Because I finish what I start: December 2012 in pictures

Last one - you'd think I could have gotten around to it before now. But... See the post from 2 days ago...

We went with some friends to Maastricht to the Christmas Market which ended up being very small and not very awesome. But I did get some local honey so win to that. Also, there is/was a bookstore in a cathedral which was pretty cool to see.

At some point in December Islay started doing this:
She looks really cute, but dont be fooled, she only accepts 2-4 belly rubs before she kills you.

We made our yearly pilgrimage to the OBER Christmas Beer Festival in Essen, Belgium. Sadly, we could not go this year (2013) because of the chaos in moving to another country, but we hope to be back in 2014.

 I knit a super cool dino hat for my nephew Jake.

Islay inspected the Christmas gifts I made. -- Vanilla extract.

Islay attempted to sneak into the suitcase and go with us to Stevenage for Christmas and Boxing Day. Sadly, we had to leave her behind.

We said our goodbyes to dear Poppy, whose kidneys started to fail at the age of 18. Shortly after we left she peacefully passed away on the lap of Jamie's mom.

And Islay loved her Christmas presents!

Finally! I have wrapped up 2012. And before 2014 even. Goodness sakes, I am not a dedicated writer at all.

October 2012 in pictures

Only 3 more months to go in my 2012 picture round-up. Actually, kinda glad. I'd like to touch on other things also, but feel I should finish one thing before starting the next. October as I remember it was a mixed bag of things. Autumn in general is like that. Islay continued to grow and amuse us, and was generally healthy this month (after several scares last month we were quite happy with that).

 Here is Islay annoyed at the flash but happy to explore my bag after we got back from the wedding in England.

 Book kitty was quite proud of herself for finally reaching the bookshelf from the radiator.

Fall colors begin to arrive along the canals of Utrecht.

 Islay finally started using the box we set up for her to sleep in. Now it's her favorite place.

 Poor kitty. She was spayed and wouldn't leave the stitches alone so we had to put a cone on her for her own good. She became quite depressed that week. Sadly she is also now terrified of the vets.

 I finished knitting a hat for the new baby girl of my cousin. I also finished a shrug but didnt get any good pictures of it. Too much grey blah.

May 2012 in pictures

Getting a bit behind in my photo wrap-up of 2012. Or maybe it 's just that i was avoiding blogging about the month that I turned the dreaded 3-0. Still pretending to be "over" it. I guess we all have to deal with the inevitable. Since I started off discussing the birthday, lets get on with the pictures of the birthday.
We were crammed into a tiny part of one of my favorite bar/restaurants here in Utrecht (Cafe Olivier) so I could only get a picture of the whole group (that remained by 23:00) by taking two pictures.

Among other awesome gifts, Jamie bought me these chocolate brains skulls

Lots of other things happened besides my birthday. For instance, I finished the blanket for my nephew:

Also our amaryllis bloomed:

a smidgen of happiness

Been having a tough time lately with my impending unemployment and deportation.... It's not easy to never buy anything and be poor.... Too many things I dont want to go into here or now BUT i did see this wonderful yarn in the most fantastic colors and for 2euros a ball, i can afford to buy some for socks.

Also, i've been fiddling around, trying to figure out how to take good pictures with my new camera and this is the best picture yet. Maybe I just got lucky.

Without further ado, here is the fantastic circus sock yarn (click on it to see a bigger version):

April 2012 in Pictures

In April we had to come back home from the most amazing trip and go back to reality (e.g. work and PhD life). We finished some work on the roof-terrace, started our graden, and I did some knitting (of course).

Here is a neighborhood cat surveying our changes to the covered bit of our roof-terrace:

The start of our new garden

A close up of plants we would eventually manage to kill (except the aloe, that one is still miraculously alive)

A nearly finished mitered square blanket for my nephew

February 2012 in pictures

Feb was a month full of knitting pictures. Yes, this definitely exemplifies the winter blues I mentioned before. I mostly want to curl up in a quilt and not come out until spring.

I made progress on the baby blankie of love

And I finished a stranded color-work hat for Jamie. Which he loves and i have never washed even once because he wont let me. I'll try again this summer.

Pictures: January 2012

So I take a lot of pictures throughout the year, and I dont really do anything with them. Sometimes I put them on Facebook to share with friends, and sometimes not. I thought it might be nice to go post and discuss some of the pictures I took last year, by month. I'm going to do my very best to stick with this and review each month of 2012. It might take me all of 2013..... But gosh darnit, i'm going to finish something I start.
Looking back, January of last year was not very exciting as far as pictures go.

I backed a really cool Kickstarter campaign for a 3D printed sculpture. Here it is next to another fine piece of art (reproduction, of course).

I started knitting two big projects. The first was my very first cardigan, a raglan construction one using Malabrigo sock yarn. This particular iteration was eventually frogged since i was holding the yarn double and it was too tight and using too much yarn.

The second project was a baby blanket for my sisters baby. He was scheduled to be born in May, so I thought I had plenty of time. This was the third try after several failed attempts at a different pattern.

And that was pretty much it for January. Winter is always a bit of a depressing bummer here in Northern Europe.