I'm alive, I swear (warning: photo heavy)

Wow, I am a bad, bad blogger. This blog post is WAY overdue. Sorry! I am going to have to post this very late at night since this is the only time I ever have to get on the internet.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I'll start from the beginning.

First, unfortunately, we lost our dear sweet kitty Jack.

 

Jack has had problems since day one and is extremely fortunate to have found Jess. I really don't know who else would have put up with him. Don't get me wrong, he was very sweet and a cozy cuddler who would always sit in one of our laps and we loved him to pieces. It's just his bladder and allergy problems got out of control and we finally had to face the fact that he was miserable and probably uncomfortable 99.9 % of the time. We loved him and didn't want him to suffer anymore. We will always cherish the 10 years we got to spend with him. R.I.P. my sweet pain in the ass. We love you.

As promised, here are some photos from our Halloween. The theme this year was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It blows my mind that some people have never seen this movie. It's one of my favorites!

Here we have my sweet little Legendary Black Beast of Aaaarrrggghhh!

 Here is Jesse setting up the Knights of Ni!

 Here's a close up of the Knights of Ni!

 Even closer...

 Ni!

 We made sure to bring them a shrubbery.

Here is our Bridge of Death. It was very perilous.

 We had to have a Black Knight, of course.

 I think the highlight of our Halloween was that Jesse had a running loop of bits from the movie playing for the Knights of Ni and the Black Knight and as a jogger ran by the Black Knight, he said, "Oh, oh, I see! Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!" The jogger was heard laughing as he ran away. Love it :)

Here is our Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog .

 Scary, right? Jesse rigged him up so we pushed a button and he jumped up at you.

Here is the bridge keeper.

 Bridge of Death again at night.

 Our yard wouldn't be complete without a grail...

(Bad, naughty Zoot)

 Our Halloween party wouldn't be even half as good if it weren't for these wonderful people.

 Not only do they always come up with great costumes every year, Sir Robin and his minstrels (a.k.a. Jesse's brother Tyler and his cousins Drew and Kate) make the best homemade donuts for us all. I love them so much.

Here I am (she's a witch!) and Jess.

We had a blast and hope Sam did too, even though he had no clue what was going on. I think we picked a great first Halloween costume. I wanted something other than a peanut or any of the other overly used infant costumes. 

I think I have his (and my) costume(s) picked out for next year already.

Also, I would like to add how amazing my husband is. We were under the impression that this year wouldn't be up to our usual Halloween yard standards since we couldn't spend much money this year and didn't have a whole lot of time, but somehow Jesse pulled it off. And it turned out amazing. Drew and I were pretty skeptical when Jess told us about his Bridge of Death idea, but when he started building it I was just blown away. Not to mention envious of his ingenuity and creativity. I am thoroughly convinced he can do anything. If only he could get a job that utilized these skills...

Thanksgiving was pretty low key, although we had two or three of them and I ended up getting the stomach flu and was only able to eat a small portion of mashed potatoes :(

Christmas was pretty fun, despite the usual hurried-traveling-to-each-house-thing and Sam missing his afternoon nap. He did very well and I am proud of him. I must say, Christmas on my side of the family is definitely more fun with a little one to celebrate with.

Gus even got in the spirit.

Unfortunately we are now a one-income family since, if I were to get a job, I would only be working to pay for a babysitter or daycare and therefore I would rather stay home and raise my son myself. I make a little money here and there through my Etsy shop, but not enough. And Jesse makes just enough for us to keep our house. Usually. Sigh. Needless to say, I was having a very hard time buying Christmas presents since the only things I buy anymore are baby food and gas for my car. And since I don't bring in the money, I feel super guilty buying myself anything anymore.

So, I ended up making a majority of the presents I gave out. It took forever and I was working like a mad woman.

Here's what I made for my sister-in-law.

 I used the images from this book. 

My Mom asked for potholders since she burned hers. I made her this.

The other side.

 And this.

 The other side.

I found the pattern for these here.

I made my Aunt a dishcloth and dishtowel.

 And potholders.

Whew! I feel very tired but, strangely enough, very satisfied. Handmade gifts are the best :)

I even had time to make a cherry pie for my friend's birthday and a pecan pie and pear pie with gruyere baked into the crust for Christmas (I was channeling my inner Chuck. How dare they cancel Pushing Daisies after only two seasons), with the help of my wonderful husband who kept the little one busy so I could bake, and also wrapped all the presents for me. I don't know what I would do without him.

Now I plan to get down to business and start designing patterns to sell in my shop. I am really trying hard to bring in more money for my family, and really hope to make my little home business a lucrative business. It would be my dream job!

We'll see how that goes with an eight-month old...

I am dreadfully unorganized so that means I might go awhile without blogging or leaving my house. Don't worry, if that happens it just means I am being productive! Or that Sam is keeping my extra busy.

 This one is a little blurry, but still cute. He loves his ugly doll.

Times may be tough, tougher than I have ever experienced before, but my babies make it all worth it. Especially when I wake up to things like this.

Oh, and I am excited because my cousin got me this book for Christmas:

Holy crap I want to make EVERYTHING in this book!! And I plan on it, assuming I can find the time (and the yarn). Why do all these books always suggest the most expensive yarn??? And you always need like fifty skeins of it too. How do these people afford it? I'm just hoping I can find yarn in my own stash that will work.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and a wonderful (and safe) New Years Eve! I will leave you with our family Christmas card (if only we could have gotten the dog and cat in there).

Autumn goodies and early Christmas goodies

It definitely has been feeling like Autumn around here. I've been enjoying my husband's ginger pumpkin bisque.

 

This is the third day in a row that I've been eating it and it is still just as yummy as ever.

I've been knitting up a tiny garden of pumpkins:

 

I have no idea what I am going to do with them but they are adorable.

I have also been perusing my favorite blogs to get inspiration. One of them is called A Beautiful Mess by Elsie Larson (formerly Elsie Flannigan) and found a cute tutorial for garlands. 

The one that caught my eye was the pom-pom garland. I just happened to have four different sized pom-pom makers and decided to make a garland for our window. Here's my version:

 Unfortunately, the pictures aren't that great but you get the idea.

I am trying trying to get some Christmas stuff made before December despite the nagging feeling that Christmas needs to wait until after Thanksgiving. But it's ok because people need time if they are going to make their Christmas decorations ;)

Anyway, I made a Christmas tree skirt!

 It's almost like a granny square blanket.

I am thinking of posting the pattern for sale on Etsy. 

When I actually get our Christmas decorations up, I will take pictures. I am making a home made Christmas this year, meaning all our decorations (except for lights of course) are handmade.

I have a very cute helper to help me get all this stuff done:

I think he might need some handmade decorations himself ;) I'll get right on that.

Anyway, I have more Christmas ideas in the making and will try to get them out as soon as possible. I am, however, going to visit my Mom's side of the family in Arizona next week and am considering closing the store just for a short while, but I'm not sure yet. I just know I am not going to be able to send out anything until the 28th of November.

Before you robbers out there get any funny ideas, my husband is not going with me to Arizona so he will be there to protect my house. As so will my ferocious guard dog, Gus (see picture above) and my security system, of course.

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I am thankful for my wonderful readers, my friends and family, the chance to try and be my own boss and for the special gift that's coming to us next year (sorry, it's a surprise) ;)

If you can, leave me a note and let me know what you think about the tree skirt! Thanks everyone! 

Happy Holidays!

All work and no play makes Cori a sad panda

Not much new on the crafting front because I've been working on nothing but the flowers for my wedding. I'm getting close to being done, though. I have about two and a half bouquets left to make and five boutineers (which involves just one flower), so I'm almost done!!! YAY!!!!

Here's what I have done so far:

It's my little crocheted garden.

But I've decided to take a teeny break because of the upcoming holiday, "Hallowmas" (read previous entry for details).

I've managed to make a deal with a few people (who are also hurting for money) that we will not get eachother anything for Christmas (as all you traditional Christmasy people call it) and just enjoy eachother's company, the way it's supposed to be.

As for the rest of my peoples, I have no freakin' clue what to do. Except for one. And I don't think she will read this so it's probably okay to share. But just in case:

***WARNING FOR RACHEL SLISKO***

Do not read this or it will ruin the surprise!

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Ok, I think it's safe now.

She likes the show "Firefly" and the movie they made based off of it, "Serenity," and I just happened to find this:

It's a "Serenity Illusion Scarf"!!! Yay!!! Illusion scarves are awesome because if you just look at it straight on, it just looks like stripes, but if you look at it from the side (like on the picture), you can see a hidden picture. I made a similar one for myself with alien heads. Here's where you can find the pattern for the "Serenity Illusion Scarf":

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=ddc3xndf_0dz359fgx or

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phP32_Qt6sw8SHZZf4lwcVw

It's nice to be able to knit for a change. I was starting to get crochet-ed out, if that's possible.

As for my sanity, it's starting to wear thin. I think I need to bake something. Maybe this weekend.

I'm having a hard time getting out of this lazy mode that I got into when Jess and I went to Arizona for Thanksgiving. The only thing I could work on out there was the illusion scarf, and I can only work on that for so long. It doesn't help that I'm not feeling really well right now. Oh well. It'll pass.

I was really glad I got to go this year. It's nice to be able to see family that you haven't seen in years. Jess and I have been together almost ten years and the only family on my Mom's side that he's gotten to meet (prior to Thanksgiving) was my Grandma and my Uncle Kent and Aunt Gail.

Here's Kent picking on me:

This time he got to meet two of my cousins, Josh and Shane, and my Uncle Curt. We both got to meet Shane's new wife, Roxanie (sometimes Shane calls her Roxie).

From left: Roxie, Curt, Shane, and Josh.

We had a lot of fun and ate a lot. Curt is hilarious and kept us all entertained. He's missing part of his pinky finger, so he's able to do this and make it look real:

My Dad took Jess and I to the Arboretum. It was beautiful there:

It was fun, but it's always good to come back home.

But it's hard to get out of that lazy mode. There is so much that I need to get done but all I want to do is play videogames and be lazy. Oh well, I get there eventually.

I better get some work done. Have a good day!!

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.' - Lewis Carroll

I have been inspired by a five-year-old's birthday party.

I came across this the other day:http://www.jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?postID=134

That is the cutest thing I have ever seen! It makes me want to kidnap a small child and throw her a birthday party. But I won't, I promise.

Unfortunately, I don't have a child and all the little ones in my life are of the male persuasion. But I can always combine an "Alice In Wonderland"-esque element with my home made wedding. Why not, I have some Harry Potter elements in there too.

I don't want to go too overboard, though. It can't be too girly because it is Jess's wedding too. I still want to stick with the purple and green theme (or rather lavender and sage), but maybe add a tea party in there with some finger sandwiches and other treats. Jess likes tea. Maybe some cookies that say, "Eat Me."

Hmmm... That sounds bad.

Okay then, the beverages will say "Drink Me." That's better, right?

I've been on the lookout for different shaped tea pots (hopefully in my color scheme) and cheap bone china-looking tea cups online and at thrift stores. As long as I can get a few teacups for decoration, I'll be happy. It would be nice to have a lot of tea cups for an actual tea party but, call me crazy, I have a feeling that most people would rather drink alcohol than tea.

If only I could have a petting zoo! Awwww! That would be awesome to have little rabbits, pigs, and sheep running around. Damn. Maybe for my birthday ;)

In the process of trying to get ideas, I've been reading up on the "Alice" books and also the author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson a.k.a. Lewis Carroll. It's pretty interesting stuff if you've got some time to kill: http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/.

Contrary to popular belief, Lewis Carroll was not on drugs when he wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," he just had an overactive imagination. And I was interested to find out that "Alice" is based off of one of Charles Dodgson's favorite "child friend" as he was fond of calling them. He made up the story as a way to entertain Alice and her sisters.

Anyway, I'm starting to get more and more busy at work. Not as much time to do wedding planning. The receptionist has left and I have taken over for her. There is so much that she should have shown me. It's kind of scary. And she's not very good at explaining things.

I was having a lot of trouble trying to figure out the pattern for the "I Do" shrug and might try this instead:

From the book:

Lace Style
by Pam Allen and Ann Budd

http://www.amazon.com/Lace-Style-Traditional-Innovative-Inspired/dp/1596680288/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221588413&sr=8-1

I probably won't need long sleeves in June anyway. This is so much easier to knit. And I'm using bamboo yarn which I've never used before. It's so soft! Yay!

I bought some Alice in Wonderland playing cards that have the original illustrations by John Tenniel and some quotes from the book. I'll have to figure out some way to incorporate them in the decorations.

I have made an inspiration board. Some of it are things that I have already done and some things are just what I would like to incorporate. It's an easy way to kind of give people and idea of what you were thinking for your wedding theme. It's pretty random, I know, but I like it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26415444@N07/2889780133/

I might go to a yarn store in Arvada on Saturday. There is going to be a crochet designer there named Robyn Chachula who will be teaching a class. I am excited to meet her because she's designed some pretty cool things, like my favorite shrug:

Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution

by Kim Werker

http://www.amazon.com/Crochet-Me-Designs-Fuel-Revolution/dp/159668044X

I have almost finished a pair of leg warmers, so I'll have to take a picture of them when I am finished. I also want to start on a crocheted skirt.

So much I want to do and not enough time to do it. I should just quit my job and become a full time designer. That would be freaking awesome. Too bad it could never work out. Oh well. Back to knitting and crocheting on my lunch hour and after work.

Tonight I think I'll paint me some tea pots. And take pictures, because I really need to get my save the dates (std - hee hee) done.