Finally . . . .

Finally, I finished the baby layette:



I decided not to do the embrodiery around each of the eyelets. Too many ends and just "too much". Perfect for a baby girl, just as it is.

In the past, I haven't done things like this for clients, but this one is different. She's been a client for about 4 years now; we've represented her regarding parenting disputes with her daughter's father. Aryanna was still in diapers when her mother came to us; now she's a big girl in first grade. This client lost her mother when she was 18; the mother was murdered, and the client's father was convicted of the crime and spent 18 years in prison. The client has found a wonderful man and married him about 2 years ago. She's miscarried one baby, but they tried again and the baby is due at the end of May. So without a mother, and no aunts, I thought she might not have anything handmade for the baby. I've met her girlfriends, and they don't seem like the "let me make something by hand" type; they're more the young professional "whip out the credit card and buy designer stuff" type.

Not wanting Aryanna to feel like all the attention is on the baby, I've started a little summer cardigan for her, and I'm sure I'll have enough yarn for a bag, too. Perfect for a big girl.

Tool Man and I picked out the flooring and carpet yesterday. We decided on a berber carpet from Mohawk. The color is called "Perfect Tan"; light tan background with flecks of color. The vinyl for the kitchen is a stone pattern in a medium tan and for the bathrooms it's a smaller stone pattern in gray and brown streaked.

AND FINALLY, we got word that the repairs will start on Tuesday! WHOOO HOOO!

Guilty Pleasures

Well, I finally slogged my way to the end of that baby sweater. It's been stretched to within an inch of it's life and has been steamed not once, but twice to keep it from curling up. Next comes the big fun (she said sarcasitically) of seaming and finishing. But once I was done with that thing, I moved on to one of my guilty pleasures: knitting socks.

Now, I know that lots of people (actually, I know MOST) people don't really give a rip about hand knitted socks, but I happen to love them. I love knitting them, I love collecting the patterns, I love shopping (more like fondling) for sock yarn, I love wearing them, and I love giving them. Problem was this time, they're baby socks. Only about 3 hours each; far to short a time to be truly satisfying. So while I knitted the first one last night, I indulged in another guilty pleasure: Dancing With The Stars.

Ok, I know that show is the dregs of what's available on the telly. If you scroll down to the bottom to see my favorite TV stuff, you'll see it's mostly educational, or at the very least, a well done series. But I can't help myself, I was capitivated by this show last year and now am completely enraptured. I can't believe how well Alia Ali and Apollo Anton Ohno did! The only other thing I watch with this kind of attention is another guilty pleasure: American Idol.

I know, it's as like Dancing With The Stars, only with singing. I know it's the bottom of the barrel, pure dreck, only one small step up from pro wrestling. And still, I can't help myself. I love to critique not only the contestants, but the judges. Like I could sing, dance, or judge half as well as they do! But then again, can they knit socks?

Eye Candy Thursday

View of Mt. Hood from top of Mt. Parrett


Sky from our back deck


Yummmmmm . . . . .

Another weekend gone . . .

Another weekend gone and we're still living with holes in the walls, floors, and ceilings. The check is in California, waiting to be signed by the mortgage company and returned (hopefuly on Monday or Tuesday) before we can get the repair people started.

The one problem with so much time before repairs start, is that we keep thinking of "upgrades" we'd like to do. Bamboo flooring in the kitchen, slate in the master bathroom, a walkin shower, maybe a kitchen island, cedar plank floor in the master closet, are all starting to sound reasonable. You know, "it's cheaper to do it now since the floor's already out", and "might be better to do it now, since the wall already has to be re-done". If we're not careful, the total cost could be much, much more than the $18,000 the insurance company gave us.

And we've decided that we absolutely cannot go back to Lowe's or Home Depot until the repairs are done. It's worse than two kids in a toy store. Tool Man and I get to fondling and drooling over the appliances, the flooring, the new sinks, and light fixtures and we can hardly tear ourselves away.

But we have decided to replace the crappy electric stove we have with this as part of the re-work. And we've decided to take the wood panels out of some of the upper kitchen cabinets and replace them with either frosted or textured glass. And add brushed stainless steel hardware. See what I mean? This could turn into a money pit.

The baby sweater is still a work in progress. It's an "up the back and down the front" pattern; which, as it turns out, is not a process I apparently enjoy since it's taking me far too long to finish this thing. It is, after all, only a newborn size and I've been working on this for 2 weeks. It's a good thing that I'm "project monogamous" or it would be a UFO (unfinished object) in the bottom of the knitting basket.

I did get one thing accomplished this weekend: I bought new plastic storage bins and cleaned up my storage room. I had to tell Tool Man that I needed the bins for Halloween decorations, which was only partly true. I did have two decorations to store. But what I really needed them for is to store the giant skein of brushed mohair, cone of bamboo, and multiple balls of cotton that I bought a couple weeks ago when we went to Carlton for SEX. That was a "stash enhancement expedition" at Woodland Woolworks. I know that made you smile. ;)

WIP Wednesday

WIP: Work in Progress. My life is full of 'em.

My boss came into the office today to report on her doctor appointment yesterday; unfortunately, still no definitive diagnosis. Therefore, no treatment plan, no therapy plan, and set plans for how she can proceed from here. A work in progress . . . .

The office is another work in progress. With no answers for the boss, it means few answers and few plans for the firm except to keep doing what we're doing: providing legal representation for our clients, tightening our belts, putting our shoulders to the wheel, and keeping this firm intact for her.

The house continues to be a work in progress. But progress we are making. We got a check from the insurance company today. WHOOO HOOO! And then we realize it has to be endorsed by the mortgage company in California. So, even with overnight delivery, there's no way we can get it endorsed, back here, open a construction account, and get the contractors started before the middle of next week. Another work in progress . . . .

And the baby gifts I've been knitting are works in progress. At least the sweater is a work in progress, still:

Yes, it really is that hot pink. It's TLC Baby, fingering weight, on US 3 needles, pattern is Peek-A-Boo Sacque from Free Vintage Knitting. The little eyelets knitted into the fabric will get embroidery around them and the whole thing gets edging in the same variegated yarn I used for the lace blanket:

This picture really doesn't show the stitch well at all. Let's try again:

Still not great, but better. Learning to use the digital camera may be yet another work in progress . . .

Meanwhile, I'm taking pictures and blogging, and I see that someone has taken possession of my chair.

What do you mean, "your" chair?

Even though he was 10 years old in January, he definitely continues to be a work in progress . . . .

Still hanging on . . . .

That's what we're doing here: hanging on. On the phone with the insurance company (just how long DOES it take to write a check?), onto our sanity while living in this mess, and to the hope that spring will soon be sprung (28 straight days of precipitation).

My friend Mary wanted to see the parts of our house that aren't destroyed so here goes:

You come into our foyer, between the ground floor and second floor:

The clock and mirror are what I got from my mother last time we were in Missouri. Those vines grow down from a planter in the dining room on the second floor.

From here, you can go down into our family room:

Why yes, that is large basket of dog toys in the corner. Who says we don't spoil our boy, Andy?

Three of the walls are "Indiana Clay" (although Rod says it's orange) and the chocolaty one is "Southern Wood". Who comes up with these names?

If you go up from the foyer, you find the living room:

That color really isn't as "raspberry" as it looks in this picture. We had BRIGHT sunlight today (or maybe after all that rain, we have eyes like moles). It's really a deeper red, more like what's on the right side of the fireplace. None of those cabinets or shelves were there when we bought the house; Rod (aka "Garage God") built those, and the wood valances that you can't see in this picture.

And the other side of the living room looks like this:

Only one wall is that red, the others are this caramel color. I'm still looking for rugs to go in the living room. But now I'll really have to wait until after the restoration is done to see what carpet I get.

When you go from the living room upstairs to the bedrooms, you get to the first landing:

That's a carved and painted wooden door from Bali on the wall. And the dried arrangement? Pampas grass from my neighbor's yard, some dried weeds, er . . . wildflowers, from the creek a block away, and some kind of brown cornlike stuff I bought at a nursery closeout and dried in the garage.

Then up at the top of the stairs:

That littlel cabinet has some of my hedgehogs in it. And, yes, that is the end of the sticky carpet protector still there at the top of the stairs. We've pretty much given up on housekeeping until this mess is cleared up.

And that sunlight you see at the end of the hallway is our guest bedroom:

This was taken after dark, so the colors are even more off than the other pictures. The wall behind the bed is a slate blue and the other three are lighter, almost robin's egg. My friend, Naomi, says this room is so Zen, it makes her want to take a nap.

WARNING, FIBER CONTENT TO FOLLOW:

Yep, that's the lace baby blanket on the blocking board. All nicely washed and steamed, with about a million pins in it. It's 36' x 36', knitted in TLC Baby fingering weight, colorway "Fizz", 2 skeins at 3.5 ounces each, on US 3 needles, in ribbed feather stitch from The Knitter's Bible by Claire Crompton. "Fizz" is white with short bursts (only 2 to 3 stiches) of hot pink, lime green, and cantaloupe orange. The sweater, bonnet, and booties will be solid hot pink. Perfect for a May baby girl. If we can just hang on until then . . . .