time for the halloween party

My amazing friend, Craft Queen, decided to spend the entire day preparing for what would be a spooky evening of Halloween fun . The table was set with a crimson red tablecloth topped with a midnight black cheesecloth table runner, sprinkled with skulls and bones confetti.  On top of the runner were three black skull candles that would "bleed" when lit.  The chandelier had apparently been infested with spiders within the twenty- four hour period, evidenced by the sticky spiderwebs dangling above our heads.

For dinner we had goblin guts (baked cheese ziti), goblin fingers (bread w/ walnut fingers), bat hearts (dates wrapped in bacon), goblin eyeballs (green olives), and cider and sangria for beverages.  For dessert, there was a "cheese"cake topped with little brown mice who were going to quickly meet their demise before the evening was through.

All of us were in costume.  Our gang arrived as the monster family, dressed in monster hoodies that Mr. Tailor sewed up for everyone.   Craft queen and her gang were dressed as Dorothy, the Good Witch- Glenda, and the Wicked Witch.  Her sweet husband was a Plummer who was there to save the day just in case the witches needed help around the kitchen.

Here are some of the pics:              

are you scared yet?

the Wicked Witch clearly instilling fear into the Daddy Monster

every Wicked Witch must strut her stuff

bleeding skull

all dressed up

evidence

witch toothpicks

goblin guts

goblin fingers

goblin eyeballs

cheese cake with mice

Mr. Hero eating mouse

yum

Note:  All pictures from this post were taken by Mr. Tailor.

in the mail...

Man, chemistry has really been kicking my butt this semester and lately, I've been feeling really lucky to have been able to finish anything else.
However...
My little sister's Spring Forward socks by Knitty are finally finished and in the mail!  After knitting these babies up, I really have a qualm about their title.  They should really be called, "Jump Back" socks for all the times I ended up frogging them.

( Yes, this is the same sock that was shown in an earlier post. 

The second one looks exactly like this one.  Really.

Well maybe not exactly but if you were standing across the room

and happened to see them, you'd possibly think, those socks look exactly

the same size.) 

Note to self:

1.)  Don't think that you can work a tricky sock pattern while chatting with your girlfriends. Yeah, you'll be so happy that you were able to multitask for 2 hours but the result will end up in frogging 2 hours worth of work.

2.)  If the stitches on your needle don't add up to what they should be, DO NOT think that by simply getting a little bit creative with your increasing and decreasing that the sock will still turn out pretty.  THEY WON'T and your result will be....frog it.

3.)  Do Not, and I mean DO NOT EVER post a picture of the socks that you are going to send to your sister for her birthday, before her birthday.  With all this frogging, I would have gladly kept the deformed socks for myself and sent her the other pair I've been making.

Other than that, this is a great pattern and a lot of fun to knit up and hopefully she'll enjoy wearing them. If not, I'll be flying out to AZ to do a little butt kicking of my own.  She's my sister, I'm the oldest, and I have rights!

while I waited

Little girl with your matted fair hair
I saw you today for the first time
playing "momma" with your little brother.
He followed you everywhere on the sidewalk
in front of your broken house,
wearing only his diaper and
dirty face.
I saw your daddy, too.  Heard his angry, vile words.  What did you do to
get him so mad?
Do you even care?  Or are you used to his usual
tone of voice?
You caught me watching you.  Did you see me crying?  You must have sensed my concern for you-
felt that I was a friend.
Is that why you waved to me and gave me a smile
before you were thrown inside your house?
Your father's face perplexed.

Little girl with your lovely fair hair.
You seemed happier today.  Playing with your friends.
Your brother is there, too.
Autumn fills the air.  Now he is fully dressed in his little green sweater and
well used, black, toy gun.
The game today seems innocent enough.
"Hide," you say.  "He's going to kill us."
The ten year old chubby boy with the crew cut
chases you into the hollow underneath
the lilac bush.
You escape but your little friend of five doesn't.
He grabs her and throws her down.
Takes her by the head.
Bang
Bang
Bang onto the ground.
"Stop that!" I demand.  "Don't hurt her head."
He looks at me with fear and is ashamed.
"Sorry," he replies in a quiet, little voice.
"Don't apologize to me," I say.  "Let her know it."
"Sorry," he says to the little girl who is too busy running away to hear.

But your brother did.  He came to my window with his well used, black, toy gun.
And pointed it fearlessly at my face.
Letting me know who was in charge.

kitchen talk

Last night while getting supper ready, Mr. Tailor shared with me a brief experience he had while at our former church one Sunday.  This little comment led to a huge discussion that later involved all the Ninjas in our household- even the King Ninja- Mr. Hero.  The conversation went something like this:

"You know Mom, Mr. So and So went to the restroom one Sunday, while I was in there, and as I was at the sink washing my hands, I saw him come out of the stall and walk right on out of the restroom without washing his hands."

"What?"  I asked in surprise (knowing full well the handsome Mr. So and So).

"Yeah, Mom, I even asked him why he didn't wash his hands."

"You did?" I asked, even more surprised at my son's forwardness.

"He told me that he had decided that if he didn't touch it, he didn't need to wash his hands".

To which Mr. Tailor responded to Mr. So and So with a flabbergasted look on his face.  Seriously, how could he have replied to that? 

Naturally, being the only Lady in this house, and having a very curious mind, I just had to ask:

"Well, don't you have to touch it to, you know, get it out?"

"No, Mom. There are ways." replied Mr. Tailor, in his usual "don't you already know this stuff?" kind of voice.

"Really?" I respond.  At this point, all of the Ninjas have caught wind of this conversation and have to share their expertise on the matter.

" So how do you do it?" I inquire- giving them my full attention.

To which Mr. Ninja (our five year old)  replies in all goofiness;

" You just zip down the fly, hold your arms out like this (demonstrating a spread eagle) and wiggle. "

Mr. Reporter then stated very matter of factly that you just puff out your chest and then everything will fall right into place.

Again, I had NO IDEA.  No idea that there were ways and methods.


Which in considering life skills knowledge here, this could be useful.  Not to me, granted, but for a guy, yes.  Definitely useful.  And as long as they put the toilet seat down when they are finished and WASH THEIR HANDS...

It's all good.

talking yarn

Sometimes when working with yarn, the yarn will tell you who it belongs to.  This doesn't always happen, but in this case as I was working with the Araucania yarn I purchased in NY last month, I knew that it just wasn't going to be mine.


My sister in AZ just turned 35 a couple of weeks ago.  She has been an amazing example to me as she has moved forward towards her goal of finishing her degree in Math. 


Math of all things! 


 And she doesn't want to teach (although she is teaching right now as a tutor).  She wants to get her fingers wrapped around applied mathematics so that she can solve the world's problems related to infectious disease and such.  The world will make good use of a mind and heart as hers.


Here is what she gets:

The sock pattern is Spring Forward from Knitty

... as soon as I finish "frogging" the heel of the second sock.  In my enthusiasm to finish the second sock, I placed the decreases of the gusset in the wrong spot.  So this is going to take a little longer than anticipated....

I'm sure she wouldn't have even noticed.  Yet with that mathematical head of hers, maybe she would?