I'm Back...

I'm back. I apologize for not posting as I should have last week but I had family things going on. For those of you here for crafting content, it will be at the end of the post.

My conference was wonderful, I learned a lot and have already brought back ideas and product information to my unit.

Work is going well, I wrapped up my solo part on revamping one of our policies and it felt good to be congratulated on my good work as well as to work out the finer points with them at the table. Being on the policy and procedure committee is a very good thing for me because it keeps me thinking about what we are doing and why and how I can help to improve our practices. I've learned so much from being in there and continue to do so.

Chad basically had the house to himself for a week, which really didn't mean much of anything as he was working his rotation. I got back home after having been gone for a week (much longer than anticipated) on his last night of that rotation and we have then been working in the yard and planning out little things. There's still lot's of work to do so expect lots of yard pictures here soon. In fact we will start with a few of those.

We don't like the pine straw that is standard from builders around here and we have been working on taking it up so that we can put down mulch. (Although on the mulch we are still undecided as to what color and type but it will probably be some type of cypress...) One reason we don't like the pine straw so much is that bugs have an easier time hiding in it and making homes and nests as we found with this spider and her egg sack:

Yea, she's gone now. I dont' mind bugs being in my yard and such, I just prefer to remain ignorant to them. And I saw a toad hoping away as I pulled back the straw and the usual lizards that run around our home. We are technically behind protected wet lands so we can have lot's of interesting visitors with us.

I have then moved plants around. The bushes that were on the driveway side are now along the opposite side of the house. And I have no idea what I'm going to put in all that empty space along the driveway:

Honestly it will probably be a process that accumulates over several seasons. Also, those two plants you see between the Indian Hawthorn up front are going. They are not maintaining water well enough and I'm not willing to water them more than once a week so... I'll be digging them up as we put edging down for the mulch.

Here are the plants on the other side of the house now. In addition to moving the two from the driveway side over I also moved two in the front are back.

In one of the spaces where the two that were in front were I put a rose tree:

It's beautiful and smells gorgeous too.

In other news, Kelly continues to make interesting things out of K-nex:


Such as a microphone stand for a McDonalds toy...

Daniel and Kat seem to have most of the details for their wedding panned out, and they are taking their finals for graduation! Trying to take pictures of the two remain interesting:

No, actually, they had asked me to take pictures for engagement announcements that her mom will be having published soon (they're not out today, but I didn't expect them to be) and I'm withholding the nice pictures that they took until the announcements are published.

And this leads me to crafting news.

My cast-on for the knit-a-long is on Tuesday (so I will have another blog with lots of pictures then). I have my swatch done washed and blocked:

All I have to do is measure gauge one last time and away I shall knit on a shawl for myself.

In the meantime I attempted to knit a teddy bear for a friends daughter:


And this is about the state of things now to. I put together the head and the body and proceeded to throw it across the room in frustration. My head is much to big for the body so I don't know if I followed the pattern wrong, or just knit wonky (yes, that is a technical term), or what. I've put that down for a little bit and I will pick it up to see if I can figure out what happened here soon. If not, I'll find a better pattern.

I've also gotten to the decrease stages of a second blanket like this:

and plan to make a second one in pink for a secret project that I'm working on.

Yes, I have been quite busy thank you.

Lined up to do is my brother's graduation present . Of which I can not reveal until it has been gifted to him. I also have to figure out something for Kat , but I have lots to work with there. I am going to finish those blankets that I mentioned above and also start to get to frantic work on knitting and crocheting up my stash to make room for more yarn because I want to go to a fiber arts festival in October and just have to work out all the details to do so.

And that info brings me to the end of my update. I will see you guys on Tuesday for my big cast-on! I still encourage all of you to join me in my KAL.

Later!