Shouting Across the Divide

With the house pretty much empty except for the pets, I've been spending a lot of time filling it with other people's voices -- mainly those on public radio, especially Ira Glass. If you haven't yet listened to last week's episode of This American Life, you should, especially because you can hear it for free here [episode 322: Shouting Across the Divide]. Be forewarned, however: it will probably make you cry.

I'm so pleased that my dedication to mailing holiday cards to all of my relatives is starting to pay off; this year, I've received at least seven different cards and letters from family, most notably "Uncle Bud"* who not only personally wrote quite a bit in his card, but also included two photographs and a newspaper clipping. This is, for a lack of a better word, totally awesome, especially because I'm not even sure I've ever met Uncle Bud. Hopefully I will someday, so I can tell him personally how great it was to get his card.

I also received a card from two folks from Craftster who are apparently trying to earn the title of Best Craftsters Ever. Millik and fizzledimpulse, if I am ever in your part of the country, I will be bringing you some cookies. Don't forget, I know where you live!

I have so many crafty projects in the works and so many more that I'd love to start on (especially some personal swaps that keep getting delayed) that I'm really ready for Christmas to be over. If you know me, you know how much it pains me to say that! I love this time of year and I love nearly everything about the Christmas season -- except of course the rampant consumerism and the occasional proselytizing -- but I'm feeling ready to move on.

Fortunately, it's almost over, and then I'll be able to post pictures of the ____ I ____ for my sister, which turned out to be my best ____ ____ ever!

Merry Christmas, everybody! Go kiss somebody underneath the mistletoe!

*I put his name in quotes because he's not my uncle; until recently I wasn't even sure how exactly he was related to me. As far as I know, he's my father's mother's brother.

Where are you?

Okay, I must confess: I have a serious weakness for blog ad-ons like stat counters, the WIP bars, wists, et cetera. But this new one is really, really neat. It's a guest map! And it lets you (yes, YOU) mark where in the world you are!

!!!

I highly recommend that you click on the sidebar link that says "Place a pin on my guestmap." It will be awesome, I promise.

On the 12th day of Christmas...

Oh, how I love having crafty family members! My wonderful aunt Ruth just sent me an enormous box full of goodies: knitting needle cozies, knitting patterns and magazines (with patterns for knit birds and pears!), beautiful roving, a wire candle decoration, a kit for a felted coin purse, and a "dinkel sheep."* And probably more that I'm forgetting, but the point is: she's fabulous and I am spoiled!

I also want to post a picture of a nestlace I made for Craftster millik for a personal swap, because I think it turned out really nicely. The "eggs" are red with black speckles, and the clasp is a leaf toggle.



In return she sent me a tote bag featuring both Ramona Quimby AND straps long enough to fit over my shoulder when I'm wearing my wool coat -- perfect for winter!

I set up my Christmas tree last week and have yet to get a decent photograph of it due to the camera's batteries being dead and my inability to locate the battery charger. So, there may not be any photographic evidence of its awesomeness/Charlie Brownness before it completely dries out. You'll just have to trust me that it is the Best Tree Ever.

Now I just have to figure out when exactly I'm going to finish everyone's Christmas gifts, considering that I'm working or visiting family every day until Christmas Eve! Time to get to work...

* Dinkel refers to a certain family in Alaska whose sheep's wool was found in my aunt's attic. The dinkel sheep referred to in this post is a little ceramic votive-holder sheep whose votive-holding spot now holds a felted ball of dinkel wool. Make sense? ;)

Oh, ginger snaps!

I'm missing out on knitting group today due to an upset stomach and a weird case of light - headedness. Instead, I'm staying home and knitting while watching Christmas shows on television. Not as cool as knitting group, but not entirely bad either.

At knitting group #1, I started working on some knit sushi for an ongoing swap on Craftster. Now that Dulcinea has received from me, I can post a picture! I think it's pretty funny that I can't stomach sushi, but I love the way it looks.

I've been working like crazy making Christmas decorations for my house and my (soon!) tree, so expect a picture-laden post of total festivity in the next week or so. I'm almost done with my Christmas cards, too. If only I could say the same for Christmas gifts!

On the subject of decorations, this is the first year I'm going to have my own Christmas tree, and I hardly have any ornaments at this point. My "theme" is going to be birds, fruit, and snowflakes. So far I have some cheapo gold snowflakes I bought at Target, a painted snowflake ornament and four pears found at Goodwill and dusted with shimmery gold powder, and a beaded garland. I'm looking for patterns (preferably free) for knit/felted birds, so if anyone knows of any, please let me know! I've only been able to find crochet patterns thus far, which doesn't help much. I may end up just making some out of craft felt and embellishing them with embroidery, but I'd really love to knit some for my tree.

Back to working on a TOP SECRET project while I watch bizarre new Christmas specials and cuddle with Rusty!

Ultimate Soul Christmas!!

Liz burned me a CD called "Ultimate Soul Christmas" and it is pretty much the best thing ever, if not for the sheer awesomeness of the compilation itself, then at least for the reaction it gets from my housemates. I love it. Our knitting group meets (for the second time, hooray!) at her house tonight, so I hope she plays it.

Not craft-related whatsoever, but today is World AIDS day. I suggest you recognize it by doing one or more of the following things:
- set up an appointment to get tested for HIV if you aren't 100% sure of your status
- talk to your current sexual partner(s) about their history
- research how many people die every day from this totally preventable disease
- write to your elected officials about why you think it's important to fund HIV/AIDS prevention programs
- talk to your friends about how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS
- donate money to fund HIV/AIDS prevention programs or research
- educate yourself (and everyone you know!) about HIV/AIDS

Or just look at this picture some of my favorite craftsters (millik & fizzledimpulse) sent me this morning:

This girl was totally wearing a skin-tight pair of jeans that had cats and swirlies painted on with shiny gold paint!! Of course we took a picture for you, because what are you going to do when you see cat pants in real life? You can't tell they are cat pants in the photo, but I'm going to share with you anyway because it's the thought that counts, right? (from millik)

I love it. Gold stars for millik and fizzledimpulse!!