January bl(AH)s

January has indeed brought some snow here. 

We missed two large snow storms across the province in the last few weeks. 

One of them saw schools closed in the whole province, except for our county.

Kids were bummed that we didn't get a snow day.

But into Saturday night and Sunday morning, we got our snow and a canceled church service.

Big deal in our house, I sing in the choir and the kids are both altar servers. A sunny day off.

The most perfect time to test the smaller of our two ponds for ice skating.

Turns out, the ice was thick enough!

This is the first time in our 4 winters here that we are doing this. I am so excited!

The kids are excited! The neighbour's kids are excited!

My daughter facetimed a family from the ice and they came straight over to play hockey.

Here is our portuguese Zamboni team

They finally were able to trim the alder bushes/trees that took over the pond. 

I haven't seen this view before.

Now, my usually very sport obsessed son, 

( He does play basketball 2 days a week, and skating, but that is not enough for him) 

can play outside again.

I am looking forward to a neighbour hood hockey game on the pond with benches and a fire pit next to the oak trees. Hot chocolate, marshmallows and wieners on the fire. Yes, Winter at it's finest.

But most times, you will find me here.

(the most delicious Moroccan Tajine cooking on the woodstove)

And if I'm lucky, I will get to knit a little bit of this.

(look ma, it's not socks!)

 

Oh yes, for record keeping, I must have a picture of my boy, who is now 12!

At the moment, he is heavily into rubiks cube, (and anything puzzle related.. triangles, shape shifters, holes in the middle of the cube), Basketball, skating and dreaming of sailing in the summer.

Have a good one, keep warm.

Amanda

Lucas' bear

A childhood friend of mine had a request...

To make a bear out of an infant 0-3 month sleeper.

Not one to back away from a challenge, I accepted.

Meet the bear.

It was a side zipper onesie with this on the stomach.

I had considered putting this on the belly of the bear, 

but the belly pattern has two darts, one on top and one on the bottom. 

I didn't want the top dart to go into the Tigger face. 

Turns out, it probably would have been okay.

Accompanying the outfit was a knitted hat and mittens. 

The hat of the bear is from the mitten. 

I wet it, stretched it out and put a pompom on top.

I unraveled the second mitten and knit the scarf.

The bear pattern comes from  Abby Glassenberg's book,

Stuffed-Animals-From-Concept-Construction

I LOVE this book. I love her patterns.

The lesson with this pattern is joints.

The best part?! The neck is jointed to the body!

No fiddling with sewing the head on.

I LOVE it.

But alas, my doll joints were too big for the arms and legs, 

so I had to use button joints. 

The eyes are safety eyes with a felt circle on the back. 

The little eye brow did a lot in giving him a little personality.

I am looking forward to making this bear again, but with an enlarged pattern.

It will be made from her late father's corduroy blazer.

That will be fun, with proper jointed arms and legs.

This is a wee one to be sure.

Hope all is well and cosy where you are.

We finally have a bit of winter here today.

Cold temps and all.