Stuff

You should see how cute Carrot looks right now. It's 12:30 and she has been sleeping for around 2 hours. Ratty sleeping though, with one eye slightly open in case she misses something. She is all snuggled in a blanket on the furry cushion next to me. I swear this is what it will be like if I ever have a baby.

She got re-glued at the vet yesterday and overnight she has been picking at one of her bottom stitches, in the worst place really. If only there was something we could do to stop her picking at them! We even covered them in Baytril (meds) because she WILL NOT eat Baytril (unless it is hidden well in yoghurt!) But she even licked that off. I dont know what else to do except watch her constantly

So I am on supervision duty today (yay because its raining) and Morven has gone out to buy shelves and food essentials (not wine, we are poor :( ) and superglue for Carrot.

I had such plans for today. There was going to be gardening, since I have 2 rose bushes and a ton of bulbs to plant as soon as possible. Instead, i'm going to make a foccacia/ciabatta so we can have homemade pizza later.

Oh, we got a new washer dryer yesterday. Despite telling Morvens mum that we did not want her to buy anything for us, she just bought it anyway. Grr! Anyway its pretty cool. Its brand new, but damaged (not much, a few scratches on the front and a dent on the side, but its guaranteed for a year), and it means we can actually wash more than one load a week. These modern economical washing machines take AGES to run a cycle though. This one has been on for just over 2 hours and the dryer is just about kicking in.

Oh and the guy who delivered it walked mud all over my red and white rug. Dammit! It cleaned up but I had to scrub, a LOT.

Sunday check in

So I had my doubters. And they were right. I'm not going to get a chance to do most of the things on my list.

Before the end of today I may find the Caron SS in lime green, as I was going to have a sort out. Then I will work on the binary hat and maybe start a space invader.

Last night I started making slippers since my feet were freezing. I finished one this morning (approx one hour in total) and have started the second one which should be done real soon. Pics to follow, pattern can be found here or on Ravelry.

I'm kinda irked at the moment as all our belonging have been dumped on us in the log cabin. This was never the plan, but someones mother is being 'difficult' again and has pretty much evicted us from her house. Fine by me!

So currently this place is a total mess, there is only one place to sit down, and thats in front of the Wii where Puzzlequest is being played in a procrastinationary manner.

I'm tired

Strike that, I'm exhausted.

My current days look a little like this:

6:30 alarm goes off
7:00 think about getting up
7:30 get up and dressed
8:00 leave for work
9:00 arrive at work, try to look busy
12:30 go buy sandwich - current favourite is ham, beetroot, salad & salad cream, no butter on brown bread
13:00 knitting/internet
13:30 return to looking busy
16:00 realise I ought to have done more today, work harder
17:30 clock off, continue working
18:00 knitting/internet
18:30 Morven comes and picks me up
19:15 arrive home, go straight to cabin, eat something quick
19:30 stain the god damned floors
22:00 go back to house, let rats out, sit, knit
23:00 take shower
23:30 fall into bed


I bought a mattress today for the sleeping area of the cabin. I didn't spend much because a: I don't have any money left, and b: its not gonna be slept on every day of the year so it didn't need to be amazingly expensive. It should be here Friday. Oh and Morven invited the Cabin people around Friday to take pictures, so tomorrow night we are painting the last of the floors and making it look more finished. Also, we're gonna sleep in there on the new mattress. My mum should be getting here at 2ish on Saturday. I still have to dig out and make the outdoor steps because if it rains, no ones gonna be able to get to and from the cabin. I'm gonna sleep so well next week.

Yay to weeks off work!

So anyhoo, im fully aware I haven't posted any pictures in forever. It will happen - one day.

The idiot list!

After reading Senora Fuerte's most recent post about how we make plans that are impossible to achieve, I thought I would share what my plans were as of leaving work on Friday afternoon:

• Buy floor varnish
• Buy fridge/freezer
• Have electricity working in the cabin
• Go to Swansea to collect sofas
• Pop into my favourite LYS whilst I was there
• Finish knitting a hat
• fit kitchen cupboard doors
• make bed (literally)
• find mattress to buy
• dig out steps
• make steps
• finish painting outside of cabin
• varnish internal floors
• clean bath and sink
• put frosting on bathroom window
• do all laundry
• move building stuff from front of cabin
• fit all trims inside cabin
• buy food

it goes on... What I actually achieved was:

• I bought floor varnish
• I have electricity
• I cleaned the bath
• I did one load of laundry
• I frosted the glass in the bathroom
• I collected sofas
• I fitted the kitchen cupboard doors.
• I bought enough food to make one meal last night.

The rest of the time was spent either driving, or just complaining that I ached so much.Oh and I didn't even call my mother on mothers day because I completely forgot! I did send her a card and present last week though. So I am forgiven!

The guise of 'Here is a van, go get the sofa's from Swansea', actually took 8 hours, since we had to take loads of stuff to the dump for Morvens mum. She didnt tell us this beforehand, and we had planned to get the sofas, get back as soon as possible, connect the electricity, and get some stuff done. Very annoying that we wasted the whole day.

My mum arrives Saturday, we are going to hope it doesn't rain beforehand, and we will work on the steps on the Saturday, otherwise the side of the cabin becomes a quagmire and access is impossible.

For all of you who read this because you want to see the knitting. Sorry, I have no photos. There has been limited knitting, and my wrist is currently strapped up, so there probably won't be any for a week or two

Lots of things...

This weekend we painted the cabin. It took 10L of woodstain, and it will need another 10L for the second coat. Also, its way more expensive that I had hoped, and its gonna be £100 for the lot. I also got paint for the trim and the gutters too.
We bought a sprayer because come on, its 15 x 21 feet around, and 8-12 feet high... It took us most of Saturday and then we ran out of stain and had to get more Sunday morning. And then it rained Sunday afternoon, so there is a bit that still needs painting, but its not really exposed to any elements so it can wait.
Whilst it was raining I spent about 4 hours sweeping. The builders had walked mud through the entire place, all the fresh wood floor was coated, and will most likely need to be sanded down and washed next week before I can stain and finish it. The kitchen cupboards have been butchered by said builders who were too lazy to make the pipes run UNDER the cupboards, and so there is copper and plastic pipework running through every single one of the kitchen cupboards. I have just about stopped swearing about that.
The bathroom sink was fitted backwards? The plug hole was at the front, and the rough side of the ceramic was at the front, with the shiny sides being at the sides and the back. Idiot. The builder also said that the sink waste with the automated plug pusher (stop me if you have no idea what I mean, and I will try and get a photo) wouldn't fit. Strange how it hadn't been taken out of the box then... And who knows, had he fit the sink the right way round, it might have fit! In fact it did! Me and Morven fit it properly.
I bought Vim today and cleaning stuff so I can make a good start next weekend. The electricity should be up and running by next Thursday.

Here is the panic! Today is Monday (pm). Electricity will be in on Thursday. This gives us one week and one day before my mum and sister come to visit, to see where I have lived for the last 18 months, and the cabin that me and Morven have built as our little home away from home. The plan is that we will all stay in the cabin for the weekend....
So one week, and one day to... Buy: Curtains, rails, floor wax/stain, mattress, fridge freezer, shower rails and curtains, food, chairs, cutlery.
Fix up:
Bed, sofa, kitchen cupboard doors, kitchen accessories, tables and cupboards
Paint:
Cabin (again), walls, floors, tables, chairs, cupboards.
Move:
LOTS!

Scary stuff!

Things I have done today.

• Realised my blogiversary went unmentioned on November 30th. Oops.
• Realised that the person putting the electrics in the cabin is a complete moron.
• Argued much with Morven regarding said moron.
• Realised there was really no point drawing up plans when they were completely ignored.
• Put off spinning ALL DAY because I was looking for something to fix the wheel with.
• Pulled out the last of last years leeks from the garden.
• Made Leek and Potato soup. Forgot to taste it so its a bit bland.
• Made tortellini (store bought) with a mackeral and tomato sauce (actually made)
• Looked for some cheap 2.5mm dpn's as some of mine have split.
• Successfully drugged Carrot twice. (Yoghurt is the key!)
• Knit almost a whole glove for Morven.
• Broke a tooth. It has been going for about a year and its now broken off and I don't have a dentist. Lucky the nerve isn't exposed or i'd be crying about now.
• Washed clothes, dried clothes.
• Washed my and Morvens dishes. Don't you just hate when people make a mess and then leave it for you? I used to clean the entire kitchen before I started cooking, but today I cleaned the space I need and moved all the crap out of the sink and just washed my own. Im not doing other peoples cleaning anymore

Oh and about the cabin - REALLY pissed off that there is dirt and footprints ALL over the floor when we have been careful to take our shoes off whilst we wait to get it sealed.

I think thats about it. I emailed a request to an outdoor adventure place about archery because Morven wants to go. And, um, yeah that is it, apart from browsing the internet. Fun fun! Tomorrow we are going to install the lights because that way the moron can't possibly get them wrong this time, and hmm, I dunno. Spin, and hope the day lasts forever so I dont have to go back to work on monday.

I have to go get a rat off the windowsill so I'd better call it a day.

Quick cabin update

All of the roofing beams are in now. I would have liked to have said we did that ourselves, but we did half of them before Morven remembered he is scared of heights, so our builders finished them off. The roofing boards go on today :) And if it happens quick, the slats, insulation, ply and tiles may just be on by tonight. I don't think it will be quite so finished, but they have all day to do it, so a lot may happen, and then they can get back to digging holes for the water and electric cables. I am feeling better about it. I spun my first skein of yarn. It broke in a couple of places so it has about 3 knots in it, but for a first attempt, I love it. It is currently drying on the radiator, but I will take pics soon. Next time I will ply a couple of colours together. I got about 85 metres from just under 50g of fiber (unless it was 100g - I will check when I post pics) In other big news, I got a spinning wheel :) Its a castle style antique oak one, from someone who used it as a decorative object, but assures me it worked when she bought it. We are going to pick it up this weekend. Sadly I know nothing about it although from what I was reading, i can work out that it is a single treadle and single drive. I know nothing about spinning wheels so if anyone can help, please do so :)

Another Saturday

One week on and we are almost there. It has been very difficult as we have been out at work from 7:30 am to 7pm every day. We bought a worklight and went out on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for a couple of hours but had to stop around 9pm before we got complaints from neighbours. We have been out today and just got in, its been raining heavy all day and we had to stop and come in a couple of times, but we DID get the first 2 roof beams on and tomorrow we are pretty confident we will get the other 3 up, depending on how hard it rains. Then the plan is to have the builders fit the roof early next week and then we will do the doors and windows next weekend (and floors). The water supply is being worked on and then the electrics can go in and there is still a minor fleeting chance that it might be ready for Christmas. I want us to eat christmas dinner in there if it is! Watch this space! I do have photographs and I will post them next time as I dont know where my camera is. Now I am going to have a nice hot shower and sit in my pajamas and spin with my drop spindle for the rest of the night. Im asking for a proper spinning wheel for Christmas (fingers crossed) as although I have only been doing this for about 3 weeks now, its very addictive and fiber is way way cheaper than yarn. A cashmere sweater from £9 of fiber? Thats about $18US. That is a bargain. I also think I will try a couple of blog competitions with my makings. Who knows. Anyway Im going to go fall into the shower.

Saturday

The Cabin is 90% up. We are all exhausted. It took 3 days to get the wood up to the foundations and we have been building for 3 days now. It was just me and Morven today and we got up to the storage area at the top (kinda like a second floor, but not). Tomorrow it is just us two again and we hope to get to the roof. We are pretty sure we are not going to get the roof on this week. The windows still need to go in too. Its been a very hard week, but yay its almost done and its very exciting.

The Cabin is Here! The Cabin is Here!

The Cabin is Here! It arrived on the back of a HUGE truck yesterday at 3:30 (90 minutes LATE - curse you M25!!) It. Is. Huge. It is in 7 pallet loads, 5 of which needed to be craned off the truck. There was one smashed window :( but we are going to put it in as it is and have someone come and replace in in situ. I dont have a picture of the truck as I took it with morvens camera, but here are the finished foundations... They are dry too! Woo!

Yesterday was awful. We knew it was going to rain - I think they said 'showers', but we got rain! Please note my new hairstyle in the first picture, of me all wrapped up warm ready for a day out doing manual labour.....

Please then also note the complete state of me after 3 hours standing in the driving rain trying to organise 4 men and a crane......

Not pretty! Did I mention it was about 2 degrees (C)?

So today is lifting day. We have to move the 5 pallets about 30 feet up in our garden :( Oh and there are only 3 of us today until Morven gets back this afternoon :(

More updates soon

Pictures!

Over the weekend I got some things done, but not everything I wanted to. I did pick my pumpkin, I made squash and fish hotpot, focaccia bread, I helped Morven make the sofa bed, I knitted a whole Monkey and almost half of a second one, and the car had (and passed) its MOT. Phew! Here are some pics: I won a competition at Senora Fuerte's blog and on Monday morning a package arrived containing 4 skeins of Cascade 220, 2 really nice smelling candles (you can't get nice ones here without paying a LOT), a postcard and some chocolated in a really cute little drawstring bag, which I plan to use as a project bag when I get over my sock knitting addiction. Here is the photo: I love it all and am so thankful that some people are so generous. I may just risk the dodgy christmas post and send something in return for the holidays. Here is the completed Monkey: The finished Pomotamus (there are 2, just not in the same picture): This is the hotpot type thing I made: which I had with focaccia, which doesn't really need a picture. I also made pumkin soup, and beetroot soup. The house arrives on Monday. It is touch and go as to whether the foundation will be ready. It has been frosty and a bit damp but fingers crossed it will be ok. The plan is to spend Monday moving it to the right place. Tuesday Morven has to take his mum somewhere so Wednesday the build will start and hopefully it will take 3-4 days and will have the roof on by the Sunday. We will then look at buying all the rest of the things for it, connecting the water and electricity, and then moving some stuff over there. We are planning LOTS of storage, computer desks, a small kitchen area, a sofa etc. It cannot come fast enough. I forgot how awful this house is in winter. The damp is rising and the mold is collecting on the walls around the window. Last year I cleaned it off every weekend but this year I can't be bothered. It isnt that bad at the moment, although I have a sensitive sense of smell so I know its getting there. We are going to have to move to the middle room soon, this one is at the end of the house and it just will not dry out. Tomorrow is payday - I already started my Christmas shopping and will do most of the rest of it tomorrow. I have the afternoon off work and a hair appointment booked for 1. I havent had a haircut in about 4 years so it should be good. This ending feels a little abrupt but I dont have much else to say, so bye and thanks for reading

Stuff

Generic weekend - We bought tyres and brake pads, carried wooden pallets to the house to make into a sofa bed, I knitted some sock, found the perfect fabric to cover the sofa, but they only had 3 meters, I needed 8. Bought some cheap wine on Saturday, it was really not good. Im really sick of looking at kitchens, carpets, fabrics and all other kinds of stuff for the cabin. It could potentially be a house in a couple of years so we want all this sorting out now - but this is dragging on. I just want to make some jewellery on my jewellery desk which is currently 180 miles away. I want to go over thereon weekends, make some breakfast without having to make smalltalk, play house a little, wash some clothes, and generally do what I want. I want to move in! But alas, not possible. It will be a good 90% of the time place though. the second Pomatomus is about 90% done, I just have about 10 rows of pattern and then the toe to do, Im excited because they are so nice and comfy and they havent taken too long at all. Im tempted to make another pair, but im going to do the monkeys instead. I spent friday night looking at my stash and thinking I could make something, but I havent made anything yet, and probably wont until the monkeys are finished. Im going to the gym again today, I enjoyed it on Friday, and I plan on going 3 times a week whenever im in work. Im going to go in a few minutes, im just organising my ride first. Thats all.

Happy Holidays?

Hello faithful reader, today I would like to talk about celebrations. It just seems to me, that English people celebrate a whole load of holidays that they don't understand. (Ok, not all English people, and not JUST English people, but many.) For example.... Christmas is Jesus/Santa's Birthday, or a damn good excuse to get pissed, eat as much as possible, throw up and spend the next day sleeping/unconcious. Halloween is about threatening people that you will do stuff to them if they don't give you sweets, although its more about money than sweets these days, and Bonfire night (November 5th) is an excuse to set fireworks off for 3 months solid, at all hours, burn things, damage people and property and generally piss people off. Its a shame really, because all these holidays are ruined by people who give in to commercialism, the kind of people who buy their little brats the best (see: popular) new toys which are broken before 1st of January. Am I stereotyping? Maybe. Anyway. News. We have delayed the cabin arrival until Monday 19th November. Because of the weather, its been difficult getting the foundation materials to the site, and so we are a few days behind. This actually works out better, because we are taking a whole week off work and in theory, we should be in by the following weekend. (yeah, nice theory) We are also not worrying so much about money, as there was leftover budget to buy carpet, the kitchen, electrics and lights etc, so we just have to save up for the little things. Carrot is doing really well, although I think Pea may have bitten her today as she seems to have a small wound on her belly. She is ok though and is currently nibbling TP - one of her favourite foods. I joined the gym on monday and went yesterday and today. I plan to go Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after work. Its a really quick workout but you do feel it, and I look forward to going. Hopefully I will have something to show for it soon. I will weigh myself over the weekend and cross my fingers :) My heartrate was pretty high so I have to be burning something. I have just turned the heel on Pomotamus number 2, and I am starting to lose interest, mainly because I havent looked at it for a couple of days. I will keep at it this weekend and hopefully have it done for Monday. I think I will try a Monkey with my homedyed yarn, but I am thinking about Christmas presents at the moment. I like the Via Diagonale at knitty.com and was considering making it from a self striping and a plain black mohair/acrylic mix, but im not convinced. I need to stop buying yarn for a while and use some of what I have, its just a shame I don't have much of anything nice. If anyone has any nice quick patterns for small amounts of yarn, please let me know. Before Christmas if possible :)

I Won!

I won yarn! I had forgot I even entered the contest on Senora Fuerte's blog so it was very cool to see that I won, and on the same day that I was looking at Cascade 220 in the sales! So yay! I don't have much of interest to say, I have worked all week, and STILL not been to the gym, although it is a definite plan for monday. I wanted to go today and had all my stuff, but then it got late and I worked until 6pm because I have tomorrow off to take Carrot to the vet for her final post-op. She has healed really well and we are going to let her sleep in her own cage tomorrow night with her sister. Ironically, the initial problem, which was pink scent marks, is still there, but the vet said that her womb was covered in oversized blood vessels, and she is so much more bouncy and lively now that I think the problem has been fixed. In knitting news I have barely done any. Although I HAVE resisted starting a new sock with my home dyed yarn so thats an improvement. I want to dye more yarn, but I only have grape Koolaid left, and you can't really find it over here, so I will wait until nearer Christmas and ask some friends over the pond if they would be so kind as to send me some greens, blues and more cherry colours. Not that I have any plans to knit anything in particular with the 2 balls of Lion Fisherman Wool, but I am sure I will be inspired when its dyed. I am looking forward to a nice weekend and I hear there is a craft fair nearby so I will try and find that. Morven is determined to find a decent market and I am going to buy more acorn squash to make soups again. I also bought a huge pack of bell peppers (capsicums?) to roast and make soup and other nice things to go with cous cous. I really cant wait until we have a finished cabin, with a nice cooking area for me to make soups and use all my garden veg. The foundations are not as stable as we thought though, and so its going to be an extra week or so of work to get it ready. We had another few ton of hardcore and sand delivered but the builders are having trouble getting it up the hill since its been wet lately, so we are currently very behind. The house arrives in 19 days - EEP

Writing for the sake of it.

I often feel that I should write more, but to be honest, I dont usually have that much to say. I like to sit and listen (or read in blog terms) more than actually add to the conversation. I suppose there are a few bits to update. I just picked another marrow, the last 4 beets, a ton of carrots and chard from the garden. The pumpkin were taking over so I cut them back too. The foundations for the cabin are coming along. This is really happening now. We paid the deposit yesterday, added a foot to the roof height, and made one opening a little wider. Its on its way - 6-8 weeks from now it will be here! I'm scared that something is going to go wrong - worried I guess. There is no reason that we should be breaching planning laws but I still have a niggling doubt. Its not over 4 metres high, its not within 20 metres of the public highway - I cant remember if its meant to be under or over 10 metres from the house, but whichever, we do comply. So its just worry. I have been taking my mind off it by pricing up Ikea kitchens using their planner tool. I can get everything we want for £530. Plus we need to buy a stove but I was going to Freecycle for it or check the papers for something used in decent condition. If all else fails, I will put it on my Christmas list, or me and Morven can get married just for the gift list lol. I really wanted the red kitchen, but I decided on the gloss white version of the red kitchen. The red one meant I would have to buy red filler pieces and end panels which just adds to the cost. So white it is. Oh yeah, we will need some tiles for the back walls too but I will ebay for those. I have also been knitting today - I frogged a bag and decided to make a hat - later - and I have been working on a lace scarf because I need to finish something in the hope that it will motivate me to make something else. And the annoying thing here, is that I wanted to take pics so I could post them tonight, but my phone ran out of charge, so I couldn't. I have washed all the vegetables and left them on the drainer, so providing they are still there tomorrow I will try to remember to take some pics. And the scarf will get a new pic when its finished. In the meantime it is on my Ravelry projects page (xampx) if you have your invite. One last thing. I got my postcard from my Mum today. She got back on Monday LOL. She has been to Salou in Spain? for 2 weeks - only £350 ($700) for a 4star hotel. I wish I could go somewhere like that, but I can't afford the £60 for a passport :(

Where is my house?

Well - the old concrete building that we are knocking down to build our cabin, kind of well, fell down when our builder tried to take off the roof.

When we first moved here we contemplated doing it up. Im glad we didnt.

Our log cabin gets ordered tomorrow with a lead time of 6-8 weeks. I have my fingers crossed for a warm dry November. We are currently in discussion with the company about delivery. They wanted to send a huge lorry (truck) but we are doubting that they will be able to unload it. And the worst part about this whole thing, is that if we cannot (and we most likely cannot) get some kind of crane to lift the wood to the building site, then we will have to carry a whole cabin full of wood, piece by piece, up, this.... (this doesnt quite show how steep the hill is)

and then up this...

Yay us.... :(