100th Post

Wow, that couldn't have worked out better if I had planned it. 100th post, 1 hour left in the year. 2007 has been good to me, what with graduation, marriage, honeymoon in Alaska, and a new job. We have big plans for 2008, the first of which is starting a savings account for our future house (well the downpayment anyway). I am on an organization kick and I am determined to not only get the house cleaned, but also to get my decorating done.

The reason for the long pause in blogging is The 12 Days of Christmas Swap that I was working on. Oh my god, it was fantastic. Check out the gallery.

Our first married Christmas together was awesome. My dad came to visit, and we all got some nice stuff. The Hubs mostly got stuff for his Xbox and some movies. I got stuff for the house, and we got a spiffy new photo printer! The animals also had an awesome Christmas with lots of goodies.

And now, I leave you with a very strange sight: Tweek being cuddly!

Fishcat iz watchin u

This is a cat fish bed I got on day 12 of the 12 Days of Christmas Swap. Evie has claimed it.

Christmas in Funky Town

Despite erratic weather patterns, we had a semi-white Christmas. The snow was sad and tired (and half melted), but it was there and that's what counts. My parents came here to spend Christmas with me and The Boy. SantaDad brought the cats a whole box (I mean like a shoebox) full of packages of treats. They, as usual, seemed to ignore most of what was going on, but Tweek ripped open a whole bag of treats before we saw it coming. So now the treat bags are hiding in the pantry, away from prying little jaws. Our Christmas tree was knocked over only a couple times, which I think is an all-time low. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the general loafing around.

It was a good haul this year too. I got a new Bernette sewing machine, an immersion blender, some bento toys, a silpat, and some bread baking books. Mom also bought me The Sims 2 Pets, which has been eating up most of my time lately. I've been cultivating my own personal musk over the last few days. It is my general tendency to take showers when I leave the house, but usually when I have no where to go I just marinate. Natural oils are good for the hair, and my skin dries out easily after bathing. But mostly I blame The Sims for the current state of funkiness.

The Sickness has now settled upon The Boy. I was pretty miserable all through the holiday season, and therefore have done any knitting (or anything productive, for that matter). And then The Boy got a fever last night, so it doesn't look like knitting is on the near horizon either. Actually, I've been going through a crafting slump. There are days when all I think about is yarn or knitting, and I can't sleep because of the visions of Bearfoote dancing around my head. But then there are times like this, where I haven't knitted and for some reason I just don't want to. The slump usually lasts a couple of months. What I need is to find a project that I'm REALLY excited about, and that should get me going again.

2006 has been pretty good to me, bringing me a wonderful man and a tweaky little kitty. 2007 is shaping up to be even better, with an engagement ring, a graduation, and a wedding. As always, I'll be posting the highlights. Until then, I'm going to go soak in a tub with my new Lush products!

Holidays and Head Colds

I know I haven't posted in awhile. I really haven't gotten anything done that is note worthy. Mostly I've been trying to purge my head of mucus, which has taken almost all of my energy. I've been planning Christmas dinner too, since my parents are coming here. It's their first Christmas at my house, so I want to make it special. Mostly I've been sitting at my computer playing World of Warcrack, with tissues and decongestants handy.

Finally free.

For better or worse, finals are finally over. I spent the first couple post-exam days in a groggy state of binge sleeping and computer gaming. But then I was able to snap out of the stupor and finish The Boy's Christmas Gloves. They are the Unisex Gloves pattern from One Skein, and are knit in Tahki Torino in color 116. The Boy looooooves them and they passed their first test today in keeping his fingers warm as toast. I wish I could boast such success out of the hat for mom. I might end up frogging it and starting over. I dunno. Anyway here are some photos of the lovely gloves.

Knitting progress is slow but sure

I've been working on so many non-knitting related things lately, it's been slow going on The Boy's x-mas gloves. But here is the one I finished over Thanksgiving. They really don't take long. If you knitted in a marathon, you could do it in one day. Or like me, it'll take you 3 damn weeks. They aren't made from "one" skein either. It's going to take 2 and a partial 3rd to finish. But then again, they're small balls and the book probably used a huge one (huh, the book has huge balls. y'all know, I had to say it). Anyway The Boy also has huge......... hands (tricked ya!) so that is also why the gloves are gobbling up yardage as we speak. I have the second glove cast on and half the cuff finished. This weekend I'm going to sit down and finish it completely. And none too soon, because it got COLD here in Flagstaff. Observe:

Jingle Bells, Yummy Smells, Batman laid an egg...

Well, we still haven't put the lights on the tree or anything of that nature, but I did start some beginning holiday decorations. The lovely Kim helped me wrap the front door. Thank goodness we did it right after Thanksgiving because now it is too cold. We ended up putting the cats in "daycare" (aka the bathroom) and wrapped the door while it was wide open. I think it looks good though. I wish I would have put the cross piece of ribbon higher up near the bow, but eh it's my first year to do this. Mistakes are bound to happen, and happen frequently. Actually I think the door looks pretty boss. You can't even see the peephole, but it can see you!

The further plans for actual decorations are a lighted, dinky tree and some electric candles in the window. That and many batches of x-mas cookies. I have been baking like a mad woman. I am not sure what has come over me, especially since I haven't eaten all the cookies yet. This is a rather large accomplishment. So far, Birds' Nests, Brown Eyed Susans, Spritz, Walnut Fudge, and Butter Cookie Christmas Trees are all baked and frozen, ready to be thawed closer to time. The linzers are also baked, but have yet to be filled and decorated. Still, it has filled my house with all kinds of yummy smells. And this weekend I'm adding Banana Nut Muffins and Zucchini Brownies to the baking schedule. Oh yeah.

Computers and cookies and Christmas

It's 2 weeks till finals and we've all been a little crazy around here. Large presentation due the yesterday, and even larger SQL project due Thursday. I've been dividing my time between homework and baking christmas cookies. I thought a little baking and a little sugar might ease my tired ol' brain. And Christmas is quickly approaching. I started the decorating (photos coming when I get time) and the X-mas knitting. And today it finally started snowing for the first time this winter, so I also spent some time prancing around outside. I have to confess, I actually did prance. I've missed my hand-knit hats and scarves. Sadly all gloves have been given away. OH NO! Excuse to make more gloves. *score* I really hope there's a white Christmas this year. We had a brown and wet one last year, and from my experience not very many good things are both brown and wet.

I'll post photos of the cookies and other stuffs after the rush of finals are over.

Ate turkey, must contemplate cookies

With much feasting and general stuffing of faces behind us, I decided to turn my attention towards Christmas cookies. When I was a child, we lived out in the country where people still brought over a fruitcake at Christmastime... only we were REALLY lucky because our neighbor pooh-poohed the fruitcake and brought over a mad plate of cookies. There must have been at least 20 different kinds (the same neighbor also baked a cake each year for grandma's birthday on Christmas... what a lovely neighbor, no?). In a fit of nostalgia, I decided I wanted to recreate the Christmas cookie plate of old. But on my scale, i.e. 8 to 10 kinds of cookies and not 20. I raided our Christmas decorations today, trying to ferret out those tacky old cookie tins so I can pass out home-baked goodness to all my friends (that and I'm a bit poor this Christmas, so cookies are about the only gifts I can afford to give). I might end up dropping some dough (HAH, I'm such a dork!) on quality disposable plates and go the Easter-basket-cellophaned route. Anyway, here is the menu this year:

• Brown Eyed Susans
• Birds' Nests
• Walnut Fudge
• Linzer Cookies
• Spritz Cookies
• Basic "I Need Comfort" Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Crackle Cookies
• Surprise!!!!!

That last cookie is not so much a surprise as a "I haven't decided on the last kind to make yet" kind of cookie. I was thinking of making peanut butter cookies for The Boy, but I really want to make some sort of pumpkin cookie. Maybe a pumpkin spice ginger snap type thing? I need to find a recipe though.