Home Sweet…

Posted by tata on Monday Dec 15, 2008 Under Crafts, Kids and Family, Trials

My apologies for the delayed absence. As you no doubt have read, things have been rough ’round here lately. It has made it hard for me to find inspiration to write. But things are getting better. Not necessarily financially, mind you. Work is still extremely slow and I am still having issues with colleagues and getting a decent section at work.

However, last Friday I was given a pretty good one and made the most I’ve ever made in a single shift at work. Further, our deposit on our electric bill was returned to us and it covered this months bill. Husband and I have both been actively looking for jobs and I did receive an offer for a waitressing job at another restaurant. I have mixed feelings taking the job when they are only open 2 days during Christmas week and 3 days the following week, particularly considering we are so broke. Husband applied for a job that sounds pretty promising. We should hear back by tomorrow. *Fingers crossed*

Things have been good in other areas of our lives, though. Throughout the month of December and in lieu of a more traditional American Christmas, members of my immediate and extended family are volunteering in our community at The Healing Place women’s campus. The Healing Place is a “Home Sweet Homeless Shelter” and recovery center for addicts and also serves as shelter for victims of domestic violence. It is immensely rewarding. It is also incredibly humbling and therapeutic for me.

Joy has joined the school’s Step Team. She’s been practicing and doing quite well and - most importantly - really enjoys herself. However, she has been really whiney and argumentative lately.

Buddha & SissyParka 'cause it's cold!As for the boy, we went to the doctor for shots last week and he is almost 30lbs! He learns new words everyday, crazy fast. He is getting tall, too, measured by all the new stuff he can reach, thereby keeping us on our toes non-stop!

My kids are pretty great. Buddha adores his sissy and Joy has her moments when she will play with him for long periods of time (like last night when I took this picture of the two of them “fighting” over the spot on the rocking chair).

reluctantmodelwavygravytake2After a rough number of days with knitting, I’ve rediscovered it’s joy. I’ve started some projects and completed a hat (although - admittedly - I’m not terribly fond of how it turned out. The top is too nipply for my tastes! I will very likely rip that part back out and try to repair it).

samsfireI can’t imagine ever running out of things I want to make. When I told a fellow knitter that several weeks ago, she replied “That’s the best argument for reincarnation I’ve ever heard.” I am now working on a cable scarf. I’m using some acrylic yarn from my early stash and finding that it really is lower quality. Besides being a pretty boring pattern (that makes a beautiful fat cable), I really hate the way the yarn squeaks between the needles.

It’s official: I’m a yarn snob.

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Sharing FOs on Knit Night

Posted by tata on Tuesday Oct 7, 2008 Under Knit Night

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I finally finished my first pair of socks! It was very exciting to bring them in to Knit Night tonight and share them with my friends! FOs (finished objects) are always fun to share.

socksRdone

I’m very pleased with the way they turned out. I even like that the stripes are different on each sock. It’s quirky and unique!

 

 

wavygravyFO I also finished the Wavy Gravy hat I started a couple of days ago. I was extremely frustrated with it for the first ten rounds or so, but then the pattern started to manifest and I found myself really digging it. 

wavygravyFOmodeledsideviewwavygravyFOmodeledI can see why Sonnie loves hat-making: it’s fun and fast.

I also like the yarn I used for this hat - Boku instead of Noro (which is what the pattern called for). It’s less expensive and just as pretty.

havingfun knittingIt was a small group tonight. On the far left there, you see Elevena, our celebrity friend.

prettycoffee The coffee was pretty and yummy.

 

yarnvixenslights yarnvixensglasseslights And there was a "new" person tonight. Okay, so she isn’t exactly new, but it is the first time I have met the YarnVixen, so she’s new to me! I really liked her, too and hope she can make it to Knit Night more often. Here she models her super-nifty eyeglass lights. I must get some of these!

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Party at the Possum

Posted by tata on Monday Oct 6, 2008 Under Knit Night

HBDGP1 Anne & I Last week, the knit night at Grinny Possum changed to the first Friday of the month since the holidays are coming up. It worked out well, though, since it was the 4th Birthday of Grinny Possum! We got together last Friday night for a lot of knitting fun and to celebrate.

HBDGP4 HBDGP2 I must admit, I am humbled that Grinny Possum has been open for 4 years and I am just now discovering the joy and wonder that is this amazing place. I am so happy I found it and adopted myself into the family!

There was food and wine and - best of all - excellent company.

HBDGP6 HBDGP5I continue to be impressed by the generosity and kindness of knitters I’ve met. I am so happy to have new friends among these wonderful folks.

We laughed so hard, too! Sonnie had us rolling with a great story or two of her own.

HBDGP7HBDGP8 Even caught a shot of Grinny Possum himself! On my first ever trip to Grinny Possum, I asked Anne how she ever came up with the name. She said a family friend called her husband that. I wasn’t satisfied by the answer until I met him myself. This shot does no justice.

HBDGP9HBDGP11 Samagchestlah is so close to completing her sweater! She models it here. It looks pretty farkin’ great. Good job, girl!

Happy Birthday, Grinny Possum!

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Grinny Possum

Posted by tata on Friday Aug 29, 2008 Under Knit Night

Today, my friend P and I hung out for the first time (I swear it is the very first time ever) sans children while also being sober. We have such a hard time collaborating our schedules to hook up. She’s on vacation this week, though and promised to kick it with me, even if just for a bit.

She called last night and we planned to check out one of the local yarn stores (LYS) since she wants me to knit her a pair of socks. We also intended on getting coffee and perusing the nearby Goodwill.

We head out to the LYS. It was delicious in there! So many yummy yarns to touch and I wanted to take them all home. The air in there was a bit stiff, however, and I got a couple of sideways glances from the lady running the place ’cause I just had to touch everything. P held back and I looked at her with sheer befuddlement: “Why aren’t you touching?!”

Afterwards, we went to Java, a little coffee shop just next door. The owner was super friendly and made a damn fine mocha latte. I was disappointed that I couldn’t smoke on the patio, though. I quickly drained my mug and we decided to hit the other yarn store across the bridge in Indiana. We had such a hard time deciding on yarn. Plus, earlier this week, Sonnie sent me an email invite to the Knit Night at the LYS where she works part-time, complete with 20% coupon for yarn. We didn’t have the coupon with us, but I planned to attend the Knit Night later and this way, we could make a more informed decision about yarn for socks.

The word about town is that Grinny Possum is the place to go for all one’s yarn needs because it just the best place.

Well, that is not entirely true…

Keep Reading…

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How YOU doin’?!

Posted by tata on Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 Under Crafts
Husband made these absolutely beautiful and equally delectable Philly Cheese Steaks the other afternoon and it was my intention to post pictures of them.

This sweet gal on Plurk sent me some sock yarn and I wanted to post pictures and a big thank you to her. Update: I did here.

The MeiMei’s I ordered on ebay arrived yesterday and natch, I wanted to share my joy with you by posting pictures. Update: I did here.

I started the amigurumi pig in honor of Blog the Recession and the cozy for my iPod, as I mentioned the other day.

Alas, I have been otherwise occupied.

Keep Reading…

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Getting my crafty groove back

Posted by tata on Friday Aug 15, 2008 Under Crafts
I haven’t accomplished all the things I’d planned for myself to get done on Thursday, but I did manage to do a few things. We paid the necessary bills, vacuumed, dishes, garbage, the usual chores, got rid of that donation pile and hit the library. Best of all, I started some crafty projects! I’m working on an amigurumi pig in honor of Blog The Recession and I stumbled a really nifty tutorial for making an iPod cozy a while back and just so happened to have most of the materials required. My mom hooked me up with the one material I didn’t have. I’m feeling the crafty love once again! I’ll post pictures when everything is finished.

Things I didn’t get done: laundry folding (no surprise there), zucchini bread (we’re out of eggs), and Husband has not - as of yet - gotten his job back. It is so frustrating to feel so helpless. The company that provided the inaccurate background check to the staffing agency has stated to Husband that they legally have 30 days to rectify the inaccuracies and will likely take every last one of those 30 days. In the meantime, we are hoping that the certified copies coming from the County Clerk’s office will be sufficient for the staffing agency to get Husband back on the job where they placed him. Otherwise, he will have to either look for work elsewhere or take a lower paying job. Forget getting anything good for my golden birthday, we’ll be lucky to make rent.

I have a job prospect of my own, however. I’ve been having so much fun playing around with the coding here at the blog that I want to expand my horizons once again and do some more web building. While it is definitely a bit more technical, it still enables me to feel crafty and it’s something I can do from home (and those are very good things). The only problem is that my prospective employer plays hardball. She really likes the ideas I have for her site, but she doesn’t like parting ways with her hard-earned cash. I should know. She’s my mom.

Really, I can understand her perspective, because the woman has busted her ass to get where she is in life - certainly didn’t there from handing over all her money to people calling her up asking for it! Plus, I’m her kid and, let’s face it, I haven’t always been the most upstanding child a mama could hope for. I’ve screwed up plenty and that includes costing her some a lot of that money from time to time. So she isn’t eager to give me much. Frankly, I’m still new at all of this (I know some coding and have built a few sites in my time) and while I’m more than willing to learn and put in the time and effort to provide her with an outstanding product and service, I really have no idea what the real-world value of such a thing might be. (If you happen to know, I’d be eternally grateful for a comment or an email with such information! tata at imnotbeautifullikeyou.com - thanks!) Being as how mom knows this, she is likely to insist that the experience is a great form of partial payment and will prolly offer up (at my insistance, mind you) her finished site as reference to other prospective jobs in the future, assuming I pursue such a path. In any case, I’ve spent a good amount of time working on her site, designing fresh graphics and writing HTML and CSS codes for a new layout.

Suddenly, it seems as if there isn’t enough time in the day to do all that I want to do. I want to crochet amigurumi animals and food, knit scarves and socks (I wish my needles would hurry up and get here already!), I want to learn how to make my own yarn, I want to code and design graphics, I want to read that stack of books I just picked up at the library, I want to catch up on my DVR and see those movies I borrowed from P at BHF’s insistance, I want to bake, I want to sleep, I want someone to come fold my laundry so I can do the other stuff…

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Daily Hodgepodge

Posted by tata on Saturday Jul 19, 2008 Under Uncategorized
The past few days have been slow and lazy around here.

Husband has been focusing a lot on school work. He’s overwhelmed by Statistics. We went ahead an ordered him a book because reading from the screen just isn’t the same and it would have been more costly to print the entire thing out.

I have been plurking a lot. Damn thing is addictive! I insist that - if you haven’t yet joined - you do so at once! And be my friend! I’ve broadened my network of knitting acquaintances and am hopeful to learn something from them. If nothing else, I know that they will appreciate my learning process.

Yesterday, Buddha and I went to the library. I picked up a number of knitting books, including Debbie Stoller’s, which I have already read in it’s entirety. She is just so well-written and easy to read. The boy picked himself out some books, too, including one about baby signs. I’m pleased that I already know most of those signs!

After Buddha went to bed, (which, by the way, has been going much better with Husband home at night) I practiced some different stitches and learned how to increase a couple of different ways. I wanted to keep going, but the boy refused to be cooperative last night and stay asleep, so I called it a night around 1:30am.

I picked up a skein of wool-blend sock yarn a few days before Husband lost his job and I’m very eager to get to that place where I can use it to make a pair of socks. However, I admit I’m a bit intimidated. I’ll keep working my way up to it, though.

And the crochet breakfast project has just went into hibernation. Turns out the yarn I had for toast and bacon is all wrong. I did finish the fried egg, though. It’s really cute and I can’t wait until I can finish the rest of breakfast.


In the meantime, I think I will continue to work on some new amigurumi projects. I’ve got some things in mind, but until I can grow my yarn stash some more, I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to actually do. Yarn is so addictive. A very expensive hobby. Sigh. Just browsing online sites gives me yarn lust! I’ve also got to finish the Circle to Squares project for my mom. I’ve got about half of it sewn together. Once the whole thing is sewn, I’ve got to get a border on there. The local knitters were disappointed I didn’t bring it last week, so I’d like to bring it this week to show off!

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