knitting

Dec182011

Catch Up Post & a Pumpkin Cranberry Biscuit Recipe

So, um, hi there. I can’t believe it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I’ve been here. Lots been happening in my time away. Such as, in chronological order…

I ditched my iPhone for a Samsung Infuse 4G. Yep, I went Android. And I freakin L-O-V-E it!
I designed a knitting pattern for a Checkered Ribs Cowl. And had it tested by a great group of ladies on Ravelry that loved it so much, they each knit 2 versions of it.
Discovered Texts From Bennett – which turned out to be a fake blog, but that doesn’t stop me from laughing until there are tears streaming down my face.
Hubby got back into twitter bc he finally upgraded to a smart phone. His. Mine.
And then he joined FourSquare. His. Mine.
I cooked a lot. Potato soup.
And baked.
Re-read the whole Hunger Games trilogy. Mmm love.
Found some old friends of Facebook.
I interviewed for a job – which required lots of shopping for “modest” clothing due to the religious nature of the position.
And then I got that job. What what..! (I will actually do a full post on this once I begin on January 2nd.)
Thanks to Facebook, I saw a friend get engaged. Another give birth. And another get married.
Looked for a new place to live. After all, driving from Homestead to Miami Beach and sitting in traffic for 2 hours each way every day does not sound like a fun plan to me.
Lola got worms. Eww, I know, but they’re being handled.
We toured Babies R Us one evening and picked out the nursery furniture and crib bedding for out future kids. No, I’m not pregnant. They had the nearest bathroom and then we didn’t leave for another 45 minutes. If you’re wondering, dark wood and monkeys.
Hubby found out he has a nasty respiratory problem – inherited from his father and could pass it to our kids. Well, if we have biological ones, that is.

And all this is courtesy of the new timeline on Facebook. Damn, that thing is helpful!

And now a recipe… Cranberry Pumpkin Breakfast Biscuits
(Snagged from Dig This Chick. She adapted it from this recipe.)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dried cranberries (I used fresh cranberries, chopped into pieces.)

Preheat oven to 375*.

In a large mixing bowl, or your stand mixer bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
Beat in vanilla, egg and pumpkin.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Or, you know, don’t sift it. I sure didn’t.
Stir cranberries into mixture until well blended.
Spoon heaping spoonfuls of batter on a prepared cookie sheet. (This means parchment paper… until I ran out of trays and used muffin tins.)
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

They will be soft and moist and divine! I made these for my aunts 60th birthday party and had to walk out of the kitchen to avoid eating more than one of them. Oh yes, I probably could’ve eaten the whole batch. So good!

Oct262011

Gred and Forge Weasley Gloves

I am a knitter. You knew that, right? I am crazy about fibers and knitting and finding new patterns and really want to design my own items one day. I’ll probably start with a shawl/ wrap as it’s pretty easy to design a flat triangle of fabric. Or at least I assume so. Yep, I used the word assume. 😉

Anyhow, I am a member of the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry. Ravelry, of course, being my favorite site on the entire internet. OK, maybe not, but you get what I mean.

So a few weeks ago, I signed up for a test knit for some super cute fingerless gloves. Sure, it took me a lot longer than the rest of the testers, but I’m immensely pleased with how they turned out! Of course they’re Gator colors. I used stash yarn that I had sitting in a box from years ago and since there wasn’t enough for both gloves, I alternated the colors. So they’re kinda like the Weasley twins… the same, but different.

Jun072011

25 Things About Me

I used to be very big on Livejournal. Once, a few months back, I used a blog printing website (LJBook.com) to create a book of all my posts and, that book? It was over 7,000 posts and 4500 pages. Now, keep in mind that I was very active between 2003 and 2008.

But I digress.

I was digging around to find some of my earliest knitting projects posted on LJ and not on Ravelry, and I found one of those “25 Things About Me” lists from January 2009. After reading though it, not a whole lot has changed. It’s posted below with the updates in green.

1. I grew up in the “country” of Miami. There were no sidewalks, no street lamps, and a bunch of horses around the corner. Oh, and the smallest lot in the area was 1 acre.

2. I learned to knit in a bar. By a half drunk girl. <3 Now I’m obsessed with knitting! Seriously love it. However, I have knitting ADD and rarely finish a project before starting a new one (or 3)

3. On that note, I collect yarn for it’s softness and colors. No clue what’ll ever be made with about 2/3’s of my yarn stash. But at least I did finally start organizing it all. (It’s in several bins by yarn weight. I’m actually starting to list about a dozen for sale that I likely won’t ever use.)

4. I am horribly terrified of spiders, rats and, to a lesser degree, snakes.

5. When I was about 12, my “job” was to feed the hundreds of birds that we owned. Did it all the way through high school.

6. Die hard Gator fan. Die Hard. Even though I’m currently enrolled and paying an arm and leg for my MBA at ECU, my love for the Gators vastly outweighs my love for the Pirates. (sorry ECUers!) (Scratch that, graduated May 2010)

7. I tend to start watching shows a season or 2 after they start and then watch every single episode. Like LOST, I got into it 3 episodes to the end of season 4. Then proceeded to watch every episode in a matter of weeks to catch up. (Yup, just did this with both Drop Dead Diva and Secret Life of the American Teenager. Oh, and Firefly. And Doctor Who. And Torchwood.)

8. I have a personal vendetta against Ben Affleck. He got Jennifer Garner pregnant and ruined my favorite show (at the time) – Alias. (I fully admit that this is weird, even for me.)

9. I will watch everything J.J. Abrams produced or will produce. By far my favorite producer/ director/ writer. (And bonus, he tries to always cast Greg Grunberg in everything he does! Love him!)

10. I want to have lots and lots of babies. And have a list of names that I love. Now to find names I love that overlap with names Steve loves. (uhh yeah, still have that list, but the overlapping list is far far shorter. Blah.)

11. I was engaged right out of college. My feelings for him paled in comparison to the person I truly loved when I was in college. We’re talking head over heels love as compared to lukewarm love. And we never even dated, that’s the sad part. (He and I are both married now, obviously to different people, but seeing his wedding pics was a bit bittersweet.)

12. I’d basically given up on online dating when I met Steve. I had no idea how things would end up even though I did know there was something special and different about him on our 1st date.

13. I proposed.

14. My parents have 25+ dogs and I can name them all… but only when I’m there and looking at them. And yes, the majority of them look exactly alike except for a few markings. (They’re down to about 20 now… I think. I honestly don’t know bc they’re never all out at the same time.)

15. I have 5 tattoos and counting, but not a single one is anywhere that will be affected by being pregnant or nursing my kids. 3 on my ankles, 1 on my neck and 1 on my hip. (7 now! The other 2 are on the collar bone and on the left wrist.)

16. I was raised in a Reform Jewish synagogue and had a Jewish education until the 10th grade. I have been celebrating Christmas with Jen’s family since I was 16-17 years old and can never even remember when the Jewish holidays are.. let alone observe them. Jen or my mom has to tell me.

17. Stars are my favorite shape and 12 my favorite number. (Other favorite numbers are 843 and 42, with the latter being 1/3 of my latest tattoo.)

18. One of my tattoo’s is a seemingly random cluster of 37 stars – 3 different shapes/ sizes. There is nothing random as I drew it in Photoshop very deliberately with a specific design in mind. Also, the 4th and smallest stars were left off as they’d have been nothing but a needle prick.

19. I taught myself web design when I was a freshman at UF. I didn’t like my dorm roommate very much and spent all my free time in CIS Lab (the computer lab) tearing apart websites to figure out how they’re made.

20. The majority of my friends in college were made on IRC back when the internet was safe – yes, there was a time when it was safe! We all met up in #uf and had reunions in Gainesville for years afterwards. Many of them I’ve found again thanks to FB!

21. By that token, I got online in 1994

22. When I finish my MBA (May 2010) I will be able to manage at IT department, and also know what they’re talking about since I’ll have been coding websites for almost exactly half my life. (At my age, that’s a feat!) (Will be able, err, am able… yet still unemployed by MBA standards. Grr.)

23. I’m a label whore when it comes to my purses. I own Coach, Lucky Brand, loads of Vera Bradley and a knock off Kate Spade. (While I do have a few Coach bags and tons of Vera Bradley’s, my favorite is a no name faux leather bag from Kohl’s.)

24. I’d love, more then anything, to learn more about my dad’s mother Clara. My brothers and I didn’t find out she’d even existed until a few years ago and it was unbelievably weird and freaky to find out that his step-mother wasn’t his real mom. It was also somewhat of a relief since she always treated me like I was the most horrible person ever. BTW, Clara died when my dad was very very young before he was moved to Florida from Chicago. (I still don’t know very much, though I do know her maiden name. However, that’s about where my knowledge ends. :()

25. I am the only bridge of communication between my parents and brothers and my dad’s step-mom’s family. My “cousins” are awesome even if the parental/ grandparental generations don’t get along.

*wow. that was really difficult to come up with.*

Clearly I haven’t changed all that much in the last 2.5 years.

Mar242011

Knitting Geekiness

This seriously excites my little coding geeky heart. I figured out how to add my In Progress knits and Finished knits to their very own page. Huge thanks to the groups over at Ravelry for directing me to the widget and code.

Check it out in the main menu bar or here: Knitting Projects

Ta-dahhhhh!

Sorry, my knitting has been a major source of happiness for me during the last few years and now I can properly share my beautiful projects.

Also, be sure to Like my yarn store on Facebook: Sheep2Skein

Mar042011

Recent Design Stuff, Mild Depression

Hello my friends,

It’s been quite busy lately for me.

Recent creative accomplishments:
* Created the adorable business cards from a few posts back
* Designed the theme for this blog
* Designed/created a business card holder from scrap yarn [pattern forthcoming!]

Upcoming accomplishments:
* Legalizing my companies
* Preparing for Word Camp Miami this Saturday
* Knitting a [test knit pattern] sweater
* Job hunting, primarily in Orlando
* Going back to school (no clue for what though!)

While things are busy, mentally I’m not doing so fabulous. There is everything and nothing going on at the same time. Between not contributing financially and living in a place I despise, I feel out of my mind. I am sorta on the mend – as much as I can. Working through depression without professional assistance is difficult, to say the least.

It was suggested that I buy the book, The Dance of Anger to read and work through my problems. Here’s hoping, yes?

Jan032011

Getting Back into the Blogging Groove

Hello my friends!

How was your first weekend in 2011? Ours was extremely low-key, same as the few hours before and after we rang it in. We cooked, talked, went to Barnes & Noble (one of our favorite places), had dinner at Mario’s (another favorite), I knit, he practiced his Rosetta Stone Spanish, and we slept in quite a bit. Steve is back at work tonight, so it’s just me, the animals and a CSI marathon on Spike.

I’m currently doing a test knit for a pair of socks on Ravelry. Are any of you Ravelry members? Hit me up if you are! I’m rbf42 on there. The part of the socks I’m working on:

We discussed adoption a whole lot more as well. Right now we’re really in a bad financial position to bring a child into our lives. We really want to pay off/ down our debt, both have high[er] paying jobs, have a larger house (room for a nursery) and a few other things. Will they happen? No idea. Will we get pregnant before they happen? No idea. Will we still adopt in 2-ish years? Absolutely. Well, really no idea as it may be less or more of a time frame. Only time will really tell on that one.

Right now I’m playing the waiting game. During the last week I have been feeling like major crap with headaches, heartburn, indigestion, nausea and sheer exhaustion. Seriously, I could sleep for a week and still be exhausted. Every time I posted these symptoms, my girlfriends would chime in about those sounding familiar. As it turns out, they are also symptoms of depression and serious under eating. I am guilty of both lately. Who knows which it is, even though I’d be willing to place a wager on the depression/ under eating as the culprit.

Well, tomorrow it’s back to the grind. I know I am fortunate to have a job, even though it is only a few hours a week. So, here’s to an amazing year for all of us!

Nov282010

I Miss Snow and Cold Weather

I have an itch… to get out of Florida and back to the cold weather. Seriously, I hate it here. It has been in the 80s all week. Some may find that dreamy, but I find it to be the worse possible thing ever. It’s the holidays for Pete’s sake! I demand cold/ see your breath weather for months on end! I demand the smell of snow in the air and the anticipation of waking up to a light dusting in the mornings. I even demand icy windshield’s that make me late for work because I forgot to leave early enough to scrape it off.

I want to wear sweaters, thick socks, scarves and cute hats that I’ve knit up. Honestly, even though I made fun of them, I’d even wear Uggs… that is if I won a pair. I want to have my knitting mojo back! Seriously, the desire to knit is so freaking low that I can barely stand it. But that’s not the only reason I want to live in a cold climate again. The only real way my sheep farm will work is in a cold climate. The colder the weather, the more wool will grow and the more yummy yarn I’ll eventually have.

Oh, by the way, I was totally doing my research at Barnes & Noble yesterday and reading Barnyard in your Backyard. It was a good beginner’s guide to raising several breeds of animals, including sheep, geese, and rabbits. The biggest issue is finding a place warm enough for the ducks and geese and cold enough for the sheep to grow excesses of wool. I did learn that it wouldn’t take acres and acres of space for these animals too. They don’t need hundreds of acres, just enough for grazing, shelter and frolicking. We might even be able to do is on 10 acres to begin with. The hardest part is picking the location because then it’s a whole lot more research and finding funding.

Sigh. One day my dream will come true. Sheep2Skein, here I come!

Nov212010

Productive Day & Opening a Business?

Today was very productive in my world.

* I created a logo for my friend Kelly’s church group’s event. It’s super cute and pending the next set of edits.

* I did loads of research for sheep farms. Yep, totally random! Hubby and I started talking about where we want to be in 5 years and what we wanted to have accomplished. Having a sheep farm would be pretty damn amazing for so many reasons, and also because…

* I registered the domain name for my YARN SHOP! While I may not be a really experienced knitter having only been crafting goodies since late 2006, it is still a passion of mine. Nothing would make me happier than having my own yarn shop.

One day, eventually, the Fletcher’s will be the proud owners of Sheep 2 Skein Yarn Shop in a state yet to be determined, but definitely somewhere up north.

Sure, owning our own business will certainly take a lot of capital, which is also why the sheep farm would be helpful. Shearing sheep for wool apparently makes a decent amount of money. Sure sure, a sheep farm costs a crapload of money too. We have quite a few things to sort out.

Also, owning a business will make my life super flexible for having kids once we find a really reliable manager and staff.

In a perfect world, right? Well, at least I bought the domain. LOL

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