A little weekend home decor fun

This past weekend, husband and I finally had some time to play around with the house. We went on a field trip Saturday to downtown L.A. where you can buy just about anything on the cheap. We're talking $1/yard fabric stores, discount apparel, shoes, bedding, and...the reason for our visit...rugs! We have been getting tired of the relentless collection of dust under the dining room table and decided that a new rug was totally the way to go.

The trip was very successful, but also very entertaining. Firstly we found a $5 parking structure where we handed the attendant a fresh $20 from the ATM. Turns out, as we were paying for the rug a little later on, he had actually handed us back 2 $5 bills and 10 $1 bills as change. Free parking? OK. Taking a walk through to find a rug shop, husband kept giving me a "no, we cannot stop for (socks/tank tops/shoes/buttons/trims/fabric)" look and hustled my easily distracted self onward. We get to a rug shop and find 4 or 5 designs that we like and want to pick between. The prices were already fantastic, but then husband starts with the "ok, we're going to check another shop and come back" game, where the guy promptly gives us an additional 20% discount. We got a 5"x8" rug for $80 out the door - although husband now had to carry the rug 3 blocks BACK through the melee of shops while trying to keep me from wandering off in an "ooh, shiny" kind of way.

So, new rug in place, we also got started with putting up some artwork around the house. I know we've been there for a year already and have very little hung on the walls, but we've also been very particular about putting things in the "perfect" place given that we're going to be living here for a while (it's a renting not owning thing I guess). The advantages of being a photographer I suppose is the never-ending supply of prints to put up around the place...the disadvantages being choosing which ones to frame and hang. A couple of the larger wedding photo prints are now hanging in the corridor just outside our bedroom, a fantastic photo of the Santa Barbara courthouse in our bedroom, and a set of 4 abstract foliage prints in the downstairs bathroom.

It's amazing how happy these few additions make me as they've given a little more personality to those areas and makes me realize that the simple things are the best.

Halloween costume recap

While it's somewhat unbelievable that Halloween has already come and gone, I will say it was a fun one. We had a couple of different parties to attend and outside of attempting to navigate crazy traffic through Hollyweird Hollywood, it was smooth sailing!

I was determined to get the husband into a costume again this year, especially after last year's success dressing him up as a moose. Really, the secret is to make him wear something as comfortable and close to his every day clothing as posssible - so that rules out silly hats, masks, anything that may cause overheating or involves facepaint. You get the idea. While we were trying a new and rather yummy pizza place (thank you yelp.com!) a week ago, we had jokingly suggested that swine flu would be a rather appropriate costume and went about our plans to be "team pig".
Saturday daytime, I had assigned husband the task of coming up with our team names while I disappeared off to get iron-on supplies for the letters I had been cutting out of felt. In the meantime, he dutifully turned down an offer from his friend to watch college football so he could stay home and help me prepare the costumes. I was somewhat in shock - was he actually getting into this?! A few hours of cutting and ironing later though, we were all ready to go, dubbed "Porkchop" (me) and "Wilbur" (him). Our pig emblems even had googly eyes...which I think should be a requirement for team emblems in general (I mean, imagine your favorite sports team with them on display!).All in all, the costume was a big hit and we even got a chuckle from a passing cop on a bicycle. Who knows what we'll come up with next year but I can't be happier that I've converted my non-costume-wearing husband and he's not going to be getting out of it again!

P.S. If you have been affected by swine flu, my heart truly does go out to you and no offense was meant by this costume. I hope our googly eyed pigs could bring a smile to your face.

Well, now that all of that is done!

It's been one rough ride the last couple of weeks. Let me preface all this by backing up a month to the black Thursday in my office where in one foul swoop, 40 employees were laid off (approx 25-30% of the division's workforce). With hubby being presently unemployed, I spent that entire day with a pained, barfy expression on my face because I couldn't even imagine what the hell I'd do if both of us were unemployed. When I didn't get the dreaded "come to M's office" phone call that day, I mourned the loss of my friends and dealt a little bit with "survivor guilt" before breathing a sigh of relief and thanking whomever it was that saved my job.

So, scooting forward to a week ago, my boss walks into my office and sits down. This in itself starts ringing the alarm bells because he just never comes into my office. Then he says "I'm just going to say everything so let me finish before you respond". (Which is one of those strange relationship break-up phrases that I somehow associate with "It's not you, it's me..."We've grown apart..."Stop cyber stalking me or I have to get a restraining order...") He then proceeds to inform me that my position has been eliminated, but they have found me a job at one of the other divisions of the company - effective immediately but with a short period for transition. He then suggests that I go speak with HR and all I can think to say to him is "OK, when I'm done eating my sandwich". Ok. Yeah.

Anyway, I am now the proud holder of some kind of world record for getting laid off and rehired again. I'm contemplating writing a little letter to Mr. Guinness to ask him if that world record has already been set and whether my time is competitive.

Back on the design train!

I've been itching to design my first non-accessory knit wearable for a while and life just hasn't given me much of a chance recently. This week, I was wandering around the shops looking for a birthday gift for my mother - a notoriously impossible feat - and noticed that there were some super cute knitwear cardis out there this season. So, there's me standing in the middle of the store rifling through racks of awesome knits and next thing you know I'm completely distracted and instead of shopping for my mom, I'm standing there with my camera phone taking photographs of the sweaters. Talk about a sudden rush of inspiration!

So, yesterday on my lunch break, I sat here and thought about what yarn I have that I can get started with and drawing out potential cable designs, checking sizing and writing down notes for construction. It was irritating me that I'd actually have to wait and get home to cast on my design. I know there are some designers that can sketch a design and write out full instructions without knitting the item itself, but I'm not one of them. I have to knit it up myself - which means I'm simultaneously test knitting, sample knitting, tweaking and get something to wear at the end of it!

Well, the project is well underway and all I can tell you is that it's a cardi...with a cable design. You'll have to wait and see for the rest!

My first woven

Finally, I am proud to present my very first woven! I haven't had as much time to play with my new craft as I'd like, but I've got one scarf-type-thing done and another warp on the loom ready to go.

The hardest part of weaving for me so far has definitely been warping the loom. I chose to use some recycled yarn that I dyed with Kool Aid for both the warp and the weft. I decided to try the direct warping method and, seeing as I don't yet have a warping clamp, I used my husband's gargoyle piggy bank (named Leroy) to wind the yarn around. I will say that it was hard work and I broke out in a nice sweat from crawling around on the floor! I've concluded that some clamps from Home Depot will make the entire process much easier - including the fact that the heddle has a habit of falling off the heddle block when I move the yarn through it too quickly.

The actual weaving itself went pretty smoothly, outside of the handful of tension issues and having slightly messy selvedges. I'm very proud of my first attempt though. The end result is a little stiff for a scarf but I'm thinking that it can be made into a nice bag instead.
I should note that for the second attempt at warping, I got smart and brought the loom downstairs to the kitchen where I used the kitchen table and a chair to wind the yarn around. Having it all at a regular height and not having to wrangle yarn to stay behind the ears of a gargoyle definitely helped! I also scored a cone of fingering weight yarn at the local thrift store for $1 to use. I haven't decided what to use for the weft that, but that will be shared later.

From way back when!

While I was going through some things on my computer today, I found some photos of the first few things that I made when I first learned to crochet. These were all crocheted for our charity group at work.

From Stitch' N' Bitch

From the Lion Brand website, I think!

I got this pattern from somewhere and added my own color flair.

My first attempt at treble crochet.

It's amazing how far I've come with my fiber crafts in the last few years....crochet being my gateway drug so to speak!

OK, so it's a little crafty

I have been absolutely horrible about posting my crafty endeavors recently so I am making a promise that I will take pictures of the work in progress on my loom this evening! I'm making what is a mostly straight scarf-type-thing using some of the yarn I recycled and dyed with Kool Aid a while back. I'm quite happy with it so far although been playing with tension and neat edges etc. I also spent an hour in the library yesterday reading through some books on rigid heddle weaving to make sure I was on the right track. My husband was very patient as I explained to him how it all worked and what the difference was between the warp and the weft. I'm convinced he secretly wants to try it. ;)

As a bit of fun this morning, I found a website where you can squirrelize your photos. Now, what on earth is that about? Here is the original article, and here is my wedding photo - complete with squirrel.
Ridiculous I know, but it's still making me giggle. You too can add a squirrel on this site. Enjoy!