the one where I talk about nothing.

Not too much going on here that's newsworthy.  Same old same old. :)

I finished a baby quilt for a friend of mine, and I have yet to mail it. I need to take some photos then send it off.  I also whipped together a quilt top that I'm planning on donating to J's school fundraiser in April.  I just have to pick a backing fabric and then I can quilt it up.  I did a plus quilt design. So easy and yet so cute. I did use almost all scrap fabric on that top. I just had to buy 1/3 of a yard of KONA Olive cotton to finish it. Which really isn't so bad. I've also picked up a few bits and pieces off the sale table at work. But, I have a whole baby quilt out! So I think I'm still even-ish.

As far as yarn goes, I had a couple of older yarn destashs pop up, so that's 10 skeins out! (2 destashes, 5 each) I haven't bought yarn, or finished anything since my last post.

Old Yarn Total  -24
Destash - 10
New Total -34

I decided instead of holding onto the money, which is too easily spent in my paypal account, I'd send it off to a credit card bill this month. yea! Now I'm making that total shrink too.

I'm also working on shrinking my waistline.  To be completely honest, I've put on some weight this past year, and it's making me unhappy.  I found out after a trip to the doctor that I weight the same now as when I was 9 months pregnant with my son. So not cool.  A friend told me about the app My Fitness Pal, and I'm going to track what I eat and when I exercise.  It's helped with yarn, why not my weight?  I think just knowing the amount of calories I'm ingesting will help me think about things a little more.  Like this morning, they were giving away donuts at J's school. I grabbed one, and took a bite.  Well, it was a  plain, dry, cake donut. Not yummy at all. In the past I would have just eaten it. But today I thought, "It's not worth the calories". And tossed it aside. I'm counting it as a win! Ive also tried to cut down on my Mt dew intake.  I had one yesterday, and one today. The only reason I've had one today is the headache! ugh!  But I waited until after lunch to have one, so that's rather good for me.

Yea. I got a whole lot of nothing exciting. Sorry guys. :) I work tonight, so I best go and get ready.

Busy Saturday

J had his first preschool birthday party today. It went rather well! You'd think he's be passed out, but he's sitting next to me just talking and talking and talking about how I make him pick up his toys and he doesn't like that.

Kids. They're weird man.

I almost fell off the yarn wagon this week.  Verdant Gryphon had an update that included the colorway Osiris, and well, I had to have it.  And I bought some naked bugga for a project I'm collecting. I did have $$ in paypal from destash so I wasn't feeling too badly, but when I logged into Ravelry after buying the yarn, there was someone wanting to buy a older destash of mine. So, that totally worked out.  Then I picked up some of the special edition yarn from Sharon at 3 Irish Girls, and suddenly, again, there was a request for some of my older destash yarn. I think it's a sign I was meant to buy the yarn. I'm still ahead for the yarn out/yarn in money wise. :)

And! And there's more! I finished my teal sweater I've been knitting, so that's 4 skeins of cascade out. I'm pretty sure I bought that the first summer I worked at CD, so that's over 3 years old!

 I'm hoping it'll be dry by morning, I want to wear it to work tomorrow.  I've got it under the fan, with it on high. *fingers crossed*

I'm only going to count the yarn that has been paid for as of right now.

Yarn Knitted -4
Yarn In- +4
Yarn Out  -10

 Last Total -14

New Total -24!!

Holy cow! I'm rocking the destash! 

I also cast on some new socks today. It's some 3IG. Watermelon Chiffon. Loving it so far, I hope it's not going to be too small. I cast on 60 stitches.  I think the next size up was 72 stitches, and that seems a little big. We'll see.

Snow Day!

It snowed! Finally can make snow angels.

Well, not good snow angels. The snow was pretty heavy.
But we still had fun!

Wed update

We've got the winter crud here. So not much exciting is happening. A lot of laying on the couch and staring at the TV. While the cold medicine was working yesterday I knit some. And! After 7 yrs of marriage, my husband has a PAIR of hand knit socks. Finally! :)

I knit them in Hazel Knits yarn in the Sassafras colorway. First time using this yarn, and I LOVE it! Very nice stitch definition, and super nice colors. Love. I shall be buying more. :)

 This is the best picture I have on them as of yet. It is one of me modeling them. What is super exciting is that I was able to get a size 13 pair of socks out of 1 skein of yarn! There is 16 grams of sock yarn left. whew!

So! That's a skein out!
Yarn Destash 0
Yarn Knitted 1
Yarn In 0

Total -14

I also joined a Mini skein swap.  I'm cutting up a skin of my bugga into 22 mini skeins. In return I'll get 22 different  bugga colors back.  I've never done of of these before, so I'm kind of excited to see what I get back. I'm thinking I want to make one of those cute ripple blankets, so we'll see. :) 

My husband.

He does comics.

He rocks.

And the St Cloud Times did a story on him. :)

Go HERE.

Blogging More.

Yup. I'm trying to blog more.  I get mad when my favorite bloggers don't have new posts, so I'm totally going to blog more.  Not that I really and truly believe and anyone out there is waiting for me to post more...but. Still.

Look! I made a hat.  It's a hat for a brand new baby. M's coworker and his wife expanded their family, and I love knitting tiny baby hats.So there is a new tiny baby hat. Yeah! I snapped the picture just before I stuffed it in the bag to give to them.

So, that's another skein of yarn out! :)

Yarn Destash 0
Yarn Knitted 1
Yarn bought from destash 1 (yarntin sock)

Yarn total -13

I also wanted to show off my big super spending just for me me ME! Gift to myself. :)
I did some commission work, and I counted these when I bought them in Jan. But here is my Vday Bon Bon set from Verdant Gryphon. And I am in love. :) It wasn't from budget money, and I destashed more out then in. So I can totally be guilt free about it, right? I feel like I don't deserve it. But really, what else would I have spent extra bonus money on?

Knitting, Knitting.

So last night was my first time teaching a class at work.  My BFF Rose was there to help me, and thank god for her! I has 7 students, and holy cow! It was a lot of work, but fun. I hope they all had fun too and learned! :)

Yarn Tally!

Yarn out destash - 5 skeins
Yarn out knitting - 2 skeins (really, 2.25 but I'm only going to count whole skeins)
Yarn in - 4 skeins (only a buck each at work. But still. Gotta count them all)

Total from last time -10

New Total =   -13

Not bad! Still more out then in! :)
I'm only counting the yarn as knitted out after the project is finished.  I've cast on 3 new projects this month, but finished only one. Counting when I'm done will hopefully keep me honest, and that way I don't count it as out, to end up frogging it later. :)

Fabric tally still sits at zero/zero.

And, just because I haven't shown any pictures in forever, here is my son modeling my new hat.  They yarn is a cheap-o mix from work.  A buck a skein! But it looked a little hand spun, and the colors sucked me in.

Less is More

So, this year I decided that I'm really and truly going to work on not having so much stash.  I've given myself some rules to follow, lets see how long they last. :)

First one would be "more out than in"  Which I actually did this month! Hooray!  I bought no fabric what so ever. And for yarn, I destashed 15 skeins of yarn, and bought 5.  Which brings me to the second rule, I can only buy with destash money.  Or 'free' money.  Not budget money.  Like I said, so far so good. I'm also trying to knit things up, so that counts as out as well.  So I might try and keep track at the end of each month, just to see how I'm doing. :)

Yarn  15 out   5 in   total -10
Fabric  0 out   0 in  total 0

Lets see, what else is going on...
I'm the new knitting instructor at Crafts Direct. Woo! My first class in Monday the 6th.  I'm pretty excited, and hope all goes well.   I'm also taking Wilton's Class 4 at Crafts Direct, and the first class is tonight, and I am not prepared at all.  They just got the kits in, and I haven't even looked at the sheet to see what I need. But I'm super excited to take it!  :)

Nothing  really exciting happening here I guess. Which I'll totally take, as when things get exciting, it's normally the bad exciting.

Meh.

My Cold is back.
Tiny Boy is suddenly 16 yrs old and being a little defiant.
I took some pictures of yarn and uploaded them into the stash to make me less crabby.
Now I just want to hid under a blanket and sit and knit. Too bad I didn't make it to the store today. (I was not taking crabby boy anywhere else) I have no pop or chocolate and I think that would make me feel a helluva lot better.

ugh. Okay. time to try and clean the house.

Dear 2012,

Please be kinder that 2011.  In case you forgot, here are some of the things thrown at us. So Bad. Some Good.

A new job for my Husband
A rabies scare for my son.
A lay off from that new job.
A huge storm that damaged my son's new play center, our roof and siding.
Another New Job for my Husband.
2 stays in the hospital for my son. one 4 day and the other 5 days long.
A aneurysm for my Grandmother. Resulting in hospitalization and a move to a ground floor apartment.

Ups and Downs.  We got out of this year better than some. Here's hoping 2012 treats us all a little better.

Sick sick sick

J is sick with ick.

Well, actually pneumonia. It's back. We got the all clear on Wednesday, and on Thursday he had a cough. And slept. A lot. And popped a fever. Again.  So I brought him in on Friday. Xrays, blood work and a nebulizer. And we got sent home.  A recheck Saturday Am more Xrays, blood work and a swab of the nose, and here we are, at the hospital since 10:30 am, and we're here for an overnight stay.
He's got an iv, and he's been on oxygen since we got here. It's been turned down a bit, so that's good.  His cough is still bad, and his fever was 104 at 7 pm. It totally sucks to be here, but he needs to be, I know that.

Things I've been up to.
Baking, Knitting, Sewing (no pictures) and tending a sick boy with pneumonia(also no pictures).

Modern Swap Show off.

So I've been a bad bad partner.  I haven't properly thanks my awesome sauce partner ThreadedMess for the goodies I received.

A super keen wall hanging, that is already up on my wall in my sewing room.

check the quilting on this baby!

amazing. simply amazing. :)

Then I also was given the cutest cupcake oven mitts ever. EVER!

Plus some fabric. I was super spoiled by my partner.  Thank you so much! :)

Day off!

I'm into my second day off in a row, and it's bliss.  I worked 5 in a row, which I realize is what most working adults do every week, but it just SEEMS longer when you work over the weekend. I don't know. Maybe it's just me being a whiner. :)

Monday is my birthday. Woot!  I'm trying to come up with a give away again this year, but as now, I've got nothing.
I'm also trying to come up with birthday cupcakes to make for myself, and again, I'm at a loss.  I don't know what to make!  I want something different, that I haven't done in awhile, but I've been baking so much lately, that's a challenge. Hrm... I think I'm going to make a Mimosa Cupcake. And a Chocolate Mascarpone one. Because I can and because they sound lovely. :)

Kid is napping. Dishes are done. Thinking about doing more laundry. Or going and sewing on a baby blanket for a little one who is being born today.

Hello October!

I can't believe it's October already.  The last couple months have just flown by!

Good news! My husband has accepted a job offer! In town!  Super excited. :)  It mean I get to knock back my hours a little bit so I will be around more.  I picked up a ton of hours at work when her was laid off to help out. I am super thankful I was able to do that. And now cut them back a little but, so we can juggle Johnathan, not not have to track down day care.

Today is my Grandmothers (or momma's momma's momma to Johnathan) 88th birthday. We're heading to the cities to visit.  She is in the hospital after having a aneurysm on Friday. So far things are looking up, so here's hoping. My parents should be here in about an hour, and then we're driving on down.

Here's a poorly taken photo of my newest knitting.  Bakersfield in Three Irish Girls "Smoke and Mirrors"

So. that's my 5 second update. Now to try and catch up on my blogs! :)

Decisions!

Which yarn to pick?

Busy Days

This is what has been filling my days as of late.

Chocolate Cupcakes, with vanilla butter cream frosting. 100% vegan

 My Rentia. I've started the decreases!

 Vanilla Cupcakes, with Chocolate butter cream frosting.  Again, 100% vegan.

 3 dozen cupcakes, ready to go to a birthday party.

 Budgie, in Duet Yarns Army boy, for a special little dude who has a birthday coming up.

My final cake for my cake class.

Random....

Someone got a new toy.

Capin Merica!

Here I caught him mid "MEeeeerica"

Also, look at this! A chocolate cupcake, drizzled with homemade dulce de leche!

I did share one bite with my husband.  Just one.  Oh! And look at the leftovers!  yum!

I could have eaten the whole jar myself.

Seriously.


My SIL/Brother lent me a camera.  I may never give it back. Or, just bribe them with cupcakes to let me keep it forever. :)

I love lazy days off.

When you have no plans, no time frame, and even doing 3 loads of dishes and a few more of laundry are broken up by fun things, like filling the kiddie pool with water, or making crazy cupcakes.

They are Dulce de Leche cupcakes.  Filled with homemade dulce de leche.  Yum!  The cupcake itself was a little dry, and had a feel of cornmeal.  I have no idea what was up with that.  The frosting and filling were amazing.  I may have to play with the cupcake recipe a bit to make it more moist. And less cornmeal like.

I also sewed a tiny bit, and painted my fingernails.  I'm loving today.  The only plans are to take my son to fireworks tonight.

Gloomy

It's been gloomy around here lately.  Gloomy stupid rainy weather.  Also, my husband got laid off from work last week. Gloomy gloomy gloomy.

I'm trying to counteract all the gloomy, by working on something lovely.

It's the Renita shawl, knit in Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga, in Milkweed Beetle. My camera battery was dead, so I've got a cell phone picture to show you.  It doesn't do justice to the colors. They're so rich and saturated.  At first it looks like a deep beautiful teal.  But there are shades of green and blue in there.  Plus it's so soft and squishy!  I love it.   The pattern is a fairly easy knit, I like that it's knit sideways.  Knit until half your yarn is used up, then start decreasing.  That way you use up all you yarn. Love it! :)   This is going to be for me! I have a pea coat, and need something to fill up the v-neck.   I thought this would be wonderful and bright in winter.

Other than that, not much happening.  I've got a couple quilts in the works, but nothing to show yet. I"m pulling together some fabric for a baby quilt, and I think I've got that together, so if the sun ever comes out, maybe there will be pictures of that for you to ogle.