Ten on Tuesday

10 Favorite Super Bowl Party Foods.
or should I just say party foods. Though the food, to me, is the only reason to go to a Superbowl party. I hate football. I hate it more than I hate baseball...and it's about on par with basketball. And frankly we can't go to these parties anymore because it starts too close to bedtime for the kiddos. But if you are going to do it, this is how it should be.

1. Buffalo wings- And I mean real Buffalo wings. Not the crappy knock-offs that I keep finding around here. I'm from Upstate NY. I know what a Buffalo wing is. It's made with Frank's Red Hot and butter. That's it. You can have other chicken wing flavors as well but you better have the original.
2. Tortilla chips and Queso- a must. 
3. Nachos- Loaded. with everything. 
4. Potato chips and French onion dip- Heluva Good is the only acceptable brand of dip.
5. Veggies and dip
6. Chili- if ambitious you can do both white and red. 
7. Pizza- delivered or homemade. in a variety of flavors
8. Ribs- need I say more
9. Spinach artichoke dip- another must (my recipe is called 'crack dip' by my friends because they accuse me of putting crack in it. It's that addicting)
10. Brownies- chocolate goodness in a non messy delivery system. 

So there you go. Enjoy the game. I'll be giving the kids a bath and then watching Die Hard. 

On the nightstand: Skein of the Crime, Heroes. Volume two
On the Ipod: Death Comes to Pemberly
On the Kindle: Knitter's Life List
On the needles: Double Heelix socks, Orange Twist Child Hat-Scarf, charity scarf & hat,
On the wheel: nada
In the sewing basket: finished Marvel pillow case and blanket
On the easel: nada
On the shop floor: Time After Time

Update Monday

It was a weekend of contrasts.  Saturday was busy with my son's social schedule, which by the way is more active than mine. Sunday was spent at home cleaning and trying to keep the peace between the minions. Little Miss thinks the Little Dude is just amazing and wants to do what ever he is doing, and he just wants her to stop touching his stuff. And Mommy just wants 10 minutes of quiet and to finish a mug of tea while it is still hot....if she can find where she left it.
Now that Little Miss is nursing less and doesn't require being held all the time, I'm able to get some projects done. I finished a new pillowcase and blanket for Little Dude's nap stuff for school. I had noticed when I passed through school at nap time that his blanket was suddenly too small (when the hell did he get so big?!?). So we took a trip to JoAnn's and I let him pick out his own fabric. We started by picking out fleece for the blanket. Well, there was so much to choose from; everywhere we looked was a new superhero. First one he saw was Batman, then Superman, then Captain America, then Green Lantern (I'm raising my kids to be both Marvel and DC). Then I found it....the fabric with Thor, Wolverine, Hulk, and Ironman. "THAT IS AWESOME!!!"

 

Then we rounded the corner to the fabrics and I was astounded at the number of superhero fabrics (thank you Avengers movie). He picked his favorite and I decided that I need to make a quilt. Well two actually. I can't have Marvel and DC together in one quilt. (My husband thinks I'm nuts). I'll be fabric shopping soon.

I've been trying to get knitting again. I started the Double Heelix socks way back in July. After a rough start and some abandonment I'm almost done with the first sock.

I've some things to say about this pattern but I'll wait until I've finished. I have some ideas for the second sock and I want to give them a try first.

I also cast on for the Orange Twist Child Hat-Scarf last Wednesday. I've been wanting to make this for my son. I showed him the picture and said he liked it. I asked what color he wanted, "PURPLE!" was the reply. It's his favorite color (mine too!) and I'm not the kind of parent who is going to have a conniption fit about my son liking purple. I grabbed a skein out of my stash and asked him if he liked it. He preceded to hold and hug it for about 3 hours. (I think he liked it).  I'm having to make a few adjustments because the largest size is still too small for him.




It is coming along well, and once again this weekend I proved that I can do cables while on Percocet. I might not be able to walk normally, but damn it, I can cable.

Then there's my perpetual use-up-the-stash, leave-on-the-back-of-the-couch, knit-a-few-rows-here-and-there project. I'm clearing out my stash of the yarn I bought before I knew better. Well, some of it I bought. A lot of it I inherited from various people. I'm making mostly scarves, but also some hats and gloves for the mitten tree at the library.



That's all the knitting for now. I'm hoping to cast on a dress for Little Miss's upcoming birthday soon.

I thought I'd keep a running list of what I'm reading, listening to, and working on. Here it is.

On the nightstand: Skein of the Crime, Heroes. Volume two
On the Ipod: finished The Time Machine, podcasts : Wait, wait don't tell me, Car Talk, Geek Girl Crafts
On the Kindle: Knitter's Life List
On the needles: Double Heelix socks, Orange Twist Child Hat-Scarf, charity scarf & hat,
On the wheel: nada
In the sewing basket: finished Marvel pillow case and blanket
On the easel: nada
On the shop floor: Time After Time

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

We've been sick. And by we, I mean the entire household. And by sick I mean the plague that has hit most of this area that involves a lot of congestion, mucus, coughing, more coughing, nose blowing, sinus headaches even more coughing and general malaise. I still have an occasional touch of the cough, but I am fairly healthy now.

Life has busy. The holidays went well. We did the grand tour of our hometowns, connecting our children with as many grandparents, and aunts and uncles as possible. In typical baby fashion, Little Miss was more enthralled with the bows then the actual gifts. Little Dude is at the perfect age for Christmas and there was constant chatter about Santa and excitement in opening gifts.

My birthday has come and gone without much celebration. (I can't believe that I'm 35 now) My Love had to work all day but he popped home for dinner. He did bestow upon me the lovely gift of ear protection I can plug my iPod into. I've been wanting this for a while now and I love them to death.

Work is exceeding busy and I hope to resurrect Footprints in the Sky soon. The problem of being really busy often means that I'm lax in taking pictures.


The minions are wonderful. Little Miss is my delight. She's such a happy girl, but isn't afraid to express her opinion. She's recently learned to shake her head 'No' and uses it often. She would love to eat big people food, but at 10 1/2 months old she still has no teeth. But that doesn't stop her from trying. She'll pound the table in proper Viking fashion when she demands her Cheerios. She's also on the verge of walking. Just this weekend she started walking along walls that don't have handholds and around doorways. You can see her think about trying to cross some wider spans but then she decides against it and crawls. But don't think that slows her down. She's crazy fast with the crawling. And yes, I dress her in pink and skulls. My Love gets a kick out of the flashes of my girly side in the way I dress her.

Little Dude just amazes me more every day. He really enjoys painting (go figure) and building things. His imagination has no bounds. I'll have to post some of his artwork. To the left he is painting a picture of the Hulk. (Yes, I have passed on my love of comics to him as well). I love how the pants are just a purple line across the page. Here you see him painting Hulk's toes.





 
This is a vampire he made out of one of his Christmas presents. Like I said....imagination galore. He recently learned about the differences between boys and girls, so we tend to have a lot of discussions about who has a penis and who doesn't. I just about died the morning he asked me if mine had been cut off. Everyday is a new adventure with these two.

Beyond that from a crafty/creative standpoint it has been slow. On my needles I have the Double Heelix socks from Knitty. I'll be giving my review of that pattern later. I've been trying to clear out my stash of yarn-I-bought-before-I-knew-better by knitting scarves and hats for charity. They are basic and boring and things I can stick on the back of the couch and knit a few rows while the kids are playing. My socks, by no means fall into that category. I've got a long list of things that await finishing...mainly my Tilted Duster. I've knit it all, I have fabulous buttons. I just haven't sat down and done it. Of course finding time to do it without 'help' is a challenge as well. I've been itching to spin but the wheel is hidden upstairs in my eventual studio, but that space is still lacking in power. My Love requires a full day off from work to complete that project, so who knows when that will happen.

Honestly I've been doing more reading of late. And in all forms. I'm not sure if I mentioned, and I'm too lazy to look back and see, that I started listening to audiobooks while I work. Beware, this can be addicting. Very addicting. And the nice thing is that if a book sucks, and some of them have, at least I still did something productive in that time. We were also graced with a Kindle Fire this Christmas, by some very generous parents. I never though I'd take to an e-reader, but it's not bad. It is especially nice for those nights where Little Miss requires a lot of rocking to fall asleep. You know those nights where they're out until you lay them in the crib and then they are wide awake screaming. Yeah. Love the Kindle those nights. And I still have a stack of traditional books all around. Right now I'm working on no less than 4 books. I'll be doing a post on books soon as well.

I've also found the joy of Podcasts recently as well and I've been inspired in all sorts of ways. Now if I can just manage to stay awake after the kids go to bed, maybe I can accomplish something. 

Well there it is. I have some scenery calling to me.

Ten on Tuesday

Today's topic:  10 Movies I Want to See Right Now 
(but won't because I have two kids, no money, and limited babysitting options)
Honestly I can't remember the last movie that I saw in the theatre. I'm thinking it was The Dark Knight, so that should tell you something. Frankly, I don't even know what's playing now so I'll list 10 movies I want to see in the theatre. I'm trying to keep this to things released recently.

1. Melancholia- I fell in love with this from the trailer. It seems so visually beautiful. I like Kirsten Dunst and I find the whole thing just very intriguing.
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo- I recently listened to the audiobooks of the whole Millennium series. If you've not read them, get your butt to the library and get your hands on them. They are excellent. I'm curious to see how it translates to the screen. I'm already not thrilled with the casting of Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger. What little I saw of him in the trailer doesn't work for me, but that won't stop me from seeing the movie. 
3. Underworld: Awakening - I like this series and I love my vampires. I like that this series goes into the origins of werewolves and vampires.
4. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - yeah, so it might not be true by the book Sherlock, but the first movie was fun and enjoyable. And Jude Law was just dashing. 
5. The Artist- I can't resist a period piece. Plus I've heard good things and I adore old black and white movies.
6. Hugo - I can't think of a reason not to see this one.
7. The Muppets- well duh! It's the Muppets. We were considering this as Little Dude's first theatre movie but he still doesn't seem quite ready yet.
8. The Ides of March- strangely enough, I really do enjoy a political thriller. Especially in an election year. 
9. Jane Eyre- a book I have read over and over and over. I've yet to see a movie version I really like.
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- before I had kids I'd see these movies on opening night. I adore the books. I'm so-so on the movies. The books set a very high bar. I don't like some of the choices the movies have made but they are enjoyable nonetheless. 

So there it is.