pictures

First off, some pictures for a particular Grammy in the UK. She picked up this beautiful sweater for him when he was just a wee thing and it sat in the cedar chest, protected and happy until this fall when I spied it during a sweater clean-out. What luck! It's time to wear it. Any longer in the cedar chest and it would have missed the window of appropriate size-ness. Thanksgiving weekend was the perfect weather for it - not too cold, a little sunny and not too breezy.




Saturday was an extra special day. I couldn't bear going without movies any longer. Actually going to a movie theater is out of the question between cost and babysitters and so forth. And besides, I'd much rather have our comfy couch and all the snacks in the kitchen and our very own bathroom than a stinky old movie theater. So, even though it's not in the household budget, we're back with Netflix:
Add one napping little boy and a pile of this:

And you get a very happy mama who got to watch an entire movie in one nap and finished the second cabled footie (pics to come next post).

Though we won't decorate the house for the holidays for a couple of weeks, I spied these paperwhite bulbs while I was at the nursery getting the decorations for the bike shop. I've always wanted to force bulbs, but being as I don't go shopping much and when I do it's unlikely to be a stores that carry such a thing - it almost never happens. So when I saw them, I got them. And here they are started:

It's another week of transitions here. George is starting a full-time job to keep him busy over the winter and hopefully help to relieve some of the strain on our coffers. But this means that K. has to start preschool a couple of mornings a week. Luckily my work is flexible, so I moved some of my hours around and instead of a three day weekend, I'll have two afternoons a week with my boy. Hopefully we'll survive the changes - but if i don't surface for a week, you know why.

thanksgiving traditions

it's not even thanksgiving yet, and crafty blogland has erupted into the nightmare before christmas. everywhere you look people are decorating and scheming and planning and remembering and on the mark, ready, set -- CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

aaack!

Not me. i absolutely refuse to even consider christmas until thanksgiving (except for attempting to put together a holiday plan for the soap biz - but this is for my own survival and an attempt to not run out of everything by December 4).

Thanksgiving has a particular set of traditions that must be maintained.

1. Watch Macy's Parade. The coverage is awful. They wreck everything that's fun about the parade. But it must be on the tv for part of the morning.
2. Attend a minimum of two thanksgiving dinners. Minimum. Children of divorce get accustomed to this and learn to feed appropriately at the various family gatherings. Any less than two dinners and we feel lonely and hungry because we maintained the same eating traditions from the multi-dinner days
3. Watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. We always watch this on Thanksgiving. Always. It's always funny and serves to mark the official start of the Christmas season which cannot begin until this movie has been viewed.

cabled footie

Cabled footie from One Skein in lettuce Malabrigio. I finished this around halloween, but was hoping to have it's friend done before posting. Alas. So this is a process/progress post. This is one of those little milestone projects - first cables and first sock-like project. The cables were a piece of cake and pretty fun and interesting, I can see why knitters like them. It's so satisfying to see the twisting pattern come alive. The sock thing was fun too, very portable and the rows go round real quick. not sure i'm ready to pull out the size 1 needles though.

Here's the other process in progress. Lots of piles. The holiday season was pretty busy for the soap business last year, and I'm hoping that this year is similar. Though my intentions were to make piles and piles of soap - it didn't quite happen that way. It's likely that I'll run out of most of the varieties before the madness is over. I don't just sell soap, but lotions and salts and things. So, I'm trying to make them up a head of time so that i'm not killing myself trying to get all the orders out. And on top of the regular preparations I wanted to try some new things like tissue covers and sample sets and new recipes and and and and...

On December 9th I do my first craft show, so I'm trying hard to have enough things on hand and think of a way to set it up and make everything look good. I can't wait to get this one under my belt and see if it was successful or fun and something to continue to do in the future.

let's catch up...

it's been over two weeks since my last post, though my blog has been quiet my life has been rather busy. the good news is that the major outside work projects have been realized and are done for this year. the bad news is that now i'm going to need to ramp up the soap biz and get ready for my first craft shows. there's lots to do for the bike shop as well. so, although i've successfully come through in one way, there still won't be any rest until the holidays.

the conference that i've just returned from features several costume parties. after having endured endless teasing when a board member blindly stumbled onto this post and then finding the pattern for this - my costume became clear. It had to include an awesome knitted component. Princess Leia's hair knit up quickly in Lamb's Pride Bulky - double stranded. In fact, the buns were finished in my hotel room and are stuffed with tissue from the room. When I get a chance I'll add some more pictures, it's a fabulous pattern.