"It's the End of the World as we Know It"

Well folks, that's it. It's done. Football season is over. And my beloved Vikings are going to be sitting at home watching the post-season with everyone else. They came so close and as disappointing as it was to know they lost, they did a lot better than expected two months ago. So hopefully that means they'll be able to build on this and make it into the play offs next year. I do have to say, should they make it to the Super Bowl, we will be throwing one hell of a party!

It's too late to think of a title

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I had the best kind, Mom's fabulous foods and the wonderful company of family. The non-blood related people, they're family too. J got me a beautiful pair of tanzanite earrings, which reminded me I still need to find a jeweler to reset my other pair. He also got me food storage set. I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going to fit everything in my Ki. I can't even call the space a kitchen, it's just not possible, one of these days I'll have to take a picture to add. Mom and Dad gave me a wonderful new bathrobe, among other things. The only problem with the robe, it's a very warm, soft, fuzzy fabric. And I live in FL. On the plus side, it's supposed to cool down next week, so maybe I'll get to use it then :)

On the crafting front I've still been busy. I finished the afghan for the silent auction. I didn't have any other projects planned, but I was trying to think of what to do with all the blue yarn I have left from J's afghan. If you remember, I bought 5 skeins the day after Thanksgiving as a precaution. Since I had run out of the blue and couldn't find the brand I was using, the Red Heart was a very very very close match, maybe a slight shade off. So as a pre-caution, I bought 5 of them, and didn't even use one to complete the afghan. I also have black left from it and the regular deep purple from the auction blanket. Those three colors are now in my current afghan project. They actually look very nice together, now, I just need to figure out what to do with it. I have an idea, but we'll see.

I'm adding to my addiction too. Oh wait, that was a yarn addiction. So maybe my new discoveries are enabling my yarn addiction. You be the judge. I've joined the forum at Crochetville and I love seeing all the fabulous completed projects. Today I got my invite to Ravelry and I really don't even know where to start. I've got lots to keep me busy and help the nights I work go by faster.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Well, day before anyway. I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! However you spend Christmas, enjoy the day and those you are with.

J told me Saturday that since we have no plans tonight, we are going to a get together some friends of his are hosting. Since it's Christmas, I felt that a small hostess gift was needed. So I made the hotpads I got from Annie's Attic. Annie's Attic provides a free crochet pattern daily and these lightbulb hotpads were featured a few days ago. Of course, I may have been just looking for a reason to make them :-)

I really like how these turned out, except the green one is somehow bigger than the red. But oh well. It can be used for bigger items. It can kinda be seen, the green has silver thread mixed in and the red has gold.

Too funny not to share

I got this forwarded to me today and I have to share it. I have sincere empathy for those taking the calls 'cause I know I've gotten some fun ones too. Just not quite this funny.

More Craftiness

Picture this: I'm sitting at home working (I have a part time job taking inbound sales calls, thankfully the company offers this at home!) and as I am taking calls I'm working on the afghan I plan to auction in April. Suddenly, I get the bright idea that I want to give snowflakes to some of my co-workers. But hey, it's all good because I already have seven done. I only need about 20 total and I have about a week and a half to do them. And they don't take me long. As long as people aren't calling and throwing off my counting.

So, I got out my crochet thread, the little crochet hook (the one that always makes the one I normally work with feel huge after) and I started working. Oh yeah, and I also decided they needed to be sparkly and that would be done by adding beads. Have I mentioned that I've never done bead crochet before? It really wasn't that difficult.

Then, I got the bright idea that one co-worker wasn't going to get a snowflake. Instead, since this co-worker has had some stress recently, I thought I would make her something else. I found a pattern for a crochet reindeer at LionBrand. And I've spent a good portion of this week working on that. And, it's finally done! So I can go back to the 5 1/2 hour afghan that's already been longer than 5 1/2 hours. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is the reindeer and snowflakes.

I do have to say, I am very please with myself regarding the reindeer. It's the first crochet animal I've done and I think it turned out well. The biggest issue I had was attaching the pieces.

Sweeny Todd- a review with no spoilers

Last night J, my parents and I went to see Sweeny Todd starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall. I recommend seeing this movie. Overall, I really liked this movie. That said, it was just dark enough that I wouldn't want to buy the movie. But it was good. The actors were all amazing and were perfectly cast. Tim Burton did a fabulous job directing this. The contrasts between the happy times and sad times were beautifully done. The singing was done similar to Chicago, used as part of the diaglogue. The only complaint I really had regarding the singing was the character Joanna. She was a soprano (at least, to my tone deaf ears she was) and Timothy Burton (or whoever) had her in the higher pitches for most of her song.

On a side note, thanks to the Internet Movie Data Base, I currently am remembering Timothy Spall is the actor and I don't have to refer to him as the actor who played Peter Pettigrew in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. However, I think going forward I will never be able to stop picturing him as a rat.

I've Been a Very Busy Bee

Ok, make that a busy crafty critter! I finally finished J's blanket. It's only been in the works for the last 9 months or more. But in between that, I had a baby blanket come up. And a hat. And I decided I wanted a covering for my toilet tank and I wanted to make it so it would semi-match the shower curtain. And I had to finish J's blanket as I was just itching to start my new project, a crochet afghan with a nice big hook. This one will be available to bid on and will hopefully be done very quickly. Since I've been so busy, I thought I'd share the fruits (ok, yarns) of my labor with everyone.



1st view of J's afghan.





This has a better view of the edging. J says it looks to him like confetti and was done with all three colors together.






The covering I made for my toilet tank. My shower curtain is a navy blue with an suns, moons and stars in an antique gold type color.





Someone I know was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She was told that the type she had was a rare type, but if one is going to get this nasty disease, the kind she had was the best type to get. As a precaution, she is going through chemo-therapy. She's not sure if her hair will fall out or not, so I thought I would make her a hat just in case. This is the first time I've ever made one, and it turned out pretty good.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

But the Fire is so Delightful. Oh wait, that's not the weather, at least not here. And the only fire that could be a possibility for me is from my candles. The weather is actually very nice right now. It's cooled down, which means people don't laugh at me for being stubborn and having my AC off when it's 80 out. In my defense, the humidity has been lower, so it hasn't really been that bad having the AC off either. The nights have gotten cooler, the other morning I woke up to high 40's.

While I've been enjoying the weather, I've also been very very busy. Working two jobs and trying to fit sleep in does tend to do that to a person. But in between all of that, I've also managed to set up a website for my silent auction. This site is called Ride to Erase MS and will allow people to preview items that will be available for bidding on. Right now there's no items, I'm sad to say. But I'm working on it! I started a crochet blanket that I'm going to auction off and will hopefully have that finished soon since I'm using one of my awesome new, huge hooks.

I think the best news about that right now, though, comes from Tuesday's hockey game. My work often offers subsidized tickets to events and a few months ago we were offered tickets to 2 Tampa Bay Lightning games for less than the face value of 1 of those games. This past Tuesday was the second game and, since the tickets were from work, it's a good chance that each of the parties in our section contained at least one person from my company. Now, since my company has many many people on payroll for this campus alone, I think the chances that I actually know the person are less than .01 percent. Anyway, during one of the intermissions, J happened to look up and noticed a staff member on the catwalk trying to get someone's attention. Turned out the person he was trying to get to notice him was a lady sitting in the row in front of us. She said that was her son, and our conversation evolved. As part of my begging and pleading for auction items, I have a letter all printed out for the Lightning, I just haven't sent it yet. Even better, this woman's son works on the entertainment crew and she passed my letter onto him. He's going to see what he can do to hook me up. I just love connections!

Allright poppets, I'm going to stop rambling now while I can still make sense. I think J may have shared his cold with me. But I'm not sure since it doesn't feel like a cold and I have no idea what it does feel like except maybe a little bit of everything. I've already slept two hours this afternoon and I need to eat something and make a phone call so I can go back to sleep. Enjoy your weather wherever you are!