Christmas and birthday fun.

Did you hear it was Christmas last week?  DID YOU HEAR THAT?

Considering how stressed out I was that I didn't get anything I wanted to get finished, finished, the man and I had an excellent Christmas this year.  Jesse and I made out with some great gifts, including these new gems for Jesse from my folks:

To which Bracken came over last night and told Brittney: "I want those.  No, I want those exact ones."  So, to Mom and Dad: well played.

Then late Christmas night (also early birthday morning), I opened up my presents from Jesse for my birthday.  He got me the most AMAZING interchangeable knitting needle set (what am I, 60?) and a TWENTY FIVE DOLLAR skein of yarn for making myself a pair of socks.  It's so delicious and amazing, and a huge step above my usual "We're going to Michael's to buy 2 skeins of $4 yarn and you have to use a 40% off coupon and buy one for me and go down the other cashier's aisle."

So my birthday day rolls around and I had the greatest idea of going roller skating with my friends.  I won't go too into detail of how much fun we had, but I'll share the only photos Jesse had on his phone.  One "during" and a few "after" photos:

Yes that's right, there was a picture of me in a sling at the Spaghetti Factory from Monday night.  Roger was also there (pictured), but more importantly, I'M IN A SLING.  I can build it up all I want online, but really it didn't hurt at all, I just couldn't move it more than 6 inches.  The picture of my elbow is from this morning.  Which, this is where I give a big thumbs up to my left hand.

Left Hand, I've always treated you badly.  I've always said you were no good to me except to hold things so Right Hand could poke at them.  But you really stepped it up this week while the other arm was on vaca.  Thanks, Left Hand.  I know when I can finally extend the other arm all the way, I'll probably forget about you all over again, but know that we had a very special week together.  And can you believe what Right Hand said at that party?  She made a fool of herself!

CHRISTMASTIME IS HERE.

Let's start off with some Santa:  http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=233

That poor little Santa.  Do you see his scrawny little legs getting squished?  We went there with my sister and bro-in-law and kids.  After we had our photo taken we went to Macy's where they had a station for you to mail your letters to Santa.  Even us adults filled them out, but I got a lot of flack because I put my return address on it.  While they may have just been casually writing a letter to Santa for fun, I had a bone to pick with him and welcome a rebuttal back in the mail.  On our last meeting, I asked Santa for a life size Barbie so we could share clothes (they were all the rage when I was a kid).  His reply was, "I don't think they make them as big as you."  Granted, I was 13, but that's no way to tell a growing girl she's not getting what she wants for Christmas.  And who knows, maybe the elves have a little something going on that could meet my current life size Barbie needs.

CAUGHT! And chalkboards.

I got caught adjusting my bra this morning by one of the shop guys (I avoided eye contact and went the long way back to my desk to avoid walking past him) and then my boss walked out of her office when I had my index finger up my right nostril picking a winner.  Today has been exciting indeed.

So I finished these a while ago:

But that picture really sucks, so here's a closeup:

I finished them, then they sat in the back bedroom for a really, really long time while Jesse constantly asked me where I was going to put them (why must he insist on me actually completing a project?  Ridiculous, right?) and kept saying "let's put them on the cupboards" like that was such a good idea.  If I remember correctly, he then put it up and forced me to see that they looked good there.  So I asked my dad to help me rig them up there, and he gave me some 15 year old (no exaggeration) double sided tape that he promises won't rip off the paint whenever we remove them.

"I'm Jesse!  I'm a little cutie pie!  BE FEARFUL OF THE REDBEARD."  Isn't he cute?  He puts the dishes away while I stand around and take photos.  So obedient.

So after I made said chalkboards (which, btw, the boards themselves were under $2 a piece and the paint was like $6, with lots left over.  More on my craftster), I needed an eraser.  And I wanted ones like I had growing up in school (YES KIDS THEY ACTUALLY USED TO USE CHALKBOARDS IN SCHOOLS, WEIRD RIGHT? What is this, the 1800's when Judi was born?).  Turns out, nobody sells those anymore (1800's) and all you can buy is a piece of styrofoam with a minuscule strip of felt on it.  My mom's friend Lynn (click the link, it's good I promise) makes these cute little erasers for some of my mom's miniature chalkboards so I had her make me some in the likeness of Cinnamon & Suki.  No, I am not obsessed with my cats.  I just think that everything they do is precious and I need to take a picture of it RIGHT NOW.  Hey, I don't have kids, so sue me.

And OMIGOSH cute!  They turned out AWESOME.  That picture doesn't do them justice.  She kept the sides the color of the wood and didn't charge me an exhorbant amount to make them.  I mean, $60 a piece wasn't exhorbant, was it?  Okay good, I was getting nervous for a second there.  I'M KIDDING, mom, calm down.

Cleavage Caddy, poop, the usual.

Today I checked my email to see this from Brittney:

Subject:  concerned

katie, you haven't pooped since the 4th. you okay?

Ahh, to know my friends care.  It means a lot.

As some of you may know, a while ago I started twittering my bowel movements.  All in all, I'm not a big fan of twitter.  I don't care that you're getting coffee or that you're tired.  But I do care that you are regular.  I started to hold out on twittering because hey, do people really care?  Do they?  Even though "Doctor Colon" started following me, I wasn't sure he cared.  But thank you Brittney, for showing me that you really do.  I shall start right back up again with my next poop.

Another little gem sent to me from Brittney was this:  http://www.cleavagecaddy.com/mazantri-cleavage-caddy.html  Anybody who has been out in public with me a few times knows I'm anti-purses.  Jesse doesn't carry a purse (probably for the best), why should I?  And since women's jeans companies have a little competition to see who can make the smallest pockets and still have women buy their jeans (I'M ON TO YOU GUYS), the bra is the next most logical place.  Okay, a purse is, but you know where I'm going with this.  Unfortunately they are only carrying medium and large in the Cleavage Caddy, but once they start carrying the "dear Lord, how do you ever find bras that fit" size, sign me up.

Crafts, crafts and more crafts.

I finished these a while ago, but have I mentioned I'm horribly lazy?  I may have been too lazy to tell you about it.  Maybe later.

These were the first glove-type project that I have knit (so far just hats for me, and a very, very lonely sock).  They were really fun and look awesome with my orange sweater, which I'm sure you were concerned about. It's imperative to have something that matches these.

And then I made these "advent boxes" to fill with goodies for Jesse. 

They're mostly filled with Hershey's kisses (which he will dutifully eat after all the painting I did for these guys) but a couple of other surprises too.  And considering it's already the 4th of December, he has already discovered what those other surprises are.  Now back to Hershey's kisses.  And they look great on our $25 armoir:

And, as always, these are listed on my Craftster page as well.  http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=163582;sa=showTopics