What A Relief!

I finally found a place to live!

It's been a pretty stressful three weeks since I was denied my first apartment application simply because I lacked gainful employment. Forget the fact that I've been saving my pennies for two years so that, if necessary, I could afford to make the transition to self-sustained living sans-job and not go bankrupt. Forget the fact that I will technically be a graduate student and they told me that that type of person was  the exception to their minimum-income requirement rule.

With just 1.5 months to go before I started classes, and no apartment leads what-so-ever, I was starting to envision the possibility of commuting for my two classes... six hours of driving two nights a week. Awesome.

I think I almost had an aneurysm. Or a panic attack. Or both.

But my miracle occurred in the form of a super nice couple who had to break their lease three months early and wanted me to have it. And a management who didn't mind that I was (and still am unfortunately) sans-job. And my amazingly patient and wonderful mother, who found the apartment and called on a whim, even though it didn't list any availability.

I really like the apartment. It's super small — one bedroom, one living/dining room, one kitchen, and one bathroom all squeezed in 600 sq feet — but it's cute and cozy and I can have a cat for free, which is highly tempting. It also includes all utilities except electric, but the stove and heat are gas, so that shouldn't be too bad.

I'm pretty excited.

Birthday Bouquets

This morning when I got into work I was greeted
by a beautiful birthday bouquet from my boss.

It's so pretty!

Yay For Birthdays!

Make that "Smile, I was born!"

T- 43 minutes until I've been alive for almost a quarter century for a whole day.

Crazy.

I feel old.

Baby Steps

This weekend my parents and I are going APARTMENT HUNTING!

Yes, folks. That's right. Apartment hunting. 

I'm terrified, yet incredibly excited.

In the meantime, I'm working on something that I really do enjoy... accessorizing my non-existant-but-hopefully-soon-to-be-attained place of residence.

I have a bunch of stuff left over from senior year of college when I helped furnish/fill-up 1/4th of an apartment, like plates, picture frames, carpets, pots and pans, and furniture, and now I'm filling in the gaps. 

Check it out!

My super pretty glasses! I picked up this super cute 12-piece set of Circlewear glasses at TJMaxx for $6 on clearance. 

My parents gave me this set of silverware for an early birthday present. 

I feel very lame saying that.

Thanks to my super amazing Grammy, I'm now the proud owner of a Revere double boiler. A must have for my vegetable eating habits. 

I picked this baby up at the Bookfair. I don't have a toaster oven yet, but plan on purchasing one eventually. It has a really yummy sounding recipe for caesar chicken tenders that I can't wait to try out!

 I bought these plates for my apartment in college, but only have the dinner plate size, so I'm thinking of getting the plates below in lunch size so that I can mix and match.

Mobile Me!

I was exploring the wide world of phone apps today and guess what I discovered?

A mobile blogger app!

So I'm writing my very first mobile blog post now. I only wish I had something intellegent to say...

Harry. Flipping. Potter.

Beyond excited.

Give Peace A Chance.

Back about two months ago (although it honestly feels like it was about two years ago) you may remember that I gave a speech about Knits by Meliss at a convention. Cool, but not exactly the point.

Well, after I was done talking about myself, one of the participants approached me and asked if I could make her a peace sign hat. I agreed. I thought it would be kind of fun. And besides, how hard would it be to make a peace sign hat?

Very.

But this afternoon I think I've finally conquered peace — or at least the sign part!

It took three tries and a whole lot of patience...

For my first try, I couldn't find a pattern to make a peace sign that I liked, so I decided to knit a plain hat in the round and then make a peace sign applique to attach to the outside... It seemed like a great idea at the time, but unfortunately failed miserably....

The applique looks OK from the front, but when viewed from the side it looks pretty silly. Unfortunately, even if it hadn't popped out so much, I would have had to redo the peace sign part because I sewed it on too high on the hat, so it sits awkwardly high up on the forehead. Whoops!

Next time I try this technique, I'll use thinner yarn so that the effect isn't quite so 3D...

For my second try, I looked up peace sign cross-stitch patterns and found one that I could alter to work for the hat. This version totally would have worked but I miscalculated how many stitches to cast on and accidentally made the hat 4.5 inches wider than I meant too... I was going to try make it work, but when I started knitting in the pattern, it went all wonky, then I dropped a stitch, and things got awkward when I tried to fix it... so I decided to start over. Again.

Third time's a charm! This time I think I made it a good width (slightly larger than I would normally have made an adult hat, per her request) and I managed to knit in the pattern without doing anything strange or dropping any stitches.

I'm pretty sure it's a miracle!