Catching up on Christmas

Wow, I totally disappeared over the holidays, didn't I?
I assure you I had a lot of fun. I need to do a big long picture post. As it stands, I don't feel like it right now.

Christmas Eve I got some yarn in the mail. I'm going to make this sweater!!
So excited. I've never made a real sweater yet.
So guess what I did Christmas day? I crocheted. All. Day. Long.
Christmas night I finished the back of the sweater. It looked kind of small.
I measured it. It came way short of the size it was supposed to be.

Pretty much ruined my night. Totally ruined the next day. I couldn't stop thinking about how I had spent all of Christmas day working on something that's going to have to be undone. I haven't unraveled it yet, but I've let go of the pain. ;-) I can't decide if I should just be more conscientious about my tension, or up my hook size - cuz my gauge swatch was spot on.

The Looneys came over on Christmas Eve and we shared finger foods and exchanged gifts. That was awesomely fun. I say, this year was the best gift-giving year for me. Practically everything came from Etsy, and everyone was thrilled with their stuff. Then Katey, Laura, Alicia and I took silly pictures of ourselves. For as long as we've been friends, Katey and I have very few pictures of us together, so... yay! we have one now. Even though I'm smiling weird. lol


Christmas Day we leisurely opened gifts in the morning, then headed over to Mema's house in the afternoon for Christmas Dinner. So yummy. I got my cooking genes from Mema and Mama. They're the best.

So, it was an uneventful, relaxing, and fun holiday. Just how it ought to be. Wally (that's Laura, for the uninformed) and I took a picture in front of Mema's tree. (which is always lovely - She and Alicia have been the official Mema's Tree Decorators for the past couple of years)


As for today I've made 2.5 hats, put away some of the Christmas decorations, and made peanut butter rice krispie treats for the New Year's Eve party at the Looneys' house tonight. We're going to go over this evening and eat more junk food and play games and be crazy again. Yay!

So, Happy New Year to all my friends out there, and perhaps I'll actually get around to doing a New Year's post too... Or maybe that should wait til I post Christmas pictures? Or not. I don't know. We'll see. :)

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!!

Caitlin

More Christmas Fun

Hello people!
It's a week til Christmas!! I'm so excited. I may have said that already. :D

Last week was the Sunday school class Christmas party. Anna Leigh and I teamed up to decorate a table. We got there and the other two teams already had their tables done, and quite splendidly at that. It scared me. lol But Anna brought some stuff from her family's Christmas village, and I brought some lights to illuminate it, and it turned out really pretty. So, yay!


We did a white elephant gift exchange, for which I brought a radio-football-pillow. Emily opened it, but I got it back from her when my turn came. Which means she was forced to open my package... and we won't even go there. Broken tiles, squished cans, duct tape, multiple knives... I'm not even kidding. Thank you Matt. lol But it was tons of fun. For the rest of us. ;-) My Sunday school class is a bunch of awesome people. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that Emily ended up getting the football back from me at the end of the game.


For the record, catchphrase is underrated. Best game ever. Actually, I guess it depends a lot on the people you're with.

"If you're not short, you're ....?"
"undecided!"
...**puzzled**
"You know - if you're not sure, you're undecided!"

The last few gifts I ordered are coming in the mail this week!! AH! The anticipation of giving all these people all this stuff is getting to me. :D

I hope you liked the pictures... I haven't had a picture post in a while. Now, I think I'm going to go to bed. I wish you all a happy weekend, and a merry Christmas. Again.

Caitlin

P.S. Check out how long my hair is getting!!

We Have A Winner!

So, I got home too late Saturday night to do anything but go to bed.
Then I was busy all day Sunday.
Then on Monday I just didn't feel like randomly numbering a page 1-26 and writing all your names.

But I have done so this morning, as you may now see:

See there? Completely random.
Then I went to the Random Number Generator and asked for a number between 1 and 26.
Are you ready for this?Dun dun DUUUUN! Numbah TEN, you are the WINNER!
What do you know? Number 10 is my friend Alyssa L. from church! GO ALYSSA!

Why is giving stuff away so fun? If I could afford it, I think I would do it more often. lol
Maybe I'll do a New Year's giveaway too.

So, congratulations Alyssa! And thank you SO much to everybody who participated. It still makes me kind of sad that only one person can win. :( I like all of you! Which means you'd better come back and try again when I do my next giveaway. :)

Happy Monday!

Caitlin

Time for some Christmas Fun!

Today's gonna be a good day.

In a couple hours I'm leaving to see a movie with my friends. The Blind Side, in case you were interested. And then the Michael's in Conyers had better have that yellow yarn I need, or I'm going to be in trouble. (on the bright side, YAY for Christmas sales!)

This evening is my Sunday school class Christmas Party. YAY! The only problem is that I don't have a white elephant gift... yet... heh...

Anyways, it's going to be a long and super fun day, I think.

Don't forget - it's the last day of my giveaway! Participation has been WAY lower than it was earlier this year, but that's ok, because it gives each of you a better chance. ;-) SO! Pick your fave and leave a comment!

I'll just go ahead and apologize for not having my new stuff added to the shop yet. I'm currently working on some brown gloves, and I've already finished a couple of unique stripey beanies and pretty wool scarves. I just haven't been able to photograph them yet. meh! And now I really don't have time to get them up for Christmas.

Oh well! Enter the giveaway here, and I'll declare a winner tonight, if I can stay awake. =)
Merry Saturday!

Caitlin

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday afternoon, my perfectionist self completely redid all the lights and ornaments on our christmas tree. I feel kind of guilty about it - the kids did it all themselves last week, but it was bugging me, and now it's not. Afterwords, I decided to spend some time out in the sunshine.

Belle the Dachshund went out with me, and we played with sticks and all that sort of thing for a while. She settled down to gnaw on a nice little branch, and I got a crazy notion to do something I hadn't done in years.

Every time a car went past I couldn't help but wonder if they suspected what I was about to do.
I don't really know how long I was out there, but progress went pretty fast.
I raked up a big pile of leaves from our front yard.
Then I stood in front of it and fell backwards.

I swished the leaves around with my arms, and then settled in, leaves from either side spilling over on top of me. It was wonderful. The spicy smell of crisp autumn leaves surrounded me as I looked up at the sky through the bare branches of the oaks.

Some of my clearest memories from our old home in Jonesboro are of playing outside in the Fall. We had 6 or 7 pecan trees in the front yard, and Laura and I spent hours stomping on pecans for a "snack", or making nests and forts in the leaves. I remember being completely immersed in leaves, burrowing underneath what seemed like monstrous piles of them at the time.

In Mansfield, we didn't really have any leaves. Just pine needles. One year, back in the woods behind the dog pen, we raked up a small leaf pile - half of it was pine needles. It was a disappointment, and we didn't try again.

So... Saturday afternoon with nothing to do and a vast expanse of crunchy, spicy leaves before me,
really - what else was I to do?

Giveaways are Fun - Christmas Edition!

In the spirit of Christmas (and self-promotion) I am henceforth issuing the decree for a second CaitiJo Giveaway!!

**crowd yells huzzah!**

I thought about picking one item (such as the elfin slippers -wouldn't those be a great Christmasy thing to pick?) to give away, but then I remembered that I had already made this poster that says "pick your own prize" ... I didn't want to make a new poster, and I guess people like having a choice... So.... there we have it!

Lots of other people usually give you about 5 ways you can get an entry, but I like to be simplistic. Here's how it's gonna go down:

1) Just leave a comment saying what you would pick should you win.
2) Saturday evening, December 12, I will pick a winner by using a random number generator.
3) Winner will be notified, and congratulated publicly on my blog.

Should you win and find yourself thinking "darn! I should've said elfin slippers instead of black gloves," or, "no fair! that crazy awesome beanie wasn't listed when I posted my entry!" no worries. Changing your mind is allowed. ;-)

So. Take a gander, pick your fave, and enter to win a Christmas gift for yourself!
(Or for a friend, if you're feeling generous.)
Spread the word if you feel so inclined.

Happy Entering!!
-CaitiJo

Improv Chicken Pastina is Good

That was a very random title.
However, it is the subject of this post, so maybe it's not too random.

I've never cooked pastina before. 4 o'clock came and I didn't know what to do for dinner. Frozen roast wouldn't cook fast enough. Frozen chicken would! So I pan-seared some frozen chicken with a couple cloves of garlic. (the great thing about cooking chicken that way is that it makes it so flavorful. chicken likes to be bland sometimes.)

While it was cooking, I decided to use that pastina that's been sitting in the pantry looking so cute. I went down to the basement and came back up two or three times in an effort to think of something to go with the chicken. Soup was not an option. Well, it was, actually... but I didn't want soup. But I did want pastina. And chicken.


So. I chopped up some carrots, celery, bell pepper, and onion suuuuuuper finely and sauteed them. Then I cubed the chicken and mixed everything together - chicken, pastina, and veggies. It was good, but it needed a little more flavor. So I made a little bit of sauce - chicken mushroom sauce with a splash of soy sauce - and poured it in. Perfect.

Then I served it with steamed cabbage and proceeded to be in awe of my improvisational cooking skillz. Thank you, mother. :)

Now I'm going to go wrap presents and listen to my new Louis Armstrong Christmas CD.
If only I had some cocoa!

What sort of Christmas music do you enjoy?

Caitlin

Christmas is coming!

With a cabinet full of secrets and a whole stack of Christmas CDs that have been waiting all year to be recommissioned, Christmas time is definitely here again. Not to mention the gray rainy weather.

I need to go to the post office today. Maybe I'll go ahead and go to Michael's to pick up some yarn and get some gift wrap while I'm at it! Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I will. I have like 5 Michael's coupons, and some of them are going to go to waste because I only have 3 days to use them.

I just printed out these amazingly cute gift tags from ConnieK - whom I don't actually know, but I "follow" her blog. Sadly, they all turned out pink. :| I would say that means the printer is out of order. So, I'll need to borrow somebody's printer, because I plan on using them. ;-)

Lately I've been thinking of doing another giveaway. What do you think? If I do, should I pick an item to give away, or should I do it like last time and let the winner pick?

My paragraphs mostly begin with I, and it annoys me. However, I have a really hard time finding different ways to begin them. :P

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to do. Which reminds me, somehow, that I also have new items to list in my Etsy shop. It doesn't look like the nasty weather is going to let me get any good photos, though. Perhaps later this week.

Have a super great Wednesday! I will. Church tonight! Yeah!
So. Bye!

Apparently, blogging has become a once-a-week thing for me. Bummer!
So here's the deal on the latest happenings.

I will not, in fact, be participating in the Christmas Marketplace at the PCA. After stressing out about it, I realized that there is way too much stuff going on this week for it to work out anyways. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday different members of the family have to be at church in the evenings. Plus, Mama's working. Soo... that would have made participating virtually impossible anyways. So I dropped out. Sad, but kind of a relief.

Etsy's been fun... I made a couple of sales over the weekend (which I need to make/ship today), and am wrapping up the last of my Christmas trades. Trading has been awesome. And I just gotta say, this shop is still my favorite. Not that I'm dissing anyone else... just throwin' that out there. :P
And I'm working out a trade with these people, too. Exciting!

Now I'm eating some oatmeal. Courtesy of myself. It's good.

In other random news, I'm pretty much going crazy posting links from Stuff Christians Like all over Facebook. New favorite blog! Satire = awesome. Christian Satire = super awesome and hilarious. Especially when it's one of those "been there, done that, now let's look back and laugh at it" things. You know, stuff like saying "I was just flipping channels" when you watch something you shouldn't, and having to hold hands during a prayer. Then there's the humorous observations on random stuff like email forwards, true love waits, and judging people that use the table of contents in their Bible. It's just good stuff. And I'm going to preorder the book.

This post has now taken way longer than it was supposed to because I just spent forever at that site. Again.

I'd better go for a walk or something before I sit down and crochet the day away.
Wishing you all a super happy week. :)

Me