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Elijah got some really great stuff for xmas. The top pics are the cutest freakin shoes ever that his daddy got for him. I just had to stick a pic of them up because they were just too adorable.
I started baking artisan bread (french boule- see pic 3) around 10 PM on Christmas Eve. 6 loaves plus cooling time later I was able to go to bed... At 4:30 AM xmas morning. They made nice gifts to go with the soaps. Since I sucked at completing presents this year I needed something so fancy smancy bread it was :) Actually it wasn't all that fancy because of the marvelous no-knead recipe you can find online at Mother Earth News http://tiny.cc/RWobk Its pretty yummy too. Looks fancy but pretty low maintenance as bread goes!
We went to my parent's and then to my aunt's house for our festivities and when it was all over... My truck would not start. This is my life. Today after a bunch of fiddlin it is starting but we still don't know why it does what it does and nothing is really fixed. Sooo... It will probably act right for a few days/weeks/months and then BLAMO! it won't start when I am in a hurry or far away or its an emergency. This is one of those facts you just have to deal with. Quirks follow me and infect everything I touch. It becomes funny after awhile albeit annoying.
A few days ago... Saturday maybe, a few (near?) tragedies happened. We were visiting my parents and Elijah was in awe of "grandma's special light tree". So he decided to eat a Christmas light. They were plugged in. He stuck one in his mouth and bit through the glass and swallowed part of the light and filament! *Le sigh* He is a little monster! Well I got quite a bit of knitting done while we were on a pretty fruitless ER visit. I had about 15 mins or so left until I finished the Nalu mitts which was supposed to be a Christmas present and needed to be mailed out Monday. What happened you say? I realized I had made 2 right mitts! I have to take out 2/3 of my work. It was a very ugh day but Elijah is ok and after I rip out all my work and one day finish them, the mitts will be gorgeous and hopefully loved by their recipient! But once again... UGH.
Elijah also got a cool Bob Marley shirt as can be seen in the last pic. He runs around bottomless most days so he can get the hang of this potty thing. His 3rd bday will be January 2nd :) how exciting!!! I can't believe he is already that old!!!

Bringing Michael Jackson fashion back

So I think one mitten is good. 2 mittens is just being selfish! Who needs two!?? So this is Elijah's mitten. Be proud for I have started the 2nd! The color is closest to the top pic where Elijah is trying it on.

The Nalu mitts... still are not complete but much closer. The 2nd is almost done. Just a bit more & then the thumb.

I'm still sick but a bit better. Hopefully tomorrow (well later today) I will wake and feel perfect!

A crafty post

So I have been workin my but off. Custom orders and trades - check! Christmas presents - not so much. The first pic is for one trade and the 2nd pic is just a small fraction of another. I'm extemely behind due to the migraines brought on by the rain. So the cozies were crocheted and then hand wet felted/ fulled on the stove with a tremendous amount of elbow grease. After they dried I took them for an outing to the back yard for a shave to remove excess fuzzies (see trio pic).
The 4th picture is one of the mittens I'm knitting for Elijah. This picture also shows that I have been crafting and definately not cleaning. I've also neglected my bread baking! We're breadless! And speaking of neglect... Picture 5... *sigh* the lame amount of work I've done on the 2nd fingerless mitt. Bad Lacy, bad. Oh yes, and those unfinished Xmas presents from last year... Still unfinished. But I did finish and ship a custom order for 2 headbands so I'm not all bad right?
Right? Anyone???

Santa

We missed the xmas parade but we did get to see Santa. He was so excited. We went to Walmart just to see Santa not buy anything lol Thought I'd share the cuteness. Of course he wants cars for xmas. Just cars and surprises... Which should be more cars. :)

Sparkles and tents and migraines

Well here is the sneak peek at the sparkly white dreadband I made. I have tried about 20 times to take closeups so you can see the sparkles to no avail. Take my word for it; it sparkles! It's pretty and wintery.
The bottom picture is Elijah of course. We were playing in his little sun tent... Inside because we really need an SPF 60 (or some # I can't remember) tent in the living room. The kid won't go in it outside, but inside its fun for a minute or 2. It has been up for a couple of days. We were gonna take a nap in it today- well he would be inside mostly and I would be mostly outside- but then that didn't happen. I did take a nap with him in my bed though.
You see I woke up with a migraine. Thought I was gonna puke. And it was xmas parade day. I camped out in the bathroom and ended passing out for about 45 mins. Elijah woke me up. We hung out on the couch and I felt a little better. Not pukey anymore but still a lot of pain. So we missed the parade. About an hour later I was able to walk upright again and eat. My headache is still not totally gone and I feel kinda gross all over but I will survive and I WILL NOT WAKE WITH A HEADACHE!
Tomorrow I'll be crocheting and felting with a bit of "damnit lacy, finish knitting the effin fingerless mitts already, will ya!!!?"

Todays baking

*****EDITED TO ADD BAGEL RECIPE LINK*****

This afternoon/evening I made my staple bread for the next few days. I *LOVE* my bread machines :) yes, I said machines. I have had one since '98 but it is starting to sound elderly. My aunt was giving away hers because she never uses it. It is basically the same model as mine but newer with a couple more settings. So I have 2. And it makes me fancy.
Today I started my wheat bread in the afternoon right before I put Elijah down for a nap. After he was asleep I started some whole wheat cinnamon, dried cranberry, and raisin bagels. After the dough for the bagels was ready I took it out and made 6 bagel shapes, boiled and then baked them. I got a bit of crocheting done while the bagel dough was kneading too :) I started the 2nd batch of bagels soon after the others were finished, plain whole wheat bagels. They are all really yummy :) the colors are a bit off. My cell phone takes really crappy pictures.
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Here is the link to the bagel recipe I use. I had no idea it would still be online. I printed it in 1998! http://www.vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5812.0
If you don't have a bread machine I figure you could still make em. My machine's dough cycle kneads for 22 mins, lts rise for 58 mins, then kneads for another 16 seconds. I freakin love this recipe :)

sometimes i play with photoshop

=)
i play with wool in photoshop too though lol
i'm honestly a photoshop idiot but i did learn a lot...and then i forgot it. so i'm trying to refresh my memory and then add some knowledge. i made a few things and would like your opinion on them. nothing extravagant or fancy but i think they look ok. as a little background info my shop is called blissful goods but it has blisskitty in the link so i figure soon i will have 2 etsy shops blisskitty (yarn and fibery stuff) and blissful goods (for everything else) but honestly i have no idea =)
these are ideas for ad type thingies that i'm kicking around in my head:




and here is a banner and a slightly different banner:


so do i at least get an A for effort???

I'm a winner (& soap & thanksgiving)

Well I freakin won something. I never ever win stuff but I did and it's awesome! I'm a Twilight saga freak and even before the movie came out I saw all these pics from the movie and being a crocheting and knitting madwoman I became obsessed with a pair of mittens. Bella's mittens. I mean I didn't pay much attention to the movie when she was wearing them- I just strained to see details lol. So I was excited to see that folks were trying to decifer the pattern :) and one lovely lady is selling patterns for her version. Cheap too! BUT she had a contest to give away 3 copies and somehow I won. Badass? Yes. Yes it is. Check them out and if you knit and like the mittens then snag yourself a pattern for a great price! http://snoweviolet.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/new-pattern-bellas-mittens/
So today was thanksgiving and Brandon's parents drove down and took us to eat at the beach. Then we stopped by the public beach momentarily. It was warm and gorgeous out so I couldn't just drive away :) I really wanted to stay and lounge in the sun... But had to go to my aunt's house... And she had pie so all was well :) lol
And last but not least there is a photo above of my lovely soap sweaters. They are Christmas gifts. The one in the front is a random soap I had on hand but the others are special :) they were made by the lovely Libby and I swear I want to eat her soaps! Do yourself a favor and get yourself some! http://mayleesgarden.etsy.com they are awesome!

i can't drive my blog very well. i tried to put pics on and type it all up and make it pretty but it ignores me. i looked crappy and wasn't doing what it was supposed to but oh well.

so the new dreadband and cozies are up on etsy =) the new pics that i took with my real camera are better than the yucky cell pics. i have too much hair for the dreadband so i could only get a pic of it as a cowl or neckwarm, but you get the idea. i'm really terrible at writing descriptions but i guess i do a semi-ok job.

i also took a few pics of of the fiber i have been playing with... the hemp and recycled sari silk that i'm spinning on drop spindle. it was impossible to get the colors right but you get the idea right? its going to be really pretty so far i only have a few yards because i have a ton of projects going on. knitting: fingerless mitts, soap sweaters, etc crochet: soap sweaters, a pretty sparkly white dread band for the winter holidays, etc. there are just too many to list! i hope to have the soaps all knitted and crocheted up in the next day or two and i'll get a pic of all those. they are pretty neat.

ok well i'm pretty exhausted and my child is runnin wild. i should go tame the wild beast =) more from me soon!

This blog has been overthrown

Yes, this is Chuck Norris, and I have given a big roundhouse kick to that dreadlocked woman, and taken her firstborn son to train so in the event I ever die (which is unlikely) he can take my place (evil laugh) All the world will fear Elijah, and his new last name WILL be Norris. So sayeth the Chuck...

Remember, When Chuck Norris does pushups, he is not pushing himself UP, he is pushing the earth DOWN.All Hail Chuck!

A few FOs

The dreadband is done! I think it's gorgeous. It is made entirely of merino wool that I handspun on my drop spindle. I will get a pic of it soon on my head so I can put it in my etsy shop... If I'm able to part with it. I put sooo many hours of work into it!! Of course the sun wasn't out for my pics.

I also felted up 2 of my beer/soda can cozies. I crochet them then I hand wet felt them... No washing machine felting for these bad babies :) the pic is sideways because I'm sending from my phone and I haven't figured out a way to turn them! More bottle and can cozies coming soon. These too will be added at etsy.

And then there is the proverbial cute Elijah picture thrown in for extra fun. He was having fun at the laundry mat yesterday :)

The hemp and recycled sari silk yarn I started spinning yesterday is really pretty :) I'm excited about and will give y'all a sneak peek of that soon! :)

Whatcha think?

More yarn love

So the yarn is off the hulahoop and all dry and skeined up :) the pics aren't the best since my phone takes not so great pics. The colors are close but not exactly right but you get the idea :)
Today I have to finish the dreadband and make more soap sweaters for xmas. The pattern for the soap sweaters can be found here http://pickinandthrowin.blogspot.com/2006/12/great-last-minute-gift.html it is not my pattern but a goodun. I am going to make an alternate crochet version for all the crocheters out there. When I get the pattern written up I will put it here on my blog :)
My next spinning project is possibly recycled sari silk and hemp. We shall see how that goes and I guess it may need some wool or alpaca to go along with it. I'm hoping I can do it with the sari silk and hemp fiber but it may be too difficult for my liking!

Use # 372 for a hulahoop

Drying rack for handspun yarn after you set the twist. The earthy yarn is some gorgeous merino that I spun to finish a dreadband I'm crocheting for my etsy shop.

And I swear that orange guy looks "ribbed for her pleasure" and that freaks me out! And now I have "there's a party in my tummy! So yummy! So yummy!" stuck in my head. Doh!

Elijah goes in for the kill

Bananas are good.

I'm really bad at blogging. I don't have internet access on my home computer so I do this all from my blackberry. Its a pain. I will try to get computer time now and then so I can update better :)