And I’m not bored yet.  I have decided that I am going to do the whole project using only my iPhone.  While I will still take pictures with my big camera, the portability and fun photography apps are greatly appealing.

Plus, I love my iPhone so much that it rarely leaves my hands.  Convenience is key sometimes.

Want to keep up with my pictures?  Well, just look at my Flickr photo set for Project 365.

Today you’d learn that I am in California. I’m here for TNNA, a National Needlework Trade Show. I’m here to buy yaaarrrnnn. Because I am pretty darned good at doing that. Ask my husband.

Yes, ice skating on a lake.  I was all kinds of freaked out, but there were lots of others there and it was (and had been) ridiculously cold, so I decided to just relax and go along for the ride.

Sweet birthday boy.  Waiting patiently while big brother gets his ice skates all laced up.

Papa helping big brother try out his skates.

Whee!

Little brother was content with being pulled around on the ice from the comfort of the sled.

Time to go sledding!

The gorgeous Chilkat Mountains in the distance.

Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator.

Fast forward to December 23.  Husband came home from work with a slight twinkle in his eye.  It seems that the ornament contest was a topic of conversation at work that day (the party was hosted by a coworker of husband’s).  Husband gleefully proclaimed, “My ornament is going to kick your ornament’s ass!” and he scurried away to gather his materials for his ornament while I stood in the middle of the kitchen, slack-jawed.

The gauntlet had been thrown down.

What was I going to do now?  The paper ornaments that I had planned to make with the wee boys wouldn’t stand a chance.  Frantic, my mind whizzed through all of my options.  I finally landed on Korknisse and decided that I would go all in with the wee cork family.

My crafting integrity depended on them.

I ran up to my craft room/office to gather my needles and scraps of yarn, fleeing from the kitchen while husband worked, intently creating his ornament.  I swear, you could almost hear the wheels in his brain turning.

I had to make periodic checks to see how he was progressing.  I was surprised at his creativity and ingenuity.  Folks, he may just be related to MacGyver.  A bunch of corks pulled from our cork jars, some clipped coat hanger, a piece of cotton ball and the essential element, a hot glue gun.  This was harder than I thought it would be.

All I had were 4 knitting needles, a few corks, some scrap yarn, my iPhone and a whole lot of determination.

But in the end, his Santa was found to be not nearly as crowd pleasing as my sweet Korknisse family.  Oh yeah, I came home with the ornament making prize that night.  But I do have to say that he would win if there were a “originality/creativity” category.


Crafting integrity intact, and maybe boosted a little.

(Husband thinks that *he* may have technically won the contest since my ornament was the #3 ornament, but in the 4th spot for judging.  His claim is that people may have wanted the 3rd ornament instead of the #3 ornament, which was the spot that his ornament occupied even though it was the #4 ornament.  Whatevs.  If he really wants to share my prize, I’ll let him use the foot massager I won anytime.)

Ever heard of it? If you make the rounds of the blogosphere, I bet you’ve stumbled across it before. Here’s a link explaining what and why.

So, I give you 365.1, in which we get a few church pews from Freecycle and turn one into a reading bench in the boys’ room.

The answer is mostly no. We did see one bear two years ago when we first moved in (and have heard of others from neighbors). The animal we do see more than the usual Raven is the Porcupine.

This guy is enjoying some of our Swiss Chard. He’s lucky I am a chicken and too scared to get close.

I tried every day for weeks to convince him that ghosts are the hip thing to be, but he was set on being a parrot.  I was even willing to sacrifice nicer sheets for the cause.  He was having none of it.

I finally stumbled across a website that gave me some ideas and went to the local Jo-Ann’s and found a pattern for a parrot costume.

Much swearing ensued.

My sewing room floor looks like someone murdered a Fraggle, but we finally managed a parrot.

Poor little brother, he didn’t have much choice this year. Big brother’s costume from last year fit him well and was very warm. And didn’t require any sewing. Bonus!

Pumpkins were gutted and carved…

Ewww, guts!

Weeew, gus!

Finally done.  And am now absurdly considering making new flower beds around the front porch using wine bottles.  Please talk me down.

Let’s take a little garden walk, shall we?  Oh, one other thing…the mulch…free.  Called a local tree company and they delivered a load gratis.  Saved so much $ and thrilled to not have 100 or so empty plastic bags.

Ok, let’s go!

Watching the crops grow. Almost as fun as watching paint dry…

A wee little Tickseed plant I picked up at Home Depot

Irises that we got from a Freecycler when we moved into our house in 2008.

I adore Irises

I also adore Rhubarb and Chives. Maybe not together-together, but together in a garden is a beautiful sight.

You can do it, little berries! Grow!

Asiatic Lily, another Home Depot buy

Isn’t the color intense? Hmmm…what can I do with color ideas from flowers?

Baby steps.

I have never pictured myself as a designer.  Rather, a supporter of designers.  Typically it is all I can do to just knit something so that it fits someone – anyone that is willing to take it usually.

But to design?  The thought of it makes my stomach hurt a little bit, honestly.

So, I bought a new Moleskine-an undertaking of this sort deserves its own Moleskine-and got out my stitch guide book.

I have been eyeing a new yarn at the shop, Punta Yarns Merisoft Handpaint.  It is single ply and I am such a single ply ho that I can’t keep my hands off of it when I am working.  I talked to the shop owner about the yarn and asked if I could design something using that yarn.  She agreed and I was elated.

A few days later and behold…

It’s a cowl.  The One Skein Handpaint Cowl for Skeins Fine Yarns.  I have about 30g left over and I think that I will try to make short mitts to match.

Detail of the stitch pattern…

I then got to thinking about all of the babies being born in my circle this year.  So many, I may have lost count.  I realized that I really should stock up on quick baby knits so that I have something for everyone.

Thus, the Pointy Baby Set was born.

Using A Tree Hugger’s Wife Falkland Bulky yarn.  One skein will make you two sets, newborn sized.

It isn’t exactly earth shattering stuff, but it is a wee start.

She was quick to be my friend when we moved here.  She is as outgoing as I am shy.  She is one of the most giving and loving people that I have ever met.  When she loves someone, she does it with her whole heart.  And, she wanted me to teach her how to knit.  I knew that I loved her then.

So I did.  Started out by teaching her how to knit a basic dishcloth.  She had big aspirations.  She yearned to knit socks, or even a hat.  I held steady and encouraged her to do a dishcloth.

So she did.  She tried her hardest.  It ended up looking kind of like a dishcloth and a small fishing net combined.  Last I knew, she plans on framing it which I think is super sweet.  She still yearned to do socks.  She bought the yarn (although a worsted weight), the needles and I was telling her the pattern as she went.  A basic ribbed, heel flap pattern.  That was 6 months ago.  I kept telling her that maybe she should just do a hat instead to get used to working in the round, just give me the yarn and the needles and I would knit the socks for her.

You have to know, I don’t offer to knit socks for just anyone.  My husband is still handmade-socks-less.  My theory is that if someone wants handknit socks, they need to learn how to knit.  Because hand knit socks are precious.  I have only given them as gifts to a select couple of women.

Me, explaining to Estrella that she just needs to hand over the yarn and the needles and I will send the finished socks to her in Boston.

She finally relented.  And moved on to another dishcloth.  Knitting by a bonfire = sweet bliss.

For her going away present, I knew I had to do something that was related to Crown Royal, her favorite liquor.  So I found this sweet flask (*hint, hint* I <3 it and would love one in my knitting bag) and had it engraved…

It reads:

For Estrella

Both Will Keep You Warm

Love  Missy

(Both meaning the liquor and the knitting)

Goodbye, dear heart.  I will miss you.

This has resulted in the children taking care of the babies…

And doing the housework…

Everyone has to pitch in when life goes 100 mph.