My new favorite website

Y’all I may just be in LOVE!!! I mean LUB, WUB, LUBBING!!! I found this website by random coincidence and can’t stop from going back to check it every few hours. May I introduce, Pintrest. Simply wonderful site.

Seriously, if you like fashion, architecture, food, crafting, just neat stuff all together in one lovely user interface this is a place for you.  Ok, no more time to tell you of its wonder as I’m going back there now!  So just go, go look you won’t regret it I promise!

http://pinterest.com/

Damn Finger

How in the hell does one knit with THIS???

Stupid bandage  

Stupid finger  

Stupid broken finger that requires a stupid bandage   :[

I tried working from a different finger but that just feels WEIRD.  I tried threading through the bandage and then tightening / loosening the strappy do bobbers (highly technical term there…) all to no avail.

<LE SIGH>… Oh well, damn thing can’t stop me from drinking a beer!

Pipes!

Ok, no, not the pipes like your plumbing but Yahoo! Pipes.   Otherwise known as a mashup. Google it or wikit (I made it up… short for go look it up on Wikipedia!). Tangents, tangents anywhoo, back to what I’m actually blogging about.

In its simplest form a mashup is a simple way to get information from multiple sources. In my case that would be KNITTING BLOGS woot! Love ‘em! So, cleaned up and refreshed for the new year I’ve updated the knitting mashup for your pleasure.

I get the 3 most recent posts all together in one RSS from the following knitting blogs Ravelry, Yarn Harlot, Knitty, Grumperina, Knit & Tonic, Knitted Bliss, Vicki Howell, Knitters Review, Lion Brand, Crazy Aunt Purl, and Mason Dixon Knitting.

You can subscribe to the mashup via any RSS reader there are quite a few options. I personally love Google Reader.

So with no further ado here you go:  http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=UjF_LiEB3RGb1Z3zBx2yXQ&_render=rss

Enjoy!!!

One more day

Just for one more day can you be little and I can be big…

Just for one more day can you lean on my shoulder instead of you being so tall I lean on yours…

Just for one more day can you believe that I know everything…

Just for one more day can you be so excited to see me you clap your hands when I walk in the door…

Just for one more day can I carry you and cradle you in my arms…

Just for one more day can I take all of your troubles away and make everything better with a kiss…

Just for one more day can my heart not break every time I think about what happens in two years when I have to let you go start your own life…

Computer Fun

I love addons and software and how to’s.  Hell, I’m a downright junkie for the latest and greatest “Tweak”.  No, matter how big or small bring it on I’ll try it.  So today a few of my faves and places to find them.

RocketDock – http://rocketdock.com/ This is a free software that you can addon that gives you a gorgeous little tool bar.  A wee bit of tweaking and you’re all set to go.

ScrollWall – http://www.vcsoftwares.com/sw.html - Want a little itty bitty program that will cycle through your pictures for wallpaper?  Another freebie.  Simply install, then look in your quick links and tell it where the pictures you want it to use are.  That simple!

MakeUseOf – http://www.makeuseof.com - And to wrap us up one of my all time faves for finding the neat little tools.  Simple little site with tons of articles.  Their weekly post on, “Cool Websites and Tools” is always worth a glance.

More than interesting

So a new edition of that’s interesting. Ever wonder how to start a jellyfish tank? Create a butterfly garden? Make hamburger cupcakes? Motivate your employees? Make a 3D paper snowflake? Win a street fight?

If you’ve never used it before Wikihow: http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page is the place for you!

That’s interesting…

I often find really interesting “stuff” on the web. Category can be totally random. I never post this stuff and mean to tell people about it but then forget. So hear you have it something interesting for a Friday.

This one was way to cool to pass up. Ever Google your name? Use this online tool to search people for all public information. It gathers information from social networks, docs, and the web. Better yet it’s FREE!

Webmii - http://www.webmii.com/

Photo Restoration

A little somethin, somethin for my friend Lette’s birthday…

Before - This is where the image started.

After - Some Restoration

The December Sock

Very, very, very loudly the sigh drifts from my lips. This is of course after I’ve thrown a full scale temper tantrum that had I not been on a crowded bus would have involved an on the floor screaming, leg kicking, fist pounding best two year old tantrum that anyone has ever seen!  The tantrum did involve some needle throwing and some full fledged rather violent ripping.  I did manage to bite the ever loving crud out out of my cheeks to hold in the many curses that I wished to scream at the top of my lungs!  I only managed to refrain from throwing the full tantrum when I by chance glanced up from mad cheek biting and violent ripping to notice that a very good portion of the bus was staring at me.

My knitting while occasionally frustrating rarely really upsets me.  I accept that as part of knitting there is frogging this is and always will be just something you suck up and you do and you march on. There will always be bad patterns out there and even more often there will be bad pattern readers out there.  There will always be the days where you just didn’t think the rule of creating a gauge swatch really applied to you.  There will always be projects that require modification to fit your actual measurements.  Most of the time I actually try to take frogging as a learning lesson for something to do differently in the future.

But I digress back to the conniption on the bus…  What led to this little round of madness you ask?  THE SOCK or as it is now and shall forever be known as that F’ING SOCK.  I had a plan, I stuck to the plan, the plan worked like a charm!  Eleven long months of sock knitting had produced on time 5 pairs of socks and 1/2 only 1/2 of one pair of socks left to go.  I being the brilliant project manager / planner that I am was on track to finish on time no less!  I had fully planned to save one of the easiest pairs for last.  One that knit up on larger needles so that it would go quickly.

In December it began I started this little project about a week late but I knew how quickly and easily the first sock had gone and thought to myself no problem.  This sock was actually my first attempt at design and it had gone extraordinarily well.  I knew this sock like the back of my hand, no worries… and then it began:

• Frogging round 1 – I started with a larger size of needles by mistake
• Frogging round 2 - Can’t remember why this frogging round occured but I remember that it did occur
• Frogging round 3 - UNFREAKING BELIEVABLE the  F’ing sock has to be knit a very specific way from the heel and who paid no attention that’s right the f’ing planner (hence foreward known as the dumb ass)
• Frogging round 4 – Did something wrong and frogged the heel again
• Frogging round 5 – OMG kill me now this is a sock for heavens sake a SOCK why is a SOCK defeating me!!!!!  This time I finished the heel all is on track and THEN I screwed up the pattern.

This is how a grown 33 year old woman succumbs to wishing like mad that they could act like a two year old and throw a full scale tantrum.

The Finished Half of the Socks

33 and mother nature is not so kind

So, I sit in the haircut shop the other day waiting for my son to get a new “do” and I’m of course BOMBARDED by all of the “rags.” I use the term rags very liberally here. What do I mean by rags you ask?  Well I mean People, Cosmo, In Style and their ilk. I can’t help it one calls to me, I have to pick it up. It’s one of their, “Most Beautiful” issues and then it begins. You know what I’m talking about, every woman does. You start to feel less… every flaw, every drop of fat, every pore, every piece of clothing is no longer good enough. You may have felt great, clothing perfect, hair perfect, and thought my butt looks G O O D in these jeans. Now that you’ve touched the rag however that’s all gone. I swear the rags are made by vampires. Vampires that suck away ones ability to feel good about themselves in the skin they are in.

Well you know what, screw every single one of them; at 33 I have:

• Wrinkles
• My hair hasn’t been done in God only knows how long
• My butt is so much further south than it used to be
• My breasts which have never been one of my assets and have seen way to many push up bras are now more depressed than ever

And you know what I DO NOT GIVE A DAMN! That’s right I do not give a damn. Like it? Great! Don’t? I do not care!

• Every wrinkle is because I laughed and smiled as much and as often as is humanly possible. I love being blessed enough in this life to have so many opportunities to smile and laugh.
• Hair is clean and long and I still get a thrill messing with it. Those streaks that are fading aren’t from a damn two hour torture stint in a beauty shop they’re from being out in the beautiful sunshine sitting on the swing with my son, they’re from playing with my dogs outside, they’re from many hours spent in an herb garden that I adore.
• The stretch marks on my breasts and their general lack of perkiness are because I nursed a child that I didn’t know if I was going to be able to bring home and for that I will always be grateful!
• The butt… well it’s still there and let’s face it if I really wanted to I could eat less of the food that I like and exercise more. Guess what I am healthy and so is my gear in the rear. I’m not going to miss out on food just to maintain a size 2 world be damned! I am not overweight and if the rear view bugs you I’m guessing you know what you can do!  If you aren’t sure what to do send me an email and I’ll gladly reply with a lengthy email on where you can go and exactly how you can get there.

For every one of my friends who looks at themselves and doesn’t feel good enough.  For every woman who looks in a mirror and can’t smile.  For every time I’ve looked at myself and judged every single flaw real and imagined I QUIT!!!  I am not going to worry about what’s failing me on the outside.  It’s time to face facts, what’s outside is going to rot away one day very soon and no amount of botox, surgery, or lipo is going to change that fact. I will worry about what I believe is going to live on long after I do; my legacy as a mother to a child and the soul that I believe will live on forever that’s what I’ll be working on.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not giving up on myself.  I’m not going to a commune to live as a nudist.  I’m just accepting myself exactly as I am.  Now however, I’ll have the presence of mind to realize that what others and I myself have seen as flaws are really all about perception. I choose to look at what most would consider to be a flaw or GOD forbid a sign of aging and recognize each and everybit of it as a blessing.

So take the rags and put them to good use, start a compost heap or start a campfire with them then make some awesome s’mores (probably not a good idea to actually roast a marshmallow on top of the fumes they put off though). Really that’s all they’re good for!