Okay, first the winner of my birthday contest. is Jenn!! Yeah! I'll get the yarn in the mail when I can go to the post office. Hurrah!!

Vegas was fabulous. The weather was beautiful. We walked like a 100 miles between all of the casinos. We had good food. We saw the fabulous Bette Midler! And, best of all, I relaxed!!! Yeah!!! When I got home, my brother and sister-in-law took me out to dinner. It was a fantastic birthday.

Throughout the rest of the week, I got little tags on my door because I had packages at the apartment office (darn thing closes at 5pm and who can get there by then???) Today, I finally got the the apartment office and picked everything up.

Yippee. I got sock yarn from my fabulous knitty friends in Kansas City.

It's Heritage Handpainted sock yarn from Cascade. It feels super yummy and in person, looks more purple than blue like in the picture. Thank you!!! I would just like to say though, where's my chocolate??? That card was just cruel.

I also got Free Range Knitter, the latest Yarn Harlot book from Beth. Thank you! Thank you! I've already read half of it. :-)

I got another package as well, but it was clothes I ordered and wonder of all wonders, everything fit and looked cute. So all around a great package day.

Thanks everyone for my birthday wishes and cards. I love you and and miss my St. Louis and Kansas City and Cincinnati frinds a lot.

Happy Early Birthday to me means a gift for you!

Happy Early Birthday to me
Happy Early Birthday to me
Happy Early Birthday to meeeeeeeeeee
Means a blog contest for you...

I'm headed off Vegas for my birthday this year and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas... So, while I'm away, my readers can play too.

I went to a session on Generational Differences recently and the speaker was talking about how he knew all about what was going on in his daughters life by what was on the playlist in her ipod. So, my readers, what are the top 3 played songs on your ipod. Personally, I'm just looking for some new music.

My top 3 are:
Sattelite - Guster
The heart of the matter - India Arie
Island in the Sun - Weezer

Not sure what that says about me...

So, up for prize, one skein of Tess' Super Sock yarn, my favorite sock yarn.

So leave me a comment with your songs before Monday, January 19th at noon and I'll draw a name that afternoon for the skein of yarn.

I'm not dead yet and the first FO of the year...

Ugghh!!! Spending the new year sick was not my idea of how to start off a new year well. I'm just starting to feel normal. I had planned to do a lot of knitting while I was off for 4 days, but didn't end up actually finishing a lot of stuff.

I did finish a few baby shower gifts for some co-workers. To baby bibs from Mason Dixon Knitting and a hat. For the hat, I took the Basic baby hat #1 pattern from Itty Bitty hats and then knit a few inches of i-cord and tied into a knot. Nothing too complicated, but it turned out cute.

Now, the real question is which of my unfinished knitting projects should I pick up??? The Tangled Yoke Cardigan?? The Cozy Shawl?? Lady Eleanor Shawl?? Ms. Lambert's Shawl?? The Clapotis??

A Year in Review...

Another year down and I look back on what 2008 brought me...

Trips to St. Louis, Chicago, Cinncinati, Kansas City to visit friends and family.

A new car in September after the convertible suffered multiple car part failures and had to go.

My first ever trip to Disneyland and it was "Magical"

On the Knitting front, only 17 items completed this year. I obviously was working way too hard this year. I need to work on that for next year.

• 2 Sock Monkeys
• 1 pair of socks (Only 1 I can't believe it...)
• 1 Log Cabin Blanket
• 1 Market Bag
• 1 Baby Sweater
• 4 Baby Hats
• 4 adult hats
• 1 pair of Mary Jane Slippers

So, what's on tap for the new year. I'm going to keep it simple with some principles for the new year.

1. To be open to new things. I think I got stuck in a rut and comfort zone this year, so I need to be open to doing new things.

2. Continue to eat better. I started eating healthier in September and I'm going to try to continue that. It seems to be working well for me.

3 Spend more time for myself. To leave work at a reasonable time so I can have a life. Go to the Gym, knit, anything. This one loops back to being open to new things as well.

Happy New Year everyone!