welcome home. we hate you now...

...would be the note our kitties wrote us when we finally came home from our christmas vacation. how do i know this? i was immediately greeted by this:

 our once cute little christmas tree. destroyed. 

i'm still looking for some missing ornaments.

 

and a stray evergreen bough or two.

but according to these cutie pies, we deserved it. 

he destroyed the tree:

and this one hid for two days straight and had our kitty-sitters convinced she ran away:

{they look so harmless while they're sleeping}

the good news is they eventually decided to forgive us for leaving. but not before they made it very clear that we are not to do it again. i tried to unpack that night, and as soon as i turned my back...

access denied!

crafty FAIL

a few years ago while perusing my local yarn store i found a pattern for felted slippers and i knew i had to have some. i bought the pattern and told the store owner this was the perfect project for my first major foray into knitting. she stopped in her tracks, asked me how long i'd been knitting and almost laughed when i told her "about 2 weeks". she told me this might be a little too challenging and they offered classes on this pattern and i could sign up. i politely let her know that i would keep that in mind while secretly thinking, "lady, you don't know me!" because when i get my mind set on a project i am rarely detered.

so, i went home and made my mom's christmas present- a pair of felted slippers.

luckily they turned out awesome, and i had no trouble at all with the pattern {although it was by far the most advanced thing i'd done}

which brings me to this project.

i wish i could say that my latest pair turned out as well. since the weather has been turning colder i've been in serious need of some new slippers {husband gets mad when he wanders around the house looking for his only to discover that i'm wearing them}

 everything was going fine and i was super excited about having warm and toasty toes over the weekend.

but it didn't turn out so well.

 since they get felted they are knit several sizes too large, checking that they are going to fit before felting isn't an option.

its as big as my magazine {which is obviously much bigger than my foot}

and one sole is different because i ran out of black and used it as an opportunity to stash bust a little. i used the same yarn but in green {and a little blue, because i ran out of green, too}

 

i thought everything was fine, until i felted them.

and they came out too small, and different sizes.

how this happened is beyond me. maybe mixing yarn was the problem? although i really doubt it because it was the same brand/weight. i think i must have messed up the pattern {although why i'd rather take the blame myself than blame it on something arbitrary like yarn is beyond me...}

 

oh well. they're ruined. at least for me- i'll felt the larger one a little more in hopes that i can eventually make them the same size and then give them away to some needy relative with smaller feet. in the mean time, i had my heart set on new slippers so i'm already working on a new pair. hopefully i don't screw those up, too!

mom, don't read this

mom, don't read this post.

seriously, just stop now.

and what is so terrible that i'm hiding from my mom? a sunburn. you might not see what's so bad about this, but you haven't seen my sunburn, and you don't know my mom. now i'm not saying she's crazy or anything, but she does have this whole {some might say obsessive} thing about sunblock, sun exposure, and skin cancer. and i don't need her worrying about me {or looking at me with those disappointed-but-still-judging eyes} you know what i'm talking about because every mom has them.

i went and did something stupid. i got a sunburn. a bad one. one like i've never had before. i thought i was too old {and wise?} to do something so stupid {because really, i know better, i was raised better} but it just so happens that the day i decide to break out my 2 piece is the day i forget sunblock and spend 3+ hours poolside.

bad news bears.

i have got one {angry} red belly.

day 1: uncomfortable

day 2: unbearable

day 3: not bad- until lunch when i got to reapply aloe and find my stomach covered in bubbles. blisters. like when you step out of the shower and have water droplets all over? it's like i forgot to dry off. horrible and mesmerising at the same time. i can't seem to look away.

and again i say, how did i let this happen?! i know better! i was raised better!

all i can think about is the summer my sister was a lifeguard and she got little bubbles all over her back, too. and i asked her what the heck they were and she gave me some nonchalant answer about it happening all the time, not being a big deal... to which i immediately freak out and yell at her about how bad it is, how she needs to wear sunblock...

oh how the mighty hath fallen.

bad thai {as opposed to pad thai}

confession time- husband and i like to eat. we like food. but we don't like to make it. so, we don't spend our extra money on movies or shopping, we spend it eating out. and it's nice- like little dates when we get to catch up and just talk and be together.

one of our biggest problems with manhattan is the lack of cuisine variety. i mean really, it's been hard. we like international foods and generally don't go for burgers and pizza {both of which we have a plethora of in town}

lucky for us, they do have one excellent thai place. it's been our favorite from day one, and we literally eat there almost once a week. and if you had told me last summer that i would eventually grow sick and tired of eating thai food i would have said you were crazy. i love me some good thai!

until recently.

for the last 2 weeks i have absolutely refused to go there anymore. why? i'm just bored. i need something new!

which means that i no longer like our favorite restaurant, and it's causing problems.

because when you don't want to eat at the best place in town, where do you go from there? i don't know. so husband and i are now trying to find a new place to eat. but he's not so excited about it {and i'm not too thrilled about how the search is going, either}. in fact, i'm getting big puppy-dog eyes everytime i say "anywhere but thai". it's sad. and i've never been able to resist those big blue eyes before.

until now, that is.

the (possibly too ambitious) chair project

this is it. the chair. the chair that has worn corners, and permanent cat hair {the only cat-hair-covered item we own} the chair that husband loves to read it, and i try to pretend is not there.

and since i'm so honest, and have no shame, this is what it really looks like:

::shudder::

 but did i mention that husband loves it?

so my plan {for over a year now} has been to cover it. but fabric is expensive, and i've never done anything like this before so i keep putting it off. but last weekend when i was home i found this twin comforter my big sister gave my mom, and the colors are perfect! and it's awesome! and i was lamenting the fact it wasn't big enough for our bed. 

{tan cotton heavy twill, corduroy stripes, and houndstooth/paisely wool}

see how well it matches our rug!?

and then i was struck by genius. i'm recovering our chair with it. 

 yup, that's right. i'm covering our chair with a blanket. 

and it's gonna be awesome! {if i don't totally screw it up}

  {matching pillow sham}

i've never attempted any project like this before, so i decided to attack it in steps:

step 1: go to the library and check out lots of books on how to do it.

step 2: look at the pictures {don't actually read anything} and feel confident that this project will be a breeze. {cause the pictures make it look so easy!}

step 3: drink some iced tea, and start tomorrow!

ok no, i've already started, but i'll let you know when {if} i finish. i fully expect this project to take me weeks cause i prefer to learn by trial-and-error. {which can be quite time consuming} but i'm excited! 

wish me luck?

airing my dirty laundry

this is it. all our dirty laundry. 

we have a lot of clothes. we don't buy them a lot, but we keep them forever so we've accumulated quite a pile. plus we have tons of underwear and socks, so we only have to do it once a month or so.

and while we're at it, i might as just tell you that all these clothes have been sitting there since yesterday. that's right, we're literally living in our dirty clothes until tomorrow night, cause i'm not doing them tonight either!

 growing up i never understood why laundry was such a big deal, but right now i would give anything to go back to 5th grade and leave all these laundry woes behind.

{thanks mom for protecting me from this horror for so long!}