It. Is. Finished.

To say it took "longer than expected" would be a gross understatement. It took from Saturday until this morning to get all the boards down. The trim work still needs to be done but Bill says that he's going to hire someone to do that. I'm not sure he can tackle that task, based on this past weekend, without some serious medication. And medication and a miter saw just don't mix well.

Now we just need to get the new counter tops. We'll definitely be paying someone to install those - not doing so just might lead to D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

I sewed the baby sweater together, then took it apart, then sewed it together again, then took it apart again....are you seeing a pattern? I thought so. I seems that when one sews it together, there aren't the correct number of stitches at the neckline to make the neckband work correctly. I've re-done one of the front panels and now I'm re-doing the sleeve to see if that's where the pattern error is. (You see, it must be the pattern because it most certainly cannot be me.) I must say that the sweater is VERY cute when sewn together and no one would probably know that the neck stitches were whack - but I would know and it would drive me nuts. So, I'm giving it one more go and if that doesn't work, I'll check out the publisher's site and see if there are pattern errors. On second thought, maybe I should have done that after the first sewing and ripping...oh well, live and learn.

Progress

Did I mention that we have a lot of angles in our kitchen? We do. Friends, I give you . . . progress!

I Hate . . .

Painting yards and yards and yards and yards of white trim! But the results will be WELL worth it. I'll post "in progress" pics over the weekend.

I'll also post the complete baby sweater. Can you say "too stinkin' cute"?

Now Is the Time

Ladies & Gents, the time has come to install the hardwoods. Do you know how many angles are in my kitchen? Here's a hint - LOTS! I'm pretty thankful that I am not the one putting them down by myself. We're going to have help; Bill's dad is going to come up and help us.

We've pulled up the old floor and it looks like this now:

Nice, huh? Notice the blue tape? Still haven't finished painting the trim. Guess that'll be tonight or tomorrow night. To keep Punkin entertained, we're having a friend come over to spend the night.

As for crafting, I'm working on a baby sweater (crochet) for a girl in my choir who is having a baby in October. Her shower is September 13th. I chose crochet because it's faster for me to do for gifts. If she were a really close friend or a family member, I would have knit something. Given how crazy my life is right now, it might take me months to knit a baby sweater. (Reference my post from early July that listed all my works in progress. Need I say more?)

Tonight is Curriculum Night at school so I'm off to grab dinner before we go. And, since you asked, we're having Mexican...again. :)

Send me back to Palmetto Bluff!

Oh. My. God. Palmetto Bluff was fab-u-lous! I still can't believe or describe how fabulous it was/is. You totally feel like you've stepped off the face of the earth to a little piece of heaven (minus the mosquitos - they were SO bad). The land once belonged to Cornelius Vanderbilt and his wife. They built a HUGE (summer) plantation house there in the early 1900s and it burned 14 years later. The story says he was so distraught over the loss of the house that he never returned to the property. No lie. Here are some pics:

This is the chapel - there was a wedding there on Saturday night. Very quaint; very romantic.

We did quite a bit of boating on the Intercoastal. In this pic, we're beached on a sand bar at low tide. We tried to swim a bit but the water was gross - full of "stuff" coming in with the tide. Ooooohhhh. That's me (sporting a shirt because of sunburn earlier in the day), Toey, Tamara and Melissa.

This is the "cottage" we stayed in. Cottage being a 3 bedroom, fully appointed HOUSE, complete with a Viking kitchen, hardwood floors and down blankets and pillows. I told you it was a little piece of heaven.

Here are more pics from my Flickr account and from Tamara's. Too fun!

In other news - yesterday was the first day of school for Punkin. She loves school - still hates Little Tikes (the afterschool program). We're still working on that.

Look where I'm going - Palmetto Bluff / Hilton Head, SC. Woohoo! We're leaving on Thursday after Punkin goes to meet her first grade teacher. We're going with a bunch of folks from Bill's office - his boss has a house there and we're all staying together. Cozy, huh? There's free golf, free spa, free BEACH, free food. Did I mention the beach? :) I love the ATL, but I really miss the beach. Living in Statesboro, I was 45 minutes from Tybee Island and 1 hour from Hilton Head Island. I could literally wake up on a Saturday and decide, on a whim, to go to the beach. As I drove down I-16 I would decide which one I wanted to go to. If I wanted a "nice" beach, I'd make the turn to I-95 and head to the Head. If I just wanted to get a beach "fix," I'd stay on I-16 and head through downtown Savannah, out the Islands Expressway and on to Tybee. Now, it would take me at least 4 1/2 hours to get to either.... *sigh*

I'll post pics and details when we get back on Sunday. Not much knitting right now because, HELLO, it's 100 degrees and 90%+ humidity! The last thing I want to touch is wool.

More later!

Today Was A Good Day

Punkin had a great day! She met me at the door this afternoon and said "Hi mom! I didn't cry today." Be still my heart! No one can truly know what a monumental step forward this is. I worried about it all weekend - she worried about it all weekend. She's been absolutely fabulous tonight and she looks happy again. I'm beginning to feel the weight lifting. We still have a long way to go but I think the medicine is starting to work. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.



I didn't knit this weekend....because of this:

I started on Friday night and finished on Sunday afternoon. Typical of my reading habits - get my nose stuck in a book and don't put it down until I've finished. I've never been one to "savor" a book - reading it leisurely. Now I've gotten about 1/3 of the way through the next book in the series, A Good Yarn. I guess when I'm done with this one I'll have to get the next one, Back on Blossom Street.

Oh, and I'm still working on Tempting. I've got one of the sleeves on the double points and I'm working it. It took me (no lie) three tries to get going on the DPNs. For some reason I've always struggled with double points - which explains why there are two pairs of socks that I've had cast on for almost a year that I haven't finished.....

So many projects, so little time.

Back to Normal (maybe)

I think we've got Punkin's meds issue figured out. The neuro called and gave us the OK to put her back on what she's been on for the past 6 years. So far, so good. She still doesn't want to go to school, but we have a week for her to change her mind.

Now that the medication problem has worked itself out, I have more time to dedicate to fun stuff! I wanted to have the Tempting sweater finished by this weekend but it appears that half a dozen rows ago I switched knits with purls and now I have to ladder those stitches back and fix them. I just don't have that in me right now. So, I'll work on an easier project - like socks or something. Maybe I'll finish the Wildstripes blanket - it's all done except for seaming up one end of the lining and adding the topstitching details. My hubby would be SO excited to actually see me finish something.

I still need to finish the Knitting Pure and Simple Summer Cardi (knit in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in a nice shade of blue - goes well with my eyes). I've gotten as far as dividing for the sleeves; so it's pretty much straight, mindless knitting from here on out. I've got a lot of travel for work coming up and this might be a good project for my first plane trip. Afterall, it's kind of hard to screw up plain stockinette stitch.

My mom sent me a great recipe for a breakfast casserole so I thought I'd share:

Sausage Grits Casserole

1 lb sausage, ground

1 c quick cooking grits (not instant grits)

8 oz grated cheese, divided

1 c milk

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

Brown sausage and drain. Prepare grits according to package directions. To the cooked grits add 3/4 of the cheese, stir until well melted. Add the sausage and other ingredients; pour into a casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.