Received from my first real swap.

I got my bag from my first real Craftster swap the other day. OMG it rawks.
I love the material! Among the loot are some amazing stitch markers, cat themed patches, a couple of journals and some yarn. Was so happy to get the package. Everything was so awesome.

Last night I made some earrings too. First earrings I've ever made really. Finaly busted up one of the old keyboards I got at the thrift store for $1. They're just keys with some random beads. I didn't have any resistors so I couldn't use them, and the keyboard's resistors didn't have long enough tails to make them worthwhile harvesting. Still, I'm happy with the result. I've been making stitchmarkers like a mad hatter (or mad stitchmarker-er?) but I'm too tired to take photos right now.

OMG CATS!!!!!!!!!

@#$&@#$#@!!!!! When I came home today, the mason jar with the potho cutting was tipped over, and the cutting was all wilty with a dried-looking root! I put it back in water in a safer place. Evelyn, I've got my eye of sauron on you.

OMG Plants!

Check it y'all, I've been busy! I'll try to keep the photos down, so you'll just have to promise to go to my Flickr account to see them all!

The little mason jar is my potho cutting. The large leaf is a little mangled thanks to Evie, but the cutting seems to be putting out a nice root, and has already developed another leaf. Haven't decided if I'm going to try to pot it, or just let it be a jar plant.

This is my "cutting" table. The two large coleus were new plants, but the other little things are my cuttings and seeds. I have a baby spider plant in the back there, two dilapidated coleus staked up with toothpicks, some strawberry seeds in the pot o' dirt, and an avacado pit that's sprouting any day now.

And lastly, my prideful plant shelf. It's my main shelf and the only spot in the house that gets any decent amount of sun. I got me purty spidey plant, two geraniums (top and bottom shelf), my herb garden, my ficus, and the random pots on the top shelf are cat grass (not sprouted yet) and garlic!

"Not So Crazy But Very Rambling" Ramblings

It's practically a parade of packages persistently present on my porch. So far I've received 3 packages, all containing the textbooks I ordered online for cheap( yay!). My mom told me she mailed me a box of pants... yes, pants. There is a reason, but I just don't want to get into it right now. Ya know? Anyway, so I'm expecting that. My boyfriend also ordered a new computer, so we should be getting his box soon, as well as a box from my best friend for my birthday. Can't wait to see what she sent. Love you, Liz. Other than that, I ordered a new camera off of Newegg. I really shouldn't have spent the money, but the big honker of a camera I have now is just too much to carry around. And I want to be all stealthy with my photo abilities, and spring out the camera at a moments notice to capture all the exciting things happening in my life. No for real, my life is exciting! I swear! Shut urp!

In other news, yesterday was Plant Tuesday at Chez Mary, and today is Clean-My-Messy-Ass-House Wednesday. See, told you my life was exciting. Well, at least about the plant part. I bought some new herbs to make a potted herb garden in my kitchen. I got basil, rosemary, and sage. I'm also placing my bamboo in the middle in hopes that the aromatics will deter Evelyn from eating the damn stuff. Two new coleus plants joined the family, as well as a hot pink geranium and a ficus. I have no fucking clue why I bought a ficus, but it was small and pretty and I had some sense of "every house needs a tree." Now I have to find out how to take care of a ficus because, honestly, I have no friggin clue.

And lastly, I saw this today and I friggin love it.

Knitting, Australopithecines, and Darth Vader

What part about "I need to just sit down and finish one... just one... of my poor forgotten projects" did I not understand? I got into a knitting frenzy this last weekend, and now I have more unfinished projects!!!! I was working on a scarf for a friend of mine... just stash busting really. See, awhile ago I got over-ambitious and thought "Hey, what would be fun to knit? I know! A stockinette stitch black sweater!" And that is how I ended up with about 10 skeins of black boring Caron Simply Soft. Well, I guess it's better than having 10 skeins of red heart. At least this stuff is actually soft. Anyway I also knitted one of Knucks. So even though that one glove is done, it doesn't have a mate and therefore sits, as Kim puts it, in the Knitting Basket of Shame.

In other musings, I was up till 4am last night talking with my boyfriend about various things. The first was a 30 minute lecture on Australopithecus afarensis. I know, its sad that I know the latin name. But oh well. We got to talking about Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles (which he's read) and the theory that Jesus was a vampire. Amusing. As if that weren't enough, I started blabbing about medieval history, and how I enjoy that era the most. And then there was the discussion of Constantine and the Roman Empire. Oh yes, we talked about many things.

Our evening ended on a more contemporary note. We were discussing what it is that makes Darth Vader so awesome. His view is that Vader is a very Git'R'Done type of leader. I argued that it is Vader's incredible stillness that makes him great. I mean think about it. The Emperor is essentially a chatty cathy doll, who is always yapping and yammering about something. Vader is stealty and silent. Much more imposing in my opinion.

Works in Progress

That amuses me. Works in Progress. In my house, they're called Works making no Progress. I currently have two pairs of socks, a tank top (which I started a loooooong time ago), two scarves (one started over a year ago), a dish cloth, a hat, and Kate sitting around all sad because they are not being worked on. For some reason I've developed real knitting ADD lately. It's normal for me to have a battleground of unfinished projects strewn helplessly around my house. But this is rediculous. And I keep planning the next shawl, or hat, or something that I'm going to make. I need to just sit down and finish one... just one... of my poor forgotten projects. If for no other reason than I need the damn needles and I don't want to buy a duplicate set. I know, I know, I could thread a lifeline through the work and just take the needles... but then I know I'd never finish the project because it would require reinsertion of said needles. And let's face it, I'm too damned lazy to do that.

On the upside, I finally finished the bag I was making for the Caftster Fill A Purse Swap. I also got it sent out a few days early. This is unheard of. I still have a package sitting around for my friend's Christmas present. That's Christmas as in Christmas '05. In fairness to me, I sent the thing out in Feb. and it came back to me in late May for some unknown reason. But still, now you understand the proudness of getting something mailed out early!

Back to knitting, I have decided my next project will be a Kitty Pi. Lord knows my cats are spoiled brats (HA! that rhymed!), but I don't make them wear hats, and I call Mia "fats." And ok I'll stop with the bad cat poetry now. The cats really do need a new kitty bed though. My hope is they'll love it, sleep in it, and in doing so deposit all their hair instead of depositing their shed all over my couch. I'll keep you posted on the results.

Sorry, no photos today. Like I said, I'm lazy.

I don't know why....

... but this made me happy today.

SQUEEEEEE!