This day? I'm not really a fan, and I don't think that fact is any big secret. In fact, if we hadn't had children, I'd be happy to act as if it were any ol' regular day. Its gotten worse over the years, and this year is no exception. Its as if some cosmic force just wants me to hate this season, because every year, some heaping pile of crap falls in our laps to deal with.
Because of the seemingly yearly pile of crap, I'm typically a great big sourpuss from Thanksgiving through New Years, Richard thought he'd try to cheer me up with some "Carla Approved" Christmas music, complete with an um, colorful title...

I love it. It's made me smile entirely too much, and I listen to it often.

Now on to the obligatory pictures..

The tree.. before the onslaught

Cassidy, excited over her new Hannah Montana light up fashion plates type thingamajig

Alex with is much anticipated and pined over roboraptor

Dylan scored Megatron.

Connor, loved everything.

Christmas eve was... interesting. After waiting for what seemed like forever for the kids to fall asleep, Richard had already fallen asleep, and I was left to deal with the Santa set up by myself. Then halfway through finishing wrapping, before I could even get the previously wrapped gifts from the attic, the massive wind storm took out the power.  Yeah.. scaling the attic steps with a flashlight and a wrapped Roboraptor - I wouldn't suggest doing it any time soon.

Two hours of Santa set up in the dark, crawl into bed dead tired.. and power comes back on.

So, whatever you celebrate, or if you don't celebrate anything at all, I hope y'all had a great day.

part two...

I had hoped to blog a few times this week, but I can't take a decent picture to save my life for some reason. I'll try harder after Thanksgiving break. I hope.

Where on earth did summer go? I actually had to turn my heat on the other day, because it was 58 degrees in my dining room! I'm not ready. I'm so not ready. Its times like these when I think a warmer climate would be ideal. North Carolina? Tennessee? And if the political climate in the south wasn't such a diametric contradiction of my own views, I'd be packing up a moving truck.

The impending cold also makes me literally itch to knit a sweater. This is weird, because I don't like knitting sweaters. Too much investment in yarn ($) and time (I get bored and never finish them). And while I've always turned away from the, in my opinion, fashion disaster also known as the "shrug", I'm anxiously awaiting the pattern release of Elizabeth's Gordian Shrug (ravelry link here). Luckily, I'm a back up test knitter for this pattern, but damn... I'm cold now.

Other knitting... I signed up for Hat Attack 2, which started last week. The pattern was released on Tuesday, and I had a finished hat to send out to my target on Thursday. My first kill. Since I haven't received a hat in the mail from my assassin, I'm still "alive" and waiting for an unfinished hat from my target to keep playing the game. Confusing? It confused me too at first, but now I have the rules of the game down pat.

Its an interesting pattern, based on a Fibonacci sequence, which I usually shy away from for whatever reason.. I don't know. I despise the yarn called for in the pattern (SWTC Therapi) and opted to sub with Sublime Merino Cashmere Silk DK. It caused some gauge issues, but in the end it all worked out.

As for Music Monday... I know I sort of gave it up in my lack of blogging over the summer. However, I'm bringing it back with a bang. On Friday we celebrated International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and I've been listening to a lot of Flogging Molly lately. Combine the two and you get...

If I don't blog again this week. Have a great one y'all!

After months of having to reschedule, Beth and I were finally able to make the trek down to Loren's farm for what we called, SteekFest. If you don't know what steeking is, and wonder why it might scare the crap out of a knitter, it is in plain English, knitting something with multiple strands of colorful yarn, top stitching the "channel" in which to cut using a sewing machine, then cutting it. Why a knitter would want to cut into knit fabric is very simple. Knitting multiple strands of colors is much easier knitting in the round, but you need to have openings for armholes, right? Chop Chop!

We decided that since we are all steek virgins, instead of risking an adult sized sweater, we would all knit itty bitty teddy bear/doll sweaters, and this way there wasn't a huge time investment if something went horribly wrong. Well, apparently my teddy bear sweater is hiding or mistakenly went into the trash bin during my last stash dive and divide because I was the non-steeking photographer instead.

Loren sewing her sweater...

Beth sewing hers...

Loren cutting hers...

Beth cutting hers...

And this is what the cut steek now looks like, all ready to have a sleeve sewn into it...

And when we were done steeking, we got out Beth's shiny new drum carder...

which turned out four soft FLUFFY batts of Loren's Albert Finney's lovely Finn lamb wool...

And and... then there was the visiting of the sheep...

We had a great time! Thank you Loren and family (animals included!) Oh, and we got to make the drive down in my new van. Huzzah! Now to read other accounts of Steekfest, see Loren and Beth's blogs. There are also several other pictures from the day in my flickr album.

Lastly, its Monday and that means music. I haven't come across anything new lately, but I have been revisiting music I've sort of forgotten about for twenty years, like this song...

There was a discussion on Ravelry's Lazy Stupid and Godless forum (of which I'm a proud member, obviously) about angsty music. I tried to remember my teen years and what I listened to when I was depressed and angry and.. well, I couldn't really think of anything. To this day, when I'm pissed off or worried, or nervous, or sad, I put on something fast and hard. One would think that to be counter productive, right? But for me, yeah, it sort of builds my anger, but before too long I'm dancing, and I'm happy again.

But... someone else mentioned "Dear God" and I remembered the very first time I heard it... And begging my parents to stay up late on Sunday night to watch 120 Minutes on MTV.

I obviously recalled my teenage angst.

It is so hard to post after such a long hiatus. Part of me wants to sit here for hours and tap out a long update.. but I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to try to pick up where I left off, and get back into the swing of things.
Summer is off to an interesting start though! The kids finished their school year last week, just as Richard's office has decided to transition from maintaining a working office to everyone telecommuting. Great in theory.. and with gas prices so high, its a money saver. But starting off.. during the kid's first week of vacation, when everyday is barely managed chaos. Well, lets just say, we all hope to work out the kinks quickly.

As for knitting. Boing! is still in progress, though I've taken a little break from it. The Celtic felted bag is in hiding - I actually hated the pattern as it was slightly confusing. And when I hit a glitch like that in a pattern, I'm completely turned off. Maybe I'll go back to it.. I'm not sure.

What I am rather obsessed with currently is Lizard Ridge. I've watched Paige knit on hers a few times on Saturday mornings when we all get together and well, I was smitten. A weird thing for someone like me who tends to walk right past the Noro at every yarn store. Its pricey.. and its scratchy. But I couldn't resist any longer. And whatta ya know.. I actually don't mind the feel of the yarn. Its also incredibly helpful to my wallet when Beth at Sheep Thrills gives us Ravelers a sweet discount.

The pattern tells us to knit 24 individual "blocks", much like a quilt. Screw that. Too much seaming! So I'm working panels using the equivalent number of blocks. One panel down (left) and the second one in progress (right). I'll be making four total. I've definitely slowed down a bit this past week with all of the changes here at home, but I'm still making steady progress.. and I'm not bored yet.

And oh, Its Monday! That means Music!

Love Rise Against.. And love Little Boxes. For those unfamiliar, Little Boxes is the theme song for the tv series, Weeds (Monday evenings on Showtime) Every episode features a different artist singing the theme (see here for the most recent release). If you have never seen the show *gasp*, get the first few seasons from Netflix and catch up. Its one of the best tv series, ever. Fantastic writing, great acting, hilarious!

This little something arrived via UPS about 2 weeks ago. Because we stashed it away, saving it for a day when we were all home to work on it, I sort of forgot about it...

If you read 5 Minutes For Mom, you'll know all about their contests and giveaways. Well I finally won one!

This represents one thousand teensy tiny pieces. Joy. But the family is hard at work putting it together on one of the old train table platforms, so that if we get bored (or tired) we can safely tuck it away without losing progress.

And since its Monday, lets play Whats On My iPod? Ironically, one of the songs plays along with the Lego City Police headquarters theme, in title only I suppose..

"Calling All Cars" by Senses Fail. I love this song. I mean, really love it. I love even more, the acoustic version. But what turned me on to Senses Fail, was this bonus track on Guitar Hero III...

This is my warm-up song on Guitar Hero. And Connor, loves this song - he knows every single word and loves to sing along when I play. Actually, he asks me to play it over and over. This song also has an acoustic version - actually I think the acoustic version of "Can't Be Saved" is way better. Give it a listen.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a rant about a moronic, inhumane kindergarten teacher in St Lucie, Florida. This story kept me up, shaking and infuriated until nearly 3AM. Mental note: do not move to St Lucie Florida.. and especially do not enroll our children in their public schools.

So I missed music Monday (which I've decided to rename as "whats on my iPod?" anyway) but even setting that aside, I've missed blogging about everything lately. My mojo apparently went on vacation again. Its not that I haven't thought about blogging.. I've just had nothing to say.

So because I don't want to just throw a post here once a week with a music link, I forced myself to take some pictures..

While I'm more fond of the moniker, "McSame", "McW" and "McBush" serve the purpose. You can get your very own stickers here. And free while supplies last, so hurry!

Another We Call Them Pirates hat. I think this is my 5th or 6th one? This one will be gifted to a friend who is moving to a very snowy and cold state in two weeks. I really love this pattern - it goes so fast! Its being worked in Patons Classic Merino - on US3 needles and I'm getting proper gauge.

Now for the music.. Its not new by any means, but when I think of Boston or Massachusetts, I think of Dropkick Murphys. With the breaking news of Ted Kennedy's tumor today.. I just wanted to pay homage to the "Lion of the Senate" in my own warped way. Get well Senator!

Next week I'll post what I had originally planned. A clue: Guitar Hero III Bonus Tracks.

Whew. I didn't mean to take a week off. Its been.. well, you know. Not much crafting, or cooking, or picture taking. I am however, waist deep in the continuation of spring cleaning - doing it in spurts, as I have energy. At this rate it may be next spring before I'm done.

Anyway.. Didn't I mention new music? I'm trying a different embedded media player today since my fave, imeem.com doesn't have the artist, or at least the particular song I wanted to include, in its listings/library (bummer!) So I'm hoping this embed works from playlist.com.

I've really been enjoying David Ford. He is a little bit Bob Dylan (at least to me) and a little bit Damien Rice. What hooked me at first were the political rants of both Requiem and State Of The Union, but Go To Hell has become a favorite too.

Enjoy... (warning: explicit language, so mind the little ears nearby)