Author Archives: Ali

Unemployment

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So being unemployed hasn’t been too bad so far. I already have a job lined up in Moscow, but in the meantime I’ve been trying to keep myself busy. Leaving lots of time for taking care of everything before the wedding.

I love old maps. I made a book for Autumn before she moved to London, made on a map of Washington. I should really get some pictures of that thing. I found this website of cartography maps.

How cool would that look framed on the wall?

So I am hoping that the apartment we’re moving into has cool cupboards.

You all know how much I love mismatched dishes! That’s why I didn’t register for any dishes, because I couldn’t decide on any that I liked enough to get lots of them.

Ok, off to run some errands, orthodontist appointment, getting my hair done and picking up some last minute things for the wedding!

Happy Birthday to Heidi, too! 15!
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Have a wonderful Monday, everybody!

What to do on a lovely evening?

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Strip and stain a table, of course!
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So I got this table from Tina, who knows how many owners it has had. She loved it well, as did I. Little ghost man and all!
crafty 003Creepy, isn’t he?

Then we stripped it down;
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Found some stain in the garage (really not sure how old this stuff is…)
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And got back down to work;
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Isn’t she a beaut?  And now it looks better with my chairs.

An Ode To My Lens Cap

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As many of you know, I don’t travel far without my camera. It follows me around everywhere. And when I don’t have a camera in my hands, I like to pretend I do; hence this look: (Thanks, Derek.)
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Ok, ok, moving on. So, flash forward to Paris (I know, right?) We’re standing underneath the Eiffel Tower, and this is the last moment I remember having my lens cap:
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After that… gone. No clue where, just not anywhere on me, or in any of my bags, or pockets, or anywhere else as far as I can see. I figure I probably dropped it and it rolled away. I am a little bummed, but heck, I’m in Paris. Oh well.

So, we go along our merry way and we’re here: (That’s Bruges, by the way)
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We’re in our hostel and what should fall out of one of Autumn’s bags but my lens cap! Having been reunited with my lens cap I was full of joy.

We continue on our trip… enter Brussels.
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I swear I checked my bag at least 4 times, no lens cap. The next day in the airport, going through security, look who decided to show up… yep, my lens cap.

My lens cap has stayed put for a while now, well, until last week during a trip to our local Frisko Freeze.

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It went AWOL. Ben borrowed my camera, he swears he handed me the lens cap, I had no such memory of the event (not that unusual, though).

Today, on my lunch break, I was out in my car, and look who rolled out from underneath my seat.lens cap
Dear Lens Cap, I know you will never leave me. You may stray temporarily, but I know you will always come back to me, because you love me.
Always, Ali.

Spring Plants

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So, even though we won’t have a real garden, I want to at least have some window plants, so last week I got some free packets of seeds from work… I planted some dill. It’s still cute little baby dill.

swine-flu-2-001But hopefully soon it will turn into…
dill-turning-yellowBut I don’t even like pickles… dill-pickles so I don’t know what I’ll do with a bunch of dill. (Leave my cucumbers alone, thanks) But I kind of like the look of dill… so maybe I’ll just keep it around the apartment.

I also planted some Zinnias, which are more exciting than dill!
swine-flu-2-002They’re still babies too, oh awful picture quality, sorry about that, but hopefully soon they’ll be beautiful like these..
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We’ve been cautioned at work about the dangers of swine flu, especially in a healthcare facility.* You know what I think about that?
swine-flu-002Ok, so maybe we had too much fun today while we were at work… but c’mon, it was my birthday.

*Just so ya’ll know, we’re not made to wear masks or anything at work. Yet. But it wouldn’t suprise me if they started making us!

Saturdays are my favorite.

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So, today I did some serious spring cleaning. I mean, I went through everything I owned. Got rid of a lot of junk that I don’t need. Does anyone else just feel so revitalized once they’ve gotten rid of a bunch of stuff? It’s so liberating!

Had a good coffee date. (Thanks, Hannah!)
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Uploaded all of my music onto my computer (alot of my music was already on there, but lots of random CD’s I haven’t listened to in a long time.) Organizing CD’s… I never know if I should organize it by genre, alphabetically… who knows.

And… decided to try my hand at some tatting. Actually I don’t think this is really tatting, as tatting has certain weird knots and such, but without a pattern or anything to follow I just started hooking away.
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I think what I’ll do is make some snowflakes and starch them, they make great Christmas ornaments (Thanks for the idea, Mom)

So…. my birthday is coming up soon, and if anyone wants to get me this book, I won’t hold it against them.
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Does everyone else love Saturdays?

On a side note, only 3 weeks left of work! (whoa.) This wedding is coming up soon, less than six weeks left.

Another blanket.

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So this is one of the 5 (or is it six?!) blankets I’m working on at the moment. I just get bored with one, so I put it down, but then find another idea that I’m afraid I’ll forget about so I need to start it immediately. Then you end up with baskets full of unfinished crafts… sad, indeed.

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It still hasn’t been pieced together (obviously), but I think it’ll be cute once I put a border on it, I was thinking a scalloped border might be fun, but this blanket is still small and I ran out of yarn… oops.

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On another blanket note, Chuck’s baby blanket is coming along nicely! I am really pleased with it, and the ripple is so nice and fun to crochet. It just has a nice fluid motion to it. Definitely recommenced it for a crocheters first big project, super simple and easy to follow.

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took at the Imperial War Museum in London:
europe-2009-066So keep knitting, ladies!

In case you didn’t get enough umbrella’s this past week…

So I am off to pack (In my awesome new orange suitcase!), enjoy the Puyallup Spring Fair, enjoying this awesome spring weather (finally!) then off to Moscow for the whole weekend!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Crochet Ripple

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So, Erika found a blanket that she liked and asked me to try it out for Baby Chuck’s baby blanket. I was a bit aprehensive at first, considering I still don’t really know how to read a pattern, but I gave it a try and I think it turned out nice! I just used whatever yarn I had laying around, so this isn’t going to be the colors for Baby Chuck, but I just wanted to show off the fact that I could follow a pattern.
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Row one, it kind of looks like a little snake!

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Row two…

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oooh, two colors now!
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Ta da! My little finished sampler. So it doesn’t photograph all that well, but it’s pretty cute in person. (If I do say so myself) But a big shoutout to Attic24 for the best, easiest to follow crochet pattern, well, ever! So whoever you are, Attic24, I greatly appriciate your amazing instruction. And your blanket is beautiful, too.

So I’ve been on a knitting rampage lately… working on Red Blanket some more. Still only about 1/2 way done… and not entire sure how I am going to work it, but I really like how it’s coming together. I haven’t gotten out of the house too much since I got back, so I’ve put in some serious man hours into it. I do believe I’ll develop carpal tunnel here pretty quickly…