all craft some of the time

i took these picture weeks ago. well two weeks ago. sunday the 14th was all craft night at the house. i took pictures with the hope that i could show off some of the things i finished and the newest addition to my on going prayer shawl. i then lent my camera to jen and have only now gotten around to bragging about my awesome craftyness. i'm lazy it happens.

so the humans of the house have chosen to participate in disney's give a day get a day program. for those of you who don't know what that is, basically you sign up with disney to volunteer with a designated organization in your area and when you have completed your volunteer time you get a free one day ticket to disney. well we decided to help out the binky patrol which is an organization that gives blankets to kids who need comfort. the blankets are made of fleece and are called tie or no-sew blankets because all you do is get 2 yards of fleece and then cut and tie the edges making fringe. so easy, and i thought they were pretty fun and soft. and i usually hate fleece. we each made two. i thought i'd pick fleece colors and patterns that could be used for either a boy or a girl and i did the large ones for teens.

the first one i did

the second one i did

they are a nice size and i was excited with the second fleece i picked because the squares made the measuring much easier.

while i didn't get to work on my prayer shawl that night i did take a moment to take a picture of the progress i had made. two days earlier at my bi-weekly thursday night knitting group i finished the second skein of my shawl. i had been itching to start the next skein but wanted to take it's picture before moving on. i threw in a mo for scale.

thanks mo dog!!

it's a nice size. i think when it's done it will be a great length but i'm sure i'm going to wish it was wider. because of that fact, i am now on the hunt for a simple blanket pattern that i can make that will be a good size for wrapping myself in. i know i could take the current measurements and adjust them to make the right size but i haven't figured out the method for that yet.

some day though.

the end!

progress bitches

sorry i'm just so very excited about me.

over the weekend i made some progress in my "craft room" and i'm very proud of myself. while the progress may not be noticeable to the average bear it sure is to me.

my craft room is really the den, and over the last few years it has been crammed full of peoples extra crap. when teak moved his junk in we divided up the house so everyone got an extra spot. jen got the blue room which was already full of her stuff. teak got the garage cause he's a man. and i got the den cause it was what was left. i was happy to take the den cause there is a corner with build in shelves and it's perfect for all my many books and what not. plus i already had some stuff in there.

well in order to make room for everyone else's crap in their prospective rooms i had to get anything of mine out of them and that meant just shoving it into my room. so the den ended up just being a storage container for awhile. in fact some stuff from my actual storage unit made it's way back into the house and was locked into the den. until now.

over the weekend i spent short amounts of time in the den rearranging and moving and throwing away various boxes, papers, toys and other random things that i found. the weekend goal was to uncover a set of plastic drawers that i knew were in there somewhere and i knew were full of crap. the purpose for uncovering these drawers you ask, to clean them out and fill them with KNITTING THINGS!!!!!

for christmas i got some books and some yarn and a really neat bag to carry things in but as the months have gone on i have acquired more things and the bag is perfect for a current project it isn't big enough to hold everything especially all of the yarn i have and all the future things i want. so i started thinking about storage for craftiness and before i could buy anything remembered i already had the perfect thing. and i was off.

the plastic drawers were buried behind a ton of other boxes and randomness so i had to move and attempt to organize those things in order to even get to what i truly wanted. but after an hour or two i made my way to them. cleaning them out was the next step.

one drawer was full of fabric i didn't even know we had. another drawer full of sheets of plastic used for plastic sewing or whatever it's called. you know the stuff old ladies make tissue box covers and what-not out of. and the last drawer full of books. most of them were books and patterns for making those plastic things but a few were for some other types of crafty things. bead work and an all purpose craft book and book about friendship bracelets from 10 years ago. that book had some pretty neat thread bracelets in it if i remember correctly.

the fabric was placed in a box and combined with other fabric i had lying around. the plastic sheets were put aside for the thrift store as were most of the books. i kept a few. there was some neat stuff in them, but the plastic pattern ones all went. as did the yarn that you use for those types of projects. and then it was time to refill the drawers. the top one now contains yarn. practice yarn or yarn that at this point in time has no purpose. the middle drawer contains yarn with a purpose. extra skeins that will be need for current projects or yarn need for the next project. and the bottom still has books. the old books that i kept and my new knitting books. i will most likely also keep extra needles and such in these drawer somewhere too but that doesn't need to happen right now. a little progress at a time.

the point of all this, other then to clean, is to organize things. it's a chain reaction. if i clean and organize parts of the den then i can put stuff away in there and some of the things needing to be put away are in my bedroom. so if i put the things from my bedroom away then i can clean and organize my bedroom. and if i can clean and organize my bedroom perhaps some day i won't feel like i'm living under piles of crap. but instead i will be living peaceful beside them.

the end.

hooray hooray i love today

well well well today has been an interesting one.

it started out exactly as planned. i got up and went to work and then went over to the high school. i had to go deliver an award to ROTC for the volunteering they did for The Salvation Army over Christmas. they always ring bells for us and this year they won an award for doing so.

after presenting them with their award i tracked down an old teacher just to say hello, and then i tracked down my sister-in-law just to harass her. that was good times, but being back in that school 10 years after was weird. i've been there on off days but never while school was in. i'm 28 and i all of a sudden felt 18 again. strange.

by the time i was done it was 10 and my next "appointment" wasn't until 10:30 so i thought i'd treat myself to a nice breakfast. i went over to heidi's which i haven't been to in 9 years or something and had me some breakfast. in an attempt to not over eat or spend too much money i order biscuits and gravy and only water. it was a filling breakfast and i was full but not over full. so i felt good about that choice i have to say. after my tasty breakfast it was the perfect time to start my stalking mission (a.k.a. my next "appointment")

a friend of the family has been doing my hair for years. she's the only one whose ever really been able to do it right and i love her a lot. she's never afraid to do something crazy and she always answers my really dumb questions. i had called the salon and found out she'd be in a 10:30 so i headed on over.

it was still just before 10:30 and she wasn't there yet so i sat around the parking lot to wait for her. meanwhile i looked through the dvds i had brought with me for the perfect shot of the hair cut i wanted. when she showed up i told her i was there to just talk about my hair and see what she thought and if we could do it great if we needed to re-schedule fine too. she told me she had an appointment already this morning and asked if i could come back to talk about it around 12:30. i told her no problem and let her go on her way.

since i didn't have anything to really do and i was already in the midst of looking for the hair on the dvd i just stayed in the parking lot and kept looking through everything, fully intending to head back to work as soon as i found it. just wanted to be perpared for the afternoon. well a few minutes later she came out and told me her earlier appointment had come and gone so if i wanted to come in and talk now that'd be fine. so i jumped at the chance. i showed her the dvd and we talked about the cut and then the color and then she decide to jump right in and go for it. so of course i was stoked! and three hours later i was done.

and here's the result:

yay! i'm excited and i like it a lot.

the pictures don't do the purple and the blue justice but it's great and the cut makes it super curly which is perfect!

this evening i went to the new knitting group some ladies from the corps are starting. it was a lot of fun. one of the ladies has really been helping me and she showed me how to fix the knitting mistake i've been making and learn to purl. then she gave me homework. i have to knit purl like 10 rows and it's called something. i forget. but it's one of the many new steps i need to learn the next project i have to start. it was really fun and there was beer.

and the my dear was my day.

the end!

for jen

this post is short sweet and purely for jen.

tonight she tried to help me in figuring out why my feeds aren't feeding to facebook. or something technical like that. so she said i needed to post tonight.

post!!!

the end!

the first of many

i hope.

i'd like to post more knitting work here but i haven't. oh wait this is the first thing of worked on since launching this blog. well alright i don't feel bad then.

so here, this is a shawl/lap blanket type thing i've been working on. it's official title is a prayer shawl. i meant to look up the term prayer shawl to see what makes it a prayer shawl but i forgot to. perhaps i'll do that now. please hold................................................

hmmmm..................................................................................................................................................

well......................................................

alright from what i can tell when the prayer shawl is made you actually say a prayer or something spiritual at the start and then you gift it to some one with a prayer or blessing or something spiritual when you're done. if i didn't say anything at the start and i'm keeping it for myself is it still a prayer shawl? this i don't know. but it's what i'm making. next time i make one i will do it right. cause i'm thinking one would look good in jens room made in colors to compliment her bed decor and my aunt might like one too.

here's a look:

it's a nice size. had i been thinking i would have put my phone or my dog next to it to use as scale. next update i will. when it's done it will be four times longer. and really soft. i'm enjoying the yarn i'm using.

one skein down. three to go.

the end!

i can't help it

i use to really really love my job. a lot. sure there were times when my job was very physically demanding and that wasn't as much fun as say pony rides, but then again there were times when i would spend days on end watching hulu. so it seemed to counteract the physical parts. my job description is still the same. some months i run non-stop and others (like today) i really have nothing to do. (i did pay all my current bills this morning) but lately i dread coming here. and it's not the work i do but the people i am required to see while i'm here.

there is a growing disdain for my co-work that i imagine has been building up for awhile now but ever since last months staff meeting i don't want to be anywhere near her. i just find her oh so annoying and i find that i have to just not say anything for fear of saying something inappropriate.

every year she and i talk about what months we would like to be taking vacation. i mentioned to her i was looking at either may or march. to which she mentioned her and her husband were also looking into may. so i said ok i would look in march instead. after carefully checking and re-checking many calendars i found a week in march that worked. when i went to my boss with that she informed me that was not a good week for me to be gone because both she and her counter part would be out of town that week. so i said ok i would rearrange and look at different times.

the very next day at our staff meeting my co-worker said she would be taking vacation that week. and my boss turned to me to ask me to cover the office and and all programs. i said yes, fully planning to talk with her about this after the meeting, and we carried on. a few minutes later my boss realized what she had just done and decided everyone would be off that week and we would just close the office.

while part of me was glad to be able to go on my trip part of me was very annoyed. why not tell her too she couldn't take that week? why go to the trouble of closing for a whole week? why are we making exceptions for her case? and then the rest of us benefit too? i just didn't understand.

sadly the prices for my trip went up so i am no longer able to go that week any way. while i don't blame my work situation directly for the rate increase i do feel if my boss had just let me go in the first place and made her stay i would have gotten tickets at the good price. also if my boss had said everyone needs to be here i'd be less bitter. because i will now be here to run the office while everyone is away.

as previously stated, i can't help it. i'm still upset by it. i'm annoyed i have to be here, i'm annoyed that i can't find another good time to go anywhere, i'm annoyed my co-worker is leaving that same time, i'm annoyed that it seems as if once again the rules have been altered to avoid her having a fit. i'm just over all annoyed and it's rubbing off onto my daily encounters with her.

i find i don't want to talk with her about anything, work related or not. that i find the very sound of her voice grating even when she's not talking to or about me. and i can't help it. i can only hope that once that week has come and gone i will be over it but i have no hopes that i will be over it before then. and that means being annoyed for the next month. and that seems like a lot of energy.

i had hoped that writing this would make me feel even the tiniest bit better but no luck. i don't feel angrier either so i guess that's good. i do feel like trying to find a way to screw her over but that's not very mature or helpful.

unless it makes me feel better.

the end.

testing one two...

three.

i'm impatient and trying to link or feed or whatever it's technically called this blog to the facebook. so basically this post isn't anything fun or interesting just me playing with technology. wooo hooo!
technology is hard!

the end!