Fetching FO!

Once I finished the first one, I just couldn't wait to make the second one. I may have spent an entire day just knitting... I'll never tell ;)



I think I'll probably wear them all day :)

Victory is mine!

After screeching to a halt entirely yesterday when I could not for the LIFE of me figure out how to work the thumb, I have FINALLY finished my first Fetching! (ooo, nice alliteration there...)

Many ginormous thanks to Yvonne for her advice on how to work the thumb using Magic Loop...

Here it is!



Now I just need to cast on it's buddy!

WIP, finally!

Well, after drooling over the pattern for ages, I finally decided to cast on for Fetching today during the Christmas Day afternoon lull.

Reasons for tackling this project:

A) Icy cold hands = bad knitting, typing, etc.
B) First project in the round, ever...
C) ...using Magic Loop method
D) First project with cables
E) Just so darned CUTE!

Thanks to my pal again for providing the materials for this! I hope I make you proud!

windswept

So I'm sitting here amongst wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbon and various other trimming materials, and I heard this roar of a noise and froze for a second before I realized it was the WIND outside! Cripes. Better find my flashlight.

Amazingly, I got everything for my family wrapped up this afternoon. I, as usual, forgot one gift, and so I have to venture out tomorrow and snag that before the Christmas Eve festivities begin. I hope my car doesn't blow away overnight. I just filled the tank.

Vacation doesn't quite feel like vacation yet. Actually, it doesn't really feel like Christmas. I was talking with some friends from work the other day, and this seems to be widespread condition this year - disbelief of the actual time of year. Maybe since the weather was so weird coming into winter? I don't know. But it's definitely strange.

The boy is in Florida for the holidays, enjoying a toasty warm Christmas while I sit here in the... wait, no, it's not cold today. It was 50 degrees when I ventured out the insane asyl...uh, the mall. I didn't even wear my gloves. Truly bizarre.

I am officially on Ravelry! Such fun poking around there... find me, I'm Annabobanna there. I've already joined 3 groups and queued a few projects. After Christmas calms down I'll photograph my stash and get it up.

I'll be in the CNY area for New Year's, so if you're someone I haven't seen in a while, leave a comment and we'll see what we can do! I miss my CNY friends.

And Nick, if you read this, we totally have to see Sweeney Todd upon your return to Brooklyn.

Merry Christmas all!

the christmas spirit

holiday season is in full swing around here. i have to admit that sometimes i'm a bit of a grump at the beginning of it, but i've really become more of an elf than a scrooge in the last week or so.

we decorated the classrooms at school last week, so now every time i open up my room in the morning i'm greeted by our christmas tree, and the yards and yards of glittery garland that my kids put up. and we have a "fireplace" in the back of the room, where everyone got to put up a construction paper stocking, so that's nice to see as well. it's cozy.

the tree is up at home, as well, and it might be the prettiest we've ever had. it just makes me happy to have it up and in the living room again... it's been a while.



i have to get some pictures of the mantle and the front of the house. i'll put those up later!

international pals rock!

so, i joined my first ever secret pal swap on the knittyboards, and yesterday i got my goodies from my international pal!

so here's what my international pal sent me from ireland:



i was so thrilled with everything... she sent me some lovely debbie bliss cashmerino aran to make my first ever Fetching, along with some Addi Turbos and cable needles to use! i'm so excited :)

the chocolate is amaaaaazing... the picture was taken before i had any. i won't tell you how much is left now!

she also sent me the cutest candles! the tall snowman one isn't in the picture because it's already residing on the mantle for christmas!

and the most beautiful, wonderful thing she sent me is the SILK! i can't stop petting it. and those are my colors! straight from the ocean. gorgeous.

thanks so much, yvonne! you certainly made my first swap a blast!

now i'm off to wrap up the gifts for MY secret pal... i hope she loves them as much as i loved mine!

Island Autumn

The transition into fall is one of my favorites. Suddenly the air is crisp and cool, and the smell of leaves finding their way to the earth wafts gently through the curtains. I just love driving around and watching the slow shift of the colors from green to gold, orange to red, and finally when they carpet the ground.

I always remember the feel of cold, wet leaves against my face, and how pretty the sunlight looked as I opened my eyes to see the view from a fallen leaf's perspective.

It makes raking a lot more appealing, anyway.

best summer...ever?

As summer vacations go, this one has been one for the books. It began with a tremendous amount of much-needed laziness and ended with what was probably the craziest, most difficult, and tremendously gratifying thing I've ever been a part of.

Since before I was born, my parents have gone out to Montauk every summer for as much time as they can. This year, as with many years past, they spent three glorious weeks of August on the east end. Little did they know that I, along with my two brothers and my Uncle Bill, had been plotting a major project for while they were gone. Over the past three weeks, we renovated the house!

All projects were things that needed to be done but never had been for varying reasons that really don't matter anymore. The only thing that matters is that we did it! It was a tremendous amount of work. In the end, it was a fantastic surprise for my parents! They returned home this past Friday and had absolutely no idea that we had been up to anything of the sort.

Just seeing how happy they were, and how overwhelmed, and even three days later how they're still in awe of what we were able to accomplish in so little time, is enough thanks for me.

I even learned to enjoy the company of my two brothers! Though admittedly I still get irritated by them daily. Such is the life of a sister.

Overall, this experience has created some quite memorable moments, which is why I am inclined to dub this summer...

The Best Summer Ever.

summer storm

I just love the way a summer thunderstorm rolls in and takes over.

A distant rolling rumble made the dog's ears go into full alert. He came frantically running into my bedroom and looked at me with urgent stare.

"Human! Intruders! I will protect you... if I can hide under your legs?"

Then the air was still. My window fan was pulling in the pre-storm musty smell of warm humidity. I could smell the storm coming, the way you can smell the garlic simmering in olive oil and anticipate the entire meal. The pup whimpered at my feet; I scratched his big doppler ears and reassured him. He thanked me by slobbering on my big toes.

The TV lulled me into a state of near-coma, until the storm arrived with gusto. A single clap of thunder overhead sent both myself and the dog running - him to my parents' room and me to the window. The rain came in sheets, almost immediately running from the eaves like Yosemite waterfalls.

This is my favorite part of a summer storm - when the cold rain hits the hot asphalt and the resulting steam clings to the ground like a morning mist.

A summer storm is a cleansing. It blusters in and rushes out, leaving a fresh world behind. But it does the same for me. I never quite feel the same after a summer storm. The steam rising from the street carries all of my stress and worries away with it.

a little ADD lately

Lately, it feels as though my brain is going to just explode. Which would be neither pretty, nor helpful in any way. Summer vacation is great and all, but I have been a little on the bored side. My own fault, truly, so I'm not going to whine about it here.

In other news, I saw the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! I'll spare the spoilers, but I just had to say that I adored the movie. I thought it was very well done for the book being the longest of the series thus far. I can't wait for the new book!

Relative to all the HP madness, I recently took the super-duper-ridiculous sorting quiz. I thought I'd share the results!

The sorting hat says that I belong in Hufflepuff!

Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot, and treat them just the same."

Hufflepuff students are friendly, fair-minded, modest, and hard-working. A well-known member was Cedric Digory, who represented Hogwarts in the most recent Triwizard Tournament.

 

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

Yay Hufflepuff!! Seems very accurate, as I'm a teacher. Now, do I need to knit up some Hufflepuff accouterments? Methinks that may happen sometime soon...

I'll be in the Central NY area this week, heading up on Wednesday for who knows how long. Bringing the bike this time! Hopes are high! We'll see :-P

a valuable life skill

There's a story here. Today at the dinner table (sidenote: my older brother Adam makes some damn good fajitas) the chef remarks that he's been trying to learn how to make origami paper cranes. He recently picked up a bartending shift on Fridays and Saturdays at a local Japanese restaurant and he thought it would be cute to give them to the kids who come into the restaurant with their families. We all agreed that it would be fun. Mom managed to find him a book on origami and also got him a pack of paper to play with.

Well, needless to say the illustrations were a bit foggy (might as well have been written in Japanese). He went out tonight and I told him I'd check out YouTube and see what I could find. Jackpot! I found this guy!

And now, I have little origami friends to keep me company. Yay!





Thanks for sharing in my origami joy. Oh, by the way... the valuable life skill? Making paper cranes. Oh yes. Yes indeed.

a productive day indeed

First things first...

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It's good to know I'd have a fair shot at survival. I feel as though I need to brush up on my basic combat skills, though. Should I start taking kickboxing? Stock up on more canned food? Important things to consider...

On to my productive day! I recently dug out my postcard collection. 99% of it consists of postcard that I picked up on my cross-country trek from the summer of '05. I have a pretty good collection of roughly 65 cards, but they've all been living in a bag under my dresser because I couldn't come up with a way to display them. Well, thanks to some helpful people on the knittyboards, and some vague memory of a home improvement show on HGTV, I have created a wall of postcards!




I'm so excited with the final product! Not to mention, I did this whole thing myself. Using my drill was rather gratifying. Here are a couple of other pics of the Wall o' Cards:







I am ridiculously pleased with how this turned out. And so, I sign off so I can just sit and stare at where I've been!

independence day

Despite less-than-celebratory weather, my family convened for our mostly-annual BBQ in honor of Our Nation's Independence. Okay, so in reality we get together for Mom's tuna macaroni salad and my Uncle Gary's rum punch. This year we did the usual, only with a few more layers of clothing on.

It's funny how tired you can get just from sitting around outside for a few hours. I'd swear that I overexerted myself in some major physical activity. In reality, the most energy I expended today was used to play a quick game of Bocce with my older brother. Not terribly taxing. I probably burned more calories going back and forth to the cooler for more of the rum punch.

All that fresh air and drizzly atmosphere has definitely made me rather blah. Not to mention the mounds of food that I somehow consumed. So good, but so, so bad.

Happy 4th of July, all.

a new banana

Ah, the inaugural post of this blog. What shall I say? I suppose it's only fitting for me to pay respects to my old blog, but I only posted in it a few times. It was a sad, neglected blog, and it's gone to a better place now.

True to myself, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of this shiny new blog. I say "cautiously" because I know how I am, even though you do not (yet). But I've started this blog less than a week into my summer vacation, so hopefully the vast abyss of free time that I'm finding myself lost in will prompt me to actually (gasp!) say something every so often.

Alas, only time will tell. Welcome to the banana peel, in any case!