Peanut & Purls: Socks Completed!

So you know those socks that I've been talking a lot about for the last, oh I don't know, six weeks? Well, I'm going to finally share some pictures with you!

Home & Away:Tucson (in pictures)

I just got back from Tucson last night, and I had a really nice time. I'm always so amazed by the landscape down there. It's like another earth...

Peanut & Purls: The never-ending sock

I've been trying to finish up Nicholas' new winter socks, and I've almost finished them!

Home & Away: Monterey Bay Aquarium

Last week, Nicholas and I went on a week long getaway to sunny California. After visiting sister Monika and Ben for a few days, we packed up our rented Fiat and drove north towards Monterey, CA. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has been on my to-do list for quite some time, and let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. Go ahead and gawk at some of the jellyfish and sea horses we saw. They were breathtaking!

Away: Iceland, Denmark, & Sweden

Lately, I have been spending an unhealthy amount of time thinking about vacations. Of course this leads me to reminisce about some of my favorite travels in the recent past...

Peanut & Purl: Winter socks

It's officially sock weather. More specifically, it's officially hand-knit sock weather. Nicholas is lucky enough to live with someone (read: me) that knits him socks...

award winning alpacas

When Catherine and Nicholas visited and we went to Green Bluff to see the alpacas at Supersuris Ranch, I took these photos of all the amazing ribbons. I can't get enough of the colors.

GNP is awesome!

No silly, I'm not talking about Gross National Product. I'm talking about Glacier National Park and how awesome it is. Nicholas and I were there last week for a speedy day trip through the park. We could have easily spent a few days there, but even in just the one day we saw some spectacular creatures--take a look...

Dreams of alpacas...

Like most twenty-something girls, I want alpacas. Most girls want alpacas right?
Of course they do--they're cute, cuddly, relatively small, and has wonderfully smelling fiber.

One of my dreams came true last weekend when Nicholas, Christine, and I visited an alpaca farm in Spokane, WA. There, I met some of the cutest alpacas, though they weren't as friendly and cuddly as I would have liked. Nick was able to tame them a little bit. Christine and I purchased some roving that we will no doubt make into soft treasures that smell of washed alpaca (it smells delicious I promise).

For serious, check out how cute these little pac pacs are...

Mini-Montana

Nicholas and I hit the road for a mini getaway. We started heading east on I-90 and didn't stop until we hit Glacier National Park. It was a quick, easy, and relaxing road trip full of Montana wildlife and pleasant happenings. I don't
 want to say that the highlight of the trip was catching the bison taking a crap on camera, but it might have been
(the photo is the PG version...you know what happened next)...

Golden corgi

Nicholas' birthday was towards the end of July and because he loves corgis so much, I decided to make a special topper for his birthday key lime pie. I didn't just stop at a corgi topper. I went ahead and made toppers out of the whole wild kingdom. Take a look and maybe you'll be inspired to make your own gilded toppers. If you are so inspired, I included an easy-to-follow tutorial.

Started with a corgi figure that I bought at Michael's

Etch-your-sketch cocktail glasses!

Nicholas loves to make cocktails, so for his birthday I decided to create some customized glasses for all of the delicious cocktails he makes.

Step 1--Ready the supplies. I bought all the glasses at Cost Plus World Market. I think everything was $3.99 a piece. The Armour Etch was leftover from a project Christine did years ago, but I did confirm that you can buy it at Michael's (with a coupon, it would run you about $6). You'll need contact paper (Target $5), a sponge brush, scissors, and gloves.

Scratch-off travels

For St. Valentine's Day this year, I bought Nicholas a scratch-off map of the world. The idea being that you scratch-off all the countries that you've visited. You can find them different places, but I bought mine through Amazon.

Behold the world scratch map--all the fun from a scratch ticket, but no cash reward whatsoever.

Grab your coin ( Nick used a foreign one...how appropriate)!

Obviously you'll scratch off Iceland.

and Denmark and Sweden...

Japan and the UK...

...the US, Mexico, and Canada.

I picked up an inexpensive black frame from Target. I used some simple geometric wrapping paper as a background. 

 We haven't figured out exactly where to hang this yet, so for now, it's on top of a bookshelf.
As soon as Nicholas travels to another country, he'll just open up the back and scratch off a new country.
Each new destination is bold and bright against all the gold.

Burgers, burgers, burgers.

I'm going to start this post off by letting everyone know that I am a vegetarian.  I don't enjoy burgers or beef or bacon. Nicholas loves burgers and anything burger related. He may or may not sometimes refer to himself as the Burger Baron. There might even be a "my life in burgers: the first quarter" post on his blog. It's not uncommon to find little meat photo surprises when I load the memory card--evidence below.

While I don't partake in the burger business, I did want to give Nick something near and dear to his heart for our 3 year anniversary. I decided to knit Nicholas a bacon burger. I still need to knit up some cheese.

A piece of yellow American cheese has been ordered.

You can knit this burger using scrap yarn.  Here are the yarns that I used for my burger creation.

If you're asking if I keep some of my knitting
needles in a Queen Elizabeth ceramic cup,
the answer is most certainly yes!

This is the finished product. 

I included 2 pieces of lettuce, a tomato, a slice of bacon, a dollop of mustard and one beef patty.

The great thing about this project is that you can customize it however you want. Nick has already requested additions for upcoming occasions. Maybe some grilled onions for Christmas! 

The pattern I used is available on etsy.

Mother, cousin, boyfriend & throw pillows!!!

Today I went to the Funky Junk Sisters antique show at the South Hill Mall.  It was surprisingly pleasant.  I  know that sounds rather snobbish, but you have to understand that anyway who knows the South Hill Mall/surrounding area would probably be surprised to learn that this show was a success!  While the show was put on by the Funky Junk Sisters, I went sans sisters.  Instead I perused with my mother, my cousin, and my boyfriend.

I didn't take any pictures inside, but I did want to show off all of my treasures.  Hold on to your britches...

Peanut is ready to see what I got...

Nick bought me these earrings.  I call them black strawberries.  Price: $5.00

 

Knitted rug, marked down from $11.00.  Price: $5.50

Peanut: "That looks nice, I'll test it out for you."

Please welcome THROW PILLOWS.  The little white pillow has green fabric ribbon.  Price: $2.00  The bigger pillow is made from two old quilt squares.  Price: $10 (I haggled my way down)! The Seattle one was a pillow I had before from an estate sale (in case you were wondering, price: $5.00).

Nick hates throw pillows.  He says that he doesn't understand their purpose and that unless he needs it to sleep, he doesn't like having it around.  That being said, I adore throw pillows. I think they're a great way to add a pop of color and accessorize your living space.  Didn't know you could accessorize your living space?  Well, you can. I even resisted the urge to buy two other pillows I really adored.

Who's this?

Ohhh, it's nut-cat.

Crazy ole nut-cat.

I also purchase another cake stand.  This was was marked down from $22.00.  Price: $11.00

And lastly, I found this old photo album marked down from $6.00.  Price: $3.00

I recommend anyone that enjoys a good treasure hunt to check out the funky junk sister's website.  They will be in Spokane in early June and in Idaho later this summer.  The prices were real reasonable, and everyone was encouraged to barter.

Boot and boys...and hats and socks.

I finished up two separate knitting projects over the weekend.  This past weekend also marked the end of my spring break.  First up, I used the eco alpaca (half of it) I purchased in Tucson earlier this year to make a hat. It's a very comfortable, slouchy hat. I do not hate it.

Next on the list was finishing up Nicholas' socks.  I went ahead and did just that.  The socks are cozy and cute.  He better wear them or else I will steal them back and wear them myself.  This yarn was also purchased at Purls in Tucson.  Nick picked out the color...obviously, he loves orange.

Both of these projects were documented at my Ravelry site, so if you're at all interested in knitting and the like, you should signup there.

pseudo-cide

While I didn't do this:

I still look like this:

Which is really hard to decipher from this:

The difference is that I was taking the garbage out and stabbed into my wrist with some broken glass, but it's hard for other people to know that's what happened.  There was lots and lots of blood.  In 7-10 days the stitches come out and I can unwrap my wrists.  In the meantime, maybe I should wear brighter colors and not drink wine in public...really I should just look as un-depressed as possible.

But tonight, I drank wine in public.  We went to Trinacria (which I've blogged about before). I had the broccoli calzone.

                

I took a gnarly picture of my wrist (which Nick said I shouldn't post, but I kind of want to).  If you don't want to see it, don't scroll down.  It's gross. I'm going to post it.  Don't scroll down.

I warned you.