Happy New Year!

As usual I'm blogging late at night. It's almost midnight on New Year's Eve, so happy 2007!

My parents left this afternoon to go back home :-( so we're feeling a bit let down here.
Luckily I have a lot to keep me occupied. My Dad bought some shelves for me while they were here and today we set them up and moved things around. I'm not done yet, but when I am I'll post some before and after pics.

I also have some pictures I need to post of items that were Christmas gifts. I still haven't finished my DH's sweater, but hopefully in the next week that'll get finished. I hope to have more knitting time once school is back in session, but we'll see. He seems to be thrilled with it (despite the way it looks now--it's truly NOT impressive at the moment). I'm married to the most wonderful man in the world; not only does he understand my need to create things, he's even willing to wear them. :-)

This is Gillian modeling the hat I made for my Mom. The band is from the same yarn as the scarf, and now I can't find a picture of it!! The pattern is from Fibertrends and the black yarn is Wool of the Andes from KnitPicks. It fits her quite well, and I'll have to get my Dad to take a picture of the scarf since it's now in Idaho.

I have some other pictures to post by I have to get them off the camera. Tomorrow is another day, as Scarlett says!

I'll also have to take some pictures of some of the gifts I received, including a Wacom graphics tablet from my wonderful husband (which is taking some getting used to, but it's fabulous so far) and some incredible hand-spun yarn from my very talented sister. Those are by no means the only presents I got, and they're all wonderful! Pictures coming soon, I hope--the weather also needs to get a little nicer since it's been very overcast and rainy for a few days now. Not the best weather for taking pictures.

I hope 2007 brings everyone happiness, good health, and prosperity!

I cut my knitting

I can't show a picture (yet) but last night I sewed my knitting and cut it--on purpose! **Gasp**

I didn't even faint.

Of course, the steek isn't done--I still have to pick up the stitches and successfully make the mystery project successful, and all before Christmas. ACK!!!!!! I'm more panicked about getting this project done before Christmas than about doing the steek. It's all relative, I guess!

My sister is supposed to arrive today, or really this evening, and my parents come in tomorrow.

Is the house clean?
No.

Is the room Karen will be staying in clean? Are the sheets washed and bed made?
No.

Is the room my parents will be staying in clean? Is there room to set up the bed? Are the sewing projects finished so that I can take down the machine to make room for the bed?
No.

Should I be updating my blog instead of cleaning like a madwoman?
Of course not. I AM the queen of procrastination!

It's 9:00 in the morning and I haven't showered. Why yes, thank you, I am insane.

Thus ends another picture-less post. It's going to be one long, picture-heavy post after Christmas....

Ah, 7-Up

Thank goodness for 7-Up. I caught a stomach virus or something and the last 24 hours or so have not been fun. No knitting, no housecleaning, no productive anything on my part. Oh well, the panic that's setting in will give me extra energy, right???

Yesterday afternoon was DD's holiday party and the kids sure had a great time! Today she brought home some wonderful ornaments she made over the last week or so.

Thursday late-afternoon to evening my sister, Karen, will arrive, and Friday afternoon we'll go pick up my parents from the airport. We're so excited to have everyone here!! My sister hasn't seen the kids in person for a year now since she's been extremely busy getting her doctorate (and the nine hour trip from her place to ours doesn't help--it's NOT fun taking the kids in the car for that long).

Gillian is VERY excited about everyone coming and got upset this evening because "Aunt Karen isn't going to stay in my room!" We're moving Ryan into her room on the crib mattress because both kids sleep with some lights on while Karen much prefers darkness (just like me). Ryan is also sleeping more heavily now, so it should be fine to have them in the same room for a week or so. It could get interesting...I foresee them waking up and playing, hopefully--them waking up and fighting is not something I'm looking forward to.

Hopefully, in between fits of cleaning tomorrow, I'll be able to finish up a few small knitted items and post them since the recipients don't read this.

A brush with celebrity

Greg came home this evening with a big grin and announced he'd had a brush with celebrity.

To make a long story short and because I can't tell it even close to as well as Greg can, Greg, his boss (and good friend), and his boss' wife were in the Cigar Bar after work this afternoon, and they looked over to the glass-walled cigar room and noticed someone familiar. At first they thought it was Ron White, but when he got closer ("he" being the person of celebrity status) Greg realized it was Gary Busey. Yes, apparently he *is* rather odd in real life. For a while there back in 2003 we were entertained by the show "I'm With Busey," in much the same way it's very hard to look away from a train wreck. Apparently his behavior in that show was not an act.

In other non-knitting news, I got my Christmas village set up again. I say "again" because it was originally on the ledge by the fireplace, but I had the blinding realization that we adults couldn't see it very well. (Not only that, but it was too accessible for little hands.) After putting up some "snow effect" (har har har—I taped up sheets of white tissue paper) on the glass, I set it up in the garden window. There was just enough decent-looking batting left from the village's stay on the ledge to work as the "snow" on the ground, which means I didn't have to go buy more. Yay!

Here's a pic:

Click on it to see details--it looks MUCH better blown up. The picture, that is.

The people got a little shuffled, but that's all right--nothing got broken. I, however, did not place the children under the bridge. :-)

New Christmas decoration

Thanks to Janice through the TulsaFreeCycle list, we got a new Christmas decoration!



The kids LOVE it, and the adults are enjoying it, too.

Ryan was asleep when we got it and set it up, but as soon as he woke up we took him out to see it. It's definitely a big hit!

Can't share what I'm doing....

I wish I could share my current projects as I'm quite excited about a few things I've got going, but they're all Christmas presents for people who do, on occasion, read this blog. There's gonna be a big, picture-filled post coming after the holidays, I can tell.

However, I did find a really bad holiday-related pun I can share:

I had a nightmare that I was in Panama during a snowstorm.
I was dreaming of a white isthmus.

Ouch, bad, I know, but I just couldn't help myself. I found this wonderful bad pun site and I've been giggling to myself all afternoon. My Dad starts pun wars from time to time, and I'm usually too busy laughing at my Dad's, DH's, and my sister's witty (but often bad) puns to participate.

I'll spare you any more bad puns. If you're a glutton, you can go check out that site yourself. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Snow

We got socked by a rain/sleet/snow storm, but the kids have loved it! They cancelled school yesterday, and today schools, as well as a lot of stores, were closed.

I have a lot of pictures to post but for some reason Blogger won't let me! There are no buttons at the top of the window like there usually are, so hopefully pics will be coming later....



Sunday, December 3rd...

K, now that Blogger's temper tantrum seems to be over, I'll continue with this post.

Here's Gillian throwing a snowball Thursday afternoon, during the storm...

Look at those really cold, red noses! They're both wearing their crappy acrylic store-bought gloves that didn't keep their little finger warm AT ALL once they got wet.


They're pretty happy anyway, though.

And I got them to stand next to each other and pose on Friday afternoon. It was sunny but still really cold.


These are some mittens I finished last night (which would be Saturday night).

They're Ryan's, and they got field tested today. He loves them! I'm so happy that both kids like their mittens. No more cold fingers here.

I managed to get Gillian's finished Friday night so that she could wear them Saturday and she loved them. Isn't it wonderful when people love what you make for them?

The yarn for both pairs of mittens is KnitPicks Swish, which totally rocks! I think it's my new favorite yarn. It's really soft, 100% machine-washable wool. I see more of this yarn in my future.