Umiko

Surfing the internet really paid off for me this week! I've had my Swagbucks account for about a year and have been trading in my points for Amazon gift cards. I've been saving them for a rainy day... said rainy day was last week. If you don't know about Swagbucks - click the link and sign up, it's free and it's effortless money!

Today I got these sweet books in the mail-

The Knitgrrl Guide To Professional Knitwear Design (How To Keep Your Knits About You) by Shannon Okey from Knitgrrl.com and Knitgrrlstudio.com.

I bought this as a shelf book. And when I say shelf book, what I really mean is a reference book for later. I don't feel like I'm ready to start designing patterns, but the interest is there. I'm having too much fun just knitting for myself right now. I like to know the ins and outs of things before I start, so reading up on the WWWWW & H of designing knitted garments/items is a good place for me to gain some perspective of the bigger picture.

While doing a few loads of laundry this afternoon I made it to almost the end of the third chapter. Shannon covers a lot more than I was expecting in just the first few chapters! The first chapter is about professionalism, which in any line of business, is a must. The second chapter covers social media, a very important part of business in this day and age. The third chapter was interesting because Shannon touches on where a knitter can profit from her expertise outside of just knitting and designing by offering professional services related to knitting. It makes me wonder why more math whiz knitters haven't become technical editors themselves!

So that's how far I've made it so far. The writing is clear and concise; there's also a healthy dose of Shannon's own wit and humor, too. I can't wait to read through this book, but it may take longer because we'll be embarking on moving into our house this weekend and running head-first into a dozen DIY home improvement projects. I was thinking though... paint samples - they would make great guides for yarn colors!

Here's the second book I have been lusting after for awhile. It's been on my wishlist for at least 6 months for sure! My family and I were so busy today, I didn't even get a chance to crack it open, but plan on skimming through before I go to bed. I'm positive it will make for some colorful and lacy dreams!

I also want to get my hands on the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume One: Knit & Purl: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary from the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine (Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Series), The Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume Two: Cables: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary from the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine (Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Series), and maybe some day I'd be interested in picking up a copy of The Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume Three: Color Knitting: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary from the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine (Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Series).

If you own any of the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary books I'd love to know what you think - or if there are even better ones that you prefer.

When I get the time and have our internet hooked up at the house, I'll be writing more about knitting books that I love or wasted money on.

Also, a note to anyone who may be cooped up in a hotel for two months waiting to move into a house: save your gift cards for online shopping! Stagger your orders by about a week or two so you always have something to look forward to in the mail. I'm so thankful that we have a local friend who has allowed us to have mail delivered to them!

Have a great weekend!

I can hardly believe it - we are in single digit days until we move into our new-to-us home. Friday, the 29th, is our contract closing date. This is the point in blogging when I have to restrain all the nasty things I have to say about the sellers, because I may very well go off the deep end and honestly, it's just not nice. Why do I want to rip them to shreds with words? Well... we got our hopes up that we wouldn't have to live in our hotel for the full 50 days (that's almost two months, people! UGH!). Then, two weeks ago our realtor let us down as easily as she could after confirming that the sellers are "overwhelmed" and that we shouldn't plan on having our household goods delivered until the 29th or after.

I'm so glad that we spent half a day shopping the Easter sales for flooring, otherwise the news today would have been even more frustrating. The good news is that my husband actually approved of the deep purple carpet I was not-so-secretly lusting after for the bedroom. That, and we found extremely discounted carpet for the living room and saved 75% on the laminate flooring. Although we spent at least $60 on gas money shopping around over the last two weeks, we estimated that we saved roughly $1,500 on flooring. Totally worth it! I am so excited that I am going to have a real dirty-work art space downstairs for clay working and tattooing.

Ah yes, and the bad news is that the help we were hoping to have won't be there. My father-in-law was supposed to fly in this weekend to help us rip up flooring and install the new, but we were very sad to hear that he went in for surgery early this morning to have his gall bladder removed. Apparently he was experiencing some horrific abdominal pain last night before checking himself into the ER. Thank God it wasn't something more serious and that they were able to operate quickly to remove the stone-filled gal bladder and stop the infection that was settling into his liver. My husband has a few friends who may have been able to help, but the outlook on that happening is looking pretty bad right now.

I've been steadily knitting. I finished an interesting little tshirt from the current Interweave Knits magazine, I'm 80% done with the modified Coachella tank top and plugging away at a few rounds here and there on a hat. I can't believe how much I have knitted in the last two months. I think I'm making up for all the time I spent in Michigan not knitting.

The older that Lucas gets, the less that he's interested in me playing with him. So... I knit and talk to him while he plays by himself and we talk about what he's doing. His vocabulary skills improve every day and most days it seems like he is just overflowing with the desire to communicate every interesting detail of his life. Nowadays I have very little guessing to do when it comes to his needs and wants, he is capable of communicating so much to me. I am so taken aback by how quickly he learns, most of the time all I can do is smile like only a proud mother can and relish every moment of his personal journey and discovery of the world. His joy is my joy, his hurt is my hurt, his accomplishment is my pride... Being a mother is (for me) so spectacular and fun that I will never find the words to describe it properly.

One of these days I'll have my laptop hooked up to the internet again and I'll finally be able to start posting most photos of my knitting and progress on the house. I have the feeling that this year is going to be very full and very fulfilling.