Purls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Happy Holidays!

Hope you are all having a great fun filled Holiday!  We had a pretty good Christmas celebration here at home.  This year I decided we should try something new and go for a "Tamales from around the World" theme.  

 

 As we are from Nicaragua we typically have Nacatamales --the Nicarguan version of a corn tamale.   My husband on the other hand is 1/2 Mexican and his mom rolls her eyes every time we mention Nacatamales.  Even though she likes them---she obviously does not like them as well as her Mexican Tamales heh heh....

 

We tried the following types of tamales:

1. Nacatamales - Nicaragua

2. Chicken Tamales - El Salvador

3. Pasteles - Puerto Rico

4. Traditional Mexican Tamales - Pork, Beef, Chicken and Cheese

5. Chinese Tamales --really I am not joking

After brunch we exchanged gifts:)   We really spoiled each other rotten this year and as it turns out electronics turned out to be big ---always nice of course!

I ended up with two of these!  What are the chances heh?

One is going back in exchange for a nikon lense.  I just need to figure out a good one to get.  I have an 18-55 and an 55-200 I think.  whats another good basic?

The Hubbs got one of these from me for his B-Day and Christmas combined:

Great gadget --plus it can be used with all our Ipods!

Little C was pleasantly surprised too:

He received some cool Pirate loot:

A Puzzle from Dawn - thanks Dawn!

Legos from Dad!

And some super Awesome Air Hogz!!!!  He LOVES these!

More loot and holiday fun can be viewed on my flickr set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/purlsjustwannahavefun/sets/72157611735612023/

But wait there is more:P

Dawn also sent me this lovely handmade strawberry soap and wash cloth:

And a pretty cool Bella crocheted hat (which I persuaded Dawn to make for me he he...). Thanks Dawn I love it and can't seem to stop wearing it since it arrived.  My mother wants to borrow it now to try and replicate it:)

Oh and Jodi - my Christmas Swap pal from Ravelry had previously sent me a package remember.... well here are the contents of the "do not open til Christmas" present:

A pretty cabled bag (- being used as a project bag ) with candles and a little snowman ornament.  Thanks Jodi!

Hope you are enjoying your holidays....    We sure are:)

Twisted Road

  An absolutely thouroughly Fabulous Knit!

I want to thank Sam from KnitQuest for writing such a wonderful and fun pattern!  Gosh I got to the end and realized I had 32 sts left and was being instructed to thread through all of them and pull tight!

 

 

I had my doubts...  But Sam you are genius... There is no rule that says you need to decrease, decrease decrease to get to 8.  What I loved about this is that it allowed for the pattern to continue!   Although I am beginning to notice that my hats almost always look better on Mimi than on me...  Hmmmm could it be that she has a perfectly round head he he...

Oh well, maybe with my new doo --the hats will look better eh? I am finding it harder to take self portraits with the D90 --a little heavy I suppose when you are going at with only the left hand:)

 

Oh my gosh I think I need a little more sleep, or less salt Yikes!

As for the details... I know you are all dying to know...

Pattern:  Twisted Road by Samantha Roshak aka knitquest

Yarn: Sundara Aran Silky Merino in Limited Edition: Ruby Port

Needles: Size 7 US circulars and 1 cable needle

Made for My Mother In Law for Christmas 2008

Time to knit --about 10 hrs?   Who's counting?  I loved every minute of it! Exquisite Yarn and Pattern!

 Oops I think its time to lay off those cookies:)

Seven

Seven more days 'til:

Jingle Bell Time!

Jingle-bell, jingle-bell, jingle-bell rock,

Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring.

Snowin' and blowin', a bushel of fun,

Now the jingle hop has begun.

 

Jingle-bell, jingle-bell, jingle-bell rock,

Jingle bells chime in jingle-bell time.

Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square

In the frosty air.

   

What a bright time, it's the right time

To rock the night away.

Jingle-bell time is a swell time

To go glidin' in the one-horse sleigh.

 

Giddy-up jingle horse; pick up your feet;

Jingle around the clock.

Mix and mingle in a-jinglin' beat;

That's the jingle-bell rock.

 

 

Jingle-bell, jingle-bell, jingle-bell rock,

Jingle bell chime in jingle-bell time.

Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square

In the frosty air.

 

 

What a bright time, it's the right time

To rock the night away.

Jingle-bell time is a swell time

To go glidin' in the one-horse sleigh.

 

 

Giddy-up jingle horse; pick up your feet;

Jingle around the clock.

Mix and mingle in a-jinglin' beat;

That's the jingle-bell

That's the jingle-bell

That's the jingle-bell rock.....

 

1) Santa Hat: Sundara Aran Silky Merino in Ruby Port

2) Sideways Grande Hat in Pink Yarn from Black Mtn Weavers (4 mom)

3) Mittens to match same yarn from Black Mtn (4 mom)

4) Black "Dashing" Mitts for my brother

5) Amazingly gorgeous Twisted Road hat in Sundara ASM Ruby Port (4 MIL)

6) One Love Bites Scarf in Fresh from the Cauldron Eric Northam (secret)

 

I have been one busy little elf ho ho ho...

Oh and wait that does not count the socks and chullo hat the DH and Little C have asked for... So many knits... So little time 'til Christmas:)

 

 

Just 14 Days...

    B4 Christmas!!!

 

 

 I purchased the coolest Lego Advent Calendar after hearing from Melissathat  it was being offered at Amazon.com    Her adorable Little Man and Little Cowboy are roughly the same age and from what I can tell they are both crazy about Lego's.   I jumped on this and had it here in no time.   I'm glad I did as it really made my boy happy!  I wanted this to be something he and his Daddy could share this year. 

Well let me tell you its worked like a charm!  First thing every morning Little C jumps out of bed and makes sure his Daddy is up so that they can brake open into the next day --hmmm I wonder what cool Lego city piece do I get today?

See what I mean... Pretty groggy look on his face, but super excited yesterday on day 9 when he found a little kitty cat and a Lego tree:)  Today's surprise by the way was a little Baker with a huge mixing spoon Ha!

A perfect segway back to my Cookie Baking Contest he he...

Here are the answers:

1. How Many Cookies did we bake this year (give or take) = 2200
2. How many hours did we spend baking ---Or how many minutes = 15 Hrs / 900 min
3. How many bakers do you think were involved = 3 Bakers and 1 Sugar Boy
4. How many types of cookies did we make? = 10  Kind (Russian Tea Cakes, Peanut Butter Cookie Cups, Bourbon Balls, Hawaiian Snowballs, Apricot/Raspberry Jam Thumb-prints, Chocolate Raspberry Thumb-prints, Lemon Butter, Cranberry Granola, Snicker doodles, and Ginger Snaps)
5. How many ovens did we use? = Sadly only 1!
6. How many cookies per minute? = 2.4

As you can see 4 out of the 6 questions were answered correctly:

• Clicking Needles was the closest w/ 2000 cookies and 3 bakers
• Ingrid and Rocky both guessed 1 Oven--sad really--can you imagine how much more efficient we would be with 2!
• Becky guessed correctly on 10 kinds of cookie!

However,  I am feeling pretty generous and full of the Christmas spirit -so i will send cookies to all 8 of you who responded!   Everybody send me an email purlsjustwannahavefun at gmail dot com --with your 411 so that I can make my trip to the post:)

And now I leave you with this...  The Contents of my amazing Christmas Swap Package from Jodi!

 

When it arrived Lil C got super excited asking what was in the package --I kept telling him they were special goodies for Mommy from her Christmas swap pal!  He did not like that answer too much.

 

So he shoved a plastic pestle bowl in front of my goodies just as I was snapping the photo--that kid!

He then wanted my  beautiful Fingerless Mitts that Jodi made just for me.  I told him absolutely not!  They were specially made for my hands:)  There was one addtl gift in the box that can not be opened til Christmas...  I had to hide it quickly --no peaking!

 

 

Next thing I know he is trying to grab my amazing new ornaments: A Christmas angel (with a bell inside), That adorable little sock and the cutest little Santa or wait is he a christmas Gnome?  Love him! Just look at all this wonderfulness... (note cards, notepad, calendar, nail file, hand cream, hand sanitizer, project bag, rav button, yarn, even kisses!  What a blessing!

I started to showcase this lovely lace wt yarn also included in my goodies and he requested I allow him to take the picture with my new D90!   The boy has lost his mind!

By now he was really beside himself so he disappeared for a minute and came back sporting a baseball cap --looked up at me and demanded I take his picture!

 

Sugar & Spice

and Flour, add a little bit of Cream of Tartar, Lemon Zest, Butter, eggs

Cranberries, Almond Extract, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups...(other misc ingredients). 

  Add a little Vino on the side and some yummy apps for the Worker Bees....

 

And an Ohhhhhh So Handsome - Sugar Boy!

   

And What do you get?

Christmas Cookies!!!!

Lets havea little Cookie Contest shall we?  If Interested then leave a comment with your best guess too 1 of the following Questions:

1. How Many Cookies did we bake this year (give or take)
2. How many hours did we spend baking ---Or how many minutes
3. How many bakers do you think were involved
4. How many types of cookies did we make?
5. How many ovens did we use?
6. How many cookis per minute?

The person that answers the closest to the actual number will be sent a tin:)  Pick no more than 2 questions tops.   If more than one person anwers the questions correctly then there will be a raffle (random # generator) for that particular tin:)   

 Please drop me your answers by Wednesday 6 p.m. PST:)

Its Yarn Pr0n Friday Time!

Before I provide a frame by frame of all the lovely Sundara yarn that graced my doorstep yesterday I have a question to ask.  

When you look at the following picture I urge you to observe and think about it. Then leave an honest response on which of these two skns you believed was the Sundara sock yarn.  Of course the real sundara sock yarn w/b revealed.  However,  what I am after here is your thoughts on how close you believe this and other Indie Dyers are coming to matching Sundara's Mad Dyeing skills:)

 

Lets call the skinnier skn at the top Yarn A. and of course the bottom one Yarn B.  Which did you guess was the Sundara?   Pretty close dying style don't you think?

O.K. and now without further ado... Lets have a Peep Show he he....

I came home to find all of these sock yarnie babies waiting for me on my door step:)

Top to Bottom: Brown Sugar Over Buttermilk, Bronzed Forrest, Wine

  Once again,  T to B: Charcoal Over Blue Lagoon, Evergreen Over Lime and Black Over Violet.

 

And lastly: Electric Green, Cafe Cafe, and Prosciutto Over Fig 

 

One additional lonely bag was sitting on top of these 3 Sundara boxes. My December Installment of Plucky Classics from The Plucky Knitter in the loveliest color of Grand Central Station:

 

So did you guess right?

It is the Season...

for everything  Merry and Bright:)

Yesterday afternoon I could hear caroling.  For a minute there I thought there was some kind of parade downtown SF.  This was not the case. A co-worker pointed out that every year there is a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony directly across the street:)

 

This is the best I could do as I improvised with my blackberry:) The children were amazing.

Here it is all lit up in pretty red:

After work, the DH and I rushed over to Little C's School as they were having science night.  They had plenty of exercises for the children to experiment and really understand how things work.  They had some exercises in gravity, some with color, some with water and volume and then there was Little C's class science project- Worms --their natural habitat and behavior ----YUCK!

 

Double Yuck!

   

As we were driving home Little C made it a point to inform me that his all time favorite project from science night was --The Worms!!!   

Boys will be boys:)

And now I leave you with this:

  

Every year I purchase 1 - 2 ornaments to add to my collection.  Isn't she adorable!  I actually decided to buy two of these. I sent one to my christmas swap pal:)

And now for a close-up --She's even got - gasp... a Tiara! 

I'm a Believer!

 

Dansko shoes and Dansko clogs are designed with anatomically contoured footbeds that support the foot from heal to toe. The roomy toe boxes follow the natural shape of your foot and the slightly raised heels ease leg and back muscles during long hours of standing or walking.

#1 clog company in the world. Providing state of the art comfort for men and women, Dansko shoes and Dansko clogs feel good after hours on your feet. That’s why professionals around the world, including nurses, doctors, chefs and more, turn to Dansko for their everyday footwear. In fact, the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) awarded Dansko shoes and Dansko clogs its Seal of Acceptance.

 Why am I sharing this you might ask?   Well for various reasons.  First and foremost,  Since July I have been suffering from Planters Fasciitis!  Ooooooh  the pain in my right heal and arch is sometimes unbearable:(   I have tried many, and I mean many shoes--at least 6 different well known and respected brands.  But these Dansko's you see here saved me yesterday. 

You see yesterday my cousins hosted "La Purisima" celebration at a church hall here in S.F.  and many folks from the Nicraguan community were in attendance.  Every year, they line up for hours to make sure the get a seat at this most anticipated celebration.  Yours truly and little sister were amongst the working crue.  We are there every year helping our cousins with the set up-- food and treats preparations as well as the hall set up.  Its a good five hours of prep work and then another 3 hours to pass everything out to the crowd.   My little Dansko's --I put them to the test to see how I would do.  They passed with flying colors!   I was in pain--but just a little bit!  Hallelujah!

Here is a little history about "La Purisima"

La Purisima marks the beginning of Christmas in Nicaragua

During the Christmas celebrations on December 7th, Nicaraguans prepare

themselves for their yearly traditions that honor the immaculate conception.

This celebration is called La Purisima (The Most Pure). The prayers and

songs for the Virgin Mary and the enjoyment of these festivities are such that

they are called “La Noche de Griteria” (The Night of the Screaming).

During “La Griteria” a great majority of the country, particularly the young,

are out there to sing with all their might until they lose their voices. They stop

at each house, whose main entrance or porch is decorated, to sing for the

Virgin Mary. The hymns sung to the Virgin are well known by all and are

very old. Someone from the crowd will ask loudly, “What is the cause of our

happiness?” And the chorus will answer, “The conception of the Virgin

Mary!”

Fireworks explode everywhere the entire time and treats are offered at every

house. These treats might include rosquillas, leche de burra (a sweet called

donkey’s milk) nacatamal (tamal stuffed with meat) oranges, lemons, and

chopped caña (cane). The children get their treats in a bag and are even aloud

to shoot at each other with water balloons. Finally the doors close when there

are no more food or candy to share.

 

People line up sometimes for hours at the "good places"  to make sure they do not miss out.  Here is an example of kids in Managua NIcaragua waiting to get in:

 

And here is a photo of folks Caroling to the Virgin Mary also taken in Nicaragua:

   

I have no photos from yesterdays celelbration as I was too busy working the floor and passing out treats:)

I hope you all had an abosuletly marvelous Turkey Day!  I've been absent since Wednesday afternoon with zero internet connectivity at home!   We switched our phone service and high speed to Comcast and our router is now out of wack:(   The hubbs is working on resetting things.  Soon I hope.  This has been pretty painful.

I have lots more to share on the Christmas front ho ho ho...