Also, if you’re short on time there’s still hope, plenty of sellers have similar bags on Etsy for affordable prices.

Share

Looking forward to World Wide Knit in Public week! See you June 12th!

Share

Text book reads;

“The tallest building in the world is the Taipei 101 in Taiwan measuring 0.509km. The tallest building in North America is the Sears Tower in Chicago with a height of 0.442 km. What is the difference in height between these two buildings?”

** For the record, I have a problem with this because the CN tower is 0.553 km or 1815 ft tall, built in 1976**

Student;

“Ms.LLLLlllllll, I thought the tallest building in the world was the empire state building?!’

Me;

“Let’s find out…”  classroom projector on, google ‘tallest building in the world’, result

‘So guys, this says the tallest building in the world is in Dubai, when was the book published? 2006? ok, so this text was written before this building was built”

Student;

“Where is Dub-ae?”

Me; queue google earth

Student;

“alright but 2000 ft isn’t that tall…”

Me;

“Oh, it’s tall”

Student

“Well, how tall?”

Me;

“Well, how tall is a T-Rex?”

Student;

“I dunno”

Me;

“5 meters”

Student then runs to the whiteboard and grabs the meter stick off the ledge, other students see this and get up to lend a hand…

Student;

“Ok. One meter, hold your finger there, two meters, and there, three meters… whoa, a T-Rex goes like through the roof!”

Me;

“Tall right?”

*nods*

“So now, how many feet are in 5 meters?”

Google unit conversion, 5 meters = 16 ft

“So how many times does 16 go into 2000?  You can use your calculator…”

Student;

“125!!!”

Me

“Alright, we’d need to stack 125 T-Rex’s, head to toe, on top of each other to get to the very top of the tallest building in the world…”

A brief moment of reflective silence by the students….

Student;

“Ok Ms. L, that building is tall.”

Moral:

Kids love dinosaurs, adults love dinosaurs, use dinosaurs as often as possible.

I love my job.

Share

The process for prepping the cones can be long and pokey but it’s worth it. I soak the cones in my kitchen sink with really hot water and a form of detergent. This year I used Fantastic and bleach and it worked well. Soaking them in detergent helps to prevent mold and gets rid of all the creepy crawlies in the cones. Next, I cover cookie sheets with tin foil and lay the wet cones on the sheets with plenty of space between them to open up. I set the oven at about 200C and let the cones warm up. Pine cones operate with humidity so don’t fret if you’re looking for cones and they’re all closed up. It’s because the humidity in the air is too great and it’s not optimal conditions for the cones to release their seeds. Warming them up in the oven helps them open up as well as letting them sit out in your warm house for a few days. I find that in the oven the bottom scales will open right away but as you get close to the point it takes a little  more coaxing. There’s a reason patience and pine cones start with the same letter.

I rotate the cones ever couple of hours, be careful not to leave them in the oven too long because they will get a little black. The sent of sweet pine resin alone is worth the work.

The one I made for my parents was just plain cones, this year I decided to jazz them up a little and took a trip to my amazing local dollar store. I glued on all the cones first, if you like puzzles you will love this project. Try your best not to get any kind of pattern going, just fit them together as best as possible. Oh and lots for hot glue. With patience and perseverance you will get amazing holiday wreaths.

Share

Now that I don’t live with my parents I still wanted to keep the tradition so I set to knitting stockings for Batman and I. Unfortunately, I’d taken on too many projects that needed to be done for Christmas so this one didn’t get done until after and I still have to make myself one. Next year, we’ll continue the tradition.

I used Valley Yarns Spotten Christmas Stocking pattern but modified it a bit by using Lion Brand Thick and Quick yarn, 7.0mm and 6.5mm double pointed needles. These materials make a nice large stocking but not overly huge. The first think Mr. Kent did when I gave it to him was kick off his slipper and try it on. He has about size 9.5 feet and it was just a tad too big for him.

Share

An IBM model M Keyboard manufactured by UNICORP. Now, I know this monster looks vintage but it’s not, it was built January 27th 2010, special ordered by batman himself. Apparently UNICORP bought the patent from IBM and all the equipment to make these beasts and will sell you one if you desire spring loaded key technology. Now, I hope my blogging is conveying the sarcasm that I feel in my heart because this. is. ridiculous. There’s a reason big companies stop making certain products…

Anyways, he wanted me to test it out and see if my key stroke efficiency increased, how comfortable the thing was to use and how I liked it because apparently I’m a better typist than him and therefore am a better judge of key keyboard qualities.

The following is the letter I wrote to my fiance on the subject and as test run of the mammoth keyboard:

Dear Clark,

I don’t really understand your logic when it comes to buying ridiculously large, archaically loud keyboards that are the colour of malnourished baby poo, a kind of pale greeny beige. I think it’s a silly waste of money but I’m sure you would say the same for some of my silly projects around the house. So I’m going to support you on this one, not only because it makes you smile your ear to ear grin that I love so much but also because you’re in the kitchen cooking my a steak while I write this note to test your silly keyboard.

I hope it brings you endless joy and, yes, it is very comfortable and accurate to type on and, despite it’s appearance, I’m sure in your eyes it’s a worthwhile purchase.

Love always,

K

Let’s just say he’s lucky to have me.  By the way, I wrote this whole thing on the clicky-keyboard-in-question.

Share

Share

I  believe that society, with economic times and growing technology, has come full circle and we are getting back to out roots and the basics for survival. People want to know how it’s made and want to try to make it.

What do you think? Is there a “too young”?

Share

But that still doesn’t leave much time for a social life. This is where I reiterate that I LOVE RAVELRY.  I joined the local knit group on ravelry where I found women my age who also love to knit, we coordinated an evening where we meet at the local pub, drink beer (or pomegranate ciders), eat, knit and visit. We are inspired by others ideas and projects and the conversation is never boring.

I look forward to my weekly Stitch n’ Bitch! See you Wednesday Ladies!

Share

I tried very hard to make all my gifts this year, and if I couldn’t make them myself, they were made by someone else.

The first gifts I made were tiny jars of mint tea for the teachers and staff at the school where I work. Last March we moved into a new home. It’s a beautiful house that was built in the 70’s that is huge and energy inefficient but we love living here. One reason I love it here is the yard. Right outside my kitchen door is a large patch of spearmint. In the summer is wonderful to have the mint right there, many-a-mojito was consumed in the scorching summer heat.

And in the fall, the vigorously growing mint was turned into tea. I chopped all the mint down in September, from what I’ve read it’s best to cut the mint right before it’s about to bloom. I washed and spun the mint and hung it upside down in our storage room to dry. It’s best to dry mint in a warm, well ventilated, dark place. Light can degrade the mint and therefore in the dark is best. Once it was all dry, about a week later, I stripped the leaves off the twigs and stored it in plastic containers.

The dollar store by my work is amazing, there I found cute little jars, two for a $1.25 and some Christmas ribbon. I had gift tag and snowflake punches from last year, I found them on ebay. Gotta love ebay.

Here is the final product;

Share