Knitting Productivity

Ok, so I have been knitting the month of August away and it is all going to come to a screeching halt after next week. So here is what I have accomplished in August.















These aren't even the 5 things I'm working on at the moment. I'm trying to do a couple things like...Knit through my stash yarn, knit a couple of sweaters for fall/winter, and Knit some gifts for people.

So I'm leaving for the beach on Saturday!! As I may not get very much knitting done this will be the end of my crazy knitting since school is starting back up the following week.

BTW, Those red socks are my first pair of knit socks, ever!! Wouldn't the Yarn Harlot be proud!?

Happy 26!

So I wanted to write this post on my birthday, but I had quite a busy day, a good day but a busy one.


I have so many reasons to be happy on this 26th birthday:

I will be teaching full time in the fall, I just got my Kindermusik License and I feel really good about where my career is going.

I have a supportive family, supportive friends, and a great supportive boyfriend. I would be lost without these people in my life.

I have a hobby that I love and sustains me and gives me so much joy in ways that music cannot.

I have so many fun things coming up in the coming months.


Some goals I have for September:

To practice more! I'd like a to plan a recital for a year from now.

To organize and clean my apartment throughly before school starts up in the fall. I want to go in the Fall school year with a fresh start.

To get a strong foundation started on the article I'm writing to submit to Keyboard Companion.

To continue working out 6 days a week. Hopefully I can keep this up, I'm already starting to notice the benefits of this.


This has been a great year, and I look forward to the great things to come. I know there may be times that are challenging but I feel that I will be happier and more fulfilled working through the challenges to come.

My boyfriend the Fashionista!

So I've mentioned on my blog before my boyfriends strange taste in clothes. A lot of his friends give him a very hard time about some of the clothing choices he has made and in comparison I'm very kind. This weekend he asked me to pick some things out of his closet to give away. It was very easy to pull out 4 or 5 RIDICULOUS shirts. All of which he had a "good reason" for keeping. I explained to him that he shouldn't ask me to help him clean out his closet if he is not ready to get rid of some clothes. I also told him that he could keep everything now, but he should really consider getting rid of most of it when he finally moves out of his mom's house. On a side note, he hasn't worn some of these clothes in 5 years and I'm sure he's owned some of them for at least 10 years.

Here's his model pose in a lovely polyblend silk button down shirt in various colors of vomit.


Here is something from his resort collection to wear when he goes to China.

Despite the strange clothing choices that he does make, I do love him dearly and would not want to force him to get rid of any clothes that he loves, no matter how strange and ugly they may be.

Finished Object

So here is my latest creation! Not the best picture, but the tank did turn out nicely. I can't wait to start all of the winter and warmer sweaters for the Fall and Winter months. Around my neck is the hank of the Brooks Farm Primero that Matt bought me at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I spent over an hour last night winding it into a ball. I'm still trying to decide what to make with this. I am deciding between the Wisp and the Sea and Shells Stole.(scroll down for this one)

On another note, I have a week and a half left at my office job. I finished all of my course work for Kindermusik and will be applying for my license this week. I am also looking forward to Kyle and Erica's wedding in 2 and half weeks! I will also be celebrating my 26th birthday soon!

THE REUNION

Ok, So I meant to post way sooner than this...opps. So here we go I'm going to try and give a short rundown of the reunion weekend!

DAY 1) Began at 10am when James showed up to say hi and formally meet us. (too bad I wasn't dressed or showered yet) Then Jean came over to talk church music for the service on Sunday. Before we dashed over to the noontime picnic I played the Ives for my uncle, which he really liked. At noon we headed over to Ann and Bruce's for a bar-b-que, Zip-line action, live music, lots of talking, birthday cake, dinner and games. (I will post a few pictures later) In the evening we all loaded onto "The General Lee" my cousin's school bus, to go to see the fireworks in a neighboring town. After we returned we looked at old family photos until after midnight.

DAY 2) So there were some morning activities, including a walk to the river and canoeing on the river. My morning activity was sleeping. Hindsight I wish I had gone on the walk and done the canoeing. So in the afternoon we headed to the church for pictures(looking and taking) and supper(thats what they call it out in the midwest). Of course there was more visiting and a huge family tree posted along one wall. The evening concluded with a pool party, we went in at the end and talked with people...again til midnight and I had to get up and play a pretty hard piece the next day.

DAY 3) Church went well, and as I say I am my own worst critic. Buffet of pizza was pretty good too. We left for Wisconsin by 2pm. It took forever to say goodbye to everyone. The keepsakes from the reunion of course include memories and pictures, but also a wonderful cookbook, complied by my cousin Krista, she really did an awesome job with this. The t-shirt designed by James is pretty nice as well!

The trip home included more pie, a stop Detroit to see my godmother, and lots of exhaustedness(is that word, probably not, oh well)

I arrived back to my apartment on Wednesday night only to have to go into work the next day...blech. But this past weekend was pretty good and I have some more good ones coming up.

So since I've been back, I've been exploring the Ravelympics! The goal is to cast on and finish projects while the Olympics are on. I'm definitely going to do it I just have to decide what categories to participate it. I will post that when I decide!

The Drive West

After spending 2 relaxing days in West Virginia we left for the great wide open Midwest.

After getting a somewhat late start we were headed west through Ohio, the most boring state out there. Indiana was uneventful until the radio transmitter to my IPod broke while I was driving and listening to Fresh Air. :( Did I mention that Matt had loaned it to me and I broke it! This distressed me greatly and put me in a pretty foul mood. Then we hit a major traffic jam due to an accident by the Indiana/Illinois border outside of Chicago. So the first day tensions ran high but we made it in one piece to our hotel for the first night.

The second day started out much better as we continued north and west towards Wisconsin. Our first stop for the day was made in the Wisconsin Dells at a Cheese Shop. I have an awesome picture of me in a cheese hat, but I'm having trouble uploading it, perhaps I will add it later, so check back! From that stop we continued on to the best Pie in the Midwest at the Norske Nook. Where I got Lefse, a Norwegian flat bread and an awesome piece of Raspberry Pie. We crossed the Minnesota border and seemed as though we were almost here, but we didn't know that we still had a long night ahead of us.

As we were approaching the Minnesota border Uncle Dave called with the news that the hot water heater in the house wasn't work. (we are staying in my grandparents house which as been up for sale for 3 years now.) Well my parents started hemming and hawing about what to do. I took the "whatever" approach, because we would figure it out...and we did. My parents tried unsuccessfully to fix it and my uncle tried as well. Finally at 1am my uncle figured out the main problem, and got the water and hot water working. My parents had already checked into a hotel for the night and I had agreed to stay in the house with no hot water.

So I spent today knitting and I am almost completely finished with the 4th Christmas stocking. It went by much more quickly than I realized that it would. But I will be glad to have that project finished! Luckily I have something else to knit on for the ride home. The past three days I have spent hours knitting...oh well I'm not complaining.

So the fun begins tomorrow for the reunion! I'll have updates after that I hope!

Family Vacation Part I

So part one of my family vacation 2008 began in Baltimore with the Brooke's family. I love going to see her kids because I get all the fun of playing with them without any of the responsibility! Turner is always excited to see me and Reese warms up to me more and more each time I visit.

Ryan, Turner's dad was away for work, which Turner explained as "He's making money for my birthday." Turner will be 3 in about a week, which is something he is very excited about! So when Turner asked where Uncle Matt was I explained it as "He's making money for my Birthday." This conversation continued which led me to teach Turner what to say when I asked him what I wanted from Uncle Matt for my Birthday. Now when you ask Turner this question he will say "A Diamond Ring!" Now I would not turn down this gift, but I'm okay if I don't get it for this birthday. Uncle Matt happened to stop by on Friday on his way home from Geico training in VA. I asked Turner to tell Uncle Matt what I wanted for my birthday and when Turner said "A Diamond Ring" the color drained from Matt's face and we thought Turner was going to learn what CPR was. Matt asked Turner who taught him that and he replied with "Aunt Rachel"...opps my cover was blown. It makes for a very funny story and Matt knows I'm just teasing him.

Barb and Joe were also visiting with Kieran. It was great to hang out with three adorable kids for a two days but I wouldn't want to do it permanently right now. It was also nice to see Matt even if it was only for a couple hours...oh and seeing all the other adults was fun too! Barb's mom, Bugsy, came to make everyone breakfast on Saturday morning which was so nice. After getting a hearty breakfast I was on my way to WV for the next part of my long long journey.

So I have to touch on knitting for just a moment. Because I will be spending over 40 hours in the car in the next week I have 2 quite large knitting projects. I have the 4th and final stocking! I hope to start and finish this, we'll see if that happens, at least it will keep me busy in the car. The other project is the lace tank I'm working on with yarn that I got at MS&W. I plan not to knit on this while in the car in fear that the yarn will easily slip off the needles. But this project will keep me busy while we stay in a house without TV...should be fun.

So tomorrow I will be driving/riding across 4 states!