Month: December 2009

holiday cheer

Good Riddence, 2009

Jen4 Comments

The tradition here at Chez Interrupted has always been to ring in the New Year with a bit of reflection and a few “resolutions” (as the kids are calling them these days). But it turns out that this year was full of suck and, on more than one occasion, I had the sensation of being on a crazy carnival ride with no seat belts and only the sheer force of my will keeping me in the seat. In lieu of resolutions, I’m just going to accept that most of the time I’m just hanging on for dear life and doing the best I can. I am no longer going to feel like a failure for not doing yoga or sticking to my self-proscribed reading list.

2009 was the year of going gluten-free/dairy-free and the year of the Poached Egg Project. It was the year of finding old friends on Facebook and it was the year of feeling poor and stressed a lot of the time. It was the year of Lolly. In 2009, I rediscovered the joy of knitting dish cloths and hats, but knitted fewer pairs of socks. I found spinning and learned that crochet can be fun too. And this may come as shocking news, but 2009 is the year I gave up on the Master Knitter 1 project. (I just cannot bring myself to get through that damn hat, and I haven’t been able to get excited about the essay, even though I learned a very hard lesson about the care of hand knits this year.)

This has been a year full of challenges, with moments of both quiet joy and abject dysphoria, but I know that, ultimately, my life is full of blessings. Tonight we close the book on the year 2009 (and the aughties) and open the door to a (hopefully) brighter new year and exciting new decade. Dear Reader, may your 2010 be abundant with Peace, Love, and Friendship. Happy New Year.

holiday cheer · Knitting

2009: A Knitting Retrospective

Jen7 Comments

2009 was an incredibly busy and productive knitting year for me.

What did your 2009 look like? Make your mosaic at Big Huge Labs and post a link to it in the comments on this post. Happy New Year!

holiday cheer

Light a Candle for Midwinter

Jen1 Comment

Happy Solstice, everyone.

holiday cheer · Knitting

Plum Pudding!

Jen2 Comments

Back when the Faery Knitting podcast was still active, she mentioned that she had made a cute Christmas Pudding amigurumi. Later that year, I learned that my husband’s Aunt Mary has a food themed tree in her kitchen. Was it destiny?

[ravelry]

I think so.

food · holiday cheer · Knitting

Time Flies

Jen5 Comments

There are only nine days left until Christmas. Really! Today I mailed my Christmas cards, along with a package each for my parents and in-laws. Santa has been duly stocked with the presents for under our tree. We’ve watched Elf (more than once), White Christmas, The Santa Clause, The Muppet Christmas Carol, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and A Christmas Story (several times) and more holiday movies are still on deck. My iPod is loaded with a plethora of Christmas tunes (and has been since Thanksgiving) and the crafty projects have been flying to completion.

[ravelry]

All finished since the last time I blogged. A full quota of holiday spirit has been achieved. Also, latkes!

This is the best time of year. I love the short days and the long nights, the cold weather, the hustle-bustle, the gift giving, the believing in Santa, the anticipation, the corny holiday movies, the lavishly religious music. The latkes. I love all of it. This year, I offer as a special gift for the readers of Knitting Interrupted, a compilation of all the recipes I’ve posted here (I’m surprised there weren’t more, actually). So whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Yule, or any of the other culturally significant (or otherwise) winter festivals, Happy Holidays!

life

Feeling Nostalgic

Jen2 Comments

Memories are fun! Getting old? Not so much. This video, from the year I learned how to play trombone, the year I became a band geek, is the Arcadia Band Review in November, 1990. How can this be 19 years ago?

I am surprised by the complete and utter awesomeness of our band. Seriously, we’re darn good!

Thanks, Ren (fellow female brass player) for posting this on your blog!

Knitting

YEEHAW!

Jen4 Comments

Have you noticed the trend this year for wearing triangular scarves “cowboy” style with the point in front?

[ravelry]

holiday cheer

A Sinister Marketing Ploy or WORSE? Dun dun duunnnnn….

Jen6 Comments

I was goofing around the other day with the holiday specs that have been hanging around since our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. Interrupted (maybe even before that). I was snapping pictures of our nifty new Phillips LED lights that I picked up at Target at the end of the season last year,

when I noticed something odd.

How about a closer look?

And here’s one up by the ceiling:

I don’t know about you, but to me it appears that the letter “P” is being projected onto the wall by the green LED bulbs of my Christmas lights! None of the other lights seem to project a letter P (or any other shape for that matter), so what the hell? Is it some sort of subversive marketing campaign? If so, WHY? I ALREADY PURCHASED YOUR LIGHTS, PHILLIPS. Or maybe it’s that you are attempting to subtly infiltrate my Christmas pictures as a sort of subliminal advertising message for my relatives? Well FUCK YOU if that’s the case Phillips. I’m cropping your crappy-ass “P” out!

Or perhaps am I just crazy?

food

Saturday Stoup

Jen2 Comments

The other day I was chatting a friend of mine and, on a whim, I asked her what she was making for dinner. She said she had “salsa chicken” going in the crock pot and explained briefly how to make it. Unfortunately it was too late in the afternoon for me to make a crock pot meal, and my kitchen was entirely too messy for cooking right then anyway. But yesterday was one of those extremely rare days when I actually had my shit together before 10 am, so I decided to try my hand at “salsa chicken”. It turns out that I didn’t have any of the same ingredients she used on hand, so I improvised.

Everything was from Trader Joe’s (as usual) except the red salsa which was Full Circle brand from Big Y. You can use whatever YOU have on hand.

1 (16 oz?) jar green salsa
1 (16 oz?)  jar mild red salsa
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 15 oz. can black beans
2 frozen chicken breasts
2 frozen chicken thighs
1/2 bag baby carrots

Dump everything into your crockpot (I used my smallish one) and cook for 8 hours on low (or until the chicken is done). Shred the chicken, serve over rice or in tortillas. As you can see, I chose the rice option. Yum! (I also tossed a couple of steamed broccoli florets into with mine for good measure). You could add a bag of corn, which is what my friend does, but my children detest corn. That’s right. My kids hate America. Whatever. Go over to my friend’s blog and bug her for her recipe if you want to try it her way. Hers might involve cheese.

holiday cheer · Knitting · random

Friday Update or, Life Without NaNoWriMo

Jen1 Comment

1. We put up our tree on November 28th.

Now to just get my Christmas shopping started finished. And the rest of my Christmas knitting done. And the pictures for the Christmas cards printed. And to put together a _____ for the grandmamas and — and —

2. I downloaded the new Sting album. Some thoughts: It is okay. Generally I do not care for Christmas albums that feature the “vocal stylings” of the artist; I much prefer an album with which I can sing along. Also, Sting should not make attempts to sing at the very very very bottom of his range. If I could get my money back, I totally would.

3. I started a Jayne hat for Mr. Interrupted.

It is stalled out because the red color I chose wasn’t cunning enough, evidently.