Finally, my post about our Christmas

And it took me long enough!
It was a fun Christmas, even though it was cold and rainy outside. We went next-door to my grandparent's house for breakfast and then everyone came back over here to open presents and eat Christmas lunch.

Colin got (among other things) a racetrack from my other grandma (my dad's mom). He told us, about a week before Christmas, that he knew what he wanted for Christmas... a Nascar racetrack!
Well, we explained to him that we had all done our shopping already, and grandma and grandpa had too, so we were sorry, but it was too late to be asking for more, and told him he'd be very happy with what he got, etc. So, he's opening his present from other grandma (we don't know what she's sent) and he says "Oh, it's my Nascar racetrack."...very matter-of-factly... and it was!! So that was pretty crazy! Gracie likes the racetrack too:
She loves to catch the cars as they go zooming around.

Colin also got a wood train train and track from my parents. He likes that too, and so does my dad! Here's Colin playing with it:


Two gifts that I particularly liked were two things I got from my parents, a bright green cast-iron pot, and candle sconces for my bedroom:











And Gracie got her big-girl collar, for her bigger, but still skinny little neck:

I bet these pictures are laid out really badly, but I can't ever get them to look the same as when I'm formatting the post...ugh!

Yeah, I'm still here...

... not that you would know I hadn't just disappeared... as my cousins have so tactfully pointed out, I haven't been so successful on number 11. But I have been getting some other stuff done!
I've been very busy on various needlework projects. I'm working on one gift item right now, and when I finish need to start working on two more; plus I'd like to be able to work on at least one thing for myself as well, cross-stitch, knitting, or sewing whatever! I'm getting to many ideas of things to make, and I think I need to go through and prioritize some. (Okay there's a weird gap here in the text that I can't get to go away!)

And I may want to sell some yarn. Right now I'm trying to only make things with the yarn I have, not buy too much more. However, I don't have any plan for this yarn (Paton's Bohemian), and I just wore a sweater on Sunday made out of that yarn, and it shed all over, with little furry clumps of fuzz. It's a really, really soft yarn, and the sweater was very warm and cozy, but I just don't think I can deal with that much fuzz...my clothes get enough cat hair on them as it is, without adding in sweater shedding.
Here's two things I did for Christmas gifts, since I couldn't post pictures while I was working on them. First, the Christmas ornaments I made for my friends, that's not all of them, but it's the three I had on hand the day I was taking pictures:

Secondly, the sweater I made for Amelia, a little 1 1/2 year old in our church. It has a matching hat, but she's not wearing it in the picture. She is such a sweetie:

Thanks Melody, for letting me post the picture! :)


In reference to my other goals, I've been able to stick to my exercising plan pretty well, so that's good. I got a book from the library about pilates, just for some variety, and that's fun, though a little hard.

Guitar...well, I've practiced um...once or twice this month, but I've been busy!!!! I have wanted to a couple times, and just not had the time to practice right then.

Most of the other things are straggling along... my room is getting cleaned more often, etc.
One thing I need to work on is my recipe scrapbook. I wanted to basically make my own cookbook, and I decided that it would be best to get a scrapbook to put them in. Basically, I wanted a fancy three-ring binder with page-protectors. So I have this:

It's a Christmas(???) scrapbook that I got on clearance at Joann.com. It's 12 x 12, and I bought some various colors of card stock that size to mount the 8 1/2 x 11 recipe pages on. I suppose as far as scrapbooking goes, it's pretty low-key, but I'm not real into cutesy stuff. Occasionally, I'll like stuff like that, and perhaps some retro kitchen stickers or something would be cool, but I also don't want a cluttered look, so I'll probably just have the pages on card stock, in the album. Microsoft Word has a really neat Celtic knot page border in the borders, so I think I'll probably use that (just black & white) around the edges. When I get some pages made, I'll post pictures!
It should be pretty fun, and I've already thought of putting my printed out knitting/crochet patterns in a scrapbook also...Mom says I'm going to end up taking up scrapbooking once I get started. I don't think so though...what with the cropping pictures and stuff... the photographer in me can't take scissors to a printed photo!
So anyway, I need to get to work on typing up recipes...which I will probably do when I get done here.

So, anyway, that's what I've been up to, in brief form anyway. I think I'll make two other posts as well...just to separate the topics covered!

And I really will try to work on blogging more often!

Goals for 2007

I don't say resolutions, because I have a tendency to think of that word in quotes, and these really are more goals, not things set in stone that I intend to do this year... I of course have no control over what really happens this year, nor will I pretend to. Plus I find the word "resolution" silly... (not meaning any offence to anyone who uses it, just my personal opinion).
So, anyway...

1. To exercise every day (not to lose weight! Before anyone who knows me starts getting all worried about me that I'm anorexic or something, I'm not trying to lose weight, I'm just trying to get so that I'm not injuring myself so easily! And I feel better in general if I exercise).
That's exercising every day, excluding weekends, and when I don't feel well enough to. And I know that's a totally overdone goal, every one's exercising in January, but I need to anyway and why not start now.

2. To practice guitar at least two times a week.
This one's going to be hard for me, but hopefully I'll be able to stick with it.... even if my fingers are killing me.

3. Memorize scripture. Proverbs 3, for starters, and I don't know what after that.

4. To learn how to make soap.
I've been wanting to do this for a while...I just need to get all the supplies. And find someplace to do it without damaging anything. I'm planning on making "real" soap, which has lye in it, so I need to have space to do it without spilling lye, coloring, etc. on carpet, or anything it would hurt! It may take me awhile before I get started on that, mainly because of the expense and time involved. I need to buy a kitchen/soap making scale, an immersion blender, find someplace to buy lye, and get some scents and colors for the soap. I think they have lye at Lowes Hardware, so that won't be too bad...if you buy it online you have to sign a waiver, saying 1. you know it's dangerous, and 2. you won't make anything illegal out of it... and you have to be eighteen, so I'd have to get my parents to buy it until I turn eighteen. So I'm hoping that you can just buy it at Lowes without any signing and fussing about it. It's as bad as trying to find sinus medicine...sheesh! Okay, sorry about the rant, on with the goals...

5. Learn tatting... which is lace, and I'm not real big on lace, but I have seen a few really neat patterns, and as long as it's not too expensive, I might as well try.

6. Cross-stitch, knit, etc...craft more. Last year I tried to get a whole bunch of stuff done in the month or so right before the fair, this year I need to get more stuff done through the year. And besides, for all I know about knitting, I really haven't done that much... ;)

7. Sew more/actually do the projects I've been planning on doing for a long time. Like making a simple pillow...a pillow, for goodness sake!... out of supplies that I already have!!!

8. Work on my cooking, or rather my meal-planning. I can cook pretty well when I know what I'm cooking, but thinking of things to cook is not something I'm good at. And my cooking could use some fine-tuning too, things like having the food ready on time every time, not missing anything, and cleaning up the kitchen as I'm cooking ... my parents will be very happy if I accomplish the latter. :)

9. Taking time to clean my room, so that I don't end up (like I did so many times last year) with my room completely covered with whatever I'd been working on at that time....another thing that's going to be hard for me.

10. Find time to do all this stuff! :) Ha...this may be the hardest!

The guitar, and exercising will have to wait until my wrist feels better. I did something to my left wrist, sprained it or something, and it's kind of sore still. So I get a break on those...hee-hee...I can walk though, even if I can't lift weights.

And I'm sure there are other goals, but I can't think of them at the moment, so this will have to do. I may end up posting "Goals: part 2" ...oh yeah:

11. Blog at least twice a week, preferably everyday!


And finally, a picture of the apple pie I made this morning for my grandma's birthday:
It looks a bit better than that in person...it's really hard to photograph food. Pies in particular seem to end up looking really brown and greasy even if they're not!

I've got several other post ideas in my head, but I have other stuff to do right now, so they're not going to get written right now!
I finished my math book today, so I think I may post about school...and Christmas... later, that is!

Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2007!
I can't believe I'm actually awake this early (10) when I stayed up until one last night!

I'm afraid I can't think of anything too spectacular that happened last year, but then it doesn't even seem like it could have been a year already!

And speaking of un-spectacular, at midnight last night, yes exactly at midnight, I was kneeling on the floor with a washcloth in one hand and carpet-cleaner in the other, because for some annoying reason, known only to her, one of my cats decided to pick that time to upchuck a hairball...
*sigh* Happy new year to you too! Ugh.
I think it may have been a sort of chain reaction: we were watching something on TV, and there were people playing bluegrass music, which got Gracie racing around the house (I don't think she liked the sound), and then she started fighting with Petunia, which is probably why Petunia was feeling a little queasy.
And of course, right after that it was midnight, and people somewhere in our neighborhood started shooting...they don't seem to go in for fireworks around here, just gunshot.

Anyway, that was my very un-spectacular New Year's Eve...maybe next year will be better...

Happy New Year! And enjoy 2007!

...now I have to try to remember to write '07, not '06... :)