Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Christmas Really Sucks Chez Chelle!

Mostly because of these...This is my Christmas present, a new teeny canister vac, light enough to be perfect for zipping up the stairs.






And this is DH's gift, a wet-dry shop vac for cleaning up guy stuff.



Oh, did I mention Haley's Christmas present?Our over-the-fence neighbours just got an 8-week old Labrador puppy...named either Jenna or Bailey, they haven't quite decided yet. I don't get a vote, but I hope it's not Bailey...that could be very confusing to the furry creatures!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Merry Christmas...


The creatures aren't stirring anymore...so Santa's elves stopped by...

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Why?





Ok, it's the holiday season...peace on earth, goodwill towards men (or at least less snarkiness than usual), but WTF?

This is the opus magnum of the Vogue Knitting design team in their Holiday issue.

Appreciating differences in taste, I'm still floored by the construction of the coat. Thirty five skeins of Koigu and a pattern so complicated that you are referred to the magazine's website to download the "floor plan" for the finished garment. The printed instructions presume an awful lot. Imagine finishing dozens of the multi-hued hexagons and being told to lay them out on the floor according to the picture and connect them by "knitting the negative space between them". Yikes.

We might have had a few too many eggnog lattes, but my SNB is seriously considering a collective KAL just to test this pattern! Wonder if we can sub out Kitchen Cotton?



Poor little finished object. The scarf/hat combo look like an undernourished peahen next to Joseph's Technicolour Dreamcoat above it. The set is for a little girl (about three) and is a scaled down Odessa (sans beads) and simple ribbed scarf in Sublime's Extra Fine Merino Wool DK. The yarn is bit splitty, but butter soft and otherwise delightful to work with!


Gilly finished her therapy with TPAS this week. She has been there almost 5 years and has more seniority than any staff member. (I remember when the senior therapist was "the new girl".) Some of her classmates were "graduating" as well, so we threw a little party on Tuesday. Here is Gillian enjoying lemonade.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Tag...I'm It!

Rochelle tagged me with a meme...I'm not gonna pass it on, but if you're interested, consider yourself tagged!

Six weird things about me...

I'm not weird at all, but since weird is subjective, I offer for your consideration:

1) I used to curl quite regularly and rather proficiently. For Non-Canucks reading this blog, I'm referring to this sport FWIW, there are close to one million curlers in Canada.

2) I wasn't always a redhead, I used to be blonde, very blonde, embarrassingly blonde. Yup, that's me on the right. Hey, it was the Eighties.

3) Speaking of "that's me on the right"...I really never got the hang of this "right/left" stuff. I always have to think about which is which and generally rely on that trick of forming an L with the fingers of your left hand. When I took the test for my driver's license, the examiner asked me to make a right hand turn. I maneuvered into the left hand lane, signaled left and and made a competent left-hand turn. Afterwards the examiner told me that he had wanted me to turn right. I asked him why he didn't say something when I moved into the left lane. He replied that he wanted to see if I would attempt a right hand turn from that position! (has happened before) Anyway, not knowing left from right isn't a "failable" error and I passed my test!

4) I believe that I was eight years old before I could tie my own shoes. In other respects I was a pretty average kid, even a fairly proficient student, but tying shoes was just beyond me. Strange when one considers my current fascination with bits of knotted and looped string. (I'll have to mention that one to my therapist, could be significant! LOL)

5) I only drink soda when it is flat. In order to accomplish this, I have been known to dilute soda with lukewarm tap water before consuming it. (DH insists that this fact is less WEIRD than GROSS, but over near-20 years, he's gotten used to it.)

6) After first date with DH, I told a dorm-mate that I had met the man I was going to marry. DH however, put up a valiant fight and remained a bachelor for another 5+ years. Which answers that age old question by proving that the Immovable Object is no match for the Irresistible Force.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

You Say It's Your Birthday...

It's my birthday too..yeah!



Dh has been swamped at work, (stayed late last night and in all day today), so my birthday was spent taking pups to "freeswim" at the local pool, doing housework and ferrying my kids to a children's birthday party miles away on the other side of town. I figured the least I could do for myself was bake a really special treat for me! (FWIW, I much prefer rock hard biscotti to birthday cake anyday!)

I baked Cappuccino biscotti and Almond/Cherry biscotti dipped in chocolate. Don't let the Cookies for Santa plate fool you...all of these little beauties are mine!

Not much news on the knitting front, except that I'm substantially finished my hat/scarf for the little girl (I need to add fringe and weave in an end or two), so I've resumed knitting Dh's Adirondack Sweater. Possibly another finished object for 2006!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

For Your Consideration....the World's Worst Photographer!

For a variety of reasons. First of all, for my inability to remember to bring my camera to camera-worthy events.

Over the past week, two of my children have acted in a Christmas pageant, my parents visited from out of town to watch the performance, our family was selected to light the Advent candle and recite a prayer at our Church, I attended a concert and hosted a Cookie Exchange with the other mommies in the neighbourhood complete with polished silver and unmatched antique teacups.

So, where are the pictures of my children in costume, my parents, the Advent wreath, the concert goers or band, the neighbourhood mommies or my festively decorated home?...well, I forgot to snap those things.

What I can offer is this...a delicious selection of cookies, most of which were not baked by me.




I'm such a lousy photographer.

Oh, I did manage a snap of the PAIR of Fleece Artist Merino socks. Lousy angle, poor lighting and Gilly was in a really snippy mood which would only be calmed by the inclusion of her foot in the photo. A finished object nonetheless!