by Kat | Dec 5, 2007 | General
Hello everyone! We got some snow last night and it is so beautiful outside this morning! The sun is shining and the world is all sparkly white!
Do you remember the first days of snow – especially when you were a child? The anxious anticipation you felt as you wished for snow to fall – mostly because you wanted a “snow day” from school, but you were so eager for that first snow.
What are you anticipating this Advent season? Are you waiting for something?
My holiday decorations are going up nicely – I hope to have my tree up tonight. I have an artificial tree that we put up downstairs – the cats had a field day with it, let me tell you. I went downstairs in the morning and it was all in pieces all over the floor.
After a few expletives and some shaking of my fists at the cats – I gathered up the branches and began to put the tree back together. They have left it alone since then. This is, of course, without lights and ornaments. I am going to try the lights today and see how that fares over night.
They seem to feed off each other in the mischief that they get into!
And, the looks of innocence on their faces in the morning is most comical!
Well, decorations are calling – I better get at it. I will leave you all with a link I found on Ravelry this morning.
Knitter’s Advent Calendar
Enjoy!
by Kat | Dec 4, 2007 | General
…or how I got my Christmas mojo back!
Hello everyone! How is your December opening up? Are you feeling some anticipation for the arrival of Christmas? Or, are you stressed to the maximum and overwhelmed by the tasks you have to complete before December 25th?
I confess, I was feeling decidely un-Christmasy. My Christmas mojo was gone. With how I was feeling, there was not even going to be a “Charlie Brown” Christmas here…
I worked on my Christmas cards, but no spark of enthusiasm appeared. As you can see, they are almost finished – I need to put ribbon on the remainder – along with some words of Christmas wisdom…
But… lest you fear that the Grinch will be successful in stealing Christmas from me….
One of Santa’s little elves helped me find my mojo! Sunday afternoon, Marie gifted me with pure inspiration!
So, Christmas is arriving on my doorstep – and I have opened the door wide and welcomed it in!
Without further adieu, I bring you my new Christmas Mojo!
We have the North Pole all set – aptly set upon the top of my antique step-back cupboard. This is pure Marie genius. I am ashamed to say that in all the years I have lived here in my condo – I have never set up Santa’s village. In my home, there was a “perfect place” for this – on top of the mantle. No mantle here in the condo – and evidently, no mojo either!
Next up – Dicken’s Village – set up in my kitchen on my antique sideboard! Again, this is the first time this has been out and set up since 1999 when I moved into this condo. Oh, the houses have sat as silent sentinels on top of the amoire that houses the television. But, they were unlit and had no people to bring them Christmas cheer! Now, Scrooge has been blessed with Christmas wonder and he shouts out – “Merry Christmas” to my home!
My brain has been whirling away with dozens of inspired ideas. As I worked away yesterday, Christmas music filling the air, I began to feel some of the “Advent Anticipation” in my preparations. So, as I work today to continue to get my home ready for Christmas – I will also be working on getting my heart ready for it as well.
I am off to work on more – and there is some knitting calling my name as well.
Have a blessed day everyone!
by Kat | Dec 3, 2007 | General
Hello everyone – How was your weekend?? Mine was just wonderful! On Saturday, Blogless Mary and I headed over to see Beth for her Anniversary Celebration.
It was a nice day for a drive – the sun was out and the road were clear!! And I had some Spinning Stash Enhancement to do!
Did you all know that yarn stash and spinning stash are 2 different things???
So, Beth had some great fibers on sale – I picked up some Shetland for a great price. I have not yet spun with Shetland – and I love the natural color of this!
Beth had a coupon for those who receive her email newsletter – so, I picked up some Llama roving too!
I wish you all could feel this – it is so soft and has great loft. I have only spun a wee bit of Llama that was a gift from Shannah, who I met at the class I took last month at Beth’s. I wanted to try my hand at the Llama again.
I also got this pound of Merino – the color is just fantastic. What is not to love about Merino!!
On Friday my package from Nordic Fiber Arts had arrived. I have to tell you all, if you have not shopped at her online shop – you need to. The service was outstanding! I cast on for the December Lights Tam from IK Holiday issue on Sunday morning and this is just flying along. Nordic Fiber Arts has kits available for this – you could get this done before Christmas. I am telling you all – I will be buying more from them!!
Mary and I stopped at my all time favorite yarn shop after we left Beth’s – Threadbear! They were having a HUGE sale! I was very restrained, I just picked up a skein of sock yarn and the needles I needed to knit December Lights. The prices at Threadbear cannot be beaten, and the stock of yarn is just amazing. Mary and I are taking a class there next Saturday!! So, we will be spending the entire day there!!
We arrived back in Holland just as the storm was approaching. Mary came over for some dinner and shortly the freezing rain started – we had a mini-slumber party and sat up knitting and talking until late!!
Sunday afternoon Ann and her husband picked me up and we headed to Marie’s for her Holiday Open House. Wow, the house was just gorgeous! Marie has an amazing talent for decorating. Great company, delicious food, and the amazing beauty of the decorations were just the icing on the cake of my wonderful weekend! Marie has definately inspired me to kick up my Christmas decorating a notch!
Lest you all think the weekend was without flaws – there were some dissappointments as well. And, while I try not to dwell on things negative – suffice it to say that I learned some things that were very upsetting this weekend. When you discover that you have been taken advantage of in a very blatant way, it changes how you look at everything. I can assure you that I won’t be quite so trusting in the future.
But, as I shared with Mary this morning – we need to look for the blessings in our lives rather than wait for them to ‘jump up and hit us in the face’.
So, I am heading off to bring Christmas cheer to my humble home – and I am so thankful for Marie’s amazing inspiration!!
Have a great day everyone!
by Kat | Dec 1, 2007 | General
Hello Everyone!
Ahhhhhhhhhhh! The weekend is here!
Last night I had a wonderful evening with Ann and Blogless-Mary, who is now a happy new member of Ravelry, she is “MarysFiberFun” so stop over and say hello to her! She still is blogless, but I am working on that!!
Well, last night we all got together and worked on our Christmas cards! I cooked some dinner for us all – a simple meal of steaks, oven fries, and sweet corn. Mary is house sitting for a friend and we went out to a truly gorgeous home near the lake shore. I also brought a few Christmas CD’s and before we knew it, it was after 11PM!
This morning Mary and I are heading over to see that Temptress Beth in Howell for her 1 year anniversary! She has requested the gift of our presence and, while my house is screaming at me to get some housework done, I am weak!! Plus, there will be prizes treats food in Howell. (Okay, Beth – I confess – I want to increase my odds of winning) Anyway, if you are in the Howell area – stop by and see Beth’s shop! It is really a fun place to be!
I have seen “Pay it Forward” on a few blogs over the past few days and I am a sucker for random acts of kindness. Somedays it seems like a thing of the past – so I saw an opportunity to sign up at Lisa’s and sign up I did!
So, here is the “Pay it Forward” pledge:
I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
Also, it’s implicit that all participants have a blog (sorry, blogfree readers) since the reason behind this is to pay it forward through your own blog. Of course, if I don’t get three people that I can send a gift too, I will promise to pay it forward in my community.
So, you can either stop over to Lisa’s blog and sign up with her or you can sign up here! Join me in Paying it Forward!
Okay, gentle readers, have a great weekend!
by Kat | Nov 30, 2007 | General
Hello Everyone!
November is finished and December is all we have left in 2007.
I don’t know about you but, to me, that hardly seems possible.
I need to get some Christmas decorations up – seriously, I need to crank it up a notch.
I also need to put my family room back together – they just finished the “clean up” from the water down there – I had my carpets cleaned on Wednesday.
I am a tad bit concerned about trees and cats. Okay, maybe more than a tad bit concerned!
I was going to post a photo of my carolers on my coffee table this morning – but, there was altogether too much interest from Noel and Maddie in being right in the midst of things. I have a full day scheduled out of the house and common sense told me that there needs to be some cat supervision!!
Noel did not climb the tree last year at all – okay, she was rather small. Her favorite thing was to sleep under the tree, hiding amongst the presents.
I have a sinking feeling that she won’t be sleeping as much this year.
If any of you have any tried and true “cat proofing” techniques leave me a comment!!
On to something more interesting… like, perhaps, knitting!
Christmas knitting is rolling right along. I got the heel turned last night on daughter #1’s sock. Looking good! I got the pattern figured out as well – well, the pattern in my head figured out – that is to say! My “aha” knitting moment recently – I am more than capable of knitting socks without a pattern!!! Okay – they are basic socks – and the basic sock recipe is an easy one to learn – but I have taken the basic sock and added some of my own unique twists to the pattern. Thus, my new desire is to get some “stitch dictionaries” so I can expand my stitch knowledge! I am putting these on my “wish list” for my children for Christmas!
I showed off Anne Hanson’s “Snow on Cedars” Mitts at knitting last night – I absolutely love this pattern. I am knitting a pair for my momma for Christmas as well. I picked up some lovely INEXPENSIVE yarn from Friends of Wool – a great shade of heathered grey. I have the pattern down almost to memory, and they are such a quick knit!
Oh… and I was at Kim’s website this morning and I was so weak!! I could not resist the lure buzz of the bees and before I knew it, this kit was on order! Now, here is what I call some good karma – Kim and Anne Hanson have teamed up to create a truly gorgeous sock. So, after my Christmas knitting is completed I shall soon be knitting me some french perfection for my feet! I am sure that I will be in a “let them eat cake” mood sporting my Marie Antoinette Bee Socks!
Okay, I better get moving on my day – have a great Friday everyone!!
