Weird

Weird things about me. I'm not sure where I saw this first (or last) but its worth a shot.

1. I cannot sleep with the closet door open. In fact I make my husband sleep on the side of the bed next to the closet. I guessing this stems from seeing Poltergeist at a very young age. Let him get sucked into the netherworld. His screams will wake me and give me a chance to get away. :) And when the bedroom upstairs finally gets done, we are switching sides of the bed so he is again closest to the closet.
   
2. When punching in a time on the microwave I refuse to use round numbers. No 1 minute 30 seconds here...its 1:48 or 1:23. Why should these numbers suffer because they aren't easy math?
3. I drink pickle brine (from kosher garlic dills) and I love it.
4. I have no nails on my pinkie toes. They were removed for medical reasons.
5. I can fall off a ladder, hit the wall I am painting, hit the ladder again, hit the wall again and hit the floor all without spilling a drop of paint from the container in my hand.
6. I can identify most brands of paint and polyurethane by smell alone.
7. I will often skip, rather than walk, from point A to point B. Even at work.
   

Actual knitting

I promised some knitting pictures today and here they are:

The bag was a holiday gift for one of my employees. She s Loves pink. I'm still having a few issues with the piping on these bags. I will try an attached i-cord next time. I was rushing to get this done in time so i didn't really have time to work it out. I typically do these out of Cascade 220 but this time I used Patons Classic Wool. Very different texture. The Cascade tends to felt in a rather smooth finish, this was kinda nubby. Not a bad thing, just unexpected. It reminded me of boucle fabric, especially with the pink and black, I thought 'Chanel suit'. This experience makes me want to gather all kinds of yarn and felt swatches to have a sample book for reference. I did love the texture for these bags. Though it did take longer to felt it. However here is picture of my nifty drying method for felting. All it requires is a stool, a floor vent and a wooden spoon. Rather efficient and it confuses the cats.

This is the black and red miter square blanket that was in my hands much of my time at the hospital with my Dad. This is done in Lionbrand Homespun. As soon as I saw their new colors I knew I would be doing this blanket. It needs a little blocking before its truly finished.

I have a few more projects before I start my selfish knitting. I plan on starting my me projects in February.

Why?

Why as an adult do I need to write my name on my food in my own fridge???

Before I went away I bought a box of ice cream sandwiches. I've been craving them like crazy. Love asked if he could have one, my reply was the usual when I buy a food I am craving. Help yourself but don't eat it all. Fast forward to my return, an evening after a long day at work (read auditor showed up on first day back) and love asks if he can get me anything. "ice cream sandwich" he shies away and mumbles something. The rat bastard ate them all on me! So today I bought two boxes...one for me and one for him. I will track how many are in my box and beware if any are missing. grrrrrr

on a totally different note my avatar's costume change is in honor of us watching firefly. My love got it for Christmas. I almost forgot how much I loved that show. Damn them for canceling it!. mmmmmm.....Joss Whedon is my master now.

oh yeah...knitting pics tomorrow

Happy Birthday to me....

I live in a...tree???

Happy Birthday Elvis, David Bowie, Steven Hawkin, and ME!

Yes it is my birthday and I'm 30. My mother didn't even know how old I was this year! The celebration aspect has been somewhat delayed due to Dad's surgery and such. We had a meeting tonight at 6pm so that kills most dinner plans and I'm not drinking right now so the bar would be no fun.

Maybe I'll just pop on over to the Webs site and by myself a boatload of yarn....

Just about everyone else has done a New Year's list. Since its only a week later I kinda consider my birthday my own new year. So here's mine (I will add things periodically as I think of them):

• Learn to play chess (and checkers). yes i am the only freak on this planet above the age of 3 who doesn't know how to play checkers.
• Switch to a new and better GP.
  
• Get up to date with all doctors visits and medical stuff
• Knit at least 1 sweater, 1 shrug, 1 shawl and 1 bag for myself. And yes they should actually fit me.
  
• Exercise 3 times a week.
• Get back on track with a healthier diet
• More fruit/vegetables-less red meat
• More homemade-less convenience food
• More fiber-less things like dip and gravy

• Indulge my 4 year old self at least once a week
• Get my finances in order
• Have a body of artwork to show by next October

That's good for now, I think.

I'm back...

And my Daddy is doing great! He was out of the hospital in record time. I even have pictures of everything (but don't worry, I won't post them). He insisted on the pictures. Yes, much of my weirdness comes from him...but not all.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, thoughts and words of support. Now I can breathe a little.

Off again...

I'm heading off shortly to see my family for a week or so. Tomorrow is Dad's surgery and I'm not sure if I'll be able to post much.

I will be knitting however. Sitting around in a hospital full of nervous energy...I should get a fair amount done. Here's what I am bringing.

THE SHAWL...I'm still on the damn ruffles but it is almost done.
The black/red mitered blanket
The blue twin socks (nearly done)
a smattering of baby hats and booties.

My goal is to finish all this other stuff before I start on a run of selfish knitting. Yes, my vow for 2007 is to knit something for myself! probably with skulls on it. I have yet to knit myself a sweater...all I own made by my own needles are 3 pairs of socks and several scarves. I have a stack of patterns waiting in the wings and a stash in the hope chest (which love found the other day...now that it is cold enough for sweaters...oops) . I'll be 30 on Monday so my new year kinda starts then.

I'll try to update while I am gone. Happy knitting. (sorry if this was rambling...not quite focused at the moment)

What are the odds...

of twins?!?
This happened completely on accident. The yarn was balled without consideration of color. I merely pulled out an end and started knitting. Trust me I couldn't do this if I tried. The yarn is foliage by Berocco. It was bought intended for my feet, but now it will be on my mums.

Good day/bad day

I had today off from the store and the plan was to get up fairly early and head to the school and start painting the show. That didn't quite happen. I had changed the time on my alarm so I didn't have to be up quite so early but then forgot to turn it on. What actually woke me up was the smoke detector plummeting to a not so graceful landing on the tile floor below. No clue why...maybe all the times it has randomly gone off late were cries for help and just couldn't take it any more.

I had a pretty good day paint wise. I over came the the drawing obstacles that were thwarting me on Christmas day (yes I went and worked Christmas day)
This is what I started with. My love and I had snapped a 1' grid over the flats on Christmas. I cover the renderings with plastic wrap and draw the same grid in scale on the plastic. From this I draw on the flats with charcoal. Usually the drawing is done on kraft paper (especially if one is painting on fabric) which is then transfered to the scenery. The paper is more forgiving and even comes with a grid printed on it. For the sake of time and money, I was doing this directly on the flats



I started on the sky and finished the drawing while that dried. Once the charcoal was what it should be I go over it with Sharpie. and then flog away the charcoal. That is the fun part. This is my flogger...I inherited the leopard print flogger but it has become one of my trademarks now. Basically it works like it sounds...you hold the stick and flog away the charcoal.


Once that was done I laid in the base colors on the wall. Then a little more work on the sky. It is nice when you can rotate on a project. Really half the job is waiting for paint to dry.



Then some detail and shading on the wall.






Last I threw some green down to base in the bushes.






The play list for todays painting was as follows:
First a little NPR then CD's
Enigma-MCMXC A.D.
Medieval Babes- The Rose
GreenDay - American Idiot
Evanescence- The Open Door
Rob Zombie- Hellbilly Deluxe
System of a Down- Toxicity

So the bad part of the day. Other than the late rude awakening. I got a stupid traffic ticket. I turned left out of the school like I always do...except you're not suppose to between 3:30 and 6:30 weekday. Now this normally isn't an issue for me because I'm never leaving at that time. Rehearsal is typically 3 to 6. So I'm either already gone or just showing up at those hours. Well school is out right now, so there I was, not even thinking about it and now I have a ticket worth $103. I feel like such an idiot and irritated as hell. With so much going on in my life right now, and so much stress, I know I am on the verge of my breaking point. I'm trying to keep this ticket from being what cuts the thread on my sword of Damocles. *breathe*

Waiting is the hardest part...

I'm down in the studio waiting for a bag to felt. So I thought I would write a few words.

First I want to amend the gift list from my secret pally. She also gave me domiKNITrix. I forgot it because it rocks so much that I hid it away until I was done knitting holiday gifts. I was too tempted to knit a boatload of stuff for me. I actually squealed with delight when I realized that the cover is black vinyl. Mmmmmmmm.....black vinyl.

Christmas was lovely. Getting up to be at work at 6:30 this morning wasn't.

Its cold and I hate winter.

And in two weeks I'll be 30.

Need I say more?

Tis the season for...

(to quote my Dad) PRESENTS!!!!!

And I have made out like a bandit lately.

First was the lovely box from my PRGE (not so) secret pally Obsidian Kitten.
The spray of real lavender sits on my night stand. A bag of homemade kitty treat mix for when my girls decide to be good. Lavender and oatmeal soap with two candles graced by a spunky Catwoman action figure. Chocolate...oh the chocolate...one bar is Belgian and the second is Swiss. The Swiss one is called Art Bar and a portion of the sale goes to Art Education programs. How could you make chocolate more perfect. And then there is the Homespun handknit hat made of "llama/corridale & mixed wool" And it fits perfect. (maybe I'll get a pic when love and I are home the same time.) Thank you thank you thank you. You were the perfect secret pally even though you weren't quite so secret. It was fun to pretend though.

Then came Yankee swap night at our stitch n bitch. There is a play by play posted here by Karen. I ended up swiping my final gift which was brought by Amy. It is a Knit Picks pattern for a cup cozy and coasters in a beautiful snowflake pattern. I admired this when she was knitting some of her own a few weeks before...little did I know. She also included the needles needed and enough yarn (Knit Picks Telemark ) to make a set in green, red and blue. I can't wait to knit these.

And then to top it off, my love won 5 free yoga classes at his company holiday party. (I couldn't go, I had to work) He gave them to me since yoga really isn't his thing. I guess that Lorna's Laces from O'Kitten is going to be made into yoga socks sooner than I thought!

First lines

I got this meme from my kick-ass Secret Pally.

What is the first sentence you posted at the beginning of each month in 2006?

January:
(Didn't have blog then)

February:

And so it begins...

I have been meaning to start this thing for a while.

March:

The Gnomes are back

You know...gnomes...those pesky little critters that move stuff around your house.

April:

Paint & Yarn

That's what it has mostly been about lately.

May:

I know I haven't blogged in a while...i'm a bad little blogger.

June:

The Lusty Month of May

Tra La!
(bonus points to you who know what that is from)

July:

ever onward

6 is done despite having to rip back to the life line 3 rows in.

August:

I'm ok

Thank you everyone for your encouragement.

September:

Punk Rock Gift Exchange Questionaire

Here it is ...in all its freakish glory.

October:

Busy Season

Did I mention this is my BusySeason?

November:

yep

a lot has happened. Halloween has come and gone.

December:

Calendar days

I just bought our 2007 calendar.

There it is. It is amazing to see that there was knitting content once upon a time. I'll have to get back to that...someday.

What I really want for Christmas...

is a homing device for my mug of tea. Damn thing keeps hiding on me!


I know I've been quiet lately. I've been a bit of a wreck and not in the right mind to post. I found out last week that my Dad (who is the coolest Dad in the world, btw) needs open heart surgery for multiple bypasses. So I've been crying on and off consistently since then. His family doesn't have the best track record for heart stuff. His parents both died young. My aunt died at 49. My uncle had a bypass last year. And everyone is on meds for heart disease. Plus the timing has my morbid sense of doom activated since everyone in my life tends to die this time of year.

So what I really REALLY want is my Daddy to be ok. I'd even give up my stash for that.

(have to go...crying again)

Deck the Halls

Last week was spent moving furniture and this week is decorating. Christmas is both a good and bad holiday for me. It is second to Halloween in my favorite. The good parts of Christmas are romantic and fun. Being a divorced kid, it had its really bad parts...fighting over who got me when. That and lots of people in my life die at Christmas.


Here's our tree. Yes its a fake one. I do fake for several reasons. One, I don't like killing trees for my own entertainment. There are enough stupid people in the world who deserve that honor. Two, they are messy and Isis won't stop drinking the water. Three , we have an active fireplace and its not worth the fire hazard. (can you tell i'm a firefighter's daughter)



One of my favorite parts of our tree is the topper. It is pure retro. That is the tree topper my Mom had as a kid. Inside the globe is a cylinder of lighting gel that is blacked out with a pattern of different colored translucent stars. That sits over a light bulb and the heat of the bulb makes it spin. All those lights that you see on the wall shift in and out of colors. It drives the cats nuts but its absolutely beautiful when the room is all dark. Mom and I use to just curl up on the couch together and watch the tree.


This is my new addition this year. I have a bunch of the vases left over from various centerpieces. I bought all the glass ornaments with my work discount, filled them and lined them up on the mantle. See the knitted Santa face stocking. One of my cousins (2nd cousin I think....who really cares...a cousin is a cousin) knit all the kids in the family a variation on that. His beard and the fur on his hat are angora. Wow...that stocking is almost 30 yrs old!

That's all for now...I have to go get ready for work. I hate being an adult sometimes.

Calendar days

I just bought our 2007 calendar. We alternate who buys it every year to avoid any disputes. I always agonize over the buying of the calendar. It's going to be a fixture in our house for the whole year; I don't want something that sucks. The top runners this year were the Magnetic Poetry Calendar,Pin Up , Boris Vallejo, Klimt.
Instead I settled on this one. Its pretty, informative and has the moon phases on it. I hate it when I get one with out the moon phases on it. Especially when my cycle is in sync with the moon. Like it is now...It was a full moon last night and I'm fertile. That's pretty close to lock-her-up crazy. All I need is a cupcake, a fit of giggles and a slurpee and/or a margarita to push me over the edge. Watch out!

Kittens for Christmas

Damn, damn, damn! Another person backed out of taking some of these kittens off our hands. I really don't want six cats right now. This is what I get for being nice and saving them from the coyote. I may just wrap them up and start sending them to family and friends.

Here's some pics of them. They are warming up to us. I think after some time they will be fine as house cats. I don't recommend them for people with children, or people who insist on picking up and cuddling their cats. These are the kind of cats who must come to you. We are also insisting that they are adopted in pairs...you take 2 or 4. I don't want to split them into singles.

This is Juno (or Junior since she looks just like Momma). She's the first one who would eat out of our hand. Unfortunately for our hands she would try to drag it off when she was done eating.



This darling is Phaedra. She's by far the bravest and the most comfortable with us. She's also the only long hair in the bunch. She's the first out to eat and the last to run away.








This is Sam. He's the lone boy and rather shy. He watches you constantly though. He likes to sit up high. Out in the garage he was the one who would climb the ladder or jump on the higher cabinets. He's also the only one to attempt to leave the studio...I do believe he's seen the rest of the basement a few times.



This is Spec. She's the 'fraidy cat and the hissy one. She's also the one famous for the paw in the face while they are eating. She's usually the first to run and cram herself back into a corner.

Adventures in moving furniture

Suddenly the bookcase was harder to move...

Black Friday and beyond

Ugh! Well its over but really it is just the end of the beginning. I survived Black Friday. I had to close on Wednesday night...we were there until about 11pm setting the two day ad. Then I was at work 5~friggin~30 in the morning on Friday. I should not be seeing stars in the sky when I go into work. The next day was a 7:30 and the last two were 8:30...but I pulled an open to close last night because my closer called out. I feel like I fought off a band of drunken bloodthirsty vikings. I didn't kill anyone for those of you who have wondered. I came very close with the jackass who was both lying to me and haggling for a better price. First rule, if you want me to cut you a deal...don't lie to me. Especially about my employees. Asshole!

But now I have two days off in a row. woo hoo! and I'm missing a big corporate visit in all of this. I'm planning on some shopping, some knitting, some painting and a bunch of furniture re-arranging and maybe a touch of Holiday Decorating.

I have a feeling we will be staying here for Christmas. That is both good (not having to drive 5 hours either direction) and bad (depressing with out all the family on a holiday). I've not had a Thanksgiving with my family since I moved out here in 1999. I've either been stuck with a retail schedule or in the middle of loading in a Christmas show.

But here's something that I knit in the last week. Its a scarf for a gift so I can't say too much. Its done out of the Patons SWS which is soy and wool. It is a single ply. I really like the feel and the sheen. Being a single ply it is a little splitty, but I would knit with it again. The stitch is just a double moss stitch, but it is one of my favorites. It's easy but it has a lovely texture.

Well I'm off to get things going...its a gloomy day and hard to get motivated.

Happy Turkey Day!!

I hope you all have a lovely day and if you need me to bail you out of jail for killing any relatives, I'm here for you. It's like I've said before....I don't care who I look like. I'm adopted.

Cheers!

Pies!

I had every intention of blogging yesterday but I was in pie making mode. All of that also included a huge trip to the grocery store. Unfortunately the guy bagging my groceries cracked the bottle of sour mix. I poured it off into another bottle but it wasn't big enough for all of it so I was forced to have a few whiskey sours while baking. Ah, the sacrifices I make.
The pies are a big deal this year because last year there were none. The oven decided to die 2 days before Thanksgiving. It would do that every now and then but this time it was forever. Luckily the stove top still worked, and even better we weren't expecting guests. We survived however...I got a small turkey breast and cooked it in the crock-pot. Everything else was done on the stove or in the toaster oven.

But not this year...this year we have a HUGE turkey and a shiny new oven. So we have pies.

I also have pics of the kittens to post, but unfortunately I have to work tonight...