Wednesday, December 31, 2008

One last post for 2008

It snowed today! We were forecast rain last I checked (aka last Robert checked and I asked him), so this was quite a bit better and more exciting. Zion can get his own snow clothes on, and pretty quickly, too. It rocks, and was especially awesome today as he wanted to go outside every time Robert shoveled the driveway, and I didn't have to do a thing. Life is good.

Which is really the point of this post. Life here is good, and I am thankful. Sending energy and prayers to G-d and the universe for a peaceful, happy, healthy 2009 for all of us.

XOXO

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The difference between you and me

This morning when I got up Robert was eating breakfast. Toast, with small slices of something white on top. He came and sat next to me while he ate and it was immediately apparent what the white slices were: raw garlic. I pointed out that he was going to be smelling very pungent for a while and he mumbled something about wanting garlic bread.

"But you don't make garlic bread with big slices of garlic!", I pointed out. "If you want garlic toast you rub the clove on the bread". (That's what my Jewish grandmother did. And great-grandmother. And mother. So I'm sticking to it! Even if I am a little surprised, in retrospect that my mom would feed us (and we would eat) rye toast with garlic rubbed on it for breakfast.)

"It wasn't that good", Robert admitted. "The garlic was really sharp".

"So why did you eat it?? After a bite of that I would've just brushed the garlic off". Sometimes I'm so reasonable it's amazing.

Robert looked a little shifty eyed. You that look people get when they can't answer a perfectly logical question? Yeah. "Well, um, it's good for my prostate?", he offered. "You wouldn't want me to get prostate cancer would you? You know I never go to the doctor..."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, because going to the doctor prevents prostate cancer. You know, you still didn't need to eat all that sharp raw garlic".

Robert ate a candy cane. Then he smelled like peppermint. And garlic.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Color-ish

My Rav girls are doing a lace knit-a-long (KAL) starting in January. January 2- March 2 we are doing triangular shawls, and February 2- April 2 rectangular stoles. All the pics below are ganked (ie totally not mine).

For the triangles I'm doing Icarus, which looks like this:



So here's the Very Important Question: should I do it in Wollmeise in Sonne?



Or Wollmeise in Gewitterhimmel?

Thursday, December 25, 2008

My magic wand

Kenn and Giselle are here tonight (en route to Montreal), so the kids got their Hanukkah gifts from them a few hours ago. One of Liel's gifts was a magic wand, like this (she's sleeping with hers so I can't show you the actual piece).

I know it's small, but you get the idea, right? OK, so after dinner the kids were running around in the living room playing with their new toys. Liel was nearly naked (for once it was my doing- we'd had spaghetti and meatballs and she had had chocolate milk. And did I mention she was wearing a white shirt? It was a disaster waiting to happen, I tell you. A laundry disaster), clad only in a pair of Tinkerbelle undies. I glanced over at their play when I heard Liel announce, "I'm going to put my magic wand in my pocket!"

What pocket? I wondered.

Liel stuffed the wand in her Tinkerbelle shorts. It poked out, pointing up at the ceiling while she continued to play, and her aunt, uncle, grandmother and I laughed so hard we cried (her father was washing dishes and missed the whole thing and her grandfather was very absorbed in his quinoa and red sauce right then).

Monday, December 22, 2008

More yarnz

Someday you may get tired of seeing the yarns I've spun. And I trust that, should that sad day ever come, you will keep it to yourself :)

So, here's the second yarn off my wheel! It is Corriedale (that's the breed of sheep), and 120 yards. I call this yarn "Blue Steel". Heh.



I turned it into this!



Third yarn off the wheel- I really got the hang of drafting while spinning on this one. Falkland wool, 160 yards.



Fourth yarn, completed this weekend. Blue-faced Leicester, 170 yards.



I've been fairly stressed lately (hence the lack of blogging) and spinning has been incredibly relaxing and full of awesome. I think the stress stuff is on the decline so with a little luck I'll get back in the blogging saddle, if for no other reason than to show of my babies yarn kids. Or something.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Scent

Just a bit of pimping for my favorite perfumer! Right now Possets is having a "Buy something get a free bottle" sale. HOLY CRAP! Free bottles of perfume. And Fabienne's work is gorgeous, too. Run right over! Sale goes til January 1, so I guess you don't have to run, but man. Don't miss it.

(For the record I am not affiliated with Possets in any way, other than being a fangirl. High Tea, Texas, and Churpz are my scent staples.)

Mole

Zion is currently behind the couch pretending that he is a mole and that space is his mole-hole. As he often does when playing this game, he asked me if I were hungry.

"No, thank you", I replied. Past experience has taught me that he doesn't always like me to say yes to this question.

Not today, however. "No mommy", he says, "this is just pretend".

"Ok. Yes, I am hungry!"

"Would you like apple, or grape, or raspberry, or lemon?", he asks.

"Um...lemon.", I say. I wasn't really paying much attention, to be honest. Then the word "raspberry" pops up in my mind and I say, "No, raspberry. Please".

"Not raspberry", says the mole.

"Fine. What do you think I should have?"

"No, no mama. You should choose what you want".

"OK, lemon." I try again.

"No mommy, I think you should have apple. It's smaller". A little hand popped out from behind the couch, proffering a red Mr. Potato-head nose for me to nibble.

Yes, it's all about choosing what I want, you see ;) (and you'll notice that apple wasn't even on the original list. How can I be expected to choose correctly if I'm not even offered all the choices??)

Saturday, December 13, 2008

In case you were wondering

I'm relatively certain that there is at least one person out there wondering what I might like this season of gimme (and possibly as many as 4 people...directly under me). For all of you(s), I present my current wishlist of awesome.

1. Princess Unicorn! I think it might be the only way to get "My horn can pierce the sky!" out of my head. Plus it's princesses. And unicorns. FTW!

2. Spinning fiber, for Cupcake (that's the name I'm test driving for my spinning wheel). Right now I'm digging on the color combos at Laughingratstudio on Etsy- especially Iris, Flowerbox, Orchid, and Pacific. Or other spinning fibers in similar colors? Just no cotton, please. Or pure bamboo. Oh, I really like the pencil roving at Crown Mountain Farms, too!

3. How about a niddy noddy?

4. Needles for lace. Sizes 6 and 4, please.

5. Fake colored hair. I like pink, and blue,and aqua. Been wanting these for ages.

My horn can pierce the sky!!
xoxo

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Melodrama

Zion and Liel are fighting over a plastic Spiderman head with a suction cup on the back. It belongs to Zion (it came with his toothbrush), but our rules about sharing dictate this toy is one that she may play with as long as she didn't, you know, snatch it out of his hand or something.

Zion wailed and threw himself backwards. "Li-EL!", he howled, "I neeeed that! I will DIE if you play with it! Did you know that, Liel? You will kill me if you play with my Spiderman!"

Liel looked over at him curiously. "Are you dead, Zion?"

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Yarnz, I makez them!

It's the first yarn off my wheel!!! I'm on to yarn #2 now...it's a blue/white/gray/black roving.


Friday, December 5, 2008

Newark

Today I got to go to Newark, NJ. The drive from my house to there isn't very pretty- lots of um, urban grittiness. And while the sun was shining in NY, it was gray and bleak in NJ. Robert said that it looked like an Edward Hopper painting, which was fairly apt.

While driving through Newark I saw at least 6 billboards (sadly I didn't start counting right away) with a picture of a man in a jailhouse jumper and handcuffs. The "get tough" caption read: "Buy a gun for someone who can't, buy yourself 10 years in jail". The subcaption (apparently that's not a word, but I think it should be so there!) advised readers not to "Lie for the other guy".

Yeah. I think that pretty much sums up what I had to say.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Stalking

The end of the semester is here, and I am happy. I need to write my exams, give my exams, grade my exams, calculate final grades for everyone and by December 15 I should be done, done, done. 11 days, baby! My only regret is that I didn't wear my corset to class this semester. Maybe next fall...

Anyway, it appears I've started stalking yarn (cause, you know, it moves so fast. No, really. It does! With help from crazy people, like me). Wollmeise is having an update tonight and I'm kind of giddy about it. Not giddy enough to stay up all night waiting for it (that's what I have my dear sweet Ravelry friends for!), but still. And Posh is updating her shop on Sunday! Will I get yarn from both of these? Probably not. But I'm excited anyway, which clearly indicates the depths to which I've sunk. Thank G-d I have my Rav girls and Leslie to keep me company down here.

In unrelated news I just ate a ton of deep fried turkey with veganaise. One of my students brought it to me in class today and it was soooo delicious...the perfect lunch. Vegetableless, true, but so full of fat and protein! I can only imagine how much turkey I might've eaten straight out of the frier with it's crispy crispy skin...

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

My wheel- I loves it

That's right folks...I am now the proud owner of a spinning wheel! It's an Ashford Traditional, double treadle, single drive, scotch tensioning. I love, love, love it. It still needs a name tho- I'm working on it.

Here it is, in it's beautiful beautifulness. My spinning still leaves something to be desired, but it will come. And it looks pretty in the picture at least.