Keepin' Granny Off the Street

Are you "quirky but stylish, awful but nice, alcoholic, enraged, creative, insecure, skillful, tall, small, perhaps you’re cross-eyed with a huge nose, you’re beautiful but you’ve got hairy feet, you do know bats and maybe you talk to clothes pegs"? Then I have the place for you... to design your own beanie.

First, check out their video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwd-ogAgKm8. After you've got the basic idea for the concept, check out their website at http://goldenhook.fr/en/home. The fun part isn't designing your granny-knitted hat. It's choosing which granny you want to knit it for you. You can even send your granny-of-choice a message.

Of course, the scary part is reading the granny bios and realizing that one of the grannies is just 48 and that another has been married since kindergarten. Ack! Imagine going through puberty with your husband.

In Loo of Reading

For a while, I was taking a book to the gym to read while I was on the aerobic-type machines exercising away. I finished a 600-plus page piece of 19th Century Russian literature partly while on the treadmill. But after seeing an article that said reading while exercising lessens your exercise session's intensity, I tossed the book for the iPod.

For a while, my reading was limited to waiting time. You know, waiting on line at the DMV, waiting at the doctor's office, waiting for your kid to lumber out of school to the car for carpooling to the after-school activities. Now, my waiting time is filled with knitting rather than reading.

I need to get back to my book. It's a good book. I'm keeping in the theme of 19th Century Russian lit but opting for a shorter tome this go-'round. I hate to do it, but I just might have to move my book to the ladies' room.

Stitch 'n' Bitch

Have you noticed that when women get together to knit that we tend to gossip too? Oh, yeah, we do. I guess they're going to revoke my girl card since I'm letting secrets out.

My Day in Pictures

Yes, knitting was one of today's activities. And as you can see from the picture at left, alas, no fire in the fireplace. Not much work was completed on the project, but it's coming along nicely. Don't I look very relaxed in my chair with my needles? That's because I enjoyed what's in the picture to the right earlier in the day.

Unlike the picture, though, sleep was one of today's pleasures. After two very late nights of a Girl Scout sleepover and movie night on the 30th and dinner and a play on New Year's Eve, I really needed a good nap. Don't we all love catching a cat nap every once in a while? Especially when the sun is warming your back as you read a new book.

Ah, heaven in a couple of hours. I can't tell you how refreshing it was to stretch out on the couch, toss a warm fuzzy blanket over me and snuggle up with one of the kittens.

But soon, our obligations flooded in again in the form of an open house at our neighbors' house across the street. Even though we weren't the oldest couple at the party (the kids stayed at home), we appeared that way since our youngest is older than most of the other children in our neighborhood. My husband likes to call me his child bride.

Yep, that's right. A true Southern New Year's dinner, complete with baked ham, black-eyed peas, and collard greens. It's the last celebration of the Christmas holiday but the first celebration of 2009.

My New Year's resolution is to entertain more. If I could, I'd have a party of some sort every month. Maybe I should include tomorrow's gathering. I've invited over a dozen women (and one guy) for a knitting session. Hen Party! Look out!