Chill Chasers

It's that time of year again.  The time of year that brings day after day after day of gray, often accompanied by nuisance snow.  Nuisance snow is any snow that amounts to less than 6 inches in any day.  Just enough to make things a bit slippy, but not enough to get out the shovel.   

Gypsy looks a bit sad in this picture, but she's actually gloating over getting to snuggle (and warm up her nose) in Mommy's blanket.

With that in mind, here's a few items to chase away the grays:

Clear boots (or almost clear).  How can you not get a charge out of something that lets you show of your socks?

Cookies...these cheerful-looking little numbers have got it all:  graham cracker crumbs, sweetened condensed milk, mini m&ms and dark chocolate chips.  Yummy!

And, to top it off, Deb, of Not Pretty to Watch, is having a contest.  Go check it out.  I already sent in my entry.  Things that have been 
know to amuse me are:

• Turning the digital clock upside-down in one of the classrooms.  It's pretty funny to see how many even notice it, then think that the clock is broken, finally, someone will figure out that it's upside down.
• In my old job, one of the guys had a stuffed duck (taxidermied, not roasted) in his cubicle.  When he was out, I would move the the duck to another spot in his office.  Drove him nuts.
  

I'm having a knitting problem right  now.  The problem is that I have started this pair of socks so many times that there should be 3 pair of socks done by now.  First, I thought I had too many stitches, then I had too few (did a whole sock with too few...delusional, I know), added more stitches, foot was fine, leg still seemed to small, started over, now have something that seems to be working out.  Hopefully, the knitting gods are done with me for this project and they'll just work out this time!

If you don't like the weather...

We have a saying around here: If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes, it'll change.

This is our thermometer from a week ago, 6:30 am. Is that unbelievable or what? A more normal temperature for this time of year would be 6, not 64 F!

Like I said, wait, it'll change. 75 mph winds brought winter back to us. Not severely, just more normal temps and a bit of snow. To be honest, it was almost a relief, that kind of weather in January just isn't right. We didn't have any damage to our home, but many others in the area did (and lost trees). We were only inconvenienced for about 12 hours with no electric...just long enough that you decide that it is time to haul out the generator before it gets dark, which is, of course, when the electric magically comes back on!

Good thing that Gypsy got her "winter do" at the groomer's, not the "summer do" that the thermometer said she should get.

The other day, when I probably should have been doing the housework/laundry thing, I decided that I had had about enough of using those little soap bars from hotels. You know the ones, small, brittle and don't last long. Mom and I had gone on vacation last year and we picked them up all over the place. I decided that it was time to biggify them by milling them into larger bars of soap. This is clearly only a reasonable option if you happen to have quite a few pounds of homemade soap, ready to mill, in your freezer (doesn't everybody?).

I chopped up the white/off white bars into one bowl and the colored soaps into another bowl. Then I melted some plain soap with a bit of water; colored chips got added to the white soap and white chips got added to the brown (made brown with cinnamon).









Look pretty good, don't they? I wouldn't recommend snacking on them , though.

There has been actual spinning and a small amount of knitting done around here. The vest is an EZ Ribwarmer. I finished it quite awhile ago and just started wearing it without getting a picture. The blue yarn is superwash wool, dyed by my friend, Linda, of High Bid Farms. The white is Navajo-Churro that I picked up last fall.

I has Toy!

What dis?

Sandy Claws bring toy!

Me tuff on me toys

Happy New Year!

It's been quite a year, but we made it, so let's review a bit.

This was a year that I had to work really hard looking for a job. Being laid off from Kodak was probably one of the best things to happen to me...I'm much healthier and happier without the big yellow box. However, looking for a job is really, really grim. There's nothing like it for knocking an all-ready-shaky self-esteem right down.

Things are currently looking up. I've found a job as a computer support assistant at the local school. The job is actually fun (never thought I'd say that), the people are great, benefits are great, the commute is minimal. The only downside is that the hourly rate could be higher, but we will learn to cope with that.

DH is having quite the year. He is a furniture maker and has gotten popular enough in the area that he actually has a queue. It was time to upgrade a piece of equipment, so last week, this rather large planer came to stay. DH drove to Pennsylvania to get it (saves on shipping) and the neighbor helped to move it off the truck and into the basement. I'm telling y'all...the only difference between men and boys really is the size of their toys!

As must happen, the Christmas decorations have been put away. Bubba helped.

It came to my attention (as I decorated around it) that there was a growing pile in the corner of the dining room. This pile included many totes and interesting bags all filled with fiber, store-bought yarn and handspun yarn. Since this is the time of year when storage bins come on sale, off I went to get a few more. For some reason, I thought that visiting my stash and putting the new stuff into bins would magically make it all fit into the already stuffed closet and cupboard. Once again, I was wrong.

Now I have a couple of bins and a giant zip-top bag in my dining room. Speaking of the giant zip-top bag, those things rock! That one has a little over 2 pounds of wool roving in it and it is not overly packed.

The next step was to figure out where the boxed/bagged fiber and yarn can go. Remember that garage project from this last summer? Yep, there is some available shelf space out there for quite a few bins.

I hate to say it, but it's pretty clear that not only do I have to go on a food diet, but also a low fiber diet, too. Does spinning count as exercise?