Yeah, so, I'm shallow... WHATEVER

Jeez, you guys sure know how to make a person feel shallow with your lofty ambitions of traveling with your children and buying the world a Coke. But guess what? I still want an iPad. And you don't know. Maybe while I'm only working part time, I'll be knitting caps for the hungry in my spare time. Take that, Judgey McJudgerson.

Speaking of knitting, I've whipped up some pretty cute stuff in my not-blogging time. Behold the wonder of my magic needles...

The strawberry hat... my staple tried-and-true baby gift

An acorn hat, first time and loved the results

And the Baby Yoda sweater in a pink silk blend. So lush.

What sparked the sudden knit-a-thon? We have a new addition to our family... Chloe, my gorgeous new baby niece. Behold the wonder of my sister's magic..... erm.... parts....

Could you just die? Baby!

There's another impending addition slated to join our family in August 2011. But I ask you, what exactly is one supposed to knit when your oldest daughter sends you a photo of this?

Yikes!

Ta Da

Met for lunch with my knitty friends and finished two of my projects. The first is the aviator style hat with earflaps for Erinna. This was super easy and fast, so if anyone wants the pattern, let me know. I started out using a free pattern online, but then adapted it a little, then adapted it a lot. Because I like things to be easy is why.

And I also finished this scarf, made with Noro, which is so divine. It is SUPER SUPER long. I think this is going to go to my sister-in-law for Christmas. We drew names in Tim's family, with the caveat of no store-bought gifts. Thank God I drew the name of someone who appreciates knitted goods : )

Taking Back Sunday

It was brought to my attention twice today by two separate people (aka my groupies, my peeps, my fans) that, OMG, I didn't post anything on Sunday. And by groupies/peeps/fans, I mean one of my BFs and one relative. So here's what I was doing Sunday that kept me from my blog.

I stayed in bed until about a quarter past ridiculously late o'clock making out with these guys... wherein making out means watching their videos on Funny or Die over and over and over again. If you do not know Bret and Jermaine, aka Flight of the Conchords, you need to go to you tube RIGHT NOW and search for "Business Time." You will thank me, I promise.

Whilst laying in bed with my boys, I started to knit this hat...

... for Erinna. Except I am using this yarn.

And so far, it looks like this. Yeah, not so much knitting commenced. But that's okay, because I have a knitting lunch date tomorrow to finish up Christmas gifts... wherein "knitting lunch date" means drink wine in the middle of the day with my friends and "finish up" is a big fat joke/lie.At some point during the day I remembered that, holy shit, I defrosted all of my frozen Thanksgiving turkey because, holy shit, I need to make turkey gumbo to feed fifty people on Christmas Eve. 50, as in call the fire marshall to my party because we are gonna burn this mutha down.

So I made a roux with TWO POUNDS of butter. Two pounds of butter. Just let that sink in for a minute. I stirred until my shoulders ached. Literally. It takes a long effing time to make that much roux. 
And this year I am trying something new... wherein trying something new means I was too lazy to finish making the freaking gumbo, so I made a "gumbo concentrate." I cooked everything but the turkey stock, creating a really thick pasty kind of stuff. FIVE GALLONS OF IT TO BE EXACT.  

Which is now packaged up like this...

... and in the freezer. The plan being, on Party Eve, it comes out of the freezer to thaw for the day and on Christmas Eve it goes into the GIANT ASS pot with five gallons of turkey stock and, voila, gumbo. If this "gumbo helper" experiment is a success, I'll let you know. And if it is a failure, well, screw me, I'll have a houseful of people with nothing to eat.

So that's what I did Sunday. Along with going to the gym and running 4.5 miles on the treadmill because it was FREEZING outside and no way was I (1) going on my scheduled seven mile run in the FREEZE or (2) running seven miles on the treadmill because, hello, boring.

Viva la Sunday.

Drinking red wine from a sugar bowl

Need I say more? We ran out of wine glasses at stitch and bitch. Oops.

Team Edward

The Twilight Movie is almost here. As a mom of a 15 year old girl and a mom who has read all of the books, I'll own up to a certain amount of excitement (i.e. OMG I CAN'T WAIT!) So I just want to go on the record saying that I heart Robert Pattison and think he's an excellent choice for the role of Edward. There. Now that that is out of the way, on to my post.

Guess what? That job that made me cry yesterday because I forgot to do it? It's done. All done and delivered and out of my life forever. Good riddance.

To celebrate, I knit up another hat for my Christmas stash. Do you like my jaunty head tilt to display the beautiful cables on the hat? I thought you would.

I've been trying to think of things to blog about because, frankly, I'm running out of shit for this NaNoBloMoFoNoGoWhatever deal, where I pledged to post something every day for the month of November. My life just is not that consistently exciting.

One of the things I really enjoy is reading other blogs, especially when I find a post that makes me laugh out loud, literally, and especially stories that make me say, OMG, I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. Or stories that make me say, OMG, you think that's good? Listen to this!

So I am looking to other blogs for inspiration (i.e. stealing other people's good ideas and claiming them for my own).

My first inspiration came from something I read on Bad Mom a while back. Bad Mom had a little crush (obsession) on a cute grocery store boy. Hopefully, her adoration (i.e. stalking) didn't drive him out of his job.

I had my own chance encounter at Fred Meyer a few months ago with a really cute grocery store boy. And, I am not lying, he was totally checking me out. TOTALLY CHECKING ME OUT. His sandy hair hanging down over his forehead, covering one eye, could not conceal the glances he was casting my way.

Coincidentally, I could not find the rice cakes. Imagine that. Years of shopping at the same store, and yet? my rice cakes? They've vanished from their normal spot. Oh, my, I think I need assistance. 

I coyly approach the grocery boy, who is grinning from ear to ear as I approach. EAR TO EAR. He CAN'T WAIT for me to ask him where the rice cakes are. Frankly, the boy is ACHING for me to pay attention to him.

"Hi, can you tell me where the rice cakes are?"

"Sure, Mrs. O'Brien, they're right over here. How's Taylor?"

Yes, cute grocery boy was a former classmate of my son.

Ouch.

Don't tell Tim...

I finished another hat to add to my Christmas stash of knitted goodies. I salvaged some silver buttons off of a Goodwill vintage coat. The coat could not be brought back to life, too stained, so I just took the buttons off to reuse, and they work perfectly with this gunmetal gray hat!

And, holla, how 'bout my new header? Thanks, Nap Warden!

Oh, and the "don't tell Tim" thing? Yeah, I was supposed to be working today. I know, I know, I am only hurting myself and will be whining my ass off about the backlog in a day or two, but it's an OCD thing... I must finish my projects! OMG, that is such a lie. I have half-done projects everywhere. But every now and then, there is one that I am compelled to complete.

Productive Day

My day turned out to be pretty productive. Not in an income-generating way, but in a mental health way. Spent the day with my two best knitty friends and made a hat and ate split-pea soup and cookies and laughed and gossiped and didn't do chores or mope.

I tried to get a close up so you could see the cabling on the hat. The pattern is a freebie if anyone is interested in whipping up a quick hat.

I'm kind of thinking I might want to keep it, though I had intended to knit it up and put it in my Christmas stash. Hmmmm, we'll see.

It's time to go forage through the pantry and make a plan for dinner. Actually, the time to do that was some time prior to 5:20 p.m., which it is now, but oh well. 

My big plan for tomorrow was to work, work, work so I don't get bogged down and freaked out again. I did commit to a 10-mile bike ride along the river in the morning. But after that, it's all work, no play.

Thanks for the emails and texts and phone calls today. I didn't realize how morose my meltdown post this morning was until rereading it now. I so need to get over myself.

My toilets are dirty, but...

... look what I did instead of cleaning bathrooms and doing laundry and crap like vacuuming.

I finished knitting this pair of socks, which I started in November 2007 as a Christmas gift for Tim, then got tired of working on.
I started this scarf Wednesday and finished Saturday, which will be someone's Christmas gift because I already have one in similar colors for myself.
And I knit two of these hats. Started one at Saturday's soccer game and finished it at dinner at a friend's house (pork tostadas, delish!) and gifted it to my friend Krista, who looks much better in it than I do.  Had enough yarn for a second one, started Sunday and finished right now.

Honestly, who has time for mundane chores when the crafting mood strikes? And now it's time to start on our Christmas gifts. This year Carlie and I are painting custom fairy houses for her friends.