Busy day!

I had a very busy day today! I woke up at 3:00 this morning and could not go back to sleep so I got up. As is the hazard of getting less than enough sleep, I ended up buying a little something something on-line. (Oops!) More on that when it arrives. Insomnia is getting expensive!

Since I was up early I decided to go in to work a little early. And then I had the "Can't stand my job-idis" hit and ended up taking a half vacation day. (Again - Insomnia and impulse control!) On the way home I stopped at a gas station and filled my car up and got a MUCH needed car wash. Then home to a light lunch and a hello to the hubby and kitty. I then made an appointment to get my hair cut this Friday (WOOT!) and managed to get my dog in to the vet today! Love it when I can get an immediate appointment! So Emma got poked and prodded. She has put on a little weight since last time (She was 34 lbs and is now 37) but she gets less running time in the winter. We are naughty parents and don't take her for many walks. Partly because she is cold sensitive and mostly because we are lazy people.

Emma was great at the vet and is in really good health. She has a cyst that showed up a couple months ago - which they said to watch - but that they didn't think anything needed to be done at this point. So yay for that! I picked up her heart worm and her flea and tick stuff while I was there since there are already reports of ticks! That is insane!

One other thing I did today was to organize my cowl bin. I have this in my closet in my den and it's been just a hot mess. Today I got fed up and dumped the whole thing out on my table and sorted it out. I had not only cowls in here but headbands, a pair of slippers, a pair of leg warmers, several hats, several scarves... it was a mess.

And I have a few things in there that I really should just donate or ... something. I know when I made this pink and black striped cowl I was thinking ooh la la french something. Yeah. I never wear this because it's just straight up a hot mess. This might actually be a cute purse with the right lining? Or a good item to go in the donation bin. :)

 In the end I have all my cowls neatly folded in the large bin and the smaller bin is all headbands and one pair of leg warmers that I had no idea where to put. This is MUCH better! I actually tried on several of my cowls that I didn't love before and found that they look much better (and fit much better) on me now that I have dropped a few lbs. YAY for that!

And to top all this off I hit the treadmill on my new program tonight. I have been struggling with wanting to hit the treadmill lately. So when I was watching the Biggest Loser this week I had the thought of changing my approach to the treadmill. So now I am going to do 5K (which is only 3.1 miles!) every time and I am going to try and do my best every time - pushing my speed and my length of runs and so forth. I am hoping to get to the point where I can jog the whole thing. This is just shocking to me. I spent years telling people I would only run if I had a bear chasing me, and now I am trying to get to where I can run on my own - without the aid of giant hostile wildlife spurring me on! Who the heck am I turning into?!?! :)

If anyone reading this has any treadmill tips or motivations that work for you I would love to hear them!

In the meantime - I am off to a MUCH needed shower. ;)

A Better Standing Ovation

Back in December I knit the pattern Ovate which is a paid pattern on Ravelry. I loved the pattern except for one thing: The tacky closure. Maybe it was the toggles I chose? Maybe it was my lack of mad skill in the crochet department? Whatever the reason - it looked like crap. I found myself not wanting to wear my fancy Rasta shawl that I was so excited about. Sad face.

See how sad that looks? It didn't look much better with me in it, let me tell you. And honestly, I don't think it looked that great on other people's either. I feel like people really had to work to get it to look nice in their Ravelry pictures. Maybe it's just not my style. I can't pull off the belted sweater look either. **Shrugs**

Enter some serious Etsy browsing and the discovery of a shop called WireDreamsDesign. I found a wonderful shawl pin there that is pearl colored on one side and black on the other. It's made out of Polymer Clay and the "pin" is a recycled knitting needle. FABULOUS!

As you can see there is a pattern in the clay as well - making it just a little more special. I only took pictures of the pearl colored side, as I didn't think the black side would show up well in pictures.

I am soooooo happy with this purchase and think this is a wonderful upgrade to the shawl. I have added this shop to my favorites and suspect I will be getting more shawl pins from them in the future. Did I mention they are really affordable too?  Awesome!

Happy happy joy joy!

Burly Spun Mari 2: The Resurrection

I am continuing on with my effort to sort out my knit goods. My latest reclaiming was a hat I made in 2008 out of Burley Spun. I liked the hat - but again - top down construction made it kind of pointy and weird. Add to this that it's lime green - Totally rocked out an elf thing here.

I didn't take awesome pictures of this the first go around - but you can get a sense of the fit of this hat on my Roger Head. Keep in mind Roger does not have my insane big hair to tuck under this hat either - so you can imagine how high this sat on my head. Not exactly keeping the old ears warm.

This next shot shows a much more relaxed hat. The pointy top is pretty much gone and the length is much better. I did the Eucalin soak for about an hour and then rolled it in a towel to get most of the water out and then stretched it onto good old Roger here. It dried in a couple days.

And lastly - here is me wearing the hat. It fits over my giant crazy hair and is pretty much the perfect size now. So much more wearable!

Pretty Crafty Home Indeed!

I recently (thanks to Lucy 'InTheSky'!) Discovered Cherry Heart's blog and her Pretty Crafty Home Project and had to join in. Here is the nutshell of this project taken directly from the wonderful Miss Sandra's blog:

If you're doing something crafty to improve your home, make it a more pleasurable environment to be in and look at then, it qualifies. If you can thrift and recycle your way there - so much the better!

Hopefully she doesn't mind me taking the quote directly from her blog - she just states it so well! Since this completely meshes with the way I am trying to move in this world I joined in immediately. I just wanted to give a shout out about it so if anyone else is interested in this they can go have a look and see if it's for them too.

In the spirit of the group, I recently started going through some of my knit items and asking myself if I wear them - and if not why? Can I "fix" the item so it moves into the "wearable" circle? Does the item need to be repurposed? Donated? My first item was a hat I made a couple of years ago that I rarely wear because the hat is a little too pointy on top and a little to short on the sides. (Top down construction.)

Here is a picture from just after I made it. You can see it sits just a LITTLE too high on my head and there is just a little too much pointy going on up top. Not terrible - but enough where I didn't really want to wear it too often. (Sad.)

So recently I gave it a good soak and then stretched it over my mannequin head to dry for a few days. End result? Less pointy on top and I gained about a half inch in length. Suddenly it's REALLY wearable!

Please excuse the bad mirror pick. I have not yet trained Emma (the awesome Dog) to take pictures of me. I wore this hat all day today and it was comfortable and I did not feel like a gnome! Sweet! I intend to go through all my knit items with the same viewpoint and will hopefully end up with a more useable hoard of knit goods!