Fun stuff that you can only do when it is really cold outside

So there are really cool and fun wintery things that can only be done when it is really cold outside. The first one is blowing bubbles. Yeah, I know, you can blow bubbles anytime. Have you ever gone outside when it is freezing cold to blow bubbles? It is really cool to watch them freeze and then shatter. Seriously, you should give it a try if you are somewhere cold. Especially if you have kids to do it with.
One of the other cold wintery things I love are ice luminaries. Basically you take a large container (like a large ice cream bucket), fill it with water, and set it out to freeze. You don't want it to freeze all the way as that will crack the container. Let it freeze long enough to create a thick wall of ice (how long depends on the container, how cold it is, etc.). Then you break the top layer of ice and dump out the water inside and carefully remove your ice from the container. You should have an ice shell that you can now put a candle in. You can make different sizes based on how big of a container you use. You can also add food coloring or items to the ice. I will put up some pictures after I get some made, but in the mean time you can find some (and more instructions if you want) by doing Google search. Oh, you can put your container in a freezer if you want, but if you are where it is cold they will last for weeks outside.

Swap packages

I have received a couple of swap packages this week. The first on was from Natalie for the Hand Dyed Yarn Swap. She sent me very pretty blue and orange yarn she dyed, along with a notebook, a Grow a Pet, tissues, and Andes. As you can see, everything new still needs inspecting!
The second package was from Jane for the WhoDuKnit Holiday swap. This swap was to send a holiday ornament, a holiday themed book, treat, and recipe. She sent all that plus some! She actually sent a whole magazine of recipes and several cute knit animal ornaments, as well as a knitting magazine and some note cards. The best Christmas treat was the personalized note cards she made. I was totally wowed and might have to order more from her!

 

Happy Dance!

So the doorbell has rung twice already today, and it hasn't even been the postman. The first time was the DHL guy with Hubband's new monitor. No happy dance for that, at least as far as I am concerned, but I know he was pretty happy about it.
The second doorbell ring was the FedEx guy bringing us potatoes. That is a major Happy Dance box in my book. Fresh Idaho potatoes! Having grown up in the major potato growing area of Idaho, I tend to be a bit picky about where the russets on my table come from, and how old they are. (BTW, if you were eating Idaho russets in September, they were a year old.) Yep, I am fairly easy to please.
So I suppose you are wondering why these have shown up here on our doorstep. We didn't order them and no one in our families sent them to us. They were a gift from some Boy Scouts, to Hubband and DTY. Something about rescuing the Boy Scout's stuff in a rainstorm last summer while backpacking. I'll see if I can get Hubband to write up the story here for you folks. It is a good dead paid back in yummy food. Guess what we are having for dinner tonight? (Yes, everything has to be inspected. I just didn't catch Simon and Sadie giving the box the once over.)

This is a quick picture of one of the tings I did with myself on Saturday. French Onion Soup Bread ready to go into the oven.
FOSB and Multi-grain bread cooling after hanging out in the toasty oven.
More to come soon! (More kitten updates, more dog updates, more yarn and knitting updates. Yep, in general more.)
Oh, and thanks so much for all the wonderful Happy Birthday wishes! I loved them all!

A Singed Cat

Nope, not Oribel, me! This was from the "New Word Page-A-Day Calender" I was using some years ago. I thought it was a very cool word for me, on my birthday! I mean, it could have been used for any other day of the year, but it wasn't. At the time I had a ten-year-old, a seven-year-old, a five-year-old, and I was in college. I wasn't always convinced my appearances would indicate great quality, but what did I know? My calender knew and told me otherwise. Well, so did Hubband, but I have always thought he might be a little biased.

How does your cat wake you up?

So, for the second or third morning in a row, Miss Orebel has decided she doesn't like stuff on our headboard. Either that or she thinks this is a good way to wake us up in the morning. She has taken to walking the length of the headboard, stopping to look at stuff as she goes. Picture of DTE, "Whack," onto the floor it goes. Step, step, picture of DTY, "Whack," onto the floor it goes. Step, step, box of Kleenex, "Whack," onto the floor it goes, "Oh, wait, it ran into the wall. Whack, onto the bed it goes then." Step, step, "Oh, a lamp!" Scoop, and out the door the cat goes. If she had chosen this behavior at something later than 5:30 or so on Sunday morning it might not have been so bad.
Today it was started at the other end, skipping the lamp, knocking something else off onto the floor, walking through the box of Kleenex and taking a bit to get unstuck. Then it was on to the picture of DTY and the floor, but DTE's picture got whacked onto my head, then carried quickly to the floor to play with under the bed. After that it was onto the dresser-top to play with my bracelets and I just knew the earrings were next. So it was, "Scoop, and out the door the cat goes." Of course, then she tried to did her way back in and cried and cried outside the door. Today she waited until 6 am. After Hubband got up and fed her breakfast she was all sweet and cuddly-sleepy next to me again. Silly kitten.

Advent Update

I was doing one of my several my daily check on Ravelry, and found a couple of interesting things I thought I would share.
First off, here was a really cool link for an online Advent Calender. Each day's symbol has interesting meditations, family activities, music and such things linked to it.
JenniPMcD at Ravelry's "Into the Labryknit" forum has posted several things about Advent that I found to be very well said and reflected how I feel about this season of waiting and preparing. For the First day (Sunday) of Advent she posted this meditation

In my life, Advent is the perfect example of being mindful and meditating. We are expected to wait and prepare. We reflect and open our hearts. What can you hear if you listen with your heart?

I personally will be doing my best to listen all season with my heart.

Jenni also posted this suggestion for a "mindful" meditation:

For any knit stitches, the word you use, either mentally or verbally, if you like, is "wait". If you crochet, I think a single crochet should work for this.
For any purl stitches, the word is "listen". If you crochet, perhaps double crochet may work for this.
For spinners. If you single treadle, use "wait". If you double treadle, use "listen".
Do this for some time. When you feel so led, come back here and let us know how this worked for you. Tell us how you used it, how you learned, what you learned, how it guided you, etc. Also, good and/or not-so-good responses are acceptable. The whole point of this is to see what works and what doesn't.

If one were so inclined, I am sure they could find similar actions in their everyday life that they could substitute for the fiber related actions. Feel free to discuss here what you think and if you try it, how it works for you. You can substitute some other word for an action that is more appropriate to your life situation.

The last thing I will quote her on is what she posted as an explanation of what "mindful" can mean, or be described as (she found it on beliefnet).

To understand mindfulness, imagine yourself doing something very simple, something that doesn't arouse a compelling interest--like, say, eating an apple. You probably eat your apple not paying attention to how it smells, how it tastes, or how it feels in your hand. Because of the ways we're conditioned, we don't usually notice the quality of our attention. Done this way, eating the apple is not a fulfilling experience.
So you blame the apple. You might think, if only I had a banana, I'd be happy. So you get a banana, but eat it the same way, and still there's not a lot of fulfillment. And then you think, if only I had a mango--and go to great expense and some difficulty getting a mango. But it's the same thing all over again. We don't pay attention to what we have or what we're doing. As a result, we seek more and more intensity of stimulation to try to rectify what seems unfulfilling.
So, are you being mindful of YOUR apple?

That's it for now, but maybe this is a bit of insight into why I love Advent so much.

Happy New Year!

So, did I get your attention? I bet some (maybe a lot) of you figure you have now had your suspicions on my sanity confirmed. I want to assure you that I am not crazy or out of touch with the calender. However, it is the beginning of an all new year. Today is the First Sunday of Advent, and in the Western Liturgical Calendar we start a new year. We are starting Year A in a three year Sunday cycle. (The Sunday years are A, B, and C. Our new weekly year is Year 2, of a two year cycle. Just in case anyone was wondering, or forgot where we were.)
I have always loved Advent . It is a time of joyful hope and expectation. It is also a time of waiting in the now, learning and re-learning patience. I do my best to live fully into the Advent season and I find that when I do that, I don't seem to have much "Christmas stress." Christmas is still a whole season away, and then it will last for twelve days. Tons of time to enjoy everything and not worth stressing over. If I am stressing, then I am not being present in the moment. I want to live in the now. Well, this is how I try to live my life most days, but I pay extra attention to it during Advent.
Just as a question, if any one else out there starts the New Year today, did you have Black-Eyed Peas in honor of it? Or do you follow more than one calender as I do, and have them on January first?

I got nothing

OK folks, I have no idea why Blogger is doing the "click on the picture to see it bigger" thing different than usual. Hubband can't figure it out either. Yeah, I know Jessie, go WordPress.
I will see what I can come up with, but I think I am going to go knit first.

Family sharing all the way across the country

So I walk past my computer and glance at the sidebar where I have current weather conditions for home and where each of the girls are at school. I was expecting the snow icon for here, and for Duluth, but Portland? So I looked it up and this is what I found:

Wunderground Portland
Forecast for Greater Portland Metro Area
Updated: 10:57 am PST on December 1, 2007
Snow Advisory in effect until 6 PM PST this afternoon...
[snow]
Today
Snow...possibly changing to rain south part of the Portland Metro area in the afternoon. New snow accumulation around an inch with 1 to 3 inches possible above 500 to 1000 feet. Highs 35 to 40. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph.
Tonight
Rain...except areas of snow north and east of downtown Portland in the evening. Breezy. Local snow accumulations 1 or 2 inches. Lows around 35. Southeast wind 15 to 25 mph.

Here at home:
Wunderground Rochester
Forecast for Olmsted
Updated: 11:43 am CST on December 1, 2007
Winter Storm Warning in effect until 6 am CST Sunday...
[snow]
This Afternoon
Snow early in the afternoon...changing over to sleet. May mix with freezing rain late. Brisk. Snow may be heavy at times early in the afternoon. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches. New ice accumulation of up to one quarter of an inch. Highs in the mid 20s. Southeast winds 20 to 25 mph with gusts to around 40 mph.

DTE's school city:
Wunderground Duluth
Duluth's weather:
Winter Storm Warning in effect until 12 PM CST Sunday...
[snow]
This Afternoon
Snow. New snow accumulation of 3 to 6 inches. Highs 18 to 23. Southeast winds 10 to 20 mph.
Tonight
Snow. Snow accumulation of 4 to 7 inches. Total snow accumulation 8 to 13 inches. Lows 15 to 20. East winds 10 to 20 mph becoming north 10 to 15 mph early in the morning.


So for the most part we all get to share the same weather. Lucky DTE gets to miss the freezing rain on top of snow. Oh, and we might just need to do something about the weather stripping on the garage door.

WOOT

Row 1135 out of 1140! I will be done knitting tomorrow and then I get to do tassels! I have decided not to mail it 'cause I would not want it to cross paths with DTY on her way home from school. Pictures soon!