My Best Friend's a Dork

Saturday and Sunday in St. Louis (erin)

Saturday, we slept late, and checked out the Delmar Loop. Lots of vintage shopping, boutiques, and great little restaurants.

Carma found some great things in Tag, and I bought some things in Ziezo. We shopped Phoenix Rising, and bought mustaches at the Avalon Exchange, to resurrect an old joke.(Some of you might remember the picture from the old blog.)  Of course after the drinks, we forgot about the mustaches. Speaking of, Carma, do happen to have mine? I cannot find it anywhere.

That afternoon there was a hot air balloon race, so we headed up the the rooftop bar in the hotel, and had a great time, until the tall folk showed up.

But, we did meet the owner of the hotel, he and his companion were delightful. So about three hours later, (We had been joking saying we went up for a drink and three hours later stumbled back to our room, until we realized that it had actually been three hours.) 

We then jumped on the Metro link to head back out to the mall to eat at PF Chang's. This is where we learned that I can drink, and still use chopsticks.

Sunday, we again slept late in our insanely comfortable, but very tall beds, checked out, ate at Blueberry Hill, checked out a few more shops, including Knitty Couture, and then we went our separate ways home.

I leave you with a picture of our beds. The comment was made that one looks like it exploded, while the other one looks barely slept in. I leave it to you to guess which bed was mine and which was Carma's.

Oh HI!

I have some fantastic pictures and stories from our trip to St Louis but evidently I don't have some important thing on my computer to get my pictures onto it and The Boy took his computer (which does have the aforementioned important thing) to The Lodge so I can't use that.

Rest assured there was much fun and there will be stories and pictures soon. 

The Lodge has to be done for our "Big Open House Extravaganza" on October 3rd so there has been very little time even for sleep as of late but I promise to do the best I can here shortly. (Mainly so erin doesn't brain me when I next see her).

Greetings from St. Louis

We're having a blast. Posts to come...

Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

 

 

On Saturday April 25th at 9am (!!) I will be combining exercise with a worthy cause. A group of my coworkers and I will be walking 6 miles (!!!) to raise money for the March of Dimes. If you can find it in your means to do so I would appreciate your support. 

Hey, I may even try walking and knitting...

Blech

I don't have a lot of knitting news that I can show you, hence the reason (well, one of them) that I have been MIA. Right now I am working on a Super Secret Knitting Project, otherwise known as Erin's Birthday Present. Yes, I am aware that her birthday was a month and a half ago. We have to chalk it up to the fact that I'm evidently a bad friend and a ridiculously slow knitter.

But as soon as the Super Secret Knitting Project is done and received by Erin I will be sure to post pictures (If I have iPhoto by then... souped up "old computer" still with i Photo) . I have to say I'm pretty proud (or will be when the stinking thing is finished).

In other knitting news. My fair city of Cedar Falls has a new(-ish, they opened in December) yarn shop. I'm over the moon about it. I have very little experience was a LYS, the previous shop is small and while the owner/ sole employee is a real sweetheart the hours for the shop don't really work with my work/life schedule. Plus it's small enough where I feel like if I go and hang out I'm in the way. Not so with this new shop. They are open 7 days a week AND open late on Thursdays. I'm starting to get over my fear of knitting in front of people, especially other people that also knit. (As Erin will attest I'm a dork). And I've learned a TON in just the 3 times I've visited. Granted 2 of those visits probably count as multiple visits, I was there so long. If the weather ever gets nicer I'm going to start walking down there from my apartment. I did that on one rare nice Saturday in the beginning of February. It's about 2 miles one way, so I figure I can rationalize to The Boy spending the day at the yarn shop (rather than helping out at the Lodge) if it's in conjunction with exercise. :)

After I finish the Super Secret Knitting Project I have a couple other projects that I am thinking about.

One of my coworkers is expecting and in the early stages (which means I have a lot of time, see comment about being a ridiculously slow knitter). So I was thinking a wee baby sweater might be in order. I have a pattern that includes BIG yarn and BIG needles so as long as I can get over my mental block about seaming (see comment about being a dork) I might be able to do it.

I also have the supplies to make myself a Sophie Bag. Or rather a modified version of the Sophie Bag. I'm thinking about making a buttonhole handle rather than a I-cord or beaded handle.

I also have a goal to go through my knitting "collection" and utilize Ravelry more with regards to that. While I was at the LYS the other day another woman there was looking into knitting a project where she wasn't sure if she had the proper needles. Pam, LYS worker/ instructor extraordinare, let the woman use the computer to pull up her profile on Ravelry. Lo and behold she did have the necessary needles. I never even thought to use this feature, especially in this way. This explains why I have a phenomenal number of needles. in mostly the same sizes (Honestly one person does not need this many size US 10 1/2!). I also want to put my yarn "collection" on there but I fear photographing my yarn in my dark apartment will make me not want to knit with any of it. This long winter and case of cabin fever does not need to bleed over into my hobby.

Seriously, will this winter ever end?

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Hello!

Sorry for my lack of posting... As Erin mentioned I moved in some new digs a couple weeks ago. New digs that currently doesn't have internet access. We're working on that so hopefully soon I'll be connected to the world once again.

The long and short of it is The Boy and I found an apartment closer to where we're building and closer to where we both work. Or rather he found it. He saw the apartment, committed us to a 6 month lease and paid the deposit before I ever laid eyes on it. I saw it for the first time two weeks after he saw it, on the very day we signed the lease. It's a really cute place, it's small though. The Boy VASTLY under estimated the amount of stuff I own. Thankfully his parents offered up a corner of their basement for my storage needs.

Hopefully The Boy and I will get some stuff up on the walls in the next couple days and I can get some pictures for you all.

Right now the only wall decorations are a couple of my purses that I hung up for lack of place to store them.

Other than that there hasn't been much knitting (all of my knitting related stuff is at the new place, The Boy is smart enough to know he shouldn't suggest otherwise) because of the need for unpacking and general adjustment.

Moving is a pain....

More Furniture...

Ok still no picture of the cool "new" couch. It's currently piled in The Boy's sister's room. Hopefully it (and us) will have a new home before she comes home from the Netherlands on February 13th. Otherwise there's a real chance we're going to have to move that couch twice.

I do, however, have a picture of a different furniture gem that I picked up at the same sale as the couch. I didn't realize this color existed in fabric.

Behold the new chair...

To say I freaking love this thing is an understatement. How could you not smile when you see it in your living room? As long as it's not in direct sunlight.. Then you might go blind.

Now I just need a cute "period appropriate" (what can I say The Boy is rubbing off on me) footstool. And a little knitting basket to go with it.

Oh, E, be on the lookout... This is on it's way....

A personal note...

I know aren't they all really?

My dad is having surgery this morning in Cincinnati (yes the assuit amount you will recognize that I live, and am currently in Iowa... he was afraid it would be a "bigger deal" if I came down). It's to remove a kidney stone and it's less evasive than it could be but it still surgery and he's still my dad.

So if you get a moment and could send some positive healthy vibes in my dad's direction I would greatly appreciate it.

I'll update when I can.

Thanks.

Weekend Update

I think a good indication of growing up (or at least moving in that direction) is the purchases that excite you. My example of this for this weekend…

A push mower and a shop vac.

Granted in a lot of ways these purchases mean more work for me but lets look beyond that for a minute, shall we?

I spent several hours of my weekend both yesterday and today using the new mower to cut down the knee-high weeds that have been masquerading as weeds. Let’s just say they got away from us a bit. I’m sporting quite the attractive (and fairly painful) burn at the moment. I did manage to stave off heat exhaustion (twice) when The Boy started up the generator and pointed to beloved box fan directly at me.

Perhaps another indication of growing up is when you need to go back to work to get a break…

I think I need someone to stage an Etsy intervention for me. Anytime I get a few minutes I find myself tooling around that site adding WAY to many things and sellers to my favorites. I try to keep the impulse buys to a minimum. I said TRY.

Ok I need your advice once again. I’m going to a tea and dessert bridal shower for The Boy’s friend next Sunday. I’m already planning to get them something off their registry. But, and maybe this is just me, I think someone that is having a tea and dessert reception also needs some bonifide hankies. Now most of the ones I have were my mom’s or grandma’s or given to me by Erin. And I love them… there is just something so "dainty" about using a hanky to dab at your eyes rather than a tissue. And while dainty is NOT a word most people would use to describe me it is a perfect description for the bride (& I mean this in a good way just so there is no confusion). Anyway… Anyone know where I could find some nice hankies that aren’t going to break my bank?

I can’t believe Jessica starts kindergarten tomorrow… I know she’s been going to school for years but KINDERGARTEN. Hopefully Erin can put up with dial up at the new place long enough to give us a report. : )

Have a good week everyone. I’ll try to check back in again. Hopefully by then I’ll have a card reader so I can post with pictures!

I'm a loser, baby

Well, I survived the big 3-0. : ) I survived by doing nothing spectacular. The Boy took me out to dinner and drinks the night before and then headed up to MN to his grandparents on the 4th (my birthday). It's a tradition in his family and while he's up there he's going to wire the garage at his parents place.

I needed the time off, not from The Boy, but just from life in general so I kind of just tuned out on the 4th and the day after. It was kind of nice.

This won't surprise a lot of you (erin) that I'm not really doing anything with him not around. It's just too flippin' hot to be outside for any length of time and the movie theatre in town (with it's 3 screens) was sold out the other night. I guess it's too hot for everyone. :)

I keep telling myself I want to catalog my stash. Especially given the fact that I have it more or less "contained" thanks to my dad's trip here last weekend. But it's a daunting task, which is odd for someone who really does such little knitting. I'm hoping that by cataloging the stash I can pick out some new (simple) patterns to get me back into the mood of knitting. Anyone have any ideas? I need BASIC stuff to start out with.

The good news is I scored a digital camera for my birthday so I should have some more exciting posts in the future. That is once I can figure out how to get my camera and my computer to speak sweetly to each other. The camera came with software but the operating system on my computer is not compatible with it. The Boy is going to work on this for me once he's back from MN. I also need to get a memory stick for the camera so I can take more than 23 pictures. : )

My Saturday night? Contemplating that whole cataloging the stash thing and flipping the TV between Monsters, Inc and Live Earth.

I hope you are all staying cool where you are. I have the a/c on, a fan pointed directly at me, and a fan pointed in the general direction of Hami, The Boy's family's hamster that I'm sitting for while they are all gone. : ) Fans rock.