Everyone else is doing it

I really don't want to recap 2012. Suffice to say the year was full of highs and lows. Both my sister in law and I gave birth to gorgeous babies (if I do say so myself.) But we suffered two unexpected losses, that of my uncle, followed a few months later by the loss of my husband's father. Everything in between seems rather sedate by comparison I think.

The sewing/crafting front saw its own share of highs and lows. I blew threw a bunch of projects around Mayish or so but succumbed to a frightening loss of mojo and turned out nothing of great importance for the rest of the year. The living room is littered with false starts and so so completes. So we're just going to call that a wash and move on.

On the domestic front, I actually feel I did pretty good. I've still not managed any semblance of organization, nor have I made great strides in the housekeeping sector. But I did institute some traditions that are officially part of our routine. Friday Movie Night has continued merrily along, Sunday dinner is nothing short of a success, and Saturday breakfast, peteybird's brain child, has been a fantastic way to compensate for Mr Man's 60 hour work week.

But enough about 2012. Let's talk the new year. I'm thinking five challenges and ten goals. I could probably come up with some fancy reasoning but let's just make it simple. I want to do better. That's really all there is to it. I made some strides last year. I won't bore you with the details. But there's always room for more. Just don't expect some kind of weight loss/exercise plan. I'm not even. We'll save that for 20dead.

So, let's start with the challenges and tomorrow, I'll share the goals. How's that?

Challenge #1: Daily Blogging

This is one is rather easy as I already mentioned it before. I will be blogging daily. I have promised Bear Allen and Bear Allen will shove me down a flight of stairs and lock me in a dog crate if I don't comply. At least this is what her husband says is the consequence of disappointing captain reading pants. I'm really not sure but I'm not in the mood to test her. Okay, really, I'm just not in the mood to throw down on pregnant ladies and I'm entirely too forgetful to remember to save my beatdowns for post partum.

Challenge #2: Knit/Crochet for an hour a day

Can I just share with you how much I adore sitting down at the end of the day, tucking my legs and my dog underneath a blanket on the couch and just chilling out with something soft on my needles? Oh yes, I do. It's very calming, reflective, and just a great way to clear your mind and settle for sleep. This will also help me carve out some time for all the knit projects that often fall by the wayside when I get a glimpse of a yummy fabric or lustworthy pattern.

Yeah, yeah, you wanna know about that advent scarf, don't you? Well here's a song for you.

Challenge #3: The Dreamstress's Historical Sew Fortnightly 

Did you notice my new bloggie button on the right hand side of the page? Well, there you go. Here's a link where you can read more about the challenge in general but I think you'll agree an announcement like that requires its own post. You should also be aware that I received my winnings the day after Christmas and will be blogging about that soon too.

Challenge #4: Sew simple each week

Look, I'm swimming in stash, okay? It really and truly is out of hand. I started and stopped an awful lot last year and have very few things to show for it. I also need more versatile, more grown up, more coordinated clothes in my wardrobe so yes, I'm going to work on it. We're not talking complicated outfits. Just something simple and easy either for myself or for the spawnlets. I think a cute knit tee in a blue, white, and silver stripe will be just the thing to get me started. But I won't lie. I think this one will be my most challenging one to stick with. I'm sure Bear Allen will be happy to add this to her list of things to pester a hot mess about.

Challenge #5: Budget, budget, budget

This one is also a humdinger. I won't be blogging much about it, however as I'm just not feeling the idea of sharing my entire financial picture with the whole wide internet. Suffice to say, we make enough to live on and live decently I might add *if* we pay attention to how we spend it. I'd like to get on the front end of our finances instead of feeling like I'm always falling behind or missing something.

But there are benefits to thee ol' humble blog. For one, I'll be resurrecting the weekly menu segment I was doing earlier this year. The budget is pretty much the same, $125/week for groceries. The menu will usually consist of Sunday dinner, Saturday breakfast, two crockpot meals for those extra curricular days, and Friday's junk food make over.

So there it is and it feels so very brave and yet completely possible, even, dare I say it? Likely.

But if you know me . . . . well, wish me luck anyway, okay?

A dim and blurry Christmas

I think it's well established that a) I have a crappy camera and b) I take crappy pics. So I'm sure you'll be double shocked that my Christmas pictures could put an issue of Family Circle to shame.

HA!

::le sigh::

I'm going to console myself with the fact that I didn't have to spend my time threatening lives until I got the perfect shot. I just took these and kept on trucking.

Wanna see?

Red Velvet Cake

The haul
(Pay no attention to the fabric explosion in the corner)

The Tree
(And more fabric explosion plus UPS leavings)

Christmas morning comes early when you're short/old

Grandma send me a glowworm!
And no, grandma, you didn't need to see my face.

I love how appetizing food looks with really awesome lighting.
Also, my ham is hiding and my stuffing looks really sad.

Gimme my pot pie!
(Please say you get that reference or we can't be friends.)

In conclusion, I know only five of you will actually care about this post, because really, it's awful. But I promised Bear Allen I would blog daily, and blog daily I will.

Okay, so the five people part is really, really generous. I can tell you my mama cares, Bear Allen cares, Heather cares because she loves me and fuss cares because she loves my kids. I swear I will atone for all the ills of this post with the remainder of the week.

Deal?

Deal.

Merry Christmas from the Hot Mess Household.

Challenge Accepted!

So I have this friend, a rather pushy friend who is always blathering to me about what an ungrateful hussy I am and how I never give her enough shout outs for generally being rather awesome and specifically, feeding my sewing inspiration and trying to resurrect my sewing and blogging mojo.

But she lies, I tell you, LIES!!! This friend is none other than the lovely, intellegent, fellow hot mess, Ms Bear Allen over at the wonderful Black, White, and Read Book Challenge, whom I mention fairly often.

Her grousing is your gain, however, because she has issued me a challenge of my very own. And yes, I'm well aware that my record in that department can best be described as dismal but whatever, we will press on. And what is this challenge you might ask?

Bear Allen has demanded that I post once a day even if it's just a few lines.

I'm sure you'll all wondering what the hell I have to say that's worthy of a daily check in but you'll just have to wait, now won't you? But I promise, it's rather good. I can give you a few hints if you like. But only if you ask nicely.

The challenge starts Monday.

Squee!!

P.S. My mantle is short one stocking because that picture is from last year's cleaner, neater Christmas display and not this year's sewing crap and clean laundry strewn all over the place hot messathon.

Merry Christmas indeed.

What day is it?

It's totally December 1, right? RIGHT??

::sigh::

Well, I've recovered my lost work so that's something. 

I think.

Here's a close up shot. As I'm not using circular needles, there's only so much room to spread it out. But I think you can catch the general drift. It looks less impressive this way, I think.

Two more repeats and I'll be finished with Day 1. Maybe I'll have a scarf by Valentine's. 

Dear Advent Scarf,

Posting uncharitable things about an advent scarf goes against the purpose of said advent scarf and thus it will merely be noted that the hot mess is ever a hot mess and will be starting with a fresh spirit come morning.

::sigh::

Post and run!

I'm supposed to be wearing a super cute, handmade dress to Mr. Man's Christmas party tomorrow. I've cut out exactly two back and one front on the fold complete with jacked darts. I'm not sure why I do this to myself but now is not the time for introspection.

It is, however, time to start your Advent Scarf! Day one is up now so you can awake bright and early tomorrow and finish this stupid dress you should have had done days ago and break out the needles and yarn. If you need help, the ravelry group is here. Between the girlchild's dance schedule and mr man's Christmas party, I'll be a day late and a dollar short but I hope to catch up on Sunday.

In the meantime, feel free to stare at the pretty yarn I'll be using for my scarf.

It's Madeline Tosh Lace in Robin's Egg Blue and I purchased it after succumbing to peer pressure from my friend Nicole. You see, after feeling up every skein of yarn at my local knitting shop, I finally selected a rather Christmasy black, charcoal, red, and burgundy combo from Cascade Yarns called Licorice Twist. However, as I confessed to another friend, it didn't slap me in the face with its awesome, at least not for a advent scarf. I'd had visions of knitting up something that reminded me of a Nordic fjord and my local yarn store wasn't obliging, at least not at a price that didn't make Baby Jesus cry.

Christmas but not winter

So I settled on the Licorice Twist and went home, defeated and dejected, trying to summon up images of knitting by a fire in an old rocking chair instead of inhaling crisp, cold air and feeling the Scandinavian wind on my cheeks. And so I was at the perfect place in my head for a little yarn nudging and enabling. Nicole had already purchased her yarn and while I despaired of any retailer who isn't Amazon delivering my goods in a timely fashion, she convinced me otherwise. Once she told me Eat Sleep Knit would even ball it up for me, well I had no choice.

So here I am. Now, I'd better get back to the cutting floor and see what can be done with these stupid darts. Booooooooo!

Would you like to swing on a star

After much harassment from my children, namely the girlchild, I took a break from Black Friday (mostly window) shopping and hauled the whole lot of giggling kidlets down to Forsyth Park for some kite flying. Of course the mini hot mess left her kite at home and the mommy hot mess was not going back for that crap. So swinging would have to suffice.

And because pinky doesn't hold still long enough for pictures unless it's a fashion show, you'll have to settle for a host of pudding pictures.

Wait, how do we do this again?

OMG! Yes, like that. HA!

Heyyy, what's that thing?

There sure are some
weird children around here

That brother and sister of mine
sure are funny looking

Oh yeah!

I do have a blog!

My sewing mojo has been non-existent of late. I'd ask for ideas on how to jump start it but my disgusting lack of posts means that there is likely no one reading this. Also, mojo or not, I have to start sewing. It's after Thanksgiving and any sewist, home hobbyist, self made gift giver knows what that means . . . IT'S CHRISTMAS CRAFTING TIME!

Yes indeed.

First up, a wreath. I have all the materials purchased thanks to Black Friday and some awesome Joann's coupons. I'll let you know how it goes. 

It also means it's Advent Scarf Time!

What's Advent Scarf Time?

Well, if as a kid you ever did an advent calender, it's pretty much the same concept except instead of candy or whatever else parents do for these things, you get a newly revealed bit of knitting. In the end, you're supposed to come out with a fantabulous finished scarf, like so:

As made by the very talented mmhiscox on Ravelry.
I love this version. It reminds me of a Nordic fjord.
So very winter, so very Christmas.

I made an attempt the first year I decided I was a knitter and it was truly a hot mess. I went with some really awful scratchy Vanna White crap that I couldn't fathom wrapping around my neck unless I'd been convicted of a crime and sentenced to death by acrylic wrapped in tinsel. After five rows of madness, I switched to some feathery also acrylic nonsense that kept slipping off my aluminum needles and was nearly impossible to see. So I gave up, gave in, gave out, all the things.

Two years later, I think I've come much further as a knitter and am prepared to give it the old college try. As I mentioned earlier, I'm coming into a busy time sewing-wise, forget all the other hustle that comes from the holiday season. I thought it might be nice to have some time set aside every day this month to sit down, take a deep breath, and do some knitting.

If you're interested in joining me, you can find more info here. You can also join the ravelry group here. I'll update daily with the new bit. and as a measure of accountability and an attempt to get back in the blogging habit, I'll be sharing my progress with anyone who might still be reading this thing. If you are joining, leave me a comment or even send me some pictures. I wanna see!!!!

Do you think I'm crazy?

Vogue does. Vogue thinks we're all off our rockers apparently, going slightly mad maybe, knitting with only one needle, a sandwich short of a picnic, something.

They're coming to take me away, hee hee!

The Winter Collection was released today and this is one of their new patterns, Vogue 1335. I think I might have to pass. My children might make me insane but that doesn't mean I have to dress like it. 

This one, 1329 however, is pretty cute, if simple. The rest you can see here, nothing particularly exciting, imo, which is probably a good thing considering I am up to my eyeballs in patterns and no real output lately to justify new purchases.

Nothing all that exciting to post

Well, except that I got a new computer, baby!!! Well, new to me, which actually is the most exciting part, imo. It was free and it runs. Silent as hell and very fast. Although, compared to my old computer, cold molasses in Vermont on a sightseeing tour anything feels like blitzkrieg.

Now I have no excuse to not keep this site regularly updated. Maybe now I can reclaim my sewing mojo. I have Halloween costumes to finish.

In the meantime, wanna see how my shawlette is progressing?

As always, forgive my less than snazzy photography skills.

With any luck, I'll have it finished before I enter the nursing home. I hear they keep those places just a wee bit drafty.

And here's a bonus pic of the kidlets. It's okay for your eyes to glaze over at this point. I'm just doing it for the grandpeople.

Opa!

Today was the last day of the Greek Festival here in town. After a nice, leisurely nap and a fruitless trek to the closed Boy Scout store, the kids and I meandered our way down, stroller in tow to pick up some gyros and get our culture on.

Unfortunately, due to the incredibly cramped space in the fellowship hall and an overly aggressive PA system, we didn't absorb much culture. Well, unless you count being fussed at by a Greek grandma zealously guarding the kourabiedes. Long story short, there was some confusion over whether we were supposed to wait to be served our chosen Greek pastries or take them from the tray ourselves. Grandma set us straight after the fact in none too pleasant heavily accented tones. Not even an apology appeased her. By the time I decided I'd had enough of her bewildering poor petey, she'd given up the ghost and found something else to fuss about.

But we did score some tasty, if overpriced gyros and some baklava for Mr. Man. Pinky in particular, was happy to get her hands on some loukoumades which are apparently honey puffs fried in oil and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Still smarting from our sassing at the hands of someone's renegade grandma, we headed outside to peruse the vendor stalls before heading across the street to tour the Greek Orthodox church. And dude, few people know how to inspire awe of the Almighty quite like the Orthodox. Upon entering, there is a sense of peace and reverence that comes over you, quite unlike any church I've been in before. Sure, it's red velvet, gold icons, and candles but somehow, it isn't gaudy at all. 

I was particularly fascinated with the icons. The priest called them visual representations of the Gospel. He explained that there was a process by which they are hand painted. He used another word for that but no matter how many times he said it, I couldn't quite catch the word. Apparently, it involves a strictly observant and talented process interspersed with prayer and the results were quite awe inspiring. The icons seemed to glow, their colors rich, the expressions held your gaze. I'm a little cranky with myself for not bringing my camera and thus having to settle with shots from my crappy phone. But I have a feeling not even a fancy schmancy DSLR would have captured the beauty of the icons.

I could have stayed in there forever. But poor pudding was in need of a nap and so eventually, after p&p finished plaguing the priest for a full explanation of the history of the church, we headed back home.

As we were walking home, pete informed me that his father was right and the eyes of Orthodox Jesus really do follow you around. Thanks, Mr Man, for telling the kid that. Very helpful. I tried to tell pete the fact that he expected such a thing made it much likely that he would see it that way but birdybird wasn't buying it. What ever dad says must be true. I'll remind him of this when he's 16 and thinks his parents are grade A morons.

My poor pudding

Everyone, save mr man is working with some version of the plague. Congestion, fever, nasty cough, gross sore throats, and a general ick feeling as evidenced by my kid's over it face above.

Sick children are the ultimate in parenting mixed feelings. On one hand, you feel awful that your babies are sick. The sad, pathetic coughs, the listlessness, and that glazed empty look that comes from being hopped up on cold medicine. On the other, if they'd only go to sleep, dammit, maybe they'd feel better or at least you wouldn't have to listen to them whine.

In honor of the gross that has descended upon our household, allow me to present my easy peasy, really shouldn't be a recipe at all recipe for veggie whatever meat you have on hand beef soup.

The ingredient list is incredibly short and the instructions are ridiculously easy making this the perfect soup to pick up when you hit up to grocery store for nyquil and the good kleenex after a run to the school nurse.

1/4 - 1/2 poundish of ground beef (I had some sausage in the fridge so I used that instead.)

3 bags of frozen veggie blend

1 large can of diced tomato

2 cans of chicken broth

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

Brown the ground beef. Toss in the rest of the list, add some water until there is enough to fill the pot. Season to taste. Profit.

And here's a bonus pic of my babies.

Stellar photoquality, I know. I've got my fingers crossed I'll be able to get a fancy, if not new than new to me camera for my birthday.

Introducing the next Roger Ebert

Not to be outdone by her brother, the pinkasaurus has decided that she will be reviewing our Friday Movie Night selections. I wish she'd decided this last week so she could have provided her thoughts on the ultimate in 80's awesomeness, Red Dawn. But alas, you'll all have to hear about this really terrible movie I only pulled from the Redbox because my kids were lulled in by the awful trailer.

::sigh::

The things I do for my children.

Except not really because I didn't watch this. I tried to, figured it might be smart to sit there with them in case an errant boob or buckets of blood crossed the screen but it only took about fifteen minutes into something that desperately wanted to be Cloverfield for the Twilight crowd for me to sacrifice their delicate little psyches for my own.

Turns out, even the kids weren't impressed. Here's pinky's take.

The Darkest Hour is not a good movie. Girls were dum dumb. Do not watch The Darkest Hour. It was not an hour. It was a couple weeks. Well, you could see the aliens at the end and they had these little black masks on. THEY WERE HORRIBLE LOOKING. That was the only good part of the movie. All the girls kind of died except for two because they kept running to stupid places and got shredded into dust.

IT WAS NOT GOOD!

So there you have it. The Darkest Hour was tragic. If you don't trust us, check out Rotten Tomatoes. They gave it a measly 12%. I really need to stop watching Summit movies. They are the ones responsible for foisting Twilight off on poor, naive teenagers. But they did give me Helen Mirren as an kick ass assassin in Red so I suppose I can't fully hate them.

If I had a million dollars

I'd still be broker than a joke. 

Woodland Farms Antiques is one of my favorite places to browse and buy vintage patterns. Don't be fooled by your first glance. Yes, she sells gorgeous vintage items but she's also sitting on a HUGE selection of reasonably prices patterns starting in the Victorian era all the way up to the 80's which, uhm, kill me now that the 80s are considered vintage by some. In the past, I found the site a bit clunky to navigate. The shopping cart system she was working with didn't save pictures so I'd load it up, forget what I placed there and then have to go back and flip through to decide what I really wanted.

However, I received an email recently that suggested new changes. And since a shiny little coupon code was dangled before my sew greedy little eyes, I hustled my behind right over to give it a look see.

It's a Hooverette, people!!

Long story short, I recently lost a silent auction on a made up version of this pattern crafted by the lovely Anna over at Pleasant View Schoolhouse. Her is a beautiful apple green polka dot version that looks ever so sweet and modern and every day wearable. Betcha couldn't tell that from the pattern, now could you? Skip on over here to see it in action. What did I tell you? Cuuuuuuuute! While you're visiting, make sure you check out her post on turning dresses into aprons here. I have a few cute dresses that will never again fit my behind that could do with this treatment.

I also fell in love with this very adorable WWII era pattern that calls to mind Cate Blanchett in Charlotte Gray,

Or Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller in Edge of Love.

As I really don't need to two patterns I'm buying anyway, I had to leave all the other pretties behind. But if you like, you can snatch up a few at 30% off with the code FALLSALE.

Might I suggest a few?

Anne Adams #4932

Hollywood #524

Advance #8878

Advance #6470

Promises, promises

That's what I get, right? Yeah, let's just pretend that whole bit never happened, mmkay?

Moving on.

So the whole damned world is obsessed with knit blazers and because I'm about as original as cream of crap recipes on pinterest, so am I. The simple fact is, trends aside, a knit blazer is a nice, yet casual piece that can keep a hot mess like myself from living in full time frumpville with incredible ease. Since I have neither the time nor the inclination to sort around racks with a growling baby while trying to find something that fits in a price range I'm willing to pay, I'm going to make one. Shut up about all the crap I say I'm going to make and don't finish, okay? I ain't trying to hear that!

From Macy's but no longer available

Please tell me you appreciate all that cute. I could wear it with jeans, with skirts, over summer dresses to carry them into what we call Fall here in hot ass Georgia, etc. Tell me you aren't obsessed too. I've been mulling this little project over in my head for some time now but since I'm more terrified of knits than pinky is of the tripods in War of the Worlds (It's been five years now since she saw that movie and she's still uncertain around cracks in the pavement) I've just been sort of sitting on the idea, not thinking much of it.

Well as it often happens when you're playing on the internet instead of sewing a black brocade sheath dress, I fell upon a lovely blog (wo)manned by a housewife after my own heart, the lovely Lisa G at Notes from a Mad Housewife. I wonder if she likes Queen. And look, LOOK I SAY at what she's made.

I could die, I really could. This is more exciting than the time I finally found a brand of baby wipes that didn't smell like old people or teen spirit. Huggies One and Done with Cucumber if you're curious.

What's even more exciting are two whole posts detailing how she got it done, here and here.

And what's super duper coffeeheathbaricecreaminmyfreezer exciting is that there was a sew along with detailed instructions on how to accomplish this splendiferous it is so a word, google feat by another new to me blogger, the very adorable Sherry at Pattern Scissors Cloth and she runs, something I only do when something is chasing me.

So it will be just like having two people hold my fear stricken little hands. If only I could find someone to poke me in the rear end with a cattle prod and cure me of a raging case lazyheiferitis.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound or so they say because, as hinted above, I've already purchased fabric, a beautiful Italian Double Knit from Fabric Mart. To perhaps mitigate the damage to my previous "solemn oath," if indeed that's possible, I will be using a pattern I already own, Burda 7576.

The reviews seem positive enough and between the sew along directions and Lisa G's inspired piece, I think it will look cute. Don't you?

Anyone else itching for a knit blazer? Have you sewn one?

Introducing a new feature: Literary Musings by Pete

My ten year old is a voracious reader. Lucky for him, a friend had a huge garage sale recently and we hit pay dirt on a treasure trove of books. Because this kid says the most giggleworthy things (or maybe just in my opinion, idk) I asked him if he might like to write up some reviews for his books. Who knows? Maybe he'll grow up to be just like my favorite book blogger, the gorgeously curly Ms Bear Allen over at Black, White, and Read.

And here's the first installment in this series.

Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg (maybe, it's some sort of weird, you dumb kids are too dumb to read the real book unless you've seen the movie and even now that you've seen the movie, I'm still going to just regurgitate the movie instead of expecting you to the read the real book novelization of the movie of the book or something.)

Hi, my name is Shane and I'm here to talk about a book named Jumanji. It's a good book for all ages. Jumanji is about how a man, a woman, and a turtle, I mean two kids, played a game called Goats on a Boat. 

I'm just kidding, it's called Jumanji.

The more you play it, the more cute puppies dangerous things come out. I thought it was THE WORST BOOK EVER.

I'm joking. I was actually a COOL book.

Thanks for reading.

You should read Jumanji. It's a good book.

YAY! 

This kid seriously slays me. Too bad you can't hear his hilarious, laugh at my own jokes giggle as he read me this review.

He's currently reading James and the Giant Peach so stay tuned to hear his random thoughts on weird illustrations and his irritation that his sister won't read such awesome merely because there are no princesses and prissy girls involved.

Look how big my boy is getting??

He can sit up all by his lonesome now and he crawls.

::sob::

Where does the time go?

When will he get a job?

$269!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's how much the antique shop wants for the gorgeous Jackie O ensemble I mentioned here.

It's actually a really great price now that I've had the chance to get all up close and personal with it. I'm going to guess it's wool due to the weight but it has such a smooth texture that I'm not sure. Most old clothes feel polyesterish to me so don't take my word for it on fiber content. Ambiguous fabric aside, it's in fabulous condition, the color is rich and I saw no odd spots whatsoever. It looks like it was transported here from the 60's era shop from which it was sold with nary a person to wear it. I would have taken more pictures, but it felt a little weird being all up in dude's display case with my phone.

Instead, I'll show you the pictures I took of this absolutely adorable Revolutionary War era frock coat. I should say style, not era as I think it was a costume. If it was the real deal, they wouldn't be selling it for $100 I'm sure, even with all the wear and damage to it.

The back is my favorite part. I'm sure there is a technical term for that detailing but we're just going to call those butt pleats, okay?

Since I was in the area, I hit up the antique shop two doors down but as big as the place was, I didn't see anything that struck my fancy but I did find a dress that inspired me to get cracking on a cute little vintage sundress.

Ignore the belt and focus for a minute with me on the gathered bodice above the waist. Cute, right? Beautiful wide color and an adorable tiered skirt. Too bad I loathe for fabric. Good thing I can sew. I can have one of my very own without having to drape myself in green tiki fabric that will make me look like I'm fighting a losing battle with sea sickness.

And that's really all I have to report. There were more than a few cute vintage hats but again, that tricky problem with photographing things. I guess I'm not sure what the etiquette is there. Will dude think I'm casing the joint? Will he find it odd that I love things enough to snap pictures but not purchase them?

Anyone else have this problem?