Category Archives: Contests

Contests, Reading

She looks so innocent…

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Wendy’s having a contest – before 4 pm EST, January 22, send her an email guessing how the pictured sock was knit, and you could win a skein of Wollmeise.

Nikki is having a contest to celebrate her blogiversary, 200th post, and new WordPress blog! Simply leave her a comment by January 24 and you could win a fibery prize.

Dotty and Gladys are celebrating their blogiversary with a contest, too. To participate, leave them a comment with a link to a rectangular stole pattern by midnight PST, January 31.

Reading Update
Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn. Radio personality and werewolf Kitty returns for another solid installment in this series.
Crime Seen: A Pyschic Eye Mystery by Victoria Laurie. Psychic Abby Cooper is back in another light’n’fluffy mystery.
Back to the Bedroom by Janet Evanovich. These old, reissued romances from Evanovich are trite and boring and not recommended (even though there are four black kittens at the end of the book).
Cybermancy by Kelly McCullough. This is the sequel to Webmage, which I recently read and enjoyed. Decent writing and a heck of a premise that mixes cyberpunk with Greek mythology make this a series I’ll continue reading. I think McCullough’s influences include Jim Butcher’s series about wizard Harry Dresden and Roger Zelazney’s Amber series (particularly Corwin).
Wolf Moon by Charles de Lint. This is an old one (1988) and definitely not as skillful or involving as more recent works. It isn’t Lint’s trademark urban fantasy, but it does put a nice twist on some some fantasy archetypes.
Promises To Keep by Charles de Lint. This Jilly Coppercorn story seemed awfully familiar to me – maybe just because it’s described as a prequel to Widdershins?
Old Man Crow by Charles de Lint. Is Joey Creel “a man dreaming he’s a crow, or crow dreaming he’s a man”?
Paste Magazine #39. Many thanks to Margene for turning me on to this magazine! Each issue comes with a sampler cd – what’s not to love about that?

Mayhem (literally) Update
Mayhem had a busy weekend. Saturday she extricated the FM antenna from its supposedly safe perch, then gnawed about six inches off of it (I don’t think she ingested any, fortunately). Sunday I woke up to the sound of her tipping over a heavy oak kitchen chair onto the tile floor and cracking the floor… Maybe she really does have cabin fever!

“Quit telling tales, Mom!” -Mayhem

“I can’t believe you’d fib about me like that. I can’t even look at you.” -Mayhem

“I am so disappointed in you. Obviously, if such things had even happened, the big kitty would’ve done them!” -Mayhem

Contests, Those Cats

In which a cat is actually discovered on the cat bed

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Round one voting for the 2007 Canadian Blog Awards is now open! MamaTulip’s been nominated for Best Family Blog – head on over and vote for her before 11:59 PST, January 21. (Of course, the Yarn Harlot has been nominated for several categories, too, including Best Blog and Best Activities Blog.)

Deb (aka Chappysmom) is having a contest celebrating some blog milestones, including her three-year blogiversary.

Although I’m sure no one remembers, we do actually have a cat bed around here. Here’s a picture of Chaos at six months of age (around March of 2003) actually using the cat bed. If he tried that now, he’d have to be surgically removed from it…

Anyway, I haven’t seen a kitty in the cat bed in forever… until one day when I simply flipped it over, bottoms up.

“What?” -Mayhem

“Really, this isn’t exciting enough to merit paparazzi.” -Mayhem

“Although it does merit some stretching.” -Mayhem

“You’re making mer nervous, Mom. Is there something about this cat bed that I should know? Are you waiting for it to devour me or something?” -Mayhem

Contests, Randonymity, Reading, Viewing

Twitterpated Tuesday

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Cheryl’s decided to plan out her gift knitting for the year in order to both use stash yarn and not drive herself crazy with deadline knitting, so she’s starting Project Sanity. She’s looking for a cool button for Project Sanity – if you create one and email it to her by midnight EST, January 25, your button could win you a yarny prize.

Hey, things weren’t so bad for Chaos in his bib yesterday – Jeanne’s cats got stuck wearing preemie hats… (Hmm, come to think of it, it was Jeanne’s inspiration that led to Chaos’s modeling a strawberry hat nearly two years ago.)

Woo-hoo! I won a Golden Spork Award (Crafting/Creative category) for the second year in a row! Thanks, Tink! I am honored indeed.

Reading Update
Holidays Are Hell by Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M. Liu, and Vicki Pettersson. If you’re a fan of Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, this collection contains a story about Rachel as a teenager. If you’re a fan of Pettersson’s Zodiac series, this collection contains a story about the mysterious Zoe Archer, mother of Joanna Archer.
Creation in Death by J.D. Robb. The latest Eve Dallas and Roarke mystery – same dependable stuff. Mmm… Roarke…
Key of Knowledge and Key of Valor by Nora Roberts. Books two and three in the Key Trilogy were enjoyable, if rather predictable.
Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft by Mindy Klasky. What’s not to like about a chick lit novel with this opening line: “They don’t teach witchcraft in library school.”
Spring Break and Wedding Bell Blues by Charlotte Douglas. I’m continuing to read and enjoy this low-key series about Florida ex-cop and PI Maggie Skerritt.
Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs. I much enjoyed the newest Mercy Thompson novel – and not a vampire to be found, CarrieK! Briggs is a skilled writer of paranormal fiction, and I’m already looking forward to the next book. Now, if only the cover illustrator would read the books and realize that Mercy only has one tattoo…

Viewing Update
The Importance of Being Earnest This exceedingly silly movie based on Oscar Wilde’s play has an exceptional cast, including Colin Firth, Judi Dench, and Rupert Everett.

“Neener neener, big kitty! Do I look dumb enough to stick around when the bibs come out?!” -Mayhem

Contests, Randonymity, Those Cats

Random bunny thumping

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Don’t forget that Monday, January 14, is National Dress Up Your Pet Day! Trivially, today is National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day; Saturday is the Feast of Fabulous Wild Men Day – how are you celebrating that one, FuriousBall?! 😉

CursingMama’s giving away Body Drama, an extremely frank “facts of life” book – stop by her blog for details on how to enter the contest, which ends midnight CST, January 16.

Heidi’s friend Christy recently had breast removal surgery and is about to go through chemo and radiation therapy. Heidi’s having a “Bits for Tits” contest – she’s collecting knitted/crocheted/sewn breasts for Christy’s amusement and use. If you send Heidi a crafted breast (or a chemo hat if you can’t picture yourself knitting/crocheting/sewing a breast) by February 14, you will be entered in a drawing for assorted fibery prizes!

KitKatKnit’s kitty Ruby has issued a “Bunny Thumper Challenge,” looking for the the kitty with the longest back feet (bunny thumpers), the daintiest back feet, and some randomly selected back feet. Contest closes midnight PST, January 17.

My, but it is very challenging to measure and photograph “bunny thumpers.” I got some very nice mouth measurements.

“Mwmph.” -Mayhem

“Mwmph. Mwmph!” -Mayhem

And some shots that required a fair amount of imagination as to where the end of the bunny thumper might be.

“What do you mean, ‘overhang’?! I don’t have ‘overhang’! Hmph.” -Chaos

This overexposed and poorly corrected shot was the best I managed of Chaos. (More accurate measurement while he was napping and I wasn’t hindered by a camera revealed that bit of his back leg to be 5.5″ long.)

“Sulking here! Leave me alone!” -Chaos

But finally I did get a good shot of May’s little bunny thumper, which was revealed to be somewhere between 4.5″ and 4.75″ – so hard to tell with all the squirming.

“I get a treat for this, right?” -Mayhem

Whew!

Contests, Festing

Happy birthdays!

31 Comments

Kim’s having a blogiversary contest. Stop by to wish her happy blogiversary before midnight PST, January 13, and let her know what your favorite FO of 2007 was. There will be at least one randomly selected winner.

Ali’s having a UFO contest, which should tie in nicely with many of the knitting resolutions I’ve been reading around blogland. To participate, post about an unfinished object by January 21, then finish the UFO by February 7.

Monday was Deb’s 50th birthday and today is Jeanne’s 40th birthday! Happy birthday to both of you!! Last night we got together at Deb’s house and had a little birthday party. Deb made our traditional flourless chocolate cake, and there were, of course, cards and presents and lots of laughter.

Deb recently got a new black kitty, Sammy, so of course we spent some time admiring her.

“Hmph. But I ask you, does she have these fine wet wool socks to lie on? I bet not!” -Mayhem

Contests, Knitting, Those Cats

Niphead Mayhem

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Jeanne and Chelle have kicked off their 4th Annual k3tog Preemie Hat Knitting Extravaganza! Their goal is to collect 150 preemie hats in the month of January. They’ll be offering prizes for the hat(s) from furthest away, most hats knit, and several random drawings.

Christina’s been nominated for January Knit Girl – if you vote for her and let her know that you did, you’ll be entered in a drawing for a fibery prize.

I have a question for anyone using a Feliway diffuser – I put one out about three weeks ago and can’t tell if it’s actually diffusing effectively. The little jar is still about 2/3 full and the outside bottom of the jar seems to be collecting liquid – that doesn’t seem quite right to me.

I’m knitting myself a new scarf, but it’s simply too boring to bother sharing a picture. It’s, um, black, from Wendy Velvet Touch (100% nylon) – one of the few yarns that doesn’t make my neck itch. Silly neck.

CarrieK sent me a lovely thank you package! Check out the gorgeous and warm purple hat! She also sent season one of Jericho. If you’re keeping track, you’ll know that my queue now includes season one of Lost (conceivably Deb would like me to return that someday), season six of 24, and now season one of Jericho. To balance out the tv stuff, Carrie included a lovely black kitty girl bookmark and a “If only I could get paid to read all day” bookmark. She didn’t forget Chaos and Mayhem, either – they got some fun’n’froofy catnip toys. Thanks, Carrie!

“Do I detect… nip??!” -Mayhem

Chaos wasn’t too sure about the toys.

*poke poke poke* -Chaos

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos

“Oh, come on, big kitty – this is the good stuff! Here’s what you should be doing.” -Mayhem

“Hmm. They aren’t very… dignified toys.” -Chaos

“Dignity, schmignity!” -Mayhem

“Hey, who you callin’ a niphead?!??” -Mayhem

Contests, Reading

I wonder how they defined “literacy”?

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I hope everyone had a good start to the new year!

After several years of second place, Minneapolis has been rated America’s Most Literate City! St. Paul jumped from fifth to third.

MissT is editing the February issue of Yarnival and is looking for your submissions.

Ann and Kay are holding The Grandma Mabel Memorial Recipe Box Show and Tell Contest. You have until noon EST, January 4, to flash your recipe boxes and maybe win a prize!

Scout’s encouraging people to donate some money to help a dog in Maine who was seriously injured by someone snowmobiling illegally on the owner’s property. If you donate by January 4, you’ll be entered in a drawing for some goodies from Scout.

Reading Update
The Day Will Come: A Stella Crown Mystery by Judy Clemens. Meh. I read the whole thing, but never got very invested in dairy farmer and Harley rider Stella’s story. No interest in reading more of these.
Pelican Bay: A Maggie Skerritt Mystery by Charlotte Douglas. Former debutante Maggie Skerritt is a police detective in a small town on Florida’s Gulf Coast. This was a good read and I’ll definitely read more in this series.
Dance of the Gods and Valley of Silence (Books 2 and 3 of the Circle Trilogy) by Nora Roberts. More sword’n’sorcery’n’vampires – this was a darn good trilogy.
Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split by Laurie Perry, aka Crazy Aunt Purl. Just like reading her blog, only more serious and with no funny cat pictures. I might have to knit that cat tube…
The Yarn Lover’s Guide to Hand Dyeing: Beautiful Color and Simple Knits by Linda LaBelle. Overall, this is probably the best dyeing book I have; however, it definitely has its limitations. I think more interviews, and giving those interviews more substance, would have significantly strengthened the book. So would spending much more time and space on the techniques and much less time and space on the simple patterns.

Thank You Updates
I won two contests! On the left below are goodies from Ali – two yummy skeins of alpaca, a box of chocolate-covered popcorn “coal,” and some gluten-free snack bars (well, ok, the snack bars are at work – I won’t even pretend that they’re under Chaos). On the left is a lovely skein of yarn from Jen. Thanks to both of you!

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos and Mayhem

MamaTulip sent me a very fun box of goodies – a lovely purple mug with black cats on it, candles, metal cat and glass ball ornaments, an excellent cd, and a nice wooden cat sculpture. Thank you, MamaT!

*sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem and Chaos

“Hey, big kitty – I think we got a new kitty in the house! Now I’m not the smallest kitty anymore!” -Mayhem

“I hate to break it to you, May, but that kitty isn’t exactly alive…” -Chaos

“Hmph. I knew that, big kitty. I was just kidding. Moving right along… Mom, why am I lying by an empty mug? This is boring.” -Mayhem

Contests, Randonymity

Can’t blog – vacuuming

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Sylvie of ChezPlum is having a contest. If you’ve knit one of her patterns (including the free ones) and have pictures, you could win French yarn, needles, or patterns. Contest closes January 15.

For the past few years, I’ve been using the same Rainbow vacuum cleaner I vacuumed with as a child. The Rainbow is still a darn good vacuum cleaner, but I’m tired of dealing with the sludge (it uses a water basin instead of bags), the cannister doesn’t fit in the closet, and the unwieldy attachments seemingly have miles of tubing and always fall out of the closet onto me or the kitties. Enough! So as my Christmas present to myself, I bought a Dyson Slim Vac, which fits nicely into the closet and doesn’t use bags, either. I love it – amazing how much less onerous vacuuming is when you don’t hate the vacuum! (If my brother is reading this, he should definitely not mention to Dad that the Rainbow will be returning to his garage this weekend…)

“This is so much less scary than that old R2-D2 style vacuum. Its motor made horrible noises and the wheels squeaked! I had to flee and hide from it, which isn’t good for my image.” -Chaos

“I’m not sure, big kitty. I think it’s trying to lure us into a sense of complacency… then it will strike and take us out! Do you have any idea how many kitties are consumed by vacuum cleaners every year?!” -Mayhem

Contests, Knitting, Randonymity

Pass the Silk Nog, please

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Stop over and welcome Deb’s new black kitty, Sammy!

There’s a pretty cool contest over at Kathryn Ivy right now – you can win a complete Easter Egg Yarn Dyeing Kit. The drawing for the kit is limited to residents of the continenal US, but there’s a separate drawing for patterns that’s open to folks outside the US48. To enter, leave a comment (by noon PST, December 27) letting them know what you’re wishing for most this holiday season.

Scout’s looking for knitting inspiration – leave her a comment with your project idea by 8 pm MST, December 24, and you could win some goodies.

The present gnawer is definitely Mayhem. I watched her remove chunks from the poor thing last night. I wonder how picky my brother’s going to be about his present? It’s no longer even close to pristine. In fact, it sort of looks as if a furry, demented kitty girl has been going to town on it…

Some of you (*cough* Marina *cough*) may have noticed a certain lack of knitting around these here parts of late. I really haven’t felt all that inspired knittingwise. However, that hasn’t stopped me from having a plain old sock on the needles. The yarn is Wisdom Yarns, Marathon Socks – Boston (color 212).

“My goodness, Mom, I didn’t realize you still did this stuff.” -Mayhem

“Don’t move, Mom, or the sock is history.” -Chaos

“Told you not to move, Mom!” -Chaos

In the above picture, my pale wintery leg has been blacked out to spare all of you. It’s better this way. Trust me.

I may or may not post on Monday; I hope everyone has a good weekend and a wonderful holiday!

Contests, Gluten Free, Randonymity, Recipes

Worth reading just for the fabulous brownie recipe!

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Thanks to everyone who played along in my personal ads contest! If you haven’t gone back to read the comments, you really should – y’all are extremely creative, if somewhat twisted, folks. 😉 Many thanks to Jeanne and Deb for providing judging services! Cyn and KitKatKnit tied for first place, and Pao was selected for a dishonourable mention. Congrats!

Jen’s having a contest – leave her a comment about your favorite holiday tradition for one contest entry, and/or post a link to Jen’s blog for a second contest entry. Play along by midnight CDT, December 16, and you could win some “tasty sock yarn.”

Janet’s interested in seeing your recipe posts and photos. Leave her a comment with the link to your recipe/photo, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win some socks personally knitted for you by Janet! Ok, my entry doesn’t have any pictures, but here’s one of the easiest, tastiest brownie recipes ever:

Gluten-Free Double Fudge Brownies
2T butter or margarine
2T water
1/2 cup sugar

Mix the above ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high until mixture starts to boil. Remove from microwave, add

6 oz (1 cup) semisweet or double-chocolate chocolate chips

and stir until the chips are melted. Add

1 tsp vanilla
2 slightly beaten eggs

and mix well. Add

2/3 c gluten-free flour (you gluten-eaters can use wheat flour)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (only for gluten-free version)

and mix well.

Stir in 6 oz (1 cup) chocolate chips, mix well, and pour into a greased 9″ square pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F. Do not overbake! If you wait until a toothpick comes out clean or the edges pull away from the side, they’ll be too done. I usually take them out at about 20-22 minutes. These brownies are very rich. They will be crumbly when warm, but they’re quite cohesive when they cool.

Looking Back
I’ve seen this on a few different blogs and I remember doing it last year… For a quick review of the past year, here are the post titles and non-contest, non-reading first sentences of my first post of each month.

January Reports of my demise were only slightly exaggerated…: I spent six hours of New Year’s Day in the emergency room, getting fluids and antinausea meds for the most evil migraine I’ve had in 12 years (i.e., the last time a migraine sent me to the ER). I’m still not feeling the greatest today.

February Secrets of Cat Photography Revealed (Part the First): Two things have inspired me to write this post. First, I promised the info to Michaele at least six months ago (whoops – sorry, Michaele!). (Um, the photos for Part the Second are still in my unused photos directory… whoops again!)

March Killing you with the cute: Aw, thank you all so much for the kind words about my refined raglan and yesterday’s self portraits! *blush*

April What I did with my weekend, or Meet the Peeves: As I mentioned Friday, the Peeves came to Minneapolis for approximately 24 hours, en route to see more sights and meet more bloggers (Hi CarrieK! Hi La! Hi Laurie! You’ll have fun!!). Meet the notoriously camera shy Peeves:

May A message from Mayhem: Hi everyone! Mom said I could post today because she doesn’t feel very lively…

June And finally, some knitting: Aw, Mayhem really appreciated all the sweet birthday wishes yesterday! For those who are wondering where the heck the year went, I didn’t get her until September last year.

July Feline groovy: Rachael’s cat Digit returned after being long given up for dead! However, he requires surgery and a lot of other medical care, and Rachael and Lala don’t have that kind of money right now.

August Handy Mayhem butt: I’ve mentioned swap-bot a few times recently. Kristi has a great post on how to establish a rating on swap-bot.

September Trying to catch up: I took a bit of a computer break over the holiday weekend and am frightfully behind in bloglines. Please let me know if you’re having a contest you’d like me to mention, as I’ll probably read about it on your blog long after the deadline has passed…

October Monday meanderings: I finished my Los Monos Locos on Saturday! *sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem

November A Halloween walk: I thought I’d share a few pictures from my walk yesterday. Some of the house pictures are worth clicking to see the Halloween details!

December We were all stricken with camnesia: Thursday evening I picked up Kristi the Fiber Fool from the airport. We chatted and knitted while Chaos glared balefully and May tried to entice Kristi to open up the MGWT closet.

“Whatever, May. I know the blog readers really appreciate my dark smouldering sensuality more than your insipid cuteness.” -Chaos