I Win Neener Neener

Update: I am a horrible, horrible person. No, I really am. See, I wrote this post last night. I forgot to mention something and I should be shot. *cry* One of my very awesome Christmas gifts came from Christina over at Llama Llama Duck. Do I really need to link her? She's in every other post, I promise. Plus she's on the sidebar. Anywho, Christina sent me one of these for Christmas.



The saddest part? I had it on my wrist while blogging. And I forgot to write about it. I even forgot to take a picture of it. I'll be hiding under my desk and flogging myself with some cheap acrylic yarn if anyone needs me.

Ok, so Erin had this cute little contest on her blog about guessing Santa. I cheated and guessed twice so she made me pick one. I picked right. Yay me! She was sweet enough to ask me what I wanted and I responded with "Meh, I'm easy to please. I'm happy with a postcard!" Well, my prize was on my coffee table when I got home. Did I get a postcard? Hell no. What I got rocks so hard it isn't even funny. Ok, it is a bit funny. Plus, I got to take pictures of it with the new camera. Glee! Actually, all of the pictures in this post were taken with the new camera.* Shall we begin? Let's.

First off, I'm not sure if I liked the contents of the box or the box more. Erin is truly imaginative and the box just cracked me up. I giggled like an idiot. Why you ask? Because it was the perfect addressing for a Stalker.

(Address erased to protect the not so innocent.)

Does that not rule?? A ransom note for the Stalker. Heehee! Next we have the contents. Hoo mama. I am a lucky girl.


That's a little bag and buttons from the Piddleloop Store (Adorable stuff, check it out)and the cutest little card. Click to enlarge as always. Under it? Oh that knit stuff? You don't wanna see that. Nah. No, seriously, you don't wanna see it. Ok fine. Erin also made me this. Oh. My. God.


That, my Dear Stalkees, is a hand-knit shawl. The color is beautiful and it's soooo freakin soft. I must have pet the darn thing for a good 10 minutes. Ok, I got a little teary-eyed, but we won't go there. Must have been some dust or something. Erin, it's gorgeous. I am truly touched and so completely unworthy. Did I mention it's soft? Oh, and ummm....It smells good too. hehe

On to the Christmas booty! No, I am not gonna show a picture of my booty on the blog. It was pirate talk. Geez, people. Anywho, I believe we have discussed in the past that T and I don't have any kids. (Yes, our initials are T & A. Yes, this makes me giggle. My brother and his wife are S & M. That makes my mother uncomfortable and makes me giggle more.) This means my folks have 3 grandkids (2 out of state) and T's folks don't have any grandkids. This means we still get to rake in all the presents at Christmas. This is the best birth control on the market. Yes, we have covered how selfish I am, let's not retrace our steps. So a picture of the pile of my gifts and the "grandpuppie's" gifts.


See the square white box on the right and the long box on the floor below it? Ball winder and swift, baybee. Score!! No, I don't have any photos of it out of the box because I don't have any place for it yet. That is Saturday's project. I am so excited. Yippee skippee! This means that the 23 skeins of cotton, alpaca and silk yarn I have for sweaters isn't quite so daunting any longer.

Now, my in-laws have a gorgeous home and the perfect place to try out the uber camera. First a picture of the Christmas tree, in a dark room, on the fireworks setting.



Pretty! Now a photo of the tree in a dark room with just the flash.



Yes, the tree is tied to the shutters. My in-laws have 2 cats that think the tree is there just for them to play in. Don't all cats think that? Meet Lola (she's 2) and Ilyushin (he is 16). Yes, even their cats match.

One of my mom's Christmas gift is still at my house. I'm guessing it is now a New Year's Gift. Works for me. It's a pillow with a story. On one of her trips up to see her dad, she brought back some things of my grandmother's for me. One of them was what looked to be an unfinished pillow. In the same bag was yarn she was using to make it. Mom asked me to finish it, and while it's a simple granny square, I had to make do with what yarn there was because all of this yarn is no longer made. I don't mean the colors have been discontinued. I mean the companies no longer exist. Some of this yarn is from the 40's, some from the 60's and some from the 70's. They don't make them or the colors anymore. Oh goody. A challenge. I also had to figure out which size hook she used and try to match her gauge. This is the results.

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. Mom is going to love it. One last photo to show off the camera skills. This is some of the stuff on my overflowing mantle, taken with the zoom from the couch. (It was Stalker Angie, in the living room, with the camera. Sorry. I had to.)



Look at the freakin detail! You can even see the dragons scales. I am so impressed. Oh the dragons? Those are 2 little kissing dragons. They were the cake toppers on my wedding cake. I am such a dork. *giggle*

Hope everyone has a great day!

*No cameras or items were harmed in the making of this post.

P.S. Everytime I use the word "freakin," the spellcheck wants to replace it with the word "foreskin." This would totally change my posting style. Hehe

Exploding Stalker

My living room has exploded. Rather, Santa exploded all over my living room. I can't find my loveseat. I know it's in the room, but it seems to be buried under this mound of boxes, baskets and bags. T and I got so much at Christmas I need a storage building. His parents and mine always go a little overboard since there are no grandkids for his folks and only 3 for mine. This makes for groovy Christmases for the older "kids", namely, us.

My dining room has exploded. Rather, my dogs have exploded all over my dining room. Sometime between Friday and Christmas day, my dogs decided outside was not a necessity. They quit asking to be let out. This is so unlike my dogs. Now the Demon Dog never minded where she went, but my 3 babies have always begged to be let out. I got home Saturday night from our Christmas With The In-Laws, and there were these little.....presents....all over one half of the room. The other half looked like they had dragged all of their toys and plopped them all into a pile. It was insane. They have been fussed at. The "presents" have been exchanged for a cleaner carpet. The treats have all been put away as punishment. That will surely teach them. At least they rediscovered the great outdoors again. Ugh.

Ye Olde Stalker has exploded. Rather, no, wait. Nothing exploded all over me. Eww. And I only feel as if I should be exploding. There was soooooooooo much food over the weekend. It was nuts. There were 4 of us at my MIL's and she cooked for like, 9. I swear. Then there were 6 of us at my folks house. My mom cooked for 12. I went to the other Mom's (of the adopted family) house and we pigged out there. Every house had too much food for dinner, every house had appetizers and what T calls "grazing material", and every house sent food home with us. Large quantities of it. We could feed 12 people on everything we brought home. There's 2 of us. The puppies would love to help, but they don't get table food.

Now, there has been some interest in the comments about the new kick ass camera T got me for Christmas. Well, here's the info for it and a picture of what it looks like.

Yes, I love it. Yes there is way too many pictures on it already. No, I don't have any of them loaded. Cuz I'm lazy dammit! You know this! You've read this blog how long now? Been stalked by me how long? I will have photos for Friday. I have a few gifts from Christmas that I must share with the blog world because they rock too hard to keep to myself. My MIL got me exactly what I wanted and Dear Stalkee Christina sent me something oh so wonderful to have....hell, I may update later tonight so I can share quicker. Glee! So, if your camera is dying, I recommend this one so much it's ridiculous. It has a fireworks mode. Yeah. If this camera were a man, I'd so cheat on T. Ok, maybe not, but I would be tempted for the first time ever. Hell, if this camera were a woman I'd still have some very naughty thoughts. It. Rocks. That. Much. You'll see. I'm gonna prove it to you.

Until then, Hope everyone has a great day!!

This is not the post you seek

I've been working on a post since December 9th. It's long. It involves a ton of pictures. This is not that post. Allow me to explain. December 9th would have been my Grandmother's birthday. She passed away almost 2 years ago on February 13th. The very long post is about her, some of her finished objects and about the person she is. It's definitely a tribute to her, and yet working on it has been very painful. I still plan to post it, but not today. Reading it still reduces me to tears and I'm not ready to share her yet. Yeah, I'm being selfish and I promise it won't be the last time. Instead, I'm going to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with all 3 of my families.

Also, I have a ton of pictures for posts now because Stalker Momma got a new camera that freakin rocks. (Do I have any of them uploaded? Hell no.) 5.0 megapixels with a 10x zoom. This thing has a fireworks setting! A museum setting! Plus it sounds like an old fashioned 35mm when you take a photo. Oh yeah, I'm a happy girl. I'll be watching my holidays unfold through the view screen in the back. Heehee!

Until next time, my Dear Stalkees, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, and Happy New Year. Whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year, I hope you get what we all hope for.

Extension

Is it just me or is everyone going nuts this year? Christmas found a way to sneak up on us all, I think. I don't know how. We had Halloween. We had Thanksgiving. Everyone knows Christmas comes right after, and yet we all seemed to be deer in the headlights thinking "Well where the hell did that come from?" I have one day to get all of my work gifts together and the cards signed. That means I have to do it tonight. I have 2 days to get the in-laws stuff wrapped. 3 days to get my family's stuff wrapped, and 4 days to get my other family's stuff wrapped. My kitchen is a mess *shudder* and I have to cook something for each Christmas dinner. I need to do laundry. All 3 dogs need a bath. And their nails clipped. I need my toe nails clipped. It's amazing how the list just piles up there. Who are you again? Oh! Yes. Right. Extensions.

The previous rant was not to prove that my next 4 days suck worse than your next 4 days. Nay, friends. Indeed it was to announce that I have come to my senses and have decided to extend the deadline for the contest. With all of the holiday madness, it's silly to expect people to have any time to do something for a contest. The deadline is now January 30th. This will get us past the holidays and give something fun to do before tax season hits. *yurk* You can go here for contest details.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Why The Stalker Isn't Allowed In Public

Hi ho everyone! It's ye olde Slacker Stalker apologizing for missing the past week. And a day. Let's not get picky. Usually I take a few minutes in the morning, load my photos and then blog on a break at work. Well the past week has held no breaks for me and home life has all been about presents, wrapping, cooking, baking, feeding dogs, working and getting ready for the Nutcracker in Houston.
Yes, the camera was found and photos were taken. It's difficult to take photos of yourself in a dress, so I had to hand the camera over to someone else and I think they were drunk. Ok, I really can't complain. The few I took look as if I was drunk too. But I had reason. Really.

The plan for Saturday was:

7 am. Crawl my sleepy arse out of bed. Enjoy coffee, time with the hubby, time with the puppies, a nice long shower with leg shaving involved and then get dressed for the drive.

9:30 am. Head out the door and to the salon to have my hair done. Nothing major, just curls down my back. Ok, tamer curls than I usually have. Enjoy being spoiled.

10:30 - 11 am. Drive to Houston.

Noon. Arrive in Houston. Make gingerbread house with the family I went with. Get ready with plenty of time to spare.

4:30 pm. Head for dinner looking glamorous and woo every man in sight with my beauty.

6:30 pm. Head for Wortham Theatre and woo every man in sight with my beauty. Enjoy Nutcracker. Head home.

This is NOT how my day went. Don't get me wrong, I had a fabulous evening and got to spend some fun time with some very good (if decidedly odd) friends. MY day went a little more along these lines:

7 am. Roll over, shut off screaming alarm and go back to sleep.

9:30 am. Drag my tired arse out of bed. (Did I ever mention how little willpower I have against my bed once I am in it? My willpower is miniscule.) Get coffee and think of how much I actually need to do before I can leave.

10:30 am. Hope in shower for the world's fastest shower by a female ever. Pack clothes for the evening. Find makeup. Pack makeup. Find camera. Pack camera. Grab dress, shoes and cape from the spare bedroom and lay them on the sofa for transport to the car. Shoo dogs away from dress they so desperately need to lay on. Pack everything into the car.

12 pm. Head for the salon to get my hair done.

12:05 pm. Head home to grab Christmas gifts sitting in living room for the family I am heading towards.

12:15 pm. Head for the salon to get my hair done.

1:30 pm. Head for Houston.

1:31 pm. Stop for gas because I only have a quarter tank.

2:45 pm. Arrive at friends house. Sit and chat while everyone takes showers since they are running a bit behind as well.

4:00 pm. Realize everyone else is running around getting dressed and I am still in jogging pants and house shoes. Get make up on and get dressed.

4:45 pm. Head for Dinner at La Strada in Houston. Mmmmmm....tasty. Realize the waiter is flirting with me by leaning over me to get to friend's glass to refill it and by getting an eyefull of boobage as he does so. Begin glaring at the waiter. Waiter brushes AGAINST ME as he reaches over for friends water. Tell friends if waiter boy does it again, nice restaurant or not, I am stabbing him in the groin.

6:30 pm. Head for the Nutcracker. Stand around looking nice (No, not glamorous but we did our best.) and while turning to head for the auditorium, break heel of left shoe. Walk a smidge funny trying to favor left leg due to broken heel. Realize our nice box seats are 3 flights of very narrow steep stairs down. Take shoes off entirely to keep from breaking neck. Enjoy ballet.

Afterwards we ran around (Me without my shoes. In Public. My mother is getting chills right now for no reason she knows of.) and took pictures like drunken tourists. This first blurry shot is the humongo wreath they had in the atrium.


Next we have a shot of the lovely Christmas tree they had out.

Here's a shot of all of us, post ballet, in front of the lovely Christmas tree. From the left, it's Pam, myself, Beth behind me in red, Jessica and Von, Pam's hubby, looking like Cousin Guido. We teased the poor guy all night.

Next is the big ass gingerbread house they had there. It's made with little gingerbread man cookies. It was pretty awesome.

After running around the Wortham sans shoes, we headed off to Katz's for dessert. Yes, there is a famous Katz's in New York. This one was started by his son. Then it was back to their place for gift exchanges, of which I have no photos because I am a dunder head.

Next is photo of me, out of costume of any sort, hair off my neck and back (that shit gets hot people, let me tell ya.) Exhausted to the point of giddiness.


I then gathered my things, old and new, and headed home. I obviously made it fine. Despite the shoe breaking, the steep narrow stairs my legs are STILL recovering from and being so far from being on time for anything that day, it was a very lovely time.

Update: Yes, I had an absolute blast! As far as the cape, you'd think I'd be afraid to take it off. People kept trying to take it from me. Alas, no pictures of the cape. If I have to I will have a picture taken of just the cape. I'm thinking of just wearing it for winter over a jacket. It's really warm. And Norma Dear, I swear on all things wooly, the shoe really broke. I need to take a picture of it. lol

Kudos

I owe thanks to a couple of folks who have really helped with this contest. I'm really not all that put together on most days, so I need all the help I can get. First I want to thank Norma for the free advertising. She told me she would mention it and I'm glad that's all she did was mention. Three paragraphs on her blog is one hell of a "mention." Thank you, Norma Dear!! I got a lot of hits from her "mention" and a great big "Howdy!" for all of you who stopped by and for those of you who delurked.

*Update* Kudos to my Dorky friend Pinkerbell (giggle). I got free advertising for the contest on her blog as well. Thanks hon! I feel so loved. Heeee

Deenz asked in the comments if there was a deadline for entries. There isn't one for entries, just one for designs. I would like to have all designs by December 30th. If some of you would like that extended due to the holidays, just let me know. I'm a very flexible Stalker. Well, in this sort of thing. The only reason I can reach my toes is because my legs are so short.

The other huge thanks goes to Christina. She's my personal Jiminy Cricket most days. If I post on a decent schedule, it's because she sends me an IM to "pester" me. It was also her idea to have the contest, to have the Stalkee gear and she's a damn good editor. If anything gets spelled correctly, it's because she proof reads my posts and giggles at me. She also made sure you guys had all of the information you did for the contest. Once I posted the entry for the contest, our conversation went something like:

Christina: What about this? Are you going to tell them about this?

Me: Crap. Let me update.......There.

Christina: Better. Now what about this?

Me: Dammit! Forgot that. Hold on......Got it.

Christina: Now, what about image sizes.

Me: Huh?

Christina: CafePress has image resrictions, you know.

Me: *Sigh* Let me see if I can find their image size rules.

Christina: Well here, try these 2 links. They should have all of the info.

Me: *blush* Thanks.

Me: Ok, it's all updated. Anything else?

Christina: Nah. It looks good.

So you see, this blog may be about me, but she really runs everything. Hehe Thank you again, Christina. Even when I grumble, I am so grateful for you. Oh, and "Haha!! I posted before you pestered me! :P" And, yes, I am a dork.

Now, it's freezing outside and I have a camera to go find before Ms. Ryan beats me to death with some Mongolian camel yarn.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Misc.

Ok.....so...a post. Yep...uummm...I still have a butt load of stuff to post about, but it really needs pictures and I think my camera may be buried in my back seat somewhere. I haven't LOST it per se.....I know I have it. I know it is in one of 5 spots. I know if I got up off my lazy arse and moved one or two items I would find it. So until I get motivated to find the damn thing, here's what ya get.

So, anything new with you guys? Not much new here. Started a new skin care regiment. *yawn* Umm...oh! I ordered the cape/wrap/ruana thingy for my dress for the Nutcracker. Picture is below, only I got the black faux fur trim.

Pretty, no? I think it will be nice and cozy. And yes, there will be pictures. After the ballet. There will be makeup as well. I promised some folks I would. That's why the new skin care regimen. Hehe

Ummm.....contest. No entries yet, but it's still early. I'm sure my stalkees won't leave me hanging here. Of course, if I didn't check every 10 minutes, that might help too. For those of you who claim you have no talent for this sort of thing, do you mean to tell me you don't know somebody who DOES have the talent for it? Someone who might be bribed rewarded as well? Someone who could be included in prize giving? I'm a very flexible Stalker. I am always willing to change as needed.

Speaking of stalkees, I have this nifty little tool in my sidebar that tells me when I get visited and where the visitor is from. It seems to have gone haywire today, but that's the nature of the beast. Anywho, I'm noticing some lurking. Well, Lurker McLurkalots, what have you got to say for yourself? I'm a Texan. Say howdy! I'll probably just feed you some chili and cornbread. :)

Hope everyone has a great day!

And the winner is....

The poll has officially been removed from the sidebar. The voting is at an end. Everyone waits with baited breath for the results. Or, maybe not. With 14 votes in, we had 12 votes (86%) in favor of the Stalkee gear, and 2 votes (14%) that were rather non-committal. On one hand, nobody flat laughed in my face. This is a good thing, I think. On the other hand, there seems to be a few folks out there just lurking. Lurking for lurks sake. Not commenting. How am I supposed to stalk you if I don't know who you are? Poll? Oh Stalkee gear. Right.

Ok so here's the deal. We're going to have a contest at Casa de la Stalker. Yay!!! One of you lovely people will get to design the Stalkee gear. That's right! You heard me. I would like you guys to submit designs for the merchandise. It will be a small something on the front with something larger on the back. Is that vague enough? Hehe

What I had pictured (but then I have a sick mind) is something along the lines of a female figure, dressed in black, sneaking/tip-toeing along with a small black mask on. There should be yarn involved. But then again, that's just my mind. What says Stalker to you? What should the saying on the back be? All entries will be welcomed, but please try to keep them mostly family friendly. While I might find pornographic banners entertaining and worth a chuckle or 2, other folks may not. Also along the way, I am hoping to get a new sidebar button for the blog out of the deal. I know. I'm sneaky. So submissions will be front and back ideas for merchandise and/or a blog button.

Update: Multiple submissions for merchandise design and/or sidebar button are welcome. Feel free to submit as many designs as you would like.

As mentioned this is a contest. That means prizes! Yay!!! It's good ones too, let me tell ya.

1.) Winner of the merchandise design contest, will get a Stalkee gear T-shirt with their design on it, a set of 8 stitchmarkers made by me with their choice of colors, and a shopping spree of up to $35 at KnitPicks. That, my dear Stalkees, is quite a bit of yarn/patterns/books.

2.) Winner of the blog button contest will get a Stalkee gear mug and 2 skeins of the sock yarn of their choice from KnitPicks. If more than one button is used, all of the other submissions used will win a Stalkee gear mug. Buttons are for the sidebar. This isn't a banner sized thing. Think in terms of small please. :)

3.) Due to the upcoming holidays and the fact that people actually may have better things to do than to design stuff for me (I don't know what it would be, but there you have it), the deadline for designs is December 30th. Yes, a month is a long time, but not when there is Christmas knitting/crocheting/crafting to be done, gifts to wrap, homes to decorate, parties to attend, jobs to go to, children to raise and significant others to coddle cuddle.

4.) Please send all submissions to stalkerangie AT gmail DOT com. I think you can figure it out from there.

5.) For the merchandise, it will be through CafePress and they do have image guidelines. The following links should help with any questions you have on that end.

Beginners Image Workshop (A general FAQ on creating images for CafePress.)

Product Templates (A general idea of image sizes per product.)

If there are any questions, comments or you just think I'm off my gourd, shoot me an email or leave your email addy in the comments. It's one of my pet peeves about blogger is that I can't respond to a comment via email. Grrrr.

Hope everyone has a great day!