Times Like These.

Faith! (of No More Sweaters) used to blog a list of the most gorgeous knit, crochet or general crafty items that she found on different blogs. I was even featured once. I miss her blog so much. Times like these makes it that missing feeling that much stronger. Knit bloggers are getting some slack that they aren't posting enough or that Ravelry has changed the way we blog. It may have, but I know for sure that there's still some creative and gorgeous knitting and crafting going on in blogland.

For example:

Craftivore finished a Sahara sweater that I swear is one of the most beautiful sweaters that I've ever seen. Go look, come back when you are ready. The color of yarn she chose, the smile on her face in the first photo, the fit of the entire garment....stunning. This is something I keep telling myself that I'll make when I lose 10 pounds. Serious sweater envy.

Costumechick finished a Zetor Scarf that made me drool. Plus, the scarf is for her Grandma's Christmas gift. I need to knit more lace, even though I have 2 things on the needles. Getting that lace bug bad.

A Friend to Knit With posted a tutorial on making rag jewelry. It makes me crave summer camp and flirting with cute 15 year old boys at the YMCA pool (circa 1989...haha).

Too Much Wool finished a Liesl sweater in 4 days. FOUR DAYS!! And not only does it fit, it looks stunning on! I totally went directly to Ysolda Teague's ravelry page and downloaded it. I'm such a sucker.

And lastly, Gauss knit an amazing colorwork shawl. There is nothing this woman can't do!!


What have you found on craft blogs that you admired, loved or craved lately?

No Longer Just a Moving Blog.

I've been knitting every chance I get. It hasn't been as much as I'd like, but I'm getting things done.

I'm designing a shawl for Schaefer Yarns. It's done with Heather. Great colors, right? The greens remind me of leaves and grass in the spring- fresh green.

I'm also doing a scarf for Rebecca. Remember- she knit me a pair of Monkey's? This is her payment. Trust me when I say the pleasure is all mine. Great project. I'm sure she'll have it on her blog soon.

And I won a prize from Claudia's ride! I never win these things!! Anyways, here's a skein of Mind's Eye Yarns in Grasshopper Sky. I love the blues in this. It's sock yarn, and I don't knit socks, but trust me when I say that I'll find something satisfying to knit with this. It's lovely.

And lastly, this isn't for the squeamish. For the surgery a couple of weeks ago I was given an IV. It really hurt going in. I figured it was just nerves, but apparently not. I took this photo a full seven days later. It took 10 days to heal. I was even at a restaurant and the waitress asked me what happened. Yikes.

Photo Post

Since we now have an extra bedroom (there's one for Hubs and I, one for Jack, one for an office, then a spare) we've decided to make it a half guest room/ half craft room.

Here's some before photos:

Red, yellow and blue striped. Yikes. Ignore the cardboard on the floor, we'd already started taping and that's to protect the carpet.

The light fixture has to go too. I have no idea what I want in there, but it's not this.

One coat of primer. We had to do 2 coats, plus sand off the yellow stripe. You can still feel some of the stripe if you run your hand along the wall. Grr.

And this is one coat of the color we chose. It's a greenish tan. Sometimes during the day it looks one color, other times it looks another. Either way, it matches the window hangings I have. Awesome.

Today we are painting the second coat, possibly getting the light fixture and best of all, getting our air conditioning back! YAY! (That's another whole story.)

And I leave you with some visitors from the other day:

Two deer- a momma and a baby. (I'll put this up on flickr so you can see it better. So cool!)

Good and Bad Parts.

The new house is coming along, even with a few glitches. Yesterday our air conditioning stopped working. Our basement has the big screen and sectional. We spent most of our afternoon in the coolness down there. We didn't realize that the entire house was baking until about 7:45 pm. We opened windows and lucky for us, it was cool and there was a bit of a breeze.

Hub's is getting a new thermostat today. I just hope that solves the problem.

The man who lives behind us owns a bunch of dogs, who feel the need to bark, howl and cry. They must be inside most of the day. We can't hear them except for when they're let out, assuming to do whatever it is that doggies need to do. Apparently our neighbor thought that 4:30 this morning was a good time for them to be let out. I was sound asleep and out of no where was this chorus of bellowing, howling cries. I was half way across the room thinking that The Boy was screaming before I realized what the noise was.

WTF?

So basically I traded a loud business alarm going off randomly at all hours of the day and night for a mass of howling dogs. Fantastic.

I worked out today in the gym closest to the new house. There's going to be a period of adjustment with this place. It's an older facility, more crowded and there's no women's only section. Grr. I felt self conscious on the treadmill. And I have no idea how to use their weight machines. Babysitting is also 16 bucks more a month. Can't wait to tell Hubs that.

On the good side, I feel 100% safe here. I keep the doors locked, but have no problem with the windows being open. In the old house I felt really exposed. Here- there's only trees staring at you! It's wonderful.

My mom found berry bushes on the property yesterday. One is raspberries and the other we think is blueberries. They don't get much sun so the berries were small. We'll be trimming that area soon. I love fresh berries!

We ordered our bedroom set and have plans for the living room. It's exciting to get these things done. I have a craft room that I need to get organized. I need to paint first. You should see the room now. Ugh!

I can't find my cable for the camera, but I have photos coming soon. Maybe I'll do a photo montage of the new house.


And Emily- I'm feeling good. No more spotting, no more cramps. I'm still tired during the day, but now that I can work out again, I'm hoping that will take care of itself. Thanks for asking! I miss you.

Home.

We're in. The cable's up and running (finally) and I can post.

We're unpacking, slowly but surely. I'm tired. Beyond tired. But we're home and it's wonderful.

We have some furniture that we need to buy. We're finding our way around ok. Thank god for GPS. I took an accidential tour of the next town while searching for the correct street to turn on. There was a 3 car traffic jam downtown during construction. haha.

I dealt with a 2 day headache from not taking care of myself- too little sleep, too much stress, change in eating habits....better now, but if I go too long without food it comes back with a vengence.

Any questions? I feel like I have so much to say, but I'm not able to form words yet.

:)

The best part, The Boy spent the last 3 days away from us, but he's back now. He hopped out of the car this afternoon and said, "New house, PARK!" He totally thinks we live at the park, now that we have the playscape in back and all the land. Ah, kid. You have no idea.

Scattered.

I'm living out of boxes. Actually, Hubs and I have a rule that once it's in a box, it stays there until we get into the new house, so I'm really living with what I got, which isn't much. Everything important is scattered throughout the house.

Tomorrow is moving day #1. We (and by "we" I mean the movers) are packing up the truck, going to the closing, going to dinner then to a hotel. Thursday is moving day #2. We (again, movers) are unloading the truck at the new house. The Boy will be at my inlaws' house, so we can start to unpack and move things to where they need to be.

By Friday night we should have the big things done. My inlaws are bringing The Boy back to us and we are hoping that things fall into place thereafter.

Everything should go according to plan. But, as we all know, something is going to get 'effed up and that's ok.

I'm excited and very overwhelmed. There's still some packing to do. I feel like I don't have enough boxes, but there's a pile of them in my kitchen. Excuses, excuses.

The 'puter gets turned off tonight and won't be back on until Friday.

Have fun while I'm gone. I'm sure I'll have some stories to tell when I'm up and running again!

Upon Further Inspection...

I had Hubs take a look at the car last night.

Here's what he thinks happened:

I took my car in for servicing 2 months ago. My sunroof was leaking. They also did work to some cables behind the dash. Hubs thinks the guys never properly screwed the dash in correctly. Then, with the heating and cooling of the days and nights- causing expanding and contracting of the dash- the bottom part of my dashboard wiggled itself free and dropped.

He raised the point that there was no screwdriver (the tool of choice by radio stealers everywhere- apparently...I wouldn't know) marks anywhere in the car. Plus, he drove the car last and tried to put the seat to my "spot" and only locked the driver's side door.

Hmmm.

We still need to get the hell out of Dodge, if you know what I mean.

And OH! Congrats to us- we've been married 5 years today! You can tell that we're stressed and not allowed to have sex. We've been keeping our distance from each other, somewhat bark-y towards one another and we didn't exchange gifts. Haha.

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

Reason #1002 Why We Need To Move.

I got into my car to drive to meet my MIL. She was kind enough to mind The Boy for the past few days.

So I sit down, put my seatbelt on, start my car and happen to actually look around. I notice things are "off".

My seat is at a weird angle.
My passenger's side door is unlocked.
The lower part of my dashboard looks wonky.
There's screws undone on the underside of the dash.

At closer inspection I see that some asshat had tried to steal (I assume) my radio.
My 10 year old, standard issue, Pontiac radio.

WTF?

(What else would they steal? My sometimes-not-working air conditioning??)

Atleast make it worth while for yourself- take the change out of the center console, steal the car seat, pick up some of the junk in the back. Do something if you're going to have the mark on your soul...Dick.

Define "Do Nothing"

Today is supposed to be a day of doing very little. I'm not that good at doing very little. But I can't lift anything. I have 3 loads of laundry that need to be done and a house that needs to be packed. It's hard to just sit and knit. But when I get up and move around I start bleeding and cramping again. Grr.

My mom is coming this weekend to help pack, but I needed stuff like boxes and some sort of glassware protection. I asked my family for some newspaper. I went to my aunt's house to collect some and they had an industrial sized roll of bubble wrap waiting for me!
And so you have some sort of scale, this is the wrap next to a chair.

Is it bad that I just want to roll it out and go all Godzilla on it, stomping on every last bubble??

Heehee.

Doing Well

I'm home from surgery, just up from a big fat nap.

Things are well. My doctor said that my uterus looks "terrific" so I guess that's good.

Some cramping, some bleeding...they gave me happy pills for the pain. I'll take one if it gets to be too much.

Going to play Packrat and hang on the couch for awhile. No SnB for me tonight. :(

Monkeys Make Me Happy...and Warm

Thank you for the comments left after the past 2 or 3 posts. A loss of precious life is never easy, but it's even more difficult when it's sudden and unexplained. My family is doing good, comforted by the fact that her children are being taken care of and that she's in a better place. I'm sure the long road of grief isn't going to be a simple one, but it is getting easier with each passing day.

After the wake on Weds. night I drove to SnB. I wasn't sure if I should go, but I really needed the comfort of friends. They were kind without being sappy, which I appreciated. They listened to my stories of the people who came to the wake with the humor that was intended. I'm going to miss these women with everything I have.

And I got a gift that night! Rebecca was nice enough to make me a pair of Monkey socks. I've wanted them since I don't know when. I really don't like to knit socks and she's doing this crazy 80,000 pairs of socks in a month group or something. (That's an exaggeration, folks.) All I had to do was give her the yarn and she knit them up for me. It was a wonderful gift.

And they fit like a dream!

I wore them to bed the other night, when the air conditioner was blasting at my feet. They are so warm that I ended up tearing them off after about a half an hour. I'll be wearing these alot during the winter!

I'm sure someone is going to ask what yarn it was. I'm almost embarrassed to write it.

(Mystical Creation Yarns)

Alice, did you just groan out loud?? I heard that!

Anyways, life is about to get really really nutty for me. I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again, but I'll do it as often as I can over the next 2 or 3 weeks. Wednesday is (finally) surgery day for me. I won't be able to lift anything for a week, so I might end up at my inlaws for a couple of days, seeing as I have a 2 year old who can't magically get himself out of the crib.

And...next Wednesday is moving day!! YAY! I have no idea when I'll get internet connection back. When I do, you can be sure that I'll post all about everything in the woods.

Hey, does anyone know how to make a labyrinth? I'm about to have a ton of land with nothing to do. ;)

Ready to Hurl.

I'm planning on leaving for my cousin's wake in about a half hour.

My heart is beating out of my chest, my hands are sweaty and I feel ready to yack.

Lucky for me it's Wednesday, which means I should have knitting tonight.

I have no idea if I'll make it or not ladies, so if I don't show up- have a cup of Oreo for me?