o v e r b r e w e d

I told myself I wasn’t going to post about Christmas presents, but I find that I absolutely cannot help myself.  You see, i’ve been way behind on techno-gadget trends for quite some time, but I am finally the proud owner of a lovely little mp3 player.  Now I won’t have to talk to myself on my nightly walk/jogs!  It’s a Sanso something or other, can’t remember the model name, but that’s not overly important anyway.  2gb, so not that big storage-wise, but more than enough for my needs…and if I ever decide I need more space, I can just buy a micro flash drive.  Apart from that, my favorite presents are probably the huuuuge waffle iron, a Franco Sarto tote that is absolutely adorable and big enough to hold knitting, a nice selection of Stash tea, and an adorable strawberry patterned china tea set.  Of course, there wasn’t anything I wasn’t happy with…Chris and I pretty much have each others taste down pat.  (Also…it wasn’t a salt grinder, but a pepper grinder, which is still hilarious because I bought him one as well.  Heh.)  And, I can’t forget the copies of The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook and KnitFix that are currently on their way to me courtesy of the much appreciated Amazon gift card from my bestest friend Amber.

Christmas dinner was great…we didn’t want to do a traditional meal, as there were only four of us here and we never manage to eat leftovers.  We decided on French onion soup, Tournedos with Marchand de Vin, Hollandaise, and artichoke hearts, roasted fingerling potatoes, and roasted brussels sprouts.  To keep dessert simple and eliminate tons of tempting leftover sweets, I just made profiteroles filled with pumpkin custard and a bourbon caramel sauce.  Everything was amazing…it’s nice to be able to stretch our culinary legs for people that actually enjoy it.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of the scarf and booties…i’ll have to call my aunt and get her to take a couple and send them over.  They were, however, very well received and appreciated.  It was a good feeling. : )

We haven’t done anything today…just planning to sit around and relax for the first time in ages.  I made waffles for brunch, and Chris fixed a pot of Jamaican Blue.  Seriously, that coffee is definitely worth is ridiculous price.  Smooth and dark, absolutely no bitterness.  Heaven!  Now, Chris is playing one of the video games I bought him, and i’m going to organise my stash then piddle around with Sims 2: Pets…and I might spin a bit later as well.  But before that, since I was tagged by Kay, a meme.  Not tagging anyone else though…I don’t know enough of you out in blog land quite yet.

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1.) Cleaning gives me hives.  And its not an allergy to dust/cleaning products.

2.) I collect action figures…mostly LotR related.

3.) I absolutely love digging, and I always have.  I think it’s my inner history/archaeology nerd coming out.  I can spend hours sifting through river rock, playing with my metal detector, and digging in random spots, just looking for anything neat.  (And neat to me is little things like petrified wood and rusty nails/staples/etc.  I’m easily pleased.)
4.)  I can’t watch scary movies, but love to read about anything supernatural, especially true stories/legends.

5.) The Phil Collins song In The Air Tonight scares the shit out of me.  I literally have to cover my ears and hum loudly anytime it comes on tv or the radio.

6.) When I was little, my imaginary friends were a family of newts…they had a house under my back porch, and basically lived like humans.  My oddness started at a very early age apparently.

That’s all from me for now…hope all of you had a wonderful holiday!

A longer and more comprehensive post will have to wait until next week…for now, a short list.

1.) I ended up cutting down my Christmas knitting to the absolute bare essentials…the Ravenclaw scarf, and a pair of cabled booties from One Skein. My grandparents and one aunt don’t celebrate any holidays period, so I didn’t see any point in pushing myself to get their stuff done. And since our weather is once again way too warm, the Spartan Pullover for Chris has been put on the backburner as well. Pictures of the scarf and booties will be waiting until next week as well, I want action shots! That, and they’re already wrapped.

2.) I just finished putting together a batch of Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats, and am now taking a much needed breather. The rest of the weekend is going to be even more hectic…lots of cleaning, baking, and last minute craftyness in the form of tiny pinata thingies to fill with candy and hang on the tree. I just have to remember now to make sure and hang them high enough on the tree so that Wrigley doesn’t catch a whiff of chocolate and decide to knock the tree over again. It’s amazing how much damage a 20lb dachsund can do when he sets his mind to it.

3.) I, erm, just mailed out Christmas cards today. Whoops?

4.) Chris managed to buy me the exact same thing that I bought him as a stocking stuffer. I only know this because I was moving presents out of the way so I could put more water in the tree stand, and Chris is a horrid present wrapper and just wrapped it without putting it in a box first. Oh well, one can never have too many salt grinders, right?

5.) I am ridiculously gleeful about the final Harry Potter title. I know, I know…my mega-geek is showing, but whatever. I’ll probably be completely off target once again with my predictions, but Deathly Hallows just screams Founders relics turned horcruxes in an almost perfect mirror of the Grail Hallows. I’ve been saying for years that the series matches up quite well with Arthurian legend, and oh, how I hope i’m right. Now i’m just crossing my fingers that the broken prophesies from OotP mean a release on the Summer Solstice of ‘08, but even if they don’t they still fit nicely with the release of the title.

So yeah. Next post will include pictures and resolutions…including my personalised Knit From Your Stash rules. Until then, Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you have a great holiday.

Just a quickie picture post before I plop down in front of the tv to work on ornaments.  The holiday cheer is out in full force this weekend…it pretty much hit me overnight as last week I was rather apathetic about the whole Christmas thing.  I have a feeling i’m going to drive Chris bananas before i’m done, heh.

First up, some newly dyed roving.  Wilton Icing Dyes + the dishwasher?  Love.  I like that I could pop them in the dishwasher and let it do its magic while I was out running errands.  This is all going to be ornaments, most likely in the form of felted balls.

Ah, my very first handspun.  It is absolutely horrid, but i’m going to work it into ornaments as well.  Eventually, i’m sure i’ll look back on it with something similar to fondness.

My first batch of kool-aid dyed sock yarn.   This was ridiculously fun to do…I set up a warp board so I could make it self striping then mixed kool-aid packets with wild abandon.  The colorway annoyed me at first, but now the neon eye-bleedingness of it is growing on me.  I can’t wait to knit it up, once I get all 500 yards untangled anyway.  Damn cat.

Speaking of the damn cat, here he is napping on the sock yarn after he tangled it up.  He loves wool more than catnip, and that’s saying a lot, considering he’s an absolute nip-junkie.

Sigh.  Apparently, my purse is his new bed.  If I leave it sitting on the bar for any amount of time, he crawls in and makes himself at home.  He’s a brat.

Just a quickie drive-by post while I wait for dinner to finish cooking, nothing to get excited about.  It’s been raining non-stop since Saturday night…everything is grey and gloopy and gross.  Bleh.  Also,  I think the rain is making my fibro act up.  I’ve been achey all day, and when I tried to knit earlier my hands kept cramping up.  Thank you, rain, for making me feel 80. At least we did manage to get some more work done on the house addition Saturday before it started, so that’s a good thing.  At this rate, I might actually get to move my craft supplies to their new room by my birthday.  Now, which birthday that will be, who knows.  We’re not so good with schedules around here.
I finally got most of my yarn ordered for Christmas projects, hopefully KnitPicks ships relatively quickly.  I still have a few more things to buy, but since I settled on bath sets for my aunts and grandmother,  i’ll only need to pick up some Sugar ‘N Cream cotton and some soap base on that front.  Cheap?  Me?  Nah.

I’m thinking about using this soap saver pattern to go with the homemade soap, along with whatever my brain comes up with for a face-cloth and handtowel.   I’ll probably also throw in a few candles, since i’m still up to my eyeballs in wax and oils.  Maybe I should add candles to every single gift I make this year, i’m sure it would make Chris happy to get rid of the stuff.

Am I the only person that feels like they’re going to poke their eye out every time they use DPNs?  Damn things are deadly.