Exhausted!

This week has been exhausting. The doors and floors in here are done. They look fantastic. There's just a few little trim details to attend to. I had hoped to get the floors in the living room done this week, too, but it didn't happen. We had a couple showings in the midst of it all. And parent-teacher conferences. And a minor stomach ailment. Tonight is M's birthday party. We don't do the huge, billions of kids blowouts here. We have family over and eat dinner and cake and ice cream and have fun. We have a big family, so it is a lot of people, but we love them all! So, I'm making a cake and chicken tetrazzini.

Today, I'm going to answer the stitching blogger's question, even though I haven't been stitching much.

Do you have a system for organizing freebie charts in your stash? If
so, what is it? Do you print out copies of all of the freebies that
you find on the web (that you think you might actually stitch) or do
you maintain electronic copies of them until you are ready to stitch them.

I have a lot of freebie charts. Most of them are saved in a folder on my computer. They are categorized by theme and/or designer. The paper copies are organized the same way in page protectors in four thin binders. I only print them out when I'm ready to stitch them, but then I usually save my paper copy in the binders. Of course, I also have those great freebies that are sent along with your order when you buy things.

I used to stitch a lot of freebies. They're usually small designs, so they make a nice break when you tend to stitch huge, complicated things like I do.

French doors are beautiful, but evil.

We took out the old sliding patio door yesterday and started to install some lovely french doors. They look great., but they are evil! My hands are all cut up, and the doors are still not in right. The hubby has a good friend who is a carpenter and bricklayer who is coming over this evening to help make it right. We know that the opening is not level and square, so compensating to make the door function right is much trickier than the instructions would have you believe.

I was going to start laying laminate floors today, but I was going to start in this room, where the doors are not yet done. So, I think I will start tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are a couple of finished knits. A would not let me take a proper picture of her standing in her Merry Maiden Dress from the latest Interweave Knits. But she wears it all the time. I have to pry it away to wash it when it gets too dirty.


It's knitted of Bernat Cottontots and some fuzzy Yarn Bee yarn from Hobby Lobby.

This photo cracks me up. I snapped a picture on the fly of M wearing her Very Berry T from the March MagKnits. But, she saw me. Hubby, on the other hand, did not. There's something very "superstar and her security team" about it to me.


Her shirt was a quick knit. Good thing, too, because the child has no patience. It's knitted of Plymouth Sundae Swirl yarn. So soft! She wore it almost every day during spring break, but she was very good about following directions and giving it to me to wash rather than throwing it in the hamper. It had a couple nice soaks in the sink.

We had a very overcast and stormy spring break. But, I had plenty of indoor activities planned and we had fun. They're back at school today, but they get out early three days this week for conferences. One day during spring break, after a stormy day, we were blessed with a gorgeous sunset. A truly purple sky. These pictures aren't the clearest, but they captured the color pretty well. I've never seen anything like it. It was truly spectacular.

This yarn thing may be getting out of hand.

We had a house showing yesterday and one today. The one yesterday was in the evening. When we got home it was time for the kids to get ready for bed. The one today was just after lunch. In the intervening time, I painted this room. We call it the back room. It is a dining room/computer room/craft room. Two coats. Alone. Today, I am a little sore and cranky. The paint is called "oats" and it is much more boring than the lovely green I used to have in here, but it is fresh and broadly appealing to buyers. We are also putting in a new patio door, replacing the ugly, poorly functioning slider with lovely, hopefully well-functioning french doors. Then next week, I'm laying laminate flooring in this room and the family room (aka the front room.) This house will be totally WOW at that point and people would be crazy not to buy it. I'll be tempted to stay. (Ha. Not happening.)

So, getting ready for painting and the flooring extravaganza to come, I moved the stash cubbies to my bedroom. Over half of my stash(es) has been packed. Mostly cross-stitch stuff. I kept out a few projects in my stitching basket, but all the rest was packed. But somehow, I can't bring myself to pack up the yarn.

See how happy it looks in my grandma's old Longaberger Sewing Basket?


But, it is a little crowded over next to the bed. And Tegwyn clearly thinks I put it all there for her.



I like the cubbies unstacked. Something to consider for after the move.

So now, what should I do with this? *whistle* Silly mail carrier. Bringing me storage challenges. ;) What you see there is four pairs of socks and a sweater? See?



The greys are for entrelac knee socks. The blue is for clessidra knee socks. The bright pink is another pair of knee socks. (See a trend here?) I suppose I will just dream of knee socks until I finish the work on the house and collapse in a heap sometime next week.

P.S. Spring Break has mostly been fun, and we're off to the Titanic exhibit at the children's museum now!

Movie Meme

I got this one from Nap Lover, but then I saw it on Michele's and Lois Lane's blogs, too. :)

"It’s been alleged that if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up, figure out whether you’ve got a life or not, and post it."

( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(X) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
(X) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
(X) The Princess Diaries
(X) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
(X) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(X) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(X ) The Village
(X) Lilo & Stitch
(X ) Finding Nemo
(X ) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
(X) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
(X)13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
(X) Robots
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
(X) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(X) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(X) King Kong
(X) A Cinderella Story
(X) The Terminal
(X) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(X) Final Destination
(X) Final Destination 2
(X) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
(X )The Ring
( )The Ring 2
( )Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(X ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
(X ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(X) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(X) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number SlevIn
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
(X) Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
(X) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
(X) Curious George
(X) Independence Day
(X) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(X) Christine
(X) E.T
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
(X) Big Trouble in Little China
(X)The Terminator
( ) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3
(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
(X) X3
(X) Spider-Man
(X) Spider-Man 2
(X) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
(X) The Skulls
(X) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street
(X) Old School
(X) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
(X) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(X) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
(X ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 1
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2
(X) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
( ) The Matrix: Reloaded
( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

I wonder, is it the type of movies on the list that determine the "no-life-ness" of your life? These are mostly not my type of movies. Still, I've seen 102 of them. Hmmmm. A large number of them are ones I watched just because my husband was watching them and I sat next to him and stitched or knitted.

Anyway, I think it's mean to say someone has no life just because they enjoy movies. It may be sadder that I have watched so many of these and did not enjoy them.

Hats for Kim

I have a pal on a mommy board. This board has been together since we were pregnant with our babies due October 1999. Yes, our babies are nearly 7 1/2 now! Well, this one pal has been battling breast cancer for over a year now. She is brave and strong and amazing.

She recently started another treatment for her cancer which could be causing her hair to fall out again. So, I decided she needed a couple new hats in some springy colors. The one on the right is a basic hat pattern, knit with a very soft fuzzy Yarn Bee yarn. The one on the left is shedir, from Knitty, knit with Lion Brand microspun.

Here's a picture of the top of shedir. It makes a pattern like a quaker star. So pretty!


And a fuzzy picture of the cables.



I hope you can get some use out of them, Kim! I knitted lots of good thoughts and positive vibes into them for you.

Ripple socks

Yes, those are my pale legs. Deal with it.

These are the Ripple Socks that I got from my sock club. No, not the most famous sock club in the land. It's at TheKnitter.com. It's a good price, and I get to try out all kinds of sock yarns that my LYS doesn't carry. They don't carry much sock yarn, and a girl has got to sample somehow!

This yarn is Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch. It has a small percentage of elite in it, to make it stretchy. It doesn't seem any stretchier than the average sock yarn to me. *shrug* But it sure is pretty!

It's difficult to see in the pictures, but the leg portion has a ripple pattern, somewhat similar to Jaywalkers. But it has garter stitch bands that make it ripple out, as well as up and down.

I really like these socks, but looking at them, I can definitely see why my Embossed Leaves socks were so much faster and more fun. More stuff to do! Plus, when I wear these, I tend to get little laddery lines running where the increases are to make the ripples. No such problem on the decrease lines, of course. They were accidentally tossed in the dryer when I washed them, so I wonder if the bit of felting they did will combat that. (Oops. They are machine washable, but I generally hang all my hand knits socks to dry. They just look a little fuzzier than before.)

I'm wearing my most recent sweater finish today, so hopefully I can get someone to take a decent picture. It will probably be the last time I get to wear it before fall. Have a great weekend! Spring Break starts today for us.

Yarn is Good

J. Denae, I think you're a bad influence. ;) First, I go to the grocery store yesterday and I see those little 100 calorie packs of hostess cupcakes. Normally, I wouldn't buy something like that. But, having sampled them out of your generosity, I saw them, they were on sale, I bought them. Yummy!

OK, I probably would have bought something like low-carb fudge bars instead, and really, these aren't much worse, as long as I limit them in the same way. And those little cakes are so much more satisfying than a low-carb fudge bar.

Second, I have bought yarn online twice this week! I think the purchases you're not making are somehow crawling into my brain and bursting out of a very naughty clicky finger.

But, yarn is good. I love yarn. My stash is really very small and sad and needs to be enhanced.

So, how dare you be such a bad influence? How dare you sway me to do (and buy) things that make me happy? You should be ashamed of yourself. As punishment, I order you to roll around in yarn without drooling. If you don't, I will force you to knit for hours and hours.

So, anyway . . . The yarn I ordered today is to feed my desperate need for kneesocks. Yes, back when I was a Catholic School girl, I hated the kneesocks, but I liked wearing a skirt every day. Now, I'm loving the kneesocks, and once they are knitted, I'm going to have to buy or sew some skirts to go with them. I really do love wearing skirts.

I think the first socks up will be Eunny Jang's entrelac knee socks in the latest Interweave Knits. I've e-mailed to join the Knit-Along, which I have linked over in my blogroll. ----> The yarn called for would be $60! For a pair of socks. I went with Knitpicks Palette. Total cost: $10. Less than what I spend on an average pair of hand knit socks, which are much shorter. I hope it's not scratchy.

Tomorrow: pictures! The camera has been found.

A Different Book Meme

This one came from Michele's blog. Thanks, Michele! We had a fair bit of overlap here.

Look at the list of (100) books below.
Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicize the ones you want to read.
Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
Movies don’t count.


1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible (Only parts)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Consider yourself tagged!

Embossed Leaves socks

I knitted these a couple weeks ago. They were very fast! And I love them. The pattern is from an Interweave Knits magazine, but I don't know which one off the top of my head. I knitted them with KnitPicks Essential.


They're so springy!

No pictures

Sorry, my apostrophe isnt working. Dunno whats wrong with it. :p

I was fully intending to put up some lovely pictures of knitted things here today. But, I cant find the camera. I think my dorko husband must have it. So, no pictures for you. :p

We had three showings and an open house over the weekend. During our open house, I decided we should go look at open houses in the neighborhood I want to move to. the neighborhood was even better than I remembered. Lots of kids out playing and well-kept yards. Two of the three houses I was interested in were open. Lucky, huh? Well, the first house wouldnt work. The basement is unfinished and could easily be finished into what we want, but there are no egress windows, so we wouldnt want to put the other bedroom we need down there. The second house would work, but the seller would have to come down on the price and from little hints around the house, she seemed like she would be unwilling to haggle. She had a note on the front door with the alarm code stating that if you set off the alarm, she would be sending you a bill for the false alarm charge. Hey lady? Considering youve just given the whole world your alarm code, why dont you just not set the alarm, huh? She also had clearly not packed up a single thing. She had more figurines than the Hallmark store I used to work for. The carpet was scary blue upstairs and scary green down. But that could be replaced easily. I can lay hardwood floors, no problem. :)

The house that wasnt open was the one I had the most interest in. So, if we ever get a bite on our house, I will be hopping on that one! Send more of those selling vibes, could ya? The market is picking up here with the weather getting nicer. We spruced up the yard last week. I think this place looks pretty darn good!

I unpacked one little box yesterday, but I really wanted to watch Harry Potter! And Ive gotten rid of enough movies that they all fit in the one cabinet under the TV. No need to bring in the bookshelf they used to be on. Im so sick of having all our stuff packed up! I got rid of several things last Friday through freecycle and I was very pleased to have them gone! Goodbye, lawnmower that doesnt work. Goodbye spare blue fridge. Goodbye curtain rods.

Your Androgynous Name Is:

Hayden Lou

What's Your Androgynous Name?

Silly, huh?

Busy still. Showing this afternoon. Open House Sunday. My new nephew was born this week, which meant I had my 20 month old nephew for a very long time that day. lol. Still knitting. Finished socks last night. New socks will be cast on over the weekend. Green Tea Raglan from the latest Interweave Knits is the only thing on the needles right now.

No time for complete sentences! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Another lame blog quiz . . .

You Are Strawberry Cake

Fresh, sassy, and romantic. You're a total flirt, who never would turn down a sugary treat. Occasionally you're a bit moody - but you usually stay sweet!

What Kind of Cake Are You?

But cake sounds really good. Yum, cake. I did really well with giving up sugar for about a week. And I'm still watching it, but I discovered that cutting out sugar completely is a migraine trigger for me. I'm sure it was not helped by the usual hormonal migraine trigger, but I really do need a little sugar in my life.

So, I'm still alive. Love you all, but blogging is not at the top of my priority list right now. I finished knitting a sweater last night, and I want to seam it up today so I can wear it at least once before the weather warms up permanently.

Yum, cake.