Going Green For the Holidays

Hey friends,

I work for a web design company and I'm blogging for them, so please go there and check out my post about sustainable holiday tips.

Find out what to do with all of those random yarn scraps.

and

Find out what to do with all of that quilting fabric you're never going to use.

Last Minute Christmas Knitting

Oh, Block It!

The good news is that many of my Christmas knitting projects are knitt-ed.

The bad news is that they all need to be blocked.

Thankfully we are only 6 days away from the big C and I do still have time, but let's face it. My apartment's a mess. There's a resident cat who will investigate my blocking knits and walk all over them.

My bathroom sink is not appropriate for soaking knits (a less than ideal bathroom is one of the downsides of inexpensive rent in the San Francisco Bay Area), and I still have yet to purchase a squirt bottle.

But hey, that squirt bottle will get two birds with one stone: blocking and teaching the cat not to walk on my knitting.

GG

Grenadine Girl Song

So I was doing some vanity googling and discovered that Jovian, has done a Grenadine Girl track... and I actually dig it.

Click here to listen.

Bleah

Divorcing is not good for your health. Until recently I wasn't making a whole lot of money and I didn't have a lot of time, so that meant that I was eating some pretty crappy food. I took advantage of this time to indulge in some old junkfood favorites like macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, mc donalds and burger king.

This is in stark contrast to my previous diet, which was optimized for my thyroid problem. I only ate organic and ate more fruits and vegetables. I stayed away from processed foods and only ate whole grains.

Six months later I can feel a difference. I don't have as much energy. I keep waking up in the middle of the night.

So I guess my new year's resolution (yes I'm already thinking about it) is to eat better.

No more crap.

More fruits, more veggies
Only organic
take vitamins
and exercise more

It's just a matter of getting rid of the old bad eating habits.

I've read a bunch of Mary Shomon's books as I am a believer of taking responsibility for one's own health. I was skeptical of her stance about diet mainly because I didn't see a big difference in my energy levels when I stopped eating white breads and pastas. Now I'm realizing that when I first got diagnosed as hypothyroid I was already eating an organic diet.

Now having been eating crappy food for the last year I can totally see a difference and it sucks. So I'm thinking about doing the restart diet from Feeling Fat, Fuzzy and Frazzled.

Sorry boyfriend, I think this means you're going to have to start eating healthily too.

GG

Making Up for Last Year

If you can imagine last Christmas was pretty awful, even with everybody's best intentions. There were people I didn't buy presents for, Christmas cards that didn't get posted. I'm hoping that people understand.

This year I'm trying to make up for all of that.

I've been shopping and knitting like a wild woman. The bargains are just too much to pass up. I'd say more, but then people's presents wouldn't be such a big surprise.

But I can tell you about the presents I bought for myself. It was mostly a lot of music.

Katy Perry - One of the Boys
Of Montreal - Hissing Fawns, Are You The Destroyer
Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob

I've been listening to a lot more music in the past year, because it helps me get through the shitty parts of the year and because it makes my long commute bearable. This is why I refer to my car as the traveling disco, even if I'm the only one dancing.

GG

One Year Ago

I did something crazy a year ago today.

I left my husband. Right before Christmas.

Admittedly, it wasn't very nice and I hated hurting someone who I did love. But it was the best decision for me. A year later I am much happier. I am more confident, more self assured, more self aware, more connected to my family, pursuing things closer to my skills, and I'm with someone better suited to me.

I hope that my ex is happier. I'm thankful that he and I have been communicative.

But that basically sums up why I haven't been blogging publicly. I didn't want to drag all of the yucky details for everyone to see. And it's been tremendously painful and difficult. But here I am on the other side and I've missed blogging.

so I'm back.

Grenadine Girl

le weekend

Went to the Maker Faire this weekend, which was fabulous! It was nice being surrounded by like minded crafty maker folks and awesome to be milling around the same crowd as Adam from Mythbusters!

It was also nifty to be hanging around with my boyfriend. We wandered from exhibit to exhibit checking out whatever tickeled our fancies. It was low key and easy going. He seems to have the same attention span that I do. We got a little taste of everything.

Some of the favorites:

1) the burning lady which was part of an exhibition from last year's burning man
2) the mento diet coke explosions
3) Adam from Mythbusters
4) yarn shopping (but sadly not buying)
5) Robot Wars
6) Robot Battleship Wars
7) the big robot giraffe
8) rockets!
9) gigantic cupcakes
10) DRAGON man!!!!!!!!!

Saturday was pretty good too. Saw Iron Man, which gets thumbs up, went to goodwill and splurged at Barnes and Noble. Had a fire in my parents' fireplace, drank tea and watching Radiohead in the Basement.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh

KL

hooray for me

So since I've moved I really haven't been able to make it up north for my regular knit night. I decided to find something a little closer to home on a night I'm not working two jobs.

I was a little nervous because I've been feeling depressed and it's been difficult to get out of that mindset, but I met a lovely group of ladies AND a hand-dyer! And I bought another skein of sock yarn. It was a phenomenally beautiful yarn, exactly what I'm looking for to cheer me up. It's white, with almost tie-dyed blues purples and plums (my colors). It had to take an exceptionally beautiful yarn for me to bust out more cash considering how obscenely large my yarn stash is. The unfortunate thing is that I can't find the ball band so I have no idea the name of the dyer except that her name is Joanne. I've got to find her on Ravelry. I'm beginning to realize that I'm a lot happier with a pair of socks to work on.

I'll post a photo of the yarn and get to the bottom of the dyer later.

It's nice to get back into the knitting.

GG

Pourquoi?

Things I need to do for myself:

1) improve my French
2) make more friends
3) do more social stuff
4) meditate
5) read
6) write
7) join a book group
8) take a chill pill
9) find a new knitting group
10) save money

New Home

Welcome to my new home.

Photos of the new apartment to come soon.

GG

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

This blog has had it's time and place, but now it's time to move on.

Keep your eye out for Knitluck.com where I will eventually host my new blog.

Thanks for reading

GG

Hi

So I've noticed that people still come by here to visit despite the fact that I haven't written, so it's inspired me to write.

Some people are coming here because it's the only way they know what I'm up to.

Most of my friends know that a lot has changed.

For one thing I have a new job. And since I don't like to discuss work much I can't say much about it except that it's in the city and I like it. This job has nothing to do with knitting. Nor can I knit on the job anymore. But that's ok. That's how one actually makes a living.

There's a lot of pain in these changes. Each bit of happiness is touched by sorrow.

And my knitting book got rejected. Not a huge surprise given the industry and my lack of experience. I'm trying to decide what to do with the patterns I've created, trying to decide whether to send them to magazines and if so, which publications.

But overall I'm doing alright. Everyday is different.

GG

I'm An Aunty

Of course I had to post a photo of her wearing something I knit.

GG