Not yet but 10 days!

Hubby will be home in 10 days. Which is funny considering I said that he *could* be home in 10 days (that's the advance party and they got back on Saturday). In any event, I've been away because I *gasp* haven't been knitting...Ok so that's not entirely true, but I've nothing to show for it. My Seeded Cables Cardigan is off being seamed up and the sock I'm working on is about to be ripped for the 3rd time and I haven't been taking pictures of the st-st shawl I've been half assing. And by half assing I mean a row or two before I put it don't and wander off elsewhere.

But then, I'm almost caught up on school-I'm currently on Spring Break. I've done no knitting (or studying-must get on that) but tonight is knit night so perhaps... Also, I've been doing a ton of sewing. OH! And I finally got my Asian Themed quilt (and my Asian I do mean the fabric has cherry blossoms on it) from the quilt shop, take a look:



But the back is by far my favorite because of the color!

Isn't it gorgeous?! I also finished an adorable apron:


And am almost done with my first needle roll. :) And check out what I scored for $188 (pre-taxhike) from an antique store in AMAZING condition:

(the chair not the cat...he cost more)

So hopefully I'll have more to show you soon when I stop being lazy(ha ha ha) and and get my butt in gear.

Woooo! 10 days!

101 in 1001

I updated my LIST. Go look. I've got a busy 2ish years ahead of me.


(also, does anyone know what Exact date is 1001 days from January 21, 2008? Thanks, teh maths...they work not so good in mai brain)

Strawberry Fields

My Strawberry Quilt is finally done! It's being modeled on my parents California King sized bed. However, I didn't pre-wash any of the material so it'll shrink up a bit in the wash. This way, it'll still more than cover my queen size bed and I won't have to fight for the covers when Matthew gets home....much. :)


The color is true in the top picture. The Bottom shows the quilting detail but the color is off. It's strawberries and flowers/leaves.


I got to talk to Matthew yesterday and he is doing well. it was a wonderful conversation and I still have a smile on my face from it. I love him so, so much. :D

FarmGirl Crafty Bits

Not much has been going on around here in the knitting world. I started on my cousin's socks for christmas and had to frog them 4 times before I just went with it. It's probably still too big but there is no way I'm frogging the same damned sock 5 times. You couldn't pay me.

However, in terms of sewing, I have been doing very well. :) First up, my SIL asked for a set of sewn coasters as part of her wedding present (we also got them nice bedsheets and the Martha Stewart Home Keeping Handbook) so I went ahead and made some yesterday (perhaps the day before?)-She likes blue so that's why I picked these colors:


And I snagged some for myself and made:


Aren't they beautiful? I LOOOOVE the material. Love. Also, I've been waiting rather impatiently for the next FarmGirl update/project/whatever so I went to the store and bought material to make this:


It's a pretty Purple gingham with roses pattern and green gingham for the sashing. I apologize for the quality of the pictures, It's a bathroom shot since I'm home alone. :) I love the material and the apron is great considering i made it with out a pattern, but I can't wait until my sewing skills are much improved.

And speaking of sewing, lookie what I got for $50.00 at an antique store for a christmas gift:


I KNOW! FIFTY BUCKS! It even comes in it's own sewing stand:

I'm not sure it works but who cares? A: It'll be for decoration since damn near every woman on my mom's side of the family sews (save my cousin of whom I'm knitting socks for her hubby for x-mas) and so we all have excellent new machines. And B: It's not like we can't take it to our friends shop to have it repaired. :) My husband was at the antique shop with me and was like, "Get it. Get it now, $50.00 we can do". Clearly, I'm going to rock the christmas gifts this year. Perhaps I should start this early every year? (smug smug-lol) Have a great day/night!

Happy 4th of July and a bit of rambling

Happy 4th of July (even though I've 2 hours to go)

So tomorrow, I have work form 10-am to 3 and then a party/bbq/welcome home at my best friends place. I'll probably trade out the beer for yarn. But we also have company coming over to go to the party and they'll be crashing here. I still wish I was strictly a house wife so my house could be *pristine* like it was when I wasn't working versus spending the last 2 days or so making it look like I have. -_- Or something along those lines. Anyway the house guests are 2 guys and one's wife. Whom I met before, but she had brought along her girlfriends so it wasn't like she was talkative with me. Awkward silences much?

It really pains me to admit this because it's so goddamned catty, bitchy and dare I say spiteful, but I totally want her to see my home and wish her's could be like mine. See? I'm a total bitch. I feel bad about it because hello, her and her husband still live with 2 other marines, and gods know they are not the cleanest creatures on the planet. Sigh. Does anyone else feel like this? I mean, it is also about taking pride in my home and thinking to myself, "This is awesome" but do I need to be so damn catty? Where's my bowl of cream?

Ok farm girl stuff (pat, have you joined? you should :P). I've always wanted a country/cottage themed home but the red's and gold's and green's (or bright cheery yellow's) never quite appealed to me. And I was looking at the curtains at target (because let's be honest, it's more cost effective to buy $40 curtains than $100 material to make curtains-that's allot of knittin' time there) and I was literally stressed out. Back and forth on the colors. Should i grab the plum colored faux silk ones that I loved so much or the green? I couldn't see how I wanted the house to be decorated and it was driving me nuts! Not to mention the other guy coming over helped my husband hang the curtain rod in our "dining room" last time he was over and I wanted to make sure he knew I appreciated his efforts.

ANYWAY... It then hit me. As I was walking through Michael's (I bought the plum curtains-purple is my favorite color ever) fake flower section I realized that what I had gotten was PERFECT. They have started putting out fall stuff in the flower section and I walked by an arrangement that had the deep red, gold, brown and PLUM colors-all fall and harvesty. Hot damn! Wait, where was I going with this? Oh! So my country theme will simply be red's gold's and purple's. :D The Curtains btw? Look amazing.

I'll have to post pictures later, but for now I'm off to finish cleaning....meeeeoowww.

HenCircle and my Inner Farm Girl

Hello!I'm not sure who's reading from where, but I joined the Plurkett Sisterhood (ie: http://www.moderngypsy.com/farmgirl/ ) Enjoy that btw, I am. So to my fellow sisters:

My name is Alexis, I'm 23 years old, Married to a U.S. Marine and trying to find a way to cope and deal with the world around me (sounds profound eh?). I have to be honest, I'm scared for the future for the world (terrified and depressed might be better adjectives) and how we'll all be able to deal,but the energy from people *Waking up* is amazing and beautiful.

I got into knitting little over a year ago and it has saved my sanity time and time again. If it wasn't for knitting I wouldn't have found Lime and Violet's podcast and they saved me from 2 major breakdowns, and probably many more. It's interesting to see how parallel my life is with others, I've wanted to knit for forever, sew (I got a sewing machine xmas 06 and looove it), make my own essential oil smell good things and oh, all sorts of stuff for as long as I can remember. Now I found people who want the same!

As for my inner farm girl, I live in an apartment in So Cal with a cement slab for a back yard (it's prettier than that really, check out my Feb 08 blog posts). Every summer I used to visit family out in Southern Illinois and would get to play on various family farms (but mostly indoors, bugs and heat I like not) and even got to pick and shuck corn one year. I've never grown anything myself and while I can for sure try (I almost said do-best not tempt fate) the potted plant thing on my patio, the trees outside are COVERED in spider webs and I'm arachnaphobic. I have a feeling those bastards would try to make a home on my plants. OH! And i only get about 3 hours of direct sunlight a day.

But I'm so energized and excited to start getting in touch with my inner farm girl. I want to make aprons (though the only one i wear is for work at the restaurant), bake bread from scratch, learn to cook in general, decorate my home, keep my sanity while Matthew goes on deployment, craft, create, inspire, and regain my spirituality.

And now, let me leave you with a dose of farm girl zen (My knitting nook).

Swapy Goodness

So i was involved in the Loopy Ewe Swap over on Ravelry and my awesome partner (not sure I can say who she is) completely, totally, utterly spoiled the freaking rotten out of me. No, seriously. Check this out!


That is a whole bunch of stuff right there. SO here are the edible goodies:



matthew totally jumped on the honey and claimed it for himself (I think he was feeling left out...the box was freaking huge):


Then we have the fairy and moon bar soap (the detailing is amazing), soak wash samples (yum!) and a cute sock blocker key chain (which is on my key ring as we speak):


A namaste pouch (love, love, love) and Punky's Place bag (the cute one with the handel) a tape measure with butterflys and flowers on it, and gorgeous stitch markers:


Here's the close up of the stitch markers:


BUT! That's not all! (I save my two favorite's for last because they are A-freaking-mazing). Twisted Flower Sock's by Cookie A. done up in ChameleonColorworks color Cobalt (I own a skein of it myself) and they fit like a dream!! I want to be as talented as her for she knit me socks that are to die for!!


And Oh. My. God. My head EXPLODED when I opened this:


She spun me 300yards of Crown Mountain Farm's roving in the Layla colorway. For me. Hand spun yarn (and a ton of it) for me. I may have teared up a little (I'd explain why but then we get into that whole self-esteem crap) and the color is exactly what I would have picked. And it's so even! I could totally make a pair of house socks out of this (if i knew how many stitches to co in sportweight and on what size needles.
I can't believe how amazing this package was. My head kind of exploded with I had finished opening it all (which is why it took me so long to write this-I totally had to calm down).

In other news I finished another pair of socks but more on that next time, I've been chatty enough I think. Happy knitting!

Wedding Pictures!

Thanks for all the wonderful comments! The baskets have been *such* alife saver (as well as the hutch! I LOOOOOVE IT!) in terms of keeping things organized and easy to clean. I got those at TJ Maxx (feel free to steal the idea). The bathroom hutch is from bed Bath and beyond(Kind of like THIS ONE but the legs on mine are knobbed).

And now....





More later!

Bathroom Blues

I love me some blue. :) Here is my almost finished bathroom:






Taa Daaa!

Still Playing Catch Up

In all things to be honest. We still are eating off a folding card table (our dining set, 2 coffees tables[one for linen storage] and an end table) all of which are still two weeks away from getting to the warehouse and from there-delivery to us.

Knitting wise I've missed 3 knit nights (the first from move-in day, the second was my birthday (the 18th) and then tonight, I looked at the piles of laundry, boxes in my bedroom, and was unable to find my friggin knitting pattern (thanks husband) and decided I needed to stay home. OH! And I tried to make brownies tonight but when I went to pre-heat the oven, SMOKE started streaming out. Not to bad at first (and all white) but it progressively got worse and smelled kind of gassy so now my brownie mix is in the fridge and I'll have to pop down to the housing office and have them send a guy out to check on it.

Also, I just finished clue 3 from the Secret of the Stole 2 KAL (clue 6 just went up last friday) and other than that, have done no knitting. None. Zip. I may be insane. I also have not really bought yarn lately-at all actually. So I've been avoiding The Loopy Ewe and have yet to check out the new stores in my area.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful comments:
Alanna I'm glad to see you guys arrives safely and hope your cat get's out of kitty prison soon.

Brena-Congrats on moving in with your guy! The town house looks BEAUTIFUL!

And all of a sudden my brain has the "hurt" (which is probably from sitting on the freaking couch all night playing sims and watching TV (We have CABLE!!!)) so I'm going to take a Tylenol and hit the sheets (where the handsome man is already zonked out since he has to be up in oh 3 hours, but he did goto bed at 9:30pm so he'll get plenty of sleep).

I'll try to get more pictures up in the next few days.

OH OH OH! And on Thursday, we are getting our wedding pictures! YES!

Whew!

I'm back! We just got internet back last night and I'm so relieved!! Here is what my home looked like move in day:
Living Room


Dining Room


Kitchen:


Bedroom:


And here is our living room after a week:


More Later!!