Oh, hello there...

It's been a week.  Oops.  But in fairness to me, it's been a crazy busy week.  I've been organizing(a lot) and packing(a little) and cleaning and cleaning and cleaning.  Hubby left on Thursday.  He should be at his new office at this very moment, starting his new job. 

And I'm stuck with all the real work.  Oh, and my air conditioner died.  In Texas.  In July.  With three kids.  And a buttload of work to do.  At this moment, I am sitting in front of a giant fan that I bought yesterday on the way to church, and trying not to sweat too much.  My neighbor's air conditioner guy is on his way, and I don't want to greet him at the door drenched in sweat...even though it might make him sympathetic so that he'll charge me less...

Anyway, back to the update on what I've been doing(besides sweating).  On Saturday, some guys from the local thrift shop(love that thrift shop, and really really going to miss it) came by to pick up some large furniture that I couldn't bring to them.  They left with a large dresser with a mirror, a chest of drawers, three bedside tables, a queen-size mattress set, an entertainment center, a glider-rocker and a wingback chair.  Whew. 

After that, I was able to get one room upstairs completely emptied, vacuumed, shampooed, and the walls touched up.  And now I'm organizing stuff in that nice clean room.  Anything that we're going to need right away when we move(and that isn't enormous furniture) is going in there.  Most of our stuff is going to be stored in South Dakota until the house is finished.  We're not going to need much while we stay with Hubby's dad.  Or at least that's what I thought...that room is getting filled up quickly.  Anyway, I'm putting that stuff in there so it won't get packed in with the to-be-stored stuff.  In theory, it sounds like it'll work.  We'll see how well it works in reality. 

Counting today, there are 12 days before the movers arrive.  Damn.  I better get back to work.

Editing to add: The AC guy came, saw and conquered.  $165 later, I have a working air conditioner!  It's cooled down to 80 in my house, and it feels much better!

Busy busy busy

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days.  I'm still really busy.  The realtors are coming tomorrow, and I still have a lot of work to do before then.  So...since my previous post, I painted Angel's room, and she helped!  And I touched up the paint in Princess and Kitty's room, and in the library; I decided not to repaint those rooms.  I organized my yarn stash and did a little destashing.  I've almost finished organizing the big studio upstairs; still some school stuff and computer stuff and coloring stuff.... I tidied up the living room, and still need to do the attached dining room.  The kitchen is still a disaster, but I'm going to have the girls work on it while I work on the family room.  I haven't finished organizing all the junk I took out of the bedroom last week.  But I am determined that it will be ready for the realtors when they come tomorrow, and ready for house hunters before we leave for our vacation on Saturday.  So now I need to get off the computer and get back to work.

I'm planning on doing a state-of-the-schooling post later this week if I get time.  Otherwise, it'll have to wait until next week.

Painting...

I'm organizing and painting and cleaning...all in preparation to move.  Hubby got a new job, near his family.  So we will be moving to North Dakota in a few months.  I'm not thrilled about it, to be honest.  But I will probably be more excited as it gets closer.

We are going on vacation in a week and a half, and Hubby wants to try to get the house on the market by then.  So I've got my work cut out for me.  He'll help with what he can, when he can...which means not much, and after work.  Oh, well.  I'm used to doing everything around the house.  So anyway, I started with the master bathroom, since it's a small room.  Got it organized and cleaned up, and painted.  It was a dark green before.  Now it's a light, almost flesh-toned beige.  It really brightened up the room a lot.  I took these pictures this morning, right after I finished painting.  Now that there's not as much light coming in the window, the color looks a little pinkish, but I don't really care.  We won't be here much longer anyway.  I just wanted it to be a better color for selling.

Now I'm sorting and organizing books.  We have a lot of books, some that we haven't read in years.  I'm planning on donating a bunch to the thrift shop.

Back to work!

Haven't really felt like blogging...

I just remembered that I was going to try to blog more often....and I haven't since last Thursday.  So...what shall I blog about?  Since this is my mostly-knitting blog, how 'bout I start with that?

I'm nearing the end of the blue Evellyn Anne blanket; almost ready for the ruffle.  Katiee's Bag is over halfway done, and stripes still make me twitch.  I haven't made much progress on Crown Jewels, because I've been so busy with those two projects.  I did a couple inches on the second Winding Road sock at Knit Night yesterday.  I have too many projects going on, and not enough time to get them all done.  As soon as I get the blanket done, the shawl will be top priority, since it's a sample for Knit Picks.  After that's done I need to start and finish on the Lacy KIP Bag sample.  And once I get Katiee's Bag done I need to finish writing the proposal for it and get that sent off.....and time is flying!

I've also been trying desperately to get organized.  It's not going well.  Every time I think I'm nearing the end of a project, I see that the kids have undone half of it, or totally un-organized some other room.  Someday I'll be organized.... like Kitty tells me, "Mommy, when I'm grown up, you won't have any more kids."  Yes, darlin', that's true.  Hopefully I survive to experience that.

Speaking of Kitty, she turned four last weekend.  She had a fun birthday, with lots of cake, and a bunch of great presents.  Fortunately, she's easy to please when it comes to gifts.  I can hardly believe she's really four years old already.

Okay, I think that's enough for now.  I'm gonna go knit on that blanket.

Cleaning, organizing and planning, oh my!

I was all ready to go to the gym...I was about to tell the girls to get their shoes on so we could go...and I twisted my ankle.  Heard it go "crunch" and everything.  Ouch.  So I'm not going to the gym today after all.  Hopefully tomorrow it'll be healed enough.  I was pleasantly surprised when I weighed myself this morning, though.  I'd lost two pounds since the beginning of the week!

Instead I'm cleaning, and doing laundry.  We're washing sheets and blankets today.  And cleaning the trash heaps ... pig styes ...um.... oh, yeah, they're called bedrooms.  Or at least they will be when we get them done... I am so sick and tired of the constant mess.  I guess we (all of us, but especially the kids) still have too much stuff.  Time to purge again!  We'll call it spring cleaning, since spring weather has arrived.

And I'm getting ready for my next project.  Hubby is going to be traveling next month, one week in New York and one week in London.  A long time ago, I used to take advantage of his travels to do a home decorating project, and surprise him when he got home.  I haven't done that in a long time, partly because he doesn't travel much these days.  So I've decided that this time, I will.  It's "sooper-seekrit" so I won't be posting on Facebook about it until he sees it, but I'll post here since he doesn't read my blog.  I'm going to paint the kitchen and make new curtains.  It doesn't sound like much, but I'm totally changing the color scheme in there.  We recently got a new loveseat and chairs for the family room, which is open to the kitchen.  So I want to coordinate the two rooms.  I want to have the family room painted blue(I'd do it myself, but it's a really tall room) to set off the chocolate brown in the furniture.  The kitchen is going to be opposite: chocolate brown on the walls, and blue for the curtains.  I'm doing the kitchen first, so Hubby will see what a nice color combination it is, and be convinced that we should use it in the family room too.  I'm considering glazing the kitchen cabinets to make them darker, but not as dark as the walls; right now they're oak-color, builders'-grade cabinets with no hardware.  I'd love for them to be darker and have some nice handles and pulls, but new cabinets aren't in the budget this year, so I have to work with what we have. 

Oh, I almost forgot to mention what I'm going to do for "art"... I have a bunch of antique crocheted doilies made by Hubby's great-grandma, grandma, and great aunts(most are over a hundred years old!) and I'm going to frame them, with some of the curtain fabric as a background, and hang them on the walls.  Since they are so old and delicate, I've been afraid to use them, lest they get stained or torn.  This way, they'll be seen, but not destroyed.  I'll put some in the kitchen and some in the family room, to tie the two rooms together.  The tricky part will be finding frames large enough without breaking the bank...

Cleaning and schoolwork and exercise, oh my!

I've been reorganizing(as mentioned yesterday).  My house has been effectively de-Christmas-ed.  All of the decorations are in the attic...oops, just remembered the third tree is still in the library.  I'll have to find the box and get that put away today.  I switched the placement of a few pictures on the walls, putting Hubby's military stuff like his Cadet sabre from West Point in the front room.  The sabre now hangs prominently over the bar, and the pretty lighthouse picture that had been there is now above the mantel in the family room, which makes a lot more sense, if you ask me.  My front room/bar room/dining room is nice and clean, for the most part.  I haven't checked it this morning to see if the girls have messed it up, so I could be wrong.  Haha.

The kids are doing schoolwork...Princess is doing handwriting, and Angel just finished hers.  Kitty is playing with her Leapster that Grandpa Claus gave her for Christmas, learning about shapes.  I'm doing laundry.  Fun fun.

I went to the gym and worked my legs, then did 20 minutes on the bike and 10 on the stair-stepper.  I'm planning on trying Zumba tomorrow!

Okay, I know it's only the eleventh day of Christmas, but....

I got a bunch of Christmas decorations boxed up and put in the guest room yesterday. Woohoo!  I'm planning on finishing up today, and getting it put all-the-way away...something I'm ashamed to say I didn't actually do last year.  But I'm doing it this year, and that's what matters. ☺ I can hardly wait, in fact.  I was quite a scrooge this past Christmas.  I was disorganized and stressed, and didn't even make gingerbread once(in 2009 I made three batches before Christmas)!  I was grumpy, and not really in the Christmas spirit at all.  I am going to do a much better job next Christmas.  I'm putting the decorations away already organized, and I'll be getting rid of a few decorations that we haven't used in a few years.  And once the decorations are put away, I'm going to do some major de-cluttering and organizing of the rest of our stuff.  We have way too much, and it's creating stress for me, and for the rest of the family as well. 

And of course, being organized will help when our contractor is finally ready to put in our new floors.  Yep, we're still waiting.  We had wanted to get them done before Hubby's dad arrived in the middle of December, but the contractor was swamped with decks, and couldn't get it done by then.  I need to give him a call and see when he can fit us in.  I really want to get the new floors in.  And I'm excited about being able to help with the project too!

I made some more progress on Evellyn Anne yesterday, but not much.  I'll work on that some more after I get the decorations put away.  Ugh.  I just remembered I need to do laundry too.  Fudge. 

I went to the gym this morning.  I felt very sleepy and unfocused.  I did a little work on my chest, arms and shoulders.  Cardio went better; did 20 minutes on the bike and 15 on the stair-stepper.  I want a nap.

Knitting and exercising and organizing, oh my!

I made some progress on Evellyn Anne yesterday.  I'm on the twelfth repeat of the lace pattern, of fourteen.  And after that, the ruffle.  I might be able to get it done by the end of the week, which would be nice.  I want to get it blocked before I go visit family in Kansas; my parents have almost no carpet in their house, so I wouldn't be able to block it there very easily.  And I want to have my little niece Evie be my model for the pattern pictures, since the pattern is named after her.

♥

I went to the gym this morning and worked my back.  Did 20 minutes on the bike and 15 on the stair-stepper.  It was a good workout.

♥

Today we're starting to get the Christmas decorations put away; Hubby's dad just left a little while ago, so now we can access the attic where the boxes are stored.  I'll be glad to get it all put away; I'm ready to get on with the new year!

Organizing

I hardly knit anything yesterday. Instead I cleaned and organized. I had projects all over the place, several of which I haven't worked on in ages. So I gathered them all into a pile...at least I think this was all of them...
And I began making decisions. First of all, most of these are current projects; I didn't have as many hibernating as I had thought. So of course I'm keeping the current ones. I put each project into its own bag, and put them away.
The pink and purple fun fur blob is a blanket I started over a year ago, and put away because I hate working with fun fur. I didn't know when I started the project that I hate it, or I never would have started it. I can't frog it, because of the way fun fur sticks to itself. And I can't throw it away, because Angel would be heartbroken. She really wants that blanket. So I've decided I'm going to try to get this one knocked out quickly, so that I won't have to wish any longer for it to disappear.
The large blue blob next to the fun fur is one of my Julia Lynne cardigans; it was the largest size, and I knitted it far enough to write the pattern, but didn't ever finish it. The reason why: I discovered that I had two different dyelots, and they really were different. So I decided to frog that one. I still had two skeins I hadn't even started using, so I'm going to attempt to sell them to one of my yarny friends, and throw in the re-wound center-pull balls for free.
The little burgundy blob is a doll dress I started around Christmastime. Since it's just stockinette in the round at this point, I gave it to Angel, along with a crash-course in using double-pointed needles. I think she can handle it.
So that takes care of the hibernating projects...oh, yeah, except for the boring sock. I was going to frog it, because it's so freaking boring to work on, but I tried it on, and I really only have a couple inches to go on it, and it's very comfy and warm....so I'm keeping it, and I plan to make it second in priority after the fun fur monstrosity.
Oh, and then there's Surf(the bluish-greenish blob). It's been hibernating for a couple months, so it hardly counts. I need to get that one done, too, since it's a gift. I had intended to give it to my friend with the idea of using it as a swimsuit coverup. By the time it's done, it'll probably be fall, so I think I'll just go back to calling it a shawl for a cool morning walk on the beach.

Oops....I just realized I forgot about the "banana bag" I started for my sister over a year ago and haven't finished....I wonder where that is....

Organizing...

I'm not knitting much today. I'm trying to get a little Spring Cleaning done. This lovely Spring weather is inspiring me to organize, declutter and clean. I've done a little destashing of yarn recently, and now I'm reorganizing what's left. My acrylics fit in one bin now, instead of three. (I was uneducated on the wonders of natural fibers when I started knitting) I have a lot more cotton than anything else, so I'm going to have to find a way to get that all organized....maybe by color...

♥

I printed off a bunch of pretty sock patterns this morning. My friend Mara was destashing, too, but she had the good stuff. Thanks to my recent destashing, I had the funds to snatch three skeins of her gorgeous hand-dyed merino sock yarn, and it should arrive in the mail later this week or next. So I wanted to have patterns picked and ready by the time the yarns get here.

♥

And since I hate to blog without at least one picture....here's what I knitted this past weekend. I used a tiny bit of Malabrigo sock yarn, which I had leftover from Cathie's scarf.

And now Princess's porcelain doll has nice warm feet...and I have a new pattern to write up. One of my friends pointed out that these might fit a micro-preemie, an idea that hadn't occurred to me, but that I like.

Olympics are over...what to do? what to do?

I haven't knit a stitch since Saturday, when I finished my Olympic project. I spent Sunday afternoon moving furniture. Hubby had helped a friend move on Saturday, and in exchange for his help he was given a large TV, a small TV with VCR, and a HUGE entertainment center to hold the big TV. Some of our neighbors(big, burly men) helped Hubby put the new-to-us entertainment center in place in our family room. Then Hubby and I put the entertainment center that had been in the family room...in the bedroom, to hold the TV that we had in there. Then Hubby took a nap. He wasn't feeling well; I think he picked up a cold somewhere. While he took a nap, I moved the old entertainment center that had been in the bedroom....out of the bedroom, through the family room, down the hall, UP THE STAIRS, down another hall...to the playroom, to hold the small TV that Hubby's friend had given us. And when I say that I did it, that's exactly what I mean. I did it, by myself! I am woman, hear me roar! That thing was heavy, for this little, out-of-shape woman. But I did it. I was surprised that my bumping up the stairs didn't wake Hubby...I guess Dayquil isn't as "non-drowsy" as the commercials would have you believe. My muscles were incredibly sore yesterday as a result of my efforts. But I got that darned thing up the stairs! (I'm still pretty proud of myself)

On Monday, I was chatting online with my friends, who are also conservative knitters. We like to bounce ideas off of each other and encourage each other. After some discussion, I was encouraged to frog a project that had been hibernating for a year. It was a top-down raglan v-neck cardigan, with columns of cables all around the waist. I still love the design, and intend to remake it sometime, but with better yarn. You see, I had bought this yarn before I really knew the difference between inexpensive(cheap) acrylic, and good wool. I hate working with acrylic now, which is why this has been languishing in my hibernating-projects bin for over a year. Also, it wouldn't quite fit me now anyway. After some debating with myself and my friends, I decided I wasn't going to finish it in this yarn. So I took a picture, so I'd remember how it looked, then I took out the needles and began frogging. (For any non-knitters who may be reading, "frogging" refers to the ripping-out mantra: "rip-it, rip-it") Here's the "before" picture...

Sorry, I didn't take an after picture, but when I was done, I ended up with three liberated needles, and two balls of red acrylic yarn. It would have been three balls, but the third one got all tangled up when I was taking it off the winder, and after wrestling with it for a little while, I gave up and chucked it. I didn't need that third ball anyway. I gave the yarn to Angel, who promptly asked me to cast on 18 stitches for her. Then she knit one row and got bored and ran off to do something else. Go figure.

Anyway, I decided that the other five skeins of this yarn, which were unused, would go on Ebay. Then, having made that decision, I went and dug through my stash for more yarn I could sell, giving my friends fits of giggles in the process. You see, I found a huge bag of yarn I'd picked up at a thrift shop, when I was a brand-new knitter. It was also acrylic, and not very soft. There were 32 skeins of this yarn, all one color, all the same dyelot. I don't know what I was thinking, buying that yarn. So it went into the put-on-ebay bin, separated into two smaller bags of 16 skeins each. Then I asked my friends if they wanted to hear the really funny part. Between LOLs and hahahas, they said yes, so I told them: I have 16 skeins of this yarn in another color! What was I thinking?!? Anyway, all of that icky acrylic went into the bin, and I found a few other yarns that I was tired of, so they went into the bin as well. I got pictures taken, and the listings written up, but didn't put them on ebay last night. This morning, I got an email saying that listing fees were 50% off just today! Woohoo! So I'm off to put all that yarn on ebay now.

Maybe I'll get some knitting time today...