So many kittens....

So little time for hobbies lately! 

 

Wow, these guys keep you busy. Think I've got a bit of 'twin' syndrome going on. Get one happy and satisfied and then the other one starts crying for attention, so  you get that one happy and satisfied, and then the other starts in again....................repeat repeat repeat.

There have been a few tummy and litter box troubles this week, especially with this one:

He may be a boy but he's a big baby who seems to be a lot more delicate than his tough-as-nails sister. (Big, whiny baby too because woooowweeeeeee does he like to whine!) We stuck with our original names of Fitzgerald/Fitz and Olivia/Livvy for them...........but are mostly called Pooh Bear and Peepers because, well, that's what they do. :)

Lots of blogiversaries around this month but I got y'all beat with my regular blog (Livejournal) anniversary a few days ago:

Permanent Account, previously an Early Adopter,

  Created on 17 August 2000 (#11375),  Last updated on 20 August 2013

• 3,542 journal entries
• 27,235 comments posted

THIRTEEN YEARS. Yep. Over a decade. That's kinda crazy, right? 

I'm journal 11,375 out of almost 40 million. Been using it mostly as a food blog lately, writing up my adventures with the Fresh 20 weekly meal plans. (Love the plans but have to tweak them a fair amount to suit my tastes/boost the veggie portions a little.) There's no sense in giving it up either because my early adopter/permanent account automatically gives me all the upgrades (and zero ads) for free forever - or until it's shut down. I'm not going to pass up FREE  now, am I?  

Will be interesting to see if I can make it another thirteen years. :)

Well that week FLEW by! Always the worst part of taking a week off - the CATCHING UP you have to do when you get back to real life.  

SOMEONE had a 17th birthday the other day. (Hint: it wasn't me.)

Thanks so much for the kind comments about my poor boo-boo kitty. He perked up a bit mid-week and seems mostly back to normal now, or at least his 'normal'. As his brain started healing though the 'must eat everything sight' switch got turned off again and I'm now back to trying to coax him into eating all day. He really, really, really hates the kidney diet prescription food. Like, really hates it. What's the point of food to extend his life a little if he's going to starve to death in the meantime? I keep trying to stick with it (and have for over a year) but at this point I think we have to concede that we are both terrible at sticking to a diet. I can't blame him for being happy with bits of ham or cheese. Aren't we all?

Anyhoo, I'm trying to catch up on photos, photos, photos. I keep taking photos of things but then never posting them. Grrr. I actually did manage to finish a few things on break, that I was very glad to get finished and off to the great Finish Bin in the sky, I mean my closet.

 God I really don't like these socks. I started them in January and JUST finished them, so that right there tells you how disinterested I was in them. I took a skein of yarn I really didn't care for (too thin and splitty) and paired it with a slip stitch pattern that I also didn't care for (because it's a TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR A SPLITTY YARN) and GUESS WHAT? They were a miserable knit from start to finish and I will forever be shocked AND awed that I finished them. (In my defense though I picked that pattern because it helped alleviate the thinness of the yarn. It creates an almost woven fabric that adds bulk.)

 Also finished: the bonus charts from the L*K mystery sampler that I started last summer. Very much not miserable to finish and I'm glad I finally got to it because these are cute and I love Halloween stitchies. :)

 And a bunch of totally unphotogenic Scrap Yarn Blanket of Doom squares. I needed something mindless and quick to start/finish to clear my head of the oogie-boogies from the stupid socks. Blanket square I can finish in 90 minutes? YES PLEASE. I think I'm up to 8 new squares now to add to this never ending, not even CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED project because I'm still having fun doing up new ones. Once I get a bunch, like a dozen, I'll wash and block them so they look pretty and totally not like wadded up Kleenex. :)

To 'reward' myself for finishing a stitchy wip I did up a brand-spanky new-to-me small one. I randomly picked colors for this Val's Stuff freebie and think it came out pretty good. (Though I curse you Belfast green linen for always being IMPOSSIBLE to photograph nicely. What is it with this color??? So pretty in person SO HORRIBLE ON THE INTERNETS.) Could use some more contrast in the nose but I can live with it. Original pattern doesn't chart a flower or bunny tail but it's pretty easy to put them in. (Can't have a bunny without a TAIL?!?)

Now that that is done I reached into the nether regions of my wip stack (also known as my storage ottoman in the living room where things go to die a lonely death) and pulled out another wip to tackle. Oh, how optimistic I was when I happily stitched in the year 2012 on this!!! Twice. *face palm* Oh well. 2012, 2013. Isn't time just an illusion anyway? How can be sure that ANY sampler with a date stitched in is correct, right? So I'm keeping the 2012. And don't be thinking I'm almost done with this because there is whole other section of frames that go on the bottom of this. I originally abandoned this because - SURPRISE SURPRISE - I made a little boo-boo with the border and one of those borders is off a little. And ripping out black floss is miserable so I put it in time out. I think I'm mostly over it now though. Aside from talking about my failure on the internets, of course. lol

Whew. Now I'm all caught up I think, aside from adding these to my project pages. Yay!! :)

Picture Post!!

The past week+ has been sooooooooooo busy and I have lots of photos. :)

Working backwards.....

 I didn't get this done for the 4th - I finished it up last night, if I want to be honest with y'all. 

I didn't have any 40ct. linen on hand to finish this kit as a 'box' finish but I wanted to stitch it NOW (I'm not one for waiting) so I figured it would be easy enough to stitch it twice. I'll just whip it up again for the box once I have the right linen, right?! 

Stuffing a star shape is...............interesting. If  'difficult' and 'annoying' is interesting to you. Probably should have thought that one out a little more before I settled on a star shaped pillow. lol So it's a little lumpy in areas and the chenille trim hides some of the evenness of the points, but it's DONE so I'm happy. :) 

No changes to it other than adding in the 2012 over one near the flag.

Walking along the path that runs right along the coast line in Narragansett, Rhode Island on the 4th. My mother lives about a 1/4 mile away so I got to take a nice long walk and soak up some ocean winds and smells. (I'm not one for beach lounging. Sand. No.)Very nice!! If I lived there I don't think I would be able to stop myself from taking hours and hours long walks every day.

 

I, admittedly, hate gardening but I know how to grow these. One of my favorite flowers. My blue ones are doing great but my purple ones? Not so much this year. :(

No cuttings from those because there is nothing to cut. *sad*

 Road trip to northern Massachusetts where I couldn't help but swing by WEBS (America's Largest Yarn Store!). I had a gift certificate from Christmas that I've been hoarding, waiting to spend it person vs. online so I could pet everything first before buying. Can't do THAT when shopping online. lol

Also part of the road trip: a stop by Yankee Candle's flagship store. You can lost in there for hours, it's so so so so so big. Like a whole village of shops under one roof! They had tons of clearance tables out and you won't get me to admit (in public or otherwise) how much I spent. Nope! I'll take that one to my grave, or at least I will when I can destroy any evidence of the bank statement once it comes in. lol (I should probably note that at least I don't use credit cards. I take my financial lumps up front, thankyouverymuch. Credit cards are too easy to use.........and scary. lol)

Not pictured: 

2hr. 'road trip' to movie theater to see movie - only we bought the tickets for the wrong theater for the wrong time, oh, and we would have been late anyway because we got stuck in a hailstorm on the way, so the movie was not to be. *sniff*

Tried again a couple days and managed it much better. Prometheus. Good. Creepy. If they don't make a sequel I will punch someone (I DON'T KNOW WHO YET BUT I'M LOOKING AT YOU, LINDELOF) because that's just cruel to end things like that. *stare*

Lots and lots of knitting after logging lots and lots of time in the car. Almost done with my Dragonflies. 

All caught up now! Whew!!!!! Summer's going by fast, isn't it????? :)

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

 Lots of new adventures this past week in the form of: BICYCLING.

The husband recently got one to use on the hiking trails in the woods down the road from the house and then he talked me into getting one too. (With CONDITIONS. Like: bike paths only, no woods, no roads, etc. I'm a diva like that. :))

Mind you, I haven't been on a bike in OVER TWENTY YEARS so this past week was *quite* the hoot. You don't TOTALLY forget how to ride one. You basically remember enough not to fall off it - while looking/feeling like a complete moron for awhile until it fully comes back. There was bunch of pushing around with one foot like a scooter until my brain kinda connected with the fact that you have to, you know, PEDAL. Hahaha! We've gone out a few times and it gets easier, as far as handling, each time. (Because physically? Exhausting. And I've been REALLY good about getting in my exercise 5-6 days a week this year so that doesn't seem fair. *pout* I feel like I should be in better shape?) This week has been nothing but rain but hopefully the weekend will allow for a couple more 'sessions'. :)

In other news, Shepherd's Bush was really great about sending me some more chenille trim to finish my pillow. While waiting, I stitched her face again, this time with random Crescent Color floss in a Xmas theme. I think it will make for a cute ornament finish. (Carrot nose has been ordered.)

 It fully hit me that I have a STAGGERING amount of smalls to deal with now (to me) when I went to store that pillow until holiday time so I buckled down this week to at least get my Halloween designs finished.

Turns out if you do one each day it's not super overwhelming. I would cut/pin them while waiting for my kiln to heat before working, do the sewing after I was finished work, and then stuff/close up at night while watching tv.

 It feels good to get these 'done done' now so I can use them this fall. I have four times as many Xmas ones to finish though so....................hold me. The end is no where in sight. lol

Happy May Day!

 In my usual scan of various news sites and blogs this morning,  I've already come across that May is the National Burger Month, National Mental Health Awareness Month and National Masturbation Month. Sooo..........yeah. Busy month, it seems! (One of those came from Bobby Flay's twitter feed............I'll leave it to you to guess which one it was. lol)

Things have been busy busy the last week! Not much time for projects and that sort of thing I'm afraid. I did manage to grab The Most Awesomest Sneakers in the world though. I'll show them to you but, first, put on a pair of sunglasses.............ready?..................

Oh yeah, baby! 

The color isn't *quite* right there though...........

Yep. That's more like it. 

If you think I don't plan on wearing these with my equally-eye-searing neon orange capri jogging pants..........YOU WOULD BE WRONG. (That's me - standing up for the unloved colors with PRIDE.) They are light as a feather - literally. Just 7.6 ounces! I've already put about 12-15 miles on them and it's two thumbs up all the way. Sorry to be so EXCITED but I literally can't remember the last time I had a pair of 'regular' sneakers. Ages and ages and AGES. I usually go more for the hiking/trail type shoe or sandal. Plan on wearing them out with the walking. Zoom, zoom, zoom!

Got those when I was SUPPOSED to be shopping for wedding clothes. My bad. Easily distracted shopper here. *waves arms* Did manage to get an outfit though and be properly dressed in the end. 

The wedding was in Boston, which was a treat as I haven't been to that city in yearsssssssss. Easily over a decade! The ceremony was at the Public Gardens by the Swan Boats which was pretty but, New England being New England, the weather wasn't ENTIRELY cooperative. (It was about 50 degrees and SUPER windy. Brrrr!) Strangely enough, I have *ANOTHER* thing to go to this week in Boston as well. Funny how that works! Haven't been there in ages and now I'm going twice in one week! 

 I managed to score three tickets for a Red Sox game this week so we have that on Friday. FUN! I've been to a ton of 'farm team' games (grew up within a stone's throw of McCoy stadium) but I've never been to FENWAY. I don't actually watch baseball or, uhhhhh, know any players names or anything but I always LOVE going to see something live regardless. I'm weird like that. There's something about the 'realness' of it that I find  immensely entertaining, while on tv it just bores me to death. lol 

HUGE THANKS to Carol and Lori for the gifties that I received from them in the last week!!!!

 I won this adorable little bunny chart from Carol..........

And the yarn was a wonderful surprise from Lori. (Which I immediately caked up and started working on, as you can see.)

THANK YOU BOTH and *MWAH*

Fini.

Finished both my 'vacation' projects this weekend! :)

 Queen Bee by LHN

 No mods..........that I remember. The linen is called Straw but I have to admit I'm not sure what company it's from. (WDW? Maybe?) I get linen in, throw it in the pile and then never really know what it is or where it's from. /shrug 

I really liked the frame that was pictured with the pattern for this but the square shape is just begging for a cube finish instead, right?

 Vesper striping yarn

And more stripey socks (that I never ever get tired of making............or wearing!) This color was hard to photo.........when the sun hits this yarn, I swear it GLOWS. Soooooooooooo bright! LOVE IT!

So that's cool, not letting them drag out for months or whatever. Now I can rip into something NEW and SHINY. lol

Here's a cool link I came across this morning on Pinterest:

Oh, to have the time to get to all the projects in the world!!!

 I really like the patchwork pincushion that links to here. Super cute! Bookmarking that one for sure.

We got some snow! Finally.

And then it was 55 degrees the next day and all melted away within 48 hours. 

Oh well. It was pretty while it lasted. 

I can't say I'm not enjoying the extra 'sunny' feeling this winter because of the lack of storms. (Anything to avoid that mid-winter blues/depression thing, yes?)

I wasn't feeling super great last week but I managed to suck it up and finally finish my last remaining knitting WIP:

 (Look: actual SNOW in the background!)

My Joy Mittens.......that I started last August. Feels good to get this one finally finished! They were easy to do but the heavy charting made it hard to give them the attention they really needed when watching tv so I only worked on them in fits and starts. I originally started these because, after searching and searching and trying assorted projects, I FINALLY found a pattern that I felt really worked with this Twisted Fiber yarn that had been sitting around in my stash for ages and agessssss:

 Do you know how much I used up for the mittens? Less than ounce of it. I still had a very-generous 2.6 ounces left afterwards so I whipped up the rest into a pair of simple socks:

(Paired with another scrap yarn for the heel/toes because 1) I like the jaunty, almost ridiculously cheery look of it and 2) the green yarn is a bit thin so I wanted something a bit heavier for the areas that would wear out the fastest.) Soooo, did I finally use up the last of the yarn?

Not quite. lol

There's still a healthy ball of it left. And by healthy I mean there is probably enough to do the heel/toes of another pair of socks, if I were so inclined, which I AM NOT. This relationship was great while it lasted but it's over now and he needs to move on without me. :)

Needles are now empty and I can get to digging up all the many many stitching WIP's I have squirreled away in various places.

 

Ravelry link for the mittens, for anyone interested in knitting them. It's a fabulous pattern, with great charts/instructions.

Yay!

 I got the tree up this year before Christmas Eve! A WEEK AND HALF before Christmas Eve, to be exact. I'm so proud of myself. *pats self* 

I'm not going to bother to try and take a 'picturesque' photo of it though because it's impossible. Large sunny window + killer huge tv that can be seen from space on one side = no good angles for proper photo taking. Plus, I'm not dedicated enough to have a theme tree so I'm not sure how photo worthy it is anyway. I pick up a few ornaments every year to add to the mess, take out a few as the years go on...........it's a mix of everything and nothing but I wouldn't have it any other way. lol

Here a few new ones for this year:

How cute is this? I got this off of an Etsy seller. Looks just like the  hubby in his moon suit bee keeper suit! Super adorbs!

Simple ones from Target but I love their knitty-ness. They look/feel like they were fashioned out of old Fair Isle sweaters or something. Now THAT I can get behind.

And here are my kitties, in clay form. Robyn did a post last week showcasing a whole bunch of crafty kitty ornaments made for her by people and it made me pouty not to have any crafty kitties too so I found a bunch on Etsy and................good god I don't have $15 each to spend on crafty kitties on Etsy! They are lovely but no. Sorry. I'll have to plan for that during the year, one at a time. So when I was at Michael's last week for something else, I hit up the clay aisle and got some supplies to make up my own gang of kitties. For less than $15, I made up a Meisha, Mooshie, and Maggie kitty plus something else that can't be shown because it's a gift. :)

Meisha says: Uhhhh, like, my nose isn't pink though? 

Me: Sorry, bbs. I didn't buy any black so pink had to do. 

Meisha: Pfffftt!

Of course, now I have all this leftover clay because I only used up the ivory pack. What to do with it?!? lol My 'career' as a clay artist (sooooooooooooo kidding!!!) was short-lived because rolling out the clay balls DECIMATED my hands. My middle knuckle, palm side, was inflamed and owie for two days afterwards. No more clay crafts for me. It's now DAYS later and my inner palms, where the joints are, are STILL a little hurty if I press on it. :(

It's always fun to bring on the cross-stitch ornaments too, here are two are my favs, a JCS ornie and a L*K one:

I have so so so so many less than I would like to have though. I totally, miserably, horrendously FAILED on that front this year. Need to rethink crafty goals for next year. Hmm.........

And finally, look at this super great birthday gift that Cookie A. sent me. A loverly skein of cashmere infused yarn and an organic cotton sock drawstring bag. So very very thoughtful of her to think me of like that when she's so busy flitting around the world doing super-important knitting things and..............OK so this is really just the last installment of the 2011 Sock Club......that was sent out to hundreds of people, not just me. A girl can have her delusions, right? :)

Patch job success!

From these holey heels:

To two new life-saving patches:

Annnnnnnnnd my favorite pair of socks are back in action for a little while longer.

I even had some of the original yarn left in my cupboard to use for the darning! (Though, obviously, we've got some MAJOR fading going on here over the three years these socks have been in use.) 

You basically use a lot of duplicate stitching with a regular sewing needle to 'fill' the hole. The heel with the totally disintegrated stitches was a bear to do, not gonna lie. (Creating new knit stitches out of thin air is NOT fun). That one is clearly not as neat as the other but I'm fairly certain it will hold so I'm happy with it. I can always get back in there and widen it a bit if needed.

HUGE thanks to Jackie for pointing me in the direction of Knit Picks darning tutorials.They worked like a charm. :)