A beginning

I started a new shawl today. I've been wanting to start this project since I bought the book Handknit Holidays a few years ago. Its a pattern called the Swedish Heart Warmer Shawl. I bought the yarn from Knit Picks last month, and got the knitting needles from them yesterday. The shawl has a sun motif near the neck but I'm replacing that with the Flame of Tar Valon. Also I'm using Gray instead of yellow so this will be one of my Aes Sedai shawls.

I worked on it for an hour today, and want to work on it at least an hour every day. I'm going to try and take a picture of it each day after I work on it so I can chronicle how it grows.

I probably won't blog the change every day, but I'll at least show the pictures as I go.

Happy (belated) Birthday Recap

Ok, ok. Yes I know this is a week overdue.

Last Wednesday was my birthday. I'm the ripe old age of 25 now. The birthday itself was fairly un-eventful. My lovely boyfriend did drive down here to take me out to dinner though, which was nice. We went to Logan's and even convinced our waitress to bring me a free dessert. They didn't sing but she did yell Happy Birthday and Yeehaw or something. The cheesecake was totally worth it.
I got quite a few presents, mostly opened much before my birthday. My mom got me a new lunch pail from Tupperware with some matching lunch containers. Dad and Darcy gave me a new George Foreman. I has plates that you can take off and switch for other ones, so I can grill, and cook pizzas or quesadillas on it too, among many other things.
Adam gave me a few things for my birthday, but the big gift was this.

Its a pink pistol! I'm pretty excited about it. We took it out and shot it the day after he gave it to me. I definitely need more practice and to build up my strength, as its hard for me to shoot it still. (Which makes me feel like a weakling.

Weekend Recap Part #1

This past weekend was very busy, but it was busy with fun things so it was worth all the hustle.
The first event that happened this weekend was the Crick Family Fall Party. I've been told this is a yearly occurrence. We spent a good portion of Friday night getting lights strung up and the yard and shop set up for the party. Then Saturday morning was more party decorating, chili making, finishing up with a nap for me Saturday afternoon.
Guests started coming at about 6pm. There was a DJ set up in the yard too and lots of dancing occured. Yes including the Chicken Dance.

There was a ton of food there too. Lots of desserts, drinks, hot dogs and chili. There was a chili cook-off contest so many families brought a crock-pot of chili with them. I made a pot of my vegetarian chili and entered it. I didn't think many people would like it, but I actually won the cook-off. I got a fuzzy new blanket as my prize.

The chili is actually really easy to make. I'm going to include the recipe for any who might be interested.
Elizabeth's (Prize-Winning) Vegetarian Chili
1 can Chili beans
1 can black beans (drained)
1 can Mexicali corn (drained)
1 can refried beans
1 small jar of salsa
1 can (or equivalent amount) of broth

Mix all ingredients together into a crock-pot and heat. Serve with Frito's and cheese.

See its easy. You can make it non-vegetarian by using chicken broth and adding some cut up cooked chicken to the pot.

WICKED!

I got to see Wicked this past weekend!

It all started when a group came to the ranch and wanted a trail ride at Adam's house. It turned out to be a couple of people from the the show, which is playing in Louisville right now. Adam actually got me a poster signed by the Wizard of Oz and Glinda!!
Then they told us that if we show up early to the show, we can put ourselves into a lottery to win tickets. We showed up Friday night and didn't win, but we tried again on Saturday for the matinee and won!! We ended up with two front row tickets to the show.

And afterwards one of the stage hands that Adam met on Monday gave us a backstage tour! I got to see the whole set and stand on stage, and actually touch the Wicked Witch's dress! It was so fabulous!

Wii Party!

My friend Tamila's in town for a few days, so we decided to get people together to hang out who missed her. I brought my Wii to the Wesley Foundation and we've been having a lot of fun.

Thats Tamila and Caroline playing Wii Winter Olympics. Right now they're trying to do the figure skating and it's so funny.

The end is near.

By 5pm tomorrow, my semester is over! I'm so ready to have sometime to relax. I still have a lot to do this summer, in order for my thesis to get written, but it won't be as bad as my workload this semester.
I can't wait to have time to actually relax and do fun things like read, play video games or knit.
Speaking of knitting, this is what I've been working on lately.

It might be hard to tell, but its a doll. Its one of those dolls where you slip the skirt over and another doll is hiding underneath. I just have the body and one skirt done so far. Its been very slow going since I've been working on school stuff, but I'm excited each time I finish a piece.

Half a Year Later

So Saturday marks 6 months that Adam and I have been dating. Its definitely been a great time so far. We've had some rough patches, but luckily we got through them well. He's pretty much the best boyfriend that exists. Thoughtful, caring, and not to mention we basically live parrallel lives. I think we decided the perfect date is us sitting at separate TV's in the same room playing separate video games. Though he has bought come co-op games for us to start playing on the same TV. :-P
Well, since it was an anniversary of sorts, Adam got me a few things. (Even thought I told him this was a no gift holiday.) A tin of mints thats shaped like a Hyrulian Shield, a Science cookbook, and this:

Yes folks, thats the Linux Penguin.

Best. Boyfriend. Ever.

Blogging again

So I'm horrible at remembering this blog. I've decided I want to take a picture a day. It'll probably be something random taken with my cell phone. Just a little something to let everybody know whats going on in my (exciting) life.



So today my picture is Adam's little sister playing my new Wii Fit! I've been looking for one since Christmas. Darcy gave me a $50 giftcard to Gamestop, so I knew I had half the money I needed for it. All the Gamestop's have been sold out of them and I haven't been able to find one. But we went into shop on Sunday to look for a game Adam wanted, and they had one! I whipped out my credit card right then. Its been so much fun playing with it. I think I spent two hours playing games on Sunday, my legs were so sore afterwards.

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”

So, my New Year's Resolution was to learn to cook better. Each month I'm going to pick a different kind of food, and learn new recipes and techniques for it. This month I chose to do bread. I used to do bread when I was in undergrad, and I used to really enjoy it. Last night I broke out my stand mixer, flour and yeast and went to work. I did not have my nice stand mixer and bread hook before, and mixing the ingrediants was so much easier with them. I made a recipe for Honey Wheat bread from the Mennonite Cookbook "More with Less" I love this cookbook, seriously everyone should own it.
The recipe makes two loaves at a time. I did one loaf in the normal bread pan as per the recipe. For the other loaf I kneaded it into a ball, and put it on my pizza stone. I was really worried tht they wouldn't rise enough, but they rose real nice in the oven. The recipe called for them to stay in about 45 minutes, but that proved to be a little bit too long. I'll have to take them out sooner next time.

I'm pretty darn proud of myself.

Busy Times

Well, I'd like to say its bee a fun couple of weeks, but thatd be a lie. I am totally stressed out with this stupid math class and can't wait for it to be over. Had an interesting time in my personal life too, but lets not talk about that.
I did spend last weekend with Tamila in Trade Tennessee. We had fun just hanging out, going letterboxing, we even went to a drive in movie theater and saw My Sister's Keeper.
Next week I am packing up my stuff the minute I get don with my final and I'm heading to San Antonio Texas, to hang out with my friend Charlie. I can't wait. I don't really know what we are doing yet, but it will be nice to actually have a vacation.

Happy Birthday Mom

Yeah, her birthday is not till September, but her present is done. And since it was a custom request by her, I thought I would post a picture.


I also finished these way cool socks the other day!


I'm also taking a Calculus Class right now, but trust me, you don't want to hear about that.

The Drama Llama rears his ugly head...

Yeah, its been a fun week. (not!) All sorts of stressful stuff is going on at home. And its just more stressful to me because I'm given a play by play, but its not like I'm there to actually do anything and make it better. But c'est la vie.
Luckily this is my last week teaching classes until September. I am so ready for a break. My students are really starting to get on my nerves. Its really frustrating when I know that all the information they need to answer their lab questions are in the lab notebook they have, and they still don't know whats going on. Or when they learn something in an experiment, but can't apply it to a real life question. Like since when did simple logic disappear?
I planted a letterbox yesterday and that was pretty exciting. I put it at the Wesley Foundation, and the stamp is a squirrel since Ken and the squirrels are mortal enemies! lol. Ken was not amused. I still think its awesome.

Summer!

I am so glad its summer. I made it through the semester, and now have a 3.2 GPA which will allow me to take classes in the fall! I am teaching one class right now, and not taking any, and am really enjoying my extra free time. I have been a pretty productive knitter in the past month. This is all I've done:

A Stargate Dishcloth


A Gryffindor Tie


A Baby Blanket


A Camel (to go with Granny's Nativity)


And I started a cool pair of socks.


Right now I'm sitting at the Wesley Foundation and the first game of the Stanly Cup Finals is on, so I'm going to get back to that!

Surprise!

Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy the past couple of weeks. I have so many papers to grade, papers to write, and tests to study for. I have to give a presentation on Friday for my thesis proposal. I'm crossing my fingers it goes well and I don't sound stupid. I can't wait for summer to be here.

I have managed to get a little knitting done. I am trying to make one Christmas present a month, that way I'm not rushing to finish them all in December. I finished Grandma's present this past month.

Its a pair of convertable mittens in a black wool I had in my stash. I think they are really cool.

A little Letterboxing stuff, and some updates

So I've been a little busy with school and have been neglecting my poor blog. I wanted to show some pictures of stuff that I've been doing though.

I made this stamp for Darcy for letterboxing. I actually made two. As you can see in the picture, the letters are BACKWARDS! UGH. After two hours of carving this stamp, I had to scrap it and start again. Luckily the second time around I have better luck with those pesky letters.

This second one is the stamp I made for Tamila so she could go letterboxing with me. It didn't take me quite as long as Darcy's but she was still pleased. (I checked and double checked the letters on this one to make sure they were right.)

Other than that, school has been keeping me pretty busy. Lots of tests, papers to write, papers to grade, and oh yeah, that thesis thing. I should probably start that.

Long Leave of Absence

Wow. Its been a long time since I posted. I've been really busy with school. Also my computer has been broken since Super Bowl Sunday. It decided that loading Windows was WAY to much work. I turn in on and just get The Blue Screen of Death! Ugh. Luckily for me one of the guys that comes to the Wesley Foundation named Chad knows how to fix it. He has successfully reinstalled Windows. I have procured a copy of Microsoft Office 2003. Hopefully it works on my Windows XP. Cross your fingers! Chad just has to install my web drivers and I should be good to go. I can't wait. I am so tired of going to campus everytime I want to check my email or Facebook.

Other than that, my life is pretty uneventful. I'm just trying to keep up with school. I only have two classes, but I really need to get all A's this semester in order to stay in school. I am really worried that I'm not going to be able to stay.

What a week

It was definitely an interesting week. I had class on Monday. Then an ice storm hit Kentucky, and much of the eastern side of the country. Then I proceeded to get 4 days off school. This is what I woke up to Tuesday morning:



Ice covered everything. You can't tell but the ice on my car was about an inch thick. I didn't go anywhere until Wednesday, only becuase I lost power that day. I went into town to get some groceries and maybe hang out at church. Church didn't have power, and town was chaos. You would have thought the end of the world was here. You couldn't get near a restuarant if they had power. I don't even want to talk about the scene at Wal-mart. I went to Kroger, and get some food that didn't require heat or refridgeration, basically snack food and apples. I didn't get power back until early Friday morning, and since the Wesley Foundation got power Thursday night, I ended up spending the night there Thursday night.

But I have power and heat now, thankfully. Though statewide nearly half a million people still don't have power. And now they are saying some might not have power until middle of February.

Snuggle

I finished this blanket this morning.



I'll take it to the local Humane Society soon. It was a good way to use up some odd balls leftover. And studies have shown that animals who have a hand made blanket at the shelter are more likely to be adopted. So hopefully this helps some dog or cat find a new home!

Socks! And Skating!

I finished some socks!



It felt nice to knit something for myself after rushing to finish stuff for Christmas.

I also went skating last night, and that was really fun. Although I am very sore this morning. I didn't fall once, though, and that was a plus. It was a little rough getting started, but once the zambonied the ice, and I got back into it, I did much better. I want to go again at least once before the rink closes for the season, maybe I'll even learn to skate backwards!

Oh, and random picture of me in my new Sesame Street shirt Darcy and Dad got me.