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007 - Snap A Dozen Days
It wasn't hard deciding what this month meant to me, vision. It's not often that a person can go from heavily nearsighted with an astigmatism to 20/15 vision. Even better than that, my newly perfect vision was a gift from my wonderful Buster who has always had perfect vision.
Would you like to know what else is great about better vision? All the wonderful things I have to look at...
I finished it!
I finally finished Bit's little artist book. It took a bit longer than Bug's because I did a good little bit of hand work on it. I designed the little bunny rabbit myself and then had to figure out how to get the pieces to work corredtly together to give it some depth. Then I appliqued it on by hand with tiny little stitches that I think came out pretty even, for me. I'm proud of it. bit hasn't seen it yet, but I hope she will like it.
It was so bright outside that I didn't realize that the book was closed crookedly until I came in and downloaded the pictures, but you get the idea.
Here are a few more pics just because I like them.
Don't you love the little french knot eye?
Ok, it's time for me to admit I have a problem. No, I'm not much of a drinker. I've never had any interest in cigarettes. The only crack I do is made my Rowan and has a soft mohair halo. So what is my problem? Small tins and packages of mints or other breath adjustment candies. I can't help myself, I keep buying more and more. They are everywhere in my house. I've even gotten Bitty hooked on these tiny bursts of flavor excitement.
See these? They are by the cell phone chargers and the plate we keep our keys on. That's Ice Breakers Sours and Altoids Dark Chocolate Dipped Cinnamon.
Then we have York Mini Mints by the "arts and craps".
By the hair stuff I have Old Navy Vanilla Mints.
In my knitting doodads bag you will find TicTac Bolds.
While rounding them all up I found that I had three containers of the little treats in my purse. No telling what you would find if you looked around in my car.
In two minutes of gathering this is what I found. 9 little containers. I'm sure there are more, if I were to really look everywhere.
See what I mean? It's crazy. To be perfectly honest though, I probably only eat one little candy a day. I don't do it because my breath is bad (though lately the prednisone eye drops have been making my mouth taste awful, isn't that gross?) I think it is mostly about trying the new little flavors and coveting all the cute little tins and things that they come in. I admit I have a problem, but I have no interest in giving up my addiction. I mean really, who am I gonna hurt? (yes, other than whoever accidently steps on the little buggers while they are still spread out on the floor like that)
While I am on the topic of things to put in my mouth I want to show you what I made for dinner the other night.
This is another recipe from Coconut & Lime and it was fabulous. Chinese eggplant with green beans and cellophane noodles. I didn't make it exactly to the recipe because 1. I have to have a ratio of half protein/ half carb so I added chicken to the recipe. 2. I didn't have cellophane noodles when I decided to whip this up from things in the fridge so it has rice noodles instead. Oh my goodness was it delicious.
From things you can eat, to things that look like food... I've made a cup cake hat. It was originally intended for Bitty who is the only family member who hasn't gotten a hand knit hat from me. I didn't have the correct white yarn though so the hat didn't work out for me all too well. The guage changed with the yarn I got for the top and it came out too small. Instead of frogging it I decided I would just send it off to a smaller head and start another for Bit.
This one is Patons Classic Merino on the bottom and will have the pink Cascade 220 on the top.
I've also started my Poppy. It's not a Poppy Along unless I'm knitting Poppy, so that's what I'm doing.
The Noro Cash Iroha is wonderful fun to knit with.
I'm sure you've seen the meme going around where someone gives you a letter and you come up with 10 (or maybe as many as you can?) words that start with that letter to talk about. Kristi shared some great words and pictures for the letter C so I asked for a letter of my own. She gave me the letter N and it has been HARD. I've made a start though. Let me know if you'd like a letter of your own.
N is for Nearsighted. Do you know what nearsighted is? Nearsighted is a fourth grader who can't see the chalkboard. Nearsighted is a teenager who tries as hard as she can to avoid wearing her glasses and then finds out that she has to have them to drive legally. Nearsighted is a mother of two who gets out of the shower to find her 2.5 year old holding what used to be U shaped like glasses and are now I shaped. Nearsighted is how I woke up Friday morning. Do you know what nearsighted isn't? Nearsighted isn't my eyes anymore. As of Saturday morning I now see 20/15. Better than my perfectly sighted husband!
N is also for Nails, as in fingernails. I've been a nail biter all my life. It's awful and I hate it. It is within my power to stop, I know that. I've done it several times before but somehow it always comes back. I'm in a nail biting phase now and I find that I have no idea when I am doing it. Time to start working on breaking the terrible habit again. Ugh.
N is for Nana too. When I say Nana, I don't mean my grandmother, I mean my Mother, Bob. Bob is Nana to my Girlies and she is a great one. When we moved from Tulsa back to Texas we had to leave Nana behind. It has been hard to be here without her but she visits us often and always brings wonderful things and we have a great time. You know that Nana you have who would do anything for you, always has a smile for you, never misses an important moment in your life? Well Bob is that Nana.
The last N I have for you today is New Car. If you've dropped by here recently you know that we've been shopping for a new car. Well we picked one. Actually, that leads me to another N, Nissan. We chose the Nissan Pathfinder out of the three we spent time with.
In the end it came down to two things, coolness factor, and luxury. None of the cars we looked at had great gas mileage so I couldn't use that to decide. The Volvo was very luxurious but it didn't have the thired row seat or DVD player the girls really wanted. The Pilot was nice but it didn't have the heated seats or the other nice little things and it also just wasn't as sleek and cool as the Pathfinder. So there is it, my new car.
I'll have more Ns when I can think of more. Thanks Kristi.
The third car we test drove for a couple of days was the Honda Pilot. I didn't get to take any pictures of the Pilot while it was here because it was cold and raining every day, so a pic from the Honda website will have to do. 
The first car we considered getting when we started discussing getting rid of my Element was a Pilot. I've had four cars in my life and two of them have been Hondas. Hondas are reliable, they're safe, and the hold their resale value like no other car on the road.
The thing we liked best about the Pilot while test driving it was the wide open feel inside. My Element is kind of like driving a room around, it's not closed in like a car at all. The Pilot wasn't far off from that. It has a huge windshield with tons of visibility. Lots of light gets in, you have more headroom and leg room than you could ever need, it seats 8. The things we didn't like were the way it drove and the way it looks. It has a good sized engine with lots of horse power (we weren't looking at anything with less than 144 hp) for getting around in Dallas traffic but it has a loosy goosy feel. The steering wasn't as tight as the Volvo and the Pathfinder and it just has a wiggly kind of feel to it when driving. That kind of thing is pretty easy to get used to once you are driving a car every day. Buster's biggest issue with it was that he was convinced that it looks just like a Minivan with more clearance. We don't have anything against minivans, we liked ours while we had it, but it wasn't what we were looking for with this purchase. The Pilot just doesn't stand out, looks-wise. 
After driving a car that looks like that for a few years it's hard to move to something boring, you know what I mean?
So we really did like all three of the cars we test drove and it was VERY hard to decide which one we wanted to keep, but we did decide. Tune into my next post to see which one we picked.
I didn't get to finish Bitty's artist book yesterday because I had both kids home.
We woke up and looked outside to find snow on the ground and reports of school closings on the tv. So instead of sewing I helped the kids do science experiments.
Today I am hoping to get the artist book done in between eye drops. You may remember that my big Christmas present from Buster was Laser Eye Surgery. Well tomorrow is the big day. In preparation for the surgery I have had to purchase lots of eye droppy type things.
I've got antibiotics, steroids, and lots and lots of rewetting drops. I have to do the two smaller bottles 4 times today, each. It's not too bad other than the fact that they can't be done together so it's really 8 times today. Also, the steroid is cloudy and blurrs my vision when I use it and it drains into my throat and I can taste it, ick.
This evening I have to do hot compresses on my eyes and the massage my eyelids in order to "express any oils" I might have in my eyelids or eyelash follicles. Doesn't that sound wonderful? All of this is to say that tomorrow I say goodbye to these.
The second car we got to bring home was the Volvo S60 2.5T. Yes, this is absolutely and totally different from the Pathfinder that was Car #1. Buster and I have both been driving SUVs for several years now so I thought maybe we would like a change for my new car.
The Volvo is a lovely car. The new body style is more sleek than the Volvos of years past and the interior is all about luxury and style. It was very much fun to drive.
I like the idea of a car with regards to ease of getting in and out of our tight driveway that is in the back of our house. I also like the idea of better gas mileage, though I have to say that as far as gas mileage goes, the Volvo isn't the best choice. I'm not so sure about the limited seating in a car though. Betty (my Element) only seats four and there have been times when I would prefer more seating. The Volvo doesn't really fix that situation.
You want to hear something crazy? I finished a knitting project! I know, it really is crazy isn't it. I've been getting a little better about the finishing, which is very good. I'd hate to have to rent a storage unit for my WIPs. What's better than an FO, you ask? (I know you didn't really ask, play along) A WIP that you really needed.
See that picture to the left? That's my bathroom. Not just my bathroom, the bathmat in my bathroom. Doesn't look much like a bathmat you say? Well you would be right, it's a towel. We never bought a mat when we moved into our house. I don't know why, but we've been using towels. They work pretty well, easy to clean and all that, but not so attractive really. Well now I have something that is attractive, at least I think so.
Meet Absorba. You'll probably recognize absorba from the very much loved Mason-Dixon Knitting. I knit it just exactly as the pattern suggested and it turned out just as I was told it would, neutral but not boring. It's squishy and soft under little wet feet, it looks good in my bathroom, and it frees up another towel for body drying.
Absorba The Great
Peaches & Creme double worsted, 3 cones.
Cream, Khaki, and Tan
Size 15 needles
Mason-Dixon Knitting
Not only do I have a finished knit to show off, I have a finished sewing project to show off too. A few weeks ago I came across Craft Apple's artist case tutorial and knew that the Girlies each needed one. They love to be able to draw anywhere, anytime. I asked Bug what type of pattern she would like for hers to be and she said pink and red hearts, so that's what I did.
The artist case was very fun and easy to put together and the construction is very clever. I'm working on one for Bitty right now that is just a little different. I'm hoping it will be ready later today or tomorrow.
If you've been hanging out here for a while you have probably seen mention of my beloved Honda Element, Betty (named for the cartoon Atomic Betty, get it, she's an element and she's atomic!) I have had Betty for two years and have really enjoyed driving my funky little orange SUV. When we bought her she was my perfect car and so much about her is still perfect for me. On the other hand, some things have come up as my kids have gotten older that haven't been perfect about her. The biggest issue is that Betty has back seat doors that can't be opened unless the front doors are open. This is a very fun trait in Betty until you have to start dropping your kids off in a drop off line where nobody can figure out how to open your car. Same goes for picking the Girlies up in the afternoon. It's also bad when the person in the front seat always has to get out to deal with the kids in the back seat because the girls can't deal with the doors by themselves at all.
Having said all this you can probably tell where I am going... We're shopping for a new car. Right now we are considering leasing in order to get a nicer car for the same payment schedule as we had for Betty. We've found a great car leasing place that is being very good to us. As a matter of fact, they are letting us keep each of our three "finalist" cars for 2 days to drive in our regular life to see what we think of them. Our first finalist is the Nissan Pathfinder.
This car is the number one choice for both the husband and the daughters at this point. Buster likes it because it's a Nissan Pathfinder. He drives a Nissan Xterra and loves it. He would love to be a two Nissan SUV family. He is also attracted to the hulking manliness of this vehicle and knows that the men he would most like to be (sports radio talkshow hosts) all drive this vehicle. The Girlies like it because it has a DVD player. We were test driving this one all day on Sunday and all the girls wanted to do was go sit in the car and watch movies with the wireless headphones. I can certainly see the attraction to that, and even to the dark shiny monstrousness of it. I'm not sure it is really the car for me though. It's really quite big. It uses LOTS of gas, which isn't my favorite thing in a car. It's tall and I'm a very short person. Stay tuned for car number two, the Volvo S60.
I showed you yarn as Christmas gift the other day but I left some out. Look what my friend, Michael, got me...
It's Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn in Jewel. Isn't it fabulous? I've read that you can get a pair of socks from one hank of this but I have also read that it better be a small pair. I'm glad I have two. I'm thinking I'll make socks for myself and if I have enough left over I will make a pair of socks for Bit too. This color suits the two of us very well.
I have another kid Christmas gift to show you too. Remember a few days ago when I showed you Bit's Ukelele? Well Bug got a musical instrument from her Nana too. She has been asking for a guitar for probably two years now but we haven't been sure if she was really ready to get anything out of one. Being musicians ourselves (Buster and I met because we both played the sax in marching band) we were pretty excited by the fact that our kids were attracted to music and creating it themselves.
Is that the cutest thing you have ever seen? It is a half sized pink electric guitar. Nana picked the very best Christmas present imaginable, which is exactly what she always does. She Bug an amp too. I've got the guitar all tuned up and now I just need to get her into some lessons. Doesn't she look just so perfectly punk rock? You should see her doing her rock star moves with it.
If you haven't taken a look at the Poppy Along blog yet, you should. People are joining, posting, sharing pics, it's fun, I promise. I'm hoping to have a finished knit to show you today and once that is done I will be a poppy knitting fool.
