Monster Series 3

Happy Friday the 13th!  Just in case you are having a bad day, I'm updating today to improve things for you!  Actually, part of the reason for the early update is that I will have questionable internet service for about a week, so I thought I'd update now and not worry about it.  

This week's hat is quite unseasonal.  I know it's Summer and about 100 degrees out, but I made an earflap hat.  I thought of it and it was just too cute to pass up.  Also, I needed a picture of Henry in a monster themed hat for another project and I wanted a more recent shot than the previous monster hats.

Crazy to think when I last took a pic of Henry with a monster he could barely sit up.  Now he's crawling everywhere and pulling himself up on just about everything he can reach!  So many changes!  But now that physical growth is slowing down, making winter-y hats in the summer isn't so questionable because it's possible they'll still fit in the fall.

Alright, that's probably enough back story for today.  Hat time!

Henry was not in the mood for a photo-shoot today, which is kind of unusual for him.  He's such a ham, he usually sees a camera and immediately does this:

However, after this gem (which was the second shot I took) I got winners like this:

It's cute and funny, but not exactly what I was hoping for.  Or this:

In case you are wondering, his face is still turned toward the camera here, he has pulled the earflap over his face. *facepalm*  I did manage to get this picture (it's a bit blurry though):

Normally Henry is all dad.  But in the above pic, I see some mom, I'll show you a picture of me making a similar face:

Can you see it?  We're even sitting in the same position.

I hope you all have a lovely day and weekend, Friday the 13th and Satanic weather aside...

Giddy-up!

Howdy everyone!

To start off this week, I'll show you a few pictures of a lovely gift Henry got from his Granny and Granddad when he was born:

Just a tease:

There it is! (most of it anyway):

Henry is still a little small to really get full enjoyment out of this beautiful rocking horse.  Or so I thought...the following picture suggests otherwise:

What is up with that smile little man?  Not the greatest picture of the hat, but hey, it's a great picture of his smile/teeth/tongue, so what can you do?

What's this?  Cowboy boots?:

Looking at daddy (better picture of his hat):

Little smiles (from a big man)!  He looks so big on the rocking horse:

Just chillin:

Initially I wanted to do this photoshoot on a real horse, but we couldn't get organized in time.  I think the rocking horse turned out to be a nice compromise.  I still can't believe how big he looks in these pictures!  For anyone not up to speed, Henry just turned 9 months last week.  He's growing up fast!

Hope you all had a great weekend, see you next week pard'ners!  

My little Monster part 2

Hello everyone, 

This week I am extra organized and in fact, one hat ahead of the game, so I've decided to delight you all a day or two early with some new pictures.  I made another monster hat this week because I couldn't resist.  

Also I'm facing a new dilemma:  lack of yarn variety.  Of all the things I miss about living in the city, one of the biggest is that you can get anything anytime when you are downtown.  Here in the suburbs, I've got to plan and research and drive.  I miss the days when Romni Wools was my local yarn shop.  This week we tried out Soper Creek Yarn in Bowmanville, which was pretty good, but nothing ever compares to Romni.  If you've never been to Romni wool and are a knitter/crocheter/fibre artist of any kind, I highly recommend you go.  It's incredible.  In fact, I've included a picture of the upstairs here for you:

Yup, that's all yarn.  Not to mention there's a basement with discounted yarn.  This pic isn't even an illusion, the place is that big, with that much yarn.  Sigh.  I'm going to have to go on a mission there sometime soon.  It's not exactly stroller friendly...I'll let you know how it goes...

Now onto the hat: 

Well, that's a nice smile Henry, but we can't see your hat or your new friend (Penelope the empathic monster, pattern courtesy Rebecca Danger [or rebeccadanger.typepad.com])

This is more like it!  Still can't quite see Penelope though

What's that sound?

Oh, hi mom, is it picture time again?

Matching ear flops:

If you have time to take a look, I've finally been working on updating my Etsy shop.  

  

Next week we'll take a break from the monsters, I have a special Mother's Day hat planned!  Hope you all have a great weekend!

G.

Let's go Blue Jays, let's go!

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope you all have had an excellent weekend so far.  The weather could be a little nicer here, but April showers bring May flowers, right?  Speaking of flowers, it looks like we have some tulips blooming in our back garden, lovely.  I enjoy discovering what is planted in our gardens, since when we moved in, everything was brown.  

As many of you know (and some of you probably do not) baseball season has begun.  Henry supports his dad's teams in all things (of course) so I made him an extra special hat this week.  Hopefully the Jays do better than the Leafs did this year.

Oh, hi mom, is it photoshoot time?

In case you are wondering, I get these patches on ebay.  All you have to do is search whatever patch you are looking for (for example "Toronto Blue Jays Patch" and then search through the zillions of hits you get for one that's the right size for any given project).  I couldn't get the newest Jays logo so Henry is wearing a retro one (the original logo if I'm not mistaken).  Luckily they've returned to their roots with the new logo, so Henry doesn't look too dated ;)

Posing with dad's baseball glove:

 Henry is so excited about baseball season he is wearing his baseball suit (even though it's a little chilly for shorts, luckily we're inside today).

Big smiles for mommy:

I love that little hand waving when he's happy!  We're looking forward to Henry's first baseball game, hopefully some time this summer.  Of course there will be pictures when it happens.  Have a great week everyone!

For those about to rock, we salute you

Trevor says this week is Henry's testosterone charged hat week.  After much hassling about the lack of manly hats featured, this week I made a simple black toque with a lightning bolt on the front to match Henry's awesome new AC/DC shirt that he got from Debbie (thanks Debbie)!  Please note, it is an authentic AC/DC shirt, not one of those AB/CD shirts, this increases Henry's street cred, fyi.  

Look at those big muscly arms!  (Ok, maybe it's just a bit of baby pudge)

Playing air guitar:

Loving it (can you see that little tooth on the bottom)?

Happy boy!

Notice how well he is sitting up?  Such a big boy all of the sudden!  Hope you all enjoyed this week's manly feature.  I have no idea what we'll do next week, but I'm open to suggestions :)

Cheers!

Signs of Spring

Spring is officially upon us!  Although word has it that the temperature will be dropping again in the next few days, you can't deny it, Winter is over at last.  We spent most of this week outside enjoying the sunshine.  We even went to the zoo!  

 We found this hat in a collection of hand me downs we received from one of my mom's co-workers.  It rocks.  I like that it is stretchy so it stays on Henry's head.   Here we are checking out the penguins swimming by the window (see the tail)?

 But of course, this entry would not be complete without a hat that mommy made.  This hat in honour of spring:

 We even found some little flowers to pose next to!  This is in my Mother's front garden.  My garden also appears to have some daffodils that bloomed this week!  So exciting.

 I couldn't find a suit to match the hat, but it's probably less embarrassing this way.

In other exciting news, Henry got his first tooth this weekend!  I was totally not expecting it, but he smiled at my during bath time on Thursday and there it was!  That first tooth sprouting up on his gums.  Since then it's cut all the way through and is now a razor-sharp addition to his little mouth.  All things considered, he coped like a little champ.  My sweet little boy!

Keep an eye out for some awesome Easter themed hats coming up in the next few weeks!  I've also been instructed to throw in some manly hats, so stay tuned for those as well.

Gillian

Family Day's a hoot!

Monday February 20th marks Family Day in Ontario.  My family celebrated a little early this year on a day when we could all be together.  We had an excellent day with the greater family and it looks like we'll get to have our own little family day on Monday with just our little family which will be lovely as well.

Here we are:

Oh no wait, that's just our shoes...Adidas all the way :)

Big thanks to Justin for being our photographer for these shots (we're being photobombed, can you see it)?:

 A slightly more obvious photobomb, oh Rosie:

Here's a closer shot of the owl hat

That handsome man (next to the little handsome man) is my dad, aka Poppa J.

Remember you can check out my etsy store now through the links on the right or at www.etsy.com/shop/hatsofftohenry 

Even if Monday isn't Family day for you, I hope this post made you think of yours!  Wishing you all a great weekend!

G.

Will you be my Valentine?

I know there are a lot of Valentine's Day haters out there.  But I don't hate Valentine's Day.  Sure, it's commercial and expensive, but it's also nice to have a day set aside just for lots of love.  I thought today I would first share a few pictures from my own love story:

This is a super oldie from my Aunt Judy's wedding.  Check out that long blonde hair!

 This is probably one of my favourite pictures of Trevor and I.  It's from our engagement photoshoot, I don't know what T said, but I was clearly not impressed (but still amused):

Here we are at our wedding which was the most incredible day ever:

Another wedding pic, laughing like a maniac

And now, our little family, finally home together!

You may notice that I have added a link to my etsy shop at the top of the sidebar.  Not too much to see yet, but please go take a look!  More to come of course, but I thought I may as well start somewhere.

Henry's hat this week is once again knit.  I was going for more of a skull and heart pattern, but I had some challenges carrying 3 colours, so I had to incorporate the red more which makes it look more like skeletons and hearts.  It seems to look ok though.  Here he is, posing with some chocolates:

He's such a cutie, how could you resist being his Valentine?  For the record, his sleeper says I love Mommy, looks like I'm the lucky girl this year :)

Love Valentine's Day or hate it, I hope you all have a wonderful week!

G.

Tam o'Shanter

In case you didn't know, Robbie Burns Day is coming up this week (the 25th of January).  Last year my husband and I were at an irish pub on Robbie Burns day, that, for some reason was honouring Robbie Burns (even though he was Scottish).  We had only just learned I was pregnant at this point, and were seeing one of my sisters off on her trip to the Dominican Republic.  Also interesting about this dinner, former maple leaf Glen Healey was playing bagpipes at the bar that night....weird.

A little history for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about: Robert Burns was a rather famous Poet from Scotland.  One of his more famous works is a poem called Tam o'Shanter (you can see it here [as you may have guessed, I love wikipedia]).  This particular poem happens to have a hat named after it, the Tam o'Shanter cap.  I thought it would be nice to honour Robbie Burns day with a hat this week.  I got this pattern on ravelry.

Here is my serious little man:

And now my happy little man!:

One more happy one, so you can see the whole get up:

Isn't it amazing how much that smile transforms his little face?  Such a cutie if I don't say so myself!

G.

Go Leafs Go!

Happy Sunday!  

Another week has gone by, I can't believe how the time is passing!  First, as promised, I've included some pictures of the fiddlehead mittens I was working on last week:

 Here is a picture of the lining (I used red baby alpaca yarn, so it's super soft)

 The pattern was easy to follow and kind of fun!  I will definitely make them again, probably sometime soon!

As the title suggests, Henry's hat this week is hockey themed.  We're hoping to give the Leafs some better luck for their game on Tuesday against Ottawa.  You can't see it so well, but Henry is also wearing his Maple Leafs sleeper in these pictures.

I knit just a basic hat this week, then I ironed on a Maple Leaf patch which I purchased on ebay some time ago with this hat in mind.  Iron on was not entirely ideal with the acrylic yarn, but I managed to get it attached with very, very minor melting involved (you can see it a little to the right of the logo in the last picture, it just looks a little shiny).  

My sweet little boy is a Leafs fan, just like his Daddy!  Go Leafs Go!

G.