Pretty pictures

I took these outside a few minutes ago.  I guess my camera can do neat things after all.

Flowering catulpa

Our tree wedding favor is finally sprouting! We planted it 3 weeks
ago and 3 buds are already making their way to the surface. Can't
wait to see them get bigger!!

The garden is ready

Our mission has been to water the gardens and get them ready for the spring plantings.  My mentor, Jim Spencer, has made it quite clear to not plant your fruits and veggies just yet.  So we are waiting for the go-ahead.  We have a few plants in pots that are waiting in line to get planted.  

It's pretty bare now compared to last year. We had 3 ginormous tomato plants taking up half the garden.  

The herb garden is half alive, half dead. But it's pretty easy to take care of. I can't wait for the mints to get big for Mojito and Tom Collins nights.

The front garden is doing very well, better than expected. Our landscaper did a good job in choosing plants that have color.


It looks very fall/winterish to me. I plan on hitting Lowes and stocking up on yellow and orange lilies. They are amazing! Adding some brighter colors will do the trick.

Well that's the plan in a nutshell.  I'm sure it will be lovely in the end.  That is if global warming will take a backseat this season.

It's HERE!!!!!!!

My Etsy shop is up and running!!!!  Hooray wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  (Look at the bottom left hand side.)

If you place an order and mention my blog, you get free shipping!  Hell, if we know each other, I will come over to your house and deliver it myself.  

Like what you see but want a different color?  I'll do custom orders for my blog fans.  Just leave me a comment or email me.  

Tell me what you think.  I appreciate all comments.

What's going on

Well, honestly I haven't done anything blog-worthy lately.  I did spend the entire day in the garden.  Matt came home early and we went to Lowes and checked out all the lovely plants and flowers we plan on buying this week.  Then we came home and attacked the yards and garden. They are all prepped and being watered as I type.  It's nice to have time to do these things I have never done before.  I popped a HUGE blister on my thumb from raking.  It felt good to bust ass.

Friday we are babysitting for the first time ever.  It's Sara's birthday and I told her we wanted some "kid experience."  Good thing Fletcher is a good kid.  He better be or else he gets spankings and broccoli.

Our neighbor asked us today about a car that has been outside his house.  I noticed it was there since Monday.  It had actually been Saturday.  We had no clue about it and he called to get it towed.  Come to find out, it's stolen.  Crazy huh?  If that car was outside our house, I would have called on it the next day.  At least the owners  get it back.  I peeked inside it and saw it was unlocked and the stereo face was gone.  I hope the owners have it with them.  

Oh the leaves are everywhere!

It was time to get some of the leaves out of the way before the rain comes in this week.  Of course the kids wanted to play too.  I'm sure I stepped on 5 dog turds.

"But Mommy, I don't want to get my paws wet."

"I'll be ok if I stay on the dirt."

"Look at me, look at me, look at ME!"

I love my kids.  

It's going good

My crochet binge is in full swing.  I've been able to finish 4-5 projects so far.  It's amazing how much you can get done in a day!  I have also booked a model to help me glamourize my wares in photos.  So no more snap shots until the big reveal.  

Today is "wait for the fridge repair guy to come" day.  I think it's a 10-2pm window.  Just enough time to ruin any early afternoon fun.  Blast!

This weather has me completely giddy.  I woke up at 7am to watch the weather and see the rain fall totals.  Ugh I am such a dork.

My office

Tobi's blog post got me thinking last night...I need an area to work and store my crochet.  We have a decent sized office filled with boxes.  So this morning I started to move the boxes out and vacuum.

Look at all this room I can use!

(Oh, excuse the dead dog on the carpet.)

Now it's empty and ready for me to fill it up with my junk.  I found this neat storage cart from Target that I'm going to buy.  

It has 7 drawers and they snap shut and pull out.  How fabulous is this?  Colotte loves to sit on my new projects, so if I plan to sell them, I need to hide them from her.  Or consider shaving both animals.  That wouldn't be such a bad idea.  You should see how much dog and cat hair I vacuumed today.  Actually no, why would I show you that?  That's what happens when you have time.  You start to blog about stupid crap.  I better go.

Christina Bale is crazy mean but still hot in my book!

Wow. Patrick Bateman is not very nice. Let's drool at his beautiful pictures but be glad we aren't married to this prick.

I'm Gonna Do It!

It's about time to set up shop.  An Etsy shop that is.  I've been mulling the idea over in my head for months and debating if my craft is worth selling.  Lately, I have been improving in my pattern reading and skills so I'm going to make the plunge!  It's time to reap in the benefits of my creativity and available extra hours.

Soon it will be time for me to go into hibernation and create.  I'll let you know when I set things up.  

My lovely ruffle scarf

Wow! This is, by far, my absolute favorite creation. Too bad it's
Heather's now. I plan on making a ton more of these.

Crochet crochet crochet!

That's all I do lately.....besides play Oblivion. And that's ok.  I can.

  Here are my latest projects.

These I made for Heather.  They turned out very thick and cozy.  Now if the weather will cooperate...

I also started these for Heather, but she requested long fingerless gloves.  Picky, picky.  These will be mine then.  I used the same pattern for both with a few slight variations to include length.  

why does unemployment take sooooo long?

I shouldn't complain.  I hear some folks waiting up to 8 weeks for a paycheck from our government.  I only have to wait 3 weeks.  Still, that's no bueno.  I was also surprised to see I'm getting back a decent, livable amount every week.  I mean, I'll take whatever at this point.  

The weather is going to get freaky tonight.  Possible icing and sleet.   That's ok by me, I finally get to sleep in on rainy, yucky mornings.  

Kim is coming into town tomorrow to hang out with me and spend the night.  I'm sure we will have a good time.  Just no Rock Band.

the saddest grocery trip ever

So we decided to hit HEB after the movies last night and plan out the week's meals and whatnot. We made a limit - $100.  We had never set a budget, but things are different now.  I hadn't realized that I never looked at prices.  The only thing I have been concerned about is calories and fat content. It was sobering looking around the generic products I typically scorn.  

Hill Country Fare??  Wha??

I had to turn away from all the organic products we usually buy.  It was so depressing.  

We did get out of there at 47 cents over.  I almost teared up a few times though.  My life is changing, I can tell you that.

Well, it's been a rather insane week.  I actually don't want to elaborate on the issue on here.  I enjoy having this blog and seeing stats and hits from all over, but I always wonder who is really watching and invading my personal happy blog land.  Yes, yes I know a few of you skanky bitches stop by from time to time.  I see you, but I don't care.  

Basically you all know what happened from the previous post.  I'm still laid off and now I'm angry. So I will keep my angers and emotions from the Interwebs today.

Anyways, I'm staying positive and doing all sorts of fun things.  Thursday was pitch & putt with Jake and JJ.  Friday was a bike ride with Matt, Nory and Keith.  Today is another bike ride and Slumdog Millionaire with my new hot friend.  All fun things.  

I need fun events in my life right now.  

um

I just got laid off today.  That's all I can say right now as I am pretty fucking blown away.

Vote for us. I am so ghey for doing this.

Yah yah yah I know. What am I thinking? Maybe I was bored at work. Go here, vote for us.

Austin's cutest couple

New fingerless glove pattern

So I was pretty happy about the first pair of gloves, but I wanted something a bit more form-fitting. I found this pattern a week ago and tried it out, of course I ended up frogging my project. Then, after spending some time reading it and mentally working on the stitches in my mind, it all came together.

(Don't mind my threads, I haven't weaved them in yet.)

See how these have a place for your thumb to stay warm. They are slightly big on me as I am making these for a boy in a band. BUT I think they are better than the first pair, of course they take way longer.



Wow, that thumb section is huge. The more I look at it, the more I want to change it. But it may just be my vienna sausage fingers. They look miniscule. Maybe white is not the best color. I may try this in a darker color later this week. Too bad the weather is too warm to really enjoy gloves at the moment. Maybe in Feb?

Look at me! I'm crochet crazy!

I whipped up this cloche hat mostly last night. It was super easy. The pattern was a piece of cake to follow. I don't look very fabulous in this hat so I plan on giving it to Nory.

Kudos to Ravelry for having such nifty patterns.

Fingerless gloves

I am pretty excited how well these turned out. The stitch was a
double crochet, but it looks more complicated than that. Hooray for
creativity!

Just another lazy Sunday

I'm back in the saddle again!

That's a crochet saddle if you didn't know. My latest whip up below.
Easy and no pattern mom!

Zanzibar

We are going to be on the news again! KXAN is interviewing Judith
right now. Exciting.

Sent from my iPhone

Sweet deal of the day!

P. Terry's tees. Limited edition. $5.

Whaa? Yep $5.

Yelp yelp yelp yelp...owwwww

WEEKEND REVIEW

Yowsa.  The Yelp party was a fun time.  Free booze was the only thing I partook in.  The cupcakes from Sugar Mama's looked fabulous but I just had an attack of the cha chas right before we got downtown.  My lunch of sashimi and watermelon didn't do well.  Annie Ray's photo booth was seriously fun.  We got some awesome shots.  The line was long though.  Too long to run back and grab Sarah and Dana.  Next time....next time.

Matt and I got to spend some time with our new acquaintances, Lindsay and Anthony.  They also have a "Jake" (aka 32 year old son) named Chris. Good quality people, and coming from me that's saying quite a bit.  Matt and I were discussing how unusual it is for us to invite newcomers into our circle.  Typically, we all know that person through another friend....but inviting new people into the fold hasn't happened in ages.  Yes, I guess we are very picky and love our friends.  But it's exciting to meet new people you mesh with so well.

So after the free booze was gone at the Yelp event, we headed down to Bender with our crew.    Thankfully I remember the night and had no problems taking drunky Matt home.  We even woke up at 9am and grabbed some kolaches from River City.  I was feeling no pain, kinda happy I eluded the hangover I was expecting.  2 hours later, I get run over by a freaking truck.  HARD. I puke up my breakfast and basically stayed in bed all day with a massive headache.  I've learned not to take Advil in the middle of a hangover as it speeds up my heart and freaks me out.  So I toughed it out with no meds.  Rough stuff.

Today I feel much better but sore sore sore.  Oh here are some pics to enjoy.  

Not our cake but it tasted good.

PHOTO UPLOADER IS CRAPPING OUT ON ME. MORE PICS LATER!

I knew I wasn't crazy

Sometimes I get these weird problems with my vision. Once they were so bad I went to the eye doctor immediately after seeing these strange visions. Needless to say, he diagnosed my weirdness as an ocular migraine. Blah, blah he said they were pretty harmless and typically accompany migraines (which I have never had!) Since then, I have had probably a handful of these. No biggy. Last night, just as the game was starting, I could feel one coming on. It was difficult to explain to Matt and Jake what I was seeing. I went to bed, rested my eyes and fell alsleep.

Earlier today, I was googling the term since my eyes aren't feeling 1oo% recovered and I found this website that describes EXACTLY what I am seeing. It's called a scotoma. Now I feel relieved. I'm not insane.

I heard on the news that next week we will have temps dip into the teens. I am very excited for that. It may be time to break out the crochet this weekend and make some hats, gloves and scarves!

I cheated, so what?

Eh, this juice diet is boring me. I've replaced breakfast and lunch with juice, but I haven't managed to do dinner. I just don't have the willpower. Judging from the scale, I'm doing much better than I thought. I felt like I ballooned out of control this holiday, but the scale says otherwise.

Tomorrow there is a Yelp open party that I am dragging Matt to come with. Wow, I haven't been "out" in awhile, so that will be nice for a change.

This week has been so draining on me. Every day I come home and I'm exhausted. Waking up has been a chore. I don't think I am getting much sleep lately. Matt has his cedar fever junk and it's keeping me up every night. Blarg.

At least work has picked up. I have a million new projects on my plate. It's keeping me occupied and my naughtiness in check. Speaking of, I better get back to it.

And the juice diet begins!

So hungry.....

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Resolution time!

Yada yada yada here is Dawn's list of resolutions for the new year.

Eat better/lose weight/work out
Ugh I was doing so well on this one a few months ago but I have let myself slide. Tomorrow I jump-start my new healthy outlook with a nice juice fast. I know this isn't healthy but neither is looking at my fat ass.

Clean up after myself/the house/Matt
Yes I am lazy. Yes Matt takes care of the majority of housework. That's not right. I need to get more involved and help him out.

Take better care of the pets
Poor Sue is so fat and lonely. Obviously Colotte is too needy with me, so she won't spend time with the dog. Sue really needs a playmate, but we don't even take Sue for walks anymore. That's horrible. We are bad parents and we need to treat our elder animals like babies if we want to consider a puppy in the future.

Learn to cook
I am a terrible cook. Thank goodness Matt enjoys cooking, else we would be living off cereal and pb & j. Time to go grocery shopping for meals and stop eating out. Now on to the next one....

Stop eating out for lunch
It's so hard when Whole Foods is 30 seconds away, but WF is quite expensive. I need to start making lunches at home and not driving home (which wastes gas and my car.)

Lay off the booze
Again, I was doing very well on this one a few months ago, but I have gotten into a bad habit of daily drinking. Bad, bad. I need to go back to my weekend only drinking. Plus beer is not helping my figure.

Look forward to change
I would like to elaborate more on this, but my blog is not private and I don't want to discuss future plans that aren't in the making. So that means I need to get motivated to change my surrounding. I don't need to be in a situation that makes me unhappy or gives me daily anxiety.


So how was that list? I would love to say I will try my hardest to keep this list alive, but I am lazy and I know it. Maybe this year will be the anti-lazy year?

Finally!!!!

I beat Fallout 3 tonight. About time!
Sent from my iPhone

i love our new iMac!!!!!

Yes, we finally got a new computer. She is beautiful. As soon as I figure out how to use it, I can elaborate. It was a bit of a challenge to make the move to an Apple. Being the PC nerd that I am, I now know NOTHING about this computer. It's not easy, as you guys know I like to be the queen nerd at everything. I am such an Apple n00b. It's a 20 inch screen.....totally amazing. I can't believe how fast and clear everything is. Now we need to get a better computer chair so I can plant myself in the office and learn how to use this machine.

I've really been enjoying my mini break, as I like to call it. I am proud to say I have drank since Monday. Not stumbling drunk, but happy drunk. It has been nice. Sadly I have spent too much time eating this holiday. I blame it on the eggnog Matt and I have injested with gusto. A good friend of mine mentioned she is in the same boat....."the eggnog 10." Damn Pennsylvania Dutch! Why does it have to be so delicious?? And why aren't my pants fitting? Thank goodness for yoga pants!!!

Sorry I've been boring.

No posts from me lately. Sadly my iphone died within a day of my panhandle Christmas, so I wasn't able to blog pics to my loyal 4 readers. Anyways, we did snap some funny pictures though. They are at home, waiting for me to download.

What did we get for Christmas you may wonder.....Well my parents gave us the rest of our wedding registry items we desperately needed. Hooray! Bunny gave Matt and I some gifts too. But the best gift we gave each other is an iMac. Matt bought it a few hours ago. I am so excited to get my grubby hands on it but I can't tonight. Why you may ask?



HOLIDAY BOWL TONIGHT!!!! GO POKES! BEAT OREGON!

The worst piece of shit burrito EVER!!!!

Taco Shack sucks!

Buddha cat takes nap on your desk

My cat is cooler than your cat

Hi i hate the holidays how are you?

Yes you read that right. I hate the holidays. I'm just in a grippy mood because I'm pulling a 50 hour work week. That would make anyone pissy right? Yep. That's me. A grinch.

Let me tell you what I am tired of:

*my job
*the economy
*talk about how bad we have it it in for us (via economy)
*the thought of a pay cut
*not buying gifts this year
*not spending time with Matt
*my drunky co-worker
*this yo-yo weather
*no food at the house
*cracks in the ceiling

What I am happy about:

*matt
*my family back together
*heather getting married next year
*not being fat
*having a job
*almost no credit card debt
*not being at work


So there are my irks and perks in a nutshell. Next week should be better. I can handle 2 and a half days of work. We are flying to the panhandle on Wednesday night to visit Matt's mom. I haven't been so this should be fun fun fun! I'm crossing my fingers for snow.

That's some crazy fog!

Our first tree in our new house!

Isn't is sweet?

First ice of the season...

Check that out. It's ice on my car. I took that pic this morning on my way to work. Last night we went to a yelp event at The Scoot Inn and it started to rain a bit. It was COLD! We decided to drop into Longbranch Inn and see Elizabeth. Once inside it started to sleet like crazy. We left a bit after the downpour and drove home in it. It wasn't too bad. I could hear it on the windows all night.



Our roof looked so pretty this morning. Too bad it didn't stick. That's Texas weather for you. It was 81 yesterday and sleeting 8 hours later. Go figure. Global warming at it's finest.

Whaaaaa is this?

I said I would post the pics!

Ok, I know a few posts back I said I would add pictures so I am. Look at me keeping my blog word and everything. Even though Matt posted the funny ones on facebook already. But look back to the Steen's weekend visit to see pics if you are so inclined:

http://dawnitabee.blogspot.com/2008/11/hi.html

What was I thinking?

So I decide to make some cookies Saturday for Ryan, Jake and Matt. They are the pre-made cookies in the dough aisle. I see that our cookie dish is dirty and decide to use a cooling rack instead. See picture of cookies 5 minutes after.




What was I thinking? A cooling rack? This is why I don't cook. I am not making excuses for my terrible food but I don't use my head when I'm in the kitchen. I don't understand why I can make breakfast though. Go figure.

Matt and Jake thought it would be funny to post the above picture to my facebook account. Those boys...

I just got my ugly sweater from ebay today. If I don't win I will be incredibly sad. It's soooooooo ugly. That's all I can say about it since it's a surprise. I have a feeling there will be some stiff competition this year. It's not just about the ugly Christmas sweater, but the entire ensemble. I have heard some seriously good ideas and I'm ready for the battle.

Tomorrow is Z-bar's annual holiday party. Honestly, I never care for these parties. We work so hard the days before it that I lose any feeling but exhaustion. Tonight I pulled a 12 hour shift and I have another one tomorrow night. There is really nothing to enjoy....it's not like the employees are getting to have fun or rewarded for busting ass.

Matt bought Fallout 3 tonight. I'm very jealous and can't wait to get my dorky hands on it. I've heard really fantastic things about it. This weekend will be strictly beer and gaming.

I finally got my wedding pictures!!!! I'm so happy to have them all and have a chance to see them up close. Everytime I look at them I see something new. Now it's time to get the mom's photo albums ready for Christmas. Maybe I will develop a love for scrapbooking and give my crochet hobby a run for its money.