City kitty, New job, and Statement pieces

Due to my erratic work "schedule" I haven't been able to regularly update this blog. Also, the computer that I had been using for nearly 5 years was infected with a Trojan/virus which caused my computer to eventually stop working. The Boyfriend wound up having to buy us a new computer. I'm pretty sure that my lack of attention to my blog has caused me to lose most, if not all of my regular readers. I have not abandoned this blog and I intend to continue updating when I get the chance. On to the updates...

After becoming increasingly concerned about our cat, Kaya's, constant grooming (which was causing her to go nearly bald in some places), the Boyfriend and I did some research and talked to our vet. We decided that there is a good chance that she is very bored with being the only cat after coming from a home full of foster cats. This decision had us searching for a new cat that could be a companion to Kaya. This past weekend, I finally picked out a sweet black and white cat and brought him home. Kaya HATES him. It always takes a while to get two cats acquainted with each other, but I'm becoming worn out from having to monitor them. Although they do better each day, the Boyfriend and I still have to break up a fight (instigated by my sweet-angel-baby Kaya) at least once a day. Additionally, I'm busy trying to turn a country cat into an apartment dwelling city cat. Although new cat had been very well taken care of by his foster pet parent, he needed his nails trimmed and his ears cleaned and treated for mites, just in case. Kaya has a perpetual ear infection (that she's had since long before we got her) and we've been treating it since we got her. Ear mites would be no good. He still needs just a good ole bath and some flea meds before I can feel like we've transformed him into a city kitty. We're also working on getting new cat to stay out of our plates and cups while we eat and to stop clawing EVERYTHING. Despite all of this, new cat's "cat-onality" is very sweet, quiet, and gentle-just like we wanted! If you've made it this far into my cat rant, then you've noticed that new cat still has no name :( All four roommates have been thinking up names for this little guy, but we just can't agree on anything. The Boyfriend and I had hoped to stick to a music themed name, as Kaya is named after a Bob Marley song. Any suggestions? After I collect a list of potential names, I'm going to post a poll containing each of these names on here for you all to take, just for fun.

So did you all enjoy the sneak peek of the crazy scarf that I had been working on? I finally finished it last month and I adore it. It was a real challenge but tons of fun to knit. Like I mentioned in the last post, I ran three strands of worsted weight (4) yarn together to make a scarf that is now named "psychedelic spaghetti." I have to give all credit to my roommate, Micah for that name. I can't wait to post some pics of me wearing it. I finished it just time for one of the biggest snows that our city has seen in years. It was super warm! The day that it started to snow, the Boyfriend and I decided to walk from our apartment to the gas station that sits on a main road to see all of the snow and get some hot drinks. Because everyone was leaving work at the same time to avoiding getting trapped at work, the main road was bumper to bumper. I wore the psychedelic spaghetti scarf during our walk and half of the city got to see it lol. A friend and neighbor of ours saw it from nearly a quarter of a mile away as he was walking back from the grocery store. I'm considering it to be my first statement piece. There is a chance that I will offer a smaller and tamer version of it in my Etsy shop.

I'd like to update you all on my new job but I fear violating any HIPAA laws! So, I'll just say that I love my new job and am learning tons everyday. It lets me know that I chose the right field.

I hope that you all are well and surviving the constant snow!

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?

I'm dating Buddy, the elf...

In an earlier post, I promised that I would share some photos of the Boyfriend's Christmas decorations. No surface in our apartment is safe from a santa, snowman, or Christmas tree. Even since I took these photos, the Boyfriend has added more decorations. Only a few decorations are mine and I'm pretty sure I didn't capture any of them in these photos. I apologize for the poor quality of these photos...it tends to be pretty dark in our apartment at this time of the year and my camera just can't seem to deal with that. Maybe Santa will fix that for me ;)



Yes, the Boyfriend has a Christmas village.



Most of his ornaments are sports themed. I tried to capture a picture of my one fairy ornament but the light was just too low. My poor fairy ornament looks lost and confused amongst all of the football players.



Yep, that's a Miami Dolphins Santa. Because Santa was tired of the old red suit this year. The Boyfriend also has a Vols Santa and nutcracker.



More snowmen, more Santas. The counters in our kitchen are also covered. There is a third Christmas tree in the kitchen and several Christmas hand towels. This really may require two posts.

Too Long

I apologize for not having posted anything in so long! Thanksgiving, work, and a few special events have taken up nearly all of my time. The boyfriend and I successfully crammed two Thanksgiving dinners into one day! We started the day by eating with his mother's side of the family and ended it with dinner at my aunt's house. He and I had already had Thanksgiving dinner with my dad's family early in November, which made things immensely easier on everyone. We ate at my step-sister's place and got to see some of her newest flower arrangements. She puts together these amazing arrangements with dried, silk, and fresh flowers. I'm hoping that she will soon start selling these arrangements or maybe even doing events like weddings. If I had photos to share with you all, I would, as you have to see her work to believe it.

I worked Friday through Sunday and attended the boyfriend's step-sister's wedding on Saturday. Her wedding was really beautiful. She and her husband are both Georgia football fans and found a classy way of doing the whole wedding in red and black (the team's colors, of course). Both the wedding and reception were at an old train depot in Georgia. I was surprised to see how nice it was on the inside! Because the train tracks are still functional, a train passed by during the reception, which was an unexpected but cool addition.

Earlier last week I had a sort of casual job interview. I didn't get the position that I had applied for, but did get a different position with the same company. Yesterday I stopped by their office and picked up the largest packet of information and forms that I've ever seen! Because of this, I will be busy filling out papers and getting copies of every type of identification just short of my DNA. Hey, I'm just happy that I got another job. Gotz to pay the bills somehow. The individual who is hiring me gave me the name and number of someone that could help me get yet another job at a mental health facility. I called as soon as I returned to my apartment and of course got no answer. Despite leaving a message, I know that I will never get a return call (and I realize that no one will ever answer my calls). I will continue to try, though. If you want a job in which you get a phone, but don't ever have to use it, consider a job in the field of psychology...just sayin'

On a more crafty note, I did knit up a really cute teal/aqua cowl neck scarf. I've been messing with it by adding bows and ribbons. I'm still totally undecided on how to finish it off. Also, I'm a bit frustrated that my circular-knit stockinette stitch curled up. Even after blocking it, the edges still stubbornly rolled right up. You can really see how bad the curl is in this photo:



For lack of a real model, I used the alien head candle:



I've also started on a crochet shrug. The stitch is really pretty and I'm loving it so far. The only problem is that I'm out of yarn and I'm not even half way done :( Boo, I guess I will have to make a trip to the craft store after I get some extra cash this Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, the boyfriend is a Christmas fanatic...now surface in our apartment is untouched by Christmas decorations. This story requires its own post, which I hope you will be seeing tomorrow.

Finally!

After about four or five days without any internet connection, I finally have access to the internet again :) Comcast sent yet another technician out to work on our cable internet. Just as the boyfriend and I thought, it was the modem that was the problem. We'll see how long this one lasts...

Right after I got over the flu, I came down with a mild cold. At least colds are not as bad as H1N1. I was able to work this weekend, despite being sick :) My only concern is that I may have passed my cold onto someone else. Sorry, general public, but I have to pay the bills somehow. Of course, my sales really suffered since I wasn't as perky or as outgoing as one needs to be for my job. Oh well, I get paid no matter what.

Only a few days before I came down with the piggy sniffles, I crocheted up some cute catnip toys for Kaya. She LOVES her toy. I immediately started churning these things out in pretty fall colors. I believe that I mentioned these in a previous blog post. Due to the flu, I was never able to make more than maybe five toys. My mission is to make a crap-load of them before Christmas gets here. I'm a little worried about trying to sell catnip toys that don't actually contain catnip. It's up to the pet parent to add the catnip to the outside of the toy (which would be great for those that use catnip spray). I suppose that I could stuff a little catnip into the inside of the toy, but the real fun happens when "fresh" catnip is added to the outside of the toy. Hopefully, I will get some pics up here soon and you all can give me your opinion on them.

The worst thing that has happened to me this month was, by far, the cancellation of the Miyavi concert that I had tickets to. Only an individual that has been a Japanophile for 14 years would think that contracting the swine flu and having a roommate breakdown and move out during the same week are both not as bad as missing out on a Miyavi concert. Of course our money was refunded and fans are being told that the concert is merely "postponed." I was so broken hearted by this that the boyfriend came home with flowers and took me to dinner at Na Go Ya. I'll post some pics of my beautiful flowers later. It turns out that not only was Miyavi having a difficult time obtaining some sort of permit to perform at certain venues, but he was also suffering from an injury that he sustained during one of his European shows. I hate it for him, but I'm also terribly disappointed. It's not often that I get to attend the concert of my favorite Japanese music artist (aka: this has never happened for me, ever). *sigh* I still have a little hope that he will finish his U.S. tour as he now has an American label.

There are a couple of good things that have come out of the show cancellation. First, it gives us a little more money to go towards the extra large rent that we will be paying this month as we are down by one roommate. Also, our Friday night is now free to spend time with friends and indulge in some Halloween fun :) We plan on going out to eat some place nice and then we are heading out to the Voodoo Bayou, where I will most likely lose my nice dinner. Hopefully having my 6' 5" former wide receiver boyfriend with me will make me feel less freaked out while working our way through a haunted maze. Happy Halloween everyone ;)

Brr

After making what may be a poor decision to stop taking my Tamiflu a day early, I'm finally starting to feel much better. While I was sick, the weather also made a big choice-it became winter. At the beginning of last week it as very mild and pleasant outside. Now, it's in the 40s and 30s! The boyfriend was thoughtful enough to bring my plants in while I was sick so that they wouldn't freeze :) Aww I didn't even have to tell him to do it. The sudden change in season has been a real shock. It felt as if it was suddenly Christmastime. Seems like everyone around here thought so too. The traffic was terrible around the mall area yesterday. I can only assume that everyone woke up to a very chilly morning and realized that there was nothing else to do but get started on early Christmas/Holiday shopping.

About a week ago I crocheted up some cute catnip toys. The first one I made got tested out on our cat, Kaya. She went nuts over the toy! I was very flattered :) It was probably one of the best responses I've gotten to any of my crafted items. She grabbed the toy between her two front paws and rubbed it in a larger circular motion over her face and head. I was hoping to have them available at Little Pink Elephant this week, but for obvious reasons, I wasn't able to get many of them finished. Kaya's adorable reaction to the toy really needs to be caught on video, which I can do, but I'm totally clueless as to how to upload the video.

As of late, I've been leaning more towards crocheting. Partially this is because I wanted to get more practice (for various reasons) but also, I find that crochet moves more quickly than knitting does. Another thing that I've noticed about crochet is that gauge doesn't seem to matter as much as it does in knitting. Has anyone else noticed these differences? Eventually, I hope to be as comfortable with crochet as I am with knitting. I really like the idea of combing these two needle crafts to make some new and interesting items.

For what seems like ages I've been wanting to make various things from felt fabric. What I'm most interested in making is felt appliques to add to my knit/crochet items. Seeing as I'm still not fully mobile, I'm going to give this a try today. I'm actually looking forward to trying something new and not feeling guilty for just sitting on my butt crafting rather than doing housework or something else productive. Crafting is producting though, right?

Sick

My poor boyfriend came home early from work today sick with flu-like symptoms. He has been coughing like crazy (which always worries me since he has asthma) and has a nasty fever. One of his coworkers is out of work this week due to swine flu. Of course I'm taking him to the doc's office in the morning. I really hope that he just has a cold or even the "regular" flu. He told me that he hasn't been sick like this since he was a child. Poor boyfriend :( I too am starting to develop some similar symptoms but have been experience these off and on for over a week now. As long as we are both well by this weekend, I will be happy. Not only do we both work on the weekends but my best friend's son's birthday party is this weekend! Any suggestions for an awesome gift for a 4 year old boy? Ooo I should make the boyfriend my "big veggie soup" that I came up with a few years ago. It's yumtastic:

On a totally unrelated topic, my mom recently asked me if I would be interested in going Christmas shopping with her this week. It was pretty good timing as I feel obligated to get my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. My apartment is very close to the largest shopping mall in the city, which means that I most likely won't even be able to get out of the parking lot of my apartment complex between November and the first of January. The traffic in this area during Christmastime is freaking insane. This was something that I pondered over when we first moved into the apartment. I just kept wondering if emergency vehicles would be able to get to us if we really needed them. My roommates are totally convinced that all will be well...did I mention that all of my roommates are boys? I guess the one good thing about living so close to so much shopping is that I don't have to drive very far to get to the stores :) Online shopping is something that I considered but every time I think about the trouble that I had with amazon.com during Christmastime last year, I think better of it. Have you all started doing your Christmas shopping yet?