InsanKnitty

When you take a big break from blogging (which honestly… for me… 6 days is significant…) and during that break is like the hugest holiday of the year… well… where do you start???

Let’s just say that our holiday was wonderful, spirit filled, and relaxing.

Last year at this time, we had an offer on our house which we’d accepted, but still needed to ’show’ our home to potential buyers until we got to closing.. so Christmas felt stiff and rushed. I couldn’t decorate in my usual manner (even though I didn’t do my usual this year either)… and I had to get things cleaned up immediately… We actually showed our home on Christmas Eve and on the day after Christmas??? That seemed so weird to us…

Our Christmas week traditions grew this year to include special singing performances by the childrens’ choir at our Church, on the 23rd and 24th (the 23rd was a reschedule due to the snow the week before)… and a Polish tradition we picked up this year including the Christmas Wafer (Oblatek) and an Italian one with the 13 items Christmas Eve dinner..  the eve began with our Christmas Eve service with the older two singing in the choir,

and ended though in the same manner as every year since their birth… a stack of Christmas books beside their beds, and brand new jammies…

We only hear about 10 screams that their were jingle bells to be heard on the roof… and eventually the Big Girl drifted off…  3:45… that’s seriously the time that the Middle Guy got up (and woke his older sister)… and he was sent back to bed NO JOKE every 10 minutes as he returned to see if it was ‘Time YET?’ to go downstairs…  Finally at 6am, the Big Guy went and snuggled him back to sleep… can we say ‘tired parents’ for Christmas morning???

Santa was good to our children this year. I heard from Devin that the screams over the Disney Vacation and Hannah Montana tickets could be heard all the way in Minneapolis!

Hannah was definitely the highlight for the Big Girl… and the Middle Guy keeps telling us that the Disney vacation doesn’t count as a gift since we weren’t going ON Christmas day… (where do they get this stuff?)

They all received their requested ‘Fuzz Luvz’ and a Webkinz from the big Round Man from the North…  We also got them a few of their other requested items, including a lot of books and some fun activities like a Magic Kit, K’Nex set, Playdough and the Dora Vanity!

 

Due to our recent state move, and the cost of the above mentioned ‘trips’… the big guy and I exchanged hugs and just a small gift each… for him new jammies (and socks that I’ll knit after I get a ‘BIG MAN’s Feet’ pattern from Anne?) for me, two pieces to my Christmas village which I haven’t even had time to photograph yet! One is a skating scene that is electronic and the little skaters move around the ‘ice pond’ by magnets… and the other is an additional light house for my village. I love them both!

Knitting…  I’m sure you’re all wondering… (hahaha)

Yes… I knit.. and knit, and knit.. .and ALMOST finished all my gifts… (with two VERY VERY late nights of finishing) but sadly … due to a series of unfortunate events involving the dishwasher, a grapefruit knife, and my right index finger… well.. I had to take a couple of days off, which meant, no Booga bag for my sis in law…  she was totally cool with it though, which was great!  I have it about 1/4 done and will finish it before too long and get it to her in the mail.  I swear it right now… there will be VERY few knit gifts next year.. though I am going to join a new KAL, the Year Long Gift Along… that Amanda turned me on to… so if I properly plan I can do the 2008 plan of the Year of Knitting for ME and still squeeze in some gifts…

The Middle Guy was thrilled to get his stitches out at long last the day we left for NY… Blue stitches were ‘fun’ at first… but soon lost their enjoyment… so fortunately the day we were heading northward… he got to have them removed!

Our drive to NY was fairly uneventful.. the cat and dog did well on the drive… we were surprised about the cat.. I thought for sure he’d cry the whole way.. but after a short while he settled in on the Big Guys lap and went to sleep…

Our visit with family was wonderful… we got to see one Auntie that we don’t often see since her graduate schedule keeps her away more of the year than we’d all like…  the kids loved playing with cousins and walking the short walk between grandma and grandpa’s house to their cousins house… we celebrated a brief ‘christmas’ there as well…

Here are the Rochester knit gifts… (well some of them anyway)

Mother-in-law’s little companion bag (before felting)

After felting

Brother in law’s hat(Cashmere Ribbed hat)
(action shot)

Father-in-law’s Ribbed hat

Typical Grandpa…

And.. the Snowman hats for the cousins… I didn’t get a shot of them all wearing them, though will as my Sis-in-law for that one when she gets the chance…

This same sis in law was knit a ‘tote’ and I somehow forgot to get an ‘after’ shot.. so here’s the before and my Sis in law said she’d email me an after…

It came out a bit larger than I was expecting but I really like the colors…  I will likely knit myself this bag with some alterations to make it smaller…

Wow.. that was tremendously long and picture laden.. but I suppose it makes up for the nearly week long hiatus from blogging…  our family had a wonderful holiday.. and it’s ending right now with a snowfall.. one that we hope will provide sledding fun tomorrow… we’ll also end it with a trip to the theater to see the Chipmunks movie… and a playdate with friends on the first… before we head back to school and ‘regular’ life… :-)  I have a lot of plans for the New Year… changes for my blog, changes for my Etsy shop, and changes for my knitting… I can’t wait to share it all with you!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

The mom goose is getting fat…

Have your days felt like this lately???

Mine have been TOO much like that poor drowning Gingerbread Man… thank goodness he’s drowning in coffee!

So.. I need to direct my UK readers to a UK Swap… Monica is hosting get the word out contest.. so if you want… go pimp her swap for an entry

and… Sharon is having a 2nd (YES 2 YEARS) blogoversary… go wish her well, and enter her favorite yarn/pattern contest for a cute pattern from her!!

We started reviving my Christmas spirit last night with a Church,  ‘Lessons and Carols’ song filled service with the story of the birth of Jesus, mixed with beautiful music from our Church’s 4 choirs.

while my camera didn’t do the best with the picture… here’s a shot of the choirs at work…

And… big girl told us a few days ago about a tradition that her teacher mentioned… it’s a tradition where you serve 13 items on your Christmas Eve menu.  There cannot be any meat, though there can be fish.  I researched and found this info about this tradition.  It appears to stem from the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which is of Italian descent.  The 13 though comes from the menu items representing each of the 12 apostles and one for Jesus.  Big Girl wants us to have Shrimp for dinner, so I’m trying to pull together a menu of 13 items… (milk is counting as an item)…

Another tradition we’ll do is the tradition of the Oplatek.  A polish tradition of eating a Christmas wafer on the eve of Christmas.  Our community is heavily Polish, and so is our family.. so it was really nice to get the wafer at Church a few weeks ago.

I have been tagged for a favorite ornament… and will get back to that a bit later today Chan

Have a blessed holiday!

It’s that time of year again.. the time when I get so busy with my family that in the course of what feels like only 24 hours … several days have gone by…

What have we been up to??

Baking (shocker right)
Holiday Concert
Emergency Room
Cleaning

What a ‘fun’ list of activities… The holidays just wouldn’t be the holidays without a trip to the ER right?? No worries… the Middle Guy stopped the table from falling with his face when he skidded into it while chasing the Little Girl around the ‘go round’… 3 hours later, and 5 stitches above his right eye and we’re all good….

I owe a ton of thank you’s and need to direct you to a few contests… but while I get to that.. you can see my kiddos at their concert…

My Coffee Swap package arrived.. and boy was I surprised when I saw the return address for Holly, one of the hostesses of the swap! I had started talking with Holly a few weeks back when our ‘topic’ of the week was to start a conversation with someone on the swap that you didn’t know. I’m not kidding when I say that I seriously went to the site… closed my eyes and scrolled down through the list of participants and clicked on a random name and it just happened to be Holly!!! I didn’t go there and say.. well.. I know the other swap hostess.. so lets check out this one… I seriously randomly selected her… And I’m pretty sure it was big surprise to her when I started talking to her… That happened to me in another swap… the Vacation Swap… I ended up randomly starting to talk with my partner… Lesley.. and now she and I are hosting the Cocoa Swap!

She and I are so similar it’s funny… and cool… that’s one of the things I really love about swaps.. getting to know people that so often are similar to you in more ways than just knitting.. Holly definitely did her research and sent me such a sweet and absolutely perfect package!

Here’s a quick shot of the package.. and then some info…

I’m pretty sure I said I liked snowmen, and blue and white.. and Holly completely went with that theme… she sent me the coolest funnest yummiest stuff!

First.. a quick little story about the box…

When I got home yesterday from a totally nutty morning/afternoon, the box was sitting at our garage door… and I kinda knew it must be my WWCS box because everything we ordered has arrived… so I was pretty pumped but had a load of groceries in my car to deal with first. I actually emailed Holly when I got in to let her know I’d received it because while I knew I’d have time to unpack it and enjoy it’s awesomeness.. I wasn’t sure I’d have time to blog or email her back…

I brought the box in and Murphy had a LOT of interest in it.. which I thought was funny because he usually only shows interest in boxes from my mom because she always sends her granddog a package of goodies for the holidays… I seriously barely got the top of the box open when he sticks his big nose into the packing peanuts and pulls out a little cute blue wrapped package… I had to chase him to get it out of his mouth… and lo and behold.. it says on the side ‘For Murphy’… so… I embarrassingly laughed as I unwrapped it and handed the goodies back to him… he scarfed down one cool treat, a twisted stick covered in doggie safe chocolate, and I did manage a quick shot of the second, a cute christmasy pretzel…

Murphy says ‘Thank You’ Holly!

Let’s first talk about the yarn… the luscious yummy yarn!

First one I unwrapped was the so appropriately named white skein of soft and fluffy yumminess, ‘Frosting’.. I mean come on… that is so fitting for me the baking freak… and second a gorgeous BFL hank from Amanda in a beautiful blue! Thanks Amanda (and Holly).. I haven’t yet decided what I’ll use these for but I’m envisioning a beautiful soft and fluffy pair of mittens with that white…. I seriously can’t tell you how soft this Frosting is… I’ve never seen it before… soo cool!

and related to yarn…

One of Mary’s so cool stitch marker holders, and a set of markers as well as Row Counter? I’m not sure if that’s what it is.. I had so little time to play with it yesterday… I need to email Mary to ask her how it’s used… it’s so pretty with those cute snowflakes.. and the blue beads! Wow.. awesome! I know I just purchased one from her (the stitch marker holder that is).. but I seriously need two.. so this is perfect!

Ok, and the goodies… oh my

Such a cute snow man mug.. he’s sadly in the sink now.. so I have to use a different one this morning, but he was instantly washed yesterday and USED right away yesterday afternoon for my cup of coffee that I needed to survive the afternoon… and to warm up.. brrr it was cold… Ok, and those are my absolute favorite soft peppermint sticks… I JUST found them here in PA for our stockings this year.. I was in fear of not having them!… and now I have 2 bags JUST for me… and my other favorite candies.. Werthers’… my kids saw those and were like… ‘oh yumm’… so of course I’ve already hidden them… There’s a cute snowman magnetic pad of paper for lists, and note cards as well…She obviously lives near a Target, because I’d eyed the snowman mug there before, as well as the three cups (still wrapped in the photo) for my Littles.. they adore them.. I’ll photograph them a bit later and post.. they are the heads of snowmen with a straw… very kid friendly and very winter appropriate!

The snowman bar of soap is so cute… and of course y’all know I love Dunkin Donuts coffee… I understand from Chan that you had to go to great lengths to get it.. I soooo appreciate that! The snowflake frame is beautiful… and I have just the photo for it.. And finally.. in the back, kinda tucked behind stuff is a lovely bag of Starbuck’s hot cocoa mix… ahhhh my other winter hot treat! Holly with a package like this.. your pal in the Hot cocoa swap will be sooo happy!

Thanks again Holly… you’re the sweetest!

so briefly because I have only 2 more minutes before the little one comes in here and asks me to play hide and seek again…

Here’s my Pillows Dogs on Thursday show for y’all… What are my kids going to do when the Murphster isn’t with us anymore…

I know that it’s super easy to buy Marshmallows at the store, but, one time.. you do have to try to make them on your own.

Our first time making marshmallows was inspired by the Middle guy who’d asked me where they came from and how they were made… (He loves the Food Network and ‘unwrapped’ which tells such stories… can you tell?)… so we made a batch, and YUM… so much nicer than the store bought kind.. and… the cool thing is you can create your own flavored marshmallows… though we haven’t yet done that.

Here’s how you do it…

Ingredients:

3 envelopes Knox Gelatin (unflavored)
3/4 Cup Cold water (divided)
2 Cups sugar
2/3 Cup Karo Syrup (or generic Corn Syrup as I used)
1 Tbsp pure Vanilla Extract ( I haven’t tried with imitation, but I’m sure it would be fine)**
Powdered sugar
Cooking spray or trace butter

Materials:

Mixer
Candy thermometer (if you have one)
Silicone Spatula
9×11″ baking pan

Mix the 3 envelopes of gelatin with 1/2 Cup cold water in mixer bowl and allow to ‘bloom’ for 10 mins.

While the gelatin is blooming mix sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup cold water in heavy sauce pan and bring to a boil.

If you have a candy thermometer, boil until sugar mixture is 250 degrees F. If not, boil until solution meets the hard ball stage (drops of the solution will form a hard ball when dropped into cold water) My boiling time was approximately 3-4 mins to get to the hard ball stage.

Slowly pour the VERY HOT** (don’t forget how hot this is!) sugar solution into the mixer bowl with the mixer on low.

When all of the sugar solution has been added, slowly increase the mixer speed until it is on high. Mix the sugar solution with the gelatin on high until the amount of marshmallow has stopped increasing.

The solution will be VERY sticky and still quite warm. Scrape down the sides periodically to ensure that all the sugar is thoroughly mixed into the marshmallow solution.

While the mixer is going. Prepare your 9×11″ pan by buttering (or use cooking spray) the bottom and sides, and then dusting with powdered sugar.

When your marshmallow has stopped increasing in size, lower your mixer speed to medium - low and add 1 Tablespoon of Vanilla ** or, whatever flavoring you desire.. such as cinnamon, coconut, almond… there are a wealth of flavoring extracts out there begging to be tried in a marshmallow!

When the vanilla is mixed in, give it another 30 seconds or so on high and then pour your solution and spread in the prepared 9×11″ pan.

Allow to sit overnight (or several hours at least) in the pan, uncovered (or if it freaks you out to not cover it, leave uncovered for an hour or so and then lightly cover with saran wrap, being careful not to let the saran touch the marshmallow as it is INCREDIBLY sticky.)

Sprinkle the top of the marshmallow with powdered sugar.

To remove from pan, start on one of the short sides and gently pull (with powdered sugared fingers) on the corners releasing the marshmallow from the pan until the entire marshmallow rectangle is removed.

Place the marshmallow on a lightly powdered sugared surface. Cut into squares in one of two ways, using powdered sugar dipped kitchen scissors, or my favorite… with a Pampered Chef pizza cutter dipped periodically in powdered sugar. As you cut your strips and then squares, dredge the marshmallow in powdered sugar so that the marshmallows will be easy to handle.

Store in a zip lock bag, or air tight container for 2 weeks if they even last that long! Homemade marshmallows are great alone, or better yet… in hot cocoa.. they melt quickly and are so yummy and gooey you can’t have just one!

Ok.. now I need another cup of cocoa…

Seems like our weekends are JAM packed from now until New Year’s or later even… I’m sure I’m not alone in this hectic rush TO and THROUGH the holidays… I try to find enjoyment though in each of the things we to do celebrate the season…

Saturday started with two early basketball games for the middle guy (yellow #4)…

The Big guy is one of his teams coaches. Middle Guy did make a few baskets but there’s no score or results to report… at this age level, they are working on learning the game

The middle of the day was filled with baking…

(I’ll write a separate post with the ‘other’ thing we baked)

and then we decided to end it with some family fun with Wii.. I LOVE that thing…

Wii know how to box… do you?

Wii, as the big people in the house, let our Littles ‘Win’

On the knitting front, I finally finished my Mom’s ‘Mary’s Summer Bag’… so I can mail the package to her on Monday.. I do hope it will ge to her in time for Christmas, but won’t be surprised if it doesn’t.. dang…

I ended Saturday enjoying the view of my Christmas village lit up in the dark kitchen…

My village is not as large as some… and I LOVE every single piece of it. They all have some special meaning to me… all but maybe one… The Big Guy started me on this collection years ago after noticing me admire them whenever we were out shopping at a store that carried them… My pieces are from Department 56, which can be rather expensive… and we haven’t added any in a few years… but I know he bought me something this year because he came home with a GIANT Department 56 bag from his trip to MN…

Here’s my village, spread out on the large Bay Window sill/seat in our eat in Kitchen area…

Sunday…. well… we woke up to no electricity… and a very loud windstorm as part of the Nor’easter we were getting. We have a gas stove so that was quite nice as I was able to use my infuser tea pot with it’s stainless steel basket to make a pot of coffee and we were able to have a hot breakfast to warm us in our 52 degree house. Our kids howled almost as loud as the wind with complaints about what they could do… but that ended quickly as we added painting, coloring, games and generic ‘play’ to the list of things and everyone was happy… When the wind finally died down the Big Guy and I took turns shoveling our driveway.. (my turn was 2 hours!)… and unpacking framed photos and decorations from one of our closest that we hadn’t yet tackled. Our goal is to have all our pictures hung by Christmas! The tremendous pile of packing paper proved a lot of fun too for the Littles… amazing the things you can do for fun without tv or computers…

The shoveling proved to be difficult as it was ice encrusted… and was coming down as freezing rain during the Big Guy’s session, and switched to snow during the second half of my session… but we cleared the long driveway and path to our back door… The kids enjoyed some sledding during this time too! Our electric came back on around 1, so it was nice and toasty inside in time for dinner and the lighting of the rose candle… we have a lot of Joy to celebrate in our family!

And did y’all see Survivor?!? I think I was most thankful for having electricity to watch Survivor last night…

I’ll be back with the other ‘baking’ post after I get the kids off to school… 2 hour delay this morning.. so they got to sleep in.. now I need to be packing lunches etc…

My coffee swap pal received her package today, and in it I included a Paw Cozy (and soon a matching ‘other hand’ mitten) It will come in quite handy I think, now that she and her Knight have a new puppy!

For those looking for the pics of the Paw cozy.. I’m terribly sorry, but I am going to submit this to Knitty… wish me luck… I cannot post any pics of the item until they decide to include/or not my Paw cozy
Wish me luck.

Well, yesterday was supposed to be a ‘mega’ baking extravaganza… but when you run out of vanilla, and ginger, in the first batches of Gingerbread dough… well… that’s a problem.. in the end, we got sugar cookie dough in the fridgyator (as Little Girl calls it) for stained glass cookies, and a batch of Gingerbread baked.

I tried a new recipe this year… and it resulted in a Crisp, hard, cookie… my other recipe gives a soft cookie.. both have their benefits… This batch we prepared royal icing for and decorated to our hearts content… the kids hadn’t used royal icing before so they were shocked when it got rock hard… but loved how smooth and shiny it looks… We will definitely use this dough to make our houses with (the ones I mentioned weeks ago, that we’ve been distracted away from for what seems like an eternity).. we have those on tap for this weekend during the Nor’easter we’ll be weathering…

At first when I realized how HARD the cookies were I was bummed… I thought that the kids wouldn’t like them, and that even worse… I wouldn’t.. but you know what.. these cookies are PHENOMENAL when dunked in coffee… I can’t seem to get enough… and the hard, smooth and shiny royal icing decorations.. mmmm sooo good with a little coffee coating! I will ABSOLUTELY make this recipe again! Everyone had fun, even the Big Guy decorated a cookie…

Egg crates make great ‘icing’ palettes

Little Girl’s Gingerbread man

The rest of her artwork!

Big girl and middle guy’s artistry

See, the Big Guy even decorates!

and finally… the overachiever!

The kids had a blast playing in the snow… *we got about 6″… less than we’d expected* And we got a good workout shoveling the driveway..

I know it’s kinda weird to say this.. but I think my kids look so cute in their snowpants… just before they become the stay puff marshmallow men when they put their coats on…

Not ONLY did I just get presale tickets to Hannah Montana…  the concert is in ORLANDO… So guess what that means???

Disney and Hannah in one weekend!  Our kids are going to DIE…. 

I think I just found my Christmas Spirit!

So… I’ve been toying with changing my ‘theme’ in WordPress for a little while.. .and every time I look at Cass’ I think.. hmmm I should go play with the themes… so today I did.. and don’t be surprised if you come back here tomorrow and it’s different again.. I can’t yet find one with the width I want… but I like the more ‘professional’ look it has at the moment… a bit more clean than my previous theme…

Have you had someone reach you via your blog that you haven’t heard from in FOREVER… ? I wondered that about my blogging friends this morning when I read a comment from my old friend Cormac… I don’t mean that he’s ‘old’.. I just mean that it’s been forever since we’ve talked… I mean… greater than 5 years I think… maybe it’s been less… I’m not certain.. I do recall hearing from him at least once when we lived in our North Carolina home… and he reached me in some random way back then too… I’m not sure how he finds me… but he does… all he said was ‘Hi’… but I know I’ll hear back.. I emailed him… he’s in the UK… hey Monica.. maybe one day you’ll end up meeting him…

Cormac and I met through running… I was a student visitor for a year at UCC, (University College Cork, in Cork Ireland).. and joined the ‘Athetics’ team there… which is the same as Track and Field here in America. Cormac and I became fast friends.. and pub crawling buddies… my best friend Beth and I shared many of our American traditions with him and he shared his Irish ones with us.

Cormac’s wedding was the absolute BEST wedding I have ever attended (mine aside)… and it’s a shame that things didn’t work out for the best there… The wedding was in Canada, small and intimate and abolutely the most Posh wedding Big Guy and I ever attended… we felt spoiled rotten!

Cormac is a true friend… to the core… and I hope that I hear really good things from him today about how wonderful his last 5 or so years have been! Welcome to my insane ramblings Cormac… shouldn’t be anything new to you to be honest.. I’ve talked your ear off more than a few times!

Well.. off to try to get Hannah Montana Tickets on presale… don’t hold your breath folks, but I hope to report back here with HAPPY results just a bit after 10am!