Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All

I just wanted to take a few moments (before the insanity arrives), to wish all my wonderful online, inperson, and around the corner friends the very happiest of Holiday Seasons.

I have been a bit behind this year, and though I did get my cards (complete with family update letter) out by the 22nd, I am right now taking a short sit down break before I try to finish the dinning room decorating.

I do hope everyone gets what they hope for and spends a few moments appreciating all that they have.... family, friends, health, wealth, and the ability to be a part of a really big community called Knitters!!

All my best wishes, and take some to sit back and knit something just for you.
Catch you all soon with updates and pics of gift knitting and such.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Not Much Knitting....

Hey Everyone,
Well, the last few days have not produced much knitting at all. Infact they haven't produced much of anything (period-dot). Unless you count the copious amounts of tissues in the trash can. YEP!! I got me an all out true and bonified HEAD COLD!!

It hit me Tues afternoon and today is the first that I have actually been able to do much of anything except sniff, sneeze, and blow my nose. My poor widdle nosey is sooooo red :(

Alas, though, today I fit in 2 batches of cookies (choc chip and oatmeal raisin), painted the bottom section of the little bathroom downstairs (of which I am bound and determined to have completed before the holiday), cleaned up the kitchen, and vacuumed the downstairs.

Tomorrow is Yarn for Breakfast - and there was no way I was going to miss that - uh uh - no way, no how!!! Maybe I will even get a little bit of knitting done this evening, as I am ready to sit my butt down and chill for a bit.

Hopefully soon I will be able to post a picture of the gifty I sent Rachael - but from what I can tell she has not recieved it yet. In my cleaning of piles of papers and such over the last day or so, I came across some knitting patterns my Mom passed to me that were my Grandmother's, they are from 1945, I am dying to CO at least 2 of them - but I will behave until I have all my other stuff done. Like Christmas Cards, a Christmas Tree, and Gifts Wrapped. Impressively enough, we actually have all of our shopping done at this point except for 3 items - and there are still 10 days to go.... maybe this means we will have snow :)

Monday, December 10, 2007

An Update and Some Pics

I must say this past weekend, was certainly not one of rest for me. I really was on the move, and did not leave the house too very much.

Saturday morning I got up, and proceeded to start baking cookies for the two college boys who are entering finals week this week. By 3pm I had baked, packed and shipped two boxes of sweeties to my boys. Rich gets Ginger Snaps, Heath Bark, and Oatmeal (no raisins) Cookies. Josh got Choc Chip, Heath Bark, and Oatmeal (no raisins) Cookies. I figure these ought to help them through the study hours.

What I was quite impressed with myself over, was that all of the above were made strictly from hand, down to the fact that I had NO MIXER!! Then I realized once Rick came home with a new hand mixer for me, I was so proud of myself for being able to cream the butter and sugars and mix the entire batch by hand - I did not want to use the mixer for the next batch of cookies.

Rachael, you will be so proud of me... I took a recipe for peanut butter blossoms (ie p-butter cookies with hershey's kisses on top), and by changing amounts and done strictly by weight, created a Nutella Cookie recipe. I tried this concept last year and it failed miserably. This time it worked. Anyway, yea for me for doing something other than the exact recipe.

Now, onto some pics: First we have Matt's German Flag Fingerless Gloves. He has been complaining that we keep the house too cold (but I am loving the heating bill), and so his hands are very cold when trying to play the piano. So voila - Christmas present in progress.

Then we have 2 pieces of Rick's Cardigan. As of right now, the word is it should fit following blocking. If not, well then he will just have to lose weight to get to the correct size. I am currently working on the Right Front, that picture is not too exciting.


I have 2 nights off from work this week, as we have Holiday events to attend, so maybe I will get some more of my holiday stuff done. It is kind of weird this year, I still don't have my tree up. This is very odd for me, but I am OK with it. Talk to me once the panic begins to set in.

Well it is off to bed with me - worked last night and need some sleep today so I can get some stuff done later.

Hope everyone is well, and enjoying the prepatory phase of the Holidays.