Moulin Rouge!

So today we got Direct TV… oh yeah. 160 channels, HBO Showtime and Starz and we can pause and rewind live tv. And the PWT look of having a satellite dish strapped to our house is such a bonus. We went from not even having an antenna to having the most kick-ass tv ever…. Well at least for the first 3 months. Needless to say today got sucked down by that… I didn't even knit - I just stared at the happy box amazed at all of my viewing options. So one of our many channels seemed to be a gay and lesbian channel. Who knew that such a thing existed? I have to admit I’m super excited about the programming opportunities of a gay network. They were doing a “Queer Year 2005” year in review clip show kind of thing while showing a movie… Although I’m not sure what Moulin Rouge has to do with Gay culture in 2005 but whatever. Great Flick. Great TV… I was even able to rewind it because Matt came in late and missed the love song part. Love me some Elton John sung by Ewan McGregor. That should happen more than it does. Anyways tomorrow we’re off to the C-bus for Rgill’s Rockin’ Eve. Should be funtimes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Andy's Normal Hat

So the blitz of posts about Christmas knittnig continues....

My brother wanted "just a plain old normal hat"…. So this is what I knit him:Pattern: Hot Head Hat from SnB
Modifications: I knit it in the round – I made the large size but I think I accidentally only knit the amount of rows in the medium… not sure. Added stipes – 7 rows gray, 3 rows black, 2 rows gray, 3 rows black, finish in gray
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino Wool in Dark Grey Mix and Black
Timeline: One night. That's right. I cranked this bad boy out in one SnB and an hour or so at home afterwards. Go me!
What I would Change: um… well I would have said pay attention and follow the directions but the shorter hat actually fit him really well - check it out: He has it on backwards! The stripe jog should be in the back but oh well....Also notice the slippers - knit by me! I'll post on those later....

Apollo's Kitty Pi

Sorry I missed out last night, girls! Long story but we ended up going out with some college friends of friends we hadn't seen in literally years. Very weird... anyways here is the first of a long line of posts about individual Christmas gifts....

I made this Kitty Pi for my brother-in-law and his girlfriend's cat Apollo. I met her this weekend for the first time and man is she adorable. We tried to introduce her to Dexter with mixed results - basically what would happen is they would ignore each other, then one would get curious about the other, the other would get scared and their hair would go up and they would hiss or bark, then the curious one would give up and they'd both go back to ignoring each other and playing separately. Perhaps next time they will make friends.

Hopefully I can get a pic of Apollo in her Kitty Pi so that she can be in the Kitty Pi Gallery but until then here's some unfelted photos: Pattern: Kitty Pi
Modifications: I added a few rows at the top to complete my striping pattern.
Yarn: Reynolds Lopi in Navy and Dark Grey, random gray wool from grandma doubled up.
Timeline: 2 or 3 football games plus blocking time.
What I would Change: I would follow the pattern as is next time – the 2 or 3 extra rows really made the bed tall.

Here it is felted being blocked:

Merry Christmas!

I have so much material for this blog now that most of the gifts have been given that I don’t even know where to start! I basically wrote a post per project as I went along but didn’t actually post them for the public to see since I didn’t want to spoil any Christmas surprises…so I have a backlog of posts… plus I took a whole ton of pictures this weekend… so there’s that… plus I want to tell you all everything that I got for Christmas and how all of my gifts went down etc. etc…So I guess I’ll just post a bunch of pictures.
Our happy family:

Oh and by the way this picture makes me very, very happy that my Christmas gift this year is a membership to Fitworks. My god when did I grow another chin?! Notice the shirt that Matt is wearing - a gift from me - I couldn't resist - He said it looks like the logo for the superhero "rat terrier man" and all he needs now is a cape.
Dexter got some gifts too – and we discovered that he loves taking toys out of boxes and bags.

Check out all of the handknit gifts that I gave this weekend:

Yeah buddy. That’s a lot of gifts… notice one of those is an entire SWEATER. That’s right people. I knit AN ENTIRE SWEATER!!!! That would be the epic project I've been referring to… There will be much more details coming on that one (and she will be sporting it tonight at SnB - be sure to come so you can see it in person!)… and on everything in that picture.... but for now here's another random weekend shot:

Yes that would be my husband cruising on the turnpike with the dog on his lap. Eh. No more unsafe than alot of other things I guess...

Overall it was a very nice weekend... all of the handknits were appreciated and Matt loved, loved, loved his gift of "guyland" - I got him a beer fridge, a tv, and a heinz field poster for the basement pool room - my 'rents got him a dartboard and his 'rents got him some sports related accessories to finish the place. I got a wonderful pair of garnet earings from matt and a pasta machine from my mom. My mom btw also knit me a great scarf and hat set - I will have to post pics of that later. It's almost as fun to receive something handmade as it is to give something handmade....

And finally - Our Christmas Tree:

I knew it!

Ok I finally broke down and did a quizilla quiz... I liked my results so here it is:

What Rare and Beautiful Stone Are You?

You Are A DiamondThe ancient Greeks believed that diamonds were
splinters of stars fallen to earth. It was even
said by some that they were the tears of the
Gods or perhaps crystallized lightning or
hardened dew drops. The truth is, however, that
the exact origin of diamonds is still something
of a mystery, even to scientists and
geologists.

What rare and valuable stone are you?

Ok and I'm editing this post to add a few more quizzes. What can I say... it's the day before break and noone is here and I have half of a lunch hour left.....

What Kind of Knitting Needles Are You?

You are pink aluminum.Retro, straightforward and fun, you love classic
things. If they're 99 cents at Goodwill all the
better! You are moved by striking colors and
tasty morsels, and you like a stitch-n-bitch
session in the sun. Just remember, while
you're being kitschy cool, don't get too cold.
Ice cubes are best kept in your cocktails,
baby!

What kind of knitting needles are you?

What Kind of Yarn Are You?

You are Mohair.You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with
others, doing your share without being too
weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely
refuse to change your position once it is set,
but that's okay since you are good at covering
up your mistakes.

What kind of yarn are you?



Ok back to the real world now.... sigh.

Christmas Randomness

Ok so Christmas Eve is in what 3 days…. And get this…. I’m done with the holiday knitting!!! Well…. Kindof. My mom’s family is doing their Christmas on New Year’s Day this year and I still have some knitting to do for that… but everything that had to be done by Christmas or Christmas Eve is Done Done Done Done Done!!! All I have to do now is wrap!!! And I used to be such a procrastinator….

Oh and if you are also knitting gifts here are some great gift labels – I’m not sure if I will use them yet since I may not have time to print them all out and such.

So Knit Ohio is going really well – There is a blurb on it in Current News on the Cincinnati Knitters site.

Does anyone know anything about Bloglines? I joined since it seems that there are more blogs than ever that I am attempting to keep up with – but somehow I can’t make my list of blogs public… even though I have a screen name and I have "publish my Blog and/or Blogroll" clicked… what else do I need to do?

And Finally – I joined Secret Pal Seven. I’ve never done one of these secret pal exchanges before and am really looking forward to this one. I even got in gear and made them a few buttons:








The week after Christmas I hope to post lots of knitting stuff as all of the gifts will be given and I no longer have to worry about who may be reading this.... until then...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Domestic Bliss

Crab and Artichoke Dip

Ok so…. I’ve had several requests for the recipe for my crab and artichoke dip…. And I finally wrote it down! I’m famous for adding stuff to recipes as I go along and loving the result but never being able to duplicate it. This one was a hit so I actually wrote down what I did:

1/4 cup Mayo
8oz cream cheese
16 oz crab meat (chopped)
1 can artichoke hearts (chopped)
2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
2 or 3 cloves garlic (or to taste – I like things very garlicky)
Ground Black Pepper to taste

Throw it all into a blender or food processor except for 1/2 cup of Parmesan. Blend until smooth. You can add more sour cream as needed to get the consistency you want or skip the food processor and just mix all of the ingredients for a very chunky dip. Put into an oven safe dish, sprinkle extra Parmesan cheese on top. Bake in a 350 degree oven until cheese bubbles. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips, or toasted bread rounds.

Cool Cleveland

Here's a great letter that I found on Craving Cleveland.

We have a wonderful city!

1,617 Ravioli

I’m exhausted. Today I made 1,617 ravioli. By hand. From scratch.

Every year for as long as I can remember and for many years before I was even born my great-grandmother has made ravioli for the family Christmas meal. Over the years the tradition has changed – as they do – and when we eat the ravioli has shifted. We no longer eat them with my mom’s cousins but we split them up between my grandfather’s family and his brother’s family…. And recently we’ve gone down to the next generation and split them once again. But the ravioli have always been there. For me they are as much a part of Christmas as cookies.

The past few years my mom and her cousins, Anita and Joan, have been helping my great-grandmother with the ravioli (under her extremely close supervision). But this year my great-grandmother is no longer with us... unwilling to let the tradition go with her they decided to make the ravioli again this year with the addition of the next generation - which means that I got to be there.

I think we did a pretty good job. I’m not sure if they are exactly the way that nonni made them – noone has ever written down the recipe and there was great debate about when to add the parsley and how much to add…. But my god that filling tastes amazing. I got mocked because my ravioli were so straight and uniform – well there is nothing wrong with making things look good! That and after 6 years of architecture school I’m completely incapable of not making things straight and square.

And I had no idea that handmade pasta was so easy to do. Flour and eggs? I can handle that! And rolling it out in the pasta machine was actually really fun. Filling the ravioli took forever but just to make pasta isn’t as big of a deal. I think I need to add a pasta machine to my Christmas list. Especially since it freezes so well – how great would it be to come home on any random work night and pull hand made pasta out of the freezer for dinner? I know that would make Matt very happy since that’s his favorite food ever - although he would never admit to having a favorite anything.

In knitting news I got very little done on anything this weekend since both Friday and Saturday were spent at office Christmas parties, Sat. afternoon we got our Christmas tree, and Sunday was ravioli day. I hope to get a lot accomplished this week though. I can’t wait for January when I can post everything that I’ve been working on!!!

Oh and by the way – I now completely understand why Ohio City Pasta sells their ravioli for $1 each!

Another Weekend Recap

So I love my crazy husband. He comes up with the most randomly creative things such as this:

It now says "Go Steelers" in 6' letters across our front yard. Which kills my plan to take a pic of our house with freshly fallen snow for our Christmas cards but is incredibly amusing and so very, very Matt.

This weekend was great. Friday night we went to Scrooge's Night Out a benefit for the Ohio Canal Corridor - which was actually a huge part of my master's thesis. It's basically this plan to connect the state through a recreation corridor along the tow path for what was the Ohio Canal. So someday you should be able to bike from Scranton Peninsula in downtown Cleveland all the way to Southern Ohio. Pretty cool if you ask me. Here's an interactive map showing the proposed canal way routes.

Anyways I got tickets through my office and a whole bunch of us went. Punch the Clown was playing - who are now my new fav cover band up there with the Reaganomics. So we rocked it out all night. And have big plans to rock it out again next time that they play at McCarthy's.

Saturday we laid low-meaning we recovered from the massive hangovers that only an open bar can bring on.

Then Sunday we went to the 'Lizard to watch the games... which last minute ended up being quite a few people. So there was a group of us, at the bar, watching football and knitting. The perfect Sunday afternoon.

After that we went to the park and played snow football for hours. It was dark by then but the park is really well lit. It was a ball. I was so frickin' sore yesterday! And I have tons of random bruises - not sure if they were caused by the Friday night drunken dancing or by being repeatedly tackled by Osam. Either way it was a great weekend.

So someday I promise that I will post about knitting again. It's just that everything currently on the needles is going to be gifted. And I have no idea who is reading this... so yeah...look for lots of knittng content in January!

Oh and the new Knitty is up. I love both tempting II and tubey and I did want to knit an entire sweater at some point...although I'm not sure that tubey is in my yarn budget. I'll have to look into it and see b/c I think the yarn it calls for is pretty expensive.

Knit Ohio

Ok my super-secret lunchtime project has finally been unveiled!

Knit Ohio – a Webring for Knitting Bloggers in Ohio

I looked for an Ohio Knitters webring like months ago… and when I didn’t find one even went so far as to set up the blog address and make a few buttons (not like those take very long but still). But then I didn’t have time to actually get it up and running. Well this week I finally got around to doing it! It was actually really, really easy to set up. Ringsurf rules! And I learned a lot about how to do things like actually put a button into a link.

So anyways – if you’re an Ohio Knitter please join!

Cool Links

Ok I have been emailed a few really really cool websites in the past week so I though I’d share.

Tom Cruise is Nuts – this one is great if you’re sick of hearing him rant about things he has no business ranting about. Good luck with the vitamins and exercise, Kate.

Pandora – this is great if you listen to music online. Basically what you do is you type in a song or an artist that you like and it creates radio stations for you based on that. I’ve been listening to it for 2 days straight. It’s awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving (a little late)

Ok Thanksgiving knitting didn’t go as I planned at all. I ended up teaching my husband’s cousin (who is 5) how to knit instead of working on my holiday knitting! That’s ok though – she was thrilled at the bracelet that she made and I’m happy to pass this um… skill on to another generation of knitters. I also shot myself in the foot when I tried to work on a complicated part of the epic project while watching Eddie Izzard. I should know better! I had to rip out everything that I did because of a stupid mistake. Grrrr.

Tonight I should get tons done… I’m going to SnB early and staying late since my husband is currently insufferable. Stupid Steelers. Why couldn’t they win? Don’t they know how happy they make him when they win? Hopefully a night of being introverted and playing Madden grudge matches will cheer him up. It usually does.

Here's a pic of Dexter in the first snow.... he doesn't seem to like the snow much!

Knit Some Holiday Cheer

I joined another knit along! This one is for just random holiday gifts… so now I can post pics of some of my knitting w/o fear of ruining any surprises. How fun! I’m a chronic procrastinator so of course I joined late… but seeing everyone else’s progress has really inspired me to get moving and hopefully this knit along will help me to get all of the knit gifts done this year without pulling an all nighter, stressing myself out, or getting frustrated and giving up (which is exactly what I did last year). And even if I do end up doing one of those things at least I’m not alone – there are other people out there sharing the insanity.

If you, like me, are in need of some serious holiday knitting advice call yarn harlot's help line: 1-877-SOS-KNIT.

Quiet Weekend

Ok here’s some of Jill’s pics from last weekend while I post a recap for this weekend…. Thanks for the CD Jill!!! I'll update the photoblog soon with the rest of her pics….

So yeah – weekend recap… Fri. night we went to my ‘rents for a fish fry with the grandparents. There are some serious benefits to having a father who is a fisherman - Lake Erie perch, walleye, or steelhead fried up in some Shore Lunch….Good stuff. Sat. morning we laid low… which was wonderful. Sat. afternoon we went to the West Side Market with my bro. If you live in Cleveland and haven’t been to the market you need to go immediately. They are open until 4 today. Go now. It’s amazing. I bought all sorts of spices (both the quality and price are way better than the supermarket), various meats and cheeses for lunch this week, and hand made pierogies from The Pierogi Palace. I don’t really like pierogis except for these - these are fantastic. My brother bought fresh, unsalted peanut butter. It tasted like peanuts. Soooo good. I wonder where that line is – because the reduced fat/reduced calorie Jif that I buy is probably better for you calorie wise…but I’m sure that this stuff is waaay better for you as far as additives and scary chemical stuff goes…. Which is better overall? Dunno… anyways…

Sat. night we went to a play. We subscribed to the Cleveland Play House for our anniversary – so we had 8 tickets that we can use whenever we want – we just have to call them before an hour before curtain and we can go! I’m so glad we did that. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be worth it but it really, really was. The play we saw was called I Am My Own Wife. It was about this person – Charlotte van Malsdorf – who was a transvestite in East Germany and survived being a transvestite through both WWII and Communism. Which in and of itself is amazing…. Also, Charlotte collected furniture and ran a museum during this time and was responsible for saving some seriously famous pieces. So it was interesting from a preservation perspective too – who makes history, who records history, and what is important to preserve and record? It was a one-man play – one guy played all of the roles – and I never think I’m going to like that approach but I always do. I highly recommend this one – it runs through this weekend at the Playhouse.

Sunday of course was football. This week the Bengals and the Steelers didn’t play at the same time – which meant a long day of knitting for me. We went up to the Winking Lizard to watch the games with Osam – it’s a good thing I don’t care if I knit in public! I cranked out a ton of my epic project. It actually looks like what it’s supposed to be! I hate to be so vague but Christmas will be here soon. Osam at one point asked me "whatcha knitting" and Matt says "she’s knitting a ____. She’s turning a ball of yarn into a _____. Isn’t that amazing?" Which I thought was the nicest thing to say ever. He is a hell of a guy.... Anyways, both Matt and Osam were pretty (understandably) crushed by the end of the day. Luckily Family Guy was new…. Nothing like seeing Brian dancing to "It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!!" to cheer him up. I seriously don’t know how that show does it… how they get away with everything that they do and how they find all of the references that they make. I remember the dancing banana from studio 4th year so what was that… 2002? Yeah… spring 2002…. Good times… good times…

More Murder & Housewarming

Ok so I updated the photoblog again with more Murder Mystery Party pictures. These are all from Rebecca – she used the sepia setting on her camera and they look awesome. How nice of her to resize them all so they would fit into an email!!!

Buzznet is weird and a little not user friendly in my opinion so basically to see the pics click on this link Murder & Housewarming – and then on the right hand side there is an orange bar with a blue button on it. If you click on the blue arrow it gives you more and more pictures. Sorry if that’s a little too explanatory but I know someone who missed like half of my pics b/c of that! Anyways here are some of the highlights:

"This Man is Stone Dead"

Damn it's good to be a Gangster.

Murder at the Four Deuces

The Murder Mystery party that we had last weekend was amazing! We ended up with 25 people (26 characters after Osam bit it), one extra murder, and a lot of empty liquor bottles. Everyone dressed up. Everyone. It was awesome. The food was great (Thanks everyone for helping out!!!), the company was great, and the game was phenomenal. I was waiting to post a recap for the rest of the pics but it seems like that could take awhile (Rebecca and Jill I’m talking to you!). So for now I posted a gallery of all of Jessica’s pictures on my photoblog….. here’s the link – Murder Mystery Party

The awards were:
Best Costume (pictured left): Velma Blake (Alyson I) & Cash Steal (John J)
Best Actor: Baroness Ravioli (Laura G.)
Most Money at the end of the night: Harriet Hambini (Alison I)
Super Sleuths: Sly Sleeze (Dan), Jack "Greasy Thumbs" Guiseppi (Peter), Guilda Guilseppi (Bridget) and Cash Steal (John J)

At first I was worried that the game wasn’t going to fly – it took everyone a little while to get into it…. But once Big Jim went to make his toast, we killed the lights, and shot him the game got really good. Everyone got so into their role – I got to scream at Osam, grease the accountant with free admission to my "clubs", and generally secure that my husband would be taking over the Chicago operations…. I paid off the reporter, the mayor, and the congressman and tried to recruit new "workers" for my operations. But I was far from the most into it – the guys were wheeling and dealing all night. At one point Matt, Joel, Osam, and the politicians were in the back room of the basement trying to reach an agreement and LB & Rebecca were listening at the door and feeding all the info to Alice (the reporter) in order to seek revenge on Brian for being paid by Osam to cheat on Rebecca with LB. Oh yes it was a tangled little web… but what a great game. I’m also very impressed at all of the different groups for mingling so well…. Family, Cleveland friends, and College friends all hung out and worked together to screw each other. It was fantastic.

The party must have been a success because when I mentioned that there is a Murder at the Four Deuces II everyone seemed interested. Perhaps we have to make this an annual event!

I also have to give a big thank you to everyone for the housewarming gifts and for helping out with everything. Megan got us an awesome snow shovel which from the looks of things will be very useful tonight, Laura P gave us a Christmas Cactus which is in full bloom (I can’t get mine to even produce buds! I think it gets too much light. Next year that plant’s going in the closet for October), and Sarah T gave us some fantastic wine. Alyson T gave us the most random, fun thing ever…. A Slip ‘n Slide!!!! So now I can’t wait until summer when we can set up that bad boy.

In knitting news (I swear this is a knit blog, really), I have been knitting a lot this week…. But nothing that I can post. It’s all gifts. The epic project is taking forever Sandlot style but it’s looking awesome. I’m going to post some pics on the knit along site so if you email me I’ll send you the link. I also plan on making my first ever knitpicks order sometime soon – does anyone have any thoughts on their Andean Silk? I want it for things that are worn close to the body – scarves and mittens and such – but I’m worried about it itching b/c of the wool content… any thoughts?

Arrested Development

This sucks.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1304909

Stupid Fox. Stupid Prison Break. Stupid Ratings.

Apparantly Emmy's don't matter.

jerks.

After

So the Murdery Mystery/Housewarming party was this past weekend and it was AMAZING. I’ll post about that tomorrow though – I’ll set up a gallery for all of the pictures tonight. For now I want to show off our house – We moved in about 2 months ago and it’s really been a whirlwind. We have painted so frickin’ much…. But things really, really came together this past week. So here are some after shots….

Downstairs Bedroom #1 "Red Room/Guest Room":

The bedroom was painted in this horrible off-peach color and not very well. It looked like someone had slapped a coat of neutral over whatever was there before…. The thing is that we blew our entire painting budget on the upstairs so we needed to redo this room on the cheap…. Luckily we had leftover paint kicking around! The ceiling paint and off-white wall paint were out of my mom’s paint stash. The red wall was leftover from the apartment – we had bought paint to match the mullions but never did anything with it. We used the same semi-gloss trim paint as we used upstairs so that wasn’t too costly….Add a few curtains and touch-up paint the furniture and an old mirror and Voila! Finished guestroom. I’m very happy with the way this turned out vs. how much it cost us to do….

Downstairs Bedroom #2 "Office/Gray Room"Basically this was the same deal as the other bedroom – we had to redo it with zero money. We used the gray paint that we had painted the concrete columns in our apartment mixed with some light blue that my mom had and got a lighter gray. Then the yellow was leftover from the big yellow box in our apartment…. Perfect for an accent wall. My wonderful grandmother found us a day-bed hand-me-down from one of her knitting friends (yes my grandmother has knitting friends, too!). She made a slipcover and pillows for it and it is the perfect couch! Add a cheap desk from staples and wireless internet and we have our very own office! Oh yeah – we have wireless internet now. It rocks so hard…. So now all of our friends with laptops can come over and play on line wherever.

2nd Floor Studio:
I love this space. I know it’s completely empty but that’s what I love about it right now. There is so much potential. We could move the drafting board up there and make it a true studio… or the computer and make it an office… or a couch and make it a nice comfy spot for me to knit or read w/o Madden in the background…or I could put a loom here…..or build shelves across one of the walls….or Matt could put another tv and his playstation and make guy-land…or as Matt's brother said turn it into a music room...or even sometime down the road this could be anything. This is our flex space…. The space that gives us room to grow. But whatever we make it the dormer is absolutely the perfect spot for my bead table. I get my own little beading cubby!!! This is honestly the room that sold the house for me.

It was painted a dark, dark blue with even darker trim. I’m not really a blue person to begin with and dark would definitely not do for the crafting studio I had envisioned. So we went with the same color scheme as for our bedroom – Chocolate Brown accent walls and then medium brown (up the same paint strip) on the arched walls and light brown on the other flat walls. It’s a lot pinker than I had originally planned but I like it…. The color is one of those hard to describe colors that seems to change on us….

By the way… the built-ins are filled with yarn. Yup… I get my very own set of built-ins for my stash. And when I run out of room in the built-ins there is a huge storage area in the attic off of this room! I seriously think sometimes that house was built for us…. Oh and these twisty branch thingies came off of a bush in my front yard! I really like the way they look just bare and in a vase.

Our Bedroom:

Since our house is what realtors would call a bungalow (meaning it has bedrooms on the first floor), we decided to take over the 2nd floor bedroom as a master suite of sorts. There is a half-bath up there so it works out perfectly. It was painted a light purple/blue and then sponge painted in hot pink, cark blue, and purple over half of the wall. There is a previous post called "Before" that has a pic of this awfulness. Although I think the previous owners had a young daughter and this was her room – so I guess hot pink sponge paint would be appropriate for that. And whoever had painted this did a great time and had obviously spent alot of time on it. For us, however, the pink had to go.

We went with a similar color scheme as the studio - dark brown for the flat walls and a gold color for the sloped walls and ceiling. The bed and nightstands are Ikea- which I had my eye on for years and jumped all over once we found out that we couldn't fit the boxspring up the stairs. We also bought the wood slat blinds once we learned that there is a street light directly across from our bed…..But the hand painted curtains are the real showstopper. My mom bought them in Italy over 25 years ago. My grandmother reconfigured them to fit with our windows.. I love design like that – some things mass produced so it's within our budget with little touches that make it uniquely ours. I'm so happy with the way it turned out I can't even tell you. Even Dexter has his own little cubby - we put his bed into one of the built-ins making him very happy.

Kitchen:

The paint colors are most definitely not ours. Basically all we did in here was put in the stove and the dishwasher. A major redo will probably come next spring or summer…. But we haven’t decided how far we want to go with it yet. The kitchen table and chairs were a great Cosmic Collectables find – yeah for second hand shops!

So yeah… That’s my house! It’s amazing what having a party will get you to accomplish…..

In knitting news I haven’t done anything in over a week… but tonight my only plans are to eat leftover dips, watch Arrested Development Season I and Monday Night Football, and knit. So hopefully I’ll have some progress to show on something soon.