A New Beginning

Well hello there.  I feel as though I almost have to re-introduce myself since I haven't posted 4 months.  Really it's not you, my lovely readers, it's me.  I have wanted to post a couple times but I wanted to do a re-cap post and that thought was daunting.  Also, I have these fleeting moments where I need to post things but get swept away my work and life.  Anyway, I am using the new(ish) year to start with a clean slate and new beginning.

Hello there!

So no time like the present right?  It's time to stop making excuses and get back to what I enjoy which is sharing with all of you.

Really this hobby is a bit cathartic, I can write out what's going on and just let it go into the world and off of my shoulders.  I have missed that and hope to find a better time to incorporate this into my week.

So what has been going on in my life over the last few months?  Well lots of love and laughter that is for sure.

September:

Joe went to Atlanta for work and brought me back a magnet from the Georgia Aquarium.  This cute little sea otter keeps an eye on me at work.

Cute little sea otter magnet

I was also celebrating new beginnings with Jenn's Bridal Shower.  Her aunt and mom did a lot of the work to design the decor and decorate.  They did such a beautiful job.

Don't forget the Bachlorette party!

Of course you need a selfie!

October:

October ushered in more exciting things including Hockey Games,

 Jenn and Ryan's Wedding,

and Halloween.

Pebbles and BamBam!

November:

There was some general laziness after the weeks of hectic crazy running and before the holiday season ramped up.

And a bit of pampering

December:

Lots of baking and prepping for the Christmas Holidays

So I hope that fills you in on some of the big and little things the past few months.  Can't wait to show you more.  Also, what you don't see is about 5 finished objects to brag about.  Stay tuned

<3

Heather

WIP Wednesday - Beautiful

Hello my lovely followers! I hope all is well with you and I can't wait to share what's going on in Amaryllis world.

I had another long weekend and spent it with awesome people. I had one last day of vacation before the end of the work fiscal year (May 31st).  I was able to move a doctors appointment with my sleep study doctor (I have sleep apnea) to the late morning so I could sleep in later than normal.

After my appointment I met up for lunch with Samie from NotYourGramsAfghan and Dianne (friend from work and knitting).  Samie posted a great post about our day but I the long an short of it was that I bought yarn that I had no intention of buying but it's going to make a great Ginny's Cardigan.

Impulse Buy!

Saturday evening I met up with Aunt Becky and Aunt Fran for Indian Food.  I have been craving the stuff constantly lately and none of my family is into the savory dishes except for them.  I am so thankful that do like it because dinner was awesome.

Sunday, I had breakfast with Lucy and her fiancé Kevin.  Lucy and I were college roommates and we don't get to see each other a lot because she moved back east to Philly.  We do talk online all the time and I am in her wedding next June.  Seriously it's like a year from this weekend!  So exciting.

Lucy and I after breakfast at Pamela's Diner

Other than that I went to the gym and worked on my knitting but what I did realize recently is that I actually believe people when they tell me that I am pretty and beautiful.  I can't tell you the last time I had confidence in my beauty and it's kind of awesome.

Yeah, I kinda rock!

So with that said, let's see what I have worked on this week.

Hue Shift Afghan

Quadrant 4, half way done

I don't know what has kept me working on this but I have been churning out mitered squares like it's my job (alas, it's not).  I just want to see this blanket done and want to start on the border.  So I keep pushing through and soon it will be done. 

I am already on the 4th color of the 5 in this quadrant.  I remember how long it took to make my first quadrant. That just shows how far I have come as a knitter.

Oh La La!

I ripped out the original work I did on this sweater

So I know I talked about this sweater before and I was really excited for the concept but in practice I didn't like how it was turning out.  So after a bit of time in timeout, I decided to rip out all of my work and start again.

What I have so far

I changed my striping scheme to make my life a little bit easier and have less ends to weave in.  So I do a few rows every night and it's coming along.

Blast Off Shrug

Just a bit of a swatch

So I got an email from SweetGeorgia Yarn talking about patterns and new colors of her yarn.  Needless to say, I fell in love with the Nineteen Twenty Shrug and immediately bought it and started to plan.

I had lovely hot pink and orange yarn from SpaceCadetCreations in Celeste that I bought at a local yarn festival.  The color was a "Department of Rocket Science" color so that means the dyer was experimenting and hasn't decided what to do with the color way.  I really hope it becomes a part of the regular line up because it's gorgeous.

Anyway, I started to swatch with the recommended needles but it was just too large so I ripped it out and started again with smaller needles.  I need to keep working on it so I can wash and block it before I get started.  So excited about this though :)

That's it for this week.

For other WIPs check out Tami's Amis

<3 Heather

WIP Wednesday - Square Dance

I can either think of really catchy title or puny titles.  This one is more groan worthy.  Anyway, no dancing was involved this week just a lot of squares, but we will get to that.

The weather has finally broke today.  We finally had a rain shower that pushed the humidity out and though its a lovely warm 72° F with a nice cool breeze.  The sky is blue and the clouds are like puffs of cotton.  Seriously a beautiful day.  Until just recently, the weather has been hazy, hot and humid with lots of rain and severe storms.  Not much fun for the middle of summer.

So I really have been inside by my Air Conditioner for  most of the week.  It's to hot to do anything so I have been working on my blankets.  Many of you commented on my mental stability last week after confessing to my latest blanket projects.  While it has been hot, I have been sitting by the air conditioner the whole time.

Hue Shift Afghan

Striping Along.

It's funny how the project muse strikes us. I have been plugging away at this blanket the past couple of weeks but I didn't get a ton of work done on it.  I am almost finished with the baby blue column.  I don't have a new photo but the pink and peach square are completed.

White Centered Granny Blanket

Lots of squares

Instead of working on the Hue Shift, crochet squares has been the desire this week.  It started on Friday where I didn't feel like knitting and wanted to get some squares done to start the next section.  I finished the entire ball of purple only to realize I would not have enough squares to finish the blanket as planned.  Saturday morning, I ran errands and went to some yarn stores.  I still need tons of the white yarn and picked up 4 more colors to help stretch the blanket back to the size I wanted.

Pretty new colors!!

So after seeing the new colors, I just started to make squares and over the weekend made 40 squares.  I think I may have over did it a bit because my middle and ring fingers on my right hand are sore and the joints are swollen.  I still have to weave in all of the ends but I really just wanted to get all of the colors done so I can move forward.

Lots of colors :)

In other news about this blanket, the original white I was using Color ID #025 was discontinued and I bought Color ID #101.  This yarn is just a bit more yellowed and you can tell a difference but there isn't much I can do to fix that.  This yarn company has a bad habit of discontinuing colors and replacing them with shades that are similar but different from the previous color.  It's really annoying for a commercial dyed yarn.

Anyway, that was my week.  Hope yours is going well.

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

Check out my new meme Movie Madness Monday

<3 Heather

WIP Wednesday - Vacation Days

I write this post from my old bedroom.  Though the colors have changed over the years, there is always something comforting about being home.  Note I said comforting not comfortable.  My childhood home is a 100+ wood frame home with small windows and no air conditioning.  We were never able to have room air conditioners because the windows are tall and narrow.  So as my mother used to say, "We have whole house sweat."

The reason why I am home is my church festival.  I got volun-told I would be making funnel cake batter and making walking tacos/frito pies at the festival.  Now if it was just the tacos, I could have worked this week but since I was asked to make the funnel cake batter, I need the mornings off to get the batter done and refrigerated before the festival opens.  Lucky me.  So my vacation this week is just a different form of work.  But it's for my church and I don't mind.

This past week marked by birthday.  I had a lovely weekend where I went swimming, saw movies and ate out a lot.  I had a lovely time at the Cheesecake Factory with Aunt Becky and Aunt Francey (Hi!).  They read the blog and I promised to mention them :)

My Birthday Cheesecake!

So needless to say, I didn't get to much knitting done this week but I am making progress.

Hue Shift Afghan

I have been bouncing back and forth between the first quadrant and the fourth quadrant. The first quadrant is almost done.  1.5 blocks left to go.  I want to get through all of the blocks that use purple see if I have enough yarn.

Tropical Ginger Hitchhiker

Hitchhiker

This one gets a little bit done at a time.  I have 20 rows left to finish but they are the longest rows so far and it just takes awhile.

Anyway, that was my week.  Hope yours is going well.

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

<3 Heather

WIP Wednesday - Shawl Overload

Hello again!  Life is settling back to normal and I can eek out a few moments to clear my thoughts and post.

My spring cleaning has been going well and I got some cleaning accomplished this week.  I cleaned out my fridge and pitched any thing that was expired and bought new.  I still have to mop and do a thorough wipe down of the cabinets and stove.  I took off for Good Friday this week so hopefully I can get that done.

I still have to work on the other rooms but a little bit at a time does wonders!  Oh and speaking of wonders, I found a great new app for cleaning called Brightnest.  Basically they have suggested tasks and you can schedule them.  Then you get an email or alert to remind you to do them.  I admit that this definitely helped to get the fridge cleaned out and my sink shiny.

Speaking of Spring, where is it?  I want daffodils, tulips, crocuses and hyacinths.  Seriously fragrent bulb flowers are my favorite part of spring.  So where are you spring?

We got snow last night?  It will melt by this afternoon.

I got a new toy this week!  I bought a light box, lights and a small tripod.  This means I can stage gorgeous shots of my yarn!  I know I promised images last week but I think the wait may be worth it. ;-)

So let's talk about what I have been working on that's fun.

Candy Skein Leftie

Instagram picture but don't the colors just pop?

Well when I last posted I had only a picture through the green and completed through the blue.  I got so much more done this week.  I think the red is my favorite so far but all of the colors are just gorgeous.  Especially with the Instagram filters.

I had a great low-key weekend and spent most of it lounging in bed watching NCIS and knitting Leftie.  It was really nice to just hang out instead of run around like I have been.

Overall, this project is coming along because it's easy to get 6 garter ridges and then start on a new color. Even though this is probably going to be as big as the Trillian, it feels easier because it's broken into little parts.

Tropical Ginger Hitchhiker

Tropical Ginger!

The other project on the needles is the Tropical Ginger Hitchhiker.  This is another case of small accomplishment because it's an 8 row repeat to make each tooth.  The color change ads an extra bit of dynamic that makes it easy to just sit and knit.

Well that's it for this week.    For other WIPs check out Tami's Amis and Frontier Dreams

<3 Heather

Cozy Cone Dreams

As a reminder, there is a giveaway going on so check out my Blogiversary Post for details.  Remember, the answers are in the blog so check out my old posts for the answers to the clues :)

Honestly it has been a busy couple of weeks.  I have had a couple blogs that I wanted to get too but time got away from me.

Sunny California!  - California Adventures!

I had a trip planned between Christmas and New Years to Anaheim California.  I mentioned earlier in December my drama with my flights. Since that point, the flight situation got a bit interesting.

The original plan was for my Dad to take me to the airport, it snowed on the 26th of December.  We got about 6 inches of snow rapidly overnight and Dad is not a fan of driving in the snow.  We were going to maybe use my car since it has all wheel drive, but we panicked half way to the airport and he jumped out to take a bus back to the house.  I continued on and drove myself to the airport.

Image from my Parking Spot at the Airport

Once checked in, and through security the rest of the evening went as planned.  The flight out was uneventful, though I was by the latrine the whole time.  I will leave that experience to your imagination.

Me Trying to Find Some of the Students

Anyway, the conference was good.  I had 4 students from the chapters I support to keep an eye on and they were all great girls.  I think they had a good time and were able to take a ton of information back to their chapter.

Overall, the first 2 days were workshops for the students and alumni the the last 2 days were the legislation meeting.  In between, there was one night that was less regimented and we went to Disney's California Adventures.

California Adventures

We didn't get to ride to much only the Merry Go Round but it was nice to walk around.  We got Cozy Cone Drinks from Carsland too!

Nothing like drinking from a traffic cone.  :)

And we caught the Pixar Parade!

Who doesn't love Roz!

After Disney, the legislation dictated the rest of the time in California.  I knit on the floor to keep myself occupied and got 1.5 Justice League Filler Squares done.  Nice and easy knitting while listening to debate.

I am on the far left, knitting away.  Notice I am not the only one knitting.

So we ended with the banquet and I flew home on December 31st.  I got an Economy Plus seat for the main trip to Chicago which was nice and a half empty flight home with no one else in my row.  All in all a good trip.

Now for a small amount of bad news, while in Anaheim my Grandfather passed away.  He was 86 and just didn't recover from a procedure to remove fluid from his lung due to his congestive heart failure.  He passed away peacefully and we buried him on 1/3/2013.  While I am mourning his loss, I know he is at peace.

Sorry for the sad news but I wanted to catch up and share my adventures in California.  I had originally intended to meet up with Tami from Tami's Amis Blog (where I link up on WIP Wednesday and FO Friday) but she was sick with the flu.  Maybe next time.

<3 Heather

A funny thing happened on the way to bake cookies...

Hello All!  I  meant to post this yesterday but time got away from me.   I had a very interesting weekend and I need to share with you because scarcely believe what happened either.

All ready for the post office!

Saturday, started bright and early.  I had rented a moving van to take my old Mattress and Box Spring to my parent's house.  This set was a full and I had purchased a queen sized sometime this summer so the old set just hung out in my bedroom.  Really attractive I know.  So with the help from Becky, we loaded the van and took it home.  Now I no longer have to sleep on a lumpy twin on the weekends!

Later on in the day, I sent my parcel to my Nerd Wars Swap recipient.  I was so pleased that I had a ton of stash to make everything that the budget was spent on goodies!

After that, I went to dinner with my dad and this is where the weekend gets exciting.  During dinner, I get a few texts from my Best Friend Jenn.  She was having boy drama and I asked if she wanted to come over and make cookies with me. I use a recipe from PeppermintPlum's Blog.  The cookies are basic sugar cookies but they need sour cream to make them soft and fluffy like Lofthouse Cookies.  Yummy.

Anyway, we need sour cream so after I left dinner I stopped at the store to get the sour cream.  I bought the container and got back in my car and.....

backed into another car.  My first accident after 10 years of driving.  I really had no clue what happened at first. I was moving pretty slow but my back bumper is all scrapped up and the other drivers car was equally scrapped.  So we exchanged information and shaken, I went home.

I told my dad and then called my insurance company to submit the claim.  In the mean time Jenn came over.  I had no desire to bake at that point and neither did she.

We talked about her boyfriend problems include the new guy she met the night before.  She told him through text that we were baking and he asked for a picture.  At this point, we had no intention of baking so I did what any friend would do and threw flour at her to show that "She had been baking" and stood her next to the stand mixer with a spatula.

And we are stirring the fake batter!

So then he asks what the cookies are and when she mentioned sugar cookies (with sour cream.  We cannot forget the accident inducing sour cream) he asks what shapes we are using to cut them out.  Which means we need to create another picture.

Nothing to see here just some supplies for cookie making

So snowmen and tree were the shape of the day!  Then while they texting back and forth, Jenn and I were worried that he would want to see the final product.  Since there were no cookies to falsify, I googled and took a picture of a picture on my tablet.

Why yes we made thee....

The trick was to find the cookies that really did look home made and the lighting that was closer to something that could be obtained with a phone camera.

Really, we had a great conversation while figuring out these pictures and I felt like I was 16 again.  As much as relationships can be challenging, exciting or heartbreaking.  I am so lucky to have such a great friend in Jenn.  I hope that we are still doing goofy things like this when we are old and senile, because then we will have a better excuse for why we do this crazy stuff.

<3 Heather

WIP Wednesday - Kryptonite

Hello all, as I was about to write "I have been quite busy lately" I realize that is more the normal than being bored or boring.  While I haven't done anything considered exciting, work and life keep me pretty busy.

I went home to my parent's (I still never know the proper noun to use now) house this weekend to visit with my Dad and Gram.  She has been staying with Dad for a 2 months now but it's weird to see someone else beside my mom around the house.

Anyway, Dad and I met up with my mom's best friend and her sister.  Aunt Becky and Aunt Francy are not  related but are as good as family.  My mom and Becky met each other since they were five.  She is super awesome and I always love hanging out with them.

Honestly I can attribute a huge portion of my Nerdiness to them.  Aunt Francy had me watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 and other science ficition shows as a child.  My favotite was when MST3000 did Gozilla vs Mothra!  Bring out the butter!

So between that and cleaning and sewing my weekend was pretty jam packed.

So following the weekending, I really cranked it into gear with my knitting.  Nerd Wars is on and I am determined to get a few things done each month.  In the mean time, I am also moonlighting as the team's blogger.  Check out my posts here.

Aside from being focused on some projects, I have to say that I am trying to get to bed earlier to get up earlier.  So far, not so good.  Ten, Eleven and Mid night come around and I am just so close to finishing my project that I just go a little bit more.  Crafting is really my Kryptonite.

So let's look at what's keeping me up late:

Superman Square

Will Superman save me from the Kryptonite?

After being ripped out once, I am really just ready to get this thing done.  I have some follow up work where there are gaps and holes but it's coming along.  I think it looks nicer in picture than in person but then again I see the holes that haven't tightened up yet.  This should be done tonight.

Diagonal Lace Socks 

Banana!

So this is my car project.  I have to go through a detour on my way home from work.  What is a 15-20 minute trek to work become 45 minutes on the way home thanks to a bridge backing up.  So I sit through a few lights and am at a complete stop between so I use the time to knit.  Now I wouldn't cast on in the car or do the gusset and heel but the foot and cuff sections are perfect.  To see what it looks like completed, here is the other sock.

Sock #1

So that's what has been my focus this week, what have you been up too?

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

<3 Heather