it's a new year...

holy moly do the holidays just suck the life out of me! i have finally recovered from my cold which is really nice. i was worried i would go back to work still sick. but i have recovered nicely. although i am still not ready to go back to work. i am a librarian in a k-5 school. i thought this would be like the best job in the whole wide world for me. boy was i wrong. don't get me wrong. i love books. i need to work in a bookstore to help me save money buying them. and i really do love the students. but i am the worst librarian ever. math teachers have guides to teach them, social studies teachers have social studies books. librarians have...nothing! i have no idea what i'm doing (if you're one of my students parents, don't worry, i'm doing the best i can!) it's just aweful. even after a year and a half i am just horrified at my lack of understanding of a library curriculum. so to make a long story short, i don't want to go back to work. i'm having a really really hard time dealing with knowing i have to go back. and to make matters worse, my best friend (also my sister) moved from me this week. she's down to gillette to work in a coal mine doing hydrology stuff (i don't exactly know what). so i'm really sad about that. i have to stop typing about it so i can stop crying.

so before lexie moved this week, we got pedicures (seriously, the best indulgence ever!), we went out to the bar one last time, we slept in our butte house one last time, and we went sledding down broadway. for any of you buttians out there, you'll know it's the best street in butte to sled. we had gotten really great snow that night and decided it would be best to sled in the street. and by sled i mean we used a saucer and an old water ski with grip tape on it. it was fantastic! we made some chicken curry. and last but not least, we hit discovery one last time. they had gotten 15 (YES! 15 inches of snow two nights before) so we headed up for what can only be described as a dream ski day. we got to the bottom of the hill and the temp was hovering around 6 below. but by the end of the day, it was 20 degrees. there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the conditions were great. the back side--not even groomed yet. yep, 15 inches of fresh powder. and moguls too (which i am terrible at. i'm embarrassed for myself). but it was great. the pictures don't even do it justice. and yes, the sky really was this blue! the last picture is my ski pole. i stopped to take a picture of lex, and i stuck my pole in, yes, it did sink the 15 inches to the base :)





christmas was great. i got everything i wanted and more--stitchinary, new needles, gilmore girls on dvd (the first three seasons), some new boots, a new pi(e) plate, socks, cooking mama (a nintendo DS game) and some other really fun things. it was nice.



and not to forget the knitting. i sat down and knit another hat. i finished it today and felted it this afternoon. it's not as cute as the first, but it is still cute. now i just need to find a perfect pin for it.
prefelted: post felted:


happy new year to everyone. may it be fun, pleasant, and everything you hoped :)

merry christmas

have a merry merry christmas!

christmas time is here...

well, i was out galavanting to my parents house for the past three days. bob and i got to go "home" for a few days with my family. wednesday night we got in at 8, had dinner and exchanged presents. the pears were a hit. as was the giant school photo of myself (oh gosh, who doesn't love giving their little sister a huge framed photo?) we laughed pretty hard at that. then thursday we did some shopping, and just hanging out. baby sisters christmas pagent was thursday night, so we went to that. it's very different going to a cathlic school program instead of a public school. for those of you not from montana, it is a rare child who doesn't go to public school. up until a few years ago only a few students in the flathead area attended private school, so thursday was different. especially since our family doesn't attend church. but it was a very wonderful program and a lot of fun. then we had a late dinner of okay food at a new restaraunt in kalispell. friday was spent baking, running pizza to school for a christmas party, and in the evening a wonderful cocktail party with friends from high school. my sister and i are close in age, and in the past five years have become friends with each others high school friends, so now we get to go to shindigs together. a friend came home from venezuela, another from great falls, hawaii, and some friends i haven't see in two or three years. we were up late laughing and eating cookings. it was really wonderful! today we got up early, hit costco and then drove home. i promptly unpacked and fell asleep for three hours. it was excellent.

tomorrow pictures from the last week and other great stuff!


oooooh, and my 6 weird things.
1. i read the last page of a magazine first.
2. my favorite page in a book is the copyright page. especially when they include the font and how the illustrations were created!
3. i worry that when i cook for other people, i am not following health codes well enough and people will know.
4. i feel people look at me oddly with painted fingernails.
5. i rarely remembre what a book is about, even if i just finished it.
6. i don't hug people often because i'm worried they'll be uncomfortable--when really i am the uncomfortable one :)

mom, close your eyes

ohhhhhhhhhhh christmas knitting-DONE!!!! AND I'M SO EXCITED! rarely do i knit things that i really truely love how they turned out. okay i can't think of one. but this years christmas presents are so superb!!! far better than last years huge poinsetta pins. ahhhhhhh i am so excited. i have to share!

don't mind the mess. 5 knitted pears from interweave knits! i do have three more to felt that i made this weekend. i love them. i have students asking me to make pears for them! and teachers asking me if i can make all fruit. so my thinking process is on. and if that wasn't enough...check this out!


more felting. i love this hat. it's from here i love it so much, i'm giving it away.(added later after erased post, sorry to get your hopes up, but i'm not randomly giving it away. that's right, it's for my one skein secret pal. ha! i had to knit something i felt comfortable giving way, much better than those pesky fingerless gloves) and i'm going to make one for me. in red. to go with my new pea coat. that's blue.
seriously. so excited!

yeah, the mittens, i still haven't gotten my needle, so no mittens for lexie, just a top secret present.

other than that, it's been a really exciting week. we got a new chair for our living room (photo's tomorrow), we got an automatic cat box (jury is still out on that), and i'm healthy again! life is good. my school has its christmas program on wednesday, and then it's up to kalispell to see my family. ohhhh and my sister got engaged this weekend. way to go nick and lexie! so we get to celebrate that! i had my cooking exchange with teachers tonight and we had a lot of fun. i'm too full though. and the cookies are brilliant, life is good. our house is all ready for st. nick!


ps, i love that recover post button. i swear i erase every damn post before i get it done.

when it rains, it pours

so my husband has a degree in english. you would think that if i married an english major, i would be better with grammar, spelling, and other language things. but i'm not. i was rereading my posts from the past few weeks and man are there a lot of typos in it. so i'm sorry, but i try my best. perhaps it's just a problem with being me.

so the damage to my car is worth $2100. woohoo, it's really great. but the parts are on order so hopefully i'll get it fixed soon.

anyways onto knitting and other crafting content.

so my felted pears are knitted and partially sewn. so after book club tonight i'll stuff them and sew them up and start the felting process. it says that they need to be washed 8 times. that seems some what crazy to me. so i'm going to give it a try with just a couple of times.

the mittens: still on a stand still due to the fact that i lost a stupid needle. idiot...

did i tell you about the gumdrop wreath? the stupid gumdrops keep falling out. so i need to do some amending with that. so no pictures yet. and we put our tree up on sunday. it looks really nice actually. i love it. so we're almost ready for the holiday. did i mention i need to buy presents still? oh well.

and in other news, i worked on some record bowls. i have this friend whose grandmother recently died, so she keeps giving me records, i really want to perfect this art, so i worked on it tonight. is it a totally lame gift to give to my book club friends? i hope not, because i'm going to! but i want to come up with a way to make slightly more regular bowls. i know i should just embrace the varied nature of the art, but i'm slightly anal, and i want them to be perfect. i'm also thinking of spray painting a few of them. so any suggestions would be really great. it sort of stresses me out. and i only have about 300 records to practice on eheheheh

i feel bad that my blog is horrible ramblings, but this is honestly the way i think in my head. it's like one big run on sentence! but i try to break it up on here with some pictures. but let me know if you want the content or make up of this blog to go in a different direction. i'm open to recommendations!


right, so i had some pictures to add and i spent the time doing it, but they never uploaded, so instead this is a pictureless entry written like three days ago. i have some really cute finished projects that i'll post pictures of when i'm feeling better. i think strep has finally made it to our house and now i have been sidelined by it.

alas...

right, so in the grand scheme of things, this is not the worst thing in the world that could happen:


but it did. it was a hit and run. i was waiting to go see the clumsy lovers and sometime while i was at my house, someone came around the corner and slid right into my car. and slid right away. so i don't know who did it or anything. it's rather depressing. this car has some bad carma. i think it's because i was complaining too much about work. so i've tried to adapt a positive attitude. so my car will go to the body shop this week and we'll get an estimate for it.

knitting is going grand. might be going to the griz game tomorrow. but we'll see. i had to order size 6 needles...again because i lost one. i'm so bad at that. but it's time to floss and brush my teeth and sleep. it's friday! half day tomorrow because i get to go hang out with the other librarians and see what is up with them. yay!

sunday, fun sunday

like i said, i love sundays! today my sister came from butte. we had such a wonderful time making christmas goodies. we made peppermint bark, chocolate covered pretzels drizzled with white chocolate, truffles of three varieties (okay only one, but rolled in three different things!) and a horribly botched attempt at meringue. we boxed them up into different boxes and delivered them. here, let's look at a photo montage:



these are the chocolate covered pretzels we made, sans white chocolate.

this is lex and i while dipping chocolate




the finished bark:


the botched meringue (over cooked, tasteless, icky!):


and my new black hair:




knitting tomorrow. or the cute candy wreath. something needs to get one!so i have had to edit this post like three times to get the photos right, so hopefully everything is better now.

since i've been gone...

new snow. eight inches. in the valley. 14ish in the mountains. SKI TIME!

blue ribbon ceramony. my school won a really great NATIONAL award. one of three hundred in the nation (considering there is 160,000ish schools---pretty cool!)

thanksgiving at my parents house. nice and relaxing. only gained 1.2 pounds. shopped. knitted. gave my mom her birthday present. first pair of knitted mittens (i forgot to take pictures, but i will!) hung out with the sisters.

started a new crafty project---gum drop wreath. yay so cute! found here

decorated for christmas. we got our tree permit today. i'm one of those freaky people who is compelled to go out and cut down your own tree. there is something about the stress of finding a perfect tree, fighting with your significant other, and fearing the tree is going to blow off the roof of your car. i love it. so this weekend i think we'll go out and cut down a tree. hehehe i'm so excited. you know you're not supposed to cut down trees over 12 feet tall? who knew?

and...that could be all. oh i've made a huge dent in the christmas projects. okay so i haven't gotten any done. shit. i need to get on that. ehehehehe


here is my favorite road in the world: I-15 moose creek (once, on my way to my parents house, i saw a dead moose here. someone had hit it!)

whew, blogging is lots of work!

bad stuff: finished most of a mitten only to realize that i need to rip it back because it's for man hands. not woman hands like needed. then realized i don't have the correct needles. so the wonderful husband picked some up in missoula yesterday. have finished cuff.


good stuff: have cuff finished on mitten one. lookin good. not liking the yarn though. might be for me rather than sister. three. yes three finished projects. all cute as a button baby hats. example a:


whats that? you can't tell what that image is? oh here, let me help you.



in other news: cat griz weekend. go griz. we shall be attending with our entourage. okay so we're just meeting people there. it should be good clean fun had by all.

i do love to knit

right, so i was totally going to post pictures of my three (yes three!) finished projects, but my camera is in the car and i'm simply too lazy to go and get it. so i'll save them for tomorrow. but i'll tell you something...they're too dang cute! i had a fifth grade student beg me to make one for his neice. hehehe he'll pay me $20 to do it too :) so look forward to the cuteness!

so i've come up with my partial christmas list:
1. one pair of mittens for someone who already knows he/she is getting them ;)
2. many cute little felted pears from the holiday interweave knits (too lazy to link to them)
3. two stockings--maybe more if i'm super good(not to be confused with stalkings!) from previously mentioned magazine
4. one pair of slippers knit from ugly acrylic yarn for my father in law (to replace his old ones--yeah i know i should use nice yarn, but he just loves the old ones!)
5. and for fun...the cute mittens and stockings from holiday interweave. too dang cute to pass up for our christmas tree!

now that list isn't too unmanageable is it? the two stockings is rather ambitius--and they're only for us, so those can wait i guess. but the other knitting, i'm feeling good about. okay so i'm a little nervous about the mittens (fingerless gloves, but a little bit more?) and i think that should be good. no handmade gifts for mother in law, she's made it clear she doesn't like them. and husband, i don't know what he would like knit. maybe a rockin pirate hat. anywho. i need to go assemble our bed again (sheet cleaning day) and i think i shall retire to bed.

i am alive!

not only am i alive. but i've been knitting. what's that? a hat and a half in two days? anne are you sick? yeah! i'm a knitter again! so i have to make three baby hats for lovely husbands friends who are popping out babies like i eat little snickers. it's crazy. so i have three hats that need to be knit. well i am to the decrease in hat number two but i was too enthralled with mean girls (oh do i love that movie!) so i have to rip part of it back and start again on decreases (multiples of eight who does that? i can't count to 8 and watch mean girls at the same time!) so without further ado here is hat number one.



that's gus. she doesn't like the hat.

so the halloween day was awesome. lots of candy from the kids. and some trick or treaters. have you ever heard of the term mummers? thats what old people call trick or treaters here. weird. but i dressed up as max from where the wild things are and i'll post pictures as soon as i get them.

and heres a picture of our pumpkins on halloween. the ones from the store because our other pumpkins got stolen! i couldn't believe it either. but happy november. and we're finally back into double digits in temperature. YAY!

it's begining to look a lot like...i don't knit anymore

yes, i haven't picked up the needles in a week. i guess when you don't have cable you have to knit to avoid the really crappy shows. then you get cable and wholy moly you have more crap that you don't want to knit to! i think i'm just too busy flipping between channels. so no knitting. on the other front (the back?)

my rad uncle came to visit. he's so fun. almost as much fun as his kids. hey his kids! come visit us! we're lots of fun. so that's really great. and goll dang it! i had a knitted gift that i totally should have posted because it's the cutest dang pineapple hat i've ever seen! so i've been hanging with him.

also. holiday knits anyone? how great are the stockings/purse/hats/pears? i seriously want to knit them all (i will okay? i do too still knit!) yes thats right. tomorrow i'm buying yarn and making the lovely husband and i stockings because i bought really ugly ones last year. so the husband wants the jester one and i'm going for the snow man. i'm so excited (nervous giggle inserted here)!

so i have yoga tonight and i'll hit that up. and the husband is busy at work working overtime. and then i'll come home and i think i'll yarn shop. woohoo. aaaaaaand maybe start a scarf with some blue sky alpaca because i love it and my poor poor pal deserves it.

so i'll finish the tacos and catch you on the flip side!

schools out for...the week

yay, MEA-montana educators association convention. woohoo two days of rockin teacher info. okay so it's two free days of shopping with some teaching info thrown in. the cool part--not a lot of library info, so i get to just pick and choose fun things to go to. off to pack!

hi dad and lexie! ehehe it's my knitting blog!

we have snow!!!

okay, so last week we woke up to snow. i am so excited! i love snow. mainly because this time of year my skis start calling my name, "anne. Anne. ANNE! COME WAX US!" and soon it will be ski time (though this year i don't know how much i'll be able to do since i'll be taking three classes. but i digress). so we got snow. and today, today during school, like when it should be warm, it started to snow. and snow. and snow. now it's not buffalo, it's nasty went cold snow, but it stuck! so i am more than thrilled. my new patagonia catalogue came with new beanies, and damn it i'm going to start knitting again!

now, i did start knitting something last week. because of the stupid fingerless gloves fiasco, i started a new project. it's a rug. made out of bed sheets. from our wedding (gifts, not decor). it will be red to match our red kitchen sink. so it's sitting infront of the tv waiting for heros tonight so i can knit it. here is a fine fine photo of the yarn all spooled up.


so i spent the weekend in kalispell to pick up my lovely new car. i have been driving a 96 nissan altima for like five years. well we bit the bullet and purchased my moms 04 subaru outback. i love it. i want to drive to work. it's only half a block, but i want to drive to work anyways. it's real nice. and now i'm $400 poorer every month. but thats okay because i have a visor now! and heat/ac that works for more than 20 minutes at a time. YAY!

snow...

missed posts

i had a really great post with lots of pictures about knitting in it last week, and my computer lost it. so i went to kalispell instead. and now i have nothing to show for it. so tomorrow i will post my post again and then i'll show you knitting. and lots of fall fun because i love the fall because we're one step closer to winter!

sundays

i absolutely loved sundays when i was young. it was the one day where i didn't have to do anything. today was the perfect sunday for me. i want to the park with some cousins, i went for a walk with my dog to return a movie, and i watched the food network. i am a tv junkie now. and you would think that with tv i would be knitting up a storm. but i can't seem to do it. if i sit down to just watch some crap i'm not really interested in, i totally refuse to knit. it's weird. but when desperate housewives or greys is on, i'll knit them. strangness!

i'm in a funk. my job has me totally stressed out. YES! librarians do other things than check out books and it's with attitudes like that that bring stress into my life. so that is causing my funk. which luckily is making me do things like clean my house and organize because i can't stand to think about work, but i am neglecting my little book worms, which makes me upset. on top of that, i'm about to purchase a new car. i do need one, and i'm getting a really really great deal on the car i'm going to buy, but i'm totally stressed out about the loan. i don't have a loan on my old car, plus it's 10 years old, so the insurance is great, but now i'll have a loan and big insurance. and i'm just stressed. blah.

so i'm off to clean more or watch tv i don't want to watch so i don't knit any. but on the plus side i've read 5 books in the last 3 weeks, so atleast my book pile is growing. read the 3rd summer of the sisterhood of traveling pants yesterday, and will start prep tonight. so we'll see.

right...so...

so, i attempted to finish my stupid green fingerless gloves that were only supposed take one skein so i only ordered one skein of really wonderful yarn that seemed quite expensive for a pair of fingerless gloves. well guess who doesn't believe in knitting up happy little gage swatches? that's right. it's me. i don't do it. i believe i can achieve gage without them. (ahhhh why am i so arrogant?) well to make a short story long, i ran out of yarn with about an inch to go. and did i mention these were supposed to be gifted...oh two months ago??? so what did i do? shoved them down into my basket and hoped they would grow more yarn later. yes.

so i need a new one skein gift. so i started the purse from the one skein book. AND I DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT SIZED NEEDLES! now for most people this isn't a problem. they get in the car and drive to the store and buy them. but god, they don't live in the middle of nowhere like i do. i have to drive 150 miles to get the stupid needles! oi my head hurts thinking about it. but luckily tomorrow i have to drive those 150 miles anyways so i'll pick the needles up then. but why do i have to go 150 miles tomorrow? well to see the rolling stones at washington grizzly stadium of course! so i'll be there tomorrow.

anywho, since i didn't have the right needles for just about any project i wanted to start i said screw it and i started my own design for the three baby hats i have to make. it's super boring so there won't be a picture yet. but i'm pretty stoked for it to be done. and that's all.

oh yeah, i'm starting to get a complex that no one reads my blog. depressing.

las vegas and no knitting

okay, as promised, about las vegas. so this is my fourth time and i'm amazed at the size of it still! we must have walked 5-10 miles a day i was exhasted. even my most comfortable shoes aren't that comfortable after a while. i went with my mom and two of her employees for a gift show. we were looking for more products for my moms t-shirt shop. well the show was less than stellar. but the rest of the trip was fun. we went to a titanic exhibit and saw artifacts from the titanic. we also wandered around and did some shopping. i sort of hate shopping there because you never have enough money to get really great stuff, so you end up shopping at stuff we have back home. but oh well. i did get some jeans and a couple of cute shirts from the gap.

we also ate some really really great food. i ate my weight in gnocci and desserts. i was known as the dessert nazi because i did assign people desserts they could get. the best was some gelato, of the honey and cinnamon variety.


we also went to a circ du soleil show (ka) this is the fourth one i've seen and the stage was amazing! it was mind blowing! i even got my picture taken with a couple of the actors (now if i could just go behind the scenes!) it was really spectacular.

we stayed at the hotel at mandalay bay. the best word to describe it is swanky! my pictures didn't turn out that well, but here is one of the lobby. i realized after getting home, the bathroom in our hotel room is easily the size of our bedroom! it's crazy. the hotel is beautiful. and on the toilet paper is a sticker that says "the tp" they have a good sense of humor.

honey i'm home

okay, i'm back from vegas. i'll post pictures on sunday. but i made it home safely and will fill you in tomorrow.

arg, i need a program to help resize photos. i'm pretty nerdy

is it ever a monday?

i confess, i was crabby today to my little readers. i hate it. but in my defense, you try dealing with 286 young people who are all looking for the most perfect book that has to do with dinosaurs, dogs, princesses, funny looking people who are sad because they are in world war II. it is stressful! stop laughing! and why did i have 286 students compared to my normal 175? well that's because at 6 am i am boarding a flight to las vegas! for four days! so i can't be too crabby. so despite my new blog, i will be gone. although i fear only my husband reads this (and only when i make him). but if there are other bloggers out there, i have a very silly question. do you ask permission of people to let others know blogs you read? and boy is there a list! and also...how do you do that? AND how do you put a different banner at the top? because i would like to make a new one...and i have an idea. so answer my questions if you can and let me know i'm not just rambling to my darling husband. and so, i leave. oh wait! i do have knitting content!

remember my fingerless gloves that i'm angry with because they've caused me to knit poorly (or maybe my knitting just isn't up to par), well i did it and i ripped them back four inches to try again. i'm still not completely satisfied because it still sort of looks like doo-doo, but it does look better. yay. AND wouldn't you know it? i went to start a new project (despite promising myself i wouldn't), and i didn't have the right sized needles. doesn't that just get your goat? i need to hit up more second hand stores to expand my needle collection (i am the cheapest person in the world, just buy the stupid things!) anyways, i'm off to pack and do laundry and find good books for the flight!

here is a picture of part of my adorable little family (because i love blogs with pictures, even if they're random)

beware...knitting content ahead

okay, so i'm like the worst secret pal for my one skein partner. i'm trying soooo hard to get her project done...two months late. so i'm working on some fingerless gloves. i love the yarn sooooo much, but i am not happy with the knitting quality that i am producing. so i'm making an executive decission and i'm replacing the fingerless gloves with a different project. i'm sorry secret pal! but here are the pictures. please note the poor knitting and the awful thumb gusset that began. >:(

in other knitting news, yesterday in missoula i stopped at michaels because i had heard such good things about the pattons soy wool yarn (and also that it felts up nicely and i love to felt in the winter), so i picked up two skeins. i also picked up some nice cotton for some baby hats that i will be making. after i finish the one skein project i'll start the hats and post some pictures. just a clue...arrrrr matey!

practice putting in pictures

heres a picture from tour de fat. fat tire came to missoula and had the most awesome bikes! this one was so hard to ride, but it was worth it. loved it!

day one

well...i guess i shall see how this goes. I would like to believe it will be mostly knitting. but at this rate, i will get one thing knit this winter. so it will probably be knitting infused with life and my lovely family and job. soooo yes. cross our fingers! until then...