Christmas Priorities... Pshhh... ;)

I can't believe Christmas Day is this week. The festive spirit got ahold of me this year and I'm on a roll preparing for it this year, more-so than the past few years, but I still can't quite grasp that it will all culminate this week. Phew!

Instead of staying home and diligently knitting away at Andrew's birthday/Christmas present like I should have tonight, I obliged Becky's invite to Comet for dinner, joined by Andrew himself [the ironyyyy], Jessica & Rob. While I lost several valuable hours of needle time, I wouldn't have traded it for the company, atmosphere and of course.. food!

quesadillas @ the comet.
'nuff said.

We're a funky bunch, I'll say that much. We eventually bid goodnight to Jess & Andrew, and followed Becky back to our house to hang out for a bit and watch the UC game. Sydni conned her buddy Becky into one of her endless endeavors as project manager in our house, and none of us were disappointed that giggles replaced the priority of watching the game.

little builders! 

The final countdown is ON! THREE DAYS! ♥♥

xo | cmd 

It's ELF Season!

THIS:

photo cred: kena betancur

^^
Yes, guys, we are one of the households that has its own Elf on a Shelf, sent from Santa himself to grace our home when we're not looking. No, it's not the size of a parade balloon, but she's big in her own special way around here..

yep. 

I am well aware of the nay-sayers out there who don't participate in this fun little holiday tradition; we are however SO excited to have our own little gal elf, Lila, who finds her way back and forth between our house & the North Pole when the rest of us have gone to bed. She made her first appearance tonight and brought with her a book for Sydni [which went over perfectly]; thanks, Lila!

We'll get some pictures of Lila up here soon; for now, it's back to mama-daughter knitting. I know I posted a few shots yesterday of finished products, but I'm nowhere near done; they'll keep comin'!

knittin' fools over here :) 

See ya on the flipside, blogbots!

xo | cmd

Level UP : Knitting GOALS ;)

#trueeeeeeeeeeeeestory.

Okay okay okay... so I've been knitting a whole bunch so far this year. I spent a few hours tonight working away on the current project for Jessica's grandma, but I discovered THIS somewhere in the middle of my own work and breaks spent perusing social media.

The link has the full deets, but long story short, it's THIS:

want. need. want. need. want. need. 

The lengths to which this gal went to create this blanket seem pretty grueling, and I'll be the first to tell you I don't have my own personal collection of wool [........... yet? haha] to move on this. It looks.... fantastic, though. Add this one to my bucket list of other Pinterestesque ideas that may or may not ever find fruition.

That being said, I'll stick to my individual projects here, pale as they may be in comparison to that behemoth of a creation. If you want in on one, let me know! ;)

#6 & 7 so far this season!
$20/each - i will customize if you're interested! 

Yay, DIY-ers!
G'Nite, blogbots ♥

xo | cmd

Christmas IS...

Christmas Day is nearly here, but the spirit of Christmas has been hanging around in its usual fashion for weeks now. Our pretty city has hints of Christmas everywhere, including this gem that I saw last night on Fountain Square:

merry christmas, cincinnati! 

 This morning, we walked into a beautifully-decorated service at SonRise:

gorgeous! 

Today was a huge encouragement, in a lot of ways. First, the message today, via Chad, which spoke to both Rob and I in a big way. If there's one thing I forget every year around this time, it's not distinguishing the real reason for the season, or extending Christmas greetings to our family & friends... what it usually is though, is a blurring of our limits. Most of the time, I just refuse to believe that I actually have limits, and consequently manage to over-commit myself to everything, everyone, and being everywhere. It's impossible to please everyone, and when I try to force it, it becomes a daunting challenge rather than a joyful experience, and that in itself strips away some of the meaning behind the holiday. Reality check, much? :)

Oh, and after that, Rob & I took care of some household things before heading back out for a missions meeting! More details to come, but for the time being, please just... PRAY for us as we commit to and begin the preparation process for our mission trip in 2015 to Panama!

#sonrisepanama2015

Your prayers are exceedingly appreciated; I'll post a few updates soon with a little more detail on this trip!

For now, it's back to this knitting deal & a close to an awesome day.
♥♥♥!

xo | cmd 

All-Over Saturday

Hello, weekend!

I guess I should go ahead and disclose now that Taste of Belgium is currently serving their seasonal gingerbread waffles, and... well, GO.

yum! 

Nom nom nom nommmm!
We took our time today, getting through our to-do list at home. I had originally slated us a trip to IKEA for some Christmas shopping; Rob jumped the gun and went ahead and ordered everything online. That saved us both the drive there and the "fun" of traipsing through the pool of lawless goldfish that is the typical IKEA in-store experience. *Whew!

Oh, and Rob christened our house with the first fire of the year, while I started in on another knitting project today: This one's for Jess!

fireside knitting ♥

Stella was less-than-impressed with the fact that my knitting needles were getting more attention than she was, and have, for the past couple of weeks.

awhhh.. love you, pup-pup.. 

Poor girl. I promise that once Christmas is over, the knitting will cease to take up every evening. Okie? ;)

Trish invited us to join her and some friends in Newport, so on a last minute decision we obliged, meeting her and some coworkers at Hofbrahaus on the Levee.

:) :) 

Always a fun time (:
It's been a while since I've visited Hofbrahaus, and Rob's first time there, so we'll naturally be back. I couldn't tell you the last time I actually went to Arnies, either, but that happened, and was a blast in itself.

♥♥♥

We made a lot of good decisions today. We also made some not-so-good decisions today. This is the worst of it, and while it seemed a wise choice at the time, I'm making a note for next time [like I usually say] to never let this happen again:

yes... yes that is lucy blue's.... :/ 

All around I think that's a win. Happy Saturday! 

xo | cmd 

YEAH, MONDAY :)

i.... love ... this!

 ^^ Thank you, Modo for this gem. I've read and re-read this several times and had to share it with whatever reader happens to stumble across this page. This is perfect for those Mondays that challenge me to bring my best to the table and come prepared to do some damage to the week. It gave me some fuel for this morning, and for that I am thankful! 

Also, I debuted this guy at work today too: It's the product of hours in the car over the Nashville weekend, and I am claiming it as mine.. for now, at least:

pine green trinity infinity [raspberry stitch]

^^ Want that scarf? It's yours, $20, like the rest of them! ;)

As Rob and I sat and ate leftover Hattie B's for dinner tonight, we watched as the news unfolded re: Ferguson. I'm not going to sit and expand on what I'm referencing, because if you don't know by now, then you really should close my blog and read the news. My position in the matter is neutral at best, but what I will say is this:

Our nation is broken, and at a juncture now that demands prayer. It is not optional to pray for the well-being of our citizens anymore. It is crucial. It is not enough to believe that people will make well-informed, rational decisions right now, because that's not going to happen.

Please pray, whoever you are, wherever you are.. Please pray for our nation and for every single one of us living in it. We're in dire need of it.

Amen. 

xo | cmd 

Brother Bear's Return!

It's #TBT, which was perfectly timed for today.

There is a handful of faces from my past to which I still make efforts to stay connected; this guy is one of them:

circa.... 2008?

Yeah, this guy was an older brother to me for a few years, and someone I considered [and still do] one of my favorite friends along the way. We ran in the same close-knit circle of friends for several years and then eventually strayed separate ways via life, jobs, moving and all that fun stuff that gets in the way of people living in their early 20's forever. He's now living in Texas and I'm now back in Ohio for the third [and hopefully final] time.

I hadn't seen him in probably almost 2 years.

say whaaaaaaat?!
today! 11.20.14

And THEN, I went to Northside for lunch with Elisa and Becky, and from the parlour at Melt in Northside, I spotted this dapper dude strolling down the sidewalk outside.

No. WAY! :D

Brother bear, it was terrific getting to see you today, even just briefly. What a small world! I hope Texas continues to treat you well, and maybe I'll swing through the next time I find myself that way!

one more from the archives, 2007 : family dinner!
nalom. james. me. ladd. catie.

^^ Love those people ♥

Small world we live in :)

Happy Thursday!

xo | cmd

[First] SSSSSSSSNOOWW!

Ohhhh, Sydni you lucky bug!

Here's one of those "old folk" moments where I get to say,

"When I was your age..... "

She had her first official snow day today, which did and didn't surprise me:
I wasn't surprised because it seems like it takes a lot less these days to warrant closing down, but a bit surprised, even offended in that joking-way as I thought back to the days when the drift would be halfway up our front door in the morning and we were still expected at our seats when the class bell rang.

Aaaaaanywho - it's our first snow of the year!

my backyard (: 

^^ (See? Noooot really that much snow)... Gorgeous, nonetheless!

Here's some shots I stole from my sister, back home at her property:

gorgeous work, sis! 

^^ She's up by my parents, which is North a few hours; their snowfall is usually a bit heavier than ours, and she's the lucky one of us who had time today to get out with a lens to capture it all. ♥ them!

Needless to say, it was a slow day at work, but I made up time afterwards on a couple of knitting projects that are kicking off the winter season. [Rob also warmed this place up with his signature turkey burgers; remind me next time to share that recipe!]

blueberry trinity infinity ["raspberry" stitch]
for elisa :) 

orange lorne infinity
for rebecca :) 

There will be plenty more knitting to come in the next several weeks as we prepare for Christmas. It's the perfect snowy day escape. Back to it!

STAY WARM & STAY SAFE, FRIENDS! 

xo | cmd

It's Knitting Season!

Today's Roster of Schtuff:

1: Yoga

2: Church - home

3: Knitting. 

4: Knitting. 

5: Knitting. 

6, 7, 8-12: Knitting. 

13: Dinner. 

14: Knitting. 

16-20: Knitting. 

Solid list, right? 

#knittingweather

My fingers [& eyes... & brain] need some sleep. 

zzzz. 

xo | cmd

Scarfie Saturday

I. 

Have. 

Been. 

KNITTING.....

All. 

Stinkin'. 

Day. 

At least that's how it feels. My fingers felt like they were ready to fall off around 6pm, when I finally peeled myself away after about five straight hours of work. I'm not complaining, no, but to say I felt a little cross-eyed was accurate. Christmas presents are well underway, and we're not even to December yet ;).

We rendezvoused earlier with Rob's boss & a few of his co-workers for dinner, and he dropped me at home to nurse this headache I developed somewhere in the afternoon... I'm sure I'll be zonked by the time he's back.

I suppose I'll be curling back up on the couch for some Big Bang Theory and... you guessed it...

remember this, from 2 years ago?
..... get ready for 2014, haha.. 

[More.]

KNITTING. 

:)

See ya on the flip side, blogbots!

xo | cmd

I'm Awesome At Shopping!

.. That's a total lie. I'm about as good at shopping as I am at basketball.

& ice hockey.

& juggling hand grenades.

& cooking any sort of red meat.

You get it.

Shopping ≠ My strong suit.
It's okay.

Anyway, today after work, I embarked on day 1 of my mission to find a "semi formal" dress for the event I'm attending next weekend. I'm not a dressy girl by nature, so that in and of itself was the first hurdle. I figured it wouldn't be hard at all to find a piece to fit the bill.

 

Either I'm insanely picky, or I just... honestly... do not know how to do this.

^ found that online somewhere, made me laugh.. totally applicable.

So to my frustration this evening at dress shopping, and to the actual idea of dressing up in the first place, I say... not now. Just. Not. Now. I'll deal with you tomorrow. For now..

Here are some things that make me happy, that share my affinity for craftiness and avoiding big stores unless absolutely necessary. I'm drafting Christmas present ideas.

1. Jewelry. I have a lot of women [& men, too] in my family who admire and appreciate fun, quirky accessories. I just.. I have this really hard time spending exorbitant amounts of money on things unless there's an appropriate occasion [not saying that Christmas is anything less than that, however]; I simply like to give a lot, to a lot, so frugality is never a bad thing. 


via Tzunuum, Etsy
fun. definitely could add my own spin on it.

adore.

no, not mine... but doable.

... and so forth.

2. Scarves! I went on a huge knitting spree two years ago - remember that? Well, at the time I found a blog that I started obsessing over; it was one of those tutorial blogs that shows you how to knit and all that jazz. I found pictures [since I'm too lazy to go find the ones I took sporadically in 2011] of each of my four favorite stitches I learned and completed. I think.... it's gonna be another knitting year!

bring on the needles & yarn! i just got excited again...


3. Foooooooood. Duh. Food. I'd be here until next Christmas if I tried telling you all my favorite goodies for the holiday season, but I think at the top of that list is something I also learned while in Illinois: Gorilla Bread. It's a curse that I have no need for recipe instruction, but that I can recall it from memory. Pretty sad. Haha. Whatever.. I will be making mini versions of this for.... all ya'll this year. Be ready. Be hungry.


drooling already.

... So maybe my failed attempt at shopping today was a good thing, after all. I just caught my second wind of inspiration to actually do some of this stuff this year.

Gears are turnin'....

xo | cmd

It's Needle Season...

Remember last year when I discovered knitting?
Remember when I went into hyper-drive with it and manufactured something like 12 scarves as Christmas presents because I was just that enamored with it all?

Well.. I might not go that far with it this season, but I did find in my desk the other day as we were moving over to the new office [again] the gift card that Nancy had given me at Christmas last year for K1W2.

k1w2! i need to get there.....

I don't know how it slipped my mind to get over there, but I definitely need to make it a point before this thing expires. I've yet to decide how I want to go about this year's yarnage [word? Who knows], but I'm sure I'll find a few minutes to share once I get it all ironed out.

Wheels are spinnin' ....

xo | cmd

Spreadin' Some Scarf

I’ve been knitting almost daily since that first little inkling I had a month or so back, and it’s paid off. I had an immediate goal of finishing enough scarves to assign one to each one of the names I’d added to that part of my Christmas list. I’ve always appreciated a handmade gift, especially one tailored specifically for me, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.


pretty little gift boxes | michael'scardstock cards with embellishments

In order to help me better customize, I thought I’d name each project accordingly. I got pretty creative with them [*sarcasm*]. Here’s how that’s going, so far: 

diana :: crimson reds



nancy :: cobalt blues

meagan :: burgundy & rose

I thought I’d stir up the Santa-bug a couple days early at work, so I gathered up everything last night and of course did a little documentation for the digi-scrapbook beforehand.

Just a few more days!! J

xo | cmd

Pinterest!

Today’s a big day for me J 

Add caption

For all of my fellow blogbots and creativity-fueled DIY-ers out there, if for some reason you haven’t already discovered Pinterest, I would suggest you pause my little amateur operation here and www-dot your way over there to check it out.

[You back, yet?]

Well, so today I took a time-out to refresh my bank of creative inspiration and perspective by oogling over some pins posted by people from all over the place. Understand, this is a website that could easily hoard hours and hours of my time and send me reeling into ambitious dreams and ideas on how to renovate everything in my house from the front door to the dish detergent.

I thought I’d share some of the fun with the class. Keep in mind, I didn’t generate any of these ideas, but you can bet I might be replicating some!

crochet/knit costumes for babies. i want, want, want.

santa hat brownies!



shower hook necklace library :)



this one was just an extra ;)

Have a day full of pinspiration!

xo | cmd

I Haven't Forgotten....

It dawned on me today that in the midst of my newly-fashioned obsession with knitting, I've let my beadwork fall to the wayside. How rude of me. I made a resolution today to fish the bins of un-assigned beads, wire, fastenings, and other random trinkets out from hiding and give them some long-absent attention.



current knitting endeavor

 With Christmas just around the corner, I tend to be a little more bold in color selections and textures, simply because I feel like this is a brilliant time to celebrate boldness and color. Don't ask me how I arrived at that particular correlation, but I felt the distinct need to hone in on the array of ceramics over which I've always debated in adding to pieces. Why? Well, for starters, they're not cheap, and once I've incorporated them into a necklace or other piece, they are then no longer available for anything else. It's a ridiculous battle I'm constantly perpetuating in my own head, which could easily be remedied if I weren't so stinkin' fickle.

Whatev'.


ceramics: o, how i love you.

 Either way, I sorted out some ceramics today that, along the way, became part of a collection instead of a wearable item. I wound up losing focus on beads and leaning back on knitting when I realized that I should be crafting jewelry to match knitting projects, and vice versa. Hello, genius. Wake up.

That being said, I'll be taking Christmas gifts to a whole new level this week. Haha.
I'll keep you posted.

xo | cmd

Gray Knits

Behold, my newest yarn child:

This latest gig is extremely easy, and reminds me that I don't often enough serve due credit to my primary source for patterns. I'm still a major newbie, so these work for me :). See this one and all my other projects, here :)

That's all for today. Happy Friday!! 

Wednesday Schmednesday :)

So today marks the middle of yet another work week. I don’t have much to report, aside from a decent day at work and an educating evening at Wednesday Bible study. The day was marked by a few different small things that made me smile.

The little sugary snowmen that Diana brought back for us after her day of sales calls put a nice wintery touch on an otherwise snow-less day.

The more amusing thing was the picture my best friend Kalyn posted of her knitting on her lunch break. This was one of those days that I definitely wish we lived closer. It’s hard to believe we are that similar. Hah.

It’s been somewhat of a long day; I’m callin’ it an early night.

Joe starts mid-shifts this week. Blahhhhhhh.

xo | cmd

Scarf Spoiler Alert!

Okay, okay, okay.
I think I'm developing a problem.
A knitting problem.

Last night, I started in on a little somethin' that is going to eventually be a Christmas pressent for a certain best friend of mine that may or may not live in Phoenix. I was at war with myself for about an hour or so over whether or not to post what progress I've made thus far, but I can't help it. I'm so excited that my knitting has taken itself from complete, utter confusion to a level worthy of gifting. Who knew?

SO, without further adieu:

Voilà!

Haaaaa.... Gotcha.

Really? You thought I'd actually spoil the fun?

-- I really do have nearly a foot of knitting complete for this, but I wouldn't dare show off more than what Kalyn's *ahem* anonymous best friend has already seen. :)

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good about this week. We got a challenge from our management yesterday that if we hit a quota of 500 for a certain task we do here, we'll be heading out for the Thanksgiving holiday a few hours early.

Well, you'd better believe we'll be leavin' early ;)

xo | cmd