Come on over...

Hey, you all! I'm finally moving. Come on over to www.simplythatsillygirl.wordpress.com and check out my new digs. That's where I'll be from here on out. This blog will be left up only for archival purposes. Be sure to change your bookmarks and/or bloglines subscriptions. Thanks! :0)

Pumpkin patches and things I love

Okay, so later this morning, we're off to the pumpkin patch to get us a pumpkin! Mr. M loves pumpkins, the look of them, and so it should be fun.

Things I'm loving right now:

A slice of Jiffy cornbread cut in half with margarine slathered on each side and then melted. So. Good.

Britax Marathon carseat and Traveling Tikes - I got one of these carseats for Mr. M and have not once regretted how expensive it was. It has and continues to serve us very well (should last until he's 65lbs). We ordered one for S last week and I was so excited because I found the Traveling Tikes website where they had some on sale for $40 less than the regular price, plus free shipping! They had the best sale price I had seen and they had free shipping. I don't even think there was tax. It was such a blessing. I seriously recommend this carseat. I feel the kids are very safe in it and it's comfortable, too. Oh, and it looks nice! And for those who may wonder about ordering it online as opposed to getting it from an actual store - it was still cheaper due to the sale and the no shipping.

Martha Stewart Living - I had not truly appreciated the greatness that is this magazine until I started going through some picked up from a used bookstore for collages with the kids. As I flipped through them, I found so many great ideas and recipes that I found it hard to tear things out. Such a great magazine!

Vienna Teng - such a beautiful sound(though I've only listened to samples, she sounds incredible).


Have a wonderful weekend!

Some knitting!

I have been able to get some knitting done recently.

the debbie bliss cardigan - just needs to be seamed up and she's ready to go::my husband's sock - just turned the heel::a hat for S - not so sure on the colors, but it was from stash, so I'll be happy with it::my almost finished wall pocket

It's a dreary day here, which I love, love, love. Hope your Tuesday is what you want, too.

Blue is just a lively color...

This is a postcard for a family friend. I love how this turned out. I've been wanting to use the material on the outsides for a while, but it had to be the right project. And, truth be told, I was a bit afraid to cut into such pretty fabric. But it turned out well, I think.

There has been some knitting. As a matter of fact, I'm about to turn the heel on my husband's sock. I did that knitting on Saturday while in the van on a roadtrip to see my BIL play a football game.

I was also able to finish reading Morningside Heights by Cheryl Mendelson, author of Home Comforts, a book that is at the top of my list to add to my bookshelf, and I was really impressed with this book. Mendelson did an excellent job of weaving together the characters and their separate stories, talking about some of the characters professions and what they were working on (opera singer, pianist, science, psychoanalyst, writer, lawyer) without making a layperson feel completely inept, and I really loved how she would have a character rehash a conversation and while rehashing, would go from 3rd person to first and then back. I loved it. Now, it may be that only an English major would recognize that and appreciate it, but I did and I thought it was great. I think this is a book to put at the top of any to-read list you might have going.

I also recently read Prep by Curtis Sittefeld and I must say that I have mixed feelings. It was extremely well written and she had such an excellent grasp on the nuances of teen relatioships and friendships, and what private school(boarding school) education can be like. But, there was a bit too much of the angst and unsurity that I sometimes felt while a teenager for me to be able to finish it. I saw a bit of myself in the main character, but that wasn't the real problem. I just had this horrible sense that she was never going to figure things out, that she was never going to become comfortable in her own skin, that she would always feel she was a nonentity. And though I can be quite pessimistic at times, I have this irrational need for books and movies to end happily, or at least end satisfactorily. And I just didn't think this one would for me. So it put it down with about 100 pages left. Yes, I did read the last few chapters, but I don't want to give it away to anyone who might read it. I recommend it for excellent writing, but that's about it.

And I'm glad I can cross off a couple of books from my reading list.

On the verge...

We're on the verge of many things around here and that is pretty much why I haven't posted in a week. Here, let me lay it out there for you:

- S is teething
- S is about to stand (actually between the time I started this post and now, she is standing up for a few seconds on her own!)
- S is about to walk (she walked with me holding only one of her hands yesterday)
- S is babbling a lot and I think her first word is just around the corner (she kind of says momma)
- I can feel my first night of uninterrupted sleep in a month or so is coming very soon (actually happened last night)
- Mr. M is right on the verge of speaking and being understood. His pronounciation is getting better every day. He's currently working on the alphabet song.
- I'm almost ready to switch my blog over to a new blog I've created. I've been thinking for a while that my blog is no longer just about knitting, but also about crafting and sometimes motherhood; my blog title should reflect that.
- I'm in the process of setting up an etsy shop with the same name as my new blog. I know, you're probably wondering what have I made that I could sell. Well, I've been doing some work behind the scenes, trying to figure out what I can and can't do, if what I make is really creative and worth trying to sell, and trying to make sure I have enough ideas to put in the shop. I've come to the conclusion that I might be able to and it's worth a shot. So, I'm working on that.
- I'm about ready to decide how I want to save and print my blog. I'll let you know how I decide to do it.
- I'm also working on copy/pasting my blog entries over onto my new blog. I might just put a link on my new blog back to this blog for archival purposes.

Um, well, if that's not enough, I'm almost finished with S's sweater. The green is a bit more vibrant than the picture shows. I'm not sure about the yarn I'm using around the collar. We'll see.


I've also started making a wall pocket with this bulletin board. I love the bulletin board, but would really like to have some pockets on it, so I'm working on it. The bulletin board is half cork and half magnet and I hope to preserve those aspects once it's made into the wall pocket.



And we're right on the verge of autumn, which means switching out the summer sheets and comforter for the cold weather one's.



And, of note, we're into the first week of fasting for Ramadan. That gives me about three more weeks to figure out what I'm going to cook for Eid al Fitr at the end of Ramadan.

Oh, and I just have to say that all my college football teams OU, OSU, TU, and Arkansas won last week, and my high school football team, too. This hardly ever happens, so I was pretty excited. Oh, and my BIL's football team won as well, in a come from behind victory. Love it.

A gift...

Okay, I've got some things to share with you. First, here is a composition book bookcover that I made for a friend, who happens to read this blog.

Second, I did get some knitting done this weekend. I'm almost to the heel of my husband's sock. And I finished the body of S's sweater. Now I just need to knit the collar, but I think I might make some changes to it. We'll see. I'll show pictures of the progress tomorrow.

Third, there have been a couple pf recipes I've tried out recently and I think you'll really like them. First, I tried these pancakes a few weeks ago, and, honestly, they were the best pancakes I'd ever had. Of course my experience with pancakes is basically the Bisquick mix, so nothin' special there. But try them. I added blueberries instead of the bananas and made buttermilk by using regular milk and adding vinegar to it because I don't normally have buttermilk in my fridge. Also, I finally got around to trying these chocolate chip cookies that Crystal mentioned on her blog, and man are they good. They are the best choc.chip cookies I've ever made, even the one batch that got a little brown.

just a note...

So tomorrow is OU vs. OU. Of course I'm going to be a homer and pick Oklahoma, although they could easily lose. Go Sooners!

And this song by John Mayer, Waiting on the World to Change, sums up how I think a lot of my generation, including me, feels about what's going on in the world today. It's a bit like Marvin Gaye's Mercy, Mercy Me. I often feel so helpless, and it is so easy to just bury myself in my everyday; sometimes that seems easier, waiting on the world to change, because I feel we've come to such a sad state where we feel we can't do anything, that our protests will fall on deaf ears. Anyways, listen to it for a good song, but also listen because maybe it might just inspire you to not wait on the world to change, but, rather, be the change. Maybe one day I'll feel that way.

Knitting progress and some other crafts sometime over the weekend.