11. Knit or crochet a hat.

This soft and sweet hat was delivered to a sleepy little three-week-old boy today. The pattern is called "simple hat" from "baby knits for beginners" by Debbie Bliss. I used US size 6 needles (4mm diameter) and just under one 50g ball of sage Rowan cashcotton dk (doubleknit) yarn that had 18% angora and 9% cashmere in it to make the hat super cosy.

I started this hat on double pointed needles about five times. I wasn't getting the results I wanted and I still haven't figured out how to use dpns. However, when I pretended the dpns were regular needles, all went well. I made the 6-9 month size because this baby was 9lbs 7oz at birth and I figured he'd be growing fast.

Now I can't wait to start another knitting project! (but I've got a quilt and a hanky in the works, so I'd better finish those up first!)

Hooray for pysanky!

For years and years, I've been writing pysanky at Eastertime. For those not in the know, pysanky are Ukrainian eggs decorated using a wax resist method. It requires patience, attention to detail and a good dose of persnickety-ness to do them well. Fortunately, I have all those qualities in spades (granted, the patience is an on-again, off-again thing with me!).

I made the egg in the above photo in March 2008 and I can't wait until Good Friday to do a new batch. I bought ten different coloured dyes from the local craft store and I just know some fabulous eggs are ready to be created!

Just in case you haven't seen enough pysanky yet, here's one with a rooster design that I did back in 2005 to share with my primary students. Yes, I have even taught pysanky to five-year-olds!

In 1492...

Today, I taught a Gr 4/5 class that was preparing for a test on explorers. I was teaching basic studying skills; how to predict questions and write out flashcards (surprisingly, not all of them got the concept of question on one side, answer on the OTHER side!).

One boy was preparing a few key facts about Christopher Columbus (country of origin: Italy, area explored: Bahamas, Cuba) and he got stuck on date of exploration. "1497?" he guessed. I told him he was close, but said, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." "That's what the sub we had last week said!" he exclaimed. What a coincidence!

22. Replace annoying blinds in front room.

Our old cloth vertical blinds that were too long for the window and dragged on the sill every time you opened the blinds are finally gone! Goodbye annoying blinds and hello beautiful new wooden horizontal blinds! The new blinds are stylish and functional. Blinds that actually block out the light of the streetlamp that's directly outside the bedroom, what an idea!

The front bedroom before (note the gap-tooth effect where one blind had broken):


The front bedroom after:


Master bedroom before (note the two different types of blinds):


Master bedroom after (ah, consistent window treatments!):


Sliding glass door before:


Sliding glass door after (sorry, I didn't get a shot with the blinds down):

38. Find 3 new ways to get vegetables into Sophie.

Ok, so Dean found this one, but I thought I'd add it to my list, since I was the one that fed it to Sophie! This is a fruit juice that has some veggie juices added to it so you can sneak veggies into your diet. Sophie happily downed a watered-down version of this juice, so I consider my goal 33% done.

20. Get carpet cleaned.

Technically, #20 on my list has been done. Much dirt has been removed from our carpets. Unfortunately, this before photo of Dean attacking the nasty coffee stain with the Rug Doctor doesn't have a picture perfect after photo to accompany it. That stain is deeply set and won't be going anywhere soon without some heavy duty chemicals. Any miracle solutions would be appreciated!

A poster that made me smile

Sharing a lovely poster by Nick Dewar that was featured on ReadyMade as part of a salute to the Federal Art Project that was started by FDR during the Depression.