Merry New Year!

You have to say that in a fake African accent, a la Eddie Murphy in Trading Places.  You can actually see the section here.  Love YouTube.

Rhys and I quote this movie all the time.  Ja, from Sweden....Please to help me with my rucksack?  We're not the highest of the brows, what can I say?  Anyway, I finally bought the movie on DVD, so we can watch it EVERY New Year's Eve.  It was the Dukes...it was the Dukes...

With regard to this here holiday:

So my new year's resolution is to deal with the insanity that is my house.  I have no illusions that I will become a neat or organized person.  I just want to be able to find crap when I need it.

I don't know if I told you this, but my MIL is taking the entire family to the Cayman Islands in February.  As you might imagine, I'm deeply psyched, despite any stress that sharing a house with 12 of your closest in-laws might produce.  Dude, it's the Caribbean in February and I'd spend it in a house full of Republicans if I had to.  Oh wait a minute, that's exactly what I'm doing.  Never mind.

Anyway, as you probably know, you now have to have a passport in order to go to the bathroom travel anywhere from the US (and get back in at the end of it), so I had to update mine, which expired in '06.  So I went looking for it.  Hmm.  Not there.  Or there either.  Or in the safe deposit box.  Nor in the Big Pile Of Crap That Is Now In A Box But That Was On The Junk Counter Last Time People Came Over.  You know that box?  It wasn't in that box, or the box from the time before.  I know, I know, life is crazy, what can I say?  Well, then I figured I'd better find my birth certificate, which I always knew where it was before the renovation (you know, the one where we were going to have so much more storage space and shelving and organization?  Yeah that one).  Well, nowhere to be found.  So here I am in mid-December realizing that I might actually be waving goodbye to my family from the airport because I didn't have a freakin' passport.  I ordered a new birth certificate from the City of New York but you can imagine how much confidence I had in the timeliness of that.

My point is that I couldn't find a flipping thing in my damn house and there's no reason for this.  So after returning from nearly a week of Christmas with the Republicans in-laws, I went to the basement and I kicked some paperwork-clutter-disorganization butt and I a) found my passport within an hour and sent my expedited application off for a new passport because dude I am so going to the Caribbean and b) threw away a big pile of toys and old junk and c) organized a bunch of stuff in the basement.  Now I have to go to IKEA to get one of these for the basement and, if I can just stick with it, we're going to have a basement where we can FIND STUFF.  Seriously.  I'm also going to be selling and giving away stash over the next few months.  Watch this spot and my Ravelry feed.  (Do you know that you can subscribe to your Ravelry friends' activity on Bloglines or whatever RSS reader you use?  It's a great way to keep up with friends' projects, and it's interesting to see how virally fellow bloggers queue patterns.)

Solstice Knitting Recap:

When I said I'd be knitting for teachers, a few people questioned my sanity asked if I was completely sure that was a good idea, given my stress level in other areas of life.  That's entirely reasonable, of course, but for some reason that even I don't understand, I actually like doing that kind of knitting.  I think it gives me an excuse to make small, easy projects, and there's no pressure--the recipients aren't expecting knitted gifts so if I don't finish, no one will be disappointed and they won't be my kids' teachers next year, so I'm not setting up any expectations for the future.  I'm not sure why I'm capable of knitting gloves for my kids' teachers but can't seem to do the same for myself, but let's save that for therapy, mkay?  Here's the pile on Solstice eve (missing one pair of cashmere-silk fetching mitts, just for the record...):

Among these, for the most favoritest teacher of all, were a pair of chalice mitts, designed by the fabulous Alison. 

I test-knit these, though the pattern was perfect already.  Hopefully she'll be releasing it soon.  I used Elsebeth Lavold Angora (on closeout at Webs, of course), and it was kind of a marriage made in heaven.  I wasn't happy about this at first, but because I ran out of yarn on the second mitt, I wound up having to buy three more skeins because it would have been wasteful to just use a few yards of the third skein.  So now I can knit some for MEEEE!  Okay, WHEN is a whole other question.  Let's not get into that whole therapy thing again.

Well, I never tell you people anything, it seems, but then when I do I do ramble on don't I?  We've had a wonderfully snowy start to the winter here, and my skis are itching to get on the slopes, but it's not likely it will shoehorn its way into the schedule.  The kids tried it while we were in New Hampshire, but it never got past the frustrating stage for them.  Someday soon.  All this white stuff makes me wish I lived where Ruth lives...

Comments

[katy]

"... the Big Pile Of Crap That Is Now In A Box But That Was On The Junk Counter Last Time People Came Over."
OMG--this very box is now in my bedroom, as we had people over for a party today.
(Or it might be two boxes--I'm not telling.
Sigh.)
Our 2008 goal is to organize, too--and I would be so up for a road trip to IKEA!
p.s. the mitts are gorgeous and The Caymans sound fab.
p.p.s. nice to see posts from you. Hope 2008 is a kinder one to you and yours.

[Mel]

Dude, I love that movie, especially Dan Aykroyd eating the salmon and his beard. It's the kind of movie that makes David roll his eyes when I suggest watching it, but I love it nonetheless. I should get a copy for myself, especially now that I know I'm in such good company.

[Carole]

Good for you for organizing. Ikea is the key!

[jenn]

happy new year, cate!

[Kathode Ray Tube]

Happy New Year, from an equally disorganized person with a lot of yarn. But don't ask me where the kids medical forms are, birth certificates, etc....

I have to register DS #2 for school this month and am quaking at the idea of locating all those materials.

Love the mitts!

[MelissaKnits]

I love my Gorm shelving. We've got it in two closets. Love love love.

Have a good time in the Caribbean. We're going to WDW and then on a Disney Cruise (because we are sick, sick people) for the last two weeks of January. I cannot WAIT!

[Kat with a K]

Happy New Year! I've never seen that movie - will have to add it to the queue. I am determined to get my house under control (and, um, find my passport so I can go to Canada in October) this year too...

[Ruth]

Happy New Year! You are most welcome to come and visit - although all we have to offer by way of a guest room is the pull out couch, which we confirmed on Christmas Eve is not an ideally restful locale for a family of four. It is snowing massively at the moment - in fact, if the forecasts for the coming week come true, we could get over a metre of fresh in that time.

[tara]

A spinner in Doha, you say? I may get over there at some point, although I don't know why. Dubai is probably more likely for some retail therapy (although I doubt they have many yarn stores there either).

Anyway, Happy New Year, and best wishes for the next one. (I'm trying to work my way up to my resolution post, but it is coming...)

[Morticcia]

Virgin commenter here. I was all set to be helpful and say Gorm isn't ideal for basement storage b/c it's not heavy duty at all, but someone else loves it. To each his own. :-)

[claudia]

Beach. Sun. Sand. Mmmmm.

You might have said other things today, I don't rightly know.

[Alison]

Happy New Year! Your house sounds just like mine, but I have no plans to change mine anytime in the immediate future. I should, but I don't.

Thanks again for testing the mitts - I'm so glad you liked them! They will definitely be the next pattern I put up for sale.

[norma]

I've started the decluttering, too, and hope to HELL I can stick with it. Which reminds me, I should get off my butt and do SOME MORE. Good luck with it, and did you say CARIBBEAN? Bitch.

[Deborah C.]

My house probably looks a lot like your house - clutter absolutely EVERYWHERE. I have to move piles when people come over so that we can eat together, and it's not pretty. My only resolution for this year is to clean the house up, including de-stashing and perhaps selling a spinning wheel or two.

[Lee Ann]

My house looks like Heathrow's baggage room exploded in it. (You don't want to know how I know what Heathrow's baggage room looks like. We were not going to London. Honest. But now I have a UK immigration stamp in my passport--which I thankfully found five minutes before we left home--and a very bad attitude towards British Airways.)

Our fiber room (husband didn't know it was called that, heh) is going to be turned into a music room and so I'm totally with you on the oh please let Ikea save me from my disaster area thing.

Also, I miss you, and it totally made my day to come home and see you'd posted twice. Brightest of blessings to you, too, sweetie.

[Dr. Steph]

Happy New Year. I'm with you on the being able to find stuff vibe. I've been throwing out stuff all week and it feels so good.

[Lucia]

We've lived in our current house for 13 years, and each year (except this year because of the ill-timed blizzard, and the year Taz was in the hospital) we've had a tree-trimming party. We therefore have how many of those boxes, class? Yes, that's right, 11. This of course does not count the boxes from birthday parties and other lesser parties that may have occurred. To make matters worse, our cleaning lady put all the boxes in the attic. I now have two copies of at least one book that I didn't know was in a box. I feel your pain.

Last summer when we went to Mexico we applied for passports all around, including one for Taz who was staying home. Grant and I already had expired passports, which supposedly speeds the process. I therefore needn't tell you whose passport arrived first.

[JoVE]

Hmm. Tigger's resolution is to be tidier and more organized. I'm reading a book called something like Organizing on the Right Side of the Brain that might help. Or not. Geared to helping out pack-rat creative types rather than making you feel like a failure for not being able to organize.

I bought bookshelves today as that seems to be our biggest organization issue at the moment.

But congrats on finding the passport. The Caymans sounds nice. though if you had waved your family goodbye you would have had PEACE which wouldn'T have been bad either.

[JudyMac]

I don't think that I have seen that movie, but since I have a weird sense of humour, I'll have to track it down.

Lovely mittens.
Happy New Year to you both!

[nik]

My cousin and I always say "Merry New Year" to one another...we loved that movie.

Oh, and I too have one of those boxes full of stuff that's used to be on the junk counter that day company came over. That box has been sitting in the closet for years now. I guess it's time to do something about it.

[gohuji]

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