life as heatherly.b

Its day 4 of my six month challenge, and I’m happy to say that so far I haven’t been temped to buy any yarn, I know its only been a few days but with all the boxing week sales going on around this time of year I feel like I’m actually doing pretty well. My friends at work don’t think I’ll be able to make it the entire six months but the more they razz me the more it strengthens my resolve, I welcome the chance to prove them wrong!

Right now I am working on some accent pillows for my couch.  I saw a beautiful fabric with a bold red flower print on a white background and it inspired me to revisit rosehip’s pillow pattern and make something similar for myself! I just took this picture and the light in my apartment wasn’t so great but I’m sure you get the general idea. It’s still a work-in-progress, I’ll make sure to take some better pictures when they’re all finished up.

Tomorrow is my one year blogiversary! One year ago I sat in my apartment, registered on WordPress and wrote my first blog post! Now 30 posts later I am looking forward to another year of bloggyness.

To be honest I didn’t live up to my blog goals for 2010, I put things off way too much and I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted. This year I will be better, even if nobody reads this blog I will be better for myself so I can keep some type of record of my projects.

Also I’ve issued myself a challenge for the first six months of the year. I am sure I am not the first crafter to do something like this, I think futuregirl did something similar last year (or maybe it was the year before I can’t remember) but my plan is to only use the craft supplies I’ve already accumulated to make projects for the next 6 months. NO BUYING NEW STUFF! I was thinking about doing it for a year but I honestly think I won’t make it to the 1 year mark, 6 months seems much more realistic for me so I’m going to give it a go.

So as of today no more trips to Michaels on my way home from work, no more trips to the yarn outlets and NO MORE buying yarn just because its on sale! Its going to be a long 6 months for sure.

When I get home tonight I’m taking stock of what I have to work with. It may take a while as I have a tendancy to squirrel stuff away but once its all out I’ll make sure to take some pictures and post them.

See you in the new year!

Its Tuesday December 21st, at 1:26am, I decided to venture out into the cold Canadian night to watch the lunar eclipse, the one i’ve been hearing about on the news. I bundled up in my husbands warmest work coat, pick up my iPhone and camera and head out. The info on the internet tells me that the eclipse begins at approximately 1:33am, so I walk up & down the street we live on for a few minutest, occasionally glancing up at the moon to see if anything is happening. It was extremely subtle at first, hardly noticeable as the shadow creeped over the moon, but as time went on the shadow grew and grew. About a half hour has passed and the moon is almost half covered in shadow, I am so freaking cold that I sat in my car for a minute, listened to Annie Lennox sing Christmas carols on the radio then decided that I was warm enough to give it another go. I look up and the shadow has creeped even farther over the moons surface. At this point I know that I MUST stay out until the moon is completely eclipsed, no wimping out, so I bust out my camera and start taking pictures of everything, the street, the houses, trees, myself. I even try and get a few shaky pictures of the eclipse but my camera is not good enough for anything really clear, the moon just looks like a little blob of light in the sky. Slowly the moon is completely engulfed by the redish shadow and I officially decided that there is a warm blanket and a spot on my couch that is calling my name. I’m tired, I’m cold but I’m also really satisfied. I wish I could say something really profound, something that would sum up this experience but I can’t think of anything to say except this:

That was awesome.

Me, with bedhead, looking very cold

My view

I thought this pic was neat looking

It looks like my handmade Christmas dreams are going to come true.

This year we went to the Toronto Santa Claus Parade with Alex’s brother and his family, I am so INSANELY glad I went. I’m sure you all know the general idea behind what happens at the parade so instead of writing a long winded post about it I’m just going to show you some pictures of the parts I loved the best.

Bag pipes FTW!

Apparently "Blinky" has been around since the 70's, it used to be bright yellow like the old cop cars in Toronto and someone use to actually drive it!!! ITS GOT NO WINDSHIELD!!!

The Lego float

Upside down clowns were always freaky, this year was no exception.

I love marching bands, I think these guys were from the U.S

Little Big Planet float

Hasbro float. I love the giant potato heads

Alex, being Alex.

Me, looking cold and grumpy while waiting for Santa.

Mounties!

The big man himself!!!

I already can’t wait for next years parade! Christmas is awesome.

I have been m.i.a lately, not just from my blog but from everything (or at least thats how it feels)!  I’ve been busy busy busy working and crocheting trying to get ready for the holidays and birthdays that are coming up, not to mention we are still working on our reno so unfortunately I don’t have the time to write a big post and edit all my pictures right now. I had a few minutes free today so I thought I should make a quick post to remind people that I have no forgotten about my blog completely and there will be a big post explaining where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to soon! Here’s a sneak peek of one of the things I am working on for Christmas.

Thanks for checking in and I’ll write something better soon!

p.s – Only 74 days until Christmas!

I am on a green kick lately, EVERYTHING has to be green. I don’t know when this obsession started but I think I can attribute my love of the color green to my orange hair. I love the way I look in the color green now that my hair is ginger and therefore I must surround myself with all things pea, forest and emerald. I think I may even paint my living room green…maybe.

Contrary to what some may say, I think its easy being green.

I’ve had a very busy few weeks full of renovations, vacations, birthdays and crafting. It’s really too much to write about and its not extremely interesting so instead of writing a short novel and boring you to death I’m going to do a picture post with captions. Let the scrolling begin!

This is one of many "before" pictures of our reno, we haven't finished yet and I'm sure it will be a while before we take the "after" pictures

I love the smell of goodies baking!

Turns out my grandmothers oven is not level, can you tell?

I asked for sprinkles on my cake and I was not disappointed! SPRINKLE MOUNTAIN!

Here are some pictures of the crafty stuff I’ve been working on.

Slippers

More slippers

I *LOVE* these slippers, they look kinda funny when they aren't on someones feet but they have a kinda elf/peter pan vibe to them

The lighting in my place doesn't do justice to the colors of this scarf, its a deep rich brown and a neon pink but in this picture it looks kinda orange...

Another scarf

My current work in progress, I am all about stripes this year!

This is going to be a blanket for someone special, they aren't a big fan of bright colors so I'm going with blue and grey flowers with white and beige borders. I might make a pink one for myself after Christmas...

Thats about it! Hopefully I’ll be able to post something more substantial soon but almost all my spare time lately has been going to working on our renovations which are leaving me little time to craft or blog. On the bright side the weather is starting to get a bit chilly and the leaves are starting to change! I feel like fall is crocheting/knitting season and every year I get inspired when the weather starts to cool off, it just seems like the perfect time of year to make warm things! Hope you are all enjoying the weather as much as I am.

So yesterday was my 3 year (!!!) wedding anniversary, and both my husband and I forgot. We were politely reminded by my mother-in-law at about 10pm last night when she came downstairs and gave us a package of Zebra Cakes and said “Happy Anniversary”, Alex and I both just kinda stared at each other and half heartedly said “uh, ya…happy anniversary?” and then proceeded to celebrate in our own way  (by Alex going to bed early and me staying up to watch a Hayao Miyazaki movie and read posts on Gizmodo).

I think most people would be upset if their significant other didn’t remember their anniversary, especially if they’ve only been married for 3 years. There are countless TV shows and movies where the idiot husband forgets to buy a gift or acknowledge the anniversary in any way and the bitchy wife then gets upset and demands her husband do something to make it up to her, but that is just not the case with Alex and I. Forgetting our anniversary is…well, it’s just so US! I never put too much stock in celebrating different anniversaries and Alex doesn’t either, we are happy to be with each other everyday (ok, maybe we aren’t happy EVERY day, but most of the time…) and we don’t really feel the need to make a special occasion out of our wedding anniversary.

HOWEVER, I have high hopes that we will remember for next year, even if we just say “Happy Anniversary!” to each other once then forget about it for the rest of the day. I’ve put it in my iPhone calendar with an alarm to remind me on the day of, hopefully this works and if not, no biggie.

Things have been busy in my neck of the woods lately, but not busy in a good “I’m doing lots of fun stuff” sort of way. Alex and I have both been going crazy with work, he has been on-call for the last month straight which means lots of 3am & weekend shifts for him, while I’ve been taking some overtime hours to try to get some extra cash money. All the while we are preparing for some reno’s and I am desperately trying to get back on track with my Christmas gift goals. I managed to make 7 pairs of granny slippers over the last two weeks and that’s means I’ve finished about 1/3 of my Christmas gifts. I think for the most part I’m caught up, if I continue on at this rate I’ll be finished everything before the beginning of December and that’s one less thing to worry about!

I’m currently looking forward to my second and final staycation of the year, only 7 more days of working (this is where you picture me doing my happy dance! WOOT!)! Originally we were going to go to Boston & Washington to meet friend but due to me being an idiot we booked the wrong week for our vacation and once we realized what I did we couldn’t change it. So now we plan on spending it trying to demo and reno as much as we can since Alex and I both have time off, it probably won’t be too much fun but I’ll be happy to step away from my cubicle for a full 9 days regardless of what we do. It kinda works out better this way, and I’m not just saying that because I f’d up, we needed to get this reno stuff done a.s.a.p and having a week off work to just take care of it will be awesome! I’m still hoping that if we work hard enough we can go away for a night or two, maybe to Niagara or somewhere in cottage country so we can relax for a bit. I’m not holding my breath though, our vacation plans usually go south, or as Alex would say our vacation plans usually go “sud” , as in the french translation of “south”…he’s a bit of a weirdo, but I love him.

Until then I will be working as much as possible while staring at my calendar willing the days to go by faster, maybe I’ll have time to attempt some knit hats and find a crochet/knit guitar strap pattern for more Christmas gifts.

For your enjoyment, here are some pictures of my latest batch of granny square slippers, my favorite are the bright green ones.

*note – I listened to the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack while writing this blog. Great movie & great soundtrack!