A Christmas Explosion

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Or a lovely Thursday, for those who are not in the U.S. Mine was very busy, as usual, and getting up to go back to work this morning was a real struggle.

There has been some knitting. I am still working on my ISE5 scarf, which I am starting to genuinely hate. I made a worsted and a chunky Foliage, which I love, but have not yet photographed.

And! Korknisse!

I used this modification for sock yarn remnants and have been having a grand time (Ravelry link).

I have 9 of them now, and I can't seem to stop!

These adorable little cork folk lead in to my tour of my favorite Christmas decorations. We spent yesterday getting Christmas out and I truly had forgotten how long it all takes, and how much hoisting, stretching, and cursing is involved. The effort though, as always, was worth it.

Our tree, newly purchased last year for our tiny little house. It's 7.5 feet tall, and very narrow, so it doesn't take up much room, and I love it.

Our front door. When the Christmas cards start coming, this is where they go.

A soft and pensive looking Santa.

A particularly festive corner of the dining room.

Even the bathroom gets some Christmas spirit!


I bought this wacky tree last year after Christmas and totally forgot I had it. That was a nice surprise.

The lovely stockings I made last year.

A pink velvet Santa. His suit was red back when my great-grandmother purchased him in the 40s, but he's faded quite nicely, I think.

What holiday decor is complete without a bowl of shiny ornaments?

Which, by the way, are nearly impossible to photograph without getting an oddly distorted reflection of the photographer.

Lastly, who knew how much fun it could be to take squiggly pictures of your Christmas tree in the dark?

Seriously.

Birthday Weekend

Paul's birthday was last Monday. I got him this:

and this:

Very fun. We did dinner with his family Friday night at Los Cabos at the Jenks Riverwalk. It was insanely crowded and, as Los Cabos always is, insanely noisy.

This big group behind us was exceptionally loud--shrieking, whistling, cackling, shouting all through dinner. I got a blurry shot of the worst offenders, and it looks to me like they caught me photograpghing them. Sorry, girls, but you were really obnoxious!

Saturday was nephew Jack's birthday.

And today is birthday lunch with my family for Paul and my dad. I finished the scarf for my dad and even had time to wash and dry it. It ended up being really long. Like, really long. Draped around my neck, the edges nearly touch the floor. But my dad is 6'4", so I am hoping the length will be more appropriate for him.

Tonight, the ongoing birthday celebration continues with Paul's lasertag party. Will this birthday ever end?

My Camera's Back--And Better Than Ever!

The camera is charging now on its new charger, which, did I mention comes with an adaptor for charging in the car? That's awesome.

Of course, the people from the cabin we stayed at called the other night and said, Ooops, I guess we really didn't go and search the cabin you stayed in after you told us exactly what it looked like and where to find it, and even after we told you we searched the place from top to bottom, because, funny thing--we found it and we're sending it back to you.

Figures.

But not only did I find this great charger on eBay, I also got a 1GB memory card to replace my old 64MB one. So now, instead of only being able to take 42 pictures before emptying my camera, I can take 803!

Charger + memory card + shipping=$20. I love the Internet.

Knitting-wise I am about done with my dad's yak scarf and am winding Mmmmmalabrigo (my first!) to make Foliage. Still working on Tangled Yoke, and planning to wind my Yarntini to make some Go With The Flow socks.

Pictures this weekend!

Camera Issues

So I left my camera charger in the cabin we stayed at in Branson two weeks ago. I called them, and they said, yeah, we have it, we'll ship it to you. So I paid their $10 shipping fee, and when the box got here--it was the wrong changer! I don't know what it is they sent me, but it's certainly not my camera changer. So I call them back, and they tell me that's the only thing they found and my charger apparently just disapperated into thin air.


Balls.


In knitting news, I finished my Monkey Pal Socks. The Koigu pooled horribly on the second sock, and I felt bad about sending them to my pal, especially after reading an entry on her blog about a pair of socks she did with Lorna's Laces that striped nicely on one sock, and pooled on the second one and how much she hates it when socks don't match and she ended up giving them to her sister. Oops. I suck as a Monkey Pal because I left them to the last minute and so didn't have time to redo the second sock. My pal said she loves them anyway. Yeah, right.


I received my socks too. Lovely Koigu Monkeys, a handsewn projects bag, monkey keychain, and a skein of Jitterbug sock yarn in the most gorgeous blue-green color.


I'm still working on Tangled Yoke. I am about 4 rows from finishing the main part, and then will start on the sleeves. Hmm, what else--yak scarf for my Dad, Trellis Scarf for ISE5. No socks on the needles right now! Amazing, I know. I spent all last week making crafts for my sister's church sale. I told her I didn't donate to churches, but she guilt-tripped me into it. Two pairs of Saartje's Boooties (Ravelry link), and a set of holiday ballband dishcloths.

Well, this will probably be the last post from my with photos until I figure out what to do about the charger situation. I found a new one online, but I don't really want to pay $50 for it! My camera is a Canon Powershot SD600 Digital Elph if you have a creative solution for me! ***

****Edited to say: Oooh, I found a non-Canon brand charger for my camera on eBay for $1.00! And it comes with an adaptor for charging in the car. Awesome. Let's hope it works!

I'll leave you with a couple of shots from Halloween:

My nephews, Noah and Ethan

Paul's brother, Eric: