Weekend Update

Artist of the month
I chose not to include a picture with me in it because,
well, the one I have is a little frightening. The model
of the solar system you see above the display is actually
balls of yarn hanging from the ceiling. Diane thought it
would jazz things up a bit.

I know, I know--it's Tuesday and I haven't given you an update of my weekend, namely, my big Venue event. I do have other things to do besides blog, you know! I have Ryan's pants to wash, a yarn shop to help keep running, preschool board meetings to attend...I'm a very important person around here. Without me, there would be no one to clean the cat box.

My Artist of the Month night went very well. It was a nice evening so there were plenty of people around for the Art Walk. I took 2 special orders for hats and sold 2 hats off the shelf (and since I average 8-10 hats a month, I thought that was pretty good!), and drank plenty of wine. My sister Emily and her husband Randy came, my parents came, and my Dinner Group came after they all enjoyed dinner. I handed out several business cards and my display will remain in the place of honor for the rest of the month, so we'll see what happens! I know I should say more about it, but truly, I did a lot of standing around, and then a lot of sitting behind the bar and helping the bartender. Diane could not have been sweeter to me about the evening and, having never done it before, I think it went well.

Sunday I worked all day. I always work alone on Sundays--I open and close and I'm there by myself all day. It's really strange to be totally and completely in charge like that, but I enjoy it and when things are slow I take the opportunity to rearrange the displays. A little surprise for the girls on Monday morning.

This morning Eric had his 5-year well check at the doctor. My little pipsqueak is in the 25-50th% for weight and the 10th% for height. He had to get a surprise chicken pox booster shot which he is now milking as much as he can. He has let me know several times today that he is unable to use his arm. I think it may be about to fall off. I'll keep you posted on that. Watching about 6 episodes of Tom and Jerry seems to have helped.

That's all I have, people. A sink full of dishes, baskets full of laundry, and a 5 year old who is just full of it. I'm off to knit a sweater sleeve.

How to kill a Stormtrooper

Overheard at breakfast this morning:

"You can choke them"
"...and you can throw them against a tree"
"...and you can toss them out into space"

Good to know.

I don't even know what to name this post

Do you see what I'm doing here? I'm writing my blog instead of taking care of any of my responsibilities. I do that. If I have a list of things to do that I don't want to do, I find something else to do. Like complain about it to all of you. Aren't you sorry you popped in here today?

Today Eric and I have to drive to Venue and set up for Saturday. I finished my big foam board picture display thing, but I have to tag the rest of my hats that I'm bringing with me today. I'm feeling very inadequate about the whole thing, so I'm writing my blog instead. I should have even more hats, but I haven't been knitting them. I don't know why. I've been working on other things. Leah can tell you all about it. She yelled at my voicemail yesterday when she returned my call regarding questions about her mittens. She demanded to know why I was working on her mittens instead of baby hats or my sweater. A valid point. Best friends have permissions to kick you in butt once in a while.

I have no new hats for Happy Delusions right now. Again, I could claim that I've been focusing all of my attention on Venue right now, but that's not really true. I could also claim that I'm not really making any money at Happy Delusions, so why focus time and energy on it, but then you could also argue that if I don't give them new hats, it's kind of hard to sell them. Bottom line--my brain is overloaded and overwhelmed, so I'm sort of frozen in a state of suspended animation and it's just a whole lot easier for me to watch I Love Lucy reruns while knitting Leah's mitten than deal with my reality. I'm beginning to see why so many businesses fail in the first 5 years.

And then there's my sweater. We had class last night and I showed Shiori my calculations. Yes indeed, I did it wrong. So very wrong. And when she explained it to me, it made perfect sense. Why I didn't get that the first time around, I don't know (well, actually I do know--6 year of Jr. High and High School math came flooding back to me). So I sat there in class and ripped out my sweater while listening to Shiori explain how to calculate more centimeters for a cardigan and button band because Leslie and I both want to make cardigans. And Leslie, who use to be an engineer, is spouting off numbers with Shiori, while all Mara and I hear is "blah blah blah sleeve cap blah blah blah or it won't fit" and we just looked at each other and decided that Leslie must be taking the advanced class. The only thing that made me feel better about ripping out my sleeve is the fact that no one else has started. So I'm not really that far behind in relation to the other employees.

I could go on and on and on about all of this, but there is no getting around it--it's 9:30 and I have to be at Venue at 11. Eric is not dressed, my hats are not tagged...I'm just going to make a few phone calls, surf the web, drink another cup of coffee, and then be on my way. Unless I can find something else to further delay myself...

Tuesday's To-Do List

1. Get dressed in sweats and just enough make-up so as to not frighten any small children I may come across today, including my own. Made the decision to not wear actual adult clothing when I realized that my biggest adventure today was going to be a trip to the bus stop. In the van.

2. Fold laundry.

3. Clean the kitchen. And by "clean the kitchen", I really mean to make it safe and inhabitable for others. Spend quite a bit of time on the floor and try to decide if the contents of the dustpan would actually make up a nutritious lunch for Eric. After all, most of the food I swept up did originate from his meals.

4. Fold more laundry.

5. Knit viking braids while glancing wistfully at my pretty, grown-up projects.

6. Get out the vacuum and put it next to the stairs as Step One in thinking about vacuuming upstairs.

7. Watch Eric play the Dino Pirhana level of Super Mario Galaxy.

8. Put away the laundry that's in the basket in my bedroom. Secretly curse my spouse for putting away his laundry and assuming that the laundry fairy would be swooping in later in the day to put away everything else. And by "his" laundry, I mean only items that he wears on his body because obviously sheets, towels and anything he cannot readily identify must clearly be considered "my" laundry and is therefore unputawayable by him.

9. Read more Daughter of York while harboring guilt that I still have not finished our bookclub book from last month, that we all agreed to extend for another month.

10. Finish cleaning up from Eric's party. Put the dining room back in order. Remove the Transformer poster from my living room and stick it back in it's rightful place--over Eric's bed.

11. Fold laundry.

12. Pick Ryan up from the bus. Spend the rest of the day refereeing Gameboy/Wii/seriously find something else to do that does not involve a screen you have a playroom full of toys you never play with and you need to do your homework don't give me that look. Final warning I said it's time to do your homewor....ok that's it you need to spend some time in your room DON'T YOU TALK TO ME THAT WAY...more cursing of the husband as he is at work until bedtime for the 2nd day in a row.

13. Put the rest of the laundry into baskets for the husband to take upstairs when he gets home.

14. Sit on the couch and knit while giving the husband the privilege of spending quality time with his boys at bedtime and feel no guilt about going upstairs to rescue him when the screaming begins.

Pretty Things!

Pretty Things!
From left to right--
my sweater sleeve
from the sweater
design class, Tilli
Tomas scarf, lace
socks for ME, and
Leah's convertible
mitten.

I'm tired of knitting baby hats. My big Artist Of The Month extravaganza is this Saturday and I am so half-heartedly knitting baby hats. I'm plugging along, not caring about them. I should be in a knitting frenzy, but I'm not. Venue already has a ton of hats from me and I hope to have 4 or 5 more for them when Eric and I arrive on Thursday morning to set up my fabulous display. And by fabulous, I mean whatever Diane and Caitlin can come up with because I've got nothin'. Mike bought me a big foam board display thingy and I've printed a bunch of pictures of my work and even used a fancy-schmancy white border to make the pictures look not quite completely unprofessional. I am excited about Saturday (mostly), but I'm just really sick of the baby hats. Because what I want to be working on is on display to your left.

Sweater Sleeve

I am really enjoying this sweater, but I quit for a few days because I'm deathly afraid of my math skills (and anyone who knows me, knows I exaggerate not at all. About this). After talking with Shiori the other day about how I came up with my sleeve pattern and discovering that her formula is not nearly as random as mine, I decided to put the sweater on hold until our next class. You know...just in case...

But what I really want to do right now is knit pretty things for grown-ups. Just for a little while. I had earned $25 in store credit from one of our competitors (for yarn purchase before I became employed at Cultured Purls) and I've had my eye on this book for a while. I really wanted it. So I "bought" it with my credit. I paid nothing for it and it's in my hot little hands, taunting me. Whispering to me.

Must Make!

And this is why. ADORABLE little things to knit. And the beauty of the darling mittens and fingerless gloves in this book? They are all knit flat, not in the round! It's a good thing I am so flat broke and cannot purchase even one skein of yarn for anything in this new book because that is the only thing holding me back from attempting even one of these new projects.

Must Make next...

I'm thinking Christmas gifts perhaps? Are these fingerless gloves not precious?

And for my next trick....

I must knit this sweater. I understand that it is sweater #3 for me and I'm only on the beginning of the sleeve of sweater #1. Where there's a will, there's a way, right? Maybe if I rob a bank and hire a full time nanny/housekeeper/chef/gardener I could get some important work done around here. And let's face it--I could use a couple of new sweaters. Just ask anyone who sees me on even a semi-regular basis.

The Reptile Guy
Here comes
the giant frog!

Now, this part of my post is much less pretty, but I have to include it because it's the most exciting thing I've done all day (besides washing sheets, of course). The Reptile Guy came back to Eric's preschool. We love The Reptile Guy. He's very funny and, well, he has a bunch of reptiles! That's Eric (in the orange shirt), looking at an enormous frog.

Eric and the King Snake
Eric gave Shadow,
the King snake,
a little snuggle

And that is my sweet little angel, petting a king snake. I believe the highlight of The Reptile Guy's visit was when Ravioli, the corn snake, peed all over the floor. A peeing snake and a room full of preschoolers--doesn't get better than that.

I really should end this post now. I have to get back to washing Ryan's pants and then I have to knit more baby hats, after planning my get-away from the bank. Anyone have a ski-mask I can borrow?