less posting, more turkey!

Hi y'all!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Eat lots of turkey and pumpkin pie.

I had to take my laptop to the doctor today, because a mini disc is stuck inside and needs to be removed. I'm hoping the removal is successful and does not cause anything bad to happen, because I haven't backed up recently. I will be traumatized. I can't even go there.

**shudder**

In between scarfing turkey & putting up our trees, I hope to get lots of knitting done. But with everyone home for 4 days, you never can tell what might happen!

peace!

FO-Brian's hat

My friend Sharyn requested this hat in boy colors for her 3 year old son Brian, who is all about gender specific colors. I went blue on blue. No chance it's not for boys! And look, it fits!

the light blue is Malabrigo yarn, 100% wool from Uruguay. It's soft and warm and fun to say. Malabrigo... I love you...
I delivered the new hat today and was met by a very happy little guy who likes his new snowgear. And I am glad.

My friend Jan came over yesterday and I learned her how to knit! She has been knit resistant for over a year, but I knew if I could get needles in her hands she'd like it. (maybe now she'll stop trying to get me to quit!) I sent her outta here with 2 projects on needles and a good attitude. I can see a trip to Lansing in our future!

Good Tuesday to you!

Twilight love

I realized that I forgot to talk about the biggest event of the weekend-our trip to see Twilight.

I'm not going to go through every detail of the movie...there are plenty of places to look up reviews and opinions, but I did want to mention a few of the things that stood out to me.

On the pro side: 

-The movie is a pretty accurate retelling of the book. Of course some things are left out, or the movie would be 10 hours long. I wasn't disappointed by the content.

-the casting is pretty good.

-the action sequences were satisfying, especially the baseball scene.

And the cons:

-at times the white make-up was just over the top. The entire movie had a desaturated look, and I'm sure they could have desaturated the skin tone instead of having the actors wear obvious white make-up. The character of Carlisle Cullen was the worst. At times it looked like it was cracking around his eyes.

-I know the vampires are supposed to be beautiful and porcelin skinned (it's mentioned about 8,465 times in the series), and Edward's stubble was completely distracting to me. And his obvious contact lenses. Bad bad bad. Don't get me started on the hair.

-the 'brilliant sparkle' of their skin in sunlight? Not so much. It was pathetic.

-for a little town of 3,000 people, Forks is awfully racially diverse. For every white person, there is an asian, an african-american, an indian. It's ridiculous. In the books the characters are either vampires, werewolves, or humans. That's it. And they were all way too hip for small town USA.

Overall, I was very pleased with the movie. Going to the theater with 4 pre-teen girls was a funny experience. I spent almost as much time watching them whisper and giggle as I did the movie. The funniest part was the two pre-teen boys sitting at the end of our aisle. Several times when the movie was very quiet, they let out huge belches and the girls would laugh and laugh and laugh. Boys.

If you liked the book, you'll like the flick.

FO-baby sweater

I made this sweater for Olivia Fortner, the daughter of Evan's 4th grade teacher. I figured that instead of getting the same old teacher's gift for Christmas, I'd make something for her baby.

The pictures aren't great, but photographing white yarn never looks good.

I love these little clear toggle buttons I found!
This is the snowflake detail that I added to make it 'wintery'. I love the border/accent yarn color-it's called ocean breeze and is a light teal. Very pretty.
If I have a few extra hours, I want to make a matching hat. We'll see! I seem to come up with a 'must do' project every fifteen minutes :)

It's going to be a busy fun weekend...Evan has a game today and a game tomorrow; Emma's @ Christmas Crafts with the scouts and then off to a friend's house. She & I and a bunch of her friends are going to see Twilight this afternoon. CAN'T WAIT!

FO-swap gnome

Dang it, I reversed the pix again! This is the side view of Mr. Gnome enjoying a little breath of fresh air and snow. The brown lump at his feet is a bag, which I ran twine thru and tied in a nice bow. The bag is filled with Christmas candies. Here is just looks blah.

This is a better angle!
I made this for a Christmas ornament swap. My swap partner Megan said she looked thru my projects and liked everything I had made, so I decided to go gnome. Go big or go gnome. HA! I crack myself up. He is probably too big to put on the tree, but could be cute way back in there peeking out thru the branches.

porn balloons in my cargo space

I just ran up to Kroger's to get some groceries and pop and whatnot and look what I discovered in the rear of my car. (Totally no pun intended)

WTF? Who is responsible for this abomination? Let's take a closer look-

Back away! Back away! Closer is definitely worse!

FYI- At one point in time (Halloween to be exact) this was a balloon sword that some generous candy peddler was giving to the neighborhood kids. I found it in a leaf pile and apparenttly thought it was a good idea to bring it home and keep it forever.

Whew! For a minute there I was a little worried about who's been doing what in my car!

On the upside, notice how clean my car is!

And totally unrelated to anything, if you didn't see this sketch on SNL you have to watch it.

I have been singing this song for days now, and can't get the image of Justin Timberlake in heels out of my brain.

peaceful

early afternoon, quiet Sunday

everyone is doing their individual things

the day is grey and chilled

when the first flakes appear

they swirl lightly at first

and then more urgently

silently we are engulfed

someone mentions the words 'snow day'

with great hope
my focus is no longer on my knitting

as I spy colorful birds

queing up to be next at the feeder
they are also enjoying the snow

and are hopping about
the day is no longer grey

but bright and filled with quiet peace.

some assembly required

Indy legos, originally uploaded by dogglips2.

This is the sight around my house this week. Lots and lots of legos. Indy Jones legos (2 sets) and the coup de grace, scored by moi, Speed Racer legos. Not because they are rare, but because Evan didn't know they existed. And Speed is a big thing in our house.
We also have virtual legos in the form of the Indiana Jones lego video game for Wii. Good fun for 9 year old boys.
It's been a crummy week and I've been out of sorts the whole time. Yicky, rainy cold weather for the last few days, making the days seem even shorter because of the gloom. Half days & teacher conferences. Poor sleeping habits. Feeling crampy & headachy from all of the above. Time to banish the blahs and get back on track!
Have a good weekend. Don't know what's in store for us quite yet. Oh boy!

FO-Norwegian star hats

For the fab 5, matching Norwegian star earflap hats.

The hope was to get a picture of the kids in their matching hats.

We'll see :)

4 out of 5 are finished...I still need to do Isabelle's. I need to make it smaller than the other child sized ones, so I need to monkey around  with the star pattern.

Girls are in lime green, boys are red.

Thank you to my models, watermelon & old soccer ball. They were just the right size for stretching and blocking the wet hats!

Maybe I can get my kids to model theirs for me.

Happy Birthday to my baby

Evan on the day he was born. Really, seriously. This is his birth day. I'm not joking.

Somehow, against all reason and logic and wheedling from me, my little man turned 9 years old today.

I can hardly believe that it's been almost 10 years that I have known him, loved him. Only ten? No, he's been in my heart forever. I have loved watching him grow and learn and become his own person every minute. He can be frustrating and annoying and irritatingly BOY but I wouldn't give him up for all the stars in the sky. He's goofy, funny, charming, loving, compassionate, athletic, gentle, sweet, pesky...and like no one else on earth.

He's my shaver.

I love you Evan! Happy birthday.

the almost birthday boy

He gets to do something cool today-go to a Lions' game with his Papa Dave. Okay, so technically the Lions aren't cool in the least, but pro football games are, and he's never been. And maybe if he's lucky, the Lions will lose and he'll get to witness history-the worst season in the making! Win win!

Ev had his first indoor soccer game last night and the kid was on fire, I kid you not! He played goalie for the first half plus some (Indoor boardless they play 55 minutes straight. No halftime, no stopping the clock) The moms were saying that we should get him a box of kitty litter (!) because he has cat like reflexes :) He was totally awesome and not at all rusty for not having played in weeks. Good stuff.

Tonight we are having cake & ice cream with the family, so I need to get to the store!

Happy Sunday!

impromptu outdoor concerto

Emma came home from school today in a great mood, which was a delightful change from yesterday, and the sobbing hysterical mess that walked thru the door. It was such a beautiful afternoon that she & Anna decided to hang out in the yard to practice their trumpets.

Why should I be selfish? Share your talent with the neighborhood, I say!

and check out these really nce pix Bart took the other day. I love the seond one the most...the colors & textures. Wonderful! The light really was amazing. Not retouched at all, pinky swear!

Hard to believe from these shots that it's November. And that it's about to get cold, fast.

whazzat?

I'm a little fuzzy in la cabeza today because I didn't fall asleep until sometime after 5:00 AM, and was up @ 8:00. I was going to try to rest a bit, but didn't want to get into the cycle of sleep all day/stay up all night (as much fun as staying up all night can be, it's not very conducive to family life. The kids sort of want me conscious.)

I have spent the entire day working on one or two of the projects circulating thru my mind like an annoying song. I won't tell you what they are right now, but hopefully soon.

It's not really all that exciting, I'm just a tease:)

So because I havenot got anything else, a few pix of my haircut...

the back & sides-very short for me

okay, it doesn't look alot different in this photo. I was trying to capture my dye job. Very natural looking.

and from the front. Also not radically different. I wanted to get rid of my dependance of the ponytail, so it's gone. I do still occasionally wear a small clip to keep it up out of my face. And tucking. Sigh. I'll never break the habit!

For the love of God, my neighbors are outside putting up their Christmas lights. Just shoot me now! I am SO NOT READY to go there yet.

simple math

one 40 year old, prone to nap

+

a stiff neck

+

fancy Italian desserts

+

5 or 6 projects floating around in my head

x

1/3 of an iced Starbux Peppermint Mocha Twist, slightly watered down

-

physical activity

x

(Obama excitement) squared

=

me, at 2:30 a.m., not sleeping

just do it

VOTE

right now

go do it

because it's the right thing

and so Barack Obama can stop calling me daily

(he's a busy guy)

kids, plural

So kid B passed stomach bug to kid A. 

Kid B is much better, so much so that he finagled his way into going to school today (Bizarre, I know. He really wanted to go, what can I say?)

Kid A is and has been passed out on the sofa for the entire day. She's not feeling too hot.

It's funny how different kids react to being sick. Evan was very quiet and not attention seeking at all. He'd throw up as quietly as possible so that he didn't attract attention. Emma, on the other hand, likes to moan and whimper and loudly declare how ill she is. She also can't seem to relax, and throwing up makes her anxious.

Hopefully tomorrow will not dawn with any new illness in our house.

sick kid

I have a boy who is under the weather this weekend. Not really sure when or where he picked up the bug, but he's been throwing up & whatnot since yesterday. Running a low-grade fever. Poor kid hasn't even eaten any of his Halloween candy.

I am the very first to admit that I am lucky because my kids rarely get sick. Rarely. Like I can't remember the last time he got sick, sick. He may have been a toddler. And he took a nap yesterday, something esle he hasn't done in forever. That's how I know he's not faking. Well, that and the puking.

Have a nice & relaxing Sunday!

Halloween re-cap

we lucked out again and the weather was perfect for trick-or-treating,(which led me to tell the story of how we always had cold Halloweens and had to wear our coats as kids, which is true as far as I remember) It really was a gorgeous Indian summer day.

The pix are all out of order, because Blogger won't let you upload more than 5 at a time and I did them in batches. So imagine they are in the correct order.

Bart wearing Evan's hippie wig.
Emma 'strangling' Aunt Roberta with her glowing nails. I love this picture even though it's blurry.
My Spartan pumpkin...GO STATE!
our other pumpkin. They traveled to my Dad's house for trick-or-treating.
The hippie is ready to rock-n-roll.
Em & Ev waiting for the witching hour.
Face make-up is itchy!
Geisha girl Emma
checking out her 'do in the mirror. It took almost an entire can of spray to cover all the blond.
Evan in the school parade.
peace and love, baby. The moustache was totally the best part of the costume.
Probably my favorite picture, from the crooked moustache to the laid back look he's workin'.

We trick-or-treated in my Dad's sub; they live on a circular street with an inner and outer loop.Without hurrying, we walked them both in 35  minutes and got more than enough candy. A lot of the neighbors pass out full sized bars, plus then they get 99% of the leftovers from Grammy & Papa. We topped off the night by watching 'Poltergeist' (not my idea!) and leaving a passed out geisha asleep on the couch.

Now...off to snitch some Reeses...