Chore Charts

E and I have been trying something new with C by giving him a chore chart that spells out expectations. Nothing is too major - it's things like pick up your room and brush your teeth. We also added "be nice to your brother" for good measure.

C is very motivated by stickers so he gets a sticker for each item he completes and once he earns a certain number of stickers he gets his reward. It seems to be working well so far; if he messes up on something like being nice to his brother he still tries to behave so he can get his other stickers.

I did run into one issue - I can't find sticker charts in the store! I know they exist but rather than drive all over the place, I decided to create my own. It was pretty easy. I set up the table in excel and then pasted it to PowerPoint to add the title and stars. To accommodate the stickers I made each box 0.45" by 0.45". Each section was shaded in a different color to distinguish it from the other sections. I also left a few lines in case we need to add anything before we run out of charts.

It was fun to design my own chart. It's great because I could customize it with our specific rules. Plus it was easy to do!

I'm partying with this post over at It's Overflowing, Six Sisters Stuff and I Heart Naptime today.

 

Round and Round I go

The dinosaur I'm knitting is still a work in progress but he's finally starting to look more substantial. The only thing that's getting to me is the seemingly endless rounds of garter stitch. In reality it's only about 50 rounds with 60 some odd stitches each before i start decreasing so it shouldn't be too overwhelming but I think my knitting mojo has flown out the window. I hope it's just because I'm tired and can't really think about knitting by the time the little ones go to bed. I've been trying to "power through" 2-4 rows a night while I wait for my mojo to return. (By the way is it weird that I hear Austin Power's voice in my head every time I type the word mojo?) Ahem, anyway here is the dino so far:

I think he will be cute when he is done, although I hope the striping pattern of the yarn isn't too busy. Maybe by next week I'll have the body done.

For more projects check out Tami's Amis!

 

FO Friday - my Ravellenic Project

Today is Friday, which means it's time for FO Friday at Tami's Amis. I actually have a project to share is week - my washcloth from the Ravellenic games.

I managed to finish it last Friday before the end of the games. I also completed something off my 2012 Resolution list by learning how to knit cables. This was also my first experience with lace. I found the lace harder than the cables but after a few false starts I really got into it.

It's really great to learn so many new techniques. Between this and the color work I learned recently, I feel like I have to eliminate fewer and fewer projects due to skill level when I am searching for a new project. I can't wait to learn more!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

C's last basketball game of the season was this past weekend so I made sure to keep my camera handy to capture some of the highlights. Well at one point during a lull in the action J decided to snap a few pictures. Well let me be more specific - 23 pictures. A few highlights:

And for good measure, one that I took of the basketball player:

Rawr It's a Dinosaur!

I've moved onto my newest project, Terence the Tap Dancing T-Rex. He is one of Rebecca Danger's newest patterns. Her designs are always so cute but this guy is especially fun. I've been quite antsy to work on him but put it off to the side so I could make sure I finished my project for the Ravellenic games on time.

I decided to knit him with some of the sock yarn I bought at the big sale Joann's had a few months ago. Funny enough I bought 8 skeins of sock yarn and so far I'm only setting two aside for socks. I'm using size 1 needles to get the fabric tight enough to keep the stuffing inside; this is my first time using needles this small!

My plan is to pair it with Dinosaur versus Bedtime and give it at a baby shower I've got coming up soon. I can't wait to see how he turns out!

For more projects check out Tami's Amis.

 

First Day of School

Well I'm officially the mom of a kindergartener now. C started school this morning. He did great! Ran right up to his teacher and started talking to her. He barely noticed when we left. I'm so proud of him! 

The Ravellenic Games are Here

The Ravellenic games started this weekend. I joined Ravelry two years ago (hey wait I just realized it is my Ravelversary today!) so I missed out on the last games. I knew I really wanted to participate this year.

Part of the purpose of the games is to stretch yourself as a knitter so I decided to try a couple of new techniques. I picked a dishcloth called Cables 'N' Lace, so no surprise the techniques I'm trying are cabling and lace work. (Cabling is also on my resolution list.) My lace experience to date has been eyelet rows, so nothing tricky, and I've never even touched a cable needle before this. I figured a dishcloth would be just the right size to start with.

So far it's been going okay. I've had to start over a few times so far but surpringly most of the times have been for really simple things that shouldn't be tripping me up. My first mistake was skipping the line in the pattern in between the cast on and the first row of lace that said to seed stitch six rows. So I ripped out what I had done and started over. Then somehow I ended up ribbing instead of doing a seed stitch. On my third try I managed to make it through the seed stitching part and onto the lace part. Four rows in I dropped a stitch and couldn't figure out how to fix it. Back to the beginning of the lace section. Attempt four seems to be going better (knock on wood) but I can understand why lifelines are important in lace.

Here's what I've got so far. I still need to finish the first repeat and do five more. I'm really hoping I finish in time. For now I'm just going to keep chugging along, watching the Olympics and knitting.

For more lovely projects (hopefully going more smoothly than mine!), check out Tami's Amis!