I Don't Wanna Work.....

Or in my case, knit!

Not that I'm looking for sympathy, but I have to work a whole week this week, with a couple of late nights!! This will be my theme song for the week.

Super Bowl Sunday

I don't know what's going on here in the Mid-Atlantic, but we're seeing an awful lot of snow. (An awful lot to us means multiple times more than actual amount.) And I'm loving it. While last weekend's snow was dry and fine, yesterday's was the wet, fluffy kind that makes the trees look as if they've been dusted with flour or confectioner's sugar. So pretty.

I saw the movie Crazy Heart this past Wednesday. It was the last snow day so I got to go to a matinee showing, which always feels kind of decadent to me. The movie was really good, but then I'm a sucker for scruffy looking musicians and I grew up listening to country music. I found it intriguing that Jeff Bridges could look as unflattering as he did and yet still exude a certain sexiness. Although I could have done with less vomit scenes.

Steve and I watched three episodes of Mad Men last night too. I know it's received a ton of positive reviews and I also know that a lot of people really enjoy it, but Steve and I felt it was kind of depressing. It's really interesting, it touched on a lot of themes I've forgotten were prevalent at that time, but I don't know if we'll continue watching it. I guess I'm not a fan of bleakness, or maybe just not in the winter. All I know is that after we'd finished, I wished we had spent our time playing Scrabble or reading.

I need to get the Valentine's Day care packages ready to go; I just saw this and want to add it to S's box, as she love chai! Wonder if I can use powdered milk instead so it's easier to ship and store? Also, I bought the felt, floss, magnets, and stuffing to make the heart magnets. I found this tutorial to refresh my memory about blanket stitching. Kind of looking forward to some hand sewing.

Steve and I are heading over to a friend's house for a Super Bowl party; we're only staying till half-time. Why does it start so late on a Sunday? Did it always? Anyway, even though I've got a number of projects on the needles, I think I'm going to start another scarf while I'm there. The mittens are almost done and won't last long enough to take, I'm almost finished with the Swiffer cover that M1 requested, I can't take the shawl as it requires too much of my attention, so this will do. I have plenty of Noro to choose from, so that's what I'm using.

Oh and the dog sweater was finally tweaked enough with the last details (she wanted me to add back leg straps) to suit my mom's specifications on Friday night and on Saturday she let the dog play in the snow with my niece's insanely active pugs and the sweater is now destroyed. She called me with the bad news this morning. Her words? "You're so talented, I'm sure you can fix it, but one side is pretty shredded." Shredded??? You can't fix shredded!! Holy cow.

Happy Birthday Mom!

We have snow again, just in time for my mom's birthday! Here she is in the yard with the decorations my dad ordered for her as a surprise.



I can't believe how good she looks at seventy and hope the gene pool extends to me.



And here's the new bird feeder I just put out before we got more snow. We already have visitors!

I've decided to celebrate my birthday every day this month in order to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm turning fifty. Thursday morning I bought myself two large bouquets of flowers to take to school and gave a stem to each of my team teachers. Thursday night I bought myself the birdfeeder, and Friday morning I made cranberry muffins, wrapped and tied them up with some raspberry colored yarn and gave them to my team teachers and the tutors who come to my AVID class three times a week. Going to my mom's for her birthday was today's treat, plus I'm going to enjoy some quality knitting time tonight. Sounds like a great plan, doesn't it?

High Five

Thanks to Rudee for tagging me for the High Five meme. If I understand it correctly, I am to list the highpoints of 2009?

For some reason, I feel a little performance anxiety over this. Is my list a good one? Are my highpoints too self-congratulatory? Too hokey? Etc., etc. So here goes.

1. I'll start with M1 going back to school ,although I have to also include M2 for being a successful college junior and S for having a great first semester as a freshman. But M1 going back makes me so happy because she has been on hiatus for about four years now, after dropping out at the end of her third year, back in 2005. And we all know how hard it is to go back.

2. Rhinebeck--I know this sounds weird but the spur of the moment trip with M1 to THE knitting mecca was fabulous. Not the least because of this photo:

Meeting Ann at the Metropolitan Art Museum, seeing Ann, Kay, and Bonne on the grounds at Rhinebeck, and sharing the whole experience with my daughter; well, saying it was a great time seems a little understated.

3. My parents' 50th anniversary party. If Steve hadn't gotten the ball rolling, it never would have happened, but we're all so very glad he did. It was wonderful having so many friends and family be a part of celebrating that very happy milestone.

4. I'm also proud of passing the English Praxis to add to my teaching license. Again, Steve encouraged me in this and it was a good experience. And you never know when it may come in handy.

5. Finally, I'm happy that I'm still blogging, after my brief setback in November. As Rudee mentioned, I'm at a new location, with a new name, and I love it. Blogging has opened so many doors for me; it's given me a reason to take pictures, write, read, and think about the many small, good things in my daily life. It reminds me of all the things I am grateful for and introduces me to new ideas and new people. I appreciate the encouragement I get from the people who leave comments, and I enjoy seeing the myriad of ways that I can cultivate creativity in my life. I can't imagine not doing it.

So, there you are. What's on your high five list?

Another Day Off

I can't believe it, but we got another day off from school today. We really should have done a two-hour delay, but who am I to argue?





Didn't do much yesterday besides read the book, The Gift of An Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison. I got it from the library based on Chinaberry Book's recommendation but kind of put off reading it cause it looked like one of those cheesy books, sort of a Chicken Soup for The Soul-ish (and if you like those, I apologize in advance). Anyway, turns out the author is the woman who edited the Houghton Mifflin Best American Short Stories series for sixteen years. In other words, she can write. I really enjoyed it, and wished I had read it about five or six years ago. (Of course, since it wasn't published until 2009, that would have been impossible, but you know what I mean.) She tackles the subject of redefining yourself as your children are preparing to leave home and I think she does a great job of it. I added one of the quotes she used under my blog title so I can see it on a daily basis. Here are a couple more I need to keep in focus:

You can either practice being right, or practice being kind. (Anne Lamott)

Perhaps we write towards what we will become from where we are. (May Sarton)

There are many, many more great quotes in the book, but those three really struck me. Speaking of Anne Lamott, you should read some of her books, especially if you are interested in unconventional spirituality. As for the Sarton quote, isn't that a part of what blogging fulfills for many of us? A place to write so as to discover what is important to us? I've never actually read any of Sarton's work other than as quotes in other books; I really must check some of her books out from the library for myself.




This morning I finished another book, Single Wife, one I bought used from one of the library booksales. It's funny, I had started reading it awhile ago, thought it was dumb, but held onto it, and this time when I pulled it off the shelf, I enjoyed it. Isn't it interesting how books can work for you one time and not another?



And I've put the shawl down for a bit while I work on a pair of mittens for myself. Despite my desire to make it for my mom's birthday, she really wouldn't like it. She's not a scarf person, and she'd probably think a shawl would be a reference to her age, so I'm taking the Yarn Harlot's advice on this and keeping it for myself. I can't remember exactly what she said but it's something along the lines of recognizing when other people don't love and/or respect the knitting and how we must respect that and not force knitting upon them.

Anyway, I love the way these mittens are looking and I can't quit working on them. Every few rows I hold them up to admire them. (Steve said I do this with everything I knit but I don't believe him.)

I'm using the Noro Kuryeon that I was using for a pair of Maine Morning Mitts I frogged the other day, paired with some Noro Silk Garden. Originally I thought I'd do the only the cuffs in stripes and use the Kuryeon for the hand, but it looked weird, so I ripped back and put the stripes in throughout. I used #5 needles for the cuff and #6 for the hand section, which is making quite a dense fabric; they should be plenty warm. I plan on finishing them so I can wear them on my trips to Annapolis and New York. I think they're perfect for February, don't you?

Maybe Just a Little ADD Here

I made homemade baked macaroni and cheese for my lunch today, using some of the bread I made the other day as croutons. Oh my, it was delicious.

I also baked another batch of bread today since I was home again. This time I made plain white bread, and I'm taking a loaf to our neighbors/friends down the street while it's still warm. I used a Bread book I've had for about twenty-five years, back when I was a card-carrying LaLeche League Earth Mother with two little girls at home. Brings back memories.

I'm liking the contrast of dark Kuryeon and light Silk Garden in these mittens.

I'm using an old favorite, Warmest Mittens, by Kris Percival. It's from a boxed set of project cards, one of my early knitting purchases. Today must be a day for revisiting the past.

I'm thinking about this shrug, (even though I haven't even started the Mondo Cable Cardi that I've talked about.) Is it too "young" looking for me I wonder?

I didn't get the sewing machine out today, but since school's out again tomorrow (icy roads, our area doesn't have much in the way of snow/ice equipment), maybe I'll get to it then.

This looks like a great idea, although I'm not sure I'd do the patchwork thing. Still, it might be a good way to ease into quilting type sewing.

And this is really interesting; making a clipboard artsy.

I'm never doing this, cute as it is, but you might.

And I don't crochet, but I just might give it a go after seeing these. Hearts, of course.

Wow, this post really is all over the place.

February 1

Because I couldn't resist posting more snow photos, here's one of our rosemary plants looking all pretty.

And this is our beach access walkway, with snow drifts and shadows, from our walk yesterday.

I'm home alone today; Steve had to make the trek into work on the icy roads. He said I looked awfully happy to see him go.

Now I'm just relaxing around the house, doing a lot of nothing much.

First off, I decided to work on my mom's dog sweater since it didn't fit as well as I'd hoped. So I decided to add a turtle neck section to it and a strap at the back end. Now it's ready for another fitting. Good grief, this has been ridiculously fiddly. One good thing though is that I realize I do have a better understanding of my skills. For instance, the knowledge that all I had to do to add the neck was pick up stitches and do a k2, p2 ribbing. And I also know that if it's too tight or too short, I can rip it out and do it over. No sweat.



I also ripped out a pair of Maine Morning Mitts I had started awhile back but quit halfway through the second when I realized I was going to run out of yarn. So while Steve and I were playing Scrabble last night, I decided I would use the yarn to make a pair of mittens instead. And I'm incorporating the idea of Jared's Flood Noro scarf by striping the dark Noro Kureyon with some pinkish Noro Silk Garden, at least for the wrist cuffs. That should insure I have enough yarn, plus it gives it an interesting look. Again, breaking a little new ground for me. Semi-designing going on over here.

And because I must be addicted, more heart shaped love.