Happy New Year!!!

Its hard to believe that this Friday marks the beginning of a new decade! A lot can happen in a decade and its fun to take a trip down memory lane.
Here is a taste of my 2000s. I....

... gave birth to a millennium baby.


...celebrated that baby's first birthday.


...got divorced.


...then turned 21.


...had my baby (toddler!) baptised.


...then graduated with a Bachelors Degree.


...got married again with my baby by my side.



...watched my baby learn to ride a bike.


...attended a very important kindergarten graduation.



...sent my baby to Disney World with her grandparents.


...clowned around.

...graduated with a Masters degree.


...had my picture drawn on the subway.

...celebrated my baby's First Holy Communion.

...attended my parents second wedding.

...went on vacation.

...posed as the Statue of Liberty.

...tried out for Deal or No Deal.

...moved to New Jersey.

...and made a lot of stuff, but you've seen those pictures already. Its been a crazy decade! I hope the next decade proves to be just as much fun!

Happy New Year friends! Wishing you a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous new year!

Le Brrrr

Its COLD outside! I think it was in the 20s today and feels like the teens with the wind chill. Brrrrr.

It was a perfect day to stay indoors, but as luck would have it, I needed to venture out today. Pi has been house hopping since Christmas and I needed to pick her up in Brooklyn. The little stinker won't even be home very long because she's having a sleepover with two of her cousins in Staten Island tomorrow.

This calorimetry was finished just in time for the brrr-worthy weather. After reading through tips that others have written, I only cast on 100, rather than 120. Its a perfect fit! Its a bit wider than I expected, but that's perfect for this weather. It was made with size 9 needles (my gauge is still ridiculously tight) and a half skein of Vanna's choice.


Caption: Hubby, please take the pic already!

Knitting hasn't been a regular thing for me and I figured this vacation would be a good time to learn some more skills. With the calorimetry, I learned how to do short rows. Next up, knitting in the round!

**crosses self**

How I spent my Monday.

Man, I love vacation!

Christmas Wrap-up

We had such a great Christmas this year. We were able to spend lots of time with our family, laughing, being silly, and just enjoying each other's company. We went to my aunt Aida's house on Christmas Eve. Everyone showed up and it was the biggest crowd Aida's had in years.

Even Santa decided to show up!

Played by my cousin-in-law Todd

Santa delivered this Chevron Lace Cardgian that a certain elf made (and finished just in the nick of time...an hour before we left!). I used 5 skeins of Cascade Sierra and a K hook.

Dirty Grandma loved it!

L-R: Jennifer, Mom, Stephanie, Dirty Grandma, Raymond

On Christmas morning, Pi opened lots of gifts from the real Santa.

And we ate french toast Christmas trees for breakfast.



We headed to my parent's house, where they politely informed me that my old school, giant backed, anything but flat tv was unacceptable.

But, I like this tv! lol

To replace it and bring us into present time, they bought uf this!

They're crazy, but we love it! Thanks Mom & Dad!

All of us sisters and Pi bought my parents a 16x20 framed portrait of us. Steph and I snuck the twins out one day in November (not easy!) to get our pics taken. We all wore pink because our maiden name means pink in Spanish. Then we had to swear the twins to secrecy (easier than I thought) until Christmas.

I hope everyone had a peaceful, restful, family-filled day!

Oh and I'm officially on vacation until Janaury 4th...wooooooooo!

Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Let it snow!

Last night, we got the first significant snowfall of the season. I'm not sure how much fell, but I think it was about 6 inches or so.



Icicles all along the rooftop.



Can you see Pi's snow angel? This was when the storm was just starting.



I was more than happy to stay inside! Since Christmas is less than a week away and there's a work holiday party tomorrow, I used this snowy weekend to start the Christmas baking frenzy. And bake I did!

I started with strawberry muffins (using fresh strawberries) for breakfast. Good stuff!

Peanut butter kiss cookies. The easiest recipe ever and hubby loves them.



More lemon cookies.

Chocolate chip pecan bars. I found this recipe in the Nestle Holiday Favorites cookbook. It was an impulse buy while I was on line for wrapping paper. After flipping through it, it was a very good buy. I want to make almost everything in it!

M&M chocolate chip cookies. I just replaced 1/2 of the chocolate chips with m&ms. Easy peasy.

Let's not forget my favorite Christmas cookies....sugar cookies! In addition to the trees and green stars, I also made stockings, red stars, and white stars. I'm bringing 5 dozen of these to work tomorrow.

I also finished up some teacher gifts that were on the hook. an Ifeoma scarflette for Pi's English teacher, one for the principal (who is super awesome) and a Divine hat for Pi's math teacher. Pi's main teacher is a man, so Pi is giving him a Giants mug. I don't think he'd appreciate a scarflette, haha.

Dirty grandma's cardigan is making progress too. I finished the body and one sleeve this weekend. Just one sleeve to go! Only 3 days, but I think it can be done.

Dear Aunt Aida

My aunt Aida has always been one of my biggest crafty supporters. She's commissioned me to make something for her at Christmas-time ever since I was a little kid. We're talking like 10-11 years old til now.

She has saved everything I've made and still uses them! Its really funny to go to her house on Christmas Eve and see all of the plastic canvas ornaments and tissue holders I was so fond of.

This year wasn't any different. Aida sent me an email telling me she wanted me to make headwarmers and coffee cozies for each of her three girls. I can never say no to her!

I made three of the St. Maurus headwarmers in charcoal gray. Pattern is on my sidebar.



Added chunky black buttons from my stash to finish them off.



I also made three coffee cozies in tan and brown. No pattern used....just made them large enough to fit a disposable coffee cup.

My inspiration and desire to do anything crafty has been pretty low the last 2 weeks or so. I haven't even touched that advent calendar since Thanksgiving. These projects were small enough and just fast enough to get me going again, I think. I sure hope so...I want to finish a cardigan for Dirty Grandma for Christmas.

*crossing my fingers*

Tis the Season to decorate!

**Forgive my pictures. They were taken at night (see the clock?).**

Hubby and I debated quite a bit this year about whether we would have a real tree or finally buy a fake, pre-lit one. Our living room is on the small side and we weren't sure if we'd have room for a real tree. A pre-lit tree also sounded really good because its my job to string the lights and I hate getting tangled in yards and yards of it every year. Decisions, decisions.

After tons of discussion and moving furniture around (and around and around), we decided on a real tree and I'm so glad we did! Its one of the prettiest trees we've had yet and it smells so amazingly good.





I was glad to see some of my old friends, like this glass Santa ball. He's older than Piper.





We brought home some new ornaments too. These were at A.C. Moore for only 50 cents each!





Love the blue mitten!




I also made a peppermint tree out of peppermints, hot glue and an old styrofoam tree shape that had been sitting in my craft box for a few years. It was part of a project I started years ago and abandoned. Nice to finally see it have a purpose! The ribbon was left over from the tree.

Super simple and really cute!





Now its really starting to feel like Christmas around here!

Triple Scarflettes

One of my co-workers asked if I could whip up a few scarflettes for her, her sister, and niece. I'm a sucker for anyone who appreciates handmade scarves, so I agreed.


Sorry for the bad pic. Winter picture taking sucks!

Its the Ifeoma scarflette pattern. The white and maroon are Woolease Chunky and the tan is Patons Shetland Chunky.

I'd write more, but Biggest Loser is starting. I can't help but watch that show every week. I must be the only person on the planet who doesn't mind eating cookies while watching it. :O