They are FINALLY done!

I received a slipper pattern from my hubby for Christmas in '07 & finally got around to felting them two days ago. Talk about pacing myself. They are being gifted to my sister-in-law for her birthday. I always make her something special. I'm hoping she likes these.

Little Sis has a Brand New Bag!

I made a box bag for my younger sister using owl fabric I thought she would like. She did & requested another out of the remaining fabric. I wanted to make something bigger that she could use for the baby or knitting projects. I had come coordinating green fabric & added outside pockets. I had an extra fob and added it to the inside for her keys & a cute button instead of a zipper to close it.

Hope she likes it. It will be hard to give this one away!

Mom & Dad's Kitchen

Mom and Dad have been working on re-doing their kitchen. Dad is quite the handyman. He built new fronts for the cabinets. Mom and Dad painted the cabinets. When Mom went on vacation, Dad was there for the installation of the new counter tops. Hubby and I went over to 'help' Dad lay tile on the back splash. My help consisted of, "Hey Dad, that looks really great! Waaaaay better than the mustard gold counters and orange flowery carpet I remember as a kid. Seriously, nice work pops!

Where the oven goes

next to the closet
nice deep sink

cute hubby

Dad was thinking, that's not his normal look
fancy sink Mom

This is what it's like at our house...

This is what happens when you mix equal parts Scooby Doo & Christmas =



And yes, we followed it with a 'fancy lunch' as all 'fancy' people do!

Requirements for a fancy lunch:
fancy dish (crystal butter tray)
fancy Cheetoe holder (crystal sugar bowl)
fancy cup (snowman mug)
fancy sandwich (peanut butter & jelly cut like Christmas Trees)
fancy candle (cast off from my parents house)
fancy 6 year old (must wear jeans, no socks, and an Optimus Prime Transformer T-shirt)

P, B & J cut like Christmas Trees & Cheetoes with milk.

Boheme is Finished

I finished knitting & weaving in ends last night. Blocked & added buttons this morning. I think it's super cute. All it needs is a cute baby to wear it and I know just the one!

Pattern: Boheme by Allegra Wermuth
needles: size 5 circular
yarn: Mountain Colors (unsure of color, definitely wool)
buttons: from my stash

Relaxing

Here is what we do the night before hosting Christmas Eve Dinner for eight. (note-Hubby is not in the picture as he has been busy baking for the past 4 days...No, I don't get to help.)

playing Jenga

drinking eggnog

Beer Sweater

I showed my hubby a sweater pattern and he loved it so much that I decided to make one for him, monogrammed of course!



I know I will be making more of these for him to give to friends and family. It was a fun one-day project.

Fish on Fridays

I made another one to give away as a White Elephant Gift at the holiday party this evening. I had a ball of leftover noro from a previous project. I think I ended up with 12" of it left. (6" on each end to weave in, whew!) I hope whomever gets it enjoys it. I teach at an elementary & I think the kiddos would love seeing it on a grown up!

A Little Something

I know how to do things besides knit. I was wrapping presents this evening and decided I needed to get started on my gifts for co-workers. A couple of years ago I purchased a bag of blank spools for $1.50. I had the jute , greenery, and paint in my craft room. The greenery was off of a mini (3 foot) tree I purchased on clearance 5 years ago. It's been snipped on for a variety of past gifts. I love it.

I thought the spools would make a nice stove pipe hat. I used the end of a fancy toothpick to paint the mouth, eyes, nose, & holly on the hats. I double knotted the jute and twisted the greenery on top for added stability.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

A poorly photographed close up. I just wanted you to see the 'rustic' paint job I did. Definitely not an 'I need to get this to look perfect' type of ornament.

I hope they like them. Now I'm off to work on some wooden lights I purchased at a garage sale. I'm still not sure what I want to turn them into.

Hubby's 40th

This past November, my hubby celebrated his 40th birthday. The little guy wanted to make a soccer cake for him as a surprise. We baked and decorated under the guise of it being for my son's teacher. (Nobody believed it except the little guy but it was still cute).

Below are the pictures of said cake. We put 40 candles on it and lit them all.

Such a soft glow
(notice the extra tall flame on the left,
I was beginning to worry 1/2 way through the song)

No, the little guy didn't have any adverse effects from the smoke.

Does anyone else love how the guy sliding toward the ball almost looks like he fell due to the heat of the flames? Also, do you notice how the heat from the candles actually MELTED the frosting. I'm pretty proud of that. The green stuff is sugar, and yes, it melted as well.

This one just cracks me up. It met with his approval apparently.

Heeeerrrrrreeeee Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Fishy!

The new issue of knitty came out earlier this week. I instantly fell in love with the fishy pattern. My son asked if I would make it for him. I said yes and we immediately went to my stash to see if there were any colors he liked. This is what he chose:

Now I'm Ready for the Holidays

We just finished setting my ring-tone to the song 'Sisters' from White Christmas.

Incidentally, my voice/IM tone is the line from A Christmas Story.
The part when they blow a tire and the dad says, "Dang gummit, blob". Classic.

Six Things Meme

Tonyia tagged me with the Six Things Meme.

These are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random, arbitrary things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

I'm not sure they are interesting, but I'm giving it a shot.

1. I like to do things in even numbers (two m&m's, two kisses goodnight...it could explain why I like knitting socks, mittens, & gloves)

2. I can make one eye cross at a time. People at work ask for it on demand.

3. I love, love, love reading Janet Evanovich books. Any book she gets published, I read. They are so funny!

4. My husband does the laundry. I can't stand it.

5. I can cook things from scratch very well (according to my husband) but things from a box I tend to ruin.

6. I LOVE the smell of beer, but can't stand the taste of it.

And now, I tag:

1. Jess

2. Tana

3. Julie

4. Melissa

5. Mitch

6. Shawn

Raiders of the Lost Notions Bag

To everyone who had to listen to me bellyache about my lost notions bag (most notably everyone at Wednesday night knitting):

I found the stinking bag! Granted, it was after I assembled a new one, but, it has been found.

I was sitting at my sister's house this morning knitting away, and found it in the bottom of my box bag. Stinking me. I never said attention to detail was strong point.

The good news is now I have two notions bags. Whoot woo!

Thank you to everyone who looked for it to appease my neuroses.

I Want to Throw Up (part deux)

Just got a call from the garage. They said they hooked it up to the fancy thing-a-ma-jig and it appears to be the catalytic converter. He said not to worry, that he would be shutting off the check engine light and let me drive it. Apparently my using ethanol could be the culprit (I'm hoping he's right). I was told ethanol burns hotter and could cause a false reading. I didn't know it was bad for the engine. Granted, a catalytic converter costs $400-500 but is cheaper than replacing an engine or entire car.

SoooOOOOooOOOOoooo...I'll be driving my car like normal and on short trips to my parents until we can be sure it was just the type of gas I was using. He said if the light were to come on again, not to 'freak out' (he knows me all too well). The worst that would happen is that it would feel like I was 'driving with a banana in my tailpipe' and no matter how hard I mashed on the accelerator, the car would top out at 35mph.

Gotta love these guys. We had a flat many Sundays ago (they were closed) and couldn't get the spare tire released. They sent a guy out to us, helped us fix it, and DIDN'T CHARGE US A PENNY. I know, they're awesome. Doesn't hurt that they try to give customers the best deal possible either.

I Want to Throw Up

On the way to pick up my son from school this afternoon, my check engine light came on in my car. I was in need of an oil change and took it to the awesome garage downtown that helps us when our cars need repair. The last time my check engine light came on, the short block needed replacing (I'm not a gear head, but it's my understanding that the short block is a big expensive chunk of the engine-thingy.). I want to throw up.

Rippit....

I frogged to the hole. Dang thing anyway. Not to worry, I'm not mad. More knitting for me I guess.

I was happily knitting away at it last night when I noticed ANOTHER hole! This time in the green. It was a single strand break and I was able to get my needle out (not knitting, rather, sewing) and patch it up.

I'm wondering if this fella had anything to do with it?

Does he even know he's not holding the sword?

For the love of all that is good and HOLE-y!

I have been working on dwindling the unfinished objects I have seemed to accumulate over the past year. Included in that is my hubby's sweater. I have slacked on it, I'll admit. So when I got home from knitting group last Wednesday, I decided to get it out and start working on it.

Here is what I was greeted with. I can only imagine it's yarn karma giving me the finger:

See the dark speck on the left stripe?

Here it is closer

Even closer...

Sonovabeesting. How does this type of thing happen? I'm so torked! Any advice on how to fix this is requested. I really don't want to frog to the spot as this baby is knit on size 2 needles, but if that's the only way to fix it, I'll do it. Please help Obi Wan, you're my only hope...

Secret Swap Partner Received Gift

I am part of an 'Office' themed secret swap on Ravelry. DH mailed off the package Monday and my swap partner received the gift today & it was reported to me that she loved it. Yeah! Now I can post pics of what I sent. Here they are:

Here is the entire gift right before it went in the box.

'Office' related paraphernalia.

Stitch markers. They are silver beads
(the reflected light makes them look like glass).
I scored them at a yard sale,
along with lots of other beads, for only 25 CENTS!Sprinkles the cat crocheted by a friend.
I traded her 'Toast' for it. Sprinkles with her new collar.

Hand knit bag...

with lovely lining & snap closure.
(This was a hard one to include as I wanted to keep it.)

Yes, you did see two pink hanks of yarn. It is Rowan Summer Tweed. My sister found 'the motherload' at a thrift store. Apparently, one of her LYS went out of business & gave all yarn to the thrift shop. Saved TONS on that trip. Can I get a 'Yeah' for thrift stores?!?