Umiko

I'm not even going to begin to recap on the last few weeks in the new house. It's been both invigorating to be out of the hotel and exhausting to have multiple projects going on at once. Whenever we finally get SOMETHING finished I'll start posting the progress photos...  but at the moment the chaos is too much for even a digital photo.

Some of what I have going on:

• painting vintage dressers for the bedroom so our clothes are not in totes on the floor
• mentally designing my home daycare rooms
• painting and restyling lamps
• covering IKEA mirrors with fabric
• knitting vase covers
• making a wax paper chandelier
• sewing curtains for my son's room
• researching upholstery fabric to bring new life to the seller's left-behind chairs
• going bonkers staring at the most hideous wallpaper-like wall paneling ever

That about sums it up (I think).

Today, we're having some nasty weather.  I just barely managed to fit The Beast (the Suburban) in the car port. Luckily, I'm a lot smaller than my husband... otherwise I might have had to exit the vehicle from the trunk. I got absolutely soaked in the process and experienced the joy of being battered by chickpea size hail.

Except for my knitted vase covers I have not been knitting anything since we moved in. I assure you, my hands are depressed. My husband works Monday-Friday, so every weekend that he's home we take full advantage of having time together as a family and more time to work on home projects.

Right now I feel like the house will never get done. Previously when we have moved, the house has been move-in ready as it was and we never had plans to alter it in any way. But here... we're ripping up and replacing flooring, we're painting, we're putting up walls and building things. It's a long process having to work around a young child and a full time job!

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.

Yes, I have house fever. I can't wait to move in to our new house. We've been driving by every few days just to remind ourselves that we will not, in fact, be trapped in our hotel room forever. There is a light at the end of the tunnel... and at the end of next month, but hopefully sooner. I think we're at max 37 days and counting down.

This year has brought a lot to look forward to - a new state, new friends, a new home, new yarn shops to visit and for me personally, dozens of DIY projects to really pour some personality into our new home. I'm already planning on covering my dining room wall with a collection of unique and artsy clocks. I have had a weird tick for clocks since a middle school art class introduced me to Salvador Dali. I figure since the Noro Kureyon table cloth I am knitting will be all kinds of bright and cheerful, I might as well extend that to my wall. I have a few clocks picked out that I love on Etsy and many more that I have favorited as inspiration to make my own clocks. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find and redo some clocks from local thrift stores.

I spoke to our realtor today and happily found out that the sellers will be leaving some furniture behind after I dropped a hint that we would be interested in anything they didn't feel like taking and the king size waterbed in the fourth bedroom. So..yay! That means that I will hopefully have plenty of furniture to paint and fix up.

I don't have a plan for my knitting room yet. It would be awesome if the existing couch in there would stay, but I'm not getting my hopes up yet. I can't decide if I want to paint it purple like I did in my apartment in Germany or leave it a purist white. I'm very picky about wall colors. I can't stand any degree of yellow or orange on walls. Not a fan of pastels in general, really. I think I can get away with a deeper hue because the room is in the corner of the house and has two windows with lots of light.

The kitchen is kind of a stale mate for me right now. The backsplash is old-lady-esque, although not completely shudder-worthy. I am thrilled that the cabinets are in beautiful shape, well-made and completely white. I am very tired of wooden cabinets in the kitchen. I'm considering either standard grass green tiles or some shade of green glass tiles. I've contemplated pulling design inspiration from the appliances - vintage, because that is more definately what the appliances are indeed. Not vintage ugly, just really vintage.

The only thing that has been putting a damper on our relocation was the news that my husband will more than likely be getting deployed this year, either this summer or in the fall. As if that weren't bad enough, now I don't have a "safe" time to book my flight to Germany to visit my Dad. July or August is probably my best bet. I was hoping to fly a little closer to the off season - namely, in September, but that looks like a bad time now. I know we'll work something out and if the worst comes to worse, then I will simply have my in-laws either come to me to watch my son or bring him to them. Regardless of what happens this year, I will keep my promise to my Dad to visit him. By the time I see him, it will have been nearly three years, the longest I have ever gone without seeing my Dad. I miss him like crazy and I'm excited to see how his life has changed, too - he remarried and moved to another city shortly after we left the country.

The only yarny update I have for today is that I am steadily plugging away at the tablecloth and nearly finished with the baby blanket. Earlier this week I picked up the beads and ribbon I needed to start a light sweater. My knitting fever has calmed a bit now that my husband was surprised with a four-day weekend and I'm not left alone all day with our toddler. I've decided to wait on a Knit Picks order and instead use my Paypal money on Etsy purchases. This weekend we're going to be scoping out some furniture stores nearby and price out livingroom chairs. We decided that our bulky reclining couches will work better in the family room downstairs than in the formal livingroom.

Here's hoping that the hail falling outside doesn't get any bigger...! Kansas weather is an odd ball at best. 80 degrees one day and freezing the next.

I am absolutely distraught over the fact that nearly my entire stash of yarn is sitting in storage, waiting to find a new home in our new home. Distraught. Freaking out. Pheaning. Head hitting table. 40 more days to go until we move in? FML.

Yesterday we bought a second vehicle to enable my son and me to get around while my husband is at work and we're cooped up in our studio apartment hotel. Knitting has definitely played a prominent role in maintaining my sanity.... but... then the new Interweave Knits came out and all hell broke loose. That, and now that the weather is showing signs of letting up on winter and letting spring come in, I need to cast on four new projects. Right now. This instant. And I don't have the yarn for three of them. I've been making good progress on my soon-to-be-born nephew's baby blanket and a colorful Noro tablecloth for our house, but without something selfish on the needles I'm feeling a little empty. I am dead set on finishing the first two projects before I start another, but my determination is waning.

The other day we were shopping for some new kid's movies at Walmart and we passed a package of drumsticks. I thought they were knitting needles. My husband told me I am obsessed with knitting. We'll have been married 4 years at the end of this month and he's just now getting that? Is that how slow men really work?!

Yes, I am knitting fever's bitch right now. I am having a very difficult time deciding whether to spend some of the Christmas money my father sent us on interesting home items from Etsy next month or buying yarn NOW and having it sent to a friend's house. I know we're going to need some things to make our new house a home, but my hands are itching to stroke and knot some new string. Namely, string that will turn into two new tshirts and a short-sleeved open cardigan for myself.

I'm going to sleep on it and make a decision when am I thinking more clearly in the morning. The only thing that held me back from ordering a few thousand yards of yarn today was the fact that Knit Picks didn't have the colors I was looking for until the end of next month. I think it's a sign.

So 75 posts into my blog it came to a grinding halt. I can't really tell you why... maybe I lost interest in blogging or mommyhood just kept me too busy. Either way, I'm back (sort of) for the time being. My paper journal got a little more attention while my online blog suffered, but nothing too significant. In the time since being away from here my husband left my son and I to go to Texas to become a K-9 handler for the Army, something he's wanted to do since joining the military over 8 years ago. He routinely comes home with bite marks, muddied boots and ripped uniforms. The dog is fresh out of school just as he is!

Much has happened recently. While my husband was away at school I did little knitting. I knitted a hat for my step-dad's gargantuon head and casted off too loosely, so I'll be redoing that one. I knitted my mother a beautiful purple silk and bamboo scarf. My mom is one size bigger than I am, so I gifted her the red and purple sweater I knitted right after giving birth to Lucas. It looks fantastic on her and I no longer have to worry about all those knitting hours going to waste as the sweater sits in a drawer, unworn.

My family and I recently moved to our next duty station in Kansas. In the process of moving and driving I finished Lucas's Detroit Tigers sweater, knitted my pregnant friend a blanket for a baby who will hopefully make it full term, started a table cloth for the dining room in our soon to be new house and I'm furiously knitting a baby blanket for my sister in law, whom is due May 5th.

After moving, I wasted no time in finding a new knitting group. We had our first meeting last Sunday and it was longer than the one in Virginia. But, just as the one in Virginia, knit night meant bad weather. I got caught in a terrible snow storm and called my hubby in near tears to talk me through the worst of the white out that had me driving 25 mph in a 70 mph highway area. For some reason, Knit Night always means a Nor'Easter, a snow storm, a torrential downpour or something of that nature. But, come hell or high water, I will knit.

I'm excited to be in a new place, despite the fact that it is missing the bigger city shopping opportunities. To cheer myself up I put in a big order for Victoria's Secret with the Christmas gift card I had and am having it delivered to a friend on base. Nothing cheers me up like yarn and a new bra that makes my ta-tas look awesome :)

Well, that's it for now. I am busy enteraining my toddler in our tiny studio apartment hotel room all day while my hubby is away at work and knitting, row after row on my SIL's baby blanket.

Life is still good, it's just more complicated than usual!

I won't say the vast majority of the population is on social networking sites, but I have to say that in my age range, there are a lot of people online. Over the years, I've reconnected with a lot of old friends from school and travels. Best friends that I lost contact with became new to me all over again. It happened again recently and it's been really fun reconnecting.

There's nothing quite as enjoyable about rediscovering a person all over again, yet also having the past history to exchange funny, "Remember that one time when.." kind of stories. J and I spent a lot of time together back in the day and we've shared some pretty heavy experiences in life. It's nice to laugh about the good 'ole days, but the harder times are painful to talk about - even now.

It's really difficult to lose the ones that you love, but it's even better to gain them back.