June/July Challenge

Alright ya’ll. I seriously lagged on last month’s challenge. Now, before you get all “I knew it!” on me, let me explain. Remember May’s challenge? Work like you mean it? Yeah, that was just a warm up for June. For two weeks in a row, I was working or in school seven days a week. Now, I’m back down to the leisurely pace of school or work for only six days a week. That one day off is freaking brilliant. Plus, when I work four days in a row, I stay out of town for two days to cut commuting expenses and the days I’m actually home, I only have a few hours before I need to get back in bed. So time has been an issue.
 
However, it started off well enough. The first week, I got the bathroom, kitchen, and foyer done like I said I would with the exception of cleaning half the counter tops in the kitchen. The next week was the computer room which got about half done, then the living/bedroom where it kept tapering off. I’m still trying my damnedest to get it looking better, but I feel the obstacles in my way are a little more important. The point is, I’m still working hard and trying to rise to this challenge despite everything else. Really. 
 
June Challenge: I tried. Really. It looks way better than before.

July Challenge: ?

I still haven’t thought of any that would stick. I thought of making this the month to finish those big things that need doing before I graduate, but being so busy makes me wonder if it would be worth the attempt.  What may end up happening is that this month is my just focus on school and maybe clean a little month. This semester’s over in just a few weeks anyway. Any ideas?

May Challenge Wrap-Up

I almost hit an alligator on the road. No shit. It was only about 4 feet long, but he was halfway in my lane before he finally went, “Shit, that big thing’s gonna run over my head” and skedaddled. I live in the South, ya’ll. For realz.

But down to business. The May challenge was to work like I meant it, and boy I meant a lot. I figured working 30 hours a week was good, but I usually worked at least a few over, did physical labor I swore to my boss I wouldn’t do, knit like a maniac, and still had some time to cook. I was crazy busy.  Remember that I missed a ton of class because I couldn’t get up for my 10:30 class that was 5 minutes away last semester? 5:30 am anyone? Ha! I did it, and with a one hour commute no less! I’m turning into a grown-up-shaped little girl.

May Challenge: Success! And I even got paid to do it!

June Challenge: Clean the apartment in 4 phases.

This one is really going to be a challenge. I’m starting off easy with week one consisting of the bathroom, kitchen, and foyer. As of now, the bathroom is scrubbed and the kitchen is in progress. I figured they’re easier and maybe they’ll inspire me.

I’ll need all the inspiration I can get because week 2 is the computer room, week three is the living room/bedroom, and week 4 is the craft room otherwise known as the room I forget I have because I keep the door closed and don’t go in there. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you may have noticed all the desperate cleaning attempts. For some of us it’s harder than normal.

Plus, I’ll be graduating in December without the slightest clue as to where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing. I’ve been trying to chuck all unneccessary stuff in my life so it’ll be easier to pack and move, but haven’t had the results I’ve wanted. Hopefully this month will point me in the right direction.

I’ve got some weekend adventure pictures still waiting to be posted and, if all goes well, I may have a FO by the end of the summer. Let’s see shall we?

Providence Canyon

Now, I’m not one to take a whole lot of pictures. Sure it’s fun, but that means I have to lug it around. We’re ignoring the fact that it’s small enough to fit in my pocket. I usually take it with me, but never take pictures. As a matter of fact, if I’m going somewhere with my amatuer photographer friends I usually just tell them to send me ones they’ve taken. Still, here’s what I’ve got from our first weekend trip from the April challenge.

The Gang! You'll notice me on the far left. Yeah, I'm the one who looks retarded because I couldn't get all my gear on my back.

 

The first leg of the hike was through a lovely clay creek. Did I mention my boots aren't waterproof?

 

A leftover montage from a previous camping party. This was dinner central.

The Shovel. Enough said.

 

 

 

One of the more interesting bits of flora we found during our hike.

 

It's alive!

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I know I’ve mentioned before how much I hate the picture uploader on WordPress. I think it stands repeating: I HATE the picture uploader on WordPress.

Saturday’s My New Favorite

Last Saturday was a surprise. It started slow. I rolled out of bed when I felt like it and read for hours while eating. It wasn’t until late afternoon/evening that I ventured out. I stopped for a latte, trying a flavor I hadn’t had in at least a year. The sky was grey with rain and the air was moist and breezy- my favorite kind of day. I was listening to a CD I had just made with some great new songs. Then I headed to Hobby Lobby.

You haven’t heard about any of my new yarn loves because I haven’t had any. I can’t even remember how long it’s been since I was last at a craft store. And I bought yarn! Once back in the car, it hit me: I was having an awesome day. A freaking, whole-heartedly, soul-warmingly GOOD day. It’s been such a bleak time for me, feeling like I’ve completely lost myself and not being able to even accomplish the simplest things. I’ve been lost. Saturday I reclaimed a bit of myself.

I topped off my day with a little exploratory drive and some knitting in front of Jane Austen movies which lead me to a new project. You can’t expect me to work on the same dozen for too long can you? Besides, the only one I could actually find made me want to scream and the only challenging one was MIA. Enter new Hobby Lobby yarn and I am ready to make another shawl. I threw the pattern together and I’m off. Even though I’ve already discovered some problems (miscounts) and discovered that the way I was knitting it was too wide so I effectively rotated the pattern in lieu of frogging. Such is life.

As long as it’s been since I waltzed into a craft store, it’s been nearly as long since I’ve spent any quality time on Ravelry. Oh yeah. Inspiration ho! Knitting is something I look forward to again, even if I only actually knit for 5 minutes and look at it for the other hour. I may not be fast and I may not knit more than two rows a day, but I feel like I may have some FOs this year. Except for this new shawl that reminds me of spring. That might be my FO for spring 2011.

Edit: I’m such a slacker that I couldn’t get this posted last Saturday. Luckily, this one has been much like the last. Only this time, I found my challenging UFO and have knit for hours. Yes, hours. Seriously. I’ve gotten a lot done on it with very few mistakes. Since this is my first real lace piece, I’m quite proud of what I’ve got so far. I think I’m even half-way done!

I’ve promised challenge pictures from last month, and I’ve finally found my camera. They’re coming soon. In the meantime, I’m making good on this month’s challenge and am pushing myself to work more than I have in a good long while. Hopefully, it will pay off as much as I think it will.

I hope everyone is having as good a day as I am. Looking forward to catching up with you guys again soon. Happy Saturday!

2008 Knits

Looking back over a year, I realized just how much I’ve learned. I could hardly knit and purl in the same row, and here I am, knitting and purling away. I learned about drop stitches, cable stitches, using beads, and working with a ton of different yarns. I tried my hand at entrelac, lace, and shaping.

I also realized how little I’ve knit. Yeah, a couple of shawls and some scarves, a few crochet blocks early in the year, but nothing too grand. It’s nice to know I’ve knit at all since it doesn’t seem like it. But it still seems a little puny. Oh well. I’ve knit, crocheted, made soap, weaved (though I never got around to telling you about it). Plus, there’s always 2009, even if I am off to a slow start. Let’s see what I can pull off this year, eh?

Isn’t this cute? I wrote this in February, probably hoping that by saying this I would be able to psych myself up for more knitting. I feel like such a slacker in the knitting department. Truly, I have been excessively busy. Still, it seems like knitting has become such a large part of my life and how people perceive me that that’s one of the first things they ask about. I’m always thinking of it, but just can’t seem to get around to it.

But guess what? I knit last night. Maybe less than a dozen rows, but it’s knitting right? It’s also on an unfinished Christmas present. It’s for the ex-fiance’s grandmother. The project was an experiment that I wanted to try, but it seemed to be taking forever. Well it is taking forever, but I don’t want to give up on it.

Summer is here and I’ve got a lot to catch up on. I need to start getting my life back in order and start doing the things I love again. Can I get a witness! This is work month right? Well, let’s start working!

Challenge Recap

Hey everyone. I always feel bashful after such a long hiatus. I do have good excuses this time. No lie. Since spring break back in March, I’ve traveled at least once a month, started a new job, taken on new projects, and broken up with my fiance. Through all of this, my poor apartment has suffered the most. I’ve been desperately trying to catch up with my own life and not always succeeding.

Spring break was spent in Colorado with the now ex-fiance. Then I was off to Dayton, Ohio for the R.I.S.E. Symposium. I was one of eight business students chosen to go, and because we went, we also got wrangled into starting the first portfolio for the stock trading competition done at R.I.S.E. as well as help make plans for our school’s first trading room. It was great to be chosen and get to be involved in all this, but it was during the last month of school, so it was busy and we didn’t get half of what we wanted accomplished yet. Soon. Plus, Dayton was super ghetto. There was nothing there except two notable restaurants: The Dublin Pub and some pizza joint next to an ice cream place that I can’t even remember the name of now. Yeah, it was like that.

Now that we’re caught up, let’s look at March’s challenge: read the paper everyday.

Verdict: Fail. Utterly, miserably, totally fail. I tried for the first few days then caput.

April Challenge: Weekend voyages. My best friend came up with this one inspired by my challenge idea. So for every weekend, we went somewhere new and exciting. For me at least. We tried to do as much outdoor stuff as possible.

Weekend 1: Providence Canyon

It was really pretty. None of us, and there were 7 of us with a dog, had ever really camped before. Sure, I’ve done more car camping than most people can boast, but to hike in with all your gear and water was something else. Over the coarse of two days, we hiked probably 10 miles. Well, they hiked more than that but I shit out because I hurt my leg and am generally a wimp. Still, I had a full experience.

Weekend 2: Renaissance Festival and La Buzz

This is the third year in a row that we’ve gone to the Ren Fair together. Fun as always. Then she took me to her favorite club in Marietta called La Buzz. It’s a club that has a drag show for the first half followed by intense dancing. I got to kiss a drag queen and dance for hours, both things I don’t normally get to do. Had an AWESOME time.

Weekend 3: Okeefenokee Swamp

This one is definitely one to brag about. I’ve never really been on the water before. So for my first canoe trip, we paddled 12 miles into the swamp, camped overnight on a raised platform with alligators next to us, then paddled 12 miles out. I also discovered that I am really NOT good in a kayak. Seriously. I did 3 miles in one and probably covered more ground than anyone since I couldn’t steer to save my life and zig-zagged the entire way. Still, 24 miles on the water and only 1 blister. Beat that on your first time out!

Weekend 4: Love Affair

Okay, this one was just on me since we didn’t have anything planned for that last weekend that was technically in May. Still, I’ve always wanted to go to Love Affair. It’s an outdoor arts festival in Tifton. For Friday night, we met up with our outdoorsy group and had dinner while listening to the jazz band hosted by the festival. Then Saturday, we went to the park for the actual event. I’m amazed at how much talent there is even in such a small place as South Georgia. Showed me, right? I walked away with a beautiful earring tree and almost ALMOST bought a 2 foot tall mushroom to use as an end table from the chainsaw sculpting table. Of all the years I’ve lived in and around Tifton, I’m glad I finally went since this might be the last opportunity I have.

April Verdict: SUCCESS! Wild success.

I’ll be posting some of the (very) few pictures I took during these excursions soon. In the meantime, this month’s challenge.

May Challenge: Work like you mean it.

March Challenge

So let’s recap a bit. February’s challenge consisted of going to class no matter what. Because of the mid-challenge check-ups I posted, we all know that I wasn’t perfect. There were days I skipped because of the fiance coming into town. There were days that I couldn’t drag myself out of bed. In essence, I was still me. However, I can guarantee that I made it to class a lot more than I would have had I not issued myself the challenge. I am in a much better place as far as making myself go when I don’t want to. So was the challenge perfect? Not by a long shot. Was the challenge successful? I would give it a resounding yes. The intent was to make myself more accountable and try to scrounge up that “get-up-and-go” that I used to have so much of. It’s starting to come back now.

February: Challenge Complete

With February over before I knew it, I found myself unprepared for March. There were several challenges I was interested in doing. But you know what? I started exploring some before I even issued a challenge! I’m discovering an alter ego named Princess Fifi that I wasn’t aware I had. I’m getting down to cooking more and trying to stick to a very bare bones budget to save for my move after graduation. I’ve even broken out a few projects I’ve been meaning to try. So what to do?

March’s challenge is to read the paper every day. I know, not really that big for some of you. However, I had to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal for a class and this is the first time in my life that I can read news in print. This challenge makes sense now because I’m desperately trying to figure out my future, make myself more marketable, and I’m not renewing this subscription. The rules: I don’t have to read it cover to cover. I do have to sit down with it and make an honest go of it every day that it’s released (Monday-Saturday). This was the first day and I can say that this might actually make me a much angrier person, but at the very least I will also be more informed. Despite the fact that the WSJ was bought out and now you have to filter your information, as a finance major you can’t find a better resource to stay up to date in this crazy market.

March: Challenge Issued

Also, as a note, I did not make the clock featured in my last post. I wish. I hope to one day be anywhere near that talented. It’s done in crochet and the picture is a link to the site I found it on. Go there for more information. Over and out.

Upcoming Patterns

The last two weeks have been a little iffy. I told you about dropping the tax class, but I also dropped an economics course. It’s an interesting subject. Unfortunately, our teacher isn’t actually teaching it and there was a little incident in class that made me want to decapitate him. Plus, I already have to go to summer school now, so what’s one extra class? Add to that the fact that I missed several classes. Again. My excuse is that the fiance came down for V-day, so I feel I can be a little excused. I jumped right back on though and haven’t missed since.

So, with all my newfound free time, I’ve been knitting a little more every night. Remember my diagonal drop stitch scarf fiasco? Well, I’m actually going to give you patterns for them. Honest to goodness patterns. One will be the one that I posted the picture for and the other will be another drop stitch scarf with tapered ends. The second especially is good for people just learning how to think about using increases and decreases to shape pieces. I’ll probably post that one first since I have more progress on it. If you’re a beginning knitter, be looking out for that soon.

In the meantime, check this out.

A Shawl, a Surrender, and Some Hope

Alright, I’ll admit it. I missed a class Monday morning. I just kinda… slept instead. However, I jumped right back on the horse and haven’t missed anything since. There. That’s off my chest.

So let’s talk about another one of my horses. In my last post, I asked for free help from the accountants of the world. Well, I won’t be needing that anymore. I bombed my first test in income tax. Bombed as in Hiroshima. Or so I think at least, because I dropped before I bothered to find out what I made. Effort-wise, I spent more time slogging through tax law and writing papers about tax court than focusing on my major-specific classes. That’s a waste of time and energy in my book. So, I’ll take a lower-level accounting elective over the summer. Summer classes… ugh.

Is everyone ready for some hope? Okay, well my rabbit chewed through my phone and TV cables, so I can’t watch movies and have to be careful with the phone. That’s not the hope part. This is: I’m knitting again. I hadn’t realized how little I’ve knit since the beginning of school or how much that’s stressed me out. I mean, I still haven’t finished Christmas presents. I realize knitting cable covers isn’t exactly tackling my to-do list, but I’m doing something I love again that will protect the sanctity of my film watching, ensuring the goodness of mindless knitting in the future. So there’s that.

And then there’s this: Mom’s Shawl. Yes, the one I finished BEFORE my Christmas deadline. Sometimes I’m not totally slack. I used a simple feather and fan pattern and several colors of I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby. I Love This Yarn is much softer than Red Heart but just as cheap. And since I refuse to use Red Heart for anything that goes on or near the body, this is the best basic, cheap acrylic out there. It doesn’t block well though. I’m not sure if it was because I knit with two strands held together and it was too thick, or you just have to douse the hell out of it. Otherwise, I think it worked up pretty nicely and both me and my mom are very happy with it.

Challenge: Week 1

How have you all been? Anything exciting heppen? As for me, nothing exciting so much as debilitatingly boring and extremely stressful. Are any of you tax experts? If so, give me a call because I’m taking a class entirely dedicated to income tax law. I’m not even an accounting major! This is the last accounting elective I need to take and it’s killing me. Though, as you may have guessed, I have a new computer!  That’s been the highlight so far.

You may have noticed from my last post that I’m feeling overwhelmed. Most of my life, I’ve been very confident in myself and my abilities. However, the last few years I’ve taken a massive hit and don’t quite know how to recover. For the past several months in particular, I’ve felt lost. The only way I know how to fix it is to take back control of my life, in any way possible. Hence, the February challenge.

How have I done so far this month? Awesome. For one week, I’ve attended every class. Thanks to the school board, we even had class this Saturday. That sucked ass, but I’ve managed to go to all of them. I’ve been bored, tired, pissed, and sad, but in class no matter what. And for one week, I haven’t had to ask anyone what we did, what I needed to catch up on, or what the plan is. It’s a good feeling. Sometimes it’s the little things that can help make you feel better, even if you’re otherwise drowning.

So, for all of you out there in blogland, keep your heads up. I’ll try to do the same. We can take on next week together.