Where I Been?

I've been taking care of the garden:

Getting locked in the house by my darling son:

And listening to many a nose flute concierto:


I was informed the other day that I haven't been updating my blog regularly enough (hi mom!) and 'tis true, 'tis true.

This month has been a mad, crazy whirlwind and I don't see a let up in the near future.

School:

As the end of the school year approaches, more and more needs to be done. I just finished a few good sized playground fund raisers and have one more at the end of May before I call it quits for the summer. Saturday is the big International Children's Festival and I need to make about a bajillion signs for it by tomorrow night. Bring on the marker fumes! Henry also has a few things going on-today he has an "Author's Presentation" where he is presenting his research on owls (should be adorable) and tomorrow he has an honor roll assembly. Monday I meet with the 'gifted' teacher to see how the year went and to possibly make some tentative plans for next year. Also, dont forget that next week is National Teacher Apreciation Week- so show those teachers some lurve!

Crankypants:

Holy cow this month went fast! Auctions will start tomorrow (if I can get my act together and put them up tonight) as usual and custom ordering will be open from 10am-noon EST. As far as my April customs... I am *thisclose* to being done so I hope to come in just under the wire. I will be stitching my little fingers off all day, so hang in there. All the knitting is done, they just need some embellishment. *jazz hands*

I also got an invoice from Peru this morning, so something should be coming in tomorrow. I wonder what will be in the box this time! I know what I asked for, let's see what I get! It's always a little bit of a surprise.

AND... I have a few things at the seamstress right now being finished up to stock soon. I can't wait to show them to you, they are awesome.

The most exciting thign happening around here this coming month is a little building project. Currently, this is in our back yard:


Yeah. Ug. It is even grosser inside. The people who used to live here had a mariachi band and they practiced in there. Not good. Next week we are going to demo it and build a brand spankin' new Crankypants World HQ/ guest space. Kyles uncle (who builds resorts in the Bahamas) is going to come up along with Kyle's folks to help with the building. I'll make sure to keep posting progress pictures as we go along. Should be scary. And fun.

I also hope to post some customs pictures tomorrow before they hit the mail. Stay tuned...

Nephews.

When my oldest nephew, Sam, was born I knit him a log cabin blanket because baby blankets seemed more useful than clothes to me in the long run. Those babies grow like weeds, you know [note: it wasn't until I went back to reread this post that I discovered I had left the 's' off of the word 'weeds' in that last bit. One little letter made a whole lot of difference in tone there.] It wasn't until I sent it off that I realized sending a new mom a hand-wash-only baby blanket is kind of cruel, and if it were me, I probably would have taken one look at my little poop and spit up factory, laughed aloud and thrown it in a closet somewhere to be taken out only when the knitter visited. I was so. very. happy. when my sister in law, Kirstin, posted these pictures on her blog. Apparently Sam (now 2) has taken a shine to the blankie.






Cutest thing ever? Why yes, I do concur.

This is what he looked like when he first got it:
My, how time has flown (and yes, that is the Easy Peasy Cardigan from Little Turtle Knits, if anyone is wondering).

My wee little nephew, Joe, is just as adorable.


When I first saw this picture I had two immediate thoughts:

1. Damn, that kid is cute, he has my brother's eyes.
2. I can't believe my brother swiped that braided rug from my folks' house before I had the chance to nab it. Eyes and rugs, he gets all the good stuff.

More Scenes from Vacation

Ms. Monkey

These little monkey missus were knit with super soft, BFL custom dyed by Kim at Western Sky Knits. I hope the fabulous Miss O enjoys monkeying around in them this summer! [ba dum bump ching!]

Wonder Pants ReLaunch!

My friend and sistah-in-knitting (as well as amazing pattern designer), Pamela, has reworked and rewritten her fabulous WonderPants longies pattern and is releasing the spiffy new version today on the Wooly Wonder website. I get lots of requests for my longies pattern, but since I sell a copyright protected finished product and have no desire to attempt to translate the pattern in my head (which includes lots of helpful phrases like "twirl yarn around the thingie" and "knit until you get to the place where you should stop") into normal human speak, I always have to say no. The Wonder Pants pattern is well written with tons of great photo instructions and produces a wide legged look that I love. It also teaches you the fabulous "Magic Loop" method of knitting both legs at once, something that I never took the time to learn but probably should. Hop to it, knitistas!

Scenes From the Beach

Sneak.

A Few Good Things.

Good Thing #1:

A wonderful customer of mine (Hi Nicole!) organized a charity auction for the March of Dimes that Theresa from For Crying Out Loud is hosting in her shop. It doesn't go live until April 10th at 10am, but previews started going up today. Check 'em out.

Good Thing #2:

After sitting in its mailing tube for 6 months, I finally got my most awesome This American Life poster framed! I am embarrassingly excited for the live version of This American Life coming to a local theater the 23rd.


Good Thing #3:

Henry got a perfect report card today! Go Henry!

Good Thing #4 [this is the part where Henry would tell me that 'a few' is 3 and there should be no 4th Good Thing, but whatever]:

I get to go out and see some old friends tonight! When Henry started school it got harder and harder to connect with the mamas who helped me survive his pre-school days. Every once in a while we try to get together for a kid-less dinner and tonight's the night. WooHoo!

As for the SNOW that si supposed to be on the way? I'm pushing it out of my mind until I come home from dinner and start wrapping flannel sheets around my Bearded Irises. That just bloomed. Yesterday. Gah.

The Final Countdown!

With all the grey and rainy skies around here lately we have been counting down the days until Spring Break. We are jumping in the car as soon as school lets out on Friday afternoon to make the long drive down to Kyle's folks' house in sunny Florida. Today was sunny and warm, but it is supposed to SNOW on Tuesday, so we're biding our time until we can make a run for it!

Kyle and Henry did take advantage of the loverly weekend and went hiking with some friends.





That is a far cry from the weather they are predicting for tonight. If I don't remember to wrap up all of my sweet early bloomers tonight, they are likely to freeze their little tendrils off.

This month is going to be heavy on the fam and light on the work but, take heart my little Crankyphiles, May is coming. And it is going to be good. In addition to (hopefully) getting all of the Classic Crankypant styles and sizes back in stock, we are going to be seeing a new line of Spring loungewear and some other sneaky bits and pieces. There will also be a few in stock events going on:

May 7th I will be helping Venus Vanguard celebrate the Moms of the World Wide Web.
May 15th I will be joining the wonderful mamas at Necessitae for a guest stocking.

Also, sometime in mid/late May I will be hosting a big, fat fundraising event extrordinairre in the Crankypants shop to benefit Vance Elementary, where King Henry rocks the Kindergarten set. They had to rip out the playground a few years ago because of hazardous materials and haven't been able to raise the money to replace it since. The structure we need costs $20k and North Carlina does not provide any funds to help schools with playground equipment. My personal goal for this event is $1500. I know we can do it! I already have the beginnings of an amazing donor list, including (but not limited to-we need some surprizes!): Cozy Blue, Tush Cloth Diapers, Little Bear Knitwear, Hibiscus Baby, Dreamseeds, Woolybottoms, Fishy Fishy Quilts, and many more. Starting in May, I will run a feature on each donor to give you more information about these awesome businesses and the mamas behind them.

Have a great Monday!

Tattoo Me!

Yesterday afternoon I went on downtown and got myself a brand spankin' new tattoo. The fact that I hadn't gotten a tattoo since I was a teenager coupled with the appointment getting rescheduled on April Fool's Day with a different artist due to tattoo-er illness had me a little nervous. I have four other tattoos, but they are smaller and much more easily hidden. This one? Not so much...



The pictures were taken late last night so they kind of stink, but you get the idea. I'll take much better pictures once it is all healed up but I couldn't wait to share!

For my local peeps, it was done by Jeremy Joachim at Empire Tattoo on Patton and I would recommend him to anyone. He was rad. He took the cut and taped up little design I gave him and made it way cooler than it was. I can't draw to save my life, but somehow he was able to figure out the style I was going for and made it perfect. I'm already plotting to add some sewing scissors and a darning needle in sometime down the road and will definitely be calling Jeremy up to do the job.

Happy April!

No, I'm not going to make some sort of elaborate April Fool's joke here. I can't stand it when people play tricks on me (and I didn't have the time to think up something really good).

My one wee little custom from the random lottery is:

Stephanie T.

I guess the practice run yesterday helped you out!

Just in the nick of time, I also finished up my last March custom this morning.





It is so grey and overcast here that the lighting is truly horrible and not at all conducive to good picture taking. Looking at the week's forecast tells me that I would be hanging onto these babies for a long time waiting for a clear day so I thought I'd just get on with it, bad light and all. Even with the less than perfect lighting, though, it was clear that these longies bear a strong resemblance to one of my favorite little monsters...


I also realized early this morning, as Kyle bid me a happy 'holiday' that I had rescheduled my previously canceled tattoo appointment on April Fool's Day. Ummmmm...yeah. Wish me luck.