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OK, So what a loser blogger am I? HA! I need to blog more often. I should put myself on ice cream restriction until more blogging occurs! So, since last December what's happened?
Another Nutcracker:

Some knitting (although, not nearly enough, and I have the neurosis and HUGE yarn stash to prove it):

Saw some good movies. Some at home, some not (Truffle did too) :

Had lots of dinners (at home and some in NY, ATL, etc.) with people I love:

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We sold our house and moved (bad timing, I know). But, we are happily settled (for now anyway) I am sure lots more has happened, but, I'll save some for later.

Book Reviews

Here are my reviews of the books I have finished. I don't think I'm going to finish by December 31, but I'm going to try! I was busier than I expected to be this Christmas season!

- 2000's Tale of Hilltop farm. Ok, I loved this book!! It was a delicious read. I will be reading the others in this series.

-1990's Murder She Wrote. Yuletide murder. This one was good too. Not as good as I expected though.

-1980's Murder She Wrote. Gin and Daggers. This was a better than Yuletide murder. It was a quick read.

-1970's Brother John- I didn't like this one at all. Apparently it was a movie first, and I won't be seeing it.


-1950's Cheri and the last Cheri. I adore Colette. She's like a French Jane Austen. I'm planning on going through all her books.

-1930's Murder at the Vicarage. The first book in the Miss Marple series. I LOVE every book Agatha Christie has written.

-1880's Alice or, the Mysteries. What a sweet book. I loved it, and have given the book to my mom to read. If you like Austen, you will like this book.

-1870's Work. This is a somewhat sad book, but very well written. I have read it several times. It's quite different from Little women.


Well, that's all for now folks. Right now I'm working on The Pickwick Papers, by Dickens. I'll let you know when I'm done. I'll leave you with some pictures from my little sisters ballet performance in The Nuctracker. My brother snuck these pictures (you're not supposed to take any pictures!) so some might be a little blurry. There are some great one of her on smugrug.com She had five parts this year!! This spring performance she will be dancing on POINTE!! She has been on pointe in class all this year, and she LOVES IT.

Merry Christmas to everyone, and may you all remember the true reason for the season!!

By the Decade Challenge

I'm signing up for the By the Decade Challenge. I've decided to read 20 books by December 31! Here's the list:


1. 2000's-The Tale of Hill Top Farm- by Susan Witting Albert
2. 1990's-Murder She Wrote, A Yuletide Murder- by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain (one of my favorite shows to watch)
3. 1980's-Murder She Wrote, Gin and Daggers- by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain
4. 1970's-Brother John- by Leo P. Kelley
5. 1960's-Breakfast at Tiffany's- by Truman Capote
6. 1950's -Cheri and The Last Cheri- by Colette
7. 1940's-Animal Farm- by George Orwell
8. 1930's-The Murder at the Vicarage- by Agatha Christie
9. 1920's-The Great Gatsby- by F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. 1910's-The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse- by Beatrix Potter
11. 1900's-Anne of Green Gables- by L.M. Montgomery
12. 1890's-Jude the Obscure- by Thomas Hardy
13. 1880's-Alice, or the Mysteries- by Edward Bulwer Lytton
14. 1870's-Work- by Lousia May Alcott
15. 1860's-Essential Thinkers- by karl Marx
16. 1850's-Scarlett Letter- by Nathaniel Hawthorne
17. 1840's-Mary Barton- by Elizabeth Gaskell
18. 1830's-The Pickwick Paper- by Charles Dickens
19. 1820's- TBA ( I haven't decided yet)
20. 1810's-Sense and Sensibility- by Jane Austen ( my all time favorite auther!!)

Well, wish me luck! I'm off to read!!

It came!, It came!!!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!

My swap pal's package came, and I was in utter disbelief!!! She sent me so many wonderful things, I can't even believe my eyes! She sent me a sweet tea cup, all my own. Lots of VERY GOOD tea, my FAV cookies. Wonderful chocolate, and a wafer chocolate cookie. Also some scrump-tea-umptous truffles!! I can't wait to use all of this wonderfulness at my next Stitch and Bitch!!

The yarn was so beautiful I almost passed out!! There were FIVE!!!!!!!!! skeins of WONDERFUL noro yarn. It's one of the most delicious purples I have ever seen!!! I couldn't help myself! I've already knit up a LONG scarf, AND a very WARM hat with the yarn. I'm going to post about it when I have good pics of it. Until then, take my word for it, it's supremely wonderful!!

Thank you SOOO much Angie!! And keep warm everyone! It's starting to get COLD now!

Stitch & Bitch

Doesn't this look fun!! My mom and I get together ( and some times little sis, who's learning how to knit), and have our very own "stitch and bitch". Or as we like to call it "stitch and watch" as we are usually watching a movie, not bitching. ( I said usually, not always, lest my brother and dad see this and say otherwise. :) ) We try to get together at least twice a week.



We ended up in the dining room this time, sometimes we are in the living room. It depends on what's going on. Sometimes it's morning, sometimes it's really, REALLY late. We always have a good time. We watch all kinds of movies. Our FAVORITE is LADIES IN LAVENDER. We also like to watch CHOCOLATE, MEET JOE BLACK, AUTUMN IN NEW YORK, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (A&E) , YOU'VE GOT MAIL, etc.,etc. This time we were watching AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, and PERSUASION by Jane Austen. She is my favorite author, all her books are just wonderful, and they make excellent movies. We usually use this time to watch "chick flicks" so that we don't bore our boys. We most recently watched OUT OF AFRICA, and it's very good. Meryl Streep is one of my MOST favorite actresses.




We always have our fav books laying around, even if we aren't using them, they are good inspiration. We also use this time to look through new books and plan our yarn shopping!! The books of the day were WEEKEND KNITTING, and KNITTED BABES, which I am currently using. My mom always has lots of ELIZABETH ZIMMERMANN books close at hand.




And of course we always have our most recent knitting projects and our TEA!!!! Sometimes if we are being really bad we will have some "treats". Sometime if we are being really good we will have my famous coconut macaroons. I'll post pictures later of me making them. I got the recipe from the book PURE FOOD AND WINE. It's one of the "Cook" books I go to most often. Well, off to make more macoroons, and another stitch and bitch!! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Knitters Tea Swap

I'm sooooooo excited to be doing the KTS!! I have my pal and I'm ready to shop. I'm including some more pics of my cups and the sweeteners I use, if I use any. Mom and I love to vintage shop for "shabby chic" cups that look pretty. I love that they don't match, but coordinate. I LOVEEEEE dark chocolate, and shortbread cookies (but I only have shortbread once in a blue moon). Especially the really simple buttery ones like Walker's brand. You can really taste the butter in them. I like any kind of tea, but I have to be careful not to drink too much black tea. As much as I love it, I get the gitters and look like a "druggie"! ( it's actually quite funny for everyone else to watch!). Caffeine never used to bother me, until I quit drinking coffee, now I can tell when I've had too much, as can everyone else. I love to drink any herbal tea, it's sooo good and really clean tasting. I can drink herbal tea all day, and never get sick of it (and many days I do). My Grandma found out how much tea mom and I drink and she bought us an electric water heater. It's awesome!! It heats the water so fast, and has a very pleasant little "ding" when it's done. It even has a light and a viewing window on the lid so you can watch the water while it heats up ( ok, I'm very easily amused!! ) I love the color purple, but I also love the colors tan, white, black, gray and red, especially when they are all together. They look so chic. I noticed that vogue knitting had some nice "gray" patterns this season. My favorite yarn is Rowan, but I also love ANY of the Manos del Uraguay yarns and the Noro yarns. I love all yarn. I heard about some "Organic" wool yarn, and have been wanting to go check it out, as I'm into all that healthy granola-ee stuff. ( I'm kind-of a health freak) Well happy swapping everyone!!!!

Christmas gifts Pt. 1

So, this is my scarf in progress and finished and ready to send. It's a Christmas gift, Shhhh :) ( one down, about 30 more to go, hehe) for my uncle Bill who loves purple, just like me. The yarn is Noro Kureyon, color 148. I used the pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts ( the mens cashmere scarf ) but, I made it wider and didn't use cashmere. I like the colors, it's purple, and not a girly purple. More Christmas gift pictures to come!

Time Flying

WOW!! How time flies!! I can't believe it's been this long since I've been back to post a blog. Well I have been knitting up a storm. ( in beween guests and at night when there isn't anyone around to "interrupt" ) Right now I'm working on all my Christmas gifts. My LYS ( Knit Happens ) had a HUGE sale, so I bought waaayy too much yarn for all my gifts. I'm loving all the knitting I'm getting to do. I'm having trouble deciding which project to do first, so I have too many going on at once! It's finally starting to cool off here (metro D.C.) and all the tourists are thinning out!! (YEAH!) Also, school started again, so looks like it's safe to go to Starbucks again without getting run over by mobs of "children-on-way-too-much-coffee". My (younger) sister starts her ballet season again soon, so while I wait during her class I get lots of "built in" knitting time! ( that is if we're all still here and not washed away by all the rain) My dober-girl, Emma, is very very sad about all the rain. Dobermans, for those who don't know : ), melt in the rain. So, it's been fun going in and out, in and out, umbrella ( for her), towel and rain boots in hand trying to get her to "GOOOOO POTTY ALREADY!!" Now, don't get me wrong, we need the rain, my herbs will glady tell you that. But, Emma and I both will be happy when it slows down, or at least drys out between flooding days! I'm going to try to get some pictures of my "BIG BAD DOBERMAN" melting in the rain, it's very cute.