Weekend Project

Here is a picture of what I worked on for a good portion of the long weekend. Now, I know I had to return to work yesterday, but I forgot to take a picture of it yesterday morning and I went shopping after work last night so I haven't put any work into it since Monday evening. You can even see right at the bottom where my hook is hanging off and I had stopped that row of green on Monday night because I just couldn't keep going - my wrist was offically "off the clock"!

The blanket is gonna be for Mom and it's just one giant Granny square. As you know from some of my summer posts, I did start a blanket for myself for reading on the patio but I never came close to finishing it (as of yet). Ever since Mom gave Grannie and I our blankets for Christmas I have been determined to start crocheting blankets too. I'm never one to be out crafted! I've had the yarn for this for at least the last 6 months and had planned on having this made for her for Christmas, after not having it done for her birthday.....clearly neither happened. I started the first 2-3 rounds on Friday night, first w/ a smaller hook but by round 4 found myself starting over because I didn't like how tight it was turning out. Everything is Red Heart SuperSaver, one skein of each of the 6 colors needed and a K hook. It's 37 rounds before I start to just add some rows to opposing ends to make it a rectangle and then add on the border. Right now I believe we're looking at around 17 or 18 rounds. Unfortunately, after the completion of each round, the next one is a bit bigger, 16 stitches each time to be exact so as you can imagine it starts taking longer and longer to get around the square once more. Right now it's taking me about 30-45 minutes to get around once so my progress isn't as evident as before.

I'm still having lots of fun though and I really like how it's coming out. Definitely not taking me as long to make a blanket as I thought it would and I already have many MANY plans for more blankets I want to make for me, Jon, Grannie and others! I've even bought the yarn/picked out the colored for most of them.

Good thing crafty Saturday is coming up cause I clearly have a lot of work to do! I'll post a new pic on Monday to see how I do.

Would be happy to share the pattern as well as the colors I'm using with anyone who is interested in having, just let me know!

Recap

Wow, it's been forever. So much has been going on since the move: Thanksgiving, my Birthday, Christmas, New Years, etc. etc. etc. Of course there are also all the craft projects that I have worked on and completed in that time :-)

I'll start by saying how much we are loving our new apartment! We are getting really close to having everything situated, and this place really feels like a home vs. a rented space. The paint and curtins really make that happen I think. I hope that this spring I am able to push Jon towards painting the study and one wall of the dining room. I was actually unpacked and got the last cardboard box out of the apt. 1 1/2 months after the move, which I believe is record time for moving and unpacking! We of course, don't have a basement or closet space that's not already being utilized that I could just hide boxes in, so I had no choice but to just do it! Now as I spend time on the weekends out shopping for small details and working to get things better organized, I am very happy that I pushed myself this fall like I did. I have some new pictures that I need to upload in order to share on here of how things are coming together.

The holidays were crazy stressful this year and just FLEW by, but as always it was great to be home with the family. I as always was super busy making lots of Christmas cookies (15 different kinds in total), and working to finish up presents that I was making. Again lots of pictures of these to share, but I gotta get them uploaded :o) New Years Eve was very low key this year, we decided to stay in, make a nice dinner and enjoy getting rested up from traveling so it was very enjoyable. I look foward to what interesting things 2010 has in store for me.

I didn't really make a resolution this year - I feel like pin pointing something specific just sets me up to fail. Things that I know I want to accomoplish this year:

1. start taking classes in the fall
2. Find new ways to challenge myself at work
3. finish my cookbook
4. eat healthier/exercise more
5. challenge myself w/ new craft projects vs. just going for what's "easy"
6. blog more to keep track as I go forward w/ these "goals".

I guess starting to take classes is the more serious of these goals, but nothing is set in stone, they are just things that I want to be able to enjoy more in my life during 2010.

I will try to get pictures from the holidays posted soon and be better about sharing my craft journey for those who are interested in reading about the things I create.

New apartment pictures

Not a lot or report on, spent some time in the new place last night getting cleaning supplies unpacked (and used) and most of the Master bedroom got painted. We unfortunately had some small hiccups with the edging supplies that we purchased so we only got the large mass of the walls painted last night, after a trip to Home Depot tonight, we'll edge then. I think we left around 11:45 p.m. to head back to the Promenade, so I've been keeping my eyes open with toothpicks for most of the day.

If you didn't know it yet, the movers come tomorrow at 9 a.m. to move us out of the Promenade! We won't have Internet at home until we buy a TV (silly to have them set up Internet and not cable while they're at the apt), so after these pics there will be no updates until I return to work on Monday. Hopefully by then I will have amazing "finished product" pictures to share!

Looking in from the front door - living room on the left, dining room on the right.

From the dining room (actually I was standing on the Balcony, looking through my dining room windows) to the kitchen.

right side of the kitchen, including the fridge (obvi) and the oven/store that I'm super excited about because it has a timer and self-cleaner built in. Seriously it's the simple things some days.


left side of the kitchen with a tiny sink that I know will make me miss the sink I'm leaving and our lovely blue recycling bin - GO GREEN!


Looking to the front door from the balcony door


Our view of Silver Spring from the balcony (also the view from the dining room, living room and both bedrooms)



Looking back into the living room/front door from the balcony


Down the hallway to the bathroom and bedrooms (3/4 of the way down the picture on the left side is the door knob to the open front door)


Bathroom at the end of the hallway.


There was nothing of great excitement to show off in an empty picture of the 2nd bedroom (to be Jon's study and my craft room), but here are the first of my indoor plants that got brought over! They are sitting in the 2nd bedroom for now, hopefully out of the way of the movers tomorrow.


Second bathroom off the Master bedroom.


Master bedroom, looking from bathroom towards windows. The entire wall on the right is my closets :-)

Jonathan painting the BEAUTIFUL "warm brownie" on our bedroom walls! I am officially IN LOVE with this paint color and can not WAIT for our bedroom to be put together and see how it's all gonna look!!!!

Oh! So a funny story, at least to me. Yesterday morning when I got up at the Promenade, we didn't have hot water. Obviously I did not find this funny at the time of taking an ice cold shower. Yesterday afternoon when we went to pick up our keys and did a walk through of the place, we were told that they were working on the water in the building but just for that afternoon. When we got there last night, no heat and no hot water! Seriously, it was like it was following us around! Apparently they had to replace the boiler like 2 weeks ago and somehow water leaked and did damage to the electrical system for the hot water and heat! eek! I realize that things happen and while it was an inconvenience, I don't feel that it was necessary to bitch out the front desk people/manager on duty because of it! They were being really great and offering empty apartments in the other complexes for you to take a hot shower in and put up updated notices at least 3 times while we were there! By the time we left there was hot water again, but a part had to be ordered for the heat and it wouldn't be restored until morning. I've lived through many a weekend at the Promenade w/ no air conditioning when it's 100 degrees out, I would much rather be w/o heat when it's only a low of 51 like last night was.......I would have been even more ok with this if I had not just had shorts and a t-shirt with me!

Oh, we did have heat and hot water at the Promenade last night and this morning though so it looks like my curse might be over :-)

Start of the move to Silver Spring!

So we haven't officially started moving yet, we actually go and pick up our keys in 1 hour!!!, but I have spent most of the past 2 weeks packing up our "worldly" possessions so that when the movers arrive at 9 a.m. this Saturday we are ready to go! The pictures below are what I captured around 10:30 last night (Wednesday).

Here is looking towards the front door, the couch is over there to the left behind all those boxes.....

Here's another view of the living room from the stairs, so you can kinda see where the couch lived (Jon is hiding on the couch sleeping, yelling at me that I had him in all these pictures lol)

Please note Jon's toes in the right corner :-)

Kinda the same view again, I was sleepy and wasn't really sure I was getting all the boxes in these shots!

The bedroom and wall of boxes by the windows.

All the boxes lined up on my side of the bed (by the windows), including all my show boxes tied together because we were never gonna have enough boxes for all those too!!

Looking down the hallway from the bedroom - everything that I'm attempting to not trip over and break toes at the end of the night, an early every morning.


It looks like my boxes are wearing a hat! :-D

I'll continue to add pictures on here throughout the weekend as we see our new place for the first time this afternoon, paint the Master bedroom this evening and as the movers empty TH 7 and fill up our new place! Keep checking back for more updates! :-)

Weekend Crafts

So "technically" I should have been spending my weekend packing, since the movers will be at the Promenade in 11 days and some change.....ugh. Well I did pack. 29 boxes to be exact. Unfortunately 29 boxes didn't even get the downstairs packed (minus considering the kitchen) and I REALLY wish it were all done at this point! I had my tap class on Saturday morning and when I got home around 2, I had to first unpack from New Hampshire before we could start packing for the move. I can't even begin to explain how frustrating it is to have to put things "away" that you know you are going to just pack up into boxes in the next 2 weeks. I mean I understand why it had to happen, but it stressed me out none the less. I was basically a basket case before I built my first box, at which point Jon had to step in and calm me down because I was almost at a point of needed sedatives. He was right though, once I started packing it did go a lot quicker than I thought it was going to and by 7:30 on Saturday night when I stopped to call Grannie and had dinner, I was very happy with the progess that was made. I woke up yesterday morning and wanted to do nothing but eat junk food in my sweats and watch movies. Not exactly the same as being motivated to pack! We went to Teeter for weekly groceries cause they were needed pretty badly and when we returned I felt like poo and had NO motivation. It wasn't until about 3 p.m. that I finally got my butt off the couch. I only had 13 boxes left to pack so I just kept telling myself that once those were packed, I could go back to doing nothing! So now 29 boxes are packed. About 99% of the living room and 80% of the dining room is packed. As I sit here at work today, I'd rather be tracking down boxes and working on getting it done, yet I know if I were at home, I would be sitting on my butt, in sweats, doing crafts and mad that I already boxed up all the DVDs!

When I wasn't packing yesterday (afternoon haha), I was working on finishing up the following projects, actually both for Grannie.

This scarf is going to be a birthday present for her (2 months from tomorrow, us Christmas babies Grannie and me!). I used the new Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn (the pink) and while I love the color and it's real soft, I had a hard time crocheting with a super bulky weight. I thought it would just be super fast and fun (like a 3 hour scarf) and it was more of a week long project. Not sure if my hook should have been bigger or if I just need to get more accustomed to the weight of yarn. The black is fun fur, seemed perfect for Grannie who just loves to get "dolled up". Didn't have the best luck with stitching this around the outside either. I'm sure it looks great to anyone who looks at it, but it definitely has a good side and a bad side. Don't know if that's just how it would be for anyone, or if I've done something wrong - thoughts anyone?
Even though I had some struggles with it, I am still thinking they would make a great Christmas present for some people I know (!), just have to decide on colors!

Real quickly too, here is a picture of the finished eyeglass case for last month. I finished stitching the back while in NH, but when I started assembling according to the directions, I didn't really like how they had blank canvas for the inner lining, seemed to me that it would scratch your lenses, so I opted for gluing felt inside and then stitched up last night after dinner. I have wrapped up and it's on it's way to Grannie this afternoon. God willing the USPS gets it to her before Breast Cancer Awareness month is over!

Started packing up craft stuff this weekend and it's gonna start getting boxed quickly, so last night I was scrambling to keep out one or two things to work on up til the move, like for mom's birthday less than a month from now! I'm planning on getting started on her blanket tonight after work I think, Jon's going to a reception after his first day at the new job so it'll be nice and quiet for me to focus on getting this one started, I better have some amazing shows recording on my DVR as I type cause my movies are all gone and I'd hate to have to unpack the top of a box to find something to watch tonight!!

A Preview of the Burgard Wedding Weekend

I am back in DC, back to work today and can barely keep my eyes open right now. It's only 10:42, I've been up since 6 and don't know how I'll make it till lunch time, let alone 5:00 right now, but I'm trying to keep busy so I don't just pass out, hit my head and have no one even notice that I've disappeared until the desk of the cubicle I'm sitting at today.

What a fun, crazy weekend we had for the Deshaies-Burgard wedding celebration in Manchester/Sandown/Candia, New Hampshire!

For starters, the 7 hr and 22 min drive up to NH on Friday that I started at 5:38 a.m., after getting out of bed at 4 a.m., took 10 hours and 46 minutes. Friday night we just went to Donna's and help w/ the flowers and then crashed pretty early.

Saturday was a whirlwind with the Rehearsal at 9 a.m. (quite chilly), Bridal Luncheon at 11:30, nails with the girls and then Rehearsal Dinner at 6 p.m. It went by sooooooooooooo fast, but was a lot of fun.

I spent 90% of Sunday morning fighting w/ the bitch at the front desk at the Holiday Inn Express (don't worry, and email and letter of complaint are in draft stages) over getting into the suite that Jonathan and Talana would be spending their wedding night in so I could decorate. The other 10% of the time was spent getting everything packed up, and my hair in curlers to head over to the Venue by 2. Spent the afternoon w/ the girls getting ready, and getting T ready for her wedding day. From the moment we all say her in her GORGEOUS dress, the tears didn't really stop until the ceremony was over! Talana looked so perfect and so gorgeous, I can't wait to see her professional photos!

Now apparently, T and Jonathan went to Canida like a year ago to the date and the weather was in the mid to high 60s, possibly low 70s. It was barely 50 degrees on Sunday at 5 p.m. w/ quite the breeze. As you'll see by my pictures in this post, we were NOT dressed for such weather at an outdoor wedding! We all froze and shivered and shook during the ceremony. The more I cried, the colder I was!

Here are Tiff, myself and Jennine looking beautiful in our coats in between Bridal Party pics after the ceremony. Could not feel my feet, toes, arms or hands at this point!

All of the girls: Tiff, myself, Jennine and Nicole w/ the boys: Brian, Jonathan and Dave while we were doing Photos

And a nice shot of Jon being a little creepy more than romantic! lol

We had an amazing time at the reception as well, these pictures I stole from Jennine (MOH) cause I haven't had time to upload my photos off my camera yet! Hopefully tonight.

The gorgeous head table that Talana did, including all the center pieces!

Jennine and I at dinner, a little blurry, but still looking cute!

Jon and I after he caught the garter and I caught the bouquet ("apparently" it wasn't planned, I'm still not convinced lol) and the DJ made Jon dance for my approval :-)

Dancin' the night away with new friends!

Trying to convince Gabby that we all look like idiots on the dance floor, she doesn't really look at convinced does she? (Jr. Bridesmaid on the left w/o the glowstick microphone lol)

Jennine and I w/ Ann Marie (Diva) and LaVerne

Photo taken w/ my cell (hence the yucky coloring) cause I wanted to send to Mom.

Oh and we drove back yesterday, only took us 9 hours and 46 minutes this time around......ugh I don't think I'll ever drive to NH again regardless of what Google Maps tell me and I never want to enter the state of Connecticut again!

Weekend Projects

So actually, this scarf wasn't so much a "weekend" project, but something that was started like 11 months ago! I distinctly remember having this yarn out and starting to work on it on 11/4/2008 - the night I will never forget sitting in my living room as Barack Obama became President Elect of the United States. After this historical night, I'm sure the skein just got set aside, and eventually as I got out projects that I needed to make for the holiday season, it got bagged, labeled and put away for another day.

I don't exactly remember when I found the yarn again, either late August or sometime last month, but as we starting announcing our move, I realize what a great going away present it would be for Bev (shhhhhhhhhhhhhh she doesn't have it yet, we don't move for another 24 days!) There was probably 6" from November, and I worked on it some before going home last weekend. I had intended to bring it home with me to finish up, but the pillows became such an obsession that I didn't even bother. It was only about half done on Friday and so I spent a couple of hours this weekend finishing up that 1 skein of yarn to finish the scarf! Can't believe it only took 1 of the 2 skeins I had for it, double crochet with a K hook! I almost ALWAYS use 2, or at least 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 skeins for a scarf that's 6 feet long. Oh well, now I have more to make a 2nd purple one someday, and I found some rosy pink upstairs we well while putting something away. I seriously could start a yarn shop out of my bedroom, and yet I buy more yarn almost every Tuesday because I'm there looking at it, or I need a color for something I want to make, or I get some crazy idea while standing there looking at the yarn/I've seen a pattern online that I want to make! I seriously will not have enough hours in my life to make all the things I want to, or have yarn for! Oh well, I love it when I can work on projects, and while I love giving them away, I hope that someday I want to make a 2nd of somethings for myself!

This next picture was almost entirely a Sunday afternoon project. It would have been completed if we hadn't had to go to the grocery store, and then I got involved in watching our movie last night so I have no completed yet, but it will most definitely be finished tonight. It's an eye glass case for those of you who haven't figured that out yet, obviously a Breast Cancer Awareness one. I found the pattern online a while back and finally purchased it on Friday when I got to wear jeans to work after donating to support Breast Cancer research, so it seems appropriate to make these for myself, Mom and Grannie and send to them this month. I think this one is going to be for Grannie, the pink of the ribbon matches her kitchen and the pillow that I just made for her as this pink in it. AC Moore as some Breast Cancer Awareness in stock this month, so I think I'll buy a skein of the cotton tomorrow evening to use in mine and Mom's. It's a very basic patten, stitched up real fast even while sitting on the patio chatting with Bev.

I do love that I've become more experience in both Crocheting and Plastic Canvas, but there are most definitely times that I truly just want something simple that brainless to work on. Things like this glasses case, just double crocheting a basic scarf, or garter stitch in knitting for a scarf. You don't have to do much counting, or have to keep looking back at a pattern etc. Much better for TV and Movie watching projects!