I'm an addict

I've finally admitted to myself and most of the people I'm friends with that I'm a shopping addict.   It think I always have been but been scared to admit it cos then I'd have to do something about it.
Today I did my last spending, but it was on things I'd committed to before I realised the problem.   It came out of my spending money for the fortnight and there won't be any more.   Funny thing is I'm feeling quite good, my sewing mojo is on its way back which is great and it actually felt almost freeing knowing that I'm not going to be spending.
I think I may have to spend a little though, the computer is freezing on me, it's been to the shop and nothing wrong with the components and I've reinstalled XP after formatting the hard drive so it's not data related.   I suspect it's due to overheating and wouldn't still be happening if they'd cleaned her like I asked.  So tomorrow she's going back into the shop.

One good thing happened today though, aside from my usual session at the guild doing some knitting I went to WWKIP day (world wide knit in public) and I won a competition!   I'd taken Ian's jersey

 

into the guild to show off.  I've been knitting this thing for 3 months now and I've hated it!   The pattern was a very large chart with lots of right and left twists resulting in a cabled look.  It's called Sherwood and is available on Knitty.com.   Unfortunately the yarn I was using which was one of my earlier handspun wasn't suitable for cables, and I didn't have enough of it to do the whole thing.   I finished the main part and decided to make it a vest with the wrong side showing.  Had to do it at night so the boys didnt' learn any new words.

Anyway, I put it in a competition at the WWKIP and it came second!   I won some lovely 10 ply yarn from Amy as well as a couple of magazines and a set of DPN's.  Was so chuffed :).   The ladies at the guild were all very impressed as well and now that I've finished it I actually quite like it.    Ian gets it for his birthday tomorrow.

Wish me luck with the horrible PC, we can't afford a new one so they'd best be able to fix it!

The concrete weekend

Last weekend was very busy, I didn't go to spinning simply so we could get our concreting done. The area we're concreting started off as an interlocking paver covered weed section and a weedy throughway to the shed.   It's now a nicely concreted area, with a 1.5' gap where we ran out of concrete.   So tomorrow I'm picking up more cement, builders mix and have booked the mixer in again for Sunday to get it finished.   We'll also get the last 8 piles for the deck concreted in and then the deck is all we have to finish outside.

Saturday had a slight hiccup in the evening though, DH went to get fish and chips with eldest and some idjit ran into them on a roundabout.   So I have been organising panelbeaters and insurance etc this week.  Also started losing oil, luckily that turned out to simply be a faulty oil filter which was free to fix.   The panelbeater can't get the car in till 30th March, but once he realised we have 2 children he's offered a courtesy car for a smaller fee than normal.   I said we couldn't really afford $20 +GST per day, but I was wondering how we'd cope for a week or so with no car.  Luckily he's offered us a Kia something or other for $50 total.  Going to get the car and George fitted for a new carseat tomorrow and then fax the quote to the insurance company.  Once that's approved then it's all plain sailing insurance wise.  I'll be really glad once it's all done though.

Inside I'm working on the bathroom area still, wallpaper is all off and I've finished patching holes and things.  Sanding tomorrow, including the wood if I have time.   Then on Monday I'll seal the gib while Ian's at Grandma's.  Then it's lots more painting, before we can get the vinyl tiles laid.  Haven't heard back on the shower room yet, so not much to report there aside from the fact that we're not going with a full wet room, $7000 is a bit too much to spend.

On the crafting side I finally have my electronic spinning wheel sorted so I'll be plying the 8 bobbins for my jersey which will tell me if I've spun enough or not.  If I have then I get dyeing as brownish grey isn't really a flattering colour on me.  Also got to read the instructions for my spinning course too, the fibre isn't here yet but it's been paid for so I hope it's not too far away.  I'd like to get it washed before the winter sets in.

Home Improvement

Been very busy recently organising a revolving credit part for our mortgage.  With that we've paid off the credit cards, which is how they're going to stay.   We've also put the floating part of the mortgage on it and are doing some improvements to the house.

1.  The one that started us on the mortgage change - a home ventilation system.  After talking to all of them we've gone with Healthaire which filters to 0.2 microns and is custom designed to your home.  It's not cheap, but was still cheaper than the best known one in NZ and significantly cheaper than the heat exchange versions.  It's being installed on Tuesday next week.

2.  Bathroom area.  We're replacing the carpet with vinyl, going from cream carpet (a nightmare with a pre-schooler who misses) to a deep peacock tile look vinyl, the walls are being stripped of wallpaper and painted in Resene Duck Egg Blue (I think that's right); it's a lovely light green with a blue tinge.  The rimu is all being sanded back and varnished; we're keeping the current toilet, bath and hand basin.  Have got a new wall mirror/cupboard which is also rimu. 
The shower is going to be replaced, it's not coping with DH's weight and is making some rather alarming noises; it's also chipped on the base and not really large enough. DH wants to transform the room into a step-in shower, which I'm ok with depending on cost.  Should find out if that's viable next week.

3. Outside.  The service area outside the back door and walkway to the shed is being concreted, the reinforcing wire for that is arriving tomorrow and then we can box it all up ready to go.  Needs to be compacted too.   It was all in interlocking cobbles and was always growing weeds, this will be so much better.   Outside the conservatory which is the BBQ area is going to be a deck, all the stuff for that is arriving tomorrow too.   There's going to be a lot of work, but it will look much better after it's all done.

Once all that's done there are a couple of smaller things like upgrading the PC and getting an expensive service done on the car.  We'll then be paying it all off before putting a room onto the side of the garage for my craft room so the boys can have separate rooms inside the house.   It's all very exciting and a little scary.

Healthy living

This is something I started on a week or so back, fell over on the weekend with a crunchie bar, but back on track now.

I'm aiming at a healthy body and mind, both for me and the boys (DH is doing some too, he's cut down to 4 cups of coffee a day).    Here's what I'm doing:

* No TV until 5pm, this started yesterday and applies to the boys PC as well, unfortunately the PC is currently on as DH promised George he could have it after school.  He now knows better.  I noticed on the weekend that George and Ian play more and are better behaved without them.

* No sweets or junk food.  Finished the last thing of chips today and there's no sweets in the house aside from a thing of lollypops thats a couple of years old.

* Trying to make meals more healthy too, today isn't a great example as we're having chicken pie from Couplands, but there will be more veges than normal, all from our garden.

* Exercising more.  Taken yesterday off as we shifted 4 tonnes of interlocking pavers and scraped the dirt off them over the weekend so we've done enough.  Did some jogging into kindy this morning though.  Have my personal trainer tomorrow, we'll probably do some boxing.

* Using my juicer, just finishing off a yummy fruit and vege juice now.  I hope this will help me detox.

It's raining, it's pouring; we're all wet!

Weekend before last a storm front came through on the Sunday.   Started with a lot of hail which blocked up the drains, then came the downpour!   Our gutters didn't cope and normally this isn't a problem, but for some reason this time they sent the water over the interior lip of the gutter, into the overhangs and down the inside of the windows.   Had to run around frantically putting towels on window sills and unplugging electrics.   Then went outside where it was cold (been 30 deg cent before then).  Unblocked all the downpipes except one which I had to remove alltogether as it was just too blocked up.  We'll have to reattach that one to the house as the bracket was broken.
Next weekend we're taking an inch off all the bottoms of the downpipes so there's a gap between them and the grating, and we'll be installing an overflow system using poly pipe inserted into the guttering and placed a little higher than the bottom of the gutter so that it'll only let water through if the gutter fills up.

I think Sunday's are a day when important things happen, cos this Sunday just gone no downpour, but Dennis the Menace had a stroke and had to be put down.   RIP furrball.

 

He's now in the garden permanently.  Seems strange not having to close down the laundry at night and not having to check for cat before setting the alarm when we go out.   Hoping to get a dog at some point now, wish us luck.

Still spinning and knitting.  Almost finished my second pair of socks and 3 bobbins into the 2.4kg of Romney that I"m spinning up to make myself a cardigan.  Will probably dye the fibre once it's all spun up.

Busy, busy, busy!

Been very busy recently. Got all the Christmas presents sorted and engraved. I actually used DH's Dremel to do the engraving, so it's not quite as pretty as the professionals, but it's not bad for a first-timer! I'll let you know what they all are after Christmas day. Don't want to spoil the surprise for the family.

Speaking of family, there's one less now. Unfortunately my BIL's wife decided to leave him with no warning a few weeks back. Atm he has custody and she gets the boys on a regular basis. We're hoping that he will be able to move back here to Christchurch once everything's sorted, but I don't know how long that will take.

We're having issues of our own, but not marriage issues. Ian is being a right pain to get to sleep at night. We've tried Tart Cherry juice with natural melatonin with no luck, Rescue Remedy Sleep and am now trying a new thing from a Bach flower practitioner. Unfortunately because the boys share rooms it means George is tired during the day and his concentration at school is suffering. I'm trying a different remedy for him.
On a positive note we found the Trip Trap chair worked well for Ian so our occupational therapist is applying for funding for one for him. Now that it's gone back to them we've noticed he's much harder to keep at the table at meal times again. She's pretty sure we'll get funding, but doesn't know how long it'll take. Fingers crossed it'll be soon! Aside from that Ian's vocab is increasing slowly and he's starting to get interested in what I do, helped bake some muffins the other day which was great; well, apart from the small flour and cocoa powder explosion. Didn't take a photo as the SD card in the camera was sick. Got a new one now though.
George is getting really independant, wants to walk to school by himself. Unfortunately we have a dangerous intersection on the way so I'm insisting on walking him to the school gate. He'll just have to live with that.

Vege garden is all planted. We've got 4 zuchinni (courgette) plants, a couple of rows of peas, lettuces, tomatoes, potatoes and corn all doing well. Carrots are thinking about it, went with the purple ones this year instead of the usual orange. George is even taking carrots for lunch at school so I'll have to plant more soon.

Am knitting and spinning still, have a couple of sewing projects ready to start and am dyeing fibre too. Having a ball! I've just finished a couple of lots of yarn. One in BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) and one in Romney. This is the BFL, I haven't photographed the Romney, but it's in muted pastels.















I've also finished my first pair of 4-ply socks for me, definitely have to do this again.

My next pair will be from some hand-dyed yarn from a TNN swap we did recently.

I've done some dyeing myself too, this for a Ravelry swap. It's merino dyed in pink and purple. I didn't want to send it cos I'm in love! Luckily I did send it though as it's recipient is also in love :)

My current knitting is the Morning Surf scarf done in the red and yellow Rambouillet that I posted a photo of back in September. It's looking really good, but no photo's until it's finished. Once that's done I'll start the socks in the above red, green and blue yarn. I'm about to start spinning some merino/cashmere in a similar colourway to the above merino next. It'll be for the December spin-along on one of my Ravelry groups. I also have some mohair to spin, but I think that I may try out my new drumcarder to blend with something else. Not sure yet.

Tri-spinning

2 bobbins of singles from a silk, merino, mohair and yak blend spun up on my old Little Peggy wheel.

1 Bobbin of silk singles on my new Little Grace wheel. The silk is tussah and was hand-dyed by me.

My first ever 3-ply. I plied it on my old Traditional with the jumbo flyer. There's 2 plies of the blend and one of the silk and it's so soft! 235m of beauty. All my wheels did a beautiful job, unfortunately I can't keep all of them due to space constraints, so I'll be putting Little Peggy on Trademe to sell soon. DH has the camera this weekend though so she's got a few days grace.
My Little Grace did a beautiful job; just as well considering how much she cost me! I am definitely in love though and already planning my next project. I have 50g of Romney to finish and some more silk to go with it to do my next 3-ply. I'm loving doing silk, even if this is not dyed by me it's still beautiful.

My wool combs are coming together now too. I've got all bar one of the first row of tines in one comb. Hoping to get the next row in today if I get time, but DH is away at a wargaming thing in the day so I'm kidwrangling today and tomorrow. I also got very little sleep last night due to having a nasty cold so I'm not sure if I'll be up for it yet. The weather's not great though so won't be gardening until tomorrow so I should get it done today. The boys will be watching tv today.

Tomorrow I'll be doing the traditional activity for Labour Weekend; gardening. I'll be planting corn, zuchhini and pumpkins (baby ones). My tomatoes aren't quite big enough yet; they'll go in later this month.