Colors, Glass, and New Ideas

The Holidays have come and gone and I have to admit that I'm relieved. I truly enjoy spending time with both my family and the Boyfriend's family, but it is an exhausting experience. It's also been nice to have the traffic back to relatively normal again here by my apartment. Now, I can just sit back and enjoy all of the wonderful gifts that I received! Oh, before I get this blog started, I wanted to note that I often have links to sites throughout each post. Keep an eye open for these links in case you want to know more about the various products that I mention here.

For Christmas, the Boyfriend's step-mom gave me 14 skeins of yarn in various bright colors. I've never had so much yarn at one time! I've spent everyday since Christmas sifting through my collection of knitting and crochet patterns trying to find something epic to make. The yarn that she gave me is Red Heart's Super Saver yarn. It's worsted (4) weight yarn made totally from acrylic. The colors are freaking awesome, but the feel of the yarn is a bit...well, scratchy. It's difficult to make any wearable items from this yarn, which doesn't make it a bad yarn, it's just not a wearable yearn. Despite this I've already started making a scarf using pink, orange, and blue yarn. Oh yes, it's going to burn your retinas when you see it :)

Because each of the 14 skeins has 364 yards of yarn (that's like a zillion football fields), I asked everyone for ideas on stuff to knit or crochet and got some pretty good suggestions. While trying to decide on what to make out of all this new yarn, I've come up with some new ideas for knitting and plan to use my Hobby Lobby gift card to follow through with these ideas. My hope is to eventually get my hands on some bamboo yarn. I've been dying to knit with bamboo as it is super soft and it's a sustainable material. Also, I'd like to try to do more felting with real wool rather than the soy wool I've been using. Because my Rasta scarves get so many complements, I'm cooking up new ideas using the same color combo.

My mom got me way too much for Christmas, but I'm very thankful for it. Part of my move towards being more eco-friendly involves the conversion from plastic to glass. Mom helped me get started by buying me 4 beautiful glass bake ware/food storage pieces from Crate and Barrel. I'd love to link you to the pieces that I have, but I can't find them on the website anymore and think that they may no longer be available. Mom also gave me two glass milk bottles from Farmhouse Wares that I plan to keep filtered water and juice in. By the way, Farmhouse Wares has very pretty stuff for those of you that dig rustic, country, or French Provincial decor. They even have things like honey and tea. I used the cash that I received from family for Christmas to buy a glass canister for our sugar. Pretty much if it's normally packaged in plastic, I want to transfer it to glass.

Summer can't come fast enough for me. I have a topsy turvy that I can't wait to use and may even have the chance to make a composting bin (free soil, yay). Kaya will be happy if I can successfully grow catnip again :)

With a lot of help from my family, I've now got several new items in my apartment that make it far more personal and less like a hotel. I'll save the details on this for my next post and will have some pics for ya.

What gifts did you receive during the Holidays?

Jobs, Coupons, and Tomatoes

Despite having applied for tons of jobs, I've yet to get hired. Keep in mind that I've been applying for jobs that require a bachelor's degree, not entry-level jobs. This week I've given up and have applied at an entry-level job at the place where my boyfriend, two best friends, and many of my friends and acquaintances work. Because they are looking to hire someone quickly as well as someone that is a friend or family member of one of the employees, I'm a bit too confident that I will get this job. It will be a full-time day job which means that I am now looking for a weekend job to bring in extra money. One of the best things about this job is that I and my boyfriend live only a few minutes away which means that we can ride in together which will save us a ton in gas. He has been able to and from work for a week with the gas light on.

Because I'm now the primary grocery shopper (by this I mean that I create the menu and grocery list), I've become obsessed with coupons and deals (such as BOGO). I've always been fond of coupons but am finding them especially wonderful these days. Also, I've been trying to find the best place to shop for groceries that isn't Wal-evil. So far, I've found that Food Lion has really good prices (especially on their store brand products). There are still some things like Method brand and Seventh Generation brand products that I would like to buy but can only get at either Target or Publix. I love both of these brands equally but am learning that Seventh Generation is usually a bit cheaper and offers many coupons on their website. With Method you are mostly paying for attractive packaging and some pretty yummy scents.

On a totally different note...this summer I made an attempt at growing heirloom tomatoes. When I lived and my mom's house, she and I planted (actually she did all of the planting) and worked on a veggie and berry garden. Our berries didn't come in at all this year, but our veggies, which included zuchinni, summer squash, and cucumber, were amazing. We have two different types of tomtoes: Brandywine and Moskvich. Neither one of them did too well. I just got my first tomatoes a couple of days ago. They both took forever to ripen (which is fine with me and is typical of heirloom tomatoes). My problem is that by the time they started to turn red they were nearly rotten in places. I've never had this problem with tomatoes before. Does anyone have any experience with growing heirloom foods? I would love any advice that you might have.

I now live in an apartment so obviously I can only grow things in pots and window baskets and am considering getting one of those topsy turvy things. Many of the other residents in our apartment complex have some impressive potted gardens and I'm terribly jealous. The only plant that I brought with me from my mom's house is my aloe plant. It doesn't seem too happy after the move. I fear that we just don't get enough sun on this side of the building. Again, I'm seeking advice here too. Does anyone know what plants (including herbs and veggies) grow best in pots/window baskets/hanging pots?