Bowing to Karma

I've been working very hard lately to get into Karma's good graces and this morning I was left wondering what I had done to piss Karma off! (not this Karma, more like the celestrial Karma)

So anyway, I arrived at work after an especially long commute and got out of my car. As I leaned back in to retrieve my bag, two cars came by, hitting the puddle near my car, practically covering me in puddle water. I decided to remain positive and stalked to towards the elevator. As I opened the lobby door and turned to the elevator, I noticed a large sign indicating that the elevator was BROKEN! I next huffed and puffed up 6 flights of stairs and arrived at my desk out of breath.

I took a moment and collected myself all the way asking Karma to take it easy on me for the rest of the day. Luckily she listened to me and so far the day is turning out well. I'm still not sure what I did this morning to tick off Karma though.


**Edited to add The Offending Puddle**

Woe to the Weaving of Ends

Trepidation was upon me. I knew I should have followed the directions which read, "weave in ends as you go." For if I had followed those directions, I wouldn't be in this situation. A situation which will involve focused dedication and the elmination of all non-essential tasks.



For the next few nights, I will be weaving, weaving, cursing, weaving, swearing, shouting at the sky, weaving and then finally I will be done and the second part of this blanket will commence.



Last week, one of our tasks in the Artist's Way was to take 20 minutes and make a collage. I really enjoyed this task and this is what I made! What a fun task!

Knitting Smackdown -- Part Deux



I met up with Carrie today at Cafe Ladro for some Hobo Bag knitting time. Meg was unable to meet us due to a previous committment. We took this opportunity to knit faster and longer in order to speed past Meg.



After four hours, much talking and some coffee, we had success! 24.5 inches!



Tonight I'll start the straps. Time to get your knit on MEG!

Artist's Way Week Seven

Weekly Check-In:

1. Morning Pages: I did my morning pages 6 out of 7 days. I was worried I wouldn't get these done since I was a bit crunched for time toward the end of the week but it felt good to get my thoughts down on the page.

2. Artist Date: The house I was watching had the best bath tub I've ever seen. The water dropped down from the ceiling into the tub. Armed with a Lush bathbomb, I drew up a tub and relaxed in the waters. The artistry of this bath is enough to inspired the most closed soul. It was wonderful. And luckily for me, I took the bath just in time. The next day for some unknown reason, the hot water was out.

3. Synchronicity: I think the item of synchronicity that stuck me as the most ironic was the hot water disappearing the day after I took my artist date bath. I had thought about leaving it until the next day but I'm so glad I didn't.

4. Tasks: I completed most of my tasks this week. I'm still working on the jealousy map but it is already quite revealing.

Where I write

Blue Dog asked us to show her what we write our morning pages in and to show her our journals.

This is my journal. I purchased it at Target for $2.99 and I think it was one of the best journals I've ever purchased. I usually spend way too much on a journal that I can't really write in or am too scared to sully with my handwriting because some journals are so beautiful that no handwriting seems worthy enough to be inside their pages.



This is what makes this journal so perfect for me. It is beautiful to me and yet so very useful. My writing flows across its pages until three pages pour themselves out.




And for Meg and Carrie, BRING IT GIRLS! The fight is back on!

February's Self Portrait Tuesday's theme is "all of me" where you embrace your mistakes and love the ugly bits.


click on photo for larger view

This is all of me, from my nose to my lips, this is all of me. All the bits of me. All the ones I like and all the ones I don't like as much. In the end though, all these parts make up who I am.

Artist's Way Week Six

Weekly Check-In:

1. Morning Pages: I did my morning pages 4 out of 7 days. It was touch and go this week on the morning pages. I just had too much to do and sometimes something has to drop off my plate, unfortunately it was my morning pages.

2. Artist Date: I too the easy way out this week and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The imagery of Tim Burton's work was beautiful and the colors inspired my soul. What a wonderful movie to watch! I especially liked how goofy it was.

3. Synchronicity: Synchronicity abounded. I even mentioned to friends about all the synchronicity, when you open your eyes to it, synchronicity is everywhere.

4. Money: Ugghhhh! I'm not to fond of thinking about my limited supply of money. I would really like an unlimited supply! I found out that I spend a lot of money at Starbucks this week but then again, I had a Starbucks card from Valentine's Day and that may have inspired more of my visits than usual.

5. Tasks: I did most of the tasks this week. I baked Madelines (and they are good!), I collected 5 leaves, I found 5 rocks and I prepared postcards for friends which will be mailed shortly.

Radio Silence

I've been quiet this week and not because of a conscious decision. In fact, it's more due to the fact that I've been working on a really cute project and I know that the giftee reads this blog. I'd hate to ruin the surprise so I haven't had much to say.



BUT tonight I went to a reading by Maria Dahvana Headley who wrote, "The Year of Yes". Maria was amazing to listen to and her reading was hysterical! I'm most certainly adding this book to my reading list. After listening to Maria and telling a friend about a friend who meets people whereever she goes, I decided to talk to the gentleman sitting next to me. He was reading the book and so I used that as my chat up line. I asked him how he liked the book and then worked my way in to asking about him. All was going well and while I knew there wasn't a connection, I still liked that I was taking the chance to just talk to anyone! So in mid-word, another woman swoops in and takes over the attention of this man. He seemed confused and appeared to know the woman, though it did seem that he hadn't seen her in a long time. He stuttered over her name and I took this as my cue to disappear. The BEST part was my friend's face since we both didn't know what to make of this woman and her rude interruption. In fact, I think Kate might still be asking, "What happened back there?" Mot just laughed and said that I have yet another story while shaking her head.

I'm chalking this down as a cocktail party story!

February's Self Portrait Tuesday's theme is "all of me" where you embrace your mistakes and love the ugly bits.



These are my feet from the past until today. Through the years, they have taken me many places and I have caused them much pain. The first photo shows my marathon toe from when I ran my first marathon. I actually earned this black toe during training. The second photo shows my feet after an especially nice pedicure and the last shows my feet today. I painted my toes on Sunday but the polish is already chipping. I'm wearing some handknit socks today from a sock swap a few years ago. These still bring comfort on a cold day like today.

Awesome weather and knitting

Last night after visiting my ex-boss about watching her dogs, I took my brother's dogs out for a walk. I had planned to make it a longer walk but the cold weather drew me back in after only 20 minutes. The dogs were sad to head in but I was quite happy. I grew even happier when thunder sounded above the house just 10 minutes later. Then I saw lightening and more thunder shook the house. The dogs flew into a barking frenzy and Pandora glued herself to myside.

Seeing as I would be in for the rest of the night, I sat down and did some more knitting on the baby sweater. This really is a quick knit! I quickly knit up the 5.25 inches for the body last night and would have started the sleeves except my trusty double pointed #7's are probably at home (or I don't have any and they are actually at the store).

So for now, here is where we stand on the baby sweater progress (Kim, It is looking like you will be getting at least one of these too! So cute and nice!)



Details for LeAnne:

The pattern calls for a 24" US7 Circular. I'm using a 12" US7 Circular since I could NOT for the life of me get the stitches around the 24" circular. I would have used a 16" one if I had that but I didn't so the 12" works too. The 24" does not!

Oh and Happy Black Tuesday everyone! (No, I'm not bitter, this is a joke between a friend and I)

Yesterday, seems so very far away...

Yesterday morning before I headed off to my friend's baby shower (had a great time and everything went smoothly), I watched my brother's dogs as they watched the morning walkers.



Their rapt attention was held by every whisper of activity happening outside their window. Massive barking and running around only happened when a particulary beautiful dog happened by. They were so pleased with themselves that I was envious of their entertainment.

After arriving home from the baby shower, I cast on for another baby shower present, The child's placket sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. So far so good!



Now if only I could be sitting at home knitting instead of working. I'm a bit jealous of the snow day on the East Coast though I don't think I'd enjoy being stranded so my jealousy has lessened.

Madrona Fiber Arts Festival (Or Meg and I's Road Trip to Tacoma for YARN!)

This morning I met up with Meg at a very early hour of 9 a.m. for a trip down to T-town.

We drove down to Tacoma, stopping at Starbucks for a quick Chai stop and quickly found cheap parking downtown. We ran into the Sheraton with yarn on our minds. I ran over to the sign-up table for time with the Yarn Harlot. Unfortunately all the slots were filled but I wisely put Meg and I's names down as "extras" on the non-existent waiting list.



In the meantime, Jessica had spotted us and was calling our names. She was knitting on her olympic knitting along with Lorette. I was so EXCITED since I often read Lorette's blog but had never actually talked with her in person.



Lorette is knitting the coolest sock and has inspired me to knit something similar. The thoughts are churning!

Sadly it was about this time that tragedy struck. Meg was asking Jessica some questions about her Rosy sweater when she mentioned that it seemed so very large. After careful consideration, it was decided that Rosy needed to be RIPPED since Meg's gauge was off.



All of Meg's hard work, ripped and re-wound. Meg is still mourning her Rosy but a new sweater will be created soon and it will be good!

I was also lucky enough to meet Kris who recently moved her from Florida. In a moment of synchronicity, I was reading her blog yesterday about her search for cheesy grits for her daughter and today I met her! I love synchronicity.

After the Rosy incident, Meg and I did a quick turn around the yarn expo before heading out to a Mexican lunch with Margaritas. Yum!

After the liquid encouragement, it was time the work our way into the Yarn Harlot class. We headed up and after observing for some time, Meg asked the coordinator about getting into the class. She said that if two people didn't show up, we were in. There was a 15 minute wait after the class started and we WERE IN! We learned how to fix mistakes, Stephanie's opinion on Metric Measurement vs the US System of Measurement and how duplicate stitch can be the most awesome way to fool the eye.



All in all a wonderful day except that Ryan was unable to attend since she was in the hospital and not feeling up to par. Go and wish Ryan good health!

Artist's Way Week Five

Weekly Check-In:

1. Morning Pages: I did my morning pages 6 out of 7 days. One of the days was only one page though so I'm not sure if it should count but I will anyway. I struggled to write these this week and ended up getting them done more in the evening than in the morning. It is nice to get them done right away but I do need to get to work on time more than I need to get these pages done so at times they suffer.

2. Artist Date: I went to Barnes & Noble last night and roamed among the stacks. I wrote down some book titles I want to request from the library. I had a nice time roaming the store and watching others making their book selections. There were families reading children's novels, old men browsing technical handbooks and young girls giggling in the magazine area.

3. Synchronicity: There were moments of synchronicity. Moments abounded. I ask the universe for things and the universe presents the opportunities to me in many fashions.

4. Wishing: There is so much that I wish for and so much that I already have. I wish and then I realize that I already have much more than others. I try to remember that enjoying what you have is very important, almost as important as dreaming and wishing.

Another one knits the dust...



Last night I settled in for watching my brother's dogs and some television time. I thought Grey's Anatomy was on but it was really only a re-run so instead I watched some CSI and knitted my 6th Dulaan item, which means I am 42% done!



Once complete, Phoenix agreed to model it for me this morning. Actually I trapped him, tied the hat on his head and forced him to smile for photos. Doesn't he look like he loves me a WHOLE lot?



Here is the hat without an animal model showing off it's lovely braided ties and cozy ear covers. Some kid is going to be warm in this hat!

Blah! I just saw a comment from a "John" about how he doesn't think Supergirl would knit and how boring a knitting blog is. Seems like "John" is a mean, boring person who doesn't know that everyone has joys and passions in life. Too bad he couldn't just pass on by the blog but felt to need to spread his misery around by leaving a comment.

Dulaan Knitting

One of my 31 in 31 goals is to knit 14 items for the Dulaan project.

As of last night, I have knit 5 items including this adorable hat happily modeled by Destiny the cat.



Shortly after this photo was taken, Destiny rolled onto her back and began to fight the hat. Le Monstre saw this demonstration and kindly took over further modeling duties.


He would smile if he could, but Monsters don't smile.

So in my quest to knit 14 items for Dulaan, I have completed 5 items.


One item is missing from this picture, it was knit at a Dulaan party and given away then.

So 9 items to go! I have a hat on the needles and speed knitting will commence shortly. I have 5 more months to get this done!

click on photo for larger view

February's Self Portrait Tuesday's theme is "all of me" where you embrace your mistakes and love the ugly bits.

This is how I felt when I finally got home tonight. Work has been a bit stressful lately and somehow Yoga at lunch gave me a headache. I'm not in the best of moods.

Crossing Items Off The List

This weekend, I crossed another item off the 31 in 31 list. I conquered making proper pie crust!

And now I'm dreaming of pies. Sweet, Delicious Pies

Blocking

"Ronnie" is nearing completion. Today I blocked out my "Ronnie" sweater and will seam it up this week. Right now I'm just waiting for it to finish drying!



So the SeaHawks didn't win but I do feel they got a lot of bad calls from the refs. Not to worry, they'll be back next year to win.

Artist's Way Week Four: Weekly Check-In

Weekly Check-In:

1. Morning Pages: I did my morning pages 6 out of 7 days. I had such a busy week at work and getting up early was quite a struggle. Some pages were great and some were really rushed but I did them and that is good.

2. Artist Date: Yep, I went to IKEA!

3. Synchronicity: There were moments of synchronicity. Moments when I realized that so and so knew so and so who knew me. 6 degrees.

4. Reading: I slipped up a few times but all in all, I kept to the reading ban. It made me realize just how deeply I love to read and that I don't want to have another ban again! Beneficial though, just really hard.

Rockin' Better Pal

Last night I arrived home after spending the evening with Meg (She had her wisdom teeth out and is handling it like a champ!) to find a fantastic package waiting for me.

Inside were these delightful treats!



Two balls of Paint Box in a great earthy tone, a flower pin kit and a wooden needle case with a needle inside. I already used the needle today and I can't wait to use my other goodies.

Thank you BETTER PAL!

And to top an already great day, I picked up my pottery piece from last week. I like how it turned out though I do think I would do a few more coats of paint but all in all, I really like it. And all my hair brushes (Brosse de Cheveux) fit inside quite well.

Week Four -- Artist Date

Last night after work, I headed down to Ikea for my Artist Date.



After battling some traffic and rain, I arrived at Ikea.



Once inside, I browsed all the cool products and poked around the frame area. I was hoping to find a frame for my Cat Poster that needs framing but no such luck.

I did however find a cheap pillow (I'm going to knit a cover) and an Artist's Model. I've always wanted an Artist's Model and for $5 it was mine!



This was a quick yet fun Artist Date. Ikea is always a treat!

Lack of Reading

I do not like this reading restriction, I do not like it in a boat, I do not like it in a moat. I do not like it, Sam I am. I do not like the reading restriction.

I'm not doing so well with the reading restriction right now. I haven't caved but I do find myself caressing books and dreaming about them. This is a hard challenge for me. I feel a bit like a smoker who is trying to quit. It seems that reading is part of EVERYTHING I do and saying that I can't read is quite mean! I know that there is a reason behind the "No Reading" rule but I'm feeling a bit irrational about it at this moment.

Mot has become my "No Reading" taskmaster. Last night she asked me how it was going and then she asked if I had replaced reading with watching television. Next she pulled a "Rebecca" on me and proceeded to suggest a million different things I could be doing instead of watching television. I swear, that Rebecca is too energetic and too full of ideas for me!

I'm dreaming of my extended Artist's Date and I'm thinking of visiting Bainbridge Island. Originally I thought of Vancouver but I think I'd rather have someone come along with me. Bainbridge would be more ideal. There is the ferry ride, the bakery, the yarn shop, Bad Blanche's and so much to see and do. This time I think I'll take a car though so I can drive to the other side of the island and see what it has to show me.

This week's Artist Date is scheduled for Friday Thursday night. I'll reveal the details once the date is over.