This weekend I put up the door and drilled on the handles to the kitchen cabinets, it looks great! I bought a drill press and did a comendable precision job.

Today Janell and I drove down to Tacoma to check out the vendor fair at the Madrona Fiber Festival. I got some beautiful Socks that Rock lightweight yarn. I am looking forward to getting some time to write up another sock pattern, maybe even a sweater pattern!

Last night I started the Center Square hat from knitty. It's turning out really nice and has a cozy loose fit which may help me not get "hat head." It's such a quick knit, I am tempted to finish it tonight, but I should save it for knitting with my group on Wednesday.

Just now I bagged 6 yard waste bags + our yard waste bin. Finally the bits and pieces under the cedar tree are cleaned up! I said Hi to a neighbor right across from us, but got no response, not even a smile. Maybe he thought I was a yard worker?

The kitchen has full power now - I think we are going to take-and-bake a pizza tonight in the new oven.

I was browsing links from blogs and found these art prints. Anyone looking for gift ideas for me??? This is a hint.

This photo may look like normal kitchen remodeling work - but did you notice the car jacks? Yes, this is a pretty crazy project we have going! Jesper is really brilliant. All the cabinets are flush at the top and we JUST got the refrigerator to fit in. A close fit for sure.

Ya--we're still chugging away at the kitchen. We were supposed to seal the walls with primer last night, but some of the wall joint compound was not dry yet, so tonight after we go to a party where I will be a minority among Swedes, we will prime the walls. This weekend will be VERY exciting. We will move the IKEA cabinets I've been building in! It's going to be so rewarding filling up our kitchen. We are on a deadline here to have them in place for the countertops to be measured Monday.

I've only been able to knit a little this week, when I went to my knitting group. I really need to get a mindless project going, I can't work very efficiently on color-knitting when it's such a social setting. I had to check my work 6 times before moving on. I'm kicking myself for making my color choices the opposite of the chart. Black dots = white and White squares = red. NOT INTUITIVE!

I'm thinking of doing this hat from Knitty next. I was turned off by the colors, but after seeing it knit in a different set of colors, I'm more interested. I think I'll be able to get at my Cascade 220 stash on this one too.

Also! I got my first laptop last night. I've actually never even bought a computer before, they've all been hand-me-downs. I was able to sneak on a weak wireless signal last night and do the Windows update, but otherwise, an empty PC is pretty boring. I just need to track down our external hard drive and get a wireless router.

Thanks for the compliments on my tiles! We are going to put down the grout Monday I think. Then we can't walk on them. We'll have to go out on the deck, down the yard stairs and into the basement door to get downstairs for a day or two.

We worked hard on the house this weekend and got the drywall up and the plumbing renewed. I dry-set the slate tiles for the entryway and tonight we set half of them, it's in a hard place to step around in front of the door, but they are looking so beautiful! My hands are starting to feel like sandpaper. Maybe I'll get a parafin wax manicure when this is all over with.

I'll be 30 in 1 month, and 4 days. I've been looking forward to 30 for quite a while. It's time to get old and wise!


I'm about halfway up the mitten I'm working on, and amazingly, I haven't made any errors. It must be all the years of following X-stitch charts that keeps me triple checking my work against the graph.

I am SOOOOO thankful I had chains for my commute tonight! I was stuck in the middle of the steep road in a pile up on a hill and I'd still be there if I didn't have chains. I have a 4WD, but tires still slide down icy hills when someone stops ahead!

This weekend I went snowshoeing for the first time since High School. It was a much better experience, MSR makes a fantastic line of snowshoes and it's as comfotable as taking a stroll on the beach. We hiked around at a Snoqualmie Pass snow-park. The ski lifts were not operating, the power seemed to be out. It had snowed almost a foot the night before and the powder was wonderful. I love the trees, how they look like they were iced with frosting.

I've started the Anemoi Mittens.
The instructions call for a very small needle to start with and I was afraid the cuff wouldn't go over my hand without a fight, so I am using size 1.5 dpns and I am just starting row 5 of the charted pattern. Progress will be faster now I think.

Grandma has modeled her new sweater, but her face was removed for her privacy. I think it looks great on her!

Yesterday we finished the wood floor in the hallway. It looks so nice! We need to finish the walls in the two bedrooms before the floor can move back further. But since I've painted my craft room, that could be next for the wood floor.

I'm looking forward to the chance of snow in the city on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning. It makes the day more of an adventure. Since I don't have a long commute, there is no fear of traffic jams for me.

Here are the rest of my favorite photos from our engagement shoot with Dad.

Last weekend we went on our annual New Year's sailing trip. We had good weather and wind and generally stayed quite warm and cozy.

Before we left, I finished grandma's sweater! Hopefully I can post a photo soon. Since I was so project focused, I didn't have mindless project on back-up, so I got back to reading my Travel Essays book. I'm behind a year.


The electrical is making progress, the kitchen is rewired and the ceiling cans are in. It was frustrating on Tuesday, becasue they came and left while we were sleeping and we hadn't heard the doorbell, since we sleep in the basement. But, luckily they were back the next day; we opened the door and listened intently instead of slept in.

I painted my future craft room a blue-grey and had purchased crown molding.