you better not pout

my friend, amanda stopped by today with a craft emergency. we decided i must be martha stewart's evil twin - tattooed, knitting, harley riding, cooking, swearing. i'll buy that.

to bribe pay me for my brainstorming efforts, she loaded me up on sugar. but these little beauties are evil. they taste like the stuff inside an oreo. she's promised the recipe. and don't you worry, internet. i will share.

i've already decided weight watchers is on my horizon. again. i've gained ten pounds! think that's not a lot? tape two bags of sugar to your belly and come back in an hour. no wonder my back hurts.

let's get through the hoidays with it's noshings and imbibing and i'll get to it. america's next top model here i come.

i'm no scrooge

but i wasn't going to do any christmas knitting. proclaiming christmas a knit-free zone was one way to lighten my holiday load. i wasn't going to send any christmas cards either. . .funny how these things work. or not.

i mean, i have things on the needles, i am knitting: a clapotis for girl-child and manly socks for ken but i wasn't going to have this mad dash to the finish line, pressured to finish last-minute gifts.

enter exhibit a:

ashley's boyfriend put in a hat request. and i'm doing a gift exchange with some knitters after the holidays. then i found this blog and her felted slippers and it's been downhill since. i have procured more wool in the last week than i can shake a . . .a knitting stick at!

this is the french press felted slipper, before and after. ravelry is the best way to get the pattern, especially after poor melynda was 'harlotized'. i think i've been staring at it too long. i can't even tell if it's cute any more! it needs one more good run through the wash so it's not so floppy but i think it's cute. now to find the perfect buttons...

and one more knitting related bit. can i just say my mom rocks? i asked her if she could knit girl-child a sweater. ashley said, "omg! i love that sweater!" when we were watching a scene from the movie juno. so, i took a picture of my TV with my cell phone, emailed it to my mom and said, "can you knit THIS sweater?"

she took that crappy cell phone picture, bought some yarn, found a squirrel chart and worked her magic:

ashley was squeeing all over the kitchen. i couldn't even get her to hold still for a picture.

well, maybe one.

she absolutely loves it. as in, wears-it-every-day loves it. cried when she opened the package loves it. wasn't going to let me take it to my knitting group to brag on my mom loves it.

thanks mom.

and the gifts keep coming

is there a better way to express your love and affection than the gift of yarn? i think not.

my momma, she loves me. she gifts me with potential. a bag of fibery goodness says, "here you go, let's see what sort of beauty you can create with THIS!"

a bag of yarn. the perfect gift. one size really does fit all.

i can tell it's christmas. and not just because of the parade of gifts.

we finally got our tree up. no one in town had the mini, multi lights! i ended up ordering them from target.com.

ken strung them up and i decorated the rest. we love our tree. it's like a living museum of our lives together. each ornament hand selected either by us or for us to commemorate all sorts of things. decorating the tree is one of my favorite traditions even if it is a lot of work!

nothing but heaven itself is better

than a friend who is really a friend. -plautus

it's so wonderful when a friend takes time out of her busy day to sprinkle my day with happiness.

thanks, bird. this hit the spot.

clever girl

now i know my abc's

holly, over at chez beeper bebe shared an excellent tutorial on creating these wonderfully whimsical, fabric, magnetic abc's.

i was in the process of making a set today when one of ken's co-workers asked if i'd make his twin girls their names.

these are so easy. i made the two names in less than an hour. i've gone one step further in simplifying holly's idea: i use arial black font, all caps and print up the alphabet (or name). in word, if you go to format: font you can select outline. i cut the letters out square, set my machine to a short length and sew, following the lines of the printed letters (layering the pieces according to holly's tutorial). the machine needle perforates the paper, and you just tear it away. ridiculously easy.

i purchased the magnets, and i used scraps of fabric and batting that i had already. so for less than $10 i have a super cute gift idea! and now you do too.