Knitting, What Knitting?

I got a kit for making these little origami stars a while back. I couldn't figure out how to make them. My excuse is that the bulk of the instructions were in Korean. Somehow the kit migrated out to the computer desk recently (most things in our household do seem to make it out to the computer desk at some point--it's like a pilgrimage, I think,) and it was taunting me in that millions-of-Asian-schoolchildren-can-make-me-but-you-can't sort of way. So I Googled. I folded. I pinched. And VOILE, STARS!

Theoretically if you make a wish while you fold them, when you get a thousand of them your wish comes true.

I'm not aspiring to a thousand. But the somewhat mindless repetition is meditative (Wax on, wax off.) I've got more paper on the way.

Shopping

We went to Portland yesterday. It was a fun trip. A very fun trip. Audrey has been going through another Hello Kitty phase. This current one I'm pretty sure was brought on by peer influence, because Audrey did Hello Kitty pretty thoroughly when she was in Kindergarten/1st Grade and really hasn't wanted anything to do with it ever since. I didn't want to go to a mall, so I tried to find somewhere else that pushes sells Sanrio merchandise. I located an Asian market in Beaverton that sounded like a fun destination, and it exceeded any expectations we could have had. It had a bookstore. I am a bookstore junkie, but I would think that a bookstore where hardly anything is written in a language I can read and understand would be a pretty safe place. Nope. It was crammed with Japanese stationery products and CRAFT BOOKS. It was cuteness of an almost unbearable level. I'm afraid Audrey and I did a rush job on the rest of the Uwajimaya(and we actually bought nothing from their fairly extensive offering of Hello Kitty stuff,) because we got hung up in the Kinokuniya Bookstore. But the whole place was impressive. One thing I loved about the market was the fish counter, not just gawking at the tanks of dancing Dungeoness crabs, or the piles of sizeable octopus tentacles, but the smell, or lack of it. It was clean, it was fresh, and it didn't smell. We bought a couple of combo meals of chow mein, fried rice and various stir fries at the deli and ate in the car before moving on to do more shopping. I think we'll definitely go back.

We did some other more typical shopping: Portland Music, Target, Home Depot, that sort of thing. We went to Powell's City of Books, which is always big fun. But Audrey and I also ran into Sur La Table, which has a fairly new location in the Pearl District. We were seeking Valentine's baking goodies, and we found them:

We also picked up the current catalog, which listed OVER FIFTY Sur La Table stores, including three back in my old stomping grounds in Arizona. That's just WRONG. Not that I don't wish prosperity to awesome kitchen stores everywhere, but I remember when there was ONE Sur La Table, and you had to go to Seattle and climb a steep hill up from Pike Place Market to get there. I don't want Sur La Table to be common, like Crate & Barrel, where it's just a mark of another pretentious shopping district. Sigh. I would also like to preserve regional uniqueness---I think we're losing that. But I'll save that rant for another day, because I've got frosting to make:

Potholder Swap Received

I received my potholders from Kathleen/Kiki a couple of weeks ago for a Potholder Swap from Swap-bot that we participated in. She knit these with a charted pattern and they are beautiful. This apple one is perfect for any Washingtonian (though I'm not planning on sharing with the other 5,894,120 people in the state.)

But I have to say, my favorite is this one. Kathleen wasn't sure if it was a moose or a reindeer. It doesn't really matter, because we like both at our house, though I'm leaning toward moose. What do you think?

Thanks Kathleen! I love them!

Doublecheck Your Duffles

Yes, doublecheck your duffles, or you may drive 2 hours to go skiing only to find out you've left the duffles with the helmets, goggles and boots at home. That's what happened to us last weekend. It was not good. I wouldn't recommend it. After not skiing on Saturday, we drove back up on Sunday. We got an earlier start, the snow was still good, the weather held, and it was actually less crowded than it would have been on Saturday. And the good thing is, on Sunday I remembered to bring the camera, because I wanted a picture of this:

FROZEN WATERFALL

Warming Up

We finally started thawing out last weekend. In the first two weeks of school after Winter Break, my kids had ONE full day of school. ONE. The snow fort finally gave it's last gasp yesterday afternoon. We've had a couple of afternoons in the 50's and in a fit of I'm-Ready-For-Spring-After-All-Those-Snow-Days-Fever I succumbed to primroses for the planters on the back fence:

I'm ready for some sun. It's easier to give in to wallowing in self-pity when it's dark and cold, and I can wallow with the best of them.

My friend Missy has just been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. My friend Janae is moving to Utah and has a big "For Sale" sign in her yard which is making the impending move ominously real. My husband and I are in an "I love you, BUT. . ." cycle. I think most couples go through that periodically: "I love you, BUT (fill in the blank) is making me crazy." I haven't been feeling healthy. Some idiot-child at the middle school left an obscene note on my vehicle while I was in a meeting on Tuesday.

I do have some swap packages that are out in the mail, though. Without giving it all away, here's a peek:

That's for a cat toy swap.

And for the Potholder Swap:

I'm going to lay off the swaps for a while. I've also decided to cut back on my school volunteer responsibilies. That's kind of a big one, seeing how I'm one third of the PTO. I need time to do spring cleaning, and to work on some projects around the house. I need to put in some time for family and friends. I need to see if losing some weight will make me feel better, the way my doctor-husband keeps telling me it will. (Sometimes having a doctor-husband, particularly a skinny doctor-husband, is a pain in the butt.) I need to get those primroses planted. I need to spend more time walking the dogs. The dogs are fetch-impaired. We need to work on that.

Baby, It's COLD

Outside:

Inside:

The snow fort is still standing,and in the heat of the day it's a whopping 34 degrees F. I'm not accustomed to scraping ice INSIDE the car in the morning, but we've done it a couple times this week. I'm also not used to wearing a parka in the house, but I'm doing it now. I bought Coldwater Creek's "Cozy Faux Fur Parka" on clearance a year ago. I thought it would be good for the hospital Christmas party, where I've felt silly checking my Polar Fleece at the door. When I got it I decided I wasn't a fur, even a faux fur, sort of girl, I didn't feel like I had the personal style to carry it off. This weekend I found myself without a coat that didn't either smell like dog, have obvious muddy dog footprints on it, or both, and the faux fur came out of the closet. And guess what?? It's W-A-R-M! Guess who's wearing the fake fur now, with no make-up and her fuzzy slippers? It's also been to the Sports Authority, Barnes and Noble, to McMenamin's for a burger and a beer, and on a quick Michael's run this afternoon.

I did not buy yarn at Michael's. I have been buying yarn on eBay. I have been buying yarn on eBay from a natural dye studio (actually, that's their name, The Natural Dye Studio) in Suffolk, England. It's beautiful, yummy hand-dyed, in regrettably small lots in alpaca/silk, and alpaca/merino, and merino, and pedigreed Blue Faced Leicester wool. See:

This is where I run into problems....Part of the reason I got the big bunch of beautiful yarn dyed in a natural and organic way was to give about half of it to my art-student-earth-child sister-in-law who expressed an interest in learning to knit at Christmas. Now I'm holding all this fiber-crack in my hands, and, well. . .I don't necessarily want to share.

Snow Day #2

No school today. A bunch of the neighborhood boys ended up at our house building this awesome snow fort:

My son is the long-haired one standing up front. I made spiced cider first thing this morning, and hot chocolate and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for five at lunch. I also came out to admire it several times, took pictures, and didn't find it necessary to break up any of the snowball or sword fights that took place. I'm a cool mom. Here's the front:

That's James, Colin, AuBrey (as opposed to AuDrey, my daughter,) and Anton and his brother Julien. They had a good time, with a lot more physical activity than would have been included in a regular school day.

Speaking of physical activity, I'm in the process of haggling with the daughter over the worth of her shoveling the driveway "for hours" By my estimation hours is about 75 minutes, or $5 in our current kid/chore pay-scale. Audrey seems to think it was more like three(!?) hours, and hard, physical labor worth far more than that. She also thinks I should PAY her for bringing out her laundry. This is the daughter who has no clothes when it's time to get ready for school, or when I ask those nagging questions like "Do you have any light-colored clothes to put in the load I'm doing." But when she thinks she's getting paid for it she comes out with 7 loads. That's 7 BIG loads--I've got one of those front-loading washers. Hmmm. I've negotiated the laundry down to fifty cents, but she's holding out for $8 on the driveway. We haven't settled yet.

Snow

Snow every once in a while is nice. It's pretty. It's quiet. But I like the kind that stays a day or two and then goes away. Luckily that's the kind we get most in Southwest Washington. We are supposed to have sub-freezing temperatures the rest of the week, though, so I think I'll be staying in. I've got plenty to keep me busy. I just found out were getting COMPANY at the beginning of March. John's Dad has been coming up every year for the Portland Roadster Show and a good visit, but this year he's able to tear his wife Connie away from work, and she's coming,too. Connie is one of our favorite people, and she hasn't been up to see us before. She's coming not just to see us, but to go to the Sewing and Stitchery Expo going on in Puyallup, Washington the same weekend as the roadster show. There was clapping and jumping up and down when we told the kids. Yippee!! (But there's so much to do!)

Resolution #2 We Have No Enemies

Work on keeping the house tidier, cleaner and more organized.

This is one corner of my (small) dining room. It's just a sample. Yes, that's an exercise ball at eye-level,and the wreath I hang on the door in September,among other things. I've never been tidy, unfortunately. In elementary school I had the desk that spilled into the aisle. In high school I actually broke my locker door off it's hinges because of the amount of stuff I was trying to keep crammed in there. I can walk over something left in the middle of the floor for weeks and not really have it register that it's there. Add to this that the main floor of our house (not counting the semi-finished basement) is about 1,200 sq. feet, and we are a family of four packrats, hobbyists and chronic project-starters, and well, things can be a little jumbled.

Vicki at Turkeyfeathers had a quote in her blog post today from the great Phyllis Diller that cracked me up: "If your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door, greet them with, 'who could have done this? We have no enemies.'" My goal is to be able to open the door to anyone, without having to make excuses. That's my goal--that and not having my husband grumble at me because he stubbed his toe on something or started an avalanche.

There is a story that circulates at the hospital--before "our time" (which is the last 5 years)there was an oncologist who was called home from an overnight ski trip by the local police, who insisted that their house had been broken into and ransacked. "Are you sure?" the oncologist apparently asked,"it was pretty messy when we left it." But the police insisted that their neighbors had reported an open door, the place had been trashed, and that a crime had definitely taken place. So the family packed up and came home early. And their house hadn't been ransacked. It was just like they left it. That hasn't happened at our house. Yet. But preventive measures must be taken. (Sigh. I'd much rather take a nap, or blog, or read a book, or knit, or crochet, or emboider, or paint, or take a drive, or go shopping, or pot something,or play with the kids or the puppies. . . )

Resolution #1

Finish what I start.At least most of what I start.

This is my primary project right now. It's the Irish Hiking Scarf from Hello Yarn in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk. I have just finished skein number 2 out of 5, and I'm still loving the cables and loving the yarn, even though I can't believe I'm knitting another flippin' scarf. (I also just finished something for a swap, which I won't show you until I give the recipient a chance to see it first.)

Finishing projects will be easier with this Christmas present from my husband, who believes in having the right tool for the job:

He also gave me these rosewood beauties:

I do not understand entirely what happens to colors in digital photos sometimes. All three pictures were taken against the same piece of vintage silk screened Harwood Steiger fabric from eBay, and it's most definitely blue, not beige.

I have already started the New Year with plumbing situation, the kind requiring an $80/10 minute plumber's visit, and several days of basement clean-up. I am preferring to think of it as being good to have over with this early in the year, rather than taking it as a prediction of how the year is going to go. Knock on wood.

Dollhouse Sweets and Petite Treats

These dainty goodies are from Grace's Etsy shop. Grace is the phenomenally talented daughter of the phenomenally talented (and also very nice) Vicki of Turkey Feathers and Pattern Bee.

My own daughter happens to be a donut junkie and when I saw the tiny charms that were part of Grace's last Etsy inventory update, I knew Audrey needed one, or maybe two. We just opened these yesterday as part of the gifts-we-forgot-scavenger-hunt. There was much squealing and ooohing and aaahing over these, (for heaven's sake, just look at the packaging!) Audrey promptly found a chain, she's wearing the pink sparkly one when she goes back to school tomorrow. They are the perfect accessory for the girl who sings "She is Drawn to the Doughnuts" at the grocery store.

Happy New Year!

A good time was had by all. Maybe not a great time, but a good time. The family was excited that we were staying home. The kids prefer our own traditions to going to someone else's party. We stock up on party food: egg rolls, potstickers, tacquitos, Bagel Bites, summer sausage, multiple kinds of cheese (but absolutely including the kind that squirts out of a can,) crackers, a fruit tray, a veg tray, smoked salmon and sparkling apple cider--lots of sprarkling apple cider. We have confetti poppers and Christmas crackers (the kind with the hat and the joke and the prize.) This year we were also planning to give out the gifts that didn't make it to Texas with us (as in remembering there were things in the drawer above the dryer, and in our armoire, and in the linen closet after we were already in transit.) We didn't quite get to everything, as we stopped by to see our friend Missy and her family before they went back to Mauii, and naturally what was intended to be a 45 minute "So good to see you, have a safe trip home," became a 3 hour visit. It happens this way. So there will be much food and some gifts today. It's just a matter of being flexible.

I gave up on New Year's Resolutions years ago. But there are a couple of things I could tweak this year that would seriously improve the quality of life around here. Nothing earth-shattering. But for now, it's time to make the strawberry waffles I promised the kids we would start the New Year with.