Stash flash!

New stash!!! The results of my Knit Picks Cyber Monday Sale purchase, a major online Stash Enhancement eXpedition. I almost didn't, but I couldn't resist. 

First, I was just going to get the Suri Dream Alpaca for the Craftsman Afghan I had planned a while ago. The pink/red/orange scheme doesn't go with our home so much, and some of the colors aren't produced anymore. So I went with blues and greens: Aegean, Atlantic, Fern Heather, Blueberry Heather, Natural and Black.


I kept looking at how much I had to spend before getting free shipping, and thinking about how much I was saving (because that totally makes up for sort of unnecessarily buying more yarn, but....). How could I resist buying discounted yarn for a few more projects? It's not like I was randomly buying yarn....it had a purpose!

So I got Wool of the Andes in Pumpkin for the Creature Comforts Cardi, since I've been in love with it since it came out.

And then I was really close, so I figured I may as well go for the $50 purchase to get free shipping. I added two skeins of Wool of the Andes Bulky in Porcini to make the Mittenscarf - perfect for the cold Montana winter, right? And so cute. Provided the airline lets me take needles aboard (it is technically allowed, but left up to the individual agent's discretion), it will be my holiday travel knitting.

My plan is to modify the pattern slightly, as I would like convertible mittens, the kind where the top flap buttons back so your fingers are free to drive or use an iPhone or so forth.

Finally, five skeins of Comfy Worsted in Pomegranate to make the drew sleeveless top. I've never really done any summer knitting aside from the failed bikini, so I thought this might be a good way to start. I love the gorgeous red color - it will go with I think two or three of my summer skirts, plus my dress skirts and suit, and of course any jeans or shorts really. I just love the ruffle details. I'm noticing in my queue that it is the small details like that that usually get me...ruffles, hardware, subtle shaping, etc.

The half-felted bag is coming along nicely. I've finished the front and back of the bag and sewn it together. I also completed the two loops. I didn't make it in time to felt them here as our laundry day was yesterday and I was seaming the bag until after 10! So I'll take it with me to CT and felt it there. The chain arrived yesterday, too, and it is perfect - sturdy and heavy. I'm hoping the rest of the hardware arrives in CT by the time I do! I know the Chicago screws have shipped, so it's just the lacing then.

I haven't done anything dissertation-related today, so I'm going to do that to assuage my guilt. I did make an awesome pickle soup for lunch and started looking at slow cooker recipes thanks to an early Christmas present. (Thanks Mom!)

Of course I really want to be knitting. I keep telling myself that once I finish writing these last two chapters and start submitting post-doc apps, I can focus solely on knitting and yoga for a good six months. But the less disciplined side of myself (not so much a half, but about 80%) doesn't want to wait. Besides, it's perfect knitting weather - grey, cold and snowy/sleety/rainy.

We're in a fight

I started my first sweater! I was so excited and had even finished all UFOs before casting on, so that I would only focus on this sweater. I also chose something in a super bulky yarn that I figured would knit up quickly and keep my attention during a somewhat bigger project.

I cast on. I knit a few rows. Got hung up yfwd (twice)....does it mean to loop the yarn over the needle twice and then knit my stitch? Does it mean to yarn over, knit, yarn over again, knit? Figured that out with some help from sister and the Internet. (Yarn over twice then knit.) But at this point I had ripped out the few rows I had done because I initially did the yfwd (twice) wrong. So I started over, confident that I now knew what to do. Proceeded to do so and went for about 20 rows successfully. Or so I thought. I counted my stitches on the first decrease row, and had 67, instead of something like 82.

I had already cast on about four times for this particular project. I couldn't figure out where I could've gone wrong to get 67 stitches so I wasn't sure where to backtrack to. The only thing I could think to do was rip it out and start over. At this point, I'm thinking the yarn has some kind of vendetta against me and is dropping stitches when I'm not looking. So until it learns how to behave itself, it can stay in little balls in my yarn storage. We're totally in a fight, and I know I'm not wrong, so. It could be a while.

I'll come back to it when I cool off. But seriously. We are so in a fight. Not cool, yarn. Not cool.

I decided to start something else in the meantime: the half-felted bag from Boutique Knits. I have some Lion Brand Wool (perfect for felting) in pearl gray, and it's knitting up very nicely (unlike some yarns) and quickly. I'm just about done with the back of the bag; the front is the same, and then it's just two bag loops and two pockets. The loops, back and front get felted, and then the pockets are sewn on, unfelted.

The knitting is relatively easy and I've been keeping a close eye on stitch counts in case this yarn gets any ideas. The hardest part has been finding the notions! The bag uses Chicago screws, leather lacing, cord lock stops, D rings and a purse chain. I thought I might actually have some luck locally with leather lacing and Chicago screws (commonly used in leatherwork) since hunting is so big here. No luck. Joann's had D rings and cord lock stops, as well as magnetic bag closures.

In case someone making this bag sees this and needs the resources, here's where I got the other stuff:

Chicago screws: via an Amazon seller. The Weaver Leather Chicago Screw Pack comes with 3 that are 3/4", so I had to order two. Apparently the nickel ones have a floral pattern on them, but I think it will either not be noticeable, or look good as it's a purse and it'll add a little girly detail.

Leather lacing: This was really hard to find! I looked at the websites for a bunch of leather goods/work stores. Nothing in gray. Maybe if you're doing black or white or brown, it would be easier. But for gray, I ended up buying leather shoelaces. They come in the right length, and I'm pretty sure it will work. They're the 72" square leather laces. If they don't work, I'll probably substitute black. (Joann's did have some leather lacing, but in very limited colors.)

Handbag chain: Somehow I almost had to order this from vendors in the UK or NZ! Before I ordered from overseas, I finally thought to check Etsy and had luck there. I ended up ordering a 24" nickel bevel chain that I think will be perfect; it also has swivel snaps so I won't have to do any metal twisting to get it on!

The chain should be here early next week I didn't trust the shipping time on the other items, so I had them sent to my mom's house, so that I can finish constructing the purse there. My plan is to finish all the knitting on it and possibly the felting before I leave so that once I get there, I can just put the hardware on, and voila! A new purse! Happy Christmas to me! Anyway, I'm enjoying knitting this in comparison to other recent projects. I'm also enjoying how ginormous it currently looks unfelted. Like some massive mutant bag....it grows so quickly too, on size 11s.

I also just finished my mohair shawl, complete with ribbons and buttons. I'm not really a bow girl, so I just looped the yarn at the ends and fastened it with the button. It has some unique design features....like where the rows shift from where I lost track of the pattern...and the odd dip in the middle. Also, I'm now completely unsure if I knit it right because my pdf says to repeat the two rows in the pattern, and the website says only to repeat row 2. But it's a nice lacy mohair shawl nevertheless, and the ribbon and button idea is so cute! It really adds something. And Isis really enjoyed the part where I was weaving the ribbon through. She thought it was a game just for her. Disappearing ribbon! Oh boy!!! I told her, "Not everything is kitty playland." But she disagrees. Fortunately, she did not do anything terrible to the shawl, just chewed the ribbon ends a little. Now I just need an occasion to wear one of my dresses again....maybe a certain wedding in the spring?

Well, back to the knitting I go. Oh! And the dissertation is coming along well. I just need to write my last two chapters. Oh, and make some tedious changes due to the new APA style manual. Adding a number at the end of all my citations (super tedious), two spaces instead of one after a period (really? I can automate this, but really???) and some changes to parenthetical citations. Sigh. I wish my school did what most others did: If your proposal was written and approved in Style 5, keep it that way. Otherwise, Style 6. But apparently the dissertation process could always be more difficult/frustrating/tedious.

Home! Yes I am home....

No blogging for a long time, and let me tell you why.....

Firstly, moving pretty much took over my life for a while. Packing everything into boxes, buying boxes, buying more packing tape, taking one or two at a time to the post office, and so on. Finally, I remembered that Greyhound does shipping and realized it would be a lot cheaper, so I ended up doing that. I thought it would be a lot easier to take everything in one shipment anyway and got a friend to help since there were 15 boxes, plus an oversized bicycle box. Well, it would've been easier if the Greyhound employee knew how to do his job....after an hour of arguing with him and him basically ignoring me (while other customers yelled at him for doing so), he finally believed me that I had paid for the shipping already and didn't need to wait for him to tally it all up. Yes, that's why there are already labels on the boxes. A strong letter of complaint is forthcoming. He actually said, "You're making a lot of work for me." Well, [insert your choice of angry expletive], this is your job. If you don't like it....half the customers in the waiting room said they were unemployed and would do a better job than you. Some people are just not cut out for customer service. 

Oh, and this was on the day of the rehearsal dinner. Had the employee known what he was doing I would've been out of there with time to shower, get dressed and get a manicure and pedicure for the dinner and wedding the next day. Instead, I had under 30 minutes to do all this, skipping the mani-pedi. 

The wedding itself was amazing and so much fun. Memorably, we stopped at McDonald's and Rita's as we had time to kill before getting to the reception. Boyfriend was in Montana of course, but I had the best date ever, a fellow bridesmaid. 

And two days later, Mom and I left for Montana. Isis was sedated and in a small kennel in the back seat. She was pretty mellow for most of the trip, but on the fifth and final day, she started freaking out, spilled her water bowl, and decided it was time to escape. This meant she tried to claw through the bottom of the kennel (plastic with a blanket and towel over it) and bite through the bars of the kennel (metal). She was unsuccessful and eventually gave up.

The trip was mostly uneventful. It was great having another driver for the first two days, especially since she did all the driving (thanks Mom!). Fortunately there was no snow, though most of the mountains were quite covered, and once in Montana, outside of Bozeman I think, there was some sleet. It was very strange to see signs in the lobby at the hotel in South Dakota with regulations regarding having firearms and other hunting weapons in the hotel....I've never been anywhere that hunting was clearly so important. I noticed Wall Drug even changed their sign that usually offers free coffee? free donuts? free something...to members of the armed forces, to hunters. 

It is so great to be home though, even though home is hovering in the minus degrees Fahrenheit right now. We had a blizzard warning a couple of days ago, and got a few inches of snow. Not a huge deal, except that they don't clear the streets right away and it appears that they never clear the neighborhood streets. It's been interesting driving, but most of all, bitingly cold. Fortunately I was warm enough shoveling with my added layers of long johns and a turtleneck. The squall parka from Lands' End is super warm, as is the fleece. Definitely needed purchases for this winter. I've been continuing to nest, adding pictures and other decorative touches. 

I've also been knitting....I am almost done with the mohair shawl, and I got distracted and decided to knit a tam with the silk/merino/bamboo blend yarn. I realized it matches the color of my parka perfectly. I think it came out very well for an impulse knit! I'm going to try to stay focused though and finish the shawl, and next start the cardigan, now that I have better needles. It should go quickly. 

There is probably a lot more, but I'm hungry and the Boy brought home some novel food. We haven't ventured to the grocery this week due to the snow, and he walked down the street to Subway, which sounded way better to us than the piles of leftovers we've been eating. Yay sandwich!

Moving along

My WIPs have been coming along well. Excepting the occasional freak-out about not having a job and the postdoc/job situation in Missoula being bleak so far, I'm making progress in many areas. (As well as mistakes, fortunately mostly in knitting.)

In less than two weeks I'll be leaving for Montana, and should arrive there on November 13th. I'm all sorts of fidgety about that. Mostly excited to see DB again and as always a bit apprehensive about the drive, especially with the cat. But I'm getting the cat sedatives so I can always give her one if she's not doing well with the long hours on the road. (Note: She just crawled into my lap. She is jealous of anytime my fingers are doing something except pet her, so typing, knitting and iPhone-ing are all out the question, in her opinion. When I submit disagreement, she steps directly on my kidneys.)

I finished one project, decided to frog another and began two. I also had an excellent stash enhancement expedition and dear sister footed the bill as my birthday present.

(If I ever relocate to the Northampton, MA area, the WEBS store will have been a major, if not the major factor in my decision. I was in absolute heaven.)

Completed is my neverending hat for DB. Once I picked it up again, it went quickly. I tried it on at points to be sure it was still fitting and hadn't magically shrunk itself or something. Once done, I stuffed it with plastic bags and spritzed it with water to lightly block it. It looked awfully stretchy off the needles, long and skinny. Blocking made a nice difference, set the folded-over part in place and made the top of the hat look less funny. (It looked funny when I tied it off. Very pointy.)

This was just in time to mail his birthday package: Lands' End Squall Jacket, reader/writer goodies from Levenger, the finally-ended hat and a mix CD. I included my current favorite song - actually a few of them - on this CD: "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and "Castles in the Snow" by Twin Shadow. It also gave me an excuse to indulge in a few new albums (I hate just have single songs by an artist), including the new Belle & Sebastian and Deerhunter. The birthday presents arrived yesterday and though initially I told him not to open it until his actual birthday, the winter weather that has already hit Montana made me reconsider, so he got them right away. This time, the hat fits. Success!

I decided I am going to frog the Canyonlands Throw. I'm not too far into it, and I just don't like it very much. I still couldn't find a pattern I liked to use instead, but I had a vision of something simple, stockinette with the tiniest bit of lace in the form of diamonds. Nothing was coming up on Ravelry, so I took out my wonderful Vogue Knitting book and found a "Lozenge Stitch" pattern that comes out exactly as I wanted. So I'll just do the math for a reasonable size throw blanket and integrate that stitch. This will be on hold for a while as I have some Very Nice Yarn to work with. As much as I've grown to appreciate the economy and synthetic loveliness of Homespun, there is nothing like wool. 100% super bulky wool and mohair to be precise.

Which brings me to my next project: the Tess cardigan from Kim Hargreaves' Heartfelt collection. (I'm going to take a moment and ask my knitting fairy godmother to please bring me all of her books, please!!!) I read over the instructions at least 10 times before I cast on, somewhat in haste. I had thought I needed to buy size 17 needles for this one, but found a pair of plastic circulars in my collection. I decided to cast on with those. Aside from the fact that I should've also knitted a swatch, I really should have gotten a nice pair of needles first. These plastic circulars are twisty and stubby. I'd be better off knitting with sticks from the back yard. I got three rows in with difficulty and came across this instruction: yfwd (twice). Having already read the pattern over, I had looked up and discovered yfwd is the British way of saying yo, and more specifically a between-knit-stitches yo. So I yfwded twice, creating two new stitches. I came to the next row and read (k1, p1) three times into double yfwd. Wait a minute....how do I get three or six stitches into four? I Googled and searched and read. I requested help from dear sister who confirmed what I thought. yfwd twice just meant wrap the yarn around an additional time, leaving three stitches (two new) on the needle. A video more than confirmed this. Also I have somehow still been doing yo wrong. I always put the yarn forward, put the right needle into the next stitch on the left as though to knit, then wrapped my yarn and completed the knit stitch. The last few instructions I've read now or watched have you do the the yarn forward, wrap the yarn on the right needle, the knit the next stitch. Huh. Not sure if there are actually two different ways to do this, if they produce two totally different results, or if I am really still doing yo wrong. All my yos on the baby blanket looked good. Something to play with in the future.

Anyway, I now have to undo what I've done on the cardigan so far which is fortunately only three rows. I also ordered new needles because the plastic ones are just awful. Once my new pointy wooden ones arrive, I'll get back on that. It'd be nice to have at Christmas this year.

This brings me to new yarn and new projects. (Also realize among all this knitting has been dissertating and bridesmaiding and packing. As much as I wish, I do not just knit, read and knit. I've transcribed all but two interviews and just need one (one!) more participant. Maybe my dissertation fairy godmother will bring me one of those too....please?)

My birthday loot included:
four skeins of Di.Ve' Mohair Kiss in a lovely colorway of grays and blues
four skeins of Universal Yarn Star Light in "sirius" - creamy white with sparklies

 I started knitting with the Mohair Kiss the Mediterranean Tulle Shawl I've admired for a while. It's coming along very nicely and I cannot wait to wear it! This is being made in particular for my navy blue silk slip dress and hopefully our anniversary dinner when I get back to Missoula. I am planning to use the Star Light to make the Muse wrap though as I've got a few projects to get through before I start this one, that could change. I've also considered a big, drapey moebius cowl/wrap with this yarn. It's so soft!

works in progress

I feel like my whole life is turning into a series of WIPs! Of course, the dissertation is the biggest, but I may have finally found enough participants, and may even reach my upper limit of 12! It's exciting that it's moving forward, as glacial as it may be.

I don't even want to think about the job/postdoc search at this point, but I will have to soon. Internet and APPIC database searches for postdocs with kids in any location have been disheartening. So I'll let that one hibernate for another week or so.

Wedding things are coming along for my friend. The alterations to my dress are complete and the bridal shower is this weekend!

I'm attending to all those important grown-up things, like making doctors' appointments. I also started yoga classes again and some time later this week, my bike should be ready at the shop!

As far as knitting WIPs, I finished the prayer shawl. It came out beautifully, with nice drape. The color is so pretty too!

I stopped by Big Lots because I heard they had yarn on sale, and I ended up buying 6 skeins of an unlabeled yarn that was clearly Lion Brand Homespun....for $12 total! They came in packs of 3 assorted colors, but I managed to find two packs that had the same colors. So I have four skeins of Quartz and two of Windsor. As I was working on the prayer shawl, despite my usual disdain for acrylic, I found myself really enjoying the colors and the way the fabric felt. So when I came upon the discounted Homespun, I decided to make a throw blanket for myself out of it. I've started a throw out of the Quartz, a lovely multicolored yarn, with a light brown/tan base and reds, blues and lavenders blended in. The colors are actually coming out in almost stripe-like fashion, and I was reminded (especially by the red and blue) of our visit to the Canyonlands. Thus I am calling it the Canyonlands Throw. It's a nice loopy, open pattern that still shows the pretty colors well.

And I just got the yarn in for the sweater I want to make! My first sweater! (On a side note, will my knitting fairy godmother please bring me all of Kim Hargreaves books? *love!*) It's done on super bulky yarn - I've bought Cascade Lana Grande in navy. I figured that between the size of the yarn and the openwork, it will go quickly enough to keep me engaged. As much as I would love a delicate fingering or sport weight cashmere cardi, I don't have the attention span for it right now (or the dollars).

I suppose this means in addition to all my other WIPs, my needles will be busy too. (Perhaps I should mention that I bought some more discounted yarn at Ocean State - Lion Brand Wool - for a few felting projects I have in mind: a nice big yellow felted purse, possibly something from Noni Designs, like the Cinch bag or Nomad bag; and the half-felted bag from Boutique Knits, in grey.) I'm moving into an extended selfish knitting phase for the next few projects, though I have been plotting a long sleeveless cardi with my mother. She saw one in a magazine, but it was an icky blend of acrylic or poly, so we looked up some patterns and potential yarns.

Unfortunately it is now time for me to work on the Big WIP. I do plan to have my first (and hopefully mostly final) draft done before the holidays, so the end is in sight. But it's feeling like I have rows and rows of nothing but stockinette stitch ahead of me, no YOs or K2Tog to keep things interesting.

busy busy!

Though I have had a lot of down time, it has been a busy month - hence, the no-writing. I have been writing; it's just been more dissertation-related instead.

I have managed to do a lot of knitting. The baby blanket is finished! It is ready to go....if DB ever gives me the mailing address. I am quite happy with how it came out. The drape is nice and the cotton seems to be holding its shape well, which was my one concern. I think it will be a nice practical - machine-washable- baby blanket though.

I started working on a prayer/comfort/healing shawl in a pretty dark blue yarn - it has little bits of emerald and gold in it. It's very pretty and coming along nicely so far. I think I'm almost done with the first ball of yarn, of three.

I'm just about settled in here, except for the part of me that wants to be in Missoula. Let's say maybe it's about 75% for Missoula. As much as I love being near friends and family, I love my life with DB and our little home and just how things are with him.

Aside from knitting, I've been reading a lot. I got a Barnes & Noble nook for my birthday (and a gorgeous brown and red leather cover), so I've been enjoying that. I love the free books, and they have just about replaced all the classics I gave away. I earned some gift cards through survey-taking, so I used those to catch up with other favorites that weren't free.

I am really happy with it, and am looking forward to toting a lighter load for the next move. I pared down my book collection to about two small shelves, mostly favorite collections like Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie and those by my favorite authors: Isabel Allende and Madeleine L'Engle. I still have quite a few Gabriel Garcia Marquez books, but I think my taste is changing a bit and I don't like him quite so much. I also kept a few odd ones I just love, like Palace of Tears and House of Leaves. I have a cozy reading nook (!) by my bedroom windows - my favorite yellow chair, comfy pillows and the fleece blanket I got in Florence. I added a small ottoman (perfect also for storing knitting projects!), a plant and my plush sheepskin rug. Perfect! It gets sun in the morning and afternoon, and in the evenings I can hear the frogs, crickets and wind rustling in the trees. The yard behind is relatively wooded, so it makes for a pleasant and relaxing view as well.

I went to a wonderful wedding for two friends DB went to college with, and then lived with in SF. He couldn't come, but I roomed with his two former roommates which is always fun. The setting was gorgeous, with a lovely ceremony....the dinner was tasty and quite a nice change from the usual wedding fare. I had a great time dancing, and then hanging out at the bar afterward. All in all, it was a great weekend. I just loved the favors - temporary tattoos with the bride and groom's names.

Well, I think it is getting to be time for me to curl up with my nook. I love this perfect autumn weather for snuggling up with a blanket and good book.

*sigh*

I've been too busy to knit the last few days. That makes me sad. I just starting looking at the Early Fall issue of Vogue Knitting and I want to be creating things!!!

Instead, I'm cleaning. And organizing. I've probably filled about 7 or more garbage bags, countless boxes of books and stuff for Goodwill, at least three big bags of clothing. And it's not even my stuff. I did go through my old bedroom this afternoon to sort things, and it was mostly books, so it went quickly. I still have boxes of household things to send out to Missoula. They are still stacked, taped and unpacked, as it took me this long just to make the room habitable. Grrrr!!!! I put in a new rod in the closet which looks nice and the furniture is basically set up. I'm estimating it will be at least one more day before I can get into the things I need to ship out to DB who is operating a household without many necessities and his precious cooking and baking materials. (He did manage to hang curtains without me though - I'm proud. I still haven't hung my own curtains!)

This is one of those times I want a bumper sticker that says, "I'd rather be knitting." I mean...I haven't even touched the dissertation at this point because it took three days to get a work space cleared.

Hopefully soon.....in the meantime, I am sore and tired and wish Goodwill did pickups or that I had another person helping throughout the day.

A few observations

I miss Missoula. And the boy.

I do like driving out West, for the scenery primarily, though the history is important to me as well.

And while walking through the tiny, empty town of Wall, South Dakota, I definitely saw a dusty old pickup truck, full of country boys wearing cowboy hats, drive by blaring gangsta rap. I lol'd.

Relaxing back at the hotel - I'm hoping these hours in the evening will lead to lots of knitting. So far, so good. Last night I got over one patten repeat completed...maybe 6 rows or so.

The Nest

Photos of the nest....so it's not a log cabin, but it is close to the mountains, woods and river! And again we have found a house with purple. The landlady says it will be painted another color soon though.

View from our big living room window and yard:

The start of the downtown shops and restaurants is about a mile down the road, as is the river and its trails. The university is nestled under these mountains, and also about a mile away.

The kitchen - note the custom curtains, including a valance on the back door...which is apparently hidden in this picture. Well, it is there....

The current lino will be replaced with a nice dark Pergo floor soon as part of the updates/fixes.

Off the back door is our patio - perfect place to enjoy a glass of wine and the wildlife. (Constantly barking neighbor's dog does not count...but all the deer and songbirds do! So far no bears.)

The living room is probably where I've spent most of my time indoors - it is bright and sunny and I think will continue to be even once we put the curtains up as they are off-white. The couch is nice and comfy too.

I've tried to make the plant (above) kill-proof so it will survive the next 3 months without me. I found this fancy soil that claims to prevent over- and under-watering, I gave it Miracle Grow plant food sticks and put in one of those blown glass water things. It will be very difficult for DB to destroy this thing. Plus it's a spath and they are really hardy.

Some of the inspiration pieces for the room....mostly the owl and wooden bird, though the coasters helped as well. Sent me in a very eco-green-natural direction when picking out colors and accents.

The back of the big chair-and-a-half is where we anticipate Isis will spend a lot of her time - it faces the big window and yard and in addition to deer and dogs, there are many roaming neighborhood cats.

A few of the colors and pieces in the bathroom - I kept my old shower curtain because I love the colors and I don't think it's too feminine for DB. He's been very generous in letting me make a lot of the design choices, so I'm trying to stay relatively neutral after our super-girlie bedroom last year.

The famous reading room - I just love this space. It is so cozy and lush with the microsuede chairs, leather ottoman and taffeta curtains. (Ahem...also custom!)

The bedroom is somewhat underwhelming right now. I can't quite figure out how to hang the pictures best in here and there's not a lot to it at all. It does have the two nice windows, and is very comfortable. I love our matching nightstands and modern lamps.

Finally, the office. It's rather unfinished as well for now. I love the desk and bookshelves though, and the lamp was a great choice.

It's also housing DB's bike (and possibly mine in the future) since there is plenty of space and it's nice and out of the way.

Well - that is our little nest in Missoula. I am so happy with it....and very sad to be leaving tomorrow for CT again. Mixed....because I want to see family and friends and the cat.....and finish the dissersucktation....and refurbish the old Schwinn and hopefully make a little money getting rid of a lot of my stuff! But, being with DB always feels like home, no matter where we are, so it's hard to be away, especially now that we've settled in. We'll be missing both our birthdays together and our five year anniversary.

It will be nice to have a small cat join our household again in November...and we're planning a nice Thanksgiving together this year too. The three months will go quickly, but I hate goodbyes....it's like yet another termination, as if there weren't enough this year!

Off to spend quality time with the boy....farewell for now. Will be in Billings, then Wall, SD the next couple of days.

Nesting!

We are getting settled in here at our apartment in Missoula. (Fun fact: Missoula is known as the Garden City. I just moved from the Garden State, to the Garden City!)


Settling is leaving me more opportunities to get crafty. Fortunately, a lot of that craftiness has been put toward the baby blanket. Yes, I'm still working on it. I've got about 22 inches. I plan to knit it 36 inches long, so I'm getting closer.

I also decided to make curtains. First, I wanted to make curtains for the kitchen - there's just one window and the back door - because the tile on the backsplash and countertop trim is such an unusual shade of blue. Turquoise or aqua probably comes closest in describing it. I knew I could get standard white or maybe black curtains that would look fine, but I thought it would be fun to find a fabric that picks up the color. DB and I went to Jo-Ann Fabric to pick out some and found a pattern of leaves in various colors, including the blue. When we got home, I found it is just about a perfect match to the tiles! I'll credit DB's eye, since he picked out the bolt first.

While in this crafty vein of thinking, I thought it might be nice to make some luxe-looking drapes for the reading room (also known as the Kitty Den, as we anticipate Isis will be spending a lot of time there when DB is reading there - no man caves for us!). We picked out a chocolate taffeta with a subtle, elegant scroll pattern, and crushed taffeta in the same color as the backing.

I've so far made the two panels for the kitchen window. My original plan was to use no-sew, iron-on seaming (as I have no sewing machine and even if I did, my sewing skills are terrible), and create the side, bottom and top hems, as well as the rod pocket. Well, here I run into a pre-existing problem: I cannot cut on a straight line, ever. It really doesn't matter how much I measure (twice, at least) or iron lines or anything. If I am using scissors, some awful rule dictates that my cuts are as crooked as possible. This led to difficulties seaming properly...and ultimately to not really having enough fabric to make two more panels for the door. (Also, I estimated wrong and probably should've gotten four, instead of three, yards. Oops.) I do have enough left to make a valance, so it's something to consider. (Or getting more fabric. Also, Jo-Ann had these cute no-sew roman shade and similar projects, so I might do something like that.)

Another issue with the rod pocket....because of my crooked cutting and off measurements, I didn't end up with enough fabric to have both the upper hem and rod pocket and the iron-on seaming wasn't holding up. I had bought curtain grommets intending to use them for the more elegant reading room drapes, but decided to put them to use for the kitchen curtains. This was probably my favorite part of the project because it was well within my skill set and the result was very rewarding. All I had to do was measure the distance for the grommets, trace the outline, cut it out, and snap in the grommets. Technically I should have used almost just as a thick an upper hem, but I had just enough in addition to a double layer of fabric.

I haven't yet attempted the reading room curtains. I need more seaming and grommets, and as nice as the kitchen curtains look, overall it was a very frustrating process. I'm sticking with knitting for now, and just regular, old decorating.

I've got the living room almost done, aside from curtains. I'm not planning on making any, but our landlady plans on painting, so we're waiting for that. I didn't plan too much for this room, but it ended up going in a greens with hints of blue direction and organic/nature-inspired accents way, so that's where I followed it. Potpourri-filled, green owl form, green bamboo bowl filled with pretty wooden and floral stuff, wooden lamp base with a natural colored, textured shade....plant stand with our housewarming spathiphyllum....green silk pillows and another with blues and greens in it. (Brought to you by....Target, TJMaxx and the great furniture store we found!) For curtains I'm planning on using another textured fabric, either in a complementary green or neutral shade.

So things are coming together. I don't have pictures of our reading room, though I will once I make and put up the curtains. We have no kitchen table yet, or office furniture, and the bedroom is a bit spare. However, there are so many built-ins in the hallway that we really don't need a dresser or anything. Once I'm back for good, I will put a small table there for my hairdryer and stuff, because strangely the bathroom has no outlets whatsoever. Although....

I am getting my hair cut on Monday! Short....I'm thinking 1920s, 1930s bob...Louise Brooks....between earlobe and chin length....some kind of bangs....sleek but still with some texture, not too severe or angled....and ideally something I do not have to blow dry. I'm drawn again to one of my favorites, but I can't remember how it actually looked on me. I do remember I had a hard time achieving similar messiness, but that it was okay. I know I'm asking a lot especially considering that I have a lot of hair and it tends to do bad things when I let it be. Even with its current length it is very flippy. Well, anything shorter than this must be more manageable and look better. Being able to put my hair up is not as much fun as I remembered it to be, and certainly not worth all the trouble.

Off to make dinner....by the way, it is after 9 here and still very, very light out. Apparently that's some effect of being so far north. It's weird....feels more like it should be 7 or so.