No more naked toes

Happy All Most Memorial Day!

What a day!  Festivities around the neighborhood. Ingress stalking. Grilling, Ice cream making.   I think it had it all?

Our little area of PDX always does stuff up during the summer. There is ALWAYS some type of "thing" going on just a few blocks from my house.  It's nice to stroll over with the dog and check it out. Always great food, good beer and kick ass music to be had.

I grilled out tonight. Chicken was the item of choice tonight. I made ice cream, and tomorrow am making blonde brownies to go with. Heated up, that is one yummy choice. With all the grilling I've been doing these last couple of days, I do not have to cook tomorrow. I could do a left overs buffet and be perfectly happy.

I swear, it's the southern in me, but I do love my grill. I had to give up my super big fancy one due to the fucking fire marshal. Bastard said it was too big for my porch. Hello, it had been there for six damn years! So now I have a teeny tiny two burner one, but it does the job, so I'm not fussing. A grill is a grill, no matter how plain or fancy it is. I do miss my two side burners though.  I'll make do with a hotplate though.  One thing about summer, I refuse to cook in a hot ass kitchen. I will take it outside in a heartbeat.

There was a Dr. Who marathon on. They were talking to most of the Doctor's from the past. It was great. Some were from before my time. And compared to my fave doctor (number 10), they were definitely different. I think I am going to start collecting Dr. Who on dvd. At least the series, not the single episodes.

And Copper's new season starts in June....as does TRUE BLOOD!!!!!!! That always makes me just squeal. I've missed that show terribly. *sighs* I do love my vampires. Can't help it, they are my people.

As for now, I'm off to watch a season of Copper and get started on a sock. I'm waiting on yarn to arrive for my tshirt..I decided the other stuff I had was just too thick to be nice. In the interim, I can get started on winter socks. They are quick to knit up, warm in the winter and great for "marathoning" on Netflix.

The T-Shirt and other news.

My next project is a knitted T-shirt to go with my knitted skirt! I'm on a roll and all thanks to Ms. Rilana!   I've decided to use up the last of my stash of Cotton-Ease in Popsical Blue. I've had this yarn for almost seven years now? I did make a yoga bag out of it, that I adore. So I figured why not use it up in a cute tshirt.

See, popsical blue! Very bright

For some reason, I am on a bright colors kick. That is rather rare for me. I'm usually a black or dark colors kind of girl. *feels my forehead* Do I have a fever? 

The pattern is from Lori Puthoff. She can be found at at that link in her name. It's her ravelry site, so you might need to join to see it. She has fantastic patterns!

On the brightside, I managed to create my own "egg white delight" for lunch today. 

I realize my food photography SUCKS! But, contrary to how it looks, it was really really good!  Best part, I didn't have to get in my car and drive to get it.

I'm currently haunting my post box. I have a new phone coming and the wait is killing me! I want to go play INGRESS!!!!! Drat it all. Hmm, okay..waiting is not bad, it's pouring outside right now. Best to not be conquering the city for my faction in a pouring rain.

Okay, it's off to figure out the new pattern and cast on.

Sunday, Wine and Music

Generally speaking, life is hectic. Even people that don't have a normal 8 hour a day job, it's still hectic. For as long as I can remember, it's been go, go go. You need to get this done, you need to be productive, you need to accomplish something.

I used to be like that. I worked full time, was a full time college student and never had a minute where I wasn't working, studying or out with friends. Literally every minute of my day was accounted for by one of those three things with sleeping and eating tossed in for good measure. 

Today, I was sitting in my living room. It was quiet, there was some great music on, the windows were open, a slight breeze was blowing through. I was knitting on a skirt and it dawned on me. I  was having one of those days were it was just downright relaxing. I had no place I had to be. Nothing needed cleaning. Nothing to cook. The tv wasn't blaring. It was just downright nice, almost like a scripted scene in a movie.

What is sad, I can't remember the last time I had one of those days. Now, there were things that I could have been doing, after all, it's never all totally done. The thing is there was nothing pressing. I literally just sat there and enjoyed the moment. It was pure relaxation.

I have lots of friends who never have a moment to themselves. I have a friend who literally has no time to herself except when she's grabbing a shower or sitting on the train to and from work. That travel time is her only time to read. Her life is so chucked full of "stuff" that she has no free time at all. 

The question that comes to my mind is: Do we fill our lives up so that we don't have to deal with ourselves? Are we afraid to be alone with our thoughts inside our own heads? 

Today people have computers, tablets, phones and now glasses that fill our lives up with constant flows of information. We never have to stop and just be. It's hard to be on 24/7...but it's way harder to be just with ourselves and alone with our thoughts.

I admit, I'm a gadget freak. I adore social media. I love knowledge, learning and figuring things out. The biggest thing I've had to figure out lately...is me. Once I backed away from all the above mentioned technology and did that, it was rather enlightening. 

I'm not afraid to sit in silence anymore and just enjoy the fact that I exist. It's weird and it's hard to just let it happen. I am, however, very happy I have learned to actually enjoy being alone with my own thoughts. 

Every now and then you just get inspired.

While perusing G+ I ran across someone who just had one of those posts you want to read. Her name is Neila Rey. Normally, I'm not one to follow ANY KIND of fitness anything. In fact, I think I'm slightly allergic to the word "fitness".

It's always seemed that everything fitness related was just out of my reach. You go to a gym and it's full of thin fit people. You go for a walk and you get passed by a million runners or speed walkers. No one ever seems to be a "beginner" at it. The articles in fitness magazines all suggest stuff way out of my price range. Hell, I can barely afford to "eat healthy". Eating healthy involves a very complicated algorithm to make it happen on a budget.

However, I clicked on her G+ profile and was kind of shocked. Here was a woman who was fit and healthy and she wasn't pushing a ton of expensive stuff. Instead she's all about getting healthy inside and out. It's about mind over matter instead of what gadget you buy or what expensive organic thing you eat.

She started where I'm at and just kept working at it, changing her eating habits, her lifestyle habits and her thinking habits. I've never met this woman nor will I ever probably meet her. She has however, inspired me to make some changes. Okay, the changes were already happening, but she's clued me in that I'm on the right track.

For the first time in over a year, my weight is going down and not up. I've managed to walk a mile and not be dying from it. I'm evening considering purchasing a treadmill for the winter months here, I don't relish walking in six to eight months of rain and cold. I've manage to cut out all soda and junk food. The cash saved there has been funneled into my newest craving-sugar snap peas. I swear they are worse than lays potato chips. You can't eat just one!

Instead of just having a goal of being healthier, for the very first time in my life, I'm contemplating running! Yes, me! I don't think I've ever run in my life? The fight or flight thing apparently has never surfaced in my life? No...haha, I chose fight over flight.

So, Neila Rey...thanks for the inspiration. I honestly never thought it would happen in my lifetime. I figured I would be fit and healthy next time around.

Too much Google

I was totally immersed in Google today. It was Google I/O day! So much excitement in the Googleverse. New comms in the form of Hangouts. All inclusive chatting deal. Love it! 

New music. It seems rather nice. I'm running a 30-day free trial. If I really like it, it will replace spotify and pandora in my ecosystem. 

G+ got a new facelift. As usual, alot are bitching. I rather like it, though. People don't like change, that's all it is.  The cool thing, with all the new things, they are all working on IOS. 

On the windows front, there is still bitching going on. -insert eye roll- I can understand, again it is change. But come on people. Lets review the history of OS's that I can remember. 

Wayyyyyy long ago.... When I was a youngster and cruising around the net BEFORE the www existed! 

"What the hell is windows doing? It's fine as it is, it works well." What was the bitching about? It was moving to a graphical interface and used a ...wait.... A MOUSE! Yes, the same bitching was about Windows 3.1.   Next up...

"What are they doing? Why make these changes? We don't need -insert any thing that windows does-  enter, Windows 95. 

Repeat the above for Windows 98, windows 2000, windows ME, windows Xp, windows vista, windows 7 

It's not the fact that it's worse or that it's harder, doesn't work. It's the mere fact that it's different. People just do not like change. It makes them whiny. It makes them bitchy. 

Yeah, some things are different, but it still works lovely to me. I like the new G+ and I like Windows 8. Maybe I'm just easy to please or maybe I just know how to roll with the flow. 

Wow, Wednesday already?

This week is flying by so quickly! Today is back to knitting on my skirt. I want to get that finished, although I do have one more sock to knit. These cool days of May will not last much longer and I am going to have a summer of skirts this year. Normally, I don't do dresses and skirts, but this year is all about stepping out of my comfort zone. Said comfort zone is usually jeans or yoga pants, T-shirts and sandals.

I'm in Photoshop hell at the moment. I'm trying to get five pictures to merge and either the program doesn't want to do what I want it to do. Or, my level of expertise is not up to the level I want it to be. Either way, the damn thing will look like I want no matter what!

I give to you, Isabella. She was pondering the great outdoors. The outdoors lost in the end.

I'm off to line up Netflix and get to work on my skirt.

 

from the iPad

From my garden

They smell fantastic!!!!!

Hello Friday, My Old Friend

I've been knitting like a fiend! Three and a half socks in four days. It's been a sock marathon here in my house. My blogging skills are horrible, but I'm truly working on them. *laughs*

My skirt is coming along, I took a break from it, the cotton was eating my hands up. That's the downside of knitting with cotton, it's rough on my hands. I'm about 3/4 done with it, just need to finish off the bottom 1/4 and voila..new skirt for summer.

I can't explain the sock kick lately? The heat? I hate knitting in summer with something pooled in my lap. It's just hot. Socks are tiny and very transportable. Plus, my local craft store has had sock yarn on sale like crazy! Plus, I found a really kick ass sock pattern for the toe up magic loop method. Super easy and you can whip through a sock in a day if your industrious. Here's the link. That whole site is awesome! It has videos on fantastic cast ons and bind offs. I learned a super stretchy bind off for socks that I ADORE. See, I told I was sock crazy. I even have a cute "yarn pot" to hold the ball of yarn while I'm knitting. Keeps the cats away from it and helps keep it tidy while I'm using it.

What I find hilarious, is that I learned to knit...just to make socks! My friend Jodi had the "sock", she was working on. I was amazed that she could make a sock! I wanted to learn that so badly. So, I bought some cheap yarn and cheaper needles and taught myself. Now mind you, this was back on 2004 before there were a jillion knitting videos online! I sort of fell into a sock by just messing around with double pointed needles one night. I actually took a magic loop class at a yarn store that was sixty miles away from me, to learn the magic loop method I kept seeing people talk about on line. Yeah, I lived out in the middle of nowhere at the time. Once I discovered magic loop, I was in love. It rocked...still does.

The thing about sock knitting, is you can knit them from any type of yarn. I made a pair of worsted weight wool socks that were so warm that you could walk out into the snow in them and never feel cold or wet! I'm thinking of knitting a pair in bulky for this winter to have an "around the house" pair of socks.

Just because of Jodi, I can make socks, sweaters, skirts, hats, scarves, mittens, blankets, pillow covers, bags and other assorted items. I've knitted cell phones cases, tablet cases, laptop cases. It's kind of cool to want something and just make it for yourself. You can choose the color you want and design it how you want it.

My friend Rilana and I learned together and she's branched out into professional designing. She literally created a career for herself..just from one ball of yarn and a pair of needles back in '04.

I think I need coffee, more Supernatural on tv and a return to the sock I currently am knitting.

 

from the iPad