A Knitting Manifesto for 2008

I'm refusing to call it a resolution. Resolution sounds so doomed before its begun, and I'm feeling a true resolve here - one which I really believe I can stick to for the coming year. Manifesto seems like the right word in this case. But first, let us say goodbye to 2007.

I just popped over to Ravelry, and I'm counting about 15 finished objects in 2007, mostly small things like socks, mittens, hats, but also pants for the girls. And that's not even counting the bazillion hours I poured into the blankie. Not bad, not bad at all. Especially considering the limited knitting time available and all the yarn dyeing and other extracurricular activities I've participated in. And I know there are a few other little things that didn't quite make it into Ravelry.

Like the clogs I just finished - I ran them through the wash again and reshaped them, including a bit of hand-scrubbing for the remaining trouble spots. They look a lot better now...



And even better with some feet inside...



I've started what I hope will be my first FO of 2008 - another pair just like this one, only in the size smaller. Boor-ing!



And you're thinking "What the heck does this have to do with a Manifesto for 2008?" Well, the manifesto is simple. I will not cast on any new projects for anyone but myself in the coming year. Aside from this pair of clogs which I've promised Joe and were supposed to be a Christmas present, I am going to knit only for myself this year.

I have been looking around my office room, organizing and cleaning, and it's become painfully obvious that the shelves and project bags are full of projects either started, or waiting to be started, for me. Inevitably, I start something for myself, or in more cases barely make it to the planning stage, and am sidetracked by some gift that I desperately "need" to whip up for someone I care about. Of all the projects that made it onto Ravelry this year, only one was meant for my immediate use, although two more were shop samples that are now in my closet.

It's time to finish up some projects, and time to maybe start some more for myself - once some of the UFOs are cleared out. First up to bat will be the beloved mitered-square blankie. I'm going to finish that sucker, and I'm going to start cranking away at it as soon as Joe's clogs are finished. Until that blanket is done, I will work only on it when I am at home, and keep one other project - plain socks - on the needles for mindless in-public knitting.

That's it.

2007 has been a pretty good year overall. I can easily say that I've had many much-worse years. That's one of the unfortunate advantages of having had a less-than-easy life - it makes your current situation look a lot better than it might otherwise. 2008 looks to be at least as good, probably even better. Happy New Year, everybody!

Purging

The end of the year is always a good time to say goodbye to things we no longer need or use. As it happens, I've been culling through some things on my bookshelves as I rearrange the junk and move it from one area to the other. I've filled an entire trash bag and another grocery bag with recycling, but I've also got a giant stack of stuff sitting here on the office room floor just begging for a new home. I wonder if any of my readers could use some of this stuff. I've separated it into lots, and if you're willing to pay the postage, or if you're local and willing to pick it up, it's yours first-comment, first-serve.

Lot #1 Food Allergies (3 lbs 11 oz.)
The Parent's Guide to Food Allergies by Marianne S. Barber et. al.
The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook by Marjorie Hurt Jones
The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal


Lot #2 Super Sock Yarn
Okay, not really so super. But it's kind of super-man colors. This was an experiment last summer that I just don't love, not even enough to put up in the etsy shop.


Lot #3 Old Palm Pilot
This is a Palm V that used to be Joe's. I had an identical one, and it was great for its time - about six or seven years ago. It comes with the manual and all the cables and cradle and stuff, including a very nice Coach case that fits it perfectly. You'll have to download the software to synch it up to your computer, but it should still work just fine.


And finally, a copy of Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair by Laurie Perrie, aka Crazy Aunt Purl. I just finished reading it, and it was a fun read. I really liked it, but it's not the kind of book I think I'd read again. I mean, I really identified with aspects of Laurie's personality - the awkward, funny, just-wanting-to-be-liked part. And I really identify, both in her book and blog, with her attitude of doing the best she can in the moment, of moving forward one step at a time.

Oh, and one other thing - I'd like to spread the joy. If you've won anything in a contest here before, please hold back and give someone else a change this time.

Monkey off my Back

No, I haven't been knitting the Monkey socks. But I do have a finished object to report! Actually, I have two finished objects to report, but only one really counts. I finally finished the border on the mitered-square blanket my class started at camp this summer, and it's blocking right now.



To review, I spent a week up at Camp Unistar over the summer with my family, and I (mostly) paid for our trip with my job there teaching knitting to the campers. The camp is run by and for the Unitarian church, and Unitarians are really into community service, so I planned ahead and brought a bunch of Plymouth Encore in a striping colorway. Any camper who wanted to could knit up a mitered square to go into a baby blanket for charity.

I knit up a couple of squares to start them off, then the rest of the campers pitched in and made enough to complete the project. Then, I was stuck with the "fun" part of sewing it together and knitting on a border. I put this off long enough, and as soon as the December gift knitting was done, I jumped back on it. I have to say it's a little psychedelic - not quite as beautiful as I'd hoped. But it is nice and warm, and this afternoon as I was knitting on the last few rows of border, Julie told me she wished I'd make her a blanket like it. So it must not be all bad.

I'm going to make a call or two next week to find this blankie a home. I definitely want to give it to a local charity - there are plenty of babies in our area who don't have enough warm things for our cold winters. I was originally thinking of the Minneapolis crisis nursery, and I think they will be my first call - but I see on their donations page that they don't want blankets - or maybe they just don't want *used* blankets. We'll see. A second option may be the Minnesota Visiting Nurses Agency - I think I remember having donated something to them through the Guild a few years ago, and I know they visit moms with new babies.

In any case, it's a feel-good finished object, and I feel like I'm finally fulfilling my promise to my campers who worked so hard to help make this blanket for some special baby who needs it.

Oh, and the not-so-feel-good project recently completed...



Here are the clogs I was working on for Joe. It turns out I *did* knit the size bigger than he needs, so I will be whipping up another pair for him right away. Also, I ran them through the dryer in an attempt to get those last unruly spots to go ahead and felt already. You know, every time I've made a felted project, it seems there are always one or two little spots that just don't want to shrink down and give up their stitch definition. That was certainly the case here. I thought the dryer might help get those spots to shrink, but it didn't. And now they're dry and lumpy looking. I need to run them through the wash one more time and stuff something in there to keep their shape while they dry. I may keep them for myself around the house, or more likely, I'll put some soles on them and give them to someone next Christmas. They are quite cozy - I was wearing them around last night.

I have to say, though - as nifty as these clogs are, and as popular as they are among recipients, it's a pattern that I just don't really enjoy knitting. It's too futzy. Not an interesting kind of futzy, like color work or something flashy. No, just futzy of the kind where you're always counting your stitches, picking up stitches, doing three-needle bind-offs, and sewing up seams. Bleh. Still - worth it if it can make someone you love happy, I suppose.

Recipe Box

Kay at Mason-Dixon Knitting wants to see our recipe boxes, and I want a spot in the contest.

I don't use a recipe box - I stole an idea from a friend of mine several years ago, and picked out a pretty three-ring binder at an office supply store.



Actually, now I have two. The top one is for recipes in my regular rotation, the bottom one is for holiday food and other occasional-use recipes. I love this method of organizing them for several reasons. You can use clear plastic page protectors and pull the recipe out with its sleeve when you need it. The plastic keeps me from spilling food all over the paper (and trust me, I am always wiping those suckers clean). It's also nice when you've torn something out of a magazine or have an oddly-shaped piece of paper to be able to just slide it in a page protector and it fits right in with the rest. It seems like most of my recipes are ones I've printed out from various websites over time, so it's nice being able to accommodate letter sized paper without having to fold it.

The recipe I'm choosing to share is one that my father won a cooking contest with when I was a little kid, and I used to ask for it whenever I had the occasion to pick a special meal. I call it Dad's Yummy Chicken, and I have it here in my collection of recipes that are friendly to people with multiple food allergies.



Thanks for the contest, Kay!

Christmas Loot

In my after-Christmas post, I mentioned lots of the gifts everyone else got, but I totally neglected to mention the awesome gifts I received. I figure after all the hard work y'all went to helping me figure out what I wanted, you deserve to know that I did end up getting some nice swag that pleased me to no end. There is much to be said for telling our dear, beloved husbands exactly what we are wishing for right before a major gift-giving holiday.

First, I knew I was getting pajamas, and I had a pretty clear idea of exactly which pajamas I was getting. I wanted flannel pajamas, but not the kind with the button-down flannel top - I wanted a t-shirt type top, but not a short-sleeved one. Long sleeves are better for cold winter evenings around our old house. I saw what I wanted on a certain page in the Eddie Bauer catalog, and there were several colors to choose from. I pointed the page out to Joe and told him I'd be happy with any one of the colors and that he should pick.

The stinker ended up buying me three sets - one of each color. I was actually pretty happy about that since all of my winter pajamas were old, stained, ill-fitting, falling apart, or all of the above. I've set all the old ones aside and will throw them away in a few weeks once it is clear that our laundry cycle will keep me in clean pajamas without needing to save the old ones as backup. Flannel pajamas aren't exactly wildly exciting, but they sure are a nice little luxury that I enjoy every single night. Oh! and I just looked - it seems that E.B. has these jammies on sale now, so go snag a set for yourself. They even come in tall sizes, so for once I'm walking around with jammies dragging a bit on the floor instead of halfway up my shins, exposing my legs to the chilly drafts we sometimes experience around here.

Buried at the bottom of one of the pajama boxes was this:



I have wanted this book for so long. I hadn't held a copy in my hands for quite some time, and I was pleasantly surprised with just how much I love the lace patterns in it as I paged through again. It made me want to cast on for some new lace project immediately, or maybe just sit around swatching them all for a while. I've resisted that temptation so far, and probably will for a while - I have other plans for my knitting for the next few months, to be explained soon. He found a nice copy, too. Thanks, sweetie!

Oh, and in my stocking were a couple of packets of my favorite stitch markers and a gift certificate for my favorite yarn store. I kind of knew about the stitch markers a few days before Christmas when Julie came and sat in my lap after I'd spent the afternoon with Sophie while Julie and Joe ran errands (or something - that was the day Sophie and I were super sick and tired, and we'd been napping together). Julie said "Daddy bought you stitch markers!" And later that night when I mentioned it to him, he told me he's told her it was a secret. Ha! At least the gift certificate was a surprise.

Okay, this one wasn't mine, but really it was for me as much as the girls. I think I had it in Julie's stocking. It's just so cute!



It's got grass seeds and some kind of growing medium and will soon sprout little grass hairs.

Even though I had hinted about the knitting calendars, I didn't get one of them in my stocking, so after Christmas the girls and I hit the mall and I ended up getting copies of both of them for half off.



I think this year I might actually resist the urge to flip through them all at once and maybe look at a page every day, or at least keep up with them a couple times a week or so as I remember to.

Also while we were at the mall, I picked up a new belt. I'm still wearing some of my too-big pants because I want to hold off on buying new pants till I've lost a few more pounds (must start counting points again soon!) The belt I was using was falling apart, so I just needed something simple and functional. I picked one out that said $28 on the tag, and when I went to pay for it, it rang up at $2.80. Somehow, it was on sale 90% off, but was not labeled that way. I call that a gift!

In the what-we've-been-up-to category, today was an Ikea day. We realized, while trying to put away the new Christmas toys, that we were out of storage in the living room. So we went and picked up a new bookcase, which will actually go in my office room, so that I can move some of my stuff out of the living room and make room for games and puzzles out there. Here's Julie in the ball pit there. She loves it when we drop her off and let her play while we shop.



Joe's off all this week, through New Year's Day, and I came on this scene one afternoon:



And this scene a different afternoon:



Sophie likes her new sled...

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely, if slightly excessive Christmas today yesterday. I'm afraid we may have gone overboard on the gifts after all, but if that's the worst of it, I suppose we did pretty well.

Joe's parents had agreed to come over and have breakfast with us so they could be here to watch the girls open their presents. We thought they were coming over at 9, and planned to just let the girls wake us up and figured we'd be up in plenty of time. Well, the girls slept in a bit because they'd been up late the night before. And Joe's parents thought we'd agreed on 8. So I'm laying there in bed half awake and I thought I heard a thump downstairs, which got me more awake, but I laid there for a few more minutes anyway. And when I dragged myself down to start the casserole baking, there they were waiting for us - they have a house key. But it all worked out, and they were gracious about it.

While we waited for the food to cook, the girls opened up their stocking gifts. They were both thrilled with their dolls.



And there were many other things in there that were also deemed acceptable. I took pictures of most of that loot - do you all care what little trinkets they got in their stockings? Julie is looking in a kaleidoscope here.



Sophie had a struggle getting her things out of the stocking, but that just made the fun last a bit longer.



We still had a bit of time left before breakfast, so they dug into a few prezzies. Sophie did pretty well tearing the paper off, with only a little bit of help.



Here she is admiring a new doggie bath towel. This was really a practical gift - the towels we have for them are all the ones meant for infants, and they really are getting worn out and too small for bundling them up after baths on chilly nights.



Julie trying out the stencil set.



And Sophie trying out a remote-control car (which we added to the list after my initial present post because it seemed like Julie had way more presents than she did.)



Finally, the breakfast was ready. An egg strata, from a simple recipe that allows you to do most of the prep work a day or two ahead of time, so final assembly is almost nothing. So tasty!



And, uh, those cherry turnovers that come out of a can. So naughty! So delicious. Joe's mom really enjoyed hers. I could have eaten about two more of them if there had been more to share around.



Aren't Joe's parents cute in their matching red sweaters?



Breakfast was over, and we resumed the gift opening...once Julie found her towel, they both modeled them for us.



Sophie enjoyed the melody harp, and in fact, Julie is out in the living room with Joe playing it right now.



The trampoline was a hit, although getting them to use it safely may be a challenge. (As in, keeping only one child on it at a time, getting them to hold, but not climb on the handle bar, etc.)



And here are a couple of little videos of the girls playing with their new toys. Sophie's ball-rolling toy...



and a silly duck puppet that quacks songs.

Here's what was in Joe's stocking - a copy of A Christmas Story, which I think is one of Joe's favorite Christmas movies (it's SO his sense of humor); a book of Yoshimoto Nara postcards - he's one of Joe's favorite artists; a head lamp that attaches to a baseball cap - Joe loves any excuse to get his headlamp out, and this one is small and easy to use; a jar of bacon-flavored salt because he is a bacon fiend; Pocky because it's one of the few candy-type things Joe likes; and a mini terrarium for growing venus flytraps because *I* thought it looked like fun.


Joe's parents headed home, and we spent a relatively quiet day trying out the new toys, and generally relaxing until it was time for the party to start once more. First the cousins arrived...Nathan learned how to walk since we last saw him at Thanksgiving.



And here is the whole family at the end of the evening.



Here is the luminary ice sculpture that our neighbors made for us - we love it when they bring these over.


And a wide view of our home just before the guests showed up.


Oh, and finally a little video of Joe using the snow blower. I thought it was funny because our driveway slopes a bit at the street, and he was sliding the last several feet down to the end.



Now I must go continue cleaning up the aftermath - I can hardly wait for this weekend to take down the tree and get all the crap put away! I love Christmas, and I'm always glad when it's over.

Christmas Eve

Party the first is over, and it was a fine success. But first, let's look at the lunchtime scene from yesterday. I can't believe how big Sophie is getting. She's got such an independent streak in her - lately she's been insisting on sitting at the table like a big girl, and it's so cute, although she's having a hard time with the concept of staying put through the duration of the meal.



My cousin, his wife, and her parents came over for dinner and brought with them gifties for the girls...



Julie got a Dora-branded dancing-mat game, and Sophie got a Fisher-Price Little People dinosaur set.



And then it was time for the game. It involves drawing numbers, taking turns opening presents and/or stealing gifts from others. We started off with quite the stack.



Sophie was in charge of opening gifts at my turns.



Julie was deemed big enough to play the game in her own right.



Some of the prizes are actually desirable to one extent or another. Other gifts are a little - well - less so. Here's cousin Ron having just opened a Jesse Ventura action figure doll. Sophie was quite interested in it. And by the way, yes, this is my cousin Ron who was shot in the chest last month. He is on the mend, but still has a way to go. He was obviously tired and in some pain, especially as the evening wore on. But, thank the gods, he was here, playing Uncle Ron to the girls. He is really good with children, and my girls love him.



Finally, the party was over and Joe and I were cleaning up. He spent a few minutes sorting through the game prizes, culling out the stuff we couldn't use in the end. And then I caught him playing with Jesse. I'm not even going to tell you what he was doing to our poor ex-govenor.



Julie left a plate of cookies and veggies out for Santa and his reindeer. Look! They must have been here because someone has nibbled at it all and eaten the cookies.



Oh, and look! The stockings are full.



And now it is time for me to go to bed. Joe's parents are coming over for present-opening and brunch at the crack '0 dawn. Tomorrow will be a busy busy day.

And Now Back to Our Regular Scheduled Programming

Hey, all my wonderful readers - thanks for your support this week. I really appreciate all your wishes for a wonderful holiday for our family. We are so gearing up for it! I know you want to see some of the fun we've been up to.

We made some pom-poms the other day. I raided my stash and found a few bits and pieces of yarn I was willing to contribute to the project, and got out my trusty set of Clover pom-pom makers. I'd tried this last year with Julie, and she wasn't ready for it. This year she did a lot better, and even made one or two of her own. With a little help.



Sophie "helped" too. She had a blast tangling up all the bits and pieces she got her hands on.



Even Daisy cat got in on the action. The scene under the tree has since changed drastically - Joe and I finished wrapping all the presents, and it's pretty full under there now.



And some of the fruits of our labor.



A few nights ago I boiled a chicken and made up a pot of chicken noodle soup from scratch. It is SO easy to make chicken noodle soup, and it was so perfect for our puny little family at the moment.



The clogs for Joe are coming right along. They just need second soles before felting. Except oops - I realized last night that I think I'm knitting the wrong size. He has small feet, and I think I'm knitting bigger than he needs. I can't remember what size I knit for him before. So I'm going to go ahead and finish this pair and knit another if necessary. Either way, they're not going to be done before Christmas.



And finally, a couple of product endorsements. I've been all crazy cleaning these last few days. Normally, I'm not all that huge into cleaning. I mean, I love a clean house as much as the next person, but it's just not usually the first on my list of priorities. But since we are now hosting both Christmas Eve and Christmas night, I figured it couldn't hurt to spiff the place up. And it helped that I had a few hours by myself to get a head start. So that meant I had a bit of extra time over the last day or so to do some detail work a step above and beyond scrubbing the toilets. And I tried a couple of products I don't normally get around to using.



First, on the left that's a Swiffer dusting tool. Joe actually bought these, and I don't usually dust because dust is even lower on my list of priorities than toilets. But there was time, and there are guests coming, so I tried this thingie. It works really well, and was even kind of fun to use. I did feel a little guilty about the disposable aspect to it. I have to wonder how it compares to the usefulness of a feather duster, which is permanently reusable.

On the right is a packet of Pledge Stainless Steel Wipes. Now, I have to admit that I have tried more than once to get the fingerprints and water stains off my stainless steel appliances, and I've been less than satisfied with the results of at least two or three products. I don't know what possessed me to try this product, but it ended up in my shopping cart and I brought it home. I couldn't believe how well they worked, and with how little elbow grease. Look at my fridge!



And it was addictive. Once I finished the fridge, I did the rest of the appliances and even cleaned up the hood over the range. Those darn things even cut through the grease up there. Again, they have the evil chemical and disposable landfill filler thing going against them. But there you have it, I'm glad I bought 'em and I'll probably buy them again.

Okay, and here's a little Christmas present for you in case there's no post between now and then...



Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it, and peace and joy all around.

Dear Dad: Bugger The Fuck Off!

And open letter to my father, Jack Dale Rhoads, aka Jack Rhoads of Columbia, Missouri (Columbia MO).*

Dear Dad,

My In-laws just left for the afternoon with my girls - they're taking them to their house so that I have a blessed few hours alone in the house to clean and prepare for hosting Christmas here in a few days. When they came to pick up the girls, they dropped off a card from you, which arrived at their house just like one has every year since we lived with them for a few months while transitioning to this house a few years ago.

A Christmas card every year, and the occasional guilt-laden e-mail every year or two are the only communications I've received from you since I cut off communications with you six years ago. Those guilt-laden e-mails with the photos attached of my niece and nephew who I will probably never meet because my sister is so angry with me for refusing to put up with the lifetime of crap you've subjected me to, and honestly because I can't deal with her either in her state of denial about just how bad my childhood and early adulthood were.

Let me remind you of the reasons why I can't deal with you. First, there was the physical abuse. The constant knuckles rapped on my head from as early as I can remember, the pants-down spankings after church almost every Sunday for years because I couldn't sit as still as you wanted me to during the sermon. Worse than that, though, were the constant put-downs and emotional abuse. You were always picking on me. I was the family scape-goat. Your own brothers and sisters have admitted to me that they noticed this when we were at family get-togethers - how Jackie (my sister) was never wrong and somehow I was always to blame. I know I was a squirrelly kid, but I couldn't have been that squirrelly! You were always telling other people how horrid I was too.

And let me just add one more thing to the list that I don't think I've mentioned directly to you before, although we've talked around it in the past. I do think it was partly your fault that my mother's live-in boyfriend sexually abused me for months on end, and that when I finally came forward to make him stop he was not prosecuted. If you had been a bigger part of my life, maybe I would have had someone I felt safe telling. Maybe you would have noticed some of the warning signs that I'm sure were there. And good gods, why on earth didn't *you* see to it that he was prosecuted? Why didn't you yank me the hell out of her house immediately? And why on earth when I came begging and crying to your house, asking for a safe place to spend the last couple years of high school, didn't you make me feel at home, but instead let your wife call me a guest and refuse to even empty out a spare room for me to keep my things in? I can add all this now after years of therapy - don't worry, I think I've figured out the answers, and to be honest, the hurt doesn't even hurt that much any more - I'm just trying to remind you of the things *you* need to figure out.

The final straw, let me remind you, was when you told my then-future in-laws at my engagement party (the first time you met them) that I was bad for their son, and that I had "moved to Minnesota to run away from all the horrible things I'd done in Missouri." No parent should every say something like that about their child, even if it is true. But in my case it wasn't even close to true. The closest to truth I can honestly come to that remark is that I moved away from Missouri to put distance between you and me - to get away from the poison in our family.

So there. The tip of our family iceberg of skeletons in the closet (how's that for mixed cliches?) is out there for the whole world to see. I have no shame. I don't think I can possibly be in the wrong here. I was a child. I was muddling through the best that I could. You were the grownup, the one with the power. Now let's go back to that card you sent me -



Oh, and readers, click on it to see the full size, but I'll just transcribe what it says here for you - his writing is hard to read.

"Hi, another year got off to a rough start but made it any way. In February I spent 4 days in Hospital with 4 units of blood. Last week I had a echo stress treadmill exam and the doc said they won't have to replace the valve for at least 6 months. As always our door is open. I have 2 of your old dolls I will send after the 1st of the year if this is a good address. dad."

Oh, where to start with this? Well, let's start with the fact that I asked you to never communicate with me again until you were prepared to go get some therapy and figure out why you are compelled to treat me so horribly and learn how to behave like a decent human being. And then you would need to come back to me with a pretty huge, deep, sincere apology. At that point I would be willing to gradually open a relationship with you. I mean, maybe I would visit by myself and spend some time with you, and if you behave, maybe you could earn a visit with my children. But that would depend on Joe's input too. He's not all that fond of you, see.

Secondly, you open up your letter with a giant load of health information, sort of mid-stream with no background. Sounds like you've been having heart problems. I'm sorry to hear that. Sorry in the way that I feel sorry for the mean old neighbor lady who lives next door to me who is in kidney failure. I feel badly for her and her family, but I'm not going to go over there with a plate of cookies after she stood in my yard and told me in front of my kids that she thinks interracial relationships are wrong. It sounds like maybe you're scared, and I hope things get better for you. Maybe also this would be a good time to look at your life and think about what kinds of things you'd like to change before it's too late? That is totally up to you.

Which leads me to the "our door is always open" crap. You've pulled that every time you've sent me a card. I find it freakin' hilarious! Yeah, your door is open. Mine is the one that's closed. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt!

And about the old toys. Yeah, actually, I would love to have them. While you're at it, see if you can snag some of the stuff that I'm sure my mother has hidden away somewhere. One of the saddest things about having lost my family the way I did is that I don't have many artifacts of my childhood. I'd love to have some pictures of myself as a little kid too. Send the album! I'll even scan them and ship it back to you. You can send them to the address you sent the card to if you'd like. But don't think that doing these material favors is going to change the way I feel about opening up other communications.

And finally, why, now, after six years of silence, am I finally spilling this all out? I'm tired of spending Christmas pissed off at you. Every year I get the same crappy card from you that brings up the same anger at your stupidity. I've been through a lot of therapy, and I've worked through about 95 percent of my anger and hurt and grief about all this family crap. There will always be a little bit left, and I think I have most of the tools I need to deal with it pretty well. But I'm tired of spending my already spread-thin energy at Christmas time processing this shit. Pick a different time of year - how about March - not much going on in March - to deal with me - not four days before Christmas.

Whew. Now I feel better. I'm going to go clean my house and write up the menus and grocery lists for *my* family's holiday. Merry Fucking Christmas.

*I'm including your name and location this way to insure that Google and all the other search engines will grab it and this will be pretty much the top thing people find when they come looking for you on the 'net. One of the joyous things about having a semi-popular web log is that I can actually use this tiny little power of mine when I'm pissed off enough (never before) and when dealing with someone not already graced with much, if any, web presence. And the unusual spelling of your last name kind of comes in handy for once as well.

Oh! The Trials!

Amazing how difficult it is to peel an entire bowlful of chocolate
kisses without popping every third one in your mouth, even when you know
that they are for a good cause.

A good cause like peanut butter blossom cookies, being baked just for
fun and casual eating, as there is already a dozen sitting
double-zipper-bagged in the freezer waiting for the Christmas guests.

This batch is to help me survive an entire day in the house with my two
girls, all of us just sick enough to be whiney, clingy, tired snotty
messes, yet still in need of ample entertainment. There is little so
good as a peanut butter cookie (made with real, unadulterated,
trans-fat-free, chunky peanut butter and real butter in place of the
shortening) just cool enough to be picked up without falling apart, just
warm enough that the chocolate you've squished in the center is still
gooey-melty. And don't forget the glass of cold milk, please.

Julie

Woke up with a fever this morning - signaling the onset of her turn with
our nasty cold, I'm sure. No school for her today, so I let her stay in
her pajamas. She looks really upset about it, huh?

Super-Pooper Achiever!

You are not going to freaking believe it when I tell you who poo'ed and pee'd on the potty today. (Uh, and yeah, if you don't want to hear about all this technical kid stuff, move along to the next post because there ain't no knitting here today. Sorry.)

But really, guess.




Nope, not Daisy. Even though she's probably smart enough, and even though there are kit out there to teach them how. We never got around to that with either of the cats, and Harry is dumb as a box of rocks, so don't even bother guessing him. At least they are both, for the most part and despite their creepingly geriatric status, using the litter box. They are both looking royally pissed in this picture because I just woke them up from their nap on the cat-couch in the basement by flashing bright lights in their eyes over and over.

Julie probably did, but that's way old news at this point. It's even been a while since she's had a potty accident.

And now I know you're thinking "It better not be you or Joe, because none of us want to know anything about your potty habits." And no, I'm not talking about any of the adults in the house because I have no plans to share our potty habits no matter how interesting they may be.

Who's left, you ask? It couldn't possibly be that tiny baby, the one who's not even quite two years old yet. Not the one who doesn't even poop at all if she can help it.



This was taken with the Sidekick during a bedtime game of behind-the-door hide and seek, which was unimaginably cute.

Why yes, it was in fact that one. I can hardly believe it myself. I had no plans for potty training at this point. I didn't even consider starting with Julie till she was about three. But Sophie has been begging to sit on the potty on and off over the last month or so. The other night right before dinner, she kept telling Joe that she wanted to sit on the potty and he told her no because we were going to sit down at the table rightthisminute. Lo and behold, she had a BM in the high chair. And then today she was obviously in need of doing some business, yet obviously unwilling to do so in her pants. So, long story long, we read a few books, hung out for a while in each of the two bathrooms, and took care of a little business. Everyone was happy.

Until I insisted that she put her diaper back on, and that part was a little sad.



This growing up thing is happening pretty fast after all...

Massive Sunday Dump

Oh, there is so much going on here. So many things we've been doing to get ready for Christmas, and so very much left to be completed. It's insanity.

Not to mention that we are all sick again. We had just gotten clear of the November cold, when this new super-duper December cold struck. Sophie has it bad, and my poor sweet little thing is clingy and crabby while her little nose runs like a burbling fountain and she coughs herself awake night and day. I know exactly how she feels, because I have it about the same. My head hurts, my chest hurts, my eyes itch, I'm exhausted. Am going directly to bed after I finish this.

But enough of the whineing. We've been having lots of fun, too, and that's what I'm really here to share. In no particular order, except that which they came off the camera...

We've been baking like crazy. I think I made six or seven different kinds of cookies. Here's the day we did sugar cookies. Poor Sophie wasn't at all happy about being sidelined in the high chair. Julie was frustrated because she wanted to do all the cutting and dough-rolling, but it was almost too sticky for me to handle, so he was relegated to the sprinkles duty. They turned out fine.



I sent cookie care-packages out yesterday to my uncle in Japan (who, it turns out, due to my late sending, his plans to leave town on Christmas, and a Japanese postal holiday on the 22nd, is likely to receive three-week-old stale cookies when he finally returns. Oh well). I also sent a package to my BIL Dave and to my future SIL Jinnie. I think they will receive theirs relatively fresh, and hopefully will especially enjoy the oatmeal-raisin ones that I made on Dave's request (and I loathe oatmeal-raisin cookies, so it truly was an act of love - oatmeal chocolate chip are devine, but oatmeal-raisin are evil - even though I love raisins in my porridge. Go figure.) And Jinnie is getting some brownies, along with all the more festive varieties. I really must remember to take a picture of the plate I plan to put together for serving on Christmas. There are still a ton of cookies in the freezer.

We've been doing our little Playmobile advent calendar every night, and I know it's nowhere near as exciting as all the hand-crafted ones I've seen in blogland, but the girls are enjoying it, and to be honest I think Joe and I are too. I'll have to remember to take a picture of the finished scene after Christmas.



The girls and I went to see the Nutcracker display at Macy's downtown last Thursday. They enjoyed it, and the crowd was not too bad, so we walked through twice. Sophie was already coming down with the cold-from-hell at that point, although I didn't realize just how bad it was going to turn out to be.



Here's Julie's class performing on Thursday night. Julie is in the red dress, sitting on her teacher's lap off to the left. The kids were incredibly cute, and quite well-trained for a bunch of four-year-olds. I really wish Julie had been willing to get up and do it with them. She and Joe had a little tiff right as we were headed over there, so she was grumpy and uncooperative. Oh well.



Here she is after the performance, following her little friend Ben around like a shadow...



And eating cookies...



Why, oh why, did they feel the need to ply our children with Hawaiian Punch and store-bought sugar cookies right before bedtime? Idonotknow.

Friday we saw our favorite little playdate friends and I was able to deliver their new mittens:



In case I didn't cover the details in my earlier posts on these, they are Malabrigo knitted in the round on size 5's, then felted. It's my own concoction, not written up, loosely based on my friend Jean Christensen's Felted Gauntlet Mittens pattern available at the Yarnery - her version has a more interesting cuff.



Little H and big M seemed happy with their gifts. H wore hers around the house for a while, and I hear that she showed them to her "papa" as soon as he came home as well. I'm happy.

And here are the mindless socks I've been working on for the last several weeks. I didn't want to show them here because they were for my friend J's birthday present. She knew she was getting socks, but I wanted the colors to be a surprise.



This is the Regia Galaxy yarn in colorway 1553 that I bought during the shop hop a couple months ago. It was fun to watch the colors do their thing. I used my own toe-up short-row heel and toe pattern on size 0 needles. I'm pretty sure she was pleased too as she put them on right away and kept them on for the rest of the day. I love knitting for people who appreciate my work, and actually put it to good use.



And now that the pretty gifties are done, these ugly things are back out of the pile, on hand for mindless-knitting emergencies...



Really, the socks don't look too bad once they're knit up, it's just the yarn is not so lovely to look at while I'm knitting it, and it's all very boring. Give me some stripes or swirls for the mindless knitting, I say! Still, they will make good warm socks that go with a lot in my wardrobe. So I'm going to finish them up and then move on to something super-fun!

I still have one more knitting project that I'd hoped to complete before Christmas - Joe's clogs. I've only done one of the soles so far, but they don't take all that much knitting. We'll see how far I can get in my "spare" moments this week. Ha!

We did finish the holiday cards tonight. It felt like a little sweat shop sitting there writing them all out - I always have the bigger stack for some reason (there are quite valid reasons for this, don't worry) but Joe did all the sealing and return-address stamping. He's smiling because he had just been hiding his face behind the card to tease me, not because he actually enjoys writing cards out.



D'oh! I was going to either scan or take a photo of our card so you could see it better - must do that for next time. I'm really happy with how it turned out this year. If you look closely you can get an idea - it's just the picture of the girls sitting in the leaves from our pumpkin-hunting day in October, but the layout we picked from Tiny Prints complemented it really well. I also really liked the card stock it's printed on. It's a postcard-style single sheet, but instead of photo stock, it's printed on nice card stock, which was much easier to write on and felt much classier than the photo version - all at about the same price.

The girls and I have been doing a lot of little crafty things - we ate up a good hour or two yesterday making long paper chains to hang on the tree and along the wall in the living room. Julie really liked that, and Sophie was so miserable she sat meekly in my lap and watched.

We've also been putting together some of those cheezy foam ornament kits, but this tree one turned out pretty cute. All three of the trees came from one kit. I have to admit, I finally buckled and bought a hot glue gun, which made the gluing parts much easier. But now I feel a little trashy.



Julie was in charge of the one on the right ,and did all kinds of interesting things with her stickers. Take a good look at the star on top.

And now, my friends in the computer, it is time for bed! I'm exhausted, and I'm betting Sophie will be up complaining at least once tonight. I needs me some sleep!

Videos

We did not, in fact, get good videos tonight. Julie decided she didn't want to sing with her class. :-(

Happily, though, we do have good videos from the other night at home, and I've uploaded a couple to YouTube for your viewing pleasure:

Effing Ohs

Hey, people!

I've been busy finishing some objects and stuff. This time of year, it is crazy. I've kind of had to choose where to put my energies, and sitting on the couch won out after a couple of long days.

No pictures tonight, I'm headed to bed, and I'll save the details for after the gifts just finished are given, but let me just say that I can't wait to see our friends - they know who they are - and hand over the goods. I love it when people appreciate my hand knit gifts, and these people have done it well in the past.

So much else - I wasn't going to mention the store, I swear, but I feel like I should give y'all fair warning. I got an e-mail from a popular blog today saying that they're going to feature my shop some time this week, so the little stock remaining, picked over as it is, may be getting even more picked over. Also, in preparation for the potential traffic, I went ahead and listed some baby pants patterns. I keep meaning to post about my awesome test knitters and show you some cute pants pictures - will have to get around to that soon!

In sad news, Julie had been mentioning that her little friend B*, the little boy she goes to school with and loves to death, was getting a new house. So I assumed they were moving locally. I found out today that ack! they are moving out of state. I am so sad for Julie that I cried when B*'s mom told me.

But in happier news, it turns out that her school's family fun night is tomorrow, and apparently her class has been preparing some songs to perform. I got her to sing some of them at home tonight, and may put the hilarious video up on YouTube for you if I have the energy tomorrow night. Or, I may collect some more video tomorrow night and share that with you instead.

But I do have a lot of little holiday junk going on - I do a little picture web-page for my uncle's family every year, and he's sent me the photos so I better get on that soon (It's kind of hilarious, really. I am so tempted to show y'all the link from last year, but oh, well, go ahead and look if you must.) None of the design is mine - I just did what I was told and provided the space, I swear! And now you know all about my paternal grandparents. Julie's middle name is Marlys after my grandmother.

My holiday cards are scheduled to show up in the mail any day, and those will take priority when they do. And I'm trying to crank out a bunch of cookies and hope to mail off a couple of care packages early next week. I've been so good about just eating a few, sharing a few with the girls, and then double bagging the rest for the freezer which keeps 'em fresh and avoids temptation.

There is so much else I could share - I decided on the J Crew coat because the fabric was so much nicer than the Eddie Bauer one. Most of the girls' Christmas presents have arrived, including the ones from HearthSong (except one stocking-stuffer from them which said in stock on the web site but that they listed as backordered on the packing list, and which they promised would be in the mail the next day when I called, and that was a week ago. No big deal if we don't get it in time for Christmas - there's tons of stuff for the stockings already!)

Alright, I'm off to bed!

Yarn Sale!

Hi, sorry for the shameless self-promotion here. I promise I won't mention the etsy shop again at least for the rest of the year. But I thought I'd let everyone know that I've marked all the remaining yarn in my shop down to $15 a skein. I'd really like to move it out of my office by the end of the year, partly so I won't have to figure out how to declare it as inventory on my taxes.

So if you've looked at my yarn in the past and thought it was just a bit too dear, now's your chance to have your own pet skein. Or if you want to whip up a last minute gift for someone you love, there might still be time for a super-fast knitter...or maybe you could just give them the skein of yarn in a package and tell them that it will become socks after the holiday. There is even one skein left of the Valkyrie colorway, a purple and gold that would be perfect knit up for your favorite Vikings fan...

On top of that, anyone who purchases two or more skeins can specify in their comments to seller their choice of either a free pattern (socks, baby hat, adult hat) or a few notecards to be included in your package.

Time to go to bed...I've been baking cookies all evening, and knitting on mittens in between batches. Pictures of that and more tomorrow-ish.

Nutcracker!

I haven't talked much lately about Julie's dance lessons, but I have a whopper of an update. If you'll recall, we signed her up for ballet/tap lessons in September after months and months of her obsession over all things dance. She especially loves Angelina Ballerina, and can get pretty into fantasies of performing on stage. The girl wanted lessons. And then we started lessons, and it was a little rocky for a while there.

For a while, we almost took her out of lessons altogether. Out of fairness to her, I think I'm going to leave out some of the details about why and how it went down. I'm just going to say that Joe and I did our best to balance our decisions about how to help her with this - we knew she wanted to do it, we knew it would be good for her, but we didn't want to push her to do something that was uncomfortable or traumatize her over something meant to be fun. In the end, it worked out and she has been enjoying her classes much more. And part of those classes has been practice for the Nutcracker recital put on by the dance school.

Julie's part was a small one in the party scene at the beginning, which meant that she got to wear her Christmas party dress that we already had. She was very excited to put it on for the dress rehearsal yesterday, and Sophie wanted to get dressed up, too, so I let her.



The biggest part of a dress rehearsal is waiting around for everyone else to rehearse. I could not believe how well my girls behaved - they sat in these chairs for almost two hours without complaint. It didn't hurt that I had tons of snacks and activities along for them. The raisins again - they are magic!



And finally, it was Julie's turn to get up on the stage and run through her little routine.



She did exactly what she was supposed to do when she was supposed to do it, and she smiled her biggest, happiest smile the whole time.



I can't begin to express how happy I felt for her. She had been saying earlier in the week that she wasn't going to be in the performance (for reasons only she knows). I had told her that she didn't have to perform if she didn't want to, but that she did have to get dressed up and at least be at the rehearsal and at the performance.



I stood in the wings, holding Sophie in one hand and snapping pictures with the other, and tears welled up in my eyes - okay, I actually cried a little bit. I was so. freakin'. happy. for her.

And this morning dawned, things were looking good. We went out to breakfast and came home and played around the house for a bit. The girls got dressed up and I managed to remember to take their picture in front of the tree before we left the house.



There was more waiting - back stage this time. That's Julie with Teacher Rachel. Rachel is so sweet, so nice, so patient, so wonderful. We love Teacher Rachel. I wish I had the time to knit her some leg warmers for Christmas. I'm actually tempted to try and squeeze a pair in, but I don't think it's going to happen. She will get a nice gift certificate instead.



Here they are just off the stage, waiting to go on. All the little girls love Teacher Rachel. Oh! and one of the little girls saw me with Julie and said "You cried yesterday!" and I said "Yep, sometimes I cry a little bit when I'm really happy." and she said "Are you going to cry again today?" and I said "Maybe. I hope not."



Julie smiled and sat where she was supposed to sit...



although this time she got a little distracted by the giftwrapped prop boxes...



But it worked out in the end, and she skipped right through the human tunnel when it was time, and took her little curtsy.



And they came off the stage, and all the little girls checked my face to see if I was crying - there were a few happy tears in my eyes, but none escaped this time. And we snuck in the back of the auditorium and watched the rest of the show, leaving just in time to get back on stage for the final curtain-call...



And the part that Julie was looking forward to all week...



She got her pink roses from Mommy and Daddy and Grandma Harmony. And life was good.

Gingerbread and Stuff

I was all rarin' to post this yesterday, but instead found myself embroiled in what became an entire evening of trying to get a few packages ready to mail out and in the mean time dig through the pile of crap that had once again overtaken my desk.

But here I am tonight, and the pictures and memories are still fresh enough. Everything worked out yesterday afternoon so that after lunch we were able to decorate our gingerbread house. Sophie got a front-row seat in her high chair, and Julie pulled up a stool.



I had all the candies set up in little bowls and ready to go. The girls were SO excited to eat candy. I know I've mentioned this before, but my girls have had almost no candy. This Halloween was a big break in the candy-eating dam, but there is not candy available in our house on a regular basis.



But still, Julie did a great job putting the candies on the house, and did so in an impressively organized fashion.



Sophie watched and worked her way up to a sugar high.



Julie wanted to try her hand at the icing bag, so we got out a sheet of waxed paper and she went to town. I'm glad she accepted this compromise over practicing on the house. I enjoyed watching her practice with it, and simultaneously assuaged my obsessive-compulsive need for a well-decorated gingerbread house.



Sophie said, "This is fun! I'll have some more sugar, please!"



Julie's icing tube came open at the top, and she ended up with a big glob of it on her hands. So I told her she could lick it off, which she started to do. Sophie saw Julie licking the icing, and wanted in on the action. So Julie, bless her little heart, let Sophie lick some of the icing off her hand. It was hilariously funny and cute.



I was having so much fun decorating that I started pulling things out of the cabinets to add to the house - remember those Honey Bunny cookies? Now they're hopping all around the place. I found some stale Swedish Fish in the back of the cupboard, and made a little pond for them to swim in. I pulled out some mini marshmallows and made some smoke coming out of the chicklet-gum chimney. The trees are the only inedible part - I made cones out of construction paper for lack of something better.



Gotta love the timer function on the camera.



Here's Julie's work of art. She said it was the forest. I don't have the heart to throw it away, so it's still sitting on the counter with the house.



And oh, hey, look! Finished object!





I thought these were going to be four-year-old size, but instead after felting, it looks like they will be just right for the almost-two-year-old. This is Malabrigo worsted weight, knit on size 5 needles with a cast-on number of 36. Just your basic generic in-the-round mitten pattern, with a couple of stripes thrown in for fun. Now it's time to go start the second pair.

Tuesday Trash

Hi everyone, it's time for another camera-dump. Ya ready?

It snowed here over the weekend, and the girls and I were outside for a few minutes enjoying it. Really, it was a few minutes. That's all I can take. Thankfully, Sophie doesn't seem to like the cold so I can blame coming inside on her. Yay!

Sophie did enjoy taking a little ride around on the little sled. We need to buy a bigger one, and go find one of the many sledding hills around here to introduce them to real sledding, but for now, this did the trick.



Julie enjoys throwing chunks of snow into the street and watching them splat. I take the credit for that one, as I enjoy doing it almost as much as she does. I just have to keep an eagle eye on her to make sure she doesn't edge too close to the street and fall off the snow bank.



Sunday we decorated the tree. I know a lot, maybe even most, people have themes for their trees and they end up looking like works of art. Our tree is eclectic, and I love it. The glass ornaments go higher up, the homemade and soft ornaments go at the bottom. I didn't realize how many ornaments we ended up making last year till I opened the box on Sunday, but I felt a little proud of myself for managing to do all that with a toddler and an infant. Julie was thrilled to be allowed to hang some of the glass ornaments this year.



Sophie was pretty fascinated by just everything about the tree. We are going through the "look-don't-touch learning process with her, I'm afraid. Notice I'm wearing that blue sweater minus the bobble-nipples.



Yesterday I tried my hand at bread again. This time whole-wheat. It was pretty good, if a little dense as homebaked whole-wheat tends to be. It was fine smeared with butter and honey as afternoon snack and maybe even a bit better with our split-pea soup for dinner.



Still not what I would call mannah, though. We'll keep trying. The only problem is that I ended up eating way too much bread and I felt quite sick afterwards. I need some self-control!

Julie was at a friend's house last week and found herself wearing a shiny tiara out of the dress-up clothes there. Ever since then, she's been begging me to help her make one, so yesterday we did out of construction paper, aluminum foil, glue and sequins. It turned out pretty cute.



This stupid light fixture - we had it installed during the great kitchen renovation a couple years ago. The fluorescent bulb inside burned out several days ago, and we couldn't figure out how to get the lid off to replace it. My electrician was out of town and not returning my calls, so eventually I took this photo to send along with Joe to Home Depot so he could get some advice there. Luckily, they had the same model and he got it figured out. It was simply maddening to have one end of the kitchen all dark and gloomy! It was driving me crazy, and now that we have the light back, it's freaky how beautiful and bright it is again.



I did a little yarn dyeing over the weekend. It's for a custom order, and I hope it's good enough. It took me forever to get around to doing it for various reasons, but I'm hoping it will be dry enough to mail out tomorrow. Assuming, of course, that I can get us out of the house - there is more snow coming down right now.



A few weeks ago I bought one of those gingerbread house kits. It felt like a total cop-out to buy the pre-made cookies and the candy all kitted up, but I knew that I would never get around to baking one myself, and I knew Julie would love this project. We will make our own gingerbread cookies, but I don't think I could make a house this nice myself anyway.

It took me a while to work up the nerve to get started on this project, partly because you need a nice little block of time to work on it without people crying or melting down or needing to be held. Mostly, though, I was putting off the struggle that ensues whenever I embark on a project like this with Julie. She wants to do everything herself, and I'm sorry, but my four-year-old cannot handle things like running the hand mixer, squeezing the frosting bag, or even putting gingerbread walls into place without getting all spastic. In the end, though, she was happy with just watching and licking the beaters.

I mixed the royal icing and put it into the bags. I like to use water glasses to hold the bags while I fill them up - I just turn the edges of the bags over the sides of the glasses kind of like trash can liners, and it makes it ever so much easier to scrape the frosting into them. Also, the glasses serve as nice holding areas for the bags in between uses, helping to minimize some of the mess.



I needed a base to set the house on, so I cut a piece of cardboard and covered it in foil. Classy!



Here is the picture of the sample house on the tin it came in. I can only imagine how *lovely* ours will be by comparison!



The directions tell you to put the sides together, wait a few hours, put the roof on and wait overnight.



The roof is on now, and maybe tomorrow afternoon we'll decorate.

In the mean time, after Julie's dance class tonight I realized that we had no dinner waiting for us at home, so I dragged the girls into the fancy grocery store that's in the neighborhood to pick up some quickly-prepared fare that I'm not even going to admit in public. But once there,we found this:



They were having a Lego menorah-building contest! How cool is that?!!! They even had a "giant" menorah made out of duplo blocks!



I felt a little creepy taking pictures as I was the only non-Jewish person hanging around that part of the store, and I felt even a bit creepier explaining it to Julie, hoping that I wasn't saying anything offensive. I'm pretty sure I wasn't.

And now, I have to go work on the knitting. I'm finishing a certain pair of mittens for a certain little friend of the family who is expecting them. I'd like to get the pair done tonight and maybe even start on the pair for the little sister of that family. To keep me company, I have a DVD of old-school Sesame Street from 1972. I watched part of it last night, and it's great! All the grown-ups look so young. Bob and Gordon, Maria and Luis...and some of the muppets look a little freaky. Muppet technology has come a long way, I guess.

We Have a Winner!

I really want to thank everyone who played along with my wish list game. I feel like I've received gifts from so many of you this last week or so. Gifts of being reminded what I already have, both materially and in thoughtfulness by my family. Gifts of wishes that I should have things that you have and love - maybe someday regular massages will be in my budget! Gifts of your time and energy that you've put into thinking up something great for me to check out.

I want you all to know that Joe has been reading your comments too, and not just him either. The husband of a friend and reader called me up the other day and asked me about what to get her for Christmas. Thanks to you all, I was able to send him here and I'm sure he found lots of great ideas that she will love. I'd like to believe that there are others like him out there waiting to be enlightened.

In any case, as I'm going back through all the comments, the copies of them that are in my e-mail in-box, I'm putting them into a special folder and then will use the random number generator to draw one out. Now, I have to point out that I asked y'all to post responses on the original contest post and a bunch of you didn't. If you had, it would have made my life oh-so-much easier right now, but I don't have the heart to leave you out of the running so I'm taking the extra time to sort 'em through.

I'm sorry I don't have time tonight to respond to all the rest of the suggestions. Please know that I read them all, and really appreciate your thoughtfulness!

So I ran the random number - it was 58 - and I had to go almost twenty people down the list to find someone who had left contact information! It seems like a silly requirement, but I need a way to e-mail the winner that they've won, and it's not like I'm generating some kind of spam e-mail list! I even went through the Blogger accounts of the people in question and most of the profiles were unavailable, or led to blogs with no e-mail information.

Which is extremely lucky, I guess, for Flan, who did include her e-mail address when she recommended that I get some kind of new workspace option like storage or desk for my office. Flan, I've thought about that and really would like to get a new desk in my office some day. The thing that holds me back is that I have a feeling no matter how much horizontal space I have, I will still manage to clutter it up. So until we have unlimited funds, I'm sticking with what I have.

E-mail me with your snail-mail address, and I'll pop the book out to you this week. Unless you want to finally meet up for that cup of coffee and/or dyeing party we've been trying to plan for the last eon. Shellyk at shellykang dot com.

And now, I'm going to go take a break. I haven't had one all week. I'm exhausted.

Sorry...

I was going to get the contest drawing done tonight, but instead I was busy helping to rearrange furniture, cleaning up a bit, wrapping some X-mas presents, and doing this:



Joe and I hauled up all the X-mas decorations, he set up the tree, and I put on the lights. Right now he's finishing up assembling the Playmobil advent calendar I bought on clearance last year.



I know better than to try and do tree lights with two little girls running around. It's hard enough with help from the furry friends. There were some curse words involved.



At least we'll be ready to let the girls help put ornaments on tomorrow. Joe doesn't get into the whole tree-decorating-is-fun thing, but I do, and I think the girls do too.

Contest winner drawing will have to wait till Sunday night, I'm afraid!

In the mean time, a gratuitous cute-kid picture from this afternoon:

No-Coast

Hey, I meant to mention this yesterday, but didn't, so maybe I'll catch a few people this morning. The girls and I went to No-Coast Craft-O-Rama at the Midtown Global Market yesterday. I would have preferred to go by myself, but it just wasn't going to work out that way this year, and since they opened on Friday afternoons the crowds weren't as crazy as they were on Saturday last year. I was able to get the double stroller through without much trouble at all.

Anyway, if you're local and the snow isn't going to keep you in, go check it out today. Get there as early as you can before it's all picked over! I'm going to show you pictures of what I bought from two of my favorite vendors there.

Aisha Celia has a table of handspun yarns that are gorgeous. She has a limited supply of the handspun, so grab it up quick! There are a couple other vendors with small amounts of handspun, but they come nowhere near rivaling Aisha's work. Aisha also has lovely hand dyed yarn at her table as well. I think she understands why I was less tempted by that part of her business, as lovely as it is. Here's what I scored:



I was pretty pissed off when I realized that the woman standing at the table paying when I walked up had just bought the twin to the green skein on the bottom. Aish has a thing where she gets a little bored after a while and rarely makes two skeins exactly alike. Given the beauty of the green skein, you can bet I would have bought the pair if they had been available! Aisha, tie those twin skeins together next year! No worries, though - I will find something delicious to make out of what I have.

Secondly, I ran into an old playgroup friend Annik, who has been busy making bags. Annik reminds me every time I run into her that I taught her how to knit - and that makes me feel great. I love being part of someone's history like that. Even if I was so bleary and sleep-deprived at that point in my life (before we figured out Julie's food allergies) that I barely remember it. Annik had a whole table of bags that were begging me to take them home, and about five on them almost convinced me. She uses fun, sturdy fabrics and her stitching is neat and there are nice pockets on the inside. I ended up choosing this green and purple robot one, partly because it is a little bigger than some of the other bags I have.



Why is it that I am so hard to buy gifts for, but it is so easy for me to buy for myself? ARGH! We'll talk more about that tonight. In the mean time, go say hi to Aisha and Annik, buy all their stuff, and check out all the other great stuff at No-Coast. I've got to get ready to go teach my class.