Elan Knits

OK, I think I've got it this time, tried the switch to wordpress yesterday, (lets skip the talk Mark had with me last night about figuring things out before you move) & discovered I needed something even more user friendly - read simple - & switched again my apologies for all this bouncing around.

I need to figure out if I can move my archives etc & the whole webring changes thing but I'm on my way. I got my etsy mini up & working. I started adding my blogroll. Picture promised of the latest purse is over there!

http://elanknits.blogspot.com

Marvin is the boys latest obsession & has led to an interest in Soul. In the interests of providing the guys with entertainment, their parents can also enjoy, we rented The Commitments and The Blues Brothers this past weekend & the new cool quotes around here are:

"I'm on a mission from God" & "Say it loud, I'm black & I'm proud" the kids don't have the Dublin accents but it causes just as much confusion when said by a white Canadian kid.

Work is good, yesterday flew by. Chili turned out great. I finished a mitten & started another. Took a picture & posted a new purse to etsy. I've run out of room to post pictures here & stopped my pro account while I consider a move to another provider. If you've got a platform you love please let me know, blogger is the only other one I'm familiar with.

I've never had one, I remember my Mom's & how she made meals in it while she worked & I came home to a house that smelled delicious.

On Thursday night (with a snow storm looming) I realized we were going to need milk & other necessities so I stopped at Costco on my way home. I purchased a huge crock pot & all the fixings for beef stew + the milk & a pair of shorts for Mark - Spring might come.

Friday morning I followed directions & threw everything in the pot & headed to work. Friday night the house smelt glorious when I walked in, the stew was delicious & fed us and 5 of Mark's buddies who stopped in to play poker & have a couple beers. 10 people all of whom eat like adults! I love this thing.

I'm going out for supplies this afternoon, I'll be experimenting all week. Please feel free to point me towards the best slow cooker recipes you know. Mondays just got a heck of a lot easier.

Dan got the part he tried out for last week in a show in the London One Act Festival. Looks like Thursdays & Saturdays will be a bit busier until June.

Cleaning house today, I'm looking forward to being able to air the place out but it's too cold today.

Knitting, I've done none this weekend. However I added needle felted flowers to a purse, if the sun's out tomorrow perhaps I'll finally add a picture to the blog.

I don't know how you full time working Moms do it!

I'm going nuts & it's only been three weeks & those three weeks included March Break (so I didn't have to get anyone to school), a day off for a funeral & a long weekend. This is the first REAL week.

Dinners I'm doing OK with, I'm keeping up on my etsy store. I haven't been very good at blogging or reading blogs though & Ravelry I've just been reading the forum I moderate.

I had to step back from helping with the Trans Canada Etsy Team blog.

Running to kids activities hasn't been too bad & I love seeing the $ go up in my bank account to pay for their summer activities, but I'm really looking forward to a day off.

Big news this week, I received an extra copy of & a cheque for my first piece of paid writing. I wrote the yarn shop review in the November issue of the Canadian Guild of Knitters publication.

Leave a comment if you want it (there's a nice Men's sweater & a cowl/scarf project) & if we get a lot of requests I'll have the boys pick a name from the hat.

I got all my patterns, magazines & leaflets up. Today I'll be checking out Canada Post rates for shipping books & deciding if I can part with any of my hardcovers & vintage knitting books.

Bev's cuffs are complete.

We had a fun get together last night at my folks, I worked on Jakes socks for a bit. I met Emily & Aaron, my brother's, girlfriend's kids & Em was very interested in what I was doing (she's 9). I'll be bringing needles, yarn & a beginner pattern to the next family event.

I'm off work today, we've got to go to a funeral at 11.

I'm taking advantage off having the time off & catching up on laundry, blogging, reading ravelry & adding more of my stash of patterns to my etsy store.

I've been finding all kinds of cool art on etsy & adding artists to my favs. I'm thinking of getting Dan the messenger bag as a dance bag for his shoes but I've got no paypal funds right now. I transfered them all to the bank to spend on summer camps.

I've got a treasury right now of fun Canadian items.

Knitting news, I started work on Bev's cuffs & I'm sewing up a bright pink hat with a black skully this morning.

I'll be going into full production mode this weekend, three days at home will hopefully get me a stack of hats before my spring busy time. 3 weekends in June are booked so far & I'm at Visual Fringe again.

Better take off, I need to iron myself a shirt & pants.

I've toyed with this idea, wasn't sure about it, Jimmy & Jake aren't ready yet.

Dan applied for a spot at the Stratford Festival's Shakespeare School & I thought about it some more.

Confronted with the costs I decided that working was the best plan if I wanted to be able to afford to give him this chance & not go into debt but it was still hypothetical.

When I got home from work this evening my big guy jumped out the front door with a huge grin on his face and an acceptance letter in his hand. I'm so glad I'd already started getting ready just in case.

Now I just need to get myself emotionally ready to give my boy to complete strangers for a week (it isn't until August) - it's going to be so quiet around here!

In knitting news I delivered one of the My Sister's Place blankets to the library today, I may have enough squares to do 2 more. I finished making one of Ellie's mittens a bit smaller & started the inner cuff of a set for Bev.

Wow, just two days of full time work & I'm exhausted, might have something to do with the London Knights game last night though.

My BIL, Russ, had a couple tickets (Mark & I don't watch much hockey but Jake loves it) so I took Jake, Mark played chauffeur so we didn't have to park. It was fun but a little one sided, the Knights won 7-0.

On the job front, I must thank Nadine for her message,

Congratulations, Ellen! I've been trying to get anything at the UWO so I can get a cheap education. I can't afford it otherwise.

but have to note, I'm a temp & not actually working for the university so I won't get the benefits. It is a very nice office though & the staff has been great and this is a real benefit at UWO, I don't have to pay to park. I learned to program a fax machine to send faxes at night.

Next week will be interesting, the boys will leave the same time as me but will come home to an empty house. Monday will be mad, instead of coming home from work I'll head straight to Original Kids. The little guys will need to be reminded about their voice lessons but they can walk over on their own, Mark's making dinner that night & I'm heading out for a St. Patty's Day beer, before making the dash to tap dancing.

Knitting has slowed down noticeably, I can only manage a couple rows before falling asleep each night, I'm hoping this improves over time.

Well just to make things a little more interesting around here I'm starting a temp job tomorrow up at UWO.

I don't want to work full time but I do need to have the $ to pay for all the kids activities & we need a new roof!

I'm assessing my wardrobe today for business casual looks, the sweaters over a white shirt should get me through 2 weeks no problem.

Dan's going to watch his brothers for the last two days of March Break & hopefully our sanity won't be too strained.

With hope in my heart that it will help things run smoothly, I've got a ton of groceries, finished the laundry and am making tomorrow night's dinner.

I've got my lunch packed, clothes out & knitting ready to go. Do I need anything else?

A long-time (can't say old cause I'm older) friend came on a last minute visit this weekend - I didn't just drop off the face of the earth!

We visited with more friends from our youth who were volunteering at an Ontario Youth Parliament here in London this weekend. I went as a teen, feel free to comment on the hair.

The young parliamentarians seemed to have a great time & the alumni had a great visit.

Very little - ok - no knitting got done.

Yesterday we dragged Atul with us to see the Original Kids production of Mulan at the market, fabulous show! If you need something to spend an afternoon at this March Break this was worth the $ and is a great way to introduce little ones to live theatre.

This morning I put him on the train back to Ottawa & life around here returned to normal, well as normal as March Break gets, Day 2, half gone & I haven't lost my mind yet, wish me luck!