Baby, it's cold inside

Today was a swell day! We spent the afternoon downtown, watching the Nutcracker Ballet and having lunch at a Cuban restaurant. See, Detroit doesn't totally suck; we do have a few redeeming qualities.

Bart won tickets a while back to the Opera House, and the only thing I could bear watching is the Nutcracker (not a  BIG opera fan).  He was able to get additional tix for the rugrats, and for the family matinee today. Family matinee = many many kids. During the first act they were pretty quiet, but the game was up in the second act. Lots of fidgeting, wrinkling of treat bags, and question asking.

*complete change of topic here* I do feel the need to mention that the ballet was beautiful. Oh so beautiful. And I really wanted to love it, but ballet is a little how do i put this delicately... boring. BO-RING. Apparently there is not enough going on to keep my mind from focusing on the fact that there were lots of guys in tights with fabulous asses. And lewd jokes about nutcrackers. I wanted to lean over and whisper to the girl next to me "I wonder why they call this the NUTcracker ballet. Check out those tights". She was 6.

So I'm glad I went and please don't ever invite me to go again because I will gouge my eyes out with a dull spoon.

Here are a few crappy pix from the day. No enthusiasm here, either. They don't let you photograph any of the interesting stuff.

Ems and the reindeer they forced to greet the children. Don't they look like they are having fun?

Bart & the kids before the show. Trying oh so hard to not use the flash and failing.

this turkey won't even look at me. That's the last time I give birth to him!

Lunch was pretty great...we went to Vincente's cuban restaurant. Do not even think about ordering a sandwich of any kind on the weekend, because you will be SOL. We ended up with 3 different tapas, which were delish. I had a mojito. we even had dessert,a cake called tres leches. It may be the tastiest thing I ever ate.( I immediately looked up a recipe so I can make it.) Dessert and drinks at 2 pm? Now we're talkin'!

We came home to realize that it was cold. Evidently our furnace has stopped giving us the heat we require to NOT FREEZE OUR BUTTS OFF. We're all bundled up like eskimo. And the family is sleeping with the oven on. Watch for us on the news.

l8r!

merry ho ho!

We are spending the early part of the day decorating the manse before we head out to Ev's soccer game. Emma was helping find burned out bulbs...

...and Ben was helping. Or something. It's what cats do.

ahhhh, these ones are warm!

For an old furball, he's still pretty playful!

FO-hurricane hat

Just a little quickie...a hat to match the sweater I showed a few weeks ago.

I love the color of this yarn, and since I used so little of it on the sweater, I knew I wanted to make an accent piece to match. And it gave me an excuse to buy the nifty pompom maker I had been eyeing at JoAnn's.

the color is better represented in the top photo. Stupid sunlight. Or lack of sunlight. This week has been particularly gloomy & overcast, Not good for taking flattering pix of kids or knits.

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with my Bunco friends. To an actual restaurant. To one that probably doesn't have a kids' menu. As much as I love the little darlings, I must admit to being excited to have a meal and not worry about what they are eating (or not eating) and answering Evan's endless questions.

Have a good weekend!

I'll take two, please

The season for giving is upon us! Let me share with you some of fun gift ideas I have found while browsing the web. You can thank me later!

This one is called 'The Wine Rack'. You can store a bottle of wine in your bra. Courtesy of  Baron Bob

who wouldn't want this lovely calendar? For Grandma, maybe? I forgot where this gem came from.

my personal favorite, the Banana Bunker. Fruit protection and porn. Get it at MoMa!

for your favorite hunter, here's Jingle Boobs. Singing, dancing boobs. Yep. At Baron Bob.

this? this is just weird. order yours at Stupid.com

a bubble wrap calendar, for those poor souls who need stress relief. At Hipster gifts.

for the fashionista, a genuine armadillo purse! Well, the next best thing, anyway! At seven deals.

quite possibly the funniest gift ever? for the animal lover, find it at Archie McPhee!

for the wine enthuiast in your life, prank place offers a wine glass that holds an entire bottle! For those occasions where you don't want to wear the aformentioned wine rack.

I'm sure to find many more things in the weeks to come. Make sure to order in plenty of time for Christmas!!

FO-knit/felted palm tree

I had this idea that I wanted to make a knit palm tree and cover it with Christmas lights, but couldn't find a pattern. After toying with it for the past week, this is what i came up with!

Here are the palm fronds & center piece.
and now they're attached. There are 8 total, staggered all over the little beanie.
this is the completed tree pre-felting. I love the ribs on the trunk...it looks realistic. It's also very top heavy. Part of the reason to felt!
All felted and drying! My plan is to stuff the base maybe with some wire or even a candle, and then I have some mini light sets that I'm going to string on it. Hopefully it will be strong enough to stand. If not, I'll have to come up with plan B.

I think I'm going to give this to my Dad for Christmas.

a surpise anniversary gift

My 15th wedding anniversary is in two weeks. Fifteen years. Every time I think about it, it just floors me.

We got married exactly one week before Christmas. Bart is a big Christmas geek, and it was the best time to go to have a decent length honeymoon. I can attest that Christmas weddings are beautiful and have their own brand of magic surrounding them.

Since we were going to be gone over the holidays, I did two things for Bart so he wouldn't miss out on having a Christmas tree. The first was to take pictures of our favorite ornaments, trim them out, and tape them to the wall ( in Florida, at the condo) in the shape of a tree. Cheesy, but effective. It reminded us of home.

The second was to sponser a tree in Kellogg Park in Plymouth, right next door and in view of the Mayflower Meeting House, where our reception was held. Bart's sister Tracey helped me decorate the tree in the driving, cold rain. We even got our pictures in the paper, decorating our stealth tree. It was beautiful and surprising and the next best thing to our own tree.

Bart had them move the tree into the lobby at our reception.

Last weekend he took the kids to his parents house to finish leaf clean-up and shop for toilets (two activities which he knew I'd have no interest in). In actuality, he took the kids, and Tracey & Greg, and spent the afternoon decorating my tree. Not only did he do that, but the previous weekend he took Emma shopping for all the ornaments & decorations. At JoAnn's. He deserves a medal.

the tree is covered with crystal & silver ornaments and family photos. Many photos that I hadn't seen in a very long time! And orchids. Beautiful white orchids.
I don't think anyone was more excited than Emma. She was bursting trying to keep the secret! I love that the marquee behind them says "It's a Wonderful Life"
I'm not as annoyed as I look-it was snowing heavily and I was squinting to keep the flakes out of my eyes.(also why we are here 2 weeks early, before the snow ruins the decorations.) I was way too puffy in my sweatshirt and jacket. And look, yet another person who doesn't know how to spell our last name!!!!
Awww, we haven't changed. I almost said that with a straight face!

Isn't he just the sweetest? I love that he included the kids and Tracey again. If you get a chance to stop by, the tree will be up until the end of December. Make sure to look for it!

Happy Anniversary Bart!!

Always-

hello, December

So I got my laptop back today. I was overjoyed. Something so small and seemingly irrelevant, and for 5 days I could hardly function. I mean, I had to go way down to my room to check emails, read blogs, and look up stuff. But she's back now, and I promise not to force any mini discs upon her.

But I have to crab now, because hello, it's December! I thought October flew by...I'm pretty sure November had it beat. All of the sudden I'm in panic gottagetitdone mode. My list of to-do's looks impossibly long. My list of want to-do's will need to be trimmed. Ack!

I'm pretty sure I have the opposite of the Midas touch. When I got into my car today the engine light came on. I've tried all the little tricks in the manual and it's not going away by itself. Shit. So tomorrow I will need to squeeze in some time to get the stupid engine looked at.  I just know it won't be anything. It shouldn't be anything. The car is less than 2 years old & gets maintenece regularly. On-Star didn't mention any problems this month. Just another time suckage project!

Tomorrow will be all sunshine and unicorns, but for now I get to have my crabby moment.