoga socks. What are yoga socks, you ask? They are socks without heels and toes, of course. I just googled it and found some here which look similar to the socks I plan to make. I started with a few rows of garter stitch in red, then changed to a red/pink checkerboard pattern (insert pause here while I artfully arrange work on keyboard and get a quick photo to show you)! It looks quite pretty but it's fiddly - after I started on the double pointed needles, I remembered that I was going to use two circs. It probably would have been easier.

I will finish tonight by asking myself why I'm spending so much time READING and TALKING about knitting when I could be KNITTING?!?!?!?!?!

Two links for you

Affectionknit is giving away some cute Dove of Peace tree ornaments on her blog....go leave a comment to win.

And Nan at Nannybird Crafts has a hilarious photo of a crocheted .... no, I'll let you go and look, but in her opinion it should come under the heading "What not to Crochet"! I can guarantee this is a one-off.

Have a laughter-filled day!

Catherine Tate having a Bond moment

Comic

Here's a knitting-related comic for those crafty people among you.

By the way, if you click on Next or Previous on that site, the other cartoons aren't about knitting - but they do have Questionable Content. You have been warned!

A foggy fall day

First thing this morning (before I was even out of bed) Tai Chi Man was outside appreciating the damp fog!


Minimal visibility.


Close up of walnut leaves.


A carpet of walnut leaves (there are still some walnuts under there that I didn't pick up in time - and they will be there until the spring now).

Which House character are you?

Which House character are you? For those who don't know, Hugh Laurie (yes, the British guy from "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" and "Jeeves and Wooster") plays a grizzled snarky doctor in a medical drama in the States.....with an American accent. We're hooked on this show, though as we don't have cable we have to rely on library DVDs to get our fix. Here's a fun quiz for you to try.

Which House Md Character are you? Your Result: Eric Foreman Congratulations, you're Dr. Eric Foreman. You're tough and smart. You don't take crap from anyone and are proud of who you are. You don't let House's remarks get to you much and you aren't afraid to do what you want most times.
Allison Cameron
Gregory House
Robert Chase
James Wilson
Lisa Cuddy
Which House Md Character are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Je vais mourir de honte!

I love that phrase! It means "I'm going to die of shame" in French. For a bit of fun, the boys and I have been reading Robert Munsch books from the library. We have been getting them as book/CD kits, so we listen to a page then I do a rough translation (my French is a little rusty), pointing out particular French words to them. In the book "Ma Mere Exagere" the boy is dying of shame on almost every page, thanks to his mother's behaviour at the mall.

Anyway, tonight I noticed that I, the queen of criticism when it comes to spelling mistakes, typos, grammatical errors, et al, made a mistake in one of the sidebar page elements. Oops! I have corrected it, and while I was at it I updated middle son's age, as he recently had a birthday.

For those who wish to email me rather than leave a comment on the blog, I have added a clickable link below my profile on the left which will automatically take you into your email program and insert my email address (a new gmail account that I have set up especially for the purpose). I hope this won't increase my spam! Kudos to my Computer Geek son for knowing the html code to type in to get this set up :-)

A couple of unrelated things...

This is what the "pizzas" looked like that Tai Chi Man and I had for dinner last night. (The boys had the usual yeasted pizza.)

It's just a tortilla topped with hummus, red onion, red bell pepper, yellow tomatoes (from our garden), black sundried olives (the only kind we like), oregano and olive oil.



And to completely change the subject, I wanted to show you how busy Tai Chi Man was on Sunday. When I arrived home at 11am from my weekend retreat, he had been blowing and washing all the debris off the driveway. About 4 hours were then spent coating the driveway with a (water-based) sealer. It looks like new!


His old running shoes were ruined!

Last word before the weekend

I leave in about an hour for the cabin in the hills where I will be spending the next two nights. Most of my stuff is loaded in the car, the ratatouille which will feed the husband tonight and tomorrow is simmering away on the stove, and the kids are looking forward to me being gone so they don't have to listen to my nagging for a while!

I did the weekly shop this morning - three stores, about 15 bags of groceries! All is tucked away in pantry and fridge, awaiting hungry vultures...er, menfolk.

Back Sunday....

New profile pic

You may have noticed that I have a new photo on my homepage. I thought it was time for an update, so the boys took a few photos of me knitting on my scarf....while wearing it. This Lion Brand Homespun scarf feels SO soft and warm, there's no way I'm giving this one away! This one's for me.

I asked them to pick the best of the bunch and here it is. I'm also using the same picture on my Ravelry profile.

Midlife crisis? Me?

I thought some of you who are at THAT time of life might be interested in a newsletter that I just signed up for. Here's a sentence from my first newsletter that explains it...

Tips, tools, and treasures for leading edge, midlife women who are ready to become their own fairy godmothers and give themselves permission to be there for themselves the way they always have been for others.

Sounds interesting, huh! Check it out here: Midlife Fairy Godmothers.com

I love it

Thanks to Nannybird, I now have a new award in my sidebar. Thanks, Nan!

Today was the first day when I officially allowed myself some acid-forming foods. Tai Chi Man and I have done our month, with no cheating whatsoever, and I was really looking forward to some fruit.

Breakfast was three peaches. Moderately acid-forming, according to the pH Miracle. Lunch and the main part of dinner were all alkalising, but I enjoyed another three peaches for dessert. I really don't want to live without fruit!

I did lose a little weight over the month and I'm happy about that.

This is cute

My husband sent me this link today which I think is so cute I wanted to share it with you. The camera-work is a little shaky, but this person must live on the edge of civilisation to have a mother moose and her twin babies in their backyard!