The Project Channel! All Projects, All the Time!

I am attempting to finish every home improvement project idea I have this weekend. And I mean ALL of them.

First, Thursday afternoon, unannounced, 3 cubic yards of much was dumped on my driveway. In the rain. Blocking my car.

So I in my raincoat grabbed the wheelbarrow and began to dig my way out. To put the amount of mulch that was on my driveway into perspective, we're looking at about 75 BAGS of mulch. In a warm, steamy pile. Gene came home around 7:30, (luckily the rain had stopped by then, and it was just hot) and jumped into the pile with me. We were quite a team; and we were quite dirty. But the effort paid off, I think.




In other garden news, my lilac is on its last legs. I'm sad that I missed the best weekend for the lilac, although it was nice to be at Amy's graduation. Gene's family is very nice, but I'm a little family'd out, you know?

My pretty purple flowers have turned pink, but there is just the tiniest bit of lingering scent. I love that smell!


I spent about an hour watering about 3/4 of the flowers this morning, since it will be about a million degrees today. Or 90. One of those. I'll water the rest this afternoon, when they are in the shade, since they are supposed to be shade plants, and I don't want them to get sunburnt.

When I first planted them, they looked quite nice! They are now a bit droopy and sad. I'll show you a picture of the Happy Flowers, instead. :)


Gene is the original WaterBoy.

We are also painting my office. I tried to get a clip of the color, but Glidden is all Macromedia, and it won't let me copy the image. Anyway, it's a very light celery green called Morning Blend. I'm going to build a desk area - basically a long counter, and that will be painted chocolate brown. I'm also going to have shelves painted brown for my little objects d'art. I found a chaise at Ikea (another pesky macromedia site) but it's white. I want to change the color - maybe to a deep robin's egg blue. Plus, I have to make the curtains. Ugh!! That means I have to find a flat surface in my sewing room! That's pretty unlikely. Someday, I will try to organize that place.

Hahaha. I imagine I will win the lottery first.

The sweater is...on hiatus. I just can't look at the Bedroom Carpet sweater this weekend. I have too much to accomplish and it's 90 degrees and not really sweater weather right now, anyway. The edge that I made (without checking the guage *sigh*) was...ruffly.

So I took the scissors to it...

And threw away the carnage.

I think I'll go back to my idea of measuring the length and knitting a 7 stich wide strip to go around the edges. Delores tried it on yesterday, and it fits great. I told you she was tiny!

Well, I should get back to painting. I have to be a functional person tomorrow. Ciao for now.

Purply Goodness

I said I would update more often.

I lied. :D

Firstly, I would like to thank the ladies at Threadbared for allowing me to add them as a link. So very fun, that page! I am slightly embarassed to admit that the room divider in Pantyhose Craft Week (Part I), which I am unable to link to here for some reason, is very near the idea I have for a drapery "experience" in the Family Room. It's actually based on a bead I found, not on pantyhose, but I have considered the benefits of stretchy yet supportive nylon on my windows. They are, as of now, quite bare.

Incidentally, as I was looking for this photo, I found one of my favorite Emma (the dog) pictures from last Fourth of July. Apparently the Thompsons are a bit too much for her (who can blame her ?) and she needed to hide in a nice, cool place for a while.


In other news, I visited my mom as a surprise this past Mother's Day weekend. I trained in (is that a verb?) and had my dad pick me up. An interesting note: the cabins look quite nice and comfortable. I know this because I got lost. In a moving train. Forwards and backwards are your options; I picked wrong. The gentleman whose door I opened was shocked but nice and didn't chase me down the winding train through the restaurant. Honestly, the door said "Exit", or I wouldn't have opened it. Needless to say, it was not an exit.

While I was in Toodle-ee-doo, I managed a photo of the infamous "Bedroom Carpet". Kelly and Gretchen - this one's for you. It's a knitting version of Where's Waldo :

And just to prove that the piece of knitting is really there, I have this:

Not only did I live with that carpet for many, many years, but my Aunt-in-law (?) wants a sweater that is made of the same colors. I never thought I would see the combination again! Truth be told, I had hoped I would never see it again. And now, I am knitting a sweater with this monstrous combination. Melissa thinks I shall be knitting it forever, and that no one at the Lake County KTog will know who I am if I have another project. I am starting to think she is right.

I have managed to put the whole sweater together for Delores and I'm on the details, now. The cuffs are on and I'm going around the edges with a garter border to help with shaping.

The collar doesn't look very collar-y since it's on my circs (after discussion last night with the gurus in Panera) but trust me. It's quite a substantial collar. And yes, the sweater really is that small. Delores is a small person. And yes, the dog is really that big. Emma is a Great Pyrenees. I think that Emma (the dog) is bigger than Delores.

Knitting projects just fly off my needles (hahahahahahahahaha...haha..ha...).

I got bored with the Bedroom Carpet Sweater and knit up an iPod cover quickly with the fun yarn left over from Suzy's SSRH* pillow and some olive green fun fur that once called out to me. Something interesting to know: knitting stretches. I know this, but I must have forgotten. My iPod holder does, in fact, hold an iPod - horizontally. Unfortunately, when the iPod is exerting its whopping 8 ounces of plastic heft onto the knitting, it just falls out and yanks on my earphones. I am debating ways to fix this. Comments appreciated.

I also finished my Knitting Olympics project. The Winter Olympics ended...oh...4 months ago or so. I had the knitting part done a while ago (although not on time), but I needed to take care of the button in the back. I didn't want to just sew a button on there. Oh, no, that would be way too easy! I wanted to sew a piece of 3" satin ribbon on the button flap to help support the fabric (since it's stockinette and it's curly) and THEN sew on a button. That takes planning! That takes guts! That takes having all the materials in roughly the same area at the same time!

So now, I shall wait until Sydney is old enough to have children of her own before I send it, I suppose.

Purply goodness continues, with the blossoming of my lilac. I have waited a very very long time to have a lilac that bloomed. I love lilacs. I love the smell, I love the colors, I love the tiny little flowers. In fact, it was the key flower in our wedding, although we didn't have very many since we were married in March and the lilac season is much later. Rest assured that I consider my wedding flower to be a lilac.

The best thing about this is that this is a living plant. Of course it is! you say. What makes that fact so spectacular is that I have had many many sticks of lilac that never became anything. I much prefer the growing, not to mention blooming kind.

And with that, this blooming idiot shall be signing off. Ciao!

Older Post (11 Mar 06)

I turned my hair red a couple of days ago.

I was going out on a job site, so I actually curled it, too, and put on makeup and a nice business-y outfit. Yes, you saw that right, makeup!! So that's why you don't see my face - I don't want anyone to get any ideas.

I really like this color - I haven't been a redhead since I've been married. I haven't been this bright since I lived in Kent. That means it was initially a shock to Gene, who is used to my burgandy red hair color choice.

Anywho, my fingerless gloves, which I find an excuse to wear all the time, are from the leftover yarn from Gene's sweater. I told him to pick a color. He immediately said green apple. I found the yarn that would work, and got some, but, as I have a tendency to do, I got too much. (I think it's my secret ploy to have my stash grow without his knowing.) I was scared, but the more I looked at the colors (including the navy blue he also said he wanted), the more I realized that the sweater was going to end up very J Crew-ish. It looks great on him, though. Of course, he could wear a burlap sack and it would look great. If we ever have kids, they will be beautiful because of him.

So I thought, cotton would be great for these gloves. It is - except that it stretches out easily. I think I'm going to sew some elastic at the top, above the elbows, so it holds its shape a bit better.
But Gene and I can match now! We have Gene in his sweater:

The boy never smiles with his teeth. He does sometimes wear this sweater, though, without always looking like his grandma gave it to him for Christmas.

Here, he is playing World of Warcraft in his office. And wearing his sweater voluntarily. :)

And we have my handwarmers (below, in progress)...

I think I did a good job capturing the sweater feeling. Not that stripes are all that hard, but still.

Well, Suzy will be here soon (Yay!), so I had better make sure the bathrooms and stuff are ready to go. It's so nice out! I don't want to stay in and clean!!!

Old post - 20 Mar 06

Suzy was here all this week - hence, no updates until now :). I was also busy all last week trying to make a million (acutally, about a third of a million) dollars for the business. The Magic Eight Ball says "Outlook Not Good". *sigh* Anywho...in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya:

Let me 'splain. No. There is too much. Let me sum up.

Saturday Suzy came into Chicago - turns out Chicago celebrates St. Patrick's Day the weekend before. I thought Chicago was a decently Irish town and had their parades and drunken brawls on the proper weekend. But Weber Grill was good, anyway. I think my favorite Chicago food thus far is the chopped salad every restaurant seems to have. Bleu cheese, Romaine lettuce, pepper, bacon, other stuff...yum :)

Sunday, Gene, Suzy and I all went to Niles to have breakfast with Grandpa Szat and Gene's Dad. It's always a treat - and Kappy's has AWESOME Belgian waffles. (Clearly, I am hungry.) Later, I helped put together the Sigma Invites for Founders' Day. They are really pretty :) I feel all, like, accomplished and stuff :)

Monday was a work day, ho-hum, but then Monday night was my first night of karate. Yay! Guess who is totally out of shape! I didn't even make it the whole hour of training. To my credit, We had to do 30 pushups right after running laps (laps? wtf???). The first 10 push ups were diamond, the next 10 normal and the final 10 with arms way out. I did them boy-style, and I believe I pulled something in my back. I did have to wait a few days to find out what was actually hurt, since my WHOLE FREAKING BODY was so sore, lol! I had to leave the training floor, though, because I thought I would either vomit, pass out, or maybe even both.

Tuesday was...nothing that I can think of. KIDDING, Suzy! Unfortunately, Suzy's birthday was fairly boring, as far as birthdays go. I feel bad for that - we said that we would go out to eat, but we spent the day shopping for me to have new clothes for this major presentation I scheduled. From scratch. I AM proud of that :)

So we decided to go to RainForest Cafe in Gurnee.... but no. They close at 9 PM (aroo? Isn't that a bit early for a restaurant?) Anyway, we ended up going to a local Mexican Restaurant. Suzy got a birthday tiara, a margarita and Mexican food. We gave her the Rock Star Lifestyle we live every day, hah.

Poor Suzy - if you know her, tell her Happy Birthday ('twas the 14th).

Wednesday...what did I do? I had a rockin presentation and felt pretty good about life. Knitted some...

What did I do on Wednesday night? *takes time to go downstairs and refresh the coffee, take pictures of things* Oh, yeah! I remember :)

I made cards. I was in the mood for paper crafting because of the Sigma cards, so I (finally) made cards for the babies of two friends of mine. They were born in December. It's thoughtful, actually, of me to make the cards now. Babies never get cards three months after they are born. I am just making sure that they are still feeling good about their decision to be born. I'll call it "Life Marketing." Holy crap, I need to get into an Art History class, and soon. I sound like a business person. *shudder*

Anywho, here are some pics of the cards I made (address are blurred because 3 month old babies don't need junk mail - and neither do I!):






The stamps will be pretty cute:

And Sharon's (Mother-in-Law) birthday is this week - so I made one for her, too:



Unfortunately, I used stickers for the "happy birthday" part, so it looks shiny. The envelope itself is shiny, at least at the center of the flower, because I put embossed glitter on it.

Mmmm...glitter...

The little pockets to the left on the babies' cards are for the gift cards that I am going to send. They must be at the point they've used up all the gift cards from when the kids were actually born, right? I'm not procrastinating - I'm thinking about the babies...

Thursday we went to the Shedd Aquarium. Gene apparently took pictures of that, and so did Suzy. I sure don't know where they are. I imagine Suzy's myspace blog will have a few. Gene's pics - well, he will wait until he gets some sort of bug up his... I mean, he will put them on the regular website eventually. He thinks that MySpace is evil and that it is sucking my soul.

It's not sucking my soul so much as it...slurps on occasion. Loudly. With a spoon that is just too big for its mouth.

Food...

Friday, Suz left while I was at meeting number 2 for what I had hoped would be a big win. Again, I gotta say, I don't think I got it. I would love to, but the guy was supposed to call today, and nothing. That would have just been great - I never get wins like that! Anywho.
Then we found out that Suzy wasn't actually leaving - United Airlines made sure of that. To make a long story short, they delayed her so long she missed her connecting flight, and every other flight until Monday night. That's right - a THREE DAY DELAY. Unbelievable. She left today, and at last word, she was actually ON a plane. We hope for the best, lol.

Saturday was our anniversary - six years we've been married! We figure we've passed the 7 Year Itch (and thus, Marilyn Monroe?) since we lived together for 3 years before we got married. I got Gene a silly little Men's Valet with a plaque that has his initials engraved on it. It's...nice. Nothing great. I would post a pic, but I can't get it off the Red Envelope website. Trust me, it's...nice.

So Gene (who really comes up with his best ideas at the last minute, lucky guy), was standing outside while he let me sleep in. It was a nice sunny day, and he came up with an idea of what he could get me for our anniversary:

The first bike I have had since I was 13 :) It doesn't have a banana seat or a basket, but I still think it's pretty cool :) So here is the rest of the gift (Oh yeah, there's more). The bike is for Gene and I to go out and be together, away from the house/office and spend sometime together, by ourselves, in the sunshine, possibly with a picnic or something.

So we went riding by Lake Michigan on Sunday, and had a beautiful time :) No pictures - just Gene and I, ridin' bikes, listening to the waves.

Which brings us to today - All I have done is work, listen to conference calls (I am usually just on them, answering "yes" to something about once every 15 minutes) and finishing Delores' Power Point project. She gets to sit and watch tv, and I am, for all practical purposes, doing her homework. Blech. And, as I mentioned, I don't think I got the sale. I'll call tomorrow to confirm, but I just don't feel all that confident. I am thinking of knitting, but I might just sit on the couch with my hubby, watching the very romantic Adult Swim since I missed my knitting show (Knitty Gritty) twice.

Until I have more to say, ciao!

My April Fool's Joke (posted 31 Mar 06)

Ever have the feeling you are about to win a Darwin Award?
The Darwin Awards

Physics Lesson Drilled Home for Antioch Couple

(Tribue Reporter D.R. Abby, March 31, 2006, Antioch)
Authorities responded to a 911 call from the home of Eugene and Jessica Szatkowski Friday evening in this small, quiet lake community north of Chicago. The couple were rushed to Lake Forest Hospital with multiple contusions and burns. Both are reported to be in stable condition.
Police Chief Barney Fife said that the situation was unusual for his department.

"When we arrived, the garage door was open and they were just rolling around on the driveway, yelling."

A spokeperson for Lake Forest Hospital said that both Szatkowskis were admitted with pieces of glass imbeded in their faces and arms. In addition, Eugene had a piece of metal protruding from the left side of his face.

Once the Szatkowskis were stable, doctors were able to put together the events that led to the couple's odd injuries.

"Apparently, it started out as a celebration," said Doctor Quincy Adams, the attending physician in the Lake Forest Emergency Room. "They thought they might have a glass of champagne to celebrate the fact that they had won a major client for their business."

The Szatkowskis run a digital video surveillance company from their home in Antioch.
Apparently, the cork to the bottle of champagne was difficult to remove. Doctors and police assume that when the Szatkowskis were unable to completely remove the cork from the champagne bottle, they took it into the garage where Eugene attempted to remove the stubborn stopper with a cordless drill.

"I guess they forgot that when champagne opens, it throws the cork out with a lot of pressure," Fife mentioned.

The resulting release of pressure from the champagne caused the glass bottle to shatter at the top, blowing glass at high speeds into the faces and hands of the Szatkowskis. The small explosion was apparently also enough to break the bit from the cordless drill. The metal in Mr. Szatkowski's left cheek was determined to be a broken 3/8" drill bit. The first and second degree burns on the couple are assumed to have come from the speed of the cork leaving the bottle, or possibly pieces of the drill bit brushing against the heads and arms of the unfortunate couple.

Although the scene seemed dramatic at the outset, the glass pieces from the bottle managed to land only in the upper lip, nasal cavities and eyebrows of the two. Doctors say the Szatkowskis are lucky to still have full function of their eyes.

The couple is likely to be released from Lake Forest Hospital Saturday.

No more the BlogSpot Virgin!

So I have much catching up to do. I wish I could find the time to blog some more - I really like to do it! As many of you know, Gene's grandpa died a week ago. Sharon (Gene's mom) was already in town because it appeared to be close to the end, so she was there. That was good. He had been sick for so long - Parkinson's and Dementia - that it was actually a relief.

Another relief is saying goodbye to your mother-in-law as she leaves after a very long two weeks in town. I love Sharon. She is a very dynamic person, and she has a way to get what she wants, every time. I tend to feel quite inadequate in comparison, and it gets to me after a while. Two weeks of Hurricane Sharon was quite enough, for now, thank you. :)

So, to catch up a bit...
I have done a bit of knitting, mostly on Delores' sweater. I just want to have that done and out of the way. (Delores is Sharon's sister, and Gene's aunt. The family resemblance between Delores and Sharon is more than either of them would like to admit. They wear each other out.)


This picture is the pattern that the yarn made on, I think, the back. This was an unexpected surprise. I just picked a varigated yarn that matched what Delores had picked out. I'm pleased with the result! (Gretchen, if you're reading this, the yarn Delores picked out looks exactly like the carpet in our room growing up. Brown, orange, pink...stunning :P)

The sweater overall is coming together slowly. I had almost finished the collar, when I realized I hated how it looked. I know, I know, it's not for me, but I can't give someone an ugly sweater that I have made. It's bad knitting karma. I will probably use the fluffy stuff Delores picked out just for the cuffs and the banding around the entire thing. I'm kind of over the "accent a sweater with a novelty yarn" thing, but I have to use the yarn Delores picked out (but that I paid for). Right? Fashion be damned. I am a knitter. This is a sweater. I am going to knit this thing, fuzzy or not! (With kind regards to Utah Phillips.)

Th sweater, when put together will be cute, I hope. The body is mostly assembled, if not completely sewn up (an older photo of The Sweater in progress):

And the buttons I will use to close it up (Notice I will not need to make button holes. I am a thinker, yes I am.) :

And while I bought the buttons, I bought fabric. See, the Hancock Fabrics in Glenview is going out of business, and everything is on super super sale, including the fixtures, and I saw the fabric that is the closest to what I have been looking for.

The best part is that it's 72" instead of 54" wide and it cost $8.00 a yard instead of $25.00 a yard. Woot for closeouts!

The fabric, when it grows up, will be curtains and possibly pillows or a cushion on this amazing piece of furniture I have in my head that will hopefully someday make it to my office. If anyone would like to make/invent it. The fabric doesn't show the lime green as much as I'd like (it doesn't even look lime green in this), and the blue is a bit more than I wanted, but other than that, I like it. You wouldn't think lime green and chocolate brown would be hard to find right now. Retro style (the 80s are not retro, no matter what the radio stations say...) is very popular right now. Anywho... it looks like this:

From a certain angle, anyway.

Well, it's 1 AM, and I should, probably, get some work done tomorrow. That means I should, probably, get some sleep now. Since working with BlogSpot is sooooooooooo much easier than working with MySpace, I think I will (hope I will) update more often. Seriously, I took 140 pictures off my camera. I have lots to say! :)

Ciao for now!

J