Birthday Hopes & Dreams

People asked for a birthday wishlist so here it is. And I meant to post this last week, but apparently I was too hopped up on library champagne to remember to actually publish it, so there it sat in my drafts. Oops!

If this doesn’t concern you, please feel free to move right along! 😉

  1. Option 2 on this page.
  2. DVD: new BBC version of Sense & Sensibility
  3. DVD: The Hangover (OMG, I love this movie. LOVE IT FOREVER AND EVER AMEN)
  4. Gift Cert to the Loopy Ewe
  5. A not lame (don’t judge) fanny pack that can carry a water bottle for my biking adventures
  6. DVD: True Blood Season 2
  7. Gift Certs: Target, Starbucks, JC Penney, Barnes & Noble, Michael’s, JoAnn’s
  8. Epson printer ink #88 (I have an NX400 printer) in black and cyan.
  9. Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii

I swear there was something else, but oh well. OH, maybe it was a copy of the Cake Mix Doctor but my mom got me one of those the other day. Thanks, Mom! 😀

Navy Rainbow Socks (FINALLY) & Etc.

I actually finished these socks in early May, shortly before we hied off to Environs Unknown (the midwest). I forgot to blog about them till now.

Navy Rainbow Socks

Man, these took For-Freakin’-Ever! I like how they turned out, though, and so did Abby – which was the point. As part of the never-ending “I Should Never Have Opened My Big Mouth And Said I’d Knit You A Bunch Of Stuff Since You Made Me That Fabulous Quilt” project, I am now three pairs into a five pair project that started oh. so. long. ago. (2008)

Anyhoo, that’s okay because if it hadn’t taken me so long to finish on this project, Knitpicks wouldn’t have come out with their rainbow yarn and as such, Abby gets a pair of those, which I think is pretty cool! (No those aren’t much further along than the last time I showed them. Shut up.)

So, these socks are the ever-famous Monkey pattern, which I have knit four times. And I do not plan on knitting them ever again. (Note how I didn’t say never… just in case.) I am tired of knitting Monkeys. Not that it’s not a fabulous pattern (it totally is) but four times is more than enough when there are so many OTHER fabulous patterns out there. Still, I will always hold Monkeys close to my heart because it’s the sock that taught me top-down socks. Before this I always knit toe-up because I was confused by and afraid of heel construction. Nowadays, I prefer top-down construction because heels are my most favorite thing to knit (you can file that under the WTF category).

The yarn is Perchance to Knit Sock Yarn, and I forget where I got it from, but I am assuming the Loopy Ewe. It’s very nice yarn and complements the pattern well.

Here are all the monkey socks I’ve knitted. Two are mine (the hot pink and turquoise) and two are for Abby (the blue/purple and navy rainbow).

monkey socks mosaic

It’s been a good run, Monkey socks! Now, onto something else.

***

Here’s some of the recent jewelry items I’ve made:

I’m definitely into antique gold/brass and bright colors right now. While I do love silver, it’s just so overdone these days.  Everybody wears silver. I would argue that people need to broaden their horizons and get on the “other metallics rock too” bandwagon.

***

A few other things on my mind:

  1. I got curious so I installed Google Analytics on this page. I feel like it’s 2002 all over again! Good times, good times.
  2. I want to make macarons, the sandwich cookie kind. I found this great article on how to do it. Only problem is it calls for grams of ingredients instead of cups/tablespoons. I have been wanting an excuse to get a kitchen scale so this could be it.
  3. Tomorrow I’m going to help Abby buy a flat screen TV. I like watching other people spend a lot of money. She says she needs me there to sigh dramatically and say things like, “Just buy THAT one already!” hehe
  4. I actually am really tired today and feel kind of rotten. There has been much lolling about in these parts. I’m not sick – I don’t think I’ve been getting enough sleep.
  5. I’ve been organizing the back end of my blog all week, and when I was working on tags, a list of the most popular tags that I used popped up:

    I would say that about sums it up.
  6. Burritos.

Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!

Way Too Much

Hoo boy! I know I haven’t updated this thing since the end of April.  But seriously: SINCE WHEN IS IT PRACTICALLY THE END OF MAY? YES I FEEL THE NEED TO SCREECH IN ALL CAPS.

Since we last spoke, dear blog, I have done the following:

  1. WORKED LIKE A DOG at a job that ends on May 28.
  2. INTERVIEWED at a couple different places; things are promising but not set in stone (I won’t say anything lest I jinx a perfect perfect opportunity that involves me being out of the office most of the time).
  3. MADE SURE MY GRANDPA WASN’T DEAD for 5 days straight.
  4. TOOK SAID GRANDPA to the doctor SANS wheelchair (which was sitting in the spare bedroom in plain sight but I for reals did not see it. It was early, man.)
  5. FLOWN ON AN AIRPLANE to Chicago and from Milwaukee.
  6. GOT RAINED ON in Milwaukee.
  7. CELEBRATED 65 YEARS of my other grandparents’ marriage. Congrats my grandparentals!
  8. CANCELED MY TRIP to Texas (the wedding I was to attend got canceled in a dramatic, heart-breaking fashion in which we can conclude: some men (not all men, come on, but def this one for reals)? Are dogs, straight up.)
  9. BECAME A WEDDING CAKE CONSULTANT for a whole other wedding. I’m having fun checking out local bakeries. My friend lives in Utah and is getting married here so needs some help with that. If the #5 wedding hadn’t been canceled, I wouldn’t have been able to make this particular wedding, so even though that makes me a horrible person, I’m glad I won’t miss this wedding – after all, I’ve been friends with Felicia since we were 6.
  10. FIXED MY CAR to the tune of a broken clutch.  I guess the universe decided to give me a pass on this one because it only set me back like $175.00, including an oil change. BUT STILL. I MEAN COME ON, isn’t the Jobpocalypse enough for this year? Ay carumba.
  11. DEALT WITH RACCOONS living under my house. Raccoons are awful. And noisy. And because I know peeps I got a sweet deal too. Networking! It really does help.

I’m SURE there have been other things going on.  But I am too too tired and fed up to even think about them.

Oh yeah, one thing that has happened that is pretty awesome actually, is that I got my Wii hooked up to Netflix.  They send you a disc that you run when you’re watching something.  I really like it and have added a ridiculous amount of stuff to my streaming queue. Currently I’m watching Farscape, which I missed the first time ’round as we didn’t have the SciFi Channel. I kind of like it but… Muppets/Puppets! Kinda distracting.

I need cake, y’all.

That’ll do nicely.