I’m Alive

Life can be crazy some times!  Last time I was here I was talking about making it back from China.  Unfortunately when I came home I went to turn on my trusty iMac and it instead wanted to pretend it was a spaceship.  It would not boot up, but the fan inside would run really loud.  This made me extremely sad, especially since it had been a few months since I backed up (I know, I know).

So as I am working on getting back to work and recovering from my trip I was dealing with this computer issue.  We took it to the mac store and as I had guessed he said the hard drive was broken.  boo.  But this meant Joel got to go to the storied Fry’s for the first time.  It made him happy, we bought a new hard drive, yay!  Now for seeing what I had lost.  It took Joel some time to get everything hooked up, but I think I pretty much have everything recovered.  Score!  There was a scare when we went to copy all the music from my ipod to my new hard drive and I thought it was going to delete it all, but we overcame that one!  So now my computer is about 75% back to normal, there is still work to do but it is useable again.

Now, I have some finished projects to show off!

I finished the baby blanket.  This is Vanna’s Choice from Fred Meyer.  I really like this yarn, it is a very soft acrylic so great for the baby blanket!

I have also finished my wrap with the sparkly multicolor handspun!  It started out as this batt

Which I spun into this yarn

Which became this wrap

I am in love.  It is so soft and light and sparkly!  But it is very warm too, which is great.  I love that it is so colorful and that makes it more everyday and casual.  And it is long!  Like 9 feet tip to tip I think?  It was scalloped edges because I am too lazy and cheap to get blocking wires, and it looks fun!  Here are a few more photos for your enjoyment.

Oh, and I wanted to tell you about the gardens!  Last you saw there was no dirt in the new beds.  Well last weekend we finally got a load of dirt delivered (just as we were getting a large rain and hail storm).  It rained all week which helped the dirt settle.  I added in some extra nutrients based off a soil test and then yesterday I planted!  Yay!  A lot of my starts didn’t do so well, I think I moved them around too much and that they needed a bit more light.  Next year they will stay in one place and I will probably get a grow light for them.  So now the vegetable beds are all planted.

The strings are where I planted things in rows, so I can make sure they grow in straight lines, and help me if there is any weeding needed in the early stages.  Oh, and speaking of growing things, check out our rose bushes!  Keep in mind I pruned them back significantly, they were well below the bottom of the windows about a month ago.

Yay Portland!

Oh, and another thing, I am going back to China and Hong Kong tomorrow!  I know, I know.  It is necessary.  The positive side, more knitting time and it will keep me from looking every 5 minutes if more seeds have sprouted in the garden  More adventures to come!