Twenty Days Yarn Free

Hi, My name is Sarah Smith and I have gone 20 days without purchasing any yarn.

I had to skip the Winter Wool Fest and I have not gone into the local yarn store (even though I really need a nice button).  I even passed up going into Hobby Lobby.  *sigh*  

I have been going through the yarn in my stash and finding projects on Ravelry that I could do.  I've been going to the patterns page and then narrowing down the search by yarn weight and yardage that I have on hand.  So far I have three projects in mind.  Each project is a large time consuming project.  Each will take a month or more to finish.  PLUS I have those UFO's to work on still.  

So Right now I'm working on The Springtime Bandit.  Using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes that was given to me by a friend over Christmas.  I have/had 5 skeins of it and hopefully when I finish my Bandit, I'll have one or less :)

As far as my UFO's have gone, I pulled out my Pogona shawl and started tinking.  I want to undo a few rows then I'll knit up the last two rows and will hopefully have enough yarn to bind off.  Keeping my fingers cross.

Well, I hope everyone's new year has been going well.  I promise some pictures next time! 

Knitting in the New Year

Artist: Mansha Friedrich Photo by Julian Stratenschulte of Getty Images

Happy New Year Everyone! 

No better way to bring in the New year then with knitting needles in your hands!  I found this photo at Los Angeles Times Photography.  It is from 2011 but I found it to be the best New Year's photo google had to offer.  The Artist pictured is Mansha Friedrich of Hanover Germany.  I do not know how to read (or speak) German but she appears to be a known Artist who creates large works of art using fiber, called Urban Knitting, very similar to what I call Yarn bombing but on a larger and more artistic scale.  All I can say about that is. . . YOU GO GIRL!  And Mansha, if you get to read this: Hello From Kansas, USA!

Well, we've been in to 2013 for almost 12 hours now. . .and I haven't bought any yarn.  Phew, doing good so far.  I kinda of panicked the other day, what if I NEEDED more dishcloth cotton?  *rolls eyes*  I can do this.  I will do this.  I NEED to do this.

I am writing this from a coffee shop.  They are having a "Hangover Brunch" and asked my husband to provide some live music.  Though I am not hungover (I didn't drink at all last night), drinking coffee and listening to him play is a great way to spend my first day of 2013.  Hope everyone else has  something lovely to enjoy today! 

What's Goin' on?!?!

I know that I have been pretty silent for a while now and I don't think I'm going to even try to catch up with blogging about what life has brought me. . however, I can start right where I'm at. 

1. I've been working out of the book The Artist's Way.  I'm in week 11 out of 12 and I'm feeling pretty good about it.  

Amazon.com Review

"With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity."

I don't really feel blocked or unblocked. . but I have learned some things about myself during this process and I'm glad I've done it.  Because I own the book, I'll probably do it again in a few years time.  Julia Cameron has other books with the same concepts.  I think the next book of her's that I'll try is The Artist's way at Work. 

 

2. I've given up on Christmas Knitting. . I've finished a few things and I've decided that I'm not going to freak out and try to finish all the projects that I had planned on doing.  Not worth the crazy.  

3. I've been thinking a lot about my 2013 New Year's Resolution.  This is where life gets kinda crazy. . . 

- I'm currently trying to pay off all my debts: credit cards & medical bills.  So spending less sounds like a good place to start.

- I have LOTS of unfinished knitting projects (known as UFO's).  I went through my knitting "area" and put all projects on needles in a box.  The box overflows with UFO's.  

- While going through my stash, I was reminded of the amount of sock yarn I own. . . . last year's resolution was to knit one pair of socks per month, I made 7 out of 12. . .   good enough for my first attempt but I still have a crap-ton of sock yarn.

     So, keeping those things in mind, my 2013 New Year's Resolution is:

Do not buy yarn for the year of 2013, Knit from your stash!

     I know that might be scary for some knitters. . . .  But really, I did spend a lot of money in the past year on yarn when that money could have gone to paying off a bill faster.  The time spent shopping, storing, and (yes) smelling the yarn (I know I'm not the only one who does that!) could have been spent knitting on projects in my stash or finishing a UFO.  

But not buying ANY yarn??  Ok, I have some exceptions, if some one gives me a gift card to a yarn store for Christmas or my birthday. . I'll probably get yarn.  I will not stop buying sweaters to convert back into yarn. . .  however, I still have a small pile of sweaters to go through.  This summer when we go on vacation, we're probably going to Colorado.  I will allow myself some souvenir yarn IF I come across some that I like.  Hubby is pretty good of staying clear of yarn stores when we are out and about together.  

So there you have it. . . .   My 2013 Resolution. 

Thanksgiving; just us & the cat

 I need to rename this post "My husband is awesome because he knows how to cook"

He made our entire Thanksgiving day meal (except the pumpkin cheesecake) while I watched the movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and knit on some Christmas presents.

Crab dip

yummie Salad

Not Turkey! COW!

Roasted root veggies and Potatoes.

Even Slick the cat wanted in on the action.

As far as the pumpkin pie. . we opted for a cheesecake instead.  Pumpkin Spice cheesecake!  Super easy and fast.  Find the recipe here.  It is a "skinny" recipe, when I made it I undid the skinny part ;)

CD Release Party

 

So Rick's CD came in and we did what we thought was the next step.  CD release Party!

The bad news: the lighting was bad so the pictures didn't come out to well.  So forgive me. .   The Good News: It was an Amazing night!  The place was crowded and people were excited! 

So here are some "horrible lighting" Pictures:

Unfortunately, Rick's parents were not able to attend the party.  So Rick had a drink in his Mom's honor.  Here's your proof, Juliemom, he did drink a Margarita for you!

Last Call

Ok, so I know that it's been a while. . a long while.  Like a few months . . .  and I know that I seem to start new posts like that all the time ;) you should be used to it by now.  

Anywho- Just wanted to post a quick little note about how awesome my Husband is :)

He wrote and recorded a Jazz Album.

Tonight is his CD release party.

Amazon has the MP3 for sale, which makes it available for lovely people like you to have a little listen to each one of his songs. . 

You can find it here.

 If you want to purchase a CD instead of the MP3 please contact me and I'll see what I can do!

I'm the "photographer" tonight so hopefully in the next week or so I'll post some lovely pictures!

Happy knitting everyone and if I don't make it up here before Thanksgiving. . Have a nice holiday too!

Not so Dirty Hippie

So my new friend Lilly sent me and Dear Husband a care package. Mostly books for us to enjoy among some other exciting things. The whole box smelled really really good. That's because she mailed me some Zum Bar soap. I've eyeballed this stuff before at one of our local grocery stores. But I've never picked any up, just sniffed the heck out of them while shopping. This soap has brought out my inner dirty hippie, but in a fresh and clean kind of way. I mean it is soap and I'd have to shower to use it, so I can't be that dirty. 

With all this hippie talk, and to Dear Husband's greatest pleasure (not really), I've started burning incense again.  Damn hippies.  My favorite incense of all time is Nag Champa, but I found some that was Nag Champa with Jasmin.  Yummm.

I've also been reading up on some home made products that are cheaper and possibly more effective then store bought products.
The most recent home-made, cheaper then store bought, hippie item: OCM Face Wash. OCM stands for Oil Cleansing Method. Using an oil that is similar to the pH of the oil my skin produces to help absorb excess oil.

I found an old plastic bottle in my home-made beauty supply box (that has been at the back of the bathroom closet for almost 5 years. AND, I might add, was covered in coconut oil that had leaked all over in the box of home made beauty supplies). I think it was Sea Breeze bottle at first. I put in 4 oz of caster oil then filled the rest up with extra virgin olive oil. I then put in a bit of tea tree oil since I have acne prone skin. This made a lot! I then started the hot water but I didn't get my face wet. I just applied the oil mix to my face and massaged it in. Then I got a washcloth really hot and placed that over my face, letting it warm the oils and let them do their magic. After a min or two I wiped the oil off. Easy as that. Afterwords, my skin felt tight and clean. It had that clean kind of shine to it. It was so clean feeling that I put on some moisturizer, just in case. I don't think I will stop using regular face wash just yet but it felt good to make something that felt so good to use. Felt even better when using a hand-made washcloth for the steaming part!