Is it Friday yet?

Today kicked my butt. Kids were crazy, adults made bad decisions, and I was rudely reminded that my contract is only good for this year and as of May 22nd I will no longer be a school district employee. I went to Leah's after work and cried.

But then Bobby cheered me up!! And then he cried....not taking a nap is tough (or so he tells me!) :)

The OTHER thing that cheered me up is that my AWESOME friend Kelsey spun up all of my Phat Fiber fiber! It is absolutely amazing! If you can't wait to see pictures, jump on over to her blog. I am too lazy to take pictures tonight.

Weston is out at class, and I should sew...but I think I am going to spend time in bed with the trusty laptop dreaming of what to do with my awesome new yarn. I really wish I had a nightstand so I could bring a glass of wine to my pity party....

Guaranteed even if chewed....

Opened a new bottle of wine tonight. I don't think I reviewed my last bottle, "Mad Housewife", but it was yummy. It is pretty much a staple in my wine-buying. I love the label, the name, and the wine, so it is a triple threat. The new wine is called "Night Harvest" and it is a merlot. Merlots are a bit stronger than I like, but this one is pretty smooth. I don't think I would drink it alone, but it is delicious with a good dinner or snack.

On to other things. I FINALLY framed these pictures that I bought when we purchased our house 8 months ago. I hung them up in a straight line, but didn't get a picture of the finished prodouct. The pictures are taken through the viewfinder of another camera (if I understood right) which I thought was really cool. I just wanted the one that read, "I'm in love" to hang in our bedroom, but the others were so pretty I bought them all. Here is a link to the shop.

I got home today to find Snickers without a collar. Apparently there was an epic dog battle today and the collar got ripped off and then chewed up. Luckily, I bought a Lupine collar which is "guaranteed even if chewed". I just took it back to the shop (Paw Prince, and AWESOME local dog boutique. I buy all of my dog stuff there (except food) and love it.) and got a new one for free! Awesome. I love when I get good customer service!

That's really all I've got. I made some yummy enchiladas for dinner and also made some taco meat for later. Whew! And here it is only 6pm. I've got a nice night ahead of me.

Random, Quick Post

Ok, so last night I spent some time looking on all the two etsy sites from my favorite samples and OMG I want EVERYTHING. Especially at Twice Sheared Sheep. Amazing stuff. And if you go to her blog she listed a pattern that you can make using the sample from the Phat Fiber Box! How amazingly creative...and appreciated, because I was at a loss of what to do with it...except pet it because it is so soft.

So go check out their sites if you want to blow some money. I somehow refrained. That may not last as long as I think it will though. Goodbye, paycheck!

Tons of Pictures (and a LONG post!)

1. Sock Blank Dyeing- My friend Kelsey is amazing and owns her own business. She spins and dyes the coolest yarn, and I am incredibly envious of her job. Check out her stuff here and her blog here. Anyway. She invited us (Leah and I) over to dye sock blanks. Sock blanks are pieces of already knitted fabric that you can dye and then knit straight from. Pretty exciting. So here is what mine looks like:

It has a lot more white than Leah's and Kelsey's, but I'm still thinking that it will look pretty cool as a pair of socks. I have to finish a knitting project before I cast another one on, so it may be a bit before I get to these.
2. Phat Fiber Box- OMG. Pictures GALORE coming up. Leah, Kelsey, and I all got our Phat Fiber boxes on Friday so we headed to Kelsey's to have an opening party. It was amazing. Everyone got so many different things and they were all so wonderful! We each also got on pretty big thing, which was cool. It was TOTALLY worth the $33 and I will get up at anytime to order one again! I wish there was a way to subscribe to the box so I would be guaranteed to get one every month...Oh well. Here come the pictures.

This is what I have in my box. (Minus all of the roving which I left with Kelsey to have spun into yarn. There was a lot of that too!) The box came much better packaged than this. It had very cute tissue paper with kisses on it (the theme this month was "Romance and Chocolate" and everything was nice and organized.

This is the yarn that Leah traded to me for some bamboo roving that I had in my box. The blue/green is one of the samples that Kelsey sent in. I was SUPER excited that one of us got her sample because that was kind of why I ordered one. :)

This was my "big" item. It is one of 20 copies of the first ever published knitter's comic book. I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet, but it looks like it is going to be exciting. Leah got a very nice project bag and Kelsey got an awesome needle gage. I actually am probably going to see if I can purchase one of the needle gages online because it was super cute.

These are all of the little patterns that I got. They are pretty neat because a lot of them are postcards or notecards that I can mail to other knitting friends.

This was my favorite sample. It has a sample of lace weight silk and a stitch marker. The sample is from "Twice Sheared Sheep" and it is RECYCLED yarn! Amazing. I haven't gotten a chance to check out the rest of what they offer, but I just thought it was really cool that they have recycled yarn.

These are stitch markers made by "Wine makers sister" and I love them. They are beautiful and we all know I love wine! I also can't wait to check out the rest of their items.

These are the rest of the yarn samples that I received in my box. Beautiful. I need to spend some time on ravelry looking up what to do with my itty-bitty yarn samples.
3. Painting- We are hoping to paint the inside of the house this week or weekend. We chose 'Farmhouse Blue' for the kitchen and 'Frozen Pond' for the rest of the living area/hallway. The wall at the end of the hallway will be the same color of the kitchen to tie all of the house together. The bathroom is going to be 'Seagrass' or something. It is going to be quite an adventure to paint. I never realized how many decisions and random items you need to paint. It's a good thing Weston is in charge of things like this, or I may have just come home with a can of paint and a brush.
4. New sewing machine- I have recently purchased a more portable sewing machine. It is a Janome Jem Platinum and only weighs 12 lbs. It also works great. I love being able to carry all of my quilting stuff in one trip without being concerned that I am going to hurt myself or my machine. It is a bit out of control that I have two sewing machines, but I still use them and make wonderful things!
5. Rhino sweater progress- I have the neck on the sweater now and the last thing to do are the sleeves.

I think it will be very cute when it is done. I'm really happy with the way the shoulder seams turned out. I tried to get a picture of them, but they didn't turn well enough to post.
6. Last up-hat- My friend Seth recently got back from a 6 month internship in Nepal. I was really glad that he was home and able to make it to Josh's going away party on Friday. (Josh went to the Trooper Academy and won't be back until June 4th) He brought back a ton of hats and let us all pick our own. This is mine:

It is lined with fleece and super warm. Sure, a 8-year-old probably knitted it, but it is amazing.

Whew! I think that is all I've got. Back to work tomorrow. Only 9 school days with students until spring break!

Things I need to Blog about

1. sock blank dyeing
2. phat fiber box
3. painting
4. new sewing machine (!)
5. rhino sweater progress
6. hat

Check back later for a better post. I have to go teach a quilt class. I am remembering why I normally don't stay up until 2 am. Because then I just want to sleep all day. Blah.

Icicles, Costco, and Our Crazy Governor

There are some pretty big icicles hanging from our roof. And for some reason they are leaning in. Like if I walk outside they might stab me.

I bought some new mashed potatoes at Costco the other day. They are pretty yummy. I was excited because the ingredient list was "potatoes, milk." AMAZING! I compared it to the package next to it, and there were words I couldn't pronounce. I enjoy when I find things that I like, at a great price, that are also good for me. Yum.

The news reported that Palin is having to claim per diem payments as her part of her income on her taxes. Ok. Makes sense. Then they said she received the per diem while STAYING AT HER HOUSE. Wait, what? She was getting paid while living at her house? Can I get on that gravy train?

House of Paint

We are painting the inside of the house. Most people don't notice when they come over, but the house is A LOT of colors. At least one wall in every room is blue. Why? I'm pretty sure the previous owners fancied themselves designers. Now that we have lived here for a while, we have decided to tackle painting.

Which means you have to PICK a color. Simple right? Yea, right. One wall in my living room has 8 swatches on it right now, of varying sizes. We have decided on a color for the bathroom. It is this very deep, rich teal color called "beach grass". Which is weird because I don't think it looks like grass at all. But I don't often make it to the beach, so maybe there is a beautiful teal grass out there that I don't know about.

We are still trying to decide on the rest of the rooms. I don't think I am going to paint my sewing room. I don't really feel like moving everything to paint. And I have some cute wall quilts on the wall now that look nice.

Another weird thing you have to think about is if you are going to paint the closets. Who knew? All these crazy decisions I am having to make. I still don't feel like a grown up, but here I am...painting my own house, raising my dogs, living life. Paying bills. All that jazz.

I will post pics of the house later. Right now I'm heading back to my wine. Much more entertaining.

Spring Quilt

I am taking a quilt class tomorrow to make this quilt:

But here are my fabrics:

These are the borders. (Can you believe I am putting TWO borders on a quilt? Amazing. Well, it will be when it is actually done.)

The dark blue is green in my quilt.

The teal color is pink in my quilt.

And the cream is yellow in my quilt.

I am SUPER excited. I think it is going to be BEAUTIFUL. I will keep you updated on its progress.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Weston and I had a pretty laid back day. We woke up and hung out...then we went to the zoo! I was really excited about going on the "Birds and Bees" tour of the zoo.


Even though the zoo was a bit busy, we were the only people who wanted to go on the tour. So we got a super private, super awesome tour of the zoo! We got to go behind the scenes at the polar bear exhibit.


I learned a lot about the polar bears there. For example, the bigger one (the male) was born in Russia, lived in Australia with his sister, and then was moved to our zoo. He paces around the exhibit a lot.


There was a baby yak born yesterday! I couldn't believe how big it already was. We also saw lynx. They are crazy. Their paws are HUGE compared to the rest of their body. They also seemed to want to play with the wolverine that was next door. I also learned that a lot of animals have "delayed implantation" where they mate in the fall, but then the fertilized egg doesn't plant itself into the uterine wall until later (sometimes up to three months) when the mom is sure she will be able to support herself and her babies throughout the pregnancy. Amazing!

We also got to see the tigers. They are too cool. We also were able to go behind the scenes and see the wolves. They were neat. Like giant dogs, but also a bit scary. We got to help feed them. They are really well trained. I couldn't believe how big they were! I had never seen a live wolf before. They are at least a good 40lbs bigger than Frito! I was so excited, I forgot to take pictures. Then we came back home. It was the best trip I've ever had to a zoo, and I've been to some amazing zoos. I love our zoo. It may be small, but it takes in animals that are orphaned and wouldn't be able to live in the wild.

Recovery Room

Weston had his surgery yesterday. All went well. Now he is relaxing on the couch. He has to have gauze taped under his nose to catch any blood that may come out. And his nose is a bit swollen. But not bruising, so he doesn't look too bad. He says that he can tell that he can breathe better and that it is weird. If he can tell when his nose has all that blood in it, I imagine that when it is all healed, it will be amazing.

Even though he feels good, he isn't the most fun person to be around right now. Hopefully he is in a bit of a better mood today. I am doing my best to take care of him.

Insert Creative Title Here

To say that I drink a lot of wine is an understatement. I love wine. Wine, wine, wine. I only drink red wine, and typically a Cabernet Saviorn (spl? CAB for short). I buy my wine six bottles at a time because you get 10% off when you do that. You also get a nifty reusable bag. I have collected three of these. And one time I remembered to bring mine...which means since I have moved into my house on July 4th I (not completely alone...) have consumed at least 24 bottles of wine. Wow.

Now you would think that by drinking so much wine I must have an awesome system for picking great bottles, right? WRONG! I have a few faves (Mad Housewife, Gnarly Head) but I mostly pick wine based on the picture on the cover or the funny name. And ones that have dogs in the name or on the label are always winners.

So I have decided to stat blogging about the bottles of wine I drink in an effort to keep track of ones I like and enlighten anyone who might be a wine enthusiast, like myself.

Also, on another semi-related topic, not sure if I mentioned it before but Anchorage has stopped recycling glass. Which due to my enthusiasm for all things wine has caused quite a problem for me. I still save glass. It hurts my heart to throw it away, but now what do I do with it? I need some really cool craft project that uses anything glass. Ideas?

Let's Go Outback Tonight

Oh yeah...I get to go to Outback tonight. I am super excited. I love good steak. We don't eat out too much, especially at a place where you have to wait to be seated, so this is a big deal! We are going for an early Valentine's Day since Weston is having his surgery on Thursday. Which means that for me today is Thursday! One more day of work until my five day weekend! WHOO HOO! Well, I am off to eat some delicious steak.

The Amazing Growing Sweater

Maybe kids sweaters aren't for me. Maybe I should stick to things that don't need to "fit" like hats and scarves. This damn rhino sweater is getting out of control. I wanted to block it before I sewed the shoulder seams together. And it grew. And grew. It is now two inches longer than it should be and an inch wider. Who knows. Maybe I will have giant children. Or maybe the knitting fairy will come fix in the middle of the night.

Super G

I've been watching the World Championship ski races today and I've always wondered a few things. When do you go from skiing in normal outdoor clothes to skiing in that skin tight suit? Do you reach a point in your skiing where you just know you are ready for the suit? How warm can it be? Also, let's say you are really into one of the more intense events, such as the super g or ski jumping. Where do you learn to do this? Do you just wake up and decide to be a ski jumper? Where do you train? What if you make a mistake? That is a pretty big fall...

I have always wondered these things when watching skiing on TV. I guess I can see the progression of some other sports, hockey, figure skating, snowboarding. I know where I can learn and practice all of these things. I don't know where to learn to be a ski jumper. The guys in the championship right now are going 80km/hr....I don't know the conversion, but it sounds fast. I'm not sure I would even be comfortable driving that fast.

No, my dogs aren't spoiled

Sure they used to just get their dog food scooped out of a bag, but now it comes out of this:


It is my wonderful dog food barrel. It is half of a barrel, so it sits nicely on the wall. It looks much nicer than a big ugly bag of dog food...really classes up that corner of my house. And here is a new picture of the curtains from the inside of the house. The middle one is lined with a lighter blue fabric. One day I will stroll outside and take a picture out there so you can see how it looks.


Also an updated picture of my rhino sweater. Depending on who comes over to watch the Office tonight, I might get the rhino done.


And some pictures to make you laugh. I wish we would have put a classier shirt on poor baby Snickers. He could have looked like a dog President when shaking Weston's hand....

One of THOSE days

Do you ever have one of those days where you have a book in your hand...and you have to take a deep breath so that the only thing you do with it is set it on the table? Yesterday was one of those. I sometimes let the fact that my students in Study Skills refuse to work really get to me. One student in particular drives me BATTY and spent an entire class period sharpening his pencil. How I did not lost it, I still do not know.

Today was better, but still not stress-free. It was a testing day at school, and it was my first time to administer a standardized test. What a pain. There are so many rules...I just felt like I was going to mess something up and get myself fired (or fired early, since I will be "released from my contract" in May). It went well though. Only one more day of testing and then the week is practically over.

I was really excited that I was going to have a short week this week. Weston was supposed to have surgery on Thursday, which meant I was going to take Thursday and Friday off. Unfortunately, Weston got sick and now has his surgery next week. Which means I have THREE more days of school instead of the expected one. But it actually works out to my advantage because now next weekend I will have a whopping five days off because Monday is President's Day. WHOO HOO! Whatever will I do with myself. Weston's surgery isn't a big deal. He is having something done to his nose so that he can breathe better. I hear that is important to your overall quality of life....

My rhino sweater is cruising along. I almost have the rhino done! I have learned that I am not that good at intarnasia, and I keep finding holes where the two colors meet, especially on the purl rows. I can't really figure out how to twist the yarn. Oh well. Hopefully when I block it everything will settle in and look nice and pretty. Pictures later when I am not surrounded by my chunky dogs.

Also (can this post get any more random!?!) I started doing my Wii Fit again today. I decided that since my stomach and my boobs were competing for standing out more, it might be time to take control. I decided I would do my BEST to work out 15 mins a day. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you are doing the Wii Fit game, 10 reps of something as grueling as pushups of lunges is only 1 min, so it is actually kind of a lot. I unlocked a fun boxing workout that I really enjoyed. Hopefully I can get out of bed in the morning.