WIP Wednesday - Fresh Start

Hello all, I have some unfortunate news.

I have briefly mentioned The Boy in previous posts and we had been dating for about 3-4 months. While he is a great person, the relationship wasn't going anywhere and I just didn't have enough of a spark with him to continue with the relationship.  So yesterday, I broke it off with him.  I think I kinda caught him off guard but in the long run it's for the best.   But know that I am okay but wanted to share what was going on.  Honestly, I was spending more time trying to dodge him than be with him.  Clearly that's a sign.

Anyway, I have gotten some progress on my projects and here is the update.

White Centered Granny Blanket

Since I finished the Gryffindor Scarf,  I have been working on a few things but got the bug to work on the White Centered Grannies again.  I really wanted to start putting it together and see the colors.  I initially started with a whip stitch join and realized that was going to take forever and I am pretty impatient.  So I tore out the tests and decided to do a slip stitch join because I am faster with a crochet hook than a tapestry needle.

After I got that straightened out I needed to figure out a way to get the blocks random while still being balanced.  So in all of my nerdiness, I went to excel for the answer.

Here is how I did it:

1. I knew my blocks were about 5.5" so I putzed with widths to figure out how big I wanted the blanket to be.  This will be about 4' by 5'. 
2. I used the formulas to create a random number between 1 and 8 (I have 8 colors) 
• Formula  =randbetween(1,8)
3. I then used conditional formatting for when a cell equals a number the appropriate color block is shown

Now isn't that geeky?  Anyway after refreshing the random formula I saved my favorite configuration by pasting over the formula and then tweaking it so the same colors were not next to each other.

Here is what I have done so far. I probably need to move to my table to continue to work on this.

I can't wait to get more squares done to add to the blanket!

Gryffindor Wristlets

As far as the Gryffindor adventure has gone, the wristlets are super easy and fast.  I made one earlier in the summer and put it aside to finish the scarf.  When I started the second wristlet, I realized I made the first one wrong.  I put the gusset in the wrong place so I am working on what is now the third one.

I hope to get this finished this week

Richmond Lace Scarf

I did rip back a bit to fix my counting error and now it looks a lot better. Now that I know how many stitches are in each row, it's easier to keep track of now.

I like the variation already!

Falling Water Scarf

I made some progress but until it's blocked it really just looks like a sparkly pink blob.

I keep losing stitch markers :(

So I feel as though my crafting bug has been renewed.  The weather is getting cooler and I have dreams of  just snuggleing up under wool yarn and knit/crochet my way through winter.  Are you making pulling out some old WIPs to get finished? 

For other WIPs check out Tami's Amis and Frontier Dreams   

<3 Heather

App Awesomeness

I am engineer.  I fact I am an industrial engineer.  This area of engineering basically is the study of productivity and processes to improve and refine them to be efficient and cost effective.  So what does that have to do with organization?  Why thank you for asking!  Basically, I am hardwired by nature and training to organize and fix things to make them efficient, so when it comes to everyday life I am always looking for the most efficient way to store or get something done.

I love lists and charts and graphs and colors so when I find an amazing app or two I can't help but be addicted.  In this post I am going to talk about my 3 favorite apps that I currently use all of the time for organization and lists.

Number 1 - Wunderlist

Wunderlist is an amazing tool that according to the website

"Organizes Everything! Can be used everywhere"

When they say everywhere they mean it, Mac, iphone, ipad, Windows, Android, and Linux as well as a web based interface!  Woot!  I love anything that I can have on multiple devices and syncs with everything.  For instance this weekend I planned to run errands to Target and the grocery store.  I had 4 recipies in mind that I was buying for as well as some other staples. With Wunderlist I was able to create the list on my Mac and view it on my Droid and then screen cap it on my PC.  So awesome!

Isn't the interface pretty?  You can pick your own background

Here is my shopping list from Saturday

So that takes me to the next App that I am currently in love with....

Number 2 - Evernote

I found Evernote when I got my MacBook Pro and it was listed as a featured app and it was free which was awesome.  As I read the background on the app I thought "I can use this!" Huzzah so I downloaded it to my Mac as well as my PC and Droid then proceeded to do nothing with it.  I was in love with Wunderlist I will get around to this eventually then a post from Lifehacker changed my Evernote life. The post talks about the best apps to organize recipies online and low and behold Evernote was listed and really my world was turned on its head.  The beauty over Evernote is that I can clip recipies from blogs and Pinterest (Check out my boards) and reference them offline and on my phone. How crazy awesome is that?!?

There is even this handy little bookmark tool that clips articles, webpages and highlighted text while remembering where the URL of the original recipe!  I try to keep up with my Pins and stared bookmarks and keep them in my handy dandy recipe notebook.  I can tag and list to my hearts content and the clips are editable so if I make a modification to a recipe then I can add the note.

What else is awesome about it?  I can take pictures with my phone and create new notes.  I plan on doing this with old recipe cards.  That way I can charish these time tested recipies from my family and still have a readable and user friendly format.  Seriously awesome.

Here is a sample of a recipe I made this weekend:

This is Honey Lemon Chicken and I plan on posting the recipe and my cooking adventures soon.

Here is a sample from my phone:

Here is a list my mom made for Thanksgiving Dinner.  I took a picture of it so I could save it for next year.

Last but not least

Number 3 - dayone

With everything going on in my life and all of the change I decided that I wanted to start journaling as well as blogging.  With the dayone app I found an awesome vehicle to prompt me to write down what went on for the day.  I have alarms set up that bug me to write and the interface is simple and clean.  This app really has given me a chance to write down what I am feeling and gives inspiration to future blog posts.  Also, I can write down some of my crazy dreams (sleeping dreams not goal dreams I would tell you those) that don't make sense but are funny to remember after time.

Overall, I loves the apps and I hope that I have inspired you to try them out.  Let me know if you have a favorite app I should try!

<3 Heather

**Note: this is a completely arbitrary review and examples of my own experiences, others may have differing views and results**