Skinny Irish Hiking Scarf

Once upon a time, in the far away town of Sacile, Italy, a brand-new knitter was born. After her first foray into knitting, expanding on her years and years of yarn experience with crochet, she joined a social networking site for yarn crafters called Ravelry. While accessing this mystical portal to all things full of yarn-y goodness, she came upon a magnificent and talented group of knitters that participated in a Harry Potter-themed knitting swap. While her husband was far off assisting in the slaying of distant foes, this group became her support system and close friends.

When one of them suggested starting a new kind of swap, one that passed along a piece of knitting for all involved to participate in and each end up with their own scarf worked on by hands from around the world, the neophyte knitter was overcome with excitement and immediately set to searching out the perfect pattern to use.

To her dismay, she was unable to find one that catered to her tastes and desires....thus, the Skinny Irish Hiking Scarf was born.

With needles clicking and quill scribbling, she made notes, alterations and ultimately, the scarf she envisioned so clearly in her mind.

She wrote out the pattern with care and sent the written instructions and beginnings of a community project around the world.

About a year later, it came back home to her, waiting to be finished off and worn with pride, and now that the written pattern has recently been uncovered from the depths of my castle's dungeons, I pass it along to you all...

Skinny Irish Hiking Scarf

Size 5.0mm/US8 knitting needles
 
Cable needle
 
Worsted weight yarn



 
C6F: slip 3 stitches to the cable needle and hold in front. Knit next 3 stitches, then knit 3 stitches off the cable needle.

 
CO 22 sts
 
Knit 4 rows

R1 (WS): Sl first st p-wise, K2, P2, K3, P6, K3, P2, K3
 
R2 (RS): Sl first st p-wise, K4, P3, K6, P3, K5
 
R3-6: Repeat rows 1 & 2
 
R7: Repeat row 1
 
R8: Sl first st p-wise, K4, P3, C6F, P3, K5

 
Repeat last 8 rows until desired length, ending with row 7.

 
Knit 4 rows.
 
Bind off.

The selling of projects resulting in use of this pattern is permitted, but please don't sell the pattern itself, and always provide the link/URL to the pattern where you sell it so others can enjoy crafting as well!

I Won't Give Up

I. Love. This. Song.

Since the moment I first heard it on the radio. I adore it. And I have been listening to this cover for at least the past 24 hours...it gives me chills.

Timing

Timing is an interesting thing.

For instance: tonight, I had Superman and Batman change their bedding (it didn't happen over the weekend due to my being sick with one ferocious cold!). They were determined to impress me with their bed-making skills, and when they were done, Batman asked me if his was the best made bed ever, in the whole wide world. Not to be outdone, Superman asked if his was the best in all the planets of all the galaxies in all the universe. (No lie! His exact words!) Part of me beamed with pride and wondered if maybe I could introduce him to Doctor Who. The other part of me, the part that cringed at the competitiveness that was sure to get a rise out of his brother, knows that he is not quite ready for the good Doctor, as I'm fairly certain it would give him nightmares of Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels. But I'm almost certain that in a few years, he will be my fellow Whovian, watching the new episodes with bated breath.

I'm not known for being a patient person. (Mostly because I'm not. LOL) My whole life, timing has been a thorn in my side (not to mention the cause for tantrums thrown that would put toddlers to shame) more times than I care to admit. I want things to be done when I want them done. I don't want to wait. This tends to make me a difficult person to work with. (Obviously.) However, I think marrying into the military (which I was dead-set against for as long as I can remember...mostly because I didn't want someone else dictating my life and being in control of...you guessed it...timing) was about one of the best things that has happened to me in my life. Not only because I would have passed by a man that is an amazing father and wonderful husband, but because it has taught me a few things.

Let me tell you, me learning from life lessons takes nothing short of a brick wall to stop my forward progress and change my course. I honestly don't think that I would have learned these things without my husband's career being military. I know there's no arguing with the rules. For as bull-headed as I am, I do generally have respect for authority. And rules. So learning to be flexible and plan for things without set dates, and moving internationally, and dealing with Superman's challenges...even though I'm an independent spirit, it was NOT the right time for me to be working outside the home. And I wanted to be home with my boys. I am so very grateful that I was able to stay home and be a mom and homemaker full time. And I think I needed the time the boys were in school to just be with myself. Last year, when Batman started Kindergarten, I wanted to throw a party. I may not have made the emotional progress I wanted to in the course of that year (my goals also tend to be quite lofty...they probably weren't realistic...), it was enough. And now, with having made the diet changes over the summer that I did in addition to joining a workout challenge with Elphie, I am feeling more like my old self than I have in a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

I started to see signs of my restlessness of being at home all the time pretty soon after the boys started school. The first week, I relaxed, knit, and caught up on some household duties that I slacked on during the Ravellenic Games (my butt was planted in front of my computer, knitting and watching the Olympics!). Then I started to get active with working out, and it all went from there. I signed up to volunteer at the school to escort kids around for health screenings and special "briefings" (bus safety, the gifted ed program, library, etc.) while the teachers do evaluations on the students in a one-on-one setting. I volunteered for all three weeks. Last week was 3rd & 4th graders. This week (starting tomorrow!) is 2nd graders. Next week is 1st grade. So when I had the car last week, I made good use of my time. I didn't stay cooped up in the house. I went to the craft store on base and got set up to be the new knitting instructor (for the last year or so we're here). I went to a "career fair" at the lame BX we currently have to see about getting hired at the new BX that is nearly finished being built. And as of today, the contract has gone through for the knitting classes (so tomorrow I will go finalize all that paperwork), the background check to move forward with being officially hired with AAFES has been started (I should be able to get into the "new employee" class the first Tuesday of October!), and I'm finally over this nasty head cold and was able to get back to working out.

I'm not sure what it was that clicked into place, but I am feeling better about myself than I have in quite a while, I have more energy (I know that's a combination of dietary and exercise changes), and I am super excited to start making my own small paycheck to cover my yarn addiction (which I will have significantly less time for, lol) and gift shopping for The Instigator! :D I think I'm finally learning to sit back let things work out to God's timing instead of pushing my own agenda. It really takes so much less fighting that way. LOL

Happy Monday!

Anna Karenina

This blog post contains spoilers about the literary work titled "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy. 

I have done it.

For the second time in my life, I have completed reading the novel Anna Karenina.

The first time I read the book, it was (evidently) an abridged version (which, had I known that, I'd have gone in search of the UNabridged version...) and it was for my senior year as an assignment of summer reading for my AP Lit class.

I trudged my way through it, using sticky notes to make a multitude of notes about imagery, prose, character development, tone...all of those technical writing things.
I hated the book. Hated. And more than anything, I hated the character named Anna Karenina. The first version I read ended with her suicide and it left such a bad taste in my mouth. I could not believe how immoral she was and her "woe is me" attitude about the situation she got herself into by making the choices that she did. However, at the time, I was also a pretentious, stuck up, goody-two-shoes perfectionist that tended to have pity for those that sinned. I knew I wasn't perfect, but I acted and judged like I was. So to see someone in a piece of literature that was so immoral and the steps she took to escape the mess she made for herself and those around her...I couldn't stomach it.

I talked it over with my teacher a little bit, and when she asked me certain questions that made me reflect on it in a (teeny, tiny bit) different way, the hated was toned down from volatile to disgusted, but I was still not sold on it. She very obviously saw why and where I was having trouble with it, and told me that when she was in college, she read the book Vanity Fair for an assignment and loathed it. She went back a decade later and re-read it and it became one of her favorite books of all time. At that point, I vowed to myself to try and read it again some day, though at the time I didn't expect to wait 10 years to do so.

Fast forward.....that's right, you guessed it...10 years. I had every intention of re-reading Anna Karenina before now, but with life and marriage and kids and moving (multiple times!), it just didn't happen. But a movie is coming out this holiday season based on the book (starring Kiera Knightley and Jude Law), and when I saw the preview, I thought it looked pretty accurate to what I remembered and a desire was ignited in me to finally take on reading the novel again.

It took me more than 2 months, but I have finally accomplished it! I don't hate it as much as I used to, but I'm fairly certain that it is not going to become my absolute favorite book. (I am, however, now curious about War and Peace and reading some of Dostoevsky's work...) I do like Tolstoy's style of being so thorough and detailed about the characters in the novel, even though some of them seem obsolete or pointless. They all have a role to play, and this snapshot of these characters in the 1800's so accurately depicts people and their personalities and choices that I see everywhere in today's world.

Now that I have experienced a little bit of life and am no longer the sheltered, over-protected girl I was in high school, I found the book was much easier to read (regardless of the 2 months it took me to get through over 900 pages) and far more relate-able than the first go around.

There are still things about Anna I can't stand. Like how she was so selfish and looking for an "out," which culminated in her suicide. Or the fact that she even gave in to the desires she did with Vronsky and cheated on and left her husband. The mind games she played with Vronsky, trying to get him to respond to her a certain way after the "honeymoon phase" wore off. I just really did not like her at all. (Granted, I knew this time going into it that she was going to take her own life, and I did really try to see things from her perspective, but the moment she was unfaithful to her husband, it was all downhill for me. I may have looked for more redeeming qualities or instances I could relate to, or had more hope for her recovery had I not known of her coming demise.)

However, I did appreciate the book far more than I did before. I was able to see Kitty and Levin in a way I would never have understood before, and the juxtaposition of the relationships screamed at me. (I can't believe I missed such an obvious thing 10 years ago!) And I found seeing the way that Levin felt hopeless and how he handled it, searching for and finding a spiritual answer to his troubles and that his relationship was built on trust and logic and love absolutely moving. Even more so when it's compared to Anna's hopelessness that spirals from the beginning, with a brief reprieve in the middle, and she turns to fleshly desires and a relationship based on the physical and her answer for those things.

I am definitely not sorry that I re-read it, and I may read it again, once I have some more life experience to my name. My view of her may change yet. But for now, I'm glad to have made it through the entire book!

Mow ze Lawn!

So there's this joke I heard quite a bit growing up....

"How do the French say 'cut the grass'?"

The answer is, obviously, "mow ze lawn"...it's not one I particularly found funny, but maybe that was because I've had a deep love for France and the French language and culture for as long as I can remember. Anyway, it's significance today, is this:


Today, for the first time in my life, I cut the grass.

Why have I never done it in my almost-30 years of life? For two very good reasons...1) I grew up with an older brother. It was always his job. When I moved out, I didn't have to worry about a yard to care for. It wasn't until after I was married and living in Italy that we had any yardwork to be done, and I had a husband to take care of it. ;) And when he was deployed, a guy from his squadron took care of it for me. And 2) I have allergies. Pretty severe allergies. I took my allergy medicine about 15-20 minutes before going outside to give it time to get in my system and head off as much as I could to start with. And according to The Instigator, who also reacts to grass, it doesn't happen while being the person mowing. At least for him. Evidently that wasn't the case for me. I came inside, itchy all over, eyes watering, sneezing, and feeling puffy and swollen. Thankfully, a shower (and closed windows!) helped a lot.

It took me an hour to get it done, and it's anything but perfect, but the point is...I did it! It's one of those moments rare in many adult lives, being able to be proud of having accomplished something so trivial for the first time. Naturally, being me, I went online and researched "how to mow a lawn" and "how to start a mower" and watched a couple of videos. (Yes, yes, I know...I'm a freak...) ;) Elphie even mentioned that if I were to die under mysterious circumstances, police searching my computer would get a surprise from my google history...I have looked up many "how-to's"...lol

It took me about an hour to mow, and it looks nowhere near perfect, but the yard is pretty large, it is anything but even or flat, and parts of it had sprouted up to about 10-12" in height! On top of all that, due to living in a not-Colorado climate, there is this thing called "dew" and "condensation" that we get overnight, and this crazy-tall grass was not completely dry. For a first attempt, I don't think I did too bad...

So here it is. Our front yard, mowed by yours truly!

Has anyone else had moments like this, that most people learned such a basic skill long ago, but you feel proud of the accomplishment and feel like a glowing child saying "Look what I did!"?

(Also, I know it's been a month since I last blogged...I will try to get into the habit of blogging more often!...again...LOL)

Going Gluten Free

So Elphie has made the decision to go Gluten (and dye) free with her boys and eat healthier and more natural all around. Since I signed Batman up for swim lessons down at the base Elphie is at, we stayed with her for the better part of two weeks, and were eating cleaner by proxy. She has seen immediate and amazing results in her kids from changing their diet, and with Superman's issues (Emotional Developmental Delay, fine motor skill challenges and developmental delays in social areas) I figured that this may be a way to help him deal with things better; having a healthier and cleaner system. I haven't seen drastic results due to the diet changes (though the one-on-one time I got with him last week while Batman stayed with Elphie and I had Superman at home for a few days really seemed to help him), but I'm definitely not writing it off.

I do, however, think I may have a wheat allergy or sensitivity. Going from Gluten free to eating like "normal" at home, back and forth, has really been taking a significant (and painful!) toll on my digestive system. It wouldn't really be surprising, as I do have plenty of other seasonal allergies and reactions to various plant life and their pollens. In researching Gluten free cooking & eating, I've come to find that those with these kinds of allergies are most commonly those with hay-fever and reacting to pollens of plants. So I am now trying to go Gluten free in our home as well. It's not exactly easy. Especially when I have two little boys that don't like change and love their bread and pasta!

I have, however, found a great site for Gluten free recipes! When Elphaba was first going Gluten free, she mentioned that the Gluten free bread from the store was gross and that her kids wouldn't eat it unless it was toasted. I put my Internet searching skills to work and found this great blog. We used her sandwich bread recipe, and it was amazing! It was the first time I ever baked with yeast (which I was greatly intimidated by, because I had heard over and over that baking bread with yeast is less like baking and more like cooking...which I kind of fail at...), so I was quite proud of how well it came out. :) And has continued to do so!

A loaf of the Gluten free sandwich bread, halfway done baking

Other than that, we've been staying very busy! Batman has passed his first level of swim lessons with flying colors, and we signed him up today for the next level, which starts next week. Superman did not get swim lessons at the same time because there was a clause in the consent form about assuring the child would not be a hindrance to any of the other kids at any time. With his developmental delays, that's not an area I can promise will go according to the will of the adults involved. However, there is the possibility I may be able to get him into a swim class with kids his age with the teacher that the other boys had this past time, and she was fantastic with whenever there were any problems with wandering attention or tempers flaring. After this set of lessons, though, we'll be done with them for the summer. We'll have just a few weeks to get the boys' school supplies together, plan and have Batman's birthday party, fit in a Barefoot Path adventure, aiming for a picnic lunch at a castle, and hitting up another Medieval Festival at another castle...all before the end of next month! I am grateful that we've been able to keep the boys busy. I can't believe that they've only been out for less than a month, and am even in more disbelief that they'll be starting 1st & 2nd grade in about 6 weeks!

Summer time!

Wow! I have been incredibly busy! Ever since the field trip I chaperoned for Batman's class to the Butterfly Gardens in Luxembourg, I have been hopping!

On Memorial Day, we had the Songes up and had a cookout and I got to spend time with Kristin, hanging out in my craft room and dyeing yarn, along with just playing with yarn in general. :)

The following Monday, I got to join a bunch of the other Kindergarten parents and help with cutting out cardboard wings for the "Fly Away" ceremony we had for Batman's Kindergarten class. (The school doesn't do an actual Kindergarten graduation.) It was nice to chat with them and talk about travel and my love of Paris with them. :)

That Wednesday I went in and helped out Batman's teacher with the kids decorating their wings for said ceremony. They were so creative and fun!
That Friday was Field Day for the boys. Batman had a blast and participated in all the events with extra enthusiasm. Superman, however, was a different story. He was in a rotten mood and only would play in about half the events.

Superman bouncing on a ball

Batman under the parachute!

The Monday after that, I was supposed to be chaperoning Superman's class's nature walk, but due to rain, it was postponed a day.

He did well overall...especially considering how long the walk was! (He should not have worn a long-sleeved shirt! LOL) That afternoon, I took cupcakes in to Batman's class, since he has a summer birthday. That Wednesday was Batman's "Fly Away" from Kindergarten, and it was awesome to get to see all the kids and their parents getting together to celebrate all the kids had accomplished. I also had Batman give his teacher and teacher's aide their gifts, which I handmade for them.

The next day was the boys' last day of school. Between Wednesday and Thursday, Superman was able to give the gifts I hand knit for his teacher, in class aide, the counselor that has been working with him, and the Occupational Therapist he was seeing on a weekly basis.

That Saturday, Elphie came up with her boys and they stayed overnight. The following Tuesday, the boys and I came down to her house so that we could sign Batman and her two sons up for swim lessons! The boys and I ended up staying through Sunday and I had a few girls nights with Elphie and Kristin. :)

We went home for a couple days, but then came back down on Tuesday, as that was when the swim lessons began. And that brings us to today! Swim lessons got cancelled tonight due to lightening, but it should be back to swimming as normal tomorrow. :)

Butterfly Gardens

I know it has been quite a while since I last posted. Things have been quite busy around here as of late (which is for another blog post)!

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being a chaperone for C's class on the field trip 3 of the Kindergarten classes took together to the Butterfly Garden. It was so much fun!!! We piled the kids onto 2 buses and drove over to Luxembourg! They had been studying butterflies and insects in school, and this was a great way for them to finish that section.

A kernel representing a butterfly egg

A piece of uncooked spiral pasta representing the caterpillar

A piece of uncooked shell pasta representing the cocoon/chrysalis

A piece of uncooked bowtie pasta representing the butterfly

It was about a 45-60 minute drive, and we were asked often "Are we still in Germany?!" (I guess that's marginally better than "Are we there yet?" LOL) I got to be in charge of the orange group (which included C) and was shown by these really cool foam butterfly name tags that his teacher made.

When we got there, we got the speech about not touching the butterflies' wings (which anyone that has studied butterflies in school knows about the oils on our hands damaging the wings and causing them to break and render the insect unable to fly, thereby killing it). There was also a lot of moisture on the ground that they were trying to drink, so we had to be extra careful to watch where we were stepping so as not to crush any underfoot. (And when you're talking about a large group of 5-6 year olds, that's no easy feat!) But C's class, at least, did very well in following both instructions. (There were kids from one of the other classes that I repeatedly was reprimanding for trying to touch the butterflies. I don't know WHERE the adult was...)

C & his classmates huddled around a butterfly on the ground

The butterfly on the ground

The room was pretty warm and (to me) extremely humid (70%, I think it was?), but it was a lot of fun to be in there (in spite of feeling like I was slowly melting!). The butterflies fly free in the building, and they landed on quite a few people. C's teacher had at least 4 different ones land on her, and one even tried to get nectar out of her leg! LOL

1 of the 4 butterflies to land on C's teacher

A butterfly that landed on a classmate's head

A butterfly that landed on a classmate's arm

C's teacher pointing out a bird to C & his classmates

Case of chrysalises & newly hatched butterflies

Fish pond!

Turtles in the pond

A chameleon in a tank

After the kids were done looking at the butterflies, the case of chrysalises, the occasional display of other varying insects and chameleons, and the fish and turtles in the pond, we walked down along the Mosel river to get to a nearby park for the kids to play and have a picnic lunch.

C playing at the park

 

C keeping busy (& staying awake) by playing a game on my phone on the bus

By the time the trip was over and we were loaded back onto the buses and headed back to the school, the kids were soooo wiped out! At least half of the class fell asleep on the bus ride. As for me, I managed to stay awake (and knit) the ride back, but after I got home and had dinner, I laid down to take a little cat nap...and ended up sleeping through the whole night! LOL

I definitely want to go back and take the boys to the Butterfly Garden (and get to peruse the gift shop this time around!)...

Après Montmartre

Before we left the Montmartre district altogether, we made one more stop: the Moulin Rogue! We didn't really have the inclination to spend the Euro to go in, and it was conveniently right next to a Metro stop, so we snapped some photos from across the street and then continued on our way.

At that point, we'd mostly exhausted our list of "must see"s (minus going into the Louvre for her, which she chose to save for when her husband takes her to Paris, and Versailles; it was too far out of the way to make it down there and back in decent time, even by way of the Metro system), so we decided we should eat dinner, go up the Eiffel Tower, and call it a night.

We ended up eating across the street from the cafe we ate at the first night, and after eating, we went back to that cafe so I could buy a bottle of wine to take home. Then we went back to my favorite Parisian landmark...

Approaching the line to go up the Tower!

We stood in line for probably about an hour...shuffling forward ever slowly...

Bust of Gustave Eiffel, beneath the Tower

Unfortunately, we found out, as we got to the checkpoint where security checks bags for weapons and such, bottles are not allowed up the Eiffel Tower. I mean, I guess it makes sense, as they don't want anyone dropping them from above, but it wasn't anything I thought about, prior to getting in line. (They really should put that out there...) Even worse than that? They have no place to check your things at. So my options were to throw the expensive bottle of wine I'd just purchased into the trash, or leave the line. Disappointed, we left the line. :(

Instead, we went across the Seine and took some tourist-y  photos of the Tower from the Palais de Chaillot. as there wasn't anything else we could think off the tops of our heads to go see and the day was quickly winding down, we started back toward the hotel. On our walk, we came across a landmark that surprised us both...

Flame of Liberty

It's an exact replica of the flame held by the Statue of Liberty in New York, and it ended up turning into an unofficial monument to Princess Diana, as this was the tunnel in which she died. I hadn't looked up that information at all, so I didn't even think to look specifically for it, but we happened across it, and I'm glad we did!

From there, we went back to our hotel and slept hard after all that walking about, and set out to return home the next morning.

Aside from my iPhone getting stolen (due to my own oblivious nature), the weekend was absolutely amazing, and I wouldn't trade that time there for the world! And I will, one day, return...in fact...

In the car, driving back to Germany, I told Misha that what I want for my 10-year wedding anniversary is to renew our vows on a boat on the Seine in Paris. I even told her that if I got that, I would consider letting The Instigator upgrade my ring (which he's been pestering for since we got married!). Naturally, she told him nearly as soon as she could, and he has evidently not only already set up a plan for saving accordingly (one year for the ring, 2 years for the trip), but also dragged me into the jewelry store to narrow down options as to how large of a stone I'll let him get me...and for anyone that knows me, knows that to accept a larger diamond in my ring is a huge deal! LOL

So, Paris, until we meet again...J'adore!

Continuing the saga...

You may remember, back before my mom came to visit, that I was once blogging about my trip to Paris...well, I figured it was high time (and then some!) that I wrapped that one up so I could move on to blog about my BFF's wedding (which was in September) and my birthday (which was in October)!

The last I left you with was Misha and myself making it to the Place de la Concorde. From there, we hopped on the Metro and zipped up to the Opera National de Paris Garnier. For those of you that may not know, this building has a specific literary (and Broadway musical) significance that drew me there: it is the setting for The Phantom of the Opera.

I was sadly disappointed, though, that it looked nothing like the opera house in the recent film adaptation (though that could have easily been due to the fact that there are far more buildings around it now than there were when the film was set). As there was an admission charge to enter the opera house, we stuck to simply taking photos of the exterior (I'll go back with The Instigator and take a gander indoors!) before hopping back on to the Metro and shooting on up to our next destination: Sacré Cœur.

On our way uphill, Misha's poor feet were hurting horribly (she hadn't really worn hiking/heavy walking appropriate shoes), so we stopped in a shoe shop we passed. Unfortunately, the prices were far too high to comfort her sore tootsies. So instead, we pressed on.

Up-close view of the facade of Basilique du Sacré Cœur

I love how white the stone is, even for how long ago the church was built! (Which is really just the properties of the travertine stone at work...so fascinating and breathtaking!)

We didn't take the time to go up into the dome (though I hear you get an amazing view of Paris from up there!), but we did go down into the crypt below, where we came across a super creepy statue that I would have believed to have been once human and turned to stone through supernatural means, leaving a soul trapped inside to leer at everyone. (It was seriously creepy!) Also in the crypt was a little chapel which houses a stone urn containing the heart of Alexandre Legentil, a Parisian layman that made a vow with Hubert Rohault de Fleury to build the basilica.

Since Sacré Cœur is at the highest point of the highest butte in Paris (Montmartre), we got an amazing view of the city. The stairs in front of the basilica are quite popular, but given all our walking up to this point and knowing we weren't done yet, we opted for the tram that runs up and down the hill and bypassed the stairs altogether! :)

View of the Eiffel Tower from near Basilique du Sacré Cœur

On our way back downhill with the Metro in our sights, we came across a small tea shop. I asked about the kind of tea I had at the cafe before, and bought some from the shop owner, but I found out after I got home, while the tea had the same name, the taste was completely different. :(


TO BE CONTINUED...AGAIN....

Blogging Lull

I'm not sure why, but it hasn't really seemed like I have much to blog about lately...or rather, nothing more than a couple lines and a photo...so I've skipped over blogging it altogether! Maybe if I start blogging about something, the rest will fall into place...

I still haven't finished blogging about Paris, and haven't posted a single thing about Torie's wedding in September (maybe I can get to it this next week?), but I think I kept up pretty well with blogging over the holidays and the trips we took while my mom was here. (Speaking of, here is a photo of the thimbles I got while doing said traveling; there's one from Trier and one from Frankfurt.)

Oh! And I also haven't yet shared the newest addition to our household! No, it's not a baby (though a close friend of mine just had one on Tuesday!), and no, it's not an animal (in the same house as my boys?! HA!). It's a "roommate" of my craft room! (No spiders this time, I promise!) Her name is Charlotte!

Charlotte wearing my hat from Paris, Ravenclaw earrings (made by me), and the purple Luna scarf (made by me)

I bought her to model the neck wear, head wear, and earrings I make. Sadly, though, there are a few things I made recently I could have used her to model, but forgot about using her until I'd already given them away! LOL

And in that vein, here are some of the things I've recently finished, project-wise!

Triangular Scarflette I made as a last-minute decision for a friend's birthday

*PHOTOS TAKEN BY MISHA* A Hat for Emily for Elphie's husband; I made adjustments to accommodate a size larger than youth, and also made it reversible by picking up the stitches along the edge of the hat and knitting the lining

The fingerless mitts I made for The Instigator as a gift for our anniversary, complete with the logo from Zelda

And for those that pay attention to my Ravelry projects in the sidebar of my blog...you wouldn't have even known what I was knitting for these entries! These were super secret projects that I made as gifts for Kristin and Elphaba for Christmas! :D

The capelet I made for Kristin

*PHOTO TAKEN BY MISHA* The sleeved mantelet I made for Elphie

And I love my gifts from them (which I will post photos of next time)! :D :D :D They were very fitting!

In other non-knitting, non-holiday related news, Superman (who is showing signs of being Bizarro today!) lost his two front teeth almost 2 weeks ago!

And now I cannot really think of anything else to say...it seems as though my blogging steam didn't pick up today after all. (Of course, that's likely due to the fact that I'm being distracted by the boys being home from school today, doing laundry, and watching Big Bang Theory...) So I think I'll leave it here for now. :)