I'm on Vay-cay-shun!!!

Oh, this is sweet, an entire month away from the job. I've been off since last Friday. We drove to Toronto on Saturday and are staying here till probably next Sunday. We are wearing ourselves out already, my feet are killing me! We are staying at the house of two of Chris' sisters in the Beaches area, it's nice here. The house is lovely, the tiny backyard is pretty, and there's a Siamese cat living here that is tiny, but the loudest cat I have ever met. Very demanding, she wants what she wants when she wants it.
When we got in Saturday night, we went out in search of a restaurant that served pasta. Can't remember the name of the place, but the spaghetti was good. Yesterday we went to Kensington Market and wandered about. Went to Lettuce Knit, and a store called Blue Banana where I bought a painting that tickled my fancy. Also started buying some Canadian treats for round two of the Puck This hockey swap. I enjoyed the first one so much, I gotta do round two! We also went book shopping at The World's Biggest Bookstore. I have a nice pile of reading material now.

My heart is breaking

It's too difficult to talk right now. Eleven players gone thus far, including our brave captain. Not to mention the player that got me started down the road I'm on, Alex Kovalev. It's a whole different team and it's going to take me a long while to adjust to what Gainey did.

10 Things: June 19th

1. Update Etsy shop.
2. Update finances from etsy sales and send checks to the Kid's Foundation and Kovy & Friends foundation.
3. Start getting vacation knitting planned and organized (squee! 4 weeks off!)
4. Dye yarn for Just Enough Ruffles scarf.
5. Make a pattern for a Puck This! dishcloth.
6. See about replacing band on sewing machine.
7. Shorten bedroom curtains.
8. Start planning the Seriously Cool Ovechkin Sweater of Awesomeness.
9. Inventory essential oil stash and start replenishing what I'm missing.
10. Organize craft chest.

Since last week, I got my craft closet organized, and got knitting patterns put together for my mum. I got the bedroom curtains cut and pinned, just have to do the sewing. Let's see if I can knock another couple of things off this list by next weekend.
Meanwhile, I'm keeping busy with the off-season hockey swap with the Puck This! group. Stuff to make for my spoilee, and a couple things I'm selling to other members. I went shopping today for fabric for a project bag, I'm going to attempt to sew one. I found a good tutorial online to try out. Meanwhile I'm working on some stitch markers and waiting for undyed yarn to come in the mail.

Some random bits & pieces

Went shopping this morning for things I need, but haven't gotten around to buying, exciting things like a fitted sheet, an umbrella, and socks for work. Boring shopping, but necessary. Also bought a bunch of cotton yarn for dishcloths, wash cloths. I want to get a start on some gifties for Christmas and a hockey-themed dishcloth for the upcoming Hockey Swap with the Puck This! group over on Ravelry. Couldn't find all the colours I wanted, but this is a start.
I've also been digging through my pile of recipe clippings and found a couple I haven't tried yet. One is for a linguine dish with feta cheese, basil and lemon. That'll be great for supper tonight with some salad and a baguette. I'm also going to make a pasta salad with feta and chick peas that I can bring to work for my lunches this week. And for dessert I have a bunch of rhubarb I picked from the garden. I'll be mixing some of that with some strawberries and making a crisp.
Last but not least, I've been working on my Friday list and have gotten my craft cupboard organized. I still have stuff squirreled away here and there that will have to go in there, but the cupboard itself is tidy and organized.

The Fabu Saku Socku

One socku down, one to go. This is my TricotLores yarn in the Capitaine Koivu colourway. The base yarn is a bamboo/merino blend that dyes up quite nicely. The pattern is the Goldengrove pattern from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn, an absolutely fabulous book that I just know I'm going to be using a lot.

Meanwhile I got a start on my list of 10 things. I cut the bedroom curtains, pinned the hem and hung them up to see if I got it right before sewing them, and of course one is shorter than the other. Sigh. I'm leaving them hanging and will adjust them when I get the time.

10 Things

10 Things I Need To Get Accomplished In The Not-Too-Distant Future:

1. Update Etsy shop.
2. Update finances from etsy sales and send checks to the Kid's Foundation and Kovy & Friends foundation.
3. Start getting vacation knitting planned and organized (squee! 4 weeks off!)
4. Dye yarn for Just Enough Ruffles scarf.
5. Pull out patterns mom wants to borrow and make a copy of salmon salad recipe.
6. See about replacing band on sewing machine.
7. Shorten bedroom curtains.
8. Start planning the Seriously Cool Ovechkin Sweater of Awesomeness.
9. Inventory essential oil stash and start replenishing what I'm missing.
10. Organize craft closet.

I should make this a regular Friday thing. A list of 10 things I want to get done. Every Friday I'll review the list, get rid of what's done and add things so there's always 10 things on the list. I don't expect, by any stretch of the imagination, to get all ten things done within a week. This is just a way to push me towards actually getting these things done, things I want to accomplish but always seem to put off till later. Let's hope this experiment works!

Agh

My Habs hockey sweater has been placed in suspended animation. I am the back of the neck. After knitting the shoulder saddles, you have to knit a shallow saddle at the back of the neck and for some reason I have been unable to knit it. The first time it was all loosey goosey and I had holey gaps which were most unattractive. So tinked back and started reknitting, only to discover that I was actually knitting a shoulder section. Sigh. I am well and truly sick of knitting this. My original plan was to have it finished by the end of the playoffs, but honestly, it's June. Who cares if I finish it in time for the summer? I've been here before, I get stuck on a project and become unable to finish it. I just have to put it aside for a while and when I pull it out at some future date, I'll be able to finish it. Really.
Meanwhile, I did three more batches of soap last weekend. Two batches are cut and curing on the rack, the third batch will be coming out of the mold this evening. I'll get pictures taken and posted as soon as I can. I'm tired from work, the days are so long there. I so need to get my butt moving on looking into going back to school. being in a dead-end job is draining.