Gray Day and Herbology
My life is interesting. When things happen to me, it happens all at once. I can go for weeks, months even without things happening. And then boom. Everything comes down at the same time.
Some might say it’s coincidence. But since it is a constant thing, I am no longer inclined to believe that it is simply coincidence.
They might be little things, they might be big things, but they have a habit of grouping themselves together.
I’m not going to go into details, but I must say I find it rather annoying at times.
It can cause frustration, anger, elation, and confusion. It can be the cause of drink, be it in celebration or depression.
It can cause artists to retreat into their worlds, be it on canvas, or paper, or whichever medium they find to be most comforting.
It can also cause that same artist to feel blocked and unable to enter into that world in which they feel so comfortable, causing them to float aimlessly about the aether.
Today is a gray day.
It is sleeting here in Colorado, which means I am unable to photograph yarn (not that it’s dry yet…); I am unable to go for a walk like I would like, and there are storm clouds both inside the house and out.
So as it is a gray day, I am watching Dorian Gray, the new one with Ben Barnes (alright it’s a few years old now, but I hadn’t been able to watch it previously).
I am enjoying it immensely. I am reinstalling MS Office onto my laptop. And I am trying to ignore the annoyance of the world.
Oh, and I give you a new yarn.
Herbology. Part of the Whimsical Wizards series.
And here is some knitting that I have done…. it was a commission that I took while at Anomaly Con.
Both shawls are in the Legolas Pattern by Susan Pandorf
Both shawls are on the Cherry DK yarn from The Asylum.
The blue one to the left is the colorway “Melisande”, the green one to the right is “Herbology”
I guess that’s all I can talk about right now. News will be coming soon.
Sometimes you fly…
Happy Imbolc to everyone who celebrates it. For me it certainly has been poignant. It’s about rebirth and renewal. Getting rid of the old, and bringing in the new.
Today I took a leap. I’ve decided I’m going to have a table at the Anomaly Con here in Denver this March.
This is big for me. Very very big. Like, starting tomorrow I need to dye my bum off so that I’m ready. I’m sure I’ll either be far too overstocked, or I’ll be understocked. I’m okay with being overstocked. I’ll be thrilled though if I sell out of everything and am understocked. I of course won’t expect this to happen, so I will be presently surprised if it does.
This will require me finding my costuming that I’ve packed away. But it will give me a chance to wear the awesome awesome new hat I have that was given to me as part of the Pay It Forward 2011 from my dear friend Kristen.
Isn’t it awesome? Don’t you wish you were me right now with such an awesome hat? Well, you can buy one of your own from her brand new shop (I’m so proud and excited for her) on Artfire: Copper Dragonflies. You really should check her out. She doesn’t have hats up in the shop right now, but send her a message and she’ll make you one.
It means also that if you don’t hear from me for the next 2 months, it’s because I’ve fallen into a vat of dye and drowned myself. This is very possible people. Yes, I realize that I’m possibly biting off more than I can chew, especially with still needing to finish the Sherlock club.. but I’ve never been one to do baby steps. I dive into that deep end and learn to swim. Wait.. no.. I’ve got a better analogy. One quite fitting.
“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.” – Neil Gaiman
Well, I’m determined to fly. I never thought I’d get the chance to do an event like this. Certainly not in the US. I might not get something like this in the UK. So I might as well take that leap. After all, this witch just might prove that she can defy gravity. (Alright, how many more analogies can I throw in this paragraph structure?) (Oh, and photograph taken from here.)
I’ve got many big plans for this year, and this wasn’t even one of the original plans! This year is definitely going to be my year.
I’ve lost 21.6lbs as of writing this. I don’t know if I’ll reach my goal before the end of this diet, but I am okay with that. I am happier with my body, my self, my business, and my life. The only aspect that I am not happy with is still not being with my hunny. But there is nothing I can do about that.
My hunny though is striving to make me happy. He bought a rug for our place. Oh yes, we found a place. It’s small and dinky, but it’ll work for us right now. But as I was saying, he bought us a rug. A rug I had said I liked. When I first saw this rug, I fell in love with it. But I told him I liked the gray one, and not the purple one. I told him this because he is not fond of purple. The gray was nice, and would look nice in the house (our main carpeting is a dark blue). So I was fine if he wanted that one. What did he do? While he was shopping in IKEA (which by the way, I love IKEA. I grew up in Ikea. I am sad that the Ikea here in Colorado will not open till next year… I’ve been wanting this store to pop up in Colorado the entire time I’ve lived here) He got us the rug. He got us the rug for a mere fraction of the original cost.
And he got me the purple rug. I love him for it. He knew the purple would make me happy. And it would look good with the blue carpet. (The other choices besides gray and purple was this “sand” and a yellow green)
To any men reading my blog.. it’s little things like that which win over girls hearts.
As the first month of the Sherlock Holmes Yarn Club is now over and done.. (and I’m scrambling to get this 2nd month in the mail asap!) I can now share with you photos of what you are either enjoying in your house or missing out on.
Photo thanks to Reni LeBard
Dr. Watson in shades of mustards, curries, browns and gunmetal. When I think of our dear Doctor, I cannot help but think of him in those colors. Some might think it odd, but that’s the impression I always have. It is mostly due to the very first impression of him meeting Holmes for the first time. He is on my new base, a 2ply SW Sock
Hound of the Baskervilles was not originally planned. When I planned this club, it was going to be a 3 colorway club and that was it. (2 skeins of the same colorway each month) But then I had a customer ask for Hound of the Baskervilles to be included, and my imagination went from there. Hound of the Baskervilles was one of my favorites of the stories growing up. And whenever I think of it, the image of those haunted moors. So while designing this one, that’s exactly what image I used. The purple and greens and browns, the ever shifting mist of those moors. This one is shown on my 4ply SW Sock
I hope you like what I created… Also in the months package is:
An Absinthe Lollipop, after all that was one of his vices. (Though Watson will tell you otherwise) They are from Lollyphile, but it does not appear that you can get them anymore. I guess it’s a good thing that I have an extra stash left over from this club. Muhahahaa
A random assortment of Holmes inspired Pin Badges (before anyone gets huffy.. each customer got 1 pin badge, certain people got 2 for their help in the project)
A tea strainer that is rather neat! (it’s got its own drip pan even!)
A pattern designed by the awesome Christina Scovel from Serenity Stitches.
Today I went to the printers to get this month’s pattern. It’s beautiful. But you’ll have to wait a month before you can see it! I’m also working on getting the last of the swag done, which hopefully will be tomorrow. Then it’s back to the dye pot for me. I’ve only got 1 more colorway that needs to be designed and dyed. I have the other colorway 99% finished. It just needs one last little treatment done to it before I can call it done.
I have been truly blessed by my loyal customers, and amazing friends. This club was a huge leap for me, and it has taught me a lot, and enriched my soul while doing it.
Oh, I also had another Big Ass Order during all this… It was for a Sock Kit that is being put together by one of my customers.
“Bold As Texas”
I had carte blanche on the colors, so I chose: Red, White and Blue for the state flag, not to mention the patriotic tones that Texas has to begin with! Bluebonnet Blue, and a Yellow that matched the Yellow Rose of Texas.
I’m very happy with it. She’s very happy with it, and apparently the people ordering the kit are happy with it! Yay!
Well, I have more that I can announce, but I’m awfully tired. I should have gone to bed before I actually started writing this. So I guess I’ll just have to announce the rest tomorrow. Goodnight everyone, and may your Imbolc fires burn bright!
2011 With a new look!
Well.. it’s taken some tinkering, but I think I’ve finally decided on a look for the blog that I like.
Let me know what you all think? Anything I need to change and what not.
I’ve got many ideas and plans for 2011, and now that I’m not cranky and depressed I’m starting to focus on those.
I can’t tell you about all the plans, simply because there are some meanie heads (yes, that was being polite when I really want to call those people (and I’m using a plural to be polite) a certain 4 letter “C” word that I never never never use and generally want to punch a person in the face when they use it. But these “people” deserve the label.) will attempt to steal the ideas.
But yes, I’ve got very big plans for this year. And I’m not talking about the move or supposed wedding!
In regards to the wedding and move, I’m not making any plans. To make plans would be to tempt fate once again.
It’s been a tense couple of days between me and My Guy. Moving brings out the worst in people, finding suitable housing always makes me cranky. I hate searching for places. The UK also makes it very difficult for apartment searches. They don’t believe in renting over there, the mind set is “to own”. Well, that is all fine and dandy if you are one who not just wants to own, but can own. So you are lucky if you get a crappy image of the outside of the building when it comes to rental properties. Oh, and that is the only image. No floor plan, no measurements. Nothing. Just a crappy outside image.
So it gets frustrating. And My Guy is wonderful, but the worst when it comes to searching for housing. He’s picky to say the least.
As I was typing this up though, I checked my email and found that a deposit has been put down on a place.
My Guy sent me the link yesterday, with photos from his viewing. And after the big upset that had happened over the last “promising place”, I was certainly nervous opening the email. (The argument had not been pretty.) I will say I let out the breath I had been holding. There was light.
One of my big things was fear of living in a dark cramped little closet. I get depressed. I suffer a bit from Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D). Also moving to a new country, with weird customs, and no friends close by… All while not being able to work for the first 6 months… in my mind is a recipe for severe depression.
This little place has light. It has a galley style kitchen (only it doesn’t go through to anything other a Juliet Balcony).
It has a black stovetop which is good if I ever dye. Woodgrain countertops, and though the sink is smaller than I’d like (and only a 1 basin sink) I’ll manage somehow.
The bathroom is downstairs, with a window. Which makes me happy so that I can get the steam out and not have a mildew covered bathroom.
The bedroom is upstairs. That is the only problem that I really see (other than just general size of the little place.. but can’t do much about that on our budget right now). I can just see me with my bad knees having to go pee at 2am and going down those stairs. Oh well, if there is a problem, it might mean I finally get the second knee surgery I need lol.
It’s over a shop, which is weird to me. I’ve never lived over a shop. I might go mad during those first 6 months. Or it means I’ll spend my days at the pub next door, with my laptop working on the novel. The pub is literally down the stairs next door. It’s called The Seven Red Roses. I rather like that name for what will be “my local”. The post office is also literally right next door. As well as a Curves (which I’ve never gone to curves, but if it’s the closest gym, I might give it a go). There is also a pilates studio, that has the machines. I might give that a go, I know I can’t just do the floor routine for pilates, not with my back the way it is, and I haven’t had the chance to try the pilates machines.
I still do not know if I will be allowed to run my business during the first 6 months of living in the UK. I understand the reason for the “not allowed to work”, as they don’t want people just marrying for the Green Card. Wait, to they call it a Green Card in the UK? You know what I mean though. I think there should be an exception for owning your own business though. *shrugs* we’ll find out, and if I’m not allowed to run the business, I won’t. (Hear that government people? I won’t work during those 6 months. If I dye, it’ll be for my own personal use, and that is all.)
I started a diet at the end of last year. And since the 2nd of January, I have lost 14.4lbs. To put it in British terms, I have lost just over a “stone“.
I don’t know if it’s simply because of the diet, or if it’s just the universe telling me something I should be doing with my life (beyond dyeing yarn)… but I have been dreaming and fantasizing about owning a bakery for the past few weeks now.
Colorado has far too strict laws in regards to food sales, so sadly all my plotting and planning will have to wait till after I move to the UK. I have someone researching the laws in the UK, but I believe they are slightly more relaxed.
But just because I cannot sell my wares right now (once my diet is over of course, I’m not going to tempt myself like that) doesn’t mean I can’t bake them and perfect them. I’ve already got a menu of items to perfect. I can also test an idea I have in regards to keeping things fresh and shipping them, not just across the country but across the pond.
This little baking dream I’ve been having has actually done a wonderful thing. My big brother Merlin and I have reconnected over it. Baking and cooking was a very magical thing in our house growing up. All of us kids did it, and we enjoyed doing it. Whether it was grilling a piece of fish on a tiny grill hanging off the back of the boat, or if it was a Chocolate cake with Peppermint Frosting (pink even!) for a sleepover. We are a family of foodies.
In my comments about this dream on Facebook, he encouraged me. Since I haven’t actually seen Merlin since… Wow, I want to say 10 years ago now… this is a big deal to me that we’ve reconnected. I didn’t get to see him at the engagement party, that he and his now fiancée flew out for. (They got engaged the night before the engagement party, but didn’t tell anyone until afterwards because they didn’t want to take away from my “thunder” well, considering I wasn’t even at the engagement party, I would have been pleased as punch for them to announce it then as then it would have been a REAL engagement party. lol)
Stories I am working on this year:
Aether Horizons
Nope, haven’t dropped this one. Still working on it. While I was in England I did a little artwork to get myself inspired.
That is an idea for Vesper Ravenwood. I enjoyed playing with it.
And here is a logo for the HMAES Valerian, the ship that takes them oh so far amongst the clouds.
Then there of course is still the Unnamed Blitz Novella. I don’t think it’ll get a name till it’s done, and I cannot finish it till I get into England and can take a walk or two. I am not giving this one up at all, because I really like it.
Mind you, the image for the Blitz Novella isn’t pretty. It was thrown together without the aid of photoshop. Someday I’ll clean it up when I have photoshop again (meaning after the move as the main computer of the house has it)
And then of course there is the new little short story project that I am working on. I announced it in the last blog.
Can’t really give you the title at this time, but you’ll know it has to do with the mysterious person named “Bliss Leigh Happy”. I cannot wait till this one is ready for public consumption. It shall be quite fun!
I’ve been working my ass off the past couple of days dyeing yarn. I’m exhausted. Today I’m going to edit some photos and put listings up in the shop, and I might do a bit more dyeing, but I’m certainly not going to do as much as I did the other day.
The Sherlock Holmes Yarn Club has been a hit! People are expressing that they enjoy the yarns and the swag they’ve received, which makes me quite happy. I was nervous about my yarn babies going off into the world.
Books I’m currently reading:
Tekwar by William Shatner (haven’t actually touched this one in a while)
Two for the Dough by Janet Evonovich
and I just got from the library (haven’t opened them up yet but I will later today):
Death Masks by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #5)
The Cereal Murders by Diane Mott Davidson (#2)
I guess I’m done yammering. I should go make some lunch and then get to work on what I was going to work on.
Bugs and Hisses everyone.
High Flying Burlesque
Okay in truth it was Low flying Burlesque, but High flying sounds better and doesn’t confuse people as much.
Yesterday I drove up to Boulder to have some trap time with Frequent Flyers, much to the annoyance of Saki as she was not allowed to go with me, and this was the first day that I’ve had to actually leave her for more than an hour or two since everyone else left for England.
Doesn’t she look absolutely disgruntled? No, this image isn’t from yesterday. It’s just one I had on my phone, and I love how disgruntled she looks.
Yup, still gotta say it… I miss Boulder.
I arrived quite early (you never really know if it’s going to take an hour, or if it’s going to take 2 hours). So what did I do? I found the studio (the last time I was there, they were at a different location), then I headed down the street to McGuckins Hardware. Oh how I missed that place. I know, it’s just a hardware store… But truth is, it’s more than one. And everyone is so nice, and they have the most cool random stuff.
I then went next door to Sunflower Market and picked up a few things for dinner. I had left the house at 4, so since it was now close to 6, I figured I should eat. (Why didn’t I eat before I left the house? Well who eats at 4??? Oh.. that’s right.. I used to when I was a slave to the tech desks. I’ve moved on. Now sometimes I don’t eat dinner till 8pm)
I picked up some bread like object, a little Jarlsberg cheese, and a tomato. (Oh, and some two bite brownies just because I wanted them.)
Few bites of each I then headed over to the studio.
There were only a few of us in the class, other than Darla I was the only non Aerial person there. (I consider myself non aerial for this since it’s been so many years since I got on a bar that I was fresh meat again)
I immediately gouged my finger on the edge of one of my nails. Apparently when I broke my nails earlier in the day I apparently didn’t file down one corner enough. Lovely.
I’ve also realized that oh my god I haven’t worked out in nearly a month. And though weight lifting 60lbs might be good for a girl who hasn’t worked out for a while… lifting myself up is a lot harder. My god it’s been years since I had to do that. And yes, my upper body strength sucks. Due to how my body frame is, most of my awkward weight is up top. Yup, I’m top heavy. Most of my strength though is in my legs, which doesn’t help all horribly much when you are lifting yourself up.
I must say, I felt awesome hanging upside down. Just hanging for about a minute, my spine immediately decompressed and I was feeling good.
This led to problems later though. When I felt things release in my spine, it must have shifted or tweaked one or two of the nerve clusters. Because about 20 minutes later I got immediately nauseous. (So that puts it at about 45 minutes into the class) I mustered on for a little while, but realized I wasn’t going to be able to get on the trap again without risking blowing chunks.
It had nothing to do with spinning, or being upside down. It just was the nerve cluster situation. This wasn’t the first time this has happened, so I know it wasn’t me not being able to handle being upside down etc.
So for the rest of the class I did the routine just on the floor (which was fine since there were 6 of us, and only 4 traps).
Part of me is disappointed that I couldn’t continue, but that’s alright. I know my limits, and I also know that I’m absolutely broken. I’ve been broken for years.
Everyone was very friendly, and the instructor whose name I cannot remember was awesome. I do remember that her burlesque name is Midnight Martini. She was quite fun.
I know what muscles I need to work on so that I can get back on the trap without being unable to move the next day.
Speaking of not being able to move the next day… yup… I’m there. I can barely move my arms… seriously even typing this hurts. I can barely walk because of my right leg.
Surprisingly.. my back is fine. Yup.. the drive home was not painful. I honestly thought my back would be absolutely tweaking.. it’s not. It’s only starting to hurt now, but not because of the trap. It’s because of the normal “ugh there is no chair or couch in the house that doesn’t cause me pain”.
Here is bruise on my leg. Isn’t it sexy? I mean ohhh yeah.. sooo sexy. It’s going to be a nice mottled green color by the time I make it to the UK. Might have a little yellow in it too. Oh yeah… so sexy. The arms have small bruises as well, but I couldn’t get good photos of that.
Sorry the photos suck, it’s my cellphone camera, and well do you know how difficult it is to photograph the back of your own leg when you can barely move to begin with? To be honest I had huge difficulty putting on pants, I debated going with out the rest of the day, but to be honest.. it’s a bit cold lol. I call that there my $30 Bruise. Sure it actually cost me more than $30 because of factoring in the cost of gas up there, but that doesn’t sound as good. Do I regret it? Nope. I had lots of fun, even with not being able to participate in the second half of the workshop, and had nausea for the evening.
I need to clean the house and do the dishes.. But frankly.. it’s going to be a couple of hours before that’s happening.
And you might be asking yourself if I’m sad that Colorado Springs has no aerial studio at all? Yes. Of course. I cannot justify driving to Boulder, or Denver to do classes once a week. Oh, and that’s annoying… I lived in the Hampden and I-25 area for the bulk of my time in Colorado, not once but twice I lived in that area, and now it’s only NOW that they have an aerial studio. Damn them.
Which means as soon as I actually move to the UK, there will be a aerial studio set up in the Springs. Just you watch it.. it’ll happen.
Does this mean that someday when I buy my orchard, I’ll be converting a portion of the barn to a low trap studio? Yes… yes I will.
Does it mean that until I actually can buy the orchard, I’ll have to find a studio in England, even if it means taking a train for an hour each way once a week? Yes. (After I move to the UK, I will be striving to become less broken, and will have the ability to do so… which means I can then justify getting back on a trap)
Alright.. I think I’ve sufficiantly written about last night.
Oh, and I’ve been a good girl, even though it was nearly midnight and I couldn’t see straight, I wrote a bit on the novel.
I’ve been taking part in NaNoWriMo. Not to the degree that others are, but I’ve been using it as an excuse to get back into writing every day. So even if I only write a sentence, I’m happy.
Alright, I should really go make some toast or something for brekkie… Otherwise I’ll end up eating most of these two bite brownies.
Bugs and Hisses!
Oh.. and yeah… I dyed 30 skeins of yarn in 2.5 hours. Fear me bitchez.
Oh and one last note, I’ll be reorganizing my tag categories on here, so if you see some weird stuff going on… just ignore it.
Contest: Name that Yarn!
Alright mah wonderful little inmates. The time has come. I’m annoyed that a name hasn’t stuck with my “Unnamed Burgundy” yarn… and since I just dyed some up this afternoon for a client, I feel I need to name it. And since it’s 2:30 in the morning and I cannot sleep, and I’m feeling a bit craaaazy…. I’m poking you all.
So lets put some more motivation out there to get the creative juices flowing.
To the winner, I will offer 1 mini skein of my SW SOCK. That will be a 50 gram skein, which is 220 yards. Of any colorway of your choice. (Barring the Collaboration yarns at this time unless I get approval from my collaborator to do an off base skein)
Lets play… NAME THIS YARN!!!
Remember the themes of this asylum… madness runs rampant here, so no idea is too outlandish…1
Oh wait.. I might have just thought of a name that would fit…. Oh well, I still want to do this little contest and see what everyone else comes up with. No more kidding around, this time it’s for the money2 so lets come up with some great things.
Lets have fun with this, so tell your friends, the more the merrier, and who knows… if you bring a friend…. tell me! You just might win a little somethin’ somethin’.
This will be cross-posted on various places, so forgive me in advance for that.
Home again, home again…
This is not a post about my Florida trip.
I repeat this is not a post about my Florida trip.
I feel bad that I haven’t been posting at all, and certainly not have posted since I got home.
But I’ve been on and off sick the entire time I’ve been home for one reason or another. It’s not been fun.
Instead, I’ll use this as a time to update you on new yarns I’ve done.
This is Hatter...
Hatter has been tinkering around inside my brain since I first watched the SyFy version of Alice.
He’s so adorkable.
Here is a new pretty… I’m calling it Pretty Purples at the moment, since I don’t have a name for it.
Unnamed Pretty Purples
And here is Samhain… it was supposed to be something else originally, but that didn’t want to come out and play.. Instead Samhain came to the party.
It is a 4×4 Self Striping.
It has started what will hopefully be a full series, of the holidays. I look forward to this.
Samhain self striping
This… I won’t talk about. Not yet, as it deserves it’s own post. But this is how I spent a day… or half a day… alright just a morning.
How I spent a day when I should have been relaxing.
There… has this been enough of an update for ya’all?
I promise I’ll get to the Florida recap one soon.
Grab a Freshie.
I promise I do have a kick ass post to post about the Hockey game.
I swear.
Really. You believe me right?
Well… this is not that post.
This post… I am debuting a new yarn.
Josef Kostan from Moonlight.
One of the Snarkiest Vampires on the small screen for a good long while.
You know.. Vampire Solidarity and all that.. Rah Rah Rah!
So grab a freshie, or a non fat soy vegan blood if that’s what you prefer and enjoy.
This, to my knowledge is the final Moonlight colorway I’ll be doing. I don’t know, we’ll see if I get inspired for another one the next time I watch the dvds.
Now its time to go make dinner and then have another Pumpkin Pillow cause those are just damn nummy.
Name that Yarn!
The first of my Alice themed yarns is making it’s debut, but it’s nameless!
There were supposed to be two yarns making it’s debut from this series, but the yarn was having none of that and decided to be something entirely different. I’ll post that one up soon.
This yarn though is an embodiment of the burlesque dancers at the Happy Hearts casino, dancing to keep the Oysters happy.
Here it is… I give you the nameless yarn.
Entertaing the Oysters ?
Dancing for the Oysters ?
Happy Hearts Casino ?
(sorry for all the updates, I was having issues with the poll)
As Frankie Said…
I did it my way.
Today was not a good day for the most part. Kept waking up in the middle of the night because my lower back locked up thanks to the joys of having a uterus. So I had weird dreams and thus was cranky in the morning.
I couldn’t even form coherent thoughts until well into the mid part of the day.
I have half a wedding dress.
It started so simply. I needed to go to the post office to mail out a yarn order (woot). While at the post office, I realized I didn’t have my wallet. I prayed that it was simply in my jacket at home, and not some where in the street between Whole Foods and home for the last 24 hours.
Then I needed to go to the library. So, Mother of Mine tagged along as she had a package to send as well.
As we were leaving the library (and me still not coherent yet), Mother of Mine says we are going to go to Mill Outlet. We were going to buy the fabric for my wedding dress as they were having their 45th anniversary sale.
40% off one item, or one cut piece of fabric up to 3 yards. And 5% off the entire order.
Sadly, I needed 6 yards, but for some reason I still got 20% off the other 3 yards of fabric, and then even still got the extra 5% off of that.
We paid 176$ for the fabric, when normally it would be 250$
Last week I bought the under fabric for the dress, and spent…. I wanna say around 45$. So, just over 220$ spent for my wedding dress.
This doesn’t bother me, as yes… I’m sure I could go to one of those 99$ sales…But…
Would I find anything that fit? No.
Would I find anything that looked good? No.
Would I find anything that I could actually wear for more than just my wedding? No.
Would I actually end up paying 99$ No.
I’m not built like most girls. I have very broad shoulders. I also do have an Hourglass figure (though, thats been slightly hidden over the years thanks to working in call centers… it’s still there though.. still an hourglass) So if a dress has any kind of fit in the top, it won’t fit my shoulders, and if it fits my shoulders, it’s generally to big in the waist, or my hips etc etc.
This is why I am having a dress made for me. (Notice I didn’t say “making my own dress”, I’m being honest here.)
I will not look like a giant meringue, I will not look like a bell (and that is not to be confused with “belle”).
I know what shapes work with my body.
I know what length and flow works.
This dress will look good. I hope.
Found my wallet. Had it with us the entire time in the car. Must have fallen out after Whole Foods yesterday. Crisis averted once again.
After that, I was finally awake enough to do what I didn’t do yesterday.
Make homemade ranch dressing.
Which… is mighty tasty if I do say so myself. I didn’t have all the herbs I wanted, so I improvised. It’s not bad. Mine is not your classic Ranch, simply because of the herb change up. But it’s good. Next time, I’ll make sure I have the correct herbs that I want. I’ll keep experimenting till I get it just how I want it.
I used the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for it. You can find it here.
I also made The Best Lasagna … Ever.
Which is also one of PW’s. Here.
Of course this is me… I change things around.
I was short 1 cup of cottage cheese, but I do not feel that took away from the yummy factor.
I used 1 pound 95% lean ground beef and half a pound ground buffalo instead of hot breakfast sausage. What can I say… I’m not fond of spicy hot sausage.
I used the fresh parsley instead of dried, as I conveniently had a bunch of it left over from the ranch dressing.
I also added another layer into the mix.
Artichoke and spinach. Oh yes, I went there. I went there and damn it was good. Wanna know something else? 2 cans. Yes, you heard me. 2 cans of artichoke hearts. Damn I’m good. Damn it was good. You know you love it. Succumb to the the power of the artichoke heart.
Fast forward ohh… about an hour now, and I have a full belly.
The only thing I think I would change would be to reduce the salt. But thats just my own choice, I don’t tend to use much salt in my cooking, and Mother of Mine can’t do the salt. As I was holding measuring the salt out the second time, I actually debated reducing it. But no… I decided to go with Ree on this one this time… that way I would know my own opinion for next time. I think I would reduce it by half through out the entire recipe (if you read the recipe, you’ll see what I mean).
I don’t think that I had a full pound of mozzarella cheese. They were out of the shredded packs at WF, and so I just grabbed a brick and the nice cheese man who had gone to look for the shredded packs, sliced it for me. I think it was closer to just over half a pound of cheese. I did not find the recipe lacking for this fact.
I did not use any tomato paste. Didn’t need it either. Take that lasagna, I made you how I wanted.
For the amount of food this lasagna made… I’d say it was well worth the effort.
The knitting is going well. I’m up to row 61, so I’m very close to where I had to stop on the previous attempt. The cables are going the correct ways, and the only thing that I’m not happy about, will tighten up when I wet block it later. Woot! Only 56 rows to go till I put the body down and start making the sleeves.
The writing is also going well. I’m about to change up my routine so that I get myself to do more writing each day. I’ll tell you about it when I get it to actually work. Might not happen this week though because of the exhaustion factor.
I am debating making some pernicious s’mores for dessert. We’ll see if I’m up to it or not.
Happy Nutella Day!
I didn’t blog yesterday. Sorry.
To sum yesterday up:
Woke up, felt better.
Had to drive Mum to Denver. We discussed the wedding on the drive up. Worked out some ideas for things on it. Even remembered to write those idea down. Look at us go.
She made me go to the Sew Expo. We ran into Katte, it was fun running into her. The expo it’s self was… Interesting. I wouldn’t say great, but I did learn something new and it did inspire me for something that I’ll most likely never finish. Also learned another technique, though truthfully I learned it from Katte and not the demonstrator, but ironically both things that I learned were from the same booth. There was a strong Pacific Northewst feel to a lot of the quilts and fiber creations. I really liked it. Was almost tempted to buy a pattern or two, and there was some neat northwest fishies that caught my eye. Other than that, not much happening.
Dropped Mum in Lakewood at her friend Shelia’s house. (Which meant I didn’t have to drive all the way up to Broomfield)
Drove home, happened to have my Zen with me in the car, which was nice. Though when I turned it on I realize my battery was almost dead. Oh no! Shockingly my music lasted the entire car ride home. Yeah, I forgot how good it felt to scream sing Jem, Amanda Palmer, and Doctor Who songs.
And yes, those three work together at least at first. Jem has a few songs that always make me giggle when I imagine it being sung from the Companion’s perspective. The first song on Who Killed Amanda Palmer is Astronaut, which is very appropriate. And then of course the Doctor Who songs just rocketh.
I was feeling just fine, so I decided to have some dinner and the last of my homemade strawberry Ice Cream as I had been craving it. Ooooh Boy that was a mistake. But I won’t go into details on that one.
Today I didn’t get to go to the gym, as I was still quite ill this morning. Bummer, I was not happy about that… It’s weird that I’m actually enjoying going to the gym.
I’ve pretty much been hold up on the couch being much more miserable than I normally am, I did have my book next to me, and my current novel that I’m working on, but I haven’t cracked either of those open yet. Instead I ended up fixing issues with my Zen library. (There were some albums that were showing up as Unknown instead of their actual name) Also transfered some music that I had been meaning to put on there. Now that I’ve got my new headphones (which rock) I need the tunes so I can rock out at the gym properly.
Today is World Nutella Day. I wish I was feeling better, and I also wish I had some Nutella in the house. For a good blog about Nutella, go over here to Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be feeling better and I’ll be able to do some dyeing.
Tonight, it’ll be yarn untangling and seeing if I’m happy with the finished product of that yarn. If I’m happy with it, it’ll get shipped off to England. If I’m not happy with it, I’ll be reattempting it tomorrow.
I guess that’s all I’ve got to say for now. Of to eat some custard and watch Dark Knight.
Thursday already?!
Today started with me not wanting to get out of bed.
Slept in for nearly an hour even. Well, I did kick my ass at the gym yesterday.
20 minutes on the sit down bike.
2 minutes on the elliptical machine.
45 minute Aqua class.
5 minutes (??) on the rowing machine.
I will admit I enjoyed the rowing machine, but I am not entirely sure if I was doing it correctly. I’ll find out soon enough. If I was, I’ll keep doing it.
So all in all, it was quite a busy day at the gym and I was quite sore but sore in the good way. This meant for really not wanting to get out of bed this morning.
But out of bed I did get. Dressed and off to Einsteins did we go. Thanks to facebook, Mother of Mine and I had free shmears.
After that, the grocery store and then the library.. (Which I still managed to forget to pick up a movie… oh well, it’s not like I won’t be there soon enough)
I finished a Super Sekret Projekt today. Nope, still can’t talk about it yet. Not till I block it, photograph it, and stick it in the mail to the person it needs to go to.
I also decided that even with it being snowy and cold, I was going to take photos of my new yarn.
Unfortunately my photographer snobbish side was only happy with how one of the yarns photographed. (I’m having such problems with purples and blues right now! New camera please?!)
Now, for some time now… well.. pretty much since I started yarn dyeing people have been asking me if I were going to dye some Harry Potter yarns.
Harry Potter yarns have been done… often. So my response has always been “If I am inspired.” As I really didn’t want to do what everyone else has done.
So when I do Harry Potter yarns, it is probably not going to be the “main trio” or the very obvious ones.
Bellatrix was a request. That request was not “I want a yarn inspired by Bellatrix” no… it was “I want yarn dyed in these colors so I can finally do my Bellatrix socks”. It just turned out that the color I did reminded me of Bellatrix from Harry Potter.
There is still another Bellatrix to be shown as when I imagined her, there was just a bit more to her than what had been requested. (Her photo shall come soon)
But today I shall speak of Felix.
Felix Felicis.
Liquid Luck for those in the know.
Now, for weeks now I’ve been imagining a hat made out of yarn like this. Specifically the Snapdragon tam by Ysolda Teague.
I really do not wear yellow. Yellow is pretty much one of my least favorite colors. But I just cannot imagine the Snapdragon in any other color at the moment. Most likely I would make the hat, and then give it to someone who would actually wear the color.
As I finished the Super Sekret Projekt, I need to get back to my Doomsday Cardi… This will require me quite literally getting my mind back in the project, it shall take much concentration on my part till I get back in the rhythm. But I get to transfer it on to my new Zephyr Needles from Knitpicks. We’ll see how they go.
Finished reading “M is for Magic” by Neil Gaiman last night. It is a collection of short stories and they were quite good. One of them in particular had me bawling like a baby as it was about the cats that have decided to call his house home, and I happened to start reading it the day that he blogged about putting one of his cats (Zoe the blind attic cat) to sleep. This is the 3rd cat he has lost in the last year. Zoe was the youngest at 14. Hermione and Pod were about 18 if my memory serves. So reading a short story involving his cats just quite literally had me bawling all over again. (This past week it had been posts about Zoe leading up to her final day.)
Tonight I start reading Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs.
On the writing front, I have had a wonderfully productive week thanks to my friend Hatter. It started with a text message at 11pm at night. He is one of the few friends that I can text that late and not worry about waking up. I sent him a text of “Need your help. Need a idea for a ____ from South America.”
I was shocked when I didn’t get a text back from him immediately.
Next day at about 11pm again I get a phone call from him going “Holy crap you texted. I’m sorry.. My phone sucks and didn’t tell me… here’s my thoughts on what you need.”
So thankfully, my fear about him not texting back immediately was simply a mechanical failure on his phones part. Phew.
For the next hour we chit chat back and forth bouncing ideas. He is a writer, but he is also someone who I can trust to bounce ideas off of. He also understands Steampunk like some of my other idea people don’t. -He is also someone who I don’t mind squeeing like a fan girl with about certain things… Like Anthony Stewart Head singing… Vampires… bloody scalpels etc… Sigh. I’m gonna miss My Hatter.
Anyway, the hour long convo he and I have totally gives me a direction to go in, something I had been lacking. Don’t get me wrong, I had the basics started, but I was hesitant. Now my direction is clear. (Well, at least this section) It allowed me to finish that chapter and start the next. Which, when it’s the first chapter of the book (or chapter equivalent), it is quite important to feel good about finishing that chapter and moving on to the next. If you are wishy washy about it, then it’s going to haunt you the rest of the book. My characters are making their personalities and presence known, and the world which I am creating is becoming much more apparent to me.
And on that note, I leave you for the night. Tomorrow is the gym once more, then apparently a busy weekend after that. The snow is still going on, and I have a feeling that tomorrow morning shall be a “oooh it’s warm in bed, I don’t wanna get up and go out!”
Oh.. last note… according to the scale at the gym on Wednesday… I lost 1/2 a pound from last week. Which doesn’t necessarily mean a thing since I was on my period last week. I guess we’ll see next week.
Snowball fight on Hoth
This made my geek happy. Carrie actually looks happy. Before whatever issues in her life were to happen, she had fun in the snow while filming a small scifi movie.
Today, Saturday… I have not moved much.
Yesterday’s day at the gym kicked my arse.
The trainer was not the same one we had on Wednesday, and she was that classic trainer.
Small, Energetic, Loud, Perky, 80% Dominatrix.
Still… it was good. Then Jes and I went out into the rest of the gym and worked out there. Which is why I cannot walk without going “owie!” today. My inner thighs are yelling at me in the most extreme. Which means on Monday.. I’m gonna do it again!
My dyeing ego is certainly feeling good right now. I debuted M is for Magic today, and I am getting great response from it. Actually, I’ve been getting great response from all three yarns I just debuted this week. This makes me happy.
As far as writing goes… I’ve got more characters starting to chatter in my head, and is giving me a better direction on where to go for this Airship novel.
The Blitz novella is still being worked on, I’m at a tough spot where I need to make that decision, and well… my muse is not helping me right now. She’s of on an airship right now if I know her. Oh well, I’ll figure it out and get it on paper.
I’ve got another batch of dyeing coming up soon. But I must go buy vinegar before I can do that.
Really I guess I’m just rambling. Happy Pie Day everyone. I’m going to go back to knitting and watching Monarch of the Glen.
M is for Magic
“M is for Magic” is a short story collection by Neil Gaiman.
During my session of dyeing, I started reading this book whilst waiting for my dye to exhaust.
I haven’t gotten very far in the book (kettle dyeing takes far less time than my usual dip method), but I did enjoy it.
I must admit that I didn’t think my first “Neil Gaiman” inspired yarn would be M is for Magic, I had assumed it would be Sandman, Coraline, Stardust, or any of the other ones I have written down. Funny how life changes plans.
So, I decided that my semi solid purple skein would be named after the book.
M is for Magic is as I said a moment ago, a semi solid purple, with a very subtle black overdye.
It was a mistake.
When I was measuring out my dyes prior to dyeing, I thought I measured out 2 cups of the Violet dye I was working with, and also 2 cups of the Sapphire Blue. (Which was used in the Midnight colorway)
Turns out I measured out 4 cups of the Violet and that was it.
Now I only realized that when I had the yarn in the pot, and I was pouring in the violet from two different bottles and wondering why it looked… well… the same!
That’s when I realized what I did.
I quickly made a decision to overdye it with black. (After all, that was the skein I was originally trying to create Midnight with. I did Midnight after for obvious reasons)
Now, I didn’t want it to look like it had been dragged through mud like some people’s rash of overdyes have been, so I made a point to do it subtly.
I like how it turned out. But then, I am slightly biased.
On the writing front, it is going quite well. Both stories are getting regular updates. (I generally work on only one a day, but there are some days where I add a little to both. It all depends on my mood.)
Midnight
This past weekend I was playing around with a new technique in dyeing. I’m trying to get my skillz up, and the only way to do that is practice, practice, practice.
3 yarns went in the dye pot. I will post a blog for each one to tell it’s story properly.
I didn’t have a name or an idea for this one when it was bare yarn.
Then, as I was mixing in the purples and blues I started thinking about Doctor Who. (yes, I am a dork… I freely acknowledge this.)
I started specifically thinking about the episode “Midnight” from season 4.
Spoilers below, if you don’t want to be spoiled skip down to the photo. After the photo I’ll make sure it’s spoiler free.
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Midnight is an uninhabited planet that the Doctor and Donna “relax” on. The sun is far too strong, so no going outdoors.
The Doctor decides he wants to see a diamond waterfall.
So he hops on the tour bus… a 4 hour trip each way. Donna decides that 4 hours each way is much too much like her school days and decides to lay by the pool soaking up the sun. (through a very thick filter mind you)
The trip is like any other bus ride, until the bus goes on a different course. The computer chose the course mind you.
Suddenly the bus is attacked. But (gasp) nothing can be out there!
A strange entity then takes over on of the passengers.
A mimic if you will.
A poem from it (and forgive me, I cannot recall the author’s name at the moment) struck me. I really love it.
“We must not look at goblin men
We must not buy their fruits
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry, thirsty roots?”
Well, I give you a new yarn. Completely kettle dyed… (as opposed to my normal dip method)
“Midnight”
The photos do not do it justice. But Mother of Mine and I are talking about building a light box. A light box will solve all my lighting problems.
I hope you enjoy the yarn. I do. I think I have plans for it. But we’ll see.
It also looks like I’m going to have a busy year here in the Asylum. I’ve got about 4 custom orders pending right now. This makes me very happy.
Crash and Eddie
A few months ago I was approached with the second custom order of my business.
I was excited. I was nervous.
Suddenly I realized I was running out of time.
This was supposed to be a Christmas pressie, and I didn’t get off my butt and in front of the dye pot until the middle of Guy’s trip out here!
The reason for this was the fact that it was a new technique. I was attempting Self Striping for the first time.
Thankfully, Amanda was really cool about everything and a pleasure to work with.
Tangled in yarn, frustrated that everything I was doing was coming down, I enlisted the assistance of Guy and we got it ready to dye. (And he got a taste of life to come! grin )
The mission?
To create a yarn based off of Crash and Eddie from Ice Age 2 (and Ice Age 3)
I think I did pretty well.
Here is what I came up with:
And this is what happens when you do self striping yarn. Yup… you get yarn draped all over the house. And woe to anyone who tries to walk through!
Kelley, the recipient of the yarn… loves it. She shall keep me updated with what she makes with it, so that I can see how it knits up.
I am excited about this.
My sincere apologies
Wow. I cannot believe it is already the 16th of January.
And wow. I cannot believe that my last blog posting was LAST year.
I haven’t forgotten you. Really, I’ve just been… busy yet not.
I finished one super sekret knit project. But I can’t talk to you about it yet.
I gave up on one project, as it was kicking my ass and I’ve sent it to it’s room. That was my Ishbel project. First Lace project. It could be that the yarn just didn’t want to be that project. We’ll see when I come back to it.
I started my Doomsday Cardigan. No photos as of yet, as I’m only like 8 rows into 117. (Link goes to Ravelry)
I am theoretically starting my first aqua aerobics at the gym on Monday. Which of course means I’ll be having a gym membership for the first time in my life.
I have been writing every day. Which is a very good thing. And I have noticed it has helped. Only one day in the last week or so did I not write much, but instead did brain storming. I do not feel guilty for this, as brainstorming is a much needed piece of the machine. Especially since I was quite unsure where the story was going.
I have to admit it is odd working on two pieces at the same time.
But, the Blitz novella is almost done! I’m in the home stretch of the 1st rough draft.
Small aside on that. Today I started reading M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman. In it is an introduction explaining things a bit. On the subject of short stories: “In the beginning they were a great way to begin to learn my craft as a writer. The hardest thing to do as a young writer is to finish something, and that was what I was learning how to do.”- Neil Gaiman.
This made me exceedingly happy to read. I often forget that the things I am going through, are things that the greats themselves have gone through.
When I had to stop writing a few months ago due to work, and I realized that I was giving up finishing the novella in time for the contest, I was quite… put out. Truth be told I was down right depressed. It had been a deadline that quite literally went wooshing past. Then the last few months, with no deadline… no work stopping me, I found excuses. “I’ve got company coming!” “It’s the holidays!” Before I knew it, it was the end of the year.
Well, the time for excuses is over. I don’t have a deadline. But I do have a commitment to writing every day. I’ve been finding myself writing more and more each day. Mind you, this is written long hand in a spiral bound at about 10:30 at night when I’m in bed.. But I’m getting more use out of the time I am writing.
(Generally I try to shut off my light by 11:30)
Last night I found myself in a very short span, writing 2 pages. This made me exceedingly happy. I could have written more, but I had reached a point that I needed to ponder on, and as it was the end of my writing time, I decided instead to call it a night.
Yes, I realize I’m rambling. Deal with it.
Today I did some dyeing.
I dyed 3 different colorways.
Nothing that I had planned, as I was simply working on technique.
I will photograph them hopefully tomorrow, and post photos.
2 of the skeins are already spoken for, but I’ll have one skein up for grabs.
I received a wonderful gift from a friend of mine in Nova Scotia. You’ve heard me speak of her before, but Crystal is just absolutely fab.
The little bag of Cheshire Cat fabric was made by Pheelya.
The shawl is “Traveling Woman” based off of the character Angela Montenegro from Bones.
The yarn is amazingly soft, and I absolutely cannot stop petting it. I love it and I want more of it.
Other than that, there is not much new. The library is doing it’s 8 books in 8 weeks program like it did last year. Not as many sponsors which is a bummer. But oh well.
My life right now gets divided up between “Write, Knit, or Read?”
I don’t know if this should worry me or not lol.
I promise photos of new yarn soon!
Edit: Details of the shawl project can now be found on Halifax Mommy’s blog: Knitted Things for Knitting Friends
Too many things to list them all- Happy Halloween
I realize it’s been a while since I last blogged. Or mayhaps it just feels that way.
Sadly I don’t have much new to report. (Well, a few things)
Just been trying to get through the days at work.
Down to 35 weeks.
I have the best friend in Canada ever. Halifax, Nova Scotia to be more exact.
Here’s the story.
I was part of a Vampire Halloween Swap.
It was supposed to be secret. Meaning, we victims didn’t know who was “spoiling” us.
Well, right off the bat the secret got spoiled by my spoiler as she messaged me to make sure I was her partner. That took out a lot of the fun on my part right away.
Then the package finally arrived.
Lets just say I was less than enthused by the contents.
The colors were not colors I would choose at all, it was yarn I stated I was allergic to… and there was not a vampire related item in sight.
She reasoned that I didn’t want to have to ship things…. *head desk* Thats fine, but she could have included something that was vampire related.
So, to be honest. I was disappointed. I was well within my right, as other people noticed how lackluster the package was.
What does this have to do with my friend in Nova Scotia?
Well, a package arrived to me from my friend Crystal that knocked my socks off. It was to make up for the lackluster package I had previously gotten.
The yarn alone had me drooling. It is Seacell and Silk. Meaning it is HEAVEN to smoosh.
Honestly, I was so blown away and touched by the kindness of the package.
Moving along, here are some things I’ve made over the past couple of weeks.
Hoot is a little hair clip designed by Ysolde Teague. Whos work I absolutely adore. Hoot knitted up in like 10 minutes, I’ve actually made 2 of them as I couldn’t find the first one.
The stitch markers were little metal bobbles I found at Michaels craft store. I loved them so much that I went back to get more so I could make myself a set. These, and Hoot were going to my Halloween Vampire Swap partner, so they are no longer in the house.
I just made some new stitch markers for the Flirt and Flounce custom order that I have.
Yesterday I made myself exceedingly proud.
I made homemade bagels from scratch. Sure, a bread machine was involved, but that was just to save my hands from all the mixing and kneading. I do after all have early arthritis (or darn near close) in my hands, so I have no qualms about using my bread machine.
I made Cinnamon Raisin bagels.
And let me tell you,
No, they were not hockey pucks like I feared.
Yes, they were absolutely delicious.
No, they weren’t beautiful store bought perfectly round bagels.
Yes, they had the perfect crust, and the perfect texture inside.
No, they weren’t a pain in the ass to make.
Yes, it was amusing twirling the dough on my fingers.
I was absolutely shocked at how easy they were to make. The actual making of them… took far less time than I imagined.
The boiling in the pot was not as scary as I imagined it to be.
The only thing I might try differently shall be to use actual bread flour instead of regular flour. But pretty much.. thats the only change I’ll do for next time.
Eventually, my goal is to also know how to make Pumpernickel, as Cinnamon Raisin and Pumpernickel are my two favorites.
Other than that, we had a very quiet Samhain/Halloween.
Mum made a pumpkin sauce with black pasta for dinner which was very good. You can read all about it over here. (Once she posts the blog that is. So if it’s not up, just be patient.)
I guess really thats all I’ve got to say right now.
I guess I’ll end it on the note that yes… I’ve had the weird realization that this time next year, I’ll be in the UK and finishing up my wedding.
OOOHh! Just remembered one thing. Had an awesome dream last night. The kind of dream where in the middle of it, I was awake enough to go “Oooh this would make a great novel”. Can’t recall it at all, I mistakenly fell into the cocky writer mentality of “Oh, it’s so vivid and I’m awake enough right now… I’ll remember it in the morning.” – Yeah. How silly was I.
I know it involved fast cars… A theme park… a roadway quite like the autobahn, a sinkhole that swallowed a pickup truck, and promptly repaved it’s self (alright, someone repaved it.. but in the time it took me to glance away) with the truck and a body inside. A dying car crash victim, a lot of questionable money, the disappearance of the car crash victim and her body, and over all the entire sense of intrigue and “who can I trust” sensations. – Mind you, none of this is in the order it happened in the dream. It also no where near covers the depth of the dream and the complexity it had. By typing all this out for several times, I’m hoping to recall other details.. But no… no such luck.
I know, I know. I should have woken up and grabbed the dust covered notebook I have on the floor. But sadly I did not.
The only good thing that this is telling me, is that possibly the creative spark inside me that I feared was being killed by work possibly isn’t fully dead. This gives me hope that next year when I can actually sit down and write, I won’t just end up staring at my keyboard in vain.
Well, thats all I’ve got for now.
Ta everyone. Have a safe and happy start to the new year if you celebrate it.
Flirt and Flounce!
I’m such a spaz.. I totally forgot to post photos of new yarnie goodness!
This shall be a quickie..
Flirt and Flounce
This is on 20 Silk, 20 Bamboo, and 60 wool
It was a custom order that I decided to cleverly name and add to one of my colorsets as it was just perfect for it.
I’m quite happy, and it’s soft..
Crazy Holidays and other randomness
First I want to say, Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends. (And of course all it’s territories)
Though I do not celebrate Thanksgiving, because in the US it’s all about Turkey… and well… I’m allergic to Turkey. I don’t do cranberry sauce, I don’t do stuffing, I don’t do gravy on my mashed potatoes. I don’t like marshmallows on my sweet potatoes (or yams). I don’t like almonds on my green beans… Yes.. I am a freak.
Oh, I’m also not a Football (US football) fan either. I don’t like to go shopping at the crack of dawn for christmas pressies… Really… I’m just not big into the T-Day.
But I’ve still got more than a month before I have to deal with the US version of it.
Moving along.
Today is Columbus day.
Which means, once again the kids in NY are not at school. Which means I am once again having to make up time throughout next week. I’ll actually be working on Saturday to make up for the pay.
Well, this weekend we got a new couch. Spent 45$ on it.. and so far, my ass does not fall asleep. My body is objecting to the new positions, but thats alright.
We are also in the process of rearranging the house completely.
The stuff currently in the dining room area is going upstairs to the loft area (which was a bitch to clear enough space for)
The stuff currently in the living room (meaning our Dining room table) was moved to the dining room. (What a concept)
Still not done yet of course. But we are getting there.
Unfortunately in the aftermath, I broke one of the Harmony size 4 needles that currently are holding my Legal Assassin socks. Luckily, we had a random size 4 around the house, not to mention 2 other sets floating around as well. So we actually have “matched” sets. Which is all good.
I have discovered that shopping on any holiday.. even if it’s not a normally celebrated holiday in this state… is never a good idea.
People are freaking crazy. Seriously crazy.
Never again. I don’t care if it’s National Smile Day… I’m staying home.
Which thinking on that.. means I’ll never leave my house as there is a holiday for every day. Shoot. There goes that idea.
Oh.. I totally forgot.
I dyed this weekend.
New colorway called “Flirt and Flounce”.
No pictures as of yet as it is still drying and well.. we had an Ice Storm down here in Colorado Springs so it’s cold and there is moisture in the air.
The colorway was for a custom order, which is why it got bumped up before continuing with either the Repo series, or the Moonlight series.
I guess that’s all I’ve got for now. Gotta go make dinner. Tomorrow is going to come very early. Sigh.
Bugs and Hisses peeps!
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Yes, I realize I’ve used that title before, but not on this blog. (I am forgetting most of my Myspace years, so if ya don’t like the title repeat, just get over it.)
Disclaimer- No, do not take the title to mean that I’ve quit my job. I have not.
Speaking of work… this week was… slightly on the hellish side.
Monday was calm and easy and as it was a DOE holiday, but not a VOLT Holiday, I worked it. (not willing to take a non paid day off if I can avoid it)
Unlike my days on Postal… I don’t get yelled at if we watch something on Youtube. (My gawd Martin the jackass used to have a hissy fit about any flash or streaming material.)
So, I spent the day watching Doctor Who season 4. Only got two episodes because I could not get a good link for Episode 3, so I spent the other time surfing. Calls were moderate and not too annoyance filled.
Monday night on the other hand, I was sick as a dog. Either I ate something that did not agree with me, or I caught whatever was floating around. (Lots of people have been elsicko at work, and it is less easy to avoid dealing with people and human contact on the new desk.)
Finally around 2 am I am no longer getting up every 20 minutes to do things that you really do not want to read about, nor do I wish to type. (I’ll type it for a novel, but my blog… nah)
But, that means I’ve gotten no sleep. There is no way I could go into work like that. If I didn’t just start getting sick again (while at work of all places… ugh) I’d end up snapping due to lack of sleep.
So, I spent Tuesday curled up in my chair (no longer the couch, though I wish the couch was downstairs again so I could have been stretched out on it), watching Season 1 of Angel and me reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Speaking of Good Omens. I highly enjoyed it. Can’t tell who wrote which parts, mostly because I’ve never read any Pratchett novels yet.
I rather liked Crowley and his Angel counter part who’s name is escaping me.
And there were a few other characters I rather enjoyed.
There was one character that annoyed me for the most part… But it wasn’t his fault, he was just written that way. His name also escapes me. But he was the one in charge of the Witchfinders. He was an idiot, he bugged me.
Wednesday I was back at work, Thursday too… oh, and today… what a concept.
None of the days were fun. Not at all.
Oh, and somewhere in those days I finished reading Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs.
Highly enjoyed this one. All the uncanny coincidences were missing from this one. There was really only 1 coincidence, but it worked and didn’t actually feel forced. There was actually reason behind it, and plot was setup in the third book.
The plot of this one was focused around an Airplane crash, and everything that goes into dealing with the aftermath, then a horrible twist added in. Once again I did not see the “Whodunit” until it was actually revealed.
It’s honestly that aspect which made me forgive all the “uncanny coincidences” from the first 3 books. Kathy keeps me guessing right till the end. Generally when I watch a movie or read a book, I can figure out who the “killer” is in the first 10 minutes. Half way through at the latest. But so far, I’m along for the ride right along with Tempe. Lets hope the latter books remain that way.
Today at work, I was dealing with the official aspects of “Oh my god this place is killing me” and had a sit down with Manager R.
Convo went as such:
Me: “Doode, something’s not right with the priorities you’ve got me at. It’s killing me. We’ll have 14 avail, I’ll be on a call, as soon as I hang up the call I get another one even though we still have 14 people sitting there waiting for a call. Please tell me why.”
Him: “Thats impossible. You are set to being in the slow queue.”
Me: “Pull the data. I’m getting more calls than anyone around me.”
Him: (pulls the data) “WOW. You weren’t kidding.”
We pull up the individual data, he’s right though. I’m in the “slow” queue.
We’ve got 3 queues.
My highest priority is in the Outlook queue.
My middle priority is the Primary queue (which is also known as “every thing”).
My lowest priority is the password reset queue.
Password resets and Primary gets the most amount of calls per day.
But, I am so kick ass at my job, that I end up taking on 3 times more calls than everyone else because I’m just so quick.
My stats from yesterday.
48 calls.
6 minute average on those calls.
ACW (After call Work) – less than 30 seconds
Yup, I had the highest amount of calls for the entire DESK. Not just my team, but the entire desk.
Lowest call time average as well.
And rocking ACW. (They want you to keep it under a minute)
Manager R was quite in shock about my stats. He was impressed.
In his words “your cooking.”
In my words “but I’m also burning…out.”
He is now aware of just what I’m dealing with. He knows I can’t purposefully slow down my work, and this is killing me.
And if I need to take a break, I can tell my team lead that Manager R needs to see me, go into a special aux code. Walk over and tell him I need a break and just take a few minutes for myself.
He knows I will use it sparingly, and only if I’m about to go postal on someone. He knows I am trying to avoid loosing my temper, and to keep my attitude “cheery”.
So at least he knows now what is going on. And he says he’s going to bring it up in the next meeting and push to get me on the equivalent of Backlogs.
And once again, I have proven to myself that as long as I don’t snap and tell some principle to shove it where the sun don’t shine, I’m not going to get let go any time soon. This should be comforting. Why is it not?
Today I stop at Sunflower Market on the way home. So brain dead I pick a few things up, but nothing that actually will constitute a meal for the evening.
I am craving Sushi.
The sushi at Sunflower doesn’t look that appealing.
Head home with my few wares.
Talk to Mother of Mine about sushi for dinner. Can’t really afford it, but Sushi is comfort food for me, and generally saves the world from mass destruction at by the will of me.
We decide to go to a place we’ve never tried before. It was near the fabric store mother of mine needed to go to.
It is not one we shall ever go to again.
How hard is this?
Cucumber roll (which is really what i was craving)
Tuna roll
Salmon Skin hand roll
2 pieces of Mackerel
2 pieces of Salmon
Simple right?
They were out of Mackerel.
The were out of Salmon skin.
So we replaced the Salmon skin hand roll, simply for salmon
We replaced the Mackerel with shrimp
We also decided we wanted some little Roe (the name I’m forgetting right now)
Here is what we got.
No cucumber roll
2 rolls that we honestly couldn’t tell if it was tuna or salmon.
2 pieces of Shrimp
2 pieces of very salty salmon
2 pieces of little Roe
1 very salty and weird salmon handroll. (we had been expecting our salmon roll to just be a regular salmon roll instead of a hand roll.. cause that was just… weird. Should have gone with tuna instead.)
The miso soup was luke warm… like everywhere.
The edamame was amazing. Honestly the best I’ve ever had.
The price was…. well shockingly less than I was expecting.
But the old adage is true… You get what you pay for.
Oh, and there was lots and lots of waiting.
We have crossed the place off from our lists of sushi places around town.
I can’t even recall the name of it right now. It is on the corner of Austin Bluffs and Academy on the East side, north of the intersection. (In the same place with the Underwater Connection)
The last time I blogged about Sushi saving the world from destruction, I was living in Denver. Still working at Transfirst. That place was good.
I have started reading Digital Fortress, which I’ve already seen the formula. Honestly, Dan Brown has 1 formula, and so far it only generally works for his character of Robert Langdon. Mother of Mine and I discussed that while at dinner, it’s because Robert Langdon is a character we can like.
Personally, he’s a character that I’ve always looked at as what I like in the male species if I could find one. – What can I say, I’ve academia in my blood. Though my specific generation of the family tree has been unable to attend the ivy covered walls, “Professor” was always on the list of acceptable professions of my non existent future husband. The one caveat being of course that I don’t care how sweet the little coeds are, there is no way in hell that he’d get away with any dalliance. Which I’m going to stop that paragraph right there, because my views are quite different than any of the normal views when it comes to that discussion.
I digress, Robert Langdon is a character I like. So I look forward to reading the next book. Won’t buy it. Nope I’d rather Diana Gabaldon get higher on the list than him. But Katte already has the book, has finished the book, and it will most likely be coming home with Mother of Mine at the end of this weekend, which it will take her 2 nights at most to read it, then she’ll pass it to me.
Where was I?
Oh yes, Digital Fortress. I’m reading it. Most likely won’t like it, as I can already see flaws in the actual guts of the theory. (which is sad, since I’m no where near proficient in mathematics to ever actually work with crpyto at all. Even though it fascinates me, and always has. But if I can already see the flaws, that is sayin’ something.)
The plans for the weekend as of right now: start organizing the house to be able to clean the carpets.
Possibly dye yarn. My dyes arrived today. I’ve got yarn.
Last night I was once again inspired to dye some Avalanche inspired socks.
I think I have decided that my sports team yarns shall be self striping. We’ll see how it goes.
The reason for the Avalanche inspiration, was because the 1st game of the season was last night, and I caught the first 5 minutes.
It was also the Farewell tribute to Joe Sakic, who retired. *sniff sniff*
By the way, the Avs won against the San Jose Sharks. It’s cute because one of my Ravelry friends is a huge Sharks fan. She’s the one who actually reminded me that the game was last night.
I hadn’t planned on catching the game at all, because I never actually do. I generally miss it for various reasons. But I finished watching a recording of Cyrano De Bergerac with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner (and Eric Sarandon..) whom all were fabulous. But I just happened to flip channels right and landed on the hockey channel. (No I don’t actually have the hockey channel, but last night was hockey night so whatever sports channel I was on was hockey-centric. Saw the last few minutes of the Toronto game before the start of the Avs game. I will admit it revved my inner hockey gal for the season.)
Last night while watching Cyrano, I got a bunch knitted on my Legal Assassin sock. I’m happy with it so far. Don’t think it needs any tweaking at all. So we’ll see what people think of the finished product.
Wow. Look at all this rambling. Didn’tcha miss me?
I won’t say I’m “back” yet. But it looks like I’m starting to get there.
Just gotta survive October at this point.
Alright, I’m done. The tummy is not happy with all the lack luster sushi (prolly all the salt from the salmon.. seriously… I’ve never had salmon that salty and there was a lot of salmon)
Oh one last thing. Absolutely adorable. It got cold enough last night that Pan was huddled against me right from the start, and almost even crawled under the covers at one point. It would have been even more adorable if he hadn’t been waking me up for the petting that was him nearly crawling under the covers.
Thats it. I’m done.
Night folks.
Being Human, Repo the Gentic Yarn, and many other things
So my previous post was a little well… for lack of a better word… emo.
But hey, I’m a writer… it tends to be what we do at times.
After writing my blog, I went and scrubbed 2/3rds of my bathroom. This makes me happy.
I had a dust bunny, that honestly I thought he was the Prince of the Dust Bunnies, and was going to start plotting war against me.
For those who don’t know, this wood burning is from Catharsis Comic, which for the most part is on permanent hiatus, but it is still fun to go back and read through.
I kid you not about the dust bunnies in my bathroom. Colorado Springs is a dust bowl, and to be honest the dust drives me absolutely bonkers. By tomorrow my counter will once again have a coating of dust on it, but at the very least it will be a while before the grandeur of the Dust Bunny Prince decides to show his bunny self again.
So, I’ve been catching up on a lot of telly… but I’m not going to go into most of the things, cause I can’t remember most of them right now. This proves once again I need to take the time to blog more often to do my reviews.
But here is one that I am sooo ready to pimp out cause it’s like AWESOME.
Once again, a BBC production.
Being Human.
Blogger hides most of my photos no matter what I do to it in the upload, so to see Annie the Ghost, just click on the image and it will get larger. I’m annoyed at blogger for this. -.-
A Ghost, a Vampire and a Werewolf trying to live a “normal” life in Bristol.
What can I say, other than Freaking Awesome. The writing was witty, and refreshing, and well… human!
There were nice twists at appropriate places, and the episode 5 and 6 (meaning, second to last and last) had me literally going “Ohmigawd!” and squeeing and being quite creeped out at times.
I like their take on the Vampires, which it is amusing as it mimics a few of the “rules” my own vampires in “A Hard Day’s Bite” had. Ranging from sunlight to religion and the symbols of power. I liked it!
I’m never fond of the “Wolfman” style of werewolves, but I think that they pulled it off very well.
The Ghost, also had some great rules.
Mostly I liked how the stories intertwined, flowed and how you actually connected with each character. I actually cared about the characters which recently I haven’t been doing so much in regards to telly.
Oh, and it was great seeing in the first 2 episodes not 1, but 3 Doctor Who people.
Annie, played by Lenora Crichlow was in Season 3 of Doctor Who in “Gridlock”
George, played by Russell Tovey was in Season 4 Christmas Special: Voyage of the Damned (and actually it looks like he’ll be reprising his role of Midshipman Alonso Frame for at least 2 more episodes of Who, so.. WOOT!)
A character who’s name I cannot recall, was played by the actor who played Shakespeare in season 3 episode “Shakespeare Code”
I very much am looking forward to Series 2 of Being Human, I hope that it lasts for a good long while as it is a very good show. If you haven’t gone out and seen it yet.. Go do it now!
I’m actually getting inspired for some colorways from this show.
Sigh, I wish I had time and money enough to dye up all the yarn I want to dye right now!
Speaking of yarn…
I am currently knitting up a pair of socks called “Legal Assassin” which is a pattern completely designed by me! Don’t have photos at the moment since I’m still in the “working out the kinks” phase.
This sock pattern is to match the yarn “Nathan Wallace / Repo Man”
I’m quite proud of this yarn, it was my first time working with wool.
And it will be for sale. I’ve got only 1 skein left for sale at this time.
Which reminds me, I’ve been officially made into a Yarnie on Ravelry. Woot. I’m official.
What am I currently reading?
Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs
I can already say that I’m going to be pretty opinionated when I finish this book. Not necessarily about the story, but more about the over all books in general. I will be spoiling a bit for those who have not read, so when I do post that post.. don’t read if you don’t want a bit of a spoiler. Don’t worry, I’ll give warning.
I guess I’m done yammering for now.
Massive Update!
Alright. I’m a bad blogger right now. You all knew I’d be busy, and I have been. I’ve also been brain dead. I’ve been meaning to blog.. really I have. Something will happen, and I’ll think “I should blog this” or “I really need to update them…” but then I find myself in bed not having done it.
So quick sum up of my life right now.
Went to Highland’s Ranch Highland Games Festival.
It was fun. Clan Blair (thats us) was the uhh… whats the word I’m looking for.. Honored Clan. Yeah that works. Basically it means we got to walk at the front of the parade. Not that I walked. I don’t do parades anymore.
I got to see Scott, a fellow clan member. It was good to see him. As soon as he heard I’m moving to England his eyes got all big and you could see the wheels turning then the “Hmmm there are things I shall have to have you send me.”
I have been hearing that statement a lot recently.
I did not get to see My EMT. Yes, I said MY EMT. Whose name is escaping me right now. Short story is that he is one of my Festival Buddies. Meaning when you’ve done so many of these over the years you tend to see the same people, and develop friendships with them. You never see them any other time of the year, and everything is nice.
Apparently he was there on Sunday when I was there on Saturday. He asked after me.
It was the Clan’s Annual General Meeting (AGM for short) which meant members of the clan from all over the country came to attend.
I will admit, I preferred it when it was just Scott, his father and his brother, my mother and myself. Much more relaxed. Quiet, and just.. much nicer.
There is a running joke that every year at Highlands, I end up asleep under one of the tables. This year it did not happen. But hot damn you can sure bet I was exhausted enough that I looked longingly at the nice soft grass under one of the long tables and wished to be laying there. But Scott would never let me live it down. Not that I let him live down the Yellow boxers with Blue Seahorses. (Long story… but basically… he has finally learned how to sit in a kilt after all these years)
I only went the one day and didn’t stay till close. It was worth it though, as I obtained my final Fidget.
What is a Fidget you might ask?
Well, it’s a stone.
And as Curtis will call it “damn stones I keep finding everywhere.”
The story of the Fidgets goes back many years, to when I was still in Highschool. Katte Beth taught me to drive as we were driving up to the Mabon Music Festival (The Ren scots were there doing the event)
There are many stories from that weekend, including Katte Beth’s 4 year old daughter scrambling my eggs. (If I cannot have children in the future it will entirely be Jenny’s fault. She knows this. We laugh about it.)
But here is the best photo I can find right now of what a Fidget is:
The ones we have are colored glass from a glass maker.
But, Katte Beth and I in our Witchy ways got our stones and blessed them at Mabon.
The first one we obtained is a Celtic Knot Heart. (which, you cannot get the same hearts we had, as the individual who made them has changed the design)
That, is to bring love into your life.
The second fidget is that of a Claddagh.
That, is to bring marriage into your life.
The third and final stone is the Family Tree (tree of life) (it used to be a celtic 4 knot, but you cannot get them anymore)
That, is the Family stone. To bring a safe and secure family.
These stones you are to sleep with. Only one at a time.
I had the first 2 stones, but I did not have the 3rd (hey, when I bought my stones I was 16 and not even thinking about marriage! okay I might have been 17?)
As I am leaving the country we needed to get me my last stone before I left.
Luckily, our stone guy was there! Huzzah!
I have my full set. I am happy.
Moving forward
Last weekend,
Mother of Mine was out of town and I was attempting to write. I couldn’t get a thing written on Saturday and was feeling quite like the failure.
So I decided to do something productive.
I did some dyeing.
I am SO glad I did. As it is absolutely gorgeous. I will post photos soon.
Work:
Work has been… interesting. Good days and bad days. I’m still in training but I’m taking calls on my own, and slowly not having to ask for help on every call. See… I can learn things. We are already starting to see my fellow class members dropping in number. 2 quit this week. Once School starts, there shall be more.
As long as I can get through September, I’ll be fine. Thats all I’m really going to say on that right now.
Misc:
Most of my spare time has been spent working on various Asylum things. Just doing things behind the scenes to drum up more business. I also reopened a group on Ravelry for my yarns, and so far.. no stalkers. This is good.
I have a custom order which will be fun and exciting, and I’ll be working on a new Base, which is already drumming up interest. This makes me happy.
Writing:
I feel like a fail there. Work has been zapping my brain power, and when I do get some time to write, I generally can’t. I don’t think I’m going to make the deadline. But that doesn’t mean I’ll give up on the novella.
Who knows, mayhaps one of these weekends I’ll get a burst of inspiration and finish it. I’m only… half way there?
So.. interesting little happenings today…. This is how my day started:
I was downstairs in my kitchen (which has line of sight to my front windows) and I heard a bang, and then I saw a flash of light.
My first thought was “hmmm car backfire.” my second thought was “I didn’t see a car.” my third thought was “not walking outside right now.nope.” I heard sirens, but they sounded really far off, and isn’t that uncommon a thing for me to hear. (I live tucked behind a very busy main road, so I can sometimes hear sirens and such when they are flying down Academy)
So I continue about my morning routine and 10 or 15 minutes later I’m walking out the door. The entire time though I was thinking how odd it would be if I had to leave a message at work saying “yeah I’m gonna be late, one of my neighbors was shot.”
What can I say, I have odd thought processes.
Then I back out of my parking spot, and immediately see a cop car, and a cop talking to one of my neighbors. Now, this was down and to the left of my house, but incidentally coming from the direction I thought I saw the flash come from.
When I get to the T intersection of where the cop car is, I see two other cop cars. I inch past them as it was a tight squeeze and I leave the neighborhood. So, after about 20 seconds thought, I turn around. There was no way I was going to be able to chill at work without knowing what had happened.
I talk to a nice female officer and she informed me that one of the neighbors reported that someone was banging on their door. They were searching the neighborhood, but found nothing, and the flash I saw was most likely them. (Hmmm didn’t hear the sirens until after the flash… so that doesn’t seem right.)
Well… I am half way done with my work day. I’ve got to decide on the dyes I want to order next, and all in all… just survive.
Later peeps!
All’s Quiet on the Western front…
Alright, so my beloved readers, you may (or may not) have noticed it’s been a little quiet over here in my little journal of impossible things.
Well, there is a reason for it. A reason I went into vague detail about in a blog I have not posted. I do not know if I will post the blog or not.
Lets just say, it involved drama. Not just roll your eyes type drama, but the Erin coming home from work in complete tears drama, including a massive dose of cyberstalking just because some people thought it was amusing.
My profile from Ravelry has not yet been deleted, but it will be shortly. (oy, i’ve got over 700 items in my queue, so I don’t want to loose all that, and transferring them over to the new profile takes time.)
I’ve pretty much been hiding on the down low for the last week because I was sick of the stalking.
I may or may not have to change the name of my shop. (there was slander against me and my shop)
For now I am leaving it as it is. I did have make arrangements to have my group on ravelry shut down, because that’s where the bulk of the stalking occurred. I do not yet know how it has affected my etsy store (thank goodness you can’t leave comments on someones shop unless you’ve purchased something, and for the record, all my product is Excellent, and I do not cut corners on anything. The materials I use for my yarns are tried and tested materials and the company I buy my dyes from has been in business doing what they are doing for over 100 years.)
I will have my shop minion open a new Group for me on ravelry when I feel it is safe to do so.
All in all, the whole situation has sucked.
But it did show me just how many friends I do actually have.
Okay, thats all I’m gonna say about that for the moment.
Moving along,
Knitting: I’ve been bad on the Fangtasm sock. I haven’t been working on it. Mostly because I have been working on creating original patterns.
I have the start of the pattern down for a certain Repo Man sock.
I have 1.5 parts of a pattern for Blind Mag down. She’s complicated, and is requiring to basically defy laws of nature here. So she’s going to take a while, but I’m getting closer with each try. Once I get this one little part down, then I’ve just got 1 more element to figure out, and then it’s just writing up the pattern to work with the over all construction of the project. (The over all shape is gonna be easy, but it’s just the pattern elements in the design that are taking a while.)
Writing:
Well, due to all the emotional crap going on, I was slacking when it came to writing.
But this weekend, I did manage to get nearly 2000 words done. Not the full goal, but nearly.
I’ve also done the math. If I actually do 1000 words a “day” (which is not impossible for me), it will take me 11 days to complete the minimum required word count. So I really do need to make this next week count. I will have the house to myself for the next week (or is it 2 weeks? I can’t recall exactly when Mother of Mine comes home) I doubt I’ll be able to get 1000 words every night with how exhausted from work I generally am, but I quite possibly can get a couple of hundred. If I can get 500 done on a work night, then I’ll be getting really close. I’m also going to see if in the slow times at work, if I can get even a sentence or two added.
I’m at quite the juicy part if I do say so myself. My minion Jo is enjoying what I’ve got written, and once I get it all done I’m going to put a call out for readers/editors.
Work: Right now is being odd. We are getting more inbound phone calls then we have been recently. But we are no longer getting Backlog tickets (my job), basically we get a handful a day, and I pretty much twiddle my thumbs to be able to work them. (Most of them are in Hawaii so I can’t call until a certain amount of my day has passed)
I am taking advantage of this down time for me, as well… for the last year (and yes, I say year because it was a year ago that the desk started downsizing and our volume started dropping off) I have been the busiest person here. I have always had something to do, and generally a minimum of 4 times as much work as everyone else. The only exception to that was my work minion Pat who did the same amount of work as me. (Though, but for one month, I always beat him out in the amount of tickets I did, and really the month he beat me out was my “Hmm the desk is going away, I don’t care anymore” month. He beat me by 5 tickets lol.)
So since the next 48 weeks are gonna be hell once this one ends, I’m taking advantage of the quiet now.
Oh, in other news:
The whole drama that happened… was so bad that Mother of Mine and Hunny of Mine had to divulge a BIG secret just to cheer me up.
Guy is coming out to visit in December. I cannot even express how happy this makes me.
They were going to surprise me, but unfortunately thanks to the major unpleasantness that occurred, they decided to tell me to cheer me up.
Dyeing:
Is going well. Well,I mean for the fact that I haven’t dyed in a while. Squibstitcher from Fresh from the Cauldron (whos yarn I love) gave me a few secrets, which was really awesome of her.
I am going to venture into wool dyeing, as 1) I have beautiful handspun that needs to be dyed, and 2)people still prefer wool. Personally, I think they are crazy, but thats just me. I have very good reasons for not liking to knit in wool. And I am very annoyed that I can’t get the same weights of yarn in the non wool stuff.
But just because I don’t like to knit in wool, doesn’t mean I won’t dye it. I only started with the non wool stuff because I happened to have it. And with the way I plan on running my shop, I strive to make sure I can recreate any colorway I make on both wool and and non wool. So people get a choice.
I am actually going to participate on a swap on Ravelry, which I’m hoping works out. Basically, it’s for new “yarnies” (people like me who dye yarn), we will get paired with a Knitter (or Crocheter), and we will trade 1 skein of dyed yarn for a skein of Undyed yarn. So we won’t be out anything other than our time/the cost of dye/the cost of shipping, but in return we will get the publicity of our yarns being out there and used in a project.
Random note #2:
Finally got to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
I must admit I highly enjoyed it. I enjoyed it much more than the last 3 films.
Yes, they changed things.
Yes, they left things out.
But in the end, everything they changed made it work without feeling forced. At no point did I sit there feeling disgusted at how they had changed the over all story. (*cough* POA *cough*)
There was really only 1 scene that they left something out of it that I was annoyed about.
Yes, there were other scenes they omitted that will make the next 2 films a bit harder to make work. (Okay, gonna spoil here. There was no Bill and Fluer. So, if there is no Bill and Fluer in this one, the whole “wedding” from the 7th story is going to feel completely out of left field. Which, I know the wedding is going to be in the movie. Oh well, I’m sure they will make it work somehow.)
I think that the kids they got to play Tom Riddle were absolutely BRILLIANT. Little Hero is actually Ralph Fiennes nephew, and then the older one… just… perfect. Seriously.
I’m gonna stop talking about HP because I really don’t want to spoil it for those who have not yet seen it.
Alright, I guess I’ve killed enough time. Time to do a little work.
bugs and hisses.
