Kiss My Knits!

Last night I finally had some of that cocoa concoction with the peppermint schnapps. My heart was racing like a hummingbird’s. Note to self: schnapps are sweet. Next time, cut back on sugar in the cocoa.

Today, I find there’s a winter storm advisory for tonight. Snow from midnight to three, but then sleet and freezing rain.

Ack! Everyone knows that drinking cocoa is how you appease the snow gods. If you want snow, drink cocoa! Did the addition of demon alcohol anger them? I’m sorry, snow gods! I didn’t mean it!

All I know is that when I go to the grocery store today, I’m getting mini marshmallows so I can make traditional hot chocolate tonight. Maybe it’s not too late!

We’ve got chicken and schnapps!

HOLY CRAP. It’s a post-Christmas miracle! This is the proposal from my kid’s music teacher. She was asking for enough xylophones for her music room for all the students to use in a given class period. The Browncoats and friends raised about $800 smackers for that proposal, out of a needed $4000+. I genuinely thought there was absolutely no way the proposal would be funded. But there it sits, only $95 short of its goal with only nine days left to go.

WHAT HAPPENED? Did Bill Gates take up the marimba? Did the ghost of Lionel Hampton smile down upon Charlotte? Did some eccentric billionaire watch Em’s production of the Music Man and remember the school in his will?

I have no idea… but wow. Just wow.

The good: Shedir is done! So that’s one more project off the list of things I owe people. It turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. It took about 1.1 balls of Rowan Calmer, the nicest artificial fiber you’ll ever work with. This one went much faster than the first one I made. I keep thinking this cable pattern would look great on a baby sweater or on a pair of socks.

(P.S. – Turtlegirl76, I was right. There’s an error on row 63 of the pattern. It is indeed missing an asterisk. Thanks for checking for me!



The bad: I knocked out some stitch marker parts, and apparently it’s not the temperature that makes them crack, it’s the spray varnish I favor. These were sprayed in my kitchen with the home thermostat set to 70 degrees (I was taking no chances). Crack city! That’s unfortunate, because it’s much quicker to spray them than to brush them. So I suppose I need to figure out whether it’s this particular substance that causes them to crack, or the act of spraying them at all. These seem solid enough, so I can probably still use them, after I test them to be sure they’re okay.

The ugly: Look at what my camera is doing! It’s been doing this for a while, but I thought maybe it was an issue with having a low battery. No such luck; the battery was fine when this picture was taken. I have to sit patiently and wait for it to clear and then try to snap my picture before it gets all pink and wiggly again. As you can see, I failed in the picture to the right.

We’ve had our little Canon Elph SD100 for several years now and it’s always worked well. Hopefully it’ll hang in there a little longer and we can use it until it doesn’t run anymore. Just like we do our cars!

The Awesome? My dad and his friend Ellyn. After my mini-freakout the other day, they volunteered to come over and watch Emily tonight so that Steve and I could go out. Right now we’re thinking we’ll go see Juno, depending on when showtimes are. Really, though, just getting out to go anywhere is a blessing. Thanks so much, Dad and Ellyn!

Time to go out and run all the errands that keep the household running semi-smoothly. Later, y’all!

ETA: Serenity earrings, actual size. They’re for a teenager. 🙂

At left: pumpkin pancakes make things better.

At right: “Only takes one ball of yarn” my eye.

Blah. I’m just in a mood.

The week in mail.

109 words

But I’ll bet I could do better.

So I’m trying to do better about getting more sleep, which was completely stymied last night when I wasn’t able to get out to knitting night until 9pm, then had to stop by the store on the way home, then had to answer some Jayne hat mail that stacked up while I was in Richmond Tuesday and catching up on Wednesday. So I turned to a copy of Prevention magazine I had on hand (thanks for the subscription, Mom!) that had tips for waking up refreshed. I quote,

Note good things to come
Before going to bed, put a sticky note on your alarm clock reminding you of something fun or exciting that’s happening the next day. “Because of hormonal shifts that occur while we’re asleep, the majority of us wake up feeling a bit down or in a so-so mood,” says Dana Lightman, PhD, a behavioral psychologist in Abington, PA. “Remembering that you’re having lunch with a friend or that your favorite TV show will be on that night gives you a quick lift.”

Okay, let’s try that! You all know what an optimist I am, how I try to find the silver lining in any situation. So I got a sticky pad and a pen and thought for a moment.

And thought. And thought. And thought.

I couldn’t come up with a single exciting or fun thing that I had going on today. Nothing. Unbelievable. That made me feel worse than I did before I started this whole exercise.

So help me out, guys. I want to live vicariously. What’s something fun or happy that YOU have going on today?

In the meantime, I’m off to run errands and then pack up a hat and six kits.