Month: April 2013

Guess?

~ Life of Momma B ~ Leave a comment

Previously I have shared about some of the misadventures that we have had moving to North Carolina. (See What is wrong with this picture?) But the fun continues!  My current frustration is poorly labeled boxes.  I am thankful that my hubby’s new company paid for movers, but they definitely do not care about my stuff.

When the 3 packers descended upon my house I was not able to watch all of them at the same time.  Many of the boxes are labeled “GUESS”. No, I am not making this stuff up. When I first saw these boxes I just scratched my head, and tried to remain calm. “Why would you label a box GUESS?  I have come to realize that the workers could not spell. This is their attempt to spell GUEST. They also labeled some of the breakable items at “FRAJILE”.  For the sake of political correctness, I will not comment on their nationality, but…

I was happy the day my husband found my label maker.  It is one of the those little toys that I love. I have owned mine for about 3 years now. I never thought I would get much use out of it, but it is an organizers friend.  I have been working on re-organizing my pantry. My current pantry is about 1/2 of the size of the one I had in Texas, so space is at a premium.  My previous containers for dry goods were square and did not sit well on the shelf. The tapered sides created a lot of wasted space. I have updated them to a nice set of Rubbermaid. And they are all labeled 🙂  Life is getting back in order.

Get organized

If you are interested, I own the Dymo LetraTag Plus LT-100H.

Fingerless Mitts

~ Life of Momma B ~ Leave a comment

For those who have been with me over the past 2 months, you will know that I decided to make a gift set for my niece whose birthday is in March. It began with a simple scarf in her favorite color. Next, I tackled doubled points and made a basic hat. I figured that no set is complete without a pair of gloves.

Gloves, I may be crazy, but I am not insane. With my limited knitting experience I knew better that to tackle a pair of gloves. I have not even looked to see how you would make those little fingers. But I had seen a better option on Pinterest – Finglerless Mitts. After looking several patterns I found that are 2 basic styles – A square that is sewn together, and those knitted in a tube. I opted for the tube style.

It all began with a pattern I found at My Jewel Thief Knits.  Missy Angus created a cute set with button flap embellishments. I opted to not include the button flaps, but used the pattern. The set is now complete.

Fingerless Mitts

Update: This weekend Madison came to visit. She told me how much she loved them, and wanted me to teach her how to knit. I guess I did okay.

Basic Hat

~ Life of Momma B ~ Leave a comment

Since I am taking a break from dishclothes and working on some different projects, I have tried my hand at a hat.  Remember that I only began knitting a few months ago (see First knitting project) and this is my first time to use double pins.  It took me a little while to figure it out. but after watching many YouTube videos, I set out to tackle a seemingly simple hat pattern I found at RedHeart.com.

I began with the same turquoise acrylic yarn I used in the scarf. While the pattern used multiple colors, I only used one.  The first problem I discovered was the count was off.  The instructions say to cast on 90 stitches, then for rounds 1-8 -P1, [K2, P2]. If you do this you will not get the pattern pictured.  If you use some basic math skills you will discover that one round is not evenly divided into 90 stitches, round 2 will create a staggered look and the ribs will not line up.  So I was forced to modify the pattern and ended with extra knits where the round ended.

I choose this pattern because of its cute beret style.  As you can see, mine does not look like that.  I had Lily model it and this is what I got.  For the record, Lily is 9 so I guess in order for the hat to flop, you would have to make the bigger size for her.

Basic Hat

Not quite the look I was going for, but it is finished.  I learned a lot from this project.  I also made a set of wristlets to match so stay tuned.

I’m back!

~ Life of Momma B ~ Leave a comment

While I have been away the “Life of Momma B” has been busy. First and most importantly, I have a new laptop! This means I will return to blogging so get ready, I have several posts that I have been saving. This also means I have had to learn how to use Windows 8.

For those who have not had the JOY of using it (and I use the term very loosely) you are in for a real treat. As I have stated before I am not overly technical. I consider myself an average computer user with a decent education, but what was Microsoft thinking when they created this.  In my opinion they tried to combine an operating system for a tablet, with its apps, with the existing Windows system.  Closing apps is difficult. I should have realized it would be bad when Windows had to include instructions on how to use the operating system.  I seriously dislike Windows 8. Why did I get it you ask… All of the new laptops come with it so if you are planning on buying a new PC in the near future get ready.

This past weekend my brother-in-law came to visit. He is a techy nerd to the fullest (and I am thankful he is, every family needs one). He is a computer programmer and has lots of experience with technology as a whole. He had not had a chance to try Windows 8 yet, except in the store demo and I was encouraged to find him shaking his head in frustration at the thing.  This means that it really is not me, but the system.

Well, for now I will stop rambling about my opinion of Windows 8 and will return shortly to update you on my projects.