Peanut & Purls: Bo Peep Scarf

I'm still trying to catch up on all the fancy projects that I knit (or might still be knitting, hey Christine!). This week I wanted to show you Monika's little Bo Peep scarf from Tiny Owl Knits.

Home & Away: Recipes into tea towels

When I have some free time, there's really nothing I love more than working on a project at home. Get ready, you get to see more of my cat and my house. Win!

Peanut & Purls: Woodland shawl

Now that second Christmas is over, I can reveal what I've been working on! Unfortunately it's not finished yet, but Christine is a very patient person, and she'll have her wrap soon enough.

It would be spiteful to put a jellyfish in to a trifle

This is my friend Jim. We met on the plane when I was flying home for second Christmas. He was also flying home for second Christmas. We had a lovely enchanted flight and are now thick as thieves.

Photo entitled, "Baby 'n Me"

This is not a real baby, it is a doll. Sadly it is not his doll, it belongs to another. I believe it's one of those training babies, it must be because someone had it at work. Still when I think of that it doesn't sound right because having a real baby at work isn't appropriate so basically someone is practicing how to be a bad parent. Most adults workplaces aren't baby friendly and quite frankly I would complain so hard if I had to deal with a baby at work. Get a pretend babysitter already. 

Here are some things you should know about Jim:

1. He really likes the dog whisperer, lucky for Olive and Lucca
2. He frequently has dreams featuring Snoop D-oh-double-G
3. Like me he does not like to go out after dark or drive in the dark
4. He is in 'the industry' 
5. He enjoys radio broadcasts and podcasts
6. Ben and I are smitten with him, though he apparently doesn't have a favorite between the two of us, as he put it yesterday, "One's as good as the other". 

There are a lot of other things that are great to know about Jim, but you'll just have to wait and uncover 

his haunting mysteries and sparkling majesties yourself.

SUCCULENTS & CATS!

I know sounds like a pretty wild Friday night.  I took succulent inventory of the house and accomplished some much needed repotting and organizing.  Don't fret--I documented the whole thing! Hold on to your knickers.

The whole shebang.

This is a little planter (with a bird on it). Christine got me this for  (second) Christmas.

Notice anything missing?

Oh, that's right my entire succulent mysteriously broke the other day...

I wonder who could have done such a thing?

She cleaning up because she's so bad she had to be sprayed with water.

This wasn't even staged.  Once upon a time a succulent lived in this pot.

Until a bad Peanut came along and grabbed it in her mouth.

Kitts and I agreed it was best she keep her distance for the rest of the evening.

This is a new pot of succulents from one of my master succulents.

Another off-shoot.

I reused a coffee cup that broke for this succulent.

More replants.

The master of all succulents.

 Bird planter with plants! Imagine that.

The best cat at Glass Ave.

She's so dainty!

I even found some new place to put succulents.

And it lived happily ever after...(hopefully).

Weekend in Tacoma

I meant to post this on Tuesday, but it definitely takes a couple days for me to crawl back into the wintry heart of my life in Spokane. That's sort of dismal, right? Sorry. Things at work have not been stellar of late--is it possible that two jobs could synchronize their awfulness and dump it on one person over the course of two weeks? Probably.


Enough of that. I ate some gift chocolate today--the absurdly delicious candy bar I referenced in my pre-weekend post. It had bits of almonds and just a hint of cinnamon. It was like an instant shot of bliss. Where was I going with this? Oh, I honestly have no idea. The chocolate was good--that's my point.

I had big plans for the weekend--a bonfire in the pasture at Mom's (with veggie dogs and smores) and a walk along the recently opened boardwalk through the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, but alas, the Pacific Northwest weather did not cooperate. Mom and I ended up making dark chocolate smores in the microwave (a poor substitute for a bonfire) and then we ate them together, standing in the kitchen. We also looked at bunches of old photos, many of which must never--NEVER--be seen by anyone outside of the family (and in this instance, family means Mom, me, Monika, and Catherine. Sorry to the other family members.).

Here's a photo wrap-up for the weekend.

Mom baked these cookies for Valentine's Day. Hearts and planes?

We tromped around the pasture for a bit, while the horses
looked at us like, What the F are you doing?

Lots of ferns growing on trees.

Lots of sweet little fungi.

Lots of Pileated Woodpeckers hard at work.

Lots of tiny cones.

Lots of semi-mangy mushrooms. Mom found these hiding under a fallen tree (those woodpeckers again).

One baby black bear cub in a box.

One Second Christmas succulent terrarium coming home with me.

And bunches and bunches of wind turbines on the drive home. I know the complaints: that wind turbines kill birds, obstruct scenic vistas, and make a weird noise that people hate, but I still think they're kind of beautiful.

UPDATE

When I typed, "UPDATE," it reminded me of all those days I spent watching Unsolved Mysteries.  Sometimes when you would least expect it, there would be an update at the end of the segment.  It was always a really special day when you got an update on Unsolved Mysteries.  I wonder if that show is still on.  There were a few episodes that creeped me out big time.
This update is about crafts (duh).  I went ahead and found homes for some of my Christmas presents that dear sisters made me.  I shouldn't be doing this because I have a bunch of homework and some papers to write, but it seemed like something that should be taken care of tonight.
Without further ado...

Fox ribbon found a home clipped on my special aprons and potholders.

The "Catherine" banner is hanging in the spare bedroom.

These hand-drawn cards from Monika will get used soon...if you're lucky you might get one.

Christine was also nice enough to send me a St. Valentine's day present in the mail.  I received some lovely heart banners which you might recognize from this post. I decided to hang mine up pronto.  Valentine's day isn't too far away.

Ok now it's really time to go do some more homework.  Sigh.  I can't stop thinking about roadtrips, and for the record, I would give just about anything to be climbing the steps to Pompey's Pillar right now.

Truth.

The Cat of Second Christmas!

Catherine has Bruno in the bag.

I'm feeling a bit better, so I decided that it was high time for the very last of my Second Christmas posts. I believe Monika (and maybe Catherine) still has some post-Second Christmas posting to do, but as for me, this is it. I've decided to go out on the official Cat of Second Christmas (something I just made up right this second), which has to be Bruno Jenkins. Matilda stayed home in Spokane (happily, after the ordeal that was Real Christmas), Beatrix (aka: Bea, baby black bear, little black bowling ball) slept most of the time, and Peanut wasn't invited, so Bruno takes the title. Since Bruno has been mentioned several times in the blog, I should probably give a little background.

Bruno began his life with the Nicolai family in my household in Spokane, but after a visit with Mom (while I was away in New York and then caught in a terrible Spokane January from which I could not escape for several weeks), he became aTacoma resident. Now, I don't need to go over all the details of the story, but let me just say that when I came to retrieve Bruno, it quickly became apparent Mom was going to miss him way more than she was going to miss me, so he stayed. He's settled down quite a bit since living in Spokane--for instance, I'm fairly certain he no longer derives maniacal joy from breaking my things and biting me on the face. Thank goodness. Yup, in these past three years he's actually turned into quite the cuddle-bug...though he does still have his moments.

Here, Bruno fights a fake dog. You may also have noticed a little
something on the floor in the background. That is fake poo.
I had to log into my myspace account to get this picture, which
required that I remember my yahoo account information.
 Worth 20 minutes of password resetting? Totally.

Anyway, Bruno had a terrific time over the course of Second Christmas. Ribbons, paper, boxes, a tree to sleep under, and Monika (one of his favorite people). Sorry about the quality of the pictures; Bruno's a fast one, as you'll very soon see...

Packages and ribbons are no match for him.

And the succulent terrarium from Monika?

Bruno liked that, too.

Sweet little sleeper.