Thursday, June 24, 2010

I survived "The Death"...I hope....

That's right kids.....my mother (whom I love dearly) gave me "The Death". I have been seriously ill for over a week. I have blown through (haha, get it, "blown" through) an ENTIRE box of Anti-Viral Kleenex in 2 days! That's 112 tissues in 2 days people. I was sick enough that I haven't touched my shawl and trust me, that's really sick because I am super stoked about this shawl. The yarn is beautiful and I love the pattern. I haven't gotten to the actual lace part yet, but here's a picture.


I am NOT the world's best photographer and trying to get it all stretched out nice on the circular needles in my current Dayquil-ed state wasn't going to happen. Same with finding a light source that made the colors show up accurately. But trust me, this thing is going to be awesome.

I am adding my own "special" touch to the pattern...I know, I know! I can't just leave a fantastic pattern alone. But BEADS! I wanted to add beads to this beautiful creation. I don't know why, but I felt like beads. So before I caught "The Death" I went to Michaels to get some beads. But I couldn't decide on a color or style, so I bought 3 packages and decided when the time came that one would speak to me. It turns out it did because only 1 of the beads actually fits on the yarn. The other 2 are for super fine lace yarns or making jewelry because they are tiiiiiny. But they will get used for some other project at some point. Now I just need to decide where exactly to put the beads. I added them to the chart in a way that I think will look right and didn't require me to entirely re-chart the whole thing. But I am in a pretty constant state of befuddled Dayquil-ness so who knows. Cross your fingers and I will keep you posted with the results!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Midwest Germs

My family came to visit and I love them dearly, I do. But they brought their germs. Icky Midwest Germs! Mom and I spent the last 4 days of her trip coughing and carrying on. It's the untold story of travel. They come here and bring their midwest germs so everyone here gets sick and they get exposed to California germs and they get sick. THEN they take California germs back to Illinois and everyone back home gets sick. It happens all the time. The silver lining: Chris and I should be immune to Midwest germs when we go Home for the 4th of July/Lily's 1st birthday. Fingers crossed! AAAAAACCCCHHOOOOOOO!

Now for happier news....my family came to visit! My Aunt Carissa, cousin Jessica and my mom all came to visit. They came in on the 11th and we went to Balboa Pennisula and Jess and Carissa played in the water. Mom and I knew better, that water was COLD! Then we went to Huntington Beach and ate dinner and watched the surfers. Saturday we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park all day. Sunday we went back to the beach and we all got crispy-fried. It turns out that we aren't very good at applying sunscreen evenly. It led to strange patterns of sunburns for everyone involved. Then MONDAY WAS DISNEYLAND! I love Disneyland. It was so much fun! Tuesday Carissa and Jess headed back home and Mom stayed until Saturday afternoon. But we didn't do much else. Just coughed. A lot. And found a new yarn shop that I really liked called Knit Schtick. We met the owner, Lauren, and she was awesome. I bought some really nice Malabrigo Silky Merino in Nocturnal. I think I'm going to make a shawl. So exciting. But first I have to finish up a couple of projects that I have on the needles. Makes me feel less guilty about my startitis. I'll add pictures of the trip as soon as Mom uploads them for me to use. Of course I forgot to bring a camera anywhere we went.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Bad patio feng shui

Have you ever had one of those periods of time where work seems to suck your soul from your very being. Let's just say, I've been there.

Then today my gardenia blooms. I have owned this plant for.... years..... over 2 years.... and never a blossom. Tons of buds that would turn brown and fall off. But never one flower!

Here it is shortly after purchase and repotting:

Then here it is 1 year later:

I know, it looks dead. BUT here it is a year and 4 months later:

A bloom! A true flower! A beautiful flower!
I had tried reading on gardening blogs and websites and tried some strange things....coffee grounds in my gardenia, it was a dark and scary time people... Then one of them had a joke about how finicky gardenias were and only liking light when it was northern light from a southerly direction or some nonsense like that. And I thought, what if my gardenia is suffering from bad patio feng shui? I moved it. That's it! Moved it about 5 feet to the left. AND IT'S BLOOMING!

Sometimes it's the small victories.