off the cuff

I made a pair of really cute, felted slippers for my sister for Christmas.  And then I went and gave them to her without taking one single picture of the finished project.

Doh!

I liked them so much I decided I need my own pair, so I guess there is still a chance for redemption.

After pouting, stomping about, and declaring I don't even love him, Bob said I could make it up to him by knitting him a hat that looks like Magna Charge (for those of us not in the know, here's a picture)

Ummm...clearly he has a lot more faith in my skills than I do.

And I could find nothing that looked like a pattern to follow online.

Here is what I came up with.  The hat was made on one of those circular looms (only because I was trying to teach Emma how to use it).
The eyeball is crochet AND glow in the dark....you really should be doubled impressed here!
And the magnet through the head is I-cord with pipe cleaners stuffed inside it.

Not too bad for having no idea what I was doing, I'd say!

Progress

The boy has been taking advantage of these warm January days and making a lot of progress on the greenhouse.
 

We have big plans for it this spring.
 

And a certain girlchild has big plans for the playhouse that's going to be on the second story.

Our Favorite Nightmare in the Daytime

I found this hastily taken picture from last fall on the boy's phone when I killing time waiting for a new life on candy crush (did I just put that in writing....eeek!)

 

I just love the look on Bob's face.

Today in a Snapshot

The Sister-in-Law brought daffodil bulbs for the girlchild to plant last weekend.

They bring happy, growing energy to a cold January day.

And a whisper of warmer days ahead.

2013 - By the Books

Figures, the year I decide not to care whether I make it to 100 books is the year I very nearly do.

In Short:
I really enjoy Alexandra Fuller's writing style.  I read three of her books this year and have more waiting on my to read list.  Anyone who enjoyed Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle would enjoy Alexandra Fuller's books. 

I am not really a big Steve Jobs fan but Walter Isaacson's biography was an enjoyable, easy read.  Einstein's biography however was a different story.  I think I might be less of an Einstein fan after having read it.

I read The Spectacular Now simply so I could see the movie.  And then I didn't love the book ending and now I'm afraid to watch the movie.

Anyone who is a Downton Abbey follower would enjoy Kate Morton's The House at Riverton.

I'm nearly caught up on the Orsen Scott Card Books.  I think I might have enjoyed the Shadow series a lot more than the Ender series on that one.

I'm surprised that the interwebs claim Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises as his best literary works.  I just didn't get it. (Typical of me and "classics" I think).  But I did love Farewell to Arms.

Nora Ephron it turns out is my kind of funny.  I Feel Bad About my Neck would be a good gag gift for any over 30 girl in your life.

1. Mitch Albom - The Timekeeper****
2. John Case - The Genesis Code****
3. Justin Cronin - The Passage****
4. Geraldine Brooks - Year of Wonders*****
5. Alexandra Fuller - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight*****
6. Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs Biography*****
7. Jaycee Dugard - A Stolen Life****
8. Anne Tyler - The Beginner's Goodbye***
9. Scott Turow - Reversible Errors***
10. Helen Simonson- Major Pettigrew's Last Stand ***
11. Orsen Scott Card - Shadow of the Hegemon *****
12. Animals in Translation - Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson****
13. Alan Bradley - Speaking from Among the Bones****
14. Paula Deen - It Ain't All About the Cookin****
15. Ann Patchett - State of Wonder*****
16. Robb Wolf - The Paleo Solution*****
17. Cecelia Ahern - The Book of Tomorrow***
18. Nancy Turner - These is My Words*****
19. Orsen Scott Card - Shadow Puppets*****
20. Cassandra Clare - City of Bones****
21. Gabrielle Hamilton - Blood, Bones, and Butter*****
22. Nicholas Sparks - Safe Haven*****
23. Heather Gudenkauf - These Things Hidden**
24. Loren Cordain - The Paleo Diet****
25. Ken Jennings - Because I Said So*****
26. Orsen Scott Card - Shadow of the Giant****
27. Orsen Scott Card - A War of Gifts***
28. Betsy Carter - The Orange Blossom Special***
29. Orsen Scott Card - Ender in Exile***
30. Robin Sloan - Mr. Penembra's 24-hour Library*****
31. Barbara Kingsolver - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle****
32. Orsen Scott Card - Shadows in flight***
33. Justin Cronin - The Twelve****
34. Walter Isaacson - Einstein**
35. Jim Bishop - The Day Lincoln was Shot**
36. Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson - Spousonomics****
37. Bill Bryson - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid***
38. John Green - Looking for Alaska****
39. Joseph Marshall III - The Journey of Crazy Horse**
40. Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending**

41. Alexandra Fuller - Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness*****

42. Sarah Dunn - The Secrets of Happiness*

43. Marian Keyes - This Charming Man*
44. Barbara Kingsolver - Flight Behavior****
45. Orsen Scott Card - Earth Unaware***
46. Mark Haddon - The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time****
47. Ann Patchett - What now?*****
48. Alice Kuipers - Life on the Refrigerator Door****
49. Janet Chadwick - Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food***

50. Sarah Blake - The Postmistress ***

51. Emily Giffin - Love the One You're With**
52. Vanessa Diffenbaugh - The Language of Flowers***
53. Khaled Hosseini - And the Mountains Echoed***
54. Haruki Murakami - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running**

55. Daniel Charles - Lords of the Harvest*****
56. Bill Lambercht - Dinner at the New Gene Cafe****
57. Jen Lancaster - If You Were Here**
58. Dan Brown - Inferno**
59. Betty Smith - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn*****

60. Tim Tharp - The Spectacular Now****
61. Pam Reed - The Extra Mile****
62. Kim Edwards - The Memory Keeper's Daughter****
63. Jhumpa Lahiri - Unaccustomed Earth***
64. Will Schwalbe - The End of Your Life Book Club****
65. Blake Mycoskie - Start Something That Matters*****
66. Kenneth Davis - Don't know much about the Civil War***
67. Nora Ephron - I Feel Bad about my Neck*****
68. L. Frank Baum - The Wizard of Oz****
69. Joshua Foer - Moonwalking with Einstein**
70. Don Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements***
71. David McCullough - 1776**
72. Sarah Vowell - Unfamiliar Fishes**
73. Nora Ephron - I Remember Nothing*****
74. Lucy M Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables***
75. Cheryl Strayed - Wild****
76. William Kamkwamba- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind****
77. Kate Morton - The House at Riverton*****
78. Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl*****
79. Pittacus Lore - I am number four****
80. Mardi Jo Link - Bootstrapper***
81. Alexandra Fuller - Scribbling the Cat*****
82. Elizabeth von Arnim - The Enchanted April**
83. Cassandra Clare - City of Ashes****
84. David Denedictus - Return to the Hundred Acre Woods**
85. Kenneth Davis - America's Hidden History**
86. Erin Bried - How to Sew a Button**
87. Jeff Quinn - The last Gunfight***
88. Cassandra Clare - City of Glass****
89. Jim Fergus - One Thousand White Women****
90. Karen Thompson Walker - The Age of Miracles**
91. Paula McClain - The Paris Wife****
92. Pittacus Lore - The Power of Nine***
93. Mitch Albom - The First Phone Call from Heaven****
94. Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises**

Last Year's list of Books

 

Magnetic Yoga Mats

There's something about the yoga mat

that pulls the children and the animals

out of their hiding places....