Learning to be Adults

So once again, I've made some lofty, but not unreasonable New Year's goals. I guess some things just never change.

My overarching resolution is to make 2013 the year of learning to be adults. Neither I nor my Dear Husband are terribly domestic, it's just not a priority in our lives. However, since we're rounding the bases on thinking about starting a family, it's time to keep a clean house. I think I might start doing some "20-Something Domestic" posts, because I also came from a house where cleaning was not a big deal, so I never learned how to do anything right and I imagine I'm not alone in that. I've already taught myself some good tricks like how to put that stupid duvet cover on without wanting to kill someone, so I think it could be fun to make a mockery of myself and hopefully help teach some other hopeless 20-somethings along the way as well.

Part two of this whole being an adult thing is learning to take time to look nice. I won't say that I don't care about fashion or make up or skin care, but I don't leave myself enough time to do anything about it in the morning. That has been slowly but surely changing this year, and I'm starting to actually paint my nails again.

I'm in love with this robin's egg blue color, but painting my nails has always been a bit futile. Since I rock climb, I tear my hands up, and chip a lot of nails without polish on them, but we'll see how it goes.

At least I only spent about a dollar on that whole bottle so if it goes south it's not a total loss. I had to take the official Pinterest-OPI-Expensive-Nail-Polish picture. Please ignore how much I paint my skin! Its a work in progress okay?

This is also the first year I haven't set myself a weight loss goal, which I think is kind of a big deal for me. It's not to say that I'm not still trying my hardest to get slimmer, but I want to focus more on eating clean and training hard. I'd love to be in a size 12 by the time we go on vacation in August, and I would really love to be climbing 5.8 or 5.9 routes by the end of the year, but I don't want to live and die by it.

How have your New Year's Resolutions being coming along? Am I the only one who makes them anymore?

A (triumphant?) Return

Hi guys! Well, the good news is I thought I hadn't posted in over a year, but really it's only been since May so its not quite as bad as I originally thought. Just to kick things off right, here's the quick and dirty update on what's been going on that has been keeping me away from updating...

• I actually haven't done ANY knitting since my last update. That kinda makes me sick to my stomach, and was part of the catalyst that is getting me back to the blogging lifestyle
• I've managed to lose more than 20 lbs!
• I started eating based on the "Paleo Diet"and it makes me feel fabulous. I'll try not to soapbox about it, but it's pretty fantastic, and I need to do some experimenting with more gluten-free baking which could make for some hilarious kitchen disasters that you could get some kicks out of.
• I've gotten really in to rock climbing, best couple's workout ever.
• I'm still rocking school, but I've had to dial it back to half time rather than full time. I'm still rocking back and forth between focusing on entrepreneurship or accounting, and have come to accept that I'll never know what I want to be when I grow up and that's okay.
• I'm super obsessed with Pinterest (follow me here) and I think I might have to do some posts on what crafts/home made cleaners I've tried.
• I'm trying to work on focusing on my appearance more, I don't want to say I'm terrible at being a girl, but taking time to wash my face, do my hair and nails, or put on makeup are pretty far down on my list. I get compliments every time I take the time to do it, so that should be some indication.
• Just crossed the two year anniversary line with Dear Husband, and we're rounding the bases on two years in our little starter home. Now it's time to fix ALL the things!

And if you hung in there for all that, here are some happy cat pictures that sum up the rest of my life.

WIP - Firey Redhead Lace

So my knitting escapades this holiday weekend included my first foray into full blown lace knitting...

Doesn't look like much yet without blocking, but it is B-E-A-Utiful.

This started back in late February when the lovely Ruth over at Rock & Purl (likely the reason a lot of you are reading this blog now) included me for the test knit of this pattern. I got almost through the end of the bottom chart back then, but I was so woefully off there was no saving it, and it took me a while after that first frogging to pick it back up. I think where I went wrong the first time was I wasn't concentrating enough (we had just started watching LOST) so my pattern got all wonky.

But now, with the help of the holiday weekend and Top Gear marathon all day yesterday I got through the bottom chart, and once I get through some more of the body I'll pin it up on some blocking pins and show off Ruth's beautiful Maighdean Mhara pattern. I am so loving the Knit Picks hand dyed Gloss on this pattern, it's just variegated to add some movement to the pattern, but not distract from it.

So loving it! See the Ravelry Project Page here.

Whole Food Lifestyle

So it's been a while. I could make excuses about working full time and going to school, but we're all busy and no one cares how busy someone else is because fuck it, who isn't?

Let's talk about this instead...

That's my first bag of pre-season CSA goodness. We have a little bit of lettuce, bac choi, mustard greens, and swiss chard in there (most of which will likely go to the bunny because he freaking loves romaine lettuce and I dare say he's never had it this fresh) as well as garlic scapes and zucchini. I'm mostly excited about the scapes which I've never seen before.

Turns out if you cut the bits of the garlic that grows above ground before it flowers, you can chop it up and use just like garlic. I took a bite while I was on the farm, and they are not lying! Packed with garlic flavor, but I think it's best you peel the first layer off before using. The texture of the skin was similar to the woody part of asparagus and no one needs that, but the inside was soft and delicious like garlic.

We also decided to split a cow we lovingly named Maggie with four friends, and husband and I offered to take the bones to make stock. Little did we know that it would be like 50 lbs of bone. More on the adventures of trying to figure out what the hell do to with all of those bones to come.

What are some of your favorite beef & veggie based recipes? Because we are going to be drowning in both and I couldn't be happier!

The Trouble with Long Weekends

I love a long weekend. They're always so full of opportunity and promise & I always think I can squeeze so much more into each of them than is even approaching reasonable. For instance things that I've added at one point or another to my want to-do list for today include...

• Going to IKEA to get new duvet covers
• Getting into my new office to make sure everything is set up correctly
• Going out to lunch with my mom (this is probably a bad idea)
• Visiting Salvation Army to see if I can find any good sweaters to pull yarn from
• Going to the fabric store to ogle beautiful prints
• Try an awesome yarn dyeing technique I saw in a tutorial
• SO MUCH KNITTING
• Plan out my blog posts for next month
• Do some freezer cooking

Now the first 3 will defiantly be happening & the knitting is naturally a given too. The rest remain to be seen... If only I could have a 5 day weekend and a 2 day work week just for a week. I'd catch up on so much.

What are you doing with your extra day this week?

Love List - Paper

This past Tuesday, yes Valentine's Day, was my first anniversary. Dear Husband sent me an edible arrangement at work (which I may or may not have hinted heavily would be better than flowers) and then made me a fantastic steak dinner. It was a fantastic day, and I love the idea of giving gifts based on tradition, so this is a love list in honor of my paper anniversary.

If I had remembered this existed in my Etsy favorites soon enough this Love Calender would have been the most perfect one year Anniversary present! Keep track of a year by the amount of love you share every day. Sounds pretty romantic to me.

If we had gone with a traditional wedding, these are the invitations I would have used. Inviting Moments have so many amazing invitation sets! For all my friends who are getting married soon, check them out, I'm willing to bet there's something there you'll love!

This Star Wars/Death Cab for Cutie love mash-up is one of the best cards I've seen in a long time. Husband introduced me to this song, so it has a special place in my heart.

My favorite Fiber Farm has gotten into card making recently and I'm totally in love with this Sheep Squad notecard set.

Finally this is what I actually got Husband for our anniversary. My in-laws got us a grill for Christmas and Husband loves Bobby Flay so this one was a no brainer for me.

What are you in love with right now? Any favorite paper crafts/paper gifts you've seen recently?

Delancey KAL - Week One

I dunno about everyone else, but Blue Mountain has finally decided that it's winter. The snow we got wasn't so bad, but the cats and I really didn't appreciate the gusting winds blowing the front door (which mind you has a storm door in front of it) wide open all night. My poor oldest kitty spent the night under the comforter with me because I thought the heat had just broken again and that's why the house was so cold.

Oh hey Winter! There you are!

So a cold, snowy weekend combined with the fact that dear husband is away on a boys hunting weekend made for a TON of awesome knitting time. Mainly on The Sweatshop of Love's Winter KAL featuring the sweetly retro Delancey Cardigan by Alexis Winslow.

I've cast on for the largest size of her standard pattern in a beautiful Wool/Alpaca/Silk dk I'd never heard of before called Balmoral.

Thank god for helpful LYS Ladies!

Even though I had been planning on going with the pattern photo combination of orange and white I'm totally loving this natural and navy blue combination. It's almost gives a South Western vibe to the sweater & I could use a little desert warmth in my freezing house right now.

Panels!

I love a good mitered square pattern, which is kinda what these two bottom panels are, and the same principles of combined increases and decreases carry throughout the pattern to make those iconic bias stripes.

I am soooooo in love with this yarn and color combo!

Our goal for this week was to make it to row 54 and I decided to go ahead and knit to row 56 so I'd have 2 solid rows connecting my two bottom panels.

You know you have a problem when...

I may or may not have been up until 2 AM working on my newly cast on Aidez... and I may or may not have needed to get up for work at 530. Gonna be a rough day.

Beautiful 1x1 ribbing

However, I'm gonna call it totally worth it. I love the beautiful Knit Picks cadet blue that I'm working in, and I can't resist a highly complicated chart pattern. And since I'm doing this following the Sweatshop of Love KAL that I originally bought this yarn for, I've cast on the whole body at once which includes 9 different sections of reasonably complex cabling/stitchery. The thing that made the whole thing possible is the fantastic guide that Allyson made to follow all three body sections at once.

And even though I have no photographic evidence of it; I ACTUALLY SWATCHED! This is going to be a lesson in loose tension for me 'cause the only circulars I have were 10s when the pattern calls for a 10 1/2. (and I'm too cheap to buy new ones right now)

What did you do during the Super Bowl yesterday?

A Resolution False Start

So one of my resolutions was to lose 5 lbs a month every month this year & January didn't really go so well... I'm just going to call it a false start because between having a monster flu for a week and a half and transitioning between working two part time jobs to working a normal full time schedule it just never happened.

However, I'm not going to let a false start get in the way of a perfectly good weight loss goal. When I stepped on the scale this morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that my starting weight is 227 lbs. Last I weighed myself (probably pre-holidays) I was floating around the 230's so I suppose in a way I did hit my first month goal as far as I know! I know the secret to success for me is making sure I work out. The nature of my desk job forces me to lead a pretty sedentary lifestyle during the week and the times I was skinniest were when I was swimming or doing color guard competitively regardless of what I ate.

So what's the plan?

I know better than to jump into this too hard & fast and discourage myself right off the bat with burn out. Week one is all about trying out the yoga classes at my gym. I love me some yoga, and at my current fitness level it's a pretty legit workout. Not only is a decent work out for me, but there's less judgement in a yoga class than almost anywhere else in a gym so when I know I have to do a modified plank I'm not stressed about people thinking less of me.

I know I shouldn't stress anyway, but lets be honest, in a gym you feel like you're on display all the time. Especially if you're a bigger girl.

So I'm going to try at least out two different yoga classes this week, and try to hit up a Friday night Zumba class. I also want to get myself back into hiking, and I think husband misses his Sunday mornings to himself, so Sunday mornings might be devoted to hitting some trails. I'm surrounded by the Appalachian trail and nature walks and it's a great natural work out so I'll probably hit up a couple of the gentle nature trails this month and start on real trails next month.

I'll be giving once a week updates on my progress and share anything I learn along the way. Do you have any favorite healthy recipes or workout rituals? I always love a good tip!

January 31 Weight: 227.0

Peace&Love

FO : Gap-tastic Cowl #5

It's sort of like Mambo Number 5, but with a heck of a lot more seed stitch

Lots of red seed stitch and some very cute glasses

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to see this stupid cowl gone, but I already kinda miss it. The co-worker that got it was so excited to see it on her desk when she came in & wore it to her meeting that night so in the end it's all well worth it.

I still think I'll probably make one or two or a dozen in every color of the rainbow for myself, but not for a hot minute. I need to stop hating this fantastic pattern first. Tomorrow I hope to finish the neck shaping and seam up my very first sweater! Super huge accomplishment!

What have you finished recently? What are you excited about tackling next?

Peace&Love

WIP - I will finish these gifts!

So now that I'm feeling a little better and I finally have a bit of a day off (though I will still go to the office today because I am drowning in work from being sick) I can finally show you the two WIP I currently have on the needles.

First of all I have the ultra scary first sweater...

And yes, it's a Weasley Sweater from Charmed Knits! Geek kinda runs in my family, and though it took me years and years I finally got my mom to read the Harry Potter series, and now she's hooked on the books & movies. Last year she got me Charmed Knits for Christmas and very subtly hinted that she really wanted her own Weasley Sweater. Since I had never made a sweater before I kinda dreaded making it, but it's basically been two big rectangles with two trapezoids attached to it, not too complicated except that I had to figure out how to chart that R myself since the pattern only comes with an intarsia H. It came out well in the main except for the loopy bit that looks a little wonky, but just about any curve looks like odd in knit. (or that's what I'll keep telling myself.

 Stupid tiny yarn...

This sweater has been a bit of the bane of my existance for about 3 months now. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm not speed knitter. I am by no means super slow, but these size 8 needles and Knit Picks City Tweed are making me feel like a n0ob. I love the way its turning out, and my mom loves what she's seen of it so far so I'm just gonna keep telling myself it's worth it and keep on plugging on.

And speaking of things that might be the bane of my existence, we have another Gap-Tastic Cowl. When I made one for my office White Elephant exchange, it was an unspoken agreement that it was made for a specific person however, as is custom for this kind of gift exchange, it got stolen from its intended recipient. She was pretty crushed so I caved and agreed to make her one in whatever color she wanted, she requested red (this yarn is much less orange than the picture shows) and I'm about halfway done with it now.

After getting some work done in the office, I think I'm going to come home & put season one of Portlandia on (it's on Netflix now so I can FINALLY watch it) and knit my fingers off to try and knock both of these out as soon as possible. Those who follow me on twitter may have noticed that I have a bit of designing fever, but I'm holding off until I get both of these off the needles.

What do you have on the needles? Anyone else still working on some holiday knits? Anyone? Okay it's just me...

Peace&Love

Quick Updates from the Sickbed

Welcome new followers! I promise the content here won't typically be so lacking, but I seem to have contracted a mild form of the plague and since I work in accounting, the very beginning of the year isn't really the time to be sick so all my energy reserves get used up before I get home.

I managed to finish the first sleeve of my Weasley Sweater two nights ago and (rather poorly) picked up the stitches for sleeve number two last night. Ran out of steam before I could take pictures, but with how fried my brain is right now, I would shudder to think what they would look like.

There's been a lot of great inspiration floating around and I'm finally thinking of dipping my toes in the ocean of creating my own designs. Hopefully I can hold on to all this inspiration after I feel better so I can get my butt in gear and put all these dreams into action.

For now I'm getting back into bed until absolutely necessary.

Peace&Love

Love List - Selfish Knitting

Until recently, I have almost never found patterns that I would want to make for myself to wear. I always find things that I would love to make for others, and maybe the odd home goods item or cozy that I thought I could use, but never something I'd wear around and say "Yeah, I knit that!" That is, until I started discovering amazing designers like Allyson from The Sweatshop of Love and Lee from Do Stuff! who make beautiful, complex knits for 20-somethings.

Digging deeper into Ravelry I discovered a treasure trove of things I would love to knit from independent designers that I might never have found just by buying books. And at the end of a particularly jam-packed holiday season, all I want are some selfish knits, and these are at the top of my list...

Coming soon to my needles will have to be these fantastic Lady Finkaas slippers. Made with Lion Brand's Fisherman's wool they'll be super inexpensive and a fabulous instant gratification knit, not to mention I need something to wear around the office when I have to wear snow boots to get to my car.

This! I have had the yarn for the fabulous Aidez ever since Allyson hosted her Winter Knit-a-Long way back when, but the whole working two jobs and feeling buried under holiday knits thing finally caught up with me. So the beautiful Cadet Blue knit picks yarn has been patiently waiting for me in my car because I don't trust myself to open the box and not start on it. The instant I finish my yet-unfinished holiday sweater this goes on the needles and I'll probably give a bunch of updates on this since it's such a beautifully complex pattern.

I've been super inspired by Leethal's Remixed line and Wild is the Wind is my absolute favorite. Her patterns are almost always designed to be knit in any gauge and heavily feature unexpected details and buttons (who doesn't love buttons?).

And speaking of buttons, just like everyone else in the world I'm totally in love with Owls by Kate Davies. I would probably edit the pattern a bit to make it a 3/4 sleeve (or maybe a little shorter) but otherwise I think this is beyond cute.

Heroine has been in my favorites for over a year now & maybe this will be the year to make it. I think it's the disenfranchised 90's grunge kid in me that love this coat so much.


What selfish knits can you not wait to get on those needles? Or maybe are lucky enough to already have started? (in which case I am 110% jealous)

Anything you'd like to see featured as a theme for a love list? Just let me know!

Peace&Love

Holiday Knitting Wrap Up

So when I decide to do a large quantity of knitted gifts I like to choose one pattern that is equal parts versatile and easy to personalize. This year I chose the amazingly simple and beautiful Gap-Tastic Cowl by the super cute Jen Geigley! We've all seen this cowl before and who doesn't love a wrap-able cowl in a super chunky squishy yarn?

Beauty & simplicity

So I knit four of them this winter, all in the fantastic super bulky from Michael's Loops & Threads line appropriately called Charisma. I made one in Fuschia for my gay best friend who can rock pink like no man I know.

 If you don't have a gay best friend, you should find one, they're amazing.

Green for my best girlfriend who as she puts it is "spending a year blowing her money in Ireland and oh yeah, getting a masters degree". This girl is all about bright color and I just couldn't resist giving her green in the year of her Ireland adventure.

 Upon receiving it she instantly put it on her head like a turban and wore it like that the rest of the night. This is why she's my bestie.

I remotely participated in The Sweatshop of Love's Secret Santa exchange and since neither she nor I knew anything about the lovely lady I was knitting for I went with a great grey neutral. 

I was hoping for a lighter grey like in the now iconic default picture for the pattern, but alas there was none to be found.

Then finally for my office White Elephant gift exchange (if you've never been to one of these, it's pretty epic and you need to plan one for your office/favorite group of friends) I was requested to knit something once the knitting cat was out of the bag. Since at the time I was already 2 projects deep into Christmas knits and naturally way behind my initial thoughts were ()#$#^@#@#!!! but then I heard the words "Yeah! Not a problem!" come out of my mouth. So I went back to the store, grabbed 3 skeins of navy blue and finished it literally the morning of the party. I love bringing handmade into everyone's life a little more and it warmed my heart that my scarf actually got stolen in the middle of the game.

I've now been commissioned to knit at least 2 more, but at least it's super quick to make. I did tell them they're going to wait until at least Feb. to get them because I'm sick of these damn cowls. 

I did have one last handmade gift, but as it's not finished yet, it will be featured in a WIP post coming soon!

What did y'all make for the holidays? Did you get any handmade gifts yourself?

Love&Peace

New Year's Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I love the fresh start of the new year, and in the early hours before I go to work I want to jot down my resolutions somewhere everyone can see them so I can hold myself accountable. I plan on trying to spend this year updating on these resolutions, as many of them have to do with the idea of living a healthier, more handmade life.

1) Lose around 5 pounds a month - I make a weight loss resolution almost every year, but now I live with someone who is also committed to this. Seeing recent pictures of myself helps secure me in this goal because I've let the stress of my life get to me this year and it's showing on my waistline far more than I'd like it to. I want to do this with a combination of eating whole foods & getting good exercise, not any asinine fad diet.

2) Set up a canning plan and following it - I had planned on doing this last year, but since we had only just moved into the house and were still trying to get used to adult life, needless to say it didn't happen. I'd like to make some strawberry jam, husband's signature vodka tomato sauce, and apple sauce. If other whims catch me I'll probably follow them because that's just the kind of person I am, but those three seasonal staples are a great place to start.

3) Work towards an income based partially on making - I have a few ideas of what kind of Etsy shop I'd like to have, but I need to make a real decision and go boldly in that direction. More on this later, I promise.

What are your new year's resolutions? Share them here, big or small! The first step to completing them is to tell someone & have them hold you accountable. It's usually scary, and sometimes sucks, but you can't say it doesn't work!

Peace&Love

Radvent Day 3 - Fascinating

Today's post is another in the Radvent blogging challenge brought to us by the always fascinating Princess Lasertron.

Today we are challenged to reveal our most fascinating selves by writing the interview questions we would most like to be asked. I love this prompt because it gives me a chance to share things I wouldn't typically write here about! If you'd like to play along at home (and please feel free to share!) it's best to write you questions out, go work on that GAP-Tastic Cowl that should have been in the mail last week, and come back in an hour or two to answer them. I decided to go with the 5 W's to mold my mock interview, but you can ask any questions you'd like! Enjoy!

Who would you consider to be your role model?
For most of my life I actually could never answer this question. I looked up to olympic swimmers when I was a kid, but I knew I never wanted to be just a swimmer & I thought maybe I'm just meant to be the person I am and forget role models. Then earlier this year with the death of Steve Jobs, I realized that I did have a role model, I just never realized it. When I brought up my home screen (I never did change it from the apple default) and saw his picture and the words "RIP" it affected me a lot more than I could have ever expected. He really was an innovator and never said no to an idea he believed in. Not only is he the reason I don't have to carry a huge CD case around with my everywhere anymore, but he was the financial backer behind Pixar studios in its early days when no one else could see their vision. I want to be the kind of person who goes confidently in the direction of my passions, and thats why I consider Steve Jobs to be my role model.


What is your best advice for traveling abroad?
Pack half as many clothes as you think you'll need and twice as many books, and bring peanut butter. I guess this advice is best suited for those traveling to less... westernized areas, but I have yet to travel abroad anywhere that has working plumbing all the time (Bhutan had squat toilets and Puerto Rico typically didn't have showers) and I was always doing field research so I have a feeling my concept of traveling might be a bit skewed, but I think those two rules should be universal. No one else in the world understands the beauty of peanut butter, and if they food there isn't to your liking, it's something that's super filling and has decent nutritional value.


Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I think if I were to be honest with myself I could answer this one of at least 5 ways. The things I know for sure are that dear husband and I are hoping to have a good bit of the house paid off so we can upgrade into our having-babies house. Barring any major catastrophes between now and then I think that bit is totally achievable. I would also like to work towards not having to work a 9-5 anymore, and maybe even owning a multi-family income property. We're surrounded by both college towns & military bases so there are investment opportunities everywhere.


When did you know you were ready to marry your husband?
Everyone and their sister asks me this question, and I suppose I should expect it because I got married at 21, but I still find it annoying. The answer is complicated, but simple. I'm the kind of person who was super ready to get married at a young age, but my husband never really was and swore he wouldn't propose until we were together for at least 5 years. Neither of us really believe in divorce, and that was his solution to the problem. So after we'd been together for about a year I started getting annoying about why we needed to wait 5 years, and he wasn't terribly amused by it. Then one day, I woke up and realized I didn't care if I had to wait 5 years, I wanted to be with him forever anyway, so what did it matter? I wrote him a letter telling him just that (but hopefully much more eloquently) and not even 6 months later after dating for more than two years he proposed to me. So my advice to all those ladies who want to know if they're ready to get married yet, I guess the best way to know when it's time is when it stops being so important.


Why do you craft?
I love making things with my own two hands in a world of such mechanized consumerism. I know it sounds terribly hippie-like of me, but I'd rather have things made with love than made inexpensively. It's my little rebellion against the system, and I plan to keep knitting, canning, and making for the rest of my life.

Radvent Day 2 - Balance

Today's post is yet another installment of Princess Lasertron's Radvent blogging challenge.

I've always had an issue with finding balance in my life. I've often joked that I have the soul of an artist trapped in the brain of a scientist and that's a tough place to be. While it does tend to make a very well rounded person with a very rich life, I have yet to really master balancing my creative self with my logical self.

Yesterday I talked about the challenges of making the right decision for yourself, and I very recently took on the responsibilities of a second job in order to save for the future I want. While I can't tell you how amazing it is to put money into a savings account rather than taking it out for a change, it also doesn't leave a lot of room for my creativity. I only have one day off a week and I spend most of it sleeping, and two days a week I work well upwards of 12 hour days. Therefore up until it was time for holiday knitting I hadn't had anything seriously on my needles since I left school (hence why blogging has been so sparse as I would consider this first and foremost to be a knitting blog) and I was missing it. I've been making more time to knit every week, and now I'm officially in full on Christmas panic familiar to so many fellow knitters.

Blogging is another way I'm bringing back the creative balance. Writing has always been a big part of my life and I think blogging helps to bring me closer to where I'd like to be creatively. I love being a part of this amazing community I've discovered & I hope to one day inspire people the way my favorite bloggers inspire me every day.

Truth be told, I think the perfect balance for me will eventually having the safety net to try and make a career of making and creating rather than just working another job. However, for now I will settle for being able to finish my Christmas gifts before New Years!

I promise in the coming days I will feature what I currently have on the needles with more pictures than I've been able to include recently.

Peace&Love

Radvent Day 1 - Challenging

What better excuse for a return to blogging than participating in the lovely Princess Lasertron's Radvent blogging challenge. And speaking of challenges, that's the topic of today's post.

This is a rather poignant return to the pen for me after the year I've had. I've faced challenge after challenge this year and I feel for the most part that I've come out on top.

Very early in the year I made the decision to leave college because I realized that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and that I was only really in college because it's what I was supposed to do after high school. It didn't matter that I hadn't gotten into any school but my safety, or that as fickle 18-year-old I had no idea what I wanted to be, I was the smart, funny successful one and I had to go to college. I had been debating leaving for months, but I loved my school and the programs I was a part of... I couldn't imagine my life without Alternative Spring Break, or making sure my class had the most amazing senior year possible (I was class president for christ sake!) much less leaving my classes. Conservation biology was something I believe really deeply in, but in order to succeed as a scientist you have to accept that you need a Ph.D. first, and I wasn't ready to put my life on hold for that. So I drove home, told my parents I was leaving school, drove back up to school the following morning and basically packed up my room in the middle of the night without saying goodbye to anyone.

Was it the best way of doing things? Probably not, but I knew no one would really understand my reasoning. "Everyone needs a degree" they would insist, but to be quite frank I think that's a load of bullshit. Our education system is broken in ways far too complex to try to hash out in this post, but I think it's more important to figure out what you're good at and what gets you out of bed in the morning before spending thousands of dollars on a piece of paper.

So I withdrew from college and got married to my dear husband. This is probably the least challenging thing that happened this year. We'd already survived a lot of the fights & lived with his parents for nearly 2 months while waiting to buy a house so he has been my port in the storm that has been this year & for that I am eternally thankful.

Thus began my attempt to find a job to help pay my suddenly very grown up bills. I had always been interested in real estate, so it was my natural first choice and to my great surprise I heard from a brokerage the same day I applied for the job. That should have been my first warning sign that all was not as it seemed. 

I wasn't pulled into a scam, but we'll just say that no one was terribly forthcoming about how hard it is to get started and that it's insane to try and become a real estate agent so young when you have so few reliable connections. I lost a lot of money and it started to affect my marriage. I tried everything to succeed but nothing really worked, not the marketing, or the networking, or the mentoring classes. Even taking on a second job couldn't lift the burden that my supposed dream career was putting on our lives. So by the end of September I left my career to keep my life from crumbling around me & it tortured me.

I think as a 20-something I'm expected to think only in the here and now, and follow my zen, and do all that other new age crap that will turn you homeless unless you live in a sitcom-world where the bank of mom-and-dad never cuts you off. So leaving real estate was a much harder decision than it ever should have been. Of course you should leave this money pit of a job with no real prospects for the immediate future in order to save your marriage and pay the bills. That's the definition of the logical thing to do, but it took me realizing that I legitimately couldn't pay next month's bills to realize that something had to give.

So I guess the moral of this very long-winded post is that it's okay to make the decision that is better in the long run, even if it hurts now. Sure your friends won't understand, but they don't always have to. You're the only person who knows what is best for you in the end, and you're allowed to make the final call.

Peace&Love

Tree of Life Craziness

Okay imaginary readers, bear with me while I get the hang of this blogging business. You know how sometimes you feel really busy and overwhelmed and then you look back and you realize that you made it seem a lot worse than it was? That's my world right now. Except that when you're making just enough to pay the bills and keep the pantry stocked, everything feels like a crisis.

So my method of escape from this craziness is throwing myself headfirst into a ridiculous pattern... Lion Brand Yarn's Tree of Life Afghan.

Don't be fooled by the prettiness, this blanket will chew you up and spit you out.

This blanket is both my escape and the bane of my existence right now. I got this kit as a Christmas gift probably 3 years ago and I had to frog it once when I got halfway through the twinning trees pattern and screwed up so completely I couldn't even rip back to a mistake because I had no idea where it was. I started this back when we still lived with my in-laws, but the pattern is so complex that I just couldn't handle it with everything I had going on then.

I'm typically a simple pattern, knit while I have a Grey's Anatomy marathon kind of girl, so this is a definite test of my abilities. I've accepted ripping out whole rows because of a miscount and have take some serious pride in mastering the flower garden pattern. I've made it through the first repeat of the flower garden so far, and hopefully I'll have some pictures for you soon.

Peace&Love

Lessons In Patience

So yesterday was a super exciting day for my career 'cause I lucked out on a phone call and got my first client! Hooray! I feel like getting the first one out of the way shows you that you can actually do this and makes everything else so much better.

A little while ago (read: forever ago since I'm still getting the hang of blogging for real for real) I mentioned some advice about starting a real estate career. My first word of caution is that it costs a good deal of money to get started. Not only do you have to pay for your licensing classes, but you then have to pay to take the exam, and just when you think it's over you get to pay to officially get your license. All in all that alone ended up around $400 for me.

And then I start making money right? Not quite yet...

THEN the Realtor's Associations have their hands out for money. $795 for my national, state, and local associations. AND THAT'S EVERY YEAR. Crazy right? I also have to pay quarterly dues to the Multiple Listing Service I use of around $200. And I still have to take continuing education courses which run me $115.

When I start actually making money, I'm sure this all won't seem so bad and obviously it can all be written off on my taxes. However when you're 21 and trying to keep food on the table and in the kitty's bowls it hurts a little.

So my advice to you is while you are studying for your exams save, Save, SAVE. It's a great career choice and I wouldn't do it any differently, but no one told me how much it would cost to start out.

Peace&Love