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My boy is 18 years old today. The baby that I was carrying when I graduated high school in 1991. The little something that scared me more than anything, and made me so happy at the same time.

He is 18. A man. As tall as his dad and all grown up. Where does the time go?

Eighteen years ago, at my baby shower, guests brought a little something to go into a box. A box that would not be opened until the year 2009, Taylor’s Time Capsule. All these years, it’s been tucked away, and never mentioned to the boy. Until now. We let him open it last night.

Inside was a trip back to 1991. The baby shower invitation, with instructions for this very box. Photos of family and friends and notes to baby. Newspapers from 1991, The Wall Street Journal, and memorabilia. Baseball cards, a mint set of 1991 coins. Pictures of mom and dad as teenagers, dad with long hair and the actual ponytail he cut off. Pix of dad’s old motorcycle and a “baby biker” outfit that says “PooPoo Happens”. The shirt Taylor wore home from the hospital and a tiny baby sleeper. Ornaments and a sprig from his first Christmas tree. Taylor’s handprints when he was 8 months old. A drawing I did in high school, and the t-shirt I wore as a member of the school newspaper committee. A family tree with photos from my dad’s mom, Taylor’s only remaining great-grandparent. A postcard written to a man in the future.

Taylor thoroughly enjoyed going through the box. There are things in there he’ll treasure, things he can laugh at, and things he may never touch again. Maybe he’ll place the Christmas ornament that says “Baby’s First Christmas” on his own tree to commemorate his own child’s first Christmas. Maybe he’ll put the pictures in a box marked for his own son. Maybe…

He has his whole life ahead of him. Now as a man, but forever that little blond boy that still scares me, yet makes me so happy at the same time.

I love you boy. Happy Birthday.

As if we needed another critter in this house…

This is Sydney’s new pet. My kids don’t *do* normal pets. Taylor has a snake, now Sydney has a tarantula. I’m not raising any scaredy-cats ya know!

We also have 4 cats and two dogs, so it’s quite a motley crew around here.

This is one of her Christmas gifts, a Chilean Rose Tarantula. Chilean Rose’s are very calm and docile which make them perfect beginner tarantulas. But I kinda expect it won’t be our last. If you can get past the whole giant spider thing, they make fascinating pets which are also very easy to care for. I’m thinking I might like another one pretty soon… one to keep here on my desk.

I’m calling this one Tara (short for tarantula, get it? I know, I’m so clever!) But I’m sure Sydney will have a better idea. I’ll let ya know…

ETA: She named her “Absinthe”.

I had a fantastic Christmas this year. And not because of the neato loot I got, but because of all the family and friends I got to see. Seriously, I think I saw more family and friends this year than I have in a long time. My sister and her family recently moved back to town, so having them around has been a nice treat. We also got to spend time with Pierre’s brother (and family) and sister (and family) all together for the first time in a looong time. Then there was Pierre’s company Christmas party which is more like a family get-together because almost everyone who works there is a family member or close enough to be family. We didn’t get to see Pierre’s parents, who both live far away (his mom lives in Hawaii and his dad’s in Canada), but I did make sure he called them both, and they got to talk to the kids.

Whew, what a Christmas. We had friends and family over, and visited other friends and family. There were family or friends everywhere. And surprisingly, I never even tired of all the commotion or visitors.  It was good. All good.

And then there’s the loot. I guess I was good this year. Santa spoiled me.

I just finished a huge computer upgrade thanks to my Mom, Dad and Pierre. Dad bought me new hardware including a new motherboard, an Intel Core 2 Quad processor, 4 Gig of RAM and a 500 Gig Hard drive. Yeah, kickass! And… Mom and Pierre collaborated to surprise me with a 17″ touch screen monitor. GAH! TOUCH SCREEN!!! I’m such a brat!

Mom also bought me a gorgeous new set of cookware. The Wolfgang Puck 18 piece stainless cookware set. It is gorgeous, and lovely and just the set I wanted!

My sister got me a gift card to Knitch Yarn Shop (in Atlanta) … and chocolate.

My 10 month old niece gave me a new knitting book (ok, mom bought it for her, and wrapped it for her, but it was still from Hannah!) Cover Up with Nicky Epstein.

My friends Daemien & Kim got me a set of blooming teas and gift certificates to my local yarn shop ($150 worth!!)

Pierre’s sister and her family gave us a chocolate fondue set.

Even the kids bought gifts for us grownups this year. Sydney got me an adorable silver chihuahua pendant, and Taylor bought me a stylus for my iPod Touch.

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas or Hannukah or Kwanzaa or whatever you celebrate. And Happy New Year!!

My 17 year old son is a piano major at a local arts school. Last night the Piano group held a recital. Recitals at his school are not like typical high school recitals. They are super talented and put on a fantastic show. The finale was especially spectacular, a string quartet plus piano playing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. It was easy to forget that these were high school kids! While I can’t share with you the entire show, I can share my son’s performance.

This was recorded live in front of an audience of 200+ parents and students. It’s amazing how quiet everyone was, but at one point, someone coughed which was effectively captured very conspicuously during my son’s performance.

Darn you phantom cougher!

But, anyway… it’s still quite a lovely piece. I hope you enjoy it.

Claire de Lune, by Debussy, performed by Taylor Bellehumeur

When I first got the puppies, I kinda promised that I would never make them wear stupid clothes. I mean, a sweater on a cold day is fine, but never will I make them wear a dress or a rain coat, or other silly little dog clothes. And I stand by that promise. I really do think a dog in a dress is completely, utterly stupid.

But… um… a Halloween costume is different, right?

Right??

A few days ago I got the idea to make them some costumes. I hope they don’t hate me for it. I do give them lots of yummy treats when I put it on them, and come on, they look so freaking cute. At least it’s not a dress.

Introducing Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Gah. Couldn’t you just DIE?

I made the coats, by loosely following this pattern, out of this perfectly Dr Seuss red fleece. They’re double thick for warmth cause I mean, this is Florida. LOL No, really it can get kinda cold at times during “winter” and they’re brats that are used to tropical weather. So if it drops below 50, Jinx doesn’t even want to go outside. Anyway, I’m justifying here…

I added little button holes in the middle of the back so they can wear their harnesses under the costumes. See? They’re USEFUL costumes.

To make the fur collars, I crocheted 3 rounds of single crochet with Joann Sensations Beautiful yarn. I crocheted it around a loop of elastic that is sized to be larger than their necks so that it doesn’t constrict. I then brushed it with a bristle brush to exaggerate the fuzz. (Erm, yes I tried putting them on their heads but they would have nothing of that, but it works just a well around their necks.)

They cost about $25 together and took the morning to make. I’m super thrilled with them and I don’t care if they’re stupid.

I’m way more thrilled than the dogs are. But at least they get treats. I can get them to do anything for chicken!

Jinx and Hex are 7 months old now and I thought I’d share a little Then & Now.

Then:

Now:

2 years ago, if you had told me that I would be in love with chihuahuas, I’d have called you crazy. I NEVER liked little dogs, especially not chihuahuas. I once worked with a lady who had a chi name Guido, and I was convinced he was the devil. I swear, THE devil. He was like a nasty little ball of teeth and buggy eyes, he had a hideous growly squawk and he seriously creeped me out. I would never get a dog like that! I was one of the people who said that I wanted a “real dog”. If I had a dog, it would be a retriever, a german shephard, a great dane, or a rottie. Something that would eat the devil dog if he ever came close to me.

Then one day my friend Brandy came over with her little Chimi. This sweet, quiet, uber-cute black, short haired chi. And I went SWOON! Later when I found out Chimi was going to be a daddy, I was first in line. And amazingly, took TWO. *blink blink*

And now, I don’t think I’d ever go back to big dogs. Small dogs are small and their messes are small. But they have all the personality (or more) of a big dog. And man, how I love them! They’re not perfect, they’re not housebroken yet, and they bark a lot, but we’re still in training. They don’t whine, they are crate trained, and they do not bite.. ever.

Best of all? I can have two dogs sleeping on me and still have room to knit. Win!

I know, I haven’t blogged in a while. Sorry, you know how it goes… been busy.

I have new pix of the pups in the gallery, and a new video for your entertainment. Hex is in his “fort” and apparently, there are no girls allowed. He’s quite a ferocious guard dog, don’tcha think?

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In other news, WE’RE GOING TO YELLOWSTONE!!!

This summer’s vacation is planned out and we’ll be visiting Pierre’s brother in Utah and then driving to Yellowstone National Park to do some camping. I can’t wait! I have been pining to visit Yellowstone ever since we got back from the Grand Canyon. And we’ll be camping there. Is there any place better to camp out under the stars than Yellowstone? Oooo I get chills just thinking about it!

It’s well over 5000 miles round trip. That’s a lot of gas, and at these prices it’ll cost at least $1000 in gas alone. Plus food, hotels and incidentals for 4 to 6 days of travel time, we’d be looking at almost $2000 to drive. Crazy, I know. But get this, with our credit card rewards, we can cash in points for plane tickets. And yes, it will be cheaper to fly. By almost half. Woohoo!

I love flying! This ups the coolness factor of the trip by leaps and bounds!

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Regarding knitting bags, I’ve been on a bit of a sewing hiatus. I have been very busy with graphic and website work so something had to give. But I’ll get back to making new bags soon. I need to because I miss it.. a lot. Hopefully they’ll have some new fancy fabrics for spring…

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The new herbs are growing nicely despite some weirdness with the cilantro. For some reason, it stopped growing, all the new growth died, then new growth started growing again for. Weird. I’m not getting much from the cilantro, epazote or savory yet. The sage and chives are doing fine, and as usual, the basils are NUTSO. I can’t believe how fast and full the basils grow, you can almost see them growing.

Before and after harvesting today:

So much basil, so little time. I just freeze them now!
(the basils are the two on the right)

So that’s all the news for now. See what happens when I don’t pace myself? Its all blogged at one time and turns in to a big jumbled mess. Blah.

Must. Blog. More. Often.