While Richard has the kids out for lunch and some errands, and I'm home alone, in a blissfully quiet house, I should really be doing something productive, right? A shower? A nap? Basking in the warm sun knitting something? Naaah.

But I have missed blogging this week. And taking pictures.. so I have a few to share now that I finally bought a new battery.

We are slightly addicted to this amazingly easy recipe in my Moosewood Simple Suppers book, roasted ratatouille. We've enjoyed it two weekends in a row with fresh crusty bread on the side. Its a really good thing the kids don't like it.. all the more for myself and Richard!

I learned to crochet. Or rather, I taught myself to crochet.

I fell, completely in love with this one image on flickr, and knew I needed to learn as soon as possible. I spent a day with scraps and a hook and learned. Then I spent another day figuring out the pattern. Now I've gone and bought a boatload of acrylic yarn to make a throw for my knitting chair.  While I'm not a big fan on the acrylic yarn.. I needed something inexpensive, and that can withstand the abuse of small children, not to mention able to be subjected to multiple washings because of said abuse by children.  I'm loving the colors and the rhythm, though I'm not very fast at this. I guess that comes with time?   And before anyone asks, no, I haven't given up knitting. I still prefer it. But I cannot fathom the amount of time it would take to knit a throw unless at a super bulky gauge.

Now, I'm going to go out and crochet in the sun for a bit while the house is still so calm.

In a few days, on Sunday to be exact, I will celebrate my first annual 39th birthday. This is a big milestone, no? Well, maybe it isn't since I plan to celebrate the same birthday every year from here on out.

So I'd like to entertain a little reversal here, and have a little contest. No answering questions, no donations to charities, just leave a comment telling me about a favorite birthday present you've received. I'll pick one at random on Sunday, November 4th and put together a little surprise package for the winner. See, as much as I love receiving surprises.. I adore putting together surprises for others. If the winner is a knitter or spinner, perhaps you'll get a nice fibery surprise in the mail. If you're not, maybe an Amazon or iTunes gift certificate... I have lots of ideas!

And here, I'll get you started. What is my favorite birthday present? Cassidy! She was born just a few months shy of my 30th birthday, and I had always wanted a baby before I turned 30 (weird.. I know!) But besides all of that, Richard and I were both surprised, since we had always thought our path to parenthood would be a difficult one. We were looking at facing lengthy and heartbreaking fertility cycles.. then there it was.. a positive pregnancy test, all on our own. And after a rocky first trimester, when we were expecting the worst to happen every day, despite bed rest and progesterone supplements, we were truly blessed... just in time to fulfill my 30th birthday wish.

Now, go, and tell me all about your favorite birthday present! As you can tell, it doesn't have to be a "thing", it can be "the perfect day", a great meal... anything.

P.S. Scorpios Rule!

Various links, some from my ever growing list of bookmarks..

• How to make a wall sized white board. This is the coolest idea. If I only had a wall big enough to put it on and keep everyone's schedule organized.
• How to get rid of things, particularly, squirrels. Its just about that time of year, when those nastly little critters will start chewing their way into the attic again.
• Its officially Autumn, and the leaves are starting to turn. How about making roses with maple leaves for a good seasonal craft?
• a Java based online knitting chart creator. One of the coolest sites in my bookmarks for sure.
• Equally cool, a random stripe generator for knitting striped sweaters/scarves.. or whatever.
• Molten Lava Cake. A must add because it looks so freaking delicious.

Between the invasion of germs, and an already busy schedule, my crafting this week came to a screeching halt. Ok, maybe not a screeching halt, but a real slowdown. I did get the entire back done on the contract project, as well as the start of the front portion.. but since I can't show that off, it doesn't really count, now does it?

So this week I suppose I'll show off some goodies that showed up in my mailbox, which are craft related.

This is the last time you'll see this fiber until after the December spinning guild meeting where we'll do our gift exchange. But the new Evelyn Clark book and Addi lace needles arrived since the last craft club post so I'm including it. These were purchased specifically for this project, and some other future lace projects. I'm not sure that the book is what I expected it to be, but I'll try to give a good review in the next few weeks. The addi lace needles... pointy!

New niddy noddy in action. I need some practice before winding yarn like this becomes second nature, but it does have a bit of a rhythm to it. And it was for sure, faster than my previous methods utilizing my swift or the bottom of a rubbermaid bin!

New fiber from Jessie at A Piece Of Vermont. 50/50 Merino-Bombyx Silk in the "Shimmer" colorway. But what drew my attention to it, was that it very closely resembles a painting on my living room wall - Georgia O'Keeffe's Music Pink & Blue II.

Like I told Jessie, she doesn't need to name a colorway after Georgia, if it just resembles one of her paintings, she can pretty much count on a sale from me. (So, um, Jessie, since we have Red Canna and Music Pink & Blue II taken care of, I'll be waiting for some Light Iris, my all time favorite, and maybe Black Iris or Waterfall.)

And because its just one of the reasons I didn't get much done this week..

As Richard said, once it was plugged in, he could practically hear the CHA CHING of money going back into our checking account, while National Grid shouted "Drat! And we would have gotten away with it too, if not for those pesky Energy Star appliances!"

A day late, and a dollar short (aint that the truth!)

But anyway, yesterday was my three year blogiversary. I intended to post to celebrate, but the day got away from me (A girl scouts outing, a sick kid, a cooking marathon in the kitchen including baba ganouj, chocolate chip pumpkin bars, and Carole's chicken tomato stroganoff. I know - weird combos, but I had some cravings)

Anyway, its been three years.

Heres to many more!

What a week (in more ways than one!)

I have plenty to post about this past week, a rant, some knitting, holiday happenings.. but I wanted to get this out right away.

See, chances are you tried to come here all week.. and got a server not found error? And the rest of you came here and wondered where the hell I was all week, right? Well, a router went wonky from what I'm told, and half of the country couldn't resolve the dns or ip, or something or other. Many days went by with one company saying "its not us" and the other company saying "nope not us either". But finally... YAY... we're working again!

I know. I know. You all knew it too. I was completely setting myself up for failure.

But I looked at the time available, and time necessary, so therefor scaled back my Christmas knitting by 75%, even breaking the news to the family, that from here on out, there will only be Carla's hand stitched loveliness for birthdays and new baby arrivals.
So I set myself up for FOUR knit items. Just four. Two pirate hats, felted wool chain, and a pair of felted mittens. In my defense the one pirate hat, is not really a Christmas gift, but a birthday gift (note the "new rule" above) And the birthday pirate hat is actually already done. Second pirate hat is slow going.. I'm getting there, and it should be done at some point today. A felted wool chain in primary colored Lambs Pride, to replace the over 34 year old construction paper chain that I made for my Gram in Kindergarten, which has now completely disintegrated with age. But, but..the felted mittens? The assumed key to my success, which could be knit in one day, felted and embroidered the next? ARGH!

Really how is it, that two mittens, knit from the same skein of yarn, with the same effin' needles, and ON the same freakin' day, end up so different? They looked the same when I popped them in the washer at 11PM last night, however after EIGHT cycles, one is remarkably larger than the other. Ok, wait.. I put the larger mitten in the wash again, without the one that has felted appropriately, albeit stubbornly, and it appears to be shrinking. But at this rate, it will require another 8 wash cycles to come out right. Tally up that gas and water bill, and folks we may just have this year's most expensive Christmas gift. (*note that the wool in question is Bartlett's, is not superwash wool, and from here on out, my least favorite yarn EVER!)
So I hereby solemnly swear that..

a) I will not ever again, knit Christmas gifts. If I suggest otherwise, I give you permission to slap me silly. And b) I am here and now swearing off all wool for felting except for Paton's Classic, which will felt immediately with only a mere THREAT of being thrown in the washer. Its not only inexpensive at the point of purchase, but I now consider it eco-friendly since I'm not over contributing to global warming by attempting to shrink it!

So what else do I have to do today? Lets look at the list:

• Fold three loads of clean laundry currently residing on the couch.
• Catch up on neglected laundry in the hamper
• Pack for weekend trip to Mom's
• Finish Pirate Hat
• Do last few links on wool chain and felt it
• Embroider mittens (if that freaking second mitten decides to play along - if it doesn't I'm going to have to brave the shopping crowds tonight.. please refrain from trying to imagine the look on my face right now as I contemplate that - its not pleasant)
• Wrap presents before trip (this does not include Santa's stash in the upstairs walk in closet for which I have not had time at night to get to. There is nothing like waiting until the last minute and doing it on Christmas Eve at 2AM when I'm finally sure the kids are asleep!)
• Bake nutmeg sugar cookies (my favorite sugar cookie recipe - dough made and refrigerated)
• Bake chocolate chip pumpkin squares to take to Mom's. I was going to make a cheesecake, though I came to my senses when I compared clock and calendar.
• Bake Dog Bones for myriad of family dogs.
• Dishes, toy pick up patrol, clean catbox, wipe down bathrooms, dress, feed, and play with the two boys who are home all day long.

All this.. after staying up until 3:30AM, struggling with the mitten from hell! What am I doing still sitting here? Off to check the mitten, re-load the coffee maker, and get to it.

So, I hear singing outside and peek out. Strolling down the street were about 20 middle school aged children and Santa, so I immediately yell for the kids to come look. And man did they run!

It was at that point that Cassidy, with an extremely nasty look on her face, turns to me and says "Mom, that is NOT Santa". I ask, "Cassidy how do YOU know that?" to which she replies: "Moooom, they do this EVERY YEAR just to trick kids, its silly, its stupid and I don't like it. Just bring me the real thing!"

I swear, I couldn't stop laughing.

So anyway, .. Today I've managed to get Magellan back at sea and on to his next port of call, visit with the gals at Panera for a snack and some knitting. A stop in A.C. Moore for some yarn for gifts (you'll recall, I said I wasn't knitting gifts this year, go ahead, call me nuts with only one week to go) and some Christmas craft stuff for the kids. Then finally a stop at Michaels for some more craftiness, where I also found plenty of excellent goodies for gift baskets.

Now, time for quick dinner, clean up the kitchen, then I'm attempting some candy making and maybe a batch of cookies.

Happy Saturday y'all.