In Which We Find.... My 600th post

As much as I love doing lesson planning for this time of year (so many fun things to choose from), this is the one time of the year I wish, ever so slightly that I was still a SAHM. So much to get done for the holidays, and so little time. This year we are having our annual "Uncle Christmas" celebration on the 16th, and I don't feel like I have quite enough time between now and then. The Boy reminded me that we really aren't *that* far behind. Normally, I'd have my fall cleaning done by now. We got off to a HUGE late start, but as of today, the entire first floor (all 8 rooms, plus the porch, plus the "cold room") is finished. We have 3 bedrooms, the hall and the upstairs bathroom to go and we are done. YAY! I've started grocery shopping for necessary food items, there is fudge and 7 layers bars in the freezer waiting, and we have picked names for our gift exchange. Not bad. I've got a good start on the ornaments I'm creating for my "non-picked" people, if I'd just work on them!


Because I have knitting ADD, I have been doing several "side projects" in between working on these ornaments (I'll share about them later this week). These have all been necessary (well, Ok, maybe not) so I feel justified in having done them... but I have Catholic guilt. I can't help it. An old friend and his wife just had a baby in late October. Her cousin has dubbed her "the second most perfect-est baby" and she is just a doll. Anyhow, I've been working on a sweater for her forever, and it has been done, it just needed some finishing (seams, buttons etc.) I realized, much to my dismay.. that it has an error. A big error. One of the button holes is missing, and not only that, the spot in the button band where it should be, sticks out like a sore thumb (IMO), because it's out of pattern with the rest of the band. Short of ripping the whole sweater out and starting over, I sent it off today anyhow. My people couldn't spot it, and I'm hoping it won't be "too big a deal" to anyone but me. (sigh)

After I was done the sweater, I began An Unoriginal Hat. No, I didn't NEED another hat. But I bought this yummy yarn. And it is 100% wool, and my other hat is mostly acrylic with a little wool... and I deserve a warm hat don't I? I thought so too. It was a quick knit, the cables are fun, and because Murphy knows I have OTHER more pressing things to worry about, it too has a flaw. I ran out of yarn, due to using a size larger needle (didn't have the right size, and I was worried it would be too small.. this bigger size was perfect.. BUT)... with 4 rows left to go. The decrease rows at the top. So I used a gathering stitch on the remaining live stitches, and just closed it up. It has the same green as my coat, the same blue as my boots.. and a bit of plummy goodness to spice it up. It certainly kept my noggin warm while I was out shoveling today.

In between all this, I've been making beaded snowflakes for my front room tree. See, we have this cute little 8 month old kitten. Who loves to be a part of everything. She also likes to sit up on the counter and watch you cook, or do dishes.. oh and did I mention that she also likes to chew on tree branches, light strands, pull down garland and bat ornaments off the tree to play with?? She's totally loving this time of the year. I was smarter than she is though. I didn't put any of the ornaments up on our "pretty tree" as The Boy calls it. This is the tree that holds my mom's old ornaments.. our glass balls and breakable ornaments. Definitely way different than our family room tree which is fun and playful. It has lights, and I have been making snowflakes for it using a pattern I found in a magazine back in 2005. I've never done beading before, and it's going quite well. I have 7 snowflakes up on the tree and If I could spend a chunk of time on this, I'd have more. (they are big snowflakes, thank goodness!)

So there you have it. I plan on devoting all my crafting time to snowflakes and "gift ornaments" until after the necessary time has arrived. (or until I find another "must knit")

*photos touched up using the "soften" feature in my photo editing software. Cool huh?