Home Improvement

During my Junior year of college, my roommate and I would make it a point to sit down together and watch "Trading Spaces" everyday on TLC. We were both sort of crafty types and longed for the day when we would have more than a dorm room to decorate. Now that I have a house (7 years later), I'm finally getting to do all those home improvement projects we lusted after.

My favorite decorating style at the moment is Mexican Folk Art. Thus, the kitchen was transformed from boring white:

Into an exciting blue, with lots of Talavera tiles:
Tiling was not nearly as difficult as it seems. We got a combo adhesive/grout that was already mixed, so pretty much all we had to do was glue these to the wall. The only challenge was cutting tiles to fit at the edges, but we were able to rent a wet tile saw that was incredibly easy to use. This post is a little misleading, since we're not actually done - we ran out of tiles, even though we thought we were way over-covered. This then involved a 140-mile round trip to Home Depot - yet another disadvantage to living in the boonies. Overall though, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

V-Mail

There is a great post over at Letter Writer's Alliance about V-Mail - mail to soldiers abroad during WWII that was written on a set form, then reduced and sent overseas via microfilm in order to reduce weight. In keeping with my own resolution to write more letters, I made my own version of this form, free for you to download as a PDF!
Just click here...

Half

It's half a sweater! Proof that I've actually been knitting it, not just saying that I have. It takes a long time to knit a sweater on size 4's. The good news is that it fits perfectly - I can't wait for it to be wearable!
P.S. Like my pants? :)

Lunch Break

I try to get outside everyday at lunch, mostly just to see what the weather is since I don't have windows in my office building. (There should be laws against that kind of thing.) I took pictures today:

And look at this: Seagulls??? In NEW MEXICO???

Le Slouch

I have a couple small amounts of yarn from a present last Christmas, so I've been looking for some small projects. Thus, I present Le Slouch:

I used one skein of Plymouth Tweed & my fancy new Knitpicks Options needles in size 9. I should have used size 8's for the ribbing, but I didn't have size 8 DPNs, and there weren't enough stitches to stretch around a circular. I wish this hat was less slouchy, but maybe that's what it's supposed to be like and I'm just not used to it yet. We have an extremely large number of hats here at Chez RangerSarah, so it was fun to add another style into the mix. And I finished it in 2 nights!

365 Days to go . . .

I don't really like the idea of most New Year's Resolutions, since they are usually so amorphous that they can only end in failure. I believe in concrete goals, ones that you actually can obtain. I need a number, a schedule. I usually don't make any resolutions, because if I'm going to put off doing something until the date changes, it probably means that I don't really have the drive to do it. But, I do have some ambitions for 2008.

1) Read 50 books in 2008. I read 36 books in 2007, and now that I am no longer in school, I'm really enjoying having the freedom to read what I want. I'd like to work on 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (with the acceptance that I will never finish this list. I've read 49 - only 952 to go.) There is a really cool spreadsheet you can download here, that will keep track of everything for you.

2) Learn some new knitting skills. Namely, colorwork. I can't say that I'm going to like it, or be good at it, but you can't knock it till you try it. I really want to make these Endpaper Mitts.

3) Write more letters. I've joined the Modern Letter Project, so I'll at least be writing 2 letters a month. The internet is great and all, but I think we all agree that getting mail is awesome.

4) Take more pictures. I always see things and think to myself, "Man, I wish I had my camera!" I'll start bringing it with me more.

Ok, that's all. Not too hard, huh? I'm sure that during the course of the year, I'll find new and exciting things to do and places to see, and I'll just go for it. Why wait when you can do it NOW? Happy New Year everyone!

The Year's End

I hope everyone had an exciting and eventful holiday season (or non-eventful, if that's what you prefer.) While the highlight of my Christmas might very well have been our dinner of Fried Chicken & Waffles with Syrup & Hot Sauce, I did get some knitterly gifts. I am now the proud owner of a set of KnitPicks Options Needles! I LOVE these things. They are so smooth, I swear I can knit faster with them. Its also nice to know that I have most needle sizes ready to go, and I won't have to buy anymore for a long, long time. (You can see in the picture that they've changed their case - if you want the cool little binder, its now $20 more! Luckily I got the binder included with mine, but I think its a cheap move on Knitpicks's part.)

Also, someone needs to fess up. I received this book in the mail, with no indication of who it was from, and no one has mentioned that they sent it to me! Was it you? (Also, this book does not mess around. It says its "naughty" and it is.


I continue to plug away on my green cardigan. I have the back and most of a front left. Now that I have the options needles, I'm hoping it will go faster. I did need some instant gratification though, so I made this quick scarf. Its a little sparkly, and I like how the colors blend together. And, it also matches one of my backyard bushes!

The Tiniest Sweater in the World

Ok, all together now: "Awwwwwwww!"

Although it doesn't have it's tiny hanger yet, this is destined to be a Christmas ornament. It's just so CUTE, I can hardly stand it. It's hard to tell scale in these pictures, but its about 2 inches high. It's made from leftover sock yarn, and the patten can be found here. (You have to subscribe to this mailing list to get the pattern for free . . . but that's why I have a fake email account.)

10 Favorite Things

I did a swap a few months ago that was to write a letter listing 10 of your favorite things. I decided to go more visual (click image for bigger):


So, what are 10 of your favorite things?
Tagging: Golden Iris, ReluctantMango, The Smile Spot, & Yarnmama.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's always a little weird to celebrate a holiday when the weather isn't quite fitting - like an 80 degree Christmas or a rainy 4th of July. But here in New Mexico we got perfect Thanksgiving weather (even though it was 80 degrees 2 days ago):

This Thanksgiving I made my first pumpkin pie, to bring to our friends' house. Everyone really liked it, and wanted to know the recipe. "Is this your mom's recipe?" I was asked. "Um, actually its the recipe that's on the can of pumpkin," I was forced to reply. Busted! (Good thing they didn't ask about the crust . . . that was Pillsbury.)