Whoops...been a while again.

Wasn't sure if anyone was interested in my retrospective of the past blog posts... but, what the heck, I was enjoying it. So, I'll keep it up, until I finally catch up to the present :)

Not today, though. Today you get the present... well, sort of... well, new pictures, anyway....

First up - a bear I made many moons ago. So, I guess that is from the past... I made it before we moved into the house we're in now. Which is some 13 years ago. Plus - it came from a Better Homes & Gardens magazine - either Holiday Crafts or Christmas crafts - published/sold in the early '90's. It is a little sewn from store-bought felt bear.

Cute little guy, isn't he? I hadn't gotten around to ever taking his picture before. I really never bothered to take pics of my crafts, then it was a case of needing/preferring to use a digital camera - waiting until we got one; then since it was a Christmas decoration, it was a case of digging it out, remembering to take pics, not really having much tree or decor thanks to the girls (they still aren't really old enough to trust with the fragile ornaments yet). So - anyway - this year, when I came across the bear, I immediately got out the camera, and took the pic.

Oh, and like I said:

I'm not sure if I can totally trust the girls.... Though, I must admit, mostly here Ashleigh was just interested in testing the cuddliness of the tree skirt...

Recently - I was knitting myself a sweater. A Lopi sweater. I have always loved making these style of sweaters (meaning decorated yoke, patterned sweaters, etc.) I have made several over the years - for other people. Well, it was high time I made one for me. I knitted it in about two and a half weeks - working on it only evenings and weekends, and not exclusively working on it. I had/have some other projects that are also on the go, other committments that I had to/still have to complete. It took me another half a week to be finished the sweater, though.... See, I have this thing. I don't like weaving in ends - one of my least favourite parts of a project. BUT - for some reason, I'm most attracted to projects that involve a lot of colourwork.... So, while trying to avoid weaving in the ends, I also started and finished knitting a tote bag that got felted (but I see I forgot to take an "after picture", I only have the before one.... I'll have to remember to do that later) and I also started and finished knitting a fingertip towel.

The bag is a pattern from Ram Wools; uses Noro Kureyon - I tried to play with the contrast on the picture; you really can't see the colours so great.... it is rusty browns and deep greens....

The towel is my own pattern - basically, seed stitch, then a garter stitch "towel topper"...

Not bad accomplishments, really, when you consider I was trying to avoid things.... lol....

Oh, the sweater? You want to see the sweater? Ok...

Let's see, what else? Oh, right.... I'm going to do one of those rare things... post a picture or two of me.... DH snuck up on me with the camera while I was getting ready for a Hallowe'en party. So... You are going to get a candid shot of me, then a better one when I was finished getting dressed up.... I went as a "Gypsy", which is apparently no longer politically correct to do. I should have gone as a "Fortune Teller". Same thing, but you know how it is. My "crystal ball" was really a cat toy covered with aluminum foil. We have this ball thing, with cut out shapes, and a smaller ball inside. The cat is supposed to try to paw at the smaller ball through the cutouts... Key phrase being "supposed to". I think it took all of three seconds for them to figure out that if they got it moving fast enough toward a solid object, the big ball would split and they could play with the small ball to their hearts' content.... So, I glued it together.... they now ignore the ball.... and I had a very rattly costume prop, since the glue made it impossible for me to remove the small ball for the evening....

Anyway, there are other reasons for me to share these pics... I'll explain after... Just ignore the mess for now...

Ok. So - that really is how big my kitchen is. If you refer back, there is a picture of the Care Bear afghan... Dh is standing in the corner between the stove and sink... you can just see the edge of the cupboard there... then, there is a doorway to the bathroom, stairwell, linencloset... refer back to my Hallowe'en pic a year or two ago, with me sitting on the stairs, and DH standing in that doorway with an ax.... Small kitchen.

I still like it.... mostly.... longer story....

Anyway - I am tempted to say, excuse the mess - after all, it was the day after Hallowe'en, I was cooking pumpkin (stacked on the corner of the table, waiting to go in the fridge, pot on the stove) all day; I had a party to get ready for... I can come up with lots of excuses. But really - a recurring theme throughout my blog has been how much I hate housework, and how much I need to get busy on it. Having a small kitchen, and lots of kitchen gadgets but no where to put them, and being a pack rat, and all that other stuff - well, I don't seem to get anywhere. Well, I finally realized... the excuses were just that. I mean, really - blaming my dislike of housework on things like having a part time job? Anyway - I know there are deeper feelings involved... some of them are quite valid. However, they are things that I really need to overcome, or things that if I'm being truly honest, I have overcome. I just like to hang onto them for the excuse factor. Well, it is time to give those up. And the excuses... I did some thinking and soul searching, and realized that the real roadblock.... We've lived here for just about 13 years now (close enough to call it that) but we haven't really changed anything... Look at those white walls... Aside from finally tearing out the carpet from the living room last Christmas, and slapping some paint on the living room walls (we really did a crappy job of it - not fixing holes or cracks first, me having a serious allergic reaction which revealed my allergy to peanuts, slopping paint onto the baseboards) we're living in someone else's idea of decor. Not mine. It feels like it isn't my home. So, I lost it... Last week. I lost it. I told DH how much I hated how the house looked, and that I just didn't care about cleaning it up, 'cause I hated how it looked. I now have paint chips in my purse, for every room in the house. There will still be a little white left - bright, snow white inside the closets and cupboards, but everything else will not be that gawd-awful, neutral, rental don't ever make yourself at home 'cause you're not staying here off white crap ugly walls. We are starting to paint this month. I need to start getting things packed up and out of the way, so we can move furniture and paint. So, I'll be taking some before and after pictures. I don't care if the whole world (or at least those of you who read my blog) see what a disaster mess the house is in right now - it *will* become something I can be proud of.

I'm also going to get rid of that nasty ****** dryer that I hate. Every week, I am reminded when I do laundry of what a bad experience that was. I also haven't liked the dryer at all. I didn't buy it for features, I bought it because it was the only one they had that was small enough. I don't like any of the features it came with, and I don't like the features it doesn't have (especially a bell to tell you when it is finished - very annoying.... no, I can't time it, because one of the features that it *does* have, is a stupid cool down cycle, that it uses at the end, and can run anywhere up to 15 minutes beyond the timer... ) Anyway - I was already upset, and p*ssed off, so last week was the last straw for it, too.... I hate it with a passion. I told DH I didn't care what it cost, or what another would cost, but I wanted it out of my house. (note, not my "home", not yet - not until the painting is completed). So, I won't be getting a new stove to match my new fridge for Christmas this year after all. It will have to wait, and we will hope that it lasts just a little longer (it is getting old and showing signs of its age). I'm getting a new dryer for Christmas.

The other reason I wanted to share the pic of the kitchen.... Ok, see on top of those cupboards.. I know, it isn't easy, but there is a tin collection up there. I collect tins- cookie tins, tea tins, cat and dog treat tins, coffee tins (decorated, not the plain kind), collectible tins, etc. I keep them on top of the cupboards. See also, there is a kind of weird, out of place, high-up cupboard? You probably see them normally like that over top of a refridgerator. Well, when we bought the house, the previous owners did have a fridge there - and a smaller stove than we have. Our stove overhangs the doorway just a tad - if our (old) fridge would have fit under that cupboard, we still couldn't have put it there. Between the stove and fridge, it would have blocked too much of the back doorway off. Not to mention, been hard to open the fridge door. So, we haven't had anything under it. Now, do you see, where the cupboard meets the wall? Ok, so doesn't quite meet the wall? Well, we should have been paying more attention to that fact. Oh, sure, I knew that the house shifted, and that the cupboard moved away from the wall a bit.... Well, it isn't there any more. It fell off the wall. I went to open the door, to take something out, and the whole thing came down... the door hit my arm on the way down (big nasty bruise, but not broken, thankfully). Crashing and banging of tins across the table.... one glass broke, one container of butterscotch chips got scattered. Bowl of dogfood had to be disposed of, in case broken glass inside....

That happened about two weeks ago. More reason to get off our butts and fix the place up a little....

Well, I best get on with it - need to move some stuff in the basement, so removal of that scrap metal can be done, and my new dryer can be bought and brought in. Then I need to box up stuff from the bedroom, so we can start painting there. :) I can hardly wait. :) I'm so looking forward to finally being able to settle in to this house and put down roots. I do like the house.... Really. It just has never ever felt like home before (still sorta doesn't, not until we actually get further than paint chips in my purse and the go ahead to start buying paint...)