More Knitting Projects!

My brother and his wife are in the process of buying their first home.  According to Facebook, cause apparently that is where one goes to get up to date information, they are going to the bank, meeting the seller and doing paperwork on Wednesday!  Holy Buckets!

I've been looking all over the Internet for things that I can knit them and I have found a TON of things!  I can hardly wait to get started on these projects!  So I guess I'll be doing less reading and more knitting into the near future!

Wish me luck!  I'm going to need it to stay focused on the prize.

No Spend Month and other tidbits

So I've been partaking in a "No Spend Month" where I try not to spend $ on things that I haven't allowed for....For the record...We're headed for an epic FAIL on that front.  But I absolutely HAVE to get my spending habits under control. And here is why.....

We are currently getting our hours cut at work AND our Distribution Center is cutting us a truck a week for at least the next 2-3 months.  NOT fun by any means.  Seriously considering looking for a second J-O-B just to have a little more security $wise in my bank account.

On Monday I turn 27...Seriously the highlight of the past week.

My step-aunt's funeral was yesterday.  Liz was loved by a lot of people and for such a sad occasion there were a LOT of happy memories.

Knitting-wise I'm really challenging myself...I'm attempting my first pair of socks.  I've given up on mittens for a little while.  I'm going to have stick with my original pattern.  The one I tried off of Ravelry was giving me serious fits.

The plan for today is to do some reading, some knitting and some digital photography therapy....All of which is great stress releases after a VERY stressful week.

And we have MITTENS!

Oh yeah!  Check those bad boys out!  My first attempt at double point knitting is finally complete!  Putting on the thumbs was a little challenging just because of the awkward angle.  They are made out of Three Irish Girls Irish Sea in their bulky weight.

Budget + Improving my knitting skills + Finding Raverly = BUDGET BLOWN

A couple weeks ago I posted this post about being up to my eyeballs in debt and what I my plan was to get my numbers down.  Well, I was well on my way to not breaking my budget for this pay period when I decided to take my sister-in-law and my friend Michelle to our town's yarn store.  Oh, we're not talking your Red Heart yarn here ladies and gent's...we're talking handspun/handpainted/dyed and more expensive than Red Heart yarn yarn's.  Which is apparently why I like it so much.

Well let's just put it this way...I spent a considerable chunk of money that day as well as learned some new skills.  In addition to my new skills I found the webpage Ravelry where knitters and crocheters can post their projects and find patterns and buy yarn and just have ton's of knitting and crocheting fun. If your on Ravelry you can find me as Sheeplesinthecity.

And this is were I went wrong.

Now that I've found this site and found TONS of patterns that I want to make...I've blown my budget all to hell on needle's and yarn.  I'm not making excuses...I'm just stating a fact.  Oh sure there's still money in the account but not as much as I would have liked to have had left over.  So much for being good with my first paycheck after paying off my car. :(

I'll do better next week that's for sure.

Double Pointed Knitting!

Yesterday my friend/co-worker Michelle, my sister-in-law Jeanie and myself went up to our local yarn shop because we're knitters and crocheters.  And I gave Michelle a gift certificate to the store for Christmas and she wanted to use it.  While there we all spent a small fortune on yarn, kitting needles and patterns.

While in the store one of the owners was talking to me about how knitting on Double Pointed Needles just looked intimidating and how easy it was to learn.  So there I was talked into learning Double Points and now I'm in the process of knitting mittens out of Three Irish Girls Irish Sea yarn.

That's the stuff right there...I'm really excited that I learned all these new skills yesterday.  I can hardly wait to show y'all the pictures of my mittens!

Is it wrong....

That I'm jealous of Ree over at The Pioneer Woman? I LOVE her webpage and wish I had one like it too. I know there's a whole lot of marketing stuff that went into making her webpage the way it is today but I'm still jealous. Is it sad that I've considered e-mailing her and asking the secret to her success? Now that I've put that out there lets move on....

I went out and purchased a crap ton (in layman's terms, LOTS) of yarn to start working on knitting gifts for next Christmas already. I can hardly wait to start on my next project! But first I have to finish my scarf and get pictures of it posted so you all can see it. I SO have to get better about finishing one project before I start another.....I am SO bad at that right now.

I find this pretty unusual....Usually I watch A LOT of TV/Movies but in the last week I've watched MAYBE 2 or 3 hours TOTAL. I've been doing A LOT of knitting and blogging in that time. Since I'm not really going anywhere for a while with the current state that my vehicle is in I guess it only makes sense...But I still find it odd.

Can anyone tell me why Blogger felt the need to "eat" both of my blog lists? That does NOT make me happy! I've got a couple added back in but I MUST get something other than blogging done today, so I'll probably be working on it over the next couple of days, so please bear with me.

Well I think that's pretty much it for now at least.

Jamie

Johnny and June

Heidi Newfield's "Johnny and June"


Taylor Swift "Love Story"

I've changed my blog background again....I went with a springy feel.....Hoping it will make this miserable winter we're having a little more bearable. My mission to eliminate clutter in my blogs sidebar has come to a halt....I've added just some of the blogs that I read back into my sidebar (I missed having you "guys" there.) I've almost completed my first major knitting project...The scarf that I was going to give my mom for Christmas but I didn't get it done in time. No pictures of it yet but I'll post some when I get it done. Also on the knitting front, I taught myself how to do the purl stitch...It wasn't nearly as hard as my brother's fiancee made it out to be.

I'm going to put this shout out too....Y'all should stop by my blogging pal Tara's blog. Tara and her husband Michael (also known as Oby) have a little girl named Chole that is a real inspiration to a lot of people (Click Here to Learn more about Chole), see Chole has West Syndrome (a seizure disorder) as well as some significant developemental delays. I LOVE checking out Tara's blog because it seems like there is another "little" miracle everyday. You'll be hooked...I know I was.

Now I'm off to watch Sabrina....The one with Harrison Ford....Unfortunately I haven't seen the classic version yet.

Jamie

I'll be knitting (complete with candy dish/urn photo).....

We, as in my coworkers and I, learned the other night at work that everyone's hours in the month of January and possibly February (they haven't seen the forecasted hour allottment yet) will be cut by at LEAST 1 day. This actually kind of sucks more than a little bit but with the way the economy is right now very understandable. So as a result of being in debt to the Bank of Dad, trying to save money for my trip to Nampa (which I'm still going on because I was approved the time off before my car went "boom" on me), and my hours being cut I went out and spent a little bit of money on some more yarn, knitting needles, and a book (complete with patterns) so I can learn more than the basic stitch, since I won't be going much of anywhere or doing much of anything really fun for a little while.

I was successful in my quest to find pictures of the candy dish/urn that I described in a prior post, so without further adue here is the candy dish/urn:

J