Ten on Tuesday

I had forgotten it was Tuesday until I saw the topic in my inbox. Three day weekends always screw me up. The weather this weekend was horrible. Rain, wind, chilly + long weekend + 2 kids under the age of 5 = cabin fever. At one point I sent Little Dude to run around the trees in the back yard to burn off a little steam. 

10 Things You Did This Weekend.

1. Weeded the kids' books. Outside of their daycare is a Little Free Library, a little house structure filled with kids books with the idea of "take a book, leave a book." I filled half the box this morning with books they have outgrown (and a few Mommy and Daddy couldn't stand to read anymore)
2. Swatched for Little Dude's latest sweater request, well one of his many sweater requests. I've agreed to make him Boys Can Wear Pink by Kate Oates. I'm making this out of the yarn from my frogged Kyoto sweater. The main body will be gray and I'll let him pick the tie color out of the yarn I have. 
3. Bought fabric for Dude and Little Dude matching shirts. I'll be sewing them with this: Simplicity Pattern 5581. We found a great pirate map fabric that both the boys agreed upon. I even have enough to make Little Dude the hat. (He's very excited)
4. Bought a new mattress. This should make a big difference in the amount of sleep I get. My mum is paying for it so even better. Our current mattress is at least 12 years old and wasn't fabulous to begin with. But it was what we could afford at the time. It has acquired over the years a horrendous sag in the middle, fondly referred to as "the pit". Now we'll be drifting off to dreamland on a gel memory foam cloud of heaven. But this means I must paint the room before it is brought in. It will be a while before we get to gutting our room so I'm throwing up a coat of paint in the meantime to class it up a little. Plus I need to paint over the spot in the ceiling that the former owners missed for the sake of my OCD.
5. Further cleaning of the garage. I did a bunch of this a few weeks ago but reached the point where I needed a hand. The husband and I (finally) moved all the weights down to the basement (where they can get used), sorted what was trash and what was to keep, rearranged and organized some. This gives me space to start staging for our tag sale in a few weeks.
6. Ate a s'more. Or a modified version of one; we had no chocolate. Last night it was finally warm enough and nice enough to light the fire pit and introduce the kids to the art and science of toasting marshmallows. Little Dude liked making them, would eat a few bites, then hand it to me and make another. Ah, 4 year olds. I'm determined to get more use of the fire pit this year. 
7. Accomplished several steps in the great furniture rearranging. Normally this is a task I'd tackle in one day, but with minions underfoot I've been having to break it up. I've got two of the big units cleaned out, moved and refilled. I managed to cull at least a box of stuff to sell, inventory my everyday dishes and pack up the set we're not currently using to sell. 
8. Researched and found our glassware. In the paring down of our belongings, one of the things to go are the extrainious glasses. We're going to get rid of our everyday glasses and use the barware we registered for when we got married. It's just missing a few basics and I managed to find the pattern. At Bed, Bath, and Beyond. You know, the people who send you coupons every other day. This is a sign from the universe that I am doing the right thing. 
9. Rescued a friend from a knitting disaster. My lovely friend Suzanne reached out to me with an issue with a wedding shawl she is knitting. The pattern is Bleeding Hearts Stole by Anne Hanson and the yarn is Zephyr Wool-Silk. She's doing a beautiful job on some tricky lace but had been thwarted by some dropped stitches. Dropped stitches in a very open part of the lace. How she even found them is beyond me. How could I not help? For one, we've all been there and two, I can always depend on her to watch the kids for me, whether it's so I can work late or spend some time with another BFF on my birthday.  Plus she's just awesome and one of my dearest friends. So I squared off with a familiar yarn and got to work. Sad to say, I was not able to pick up the dropped stitches but I did tink it back to a workable row for her. Good news, it's back on track.
10. Taught Little Dude what a diorama is and then we built one. He did a crafting project with these little animal things that you color and assemble while I was doing shawl diagnosis. He assembled the first one by himself without any help before I even knew what he was doing and then he charmed Suzanne into helping him color. So what is one to do with a bunch of jungle/safari animals with no place to go? Make them a home. With some paper, markers, an inspirational viewing of The Lion King and a box we made a lovely little home for them. Look at that face. He's so proud.

 

I had to add the picture of the silly face because it's just too cute not to. Little Dude is a ham.

Well that was my weekend. What did you do?