vonknitta

Bob the Christmas tree arrived last night.  He was a bit wet from his trip but when he got into the apartment and his stand he was very thankful.  He’s just hanging out now.  He’s half dressed (lights and the tree topper) and today we’ll find a proper outfit for him.  The cats have so far just sniffed at him and have decided to leave him alone.  Which I think Bob appreciates.

As for the rest of the day, I’m heading over to my friend Marc’s house for a morning of breakfast and budgeting.  I’ve enlisted the help of Marc, my friend Linda and my parents to help keep me on the straight and narrow.  Mom and dad don’t know this yet, but once a week or every other month, I’ll be emailing them my spending for the week.  In some cases I have a feeling it will be just a trip to Starbucks for my knitting group.  My goal is to do this for at least 6 months.  After 6 months hopefully it will become a habit, just like brushing my teeth.  My goal would be to save up enough money for a trip for my 40th birthday, which is about 4 years away.  It’s my 40th.   I want to go big.  So I think saving for four years would be about right.  Right now, I would like to go back to England.  I want to visit a few friends and perhaps, if i plan it properly I’ll be there for the Jane Austen festival in Bath.  OR if mom wants to go, we could do the Chelsea Garden Show.  Maybe while I’m there, I’ll meet up with some of my UK ravelry friends.

If that happens, I’ll have to plan a separate trip for me and dad.  I won’t force dad to go shopping with mom and I again.  Dad, start thinking of places you want to go that you know mom won’t want to go to

I heard rumors, but I didn’t think it was true.  But it is!  A new Holga that uses 35mm film.  There’s 2 versions.   One that has the signature holga “mat.” And another with no mat.  Damn those Lomo folks.  They always seem to know when I’m jones for a Holga fix.

Since it’s coming up on the end of the year I’ve been taking a look at the past year and seeing what I could do in the coming year to make it better. I’ve decided to call this coming year – the year of living cautiously.
What I mean by living cautiously is, paying closer attention to my budget. I did a pretty good job this year, but I want to do better. I keep hearing we’re out of the recession but I personally haven’t felt it. So I will commit to really sticking to my budget. No straying from the budget unless it’s an emergency. And an emergency is sports related injury, car troubles. Not my yarn stash is getting low and I need to replenish.
I’m also calling this the year of cleaning up the WIPs (for all you non-knitters, that stand for Works in Progress). I’ve got at least 4 on the needles right now. The plan is to either frog (rip it all out) entire project or finish it. I will not have more than 2 projects on the needles at once. It sometimes help to have another project to work on when the first project stumps you. And while I’m on the knitting, I would like to start the one big project a month again. I know I have more than enough patterns that I want to do, and I should have enough yarn to at least knock out 2 of them.
And the last thing I’d like to do this coming year is to bring back the one race a month challenge. I got a little sidetracked when I did it last time. So hopefully this year will be a better year for challenging myself.
As for NaNoWriMo, well I’m waving the white flag. I’m done. I didn’t get to 50,000 words. I got to 30,000 and then I just couldn’t get anything else out. I may pick up where I left off after the New Year. But for now I’m happy with what I’ve done and maybe I’ll try again next year.
Santa dropped off an early Christmas present for me… my KitchenAid Mixer! I had no idea that Santa shopped via QVC. Thanks Santa! Next year I’ll be sure to whip up some cookies, bread, cake and a pie all using my KitchenAid mixer!
One last thing, I have a crush on a couple of the guys on Saturday Night Live.
Bobby Moynihan – He plays Guy Fieri and in the most recent episode of SNL he played Jake “the Snake” Roberts on What Up With That? sketch.  He’s just genius.
Jason Sudeikis – He plays Joe Biden. One of my favorites is the Rear Window sketch they did recently or  the Cloud Gazing sketch. His timing is spot on and his delivery is genius. Not to mention, in the “What Up With That?’ sketches, he’s one heck of a dancer.  He’s the one in the red track suit.