Wedding Wednesday!!

I'm on a roll!! Wedding Wednesday!!

For this weeks WW post, I wanted to share my save the dates. Now that I'm pretty sure that everyone has gotten one. I think a couple local friends and a cousin or two that I don't have their addresses are the only ones left to give these to.

My sister Cristina is the designer and producer of my awesome save the dates. :) She is amazing!! She is the one who thought that making coasters would be a great idea. Her and her husband did an awesome job. I've waited to put a link to her blog because I wanted the save the dates to be a surprise for some of my family members who read my blog. What do you think??


(if you click on the picture it will take you to her blog which she shows more pictures of my coasters and a video of them being made. If you stop by her blog, don't forget to tell her how awesome her work is!! PS..I stole the picture from her blog...she is my sister so it should be ok.)

I love love love them. I think they are so pretty. We haven't done a lot of wedding planning lately but we've been talking about budgets and money for the wedding so that is a good thing. :) I'm hoping to meet with the lady from the sports bar soon. I have to go out of town again next week...I've been working on getting out of it but was told today that I couldn't. I know I'll have a good time and I'll have plenty of knitting time.

Well, I posted a new podcast last night and I think it was good. I chitchat a lot lately. :) And I think we finally got our air conditioning back. Last night was better but it was still hot and I get grumpy in the heat. I got a lot of knitting done last night. I worked on my Log Cabin Blanket and my bellatrix socks. I'll show you more progress later this week.

Hope you are all doing well.

Happy Knitting!!!

Thankful Tuesday

Look at me...I'm back to posting my weekly posts!! Yeah for me!! Ok...enough about that.


Today I'm thankful for my co-workers. I know that I am leaving this job and I don't always have that many nice things to say about it but I love my co-workers. In the middle school, it's all woman and we all get along really well considering all the hormones and mood swings we have. We have become a tight group and I will miss them all. I have spent at least three years working with most of them and some are new but they are nice and have become my friends. They are supportive and I will miss them for that. We all eat lunch together pretty much every day and only really get about 20 minutes to talk while we eat our food and watch the cafeteria. This year a treat that we started was each teacher makes lunch for everyone once a week. It's usually Thursday but with the crazy trips and schedules we've been on it's been just once a week. It's nice to see what others cook and get ideas for our own meals. I have grown close to my co-workers and will miss seeing them every day. They have been my ray of light this year, during a very tough year at work. I've decided this week that I have less than a month left and I have to be as positive as I can and end here on a good note. It hasn't always been bad and I think the hardest part this year was my mental sanity but I've learned so much here that I'm glad that I had this opportunity.

I know that I'm a good teacher at heart and I'm glad that I taught for 3 years but I am ready to work in an environment where kids are not the center of my day. I'm ready to not have to discipline middle schoolers and listen to the he said she saids of the drama of middle school life. I'm ready to have an actual lunch time where I can eat without feeling rushed. Oh...goodness I digress. :) I am thankful for my co-workers who I will miss.

Knitting news:

I frogged the Dog Bone Blanket and cast on last night for the Log Cabin Blanket which is going really quick. I love mindless knitting sometimes. :)








I also cast on for my May Sockdown socks, the Bellatrix socks by Gigi Silva. I'm using the Shibuiknits Sock yarn in Spectrum and doing them two at a time. :)





I recorded an episode of my podcast last night but my computer wouldn't let me edit and upload so I spent time cleaning up my computer. I'll upload tonight.

If you haven't been getting any updates on your blog readers, I'm really sorry. I think I fixed the problem and I hope that it says fixed.

Well...Happy Thankful Tuesday!!

Reversai Socks finally DONE!!! and a case of startitis.

I finished the Reversai Socks for Sock Madness Round 2. YEAH!! These socks are great but they take forever because of all the purling. They are reversible and very comfortable. For my first time doing 2-at-a time socks these were probably not the socks to do it with. I do plan on trying 2-at-a time again but I like the quick results from doing them one a time.

What do you think?? Do you like them?? Special K's feet are so pretty too. hehehe
So...after I finished I wanted to go right to the Bellatrix socks but I need to figure out what size needles to use which I think I've decided to use size 1s for the cuff and 0s for the pattern. We'll see how it goes. I really don't want to swatch. Well..instead of going straight for casting on those socks, I decided to work on my 9-5 socks. OK, I tried them on again and they are really too tight. The pattern calls for 72 sts on size 1s and I was using my 1s for the Reversai socks so I decided to try the pattern on 60 sts on size 2s. I saw that another person had tried this and it worked for her so I just jumped in and did all that knitting in DC and love the pattern but I knew all along it was kind of tight. Well...I was just going to keep working but when I got back and tried it on yesterday I was really unhappy with how tight it is.

My final decision, which I came to with some regret was to frog it and start over. Special K loves to frog my work so he helped me frog the sock and I rolled it all into a ball. Now my question is...Do I wash and dry the sock yarn that I used or do I just knit it up?? I pulled out the other ball of yarn and cast on with that but when I finish I'm going to need to other ball. So, I need some suggestions. What do you do??

So, once I cast on for that, I still want to cast on for the Bellatrix socks. AGAIN I don't want to swatch. I know horrible...but I'm going to just cast on and see what happens.

Another thing is that I don't think I want to finish the Dog Bone Blanket. I'm really unhappy with the pattern and I just think I like the Log Cabin Blanket pattern better. So, I'm thinking of frogging that as well and casting on for the Log Cabin tonight.

I seem to be in a very bad case of startitis. I just want to cast on everything!! I think it will be ok. I might do the Bellatrix socks 2-at-a time so that will be something different.

I'm hoping to get a chance to podcast...as you can tell I seem to be pretty wordy lately! hehehe

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!! Happy Knitting!!!

Financial Budgets

Anyone else on a budget?? My friend Sheryl has been helping me figure out how to get out of debt, save money for my wedding and future, and still survive. She's helped me make a budget. We talked a couple weeks ago and I was telling her all about my finances and talking about the fact that I will have two paychecks this summer. Which is wonderful but I really want it to go to something not just be spent....So, essentially I need a plan. She looked over all my bills and created a budget and a time-line for paying back all my bills. I've wracked up a TON of medical bills with the accident over Thanksgiving and my toe surgery so I need to start paying them all off. One of the things I've decided is that I need to stick to this budget if I'm going to have any hope. We met this morning and talked all about the budget and what I have to do to get started. I'm not sure Special K is going to like my budget but I guess he'll get used to it...I know it's going to take me a bit.

It's never fun talking finances but I think it's one of the most important conversations to have. I guess we are just going to have to work all this out. As the plan goes with no major emergencies happening I'm going to be able to pay half my debt by the end of the year. This is exciting and I can't wait.

I think one big thing will be limiting my yarn/fiber related purchases and staying out of swaps, which I love but I think it might be important. My goal is to only purchase yarn that has a specific purpose and to use my stash as much as possible. I think that might work. I'm still young and the big plans for my future are going to need me staying in financial control. Those words "financial control" are two simple words but have a HUGE meaning.

Well..I hope this break in the knitting/life talk and discussion of money doesn't bother anyone but I just felt like getting it off my chest.

A little about what's going on with me. I've spent a couple hours working on getting some of the dust out of my house. With two big dogs, it is never ending. I also plan on working on my Dog Bone Blanket for my friends baby shower gift. I found out it's next week...not sure I'll be done by then but I need to work on it. I was kind of thinking I don't want to give it to her. A friend at my knit group made a Log Cabin blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting and I really liked it and I think one in two shades of pink would be perfect but that means I'd have to cast on TODAY and finish it in a week. I also want to finish my reversai socks, work on the 9-5 socks, and cast on the Bellatrix socks for the May Sockdown. :) Loads to do and not sure where to start. I guess I'm going to watch some Gilmore girls and finish the toes on the reversai socks while I think what to do about the baby blanket.

Well...thanks for reading and hope everyone is having a great day!!

Dogs on Thursday and update.

I've spent the week recovering from my trips last week. I had a great weekend in St. Augustine with Special K. I enjoyed golfing and already plan to go again. :) Who would have thought?? I also liked St. Augustine a lot to. The old town part was fun and had good restaurants.

Well, to start out on Friday I ordered a cake from Publix. I asked them to rush the order and the size I wanted was the one that they give free for kids 1 yr old birthday. When I asked the lady assumed that Special K was 1 yr old and I let her believe that. :) At least I got her to put "Happy Birthday Kenny" on it instead of Happy First Birthday. hehee I did manage to fit 24 candles on it. Yes, Special K is 24 now. I'm a tad older than that if you're wondering....a couple years. So, here's his cake that we had in the hotel room in St. Augustine, FL. (I guess I should say that I paid $5 for the cake...she rushed the order because I think she thought he was 1yrs old. To get the small cake free you have to order a regular size cake and it comes with it.)
Here he is blowing out the candles. He's so cute. :)
On Saturday we headed to the World Golf Hall of Fame and I actually had a great time. I snapped a picture of Special K standing on the replica of the old bridge at St. Andrews in Scotland. I learned a lot about golf that day.
This is an awesome picture from the top of the tower that holds all the trophies.
We got to see an IMAX movie and play putt putt on a nice 18 hole course there. It's not like a normal putt putt place it actually has golf greens and the flags come out of the whole like they would at an actual golf course. I played well but still loss to Special K. That night, Special K's dad and step mom met up with us and we went to dinner. The following day we played an actual round of golf at an actual golf course. :) I say it that way because it's my first time playing a round of golf. I can't tell you my score because I really just had fun. If I had a good shot of the tee then I played it, otherwise I picked it up and placed it where I wanted. I had a great time. The course was hard though and I may say that the boys had their work cut out for them.

Well...our trip was fun and I'm glad that Special K had such a great birthday weekend. Now, I just have to figure out what I want to do for mine. :) It's coming up soon. 20 days from today I'll be turning 28. hehehe. Told you I was a tad older than Special K.

Well...since today is Dogs on Thursday I figured I should add a picture of my pups. They are doing well and we haven't officially started our walking in the morning but the plan is there and hope to start soon. Here's a picture of when I took them to a local swim spot to check it out. We decided not to go there because I felt the water was too stagnant but they enjoyed the nice walk in the park.
They sure are cute and they have a great stay when there are no other dogs around. :)

Hope everyone is doing well. I hope to get back on blogging more regularly but with all these trips and getting ready for my new job, I haven't had as much time as I'd like.

Happy Dogs on Thursday!!