In which many things are planned
Look, new yarn! This one was dyed for some friends, as part of their baby blanket. I’m quite excited about this one as it is so subtle and beautiful and just glows.
It is part of my Neil Gaiman “Death and Dreams” series, and it is called Stardust.
I haven’t written anything on the novels in weeks.
I’ve been stressed, sick, and overwhelmed.
Even just last week, I started a dental emergency. Anyone who’s been a long time reader of mine knows that I’ve had problems with my teeth for years. Well, I’m finally getting things sorted out. Not in the way I want of course. This is more of an emergency situation.
Last Wednesday, I started having severe pain. Then I woke up on Thursday and my face was swollen.
I did what I could do to help the swelling go down, but on Friday it was again swollen and I had been up all night in pain. I hadn’t experienced that pain in many years, not since I had been living in Boulder and I had my wisdom teeth extracted and they hadn’t given me my syringe and I needed it.
Well, on Friday I managed to get an appointment at Peak Vista. Which I must say is an awesome place. I didn’t have an appointment, but they squeezed me in. And if I had gone to the emergency dentist I would have paid 300$. Well at Peak Vista, I paid a total of 29$, and that was including the prescription for antibiotics to get the swelling down. Yeah I had to sit around waiting a while, but that was fine. It wasn’t like I was going to be doing much that day anyway.
Due to the swelling they weren’t able to try extracting the tooth, which actually is fine. They couldn’t have given me more than just a local anesthetic shot, which from past experience… would have been bad. The last time I had a tooth extracted, a baby tooth mind you that they just used a shot.. it took 4 shots and I still felt every single tug and it hurt like a bitch.
So I’ve been referred to an oral surgeon. Which is most likely who I needed anyway since there isn’t much tooth for them to grab onto, and they have to remove the post that was left over from the root canal.
The tooth that has been giving me fits, was one that I wanted to have extracted years ago. But I was naive and I let the dentist convince me to just get a root canal done. Well, that was my mistake. I should have gone with my plan, my own gut instinct. My plan was to just get them pulled, and wear my retainers to keep my teeth from shifting, and then get implants some day. Good plan right? Well, the crown immediately broke on the tooth, and then I was generally in too much pain to wear my retainers, which means my teeth have shifted. Not much, but its noticeable to me. And means I’m most likely going to have to get braces again. I am going to start wearing my retainers again anyway, as theoretically the pain I was having that prevented me from wearing them will be gone. Now it’ll just be a matter of seeing if my teeth that have shifted slightly, will shift back in to place. (I’d be happy with that)
The hubs2be knows what plan we need to have for my teeth, and that I would rather have my teeth fixed than a sparkly necklace.
My cheek as of today is back to normal. Yay.
Now back to writing.
Yesterday I wrote over 2300 words. I am quite excited about this since I hadn’t written in weeks. Unfortunately it was all on The Q2-Files, and not Aether Horizons like it should have been, but you write when inspiration hits.
I’ve also figured out a lot of the direction that I want to take the Q2-Files in. So that makes me happy as well. My first set of readers who have gotten the few measly pages, love it. Which makes me believe I have a real hit on my hands.
Oh, and the Minion and I are planning great things for Baking After Midnight; there will be a contest soon. We are just working out the details right now. OMG, the month is almost over. We really need to get cracking on getting those details sorted so that ya’all know about it.
Alright, I guess that’s all for now. Cheers!
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.
Help out a fellow writer.
Hello world. No, I am not dead. I just have been slightly dead. I know I should have been posting about my trip to England, which I will do… eventually. I was sick while I was in England, and then I got sick once I got home. So I have now been sick going on a month. Not fun.
I’ve also had lots of dyeing to do. I’m gearing up for my big Sherlock Holmes Yarn Club, which starts this January. And when I say starts this January, I mean for the clients. For me.. it started back in September. I’ve been buying yarn and swag, and designing things, and knitting etc. I’ve spent the last 2 days dyeing up over 30 skeins of yarn which is only HALF the first month’s shipment.
I’ve got more to dye today once I finish this blog. I tell ya, once I’m done with this club, and the Big Ass Order that I’ve got at the same time… I might have to take a break lol. No, I won’t. But I am working on some Super Sekret Projeckts (yes, technical spelling there).
But today I’m going to talk to you about a friend and her book. I am honestly proud of her because she is finally publishing her book. She is going the self publish route, and she has personally given me lots and lots to chew over. She shares her experiences in the back end of the business, to which I find invaluable.
If you are ever interested in her tips, you can read them at her blog here: To Publish or Not To.
Because she has chosen to go the Self Publishing route, a route that I my self might be headed in… that falls to us to help her out.
I’m going to steal her own words now, as it’ll give you a tiny idea of her writing style.
“But word of mouth is powerful, and it’s a good book. If you like darkly comic fantasy with lots of sex, complex characters and moral situations, and multi-layered world building, this one is for you. If you read 100 pages of Twilight and decided the characters were just too damn painful to deal with, if you loved Harry Potter until JKR went off the rails in Deathly Hallows, if you really, really loved some of the fantastic adult oriented fan fiction that Harry Potter inspired, if you wanted to shoot Lev Grossman in the head for inflicting The Magicians on us because nothing happens in the book and the main character is a whiny twit, give Sylvianna a read. I wrote Sylvianna with those things in mind, creating a book for people who love fantasy and want an intelligent, grown-up version to sink into.”
She is offering her book for free. Yes, for FREE.
Simply go to this link: Sylvianna by Keryl Raist on Smashwords and use this code: EN72N
That code is good until January 21st 2011. (whoa, almost wrote 2010… can we tell I’m not ready for it to be the end of the year yet?)
Even if you have NO intention of reading the book, please please download it anyway.
The more downloads a book gets, the higher in ranking it goes. Then the more people who see it, the more likely it is to sell. Feel free to pass the code around and give it to anyone you want. She is looking for as many downloads and reads as possible right now.
If you want a physical copy of the book, there is a little widget on the side of my blog. Now if you click through that link, I get a bit of money. And since I’m a not quite, but almost starving artist(writer) trying to finish my own novel… CLICK IT!
Alright, it’s time for me to do the dishes, then get back to dyeing… I’ve got a lot to do in not a lot of time and I still hate being sick.
I will try to get back to a more regularly scheduled blogging. I am also attempting to actually finish my novel and the Super Sekret Projeckt. Those are my goals for 2011.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and for those celebrating today a Wonderful Boxing Day.
I myself did not really celebrate, the presents are still under the tree. We are waiting on Mum coming home from dog sitting before we open anything.
I did however, make pumpkin bread for our brekkie, tuna steaks with spinach and sweet potatoes for our dinner, and we had a Japanese chicken noodle soup as well.
Oh, and there was no snow. How about that… not a white Christmas. It kind of amused me.
Frak the Ash Cloud
I’ve been such a bad blogger. Please forgive me my peeps.
Believe me… I’ve been wracked with guilt at my lack of updating.
I’ve been busy with my little Asylum. Yuppers… things are starting to happen. This is exciting.
I also booked a flight to Florida. Whoa… Really? Florida? WTF??
That’s right. In just over a week and a half, I am getting a plane, which thankfully is not being affected by the Volcano Gods… nor the Ash Cloud of Doom.
As you all may have heard me gush about previously, I am a fan of Fresh from the Cauldron yarns.
Well, Squib who runs FftC is needing some assistance. All of her normal (as I call them) minions have upped and moved. One of them even moved to Colorado.
I looked at this as an opportunity. She needs help, I have been wanting a One on One dyeing lesson from her (basically been wanting that since I first started talking with her). Realized I had the money… (well, not really… but I can justify it for my business.)
So, this is a good thing. Sure I’ll be doing most of her grunt work, but I’ll also get to sit at the feet of my Mister Miyagi and watch / help her work. This is worth it’s weight in gold peeps. Really it is.
Today I spent the morning sitting in a cafe (okay.. it was Panera) writing on Aether Horizons. Didn’t get as much written as I would have liked because it became too noisy for me to really concentrate.
I also gave a little girl a purple flower. Alright… it was a sketch of some flowers on a purple sticky note. But she loved it. And her mom loved it. It was my way of saying “I totally know that you know I can hear your convo and I’m sorry to hear about your problems with your military husband that you are discussing with your priest/whatever he is and also about your childhood issues with your father’s affair while you were growing up in Germany but lets pretend that I cannot hear you at all. Oh, and I’m totally stealing the line your husband said to you that you love telling because it’s the most romantic thing in the world. Kthnxsbye!”
After that, I picked up Mother of Mine and her friend “Dances with Pitbulls” and we went downtown for lunch. We did sushi.
I tried something that I had never seen before.
Sweet Pumpkin Roll.
It was good… It was mellow… It was interesting. I say interesting because I think the texture is why I think it was interesting.
After that I walked down to Poor Richard’s book store while Mother of Mine and friend went to the College and took photos at the statues.
I bought books. Bad me! 5 books to be specific! BAD ME!!!
3 of them though are books I NEEDED.
2 of them were books I wanted just for pleasure.
Considering one of the books has already helped me feel better about my writing and I think will be of good use to me in the future… that makes me very happy about buying it.
One of the other books… well if I decide to fully write in the mystery genre it will be invaluable right alongside my “Practical Homicide Investigation”.
And the 3rd useful book I bought was a Knitting Book. Specifically an Interweave Press “lace and eyelets” which I decided I had to get because it had at least one stitch in it that I can use for the scarf I have been designing. This will solve a problem I was having.
The 2 books I bought for pleasure were both by Kim Harrison.
Book number 1 “Dead Witch Walking” in paperback. It was a practically brand new copy and I’ve been itching to reread the series.
The other one was “The Outlaw Demon Wails” in hardback. I know, I shouldn’t be buying hardbacks, but there is a reason I got it. In the UK, they do not call it “The Outlaw Demon Wails” they call it “Where Demons Dare” which is silly. It ruins the flow of the Clint Eastwood Western Titles.
Not to mention, I just really like the US covers better than the UK covers, and I do plan on owning all the books in Hardback (since they are re-releasing the first books in the spiffy hardback version, which is nice since they never got into hardback in the first place.)
So since I still don’t have Hockey blog ready to go.. here is a new yarn for you all to drool over.
I give you Jamie Fraser, shown here on Superwash Sock. Straight here from the wonderful pages of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series for those who aren’t in the know.
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.
“Here we come on the run, coal fires burning”
“Here we come ,on the run, our coal fires burning.
Here we come, fife and drum, under the radar we crept on!”
I spent the morning rocking out to Abney Park. I finally got the chance to listen to their new album Aether Shanties. Which, totally rocks. It was a funny picture today of me in my kitchen, making custard dancing and grooving. Even more funny if someone had seen me, as I was listening on my mp3 player and thus I was the only one who could hear it.
What can I say… when I hear good music, I get the urge to move to it. Especially if I’m slaving over the stove for at 15 minutes of nothing but continuous stirring. (Yes, I rock out while dyeing as well)
Once the dyeing was done, I realized it was quite chilly in the house. I opened the front door and when “holy crap… it’s snowing.” I had no idea that snow was even in the forecast. But it’s my own fault. When I switched over from Firefox to Chrome, I lost my little toolbar that told me the weather, and I haven’t had a “real” television channel on in 3 days.
And on that note… Superbowl day? Really?
Who knew. No… really I did know… I’ve just chosen to ignore it. But I couldn’t for the life of me tell you who was playing etc. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Sometimes it leaves you cold and wondering how many inches we are gonna get.
Today has been a Stargate Atlantis marathon and dyeing.
Yesterday I did the bulk of the dyeing. Today was tweaking and fixing some things. I dyed a skein of Bellatrix on silk sock, and a new one. One I have been meaning to do for over 6 months now. Coraline Duvall from Moonlight. I also dyed a skein of Romp in the Heather for a customer. I’m proud to know that I was able to recreate it.
Hopefully tomorrow they will be dry enough so that I can take photos. Also hopefully the sun will be out enough to take those photos.
My original plan for Monday was to get up super early and be at the gym at 7. Yup, not getting out of bed at 7, but be at the gym.
The snow on the car will most likely prevent this. But I’ll still drag my butt out of bed early enough to attempt it. I would really like to make up for not going to the gym on Friday. After class tomorrow shall be running errands.
The good thing about rocking out to Abney Park this morning, meant I got inspired for writing.
The bad news, is it’s not getting me inspired to finish the novella. I need to find some nice WW2 music for that. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m more than willing to give it a listen.
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
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.
Such a bad blogger…
Work has been killing me, hence the lack of updates.
So this one is gonna be quick.
I am sorry if the updates are sporadic for the next 5 weeks. I’m gonna be brain dead. This I already know.
Here is the yarn I dyed a few weekends ago…
I’m quite happy with it. I’ve already sold one skein of it, and I’ve got plans for the others. One skein I am keeping for myself. I’m actually in the process of knitting socks to go with the yarn. Yup, a pattern of my own creation. Woohoo. I unfortunately had to frog it last night, as part of it was supposed to zig zag, well.. there was zig.. but there was no zag. Back to the drawing board as it were.
Writing has been non existent right now because of work. I’m hoping that when mother of mine heads out of town this week, I’ll be awake enough to write. I think I’ve only got a few thousand words to go. Then I’ll hand it off to my editor and we’ll see if I can get a rewrite done in time for the contest. If I make it, neat. If I don’t.. I’m not going to freak.
I’ve been crazy recently, and organized an massive Pen Pal exchange. Seriously over 150 signed up for this. I wasn’t expecting that at all. But now the signups are over and all the assignments handed out. This will be fun.
Also to note, I’m finally officially a Yarnie over on Ravelry. Yup, I’ve taken the plunge. Woohoo.
Well… I guess thats all the time I have right now to write.
Ta peeps! Bugs and Hisses.
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.
Writing, Knitting and Dyeing- an update
Alright, so on top of the whole “someone trying to steal all my money” situation of 2 weeks ago. Last week my employer decided to over pay me.
Now I can hear you already saying “Woot. more money right?”
No, this is a bad thing. Why? Because the last time a company over paid me, it took over 6 weeks for them to correct the error, and Murphy is not my friend. It would not matter how long I would sit there and not spend the money, something would happen, and the day/hour/minute before the employer would get their act together and retrieve the money they over paid, something would happen ans *poof* it’d be gone from my account, thus making me extra broke and generally negative in my account.
Thankfully, I was pretty on top of the situation this time, and I notified my HR person, she sent the appropriate email, and instead of the company retrieving the funds from my account, simply took it from the next paycheck.
Sucks because this paycheck that I got today now has a whole lot less than it normally would, which of course puts me mentally into a not so happy place. Luckily, I had not had any bills clear, nor really buy anything I shouldn’t have, so the funds were still in my account, and I’ll still be golden for the week.
What does this mean? Well, once I finish paying bills for this month, I will more than likely be able to afford to buy some more yarn goodness.
I plan on finishing up my Moonlight colorways, (2 more planned for the series, Josef and Coraline) and starting on a little custom project that I have in the works. Here’s a hint… when I finish it.. it will be part of my Wicked set.. and it shall be called: “Little Ways to Flirt and Flounce”
So thats the update on the Dyeing front.
Knitting front:
I’m almost done with Sock #1 of the Fangtasm pattern (which I’ve dubbed my sock project to be “Playful Bites”)
I’ll most likely finish tonight and then cast on Sock #2. I’m terrified that they won’t match for whatever reason, which is very much making me want to start 2 at a time on the next pair I do. I didn’t do it this time because 1)I was still new to socks, 2)I had never done Magic Loop socks, 3)I had never done Toe Up.
Now that I’ve accomplished all those little things, I think I’m safe to move on to 2 at a time.
Next up: Writing.
Alright, the past two days have been a little crazy for me. But on Monday I did manage to write some. Which makes me happy. I’m hoping to spend this weekend busting out even more on the word count.
Mother of Mine is going to be out at the Elizabeth Celtic Festival (formally known as Kiowa Celtic Festival), and that means I’ll have Friday from Noon till I fall asleep, Saturday morning. Saturday Afternoon I’m going to go to the festival for my “very last time”. I’ll spend a few hours there then come home (thankfully, it’s not like I’ll be driving to Denver at all) and write till I fall asleep, and then I’ll have the bulk of Sunday till Mom comes home to write.
Hopefully I’ll be able to bust out my goal for the week and a whole bunch more past that.
Work: My backup who really was the only other person at work who
did anything broke his leg last week. I can’t recall if I wrote about this or not.
Well, Tuesday he went to see his doctor to find out if the surgery is a “go.”
And I don’t know what he did to piss off his doctor, but he is now banned from coming to work until the end of the month.
This leaves me screwed. Now, I’m the only one doing work until this desk closes. Yes, I have the other backloggers, but they do not get nearly as much accomplished as my backup.
This means I’m brain dead when I come home from work, and cannot write at all. Sigh. We’ll see how it goes.
Other news: I’m totally geeking out. I bought a new printer. It is a spiffy one, that is an all-in-one. Most importantly, it has a flatbed scanner (last year my scanner that I stole from the ex broke.). This means I can now scan all the photos from my childhood and not be without them when I make the big move. I am happy.
It’s spiffy. It’s new. It’s wireless. It will so pay for it’s self in like a month. (now I can do business stuff easier. Color printing.. woot! etc etc)
Alright, I guess that’s all I’ve got for now.
Talk to you later people.
Bugs and Hisses.
The Weekend, a recap of errors.
Alright. Please forgive the glaring mistakes in the previous post. I should know better than to post many hours after my bedtime. (And they were the mistakes that Firefox didn’t catch because they weren’t spelling.. just word and sentence mistakes)
This past weekend was.. interesting to say the least.
Friday I get off of work. I’ve got the house to myself.
I change into more hot weather friendly clothes (alright, alright. I admit it, it was my jammies).
I make myself some lunch.
I put McLeod’s Daughters in the dvd player.(love that show)
I sit down and open up my novella, every intention of working on it.
I get a phone call from Mother of Mine.
The car she was travelling in to go up to Denver decided to stop working. Joy.
I put real clothes back on.
I get in the car.
I drive 25 miles up to Monument and pick up Mother of Mine and friend plus teenager.
I drive to Denver, okay it was Littleton, but it was the far north end of littleton, which is also known as BFE and is practically driving to Denver.
I drop Mother of Mine and crew off at the festival. Say hello to a few people whom I do not honestly recall.
I get back in car.
I drive back home, sweating and dripping the entire time as it was bloody hot. And dude.. I even had the AC running.
By the time I reach Academy, the AC is off and I’m screaming along with Amanda F^cking Palmer. Yes, I got a few weird looks from the cars around me, but frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn- I had just driven over 150 miles round trip and I needed something to distract me from my screaming back.
I change back into my jammies.
I start McLeod’s Daughters back up.
I start writing.
The storm finally hits, which was nice. Nothing like a torrential downpour to make the afternoon more enjoyable.
I had homemade Lasagna for dinner.
I stay up late.
I write a lot.
I go to bed.
Saturday:
Wake up.
Putter around the kitchen doing breakfasty type stuff.
Hear a noise from my mothers bedroom.
Pause in confusion as the cat is next to me, and Mother of Mine is supposed to be still in Denver.
Walk into her room, see her home. – odd.
She’s slightly awake. I ask her why she’s home.
Apparently the individuals she had been riding with (and I rescued) was unwilling to drive her to the place she was going to spend the night, so she just came home with them.
Great. My plans now are drastically altered.
Pan, aka the Little S^ht decided to be a little bastard. I won’t go into details. But lets just say… there was a screaming Big Cat (me) and Pan was avoiding me the rest of the day.
I let Mother of Mine borrow my car so that 1)She could go back to the festival, and 2)I’d have the house to myself and could continue as originally planned. Considering my mood, that had been the best for both of us.
I get a lot of writing done.
I post stuff for sale in my shop.
I stay up late.
I write a blog that has many mistakes in it. lol
I go to bed.
I finished with over 4000 words written. And I’m to the spot where exciting things are starting to happen. (I finished with “defining the world”, now I get to play.)
I am happy with the writing thus far, and I am getting good reviews of it. (Thanks Jo!)
If I can continue with at least a minimum of 2,000 words a week, I’ll get done in 10 weeks, which is mid September. Which will then give me about a month and a half to do any editing and reworking and getting the query letter/synopsis done. Meep. Those last two items scare me. Hopefully I’ll finish with more than 2000 each week. That’d be nice. I believe Mother of Mine will be out of town again this weekend.. I do wish to go to the festival 1 day, as it will be my last chance to go.
Sunday was spent with no writing done. Mother of Mine was home, and it just doesn’t work very well. Every time I opened up my file to start working on it, something else would require my attention.
On the Needles:
Fangtasm is still my main project right now. I’m almost done with sock#1. I’m about half an inch away from doing the cuff. Woohoo. Look at me go.
On the TV:
McLeod’s Daughters season 1- mom introduced me to the show, and I’ve seen most of season 4 (due to it being on while I was at home) and so its amusing watching the earlier seasons when I know whats coming in season 4.
The International – Watched this as I was waking up on Sunday. That was a mistake. I for the life of me.. cannot tell you what happened.
Lovejoy season 1- an enjoyable show.
Monk season 1- wow. I had no idea that some of the episodes I caught on the telly randomly were from season 1.
Army Wives season 2, disc 2- badness is afoot.
Chuck season 1- Oh my gods, I absolutely fell for this show. And once again.. it’s one that’s been cancelled. Sigh. All the good ones get the axe. And I’m starting to think that poor Adam Baldwin is cursed when it comes to funny witty shows.
Burn Notice season 2, disc 2- I very much feel that Burn Notice is the new MacGyver. Yup Pass it along. It’s great. And it’s amusing, I caught part of an episode on tv the other day, and it happened to be an episode from season 2 disc 2. It amused me.
Lets see.. what else have I been watching?.. I think thats it for now.
Current Book:
Hunter’s Moon by Lori Handeland – werewolf hunter fluff. But it’s alright. I need fluff right now. I was going to reread Dead Witch Walking, but I decided that I need to focus more on my writing than using some of my precious time for reading.
Other news:
I plan on putting in an order for more yarn very shortly. Just waiting on finding out if the extra money in this weeks paycheck was a mistake or what it was…
Go buy my yarn! That means I can buy more yarn and then make lots of pretty new colors!
Beth and Mick wanna go home with you…
Oh yes… I went there.
Just a quick note to say that yes, my yarns for Beth Turner and Mick St. John are up for sale in my shop:
For reference images:
and
Beth Turner, the morning after
The wanna go home with you. They want to party. They want to be petted and loved, and they want to do wrap themselves allll over you.
How can you resist this pair? They know how to play. Watch out for Mick though, he’s a biter.
And for those who get to take these lovers home… I’m gonna be pervy here and say.. I want photos.
(Also, there will be a 10% off coupon waiting for you when a FO is completed and shown to me.)
