Happy Grown Up Thursday

Happy Thursday, one and all!

Tonight I am going to Kalamazoo to see my good friend Noah and I'm psyched! My mapquest directions are printed, my bag is packed, there is an extra heaping bowl of cat food and instructions for the cats not to scarf it all down today (yeah, right), and I'm ready to hit the road!

I was reflecting this morning how adult I feel lately. The other day I looked around the kitchen and thought, "Sweet holy moses (this is an edited version of what I thought), I bought all of this food. I did. Me. I make my own meals and buy the food and...oh my golly (so edited) I'm responsible for myself!" It was this overwhelming awareness of everything I do by myself without (usually) thinking too terribly much about it. Today when I was getting ready for work I realized that even the toiletries I use are adult. I'm not terribly brand loyal, but I've figured out what I like, what I don't like, what I'm willing to spend more money on (foundation, moisturizer) and what I'm not willing to buy cheap (eyeshadow, mascara). It gives me this odd sense of security.

Security might not be the best word...it's just that in the last year and a half or so I feel more stable than I ever have in my life. It's as if I've checked some small things off the "grown up life things to figure out" list without even being aware of it. Last night I checked another one off, but this one I was keenly aware of: packing.

Pack...my suitcase?!

I totally suck at packing. I go kind of crazy wondering what the weather's going to be like and what I'm going to be doing and just start hurling things at my suitcase. I pack 10 books for a week's vacation because WHAT IF I FINISH THE FIRST 9 I BROUGHT AND THEY DON'T SELL BOOKS WHERE I'M GOING, SURELY I WILL DIE! I pack at list 2 knitting projects for similar reasons. And then, even though I've packed waaaaaaaay too many items, I end up with one t-shirt and 5 pairs of jeans, or 3 sweatshirts, 2 tank tops, a pair of jeans and no socks or underwear. No outfits to speak of. Or, if I'm lucky, one outfit and a bunch of extra stuff. I stink at packing.

But this time around, I packed outfits. You guys, I have a shirt, a pair of jeans, a sweater, underwear, a bra, the right shoes, and even jewelry for one outfit; a dress, a belt, leggings, underwear, a sweater, a bra, the right shoes, and more jewelry packed for a second outfit PLUS pajamas, a sweatshirt, one book, one knitting project and my toiletries. BAM! I packed! My phone charger is also in there! 9 extra books, an extra knitting project, a back up pair of jeans, extra tank tops, extra sweaters, an inexplicabley fancy outfit: these things are not in there! I'm so proud of myself.

Now, enough about my mini-victories! Here are two things that have made me ridiculously happy this week:

 

Brendan Coyle on a British cooking show, what's not to love?

This link: http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses to 450 free online courses. I listened to an Oxford Philosophy class yesterday while I worked. How cool is that?!

Have a good weekend!

PS. Because I already brought Home Alone into this post, I have to add this, mainly for Liz: 

Cat and Mouse

This is Erica's darling cat Beezy snuggling with a catnip mouse I knit for  her. Erica and her fiance Kevin adopted two adorable kitties from the shelter a while ago and I gave them each a catnip mouse as a Welcome-to-your-new-home present. Erica emailed me this picture a couple days ago and I just can't STAND it! Beezy is so cute and the image of her taking her mouse up on her bed for a little snooze is more than I can take.

I always wonder what happens to the things I make and giveaway or sell. Most of the time, I never see them again but when I do see my knitted objects in use it gives me such a thrill! I made mittens for a friend in exchange for a papier-mache moose head like what you see displayed on the racks from our craft sale last summer:

and when I see her wearing them it makes me proud. It makes me proud when Erica says her cats have been chasing their catnip mice around the house all day. It made me proud when I saw a picture of a friend of mine wearing a headband I had knitted and given to her. It's nice to know the things I made and put out into the world are making people or cats warm and happy.

I'm usually so absorbed in the process of designing and knitting and less concerned with the outcome. Rarely do I make time to work on a project because I want the end result and I usually give away or sell almost everything I knit; I actually cannot think of a single thing I knit that I still own. So when I see people or animals enjoying the things I've produced it's a nice reminder that I am actually producing a practical, tangible object from those millions of individual stitches that slide across my needles.

Happy Tiny Thursday

Happy Thursday! Here are some cute cats doing dumb cute things.

But first, here's something you need to know: you might have trouble expressing your feelings for these videos. You might say to yourself, "Dang, those cats are cute! They're so cute! They're so, so cute that I kind of want to...squeeze them? Or squish them? And talk in funny voices at them while I squeeze and squish them? Does this make me a bad person/cat abuser?!" Calm down. It does not. What you are experiencing is the feeling my friends and I call "tiny". It has nothing to do with size: my Maine Coon Rolland weighs something like twenty pounds and is the size of a large toddler but he is still, frequently, tiny. I have another friend who calls this "squishy" and I can get behind it.

If you are a cat or dog or animal lover, I know you get this. If not, there's really nothing I can do to help you understand this better. But maybe, just maybe, these videos will melt your cold, black heart (unless you're a dog person instead of a cat person. I can dig it.)

Thank you to my cousin Natalie for bringing these videos to my attention. Watch for the sideways jump in the second video. It's the tinyest!

Weird Texts Say So Much

Text from a friend: Only if you want to take this conversation out of the realm of probable. But yes that is what I meant.

My response: ...it was in the realm of probable? We were talking about vegan zombies.


What? You and your friends don't wonder if people who were vegans or vegetarians before they became zombies would have an aversion to eating human flesh? I proposed they would only eat cage-free organic, so not people in prisons and my friend thought they would just give over to the carnivorous urge. And then ninjas and magic got brought into the conversation which is where the exchange above came in. And now you know all you need to know about how I'm spending my afternoon.

Update: Just found myself sending the following text. Add it to the long, long list of things I've said that I never would have thought I'd have to say.

Let's save that for another time. If we bring unicorn zombies into the picture...who even knows.

Friday Catday

 

I told you cat pictures were coming. This is why I can't ever get any work done. The top picture is of Henry laying right on my knitting pattern. He has this way of just knowing which line I need to read next and laying his big ol' head right on it. The bottom picture is of Harper trying to army crawl onto my lap. Her strategy is to move very slowly and not make eye contact with me no matter how many times I say her name in hopes that I might not notice that she's creeping onto my lap. You think it's any easier right now while I'm trying to type on my lap top? 

Think again. It's blurry because he's rubbing his face on my computer. He usually won't stop until he's pushed on the screen so hard that the whole top of the lap top bends back and he looses his balance, falls off the couch and does that, "Everything's cool here, I meant to do that. I'm a cat and I'm going to lick my shoulder" thing that cats do. I'm currently getting a break because there's a bird in the window box that they are LOOSING THEIR MINDS over, so I'm going to try to get some knitting in. Happy Friday!

Happy Thursday

Happy Thursday, everyone! Not happy yet? Happy but want to get happier? Here you go:

I've been watching this pretty much non-stop since I found it on HelloGiggles. It's making my life. That kid's smile alone is enough.

Do you have big plans for your weekend? I have a lot of big plans: cleaning, a bon fire/birthday/housewarming party, cooking, yoga, and sleeping in. Also, knitting. Have a great weekend!

Fresh off the needles: The Elinor Shawl

 

You know what that picture up there means? It means I found my camera, my camera charger, and my camera/computer connection thingy that lets me put the pictures from my camera onto the computer (yeah, that's the technical term) and then got them in the same place at the same time! What up! If you don't think this is going to increase the number of cat pictures on this blog, well, then, clearly we haven't met in real life.

But now is not the time for talk of cats, now is the time for talk of knitting! I designed this shawl for The Mpaeyc Community Silent Auction (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mpaeyc-Community-Silent-Auction/218663641535841) and then executed it over the course of three or four days. I was home sick from work and all I could do was knit, blow my nose, and re-watch the first season of Downton Abbey.

I suffered, I tell you

That was a lot of knitting (the shawl ended up being about 2 1/2 feet wide and 5 feet long) and my thumbs kind of ache. But it was for a good cause and Mr. Bates was there to bring me a tray of food with flowers. Or maybe I took too much allergy medicine. Who's to say.

If you're in the mid-Michigan area, you should think about coming out to the auction. There are some really beautiful pieces and it's for a good cause.



I have a lot of good stuff planned for this weekend and lots more FO's to block and photograph. So be looking for more knitting news, cat pictures, and PBS Masterpiece Classics delirium.