Yarn Turkey

November 29, 2018November 28, 2018 / shellssells / 2 Comments

You may remember that on Thanksgiving Day I played yarn chicken and lost, which led me to wonder if this would then be called yarn Turkey.

This pretty little scarf is called Knit Night, and honestly, it’s just a lovely and easy to work pattern. I would knit this again in a heartbeat. In fact, I absolutely KNOW that I will. Soon.

But, back to the yarn “turkey.” There are various ways of finishing this scarf, be that a picot bind off, a regular bind off, and various ways of knitting the final border. I’d chosen one way, but ended up with not quite enough yarn to finish the bind off. I stopped, I regrouped, I decided to do the border as I had, but a different bind off. I pulled out the appropriate number of rows back to accommodate the yarn needed for this. And then:

That’s YET ANOTHER yarn turkey moment. Those picot bind offs take FAR more yarn that one might expect. So, I pulled that back and went with a regular bind off. Which I was then left with a fairly sizable amount of leftover yarn. But not ENOUGH enough, obviously.

Anyhow, in the end, I have a lovely LONG scarf. Did I mention that this yarn is handspun from Miss Marja? It’s a colorway I fell absolutely in love with.

For good reason, right? It’s stunning.

In other news, we woke up yesterday morning to Lizzie not being able to keep one eye open. Her eye was red and irritated and she was CLEARLY miserable. I called the vet before I left for work and found out they were going to be able to get her in by 9:20 that morning. So thankful for their quick response, I was totally heading to urgent care with her if they couldn’t fit her in. Turns out, this time she’s got a corneal ulcer. They cared for her so quickly and so expertly that I was quite surprised but extremely relieved. She was given every possible way of managing her pain. We go back in a week to make sure she’s healing properly. Between that and on Tuesday losing the use of my work computer for all but 2 hours of my work day, it’s been an interesting week! Certainly not one where I’d been able to do all the catch up I had needed to do upon returning from a nice long vacation.

And that’s about it from here! I hope your world is slightly less chaotic, but it is the season for that, right?

Rolling 10 Pan update 3

November 28, 2018November 26, 2018 / shellssells / 3 Comments

When we last left off, I had managed to finish 3 items. Urban Decay All Nighter Foundation, Trader Joe’s cleanser, and a matte lipstick from Maybelline. Here are the photos from last month:

My list for this month:

Foundations
1. Hourglass vanish stick
Concealers
1. Maybelline age rewind
Bronzer/Contour
1. Wet n Wild contour palette
Highlighter
1. Frankenhighlighter
Perfume
1. Gucci Eau de parfum II (Get halfway through this product)
Haircare
1. Deva Curl Shampoo
Eyeshadow
1. One pan of clinique eyeshadow.
Miscellaneous items
1. Becca Undereye Primer
Body Care
1. Mary Kay Satin Hands

And the photos:

The hourglass foundation stick, you can see that I only managed to use the tiniest bit. To be honest, I am using this more like a concealer, in the sense that I am using it under foundation to cover redness. I can then use less of an appropriately colored foundation. But, while I thought I was done with the UD foundation last month, it still squirted out enough foundation for another week. Ugh. Then, I had vacation, so I wore less makeup in general. So, it’s slow going right now. I am hoping to see more progress next month.

The maybelline age rewind concealer, I really thought I’d be done with this. But, it looks like Miss Butterfly isn’t using it much right now. I will certainly be done next month. I’ll be replacing that item with another concealer item.

I am completely done with the wet n wild contour palette. And, to be honest, I was so used to using the same palette I am struggling to adjust to a new powder. What I am trying to use now applies with a heavier hand and it’s not as easy to blend. I’ve got a whole new learning curve ahead of me.

I had 3 pans of my frankenhighligter. I didn’t pull out all 3 pans, just the one pan that has had use. And as you can see, it’s quite a lot of use.

I am plugging away at the perfume, slowly, though my previous marks had worn off the bottle. My goal is to use half of this, and it’s old so I can apply quite liberally and not be even remotely overwhelming. I’ve got a back up at work that is much newer and that one only needs one spray to get an even more powerful scent.

I finished the Deva Curl shampoo this month. There’s not much I can say about that except it’s done.

The clinique eyeshadow I am using as a base has major pan, so that’s good. I am sometimes also using this as a transition shade if I can’t be bothered with anything else.

The Becca Undereye Primer is gone. I’ll use the container to hold a milk makeup undereye cream sample until that’s gone. I don’t think I’ll repurchase the becca product right now, I am going to wait and see if I like something else better.

Mary Kay satin hands-I did get some of the hand softener used, but there’s no discernable use on the exfoliating product associated with the set. So, I didn’t even bring it out for a photo. I do think I’ll be done with the hand softener at next update.

So, where does this leave me? 3 products used up, so 3 more can be rolled in.

There’s a Laura Mercier cream stick eyeshadow that barely shows up on my eyes and Miss Butterfly doesn’t like it either. I am ready to get this out of my stash, and my intention is to do so by using it as a primer. I gave it a try this morning and it seems to work.

Then there’s the clinique setting powder I tried to pan over the summer. I am trying again. As you can see I am about halfway through now, and not simultaneously trying to pan a powder in a contour palette. So I think between me and Miss Butterfly we can work our way through this pretty quickly.

And then there’s a tarte blush sample in Paaarty. Everyone has one of these. It’s a lovely color. And a lovely formula. No one is upset about this blush. Miss Butterfly and I both use it and it looks great on both of us. I can see the ring on the pan now, so my plan is to use it until I hit pan, then roll something else in.

It’s interesting to see over time that I use up about 3 products in my project pan each month. This upcoming month my prediction is the concealer, the clinique eyeshadow, and the satin hands softener.

My list for the upcoming month:

Foundations
1. Hourglass vanish stick
Concealers
1. Maybelline age rewind
Blush
1. Tarte Paaarty
Highlighter
1. Frankenhighlighter
Perfume
1. Gucci Eau de parfum II (Get halfway through this product)
Powder
1. Clinique setting powder
Eyeshadow
1. One pan of clinique eyeshadow.
Miscellaneous items
1. Laura Mercier stick eyeshadow
Body Care
1. Mary Kay Satin Hands

And that’s all from me, hope to see you here next month!

Pan that Palette Update 1

November 27, 2018November 26, 2018 / shellssells / 4 Comments

At the beginning of October I decided to pan my tarte be a mermaid and make waves palette. This was after the epic fail of panning the clinique palette which I then destructed for my own purposes.

Here it is when I started:

I’ve reconsidered this endeavor multiple times during this month, but always stuck it out. What I’ve been doing is wearing this palette every other day. Does this mean I get to really indulge in a ton of other palettes? Not really, but it does take the edge off. I do get to use them. After all, there’s no huge rush to pan this one, it’s not even a year old yet.

I’ve found myself most effective when I pick a particular look and really try to pan that look in particular. The look I am most likely to create is shore thing as a transition, shipwreck in the crease, fin-tastic all over the lid with salt water popped on the middle of the lid to add some brightness and dimension to the eyelid. Often times I’ll add the darkest turquoise color, lagoon, in there as an eyeliner.

So, I’ve increased the pan on sandbar, hit pan on shore thing, and today I began looking for other mattes in my collection to use with this palette as clearly, I won’t be able to stick with these for the duration of the panning of this palette. I’ve also got a decent dip going on salt water, even though it’s not going to see pan any time soon. I’ll keep going with panning that “look” until I am sick of it and then try to find a new look to work on.

All in all, despite thinking that maybe I didn’t want to pan this after all, I am rolling into a month and a half of use pretty pleased with myself. I am going to continue, and I am still really enjoying it. Are there other eyeshadows in my collection that I don’t get to as often as I’d like? Yep, but at this point, I am balancing that with enjoying getting use out of my very first “precious” palette.

I promise I’ll try to clean this thing up a bit before the next photo session!

What Next?

November 26, 2018 / shellssells / 6 Comments

I’ve got a knit blocking and I wasn’t sure what to knit next, even though I knew I needed to use up the yarns I had purchased for Miss Butterfly’s sweater.

So, this weekend I settled in to find the next project, plugging in the yarn weight and “3 color” and yardage into Rav to see what I could come up with.

I came up with the 3 color brioche scarf. Which looked just lovely! And I decided that’s what I would knit.

I am not going to lie, it’s kind of boring. But, boring can be good. And the fabric I am creating looks great! Even the back side looks fantastic.

Isn’t that just fantastic? I am in love with the fabric, but I am also picturing pairing a slowly transitioning colored handspun with some solids to get a particularly interesting result!

An update on the rest of vacation. Once family left on Saturday, I took Rose to the dog park. There were a ton of testy dogs there. Even when she could get one to run with her, she had her hackles up because they were feeling a little off. I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future. Dogs that probably had their routines upset and strangers in their homes might feel testy with my dog, and those weekends extra care must be taken. I am glad I left Lizzie at home. Anyhow, Rose got a good amount of running done, and then fell fast asleep when we returned. Isn’t she the cutest little solid ball of muscle?

In fact, that exhaustion mimicked our own really, I think after so much company and routine upset in our own home we were all really feeling it. Rose was very low key yesterday and no one wanted to go anywhere at all. In fact, even when she did want to play or chew, she sort of would fall asleep while doing it.

I am not sure anyone was particularly ready to get up and go to work today, but we managed it. Back to a routine!

Post Thanksgiving Visiting

November 25, 2018 / shellssells / 4 Comments

Our guests were in town until Saturday, so of course, on Friday and Saturday, we had continuing visits. Mr. Ink, unfortunately, had to work on both days. But Miss Butterfly and I were free. Friday morning we’d agreed to go downtown to swim at the hotel. We all felt a little silly when we got all dressed in our swim gear, went down to where the pool was 3 years ago, and realized they’d taken out the pool! We never imagined that might be the case. So, instead we went shopping in the little shops in the downtown area. Then we met the rest of the family at a brewery, waited for them to finish their drinks, and then went to have some of the best pizza I’ve ever tasted.

While at the brewery, with Miss Butterfly wearing her new sweater, I looked over and realized the lighting was beautiful in there and the decor was also lovely, so I insisted I get a few shots of the sweater. She was less than pleased about this as she hadn’t washed her hair or done her face because we’d thought we were going swimming. But she did indulge me where I got this lovely modeled shot of the sweater completion.

She has decided the nice long sleeves are her absolute favorite part of the sweater. And I’d say that the darker yarn at the bottom almost looks planned. So all in all, we are both quite happy with the end result.

After pizza, we had all decided to part ways before getting back together for dinner. Everyone wanted a nap! But, when I arrived home, Mr. Ink had just walked in the door early and he was eager to take advantage of being home while the sun was still shining.

So, we put the dogs in the car and walked them around a lake, and I got lovely pictures of the sunset.

I did still get a short nap in before dinner. I didn’t take any photos of dinner because we went to a rather famous place where diners can watch raccoons come to the windows but it was actually quite a dive, smelled terrible, and I found the throwing of all the chicken scraps outside to get the raccoons to eat at the windows rather distasteful. So, I decided I didn’t want photographic evidence of the experience.

Saturday morning started quietly, then the fam came over for their last visit before they had to leave. One more game was had, more chatting was done, coffee was consumed, and then it was over!

All in all a strangely successful holiday and visit. The difficult players behaved themselves beautifully and as such, we all had a wonderful time. The remainder of yesterday was spent running errands so that we could have today as a quiet day. Overnight it rained, then iced, then snowed. We are supposed to have snow for a while now. The roads are quiet and the house has that snow insulated feel as well as the warmth of knowing that no one need go anywhere at all today. We are officially tucked in for the weather and quite pleased about it.

I hope you had a lovely holiday if you celebrated. Otherwise, I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend!

Pre Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving

November 24, 2018 / shellssells / 2 Comments

Hi all! We had such a nice holiday, and I really hope you did as well. When last we talked, I had left off to do a little cleaning before company arrived on Wednesday. Our company arrived at 4 pm, kicking off our holiday in a lovely way. We’d split up dinner between 3 people cooking (and everyone else helping) so everything felt very manageable. On Wednesday, before company arrived, Miss Butterfly and I had made 4 pies, a fancy cranberry jello salad, and I’d mixed dough for homemade bread on Thanksgiving day.

Miss Butterfly also took some snuggle time with the dogs that morning, being that it was her day off.

Miss Lizzie acted quite bored all morning since we weren’t paying her any attention at all, but what she didn’t know is that everyone arriving on Wednesday are dog lovers and she was going to have more attention than she knew what to do with shortly.

Sure enough, the dogs got ALL the attention when the east coast family arrived (and one from california) and Miss Rose, despite her fear, quickly warmed up.

There were many selfies with dogs taken, and much was made of our dogs, which is just how it should be.

Thanksgiving morning I woke up early as usual. East coast family, knowing exactly what I like more than anything, had brought me the gift of cannolis and I enjoyed that with my coffee and quiet.

I also lost at yarn chicken, which begs the question, is it yarn turkey if it happens on thanksgiving day?

Yep, that’s a project you haven’t seen yet, but it’s close to being finished so you’ll have to wait.

Once our visitors were around, we headed to the dog park with the dogs, as Rose is just too much fun to watch, and would certainly deal better with a house full of strangers if she had the chance to burn off her energy.

After that, we got back home and began cooking while snacking on appetizers of bread/cheese/crackers/nuts.

With local family included, we ended up with a total of 11 people and 3 dogs in the house. It was also an extremely lovely day, and we were able to have a firepit outside, which helps when the house is full of people. Once dinner was cleaned up and it got too cold for the firepit, we headed back in for games.

We started out with farkle and then moved on to munchkin since some of the “kids” wanted to learn. (The only actual kid is Miss Butterfly, and it’s lovely to have a Thanksgiving with grown-up kids, as they are extremely helpful.)

I taught munchkin while they played, and they got a great giggle out of calling me their dungeon master, as they felt this was an extremely out of character role for me.

The 3 dogs settled in as well but were quite exhausted by the end of the night.

Rose could barely keep her head up and eyes open at this point. And since the guest dog had taken her bed, she wasn’t sure what to do with all this.

It was 11:30 by the time everyone left, and the dogs kept running to the bedroom door in hopes they could go to sleep now. Here they are waiting for company to finally give all their hugs and walk out the door.

I’ll post more about after Thanksgiving festivities tomorrow. Our company officially leaves by noon today. Probably a good thing too because we have a storm rolling in this evening and I am hoping to be well and truly snowed in tomorrow. I’ve got a ham bone and am ready to make black bean soup for a snowy day. Pair that with ALL the leftovers and we are going to be in great shape for staying in!

Happy to Report

November 21, 2018 / shellssells / 4 Comments

I am happy to report that Miss Butterfly’s I See Spring sweater is complete! Toward the end there I was doing one round then adding a new scrap then the next round. Plus, I wasn’t even able to do all 22 garter stitch rows, but what I have will have to do. There were a LOT of ends to weave in! But, it’s done and blocking and I am looking forward to her trying it on and maybe even getting a photo shoot in today.

It’s a day of cooking for Miss Butterfly and me. She’s decided that we will make breakfast today, and then we’ve got Thanksgiving prep going on. Our guests arrive later this afternoon and the home will be VERY loud from that point onward. Though they are staying at a hotel downtown so we will get early mornings of quiet. Their plan is to leave on Saturday so it’s a nice long chunk of time to visit.

Over the weekend when I was struggling to figure out what project to start next I pulled out some fiber. I figured a little bit of support spindle spinning couldn’t hurt while I contemplated my project choices!

These are some of my own batts created on my drum carder. This set has a smaller amount of green batts that go with them, so I am working on this section first and will move on to the green later. I do not anticipate these being done anywhere near now. This can wait for the new year. But, I just needed a knitting break, a moment to regroup, and this provided that for me.

Miss Butterfly went to a dress fitting for a May quinceanera, as she has been asked to participate. After that, they all went to a movie, so she arrived home a bit late. I had been JUST about ready to head to bed when the dogs turned heel from the bedroom and tore into the living room. I’d been slightly confused, but when I realized Miss Butterfly had come home, I understood. They wanted to greet her and get some booty skritches.

Then we were allowed to go to bed.

And that’s about it from here! Have a great day, enjoy any prep you may be doing if you are celebrating tomorrow, and have a lovely holiday!

Less Small

November 20, 2018 / shellssells / 3 Comments

For today, we’ve got a slightly larger finished object to talk about.

This is the knitter’s DNA shawlette. I ended up taking some liberties with the pattern as I wanted to use up all the purple possible. I ended up with about 6 inches of yarn left. But, the repeat was not complete. I can’t care, I just wanted to keep that color in my life. This brings me to 73% of my yearly goal now.

I’ve got good and bad news. I am working on I See Spring for Miss Butterfly. When last you heard about it, I had run out of yarn. I tried to buy a yarn from destash assuming it matched, without having the ball band on hand. It didn’t match at all. So, one skein added to my stash that I want to knit up before the new year. Then, Miss Butterfly and I decided to peruse Webs yarn site to see if we could find something that would work as a color block. We picked 2 greys and couldn’t decide between them. And we picked another turquoise color hoping it would be correct. We just didn’t want to run into an issue, we figured we’d make SOMETHING work. Again, I thought I threw out the ball bands so I couldn’t actually remember what particular color I needed to purchase. And I was pretty sure I’d purchased the yarn on closeout years ago anyhow.

I went into the basement to wind more yarn only to realize that I hadn’t ever thrown out the ball bands and I had it in my power to figure out what color it was. Actually, I’d made Miss Butterfly wind that yarn, and so it’s no surprise she didn’t clean up after herself. So that’s when I knew that whatever was going to show up in the mail was NOT what I had used for the rest of the sweater. That’s ok, I had grey choices for color blocking.

Then the yarn arrived. And the turquoise color was pretty close to what I was using for the main body of the sweater. Miss Butterfly and I agreed that if we incorporated it in, it would be fine. Miss Butterfly wound the yarn and I got to knitting.

Now, at some point, I had decided it was time to make dinner, so I got up and made dinner. I thought to myself “I wonder what Rose is up to?” but I didn’t follow up since she’s been so good lately! When I had finished dinner, I took a look in the living room to find Rose sleeping nicely on her bed just where I left her. Yay! But then I looked at my chair. She’d gotten into the new ball of yarn and destroyed it.

So, I spent last evening salvaging what I could of the new yarn and trying to incorporate it into the sweater. At least she didn’t destroy the sweater! I am now knitting 2 rows or slightly less and then adding the next tiny ball of yarn. I am GOING to get this done! I have one final ball of yarn that’s a bit larger than the rest for the bind off since no one wants to add a new ball of yarn during a bind off. I am more than halfway done with the bottom band. Cross your fingers!

And now I have 2 greys and a tealish color to knit into something before the end of the year so that it doesn’t have to go in stash and be counted for next year’s goals. I will have to do some pattern hunting soon. But first, FINISH I See Spring so Miss Butterfly can wear it and I can get another project in before the end of the year!

But, before all that, I need to go run errands and get some cleaning done. Then it’s relax and knit time!

Just a Small Thing

November 19, 2018 / shellssells / 3 Comments

In an effort to remove yarn from my stash, particularly yarn that isn’t accounted for on Ravelry, I decided to knit a little Sweet Baby Cap. I knit it in the size for a 1-year-old, but don’t have a baby to demo it on, so it looks a bit flat.

I really enjoyed this knit! And I’d absolutely knit it again. If I can get a photo of the cap on a baby, I’ll share it. It looks sweet and warm and the gradient yarn is interesting. This brings me to 70% of my yearly knitting goal. The quick knit was very helpful!

My vacation has been going pretty well. I’ve been accomplishing most of my goals. On Thursday I deep cleaned the kitchen. On Friday I deep cleaned the dining room and hallway. On Saturday I spent the day with Mr. Ink, went to visit Miss Marja, and I did my normal weekend chores. On Sunday I deep cleaned the living room. Today is bathrooms, tomorrow our bedroom, and then Wednesday is cooking/baking in prep for Thanksgiving dinner.

There have been lots of other little chores to get done as well, and those are going a little less perfectly. But they’ve been going. Knitting though, that has been getting done. As well as a little bit of spindle spinning! I’ll have to show that off at some point too.

Miss Butterfly spent the weekend with her dad and stepmom. She had a great time with them. And then she arrived home, thrilling the dogs. Rose was so happy her human toy had returned and I took a series of photos to show how they greet each other.

Rose does a snorffling inspection, and then immediately tries to play with her hair. It’s a thing, they do this all the time.

That’s it for today, but I’ve got YET ANOTHER finished object to show off tomorrow!

Finally

November 16, 2018 / shellssells / 4 Comments

I am finally getting around to posting the Close To You shawlette. This was one really pleasant knit, and one I’d knit again in a heartbeat if I felt I had the perfect yarn for it.

I love the handspun colors as well, the original fiber was from Dyeabolical yarns.

This brings me to 68% of my yearly goal of 40 projects. I am not there yet, but getting closer.

I have bad news about Miss Butterfly’s sweater. I got yarn I thought was correct through destash, but it wasn’t the right color. So, we went to a commercial retailer and got a couple of skeins, one of which might match, and the other two which we can use as a color for the bottom band and the sleeve bands. And then? I’ll have like 3 leftover colors I have to figure out what to do with adding to my stash! Ack! It’s ok though, I really do want to finish up that sweater for Miss Butterfly this year.

On the dog front, both dogs are back to normal mostly. Rose is FINE, and Lizzie’s eyes are still a bit runny but she’s not coughing and hacking up a lung. We’ve had a nice hard freeze and she’s much better for it. In fact, she’s been pretty funny. Now that her nose is working, she spends a lot of time sniffing around the house, as if all the household smells are brand new again. Can’t say I blame her, when my nose starts working after a cold, I feel quite amazed by it.

Rose decided to play fashion designer while in her kennel one day, getting hold of one of Mr. Ink’s shirts and making it a bit more avant garde. She’s certainly still a puppy, and each time these things happen I do notice that no one has seen fit to add something to chew on to her kennel. It’s the price Mr. Ink pays for not adding something to DO.

But all in all, we are seeing way less bad behavior with this gal, despite the fact she’s on the couch here. She’s on the couch because sometimes Lizzie gets on the couch, and she thinks she has to do what Lizzie does. But, what we aren’t seeing is shoe chewing, sock chewing, knitting project chewing, blanket destroying, etc. It’s great to be able to walk out of a room and realize that I won’t walk back in to a disaster. It frees up my time a bit as well, I can get more done around the house without having to be checking in on her constantly.

And with that, we are seeing more good and sweet behavior. We get to enjoy all the hound snuffles and sweet kisses and cuddles from the sweetest and quietest hound dog you ever did meet!

This is day 2 of vacation. I got the deep cleaning of the kitchen done, including removing everything from drawers and cupboards and wiping them down. What a chore! But it looks so nice and clean now! Miss Butterfly had a few friends over for a firepit last evening as the weather was more pleasant than it has been. They were friends I hadn’t met yet, but are very nice young ladies. Miss Butterfly has a very severe low tolerance for drama (though like her mother, she loves to watch it from the sidelines) so she’s set herself up with a group of friends in HS that keep their drama to a minimum. I kind of love that!

That’s it from here. Today is dining room and living room deep clean day, plus bonus errands to run/doctors appointments, so I’d better get to it!

Giving Back

November 13, 2018November 12, 2018 / shellssells / 13 Comments

Guess what? Our dogs are finally on the mend. As you may remember, Rose’s digestive system took a real upsetting turn for a while, and we’ve been working on getting her back on track. Now that she’s mostly back on track, we are able to identify a few culprits. The puppy food was one, and she’s now on an all life stages food mixed with her special bland diet. We are working on getting her off the bland diet, but it may be the case that we’ll have to keep some of that around for her now, for when things go south. We were able to get her remaining puppy food donated to the rescue, and they were thrilled to have it.

We have also identified that Rose cannot have peanut butter. This is really sad because she very much loves to chew, and giving her a heavy-duty kong filled with her kibble and peanut butter and then frozen kept her occupied for very large amounts of time. I am going to try using yogurt to replace the peanut butter to see if that’ll be something her stomach can handle.

There will be no table scraps for this gal either, unfortunately. Lizzie of the iron stomach hasn’t had any issues in that respect but we are noticing that even fish bothers Rose, and throws her off.

So, we have to stay more strict with her diet, and then we get a dog that is happy. Here are some happy Rose photos.

These are tough to get because she’s generally moving quite fast when she’s looking particularly happy. That hound droopy face doesn’t lend itself well to happy looking photos.

Then there’s Lizzie, diagnosed with severe seasonal allergies. I’ve determined that it’s most likely the fall leaves or maybe the mold in the fall leaves that trigger her allergies. Now that we’ve got a good freeze going on, her allergies are starting to slow down, as is the coughing and sneezing associated with it. She’s not 100% and her eyes still need treatment, but she is doing MUCH better.

All that benadryl has her snoozing quite a lot. Since we are trying to avoid a ton of outside in the leaves time, I’ve been taking her everywhere I go in the car. This helps her boredom somewhat. But, she did get a walk yesterday in the cold and she was just thrilled to pieces to be out and about again!

Rose, lately, has decided that if Lizzie can hop up on my lap, she should be able to as well. Now, there’s a huge difference between a 27-pound dog and a 44-pound dog hopping up on laps. And they definitely cannot sit there together, much to Rose’s chagrin.

Here she’s quite annoyed because she thought she could join, and it didn’t work.

So, then she started to hop up on my lap before Lizzie could.

That’s what she’s done here. Trouble is, she can’t quite figure out what to do with herself once she gets on my lap. Sometimes she tries to put her butt on my shoulder, but naturally, that’s not too comfortable. Then she’ll wriggle all around trying to be comfy but never quite figuring it out, then will hop back on her bed having given up. She doesn’t understand that if she just lays down, she’d have exactly what she wants. She’ll get there though, she’ll get it figured out.

Rose is definitely settling in and growing up lately. It’s really really rare now that we have to tell her not to bite or shred something of ours. My slippers sit nicely on the floor near the door and she doesn’t touch them anymore. Just over 2 months in our home and she’s already become quite well adjusted. I am impressed.

Now, as you can tell, I adore our dogs. They are absolutely part of our family and we treat them as such. We feel SOOOO grateful to their rescue for saving them and allowing us the opportunity to adopt them. I’ve been getting more and more involved in the rescue lately. Since Mr. Ink doesn’t love the idea of fostering dogs, I feel the need to find other ways to help out. Miss Butterfly and I took the opportunity to help out with a meet and greet this weekend. You see, the rescue has a TON of puppies right now. Young puppies go in a pack and play during the meet and greet, but older puppies ready to be adopted have to be out and ready to meet. Naturally, one foster parent cannot handle the 5-8 puppies that might all be available. So, Miss Butterfly and I went and held puppies for the rescue.

It was fabulous! A ton of fun. The best part? We’d been talking to a family with 4 little girls all under the age of 8 who were looking for a puppy. They were such a nice family. They already had 2 dogs who are elderly and in failing health so they were looking to get a puppy for the kids. I knew whichever puppy went to them would be so loved. They had a hard time choosing but ended up with the biggest and most outgoing of the puppies we were holding. We volunteered on Saturday, and their adoption went through on Sunday! I was so happy! That puppy will have so much love in their home and so much attention from all 4 little girls who were incredibly gentle with all the dogs they met that day.

This is how I helped this past weekend. Who knows what next weekend will bring. I am itching to do a transport job, a road trip to bring puppies/dogs up from the south into our foster homes here. I got to ask for more details about that while we were at the meet and greet, and now that I know that I provide the vehicle and drive, while they pay for gas and provide the kennels, I know it’s something I could do. I just have to wait for the opportunity to present itself.

And that, I suppose, is your weekly dog update!

Rolling through the FOs

November 12, 2018 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I just keep those finished objects rolling off my needles! Maybe I can hit that 40 finished objects still! (I highly doubt it, but I am still shooting for the stars.)

I finished this ziggity zaggity scarf. It curls like I thought it would. But it’s still pretty. It’s short, which I hadn’t imagined. But it’s wearable. Just not the super large item I generally like in a scarf.

I am glad I got to use the handspun yarn though, it’s always pleasing to see how handspun knits up.

I have also finished the Close to You shawl that I showed off the start of last week, but I am still waiting on that one to finish drying. It was an extremely pleasant knit, and again, the handspun looks so pretty. I can’t wait to show it to you!

So, I began another project. In an effort to reduce my yarn stash entries on Ravelry to under 100 next year and keep them there, I am trying to knit up the stash that hasn’t been indicated on Ravelry yet. I began a Knitters DNA shawlette with a gradient yarn, and then I plan to work up a hat for a favorite 1-year-old in my life. I think that’ll cover the yarn that isn’t actually listed in my stash, plus the hat will be a fast knit adding to that ever so hopeful total of 40 projects this year.

And you may remember I am just a bottom band away from a sweater for Miss Butterfly and waiting on the yarn to arrive. I anticipate that’ll arrive this week. I am really hoping for a good color match so I can whip that project off the needles and get it photographed.

The great news is that I have a vacation beginning this week! That’s right, I am taking even longer off than I generally do for Thanksgiving. Here’s the thing, I was unable to take the amount off after the conference that I typically do and I’ve been running on empty (but catching up a bit) ever since. We are having company for Thanksgiving, and while that’ll be pleasant, it will NOT be restful. Plus, the house is at odds with how I enjoy it since the busy nature of my summer/autumn hasn’t left me with a ton of time for deep cleaning. That’s what I’ll be doing starting on Thursday. Deep cleaning, beginning with the areas that are “public” in our home. So, I just have to make it through Wednesday and then I’ll be happily staying home and cleaning the house, and sometimes running errands that have also been neglected during the nuttiness of this year. I bet the dogs are going to LOVE it!

That’s it from here today. Tomorrow, stay tuned for a dog-oriented post with pictures of…puppies!

Another new start

November 8, 2018November 5, 2018 / shellssells / 3 Comments

The knitting has absolutely been high on my list of things to do now that the weather has cooled. I started another project!

This is the same yarn that Rose got into and tried to destroy, but I was able to salvage. The pattern is called Close To You and I first discovered it while reading through my blog reader. NothingButKnit was making one and the combo of pattern and colorful yarn made me so excited to get started on one of my own!

I can’t say I’ve been disappointed. It’s a great pattern and also free! It only took me a repeat to “get the point” and I was able to knit away without a pattern from that point forward. This has been perfect knitting for me this week. Just plug away at something easy every time I get an opportunity to sit down and enjoy it.

Almost!

November 7, 2018November 5, 2018 / shellssells / 5 Comments

I’ve been working on a sweater for Miss Butterfly. I thought I had enough yarn. But, just in case, I decided to knit the arms before finishing the body of the sweater. I knit those sleeves over the weekend and began the body of the sweater using the final ball of yarn minus whatever small amount went into the second sleeve. What I then misjudged badly was the short rows that make the back of the sweater longer than the front. Lovely short rows which really make the sweater a nice piece, but do eat a lot of extra yarn.

I ran out of yarn. I ran out of yarn at the point which I should be making the bottom hem.

I checked out Ravelry, found someone with one skein left of the same color, and contacted her. I am hoping that I’ll be able to get a final final skein to finish up the hem. I am waiting to hear back at the moment. Miss Butterfly came home from a visit with her father and said: “OH WAIT, IS IT DONE?!?!!” I was so sad to have to give her the news that it was not.

But, she understands and doesn’t really want me to skimp on length either. Now we wait! I’ve identified at least one other person with the yarn on their trade/sell page, but that person has 5 skeins and I do NOT want another 5 skeins!

Should be a pretty cute modeling photo once this thing is complete though, I am crossing my fingers it’ll be fairly soon.

Very Pretty and a dog update

November 6, 2018November 5, 2018 / shellssells / 4 Comments

I do love when handspun yarn turns into a very pretty project. And that’s certainly the case for this lovely scarf I just finished!

Not only lovely but super wearable. Not at all the rather over the top colors I typically choose! I love how all the tones in here meld together beautifully.

Things have continued to be super strange at work, I’ve got yet another coworker with a very serious family issue going on who will not be able to get to work for the foreseeable future. Today it’s down to me and the gal that JUST had surgery, and she’s basically here but not fully functional.

Add to this that I’ve not felt well (better today!) and both my dogs have issues right now, and you’ve got someone who is really struggling. I’d set up a vet appointment to have Rose’s eyes checked. She had surgery on them before she came to us, and we needed to make sure that the surgery held. Before we even had an opportunity to get in to the vet, Rose began having tummy troubles. They continued getting more severe, and Mr. Ink and I continued to get less sleep because she had to go out repeatedly at night. This culminated in coming home from work on Thursday to a dog who had tried desperately to hold it for the 2.5 hours she was in her kennel but not managing it, and having an explosive issue in her kennel. Which is kept in our bedroom. Our bedroom closet. Where we keep our clothing.

Miss Butterfly had gotten home first and gotten Rose straight into a bath, but it wasn’t a very thorough one since Rose is tough to handle for a 14-year-old. The entire house stunk terribly, but Miss Butterfly had gotten smart and gone around opening windows and closing off our bedroom. I got Rose a second bath, and then Miss Butterfly monitored her going out needs while I began clean up duties which consisted of taking the kennel outside, cleaning up the floor, the bedroom carpet, the walls, and removing ALL of the clothing on Mr. Ink’s side of the closet that was hanging and getting that to the basement for a wash.

Then, I called the vet and ran to the vet office (thank goodness they are open until late!) to get her some super special, low fat, bland, prescription food. (Expensive, but WORTH IT at that point!)

Our vet appointment on Saturday consisted of confirming that Rose’s eyes are indeed doing JUST FINE and then coming up with a plan to transition her to food that doesn’t bother her stomach but is also not $40 for a very small amount. She’s now on the special food until next week as well as probiotics for the rest of the month and it’s making a HUGE difference. Then we’ll start to transition her to regular food, no more puppy food for that girl.

Then, I’ve got Lizzie. While I was at the vet with Rose, I set up an appointment for Lizzie who seems to have picked up another autumn respiratory illness. She’s been coughing terribly for more than a week now, and it’s not getting better. I was hoping she’d begin to improve as soon as I set up the appointment, but it’s not to be. She’s basically coughing from 2:30 a.m. straight through until I go to work in the morning. To say that we are sleep deprived right now would be a gross understatement. So, this month our dogs are very needy and very expensive! At the moment, it’s like having infants. Thankfully, that’s not the case regularly but right now we are stuck in a very tough routine. (That is now improving since Rose is back to sleeping through the night at least.)

Here are some cute dog photos to prove I still love them completely even though it’s been a rough week. First up-Rose after getting me up at 3:30 am after a night of struggles, but by 5 when I had no time to try to go back to sleep snuggled down in her blanket.

This shows you that she really wasn’t feeling great in general, she is typically pretty active in the mornings, quietly chewing on her antler or something.

Then, I’ve got Lizzie who didn’t deal well with the time change staring at me to try to convince me to let her eat already.

Then from this weekend-with Rose finally feeling better we got her to the dog park. We left Lizzie home much to her chagrin. Despite being sick, she does NOT want to be left out of anything. I gave her a nice full kong to occupy her mind while we were out. It had rained on Saturday, and it was quite cold on Sunday. The dog park was just extremely muddy. There weren’t too many dogs there, but Rose did manage to find a number of friends to run off her extra energy with. I felt super awesome because despite being a newer dog owner, I was able to give some helpful advice to other newer dog owners who were struggling with puppy behaviors. Most notably, FREEZE THAT KONG so it takes longer to get through! It was fun talking to the other dog families, and Rose is starting to get recognized. “Oh, my dog has played with Rose before!” which is really fun. Once home, Rose was about done for the evening. She woke up for dinner, but that’s about it. In this photo, she’s out so hard she’s drooling.

I took the opportunity to clip her toenails which she entirely does not mind when she’s nice and sleepy. Do you see all that leftover mud on those paws? I am so glad I’ve got at least one feeling better!

October Empties

November 2, 2018 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I can’t quite believe we are barrelling toward the winter holidays so fast! Another month has passed me by, and because it was so full of things that needed doing, it flew faster than I imagined.

I took photos for my October empties this morning. However, I’ve got both dogs sick, one of them with digestive issues, and I’ve been up since 2:30 a.m. and completely forgot to add a few things to the empty pile. I’ll have to add them at the end of this month.

I am starting with the types of things we used up in the shower. These were all larger items except the Lush product and they all took us quite a long time to use. They just happened to finish up last month.

From left to right.

Oaty Creamy Dreamy from Lush, a shower cream. I liked the more hydrating nature of the shower cream, but this one had an undertone of scent I didn’t love. Miss Butterfly didn’t love it either. It wasn’t hard to finish up, but we won’t repurchase.

Vasanti Brighten Up exfoliating cleanser. This was my product and I used it about every other day. I did love this. When I work through my other physical exfoliants, I may consider repurchasing, depending on the price. I believe I got this in a fab fit fun box, and I am surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Marianella body caviar. I’d buy this again in a heartbeat if I had the money for it, but I don’t. It’s a really luxurious product. The scent was amazing, really rich and spicy, and that scent really lasted on the skin. I’d use this every day for a very long time if I could. This was another fab fit fun offering and it totally hit the mark.

Clinique purifying charcoal gel cleanser-this one was used by me but mostly used by Miss Butterfly. It seems to work nicely on her dry but slightly acne prone skin. It worked great on my skin too, it’s a very nice product. We are trying a CeraVe cleanser for her now, but after that’s gone we’ll discuss what is working best for her skin. It may be a repurchase.

Briogeo Roscaro conditioner-I adore Briogeo hair products, especially the hydrating ones. I’ve got another of their conditioners in my shower now, but when that’s gone I’ll probably get another one of these. Definite will repurchase.

Now for the other products:

These are all more of a smaller to sample size nature. I’ll work left to right again.

Wander Beauty baggage claim eye masks-I finished up these this month and I don’t need to repurchase. I don’t really care for them at all.

A sample of Clinique dramatically different moisturizing lotion-we already regularly use this in our home so using this up didn’t tell us anything new. We repurchase this on the regular as it works for Miss Butterfly’s skin.

Dr. Dennis Gross C+ collagen deep clean-I enjoyed using this sample size but won’t repurchase. It’s a bit heavy, I only used it at night. It’s too expensive to repurchase it but it’s nice to have tried it out.

Sunday Riley Tidal brightening enzyme water cream-I liked this product quite a lot, but I think I really get similar results from my belif aqua bomb, so I’ll stick with that more inexpensive version.

Below those is a Rimmel lip liner that I hated. But, it paired well with the Maybelline Nude matte lipstick nearby that I was working on fully finishing this year. I am glad they both seem to have finished up at the same time and I can get them out of my stash. I won’t be repurchasing either of them.

There are two nailpolish top coats. One has too little left to keep using and the other got left open one too many times and has dried out to the point of no longer being useful. (Miss Butterfly has a tendency to leave it open and then I’ll walk into the craft room later and want to holler about it. Hollering doesn’t help.)

Finally, I have two sample sizes of hand cream or body butter. I have decided that I really like a fairly neutrally scented or unscented hand cream. The moment it becomes something with a lot of scent, I feel like it doesn’t work as well for me and also I never find the scent overly pleasant.

And that’s all I am showing off as empties this month. I expect that as I begin to wander away from subscription boxes and the smaller items that they contain, I’ll also be wandering away from particularly large empties posts. Though it is strange how the samples tend to accumulate even so. I am down one box already, and will continue to phase them out. They have been really fun, and I definitely don’t regret having them, but I have amassed a lovely collection of makeup and skincare now, plus I feel strongly that they served their purpose in identifying a number of products I really like and would like to actually continue to use long term.

What have the dogs been up to?

November 1, 2018October 31, 2018 / shellssells / 6 Comments

It’s probably of little interest to most, and a ton of interest to me. But, here’s what my dogs have been up to since the last post of a similar nature.

Rose was spending her evenings laying on my legs at bedtime, and I decided it must be a problem of having a too small dog bed. She grew considerably in her first month with us and really had to curl herself in a seriously small ball in order to fit the bedroom dog bed. So, I moved the living room bed to the bedroom to see what would happen. She very happily took to that arrangement which allowed me a lot more sleep of my own.

Now, with the weather turning, Lizzie is spending more time using a dog bed, so when I went to repurchase a dog bed for the living room I figured I’d get one large enough for both dogs. I wasn’t sure that they’d both use it at once, but I wanted to prepare for that. Miss Butterfly and I went to the store and bought the largest dog bed we can find. I might have overshot it….

But, Rose took to the new bed immediately, even playing her pretty pretty princess game, where she pretends she cannot possibly get the toy that’s 2 inches away from her nose, and whines for us to get it for her.

So goofy and cute!

Turns out, the large dog bed was super fun for other reasons. We fit on it! Her humans!

In fact, there are moments I wonder who I bought that dog bed for.

Well, I got the dog bed on a Tuesday night. By that Sunday morning:

Mission Accomplished.

I have always been an early riser, sleep in the mornings does not come easily to me. Mr. Ink and I have managed to cobble together a decent routine, if Rose needs to go out at night he will be the one to take the dogs out. But if they want to get up early, that’s on me. Generally, by the time the dogs want to get up, I am already awake. But, having the company of the dogs in the morning has been really pleasant. I’ve got my morning routine down, and then once they’ve had breakfast the dogs generally settle in for quiet time as well. Lizzie will steal Rose’s spot and blanket for more snoozing, and Rose will play relatively quietly on the floor.

Just picture me with coffee and knitting nearby and that’s how my weekend mornings work.

This weekend we visited Rose’s foster family as they’ve just taken in a new foster dog and wanted to meet up. She’s so much more confident than she was, and her foster family was just amazed over it! In my own brain, I need to stop thinking about her as a timid and fearful dog and move her to the category of curious yet cautious. Last evening as I was walking with her, through Halloween decorations and people dressed up, I realized that she wasn’t that upset by them. Less than 2 months ago she’d barely walk on a leash, and each walk was a nightmare because if she got scared she’d either sit and not move or she’d try to slip her collar and hide under shrubbery. There was that one moment where I had to pick up and carry a 37-pound dog because she just couldn’t get over her fear. That is NOT the dog that we have now, thank goodness!

Speaking of poundage of dogs, in the first month at our house, Rose put on 7 pounds and quite a bit of height. The dog we’d been told probably wouldn’t top 40 pounds by the vets ended up being 44 pounds at her one month check-in. Naturally, I was a bit concerned she’d put on another 5 pounds this month, but we did a weigh in last evening and she’s still at 44 pounds. Maybe she just had a last-gasp growth spurt in our home? She’s in her 10th month of life now so I can hope….

Of course, we also did a bunch of time at the dog park over the weekend, and I grabbed a few photos of that. It was a lovely day, we were out of the house for most of the day. It’s hard to catch Rose when she’s running, but I can take a photo of her when she’s gotten a little tired out.

Here she is having gotten a little exhausted, chilling with a stick. Miss Lizzie does dog park a little differently:

She prefers to take a nice long walk, and then chill out and watch the action.

The best part of dog park days happens on the way home:

When Rose, complete with a muddy nose, can’t even remotely keep her eyes open anymore.

And that’s it for dog stories this week!

Suzy Sells Sea Shells

Month: November 2018