off to Hershey

but I want to share this site of creative christmas ads.... I love this type of thing that shows intelligence and creativity.
This one is my favorite

Later dudes!

a knitting christmas

So my family secret pal gave me Barbara Walker's 2nd treasury of knitting book, a gift certificate to a LYS in her haunts and a beautiful hand quilted table runner. My santa at home gave me 3 troll beads for my bracelet a shee tape measure and sheep scissor guard, needle sizers (that's what I asked for), a beautiful wood shawl pin and cat bordhi alphabet stitch markers... :-D

We had a lovely visit with the fam yesterday, beautiful church service... home by 3 AM in bed by 4:30 AM kids had us up at 7 AM.

Today friends and their kids came for dinner... they brought lots to eat and we shared great company, food and drink for many hours... always such a pleasure... oh what fun! really I love it!

lucky lucky girl I am..

the most priceless part of the day was DS1 telling me that he was so happy and it was the best Christmas ever. *that* makes it all worthwhile!

feliz navidad

take a moment to cherish your family and holiday.... be thankful, enjoy their company, eat well and rest



...picture credit

green for Christmas

one of the bus drivers in my school district teased me a while back that I should make her a scarf cuz her daughter absconded hers (was fun fur) and she likes green... a no nonsense kind of girl, whom I adore!
I present to you cowl 10

Pattern: simple fitted cowl by Leona Wiora
Yarn: Knitting Fever Cashmere Luxury Aran
Color: Green
Needle: US6 US8
Recipient: Roxie... bus 1


The cool part about this pattern is you can wear it over your ears instead if you like like this.

One more to make... I think it'll be the cha cha pattern on ravelry

so one of my internet friends completely surprised me yesterday. She lives in England (yes you Lesley) and she ordered a gift from the states and they sent it directly to me. It came with this lovely Christmas card and a little sock blocker key ring. Along with a pattern for a mini sock to make to go on the blocker. It's so darn cute. I LOVE it... so much. it came from knitcellaneous. I'm going to visit there to see what other goodies there are!

how did I miss this?

Forgot to post this cowl.....

Pattern: Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease
Color: aran
Needle: US8
Recipient: Pam at daycare


This has been done for over a month... strange that I forgot to post it!

#9

is complete

Pattern: Basalt by Brittany Wilson
Yarn: recycled merino from Express sweater
Colorway: Blue waves
Needle: US 11
Recipient: tell you later
I made this much taller than the pattern calls for because it's much looser knit and I wanted it to fold over on itself. The pattern is super easy to memorize and completely reversible... I'd make this one again!
I hope the recipient likes it as much as I do... XD

snow!

and more to come :-)

Today was tree day. It was slim pickins on the farm. I'll make a mental note to go earlier next year......Then shopping for those last minute gifts. That's when the snow started. Have to say that the Jetta does well in the snow. Finally, home to put the lights on and start the decorations... aba oversaw it for the most part. I was careful with the glass ornaments. I need to put them away this year. Just so I know where everything is next year! And it's time to clean out as well!

We went to what was supposed to be a party tonight .They had cancelled the party because of the weather so it was just us, the hosts and another friend... really fun though. We love you Karen! Thank you so much for another GREAT evening!

The neighbor is partying again and I'm now working on Cobalt..... cowl number #9... have another order for chickadee in the same colorway. That will await until just after the holidays however.

Waiting on the call about church in the morning. They should have more snow than we do. South of us was hit much harder.

dinner dance

at Moravian... what fun... gotta love those ladies that work in the Music Dept... including Blair ;-)
Thank you all for a wonderful evening.
Good food
Good laughs
Good company!

The neighbor is having a wild party.. guess I'll be up most of the night!

another cowl

Pattern: Chickadee cowl by Kristen Kapur
Yarn: Dazzle by Tahki
Color: 002 tan and purple varigated
Needle: US10

Modifications: I didn't stop at the suggested 4 inches... I kept going until the skein was almost gone... I could have gone one more round, but.... I didn't want to run out during binding off. so..........

Off to DD's chorus concert. She's playing piano in the beginning as well. At least I get to see this one.

ah

my school chorus program is tmrw... Pictures of December... 10 songs and they're gonna be so good!

So today some of my cherubs came down during their recess and lunch and helped make garland for the tree. Packing peanuts.. it really does look like popcorn garland from far away. I'll take pictures tmrw. I wanted something on the cheap... so I got some from some fellow freecyclers... :-D YAY
The idea came to me while I was teaching one morning. Out of the blue... strange! But that's so much like me.

I wish I had more crafty news... or even more news but i'm dry!

my nephew rocks

he's such a great guy.. between his help and the help of a former student, I am going to look totally geek Tuesday night at my Christmas program. They helped me add the accompaniment files to my powerpoint presentation. Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks....

Have I said lately how much I love my new laptop... it's so sweet! at the risk of sounding liek I have stock in the company (i wish) there's nothing better than a mac!

still working on that cowl... and trying to get ready for the in-laws and Christmas and my shows at school and everything else that comes with this month.. that really makes me hate December!

vespers

was nice.... I got to sit with my friend Marly.. whom I haven't seen since Election Day 2008.... That seems too long ago! There was something missing this year though... wish I could put my finger on it. It could be my Bah Humbug spirit :-|~

I had started the Chickadee cowl in a Tahki bulky weight varigated wool. My 10.5 needles are all busy.. so I started it on 10s... got about 2 inches finished and decided it needs a larger needle..... After I got home I cast on again on size 11 and the diffference is just amazing.


Off to make the grocery list for tmrw.... need to finish the packing peanut garland tonight.... and maybe figure out if I can put the accompaniments into the slide show.. (that would really be awesome!)

how?

could i have not posted yesterday.

I've been busy getting prepared for my concerts at school. This weekend I have to finish making packing peanut popcorn garland for the tree at school. I was picking up freecycled packages to help decorate for that. Also hit the $1 store.

Stocking fillers are finished, I think.

Tmrw... Christmas cookies

Tonight... Vespers at Moravian College. DH is conducting women's chorus....

I'll post a report later!

cheating

post tonight for tmrw... hehee



Pattern: Ridged Lace Cowl
Yarn: Lion Brand Fisherman
Color: Aran
Needle: US8
Reciepient: DS1's teacher
Modifications: did 4 complete patterns the did to row 8 and gartered 4 more rows not 7)


FInally this cowl is finished.. I started it 3 times because it always got shoved to the back burner.

Now to make a couple more......what pattern to choose!

it figures

I got up early, went down to work out and my Jillian Michaels Wii game is messed up..... WAH

OK... tonight is DD's GS Christmas party (yup it's early.. not the leader's fault tho) so I had to scramble to make a gift that was suitable for those ladies...


Recycled felted sweater trees didn't take much of the sweater at all... the two tone one is from two sweaters. The center is a piece of a wire hanger and I glued some posterboard on the bottom to cover the hanger







I think I'll make a big one for here at home. I grabbed the perfect star for the top from Ollies yesterday..... with some beads sewn on it it coud be fab! But I didn't have time... between the baby sweaters and everything else this month brings... YIKES!

I hope they like their little decorations.

not the greatest picture

but it does in a pinch



Pattern: Baby Kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Bernat's Cassino
Color: Lavendar
Needle: US6
Recipient: Violet Phillips
Buttons: From Grandma Gentry's stash
Modifications: no i cord tie... put in 2 buttons instead one facing out and the other facing in.

Hope she can wear it for a bit. I took this with my phone so sorry for the lousy picture. Color is bad and everything..... oh well.. that's all I have of it now!

10 things you want, but wouldn't buy for yourself

in no specific order:
1. House season 5 in HD














2. drum carder











3. mini cooper









4. Bosch dishwasher














5. bose wave system with iPod adapter and headphones








6. grand piano (and someplace to put it)













7. iPhone













8. tropical getaway








9. English wool combs











10. Gagghia espresso machine








Come play yourself and dream while you're at it! Maybe Santa??

ho ho ho

Tonight I made this:


It's from 3 different recycled sweaters. I used the middle and a bit of the bottom of one sweater (the top and toe and heel) and a sleeve from a green sweater and the front of a red sweater. I got the idea from Betz White's book warm fuzzies. I adore that book. As well as her blog. I mean it... I want to be one of these folks who thinks this stuff up!

Anyway it's for the daughter of a woman who subs at my school. BF gives me wool sweaters to frog or felt and keeps my spirit in it's free zone.

I changed the pattern a bit by opting to line the stocking. You can see the Christmas calico in this picture. Then I blanket stitched the calico and top of the stocking together since I didn't attach the cuff the way Betz suggests in the book. I think for next Christmas everyone in our family will have a new stocking. So simple to make and I love how it turned out... and so does DH..... I won't pressure myself to have them finished by this year.

Violet's kimono sweater was finished about 20 minutes before we saw her. I was knitting on the way to church and on the way to their house.. .then seamed it up while we were on the turnpike... sewed on the buttons and wrapped it up. And so the picture I have is a lousy phone picture because I forgot to take the camera along.... (this is the 2nd week in a row... i have to attach that thing to my body or something!) The visit with the cousins was amazing though... the kids all got along great and I love seeing my family... wish they lived closer.

comtemplating NaBloPoMo for this month... how crazy is that????

gee it's good to be back home again

but I miss BA. This is a picture of the woman's bridge in puerto madero. Our real last evening out to do something on the town. DS was so cute last night as we were going through emigrations he pulled me down to whisper in my ear "mommy, I miss apo, aba and VV already" and started to cry. My heart broke for him... of course now, he's back to playing the Wii so I think he's OK.

We found out tonight that they closed all the schools in BA province for a month and we checked out the cost of flight tickets comparing them round trip from here and round trip from there. Right now, it's 50% more expensive to fly from south to north and return then from north to south and return... and at Christmas vice versa. We were thinking about making a trip at Christmas, but I doubt that will happen now with the cost of the tickets.



My list for today's 10 on Tuesday 10 Guilty Pleasures on TV:

• House, MD
  
• CSI
  
• Law and Order
  
• Burn Notice
  
• NCIS
  
• In Plain Sight
  
• Friends
  
• Gilmore Girls
  
• Dirty Jobs
  
• Unwrapped
  

Not that I get to watch that much TV but when I do.....

and there you have it 30 posts in 30 days... whew!

I'll post some pictures over the next month of the trip... and perhaps a video or two.

don´t cry for me argentina

we leave this afternoon... well actually the flight leaves this evening.

All the bags are packed.. .everyone is bathed and now the wait to leave for the airport. The kids can´t wait to get home to eat food that they´re used to. I want a HOT shower in my own bathroom and of course to use my own laptop so I can post pictures from the trip and my knitting.

It was probably the best trip. I think the length was a help. It´s nice to leave a place wishing you were staying longer... makes return trips more likely ;-)

OK... well expect a picture or two or even three tmrw...

see you in the northern hemisphere!