Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Two on Tuesday

I'm even on time this week!


Things I'm happy for this week:


  1. watching new episodes of Glee with the girls
  2. crocheting for pleasure (i.e. come January when Christmas gifts are done, and I'm actually in the mood to crochet again, and I only crochet because I'm in the mood and it's relaxing.)
If you couldn't guess by #2 I'm way behind schedule on all things Christmas and working on gifts is starting to feel like a job worse than the one I spend 40 hours a week at in a suit!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Weekend Recap

What a busy weekend of Christmas preparations!  Never enough hours in the day to get it all done - I have definitely starting trimming the last of what I realistically think I'll be able to complete in the next 9-10 days until we're home for Christmas!

Saturday evening I spent decorating Christmas cookies with friends.  Here are the highlights of 2 hours of work and lots of wine :o)

From L to R: Smurf, Ron Weasley, Indiana (blue in '08 and representing the cities of my Indiana friends that evening), Cookie Monster and Abominable Snowman

My little Ron Weasley with his Gryffindor scarf was my best work of the night

Becca's Cookie Monster was my all time favorite of the night!

Sorry for the blurry cell phone pictures - I blame a combination of cropping the pictures and multiple glasses of wine!

After a Sunday filled with Christmas shopping, grocery shopping and party prep for next weekend, I spent about 4 hours at my sewing machine last night

We have loads of pillows on our couch for lounging and napping.  I love all the Christmas fabric at JoAnns each year!  I only need so many pairs of pajama pants and I don't quilt so pillow cases for the Christmas season seemed like the perfect excuse to buy a yard of each of these adorable prints!

Up close:
They worked just perfectly while crashing on the couch watching ABC family Christmas movies last night!

These shorts are actually for me (most of my Christmas sewing this year is catching up on things I wanted to make for myself last year but ran out of time for!)


I still have 4 pairs of pants to sew this week......1 is for Mom, 3 are for me.  I already decided last night that the flannel pants to match these shorts will likely not be made until January.  

Just trying to be realistic.  I have no problems with wearing Holly print year round :-)

Too tired to proof read today so I apologize in advance for mistakes I made in my quick typing of this update!



Saturday, December 10, 2011

Progress!

Sorry for the mulitple posts today, but I've started to notice that if I don't take a picture and post about it right away, I totally forget!

I just finished this up and it's so cute that I just had to share!  I wish I hasn't sewn the hat on quite so tight and his face is a little off center but this might have made the top of my list for the cutest things I've ever made!

Looking forward to this one being opened on Christmas morning!

Thanks again Debi for the book and your creative pattern :-)

I just turned the lights on the tree to get me in the spirit so I wanted to share another ornament that I love


Tinkerbell also came from WDW in 2010 after our engagement.  I really love red ornaments on the tree (I feel like green "matches" too much...weird I know)

Other holiday traditions - a family birthday party for myself and my Grannie hosted by my mom where she makes her amazing lasagna for the only time each year....just got a text from mom this morning asking if we could do the party on the 23rd!  So excited that we're doing this, I'd sort of forgotten about it given the short trip home we're making this year.  I love having these yearly dinners/traditions


Homemade Angel Food Cake (made by Grannie)
Making a wish - 2010

2 Weekends til Christmas

already?!?!  that's all I've got left to get ready for Christmas - I just can't believe it!  I remember back in October when I was working so hard to stay ahead of things this year and now I feel like I'm still waiting for Thanksgiving to roll around!  I've talked with my mom about this and we agree that this largely has to do with how unseasonably warm it's been this fall/early winter!  They are FINALLY getting snow up in WNY but down here it's just barely brisk enough for me to feel truly in the Christmas spirit!  I'm just one of those girls who needs snow to have it feel like Christmas!

Pretty every day from now until the 21st I have a list of what I've got to accomplish to be ready.  Everything must be packed by the night of the 21st as we leave on the 22nd after work for home.

Lots to do today - starting out with my coffee and getting some detailed work done on some crochet projects that will be much easier when it's daylight.  Then I've got to finish picking up and rearranging furniture from the tree's arrival last Sunday before spending as many hours as possible sewing at my dining room table.  Tonight it's all about making and decorating Christmas cookies with the girls next door!  I'll also be making my shopping list tonight to stock up on the supplies I'll need to start my cookie making next week.

Happy Saturday everyone - hope that you find yours as productive as I'm planning/hoping mine to be!!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

WIP Wednesday

It's been forever since I've talked about a WIP!

The busiest time of the year seems like an appropriate time for 2 posts in one day - there's been a lot of crocheting and craftiness these days :-)


This is part of the biggest Christmas gift that I still have left to finish (and am likely highly delusional to think it'll happen) by Christmas!

Guess if I got off my computer I'd get more done right?


<br /> <a href="http://crookedyarn.com/" target="_top"> <img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/Ldyjarhead/Crochet/WIPWed.jpg" /> </a>

Two on Tuesday

1.  I'm a day late - whoops
2.  I'm at home so I don't have Debi's picture

So I'm doing pictures of my (day late) Two on Tuesday!

Coming home to a glass of wine (I painted these ceramic penguins about 5 years ago.  Another "crafty" that I grew up doing....)

Our Christmas Tree!

Speaking of our Christmas tree, we decorated it last night, and thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite ornaments over the next couple of weeks:


We got Mickey & Minnie in Disney back in 2010 the night we got engaged 10.9.10

Thursday, December 1, 2011

November ramblings


Happy December first everyone!  I woke up to sunny skies here in MD but temps that finally required me to get out a winter coat – such a nice start to my birthday month!!!

Figured that now is as good a time as any to do a quick recap of projects I’ve been working on…at least the ones I can share!

This beautiful cowl was a birthday gift to my Mother in-Law.  Jon’s parents did a bit of a “drive by” stop in MD on their way home from Myrtle Beach and had dinner with us the night of the 20th.  Her birthday had just passed earlier that week so I’d held onto her gift to give her in person.  I loved it so much that I took many pictures before wrapping – I just LOVE the colors in the yarn




The pattern is a “V-stitch” with my lighted K hook, and I chained on 40 to begin.  I used 2 full skeins of THIS yarn and it makes a cowl that wraps around your next twice and fits snuggly.  I would suggest a 3rd skein if you want it longer (the dye lots very a great deal with this line of yarn, so be sure to get enough the first time!)

I loved the finished product so much that I’ve been back to AC Moore to scope out my other color options (since purchasing in Marble at AC Moore, I happened to be in the Walmart in WNY the day before Thanksgiving and this yarn sells at almost $2 LESS a skein that at AC Moore full price!!!  Walmart had more colors in stock too, wish I’d known this before buying and starting to use what I already had.  Please learn from my unfortunate mistake (that comes from not having a local Walmart to browse yarn at!)



I wanted this to go with my red pea coat that I got for Christmas last year.  There is something so festive about a red pea coat but I seem to only enjoy it through about New Years.  This means I didn’t get too much use out of it after receiving on Christmas Day last year so I’ve been looking forward to colder weather in order to wear everyday!
I literally whip stitched this together this morning so I could wear it today for the first of our winter weather – I love it!

As I’ve mentioned before, we spent Thanksgiving in Michigan – Ann Arbor area to be exact and I was looking forward to heading north and having some cooler weather!!  I made these in anticipation of chilly weather while walking the U of M campus.  On Friday it was 65 degrees and sunny in Ann Arbor!  I brought the gloves but wore them little.  Pretty happy I didn’t race to finish the above gray cowl to weather too since I left my pea coat at home and wore my North Face all weekend.


They match the cowl perfectly and both work great with my now famous pea coat BUT I’ll be remaking the gloves if I can find the time.  I thought I was going to love them longer to keep my forearms warm.  Turns out I was wrong.  This extra length means I can’t wear them if I have bracelets on and when I got to work this morning, the 4” cuff of my cotton sweater was wrinkled and crinkly from being “squished” during my commute.  A co-worker has already asked to have them if I remake new ones.  Bold yes, but she told me that she cut a pair of tube socks for fingerless gloves, I figure it’s the least I can do to hand these off to someone in need like that!

What else…..OH YES!  In my haze of sickness when I got home on Tuesday night I had the BESTpackage in the mail!  Look at all the fun I’ll be having thanks to Debi’s giveaway!!


Had fun on Tuesday night flipping through the pages of the book getting new ideas of projects that I didn’t need to start right away.  Of course, I started one last night while watching the NYC tree lighting!  Debi I’m sure you can already guess what this is, and I’ve gotta tell you – my Mom is gonna LOVE it!


I’ve finally kicking the last of my flu bug so while tonight will be bedding and towel laundry, and most of this weekend will be spent unpacking from Thanksgiving, putting away the Thanksgiving decorations and decorating for Christmas (very excited about getting our tree on Sunday!  We’re a week late thanks to the flu).  It’s December first though so the crocheting really needs to kick into turbo gear if I’m ever going to get everything done in time! 

Yes, I say this every year.  I tell myself it’ll be different next year.  I try to start earlier next week, but here I am once more already thinking “how will I ever get it all done in time?!?”