still knitting

I have been a knitter for awhile... a basic hat and scarf knitter keeping to size 10 needles... I believe I have even said "I won't knit a sock until I am a grandma..."

Well...


(Hey, a baby sock is still a sock! I even knit the other one!)

When I was pregnant with the Jampaloo I became a real knitter. If you saw me at a restaurant with Pala and Tenzarelli at that time, you noticed the little trail of yarn flowing out of my bag. I made hats, LOTS of hats for the babe and all of the other wee ones coming into our lives. On size 1 needles even. Woah.

Here's our winter fave for the Jampaloo:



And the hats are still flying off the needles (well, maybe not quite as fast as while I was pregnant, but in my mind, completeing ANYTHING these days means it flew.)

Ravelry has played a big part in this development. What an amazing resource. I found the sock pattern because I purchased the yarn on impulse without a project in mind (naughty!) and typed in the yarn name (Rhythm by Jojoland) and, voila! sock pattern!

brownies

I made brownies with this cocoa powder - a castaway from the latvian couple we know who moved back to their old country and left us a veritable treasure trove of furniture and random stuff that didn't fit into their TWO ENORMOUS shipping containers.

The brownies turned out awesome... the color of the cocoa is way darker then my beloved penzey's and the other cocoa powder I had in the cupboard and the taste far more intense.

They were not very photogenic... and if I wait until I have a photo I will never post, so I am going to free myself from the rule of requiring an image for every post. Is that allowed?

We are not afraid

Tenzarelli is afraid of the dark. He is afraid to go upstairs if I am downstairs (too bad there is only a bathroom upstairs!). He is afraid to go in his bedroom where his toys are alone. A neighbor boy told him ghosts live in our basement.

argh.

He seems to understand, deep inside, that what I tell him:

"Tenzin, no bad things would EVER come in our house. Our hearts are too good, and that scares bad things away. Pala's prayers are too strong, no ghost could stand that."

But he is still a little afraid.

So. We made Ghost Spray.



Ingredients:

Some water
Some Rose Water
a few drops each of Orange and Rhododendron essential oil
Some good thoughts and words
Pala's Blessing Pills from the Dalai Lama

Shake well and spray when you are scared.

Our whole house smells nice now, since Tenzarelli has sprayed (literally) every shadowy or dark corner of it. Even in the cupboards.

Jampaloo isn't afraid!