VT Koozies!

On New Year's Eve, I was in JoAnn's & had about 15 minutes before the store closed early. All their yarn was on sale, so I picked up two giant skeins of orange and maroon. I had Virginia Tech on my mind since it was 30 minutes away from our Bowl game. (Yes, we dominated Tennessee.) I spent Saturday morning in my PJ's, watching a movie, and trying to knit "refreshment" koozies. Ideally, I'd like to make some for my kickball team, but (no offense to any Triple Star Kickers) I'd first like to have a VT koozie to be stylish. The first that I made is the one on the right. You can see I had a bit of trouble on the third row of the VT lettering. I ended up re-doing the orange one three times to make sure I got it right.


The best part: this is probably the least expensive craft I could do. $5 for almost 2,000 feet of yarn. And unlike scarves, I can make it in one sitting.

Creative Gifts & a NYE Ball

I'm not the only creative one in the family. I mentioned that my brother is (still) in the process of making me a wooden dartboard cabinet. My little sister made bowls made of old records (those were the things that were pre-iPod, pre-CD, and pre-cassette tape) and cookies for my soccer-playing, ballet-dancing, and horse-riding cousins.


Elizabeth, the oldest in the picture above, has always been creative at Christmas time. I have a fleece blanket and knit scarf from previous years. This year, she made the ladies necklaces or bracelets (you can see some in the pic below). Her younger sister, Julianna, made fleece hats - can you tell she picked out the fabric? The peace sign & rainbow hats will definitely fit right in in Austin!

During after-Christmas shopping, we found this giant ornament turned New Year's Eve ball. My dad rigged it so that they could drop it while the real ball. I may or may not have gotten a call at 12:10am EST from a somewhat tipsy parent - it must have been a hoppin' party! (I was told no one at my parents' party needed a nap before midnight! Congrats for being great party planners!) I celebrated NYE by watching Virginia Tech cream Tennessee, and then played the Wii with Elizabeth and Leah.

The Kasiske Challenge

If you know me at all, you know that I've worked hard in the past year to get fit and lose some weight - over 20% of my body weight.

To help motivate my parents to head to the gym too, I'm creating the Kasiske challenge. The winner gets bragging rights, maybe an extra green apple when we play Apples-to-Apples, and a better looking body. If you're not a Kasiske, feel free to play along too, you just might not be able to get the bonus Apple card.

Here are the rules:
- For every minute you work out (cardio, weight lifting, etc, but sitting in a sauna doesn't count), you get a point.
- For every week (Sunday-Saturday) you exercise 4 days, you get an extra 5 points.
- As far as Wii games are concerned, they don't count. Boxing may make you sore, and there is jogging in place, but taking the extra step to do a Tae-Bo DVD or getting onto the treadmill is better.
- For every pound you lose (From your weight on Jan 1), that's an extra point. If you're at or near your ideal weight, don't let this deter you from exercising.
- If you quit or give up, you're not allowed to eat Chocolate French Silk Pie until 2012.

There should be no excuses. Be sure to take a before picture because I want to see some results when I head up to Churchville in July!

Let it Snow!

Though it didn't snow on Christmas, I had a white surprise yesterday morning when I woke up. I love fresh snow! Here are some pics from the back porch. I didn't get too many - it was early, cold, I only had slippers on, and icy under the snow. Oh, the joys of brushing off the car. On the plus side, if my dad's first to head out, he's been nice enough to brush off all cars. He must know Santa's still watching.

My Christmas Loot

I thought I'd share a picture of my Christmas loot with everyone. My mom shared her excitement when she found this dresser (antique bird's eye maple which matches my current dresser), but her plans of giving it to me were foiled when I moved to Austin before any gift-giving holiday. A total of three times pre-Christmas Day, my parents mentioned to me that they need to drive to Austin when they visit next time because my gifts won't fit on a plane. With their hints, I pretty much knew I'd finally get the dresser.
The cabinet door sitting in front was made by my brother, which will eventually be placed on a whole cupboard he's building me for my new dart board. I'm excited for it - I'm not the only craft-it-yourself Kasiske! Now, if only I had a garage or game room to put it in...

A panini grill, math items (including 2 of the same Rubik's cube), and a book on redheads were other winning gifts that I got.

I'd like to end this blog with a picture of my mom's favorite gift to the family. My parents are usually the BUTT of our jokes, and we can be real STINKERS sometimes. So for today, I'll let my dad bring in the REAR. Dad, you're a real SHIiiining star. (My grandma reads this blog, what'd you think I was going to say?)

That's a wooden (I can only presume antique) outhouse seat. My mom wants to rebuild an outhouse after finding the outline of an old one behind their garage. I can only hope it's for show and not for use.

Christmas Quilted Runners!

Hours and hours and hours. That's the time I spent finishing the red and tan table runner. I worked hard to get the binding sewed via machine before I left Austin. I snuck a sewing needle and two safety pins into the airport to whip-stitch the binding in place while I traveled home. I finished in time to wrap it and put it under the tree.

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To quilt it, I stitched in the ditch for the center, and hand-drew flowers all around the red border. As suggested by Lane (my quilting coworker), I used a red thread on the top of the quilt and a brown underneath. This way, she can use either side. Per Lauren's usual excitement when opening gifts, she was giddy and giggly about it.

Both my sisters loved their table runners. I completely tricked Alison with her funky runner - she had no clue it was for her. And I'd have to say both runners are extremely different, and fit each sister's personality. Now I can tell you that the bubble gum pink quilted words that I put in her quilt were all inside jokes that we've had throughout the years and in our travels together. Unfortunately, her quilt was too small to include a bit about when we ran out of a bathroom in Ireland and she had toilet paper stuck to her shoe. That's okay though - since we were in a hostel, it probably wasn't QUILTED toilet paper. (Gee, I better get back to Austin soon so I stop making jokes that only my parents will find funny.)

A Very Kasiske Christmas

We all made it back to Churchville safely - those of us who were coming from out of town had a few blips (I had an extra hour in the airport and Brad had to drive back to Baltimore to work until Christmas Eve - we were both home in time to celebrate.)

Traditionally, we get a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. For the past few years, my parents have cut down trees from the yard. Stockings can't be hung by the chimney with care because they're so old they'll fall apart. The chimney & wood burning stove is new though, and I'm enjoying the heat as I type.

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It's not Christmas morning without my mom's cinnamon rolls/sticky buns. They're ooey, gooey, and filled with more sugar than you could imagine. No, Austinites, there is no way I'll ever be able to make them as good as my mom. You'll have to request them when she's in town. That is, unless Alison visits too and eats them all before you can get your hands on one!

Merry Christmas, y'all!