Pays to lose?

I “HA” in the face of elections.  I have maybe 85 political yard signs sitting around in storage, they are 18″x24″ and I wasn’t sure what to do with them.  At first I thought I’d keep them because then I could use them again in two years when/if I decided to run again but then I started thinking about my knitting and the fact that I do not have a blocking board.  So I did a little research today and found ways to make a homemade blocking board.  “Cool beans!”

Shopping list:

Homoste

Duct Tape

1″x1″ gingham

How difficult is it to find any of those things?  Well apparently really difficult because the “homoste” which apparently no one at Lowes has ever heard of is sold in 10 sheet packages for about $40.  They are like 4×8 sheets….  I’m pretty sure I don’t need that much.  Strike 1.

1″x1″ gingham can’t be hard to find, any craft/fabric store carries it.  WRONG.  I scoured Hobby Lobby for half an hour, measuring every single square pattern fabric only to walk away without any damn fabric.  Strike 2.

So then I head to HellMart because I have to pick up my contacts and decide to look around their fabric department, which I guess HellMart has decided to get rid of.  *Thanks for the heads up.*  Strike 3.

I’m driving home and I’m all disappointed because I had a goal and completely failed and I’m racking my mind thinking, thinking, wondering if I have anything at home that would work?  It was if the lightbulbs went off and I had a brilliant idea!  All those useless signs has to come in handy, right?  And they do!!

Because the green of my signs is so dark I had to cut up another useless sheet to cover the green and over that I put the squared sheet.

I took three signs (corrugated plastic) taped the edges together, then covered it with tan flannel, and then over that, the checkered cotton sheet.  Voila, homemade blocking board.  And with the 5 bazillion signs I have left I can possibly make a whole buttload of blocking boards.  Yay me!

Emily’s Dress

She loves it which makes me extremely happy.  I am not sure about the strapless aspect, she keeps pulling on it and distorting the top, so I may redo it and just add straps.  Knit with Buckingham from Bristol Gallery, this was an extremely fast knit.  I am super pleased by the outcome!

Pink Floyd Redux

My model is at school and I’m forced to use other methods of taking progress pictures.  Who had the great idea that eight year olds need school?  Didn’t those people forsee my need to have her at home to model my progress (she don’t need no education.)  Emily’s Take 2 shirt has now become an Emily Dress because for some reason when she asked me what I was making her and I said “shirt” she took that to mean “dress.”  Silly child.  At first I was worried I wouldn’t have enough yarn to make her a dress but thankfully she’s small and thin (probably because we don’t ever feed her) AND she is creative enough to have chosen a contrasting color for the trim.  Speaking of Emily, we are extremely excited because she is going to Montessori next year!  She spent an entire day at her new school last week, just to try it out and completely fell in love with her “new best friends” and her teacher.  We just adore the program and we really feel she will get more out of a private education than she could ever receive at public school.  My son on the other hand said “I am NOT going to private school.”  This is the same son who asked that we not move from TX until after 5th grade because their big field trip at the end of the year is to Schlitterbahn.  I know where that kid’s priorities lie.

Take 2

After having shrunk Emily’s shirt I decided to start a new one for her. We picked a tulip eyelet pattern and agreed on blue and green. After several false starts it seems that I am well on my way to creating my second original design. Too bad I don’t know how to write patterns. 😐

Oh and someone is celebrating a birthday tomorrow. The big …. Let’s face it, my husband is old. 😛 Happy Birthday Bill!

Rude Awakening

Damn it!

Nothing like being woken up by a scorpion bite at 5:30 in the morning.  In my pain and half sleeping state I grabbed it and flung it across the room but not before that little f*&&%##& bit my finger.  So now my right hand feels swollen and my whole side, abdomen area feels achy.

I screamed which freaked my husband out and then started hyperventilating and had to lie down on the floor and calm down.

I can think of more pleasant ways to be woken up.

Boob Job

I guess bras really do serve a purpose.  I love that this dress covers a bra because it definitely looks better with one.

My very own

An Elizabeth original.  Knit with about 8 balls of Rowan Calmer and knit on size #6 us needles.

I think the top could be redone to fit my smaller bust, but on my body form, it looks fantastic!  It was originally going to be a halter top but I decided that straps looked more elegant.  Overall I think it turned out fantastic, especially considering it’s my first ever design!

What do you call the people who don’t win?

Whoever still reads my blog has probably noticed the scarcity in which I’ve posted the last several months. I do have a very good reason for that. I ran for public office and I lost. In the very wise words of my son “Mom even if you lose the election you’ll still be a winner because you’ve got us!” Love that kid!!

Several observations about running for public office.

1. Campaigning sucks.

2. Losing sucks more than campaigning.

3. For a school board election, it got extremely political.

For some reason everyone decided to run for school board this year. In my place there were three of us. The other woman (who won) works for the Republican County Commissioner, so you can probably imagine the support she had. The guy who ran and I had a split Democratic party working for us. I lost by 131 votes but considering the competition I was up against and living in a Republican community, it could have been worse. In the meantime this has given me an amazing support base if I run again but even if I don’t I have gotten to know so many more people in my community than I would have otherwise. There are some amazing people in my town and I have a huge group of friends who were extremely supportive which I feel blessed for having.

So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last three months. I have been knitting though, a dress of my own design that is almost complete! YAY! Pictures soon. 🙂