2011 Recap

Because the year is almost over and because I can't think of much else to post about, how about a little recap from 2011?

Most popular post.
Thank you for asking! My blog has been off and on public during its existence. Some post were um, not so great, while other had great success. The one with the highest views however, was my Victory! post, where I posted about my Chicago adventures. Also, Sophie and the Stick was pretty high up there.

Most Controversial post.
Because my amount of readers it limited, I don't get much controversy. But my Merci Beacoup post stirred up a little more than usual. I wrote about how much I love the Sweatin' to the oldies videos. It made some people cringe. It made others laugh.

Post who's success surprised me.
When I write little posts, they usually end up being good or totally bad. So when Nautical was written, I assumed that no one would really be interested in me knowing nothing about the coast guard. However, that was not the case. This was one of my most popular posts for quite a while.

Funnest post to write.
By the way, funnest is not a word, so if you decide to use it, please don't go telling people I said it first. Thank you. I like to have fun. Blogging is another way for me to have fun. So I generally try to enjoy blogging. Possibly the best one for me was my A tribute to the 80's and parents. I got my hands on some serious blackmail photos. And I sort of think I scared everyone away with that post.

Most hilarious post.
This is kind of a toughie. What I think is hilarious may be totally different from what you think is hilarious. And in fact it probably is. But I do know for a fact that several extended family members though that The Cow is a wonderful creation was pretty funny.

Post I am proudest of.
I'm not really sure much of this blog is worth being proud of. So I guess my post on 9/11 is the best I've got. I started out talking about bed making and hand sanitizer and ended on a rather profound statement. (For myself anyway.)

I think I'm going to go browse my archives and see what other kinds of nonsense I can find.

That time of year.

Its the time of year to start shopping for a new Vera Bradley! I have my eye on a little cutie, but they sold out in my favorite pattern. What a tragedy! I'm off to watch Monk, and then I'll blab more.

xoxo, kryn

Christmas 2011

Here are a few pictures from Christmas this year...
Weird angle, but I've wanted this shirt for so long! And some pretty bokeh too!

Christmas Eve cocoa.
My new little piggie.
Isn't this cool? If you can't tell, that is supposed to be me. I got a magazine in my stocking that had tons of really easy little DIYs. I totally messed up on this (As you can see, my nose is pretty much not there.) But I'm going to give it another try.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating JESUS!

The best day of the year is here!

hello all

Festivus!

I have not posted about a celebration in a really long time....oops. Anyway, hope you were festive because today was Festivus day! I assume Festivus includes general festive things such as, drinking eggnog, listening to Christmas music, wrapping presents, and so on. I decided to look up Festivus in the dictionary, because I was somewhat confused about the meaning. Turns out, there is no meaning because Festivus is not a word! So we have creative liberty today!

Here are some festive things I did:

• I painted my nails red.
• Went Christmas shopping
• Tried on my Eve outfit.
• Watched a Video on the making of the Michael Buble Christmas Album.
• Wrapped presents

Here's my favorite. It does not exactly shout Festivus.

• Wrote a letter in a red pen.

The last one is sort of lame...but since I have some liberty today, the red pen is the most Festivus thing around!

Sincerely,
Red = Festivus.

Eve of Eve

It's Christmas Eve Eve! What are you most looking forward to about Christmas? I am excited about making physical contact with all the presents under the tree, and the Christmas eve service.

You may be wondering why you didn't hear much about my outfit. Well, it was sort of a flop, but it was redeemed somewhat. During early December, I was busy planning it, purchasing accessories and so on. I was planning on buying this as the skirt.

I was going to get it in Grey, although the pink's not too bad! But sadly, I am a lazy American and didn't order it before it was retired. (And being American has nothing to do with being a lazy soul. I'm sure there are lazy people from every country.) After that depressing shopping disaster, I kind of had given up all hope for an outfit. I was going to wear
what I wore to the recital. (...)(Everything but the dress I got with my Christmas Eve outfit in mind. And you can't see the best thing - red tights.)

But in Gap the other day, I stumbled across a black skirt. It was super cute. It was bubbly and had pockets. And the real deal is that it was one dollar cheaper than the accordion fold skirt.

So now I sort of have a Christmas Eve outfit. Although it is not how I envisioned it in the beginning (Yes, I gave up on the gold jewelry.) And it is very similar to my piano recital outfit, it is still super cute.

I think I say cute way too much. Over and out.

365 Days ago

This was taken:



This song was made up:

Grandma got run over by the Schwans man,
Walking out from our house on the 22nd
You may say there's no such thing as schwans man,
but as for me and Brookie, we believe.

These girls made me really, really happy:


And now you know,
what happened 365 days ago.

I am turning into such a poet.....yeah right.

Ponder this

This is way to easy. Anyone with a brain and a nose can figure this out.

Yarn Pops

This is my favorite - because it is all my own! All the other crafts I have made I have used other projects as the base, and then added some of my own to it. But this was created by my own genius! (Or lack of genius.)

I saw some clay lollipops that were adorable, and I really wanted to make them. But I didn't have clay, and buying clay when I only have one project in mind is not the most appealing idea. And considering I've got sweater fever, I decided to cancel that project.

But I still wanted some lollipops. And I came up with these.

In order to cut down on the amount of photos I use (See the pom pom post if you want an overload.) I made sort of a tutorial photo. Sorry about the pink, I see now it is not so easy to read.
I will give you a bit more detail about this. You want to start wrapping it, and leave the ends on the backside, don't wrap those. Also, twist and wrap, then glue. If your "rope" has unwind-ed, twisting before you glue it will help keep the shape and look of the lollipop. What I do when I get to the end is pull the end to the back and glue it on, and then add the stick. To keep the lollipop from loosing its shape, put some hot glue all over the back. You could also add a circle of fabric too.

Here are some other options, other than using these as a tree decoration or gift topper....
Have fun with it!

That tounge

Is a wild one.
It is very active.
And pink!
It loves to lick....anything


And everything.

I feel smart

The reason? I figured out how to avoid the snipping tool.

I used it alot, but I didn't like it. But it was sort of the only way I could figure out how to get words on pictures. I was forced to use it. I had no choice.

But now I have found a new way and I am as happy as a clam.

I can use all my cute fonts now. It is completely grand.

Freedom

Freedom from piano songs. Freedom from worrying about not messing up. Freedom from not remembering if its E or A. Freedom from recital woes. It is the most free feeling ever.

To be finished with your recital!

To be honest, I didn't do half bad. At this point, I could have fine piano behavior and not say anything, but I'm going rouge. Before the recital, Miss Erica gave me a little lecture about post recital behavior. No beating yourself up. No counting your mistakes. No talking about how bad you did. On and on until talking about the recital was really not an option at all.

So I could just tell you that the food was good and I had eggnog and leave it at that.

But of course I wont. I was actually quite pleased with how I did. I didn't play perfectly, of course, but I didn't fumble to bad. I didn't pause long enough, but I didn't pause to long.

It was good.

Especially the eggnog.

Here I am giving dad my "I'm nervous/I don't want to do this/Its and E not an A" look.

And here are Emily and I after, oh so relieved! (Or at least I was anyway.)Oh, and you love my tights right?

So that's the recital. Done did. It was good. But the eggnog was better.

Bokeh Madness

I finally figured out how to get a bokeh! I am so pleased with the result too.



I also figured out how to adjust the aperture - this is a day that will go down in history!

Maybe not. But still! I can always dream.

Pretty Paper Bows

I have not really posted on bows, which is funny because I love them. So for this weeks idea, I give you this....
(I know the punks will be overjoyed with this handcrafted bow.)

I am not doing a tutorial, because they are very simple and you can figure them out just from looking at the pictures.

And yes, I know I am a day early. But I have my 1st piano recital tomorrow, so I know I'll be way to jittery to give you a decent post. And saying I'm nervous is a total understatement. Doing anything in front of people scares me - a lot.

Talking about the recital makes me want to go practice, so goodbye for now.

Random

I am so smitten on my big girl camera.
Pretty paper stars/flowers for the tree.

Punk went on a little adventure - to the front yard!

Xoxo, Kryn

Idea of the Week

You may have noticed, (or perhaps you haven't) the Idea of the week icon that has recently been added. It will host sweet little crafts and other things that I may or may not have a full tutorial post about. They generally will be quick and easy things you can whip out when you have a little time to spare.

I just wanted to let you know about that - and it will be changing Sunday!

Brown paper packages tied up with string

A little late to begin shopping and wrapping presents? Never! To be honest, I have not done ANY shopping this year. I get sort of scared when I go Christmas shopping. My family's lists are not so easy to cross off because....ahem...they have no lists. Dad says he likes " gadgets" Mom never says, and KJ says he doesn't want to ask for any of the stuff he wants because its all so expensive!

So what does that leave me with? Not a whole lot.

But! I (or mom) have something for KJ already! I decided to make the wrapping simple but sweet. Not of course, that he would care (or even notice!) But I wanted it to be a little homemade wrapping that made at least me happy.

So here is what I came up with....

Now, I don't know about you, but I think this is pretty stinkin' cute. Yarn is so versatile! I was shaving the pom pom all through grammar. Creighton says if I keep it up, the thing will be bald by Christmas! And he's probably right too.

And look, Christian left KJ a special message on the bottom! I'm guessing he won't even notice, so good thing I photographed it.
And there it is under our still undecorated tree. I actually like it undecorated. Maybe a few would be nice, but it makes the tree so much more of a focal point without all that junk on it.

How are you wrapping your presents this year? Are you trying anything new? Let me know, I would love to see!

Xoxo, have a wonderful and fabulous Thursday!

Red and Green

I thought we'd never get our tree. But we finally have it. And boy am I glad we didn't get a white one. There is something about a real tree. It smells like Christmas. It feels like Christmas. It just sort of is. Forget I said anything about not liking the smell of it because, it turns out that it's not true. I love the smell! I think we usually have gotten a Douglas fur which is much more pungent. But this is just a subtle, soft, whiffy, christmasy smell.



Since we have not decorated the tree yet, I was sort of messing around with some options. I made a few of these...But I can't decided if I like them and if they would work on the tree. Any thoughts or suggestions? I am *hoping* we can make our tree red and silver this year.

And, its tights time of year! This is a really weird angle on my legs, sorry. I am eying some plum tights now.

This was filled with red and green, aren't you proud?

Evouloution of Camera's

First:

Second:

Third:


This is the only kind of evolution I believe in.

PS: Oh, you may have noticed that the Sophster is hanging out by our tree! And I got my CD. Life is good again!

Pom-Pom Garland

Pom Pom's always make me laugh. Because it was Pom-poms that made mom hate girl scouts and want to be a cub scout....

Moving on! I usually put up a sweet little tree in my room every year. However it is green. Not that I am anti tradition, but green is not my thing. I really wanted a white one. But since I
wasn't about to fork over the money, and one never fell out of the sky, I just decided to use the green normal, not my color tree and dress it up.

And that is just what I did.I made this sweet little garland with pom poms and bows. It makes my green tree look way cute.

First, the pom poms. I didn't know how to make these until a little while ago, so I will first show you how to make them and then the garland.Start by wrapping your embroidery floss (or thin yarn) around your pointer and middle finger. (These are small pom poms, if you want bigger ones, wrap it around another finger.)Wrap it around until you have about this much. If you want a bit fuller of a pom pom, wrap some more. Cut the string.

Now cut a piece of thread about 8 inches long. (Okay, you should have done this before.) This is sort of tricky. The thread needs to come through your 2 fingers. To get it through, I usually push it with scissors It really is the most effective way, even though it sounds sort of weird. If you don't want to use those, try a pen.

So it should look like this. Then pull it all the way through.
And now your thread should be in between both fingers.Slide it down and pull it so it wraps around the back of the wrapped thread.
Tie a knot. Make sure it is loose enough that you can slip it of your fingers....which is the next step.Once it is off your fingers, tie it in another knot. Then you will have a sweet little bow. I used a few bows on my garland, so for a few of these you could stop at this point.
To make your fluffy lovely pom pom, snip ALL the loops on each end of the bow/cornucopia/lookin' thing.Then trim the ends so it is even. Sort of flatten it before you do this, it will help make everything look a bit more even.
And then you should (hopefully) have a cute fluffy little pom pom!

Now for the garland. I'm not posting a step by step, Because I'm guessing you will figure out what I mean when I say "All I did was glue the pom poms onto string."

And here is the finished product looking lovely on my green/sort of my color tree.