Bumming around the house.

So, apparently, we were exposed to MRSA. If you don't already know, MRSA is an incredibly antibiotic-resistant variety of Staph.

So far, neither of us seems to be infected, but we're still waiting to hear about the lab work to see if we're carrying it, and potentially contagious in spite of not actually getting sick. We spent the weekend in more or less of a quarantine - we were allowed out of the house, but no hugging anybody, and no close contact with small children, elderly, diabetics, pregnant women, or people with compromised immune systems.

The plus side is, we got a lot of cleaning and laundry done, and I finished my quilt top!

My mom got some bird print fabric squares at a yard sale for like 10 cents for the bundle. I decided to edge them in dusty aqua and then a brown print to frame them out a little before assembling them into a quilt.

I worked on the borders of the squares on and off most of the week, and on Saturday I took advantage of being stuck at home and finished them up and started assembling them into the quilt top.

I couldn't seem to get a good pic in the studio.

The lighting was all wrong every time. However, I've discovered that from the right angle, my backyard takes a beautiful picture. Here's the finished top, hanging from the fence, just above my herb garden!

I'm going to wait until the weather heads for cooler temps before I iron this and start actually assembling the quilt.

Baby Steps.

I have a decorated wheat sheaf hanging in the kitchen, my wreath is back up on the living room wall and I hung the curtains in the master bedroom and bathroom. It's not much but it's a little step in the direction of putting my house back together.

I also bought window candles for the front bedrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Then I put them in the windows. On the 3rd floor, the cords miraculously, but just barely reach the nearest outlet and that's only because the sconces in that room have outlets on the bottom.

Then for the second floor. Three windows, three candles. 2 outlets and one of them has something plugged into it. None of which occurred to me until I tried to plug in the candles. Oops. Now I need to buy an adapter. And probably some battery candles for the front window for this time of year and over the winter when the Christmas tree isn't up.

A single candle in each window. It seems so simple. Yeah, right.

My Mother-In-Law

I love my mother-in-law. She's a sweet grandmotherly type, who almost makes me feel guilty about not being the type of woman who could her son into kids he doesn't want. Almost. Her name is Dot. (I'm not kidding.)

She called us up the other day and asked if I wanted to take her arts and crafts supplies off her hands because she wasn't going to be doing anything with them anymore. Because it's no fun without Lois (the neighbor lady across the street who has also given up doing arts and crafts). Because she doesn't like to shop for supplies without Lois, who won't tag along because she'll be tempted to buy something that she won't use anyway because it's cute.

So the husband tells his adorable mother that I said yes, I''ll be down to take a look at what she has. I called her back later when I had my work schedule handy and told her when I'd be down. I get the in-laws house and I can't hear the pugs barking (Ollie and Ruby) and Dot is talking absolutely forever to answer the door.

Just when I've almost decided that "Something Terrible" has happened, she finally opens the door. Turns our she broke her foot. I can't hear the pugs because she let them out that morning and the porch steps are a giant pain in the ass with the huge orthotic boot she's wearing and she hasn't bothered to let them back in.

So I look around the living at the half dozen or so totes and decide that I'll just take it all. Then Dot points out that there's more totes down the hallway (which is about three more, plus a pile of grapevine wreaths). So at this point I'm thinking no big deal.

I asked Dot if she wanted me to go through the stuff at their house or bring it home and return what I don't want or what? She says that anything I don't take she's just going to throw out. I said, do you just want me to take everything, and if I can't use it, just find another home for it?

Dot says "Could you?!?! I mean I don't want you to be stuck with stuff you won't use. I don't want you to take it home and then tell everyone that your mother-in-law stuck you with an incredible pile of shit and that you don't want any of it and don't know what to do because you couldn't say no, but it's a bunch of useless shit and you don't want it."

I said confidently, "No, no problem, I can find homes for anything I won't use." Secretly wondering how I'm going to do this, but I've already volunteered to take it all.

Then Dot says "There's more in the spare bedroom."

"That's okay, I'll just have to make a bunch of trips, we'll have an excuse to visit."

Then she shows me the spare bedroom. Then she tells me there's more in the closet.

****

So at this point, we've made nearly a dozen 45 minute round trips to my in-laws, 4 of which it took to even make a dent in the stack of totes Dot had. I think we're about 2/3s of the way through getting it to our house.

I have no idea where I'm going to store all of it, or how I'm going to get rid of what I don't want/need. What I originally thought was 12 or so totes, has turned out to be more like 40. But I finally have a wreath for my front door and so does Lisa, and I have another to give to Jess & Mike and I have a heart-shaped wreath to hang between the sconces in my living room. I'm also a long way toward replacing all of the Christmas ornaments we couldn't keep after the fire, and I'll be able to get Jess & Mike a good start for their first Christmas in their own apartment.

I ended up spending $12 on specialty floral picking pliers (that was after 50% off) and I'm sliced open 4 of my fingers (I'm running out) with the stupid steel picks for the pliers. There's styrofoam fake berries all over the living room. My back, third floor room looks like a floral supply warehouse, and much to my husband's delight/dismay, I'm happier than a pig in shit and so is his mother!

That being said, anybody need any floral supplies??

The house is starting to look like a home!

So after a chaotic summer, things are finally (crosses fingers) starting to fall into place around my house. I've starting finding time to read again, and what I'm reading right now is Julie Powell's Julie and Julia. She blogs her cooking project, she's got an audience, she uses hilariously colorful language. And then I thought, "I have a blog, too!" Immediately followed by, "and it won't have an audience much longer if I don't start posting something!"

Everybody has that mailing list that they belong to, where after a while you just start deleting the emails without actually reading them because you feel guilty/are too lazy/don't want to hurt anyone's feelings/whatever, and never quite get around to unsubscribing. ...And I've had the horrifying realization that chaos like this past summer is precisely why I started this blog in the first place and OH MY GOD! What if I write the posts that everyone deletes without reading and HOLY CRAP! I should do something about that!

And as I write this I also have the realization that I should have refilled my OCD meds like a week ago and I haven't yet and that might have something to do with the panic and the unreal speed that my hands are flying across the keyboard and yet if it has stirred me to think about my blog and my audience again, I can't help but think it's a good thing. (Maybe I should get in touch with Julie Powell about motivating me???)

At any rate, the studio is not really coming together yet due to a hilarious story involving my mother in law and more floral supplies than I've ever seen outside of a craft store (which I will cover in another post, because it's too good to not share, but would completely derail what little cohesion this post is still holding on to.

Suffice it to say, I've got to completely rethink how I'm going to handle putting the studio together. On the plus side, the house is starting to look like people actually LIVE here as opposed to the look of migrants surviving in a construction site that it has had since May.

The kitchen only needs the phone jack fixed and the silverware drawer installed. The dining room just needs the blinds hung. The living room floor and front porch need sanding and refinishing, but that's all that's left. Then the touch up painting and decision about whether we're recarpeting the staircase.

All in all, I've actually be able to hang a wreath on the door and decorate the kitchen some and it's really starting to feel cozy and livable in here.


I'm making a commitment here to start posting on a regular basis again. I'm also making a commitment to make the husband get the wireless set up again, because I can't take the pained looks he gives me when I pry him away from RPG.net so that I can actually use my own computer.

Wish me luck! See ya sooN!

Studio: Reboot

So, no access to my art supplies is driving me crazy. That combined with the fact that I have things like Ink and Paint that can't remain in the basement much longer now that the weather is getting colder, has made us come to the decision that I really need to put my studio back together. What does that mean to you?

Well that means:

• new items in the store (which will hopefully move off of Etsy)
• updates to the website in a more timely fashion
• new patterns!
• a permanent move from tripod to Tilghman Street Studios (fewer, more targeted ads)
• possible addition of video to the how-to's instead of just pictures

I'm feeling pretty ambitious about all of this. I'm up in the middle of the night, wide awake from having badly overslept and evening nap, and my brain is going a mile a minute.

We'll need to the get the hubby's computer up and running to make up for the fact that I may be living on the laptop for a good portion of our vacation next week. We'll be getting our new washer and dryer before too much longer with also means that I can felt without having to run down 3 flights of stairs to the washing machine. (The hook-ups are in the basement right now and the studio is on the 3rd floor. The hook-ups are getting moved to the kitchen!)

Speaking of kitchen, I had one that usable, if not actually finished and I'm thinking about trying to custom dye some yarn. Maybe doing some tie-dyes and such.

That's it for now, I think I need to spend some serious time with my notepad and my sketch book. I'll keep posting as new things happen!

And cooking some more

At my mom's again, because we still don't have a kitchen. Work has been prolonged due to failing a building inspection.

On today's menu:

• Tarragon Chicken
• Baked Chicken stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella, Fresh Basil and Roasted Tomatoes
• Bulgar Salad with Roasted Anaheims, Fresh Heirloom Tomatoes and Fresh Lime Juice
• Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce and Feta Cheese. This will be served over Fresh Spinach
• Fried Chicken dredged in Whole Wheat Flour
• More Energy Bark
• Fried Red Bananas with Brown Sugar and Cinnamon
  

Cooking, Cooking, Cooking

Due to the Kitchenless state of my house, I am at my mother's today to borrow the stove (and catch up on some laundry). Been cooking since about noon, here's what's for dinner. So to speak.

• Energy Bark (recipe on Live Like a Hippy)
• Tomato Salad
• Lemon Pepper Tilapia
• Tilapia with Beans and Sweet Corn (great in a Tortilla with shredded cheese)
• Orange Glazed Rosemary Pork Chops
• Breaded Pork Chops
• Chile and Cumin Fried Chicken
• Italian Sausage and Veggies Tossed with Penne Pasta
• Chicken for Chicken Ceasar Wraps
• Middle East- inspired Bulgar Wheat with Toasted Almonds
  

The tomato salad is for the PotLuck at work tomorrow and hopefully the rest of it will hold us over for a few days. Also, I will be leaving a serving or so of most of the dishes behind to thank my mom for use of the kitchen.

It would have helped too, if I had remembered to buy shredded cheese and ceasar dressing.

They're here!

So, it's been like 5 weeks since we thought things were finally getting back to normal and the cabinets finally were delivered today. At this point, they're telling us that now that we have the cabinets, everything should resolve pretty quickly from here.

I've been working on quite a few charity projects with what little yarn I have that isn't packed away and I hope to be posting those patterns to the website in the next few days. Also, I need to renew our webhosting and domain name.

My knee seems to be recovering, although very slowly, so maybe, just maybe, things can start to get back to the low level chaos we call normal around here.

Looks who's back!

So after all this time, we're finally getting settled back into the house. We've been living in it for almost 3 weeks, but it's only now starting to feel like ours again. All the damage from the fire has been repaired at this point but we haven't started to unpack yet because the bathroom remodel isn't done yet and repairing the living room floor and redoing the kitchen come after that, as well as the touch up painting in the whole house. When things are finished up, I'll post some pictures.

I haven't been totally lazy while I haven't been online, although admittedly, my dislocated kneecap is slowing me down quite a bit. But... I do have a few recipes to get posted over on Live Like a Hippy, including two for awesome salads, both using variations on Good Seasons dressing mix packets, and I've been crocheting for charity, and brainstorming a really cute draft blocker for you all.

I have my follow up with the orthopedic on Thursday, wish me luck.

Thoughts, Prayers, Vibes

Please keep our neighbors in your thoughts and prayers tonight. An arsonist struck our neighborhood early this morning. If you don't know, we live in row homes, so the whole thing was pretty scary for us, since it was the house next store to ours that burned.

We're fine, just temporarily displaced. Everybody next store got out, some with the help of the fire department some on their own. The house that burned was converted into 2 apartments. The family downstairs got out pretty safely, although their little guy was taken to the hospital just to make sure he was ok.

The upstairs family was not as lucky, the fire department had to force entry and all four of them were taken to the hospital. Their 5 year old daughter is in critical condition, but from what I've heard they think she'll be ok.

Please keep these to families in your thoughts, send vibes, add them to your prayer list, whatever it is that you do. Also, please think of the family on the other side who only closed on their house last week.

Studio Update (or Slacker!!!!!!!!!)

So, it's become pretty obvious that I work much better when I am actually working in my studio. The dining room table has become synonymous with screwing around on Facebook, while the studio remains a workspace.

That's not to say Facebook isn't great, I've hooked back up with a lot of old friends and I definitely have something to kill time when my insomnia is bad. Unfortunately, it's also been a great way for me to end up with no time left for anything important. Therefore, the official mission will be: more back into the studio, Slacker. Get something done for once.

Also, the cat was much happier when I was working in the studio. Anybody with a cat will understand why a happy cat is a good thing. If you don't own a cat, let me just say this: unhappy cats can be destructive, in all kinds of ways.

Since I brought the laptop back downstairs Crochet Pages has been badly neglected. My other Website, the parent site, Tilghman Street Studios has been completely neglected. Not good if I want to make these the source of my livelihood. Something's gotta give and it's not going to be my lifelong dream on becoming my own boss.

Slacker!

Ok, here's the deal, February turned out to be a pretty crappy month around here. I wasn't slacking so much as I just didn't get to things between fixing the radiators and so on. I also found out that I have a degenerative knee problem and I broke a tooth. In other words, February was Awesome!

I'm hoping I can start to get caught up now and I do want to sincerely apologize for the lack of meeting deadlines and such. Thanks for your patience.

Studio: renewed efforts

So, in addition to the weight loss challenge I'm in with my friend Sarah, I've challenged myself to finish the studio. I started with a whole lot of good intentions and once the newness wore off... well, let's just say there hasn't been much progress.

I'm going to start posting what is finished, sort of step by step, to keep myself going. Probably in the sidebar.

Keep me moving - drop me a twitter @agecrochet

Some Progress has been made!

I didn't get as far with my cleaning as I had planned. But, I did get to some cleaning and lo and behold, it's starting to look like a studio instead of a heap of random arts and crafts junk.

Photos to come!

Cleaning my Workspace

Alright, so, I wish that my camera worked so that I could get pictures for before and after, but tomorrow, I'm going to go upstairs and start to get my studio put together, for really, this time. I've been putting it off because I wanted to paint first, but let's be realistic, I've been "getting around to painting" in that room for like 4 years now. I need to just get situated so that I don't have craft supplies all over the damn house.

Once all of the cleaning is out of the way, it should be much easier for me and Jess to put in whole Saturdays of work, I'm hoping we can aim for once a month, plus I might actually be able to find everything for once. Organizing gets a little crazy because most people organize their yarn, or their beads, or the sewing stuff, or their scrapbooking. I need to organize all of that, plus framing, floral arranging, website samples, patterns of all kinds, projects I'm doing for other people, and so on and so on. Also, cd's because I can't work without music.

At any rate, once I have an organized workspace, I'm hoping that a few things will come to fruition.

1) The house will be cleaner.
2) I won't have to say "I need to find my..." anymore.
3) I'll be more productive.
4) My husband won't be afraid of my craft room any more.
5) I could have company over, and not have to hide my art supplies behind the sofa.
6) I won't have to worry about the cat sleeping on things he shouldn't.
7) My allergies will get better.
7a) My asthma with be better.

And so on. Right now my craft room looks like the craft room I always swore I'd never have. And I HATE IT!

So, even though I won't have any before pictures, I do plan on having many after pictures to share with you. Wish me luck, and if no one hears from me by Friday, tell my husband where I was headed. ;-)

Let's Get Serious.

Ok, so, now I have my laptop back, and unfortunately, in the meantime, the battery pack for my digital camera went bad. The good news is, it should be pretty easy to find a new one. The bad news is, they're like $50.

But I still should be able to get website work done, although, a good deal of what needs to be done at this point is behind-the-scenes type stuff. I also need to get working on the Project Wonderful stuff - like deciding where on the site I want to allow ads and designing my ad banners and the like. I also need to get registered with a new host.

And then there's Because We Care. I didn't know this until the other day, but the Lehigh Valley has a local blankets for kids charity. I talked to the founder at length and I will be participating the best I can given that I can't get to any of their meetings. (They meet one Monday night a month at the Hickory Hills Clubhouse, and I work every Monday night.) But at any rate, I talked to the founder at length and they appear to have no internet presence at all, so I told her that I would put together a mention for my website and try to help her get their name out.

That being said, I forgot to get permission to give out her phone number, so if you want more information, email me and I'll get in touch with her and get the info to you.

I am not considering this the formal write up, because I would like for that to be a permanent addition to the site.

On other topics, I finally got a decent night's sleep, thanks to (I think) an aromatherapy pillow mist that I finally broke down and bought.

And, I finally got almost enough clothes for the new dress code at work. Maybe corporate should have looked to see if there even was such a thing as long sleeve oxford-style, white, women's button-down shirts before they required them. Everything is 3/4 sleeve, or has that weird open-neck thing where the buttons stop just above your cleavage and the collar is more open and wouldn't fit around your neck even if you added your own buttonholes. Or they have frilly little ruffly stuff as the top for wearing it under a vest. And I'm not allowed a vest, first off, and secondly, I don't do frilly.

All of that being said, I think things might *crosses fingers* be getting under control around here. We've got beautiful tomatoes coming in in the garden and we're finally gaming again. If only the house would paint itself.....

Aw, shit! or You'll never guess what I did now.

So, I was waiting to post this until I had pictures, I figured the evidence would be appreciated, but as I just discovered that the battery pack for my digital camera has gone bad and I'm currently waiting for the dryer to finish so Hubby doesn't have to go to work pantless tomorrow, I figured, "Heck, what better time to post this story?"

Last weekend, after I spend a day feeling, well, quite sick, actually, we decided that it was finally time to put the air conditioner in the dining room window.

Now, if you've never installed a window air conditioner, there's a few things you need to know.
1) They're really friggin' heavy.
2) The bastards don't have anything resembling handles or a piece you should hold it by.
3) It's really, really awkward to put something out a window and then slam the window shut on it so it doesn't fall out.


If you've never seen my house, there's a few things you should know.
1) My dining room is on the 1st floor, but the window is still about 6 feet off the ground.
2) The sidewalk leading to the basement door runs along that side of the house.
3) The basement door is one of those outside slanted kind with steps under it.


If you have seen my house, you probably know where this is leading already.


Anyway, Carl wrestled the a/c unit up from the basement and then we proceeded with the suck-tastic job of actually putting it in the window. It went really well, sat right into the window frame, pulled the window, started adjusting the little accordion thingys on the sides to close up the extra space around it.

Then Carl noticed that lip on the window frame was on the wrong side of the thing on the bottom of the a/c. And here is the part where we should have communicated a little better.

I thought that I was only helping him guide the thing back into place. He thought I was actually holding on to it tight enough to support the weight. Then he let go.

And the air conditioner tore right out of my hands and FELL OUT THE WINDOW!

Now, remember the part about the slanted basement door? That door is right below that window. And for a brief moment, it was right below the falling air conditioner.

The good news is, when the a/c hit the door is bounced slightly and sort of rolled onto the sidewalk, no harm done. The bad news is, the door didn't fair so well.

The thing is, the door is, correction, was, old beadboard plywood. When the a/c hit, it cracked along one of the grooves, almost the whole length of the door.

And that's not even the best part. Replacing it is a pretty big project, not huge, but most of a day. The problem is, due to a coworker of mine being on vacation, Carl and I have not been home at the same time long enough to fix it yet.

Here is the best part. We've had 3 thunderstorms since the door broke. I never thought I'd be glad for that nasty old drain in my basement floor.

ARgh!

So I slept late today, and I'm feeling pretty good, like I'm finally caught up. I'm thinking clean up the front yard and maybe if it's nice, do a little in the back. Then I'll probably do some work up in my studio. Set up the laptop and stuff. Maybe take my printer up and set up the nicer one for Carl. (We have a 3 in 1 and I have a printer and a scanner that work together as a 3 in 1.)

Maybe some laundry after that, you know, have a productive day.

The plan is: check my webcomics, drop a line on Twitter, and then get busy. The catch? Twitter isn't working today. At first I assumed it was just glitchy because it was a little funny yesterday, but today I can't get my tweets to go through at all.

So I'm thinking it's probably a Firefox issue. Lots of stuff is only barely Firefox compatible. Which sucks, cause it's an awesome browser.

So I go to the help discussion cause I'm thinking maybe they did an update and it has a bug that makes it not work with Firefox. I'm not sure if what I found is encouraging or not. Apparently since some time yesterday, Twitter is either completely broken for the time being or it just isn't working for something like 10 different OS/browser configurations.

I'm bummed. I love Twitter.

Tutorials,Tech Issues and Twitter (or I Shouldn't Post When I'm Sick and Overtired)

Currently, I'm pretty sick, but I've been playing around on the laptop anyway, and I'm getting the ground work together for photo tutorials on Crochet Pages. They would most likely just link from the crochet dictionary, but I'm considering also linking to them from the patterns that refer to them. It's a much bigger undertaking, but I like the comprehensive feel that it has. Like something that I've been missing is finally falling into place.

With that said, I've put out a cry for help to my close personal friends to try and round up a crew to move a little bit of furniture for me and get my studio at least partially set up. Once that's done, I just need Dan to get the router working and Crochet Pages should be photo city! Even with out the router, I will be putting serious effort into getting the missing photos posted.

The lack of picture-age has always been a thorn in my side, because I know a lot of people don't give my patterns a second look because I'm missing pictures for a lot of them, and I think the site could be great, when I get them all caught up and filled in.

I'm exhausted, but my post nasal drip has flared up again and since I can't sleep like that I'm probably going to look into posting my Twitter to Crochet Pages.

All technical problems aside (router, getting sick, etc.) I'm really looking forward to having not just a workspace, but a computer workspace right next to all my craft supplies. I know it will take some time to get it all put together, but I'll be glad when I have everything handy and organized. And I know Carl will be glad to not have to worry about sitting on yarn, or hooks and needles.

Wizards, transfers and other stuff

So I finished the last wizard! Yay! Carl's excited.



This is how they're going to be laid out in the frame, although you have to use your imagination a little bit because they're not mounted or anything yet. They're going to be individually mounted and then floated behind a raised multi opening mat.

***

In other news, I'm going to be transferred to another store, starting next week. I'm actually working there on Friday, but I still have another shift where I'm at before the transfer is actually official. It's a lateral move - more of a step to the left than anything - same job, different building, basically. Smaller volume frameshop, bigger sales department.

Also, I'll be closer to home at the new location, so I'll have a much shorter drive, and once the weather is nice, I'll probably even start walking to work, so I can get in shape for the hike we want to take in May.

***

In still other news, I've been getting some emails about my website again lately, which I still haven't had the time to really do anything with (Sorry!), and I should be able to get to all of that tomorrow. ***edit*** I haven't been feeling well and haven't gotten much of anything done the last couple of days. I'm hoping to catch up a little in the next few days ***2/23/08***

Once I'm settled at the new job, I plan on getting my studio put together and then putting some serious time into the Crochet Pages site and getting the missing pictures taken care of, and getting some new patterns up. I may also put a little store page up for print and/or .PDF versions of some of the longer, more printer intensive patterns.

While on one hand, I really like the idea of providing all my patterns for free, there is the part of me that says "making a couple extra bucks toward art supplies wouldn't be a bad thing." What this will mean for you, well nothing's definite yet, but I'm thinking that it would mean that I'll be able to share the more difficult doll patterns without feeling like I'm short-changing myself.

The additional time investment combined with my new digital camera would mean more photos sooner! I am also considering starting the mystery stitch along back up and possibly trying to get an exchange up and running.