IT'S GOING TO LEAF ME AND GO LIVE WITH ...

It's only a little after 5 P.M., but I needed to go ahead & draw the name for my give-away 'cause I'm not feeling so terrific tonight (just did too much today) and plan to head to my lil' room early. With that said - may I have a drumroll, please?


The winner of the Thanksgiving door hanging is: DOLLY! Congratulations, Dolly! And thanks to ALL of you for being such sweet and special friends! I'm ABSOLUTELY thankful for each and every one of you!

GRATEFUL GIVE-AWAY

It's almost the 'official' time of year to be THANKFUL. Of course, if we are honest with ourselves, we should be thankful ALL year long! And I believe most of us are, tho' maybe not always consciously. I love this season! There's just something amazing to me about a time when people are concentrating more on their BLESSINGS than on their shortcomings or needs! I decided to make a little door hanging that represents the season. It's obviously a simple thing, but I promise you, it was constructed with smiles! I bet you wonder why I didn't put an Indian instead of a pilgrim on it, don't you? LOL! Well, for the record, there IS an Indian on MINE. But, in keeping with the reporters who must impartially cover all these political events, I too am being impartial. Just kidding - I simply felt like doing a pilgrim. Nothing deeper than THAT!
And because I am VERY grateful for my beautiful blogger friends, I am going to do a give-away. If you leave me a message on this post and (if I don't KNOW you) include your email so I can contact you should you win) I'll put your name in the cornucopia - uh - basket. And TOMORROW night I will draw a winner. Why so fast? I am going to the post office Saturday morning & I will need to get this wrapped & addressed Friday! So if you think you'd like to win my little door greeter, leave a comment! Now, because I made WAAAAAY too many leaves for the door hanger, I think I will go make myself a leafy table runner!

KAI MADE A PIE!

Well, I DID! But, of course, it's a CROCHETED pie. I made it in under an HOUR (extremely easy pattern!) and it took just a tiny bit of yarn. But because I tend to collect pumpkins (or 'punkies', as I like to call them) I figured I should have at least ONE punky-pie! You can find the free pattern at Crochet Pattern Central! If you are a crocheter & haven't yet visited this site, boy are you EVER going to love it. FREE, FREE, FREE and categorized easily & beautifully enough even for an anal Virgo like me! Anyway, back to my pie. I made it as directed until the very end when I just HAD to add my own lil' Kai touch to it. See the dollop of 'whipping cream'? Naaaaaw! THAT'S not what I added. It's part of the pattern. But look closely. What's a punky-pie without some cinnamon and/or nutmeg sprinkled on the dollop? I mixed a teeeeeeeny bit of glue & water & spread it very lightly on the dollop top, then took a smidge of cinnamon and - from about a foot above the pie - sprinkled it. TA-DA! NOW it's a pie! (And, hey! It smells GOOD!) Okay, I'm getting in a real Thanksgiving frame of mind over here. Heeeeeeere, lil' Turkey. Gobble, gobble, gobble!

CROSS, CROSS, CROSS!

I've been CROSS! Counted CROSS-stitching, that is. Each of these pieces measures under 3 inches and are all for specific projects. But you know me. I tend to do EVERYTHING assembly-line fashion. I figured if I got the hard part finished first, the rest would be easy. Now that I've DONE the hard part (hard only because - as most of you know - I have vision in only my left eye) I'm pretty pleased with my bad self. I started these in early September and finished the last one - the Robin - last night. No, that's not all I've been doing. I've also finished all the November birthday gifties. But I can't SHOW those 'cause I won't mail them till November 1st and I don't want the recipients to see them until they get their packages. Anyway, below are the completed ccs pieces. I didn't realize the carrots & soup pot picture blurred. Ooops! Sorry.
Here's the Robin.

An apple pie with a bowl of apples & a 'Create' ccs with sewing essentials. (Like I'D know what SEWING essentials are! Bwahahahahaha!)

A tea kettle and a cup and saucer. Hmmm ... makes me want a cup of Earl Grey.

A ripe, juicy pear (for whatever the reason, this one's my favorite) and a blue buttery-fly.

And the very blurry bunch of carrots and soup pot.

Last, but not least, here is the entire group. Ta-da!

I've also made real headway on my Christmas gifts! Huh? Noooooo, you can't SEE them. And you stop trying to peek! Hey! Come outta there! You aren't allowed in my gift closet! I'm tellin' Santa on you.........!!!

EEEEEKS! SHE'S ALIIIIIIIIVE!

I still feel a lot like the Bride of Frankenstein, but I'm slooooowly recovering. By tomorrow, I MAY even post some of my crafty nonsense. OH, NO!!!!! (Oh, YES!)

But for now, do go to this site & have a bit of time-wasting Halloween fun! LOL!

http://www.itsga.com/fun/cat_new.swf

It's WICKEDLY addictive!

AAAAAA-CHOOOOOO!

Cough, cough, sniffle ... kleenex, please! Okay. Just wanted you all to know why I may not be posting for several days to a week. I'm ... I'm ... aaaaaaaa-choooooo! Sigh. I'm not feeling my best at the moment. I'll post like a crazy person & catch up on all my emails as soon as ... cough, cough ... AAA-CHOOOOO ... I feel human again.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

I can't BELIEVE it! If you read my profile, you will see that I wrote about wishing I could find Christmas Tree cologne! And LOOK! I DID! I immediately called Demeter and asked the lady if it REALLY smells like a Christmas tree or like Pinesol. (After all, I DON'T want to smell like a pine-filled TOILET bowl! LOL!) She assure me it DOES smell Christmasy, but suggested I get Fraser Fir which, she told me, smells like walking through a forest of Christmas trees. OMG! Heaven! So I ordered that one AND a tiny size of the Christmas Tree to see which smells the way I think it should. I can barely WAIT till I get it. If I love one of them as much as I believe I will, it will become my signature fragrance for all time! Oh, Kai is a VERY happy person tonight! Jingle bells! Jingle bells! Jingle all the way!

IT MAY NOT BE PRETTY BUT IT'S 100% REAL!

I've been threatening to do this for AGES but was absolutely too cowardly to go for it. See, just over a year ago, I stopped coloring my hair. I've been coloring it since I was - gasp! - 14. That's 44 YEARS, folks! LOOOOOONG TIME, huh? My hair grows VERY slowly, and I realized it would take at least 2 MORE years to get all the old color off if I didn't bite the bullet & have it cut. I'm in NO way vain. I've got nothing about which to BE vain. Plain as dirt, skin and teeth destroyed by Lupus meds, round as a big ol' balloon. And I am aware that very short hair - MARINE short - BASKETBALL WITH FUZZ short - is NOT a particularly good look for my round face. Still, I was really sick of the SKUNK look - you know, the 2 inch wide dark roots straight down the middle? That may be cool for Lily Munster, but Kai Naconi just wasn't liking it. So yesterday, I told the girl at the shop, "Cut the color off." She DID. I was surprised to learn two things. One, I don't have quite as much gray as I thought. I'd hoped it would be MORE! Second, I'd forgotten how dark my real hair color is. After all, it's BEEN 44 years since I saw it! I took some photos in my bedroom first but the strong light cast a serious glare & made my hair STILL look reddish. I was having such fun trying on and playing with some hats I bought from my friend Ele (A Bit of Pink Heaven) that I didn't even realize the light was glaring. You can see one of those photos on my blog profile. Anyway, I finally came in here to my desk & just aimed the doggone camera at the top of my head a couple of times. The photos below are the results. Not so great but they show the real color. I look somewhat porcupiney, don't you think? I have REALLY thick hair, but the girl who cut it tore into it weed-eater fashion and thinned it to the MAX. One GOOD thing - I had figured it would take 2 or 3 MORE cuts before all the old color was off. Nope! DONE! I can now let it begin to grow again as long as I choose. No more skunk. Just a round old Kai with a fuzzy head for awhile. By the way, I know this is not a post pertaining to creativity, but I thought you may not mind just this once.

AUTUMN & AWESOME!

The first thing I want to do on this entry is direct your attention to my banner. I DID have the banner photo but it was all cattywampus and the writing was hard to see through it. My lovely friend, Emily Franz, (check out her blog which is Blonde & Blithe on my blog list) wrote & asked if I'd like her to 'tweak' it for me. WOW! What a difference! She also 'framed' my profile photo and tweaked my 'About me' wording! What a sweetheart! She asked nothing in return except that I tone down the color of my blog posts because the bright red was shattering her vision. OOOOPS! I apologized & explained that I tend to forget not everyone loves bright red the way I do. Heehee! So I'll try this color and a couple of others that should still go with my blog theme. Readers, please let me know what you think is okay!

Em was the AWESOME part of this post! Now for the Autumn part. I made - yes, you guessed it - another tiara yesterday. Hopeless, aren't I? This one is Autumn-themed and, to be completely honest, did not turn out as I had visualized it. But, oh well! I had a good time making it and will try a new one soon. Maybe if I set this one aside awhile, I will like it better at a later date. (Maybe not.)

Here is the front view. See where I added little baby 'punkies' at the base?

And here's a side view. I sneaked in a tiny bird, too. 'Scuse the lil' glue-blob next to the 'gem'. I have a habit of taking photos before the glue dries. BAD KAI! In fact, THAT'S why there's no photo of the inside (which looks pretty if I say so myself - LOL!) There's too much glue still visible.
I HAVE been making other things BESIDES tiaras! REALLY! But they are for November birthdays and I don't want to show them till I mail the packages Nov. 1 & the birthday celebrants receive them.

OFF-TOPIC NOTE: You know, I really MISS my THE PARTY IN KAI'S HEAD blog, but I am getting used to THIS one. Let's hope BLOGGER (who happens to be on my SERIOUSLY BAD LIST for red-flagging & threatening to delete my opinion blog because of 'questionable content') doesn't destroy THIS one. Watch them consider THAT comment 'questionable' and mess me up AGAIN. Guess I better hush before the Blogger Police come after me.

THE PERFECT AUTUMN SWAP

Most of you know that I am a bonafide addict and a hooker. For those of you who DON'T, be so advised. Yes, you read that correctly. An addict. A hooker. NOW get your minds out of the gutter (heehee) because I am referring to my coffee addiction and my love of crocheting! So when I came across an upcoming swap featuring BOTH, there was no WAY I could resist signing up. As part of the requirement for participating, each person must answer a variety of questions created by the hostess. The first questions have to do with coffee preferences.




1. Do you prefer caffeinated or not?
Definitely caffeinated!

2. Whole bean or ground? For what type of pot or press?
EITHER for coffeemaker.

3. What types of roasts do you enjoy? Are you more the light and lively or dark and robust type?
Dark & robust! (Same way I like my men! LOL!)

4. How do you 'take' your coffee? Creamers? Sweetener? Other add ins?
Always French vanilla (liquid ONLY) creamer & Splenda.

5. That first morning cup - is it about the taste, or the caffeine?
BOTH!

6. Do you enjoy going out to coffee shops like Starbucks? What are some of your favorites?
I do go to Starbucks and to bookstore coffee shops but generally order just plain coffee! I can't resist Border's Bookstore Autumn coffees. YUM!

7. You've just made the perfect cup of coffee - is it in a thick mug, or a thinner cup? Where would you sit to drink it?
My big old thick mug! And I drink coffee in my office, in my 'studio', or sometimes in front of the tv.

8. You're enjoying that perfect cup, and have a magic cabinet in your kitchen - when you open it, magically, your favorite treats will appear to enjoy alongside the coffee - what are they? Are they sweet? Crunchy? Soft and flaky?
I don't generally care for sweets except for old-fashioned homemade tea cakes or just about ANY biscotti!



And the second set of questions has to do with yarn.

9. Do you have other hobbies like spinning or scrapbooking?
Yes! I do all sorts of creative things in addition to yarn work. I do counted cross stitching, paper art, clay, some 'sewing', etc. I also read a lot and I sing.

10. Do you collect anything?
Absolutely! Gingerbread people, Santas, cups & saucers, & dust (the last not by choice.)

11. What is your favorite part of Autumn?
The cooler weather, the promise of the upcoming holidays, the smells, the colors, EVERYTHING.

12. What sort of scents do you enjoy? Any difference in what you like for your house versus what you like for your body?
In candles or any home scent, I like ONLY Autumn (pumpkin spice, apple-cinnamon, pie or cooky scented) NO FLORALS AT ALL. I wear only one cologne - the same I've worn for 28 years - & it's now hard for me to find. It's Estee Lauder Youth Dew. I'm allergic to everything else!

13. Are you allergic to anything?
See previous answer. Also chocolate. (Isn't that cruel?) Note: I DO drink Raspberry Chocolate coffee ALL the time. It's just big 'doses' of chocolate which give me hives.

14. Are you on Ravelry? What's your ID?
Yes. Kai-Tai

15. How would you spend an ideal fall afternoon/day?
Creating, drinking coffee, and watching my favorite movies!

This is going to be a NEAT swap & it will really put me in the mood for the holidays! (It takes VERY LITTLE to put ME in a holiday frame of mind!) Hope I see some of you on the swap, too!

NOTE: I realized after I thought about joining this swap that the deadline was NOT going to work for me. DARN! I think my brain must be as wound up as some of my yarn. But I'll leave this post anyway. Just wanted to clarify.

OKAY, BLOGGER! THIS IS WAR! BWAHAHAHAHA ...

Last night I went to my The Party in Kai's Head blog - the one Blogger screwed up - to see if MAYBE they had restored it to its original form. Uhhhh - NO! In FACT, of all the insane things, the format & template had AGAIN been changed. I quickly went & checked my Wonderful with Words blog - no problems - and THIS one. Okay. I have ZERO idea why that happened to my original blog. So, you think you can outdo ME, do you, Blogger? Well, you're WRONG! A POX on you! I deleted my messed up blog & collaged (via Picassa) much of the stuff I've made since I've been blogging. HA! Mess with ME, will you , you dastardly blog forum? These collaged photos aren't too great, but at least there is a 'record' of them to refer to (and to prove I DO actually make stuff.) I am sad for the loss of my lil' old blog. But, HEY! I DOOOOO love Christmas & I DO celebrate it year round. So maybe I'm SUPPOSED to start this new one. Again, tho' TECHNICALLY this is post # 2, I say it's post #104! I had 102 posts on The Party in Kai's Head, and I am counting forward from THAT. Beginning with my NEXT post, I will start back to showing what I'm currently working on. But I needed to explain all this, to rag on Blogger BIG TIME, and to VENT! (Huff, puff, grumble!) Hope everyone is having a SUPER weekend! And watch your backs, my friends. Blogger is evil! EVIL, I say! NOTE: For those of you who didn't get to see it, Judi Atsma was the winner of my 100th post give-away. (Judi, I mailed you a goody box TODAY!)

HERE WE GO - HOHOHO!

Well, I seem to have this blog fairly well set up. Let's see if Blogger can LEAVE IT ALONE! I still cannot believe what happened to THE PARTY IN KAI'S HEAD. As I said, I'll KEEP that one and consider THIS blog a continuation, meaning that, as far as I'm concerned, this is post number 103 because I can't HELP what happened to the other blog. Sigh. Anyway, here I am, celebrating Christmas spirit already! And I will be adding my newest creations as soon as I FINISH something new! Stay tuned!