Buzzin' About with Change in the Air

Aloha!

With the school year coming to a close and me being part of the PTA, May is bursting to the seams. My calendar is blocked out with field trips and end of the year activities - Field Day, Teacher Appreciation + beanies for this event, & Graduation.

Today, I have also made the jump and purchased Knitspiring Odyssey's own domain on Wordpress! Mahalo nui loa to my husband for supporting me in this decision. He is seriously one of my biggest fans besides my mum. And to my homeboy, Fred, for educating me about these kinds of things when I pondered about what to do. So while trying to squeeze in time to play around on Wordpress, my eyes are currently boggling at the 200+ themes. It'll take me awhile to figure out which one represents my blog best, etc.  

Those of you (the allotted 10) who are specially e-mailed a full copy of each KO post from Blogger, will no longer be VIP as Wordpress doesn't have that option. If you are inclined to still want to read KO, I think there will be a widget on the new blog where you can sign up your e-mail for notification of a new post. It will be a quick, informative e-mail where you'll have to go to the original site to read the full post.

And to the rest of my followers and readers, please excuse my absence while I'm buzzin' about. Mahalo plenty for being a virtual shoulder to lean on when I needed one in this roller coastin' journey of life and fiber, and for being an awesome audience of all that has been posted here.

Until then...

Yours Deeply and Truly,

Kepanie

Design in 'da Works

Hello lovelies! Does your child's school host a Teacher Appreciation Day? If so, what goes on?

Teacher's Appreciation is coming up fast this May. In fact, my deadline is Friday, May 17th!

I'm honored that Elaine, PTA Treasurer and good friend, asked me if I could knit a beanie for the staff's raffle. I of course said, "Sure! I'll make two, one for a man and one for a woman."

I was finally able to use Excel last Sunday when E took a break from his online lectures:

The man's beanie will be in Spud & Chloe's Rootbeer. I hope it won't be too dark for a stitch pattern. And I thought the leftover Phydeaux Designs Blood Orange would be lovely for the woman's beanie.

So these projects will be my main focus for now and the others on the back burner.

Sarah of Crafts from the Cwtch talked about digital discoveries in her last post, one of them being a knitting chart maker app. Do any of you who design use a knitting chart program/app? I know something like that is good for lace design. Right now I'm doing Fair Isle though. Thoughts are appreciated!

Oh, and one more thing...

I keep intending to mention the lastest about whether or not to switch to Wordpress. I haven't really had time to play with it yet. I most likely will but then my stylist mentioned Squarespace. I only know it's $8 a month for your own domain. I know for Blogspot on Google, it's about $10 a month for your own domain. I'm not sure about how Wordpress works with all that. I'll have to research all this further and get back to you.

It's growing!

Aloha! I am dressed today like I would be for Oahu!

Mahalo nui loa again for your sweet comments about me becoming PTA President for the next school year. I corrected my thought on the last post as it didn't come out right. Because I have this wonderful opportunity to be home, I just can't be a parent who doesn't do anything. Teachers need our help so they can concentrate on the academics as well as the principal who can then concentrate on keeping things in order. A strong and organized PTA guides and fosters volunteers from the parent community. They all help make the school and like Hilary Clinton had once written, it does take a community to raise a child.

Yesterday I chaperoned Princess Chocolate Cupcake's field trip. Her class traveled to Golden Gate Park to work their second, service project. I jumped in while my half of the class pulled baby weeds and dug holes with trowels for new plants:

I, the grown up weakling and who had to down some Ibruprofen later that evening, manned the big, ol' shovel. This was the most hardcore gardening I've ever done as I had informed the gardeners. When I lived at home, all I did was pull weeds and sweep them up for my mum. I dug holes when the ground was soft enough, learned how to pop grown plants out of pots, and my daughter packed in the soil around each one.

The girls checked out later on and daisy chain making became a hot activity:

We had time to kill after eating lunch so the teacher led us to the DeYoung Museum to ask if we could visit the Observation Deck.

My lovely shawl has grown!

This is four, full repeats. It certainly caught eyes at Nordstrom Cafe at Monday's knitting meet up. I got asked about it twice which was delightful.

There are three more repeats to go before the bottom ruffle and side ruffles.

What WIP of yours has grown in the past week?

Sixty Percent

Annyeong hayseyo, on this beautiful day in the Bay Area.

Kamsa hamnida for the votes of confidence for my new, PTA position. It still seems a bit daunting to me, but I know it will be a good learning experience for me. I told two parents today how I personally felt I couldn't benefit from this school and not do anything about it. I couldn't do just nothing while benefitting so much from the school. So I am proud to be involved. I did have a sleepless night after agreeing to step up to the President position but after talking to Elaine, Nina, and Mindy, I feel better about things. I'm extremely lucky to have been told by several parents that if I need them to help out in any way, to ask them. It feels good to have so much support.

I have to tell you that the principal of my daughters' school is a fantastic leader. This woman is strong and hardworking. She runs a tight ship and her staff works meticulously and dilligently under her. Our ka jok is so blessed to be at this particular elementary school. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

As for school politics, from what I've experienced so far as a parent and as a PTA Secretary, it doesn't really affect us. Yes, we know the district has certain policies for curriculum and certain positions, but our PTA is not bothered by any of that from what I know.

How was your weekend? A few of you responded on FB - how socks were in the works, gardening was getting done, or the garage was being cleaned.

Our weekend was such a low key one, but just lovely. Saturday was pure chillaxin'. I even fell asleep for a late nap because I think I was so pooped from the week. I tried out a new recipe:

This is A Spicy Perspective's Crab and Gnocchi Gratin. It came out well considering how I had to substitute for Half and Half. It's definitely fishy because of the crab, but very tasty.

Sunday, the girls and I picked up a most awesome apple streudel that was brought all the way from Solvang, courtesy of my Moi Moi V. Afterwards there was driveway play:

We don't have a backyard so my past trips to Target had consisted of hunting down sidewalk toys to keep these rambunctious dames occupied. They happily messed about for two solid hours.

I sat and knitted, getting 60% of Teddy #1's jumper done:

It just makes me smile.

Ann yeong and have a great day.

Doing My Part

 Did you eat already? Because a pic below may make ^^ rumblings in your tummy.

Yesterday was kind of a special evening for me. After school I picked up my babies and took them for an early supper at Nordstroms:

I tried their Salmon Niccoise Salad:

It was y-u-m-m-y! The salmon was soft and moist and flavorful with that mixture on top.

After we picked up some ice, we, dames, headed over to the school to set up for the Spring, PTA General Meeting.

Besides, talking about the budget, upcoming events, and what's been going on in the school, there were elections for the new PTA Board.

You're lookin' at 2013-2015's PTA President:

Shark Pride!

 

One Jumper Down

Hello ^^. What's the weather like in your neighborhood? After a good handful days of sun, it's been cooling down. Good ol' high 50s near the ocean and a few degrees higher by the bay.

Thank you for the shawl love. I'm pretty excited about having a first shawl for myself.

Have any of you gone to a Stitch 'n Pitch? Eln asked me about it. I haven't yet. I bet it would be so cool! I really want to go to a Giants game this season. My daughters' school is going to have a community day late September. I want to go to that and it would be nice to hit up a game before that.

For those of you who blog, how long does it take for you to put together one post? I've noticed it takes me about an hour from taking pics to uploading, editing, and then resizing them to getting everything typed out. Does that seem normal to you?

Princess Jellybean's class traveled to the Farmer's Market in Civic Center. All four kindergarten classes took the L train and boy was there a lot of walking. They had learned about fruits and vegetables in class so each small group had the kids draw a picture of produce they liked and tell whether it grew above or below the ground. Honestly, I didn't know about some of them so we would ask the person in charge of the stand.

The Princess's friend there thought City Hall was a castle and wanted to visit it. Cute, huh? As spontaneous and cute as these young ones are, they sure are a lot of work. I think all of us, parent chaperones, were exhausted by early afternoon.

Friday's Farmer's Market is on a smaller scale as I think Wednesdays have more vendors. I couldn't pass up purchasing these treats for the family:

I was never a big pie fan. E is and so I had thought of him last Friday. There is one place near our place that has good pies, something we were exposed to by the Jaravatas. This blueberry pie from Heidi's Pies was fantastic! The guy was so nice and even gave a spoon sample each to my five year old and her two friends. We demolished the pie that very night!

The students always get a kick out of seeing how the kettle corn is made. I should have taken pics but the young guy has this big, heated drum which looks like a big, metal garbage can. He has this large scooper and pours in the kernels, puts on a mask simlar to what's worn by a metal worker, and stirs away. You can hear the popping goin' on and then everything is tipped into another can and sugar is added. It was not easy lugging these treats home with 88 kinders.

Some of you follow Knitspiring Odyssey's FB page. Thank you so much and for being active on it. I had mentioned on there that Lucky's jumper was pau:

Isn't it perfect on him? I <3 it! I got a "Thanks Auntie Stef, you're the BEST!"

It's an easy, free pattern to knit up. I do have to admit, because I was watching baseball and working on this project at the same time, I did have to rip back a few times from starting the next color in the striped pattern too early on the wrong DPN, LOL. 

Thanks Elaine for taking the time to snap this pic for the blog!

With that success, I've started a jumper for my baby's Teddy #1:

I think this color combo will look good on him. They're lighter versions of his fur.

What mini something have you knitted/crocheted up that you totally loved?

And who of you have a FB page for your blog? I already follow on there Truly Mrytle, Hazel's Crochet, Wildflower Wool, Pumpkin Spins, Made in Home, Knitsofacto, and Madame Millefeuilles.

Life around Progress of a Shawl

Aloha! I open up with this song which is really representative of my life:

Mahalo plenty for your sweet and wonderful comments on the last two posts! I love hearing from you and getting your feedback. I also love it when you share something when some bit in my post strikes a chord with you.

Remember how there was the school's annual walk-a-thon last month?  Well guess what? Princess Chocolate Cupcake was one of the three top students in her class to bring in the most donations! Mahalo nui loa sponsors!

So my eldest was recently taken to lunch with two others to a nearby Chinese restaurant:

Isn't their teacher awesome? She's really positive and all about rewarding the good deeds done.

 Check out Poll de Shawl:

Three out of seven repeats are pau.

I used to have a worry that I would get bored while this long term project was in the works, but you know what? I'm not at all! The st pattern is super easy to knit up while watching TV or just soakin' in some vitamin D:

 Saturday we visited West Sunset Playground to get out and to leave 'da Kahuna alone who's currently taking two, cram online courses. My daughters played for over an hour while I knitted my shawl. It's very cute to see the big group of Asian women dance to Chinese music. They come to the park every weekend to exercise and that small group seemed to be practicing a Chinese dance with those awesome, red twirly things. Do you have elderly gather together to do something in your neighborhood?

I totally underestimated the power of the sun that day and ended up with what I call the "Knitter's Tan":

So Sunday I wanted to stay out of the sun so I just did the following:

 How was your weekend?

I leave you with two, new, Pinterest recipes I've tried:

The top one is Allrecipes.com's Baked Teriyaki Chicken. It is so dang good! The sauce is plenty flavorful and tastes authentic! Sorry there isn't much food styling. I had a hungry crew waiting anxiously.

The bottom is a form of eRecipe.Com's Chicken Cobb Salad. I didn't make his dressing because it was late in the evening already.

Okie. Off for early pick up. We, gals, have dental apppointments to run to.
TTY 2Morrow!