girlfiend

I say semi-homemade like I’m that whore Sandra Lee from the Food Network. But what I mean is that to make up for the number of crappy, plastic toys that I gifted or received I tried to give some hand crafted gifts as well. I don’t know how much a few knit items even out the environmental impact, but at least I tried. I’m missing pictures of some monogrammed dish towels I knitted for my mother-in-law, but if you’re dying of curiosity, they looked just like this one, only different color, different letter.

I made little peanut ornaments for all of the kids. I wanted to make hats for them, but it wasn’t working out with the felt so I left them as is. I also meant to monogram them with embroidery floss, but made do with sewing thread.

I made these pajamas for the Fiendling.

I made a pinwheel sweater for my niece. It took me forever to figure out the pattern (it starts in the middle) but once I got past the first four inches it was easy.H

Here is another picture of what it looks like buttoned.

I made two of these little pinafores, one for my niece and one for Pancake. The first one I made was so cute I had to make another.

My dad got a scarf I did not take a picture of and the baby was the proud recipient of a little skully hat that was supposed to be a baby gift but ended up being way too big. I only have a crappy cell phone picture that I can’t figure out how to get on to flickr. But it’s a hat. With a skull and crossbones.

The kids did receive some toys that were not environmental disasters. (I swear I was not this concerned about the amount of crap we produce until we had kids.) Some of my favorites were these two recycled  dump trucks, and the Plan Toys airport, parking garage and dollhouse.

Without even forcing myself to hurry up and read I managed to exceed my goal this year. 57 books isn’t bad, especially since very few of them were young adult novels.

If I could just get into the habit of adding authors and hyperlinks as I go posting this list wouldn’t be so daunting at the end of every year. But for now I will continue to be lazy and just post the link to my goodreads page for anyone interested in more details and my ratings.  Here is the list from December back to January.

57. Baking Cakes in Kigali

56. Party Girl

55. Waiter Rant

54. Things I Want May Daughters to Know

53. Vanishing Acts

52. Schuyler’s Monster

51. Franny and Zooey

50. Atonement

49. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

48. Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

47. Olive Kitteredge

46. Belong to Me

45. Perfect Life

44. An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England

43. Dirty Girls on Top

42. Pictures at an Exhibition

41. Swimming

40. The Girl She Used to Be

39. Wedding Belles

38. Strange Bedpersons

37. Keep Your Mouth Shut and Wear Beige

36. The Divorce Party

35. Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel

34. 37

33. The Farmer’s Wife Guide To Growing A Great Garden And Eating From It, Too!: Storing, Freezing, and Cooking Your Own Vegetables

32. The Book Thief

31. Atlas of Unknowns

30. A Homemade Life

29. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

28. Building a Home with my Husband

27. Rules for Saying Goodbye

26. Love in the Present Tense

25. New Moon

24. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

23. What Do You Do All Day?

22. Perfect Fifths

21. Strange Nervous Laughter

20. Based on the Movie

19. Twilight

18. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

17. The Cure for Modern Life

16. Time of My Life

15. The Year of Living Biblically

14. It Sucked and Then I Cried

13. The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris

12. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

11. Sitting Practice

10. Three Cups of Tea

9. When Madeline Was Young

8. Girls in Trucks

7. The End of the Alphabet

6. The Grift

5. Belle in the Big Apple

4. The Ungarnished Plate

3. Tomato Girl

2. The Answer is Always Yes

1. The Castle Corona