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Luckily, this box only contained one skein of yarn.
The above photo is proof that I occasionally do actual work during the day. That's me getting a package ready to go out.
Good news is that I can finish the other Mrs. Beeton now - that is, once I finish the other mitten which is using my six dpns and the button tab hat I started last night with my sevens. I've been doing a lot of knitting, sleeping and watching season one of "Bosom Buddies" on dvd. And, unfortunately, not doing much cleaning.
Yesterday I was feeling kind of down (money, the lack of and my inability to save it when I do have it is quite sad) and stayed in all day, working on a pair of Mrs. Beetons (which I frogged after getting to the wrist of the first one because, once I put the two cuffs together, I was unhappy with the very first row of the inner cuff - heartbreaking) and watching the Addams Family Season One on dvd. The need for a baby shower gift was still lurking there in the back of my mind. Knocked out by the disappointment of ripping out all of the work on the Beetons, I finally decided just to make an umbilical cord hat. I knew it would be quick knit and it would be easy so I could still keep an eye on Gomez (ah how I had a crush on him as a young girl).
I completely forgot to scribble down the yarn but will add it later. The yarn is Universal Yarn Inc.'s Classic Worsted Tapestry. I bought two skeins of it on a whim (along with two skeins of something else that I have no plans for either) when I went to a yarn shop up north, Ewetopia, back in December - just because I went back to pet it twice. It's the most amazingly soft yarn and look at the bevy of stripes and shapes it created. Perfect for a little boy. The parents are keeping the name of their boy to be under wraps so I titled the photo Addams Hat since that mysterious and spooky family kept me entertained while I worked on it. A few minutes later I realized that was kind of ironic - the father's name is Adam.
Oh, and that bunny? I bought him last Easter at a thrift shop. He's one of my very favorite thrift finds and stays out all year (because even though he came from an Easter display they had set up, he's really not very Easter-y).
Much happiness - it's a three day work week for me! We have next Monday off for Presidents Day so I decided to take Thursday and Friday off so that I could have a five day weekend.
But, thanks to my procrastination, my favorite blogs win not one but two awards - the You Make Me Smile Award and 
Without further ado and in no particular order:
Delly Bean: My oldest blog friend who still blogs (albeit on a different blog than when I first met her but I can't chastise anyone for that, can I?). Her knitting, costuming and now silversmithing talents astound me. She also thinks Labyrinth is awesome and makes a pretty cool sock monkey - both incredibly positive traits in my book. :-)
Hand Eye Crafts: The lovely hostess of The Knitter's Hunk and bestower of the You Make Me Smile Award (and a fabulous prize giver). She was my first Met On Ravelry friend - hooray for Ravelry! And the she loves Alan Rickman which makes me like her just that much more.
Karma Kitties: She knits! She sews! She makes adorable kids! (Okay, that sounds kinda weird but you know what I mean - her little girl is a cutie) She passed the You Make My Day Award on to me and saved me in my recent yarn crisis, thank goodness. The blog world is a fine, fine place.
Bent Objects: Quirky art made of objects and wire. His cleverness never fails to make me smile. I mean, for Pete's sake, he made one using Chapstick. 'Nuff said.
dharma's universe: Another reason why I love Ravelry. Finally!- a blogger/knitter who lives in my town! I love reading about Dayton through the eyes of someone else - and the fact that she's a knitter is pretty freaking fabulous, too!
Miss V's Hobby Adventures: A new crafter of all things. She actually might have Delly beat for oldest blog friend who still blogs now that I think about it btu I'm not sure. She didn't mess around when she picked up knitting recently and her progress is damn impressive. I look forward to a time in the near future when we can knit in the same room over - ahem - a (lotta) drink(s)!
Precarious Tomato: So funny! And she just had a gorgeous baby girl so I'm looking forward to lots of hilarious baby stories.
Rock-Paper-Scissors: I'm always happy to see her name highlighted with a new entry on my reader. Her paper art and, more recently, adorable bears are stunning but I also apppreciate that her blog goes deeper into personal, spiritual issues. She often leaves me thinking about some aspect of my life in a positive, thoughtful way.
Roman Sock: I just found her via Ravelry - egads her amigurumi creations are adorable and I'm a sucker for the cute!
Gluten Free Girl: I only read a couple of food blogs and this is my favorite. I love reading about food just about as much as I love eating it - maybe more actually. This is so much more than a blog about living gluten-free - it's recipes and love and beautiful photos, talks about trips and fresh ingredients that make me wish I lived where such ingredients were more readily available.
The rules for each award are different - one says to pass it on to five, the other to ten. If you read this blog and were awarded, please pass on the love in whatever amount you see fit (unless you passed the love on to me in which case you are excused unless you feel like passing on even more love - it is February, after all)!
Since I had some leftover strawberries and a kiwi, I decided to make a second batch last night. This time I remembered to turn the oven on. I measured my vinegar and egg whites into the bowl and set the bowl a blendin'. The result was beautiful! It just whipped up in no time, white and fluffy. I dipped my finger in to check for peaks and when I placed said finger in my mouth I was met by a shocking, bitter surprise. The meringue was...vinegary.
So I checked my recipe and can you guess what I did? Even though I'd already made the damn things once?
I had added 1/4 cup of vinegar when the recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon.
At least this mistake made me laugh. The night before I'd gotten the steps mixed up in a spaghetti carbonera recipe and mixed the Parmesan cheese into the cream/egg mixture while it was still just raw eggs and cream rather than cooked in with the ham and I felt overwhelmingly defeated. But this one was funny. Thank goodness.
So I started again and when I was finished I checked the oven which had been heating up to 250 for at least an hour...and it wasn't hot enough. I hate my oven. Usually it's hotter than the thermometer reads (hence the slightly burnt chicken barbeque pizza we had for dinner which also left me feeling a bit defeated). I even bought a new oven thermometer thinking that my old once was the culprit. Nope. It wavers between 50 to 100 degrees hotter than what the thermometer reads and it's never consistent. I don't think the oven ever got up to 250 because the Pavlovas never really got crunchy on the outside. They were still tasty but they lacked that marshmallow roasted over the fire taste.
Rick asked me last night if I was a bad cook. No, I'm just a cook with an unreliable oven who can't read directions. I don't think that makes me a bad cook. At least he likes my salads (which, of course, require no reading and no stove). He thinks I have salad talent because I chop everything into tasty bite-sized morsels and use the best dressing (Paul Newman's Sun Dried Tomato - it really is wonderful). Like this is something no one else ever does or possibly could do.
Of course, I'm not going to let on that this isn't true. I very obviously have some faults I have to make up for, after all.
