Purlene’s Corner

(aya here)

This was too funny not to share. I totally bet my Oliver would defend his space like this. The extra bunny paw swipe at the end slays me.

(aya here)

I’m finished with the downstairs half bath. I finished putting in the fixtures tonight. Dad will be sad – he was planning on coming over tomorrow to put them in for me, but I’m a big girl! I done did them myself.

Before:

And after:

I’m happy with it. I think the fixtures and mirror calm the color down a bit, as does the white trim. I painted out that god-awful cheap cabinet, and the ugly radiator, as well as the floor trim. Still have the icky 70s tile in there, but at least it doesn’t look so drab now. I think the white trim against the floor helps, as opposed to the brown wood. the outer door trim and door actually need to be finished, but I’ll handle that when I tackle the hallway.

I need something to put on the wall in there – it looks so empty in there. I may go by homegoods and see if they have anything fun. I’d like to get some sort of metal thing to put up there, to tie in with the fixtures, as opposed to a picture. We’ll see what I end up finding.

Can’t decide what room to tackle next. It’s probably going to be my bedroom, I’m thinking. Which means I have to drag everything out of there, BOO. I’ve got a long weekend though, and plenty of time to get things done in there.

Yeah, pretty much every room is going to have color in it. The halls, doors, and all the trim in the condo will be the color that you see in the pics above. They’re all different types of wood, and all differently shaped molding – some is flat, some is molded. By painting it all out white, I think it’ll be less noticeable the difference in them all.

My life as a fixer-upper. So exciting, I know. And you get to share in it all, heh.

Okay, off to settle in on the couch with a blankie and wait for BSG to come on.

toodles.

The White House – Blog Post – A few more months of rabbit ears.

WOE.

(ames)

One of the things I most love about Ravelry is browsing other people’s projects. Seeing 50 different takes on a basic cardigan pattern is inspiring – some knit it exactly as per pattern, some add lace, some make it longer, shorter, cropped sleeves, bell sleeves, it’s knitterly imagination on parade. And the best part is when you look at a knitter’s page for her sweater and see “This turned out pretty good”. There is a world of understated pride in those five words. It’s a beautiful thing.

If I were to write a post complete with pictures, it would have the following:

a) a picture of the Merino Lace socks, completed and on my feet. Yay! They are amazingly comfortable, possibly my most favorite of my recent completed projects. I started them in July 2008 at a fandom convention in Baltimore (where I got to meet my tv crush, yay), finished one sock on the flight home, then did nothing with them for months. This is pretty much my standard sock tradition.

b) a picture of the Twisted Tulip socks, completed and on my feet. I would hide the toe of one of them, as you can tell that I got completely sick of them, and slapped the toe on four rows too early. This leads to a VERY pointy wedgy toe. These were started almost a year ago, on a flight down to visit Aya when she was in Charlotte. Yeah. Second Sock Syndrome, I know thee well.

c) a ripped pile of pink and brown yarn, as I realized after I posted the picture that I skipped something like eight rows of pattern in the Arched Socks (or whatever the name is). I would be wailing in despair except that my friend Cat has decided she wants to redo hers in different colors, so we will be starting over together! Roughly together. I’m only ripping back to the ribbing, which I am grateful for, as purling in two-handed knitting is hard for me. (I’m a thrower, not a picker; I’m left-handed, and the way the right hand has to hold the needle for picking is incredibly awkward for me. You would think that it would be easier, but it is not! I knit by balancing the RH needle between my thumb and middle finger and using my pinky to manipulate the needle the little bit required. It’s fairly speedy, or at least speedy enough for my purposes.)

d) The pinned-out but not blocked back of the blue sweater, and the over-half that is done of the front right panel. Yay! It’s Bristow from knitty, and I’m totally enjoying it. Stash yarn only, of course – the onyl yarn I’ve bought in recent memory is the sock yarn for the arched socks, and that was only because I didn’t have enough of any two colorways that I liked together.

e) the baby blanket of gorgeous. I’m maybe 1/5 of the way through, and am completely in love with it. It is the current CTA-knitting project, which means it’s actually getting worked on an average of 8-10 hours a week. I’ve got until March to finish it. Hopes are high. But seriously, people, it is beautiful.

And I think I have FINALLY found a project for the Barney Rubble STR that has been driving me crazy ever since aya gave it to me two years ago. Mom pointed me towards the Fountain Hat, which is intriguing. I finally got my hands on 16″ US4 circs and was able to cast on. It’s going to be awesome.

So, if I bothered to pull out the camera and take all these pictures, that’s what you would see. :D Instead, I’ve been mainlining Sanctuary, obsessing over Battlestar Galactica, cooing over the adorable that is Bones, bitching about the cold weather, and playing with my drop spindle. One day, I will be able to spin sock yarn with this thing, you just wait. As it is, I’m spinning very pretty rope, haha.