Purlene’s Corner

(aya here)

I put my patio set together today – piece of cake. Great little set, perfect size for the space that I have back there. So weird to see it when I look out the slider though. I can’t wait for it to be warmer in the mornings, so I can drink my coffee out there!

See my pretty patio area? I never know whether to call it patio, garden, backyard…

I’ve cut the tags off the cushions since this picture was taken. The bench has brown cushions, and the chairs the pretty green striped ones. Heaven forbid the store have four cushions in the same color… It’s all good though. Both colors work well, and for the price I got that set for, I really shouldn’t complain!

I still have to plant my blueberry bush. I’m trying to decide where, but I think it’s going to go over near where that stick is, to the right and behind the fountain. I’ve got it placed there, to mull over.

I’m still fiddling with where to put the patio set. The big woody plant in the middle I thought was dead (it’s a hibiscus), but it started budding this week, yay!

Things are really getting green and are blooming out there. I spent some time twining the ivy in, but I still need to prune it back a bit. It looks really top-heavy.

Here’s some of the stuff I carted out of there. The dirt that was in that wooden barrel got spread out along the back fence.

I took Ollie out there today. until I get the holes blocked off, he’ll be in his harness:

Here he is noshing on some of the plants – eyes closed due to the sun in them.

World’s Cleanest Bunny! You can see some of the pretty purple flowers in this pic.

And him wanting to go back in. You can see my little starter plants there, the get sun in the morning, while still staying warm inside with the door closed when it’s chilly. Hoping to transplant them in a week or two, if the boys don’t get at them first, that is.

(aya here)

I finally narrowed down the paint colors for the living room to two colors. I was finally able to get sunlight pictures this morning. On the left in the first picture is Sterling (grey) and Mist (blue-grey).

The white spot in the middle of the right wall below is the white paint that will be on the left wall (also the hallway color)

I’m pretty sure what I’m going to go with, but I won’t say. Tell me what you think! Sterling (grey) or Mist (blue-grey)?

Last night I made some good ol’ German food. This time, ames, I found the perfect recipe for spaetzle, yay! I just halved the recipe. See how pretty?

More pics! It’s just a pic entry!

Knitty pics:

My current in process socks. About four more repeats until the heel, and I’m using an afterthought heel, which means I’ll knit about 8 more repeats, backtrack to put the heel in, and then finish the repeats, put the toe in, and be done.

After I finish those socks, I’m going to knit the second one of these. I knit the first one in July of last year, so it’s about time that I finish these up.

A couple of shots of the boys, taken this morning.

Ollie leaning towards the big flashy thing:

Stan slacking out under his shelf. Look how big he is! Look at that belly! Hard to believe I give them the same amount of food.

And I took this one of Ollie the other day. I got him a harness, and took him outside to explore:

He seemed to enjoy his time outside. Look at him getting his run on!

I spent some time out in the back patio the other day, raking up two years’ worth of pine needles and trash:

Before:

After:

I got a cute little patio set from Ikea the other day, which I’ll be putting out there once my father puts it together for me. I got some cushions for the chairs too, two in green stripes (for the bench) and plain chocolate brown (for the two chairs). It’s a really small set, so it will fit perfectly in the back patio.

I finally got some pain meds for my leg, which has been bothering me pretty much since I’ve been out of work. It seems to be working, although it makes me SO THIRSTY. I can’t get enough to drink, it seems.

No plans for today, though I do want to run to Target and pick up Caprica – it came out on dvd yesterday. If the sun stays out and dries out the back yard, I have some pine needles that need to be bagged up and dragged out, as well as the trash that I collected. It rained buckets all of yesterday though, so that may have to wait until the weekend before it’s dried enough. It’s supposed to come close to hitting 80*!

(ames)

Now that the big baby blanket of doooooooooooooom is done, I’ve been casting about for something to do.  Enter one trip to Boston to visit Aya, a shopping expedition to Michaels, and voila:

Three of the first five squares for the Babette Blanket (link to the flickr search result). I’ve got two more done, little two-rounders, but I want to figure out how to join them together before I make any more. I usually don’t mind seaming, even though I’m pretty bad at it, but I have no desire to spend hours sewing 190-odd little squares together, and then doing a three-round border. I will never finish it that way! If you look closely at the one with the green center, you can see where I decided to do the color change a different way.  MUCH better, yes?  Yes.

And, because I think it’s pretty, here:

A card made just for me by my mother. <3

(aya here)

(ames)

Well, this is a little embarrassing – it’s been two months since I last posted here.  Yikes.  Quick, let me throw some knitting at you!

I finished these! Twisted Tulip Socks from Interweave Knits. Done and done! And yes, I’m hiding the too-pointy toe of one of them, which spurred Aya to ask if I’d actually finished them, or was I just hiding the unfinished behind the finished. Ha. They are complete!

I also finished this! The Big Bad Baby Blanket from Stitch & Bitch, or whatever the name of that book is. The yarn is Patons Bamboo Silk, doubled, and the pattern was one of the more boring things I’ve ever made. But I was happy to do it! The blanket is now in full-on use by a brand new human being whose mommies are thrilled with it.

Here, have a closeup of the middle:

Pretty, huh?

I abandoned this! I’ll probably pick it up again later, but I kept screwing up the pattern and got frustrated. I do love the colors, though. It’s like the strawberry and chocolate parts of Neopolitan ice cream. (Anyone else call that VanChocStraw when you were a kid?)

I also abandoned this! Well, not so much abandoned as realized that Trekking Pro Natura isn’t the best yarn choice for the Bayerische Sock – far too many two-stitch twisting and cables. I’ve restarted it with bright yellow Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, which I think will work out much better. Plus, I have four skeins of the stuff, which should be more than enough even for this yarn hungry pattern.

So, as you can see, knitting up a storm. I’ve still got knitting planned – there’s a baby sweater, some socks, I knit one sock and decided over the weekend that I hated it and it needs to be ripped out and reknit into a Monkey, or perhaps a Broadripple. Aya and I tackled crochet over the weekend, with an eye towards making the Babette Blanket, but I’ve decided that I want to use a bigger hook than I currently own. OF COURSE. So, it’s on hold until I can get to Michael’s or some such place to stock up. (oooh, if it’s nice this weekend, I can walk down to Hancock Fabrics. I bet they have the hook I need.) But tonight I am watching Farscape ( <3 Aeryn Sun <3 ) and watching my best friend’s dog sleep on my couch. Aw.