Monday, January 25, 2010

My Latest Knitting Project


I'm attempting to knit some "fingerless mittens"/handwarmers from the One Skein Wonders book. But I'm  really having difficulty working with the yarn which is Misti Alpaca Baby Me Boo in rosario. I didn't realize when I bought the yarn that it is so variegated in terms of thickness and thinness. Some of the yarn is like working with thread. Besides that, this is the first time I have started off using double point needles and size 7 at that. It is all very awkward for me--the 1 x1 ribbing is not showing up due to all the mistakes I seem to be making.



I'm ready to frog it all and start on Ela's Favorite Hat from the same book.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Finally Finished the Taking Forever Hat


And now I can move on to some exciting new knitting projects with beautiful new yarn (instead of using leftovers from previous projects). Too bad my carpal tunnel/arthritic thumb is killing me.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Some Recent Journal Pages

 


I have to say I don't like this first spread at all,
so why don't I just not "post" it?

I am really having trouble formatting this. The pictures keep jumping from place to place, even though I click on "center" or whatever. ANYWAY, I had to draw in a chunky choker necklace on myself here in order to camoflage my creepy, crepey, turkey neck wattles.













Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Un-decorating the Christmas Tree and a Sad Christmas Song

We have so many ornaments we have collected over the past ??? years. Some of them are from my parents and even a few from my grandmother.  But most are ones we have collected over the many years we have been married. Including ones our children made and ones that we made and ones that my Mom made every year. But what goes up must come down, so...

surveying the aftermath


the very breakable mouth-blown ornaments which my mother-in-law
started our collection for our very first Christmas. (o.k. bad syntax.)


My mother has made wonderful felt ornaments for as long as I can
remember. This is just a small sampling of them.

These are the non-breakable ornaments. The ones on the upper left
are some my children made. Young and old. And of course there
are the "god's eyes."


a penguin candle holder...not on the tree but on the dining room
table. that my daughter gave to my Mom and now we have.

The penguin duo on the dining room table. The one on the
right is holding the oldest ornaments we have. (We have
broken some of the best ones over the years by accident.)


The tree half empty.



Tiny reindeers getting ready to be packed away.


My mom bought these  vintage paper accordian Christmas balls for me
 one year. 




and a little christmas song for the season ...by Abigail Grush....

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to Audrey Jane

I wish I could be with my grandolly-baby today to help celebrate her first birthday and give her a big hug and kiss!  But I'll have to wait until next weekend when we go to the birthday PARTY.

I did not make any "official" new year's resolutions this year. What's the point...they are always the same and I never keep them. (eat and drink less, excercise more, get organzied, be the glass half full, blah blah blah.) If I were to make some resolutions for myself for this year they might be something like "learn photoshop once and for all, or at least some basics" and "take an art workshop from one of my favorite blog artists, preferably one in Italy--hah" or even "spend more quality time on my own so-called art."

I was going to photograph the popovers that I made yesterday for our New Year's Day brunch, but they all got stuck in the pan because I neglected to grease it so they weren't very photogenic by the time I pried them out in pieces. I did, however, take a picture of the remains of our lobster tails on New Year's Eve. (they also got stuck in the shells and had to be pried out.)


Devil and Angel Dollies

Devil and Angel Dollies
Egg heads and tissue paper bodies, inspired by the ones hanging above in Santa Fe's Pasqual's cafe and restaurant.

What I've Been Reading

  • The Grownups...Robin Antalek
  • From Here to Paris...Cris Hammond
  • A God in Ruins...Kate Atkinson
  • Some Luck...Jane Smiley
  • Crazy Little Thing...Tracy Brogan
  • We Were Liars...Emily Burkhardt
  • Nora Webster...Colm Tobin
  • Saving Grace...Jane Green
  • The French House...Don Wallace
  • Florence Gordon...Brian Morton
  • Us...David Nichols
  • Life Drawing...Robin Black
  • Lucky Us...Amy Bloom
  • Perfectly Miserable: Guilt God and Real Estate in a Small Town... Sarah Payne Stuart
  • Paris I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down...Rosecrans Baldwin
  • Beautiful...Ruth Richl
  • The French For Love...Fiona Valpy
  • Green Angel...Alice Hoffman
  • The Husband's Secret...Liane Moriarty
  • A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman...Margaret Drabble (short stories) a
  • The Arsonist...Sue Miller
  • Table for Seven...Whitney Gaskell
  • Outside the Lines...Amy Hatvany
  • The Widower's Tale...Julia Glass
  • Still Life With Bread Crumbs...Anna Quindlan
  • And The Dark Sacred Night...Julia Glass
  • The Good House...Ann Leary
  • We Are Water...Wally Lamb
  • Three Junes...Julia Glass
  • After I'm Gone...Laura Lippman
  • The Woman Upstairs...Claire Messud
  • Death of the Black Haired Girl...Robert Stone
  • Lydia's Party...Margaret Hawkins
  • Bread and Butter...Michelle Wildgen
  • Thursdays in the Park...Hilarry Boyd
  • A Place At the Table...Susan Rebecca White
  • The Glass Wives...Amy Sue Nathan
  • Summer People...Brian Groh
  • Beautiful Day...Elin Hilderbrand
  • Carthage...Joyce Carol Oates
  • The Lovliest Chocolate Shop in Paris...Jenny Colgan
  • House of Glass...Sophie Littlefield
  • The Comfort of Lies...Randy Susan Meyers
  • The Painted Girls...Cathy Marie Buchanan
  • The Kept...James Scott
  • Tell the Wolves I'm Home...Carol Rifka Brunt
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower...Stephen Chbosky
  • The Position...Meg Wolitzer
  • Teach Me...R.A. Nelson
  • Carry The One...Carol Anshaw
  • The Bookstore...Deborah Meyler
  • The Interestings...Meg Wolitizer
  • The Union Street Bakery...Mary Ellen Taylor
  • The Girl Who Stopped Swimming...Joshilynn Jackson
  • Another Piece of My Heart...Jane Green
  • Knitting Yarns, Writers on Knitting...Edited by Ann Hood
  • Margot...Jillian Cantor
  • Fork in the Road (essays/memoirs about food/travel)...James Oseland
  • The Baker's Daughter...Sara McCoy
  • How To Be A Good Wife...Emma Chapman
  • The O'Henry Awards: 2001 Prize Stories
  • Sisterland...Curtis Sittenfeld
  • The Pursuit of Other Interests...Jim Kokoris
  • The Mourning Hours...Paula Treick DeBoard
  • Nine Inches (stories)...Tom Perrotta
  • A Country Called Home...Kim Barnes
  • The Kitchen Daughter...Jael McHenry
  • The Best Of US...Sarah Pekkanen
  • Family Pictures...Jane Green
  • The Beginner's Good-Bye...Anne Tyler
  • A Farm Under a Lake...Martha Bergland
  • Special Topics in Calamity Physics...Marisha Pessl
  • The Lost Mother...Mary McGarry Morris
  • Memories of A Marriage...Louis Begley
  • Tapestry of Fortunes...Elizabeth Berg
  • Heat Wave...Penelope Lively
  • Sag Harbor...Colson Whitehead
  • Big Brother...Lionel Shriver
  • Second Nature...Jacquelyn Mitchard
  • Medium Raw...Anthony Bourdain
  • Pieces of Happily Every After...Irene Zutell
  • The Boy...Lara Santoro
  • Lit...A Memoir...Mary Karr
  • More Than It Hurts You...Darin Strauss
  • The Burgess Boys...Elizabeth Strout
  • Tales of Burning Love...Louise Erdrich
  • A Home at the End of the World...Michael Cunningham
  • The Cookbook Collector...Allegra Goodman
  • Look At Me...Jennifer Egan
  • Shelter Me...Juliette Fay
  • The Gathering...Anne Enright
  • A Nearly Perfect Copy...Allison Amend
  • Gone Girl...Gillian Flynn
  • The Casual Vacancy...J.K. Rowling
  • The Gin Closet...Leslie Jamison
  • Dearie--The Remarkable Life of Julia Child...Bob Spitz
  • Indiscretion...Charles Dubow
  • The Marriage Plot...Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Oystercatchers...Susan Fletcherr
  • Bitter In the Mouth...Monique Truong
  • The Future of Love...Shirley Abbott
  • Flight Behavior...Barabara Kingsolver
  • The Lake of Dreams...Kim Edwards
  • Afterwife...Polly Williams
  • Daddy Love...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Good Family...Terry Gamble
  • Whistling In the Dark...Lesley Kagan
  • Model Home...Eric Puchner
  • A Soft Place to Land...Susan Rebecca White
  • The Shadow of Love...Rebecca Stowe
  • Almost...Elizabeth Benedict
  • Bridge of Sighs...Richard Russo
  • Beast...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Summerland...Elin Hilderbrand
  • The Ellementals...Francisca Lia Block
  • Broken Harbor...Tana French
  • So Much for That...Lionel Shriver
  • State of Wonder...Ann Patchett
  • Ash Wednesday...Ethan Hawke
  • Dark Places...Gillian Flynn
  • The Roundhouse...Louise Erdrich
  • The Loop...Nicholas Evans
  • The Next Best Thing...Jennifer Weiner
  • The Truth About Lorin Jones...Allison Lurie
  • Black Dahlia and White Rose (stories)...Joyce Carol Oates...
  • Lone Wolf...Jodi Piccoult
  • In One Person...John Irving
  • America, America...Ethan Canin
  • How I Became A Famous Novelist...Steve Hely
  • At Paradise Gate...Jane Smiley
  • The Kite Runner...Khaled Hosseini
  • Duplicate Keys...Jane Smiley
  • The Dylanist...Brian Morton
  • The Age of Grief (stories)...Jane Smiley
  • In the Woods...Tana French
  • Claire Marvel...John Burnham Schwartz
  • Breakable You...Brian Morton
  • Ordinary People...Judith Guest
  • The Safety of Secrets...Delaune Michel
  • Maine...J. Courtney Sullivan
  • Started Early, Took My Dog...Kate Atkinson
  • The Hunger Games...Suzanne Collins
  • The Family Man...Elinor Lipman
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin...Lionel Shriver
  • Mudwoman...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Dear Husband (stories)...Joyce Carol Oates
  • White Truffles in Winter...N.M. Kelby
  • The Weird Sisters...Eleanor Brown
  • Elizabeth Berg...Once Upon A Time, There Was You
  • The Last Nude...Ellis Avery
  • The Book Borrower...Alice Mattison
  • An Object of Beauty...Steve Martin
  • An Available Man...Hilma Wolitzer
  • The Marriage Artist...Andrew Winer
  • After the War...Alice Adams
  • The Leftovers...Tom Perrotta
  • Case Histories...Kate Atkinson
  • Nantucket Nights; Summer People; The Love Season...Elin Hilderbrand (o.k. I'm obsessed.)
  • My Sister, My Love...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Russian Winter...Daphne Kalotay
  • A Friend of the Family...Lauren Grodstein
  • The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues of Community in America...Alan Ehrenhalt
  • Silver Girl...Elin Hilderbrand
  • How to Be An American Housewife...Margaret Dilloway
  • Little Bee...Chris Cleave
  • Freedom...Jonathan Franzen
  • When Will There Be Good News? ...Kate Atkinson
  • Don't Make a Scene...Valerie Block
  • The Summer of Naked Swim Parties...Jessica Anya Blau
  • The Grief of Others...Leah Hager Cohen
  • The Embers...Hyatt Bass
  • One Good Turn...Kate Atkinson
  • The Sweet Relief of Missing Children...Sarah Braunstein
  • Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie Girl Culture...Peggy Orenstein
  • Behind the Scenes at the Museum...Kate Atkinson
  • Had A Good Time: Stories from American Postcards...Robert Olen Butler
  • After You...Julie Buxbaum
  • The Year Of Endless Sorrows...Adam Rapp
  • Lately...Sara Pritchard (stories)
  • Julie and Romeo...Jeanne Ray
  • Secrets of Eden...Chris Bohjalian
  • Satisfaction...Gillian Greenwood
  • Sing You Home...Jodi Picoult
  • Eat Cake...Jeanne Ray
  • Sarah's Key...Tatiana de Rosnay
  • Unfinished Desires...Gail Godwin
  • That Old Cape Magic...Richard Russo
  • The Lake Shore Limited...Sue Miller
  • Heat...Bill Buford (memoir)
  • Joy School...Elizabeth Berg
  • Pictures of You...Caroline Leavitt
  • The Blue Bistro...Elin Hilderbrand
  • The Painted Drum...Louise Erdrich
  • The Castaways...Elin Hilderbrand
  • East of the Mountains...David Guterson
  • My Father's Tears...John Updike (stories)
  • Blood, Bones & Butter...Gabrielle Hamilton (memoir)
  • Moral Disorder...Margaret Atwood (stories)
  • Grub...Elise Blackwell
  • Attachment...Isabel Fonseca
  • Snow Angels...Stewart O'Nan
  • Every Last One...Anna Quindlen
  • The Life List...Lori Nelson Spielman
  • Between Husbands and Friends...Nancy Thayer
  • Songs for the Missing...Stewart O'Nan
  • The Goldfinch...Donna Tartt
  • Someone...Alice McDermott
  • The Silent Wife...A.S.A. Harrison
  • Fin and Lady...Cathleen Schine