Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas 2009

A festive house for Christmas in Connecticut.



I set the table with a "white Christmas" theme.




Fun with the family!














Aunt Geraldine and I talked about the flowers for the wedding. Tablescapes are the idea for the reception.


Here are some of the flowers that will be in my bouquet and my bridesmaids' bouquets.


I also started a new project.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

WooHoo!

It's done! Knit time: June - Present



Friday, December 18, 2009

Mid-December Already

It's December already. Seth and I have been enjoying the holiday season. We have the Christmas tree/Chanukah bush all set up in the living room and our snowman and candy-cane Gel Gems on our slider. It's very festive.



The most recent week of December has hit me hard with a rather unpleasant cold which has made me miss some inconvenient days of work. I am just now feeling well enough to be vertical for more than a few seconds. It has been seriously blah. Seth has been taking very good care of me. So has Lily, who has made sure to spend at least three of the hours during the day (and all of the hours during the night) sleeping on my knees and shins just in case they were a bit chilly.



One of my holiday gifts from Seth is also helping with the cold. It's bath items from Lush, my favorite place for bath and body items. Among the many cool things he got me from Lush is this gift set filled with bath bombs (Lush's exploding bath salts), themed for Chanukah. Check out the neatness!


(We kept trying to take the picture with the gimel showing but the gift box would not cooperate.)

On the plus side, for those who have been following the story of the cable and electrical, I have good news. WMECO will be reimbursing us in full for all of the expenses we incurred as a result of the problem with the line. I am very happy and looking forward to their check for $388 arriving in the mail in the next two weeks.

Before my cold started, I was doing a bit of spinning.


I've been working on this roving, which I got from loop.


It's turning into some neat yarn.


On the wedding front, Seth finished designing the Save the Dates. They are very, very cool and done with a neat motif in navy, which I will say little about, so that it can be a surprise.

We're planning to have the invitations, place cards, and cake (!) match the design. We are going to order the paper from them from Paper Source and then print them at home. We were thinking of using a local printer/copy place, but everyone was none to helpful in getting back to us, and we determined that paying to buy ink for our printer was cheaper than paying a copy place anyway. We didn't want any fancy engraving or raised printing and our at-home printer does a very nice job when set to it's "best" setting, so we should be all set. We plan to order the paper soon once we see the samples, which should arrive in the mail any day.

The save the dates will be going out in January. The only other wedding "to do" items for January are: register, get tuxes for the men (which will be in grey so as to look good with the ladies' dresses), and order the cake. Seth, the cake master, has decided he wants to get the cake from Atkins, a local country market with a bakery. They have pictures of cakes they've made online here. Seth already knows what he wants the cake to look like, so we just have to go an get a quote and place the order.

Now, Seth and I are off for two weeks, until January 4. Party time (once this wretched cold is over)!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Gift Baskets

Our office put together a pair of gift baskets for the winter prize drawing that we're doing this year to benefit the Sidney Smith Toy Fund. My co-worker, Maddy, and I put together two baskets:


A coffee and tea basket and


A crafting basket. I am bringing in some hand-spun yarn for the crafting basket, which I spun from this roving.


Here is it spun-up.


All in all a very fun holiday tradition!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Lily's Picture at the Art Exhibit

Here are pictures from the exhibit of staff's pet's at Smith. Lily's photo was included.



Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Saga of the Cable is Complete

It appears that the saga of the cable is complete. As many of you know, about three weeks ago our internet started acting up. When Comcast arrived, our cable line was frayed -- there was amperage being feed back along the cable line. We called Western Massachusetts Electric Company. They sent out a person who pulled out the meter and said, "Nothing is wrong here. It must be something in the house."

We called the electricians. The representative from the cable company had said that amperage feeding back into the house was very dangerous. It was also damaging the line and they would be turning off our cable (all dozen channels of it) and internet.

The electricians came the next day and stayed for about an hour and a half. They could find nothing wrong. We called Comcast back and when they came back, they found that there was still amperage on the cable line. We called the electricians back and still couldn't figure it out.

Day three: We had the electricians and Comcast come at the same time. At this point, we thought it might be a problem with the Comcast line. Turns out it was neither the electrical work in the house, which was fine as the electricians said all along, or the cable. It was WMECO's problem -- something they did not diagnose three days prior. (Note: To be honest, I was very glad it was not in the house. We moved in less than a year ago and the inspector looked at all the electrical and said it was fine. I would have been disappointed if there was something overlooked.)

Eventually, right before Thanksgiving, WMECO came out and ran a temporary line (all the electrical lines in Echo Hill are underground). This fixed the problem. They still have to come out an bury this electrical line, which is throughout the trees outside our row of condos.

Comcast came to look at the cable. The back-fed amperage had melted it completely.


At this point, we are in discussions with WMECO to get compensations to cover the $388 electrician bill that we incurred because the problem was not diagnosed as an external problem on day one. Seth talked with someone there today, who was very helpful and told us about the claims process WMECO has. We are going to have to fill out some paperwork and see if we get approved to get the money back. I should think that we should, but we'll have to see. At least we are done with having everyone running in and out of the house.

In unrelated news, the bridesmaids dresses are all picked out. Everyone decided on the dress I posted most recently -- the A-line with the pleating along the bosom. I think it should look very nice. Everyone is also getting the shoes I posted recently. I am thinking to getting them to go with my dress too, as I think they should look nice, although it's hard to tell having not seen my dress yet. (Note: I tried on the sample in a different color than the dress I am getting and they didn't have a large enough swatch to really tell what the actual dress will look like, although I am sure it will be lovely.) Next up is working on the invites, which Seth will design and deciding on the cake. Keep checking things off the list!