Hello Kitty Hats with Instructions

I made some sweet Hello Kitty Hats for our nieces this year for Christmas.  In figuring out the pattern I made 3 other hats that I didn't like and ripped apart.  I finally decided on a basic idea I found after looking around on flicker.  I never found the pattern just a picture.  I tweaked around with it and made these awesome hats. They are worked flat and are great for beginners and are super fast to knit up and end up looking adorable.

Materials
worsted weight yarn
US size 8 needles
yarn needle

Size
Baby=cast on 26 stitches
Toddler= cast on 28 stitches
Young Child=cast on 30 stitches
Adult=cast on 40 stitches

Hat Pattern
Cast on the correct number of stitches for the size of hat you are making.  Knit 4 rows in seed stitch.  Begin working in Stockinette stitch for 12 inches (for adult hat only, others will have to be "eyeballed" since I gave away the originals).  Knit 4 more rows in seed stitch and bind off.  Turn inside out and sew up sides of work with white yarn.

The cat hat is now done, it you are happy with having cat ears then put it on and strut your stuff if you want to pay homage to that dear kitty then a bow in the future. 

Bow Pattern
Cast on 9 stitches in desired color.  Work in stockinette stitch until it desired length.  Bind off leaving enough yarn to make the center of the bow by wrapping it around the middle of the the piece. Tie a knot to secure.  Sew this onto the bottom of the right (as you are looking at it) ear. 

Crazy Busy Break

I find it amazing that life can get so busy when you don't have to go to work.  The first week of Phil's break we cleaned the whole apartment and reorganized the craft/office area and Pete's closet.  Phil also typed a lot of Anson Call's journal so he can get it on Blurb before break is over. Phil is attempting to type up his relatives journals and have them turned into readable and saveable books.  So far he has his Grandma Call's completed and for sale online and Anson's is about done and just needs some finishing touches.  We don't get any of the money for them it just covers the cost of the printing and binding.  Pete had a doctor's appointment and found out he is in the 50% for weight and height while is head is in the 80%.  He also has to go in for an ultrasound sometime in January to check on some things.  Pete and I took a trip up to Fort Wayne to do some last minute shopping and for a good time with Grandma.  I finished up all of the Christmas presents early!  I had about 3/4 days to spare, I was also able to finish watching the entire series of Bones.  So my knitted Christmas presents consisted of 3 Hello Kitty hats, 2 Knit Nativity sets, and 1 Sushi Scarf. I still have 2 more Hello Kitty hats to knit for someone at church, but then I will be done...Until I finally get around to working on my scarf for the year!

Oh and Merry Christmas!


I just realized I never posted this so it is a bit late but still enjoyable!


So Happy New Year!

Pete's Christmas Pictures

Here is the link to the Christmas pictures we had taken for Pete the other day.  I also posted it to facebook, but I thought those non-facebook people might enjoy a looksie.
Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Pete & Lucy

Cool Kid

Dress up time happened yesterday morning.  Pete loves putting on the glasses and the sweatband is always floating around the apartment.  I thought he was so funny that he wanted both on at the same time with the paci after his nap! A great combo to start out the morning right!

Hair Vs. Family Pictures

Our family pictures are going to be interesting this year for sure.  Phil is growing out a goatee for No Shave November and I just got my hair chopped off and when I say chopped I mean pixie!  I have been wanting this for some time and today I called to get an appointment for sometime this week and they had one open tonight, so I didn't have time to over think it.  I love it!  It is so different from what I normally do the last time it was this short was about 2nd or 3rd grade so just a bit of time has passed.  These are just a quick pics I shot in the bathroom (I use the bathroom to take the pictures so I can see what I look like in the mirror and because there is some good lighting there at 8pm)  in a hurry before my camera battery died. 

Dino in the Middle

We took some family pictures to show off our new hats we got for the winter.  We decided to go with a bit wackier hat style this year.  They are really fun and mine is super warm!  Pete isn't the biggest fan of his, but everyone else is so he deals with it. Phil wore his hat to school for hat day during Red Ribbon Week.  Life is busy, but really that is just the norm around here.  We are starting to look for houses around town, though I doubt we will really start really working on it until spring.  Lately we have been thinking Eileen was lonely so today we picked her up a new friend.  I think we are naming her Millie, but that may still be undecided.  

 

Pete had 3 shots today, I'm finally getting around to getting his 1 year shots taken care of since they don't do them in the doctor's office.  He had too many to do in one sitting so in the next couple of weeks he get to go in for 3 more!  That is even without the Chicken Pox and flu vaccines that we are skipping. Pete has also been cutting so many teeth.  Last week he got 5 in and he is still working on some more this week.  I can't get a very good count because I value my fingers being attached to my hand when I am done!  

I've been keeping busy finishing up Halloween costumes and sewing diapers.  I had to sew Pete's outfit and knit my whole hat in preparation for it.    I've decided to do full time cloth diapers.  We have been having some issues with Luv's diapers leaking the pellets out of the diaper and onto Pete while he is sleeping.  I find it really disturbing and I've been working on building up a stash of my homemade liners and getting Pete his new size of diapers since he is right between sizes.  I'm now starting to work on some Christmas presents for everyone.  I've figured out my nieces presents and Phil's family's presents, and Pete once I finish up with a project I'm working on; but everyone else I haven't even contemplated!  It is a fun time of year and I do really enjoy working on these projects but sometimes it is daunting to get started.

Happy Halloween!

I did make all of our costumes.  I put the ears on Pete's hoodie and made the cloak and knitted the hat with buns for my costume, the rest of ours were from last year.

Happy Halloween!

Pete Zones

These are from last month but I just found them lurking around some dark corners of my picture files and had to bring them to light here on the blog. We don't watch tv around here, we only have our tv turned on when we specifically are watching a movie or playing a video game other wise it is unplugged!  Last month my parents were on vacation and loaned us the Roku (it plays internet videos through the tv basically) this drastically changed our television viewing habits while they were gone and we gave it quite a work out.  Pete is definately not used to watching tv and would zone out horribly when we would turn it on for him, here he is zoning out on March of the Penguins.  It is so fun to watch him just glaze over when anything is on.  He also developed a love for Shaun the Sheep, not just nature videos. 

I love how he doesn't even notice me clicking away the pictures normally he is into the camera and forgets whatever he was doing before! 

Really I am glad that we don't have tv, we save a ton of money by not using that electricity and by not having another bill and I think we are better off without it.  I do have the internet as a distraction but it isn't something I can run in the background all day long or just use as a constant babysitter for Pete.  I also enjoy having the excuse to actually play with my son instead of "zone" with him. 

mormon.org

So if you don't have much else to do and want to check out a cool website may I suggest going to mormon.org.  I have a profile there, you should totally go and check it out and see what you think! You can also go and look for other people, but really don't you want to look at mine?

Goal #1-Success

So for Weight Watchers the first goal is that they give you is to lose 5% of your overall weight.  Well today I finally hit it!  I swear my high school math class has been haunting for the last month.  I was always approaching the goal but never quite hitting it, just like those nasty graphs in algebra! I went from losing about 2 lbs a week to maybe .2 lbs and then went up .8 lbs last week!  Well today I lost 1.4 lbs!  It was so exciting for me!  My next goal is to lose 10% of my starting weight.  I have lost 11 lbs since joining Weight Watchers.  I am really hoping to lose this bit a little faster because it isn't "birthday season" in our family after Phil's and Mom's in September, so no excuses!  I am super excited about it and hope to post about future progress soon!

Eileen the Wonder Pig

This is our new pet, Eileen.  She is an adorable 5 month old guinea pig. We are having so much fun with her!  It is nice to have a critter around other than a fish.  We did have fish if you recall back awhile but they died due to Muncie's water.  Now that we have a career (not just a job) we decided that it was possible to have a pet to actually spend time with, not to mention, because I am a complete and total sucker for cute and furry and Pete really likes watching animals and petting nicely.  We decided on a Guinea Pig because we aren't allowed to have cats or dogs in our apartment and because they are a bit more friendly than other rodents plus if she does get away she is big enough to find and I don't have to worry about there being an infestation like I would with mice or rats. We also don't have to pay the extra rent the comes with owning a dog or cat at an apartment with her either!  We adopted Eileen from Heartland Small Animal Rescue she was not only cheaper than adopting from a pet shop but also we were helping her out too, and I must say she is much cuter than any at the local pet shops.  Pete loves her and can say her name (Eyeen) and if you ask her where she is while you are anywhere in the house he will quickly crawl to her cage and show her to you. She also doesn't seem to mind him too much either as long as someone is holding her and someone else is holding Pete.  Otherwise it can get a bit tricky.




She was not a big fan of the camera when I tried to take pictures but hopefully that will change with time and I can get some better ones!

Sleeping Pete

 I know I have a billion posts about this but sleeping babies are still about the cutest thing ever! Oh and it all started out with an angry sleeping baby, that looks adorable in his gdiapers.

Apartment Pictures- Master Bedroom

I finally took some pictures of our apartment.  I thought I would show off our awesome Ikea furniture that we picked up in our massive trip to Ikea this summer.  We had some furniture that we bought off of my old boss Marydella, it wasn't pretty but it only cost $50 for the entire bedroom set and we didn't have anything at the time, so it was great for us.  It was ugly, it was plastic that has a wood grain to it, and a bad 70's vibe.  This time we upgraded to particle board!  It was pretty much the cheapest stuff that Ikea has for a bedroom, but we loved it, we had a budget that could have handled the better quality stuff, but we really like the look of the Aneboda Collection.  We ended up getting two nightstands, one dresser and one wardrobe.  Phil likes to hang up all of his clothes while I hate hanging anything but skirts and dresses, so it really worked out well for us.  The best thing is that they can hold all of our stuff! I actually have an empty drawer in my nightstand!  Our last set we had to have the whole thing stuffed just to hold my stuff, the things were huge, but really didn't have any space on the inside.  The towels on the bed are because the is what I had just finished before taking pictures. I love the way that we "fold" them now, it was always a big argument as to how to fold the towels (dumb I know) Phil like it one way I preferred it another. This apartment doesn't have a linen closet (designed by a guy, most definitely) so towel storage was a bit of an issue, but we re-purposed a couple of things and ended up using Pete's plastic storage tub for it. Folding the towels it will hold about 2 per drawer, which isn't very useful, but rolling them and I can fit 4 towels in a drawer!  I won't lie it makes me feel fancy by having my towels rolled, like a hotel...if only I wasn't the one washing, drying and rolling them then it would be a bit more realistic.

A Day with the Calls

I love his oooh look!

Pete and Aunt Sarah

Labor day weekend we went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art with the Call Family.  We were in town for Miss Josey's blessing so we left the Horn's to see the Calls while we were a bit closer.  The Art Museum is free and they have a ton of grounds to see so it made it an ideal location to have a picnic and be together, but the weather didn't have the same thoughts and decided to be 102 that afternoon.  We spent some time looking at the European art area.  Pete wasn't sure if he like it or not, but he did love Aunt Sarah's camera!  I love his look on these pictures! For dinner we headed out to 5 Guys Burgers, it was so tasty and fun.  The we just got the little burgers and they were so big that Phil and I couldn't finish ours and the fries were really good too, you could actually tell that they were made out of potatoes not some other strange concoction of ingredients. Pete really wanted to get a bite out of one since he was using a knife and fork.  We then took a quick trip to Trader Joe's which is in the same area as 5 Guys Burgers.  I love just looking around that store and wish there was one up in our neck of the woods.  Pete decided that he needed to drive the minivan for Grandpa Call before we departed for the day.  Sorry for the late update, but at least it happened!

Pukey Pete

 Pete has been super duper pukey lately (more than he was even as a newborn and spit-up).  I don't know if he is allergic to something or if it is a sinus/allergy issue with pollen, but it is nasty!  He has barfed at least once a day for the last 2 1/2 weeks, and it is grossing me out. I took him off milk the other day after noticing that he puked more after drinking it, though I drank milk while breastfeeding and he had the regular milk-based Similac and he was fine on regular whole milk for about a week.  I don't know what is going on but it is gross, he has a doctor's appointment for his well-baby checkup in about two weeks but I don't know if I should take him in or if the doctor is just going to say freaky over-reactive mother and say he is fine or the worst answer for anyone is it is an upper respiratory infection and needs to work its course.(can you tell I have been told this too many times?) It is also a new doctor since we moved and The Amazing Doctor Russ from Muncie moved on and is no longer at the same office.  Sadness...He has also been a picky eater lately and doesn't trust us about what he is eating.  He is fine with eating the same thing as us at the same time, but for snacks he has to be the one to get it out of the box and bowl and eat it because he thinks I am trying to sneak something extra healthy (that I wouldn't eat) into him.  But something healthy that he does like is tofu! I was really surprised when he ate a whole bowl of tofu stir-fry the other day and keeping down was even more impressive! I am trying to eat at least 1 tofu dish a week to get a cool pair of shorts and so far we are doing pretty good.

If anyone has any experience with what is going on with Pete that would be great!

The Washing Machine vs. The Apartment

Apparently our washing machine has it out for our apartment.  It decided it needed to wash the whole thing and almost managed to do so the other day.  The only room that wasn't wet was our dining room, which is really my craft room and Phil's office so we are so blessed to not have the water there.  The lid was left up the other night on the washing machine so it filled up and should have just soaked everything, but instead and kept filling and filling and filling and didn't stop until 4 in the morning when Phil woke up for the day and stepped in soggy carpet!  It made it through our whole apartment, except the dining room and our pantry which is right across the hall (3/4 feet away).  Our bookcases in the living room soaked up a nice bit of water and we have 5 fans running along with the air conditioner and dehumidifier.  It is quite a loud place to be right now so we have been staying at my parent's house while it dries at our home.  It hasn't been much fun and has made it hard to try and get ready for farmer's market, but we succeeded today in selling!

Pete and the Greek

Last week I printed a coupon for free Greek Yogurt. Well I really liked it (truthfully it was mostly the honey that made it tasty, but the texture was good too), but normally the stuff is way too expensive to eat on a regular basis.  I got a wonderful yogurt maker from Grandma Horn for Christmas last year and decided to try my hand at making Greek style yogurt.  Last night I set it up and let it go and this morning it finished up and was ready to go into the fridge.  I was checking the texture to see how thick it got right out of the machine and Pete was going crazy wanting it.  I went ahead and gave him some, but mind you this was plain yogurt, no sugar and not even cold! Heck it was still warm.  Yuck! Well apparently he really like it because he ate about half of the container before he thought it would be even better if he ate it with his hands and wiped it all over his face and head. I haven't had any yet but I will here in a little bit, I just prefer mine with honey and cold...

...But the story of Pete and the Greek continues because then he got really angry about something...

evidence

About 5 minutes later and now the reason for the sudden anger...

He was just too tired to finish his yogurt!

Pictures...

I took a bunch of random pictures from our day last week.  It wasn't anything special just a "let's pull out the camera day"

I thought this picture was so funny, he'd just gotten done sneezing when it finally took!

Enjoy!

Stinky Pete

Pete is being such a stinker lately! Today he was anti-nap all day long I finally got him down for his morning nap at 11am and his afternoon nap didn't come at all today, though he did play in his crib for 30-40 minutes while I decided to take a break. Today he also decided that he didn't like his lunch, so he barfed it back at me (and over his tray and clothes and the floor). He ate the same thing for dinner last night, but didn't want anything to do with it today at lunch time! He has been super fussy lately too. I think he is teething which is probably the culprit on most of this but it is insane all the same. Pete is off bottles now and using sippy cups for during the day full time his early morning milk is in a bottle because truthfully I'm not with it enough to handle Pete with a sippy cup at 5 am! Before he was happy with the flip straw ones then one day he wouldn't have anything to do with them, we tried all the ones we owned and he wouldn't use any of them. Finally as a last resort I tried some Aunt Kate gave me that she didn't like that were the super cheap take and toss ones and he loved them! But the down side is that he is already breaking through them because of teething on them while he drinks. I did research (okay way too much research) into which ones were good and that he might actually like, he didn't care with the bottles as long as there was milk he was happy so I wasn't use to this type of behavior. Finally I decided on an Avent insulated one (with elephants!) and he actually likes it! I'm so glad because I really didn't want to deal with owning a billion and saving them for years down the road when we have another toddler that needs a sippy cup.

Birthday Bash

Pete's birthday party was on Saturday so that everyone could come and boy did everyone come, we had 20+ people come to his birthday party! We had hot dogs and brats for lunch with lots of yummy side dishes. Grandpa and Grandma Horn hosted the event at their house so that we had enough room and real grass, since our yard still consists of mud. Pete got lots of gifts from everyone, which he has been playing with all day long and loves dearly. After presents he got to have his cake. He had no clue what to do with it, I finally gave him a spoon and he attacked it a bit more. I finally decided to take the cake away when he started to play with his toes, in the cake. He had lots of fun with everyone and ended up going to bed at 6.30 and not waking up during the night because he never ate his dinner or last bottle! He just was worn out after partying all day. It was a super fun time and glad that everyone was there to help celebrate a great year!

A Year in Review- Pete's First Year

Friday was Pete's birthday it started off his celebration by waking up at 2 am screaming. I noticed the time and realized that it was exactly a year since he first met grandma and grandpa Horn at the hospital, (they were in town and he should have been there much earlier). We didn't do too much we spent most of the day at grandma's house baking his birthday cakes.
Here is a review of Pete's first year in pictures!

2 hours old

3 months old

Christmas Day

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

Birthday Picture

It is hard to believe that I have spent an entire year with such an amazing little boy! I love watching you grow up and look forward to doing it for the eternities! I love you so much and can't wait for each day so that we can play, but I also love watching you become independent and play alone with your toys too.

Happy Birthday Petester!

Pete's First Birthday Picture

We got a good deal at Olan Mills a couple weeks ago and it came with the cd with our favorite picture plus the rights to said picture! So here you go and hope you enjoy! I can't believe tomorrow he will be 1!

Birthdays and a Scrapbook

As I said in a couple of posts ago my birthday was last month. We were in Utah at the time and missed having my party with Matt and my family. Since we share a birthday I am not used to having it on my own and decided (though it was far from the opposite as a kid, even teenager) that it is much better to share it. I am not a fan it anymore though it has only happened three times in my whole life (insert miniature violin) this time and while Matt (oh my brother for those of you who don't know) was on a mission. This time is was so bizarre not even seeing my family for a whole week afterwards even, but it was fun to see everyone in Utah so it was well worth it. It was a good birthday and I really don't think I have EVER heard so many renditions of "happy birthday" in one day in my life especially aimed at me alone!
Well when I did get home I had my own party with grandparents and family friends. I received many great gifts. Mom and Dad got me a Cricut! I have been looking into one for awhile and finally decided that it would indeed be useful and not just sit there uselessly until I do my scrapbooks once a year for two weeks. I find it easier to make a massive mess once or twice a year rather than little ones every month or so.
For Pete's birthday I had the goal of having his scrapbook to display for everybody to see...and show off my scrapbooking skills. This gift was perfect it made me actually get to the point of reaching my goal and so I don't have to go out and buy a whole bunch more stuff. I have been running out of alphabet stickers for awhile now and have been using some strange titles to use up obscure letters. Now I just have to pick what I want and how big and make it myself. I have fallen in love with post-it brand again because of their sticky back paper and how much easier it makes my life.
I am almost done with his book now except pictures Wal-greens had a good deal going and so we were running out today and sent them it, well the one in town is not working right now so it got sent to Columbia City 30 minutes away! I'm not sure if I'll be going over there any time soon, so it might be just before his party before the pictures are actually glued in and finalized.

A random request for those with facebook:

A friend Andrea is in a contest for David's Bridal to win a honeymoon and dress and the works! She is currently in second place, a very close second place. Normally I don't care about these things and ignore them. This time it was so sweet and they totally deserve it. So if you get the chance follow the link and check it out. You can read her story for her entry, but also just so further information from another friend, Andrea is a 3 time cancer survivor and has lost two siblings and a parent to cancer but still fights with a smile on her face. I know this will make her very, very happy! She is on page 9.

Thanks everyone!

Moving

Well we are officially moved! We had the internet hooked up today (explains this post)! It is so nice to have the internet in our home and have it be really fast, the down side is paying for it, but now that Phil has a job it is possible and so worth it already! We have finished up packing and organizing the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and living room. Now we just have to finish up the coat closet, storage unit and office/craft area. We put our table in storage because the apartment has a bar and that way we would each have our own work area and keep it contained. Really unless we are having people over for dinner the table was mostly a catchall for junk when walking in the door. This is helping out with that some. I do kind of miss it but the bar is really nice too so it makes up for it some. There were quite a few things wrong with the apartment when we moved in. The air conditioner wasn't working, the water heater didn't work and the washer and dryer hadn't arrived yet oh and there was a leak under our sink and in our furnace room. It was kind of a let down to have to see the maintenance guy so much during our first week in a brand new apartment but really the guy is great. Phil started his training today and so far is still excited about! Sorry no pictures yet, I still haven't unpacked my camera so it isn't really a possibility.

Haircuts

Lately we have been noticing the increasing amount of hair that covers Pete’s ears. It is getting a bit ridiculous so we decided it was finally time to bring out the clippers. We even cracked open the new ones that we got for our wedding! I wanted to start using them when we first got them, but Phil didn’t want to, finally his other ones just were ripping out too much hair to be practical. Pete also appreciated the new quiet clippers as well. Pete sat in his highchair and was good the entire time it took us to figure out which combs to use to get the right length. I don’t think any of his hair was the same length! I guess that is what happens during a first haircut. We were just going to try doing only the ears, but we couldn’t get the clippers to do just that and I wasn’t about to take a pair of scissors and try to deal with it and risk nipping his ear. It was really kind of sad for me because he just got his first haircut and he doesn’t have much hair left right now. Well he really does but it is shorter. It should be good to have it short right now anyway with the heat he sweats horribly so maybe the buzz will do him some good there.

Phil also decided to cut his hair while the clippers were out and the floor was covered in hair so his is a bit shorter as well for the heat this week. I helped Phil out by doing his neck and ears, normally I help out more but Pete decided it was naptime after his haircut.

Now that everyone else went and got their haircut I wanted mine done as well! I went over to Twisted Scissors in Muncie to get it done and I love it! It is so cute! It actually looks like something and is short enough that I can leave it down and not melt and not have to have a ponytail or bun to survive right now. I used the same pictures that I posted here. If anyone needs a place to go in Muncie I would definitely recommend it and the stylist Heather.

Psst….We just found out as well that we got our apartment in Warsaw! We got our address from the complex this morning and found out our deposit amount. The apartment was just completed earlier this month. We have a washer and dryer, new stove and fridge and wood floors. We have a handicap unit that has an extra door and different shower design in the second bathroom. We were going to get a 3 bedroom and have about a month wait, but then we found out this apartment came with a storage unit attached! We are so excited to move and have a new place to call home!