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.

Painting's Done . . .Almost

Kitchen's painted! Well, technically the main wall color is on but I still have to work on the trim. Have I mentioned that I. Hate. Trim. Just curious. Trim takes all the fun out of painting.

I'm really very happy with the color - it's not too dark, not too light. Not too green, not too olive. Like Goldilocks, it's "just right." Walking in the door and seeing it makes me smile. I can't wait until we get the floors down. But, no floors until I finish the trim. ARGH!

The maids come to clean tomorrow. (Sometimes I wish I could read their minds when they walk into my house. I'm sure that they tell all of their friends back in Brazil about that crazy girl in Duluth who has a room full of yarn and paper and who never sweeps.) After they're done I'll finish the trim and then we'll start pulling up the old floor and getting ready to put down the new one. Here are a few of the other pics....

What to do? Knit? Run? Or Drink?

Such tough decisions....it's been a little stressful at our house for the past few weeks. So stressful that I can't decide if I should eat, run, knit, drink copious amounts of alcohol, or some combination of all of them. I read in Vogue Knitting today that some lady in the UK won a Guiness Book World Record for knitting a scarf while running a marathon. I knit. I've run a marathon. I could get one of those little "beer hats" with the 2 straws that come down the sides....I could knit, drink and run -- ALL AT THE SAME TIME! We've been dealing with changes to Punkin's seizure meds and it's Wearing. Us. Out! So much so that I just washed down a muscle relaxer and 2 Excedrin . . . with freakin' a Mojito! (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

On a positive note, the kitchen got painted. I still have to do the trim work - I'd rather stuff a hot poker in my eye, but hey, it has to be done if I want my new floor to get installed. I've taken a few "in progress" pics but none since we finished painting. I kind of want to get everything back in its assigned place before I snap the finals. Now that I'm in love with the color, I think I'll keep the cabinets white. With the new floor, new paint and new counter tops, the cabinets should look like I intended for them to be white.


On the Tempting sweater........I'm almost finished. I now have to decide if I want to make it plain (no cute ribbon threaded through it) or make it so I can change the ribbon out. I'm totally torn. Part of me wants just a nice, normal black ribbed sweater. Another part of me wants the cutie-patootie ribbon sweater. What's a gal to do? I hope to be completely finished with it by this weekend - it's kind of hard to get a lot accomplished between conference calls and a 6-year old having medication-induced meltdowns. Our trip to Hilton Head is next weekend and I'd like to have it done so I can wear it then. We'll see....

New Kitchen Alert

OK - so painting my kitchen and putting down hardwoods isn't exactly "crafty" but it is a little creative, right? I'm up to my eyeballs in painting supplies right now. My 6-year old assistant/sidekick/helper and I finished putting Kilz2 on all the leftover navy blue tonight. Tomorrow morning will be all the little areas around and above the cabinets. Such a pain. Once that's done, on goes the paint - Montpelier Olive from Valspar (at Lowe's). It's more "artichoke-y" than olive which is good 'cause an olive kitchen would be, how shall I say, DRAB. Just gross.

Anywho - the new floor is called Summer Butternut and is a yummy shade of golden oakey goodness. All 14 boxes are still sitting in my van and stinking up the place. :) I'm hoping to get the floor down sometime this week. Hubby and I are debating whether or not to pull up the existing, builder's grade (read: crappy) vinyl that's currently there or to just put the floor over it. I say rip it, he says lay over.

Once the floor is down we're on to new counter tops. I wanted something fancy (like granite) but, alas, that's a BIT TOO MUCH money! So, we're settling for a laminate called Labrador Granite - looks like granite . . . but isn't. We're hoping that with the new paint, new floor and new counter we'll like the white cabinets that are still there. There's just NO way we can afford to rip those babies out and start over.

In knitting news, I'm still working on the Jenna Adorno Tempting sweater from Knitty.com (like 3 years ago). I've made it up to where I divide for the sleeves. My goal is to have it finished by the end of September. It's in black Debbie Bliss Cashmerino - otherwise I'd try to post a picture. I stumbled across a blurb on a blog (Crazy Aunt Purl) about a knitting store in ATL called Knitch. Hello! How did I miss that? It's in Virginia Highland; not exactly my "side" of town, but I'm always up for a yarn road trip. I just wish some of my buddies were yarn people instead of scrappers/stampers. What's a gal to do?

Vegas, Baby!

That's where I've been for the past week. Bill and I left on July 8th and came back on the 15th. Can I just tell you, that's WAY TOO long to spend in Vegas. The trip was for Bill's job and we spent at least 10-12 hours per day working. Then.....we went out and partied until 1:00 AM+. I think I might be a little too old for that! Getting up the next morning by 6:00 was HARD and recovery time, well, I'm still recovering. :)

So, I haven't crafted anything since then. However, I did get my new Stampin' Up Fall catalog and L-O-V-E it! I'm heading to a Stampin' Up Hostess Club on July 30th - this year's Hostess Club will be doing more scrapbooking (which is good because I'm so far behind on my books!). I'll post pics of what we do. (I think I have the picture thing figured out now - I now have a Flickr account. We'll see.)

We're heading to Lowe's to look for a new kitchen floor. We're also thinking of getting our cabinets refaced (http://www.kitchenfrontsofga.com/) instead of springing for brand new cabinets. We have to do something because my kitchen is making me NUTS!

More later!

I Obviously SUCK at Blogging!

It's fair to say that anyone who goes S-I-X months without a S-I-N-G-L-E post might not be cut out for Blogging. However, the third time's the charm, right?

It's been a busy first half of the year. The merger between AT&T and BellSouth (merger - funny word....totally was a "we bought you" takeover) closed in late December - practically on New Year's Eve. Since then, my life has been a total blur. Work got crazy. I got moved to a new team with a new boss who is in Chicago of all places. (I love Chicago.) There's no one on my immediate team in the ATL. The good news is I like what I'm doing and it's relatively the same as what I was doing before.

I ran a marathon! Totally true. 26.2 miles. I decided that I needed a way to manage stress (and the accompanying fat ass that it gives you) and it was either take up running or become really good friends with the wine guy at the Duluth package store. You get some "interesting" looks when you go to Cost Plus World Market, load up a cart with bottles of wine and respond "nope, all for me" when the clerks says "having a party?" Plus, a good Baptist like me isn't really supposed to be coping with a nice bottle of Chianti, right?

Back to the maratoning....so, in January I signed up with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program to run the Rock 'n Roll Marathon in San Diego, CA on June 3rd. My first run was 3 miles at the beginning of February and I thought. I . Was. Going. To. DIE. Seriously. Nearly killed me. Four months and more than 350 training miles later, I ran my first marathon! I finished in a stellar 6 hours, 39 minutes and 55 seconds. (You had to finish in less than 7 hours -- 20 minutes and 5 seconds to spare!) Who cares? I FINISHED! And I raised more than $4500 for those in Georgia/Atlanta metro area who are battling blood cancers. I told everyone that, next to childbirth, it was the most exhilirating and excruciating thing I've ever done. And it was. This picture of me is post race (see my medal around my neck!) and I was getting my blisters, um, "tended to" by some poor volunteer.

Crafting...ah, yes...my forgotten hobbies. Now that it's summer, I have time to break out all the works in progress. And honey, there are a lot of WIPs. Just ask my dear husband. He'll tell you. I'll try to take pictures and post but just for your pleasure here are the ones I can think of:

• a lovely blue top-down cardigan
  


• an crochet afghan for Neely that I just have to piece together (hello? what was I thinking? 48 different pieces)
  


• two different pairs of socks
  


• a blue "fish-netty" scarf out of Melody by SWTC (sidebar: quite possibly the most frustrating yarn I've ever worked with)
  


• a white heirloom baby afghan that's 3/4 of the way done
  


• a pink baby afghan for a baby that was born LAST NOVEMBER
  


• a black bottom up 2x2 rib sweater from Jenna Adorno (pattern from Knitty.com)
  


• this cute tank for Neely which needs to be seamed and blocked


• an adorable purse made out of crocheted triangles that I need to piece together


• then there's the ballet neck sweater from "Hip Knits" that I finished in 2005 that I steamed and blocked and just haven't sewn together (I obviously need professional help for my "can't-finish-itis")
  


• and that's just some of the yarn projects. We haven't talked about scrapbooking and stamping and sewing and . . . .
  

Whew! That's enough, I think. Perhaps my goal for the rest of the year should be to, I don't know, finish what I've started! Oh, I'm not sure if that hurt or felt good?

Merry Christmas Eve

I love Christmas . . . not just love, I mean L-O-V-E. I love the sights, the sounds, the smells. Most of all I love watching the excitment build in my 5 year old daughter. Right now, she's quite literally bouncing OFF the walls! She's totally stoked about Christmas.

It's been a crafty Christmas around here. We've stamped and painted tiles for Christmas coasters and trivets. We've made gifts for friends - hot spiced tea mix, spiced pecans, and simmering potpourri. Here are a few of my favorite recipes from the season.

Hot Spiced Tea Mix
1 (18 oz) jar Tang Instant Breakfast Drink mix
2 (3 oz) packages lemonade mix
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup instant tea
2 1/2 cups sugar, optional (I omit the sugar because the Tang and lemonade both have sugar)
Mix all together and store in an airtight container. Measure 2 tbsp mix into mug and add hot water.

Spiced Pecans
2 cups pecan halves
1/4 cup sugar
4 tbsp butter, melted
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Stir together all ingredients; spread into a lightly greased 9x13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring mixture once. Store in an airtight container.

Christmas Simmering Scent
3 4" cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup whole cloves
1/2 lemon
1/2 orange
1 quart water
Combine all ingredients in a tea kettle, sauce pan or slow cooker. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. Check water level often and add more when necessary. Can be stored in the refridgerator and reused.

I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

Finished!

I finished the Ripple Scarf and it's very pretty - not as soft as I'd hoped, but pretty none the less. I still can't decide if I want to keep it or give it away . . . decisions, decisions. I'll post a pic as soon as I figure out exactly HOW to do that. And all this time I thougt I was pretty computer savvy.

It's been a crazy week at my house. First, I didn't get hired for a job I just "knew" I was going to get. I found out through a "Dear Jennifer" letter that I got after what could quite possibly be one of the most crappy days of work at my current job ever. And it was raining. At least I have a current job - lots of folks don't.

Anyhoo, I'm still working on the Tempting Sweater from Knitty.com. My girlfriends bought the yarn for me for my birthday in February. They recently joked that for my next birthday they were going to pay someone to finish it for me! HA! I'm also working on the Chevron Sweater from Lionbrand.com. Very pretty; not yet sure if it's my "style" but I'm going to make it anyway. If I decide not to keep it . . . someone's getting a nice sweater for Christmas!

I'm feeling the need for a Chick-fil-A Ice Dream ...... Thatcher - OUT!

Let's See How This Works

OK. If everyone else can have a blog, why not me? I have things to say. . . except for now. Pretty much nothing comes to mind. I did, however, just finish another baby project. It's a hodded one-button jacket from BH&G Hip Knits. It's knit on fat #11's with Lion Brand Boucle' - it works up pretty quickly - provided you actually WORK on it. Oh well, the baby was just born on August 23rd and considering that it's still 90 degrees in "Hot 'lanta" I guess it'll be a while before he wears it. :)

I'm currently working on the Ripple Scarf from Oat Couture. I'm doing it in SWTC's Karaoke in Wild Cherry. I'm liking it a lot. Now I have to decide if I'm going to keep it or "gift" it to someone. Since the yarn is $9.25 per skien, I've got to really KNOW that whoever it's gifted to will love it and WEAR it.

As for my next project(s ) - I'm thinking that I really like this sweater. However, I still need to finish my Neck Down Cardigan from LAST summer and I still have to sew up the Ballerina Neck Sweater (BH&G Hot Knits) from LAST spring (that would be 2005 for those of you who are counting. I still want to learn how to knit socks - I'm still a little scary with DPNs so if you have any suggestions . . . . I'm open.

As for "daily life" at our house, my kindergartener has her first homework assignment due tomorrow. She has to write 4 words that start with the letter "P" and draw corresponding pictures. How does one teach a 4 year old how to draw "purl?" *LOL*