Tuesday, July 24, 2007

You know I've been busy if it's been a week...

We were about two hours into grouting the kitchen backsplash when I told the husband, "Pay the man."

You see, in every DIY project, there's a point where an amature wakes up and thinks, "What the HELL am I doing?" Also, "Whatever made me think I can do this?" Thus, pay the man whatever he wants to finish this project. Since the grout was drying, we finished up. There'll be pictures, as soon as I can get more of this stuff cleaned. It's black grout and it's a lot like playing with Rit dye, the powdery stuff. It's worth it, the tiles and grout look great. Tonight, we're cleaning and sealing the tile behind the stove, just so we can move the stove from the middle of the kitchen back into its cubby.

Just to keep me from getting too bored, I've been painting what I can of the living room. The big deal was getting behind the piano painted, and behind where the armoire will go. All the other furniture is featherweight compared to the piano, and a lot less awkward, compared to the armoire. The living room will match the dining room, olive walls and cream ceiling.

Lucky graduated Beginner's Obedience school at Petsmart last night! That class was the worst he'd ever acted. Barking, trying to pull away from the leash, acting bananas in general. The ONLY thing to settle him down was saying "treat". I suppose it was my fault, I didn't walk him for a couple miles before class. Between cleaning grout and painting, I lost track of time. Hubs got great pictures. I'll post when they're developed.

Now, on to the yarny stuff. Sixteen days to Stitches, and I'm counting Wednesday because there's a lot of knitting to be done on the way there. At least eight hours of having to do nothing but sit and chat.

Last week, I went to three different yarn stores, just because I was in the area. I managed to exit Yarn Shop & More and Florilegium without buying anything. Florilegium was expanding their store space and had a bit of a low inventory. Totally understandable. They should be getting a few orders in a couple weeks. Meanwhile, I stopped by Knitcraft on Saturday after knit group. She had boxes of new yarn sitting out, including July's Lang Jawoll Aktion sock club. They're like potato chips. At first, I thought just one, but then... I have all of July's and think the little pictures don't do the yarn justice. Plus, I love the little 'giblet' of reinforcement yarn tucked inside. How funny!

On one of our many trips to Home Depot, we stopped by Michael's to get a doll hat for Lucky. While there, some Lion Brand Microspun in a buttercream color followed me home. It was on clearance, of course. I bought enough to make the Coachella from the summer Knitty. It's a pleasant diversion from the scallops of another shell where I have to count. If you listen, you can hear the snickers from my knit group. A couple of weekends ago, I'd cast on 232 stitches. I had to count them for accuracy, but kept getting distracted and had to start over. And over and over.

I'm going to have to take pictures at some point. Eye candy is always fun.

3 comments:

ChelleC said...

At some point in every do-it-yourselfers life there is that "just pay the man" moment!! I'm glad things are finally coming together.

Wohoooo!!! One more day down - and Stitches is exactly two weeks away. Yippeeeeeeeeee.

Camie Vog said...

I am "paying the man" and I get a phone call yesterday that said...
"Ah, the cabinet over the stove...I finally got it out. It can be reused after I repair it, and ah, the place that it hung, ah, it doesn't look pretty right now, but it will, soon. So, ah, you can start your painting in there and the appliances can be put into place, ah, except for the over the range microwave, ah, since I need to still repair the area. Really, it'll look great when I can get to finishing it. Bye"

the phone call was from my brother in law, who, even though he is family still wants to be paid for his time...

Laura said...

Two weeks!? ::hyperventilating::

I'm just glad the laundry is going. Clean clothes for the trip is always good. :D

Ooo, Camie, that's bad. How can you fire your brother in law? It'll make Thanksgiving be horrible. Usually in those cases, I'll say, "How wonderful! Thank you!" then wait until they leave to fix whatever they've done.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race