Whew! This is SUCH a busy week for me! Late Monday night I picked up Vance at the airport (think 1am) then Tuesday we got the truck and continued packing the apartment and my dad and his friend came in. Wednesday we completely loaded the truck except for some cleaning supplies, blankets and pillows. Thursday morning we finished loading the truck, loaded my car with electronics, checked ut of the apartment, and drove 10 hours. Now I'm at Vance's parents house and in a few hours we will be signing our lease, picking up the keys, and unpacked...whew! I'm a bit worried cause it's drizzling...hopefully it won't be raining by where we're at. It's a bit of a haul from the car to the door (and we're on the second floor) so this is gonna be a day of hard work. At 5 I have to take Vance to work though (since his car is still there) and then try to find my way back to our place on my own...eeks! I don't know when this pagfe will go down...but I think I am going to move to Vance's domain which is http://www.loadingscreen.com ...more soon (hopefully, once the internet is up at the new place)

Whew! So tired all the time! My thesis is finally done and formatted and the thesis office approved the format and all so now all I have to do is get my date set up and come back to defend it. Sheesh! Oh yeah and some more paperwork (unending paperwork). I've been packing my little brain out but I can only do that so much at a time because of my allergies (so much dust hiding) and my back (which isn't as bad now that I take my vitamins, but still isn't great).

Anyways, I manager to finish sewing up and crocheting the border on this afghan:



One more X-mas pressie down! And I finished all I had planned to do before I leave (even if one of them is RUINED! sob!) So inbetween bouts of packing I've started a new pair of socks in a "lumberjack" pattern and am up to the heel turn, my fave part! Maybe I will get a pic of those in before I leave, if I don't pack up my camera, hehe.

Oh! I forgot to moan about the travesty that occurred last night. I was all geared up for King of the Jungle 2. This is an animal planet 'reality show'. Last season, it was hosted by Jeff Corwin and each week they had an interaction with some animal that was filmed and they had to present it on film, then the 2 casting people cut whoever did worst. And the winner got to host their own special on Animal Planet. THIS SEASON they have some no-name funky looking chica hosting it and there the whole point of it (to interact with animals and do camera tests and such) is gone and it's more like Big Brother (UGH) with occasional animals. I'm not kidding! They have some pithy competition where someone wins and gets to be temporary king of the jungle. Then that person nominates 2 people to go head to head and one person leaves. It's so horrible, I can't believe they sold out like this...bleh. If I'd have wanted to spend my night watching something trashy, I could have found something trashy that was actually entertaining.

I haven't posted much lately, and what I have posted hasn't been interesting, because I have been exceedingly busy. I haven't gotten as much packed as I should have, but I am almost done with my thesis, so that's good. I got my committee together and just need 1 more sig on my paperwork and a scheduled date. Then all I have to do is make a presentation and defend this baby! Whew!

I did work up this little baby blanket a week or so ago. It's done in Jamie yarn with the sparkles and the picture does not do it justice. It's very sparkly and delicate.



That's all for now!

So I finished the scrapghan I was making this morning finally (I didn't much enjoy making it) threw it in the wash (it was acrylic and need to be softened up) and pulled it out to find it had unravelled in many many places! UGHHHHHH I attribute this to the fact that each yo yo is so small that there was hardly any room to weave in ends. I'm so upset about it. I started fixing it then threw it in a bag in disgust and I am definitely not going to keep it. I will either donate it (let someone else worry about fixing it) or just throw it out. That's one less Christmas present I have finished :/

On another frustrating note, I called Charter back last night and said I would transfer my services and they went for 15 mins punching things in before they told me I couldn't transfer from one state to another. WELL WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ME THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Oh, well if they did, they wouldn't be able to call themselves completely incompetent, I guess. This is the only cable company we can get and I am frustrated enough with them to consider going without cable teevee and internet.

I think I need a nap...

I've been very busy so still no crafting news to report. It's all good with me though. OK I was going to insert a picture of the apartment here but stupid blogger can't leave well enough alone and now it's rejecting all html. Figures.

So far we have the truck reserved, I've called the gas, electric and phone companies to turn off services, and I've got about 15 boxes which I will pack up this weekend before I go back for more. Unfortunately about 6 of the boxes are banana boxes so they don't have full tops or bottoms and some have banana goo in them, but I've gotta be able to do something with em. I called Charter about disconnecting my cable services but they can't do it til the 31st (figures, I hate this company) so I would have to drop their crap off at them, so I may just take it with me and transfer services instead. And Vance told me today that his parents said we could have one of their couches (they are moving from a large house into a smaller house so there's not as much room). I'm getting excited about the move, although allt he packing still lies before me. I hope someone out there is knitting so I can craft vicariously through them :)

I'm back from my little trip! The flights weren't too bad...I had first class on 3/4 of them (the last one was an express flight so there were no first class sears). On both flights there (Atlanta-Denver and Denver-St Louis) I curled up under a blanket with my pillow comfortably nestled behind my back, headphones on to listen to flight music, and knitted away while occasionally glancing out the window to gaze at the clouds passing by. It was a very relaxing way to spend a Saturday morning. I finished the scarf on the second flight there, yay.

During the trip we looked at several apartments, and finally settled on one at Remington in St. Charles. If you care to click through, we will be living in The Dover style floorplan. And I was accepted today too, so we are definitely moving in on July 30! The building we are in is on the corner of the property and we have a corner apartment (only one person next to us, one person behind us, and one below us) with a woodburning fireplace. It seemed nice and quiet when we walked by that building. And I FINALLY get a garbage disposal, whee! The apt already has a washer and dryer, so I will have to try and sell mine, I guess. It has a nice sized storage closet off the patio too. Also the apartment complex is located only 15 mins from the airport, and less than a mile from Joann's, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby. And super close to the movie theatre (where I've been informed that I will never have to pay for a movie again due to the fact that Vance's friend runs the projection booth there).

In related news, this apartment complex uses Charter for cable, which means that after a short break my site will probably be back up in the same place. Now I've just got to get a moving truck reserved, obtain boxes and pack, finish up some final things on writing and scheduling the defense of my thesis, and call all my utilities to schedule them to be shut off. The list has an end in sight (maybe).

Getting ready to head to St. Louis tomorrow in order to go apartment hunting. We basically know what we want, as long as they have it available. When I get back I'll have about 2 weeks to pack and finish everything up at school. I'm a little worried that I haven't been working on my thesis more lately, but I am basically done with the writing and am just having lots of formatting problems that I need to ask my advisor about, which I can't do until he gets back. I also need his opinion on the text and such, which I won't get until he gets back. Oh well. Feeling a little stressed but also excited to be ending one chapter of my life and starting another. Hopefully everything will work out fine. I don't have a job yet in St. Louis but I have enough to live on for awhile in savings and I have a backup plan in case I can't find anything too quick.

Since I am moving I will be shutting off my services, including internet (which is where this site is hosted). Not sure if it will close right away or take awhile. If it's still up I will put a link to my new site (once I get one set up). If not then drop me a note at tifffany@gmail.com (tifffany at gmail dot com) to ask for my new addy once I get it set up.

Wish me luck for these next couple of months! Hopefully I will find a place that will be decent for a year, find a good job after that, and Vance and I will be ready and willing to buy a house once our lease is up. If everything goes right...

Wowee woulda look at all my WIP's. I haven't had that many in awhile. I have an excuse tho (kinda). The scrapghan needs more scrap yarn so it's on hold; the crocheted homespun afghan needs more yarn so it's on hold whlie I wait for that to arrive, the scarf needs to be done before I move so I've been working on that, and Pooh needs to be done in mid-August so I did as much as I could without stuffing anything (ears, muzzle, arms, legs, shirt) so then after I move I just need to work to body and get it all put together. I found some plaques I'd painted last Christmas and forgot to gift...so the two that were done I am sealing and the other one just needed the edges painted so I did that and I have to seal it. Then I'll just put a hanging bracket on the back and voila, more presents finished. I have a bunch of mini plaques I had planned to do a similar thing to, so I may work that up quickly this weekend.

Also here are some more cards.



The ones on the left are supposed to be pajamas, hence the bear. Not loving how they turned out as much as the other clothing ones. Then in the middle we have a couple random cards made out of some clay thingies I had made (the fish and the lips) when I first got my clay. I found these and had no purpose for them so cards they became. And last just some cards with fake flowers, the last of the bunch. I took these pics a bit too early so the sun was coming in funky on them, there are no actual stripes, hehe.

Well I went yesterday and got my car fixed. It took for-freaking-ever cause they didn't have the part and had to wait to get it...so I was there about 4 hours but now my driver's side window goes up and down, wheeeeee. I knit at the car dealership for about an hour and a half, but it was so hot that the yarn was all sticking to me plus the knitting was agitating the crick in my neck so I had to stop.

A few quicky FO's. I'm trying to get as many "larger" projects done before I move cause then I can send them back to Ohio with my dad instead of carting them to Missouri with me then taking them or mailing them back to Ohio. First, the photo album for my cousin's 17th birthday. I'm hoping she will use this to collect all her photos and take along to college with her:



I bought the album, posterboard, and the wooden letters for this (total price of those subtracting out extra stuff is about $3.69) and I had everything else already stashed (fabric bought at $1/yard, pearls left over from Mom's sigma tank, other ribbon and a button I got for almost no money, batting left over from quilting projects). It looks much better than in the picture, the sequins are almost mirrorlike when you look into them.

I loved that fabric so much that it inspired another idea. Here are my newest card creations, which I call Hey Good Lookin' (pink) and Whatcha Got Cookin' (blue). I love the pink ones but I think the blue ones will be more practical (think accompanying baked goods)



I wish my camera didn't take such crappy pics. Vance is getting a new digital camera for his birthday I think so hopefully I can use that in the future. And I think I am inheriting his lesser computer as well, wheeeee.

Definitely time for an update, and a fun one too. Since it's a holiday I had fun today. First some pics of some recently finished projects. First off, a lousy pic of my wine charms, all packaged and ready to gift out. The pics are always blurry for these cause of how much the beads reflect the light. I used Japanese "E" beads for the grapes and some Czech beads for the leaves which I had to order. Here they are, displayed on some of my handmade paper and sporting a fruity sticker (I couldn't find sheets of wine stickers)



Since I had some stickers left over from this, I made a card set around them. And it ends up I really really like this set. Here it is


And I also finished up some of these chocolate themed cards, which I had started quite awhile ago. Here those are



Now for the fun time I had today. I woke up this morning and called around to car dealerships to see when I could get my car serviced, but it seems everyone here has to take everyday around a holiday off, so they won't be open til Tuesday. So off I headed to Kennesaw with 40% off coupons to both Michael's and Joann's. I didn't really need anything at Michael's and was only going for the coupon and because there is a better Michael's up in Kennesaw. At Joann's I had a short list of things I planned to get. Oh, but how easily plans are thwarted. That's what happens when clearance prices jump at me from all angles. The asterisk (*) denotes items that were actually on my list. Here is my haul.

Michael's:

Pasta Machine for Polymer Clay* (with my coupon!)
4 skeins Bernat Coordinates in Peach
1 skein Bernat Coordinates in Aqua Lime
2 skeins TLC in linen*
2 skeins Jamie in Lavender
2 skeins Jamie in White
2 skeins Jamie in Aqua
1 skein Red Heart Hokey Pokey in Tangerine
1 skein Red Heart Hokey Pokey in Spearmint
4 skeins Caron Dazzleaire in Sky Blue

Total Cost: ~$35

Joann's:

1 piece white poster board*
2 pack of photo albums with slide in sheets*
6 packs of wooden letters*
1 skein Homespun in Arcadian*
2 skeins Woolease T&Q in Wood
1 skein Woolease T&Q in plum

Total Cost: ~$20

Not bad, I think. All the things I bought that weren't on my list were clearanced quite a bit. How can I pass up Woolease T&Q at 2.80 a skein! (30% off the clearance prices at Joann's for the weekend! whee!) I did put back a piece of decorator fabric which would have made nice new shears for the bedroom after I move, I kinda regret that. It was only like $4 too, drats. Once I came home I did my project with the photo album (pics tomorrow if it's nice out), worked on the Homespun afghan, and started a scarf with the TLC which is intended to be a thank you present for my research advisor.

On a slightly sad note, I am almost through with the book I am reading (I will surely be done tonight) and I don't have the next one in the series yet. I thought I had time but I read too much the last couple of days, drats! I do have another book I can read while I wait for it to arrive tho, Saint Morrissey, whee! Interesting, I just read the blurb about The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life which I noticed while getting the link for the other book, and they called The Smiths glam-rock icons. Not a comment I would have made, for sure.

Today is my one year blogiversary! Wow!