Bonne Nuit 2013

Well 2013, it's come to this. Just a few hours left until the clock hits midnight and you'll be nothing but a distant memory. To be honest, I'm kind of relieved to see you go. I'm ready for a fresh start, even if the new year is just an arbitrary date on a calendar.

You know how every few years, a year comes down the pike that just feels incongruous? Where you meet with "square peg, round hole" issues at seemingly every turn? Where the harder you push, the more you feel like you're spinning your wheels? Yeah, 2013 just never really happened for me. I have vague memories of 2006 kind of being like this too and I suppose, every seven years or so you're due for a year that's not really bad, but certainly not great either.

Aren't you happy you swung by to spend some time with Debbie Downer this New Year's Eve? ;)

But while I might not have been thrilled with 2013 on a whole, that only motivates me to make 2014 a really super year. And there were moments of 2013 that really sparkled and sang. I mean, how could a year that started off like this be all bad?

NYE 2012

 Without further ado, some favorite memories of 2013:

Season tickets for Broadway Across America at the Orpheum in Minneapolis with Sarah.

The advent of homemade bagels. The advent of a Ankarsrum mixer for Christmas so I don't have to incorporate all of that blankity blank flour into the stiff dough by hand has been much celebrated.

A trip to the lower peninsula of Michigan with Mom to visit brother and girlfriend.

 

This is kind of a lowlight really, but let's not forget this cheery little picture from, oh, April 19th. I was talking to my dad today about hoping that 2014 would be a better weather year. "Yeah, but that's kind of a low hanging fruit," he said. I mean, how could 2014 not be better. Honestly, it's been so blasted cold for so blasted long now that I catch myself thinking that's the end of January. Today, we're a destined for a high of about -12. You guys, I'm not sure how much more of this I can take.

 

I probably spent more time in running shoes in 2013 then I had for the entire rest of my life. Watch out world, because Santa brought me some high tech running tights and a Garmin Forerunner, so I can really nerd out with split times and all sorts of other details you never wanted to know about my runs. Happily, my test of Garmin proved that I'd been pretty accurately calculating my distance, which is a relief because I'd hate to find out what I thought was a mile was actually 6/10s of a mile or something and also because on Sunday I signed up for my first half marathon. Gettin' crazy.

Whenever I have a not so good day, I just have to think back to the Baby Crafting Weekend Shower back at the end of June to reaffirm that all is right with the world. Did I mention that this very weekend is New Year's Crafting Weekend?! And that I get to meet the crafting babies, Princess Grace and C. Liam Neeson, in just a few short days?!? (Spoiler alert: not the babies' real names.)

2013 was also the year of the mitten. Every time I turned around, I was knitting more mittens. Every time I finished a pair, I vowed I would never knit a mitten again. Surprise, surprise, I just cast on another pair of mittens last night.

It was the year of the snowmobile too. At long last, Andy purchased his dream machine. Who knows what adventures await in 2014?

What were your favorite moments of 2013?
 

Read more ...

Happy New Year - Alternative Title: Friends Laughing Together

Happy New Year everyone!

Here we are, three days into the new year already and I've yet to even wish you all well for this new exciting year we're just embarking on. Like so many bloggers, I have a tendency to fall off the face of the earth during the holiday season. Amazingly (shockingly?) enough, the holidays are rapidly coming to a close (to me, it all ends on January 6 - Epiphany, which is my traditional "take down all Christmas decorations day") and today is my first attempt to return to a normal work schedule. Considering that I oversleep (fail), I have a feeling that today will be all about little successes and getting my head back into the work game, while tomorrow will be the first day I actually have billable hours again. Speaking of billable hours, I should really send out some invoices today. (Oh hey there Christmas credit card bill.)

There have been plenty of little, not really work related, but definitely "real" life things waiting for my attention. QuickBooks is updated, I've gotten the car in for a long overdue oil change and my annual physical appointment is scheduled. Yesterday, Andy and I did laundry for the first time in earnest since the first week in December and I'm over the moon about the prospect of clean underwear, clean socks, and clean pants!

I hope that Christmas (if that's the holiday you celebrate) was a very happy day for you and that you're looking forward to 2013 as much as I am. I really have no idea what 2013 will bring -probably just more of the same - but since 2012 was a very happy year around these parts, I say, "Bring it, 2013."

Essential items for New Year celebrating: poppers, hat, and a crazy straw for your champagne

I was lucky enough to celebrate New Year's with my crafting/Ireland/college buddies this year. We officially have way too much fun together. This year's "New Year's Crafting Weekend" spanned three nights and brought us all to the Minnesota prairie in Willmar - or as I and my fellow northern MN crafters referred to it: "Garrison's Minnesota". Willmar's a fair poke from my neck of the woods (hooray for carpooling!), but the time spent together was worth every minute in the car(s). We realized that this is the 6th crafting get-together - to date we've had three summer crafting "weekends" and three New Year celebrations.

One of our fellow crafters had gotten married this past fall and because our lives are typically not nearly as awesome as they appear during crafting weekends, most of us missed the wedding. To make up for this, we decided to throw a surprise second wedding reception.

Interestingly enough, this is the second event of this holiday season for me missing a key player of the event. There was no baby mama at the surprise baby shower last month and the groom was conspicuously absent during this "second" wedding reception.

"Wedding" cake

A major reason why we hosted a second reception was to present the bride with her wedding present - the handknit afghan that we hadn't been able to finish in time for the actual wedding.

Who am I kidding, we barely finished the afghan in time for the second wedding reception. I spent Friday evening sitting on the floor in the basement of some friends' mother's home, sewing on border. Despite my earlier moaning and groaning, the afghan turned out beautifully and I'm really happy we were able to make it happen.

 

Family photo of everyone in their "wedding" clothes

You may be noticing that there aren't too many pictures of actual crafting. That's because we were usually too busy doing this to get much crafting done:

There was some crafting accomplished though. A Civil War era ball gown skirt was worked on and there was much knitting, including my knitting 8 gazillion (okay, 12) owl cozies for the Etsy shop. Check out the new colors: tutu pink, a mustard yellow/gold, and a dark blue heather.

Braving 0 degree weather to trace a sewing pattern

It's always hard to come back to "real" life after the holiday season, but it just can't be party, party, party all day, every day, I suppose. *sigh*

So far, I'm not resolving to do anything this year other than take care of myself and live life happily and fully. Whatever your New Year resolutions, I wish you the best of luck with them and I hope 2013 goes down as one of our best to date.

Read more ...

The Holi-daze

I think we can all agree that Christmases that fall in the middle of the week should be banned. I mean, what's the big idea here? All party, party, party on Monday and Tuesday and then back to work on Wednesday? I think not!

Both today and yesterday I've half-heartedly attempted to get actual paying work accomplished, but I haven't made much (any?) progress on my projects. Mostly I've just been sitting in the glow of the Christmas tree, gunking up the screen of my new iPad (thank you Andy for introducing technological sophistication into my life) and counting getting iTunes to update on my ancient workhorse of a laptop an accomplishment. I've also been hoping that this pile of afghan edging will knit itself up and attach itself to the actual afghan. (Is it too much to ask for a Christmas miracle?!)

Side note: when/if I get married I am requesting many much hand knitted afghans. This is the fifth wedding afghan I've worked on to date (three of which I knit in their entirety . . . queue smallest violin in the world) and this chick has had it. My apologies to any couples getting engaged this holiday season . . . I'm totally giving you a salad spinner.

Also, it should be noted that I'm trying out the Blogger iPad app for the first time with this post. I have absolutely no idea where the photos I selected for this post are actually being placed.

iPad app suggestions and . . . go! I don't play games (I seem to find *plenty* of other things to vie for my procrastination energy), but would love suggestions for apps related to knitting, cooking, finance, etc. etc. The most obvious apps (Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Etsy) were already installed during a very fun Christmas Day. At least it was fun for Andy and me. My parents, who spent most of the day watching us poke away at said iPad, might have a different take on the day, although we did manage to tear ourselves from the glowing bluescreen long enough for some Trivial Pursuit and dinner.

Hope you've all had a very merry holiday season so far. I'm gearing up for the great annual New Year's Eve crafting "weekend" which starts . . . tomorrow! Excitement!

Read more ...