Organizing

I finally finished the husband's hat (just in time for spring) and it taking forever to dry. So no pictures yet. In the meantime, I decided to do some organizing.

In my cutlery drawer, I have a plastic separator with spots for spoons, knives etc. But there is always some random stuff like can-openers, scissors, etc that don't fit in the tiny miscellaneous slot left. So they get put in the drawer, but not in the organizer tray and occasionally get in the way while trying to open or close the drawer. I went to the dollar store and bought some hooks. (I should have bought more!) and did this:

That's the inside of the cabinets in my kitchen. I just had to make sure that the item didn't get in the way of anything in the cupboard so the door would still close. I am planning on betting more hooks and hanging up the rest of my random stuff. I also might do this in the bathroom with my hairbrushes etc.....

Not Dead Yet

I have been desultorily working on hubs stockinette hat. A nasty cold derailed me for a while and stuff just got in the way of knitting. So, instead, an 'around the house' post. My stove is 17 or so years old. It has buttons instead of dials for oven and timer controls. The buttons are covered with little rubber mushroom. Which break semi regularly. Like so:

Fortunately, you can order new rubber button thingies. In order to put the new one in, you have to pull the stem from the broken one. Tweezers and needlenose pliers are handy for this job. Here is a crappy pic of a new button and the broken pieces of the old one:

Then all you have to do is push the new one in the hole and you have nice new rubber button thingies.

Tada!

Ciao

NOT with Extra Protein

I like to sit on my deck. I like to have refreshig beverages while sitiing on my deck. I do not like having bugs befoul my refreshing beverage. I have devised a method to prevent said bugs from committing suicide in my refreshing beverage:



To whit, the saucer from my espresso cup set.

I'll Sleep On It

Like many peope, I have a spouse who snores. This interrupts my beauty rest. So I keep buying new pillows in the hope it will curtail the noise. Latest experment was a buckwheat pillow. Supposedly, it gives better support to the neck and keeps it in a neutral position. Tried it. Husband hated it. I was curious so I tried it.

In the past, I have slept on hard pillows. I do not like it. My ear will occasionally hurt even if I am sleeping on a feather pillow. So sleeping on what was essentially a beanbag seemed rather...dubious.

The pillow I bought was the $20 buckwheat pillow from the showcase store at the mall. You know the store...the one that sells all the 'Made for tv' stuf like Bumpits etc....

To sleep on the beanbag pillow, the instructions say to smooth out the surface and then make a shallow bowl in the cente. then lie down on the pillow and pull firmly to the shoulders.

I did that. I slept wonderfully! I didn't hear the hubby snoring. I eally likemy pillow. If my ear feels a little tender, I simply push some of the stuffing out to make a hollow for my ear.

I did find the $20 pillow a little small. So I bought a queen sized one. This one has a zipper in the side, so I could pull out some of the stuffing if it was too high.
Which I did wind up doing.

The verdict is that I sleep better on the buckwheat pillow. I love mine. Try it.

Blog Tour-Home is Where the Wine Is

(The publisher is giving 5 lucky readers of my blog a free copy of this book, so don't forget to comment for your chance to win!)

Crazy Aunt Purl. Also known as Laurie Perry. The lady writes an amusing blog. She covers everything from gardening adventures to how rain messes up traffic patterns in a very entertaining fashion. This book is no less entertaining.

She writes about her trials and tribulations on a journey of self-discovery. Don't think this book is of the self-helpy variety. Oh no. She gently pokes fun at herself while letting us in on the 'AHA!' moments.

Overall this book was a fast, fun read. With bonus patterns! Not just knitting patterns, she challenges us to stretch our fibre-y fun to crochet too.

Don't forget to comment. 5 lucky readers will get a FREE copy of Home Is Where The Wine IS. Names will be drawn February 22, so comment before then! (sorry, only people who live in Canada or the United states are eligible. )

testing it again

Does the new comment system work on a new post?

ETA: It appears to be working! YAY!

Testing....

I have installed a new comment widgit. hopefully this works! Try commenting and let me know if it doesn't work! (email me at the address to the side of my blog...)

ETA: Removed it...wasn't working. Please hold...

rEinstalled. now it works if you click ont he post title only. Hmmmm

Need Help

Okay folks, I need your help. I have been using Haloscan for comments. That program emailed me a link with your email so I could respond. Now they are discontinuing it. So I have removed Haloscan and gone back to the standard Blogger comment system. BUT, this does not appear to send me an email with the commenter's email. Blogger sends me an email with the comment, but that's it. DO NOT LIKE! I want an email with your email address so I can answer you. I don't want to answer in the comments on the blog. What do you use?

Exciting!

Hope everyone's Christmas went well. We had a bit of excitement around here Christmas eve. The neighbour across the street was having a little get together. Then this happened:A drunk hit the car parked on the street and completely trashed it! They had to put the rear end of the car ona little trolley to tow it away. And THAT car ricocheted off another car parked int he driveway. Not much damage to that one, it seems at the moment anyway. Drunk got hauled off in a police cruiser. I feel bad for the people who's car got trashed. Merry fucking Christmas, eh? At least it was only the car and not people who got hurt.

Ciao

PSA-How To COUNT Change When Your Cash Register Is Wrong

So, I went to the grocery store yesterday. Bought $51.49 worth of stuff. Gave the cashier $55.00. She rang in $550.00....and then couldn't figure out how much to give me! Poor thing was gonna give me well over $5. So I stopped her, told her to put all the change back int he drawer and start counting over.

Me:Count up from $51.49 to $55
Cashier: ??
Me: get a penny, htat makes $51.50, now 2 quarters, that's $52.00, now a toonie and a loonie makes $55. See?
Cashier:Here you are

Ths thing I found scary was that clearly she had not been taught how to make change. You give whatever the little screen tells you and that's it. If hte screen is wrong, they flounder. This was the second time in 2 weeks I've had that happen. The other time the cashier was going to give me $60 more than she should have for change....

So, the way to make change, if your little screen is clearly wrong, is to count the money UP from the sale value to the money totlat that was given to you.

It would be funny if it didn't keep happening to me. And I am too honest to take the extra money and run.

Ciao

Special Terminology

Every activity seems to have it's own language. Knitters have stash, ufo's,wip. frogs etc.

Yesterday the hubby was watching baseball. Out of the blue he says "....and he gets a golden sombrero"

I had to ask. Sounds like it would be a good thing, right? Or possibly sexy. Nope. It's when a player strikes out 4 times in a game. The round sombrero equals a big zero. I asked why they don't call that a goose egg? Apparently that term is already in use to describe a scoreboard with zeros. Oops, my bad. A 'regular' sombrero is striking out 3 times in a game.

A pitcher with a rubber arm recovers from the rigors of the game rapidly. A player who hits a can of corn has actually hit a very high pop-fly. I suppose hitting an actual can of corn would be messy.

I have got to say that the terminology of baseball is very weird. How do they come up with some of that? I mean, can of corn?????

Glad I don'twatch the game myself. i'd be horribly confused. What with the looking out for hats and food items....

Are you Crafty?

The other day, a lady at the grocery store saw my recycled t-shirt grocery bags and said to me "that's clever!". So, I started paying attention to the bags that everyone else was bringing to the various stores I went to and I realized something. Mine were the only recycled/handmade/crafted bags I had seen! I had somehow assumed that people would make their own bags. Since I did.


This made me think about how there is a tendency for everyone to think that everyone else lives their life the same way as they do. I am a crafty kind of person, I think. I knit, I do HPL(!), I do a spot of sewing now and again. Then I thought about my friends and acquaintances. They all do crafty stuff too. They sew, or scrapbook, or bead, or knit....the list goes on.


Since I like to craft, it is no wonder that the people I choose to spend time with also have a similar bent. However, the rest of the world is NOT all crafty-type people. I know. It was a shocking revelation to me too. How can they go through life and not feel the need to create something with their own hands?

In other news...Look..KITTY!

Wicked I-Want Startitis

I am slogging away on the Neverending Noragi. Another 7 inches to go on the sleeves. And then the fun of seaming it. I will spare you another brown blob picture. Just look at the last Noragi post and imagine it a bit longer. Naturally, whilst I am slogging, my mind wanders. What to knit next? I could pick up one of my ufo's I suppose. But wait, Yarn Crawl did a post on broomstick lace and hairpin lace. Which led me to Stitch Diva Studios, which then led to me seeing this

Do I do the dress? The top? Oh the agony of decision.

Wait, have I ever done hairpin lace you ask? Nope. It's a variation on crochet. Which I can do. Kinda. Hopefully I can master this. Cause I want that top, at the very least.

First, I have to find/make a hairpin lace loom. I'm hoping my LYS can help with this. Otherwise I will have to order one on line. We'll see I guess.

Ciao

Gadget Gene?

I was Ravelling the other day and got involved in a discussion about picking projects. That got me thinking. My family has a well established gadget-geek gene. If it's a gadget, we all want it. Some of us resist better than others, but the wanting is still there.

I have realized that often I will pick projects because I think,"hey, that's a neat technique, I want to try it". So a new project leaps onto the needles. Now I am wondering if that is an off-shoot of the gadget gene, or a knitter's thing. Or is it possibly that knitter's all have gadget genes? Thoughts? Opinions?

Trial by Allen Wrench

Today the hubbunny and I put together the new bed. That was a job and a half. Remember the good old days when the stores did it for you? Yeah, I'm old. I certainly feel old right now. The contortions required to put this beast together are for circus performers. Not knitters and video game enthusiasts. But it looks really good.

I do want to know a couple of things, though. First off, why do these things always use an allen wrench? I have screwdrivers aplenty. I even have a ratcheting one that is easy on the wrist with multiple choices for the type of screw. I am quite sure that 95% of the world has a screwdriver. So what's with the horribly unergonomic allen wrench?

Secondly, why does this happen after every project I have to put together myself?

For the record, I know what 5 of those pieces are. I screwed in a board backwards and since it wasn't critical, we left it. But what are the rest for?????

Decision Funk

I seem to be hitting some kind of wall around here. I pick up a project and whiz along. Till I reach a point where I have to decide something. Repairing the hubby socks? I may have started the toe decreases too late. I have to put it on his foot to determine if I should rip back a bit. So they sit in the pile.

BLT? (Black Tomato)...I think I might rip the sleeve back to above the elbow and continue on larger needles. The last time I tried it on I thought the sleeve might be a bit tight around the elbow. But....that means trying it on again and deciding if I need to rip or not and then switching needles, or not. So it sits in the pile.

Noragi? As I reach the 23.5" mark, I find myself slowing down. Is it long enough? Nearly. Should I measure? Probably. But that means getting off my ass and doing it. So it sits.

Jean purse? It's not the size I had envisioned. I need to rip it out and start over. But that means I'd have to go get it and rip. Which would result in bits of fluff landing everywhere. Which means I would then feel the need to vacuum. Don't wanna. So it sits.

Tofutsies sock? I need to add gusset stitches. So I would need to dig out stitch markers. I feel lazy. So it sits.

I'm sure I'm forgetting at least one wip. Checking into that means I'd have to get up. Not going to happen. Here I sit.

Pagan has no problems with any of this.

It's a Very Furoshiki Chrissmoose

As some of you may remember, a while back I was absolutely fascinated with furoshiki. So this year, I decided that some of the presents would be wrapped furoshiki style. The rest are in my usual newspaper-gift-wrapping. Does it make me odd that I won't buy wrapping paper but I will buy cloth to wrap presents in?

Anyway, when I was at the One of A Kind Craft Show the Hoi Bo booth had handkerchiefs with screen printing done on them. I bought them and wrapped some presents in them!

I may not be an expert, but I am rather pleased anyway.

The gift-wrapping inspector approves.

Merry Chrissmoose

Squirrel Nuts

Quite a while ago I worked in a nice little pharmacy in a heritage building. Our front door looked out to the park. Quite a pleasant view. It was a nice day, so we propped the door open and I happened to look out the door at just the right time and saw this:

A squirrel. On the stoop. Clutching a horse chestnut still in it's spikey green covering. not something I usually seee. Of course, I am usually in the back of some huge department type store. So just seeing sunlight is unusual and noteworthy. Never mind squirrels with nuts.

heh.

ciao

Book S torage

Life in Abundance was bemoaning her nightstand pile o books. To make her feel better, I decided to show the world my stash of books. Bear in mind, the hubbunny and I both read alot. Unfortunately, we read completely different genres. i like Science fiction, fantasy and some horror. (Like Laurell K. Hamilton). He likes the classics like Tess by Thomas Hardy and comic books. Pleas excuse my lack of housekeeping skills. I'd rather be reading or knitting!

To start the tour, the main floor, living room/hallway

Next the bedroom or the Main Stash

And lastly, the guest room:

I probably missed the odd little stack of books that wind up in odd corners of our house. But I think that you get the idea....

Ciao

Me--OW!!!!

We all like to have a little me-time. But I don't think we want me-ow! time...

Do we??