Busy As A Bee

That's what I've been the past few days. Honey was actually home this weekend, so that meant we needed to catch up on projects around the house & what-not.

The big project was that we finally got round to striping and staining the deck! It was 3 days of work, but it's finally done and looks pretty good considering we are rank amateurs! :)

Here are some project pics

Before

During

After

The last photo shows the stain as darker than it actually is. I believe that's because the sun isn't quite as bright today.

I did get some knitting done as well. I've just finished the gusset and am a 1/4 of the way through the foot of the second Sockapalooza sock. I'm still on the first skein of yarn too, which means I may have enough left over to make a 2nd pair!
I also finally decided to rip out the Folk Jacket that I had started knitting for my mom back in February of last year. I had finished the back and 1 front piece, then I lost the pattern. I ended up purchasing a second copy of the pattern a few months ago, but realized that my mom has gained weight since I started the sweater and it will no longer fit her. And I don't have enough yarn for a larger size.

However, the beautiful yarn will not go to waste. I will be taking the main color yarn...
And knitting this for my niece.

Wheat-Ear Cable Yoke from
Summer 2007 Interweave Knits

Considering that she is only 9 and, surprisingly, smaller than the model, I am going to have to do a fair bit of math to convert the pattern to her size. It looks like the pattern is sized in increments of 5", so it should be fairly easy to size it down. She is tall for age and very slender, so I think this will suit her perfectly!

Lastly, my dearest friends had their baby yesterday! I'm so insanely happy for them!
Welcome to the world, Declan!

Damn Swedes

As some of you know, we moved into our very first house last April. I love my home, but it is seriously lacking in closet space... to the point where I dread doing laundry because I have no place to put the clean clothes (yeah, that's why I hate laundry...). Honey & I have been meaning to pick up a wardrobe for a while now, but just couldn't justify the expense.

Well, this past Sunday we received an IKEA catalog with our paper. Inside there was this cute little wardrobe for $79.95.

Not really big enough to completely solve the problem, but if we got 2 of them it would certainly give us some breathing room.

So, off we trek to the Canton IKEA to see this solution to all our problems.. Only to find that it is not cute, in actuality it is pretty ugly & cheap looking. The center piece in the doors is made of a really cheap opaque plastic, and the whole thing is really very flimsy.

However, we were not discouraged. After all, IKEA is the land of cheap, stylish furniture... no?

Well, after searching for a while, we decided we should do the PAX wardrobe system. It's all components that mix & match and you can buy the interior shelves, rails & drawers as suits you. Perfect! And each piece is so inexpensive too! $24 here, $12 there... Damn those bastards, it adds up quick...

We came home with 2 narrow wardrobe pieces & 2 38" cabinets. All the storage that we will need.. and it only cost $700. Now, I know this is not that bad, but we were originally thinking of spending $250-$300 just to get us through!

So, we have spent the last 2 evenings putting it together.. and we are about half way done (we needed to stop for dinner & puppy breaks.. Oh, & 24!). We are hoping to have all the pieces built tonight & then will tackle the mounting to the wall thang tomorrow.

I will post pics of our wardrobe once it is up & tidy... and I get that damn charger.