Weekend Purls

The boss let us out early Wednesday afternoon, so a coworker and I ran to Whole Foods for last minute supplies. And coffee. Nom. Then I went home and slaved over the hot ... knitting? Our Thanksgiving tradition has been to spend even years with my family and odd years with Matt's. (Coincidence?) So I don't have to do any cooking. In fact, I only had to bring cranberries. (I'm pretty grossed out by the canned cranberries. The gel that plops out of the can while maintaining the shape of the can is horrifying to me. It doesn't occur in nature and shouldn't happen during Thanksgiving.) So when I got home, I knitted.

(In case you think I'm completely lazy, I DID do most of the Thanksgiving dishes.)

Matt had to work on Friday, and I spent a good part of the day doing laundry and watching movies (Enchanted and Gone Baby Gone... the first was pretty cute, and the latter was just heart-wrenching. I loved it.)

Saturday, we met friends at The Visionary Arts Museum for Bizaart. I love the idea of the self-taught artists selling their wares. My favorites were the purses from hardback book covers, zombie art, cupcake necklaces, whimsical paintings, and enamel jewelry featuring birds. I love birds and was happy to see them represented in several of the vendors' stalls.

Afterwards, we went to the Towson Town Center and wrapped up the vast majority of our holiday shopping. There are a few things I need to order online, then I need to shop for Matt and I am DONE. I'm one of those people who stress from Thanksgiving to Christmas about holiday shopping, and getting the "just right" gifts. This year, I started early, tried hard to stick to a budget, and for the most part, purchased gifts I wouldn't mind receiving myself. The top of the entertainment center is laden with boxes; I don't have the tree up yet, but whenever we do get it up, the gifts have to be where Angel won't try to unwrap them!

The rest of the weekend was spent watching more movies (The Fountain and The Good Shepherd), watching football, baking cupcakes...

And more knitting. One of the three projects I finished this weekend was an autumn tea cozy. Tea cozies are terribly old-fashioned but wonderfully practical. Matt always serves me a pot of tea with breakfast on the weekends, and we often wrap the teapot with a napkin because I like my tea piping hot. The tea cozy will serve to keep my tea warmer with a close-fitting wrap that I can leave on when pouring another cup. Laugh if you will, but I love it! My first cozy is bright orange and was knit in a pumpkin-looking pattern. I had intended to have it done before Halloween, but put it away in early October and forgot about it. I may put it away with my Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations and make another in a neutral color for the rest of the year. (And I'll likely make one in a bigger size for my other teapots. Yes, I have more than one.)

The rest of my knitting projects are on Ravelry, but are Christmas surprises! Now, the only things I have on the needles are my first sock (still) and sweater. Too bad tomorrow's Monday; I wouldn't mind spending another few days practicing domestic arts.

Thankful

I'm thankful for...

My long-suffering husband
Napping kittens
The warm spot they leave behind
A great family
A comfortable place to live
A job (despite the stress; especially in this economy!)
A small, fits-me car

And the little things:
Yarn stash
Organic tea
Baked goods
Books
Warm fuzzy socks
Dark chocolate
And a million other little things, every day.

I Have Found The Holy Grail!!

...in the form of a cupcake blog: http://amicuscupcake.blogspot.com/

I want to sit at home and bake, bake, bake and have my house fill with warm baked smells.

Relax, It's the Weekend

I spend most of the weekdays looking forward to the weekend, and usually spend most of the weekend dreading weekdays. Not a healthy way to go about things, I'm sure. But this weekend was generally relaxing. Matt's work phone woke us up early on Saturday and I started right in on my usual grumbly-grumpy-yucky-cold-and-dark type of mood. We had breakfast and I watched Ball of Fire, then Matt drug me out to do a little Christmas shopping. And suddenly, I'm a little less stressed, because we got through more than half of our Christmas list: We were going to go duckpin bowling afterwards, but we couldn't get lanes at Patterson Bowl so Matt and I got some Taco Fiesta and went home to watch The Good German, and I checked in on Ed (who had just found out an old friend of his and acquaintance of ours had died unexpectedly a few days earlier).

Sunday, Angel woke me up nice and early for his breakfast, and I let Matt sleep for another hour before launching myself at him and demanding breakfast. We watched the "Caves" episode of Planet Earth (which was, of course, amazing) watched the Ravens game, did a bit more Christmas shopping (I'm very proud that the only thing I bought for myself was a new set of circular needles Then back home to make dinner. Well, at least for Matt as it's loaded with ground meat and sausage. (He did the laundry. I think we're even.)
I've already been drugged with my Sunday sleeping pill, so the rest of the evening will likely be spent knitting, giving the Redskins/Cowboys game the occasional glance, and hoping Alex stays in his kitty tree rather than stomping all over my lap.

Wish me luck.

I Fink I'm Detting a Told

Perhaps cold viruses should run our nation's military operations. They seem pretty adept at sneaking up on you and striking a massive attack before you suspect anything is amiss. That's how it is for me: one day I'm nursing the image of my hard candy exterior, and the next morning, I wake up barely able to breathe. So in honor of my gooey marshmallow center, I give you things for which I am grateful when I fink I'm detting a told:

* A warm, purring kitty cat laying across my chest in the morning.
* An extra box of Ultra Soft Kleenex in the back of the linen closet, perfect to perch on my desk at work.
* Emergency box of soy milk, so I can have a cup of coffee without mucus-thickening dairy.
* Comfy yet work-appropriate clothes.
* A supply of honey at home and at work.
* The lovely lentil soup I made earlier this week.
* Friends who give you sympathy even when they have their own things to worry about.
* Cold medicine!
* It being the end of the week; maybe I can get some extra sleep.
* Extra vacation days, in case I decide to convelesce at home tomorrow.

Christmas Wish List 2008

By now, I feel like I have nearly everything I could want, so coming up with my Christmas list is becoming increasingly difficult. Considering how I enjoy cooking (not to mention the economy), I think foodstuffs would make a great gift, like fruit perserves, honey, maple syrup, olive oil, truffle oil, gourmet pastas, olives, fine dried fruits, organic dark chocolate, a bottle of cava, organic black teas, bread or cake mixes... things that truly make sugarplums dance in my head!

But as far as other present ideas are concerned, things I might like include:

Cake stand
2-cup measuring cup
Riedel martini or wine glasses
Set of ten mixing bowls
Peter & The Wolf CD
KitchenAid pasta making attachment
Yarn

Gift certificates to:
Panera
Barnes & Noble
Crate & Barrel
Williams Sonoma
Anthropologie
Banana Republic
J. Crew
Ann Taylor Loft

Lavender Brown

I finished my second Mother Bear! And I managed to do so before Mom finished hers. (Ha ha!) Since I knitted a boy (Leroy Brown Bear) previously, I knitted a girl bear this go-round. And keeping it in the family, I named her Lavender Brown.

Lavender is lighter-skinned (furred?) than her brother, and is wearing a purple dress, matching knickers, and a coordinating scarf. And Mary Jane shoes!

Court pointed out that there is a Lavender Brown character in the Harry Potter books and films, and that got me thinking that I should knit a series of Harry Potter Mother Bears.

The idea reminded me of the Julie & Julia project, something that could become a focus for me, a personal challenge, an inspirational life-changing event.

Or I could move on to something else.