Overloaded

I have become a social media junkie lately. Ravelry for my knitting and spinning exploits, Facebook to reconnect and stay in touch with friends from my many moves and volunteer activities, and now Twitter, which allows me to give my loyal followers minute by minute updates on the exciting life I live and dailymile, a social network and training log which lets me track my workouts. Being this connected (and holding down a job along with living my life in the real world) has caused me to slip on the blog updating. But I thought I'd check in share photos from my recent ski trip, annual girls weekend and a recent finished knitting object.

It was a glorious weekend to be in the mountains a couple of weeks ago. Blue skies without a cloud to be seen and perfect temperatures. Absolutely spectacular and it was much more fun to be outside than the two times I tried to ski last season when it was insanely cold and windy. Mary, Phil and I skied Copper Mountain.



We skied together for one run, then they went off to play in the more challenging terrain, while I met up with a ski instructor to take a lesson. I would consider myself a really bad intermediate skier with lots of bad habits, so I wanted someone to tell me how to become a better skier. Money well spent. My instructor was quickly able to identify what I needed to work on and he ran me through drill after drill to practice. I was exhausted when we were done.

That night, we made dinner back at the condo. I learned a new trick from Phil - we stopped by the local grocery store and purchased unbaked French bread dough. It makes the most wonderful pizza dough.



MMMMMMMMMM. That was good pizza.

Sunday morning, we got up and lounged around a bit, but then we set off for a snowshoe hike around the mountain. Needless to say my legs were tired! But it was another day that too good to pass up.



Last weekend my girlfriends from Kansas City (some who have moved away like me), all flew in to Denver for our 3rd annual girls weekend. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful group of friends. We spent the weekend snowshoeing, hiking, eating and just catching up and enjoying each others company.

Hiking at Chautauqua Park in Boulder



Snowshoeing in Winter Park at Devil's Thumb Ranch



A night out



I can't wait for Girls Weekend 2010!

And finally I finished my handspun Clapotis. I had been looking for the perfect pattern for the 3-ply yarn I had spun from roving dyed by my friend Stacy. I am thrilled with how it turned out.



Here is what the yarn looked like...



And this is the fiber on the wheel...



And the fiber in a braid...



And this is two kitties snuggling...

A birthday present

This week I celebrated my 36th birthday. Mary, Phil and Crumpet gave me a scratching post, but I'm not sure who is enjoying it more, me or the kitties. All I know is that the yellow toy mouse is not allowed to hang on top of the scratching post.

Happy St. Distaff Day

Since today is St. Distaff Day, I thought it would be appropriate to blog about some yarn I recently finished spinning. Although unlike the spinners who used to take the 12 days after Christmas off from working, I actually had more time to spin. I was able to finish spinning 8 oz of superwash merino from Crown Mountain Farms. It is approximately 800 yards of 3-ply fingering weight yarn.



It needs to become a pair of socks.

Other than getting some spinning done, December was a busy month. In early December, my friends Arch and Christy came out to Colorado from San Diego. They wanted to play in the snow, so we spent part of the weekend snowshoeing. It was a really windy day, but once we got back in the trees it was a perfect day for a hike.



I also spun some yarn to make a pair of fingerless mitts for a Christmas present. This is 4 oz of black BFL from Gale's Art. It was a dream to spin and knit with.



I also made 8 box bags for Christmas presents and in my rush to get them wrapped and delivered to the recipients, I forgot to get photos.

Christmas in Des Moines was very fun. I spent a day at the Des Moines Science Center with my sisters and Megan and Noah. If you're planning a trip to Des Moines, I'd highly recommend a stop here. It's a neat, hands on place.



We spent Christmas Eve at the farm. You can tell from this photo that there was a lot of activity that night. It's nearly impossible to get a good photo of this many kids, but we tried.



It was a fun night with family.



After a week in Des Moines, I came back to Denver and had the next week off. It was nice to be able to spend some time at home with the girls. They were feeling a bit neglected.



Is Purl starting to look like a bowling pin?



Happy 2009 to everyone!

Nothing says Merry Christmas like dancing kitties!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Vacation Week

Mary and I had decided to go shopping on Friday morning, but after looking through the newspaper ads, there wasn't anything that we just had to have except for the free Christmas ornament from World Market. So we woke up with enough time to get there so we could be one of the first 100 shoppers after they opened at 7 a.m. Surprisingly, there wasn't a huge rush at the door.



I mean, who could pass up an opportunity to get a monkey holding a globe Christmas ornament? Apparently for some, cheap 50 inch plasma screen TVs are more appealing. Go figure. We spent the rest of the day shopping, hitting Michaels, Joann's and the mall and we bought very little. But we did have one goal: to buy the materials to make the box bags described in this tutorial. We hit the Great American Quilt company and found the perfect fabric.





There are a couple of things I'll do differently for the next one I make, but overall, I'm thrilled with how my first one turned out.

Aside from getting ready to host Thanksgiving dinner, I have spent my week of vacation being crafty. I finished the first of a pair of handspun socks.



This was yarn that was spun for me by a swap pal earlier this year. I love how the yarn has striped, and the sock is super soft and warm. I have already made it through half of the second sock.

I've also been enjoying the sunflowers that I bought as a centerpiece for my table at Thanksgiving.



The kitties have enjoyed them too. Ashford seems to enjoy their taste. To increase their longevity, they are safely locked away when I'm not at home to supervise.



And finally, I've been spinning this.



It's superwash merino from Crown Mountain Farms. It's eventually going to be a three-ply sock yarn.

It has been a great week. Tomorrow, it's back to reality.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving! Today Mary and Phil, Phil's parents, Joe and Monica and my neighbor Jinhee were brave enough to join me for Thanksgiving and eat the first turkey I've ever baked.

I started out by brushing the turkey with olive oil, garlic powder, basil and sage.



Xena offered to keep an eye on the turkey when I had to take a shower.



I declined her help and shooed her off the oven, as that is against the rules. In spite of no kitty supervision, the turkey came out great.



Here is me pretending to carve the turkey. Joe took over after the photo was taken.



I also made chicken and noodles. Yum!



And we had a lot of other delicious food including a chocolate tart and homemade pumpkin ice cream, thanks to Mary and Phil, but didn't get photos. It was great day with friends and family.

Nobody Puts Ashford in a Corner

Well, except for Ashford. We had a bit of an incident earlier this week that could have been much more traumatic for the kitty had I not been on vacation from work and home during the afternoon. I was sitting on the couch when I heard something sliding and then a thud. I knew it had to be kitty related so I went to investigate. Purl was sitting next to me and she was immediately ruled out.

The noise sounded like it came from my powder room but a quick inspection found nothing out of the ordinary so I ran upstairs. I found Xena fast asleep on a pillow in the guest bedroom, easily narrowing the noise down to Ashford. I looked in all of the rooms upstairs with no sign of the kitty. I came back downstairs where there aren't too many places for the cats to hide. I went back into the powder room, said her name and heard the saddest kitty cry I've ever heard. So I looked in the only place she could be in that room and found my poor kitty, trapped in the corner behind a shelf.



I thought she would be able to jump out since I've seen Xena do it, but apparently the 12 year old cat with arthritis is a better jumper than the 18 month tortie. The crying got more pathetic, and Purl joined in to the whining, so I freed the kitty by moving the shelf. The day was saved.