Looking Back, and Maybe Some Forward

Ah 2012. The New Year is upon us, and I haven't posted since Thanksgiving. Sorry about that. Things still haven't calmed down around here. 2011 brought all sorts of things for me. College graduation, marriage, a big move. But also lots of crazy scary things like college graduation, marriage, and a big move. All while being completely broke. What I learned from the past year is that there's not a time when life is going to suddenly get better and the bill in the mail won't scare you anymore and everything is sunshine-filled. The joy and happiness comes from learning to handle those things but focus on the things that are important. Yes, pay your bills. Worry a little. But don't have a tunnel-vision of negativity (I'm totally going to patent that). I have the tendency to freak out when things get stressful. I've sort of let my husband take over the rational role and have given in to all the negative emotions that tend to come out if you don't pay attention. So my plan for 2012 is to expand my horizons. No more tunnel-vision of negativity (patent pending), but more of a wide-eyed focus on all aspects of my life. Yes, my bills are large and seem to all come at once. But the flipside of that coin is that I have a roof over my head (with no one living above or below), hot water, a heater, and electricity. Yes, my car is still broken and the driver's side window won't stay up and it's 15 degrees outside. But I have a garage I can park it in so during the snow and rain water doesn't get all over my leather seats anymore. And I can pull into the garage at night and close the door before I have to get out of the car, so I feel much safer.

On the knitting side of the world (because that is, after all, why you read this right?), I'm not sure all the much was accomplished in 2011. Let's see, I made a Golden Snitch, a couple of cowls, some earmuffs, a couple of bags, a little keychain purse, and a couple of little coffee covers. Plus the stuff I made for the Big Durn Swap a couple of months ago. But all in all, not a whole lot (especially compared to the wonderful things of Alyoops, and genius biochem knitting of ChemKnits!). I want to finish something big in 2012, and not just the cardigan it's taking me a year to finish for my good friend...I also want the thing to be for me. I love knitting for others, but honestly I don't do a lot of things I can use. In fact, most of my creations are in a bag in my closet. Aside from the previously mentioned cardigan, I've got a pair of felted slippers on the needles. (Did I mention I bought a washer and dryer and I can totally felt things now?) So pictures of those things soon. I think there's a knitting group in the city we moved to, so maybe I can join in. And there's a yarn store I have to go and try not to spend money at.

I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring, in life and in knitting. What great knitting plans do you have? And do you have any "big" project recommendations? I don't think I'm quite ready for an afghan, and lace drives me crazy (since I haven't gotten good at it yet), but what are your favorite things to make?

Life is a Whirlwind

I apologize for the lack of posts. Since my honeymoon life has been completely insane. Work cut our hours, money was almost totally gone, and then Josh got fired.

And here we are a few weeks after Josh gets fired with our things packed up and moved all the way from Arkansas to Indiana. And we're in a town neither of us had ever been, in a slightly smaller apartment, that costs more, we're moving in today. I was hired by Kohl's in this city in Indiana, and Josh will be doing a lot of job searching for factory or manufacturing work.

But there is a ray of sunshine here. I was sick and tired of living in our previous town because I felt stuck. Josh and I both hated our jobs. And now that we are here in Indiana, we're much closer to my family. Rather than 7 hours away, the drive to my sister's house is 30 minutes, and the drive to my mom's is only 2 hours. This city is also much bigger, so there are things to do that don't involve wandering Wal-Mart.

Really this was all the process of answered prayer. I've been ready to move on and get life really going, and now we can. It seems dark and scary, but it's actually very good for us.

And now, to contrast that slightly negative-sounding post, here's pictures from my Big Darn Swap package I got!

A Kaylee Ornament

A "leaf on the wind" lacy scarf!

A dino cookie cutter!

Stitch markers!

A Jayne ornament!!!

Handspun yarn!

Zum Body Frankincense and Myrrh smelly-good things!

Back in the USA

Hey folks! I am back from my awesome honeymoon! It was the coolest thing ever! Josh and I took a Carnival cruise to THE CARIBBEAN! We made port in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico! It was absolutely incredible. I had never been out of the country before, and Josh had only been on a mission trip to Tijuana (and as a Californian, it was pretty much the same to him). The water was absolutely beautiful, and the ship was so fun! I totally 100% recommend cruising, and Carnival was so awesome! Our room was cleaned twice a day, once in the morning-ish after we'd slept in it, and once while we were at dinner so they could give us our towel animal and mints and turn down the sheets for sleep! The food was to die for. Really I can't say much more than "It was epic", so I'll just post a bunch of pictures! (And if someone wants to tell me how to do that whole "jump" thing, I'll post a ton more!)

Edit to add: More pictures after the jump!

Just to Let You Know

I'M GETTING MARRIED TODAY!!!!!


That's all. Bye!

Hey! I am knitting!

I finally took pictures of things that I've been working on! Instead of explaining way too much, I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, more or less.

Josh's lone sock. But at least one is finished. I'm happy with it.

My hair after my wedding hairstyle trail run today! (And my toilet....apologies)

My invitations I made! I have a better picture, but it has my mom's, my, and my future husband's full legal names on them. And while I'm not expecting that crazy ax-murderers read my blog, better safe than sorry.

I've actually finished and cast-on two more projects, but they're for my Firefly swap, and I can't have potentially prying swap-partner eyes seeing her surprises!

Maybe I'll do some Firefly themed pattern searches, if I find the time.

Happy knitting!

Weddings Eat my Soul

I am still here. I've totally forgotten about the useless SAL. Depressing...

In the mean time, I've been working and doing wedding stuff. I just now finished ONE sock for Josh to wear, and I already know that no amount of dedication will overcome my severe 2nd Sock Syndrome, so maybe I'll give him the 2nd one for Christmas. He already told me if I finished one he'd wear it. So he'll have two different socks on at the wedding. It should be hilarious. Maybe we'll keep it to ourselves and have it be a funny little thing.

I've added another thing to the list. I'm knitting my garter, and have about 3 weeks to do so. I need to buy elastic and ribbon, and then I'll do it. It shouldn't take too long. The pattern doesn't seem complicated. This is the one I'm going to try. I've never knit with elastic, but hopefully it won't be very complicated.

In an attempt to slowly kill myself I've also joined the Big Durn Swap 2011 on Ravelry. A swap for all us Browncoats in the knitting/crocheting/crafty 'verse. I love it and I can't wait to get started on (even more) knitting! I've got some ideas already.

My apologies for the very lack-luster blog of late. It should get better in 3 weeks.

Adventures in Cooking

So, along with my knitting for my wedding, I'm being healthy for my wedding. Getting down to a healthy weight and eating better and all that stuff. And for my body, I'm not supposed to have a lot of sodium, so I'm learning how to cook new things because my family's recipes are deliciously unhealthy.

Today I made a mock stir-fry with turkey sausage (don't flog me! I'm supposed to avoid red meat! And it's not all that bad really...), fresh broccoli, red pepper, and red onion in a skillet with olive oil (because it's lower fat, any oil will do), garlic powder, onion powder, and lemon pepper, and then I squeezed half a lime and half an orange over it. Cooked in stir-fry style. It was actually really good. I used a bit too much oil, so don't add more halfway through. But besides that it was great!

All the veggies were fresh, not canned or bagged or anything. And it's kind of cheaper that way. You can get lots of fresh veggies for less than you can lots of canned or whatever stuff. And it was delicious!

There's a Snitch on my Ceiling

Okay not really. But I did get some Harry Potter knitting accomplished! I made the Golden Snitch! It's really simple to make, and perfect for beginners and experienced knitters! It's knitted in 3 pieces (2 wings and the body) and sewn together, and the body is knit flat and seamed. I'm really happy with mine, but since I don't have any stuffing, I had to use yarn, so it's not quite as round as I'd like. I added a circle of yarn to the top so I could hang it or use it as a Christmas ornament!

Currently this is hanging from my ceiling fan pull cord, but depending on how much knitting I can get done for my wedding I might give it to one of my bridesmaids. I'm rather proud of myself for getting this done. It only took a few hours of TV knitting, so it's a nice little project.

Harry Potter and the End of an Era

Josh and I went to see the midnight release of the last ever Harry Potter movie. It was AWESOME! (And yes, we did go in costume)

But it was also very depressing. I feel like the last little bit of my childhood is gone now. The (movie) series started when I was in SEVENTH GRADE! I'm a college graduate! It's just a painful thought. I will very much miss the anticipation of a new movie, seeing how bad or how well they stick to the books, and seeing the always-smexy Tom Felton!

This last movie has also re-light the fires of my obsession, and I have an overwhelming need to knit something Harry Potter-related. But I have no spare knitting time! I have to finished Josh's socks, make 4 knit Mustaches, possibly knit gift bags, and try and finish my shawl in less than three months! The thing I've wanted to knit and just never got the nerve to actually try was one of these:

Harry Potter Blanket! There are so many different squares to choose from (See here)!!! I want the Malfoy family for certain, probably the 3, and who knows who else!

Useless SAL of July

So I got the random Google problem fixed. I had to make another new email (because letting me use an existing Google email would just be too easy), but I can get onto my blog again without a massive fight. So here's my SAL of July. I'll start posting progress on my shawl and Josh's socks and stuff as I get further along.

And in case you're wondering, that is in fact me with my future hubby in the engagement picture we got done right after we got engaged.

Google and it's Evils

So, I have a gmail account. Two actually. One is connected to my college. So I got myself an "I'm a college graduate now" email address. It's the second gmail. You know, for professionalism and stuff. So Google goes and updates it's stuff that it does and changes stuff around. And tells me I need to update the email I have or something. Every time I try and log into my blog here it says "You need to change stuff!!!!!!!" And so I did. And now I just have some weird temp account that I can never remember how to log into (and half the time it won't work anyway, just brings up that "UPDATE STUFF NOOOOOOWWWW!!!!" page again...). The most frustrating part of this whole thing is that I've tried over and over and over to put my new "grown up" email address as my primary email for the blog but even though everything is operated by Google I CAN'T MAKE A GMAIL MY PRIMARY EMAIL!!!! WHAT?! I have to update everything for Google and Google own't let me use their email. So yeah. That's why I haven't updated anything. I haven't actually been able to log in. Because Google is broken. And stupid.

Also, (and I hope this doesn't disqualify me from winning stuff) but I haven't actually added anything to my thing of stitches for the Totally Useless Stitch-along so I'm just going to re-use a picture.

I may not have used this one. I take more than one picture of them at a time sometimes.

Still Here, Again

The storms went around me once again. There were tornadoes just north, east, and to the south of my little town, but all we had here was a tornado warning with some rain, followed by sun and no tornado warning 5 minutes later, followed by more rain, followed by sun the rest of the day 5 minutes after the rain. No really. That's what happened.

On the knitting side of the world, I've started a lacy shawl that I'm hoping to finish within 4 months and wear at my wedding. The only problem with that is that I've never done lace or used a chart, and I'm learning both. So far nothing's fallen apart, but I've had some really annoying moments. Like screwing up one row so much I had to say "Forget it" and just have it be a messed up row. I'll find out if my st count was off when I do the next row. It was just frustrating. I mean, I've done socks, used little-bitty dpns, but goodness this is tiny! I'll post my progress once I find the camera charger....

On that note, I moved! I live in my little apartment now! It's so exciting, and weird. I mean, I own a couch. The couch is mine. It will go with me when I move. How weird is that? I'm still trying to find places for things. And I'm trying to get rid of things. I found out my yarn takes up ALL the shelf space in my closet, so I'm having to give some away. it's kind of painful, but at the same time, I won't use all that yarn, let's be honest.

Again, when I find the camera charger I'll have pictures.

May the 4th Be With You

First, my Useless SAL for May.

Alrighty, now that that's done, I need to tell you all that I have finally watched the entire Star Wars Saga! I'd never seen them. Just part of Episode I and all of Episode III. So on this Star Wars Day, May the 4th be with you, always! (even though I'm a Sith. :P)

Still Here

I just realized that I live in Arkansas and, as most of the country is well aware, we've had some pretty major storms here in the south. I also realized that me not updating might imply that I had been carried off with these storms.

I haven't. In fact, all we've really had in my little town is lots of rain, lots of lightning, and lots of thunder. There have been tornado watches and the night that everything got hit we had our sirens go off, but it didn't it us. It hit a town less than an hour away and obliterated it, but my little town is safe again.

Many, many places aren't safe, however. Last I heard the death toll in the entire southern area that was hit was over 300. It makes my heart ache to think about how afraid and unsure of the future all those people are. As I type there is a strong thunderstorm raging outside my window once again. It has been coming down for many hours now.

Please keep everyone affected by these strong storms and tornadoes in your thoughts and prayers.

Is It May 14th Yet?

Y'all I am exhausted. This semester is trying to kill me. Slowly. Through over-working my brain. So my lack of posting is all on the account of having no life whatsoever. Just school, work, and the very small, tiny amount of time I see my finace.

My rosemary plant has little sprouts! I'll get pictures sometime.

Useless SAL of April

Here's my post for the month. A few new colors on the top from all my Bazaar knitting! Other than that I've got a Bridal shower on Sunday! I can't wait!!

Things Bought and Immediately Forgotten

I forgot to mention a few things yesterday! Or maybe my brain new that my post about knitting was getting long and stopped me from remembering to post these things. Probably not.

I think I'm showing my age a bit with this one. I bought a Sega Genesis. Yes you heard right. I had one and have no idea what in the world happened to it. But the local game shop had one for $25 and so the future hubby bought it as an early graduation present! Alongside the Lion King game you see. I had it when I was young and so we got it to go with! Wee! More things I don't actually have time to use...

Also, I started having an herb garden again! Well, sort of. Last year I had a window-box sized planter with garlic chives and oregano. But it got destroyed through no fault of mine. I'm still rather upset. But! I found this nifty little planter at Wal-Mart. It came with rosemary. I've never used rosemary, let alone grown it, but the recommendation of things it can be used in gave me hope! The little planter thing was $3 and came with the pretty little pot, seeds, instructions, and one of those little dirt disk things. So it's super cheap and comes with everything you need except water. (Don't add too much water...trust me)

My sewing is slowly coming along. My hand-stitching isn't very pretty in some places, and I can't seem to cut straight to save my life, but it's coming together! All my pieces are cut out and I've done the hemming on 1.5 pieces. All by hand. I'll keep posting on my progress of sewing and growing!

Have a wonderful April!

Some Clever April Fool's Prank Here

I considered doing some silly prank saying I'm closing my blog and such, but there's just too much to post about today. Oh well. Some other time I suppose.

I have lots of pictures today! All those ones I promised before. And more!

First are my mug cozies! The left one is an old-school bullet bill. It fits nicely around my travel mug. The right is a pretty simple garter stitch with a button. It's perfect for normal coffee mugs since you put it on with the button. They're both pretty awesome.

This is a market bag I made to sell at the Bazaar my school is having! Since green is the thing I figured it would be a hit! And I got to use up almost all of my Caron Natura stash! Bonus!

These are cool "steampunk" spats! You wear them on your ankles over some low heels. They're so nifty! I'm going to try and sell them but if not, they're awesome and I'll just keep them! The yarn was a gift from the always amazing Alyoops! It's so soft!

This is a Japanese knot bag. Originally I'd made it for myself but since it is so small it won't work at all for me, so I'm going to try and sell it too! There are a few technical errors, but I think non-crafty people won't notice probably. It's lined on the inside with blue fleece.

And now for something completely different...

Sewing! I've always wanted to, and really have just been too lazy to try since I don't have a sewing machine. But this awesome fabric was only $1!!! So I'm making myself an apron!

I love aprons. I've got two so far. Both made by my wonderful friend Bonnie. One of them is a full apron that is brown on the top (for Zoe Washburn) and a type of "Hawaiian T-shirt" type print on the bottom (for Hoban "Wash" Washburn). It's my Washburn apron! Firefly! Yay! The other is just around the waist and it's penguins since I collect them! And now I've got Japanese fabric to try on my own! Here's hoping it goes well!

Happy crafting all. I'll be over here counting down the days left until graduation. (44)

A Little Bit of Crazy

Ladies and Gents, I have done the crazy. I am a college student and have decided to go down the crazy path that crazy college students do. No I didn't go to some crazy kegger, no I didn't get my nipples pierced (honestly people, I said crazy not straight-up masochistic), and no, I didn't run off to Vegas with Josh and get married by a preacher-man who looks like Elvis.

I.....got tattoos. Not a tattoo. Tattoos. Plural. Two. Painful.

I have one on each wrist now. I'm rather happy about it, and I continuously look at it going "What on earth did I do?". Mostly because it's in a rather difficult to hide location. Wrists don't just disappear. And in Arkansas long sleeves are not your friend in the warm months.

For those considering getting a tattoo, honestly I don't recommend it. It really did hurt. A lot. And it is permanent. I know you know that, but it really doesn't hit you what that actually means until there is this image on your skin and you're looking at it thinking "This is there. Forever. For. Ever.". It's rather unsettling when you starting thinking about careers and children. Also, if your finace doesn't really approve, just go along with him/her. Josh wasn't happy at all about mine. He's moved on since there's nothing he can do about it, but he still doesn't like it.

Basically I have them. I'm happy I have them. And I have the "It's college." excuse when people ask why I did something so flat out crazy. It's all fantastic.

The blurry one says "You can't take the sky from me". It's on my left wrist.

Useless SAL and Whatever Else

It is March 4th and so it's time for the next Totally Useless Stitch-Along post! I've done quite a bit and my bottle is filling! It's actually kinda neat looking.

Much has been done, and I'll post about those later. No really! I will!

Which brings me to my next point: Y'all I. Am. Busy. Oh my goodness. This semester, combined with my job, combined with planning a wedding, combined with trying to figure out what to do with myself after graduation this May has left me quite literally ZERO extra hours for things. Any kinds of things. I mean, I only see my fiance for about an hour a day if I'm lucky. It's chaotic.

However, good things have come from it as well. I have applied for the apartment I want to move into after graduation. This is the same apartment that Josh will move into once we're married! So I'm going to be living in our home. It's actually pretty awesome. I've only applied though, not put down the deposit. But I really can't think of a reason I'd be denied. My worry-loving brain just makes me think I'll get denied for some reason.

My roommate (who is also a bridesmaid) and I have spring break starting a week from this Saturday! She's coming up home with me so that my mom, sister (Matron of Honor) and she can start really getting into the wedding thing! We're going dress shopping and doing all those fun things! And with as frazzled as I'm getting, bring on the spring break! Ugh!

There is a thing going on around campus called the "Harding Bazaar" where crafty people can buy a booth and sell their crafts! So of course I jumped on that, giving myself even more things to do...I've knitted two coffee mug cozies, I'm thinking of making a cowl, and I'm going to bring lots of patterns and books for people to look through so they can order things. I mean, that's how most stuff is done right? Made-to-order!

I'll post some pictures of things I've made sometime soon. When I can breathe. Ja ne!