{Updates Continued}

I'm loving the fact that school is out! I think I'm finally starting to believe that I don't have homework to do. hehe  I've been a busy girl, despite a horrific head cold.  I'm whiny, still in my pajamas, but doin' stuff!

Look what I can do!

So, apart from the fact that I'm a dufus who doesn't know how to attach purse handles the right way (what a rookie mistake! LOL that'll get ripped out tomorrow)  look what I did!  This is my first attempt at a bag of any kind and I'm pretty darn proud of myself.  It's fully lined and I've added that pocket to the outside and a pocket on the inside.  I even lined the outside pocket! Also, check out the pretty red trim around the top!  It makes me smile. :D

 

 I think the inside pocket needs a button, so I'm going to add one.  I made the pocket a little wide to be practical, it kind of flops open, ya know?   Maybe one of my buttons made of antler? That would be way cool.  What do you think??  I love that my machine has a cool 4-step auto button holer AND buttoner!

Popeye Update

I think the vaccinations plus the worm medicine have messed with his tummy a bit.  He's been sleeping a lot today and is still nibbling slowly on his dinner from last night.  Is this normal, guys?

Popeye on the New Ottoman

Knit Picks Order

Yep, I got my Knit Picks yesterday! MAN I love seeing that box on the front porch!  Some of what I got wasn't terribly interesting: their purple plastic stitch markers, a couple of cable needles and a longer wire for my needles, BUT! Some of what I got was WAY cool!

 CotLin in Whisper(grey) and Cashew (tan)

These will be for some fun dish clothes to take with me to the craft show.  The one for May was canceled because the organizers realized they had planned for Memorial Day Weekend (which I thought that was the point? hehe)  so I'll be at the one in June.  This is good, I have more time to make stuff.

Shine Sport in Cream

Some kind of baby item, maybe? Or perhaps slippers? I haven't decided.  This stuff is super soft!

Crayon in Light Blue and Flamingo

These will be baby items too, I think.  Maybe little tiny hats, like the kind you put on babies in the hospital to tell whether they're a boy or girl? hehe  SUPER soft and 100% cotton - I love it!

I also got one new book from them yesterday and three for my birthday! WAHOO!  I'll write reviews tomorrow. :) Have a nice evening everyone!  I have to go blow my nose now.... hehehe

{So Much To Catch Up On!}

 First of all, I'll update you on Popeye's visit to the vet this morning. Thank you to everyone who asked about him! He and I feel very loved.   It was just worms, as we suspected, so he got worm medicine, his vaccinations and some flea medicine.  He did really well and didn't fuss hardly at all.  I'm super proud of him. :)  Okay, on to better stuff!!


Baby Sweater

The Mister and I have been busy bees on our long weekend! I told you that I finished a baby sweater, right?  Here it is!

Presto Chango by Valerie Wallis

I knit this cute little guy in Peaches and Cream 100% cotton, worsted weight, and it worked up like a dream.  It was kind of an odd construction.  You start knitting at the bottom of the back, add the stitches for the arms to either side, then knit up until you bind off the back of the neck, then knit down the front. hehe This was my first attempt at buttons, too! You see, up until now my family has been telling me that buttons on baby sweaters are a no-no, but I SUPER attached these ones with a ton of thread.  They aren't goin' no where! hehe

Craft Desk

The Mister and I both are pretty crafty people.  He enjoys painting models for war games that are very tiny and intricate and also does some woodworking here and there.  I of course knit, but then I also got that sewing machine for my birthday that I've started to play with and just well... it's annoying to always be hauling everything we need out to the dining room at the other end of the house and then have to put it all away again to clear off the table.  Our solution? We were inspired by Anna at Knock Off Wood to build our own custom craft desk across from our computer desks in the office.  We needed the surface area and we definitely need more storage for all our crafty accessories. 

That side of the room has a fireplace on it, but as you can see it's not functional.  We only rent this house, not own, so making the fireplace functional, or taking it out all together was out of the question.  It's a shame though because it takes up that entire wall and makes it almost totally unusable for any furniture.  That door beside it? One of THREE doors that goes in to the bedroom.  It's a little redundant.

Here's where we're at today:

There are three 20"x20" bases (the side one is turned because it's beside a dresser) made out of fiber board, and then the top is a really pretty stain grade pine that we bought 24" wide.  Lowes cut this ALL for us, which is so so awesome!  Seriously? With the pieces cut when we got home it went together just as easy as any piece of Ikea furniture I've ever bought.  About 2 1/2 hours to get all three bases and the shelf together.

We're waiting for a pretty day outside now so we can cut all the 1x2 trim for the bottoms, paint the base units white and stain the top.  I'm thinking a nice warm natural cherry colour, followed by some satin polyurethane. According to weather.com that won't be happening until Thursday.  And that ottoman?  We picked that up at the Habitat For Humanity Restore for $20!! It's a Pottery Barn Ottoman!!  I adore it!!  

I also got a Knit Picks box today, but I'll wait to show you that unit tomorrow! hehe

{OMG LOVE!}

I had a blog post planned about the new little baby sweater I finished (and is super cute) but dude.  I just found this etsy store you HAVE to see!!

 It's called A Remark You Made and she has awesome buttons made from fallen tree branches! {swoon!}

I have so so much to tell you guys about as soon as I get a great project completed. So excited!

{A Productive Saturday - So Far}

This morning, with 5 days of vacation ahead of us, we headed out to the next city to check out some garage sales and the Farmer's Market.  The garage sales were all a bust, but we did buy some plants from our garden!  We hadn't planned on actually planting them until tonight, but surprised ourselves by doing it in the midday sun.

do you think I need some of these instead of the paper? hehe

the whole garden (yep, the whole thing). That's our composting system 

in the blue bins in the back.

We planted: yellow pepper, cayenne pepper, cherry tomatoes, big tomatoes, asparagus, and carrot seeds.  We have plans to add jalapeno peppers too.

While we were playing in the dirt, these were cooking in the kitchen:

banana muffins

When I saw we had some frozen over ripe bananas I jumped right on these!  Made the kitchen smell sooooo good.  I baked them in the new muffin tin I got from my family for my birthday! It makes a larger muffin, which I like, and I didn't have to use a cupcake sleeve! It's no stick! My favorite? You just turned the cup *INSIDE OUT* to wash it! Isn't  that fabulous?

We had some hard news today too... our Popeye, he is sick.  He's got a vet's appointment for Tuesday morning.  Don't worry, we're taking good care of him.

the box isn't quite big enough

I'm three quarters of the way done on this baby sweater too. It's an odd construction.  I'll tell you about it tomorrow. :)

{Finally! An FO To Show You!}

Between the end of school and this massively hard lace pattern that I chose, it's been a LONG time since I've shown a finished knitted garment! But... for you dear friends in the blogosphere... I have for you...

My Haruni!! Here's me modeling:

And here's a close up of just the center pattern, which is my absolutely favorite part of this shawl:

So... I think I've told you guys before that I decided to do the body a stockinette stitch.  I like the look of it and stuff... BUT.  I sorta mis-read part of the instructions.  Oh don't worry, I got my stitch count correct, but I accidentally did the center increases *every* row including the purl side, instead of just on the knit side as I should have.  I didn't realize this until almost the end when I was blocking my knitting and it has a kind of weird triangle shape. lol

It's not quite as wide as you would expect it to be. hehe  I don't think there's anything wrong with it, it's just not quite the shape that I thought it would turn out or the shape my sister was expecting (since this was going to be knit for her).  Not sure where it'll end up but man oh man am I proud of this one!

It was a pretty easy knit too. Basically after I had Hope's help sorting out the charts (Thanks, Hope!) it was pretty smooth sailing.  Until I got to the bind off, which is a weird crochet bind off.  This was the new skill I learned with this scarf!  It was a K3together (with your crochet needle) and then chain 6 in to that stitch. Then you K3together again and pass the last of your chain stitches over and then chain 6.  I was pretty confounded. hehe

I've already cast on for a quick baby sweater in worsted cotton and I'm zooming through it now. More pics tomorrow on that! :)

{Done!}

My last final of the semester was last night and boy am I glad.  Please excuse me while I gather my poor, scattered and overworked brain. hehe

I'm on my bind off row on my Haruni!! I'm going to try the Crochet Bind off , a new one for me, and my one crochet needle was too little, so that lead to a trip to Walmart to buy another one (they are the only play within an hour that sells 'em. argh.)  Of course that lent to a cone of worsted cotton, some fabric, and some thread to try out my sewing machine.  I'll check back in once I have something to show you! :)

{Birthday Goings-on}

Wow you guys, what a GREAT birthday I had!  Other than a break from studying for my Calculus final (which I forbade myself to do any of)  it was great! It started when I came home after school and I had PRESENTS waiting!!

After walking by the massive birthday-paper wrapped box once, I got to open this up!

 Brother Sewing machine LX-3125e

YAY!! My very first sewing machine!!  I'm so excited and so rearing to go! I watch a bunch of the ladies online do cute tutorials that need a sewing machine and I'm so excited to get to do some sewing myself! I think I might start out with some cute fabric drawstring bags, just to practice?  I'm making myself not do anything until after my final and after my last project is handed in. But after that I'm going to dive right in! Does anyone know any good beginner sewing resources?

This (crappy) photo here shows a couple more birthday presents:

A new book that my brother bought me off my Amazon list: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden (a Canadian author, since I've been striving to read more of those lately), AND my new monitor!  A 23 inch Acer wide screen monitor to match my Mister's. This will come in extra handy when I'm geeking out on the mmorpg's. hehehe Oh! And my sister sent me a great silicon muffin tin off my amazon list too! Super excited about that.

On a side note... guess what ELSE this photo shows?  It's my Haruni shawl!  The colour is terrible, of course, since that's sort of a grey/purple yarn you're looking at. lol I have two lines of lace left to do, with purls in between, and then casting off. And that little tiny yarn pile beside it? That's the end of my skein. lol  Doh!!  I have a couple others, so I'm not freaking out and frogging or anything, it just means that I'm going to have to recake another skein. Last time that was a huga P.I.T.A.  It must have taken me almost two hours to cake that damn yarn because it was getting all tangled around itself.  Is there a secret to winding?  Am I missing the bus anywhere?

So for my birthday dinner, after I found my two lovely birthday gifts, my Mister made me Chicken Cordon Bleu with a white cheese sauce, some amazing risotto, and some broccoli that also had a touch of the cheese sauce.  Oh. My. Goodness you guys.  It was SO YUMMY and we're having left overs tonight!  For dessert he made me a tiny individual ice cream cake!  I absolutely love the ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen, but you can only buy them in 13" diameters and that's a little too much even for me. hehe This one was perfect and was even made with REAL oreos and Haagen Daz ice cream!

Overall, it was a perfect day!  Thank you, My Love for making me feel so special on my Birthday!!