Happy Christmas!

Well we certainly had a happy christmas, and I hope everyone else is enjoying their holidays as much as we have ours!

And I don't know about you but spending a lazy day with my husband and new flannel pajama pants is shaping up to be my new favorite day after christmas tradition.

My parents and sister are having a grand time and a whiter christmas than ours despite driving 16 hours south!  They're staying with my mother's family in the mountains of North Carolina and the six inches of snow they had last night means lots of family time inside, thankfully the town is so small everyone lives close by.

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

To bed with me

This year has been a roller coaster of back problems for me.  In February I was diagnosed with a herniated disc in my lower spine.  The disc has been pushing on the nerve to my left leg causing my leg to go numb and resulting in a lot of pain and weakness.

Because I'd gone through all the possible treatments over this past year, with only temporary improvements, we finally got to the point where surgery was my only option.  I had the surgery on Thursday, December 9, to remove the damaged parts of the disc and came home Friday night.  It's a week later now and I'm still moving slowly but things are already feeling better.

I've taken time off from nannying, and it couldn't have come at a better time because the family's previous nanny is home from college for winter break and was able to take over for me.  My etsy stores have been closed for the time being, because until I can drive myself to the post office I won't be able to ship anything.

So that's really it for updates from me.  But now that I'm home working on projects, perhaps I'll have the chance to update the blog a bit more regularly.

Sunday Musing

What would be the easiest way to spray paint glass christmas ornaments?  The ball kind, which have so many strange discolored spots that they really aren't as pretty as they could be.

I feel like sticking them on chopsticks would be the way to go, but then what do I stick the other end of the chopstick into?  A pot of dirt?  Or maybe a giant styrofoam block covered in newspaper?  Where in the world am I going to get a giant styrofoam block? I should probably figure out soon, I'll have to get my spray painting done soon before the Wisconsin weather gets away from us.

Today is an easy day

Today, Richard and I have no real plans... at least for the morning.  He's heading off to his friend Michael's place for what I'm sure is an afternoon full of video games.  Meanwhile I'm meeting up with Beth to go for a bit of thrifting and a visit to our new Woodman's market.

For now, since I've already been up for hours, I should probably get some breakfast and start the laundry.  I love lazy Saturdays.

Friday Inspiration: Home Style

There are a lot of blogs that I enjoy reading for their visual stimulation, and in hopes of creating my own beautiful home I've been collecting the most inspiring images on a pinterest board.  The two I enjoy the most are sfgirlbybay and DesignSponge because they often send me to new places with even more inspiring images, and they have a lot more to offer than just pretty interiors.

Kitchen from sfgirlbybay

Stacey Sargent from DesignSponge

Sweet Sewing Nook from Thompson Family-Life

cute wee shelves from how to make a baby elephant float

Friday Inspiration: Collections

 Collections are a rather strange phenomenon and often times the way they are displayed says quite a bit more about the collector than it does about the items.

Perhaps they are enclosed in a glass cabinet, because although they are beautiful items for display perhaps they are worth too much to leave on an open shelf.  Or perhaps it is a pile of postage stamps in an old shirt box, or shuffled stationary lining a desk drawer.  Or perhaps a few things here and there that have gathered in the corners of a person's life.

From Classic Bride

I think my favorite collections are those that are a little messy, or cluttered with only a vague sense of order.  Most of the time I just enjoy seeing like items grouped together.  I often characterize myself as a collector, and though some may see it as a flaw I quite like it.  I'm absolutely itching to live in a house, where I can be unafraid of holes in the wall to hang up photographs and shelves for pretty things.

A friend recently gifted me with a copy of Collections of Nothing by William Davies King, and I'm really enjoying reading it, in between writing a bit for NaNoWriMo and trying hard to finish my crochet blanket of course.

Thrifted Finds: A $2 Trip

A couple weeks ago during a thrift run at the 91st Street Goodwill I came upon these three strange creatures that just couldn't be left behind.  Besides these three that I came home with there was a plethora of other generic ceramic items colored in varying shades of talent and once I came across plates with swatches of glaze and numbers written below I could only assume some paint-your-own pottery place had cleaned out its back room of unclaimed merchandise.

First there was this tiny elephant bank which I figured was a steal at 49 cents.

Next was another 49 cent bargain - the fish who is apparently an ash tray, and I'm not sure what I'll use him for, but he was just too intriguing to leave behind.  Perhaps I'll perch some small figurine on his lip, about to be swallowed whole.

And then of course there was the matador, in all his 99 cent glory, who put me up to my self imposed limit of $2.

These three creatures plus a lovely shade of red spray paint will make for some nice tschokies on the shelf above my desk.  I plan on putting the elephant bank to good use as a savings place for my travel fund change.  Hopefully the next trip he will help to fund will be a train trip someplace south with Jennie.

Summer Travel: New York

This summer I took my first trip to New York for a family reunion that coincided with the 100th anniversary of our family's immigration from Italy.

Dad, Mom & Rivers in Little Italy

It was a wonderful trip, and a great chance to be with my family.

Rivers lives in Wonderland

Rivers, Mom & me: Empire State

Mom on the ferry

We all took a trip out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty 

Central Park Duck

You knew I'd get a picture of a duck, didn't you?

Third Time's a Charm

I often find myself wondering why I haven't posted to the blog lately and I can usually come up with a list of reasons.  I didn't have time, I was too tired, or I just didn't feel like I had anything to say.  But I'm going to try to be better about it because frankly there's a lot going on!

We're trying to buy a house, and hopefully this time it will work, they do say the third time's the charm.  Is it really our third go round?  It certainly is.  Here is one of those horrible quality realtor site images, but you get the idea.  It's quite the little house with three bedrooms and 1.5 baths and a full basement just inches from being finished.

We've been busy here too.  I've been working quite a bit and when I'm not working I'm usually visiting Mom.  This past week we were helping Marilyn clean out her house and pack up for her move, and I'm working hard on getting her slides scanned.  It's slow going, but I've got one box down and just two boxes to go and they're big boxes!

The last of the 2010 Fleas

Well, Maxwell Street Days last Sunday was quite fun, and rather successful as we got rid of quite a few things from our basement and made a bit of money doing it.  Plus it kept me so busy at the flea market that I only managed to buy lunch and not any stuff.  We came across a great chrome kitchen table with six red chairs (we've been searching for a chrome kitchen table for a while now) but we didn't buy it because it needed quite a bit of work.  Lots of rust to be buffed off, and the chairs would have all needed to be reupholstered. But all it all, it was good to get up before the sun and spend a day outside wheeling and dealing.

Now that I've started nannying again I'm doing a lot more driving these days, and the drive to work or to my parents' house is typically a thirty minute drive, so I've tuned back to books on tape.  Or rather, books on cd/ipod.  This week I started Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and I finished it last night.  It was a sweet and rather sad story.  It was one of those stories that actually makes my chest tighten with emotion, and it was beautiful.  Next week - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.  The best place for audio books is the library, and our library provides digital downloads of books as well so you can load them on your ipod.  The digital download only last two weeks, and after that the files won't play anymore, but its really handy when they don't have the actual cds available.

It's official.  Fall has begun.  Let's break out the sweaters and yarn.

Welcoming Fall

While last  Wednesday was the official beginning of fall the event that marks the end of summer for me is coming this Sunday.  The last Maxwell Street Days flea market of the season.  And to make it even more exciting we're going to have a booth!  So if you're in Cedarburg, WI you should come visit us!

This week will be a whirlwind of getting ready since we weren't sure if we were doing this until this past Monday.  I suppose there's no time like now to get ready!

Creative Endeavors: Spiral Blanket

I must admit, I started this blanket some time ago and now I'm a little stalled.  Since I started the blanket as an experiment I didn't buy all the yarn I would need for a full size afghan, instead, assured by a sales associate that Sugar N' Cream yarn colors are never discontinued, I bought a few skeins of each color and got started.

Lo and behond, when I've finally gotten into the swing of things and perfected the pattern to get exactly what I wanted I go back to buy the rest of the yarn and... there isn't any.  It's gone.  I picked four colors for the spirals - sage, country red, country yellow, and country blue - and there is not a single country color left.  I can still find the sage and the soft ecru I'm using to join the spirals since they are some of the staple colors that are always available.

After some intense searching, and dropping in on every Michaels, JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby we've passed on every road trip, I managed to get enough of the country yellow and country red.  The one color missing from every place we've gone is the country blue and now I'm down to less than half a skein and I'm going to have to resign myself to paying full price ($2/skein) online with $8 for shipping to get the rest of the yarn.  This little fact turns this project from affordable to a bit more expensive than I expected.

You should know that I'm a coupon girl.  I've been known to make Richard come in with me to buy a second skein of yarn in a separate transaction just to use a second 40% off coupon at the craft store.  I rarely pay full price for anything because stretching our dollars has become second nature and every penny puts us just a little bit ahead in our savings.

We're still trying to find a house to buy, which hasn't been the easiest process and has left me a little jaded.  But, as my father said at dinner this past Saturday, we will never find a better market in which to purchase property.  But that is a discussion for another time.

The pattern I'm working from is from the blog quarter of an inch, and although I admit I changed some stitches around I'm not sure I could ever tell you what exactly was changed as the circles have now become so easy and automatic.  My only goal is to finish this blanket by the end of 2010 because I think one big project a year is enough, especially since I've been working hard on more cupcakes and getting started on this year's hat and scarf, and with the cold weather coming fast I'd better get cracking!