Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone! This time last Saturday I was camped out on a beach getting a royal sunburn. Now I am back home in Philadelphia where it snowed most of the day and I am freezing! All that sun and 80° temperatures spoiled me. Ah well, it was worth it. In between sunburn and frostbite, I spent the week with my dad and Ann in California. It was the perfect stop over and there were wonderful get-togethers and lots of family time. So nice not to think about any of the madness of my Philly life. I also got to spend a bit of time spoiling the cat Bubb - who is now 17! and not quite as spry as he used to be - but he can still tell you all about it. 

 

There was also plenty of knitting to be done for Christmas gifts -  or in this case felting. I knitted Ann a pair of slippers that needed to be felted down. Here they are before felting, as knitted.

 

Then they were felted!... uh, into fish, apparently.   

What went wrong?

  

Turns out I hadn't finished reading the instructions which said to sew up the back. Hmph. My excuse is that the instructions were in German and I was so glad I'd made it through the actual knitting instructions (they were not quite right and I needed to adjust a lot) that I missed the heading where it said "finishing".

 

But the front parts fit perfectly, so I improvised:  

 I just sewed the sides forward and now Ann has some very toasty slippers. We want to get some non-skid stuff for the bottom. I hope JoAnn's carries something along those lines. 

 

Aren't they cute? I want a pair....But first there are Daddy's socks to be finished.

 

Poor Daddy. There was lots of trying-on needed with these. I found a great sock pattern, but without the actual foot and never having knitted these before, it's tricky to get the size right. The first sock was too long in the foot so it was a little loose. I knitted the second sock 1/2" shorter and now the heal is just right. So then the first sock needed to be taken apart and re-knitted.

 

So Daddy only got half a pair of socks for Christmas - I suggested we could leave them as booties - even tried to sweeten the deal with pompoms for the back. But that suggestion was not met with enthusiasm.

Now I am back home trying to adjust to "real life" and all of those responsibilities. But I took a red-eye - (gosh those are miserable flights) arrived home and got about half an hour of sleep. I still feel like I'm on the plane and its going up and down... so it's been a slow day.

My wonderful tenants are moving out today as well, which is very sad. They were really great. We had a nice talk and got caught up on all of their plans. Things seem to be falling into place nicely for them. Let's hope the same happens for me with a new tenant!

My kitties are also glad I'm home. I didn't get the cold shoulder but Jacques did pee right on my shoes - so maybe that's was his "welcome back" gift. 

 

Swee'pea got a belated Christmas gift he was very excited about - a sheet of newsprint paper! A sheet of paper on the floor is the best. It must be because (as AnneMaree put it) he is now half a millimeter higher than the rest of the floor.

 

All Jacques wanted for Christmas was to GO OUT! So in spite of the snow, I let him out and he was so happy he didn't even complain very much. He stayed out for about an hour and when I let him back in and he seemed happy to follow me around the apartment purring. 

 

And finally, yours truly turned another year older. Ann and Daddy took me to my favorite Mexican restaurant, El Cholo and you get to wear the birthday sombrero. Thought you might like to see the silly picture. I need to find the picture from my 18th birthday. It might be the same sombrero.