Where did you go.......?

That's a great question.  I'm still here.  I am busy.  No really.  Busy.  Crazy,  ridiculous,  mind numbingly busy.  It doesn't feel like I should be,  but there is just so much going on.  Every time something calms down,  something new comes up.  Well, and then there is the wanting to knit all the things,  read all the things,  and sew all the things.  Lol

To top my crazy, school is out for the summer......... and we got a puppy.  Seriously.  Things are crazy.  Oh,  and I got a job.  Whew! I work nights and that makes it seem like I should have plenty of time for everything else,  but I just don't.  I have a staggered sleep pattern and it takes up so much more time than the average 6-8 hours a night that I used to get.  I'm adjusting....... slowly.

On to more awesome subjects. My great purge=not so great.  Lol or more like not so done.  Slowly but surely seems to be a never ending concept.  I'm still moving forward,  and trying to upcycle and donate as much as I can.  Enter this dress:

Doesn't it just make you wanna She-bop?!?

My SIL gave me a bag of clothes and this was in it.  It's so got an 80s-tastic feel to it that I have love/hate feelings about.  Part of me wishes it would fit Ash (my almost 10 year old daughter) because I think it would be great on her.  She might hate me for it,  though.  Lol so I put it in a consignment sale and it came right back home.  Then I put it in the donate bag.  The donate bag is not full and so it sits.

Enter another obstacle: Mandi (my 3yr old daughter) is built a little differently than a lot of girls her age.  I can't find jeans that fit her middle.  I can't keep her in clothes.  Also,  she wears a 5 already.  I've had this problem her whole life.  It's a big reason why I started learning to sew.  Well, I've decided to sew as much of her clothes as I can.  There is no reason that my little girl should have to be uncomfortable because she isn't a bean pole.  Besides,  we all know that having clothes that don't fit comfortably makes us feel bad.  I am NOT letting that start with her.  Now,  she's not overweight.  I always think that people think that when I say she's big for her age.  According to everyone her height and weight are proportionate.  She's just big for her age and not built like a stereotype,  apparently. 

Moral: that dress will become something amazing for my girls.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

In fiber craft news I want a spinning wheel...... again.  Or still.  I always want one but my urgency seems to depend on my mood. Well, it's in full force again.  I did a little spinning on my drop spindle recently and it just made me want a wheel so much.  Soon,  right? 

My Inara. She's so lovely.

Also,  my startitis is in full gear.  Once I finished my baby set for my adorable new niece I felt aimless in my knitting.  I didn't have any projects that made me super excited.  Enter the baby chevron for baby Anna Lynn. 

Oh the baby cuteness!

Enter the Ten stitch blanket destined to be a Christmas present.

Cute, mindless knitting. 

I started a sweater vest for me.

This is only part of the sadness. Add 8+ inches to it. :-(

Unfortunately my inability to accept my size cost me 12" and a week and a half of knitting.  Oi.  It's in a time out until further notice.

In despair,  I started to trudge through my que. Now,  I use my que for things that I want to make (the reason it is 30ish pages long)  and my favorites are things I love that I will probably never make.  Thirty pages takes some time to go through.  I sulk through it occasionally. That's when I ran across the $5 in Paris that I wanted to make but didn't have the yarn for it.  Then,  I realized it was made out of Caron Simply Soft.  Hey! I can pick that up at Walmart. Hey! That's fairly inexpensive. Oh the happy dance!  So here's where I am with it:

And it fits and everything!

There are some things I will change next time I make it,  but those are things that were and/or in the directions.  It's sort of like a choose your own adventure and I took a path that gets me to an end I will like,  but it could be better.  Ya know?  Lol

I also have been working on socks.  Always working on socks.  This is The Year of the Sock!  (and the blanket,  and the early Christmas gifts, and and and) I thought I loved magic loops,  but it was blah to situate socks and yarn at the end of every half round.  I finally got the nerve to buy 9" circulars and wow!  Just wow.  I love them.  Here's a finished sock that I did middle of the foot to end to the top in just a few days.  Now,  I do not work on them all the time.  They are my purse project.  That should tell you how often I work on them.

On one circular, one at a time, toe up, short row (no wrap) heel. Love!

And I got the idea to work my socks around,  and around,  and around working on these.  I loved making them

Squircle bags!

Well,  that's all for now.  I have work to do today, *sigh*, but I have some neat extras planned,  too.  Talk to you soon. 

Start-itis Flare Up

So, the Knitmore Girls call it start-osis: a condition of starting. While I love that, I really feel like start-itis better describes my condition. I have an inflammation of starting. I am starting all the things. I am losing momentum too soon into the projects and starting something new. My WIPs are starting to take over my world. Lol

We have had a lot of big changes around here, lately. I finally bought a real computer desk!! No. No pictures, yet. We plan to put it together tomorrow. I am so, so excited about it. I do have something to show you, though. Remember my Inbox rant here? Well, I was bad. I never settled on one of my baskets. None of them felt right, and if it isn't right I won't use it. I know me.

Well, we were perusing Lowe's and I happened upon the most perfect inbox!

Isn't it awesome? I love it! I love that it won't take up much room on the desk, too. So there's that.  Like I said, there is lots going on atound here, but I've little time to chat about it today. More to come tomorrow with plenty of pics. You can check my Ravelry projects page or check out my little ticker to your right to see all my crazy ridiculous WIPs. See you tomorrow!

Busy with Fiber

Ugh. I am sick. Booooo. It happens, although I think you should get a free pass if you're a mom. I did go lay in bed at like eight last night. That never happens. To put things into context, I was too sick to KNIT last night. Seriously. This is how I measure my ailments. lol Last night I had a sore throat, achy yuckiness, and the worst nausea. The nausea subsided in the middle of the night, thank goodness. The rest remains. Why am I sitting up clacking away on my keyboard at 5:30am when I'm sick? I had a nightmare. Aren't we supposed to outgrow those? Guess not. Well, it was bad enough that I didn't even want to attempt to go back to sleep. I'll rest later.

Today will be a busy day. I am going to buy a desk today. I plan to look at a few different places. I had originally planned on going to Walmart and just getting a cheapy corner desk for my room. I'm having second thoughts in the wee hours of today. lol Big lots sent me a 20% off coupon! I'm going to check out what they have to offer.

Otherwise, there hasn't been too much organizing going on around here. I've been extremely busy with life. Not only that, but the kids have gone to school almost three days in the last two weeks. You might not think that would make a huge difference, but boy!! does it ever! So this weekend is going to have a lot of changes in the home for us. I'm pretty excited.

In crafty news, check out what I picked up on Etsy.....

oh my baby elephants!!

Don't they just make you squee?!? I ordered these for my little baby sweater dress thing that I'm working on. I have finished the body and am working on the sleeves. Ugh, sleeves! I'm ten stitches away from making it short sleeved! lol I'm going to use Knitmore Girls Couture Button Band and I'm pretty excited/scared out of my mind to give it a whirl. lol I will definitely have pics when it is done.

I spent a whole day (mostly) a couple of weeks ago spinning in an online spin-a-long. I had a blast. I wish I could give it more of my full attention, but I understand that I am still years away from that being a reality. Spinning made me wish I had more time to devote to it. It's really quite fun and I was just dreaming of what I could make with the finished yarn. I am using this beautiful superwash merino fleece that I also purchased off of, surprise surprise, Etsy in the colorway "Inora". Yes, I'm a geek. Yes, I am pretty darned proud of it. lol I was feeling a bit Firefly-y and Inora was put on the spindle.

My beautiful Inora. 

Here it is all wound up in it's bag. I love all the rich purples, golds, and rose pink/reds. I am already browsing  Ravelry for something lovely for this to become.

I actually spun up about 1 oz. 

Here's a good pic of the colors.

It was a lovely day. I can't wait to have another day to do it again. I have a few big projects that need to get done first, though. Such is life. lol Oh man! I have to knit? lol Yes, please!! 

Being the flighty person that I am, I cast on another project. I know, I know. I so needed one of those, right? lol I am making the Color Affection and am loving the zen of this pattern. Seriously. I am a huge fan of a pattern that can keep my attention with lace and other pattern enhancers, but garter stitch really does have its  great qualities. I started this on Monday at knit night, and I worked on it the next day when the snow took out our power. It made me so calm and happy. I worked all the way up to the beginning of the first stripe section where I had to stop. I had only picked one color. Why? Because I just couldn't decide on the other two. Indecisive me. lol Well, I've picked them and am ordering, hopefully, this weekend. 

Here's my pallet:

I have the red (Serrano) and had definitely decided on the purple (Mulberry) and I am getting the blue on the bottom (Ceil). I seriously think I am in love. I have usually stayed away from patterns that call for fingering weight yarn because I envision the project taking forever (and let's face it, who doesn't like instant gratification projects?). Well, this yarn is just so lovely. It is Knit Picks Palette. It's a gorgeous Peruvian wool at a very reasonable price and I love it. My recommendation: do not figure how many skeins you need when you are tired, frazzled, and on a deadline. Then you MAY order seven skeins of one color when you only need two. Then, before you realize your mistake, you will kick yourself repeatedly wondering how you will be able to afford seven skeins each of the other two colors you need. ( I was buying how many yards I needed using the number of grams in a skein, blah.) The good news is that this red is absolutely beautiful. I am already deciding on what to do with the rest. 

Well, I suppose that is all for today. I will definitely have more to share soon. Have a wonderful weekend!!

Do you Inbox?

AAAAaaaaahhhhh! I'm falling behind. Boo. All of my well laid plans have fallen by the wayside. It's a tragedy. I need to get back on track if I want to NOT lose my mind. *sigh* I'd like to say I feel a little better, but not so much. Things are still a mess whether I admit to it or not.

Now, I think my problem is that I get busy, tired, and lazy. Life, eh? The other problem is that I tried to continue on my road without  turning, or upgrading, or however you'd like to think of it. I maintained the course without making any further improvements. Improvements are always needed on an endeavor like mine. I believe I've said something about an "inbox" before. I was going to think on what to use. I also don't have a command central, yet. I think that I was waiting for the command center to finish what needed to be done. Bad move on my part.

Do you have an inbox? What do you use? Does it work for you, or is it just another drop spot? Does size matter? How often do you clean it out?

Well, I have had an inbox before. I never cleaned it out. I dumped everything in it; ie: yarn, crochet hooks, knitting needles, sewing needles, hair ties, bills, paperwork, pencils, school papers, spare keys. Blah. Seriously. I am horrible about these sorts of things. I maintain that I need to make time every day to go through the inbox. I need to put things that need my attention in it and not junk mail, school spam, or anything else that should probably go straight in the trash. Oh trash! I need to keep it free of trash.

So, now I know what to do. I know where I want to put it.....eventually. Until I have my command central, though, I think I shall put it on top of one of my bookshelves in the front room. That way it is easy to get to and right where I can see it and it can remind me of what needs to be done. This definitely needs to be a thing.

The next order of business is what to use. I wanted to use those stackable ones so I could have an in and out box. However, I'm cheap and didn't want to pay $8-$9 each. Boo. So I have a ton of wicker baskets at home, I thought I'd use one of those. However, I used one of those the last time. What a debacle! I did use a large one, though. I used a large one because I always have so much that needs to be taken care of.....because I let it pile up......and then it becomes unmanageable.....and we are right back where we started. Blech.

I still think one of my wicker baskets could work. And, hey! They are cute. I like cute. It's my thing. I have one that's shorter and rectangular with handles. I think it will work nicely.

It looks much like this one from epicureanfoods.com.

I also have a really cute white one with big handles and a cute flower liner. I haven't made my final decision. I do need to decide soon. I also need to take a bit of time to catch up on my paperwork. This weekend, hopefully. 

In crafty news, I am a knitting machine lately. I have finished two and a half hats since Sunday! I know, right?!? lol I still have a bunch of whatnots on the needles, and I am happily plugging away. I hope you are staying safe and warm during the snow (if it happens to be where you are).

Breaking the Silence

All this quiet, huh? I know it's been a while, but I have been so very busy. It's a great excuse, right? While I haven't been doing any great organizing lately, I have been doing a lot of crafts.

Yesterday, my baby turned three. It's a little bit incredible, really. She was so tiny just yesterday. I swear. lol I made her the cutest baby doll. I know she doesn't look like a real baby, but we decided to use her favorite colors. I used this pattern.

I gave her blue eyes and blond hair (I didn't have it on her yet), and Miranda exclaimed, "just like me!" It was so great that she noticed.  I even gave her a belly button! It's called a woven spider wheel stitch. Pretty neat, huh?

Of course she needed a dress. So, she got hair and a dress and was ready to go! I used colors that I knew Miranda would love. I'm happy with the results and she loves it. 

Hubby modeled her for me. He's the best. Then, at the last minute, I decided I needed to make her a dress. I found this tutorial on Pinterest. It was really easy. I think it took me roughly two hours from measuring and cutting to finishing up. The tutorial was easy to follow and fun. She also had a great link to the exact measurements for a wide range of sizes. You can find it here.

Hands on hips is totally her new stance. lol I made it out of two of hubby's old tshirts. The body was a dark red and the arms were a beigey-brown color. I didn't think it fit the birthday girl too well. So, I went and got some navy blue Rit dye and gave it a soak for about an hour. I like how it turned out. She seems moderately happy with it. lol 

I've also been working on a wonderful baby set for my sister's new baby that she is expecting in April. I was so incredibly thrilled when she asked me to make the coming home outfit. I can't share pictures yet. I am very sure she doesn't read this, but I just want to be sure. 

I hope to have more to share soon. Hope everyone is enjoying their month!

Playing, I Mean, Organizing Yarn, Hooks, and Needles

Today I want to talk about organizing yarn/needles/hooks. I gave myself permission to have a stay at home morning. I definitely needed it and considering how it is 2 degrees F with the wind chill, I feel it's justified. So I spent the morning playing with my yarn. Read: I organized one of my stash totes.

I am still looking for the perfect way to store my yarn and projects. For now I use these purple totes that I bought on clearance. I printed out labels and taped them to the fronts. They read acrylics, natural fibers, finished objects, and unfinished objects. They still do not hold all of my yarn, but I'm doing a lot of working from my stash this year so we'll see where that gets me.

Today I worked on my Natural Fibers tote. I took everything out and made sure it was documented in my Ravelry stash and that there were pictures. This also gave me the most awesome excuse to fondle all of my lovely wool. I may have had a huge grin on my face the whole time. 

Here's a screen shot of some of my stash. I had lots of fun. Plus my phone has an app that allows me to see my projects and stash when I'm out and about. Now if I am out and see yarn that I need or actually do need to pick up some yarn I can see what I have on hand. I am filled with so much happy when I look at my stash. Plus it makes starting a new project easier. How? Well, now I can link the yarn and see how much I have and if I need more or if I have enough to start another project with that yarn. 

This leads me to my needles. I made this needle roll a few years ago. I love it, but a few years ago I didn't have nearly the needle stash that I do now. I am thinking that I need to make another one just for DPNs and keep this one for straight needles. We will see what time allows, though. I'd also like to confess that even though I have this roll there are still needles all over the house. Meh. It's life.

There is a lot of different ideas out there about organizing circular needles. I usually do not have a need to take my whole lot of circs with me anywhere, so having a moderately cheap solution for the house works good for me. It also seems that my method isn't too different than some of the more expensive options out there. I took a tote that has the deals that come up over the handles to latch it. I made this nifty label, and it's all ready to fill.

As for the needles themselves, I put them in your average, run of the mill storage bags. I write the size of the needle, the size of the cable, and what the needle is made of on the label. If I were really good I'd follow this with, "then I organize according to needle size". I'm not going to lie to you though. lol I really just have them put in no particular order. It's ok. My circular needles are not so much that this is causing a huge issue when I go to look for one. Maybe someday I'll organize it better. This is working great, for now. 

Here are my needles, sort of. This is nowhere near the extent of my hook collection as I have been crocheting for well over twenty years now. However, this is the holder that I use most. I do have a special holder for some of my other hooks that have sentimental value. Pretty odd, huh? Well, that's me. 

I think that's about it for today. I have to work on my grocery list and will myself out of my warm house into the frigid temps to get food. Boo. *sigh* I leave you with this picture of the most adorable toddler sock ever! And it was a pretty fast knit, too. 

Meal Planning, Ravelry Organizing, and The Cutest Sock

I think that maybe it has been too long since my last post. To be honest, I haven't really accomplished too much on the organizing front. There was a lot of cleaning, and a lot of good intentions. However, there was very little actual progress, well other than knitting.

I've been desperately needing to get my meal planning and grocery list in order. Like I've said before, I've had a system in the past that worked quite nicely. I had enough dinners planned for a week, and four separate weeks listed. I would just get my lists out when it was time to go shopping and ask hubby what he wanted to eat for that week and then make my grocery list from there. I was looking for something different now. The reason? Hubby likes to be overly spontaneous. He wants to go to Walmart every day and browse the food isles to decide what sounds good. It drives me and that little OCD voice in my head completely bonkers!! But, I don't like making a list and going shopping just to find out that he doesn't want anything that I've bought. Or worse is when I go to make dinner and after all the preparation and work, he won't eat it because it doesn't sound good. Ugh.

We were seriously discussing the whole food situation last night and he told me just how much he liked my old way of doing things. Ok! Why mess with a good thing? Well, other than to improve it. So I made a list of our favorite foods. Then I made a plan. One day a week we will have each of the following for dinner: salad, soup, crockpot meal, meatless meal, and a new meal. With that settled I started on my weekly plans.

genius in the making...

 So here is week one and two. I have plans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I plan to make a grocery list to correspond with each week. So week one will have a list with everything I need to make those meals, a section for things I should have on hand (so I can double check those staples), and room to add anything extra that I need, too. Each week will have a specific list. I think this will cut down my time as far as grocery shopping is concerned. I think it will also make the meal planning less of a teeth pulling affair. I'm digging it. I'll write it all out and then type them up and I'll show you the finished product. I made lists for weeks 1-3, started weeks 4 and 5, and started week 1 grocery list last night. It took a few hours. This will be quite the under taking. Once it's done, though, it will make that part of my life a piece of cake!

so much yummy crispiness!

And this is what we had for dinner last night: homemade, baked flautas and Spanish rice. The flautas were filled with seasoned, baked chicken, frozen (thawed) spinach, and shredded cheddar cheese. They were awesome! I've made them twice and both times they were a huge hit. You can find the recipe here. You can also follow me on Pinterest, because I have some pretty awesome boards filled with the most wonderful goodness. *toot toot* (tooting my own horn, like you needed to be told that)

And while I am still sitting around this morning, I did manage to get some organizing done. I organized my project page on Ravelry. I added tags and sets to all of my finished projects. It was great fun! Now I can easily look for all of the blankets I've made, or hats, or socks, or anything in a particular year. I love it. Next will be my que. I also need to inventory all of my stash. That is partially done. These are very time consuming tasks, and require hubby to give up the computer to get it done. 

see my cute, new tabs?!?

 On the crafty home front: I have finished my socks!! This prompted an immediate mini tantrum from my little Miss. She needs socks NOW. I guess I'm sort of prone to giving into her, and I love when the kids want me to make them something, so I cast right on. They are cruising right along.

they are so small and sweet.

So, the house is clean, and is actually staying that way, and I'm keeping up with my awesome record keeping. All in all I'd say the year of the follow through is going great as it nears the end of it's first month. I think that this year is going to be pretty amazing. I'm still very excited and full of momentum. I'm going to keep plugging away on my Big Binder. This year is going to come together quite nicely. :-)