Finished Baby's Stocking, Our Christmas, and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I hope that you also enjoyed the holidays! I had a wonderful Christmas with family. It was my son Evan's second Christmas this year and last year he wasn't even one month old yet, so this year felt so special to see the excitement seeing Christmas lights and his first snowfall. I played Christmas music for him a lot during playtime and we looked at the Christmas tree and played with the ornaments. It was such a good time this holiday season and I miss it already.

I finished knitting my son his stocking just in time for Christmas and Santa. I finished it while watching It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. I just had to finish the afterthought heel grafting that night. I was also wrapping a bit and enjoying some eggnog. It was a nice night. 

Pattern: Classic Christmas Stocking by Betty Lai

Needles: US 8 5 mm circular needles

Yarn used: Loops & Threads Impeccable Yarn in colorway Red Hot.

Notes: on Ravelry

On Christmas Eve I also made peanut butter blossom cookies for Christmas day to bring to family. I love these cookies for Christmas they are so delicious and comforting. 

Knitting and watching It's a Wonderful Life! One of my favourite Christmas movies and special tradition of mine to watch Christmas Eve when it is such a special day and feeling of anticipation for Christmas day to come. 

On Christmas day, we had Pillsbury cinnamon buns as a tradition for breakfast. We opened gifts for Evan, Millie, and us. Then headed to my sister's place for our dinner. I didn't get too many photos to share of the day but it was so fun! I got a photo of our tree that night with a few of our gifts below.

On Boxing Day we relaxed at home and I also went on a little walk outside to the store. It was nice to read on the couch a lot of the day and be lazy. Millie also kept me company while I was reading.

I was gifted this book below by Liam called The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel Siegel and Tina Bryson. It seems like it will be an interesting book. I read this book on Boxing day on the couch and ate chocolates. 

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas or Holiday season! I hope that you also enjoy your New Year's Eve and New Years! We will be relaxing at home with our baby and watching a movie once he is asleep. See you all in 2024 and all the best this year to you and your families :) Thank you for supporting my blog by visiting! I will be back soon with another post about gifts from Christmas and planning for 2024! 

Knitting Baby Christmas Stocking and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. It has been so busy lately with Christmas shopping and getting prepared for Christmas. I can't believe Christmas Eve is a week away! I am excited for Christmas and I am almost done my Christmas shopping. I just have a couple more stores to go to then I will be finished.

I have been knitting more of the Christmas stocking for Evan. I am following the pattern Classic Christmas Stocking by Betty Lai on Ravelry. I have most of the body of the sock knitted now and just have about 20 more rows to knit of it before the afterthought heel.

I have been reading It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover and enjoying it. I am almost done and have been enjoying the series. 

I have been watching Christmas movies as much as possible lately and tonight watching Jingle All the Way that I watched a lot when I was a child. I am doing some knitting while I watch and tonight mostly blogging. In the picture below I was watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer its a classic.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you are also enjoying the holidays and have a great week ahead!

Knitting Christmas Stocking for Baby and Preparations for Christmas

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have been getting ready for Christmas by buying gifts, knitting a stocking, and we took our family photo for our Christmas cards last week. I received them in the mail now and I will be mailing them out this week.

I have been knitting a Christmas stocking for my son Evan. I am following the pattern Classic Christmas Stocking by Betty Lai on Ravelry. I knitted one of these stockings for Millie a couple of years ago. I liked the pattern. The cuff was a bit tight and didn't stretch as well but I have an idea to see if it will be more stretchy.

This time I am knitting the letters onto the stocking using the duplicate stitch. I am using a knitting letter chart and going to be doing all capital letters.

Millie has been really busy lately she was climbing the tree and biting the branches again this year. She isn't doing it as much as time goes on. Evan was so interested in the tree too and he liked pulling some soft ornaments down at the beginning mid-November. He isn't pulling them as much now and he still likes to look at the tree.

I have been enjoying Silk peppermint mocha creamer in my coffee in the morning. I love using the holiday mugs I got last year from work Ellen DeGeneres brand. I have been reading It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover. I stopped for awhile but I picked it up again recently to hopefully finish it before the New Year. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I can't believe we are only 15 days away from Christmas now. I really want to make the most of it and watch Christmas movies and enjoy all of the Christmas traditions. How are your knitting and reading going?

Have a great day!

Finished Knitting Toddler Mittens

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. It has been a busy time of the year! We just celebrated my son Evan's first birthday this past weekend. We had such wonderful parties with our families and they showed us and him so much love and support. They have helped us so much through this year. I am getting more into Christmas now and we have decorated our Christmas tree. We will be taking some family photos by the tree tomorrow to send out cards. Looking forward to seeing them when they are done. It is such a wonderful time of the year!

I have finished knitting the toddler mittens. I have been using them for Evan on our stroller walks and they are keeping his hands warm. I also knitted an I-cord to keep them together in his jacket. The first two photos the cuff is unfolded and this is how we have been putting them on Evan so they stay on well. The last two are folded up. The I-cord will keep them from falling off and getting lost and easier to keep them in his jacket.

Baby and Toddler Mittens

Pattern: Baby and Toddler Mittens by Julie Taylor

Needles: US 3  (3.25 mm) and US 6 (4 mm) (knitted on straight needles and then sewed the seam)

Yarn: Snuggly Wuggly Yarn by Loops & Threads colorway pale blue

Notes: on Ravelry here.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope you have a good week ahead.

Have a good day!

Knitting Toddler Mittens and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This month is really flying by! This past Friday marks one year since I have been on maternity leave. I have really loved my time off work with Evan. I have another 6 months to go and really so grateful for this time with him watching him learn and grow and just being able to be there for him. I have Evan's birthday on my mind now because it is at the end of the month November 30th. He will be one years old, I can't believe it! We have some family parties planned to celebrate him and looking forward to it. I will share some photos afterwards of the décor. I am going to be doing a teddy bear theme and I bought a sign that says Evan's Beary First Birthday. I bought him a couple of gifts so far and gave ideas to family. I will buy maybe a few more and have some ideas for gifts for Christmas too. 

I have been knitting toddler mittens for Evan. I decided to knit the toddler mittens with the thumb because he is so close to being a toddler now and will get more wear out of them.  I am using the pattern Baby and Toddler Mittens  by Julie Taylor on Ravelry. I have knitted one mitten and have started knitting the second and just finished the cuff. I am using up the left over yarn form the baby blanket the Snuggly Wuggly yarn by Loops & Threads and knitting on size US 3 3.25 mm for the cuff, then I switched over to size US 6 4 mm for the rest of the mitten. I plan to knit an I-cord to connect the two mittens to weave into his jacket arms so we don't lose them and they are easier to put on. I plan to knit a matching hat soon to make a set.

I am reading the book It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover. This is the sequel to It Ends with Us. I haven't gotten into it yet and it hasn't hooked me right away like the first book. I will read more of it today. I am also still reading Self-Care for Moms by Sara Robinson It has lots of ideas and I read a few pages before bed each night. It is a nice way to wind down before bed too and it feels like self-care reading it. 

Photo source 

Photo source

Millie is keeping us busy along with Evan. She is doing well and loves her brushes in the morning once Evan is napping.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you are enjoying your weekend and have a good week ahead! I am going to be putting up my Christmas tree hopefully next weekend and also going to spend some time decorating my parent's Christmas tree next weekend and have lunch and festive treats. I am also looking forward to when the radio station CHFI (98.1) starts their christmas music this week. They announced it would be sometime this week in their email, so I will be looking out for that! 

Have a great day!

Finished Knitting the Cozy Pumpkin Hat

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I finished knitting the Cozy Pumpkin Hat by Ksenia Naidyon. I really enjoyed knitting it and Evan looked so cute wearing his hat today at the pumpkin patch. It was such a cold day I was glad he had the hat on to keep him warm. He also had the baby blanket on that I knitted for him too. 

Cozy Pumpkin Hat

Pattern: Cozy Pumpkin Hat by Ksenia Naidyon

Needles: US 8, 5 mm

Yarn: Loops & Threads yarn worsted yarn in the colorway pumpkin for body of the hat and Spring green for the stem. 

Notes: notes on Ravelry. I didn't add the vine which I loved because I couldn't seem to get the i-cord to curl. I will work on this to add to the hat it would be such a cute addition.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today! It was a busy fun day today with my family, Liam and Evan. I really enjoyed going on the hay ride and looking at the farm animals with Evan. It is so fun to experience these things with our baby now and see the world through his eyes. 

Have a great day!

Knitting Pumpkin Hat, Puzzle, and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I finished reading It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover. It was such a good book and definitely a page turner for me. I felt like reading it all the time to see what happened next. I asked for the next book in the short series; It Starts With Us for my birthday in anticipation that I would love the first one. I am so glad I did because I can't wait to get started on her sequel next. I cast on a pumpkin hat using the Cozy Pumpkin Hat pattern by Ksenia Naidyon. We are going to the pumpkin patch soon with Evan, so I wanted to knit him a pumpkin hat to wear while we were there. It is getting cold out too so will be good for him to have the festive hat to wear. So far I have knitted the hem and a bit of the body of the hat but still a ways to go to finish it. 

 I worked on my puzzle a bit this weekend that I haven't done in a long time. This one with the cats and books is fun to work on and there is a lot of detail. I managed to get some time to work on it when Millie was busy looking for a fly so she didn't attack the puzzle. It is just part of the puzzle below. 

Millie is doing well. She was busy with the fly lately I think it flew away I haven't seen it for awhile. She is so gentle with Evan and he is still so excited when he sees here and she sometimes rolls over onto her back in a friendly way. 

I was so happy to be able to take Evan out on a walk and use the Arches baby blanket I knitted to keep him warm. Soon it will be too cold and we will be getting him a zip up for winter walks in the stroller. Evan is also doing so well.  He is almost 11 months old now and wanting to walk and crawl everywhere. He is eating so many solids now and he is so curious about a lot we have around. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you are having a good start to the week and had a good weekend. I am getting excited for Halloween now. I won't be doing too much, but I like to watch a Halloween movie and have some candy and chocolate on Halloween night. 

Have a great day!

Finished Knitting the Arches Baby Blanket

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I am so happy to announce that I finished the baby blanket I have been working on for my baby since last November. It has taken me so long and I am proud to be done. I am a mom to a 10 month old baby and found time during naps and chances I could get to have a moment to knit. I followed the Arches baby blanket pattern on Ravelry and you can find links and more notes below. 

Arches Baby Blanket

Pattern: Arches Baby Blanket by LJM Designs

Needles: circular needles US 6,  4.0 mm 

Yarn: Snuggly Wuggly in colorway pale blue

Notes: Ravelry link  In the photos below the blanket has not been washed and blocked yet. I will be doing that tomorrow and the edges will then be more straight once blocked. 

Toys pictured above: Wooden elephant pull toy by Hape, Bumbly bear by Jellycat.(I bought small size)

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I am happy to share my finished project with you all. It has been a long time coming and I am so happy my baby can finally use it! He is one at the end of next month so I am finished just in time while he is still a baby lol I have casted on a pumpkin hat for Evan that I am excited about as well that I will be sharing with you next week. I am continuing to read It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover it is definitely a page turner for me and really enjoying it. What are you working on and reading this week? I hope that you had a great weekend and have a good week ahead.

Have a great day,

Knitting the Baby Blanket, Project Plans for Fall, Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are having a good day. I have been busy with Evan and he is wanting to walk (assisted) everywhere now. He is getting stronger so he lets it be known where he wants to walk to. He is so interested by Millie as she approaches and he laughs and tries to catch up to her. She mostly runs away from him probably thinking that he can grab her quickly and he does sometimes but he also does a lot of gentle pats as we also model for him.  Below is a photo of Evan at the Vtech learning walker we got him recently. He loves to play peekaboo with the barn door. One day I was hearing peekaboo over and over.

I have been knitting the blanket and got to the end of the 16 row repetitions of the pattern I had to knit 13 times. I am now moving on to the knitting 9 rows to end the blanket and bind off at the end. I realised I needed more yarn, so I ordered some from Michaels today along with some other yarn for upcoming project. I can't wait to be finished and then  I will wash and block the blanket so he can use it.

I am continuing to read It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover. I read a bit each night and I look forward to this time to wind down before bed. I am enjoying the story so far and am always interested in what will happen next. I am happy to have incorporated some reading into each day. I love reading and want to read more books. 

I am planning on knitting Evan a pumpkin hat for our upcoming Fall trip to the pumpkin patch. I found a cute pattern on Ravelry called Cozy Pumpkin Hat by Ksenia Naidyon. I bought two skeins of Patons Canadiana Yarnspirations yarn in the colorway pumpkin and also green yarn for the stem and vine in the colorway Spring Green. I also plan to start knitting Evan a stocking for Christmas which I will start soon as well to be done in time. I was thinking of making one to match Millie's. I knitted her one a couple of years ago with her name on it.

I still love my Yarn & coffee mug from Yarn Mamas a long time ago. I look forward to my cup of coffee when Evan is down for his first nap around 10 now. I like to have the pumpkin spice Silk creamer now that it is pumpkin spice season. They also have a peppermint mocha flavour I will have once it is Christmastime.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you are having a good day. It is Thanksgiving this upcoming weekend for us in Canada, so I will be busy this week and weekend getting ready for my family to come over. My mom will be helping me to make the turkey this year at our place. Looking forward to that time together and to have a delicious meal with my family. It is Evan's first Thanksgiving, so we are so happy he will be sitting with us at the table in his highchair.  

Hope you have a great day!

Knitting Updates, Baby Items, and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I was ambitious in my last post and on Instagram when I said I would be done the baby blanket by today. I am very close to being done (only 16.5 rows left) My new goal is to be finished knitting the blanket by Wednesday :) I can't wait to be finished to share it with you all and to also use it on my walks with Evan this fall and winter if we can go out. 

I have purchased a few things for Evan recently I thought I would share with you. I love the plush pumpkin from the Dollarama, it is light and soft an Evan smiles when he sees it. The I Like Me book by Karen Beaumont I bought after watching a YouTube video called 9-12 baby must haves by HealthNut Nutrition. She vlogs about her life and health and she has a toddler and posted lots of videos back when her daughter was around Evan's age so I watch those. I think Evan will enjoy the book later on and it has a really good message about liking yourself for who you are. She also recommended the Bumbly bear by Jellycat. He hasn't really taken to the bear yet, but it is so adorable I hope he will soon! We got the small bear and it is the perfect size for a baby. I found the book the teeny tiny ghost by Rachel Matson online at Indigo. It is such a cute book and Evan looks at the pictures as we read, but he is still not completely focusing on the book. It might takes some time for him to get into the story and look at the pictures. I love all of my recent purchases and I think Evan will really love all of them with time. It is always hit or miss with babies if they like a toy or not. I am always looking out for more ideas of things to get him he is 10 months this week if you have any recommendations! I am looking at the Vtech walker because he is starting to really like to walk assisted. 

And Bumbly again because he is just so cute. I can't wait for Evan to cuddle him one day. He is a couple of other bears he likes to play with, but not really big on stuffed animals yet.

I am continuing to read It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover. It is good so far. I have been reading just before I go to bed lately which has really been helping me to read more.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope that you have a great week ahead! I hope to be here on Wednesday to share with you my Arches baby blanket finish finally! I hope that you are doing well with your projects and reading as well. 

Have a great day!