NBC Sucks, Knitting Rocks.

So first of all the Ravellenic Games Social Media Link up is still going on!  I've very much enjoyed following all of the people who linked up.  So many fun knitters out there working toward Ravellenic Gold!

So I started a whole post about how upset I was about the Olympic coverage and how terrible it is.  But you know what?  Just go read this:

NBC Should Be Ashamed of Bob Costas and Last Night's Interview of Michael Phelps

That pretty much sums up how I feel.  Oh and there's also this:

The U.S. Already Had Gold Locked Up After This Disaster From Russia’s Floor World Champion, So NBC Didn’t Show It To You

Amazing omission on NBC's fault.  Especially considering they elected not to show us amazing footage such as this:

Their complete shock at watching the Floor World Champion fall.  Instead we just got lots of images of them crying afterward without the full context as to why.

However even that is not quite as glaring as the fact that we've seen exactly ZERO still rings performances.  To put it in perspective: Imagine if they didn't air 1/5 of the superbowl instead showing Ryan Secrest having dinner with one of the players.  Pretty ridiculous and awful, right?  And yet that's exactly what happened last night:

This was not shown on their coverage.  Even though this routine led to Danell Leyva's amazing comeback from a pommel horse disaster to claim a nearly impossible Bronze Medal for the USA.  Screw you, NBC.

I could go on.  And on.  And on.  But I'll stop there and move on to something that I am not frustrated with at all:



I decided on the Fragile Heart in the Daiquiri colorway.  You guys I am LOVING this shawl.   I've been trying to live post my daily progress via Instagram which has been a fun exercise in watching it grow:



At this point I'm almost through the second lace repeat.  Which I believe is about halfway through.  I have a pretty strong chance of getting a gold!

I love this picture, and this moment, so, so much.

I Suck at Nail Art Sparkly Nails.

So you guys.  The Olympics are in full swing and I'm rolling on my Ravellenic Project and yet I'm going to post about my nails again.  The response I got last time was so much fun so let's just go with it.... Remember to link up with my Ravellenic Social Media Link Up to share your projects!

So I tried another pintrest inspired manicure the other day.... All I wanted to do was paint the tips silver.  Seemed simple enough.  Plus I wanted to go to bed so I thought this would be a quicker option than full on painting them.  Yeah...

I suck at nail art.

So I decided to try to fix it by doing the whole sparkly nail gradient thing I've seen all over pintrest lately.  So next I painted a coat of Sally Hansen Strobe Light that went almost to the bottom of the nails but not quite:

Then I did another coat that started about halfway up from the last one.  Then one more coat of sparkles just on the tips.  Finished the whole thing off with a quick top coat and the end result is this:

I love it!  And the manicure lasted almost a full week.  That's a crazy long time for someone who once the nails chip goes back to chewing them.  Also it took less time than actually painting them would have.  Totally a win.  I will definitely be doing this again.  To sum up here's what I used:

Sally Hansen in Strobe Light,  Essie Good to Go Topcoat, Beyond Perfect by Sally Hansen base coat, Finger Paints Key to My Art.

Yay for fancy nails!

I think I"m going to have to figure out how to not suck at nail art, though, considering that I showed NO restraint at the Sinful Colors 99 cent sale at Walgreens last week.  I went 2 nights in a row and took my daughter with me once.  Which means I have something like 14 new colors.  Which is more than double the total nail polish I owned up until that point.  Which also means I can now do things like this:

Sinful Colors in Mint Apple with a coat of All about You over top.

Yeah letting my 3yo pick out colors means that I have some random that I would never pick for myself.  But I"m embracing it. And that manicure lasted 5 days showing no wear!  Amazing for such incredibly cheap polish.  I ended up taking it off last night because I was bored of it not because it needed redone.  Now I think I'm going to try to go bare for a few days as the ultimate test of if I still chew my nails... we shall see....

Ravellenic Games Soial Media Link Up!

So before I get to that... thank you so much for your opinions on my Olympic Shawl!  I think I'm going to go with the majority and do the Fragile Hearts.  It's just so perfect with my inspiration!  I am still debating on yarn, though:

While the Mulled Wine is pretty and would be georgeous in this pattern I just knit with it for my Color Affection.  So I think I'm feeling the bright pink Daiquiri a bit more... I will probably decide at the absolute last second and be winding my yarn after the games have officially begun.  Either way I'm super excited to get started!

Anyways! Last night I was searching Twitter for the hashtag #ravellenic games and I started thinking.... I wish I knew who all was tweeting and playing along.  And what about blogs?  There have to be so many blogs out there covering this... but how do I find them?  And Instagram will be loaded with awesome Ravellenic projects.... I wish there was a list.

Let's make a list!

Ravellenic Games Social Media Link Up:

The Rules:
1.)  You can link to any social media site except for Ravelry.  So your blog, twitter feed, a podcast, facebook page, vlog, instagram, whatever you want.  However there are a whole bunch of amazing and awesome ways to search for participants within Ravelry so this is not for that.

2.)  You can link up THREE of your social media sites!  Yes THREE! I"m linking to my blog, twitter, and Instagram because I think that's where I will be most active in showing off my Ravellenic project.

3.)  Please follow/like/subscribe to at least a few other participants in the list.  The whole point of this is to follow along and support each other throughout the games!  Plus I'd love it if you followed me, too...


4.)  If you want to grab a button and let others know you are participating:

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.lifeincleveland.com/2012/07/ravellenic-games-soial-media-link-up.html" title="Ravellenic Games Social Media Link Up"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhoybCh2MEU8Yv9Ss_ZvXEKuvaMjes-sS1w5pgPxCpHgoCekfxwNsTXIG3qv7RMWQmvgEqOTEwQ6RkxUaIQpplXrXKNX9t_MVCcOIgzGVyHGsk9dAL7Tj5jvsEdlr48vUHz_-/s1600/Ravellenic+Games+150x150.jpg" alt="Ravellenic Games Social Media Link Up" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Let the Games begin!!!!

Ravellenic Games.

So.  You guys.  The Olympics start tomorrow!  Which means the Ravellenic Games start tomorrow!  And.... I still have no idea what I"m doing.  We're about 24 hours away from cast on and I'm FREAKING OUT.  And maybe need some second opinions or a glass of wine or something.

Because I really wanted to do another Fiberman Triathlon.  I loved the idea of dying, spinning, and knitting.  I even had a pattern picked out and the fiber purchased and ready to dye.  But I've been training and I have learned that a spinning wheel and a 15month old toddler DO NOT MIX.  Seriously it's a disaster.  Trying to spin with him around is and exercise in frustration and woe.

Plus, honestly, it's a million degrees out there.  I have no desire to touch wool in a million degree weather.

So.... I got nothing.  I've been stressing about this all week... and I just... I don't.... I need to get over not being able to do what I planned and move on.  And I'm having issues with that.

So I've spent an insane amount of time cruising Ravelry for ideas and here's what I've decided so far.

I will be using Silk Road - the Destination Yarn silk yarn.  I won't be dying it during the games but it will be my handdyed so that makes me feel a little better about the situation.  And I don't think you can feel bad knitting with something so luxurious.  Not possible.

I haven't decided what color yet.  But that's another issue.

Probably this?  Or maybe Daiquiri - a bright pink color?

I want to knit a lace shawl.  The yarn choice kindof drove that decision.  Plus I think a one-skein shawl would be a challenge but not an unattainable one.  Part of being realistic about the whole thing is that I need to acknowledge that I am in a different place than I was for the last Olympics as far as other commitments go.  I can't just ignore everything else and knit for two weeks solid.  Sigh.

I want it to have beads.  Maybe lots of beads.  I'm realistic but this is still the Olympics.  Let's raise the bar a bit shall we?


I want it to have pointy bits.  So many of the shawl patterns I've looked at remind me of the gothic architecture in London.  Like this:

So that's the imagry I'm going with in this shawl.

On to the options!

1.)  Quite Continental by Boo Knits:

Love that it's a crescent shape.  Love that the diamonds would be easy to memorize.   But I'm not sure it fits my Gothic Architecture imagery...

2.)  Fragile Heart also by Boo Knits:

That lace looks like Gothic arches to me.  Perfect.  But I think I like the previous shawl better...

3.)  Lyrica Euterpe by Romi Hill:

Yay on the Gothic Arch lace - love the circular to triangle shape.  But the picot cast off of the previous shawl is just so pretty....

So.  What do you guys think?  1, 2, or 3???  Help?

I blame pintrest for the following nonsense.

So.  My entire family is battling some sortof strep throat like thing, we're still car shopping, my color affection is still not over, and I have no idea what to do for the Ravellennic Games.  Things are generally a mess around here.  So how about a post about my nails.

Wait, what?

Yeah.  I blame pintrest for this nonsense that has been happening around here:

Serious nonsense:

I don't even know what I was trying to do there.  This one, however, is competely the fault of my 3yo:

Although the sparkly accent I blame on pintrest.

Essie Tour de Finance with an accent coat of Strobe Light on one nail.

My daughter picked out the sparkly color and told me that she needed to paint her nails sparkly before we went to the pool because sparkly nails would help her swim like a mermaid.  Obviously.  What can I say.  Kid knows how to put together a look:

But the thing is.... all of this nonsense is better then the alternative.  You see I chew my nails.  Really awfully.  And for my entire life my hands have looked like this:

OOOH it's BAD.

Recently something snapped.  I didn't want my hands to look like that anymore.  I wanted them to look like all of the crazy fun manicures that pop up in my pintrest stream.  That was two months ago.  Now my nails look like this:

That is the longest my nails have ever been.  Ever.  In my entire life.  So while it may not look like much it's a pretty big deal for me.  So yay for pintrest for finally motivating me to stop with the chewing!  I still have no idea how to make a sock bun work, though:

Pintrest made it look so easy!  Sigh...

I'm linking up with a Mani-Monday party.  Because why not.

WALKING!

So.  Those of you who follow me on twitter know a whole bunch of business has been going down.  Car Shopping!  Hair dye!  Wine!  But before I get to all of that nonsense this is happening:

The Dude so distracted by his buddy that he didn't realize that he was standing.  On his own.

It all started last week at Wade Oval Wed.  He took a few tentative kindof more flinging than walking steps between Matt and my mom:


We worked so hard for those few steps:



And then... that was it.  All week I've been coaxing him.  Trying to eek a few more steps out of him.  And he hasn't really been interested.  Did it for attention but not really as a means for getting from point A to point B.  Until today.  Today something clicked into place and he finally decided that walking was a superior means of transportation:


By the time Matt got home he was able to walk the entire length of our living room.  Twice:


I think he's officially a toddler now!!!  Seems like just yesterday his sister was taking her first steps (she looks so young in that post!)   And just because this is such a video heavy post here's a link to The Dude's favorite video.  Really.

Yay walking!!!

Edited to add:  The crazy pj's outfit he is wearing in the last video was picked out by his sister.  Because of course it was.