Dainty Kitty

Addams Hat

Late last week I remembered that I needed a fairly quick gift for a baby shower for a guy that I work with (and his wife, of course).  I crocheted a baby bootie that I think was really a bootie for a two-year old (it was huge), tried another pattern that was teeny tiny and then gave up on the whole bootie idea.

Yesterday I was feeling kind of down (money, the lack of and my inability to save it when I do have it is quite sad) and stayed in all day, working on a pair of Mrs. Beetons (which I frogged after getting to the wrist of the first one because, once I put the two cuffs together, I was unhappy with the very first row of the inner cuff - heartbreaking) and watching the Addams Family Season One on dvd.  The need for a baby shower gift was still lurking there in the back of my mind.  Knocked out by the disappointment of ripping out all of the work on the Beetons, I finally decided just to make an umbilical cord hat.  I knew it would be quick knit and it would be easy so I could still keep an eye on Gomez (ah how I had a crush on him as a young girl). 

I completely forgot to scribble down the yarn but will add it later.  The yarn is Universal Yarn Inc.'s Classic Worsted Tapestry. I bought two skeins of it on a whim (along with two skeins of something else that I have no plans for either) when I went to a yarn shop up north, Ewetopia, back in December - just because I went back to pet it twice.  It's the most amazingly soft yarn and look at the bevy of stripes and shapes it created.  Perfect for a little boy.  The parents are keeping the name of their boy to be under wraps so I titled the photo Addams Hat since that mysterious and spooky family kept me entertained while I worked on it.  A few minutes later I realized that was kind of ironic - the father's name is Adam.   

Oh, and that bunny?  I bought him last Easter at a thrift shop.  He's one of my very favorite thrift finds and stays out all year (because even though he came from an Easter display they had set up, he's really not very Easter-y). 

Much happiness - it's a three day work week for me!  We have next Monday off for Presidents Day so I decided to take Thursday and Friday off so that I could have a five day weekend.   

The You Make Me Smile/You Make My Day Awards

Blog awards rock.  And I've been so lucky as to have two bestowed on me in the past couple of months.  Unfortunately, I'm terrible about passing them on.  I have a great excuse though: when I post about my favorite blogs, I want to say The Absolute Most Perfect Thing about each one and that's a heck of a lot of pressure! 

But, thanks to my procrastination, my favorite blogs win not one but two awards - the You Make Me Smile Award and the You Make My Day Award!  I mean, if they make me smile they most likely make my day, right?  ;-)    

Without further ado and in no particular order:

Delly Bean: My oldest blog friend who still blogs (albeit on a different blog than when I first met her but I can't chastise anyone for that, can I?).  Her knitting, costuming and now silversmithing talents astound me.  She also thinks Labyrinth is awesome and makes a pretty cool sock monkey - both incredibly positive traits in my book.  :-)

Hand Eye Crafts: The lovely hostess of The Knitter's Hunk and bestower of the You Make Me Smile Award (and a fabulous prize giver).  She was my first Met On Ravelry friend - hooray for Ravelry!  And the she loves Alan Rickman which makes me like her just that much more.

Karma Kitties: She knits!  She sews!  She makes adorable kids! (Okay, that sounds kinda weird but you know what I mean - her little girl is a cutie)  She passed the You Make My Day Award on to me and saved me in my recent yarn crisis, thank goodness.  The blog world is a fine, fine place. 

Bent Objects: Quirky art made of objects and wire.  His cleverness never fails to make me smile.  I mean, for Pete's sake, he made one using Chapstick.  'Nuff said. 

dharma's universe: Another reason why I love Ravelry.  Finally!- a blogger/knitter who lives in my town!  I love reading about Dayton through the eyes of someone else - and the fact that she's a knitter is pretty freaking fabulous, too!

Miss V's Hobby Adventures: A new crafter of all things.  She actually might have Delly beat for oldest blog friend who still blogs now that I think about it btu I'm not sure.  She didn't mess around when she picked up knitting recently and her progress is damn impressive.  I look forward to a time in the near future when we can knit in the same room over - ahem - a (lotta) drink(s)!

Precarious Tomato: So funny!  And she just had a gorgeous baby girl so I'm looking forward to lots of hilarious baby stories.   

Rock-Paper-Scissors: I'm always happy to see her name highlighted with a new entry on my reader.  Her paper art and, more recently, adorable bears are stunning but I also apppreciate that her blog goes deeper into personal, spiritual issues.  She often leaves me thinking about some aspect of my life in a positive, thoughtful way. 

Roman Sock:  I just found her via Ravelry - egads her amigurumi creations are adorable and  I'm a sucker for the cute! 

Gluten Free Girl: I only read a couple of food blogs and this is my favorite.  I love reading about food just about as much as I love eating it - maybe more actually.  This is so much more than a blog about living gluten-free - it's recipes and love and beautiful photos, talks about trips and fresh ingredients that make me wish I lived where such ingredients were more readily available.

The rules for each award are different - one says to pass it on to five, the other to ten.  If you read this blog and were awarded, please pass on the love in whatever amount you see fit (unless you passed the love on to me in which case you are excused unless you feel like passing on even more love - it is February, after all)!

Further Proof That I Cannot Read Directions

I gave the Pavlova (I can't find the individual recipe I used) a test run last week and they turned out tasty.  The meringue wasn't as thick as I thought it should be but I'm pretty sure that was because I forgot to turn the oven on before I started up the blender so it had to sit for a bit before the oven was ready. 

Since I had some leftover strawberries and a kiwi, I decided to make a second batch last night.  This time I remembered to turn the oven on.  I measured my vinegar and egg whites into the bowl and set the bowl a blendin'.  The result was beautiful!  It just whipped up in no time, white and fluffy.  I dipped my finger in to check for peaks and when I placed said finger in my mouth I was met by a shocking, bitter surprise.  The meringue was...vinegary.

So I checked my recipe and can you guess what I did?  Even though I'd already made the damn things once?

I had added 1/4 cup of vinegar when the recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon. 

At least this mistake made me laugh.  The night before I'd gotten the steps mixed up in a spaghetti carbonera recipe and mixed the Parmesan cheese into the cream/egg mixture while it was still just raw eggs and cream rather than cooked in with the ham and I felt overwhelmingly defeated.  But this one was funny.  Thank goodness.

So I started again and when I was finished I checked the oven which had been heating up to 250 for at least an hour...and it wasn't hot enough.  I hate my oven.  Usually it's hotter than the thermometer reads (hence the slightly burnt chicken barbeque pizza we had for dinner which also left me feeling a bit defeated).  I even bought a new oven thermometer thinking that my old once was the culprit.  Nope.  It wavers between 50 to 100 degrees hotter than what the thermometer reads and it's never consistent.  I don't think the oven ever got up to 250 because the Pavlovas never really got crunchy on the outside.  They were still tasty but they lacked that marshmallow roasted over the fire taste. 

Rick asked me last night if I was a bad cook.  No, I'm just a cook with an unreliable oven who can't read directions.  I don't think that makes me a bad cook.  At least he likes my salads (which, of course, require no reading and no stove).  He thinks I have salad talent because I chop everything into tasty bite-sized morsels and use the best dressing (Paul Newman's Sun Dried Tomato - it really is wonderful).  Like this is something no one else ever does or possibly could do. 

Of course, I'm not going to let on that this isn't true.  I very obviously have some faults I have to make up for, after all.

Bedrooms

I've never been very happy with my bedroom.  I rarely ever spend any time there so it's a room of cast offs and mismatched things.  I know mismatched things can be charming but no so much in my bedroom. 

Purchasing Harold and Maude, though, has got me thinking.    think I'm ready to start making my bedroom a more pleasant place to sleep.

The weekend before last, I spent Saturday afternoon hunting for a down comforter and duvet cover.  I got both for a song and have found it very hard to get out of bed since.  Last night I started an afghan for the cat chair (a yellow chair in the bedroom that my cats claimed years ago).   And I've been toying with the idea of arranging my books by color.  I don't think this would look good in my living room but I think I might pick out the colors that match my bedroom (blues, yellows, whites) and try it out there.  It's amazing how many like colored books you actually have when you start really looking.  I like this idea a lot but I'm not thrilled with the prospect of really doing it, though so we'll see.

So those are my ideas so far.  I've not felt the urge to do much recently other than sit on the couch with a movie and yarn and needles but I'm joining the YMCA tonight and we're going to start working out at least three times a week (starting tomorrow).  I don't exercise but I'm a bit terrified because had a physical last week and now it's sinking in that I'm really thirty-three years old and need to start actively taking care of myself.  Surprisingly, my overall cholesterol was normal (still have some work to do there, though) but my blood platelet count has me a bit worried.  I don't go back until next Friday so I'm trying not to think about it too much until I can talk to my doctor. 

I'm hoping this working out thing will get me back on track (a little sunshine would be mighty helpful, too) and wanting to actually do things - simple things, even - again.

Yawn.

Harold and Maude

I bought this today on a complete and utter whim (or at least I hope I did - it says two were sold and only one was available - I'm afraid someone might have gotten to it before me).  I'd love to have the originals but $20 is a much more feasible whim than $120 - even if one thing on my 101 in 1001 list is to buy a piece of original artwork for my living room. 

Harold and Maude is one of the greatest movies ever and if you haven't seen it, you should rent it, stat.  And the quote from the movie that the seller uses to describe the art is perfect:

Harold: I like you, Maude.
Maude: I like you, Harold.

I had originally thought I'd put them in my bathroom - the colors match my shower curtain perfectly - but I already have a mermaid theme which includes two pieces that I'd hate to put away.  Now I'm thinking I'll hang them above my bed.  I don't really have anything decent on the walls in there and they would be a good start.  And the blurb does call them a "great romantic couple" - they belong in bedroom. 

In the crafting world, I've sewn a little kitty who is currently arm and leg-less, finished the cable hat (except for stitching it together and adding the tassels) and sewn up several cloth napkins as I've decided to make the switch.  But, even though I had the whole weekend to do whatever I wanted to do, I was lazy and didn't take a single photo.  I didn't do anything I should have because I think I was just bummed. 

No Fishing or Crabbing

...or being sad either.  Even the tired has left me although, come on, this is life - there's always going to be a little tired, right?

Thank goodness for feeling like myself again.  And an extra thank goodness for all of my friends and their comments and emails!

I have a tip for any cat or dog owners out there who might be having hair issues.  I'm diligent about vacuuming and Febreezing but I did a little internet research on Friday and combined a couple of ideas that worked like a charm!  And it was fairly easy, too.  I filled a spray bottle with one part water, one part liquid fabric softener and sprayed both my couches.  After letting it soak for a few minutes, I put on a rubber dish washing glove and rubbed it all over the couch - the cat hair balled up and it was easy to pick it off.   There wasn't much to pick up which made me feel better about my housekeeping skills.   I also sprayed the carpet and let it sit before I vacuumed.  I figure I'll hit the couches once or twice a week and use it on the carpets every time I vacuum.

It feels good to have a clean place.  I even washed nearly everything in my laundry basket - including a couple of sweaters and other things that have been there for awhile because they need special attention.  I wish I could have inspired myself to work in the craft room, too, because it's such a mess.  I hate even getting on the computer because the clutter is overwhelming.   It's more a storage space than a craft room and, even though I tell myself I'm not going to do it, it's so easy to just toss anything that doesn't go in the other rooms on the computer table or just out of sight of the door.   Terrible, I tell you.  I got a really cute toy sewing book from my brother for Christmas and I'm itching to sew but haven't because...this room is unbearable.  I don't know, maybe I'll find the inspiration this weekend - or maybe I'll just get fed up.  Something.

Anyway, speaking of that...I can't sit here any more.  Yuck. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!   

Tired and Sad

In the knitting world I've hit a wall with the cabled hat.  I need to hunt down two skeins of Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in Peruvian Earth, damn it.  The Yarn and Needle, where I originally bought it, doesn't have it so I'm checking a couple of other places before I break down and order it online.  I found it on sale at a shop where I've bought things before but the shipping and handling is more than one skein and I can't bring myself to do that quite yet.  And I'll check other online shops.  I order so little when I do shop online that it's silly for me to do so, really. 

I did order the yarn to make a pair of Mrs. Beetons in green.  I was reminded that this pattern was in my Ravelry queue during the beautiful weather we had earlier this week - in the upper sixties.  I'd like to have them finished to wear for spring.  Maybe with a new denim jacket as they won't really work with my three-quarter sleeve jacket.

A Possible New Book Club Member

Have I mentioned that I'm thinking about joining a book club?  The first book we'd be reading is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Well, today I had a visitor who wanted to know if he could join the club with me.  This visitor startled me quite a bit actually.  I hadn't showered or dressed yet and then there was this knock on my door and a stranger there on the mat.

Hmm, now that I think of it, that's kind of odd as his name is Matthew.

He doesn't talk much...or at all really seeing as how he doesn't have a mouth.  I was able to understand him immediately, though.  He looks intelligent and is quite the snappy dresser.  A bit threadbare, maybe, but snappy nonetheless. 

He so graciously let me take his photo before settling down on the couch to start on Love in the Time of Cholera.  He already seems to like it here quite a bit. 

Sweeney Saturday

Sweeney Saturday!  Sweeney Todd!  Wonderfully gruesome.  Delightfully evil, hot, sexy Alan Rickman.  Talented Depp.  Erm, I don't really like Helena Bonham Carter because she broke up Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson but I loved her hair and costumes.  And even Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) had a little cameo.  It was really fun but...definitely gruesome. 

Egads, it's nearly two in the morning, I'm totally awake/exhausted and I still have to take the clean sheets out of the dryer and put them on the bed...meh....      

Today's Lesson Learned

I haven't taken my crazy pills in over two weeks.  I ran out and meant to get a refill before I left for Norfolk but never did...and I meant to do the same as soon as I got back but work was busy and I was a little under the weather and then it was New Year's...so, again, I never made it. 

When I woke up this morning feeling like I did, I thought it was just the going back to work after a four day weekend blues but I continued to feel worse throughout the day.  Edgy, tired and terribly annoyed (and on a day when things going on at the office really don't allow me time to be edgy, tired and terribly annoyed, unfortunately).  Finally it clicked.  I never meant to go so long without taking them - it wasn't a trial separation or anything.  It just happened.  And it wasn't very much fun.  Especially when combined with a little PMS.   At least now I know that I certainly can't quite kick them cold turkey.  Not that I want to or anything.  Although, I went to the ob/gyn a couple of weeks ago and she said she'd like for me to get off them before I get pregnant.  I'm not planning to get knocked up any time soon or anything but, for some reason, once you turn thirty, ob/gyn's seem to really want you primed for baby carrying.         

I digress.  So now not only am I properly medicated but I took a few hours to give the apartment a good once over with a duster, some Dr. Bronner's soap, a mop and a broom.  As long as you don't peek into the craft room, my home is back where it should be (minus the pile of laundry I'm still working on) just like I, hopefully, will be by morning.

The snow here is amazing.  Icy and sparkly.  It almost makes me want to go for a walk...until I realize it's fourteen degrees outside.   I wish grown ups got snow days....