Last night Jason and I went shopping for some gingerbread ingredients after I saw this AMAZING post about gingerbread houses that sit on mugs from notmartha.org, and while we were at the Farmer’s Market, Jason realized that last night would be really our only night together until December 29. I have so many babysitting arrangements coming up that we just won’t be able to have any Christmas fun. So while we were at Target, we ran back to look at their trees, found one for under $30 in clearance, and came home to decorate.

I started by making some puff pastry cookies. I wanted to make pie crust cookies, but all I found at the tiny Kroger in Decatur was some ready-made puff pastry sheets. Not a bad thing, though!

They turned out so crispy, puffy, yummy-delicious! I sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar, and was seriously debating pouring milk over them for breakfast.

I used some bite-sized cookie cutters which made them easy to pop on each trip past their resting spot on the stove. Jason almost had to duct tape their container closed.

I also made gingerbread dough for the little gingerbread houses. We used blackstrap molasses, which, along with all the other spices made the dough taste really, really, REALLY strong. The dark molasses also gave the dough a dark brown color that, as I piled up the dough on plastic wrap to rest in the fridge, looked like poo!

We also decorated the tree, but by the time we finished it was 2:00 AM, so there aren’t any pics of the finished tree yet. I did get a lot of pictures of the cats checking it out, though.

Nugget and Fat Stinky are celebrating their first Christmas.

What a fun night!

There is plenty of ugly yarn out there. I recently got a bi-weekly newsletter from a yarn shop (that will remain nameless because they’re quite awesome, really) that has some hideous yarns in its bargain section. Like, what would one make out of these anyway? I used to think acrylic was bad, but that was because I was buying cheap acrylic yarn. But these yarns… Anyway, I’m not here to bash on ugly yarn. Someone, somewhere is making a lime green fuzzy scarf for a funky grandma and that grandma is gonna love it.

What I’m really here to discuss is how I made beautiful yarn ugly. I was thinking the other day that I needed some new wool socks. My first handknit pair is poorly made, although simple and therefore decent-looking. My second pair is again, fine, but plain. My third pair was done in a lace pattern from the 2 At a Time Socks book, buuuut I accidentally shrank them in the wash. I know I lost a pair, too. Anyway, I decided to make some fall-colored socks now that my sock-knitting skills have dramatically improved. I bought some Noro sock yarn in fall shades and wanted to do something in the vein of Brooklyn Twead’s striped Noro scarf. I divided my skein into two and started knitting at different parts of the colorway.

It started to look ugly by the time I got to the heel. But I turned the heel and thought, “It’s still Noro, and Noro is awesome so this will all work out….” Yeah except when I stitched up the toes, I realized that the cuff looks kindy pukey and the bottom looks like someone threw a bunch of college mascots in a blender and dyed some yarn.

Behold.

And the stripes have the joggy-thing going up the side and the underside of the foot.

And then halfway through, the kitten got hold of the sock and dragged it around the house. And knitters know the super Velcro powers of 100% wool… So it’s just gross on top of being ugly.

I do this. I get all excited about something and jump in without a plan. These socks will not be worn outside of the bedroom and will serve the sole (pun shamefully intended) purpose of providing warmth to my toes on the hardwood floors. Why I didn’t stop and rip, I don’t know. But now I have this sad little sock that needs a brother and I am obliged.

And I hope I didn’t scare you away with my poorly-lit and sad-faced Photobooth pictures. Does this make up for it?

Last Monday was my 25th birthday. I have such conflicting views about number 25- I feel like I’m at a point where I can’t make childish mistakes and yet I certainly don’t feel 25 compared to everyone else I know. Most of my friends are at least 2 years older than me and I feel close to some of the parents I babysit for who are in their 30s. I’ve always had people tell me they think I’m older than I actually am- when I was General Manager at the radio station, someone thought I was at least 27 when I was really only 22. Birthdays are weird. It’s just numbers.

I went out of town to Savannah, Georgia the weekend before my birthday (October 2-4) and had a lot of fun. I got to visit another great cemetery, Bonaventure, and did a little shopping. We visited the SCAD store and holy crap I wish I had money to burn because it would all be spent there. We also visited the Gryphon Tea Room across the street from the SCAD store and a nice little coffee shop called The Sentient Bean that reminded me of Joe’s here in East Atlanta. We sampled some scrumptious peanut butter chippy ice cream at Leopold’s on Broughton and even did a nice little tour on a trolley bus.

Famous Little Gracie tombstone in Bonaventure Cemetery

One of two twin gorgeous Victorian “Gingerbread” homes.

What would Savannah be without gorgeous oaks with moss dripping from the branches?

Despite Jason’s expression, he was really enjoying that double scoop ice cream cone. It was 70 degrees in Atlanta, and 80+ in Savannah that day!

More Savannah pics are at my Flickr account.

As far as the real world goes, I’m currently compiling a list of the young adult books I’ve read so far into a slide show project for class. I’m using Apple’s Keynote from iWork ‘08 so I’ll be exporting it into a PDF for my teacher. If I figure out how to do it, I’ll post the PDF here if anyone is interested. We’re supposed to read 24 YA books this semester and we’re at the mid-point and turning in our first 12. Anything over 285 pages counts as two and I’ve got 10 slides at the moment. I just started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and am really intrigued by the narrator’s direct, but detailed manner of explaining a scene.

And because she is just so freaking precious, I need to post this video of Nugget getting some love. (Turn the volume up!)

Nugget Loves to Love from Cassie Smith on Vimeo.

I got a MacBook Pro for school (how did I ever live without it?) and today I made my first video with iMovie about our sweetie Nugget. It totally looks like a memorial video, but I assure you that this kitten is alive and well and wreaking havoc in our house. The footage is mostly of the first week we got her when she was just a little, well, nugget of a cat. My favorite part is at the end when she falls asleep- too funny!

Nugget from Cassie Smith on Vimeo.

I don’t quite have the hang of iMovie yet so I’m probably gonna go buy a cheap video camera to take silly videos with and then mash them up into silly iMovies! My favorite part is picking the music; I chose this sweet little Kimya Dawson song because Nugget is so wee and the song is about feeling a particular size- literally and figuratively. I don’t think Nugget thinks she’s a little cat at all- she constantly harasses our two other adult cats and tries to bully them. But like the little girl with the curl, when’s she’s good, she’s very, very good and when she’s bad, she’s horrid!


And pssst! Word on the street is Pulse Bar at the Marriott Marquis in the ATL at 1pm on Saturday. Pass it on. More Dragon*Con info coming soon!

I’m going to pretend like I didn’t disappear for months there and get back into the swing of things.

Like fleas. Why start with fleas you ask? Because of this precious baby:

This is Nugget our sweet baby kitten who was the runt of a litter born in our backyard. When we found her, we immediately took her to the vet where she was promptly given de-worming medication and estimated to be about 4-5 weeks old. She ate well for us, was frisky and inquisitive, and gained weight like a champ. And then on Thursday we noticed a major flea infestation in my craft room where she currently lives. Jason bought some chemical flea killer and we cleaned the heck out of that room as it is the only one in the house with carpet. We gave Nugget several baths with Dawn dish soap and Jason meticulously went through her coat with a flea comb. Well, yesterday, Nugget was listless and sleepy all day. I definitely knew something when I picked her up in the evening and she was rather warm. I took her temp and sure enough it was 104.1, much too high for a kitten. When we took her to the vet he tested her for FIP, FIV, & leukemia and thankfully all were negative; however, poor Baby still had a plump belly from worms and was extremely anemic due to all the fleas. Nugget spent the night in the vet ICU.

So today I set out on a mission to learn about all the flea-killing methods out there and thankfully many of them are not all chemical-based, although some of the steps I took were drastic:

+ New vacuum cleaner: I purchased a high-power Eureka vacuum that knocked my socks off when I started it up this afternoon. After using this, I’m kicking my old Hoover to the curb- ADIOS! The vet and several online sources (including an NPR article) said that vacuuming plays an important role in managing fleas. You need to vacuum at least once a day for several weeks and dump the bin OUTSIDE in a trashcan to prevent fleas from re-infiltrating the house. You can also spray the inside of a bag or vacuum canister with flea-killer or cut up flea collars and put them in there.

+ Borax: The fleas in Atlanta (as well as mosquitoes, roaches, and other insects) have swamped us badly this year. Many of my neighbors have been complaining about the prevalence of pests this summer which may be due to the early rain we got in May. A neighbor suggested sprinkling Borax on the carpet (with kitties far, far away for awhile), letting it sit for several hours, and then vacuuming it off. The kind people at Village Hardware in East Atlanta also suggested putting a few tablespoons in the wash to kill fleas in clothes.

+ Brewers yeast: I have yet to try this, but another neighbor mentioned using brewers yeast (not the same thing as nutritional yeast) as a bathing agent (kind of like taking an oatmeal bath for poison ivy) and even adding a little bit to the kitten’s food. My dad said that a place like GNC might carry some and I plan to check during the week.

+ Dawn soap & a flea comb: The vet said to bathe the kitten daily for at least a week with Dawn soap (we use Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo on her head) and to run the flea comb through her hair every night until she’s at a stable weight to physical get fleas off her body. She’s too underweight for any flea meds so we’ll have to do this by hand until she’s big enough.

And now for the good news- Nugget came home from the vet this evening sans fleas and she’s currently in the recently cleansed craft room for the night. I have yet to lay down any Borax and I’m working all day tomorrow so I’m playing this by ear. I plan on trying some of the above methods later in the week- spare no expense! (And yes, a 24-hour stay in the vet ICU is expensive, in case you were wondering!)

And thankfully, many bloggers had positive, optimistic things to share that really lifted my spirits and helped me get through this scary weekend. If you’re in need of a lift, check out San’s blog at http://www.san-smith.com: She’s a fountain of cheer this week (and per the usual).

In other news, my best friend got married in July- I was her maid of honor, didn’t have the ring during the ceremony, and got to sing the “Lord’s Prayer” immediately following the ring fiasco! Turns out she had it in a bag and forgot to take it out, but it’s all good because the same thing happened to her parents and they’ve been married for almost 40 years. I have to take good luck signs whenever I can these days!

I also finished my first semester of graduate school and got all A’s! Huzzah! And when my student loans come in, I might get to plan some fun for myself… we’ll see!

Speaking of school- August, where did you come from and why so fast?

In other words, I’m not dead… yet. My fever broke towards the end of the week and it felt like someone lifted a vest of iron from my chest and my mobility was restored. Fevers can really take a lot of out a person. I am still hacking all the residual nastiness out of my lungs, but thankfully I feel a million times better than I did last week. I haven’t quite recovered on the house-cleaning end of things, but I’m going out of town to north Alabama for a wedding tomorrow afternoon so I have big plans for the morning.

Here’s a list of things, though, so this post isn’t a total bust after a week’s absence:

- I had a big health scare last week in the midst of having the flu. As a side effect of taking Accutane, my cholesterol has shot up dangerously high and I have to make major dietary/exercise changes immediately.
+ On the plus side, more seafood to be had (got sashimi & yakitori this evening!) and I’m joining Georgia State University’s rec center as an alumna! Yay to dance classes!
+ I’ve already lost about 4 pounds by eating better and walking the baby I watch during the week all around the neighborhood.
- I can’t eat anymore at the fantastic Australian bakery in the EAV I just discovered- so many pastries…omnomnomnom.
+ I’m learning how to cook! Again! Recipes welcome!

+ I finished plying a gorgeous raspberry/pink/purple/magenta yarn yesterday and it looks really, really cute! (Pictures tomorrow in good light.)

+ My boyfriend’s dad’s wife’s daughter (we don’t call her his step-sister) had a baby boy last weekend and I get to shower him with knitwear… at the start of a Georgia Spring! (This reminds me to whip out my copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting and make some cotton bibs.)

+ It snowed last week and this week it’s been in the upper-70s. Our doors have been open to warm the house naturally. LOVE IT.

+ I finished some socks from the ‘How to Knit 2 Socks on 1 Needle Book’… but, shhh, I used 2 circs! (Other 40 inch circs are occupied.)

+ I made a March budget and am actually sticking to it. Time to make more crappy recycled notebooks for the rest of the year!

- The new cat has been peeing all over my clothes. So what if I left them all over the floor…

+ Fat Stinky is still the  & sweetest stray-turned-housecat ever.

+ Finished, thoroughly enjoyed, and was mentally-f*ed by Life of Pi, am loving and about to finish Trailer Trashed (expect a lovey-dovey email, Hollis), have Cat’s Cradle waiting on the nightstand, and just bought The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao based on the cover (and the fact that the author won a Pulitzer Prize).

- Have been babysitting like a mo-fo. (Gotta love wiping little butts and wearing vomit.)

+ Have been making boocoos of money from people who are much richer than I ever hope to be that pay me to watch their kids. And I have so many hilarious kid stories from just this week that I really need to journal. Like getting mooned by a five-year-old, teaching him that term, and then being mooned for the rest of the evening as a result. And seriously, that’s just the very tippy-top of the bizarre babysitting iceberg…

It’s been a good week. Atlanta’s weather hasn’t been too redunkulous (barring that crazy ass snowstorm), and Atlantans know that word perfectly epitomizes the strange oscillating weather patterns we have during the months outside of summer. It has been surprsingly pleasant and the trees in East Atlanta and the weeds in our front yard have begun blooming. I’m going to try to take a walk tomorrow before we hit the road to take pictures of all the varieties of magnolia and cute blossoms springing up around here. I hope wherever you are the weather is enjoyable, or at least tolerable.

Today was another sick day for me. I had horrible insomnia last night and woke up late in the day with a slight fever. Most of the day consisted of sitting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, a huge water bottle, and the cats watching episodes of Clean House. Man, I love that show. Eventually I felt better, enough to actually start tidying the house. Maybe Niecy Nash inspired me to get up and moving or maybe it was the fact that being sick and immobile all day BLOWS. I took care of the usual suspect: dishes, bedroom, bathroom. And then I knew I had to get in the craft after posting the embarrassing pictures. I wanted to prove that I could get it together and I think I did a nice job. I even hung a decorative calendar on the wall.

This colorful calendar is from Jess Gonacha who happens to live in the Atlanta area. Not only is she a fantastic digital artist, she’s also local for me, which made purchasing her calendar all that more enjoyable. We don’t have much art up in the house yet so anything on the walls is exciting and makes the space look fresh. I love it!

And then I got to work on my circular needle binder. For some reason the only clear sleeves I could find at Sam Flax the day I gathered supplies for this binder were photo sleeves divided into quarters. I figured I could make it work, and it sort of did, but when you have two pairs of 60 inch long size US 11 needles to squeeze into a tiny pouch, it isn’t the best fit. When I cleaned out my closet earlier this week I discovered a huge pack of plastic sleeves I had left over from my senior English portfolio. Yay!

So I went from this- with the circular needles stuck in tiny quarter-page pockets-

To a beautifully organized and tabbed binder full of my circs-

I also put my loose paper patterns in sleeves and added them to the back. Now everything is consolidated and easy to find.

I’ve decided to get circular needles to work on my scarf. I knit almost everything with circular needles nowadays and I find straight needles kind of awkward and heavy to handle. If I’m wearing something with long sleeves the ends of the needles get caught up in my sleeves. And with the scarf getting heavier and heavier, any less bulk is a good thing. I may sub tomorrow if I feel better, so I think I’ll reward myself with a trip to Knitch (yay!) if I get a job and make it through the day!

Remember those cardboard boxes in the picture from my last post? Stinky moved into the bottom apartment.

I’ve been on a mission in 2009 to read great books. When I graduated last Spring with my English degree, I was determined not to read anything more in depth than a fashion magazine for awhile and I’m glad I went through that phase, because now I’m ready to get back into some meaty books. I walk through bookstores with desire. With the weather so nice, I took little Harper (baby I nanny for two days a week) into the East Atlanta Village and stopped by Bound to Be Read Books and got two new books.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Trailer Trashed by Hollis Gillespie.

I just started Pi and really love Martel’s philosophical style and world influences. World literature fascinates me and I can’t wait to get deeper into this book. Hollis Gillespie’s new book is the third memoir she’s written and she lives in Atlanta. When I worked at WRAS-FM I had the pleasure of interviewing her and Grant Henry. I was high on Sudafed and a sinus infection and had the best time. I still keep in touch with them a few times during the year, but really I love living in my own city vicariously through her books. If you like David Sedaris, give Hollis Gillespie a shot. You might not get all the references to various locales in Atlanta, but her childhood tales bring the laughter and the tears.

I also picked up Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut at Borders the other day. I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five, Man Without a Country, and “Fates Worse Than Death” from him and love, love, LOVE me some Vonnegut. I hope I don’t get too impatient and start reading all three of these at once. Geeze, it’ll be just like when I start a zillion knitting projects at once… heh.

I just got a call to sub tomorrow from a friend so it is time to end posting and get to sleep! Have a wonderful week. I have plans to recycle some cardboard mailers I found later this week, maybe start blocking the end of the Mario Scarf, and to drink lots and lots of water! No more being sick!

I’ve seen all these awesome pictures of craft rooms floating around the Interwebs lately. Whip Up featured some spectuacular rooms recently that make me pine for a steady income so that I can ravage IKEA and organize to my heart’s content. At the beginning of January I completely cleaned and organized my craft room and posted the pictures on Flickr. I look at those pictures and just sigh. I wish I were the type of person who is able to simply put things away after use. Instead I tend to let things simmer, pile up, and expand until I have a mini-meltdown and clean everything at once.

Things are in another expansion phase right now. I have a feeling that after posting this I’ll be overcome with shame and having major cleaning session tomorrow afternoon. I’m the messiest person I know, but boy do I love to organize!

The left side of the room is obviously the space I occupy and use the most. Definitely could stand some de-cluttering.

This is my spinning corner. I just hung a calendar set from Jess Gonacha, but my arrangment isn't doing so well. The brown boxes used to hold all my yarn.

I did get the chance to reorganize the closet this week. It may not look like it, but things are much easier to reach and my books are better arranged. The yarn is now in clear plastic containers- much better than cardboard boxes.

I love how these clear containers wrangle the yarn and display it so nicely. No more cats in the yarn boxes.

So there it is. The craft room in all its messy glory. I’d love to see pictures of your craft/creating rooms and want to post a few of them. I love finding new inspiration for this room because, in turn, it inspires me!

And since I said the other day that I’d include stuff about my cats, I have a picture for you of Stinky. This cat has the quirkiest personality of any cat I’ve met. She’s such a nut. We’re always finding her making funny faces or odd positions. Here’s a recent pose on our bed:

Lovely, no?

I hope everyone’s had a great Valentine’s weekend. I’ve been battling a slew of various illnesses over the past few days including a stomach virus. The poor boyfriend took me to the Highland Bakery for breakfast and I ate my pancakes and bacon and promptly got sick when we got home. I was so sad because he’d been looking forward to treating me to a Valentine’s breakfast all week and I was looking forward to the Highland Bakery’s super crunchy bacon. Stomach virus aside, it’s been a nice day and I have to share the Valetine from Anenome Letterpress on Etsy I gave Jason- it’s so nerdy!

Brilliant.