Non-Cheesy Christmasness

Some great Christmas wallpapers for your PC and laptops because they need a little love too, right?

Smashing Magazine

Here are a couple I really liked:

Knitting Preview

Mystery scarf and completed Koolhaas Hat.

What I've Been Up To

Making pear custard out of the Everyday Food Cookbook...


Making chicken noodle soup...


Raking leaves into piles much to the enjoyment of a few little boys...and yes. That's drool.




Making things for the craft fair at work. It wasn't all that successful, but was a fun experience. These were a "custom order - which makes you feel very professional.


Let's not leave out the knitting. This hat is actually pretty cool looking, but I couldn't get a good shot that day except on my head outside. It's HUGE and I am calling it the Mushroom Hat, but it's really out of the Jared Flood Made in Brooklyn pattern book. Next time I'll either have to check gauge better or just knit it on smaller needles. It was quick and fun nonetheless and very warm!

Um...more pictures from before teh craft fair. I kind of took over the house? But rest assured it has all been cleaned up.


Going up the tram at Snowbird with J's family. We couldn't get the candle lit long enough to blow out. Also, Anna does NOT like to walk on ice or snow anymore.


Decorating the house for the holidays. The tree looks much better with the addition of 6 ornaments from Mexico from J's sister. Last year we only had one on there that we bought while we were down there. It doesn't make for a well balanced tree.

Also, Jon's sister A and I made these really fun garlands. Just sew circles of paper together on your sewing machine - it makes a great garland or gift wrapping accessory.The paper I used was solid, but has this really great texture on it. J's sister wrapped some gifts in this green painters paper we found at Home Depot ad then wrapped a string of small circles around it - it was great! The husbands did not think it was as cool as we did.




The Mexican Nativity we bought a couple of years ago. It's the perfect size for us.


In other news - I went to another knitting class a week or two ago. They taught you about knitting cables by working on a hat pattern that is covered in mini cables. I can't put a picture of the hat on here as it's for a Christmas gift, but it's going to be hard to give it away! The yarn is 100% wool but you'd never know. It's exceptionally soft and squishy and is a beautiful heathered grey color. I intend on making more soon!

I'm also working on my first lace project. It's going to be a scarf for another Christmas gift (fingers crossed as it's slow going).

Finaly...guess what I'm typing this post on? My new LAPTOP! It's an early Christmas gift. J is way too good to me. It's a Toshiba Satellite A505-S6986 that we got on sale at Office Depot. Nice big screen, full sized keyboard and 10-key, webcam although I dot intend on using that, nice processor, I get to finally use wireless internet and the speakers are fantastic! If you know me, I'm almost never without music on, so good sound was a must.

Have I mentioned I love it?

A, O, I, L, & G

The last couple are a little blurry, but they were mostly for fun anyway. So much brother love. It's a wonder the smallest one has managed to survive all the brotherly attention love. Especially by the middle one. He LOVES his little brother and shows it dutifully by smooshing, squishing, and toting him around all while telling you "my brother is so CUTE! He is SO cute!". This is why we like them. There is always something entertaining going on.

Oh. And because they are SO CUTE! They are just so CUTE!

Making Do - A Project for Lazy & Unprepared People

People like me.

This is what you do when you don't have a birthday card for your nephew. I think I am going to make all my holiday gift tags like this from now on...


And this is what you do when you realize the thing you've thrown together is not going to fit into a normal envelope. Lazy envelopes care of Angry Chicken's tutorial. A torn out page from the Patagonia catalog. Like I'm ever going to be able to afford anything in there anyway...

I didn't even have any tape (electrical tape wasn't going to cut it this time) and, as you can see, one side of the envelope is sewn and the other is glued with a glue stick. I resorted to a glue stick after my bobbin ran out of thread which is why the stitches look so messy. I am not sure why I didn't think of the glue stick first, but oh well.



Voila. Instant money holding card (that could have been cuter...I admit that...) and ski man envelope for a little 9 year old skier.

The Avett Brothers

If there's one thing I get, that's bored. I get bored easily and music is no exception.

One of the things I like about the The Avett Brothers is that while they have a pretty definitive sound worked out, they can still throw in a little variety.

Most of their music is mellow, sparse acoustic stuff, with a lot of piano, and some string instruments thrown in...songs like "I and Love and You" and "The Weight of Lies". You can check out the video for "I and Love and You" on their web site. There are other songs with a little of their Carolina southern influence including harmonica, and the banjo like "Dancing Daze" and "The D Bag Rag".






And then they have a few songs with a little more kick to them. "Kick Drum Heart" and "Slight Figure of Speech" are little upbeat ditties, and then there is "Colorshow"; a little more edge in that one. It appears that the Southern boys can do a little yelling. Which I am partial to... Jon thinks the vocals sound like Marcy playground, but I'm just not hearing that.

So go listen to them and discover something new.

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh My!

Well it is Halloween soon, so I thought I would mention The Eels new album "Hombre Lobo". It means werewolf in Espanol. I've been listening to this band for almost a decade now, but only recently learned that the lead singer Mark Everett is the son of famous physicist Hugh Everett III who first proposed the many worlds theory of quantum physics.

You can listen to the song "Fresh Blood" here at Spinner.

You can also learn "10 facts about Mark Everett's Beard here at Spinner as well. Who knew?





And their video for "Prizefighter":


Something a little softer, "In My Dreams":


And lastly, for those not into the Eels, here's something a little more mellow and tame. Jose Gonzalez, another artist I love...playing "Hand on High". He's Swedish, I think -