Random Snapshots

Christmas recap: Part II

Part II: Christmas Day (this is going to be a long one!)

We had a great Christmas Day.  Adam and I are still like little kids on Christmas.  Not sleeping the night before, getting up early and ripping into our gifts.  Adam says he didn't sleep on Christmas Eve - I usually don't either, but all the wine I drank put me to bed.  I didn't wake up that early either - again, the wine.  :)

Anyways, we finally got up and opened our gifts.  Had some cinnamon rolls and listened to Christmas music.  It was a really nice morning and really just the beginning of a great day.

I was really surprised by all of my gifts.  My two big gifts were a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet and a little Nikon s200 point & shoot camera.

I've been having fun with my Wacom already.  For those who don't know - it's a digital tablet that connects to your computer...useful in photo editing and all types of digital creation.  I really have no idea what I'm doing yet, but I'm learning.  I checked out several books from the library to help me out. 

I had no clue I was getting this.  I had mentioned before that I thought it would be fun to have one, but never thought Adam would really get it for me.  I was so surprised - I have a video to prove it that I may share in another post.  He didn't know, but I have been really wanting to learn more about Photoshop and now I have another excuse to do just that.

I was totally surprised with this gift too.  I've been wanting a small point & shoot to carry around in my purse forever.  Of course I have my dSLR, but don't always want to lug it around.  This thing is tiny and takes really great pictures.  Also, it's red with a red case - my favorite!  I think I'm most excited about the video feature on this thing though.  I took several videos on Christmas which really make me laugh when I watch them.  Maybe I'll share those in another post.  :)

I really surprised Adam this year too.  It's so hard to find something that he doesn't know is coming.  The past 3 years he's been really shocked which makes happy.

I got him a new air compressor for his airbrush, a nice model that he's been wanting and some other misc stuff like the Perfect Pushup and some stocking stuffers.

Allison & Rob came over around 2pm and hung out with us the rest of the day.  We ate lots of good food, played with our new toys, relaxed (recovery from the Eve) and watched a movie.  It was really great to just hang out all day with friends. 

Here are some pictures from the day:

The gifts under our tree on Christmas morning:

Some appetizers:

Adam took these when I was getting our food ready:

Stuffed hot peppers.  These are Adam's and my favorite.  We couldn't find the usual Hungarian Hots that we make them with so we tried Ancho Chilis and they turned out equally as good.  The recipe is here. 

Our little Christmas table.  Along with the peppers we had some nice caprese salad and Baked Penne w/ Roasted Vegetables a la Giada De Laurentiis.  The pasta was so good.  It was my first time making it and I will definitely make it again.

Family photo :)

Good times indeed!

Christmas recap: Part I

How was your Christmas?  Good?  I hope so...I know mine was.  :)

I haven't had a lot of time to post over the last several days so I thought I'd do a couple of Christmas recap posts.  I have lots of photos to share...of people, food and gifts. 

Part I: Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve and Day with our friends, the Giffs.  It was a really nice change since the last 2 years we've spent both days alone here in WA.  We've always made the best of spending the holiday alone, but of course it's always better with family & friends.  Allison & Rob are also not from here, but decided to stick around for Christmas this year.  I'm glad they did - we all had a really great time.

Christmas Eve was mostly about drinking, eating, drinking and laughing.  No change for me - that's how my family spends Christmas Eve too.  :) 

Rob got really dressed up for the occassion, which was nice:

There was wine:

And good food:

And more wine:

Lots of presents:

(too much wine)

And overall...a really great time!

Thanks to the Giffs for hosting such a nice Christmas Eve!

Stay tuned for Part II.  :)

Eye Candy Friday

We found a grocery store that stocks Labatt Blue (but not Labatt Blue Light!).

If you're from our hometown (or anywhere around it) (especially our family members), you'll understand why this is indeed Eye Candy.  I love Blue...and I don't even like beer.  :)

Christmas socks...take two

I couldn't resist this Christmas sock yarn.  It's one of the most gorgeous yarns I've ever seen.  The colors are "my colors" - it's funny because it looks as if it belongs in my living room as a decoration.

It's called Wreath and I bought it off of Etsy seller Wooley Treasures.  She is great at dying...very vibrant, rich colors.

I started the Anastasia Socks with the yarn last night and I'm really liking how they are turning out.  I know I won't have these finished by Christmas so I will call them my Winter Break Socks.  :)  I have a winter break from school for two weeks starting on Christmas Day.  I hope to get a lot of knitting done.   

 

FO - Minimalist Cardigan

Finally some proper FO photos of the Minimalist Cardigan...compliments of Adam.  :)

I finished this back in November right before Thanksgiving.  I've worn it several times since then and even gotten a lot of compliments.  I've been wearing it with a long sleeve shirt underneath since it's cold out, but like it with a tank underneath as well.

This was a really easy knit and I love how the moss stitch turned out.  It was kind of a pain to seam because of the moss stitch, but I believe this hid some of my mistakes too. 

• Minimalist Cardigan - IK Fall 07
• Cascade 220 - 4 skeins (I think)
• About a month to finish and a week to seam

Christmas socks

I finished these Christmas socks the other night.  :)

Don't you love the colors?!  I do.

I did a short, ribbed cuff on these ones.  I like short socks best and I was anxious to finish them anyways.  The yarn is Duets Sock Yarn and I used the complimentary color for the toe, heel flap and to finish off the cuff.  The only thing I would change is the toe - I wish I would have knit a deeper toe with the red.  Otherwise, I love them.  I'm glad I did a basic stockinette with these because I love the thin stripes.   

I will definitely be wearing these on Christmas.  :) 

• Duets Sock Yarn - Mulberry Christmas
• Size 1 32" KP circular - magic loop method
• Wendy's Fingering Weight, Toe-Up socks with Gusset Heel
• About 2 weeks to finish

Cookie exchange

I hosted a little cookie exchange on Tuesday...I mentioned it earlier this week.  We did 1/2 dozen instead of 1 dozen since most of us didn't have a need for 11 dozen cookies.  :)

It went really well.  I had enough food, there were piles of cookies and of course many of us working on our knitting projects since everyone was from my knit group.  The cookies filled my little table - we even had to set some on the floor.

An exchanger sent me this photo - I don't have any of my own because my camera wasn't cooperating.

Look at all those cookies!  I've certainly had my fill this week and will be send the rest of mine with Adam on Monday to work.  I ended up with extras which is never good!

I had a relaxing, but productive day today.  It's been the first Saturday in months without obligations and I really needed it badly.  I got up early to knit and catch up on my DVR'd shows this morning while Adam slept in.  After a little bit of that I ran around doing the last of my Christmas shopping...that feels great!  When I came home I was able to pack all the boxes that are going home for Christmas and my special swapper's box.  We took them to UPS this afternoon and they are on their way.  :)  I also just addressed all my Christmas cards to mail on Monday.

I finished my Duet's Christmas socks a little bit ago and will share them this week.  I also have to photograph my Christmas decor and share...I love this time of year!

Cupcake fun

I made some cupcakes for Allison's birthday this past weekend.  They were really fun to make and I think I had more fun photographing them than eating them.  Seriously! 

I know cupcake decorating is really hip right now and I can see why.  You can spend hours trolling blogs for cute cupcake photos.   

I decided to make vanilla cake with peppermint cream cheese frosting.  I put a little peppermint candy on top too.  They turned out so good.

When I was at the store buying the ingredients I came across a $3 cookie/icing press.  I figured that it wouldn't work very well, but for $3 I wanted to try it anyways since I didn't previously have one.  Well...it worked pretty good!  I'm not sure how it would be as a cookie press, but I don't make cookies that often anyways.  It worked well enough with the icing and I was able to put big, pretty icing on - good enough for me!

Here is the photo overload...

There's a peek of one of my favorite Christmas decorations - my snowman teapot & cup.

Are you hungry yet?!  :)

I've been catching up...

over the past week or so.  School has ramped up again and the holidays are coming.  It's complete madness over in my world.  :)  I do love the holiday season though. 

Tonight after work I had to go to the grocery store, make 6 dozen cookies, write a paper and clean up my house.  Tomorrow night I'm hosting a cookie exchange, hence the reason for cookies and a clean house.  :)  I got all of my cookies made and also got my paper written just in time to submit it before the deadline.  Tomorrow after work I just need to make some appetizers and finish cleaning up.  I can't wait to get all of the cookies.  :) 

For my cookie I made Molten-Middle Truffle Cookies.  Minimal ingredients, short prep time and short cooking time.  Let me tell you, these are pure heaven.  You heat them up a bit before eating and it makes them that much better.

These are before they were baked.  I couldn't get the after baking photo to turn out, but they just totally glisten because of the sugar.  So yummy!

My house is all decorated too since I had a bit of downtime this weekend.  I'm happy about that.  I love Christmas decorations.  I will snap some photos later this week and post.  There are 2 homemade decorations that I still hope to complete this weekend, but I'm not sure if time will allow....we'll see.

Winter Knitty

The winter Knitty is up!!  Have you looked yet?

I just glanced and see a few things that I like.  :)  There are a lot of sock patterns which is a plus - I love knitting socks.  Also a couple cute sweater patterns. 

Here's what I love:

• Dahlia
• Abotinicity
• Lighthouse Gansey Socks
• Chevron Lace Socks
• Azure
• Slippery
• And even though I have no use for them, I really love Toirneach Kilt Hose
• Eco Fairy - this is just so cute!
• Fair Isle Rapids

And even though I couldn't finish all these projects in a lifetime they will be added to my Ravelry queue shortly.  :)

So, tell me what you like from this issue?