Day 92: Knitting

Time: Two hours
Listening to: Community, Modern Family, New Girl


And I'm back! I'm still not feeling 100% but I at least have enough energy to knit while watching TV. Some may say that is not a huge improvement as knitting does not take that much energy but I'll take it!

So I started my new yellow color. Here is a picture of the three so far. My fourth color is going to be a dark purple, I think. It will go yellow, blue, green, purple. Can't wait to have this afghan done!

Day 88, 89, 90, 91: Relapse (due to sickness)

I've been oh so sick this week so I have almost done absolutely nothing beyond laying on the couch, watching TV, drinking Sprite, and blowing my nose 1,000 times. I'll try to make up for my lack of creative time this weekend as long as I have enough energy!

Day 86 & 87: Knitting

Time: 2 hours
Listening to: Mad Men (It is finally back!)

I finally finished my green section! Thirty stitches and 108 rows long. Whew! Next on the docket is yellow....

Day 85: Art museum

So I know that this isn't technically being creative...but....I hated to have to title another post as a relapse!!!!!

The Grand Rapids Art Museum has a great new show of Rauschenberg. My friend, Bethany, and I went down there and enjoyed learning about his work. I'd learned about him in school but it is always different seeing it in person.  I really loved his exploration and the different themes that came up.  I especially liked "Booster" and also these two pieces made out of fabric pieces that he gathered from his travels. The GRAM also had the Synapsis Shuffle which is a piece that is showed differently every time. It consists of tons of different panels and the museum can decide how to piece them together. I love that idea and how he gave up control over his work!

So while I didn't DO anything creative today..I did participate in a lot of creative activities. I went to a movie (Hunger Games, of course), went to the art museum, and read an except from Imagine (which is super interesting!) at a bookstore. Overall a great thought provoking day!

Day 83 + 84: Knitting

I saw a mouse in my house!!

I hate hate hate hate mice. Nate had just left Thursday morning for Wisconsin and wasn't coming back for three days. Noo!! I knew I couldn't handle it on my own so I called my brother up. He was so nice about coming over to help me out! Even nicer, he and his wife welcomed me into their house for Thursday and even Friday night so I didn't have to be paranoid every second of the night!!

It was so nice too on Thursday night after I rushed away from my scary situation...my sister in law and I caught up over knitting! She is working on her first sweater and I'm still plugging away at my afghan. It was nice feeling safe and warm, wrapped up in my growing afghan!

Day 82: Relapse (due to busyness not laziness)

So tonight was the last night my brother-in-law was in town and it ended up being a busy last night! We took him on a college tour in Kalamazoo and stopped off for dinner at my parents' house. Then we buzzed home, cleaned, and packed.  After cleaning up, I decided to spend some time with Kyle instead of squeezing in some craft time. And it was so worth it!  Kyle strummed away on the guitar and I sipped at my wine as we sat on our front porch. It was a beautiful night and a great low-key last moments of the day.

Day 81: Rug making

Time: One hour
Listening to: Parks and Rec

I squeezed in some time of rug making this evening during some TV watching. It is going slower now that I'm getting to the outer part of the hula hoop!

Day 80: Baking Peanut Butter Banana Bread

My brother in law asked me if we could bake something while he was visiting so I rustled up this tasty looking recipe...Reese's Peanut Butter Banana Bread.

It went together really easily but it actually ended up being way too rich for me. It went down nice and easy but made me feel sick afterwards! It was pretty darn tasty with a big glass of milk, though! 

Day 79: Sandcastle

We headed to the beach today and my brother in law and myself took on the project of constructing a sandcastle. We made some towers, walls, and dug a mote. When my mother-in-law made one way better than ours, we decided to destroy ours.

So sorry...this is all the evidence I have.

Day 78: Baking S'more Cookie Bars

Time: Total baking time (more than this recipe) about 2 hours
Listening to: Pandora's Katy Perry station

We have family coming to town today so I've been busy baking this morning. Today I decided to try Baked Perfections' S'more Cookie Bars and boy, do they look delicious!

They were super easy to make. 



Mine look different from Baked Perfections because I didn't exactly crush my graham crackers perfectly and I also didn't care about making the top layer smooth. I think they will be delicious even if a bit chunky...hopefully.

The whole time I was baking, I was also enjoying my baking outfit. Here is a little snapshot of my apron and my monster slippers!

Day 77: Sewing Curtains

Time: A couple hours
Listening to: Project Runway All Stars

I'm sewing up a storm! We have french double doors leading from one room to another and we've been wanting to add some curtains to help give some privacy when we have guests coming to stay with us. We have family coming tomorrow so tonight is the night!

I chose a nice, light cotton fabric so it didn't make the room feel dark. Here are some pictures.

Curtains!

Close up of the fabric

Day 76: Relapse

Gosh, I couldn't motivate myself at all this evening. It was glorious out and all I wanted to be doing was reading out on the porch. So I did!

Oops.

Day 75: Knitting

Another night of knitting! I am almost done with my green!

Day 73 and 74: Rug making--on a hula hoop!

Time: A couple hours
Listening to: Nothing!

 I saw this awesome tutorial on making a  rug on a hula hoop! I (almost) instantly went out and bought a hula hoop and went to work! I am doing mine a bit differently than the tutorial--mostly in that I didn't knit my yarn before weaving. It is nice not having to weave a giant ball of yarn through the tiny spaces and instead just tie the yarn when I need a new piece. Much easier to weave with!

Here is my progress:

Day 72: Letter writing

Time: Hours
Listening: Chatty neighbors

Wow, wow, wow! It was such a fabulous day outside today. My husband and I walked downtown to the library, stopped for Thai food, and made a pit stop at Martha's Vineyeard for some chocolate and cider. We then headed home and parked ourselves on our lovely porch. Our neighbors were out and about with their dogs and children and so were the other little critters that I typically fear (squirrels and birds). There were even people out on their skateboards flying down the steep hill by our house. It was a great day for people/animal watching. I think I saw one of my neighbors do about 25 cartwheels.

Nate was busy reading and I took the time to write some letters that I'd been meaning to write for some time. The sun has scooted down a bit now so I headed on in. I'm happy for spring like weather to be here!

Day 71: Knitting

Time: A couple hours?
Listening to: NPR soundtrack

My friend Bethany and I had our first official night of KBW (knitting, books, wine) which is our new knitting club. We are probably willing to expand it to also include all the crocheters and embroiderers out there if anyone is interested in joining...but KBW sounds better than KCEBW.  This was a pretty spontaneous event...pretty much we were knitting together and both thought at the same time how great it would be to have a knitting club!

Here we are showing off two out of our three loves. Next time we'll try to have some random books laying around in the shot.

gif maker

Day 70: Knitting and an old project (button book)

Time: Eh...
Listening to: Project Runway
 
So my husband and I got home from work a bit later than usual and then had big plans of dinner and the symphony. This made my hour of creative time a bit rushed. And when I say rushed...I mean not really an hour. My husband took a nap before we left and I slowly watched as the hour I did have to be creative slowly dwindled down. Finally I kicked my butt in gear and took out my needles!

I don't really want to post another picture of my green knitting so I decided to show you a project that I did about a year ago for my friend, Ian. For some reason or another, Ian gave me a list of foods that he absolutely despised. I found the list so delightful! It was such an odd mixture of things and so specific! So I decided to make him a little button book that he could keep with him to remind him what foods he should avoid.

Day 69: Design/wedding invitations

Time: 20 minutes...?
Listening to: Nothing

I really super extremely didn't want to do anything productive today. I don't know what got into me but I felt absolutely adamant that I should not do anything creative.

Somehow I managed to work on some changes that my friend wanted on her wedding invitations and RSVP cards that I'm designing. Nothing earth shattering..but it was something at least!

Day 68: Knitting

Time: One and a half hours
Listening to: Murder She Wrote (watched)

I found Murder She Wrote on Netflix and got super excited. I used to watch that show when I was little but I hadn't seen it for years! So I tuned in to episode one and knitted. This may be my new obsession...knitting and Murder She Wrote!

Day 67: Embroidery

We finished watching Mad Men and I finished another flamingo! Not quite picture worthy yet, but it will be revealed soon enough!

Day 65 and 66: Embroidering and photoshop

Time: Hours
Listening to: Mad Men

So Saturday night (Sunday morning) my husband and I decided to stay up really late and watch a gazillion episodes of Mad Men. I was wide awake because I was embroidering and loving it. Here is my lovely flamingo. 

I've also been busy making my friend Molly's invitations and RSVP cards for her upcoming wedding. The flamingo may or may not be apart of them! More to come later!

Day 63: Baking Bacon and Cheese Biscuits

Time: About two hours total today
Currently listening to Chopin and Shostakovich

I love Saturdays because there is enough time to spread out creative activities throughout the day! While I've done an assortment of things today, I decided to highlight the food project. I saw this project over here and thought it looked too delicious not to make. So today I did my rendition of it.

You need:

Cooked Bacon
Mozzarella/cheddar mixture
Pillsbury Biscuits

I first cooked my bacon. I  chose to do it in the microwave today because I hate the splattering of bacon grease. My apron is too cute to get bacon grease on it. After the bacon was cooked, I tore it up in pieces. Then I popped open the biscuits and plopped them on a cookie sheet. The original recipe told me to put my biscuits in a skillet but since I don't have one...I didn't. Then I put a little bacon here and a little cheese there. Throw them in the oven at 350 for about...oh...15 minutes and you should have gooey, delicious, cheesy bacon biscuits!!

Day 61 & 62: Knitting

Time: Two hours
Listening to: Mad Men

Since January my husband and I have watched three full seasons of Mad Men and are now on the fourth. It is a bit of an obsession. I go to bed thinking about the characters and often I'll wake up thinking about them. This may have become a problem...

The good thing is that it is a great show to knit to! My ball of green is getting pretty small which means I'm almost ready for my next color. I have blue and green...what shall my next color be?

Day 60: Relapse

Today was the first day of 2012 that I haven't participated in my goal. We went out to eat with my family and had a grand ol' time but when I got home...all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and read! So I did. I've been in a bit of a funk recently and have just not wanted to do anything productive...especially creative productivity! But I'm hoping with a night off, I'll jump right back at it.

P.S. I just read the book, Hitler Youth, and it was so good. I've read a lot from that time period but never a book that was directly looking at how the youth were targeted and brainwashed, basically. It was definitely a good read!