We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog!

Back to normal around here, whatever that is....

snowing

christmas knitting countdown

Christmas Knitting Countdown

8 of8 done!

1 item retired!

Christmas, in retrospect

When it was all said and done, here"s what the place looked like...

I"m sure your looked similar, unless you are organized gift openers. It takes a long while for my house to get over this.

And look...

My Mother In Law, DOES rock! She loved the scarf. Clashes a bit with her holiday outfit, no?

My favorite part of Christmas is not the gifts (although, I DO accept them!:) It is the smells...The pine smell, the peanut butter or sugar cookies, the ham roasting in the oven. The sights.....The Christmas lights! The neighborhood looks so bright and cheery in the early winter darkness. The sounds.....I listened to more Christmas carols this year than any other. I miss them already. I"m still humming them. Let"s not forget the taste of Christmas. Said peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss on top. YUM. So many tastes of Christmas, well.....there will be a diet coming on. rats.

Alas, it"s not over yet. I get to do Christmas, part deux and Christmas part Trois this Sunday and next Sunday. It just never ends, does it?

This is one of the little things that made me extraordinarily happy this Christmas. I found it Christmas Eve.

At Target. The best $7.00 I"ve ever spent on myself. I have no idea if I will ever decorate it, or not. Just having a tinsel tree around is happiness enough!

"scuse me while I eat yet another peanut butter cookie. Can"t let them go to waste, can I??

hmmmmm....

Did you ever wo
COMMENT:nder how many versions of thesong, Twelve Days of christmas there are? I"m just wondering....

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Merry Christmas, Dear Bloggers!

"To you and yours, from me and mine!"

~Ted Baxter

To the non-Christmas-ers..... Happy Thursday!

Knit, eat, hug your loved one! Be happy!

Have some egg nog?

It looks like Santa already stopped here. But there is more to stuff under the tree. Today will include some last minute shopping, a bit of wrapping and some visiting. I hope your day is stuffed full with gifts, good food and loved ones, whether or not you celebrate Christmas!

xoxo

A palatte of colors!

My dining room was temporarily transformed into a painters studio last night as I made some gifts for the girls at work. Here are some of them..

And the rest of them...

I was struck by the inspiration and thought I"d run with it. Of course, in due Christmas fashion, I did not make one for myself. Deluding myself by saying, "Oh, I"ll make one for me later" HA! It will never happen! I can almost guarantee it! They are each about inches long by 3 inches high, so you can have a feel of their size.

Pssst....my favorite is the one on the bottom.

Tonight, will be weave in the ends night to finish up the MIL rocks scarf!

Is it Christmas already, she asks??

Last night at Knitsmiths, a Santa in the form of a crazy daisy presented me with this.

I must have been a good girl this year!

Let"s have a close-up of the little poopers face, shall we?

My, My, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, didn"t they?

Thank you Miss Kerstin for making my day.

And then, as if pooping sheep were not enough, A Knitfrog hands me this..

She made a wonderful, warm, well....Lush headband from this and so will I! This is Classic Elite Lush. Lush is an understatement. It is heaven!! Thank you, Johanna! I can"t wait to get started on it! Ahhh, but that will be post Christmas knitting!

Enjoy your day. Make cookies, wrap presents, shop, but don"t forget to appreciate your family and friends. That"s important, isn"t it?

Nick Nack Paddy Whack

Well, I"ve been on a quest ever since Jez and Jonny B left me the cryptic message on my blog board about my site being a "google whack". I wasn"t sure if I was being complimented or insulted! I hate it when that happens! So, after a fun little search (on what else, but google) I"ve come up with this site. http://www.unblinking.com/heh/googlewhack.htm. Who knew? So, a google whack is a google search that brings up only one site. Cool, no?

And in annoying news, I"ve been hacked. Our comcast account mail was hijacked. The mail was being forwarded to a yahoo account that I don"t have. Merry Christmas, I stole your mail! Better than stealing my money!

4 more days........ugh....

Dream Weaver!

I wish I had Too Much Time on My Hands! What"s a girl to do when she wants to bake cookies but is feeling a tad rushed for time?

Tub "O Cookie Dough to the rescue!

5 pounds of cookie dough from our nearest Bulk store, thank you very much. Thank goodness for the poppin fresh guy!

Sure! I"ve been knitting! I"ve been whittling away on My Mother In Law Rocks Scarf! (MMILR) I just didn"t think you"d want to hear every day.....5 more rows done......18 more! 39 1/2 done!!! So, it"s almost done. I guess I have to now decide when enough is enough. Kind of a hard call! Will she wrap the scarf? Or will she let it hang? Who knows? If only I had a crystal ball! It would probably look like a yarn ball though, don"t you agree?

Lots and lots of ends to weave. I will be the Dream Weaver! I believe it can get me through the night! Dream Weaver, I believe we can reach the morning light. Sure.....with all those ends to weave. I"ll BE up all night!

Christmas is coming, are you ready? Happy Hanukkah, if you wish!

The Village of Sandy

I wonder no more, Thanks to Mary. I now know that there are plenty of versions of The 12 Days Of Christmas. If you have not read her response to it, check out the comments in yesterday"s post! I submit that it may be too many. My Dad, when I was a kid, used to sing a version of it that always had things like.....5 French Fries! 4 Schlitz Beers, 3 Pretzels....well, you get the drift! Funny now. But then? Um....NO! This often led to a Christmas Eve war between my father and my grandmother. Ahhhh, the memories of the holidays!

Every year, Thanksgiving weekend, I set up our Christmas Village.

It looks something like this. But usually with more "snow", which I keep forgetting to replenish. My point in telling you this is that I found this at the store this weekend.

This is by far my favorite piece of the whole village! A nun feeding the seagulls, in case you don"t want to believe your eyes! Maybe, just maybe! She is singing. Like the Nuns on Sound of Music. Or....maybe she"s singing one of the many versions of 12 days of Christmas. As long as there are no french fries in her version, we are all set!

All Points Bulletin!

Have you seen this mouse?

Mr. Mousie is approximately 1 1/2 inches long. He is stuffed with catnip. Santa is searching frantically for him. He must be on the sleigh on Christmas Eve. He is known to hang around with some shady characters, mainly one named Figaro.

Figaro is quoted to say, "Who, ME???"

Mr. Mousie was last seen in the vicinity of the Hurley dining room, in a pile of Christmas gifts.

If you know the whereabouts of Mr. Mousie, please return him safely!

Thank you!

move your stash

Great Stash Redistribution Project

Monday already??

Hidyho Neighbors! Back from a wonderful weekend up North. When the alarm went off this morning, I thought it was a cruel joke being played by hubby. Didn"t I just close my eyes? Here"s the updated winter view of the lake.

Not so tropical looking anymore, is it? It was so C-C-C-C-Cold up there. How cold? I don"t know. VERY. We shopped til we dropped. And if I were to have my camera with me, it would have looked a bit like this. http://www.phillyburbs.com/holidays/gifts/black/Black.gif. But with no baby. That was me crying. It hurts to open the wallet so freely! And if I had my camera, you would have seen the most wonderful snow covered view of Mount Washington. It was truly spectacular and inspiring. Inspiring to do what, I"m not sure yet. I"M not going to climb it, so it better just stop looking at me! However, due to the modern miracle called the internet, here"s an idea of what it looked like. http://w3.gwis.com/~fawcett/ski-16.jpg. We then dined in comfort at the Christmas Farm Inn.

We spent lots of money, knit a lot, ate well, shivered and then drove home in a snowstorm. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Back tothe real world.

On the bright side, look what I had waiting in the mailbox for me when I got home.

This yarn is a delight to the senses. It is Classic Elite Inca Alpaca. What is it destined to be? It rhymes with Bell. And it is scheduled for post Christmas knitting. Other people may be at the malls returning stuff, but I will be knitting a bell!

mini vacation!

I"m off for a girls weekend! My friend, her daughter, Bethany and I will be staying at her lake house for a weekend of holiday shopping, knitting, relaxing, talking, laughing, fun, fellowship and food. Sound good? Wanna come? This is where I"m going..

Freedom, New Hampshire. Of course, it will look a little different. No leaves on the trees and mountains of snow and ice. Think WHITE! I"ll leave my bathing suit home this time around and pack my boots and mittens. Hopefully we"ll get in some sledding too! I must shop though. The Christmas countdown is strangling me a bit!

Happy Weekend to you! See ya Monday!!! Don"t do anything I wouldn"t do!!

I found it!

After work yesterday, I headed to Walmart and officially opened the Christmas shopping season in the Hurley household. These 3 little bags not only hold lots of bargains, but they hold the hope of the season. Hoping I can get it all done!

Then it was on to Joe"s Pizza. Can"t be expected to cook after a long and grueling shopping session, can I? Joe"s has been decreed as Derek"s new favorite pizza place. Okay. Joes" it is. As you walk in, it"s like stepping back in time. The only sign in the window is one that says PIZZA. I guess you don"t need to know that it"s Joe"s. Inside, there are woodchips covering the floor, and 5 old time booths. The cash register is the old one that dings when you push the keys and the dollar or cents pop up. There is no menu on the wall. They sell Pizza. There is one guy working there. Is he Joe? It"sa mystery.They open when they darn well feel like it. Usually between 5 and 6 pm. And they stay open until they sell the out of the dough made for that day. But they have the thinnest, yummiest pizza around. Thanks Joe, whoever you are!

The evening was topped off with tree shopping. Most people do speed walking or running for exercise. We chose to do speed tree shopping. We pulled up at the Christmas tree place ($16 any tree, it"s worth it to travel 35 minutes there ) and they tell us that they close at 8:00. Look at the watch. It"s 8:10. Hmmmm....Christmas tree attendant/elf in disguise gives us the nod to go ahead. We speed shop through the tree lot. "how about this one?" "too flat" "this one?" "too tall" "this?" "too short" "hon?" "THAT"S IT!" Pay, leave. It"s 8:25 when we leave the lot.

It will sit on my porch until next week, wafting it"s Christmas scent over me when I pass it. Thanks, I needed that!

The blues

Today I feel as if my brain is hearing things differently. Kinda like this...

Andy: I"m going to leave early for work today.

Inside my head: blahblahblahblahblah

Andy: could you put on the water for coffee?

What I hear: blahblahblahblahblah

Or maybe it"s more like the adults talking in Charlie Brown and the Peanuts.....WhaaWhaaaWhaa Whaa Wha. Maybe I should just gather up my blankie and go back to bed for a couple of days.

Bethany came home with this pin last week and I think it applies here. Loosely translated, (from German, of which I speak NONE, but she told me so) it says.....Is it Friday Yet??? Appropriate.

The kids have no school for the third day. I suppose having all the sidewalks blocked with snow mountains has a lot to do with the decision. Maybe this is the cause of my blahness. Jealousy. Can"t be jealous without showing it, my mother always said!

Go have a blah day. Or a good one.

I love this meece to piece-s!

My Christmas knitting took a walk on t he wild side last night when I found myself knitting a rodent. Yes, that"s right. A mouse. Well, the cat of the house must have a Christmas gift too, doesn"t he??

This little guy was fun to knit up. Took only about an hour and a half. Maybe not even that long. I can"t even remember. It was last night, after all. Do you expect me to remember everything?? I got the pattern here. Go make your kitty one. I wouldn"t recommend it for the hubby, though. Unless he"s into that sort of thing. Mr. Mousie will get stuffed with catnip on Christmas eve and hidden away so the catnip radar that we call a cat will not suspect a thing. Please dont" tell him. I want him to be surprised. Oh geez, he"s looking over here. You know....the C-A-T. I hope he can"t read.

The pattern on this little guy is so pretty. Here"s a closeup of his bod.

Cool, eh? He"s a looker!

Here"s his majesty during the snowstorm, looking out at all the white stuff. But wait! What"s that?? See the birdie? Looks like lunch to him! Guess how much snow we ended up with. Go ahead. Guess! (jeapardy type music is inserted here) 32 inches!!!!!!!!!!! WOWZA!

Helping me to get some Christmas cheer this weekend was A Muppet Christmas Carol, A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and National Lampoon"s Christmas Vacation. Some of my perennial favorites. Now if I could only get that Christmas spirit to want to go to the mall. There"s shopping to do. I have a feeling that the online businesses will be hearing from me!

No "Mo Snow knitting!

What"s a girl to do when she is snowed in for 2 days? Why, finish up some Christmas knitting, of course. 2 more done. The needles were flying this weekend, I"ll tell you!

First up.....Mittens, in Mountain Colors, ladyslipper colorway. Do I have to say it?? My favorite yarn.....EVER.

Finished! Booga Bag number 4! This kureyon is so pretty! These bags are quite addictive once begun!

Here"s some things I"m thinking about. See the tops of the mittens? They don"t quite match. I have a problem with things that come in twos. I can"t ever get them to look the same. I am debating whether to block the heck out of the mittens, turn my head and don"t look anymore or to take out the narrower one and do over. Blech. I don"t know......What would you do? WWKD?? What would knitters do??

And, Booga J makers, how do you keep your icord handle from tying into knots in the washing machine? I keep stopping the washer to untie the knots but it tangles anyway and then ends up thick and thin. Inconsistent handles. Get a grip!

Here"s a look down my street today when I came home from work. Yes, I had to work. Even if the world did not exist anymore, they would not cancel work! School was cancelled and they do not have any tomorrow either. Lucky kids.

Free Snow! Help Yourself! Want a white Christmas in a box? Let me know, I"ll box some up and send it your way! No problem!

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it. I wish for snow every December to get me in the Christmas mood. 2 feet of snow and counting! It has been snowing since Friday evening and it doesn"t show signs of stopping. (song reference!!) Good thing I"ve got plenty of knitting to keep me happy, or cabin fever may just set in. It may set in anyway sometime today, but don"t worry, plenty of shoveling will take care of that. I usually do not lift a shovel, but it is so much that I will feel bad for poor hubby! I may just have to pitch in. Drats.

Please excuse the mitten in the shot. I"m not going to go back out there and retake the photo shoot. This is a shot from my front door. See my car? You can see a bit of the blue still there. Oy! The whole front is covered! Hubby"s work van reminds me of the MC Hammer haircut!

Again with a mitten shot. This is looking down our front steps. Do you see any steps there? Where is Sven when you need him?

Birdies don"t seem to mind. This seems to be the local hangout for this gang of birds lately. Looks like a McDonald"s drive thru. Do you want fries with that??

I couldn"t resist. I strung our Christmas lights around the porch last night. They look so pretty in the snow.

The menu around here is beef stew and hot chocolate. Please, cancel Monday so we don"t have to shovel out. Jump on your snowmobile and come on down! We can knit, build a snowman, or even shovel, if you insist!

It"s someone"s birthday today!!!

Pssssstttt.... over here......go on over and wish Marie a Happy Birthday! she"s 39 today! http://knitti-me.blogspot.com/

Not only ruffles have ridges!

Snow. In the forcast. Anywhere between 2 inches and 2 feet. That"s what almost every snowstorm around here promises. It may snow. A lot or a little. Or it may not. Maybe it will rain. See? I can be a weather person too!

The current booga bag. Number 4 for those that are keeping tabs. ahem...ME. But wait? What is that??

What is THAT?? The ridge at the bottom? See it? Geez, after much gazing and scrutinizing, I realized that I picked up the stitches and then started up the bag on the wrong side. Man! I hate that! It doesn"t bother me enough to start over, though. I have eternal hope that the felting will smooth it out enough to be acceptable. Phooey!

Enjoy your snow/rain/sleet/sun. It"s Friday! Who cares what the weather??!!

geez.....21 more days!

Can a person listen to Christmas music, watch Christmas specials, get some snow and STILL be in denial? Yes, apparently so. Have I done one bit of Christmas shopping? No. Do I listen to Christmas music on a daily basis? Yes. It is very enjoyable. For you Boston area bloggers, Oldies 103.3 is playing continuous Christmas tunes until the big day. I can"t get enough. Okay, I DID hang a wreath on my front door and on the mailbox. So festive! No, not yet. Can"t we just slow the calendar down? Please? I"m not ready for December.

In the meantime, go to Foodtv.com and sign up for their 12 days of Christmas cookie newsletter. the first one came this morning and the recipe is for Almond Snowball Cookies. Yummmmm....

I guess it"s time for my annual reading of Dicken"s The Christmas Carol. It feels like I just finished reading it last year. I"m feeling a tad humbuggy. I"d better find the spirit FAST!

Happy thursday. If anyone wants to come on over and start Christmas around here, be my guest!

dim the Lights, please! It's picture day!

It has finally arrived. Get some popcorn, are you ready to see some pictures? Okay, well, maybe a coffee.

Here is a great shot of Niagara Falls with the Maid of the Mist showing in, well, the mist.

Here's the family with the STANLEY CUP! At the Hockey Hall of Fame, in Toronto

This is one of my favorite pictures. We are in the Hard Rock cafe at the Skydome in Toronto. We had tickets to the game, and stopped in here before starting time. I loved how the Hard Rock Cafe windows overlooked the field. You could reserve a window seat for $5 a piece with a $15 food minimum. Which is the same price we paid for tickets to the game. That is Andy and Derek over looking the field.

the view of Toronto

As seen from here, the CN tower

I'll tell you, I thought of the poor people who were cattle loaded onto the elevators when the power outage happened. Ick.

And finally, some knitting for you. Here is the baby sweater made out of the knitting pure and simple pattern and Plymouth encore yarn. YUM!

Thank you all, for the great birthday greetings! I'm a little birthday hung over today. Too much cake and fat intake with the fried clam dinner. Lot of water to drink today. It's Derek's birthday today. He is 17 years old. Happy Birthday, Derek! He is a great kid and I'm so proud of him! This will conclude the Hurley Birthday-a-thon for the year 2003.

Blog talk

Here"s the bottom of Booga J number 4. This is colorway number 74, for those who wonder. If you want to get yourself some I know where you can get it.

Maybe you"ve noticed that I put a Christmas Knitting Countdown on the left. Better get busy. I don"t have time to work! Or clean, or cook! Poor me! Did you see the Charlie Brown and Linus? I watched it last night. Gotta love the holidays.

Stay warm. It is 8 degrees here right now. If it"s warm where you are, send some this way! I"ll share the cold!

My Blog Header Blog

My knitting and my life....

Snowy days were made for knitting, not for working!

Anyone who knows me will know that this makes me very happy. This is what I awoke to this morning. Of course, this picture does not show the 22 degree temperature with the wind howling making it seem as if we are perched on top of the North Pole.

And speaking of North Pole, how do you like the Christmas look around here? I"d like to take credit, but it really is a blog-city template. Click it and it"s done. Maybe someday I"ll learn how to customize myself. I figure that I can either noodle around on the computer for hours or knit. It"s a no brainer, really! I"m still getting used to the look. And I"m not sure that I like it. When I click on my own blog, I think that I"ve come to the wrong blog! By the time we are used to it, Christmas will be over and everything will be back to normal. Whatever that is.

This little pile "o yarn will soon become booga J bag number 4! I can"t wait to see it"s true stripes!

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Please don"t tell me that you are one of those people that is done already. I may just heave! heehee! I have NOT ONE gift bought yet. But I do have a couple made! Goody for me!

Snow fooling!

charlie brown and linus

frosty

There is a chill in the air this morning. When I got up it was 34 degrees. Fuzzy slippers, where are you??

I have been happily, mindlessly knitting away night after night on the Knitting pure and simple sweater. I need easy knitting and this fits the bill.

Thanks to everyone who suggested where I could find mitten patterns. I"ll check them out. And go over to Alissa's and check out her discussion of fibers. Goats, llamas, alpacas, quivet. She explains it all. Here is a picture of a musk ox, who's prized covering is called quivet. Only for the rich. NOt as cute as Mr. Goat of yesterday's post, is he?

I stopped by Maisy's diner yesterday for some coffee. Look at the cup she served me..

Now that is customer appreciation!

lights

Fall and winter are definitely my favorites. One of the reasons is that it gets dark earlier. While I enjoy the light of the summer evenings, the pace gets rather exhausting. In winter, I tend to finish dinner and clean up earlier, leaving more time to enjoy and relax. which of course, you translate to MORE KNITTING.

I love to go outside in the early evening, with the stars shining brightly above, my breath making clouds and the crisp air invigorating my soul. The lights of homes look so inviting. The warm glow coming from the rooms, a beacon to those who live there. When I see my home, softly lit with it's nighttime lights, it fills my heart with warmth. My home. My family. The light guides my way to the place where I call home.