So What Happened?

There is something very sobering for me about putting thoughts into words - as if by doing so they become reality. Recently, it's that reality that I've wanted to avoid. I'm not necessarily saying that my life has been bad- I'm thankful for the many things that I have - it just has been difficult for me. Let me break it down for you:

  1. The condo we were renting went into foreclosure

  2. CRAZY WORK STUFF

  3. Pick up Second Job at Loopy Yarns

  4. Find and move to new apartment apartment (not skeezy condo)

  5. Tom got laid off right before the holidays(but promptly found work a month later

  6. CRAZY WORK STUFF

  7. CRAZY SCHOOL STUFF

  8. My Grampa passed away (I really miss him)

  9. CRAZY WORK STUFF

  10. CRAZY WORK STUFF

  11. CRAZY SCHOOL STUFF

  12. CRAZY WORK and SCHOOL STUFF converge on the same weekend

  13. Graduation

  14. CRAZY WORK STUFF

  15. and lots of knitting interspersed in an effort to stay sane

    16. I think that's it, but it is very likely that I could be forgetting something. All of this combined with stress, depression and grief has not made the last year very easy. However, I've grown, I'm a stronger person because of it, and with help from my fantastic therapist, I've been able to get to a place that I've never been before - where I can focus on myself, my needs, and do the hard work it takes to become the woman I want to be. Previously I had this in the form of the GMSTB30 program, which slipped to the wayside amongst all of the other crap that was going on. The plan had been to lose a bunch of weight and get my shit together by the time I hit 30, when I would then go to Japan, climb mt fuji, and I dunno, revel in my awesomeness. It goes without saying that the plan has changed a little.

    The new plan, which will be entitled "GMST30B - Get My Shit Together, 30 and Beyond," will start at the summit of Mt. Fuji (where I'll still be reveling in my awesomeness) as the kickoff of a new phase of my life - one where I take good care of myself, recognize and fulfill my needs, communicate with others, and not get caught up in a bunch of stupid baggage that makes me feel like shit.

    08.17.09 8:47am(2 comments)

New Beginnings

As you can see, it's been quite some time since I've last blogged. This past year was really difficult for Tom and I and full of lots of really big stuff. Somehow we've managed to survive and in a week from tomorrow will be in Japan, a much deserved vacation and a celebration of my 30th birthday. In some sort of messed up right of passage - I've got it in my mind to climb mount fuji and see the sunrise from the summit on my birthday. Then the rest of the time we'll be checking out more of what Japan has to offer us. Tom will definitely be taking a lot of pictures and I plan to blog about it - and when we're not running around there will be lots of knitting.

I miss my blog and between travels, knitting projects, my plans for the future and my daily misadventures, I do have a lot to write about. So I think I'm going to do this again.

08.14.09 8:36am(4 comments)

And the winners are….

The winners are, in order:

Shannon - wiener piddly w/ L&V intention yarn: healing

Nell - black and white piddly w/ rosenrot

Sarah N - Gaslight Dyeworks yarn

Jennifer S - black and white piddly w/ indisch rot

Susan L - color piddly w/ wilder mohn

Lisa C - color piddly w/ Tausendschon

Marla G - L&V hope w/ piddlepouch

Carla H - SWTC Saphira

Sarah C - L&V courage w/ piddlepouch

Molly C - panopticon print

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated, gave, blogged, thought nice thoughts about, etc. in the Raffle! Winners, you'll be able to pick your prizes in order and I'll be contacting you all soon!

For the nerds:

This is how I did the raffle. I put each entry on one line in excel and assigned a randomly generated number from 0-1 to each entry. I then sorted by that number so that the names would be all mixed up. Then I numbered each entry from 1-358 and went to random.org to generate 10 numbers for me. Fortunately there was only 1 repeat, but it was my second to last number so I didn't think it mattered much. I went to random.org and got one more number and voila - we have winners!

09.19.08 5:24pm(3 comments)

AIDS Run / Walk Chicago 2008 Knitters Raffle

My husband and I are participating in AIDS Run / Walk Chicago 2008, a fundraiser (I’m walking, Tom is running) put on by the AIDS foundation of Chicago to raise AIDS awareness and funds for the HIV/AIDS project at the law firm where I work. As a matter of fact, 100% of the funds I raise will go to this project that provides free civil legal aid to those with HIV / AIDS.

On June 6, 2008, the world will mark the 27th anniversary since the discovery of the virus that came to be known as AIDS. Even though medical advancements have changed AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic disease, we are still without a vaccine or a cure. In fact, the HIV infection rate is rising among communities of color and among young gay males. In addition, there continues to be a dire need for education as well as a wide range of social service programs—many of which have recently suffered severe cutbacks because of decreased government funding.

Since it was established in 2001, AIDS Run & Walk Chicago has netted over $1.5 million to battle the epidemic. When you donate to AIDS Run & Walk Chicago, you help support the organizations whose work is so invaluable in the battle against HIV/AIDS.

I want to raise some money for the effort, but being who I am, a lemonade stand or a bake sale wasn't really my style. I'm not much of a schmoozer, so a cocktail party wasn't going to happen either. I'm not all that great at fundraising really, so I channeled my former management prof and decided to focus on my "core competancies." I'm raising money the best way I know how; I'm having a knitters raffle with a bunch of awesome prizes:

  • A signed print, Contentment, by Franklin of The Panopticon

  • Piddleloop piddly bags with numbers (representing the large numbers of people still affected by AIDS) with red handles,

  • a few wieners piddly bags with condoms,

  • a large and a small piddlepouch with sheep

  • Wollmeise yarn in red - Indischrot, Rosenrot and Wilder Mohn

  • Tausendschon Yarn from Germany, graciously donated by Mary Ann from NYC

  • Lime and Violet Intention yarn in Healing, Hope, and Courage

  • Gaslight Dyeworks yarn in 'black hole' and 'mars attacks'

  • SWTC Saphira yarn (that feels exactly like malabrigo and is 100% superwash)

  • Red ribbon buttons donated by the Moustache Factory

  • Each prize will also include an awareness ribbon sock pattern designed by me

Here are some pictures of the prizes:

Contentment by Franklin Habit signed print

Black and white piddly with wollmeise

Colors Piddly with Tusendschon

Piddly and Wollmeise

Colors piddly and wollmeise

Wrap your wiener!

Piddlepouch and L&V Intention: courage

Piddlepouch and L&V: Hope

Gaslight Dyeworks

SWTC Saphira - just like malabrigo and superwash!

    Raffle Details:

  • The raffle officially starts September 2, 2008 and ends Friday September 19, 2008 at 5pm.

  • A raffle entry will cost $5 each,

    • 6 entries for $25 - Bronze level donation

    • 13 entries for $50 - Silver level donation

    • 25 entries for $100 - Gold level donation

    • 75 entries for $250 - Platinum level donation

  • Each prize is as pictured.

  • Winners will be drawn promptly after the end of the raffle.

  • Winners will be drawn in order and will be able to pick their prize in order they were drawn.

  • The prizes will be shipped on Monday September 22, 2008.

Now I bet you're saying to yourself, "Self - HOLY CRAP! Those are some awesome prizes and I definitely want to donate to this worthy cause! How do I get in on this?"

Here's how to enter the raffle:

  • Go Here

  • Choose your level of donation or enter in a custom amount.

  • Fill out the form with payment information and click donate now

  • Forward your donation confirmation email to aidswalk at kristyland dot com -if you have a ravelry user ID, please send that too. I will respond with a confirmation email (just give me a day to process)

    • If you would like to donate via paypal, use the button below and then forward the email you get from paypal to aidswalk at kristyland dot com. This will go to my paypal account (that's the only way I could figure out how to set it up) and I'll transfer the funds manually.

    That's all there is to it! Tell your friends and Good luck to you all!

    09.02.08 5:10pm(12 comments)

As yarn is my savior

Things haven't been particularly easy for me this year, but I've done a pretty good job of making it through. Making it through with the help of yarn and knitting as a meditative, healing, and often distracting process has been my saving grace. I have been knitting. A lot. And spinning. And buying yarn. And playing on ravelry. It keeps my hands busy, takes the fidgets away, and lets me focus on other, more important things. Then, after awhile, I have something cool that I made. It doesn't get much better than that, really.

And Ravelry, oh ravelry, with your web 2.0 and your social networking and all of your jargony goodness. I could hardly help myself - it was like an entire new world and subculture of people just.like.me. opened their doors, welcomed me in, let me play with all their yarn, showed me all their patterns and projects, and then had a big huge party with an open bar, free music, and lots of people to chat with about something you love.

It's strange, I never really took to knitting as much as I have in the last few years. My Gramma taught me when I was young and re-taught me when I was in college. Moving to Chicago got me into some nice yarn stores and off of knitting with crappy acrylic yarn. Ravelry introduced me to a bunch of new techniques, patterns, and people. And now I'm all up in it, meeting / hanging out with / becoming friends with all kinds of new folks, knitting a bunch of new stuff, going to be teaching a class in october and loving every minute of it. I feel so lucky and fortunate to find myself where I am.

And the yarn. It's beautiful - especially the sock yarn, where each individual skein is like a 200 - 450 yrd work of art. So I hung up all my sock yarn on the wall. Why not, right? Now I just sit and think of all the possibilities. Which yarn will be next? Which pattern will I use? Will they be for me or someone else?

WALL OF YARN

Socks make the perfect portable little project and there really isn't anything like a handknit sock. If you're still on tube socks from the tar-jay, you're missin' out pal. For real. I even bought clear converse sneakers to show off my socks. Instant matchy outfit, or completely clashy if that's your schtick (and it is sometimes mine). I even have some yarn with sparkles in it. And I.fucking.love.sparkles.

I'm trying to get back into blogging regularly, so it only seemed fitting to me to talk about the thing that I've been spending so much time on lately. Stay tuned.

08.28.08 5:23pm(5 comments)

It’s mah birfday

It's my birthday and I'm turning 29 today. No seriously - it is for real my first and only 29th birthday. Happy birthday to me.

08.26.08 7:26am(2 comments)

Cleansing and maintenance

With the news that the condo that we're renting that has a foreclosure judgment against it is almost under contract by people who want to use it as an investment property and keep us as tenants, we have been finally able to unpack and settle into this place to make it more of a home than just a place to sleep. I never realized the impact of not having a 'home' until earlier this year and it was something that was causing me a great deal of stress. Well, that, being the unwitting victims of the foreclosure crisis and having boxes of crap everywhere. Long story short, we're finally unpacking crap and while I was in Phoenix visiting Gramma and Grampa, Tom unloaded our storage room. We have a lot of crap. A.Lot.of.Crap. And Tom and I are both feeling a little overwhelmed by it, so we've decided to do something about it.

Tom and I have been working really hard the last few weeks going through a bunch of stuff and creating donate and to sell piles in our bedroom which are both substantial. We're getting rid of a lot and it feels really good. Having less stuff, and less clutter, really makes living in our home much easier. This weekend will be the ebay and craigslist where we will attempt the amazing feat of listing all of the goods for sale. And there is a lot to sell.

Then, there's the maintenance of this new crap-less lifestyle which will be the most difficult part. How do we stay at where we are and not get caught up in the consumerist trap again? Why not try a month without buying stuff other than essentials? Sounds easy enough, right? Not really, but we've setup some ground rules for Not Buying it - July

1. The basic premise is to only spend money on and buy essentials. Rent, food, kibble for wieners, bill payments, etc. are all essentials.

2. We each get one exception - Tom gets to buy a camera lens he's been stalking if it ever comes back in stock and I get to buy a spinning wheel since I had previously purchased one and had to return it (pending refund which I'm still waiting on).

3. We may buy other semi-essential items from the moneys earned from selling off our stuff. I have a key-tar that I'm getting rid of that will probably get me around 250 bucks which when combined with a gift certificate unspent from Christmas could potentially buy Tom and I a much needed new mattress from Ikea - one of the ones with foam. Certified Space Technology. Certified by the Space institute. Well not really, but I really like saying that about foam :)

4. Eating out, is a luxury and totally unnecessary. However, we may treat ourselves to eating out once a week pending a review of how well we've accomplished not buying it for that week.

So here goes day one. Hopefully I'll be able to make it through the end of the day. Tom, I'm sure, will do just fine ;)

07.01.08 8:51am(9 comments)

just keep swimming…

I'm here, just quiet. Don't worry about me - with the sun shining, the birds singing and the yarn calling my name, it's hard to write stuff especially after being out of the habit. Things are on the up and up, though.

I am starting to feel good again :)

06.24.08 11:09pm(1 comment)

Coming out of hibernation

To put it plainly, the last six months have been a living hell for me. I've had problems in just about every arena in my life and it's not something that I necessarily would like to dwell upon or discuss. Just as I think things will improve, something else goes wrong. This has all forced me to retreat into the depths of my cave to hunker down and wait until the greyness of winter is over, shying away from many and trying to keep myself sane through my various hobbies. I have been a poor blogger and even poorer friend and all this has really taken its toll on me. It has been all I can do to keep myself afloat, but here's a run down of what I've been up to (the good stuff):

I've been pretty involved in knitting subculture having made a lot of friends through ravelry, allied with a local yarn store, and even won a Kninja verses Knitting Pirate charity hat knit-off. I finished my first pair of socks, a pair of slippers, a ton of hats (waachaa kninja skills). I'm liking this as my creative outlet and have developed my mise en place as a result, aquiring exquisit yarns, knitting bags, and various tools of the trade. Knitting keeps my hands busy while letting my mind do whatever it is that it does while I'm knitting and when I'm done, I've made something. My favorite thing to do is to watch documentaries on netflix watch it now or pbs and knit with a puppy or two in my lap. Ahhh, serenity

All of this craziness has made me regress to primitive forms of entertainment like spinning wool into yarn and dyeing yarn (modern twist: with koolaid). I've signed up for Yarn School where I'll head to an artists residency in a remodeled school in BFE Kansas for 5 days to learn how to do all this better. Next I'll be churning butter. Well, I would be if Tom liked butter. Just kidding. There's something incredibly soothing about the repetition of spinning yarn and when I am done, I have something that I can use to feed hobby number one (see above).

I've leveled a few WOW toons, one to 55, one to 35 and many cleverly named others to a place where they can collect rest XP. Let me tell you there is not much like relieving stress by living vicariously through a female green orc warrior with a pink mohawk, a nose ring and a smiling scowl who has a huge axe hanging on her back and is not afraid to use it.

With all these activities, Tom's help, and puppy kisses, I have survived and now that Spring is in the air, I'm tempted to wander from my cave and find joy in the sunshine again (even though that fucker will give me a bad burn). This life of mine is still sucking pretty badly, but they're getting better. I only have one week and I'll be going on an extended vacation, one well deserved. The first part will be yarn school. After that I'm coming home and cleansing the house - finishing unpacking (yes. 4 months later. don't get judge-ey) hanging stuff on walls, and putting a bunch of stuff on ebay. Then as a reward for my hard work at home, Tom and I are whisking ourselves away to sunny Dominican Republic (*queue applause*) where we have an all inclusive vacation deal and where I plan to sit around, drink free tropical drinks, knit, try not to get sunburned, relax and maybe snorkel some.

I just need to hold on for one more week. One more week until vacation. One more week until respite.

04.16.08 3:27pm(7 comments)

Happy Anniversary to us

Tom and I are celebrating our seventh / first anniversary today, so happy anniversary to us :) Yesterday we celebrated with awesome seats (10th row behind 3rd baseline) at a cubs game and tonight we'll be rolling out the katamari from our wedding cake to enjoy after some sukiyaki. It's been an interesting year, but we've managed to make it through. Here's to many, many more!

04.07.08 6:21am(4 comments)