Knotty Mouse

Did you ever wonder what would happen if you gave a camera to a 5 1/2 year old child and let them run wild? I allowed Munchkin to bring his new digital camera on the blogger meetup with Jane & Sandy last Friday. All of these images were taken at the yarn shop while we were doing a bit of shopping before lunch and spinning at my house.

Clearly I have not “photoshopped” any of them because the charm in photos taken by children are the interesting effects that they manage to get by moving entirely too fast while trying to take a picture! I’m rather amused by the photo quality and I’m planning on giving Mr. Munchkin his own posts on my blog to showcase his camera work.

 Honestly, my child did a better job in blogging the events of the day than his mom.. concidering that my camera never made it out of my purse for the whole day. Its been raining for days so I can’t show you the two skeins of pretty yarn I bought - but I’ll be back after New Years with some more photos.

I’m testing the new plugins that I got for WordPress. I’ve installed a new Spam-blocker and a linking utility on the advice of Jennifleur that will make blogging a lot more enjoyable.  Hopefully at some point this weekend when I’m through battling spambots I will post the photos that Munchkin took of the blogger meet-up I had with Sandy & Jane.

edited to add: I’m back to the old spam program because the new one wants to believe that all of my commenters are spammers and is refusing to let anyone through.

On the other hand.. the ‘alist’ plugin is awesome.. its the reason you are now seeing little blue arrows next to link names. As soon as I get everyone entered in this thing I’ll be able to name-drop like nobody’s business.. hee hee!

So, here we are after Christmas and everyone survived except my living room. Poor living room..  cluttered with MegaBlok Pyrate sets (yes.. it really is spelled that way.. I have no idea why) GI Joe, and Pirates of the Caribbean loot.  This year seems to be the year of board games.. my son recieved Sorry, my SIL sent a Pirates of the Caribbean chess set, and we bought ourselves a Pirates of the Caribbean Monopoly game. Christmas day was spent at the inlaws house playing Sorry and the Star Wars edition of Monopoly with my father-in-law.. who is without a doubt the most sore loser I’ve ever met in my entire life.

The best present this year though by far was the digital camera that my husband found at Big Lots for our son.. who has been bugging everyone (including all of the mall Santas that we’ve seen this season…) for a camera ‘like daddy’s”.  It is a very simple (and inexpensive) Polaroid 3.2 megapixel with built in flash… and it is the perfect size for a little boy, it even comes with a silicone shell to protect it from being dropped.  I have uploaded a bunch of his photos to my computer and am surprised at how well most of them came out..  he’ll definitely be getting a ‘guest post’ shot here on the blog.

I recieved a box in the mail from my ’sis’ Dragon a few days before xmas and couldn’t wait to tear into it. It contained ‘Viking Knits’, ‘Ponchos & Wraps’, and ‘Generation T- 108 ways to transform a t-shirt’ from my Amazon wish list. I went out to the thrift store on “Happy Wednesday” when part of the store is 99 cents.. and picked up a bunch of teeshirts to destroy in the next week. I’m going to be doing some slicing and dicing of shirts while watching “The Devil Wears Prada” that came in from Netflix today. Viking Knits is a really inspiring book with gorgeous celtic cables.. but is way beyond my skill level at the moment. I’m sure that when I am able to read charts and do complex cables that it will be a book I use in designing garments… but right now I’ll just be flipping pages and drooling. Ponchos & Wraps was not the book I thought it was when I put it on my wish list.. I think I mistook it for “Wrap Style”.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve done nothing but open gifts, watch ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ on tv with my husband, and stuff food in my face for the last 8 days of my son’s vacation. There has been no knitting or spinning done, and very little crafting unless you count christmas cookies and play-doh.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate.. and Happy Monday to everyone else!

I’ll be back in a couple days with some photos and hopefully a few finished knitted objects. I’m trying to post this while my husband runs up and down the steps trying to put together toys at the last minute for Christmas morning.. its rather amusing.

Hope everyone had/has a happy and safe holiday!

One of these days I swear you’ll get an actual post with photos.. but I’ve been entirely too busy to take pictures of anything. Yesterday was Munchkin’s last day of school for the year.. he’ll return to school on the 2nd of January 2007!  I was rather happy this morning that I didn’t have to get up and drag myself to the bus stop at 740am - even if I was still making mini-pancakes (microwave ones..) and chocolate milk at the same time as on a school day. I got to crawl back into bed for about an hour more before I awoke to the sound of the neighbors child and their new DRUM SET in the garage..  at 830am.  People, if it happens tomorrow they are going to have to get those drum sticks surgically removed.

I managed to talk myself out of all of the insane holiday knitting - so I’m now deadline free for Christmas.  I will still be finishing the fuzzy Feet and cabled hat to go into a box for sister-in-law’s late gifts being sent to South GA later in the month… but that’s a whole lot less stress. I’m also going to knit a scarf for the bus driver and give it to her after the holidays but I’ve torn out about 8 different patterns and hated all of them.

I’m really behind on replying to comments.. and I’m in the process of trying to find a better spam-bot than Akismet because I’m getting spammed to death at the rate of about 30 a day.

The order for the rest of the week here at Chez Mousie is cleaning and baking cookies. In my over-achieving mind.. it seems fine that I’m planning on making chocolate chip, white chocolate chip, mint chip, (sense a theme?.. toll house for everyone!) peanut butter, snickerdoodles, gingerbread men,  sugar cookies & dipped pretzels and graham crackers.

I’ve been tagged by Rabbitch for this ‘6 things’ meme.. so here you go.

“THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”
 1. I have a large shoe/boot collection but I much prefer to be barefoot.

2. I have always ‘matched’ my pjs - I have purposely changed teeshirts so that I wasn’t clashing with my shorts/pants before bed. I have no idea why this is.

3. I am absolutely nausiated by people belching or sneezing around me.. especially while I’m eating.

4. I always smell my food before I eat it..

5. I moved 2,000 miles with the intention of getting married to a man I met on the internet and ran up a thousand dollar phone bill talking to. I moved down on January 2nd and we got married on February 2… we’re still married.

6. I carry 2 ’spare’ sets of keys because I’m terrified of being locked out of my house or car.

Tagged: I’m pretty sure I’m last on this bandwagon.. but if not, and you’d like to do this.. Tag, You’re it! 

I found myself dating papers this afternoon and realized that its suddenly the 14th of the month - which means that there are only 10 days left of knitting time for me until the family gift exchange. I also realized that my son’s last day of school before the holidays is the 20th.. which leaves 6 days to knit for anyone school related.. including his fabulous bus driver who has been quite vocal about how she would LOVE a knit scarf.  I asked her this morning what her favorite color was so that I could hope to get her a finished scarf.. and I decided on two skeins of Wool Ease from my stash in varigated dark greens and possibly a skein of Simply Soft in black.. but I have no ideas yet for a quick moving pattern with a little oomph to it.

I attempted to set up the knitting machine and crank out a striped scarf on it.. but I got about 40 rows into it when I “missed” a stitch and the whole thing went falling off the machine needles and onto the carpet. I attempted to ‘rehang’ the knitting.. but I botched it up and now its all been frogged. I thought about possibly knitting an Irish Hiking Scarf but I’m not sure that I’ll be able to finish that in 6 days… especially concidering that my knitting time is extremely limited these days. My ‘new life’ and job aren’t exactly travel knitting friendly when I have to bounce in and out of buildings with metal detectors and while I’m usually working on paperwork in the car. 

The holiday knitting looks like this :

1. Fuzzy Feet for husband’s sister &  cabled hat for her new husband

2. something cute for toddler girl - husbands cousin

3. green scarf for bus driver

4. scarf for new boss

5. spin up yarn & knit scarf for husband’s grandmother

oh yeah.. did I mention that the only thing on this list that was even started was the cabled hat? I think I’m screwed.

Braving the stores to go Christmas shopping for Munchkin tonight… here goes nothing!

The plan is to plow through Toys R Us and then hit Walmart for the rest of the list..  and hurry home without incident.  I’ve got my MIL coming over to watch Munchkin while we brave the wilds of the shopping centers. Hopefully most folks are in church right now and the crowds will be a little less crazy. I hope.

Edited to add (monday 12/11 @ 830am):  Surprisingly Toys R Us wasn’t very crowded IN the actual store - though the place looked like it was two days not two weeks to Christmas. It was picked over pretty well.. but we did manage to score some more pirate Megablok sets and a few GI Joe toys. The worst part was waiting in line.. they had TWO lines open in the whole shop and about 20 people with full carts in each line.  Target got most of our holiday spending this year..  we wiped out the miniature GI Joe Sigma 6 stuff in less than 10 minutes and were on our way to the Power Ranger aisle. Most of what we went out for (we had a mental list) was still available AND was on sale.. so we scored pretty well!

I got up this morning and for some reason cannot find my watch ANYWHERE in the house. I keep it next to my silver bracelet that I always wear.. and that is on my arm right now. Clearly I picked up the watch and deposited it somewhere else in the house in my sleepwalking daze. I also found out that my electric kettle is dead. I have to scrounge up some money today to buy another one because I cannot live with out boiling water made in about 60 seconds. I had to make my tea in the microwave this morning.. it was a sad sad day.

RIP Electric Kettle       October 2005 - December 2006   

I wanted to thank everyone for their comments and well wishes for my family and our situation.  I’m really behind on emailing comment returns but I wanted everyone to know that I really appreciate thinking about us. Things are improving! My husband’s boss has been paying him a bit at a time and on Friday gave him his past due paychecks. Hopefully they won’t be rubber when he goes to cash them on Monday… we’ll see.  He started his new and improved job today so that he could go in and get settled in the new shop for Monday morning.. and seems to be liking the job just fine. My son’s Christmas presents have been paid for by the kindness of some friends- for which I’m eternally greatful and have plans to “Pay it Forward” the next chance I get. 

I haven’t had much time lately to myself or to blog because I’ve just started a job as an assistant to a paralegal in the neighborhood.  I’m really enjoying myself -being out and having something to do again.. but I forgot about how much work it is to be a ‘professional’ looking person. Thankfully my boss is a fellow thrift store shopper (with a very expensive taste in fashion) who knows where to get the good bargains.. and I’ve been able to get a weeks worth of business looking attire for less than $10.00.  Many of the local thrift shops do 99 cent days.. and I’ve gotten a good selection of button down shirts to go with my jeans, boots & blazers that I had in my closet already.  Not to mention that my boss has ‘gifted’ me with some pants from her closet and a beautiful Nine West leather jacket she found at a thrift shop that “had my name all over it”.  The only unfortunate part of the job is that I will only be paid a small weekly wage until the case we are working is settled at the end of the month.. but that is less than 3 weeks away.

All in all lately I’m feeling very blessed… even if I am insanely busy. Things are looking up (though I really still wish that missing $133 money order would show up at its intended destination.. because that’s really killing us financially..) around here at Chez Mousie.. and I have all of your well wishes to thank for it.

Don’t get me wrong.. I’m trying to look on the bright side and hope that everything I’m going through right now gets “better”- but I think there’s something to be said about admitting the way you feel, even if its rather ugly. 

 Its now 20 days until Christmas (yes.. I know.. shut up..) and my husband hasn’t been paid at work for over 2 weeks.. going into a third. I’m doing the bit where you first empty all of your pockets, then wrap up the change for groceries, and finally start shopping at Walmart because you have a few things with the tags still hanging on them (damn, I loved that scarf and was looking forward to wearing it at Christmas) and they do store credit.  We do have one present (a digital camera and mini-printer we bought on sale at Big Lots last month) for Munchkin for under the tree already but I’m starting to wonder what else will get put under there with it. 

 I’m angry that we’re being put in this postition again by another one of husband’s bosses without any care as to how we’re going to do simple things like put gas in the car or buy milk.  I really try not to be negative in respect to how someone is going to treat us..  but I just can’t help being gun-shy at this point.  Husband is starting another job in a week but I’m not sure when he’ll recieve his first paycheck. Rent is late and half of what it should be, I’m holding off our car insurance from being cancelled, the water company and I got into it last week, and I just had to borrow money from my MIL to pay Munchkin’s lunch ticket for the week.

All this and I’m sitting here staring at two packages of brand new Addi Turbos and another skein of Blue Sky Alpaca in eggplant (didn’t have enough yardage..) that I bought about 2+ weeks ago before the shit hit the fan. I know full well that the return policy of this particular shop is going to be store credit only.. if they’ll even return any of it, so I’m basically stuck with this stuff.  I was laughing about the whole thing - that I finally (after about 3 + years of knitting) broke down and bought some good needles for my projects.. and all of the money in the house dries up! 

Instead of telling you that if you need me I’ll be under the kitchen sink drinking toxic cocktails.. I’ve thrown myself into Christmas decorating.  I went into the garage last night and dug out the tree, and the Munchkin and I decorated it all up with silver, blue & purple glittery snowflakes, irridescent icicles, and various spangly ornaments. The tree (which I usually think is rather pathetic looking) is actually getting sort of cute.. Its just a shame that its only about 6 foot tall and we have HUGE ceilings - but its bringing in some much needed ‘holiday cheer’ (yeah.. try saying that statement without vomiting..) to Chez Mousie.

 Stolen from Lana

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate.. and I prefer it to be mint.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
In my family.. Santa wraps presents. In my husbands family.. Santa did NOT.. which lead to a rather interesting arguement last year on Christmas Eve. I wanted wrapped presents.. so in our house Santa leaves out toys to play with.. and mom & dad’s presents are wrapped (by me).

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
My childhood tree always had colored lights..  but mine has white and blue lights.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope

5. When do you put up your decorations?
Whenever. Usually about 2-3 weeks before christmas.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Maple baked ham.. cranberry sauce..

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Waking up early and going to the steps to see if the stockings that went down the railing were filled with presents.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don’t remember..  probably children at school.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes.  My family always let me open a gift on Christmas Eve.. and when I got older.. we would open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve so that we could just sleep in.

10. What kind of decorations are on your Christmas Tree?
Icicles, silver snowflakes, blue beads, blue & silver balls. I tend to do colored theme type trees..  This year I’d like to buy some peacock feathers for the tree.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread?
I used to dread it because I grew up in PA and was sick of seeing it and having the snow ruin my plans.. but now that I live in Georgia… I actually miss it.
12. Can you ice skate?
I used to ice skate.. but I’m not sure if my poor ankles will let me do it.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My antique wedding ring set given to me by my husband a few years ago at Christmas. I had NO idea about it and everyone was hiding it from me for months.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Family. Friendship.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Pumpkin Pie & homemade chocolate/ peanut butter fudge.

16 What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Making christmas cookies

17. What tops your tree?
currently.. nothing.  When I was a child we had an antique angel that topped the tree every year. It had pipecleaner arms and halo.. and was sort of weird looking.

18. What is your favourite holiday book?
Every year on Christmas Eve my mother-in-law reads “twas the night before Christmas..” to my son.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
“White Christmas”.. I think.  I actually really enjoy listening to christmas music on the radio during the holidays.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yummy?
Yummy. I love stirring my hot chocolate with the peppermint ones.