For a Princess to be ...

Sorry these are so dark ... I tried it with a flash, but it literally 'whited out' the pink.

A client friend from work is having a little girl next month, so finally, after all the baby boy knitting I've been doing, I got to make something 'girly'!!

These are my very favorite, standard baby shower gift, "Christine's Booties" along with the Pumpkin Hat from 'Itty Bitty Hats'. As you know from previous posts, the booties are my faves because moms tell me that they are the only ones that stay on the baby's feet, plus they grow a bit with the baby.

I love the hat pattern for a similar reason. In the photos, I've rolled the brim up quite deeply. This allows the hat to be worn as a newborn, but it then unrolls to fit again, as the baby grows. This hat should fit up to 5 or 6 months, depending on the size of the baby's head. I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (under 2 balls) for both the booties and the hat. I made the 3rd size for the hat, as the pattern calls for DK weight, and I was using a lighter weight of wool. I then made it the length of the 2nd size, to compensate. Size 4mm 12" circular addi's for the hat and size 3mm dpn's for the booties.

The floral embellishments were discovered in my scrapbooking stash and I believe were originally purchased at Michael's. Perfect touch, huh? They're stitched on very tightly and as they are for a newborn, I'm not concerned that they'll get pulled off and swallowed!

... and life goes on

This is my BFF, Connie, shoveling snow in Winnipeg -- she thinks it's hilarious that we have more snow than they do! I'm thankful we don't have their -42C temperature to go with it -- I can't begin to imagine!


I am on a creative roll (work wise) at the moment. The scrapbooking pages are rolling from my mind's eye, to a layout design, in record time. I've been doing at least one layout a day, and while I'm doing it, I'm planning the next one! This is of my cousin Hannah, her daughter Niamh (say 'Neve') and myself, on the beach in Scotland, this past September. Such a cutie!

We needed some fresh, new displays for the store, so I volunteered! The boss was so delighted with this one, that she put it on the store blog -- scroll down to take a look!

A little knitting has been happening, although (I admit), not much. I've completed about 8" on the Woodland Shawl and am still loving it. This is the "Fading Cables" hat pattern. I made two of these, one for each of our girls. Both were made of 'Malabrigo' -- this one is 'Cognac' and the other one was 'Lettuce', which disappeared so quickly, I didn't get a chance to take a photo! The only mod I made to the pattern, was to the 2nd hat -- I lengthened the first portion by about 1/2", so now it covers the top 1" of the ear. I really like this pattern and will likely make it again. It's very stretchy and would be suitable be for either a man or woman -- there's even a child size, if you like.


We said 'good-bye' to Eileen (hubby's mom) on December 31, 2008. We'd been going over to her place, daily, for the past 2 months, bringing her dinner and keeping her company, as hubby's dad is still in ICU, recovering. Went over NY day, to discover that she had passed, peacefully, in her sleep. We were concerned that this may set back his dad, but he seems to be even stronger. Last week he was removed from the respirator, and this week, they took the trach tube out, so he's breathing on his own, and talking for the first time in 2 months. He's even taken a few steps! He is so motivated to get out of the hospital and continue living ... we'll wait to have a service until he is able to attend.