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. :)

Christmas Fun

Unfortunately, the couple of days leading up to Christmas, A & C were battling a stomach virus (which seems to invade a body and make them vomit over the course of a 48-hour period, back off for 24 hours and then rear it's head again one last time), which they passed on to The Instigator (he was sick on Christmas Day and the day following).

The boys' big gift was a Kinect system for the XBox (though it's not working properly...it won't find the floor...we'll try again once we get the stand or clip to put it on top of the television...). Santa left me Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Instigator got me Apple TV! :D

Then it was my turn to be sick. :(

Last time all 3 of my boys got sick, I got by without catching it myself. Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky this time. And it ruined our travel plans a bit. We were supposed to go down to Bischwiller, France yesterday to see what we could track down about my mom's paternal grandfather's family (who immigrated to America from that town). Unfortunately, my bout with this stomach virus kept us home. I guess it worked out in favor of The Instigator, though, as today was his birthday, and this way he got his birthday meal (and cake!) on the day of instead of the day after his birthday (though he's not one to be a stickler for celebrating it on the day of...). But now we've been stuck in the house for 6 straight days (What a way for my mom to spend half of her vacation!!! I feel awful about that!), aside from the walk that my mom and A took (he showed her where his bus stop for school is), so maybe we can get out somewhere today...It's too bad I woke up at 2am! I don't know how long I'll make it today before needing a nap! I should probably get back to bed for a couple hours and see if The Instigator will let me drive him to work so I can have the car...

Willkommen, Oma!

Today was a very.....long.....day.

I knew I wasn't going to get to sleep in like I otherwise would on the boys' day off of school, but it was for a very good reason!!! :D I got to go pick up my mom from the airport!!!!!!! She flew all the way from Colorado to visit us in Germany and spend Christmas with us!!!!!!

When I had booked her ticket, the agent told me that she was getting in at 10:30, and so I planned accordingly. Two hour drive to the airport, plus extra time to get gas and such before hitting the road...I figured leaving at 8 am would be plenty of time (considering she had to go through customs and immigration) to get there to welcome her at the waiting area. Oh, how wrong I was...

It turns out that she was actually scheduled to land at 9:45, and not only that, when looking at the website, her flight was landing half an hour early!!!!!! It was already 7:45 at that point, the moment I should have been getting onto the Autobahn, and I still had to get dressed, get A dressed to go with me, get gas, put the destination into the GPS and everything! Once I had finally accomplished all that, the GPS told me that I had 3 choice for a route. I wanted to avoid the 2nd option, as there were construction warnings that way, and so of the two, I picked the one with the shortest drive time.

After about close to an hour into the drive (maybe 45 minutes), I got stuck behind a truck with flashing lights that blocked the way I needed, leaving me with only the option to turn left into the nearby town. He was setting up for a construction zone. It was so new that they didn't even have detour signs up! (That's what that truck was for!) So I went into the town and ignored my GPS while it told me to make U-turns, and it eventually got me on the path to go a different route. I was stuck on back roads going speeds far less than I would have been able to legally achieve on the Autobahn, and was already late. So naturally, the GPS had to take me to the second route. You know, the one with all the construction I was trying to avoid? Yeah, that one. And I got stuck behind a few more big trucks, to boot.

When I finally got to the airport, I parked in the first garage I came to, on the first open level I came to, in the first open space I came to! I was already super late and didn't want to waste time driving around looking for a space. It turns out I probably should have driven down a little bit further, as the spot I parked in was the furthest possible from the airport. A and I had to book it across the parking garage and into the airport. (He did really well in keeping up with me! I was impressed!)

Enter the next problem...I went into the wrong terminal. I've never picked anyone up from the Frankfurt airport before (and they didn't say on any of the signs on the road that Terminal 1 was departing terminal and that Terminal 2 was the incoming terminal). And I could not for the life of me find the way to get to the other terminal. After about an hour of walking around (including a jaunt outdoors, as I saw other people going that way), I finally was able to find the SkyRail to the second terminal. (A was thrilled to get to ride a train!!!!!!) At that point I was near panicking that my mom was going to think she was abandoned and I had no way to communicate with her, and she wasn't in the arrivals area. I went to the information desk and asked if they could page her. They sent me to the airline's ticket counter to make sure she came in on the flight (even though I already knew she had). That entailed another 5 minutes of walking and being sent to different people. They confirmed she came in and told me to go to the information desk and ask for her to be paged. (Isn't that just where I'd come from?!) They paged her, and A and I finally found her! (Two hours after she landed! Although, she had been stuck at immigration for an hour, so she didn't spend that ENTIRE time waiting for me...)

But the day wasn't over yet! We went further into Frankfurt and hit up the Christmas market. Finding parking was a long time in coming, and so I finally just pulled into an on-street spot that I found. (The parking garages had lines of cars to get in!) We walked around for a bit, came upon the Frankfurt Cathedral ...and in taking 3 photos came to realize that...I had forgotten my camera's SD card in my computer at home!!!!!!!!! I thought for sure I had an extra one in my purse at some point, so I looked, but I couldn't find it. :( (My camera won't take more than 5 photos with the internal memory...) So I only got about 3 photos while in Frankfurt. (I would post them, but Blogger is not recognizing my uploads for whatever reason, and I'm sick of trying to get it to work...) So we walked around the Christmas Market for a bit; mom & I shared some Schnitzel, A had a chocolate-covered soft pretzel, and after he dropped what was left of it on the ground when he tripped and fell, he was promised his choice of either another pretzel or ice cream (he chose the ice cream, also chocolate), we went down to the Römerberg Platz and past to the Main river before heading back to the car. Where I found a parking ticket on my windshield.

On the way back home, I was not about to repeat my earlier problems, so I went the third route, which took us all the way down to the Kaiserslautern/Ramstein area. I don't know why, but the GPS took us off the Autobahn, and we ended up driving around K-Town in rush hour traffic. By the time we got back onto the Autobahn and heading the right direction, it was already something like 6pm (an hour after A is used to having dinner), and he said he was hungry and had to go potty. So we got back off the Autobahn and had dinner on base at Ramstein! LOL Eventually, we got back home, Grandma in tow, and what do I find when I open my purse once in the house?.....an SD card I could have put into my camera. ::sigh::

Whoops!!!

I can't believe I haven't posted in a month!!! Things have been pretty crazy here. We lost power for 12 hours one day; our car was in the shop for 3-4 days (and will have to go back once a new part comes in, which, being in Italy, takes FOREVER!); A got sick and passed it to all of us, so altogether there was at least one sick person in this house for 2 solid weeks; now we're out of gasolio, which means no heat and no hot water (thank goodness for space heaters and friends with showers!!!); our DVD player died on us, so The Husband had to buy a new one, and then when he tried to hook it up...our TV upstairs was too old a model for the player! So he had to bring up the big TV from downstairs and says we'll have to get another (larger) one for downstairs...it's just been one thing after another here! On top of all that, I've really been missing all my friends and family in the States. I'm missing out on all the Christmas parties, and I'm bummed with myself for not getting out the Christmas packages in time. :( The only one I got out was to my mom's. I still have my in-laws' package to finish and send out, as well as my best friend's, and a couple of other miscellaneous packages.

And I have been VERY distracted. I reached level 80 in WoW and my time has suddenly switched from being consumed by crafting to playing that silly game! There suddenly is a whole other realm to play when you reach 80...there's heroic dungeons to run, there's gear to be had, there's achievements to accomplish...so MUCH! But it's down for maintenance today, so I figured I'd catch up on a few other things...like posting about my kit!!!

WOW!!! I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for my HSKS6 kit to come in the mail, and DH brought it in one day and said, "Oh yeah, this came, like, 4 or 5 days ago. I just kept forgetting to bring it in from the car." And I was in the middle of a dungeon! So I had to wait to open it. The box was taunting me. LOL Sitting there, looking at me, saying "I'm here! I'm here! And you can't open me yet because you've got other people depending on you in this dungeon!" Ugh! But get the kit I did, and I opened it as soon as I was out of that instance! Here are the fantastic pictures:

Just opened:

My GORGEOUS new bag!!!:

I absolutely love the rich colors of the bag!!! It's gorgeous!!!


The lining and pockets on the side have origami swans! (She's in Japan...) How cute is that?!:

Super pretty sock pattern (Faux Cable Socks):

VERY yummy and soft Ravenclaw sock yarn and my first set of wood dpn's (Knit Picks, size 2):

I can't wait to make my faux cable socks with my new needles and delicious yarn! I was "oo-ing" and "ah-ing" over the yarn and petting it and commenting over and over how it was so pretty and soft....and my husband has the nerve to say "so you're using that yarn to make my socks, right?" HA!!!!! AS IF!!! This is SO for me! And like I would reward his late delivery of my kit to begin with... ;)


A little bit of Japan...chopsticks, a wine bottle holder and Japanese candy:

The wine bottle holder being "modeled":

Owl note cards, a beautiful wallet, and a fridge notepad:

The whole kit together!:

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Jade!!! I love my kit! With no heat and no WoW, I may actually get to starting my socks today... ;) LOL (ETA: There was also a blue tape measure in there, but it somehow got out of being in the pictures...must not be very photogenic...) ;)

Then a day or two ago, my husband brought me in another package...it was my bookmark "kit"! Thank you, Antonio, I love it!


Bookmarks and tea:

I'm typically not a tea drinker, but I'm really looking forward to trying the vanilla chai...I've heard chai is pretty fantastic stuff, but haven't yet tried it. (Silly me...what a perfectly warming drink! I should go brew it...)


Bookmark (front):

I'm a bit of a superhero fan, so the Wonder Woman thing was very much appreciated! :) (Someone did their homework....and even between terms! I may have a little bit of a crush...LOL)

Bookmark (back):

And on the back of the bookmarks is a picture of Ron and two quotes:

"Aren't you ever going to read Hogwarts, A History?"

and

"That's what Hermione does. When in doubt, go to the library."

Love, love, love it, Antonio! Thank you!!! I still have to make Emma's...I could get that done today! Yay!

In other crafting news....I had intended to make 3 scarves for the Special Olympics, but have yet to even finish the first one! I don't know what days my husband has off this week (I've heard he's working Christmas Eve) :( but if he's home, I'm sure I could just tell him I'm not allowed to play WoW until I finish a project a day! LOL That wouldn't really be too challenging, really, as it only takes me 2-3 hours to crochet something up. As it is, he's even commented at how unnatural it is for me to be neglecting my crafting for video games! I've slowed way down on the cancer caps, which is not cool, especially considering there's still new requests coming in and I still have several others to complete. Hmmm. Maybe I should tell the hubby to only allow me 2-3 hours of play time per project finished...that might be a little more productive...We'll see what happens, I guess! I'm sure I won't be posting again before Christmas, so Happy Holidays to all, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or even none of the above! Stay warm!

IT'S DONE!!!!!

I am soooooooooo excited and happy and thrilled and just.....I love the feeling of accomplishment when I finish something. It's indescribable. I finally finished my "Starry, Starry Night" blanket!!! I don't really like to work on a project for that long. Not when there's so much dead time in there where I don't even touch the project. (Like this time, the whole time Arick was home in the in between from Korea to Italy....didn't touch it. I barely touched it when I was in Colorado for Thanksgiving...then there's the whole moving thing...I've not done much with it during the moving process, either.) But now it's finally done! I only started it in October! LOL But I'm actually quite proud of it! I think it looks phenomenal. (I almost don't want to give it away....LOL) And it's huge! In fact, I went to take an overhead picture of it, and the camera was touching the ceiling before I could even get the whole blanket in the shot! LOL So I had to do one from an angle too, but then you can see that I couldn't get it to lay flat....lol But here are the pictures of it:



Another accomplishment.....I finished the pair of crocheted socks! My first ever attempt! I'm incredibly proud of how they turned out! I made them as a part of a crochet-along on Cafemom, and I decided that since my mother-in-law was the only one that I hadn't been able to find anything for at that time, and she's always cold, I figured it made sense to give her the slipper socks for Christmas! And I was right. :) Turns out, she was very pleased with them, and her reaction of "you made these?!" was one I love getting as much as I love the sense of accomplishment of finishing a project! (I need to get a picture with better lighting, because they look a lot darker than they really are, but here are a couple of pictures of the finished pair):



And here's a better picture of the actual color of them (back when I only had one sock done):



Needless to say, I'm incredibly satisfied with my latest creations, and am very much looking forward to starting and finishing whatever pops into my head next! Merry Christmas to all!

A Christmas Project!

I'm so excited! I decided to try the CAL (crochet-a-long, for those of you not craftily inclined...LOL) for Cafemom this month. We're making socks! I've never even tried crocheting socks before and am super excited about it! And the more I work on it, the more excited I get! I think I just like having the satisfaction of creating something with my own hands and watching it take shape. It's amazing! No matter how many years I continue to crochet (and hopefully, one day, I'll learn how to knit, too), I don't think I'll ever lose the satisfaction and amazement of watching something form under my very own fingertips.

And since my mother-in-law is the only one I've not been able to find a Christmas present for, I'm making them for her! Yay! It's perfect, too, because she's always cold. LOL So, YAY! I'm happy! :)