Ultimate Nerd New Year's!!

Arright. I'll fess up (to the whole world) what all my family and good friends already know.

I'm a nerd. and a geek.

In middle school, I'd've* cringed at the labels and made some rather ineffective efforts at thwarting them, but now I proudly OWN that part of my personality. You know... I like being a nerd. Who cares about labels anyway?

So... tonight was the ultimate nerd New Year's for me... full of board games. :-D Jer & I chilled at home with his parents, celebrated with lasagna, played a game, toasted in the New Year, then Jer & I played another. The important thing (to me) was getting to spend time with some of the people I love, laughing at ourselves and each other.

Dinner: Darla's lovely lasagna
Games: Alhambra & Agricola
Chuckles: Watching the East Coast New Years Countdown with Will, Arnold, Beth & Hope over Skype; "Don't be a stinkypants... that's my job!!"

Happy New Year to all!


the RandParents

The Colorado Rands

A very close game of Agricola
Jer 34, Liz 32



(* - I know that I'd've is NOT a correct use of anything, but I happen to like it thank-you-very-much. :-) After all, 'tisn't a school paper!! :-D )

Warmth, or lack thereof...

There are a few blatantly obvious things that have been driven home for me this Christmas...

- it's cold outside. yes, even in SC. and people sleep in it.
- i've been taking a lot of things in life for granted.
- story is a beautiful, God-given gift.
- i love and appreciate my family, and I don't tell them that enough.
- i'm pretty sure that the last realization goes for my friends too...

The past few months have been full of newness and busy-ness and more reading crammed into the smallest time frame than any other time in my life, but I feel like they've also been full of a sort of inaction. I suppose it's the learning-first-then-doing sort, but it's a little hard to stomach and I find myself wondering if I could've been a better steward of these few short months. Continued food for thought, not reason for despair. :-)

But story, oh story! I have been devouring stories, enthralled by them. (Reminds me of a post I made sometime earlier in the year about wanting to read Scripture that way... I think I got more than I bargained for in that department. :-D Open-mouth-in-front-of-gushing-fire-hydrant-style. No complaints, though... I just know a few things I need to change as I move into this next semester...) My picks for holiday reading so far have ranged from Jean Duprau's City of Ember to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to some thought-provoking non-fiction... I don't know what else will enter the list at this point. I'm just hungry for good story and I can't quite put words to it right now.

A Christmas Eve playlist, (courtesy of Jeromie, crafted for Ewan):
- "Trumpet Child" by Over the Rhine
- "Hymn 101" by Joe Pug
- "Take Me Home" by Genesis as covered by Dave Smith
- "John Saw That Number" by Neko Case
- "Sometimes" by Punch Brothers
- "Rains in Asia" by Jump
- "Quiet" by This Will Destroy You

Hop on over to Jeromie's blog sometime tomorrow for some thoughts on these... in the meanwhile, I'm diggin'em.

Up Next: Pirate Hats & Duct Tape

A Mostly Handmade Christmas...

I had a lot of fun hand-making some of my Christmas gifts this year. Since I started at the end of October, I didn't get to make something for everyone I wanted to, but I got a couple of things done. This year, I intend to get a jump-start on knitting Christmas gifts... maybe in July. :-) It's really hard to just sit on gifts for that long though. When I finish something, I get so giddy that I want to give it right then!

Warning: the pictures aren't all that great. I ran out of time for creating, and I also ran out of time to get some good pictures. These were snapped just before I wrapped them. :-\


Handmade Christmas 2007

Fetching Fingerless Gloves x4

Source: pattern by Cheryl Niamath in Knitty Summer 2006
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted (blue) and some kind of yummy soft grey wool that I've lost the label to. :-(
Thoughts: A fun and easy pattern... well, easy once I got the hang of it. Also, I now understand why everyone raves about malabrigo yarn. It's incredibly soft!


Cap Karma x3

Source: Smariek's blog for the hat, with Jared's decreases
Yarn: Moda Dea Washable Wool
Thoughts: I was a bit wary of the the yarn at first because it seemed shiny, but it ended up working very well with the pattern... and it's washable and comfortable to wear, which are both good. As for the pattern, including Jared's decreases, I think it's beautiful, well-written, and fun to work.


Branching Out

Source: by Susan Pierce Lawrence in Knitty Spring 2005
Yarn: Andean Alpaca Regal
Thoughts:I'd never tried any sort of lace knitting before this project, and I was a bit intimidated. It took several attempts, complete with frogging an hour or so's worth of work, to get the thing going. I finally wisened up & figured out how to use a lifeline... after that, the pattern became thoroughly enjoyable. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for more lace-knitting opportunities.


Kindling Scarf

Source: A stitch dictionary from the library and my head
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky in a sage-green color
Thoughts: This one started out as just playing around with the stitch dictionary & some yarn I had in my collection, and turned into a scarf. If I do this one again, I'll use a lighter yarn and make the scarf longer.


Kategirl Messenger Bag

Source: Kategirl's post on craftster.org
Materials: brown canvas fabric, a thrifted tablecloth, cream grosgrain ribbon
Thoughts: This was my second bag by this tutorial, and it went a little more smoothly the second time around.

That's all for now, I guess. :-)

Some non-Christmas crafty fun!

Today has been fantastic, including work somehow (retail, Christmas time crazy). December finally started acting like itself, which I *love*. I got some Christmas hunting done, wrapped A LOT of gifts for customers, and received the lovely gift of a spontaneous coffee from my very thoughtful husband... then came home and wrapped some more! I really enjoy wrapping presents, but I hope I can figure out a way to make this year be the last year of using so incredibly much paper. I've seen fabric-wrapping techniques mentioned a couple of places, and I hope to do that for most everything next year. (I used to wrap things in cool cloth napkins, but you can only wrap small things that way.)

Well, nice cold days = craving for nice warm soup, so dinner was a bowl of the Cambell's butternut squash stuff with parmesan. For some reason, I decided to take a picture (with one of the things I found on the excursion mentioned below).




Sooooooo... a trip to the thrift store the other day started as a hunt for gift fabrics. It ended with that plus some other fun finds! I won't picture all of the stuff... just what I tinkered with... but I got lots of usable stuff for a grand total of $5.67. I love it when that happens!

I found two cardigans in colors I've been drawn to this year. The grey one didn't appear to have any problems, but I discovered a hole in an inopportune place when I got home. The pomegranate colored one was a size too big and had a hole in the shoulder and arm. When I got home, I intentionally semi-felted the pomegranate one to make it smaller, but that also made it a little misshapen (shoulda used a sweater bag). SO... I made it into a wrap of sorts by sewing in a piece of ribbon for reinforcement, then moving the buttons over a bit. Then, on both, I dealt with the holes by doing some decorative stitching with leftover yarn. There's probably a name for the process, but I don't know it... embroidery?

Without further ado, here are the pictures!


The grey one!


Front!


Back!


Sneaky plan?!



Time to catch some zzzzzz's... Anyone else short on sleep??

Loose Ends

It seems like a lot longer than a week and a half since the last time I posted anything here. I don't think I realized just how busy things have gotten lately. Between work & community & Christmas-present-crafting & wrestling with school apps & normal daily life, I feel like I've been going non-stop. All the going-going has been good and bad.


Good: I haven't really wasted any time. Most waking hours have been productive in some way.

Bad: I've let my priorities get out of whack. I've found myself to be much less mindful of Jesus and my daily need for him. I've let myself lose touch with where my heart *really* is most days.

Good: I've gotten a lot of Christmas presents finished!

Bad: My fiddle's a bit neglected. I have NOT been busy keeping the house particulary clean. But I'm okay with that. Until the dishes growl at me. But they haven't started doing that... yet. (I'm kidding... my disgust level is far more sensitive than that, but the thought of growling dishes reminds me that there's some really gross moldy, mossy stuff growing on the astro-turf behind the Open Book. I'm sure everyone wanted to know that. I just noticed it today... it looks like a miniature forest. Might be a good location for a science experiment.)

The first set of bads are not worth any amount of "productivity" in the world, so I'm trying to slow down. Slowing down without wasting time is an art (science?) that I haven't mastered.

* * * * * * *

I can't post pictures of most of my finished sewing/knitting because they're Christmas presents, but I can post these:

Kategirl Messenger Bag

Source: Kategirl's post on craftster.org
Materials: brown canvas, mary englebreit (sp?) print canvas, some ribbon, and a stupid zipper that punked out on me after the project was finished
Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed making the bag and it may be my all-time favorite of any I've ever owned.

Blue Cafe Bag

Source: sewtakeahike... (thanks, I think I will!)
Materials: brown canvas, light cotton fabric with a flower print, reversible pink/brown ribbon
Thoughts: A birthday gift for a family member. Seems to be the perfect size for a small knitting project. Next time I make this bag, I'll use a lighter fabric for the outside... the canvas was a bit stiff for the structure of the bag.

* * * * * * *

P.S. Our cars seem to be tree magnets. A rather large limb fell on Jeromie's car a few weeks ago causing only minor damage. THEN yesterday, a dead tree fell across the road in front of a friend's house while we were parked there and came within inches of my car. I think our cars need personal bodyguards!

Knit-picking

Goodness, I haven't posted in a while. As for the outcome of the last post, no one ever looks at my nametag, so I just left it the way it was... I think I'll continue to do so until it falls apart. I guess I'm more like the grammar knit-picker than the grammar nazi.

Speaking of knit-picking, I've been knitting quite a bit recently. I taught myself several Christmases ago (4, it turns out) because I thought it looked interesting. It never really clicked until this time around. I had to rest my foot for most of the holidays in order to be able to function on it at work when I got back. Nothing like hating TV and having to sit on a couch for a week or so to make things click. Anyhow, Jeromie got me a knitting instruction/pattern book for Christmas (Stitch & B****) -- it cleared up my very few confusions about the process and resulted in a kerchief, a hat for Jero, and, most recently, a bag. I liked knitting before... I really like it now. :-) I still can't run, walk a lot, or climb much on my foot (thanks to me playing HC kickball), but I can knit and it serves as a similar enough de-stresser and a good creative outlet.

On the inside, the past month or so has been full of wrestling, doubts, and questions that are not readily answered. Some days, I ignore the questions and, honestly, I hate myself for that. I know that God will bring glory to Himself and teach me through the questions and the wrestling, but I just get so tired of bumping up against what feel like brick walls.

Anyhow, here's a picture of the bag, complete with Molly fur on the floor:

Married Christmas

Ah! Now our house smells like Christmas tree instead of doggie-dog! This week has been awesome. Tiring, but awesome. My sister (Diane) and her husband (Drew) and Jeromie and I have sorted holidays out such that Diane and I are "home" at the same time, so we all got to hang out a good bit on Thanksgiving and yesterday. The time went by toooooo fast though, and I feel like we didn't get to actually talk as much as we'd've liked to. (Yes. I just apostrophized twice in the same word.)

Today was just me and my Jeromie... decorating for Christmas.

We found the perfect tree...




and decorated it...


and Jeromie took pictures...


and then we celebrated!



Twas muchest of fun... and, as Jeromie just pointed out over my shoulder... this is just the beginning!