KiriOsity

C25K!

2011-04-28T21:38:00.005-04:00

So I was going to start Couch to 5K at the beginning of April with a friend. Alas - we live in Indiana, so the first day we were gonna go it was SNOWING!!! And then it's either been freezing cold or raining cats and dogs. But now the weather is nicer and I snagged a new jogging stroller so Wylie can come along for the ride. My friend Ryan's lovely and inspirational wife, Jasmine, has started a C25K buddy challenge on her blog. Go check it out, even if you don't get signed up in time to get matched with a partner you can still play along and learn to run with everybody! I'm actually excited to have more than one person to be accountable to. Even if it's only to shame myself into getting outside more often. Let's see if I can get Dan to join, too.

It'll be fun. Really. If my chubby behind can do try it, you can too :) I have a nearly 2-year-old boy and despite chasing him around everyday, I still have baby flab to lose. Running is practically free (except for shoes and clothes... and a stroller... ha!). No gym membership required. Lace up those shoes and come with!

The one in which Kiri gets a clean slate.

2011-01-26T08:54:00.007-05:00

Welcome, 2011! Thanks for not letting 2010 kick my ass anymore. The rescue was greatly appreciated. On to bigger and better things, like:

Trikey!

Starfruit!

Sitting in the big man chair!

and mommy and daddy not killing each other for another year ;D

Oh, and mommy changing her mind about locking the blog. Because then she turns into a lazy bum and doesn't write if she thinks nobody's looking. Bad, bad mama.

Private Eyes

2010-07-21T19:10:00.004-04:00

Are waaatchin' you! Ok, so I decided to make the blog private since I'm posting a lot more stuff about Wylie than crafty things. I'll make a separate public blog for random things later.

Weekend Highlights (Or: Proof that we're suckers)

2010-06-28T13:23:00.008-04:00

O hai!

Don't act like you haven't done it too. (PLEASE?!! I know I can't be the only one...) Wander into the pet store or fuzzball adoption place to see if they have a certain kind of critter. I wanted to have Dan rub a puppy crossbred with a poodle on his face and see if it made him sneeze. When we got married and Dan wanted a cat I had to go to the pet store and rub different cats on my face, so it's only fair. Anyhow, supposedly poodles and poodle mixes are good for people with dog allergies. But then we got to see this cute little cotton ball of a dog that doesn't shed and is hypoallergenic, or at least as much as a dog can manage all that. We really wanted to get a dog for Wylie for some reason. Probably to clean up all the food he drops ;) So here's our Coton de Tulear puppy named Butterscotch. Three days of living with us and sleeping on Dan in bed and it looks like he can stay. Best part: no fur laying around and he eats all the Cheerios off the floor! Win-win situation.

And in other things we did this weekend, here's daddy trapped outside with the lawn mower with Wylie laughing at him. Classic.

Ok, I caved...

2010-06-22T05:02:00.004-04:00

We went to swim in Grammy's big pool on Sunday for Father's Day. Stinky's not too sure about it. At first he was excited, then daddy accidentally dunked his face in the water and the pool tasted gross! Anyhow, here's a pic:

And life wouldn't be complete if we didn't get a picture of the three stooges together:That's Uncle Jason doing his famous "I'm not touching you" routine. He's done that since he was about 7 or 8 and is still fascinated by it at 25. It was particularly annoying on all the 20+ hour car trips to see our grandparents in Florida. Boys will be boys, right?

Please don't nom the garden hose.

2010-06-19T03:24:00.006-04:00

"But mommmmm... it's tasty!"

Last weekend it was so darn hot out. And don't get me started on the humidity... you could swim from the porch to the mailbox! Yuck. We took this opportunity to blow up Wylie's brand new wading pool, fill it up and plop him in it. Poor little fella. He probably expected it to be warm like the bathtub, but it was pretty chilly. He sat down in it and then promptly fell over face first trying to scramble back out. You can imagine how everybody going past our house gave us dirty looks for trying to drown our screaming infant on our front lawn, right? Did I mention I bought him a foam padded floaty swimsuit so he looked like a pint sized blue Michelin man?? The old people who stare at us from across the street had a field day, I'm sure. Wylie finally decided it was nicer to be in the wading pool than outside in the hot sun and a good time was had by all. He splashed around until we decided too much of his sunblock was floating in the pool and it would no longer prevent him from turning into the filling of a little floaty swimsuit s'more. He was pretty disappointed to get captured in a towel and whisked into the house again. We're trying to get him ready to go in Grammy Vicki's big swimming pool later this summer. I think he needs a few more dips in the little pool first, though.

BTW: Stinky is 10 months old TODAY! :) How time flies.

8 Months Later: Teeth, walking and other new things.

2010-04-19T09:08:00.004-04:00

Yeah, so teeth. Not fun. We had this sweeeet little boy who started sleeping through the night and then - TEETH! Two in the same week. And now he's got FOUR on the top, all lined up, all poking their sharp little corners through his gums. And he's super cranky. Hopefully they will poke the rest of the way in this week and he can settle down a bit. If you haven't done teeth yet, please trust me when I suggest buying a bajillion boxes of Baby Orajel Nighttime Formula. It totally rocks - has a higher amount of pain killer than the regular version, so we don't have to re-slather as often and it takes effect faster. Some people swear by the teething tablets, but this little fella just didn't want any of that for whatever reason. I was so hoping those would work, too. Mass quantities of baby Tylenol and ibuprofen didn't really work either. I actually longed for the first three months where he screamed for a bottle every 45 minutes! Holy. Cow.

I went to the dentist last Tuesday for a whopping hour and a half and my mom, who was watching Mr. Stinky, got bored and taught him how to walk while holding on to something in front of him. This seemed really awesome until we realized that all he wants to do is stand up and walk now. And when he goes to bed he wants to sleep on his stomach and stick his butt way up in the air... so at least part of him is UP. Crazy munchkin.

Stinky got the go-ahead to start solid foods at 4 months. He still gets bottles, but is now a fan of such delicacies as Pear Strawberry Granola and Sweet Potato Corn Medley. Oh, and he's taken up finger painting with his food too. Always good to find a hobby early in life, right?

Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T01:31:00.003-05:00

From all of us... even the little guy, who couldn't stay awake 15 minutes longer to make it 'til midnight.

Xmas Elf

2009-12-13T17:32:00.004-05:00

We took our Xmas card photos of Wylie at my mom's house yesterday. It only took us an hour of jiggling random things in front of him, fussing with fake antlers and wrangling ma's dog to get two usable pix. So because very few of my relatives actually visit ye olde blog, here are few outtakes:

Wylie: Can you believe she made us do this?
Dog: Um, welcome to the family, noob....
You should see the sweater she made for me last year.
Dude, I TOTALLY chewed that up. It was pretty awesome.

Wylie: Hee hee! That's the stupidest face ever, dad!
Daddy: Ha-hooooo! Come on, smile! Hooooooo! Lalalalala!

Wylie: Man, that's it. I'm outta here. If you need me, I'll be in my trailer.

Spark Freebie: Yoplait Fun Pack

2009-11-18T23:50:00.007-05:00

So I decided to try out this blog group that lets you test new products and provides you with some awesome goodie packs to give away to your blog readers. It's called My Blog Spark. This recent sampler had new kid-oriented products from Yoplait in it - and since I just had a kid, I'm all about attempting to be a good parent and find things he might like. Even if he doesn't have teeth right now... ha. But I have to say I was really surprised with the Yoplait Kids yogurt because it has less sugar, but you still get your sweet fix in a healthier way than candy/ice cream/junk. It actually tasted good. When Wylie can have yogurt, I'll definitely be letting him have some of this stuff. And the sampler fun pack Yoplait provided was pretty awesome too! It contains a little insulated fabric cooler (I have baby bottles in them for our trip right now, but soon it will contain kid snacks), a couple of cool color-changing plastic spoons for you/your kids to test their yogurt with, a puzzle toy, a washable plastic placemat with games on it, and coupons so you can get your yogurt.

Want a fun pack of your own? Here's how to get it:
Leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite after school snack when you were a kid. If your Blogger profile doesn't link to your blog or email address where you can be contacted, please leave that info at the end of your comment in disguised form (example: myemail AT domain DOT com instead of myemail@domain.com). On Monday night (11/23/09 after 5 pm EST) I'll pull two winners out of the comments using Random.org, collect their info and send it off to My Blog Spark so they can get their very own Yoplait fun pack! Easy peasy and worth it for the chance to get something neat, right?

Now for the obligatory "additional info"...
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This Spark is for the opportunity to receive a free sample of Yoplait Kids yogurt and a Yoplait Less Sugar, More Fun prize pack!

Are you searching for a snack for the kids that tastes good and is good for them? Yoplait Kids yogurt is the perfect solution with 25% less sugar than the leading kids’ yogurt. With its thick and creamy texture that will hug your little one’s spoon, you won’t have to worry about a sticky mess to clean up afterwards. It also contains no artificial sweeteners or flavors, so you can feel good about serving it to your kids.

In addition, Yoplait Kids is a good source of vitamin D and, according to two new studies that provide the first national assessment of the crucial nutrient in young Americans, millions of U.S. children have disturbingly low vitamin D levels, possibly increasing their risk for a variety of health concerns, including bone problems. About 7.6 million children, adolescents, and young adults have vitamin D levels so low they could be considered deficient. It can be challenging for growing kids to get enough vitamin D because this nutrient is only found naturally in very few foods; however Yoplait Kids makes it a little easier to incorporate a delicious source of vitamin D and calcium in your child’s diet.

By participating in this Spark, you will receive a coupon* for any of the Yoplait Kids yogurt products along with a Yoplait Less Sugar, More Fun prize pack. Perfect for accompanying this fun afternoon snack, the Yoplait Less Sugar, More Fun prize pack includes coupon for a Yoplait Kids yogurt, a travel cooler (to take your yogurt on-the-go), a fun spoon that changes colors in warm water, a reusable place mat with games to keep the kids happy while snacking, and a fuzzy tangle puzzle for some after-snack fun.

*This coupon offer for a free six pack of Yoplait Kids yogurt is not valid in some states, including Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota and Tennessee.

FTMFP (First time mom faux pas) #1

2009-09-21T13:14:00.004-04:00

Okay, so I learned something from this one. We were going to get Wylie's birth certificate on Wednesday last week. The health dept. that has his file is in the next city over and it was cold that morning. I thought he might need something with long sleeves and long legs that wasn't really thick like fleece, so I grabbed a little onesie deal with arms and legs on it. It even had a cute graphic on it and was the only one that was small enough for him. But once I got his diaper changed and put the outfit on I realized... it looks like an orange prison jumpsuit! Way to go, mom. Niiice one."Take me away! I gotta do hard time for vandalizing the wall by my changing table, man."

No turning back now.

2009-09-06T08:12:00.004-04:00

He's here :) 8/19/09 -- 7 lbs 11 oz, 20 in long.

Almost 3 weeks old and we still can't tell what color his hair and eyes want to be. My brother and I are still holding out hope for a redhead. Or even a reddish head. Somehow we both got variations of red hair when our parents are brunettes... gotta thank Grammy Irene and Grandpa Nielsen, I guess. Biology nerds out there, draft yerselves a good Punnett square for that one.

Body Shots

2009-08-05T03:14:00.005-04:00

Of the pregnant lady variety. We went over to my aunt and uncle's house a couple weeks ago and they managed to snap pictures of the bump in action. This is about 34-ish weeks and I'm kinda sorta... puffy. The lovely lady in the background is my fabulous aunt - she sewed a bunch of awesome baby blankets and decorated some burp cloths for us! Crafty people in my family, I tell ya. But as for Mr. Bump, he has managed to blow himself a huge bubble to live in. It's super round and sticks out way far. My right leg decided to stop swelling Monday and I actually have an ankle bone poking out of it this week. Still have sausage fingers though. Small victories, right? Ha.

We did come to an agreement about a name finally. When I get induced in a couple more weeks, we'll be coming home with Wylie Ronin Wolfe. Or at least that's the plan for now. Our OB decided that enough is enough and I can pop him out a little early. Dan and I can't wait to cross the finish line and get to a new version of normal, let me tell ya. It'll be hard to learn to be parents but a relief just the same. Luckily we've got a lot of folks to bother with our first-timer questions so we'll be ok.

It's a...

2009-05-04T15:18:00.005-04:00

Yeah, I've been a pretty lax little blogger for a while. But I have an excuse! Really, I swear I do! Wolfie and I now have one of these:

Tilt your head to the right and you'll see a cute little profile above. That's our son (Wolfe cub?)! Due to hatch sometime in the last half of August. His official EDD is 9/2/09, but after his photo shoot they've decided he's actually a couple weeks ahead of that. It's been a wild few months since we found out we were going to have him at Xmas. My cousin and I are hyperemesis buddies now - lucky for her she's due in a month so she'll be ok again soon. I still have a ways to go. But our munchkin is healthy and the doctor says he's a really good swimmer, so as long as he's fine I'll take whatever pills the doc wants me to to keep him that way.

We've been crazy nesters since March. Tore out our bathroom and replaced the shower surround, plastered, painted (thanks Mom! I didn't have to sniff paint fumes)... now it looks like we'll need to take the tile floor out because it's cracking pretty badly. The girls I used to work with get a laugh out of all the remodeling going on. But hey, if you can't eat like a pregnant girl you gotta do something else to occupy yourself. Dan rearranged the basement and rewired some of the electrical, so the ubernesting rubbed off on him too. Poor guy.

Also making little boy hats, crib sheets and other baby accessories. I made myself wait until we knew what "flavor" we were having to get started making stuff. Glad , too. Otherwise I would have been making girly outfits and having to give them all away! Sadly most of my yarn/fiber/fabric stash is less than gender neutral. Oh well. I got a cloth diaper kit in the mail this morning, so that'll be this week's project. We figured we'd give cloth a shot because we'll be trying to have a budget baby. And it gives me something to entertain myself with during the day if I have stuff to work on. We haven't had to do a whole lot of decorating - didn't have to paint his room because it was already blue and we've just now started getting furniture and other larger necessities. Putting together the stroller from Dan's parents was a real eye opener though. It kind of freaked me out some because I started to realize the little guy's going to actually sit in there everytime we go someplace for the next 3-4 years. Eeek! I don't care what anybody says about how exciting pregnancy is. We're scared out of our minds.

Red Rum. I mean HAIR.

2008-11-01T22:51:00.004-04:00

New hair. Well, new color anyhow. Dan snapped this while I was talking so it looks a little goofy.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T20:24:00.005-04:00

Olive the Halloween cat does her impression of the fridge gargoyle.

We carved the world's toughest pumpkins last night. No joke. There were a couple with skin that was more like a hard crust 1/4" thick. I couldn't even saw thru it with a knife... it just kept cracking! They're the first pumpkins we've done since we got our house. Last year we had just moved in 2 weeks before Halloween and didn't have any money left to buy stuff to carve ;)

Kiri the pumpkin slayer.

Dan totally cheated and used the drill on his two little pumpkins... bonus points for the use of pumpkin guts though.

Here are a couple of pictures from the cemetery tour last Saturday. It was freezing and rainy... but still fun. We were the youngest people there. Mostly seniors and then a couple folks that were probably our parents' ages. But it was nice to hear all of the historical info people knew about that the girl giving the tour had never heard of. One guy was related to one of the town's historical figures buried in the first cemetery we went to, which was neat. Since we're still technically new to the area we were happy just to hear what people had to say. Here's a dowsing rod shot:.

Happy Birthday!

2008-10-06T11:56:00.004-04:00

Happy happy to Dan :) He is less than 30 today. Still. Ha.

And in yarn news... check out the Socktoberfest button to the right. It's that time again!

Warped.

2008-09-17T21:42:00.003-04:00

Here's a picture of my fabulous new warping board that Dan made. 15+ yards of yarny goodness, baby. Oh yeah. 13 pound small Asian cat for scale:

So I hafta get going on the weaving. Here's what I did last week (no pix of the finished stuff yet, but the stuff exists):

And here's Olive curled up with Ben.

This is what happens...

2008-08-02T15:24:00.004-04:00

When you go antiquing in Amish country with a few bucks in your pocket:
Your husband finds you a really oddball souvenir that fits your Halloween obsessed personality. I think we're going to make Tucker a little skull cushion so he can use it as a bed. He won't come out of the darn thing.

The one where we catch Kiri eating vegetables...

2008-01-26T21:57:00.000-05:00

Okay, not really eating them. More like planning to grow them in our yard and THEN eat them. But I'd have to wash them first. (In homage to Lucy from Peanuts - UCK! Bug spit!) And drown them in 3 inches of Ranch dressing.

If you ever thought growing things in your yard was this benign, thoughtless process... well, let's just say you're wrong. There's all kinds of marketing ploys involved. Such as:
"Our seeds are better! You'll get more plants."
"Who cares about more plants? Ours don't taste like crap. Straight up, yo."
"Who cares what it tastes like? We can help you grow a carrot the size of a redwood tree... if you buy our really expensive organic seaweed fertilizer and this red plastic stuff to put around your plant after the seeds germinate in 14-26 days and the plant has been sown indoors for at least 60 days before setting outside after the frost-free date. Holidays not included."

Oh, and you haven't heard the worst of it. They all have fancy names. A radish can't just be a radish. It has to be something catchy, like a Fire and Ice Radish. Or the Thumbelina Carrot. ::sigh:: It was so much easier when I was planting stuff in plastic containers and drip watering them with Gatorade bottles.

Reveling on Ravelry

2008-01-04T19:14:00.000-05:00

Got an invite tonight! WOO HOO! If you haven't already, come play. I'm glued to the computer now because it's JUST. TOO. INTERESTING. In that fiber nerd sort of way.

NYE! :)

2007-12-31T23:38:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

Here's what it looks like at our place:

Please excuse no makeup-ness and gratuitous belly shot ;) Have a happy happy.

Have a Holly Jolly!

2007-12-25T13:47:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas.

Found it!

2007-12-17T19:21:00.000-05:00

Yeah, Dan found the camera cable up in the attic. So here goes nothing...

Us when we closed on the house:

On the front porch:

Front of the house with the first big snow on Sunday:

Dan shoveling (we bought a snow broom after this...):

Living room (post Turkey Day paint job):
Will show the rest after we get some work done on the bedrooms. Basement is already done though.

Homeowning Bliss

2007-12-01T10:14:00.001-05:00

Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Well, maybe. So there has been no bloggy-bloggy because Dan and I were buried in boxes, then we were scrambling to get the house painted and dressed up to host our first Thanksgiving, and now I can't find the cable for my camera. Funny how that works out, huh?

Guess I can at least talk about what the house looks like if I can't pictures up. The very first thing we did was put up a nice storm door on the front of the house. It's a Pella full view in Cranberry color, which sets of the dark green door nicely. I know, it sounds like I have a Christmas house that's red and green... but it does look cool, I swear! Picture will go up when I find the cables. The door was a little bit of a hassle though - Dan's dad came over and we borrowed the neighbor's saws-all to get a piece of the overhang cut out so the door would open properly. But the guys got it up, it looks nice and it keeps the cold air out

Next we changed all of the locks and some of the doorknobs. And switched out some of the ugly gold light fixtures. Then we put compact fluorescent bulbs in everyplace so our electric bill won't be so huge. Every bulb in our house is between 9 and 14 watts each now, so hopefully that will help some. And now I can use my hairdryer without blowing a circuit. I'm sure the people at work will be thankful because I usually come in with wet hair and looking like a drowned rat. ;)

We painted the living room a deep reddish orange color called Brick Dust. It looks great and we even found a rug to match at Kohl's. Still getting into this decorating and furnishing thing, but we need another couch to sit on in there. We'll probably have to wait until the after Christmas sales at Macy's or something - they have a cool red couch that would work. But the leopard print chair looks awesome against the wall color!

We also peeled all the wallpaper out of the bedroom and most of it out of the spare room. There is ugly purple sponge paint in the bedroom and then pink/blue/lavender walls in the extra room - they need to go! My aunt and uncle kindly sent us a Lowe's gift card, so we'll probably buy paint and at least do the bedroom for now. We're kind of choosing between two dark colors and can't decide on one yet, but once we do we'll get cracking.

The basement is finished, so all we had to do was buy a couch and a TV. Hooray for flat panels :) We kind of went overboard on that part, but oh well.

In craftier news, I'll be sewing like mad this weekend while the snow flies. Have fleece socks and blankets to make!.

---------------------------

Last, but not least... this is for John from work: A QUIZ!

(House) Inspector (and his) Gadget(s)

2007-09-20T23:05:00.000-04:00

Our house passed inspection this time with flying colors! No active termites, no dead animals, no urns filled with the ashes of the previous owner, no suspicious dried puddles on the carpet next to a ratty recliner that looked like the previous owner died in it and melted to the floor...

YES, it was that bad at other houses we looked at. I'm sure our dear, sweet realtor was probably about to kill us after the one with the urn on the kitchen table... which was right before the old Victorian number from 1890 that had been abandoned for 25+ years, had stacks of mail from 1984 all the way up the staircase, along with peeling lead paint on the walls. Oh, and a 25 year old article about a murder laying on a table in one of the bedrooms (but there was spectacular woodwork, I tell you! har har). We are so lucky that she's really incredibly nice and didn't just give us the boot after that one. The first realtor we worked with earlier this year definitely would have.

If you thought I was kidding about the newspaper article, check this out:

Anyhow, if anybody in North Central Indiana needs a home inspector, do ask about the guy we had. He was great - incredibly thorough, explained everything well, squeezed into tiny spaces no normal human should be able to, and answered all the dumb questions I threw at him with a smile. We didn't even mind hiring him twice because he was well worth the money.

Okay, for real this time...

2007-09-17T21:47:00.001-04:00

Long story short, THIS is IT. The other house fell through. But that's OK because this one is WAY nicer. 1940 Cape Cod with a detached garage. Finished basement, finished attic, white picket fence and an arbor over the front walkway. Ridiculously. Cute. I seriously can't contain myself. Dan and I have been doing a happy dance all day long.

There is much packing to do. Oh, and much purchasing of bulbs on sale at Meijer. Can't forget that. The neighbors will think they astral projected to Holland there will be so many bulbs in my yard. Mwah ha ha.

House house house!

2007-08-31T21:29:00.000-04:00

As in we bought one! :)

Here it is:

More to come later...

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-06-09T23:57:00.000-04:00

Dan got a JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's gonna be the webmaster for a local public school district. That only took about 7 months of living in our latest location and several months before we moved, but whatever. What matters now is that I don't have to freak out if I miss a couple of hours of work for an appointment or I'm sick or something. Or obsess about how I can't pay the bills by myself, which has really been a crappy feeling. So thanks to Lori's daughter for passing the job posting along... and to Lori for remembering Dan. ;) Man, I was running around the office jumping up and down like a fool on Friday afternoon when Dan sent me an email about it. I was probably an interesting spectacle to say the least.

So back to yarn. I caught the spinning bug this week and made this:

Sock yarn. 220 yards of it. Can't decide if I want to keep it or put it on Etsy. Color closeup:

And just for pictures sake, here's Dan and the meezers taking their traditional afternoon nap:Yes, they really do lay around like this. A worn out pile of boys flopped on my bed.

What happens when you get BBVD?

2007-06-04T22:51:00.000-04:00

Not that kind. Get yo' mind outta the gutta. This kind:

Well, you get to relive your high school dayz (in our case at least) and hear stuff from the swing revival. Dan and I volunteered to usher so we could get in free. BBVD is one of my employer's endorsed artists and they were playing at a company-sponsored music education conference, so tickets were cheap anyhow but FREE is our friend. BBVD and Squirrel Nut Zippers have always been some of my favorites so I signed us up and we stood there for a half hr at the beginning telling people not to fall down the steps and then we got to watch a fun concert. They are just as good in person as they are on the CDs. Sound quality was great, they're energetic and animated guys. They played all the popular stuff out of their songbook - Jumpin' Jack, I Wanna Be Like You, You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three, etc.. It's too bad we couldn't get them to sign our CDs. That woulda been icing on the cake, but we were told there wasn't going to be any kind of meet and greet. So we hurried out to eat when it was over and are basically laying around in a heap recovering now. I was pretty impressed - music was good, everybody that came was nice, nobody fell flat on their face coming or going from their seats, and the real auditorium staff was very nice to us "music company folks" who volunteered.

I actually saw my brother's new boss (from yet another music company - are you sensing that this music thing runs in the family yet?), a guy we've known since we started playing in elementary school. He always hooked us up with the good deals on instruments and we played in band and orchestra with his kids all the way up through high school. So it was really nice to see him again after not being in town for years. He still has cool hair, his wife's hair is still a crazy shade of red that looks really good on her, they're still the same neat people. Funny how that works out.

Ouch!

2007-05-25T16:34:00.000-04:00

I don't know which is worse... Getting my wisdom teeth out yesterday or that repetitive "whoosh" noise that Dan's new Wii is making while I have to lay around doped up on happy pills. One the up side, we played Wii bowling last night because it requires very little movement and it was pretty fun. Or maybe it was just fun because I'm easily entertained right now. Dunno. Either way, Wii = good times.

So the tooth thing didn't go so swell. They only got 3 out, hit a nerve on the bottom of my jaw, had to stop, and didn't even give me my teeth back in a container! Some of my friends said they got theirs back in a little plastic jar, so I went into this thinking I'd get mine to jiggle at people like some morbid souvenir. After all, I've been cultivating those suckers for 25 years now. But NOOOO. No teeth in a jar for Kiri. Yep, I'm a little bitter. Swollen face and bupkis to show for it. ;) Well, gotta go ice my head now.

April Showers...

2007-05-20T17:28:00.000-04:00

Bring May birthdays. Mine was this past Tuesday (15th - bad things happen on the ides, you know). So I'm officially pushing 30 now. That's right, I'm 25! :) So, what've we been doing lately... let's see.

There's this:

It won 2nd place at the show a couple weeks ago. 1966 Austin Mini pickup truck, right hand drive, manual transmission, royal pain to drive on cold mornings (just ask Dan). Dan's parents took their Metropolitan and we rode to the show in this. Then Dan took my mom for a spin around the neighborhood. Look at this happy little face (to the right):

Such a happy mama.

And these that I made in jewelry class. They're carnelians bezel set and mounted on sterling silver. There's a hole in the back of each stone to let the light shine through. And yes, they're a little uneven. They are handmade, after all! And I'm not so good yet either. Beer cap for scale (yeah, we're classy up in this blog).
And then this HUGE copper cuff that I beat on with some chicken wire and a hammer for over an hour to get this pattern. About 3 1/2" wide. It's not pickled at all so that the pretty swirly colors stay. There's some purple and blue to it. Jewelry class starts up again in a couple more weeks, so I have some time to come up with new ideas. It'll be fun! Twice a week for 5 weeks now. So we actually get 2 extra classes for the same price.

Ma's been making some neat stuff, too. Just haven't gotten a chance to take pictures of her stuff yet. She's made a bunch of nice silver rings and stamped words on them.

I was trying to transfer to IUSB and finish my Master's... but that's not happening now. They have had unknown problems processing my transfer, which means I went to class and did homework all week for nothing. SO. MAD. Really, really wanted to get into this GIS class because they normally only offer it at IU Bloomington's campus under another course number. That would mean I can take it again for credit here, since I already took it last year. Wish they would at least tell me what the problem was. I know it didn't look great that I dropped out and moved last year, but still. You'd think they'd want my money at least.

Oh, got the car back! 2 months and $13,000 later.... geesh. Anyhow, it's in one piece for the most part. They still have to fix some things that are minor. Missing bolts, missing plugs.

Discotheque.

2007-03-31T20:02:00.000-04:00

Started making something with that Disco Lights!

Bic pen for scale. Think I'll probably try to make 2 scarves as presents. Unless something else that uses 1 skein of TT presents itself. I decided I was SO not gonna spend big bucks on the rest of the yarn I'd need to make a whole sweater out of this stuff. Even though it would be really pretty.

Obligatory yarn closeup:

Oh, look what my mom and I learned how to do this week! It's not yarn-related, so brace yourselves ;) :

We started our jewelry making class on Tuesday night. Everybody made rings. This one is sterling silver, put through a press with a piece of old window screen so that it looks like snake skin. It's got some firescale on it, but that's the only way you can see the pattern really... otherwise I'd have to figure out how to put patina on it and that's just too much to learn right now. So firescale stays! But do I give this to Jason or Dan? Decisions... Class is gonna be fun, but I'll be dragging the next morning at work -- we have to be in the studio Tuesday nights from 6:30 - 9:30 pm. Anyhow, hurray for torches and molten metal!

(Ms.) New Booty

2007-03-21T20:39:00.000-04:00

Look what I got today......

Some seriously zexy yarn (Tilli Tomas Disco Lights) and a good pattern (Snakeskin Sweater) to work on over the weekend! All from this lovely Yarnstress. This Disco Lights stuff is soooo pretty - silk in Dusty Purple. It's probably the last Tilli I'll get after this just because it's uber expensive and there's so much yarn in my stash already. And we've all heard about the keystone pricing issues. But I wanted to splurge on something unusual for a change and have a little luxury. After working late almost every day for the last 2 weeks wanted a little treat.

Anyhow, the car is starting to get worked on today. It's going to be a while until they get it done, but at least we know something's getting done. There's not much left on the front end. And if the auto insurance laws in the state of Indiana hadn't been changed recently, they would have totaled it out. But I guess it's better than nothing. I'm so glad I didn't listen to some people and get the gecko... we'd be out a car and a whole lotta money.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words....

2007-03-06T18:55:00.000-05:00

I'll let this one speak for itself.

Blue Pull Tab Hat

2007-02-26T19:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, here it is. The hat I slaved over on Superbowl Sunday and worked on during my lunch hour the last couple days. It was about to become a UFO, but finally got finished on Friday. The bulk of the pattern is based on the Jayne Beanie (link to PDF) and then after 3+" of ribbing I switched to stockinette in the round. Then I evenly decreased 14 stitches per round and knitted in a little tab at the top for it to hang from (not much closet or shelf space in this new apartment, lemme tell ya...). So it has a nice place on a thumb tack in the closet until I figure out who to give it to.

The yarn was handspun from a fabulous craftster! I'm still making good use of that yarn from the handspun swap this summer. This one has lots of blues, some green and a bit of pink. Perfect for Project Spectrum, right?

And here is the obligatory meezer oral hygiene picture:

Beeble doesn't like getting his teeth brushed. Not even with his Barbie toothbrush and chicken flavored toothpaste. Ben doesn't mind as much, though.

Scratch.

2007-02-06T20:38:00.000-05:00

No, not like when you play pool. More like when the clean slate version.

Where did I go? The short answer is that I got a new job, moved 200 miles, and am starting completely over. With Dan and the meezers, of course! Can't leave them behind. ;) The longer version is that I left school, interviewed a bunch of places hoping to find something full time, then took a gamble on a music manufacturer in Northern Indiana and we packed everything up in less than a week so I wouldn't miss my start date. The people I work with now are really fun and there's tons of opportunities to play music. We really miss our friends back in Bloomington, though. (Hi guys!!! XO) We didn't have cable and internet until this morning, so no emails and no blogging... hence the disappearing act.

We tried really hard to get internet access back before Project Spectrum started, but the stupid Comcast people weren't down with that. So I have a few days of catching up to do reading everybody's blogs and looking at their projects. Did some knitting on Super Bowl Sunday that's going to count for my project-- a hat made of handspun yarn and so far there's about 4" of it on the needles. Pictures as soon as we find the camera cable! There is also a quilt in the works. I've been piecing the top a little at a time, but don't have a table to put my sewing machine on since we moved. No countertop or anything! Can you believe it? This is the first apartment we've lived in that doesn't have a countertop or a built in bar thingy to sit at. Anyhow, once we find a table it'll be back to sewing.

Halloweenie.

2006-10-31T16:36:00.000-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

And here's Beeble in his Batman costume. :)

Do you like pie?

2006-10-30T11:24:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's right. Michele and I got bored and made pie a couple weeks ago. And for you non-believers, here it is:
See? PIE. Of the apple variety. Go us and our respective leftover, squishy stash of apples :)

But wait, there's more...

Two huge bobbins of yarn have reached the plying stage. I filled one bobbin completely and will hopefully finish the second one before dinner. There's a whole bunch of Halloween/ghosty shows saved on the computer, so maybe I can get through most of 'em.

Then there's the matter of the '61 Studebaker sitting in the garage. NAKED. As in no paint left. Here's what the hood looks like without 45 yr. old paint and primer on it:
Shiny! And totally NOT rusted. Bonus. Now we just need somebody brave enough to come weld a few pieces for us and it can get a coat of primer on it. Any takers?

Socktober Fest

2006-10-04T11:53:00.000-04:00

No, seriously. There is such a thing. It's for those of us who knit entirely too much. Check it out!

Socktober Fest 2006 Questionnaire
Q: When did you start making socks?
A: About 4 years ago.

Q:Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?
A: Pieced it together from various websites... the old Glampyre sock tutorial, Knitty, other things I found on Google.

Q:What was your first pair?
A: Self-striping socks (purple-blue-black-white) cuz self-striping yarn had just started showing up at the craft stores then.

Q:How have they "held up" over time?
A: Very well because my mom refuses to wear them... haha. I guess you could say they're permanently preserved because she just takes them out once in a while to look at them.

Q:What would you have done differently?
A: I would have frogged parts that I messed up on. I totally didn't because I was trying to get them done for Christmas.

Q: What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
A: Hand-dyed yarn off of Etsy has worked out very well. Cheaper and nicer colors. Me likey superwash sock wool.

Q:Do you like to crochet your socks?
A: Hell no. Crochet is evil. Just ask my mother-in-law ;)

Q:Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
A: Heel flaps! I did short rows on my very first pair o' socks and it was so frustrating. I try really hard to avoid short rows now.

Q:How many pairs have you made?
A: Probably only like 6 pairs because I have the attention span of a fruit fly when it comes to knitting these days. Handmade socks are great, but Second Sock Syndrome always seems to rear its ugly head for me... thankfully there are no orphan socks at my house, though.

Grand Opening

2006-09-18T22:36:00.000-04:00

So last night I finally opened my Etsy shop. And this morning I got an email saying that I sold something! YAY! If all goes well maybe I can at least get X-mas present money. And maybe someday it can produce drum carder money ;) Fat chance, huh? Oh well. Wishful thinking.

Here's a picture of this tiny-ass yarn I've been spinning since Thursday or Friday night:

And yeah, that IS a dime on there. Never have I made yarn this thin. It's 4oz of lace weight. My intention was to ply it and make sock yarn, but I don't know if I can stand another bobbin full of teeny tiny stuff. The good news is that it goes way, way faster now that my wheel has two treadles -- that double treadle kit was definitely worth the splurge!

These made it to the FO pile a couple weeks ago (links to PDF of Dublin Bay Sock pattern)... I forgot to post them:

Not quite twinsies, but as close as the yarn would let me get.

Obligatory sock lace close up. :)

Off to finish homework and eat macaroni. And ponder the fate of itty bitty thread yarn...

It's a bird... it's a plane...

2006-09-07T20:40:00.000-04:00

NO! It's a.........
MetLife blimp? Precisely! It flew over my parents' house before the Notre Dame game. I chased it around the yard trying to get a decent picture. That was only after I hurled rocks into the trees trying to hit some noisy crows (and looked like some deranged mental patient). The neighbors were probably thoroughly entertained by that, but who cares.

So on my neverending bus ride last week I made this (please excuse scary no-makeupness):
From Amber's nifty yarn. Purdeee.

This weekend will be spent catching up on homework, helping Dan fix his car so I can have mine back, and making more stuff to mail out to various people :) But most likely that will turn into playing with this:

And this:
Can you tell the difference now? They're starting to look a lot alike, but Ben's still bigger. They were my little buddies today while I was sick. Such mama's boys. Who needs socks when you have two snuggly cats to lay on your feet?

Goodbye.

2006-08-29T15:41:00.001-04:00

Robert Nielsen
Robert Nielsen was born March 16, 1921 in Chicago and died in his sleep August 25, 2006 in Salisbury, North Carolina. Preceding him in death was his high school sweetheart and wife of 54 years, the late Dorothy, nee Scovie, Nielsen; loving father of two sons, Robert (Charlene) and John (Vicki) Nielsen; four grandchildren, Christian, Nicholas, Kirsten and Jason and six great-grandchildren, Hunter, Tanner, Brenna, Caetlin, Alyssa and Ashley. Before and after World War Two, Rob worked briefly with Tews Funeral Home and U.S. Steel. During WWII Rob served with the 82nd Airborne Division and participated in every deployment of the 82nd Airborne. The invasion of North Africa, Sicily and Italy before going to England to get ready for D-Day. In the early hours of June 6, 1944 he went into France by glider landing near Ste. Mere Eglise. During operation Market Garden he again went into battle in a glider and received a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Holland. Towards the end of the war he was part of a group that liberated the Nazi concentration camp near Ludwigslust, Germany. Like many who have witnessed mans inhumanity to man, Rob very seldom spoke of his wartime experiences. Rob Nielsen was a devoted funeral director and General Manager for the Donnellan Family Funeral Homes both on the South Side of Chicago and the North Shore for over thirty years. His dedication to his profession and the Donnellan Family will be forever appreciated and remembered. Rob's family requested a private service for their father, grandfather and great-grandfather at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell Florida. Info: Donnellan Family Funeral Services, 847-675-1990 or www.donnellanfuneral.com. Published in the Chicago Tribune from 8/28/2006 - 8/29/2006.

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Everything is hard to do right now. Please be understanding if I'm late on some stuff or if I don't get back to you right away. I promise to soon. Thanks... Kiri

Yarn :)

2006-08-21T18:01:00.000-04:00

Got this from Amber today! How pretty...

I owe her more yarn now -- she did much better on her yardage than I did. So more spinning for me :) Hope to get that out to her this weekend if all goes well.

Ode to the Postman (Spinning Swap Buddy DO NOT LOOK!!)

2006-08-19T22:34:00.000-04:00

This was an exceptionally good mail week for me! Not only did I get my spinning gear, some yarn off eBay and a stack of cool new cookbooks from a relative, but a package from my friend Vlad appeared. (Thanks, Vlad! That was really awesome... expect something in your mailbox in a week or so.) Long story short, Vlad and I practically have the same birthday and he sent me some crafty buttons and a new CD as a present. I know exactly what I'm sending in return, I just hafta get it finished. Anyway, here are the buttons joining some other ones on my bag:

Yay for buttony goodness :) In addition to getting good stuff in the mail, I had some sending out to do... stitch markers for one swap and three skeins of handspun yarn for the other. I didn't get pics of the stitch markers, but here's the yarn:

L to R - Corespun Mohair, Handyed Merino, and 2-ply Coopworth/Corriedale blend.
Here's a closeup of the merino... it was my favorite. The colors rocked.

I hope my swap buddy likes them. Usually I'm too worried that my spinning is bad to let anybody else have some yarn,so this was a real challenge for me. Eeek! Cross your fingers.

Funky Scarf Swap Q&A

2006-08-16T05:19:00.000-04:00

Let’s get the allergy part out of the way. Are you allergic to any fibers? SOY like a mo' fo'. Please no soysilk or other such soy-related thangs. There is not enough Benadryl in the world for me to wear a scarf made out of it ;)

Do you prefer any fibers over others? Nah, not really. I'll be happy with any fiber pretty much. But soft wool is better than itchy scratchy wool any day.

Thinking back to Scout’s post about what funky means to you, post an image of something that you think is funky!

Note the peacock feathers, metallic blue paint, and use of fancy-schmancy antique gold picture frames. I totally stole this off of a Craftster post, but that's neither here nor there... hehe.

Would you prefer funky yarn or a funky pattern? I really have no preference here. Hopefully that means I'm an easy swap pal -- just make something you'll enjoy working on. There's nothing worse than dreading picking up a project and having a deadline on top of that, so don't subject yourself to any knitting torture. I can pretty much guarantee ya I'll be a happy camper when the scarf shows up at my house!

What are your favorite colors? Oh, like you couldn't tell. Purple and blue mostly, but I like pretty much anything. Bright colors, soft colors, etc.

What is your favorite piece of art? The Kiss by Klimt.

What colors would you never have up close to your pretty face? Um. I guess maybe lily white would make me look sickly. And hunter green kind of makes me look like a blue-eyed X-mas tree (reddish hair).

Would you prefer an actual scarf or a cowl? Once again, go with the flow. I live in Southern Indiana, so weather is unpredictable here in cold months. I have been known to wrap my scarf around my head, so I'm totally fine with a cowl if you wanna make one.

When you wear a scarf do you prefer a wider/shorter scarf or a thin/long scarf? I want my neck to be warm, but I don't want to strangle myself or look like a mummy. So probably nothing extremely skinny and long. Plus that would suck to knit.

What is the climate like where you live? Cooler weather doesn't hit until October, but this has been an exceptionally mild year. Usually around winter vacation it starts dumping snow and being bitter cold. It's hella windy January-March, too. I frequently walk into class with a tear-stained face because my eyeballs are frozen/windburned from trekking across campus.

Would you prefer a functional scarf (to keep you warm) or one just to funk-up your wardrobe? I'll take either one. By now you've probably figured out that I'm so not picky.

What else would you like your partner to know about you? I hoard peanuts in the kitchen cabinet because I'm hiding a small elephant in the backyard. Okay, not really... I'm just a smartass who saw a jumbo bag of peanuts and decided to buy it. Just so we're clear. :)
(That only makes sense to people who go thru my cabinets in search of munchies. Someday I'll have to post a picture so everybody's in on the joke.)

Photo Medley and Other Mischief

2006-08-16T05:02:00.000-04:00

This showed up at my house today.

Finally! I was waiting and waiting... Not to mention using some string and an elastic hair tie as a brake. Now I have a double treadle kit to add and some replacement parts for the brake cable.

I've also been busy doing a little of this:

Dying my mom's unwanted antique linens that she sent down to us. So far we've got purple (what else? my favorite color :) ), kind of an aubergine color, and this scarlet red that unfortunately faded to a deep reddish orange. Think I'll try to fix the red because it was SO pretty until I rinsed the napkins out. Also wanna try some yellow or a dreamsicle orange color.

Been sewing, too. I found a bunch of holiday fabric at the store - Halloween, Turkey Day, X-mas - and they're all going to become aprons. Here's a look:

And a closeup of the fabric. Witchin', no?

And last weekend's great car caper... we scraped the roof liner out of the Studebaker. Well, Dan scraped and I used the awesome orbital sander his dad bought us for our anniversary. It ROCKS. I think it's my new best friend, despite the fact it made me look like this:

Scary. No makeup, bad camera angle, covered in 54 yr old roof liner adhesive and who knows how much mold. Nas-Tee. It took half a bottle of dish soap to get that crap off of my skin and out of my hair. Next time I'll opt for the do rag. Possibly even a turtle neck. ;)

Supplies + Abode = Seriously too many pictures.

2006-08-02T19:24:00.000-04:00

Two mailbox suprises today: 1) we got our deposit refund from the old apt. AND 2) I got spinning fibers from Hello Yarn (with some cool freebies).

No pictures of the refund check though... it was quite a pittance after all that waiting.

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Okay, this is mostly for my family and friends who might actually want to know what our new place looks like... but you got your crafty fix earlier, so it's okay, right???

So we take a little picture of the living room...

And we turn around and take a quick one of Dan in The Corner Ye Shall Not Speak Of (full o' fabric and a loom),

Then rotate and take a picture of the kitchen,

And wander over and take one of the bedroom,

Then mosey on into the bathroom and drool at the glorious tub. This is where I hide out and peruse knitting supplies whilst trying not to dunk Dan's laptop. Shh, don't tell...

And before anybody flips out and talks about how much furniture there is for two poor graduate students: it's all pretty much hand-me-down stuff from my mom's house. It's nice to have a mom who likes to rotate her furniture out every once in a while :)

Vegtamables

2006-07-30T12:11:00.000-04:00

Before all the critters eat my hard work we decided to drag some of our tomatoes and peppers inside this morning. Here's the harvest so far:

Jalapeno peppers

Mr. Stripey tomatoes (not exactly stripey yet...)

Random peppers that were supposed to be Hungarian Hot or some other such spiciness.

And on to what's left in the garden... L to R we have Lemon Thyme, Lavender, and down in front is some corn. I kid you not. Actual corn. Growing in a cheapy plastic craft box.

All the plants. Except for the Cayenne peppers in the window box :)

Rose. Duh.

And now we come to the Kroger $5 specials:

The End!

Yaaaaaarn!

2006-07-24T19:38:00.000-04:00

I'm a pirate ;) Okay, not so much. But here is the latest yarn booty:

10" grinch...

Closeup...

It's some of the first stuff I did on the spinning wheel and finally decided to get it off the Lazy Kate and set the twist. It's purple wool with some red fibers and yellow flecks carded in, scavenged from a drop spindle disaster. I thought I'd rescue it from it's boring life and make it into something feltable. Not quite sure what, though. Maybe the tea panties from Spindlicity?

Anyhow, there is much more spinning to do because I joined a Craftster spinning swap. That means more wheel time... now to figure out how to do that with 2 cats in the house. Ugh.

Socker Player

2006-07-18T00:50:00.000-04:00

Yeah, with a K. Work with me, people! ;) One sock down, one left to go. This is that Dublin Bay lace-legged number I've been working on once in a while.

Here it is on Michelle's dainty little foot:

And here's a closeup of the lace pattern:

And here's my favorite part (the heel):

And on a high note, I FINALLY have a desk to put my computer on! Now we can actually eat at the counter. (Or I can put my sewing machine on it, whatever... hehe)

Like a Bad Flip Book

2006-07-16T20:24:00.000-04:00

Or: "What I did on my Summer Vacation Part I"

Dan and I just had to get this inflatable sea dragon for my dad's birthday/Father's Day present. We found it at Kroger and waited... until it was a mere $2, then we gleefully took it the checkout and dragged it home. Okay, so maybe a bit too gleefully. But it was just one of these deals you can't pass up. Last week we went to visit the parents finally and showed up baring our inflatable sea dragon. To celebrate the 4th of July, t'was decided that we should blow up the dragon and go play in the pool. And when they said 'we' should blow it up they meant 'me':
And here's what it looked like floating around on its maiden voyage:
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And now on to the flip book of doom:

"I have an idea!"
-----------------

"Climb on here, John!"
----------------------

"Oh, yay, what fun! Happy Birthday to me!!!"
(omit this one and it'll look more like a flipbook)
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"Hang on and I'll push you..."
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"Whee!!!!!!!!"
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>>>SPLASH<<<
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"Hehehe... now that's entertainment!"
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THE END.

Ridin' Around in My Automobile...

2006-06-10T16:54:00.000-04:00

Dear mechanic guy:
Please don't take 2 weeks to return my husband's car the next time we bring it in. I mean, I know you and your gearhead buddies liked joyriding in it, despite the fact it had no license plate and no legal registration paperwork... but seriously, you took too freakin' long. I solemnly swear to kick you in the shins the next time that happens.
Signed,
The Owner of the guy who owns the car <3 <3
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And now, on to the car:

That there's a 1961 Studebaker Lark VIII - 4 doors, V8, automatic, engine in decent shape, not too much rust... spiffy! It's Dan's new toy. The interior is mostly restored and the chrome is shiny and still attached. So it just needs some body work and paint, interior door panels, and a new headliner. There's other minor stuff, but it's a cute car. And we can probably handle everything but the paint ourselves, barring any serious problems arising.

We already had one adventure with it. Dan brought it home and was going to take me for a test drive. We got to the stop sign on the corner and the breaks went out... and we were going DOWNHILL. The car is sooo heavy that it literally went from 20 mph to 40+ mph in the blink of an eye. And when it finally stopped we were on a very, very slight incline (it looked flat to me, but the car insisted otherwise), which meant I had to lean on the bumper to keep the car from rolling away while Dan called a tow truck. I've pushed a Jeep before by myself and didn't have a lot of trouble, but this thing was pushing me over. Mucho del suck-o.

We've been kicking around color ideas. Dan has said red or black and I'm thinking black or white (since the original color was white). But black would look really sharp with the interior if we went to a cruise or something. Guess we've got a long way to go before paint, though!

Floribundant

2006-05-12T10:22:00.000-04:00

Look what's growing on my porch! (And no, it's NOT a fungus...)It's a real live rosebush. That I got from Walmart :) hehe Anyhow, it's called Angel Face and it's a Floribunda, meaning it has too many petals for its own good. But it smells nice and looks pretty.

X-treme closeup:

How's THAT for proof that my green thumb didn't die after teaching gardening skills to Kindergarteners last summer? Mwah haha...

Oh, and here's the object of my most recent picture stalking attempts - it's a hummingbird. You can hardly see him through the window screen unless the picture's tiny, so I circled him. Or her. I'm not sure which one it is, but there are some baby hummingbirds around, too... they look like fat green bumblebees!Next time I'll hold the camera over my head and shoot thru the glass instead of trying to sit at my computer and shoot thru the screen in the window. Darn things move so fast that it's hard to get a good shot.

T-Shirt Recon

2006-05-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

I have oodles of t-shirts in my closet. Most of them IU shirts, too... so I decided to sacrifice some of them. I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon and make a reconstructed skirt.

Here's the whole she-bang:

Here's a (crappy) closeup of the elastic ruching on my right:

And here's the logo from the original shirt on the left side (backwards cuz it's in the mirror):

It's a flaming skeleton riding a bicycle-- the Little 500 logo for the team of guys who rode for my old dorm (Collins) Should JP, Charles, Whitney, Luke or anybody else on the team ever find this I might be in trouble... but then again I WAS the loopy textiles person for 2 years, so they might not think it's too weird.

Anyhow, nothing special. Just two shirts with the necks, sleeves, and bottom hems chopped off, then re-stitched up the sides to fit better and sewn together at the top to make them stay attached to each other. The ruching is just a long piece of elastic tacked at the waist, stretched, and then sewn in a curvy shape to the bottom of the layer. Then off ya go!

Eggggggggggscellent

2006-04-17T16:17:00.000-04:00

We painstakingly made about 3 dozen eggs this weekend. Some tie-dyed, some solid, some half-and-half. Dan then turned about half of then into deviled eggs... unfortunately, we didn't have any plastic wrap, so they kind of dried out in the fridge. Sorry, honey! Next time we'll make a grocery store run BEFORE we start cooking.

In Pursuit of a Good Facebook Picture

2006-04-15T23:24:00.000-04:00

Everybody who sees my Facebook profile must think I'm a seal point Siamese cat who somehow managed to get into college. I had to improvise, though... I don't have a single stinking picture of myself in the last 2 years. The most recent one is from senior year of college (2004--eep!) and it's part of the drunken horseback riding series. Okay, so we weren't intoxicated, but we were super giggly and being really goofy at the time, so we might as well have been. Anyhow, no head shot to speak of unless you want one end or the other of a horse in it with my eyes peeking over the top. :)

Until tonight! I thought I'd put Dan boy to work and make him take a cute picture. So I put the new kitten on my head:
At which time cutie-patootie little Mountain Meezer sinks his tiny needle claws into my brain. He then peers down over my forehead at me with this look like, "Mama, you didn't need that anyhow... geesh."

So we attempt to detach kitten from the brain tissue, re-pose him, and end up with this:

Much better! And no more holes in my head.

In craftier news, still plugging away on the leg of my Dublin Bay sock #1. It's a neat pattern. Lacey, but not too frou-frou. I think it'll be nice when it's done. Perhaps another pair in a solid color will magically appear, too.

Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers

2006-04-10T19:20:00.000-04:00

Baby announcement:

Buby yet-to-be-named. Only part Meezer, but seal point like his big brother.

With Ben's arm for scale :)

The good news is that they get along great and Ben's already teaching him life skills, like how to scratch the cardboard hunk (Alpine Cat Scratcher) instead of mommy's furniture, business suits, and drapes! SCORE. Gooooood kitty.

Name suggestions? We still don't have one for this little fella. And I hate to keep calling him "it" for much longer.

This brings me to other (still non-crafty) news: new kitty-kins is Dan's reward for getting his first full-time job out of grad school! Yes, that's right. The boy is gainfully employed at a local design company, meaning we don't need a second car and I get to keep my itty bitty car all to myself. Yippee! (Hey, I'll share anything but my car. Long story involving kid brother, keg stains, and wet dog smell one summer night... So now I don't share ma belle voiture anymore.)

Hopefully some craftiness in a week or so. Working on Dublin Bay socks right now!

Dig This!

2006-03-30T13:11:00.000-05:00

I'm officially a federal archaeological technician for the summer! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, just had to celebrate in public for a sec. Gotta go study for a test so that I'll still be a student "in good standing" by the time I have to start working. ;)

Happy, happy, joy, joy....

Knit Wit.

2006-03-30T02:10:00.000-05:00

Man, I could only dream of having this kind of dedication. Check out these chicks on Craftster and the Knit Lit blog. Weeks of swatching, ripping, and repeating. All in the name of beating the system and replicating a totally cute bag instead of shelling out a boatload of cash. A totally cute FERRAGAMO bag!* These are some ambitious gals. I can't wait to see what they come up with. Must. Find. Yarn. I know somebody who would love one of those as a present. Or I could just make one and keep it for a change. Hmm. Me likely that idea.

*This is what happens when you wear designer suits that somebody else (read: MOMMY) bought you to interviews all week... you get pricey things that you don't usually care about and probably can't ever afford on the brain ;)

Kissin' the Blarney Stone

2006-03-21T11:54:00.000-05:00

Something totally new happened while we were on vacation. (Unfortunately it was while I was someplace where there was no decent internet connection and had noplace to download/upload my pictures to, but what can ya do?) Drumroll please...

Our FIRST wedding anniversary was on St. Patrick's Day!!!

Miraculous? Well, sort of. I was never the kind of person to commit myself to something for eternity and then some. So getting married really was "the plunge" for me. Dan, on the other hand, was always ready. How often does that happen? Usually it's the other way around.

Anyhow, that's us up there. Fresh from the courthouse and wandering around Tippecanoe Place getting our picture taken.

Our parents got us the same lovely hot tub suite at a nice hotel that we had for our honeymoon. It was nice to relax and read a book (and not a textbook) for a change. And lounging in a huge-ass tub was really cool, too! No homework, no deadlines, nowhere to be, just hanging out.

Bad Kitty.

2006-03-08T00:09:00.000-05:00

Check it out...

Deceivingly cute cat:

Carnage suffered by brand new bag of cat food at the hands (paws?) of deceivingly cute cat:

That's right. He ripped it open while we were out for dinner and decided to cram his head in and chow down. This bag is something like 15 or 20 lbs. of cat food - mega size to tiny Siamese cats. If he wasn't so darn cute we would have figured out a some kind of punishment. Instead we picked him up, looked at him and caved in. You can tell he was like, "Hehehe... Now I know I've got you wrapped around my whiskers and more destruction will follow!" Surprisingly, this is chewing incident #2... the first one involved the spine of one of my brand new yoga books. Let's just say it has a gaping hole in it, too.

So this is a large post today. And the good news is that there's some crafty business to display. :) First, cathedral windows square pillow with some snazzy brightly colored Amy Butler fabric:

Second, a four-patch pillow that has some chenilled silk going on.
I got a ton of dupioni silk in Chicago a couple of years ago and have been using it sparingly here and there. Somewhere I found an article about how to do the whole sewing and slicing and dicing of the fabric to make it fuzzy on the edges and decided to try it out with the silk. It looks kind of neat. Here's a few closeups of the edges. They're quite colorful.

And that's all she wrote.

Sock Rock It!!!!!!

2006-03-04T20:33:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I've watched too many B-grade movies by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I know I'm not the only person with a copy of "Orgazmo" in my dvd collection - perhaps just the only person willing to admit it, though.

But on to the real reason we're here:

Jaywalkers. More specifically, those socks I've been knitting for my Holiday Sock XChange buddy, Jessie. (And yes, I am fully aware that it's practically St. Patrick's Day... the yarn had issues getting itself into my mailbox and then I was slow on sock #2.) But here they are in all their wooly glory. I used 5 skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in color number 111. I still have a decent sized ball of skein 5 left. Not really enough to do much with unless you're making crazy left-over socks or something. Might have to give it to my mom and her friend Carol to see if they can figure out something to do with it. They're crafty ladies.
Here's a closeup of the cuff and beginning of the leg.
Sock-tastic, n'est-ce pas? Soitanly!

Well, now I have to work on the dreaded baby shower gift. I'm making a photo quilt for my cousin using family baby pictures courtesy of my uncle. I have a layout for it and all the supplies, just need to print the photos onto fabric and cut out the other pieces. Might just get the top done by next Saturday (when the shower is) but I'm going to try to finish it completely even if that means dragging my machine in the car and finishing it up at my mom's house. I just hope she likes it.

(c)Rude Awakening

2006-02-24T12:55:00.000-05:00

It's Friday, but is it the 13th?! Geesh. (Please note: 'Tis not a crafty post today. Beware.)

10:50 am
Get up, eat yogurt, get cup of juice, go putz on the internet.

11:05 am
Attempting to hang up a poster in the office next to my computer and set down the box of thumbtacks, setting off a chain reaction in the process... the open drawer fell out of the desk, so I picked it up and put it back, which then caused my cup (brimming with cranberry-cherry juice!) to splatter all over the carpet. So it looks like somebody eviscerated a morbidly obese leprechaun on my WHITE carpet. Go through a container and a half of that Oxy Deep spray (which is FABULOUS, btw) -- no more slaughtered-leprechaun look to the carpet. Yay! Then hear mysterious crunching noise... cat is eating thumbtacks. Whack cat on back of head, causing it to spit out thumbtacks, glare at me and retreat to top of laser printer. Return to checking email and Googling random things.

11:30 am
Bathroom break. Use Dan's bathroom that has cat box in it, so door stays open a crack in case cat needs in too. Cat bursts through the door, leaving it pretty much wide open. Ignore and return to job at hand ;) Heart stops as there is a knock at the front door. Ignore knock, thinking it's probably the FedEx guy, continue about my business. Front door opens, maintenance guys walk in to do pest control spraying (!!!!!!) whilst yours truly is camped out on the toilet in her bra and undies with the bathroom door seriously ajar.

12:45 pm
Finally see humor of the situation(s), decide to share morbid embarrassment with blog-reading public.

So you can see how my day has started. Crus. Tee. Gotta go do something productive now to prevent the usual curling up into a ball and crying that should accompany these types of events. :)

Can you hear me now?

2006-02-16T22:35:00.000-05:00

Today I facilitated a video teleconference for my capstone class. The whole thing scared me to death, but about half way through it everything got more comfortable. There was a whole lot of "Is this thing on?" and "Can you see us?" back and forth, but we tried as hard as we could to make it work out. I don't think we were as productive as we could have been, but it was a start. It was a good effort and a learning experience if there ever was one (can you say 'trial by fire'?) ;) Got to bust out a new suit, though. So it was worth it.

Kiri, 2006 Corporate Edition. ;)

I went ahead and registered for the arts and crafts fair in March and have started gathering ideas about what to make. I can't start anything until I get this overdue sock finished and it's been a looong week at school (two exams, teleconference, meetings, planning classes for the summer so I can get outta grad school after 3 years, job interviews), so hopefully next week there will be time to get cracking and put a serious dent in the whole merchandise creation thing.

On a side note, this is what my week has reduced me to creating:
Skittlebrau, people. Being the daughter-in-law of an engineer, I had to go out and make my own. The verdict: Do it with regular Skittles, not those gross new Smoothie Mix things. Maybe even Sour Skittles would be okay, who knows. Skittlebrau... Good times.

Of Tweeters and Fuzz

2006-02-06T02:03:00.000-05:00

Hi! Long time, no see. So here's what's been going on:

Tweeters
Gone are the days of getting up and rolling into the lab, bleary-eyed and grumpy. I'm no longer a lab wench. How about them apples, Number 468?!?! That darn bird pecked me every single day since classes started this semester. And only when I reached in to set down his food dish. He became my arch nemesis. Anyhow, a nice (and probably unsuspecting, if 468 has it his way) chick took over my job. I still have to go and turn in my key this week. There was no parking by the building on Friday, so I couldn't get over to the Med Sci office to return it. Why no more birdies? Well, two reasons. One: I have to drive an hour up to Indy for one of my classes every so often and there wouldn't be anyone to fill in for me at the lab. Two: I decided that coming home itching everyday was not worth it. Either I was allergic to the birds or they had mites. Or both. But it was a learning experience. I got some basic animal lab skills and the birds got somebody to feed them and make sure they got the best parts of the IU student newspaper under their little talons. Some of them were really cute. One of them actually had a great personality as far as an animal goes. I miss that one little cardinal.

Fuzz
I am quite possibly the lone person not finished with their sock buddy's gift for the Holiday Knit Sox Exchange. Not for lack of trying, though. I started a nice pair of Jaywalkers in ArtYarns Supersock Merino #111, then ran out of it after starting the second sock... the dreaded second sock syndrome, particularly the lack-of-yarn strain. After much haggling with the web shop that I re-ordered from, the yarn finally appeared this weekend. The goal is to finish up this week, at the lastest over the coming weekend, and then send to my sock buddy. She's also getting a little surprise, which I won't say anything about (just incase she's lurking close by). But I hope she likes her socks and doesn't hate me too much for taking so darn long.

I received an awesome pair of socks from Elizabeth from the sock exchange - pics will go up soon. I really appreciate them and apologize for dropping out of blog land for a while and not giving her the recognition she truly deserved.

Art Fair
Up in the air about this one. There's a women-only arts and crafts fair coming up in March before spring break. I have a ton of stuff I could put in a booth and hopefully sell. Handwoven shawls and scarves, quilts, pillows, other sewn things... even made some topiaries today. I'm kind of worried that my stuff will be totally sub-par compared to all of the other artisans who dot the Bloomington landscape. But one thing I have going for me is my unusual sense of color when making things. I'm not your traditional plaid, calico or monochrome gal when it comes to fabric. Basically my big obstacle is that I don't want to be one of "those people" that over values their art/crafts and acts like nobody can afford me. There's way too much of that in this town, seeing as we have a million art majors and random local artists. I would definitely like to have a little money to go on a mini vacation this summer or pay a car payment... and our first wedding anniversary is coming up on St. Patrick's Day. But I'm not going to price stuff so high that I only sell one little thing. Or worse, nothing. It's one of those problems that everybody selling their wares runs into. I just haven't figure out a system, I guess. Need to do that. Pee or get off the pot, huh?

Okay, so that's all that's fit to blog right now. Pics of finished socks and Liz's lovely socks soon!

Quick update

2006-02-01T12:24:00.000-05:00

Once again, not dead. Just festering. More later.

Good Lawd....

2005-12-20T21:32:00.000-05:00

That's alotta pictures!

Here's our new bubby, Sophie.

Here's our Christmas tree.

And here's the pile of flannel pants I've been sewing. I swear, my kitchen is now a snuggly flannel sweatshop...

This is what they look like. Not spectacularrrrrrr (sorry, too much South Park), but they're not bad for 99 cents a yard. Hey, I had to get up at 5am to get to the fabric store for 17 different kinds of flannel -- multiply that by 3 yards apiece and then add 35 yards of elastic for waistbands... EWE!

(Please ignore how my butt blocks out our entire 6 ft. tall X-mas tree.)

Only like 8 more pairs left to sew. It's gonna be a long week. Also hafta finish off my Holiday Sock Swap socks... they're slightly overdue, but I told my sock pal that I was running late.
Oh, and to the lovely person who made me socks - I'm dying to open the package! It's so hard to wait until Xmas. So. hard. ;)

AWOL

2005-11-29T00:58:00.000-05:00

First of all, thank you for the nice comments about the City Shawl! They were very sweet and encouraging. I took the finished product home to show my relatives over the holiday and they have put their "orders" in... so. much. knitting. to do. Hehe

So. Not dead, just swamped... I have two sizeable project presentations Wednesday, three papers due tomorrow, and one ginormous chemistry problem set to put a dent in before the weekend. And I got a new job! It's in a lab on campus that studies bird calls, so I get to go in and feed the birdies and play with them. Ok , so they don't really like to be played with. They're not bad though. I'm all official with my key to the building and my swipey card. It's a neat job because as an undergrad anthro major we had to take linguistic anthro and learn about how animals perceive/teach/learn their languages. In a way my education is coming full circle and I'm learning to apply it to research. The idea is that I can work my way up a hopefully get to help out with experiments after a while. It's pretty easy right now and the people in the lab are all my age and very nice.

Should be lotsa craftiness to post later in the week (Thurs/Fri). I knocked out some flannel pants for Dan and then went on a shopping spree while we went back home to visit. And I have a wreath on the door that I made. So pictures and details later! Hope everybody had a great holiday. :)

City Shawl

2005-11-13T17:52:00.000-05:00

Friday afternoon I downloaded Glampyre's new City Shawl pattern. It got cranked out in two TV-filled evenings flat. No problems with the pattern whatsoever. I was running out of yarn at the end so it only has 104 rows instead of 108, but no big deal. I won't miss 4 rows and neither will the person who gets it for Xmas. It's knit in super bulky 500 yds per lb acrylic chenille from the LYS here in Bloomington (this was in my stash from last year when I wanted to make Vintage Velvets for everybody's Xmas gift, but then the first semester of grad school decided to kick my ass). Think there's some green, blue and purple left also... might make a couple more if there's time over break. Anyhow, here's my ham posing with what he thinks is his swanky new blanky.

Ruffles!

2005-11-10T20:50:00.000-05:00

Sonya, you are amazing! Fabulous! Stupendous, even :)
I made Dan tumble out of the car to check the mail after school tonight and he comes back with a nice package.... for me! Mwahahaha. So after whimpering about wanting to open it the whole time we're putting away groceries, I finally rip that puppy open and inside is a BEAUTIFUL blue noodle. It even brought a friend along from its trip -- a lovely journal.
Here's how it looks on:
Thankyou, Sonya! I can't even begin to tell you how perfect it is. So stretchy and bouncy and BLUE!!!! :) It's gonna be worn a whole lot and very very loved.

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In other news today, here is another picture of silly Ben. He decided he needed to lick the bowl while I was throwing dinner in the oven. Tell me that's not the most guilty little face ever...

Please excuse the ginormous box of Tampax in the background (hey, it was grocery night!).

World's Cutest Lou-zer

2005-11-08T16:55:00.000-05:00

This is a test. I repeat, this is a test. hehe Just checking to see if CJ catches herself making her blogosphere debut...

Here is CJ with her beloved red Honda sporting its brand new Louisiana license plate. CJ and I went to high school together and have been stuck with each other ever since. She recently moved down to Lou-z-ana to put her degree to good use as a lab mistress at LSU. Can't wait to see you and Jon around the holidays!

What became of Ariane's thread...

2005-11-07T16:57:00.000-05:00

I like people who are nice enough to send me cool stuff to see that it's being appreciated and put to good use, so this is for Ariane :)

And here are some closeups of my sad free-motion quilting (some of it looks artsy and playful, some of it not so much... but hey, I tried!) :

So that's all I have to show for myself. The back side doesn't look as nice as I would have liked, but it's not so bad. Now to finish all of my projects so I can crank out a couple more of these as presents. Assuming somebody in my family doesn't mind having one forced on them, that is ;)

Photorama!

2005-11-05T00:30:00.000-05:00

So, first off......Vintage Velvet is finished! View the official celebratory post at SYNO.

Here are the gutted pumpkins:
Dan's is on the left, mine are the other two. We have one pumpkin left for Turkey Day festivities. The other remaining one has been sitting outside for a month and it's a wee bit, um... smushy. They're on dishes so they aren't actually touching the wood and won't get hot enough on the bottom to burn the place down (cuz we all know renter's insurance isn't THAT good). Gut scraping goes very fast when your mother-in-law gives you huge-ass metal measuring spoons for Christmas. It seriously only took a minute or two to get all the guts out with the 1 cup scoop. It also helped a bunch to make the sides thin enough to cut through easily.
Oh, and yes, we do have X-mas lights stapled to our porch for decoration ;)

Guess who?My brother (Elvis) and his girlfriend Melanie (the angel) and me hiding at the bottom. And Jason (I call him Red) insisited on getting an action shot of Elvis in the fog machine, so here they are choking on the fumes:Poor Meli is gagging! Can't really see Red's Elvis sneer through all the fog, either.
We didn't take any pictures of Ben sitting in front of the machine huffing the fog because we were afraid of being cited for animal cruelty or something silly like that... Ben sure didn't care though, cuz he sat in front of it for over 2 hours watching smoke puff out.

I have oodles more pictures, but I think that's enough for now. More later!

V V Update

2005-11-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

This is for Gina again:

Vintage Velvet is going to be bound off tonight, blocked tomorrow, and sent out on Friday :) I'm sorry that I'm late with your beautiful scarf, but some goodies that are going to make the journey with it in hopes that you'll let me slide this once <...insert hopeful angelic little face here...>. Just wanted to give you an update so you don't think that I'm pirating your nice yarn over here.

So no more posting until this is finished, but I have lots of pictures to put up when V V is done.

Happy Halloween + BT2 Thankyou to Ariane!

2005-10-30T22:23:00.000-05:00

Stole this idea from Dixie... hehe. It's from the Dover clipart sampler.

And here are the kiddies from the Kroger pumpkin patch (yeah, it's not exactly the most sincere one, but whatever...)

And here is my Back Tack 2 package from Ariane!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankyou, it's absolutely fantastic :) I love it and all the goodies. You did a fabulous job!

Beautiful bag with sparkly zebra interior...

Tons of fantastic new fiber art goodies! :D

Crafty Giftiness

2005-10-29T01:43:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all the nice comments on the BT2 bag! I appreciated them. If anybody else has made one or is finishes one in the future, let me know. It would be cool to see pics of some other bags. Right now I'm trying to decide how many more to make and give as gifts. The grand plan for the holidays this year is to make as many things as possible. So here are the crafty choices:

1) something Amy Butler (Weekender Bag, Covington Bag, or Midwest Mod Pillows)
2) lap quilt (very few of these... the piecing goes fast, but it takes me forever to get them quilted)
3) handwoven thingy (scarf, shawl, rug, or possibly a throw if there's time)
4) handknitted thingy (gloves, scarf, bag, shawl)
5) misc. crafty thing

And if you'll hate what I make or I don't have enough time to finish everything, you'll get something bought instead. It seems reasonable, right? I know I'll have to buy something for my dad, kid brother extraordinaire (who's really not a kid anymore - he's 21), the in-laws, and a cousin of the male persuasion. A couple of people have actually asked for a crafty gift, preferably woven. So I think I have to go yarn shopping (cry me a river, I know...) ;)

Maybe I'll post a stash picture later this weekend. It's not a huge as some people's but it's organized into bins and takes up the top of my husband's closet... my loom takes up the rest of it. Poor guy! I'm so lucky he'd rather have his stuff folded up in a dresser than hang up his clothes. It's probably more like he'd rather have all the yarn and fabric out of sight than laying all over the living room floor. Hmm... note to self: get him a really good present. :)
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On tap for the weekend:
-Finish Gina's VV scarf and mail by Monday.
-Go buy yarn to weave stuff. And try not to jump up and down too much at the cash register whilst paying.
-Find the most sincere pumpkin patch and purchase several of its offspring. Then chop them open and suck out their brains.
-Finish GIS tutorials and work on the lab that's due next week.

Back Tack 2 bag finished!

2005-10-23T18:26:00.000-05:00

Here it is! This is an Amy Butler pattern - the Covington Bag. It took 1 yard of exterior fabric and about a quarter yard of interior fabric. It requires alot of random measurements, such as "fold top panel in half, fold bottom panel in half, match creases to center, sew" and similar things. But it's still a nice pattern. I only put in one of the drawstrings because two drawstrings didn't seem to fit in the casing or function correctly. I'm sure if I'd ripped out the stitching and re-sewn things I could have fit the second casing, but the drawstrings are practically guaranteed to get wound around each other inside the casing... or worse, get stuck and cause the other one to break. So Back Tack 2 buddy, you have one drawstring. I hope this is okay with you ;)

BackTack 2 bag for ???

I can't tell the general public who you are yet. Just incase you're one of those people who goes blog surfing from the swap website to try and find out what you're getting before you receive it. And if you are, don't feel bad. I do that sometimes, too. But your plan has been foiled this time! tee hee.

Here's the inside. Green paisley. All the fabrics are Amy Butler. The exterior fabric is heavier weight fabric from the Home Decor version of her line. The interior is normal medium-weight cotton. The handles, exterior top panel, and bottom have heavyweight sew-in interfacing in them. From Walmart since Joann Fabrics only had thin fusible junk.

Here's the side detail. I like the folded/pleat-y goodness.
Overall I like the result of this pattern. It looks professional even though it's homemade. I think I'll try to make some of these for X-mas. Now to find some heavyweight outer fabric, since my stash has tons of stuff that can be used for the inside.

So, BT2 buddy, hope you enjoy your bag! I wanted it to be professional-looking enough for your day job so you can sneak your knitting in. Let me know how that goes :)

It's a GLORIOUS day!

2005-10-18T18:14:00.000-05:00

Wanna know why? Because the maintenance man brought me a new washing machine. And then FedEx brought me back the digital camera! Yee haw. So here's a picture of my baby...

Ben's first picture :) I know everybody thinks their pet/kid is the cutest thing ever and Dan and I are no exception. He's disgustingly cute. Especially with those pretty blue eyes. The only problem is that he farts like a human and likes to stick his face under anything with running liquids coming from them. I'll leave that to your imagination. Yes, it's seriously gross.

Necrogeography?

2005-10-13T17:07:00.000-05:00

So I have this project to do for my GIS class... thinking about doing it on Bloomington cemeteries and how their "landscape" changes over time. Now I need to get a little research assistant to help me GPS headstones and write down the year of demise. And do this several hundred times to cover the entire cemetery. And to not mess it up/forget stuff/lose data. But first I have to run it past my teacher (who is barely done with his Master's degree himself) because I forgot to do that last week.

Looked up the digital camera's wait time on the Canon website. It says they mailed it back today via 2-day FedEx! YAY! Probably still won't get it until Monday though.

Designing Wumun

2005-10-12T19:56:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Denyse Schmidt's loverly book, I sketched up some stuff last night. Once midterms are over I'm gonna be on sewing overdrive! It's my goal to make presents for as many people as I can this year. That way people who like handmade keepsake-y thangs can have them and people like my dad, my in-laws, my brother and Dan can get a decent present. I have OODLES of fabric to use up. And if I successfully accomplish that we all know what that means... NEW fabric! Woo hoo! Dan's probably horrified by that prospect, but I hafta put up with his sci-fi/comic/video game addictions so it's only fair for me to get yarn and fabric.

So I'm watching Ghost Hunters right now. It's quite entertaining - they're at an abandoned prison in Ohio. Lucy's behaving and sitting here on the couch with me. Little tiny Ben is passed out on a chair. And yes, Ben's totally OK now. We picked him up on Dan's birthday last Thursday night. The company that makes the vaccines the vet gave him has supposedly agreed to reimburse us for his medical expenses. The vet said we just have to agree to some basic things like a) not suing them in the future for this incident and b) not bad-mouthing them. But when they send me whatever it is we're supposed to sign I'm going over that puppy with a fine-toothed comb and then bribing my law school buddies to look over it for us (hey, I figure Tif's had contract law already and she might be able to help me if it's hard to understand).

Gina -- your scarf is growing more and more every night :) When we get our digicam back later this week I'll post a picture on SYNO. Hopefully I'll be on ball #4 by then! It's so pretty... I'm thinking about making some of those for X-mas maybe. Of course they'll have to be knit in overdrive, seeing as I'm being slow with the knitting lately.

Swappin'

2005-10-06T10:58:00.000-05:00

No, not spit. Or wives. ;) Mary, just wanted to let ya know that I'm sending your Denyse Schmidt book out today! Since I was a whiney slacker yesterday I didn't get my butt to the post office, but ye olde butt shall be in gear today.

Somehow have to sneak out and get Dan birthday cake before class... but he wants to go out to lunch. Doh. Must figure out a way to ditch him without making him feel ditched... now how to do that? Think think think. I already got on his nerves by joking that he's officially pushin' 30 now (he's hit the big 2-5 today). Maybe he'll decide he's had enough of my shenanigans and go to campus early to teach his class.

Haven't heard anything about Ben yet. They said they start calling people at 7am daily and letting them know about their pets, so hopefully soon. It's slightly after 11am, so I'm getting a bit antsy. Dan says they didn't call him either. Poo.

P.S. -- Got my walking foot! Yay! Hopefully some quilting will take place this afternoon.

Droopy.

2005-10-05T22:47:00.000-05:00

*Warning: This is a depressing post because today's events were... um, depressing.*

Tomorrow is Dan's birthday. And we're not going to celebrate... no. Instead we're going to drive back up to Indianapolis and (hopefully) pick up our poor little kitty.

Our new kitten, Ben, had a bad reaction to his vaccines today. Out of nowhere he had a tiny seizure several hours later and couldn't stand up all the way after that. We got Ben on Monday. He's a 5 month old, 4 lb. seal point Siamese guy - picture perfect at that with his little triangle-shaped head. Lovey and beautiful. Even the vet techs said so this morning. One lady told me he looks like he stepped out of the pictures from a cat breed book. And now he's an hour away up in Indianapolis for observation because the vet that saw him today wouldn't help him. I'm SO mad. He's so little and so sweet. If they had taken the time to do a blood test first, he would be okay. He didn't even need booster shots, but the vet was insistent and I thought to myself, 'Well, he would know better than me. What can happen?' And now Dan and I have to sit here without our kitty, hoping they call and say he can come home tomorrow night. It was awful driving an hour both ways, worrying he's paralyzed or dying or not going to be the same or going to hate us for all of this. Now we have to do it again tomorrow or Friday. There AND back. It's so frustrating. And the bill isn't going to be much comfort when we get it, either. I wish I'd never agreed to the shots and I'm not going to let them give him anything else. Even if that means he can't have his neuter surgery. We're just not going to chance it.

I promise not to be this unhappy next time unless he doesn't get better. But obviously I've got my fingers crossed that this will never happen again and when we go pick him up he's going to be cuddly and normal. Gotta go. Thanks for listening.

Technical Difficulties

2005-10-02T13:09:00.000-05:00

I actually got some projects done this weekend, I swear! But I have no proof. You see, our digital camera DIED. I had to pack it up and send it to the Canon repair center in Illinois. Or rather I packed it up and Dan took it to the post office. At any rate, it should be under warranty because it's only 4 mos. old and hopefully they'll get it back to us in a week and a half.

In crafty news, I finished one quilt top from Amy Butler fabric and have everything laid out for another. They're throw sized, but should make decent Xmas presents. Now if only that lady at the sewing supply place would call me and tell me my walking foot is in... geesh. It's been 3 weeks! What the heck?! That's the absolute last time I pay for something that's being put on order, I'm telling you. Between that and the part for my car, I don't understand what the hold up is.

I now have almost all of the yarn I ordered. A bajillion skeins of sari silk (mostly reddish/magenta) and a box of recycled sky blue angora-cashmere blend. Still waiting on 3 balls of sari silk and some water buffalo bone circular knitting needles. Yes, I'm a total bioanthropology nerd... hand me a bone any day and I'll be a happy girl. And I'm totally aware that that just sounded kinda dirty ;) Sorry, that's what happens when your cat wakes you up too early and you're sleep deprived - ya get goofy.

Speaking of sleep, I took a nap yesterday evening and woke up to several dozen chocolate chip cookies. Apparently Danny Boy got bored and decided to raid our cabinet of baking supplies. They're so tasty! The only drawback is that Dan doesn't really eat sugar, so we're either gonna have to give a bunch of them away or my butt's gonna get huge.... lol

Ok, off to jump in the shower. Might go geode hunting later today. Yes, that's totally a Midwestern geek thing to do, but pretty rocks are pretty cool people! :)

Back in the saddle...

2005-09-26T22:41:00.000-05:00

Whew! I thought the past week was never going to end. Between chem homework, hurricanes (everybody's safe and accounted for! YAY!), and pets it was a little bonkers.

So about this puppy-- Atari came to live with us for two days last week. She's a wonderful dog. I walked her on the leash, she only had one accident because she wasn't sure at first which door to go to if she wanted out, and she's so lovey. It just turns out she's not a wonderful dog for us. Within the first 24 hours our cat went on a hunger strike, the bunny tore up her "house", Atari knocked me down and I sprained my ankle... it was bad news bears and it just kept getting worse. Dan and I decided it was best if we gave Atari back to Mark and Lisa. They really missed her and our little family doesn't seem to be able to handle a puppy right now. I'm pretty sad about it all, but I guess it worked out for the best. Or atleast I'll keep telling myself that so I don't pout about it.

In much, much happier news: I've started my elfing. Yes, that means purchasing loads of yarn on Ebay and figuring out what to make for everybody that gets a custom made yuletide goodie. I snagged TONS of beautiful recycled sari silk yarn. We're talking like 35 skeins for under $100, fellow yarn freaks. You can't beat that with a stick, lemme tell ya. Some of this will be knit up into throws (5 skeins per throw!), some will be woven into a shawl, and some will get knitted up as a scarf or bag. And I scored a great reclaimed turquoise angora/cashmere blend yarn. This will probably be woven, too. I have lots of ideas up my sleeve, I just need time to sit down and draft my plans.

Right now I have plain weave shawls on the loom - 8/4 rayon warp, chenille weft. I grabbed and end from every color of rayon I had on a cone to wind the warp, so it's super colorful. I wanted them to be really plush, but with the fat chenille you can't really see the colors in the warp, so I had to use skinny chenille. Half way done with one shawl, so hopefully by the end of the week I'll have something finished to show !

Also still plugging away at Gina's Vintage Velvet. Don't worry Gina, I didn't forget ya :) And I've been putting together my SP's goodies for BackTackII, just can't decide on a pattern to use for her bag. I'm leaning towards an Amy Butler pattern because it's big, but not too tote-ish. Suggestions welcome, seeing as I have 2 yds of outside fabric and liner that have yet to be ironed!

Decision Day.

2005-09-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

So Dan and I met this awesome couple this weekend - Lisa and Mark. Mark is in Dan's project group and is doing the music for the video game they're making. Mark and Lisa are looking for a home for their adorable puppy, Atari (yes--the guys Dan works with are that addicted to video games that they name their pets after them. Vic and Christy's dog is named Koopa after Super Mario Bros. I'm surprised our pets got normal names at this point.). Atari looks like a black lab, but she's tiny. Like up to my knees tiny. And she's got itty bitty little feets, so we don't think she's going to get much bigger. I really want a dog to go do outdoorsy things with, but at the same time I feel really worn out after school/work somedays. And Dan doesn't want to have anything to do with the dog care-wise... so it would be my dog. Lisa brought Atari over last night and she hung out with us for a bit. She's super quiet, loves people, knows 'sit' for the most part, is crate trained and Lisa got her housebroken in just a week! It's unbelievable how wonderful this dog is. I'm just torn because I don't want to be a bad puppy mommy and have poor little Atari pouting while I'm in class and I want to help Lisa and Mark out. If we take Atari then they can come and see her and Atari will still get to play with Koopa from across the street.

Any suggestions? I have to call Lisa tonight and let her know... :
This is for Lee Anne: more Jones Halloween sodas!

Silence is Golden

2005-09-16T02:52:00.000-05:00

Or just a sign of laziness, depends on how you look at it. ;) Three weeks of school down, something like 13 more weeks left to go.

My foray back into quilting started out very well. All of my fabric was ironed and pieces were cut. I even got a nicer sewing machine just for the purposes of making X-mas presents (it has ETS! no more threading by hand... YAY!). But alas, my machine piecing is gradually getting worse and worse. My quarter-inch seams are lovely, but somehow a bazillionth of an inch here and there made the middle rows of small blocks longer than the big blocks of the evil Zipper quilt. Don't get me wrong, I love the colors and everything. One day it will grow up to be a gorgeous quilt. But right now it's pushin' my buttons, damnit! Not cool. And I'm just anal enough to want to grab my stitch ripper and redo those little blocks. Think maybe I'll sleep on it and decide in the morning. But I don't see how else to be happy with it in the end if I don't. Ugh. Pictures tomorrow after I figure out what to do.

In the realm of too-bad-so-sad things: Spike bit the big fishhook in the sky this week. And Lucy is in mourning. She sits on top of the cabinets and looks where his bowl used to be. I think she thought he was a toy... she'd curl up around his bowl and poke at him. Never tried to eat him, just smush him through the glass. So now Lucy pouts on top of every piece of cardboard she can find. No joke. Cardboard box, cardboard thingy that came in the mail, box of food... just curls up and sticks her chin out like a little kid. Poor kitty.

Mischief

2005-09-09T20:31:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when you let me run wild in the clearance section at Target. I end up with a Dymo label maker.
And this is what happens when an organization freak gets a label maker.

Lotsa Schtuff

2005-09-08T20:58:00.000-05:00

So this one will be even more picture heavy than my last post... if that's possible.

This weekend Gina's Vintage Velvet scarf rocked out at the Rib America Fest in Indy! Check it out.

It jammed to Cowboy Mouth and Ted Nugent. And no, I didn't use it as a napkin. Really, I swear! I only got a few rows done before it got too dark to see anything, but it still made the voyage and hung out in Military Park downtown.

And my obsession with Halloween was only made more apparent when Dan caught me throwing this tasty treat into our cart at Target...
Yes, it does exist. Jones Soda in tiny cans with Halloween candy flavors. Like Candy Corn, Carmel Apple, Strawberry Slime, and Berry Scary Lemonade. How great is that, I ask you? If Dan and I could have tolerated having our wedding on a weekday, we so would have gotten married on Halloween this year instead of St. Patrick's Day. But who wants to party down on a Sunday or Monday and then have to go right back to class the next day? Not I.

Here is some more fiber arts goodness for ya.

I'm gonna make my very own quilt from Modern Quilting Workshop! Woo hoo! I've got enough pieces cut to make either a Zipper quilt in any size. Can I tell you how excited I am? My stash of batiks has a purpose now. I need to get atleast 2 more fabrics, if not more for a larger size quilt. Still haven't decided on that whole size thing yet.

More stuff, but that will have to wait until after a really LATE dinner.

Knitting News

2005-09-01T16:17:00.000-05:00

Finally, huh? Just wanted to post some knitting tidbits to reassure people that I do actually do crafty things... really! I don't just work and study. ;)

This is from my incredible Secret Pal (whom I hope to "meet" very soon in order to properly thank them). They sent me oodles of great knitting gadgets over the summer, including this cool needle case and lots of the goodies in it. I just wanted to post this so faboo SP knows I'm a grateful recipient and that thanks to them, now all my knitting duds are organized!

Here's the shawl from Weekend Knits that's been slowly growing since last year. I started it around midterms so that I wouldn't lose my mind and got it half way done. Since then progress has been super slow. And yes, that is Lion Brand yarn. It has pretty colors, people! Color pallet over yarn snobbery.

Lucy Goosey approves of its softness, but says mommy needs to finish it so those pokey needle things can go away. Mommy concurs.

And this is for my mom so that she knows I put up the cool hanging lamp she gave me. I almost knocked over the TV and Jason and Dan laughed their asses off, but it's up and running! Thankyou to my father-in-law for getting a job that taught me how to use power tools -- otherwise our whole apartment would be bare. And my momma wouldn't have any curtain rods up in her house, either. ;)

It's Kanye time, ya'll.

2005-08-31T02:00:00.000-05:00

TIME Magazine Cover: Hip-Hop's Class Act - Aug. 29, 2005 - Singers - Entertainment - music

Can you say Ye?

Much to my dear, sweet husband's dismay... I have Kanye. Pre-ordered it on iTunes and got it this morning. Care to join me, Disey? (<--My college roomie and fellow Kanye fan. Dan sometimes jokingly refers to her as the "other wife"). I personally enjoy "Gold Digger" because it smacks of his first album, but am getting used to the rest of the new album bit by bit. Old Kanye was good times. Di went with me to get fitted for a bridesmaid dress last summer and we totally terrorized Northwest Indiana with "Workout Plan" when it came on Power 92. I think carloads of soccer moms and elderly people were waiting in horror for my Jeep to lift up off the ground and bounce like a hoop-dee or something we had it up so loud. Ah, youth... ;)

ALSO, today is BlogDay. Go ahead, try it yourself!
Here are FOUR of my FIVE recommendations:

Go see Lee Anne at Stampin' Along! She's also a recently-wed fiber artist and is an all-around sweet gal. (More on Lee Anne later this week!)

Visit Dioramarama and their Modern Quilt Along. They got me hooked on the new book and it's a must for hip quilters everywhere.

Check out the enterprising 8-year-old Delaney, who is decorating old horseshoes and selling them to save up money to buy her very own horse. Now that's a little girl who's determined to get a pony! If only I'd thought of that when I was her age, man. I wouldn't be trying to figure out ways to use my student loan money for one... tee hee.

Horse Hate isn't really a blog, but it cracks me up. Reminds me of Joy's horse, Foxy... crotchety, but loveable all the same (please don't ban me from the barn for that, Joy!).

And I'll think of another one later... too tired!

Now back to the regularly scheduled reading for enviro chem. Who knew toxicology would be so much fun?

Choppy Waters Ahead

2005-08-29T20:09:00.000-05:00

So IU's back in full swing and we all survived our first day of classes. Today I had an intro GIS course and enviro chem. The GIS course is up in the air... I might drop it. It's taught by a PhD student who "forgot" to bring the syllabus and the first assignment to class, so he mumbled at us for an hour and then told us there was no point into coming to the labs, so just show up on Thursday nights and do all of our labwork on our own time. What the heck is that? My tuition pays your tuition, pal. TEACH or SOMETHING! Sorry, that's my only rant of the day, I swear. Enviro chem was cool. The lady who teaches it got her MSES back when my mom was in the program (mid '70s), so she's kind of earthy and a nerdy hippy ;)

In crafting news:
Starting a quilt or two from the Modern Quilting Workshop book soon! Got all of my fabrics together. Just need to prewash, iron, and cut the pieces. Then I'll be well on my way to sewing bliss on Friday morning. No classes, so it's gonna be crafting day every Friday. Well, that and cleaning day. Oh, also have 4 1/2 repeats of Gina's Vintage Velvet done and I've started on ball #2 of that soft and lovely yarn she sent for SYNO.

And last, but not least -- my gal pal CJ down in Baton Rouge. CJ, I hope you're ok! I'll be calling you shortly to make sure you and the kitty didn't float away. Hopefully all is well with Di, Sarah, my Secret Pals and everybody else in that area also. Love you girls!

Bloody Finger

2005-08-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

So I pulled an "Ison" today at work. That's what we affectionately call chopping off part of your hand on my mom's side of the family. My grandma chopped off part of her fingertip making dinner once, then my uncle stuck his hand in the snowblower and got part of his finger whacked off... and this morning I Ison'd myself a new flap on the pad of my thumb :( Uck. Valuable lesson learned: Never try to make masks for small children and use scissors to punch holes for eyes. Anyhow, I went to the Med-Point thing right down the highway and they glued me back together with DermaBond. And they gave me a tetanus shot. And the university picked up the bill!!!! Woo hoo! That totally cancels out the thumb chopping, right? FREE thumb chopping care. ;)

Cable Gal

2005-08-14T22:27:00.000-05:00

Vintage Velvet after 2 repeats.

Check out the bottom inch... no matter how many times I redid my own Vintage Velvet, the bottom looked like this too. It looks slightly off kilter. Like maybe the first cable pulled the sides in too far. I use my row counter, count all my stitches, etc... any suggestions? Did anybody run into this or am I just a screwy cabler?

Vintage Velvet + Calculus = Square Root of All Evil

2005-08-11T16:31:00.000-05:00

So I'm dilligently working away on repeat #2 of Gina's Vintage Velvet scarf for SYNO. Never knew that Muench Touch Me yarn was so darn soft and pretty! I've been buying my chenille by the cone for about 4 years now because it's cheaper that way if you weave it, but this Muench yarn totally blows cone chenille out of the water. I think I'll be hoarding this stuff once I get some more money.

On a less fuzzy and happy note, I got my textbook for the Mathematics for Environmental Science class in the mail today...

Yes, it's CALCULUS! Oh, woe is me. Thankfully my husband has a degree in mathematics and doesn't mind me asking him TONS of questions. I never would have made it throught my first semester of statistics last year if he'd gone ahead with that art major, that's for sure!

2005-08-07T22:43:00.000-05:00

Dear Kirsten:

I’m pleased to announce that the MSES committee has agreed to admit you to their program. A formal letter will be sent to your Bloomington address soon.

Congratulations!

Andrea ****

Coordinator, Admissions and Financial Aid

Indiana University

School of Public & Environmental Affairs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweet!

2005-08-02T00:47:00.000-05:00

So this weekend I got some faboo things from my wonderful Secret Pal. Lotions and lip gloss, an ample supply of Twizzlers, beautiful Fiesta yarn, three awesome new knitting books, a yummy smelling candle, a photo album, knitting notecards, an eye mask, and assorted bathtime pampering goodies. Whoa, nelly... that's a HUGE list! Man, I really lucked out. This person is so thoughtful and very cool! Pix up soon once I get a chance to get them off the camera. THANKS AGAIN, SP!!!! You're the best.

(Incase you're wondering about all this Secret Pal business, go here: http://secretpal5.blogspot.com/ Once upon a time I had a button, but haven't had time to replace it since I switched templates... oops!)

I've also joined up with Stitch Ya Neck Out, which is doing a swap based on the patterns from my favorite book of all time, Scarf Style. It's going to be fun! I'm getting one of those curly noodle scarves made by a lovely knitter lurking somewhere in the continental U.S.. That's all I'm allowed to say, though I totally wanted to post a link to her blog so she gets the credit she deserves for being my scarf buddy... but once the swap is over, I'll reveal who he/she is!

Well, that's all for now -- gotta do some heavy duty cleaning and errand running on my day off tomorrow. The in-laws are coming for the weekend and we've still got a couple small boxes of "junk" to unpack and stuff someplace. Pray to the domestic goddesses for me!

What's new, Puddytat? Whoaaa-oa-oa-oaaa!

2005-07-28T01:25:00.000-05:00

That's pretty much the sound she makes ALL. NIGHT. LONG. "Mrow? MROW MROW MROW' (repeat continuously until cat gets distracted by imaginary mice) Not because she's hungry, lonely, or scared. Because she CAN. She lays on the couch and stretches out with her toys and blanky, then proceeds to curl up, look extremely cute, and yowl her ass off.

"Humans! Whoa, hey... you're in there, doing that sleep thing. I know it. I'm out here. I'm holding down this fuzzy zebra blanket and pretend I hunted it down all by myself. If you need me, I'm just gonna keep reminding you that I'm here. On the couch. Being adorable. Right here.... not going anywhere. Yesiree."

When we go out to glare at her or see what's going on, she looks at us and keeps talking.

"What? You know, if you really wanted to sleep you'd take a nap under the couch like I do. Can't see you, can't hear you, don't care what you're doing from under the couch. But you're not under there -- I checked. So you must not really wanna sleep that bad."

Other times we have to go get a drink or grab something out of the living room, so we flick on the lights and go about our beezwax. And we get this:

"Hey hey! Did I ask you to turn on that light? What is this, coastal Maine? We're not a light house, turn that off! And another thing - put on some of that colored fur stuff that you have to change everyday. Pants or a shirt or something. Puh-leez."

So Lucy's very opinionated for a young'un. It's going to be a fun ride, huh?

Fiber Erotica and the Urban Puddytat.

2005-07-20T19:32:00.000-05:00

*Beware* . . . YARN PORN . . . It's my first uniform skein after re-adjusting the wheel. Practice helps, huh? ;)
I'm feeling better about this spinning thing already. For a while there I was worried that it just wasn't gonna work for me. I mean, I had enough dexterity to learn several musical instruments, but I just could NOT get spinning. Now it atleast resembles yarn and not something a wild animal chewed on! WOO HOO!!!

2005-07-20T19:29:00.000-05:00

A puddytat! This is Lucy, our new kitty. She's 2. We get to keep her now, thanks to the miracle of dandruff shampoo....
No kidding. If Dan Boy hadn't dunked her in the tub this morning and scrubbed her down, she would have had to go back to the shelter by lunch time. :( My allergies were THAT nuts. We think she was flea powdered or chemical-ed some other way because she doesn't smell like nail polish remover anymore... tee hee. So now my husband gets to have a kitty and my head won't explode now because she doesn't seem to mind a bath too much. Poor puddytat. All this fuzz came off of her (she wouldn't lick whatever junk they put on her fur) and she's much skinnier now. When we first saw her she looked like a tubby kitty. T'appears that it was just an illusion, however.

So... any suggestions for knitted cat toys? I've been stalking the internet for ideas.