I Want It

The sassy author of Stitch N' Bitch, Debbie Stoller, has a new line of yarn called Stitch Nation. They come in alpaca, sheep's wool and bamboo (is that like cotton?). I love, love, love the colors. Especially these:

But, I don't have any knitting projects lined up. Drat! I'll have to think of something. I've been looking at the book The Opinionated Knitter, which I recently got from the library. Maybe I'll find something in there.

Based On My 2009

Based on my experiences in the past year, I would recommend:

• Reading Half the Sky
• Watching Food Inc.
• Visiting Santa Barbara (especially the farmers' market, beach and mission)
• Visiting Bozeman, MT
• Saving more and spending less
• Wearing more lipstick
• Wearing less make-up on your face
• Using sunscreen
• Using eye cream
• Playing with babies
• Acupuncture
• Dancing and singing unabashedly to Michael Jackson. (While you're at it, go out and rent This Is It.)
• Eating more kale
• Wearing converse sneakers
• Investing in relationships - they're worth the time, energy and cost of travel!
• Watching Glee, Castle and The Good Wife on TV (I'm addicted!)
• Playing Bananagrams
• Taking risks!

Things I would not recommend:

• Joining L.A. Fitness
• Spending the 4th of July in a dry forest with a bunch of low-IQ, high-blood-alcohol-content Eastern WA folks with access to way too many fireworks
• Going on a horseback ride in the Dominican Republic (sorry, inside joke)
• Wishing you could change or control others - you can only control yourself and your response to them
• Getting married on a beach - from my keen observation, it's impossible to walk gracefully!
• Over-sharing during wedding toasts. (Keep it short, people! Less is more!)

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Courtesy of the amazing Judy Garland.

Merry Christmas to all! (And especially my sister, Jenni, who is in Phoenix and who we really miss this year.)

May the new year bring us all adventure, joy and peace.

P.S. I was so in love with Judy and this movie, that I had my mom make me a deep red velvet dress for Winter Dance my senior year of high school

Food Inspirations

All sorts of fun food info and links around the Web this week! I wish I had time to try some of these out. I'm half-tempted to get some chestnuts from the farmer's marketing this weekend and make a soup!

Chestnuts

This chestnut soup definitely caught my interest, and it's the one I may actually attempt to make: Chestnut Soup with Crisp Prosciutto.

But, always enlightening NPR also just posted a nice article on chestnuts with some yummy sounds recipes, particularly the Slow Cooker Lamb with Chestnuts.

Incredible Layer Cakes

As much as I love making cake, I don't think I'll ever attempt one of these cakes highlighted in a New York Times article.

Dinner Tonight

How about this? Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms with Swiss Chard

Monday Distractions

The Muppets are IN right now. For the record - they were never out in my book, but it's so awesome to see them around the Web these days. They have a new video in celebration of Christmas:

More Muppets fun with Bohemian Rhapsody (Seriously, watch long enough to hear Monster's solo. So funny.):

Even Saturday Night Live is getting in on the fun:

Spirit of Christmas

Well, what a wonderful weekend! Pete hosted a festive holiday party, and we all sampled some exciting hot holiday beverages including Hot Buttered Rum, Mulled Wine (Glogg?) and Tom & Jerry's (tastes kind of like egg nog). And now, I'm staring past my Christmas lights out the window, and willing it to snow. (Just a little!)

Pete and I just watched Elf and drank cocoa, and while that movie is funny it makes it seem like the "Spirit of Christmas" lies in believing in Santa Clause. The heart of Christmas is love - bringing love into the world through Jesus, if you're a Christian. And that shows in many ways - spending time with family and friends, giving to the poor, etc.

I heard a really touching episode of Story Corps this week that provided one of those grounding moments. And of course, it takes a child to show us all how far off the mark we can stray. Listen to it here: Debbie Watterson and her son Mitchel

Christmas Cruise

We sang carols, drank hot cocoa (with a little something extra), took in the lights and even survived the arctic wind out on the Sound. It was a lovely evening on the Argosy Christmas Cruise, and definitely got me even more in the Christmas Spirit.

And, guess what? It might SNOW here this weekend. Here's hoping!

UPDATE: The Seattle PI Blog has a nice summary of the history of the Christmas Ship Festival in Seattle.