Spazzmanda

Guess who did a radio interview this morning?

Yes Ma’am. That’s me on a local Christian station talking about work stuff. Pretty neat, actually. I’ve never done anything like that before and it was a 30 minute interview so I just kept on talking. (It wasn’t very hard at all.) Look closely at the FINISHED stormwater shawl. Yuppers. I finished and blocked that beast last night, I just couldn’t wait one minute longer. (More to follow.)

So you had better do as you are told.

You better listen to the radio.

Nope, still not painting and the house is a disaster, but I don’t care. (Well I do but there is only so many hours in each day so I’m just not going to care and continue living in the bedroom until further notice.) I do seem to be making progress on my stormwater shawl.

The colors in these photos are crap because it is raining and I needed a surface to spread out, which was the bed so the lighting doesn’t really show how pretty the silk really is. The good news is I only have a twee little bit yarn left! The bad news is that it is two balls so that amount is really doubled.

(There’s the trusty quarter…) I think I can complete this in 17 days. Crap, I have to block it too, but I’m thinking a pin and spritz will do nicely maybe rather than a full on submerge. Any thoughts fellow knitterz?

So, I had dinner with grandmother last night. She says such colorful things. Like she wants some brunswick stew but not the “fake” kind that mother and I made her last time.  She said “Use the recipe that was my husband’s, your grandfather’s, you know what’s his name….. Jim.” Funny stuff.

I know now that with the present state of affairs that if  I don’t post for a few days, folks start to worry about me. I’m fine. I’m actually better than fine. Busy at work and at home (the house is still wrecked, but I’m hoping to remedy that soon.) I’ve dropped more than a whole size in my clothes- which is actually pretty fun and considering that I didn’t feel at all bad about my curvier self before, I’m just feeling BETTER in my own skin. I can run a little bit further every time and I feel so very much STRONGER physically. Getting “buff” is a good thing.

I got to meet my new “nephew” this weekend. One of my girls (my oldest and dearest friends) just gave birth on Wednesday to probably the prettiest newborn on the planet. They named him Nevin (his papa is Croatian) and he has the most golden, surprising head of red hair you have ever seen. I got to spend  quality time with him on Saturday and I so cherish this new addition to the family!

I’ve also decided that if I focus my energy, I can finish the stormwater shawl before I go to the beach in September. I have this vision of myself wearing it at sunset, the breeze wafting through the lacy silk and dammit, I’m going to have that!!! I worked very diligently on it yesterday when I took my mom to Knitch for her first knitting outing. This is a very diverse (and fun) group of knitters that meet each Sunday and I just love that my mom got to experience them. She claims to be a beginner (but I’d say she is at least an intermediate or an advanced beginner.) She is going to try her first garment and I couldn’t be more pleased with her selection. The lovely Jen sent me some ultra-sexy beaded yarn and a shrug pattern. Since I can’t make the shrug for a little while because of all the projects on ye olde needles, I lent the pattern to my mom who bought the most gorgeous Rowan yarn in “cranberry” to make it.  I’m going to be so jealous… wait, I already am! I covet, covet, covet this yarn it is so delicious. I’ll post more on her progress, she should be casting on this weekend.

I’m going to the lake and picking up granny on the way. It should be interesting. She insists on playing Monopoly (which I hate, I’d much rather play Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble or Pictionary) but Monopoly it is.

Grandma trumps kid every time.

In the hub-ub that was last week, I forgot to post this picture.

The lovely Claudia bestowed upon me some really beautiful lace weight yarn. Over 1400 yards of some very “Amanda” colors and I just love it. It is nice and smooshy. But now I suppose I shall have to make something lacy with it. Hmmmmmmmm. Maybe something this fall will inspire. Thanks for the yarny goodness girl!

Do you like my flat-leafed parsley? It is the only thing other than the “vegetable” that seems to be thriving in this heat. What do you do with so much abundant parsley? I finally had to make a jumbo batch of pesto last week and freeze it so the basil crop wouldn’t go to waste. All my hopes for summer cooking have long since been obliterated what with no one to cook for and no desire to eat. Feh. Maybe fall will be better.

I got home from my wicked cool yoga class tonight only to find a mysterious and smuooshy package. I saw it was from a little slice of heaven on earth, Knitch, only the finest yarn shop in Atlanta. Inside was this:

A pattern for a shrug and some of the most beautiful beaded silk I’ve ever seen. (I’ve been coveting this yarn for, like, ever. But it wasn’t in the budget on my current yarn diet.) I thought to myself: “Self?”  “Did I win something???”

Nope, my fantastic friend Jen (of Sugarchef.com) sent it to me as a pick me up. And boy howdy, it is the perfect end of an almost perfect day. I had a good day at work, a good evening at the gym and now I have some silky, sparkly lovliness to occupy the rest of the night.

Jen, I can’t thank you enough. You are truly a wonderful, wonderful friend and I’m missing you lots.

Ok, one close-up for the road:

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Have a great weekend!

Here it is all close up an pornographic:

Makes you all tingly just looking at it. I’ve found my knit groove again and am focusing on selfish knitting for ME! (Thank you lord it only took me three weeks.) I started the Gigi sweater from the Summer 2008 Knitty using some luxurious hand painted yarn I purchased some time ago at Knitch in Atlanta, which is where I went today with the beautiful and funny Jackie and Claudia. I met some loverly new knitting friends and I finished the ribbing for the back of my sweater! I really miss Atlanta sometimes, maybe I will move there again, who knows? But the traffic is a nightmare and I really have come to love Gainesvegas, the town is cool and I have many good friends here.

I’ve had a wonderful (and mostly drama-free) weekend, although it is very unfortunate that I must reiterate to all the haters out there to leave me and my life and my memories the hell alone. I don’t need or require any more dirt, my current life post-trauma is just not all that entertaining, so please, please, PLEASE just watch some soap net, ‘kay?

More good news, the “misery diet” would seem to be paying off. Unfortunately my boobs are shrinking (Shari says “firming” but whatever) but also shrinking, apparently, is the rest of me. My jeans are all too big already and I’ve had to cinch them up an extra notch on my belt. The gym is not only a life saver for how I’m feeling (particularly when I’m trying to sleep at night) but also with the nifty butt-firming, ab-toning side-effects. Which is all very good for the self esteem, that quite frankly was shot to hell, and whose wouldn’t be when their partner strays from their relationship? Through my unhealthy obsession to follow the fall-out, I came to the following conclusions that I thought I’d share with the blogiverse. (It is really very cleansing…)

Girlfriend simply isn’t terribly attractive. I suppose I could go into illustrated specifics (that are both petty and cruel) but why bother? She’s pretty -ish- but not really striking or memorable, mostly sort of just feh (for lack of a better word.) I guess it would be much harder for me if he had fallen, be it ever so briefly, for a woman that was actually devastatingly beautiful, but for just adequate I’m finding it rather easy to get past this issue. Even though it was still a blow to the ego it isn’t worth much more thought on the matter. In retrospect, I suppose now the biggest problem I am having is pinpointing the initial attraction at all. Not just because of the physical mediocrity, but because she just wasn’t all that interesting. The few conversations I had had with her I never really could find anything worth talking about and I had given it a real shot (because she was Mr. X’s friend so I tried for his sake-what a fool I was.) At first I thought back that maybe I had subconsciously “vibed” into the fact that she is sort of predatory (which I still don’t rule out) but she didn’t even “blip” on my radar as any sort of legitimate threat because she was so…dull? Maybe a tad boring? Not very bright for certain, again, feh . Her personality is lackluster and flat.

Easy. (She is most certainly that.) Men act foolish when around loose women.

Self esteem healing, objective number one almost complete. Have a lovely week, I’m so stressed at work I’ll barely have the time to think, much less blog, so see you later!

Mom came over again and we painted some more. Still not finished. This is going to take a long, long time.

Here is the progress of her RUG that she is knitting. (Who knits a rug? I wouldn’t be able to bear someone putting their feet on something that took this much time, but whatever floats your boat.) I think it looks like Uncle Sam’s lower intestine, but I’m assured it will be rug-shaped.

She then made me this salad, which was very appetizing even though there were no tomatoes.

I’m mad today. Mad is better than sad. Sad sucks.

Angry is working for me today.

Layin’ low this weekend. Did laundry. Mopped. Finished the Hegie- I ended up stuffing him with polyfil and some stones- so he would be heavy. I needle felted his face on yesterday, very easy finishing after he dried.

This is him in the herb garden this morning before the storm rolled in. He will go to live with my mom (surprise mom!) after I get a chance to take him to a meeting to be photographed with the other hedgies.  This was a fun KAL.

Also working on a test knit for Pixie, here is a glimpse of another something cute she has up her sleeve:

That is all for now. Have a marvelous week.

There are some changes going on right now where I work that have me all… conflicted. A sad departure? A new opportunity? On many levels, I’m just so torn, between what there is to be done, the thing that needs to be done, the moral right thing to do and what is currently expected from me– and none of these things, mind you, are ever, ever, ever the SAME thing, the comfortable thing, or even the easy thing. Blah. I can’t even really communicate all that is going on, nor do I really want to… once again… right here… in my safe place.

I shall skip on to the knitting.

Super-secret-finished-object numero uno:

For more details, see Ravelry.

Also, I started this over the weekend:

For our “Hedge” A-long- where many of us are knitting a felted hedgehog at the same time. I made much progress on this little fucker before finishing the blanket o’death (pictured above.) All yarn from said hedgehog is a remnant from my stash (and Shari’s- thanks for the fun fur so I can make him all one color.)
This isn’t the “easiest” pattern to read, you are kind of have to be assumed to have half a brain, I really favor “moron-worded” patterns myself.

Yeah, he will be a cute little door-stopper for my mother once I come up with something heavy to stuff him with. Shari suggested rice, I asked her- “What about bugs?” She mused, but confirmed that rice would probably be better…

Wait for it.

It is funny… Maybe you had to be there.

Me and my knittas went to the Twisted Skeins in Clarkesville this weekend (gosh, I needed that outing. It healed my soul a little that day, thanks in great part to Shari for being… a perfect friend and destination-knitting-companion exactly when and where I needed her. Uncanny.)

In the immortal words of Forrest, Forrest Gump:

“That’s all I have to say about that.”

You might remember that I won something back in May on one of my favorite blogs– Shut Up I’m Counting. Well the package arrived yesterday, and believe me, these teensy felted stitch markers were well worth the wait. Er, confession time, I got a tad impatient and so much wanted the mail to deliver cute things rather than plastic, windowed envelopes (yuck!) so yesterday I sent a strongly worded email as to why said stitch markers weren’t yet in my possession– and wouldn’t you know it- I get home and there they are, right in my mailbox. I’ll be honest, I won the contest in May so being a slight, tad-bit ornery at the end of June is probably ok, right? Can I be forgiven? How about if I give out some major accolades to the vendor and the lovely lady who ran the contest in the first place? Can I be forgiven NOW?

OK! Drinks all around! These little buggars are even cuter than their photo! Baaaaaaa. AND there was a keychain thrown in for shits and giggles (awww, thanks!)

These were handmade and sold on over at Etsy in the Jelby shop- and they really rock (I believe they are updating their inventory as we speak so take a look if you can!)

Thank you again Cass for the awesome give away!

Baaaaaaaaaaa.