Lately, I’ve been suffering from what I like to call the “I don’t want to do ANYTHING” portion of the summer. I don’t want to knit. I don’t want to quilt. Let’s not even mention the stuff I’m SUPPOSED to be doing that I’m generally ignoring, like laundry – craftiness motivation completely left the building. The most I could muster in the evenings was a sigh in the general direction of my sewing machine, and then I’d flop down on the couch after the kids were in bed. I’ve noticed that this happens at about this time every year; it’s like my body just rejects the heat and boredom that summer in Austin creates; this year has been exceptionally sucky, with the 105 degree days and the lack of rain and OH MY GOD I AM SO OVER THIS. I hear folks on TV complaining because oh my, it feels like fall up north! This makes me invariably roll my eyes until they almost create a full circle in my skull and then invite them to spend a couple of days on the surface of the sun with me. I can’t even get my groceries home from the store in the afternoons without everything completely defrosting before I can get them home. All this means that the thought of having extra fabric across my body, for any reason at all, was rather unappealing.

While I type this, I’m watching an informercial with Billy Blanks and some weird English guy hawking some power tool, and all I can think about is that Billy Blanks had drugs in his system when he died. Is that why OxyClean yanked all of his ads and replaced them with Generic Blonde Motherly Type? I refuse to believe they did it out of any sort of respect for him.

Randomness. Anyway.

With the liberal application of air conditioning and 44 oz iced teas from Sonic I’ve been getting back into the groove lately.

Hello! I'm Cassidy!?

What? You don’t immediately want to knit a sweater in the middle of summer, too? I’m not really a fan of knitting sweaters, but about once a year I get the bug and I have to knit one to get it out of my system, and this year is Cassidy’s turn. My progress is slow, due to the aforementioned BLAH going on, but the b/4 ack is done. Now I have to figure out how to shorten the sleeves to 3/4 length (math is not what I’d call my “strong point”) and I’ll have something useable by Christmas.

I am also working my way through a quilt. I saw this awesome tutorial online (which I now cannot find, but a search for Half Square triangle shows me that it’s not like this is a NEW idea) – you take two squares, draw a diagonal line down the center of one of them, and then sew a quarter inch seam on either side of the line. Then cut through the line, flip open and press seams in any direction that you would like. I won’t judge you if you like to press them completely open, or press to the dark side, or whatever wackiness you’ve come up with. I accept you, whatever your pressing style.

I’m not sure what this is going to turn into in the end, but I’ve had some pretty awesome inspiration. I’m sure I’ll come up with something. In the meantime, I’ll continue making half squares until I’ve exhausted my supply of charm squares, or until I’m sick of making them. Whichever comes first.

I haven’t posted a lot about the house lately; there hasn’t been much to say, other than OH LOOK, MORE BEAMS or HOLY CRAP, AN ELECTRICAL OUTLET! which only my husband an myself are excited about. But in the past week, things have really starting moving along; this is the part where I bore you with pictures and details that you really don’t care about. But since it’s my blog, I’m allowed.

Kitchen Cabinets, or alternately: Where We Decided to Invest The Children's College Funds

These are the cabinets that we picked out, after hours of dickering back and forth. That giant white thing in front there is going to be the bar facing into our family room. It will invariably be covered with mail, keys, gadgets, toys, crayons, cups, paper, and the various other things that we’re just too lazy to put away. It is amazing how something as simple as a kitchen cabinet can completely define a room, and I love these more than when we saw them in the design center. And as of a few hours ago, our walls are painted, our banister is in, and our house officially has doors that my children will become well acquainted with slamming.

In the mean time, I’m spending my time with this:

Cassidy, by Bonnie Marie Burns

This looks complex, I’ll give you that. Don’t trust your eyeballs. There isn’t really any crazy difficulty here, and once I got into the rhythm of the cables, it is basically knitting itself. This is another one of those difficult, eye-catching type patterns that I love. Big bang for my buck (especially considering that I am knitting it in Valley Yarns Northhampton, excellent yardage for the price).  And there has been sewing, of both the hand and machine variety.

Look! I made a dress!

Hexagon Wreath

All in all, I’d say things are clicking along nicely.

I’m switching over to WordPress, away from the .NET engine that my husband convinced me to use previously (“sure, baby, I’ll code plenty of custom things for you!” MY ASS) so it is going to look a little weird while I jack with the colors and the layout. In other words, no, you’re not going crazy; it really does look like junk around here, but we’ll get it squared away before too long.