Monday, December 15, 2008

Forced to do proper housework

It's been snowing since about mid-morning today, with no signs of clearing. Just steady snowfall, slowly but surely beginning to cover everything. Between the weather and a Husband out doing his own thing for a bit, there is no reason I shouldn't be cleaning house. The holiday boxes that needed to get out were sent out Saturday. The only holiday knitting I have left is for the kids, so has to be done after 9pm. I finally began tracing pictures of dancing fruit onto day of the week dishtowels to eventually embroider, because everyone needs dancing fruit dishtowels in their kitchen. Ok, maybe it's just me.

The last couple weeks are rather a blur of red, green, white and baked goods, coupled last week with a rather nasty headache induced by stress, insomnia, junk food and a rather recently noticed spider bite. I have bad reactions to most insect-type bites, so how I missed one swelled to the size of quarter I have no clue. I should also know better about the junk food.

I recently found a new supplier of henna , along with a new method of mixing up said green goo, which I will be trying out tomorrow. I've seen lovely results on others, so am rather optimistic as to how it will turn out.

Back to tracing happy fruit and finishing the sweater for myself that was supposed to get done before it got too cold.

Monday, December 8, 2008

'Tis the Season

There was the gathering of the neighbors to get together and chat(not too horrible as most of my neighbors are really lovely people). The local Christmas parade that we just had to go to (according to the kids), because they had friends on a couple of floats. It was below freezing, so once we'd seen their friends' floats we came home and had hot chocolate. There's enthusiastic lights and displays up and down the block. The kids have also handed us their wish lists. These lists tend to be a source of anxiety for most parents; prone to being arm length, coated in "I wannas" that all cost an arm and a leg apiece. Not my kids. Their lists are a handful of things each, if you count both requesting enough snow to go out and really play in. I guess that whole, "stuff isn't the purpose behind the holiday" has actually gotten through. Most of their lists don't require batteries either, which is apparently rather singular nowadays.
I've been knitting almost constantly, but I can't discuss any of it till after things are opened. It doesn't help that I am about a week behind getting things out. Bad me. I know. Think about how bad it would be if I hadn't planned ahead (at least a little bit). Back to work!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Raw Donut Holes!

Are so very good! Thank you Ani Phyo! I added just a touch of fresh ground nutmeg to make them absolutely perfect. Yum!

Thanksgiving went well. The turkey turned out perfectly, dripping a compound butter of bacon, dijon mustard and herbs. I made cranberry sauce from scratch, with brown sugar and a touch of ginger. It turned out well enough that even Hubby, (who doesn't like cranberry) ate it willingly, with apparent enjoyment. We didn't have any guests, so of course everything was done right at the anticipated time.

The day before Thanksgiving, we traipsed into town to pick out Boyo's new eyeglasses. While we were out wandering one of the shops, a nice woman commented on how tall the kids were. I responded with a "Yes, they'll be passing me in less than six months." Sounds normal right? Until she mentioned she thought the children were my siblings. When I announced, "Nope, they're mine" she looked really surprised. I chose to take it as a compliment. (As my sister so kindly pointed out a couple of years ago, I'm no "spring chicken".)

Holiday stuff continues to progress at a pace that means people will actually get their gifts before next spring. Though I admit to avoiding sewing up the kids' holiday pj's still. The thought of having to iron all that cotton flannel is a rather major deterrent. At least the pj's can be finished last minute, along with a couple other of their presents. Yes, there is knitting involved, but really, with me, when isn't there?

Started a new blog

  Oooh Shiny! is now on WordPress.  There isn't much there yet, but I will work on that.