Thanksgiving, part dos

I know you must be sick of looking at food, especially turkey, but humor me because I'm going to show you one more.

We were supposed to cook our free Shoprite turkey on Friday but it hadn't thawed enough, so we left it for Saturday. Hubby stuck it in the oven at a quarter to 1 and it was all done by 6. My mom lent me her meat thermometer, which made it a lot easier to tell when it was finished.



While hubby made stuffing for himself (Pi and I don't like it) and biscuits, I made the most friggin delicious garlic cheddar potatoes (there goes that modesty again). Its like a heart attack in a bowl.



I was going to make a pumpkin pie for hubby but he said he was in the mood for a mousse pie. I've never made mousse pie before, so I went to allrecipes.com and found this recipe. Super simple and fast to make, even though mine doesn't look as pretty as the one in the picture. If you make it, just start it way before you need it because it needs to chill for a few hours before its done. Hubby topped it with whipped cream and declared it a winner.



In between all that cooking, hooking has been going on. I tested the Sweet Baby Cradle Purse for a woman at Crochetville. She doesn't have the pattern available yet, so I apologize for not being able to link it.



The pattern includes the cradle purse, mattress pad, pillow, and blanket. It folds up into a girl sized purse. I made it red and white for Christmas, hoping I could hide it, but Pi saw it and seized it.



The long weekend has also been awesome for my mom's scrapghan. I'm nearly done with the body. I think I can have it done by tonight, then I'll weave in ends and add a border. The whole shebang should be done by next week which is a HUGE relief.

And the winners are...

Joyce, Bezzie, Jen and Lesa!

You guys are quick. I sat underneath that misspelled sign for about an hour before I noticed it. I told mom she should get her money back for it, but she likes it even with the mistake, LOL. Bezzie, the Hanukkah cup was pretty hilarious. Mom's boss gave it to her last Purim. He's a Jewish pediatrician who gets gifted with a lot of mugs at Purim time.

Bezzie and Lesa, I already have your addys. Joyce and Jen, please email your addy to christinacreations AT gmail DOT com so I can mail your prizes.

Since Christmas is fast approaching, I'm going to send all of you a Christmas ornament.

Thanks for playing!

Post Turkey Day Mini Contest

Thanksgiving was great! Mom cooked a huge dinner and even decorated for the occasion.



There was cake!



Pi insisted on eating my entire name. Just a little creepy, eh?



I also got presents! Who doesn't love presents? The best gift was from Piper...she gave me a card and put a dollar in it for me to spend however I wanted. Too cute!

Now for a mini post Turkey Day contest. Something is wrong in one of the three pictures above. The first person to correctly guess what's wrong will win a prize. I don't know what the prize will be yet, but who cares, its a prize.

The pics are clickable, so you can make them larger. So have fun and get guessing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eat and get plump!



(good grief, I'm 28!)

Happy Surprises

I received a happy surprise in the mail today. My friend Janet (the one who went with me to the Lion Brand Studio) sent me an early birthday gift.



Its a gorgeous soft scarf! Thank you so much Janet! You're the best!



My second happy surprise is that I was tagged by Riohnna with the Rock Star Award. Thanks!

"Those that receive the Rock Star award stand out. They work hard and you love knowing them. They are unique and one of a kind bloggers!"



So now, I get to list 8 interesting things about me:

1.- I can wiggle my ears.
2.- I love Ben and Jerry's Half Baked ice cream.
3.- My feet are double jointed.
4.- I love the smell of gasoline
5.- I'm a bit on the anal-retentive side.
6.- I put ketchup on everything.
7.- I wear sweaters until they are so holy you can see right through them.
8.- I check all the doors at least twice to make sure they are locked before going to sleep.


Now, my turn to tag. I shall tag;
I hate tagging anyone specific, so if you're reading this and want to play, go ahead!

Divine Hat, Take 2

I can't believe how fast Thanksgiving is coming up. Is it just me or did this entire year just fly by at lightning speed? My mother always said time would go faster as I got older, but this year passed at a ridiculous speed.

We earned our free turkey from Shoprite and ended up picking a 19.5 pound bird. I'm going to my mom's for Thanksgiving and she doesn't need the turkey for that day, so I'll be cooking it the day after Thanksgiving. With just the 3 of us, that big bad bird is going to be leftovers for a week! I need to look up interesting ways to use up leftover turkey meat.

I made the Divine hat last year and donated it to charity. I used the hook recommended in the pattern and it was too large. Thankfully, I remembered that this time around and used one hook size smaller than called for and Pound of Love in white. It came out just the right size.



I seriously love this pattern. Its so simple and fast but someone who doesn't crochet thinks its really complicated.



My sister came by to play with Piper and I showed it to her. She liked it so much that it found a new home on her pretty little head. :)



Umm, my diet isn't going so well. Between PMSing, stress, and a bit of good news today (a raise), I baked a batch of chocolate chocolate chip cookies. How convenient that all the ingredients were already in the cupboards. Heehee.



This recipe is a keeper! They are super moist, which is a huge plus for me cuz I'm a soft cookies kind of girl. From start to finish, it took less than an hour to make 3 dozen cookies. Yum!

Just like candy corn is a diet food, I believe that cookies are also a diet food in the months of November and December. :) No need to argue with me.

I avoided the hospital!

Oh yeah, go me! I avoided the hospital! Yesterday was the Girl Scouts annual ice skating trip to the Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers and I did NOT sprain, break, or twist anything.

Trust me, this is big. I can skate, but not very well, so I was fully prepared to injure myself...so much so that I shaved my legs, painted my toenails and made sure my legs were well moisturized...just in case emergency personnel was going to have to take a peek.

Pi and I getting ready for the skating fun.


One of the many boats viewable from the rink.


Pi is still just getting the hang of skating and hangs onto the wall for dear life.


This is the sitting area.


I always forget how much I enjoy ice skating until we go on this trip. Since Pi can't skate and neither does hubby, I'm left with no choice but to lace up, hope for good balance, and avoid the children toppling all over the place. My ankles held up better than I'd hoped (I wasn't hoping too big since plain old walking seems to be too complicated for my ankles) and I went home uninjured. A success!

My sister and her boyfriend treated me to go see Twilight last night too, as part of my birthday gift. The movie was ok. It didn't do the book justice but it tried to stay fairly true to the book. The annoying part was 1. screaming and giggling pre-teens and 2. the 40 something year old man behind me who kept screaming disgusting dirty things throughout the whole movie, as if he was a stupid, idiotic teenager. I tried to stay calm but when he muttered something about vampire balls, I turned around and gave him the dirtiest look I could manage. After that he was quiet for a little bit, but not long enough. The worst part is that he had his daughter with him, who couldn't be any older than 12. On the way out of the movie, she muttered something dirty and the dad scolded her for her dirty mouth! Umm, hello doofus! Where do you think she picked up that language?

Oh yeah, High School Musical 3 went well. It was cutesy, like the first 2, and Pi loved it. She was literally dancing in her seat. Seeing her enjoy it as much as she did was worth the torture of having to sit through it.

I know I've made 3 posts with no crochet or any crafts for that matter. I promise the next one with have some crochet in it!

I've been linked!

Check it out! Lion Brand's blog, The Notebook linked to my blog in yesterday's post. They were listing sources that talked about the studio. I didn't even know about it until I clicked on their blog this morning. Neat!

Link

I don't have time to post more...the family and I are going to see High School Musical 3 and I need to get ready. So I'll leave you with a word from Piper.

Hi! This is Piper, Crafty Christina's daughter. I am so excited about going to see High School Musical 3. I loved the first High School Musical and the second High School Musical. So I have a feeling that I am going to love the third High School Musical. By Piper. Bye now.

Hooky

I called out from work today and it turned out to be the suckiest day off ever. Serves me right for playing hooky, eh?

First, I only got 5 hours of sleep. Why does my body refuse to wake up at 5am without a struggle on workdays but automatically gets me up at 5 with no hope of going back to sleep on a day off? The cruelty!

Second, my wisdom tooth is still killing me.

Third, I wrote Pi's teacher a note yesterday about a class policy she has concerning test grades that she won't change, even if she wrongly marked something incorrect. Pi's teacher got angry about my note and rather than write me back, she yelled at Pi in front of her entire class. She never bothered to respond to me at all. So this morning, she and I had it out before 8 am. Not a pretty situation. I was really upset and I made it clear that if she has a problem with a note I've written, then she needs to talk to ME, not take it out on Pi. I let her know that I will not hesitate to show up to the classroom anytime and every time she treats Pi unfairly. Being that my tear ducts must somehow be connected to my anger emotions, I immediately went home and cried...for a long time.

Fourth, my wisdom tooth is still killing me.

Fifth, I had to cook for the girl scouts Thanksgiving celebration even with the pain of points two and four. It hurt enough that I just dropped off the food and went back home.

Sixth, a Christmas hat I've been working on for 3 days now is now in the frog pond. My gauge was off and it was turning out much to small. I'll restart it tomorrow.

There's lots more little stuff that had me pulling my hair out, but I'd be here all night complaining. Now, I'm desperately trying to force myself awake for the next 15 minutes so I can watch the new episode of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Moral of the story: Go to work! Hooky days never pay.

Book review

I finished Twilight last night...a whole lot faster than I anticipated. It was a good read, though I wouldn't say great. Its very much a teenage romance drama filled with emo. But what teenage romance isn't emo? If you're looking for an easy read that doesn't require much concentration but does contain emo vampires, then go for it. My sister and I are going to be seeing the movie sometime in the near future. Just FYI: Anne Rice is still the reigning queen of vampire novels.

I did a few rounds on the scrapghan on Sunday, but used most of my time to finish up some scarves for my aunt Aida, who'd asked me to make these back in October. See, I'm slacking.

This one is two strands of Homespun, an M hook and rows of dc. Nothing fancy. It sort of looks like a 70s rug to me. I haven't decided yet if that's good or bad.



This one is the scarflette pattern that I tested awhile back. I just continued until it was about 60" long. I used Vanna's choice in Autumn and an I hook.



This is the same pattern, but made with 2 strands of TLC Essentials in celery and island with a K hook. It came out thicker and stiffer than the Vanna's one, but after a quick run through the washer, it was nice and soft. The hat is the same as the one my sister modeled for me here.



I would like to say I'm going to go be productive now, but I won't lie to you. I'm going to sit my fat butt down and veg in front of the tv tonight. Happy vegging!

You scared me into it.

You peeps sure are scary when you're yelling at me. LOL Thanks for the kick in the ass. I'm going to work on my mom's scrapghan today. I'd say I'm about 75% done with that one and its my biggest project, so I'll tackle it first.

Buuuutt......there's one more procrastination project to show. My cousin and Pi had a sleepover this weekend. My tooth was still driving me crazy, so I didn't want to work on anything too big or that required concentration. I used the Speed Hook Earflap hat pattern from Lion Brand and added pom poms. It should have been size 9 months but my gauge was off (shocker!) and I didn't realize it until the hat was finished.

Luckily, it fit my cousin very well and she loved the pom poms.

Ok, onto the Christmas gifts...

Wisdom doesn't come painlessly.

I've been busy growing 3 wisdom teeth this week. Painless...no! But not quite excruciating either. It hurts if I run my tongue over it, so you'd think I'd try to avoid that, but no. I'm constantly playing with it with my tongue. Get your minds out of the gutter. ;)~

I went to the dentist on Wednesday who told me that one of the teeth (the one that hurts) is impacted. She said the tooth is already 90% of the way in, so she doesn't want to pull it yet. I'm supposed to cope for the next week or so to let the rest of the tooth grow in. If it still hurts in a week, she'll yank it. If not, she'll let it live happily ever after nestled deep inside my gums.

Other than work, which has been nuts, I've been reading a lot the last few weeks. My sister lent me a bunch of books that kept my interest enough to keep me from crocheting as much as I normally do. She also gave me an early birthday gift yesterday: the first books in the Twilight series. I'm supposed to try to finish the first book by the 21st, so I can go see the movie with her for some sisterly bonding. I don't think that'll be too hard as I started reading it this morning and am already on page 130.

I've literally had my nose stuck in the book most of the evening. Luckily, Pi is having a sleepover to keep herself occupied.



I have been crocheting a smidge though. Of course, its stuff that's only meant to distract me from the Christmas gifts I need to finish.

Another pair of Little Button Loafers by Sylver. Made with Caron Simply Soft, and H hook, and buttons I found in my stash. Made for no one in particular.



Also, some round granny square pom pom hats. These will fit a baby 3-6 months and 6-9 months. Again, for no one in particular. Can we say Procrastination Queen?



Edited for Marlene: A simple granny hat pattern that is similar to these is the Granny Skull Cap by Luv2Crochet. For the pom poms, I used a pom pom maker which was $3 in the craft store. But here's a link to making pom poms.

Can you guys yell at me to finish those Christmas gifts? I was doing so well last month, but I got completely flaky this month. Maybe its anticipation of the turkey tryptophan coma that's coming in 2 weeks.

R.I.P.

WARNING: The following image may be disturbing to some as it deals with death. Proceed at your own risk.



I will not buy any more plants. I will not buy any more plants.

Lion Brand Studio

Today was the first preview day of the Lion Brand Studio in NYC (close to Union Square for those who care).

In the window is a huge lion whose mane is made up of various types of yarn. Yes, I did indeed press my nose up against the glass for a closer inspection.



Mr. Lion was surrounded by huge balls of yarn. Janet and I couldn't help but lament what a waste it was. Why be decorative when we could take it home and put it to better use!



We couldn't help but pose with the yarn.



Does anyone know what this is? Anyone? Bueller?



There were displays of FO's all over.



Does the top afghan remind anyone else of that 80's game Q-Bert? Its all I could think of when I saw it!



Yarn!



More yarn!

Check out that awesome shawl on the left. Janet liked it so much she bought the exact same shade of yarn and took home a printout of the pattern.

Vanna display.

This was one of the coolest things in there. There are huge cones of all their various yarn. You can cut off a piece, tape it to a small cardboard rectangle, and label what kind of yarn it is. This way you can take home a small sample of what each yarn feels like, its texture, and its thickness. Makes online shopping a lot easier.

This wall display isn't made of yarn, but it was too neat not to post. Its made of felt and is really squishy (no, I didn't touch it...ummm...shhhh).

More gratuitous pictures of yarn!

Overall, I thought the store was great! Its a bit smaller than I expected. You'll pay full prices here too...no craft store discounts, but it is NYC which tends to be pricier anyway. Its really convenient to have a store that I don't need to drive too. They're going to be offering classes starting in December as well. Maybe I'll drop by and really work on those knitting skills.

Also, my job is moving in the spring...within walking distance of the Lion Brand studio. I will not bring my wallet with me when I go on walks! Yeah, ok, who am I kidding?

Drive By Blogging

I'm actually supposed to be ironing right now, and don't have much time to blog, so I'm just going to do the drive by thing.

I made this Bath Puff from Priscilla's Crochet and this Soap Saver from JFP Crochet Club. The puff worked up in about an hour and I used an I hook and Sugar and Creme confectionery colors cotton. The soap saver took about 20 minutes, using the same hook and yarn.




It would make a great addition to a gift basket all wrapped up in tulle. I've decided that tulle can make everything look good. I want to go buy lots of it and wrap everything in it. Be prepared...you might see pictures of Piper wrapped in tulle soon. ;)



Tomorrow, Janet and I are going to the preview of the Lion Brand studio in Union Square. I'll bring my camera and hopefully they'll allow me to get some pics.

Gotta iron!

Z's Slouch Hat

Thanks for the political sympathy everyone. I've had my day of mourning and now I'm ready to move on to bigger and better things....

Like Zuleika's slouch hat! Friggin awesome pattern!




Most beanies look like crap on me because my hair is too big and curly. Hubby likes to tell me how large and alien-like my head looks in beanies. Sweet guy. But this slouch hat has enough room to balance out my curls and not give me the dreaded triangle hair. Its hubby approved.




I experimented with different hook sizes to get different size hats. This blue one fits me best. I used an I hook and less than a skein of TLC Heathers (ww). I started it on the subway going to work and finished it the same night.

The cabling pattern is easier to see with this tan hat. I'm petrified of crochet cables but these were really easy to understand. I felt like a doofus for not trying before.

This is the smallest of the three I made since it was made with an H hook. Fits great as a beanie or a perfectly Piper sized slouch hat.

This black one is the biggest I made, using a J hook. This one is way too big for my head. My friend Desiree really liked this one best for herself though, because she's got a massive amount of hair that she could easily tuck into the hat.

Its nearly impossible to see the cabling pattern with this one, sorry. Getting home after dark means a lot less natural light for me to work with when taking pics.

And just because I can't think of a proper or funny way to end this post, I'll leave you with this gem: