the walking {sock} monkey (with extra witch-baby action)

 

she's a bit non-plussed

For a little reference, if you are not familiar, this sock monkey is based on the sculpture Walking Man by Alberto Giacometti. Mister was afraid one might think this was a parody of our President but I knew it was Giacometti right away. SWOON!

i may have gone a little overboard with the arm knitting

if you have followed my blog for any amount of time you may remember that i am a bit inept in the yarn arts unless it involves wrapping it around something...i've taken crochet classes, knitting classes and had one-on-one sessions with utter and absolute failure.

i am a crafter that cannot knit. hipster i will never be.  until now.

 

a friend serendipitously spied a free arm knitting class at one of our local libraries and signed us up (we dragged mr. a-go-go along). we arrived to an after-hours library with a table full of pre-wrapped yarn balls, a dozen or so gals over 60 and us. mr. a-go-go was the only fella in sight.

 

it took me longer than the rest of the group to figure out what was going on but the mister was really good at helping me out in a way i could learn. i think all my talk of multiple intelligences got through to him. anyhow, the first scarf i made was a bit of a disaster but i caught the bug and have since gone a little bit yarn crazy (even converting a person or two).

 

i made a couple scarves as gifts but am a little full up of extras for myself so in the spirit of the new year i would like to offer up one happily woven-up arm knitted scarf to the first reader who actually read through all this blog blather to know i'm giving away something and that they would actually want it (it will be a surprise color and not one pictured here). leave a comment and email me your address and i'll send one your way. for reals! happy new year!

**for those who ask, my lipstick is Burt's Bees Lip Crayon in Redwood Forest.

an urban hike {sometimes i forget i have allergies}

the mister and i woke up this morning and hit the ground running. first stop, farmer's market where we picked up more eggs than you can shake a stick at, an orange pomegranate juice blend, cara cara oranges (my favorite), kale, shallots, carrots, and all that jazz. from there we probably visited every other market in our town to complete our grocery list which I had created using 4 recipes and a perusal of our pantry. the fridge is quite full of par-cooked goods that i need to work on tomorrow. phew!

after browning the pork roast and popping it into the slow cooker with onions, onions, and more onions. and then taking the lid off the twelve eggs i was boiling for lunches this week, we grabbed the mama a-go-go to get our burger on at our favorite burger joint in Los Osos. between the three of us we barely polished off two burgers, two chocolate malts, and a basket of onion rings. i'm full just typing that all out. it's what we always get unless the mama a-go-go is not with  us then we split a burger and a malt and call it a day. they make the best malts and onion rings. the best.

woodpecker!

the mama a-go-go had some errands to run so we took care of them and had her drop us off downtown so i could hit up the craft store for some for reals needed supplies. after chatting with a couple of awesome shop gals we then wandered up to the library before gamely approaching our walk home which is a whistle shy of 2 miles.

i of course took advantage of the walk and took pictures which is what you see here. it was warm and lovely and my feet are tired.

once home we rehydrated with a tall jar of water each before the mister headed out to the garden to prune the peach tree and i wandered about prepping and cutting school stuff with a manic search for the hole punch somewhere in the middle. i found it...eventually...sheesh!

after a dinner of my famous New Year's Rice i finally plopped onto the sofa and pulled the laptop onto my lap for a round or three of Soda Crush, a but of sad news regarding a family friend, and round of photo editing so i could post here on the blog. my goal for this year is to write more whether i am feeling creative or not.

there's a new {sock} monkey in town

can you tell which one it is?

happy new year!

i haven't taken any photos today. or done much. there are no resolutions in my peripheral only intentions and we'll see how that goes. tomorrow i am putting on my grown-up cap and getting my first mammogram along with a follow-up ultrasound on my magical thyroid nodule. sometimes being an adult? not as fun as you imagine it to be. either way, happy 2015! i intend to write more this year.

scenes from the holiday...

new 'do!

abstract gingerbread people

a tree of sorts

handmade trimmings

handmade tree

cookies round 2

a leetle bit of crafting

 

cookies round 3

festive bed

closet purge

traditional xmas cheese platter

cookies round 4

exquisite corpse time

the finished corpses

xmas stockings

sinter claus vistied

bert and ernie 2014 (made by me)

krampus came as well

holiday thrift score

the new sock monkey: walking monkey