Livin' La Needle Loca

...I finally finished the kitty. and a view of the back: Specs: Started 11/10/08 Finished 11/27/208 Pattern: Siamese Kitty by Barbara Prime Yarn: Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends Needles: 6US If I make another toy in this yarn, I'm going down a needle size—there are a lot of gaps in the stitches once the toy is stuffed. It's still very cute, though! Our Thanksgiving dinner turned out very well—the turkey was perfect and everything tasted good. It was great to spend time with family. The only bummer of the whole day was that our land line was out all day...we didn't know it was out until mid-day, so people who tried to call us couldn't get through. Thank goodness for cell phones! By the time everyone left, we were exhausted. Sewing the Kitty together was a perfect thing to work on when I crashed in my chair. I finally got a chance to take pictures of my last Rockin' Sock Club installment. It's very pretty and Autumn-y. Click the spoiler alert picture to see what it l...

...our table is set, the bird's in the oven. Things are under control, so I can take a minute to wish you Happy Turkey Day!

...and I have a ton of things to do. I have two tasks that I must finish for work today. I can't leave until they're done, so I'm clearly motivated to get them out of the way! I haven't done any knitting or crafting in several days, so nothing to show you for WIP-it Wednesday. Since I haven't had any time to take pictures of my new Rockin' Sock Club yarn (or anything else, for that matter), here's a picture that I took on one of my walks. This persimmon tree is growing along the wall in a neighbor's back yard. This was taken about 3 weeks ago. When I saw the tree this morning, all of the persimmons are gone. (and they didn't share!) Anyway, back to work for me!

...the weekend just zipped on by. We spent part of the weekend finishing up the various house projects like hanging the new track light in the dining area and replacing the old white board with a new one. Cleaning took up the rest of our time. It took quite a bit of scrubbing to get rid of the remaining red paint dust in the kitchen. Ugh! What a pain that was! But the kitchen looks nice now (as nice as a late sixties kitchen can look). We did all the dusting and vacuuming, polished the furniture, and got things back into their places. In the course of dusting I earmarked several cookbooks for resale or charity donations. (Really don't want to have all those Frugal Gourmet cookbooks in my house anymore.) When I wasn't cleaning, I prepped for Thursday. I did my main grocery run for Thanksgiving (I know I'll do at least one more). I bought the bird and it is defrosting in the refrigerator. I made my cranberry sauce, boiled the brine for the turkey, and toasted and cubed the ...

...getting up early to go to the gym has its advantages. I get to see some wonderful sunrises. Flowers and plants always look so much more vibrant in the morning sun. This morning I noticed paper white narcissus growing wild in the front yard. They are in all stages of growth: some blooming, some wilting, and some just starting. About a week ago, the husband moved some planters to the front of the house. They contain an assortment of snapdragons and pansies. They really add some much-needed color to the front of the house. These pansies caught my eye this morning: Since it's getting colder and colder in the mornings, I decided I really needed to get serious about finding something to cover my ears. A quick search on Ravelry yielded three patterns for bike helmet ear muffs. After reading all of the patterns, I decided that the pattern by Briney Deep Designs [ Ravelry ] was very close to what I envisioned. It's basically two covers for the straps connected by a head band...i...

...the Siamese cat is almost done! I've finished all the knitting and done most of the seaming. I just need to stuff it, embroider the face, and add ribbons and a button to the apron. Love this pattern! All of the Fuzzy Mitten patterns are adorable and the instructions are well written. I'll probably make a couple more of these because they're fast and fun. I haven't done much more than that...we're still trying to get the kitchen put back together. All the cabinet doors are back up and the Husband has caulked half of the counter. I need to get in there with some bleach and clean the grout so it's white instead of red. (Sanding all that old red paint really spread a nice layer of red dust on everything!) The kitchen has to get done soon so I can start my Thanksgiving prep. ACK!! That's next week...gotta get serious here really soon!

...sort of. The Husband spent most of his weekend dealing with cabinet doors and painting. I went through the stuff in the cabinets and flagged some things for Goodwill and others for trash or recycle. After The Husband finished painting the cabinet doors and the walls, cabinet fronts looked really bad. We haven't ever repainted them (again, waiting for that remodel that's not happening) and the red paint was started to chip away. Yes, I said "red." Until this weekend, my kitchen was red, white, and black—red cabinet fronts with the rest white, and a black-and-white tiled floor. It was great for a while, but we were ready for a change. One option was to go completely white, but as I've mentioned, it gets really bright in the kitchen in the morning. All white would be blinding. We decided that a new color was in order and we went for a color more on the cool end of the spectrum: Note our fabulous particle board cabinet doors...they used only the best materials ...