Hi there - My name is Claudia. I live with my husband, two kids and two furry kids in Georgia, USA. Originally I am from Germany - southern belle from Bavaria replanted to the Southern US. I am very addicted to knitting - at least 4-5 projects going at the same time... What can I say... And I started spinning in 2006... So lost in fiber space!
Yeah, me bad. For not blogging for a while. SORRY!!! Not really any changes around here. I am hanging in there. Brett is taking good care of me and the dogs. :-) I love having him as a room mate.
Just an example: Last week I went to get pampered at the nail salon after work and when I got home, dinner was ready. YAY!
I am going to have three days off this week and I have major plans to clean up my house. Lots of things need to be boxed up and moved to the basement. I am finally mentally ready for this challange (sounds like a realty TV show, doesn't it?) and I am going to work on it this week. And hopefully I get everything done, plus some blogging about knitting.
Yes, there has been knitting, just not taking pictures of it or updating my Ravelry account. What a bad knitter/blogger I have become... It can only get better from here, right?
OH - and I missed my blog anniversary. It was January 23 - Happy birthday blog! Now you are three years old. WOW!
Before I leave you with this short entry, I have to share my favorite Superbowl commercial with you:
I sometimes feel like that woman in the car. ;-)
Yes, I went to my first Superbowl party E.V.E.R. yesterday. It was a lot of fun. And no, I still don't have a clue about football. But it was actually more fun to watch the people get excited about the game. Go Steelers - congrats to Sandy and Regan. You gals must have had a blast yesterday!
And it is even better if you follow through with your plan, if you can.
I took three days of vacation last week to make some major changes around my house. Believe it or not, I got everything done I wanted to achieve during the loooooooooooooooong weekend.
I did not read emails or go online – too distracting. I know myself. I look around on Ravelry, I read my friends’ blogs and whoops a few hours are come and gone. I got up early every day and therefore got some knitting time in every day which was nice. When you get up at 7am on a vacation day and you don't start hauling stuff around until at 9am – it still feels like you have been dillydallying around for a while.
SO – on Wednesday I went to work in the basement. I put stuff in the right places, made room for new boxes, cleaned up and threw a bunch of stuff out. Brett went to look at my progress Thursday morning and when he came back up the stairs, he said “WOW”. Some of you have seen my basement. It is full of STUFF. Now it looks like I can put a lot more down there, hehehe.
On Thursday, I boxed all of Irwin’s stuff up in his office. I have no idea how many times I walked up and down those basement stairs. A lot of times... My back was sore and I still have a bunch of bruises on my arms. You see, I am a macho girl and I like put as many things into one big box as I can. Which is not really smart, especially when you box up books… That was all I did on Thursday and then I moved some of my stuff out of Brett’s room into my “new” office. Now the office looks all very Claudia – lots of shelves with knitting magazines, German books, cook books, cow knickknacks, etc. And on Thursday I met Ms. Pixie Purls for lunch. I am knitting some samples for her - more about that later. We haven't see each other in a while (I believe the last time was at the Christmas party at Jacquie's house in December). So, we talked, talked, talked, talked to catch up. :-)
On Friday, I cleaned out everything that was deposited around the house in a "wrong" place, mainly in the dining room. The room now actually looks like you can eat in there again. And Brett has all the room on my big glass table to sew and work on school projects. Have I mentioned that he had a 4.0 last semester and he made it to the President’s list? GO BRETT!
On Saturday, I picked up around the house and I cleaned. It is such a nice feeling to be able to have friends over and the place looks like a home and not like a storage unit. YAY for that! It is really true – a cluttered place give you a cluttered mind. Well, my mind is still partially cluttered because there heaps of papers on my desk in my office. But I figure – now that I have room in my office – I will be able to set up new files pretty quickly and get that squared away, too.
And on Sunday I did nothing, only vacuumed and played with the pooches. They are starting to lose their winter coat already and I could brush them for hours and they would still shed. Anyways, I let them play outside for a while and then I brushed them outside. Smart I thought because that leaves a bunch of fur outside instead of on my carpet. I also took them to the vet on Friday and they are as healthy as horses. ;-) Ms. Hermione is getting a little older and Dr. Beth suggested for her to get a little trimmer. So, I figured we should get trimmer together. Now that the days get longer, I have time to walk them after I get home from work. They always have so much fun when I take them out. And so do I, works for all of us.
And I listened to a lot of really good music while working my butt off. :-0
So, the only thing I really didn’t do is take knitting pictures… Darnit! I knew there was something else.
Well, you can see I am getting back in the swing of being more organized. I guess my German nature is bubbling back up. Hopefully sometime this week I’ll be able to take some nice daylight pictures of my latest achievements. :-)
I am so happy and relaxed about the outcome of this weekend. I was a bit worried at the beginning about getting all that done. And then also about boxing all of Irwin’s stuff. But I have to say it brought me to a better place. I am very peaceful about all the things I achieved this weekend. It feels good to be back in control and not like a puddle that wants to stay in bed for the rest of eternity.
And since I have no knitting pix, I wanted to share with you another YouTube video. Brett showed me this SNL video. It is hilarious.
We laughed ourselves silly – and I had to listen to Brett for two days singing that song. Thankfully he didn’t put on a leotard and started dancing. ;-)
Whew – time just flies by, doesn’t it? These days I look around and another week has come and gone and I am not really doing much.
So, one more entry before February is over and also to get the funny looking cupid out of everyone’s sight. You might have guessed – Brett was the recipient of the Valentines Day Card and he thought is was hilarious.
I have been taking pictures, but not many knitting pictures, sorry. I made a couple of excursions during the last few weeks and I wanted to share some of the photos with you.
I went for the first time to the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. It is Atlanta’s oldest cemetery, as well as one of the largest green spaces, in Atlanta, Georgia. It has a Confederate, a Jewish and an African-American section, as well as Potter's Field, a Bell Tower and tons of monuments and mausoleums. I bought a map to make it easier to find some of the famous people buried at this cemetery.
This is my favorite photo of the day.
I love the way the statue looks with the clouds and the big white spot in the sky. And this picture is also big favorite.
I took this picture through the entrance window of one of the mausoleums. You can’t see the pretty stain glass window from the outside, only from the inside. I thought that was very interesting.
I also spent a Saturday driving around in North Georgia – that was a couple of weekends ago when we had weather in the 70s and one was able to take the top of the car down. ;-)
I love waterfalls!
And I went into one of those country shops besides the road with an interesting assembly of pottery. And of course be now, I forgot the name of the shop. I am not even sure I would remember how to get there...
And finally, I do have a finished knitting project and I took pictures before I gave it away. Shocking, isn’t it… I was asked to knit a dog sweater for a little 4-month old Yorkshire terrier. Sophie belongs to the daughter of a friend of mine. I call Sophie “Ittybitty” because she is so tiny.
I was looking for a sweater pattern in one of my books and then Brett gave me one of his knitting books that is all about dogs sweater (forgot that name as well, sorry). But I didn’t like any of the patterns because they all had several pieces that you had to sew together. You know me – screw that! I made up my own.
It is knitted from the neck down in one piece and you increase after the little turtle neck like for a raglan sweater. It was a fast and easy knit.
Since Sophie’s mom’s favorite colors are lime green and purple, I knitted the sweater in stripes with those two colors. And I am proud to say that I knitted with Caron Simply Soft – yes, ack yarn... I am not using cashmere for a dog sweater that is being cared for by a 12-year-old. I need to take a picture of Sophie wearing the sweater. She looks totally adorable, like a little character from The Sesame Street. The sweater was a hit with Sophie’s mom and I was already asked to knit a bunch more. One of them should be a Georgia Bulldog sweater. So, now I am in the process of designing a bright red sweater with a big black G on it. Stay tuned! I could get convinced to write up the pattern (wasn’t there already a gazillion others I want to write up… GEEZ LOUISE!), just don’t twist my arm too hard!
Other than that I don’t have much to report. It seems 2009 is off to a good start. I have been doing a lot of packing up and moving things around at the house. I started seeing my therapist only every other week. She thinks I am doing great – and I start to believe that, too. Well, at least better. I guess the outlook to spring weather, more outdoor activities and longer days help, too. Plus I feel like my anger and my depression phases are over and I am getting to the point where I am accepting things for what they are. It has been 8 months last Monday since Irwin passed away. On one hand, I can’t believe that is has already been so long ago and on the other hand it still feels like this all just happened yesterday.
I am also looking forward to STITCHES in April in Atlanta and then I am going to a one-week long workshop to John C. Campbell School in June with Jane – whom I haven’t seen in forever!
So that's it for now – my Thursday lunch break is over.
A little dog has a warm sweater - we are supposed to have snow showers in North Georgia on Sunday - at least that is what the forecast said this morning.
Isn't she cute? Even tho' she hated it when I took her picture and she tried to look especially vicious. ;-)
I always joke when I hear about snow in Georgia and I ask if there will be two or three snowflakes... Sorry but I grew up in the Alps and when you have snowshowers there, it means a foot of snow in an hour... Well, maybe I am exaggerating but you get my drift. ;-)
And then... I talked to my mom this morning. She told me that she is almost finished with another sweater for me and she will mail on Monday. I gave her a bunch of Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed when I was there for Christmas and whoopdido at the end of February the sweater is done. Mom rocks, as always. I'll post pictures as soon as I get my treat. ;-)
I will have to go the DMV tomorrow morning to finally get the car titles transferred from Irwin to me and also to renew the tags. I can't wait for that hassle... But it has to be done - I just need to get it over with. At least I already had the emissions tested on both cars. The guys who did the emissions for the Supra were very impressed by the condition of the car. Even tho' it is 15 years old, it passed with A+++: ;-)
