Some Knitting Commenced

Our eyes may have been bigger than our needles.
This is the container that went with us..

Whilst the ceiling caved in at home, and the kids played in the water, some knitting did commence. Strangely enough, people seem to think it's weird when you knit in public, especially at a water park. I kept wanting to say things like, 'you know, it's not really 85 degrees, outside it's like 5 degrees!' Or things like "I'm knitting a bathing suit. Or even, 'well you know, at least I'm not sitting mindlessly doing nothing, I am creating fiber art!'.

But in any case, we got a few projects completed.

Most of my weekend was spend working on this shawl.

It's about 50% finished??

Rosie came along and we hung out at night and spun this

Sparkle THRILLER!

This hat is what happens when knitting and crochet meet.
Mom in her amazing skills did this in an afternoon. Adorable!!
Do you see the flower on top!?

 

Knitting Schmitting, we're just happy they're home to feed us!

Remember These?

This lovely picture? Of one of my favorite tanks, with my little happy Goldfish swimming around. Yup. Beautiful, right? Lovely. The picture of serene.

See this?! This is what I came home to after Thanksgiving. Now, for all the animal lovers out there, never fear, my little fish are fine thanks to the quick actions of my pet sitter/friend. Who called me and moved them into the tank I told her to. Even my betta who thinks he's a goldfish was fine, and hung out in my cuisinart mixing bowl till I could get home.

See this??? This is what 40 gallons of water can do to a floor when you're out of town.

The wet books, little suckers didn't suck up that much water!

"Do you hear that Fezzik? That is the sound of ultimate suffering. My heart made that sound when the six-fingered man killed my father. The Man in Black makes it now" For everyone who heard the scream last night I apologize.


So, onward I go. The goldfish are split between holding tanks, I set up a 10 gallon for the betta and a buddy, the water is seeped up, and the books are sorted through. Rug is still slightly damp but drying. And now I have to figure out what exactly Imma goin to do..

Do I... A - Buy a new aquarium on CL, thereby getting a great deal.
           B - Buy a new aquarium at the store thereby getting safety.
           C - Buy an acrylic aquarium
           D - Fix my aquariums, and cut down on the number, at the same time moving to California to start a new life on the beach where I wouldn't have to look at snow 6 months out of the year thereby lessening the need for indoor hobbies such as aquaria which have the propensity to flood you house but make it seem less like winter and more like the ocean inside.

See what you get when you leave me with a pet sitter!
Next time it'll be the turtle tank...

Decisions decisions decisions...

Oh, and anyone know how to fix the ceiling??

Our Non Traditional Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always I have felt kind of a weird holiday. Tucked in between candy heaven Halloween and Christmas Carols it just sits with a turkey and Football to hold it's place. Not to mention the negative connotations that the first Thanksgiving bring to mind (you know, Pilgrims eating all the Native American food and then murdering them all...) I have ambivalent feelings toward it over all.

Typically I end up cooking a huge meal, which then gives us way too much food for our family, which while fun is expensive and wasteful. So this year we broke all traditions to start a new one.

We went to the tropics. Ok, not the real tropics, but we did have an 85 degree room with a wave pool. We stayed at the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells, enjoying their waterparks, and being inside in front of a fireplace while watching the ice storm outside. Quite lovely. At least the not going outside part was!

We've been swimming, having family game night every night, knitting, spinning yarn, and having a lovely relaxing time. Not to mention going down a water slide here and there...

And we still had Thanksgiving food, but a smaller meal with just a few dishes and a turkey breast. Still yummy though and enough for leftover sandwiches.

Really, the only negative is that we have to leave on Sunday. But, by having a non-traditional holiday, we may have started a new tradition. Travel over Thanksgiving, experience new things, and explore. Much better than vegging out in front of the couch all day watching football after eating way too much food...

A Day In the Life...

...Of Bella**

Spinning

And Spinning more

 

Checking out packages for Christmas

No photos please, this is my private fishing hole

I SAID no photos!

If you must, this is my best profile

What yarn? I don't see yarn..

**A lawsuit is currently pending Bella V Threadtwist regarding the rights to distribute Bella's photos. Really, I think if I buy the food, I own the images. Bella disagrees.

A Day in The Life..

..Of Mercury**

Cat Nap

Cat Nap

Cat Nap

Cat Nap

Cat Nap

Bath Time

Cat Nap

Cat Nap

Cat Nap

Cat Nap

Quick Bath

Back to Nap

More Nap

 **Due to space and time constraints some naps have been edited out of the above posting.

A Day in the Life

Of Neptune**

Favorite Feather toy

Where did it go??!

Impeding piano practice

Tired out

He really thinks he's a dog

Or a person

**To protect the innocent certain activities involving knocked over water glasses, broken knick knacks, biting, hissing, and misc. misbehaviors have been edited from the above scenes.

One of Those Days - Weeks - Months - Lives...

My job sucks when I'm sick. You're supposed to be happy, enthusiastic, and you know talk to people. All the while not coughing up a lung, acting sick, or looking sick. All of y'all who work desk jobs have no idea how difficult it is to run around all day when all you want to do is curl up and sleep. Admit it. At a desk job, you can secretly sip Dayquil with your coffee and no one's the wiser. You can be in 'meetings' all day, or even possibly take a day of PTO. Us restaurant slaves, Ha! We work. We work hard, and we pretend we're not sick.

The first step of course is to mask the symptoms. The coughing up a lung thing can be accomplished with copious amounts of cold medicine. However, cold medicine has a strange effect on me. It makes me loopy, not tired, but loopy. Strangely forgetful, and basically an airhead. That's a great thing when you're running a huge restaurant with 20 employees there. Who by the end of the night think you're nuts. I have no idea why. It couldn't possibly be because I continuously forgot who I was talking to, or because I kept wandering into the keg cooler in search of cleaning chemicals, or because when asked simple questions I stared at them and said, 'what did you just ask me again?'. Or the fact I paid one of them to go get me more cold medicine. This is probably not as weird as the night I jumped around the restaurant using my Shape Up shoes like a pogo stick to stay awake while managing. That actually was without cold medicine, though so it really doesn't apply to this story, or day.

Of course they'll think I'm even more nuts tomorrow when I show up at the opening with the keys that are supposed to stay in the restaurant at all times. Somehow they rode home in my pocket. It's been one of those days.

Am I crazy?

Every year, for the past 3 years we have adopted a family for Christmas. We cut down drastically on how much we spend on each other, and instead bring some joy to someone who has a lot less. This year, we've adopted 4 teenage boys.

Yesterday their lists came in the mail, and like always I was surprised by the gift suggestions, clothes, winter clothing, and coats feature heavily.

These are kids who are in foster care, in group homes, or in severely poverty stricken families. They are fighting to stay afloat in the world.

So is it crazy to think about knitting each one a hat and scarf? Can I get this done in time? I only have about 3 weeks. Everyone loves a challenge but this is a biggie. That's 4 scarves, 4 hats, plus other holiday shopping to do. Not to mention that nasty little thing called work. And I have to shop for yarn first, because I think they should be superwash.

Oh well, at least I'm not considering knitting them all sweaters - at least not seriously. I don't think..

Snowed In

It actually has nothing to do with the snow that I was home all weekend. That was my big plan anyway, never leave the house, never get dressed, stay home all weekend. It worked. The snow was just an added excuse to the thing.

I did make stew, I made rice pudding with brown rice which turned out amazing, and I experimented with English Toffee in preparation for Christmas candy making.

I ate all 3 items to excess.

I spun 2 skeins of yarn and plied a 3rd.

Suffolk Yarn, so pretty but I have no idea what it's destined to be.

 

Handspun Art Batt

I finished a scarf and did 1.5 drop stitched scarves. I like this, pretty, fun, and I love the first one I did out of Araucana yarn. The 2nd I'm doing out of Cascade Pastaza in Forest, I love the look of this yarn, it's partially llama but I don't thoroughly enjoy knitting it. I have an amazingly cute hat made out of it though and the scarf will match.

Drop Stitch Araucana Scarf

Cabled Handspun scarf Merino/angora

Cascade drop stitch

Now it's the start of another week, and next week is Thanksgiving how did that happen?!