Tomorrow is Turkey Thursday!!!!!!

Oh my gosh, tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Bring on the turkey! The stuffing! The mashed potatoes! The gravy! The parade!

Bring on the bloated, too-stuffed-to-move feeling, too.

Netherlands doesn't have a Thanksgiving, but we'll do a little mini-dinner on Sunday with Ludi's parents. I'm only making a turkey breast. Some people here seem to think that a whole turkey is too much. Ha, I say to them.

They've no idea how much turkey I can eat.

Regardless of my abilities to devour tons of the stuff, we're not doing a whole turkey. It'll still be delicious, I'm sure! Will the weather be decent enough where you are to start putting up lights outside over the weekend? We used to do that in my house. Decorate outside this weekend before it got too cold to be out there comfortably. Anyone else do that? Or do you just leave the lights up all year round? *wink*

We were having nice weather here last week. We've had a pretty decent fall this year. We had some rain, but there were some glorious days too. The colors of the leaves were fantastic. The trees in the neighborhood park were so pretty I stopped and stared a few times. I'm pretty sure the other people walking around the park thought I was goofy. But then again, I think they always think I'm goofy.

Goofy American.

There was a tree that I could see from our dining room window that was the same bright yellow. This picture barely does it justice.

late season fall color

The tree is on the street behind us, so I could only see the top of it. But when the sun hit it just right, the thing just glowed. (See? Terrible picture. That's not even close to glowing.) I enjoyed it for about a week before the leaves finally started falling. I'm not sure what kind of tree it was, but they stuck around for quite a while before finally giving up the fight.

And now it's all gray and cold and the leaves are gone. It's barely 4 and it's too dark to knit without a light on. How sad is that? Remember when it was light out at 10:00 p.m.? Yeah.

That's alright. Christmas lights show up better in the dark. tee hee!!!

I hope that everyone enjoys their turkey tomorrow! And get that decorating started!


xxx

November already?

Ok, enough slacking, it’s the middle of November already! Good grief! Usually August, September and October drag by for me, seemingly taking forever. The wait for Halloween is a long one. But after that, it’s like you’re on a downhill roller coaster.  The days FLY by speeding their way to Christmas. The day/season that I wait for all year. But this year, July-October FLEW by. We were so busy! We had a vacation at the end of September just 3 weeks after moving. And the MOVING...ugh. It’s still kicking my ass. Which means I don’t have any ta-da photos yet. They might have to wait till Christmas photos. I am determined that at least the living room will be boxless for Christmas.

I’ve got my work cut out for me. Gah, how do two adults collect so much STUFF?! Trying to figure out where to put everything in an organized manner is taking longer than I planned/wanted. I think it will be a work-in-progress for some time to come. But we’re adjusting to the new place quite easily. I’m getting used to not having everything I need within 10 feet of me anymore (kidding - the old place wasn’t THAT small, but almost). Getting used to having an upstairs and downstairs. This place is so much bigger. It’s fantastic to have more space! Like Ludi's sister said, we can waltz in our bedroom. It's huge! We love it!

I do miss the old neighborhood a little bit. I miss being so close to the neighborhood shopping center. I don’t really miss the neighbors though. The barking dogs. The seemingly constant coming and going of loud motor scooters. When I walk back to that neighborhood, I get a little nostalgic. We lived there for 5 1/2 years. It’s hard to not get a little attached after that long.

But the old apartment I don’t miss. One. Tiny. Bit.

Nope.


Not a smidge.


xxx

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.