Random Stuff (kind of)

1. How many stuffed animals can you fit into a box?

stuffed stuffed animals

Stuffed animals. Makes it sound like I’m 12 or something. Stuffed Decorative Pieces. There we go. Sounds way more adult, yes?

So how many Stuffed Decorative Pieces can you stuff into one box?

18.

And yup, there's nothing else in the box.

2. We just had a painting marathon weekend. The hottest weekend of the year. The second day was the worst. We sweated buckets. I thought I was going to die. I didn’t have a thermostat to check the actual temperature, but it was HOT. It was an upstairs bedroom, and with it being 98 or thereabouts outside, you can imagine how warm it was inside. But it’s done! The painting is done for now. I am so happy that I don’t have to clean out those brushes and roller again. YAY! And the paint looks better than the original stuff that was on the walls too!

3. I got my hair cut. I got probably 3 inches cut off? 4, maybe? Not sure. But it’s just above my shoulders now. Short and sassy. I liked having longer hair, but I never did anything with it. I could never make it look how I wanted it to look, and I never wanted to invest the time in doing that anyways. I love how other people look with long wavy hair, beach hair, whatever you want to call it, but it just never looked right on me. Or, more accurately, I couldn’t make it look right. So it’s shorter now. And cooler for summer heat.

4. The Moving Process is coming along very slowly. As I mentioned before, painting is done for now. The flooring will be installed on Friday (yay! I can’t wait to see that!), and then we can really start moving things over. Thankfully it will be cooler weather this weekend. (I do plan on doing a little before and after post. Any bets on if I actually follow through?)

5. Because of all the moving chores, I haven't been knitting. It's been at least 4 days since I picked any needles and yarn up. Can you believe it? Me? Not knitting? Can't wait until we're done, so that I can knit again. I have another scarf to make before vacation at the end of September.

How’s it going with you guys?


xxx

Where have I been?

I fell off the face of the Earth for a while, that’s where I’ve been. July was so busy with family things (three birthdays, and a family getaway (the entire family! 11 of us!) in Germany for Ludi’s parent’s 50th wedding anniversary - Go go Mia & Louis!). The entire month just flew by. And now we’re in August. And it’s flying too! Thankfully, because I think August is my least favorite month. Something about the heat, I guess.

There are a couple of reasons that this month is flying. At the beginning of the month (well, actually starting July 27), I was part of Team Owlie 2012 doing the Ravellenic Games. It was a knitting contest with Ravelry that coincided with the Olympics. So all during the Olympics I was working on knitting projects that had to be finished by the end of the official games. I just barely made it (I’m a slow knitter). Here is what I made!

another Frangiflutti (made for Mom’s friend Judy)

more popcorns! Now I have 46 total. (made for me!)

When you post your finished project, you get a “medal” and everything (a photo of one made by someone at Ravelry. Not a photo of an actual Olympic medal. That might infringe on copyright, right? *wink*) I was worried that I wasn’t going to finish them, because while all this was going on, we

SIGNED A CONTRACT ON A NEW PLACE!!!!! A rental, but still! We’re moving! YESSSS!!! It’s a much bigger place, which is so needed. Three bedrooms, as opposed to our 1 1/2 here. (I call it a 1/2 a bedroom because it’s so freaking small. A single bed barely fits in there.) Just so much more room. And no upstairs neighbors! YES! Even better. Can’t wait to move in.

The month has been filled with appointments with repair men, picking paint and flooring, buying paint and flooring, cleaning, etc. The rest of the month will be filled with packing and moving. It’s going to be quite a haul to get ourselves moved in time, but we’ve got to do it. We have a deadline. So we’ve gotta be out of here completely by August 30th.

And I keep looking at everything that still needs packed (everything, basically).

Panic.


How much of this stuff do I really need?


xxx

Newest project

My latest obsession project is hot buttered popcorn. Minus the hot. And the buttered. But it is still popcorn.

get it while it's hot

The pattern is from KnitPicks Winter Wonderful pattern set. It comes with a whole bunch of patterns for Christmassy items, but truthfully I really only bought it for the knitted string of popcorn and cranberries. My desire was to make garland for the tree.

I think it’s going to be a very long term project. Because these little beauties are fiddly. Each one takes me about an hour. Maybe as I make more I’ll get better/faster, but for now, they’re time sucking little things. But I am enamored with them, so I’ll keep knitting. Maybe for this year I’ll just have a short garland to go over a picture, or something? Or over my non-existing mantle? I know it seems like I should be able to get further than a 3 foot/1 meter strand, but I’m only doing one a day. The frustration level is a little high on these too. That’s all I can do in one day. One kernel of popcorn. So it’s going to take me a while to even get to that length.

But aren’t they cute?!

cuter than the real thing

A fat free snack.


xxx

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

oooooo...aaaaaaaaaa

I hope you all enjoy your holiday. It's not too hot where you are, is it? That might make things uncomfortable. For me, anyways. Maybe you enjoy sticky oppressive heat, I don't know.

I read somewhere online that it's estimated that there are 80 million BBQ's today. Wow. That's a lot of hamburgers and hotdogs. Yum!


xxx

What is going on???

I think someone is trying to tear down our building. With a single hammer or chisel, and a drill.

I was woken up at the ungodly hour of 8:55 this morning (aah, such is the life of an unemployed woman) by a pounding sound. At first I thought it was the wench woman who lives above us, whose sole purpose in life is to annoy me. Upon further inspection, I realized it wasn’t her but someone else apparently doing some remodeling. With a hammer and chisel (I could hear the clinking when I was near the open kitchen window, but not when I was in the bedroom), and then a drill!  Drilling. In cement block walls.

Oh joy of joys.

My life is now complete.

In other news, the Frangiflutti with the birthday yarn is done! Wheeee!!!

kinda blurry scarf

For those of you who might want it, the pattern is on Ravelry (Frangiflutti), and for those of you who might want to know the yarn it’s Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Magico II, color number 3503.


xxx


edited to add: Found out later that the neighbor 3 doors down is getting some work done in his apartment. Don't know what he's having done though. Drilling through to the next apartment, perhaps? I'm guessing replacing tiles in the bathroom or kitchen, but don't quote me on that.

The potato salad was a success.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend! It was Memorial Day weekend in the USA, and here it was Pinksteren (Pentecost), so Monday was a day off. Yippee! I can’t remember that happening before. Both holidays on the same weekend. We took advantage of it and had a little cookout at Ludi’s parents. We brought the hamburgers and potato salad, and they supplied the grill.

The grill with the yummy burgers

Another thing I can’t remember is if I've made potato salad since living here. It seems like I have, but it must have been a long time ago. At any rate, I made the salad this weekend. According to all sources, it was good. I made it a little differently this time. I was lazy and didn’t want to chop up a whole bunch of different vegetables to put in (onion, bell pepper, carrots, etc) so I got some pre-cut soup vegetables and used those. There were some things in the bag of veggies that I wouldn’t normally have used, but other things that we always have. I think I liked it! I KNOW I liked how easy it was. Opening a bag and dumping instead of chopping. What’s not to love about that?

The salad and the rest of the spread

The weather was great for the Memorial Day/Pinksteren Cookout. Maybe a little warm and sunny, but it was breezy so that made up for it. And no rain. There’s nothing that can ruin a cookout faster than rain. We even walked to their house, so Ludi could enjoy some of his favorite beer, Palm. (No drinking and driving here, folks!)

All in all, it was a good holiday weekend. How was yours?


xxx

Summer is almost here!

The weather has definitely been summery here this week. It was in the low 80s yesterday (that’s high 20s for my Celsius friends), and will be again today I think. I had the windows open yesterday and had that first whiff of summer. You know the one. The warm fresh air smell? Not freshly mowed grass, or flowers, just sun-warmed fresh air. It was lovely. It made me think that summer might not be so bad after all.

Then I had to cook dinner. And the kitchen go overly hot. And I re-thought my previous notion about summer being not so bad.

Anyways, summer is coming, whether I like it or not. Maybe I’ll try to enjoy it this year.

In other news, my friend took me shopping for my birthday (Hi Friend! You know who you are!!!) and gifted me yarn! YAY!!! Yippee!!! I loves me some yarn!

I got this to probably make some socks.

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Tweed ( color #141)

I haven’t found a pattern yet. I have a lot of other projects on my plate right at the moment (which is also fantabulous. Loving the knitty busy. Busy knitty. Ha, there’s a fun new word. Busiknitty.). I’m sure I’ll find something!

She also got me the yarn to make a single-skein scarf.

Lana Grossa Magico II Meilenweit (color #3503)

I’m making Frangiflutti (pattern on Ravelry). The owner of the yarn shop had made one up in this same yarn, and it was really neat. I love how the rows lengthen on one side, and I liked the ribble effect. Fun scarf!

In still more news...my mom and three of her friends came to visit at the beginning of the month. Wow, what a fun week that was! I’ll try and make a separate post about that. In the near future. I hope.

You know how these things go.


xxx