Weekend Randomness #5 - Black Thumb

I'm the absolute worst at keeping a garden or plants. There's a number of reasons including forgetfulness, but the main problems? I have a terribly crippling fear of bugs, worms, and dirt. Due to this, in previous years, my mom has come by our house to plant flowers and mulch and do other things I grimace just thinking about and which Paul finds annoying to do.


However, this year? Paul wants to do a vegetable garden, and I'm psyched to 'help'. I plan to do things like water the garden from a worm fearing distance and eat the food that comes from the garden after having Paul thoroughly search the vegetables for bugs.

I also plan to help by contributing tiny little strawberry plants. My cousin Talena gave away a tiny strawberry seed kit with Lilly's birthday favors, and I planted them and they are really growing! I didn't forget to water them. I didn't overwater them. I didn't kill them! This is a first since high school when I managed to successfully keep a cactus for two years.


So next summer? Expect some updates from me on whether Paul, Nathan (and his tiny gardening set), and I managed to grow vegetables for cooking. If we do, I plan on giving some to Helen for her food blogging, to keep some for myself, and to give some to my mom. Also, if I manage to make raspberries take over my backyard, I'm totally throwing a raspberry party, and you're invited.

Do you like gardening? Do you have a garden or are you a plant killer like me?

Your Olympic Knitting Plans

image from s.yume

You guys? Are you ready? It's time for the Olympics! And you know what that means? I mean, do you know what that means besides gorging yourself on coverage of figure skating, speed skating, cross country skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding, hockey, and other fantastic sports? It's time for the Ravelympics, in which you try to knit a challenging project while the Olympics are on.

image from janusz.l
I've decided that I'm going to do the WIPS dancing event in a hopeless attempt to finish my stupid Slytherin Scarf! I'm probably going to join either Manic Purl's or Never Not Knitting's team since I am not part of any knitting circle either in real life or online.

It's time to be an Olympian. (I want to put a Greek god joke here, but I'm kind of floundering trying to think of one. Let's just end this on a classier note.) Pick out your project and event, join your team, and wait for the opening ceremonies!

Tell me if you plan to compete and, if so, what event.


image from Never Was An Arrow II

WIP Wednesday #2 -- Rose of Sharon

I know -- is there any progress since my last update, you ask! Well, there is, but not much. However, it's several hours worth of progress so I will blog it anyway. I admit, I love this design, but it's probably going to be over a hundred or more hours of my life by the time it's done. That's precious time I could be giving to knitting, blogging, baking, or playing Final Fantasy! However, I'm sure it'll look gorgeous on my craft room wall when done. I mean, it's not going to be done before we finally move and get a bigger house, right?

By the way, love my non-natural lit picture? This is what happens when your husband is working in Massachusetts and if your son gets five minutes to himself, you come back to find him with an uncapped marker in his mouth, while holding onto a watergun. I'm the best parent ever.

Lastly, I'll be taking a small trip next week. Unless Helen blogs her sweater, it's very likely that we'll miss WIP Wednesday! That's right, Helen, I'm calling you out.

Weekend Randomness #4 - The Butler Did It!

Many of you know I like to read, and are aware that my proclaimed first genre of choice is fantasy, but I like to dabble in romances. However, not as widely known is the fact that I also love murder mysteries. And not the silly suspense novels that are popular nowadays, but classic murder mysteries such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers wrote. I want a list of possible suspects, a murder, and motives in my mysteries. If possible, I'd also like an English manor house in which the murder is committed.

I am so in love with murder mysteries, that when I first saw those boxes called "How To Throw a Murder", I knew I had to host one. I spent years considering it, but Paul finally made me pull it all together by promising that he'd handle food. We have held two so far, and I want to host a third one like no one's business. Christy, Paula, and Helen have helped bring up the awesomeness level of these gatherings by wearing over the top outfits. If you love murder mysteries, I highly recommend that you throw a murder mystery. Act in character! It's a blast, and by the time the night's over, you'll be shouting, "Sure, I'm a murderer and adulteress, but I'm not THE murderer!" And, really, how many times in your life do you get to yell something like that?

WIP Wednesday #1

I'm introducing yet another new feature because they make my blogging life so much simpler. It's stolen, rather shamelessly, from Ms. Knitpicky, though I'm not going so far as to steal her rather awesome title for it (WIP it Wednesday).

I'm hoping that once a month, Helen will jump in here with her WIP, but some people are very busy nowadays planning and rushing around, so if she doesn't, I'll have to understand.



Remember that Slytherin Scarf I've been working on for over a year now? Yes, you do. How can you not? I always mention working on a row or two here or there. Well, I'm on section thirteen out of fifteen, so I'm finally closer to the end than the start. It looks decent, but it doesn't look as nice as Paul's yet. I stupidly picked an acrylic rather than wool yarn, so I'm thinking it'll never be as nice as Paul's scarf! When I'm done knitting this one, I have to get a photo of both of us wearing our scarves. If Paul has to broil in July for that picture, so be it.

The next two sections might go a little faster due to my superstitions. I always try to hurry along when the number thirteen is involved since I always fear it will bring bad luck on my house. Let's hope that I can wear this scarf this winter. The possibility is not nil!

I am a tiny bit afraid I'm going to run out of grey yarn before this whole scarf is done, so let's all keep hoping that if I do, I don't go crazy and try to knit the rest of the grey with scrap yarn from my yarn basket.



Lastly, folks -- you're all crazy hateful of hunger. More than one of you is on an every two or three hour food schedule, and all of you get angry! I really am the only person in the world who doesn't mind hunger. You should all join a club with Paul that meets regularly for food. He can tell you about the times he's basically disallowed me from chatting with him while we wait at restaurants to get seated because he's grumpy and starving. I will not be joining you all since if the food comes late, you might attack!

Weekend Randomness #3 - Hunger

Sorry I didn't blog a random fact last weekend, but a certain toddler I know keeps deciding a nice hospital stay would be pleasant for the whole family.



As many of you know, I love food. I like to make sweets, I like the food that Paul makes me, and Nathan and I would probably run you down with his stroller for some Matter Paneer from our local Indian restaurant.

Due to these factors, and due to the fact that Paul spends a good portion of his time at home making sure that Nathan and I won't starve due to my ineptitude with savory cooking, I am rarely ever hungry. Lately, however, after looking closely at my weight on the scale, and considering some upcoming events, I decided to think about losing some weight by not eating so damned much. This has made me feel hunger for the first time in months.

Here's the weird part. I like being hungry. I find it satisfying in its own way. Paul gets super grumpy and non-talkative while he's hungry, and when I first found this out, I was stunned. I had previously assumed everyone else liked being hungry too.

Do you like being hungry too, or are you like Paul? All grump and headaches and anger?

Weekend Randomness #2 -- Sleighs

I have a dream. One day, I want to ride in a sleigh. That's right, a horse-driven sleigh cutting through the snow. My sleigh's horses can possibly have bobbed tails, but none of the horses riding it would be named Bobtail.


image from pmarkham

I've had this dream for years, and I've come close. I've been to hotels, in the middle of winter, that offer sleigh rides, but never at the same time as actual snow. However, I am beginning to believe my dream will never come true. I mean, it's not just the sleigh and the horse(s). I also have a muff in my dream. And possibly a wool peacoat.

My dream has grown over the years too! Now, it includes an adorably dressed Nathan sitting near me and Paul on the other side of him. And when we get done with our sleigh ride, we'll go in for hot cocoa and read books.

I've clearly built this winter fantasy up in my head. I hope that if I achieve it, it will be everything that I hope.

Podcast Review: Stitch It

Oh man, folks. Oh man! It's been so so long since I last reviewed a podcast, and I'm sorry about that. I'm putting it out there, though, that I think I've found a new favorite. Meghan, over at Stitch It!, gives good podcast.

Normally, I don't care for super rambling podcasts in which everything from knitting to gardening to home life is discussed, but that could not be further from the truth with Meghan. Folks? She makes me want to garden. I mean, after listening to her summer backlog of episodes, I got all jazzed about the idea of gardening. In the dirt. With bugs. If you know me at all, you know that I've basically described a miracle.

She has a section for fiber, a section for 'townhomesteading', a section for babbling, a favorite thing, and several other sections, but I have to say that I like her babbling and townhomesteading stuff the best. This woman is the crazy person who considers keeping bees in her townhouse's yard, and I love it! Her stories of her son (a just turned three year old in the podcasts I'm listening to) are so entertaining that I tell my husband about them.

If you are at all interested in things like spinning or leading a more 'homesteading' lifestyle, this is the podcast for you. In fact, if you're not interested in that stuff, it still might be for you. Meghan's highly entertaining.

This is for you, Meghan. Your podcast is my new favorite thing!

Weekend Randomness #1 - Wrapping Paper

Here's one of my new blogging categories -- random facts about me! Let's see how this goes. I'm considering trying Wordless Wednesday as well in the future, but I haven't committed fully to it being for this particular blog. I think Nathan and the house might be a better subject of wordlessness.

I am obsessed with wrapping paper and items related to wrapping presents. I love ribbon, gift tags, stickers, and even special tape dispensing tools. You can possibly tell where you stand with me by what wrapping paper I use for your gifts.

I have a system in which paper I do not like gets used for people I like less. For instance, while Nathan might get the last yard of my favorite, and still amusingly tacky, kittens sleeping in Christmas stockings; a random gift for Paul's office parties might get ugly dull paper that was clearly part of a boxed set of papers that someone (Paul or my mom) bought for me.



At odds with this system is also the fact that I love to use up wrapping paper and related goods, so that while I love Nathan, he might also get ugly dull blue paper if I have only a snippet left, and he has a tiny gift left. Additionally, for huge gifts, I tend to use up a paper I don't really care for no matter my feelings for a person.

Every year, I finish up about three different Christmas paper rolls. This would be great if I didn't also buy a few rolls, and Paul always buys several rolls himself which are later given to me. If I were smart, I'd throw out some unloved wrapping paper, but I can never make myself do this. In fact, my mom depressed me hugely this year by whipping out five rolls of hideous paper that I remember her purchasing when I was in high school. Knowing my love of wrapping paper, she'd often purchase large boxed collections of them, only for me to like a single paper (if any) out of a box. Now I have five more ugly rolls of paper to use at her house, and she never has any gifts to give to anyone because she hates to give gifts to people. When she does give them gifts, she doesn't wrap the present.

Many a year I've given serious thought to paring down to two or three rolls of paper for a beautifully coordinated grouping of gifts under the tree, but I've never actually done this. I have, however, started to get really into how my presents are wrapped. (Thank you, design blogs!) I try to take care to wrap my presents using string and ribbons rather than just slapping a bow on top of them, though I do like a good bow when the situation calls for it.

I got several GREAT papers this year which are left unopened, including one which looks like fair isle knitting.



These papers will be moved to the "gifts that Santa has wrapped" pile of secret papers next year. My plan is to have Santa introduce a new paper or two ever year, starting with three I've chosen to start with next year.

By the way, if I know you in real life, this post is also an offer. I will wrap ANY presents for you should you need present wrapping done. I have birthday paper, Christmas paper, wedding paper, baby shower paper, and random awesome papers. I am also, clearly, willing to buy paper for an occasion. Just come over with said item(s) and I will wrap.

A Christmas Stocking

Growing up, I had no idea what sewing entailed besides that somehow it must require that giant desk/sewing machine that every woman I know had, but which was never in use. When my cousins moved over from California, I quickly found out that my clothes horse cousin was wearing a lot of handmade goods. Her mother would whip together things like fully lined cropped wool jackets for her that were just gorgeous. Occasionally, I'd receive a hand me down from my cousin (like said jacket), but I almost disbelieved that a human I knew could make polished clothing for real.

When my mom's family had their big New Year's Day celebration, my aunt was there with a nice gift for Nathan -- a handmade stocking.



There were other gifts too, but I knew I had to share this with you. The buttons are all sewn shank, and there are letter stickers placed over them.



My aunt even used a contrasting colored thread on the tie that holds the stocking to the mantle.



I sort of wonder if she ran out of the green thread that she used with the main print. If I had, I might have used red thread for the tie. I'll chalk it up to a bit of artistic flair, but if it was just a refusal to run to the craft store for thread at the last minute, I would totally understand.

This was a neat gift to receive after spending a year reading about sewing and attempting to finish projects. I'll make sure Nathan appreciates it one day! It'll also save him from my somewhat lame attempts to glue glitter onto a cheap-o stocking. I'm sparing you all from pictures of my sad stocking with the word 'Jenny' falling off of it.