and we're back!

Wow, that's a lot of water....yep...a lot hmmmm
This was the view from our room in Niagara Falls. It was beautiful! I took this picture this morning when we woke up...at like 6:30am!!!! Yes!!!! On a day that we could have slept in!!! Don't worry though, I was up for about an hour, then declared it time for a nap...8am and I'd already gotten in a 1/2hr nap...how's that for efficient :-P
We ended up taking the whole tour thing, I've never done that before, but it seemed the easiest way to make sure that we didn't waste all our time there deciding what to do. The butterfly conservatory was by far my favourite. Sorry, no picture of that illusive blue butterfly, who knew that they folded up they're wings to reveal plain old brown when they landed....no wonder! I bought a postcard of it on the way out! These are a few of the butterflies that I could ACTUALLY get a picture of....



After the butterfly conservatory we stopped at the aviary. I think this is my favourite picture from there, I did get a few decent bird pictures....but I was actually more impressed with the overall atmosphere and feel of the place than I was with any particular bird...
And here's my sweetums with a gigantic wooden moose at our lunch stop!
After lunch we saw the IMAX, and then went up the Skylon tower....it was winnndy...but a fabulous view of the falls...yup...that's me, being nearly blown right off the edge....ha!
And back in our room after a long day of fun, here's my sweetums doing what he loves most.
And same for me, ....working on my sweater....now...if only I could have figured out how to knit in that hot tub without getting my yarn all soggy :-)

Up to here...

Well, here's my sweater progress up to here. Last night we were out all night, but I really wanted to get those sleeves divided out...so there I was in bed till 1am dividing for the sleeves, (then I had to knit a row of course). I just really wanted to have them separated, in case I actually get a chance to knit in the car on the way to Niagara Falls, I didn't want to be transferring stitches in the car...no no no...bad bad bad...I just want to knit, but there's laundry, and dishes, and showering lol, man, too much to knit.....not enough time to actually sit down and do it...what am I doing typing....I've gotta go knit....no actually...I'm still packing...don't get to knit yet :-(

Off to Niagara Falls

..for our first anniversary. Oh, how I hope the weather improves!!! Right now it's a freezy, sleety, rainy mess!

We both took Thursday and Friday off from work. So, we'll be sleeping in tomorrow morning!!!! Then, we're going to go to Red Lobster to re-create our wedding dinner (sort of....wedding dinner was amazing steak with lobster, in Cuba....I've never been to red lobster...but I hear it's good).

This all has to take place after we actually pack by the way!!! And I still have to do laundry first..hahaha...oh well, it's supposed to be relaxing...so...I'm not going to stress about it!

I must remember to bring my sweater!!!! What could be more relaxing than that?!?!?!!?
I'm addicted to knitting this sweater...I've been at work thinking about it. All I want to do is come home and knit...but...I've got all these other commitments....in the evenings too...ack!!! I just want to kkkkkknitttttttt!!!!

I think I'm back in my "love for knitting stage" would you agree :-)

Looks like spring...but it's frigid!

At church on Sunday my secret sister left me these potted flowers. They're for Easter, and for our anniversary. Can you believe it. If you saw a wedding picture of my bouquet, there are flowers almost exactly like this in the bouquet! What a perfect anniversary gift! :-) My secret sister is just FABULOUS!!! :-)
And this little guy! This was a free plant, that was left over from when I TA'd a first year biology lab course, this thing hasn't stopped blooming since November, I've never had plants bloom for me, I'd never even had a spider plant get those little babies before, now you should see my spider plant, and well, this little primrose speaks for itself....what's happening here?!?!?! Perhaps there's hope for my cold black thumb yet.....

Cardigan - progress, sock - standby...

Well, I've actually made some progress on my sweater. I really love this colour more everytime I work with it. I think it really WILL go with everything.
This was from my yesterday knitting. We had Easter dinner with the fam, and I got to knit some rows between playing with baby Sienna on the floor, she doesn't do much, but boy does she "talk" now. It's so fun, I could just stare at her for hours. It reminds me of when Brooklynn (neice) was that little.
Here is my sock, my first tiny needle short row sock. I made a pair of toe up socks for a friend a while back, and I absolutely LOVE knitting them from the toe up, but, I've never knit something with such small needles and thin yarn, and, I've never done short rows. I'm having trouble with holes again! What's with me and giant holes in my knitting?!?! Anyways, I ripped the sock toe out once, because on one side there were holes everywhere I had turned. One side was fine, one side was full'o'holes. I still haven't figured out what I did. Anyways, I'm about ready for the heal and I'm nervous....what if the holes return?!!? (play scary frightening music here )(I'm using "Wendy's toe-up sock pattern" which I think I found from the knitty website, and "Dancing" sock yarn from knitpicks....I like it ....it's elastic-y)

And here's a pic of branching out (with lot's of mistakes). I finished it early in the winter and wore it almost everyday. The yarn I picked was obviously not the recommended choice, but that's what I wanted. It's a fuzzy alpaca, and it was so soft. I actually bought the yarn first, because I'm obsessed with the idea of actually owning a couple of real alpacas (and seriously, maybe a sheep, couple of goats, perhaps an angora bunny or two, we are, after all, going to build out by the family farm,.....someday.... ) and wanted to make sure I wasn't allergic, I might be mildly so, but don't expect me to admit that to anyone.
It looks all mis-shapen because I actually taped my scarf to the front window in order to see the pattern, lol, and found many more mistakes than I knew about, but, there's the joy of using the wrong yarn, it also hides all my mistakes, the bottom pic is the same scarf, all smushed up on a chair so you can see the colour of the yarn. (It was also from knitpicks).

Whew, 4:30ish on a holiday Saturday....sounds like nap time to me :-) zzzzzzzzzz

Off to a very enjoyable start

Here is my progress, as it sits this morning, not too far, but none-the-less, I'm fairly pleased. I'm finding this sweater relaxing and enjoyable to knit. Almost soothing I dare say! This is a very nice change from anything else that I've done lately. The quilt stressed me out a little. I don't like it when things don't turn out the way they looked in my head. The quilt I'm happy with now, but I had to borrow Harold's mom's sewing machine, because mine does not like thick fabrics, and it chooses to destroy them rather than sew....not relaxing...not in the least..
Oh, how I love this pattern!


I started out using my little stitch marker rings, but they're too thick, and the yarn has to wrap out around them and can't pull very tight, so it leaves a loose part, and I ended up with a hole on all my increase points. See the holes?I really DON'T like those holes, I considered ripping it out and starting again, but, it's only for the first 6 rows or so, plus, I'm supposed to be working on relaxing my craziness, and I think leaving the holes and letting them even out on their own is one of the first steps :-) Now I'm using plain old snippits of yarn tied in loops for my stitch markers, and it works just fine. That'll teach me to try and be fancy!Now there's my pretty nice, but hole inducing stitch markers.....you can't see the holes in this picture but they're there,...oh yes....they're there!
I'm using knit into the front and back of the stitch for all my increases, I wasn't sure if this was the right one to use for this, or if it would make things look all funny and unsymmetrical, but it's definitely my favourite increase, so, I'm trying it...if it looks really crappy, I WILL rip it all out.....but...hopefully sooner rather than later. I'm curious to know what other people use for increases like this. I know how to pair my decreases (kind of...but I usually do it the opposite way accidentally, so I get little feather looking things...does that make sense)...but not my increases I really always use this one...I find it so much easier than anything else. Any suggestions?

It's been a long, long time comin'

Well, Finally I can add a picture!

Here is is....my secret surprise project. I'm so glad it's finally finished. I tied off the last stitch on Tuesday night, waaaay past my bed time, but I really really wanted to finish it. I can't believe I started this quilt in November, when I took a bit of time off before starting my job.And here is one of the BIG reasons that it took me so long, all that blanket stitch. I've never done that before, and I'm pretty sure that the stars will unravel and the embroidery floss will bleed all over on the first washing, and I'll probably cry, BUT.....babies can still puke on quilts with crooked stitches and unravel-y stars and mismatched seams right....RIGHT?!?!?!
I was going to embroider both her name and also her birth date, but I really have no idea how to embroider, and by the time I finished her name, there was just no way I was going to do any more :-)It's almost a little bit irritating, I love this purple bug fabric that I used for the backing so much. I found it in my fabric stash, so it didn't even cost me anything. The annoying part is, that I think it looks a nice as the front....and do you know how much EASIER IT WAS!!! LOL
This is my favourite star background fabric, had to give a close up of a couple of my favs, and you know it's really weird because as I'm typing this sentence the flowers on the snail shell in the picture above are doing a weird optical illusion shifty thing. If this stops making sense or contains too much bad grammar and horrible spelling mistakes, then I'm blaming the shifty snail for messing with me. Hmmmm, shifty snail.....I hopefully will see baby and fam tomorrow and can give them the quilt then, I'm so excited!!! And I really can't believe I thought I would have this done by the time she was born, I'll be giving it to her 2 days before her 3rd month b-day! Yep, I'm speedy....Still going to blame the shifty snail!

(the pattern was from a quilting magazine I bought a few years ago, it's called Stars and Moon, and it's in the March/April 03 No.90 issue of Quiltmaker, I left off the border)

It's been a long, long time comin'

Wow, finally finished.... and I have some lovely (well, I think lovely) pictures to show...but I can't seem to upload them on blogger, my connection just won't stick...is there something happening that I don't know about???

Finally almost done!

Well, I started my "secret project" in the time I took off before starting this job, that was in November!!!! I started "secret project" in November....and ...well...still not done...but...I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO close!!!! so close so close!
I dare say I am in the "finishing" stage. I want this thing to be done soooooooo bad. Am I getting the point across that I'm ready to be done with this secret...I think it's nearly killed me!
There is a picture posted of it from a little while ago...while it was still less finished....I realized after I posted the pic, that said secret project could clearly be seen in said pic, but alas, I did not remove it, I thought, well, if someone who secret project is for is clever enough to read my blog, AND clever enough to notice secret project in the background and clever enough to know that it's for her, then she's a detective baby genious, and we should send her to super smart person school right now...cuz she's 3 freakin months old! Ha! I'm tired, and I've taken migraine meds, forgive my looniness.

Omigoodness!

Looky what I got!


Yeppers, my wool arrived in the mail the other day from Elann. It's the peruvian highland wool, in oxford grey heather. It's for the cardigan that I want to make from Knitting Pure & Simple (cardigan #241). I'm never sure about wool, it can be soooo soft...or soooo scratchy. I don't really know enough about wool to tell by the name either, but I thought I'd give this stuff a shot. The colour is exactly what I was looking for, and it feels really quite soft to the touch. I can't wait to see how it feels once knit up. Although if this is anything like the last sweater I made it might be a year or two before I find out....hope not!
Here's a lovely close up. Notice that I'm not showing anything on needles...yup...that's because I don't have any....I soooo should have just bought them from elann at the same time...but I didn't...and now I have to go in search of needles at the local places tomorrow if I get time....doh! ....I really just want to rip it out of the box and start knitting.

Sciency talk now:
And hey! Guess what! My PCR worked! Yeppers, my gels are gelly gelly good! But, I've got a new system, which doesn't use ethidium bromide, which I love...because who really wants to work with carcinogens when you don't need to? Not me! But anyways, I've got to find a filter that will work for imaging my gels with this new stuff...otherwise...no way to document my fabulous PCR results....it's just for genotyping...but still, I want pictures!

Not much to say today

.....sooooo how about I post a little picture of our visitor!
This little guy showed up in our front tree on day, (not exactly little), my camera tells me it was the 27th of Dec. man, so long ago.
He kept lifting one leg up and tucking it into his body like he was cold, then switching...I felt like offering him some hot chocolate, but I think he preferred squirrel. Never actually saw him get one, but boy did those squirrels look nervous....I can only hope that he got one when I wasn't looking, poor guy clearly needed some protein, and I need a few less squirrels to dig up my flower pot!

Old profile....too outdated

On April 12, 2006 Harold & Debbie were married in Cayo Coco Cuba. Hopefully Debbie will be able to figure out how to post some wedding photos on here....and her friends and family will be able to view them....if you're reading this....it might have worked :|

Well, I think it's time I update my profile, or perhaps I'll wait until after April 12th, which will be our anniversary (1 whole year! wooo hooo, althought we've only been able to really live together since September when I moved back to london.....) Anyways, I'll have to find a new profile picture...and think of something clever or interesting to say...hmmmm this leads me to realize how boring I can be....

I'm back!...sort of

I'm blogging, right! I forgot! haha..well sort of ...I kept thinking of this but life has been soooo darned busy that I just haven't taken the time to come back....

I think I will try to get back into it though, because it's kindof fun. Too bad everyone who was checking it out (because I told them to..haha) has quit because I've been away so long.

Hmmm well, what's happened. Well, since quitting that pesky Masters project, and walking away from my
$20,000 scholarship (that still sounds crazy to me, especially since I'd wanted to work on MS for soooooooooo long, and I finally was, but I guess long distance relationships just aren't something that I'm tough enough for, and I think I'd better keep my marriage as my first priority :-D, well, second, God is first, husband is second, kids are third,,,,I get off scot free on that one for about 5 more years (no babies, 5 years!). Now I have a FABULOUS job, (first I had a really really really crappy one, then I got this one, and it couldn't be better!!!!) Life is GOOD!

Soooooo, that wacko lookin picture is of me and Nautie (fabulous pattern from knitty.com) that I made for baby and gave to her for Christmas (do most babies get lot's of presents before they're even born???) I think it's probably my favourite thing, because it's so darned cute with those tentacles all curling, I'm sure in a few months they'll be covered in drool, and it will be FABULOUS!

Me with the big purple bag looking oh so photogenic (ummmm, ok maybe not). That's my Jordana Paige knitting bag, that I wanted soooo bad for soooooo long, I think I started drooling over it nearly a year ago, and my sweet sweet Harold had to jump through hoops apparently to get it for me for Christmas. I don't know what all the problems were, but, apparently there was a lot of stress involved, and I think it ended up costing somewhere around $200 by the time he finally got it to me....oops...I really didn't know it would be so much trouble or seriously I wouldn't have asked....it really is fabulous though!

And then there is me (me again, hmmmm I'm sensing a slight self absorption theme here :-), oh well, it's my blog, you can be self absorbed on your own blog :-P, holding new baby Sienna woo hooo (no woo hoo is not her middle name), I can't for the life of me figure out how to flip the picture so that it is upright....I think I need blogger lessons, because you would not believe how many times I accidentally delete my pictures when I'm trying to move them around in a post...I CANNOT get the formatting of this thing figured out...it is a MAJOR irritation...and not very Debbie friendly, so...if my pages look messy, I blame the system...or my incompetance...whichever)
Sooooo, Sienna was born on January 8th, 2007, and she is sooo beautiful!

And now a lovely picture of my smashing husband Harold strutting his hockey stuff out on the pond, I only wish that the ice was still there, it was great this year, we had so much fun. I wish we always had ice like that, I would have fabulous legs! but probably a very bruised rear end :-)

Oh ya, I have brown hair now, sort of red brown, I have no picture yet, because I'm the picture taking maniac I rarely have them of me, I'm too busy blinding everyone, especially Sienna, with the flash of my digital camera. So, no brown hair pictures, but, now that I see the Christmas pics, I think maybe I liked my hair better then, hmmmmmm but I've heard that a lot of people like the brown on me...oh, why can't hair just look good and be done, I always hate my hair, and it so darned expensive to go ANYWHERE and get your hair done anymore! Well, that's my hair rant....haha...see I AM a crazy person.

Here's my horrible Hair

Well

Luckily that was over two months ago. I think it was the 19th of September. This one is right after getting home for the hairdresser...I didn't hate it toooo much at the time...because everyone was saying how great it looked...but I was seriously uneasy...Oh, yeah, by now...I seriously hated it. This is on September 28th. I'd had enough time to discover that it was impossilbe to style...oh ya....and the little half inch long chunch of hair right at my crown....oh...how much glue did it take to stick the sucker down! I had dreams pretty much every night that my hair was long again...they...I'd wake up...how cruel!
A full month later..October 14th..with some highlights.....This is H and I at Laura and Kenny's wedding....I actually felt good that day....learning not to hate the hair....now just look at my hubby...ain't he cute!!!!!
And...now that it's november...it's almost as long as it was the first time that I got it cut..in the older pictures...when I actually liked it...
It's getting a little easier to style...but these people who say short hair is easy....are just plain nuts..... I'm not posting a picture of now...because I'm still in my pyjamas...and it's sticking straight up in the back like a peacock...yep...I'm a prize....my poor sweetums :-D hehehe oh well

Scrapbookin'

aha, Well, now I've finally got my pictures up here...if I could just figure out how to get rid of the underlining on everything that I type it would be blissful! Downright blissful I say...yes...I know...it's probably something stupid...but...why can I find bold, and italics...but nothing to change the stupid underlining ack! it's sooooo annoying...

Anyways...oh...wait...howd that happen...no underlining...woo hooo...now if only I knew what I did ha!

Yeah...anyways...here are my scrapbook pages for MomRobsons scrapbook....hopefully to be done by Christmas....then ...I can actually do one for myself...and have a wedding photo album...imagine that !?!?!

I bet ya can guess which ones I did first...and which ones I just did this week....hmmmm yeah...at first I really liked the plain ones...now I think they look so incredibly boring...but oh well...and they're all out of order...but they'll be in the right order in the book...
oh I should post a pic of the beautiful scrapbook I found at michaels that is in our wedding colours....they have a big one too that I'm resisting buying...because I already have one...but...it's just so perfect....there is only one left....maybe I'll go buy it on monday if it's still there...oh...I'm bad!

Anyways...there's the pages...let me know what you think....about the pages...not my rambling....and any suggestions are welcome too....

The pictures are dark..because the camera flash made a glare...but then turning the flash off made em dark...sorry.....











And....here is my almost finished bag (Sophie Bag) , being made for Harold's boss Nancy. Hope she likes it.....poor woman...she's probably allergic to wool!

HEY BABY!

Only 9 weeks to go....and a little lady will be wearing this!


ONLY 9 WEEKS TO GO!!!! Can you believe it?!?!?! I'm so excited I could pee!!!!
I just finished weaving in all the ends tonight...now I just need a button and I'm all done!!!!

It Snowed!

And...I have a migraine...but oh well..it's getting better
Can you believe that I'm still working on Thank-you cards! How nuts is that...people must think me awful...little do they know I become paralyzed with the fear of writing the wrong thing or too much or not enough or looking like a moron. I always thought it was just science papers that were tough to write....but it turns out...everything is tough to write...there goes my career as a famous novelist (no...I wasn't actually planning on that anyways....but what if I had been!)
Anyways...now I feel horribly guilty because I just got a thank-you card from a friend who's wedding was August 5th...and she's got hers out....Ok so I have all the cards out from the wedding...but...I haven't got them out from my family's BBQ that was the last weekend of July.....should be easy....but man...I really suck at this...and now..it's so late...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh why do I suck so bad at thank you cards...I am thankful, I was so happy that I got to see everyone, and we were blown away by everyone's generosity, so...why such trouble with the cards! ack! OK, I'm done talking about the cards! F0r today anyways!

I'm almost done the baby dress "Anouk" it's so cute...I just have to do the three needle bind off for the shoulder, and then make the pockets..and block, and sew, and ta-da! So cute for baby girl!!! I can't wait...I'm totally posting a picture when it's done...and I definitely need one with baby in it!!!! but...I'll have to wait about 12 more weeks for that! I'm so excited!

I have another Sophie bag about half done, this one's a light purple. And Harold reminded me again yesterday that I'm still not done my sweater...it's next on the list....trust me....it's freakin cold outside....I want my sweater done!!!

Oh, and the scrapbook for H's mom....nope...not made any more progress on that....perhaps it will end up being a Christmas present...or something like that...ummmm I'm really not very good at scrapbooking...that much is for sure...my stuff is oh so plain...the lady I work with brought hers in to show me...whoa momma...that thing is nice looking...nothing plain about that....I like the 3 dimensionality of hers....lots of raised thingies...makes it really look nice...mine...flat...boring....hmph!

Home for a month

and I hate my hair
So....Now I've been home for a month...I have a job...a low paying job...but something to help pay the bills...so that's good...
I haven't registered for my courses yet because I was too late for September...hopefully everything will work out for January...I really really really really hope everything works out with this whole nursing idea...but who knows...just when I think I've got it figured out...it all goes to crap.
Anyways...still not done my sweater...as Harold reminds me when he sees me working on other stuff....I can't help it....my niece will be here in 15 weeks!!!! 15 weeks....How could I be so selfish as to keep working on a sweater for me...when baby clearly needs sweaters and dresses of her own...hehehehe
yep...I'm good a rationalization
I'm working on Anouk...sooooo cute!!!!!
I'll post a picture!