First post of 2013!

Yeah I know - I'm a little behind on things. That's because I did a whole lot of N.O.T.H.I.N.G. on my time off. Nothing piled on top of nothing. Glorious! (A bit of exercise excepted. I had to make up for slacking off earlier in the month so I stuck to THAT at least.) So it's been a bit of a slog since Wednesday catching up on things: Def Con 5 house cleaning, errand running, end of year business stuff (ENDLESS), etc. Every time I think I am getting close to being done, I find another 3-4 things to add to my to-do list. Grrr.

I'm starting to see some real progress now on my 'list' though and everything is back up for sale in the Bead Shoppe and Etsy, so yay for that! Tweaks are still needed to some things but that will come in time. All the Christmas stuff is now packed away too, which makes me feel better. I added some super cute things to my decorations this year, like this Williraye nativity set and a super-cute Stovepipe hat snowman. 

Do I need any more snowman for my collection? No, but I couldn't resist him! (Also got a big WOOD hanging that looks just like him for hanging outside. *love* At least I keep the snowman out (or most of them) until spring so I get a decent amount of usage out of them. :)

I did keep myself busy during my off time though - and not just with eating shortbread cookies. (Of which I did. A lot. Like......A LOT, A LOT. *sigh*) There was a flurry of book reading (6-7 finished!) and gift knitting and even a little knitting for myself. I finished a pair of socks for my mother but the quick pic I took of them is terrible so I'm not going to post it. She loved them so that is all that matters. These FoxHall gloves for the hubby were a big hit too:

The pattern includes an option to make a 'pop top' finger for texting (as seen in the bottom pic) and, I tell you what, I get major geeky points for putting that in. MAJOR. :)

I also made myself a hat too but, ugh, just don't like it all. (Thank you Monkee for being my model.) It was a kit (pattern + yarn) for a Habitat hat from Brooklyn Tweed and the pattern is quite lovely but I've got a serious case of the 'dislikes' over the yarn. Looks great, very warm but.......it's sooooooooo stiff. Almost as if it were already felted? I think knitting up jute twine would be about as joyful as this was....FOR ME. I like more bounce, more elasticity, more drape, more SOMETHING. All I know is it is not for me as far as FEEL. (There is no doubting it LOOKS fantastic.) When I take 5 days to whip up a simple hat with CABLES - which I LOVE to do - then you know something is wrong.

The pom-pom was my attempt to make me feel better about it. (Didn't work.) Also, I just wanted an excuse to buy some fancy-pants (but not at all expensive) pom-pom makers. Nothing happier-making than a good pom-pom session. :)

Sooooooooooo, I bought some cheap-o, plain jane, Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool (a classic!) and started another  hat. (Pattern is called Wurm. Heh.) It feels like it SHOULD so I am happy. (Alas, this hat also doesn't fit Monkee. Poor hatless Monkee!)

Oh well. That should do for now. I thoroughly enjoyed everyone's posts over the holidays - seeing all the wonderful decorating, projects and family pictures! Can't get enough of it. I even got to spend some time browsing Pinterest - which I hadn't done in ages. I really can't get enough of seeing all the inspiring things people come up with! Here's to an even bigger and better year this year!! :)

Weiners!

Giveaway weiners winners were pulled this morning and emailed but I thought I would put it here too just in case someone didn't get their email. They were Valerie, Patty C., Laura D. , Michelle R. and Shawna. Congrats and thanks to everyone who participated!! :)

(Pinterest, uncredited)

Oh Xmas Tree!

Today is my first, gloriously free of work, work free, no work, absolutely nothing to do with work, day off since Thanksgiving. Feels......................VERY NICE. There are still Xmas decorations to be gone through though so no rest for the weary. I gathered together all my Xmas ornaments and......

Well, poo. I sure felt like I had more than that. Hmm..Dug around a little more......

Not ornaments but found some winter/holiday themed stitchies. But still.......felt like there were MORE? Oh wait, I'm forgetting my not-so-small obsession with 'socks'. It's not limited JUST to knitting adult socks, you know. 

*ahem*

There's the mother load. Nine months of the monthly Blackbird Designs stocking series. (I WILL FINISH the whole run of these at some point!!) Obviously, most of these are not Xmas themed but I like putting them up on the tree anyway. :)

And then there are the wee itty-bitty knitted stockings I was obsessed with knitting last Xmas. (Knit just like adult socks so if and when a House Elf appears, I've got plenty of wearable socks for him.)

Whew. That feels better. And just to put a cherry on it, I finished up these two little heart ornaments last night:

They were stitched earlier this year so it was about time to finish-finish them so I could get them on the tree. (Also: sewing hearts is HARD. I used the same paper template for both of these and, uhhhhh, they came out wildly different in shape. Whoops.)

Will pull the names for the giveaway sometime tomorrow!!!!!! :)

Holiday Giveaway time!

 Little bit of blogging first and then I'll get to the free stuff. :)

I haven't managed a day off from work..............yet. But it's coming!!!

Etsy shop is closed down now and I *was* going to wait until this weekend to shut the web store down but I rethought it and now that will be closed sometime tomorrow too. Three weeks without a day off and an annoying bout of dizziness the last couple days have me waving the white flag. I need time to regroup; physically, mentally and just about any other 'ally you can think of. lol

(Also: need to finish cleaning my house and Xmas decorating. The tree is up - with lights but no ornaments on it. *sad*)

I did manage to put together some stuff for a holiday giveaway though!

A little bit of everything - so something stitchy for stitchy peeps and something beady for beady peeps, etc.

The stitchy stuff is a brand-new Blackbird Designs stocking pattern (I overbought but my whoopsie is your gain!) and I made a handy-dandy fabric thread catcher to match. The fabrics on the thread catcher aren't OVERTLY Christmasy though if you want to use it year-round. (I can't promise a couple beads won't work their way into this offering too though. Heh.)

For the beady stuff I did up four different hatted snowmen and wired them up with Swarovski crystals and put them on coordinating lobster claw lariats. Perfect to put on a pair of scissors, your cell phone, etc. - or take it off the lariat and put it on a chain for a necklace! (I went with snowmen because they can work as a trinket all winter long vs. just a few weeks in December.)

So FIVE separate things to giveaway! :)

Here is how you can get them:

1. To enter all you have to do is email me. ( I will ship it anywhere in the world so everyone is welcome to enter.)

 

2. If you have no preference on what you'd like to win, no message is needed on your email. If you'd prefer one thing (stitchy) vs the other (beady) then feel free to put that in your message.

  3. If you are a follower of this blog, let me know and I will enter your name in twice. I do so appreciate my followers and the comments I get here so of course you guys get extra special attention. :)
(If you are not a follower but want to be, just click the 'follow' link on the right side bar. Everybody has a Google account at this point................right?)

4. I will draw the winners names next Tuesday, December 18th using the random number generator. and contact the winners by email for their mailing addresses.

And that's it. Easy-peasy, right? :)
GOOD LUCK!

Obsession over.

 A fun little project for the holiday. 

 Little Cotton Rabbits free pattern, heavily modified because I did mine in the round vs. her doing 'em flat and seaming them up the backside.

I think in my mind I wasn't going to be happy until I hit an even dozen of these little jobbies and I was having fun coming up with new ways to do the designs but then the last one popped out like this:

Uh. Can you say totally BANANAS?

I mean look at the design on this thing!?! These aren't meant to be worn by actual PEOPLE, you know. 

So that was when I knew I had to quit before I started charting out, like, the New York landscape in wee sock form or something EQUALLY RIDICULOUS.

So, obsession over. They are put away until next Christmas where I will............I don't actually know what to do with them, to be honest. Put them on the tree? Maybe do a garland/stocking thing on the stairway banister? I just kinda liked knitting them. I didn't really care what they were for, you know? lol

During the holiday I also managed to correct an egregious wrong around here. Mr. Pigeon from The Pigeon Loft came with a most handsome Santa hat when I got him but, alas, when Miss HennyPenny joined the fold she was, quite sadly, sans hat. You can imagine how she felt about this. 

Those little beady eyes just stare straight into the depths of your soul, don't they? *shudder*

So I made her a styling hat too, complete with handmade pom-pom. (Which was quite the experience as it was twice as big as that when it started and then I trimmed and trimmed and trimmed and OMG I HATE MAKING POM-POMS.) So then I stuffed them both into the Xmas tree, per usual, with their hats and all was right with the world. The End.

Merry Christmas!!!

That Maru is a cutie, isn't he? I LOVE that blog.

I have a few cuties of my own too though. :)

Maggie. Taking advantage of an empty tin on the stove. So cute but......*sigh*. Her 'new' thing is sleeping on the stove, which is sure to be completely disasterous at some point, of course, when she jumps up there when the cook top is still hot. :(

Yelling at her is useless because she's deaf. All I've got in my wheelhouse re: bad behavior is pantomiming anger with finger pointing and Angry Face and stomping my foot on the floor. Needless to say, she laughs in the face of my acting skills. lol

(Let's not pay TOO much attention though to why I have an empty 3lb.+ shortbread tin BEFORE Christmas has even hit, ok? December is for cooking NOM NOM NOMs. lol)

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!!!!! We're on the way out the door to go catch a movie after a busy day. I'm bringing along some knitting for the car ride (an hour each way.......gotta love living in the sticks!) because I STILL have not finished my Xmas knitting. lol  Nothing like last minute clickety clack clack clack knit knit knit knit!

My brand spanky new knitting bag from Ravelry. Adorable!!

Can't show what I've been working on until I pass them on but here's a peek of some of it:

Yay!

 I got the tree up this year before Christmas Eve! A WEEK AND HALF before Christmas Eve, to be exact. I'm so proud of myself. *pats self* 

I'm not going to bother to try and take a 'picturesque' photo of it though because it's impossible. Large sunny window + killer huge tv that can be seen from space on one side = no good angles for proper photo taking. Plus, I'm not dedicated enough to have a theme tree so I'm not sure how photo worthy it is anyway. I pick up a few ornaments every year to add to the mess, take out a few as the years go on...........it's a mix of everything and nothing but I wouldn't have it any other way. lol

Here a few new ones for this year:

How cute is this? I got this off of an Etsy seller. Looks just like the  hubby in his moon suit bee keeper suit! Super adorbs!

Simple ones from Target but I love their knitty-ness. They look/feel like they were fashioned out of old Fair Isle sweaters or something. Now THAT I can get behind.

And here are my kitties, in clay form. Robyn did a post last week showcasing a whole bunch of crafty kitty ornaments made for her by people and it made me pouty not to have any crafty kitties too so I found a bunch on Etsy and................good god I don't have $15 each to spend on crafty kitties on Etsy! They are lovely but no. Sorry. I'll have to plan for that during the year, one at a time. So when I was at Michael's last week for something else, I hit up the clay aisle and got some supplies to make up my own gang of kitties. For less than $15, I made up a Meisha, Mooshie, and Maggie kitty plus something else that can't be shown because it's a gift. :)

Meisha says: Uhhhh, like, my nose isn't pink though? 

Me: Sorry, bbs. I didn't buy any black so pink had to do. 

Meisha: Pfffftt!

Of course, now I have all this leftover clay because I only used up the ivory pack. What to do with it?!? lol My 'career' as a clay artist (sooooooooooooo kidding!!!) was short-lived because rolling out the clay balls DECIMATED my hands. My middle knuckle, palm side, was inflamed and owie for two days afterwards. No more clay crafts for me. It's now DAYS later and my inner palms, where the joints are, are STILL a little hurty if I press on it. :(

It's always fun to bring on the cross-stitch ornaments too, here are two are my favs, a JCS ornie and a L*K one:

I have so so so so many less than I would like to have though. I totally, miserably, horrendously FAILED on that front this year. Need to rethink crafty goals for next year. Hmm.........

And finally, look at this super great birthday gift that Cookie A. sent me. A loverly skein of cashmere infused yarn and an organic cotton sock drawstring bag. So very very thoughtful of her to think me of like that when she's so busy flitting around the world doing super-important knitting things and..............OK so this is really just the last installment of the 2011 Sock Club......that was sent out to hundreds of people, not just me. A girl can have her delusions, right? :)

Big Whopping December Giveaway-palooza!

 December is the month for gifting giving so let's give some stuff away!!!!

Here's what you can win:

A wire wrapped pendant with either a penguin or Santa focal bead (made by moi), with matching cell phone lariat. (Which you can put on anything - including a pair of scissors. Or take the lariat off completely and put it on a chain.)

A pair of hand made wool socks, knitted by me last month. They are a titch too big for my size 7.5-8US feet so they will fit all the way up to 9-9.5US I would think. Made of 75% wool and 25% nylon Opal yarn which is pretty indestructible and close to impossible to felt. (Seriously.)

A hand stitched, by me (imagine that!), Blackbird Designs stocking from the December booklet, so it will go nicely on a Christmas tree or just for wintery decorating in general. 

So FOUR separate things to be won by FOUR separate people.

Here are the deets to get a chance at them:

1.) You must send me an email to enter. It's open to all for free, even people outside the US.

2) If you are a follower of this blog, please let me know in your email and I will enter your name in an extra time for that. (If you're not currently a follower but would like to be, just hit the 'join this site' button in the little widget on the right there, sign in with your Google account and voila! Easy peasy!)

3) If you post about this giveaway on YOUR BLOG, please put that in your email entry and I will enter your name in again for that.

4)Absolutely no resale of any of the items. If you can not use them for your personal use or as a gift to a loved one, please do not enter.

5) Winners will be chosen on Monday, December 19th. I will contact them by email and the packages will go out as soon as I have your mailing address.

Sooooooooooo, that's a total of THREE ENTRIES you can try for, for those of you who are counting. Combined with four items you have a chance at..........not bad odds I would think. :)

Odds and Ends:

If you have a preference to win one particular thing over the other, feel free to put that in your email but no guarantees that is what you will end up getting. Example: if all four chosen people pick the same item as their preference, I will randomly pull from those four names again to see who get's that item, etc.so everything is fair.

The only exception to the above is if you absolutely can not use a fabric based item (the knitted/stitched socks) due to either a wool or cat allergy. (I have three Himalayan cats.) In that case, let me know and I will take you out of the running for the socks. 

(Actually, in that case, I weep for you because a life without woolies or foofy kitties? *shudder* The horror! lol)

GOOD LUCK GUYS!!!!! :)

It's war, baby.

Anybody else interested in this whole crazy situation with the Tonight Show? I admit that I am fascinated by it but I really couldn't tell you WHY, especially because I don't generally watch any late night tv. Whaaaat? (The exception being The Daily Show but I tivo that and watch it whenever I get around to it.) I've never even been a big watcher of the Tonight Show. Carson was a little too old for me when he was on and I've never been able to stomach Leno as a comic.

I think the whole thing though is such an EPIC FAIL that it piqued my interest. OMG DRAMAZ where nobody is actually being hurt? SIGN ME UP! I love a good (but harmless) trainwreck, ya know? If I have to pick a team though I'm definitely with COCO. I'll take wacky-funny over boring-and-too-politically-correct-'funny' every single time. Poor Coco. We hardly knew ye. No, really - WE HARDLY KNEW YE! *snort*

(Though I have to be honest and say that if I have to pick a late night show as my fav, it's Craig Ferguson's. He's wickedly clever, sharp as a tack, and, Ooowheeeee, the Scottish accent  ain't bad either. Who doesn't love a good Scottish brogue? *purrr* I wish I had time to watch his monologue every day but ya can't watch everything. I catch him sometimes during the summer when there is nothing else to tape.)

And to save this entry from being TOTAL MINDLESS DRECK THAT NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD BE INTERESTED IN........I'll throw in a photo of some Xmas ornaments I *finally* got around to sewing up the other day. (Refresher: I did the needlework in Nov/Dec.)

I'm sure they'll look good on the tree...................NEXT DECEMBER. Heehee. Three finished about five more to go. I'll get around to it sooner or later. :) And I even put beads on one of them so, POOF, I ended up bringing this all right back around to beads. *proud*

Meatballs, anyone? :)

Most people start off the year with renewed vows or interest in eating healthy, losing weight, going to the gym more often, etc.

Me? I started it off by making lots of meatballs. LOTS of meatballs. Like 100+ meatballs. Using ground beef.............................and pork. Because they just ain't good eats unless they have a little porkiness in there. Though, in my defense, we aren't actually EATING the meatballs just yet. I froze them all in individual food saver packs for when I want a quick supper and/or don't feel like cooking. (I also made quart containers of sauce to go with them.)

I'm not one for resolutions any way other than a generic type of 'simplify simplify simplify' one. Once the Xmas stuff is packed away (done yesterday) I start getting twitchy and look around for other things to simplify. So far, I've simplified my internet 'life' a little by deleting over 1,000 Facebook 'friends'. So if you got deleted recently, don't take it personally. It was all getting to be a bit much and I decided it needed to be brought down to more manageable numbers. Because the way it was, I never looked at a damn thing on there any more because there was too much going on and I didn't feel like wading through hundreds of posts just to get to a few that interested me. So I whacked away at it until I got down to around 240 and I'm still trimming here and there as I go. And I have to say - it feels REALLY REALLY GOOD. (And part of this was the changes FB has made to the newsfeed in recent months. I really don't give a crap to wade through post after post of who friended who, who fan paged what, or hit 'like' on something. Why did they start adding EVERYTHING to your feed? Next up, I expect to see it give you a notice when someone farts! YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! So annoying.)

Next up: I have to whack away at the 'leftovers' of the handmade Xmas presents/projects piled up on my hearth. Leftover balls of yarns, loose patterns, etc. And I have a pile (A PILE!!!) of needle worked ornaments that need to be sewn up into something that you can actually HANG from a tree. (A tree that is now packed up until next December. lol)

Hello lover.......................*blink*blink*

The two of us didn't bother exchanging Xmas presents** this year (just like I didn't bother with Xmas cards.....sorry about that *cough*) but we managed to be gifted something we almost bought for ourselves by lucky happenstance: a Keurig brewing system.

I don't drink coffee but I do loves my chai and regular teas and wooooooooboy is this machine kinda neato. I was a little dubious of a coffee machine making good tea but it's actually pretty damn tasty. (Note: I'm not a tea snob. I go for the bagged stuff as well as the loose tea and it matters not to me which it is. All good. :)) Is it a whole lot less work than nuking a mug of water for 3 minutes and plopping a tea bag in? Maybe not but that's not nearly as FUN as shooting out a ready made mug of tea in a few seconds. And the Green Mountain Chai Tea is spot on. Maybe a tiny bit less rich than the Big Train chai I usually buy but, all in all, very yummy chai. Two thumbs up! :)

**I did, of course, insist on him getting me something for my BIRTHDAY though (which is a few days before Xmas). Forgetting my birthday is always unacceptable. *grin* To that end, I got a nice pair of too-expensive-for-me-to-buy-for-myself-without-guilt shoes I'd been drooling over for a few months and he cleaned out my Knitpicks wish list. Two thumbs up on this as well! lol

This year's unexpected Xmas gift:

 My small town cable company finally crawled (scratching and kicking) into the 21st century and upgraded it's service last week. I now have those 'rare' channels like E! and CNN Headline News like the rest of y'all have probably been getting for 10+ years. Wooooooo!?? (I know *I* had these channels when we lived in RI pre-2004.) I'm not sure I want to WATCH anything on the E! channel** etc., mind you, but it always frosted my butt that we had such a dismal selection of channels even though we fork over a small fortune to them every month. (Raise your hand if your cable bill is the highest monthly utility bill you have. OOOOooo! MEeeeee! Meeee!!! MINE IS MINE IS!!)

**Exception being the National Geographic channel. I do think we will enjoy that one. You used to be able to get their specials on PBS but then they started their own channel and they disappeared from PBS. I've missed them. :(

Whoops. Time got away from me there. :)

(And yes I am a bad bad blogger for not updating more often this month. My husband is even starting to shame me into updating this thing. lol)