Bring on the snow! Or at least a temperature below 78!

Hi everyone! Welcome to another week.

Oh, and Happy September!

This is one of my favorite months of the year, because of the promise of my favorite season, Autumn!

Although one doesn't see much autumn in southern GA. Palm trees don't really change colors much.

However! Should there be an influx of cold weather, I am more than prepared:

Yes, I finished the arm warmer in the pink yarn. And I actually had enough to do the other one too! This pic shows the colors really bright - they're actually more muted like the first pic.

I changed the pattern up a bit and already emailed Berroco yarns to see if they want the pattern to this one and the blue/green/teal one from last week.

Speaking of, I got the yarn for the other arm of that project - it arrived on Saturday. Allison at Supercrafty.com is so fast with shipping! Amazing. Also? Somehow accidentally some pretty green sock yarn also ended up in my checkout cart. I just can't imagine how that could happen! What a tragedy! Heh.

On other (non-knitting) topics: Had a good weekend. Went for a long drive with Noel, saw some fun stuff which I will be posting pics of later this week. Played with the kittens, and also took them to the vet. Found out that Loki is apparently a little chub ball - we thought Poe was underweight. No, actually Loki is pulling a Garfield and is a little fat. Oops.

Also, I went for a motorcycle ride with Noel on the big white motorcycle, Bertha! I learned some things:

1. 60 mph doesn't feel fast in a car, but it really does on a bike.

2. I don't like the idea of swallowing bugs.

3. I still had to try to get my cheeks to do the whole flapping in the breeze thing, despite Point #2.

4. Cheeks, no matter how big, don't flap at 60 mph.

5. Birds fly low.

6. Motorcycles are hard for short people to mount without looking like a geriatric contortionist.

Bertha and I remain merely acquaintances. Bike riding is not my thing. I wasn't overly comfortable with feeling so open and vulnerable. Also? I was afraid my contacts might blow off of my eyeballs. Not a good feeling. Might be different if I were driving, but probably not. Noel was very gentle on the bike, going around the curves slowly so I wouldn't freak. Thanks for that! But yeah - a biker chick I am not so much. Guess I can save some cash since I don't have to buy that Harley bikini now. heh.

Also? I look like a total dork in the helmet. Sersely:

Good lord.

I am perhaps delusional.

Why delusional? Because I insist upon making stuff obviously intended for cold weather, despite the fact that currently in Savannah it's approximately 542 degrees out. And yet I persist.

Y'all may recall my obsession/love for my new socks in the previous post. I had some yarn left over, so.....



Cool, huh? I designed them myself and wrote out a pattern, so we'll see - I'd love to get a few patterns published, and this might be one of the first.

I love the little teensy thumb on it:

The only problem is, I'm running dangerously low on this yarn (which I found out is Berroco Sox, in Kingston colorway, for all those who give a crap). And I only have 1 of them finished. And I am a believer in equal warmth for all arms! So I went onto http://www.supercrafty.com/ to order some more, and as always I got a confirmation immediately that my order was in process. If you ever need yarn, sersely order from Supercrafty - excellent service and you're supporting a small business that deserves it!

But alas, that yarn is at least 1-2 days away...so! In the meantime, guess what happened?

Yup. It's another arm warmer, this time out of the leftover yarn from my pink socks. Seeing a trend here? At least I'm not making these quite as long, so there's less of a chance of running out of yarn.

Now I just need to move to Vermont so I can actually wear them.

And for those of you who are concerned about progress on Rachel's sweater, please be assured that I'm working on it as my non-traveling project. I was actually traveling with it, but it's getting to be too much to pull out of my knitting bag, so it's going to be home work from now on. Socks, arm warmers and hats make great travel projects. Sweaters? Not so much. But it is progressing nicely and I hope Rachel likes it!

I started this pink arm warmer today while waiting at the doctor's office. I had to go for a follow-up exam from my cancer scare from February, and ended up waiting for about an hour in the waiting room (not the doc's fault! - I *heart* my doc!). The PAs kept apologizing, and I tried to explain that if I have my knitting bag with me, I love to wait! They didn't believe me til I started pulling out stuff to show them. I promptly was told (upon modeling my arm warmer - I am SUCH a dork!) that I was to make pairs of them for everyone in the office for Christmas. :)

On a totally unrelated note, the scariest thing about going to the doctor? Is getting weighed. Ok, I know I've plumped up a bit since The Days Of Not Eating that occurred last fall (pre-divorce). At that point I had pretty much a flat stomach! wow. Not so much anymore. But! I still think that doctor scales are about 20 lbs heavier than normal scales. I think they do this to scare the ever living crap out of you, so you think that you REALLY need to exercise and get fit, etc. I refuse to give in to the lie, and am defiant as I eat my potato chips. :)

It's rainy here again today, and is supposed to be all week. Good staying in and snuggling and petting kittens weather. If only work wouldn't get in the way!

Busy busy busy!

Happy Monday! (As if there is such a thing, even with copious amounts of coffee). Hopefully everyone had a good and safe weekend.

Mine was busy! I got a lot done: exercising (I'm working on interval training now), submitting a dress design to Burdastyle.com, cleaning, crocheting (a lot), knitting, etc.

I finished up these socks about a week ago and have just admired and gawked at them as if they were the first socks ever made. I ADORE this yarn!


Embarrassingly enough, I actually showed the off to everyone at work. Including the lady who sells us corporate branding stuff, and an interview panel for a job promotion. Yeah, I'm kinda dorky. But! They're so pretty! I love them.

Even Loki had to be in on the exciting sock action! He's my quality tester.

"Is that a twisted stitch? I'd better sniff it to be sure."

Can you see how HUGE this little guy has gotten? He's not fat, just massive! I think he's going to be well over 14 lbs when he finishes growing. I have to take them for checkups on Sunday, so we'll find out then (if I can wrangle them into the carrier). Poe is about the same size, but just much lighter. Strange.

Oh, and in case you were wondering (and I know how riveted you all were by last week's litterbox post), the kitties are doing fine with 2 boxes (both uncovered). They actually prefer the 2nd one now, as it's more private (oh geez), so now I get to rock 2 catboxes every night. But the boys are happy and spoiled, and I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

We also watched The Craft this weekend. What a fun, guilty little pleasure that movie is. hee hee. So cheeseball.

OH! And speaking of cheeseball, there's a new Sy Fy (I hate that name change) movie coming on next week, called something like Mega Shark vs. Monster Octopus (or something equally inane) and it features....Deborah Gibson! Not Debbie - she outgrew that, and apparently the side ponytail. She's now A Serious Actress who must battle a massive shark that attacks airplanes. Sersely. I HAVE to watch this.

Territory Wars - Kitty Style!

Oh yesterday evening was fun. Oh yes. Let me set the scene:

We had just eaten dinner (one of those TGIFriday's frozen pasta dinner things - very tasty) and had some ice cream. I was working on Rachel's sweater, Noel was reading. I noticed a lot of pacing by the kitties, particularly Poe, who seemed to be engaged in running toward the litter box and then running away from it.

Let me put in here that over the weekend, we made a decision to go with one of the covered litter boxes, not because of smell issues, but because we have some Olympic-worthy litter flingers in the house. These guys can get litter EVERYWHERE and often do. So! We got a nice new litter box with a top on it, and the cats had seemed to take to it. I thought. I decided to play National Geographic and observe, because something was obviously up. Here's a sample of what was happening:

Poe goes into the box.

Loki follows him to the door of the box, and thwacks at Poe's tail with his paw.

Poe jumps out of the box and runs away.

2 minutes later, Poe reapproaches the box.

Loki, sprawling in front of said box like Mufasa, King of the Lions, glares at him.

Poe runs away.

3 minutes later, Poe gingerly approaches the box yet again.

Loki ambushes him as soon as he tries to get in the door.

Kelli swats Loki with a magazine.

Poe, thinking he's somehow in trouble (he's very skittish!), runs away.

Poe poops in the bedroom.

Because Loki won't let him in the litterbox, because apparently it's the center of the universe now and is up there with the Playboy Mansion in real estate desirability, but HELLO it's full of cat poop.

I went online for cat help forums and Noel and I discussed at length what measures could be taken to topple Loki's Reign of Litterbox Terror.

We are very scientific and intellectual and smarty-smart about this whole thing. After all, just getting these guys to use the litterbox in the first place was a major ordeal, requiring careful observation of kitten behaviors, having a controlled environment in which to make one change at a time til we figured out the issue (namely, they preferred peeing on paper and so we put mostly paper in the litterbox, slowly changing to more litter/less paper until they got used to the litter.) See? Very sciency! Very hypothesisy! Even the vet commented on it, and said we could be Cat Whisperers! (Except Poe claws my face every time I try).

Anyway. So we debated and discussed and tried to figure out what to do. We came up with a solution of sorts:

(1) Take the lid off the box, since Loki and Poe both love enclosed spaces. This will make said litterbox less attractive as a Fortress of Solitude (although we will be subjected to more litter flicking).

(2) Put out another litterbox in a different location, because Loki, as all-powerful as he seems to think he is, can't be in 2 places at once. I really wish we didn't have to resort to this, since they were just fine using the same box before. Perhaps if they don't use Box Deux I can take it away.

(3) Buy Poe a taser.

Isn't my life exciting? Don't be jealous! There's enough cat poop to go around.

Howdy and crafty photos

So much has been going on! Oh the craftiness. My fingers have been extremely busy lately working on all kinds of stuff (and I remembered to take pictures!). Will wonders never cease?

First, I did a little bit of clothes shopping. Now those of you who have known me for more than 93 seconds know that I am NOT fond of clothes shopping, because I'm....well, let's call it frugal. Because I am a seamstress, I HATE buying overpriced, poorly made clothing that doesn't fit me well. If I'm going to buy poorly made clothing that doesn't fit me well, it can AT LEAST be cheap. Let's hear it for the Goodwill!

I went there last week to buy a few pairs of jeans and whatever else I could find that was inspiring. I ended up buying 3 shirts and 2 pairs of jeans (at $2.50 each. wow.) Not bad. I'm having to do some work on one of the pairs of jeans, but they're Tommy Hilfiger, and also, did I mention they cost $2.50? Yeah.

I also picked up a cool shirt/sweater thing. It's really colorful and fun, and matches everything (nothing?) so it's very versatile. And the shape is flattering. I think I might use this shirt as a template for sweaters and other things I make for myself, to get the same fit. Here's what the fabric looks like:

Funky, no?

I've also been channeling my inner HGTV host and bought a $10 chair for my newly revamped sewing/writing desk. Here it is in its Old Floridian Beige glory:


I took off the cushion and started painting the frame a lovely teal color, because that's the way I roll.

Woo hoo! And because I refuse to let someone's retinas NOT sear while in my house, I covered the cushion in chartreuse velour. Voila:




Now one funny thing that came from overthinking (as many of my mistakes do): I was meticulous about not putting paint on the top of the seat of the chair, so that the fabric wouldn't stick and the paint potentially chip if I ever wanted to recover the cushion. I got into the corners and around all the visible areas well, leaving the beigy color showing on the top of the seat pieces (see above photo of the chair for clarification, or if you're bored enough).

So! Imagine my surprise when I put the cushion on, and realized that the seat cushion doesn't cover ALL of the wood of the seat pieces! Huh. For a second or 3, I actually thought somehow the paint had gotten wiped off of the back seat, and looked over my person to make sure I didn't have a big teal streak on my leg. Then I thought that it must have been sabotage. Perhaps gnomes, or evil fairies, or poltergeists (paintergeists?). Then I realized that no, I'm just a moron and didn't paint that spot.

But it's not noticeable! Really! See?


Yeah. Needless to say, that got fixed. The chair is now finished and has been used by everyone in the house, particularly Poe, who enjoys leaving black fur all over the green cushion.

I've been sewing a lot too lately - fixing Noel's work pants, modifying some jeans of mine, and making a fun baby hat for some friends who were moving (and are going to miss the SEC a LOT there in Nebraska). No pics of sewing...yet!

Next in our cavalcade of craftiness, we have knitting. I've been a sock knitting machine lately, and also terrible at the photo thing because I have a beautiful pair of new socks sitting in the drawer at home, unphotographed for posterity. Here's another pair that I'm almost finished with. This yarn is Berroco Sox, and was a birthday gift from my sister (she gave me a gift certificate to http://www.supercrafty.com/ - great site! Go buy some yarn! Or another gift certificate for me and I'll go buy some yarn!)

I'm almost finished with them, and then I need to get to work on holiday knitting, because as far as knitting timelines go, the holidays are virtually around the corner!

Speaking of holiday knitting, my sister's birthday was last week and I'm crocheting her a sweater. This yarn is gorgeous! It's some kind of eco yarn (I am so bad about yarn names!) and it's got a great luster to it. Rachel, I hope you like the color (it's a bit lighter than in this picture). The pattern is Aruna from Berroco.

I did my gauge swatch and was so pleasantly surprised to get the same gauge as the pattern. That never happens! So I happily started away, and got about 4 inches of the back (pictured above) done, when I held it up and thought "My sister is not ginormous, and yet this sweater is." The back piece, which was supposed to measure 24 inches, was coming out at around 30 inches. Um....that won't work. So I had to frog the whole thing and crochet the sweater that's 2 sizes smaller, to get the right measurements. OY. I don't know what voodoo happened between the gauge swatch and the actual sweater but WOW it was a doozy.

So!

It's coming along nicely now and measures exactly 24 inches. Go team!

Also? I like the wrong side of the fabric better so far. I asked Noel for his opinion, and he chose the wrong side as well. So I may just make that change in the pattern. :)

p.s. That's my ergonomic crochet hook, a christmas gift from a coworker. This thing is wonderful, and cuts down tremendously on the tendonitis, which severely interferes with my drinking and eating of homemade bread.

Good news! If any of you decide to collapse in a heap in my presence, I can help!



I'm official (again). This certification was through work, and lasts for 2 years, which is really nice. (The last time I got certified it was a yearly renewal, which is just...a lot to remember).

But please don't collapse on my behalf, just so I can have practice. Really.

We're watching out for Hurricane Bill down here, hoping he doesn't come for a visit. Will keep you posted!

Back to the birthday sweater now! Maybe there's some CSI or Poirot on....

Whew!

Can I just tell you how thrilled I am that today is my (work-wise) Friday? Wow. This has been one crazy week! Today was orientation, which is always somewhat hectic, but for some reason today was worse than normal!

Also we were handed down changes to our benefits plans at work from the Bigwigs, which includes a change in the severance pay policy from 60 days payout to 2 weeks payout (and you're expected to work those 2 weeks, so how exactly is that a severance package? You're working and getting paid. That's normalcy, people. Not a "benefit.") Anyway. Noel thinks this is the harbinger (oh, I love that word!) of more layoffs to come. Sounds feasible, probable even. We'll see.

Harbinger. HARBINGER. Sorry I just LOOOVE that word! You just don't get to use that word often enough in conversation. That or loquacious. Or verisimilitude. ooooooh.....verisimilitudinous. heh.

Anyway. Sorry to be so loquacious. HA!

I'm getting ready to take on another furniture refurbishing project, which should be simple. Damn. I just jinxed it. Anyway. Should be fun! Damn. I'll post pictures. It's a $10 goodwill chair that will be FAAABULOUS when I'm done!! DAMN.

OH! In other news, for those of you who like to cook (and those who don't really, but enjoy the benefits of cooking!). My dear sister gave me the easiest bread recipe on the PLANET. Sersely.

DELICIOUS EMBARASSINGLY EASY BREAD RECIPE:

3 cups self-rising flour
3 tbsp sugar
12 oz. beer

Mix together into a dough, put in greased loaf pan, bake about 45 min-1 hr at 350 degrees. Slice, devour.

I've used lime beer (Bud Light lime?) that leaves an interesting taste. I think so far my favorite experiment has been using Strongbow Hard Cider in it. YUM. Rachel said the main key point there is to use something effervescent/carbonated - somehow that gets the self-rising part of the self-rising flour going. I wonder how champagne would taste in it? Hmmm.....maybe for New Year's?

We've had about 4 loaves of this in the past 2 weeks. Oink. OOH! And you know what's really tasty? Mixing margarine and honey (about 50/50) to make honey butter, and eating that on fresh baked bread. OH MAN that sounds good. Might have to make another loaf tonight.

Hear that muffled screaming noise? That's the sound of the seams of my jeans, crying out in agony and terror.

Guess it's about time to head toward the house now. Pictures, coming soon to a blog near you!

Better (and worse!) living through chemistry

Sorry for the delay in blogging. I know, I know. It's been over 2 weeks! Many apologies. I do have excuses though! Let's see...

(1) Noel's kids are in town visiting, so time for blogging has been limited. (1st part true, 2nd..not really).

(2) I've been busy at work and therefore had no time for writing posts. (Ha).

(3) I've been totally uninspired. (This is true).

(4) I've been on a veritable cocktail of medications that have made me alternatively droopy, sad, angry, tired, and unconscious. (This is also true, and possibly the cause of Excuse #3).

Let's discuss chemistry for a second. Modern medicine tends to revel in medications - pills, syrups, shots, whatnot. I myself am not averse to taking pills to make myself feel better. In fact, I am known for taking Flintstone Vitamins With Iron because they seem to be the only vitamin/supplement capable of keeping my iron count at an acceptable level. Plus they taste good.

However. There comes a time when one must draw the line.

As some of you may know (here comes the TMI part) - I've been having....let's call them lady issues. Of the painful cramping/crying variety. These issues have gotten worse in the past few years, to the point where I was willing to go on medication to hopefully eradicate the root problem, which can't be confirmed without surgery (and would be treated with this same medication, so what's the point in surgery?). Anyway. My doctor put me on a daily pill for said lady issues (not getting into specifics here, but it rhymes with Baz). These pills were supposed to make me less moody.

I lost track of the number of times I cried during the month I was on these stupid pills. Sersely. I would cry at ANYTHING. Noel caught me on the computer one day looking at animal rescue shelters, fighting back tears as I read about this one Large Cat shelter who had taken in a terminally ill lion who died after a year of residing there, and how much he loved sitting under the tree, and how he at least had 1 year of his life that was full of caring and love. And I cried.

And I cried retelling this story to some coworkers a few days later.

Reminds me of a time (years ago). I was talking to my mom & sister about how depressing/morbid Disney movies can be, and they, upon not believing this hypothesis, were subjected to me telling them about how sad Dumbo is when they bring Dumbo to his mom, who's been locked away for being a mad elephant, and she puts her trunk through the window and rocks Dumbo before they take him away from her. And the tears began to flow, ladies and gents. And I even managed to have my mom and sister crying. Because we're all a bunch of animal-loving saps.

Anyway, I digress.

So! These pills = extreme moodiness and weeping at work.

I was considering going off of them, because let's face it. 5 days of severe pms is still better than 30 days of moderate pms.

Then last week happened. Last week was full of searing pain in my head. Like Lou Ferrigno was squeezing my head like some kind of exercise ball. It HURT. I took advil, I took tylenol, I took excedrin migraine. Nothing worked. By Thursday I was in such pain that I went to the urgent care center. I thought it was a sinus infection but the doc said it was a textbook migraine, and gave me 2 prescriptions, 1 for nausea and 1 for pain. I went to get the prescriptions filled, and folks, this doctor was NOT kidding around. He prescribed Hydrocodone. Which is that stuff that people get addicted to and sell behind the Wal-mart. I will not be selling mine, nor will I be developing an addiction to it, because this stuff knocks me out cold. After 3 days of it though, my migraine was rapidly waning and life began to return.

The side effect of this medicinal unconsciousness was that I didn't take the other pills. The Moody Pills. Which, as you know, must be taken every day, 24 hours apart. I missed 2 days. And realized that in those 2 days, I hadn't cried over dead lions or lost puppies or Hallmark commercials or the cat walking away from me when I wanted to pet him. Huh.

So I decided to stop taking them. I just quit. And I feel much better! Whew!

In other (differently boring) news, I've been knitting and crocheting a LOT. I've been making socks like crazy for some reason. I'm on my 4th sock in 2 weeks. Not sure what's going on there, but I have to say I like it. I'm also working on a few crochet patterns, and am already thinking of holiday gifts. Gotta get an early start!

It feels really good to just get stuff cranked out. I tend to procrastinate on projects when I want them to be perfect, and so it's hard sometimes for me to get over the fear of something not being what I imagine, and just let go. I've found it very liberating to realize that even if this sweater I'm designing isn't perfect, you know what?

I can make another sweater.

WOW. What a concept!

Ok, this has been a blog post about really nothing. Sorry to bore everyone to tears! Much is in the works behind the scenes that I hope to be able to share soon, but until then...you'll have to suffer with posts about my medical problems and yarn. Sorry.

Lions and Tapirs and Bears, Oh My!

Two weekends ago, Noel and I decided to go somewhere. Anywhere! Must get out of town! Must embrace the open road! Etc!

So we google mapped to see where was a decent destination that (1) was within easy driving distance, and (2) was a place we haven't visited yet. Jacksonville jumped out as a good choice, because we'd only passed through on the drive to Orlando in April, and didn't spend any time there.

So! We planned out a very short trip - one overnight stay, see some fun stuff, come back and pet the kittens. Well-rounded and thorough plan!

We started by going on priceline.com and finding a hotel. We found an AWESOME hotel - the Hyatt Regency Waterfront (right on the St. John's River). The staff was so friendly, and gave us a 14th floor waterfront view. Gorgeous! And it only cost $65 a night, plus incidentals. Thank you, Priceline Negotiator! (Judo chop!)

Pretty Room:

Fancy Pants Bathroom:

Lovely view of the city:

Rooftop Pool and Hot Tub: (swanky!)

Requisite Thing In Sky (a chandelier in one of the hotel's ballrooms):

There was much luggage (for an overnight stay - NOTE: Much of this was yarn):

The hotel even had a bar with cool wavy glasses, I guess so you could feel drunken vertigo before you start drinking! Saves time and money!:

We went to a really nice Irish pub called O'Brothers. Fantastic service, phenomenal food. The waitress even gave Noel a shirt for free because they had sold out of the one he wanted. They had some different ones and gave it to him! Cool.

I had one of my very favorites, Bangers and Mash. They even wrote the name of the pub in mustard. High falutin'!:

We found a dive rockabilly bar with a cheap pooltable, so we stopped for a drink there. (Noel skunked me soundly in pool that night!):

We also went to the Jacksonville Zoo while we were there. I hadn't been to this zoo, and am a professed zoo snob - I only go to ones with big enclosures and happy animals, because if I see unhappy animals I spend the next few months having Dora the Explorer animal release fantasies (except without the talking backpack). So! Anyway. We spent a nice afternoon at the Zoo, which was very nice! I really liked the way it's set up (by region), and is easily walkable (unlike the San Diego Zoo, which is so hilly in parts you feel like you need oxygen tanks and a sherpa).

I had fun taking pictures of the various wildlife we saw there.

Lions!! 3 of them, 2 females and 1 male. Lounging. In the sun. Like 2 other cats I know. Ahem.

In the Asian section (gorgeous gardens and a neat Zen bridge & pond), they had some impressive komodo dragons: (This guy was at least 6 feet long!)

Some cute little monkey whose name/species I don't remember. Let's call him Walt:

Flamingos! So happy! So fabulously pink!:

Ooohh, next up, the rare Homo Sapiens. This particular example seems to both fear and enjoy water. Note the umbrella for rain, but close proximity to the fountain...curious.

Just for you, Rachel, a tapir!:

This is one of my favorite pics from this trip. This is a Capybara, a very large rodent. This guy was about 5 feet long and came up right in front of me and posed for the camera. (singing) Faaabulous!:

OH OH! Here's another of my favorites!!! JAGUARS!!! They had an awesome exhibit that looked like a South American temple (as in, Aztec or Mayan) and a viewing window where 2 of them were napping. HOW CUTE ARE THESE GUYS!?!:

Silverback gorilla. This guy was huge. And fuzzy! But possibly mean, so I'm not going to tell him how fuzzy and pettable he looks:

They had a giraffe feeding station, and a baby giraffe that was only about 7 days old (this isn't him, he was segregated in another pen). Aren't these guys sweet?

Oooh...alligator hiding in the plants! (It isn't algae, it's a small aquatic plant according to the signs). He's in stealth mode I think:

A sleeping black bear. Isn't he almost huggable (but not quite)?:

HUGE owl that reminds me of Sam the Eagle from the Muppets:

This was some little exotic bird that....I don't know what it is, but isn't it cute too? LOVE the green head:

A bobcat!:

Ralph always hated his annual trip to the proctologist:

All in all, a wonderful trip and a great 1.5 day getaway!

It's Official.

I am divorced. It was finalized today.

Just so you know....

Goin' thru the Big D and don't mean Dallas...

It's been over a week since I posted, and honestly I had no idea time was passing so fast! For shame.

Life here has been a bit stressful and emotional lately. I'm going through the Big D and have my divorce final court date thing on Monday morning. This has been very difficult, dealing with the emotions and hurt and tears that come from separating. It's not fun. But it is something that I'll get through, I am already stronger because of it, and life goes on. And really, that's all I have control over - my own emotions and reactions, and that's where I have to start.

I'm also having a hard time controlling my emotions lately because of a new medicine my doctor has put me on for various...lady issues, let's call them. Which means the level of hormones floating around my bloodstream is enough to make a crocodile cry REAL tears. Or kill someone. Or both. I certainly have been extremely moody, and am so thankful to my friends who have been so tremendously supportive to me throughout all of this. Thanks, y'all!

Sigh. On to other things.

So the organizer of my knitting circle is leaving us! (She also just got divorced) and is starting a new life. In Asheville! Small world! So I told her about the fun things to do there, good restaurants, yarn shops, etc. If you see Amy around town, tell her Hello! We will miss her tremendously.

Our knitting group is meeting on Monday and I'm glad - it'll be good to get out and see some friends on The Day Of My Divorce, and also maybe drink something and knit a bit. I now have a ton more yarn, because Amy is destashing in preparation for her move. I'll have to take a picture of my new yarn - she has excellent taste in quality yarn, so I walked away with some gorgeous wools and ribbon yarns and such. Some even especially for Project X! Lovely lovely stuff! Also enough sock yarn to make about 4-6 pairs of socks!! Because you need wool socks in southern Georgia! But they're stripey!

Right now though, my interests seem to fall along crocheting lines. I've been so busy with the crochet hook, it's kinda ridiculous. I made a shawl for my grandmother and shipped it off to her (she loves it). I have a photo here somewhere and will post it. I also made myself a newsboy cap (very fun! But sweaty because it's wool and hello, it's hot here, but I wore it anyway).

Here's Grandmother's wrap:

Light and airy, so she can wear it/use it during all different seasons. It gives me so much joy to send something to someone who is also a crafty type, and knows the time & energy that goes into it, and shares her appreciation. I love that. :)

And in my designing efforts, I'm finding crochet to be an interesting medium, namely because for indecisive crafters like myself, it's easier to rip back crochet and redo it, without feeling you just wasted 9 gazillion hours of your life and then dropped a stitch when you're trying to pick up all of the live stitches that are there waiting to commit little knit stitch suicide by unraveling themselves. Oh no. Crochet is sturdy! And only has 1 live stitch at a time!

So I designed a soap holder/scrubber thingie and whipped it up in less than an hour. People might be getting these for the holidays, because (1) they're fast, (2) they're practical, and (3) they're super cute! So act surprised, people.

I'm also designing a sweater for myself in crochet. It's a wine color and will be a v-neck that's basically a short-sleeved cardigan that only has a button below the bust line, so it'll be a bit flowy. I'm intrigued by the idea of crocheted garments that aren't super-stiff and that also don't look like something someone would hide toilet paper under. I'm using pretty yarn and a huge hook, so it's soft and flowy so far, and fitted. I'm very pleased so far, and am taking careful notes so that when I'm finished, I can submit the pattern to the yarn company and see if they want to publish it!! I feel there's a dearth of pretty, modern crochet patterns that don't make a person look like a potholder. Or an afghan zombie.

I will take pictures of all of my projects at some point soon!!

Oh, and on another cool note, a friend of mine chatted with me online the other day from Algeria! ALGERIA! (Hey Christy!). She looked at this blog, loved the blue hat, and commissioned me to make one for her. Hee hee. I love making those hats - they're so fun. Also I love it when people like my stuff enough to purchase it. Makes my fingers feel smiley. :)

It's very dark and overcast here, and we've had rain for a few days now. Fits my mood for the most part - rather dour and gray, but knowing that there's sun behind it, just waiting to peek through.

Turks and Knitting

Hello everyone (All none of you who read this blog anymore - oh well).

Today I finally have some project photos to post. Hurrah! But not a lot. Because I still haven't taken dress photos, but sersely? It's about 300 degrees outside, and the following photos were all I could muster.

Ok! First off, some of you might remember this hat from several years ago. I'm entering in to that book thingie I mentioned the other day, and had to get some artsy shots of it. I'll lighten this up later so you can see the cypress trees behind it, but here it is....Hat In Swamp:


Heh. I also had Noel take a few pics of me wearing it:



This is as close to my face as I'm willing to put here, because I was super shiny because of bug spray. Also? The other people at the end of the dock were really confused as to why I'd be wearing a big wool hat in 100 degree heat. Always keep 'em guessing!

(Also, you'll notice my hair is extremely red. I colored it last weekend, and it came out a LOT redder than I was planning. It's fading a smidge but WOW. My head looks like it's on fire.)

So next! A finished object! Yay! This is my Textured Circle Shrug, designed by Stefanie Japel. I'm pleased with it, except the arms need to be taken in a bit so they're not so bell-ish. I don't need the extra width on my arms/shoulders/chest/torso area. The yarn is gorgeous, and you can't really see it here (I'll try to lighten the pic later on and repost it) - but it has little metallic flecks in it. It's a wool/mohair blend and is SOOOO soft. And also teal. Which I love. And always reminds me of my Makita drill. Anyway.





All I can say is, after wearing that for about 1 minute, I was hot. It works. Now to pack it away until January. Bye, shrug!

On to other things now. Very exciting things.

First, a little background. If you've ever read the Chronicles of Narnia (which I have, many times in my life) you may recall that Edmund is seduced as it were to come to the White Witch's side of the battle/power play by a never-empty plate of Turkish Delight. Ever since reading that as a kid, I wanted to try some. I, for some unknown reason, always had it in my head that Turkish Delight must be some fanciful and delectable turkey dish with gravy. I am perhaps a comfort-food carb ho. Anyway. Imagine my surprise when in Scotland many moons ago, I was walking through the grocery store and stumbled upon...Turkish Delight! In a small plastic package, in the candy aisle. Huh. Candied turkey. Interesting. I was intrigued. Must try. So I purchased it, and instead of finding one of my favorite winged food products, I found instead a jello-type substance wrapped in chocolate. The jello-stuff was flavored like fruit, and it was...ok. Not superb. Not enough to betray your siblings to the wiles of an evil tyrant who wants to ice over the planet. I had basically given up on understanding the yearning for Turkish Delight (much like I just didn't get Prawn Cocktail flavored potato chips).

While my family came to visit me in Scotland, we met up with some people my BIL & sis knew from the BBC (love you, BBC and Top Gear and Miss Marple!). I told them the story of the sucky Turkish Delight, and the lady (whose name escapes me at this point) decided to call in the cavalry. The Turkish Delight cavalry. In the form of her aged and absolutely ADORABLE father, this little Scottish man with cane and tweed cap and little sweater OMG I could've eaten him he was so cute. Anyway. We arrived at the train station to leave Glasgow, and this little man shows up with a small bag from a confectioner's shop, full of REAL Turkish Delight, not the cheapo mass-produced stuff I had tried before. It was little inch-size cubes of the firm jelly, flavored like lemons, other fruits, and some like rose essence (Rachel thought these were like chewing bubble bath balls - I liked them). It was such a sweet gesture and one that has stayed with me through the years. And can I just say, that real Turkish Delight is AWESOME.

So I ate it all.

And lived years of my life with no Turkish Delight.

So Noel and I were discussing this a few months ago, how yummy it is and you just can't find it here and sigh....

And Noel being Noel, took it upon himself to procure me some Turkish Delight. He talked to one of his coworkers who is originally FROM Turkey, and found out that his nephew was planning to travel there. So he requested a box of Turkish Delight from this guy we've never met, traveling halfway around the world. I arrived at work yesterday and found this on my desk:



A box of REAL Turkish Delight! From Turkey! Sersely! Genuine stuff. See?

It's even written in Turkish! And it's from Istanbul. How freaking cool is that?

And in case you were curious, this is what Turkish Delight looks like (thankfully I took this pic before digging in!):

YUM.