such a slacker...

I've been slacking on this so bad recently... things have been crazy at our house. I think it's ab0ut time to invest in a laptop for myself because it's getting harder to fight my way onto the computer. Soon it will be three men and then me which means practically no computer time except at work. Yes, we're getting another roommate... More people, but atleast more money too. Now if only all that debt would just disappear so we can enjoy it!

Anyway, a few pictures to catch things up. I finally got around to editting of few of the wedding pictures. I also got another s'prise from my secret pal. I lost the picture I took of the package described in the previous post... must be somewhere in this mess of a computer... But anyway, here goes!

My favorite wedding pic so far:

Secret pal present... I can't believe it's over... but it was SO MUCH FUN!

On the knitting front... It's been all Christmas presents recently and my list is never ending. I've actually got some crochet projects going for Christmas- my first amigurumi undertaking and it's been fun but my hands sure are ready to fall off some nights. Also, P bought me a sewing machine last night for my birthday (Dec 12) after the one we got of craigslist keeps having to be repaired. I swear, last week we replaced two gears that were broken and then it worked fine for a few days before another gear broke. Then, upon closer inspection, there is something 'off' about the bobbin case too. Anyway, it was getting to be too much of an investment when every other day something else went wrong. And we don't have a Singer repair shop around here. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the old machine yet (Touch & Sew 626- it's supposed to be a really good machine, it's just old) but I now have a Singer Ingenuity and I LOVE it! So, I'm sewing some Christmas presents too. Basically, I'm doing a handmade Christmas this year. I plan on making truffles as gifts too, instead of the typical cookie thing. And I've got a million other ideas off of Craftster - my newest addiction (I'm not a member yet though).

Well, off to sew some more!!!

I'm married!!!

Finally it's all over! Hated to end the trip though and come back to work. Work sucks. And the hotel was so nice. I took pictures... they will be posted one day. But the wedding was beautiful and went well. I'll have to track down all my photographers and see how all the pictures turned out.

Things that have happened since we got back: Troubles with the hotel/bank and randomly deciding to make up new rules to the game without telling anyone... Finding that I've 'misplaced' one of my credit cards and freaking out because I know I just had it in my hand... Staying up late after we get back to 'clean' and rearrange all of our furniture (his idea)... Stalling going back to work today and going out to buy a new refrigerator (also his idea). It's been crazy these last 24 hours.

But good things were waiting for me when I returned. The ball winder I ordered from Joann's right before we left. I finally understand the obsession. It's so much fun! And also another package from my SP11. It's a little clip on flower and some seeds and yarn with a pattern so I can try out stranded knitting. And all in the wedding colors!!! Again, when the battery is charged for the camera, pictures will come.

On the knitting front... At the last minute I decided to knit myself a wedding garter and amazingly got that done in just a matter of hours- half of which was driving time in the dark (I wasn't driving of course). Other then that the only project I took with me was the lone sock that needed it's toe done. Still need to kitchener but that's all that's left. Then a whole other sock to go.

While in Savannah I tried to find a yarn store to visit but of course I forgot to look some up in the computer before we left. I ended up thumbing through the phonebook, only to find out that after nearly an hour of driving around trying to locate the one store that is listed, they packed up and moved to New York 2 months ago. BAH!!! So no vacay yarn for me...

Later days!

Down to the wire

Less than two weeks to go before the wedding and stress is starting to get me. Like I told P the other day, it's not the marriage part that makes me nervous. I mean, technically we've been living as if we were married for over a year. But the wedding part... now that's got me going crazy.

As of yesterday, I was told that the woman who I asked to do our photography well over a month ago won't be able to get out of whatever plans she suddenly has. Gee, thanks for the heads up... Looks like we won't have any pictures of the ceremony and that's killing me. I mean, I plan to only get married once. And while the reception is supposed to be the fun part (and we'll have plenty of picture there hopefully for all the disposables we bought for the tables!) it's the ceremony that I really want to see the pictures from. I want to be able to look onto our wedding day the way that all our guests will remember it, as well as from my perspective. And P doesn't understand why I say his dad can't be our ceremony photographer... *sigh*

Then I get an email last night from his family down there saying that they decided to change our menu without running it by us. Now, I understand some of the issues considering there is only one oven, but they changed what the actually dishes are, rather then just cutting some out. We never said we wanted half the things they are planning now. P says I should just call them and let them know how it is, but I just can't do that. First of all, I hate talking on the phone; secondly, I feel bad because they are the ones doing the work (although I told them I planned on doing a good bit and they freaked out on me and told me no); and lastly, it exhausts me even to think about it. No, I don't like the menu right now, but I don't hate it enough to call and fuss about it. Besides that, I haven't had the chance to sit down with him and go over exactly what was cut and what was changed to decide what we do and don't want. *sigh* (again)

Did I mention that we still have none of the favors done? Yeah, the custom stencil people have messed up our order not once, but twice. What they sent was entirely too huge for us to use and they don't seem to care that I paid them nearly $40 to make them right. Those people are really starting to piss me off!

Tomorrow is the fitting for my dress. I was looking forward to that but now I'm second guessing how much I spent there. I know I could have gotten a cheaper dress. I could have bought a cheap veil from WalMart... there are plenty of ways I could have done it cheaper. Hopefully tomorrow will make me fall in love with it all over again, being that I haven't seen it in almost a month.

I did finish all the boutineres/corsages for the wedding and even made our bouquets. Granted, they're rather small bouquets but at this point, it doesn't matter to me. They are done and that's all I care about. I made some jewelry for the moms and we ordered business card holders for our dads. I'm still working on the MOH gift and I doubt he's even started trying for his best man. But that's his problem, not mine.

Money has been the biggest issue recently. Just the other day P realized just how much in debt I am from my student loans. Combine that with the car loan and this wedding credit card debt and I'm probably near $30,000 in debt. Which of course is more then my yearly salary. This bothers him to no end which then bothers me. He wants me to start looking for another job and while I'm not exactly thrilled with what I've got going on now, I'm not quite ready to move on. Then again, my best bud at work just had a couple interview this week at the board of commissioners office and from what she has told me, I might be able to get something over there. I guess I'll wait and see how it goes for her.

But on to brighter things! I finally (just) took pictures of my SP11 gift #2, along with #3 which came about a week ago. I love it all! My secret pal is just so sweet and amazing. She's even put up with my blabbing about the wedding and work. And without further ado...

#2- Photo calendar f0r 2008 (to document the first year of our marriage) and some bearded iris colors (in almost the exact same red shade we're using in the wedding- it doesn't show in this picture though)... so thoughtful

#3- Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, a Soak sample, and a cute little love stamp pack thing.

I sent off another package to my secret pal this morning. I think it will go over well. I know I would like to have received it! :)

first melt down

So, it's officially 4 weeks until the wedding and I have just had my first of what I can hope will not be many meltdowns. We're talking crying so hard I can hardly breathe, shaking, and wanting to scream so loud my vocal chords rip... and all over? the stupid cake...

long story short, we were going to order it weeks ago, someone promised to take care of it and that fell through, I was out of town all this past week for training and just got the chance to get out this morning to take care of it. actually, I called Publix earlier in the week to set an appointment to come in. The lady on the phone was the sweet old lady type who told me "honey, you don't need an appointment, just come on up when you want to and we'll take care of you". This surprised me. I even asked "even if you want to do a tasting too?" "oh sure sweetie, just come up and we have everything ready already". so this morning we head out there around 9am, figuring it can't be too busy yet. And at first they were cooperative, somewhat.

Here is the deal with Publix... there is no sit down meeting to discuss. You stand at that little podium with the 'big' book that you would go to when you want to order a birthday cake for your three year old. No chairs or stools or anything. I'm figuring this could be a somewhat long process, and you are asking me to stand in the middle of the aisle, block traffic, and I can't even sit down??? Then they come out with this form and just start asking you straight off of it, showing no personal interest in you at all. Which cake (from the book) do you want? I flip through and find the closest to what we are looking for but telling her, like this but no decorations, just a plain cake (we're going to decorate it ourselves with fresh fruit and such). she jots something down on the mystery form... How many people do you want to serve? probably around 50. She does some calculation and tells me 'ok' and moves on, never once telling me if she's got us down for 2 or 3 tiers or what size those are either. I'm looking to P for assistance but he's too busy trying to call people to find out which Publix is the closest to the wedding site, even though they did tell us we could come back/call and let them know later. moving on, what kind of cake? ok, here is where the issues start... we already let her know we actually want the fondant. she already asked us if we had tasted it before and I said no, but we'd like to- meaning, we're wanting to taste a few things before making a final decision. I look to P again but he's no help. I tell her we had been talking about a vanilla cake but with different fillings for the different layers, maybe raspberry on one. We also were thinking about strawberry filling, which is listed and was recommended to me by someone at the head office, but she told us that they won't make wedding cakes with strawberry because it slides or something... what?!?! Finally, I plan out ask her if she could let us taste some, she wasn't at all going to make a suggestion. she starts to head back to get some ready when P finally pops into the picture and catches up with things. he wants to try another filling too and request the canolli cream. ok, she comes back 10 mins later (while we're standing around waiting) with four small pieces of cake, thrown together in a mess, two with raspberry and two with canolli, both on vanilla. While she was getting it together, P starts scolding me for saying just vanilla cake. guess he wasn't very focused on any of our previous talks. he wants to see a whole list of all the cakes and fillings and pick some combinations. no big deal, we flip to the front of the book and start looking together. we try to cake and it was ok, although she hardly put enough raspberry on mine for me to even taste it so I'm not sure if I like it or not. P asks if we could put together a few other combinations to try. baker: "Today? listen I'm really busy, maybe if you came back another time but we've got a ton of orders to fill right now" P "Well, when is the best time to come up?" b:"during the week, monday thru thursday, the bakers are usually her until 4 or 5." great... so that means I have to get more time off from work when I've already almost got all my leave alloted to the actually wedding. then she has the gall to tell us "just make sure you have an appointment". we're both pissed off by now and that didn't help. I did call and try to make an appointment at that very same store and I was told that they didn't even take appointments, that I couldn't make one! I tried to give them a heads up but they refused it.

So, we run a few more errands and get home. P wants me to call another Publix in the area and explain what happened and see if they can do our order today. See, you are supposed to have your order placed atleast 4 weeks in advance with Publix. We try to get together a list of combinations we want to try so they can get it ready before we get up there. There is argument because P doesnt understand that you don't get to pick a different flavor for each layer in the tier but for each tier. He's coming up with some wacko combinations and its stressing me out. He has a million questions he wants me to ask for him. I tell him he should just call himself then. He blows up and I refuse call. Finally, a while later, I get the phone and call to see if they can even help us out. The lady on the phone was so nice. I asked if it was possible to come up and do a quick cake testing and order our wedding cake. She says there is no way on a Saturday, they're too busy. And that is when I started to bawl. It all just got to me. Through my tears I explained to her what had happened this morning and how I tried to make an appointment and they didnt let me and then they got perturbed that we didnt have an appointment, and that we are running out of time because someone promised us a cake and didnt follow through and blah blah blah... I can tell she was freaking out that I was crying over this and I was getting to the point that I could barely talk. After a little silence she tells me that the baker should be in early tomorrow and she should be able to help us. I thank her, hang up and stop holding back. I want to take my wrath out on someone and Ps the only one here... plus its partially his fault. It was horrible. I really didn't yell at him all that much, but I guess I must have said just one thing that pissed him off.

Now its a few hours later. Once I apologized to him and told him I don't even know what I said, let alone remember, he started trying to comfort me and calm me down. Then he started to piss me off again and I had to go hide away in my cave (the room with all my crafting stuff) and take a nap for apparently the last two hours. But I feel better now. I think he's still pissed off at me, but I have stuff to start doing. Tomorrow is my bridal shower and this house is a mess! Plus errands... some much needed distractions....

Oh, I got another SP11 gift from my pal sometime last week. I'll have to take a picture and post about it soon, but it's great!

for the record

I LOVE the new Tostitos creamy spinach dip.... especially when dipping the new puffed club crackers in it... yumm-o!

Cabernet Sauvignon isn't that bad either... could you believe I've only drank half the bottle? :)

My 1st SP11 package

It came a little while back and I tooks pics but with all this wedding planning stuff, I got distracted from uploading... but here it is:




Yummy hand dyed sock yarn and wonderfully gorgeous wood DPNs in a collectors tin! Love it! Love it! LOVE IT!!!

other things I've been up to... just wedding junk. Made and sent what feels like a gazillion invitations although honestly there weren't even 100 sent yet. I did buy my wedding dress but I won't post pics of that because Patrick just might stumble across them... A lot of the planning has been coming along well. We still need to venture back down to FL on a business day to get the marriage license. And I still need to call my friend Heather's dad and see if he will be the officiant. And I still need to call and block rooms at the hotel.... I guess there are a million things that need to be done and I've been dog-tired recently but it's all good. Now, if Sears would just start showing our registry I'd be a lot happy. No problems with the others so far although we still need to physically go to Bed, Bath, & Beyond because so far we have just been doing it online. Which is what I am soon to do about Sears as well since every person who works there that I have spoke with is incompetent.... oh well. :)

Secret Pal 11 survey

ssssshh! I'm at work- don't tell! :)

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I don’t really have a favorite yarn. It depends on the project that I am working on and what would be best for it specifically. I do gravitate towards wool and wool blends a lot- especially if its superwash- but I haven’t got to try to many different ‘exotic’ fibers (which is my mind is cashmere, angora, silk… anything other then wool and cotton) The only thing I don’t want- NO MORE FUN FUR/Novely yarn! It’s coming out my ears… literally.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? a plastic Rubbermaid container- but I need to find something better. I’ve saved a couple pringles containers to decorate but haven’t ever gotten around to doing that.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I’ve been knitting for a couple years I guess. I’d call myself an intermediate at this point since I’ve started branching out and trying new things. I taught myself to both knit and crochet from watching other people do it (across the room) and then looking through some step by step beginner books that people bought for me. It was frustrating at first but I figured it out.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Not yet but I’m going to make one. I’m sure I’ll put a link on the page when I get around to doing it. Why does life have to be so crazy?!?

5. What's your favorite scent? Lavendar and/or vanilla. And my fiance’s deodorant :) And I just bought an air freshener plug in thing from Yankee Candle that it Lemon Lavendar and I love it in my office! On the same trip, my future sister-in-law and I discovered Bath Junkie and their 200+ different scent options. I didn’t buy anything yet, but it might be a new obsession.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Every now and then I want something sweet although usually my cravings are for ‘real’ food. I’m not a big chocolate person but love peanut M&Ms, snickers, peppermint patties, carmellos, ect (most don’t ship well…) and other things that are part chocolate but something else as well. I also like fruit flavored candies. I always have gum in my purse (unless the boy stole it). I don’t have any allergies as far as I know.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I so want to learn how to spin! I keep saying I’m going to try but haven’t done it yet. I enjoy hand dyeing yarn and making my own knitting notions. I like to cook/bake. If I can get my hands on some old furniture I like to restore stuff like that. We are in the middle of renovating/updating our home so it’s a lot of hands on stuff. Oh and I love to garden! Whenever I see seeds on sale I try to grab them all up- just watching plants grow is so fulfilling.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I have an iPod and usually listen to podcasts on it but as far as music goes, I’m usually listening to country and also right now trying to pick out songs for my wedding so listening to a little bit of everything.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I gravitate more towards aquas/teals/blues/greens and natural earthy tones (browns, tans). I also love deep jewel tones like burgundy and deep purple. My wedding colors are wine colors- super pale yellow (pretty much cream) and deep red with a little bit of a pinky tone. There really aren’t any colors that I can think of that I don’t like.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I’m one of six kids to my parents but not really close with much of my family. I’m soon to be married to my wonderful fiance- October 13, 2007 at which point I will take on another family! We have no pets currently and probably won’t for a while if ever. There is this one neighborhood cat that has adopted our yard as his own, but Patrick won’t let me feed him…

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? If it’s cold. Really, I’m not big on mittens because I like to have fingers, but I love gloves! And I don’t own a poncho but I’m sure I would wear it if I had one because I’m always cold.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? Socks are fun! I’m only on my second garment and the first one was kind of a flop.

13. What are you knitting right now? Josephine Top from Summer 2007 Interweave Knits and I hope to cast on the “I love Gansey” socks from the Six Sox yahoo group soon.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Of course! Its like getting a little piece of someones heart, knowing that they put time and effort into it. Being a crafter, I know how frustrating it can be to make some things and I hate to see someone who is unappreciative.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Depending on the project I switch between straights and circs. I have a set of circular interchangeable needles. They are the Boye needlemaster set but I want to eventually get a set of the KnitPicks options. I like my needles pointy! Most of my needles are made out of aluminum but I have a few bamboo needles (straight and circulars) and after getting used to the different feel, I love them too. I’m not really a big fan of any of the plastic needles I have tried thus far.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Nope. Well, unless you count using a piece of PVC pipe as a ball winder and my PVC niddy noddy. I asked my dad to make me a swift but he’s a slacker.

17. How old is your oldest UFO? A couple months. I started a beach wrap when we went down to FL back in May but since it wasn’t done in time for me to use it at the beach I just stopped working on it.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving… Yummy food!!!

19. Is there anything that you collect? Umm… yarn? I really can’t think of anything. I used to have tons of collections but not so much anymore. I guess you could say that I collect seeds- I’ve been buying packets any time I see them in the store to save for next planting season.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I don’t have any magazine subscriptions- I usually wait until I see something on the shelf that looks good and pick it up. I don’t have many knitting books either although I did just order Domiknitrix, Favorite Socks, and Charmed Knits. The one pattern I know I must have eventually is the Sahara top from Stitch Diva Studios… and Rusted Root from Zephyr style… things like that… As far as yarn goes, theres some newer stuff made from corn that I have just been drawn to recently... don't know why by I'm itching to try it.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? I’m not sure. I’ve tinkered a bit with stranded knitting but haven’t got that quite figured out yet.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I have started knitting socks and love it so far! I don't know the exact measurements but I wear around a 9 1/2 in shoes... I know, big feet...

23. When is your birthday? December 12, 1984

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID? Indeed I am! Though I still need to set it up more- it’s sylverstarz17

I swear I have pics of the Josephine progress. Life has just been crazy recently between work and trying to plan that wedding in only two months. Hopefully it will all work out. And here I am rushing just to put something up on my blog. I need to post my SP11 survey too but its saved on the computer at work where I have been trying to sneak in working on it between meeting with kids. It's been down right hectic from me at work since I got back from training. Seems like all my kids have suddenly decided to turn into hellions. Oh well. Guess thats what happens when they go back to school.

Going to Ft White, Florida this weekend to scope out some info and get some details together for the wedding. I'll probably work on Josephine in the car so that means more pics hopefully. I haven't really had time to even touch it since training and I do miss it so.

Soon... I promise!

Let's track some progress

So, in about an hour and a half I'm leaving for a week for training in the po-dunk town of Forsyth, Georgia. Talk about boring... Last time I took my Liesel scarf with me as my only project- well, other then a couple dishcloths I needed to finish and send off to swap bot partners. This time I'm taking Josephine. I'm pretty sure I'll be done with the 'skirt'/lower half, or atleast to the decreases by the time I get back as long as my buddies aren't busy distracting me. Here's a before shot- where I'm at as of this moment:

Thats exactly one repeat of the lace chart. Pretty good considering I've been "restricted" (yet, no progress has been made on the basement in the last couple days...)

I'm going to try to take a picture of my progress every night so we can see how it comes along... hopefully I'll hold up to that this time :)

I finished 'Shrug This' and I guess it turned out alright... I had to add a few more increases in the arms because there was no way it would fit me (atleast not comfortably) and then I just knit the length until I ran out of yarn. It looked pretty good but small so I figured I would block it and see if it stretched any... but the question is, how do you block a completed garment so that it doesn't end up all wonky with creases and such? I tried laying it out on the spare bed with a towel underneath but it didn't seem the sleeve areas were drying very well at all, so I flipped back the front panels to let them finish drying... what did I end up with? It's still too small and now it doesn't lay right either. Fooey! From reading about a few other people who made this as well, it has become apparently to me that it isn't meant for anyone who has any hint of cleavage if you follow the pattern. Wish I had known that before I started! (it doesn't list size options so I figured it was a one size fits all kind of thing). Now I'm off to try and find a flat friend for whom I can gift it... if I can get rid of that wonky-ness

I cast on for the Josephine top in Interweave Knits Summer 2007. The picture makes the top look incredibly small on the girl so, considering the boobage issue with the last project, I decided to do the next size up. I did a gauge (and then undid it after measuring because I hate to waste yarn on 'silly squares') and it worked out so along I went. Then I stepped back and realized that, for just the back, it was going to be incredibly too large. Another fooey! I wasn't too far in, but frogging can be such a mean hearted bitch... I cast on again for the smallest size, went down a needle size, and decided to try knitting front and back together at once, in the round, as I saw someone mention in a craftster post. So far so good except the boy has restricted me from knitting until we finish the basement so I'm still on the first row... what a meanie!!!! (But I still can't help but love him!)