Yoga Family Gathering

Just a really quick post...

Today my yoga center had a New Year's Eve Gathering, a special 2-hour gathering where the room was filled (and I mean FILLED) with people, all doing yoga, singing together, releasing the old year and opening arms to the new one. And it wasn't just a yoga class...it was a gathering of friends, of our yoga community...of my yoga "family". I felt so blessed to be there, so special, so surrounded by familiar faces, as well as new ones. As I soaked in the experience, going through poses there in front of my favorite teachers, I felt very happy...and also a little sad. Sad for those that weren't there experiencing this, those that never go to a yoga class, those that don't get it, don't know why it's so special, those that weren't feeling this closeness and sense of community. I realized how lucky I am, just by going to a yoga class. And in my yoga prayers at the end of the class, I added a part that wished that all those out there who had never gone to a yoga class would get a chance to experience one and maybe, just maybe, feel what I had felt.

Om shanti. Namaste.

Merry Christmas (belated)

Okay, finally getting around to posting Christmas pictures. Don't really have time for lots of words, but I will try to put a few captions with the pictures. And yes, you will see duplicates on Maia's and Liam's blogs.

Liam and Maia are decorating the small Keepsake tree that goes in the family room. The ornaments are all keepsake ornaments that my mom gave to me each Christmas as I was growing up, plus a few for Liam, and now one for Maia.


Liam couldn't wait to decorate the big tree and got a head start with some of Maia's play rings, and a thumb drive.


Liam and Maia visit with Father Christmas, at our Barony's Toys For Tots Christmas event.


Liam finally gets to decorate the big tree.


Ready for Christmas Eve and it's festivities.




Early Christmas present (from Great Aunt Lisa)



Hanging candy canes on Sandy's tree (second year of doing this, so starting to become a tradition).


Jackie and Maia, having some girl-time, with drinks and girl-talk.


Maia, all tuckered out, in the arms of Great Aunt Susan.



CHRISTMAS MORNING! The kids are excited (although Maia really had no clue what was going on and was only excited because Liam was).



Liam is helping Maia to open the present that he picked out for her and helped to wrap. And then he showed her how to use it.




Maia's present to Liam - pirate-themed cookie cutters.


Liam got the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie from Mommy and Daddy...he was super thrilled.


THIS...was the pile of presents under my parents tree. Holy crap! Of course, there are 12 people's worth of presents under there (6 Ogbins, 3 husbands, 3 children). You can imagine the chaos that ensued. So I don't have a ton of pictures from the gift-opening.






Us girls all got together and got my mom the birthstone necklace she had wanted. I don't have a good picture of the necklace itself, since my mom is crying in them and probably wouldn't want me to post them...not that crying is bad...but she would probably say that she doesn't look good in them, so I decided against posting those.



This is a Snowman family picture that my Aunt Linda did. She did one for each member of her side of the family. This one is mine. I love it, especially because it's handmade (I like knitting, so I definitely appreciate the handmade gift).

But...you think that's nice?...

...check out my Grandmother's! Totally awesome! She had six children, almost all who had a number of children of their own, and those had some of their own as well. Children, Grandchildren, and Great Grandchildren.



And finally...our Christmas haul, sitting nicely under our tree. Not too shabby. Though I feel we have way too much stuff, especially given that there are people out there in the world starving to death, without homes or shelter, in need of medical attention, etc. So...I am very thankful for what I have...very...and I hope I remember to remember those out there who have far less. (FYI, I DO donate monthly to Doctors Without Borders, but maybe I should up the amount)

So very busy

Okay, it's been a LONG time since I have posted to any of my blogs (very beginning of December?). But I've been super busy. Not only has work been sucking up a lot of my time (been working overtime since November), but I have also been preparing for the Christmas holiday, which included knitting items for family members. I love knitting, but it does take a lot of time, and at the end there, I was sacrificing sleep (and all house chores) to get it done. (personal thanks to my husband for picking up the slack as much as he could on the house chores).

I am going to be posting several updates with regards to Christmas and my children, as I can get to them, now that I have breathing room.

But first, let me post pictures of the lovely gloves that I was knitting for my family members. I am so proud of them, and even prouder that I let them go (I almost kept some of them).

Here are all three of the gloves that I knit:

The dark blue ones on the left are for my aunt Lisa. She wanted gloves to match the scarf I made for her years ago. Her scarf was made out of acrylic Lionbrand Homespun, which I now find hard to knit with. So I found this yarn, which is a very close match in color and texture, but this yarn is 100% wool (Takhi Yarns, Tara Tweed, color 005, DL 025000).
The brilliant tropical blue flip-top fingerless gloves in the middle are for Sandy. She didn't like mittens because you can't use your fingers, but liked the idea of flip-tops, so I decided to surprise her with a pair. I was sorely tempted to keep these for myself. These were 100% Merino wool (Punta Yarns, Merisoft Handpainted, Color HP64, DL?)
The periwinkle gloves on the right are for Jackie. She bought me some lovely natural-colored alpaca yarn, so I wanted to thank her by making her something. She said she wanted something light blue to match her winter coat, but when I saw this periwinkle yarn staring back at me in Woolbearers, I couldn't help myself. Turns out her coat is actually periwinkle colored, not really light blue, so this worked out PERFECTLY. And it's made of baby alpaca, so it's super soft and awesome. And it has little strands of some sort of silvery sparkle stuff in it (stellina) that makes it SOOO pretty. I nearly kept the yarn for myself. (Woolbearers yarn, Baby Alpaca Glow, Color Lavender, DL: None)

Here is a close-up of me modeling Lisa's gloves. I attempted to make a raised pattern on the backs, reminiscent of argyle diamonds, but the variations in the yarn made it kind of hard to see.


These are Jackie's baby alpaca gloves. Those gold-ish patches on her index fingers and thumbs are actually patches of conductive thread that I sewed on, so that she can still use the gloves with her iPhone. I tried knitting the thread into the tips, but it wasn't all that conductive, so sewing was the best solution. It's still not as conductive as I would like, but it works. She can at least answer/make phone calls and check emails. Texting might be a bit hard, but it's the best I could do.


And finally, here are close-ups of the flip-tops for Sandy. They have all the warmth of a mitten, but the mitten top can flip back quickly to allow access to individual fingers for easy manipulation and quick iPhone usage. I made them tip-less, instead of just fingerless, so that the fingers would stay warmer...plus it's what Sandy likes more.

Happy Birthday Honey

Happy Birthday to my husband. He won't read this, but I am wishing him one all the same.

Love...thy name is baby alpaca

I have fallen in love...

I was at my local yarn shop for Knit Night, and took a break to look at the yarns to see if I could find anything for a gift I wanted to make, as well as anything that I really liked for myself. There's lots of good stuff there..THIS was no exception.



I touched it. That's what did it. I reach out only half-interested, letting my eyes slide over everything hanging on the wall, not really focusing on this one skein in particular...but then I felt it. OMG...SO SOFT! So fluffy and luscious. My eyes immediately snapped to it. It was so beautiful. Actually, it wasn't this colorway..it was one that was darker with more blues and purples. But this one called to me as well. All of them did, and it was sad there was only 5 colorways. I fondled them, and had to bring a skein back to the table with me to keep touching and looking at. And since I was actually looking for yarn for the gift I wanted to knit and the one pictured above works for what I wanted...I got the yarn, but not for me. Which is so sad, because I want it to be for me so badly. You see, as I have touched it more and looked at it, I have fallen seriously in love. It's 95% baby alpaca, with 5% stella, which is the slight silvery thread running through it that makes it glint and glisten. It reminds me of wintry snow in the sunlight, with shadows throwing in the light lavender and blue colors. The baby alpaca makes it so light and fluffy and soft...super soft. It's gorgeous. And I find myself not wanting to give it away. But, I've already gone back on one gift I was going to do and decided to make it for myself. It would be totally rude to do the same thing AGAIN. Wouldn't it? I mean, yeah, it wouldn't be my fault if I did...I mean, LOOK at that yarn...anyone would fall to its temptation. But...still...it would be low of me to do that...

I'll just have to suck it up, and hope that after many, many hours of working with it to turn it into something equally as beautiful and cozy, I can give it away. I MAY need someone there with me, though, to knock me out when I finish so that they can take it away and hide it until Christmas day, when it will be too late to steal it for myself.

Tree pickin'

Well we went out shopping on Black Friday. No no no, not to a store...we aren't THAT crazy. We followed our usual tradition of going to the local tree farm and picking out/tagging the tree we want. We will go back in a week or two to cut it down and put it up in our home.

Here is Maia in her "tanooki suit", waiting to go to the tree farm.


This is Liam's pick for a tree. I told him we needed something slightly bigger.


And here is Maia looking all cozy, starting at the trees.

Happy Thanksgiving

Pictures from the day. Sorry, don't actually have any pictures of the food or us enjoying the meal. In fact, I think all of these pictures have Maia in them. Oops.

A friend of my sister brought her baby over, so we just had to get the two of them together. Sophia is 3.5 months, Maia just turned 5 months...and they look the same size, don't they.


And Maia desperately wanted to grab that flower off of Sophia's head...she kept making a grab for it. Heh.



Aunt Sandy hanging with Maia.


Ahhhh....after a good dinner of sweet potatoes, Maia is kicking it back with some football, in her pajamas.


And the family picture we finally remembered to take at the end of the day, which is why Maia is in her pajamas instead of nice clothes. And as we were taking these pictures, she promptly threw up. We actually have a few pictures of her spewing, but I figured no one would want to see that here, so I will spare you. It's on Facebook if you really want to see it.

So darn busy

I am way behind on posting. Things have just been so busy (as they always are), and I never find time to post. And if I do, I don't tend to do it because I also usually have pictures I want to share and that takes time. But I am going to use the holiday weekend to try to get a few more things posted, mainly on the kids' blogs. Maia is now 7 months, so you need to check up on her pictures. And I should be posting more about Liam. There is just so much neat stuff going on with them every day, it's hard to just post every time it happens.
I also hope to post some pictures here of the stuff I have been knitting. But since some of them are intended as gifts and I never know who might actually be taking the time to read these posts (yeah I know, I am delusional...pretty much talking to myself most of the time), I want to hold off until after Christmas. But, I WILL post a picture here of Maia in the hat I whipped up for her really quick (you'll also see it on her blog). It's not my favorite project because it was so quick and rough (and I started it three times because the first two times my awesome idea had flaws and looked like crap), but Maia makes it look very cute.

Nature

Nature sure has been crazy lately. Beautiful, but crazy.

Here is some nature just two days before Halloween.




Yep, that's right. Snow. Snow a few days before Halloween. I don't think I remember having snow in October before.

And then just a few days later, the weather was lovely and I took a walk with Maia, and caught these lovely red trees. Those last two are looking up into the branches of the tree. Of course, the pictures don't do it justice. It was breathtaking.