Hey Its Hanukkah!

Well it was Hanukkah... the last night was Tuesday night, December 11. 8 nights of fried foods, candles and fire, singing and children begging to open more presents. I think I gained 30 pounds eating the sufganiot and latkes my dh cooked all week. He also made some fried pastie things with meat and cheese inside. I wasn't too excited about them, but I was so hungry I ate them and YUM, they were so good. They tasted like a gooey, doughy cheesesteak. YUM I miss cheesesteaks. One of the gifts we got for the kids was a paintable menorah and I think they loved that present the most. The sad, ironic thing about that menorah is that I found it at Hellmart! *ick* I went there to see if they had a chess set, they didn't, but I found some Hanukkah items on clearance, woo hoo! I almost never shop there... maybe once or twice a year at most. I really hate going there... but that is for another day.

So anyway, the paintable menorah, my dd loved it. She loves anything artistic in nature. She is always drawing or painting or coloring. *always*. For the first time this year we also attended the menorah lighting ceremony at the State House. Lots of important men and dignitaries were there. We met up with some friends that we hadn't seen in a while so that was nice to see them.

We also spent the week shuffling Number 1 from technical rehearsal, to dress rehearsal, to performance after performance after performance. She was in the Nutcracker again this year, this time she was not just any old mouse but a *cartwheel* mouse...upgraded from the rollover mouse she was 2 years ago. She made the audition and was cast as a cartwheel mouse last year but... well we wont' talk about last year. Mommy screwed up majorly and we didn't do the Nutcracker. It is kinda strange to be talking about the Nutcrack in a Hanukkah post isn't it? *sigh* that is life in the South.

I've also been trying to finish up the sweater I am knitting for Number 2 and I also recently started and just finished tonight this lovely hat pattern. Its called the Hudson Hat, and my friend Lindsay is a genius. Its a gorgeous easy to knit hat, and I can't wait to give it to my son.
Here is my version:


I just love the colors in the hat and the cute tassels on the ends. I used the following yarns:
darker blue colorway is from The Royal Ewe, and its a type of merino, super soft. The next colorway is Mosaic Moon's Lollipop colorway in their Full Belly Farm Yarn. (Its the same yarn I am using for Number 2s sweater). And the third colorway is a pretty green and blue dyed colorway from my irl friend Lesley. I don't know what kind of yarn it was, some type of merino I think.

Progress of the Lollipop sweater.

Aptly named because no doubt my son, aka "Numero Dos," will inevitably eat a lollipop and get it stuck to this sweater... but that is not why its named the Lollipop sweater. Its named that for the yarn I am using from the lovely Morwenna, from MosaicMoon.com.
See the gorgeous yarn? I just love this picture, my new lens is amazing.

The pattern is Knitting Pure and Simple's Child's Neck Down Pullover #9730. I was a tad nervous because I usually get frustrated reading patterns but this was easy peasy. I am so psyched at the progress. I started it on November, 2007 and I am already almost finished the body, that is record progress for me, considering that I started my knitting career in the summer of 2000, before I was pregnant with my daughter. Back then I knitted a baby afghan for my niece and then decided to start on one for my future unborn child...its almost 2008, my "unborn child" is now 6.5 years old and its STILL not done! Its about halfway done. So anyway, the progress on this sweater is going well, and I hope Numero Dos likes it.

Lollipop November 22 Progress:

Lollipop November 25th progress:

ETA: Yay for my friend Marnie!! She is fabulous! She fixed my header, centered it and told me what was wrong. DOH! its not HTML, its XML, but you clever young folk probably already knew that and were laughing at me.

I just spend an hour trying to fix the silly header up there to be centered. If anyone can tell me how to do that PLMK ASAP. I tried editing the HTML in blogger but I don't know how to make it happen. ugh. I need to go to bed, its 4:30am... my insomnia kicking in I guess.

Surviving Black Friday

So I survived Black Friday and even had a little fun! I first went to Kohl's. I drove over at 4am when the store opened hoping to get in as the crowd had finished entering. Lots of people were still entering but it wasn't too bad. I noticed they had a cart of free coffee and Krispy Kreme doughnuts there, DAMN! I missed it!. I also noticed while walking through the parking lot on my way to the store's entrance a man carrying a very heavy and large looking bed item... Like a featherbed or a down comforter. Hmm I thought to myself, I need to check out that to see if its on sale.

So I go in and head straight to the back by the bedding, where all of the crowds were. People were shuffling around a huge brown cardboard box looking for something. I was relaxed and happy, excited to be in the mix, with all of the excitement and energy. I walked over to a section were not many people were and I saw it, a large, ok it was HUGE feather bed package. I looked at it, checked the size and saw it was a King. cool! I had *just* overheard someone saying there aren't any more kings left... where are the kings someone said... people were obviously PO'd that apparently Kohl's had run out of whatever they wanted that was the King size. So thinking I might have a deal I grabbed it not knowing what the price was or what everyone else was searching for so desperately. Just as I was leaving with this 40 pound thing in my hand, another lady came up and grabbed the other one and said oh is this a king, I said yeah I just checked it. I said to her, how much are these? She replied in a can-you-freakin-believe-this-voice- $34.99. I said HUH!? And I said wow, so I took it, well I drug it all the way over to the knives, fighting people as they stood in the middle of the very small and crowded aisle. Before I walked over to the cutlery section (which was what I was actually there to get) I saw the large cardboard box that everyone was digging in and saw that the actual price for the featherbed was $79.99. Ok, so not as great a deal as $34.99 but still it was originally $169.99 and was priced at $79.99. Still a good deal. So I marched on, dragging this lump of feathers behind me. I got a rush of excitement as I saw the cutlery, hoping that they still had what was advertised as on sale. This set was originally $159.00 I think and it was $50.00 on Black Friday. Woo hoo! I quickly scanned the shelves and phew! plenty of them left, so I grabbed a box, opened it up to get a feel of the knives and was satisfied.

Off to the toy section... ugh wait a minute, what is this... a line all the way from the front of the store to the back?! Holy hell! I thought I better get in line and pay if I was ever going to get to Target for the $84.00 10" DVD player. They opened at 6am, so it being 4:30am I still had plenty of time but still. The lines were a mile long and I was having a mild anxiety attack with flashbacks to last year where I waited in line at Circuit City for close to FIVE hours to pay for my digital camera. Granted I saved about $200.00 so it was totally worth it and I love my new Nikon D50. Oh wait, its not new anymore! Its officially a year old! Happy Birthday baby!! So I was literally about to cry and abandon my lovely score of a featherbed & I realized that the customer service desk in the back was not crowded, so I quickly rushed over and got in line. I waited about 10 minutes and was done. And the best part? The King size featherbed was ideed $34.99!!!!!! woo hooo!! I was thrilled.

So I excused myself through the huge line, with this large featherbed on top of a cart that I scored at check out and all of these ladies were glaring at me, looking and wondering at how I was leaving coming from the *back* of the store. LMAO. It was priceless to see the looks on their faces. I know Kohl's like the back of my hand, I shop there at least 1 time a week and I knew that the CS center was able to do transactions as I've purchased things there myself in the past. I was smirking. LOL. I do wonder how long those poor people waited in line though. *giggle*. So I left and drove to Target.

more... later...

Trying to kill time

So. I am not an experienced web designer although I have taught myself pretty much all of the graphics experience that I have. While waiting for the clock to tick down to 3:30am, the time that I will leave to go to Kohl's and Target for Black Friday, I spent the last few hours playing with a new blog header in Paint Shop Pro. I edited a picture of my current knitting project and added the funky font. I have Photoshop but it scares me. I think I did an ok job, seeing as I've never made a blog header before. I need to edit the html, but I need a webdesign program first to do that in. It will be much easier once I have that. For now, please don't' laugh at my sad attempt at a new "cool" header.

Turkey Day 2007

Well its officially Thanksgiving Day but my eyes have not seen any sleep yet. I was up cleaning the messy house and then decided to bake the pumpkin pie that I wanted to bake for days now. I was so excited because I got organic pumpkin and organic sweetened condensed milk and a recipe for both of those things in a pumpkin pie. So I gather the ingredients, and I decide that I will for the first time in my life and in my baking career, "adjust" the recipe and experiment with the spices.

So I decided it was ok to add some "Pumpkin Spice" spice to the recipe, and also to add some allspice. So I beat the eggs with my fancy new electric hand mixer from Target. This thing rocks! And it was so cheap too! On sale for 20.00! So I mix up the organic eggs, and then in a seperate bowl I mixed up the organic sugar and the spices. I added a dash more ginger than called for (what a rebel!) and I sprinkled on the Pumpkin Pie spice as well as furthering the experiment by adding a sprinkle or two of ground allspice, which the recipe did not call for. So I open this can of pumpkin and I mix everything together, following the directions on the back of the can. The recipe is from the can of pumpkin, its not too fancy schmanzy. But do you notice anything? Read what I wrote about about the pumpkin. . . and then look at the can. . . its not organic! DOH! I had the Libby's can for the recipe and the organic pumpkin can sitting next to it and opened and used the wrong one! *sad* I really need smilies here.

So I just used what I had and it made 2 pies. Which was nice. I almost burned them because I have a habit of putting crap in the oven then going upstairs to surf the 'net or check email and then years later I go down to smell a burned item in the oven. Thankfully the pies were saved. They might be a little dry but they are still yummy looking. I will take a picture tomorrow.
Night y'all!

Stiched Out #1

I just knitted for about 2 hours and my arms and hands are "stitched out", that is where i came up with the corny name, its also a play on being "stressed out." I am 24/7 stressed out!

I actually was planning on writing more but it was 3am and I heard a knocking on a door somewhere that shook my house, and that FREAKED me the hell out. (BTW I have a potty mouth and can and will use it at will, sorry Dad!) So I have not gotten back to post until now and my Number 1 (code name I use for my 6 year old daughter when I am talking about her with dh) is sitting on my lap begging me to come downstairs and help her clean her room. Write more later and detail what this blog is all about.