I hope you had a merry little Christmas!

Christmas has been wonderful in our household -- mostly quite laid back, which I totally appreciate.  I didn't get everything done, but I got everything finished that had to be done.  Basically it's been one of those years where, if I'm in front of you on Christmas, then your stuff is done.  If not, we'll work it out.  I try to keep telling myself that there are twelve days of Christmas, after all.  Plus, I'll take presents to my side of the family on some nice weekend in the next month or so.  I do that so I have a good excuse to see them again soon. Not so I have some more time. I promise. ;)

The presents I completed before Christmas basically consist of two aprons for my MIL, who just moved into a new house and is decorating her new kitchen.  She requested aprons in red and black.

They're not fancy, but I tend to get into a real perfectionist groove that ends up making everything take a ridiculous amount of time. Also, I was totally winging it and I suppose a little more planning on the front end would have saved me some time. Oh well. I do like the finished product, though.

Here is where I would like to take a little of your time to rant and rave at a crafting corporate giant: Really, JoAnn Fabrics? I know you're all about low-paid, marginally-trained workers just sliding their shears down your little aluminum guides as fast as their little fingers can cut, but come on! That fabric was so off the grain when it was cut that I lost over a quarter of a yard squaring it up so I could use it! That's why the pocket is so shallow on the dark one. I paid for that quarter yard! Your policy is lazy and you suck. And you're not even that cheap anymore. The only thing you currently have going for you is convenient hours of operation, but I fear that will no longer save you. I live quite nicely without WalMart in my life; I can live without you, too. Remember that, JoAnn. Your days are numbered.

OK! I feel better now!

We had a lovely round of receiving, too. You can't see everything that's on display under the tree (does anyone else have this tradition, of putting the opened presents you receive under the tree to take the place of the wrapped ones you gave?) in this photo. Also, this year was heavy on the gift cards so it doesn't look that impressive (not that I'm complaining!).

Gator's main gift was a total surprise and so fun to give. It isn't under the tree, though; it's charging in its station:

Yes, that's a coconut in the foreground. I always get a coconut in my stocking, don't you? ;)

My main gift also isn't under the tree. Mainly because it won't fit. Hehe.

Thanks to a gift certificate to my LYS from my MIL, and Gator encouraging me to go wild at the Michaels yarn sale, I have so much handwork-y goodness in my future! Let's just break this down, shall we?

• one ball Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace in red
  
• four skeins Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light in green
  
• two skeins Cascade Heritage Sock in plum
  
• two skeins Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in navy
  
• three balls each of Patons Classic Wool in royal blue, cognac heather, jade heather, and bright red
  
• three skeins Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool in nature's brown
  
• two balls Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in spice and one ball in claret
  
• one skein each of Caron One Pound in white and sky blue

Whew! Quite an array, and enough to keep me busy for quite some time! Everything except the Classic Wool is earmarked for specific projects that I want to complete this year. We'll see how that goes. Remember the yarn storage room? How do we all think it got that way? But for right now, I'm super psyched.

I have another FO -- kind of my Christmas present to myself -- but I'll show you later after I get some decent photos. Yes, I'm delaying because of the photos, and not just so I have a ready-made topic for my next post. I promise. ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!
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Catching up with the holidays

I know I've been quiet lately, but it's no fun to blog when you can't show anything you've been working on!  Oh, Holidays and your gift-crafting -- always keepin' me down!

Yes, I can blame anything for my own laziness, it seems.

What I have absolutely no excuse for is the lack of Thanksgiving pictures, and I can at least try to rectify that. We traveled to my hometown for the holiday and were partakers in what my family is affectionately calling our "Big Fat Greek Thanksgiving".  Why would we be calling it that?

How about a lamb on a spit in the front yard? Yeah, that might be why.

My youngest niece decided she wanted to host Thanksgiving this year and she was the hostess with the mostest.

Her husband is from a Greek family and he's a great guy but maybe a little odd...

In other words, he fits right into our family. If anything, he might be a tad on the normal side comparatively.

Never fear, there was turkey, too, and my brother-in-law carved it just like always:

Gator and two of my other nieces had fun with the littlest great-niece:

Little Miss E was very busy all day, but I did manage to catch her just hangin' out:

Since I was behind the camera all day, I decided to try for a little hubby smooshy face, but after many, many attempts, this was the best I could do. Not my fave pic but you can't have it all, I suppose.

All in all a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great visit with my fam. I wish I could do it much more often!

Now I'm back to crafting for Christmas and not showing anything until afterwards. Eh, you're busy too, I'm sure.

Oh, and by the way, the lamb was delicious!
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FO? You don't say!

We're just about to head off for my hometown for Thanksgiving, so this is just a wee update.  Much crochet has been had in the land of Sus and the lowliest of my WIPs last Wednesday is now an FO!  w00t!

Yes, I know it's a dreaded tissue box cover. But it's a gingerbread house. I think these are ssssooooooooo freakin' cute! And cute things are always good, forever and ever, amen! The construction is kind of a pain at times, but I think it's so worth it. I stayed up way too late last night finishing it, but I'm giving it away this weekend, so you see how it is. We all know how completely awesome I am at waiting until the last minute for virtually everything in the world, ever! Yes, there's at least one thing I totally rock at!

Now we're off for a four hour drive through gray and rainy weather, but at least it's not supposed to freeze. Safe travels to anyone else who's on the road today!

WIP Wednesday (with bonus turkey butt!)

Whew! Things have been busy around here. Mostly in a good way -- good friends, good family, good work projects, good Broncos(!) But no pictures to show for it, and not much handwork, unfortch.

I got stymied on the afghan because I was trying to come up with a way to piece the strips together in a way that would allow me to use one piece of yarn to whipstitch the whole length of the strip and have the yarn not show when it didn't match either of the adjacent blocks. I didn't come up with a way that I liked. So I'm changing yarn every time I encounter a new block on the strip. Which is fine. I've only sewn the left-most strips together so far.

But while I was thinking about it I just set the whole thing aside and picked up the somewhat-abandoned Baktus. I'm about 2/3 done now and, even though I weighed the yarn meticulously with my kind of crappy postage scale to determine the half-way point, I am still fairly frightened that I will run out of yarn before I am finished. I really hope not.

Both of those projects are getting temporarily set aside while I pick up another abandoned project and finish it before Thanksgiving. This gingerbread house has been nothing but a lone wall for many months and it needs to get built right away!

In fact, I'm going to work on it right now.

But WAIT!! Not before I show you the awesome present my blog buddy Judy sent me!

No Thanksgiving decoration is complete without the wonderment that is the handmade turkey butt fridgie!! It is funny, cute (and we know how I feel about cute), and festive! It makes me smile every time I go to the fridge!! Even though when I open it I will find that the chocolate cake fairies still haven't left me a present. Darn chocolate cake fairies!

Okay, now off to make a gingerbread house!
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This is just way too cute

Once again, I will extol the virtues of cute things and Star Wars things and, most importantly, cute Star Wars things. Happy!



::sigh:: I lurve Lego Star Wars.
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In other news...

...I spent the day Saturday at a conference and presented a poster (read: giant brochure) for our core facility. It was very sciencey.

...I've finally completed all the blocks for the big ol' stashbustin' afghan and have started piecing! I think that some of you probably are cringing at the thought of piecing a sofa-full of afghan blocks, but I actually enjoy the process quite a lot. I have four strips so far, and I think it's wildly colorful and cool.

...I am very tired this evening and am seriously considering going to bed at 8:00. I've already fallen asleep in my chair once this evening. It is my Papa's chair, though, so that seems apt.

Good night!
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Missouri cheeseheads

Hi! I'm having a snack and have decided that you would just love to know about it! Bloggers = narcissistic? Hecks, no!

So today was payday and that meant I partook of the glorious tradition of going to the grocery store after work. With Gator. This is an important aspect in that no two humans on the planet enable each other more than we do. Example: Gator was jonesing for some good cheese. Either of us shopping alone? One kind of cheese. Shopping together? We end up with five kinds. It goes on. But, while discussing the cheese options, I realized that what I wanted wasn't good cheese, but gooooooood cheese. You know, the kind I was raised on (Saturday afternoon snack!), which I haven't had for a long time and when I lived in Wisconsin they didn't even sell it. Like it was an affront to their cheesy ways. Yes, I'm talking about Price's Pimento Cheese Spread. That which tastes like no kind of cheese that exists outside of their little half pint tubs. That which has identifiable chunks of cheese-like substance suspended in a creamy cheese-like spready-stuff. With red bits I can only assume are meant to represent pimentos. Oh, they swear on their website that it's made with real cheese but, if it is, they disguise it well. In a good way. Needless to say I bought some.

While watching some Futurama, I busted it open, spread it on some saltines (the only way to eat it!), and reveled in the awesomeness. And missed my mama.

(Full disclosure -- I only spread it on the crackers so I could take a picture. The real way to eat it is to just dip the crackers right in the tub, but I figured you really didn't want a picture of that. Like you want this one.)

Okay, I'll lay off the random food photos for awhile. ;)
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Happy Halloween! (Early and with crafting!)

Random additional decoration coming up!

Day of the Dead Crochet Skull by Darlene Harris
(including Little Crochet Flowers by Ali Burdon)
Red Heart Super Saver; Size US G crochet hook

And with that, a good night!
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Linkspam disguised as blog content

I've been a tired, tired girl this week! I went back to work on Tuesday, and I've pretty much been coming home and falling asleep in my chair every day after work until I finally give up and move it to the bed. So, not a lot of hot crochet action, in other words. I did make several more squares today for the patchwork afghan but there's really nothing to see.

But I have been collecting some random linkspam that I will take this opportunity to inflict on you share with you!

Want. That is all. Okay, that's totally not all -- check out the rest.

Also want, but in all honesty it would just sit in the corner with my guitar (since it won't fit in the drawer with my recorder). But this is serious geeky music goodness.

Awesome timesuck. Yeah, it's an advertisement, but this company wins at the innernets!

May I get married again just so I can have this cake? (If you don't get it, why aren't you reading XKCD??)

I haven't carved a pumpkin for a long, long time. I may have to start again.

I haven't bought a new swimsuit for a long, long time. I've certainly never spent this much money on one. I may have to find a way for this to change.

The Internet Archive has a bunch of fun stuff, but the Moving Picture Archive has some serious gems. Especially some of the fabulously cheesy corporate propaganda created by Jam Handy and super duper old-school filmstrip-type lovelies like Are You Ready For Marriage? I'll never be bored again.

I will now finish watching Mizzou beat Oklahoma then head to bed. Still tired. Goodnight!

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I love the phrase "Skeletal remains dancing on the sideboard"

I had planned to go back to work today, but after a very uncomfortable outing to church yesterday, I decided to take another day and have a slugfest. I mean, I really did nothing. I stared in the direction of the TV, but I couldn't tell you what I watched. I took a three hour nap. I surfed nothing in particular. Total slugfest. I hope I'm ready to rejoin the madness tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon was only slightly more exciting. While sitting in my comfy craft chair, crocheting away, I heard a strange noise outside. I sounded like someone was shoveling snow, but of course there is none. It happened every few seconds until I finally went to the window and peeked through the blinds. Ah! Not a snow shovel at all!


Six hot air balloons! The monkey one was close enough I could hear the burner as they made themselves go higher. It had been much closer to the ground when I looked out the window, but by the time I got my camera and shoes it had risen quite a bit. I could still hear it, though. We see balloons quite frequently, but six at once is fairly uncommon. So that was a nice surprise!

While I was outside with my camera, I decided to copy my blog buddy Becky in showing off my seasonal decorations. I lurve seasonal decorations. I've had my Halloween decs up since the weekend after Labor Day. On the day after Halloween, the Thanksgiving stuff will go up. And as soon as we get back from my sister's after Thanksgiving, well, you get the idea. Now, Becky has a couple of nice vignettes of decorations that look festive and photograph well, but mine are kind of scattered about. And I don't have a great deal, but I really dislike nekkid doors. I always say I'm going to make more holiday stuff, but the queue is long and it just kind of never happens.


A maniacal Jack o' Lantern is nestled amongst the bushes next to a fierce alligator...


A creepy black wreath of foreboding festoons the front door...


The inside of the front door as well as the door to the garage harbor representatives of the unnatural...


Bad luck and spooks abound on this bookshelf...


Skeletal remains dancing on the sideboard add a macabre punch to mealtimes...

Hee! Did I mention I lurve seasonal decorations?? Do you have some?? Show me! Show me! (I'm from Missouri, I can't stop saying that.)

Please show me?