i so just wrote this whole big long post but then i went to put a stupid smiley and the whole thing disappeared because apparently smileys make things disappear around here .

so.... what i said in the original post was that i hennaed a couple tiny pumpkins (gourds) and i have pictures to show...

and

as far as knitting goes, there hasn't been a ton of progress.  i guess once the evil demon frill monster is done, i'll make something cool for myself.  dunno what i want to make though.

oh - and there's 84 or so more reps left on the frill monster.  i need to work on it way more diligently so that maybe it can actually be a christmas gift THIS christmas.

so this is what i ended up with after adding sparkles because i'm not thrilled with how dark the actual stain turned out, but i'm hoping it will darken up more overnight tonight. and yeah, i know the picture sucks.... but there isn't very good light in here and the webcam is the only half-way working digital camera in the house.

for those that don't know, i'm big on henna... which is an ancient form of temporary body art.  natural henna stains the skin for 1 to 4 weeks, depending on the quality of the henna and the body part it's on.  natural henna stains in the red/orange/brown color range and it's really cool.  at least to me it is.  for more information, check out The Hennapage.  good stuff.

so that's the sparkles and henna part... on to the burritos part... if you have a normal size ass, and you're in a group of more than 4 people don't go to Chipotle and expect to be comfortable... especially if there are two old people hogging the only ONE table large enough for your group aside from the crappy high table with the stools that are approximately 8" in diameter... just the perfect size to give you one hell of a wedgie as you try to climb on and off.... while still being large enough to cut off all circulation to your toes as you sit and balance precariously while trying to eat your big-ass burrito in a dignified manner.  so, in summation, Chipotle food good... Chipotle seating atrocious.

not sure why i'm even posting anything right now.  it's one of those time when i feel like i have a ton to say but then there's not really anything worth saying.

day was long... and full of nannying.

i did get my latest issue of the "real henna" mag.... and finally managed to print all of the henna e-book i bought.  damned old full-ass computer kept running out of memeory every time i tried to print the pdf as a whole so i had to break it into 3 parts for printing without a bazillion error messages.

so now maybe there will be some pretty henna pictures to post soon.

yay.

so on wednesay i was complaining about not seeing my brother.  well this morning i got up at like 5 to go to the bathroom and boy was here!  i guess he was in town just for the night but didn't realize before that he'd have any time to come home.  so we talked a little and i went back to bed, and we got to ride the bus together this morning to work(yay in a lame sort of way).  he had to go downtown a few blocks from the transfer station, and i had to transfer to get to church(where i work).  so while it's lame that i have to ride the bus to work, it's not lame that i got to see boy.  because he doesn't always suck.

on my second bus to work(it's about a 20 minute ride), i worked on knitting a mitten.  i got a few weird looks, but they were from weird looking people, so they don't count.  the bus driver pulled the bus over and got up and walked back to my seat just to ask what i was making.  so that was odd, but i guess kind of cool.

and the reason i decided to write this post in the first place, even though i got way distracted with typing the other stuff, is that i'm finally down to "double digits" on knitting the frill.  only 99 repeats to go.  wooo! i'm kind of wondering if i should make the other frill and just set it aside to make absolutely sure i have enough yarn for it.  because then i could just make the body part a few repeats shorter if i had to.

so that's about it... i'm still not sure what to make/get everyone for christmas.... but i guess i still have a tiny bity of time for all that.

my brother came home today and i was all excited because he's been gone forever and i kind of missed him and was looking forward to at least saying hey before he had to leave again.  but no, i was supposed to be childcare person for a bible class at church this morning, and i got there and there were no kids there, but since i don't have a car, and my original planned ride person wasn't there, i couldn't just up and leave, so i had to stay for the class. 

so then i had to ask for a ride home after the class, and two of the older church ladies kidnapped me and took me to lunch at the place that i think made me violently ill with the last time i was there.  but i didn't bring that up because they were old and buying me lunch and they go there all the time, so that's where they wanted to go. 

and back to the main point, i missed seeing boy because he was "only here long enough to fart and burp" according to mom. and now he's back on the road.

he brought me presents though...4 new shot glasses from arizona and new mexico and a pair of headphones.  i'm not sure why the headphones, except he busted the crap out of my good pair a while ago (like several months ago).

so that's about it for today... there hasn't been a ton of progress on the frill... i keep distracting myself with quicker, easier things... i need to get my butt in gear though.  oh - i finished a top secret project for christmas that involves a very silly picture of me... if you haven't seen it, lemme know and i'll top secretly show it to you.

yay a new addition to my pimpin' christmas glass menagerie... the pimpin' christmas hedgehog i got today.

here's a new pic of the "frill" in progress.  i've done 18 rows (6 reps) of the "body"... and look, you can see a pattern (bars and zigzags), so i guess i'm doing it right. now i just need to repeat rows 1-3 114 times. 

after a few "suggestions" that i make a button, i made a button.  look over to the right there.  the pink one.... yup that's for me.... all for me... but because i like my reader(s), i will share.  you can put it on your page or blog as long as it links right back here, please. 

yay for little kids... because some of them think everything is a monkey.  like becky, the little monster i babysat today so her gramma could get some actual work done.

the wee one and i went outside to play and happened upon a squirrel.  becky saw the squirrel and started screaming "monkeeeeeeeeyyyyy!!!!". 
"no, that's a squirrel", said i. 
"monkey go up". 
"yes, the squirrel went up that tree".
"mmmmmmmooooonkey!!!".

and that's kinda how the conversation went until she ran to go pick up a stick... mostly likely with the intent to poke the "monkey" if it came down out of the tree.

ah, kiddos.

yes, i know i just said i wasn't going to unravel the frill... no, i am not patient and restrained enough to actually not unravel the frill.  so here it is all lacey and open. 

hard as heck to take a picture of.... but you get the idea.  now for some dish washing.

i decided to make something really cool and pretty for my mom for Christmas, so i bought some yarn and got to work on variation on a frill.

it took what seemed like forever, but i'm finally done with the first frill...

i haven't unravelled the drop stitches yet, partly because i'm scared that somehow i will have done something wrong and the whole thing will just melt away before my eyes, but also because i think it's less likely to catch on things as i'm working if everything is still all in place.  the row/stitch markers aren't actually marking anything, i just clipped them after i made them, so i wouldn't lose them.

so that's what i'm spending most my time working on lately.  hopefully i'll be done by christmas... only eleventy billion more rows to go.

first post... though, i will be first to admit, probably not best post.