Nor'Easter

So, the weekend before Christmas we all headed into the city, despite that whole "winter storm warning" thing.

The drive up wasn't that bad, but by the time we got into the city, checked in to our hotel and headed up to Serafina for dinner, things had taken a turn for the worse!

That's the fam, Miss B. is in the oxygen-tent apparatus attached to the Bugaboo. (She was the only one truly staying warm and dry!)


There's 57th and Madison... snowcovered.


There's the trees around Rockefeller Center...

Hot Dog Stand across from Saks...









There's St. Barts in the background...












That's the Mom... you see, the Husband, the Dad and Miss B. stayed back in the room while we decided to make a late night run to the McDonald's on 51st and Third.



Mom said if she didn't have a heart attack on the way back to the hotel from Third Avenue, she never will!

So We're a Little Behind

The week before Christmas, Miss B. and I visited the Governor's Mansion, Drumthwacket. Typically, they have tours on Wednesdays. In December they do an open house format with the rooms decorated for the holidays.

It was very nice and a lot of fun, but I do have to say that I was a bit surprised.... Mostly by the fact that they let everyone park on the lawn (!) Can I just say, in Georgia, they wouldn't let anybody park on the lawn of the Governor's Mansion.
To add insult to injury, it had been rainy earlier that week and things were a bit muddy. There was one woman who had gotten her SUV stuck in the mud and she was literally spinning her wheels trying to get off the lawn. Clearly, some of our tax dollars will be going to repair that!

Really?

According to MSNBC, President Obama has now decided that postal workers will be our first national line of defense for delivery of "medical countermeasures" in the event of some sort of biological incident.

God knows what this will do to the price of postage!

Just Saying...

my new iPod touch rocks.

I'm new to this whole concept of being able to watch movies and tv shows on this little gizmo. Any thoughts on what my first movie choice should be?

Dress-Up Bag!

Here's all of the contents of the dress-up bag!

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

Have a wonderful day!!!

ps. nothing says Christmas Eve like a marathon of "Jersey Shore", followed by "The Hangover"!

Colorful Stitches!

I got an email today from the folks at Colorful Stitches a yarn shop in Lenox, Massachusetts. The email advised that on behalf of Colorful Stitches customers the shop had donated a "knitting basket" through Heifer International. How cool is that?

I Think I

need this.

Or maybe this.

La Tour Eiffel!

Check this out! Thanks to the folks at Paris Bebe Fabrics I got to make my very own little Eiffel Tower pincushion! (well, actually, it's a gift for the Mom).... If you'd like to make your own, you can purchase your Paris Bebe Pattern by clicking here. It's $10 for the pattern and the beads and embroidery floss (you buy the felt) or $18 for the full kit. How cool is that? Vive la France!

Golden Globes!

The nominations are in! Interestingly, both Sandra Bullock and Matt Damon have been nominated in two different categories. On a similar note, Meryl Streep has also been nominated twice (but in the same category). And, I don't care how great Anna Kendrick was in "Up in the Air", if anyone saw The Marc Pease Experience you would rethink a nomination just on principle. But congratulations, none the less. ;)

Craft-Tastic!

What did we make tonight?

First off, we finished our Cookie Monster Pillow. I have to say it only took me two years to complete a needlepoint designed for children (and I don't just mean that it's children's themed, I mean it's actually designed for a CHILD to needlepoint it... whatever! It's done).... so then I sewed it together with a piece of yellow fleece and stuffed it and Voila! Cookie Monster pillow for Miss B.

THEN.... it was on to the big craft of the evening.... the Sweater Wreath!

Here's a picture of our inspiration: This was featured on the Viva Terra website... looks simple enough, right? Let's see!

First, we needed a wire hanger ("No More Wire Hangers!!!!") This was very reminiscent to me of a project I did in Kindergarten where we made wreaths out of strips of plastic garbage bags tied onto hangers. Let's hope our version is a little more upscale!

I'm in the bedroom, trying to bend a hanger into a wreath shape and all of a sudden the Husband goes into his closet and pulls out a hanger already straight and ready to be made into a wreath! How random is that? He did say it was blog worthy and I'd have to agree. Turns out he'd already reclaimed a hanger for use as a tool to fish wires through the walls while mounting our flat screen tv, so his home improvement gizmo is my craft gain!

With my wire hanger ready, I needed my supplies. Thanks to the Mom I had a ton of sweaters, in great jewel tone colors! I had started with some of my old sweaters and the Mom hit up her local $1 thrift store for some other colors. I washed them all together on hot and then dried them on high. The sweaters all felted up very nicely. If you're looking to replicate this, make sure you use sweaters that are 100% wool-- acrylics won't felt. For that matter, some wool felts up better than others as well. Shetland does particularly well, cashmeres and other softer yarns not so much. But, for the most part, if you are working with 100% wool you can get it to felt, eventually!
With my sweaters together I used a 4" quilter's template and my pinking shears to cut the sweaters into squares. I also supplemented my sweater squares with yellow and green anti-pill fleece squares (I didn't have any yellow or green sweaters but I wanted to mix up the colors).
I didn't follow any exact pattern with the squares, I just tried to make it look nice. Once all of the squares were on the hanger, I connected the two ends in a loop (I needed a good pair of pliers for this part) and then I covered the wire loop with ribbon (thanks, hot glue gun!)
I do want to find a green sweater that I can felt and make a holly sprig (with red button accents) as shown in our inspiration piece. But overall, I'm pretty happy with the end result!

I Can Totally Do This!

Today I met up with Mel and Miss Leda for a ladies lunch at Fred's at Barneys! It was great to get to see the gals! After lunch, we took a quick stroll through the holiday department and children's departments on the top floor at Barney's.

In the holiday department, I saw this neat Christmas tree. I really liked the wacky hot pink flower thingies that they have in the tree. They also had super cute sock monkey ornaments.

Then, over in the kids department I saw these great Sesame Street inspired t-shirts...
They were made long-sleeve by sewing tube socks onto the short sleeves. The Sesame characters have been appliqued. But, can you see that price tag? Yup, $75. I'm sorry, but I think I can totally make these (and for a whole heck of a lot less than $75!) Let's not forget that I already have "Quilting with the Muppets" so I've even got patterns for appliqueing these guys! Woo-hoo!

Transsiberian

Was good. I was surprised. Poor Thomas Kretschmann, though. No lines in English. In fact, our friend from the Da Vinci Code actually had more lines in English and he was in the movie for a fraction of the time. What can you do? Work is work.

Christmas Tree!

Here's a picture of our tree this year. It's not as tall as usual, since we've got it in the family room proper (it usually goes in the nook, with it's higher ceilings, but Miss B. has taken the nook over as her play space, so thus, the tree has moved...)

It's a great shape and it was the first one that the Husband picked out at Kale's. Miss B. was instrumental in putting the star on top.

In years past I've done the high-concept trees (like the year we only had silver and gold decorations). This year, however, we've focused on the low-tech (in fact, I think we're just one small step away from hand strung popcorn and cranberry garland).


We've got a bunch of Miss B. made ornaments, like Santa and a Gingerbread man...

Then we have my various forays into decoupage. Let's hope dry modpodge isn't flammable.



















Then there's the Mom's signature ice cream cone ornaments.... and more decoupage.


Our glitter decorated shells a la Martha Stewart.... (these are especially sparkly with the little white lights!)

A bird's nest with gold eggs (I made this a few years ago, during the "silver and gold" period)...




and another Miss B. creation















Happy Holidays, everybody!

Put Your Hands Up!

Sophie had recently been requesting the "Put your hands up!" Song. I didn't know what she meant until last night.

It's Beyonce's "Single Ladies"!

(It's on the mix cd that the Husband has in his car, and apparently its a fan favorite).

So, ladies, "Put Your Hands Up!"

Now I just have to work on getting her to learn the dance moves.

Tonight's Craft?

King Julien crown.



Have you ever seen Madagascar? Miss B. just keeps asking me to make her a King Julien crown... well, now she's got one.



I also made two throw pillow covers out of some of the bolt of fabric I got at the Second Chance Thrift store the other day. It was $6 for a whole roll of fabric. This was in lieu of spending $56 for two pillow covers at Pottery Barn.

It was great, I just made a giant, square version of the tissue holder that I've been making.





Next item on the project list? Euro Sham for the bedroom, on the same principle (and with a really neat Asian inspired fabric I scored at the St. Thomas Episcopal church tag sale earlier this year).

Then? Finish needlepointing Cookie Monster and make him into a pillow.

Then? Superhero cape.

That sewing machine is getting a work out.

Last Night...

I had reached a new low in the "avoidance of work" department. I was actually attempting to learn how to make origami cranes (via internet) instead of working on my Loan Review.

Dress-Up!

Here's a look at tonight's craft:



Decorated fairy wings! I got the basic wings at the $1 store. I added silk flowers, extra glitter, ribbons and a little butterfly...

this is all part of one of Miss B.'s Christmas presents a:



Dress-Up Bag! The dress-up bag was one of Thisbe's ideas last year as a gift for the Wee-Kraken. For Miss B.'s bag I got an LL Bean boat and tote monogramed with "Dress-Up!" on it. So far we've got a tutu, a tiara, a wand, the fairy wings, a boa and a fireman's helmet (it's an equal opportunity dress-up bag, life's not all fairies and princesses, you know...) I'm also looking to find a little pair of ballet slippers. This was pretty easy to put together and I think Miss B. is going to like it a lot!

Twilight Madness Hits Too Close to Home

Apparently people are crazy over this Robert Pattinson fellow. I guess I'm out of the loop. I just thought this guy was one of the kids from Harry Potter. I guess I'm showing my age. When it comes to Harry Potter, I'm still a Ralph Fiennes fan.

So much so that I guess my Vanity Fair magazine is a coveted commodity.

Today it appeared in the mailbox swathed in a brown paper wrapper (a la an old Playboy).

Was it really likely to be stolen if it hadn't been?

Are teen girls everywhere raiding mailboxes? Are mailmen raiding mailboxes?

How random is that?

(photo courtesy of VF.com)

Wanda's Take on Tiger

Here's Wanda Sykes' take on the whole Tiger Woods Debacle. Best part? When she refers to Tiger's wife as a "Viking Bitch".