Monday, November 4, 2013

Christmas Brainstorming

So this year it's even more important that I make people Christmas gifts. We're moving, Chris is taking a pay cut, and I just quite my job. Oh and we have to sell our apartment, so every month we still own it and are paying rent somewhere else, we'll be taking a loss. So hand-made gifts it is. (Another plus, if I say "Hey I need ALL my yarn with me because I'm making all our christmas presents!" I won't have to pack it up and put it in storage. Win Win.)


Some ideas ...

Slippers
I came across this pattern, and it was so easy and adorable:


http://jaysboutiqueblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/free-pattern-womens-house-slippers.html

I made myself some in about two evenings.
262

So easy and very customizable. My mom has already said she wants a pair. And I think I can play with the basic design and make some pretty funky variations ...

Shark Socks. cute gift idea for Josh/Wendy




"oh, I love your boots."

Hats
Dad has started fishing, and did you know that a Fisherman's Rib is a thing? It's really warm and thick. Thinking a hat, with some rustic, manly yarn, and maybe a funky decrease.






Scarf
I found an almost done scarf in my stash that I think I can finish and give to Mom.



It's a really pretty Garden Lattice sort of pattern, and I had always intended to put little flowers on the ends and make it look like a garden.

Our Garden: 5

My Garden 008

summer vine

It was fun to pick it up again after several YEARS of hibernation and try to remember how to do the stitch! And since then I've been pinning some cute flower patterns, so I should able to do those pretty quickly.


This site has a couple different flower patterns.






Bags
As always, bags are a good option. I've had my eye on these for a while.

crochet bag

granny square bag



Bowls
I've also had my eye on these. Crochet a lace patter, put fabric stiffener (or glue or sugar solution) and shape around a bowl.

lace bowl (stiffen with sugar water!)

crochet bowls


And for little people ... Mrs. Kinne, look away now.

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My friend Emily had given Ro a bunch of knitted/felted play foods, and he LOVES them! I want to give something like that to a certain little girl whose mother is itching for some imaginative play.

crochet food


Where I shine

We've been living a lie for about a month now. Chris came home a few weeks ago and "popped the question" ... and since I had already agreed to marry him and love him forever and ever like years ago, he decided to mix it up: "What if we moved to Northampton?"

Back up a few more weeks. Chris likes to practice "real estate porn", where he looks at houses for sale in different neighborhoods and sees how big a house we could get for what we paid for our apartment. I find it really depressing ... did you know that for what we paid for a 2BR apartment in Queens, NY, we could have a private compound with a pool and servant quarters in Alvin, TX? For some reason he loves it.
Anyway, he was surfing around, getting turned on by square-footage, and proposed that someday we could move to the Northampton area. I went to school there, it's very green, there are woods nearby. "Sure," I said. "When the time comes I think that's a great option."
Chris went a step further and found an engineering firm that looked promising. "Someday", he said, "that's where I would like to end up. In a place like that."

Fast forward. Imagine some seedy, gross porn music. Picture Chris sitting in his office at work, glancing around to see if anyone is going to walk in on him. He opens up his real estate site, and finds Florence, MA, a little town just outside of NoHo. It has little houses, big back yards, and a diner. Chris starts to flush, he's getting a little too excited. He clicks over to MassLive.com, a local news and classifieds site, and searches his dream company. He almost calls out in ecstasy ... that company has just posted a job for his exact level, his exact job. ... what should he do?

Now, if this were a movie, or last season of "The Office", he would have kept it a secret and gone to interview for the job without telling me. But instead he came home early and asked me what I thought about it. After a minute or two of freaking out, I was actually on board. It was technically part of The Plan, it just jumped up the queue a little.

This was Oct 7. We updated Chris's resume and then spend a week in an anxious tizzy. They called, they loved him, they wanted to set up an interview. On Oct 16 he drove up and interviewed. There was a part of me that hoped he'd come back and report that while they loved him (of course), he didn't like them/the office/the management/whatever, so nothing would have to change. But no, he loved them. It's exactly where he wants to be. We spent another week or so living in two adjacent universes -- one where we would be moving soon, very soon maybe; and one where nothing was going to change. Those two things don't go very well together, especially when you (ehem, me) are a planner by trade.

On Tuesday the 22nd, they called and offered him the job. He took the obligatory day or two to discuss it and tell his own bosses, and accepted. His start date is Dec 2. Friday Oct 25, it was official. We were leaving.

It had been an emotionally exhausting few weeks. That night Chris plopped down in his big chair and said, "I am so tired. I could just go to bed right now and sleep for days!"

"NO!!!" I shouted. "This is where the fun part starts!!!!"

... because now I can start organizing, color-coding, packing, and throwing things out.

This part is where I shine!

... to be continued.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Big news!!!

No, I'm not pregnant ... why doesn't everyone keep asking me that?

We're MOVING!!! Like for real moving. Away away. The husband got a new job and we're packing up and moving back to Massachusetts. I quit my job.

holy hell, I quit my job. WHO DOES THAT?!?!?!

I'm gonna do the mom thing until we're settled, then I'll pick up my Childbirth Ed stuff where I've left off (which is almost done! More on that bit of craftiness later). I have some freelance stuff in the works too.

But for the first few months or so, I'm going to be Rowan's Momma, LLC. Full time, no benefits (except hugs, I guess). But guess what you guys, Pinterest is just bursting with all those awesome moms and all the adorable educational shit they do with their kids all day. I could BE one of those moms! Also, I'm always complaining that the SAHMs have all the cool activities to themselves, like Toddler Yoga that's only allowed at 11am on Tuesdays when the rest of us are working. I'm about to infiltrate that secret society of daytime parenting ... I'll report back if I discover anything unsavory.

So yes, stay tuned for:
1) posts about moving and how I'm awesome at it.
2) posts about figuring out crafty things to do with my kid for 8 hours a day.
3) posts about knitting Christmas gifts for everyone because we can't afford to buy Christmas gifts this year because I just quit my job ... seriously, who does that?

Or no posts at all because I'll be taking care of that kid all day. He's kind of a handful. Though my first plan of attack is to set him up with a day planner. We'll make sure to schedule "blogging" in there. Also naps. For me.