The Many Faces of Stinky Pants

First, congratulations to my friend Sarah who won the blog contest. I used random.org, and she was lucky number 7! Her apron will be made and mailed as soon as I finish the socks from the last blog contest. One project at a time, and now that I don't have to work for 10 weeks, I'll have plenty of time!

Now, onto the post. I find Baby Stinky Pants to be very photogenic. I love the funny faces she makes.





Silly



















Delirious


















Adorable













Constipated?














Curious














As you can see from mommy in the background, she comes by funny faces naturally. :)

















Investigative













Bewildered












Judgmental


















Angry.














It's ok Stinky. I'd be angry too if I had to wear a Giants bib, too.

Blog Contest Reminder!

No big news to report other than the fact that I only have 3 and a half days of school left until summer break. Yay for me. Lots of sleeping, knitting, sewing and reading are in my immediate future. 10 whole weeks. Woot.

In the meantime I just wanted to remind you all to enter my blog contest, which will end on Wednesday. Click on this link and leave a comment on the cupcake story post, and you'll be entered! Good luck!















Random picture because I have a problem posting sans photograph. Check out how long my hair is getting! I'm trying to let it grow out.

The Cupcake Story

I have always loved my birthday. It's my favorite day of the year. The one day I feel like everyone should be able to look at me and tell that it's MY day, MY birthday. I expect, and frankly, I demand, that a big fuss be made about it. And when it's not, there's hell to pay. And although this year, I'm not really feeling all the love I usually do around this time of year (perhaps it's because my mom isn't visiting like she has for the past 2 birthdays since I've lived in Texas, or perhaps it's because I'm getting older - ahem, 31 - and just don't care to celebrate that any longer, or perhaps it's because I have realized that it really just is another day of the week, month, year, life), it wouldn't be my birthday without the annual re-telling of

The Great Cupcake Story of 1984
TM (all rights reserved).

Before I begin the story, a few notes of housekeeping. To the J, Marcie, Charlene, my mom, and my ex (who shall remain nameless), all of whom I promised I would never tell this story again: I am sorry. Or rather, tough shit. It's my birthday, and I'll tell The Great Cupcake Story of 1984 (henceforth referred to as TGCSo'84) if I want to. To Wonder, Chicken and anyone else who knows me, and knows me well, and has known me for some time, and DOES NOT KNOW this story: I don't know if I should feel proud (that at least I didn't tell it to them over and over and over again, like I did with some people), or ashamed (that you call yourself my friend and do not know this story, this one tale that has shaped who I am as an adult). And so with no further adieu, I give you TGCSo'84.........

Our story begins, obviously, on May 27th, 1984. I am in Kindergarten. It is my 6th birthday. Of course, I am excited. It's the first birthday I will be spending at school, and since it's May, I've seen all the other kids come and go throughout the year with their cakes and parties and whatnot. Now it's my turn. My turn for all the attention. For the class to sing to me. And for the cupcakes.

Oh, the cupcakes.





















Cherry Chip cupcakes, to be exact. My very favorite. If you've never had them, you are missing out. They are white cupcakes with little artificial cherry bits in them. And you frost them with cherry flavored icing. They are heaven. Assuming you like artificial cherry flavoring, of course. Which I did. So my mother had stayed up late the night before*, painstakingly making these wonderful, delicious cupcakes for my entire class.

*I have no idea if this is true. She could have made them during the day. I don't know for a fact that she stayed up all night, but it sure makes for a better story.

The morning of my birthday arrived, and I was excited. I was all dressed up in my birthday best, and my mom got me ready and on the bus. I loved riding the bus. I loved my bus driver, Mr. Larry. I would tell him it was my birthday and he would be happy for me. Maybe even let me sit up front with him.















I climbed aboard the bus, clutching my JC Penney box full of cupcakes (we were, apparently, too poor to afford proper Tupperware, so and my mom had put the treats in an old department store box), excited to be going to school. I had no idea what was in store for me, on what would be the most traumatic bus ride, on the most traumatic birthday of my life.

If only my mom had driven me to school that day.

My friend Charlene (NOT the aforementioned Charlene to whom I apologized in this blog, but after reading what you're about to read, you will understand why I had a hard time accepting her into my life) came and sat next to me. Charlene, you see, was not in my class. But she lived in my neighborhood, we had gone to nursery school together, and we sometimes played with each other. In other words, we were friends. The following is our conversation, as I have played it out in my head in the past 25 years.

Charlene: What's in the box?

Me: CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!! TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! MY MOM MADE CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!! ISN'T THAT GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THEY ARE CHERRY CHIP CUPCAKES, MY FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!

(it's possible my mom let me have a cupcake for breakfast and I was already feeling the effects of the sugar)

Charlene: I like cupcakes.

Me: ME TOO!!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE FOR MY CLASS AND THEY ARE ALL GOING TO SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!

Charlene: Can I see them?

Me: OK!!!!!! BUT DON'T TOUCH THEM.















Charlene: Those look good.

Me: THEY ARE GOOD! HAVE YOU EVER HAD A CHERRY CHIP CUPCAKE BEFORE? THEY ARE SO YUMMY!!!!

Charlene: Maybe I can have one of yours?

(this, my friends, is where our story takes a turn for the worse)

Me: (hesitating) No......they're only for my class.

Charlene: Please??

Me: (silence)

Charlene: Pretty Please? With sugar on top?

Well that did it. I mean, aside from the fact that she pretty pleased me, we WERE friends, and I did want to share them with her (hell, with everyone, the more people I could get on board this birthday train the better), and I wanted her to taste the wonder of the cupcake, and surely one little cupcake wasn't going to make that big a difference, I mean my mom had made plenty.

Me: Ok.

Charlene: (NOM NOM NOM)

Me: ...........

Charlene: (GULP) Wow that was really good! Thanks!

A moment passes as we continue our ride to school. And then, out of nowhere, the unthinkable happens. The one event that has changed me and my birthday celebrations for the past 25 years. The one thing that could have ruined my entire birthday.

Charlene threw up.

All over my cupcakes.

And me.

And my birthday dress.

And shoes.

Charlene: (RETCH, SPEW, COUGH, COUGH) Oh.......

Me:





















I was inconsolable. Mr. Larry asked what all the fuss was about, and someone informed him that Charlene had just thrown up all over the place. Luckily, we were at school. All the kids piled off the bus, including Charlene, who miraculously felt better. But I just stayed right where I was. Covered in vomit and clutching my JC Penney box of ruined cupcakes.

I don't know how, but somehow they got me off the bus and into the Principal's office, where I continued to sob and mourn my lost birthday. I could not be calmed down. I could not be talked into going to class. Nothing could be done with me, so finally my father was called and he came and picked me up.

The cupcakes, I presume, were thrown in the trash. The class never got to sing Happy Birthday to me. I never got all the attention. And to make me feel better, my dad did the only thing he could think of.















He took me to McDonald's and let me eat it while I sat THIS CLOSE to t he TV screen and watched Sesame Street. And since I was only 6, this did work to calm me down and distract me.

But I never forgot.

I still eat Cherry Chip cupcakes on my birthday (a batch just came out of the oven, as a matter of fact). It wouldn't be my birthday without them. And it wouldn't be my birthday if I didn't tell at least one person that story. I'm glad I got to share it with you.

And now, for my birthday present, I've decided to hold another blog contest. This one will run 1 week, and all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and tell me one of your birthday memories. It can be good, bad, sad, funny, vomit filled or vomit free. It matters not. I just want to hear about your birthdays. The winner of the contest will win an apron, made by me! I will choose the winner randomly.

Good luck! And Happy Birthday to me!

100th Post

Drum roll please........

Here it is!!! 100 posts.

In a year.

Now that I think about it, that's not such a great accomplishment.

Anyway, I'm here to announce the winner of my Blogiversary Contest. I used random.org, and had them choose a number between 1 and 16 and the number was 11.

Lucky number 11, which was Daisymum! Daisymum is my friend Carrie, who I met on Ravelry (the "Facebook" for knitters and crocheters, "really cool people") and have gotten to know through her blog, knit fiber. Click on the link above to visit her blog.

Congratulations Carrie! You've been one of my most loyal followers, and I'm glad you won. Comment me and let me know if you'd like a hand knit item (socks, perhaps?) or one of my bags. You can send me your address via the Rav, and I will get to work on your item right away!

If you didn't win, chill out. I'm going to have another blog contest at the end of the month for my birthday.

Thanks again to everyone for reading my nonsense over the past year.









































































































































































































































It's been an, um, eventful year.

Blogiversary!!!!!!

Happy Blogiversary to me!!!! It was a year ago today that I started this blog. I have to say, I wasn't sure I'd make it this long, and there have been more than a few times that I almost quit. But I'm here, for better and for worse.

I don't have anything profound to say, so it's not really different from any other blog, huh? But I did want to commemorate the occasion with a give-away. Nothing major, nothing fancy, but leave a comment on this post, and I will enter you in a contest to win one of my handmade goodies. I'll choose the winner using random.org, and the winner will have their choice of something knit, or one of my fabulous bags.

Thanks to everyone for reading for the past year, and for continuing to read.

Blogiversary!!!

I am 10 days and 6 posts away from both my 1 year Blogiversary AND my 100th post. So I'm going to try and post 6 times in the next 10 days so that both will fall on the same day. I figure that will make for some awesome poetic justice (Ok, so I don't know what that means but I like the sound of it) AND a blog give-away. Since I promised more of those way back when and never delivered. Add it to the list.

Oh, and just so you aren't anxiously checking back in here every other day hoping for some sort of great mind blowing earth shattering knee slapping news, I did not say, nor do I promise that these next 6 posts will be interesting. Probably the opposite, in fact. So you've been warned.

But, in a blog to come tomorrow (because I'm too busy drinking wine right now to do it), I will update you on my knitting status and many projects, including the sweater I swore up, down and sideways I was going to have done by St. Patrick's Day. I know you won't want to miss that!

Ta for now, hope you all had a delightful Easter!

Gratuitous Cute Dog Shot.

Sam's face always looks like this when we take her in the car. We haven't quite figured out if she loves it or is terrified of it.

Chuck Woolery would be proud

I met a cyber friend today. Lisatastrophies - a reader of this blog and winner of my blog contest and fellow resident of Austin and frequent shopper of The Knitting Nest. Lisa and I had been talking back and forth via our blogs (hers, by the way is hee-LAR-ious, if you haven't checked it out already, what are you waiting for?) and Ravelry. When she won the contest, we both thought it would be fitting that we met each other finally (so she could receive her winnings) at (Duh) The Knitting Nest.

It was kind of like a blind date. But with a friend. Who you sort of know. But not really. You know a lot about this person, but then again, you don't know anything at all about them. I mean, she didn't even know my real name! She talks about all sorts of crazy things on her blog, as do I, and so we know silly little details about each other's lives, but we don't know a lot of big stuff. It was weird.

Anyway, while I was getting ready to go, I kept thinking "What should I wear? I want to make a good impression" (by the way, I decided on jeans and a sweatshirt and was pleased to see she had selected the same outfit) and "I hope she likes me" and "What if she's weird" and "What if she's really crazy and tries to kill me, steal my yarn and dispose of the body in a dumpster?"

This are things you need to consider when meeting an online acquaintance for the first time. Important stuff.

You can all rest easy. The meeting went wonderfully. For starters, we were in broad daylight. Second, it was a public place. And finally, Lisa did not have a third eye, mustache, snaggletooth, bad hair, or any other offensive traits.

She did seem to think that she smelled (she did not) from a friend who had stayed at her place, and I was coughing all over the place and talking in my super sexy sick man voice, so we were kind of even in that regard.

Anyway, as I said, it went well. We chatted for about an hour about ourselves, and then we knit for a little while. She showed me some things, and I showed her some things. It was a good exchange. Then we drooled over some of the yarn at TKN, though neither of us bought any (we did both buy some new DPNs, though).

All in all, a successful friend blind date!

Lisa, are you reading this? I'd love to ask you out for a second date. Let's see who our audience selected for me.....

We'll be back in two and two.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Is just one of the songs you will hear on A Very Chappy Christmas, Volume I - IV. My blog contest is officially over. Thanks to everyone who participated, and if you didn't, then you are a loser. LUH-YOOZ-ERRR. And you will rue the day that you didn't enter my contest. You are remiss.

So you're all probably wondering who the big winner was, huh? I will tell you shortly but first, have you all sampled this product yet? If not, I'm going to insist that you do so immediately, if not sooner.

It's Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. I believe it first came out last year around this time, and you can only get it during the Holidays. My lady claims it's available year round in Bammie, but I'm not sure I believe her. I'm not calling her a liar or anything, but even according to the official Pepsi website says that it's only available for 8 weeks starting in November. So basically, my lady is a liar.

Anyway, it's delicious. It's refreshing. It's delightful. It's a taste sensation for your mouth. And while it is quite enjoyable just served alone, on some ice, it's fabulous excellence when splashed with a little vodka (or as I like to call it, vodker) and a twist of lime. Oh help me Rhonda. Delicious. So please go out and buy some today and try it. I don't work for the good folks at Pepsi, and this is the only product of theirs that I support. I'm a coke drinker, myself.

Now onto the contest. The winners were selected last night by a random number generator. And I promise I did not cheat. To tell you the truth, it was a little anti climatic. I kind of felt like this blog contest was a big deal, and it was.....but only to me, I guess. When I put the numbers in, I kind of felt like there should be a drum roll. And a guy in a tux. With a mic. And some balloons. And maybe one of those big phone booth things with a wind maker that blows money around. Not for the winner of the blog, but for me, just because I've always wanted to go in there and try to grab the money. The people that do it on TV go about it wrong way, and I've always wanted to show the world how it's really done.

But it was just me, in my jammies, and my dogs, and they were passed out on the bed, exhausted from eating the raw hides we gave them. Which, coincidentally, give them the WORST gas you've ever smelled. It's heinous. It'll make a girl really not enjoy her Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. Uck.

So yeah, I told the random number generator to pick a number between 0 and 28, since that was the number of comments, and then I just hit enter, and the number came up. There was no loud music, no confetti, no "Tell her what's she's won, Johnny!" It was a real let down.

Anyway, since I wanted MORE out of the whole choosing a winner experience, I decided right then and there, that instead of ONE winner, we would have THREE!!!! That way, I got to push the "enter" button on my keyboard twice more and really punch up the excitement value over here.

So! The winning numbers were......(drum roll please)...........

9!

27!

25!

Tell them who they are, Cappy!

9 - Reenie - my dear friend from Kansas, who chose O Holy Night by Martina McBride as he favorite Christmas song. Good news, Reenie! That song does appear on one of the CDs!

27 - Sara P - my good friend Sara, or perhaps loyal readers of this blog will know her better as The Cuteness' mother! Sara cheated and selected 3 Christmas favorites, including Silent Night, Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas (I said it first, for the record, though), and Hard Candy Christmas (Dolly Parton). Sara, you'll be pleased to know that ALL THREE of those songs (yes, even Hard Candy Christmas) are included in the Chappy Christmas CDs!

25 - Lisatastrophies! This is a cyber friend, who I met through Ravelry, who has a hilarious blog that you should all go read. Lisa is local (she lives in Austin), but I've never met her. She's been going through a bit of a hard time lately, so I'm super pumped that she won, and I hope these CDs will give her some Christmas cheer. Her favorite Christmas song is I'll be Home For Christimas, which appears on Volume 4, sung by ol' Blue Eyes himself, and it's also one of my very favorites.

So congrats to all who won, and thanks again to those who entered. Reenie and Sara P, I know how to get your packages to you. Lisa, send me a message on Ravelry and let me know how you want me to send your package.

I will definitely do another blog contest in the future, probably for my blogiversary in April, so stay tuned. I'm off to start decorating the house!

I can't take it anymore!!!!!!! Blog contest

I. Love. Christmas.

I love everything about it. The lights, the sound of jingle bells, the smell of cookies baking, the fact that people seem to generally be in a better mood than the rest of the year, the cheesy Christmas specials and movies, the decorations in the stores, the wrapping of the gifts, and most especially, the music.

Oh, the music. I love love love the Christmas music.

Confession: I've been secretly listening to my Christmas CDs since the day after Halloween. I just couldn't wait any more. I would pop them in the CD player in my car and jam out while I was driving. But if someone else were to be in my ride with me, I didn't let on that I had Christmas music already playing. But now I can. Now, I don't care any more. Because Christmas is 40 days away (40 DAYS???!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!!) and I don't care who knows it, darnitalltoheck I am in the Christmas spirit.

I ought to be, I mean, I've been knitting for Christmas since July forcryingoutloud.

So, in the spirit of Christmas, and to help all my bloggy friends out there get in the spirit, too, I am going to hold my first ever blog contest! I'm so excited.

Here's the story: every year for the past 8 or 9 years or so, I like to make something homemade to give to my friends and family with their Christmas presents. The first few years it was these adorable little snowman/Rudolph/angel figurines (which I will take pictures of and post as soon as I get my Christmas decorations out, which I can tell you right now will be next week while I'm off work). This year, of course, it's knitted goods. But for the past 4 years, since 2004, I've made a mix CD of Christmas tunes. All my favorites, every year a new CD with new holiday classics. And I burn up a bunch and hand them out. They've been extremely well received, ifIdosaysomyself, and they're titled "A Very Chappy Christmas" Volumes I - IV.

And so now I'd like to share them with you. One lucky winner will be chosen to receive all 4 volumes of A Very Chappy Christmas, as well as some of my knitty goodness (what, I don't want to say because I want that part to be a surprise, but trust me when I say that you will love it, I don't care who you are, it's damn adorable and I have mad craft skillz).

To enter this blog contest (did I mention I'm so excited to be doing a blog contest and please please please enter even if I know you in person because I want to see how many people I can get to enter, kthanksbye), all you have to do is leave me a comment here on my blog and answer the following question:

What is your favorite Christmas song?

Like, say you had to only pick one, what would it be? Let me know! I want to hear it! There is no wrong answer, but if you say "Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!" I will tell you right now that you won't win because I hate that song.

Just joking. Not about hating that song, I really do, but if that's your favorite, then hey, who am I to judge? Be honest!

So anyway, leave your comment. I will keep this contest open for 1 week - so next Sunday evening, at 7:00 CST. Then I will have a random number generator select a winner from our entries, and that person will receive an early Christmas present! I want to have it in the mail by Thanksgiving so you have plenty of time to enjoy the CDs!

And now I will tell you my favorite Christmas song(s). It was hard to narrow it down to just one, but I have to say that if I simply must pick only one, hands down, it's "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas". And I don't really care who sings it, I love all versions. It's a beautiful, simple and poignant song.

Close runners up are "Do You Hear What I Hear?". "O Holy Night" and "I'll be home for Christmas".

So that's it! Good luck! Oh, and because I am physically unable to post a blog with no pictures, here's one of our tree from last year.

Feliz Navidad, y'all!