Still Busy...

Just as the title says... I swear I haven't been so busy in a LONG time! Lots and lots and lots of research work. I haven't had much time for myself, which sucks, but I know that at least after the presentation is over (2 weeks!), I'll be able to take a deep breath and calm down a bit. At that point, I'll fly to California for a mini-vacation and to pick up Hitchcock!

On a happy, and political, note, Obama's inaugural speech made me tear up and flat out cry in parts. I know he's a politician, so I'm taking it with a (small) grain of salt, but I have so much hope for the next four years and I really wish for change for this country. It needs it! Also, having it be Bush's LAST DAY EVER was just beyond amazing too, of course! :)

In between all my business at work, I have been able to start and work on my super-secret lacework project! And I'm so happy to be able to unveil it in all its work-in-progress glory. So, without further ado, my very own Girasole Blanket!





Now I know what you are all thinking: is this girl in love with Jared Flood or what? And the answer to that is hell yeah I am! His projects are beyond cool and full of awesome cables and lace! I totally have a secret crush on him (in a very platonic way, of course) and I'm excited about moving to Brooklyn next year just so I have a bigger chance of running into him on the street. Yes, I've thought about this and I promise you I am not a crazy stalker... or am I? *shifty eyes*

Ahem, moving back to the Girasole... Not only is it a lot of fun to knit (though the rows are SO LONG and only going to get longer - 640 stitches... ack!), I just love love love doing lacework in heavy worsted weight yarn. I mean, who doesn't?





I am making it in Rowan Cocoon and it's wonderfully soft. The mohair in it is also going to give it a nice shimmer once it's done too... I can't wait to finish it, though blocking it will be a bit of a problem in a small, 1-bedroom New York City apartment. I mean, where am I going to PUT it to block??? LOL!

I was so busy taking pictures of the blanket, I didn't notice anything around me. Then I looked down near my feet and found this little cutie looking back at me:



Now doesn't that just melt your heart?

Busy busy busy

Work has been really tough lately... lots and lots to do, meetings coming up, presentations, posters, blah blah blah. Basically, I've had more than my share of things to work on outside of work time and that has eaten up my relaxing and knitting time, which sucks. But at least it will keep me busy until we go get Hitchcock! In other words, I'm not going crazy waiting like I did when I was waiting for Kubrick. ;)

Golden Globes were on tonight and I'm so happy that Kate Winslet won twice! I think she's wonderful and totally deserved those wins, IMO. Other than that, I have yet to see Slumdog Millionaire (though I really want to) and Vicki Christina Barcelona (also really really want to see), so I don't really have an opinion on those. I really do need to start watching movies again. We used to go once a week every week and stopped due to wedding stuff and after we got back from the honeymoon things got busy at work and we haven't really been able to get back into it. I think we'll try to start again this weekend, hopefully! :)

Oh and I am so so so excited! I have received my personalized set made by Karatstix and the items are just beyond awesome! I had her make it a photo, knit, dog theme. Do you recognize Kubrick? If you click on it to look at the larger size on Flickr you can see it in greater detail so you can get an idea of just how awesome it really is!



Also, I completed one more neckwarmer, this time in blue - yeah, yeah, I know you want something new! ;)





I have been knitting on my new "secret" project - which won't be secret for much longer - and I am so far loving it! It's lacework, which I really enjoy doing, and I love the yarn I'm knitting with too! Will post pictures of it next time, I promise, though it probably won't look like much unblocked, you can still get an idea! Meanwhile, I will try to keep warm (Wednesday is supposed to be a high of something like 20 degrees (that's Fahrenheit for anyone not in the US) and below zero with wind chill! Brrrrrrrrr. Hopefully I won't freeze to death before my next post, LOL!

To end this on a cute note, here's the latest Hitchcock pic for you all. Isn't he just SO cute?

Goodbye 2008, Happy 2009!

I can't believe that 2008 is over... it flew by, but I'm actually pretty glad that it is gone, done and over with. There were some really bad times and I'm looking forward to 2009 with the hope that it will be wonderful! Of course, there were some great times in 2008, and some new things tried (it definitely wasn't ALL bad), and I wanted to go through and post all the good things that were accomplished in the last year (thanks Yarndancer for the idea!)... and yes some of it will incorporate pictures as I love me some pictures!

- I got to visit my family in Brazil and spend some relaxing days in beautiful Bahia.



- We went to Europe for the first time in my life and got to visit beautiful Romania (first pic) and gorgeous Paris (second pic)!





- I got married and it was an absolutely wonderful day! Seriously, I know it's cliche, but it was the best day of my life so far and DH and I were so lucky to be able to have that. We're looking forward to topping it, though! :) The picture below is one of our favorites from the professional photographer's blog... our completed and enhanced pictures should be done by the weekend, and I'm really looking forward to seeing that!



- Our honeymoon in French Polynesia was so wonderful and relaxing, we loved every minute of it!



- I knitted more than I have ever knitted in all my years of knitting, LOL! I only finished 12 projects, but I was very happy to be able to do even that considering that I really didn't get back into it until later in the year. I even learned to crochet for the borders of two different patterns! Very proud of that one. :)



- I practiced my photography and am really happy with how much I've improved during the year and hope to become much much better in 2009!



- I sold one of my photographs as a print and hope to do some photography eventually on the side... maybe.



- At work, I have re-focused myself and got more accomplished in my project than before. Hopefully I'll graduate in 2 years now! :D Sorry, no picture for that one, haha!

I think I accomplished and did quite a bit, though I hope that 2009 holds lots and lots more great things for us! For this upcoming year, I am resolved to do a LOT more knitting, to do a lot of work on my research and hopefully get published, to get Kubrick a little puppy brother (it's in the works!), to run a 10K (DH and I WILL do this), to take lots and lots of pictures, to go to Brazil with DH so he can meet my family there, and most of all to have a wonderful first year of marriage with DH! I think I can accomplish all of this, or at least I'll try my hardest!!!

The new year is already beginning well as one of my pictures of my beautiful dog, Kubrick, was chosen for the Havanese Forum calendar! It doesn't take a professional to get a picture in there or anything, but I'm still happy that one was chosen. This picture was taken at Kubrick's 1-year birthday last year (April 30th, to be exact), and since he is my #1 photo subject, it makes sense to end this post and to begin this year with the picture that made it into the calendar!



What are you all wishing for and what have you accomplished? Hope everything you want to accomplish in 2009 will be done!

Wacky weather, teaching, work and Christmas knitting

EDIT: For some reason some of you have had problems posting comments with the word verification thing... I changed my settings now and hope you won't have a problem anymore. Let me know if you do!

The weather has been so insane around here! We had snow on Saturday night/Sunday morning - it was a high of 30 during the weekend and on Monday. Then today it was 47 degrees and now tomorrow is supposed to be 60! I have no idea what is going on, but it's really annoying to have to be switching around between winter and fall clothes. At least now I get to wear my fingerless gloves some more. So yay! for that.

So along with crazy weather, I've been dealing with students every single day. This is my first time ever TAing, and it's already more work than I had expected! I get about 6-10 e-mails a day from students and professors and the class only has 25 people in it! At least I only have another week and a half of it and then I'm done. In the meantime, work's been crazy busy, my boss is out of the country for the next 3 weeks, and pretty much out of touch as well, so if I have any problems, I'm going to have to either hope to figure it out by myself or wait and put my project on hold. Not that I have any time to SPEND on my project with the TAing, but a girl can dream, can't she?

In more pleasant news, I'm excited about getting a Christmas tree this weekend (woot!) and about my Christmas knitting as it's coming along very well! I have started my sister's sweater dress. I'm waiting for some circular needles to come in so I can start the body, but the sleeves only took me a total of 1 hour or so to make, so I think it should be a pretty quick knit, which is oh-so-helpful now that Christmas is near.

I have finished the Koolhaas hat for my stepdad and hubby was nice enough to model it for me:





I really like how it turned out, and I really want to make one for myself... of course I'll wait until AFTER Christmas to do this! The orange is just the right shade of orange, too, I think. I love it! :)

So then I decided to start on my neckwarmer knitting. I'm making a total of 4 of them for Christmas this year - one for my sister (yes she gets one AND a sweater dress... she deserves it), one for my friend, my sister-in-law and my brother-in-law's girlfriend. Since it only took me one day (!) to knit this up, I'm pretty confident that I will be able to get it done on time. It's a great pattern, and I love how it turned out. I did mess up on the scalloped edge because I mis-judged the button placement of the center button and it's a little skewed to one side vs the other. I don't think it's that noticeable at all, though, and I know my sister won't mind!







Oh and the buttons are awesome no? I got them from an Etsy shop. They are handmade porcelain buttons! And, of course, I now want one of these neckwarmers for me! Yet another project to be left till after Christmas...

And just to prove that Kubrick really DOES love to get into every picture, here he is (just his paw) stretching up on me - I was kneeling on the floor. Yes, he is a silly pup!



Hopefully the next post will have my Christmas tree in it... I hope we can get it Friday night. :)