This is for gardenmommy who noticed I didn’t post a yarn photo of my Christmas loot. How silly of me. Click the link on the previous post.
Four skeins are 100% alpaca, one is sock yarn. I’m so excited to make an alpaca scarf for me, me, me! Thanks to my thoughtful DH. Can you just picture him wandering around a yarn shop? Tee hee.
I couldn’t resist sharing these photos. A swell Christmas was had by all. No screaming tantrums, no one vomiting, only a couple toys received which take batteries, and I got a box of alpaca yarn!!
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. . . and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been told I look positively radiant.
The blessed event is happening as I speak; baby Lendrum is shipping today and hopefully arriving Tuesday. I’m sure the little bugger won’t let me sleep a wink for weeks.
I’m thinking about having a fiber shower. Wouldn’t that be a riot?
I make this coffeecake every Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings. My family loves it and whenever I take it somewhere it gets raves and requests for the recipe. It’s basically a traditional coffeecake loaded with cinnamon and cranberries.
Here goes:
4 T. butter
3/4 C. sugar
1 egg
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. milk
2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 c. flour
2 c. raw cranberries, whole (or even frozen)
mix the above ingredients and spread into 8×8 buttered pan (can be doubled for 9×13) and top with the following mixture:
topping:
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. flour
1 t. cinnamon
2 T. melted butter
Bake 35 minutes at 375.
Today I spent two hours at the school helping out with Christmas parties. The room mom of my middle child needed help with games and etc. It was a lot of fun with games, treats, and even a craft table. Who does that? She was amazing. (She’s the one I’m dying to know if she knits. But I’ve knit in her presence and she’s not even peeped, so I’m sure the answer is no.) One thing I know for sure after having spent time in the classrooms today: I never want to be a teacher. (Sorry, Ruby. You’ll be awesome, I’m just old and have no patience left!) There was one whiny kindergartner I just wanted to cream, and my poor daughter has to sit across from him. No wonder she acts the way she does at the end of her school day! Then in the 3rd grade room one kid wanted to do a crafty ornament but wanted me to do it all for him. Ugh. Teachers deserve more credit and pay than they get. That goes for day care workers, and anyone who works with children.
Knitting update: I’ve finished three out of four scarves for Christmas gifts (the last one will be given Dec.28). I still need to knit a quick hat for my sister, which should take an evening. After seeing the raspberry hat from my last post, my sis decided she wanted one too. That’s the problem with knitting. People just want you to ‘whip up’ something for them. Other than these quickie projects, I’m done. Next project: finishing Socks for Soldiers socks. They’re 60% done. Then, more socks: sis’s birthday socks in January, then yummy merino socks for me. (Yarn photos coming.) And did I mention I got myself an early Christmas present? A Royal Wool Winder. Been wanting one for a couple years. It’s so totally spiffy, but now wondering if I should have gotten the bigger one. Sometimes bigger really IS better.
Aside from spending half my day Christmas shopping, I had a great day.
I had an appointment at the gift shop of the new library in our city. They have decided to sell my soaps in the shop. I am thrilled, especially since there are other soapers here in town who are better known than I am, I would have thought they would have beaten me to the gift shop. I’m trying not to get giddy over it. They’re buying a small quantity to start, and they may not reorder. But for now it’s pretty cool. So local peeps: go down there and ooh and ahh over my soap , and buy it all up!!
Also, this makes the second gift shop I’ve picked up this week so it’s turning into a very good week. But the funniest soap news is that I now have my mail carrier as a new customer. When the weather turned cold I gave him a lotion stick and a small bar of soap ( I have always loved giving my mail carriers presents). I hear mail carriers have a terrible time with dry skin from the mail and weather. The next time I saw him he raved about the lotion and told me the soap made his truck smell good for days after I gave it to him. Today he called me with an order for soaps and lotions for Christmas gifts, for other mail carriers I’m hoping. How funny if I had all of them tromping to my door to buy lotion and soap. Ha!
I still have a lot of Christmas soap left: Cranberry Spice, Nutcracker Suite, Christmas Past, Frankinscence and Myrrh. The website: www.mississippimoonsoap.com Check it out! It’s probably too late to get it there by Christmas, unless you’re local of course, but they make a great gift anytime, and a great gift to yourself!!
Tomorrow: more evil shopping. Exactly why am I killing myself buying gifts for people either 1)don’t need anything, or 2) are capable of buying it themselves?
Conversation last night at my house:
me to DH: Your brother’s Christmas card arrived today from Texas. He sent a $40 target card.
DH: Hmmm.
Me: We ought to buy him something, don’t ya think?
DH: Probably. Like what?
Me: How about a $40 target card?
Is it me or has Christmas gotten stupid?
And one last thing:
Photo of my niece from her birthday party the other night. Notice the lovely hat/scarf combo she’s sporting. Look familiar? I think she really liked them.
Okay, I got invited to do this by La so here goes… although I have to say, I don’t get what a meme is, and I’m sure you all know I’m weird for many more than 6 reasons.
1. I am a huge coffee snob and coffee addict. I hate everyone’s coffee except that which I make at home. On vacations I take caffiene pills so I don’t have to drink bad coffee. Trust me, I’m much more pleasant to be around on the pills than while I’m wasting precious vaca time searching for good joe.
2. I am a huge Gene Kelly fan. My favorite movie is Singing in the Rain. He was a much stronger dancer than Fred Astaire, and had a nicer butt 
Next time you happen across one of his movies, check it out!
3. My dream job is owning a yarn shop and sitting and knitting with customers all day while someone else runs the shop. Okay, so I’m not career driven, I admit it. I don’t really want to work there, I just want to knit in a wonderful yarn shop every day and get paid for it. (Oh, wait, I think I knit and get paid for it already! At my college tutoring job I get paid by the hour, and if students don’t show, I still get paid to read, knit, whatever!!)
4. I’m tremendously happy living in small town Iowa. The shopping sucks, the restaurants suck, very little diversity, no LYS, etc. However, we have a house with a huge yarn we could never afford in a metro area, excellent schools, low crime, no traffic, cheap car insurance, clean air, I can get to work in 15 minutes. I have horrid fear of driving in unfamiliar areas, so my disorder is comfy here.
5. I totally believe in ghosts, aliens, and psychic ability. I have gone through stages in my life where I’ve become interested in these subjects. I’ve read many books about them and love listening to Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell. I think although many people have faked experiences with these things, they really do exist and we’re all just too wrapped up in our daily lives to pay attention to them. Also, I have had an experience of a dead loved one contacting me to tell me they were fine and not to worry. (La, you were right, I do have skeletons in my closet! How did you know?)
6. I used to hide in laundry hampers when I was a kid. I’d wait and wait until someone opened it and then I’d scare the hell out of them. It was great. My sister has almost forgiven me. I wish I could still fit into a laundry hamper.
I actually said it out loud. Not two days ago I told a co-worker that we normally get the flu at exactly this time of year and I end up with a housefull of puking people who can do nothing for themselves. And this morning two of us were doing exactly that. I was one of them. I cannot believe I was so dumb as to jinx ourselves. Miss Moodle was complaining of a tummy ache before school and refused to eat. Then, not two hours later the school was calling to have her picked up because she puked at school, in the restroom thankfully. Meanwhile, I had the phone shut off because I was in my own private hell on the couch. DH, the angel, picked her from school and deposited her on the couch next to me, turned into Satan and RETURNED TO WORK. I was thinking I wouldn’t survive it, but we slept and in an hour I woke up feeling fine, showered and dressed. It’s the strangest thing, but I’m so thankful because I can take care of her instead of joining her in misery. She’s been sleeping a lot of the day, except for eating ice chips, moaning of the stomach ache, and puking periodically. Hopefully if anyone else gets it we’ll get over this in time for the Christmas pagent at church on Sunday. Two years ago we missed Christmas because all but one of us had the flu. And he kept saying, “Can’t I go to Grandma’s? I feel FINE!”
Happy winter.
And no, I do not believe in flu shots.
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In family news: I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday in the X-ray waiting room of our local hospital. Thankfully, oldest child’s snowman building accident did not require a cast. But I think it did put an early end to his basketball season.
The most exciting news of the week is that we had our chimney cleaned over the weekend and we had our first fire in the fireplace on Sunday evening! Several weeks ago I told DH that all I wanted for Christmas was a wood fire in our fireplace (which was converted to gas burning, which in our case provided no heat and was costly to operate). Our first fire was absolutely fabulous. Our house smelled so great, and we sat by the fire and totally enjoyed it. We had such fun that we did it again last night. Tonight: cleaning out the ashes and vacuuming up the wood/ash mess. Some people tried to discourage us from our pursuit of a working wood burning fireplace. They cited the unhealthy smoke and odors in the house, the mess of ashes, and the inconvenience and expense of hauling the wood. All that considered, it is still entirely worth it. But then again, this is only day three.
DH and I joked that when the chimney sweep arrived we’d magically be sucked up the chimney and dance on the rooftops as in Mary Poppins. I said at the very least I wanted to hear him sing the Chim Chimney song. Later after he was done and gone I realized in disappointment that I had forgotten to shake his hand. “A sweep is as lucky as lucky can be . . . good luck will rub off when you shakes hands with me…” Darn.
I know I may be spoiling some lucky peeps’ Christmas surprise, but gotta share what’s been on the needles this week.
There is supposed to be a photo here of the lovely scarves I’m up to my elbows in knitting. But, WordPress has once again been taken over by ass-monkeys so ya’ll have to wait till tomorrow. Sorry!
Peeps, I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve tried and tried to post these photos. I think it’s an sign from above. I’m not supposed to reveal them until after they’ve been given. Sigh. Why fight it?
I am seriously having doubts about WordPress. Is it me, or is it not as easy as it’s supposed to be?? There are days when I wonder why the hell I’m bothering with this. (Because I love showing off my knitting photos and blabbing on and on about knitting until you’re all snoozing on your keyboards. It’s twisted fun, what can I say?)
