Christmas Eve 2011

Our family tradition is to have a nice, formal dinner on Christmas Eve. This year we decided to make it a bit more low key. It was low stress and lots of fun! Here are some pictures to document the night...

We went on a morning run. Crazy. I still can't believe I had the motivation!

Three soups (my dad & bro made the Tomato Bacon Basil, Matt & I made Baked Potato, and Mom made the Moroccan Lentil. All were delish!

New tradition -- good tequila before the guests arrive.

Pecan & Kahlua brie. So so good!

Emily and I -- NewlyWives!

My lovely mother, tired of me taking pictures. :)

Gift from Kaitlyn, Davis' girlfriend. She painted the pitcher so it is a chalkboard. Awesome!

New Christmas pajamas -- Santa always brings them on Christmas Eve!

There you have it. And have no fear... there are many more pictures to come. Some from my NEW CAMERA as well! :)

Christmas in the City

Matt and I were excited to spend Christmas in the Bay Area this year. We drove up to my parents at 3:30 in the morning on Friday. Whew. We made it by 9:30 (no traffic) and had a fabulous weekend. Friday night we went to the City (San Fran) with my brother and his girlfriend, and my cousin (and other half of NewlyWife) and her husband. We ended up meeting up with our other family in the City to see Santa. Here are some pictures from that night!

Also, you will see my digression between the pictures about the missing pictures and sucky blogger. I will soon be switching to a self hosted site through wordpress. A hassle, but I'm not putting up with the crappy photo editing / uploading / album storage anymore. So. I need a new domain name. I can do megncreations.com. What do you think of that? Any other suggestions? I have been thinking about this transition for a long time (because I am no longer a crochet specific blog), but this was the final kick in the pants. Any ideas for the name?

BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into the City. Excitement!

[Right here is where you were supposed to see all of these cool pictures of us in front of the Macy's tree and with Santa, but it's not gonna happen. Google has switched it's images into Picasa - Google Plus and editing just does not happen. So the pictures are all sideways and I cannot get them to rotate. Bummer. It also means I will be switching blogging platforms soon.]

Bart coming home -- tired faces! That's my bro and his lovely gf

Christmas Gifts

I finished up a bunch of projects as Christmas gifts. To read more about them and their recipients, check out their project pages.

June 15 - Pirate Can Cozy for my Bro

October 1: Diamond Ridges Hat for Kaitlyn (the bro's girlfriend). Plan is to have a better picture on the project page. So go check it!

September 27: Openwork Crochet Hat for Alex (little cousin)

After I made it, she let me know she doesn't wear hats that often. So she received this instead...

January 5: Gina's Shells Scarf

I also made October 6: Octoberfest Doily Blanket for a friend's new baby. Which I am passing along soon!

Lucky her! Anyone want that white hat?

December

I wanted to share a few pictures from this last month, before it gets too far away! Our Christmas season was a bit crazy. We celebrated on Wednesday, just the two of us, Thursday with his family and then Friday through Tuesday in the Bay Area with my family. I have other posts for the trip.

Most important picture here -- the third one! It is the letter that Matt received when he was accepted into the fire academy!  Yay!

"Christmas" at our home, Matt made me wall- mountable pots

Skweaks (aka girl cat) obviously loves (or is rather apathetic about) Christmas

Matt's Acceptance into the Fire Academy! Woo!

Assortment of Christmas cookies that I gave to friends

Our city. How gorgeous is it??

Check out those muscles -- and he is doing the dishes! Double win!

Matt was excited to open up Tony Hawk for Wii!

Insta-Tues

I'm back with more Instagram pictures. Sadly, I cannot share many of the crochet ones, because they are all gifts! Oh well.  Here is what else is going on in my life...

A fun twisty hairdo. Thanks, Pinterest.

Napping kitty and Christmas decor (and La Push blanket)!

The other napping kitten with our Christmas village in the back

Coffee & Tea from our date to the Apple Farm

We're training for a 5k. It has actually been fun (also, cold)!

I made myself some business cards the other day!

Friday baking -- Brown Sugar Springerle with cookie stamps

Saturday Baking - Baklava Tassies, Spritz  Trees & Wreaths, Mint Meringues, & Andes Mint Cookies. Wow.

What's new with you? Doing any baking in addition to crafting? Also, I know that many of you follow my other blog, Newly Wife, so I try not to post things here that will show up there (but you can learn how to make the meringues over there today)! I cannot wait to show you all more crocheted items after the 25th!

Christmas-time is here!

Okay. I love Christmas. But you already knew that, right? Well, I finished my next Christmas toy. This holiday penguin was shipped out to a friend who we called penguin, back in college. I had to wait to post this until she received it! :) What do you think of this little guy?

I think he is just adorable -- plus he likes to hang out with our friend Rudy. :)

As per usual, check out the original post for my recap, more pictures, and a link to the pattern!

Wedding!

Matt and I were recently in a friend's wedding. I stole a few pictures from the photog (hi, Laur) to show you all. They are crummy because I used the screen shot + crop option for saving. :) Good thing I'm tight with the photographer. Sad thing I don't have larger size images (for me) because she is so so busy with weddings (good for her)! Anywho, here they are:

And no. I am not pregnant. Although it may look like it.

See what I mean? But it's okay. I can dance with the best of them. No matter how prego a dress makes me look!

Let's end with one final picture... one that Lauriana (the photog) sent me. How cute are we? :)

Hope you all are doing well on this Monday. And. Seriously. Let's not let this post finish without pointing out how gorgeous the bride is and the lovely combo of teal and orange that she chose. Thanks for including me in your special day, Jen!

Purple People Eater

Okay so these are wrist warmers, but I typed purple and the rest just came out. So last January my cute little cousins asked me for a few crocheted items. They will be getting them for Christmas this year! haha So. Start with a little of this action...

And you end up with these beauties (and yes it is imperative that your nail polish matches your current project)...

So cute! I love the pattern. They are reversible. Love them. Oh yeah, they were my challenge pattern from January 24 last year. Oh man. In a few short weeks it will have been two years since I started this craziness. Wow.

Instagram Thursday

I have some pictures of a finished project that I REALLY want to share with you, but I think my friend / the recipient reads the blog. So... we must wait a few more days until her package make it to her! Here are a few snippets from the last week or so.

Our tree is up and it feels like Christmas!

We painted Christmas gifts... Matt is definitely the artist of the family!

After painting ceramics, we had a little sushi date. This was delish!

The ladies on my dad's side of the family... and what happens when an iPhone catches part of a camera's flash! This pictures cracks me up!

Matt took an evening nap with Skweaks lounging on his lap

Apparently we make great beds! haha And my pants are not that short, they are apparently just pulled up weird. Weird.

Hope you enjoyed these photos. I was going to post one of a work in progress, but I just finished, so I will try to post all of the pictures tomorrow!

Finished Baby Blanket & a Visitor

I started this baby blanket last year. It kept getting thrown into the back of my crochet basket, because it did not have a recipient. A few months ago, I decided that I need to just woman up and finish it. Someone will have a baby that I can give it to. Or I can donate it (duh!). So I got out my hook, bought a second thing of yarn (because I ran out) and finished this project. Now, if only I hadn't started three more projects..

That leaves my current works in progress at six. Oy vey! Oh well, I'm going to be thankful that I finished this (because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, after all) and move on. Oh yeah, and update the project page for this sweet little blanket! Wanna know who else wanted to get in on this photo shoot...

Kitten! haha She just walked right on through my photoshoot. She really just wanted to get to the rock so she could scratch her back.

Hubs is looking at her thinking "what a weirdo," meanwhile, she must have spotted something in the distance.

Oh how pets can give us so much joy. These kittens are super quirky, but I LOVE them! :) Oh yeah, and they are over two years old, so they are definitely not kittens anymore. But they are still cute and cuddly!