Fruits of Summer Labor

Well I am back in Flag! Yay! I am moved into my new apartment which I love, with roommates who I get along with really well and life is generally awesome. It has taken me so long to post simply because things have been so crazy! After a week of classes I already can tell that this semester will be different than last year. The classes are higher level, so homework that is assigned is mostly reading to comprehend and understand the lectures better instead of busy work to make sure you did the reading. Already I finally feel like I am finally in a college learning environment where I will succeed based on my knowledge rather than based on whatever stupid little busywork assignments I do. That is an awesome feeling. We have spent our first week seeing friends, getting last minute supplies for classes and binge watching True Blood.

Now, what you have all been waiting for... pictures of my room with all my completed projects in it!

It makes me so happy to see all of my hard work and Pintrest trolling has paid off!! I love my apartment and I am very proud of what I did this summer.

A perk of binge watching our new favorite show True Blood is that I have been knitting like crazy! I have finished both of the sleeves of my sweater. All that is left is the collar, and then I will have a finished sweater finally! I have also picked up my sock again and finished the leg and half the heel flap. Also included in this post is the scarf that I have been working on to match the Hermione Hearts Ron hat. Its one big update on my knitting projects. It is going to turn fall here in Flagstaff soon which means that knitting season is around the corner. Many of my projects are close to wrapping up so I can start new projects and wear my completed ones! Without further ado, my 3 knitting projects!

First up, the Rocky Coast Cardigan - 95% completed, all that is left is the collar

Next up, Hourglass Rib Socks - 70% done still need to complete the heel, gussets, foot and toe. Also pictured, the other completed sock!

And last but not least, Hermione Hearts Ron inspired scarf (pattern to be posted soon) - 80% done

I love knitting! Hopefully I will be able to finished these projects quickly and embark on new projects! Yay!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures from my projects back in Flagstaff!

It's a Good Thing TSA Doesn't Consider Knitting Needles Weapons

It really is a good thing that the TSA doesn't consider knitting needles weapons. Whew! Or else I would be in big trouble! Lucky for me, my knitting and I are safely in Oregon visiting my Aunt and Uncle with my mom and Mike!

But first, I know you are all dying to know how Mike's family reunion went, well the answer is that it was awesome! I had a fantastic time and it was so fun to meet everyone. Mike and I had a blast playing in the pool afterward with his little cousins (6 kids: oldest age 10, youngest age 14 months, each and every one of them amazing, smart and unique). I love those kids!! We had a blast playing with the oldest 4, because the two littlest were with their parents. I loved getting to know these little ones who are going to be my cousins! Of course I love children anyway, I wouldn't be choosing a career in elementary education if I didn't, but these kids were wonderful to hang out and bond with. Do I most likely have an incredibly biased view of my amazing future cousins-in-law? Yes I probably do. Do I care that I am biased? No, no I do not. I think they are awesome and I cannot wait to watch them grow up and for them to be a part of my life!

Family reunion! Lots of people to meet!

Hmm... what else needs to be elaborated upon that has happened since my last post?

So the reunion was great, obviously I never reached my goal of finishing my sweater by then (ha! silly Laura) but that's okay because it was was too hot for me to even have needed a sweater anyway. The day after the reunion, I went home and packed my bag and off we went on a nighttime flight to visit my aunt and uncle in Oregon!

My mom and I have been here for a week now, Mike has been here 4 days, and it has been wonderful! I have been doing a lot of reading and relaxing and knitting. We have gone to a nearby lake twice now, once before Mike got here and then once after he did. I was able to sit by the water, soaking up the sun and knitting. At least until my knitting was making me sweat because I had the equivalent of an almost complete winter sweater draped across my legs. BUT I was able to get some pictures of my progress... Now for updates on my progress.

I finished the back of the sweater!! Yay! I LOVE it. It is exactly the length I wanted it to be and I am very pleased with the way it looks. I am working on the first sleeve on my DPN's (ugh) and the progress is coming along, albeit more slowly than if I had just used circulars. But that is just the nature of the beast, I was not about to go out and find two 10.2 circulars just to knit sleeves for one project. So DPN's it is, not that there is anything wrong with them, I am just slower on them. The only thing about the sleeves I am unsure of is because of the decreases in the sleeves, there are issues with keeping the cable pattern because it relies on groupings of 6 stitches and where there is a decrease it disrupts 2 groupings of 6. So right now I am brooding over the pattern trying to figure out what to do. The current sleeves I have are with the cable pattern being worked as possible with stockinette on the parts the cable pattern cannot be worked. So I am asking others who have made the pattern and I will get back to you with the verdict.

I had a lovely time knitting down by the lake.

Progress! I apologize for the awful lighting, but look pretty sweater and pretty lake!

Auntie and Mom sitting by my project draped over a chair

Life can't get any better than this

Mike then flew in and we picked him up at the airport and have been having a great time since! We went on a walk in Lithia Park, which is a beautiful local park and got to see a little deer family! Now this was very exciting to us because we never really see deer, but here where my aunt and uncle live, deer are like pests because they eat everything and they see them all the time. What really got me though was the little baby deer. He still had his little baby spots and he was SO CUTE. Oh wow I love all things tiny, fluffy or baby related. Its bad. But so cute!

Deer selfie!

I am so so lucky that I have Mike who puts up with me even though I can be crazy sometimes. We must have spent 15 minutes at least looking at this little guy, every minute or so I would say to him, "Oh look baby, he's walking! How cute!" "Look he's sitting! Aww" or the best one was "I could adopt him and he could graze on the grass outside my apartment so that they won't have to pay for a law mower". Lucky for me my patient man laughed and called me cute instead of throwing me over his shoulder and taking me for a psychiatric evaluation on why tiny fluffy things make me so happy. 

We went back for another day at the lake, this time my aunt and uncle ventured off on a hike of their own, and mom, Mike and I stayed by the lake for some relaxing and reading. Or in my case, tanning, relaxing and reading. 

I promise I am not naked!! Just wearing a strapless bikini and I have awful photography skills...

Foot rest comes with a foot massage. Am I not the most spoiled girlfriend ever?

Reading with the best foot rest

See? I do physical activity! 

So far an amazing and relaxing vacation. Why is it that a week in the real world of work and school drags on while vacation time flies by? That is so not fair. I plan to enjoy the rest of this trip and have an amazing time, then I have a week of packing, finishing my quilt, finishing my little DIY's, and getting ready to go back to Flagstaff for 4 months! 

The Problem With Having a New Project Obsession

Why is it that I already have too many projects, but yet I still want to start more? I feel this is every knitters problem. It is Ravelry's fault. One second I am updating my projects, the next I am trolling patterns for the next pretty thing I want to make!!

First things first though, I have to finish my current projects. I have the quilt to finish, hooks to screw into my key holder thingy for my room, then I can focus on knitting. The projects I have going right now are my Rocky Coast Cardigan (San Fransisco Peaks Cardigan), Hourglass Rib Socks (Cali Girl in the Snow Socks) and my Matching Beauty project, which is a scarf I have been working on for awhile (2 years now...oops) to match a hat I already finished (Simple Beauty) from the Hermione Hearts Ron Pattern. For a long time I wanted to make a scarf to match the hat so I took the hat pattern and adapted it to make a scarf with the same lace and cables design. (If anyone wants it they can comment or message me on Ravelry). I briefly debated frogging the scarf, but when I got it out last night to frog it I realized I had an almost finished scarf on my hands. And well I couldn't frog something that was so close to being finished! So this project has now been bumped to priority #2 in my knitting world.

Last night I started the ribbing section on the bottom of the back of my cardigan project! It is very exciting because after that it is time for sleeves! I already have size 10.5 DPN's for the sleeves, but the thing is that I am not the biggest fan of DPN's. I just knit so much more slowly on them then I do with circulars. BUT I can't justify buying 10.5 circulars when I already have 10.5 DPN's. So I am just going to suck it up and make pretty pretty sleeves for my pretty pretty sweater.

Now for my new project obsession scheming. I know I am not going to start anything new until I finish the sweater, and scarf. And I am not going to start socks until I finish my current sock #2. BUT I have a couple projects in my Ravelry queue I am already excited to make.

As I have previously expressed, I am waiting for someone, anyone, I know in my family/older friends to get pregnant. I am waiting for this because I love knitting for babies. Every person I know who gets pregnant receives a hand knit baby hat. The most exciting thing was when I gave a person who I know a baby hat for their little girl, and when she was born and pictures were uploaded to facebook, SHE WAS WEARING MY HAT. It was exciting for me to know that when they look back on the day their child was born, she was wearing my little hat! They most likely don't even remember it was me who made it and gave it to them but still, I know and that makes me happy. Okay I'll stop rambling and get to the point now. I love knitting for babies and there is an adorable little project I found a long time ago in a knitting pattern book I use a lot. The book is Knitted Gifts by Ann Budd and it has so many fantastic projects for gift giving and for yourself! The socks I am making came out of that book. The cutest little thing I want to make so badly is called Motor Baby Bunting and it is both genius and adorable. It is a little warm bundle-y thing that zips at the bottom to keep the babies legs warm, but makes them easy to change and has little sleeves and a hood. The best part is that there is a hole in the middle so that you can strap the baby into a car seat without moving anything, taking anything off or making them cold. It is perfect for people who live in cold weather places. PLUS IT'S ADORABLE. So yeah I want to make that, but I am waiting for a baby to make it for.

Adorable right?

The next project I want to make is a cowl. It is called the Greyhaven cowl, and I have had in my Ravelry queue forever. When looking at the projects page, I saw someone who made this cowl with madelinetosh tosh merino. I have been dying to work with Madelinetosh yarn because it is just so so beautiful. The colors are hand dyed and variegated and I have wanted to work with it, but hadn't found the right project. Until now.

This cowl pattern

With this colorway of Madelinetosh. It is called Baltic. And it is gorgeous.

This yarn

So that is my cowl fantasy. I have narrowed down the socks to a few different patterns, but I am not going to detail those out just yet until I narrow it down to 2 or 3 winners, then I will post the options!

I am so excited to do these amazing projects. But for now I am just going to finish the projects I already have! Keep you updated with everything as usual!

Doin' Work and Takin' Measurements

Hey everyone!

Things over here have been moving along like crazy! It is so awesome to see how all of my projects are moving along.

I have finished my mason jar project, complete with pretty cheery little fake flower arrangements courtesy of Michaels floral section. I love this project because it was fun and easy will brighten up my room so much.

I have been hauling butt on my quilt, and I am so close to being in the home stretch of it! First I sewed all my squares together to form rows, then sewed the rows together to form one single piece of fabric made up from all my squares!

I borrowed my mom's room because she has a queen size bed and here at home I have an extra long twin. I first laid out my new white Tahari Duvet with a little bit of simple eyelet and put my quilt over it. It was awesome to see my quilt looking like a real quilt on a real bed! An exciting thing to come for my new apartment!

I also set up my mason jars next to the bed to see how the colors work with the quilt, I think they look great with the colors in the quilt! 

My next step was that I sewed the border onto the quilt, although I do not have a picture for you, but I promise to include it in my next post!

This past weekend I went to visit Mike and spend time with his family. I took the Metrolink train to see him, giving me some time to get knitting done. I wanted to bring my sweater, but it was going to be a quick trip and it is a bulky project to bring along so I brought along my sock project. 

To those of you who don't know, for a long time I put off making socks because it was too scary for me. Here is the problem, I made sweaters, gloves, lace scarves and so many other things even more difficult than socks, but yet I was still scared of socks. Stupid and irrational, but true. Hence my post explaining everything titled, My Irrational Fear of Socks. Since that post, I had finished the first sock, and started my second. So I am still working on the second sock, but am making much faster progress thanks to learning a new technique. How to cable without a cable needle. For my sweater project learning this technique is a MUST (for all you looking for tips on how to make the Rocky Coast Cardigan, when I finish it I am going to include a tips and advice section for how to make it and include pictures of my finished project, so keep your eyes out for that post to be coming in the next few months). I am now applying that technique to my sock project. It is really speeding up the cabling process, although it is harder to do with smaller needles and yarn. There are many many tutorials out there and I looked at a lot of them, but this is the one that really was well explained and was easy for me to understand best. 

http://lifeonlaffer.blogspot.com/2011/10/cableing-without-cable-needle.html

If you are looking to learn how to cable without a cable needle, or are embarking on making the Rocky Coast Cardigan, this technique is awesome and this tutorial is a great way to learn how to do it. 

I have made very little progress on sock #2, simply because I have so many other projects! Once I am in Flag again and settled back into the school routine I am sure that I will be doing more knitting, when there isn't room DIY and a quilt project competing for my time. 

Of course this picture is blurry. OF. COURSE. Pictures I take usually end up being blurry. Ugh. 

I am much less scared of socks now, I am even planning another sock project, this time doing 2 at once. Because doing them one at a time is time consuming and if you happen to get scared of the project (like me) your socks could end up taking like 5 years. Like this particular pair. BUT even though I have amazing yarn and at least 10 different favorited sock patterns in my Ravelry account, I refuse to allow myself to start another sock project without finishing this one first. I keep thinking how much better it would be for knitters if all humans had just 1 hand and 1 foot, then you would only have to make one glove and one sock for every project! But then on the other hand, knitting one handed would be hard. So I guess things just have to stay how they are. Darn.

When I do finish this project I am going to post a ton of well taken photos (meaning Mike is going to take the pictures) so you all can see what the socks look like finished! 

It is exciting to see all my projects coming together, but also bittersweet knowing that I have less than a month left in California. 

Well, I will keep you updated on projects and all the various things going on as I finish work and get excited to go on vacation before going back to school!

I Have an Intense Love of Mason Jars

I have been slowly gearing up for my new apartment in the Fall! Lots of Home Goods trips and fun DIY!

Apartment DIY's: I just finished painting 3 little mason jars to have as mini fake flower vases to brighten up my room. I love mason jars so much. I love drinking out of them, I love having them around, and I just plan love them. Not sure why, I just really do. I found the tutorial on Pintrest. Here is the tutorial if you want to do that same thing!! I loved it and the finished product is great and this tutorial is really great and easy to follow.

http://somethingturquoise.com/2014/01/17/distressed-chalkboard-mason-jars/

Watching Law and Order SVU while crafting. With the amount of Netflix I watch, they should pay me! Not the other way around! 

Face-timing with my cutie while putting the finishing touches on

The blue jar looks way more purple than it really is, actual color is better represented in the picture below

What I need to do now is to go out to Michaels and buy florist foam for the bottom of the jars, and then make some little fake flower arrangements to finish the project off! The vases are in the same colors as my quilt. I am excited to have these fun little bright things to brighten everything up during the cold days in Flag.

Another thing I did was DIY an old lamp base that was previously spray painted red and give it a little makeover! I re-spraypainted it a gray color, and after a trip to Target did not produce the perfect lampshade, my mom and I went to Tuesday Morning and found the perfect one! So now I have an old/new lamp for the price of just a shade! Awesome! 

It still has the plastic wrapping on to protect it, but the shade is light blue with cream accent details

My next DIY project for my apartment room is a little key holder. I used to have a command hook stuck on the wall near my door. Functional? Yes. Cute? Not really. Also the problem with that is when Mike came over he had no place to put his keys, and of course when it came time to leave, could never find where he left them. (Usually my fault because he would put them down somewhere and I would move them to a location I thought would be easier to find hahaha) So now I want to make a little key hook thing with 2 hooks in it so Mike and I both do not lose our keys.

I am going to take a little wooden plaque board, paint it to be pretty, then screw hooks into it. It will be a cute and cheap little project I am sure I will get a lot of use out of. I haven't gotten anything material wise yet, but as usual I'll show you pictures as I make progress!

The quilt: I am starting to get a little anxious I won't finish it before I leave for summer, even though I am making pretty good progress. I think it is going to be okay though because 13 more squares then I am done with the squares!!!!! Yay! Then I will be sewing on the border and going on to the next step in this awesome process. 

My amazing sweater has sadly taken a back burner to work and quilt and apartment and life. I hope to pick it up soon as Mike's family reunion is nearing. (Even though it will be too hot to wear the sweater, even at night). I am considering recinding my self imposed deadline... still haven't decided yet though.

I want to ask you, internet people for help with something. This next year I will not have a meal plan with which to get Starbucks or Einsteins coffee. I have a Keurig, which I love, but I have not had any real success with making fun yummy drinks with it. I usually have the Cafe Escapes Cafe Mocha Kcup because it tastes good, and I do not really like my coffee black, but I know that will get old over the next year. If you have a Keurig, how do you make yummy Starbucks-y-ish drinks with Kcups? If you have any answers or recipes, let me know in the comments! Thanks!

All is well in my crafty world. More hauling butt on the quilt and in my next post I will include some pictures of my progress. :)

I'll Love You Forever and Always

Yesterday was my one year anniversary with Mike! ONE YEAR. It is quite crazy, but awesome. I am so happy to have had him in my life for a whole year, and I know that this is just the first of many many years to come. He is amazing and perfect and I will stop now, but not before I flood you with pictures!

He is just the cutest thing in the world! 

The Cliff in Laguna Beach 

My beautiful necklace!!

1 year anniversary gift from Mike. Isn't it amazing and perfect and beautiful???!!!!

It was such an amazing day, and a beautiful dinner. I am so blessed to have been able to spend a year with this wonderful man. I gave him a very nice watch, and he gave me a beautiful opal necklace. Opal is my birthstone, and it could not have been a better gift. Yay, love my man!

As usual, updates on my crafty crafts. 

Look at my sweater! I am still working on the back, but the plan is to have it be as long as my white shirt is in this picture. After the back all I have left is the sleeves, then the collar! Ahh!!

Quilt... its coming along. Way more slowly than I would like, so I need to start hauling butt or I won't have it finished by the time I go to school.

I had a great scrapbook day with my mom at our Creative Memories consultants house. I basically finished a little 8x8 album of last summer! I had completed albums of my 4 years of high school, and I have 2 blank albums with matching pages set aside for my 4 years of college. I had trouble figuring out where my summer between high school and college fit in, so I made a special little summer album! Next scrapbook day I am going to start on my college album and scrapbook my pictures from my first year of school.

I know most people look at my blog to see the pattern for the Basketweave Coaster pattern from Ravelry (which is totally awesome that people are making it!!) but for those of you that actually follow my blog or just like to creep on other peoples lives (if you are like me, because I do that all the time, in a non-stalker way of course) thanks, I appreciate when I see that people are actually viewing! 

Thanks everyone :)

When Things Come Crashing Down

Dramatic title right? Well sorry but its a little bit of a false hype. My life is pretty great right now, the only thing that has come crashing down is a cabinet. A 50 pound cabinet which a neighbor and I were moving out of my house onto the street for people to take for free. 50 pounds of cabinet, right on my big toe. Luckily it is not broken and it does not look like there is damage to the joint. It could have been a lot worse, but it feels like someone replaced my big toe with a sausage. And it is getting progressively more black and blue, so yeah it is icky. So that is what came crashing down. Literally. On my toe.

Sorry I have not been posting as much, but I am officially a member of the working adult public, so that means that I do not have as much time since I am working 3 days a week, 8 hours a day. Lots of secretary work, a far cry from my dreams, but I am so grateful to have good employment. What I want to do with my life is to be an elementary school teacher. Have I mentioned that before? Maybe not. Well I will now. I have wanted to be an elementary school teacher since I was 5 years old. I used to teach my dolls and play school with anyone who would play with me. The dream continued until high school when my dream became a passion. I worked in an elementary school for 2 years, one year in 3rd grade, one year in 2nd grade being a teaching assistant through a program at my school. That was when my dream of being a teacher was realized to its full potential. I am now at NAU to study and become the teacher I want to be. In 3 years I will have my bachelors in elementary education with a minor in Spanish and a concentration in Social Studies. I will also have my teaching credential in the state of Arizona, and after a few little things to transfer over, my teaching credential in California. Mike and I have talked a lot, and we know that we want to move back to California after we graduate and get married. It has always been my dream to teach at the elementary school that I went to and worked at and have good teacher friends at. Mike knows that dream and our plan has always been to try and do that if it works to find a job for him as well.

Well enough about hopes and passions and dreams. Lets talk about love!

After much hype up and excitement leading up to seeing him. (see: snapchat picture below), we got to see each other after a week or more of waiting. Mike came by and spent the weekend with me and the best thing was, he showed up at my door with a bouquet of red roses, for no reason at all. "Just because I love you" roses. Isn't that the best thing in the world? Isn't he the most amazing man? I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. I love that man so much.

Pathetic? Yes. Accurate? Yes. The life of a semi-long distance relationship.

The love of my life turned 19 this past weekend! Yay! We had a fun celebration with his family that included lots of time in the pool, 2 cakes and fun memories. We had a day where we went out to a nearby canyon and had a picnic on the bed of his truck overlooking the beautiful view we drove up a tiny dirt road to get to. So wonderful! All in all it was a great weekend full of family time, fun in the sun and a lot of stolen kisses.

Updates on my various crafts and such. 

Quilting: My quilt is really coming along! I have done 19 squares out of 42. 23 more to go! Here is it, except there will be one more column of 4 squares on the right side. Here are some pictures! It is set up on my couch, so you can imagine how he this quilt is going to be!! 

My sweater is also going really well. I have over half of the back! Lots of progress, and it is beautiful! 

I have been looking at lots of ideas for my apartment for next year. I am thinking about doing it in the same colors as the quilt. I am also planning on having candles, christmas lights and fairy lights strung around the room. I want it to be that when all the lights were off, it would still be warm and welcoming in my room, a contrast to the harsh fluorescent lights that are in the room. I have an old lamp from my moms office that I am going to spray paint the same dark grey color that is in the quilt. Then I am looking for a lamp shade with traces of gold in it, like how some of the squares are in the quilt. I am so excited to decorate my room! It is great to be able to have all these decorating ideas and bring them to life! I am also discovering that Pintrest is my new best friend. 

I am also excited because I am going to go scrapbooking at a family friends house this Saturday and begin my college scrapbook! Excited to scrapbook my first year!

Well I should be going to sleep because I have work in the morning. As usual, hope you enjoyed this post about a cabinet falling on my toe.