IKEA, UKEA

So begins my latest adventure : assembling IKEA furniture. Now, this seems simple enough, right? I mean, after all, that's what these pieces are designed for is do-it-yourself assembly. Seems reasonable enough that a college graduate with a brief background in Physics would be able to figure these things out, right? Well, eventually I will, but here's the rub: for those of you who are not familiar with IKEA, I will tell you where the problem comes in. Most things that are assembled at home include instructions like our old favorite "Insert Tab A into Slot B" complete with illustrations to show you exactly where Tab A and Slot B are in relation to the rest of the disassembled pile of stuff you have sitting before you. Not IKEA. IKEA instructions have nothing BUT illustrations. That's right - no words at all, just weird looking people with no necks & smiley faces pointing to little screws that are all different, but only subtly so that it is highly challenging to determine if you are inserting Tab A into Slot B, or if what you are actually doing is sticking Post X into Hole Y. To make things even more fun, it seems that when you finally do identify the correct piece that is depicted in the illustration and perform the prescribed operation upon it, in the illustration immediately following, it is facing a completely different way. This leads you to either flipping and turning oddly shaped, partially assembled pieces awkwardly, hoping that they stay together in the process, or doing a strange tribal looking rain dance, hopping around your furniture-piece-to-be like a shaman.

I got the center piece and the sort of "skeleton" of the drawers put together last night after leaving work at 6pm, coming home to feed, bathe, and put 2 small children to bed, helping my 16-year-old niece with her homework, running to the store to gas up my car and buy a loaf of bread, getting 16-year-old to help me unload all this heavy stuff from IKEA and haul it upstairs, moving the stuff that previously occupied the spot that the new dresser would now reside, sorting through the hardware & unpacking all the pieces. By the time I began actually assembling something, it was 9:30. I was quite proud of how much of it I did get accomplished in one day.

My husband's query when I spoke to him this morning: "So did you get the dresser piece built last night?"

I may kill him when he returns from Mexico.

Loose threads, and a new year

I spent yesterday finishing my remaining knitting projects and kicking myself because I needed less time to finish them than I thought I did. I am a lazy git.

I have a few new surly things in my head, I want to learn how to do granny squares and make a ridiculously old school blanket from them, and then, for further inspiration there is this.

If that doesn't give you some ideas for stuff to do then I can't help you.

I am totally going to collage some shoes. I have modge podge and EVERYTHING.

what is this thing called free time?

I am very impressed by those who are committed to all handmade gifts this season.

Obviously none of them work for catering companies.

just one more bite, maybe...

...er, maybe not. This one has gone BAD.

Where did these things come from anyway?

The bathroom mirror in our house is dynamic. Since we have such weird work/sleep/life patterns, we find ourselves with things we would like to share without waking each other up. And so, there is the dry erase marker. Luckily, he is as bored with the idea of knitting sweaters as I am, so he has no problems with the bookshelves becoming overrun with weird critters. In fact, I have pressed him to contribute, and so the mirror gives me fun projects. Sometimes, though, I'll get a proper sketch:

And that is just all the more frustrating because, dammit, he's pretty good with a pencil and I've been just making this stuff up as I go along... (Patterns, what happened to using patterns?) But I take my best shot.
I totally dig the eyebrows, but could never do this again because I have no idea what I did. Regardless, the quadtropus.

Apparently I am making a giant eyeball next. (Also for the record, totally doing crochet with round stuff and knit with straight because I haven't figured out how to crochet a square.)

Yeah I finished something

Close up of the pattern




All right gals look and behold I finished a quilt! Woo Hoo for me. Granted it is only a baby sized quilt for my older brother's first child, but I am excited I have been able to finish one project completely since the birth of my little one. It took me a week to complete it with most of the work taking place over this past weekend. Why the rush now you may be thinking, well the baby had decided to come early so I had to finish this sooner than later. Hubby watched the little one while I was in my sweat shop for the weekend.

My younger brother wife is pregnant with their 1st and that baby is due in May...I think I will start that quilt now just in case :)

PS I have even crochet a little more of my blanket...sigh one day it will be done.

Mochimochiland is having a photo contest...

... should I enter the deviant beet? I'd probably reshoot the picture, but hey, the name "beet of my heart" is soo very perfect to ensure they knew what I started from.