greetingarts

outside inside

Outside.

Kind of mirrors  how I feel.  Dreary, stormy, disheveled.  I'm irritable, feeling sorry for myself, and angry.  I want to enjoy the moment and savor the season, but the days are hurtling past, and there are so many things to do.  Mundane, every day things like the laundry, the dishes, the grocery shopping are screaming at me, when all I want to do is sew, knit, cut and paste.  And then whenever I go to work on a project, there's no space, no place for me to be able to work without interruption and mess.  My projects, big and small, are all relegated to tote bags, piles on top of boxes, stacks on the corner of the kitchen counter, stuffed underneath the bed.  Every three seconds I have to clean up and make someone something to eat, or rescue a piece of knitting before the needle gets pulled out and all 138 stitches lost, or stash the glue stick away on top of the bookshelf so little fingers don't twist the tube all the way up while the cap is still on. 

I have no space of my own.    And I'm going crazy.

I want warm and cheery, not snappy and mean, which is how I'm feeling lately.  I don't know what it is, but I'd better be able to shake it pretty soon.  Time's not stopping, and wasting it feeling like this would be pretty pathetic.

Back to less grumpy, mopey stuff soon, I hope...

red + black

Lynne has a wonderful project going on now, you can click on the mittens button in my sidebar and read more about it.  I'm trying to finish up as many charity projects as I can before I get started on gifts for the holidays, but sometimes I get a little overwhelmed.  There are so many people who need so much, but there are also so many friends and family that I want to make things for.  Sweaters are out, they take too long.  Same for quilts and afghans.  So I'm going to crank out as many pairs of mittens and children's socks  as I can before next Saturday, to send to the East Coast and Afghanistan, and then I'm going to start the Christmas factory.  Look out, people!  I've also got 250 cards to make...

thankful for amoxycillin...

...and other things, of course, but antibiotics are right up there towards the top of the list.  It turned out to be another ear infection, but with two doses of medicine in her, Rebecca has been fever-free for almost 20 hours now, and her spirits are good.  I'm really missing my mom and dad, sister, Peter, uncles, grandparents and cousins, but after the trip to the doctor, then filling the prescription, and realizing everyone (not just Rebecca) really was very sick, we did the prudent, responsible parental thing and stayed home.

My husband and I are pulling Thanksgiving dinner together out of thin air.  I scrambled around last night driving from place to place, getting a Honeybaked ham (no more turkeys available anywhere that I could conceivably cook in time to eat for dinner tonight), a prepared turkey roulade (because I'm a traditionalist and Thanksgiving = turkey to me), some cranberry salad, yams, cole slaw, potato salad, sparkling cider and pumpkin spice egg nog.  I spent a fortune, but what can you do?  We're baking chocolate chip cookies, and some oatmeal raisin, too, and I might whip up a pumpkin bread.  I'm not going to sit around being depressed, we're going to celebrate the holiday, and remember how much we have to be thankful for.  Such as a little girl who made a Thanksgiving turkey in Kindergarten, and wrote what she was thankful for on each feather.

It says

• my sister
• my Grandparents
• my stuft anmuls
• my jewelry
• my bicycle

The fact that she put "my sister" on the first feather more than makes up for the fact that her father and I didn't quite make the top five.

We miss you, everyone.  Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving, and we'll see you at Christmas!

images

I'm in need of some frivolity.  I'm afraid my Thanksgiving trip back home will be canceled because of a little girl with a fever (yet again!).  So, to keep my mind off the possibility, I'm taking it upon myself to do a little meme I saw on Lori's blog.

1.  Answer the questions (well, they're not really questions, but you know what I mean) and type into Google's Image search.

2.  Post a photo from the first results page.

• the age you will be on your next birthday

•a place you’d like to visit

•one of your favorite places

 

•your favorite object

•your favorite food

•your favorite animal

•your favorite color

•name of a past pet

•where you live

•1st grade teacher’s last name

•your middle name

•a bad habit of yours

•your college major

•your favorite holiday

Fun, no?

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to see my family on Thanksgiving!

green + brown and m is for museums

This week's color photos were taken back in August, during our visit to the Getty Villa.  I love exposing my kids to different cultural exhibits and events, music, art, dance, nature.  They learn so much, without even realizing that they're learning, and I never know exactly what it is that they'll pick up from any given excursion.  I just know it will be something, and hopefully it will make them fuller, rounder human beings.

Some of my favorite memories from my childhood are of my parents taking me and my sister to the art museum in New York,  when it was too cold and snowy outside to do anything else, and we were most likely all going batty in the house.  I was probably only three or four, but I specifically remember taking off my shoes, and walking inside a certain exhibit that was a glass, mirrored house... I have no idea what museum it was, or how often we went, but I remember the white socks on the glass and how special I felt.  Later, when we moved to California, there was the Exploratorium, Steinhart Aquarium, my mom and I spending the day at the Oakland Museum, eating lunch in the courtyard and shooting baskets with wadded up napkins and the garbage can (for a prize of orange Popsicles).

Interactive, hands-on museums are the absolute best.  There's no need to shush anyone, prevent them from walking past a certain velvet rope, or remind them to keep their hands to themselves.  We'll be back in the Bay Area over Thanksgiving weekend, and I can't wait to visit those museums again.  This time the tables will be turned, me as the parent, with kiddos in tow.  I bet I'll still have a ball.

lilliputians are back

Shortly after I first started this blog, I made a tiny pair of sock earrings but I never wrote down the pattern.  When the Whiplash theme was announced on Whip Up about a month ago, I decided to use that as the motivation to recreate my original earrings.

I used the size 0000 double pointed needles again, and chose some variegated sock yarn left over from another project.  I wanted my socks to match, so I spent quite some time trying to find two lengths of yarn where the color changes were identical.  I won't even tell you how long that took, you wouldn't believe me.

I knit these just like I do regular socks, beginning with the cuff.  A few rounds of K1, P1 ribbing, the rest in stockinette stitch.  The first round is really tricky, but after you get past that, the rest is pretty quick.  Heel flap, picking up the gusset stitches.  The only thing I did differently, really, is I gathered the toe instead of doing the Kitchener stitch, but I think next time I'll Kitchener it (is that a verb?) and not be lazy, I think it would look nicer. 

The sad thing is, I can't wear these earrings myself because one of my pierced ears healed back up (after decades!) and now I've gotten a little chicken with age.   Maybe when my daughters decide they want to get their ears pierced, I'll go with them.  Think they'll hold my hand?

   

rubblework

I had the pleasure of testing out Kathy's latest pattern, the Rubblework Scarf.  With both kiddos underfoot, and the usual interruptions, I picked out the fabrics, ironed, cut and sewed the whole shebang in about 4 hours, probably closer to 3.  Picking out the fabrics took the longest, but that is so fun, who really minds that part?

I had a blast making this project, it totally boosted my SMCL (Sewing Machine Confidence Level), and I now have a fantastic gift for a certain someone's birthday.  The scarf can be made casual or dressy, seasonal or whimsical, depending on what fabrics are used.  I love that. 

Updated to add: The floral is Michael Miller's Funky Flower - now discontinued, sorry!, the red/burgundy is a heavier, denim-like decorator fabric from my Rose Bowl windfall, the orange geometric is an unidentified fat quarter, the pink is a batik, and the backing is a Debbie Mumm flannel that I bought years ago, also now discontinued.

Rubblework, rubblework, rubblework.  Isn't that the greatest name?  So much fun to say, even more fun to make.

l is for lists

I like lists.  Grocery, projects, swaps, to do.  I like being able to tick things off, one by one.   Gives me a (false?) sense of accomplishment, I guess. 

I guess I'm rubbing off on Rebecca, because here's the list she came up with for us when we went to IKEA last weekend to get some lamps.  Not quite sure what the last thing is, but I like the illustration at the end.

I also like lists that other people compile, like AFI 100 or the American Top 40 (Casey Kasem, remember him?), even if I don't always agree with their picks.  One of my favorite lists from way back when I was studying for the GRE subject test in Literature was their recommended reading list... but wow, was it daunting!  I was originally going to post it here, and highlight the ones I'd read, but that was too depressing, so I found another list from TIME magazine, and a pair of lists (fiction and non-fiction) from the Modern Library.  Actually, it's more like two pairs of lists, since there's a reader's choice version, too.

When you have time, go check out some of the lists.  I've seen 21 of the movies, and read 43 of the books.  How about you?

red + pink

Becca will ask me every so often, "what's the color of the day this week?"  She was all over it this time, as soon as she heard the "p" word.

Monday there's no school for Becca, so hopefully we'll be able to slow down and notice the little things, enjoy some free time together.  I'm going to try to take this article, written by Molly, to heart.  There's been a little too much screaming and many tears around here lately, not enough laughter (or sleep).  Breathe in, breathe out, inhale, exhale, take a step back.  Ah.  Much better.

let the holidays begin

Oh my gosh, go, go, go, sign up!  It was so much fun last year, and I'm already brainstorming ideas for what I'll make this time around.  What are you waiting for?  Click, send, and start creating!