this week

its a rainy, raw thursday evening. i'm sitting at home with a fire blazing, thankful that dan came home after work to get it going before he headed out to Mr. P's for their weekly card night. i ate some cereal while watching some DVRed Rosie and while blog surfing realized that the blog post with a video tutorial on how to crochet a circle had been posted! i put my bowl in the sink, grabbed some yarn and a hook and i got started! and i did it!! i've been wanting to know how to crochet for a long time now and never seem to make the time. so now its finally happening. don't get me wrong, i can't see crochet having quite the place in my life that knitting does, but its a good skill to have, especially for things like flowers (soo cute for hats and accessories) and for baby blankets (from what i hear they come along much more quickly that way).... so the learning is in progress!

what other tid bits from this week can i share?

did 3 days at the gym. 2 cardio days and an hour of yoga.

i'm still obsessed with podcasts. my favorite being the Knitmore Girls! i just can't get enough of Jasmine and Gigi. they just fascinate me to no end :) i think i listened to 5 hours straight of them on Sunday on the way home from Philly!

speaking of Philly, i broke down and got myself a Fast Lane so i can speed through those tolls like the rest of the smart drivers do! yaay for that. no idea why i'd been putting it off.

i finally ordered the Origins facewash and lotion i've been coveting! can't wait for that package to arrive in the mail.

i came home to a nice surprise on Sunday- Dan, in his basement cleaning, dug out some old photos and our handpainted Mexican tiles and some other things and hung them around the house! :) he did a great job! feels even more cozy here now somehow.

the last episodes of Sons of Anarchy (both of which I watched last night, the second of which with Dan) were "kick you in the crotch spit on your neck fantastic" as Rachel would say. unbelievable! the show is sooo well written! i'm obsessed!

i LOVE Rosie's new show! I'm not sure if its doing well in the ratings, but I think she's brilliant! insightful, funny, relevant, real, easy-going. just great!

still knitting up a storm! i started and finished another project this week- which of course i can't share because its a christmas gift! i'm making really great progress on my list, though as i get closer and closer to the end i just continue to think of things i just HAVE to make to wrap and put under the tree! it will be a very handmade christmas this year, which is something i'm immensely proud of.

i guess that will do it.

time to put on a podcast, wash my face and tidy up the house... and then perhaps a little knitting before bed!

night kids.

random bits

I've still been seriously bad at blogging but I was going to jot down a few things and realized I had some pictures here on my computer that would add a little pizzazz so I plopped some in! Serious effort, really!

My new desk space at work! I'm the most senior member on my team (in terms of Project Specialists anyways- Kim has technically been working at MGH longer than me), and so I got first pick of the 4 desks in my office space. I chose this beauty with a gorgeous view of the Charles River!

In the excitement of moving I took about 20 minutes worth of crafting fervor and decided to make a small canvas as the start of my redecorating of my space. I love this little guy!

And what always makes me smirk when I look at it is the fact that when I originally painted it, I forgot the "to" so it read "work hard and be nice people" more of a command than a reminder to myself! funny.
i've been knitting up a STORM lately- doing really well in the 'handmade Christmas gift' department this year. my percentage should definitely be up from last year which was one of my 2011 goals! and i've just got the knitting BUG now that its been cooler. i finished some baby stuff for and a hat and some other things. working on another hat now, and geeez i wish i could share every last one of them, but alas that would ruin the surprise so you'll just have to wait until december 26th at the earliest!

i've also gotten into knitting podcasts. its a nice compliment to my knitting obsession! i didn't think it would be interesting to HEAR people talk about knitting since (to my way of thinking) knitting is such a visual art... but, i like it! a lot! the only one i've listened to so far is called knit knit cafe- a mother/son team who are really interesting. i'm learning some new things and linking to new patterns and books because of their podcast. and best of all, its free! i love it!

yesterday kris sent me this gorgeous snapshot of my babe, Aila Grace! isn't she the sweetest thing. I can bet you $1000 that she picked out this outfit- the vest I think I gave her for Christmas last year but since she's just barely out of 12 month clothing I'm guessing she's just barely fitting into that stuff now! Little peanut!

She really is the sweetest! And such a girly girl. I babysat for her last Saturday night so Kris and Matt could go to the movies and Willy could have some quality time with Nanny and Grandpa. I brought her 2 purses, a giraffe zipper pouch and a giraffe beanie baby (after a massive clean out of my own stuff in the basement). She went nuts for them, carrying all 4 everywhere she went, even wanting to bring them to bed with her (mean-old Auntie Jen forbade the purses in the bed but she forgave me). All things pretty and all things giraffe interest this little one. Her fascination with these things is just pure joy to watch.

And now its time for yoga! Namaste.