Bad bad blogger.

I know. It's true. I'm a shitty shitty blogger. Ah well. What can I say? This is the second week in a row that I vowed to myself to have a knitting post everyday (in order to distract you from my other pathetic ramblings, of course) and here it is THURSDAY and I'm just getting around to the first one. I rock.

So, here is my belated post about the lovely package that I received from my Knitter's Coffee Swap Pal, Tammy. Sorry it took me so long Tammy. I LOVED the package. Here is the first view:





Oddly, pumpkin was once again interested. Very strange, this new behavior of being interested in my stuff. Once the paper was lifted, he did the required tuna check...

and seemed to be a bit perplexed by the contents.

So he did a once over of all the great gifts Tammy sent. There is a beautiful indie dyed yarn...400+ yards of my FAVORITE colors, maple flavored chocolate, mint chocolate, dpn holders, a lb of delicious deep coffee as well as lovely one-cups of two other flavors and organic hot cocoa, two flavors for adding to my coffee as my mood suits (perfect for a sometimes flavor girl, sometimes not!) and lamby, of course for Little A (at least that's what Little A says). Everything was absolutely yummy or beautiful! Tammy was really a great partner! Thank you Tammy! It was such a fun package!


And finally, at the end of package exploration, Pumpkin's true motives were revealed:

Typical.


In other random news, my boobs look huge today. It is vital that you all know that.

And so far, I have stuck to my yarn diet. Could this be the reason for the excess boobage today?

I decided to try some raw food recipes. I'm actually pretty skeptical, but I'll keep you posted as to their yumminess or vileness. It looks like I need LOTS of nuts. As if I'm not nuts enough.

Ok, better sign off before my blog self-destructs from the presence of an actual post.

PS - Bloglines seems to have pruned my list a little in my absence! Ack...I figured out a couple, but I know I'm missing some. If you used to be there and you are not any longer, leave me a comment so I can add you back in.

Coffee Swap!

Hey!
I still suck at blogging. Only a few more weeks, I swear!
But I thought I'd better get my questionnaire up for the Knitter's Coffee Swap before my partner wants to throttle me. Or send me Folger's Crystals and Red Heart from a yard sale. I'd probably prefer the throttling.

So, here is my questionnaire:
1. Whole bean or ground?
Ground. I have a grinder in a pinch, but I typically use it for spices, not beans. Just no weird powder or freeze dried substances.
2. Fully-loaded or decaf?
As loaded as possible, please. I'm a single mother afterall.
3. Regular or flavored?
Both.
4. How do you drink your coffee?
First I snort it up my nose, blow it back out, gargle it and swallow. Maybe I don't get this question? Oh, maybe we are talking cream or sugar here? Ok, well in regular coffee I like a little sugar and cream, not milk, cream. Espresso stays espresso in my house, which I love to have after (early enough) dinners.
5. Favorite coffee ever?
This is hard. I confess to being a lover of Starbucks. And when I really need a pick me up, I head for a Triple Grande Vanilla Latte. It makes me happy. Though I don't know if its my favorite, but its damn good.
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do?
Not any old, but it seems, after reading other questionnaires, that I'm less picky than a lot of the swappers. I like most of the top shelf grocery coffees, but can't really look down from there. Coffee from Italian grocers/shops are always welcome.
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee?
Mmmm...biscotti! Which I also like to make when I have time...any good recipes? I often have dark dark chocolate with the aforementioned after dinner espresso. Morning coffee is just guzzled down with no accompaniments.
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences?
Nope, I like to try new coffees whenever I get a chance. I also like most other hot drinks.
9. Yarn/fiber you love?
Good sock yarn...Lorna's Laces, Socks that rock, Trekking, Noro, Anything that is soft and has subtle color graduations is likely to be completely loved by me.
10. Yarn/fiber you hate?
I'm not so hip on novelty yarns, though I suppose there are exceptions.
11. What's on your needles?
This is always a tricky one for me. I think 3 shawls, at least 2 pairs of socks, my mitered square blanket, a sweater, ummmm...good lord. I can even keep thinking about this!
12. Favorite colors?
Deep...I guess they call them jewel colors on the hip blogs. Purples, Reds, Greens, Blues.
13. Allergies?
No food allergies. Though I'm a vegetarian. No mystery meat in a tube Slim-Jims! Ick.
14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest?Um, I really like to knit. And I really like coffee. Heehee!

Finished Object Friday (Recycling!) AND KMKS!

This is a post in which my cat attempts to act like Chaos and Mayhem. I can only guess that he must be jealous of their bloggy notoriety because usually, he is completely disinterested in me and everything I do. But when I received my package from by KMKS pal, Jodie, he was all over it. Here are the contents as I pulled them out of the box:

Look at that great bag!! Me likey the greens! And pumpkin knows there is something interesting inside.

"This part of the package is definitely for the cat in the house."

Look at that! Beautiful wool, hand dyed by Jodie herself! It's absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to cast on the mittens. The pattern she sent are some great, long cabled fingerless mitts. I think the yarn is absolutely perfect for the pattern! (I'll post a link to the pattern...I left it at home in my early morning grog.)

Jodie also sent some lovely smelling goodies:

And:

Cool huh? This is really a great little extra and I swear, I PROMISE, that I will attempt to not kill this lovely lavender plant within 2 weeks of starting it. Because the thrill of having lavender scenting my kitchen....oh so good! (But I must be honest...though I have kept a child alive for 8 years but, plants? I even killed a Christmas cactus if you can believe it.)

Thank you so much Jodie for the beautiful package!! And thanks to Scout and

(Dude. Blogger ate the rest of my post...What else did I say? Oh yeah....FOF)

Bev for organizing this great swap.

Okey-dokie. Here's the FO for the day:

What are those pieces of crap you are asking? Dishclothes. Made from a sweater that I ripped apart over Christmas. They aren't AS ugly as they look in the picture, but they are haphazard. Total utility crocheting...nothing fancy. I made them from a striped sweater and didn't even bother to trim the ends where the company had tied together the stripes. I love them though. They are the perfect size and they don't get smelling like other dishclothes, for some weird reason.

I actually have a pretty big obsession with recycling old sweaters. I had to tone it down for a while because the ripped up sweaters were totally overtaking my stash. But over Christmas? I binged. I bought 10 sweaters for $2 each at my sister's thrift store. I mean, come ON? How could I not? We all know how much yarn is in a sweater, right?? Two were for felting purposes only and you shall soon see some of it when my KMKS buddy gets her package. The others....are now overtaking my stash again! So I made a half-assed resolution to knit SOMETHING from a recycled sweater each month. At least ONE per month. Those dishclothes were January. February is almost done and WAY more beautiful.

Look at the pretty pictures.....

Since I don't seem to be back in full swing blogging mode yet, I present you with a day of pretty pictures. One of these things is not like the other....can you tell which?

The return of the lunches #1



Or breakfast in this case. Egg salad with tiny little toasts, and grape tomatoes. The right side is a fruit salad with clementines, strawberries, and kiwi. I got this nifty little lunch box at a dollar store while in NY. I guess its technically a "tiffin", but I'm no expert as the lunch box classification. All I know...it was ONE dollar and is the perfect size for breakfasts.
The return of the lunches #2

The left is a salad with romaine, snap peas, cucumber, carrots and grape tomatoes. The right is a clementine, almonds, cheddar cheese and parmesean ranch ressing for the salad. I finally got to the farmer's market yesterday and good thing...all that was previously in my fridge was a bendy carrots and some drippy lettuce! Yumyum!

The return of the lunches #3

Little A's lunch which I made in front of her and she was VERY excited about. The left is 2 peanut butter sandwiches on baguette, a little cup of trail mix, a chocolate, and sliced cucumber. That little white thing? A tiny little packet of salt for the cucumbers. The right container is a the same fruit salad as above. Little A was jumping around at the prospect of this lunch.

The coming of the bird...

Isn't this insanely cute? I participated in the B-List Blogger's Ornament exchange organized by Mignon this year. I received this beautiful knitted birdy from Arabella from a frantic USPS man on December 22nd around 4:30pm. Isn't it lovely? Thank you Arabella! I'm sorry I didn't post about it sooner....I suck at blogging lately!

And that's it for today. Stay tuned for more clearing out of the 2006 blogging closet.