Three Hats are better than One

It must be hat month. I know that in Chicago if it hasn't been snowing that it's been raining all winter....just like it is today... It started out by raining all night long, has been gray all day, and is suppose to snow before the night is out. With all this moisture it has been inevitable that you either stay inside like I'm doing today (I did manage to shower and dress in very comfortable garb - but there is no way that I am stepping one of my little piggies outside) or you need something on your head. So I dub this official hat season (ta-da-da-dah!! I felt like it needed a cymbal crash or something so therefore the little theme music at the end.)

My MIL started it off with the cutest set of bug hats that I've ever seen. Check them out:

I don't know about you - but I CANNOT help but smile when I look at these hats!! With hats that cute - you know that people would "bee" "bugged" not to enjoy them (sorry I couldn't stop myself from the pun [it's a curse]).

I followed it up by making the Sportiest hat ever. I know that must be true because that's what the pattern said. Check it out:

I'm calling it my diet coke hat since I made the brim out of a diet coke case to give it some form inside. It was very easy to make and only took about 8 hours! I also made it out of the some left over yarn from a sweater I made so I know what I can wear it with! Matchy-matchy is all I can say!!

George needed more convincing about the whole coolness factor of the hat.

But as always he makes anything look good. It's Gangster Georgy.

Oh and we bought a house on Friday!!! Take a look - it's in Elgin and we move in about 30 days!!! I can't believe how fast things are moving!!

But remember the odd colors that I was talking about in my earlier blog...well I think that there will be some painting in my very near future:

Really Blue dining room !! Lime Green bedroom!!

Blue/red bedroom. Orange laundry room (actually I think I like the orange and I love the fact that it is on the 2nd floor with the bedrooms. No more carrying the close down one level to do the laundry!)

Now for the parts of the house that I really love:
Pool! Do I need to say anything else?!

Open floor plan - with kitchen and family room connected so you can see the fireplace from the whole room (not to mention the tv which is a great setup for superbowl parties!)







Sun room with skylights overlooking the pool and back yard!!










Look at the corner jet tub in the master bathroom. I think that I'm going to be very squeeky clean!!












So I will do my best to blog - but if I get a bit distracted you'll know why!! Talk to you soon. Enjoy the hat season! Its reason is because of the season after all!!

Leaves Left

I missed blogging this weekend because we were busy house hunting. Yes, we are finally ready to take the plunge again into another house after our first house took two years to sell. But at least this time it is a buyers market and the interest rates are low (two things we missed out the first time!), plus the most important feature is that we are actually going to live it longer than 9 months! This time we are the ones who can make all of the offers. It's so much nicer to be on this side of the fence. But then again....it brings up so many questions...Are we going to find something nice? Is this house the right house for us? Will we have a fence? Do we need a fence? It's all so confusing and exciting. Plus there are ton of houses on the market - so we can be choosy. I don't think that we are too picky - although maybe we are.... because after seeing a couple of houses where the obviously color blind lived....it makes me realize why most apartments won't let people paint the walls. Yikes - some of the colors we saw on the walls were - lime green, bright orange, sky blue, navy/black blue, and one house had fruit wallpaper on every wall, light switch, and fan blade! I can understand a theme - but that is ridiculous!! I'm going to wear my sunglasses to the next house hunt just to protect my eyes from the colors. I hope it's sunny this weekend or people are going to just have to think that I am a star incognito. But one has to protect their eyes from the decoration-ally challenged. Also, I'm definitely wearing boots because my feet were freezing when we were going through the houses. IT has been snowing about every weekend and a couple of the houses were empty and no one had shoveled so we had to hike in snow up to our knees - me wearing only flats (I wanted to make it a quick change at the doorway of the houses). Oh well, we will continue the search. To be continued....

Speaking of snow....I had to include a picture of George outside this past weekend. He has gotten it into his kitty brain that he needs to go outside. It doesn't matter that its cold outside and snow is covering the ground. Here is a picture of George on our front step.
George is definitely Canadian! His is one tough cat. If he wanted a job, he would have made a good mailman cat.

I bet you are wondering why the blog is titled "Leaves Left" - well that's exactly what I have left on the touque that I knit. I did manage to knit a stocking cap (touque) that has maple leaves around the edge of the hat that are knit in two layers (inside and outside) at the same time (every other stitch is the outside then inside). The final result is a mirror image of the leaves in contrasting colors inside vs outside (was that as clear as mud?). But I never finished the tassells which have leaf tassels off the top. I would like to show you the finished product, but since I have the leaves left - you can only see how I have it so far. Well go ahead and take a look for yourself:
Now I don't know exactly why the hat is on the tree - but since the leaves are left....I figured why not! Plus if it looks good on a tree, can imagine how cute it will be on a head?!
I think that even George likes the leaves. Do you think that he is home sick for Canada?
Here is George showing off the inside and outside of the touque. Actually he was biting the leaves. Models are so temperamental!!