Today I am so proud of myself

I work for a weekly newspaper. Since January I've been "it."

Yesterday I went to priest and trans. deacon ordination and today I put all that together and finished a 16-page tabloid newspaper. Not to mention that fact that I sold all the congratulatory ads for this issue. Out of 16 pages I had almost 4 pages of various sized ads that I had to find places for. It's like a puzzle fitting all those ads together.

This from someone who had no training whatsoever in page layouts or Quark software. I have basically plunged into doing page layouts and literally done this by the seat of my pants and learned as I went. I am very proud of myself and feel a great sense of accomplishment in this.

It's been a tough and sometimes rocky road, especially towards the end. I have had a lot of support from people at my workplace and from those higher up in the ranks. May wasn't an easy month because of all the illness in the household and one issue I ended up putting together in twelve hours because I was home sick almost that whole week. Unless you've been in this line of work I don't think you can truly appreciate what it's like.

My mettle has been tested and I have passed.

To celebrate my "grand finale" if you will, I went out and bought a Sara Lee cheesecake to
eat. This is the (hopefully) last paper I have to plan and layout by myself.

On the knitting front, I'm just a few rounds away from starting the gusset and heel on a toe up sock.


It's the "riding on the metro"sock pattern from Wendyknit's new book.

I'm really liking this pattern so far. I just wish I had more time to work on it.

I'm getting ready to start the first panel on the Float Stole. However, I left it at work so I can't show my progress so far. It's not a lot to look at so far. Just six long rows of garter stitch. :-)

Another May FO ~ Lacy mock cable cloth

Pattern is here.


Rather than take a picture of the FO, I scanned it. I'm pleased at how well it showed up. You can see the detail much better. Not sure if I will keep scanning things, but I'm glad I did for this one.

And yes, I know I'm a bit late in posting it since now it's June. The color is almost blaze orange. I was going to make a Halloween washcloth and make a pumpkin cloth, but I wasn't able to find a pattern that really grabbed me. I seen this pattern and knew I had to make it, lol.

New project ~ Float stole

I seen the Float stole pattern in the IK Spring 2009 issue and I just fell in love with the pattern. To me it was beauty in simplicity. Very elegant. A classic look if you will.

The only that held me back so far was the pleats in the pattern. I have never made pleats before. I searched for information and couldn't come up with anything. One of my online buddies urged me to keep the pleats in the pattern when I mentioned maybe making the pattern without the pleats. So I sent a call out for help in finding a how-to and I had the idea to contact the designer and see if she knew of any tutorials. She got back to me fairly quickly and later sent me some instructions and information. Thanks to her and another friend I was able to swatch last night and make a pleat. Yay!


Thanks to the information the designer sent me I realized I was doing the lifeline incorrectly. I also learned how to insert a lifeline through the back of the item.


Tomorrow, I cast on!

May vanilla socks

I finished these socks last week. My first official toe up socks. I really like making socks this way. I love the fact that I don't have to wiggle the circs around when you get to making the gusset and turning the heel.

I've started another pair of socks from Wendy Johnson's new book. The "Riding the Metro" pattern, I believe. Naturally I've already made an oops, but I was sure to make a note of this so I can do the same thing in the second sock. I'm almost through with the first repeat.

cold brew coffee revisted

I forgot to post an update after I tried the cold brew coffee. It's really good. I can't drink it black, but I can use *WAY* less creamer for it. It is much smoother. In fact, I tried to pawn some off on my MIL and she was having none of that, lol. She's strictly a drip brew coffee gal.

I followed the recipe Meghan from the StitchIt! podcast posted on her Web site.

Cold brew coffee

I was listening to the most recent StitchIt! podcast today and her favorite thing this week was cold brew coffee. So I thought "what the heck" and whipped myself up a batch tonite for tomorrow morning. I made double what the "recipe" said. I'm always on the look out for coffee that tastes as good as it smells. Plus Meghan and several blogs I looked up said that the acid content on the coffee is much lower than the hot brew coffee. I would love to be able to use less creamer and stuff.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it being coffee concentrate. If I could make up a batch on the weekend and nurse it all week, that would be wicked-awesome!

What did you get for Mother's Day?

I got stomach flu. Are you jealous?

Last Friday DS got sick. By 11:3o a.m. I knew this time the sickness was different from the last time he had a bout of vomit and diarrhea. So I called the doctor. DS's white blood cell count was 22 (12 is considered high for a child) and off we were to the hospital.

At the hospital he tested positive for rotavirus. After an exhausting night I was able to bring him home. He was wore out, I was wore out.

We attempted to go to where we planned our vacation Sunday but only spent one night (oh yeah, lol, this past weekend was supposed to be the start of a vacation). We came back home Monday. Tuesday I spent the day on the couch and by Wednesday it was my turn. DH is starting to come down with it now.

Now I have today and Monday to get the paper done. Let's not forget that I'm still learning. I think I will be calling in some favors, lol.

And for whatever reason I was dreaming of going to drive buses. But I couldn't cause the pope was in town. Bizarre.

Just so this won't be a pictureless image, here is a shot of my toe up sock by the fire that DH built at the cabin.


Wearing wool socks and being next to a fire when it's 40 degrees out. Oh! It feels good!

I have since finished the sock. Inbetween trips to the loo and when I wasn't feeling like death warmed over. I will post a picture when I have finished the second sock. At the rate I'm going, that could be a while. I am thrilled I figured out the heel though. I think I messed up on the bind off though ... No biggie though. I will know it for the next pair of toe ups though.

When I was laying on the couch DH really stepped up and took care of both me and DS, and taking over household stuff. That's one of the many reasons I love him. I know not too many husbands would do that. I am very lucky when it comes to my guy. :-)