my new (virtual) kitty

you may remember in a previous post i had a picture of my brother's boxer puppy named tyson, and mentioned how my other brother has a boxer named frasier. well, meet my virtual kitty named ali. yup. i'm keeping with the boxer theme, only ali is a kitty instead of a puppy. if i ever get around to adoping a real kitty, i'll name him ali too.

yeah, i gotta be a lil' different.

adopt your own virtual pet!

perfect christmas in central ohio

my family has a tradition of opening gifts at midnight, which is great cuz it allows us all to sleep in on christmas day. we always have a fun time. every year the designated "santa" (this year it was momma) is the one that hands out the gifts one-by-one and we all wait to see what everyone got.

my grandmother loved the scarf i made for her out of disco yarn (THANKS MARY!!). when my brother took a picture of her wearing it, the flash on the camera really made the scarf sparkle. i made 6 dishcloths for my mom and she said they were so pretty she didn't want to use them. dad and brothers loved the fudge and chocolate chip cookies ... i guess the way to a man's heart really is through his stomach! my dad had read my blog though, so he knew what they were getting. never occurred to me that he'd actually read it!

tomorrow i'm going to brave the after-christmas madness to satisfy my need for a food processor, a new hand mixer (the one i have is older than me and really ready for the trash) and a set of cooling racks. funny how i never really realize how handy those things are until i'm in the middle of a baking frenzy. i'm planning to make chocolate chip cookies for my honey who will be here on friday (YAY!!), and i am also itching to use the cookie press that i bought last year and only used once. found an easy recipe in martha stewart's "everyday food" magazine for butter cookies that will be perfect for it. uh, yeah, like i really needed another magazine. but it's martha STEWART and well, i can't very well practice to be the Black Martha Stewart unless i read the magazines, right?

other than that today has been all about knitting and watching those law & order: SVU episodes from the marathon last sunday (or was it the sunday before last?). i recorded them and decided to watch them during this lovely week-long vacation. it's cool and rainy outside and a quiet sunday at home is just what santa ordered...it's my christmas gift to myself (well that and those 2 lovely knitting books i just HAD to buy!).

enjoy what's left of this christmas day!

my solution to christmas knitting

okay so i was stressing out about how i was gonna get stuff knitted for everyone on my list and i came up with a solution. yesterday when i finished my SIL's scarf, i decided to STOP knitting gifts. turns out that i already knitted for the women (mom, grandmother, SIL), and i was baking cookies/fudge for the men (dad, brothers). so next year, i'll switch and knit for the guys, bake for the gals. i'm baking cookies now (well, sorta), and can knit for me in 7-minute blocks of time while cookies are in the oven. i am working on my clapotis scarf with noro...lovely stuff. also want to swatch (hell's frozen over, i tell ya!) for a sweater i'm going to start for myself next week. it's the zippered jacket from last winter's vogue knitting mag. it will be my first sweater and i can't wait!

well back to baking... it's a labor of love for sure, but i'm having a great time.

merry christmas eve!!

hell's frozen over -- i made a decision

okay, so it became crystal clear to me this morning what "santa" will bring to my dad and teenage brothers ... FOOD!!! first of all, dad loves chocolate so i may make him his very own batch of fudge, or if i'm feeling particularly "martha stewart-ish" i'll bake him a pumpkin pie (his favorite). my brothers, i think their #1 favorite activity (aside from sleeping) is eating. so i'll whip up a batch of cookies for each of them. easy, peasy! i've always heard that the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach. i already know that these 3 blokes love me. but cooking for people who love eating your food, well that's like giving myself a christmas gift, too. so everyone's happy!

the knitting plan for tonight is to finish the scarf for my SIL. but during my lunch hour (which is right now), i will start the matching hat. yeah, that sounds like a plan, stan.

ciao!

in a knitting frenzy

um, yeah. so, there are like 13 days until christmas and who's not finished with her knitting? me. as usual. i'd have finished the "ribbed for her pleasure" scarf for my SIL except she was at my house this evening and i couldn't very well knit it in front of her, right? i was planning to finish that and start a matching hat. nor could i start the finger puppets for my nephew cuz he was here too. so instead i knitted several inches on the chained hearts scarf that wants to belong to my grandmother. remind me again why i shouldn't knit lace when i'm watching my favorite tv shows!! it occurred to me that i still need gifts for my 2 teenage brothers, my dad and my other brother. i did figure out what to get for the significant other though. what is it, you ask? Why, it's Warm Spirit, of course!! i love love love this stuff, and i know he will too. next time he visits, i'll have to steal one of his shirts so i can sleep with it until we see each other again. i know, right? mz has gone and gotten all lovey dovey. i swear that is so not my style but i can't HELP it!!

anyway, back to the knitting stuff. here's a list of what's left for my slave knitting monkeys, i mean, ME to knit/finish knitting before christmas:

ribbed for her pleasure scarf

ribbed for her pleasure hat

chained hearts scarf

finger puppets

something for DB24 (dear brother, age 24)

something for DB17

something for DB15

something for Dad

i wanna sleep now, but why sleep when there's knittin to be done?!!