Life or something like it.

Yesterday and the day before, because poor honey's been sick, I have made -homemade- chicken soup. Monday I made it with rice, using fried chicken to make the stock, and yesterday I started with uncooked chicken to make the stock, and used egg noodles. Both versions have been yummy-licious, and it couldn't be easier to make. I'm incredibly proud of myself for learning how to make from-scratch chicken soup, let me tell you. Yay me!

We're going to buy us some big bookcases for the house with the money my mom sent us for our anniversary. She sent $250 in gift cards to Home Depot. So, bookcases, and maybe some garden stuffs for fall, I think. I need a new wind-chime for outside .. the one on my little sheperd's hook is falling apart finally. And something to plant in the beds out front, now that the clematis is finally on it's last summer legs.

More knitting projects to come: Lace. I've decided I'm going to try my hand at some lace knitting, as there's a lace shawl at KnitPicks that I know a friend of ours will just love, so I want to make that for her. And ... it's knitted on size 11 needles! Which I'll have to find DPN's and 32" circ's for, but that's fine.

Oh, and socks. I'm finally finding I have some time to devote to the process now, so I'm going to go ahead and start .. especially since I have such yummy sock yarns now! Lorna's Laces, even! Not to mention the Regia I already had. That should be more than enough for me to get started, dontcha think?

Oh, and one more thing. Stuffed, Felted Alpaca. My friend Larissa bought me the pattern for the felted Alpaca, and I just know her ulterior motive was that she wanted one for herself. So, I've got to find the perfect fiber for a couple of those, too.

I need to take some pictures of Brandon's projects now, while the light still is good enough. And I'm trying to finish up some odd knits (A skinny garter scarf for my littlest niece, and the Monthly Dishclock mid-month KAL, which I've not yet finished.)

Just a reminder

It's that time again. The "walks" have begun. And I really wanted to walk in this one too. Team Nova is the walk team for the family of a little boy who didn't make it due to a congenital heart defect. I had hoped that I might be able to walk with them, but that weekend is the reflow for Pineville, and I have to be at work at 5am .. which means getting out of bed no later than 4am. Yes, that's right, 4am.

So instead, I've pledged. And I'm asking those of you that bother coming here to read my blatherings to do the same if you can. This is a wonderful cause, and I'd be delighted to help Erin and her family raise as much money as possible. You have until Thursday night I believe.

EDIT: I stand corrected by Erin herself, you have until sometime in September to donate. It's the raffle (see below) that has the Thursday deadline.

And for those of you (I know there's at least one out there!) that knit, Gretchen is having a raffle, giving away some wonderful yarn prizes. One entry for every $1 you donate. She's raised over $200 so far, but I know it could be more!

She lives!

I'm playing a bit of catchup today. I've been busy busy busy, and not wanting to really look at a computer much beyond what had to be done to get things settled for my classes. Now that things have settled down, and I've got myself in a better rhythm with work and class and house, I can find some time to sit, breathe, knit and blog again.

So. School is a bit stressful .. because I'm missing the labs for my astronomy class and the damned bookstore is 3 hours away, and WON'T PICK UP THE GODDAMN PHONE!!! So I can't call and say 'Hey, please send me those, here's my money' .. because they won't answer the freaking phone!!! Grrrr! Other than that though, school's fine. I'm settling into a routine, though I have this bad habit of getting ahead, so I'm trying to force myself to slow down.

That's something my boss at Mosaic complains about too. She's terrified that I'm going to finish college in 4 months and go and get a real job. Silly woman. I love Donna though. She's the best. And raves about me, apparently. I love her. She's a riot, so I think it's going to work out to be a great job. I honestly think I take it way more seriously than some do, having been to another store recently to cover, and finding it trashed. Lord, did that drive me crazy. But I got my first paycheck, so I feel like I'm actually working now. And next paycheck should be even better, as I have extra hours and such from last week. So I'm looking at first getting a few books I've been coveting for a while. The Mason Dixon one for sure .. and maybe one or two more.

I've a few knitting things going on, but no pictures yet. I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL, and had a blast with the mid-month cloth, so much that I want to make a bunch of them. I'm frogging the blanket square I had tried to make and am going to redo it as a log-cabin. Because I dislike plain garter stitch though, I'm thinking of working it in seed stitch. We'll see how that looks. I also need to finish some things for the friend that's having a baby any day now. Like, she's 3 days over-due. And boy, is she getting anxious about it. I want to make her another towel, I think, and maybe some more washcloths. And beyond that, maybe some burp-cloths and bibs, once I have the Mason Dixon book, and a kimono or three, since I've heard they're cute as can be.

Wow. I was -way- behind in reading blogs. I'm caught up mostly now though. Phew. Time to try the damn bookstore -again-, and then read some of the god-awful-boring book for Western Civ. *groans* Book test on it the 15th. And we -both- need to finish reading it before then. Yuck.