Monday, September 17, 2012

Arrgggggh.

Totally failing on the blogging front this month! Things have just been so so so busy lately. It's that time of the year when I'm crazy busy with making beads for Halloween and the holidays and I don't have time to catch my breathe really. (To that end, I've taken my whole Etsy shop offline for the moment because I just don't have time for it this week. Sorry!)

The hubby is actually on vacation this week but he decided he wanted to build himself a new, uber-big shed instead of going away so he's, quite literally, knee-deep in that at the moment. Demolish of the old one was Saturday, yesterday was the foundation and floor. It's onward and upward with the walls today! There's no doubt that it's going to rain here Tuesday/Wednesday though so he'll have a couple days off to rest at least. So long as it's done by the time he goes back to work, so he can get all the shed stuff that's currently jammed up in his garage bay back where it belongs, it's all good. (Leaving your car outside for any length of time around here is never a good idea - unless you like mice  and or chipmunks living in it!)

Before he got started on that though he stole harvested the honey for the year from the bee hives:

YUM. Do you know how hard is it not to steal spoonful after spoonful of this when there are pounds and pounds of it on your kitchen counter? (At 64 calories per tablespoon, *SIGH*, one has to have some self-control though. *sad*) It's MUCH lighter in color this year - last year's was a dark amber - but the taste is better. Funny how that works, right? This year's is almost fruity. Very delicious! Now I just need to find time to make some labels for them so he can start selling them at work, etc.

 Our 21st anniversary (crazy!!!) was the other week and he surprised me with an iPad, among some other great things and HOW MUCH DO I LOVE THIS THING????? A lot! I'm only turning the computer on nowadays to do my work stuff because this thing is great fun for browsing when on the deck and stuff. I really like getting away from sitting in the office where the computer is, I tell you what!

On the stiching front....
Total, total fail at keeping up with the L*K mystery sampler. I started the second bit when it came in.............and then never got back to it, not even once. :(

And then this came in on Saturday so I REALLY REALLY REALLY need to set time aside for some serious thread action!!!

Somewhat better on the knitting front but feeling very scattered.........
I finished one mitten from the mitten kit I got last October at Stitches East. Yes, ONE. One is better than none, I guess, but I hope this doesn't turn into one of those situations where I don't cast on for the second one until months later - resulting in a second one that doesn't quite match. lol

I started a scarf (Flair in Mountain Vail yarn) for no other reason than I saw this yarn hanging around and felt like I needed to start it. I don't think I've done a project with lace weight yarn before actually? It's no different other than the fact that it's SLOW AS THE DICKENS. I knit on this at a furious pace for three days and that's all I've gotten done. Considering it's supposed to be SEVENTY TWO INCHES LONG I've got a loooooooooooooooooot of hours ahead of me with this one. *sigh*

I may have also done a very bad thing and purchased a couple bags of yarn. Yes, BAGS. Grab bags, to be exact, in my favorite sock yarn - Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I couldn't resist the pull of getting them less than half off but..........GEESH. I SO DO NOT need any more yarn in this house. :(

When they came in my husband texted me this:
*snort*
Why thank you, Ryan! You're pretty sexy too. :)

19 comments:

Melissa said...

Wow! You are one busy woman!!! That honey looks so delish - I can understand the temptation. So amazing that you harvest your own. Let's just say bee's are not my friends haha.

Beth said...

Oh the honey is beautiful am glad it tastes great too - tell your hubby someone left a bucket of tainted honey about 1 mile from here - all the 'local' honey bees swarmed it to clean it up - but the bucket tested positive for 'Foulbrood' which wipes out entire hives - really awful news.

Margaret said...

lol! That Ryan thing cracks me up -- so cute that your DH texted that to you! Well, I love your new stash yarns. Love the scarf, although it does sound like it'll take a while. Looooove that mitten! Hope you get around to the other mitten soon. Your LK looks adorable -- take it at your own pace, who cares about keeping up? Lucky you with the new iPad!!! I still have my iPad2, which I love. I'm really hoping they come out with a smaller iPad. :D If they do, I'm asking for one for xmas. Honey -- yum! Good luck to your DH on his shed project. And hush up on the car being outside. Mine sits outside all the time! Yikes! Good luck keeping up with bead orders.

Vickie said...

Well Melanie, it certainly is a blessing to have too many bead orders!!
That is one awesome mitten. For the next fair?? ;)

Dani - tkdchick said...

Congrats on the iPad I adore mine! Use it all the time love reading in bed at night cause I can turn the light off, read away and then just turn the ipad off and put it on the night stand... no need to get out of bed and turn that pesky light off!

Yes, uber lazy!

Roberta said...

Omy gosh, you are some busy gal. love the honey, your stitching looks good and I also am way behind on the LK sampler. Love the mitten. and the scarf looks interesting. How do you get so much done???

Maggie said...

i really love the mitten and the scarf, i hope you get the other mitten knit up soon, they are too nice to leave :-)

Have fun with your i pad, what a great gift! and happy anniversary BTW :-)

Annie said...

I have this image of you slaving over the hot flames for the bead-making, coming up for air now then to knit a sock, or take few stitches or surf the web and order some yarn.

You deserve a nice i-Pad and all the yarn you want!

Happy Anniversary -- 21 years is a whole generation!

Anonymous said...

they look like GREAT grab bags!

Love the look of your honey. YUM! But, you are right, must ration it out so you don't get a bumblebee butt.

valerie said...

Oh, Ryan Gosling! :::swoon::: I just love all the "Hey Girl" photos out there. The honey, stitching and knitting all look fantastic! That mitten looks similar to the ones that won the ribbon at the fair! I signed up for this knitting class next month. I have to do "homework". The pattern keeps talking about provisional cast on or something like that. I hope I can do it! I bought pretty green yarn and everything!

Jackie's Stitches said...

Your husband scores major points for knowing about the "Hey Girl" stuff.

Happy 21 to you both!

Leslie said...

You are always so busy creating the most gorgeous stuff!! The honey.. looks awesone!

Did you say mice.. errr, I need to borrow a cat. We are having a battle inside of the house ~ already.
lol @ Ryan. : )
Have a great tuesday.

dixiesamplar said...

Everything looks awesome Mel! Love the honey, and a big congrats on your ribbons at the fair...sorry I missed that post.

Where did you get that lovely "Old Salem Linen"? And welcome to the iPad world...I love mine and take it nearly everywhere I go anymore.

Catherine said...

Great post full of all kin of eye candy, but the best was the text from your husband!

Carol said...

Oh, Melanie--I know you'll love your iPad as much as I do mine! I think it has become permanently attached to my body at times!

Lovely to look at your very own home-harvested honey (even though I'm not a honey eater for some reason). Good luck with all of those stitching, knitting, and bead-making projects :)

Kenzie said...

I am so incredibly jealous of your bees. I adore honey. I would have burned through one of those bottles already if I had that much in my house.

Julie said...

I love my iPad too, makes life so much easier doesn't it. Yummy honey, i love honey, your bees must have been feasting on different flowers this year.
Real jealous you've got the JCS already, I want mine!! Lol
Wonderful mitten, you are so clever.

Minerva said...

What a great thing to have hives and honey. Bees are disappearing in my county, and I wish I had hives to promote the growth.
Love that mitten! And everything else, too actually..
I love to see stitchwork in progress on blogs. It's kind of like Vanna White and the letters. You don't get the big picture, but you can guess what it's going to end up like.

kathy b said...

WEll if you are going to buy, why not bag fulls?? ha ha ha. I want that honey. I didnt know it was so caloric...darn....I love honey