haremail 

Thank you - thank you

Many, many thanks to Christy, my Haremail buddy for the wonderful package I received! Candy? What candy? I didn't see no candy.

In other news, I spent all weekend "cleaning" the guesthouse. Mucho thanks to Jen for making me think about it and get off of my ass and do something. If I get home tomorrow while it is still light, I will take some pictures to show it off. The carpet is awful - it had been used for a workshop by a previous tenant and it could use a coat of paint, but I'm just renting... why should I put the extra $$ into it? I've got most of my watercolor, paper making supplies and x-stitch mags out there already. I should have most of the stuff moved by the end of the week and I can reclaim my closet and dining room.

Knitting content tomorrow? Maybe.

Jen's Questions

I love, love, love the reciprocal part of the interview game!

Jen

1. Just where should that lady who told you "good luck" bite you?
2. You told La that you "expected more tortuous questions, possibly about fairE" Uh, what's that?
3. You said you would be working for your husband, have you done so in the past? What's the best thing about working with him? What's the worst part?
4. Are you still backwards knitting?
5. What 5 things must anyone living in/moving to So. Cal do at least once? (if you can't come up with 5, I'll let you off the hook with 3)

To answer some questions....

La asked:

#1. Where IS Quartz Hill? It sounds pretty, but I've never heard of it, and I've lived in So Cal all but 8 of my 40 years.

I live in the Antelope Valley. It's a tiny little town just outside of Lancaster. Yes, I'm a desert rat. Yes, I actually like living out here. And yes, there is quartz in them thar hills... and all over my back yard. It is
I spent my first year here in CA basically in downtown L.A. I was right on the border of Silverlake and Echo Park - think Sunset and Alvarado. I LOVED L.A., but it is awful expensive (unless you have a well to do friend with no ex wives or children that you could introduce me to) and the A.V. is more like where I came from - well, minus green stuff.

#2. How come no CA Knitblogger webring love?

I've seen the itsy bitsy teeny weeney yellow polka dot bikini around and I always think... I should join. Then I get to surfing blogs and forget. Maybe I'll surf on over and join as soon as I'm done.

My bunny progress 

Interview with a Purling Dervish

ARGH! Blogger ate my original post - so I'll try again.

Rebecca interviewed me, but I decided to wait until I can take the pictures she so kindly requested. Hey, if I show you my back, do I get some beads or something - like Mardi Gras?

In the meantime, Jen interviewed me, so here goes:

1. When do we get to hear more about your little venture?

Right now! Since I've filed my ficticious name, gotten my sales tax certificate I can let the cat out of the bag. I'm going to open a shop! I had a business plan for a shop I wanted to open in PA so I tweaked it a little and I'm going to give it a try.
The name I came up with was Purling Dervish but a lot (and I mean a lot) of people don't get the reference so I may have to change it. I thought everyone knew what a whirling dervish was.

It's going to be a cross stitching/ embroidery shop with a little knitting corner. I'm going to carry things you can't find at Michaels and JoAnne's - overdyed floss, hand dyed fabrics, 100% wool, sock yarn, great patterns etc. I've found 3 possible sites up here and am just waiting for the $$ to come in. In the meantime, I'm going to open an ebay store to start raising more money.


2. What does a knitting/quilting/cross stitching/painting stash room look like and how many square feet does it require?

Room? As in singular room? HA!! Try every single room except the kitchen. I have a weirdly oversized closet (in relation to the size of the house anyway) and have a 5'x5' of it taken by shelves full of floss (yes, I do have every DMC color), embroidery yarn, hoops, stitching fabric, and my watercolor stuff. My knitting corner holds most of my knitting stuff - except for my clap, a pair of socks and an afghan that I'm crocheting which is in the living room. My "dining room" has been converted to hold my sewing machine and an old entertainment hutch to hold all of my beading/fimo stuff. Then there is a corner in the 2nd bedroom which holds the decorative painting stuff.

There is a guest house on the property that I was thinking of converting. It's a big room with a tiny kitchen and a bathroom (bigger than the one in the main house) and I thought it would be perfect. Only problem, no heating - no cooling.

3. What are you making for the bunny along?

I may need to go into the bunny protection program. I'm making this one - but it looks kind of odd. I'll post a picture as soon as I'm done re-answering these questions.

4. Best yarn store you ever visited (anywhere, not necessarily local) and why?

Stitch N' Stuff in Reading,PA. It was charming. It was located in an old converted barn, the ladies that owned it (and the staff) were wonderful - helpful, kind, funny. They had everything - floss, yarns, fabrics, unique patterns. It was like Cheers - everyone knew your name.

5. Do you want any of Rabbitch’s green cotton? Haha just kidding. Describe the colors of your imaginary perfect variegated colorway yarn!

What's that saying? She made her green cotton bed, now let her fuzzy bunny ass lay in it. No way I want green cotton - although I was thinking of sending her a bucket 'o cotton just because.
My dream colorway: Have you ever been to Vermont in the fall? The blazing reds, vibrant oranges, yellows, faded greens and the delicate browns. Is there any way to knit autumn? That's what I want.

Spring Sampler Progress

I actually have a knitted F.O. Below is a pic of a gift bag from Last Minute Knitted Gifts that I modified with stripes. I made it out of Lion Cotton Ease and it is full of Easter stuff for a friend. One stockinette project out of the way!

Above is my progress on the Sister's spring sampler. I need to scan it in to see it better.

I got 2 R.A.O.K's in the mail today and sent off my Haremail package. I hope the chocolate doesn't melt. I can't wait to see what is coming for me!

I'm beat - I actually had to do some work today, so I think I'll go to bed early.

Easter Bag 

Interview Duex

Yeah! The knitter who needs no introduction.... yes, I am talking about the washcloth queen herself... has answered my request to be interviewed !!! Now I get to hit her with the reciprocal questions... my guess, she missed that part.. too busy knitting washcloths. HA!

1. When did you start blogging, and why? I first started blogging on Live Journal about 3 years ago... because everyone was doing it. I lost interest and recently (October 04) started blogging again, this time because I wanted to keep track of my WIP's.

2. What was the first item you ever made and kept for yourself. A "rabbit" cozy - yeah... I posted it... you got a problem with that?

3. Did you keep it because you love it or because you made so many knittos that you were embarrassed to give it away? Well, there is a little story behind this project. I was going through a learning to knit book and one of the items was a soda can cozy. My friend Meagan and I were joking around - because she had just gotten the above mentioned rabbit - that she needed a cozy for it. So I knitted her one. She turned around and bought me a rabbit as a joke, so I made a cozy for mine. I actually keep it on the living room bookshelf, standing up, in it's cozy. And before you ask, no, it has never been used. And obviously, I have no children.

4. Do you prefer knitting over cross-stitch or vice versa? I prefer knitting by far. I love to cross stitch, but the knitting process is so wonderful. I've been doing a lot of cross stitch at work because it keeps my mind more occupied whereas knitting is more of a release and I like to look at the pattern and just go.

5. How many UFOs do you have? Knitting 5 - you ever just get tired of nothing but stockinette sometimes? Cross stitch 17 - Yeah, I'm a starter

Sisters Spring Sampler 

Sister's Summer Sampler 

Watercolors Ladybugs 

FO's!!

Ok, so the knitting bloggers are going to be disappointed.... these are cross stitch fo's. I actually started the summer sampler and the ladybugs back in 1998-99. Yeah, they just sat there for the longest time.

The Sister's samplers are done on 25 count linen with 1 strand over 1 tiny tiny itsy bitsy little stitches. They use Gentle Art Sampler Threads which are a hand dyed/overdyed floss. I love using both Gentle Art and Weeks, so watch out for more projects with those in the future. I started the spring sampler today and still have autumn and winter in the wings.

On the knitting front... still plugging along on Clapotis. I have 2 dropped stitches and once it gets a little bigger I will take a picture. I love the way it looks in the end, but the stockinette is driving me batty so I'm not working on it as much as I should. Before anyone asks - it is only driving my batty when I try to work on it at work. When I'm at home, with the t.v. or music I just fly with it. I seriously need to take a radio to work.

The second sock is just sitting there too - more stockinette - I'm at the decreases for the toe, but I just can't bear to pick it up at work.

If I didn't have to work all weekend (yes 7 days this week) I'd finish it up.

Not smoking = not going so good. Well I'm down to 1/2 a pack a day. I'm throwing on the patch tomorrow night before bed and we'll see how it goes.

Hippity Hop

Yeah! I get to be part of the haremail!! I bought a couple of things for that and some fun RAOKs to send out. I have bloglines, so I read pretty much everyone's blog, I just never know who to pick. I'll scope out some sites tomorrow and figure something out.

*****

I took my mom for her first sushi experience today. It didn't go over so well. She didn't want anything raw... uh HELLO!?!?!?!?

sushi = raw fish

They did have a bunch of rolls and appetizers that didn't have raw fish so she did get to try some things. She wouldn't try the eel (which is cooked) and kept saying she could taste the seaweed wrap thing. (I'm still puzzled about that one) This is the lady that will eat tripe, cow's stomach, pigs feet jelly... and she didn't like sushi.
I think that the baked salmon roll is to DIE for - salmon, cream cheese, avocado all wrapped up, baked and topped with some sort of sweet sauce.

*****

Smoking... yes I am. I got the patch. I'm putting it on tonight before bed so I don't have the urge in the morning. I hope. Made the mistake of letting the ward missionaries know I was finally quitting.... now they stop by every day to see how I'm doing with it. I give them hope.

*****

On the controversial subject of religion.

I converted when I was 21. Became inactive 2 years later. Went wild - hey with 21 years of STRICT Catholic upbringing behind me and the whole messy divorce thing (that isn't even final after almost 10 years)- I went off the deep end- wild child extroidenaire- if you ever heard the whole story, you wouldn't blame me. I was saying f*ck you to my family, any type of organized religion.... o.k. so I was saying it to everything. Tattoos, wild parties, smoking, drinking, some illicit drug use (shhhhh). I think there is a whole year I don't fully remember. I was doing everything I couldn't and shouldn't.

Now here I am. when I moved to CA, I started going to church again. I'm not sure what I believe any more. I mean, I believe in the scriptures. I just don't agree with everything the church says. I don't drink because I just don't - so that's not a problem. Coffee, I can pretty much give or take... every once in a while it just hits the spot. Smoking (ok, this is the nicotine addict talking) I want to quit because I want to be healthier... but I don't see the problem with it. If someone wants to drink alcohol, coffee or smoke... why not? Gays and lesbians - who cares... if you love someone, you love them... what is wrong with that? Yeah, I've seen the scriptures -"it's not right" - blah blah blah **coughbullshitcough**. Ummm love thy neighbor ... it never said love thy neighbor that is just like you and everyone else is evil or sinful.

So the point of all of this is that I don't know if I fit anymore within the church.

Pffffffffffffffft!

Quitting smoking day one.... down the tubes at 1 p.m. I've been prepping for this day for a while. No smoking in the house (since I moved here in August), then in Dec I went into no-smoking in the car. I think work just sent me over the edge.... or maybe it was the wildly stressful day.

Work was, well as usual, boring. By 10:30 ( I start at 10) all 10 spas were wiped out, the floor was vacuumed and I mopped the floor. I spent the day finishing another cross stitch project (easy peasy one), almost finishing my second sock and getting a little bit done on clapotis.

Indigomuse made me think a little. Why is work/boredom driving me bonkers? It's not that I don't appreciate the time to knit and cross stitch and get paid for it. I do! I just have no human interaction at all for 8 hours (2 customers in 3 weeks), no t.v., no radio, I can't leave the store.. and there is no mental challenge to the job. I mean, I was a paralegal, I was an office manager.... now I just twiddle my thumbs all day. I think it's that all I can do is knit, cross stitch or read.

Oh, the stressful part of my day. I had a meeting with a supplier for a little venture I'm looking into.... and now I'm on pins and needles waiting for word.

Interview Me!

I found this over at DomesticGirl and figured why not?!? I've been a little remiss in my blogging. Below is the description of what is going on along with the questions and answers.
First let's get the description out of the way.
Here are the rules for this Blog-a-thon. I'll offer to interview the next how many ever people to respond to this post that will follow these rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than the ones below.
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here are the questions asked of me:
1. Hot tea or iced? What flavor? Absolutely iced! I usually do a mint tea or a combo of mint and this great herbal tea by Celestial Seasons that tastes like regular tea. On a side note, I don't drink regular tea or coffee. Ok, so every once in a while (read: about once a month) I do imbibe in a venti drip from Starbucks.

2. What's your favorite Christmas album? Christmastime by Hillary Weeks

3. Where did you live before you moved to California, and why did you move? I was born and raised in a tiny town in Pennsylvania, moved to Corpus Christi ,Texas in 95 - back to PA in 96 and to CA in 2003. One word for why I moved to CA (and why I went to TX too) - SNOW. Think snow emergency... plows not reaching my road for 4 days.... shoveling the driveway and having to hoist the shovel higher than I am tall... black ice... wind chill factors. UGH! Maybe someday I'll appreciate snow again... someday in the far, far away future.

4. Tom Hanks or Russell Crowe? Discuss. Mmmmm, Russell is definitely a sexy man, but I'm going to have to go with Tom. He has it all - funny, sexy, intelligent, talented, and most of all faithful. I mean who in Hollywood actually stays with the same person that long? I think the first time I remember him was Bosom Buddies (gosh am I dating myself here - I swear, I'm only 31) and I love how he can do everything from the cheesy Bachelor Party - to making me cry with Philadelphia.

5. Where do you want to visit that you've never been? Puerto Rico!!!! Anyone want to donate a round trip ticket?

Ok, I had WAY too much fun with that, I'm gonna find someone else to interview me too!

Unbelievable!

Yes, it has been an unbelievable couple of days - weather wise that is. I even had to sleep with my window cracked last night. Of course, my room is on the south side of the house so it's like 90 degrees in here when I get home. I love California!

I found my poor lost sock (YEAH!!!!!) and am going to work on it tomorrow so I can actually have a pair!

I have been chugging along on Clapotis - I've just dropped my first stitch - while I love looking at everyone else's pics, I don't want to have a pic up of every 2 rows I do.

I have finished one cross stitch project and am almost finished with another. I've also discovered that I can pretty much read a book a day at work... yes, a book a day.

I will post pictures sometime this week.

Oh, and I got my first commission check! Yeah!!!

Happy Hippy Hoppy March

Yes, I have joined the bunny along! I've seen a couple that are just too cute not to do.

I've been working on another bag from LMKG to stuff full of easter things for Megs... the bunny would be a perfect addition. Plus I have a ton of pink yarn left from the bags I did for V-day. Maybe I'll even make a bunny for myself.

Big lesson learned.... be careful what you wish for. Yes, I have a job. Yes, I don't have to worry about getting the bills paid. Yes I have time to knit and stuff at work. Yes, I am bored. 8 hours sitting in a converted warehouse.... no phone calls, no customers. No music, no tv. The last two weeks weren't really that bad - I even had a customer Thursday and sold a hot tub. But now I'm getting the itchies.... it all started Saturday (yes, 6 days a week of the boredom) and nothing is working. I'm cross stitched out (6 days x 7 hours of non-stop stitching). I'm afraid I'm going to get knitted out. Can that happen?

So what should I do to beat the boredom? hmmm I smell a contest coming on. Stay tuned for details! Don't give me any answers yet!