Star Shaped

This is a sleeve. A very pretty sleeve.

Look what I've picked up again; my Arisaig cardigan! Actually, I picked it up again sometime in December, but I didn't really ramp up my progress on the sleeves until recently.

I never really talked about the disaster that struck me last fall; I knit a sleeve, it took me forever, and... the sleeve was too big. I cried. (Well, not really.) I still don't know what I did wrong, but I wasn't happy. So I put the project down for a few months and just recently picked it back up. And now, with a few alterations, I'm almost done with my second first sleeve. I think this one will fit much better, though I am NOT looking forward to knitting the second sleeve. (Technically, the third sleeve, but I don't want to get technical.) I've passed the two year mark since I started this project, and I really want to get it done before the end of this year. Fingers crossed.

I'm still working on my second pair of wristwarmers and my second Monkey sock. I seem to have misplaced the pattern for the wristwarmers and I'm too lazy to look it up online, so I've not touched them for a month. See how lazy I am? The cardigan and the socks have easily accessible patterns in my yarn bag, so I can just pull out the desired project and my nifty Knit Picks chart holder and boom, I'm ready to go. Apparently going to my computer, looking up the wristwarmer pattern, printing it out, and putting it in my yarn bag is too much work for me. I never said I wasn't lazy. (Though, writing this paragraph has inspired me to just finish the damn things, already.)

. . . . .

Very Easy Marinated Chicken Skewers from Just Bento. Yum.

A few weeks ago I came across Just Bento, a site highlighting easy, healthy recipes for bento lunches. I love the idea of packing lunch in little compartmentalized boxes, and since I bring the same lunch pretty much every day, I figured packing my lunch a little more creatively would jazz it up a bit. I went and bought a little lunch box at Target; while it's not a 'true' bento lunch box, it's allowed me to pack my lunches in more interesting ways. I normally bring a sandwich, yogurt, and some sort of fruit to work for lunch, but recently I've been buying nuts and little snacks to tuck into my box as well. I slice up my sandwich in smaller pieces, peel my oranges and arrange them in the box, and I even folded little origami boxes as containers for the nuts and jellybeans I've used. I try to change it up a little bit from week to week; I'm going to buy rice cakes for next week and probably also buy strawberries in addition to the oranges I already have, just so I can eat some more fruit during lunch. I like variety in my lunches and so far, this has worked out great.

Anyway. As you can see, the above picture is not of one of my lunches, but of a dinner I tried a few weeks ago with a recipe from the Just Bento site. The author makes these dishes for the lunches she makes, but I've been using them for dinners instead. The recipes have been excellent; pictured above is the Very Easy Marinated Chicken Skewers recipe. It contains ingredients I already had laying around my apartment, and cooking didn't take very long either; it doesn't look like a lot of food, but I'll eat these meals with rice as well, which works out for me.

I heart sesame flavored beef pork.

Other recipes I've made (and loved!):

• Sesame Flavored Beef (I've only made this with pork so far, but it's still delicious!)
• Japanese Crispy Fried Shrimp (These were AWESOME)
• Sweet-Sour Red Wine Vinegar Chicken (I used chicken breasts instead of thighs, but still, very delicious)

I'm still wanting to try out a few other recipes; I'm glad I came across this site!

. . . . .

Rachel, Carly, and Faith with the cutest computer screen wipes ever.

Last, but certainly not least, at our knit night a few weeks ago, a few friends of mine found these cute animal computer screen wipes, and decided they were too cute not to purchase. And they are adorable! The only places I've found them online are in the UK, but the South Bend Chocolate Cafe downtown obviously sells them in the US. They are adorable.

And yes, I had a great time in St Louis! The derby bout was exciting and fast paced and very cool to watch, and I met a few cool people who showed me a good time. The only not so fun part was the 6 hour drive. I'll have to get used to that, however, as I'm driving down to Tennessee this coming weekend for a wedding. Hello, 7-8 hour car ride! But, I'm looking forward to a fun time seeing both Nashville and Gatlinburg! I do love to travel.

Another day, another wristwarmer.

I'm finally getting around to posting some of my more recent knitting projects; I've been a knitting fool the past few months, but I have a hard time photographing the things I make. My apartment lighting is not the greatest, and when I get home to actually take the pictures, it's dark outside and the lighting in my apartment is weird. Excuses, I know.

Yes, I started another pair of wristwarmers. A friend of mine wanted to learn how to knit on double pointed needles to make herself a pair, so I cast on for another pair myself and finished the first one in less than a week. I need to cast on for number 2 still, but I'm in no rush. I'll get them done eventually.

This shawl sort of reminds me of a butterfly.

I also finished my Wings to Heaven shawl (ravelry link) I started at a knitting retreat about a month ago. My friend Vicki designed this pattern and named it in memory of a friend of ours who died of pancreatic cancer at the end of December. I loved knitting this pattern. I used some of my own handspun for this project, and I'm pretty happy with how the yarn knit up. I don't know if I can rock the shawl look, but I still enjoyed knitting this, even if I don't wear it often.

Madalyn is awesome.

I've been meeting up with my knitting friends a lot this month; I took this picture of Madalyn knitting a gorgeous swatch bangle bracelet! It's been great seeing my knitting friends so often.

In other news, I'm heading to St. Louis this weekend to hang with Laura and see the Arch Rival Roller Girls' first bout of the season! I'm pretty psyched to spend some time outside of the Bend as I haven't gotten out of town since visiting my family at the end of December! I've just been laying low this winter, riding out January and February and hoping warmer weather's just around the corner. I'm crossing my fingers.

Felt flowers to eventually decorate the walls of my living room.

January's been an interesting month so far. I haven't really taken the time to write publicly this month because I'm just trying to survive one of the worst winters I've experienced during my lifetime. Seriously, I don't remember getting THIS much snow or it being THIS cold THIS often. It is ridiculous, and it is only January. I am hoping the snowfall slows down once February hits. (On Sunday. February starts on Sunday. What?)

January and February have historically been my least favorite months of the year. It's dark when I wake up, dark when I go home, and half the time I have to navigate my way through snow and ice and who knows what else just to get from one place to the other. It hinders my ability to stay active, as sometimes the weather will be so bad that I just throw in the towel and decide to stay in for the evening. I don't like those evenings.

I've experienced some disappointment this January. But from that disappointment, I've learned that I am strong and capable of doing what I want and living my life by my own terms. I think winter's a good time to learn such a lesson, as most of the time, for me at least, winter is a struggle anyway.

Things are good. Winter's not my favorite time of the year, but I am enjoying myself and my life, for the most part.

So. Liz tagged me ages and ages ago to fill this out, and I'm just now posting this. Seven random things about me you may or may not have already known...

1. I love Christmas! I was born on Christmas Day a little over 28 years ago, so it's almost a given that I love the holiday season. It may be uncool to love Christmas, but I don't care. I love decorating Christmas trees, listening to Christmas music, and seeing decorations all over the place. It's the only time of year I can tolerate snow, too; once January hits, I want that snow gone! Unfortunately, mother nature never listens to me.
2. Mix tapes will always hold a special place in my heart. I went to high school in the days before CD burners and mp3s, so I relied on cassette tapes to create my own playlist of music. I have SO many tapes from about 1996-2000 or so, tapes I'd listen to in my trusty 1997 Toyota Camry (complete with tape player) and in my boombox in my bedroom at my parents' house. I gave them all the variation of the same name; I had 'My Groovy Tape', 'My Beautiful Tape', 'My Kickass Tape', and so on. Mostly these tapes would consist of songs I already owned on CD, but on occasion I'd make tapes consisting of songs I heard on the radio and loved. I'd spend way, way too many afternoons listening to the radio, listening intently for the first few notes of the song I wanted to tape. And I'd curse when the DJ would cut in at the end. Before you ask -- yes, I still own all my tapes. I only wish my car now had a tape player!
3. It took me forever to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. Then I realized I didn't like kids. In middle school and early high school, I wanted to be an interior decorator or an architect. Later on in high school I scrapped those ideas and decided I wanted to major in either art, music, or English. THEN, when I actually started college, I debated being a math major. FINALLY, right before my sophomore year, I decided on Computer Science. Though, now that I think about it, I wish I had gone more into a graphic design field instead. Oh well. I enjoy what I'm doing now.
4. I'm a picky eater. A lot of people actually don't know this, but it's true! I'm much better than I used to be, but to this day, I still don't like a few things. The biggest one on the list? Pasta. I have an aversion to the texture of noodles, and have since I was a kid. Also, I have a hard time liking most salads, on account of the fact I do not like cucumbers or tomatoes. Give me a spinach salad any day! Cheese and I have had a strained relationship, but I'm getting better with that. I also do not like a lot of condiments; I eat my burgers with no cheese and only ketchup, and I only put ketchup on my hot dogs. In fact, the only condiments I use are ketchup, salt, pepper, and butter. Pretty much. I am honestly trying to expand my food horizons, and I think the past few years, I've done a good job.
5. As a young child, I could name the hosts of every single game show on tv at the time. I'm not sure what else to say about this one, but apparently I was a source of entertainment for my parents because of this.
6. I've never lived in an apartment complex with a washer and dryer in the unit. Apparently I am strange because of this. I at least have always had a laundry room in my building, though it requires me to bundle up before venturing to the laundry room with my clothes. Plus, getting quarters at the store is a pain.
7. My alarm clock at home is set one hour and six minutes ahead. I've been using the same alarm clock since I was 13 or 14, and some of the buttons don't work correctly anymore. So when I set the time, I don't set it to the exact time. And when Daylight Saving Time ended, I didn't bother messing with it. So I have to mentally calculate the time when I look at my clock in the middle of the night. I actually did something similar when I was younger; I'd never set my clock back when Daylight Saving Time ended, because I liked to pretend it existed all year round. As a kid, I hated the fact that it got dark so early!

I'm not big into tagging other people, and I think everyone else has done this one already! So, answer this if you want and I will read your answers. Obviously.

Today's the last day of 2008. I am not sure where this year went; from May onward, this year absolutely flew. Seriously. I cannot believe tomorrow is 2009.

This year has been one of the most difficult years of my life; I left my ex-husband, got a divorce, and have been learning how to make it on my own again. I think I'm doing a decent job of it, and I still know I made the right decision.

January
I started the new year at a friend of a friend's house, drinking wine, eating cocktail shrimp, and meeting up with past coworkers. We drove home at around 1am in the midst of a huge snowstorm, and we were surprised we made it home in one piece.

My friend Kelly came to visit; I took her to my favorite places in South Bend and we talked and caught up with each other's lives. I hadn't seen her in a long, long time, so it was nice to see her again.

We visited my family in Massachusetts! We took family pictures, played a lot of Guitar Hero with my dad, and just relaxed.

February
I dyed my hair blonde after wanting to make a huge change, hair-wise, for a long time. I restarted my weblog for the millionth time. I did a lot of knitting and crafty things in February and longed for spring and summer.

I also met a great group of girls this month, pretty much by chance; one day I met up with a few friends for knitting and all of a sudden, we decided to meet up every week. They have become great friends to me, and I'm so happy we met this year!

March
I knit more and crafted more. I watched Heroes.

April
I went out with friends. I knit and crafted even more.

May
I went to a conference in Florida for work; it was great enjoying warm temperatures when it was only around 60 degrees in South Bend at the time we went.

And... I left Scott. I moved in with a friend of mine. We started the divorce process.

June
We filed our divorce papers. I attended a tattoo parlor birthday party and very nearly got my nose pierced, but couldn't find an open piercer before the place closed. I moved into a one bedroom apartment and lived alone for the first time in my life.

July
I dyed the back of my hair pink. I wrote a lot, and went out a lot.

August
I visited my family. I went to the beach. And my divorce was finalized.

September
Linda visited me in my apartment; we visited Milwaukee, tasted a lot of wine, and watched lots of Office episodes. My mom visited me in my apartment; we went to Chicago and ate great pizza, went to IKEA and got myself an excellent bookcase, and introduced her to some of my knitting friends.

October
I flew first class to Dallas to visit Linda; I drank mimosas, went to the fair, and saw a great live band play downtown. I interviewed for a new job, and got it. Went out with my friends, knit, played games, and in general had a good time. Went to a Halloween party for the first time in six years.

November
I wrote. And wrote. And wrote some more. My laptop died on me. I spent Thanksgiving eating a delicious lunch at Notre Dame with a couple good friends of mine and we explored the campus after we ate. I finished my novel on the 30th. I won an ugly sweater contest at an early Christmas party. I started my new job.

December
I fought the snow that just kept on falling. I knit and hung out with people and wrote in my journal. I decorated my apartment for Christmas. I visited my family for the holidays and received an iPhone for Christmas. I saw my extended family for the first time in two years; I went to a party thrown by someone from high school and saw a few people I hadn't seen in upwards of ten years. I caught up with my best friend from high school. I flew home, unpacked, and took down my holiday decorations.

I can't say whether or not this year was good or bad. In a lot of ways, it was good, but in others, it's been rough. I do have hopes that 2009 will be much better than 2008, and either way, things will work out. Things will be okay.