Thank Goodness!

Welcome to my disjointed world of, 'Thank Goodness!  The holidays are almost over and we can go back to our normal, boring lives.'

Christmas was great!  We'd planned to go all out with the lights and decorations.  We were going to make the tacky house light tour homes jealous.  But in the end, all we put up/out was the tree, a few Santa's tucked around on random shelves and the Advent candles.  It just may have been my all time favorite 'decorated' Christmas ever. 

It helped that our tree was GORGEOUS this year.  Mike picks our tree each year and when I say tree, I mean 'bush.'  We've always had 10 foot ceilings and he brings home trees that are barely 5 feet tall.  They're bushes, not trees.  But this year...  Thank you Lowes for having such bad service!  Mike went to Lowes, picked out a bush, then couldn't get anyone to wait on him.  He even had one Lowes employ continuously 'helping' by calling for cashier assistance to no avail (apparently you had to pay at a specific register if you were getting a tree. Or something.  Mike was ranting so badly I had trouble following the story.)  Eventually Mike got so irritated he walked out without his Christmas bush.  Google helped him find some side-of-the-road place called Willy's and he came home with THE most Gorgeous, full and perfectly shaped, 8 foot tree for $10 less than the Lowe's bush.  Of course, I didn't take a single photo.  Doh!

Winterfest

We never got to shoot down mistletoe or go to see The Nutcracker but Sarah and I did get to go to Winterfest.  We also got to go ride around looking at holiday lights... in her new car.  Santa brought her a new car for Christmas and delivered it a few days early since it was too heavy and took up too much space in his sleigh.  I don't even know what it is other than a black Mazda something or other and it has a hatchback, bluetooth and bright enough headlights that she can see where she's going at night.  It's a Huge improvement over her old car and she LOVES it!

Sarah's new car

I finished the Colorburst shawl and the Holly Berry Stash Buster shawl before Christmas but haven't blocked either of them.  I decided that Colorburst wasn't right for the person I was planning to give it to and Holly Berry was for me and there were more important tasks than blocking a shawl for myself.

#ChristmasEveCastOn

My #ChristmasEveCastOn project was another Reyna, knit with yarn from Urban Girl Yarns that I picked up during the yarn crawl this past summer.  It's the first time I've knit with Urban Girl yarn and ten stitches in and I was hooked.  Yarn diet or not, as soon as the budget recovers from Christmas, I'll be tossing a few more Urban Girl skeins into my basket.  And now I'm having a moral dilemma.  The Reyna was going to replace the Colorburst shawl but....  Now, I'm loving the yarn so much I don't know if I can part with this one either.

Christmas dinner went well.  We hosted it here and believe or not, I have never in my life hosted Christmas dinner before.  Well, not unless you count the year we had a freak ice storm, the roads were closed so we were forced to stay home, and a few neighbors came by because we had a generator and multiple grills.  I was a little worried about the normal pressure of hosting Christmas dinner plus the additional worry of doing it in an unfamiliar house with naughty elves who keep taking and hiding things.  But, despite not having access to  a single 9x12 baking dish, a cake pan or my Instant Pot, Christmas dinner was a success I think.

table top swift

As for gifts, I received the two things I was most hoping for.  Some $10 Walmart perfume (LOL, it really is my favorite!) and a table top swift.  I mentioned my umbrella swift woes once before.  I did a lot of fussing and amended my Christmas List to include a table top swift but I didn't think anyone was listening.  Apparently, they were!  Yay!  I was so excited I abandoned the family Christmas morning to play with it.

I finished the socks before the New Year rolled around.  Yay!  I'll never be able to wear them, at least not with shoes, but they are finished.  I don't know what happened.  I've knit 1,000 pair of socks with that yarn, on those needles and with that same number of cast on stitches and never had trouble.  This pair, however, is loose enough to put both feet into one sock.  And something went wrong on the toes.  One sock has a too-pointy toe and the other is wide enough to fit a brick into it.  Good Lord!  Oh well.  Looking on the bright side, I have a new pair of house socks that will keep my feet warm and will never be a danger to my circulation. 

Surprise!

And, because having three other large projects with deadlines and multiple smaller things on the needles isn't enough, I'll be starting the new year off with yet another large project on the needles.This one is for the grand-baby and I'm going to try to keep it a secret.  The baby shower is only a few weeks away so I will be busy, busy, busy knitting on it.

And after all that, thank goodness the holidays are almost over! I'm anxious to get past the sugar and the butter and move on to eating some fresh vegetables instead.  I'm also looking forward to spending my time knitting rather than baking and shopping.

Wishing you a safe, happy New Year!

As God is my witness

As God is my witness,

Second Sock

This pair of socks will be finished in 2019.

Three on Thursday

Wow, I'm behind.  I'm so far behind that if I was a NASCAR driver, I'd be lapping myself.  Good grief!  But no matter how far behind I am, I wanted to join Carole for Three on Thursday and check in with everyone.  I've been pretty slack about posting lately and I'll probably continue to miss a post or three between now and Christmas.  Heck, let's call it like it is and go ahead and say I may miss a few posts between Christmas and New Years too.

Life has just been a little bit hectic lately.  Absolutely nothing goes according to plan.  I think some higher power is trying to teach me a lesson, I just haven't figured out what that lesson is yet.

Tuesday I went to my newly found Alzheimer's support group meeting.  Gosh, those folks are nice!  After a brunch of cookies and coffee, I went to Walmart to stocking stuffer shop... and realized I'd forgotten to deposit any money into my debit card account.  That poor account was looking pretty bleak and of course I completely forgot that I can transfer money from savings to checking with my phone.  Doh!  Instead, I shopped with a budget and had $3. 87 left in the bank when I was done.  Talk about cutting it close!  But hey - I still had $3.87 and the majority of the stocking shopping was done.

I came home from stocking stuffer shopping thinking I'd be wildly productive with baking and gift wrapping but....  "The kids" (my son and his girlfriend) called and wanted to meet up for dinner.  Awesome!  We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving so of course we said yes.  The only hitch was, my husband got caught up in a horrendous traffic accident on the interstate and his 50 minute commute took two and a half hours.  We had a late dinner at Applebee's and well, we had three different waiters and I think it was all three of them's first night ever waiting tables.  It was comically awful and half of us never got part of our meal.  But, when we got home, Grandma and Mike went to bed and Sarah and I made five batches of rum balls.  We still have two, maybe three more batches to go but we ran out of ingredients.  But five done is much better than none done.

I think I've mentioned before that we're living in this weird little area with no internet provider.  We are having to use a hotspot for internet.  And yesterday, the hotspot device went missing for about six hours.  I was so frustrated because I'd been busy outside of the house for several days and hadn't had a chance to check my email or do any blog stuff for a while.  Yesterday was going to be my catch-up day.  But nope!  Once again, I was reminded that I'm supposed to be learning some kind of lesson.  Thankfully, we finally found the hotspot device and all was right with the world once again.  The problem was, by the time we found it, it was time to leave for my knitting group Christmas party.  No complaints about the party though.  Great food, great company and an I won an awesome prize of a gazillion little stitch markers for small needles.  And yep!  I prefer small needles.  I knit mostly with fingering weight and I knit loose so I rarely use a  needle larger than a US4.  I'm super excited about my new stitch markers.

So, with all that said, if I don't make it back to the blog before Christmas, I wish each and every one of you a merry holiday!

Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hal-le-lu-jah!

What a ride!  Remember how we were selling our house and closing back in the first week of November?  Yeah, that didn't happen.  There was a problem with our buyers' buyers' financials which their bank didn't discover until two days before closing.  Argh!

Thankfully our buyers quickly got another contract on their house and closing was set for the last week of November.  And then the first week of December.  And then December 16th. 

And Hallelujah!  We are now officially without a home.  We have neither house nor debt.  Damn it feels good!

It feels so good I was off celebrating last night instead of knitting something to show you. Sorry, not sorry! 

Friday the 13th

A little break from tradition.... or maybe not.  It's that time of year when I'm knitting secret Santa stuff and can't post photos of my projects.  Or, if I'm honest, I simply don't have time to take photos this year.  Actually, it's a little bit of both.

I thought I was pretty much done with my gift knitting but then I took a good look at my list.  Okay, not so done after all.  While I'm busy knitting four ____; a ____ and two pair of _____, I'm showing you random, unrelated photos.

The road we live on now.  I'll admit, it's nice to be able to go for a walk and not worry about being run over or falling into the lake while trying to dodge speeding cars.

Our house faces a part of the Chickahominy Swamp.  If I braved the imaginary alligators and hiked through the swamp about an eighth of a mile, I'd hit the river.  We are so close, but oh so far away from that river front property we dream of.

And two night's ago, as I pulled out of the Arby's parking lot on the way to my knitting group meeting, a beautiful full moon was rising and the radio was playing the perfect Creedence song.

Happy Friday 13th and happy Christmas gift knitting.

Three on Thursday

I'm joining Carole for today's Three on Thursday, or at least I hope I am.  I completely forgot to link up with her last week.  Doh!

My ideas for three things and my time are both running a little low right now so bear with me and my no photograph post.  I'm determined to stop complaining so much though and those of you that know me know I don't exactly live by the 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all' rule.  But again, I'm determined to keep it positive.  So, without photographs...

1.  I'm loving my Christmas/Holly Berry Stashbuster shawl.  If all goes as planned, it will be off the needles before this blog post even goes live. (Yes, I'm typing about 14 hours in advance.)

2.  My little desktop Christmas tree.  The poor little thing has seen better days and I didn't even take the time to unfold its plastic branches properly, but the lights were still on it from last year, they work, and it lights up and casts a warm, Christmasy glow across my desk.  

3.  Knit Picks'  free Santa's hat pattern. It uses Fable Fur (which I have in the stash pile) and bulky weight yarn (which I'll make by holding two thinner strands together) so it should knit up super quick.  I'm hoping to get a few knit up by the end of the weekend.  And, because I'm so positive and non-whiny these days, while searching Knit Pick's site for the Santa hat, I also discovered a miniature, ornament sized Santa hat pattern.  I might have to knit a few of them too!

And now, I'm off to knit, knit, knit.  There's only twelve knitting days left before Christmas.  Yikes!

(I'm not complaining, only panicking!)

A Christmas Miracle

This is a Christmas miracle post, otherwise known as the post in which I do not complain.  

Sorry folks.  Even I'm sick of hearing myself whine.  My life could be so much worse and the fact that I lost a hand towel....  Well, all I can say is that I've had the emotions of a hormonal 12 year old girl lately and I'm sorry.  Next time I start to whine, call me on it.  Tell me to buck up and act like an adult.

Holly Berry Stashbuster Shawl

Something that has helped me buck up is the Stashbuster Shawl.  It's four short set up rows then you repeat the fifth row over and over again until you have just enough yarn left to bind off.  The picot edging is knit as the shawl grows rather than having to knit all those little picot things at once on the cast on or off edge.  It's so simple, so quick and so perfect for knitting while watching The Grinch with the family.  

And let's clarify, the 'real' Grinch, not that awful Jim Carrey movie version.  (Sorry Jim Carrey, but you can't improve on perfection and you should never have tried.)

And yes, the shawl will match my Christmas socks because yes, I broke my no new yarn rule once again.  Having a knitting group meeting at the knitting shop is a dangerous, dangerous thing.

And then,

The coolest thing happened.

I stepped out of the shower and could hear all kinds of unusual activity on the train tracks out back.  (Yes, when I say we live on the tracks, I pretty much mean it.)

The CSX train crawled by at the slowest possible pace while a track-hoe with a claw on it rode on top of cars, unloading replacement trestles on each side of the tracks.  

Once the track-hoe-claw machine finished unloading, the train stopped while the track-hoe pulled itself to the end of the train, then it lifted itself down onto a lower bed on the final train car.  And then the train slowly pulled away.

How cool!

I'm SO wishing we were still homeschooling and the kids could have been here to see it because it was definitely one of those weird, fun homeschool learning moments.  

I'm also SO hoping that Mr. CSX guy standing back there at the back of the lower bed of the train didn't happen to look over and catch me standing buck-naked in the window taking pictures of him and his train.

Sunday Supper - Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

It may only be December 8th but I'm already thinking about Christmas dinner.  Or more specifically, Christmas dinner desert.  Or even more specifically, Sarah's chocolate peppermint cheesecake.

chocolate peppermint cheesecake from delish.com

For several years now, while I've been busy at work, Sarah has taken over the roll of holiday desert baker and believe me, I'm not complaining!  A few years ago she tried out a new desert recipe and I talked about it here.  Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake.  Oh  my goodness!  That cheesecake was so good that I've dreamed about it many, many times since.  My mouth waters just thinking of it.  Heck, I gain four pounds just thinking of it.  It was SO FREAKING  good! 

Last year she tried to make it again but....  I don't know if she used a different recipe or if she fudged on the ingredients or what but....  Sorry to say, Sarah, it was Not the chocolate peppermint cheesecake we were expecting.  It was good.  I mean, there was nothing wrong with it, but it wasn't the FREAKING AWESOME cheesecake of the previous year.

This year, I'm hoping and praying she'll give it another try and use the "real" recipe without skipping or exchanging any of the ingredients because believe me, that original cheesecake was 25 pounds (possibly not an exaggeration!) of pure chocolate and peppermint bliss!

If you're wondering what to bake for Christmas this year, give this cheesecake a try.  I don't think you'll be sorry.  (Unless you try to eat the entire thing by yourself that is.)

Five Days

Not bad!  I knit a cowl, start to finish and got it on the blocking mats in five days.  Doesn't sound all That impressive but considering I knit some other stuff during that time, read a few books and lived my life...

MadiTosh Merino Light

On Sunday, December 1st, I woke up and thought that perhaps I should start on my Christmas gift knitting.  I mean, I'm only a little bit behind schedule.  No need for panic or anything.

I dug out the yarn, found a pattern to try and found a place in this house where I could set up my swift and ball winder.  That was a chore, let me tell you!  In the old house, my desk was an old dining table and the swift and ball winder simply lived clamped to opposite ends of the table.  But the desk/table didn't come with us.  The only place I could find that wasn't fancy furniture and had enough of a lip to clamp to and enough wide open space to accommodate the swift was the kitchen counters.  Yes, counters.  I had to stretch the yarn across the room with the swift on one side and the winder on the opposite, slightly too close to the fridge so that I had to stand at a really awkward angle to crank the handle.  I'm now hoping Santa brings me a table top swift. I've always thought they would take up too much space but....

Eventually I started knitting.

And I knit some more.

And yesterday I finished the cowl and even got it on the blocking mats.  As in, actually wet and pinned to the blocking mats.  Not just casually tossed on top of the pile of mats in a futile hope that it would block itself.

The yarn is Madeline Tosh Merino Light (or fingering) in the Sycamore colorway.  I absolutely loved knitting with this yarn.  Besides the yarn being dreamy soft, there was never a dull moment color-wise.    The pattern is, well I'm not sure.  If you search Ravelry, you have to search for Serenity Cowl, but the pattern printout says it's called Cashmere Cowl.  Whatever it's called, it was a fun, fast and easy knit and I will most likely knit it multiple more times.  

Three on Thursday - Christmas Bucket List

I'm joining Carole for Three on Thursday.  

My new reality is setting in and my Christmas expectations are changing.  And honestly, today might not be the best day for writing this post.  I'm in a bit of a snit.  My favorite, handmade Christmas hand towel only survived being on display for about 36 hours before it was ruined and now I'm acting like a three year old who's had their favorite toy taken away.  I'm way over reacting and I know it.  I'm just super frustrated by it.  

But let me stop whining and talk about good things.  My Christmas bucket list for this year.  Many of our family's traditions will not be able to happen this year but to make up for it, we plan to go all out with the decorations.  Thankfully my husband and daughter are seriously into decorating because it's not really my thing.  I LOVE a well and wildly decorated house, but the actual decorating part of it isn't my thing at all.  

Since we are no longer living in a 'neighborhood' and  are now living on the edge of the Chickahominy swamp...

wild mistletoe, photo compliments of commons.wikimedia.com

Item #1 on my Christmas bucket list is to go out, search for and shoot down wild mistletoe.  It's something I always did with my dad every year and I've missed it.  From the time I was five or so up through my early teens, we'd go out into the woods each December and he'd shoot down mistletoe with, I guess, a BB gun. I know nothing about guns.  It looked like a shot gun but only made a popping noise, not a big bang noise so I'm assuming it was a BB gun.  Anyway, I'm planning to force my husband to do this with me.  He's probably not going to be thrilled with the idea but too bad!  It's the number one item on my wish list for this year and he has an arsenal of guns, many inherited from my dad.  We're going mistletoe hunting!

Winterfest, kingsdominion.com

Item #2 seems a little silly but I want to attend Kings Dominion's Winterfest.  I miss working there, I want to see what's new this year and maybe see an old friend or two.  Plus, I have free tickets and will probably never pay for tickets to go in future years.  Besides, Sarah and I had fun last year.  We'll have fun again this year.  I think I'll skip the ice skating though.  Walking around the park will be much more enjoyable without sore skater's legs.  Perhaps I'll take some knitting in case Sarah wants to skate.  I'd be happy to sit and watch her but I think the ice is definitely off limits for me this year.

The Nutcracker, photo courtesy of ticketmaster.com

Item #3 is to attend the Fathom Events viewing of the Nutcracker.  Believe it or not, I've never seen it in it's entirety and Sarah has always wanted to see it performed on stage.  Tickets for our local ballet run $200 to over $600 and we've never been able to afford to go.  I feel like seeing it on the big movie screen is a somewhat okay compromise.

What about you?  What's on your Christmas bucket list this year?

Unplanned and Forsaken

Nothing is going as planned at the moment.  Absolutely nothing.

Saturday night I spent a few hours organizing, rearranging, and generally moving stuff around in my room until I finally had everything situated so that I didn't have to get up and dig through 1,000 boxes and/or drawers to find my stapler, or a paper clip, the proper size knitting needle, or the next ball of yarn in line to be used.  Life was good and I was going to spend Sunday being productive at my desk and with the camera.

But...

Sunday morning, I woke up to water pouring all over my desk, computer, my to-do list notebook, the file cabinet, two knitting bags and of course, my old fashioned Roladex (because a wet computer wasn't bad enough...)  Somehow, the window frame had sprung a leak and the rain was pouring in. 

So now, everything that was on that side of the room, everything salvageable that is, is in the middle of the room, the stuff in the middle of the room is encroaching on my bed on the other side of the room and I'm just praying I don't break another toe tripping over everything.

Colorburst shawl

All of that to say, instead of photographing the hats I finished recently, I threw myself a good pity party, cast on a new shawl and spent the afternoon and evening engrossed in a good book and knitting while dumping the leak bucket every few hours.

I am absolutely loving the shawl.  There's no official pattern, just a triangular shaped piece of fabric forming by increasing on each side and in the center every other row.  A very simple shawl, but the yarn... the yarn is So not simple.  It's gorgeous!  The yarn is Universal Yarn's Colorburst  in the Horizon colorway.  I picked it up at my weekly Sit and Stitch meeting this past week.  (Shhh - don't tell anyone.  I broke my 'no yarn in' rule the very first week.  Yikes!)  The shawl is supposed to be a Christmas gift but... I'm not so sure I'll be able to part with it.  But then.... Maybe I can.  Did you follow the yarn link?  Did you see Earth and Sky?  OMG!  That is SO me!  My LYS wasn't offering that colorway.  I just may have to break the rules again.

The book I had my nose stuck in (Can you have your nose stuck in a book if you're reading on a Kindle?) was Forsaken by J. D. Barker.  Even if I hadn't been throwing myself a pity party and hiding out in my room, I'd have had a hard time putting this one down.  I loved that Stephen King allowed Mr. Barker to borrow a character and a location from one of his own books.  

The whole time I was reading Forsaken, I was wondering if Barker was a pseudonym of Mr. King's.  The writing style wasn't King's but the topic sure was and the familiar location....  Turns out, Mr. King read an early draft and liked the story enough to share according to Google.  Anyway, I loved the book and was quite surprised by the ending.  I did not see that coming!

And now, it's raining again.  I have to go dump my bucket.

Sunday Supper - Lentil Soup

We're welcoming December's cold with some warm, hearty soup.  

Lentil Soup from frenchwomendon'tgetfat.com

We're going to give this lentil soup recipe a try.  I hope I can talk my family into trying it.  Lentils are supposed to be so good for you and the only way I've ever cooked them is in an Indian dish that was way too 'curry-ish'  for the rest of the family.  This recipe seems much more bland for those who don't like steam to come out of their ears while they eat.

And,  I love the creator of this recipe, French Women Don't Get Fat.  I'm taking their word that I can eat this soup and magically become skinny.   :)

What are you having for tonight's Sunday supper?