Goodies, secret pal update, and what we've been up to this week

I moved the girl out of her room last week and we began updating it. This picture may not look like much, but it is SUCH an improvement over what it was. The paint must have been original to the house, and was in that awful "swiss coffee" shade that just ends up looking like tar-stained walls in a heavy smokers house. Then my mother moved in, and though I love her dearly, she has a really thing for hanging shelves on every available wall to hold her oft-overflowing antique and everything else stash. We chose a soft peachy pink color. It's a split level and the girls windows are the smallest in the house so her room tends to be dark. We wanted to make it look warm and bright. Besides they use pink in mental institutions to impart a sense of well-being to the patients. I'm hoping it will work to stave off the oncoming teenage angst too. Next week, Carpet installation. woo hoo!



Hubby has also started work on a new coop for the girls. We got washed out so badly with all the rain last week, that the girl actually called me at work afraid the chickens were going to drown! Perhaps ducks would have been a better choice after all. Either way, this made it clear to us we had to get moving on a better shelter for them. I'll get some pics of it closer to completion. I think he'd feel self concious with his half completed project on the net for a bunch of "knitting women" to see.

Cotneyroo from Crafster chose me as a recipient for the june Birthday swap and sent me an awesome set of sushi potholders and the cuteest beaded stitch markers. I've been eyeing these on blogs all over the place and my wire twisting skills rank with my lace knitting skills. Somewhere in the neighborhood of "a blind quadraplegic could do a better job". I'll be sending her a little something from the stash as a thank you!



I have a serious confession to make, I went yarn crazy this week. I have been on a yarn diet for a couple months now and I went nutty. I have an order of debbie bliss aran tweed coming in from littleknits.com and an order of Debbie Bliss alpaca silk coming in from Roxyyarns.com. I also ordered some trendsetter yarns from a shop in arkansas that is clearing out their stock at 70% off, and an order of fiber and undyed sock yarn from alpacafleece.com. Jean is a really sweet lady and totally worked with me when my original choice of yarns was not available. I guess on the upside. I have plans for all of the yarn that I purchased.

Well then I realized that my one sein secret pal needed a little something-something, so off to the yarn shop I went. I found her a lovely skein of Koigu Kersti. I hope she likes it. she seems really difficult to buy for. I also picked up a ball of Opal Rainforest in Ladybug. A lot of the yarn websites have ben selling out it seems, and I figured I would snap it up while I could. I also got the new knit scene magazine. The central park cabled hoodie = love.



Then, just when I think I'm finally getting my yarn binge under control, what appears on my doorstep but a package from the lovliest secret pal in the world. I was nearly jumping out of my skin with excitement when I peeled back the many layers of tissue to find 2 skeins of handdyed sock yarn from Yarn monster in awesome colors and yummy japanese treats. Now I have to get this whole lace thing figured out, this yarn is tooooo special for plain old socks. If anyone has some suggestions let me know! It requires something really fancy. and the japanse treats were truly the best! I spent my formative years in South Korea, so those lovely funky packages of candy made me feel like a kid again. Thank you sooo much secret pal. Your packages have been such a special treat for me!