Ten on Tuesday

I'm not going with the collective Ten on Tuesday topic since, I, in fact, did not watch the Oscars. I don't really enjoy award shows at all. I watched Dr. Who instead.

So I'm picking my own topic today.
10 Knitting/crafting goals for the year. I've been reading the Knitter's Life List and it has inspired me.

1. Finish my Double Heelix socks. These will be my first non-worsted/bulky socks. 
2. Make the comic-book quilt. I've been planning it endlessly in my head.
3. Spin- I want to finish spinning my 'crap' fiber and indulge in some good stuff.
4. Make some orange socks for Little Dude. They were a request....how can I not?
5. Pull out my two UFO's and finish them. Now that Little Miss is starting to wean, I have no excuses not to work on Kyoto and my Red Vest.
6. Finish the T-shirt quilt for my FIL. I hit a roadblock on this one and I need to get it done.
7. Do a project that requires steeking. Because nothing says courage like cutting up a bunch of colorwork. 
8. Design at least one knitting pattern. I'm thinking either child's dress or shawl.
9. Paint at least one non-work canvas. 
10. Start at least 4 new projects from my Ravelry queue. I'm up to 10 pages queued....I ought to start some of them. 

So there it is.
And I have a lovely story concerning Little Dude and a knitted item. He spontaneously decided to wear his Spring Vest this weekend.  I told him that I had made that for him. His reaction: "WOW!!! Thank you Mommy!" voiced first in absolute awe and then the sweetest gratitude. I love this kid.

Sick day

We're having another sick day here. Yesterday My Love and I split the day up and I was able to get to work for a few hours and get some painting done. Not so much today. So far I've gotten Little Miss to take a small nap while I wore her in the carrier.  She didn't register a temp this morning but she's still out of sorts. She didn't go to bed until 11:30 last night. I'm hoping I can convince her to take a good long nap later and get some stuff done. The question is: do I clean or do I craft? hrmmm...

Ten on Tuesday

I guess I haven't blogged in a week. I keep falling asleep on the couch once the kids are in bed so not much is getting accomplished. Plus Little Miss has a come and go fever. My charity project acquired a horrendous tangle that I sicced my husband on. He's crazy when it comes to knots in yarn. We did that this morning while waiting for the doctor's office to open. Well, here's my ten for today:

10 Things You Can See From Your Favorite Knitting Spot

1.  the TV - I usually knit in front of the TV and half watch what is going on. It's often just background and forces me to look away from my knitting periodically. 
2. The wedding pictures of my grandparents- I love old photos and i have a display of their wedding party and then individual portraits of all four of them.
3. The kids toys- this is also the main play room so we have toys everywhere from Little Miss's little music table to Little Dude's train table. 
4. The fireplace- it was one of the selling points of the house for me, though aside from the big October storm and power failure, we haven't used it in years. It's tough enough keeping the kids out of trouble without adding fire to the mix. But when the are old we'll fire it up again. 
5. 'the pretty desk' - this currently sits in front of the fireplace. It was a piece rescued from the prop storage clean out. The footprint of the desk is a trapezoid and doors and drawers are veneered in burled wood and book-matched grain. I love the piece.
6. The book cabinet- Another rescue piece (I prefer old furniture) filled with our various leather bound book collections, photos, and knick knacks.
7. The old treadle sewing machine- this folds into it's cabinet and us currently the table for the light in the front window. 
8. Our ugly couch- it's ugly but it was free. How ugly you say?? Think Marie's couch on Everybody Loves Raymond, minus the plastic of course. 
9. Our IKEA cabinets- we have these two odd alcoves in the living room that are deep and narrow and just shy of two feet. Luckily IKEA is metric therefore they just fit in there and we promptly stuffed them full of books and DVDs. Little Miss has taken to pulling all the DVDs off the shelves (and Little Dude has taken to scolding her for it.)
10. My framed posters- I buy a poster whenever I go to a new art museum. In here I have The Lady of Shallot and Pygmalion and Galatea.

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. 

Today is what??

I skipped blogging Thanksgiving week because it was a holiday and frankly I had enough to do. I have hosted Thanksgiving in one form or another for the last 11 years; ranging from years where we've had as many as 13 guests, to subdue years where I didn't even bother with a turkey (last year). I don't do this because I love the holiday. My husband's schedule often traps us here at this time of year, so it is up to me to hold with tradition. I'll often take in 'orphans' at the theatre who are far from their families and otherwise have nowhere to go.

But this year was a lovely holiday. I cooked my turkey on Wednesday....which was the best decision ever. It take so much of the stress out of the day. Little One is crawling now and showed of her new found skill to a set of grandparents that were visiting for the holiday.

And last week...well it sort of imploded on itself. I'm hoping to be back on track now.

Ten on Tuesday...oops Wednesday

I missed Ten on Tuesday yesterday. I had planned on doing it last night but got caught up making baby food once I got the little ones to bed. Husband is in his load-in week, so I'm all alone with the kiddos. I made a batch of carrots, apples and pumpkin but the last one was a epic fail.

So, Ten Ways to Use Fresh Cranberries.
This is a topic after my own heart. I love cranberries. I'll go through about a bag a week. When they are in season I try to buy enough to last me the whole year.

1. Eat them right out of the bag...raw. They are so good and tart and I love the pop they make in your mouth. I'll grab a handful almost every time I open the fridge.
2. Make cranberry relish. It's one bag of cranberries, one orange (unpeeled) and one cup of sugar. Grind the cranberries and the orange and mix in the sugar. All done. I drain the juice and drink it separately.
3. Cranberry sauce. Throw them in a pot with some liquid (I like to use apple cider) and cook. I like adding this to my oatmeal in the morning.
4. Toss some into your salad. Throw some walnuts and Gorgonzola too and you've got a great salad.
5. Dry them. Though I used my dehydrator for this and they took quite a while.
6. Scones. So many great cranberry scone recipes out there.
7. Pie. One of my favorite recipes that I make most years is Cranberry Pie with Hazelnut Crust from Mary Engelbreit's Tis the Season cookbook. I think I could eat the whole thing in one sitting. It's wonderful with some tea or coffee and some knitting on a cold day.
8. Bread. Lots of great quick bread recipes. Pairs well with orange or pumpkin.
9.Jam/jelly/preserves. Considering my 3 year old's new obsession with jelly on everything, I'll be taking this one to heart.
10. Going old school with this one: string for garland. One for the string, two for me.

Snowpocalypse

I don't know how many of you heard, or how many of you were affected but we had some weather relate hell here in Connecticut last week.

Now I know snow. I grew up in Upstate NY. Boy do I know snow. I've seen it in October and I've seen it in June. I've lost my car in it. Not, 'oh-where-did-I-park-my-car' losing it. No, I mean, 'it's-in-the-driveway-but-I'm-not-sure-where-and-only-found-it-when-I-hit-the-roof-with-the-shovel-while-digging-out" lost my car. The storm October 29th was unprecedented. I will admit we really didn't prepare as well as we should have. Of course we heard snow and didn't really pay attention to the forecasts.

We'd yet to hit peak leaf season here. Many of the trees were still green, especially the oak, which tend to hang on till the last minute. My maple, which is the first to turn and lose it's leaves, was halfway shed. Well, the snow came, wet and heavy and in abundance. The trees didn't have a chance. We lost power around 3pm Saturday after it flickered on and off for about an hour or two. Of course after the power went out he peed his bed during nap and she pooped all the way up to her neck.

Little Dude was napping when we lost power, and when he woke up I told him that we were going to have an adventure. And boy was I right. We spent Saturday night listening to the trees being ripped to shreds around us. Our neighborhood is called Timber Village for a reason. I can't explain how exhausting or surreal it is to lay in bed all night hearing crack!!! and then bracing for the impact. We were exceedingly lucky. For most of us in the neighborhood the trees fell around our houses and cars. One guy down the street did have a branch breech his roof, but it could have been much worse. Some people in the state had trees go right through one or two stories of their houses. The swing-set in the neighbor's yard (that our kids play on) took a double hit and is currently unusable, but still fixable. The thing is these were perfectly healthy trees. The weight of the snow on the leaves just started to rip the oaks apart. (We have mostly oaks in the yard). Our beech shed a few more large branches, as it does every major storm. The branches in our maples were so bent over that they looked like weeping willows. Our neighbor's weeping cherry was peeled like a banana.

And with all these branches came down the power lines and the phone lines. No phones, no power. Luckily we are on town water, for many we know have a well. We also have a gas stove and old water heater that has a constant pilot light. It may be inefficient but it means we still had hot water. Many of our friends weren't so lucky. My husband's shop is a 1/4 mile from the power station and they rarely lose power, so we took as much of our fridge and freezer we could stuff into the one in the break room.

So Sunday came and went with no power. Then Monday came...daycare and my work were closed. We pulled the mattress from our bed into the living room where we have a fireplace and had both kids sleep with us. We spend the day in my husband's breakroom where there was heat and power. We had a cookout that evening where we attempted to cook as much as we could from our big freezer before we lost it all. A lot still ended up in the dumpster. Tuesday came and still no power. Wednesday I took the kids over to the Painted Sheep's apartment for baths and to do a load of their laundry. For though we had hot water, the house was just too cold to bathe them especially since they were both sick. The smoke from the fireplace and lack of humidifier turned J's hint of a cold into croup. Wednesday night we drove by daycare and saw that they had power. So Thursday and Friday the kids had a touch of normalcy and went to daycare. Thursday I hit the laundromat with some of our essentials. By Friday evening power was creeping closer and closer to our neighborhood. We saw the trucks all around us and decided to go out to dinner (not like there was much of a decision. We had limited food in the house) and prayed that when we returned it would be back on. When we got back home everyone had power except our block!!! Once again we huddled together in our mattress in the cold. I convinced my husband not to do a fire that night since the smoke was causing more issues than the heat it was generating. At 4:35am Saturday morning, just after changing Little Miss, we were blinded by bright lights all around us. We had thought that we had shut everything off but suspect that Little Dude just might be responsible for the blinding light show.

So now we have heat and light (and TV). It took all weekend to do the mountains of laundry with some still remaining. The cloth diaper pail was near toxic. We lost so much food. I lost an entire day's worth of breastmilk and had to use the freezer stash. I now have nothing in reserve. I can't let the kids play in the yard until we get a tree company out to get the remaining broken and hanging branches.

But we are alive, our house is intact, and now we are saving for a generator.
How was your Halloween?

Resurrection

It's time to bring this back to life. I've often thought of this little blog. I've endlessly written posts in my head during the months I've been away from it. I just never made it to the keyboard to give them life. So I'm back. And there's so much to tell.

I guess first and foremost would be the birth of my beautiful daughter back in March. Introducing my little princess Miss A.

She came to us with more warning than her brother did. I woke on Sunday March 5th feeling different. I told my husband as such. We put our babysitter for Little Dude on warning and I had Braxton Hicks much of the day. I went to work as usual the next day and about mid-morning I called my doula. No sign of my water breaking, but I was having contractions about every hour or so. I wrapped up the project I was working on, had lunch with all my co-workers and told them that I didn't expect to be in the next day. My husband met me at home at the end of my work day, (yes, I worked a full day while in labor) we picked up Little Dude, hit the grocery store, had some dinner and then called the babysitter, the doula and the doctor. The babysitter came as we were putting him to bed, and he didn't want to let Mommy and Daddy leave. We arrived at the hospital around 8:30pm and Little Miss arrive at 12:13am on Tuesday, March 8th.

Little Dude adores his sister. He's such a good big brother. He informs everyone that she belongs to him. She's such a happy baby. She's a little girl who likes to watch what is going on around her. She loves to watch her brother. She has recently taken notice of the cats, much to their dismay. She's my delight. Especially in the morning, when I'm surrounded by grumpy boys, I love seeing her smiles and giggles.

Today she's 8 months old and here's what she looks like

Isn't she a cutie? Can you blame me for wanting to spend time with her instead of writing blog posts?

Hey, it's my birthday!

And in proper fashion, I am sick...again. The joys of being pregnant in the winter.

I've been very busy since my last post. The holidays arrived with a vengeance and we all survived. I did finish the Fetchings for Little Dude's teachers and they all loved them. I really liked the Malabrigo Rios. My only issue was how poorly they were skeined. Even using my swift winding them was a trial. One skein was so horrible that it took 4 people several hours to untangle it.

The fabric arrived too late to begin sewing before we left for our trip. We wrapped up the fabric and presented the gift and expressed our intentions. I started off well with the piecing but then hit a huge snag that is going to require me to pull everything out and start over. I had to step away from that project. Part of the problem is that it is a t-shirt quilt and even with interfacing the knit fabric of the t-shirts are problematic to quilt with.

I've also tackled my sewing pile. I've discovered that my biggest impediment to keeping up with my sewing, other than the all consuming 2 year old, is lack of a decent place to set up my machine. I don't really have somewhere that I can set up with good lighting and enough room to work. The upstairs, which is to become the office/fiber & art studio, won't be done before the summer. There are two rooms ahead of it in demand of completion. But I am making due in the meantime and have made much progress in the last week or two.

I'm in frantic gift knitting mode with a bevy of babies being born all around me.

I'll soon have pictures of all of this, once I clear off the camera card....which is once again full. I really let the photos get out of hand this year. I had been intending it as one of my summer projects, but with the Little Dude unexpectedly home with me all summer, there was little opportunity. Right now I'm just trying to organize the mass files and make my back ups.

So being my birthday I usually consider my intentions for the year. I'm liking the concept of intentions as opposed to resolutions.

• The big one would be a successful pregnancy, birth and surviving the increase of our family. 
• The second on the list has to be completing the Little One's room. My husband threw himself full force into the project. Right now it needs some electrical work and the closet framing before the drywall goes up. Then it is my project for a while. I'll do all the mudding and painting. He'll do the work on the floor. I've got a light fixture to pick out, window treatments to make, and some other decor stuff to deal with. Right now I'm trying to find fabric I like, as well as the light fixture. Our low ceilings, while helping with keeping heat costs down, limit my choices. 
• Keep going on the sewing list. I need to finish my WIP list before starting anything new, excluding any of the above projects for her room.
• Try to keep up on the personal knitting. With pregnancy and nursing, sweater projects will have to wait. But socks and shawls are definitely doable. 
• De-clutter the house. We a made a big dent recently and it felt great. It's time to let go of a lot of this stuff. I can't handle it anymore. Some days I'm ready to sell the lot and start over. 

I think that's enough to start with right now. Plus my knitting beckons me. 

Ten on Tuesday

KThis one is a timely list. Since the week of Thanksgiving, one or more members of the household have been sick. This weekend the Little Dude had the stomach flu, which killed all our plans. I had it yesterday...and let me tell you, it is so much worse when you have a Little One kicking your already tender digestive tract from the inside. Now we're 10 days till Christmas and I've done almost nothing.
So here we go:

10 Things On Your To-Do List

1. Knit Fetchings for Little Dude's main teachers at daycare.
2. Buy DnD gift cards for his teachers as well. (only his three main teachers are getting the added knitted gift)
3. When fabric arrives for quilt, wash, iron and cut as needed.
4. Sew quilt
5. Christmas shopping...I'm ashamed to say we haven't done any of this yet. 
6. Decide if I'm going to bother doing any cookie baking at this point and do it if I am.
7. Address Christmas cards and send out.
8. Wrap gifts.
9. Try and get out to see Santa and get the yearly picture.  Illness has thwarted this twice.
10. Pack for our road trip

There's so much more but I'm limiting it to the ten right now. 

Ten (or more) on Tuesday

10 Favorite Holiday Shows

A ten on Tuesday topic after my own heart. Much to my husband's chagrin I adore Christmas movies and I plan on passing that love down to our kids. These are some of my favorites but in no particular order:

1. White Christmas--one of my top favorites. Don't know why but I love it. 
2. A Christmas Story--who doesn't love this one? (and shame on you if you don't). How could you not love lines like "You'll shoot your eye out!" and "Oooohhhhh Ffffuuuuddddgggee."
3. Nightmare Before Christmas--a fitting movie for two holidays and Tim Burton to boot. I have CD memorized and I sing along. 
4. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer--yes it's hokey stop motion but it's one of my favorites from childhood. I love the Island of Misfit toys. Burl Ives singing "A Holly Jolly Christmas" is one of my favorite Christmas songs...it always gets me in the holiday spirit.
5. Miracle on 34th Street--the original only
6. The Santa Clause--I'm not a huge Tim Allen fan but I love this movie. I've only seen bits and pieces of the second one so I can't really rate that one.
7. How the Grinch Stole Christmas--again another classic. Narration by Boris Karloff...come on! Frankenstein's Monster narrating Dr. Seuss....how can you go wrong?
8. It's a Wonderful Life--to be completely honest I never saw the whole of this movie until several years ago. I know, I'm a freak. 
9. Home Alone--and possibly the sequel. 
10. The Bishop's Wife--Carey Grant...need I say more?
11. The Family Stone--I love this movie no matter how much it makes me cry
12. Mickey's Christmas Carol--this has a special place in my heart and my Little Dude has already watched it twice. (He's very into Mickey and Donald right now)

So there you go. I'm ashamed at how few of these I own, but I plan on rectifying that. The Little Dude misses most of these when they are on TV because they tend to start at 8pm and he's in bed (hopefully) before then. What is your favorite?

Plugging away

I've been to busy knitting to post.

I've finished the back and two fronts, blocked them and stitched them together. I finished and blocked the sleeves last night. So I've got the skirt and the collar left. There's a lot of knitting in the skirt. I'm not sure I'm going to make my goal to wear it Saturday, but we shall see. I might get the collar done first and get the sleeves on and at least have a bolero for now.

I am enjoying the pattern. It's not a difficult knit by any means and I really do like the yarn. I think I have a new stock wool.

Ten on Tuesday

10 Ways to Have Fun on Long Car Rides

1. Knit- the obvious answer
2. Read- I've never understood the people who can't read in the car. I've always read on car trips.
3. Audio books- This is how we survived a long road trip with a 1 year old. Thank you Harry Potter.
4. Talk- Sometimes it's the only chance my husband and I get to catch up on the random things in our lives.
5. Sleep- a necessity when you are the back up driver.
6. NPR- Love them
7. Take some fun sidetrips....or just get off the highway and the same old rest stops to have lunch and pee in a really awesome local diner. The best hint to finding the best local grub is to check the license plates in the parking lot. If they are local plates...eat there.
8. Wear comfy clothes. 
9. DVD player....this has helped us with longer trips with a very active toddler.
10. Make sure you like the people who are in the car with you. 

Several people have asked where I get the topics....well I get mine from Carole Knits.  I found her through my friend, The Painted Sheep.

Race to Rhinebeck

So the yarn came Friday, but frankly I was too exhausted to do anything but open it and admire.

Saturday I started my gauge swatch. I needed 17 stitches over 4 inches. On the recommended 10 needles I got 16 stitches. On a 9, I got 18 stitches. WTF! A little more finessing I went with the 9's and seem to be making gauge. I cast on the back and set to it.
Sunday night I finished the back
Last night (Monday) I finished the right front and knit the left front to the armhole.

This project is my marathon knit. I the same spirit as the Tour de Fleece and the Olympic challenges, I plan on wearing this thing to Dutchess County Sheep and Wool at Rhinebeck. I'm also thinking I should have ordered another skein of yarn, but I think I can make that up in the sleeves. Being of petite stature I find that the sleeves are often too long.  I probably can adjust the skirt of the sweater as well, for the same reasons.

Anywho...tonight's plan is to finish the left front, block the completed pieces and start the sleeves.

Wish me luck.

Need a lift...

It's a rainy gloomy day. I know better but would love to find some wool in my door when I get home. That would be just the thing to cheer me up and occupy my evening with more interesting things than laundry and dishes.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things in My Refrigerator Right Now:

1. A quart of apple butter that I made this weekend. 
2. Organic milk for the Little Dude
3. Some of my Mum's homemade sauerkraut. Best. Kraut. Ever!
4. Jug of apple cider for hot mulled cider...one of my autumn indulgences. 
5. Inglehoffer cream style horseradish- the hottest horseradish sauce out there determined by our delicious but unscientfic tests at work. Good for clearing out clogged sinuses.
6. Portabella caps waiting for some gorgonzola and carmelized onions to become the perfect dinner. 
7. Pure maple syrup from Vermont...some things I don't compromise on. Maple syrup is one of them. 
8. Orange juice. I'm pregnant. I inhale the stuff. 
9. Green olives. My husband's latest passion has been vodka martinis. 
10. Greek yogurt.

Ordered...

and now waiting. I've got enough Blackberry to make my Duster. I'm holding off on the other for now. I didn't want to wait while I made up my mind. I guess I'll finish up my socks until this comes. I'll be stalking my mailbox.

Well I'm exhausted and hungry so I'm going to eat and then crash. Let us all pray that the Little Dude sleeps in tomorrow morning.