More stitch markers!

I have posted more stitch markers on Etsy.com. I have one more type of marker to post, but I am not ready to post yet.

Frog and butterfly stitch markers, made with polymer clay beads.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/50261497/frog-stitch-markers-set-of-4

http://www.etsy.com/listing/50252186/butterfly-stitch-markers-set-of-4



Amethyst bead stitch markers
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50260162/amethyst-stitch-markers-set-of-4

Where have I been?

Wow! I haven't posted since last August? Why?


I was hired last August! I accepted a job in Baltimore, and moved here at the end of August. I have been very busy with finding and setting up my new apartment, then rearranging the apartment (my current "project"), job training, project deadlines, long hours, and getting used to living in a major city.


I have completed several projects: 5 blankets, two ferrets, and my new interest: stitch markers! I am posting handmade stitch markers on Etsy.com, and just posted my first sets today.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/50240337/pewter-heart-stitch-markers-set-of-4

This move has been very good for me: I was getting depressed being unemployed, but now I am happy with my new job, the people I've met, and I have a new city and state to explore! I even lost 25 pounds!

I am going to be more active with posting from now on. I may even post pictures of some of the projects I've completed in the past year.

Busy busy

There I go again, not posting for a long time. I have been busy the past few weeks with a plethora of job interviews (yay! finally!), job hunting, packing, and more.

I was commissioned to make two baby blankets. A while back I made a baby blanket for my mother, who wanted to give it to the great-grandmother of a new baby. The grandmother loved the blanket and asked me if I take commissions (get paid to do something I love to do? Are you crazy?). I told her I would take commissions, as long as the yarn was paid for and I got a fee. She bought the yarn for two blankets and patterns! Nice stuff, too. I set aside the almost-finished baby dress again to work on them. I will try to take pictures to post at some point this week. No promises - I have to pack my room up in case I have to move quickly. Plus work on two baby blankets.

I love the first blanket's yarn: Bernat Cottontots in pink and white yarns. The cotton is different from working with blends; less give, but very soft.

I am angry about the second blanket's yarn: Nice yarn but it's covered in little tuffs of stuff every few yards, which it is not supposed to have. I contacted Bernat about it, but have yet to hear back from them. I may try taking it to Michael's to complain and try to get a refund (then purchase a different dye lot of the same stuff! Down side of letting her pick the yarn). I have only started balling the first skein, so maybe they will take it back and deal with returning to the manufacturer themselves.

I went to the beach with a friend today. We drove to Yorktown Beach. The traffic on I64 became atrocious 10 miles before our exit, so we got off and took the scenic way in. Totally worth it. Yorktown is so cute and full of little roads and old houses and cute shops! There was a fiber shop down the block from the beach! It was small and didn't hold a lot, but it had spinning wheels, two large looms in the back with "if you touch it you finish it" signs, bags of fiber sold by the pound, and a few skeins of dye-ready yarn. Lot's of books and hooks and needles. I may have to go back, especially since I want to go back to Yorktown with my camera. I brought my camera, but was too lazy to take it out more than once. I got pictures of a boat and one beach shot. But I was there to relax and play in the water, so the camera stayed safely packed away from the sand.

Only trouble was with the clear jellyfish that kept coming into the water every time there were few people in the water. I got stung a few times. It wasn't too bad, but annoying to have to swim away from those beasts. I couldn't see half of them in the brackish water. There was one really big one that belonged at the Baltimore aquarium! Sorry, no pics - not taking the camera into the water!

I may be moving in the next month, so posting may continue to be sporadic. I will say that if I do, I am very much looking forward to it!

10 Favorite Sounds

Yay! I am back! I hate the flu. A week of my life gone. I finally got my appetite back today! My friend invited me to lunch. We went to the Thai place down the road from his office and then had soft serve ice cream. It was a great break from my day!

Anyway, 10 Favorite Sounds:

1. My cat purring contently, especially that extra-loud purr when she stretches.
2. Rain on the leaves in the forest.
3. An orchestra warming up. Not a high school orchestra, where even playing they are out of tune, but a professional one.
4. The sound of snow falling off a branch or other object into more snow.
5. The crickets or other insects outside my window.
6. Ocean waves on a shore.
7. Bird calls.
8. Wind chimes.
9. Water gurgling in a stream.
10. Keys typing in a keyboard. After all these years of writing on a keyboard, I find it easier to concentrate on what I write if I type it out rather than when I hand write it. I hand write all thank you notes, especially after an interview, but I usually get the rough draft faster if I use the computer! Besides, it saves paper.

I lost a week of my life to the flu...

I was really busy last week (but I can't remember doing what), and this week I had the FLU! Yay! First time as an adult, and I can't even be sure that the one time as a child that it was the flu. I was on holiday (Holland? Don't remember, really - I was sick the whole time), and was sick the evening we got there until right before we went back home. My parents are Army, and we were stationed in Germany on/off for 9 years, so we took our holidays in Europe most of the time.

Now you visit the doctor, they shove a q-tip up the nose and a second one down the throat, and can tell you whether it was strep or flu.

I have an excellent immune system, so this is really the first time as an adult with the flu. Let's hope it doesn't happen again any time in the near future. And my mom says it was a MILD version. Bleah.

But today was a GREAT day. I actually made it through the whole day without a nap! What a strange concept a nap is, but what a necessity it has been this week. Today, my Mom drove me to Williamsburg, VA. We went to the Kingsmill Shopping Center, which was having a sidewalk sale at every store, including the Knitting Sisters. I love that place. They are so nice there.

I had called a few weeks ago because I ran out of yarn for my baby dress. They did not have the colorway, but had promised to help me find that dye lot at another store if necessary. When I went there, they had just gotten more in, including one in the right dye lot! Perfect! They also had a bag sale, with bags sorted by color. I bought a bag of beautiful brown yarns for $20.Two skeins alone in that bag covered the price. We went to an antique store, the bead shop, and my mom went to the cross-stitch store there as well. I found an antique lace magazine there for $1! I couldn't find a year on first inspection, but the pricing and language suggests pre-1950s! I'll hopefully be able to find a date - it is in somewhat sorry condition. I'll take a pic of it later.
We then went to New Town in Williamsburg for lunch, More Than Just Beads, and Barnes & Nobles. The bead store there had just what I wanted - accessories for my facinators. I think I can make them now. B&N had a great selection of magazines, just none that I wanted/could afford. But there were 75% off knitting (and wire jewelry) books I couldn't pass up (thanks Mom!).
I would also like to note that the Richmond Main Library has an excellent selection of knitting and crochet books. I am currently enjoying a book from the 1970's of styles from the 1920s-40s. I would like to say that if you are going to take a book out of the library, don't tear the pages out. I mean, yes, it's YOUR tax money and all, but it's our tax money too, and use the stupid copier instead. It's $0.10 a page after all. Jeeze. I have checked out a dozen craft books so far, and a third of them are missing pages - one or two pages at a time. Half of them are scribbled on. I know most of these are old, but there have been copy machines since the 1970's. Just saying. You are just going to lose that page, anyway. The book is going to be there for a LONG TIME. I checked out a bibliography on George Washington from 1860! It'll be there when you need it. Stop tearing out pages, people.

By the way, the bibliography written in 1860 was better written than the one written in the 1980s. And it was a quickie written by request for people in the UK, as compared to something someone had time to work on in the 1980s. Yes, I am geeky enough to check both out (they were next to each other) and read them at the same time. :) There is a little more detail in the 1980s book, but it was just starting to get easier to do research at the time.

It is so cool reading a book from 1860. There is a pressed stamp (pressed into the paper, not inked) stating that the book is the property of the Richmond Library. The book had been rebound, but it is so neat to look at. Plus the language then was more stately. At that point the written language was generally the same, but it was definitely more stately.

I have an in-person interview and a phone interview on Monday! Amazing for someone suffering from the flu all week. I am looking forward to both - they are both wonderful positions, both at potentially wonderful companies. Wish me luck!

Truckin'

The Mack truck graveyard was great yesterday. It's way out past Powhatan, VA. I met the Richmond Photography Meetup Group at the Target at I 288 and Rt 60 (nice super Jo-Ann's out there) and rode with a friend the rest of the way. It is definitely out in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful drive.

I think the place used to service trucks. It had an open-air shed and a medium-sized building, plus a couple of pumps from various eras slowly rusting alongside the large gravel driveway. A row of trucks ranging from Mack freight trucks to very old Ford pickups lined the driveway and partially covered a big field. Tractors and fire trucks added to the mix. I haven't had the energy today to look through my pics, but I will post some this week. Besides, I want to be able to post one of my best on the meetup group page.

Instead, here's pic of the Black-eyed Susans growing next to the shed in the yard. I love these things. There were some growing in the graveyard, too. I am going to bed now.

Oh Baby Love!

Here is the second baby dress I am working on. It is definitely an easier pattern than the first, at least up to this point of the skirt. The bodice is the same as in the first pattern. This is from a set of four pattern, so the other two dresses probably also have the same simple bodice. This one's skirt is turning out to be very full and wavy.