I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile now and I figured the beginning of the year was a good time.
Presenting the first ever Pretending Sanity Scarf Swap Spectacular!

Here’s how it works:
Each person who wants to participate will make a set number of scarf “squares.” For example purposes, we’ll say 10 people sign up. Each person will make 10 squares. You will send those squares to me, along with a postage paid return envelope. Each scarf will have a square from each participating person, I will sew these together. I will then mail a scarf to each participant.

Squares can be knit, sewn, fabric, crochet, (fake)fur, ribbon, embroidered, screen printed, just about any media you want (as long as it’s comfy around the neck!).

Comment to this post if you want to sign up (be sure you include your real email address.) I will limit the number of participants so I won’t have to sew together tons of scarves! so sign up quick if you want to participate.

Once everybody is signed up, I’ll email you with the details, ie: the number of squares and size that you need to make and my address and the deadline date.

This is going to be fantastic!!!

email me if you have any questions.

Midnight Knitter started an online knitting store! The prices seem really reasonable and shipping is only $5 on all orders.

Check it out > Knit Pixie

Last night we went to my dads house for prime rib and to open presents. We were an hour late because we were waiting for the guy to finish installing our satellite. (My primary reason for wanting satellite is so that we could get Tivo and record Alias since they switched it to Wednesday night and we’re at youth group. This is what happens when you get really bad reception and your son sticks some kind of slimy food in the VCR rendering it useless.) I’m not used to being the flakey one in the family. You know the type, every family has one, the person that you wait on every single time. The person that has to leave in the middle of the evening to go get peppermint ice cream because their satellite installer took too long and they didn’t have time to pick some up. You know…

The kids, of course, brought home a haul. They are currently watching their newest DVD, Mary Poppins. Honor was the recipient of a cool push car and an alligator. He opened the car first and we could hardly get him to look at the alligator until we put it right in his face. (He’s going to have a huge overload tomorrow.)

Eden got her “woobie” and a pink VW bug. She’s been wanting a car for awhile now, so she was really excited.

Finally, here’s my Aunt, Uncle and cousins modeling the scarves and hats I made for them.

Jim’s quote of the week:

(Spoken in a Nyquil induced state of delirium)

“If I get something good for Christmas, I might just start celebrating it.”

Thankful that…

I got the very last carton of peppermint ice cream at the store. (We won’t mention that it was $5.99.)

So last night I made pecan brittle and peppermint bark. The peppermint bark is oh, so easy and I just can’t pass up making something so easy.

Take one package of white chocolate chips, melt them down in a double boiler and then add about 10 crunched candy canes. Pour onto a parchment lined baking sheet and place in freezer to set up. That’s it.

But the candy after my own heart is Pecan Brittle. It, in no way, compares to Peanut Brittle. Peanut Brittle would be lucky to kiss the feet of Pecan Brittle. So even if you hate Peanut Brittle, give Pecan Brittle a try.

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
teeny, tiny dash of salt
2 1/2 cups pecans (or other nuts, but why wouldn’t you want to use pecans?)
1 tsp. vanilla extract, no fakers here
1 tsp. baking soda

Butter a rimmed baking sheet. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, water and salt in a 4 quart sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches soft ball stage (238º on a candy thermometer). Stir in pecans and continue to cook, stirring often, until mixture is a golden amber color (over 350º). When it reaches the amber color quickly stir in vanilla and baking soda (it will foam up). Pour into prepared pan and spread out evenly as possible. Set aside until cool. Break into pieces and try to share.

Eden likes to eat peanut butter out of a spoon for a little snack. This is what happens when Honor wants some too.

One of the joys of owning an old house (built 1895) is all the quirks that come along with it. Our house has the tiniest bathroom, with no room to expand. To try to liven up the space, I’ve painted it many times. The first time I painted the whole thing a rich blue and the ceiling and trim lime green. Last spring when we tried to sell the house, the realtor told us that we needed to paint it, so I painted the whole thing white. White to match the white floor, white cabinet, white shower curtain and the white towels. Talk about boring.

Ever since we decided to refinance rather than sell, I’ve been wanting to paint the bathroom again. (Not that I’ve really been wanting to experience the joy of painting, but I’m so sick of the boring white that I will suffer through more painting.) Every time my friend, Brooke (hi, Brooke!), goes on break (she’s a teacher on a year round schedule) we have to do a project. We’ve made marble magnets, knitted, made soap, made bagels and this year we decided to paint our bathrooms.

I know what you’re thinking, if I’m painting my bathroom, Honor will be locked out of it for a whole day and that means that he will not have any toilet time. For shame! But not to worry, he got plenty of toilet time in before hand, the day before he threw my comb and a waffle in there. And the morning of, he threw his socks in. The withdrawals were a little hard on him, but he suffered through.

I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures of Brookes bathroom (and later I remembered that we both had camera phones -duh-).
Here’s mine before:

And after:

Notice that the kids are playing in the water? Nothing unusual.

This is fantabulous!! You must look at this knitted alligator scarf. I love it!

Here’s a little sample of the double stockinette, it’s the same on both sides. Quite fantastic if I do say so myself.

Sorry for the poor pic quality.

And I’ve been churning out hats like a mad woman. The first two are the Hot Head pattern from Stitch n Bitch. The last is a variation of Kims Hats from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and the top of the hat.

Only two hats, one scarf and one poncho to go. Do you think I’ll make it?