Grandma's Christmas...ahem...Valentine's socks

Monday, February 28, 2011


This year my grandma asked me to make her a pair of mittens and a pair of socks for Christmas. Well, I completed the mittens shortly after Christmas, but the socks took me awhile.

I used 4 skeins of Paton's Kroy Sock yarn in blue jacquard from my local Michael's store because of its lovely self-striping effect. The pattern is Busyknitting's Diabetic Friendly Free Sock Pattern that features no-turn-heel and a leg that's designed to stay up and stretch around the calf with enough give to accommodate swelling associated with diabetes. I thought this would be the perfect pattern for my grandma whose been a diabetic since her early 80s.

I followed the pattern to a tee, using the Estonian cast-on to start because it's both decorative and stretchy.

I gave the socks to my grandma in time for Valentine's Day (and some slightly warmer temperatures) and they were a hit! Winter isn't over yet, and I'm hoping grandma will still be able to get some wear out of these before spring and summer comes around.
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2011 Oscar Predictions

Sunday, February 27, 2011
The 83rd Academy Awards are just minutes away. Are you as excited as I am? I can wait for the costumes, the speeches, and watching Anne Hathaway and James Franco host the show. Anyway, before the action starts, here are my predictions for the 2011 winners (in bold italic). I've highlighted the winners in red.

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are All Right
The King's Speech
The Social Network
127 Hours
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening (The Kids are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Best Documentary Short Subject
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

Best Short Film (Animated)
Day & Night Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let's Pollute Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) Bastien Dubois
Best Short Film (Live Action)
The Confession Tanel Toom
The Crush Michael Creagh
God of Love Luke Matheny
Na Wewe Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143 Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Achievement in Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

Achievement in Cinematography
Black Swan (Matthew Libatique)
Inception (Wally Pfister)
The King's Speech (Danny Cohen)
The Social Network (Jeff Cronenweth)
True Grit (Roger Deakins)
Achievement in Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland (Colleen Atwood)
I Am Love (Antonella Cannarozzi)
The King's Speech (Jenny Beaven)
The Tempest (Sandy Powell)
True Grit (Mary Zophres)

Achievement in Directing
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O. Russell (The Fighter)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Best Documentary Feature
Exit through the Gift Shop Banksy, director (Paranoid Pictures)
Gasland Josh Fox, director (Gasland Productions, LLC)
Inside Job Charles Ferguson, director (Representational Pictures)
Restrepo Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, directors (Outpost Films)
Waste Land Lucy Walker, director (Almega Projects)

Achievement in Makeup
Barney's Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

Achievement in Film Editing
Black Swan (Andrew Weisblum)
The Fighter (Pamela Martin)
The King's Speech (Tariq Anwar)
127 Hours (Jon Harris)
The Social Network (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Hors la Loi (Algeria)

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
Inception (Hans Zimmer)
The King's Speech (Alexandre Desplat)
127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
"Coming Home" from Country Strong Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light" from Tangled Music and Lyric by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
"If I Rise" from 127 Hours Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
"We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3 Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Achievement in Sound Editing
Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Inception
The King's Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Achievement in Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours (Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle)
The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)
Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich)
True Grit (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
Winter's Bone (Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini)

Original Screenplay
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
The Fighter (Paul Attanasio, Lewis Colich, Eric Johnson, Scott Silverand Paul Tamasy)
Inception (Christopher Nolan)
The Kids are All Right (Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko)
The King's Speech (David Seidler)
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What's Making Me Laugh: Liz Lemon finds her inner spinster

Saturday, February 19, 2011


This week on 30 Rock, Liz Lemon decided to give up on men and embrace her inner spinster and the outcome was hilarious. 30 Rock is one of my favorite TV shows right now, and if you missed this weeks episode, check out the clip above or catch full episodes on NBC.com .
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Bowled Over

Friday, February 18, 2011
  • I really wanted to do a post on the best and worst dressed at the Grammys, but I really didn't see any dresses that I liked. If I missed something, do share.
  • This year Valentine's Day had an unexpected theme- Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. The boy and I each got each other Peanuts valentines cards and I got him a Peanuts themed box of chocolates to go with it. I also got him Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii (I'm winning the boys heart with video games) and he got me a box of Russel Stover chocolates. We had a "romantic" dinner out at Chipotle and then we saw Gnomeo and Juliette (which was adorable).
  • Today I got to go bowling at work with a bunch of elementary school kids. Check out my bowling pose.
Top: Tulle
Cardigan and gray plaid pants: Target

I also received this little number in the mail today and couldn't wait to show it off. I'd had my eye on this dress for a number of weeks now after I first spotted it on Modcloth, but when I saw it on Ruche for a little less $ I knew it was meant to be.

The dress is a little on the short side as the top of the ruffle just barely covers my bum, so I may end up wearing this more like a tunic with leggings or opaque tights, but I still think the dress is super cute.



  • I've got a post on Grandma's Christmas/Valentines Day socks, a What's Making Me Laugh post and other surprises up my sleeve for future posts. How was your week?
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Fab Finds Feature

Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Hey everyone! In case you haven't seen it, Kimberly of Fab Finds Under $50 showed off my Pretty Little Liars Style Entry Challenge photo on her blog today. Check it out here if you haven't already. And if you need a recap on what my photo entry was you can check out my original outfit post here. I hope you're all having a good week. Talk to you soon!
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What's Making Me Laugh: Dana Carvey on SNL

Saturday, February 12, 2011
Alright! So I know I've been posting a lot of SNL videos lately. But, last week Dana Carvey hosted SNL and he brought back a few of his famous SNL characters from when SNL was at it's best (from '86-'93). Check it out!

Wayne' World


Church Chat

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She Steals from Chic Steals: Mens Shirt to Cute Sleeveless Ruffle Tunic

Thursday, February 10, 2011
Since it's been so cold and snowy this winter, I've been desperately longing for spring to come. After all, Puxutawney proclaimed "6 more weeks til Spring," right? Anyway, in the mean time I thought I'd share a DIY project that I did over the summer in 2010.

image source here
It all began with this dress (seen above) from Urban Renewal by Urban Outfitters. I'd seen it on Urban Outfitters website last summer and thought it was cute and classic, but I didn't like the $40+ price tag. Then Chic Steals came along and posted a swell tutorial (seen here) on how to make the dress from a refashioned men's shirt and I was sold.
image source here
I picked up a blue and white checked XXL men's shirt by Banana Republic at my local Goodwill, pulled out my seam ripper and my sewing machine and followed Chic Steals directions to a tee. Here's how it turned out:

front

back


And here I am modeling it.

Although I'd originally planned on this being a cute summer dress, mine turned out a bit short so I'm calling it a tunic. I quickly realized that I'm too modest to wear my tube tunic without anything underneath, so I usually pair this with a t-shirt underneath. I think it'd look even cuter if I paired this with a cute little belt.
What do you think of my tunic/dress? Would you like to see some more DIYs? Let me know in the comments below?
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Just Another Snow Day

Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Today was another snow day (my 4th so far) and this time we had the biggest snow yet. The snow began to fly bright and early on Tuesday and didn't stop until Wednesday, leaving us with about 8 inches of wet, powdery snow. Check it out!




pretty snowy tree


This snow day had pretty decent timing, as I have been fighting off a nasty cold/ sore throat most of the week and needed an extra day of rest. But, it wasn't all rest and play for me today. I also watched some training videos online for work credit.

How has this winter been treating you? Did you get his with this latest batch of winter weather? Let me know in the comments below.
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What's Making Me Laugh: The Creep (featuring Nicki Minaj) by The Lonely Island

Saturday, February 5, 2011

This is another SNL short. This one features filmmaker John Waters (Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, A Dirty Shame) at the beginning of the video. I've had this song stuck in my head all week and I've been stalking the halls at work doing "The Creep" all week long.
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What I Wore: 2/1/2011

Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Like 100 million others in the U.S., I survived snowpocalypse (or as it's called here, the blizzardofoz). Between Monday night and Tuesday the snowstorm dumped 5 inches of snow, we had 40+ MPH winds that left us with drifts 3 to 4 feet high, and the single digit temperatures and negative wind chills kept most people indoors. Needless to say, most schools, businesses and events in the area were canceled, closed or postponed Tuesday and Wednesday and I got 2 snow days off of work (so far).



Tuesday's Fab Finds Under $50 Outfit Inspiration Calender called for animal prints and stripes and even though I didn't have to get up early and go to work, I still put myself together.
striped shirt: Old Navy (ages ago)
Zebra tiger shirt: Wild Man Vintage (Fall 2001)
Fleece Jacket: Old Navy (Winter 2010)
Pants: Target (ages ago)


Were you affected by the latest snowpocalypse? Tell me about it in the comments below.
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