Silhouette!

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I'd touch base :)

It's been a fun summer so far and the cool weather was perfect for running, so I've been running! I finished the Couch to 5K program and - why not? - I started the 5K to 10K program. I'm now on week 3 and doing things like "long runs" and "tempo runs". It's a lot of fun.

I've also been knitting and someday I'll have pictures to prove it. I started a baby sweater for my friend's baby girl (squee!) due in November. And a pair of Hedera socks, even though I already had two pairs of sock in progress. Oh well.

I got a new camera (and lens!) and I looooove it. I had fun playing with silhouettes last weekend.

Happy summer!

Christmas in June

So if you hadn't noticed, I sort of lost my knitting mojo since giving birth... to my first son! I haven't knit much these past couple of years. I miss it, but I don't have the time or energy.

But I seem to have found the mojo back a couple of days ago and then I had a grand idea: I'll be knitting Christmas gifts this year! Yes, yes, it's June and I'm thinking about Christmas. I'm a slow knitter, mmmkay?

So I made a list, because I do love lists, and now I'm excited about knitting again.

Here's the plan:

-Socks for my sister, my mom, my stepdad and my boyfriend

-Hats for the boys

-Sweater for the boys

-Stocking for my godson

-Hat and mittens set for my sister

Now will I really manage to do all this? Ha! I'll be happy if I do half. But it's fun to try and have a goal. And I do, definitely, want to make the hats for the boys. I want to start a new tradition of knitting them hats every Christmas.

Oh and did I mention one of my best friends is having a baby in November? Yeah, so add "something baby" to my list of things to make. I hope she'll have a girl!

Pounds and books

You know, if I was writing in French, the title of this post would have been 'Livres et livres'. It would have been cool.

It's been a while since my last update so I thought I'd share what's been going on.

First, can I say just how much joy these boys bring me?

They are my life and I thank the stars every day that I'm lucky enough to be their mommy!

***

So I'm still doing the Couch to 5 K program. I'm currently on week 6 (I did day 2 last night). Things are going so well, I'm very impressed with the progress I've been making. I could hardly run for one minute straight at the beginning of April and I can now run 20 minutes straight (I'll be doing 22 tomorrow). I'm slow as a snail, but I've stopped worrying about my speed. I'm running and it's all that matters.

I'm still on Weight Watchers as well and things are good. I've lost 20 pounds so far. I've sort of hit a plateau this month, but I've heard it often happens when someone starts exercising (something about water weight). I have faith that the weight will come off. And I went from a size 18 to a size 13-14 so that's good for sure :)

***

I've been knitting. I'm saving it for another post.

***

Books! I have now read 7 books this year, more than half of my goal for the year! The last one I've read is 'The Host' by Stephenie Meyer (of Twilight fame).

I'm not a huge Twilight fan (I enjoyed the books, except the last one, but I didn't go crazy for them). But I think Stephenie Meyer has a great imagination and it shows in this book. It's the story of an alian whose specie took over the earth by inserting itself in human bodies (or host). The main character, Wanderer (aka Wanda), got inserted inside a 17 year old girl named Melanie, but Melanie has a strong personality and she stays inside her body even after the insertion.




The book was long (over 600 pages) and it took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I really got sucked in. I thought Wanderer was a little bit too perfect for my tastes (I love me some flawed characters) but I still enjoyed the story. I was a little disappointed to learn that there's going to be a sequel, as I think the conclusion was perfect, but we'll see. I gave the book three stars out of five.

I'm currently reading 'Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us' by Michael Moss. Very interesting read so far.

Books I've been reading

So another one of my 2013 resolutions was to read more. I've always loved to read but I've been putting books aside since having kids.

Thanks to my friend Robyn who inspired me to join Goodreads, I've been reading a lot more these past few months. My goal was to read 12 books this year. I figured a book a month was doable. Well I'm happy to say I'm now at 6 books, so I'm halfway there!

Here are the ones I've read:

1. GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn
What a great way to start the challenge! The novel tells the story of a couple, Nick and Amy, who each tell their side of the story (one chapter is Nick, the next is Amy and so on). As you can guess by the title, Amy disappears and Nick quickly becomes the suspect. Did he or didn't he? The book is a real page turner, I couldn't put it down! I gave it five stars out of five.

2. LIFE OF PI, by Yann Martel
(Ok I totally wrote Yarn Martel at first!) I had been wanting to read this book for a while and it was the book of the month in one of the groups I'm in on Goodreads. It's very very different from Gone Girl, unsurprisingly. Not as much of a page turner, not as much action. It moved a bit too slowly for my tastes and I was gonna give it three stars until I got to the end. Oh how I loved the end, it was totally unexpected for me. So I give it four stars.

3. DIVERGENT, by Veronica Roth
It's not a secret, I love Young adult novels, especially dystopian ones and that one was gooood! The story is about Beatrice Prior, aka Tris, who lives in a society divided in five factions that each honor a particular virtue. At 16, each teenager must choose in which faction they want to spend the rest of their lives. Born in Abnegation (the selfless), Tris must choose between staying in her faction with her family or listening to her heart and go with the Dauntless (the brave). I loved the story and the world the author built. I can't wait for the movie to come out! Five stars.

4. INSURGENT, by Veronica Roth
Surprise, surprise, I went for the sequel next. I loved it just as much as the first and I'm now very impatient for the end of the trilogy to come out in the Fall! Five stars.

5. MATCHED, by Ally Condie
Another Young adult dystopian novel! Cassia lives in a world where everything is decided by the Society. From the clothes you wear to the food you eat to the work you do. And if you want to marry, the Society will find a match for you. Cassia is happy to live this way and even happier to finally be old enough to be matched... That is, until she receives two matches instead of one. This book was ok. The Society concept is interesting even though it's not that original. But I'm getting tired of love triangles in most young adult books and this one was the main focus f the story so meh. I will probably still read the next two, but I'm in no rush. Three stars.

6. PAS: CHRONIQUES ET RÉCITS D'UN COUREUR, by Yves Boisvert
This one is in French, obviously. Simply put, they are stories about running, told by a runner. As someone who is currently trying to learn how to run, I found it very interesting and it motivated me even more to try and get better at it. Five stars.

That's it. I started The Host, by Stephenie Meyer, so I'll hopefully post about it soonish!

Hello, world, I'm running!

So one of my New Year resolution was to lose weight and train for a 5K.

Well I'm proud to say that I'm doing both!

I've lost 16ish pounds since January. I'm very happy about that, even though I still have a lot to lose. I'm in no rush to lose it all since I've given myself until summer 2014 to lose 70 pounds. I'll get there.

I've also started the Couch to 5k program, which, if you couldn't guess, has you go from couch potato to running a 5k in 9 weeks. I'm currently on week 2 and it's going well. I got myself some brand new running shoes and I'm enjoying the workouts. I have to run with the baby in the jogging stroller during the week, which is much harder, but then I find my weekend stroller-free runs so much easier!

On top of the 5k during the Montreal marathon, I've also signed up for the Color Run in August (if you don't know what it is, look it up on YouTube). It looks like tons of fun!

Look, knitting!

I told you there would be knitting! Sadly, this is all I've knit in all of February! I love the project too, I'm not sure why I'm not working on it (or anything else) more. I actually started mitten #2 last night even though I still have to knit the thumb on this one.

Project Life, how much do I love you?

The answer is: a lot.

I've been thinking a lot about this blog and my desire to come back to it. My problem is: I don't knit as much as I used to. Not because I don't like knitting, don't get me wrong. But with two very young kiddos, I have very limited free time, but lots of hobbies. Blogging about knitting is fun, but there can only be so many pictures of a half-done mitten before it starts getting repetitive, if you know what I mean.

So this blog is going to change. It's going to be about my hobbies in general, so yes, it will include knitting. (I've really only knit one single mitten in all of February, and it's not even done. I still have to knit the thumb. I love the mitten, but I don't think it'll get worn this year!). I'll also be posting about my other hobbies: reading, photography, digital scrapbooking and Project Life. I also want to talk about weight loss (13 pounds down and counting, woohoo!) and eventually, I'll start training for my 5K and I'm sure I'll want to talk about it too. So stay tuned! :)

So as the title of this post suggest, I'm going to talk about Project Life today.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to take pictures, especially since I have kids. I feel like they grow up so fast and I hate that I can't remember everything from their life. Since having Laurent, I realize that even though Julien is still very young (he just turned two on Saturday), there are already things I had forgotten about him as a baby. Laurent is growing up so fast too and soon I won't have anymore babies to remind me of how they were.

So I started a digital Project Life album so I can remember. I try to write about all the little things I like about them, Julien's favourite songs, Laurent's stats from his doctor appointments, etc. And I take lots of pics! I'm loving it so much that I decided to go back and create a Project Life album for my 2012 pictures. It's much smaller (two pages per month except for Laurent's birth month, October, which has four) and there isn't as much journaling in it, but I still like it. I finished it two weeks ago and sent it to Blurb to get printed in a photo book. I got it yesterday and I'm in love.

It's a beautiful 12X12 hard cover book. Julien has already looked at it several times, he loves it and I know his brother and him will cherish it for years to come.

Here are a few more of the layouts:

Nose and glasses added because my friend doesn't want her son's pic online.

I used the Project Life Clementine core kit, some Project Life templates and others created by Lori Whitlock, as well as a few elements I found here and there.

I'll post some of my 2013 layouts soon. And maybe, just maybe (ok probably) I'll go back in time again for a 2011 album...

Life and other things

Hello world,

Things have been crazy again in our household, due to that evil evil thing that we call gastro (i.e. a bad stomach bug). The effects were pretty mild on everyone but Laurent, the poor baby was sick for five days! He's doing better now and I finally got some sleep and I feel like me again. I hope it stays away from our house for a long long long time now.

So there hasn't been a lot of knitting. I've been working on my mittens, hoping to finish them before the end of winter, but considering I'm not even halfway done with the first mitten, it looks like I'll wear them next winter instead. On the other hand (hand, mittens, get it?), winters are long in Canada, so you never know!

I'm working happily on Project Life and it's going well. I can't wait to have an album made at the end of the year. In fact I like it so much I also started a 2012 album. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's an example of a layout I've done for my 2013 album (in French, obviously):

A small sweater for a big baby

So I have a FO to share. I knit a little sweater for my sweet baby Laurent. I chose the Telemark Pullover and chose to knit the 12 months size because I had heard it ran small. I finished it a few days ago and it just fits my three month old! I'm guessing he'll be able to wear it a couple more times before it's too small for him. Oh we'll. I really like the sweater and I plan on making it's version 2.0 for Julien too.
Pattern: Telemark Pullover, by Erika Flory
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Sport in Depths
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm circular needles

 Since I finished this, I cast on for a pair of mittens for MEEEEE, using leftover yarn. Pattern is Herringbone mittens with poms, though I'm doing mine without poms.

2013! Woohoo!

I know, I know, it's been a while. Things have been cray-zee in here these past few months, let me tell you! I can't believe we're in 2013! Time really does fly. My big boy is going to be TWO in less than two months. I can't believe it! And my little baby is getting so big! So lots of things have been happening, especially these past couple of weeks. With a new year always comes new plans and new goals for me. So I recently: -Signed up for a 5K despite the fact that I currently get out of breathe while tying my shoelaces (exaggerating just a little here). The race is in September (during the Montreal marathon) so I figured I have plenty of time to prepare, right? -Signed up for Weight Watchers. Because it's about time I do something about the weight (plus, I'm assuming being smaller will help with the running). -Took a little workshop to learn how to do a digital Project Life. I take tons of pictures of the boys and the plan is to do the layouts all year long and get them printed in book form afterwards. I'm very excited about this project! Also, I have vowed not to get pregnant this year, hahaha. :) There's been some knitting recently too and I'm almost done with a little baby sweater (hoping it'll fit my little Laurent when I'm done). I promise I'll come back here and post pictures very very soon! :)

We have a foot!

Phew! I've been wanting to blog more, but with a new baby (and the just slightly older one) at home, I haven't had the time. I've been knitting though, believe it or not! Last year, I knit a Christmas stocking for Julien for his first Christmas and I wanted to do the same for Laurent this year. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it before the Holidays, but I'm making good progress so far: I have a foot! Now I just need to keep on knitting the leg and I should be able to hang Laurent's stocking sometime in December!

Introducing...

On October 14, I welcomed into my life a beautiful and perfect little boy who seemed to like his handknit blanket. Say hello to Laurent! And here's his little face: I loooove him! And now our little family is complete :) I also have knitting news, but I'll save that for the next post ;)

Hellooooo!

So. The last time I blogged, I announced I was pregnant. That was back in March. And here I sit today, on my due date (looks like this little one will be late like his brother was) and I realize that I miss blogging. So here I am. I have no idea if anyone will read this, but it's all right. I blog for myself. I've kept this blog since 2004, that's a long long time, and I want to keep doing it even if I sometimes go through weeks or months of silence. But right now, I want to blog. An odd thing seems to happen to me when I'm pregnant. Both times, I lost my knitting mojo. It happened when I was preggo with Julien and it happened this second time too. You would think I'd want to go crazy knitting baby things, but I don't. I barely touched my needles for months. Then at the beginning of september, I had two weeks of vacation which were followed by the start of my maternity leave and I finally finished some things. Pattern: Teddy Bear Baby Blanket, by Barbara Breite. Yarn: 11 skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Gulfstream (held doubled) Needles: US 11 - 8 mm circular Pattern: Owlie Hat, by Teresa Cole. Yarn: Cascade 220, colorway 8905 Needles: US 8 - 5 mm circular (magic loop) And that's all I knit for the baby! After that, I decided I wanted to work on my socks in progress, so I finished these: Pattern: Grape Vines, by Robyn Grauer. Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonals in Blue Violet Needles: US 1 - 2.25 mm DPNs I'm currently working on a pair of Cookie A's Vilai that I actually started in February! I don't expect I'll finish them anytime soon considering I'm still on the first sock and baby will have to come out soon, right? Right?

Hello there!

I am very much aware that I haven't posted in over a month.

See, this thing happened: I went back to work. OMG! Juggling family life and work life is not easy, I'm sure you all know that. I'll admit it, going back hasn't been easy.

I've had no time for myself, I've been exhausted, and omg the nausea...

Wait, nausea? That can't be work-related now can it? Nope.






















(Please do not mention this on Facebook!)

That also explains why I'm also crazy exhausted. Oh and sorry about the blurry pic, my camera didn't want to focus at all.

I'm not sure when I'll blog next, I haven't been knitting AT ALL lately (funny thing: I also lost my knitting mojo for months when I got preggo with Julien). So I'll see you all around :)

Photo of the week

Lens: 50 mm f/1.8
Info: f/4, 1/200, ISO 400

I almost didn't post this week. But then I thought I couldn't give up on my project 52 after only 6 weeks. So a picture of my son it is. He's a cutie :)

I promise some knitting content later this week.

Photo of the week

Lens: 50 mm f/1.8
Info: f/2, 1/200, ISO 400

I don't like this picture, but it was the only one I had for last week. The whole family has been SICK with gastro last week. Boo. Let's just say that taking pictures was the last thing on my mind.

So I ended up taking this pic of my son's music box. I don't like the black frame behind it, but my Photoshop skills aren't good enough for me to clone it out, so there you go. Hopefully next week's pic will be better.

A good old pair of socks!

My friends, I present to you the first FO of 2012.


Pattern: Norfolk Ramblers, by Emma Grundy Haigh.
Yarn: Les TricotLores Wool Alpaca
Needles: US1 - 2.25 mm DPNs
Notes: The pattern would have worked better in a solid or semi-solid yarn, but it still goes well with the variegated I had (it looks better in person). I'm really trying to use up some of my variegated yarn whenever I can.

I knit these socks as part of the December Sockdown challenge on Ravelry. I had until January 31st to finish them, but sadly, I finished on... February 1st! One day late! I would have finished them on time if the whole family hadn't been sick this past week. Julien had a cold, he got gastro AND has an ear infection. Then I got gastro and of course Chris got it too. Everyone is healthy right now, finally (though Julien is still on antibiotics for his ear).

Anyways, now that the socks are done, I want to A) Finish a bulky yarn earflap hat I started a while ago B) Cast-on for mittens C) Cast-on for new socks (I'm thinking of going back to Sock Innovation for my next ones, we'll see).

Photo of the week

Lens: 50 mm f/1.8
Info: 1.8 - 1/60 - ISO 1600

I didn't take many pictures last week but I really liked that one, even though I had to bump up the ISO because there were no light in his room.

I'm sorry for the lack of post last week. I had planned on posting a FO, but the O didn't get F after all. I'm planning on finishing it this week for sure, so I should post pics later this week.

Photo of the week

Lens: 50 mm
2.8, 1/400, ISO 100

I really wanted to try and take a picture of something other than my son. Last week was COLD, but it was also really beautiful. I took this pic right in front of my house.

Stop, stash time!

A friend of mine (non-knitter) recently asked me to post pics of my stash in a Facebook group I'm in. So I did. I always like to do this exercise because it allows me to see just how much I have.

It's really not that bad, compared to many, but it feels like a lot. Probably because it would take me over five years to knit it all...

(The pics are beyond bad, I just quickly took snapshots, in bad light too)