December Knits

When December and the holidays hit, all I want to do is knit. You have no idea how badly during my wasted space time I want to just knit. I should start knitting at lunch. That might ease the tension of the addiction ;-).

Just look at my Luna Bum the last time I went out to a knitting night. She has gorgeous eyes that are not captured enough. But look how well they play off the colors of my knitting, the basket and the book for that matter! They are luscious.

Now some of you may be wondering what it is I am working on now, and some I could say proudly. My traveling project is currently my tosh socks with a pattern called Monkey. I do like them and cannot wait to wear them more. They are so close to being done. This is what is distracting me most. I need to get that project done before I can cast on the other projects I want to do. I want to make my handsome a pair of socks again, no worries, he never reads this, haha. BUT I NEED THE NEEDLES I AM USING!!!

Here we are after our Thanksgiving at my family's in Cleveland. I know I know, Pittsburgh native going there for turkey? Trust me, they're that awesome ;-).

The other projects I've been dreaming of are with just beautiful beautiful yarn. I want to do a cable hat in a gorgeous blue and green variegated yarn I picked up in Cleveland, Rivers Color Studios. They have a local dyer that I love because she basis the dyes off of locations. She hasn't dyed yarn in a while, so the selection was slim in that category. Her line is called Destination Yarns. But the other options they had were gorgeous. I caved with some Shibui. I don't want to give too much away because those yarns I got I want to make gifts for like now. My fingers cannot move fast enough and time just goes by so quickly.

I also must admit to my reading habits. I try to go to bed at a reasonable hour as well. I try, I really try. The sun just keeps getting up at a later time and he makes me made because I need his help in waking up!! But the book I've had for a bit but not enough time to enough is The Book Of Wool. For a knitter that loves wool and fiber as much as I do, and friends and family will understand this, this book is fabulous. It outlines the essence of the wool, what makes it up, why it's so good! People that shop at Michael's and Joann's, stop. I love crafting, they have great prices, but really, stop buying that acrylic yarn right now. It's not natural, it feels awful to the touch and just stop. It's so flammable!!!

I could go on too long with that type of rant so I will spare all of you now. The other reading that I must and want to accomplish is still my Harry Potter reread from the summer(I'm on the 4th book. We all know how big that thing is. Gosh. It's like carrying around my socks that aren't done yet... IT MUST BE DONE!! Haha). Work makes you a lot busier than I though, but now I want to read the Hunger Games series as well. I saw the Catching Fire midnight showing and oh boy, I think it's best I read the books now. SO GOOD! Go see it now.

Now I must leave you. I would like to enjoy the rest of my evening with some knitting, already had some hot cocoa, but Luna needs some more loving while I knit. She is a wonderful snuggle buddy, hehe.

Until next time,

<3 Carly

Carrot Soup & Some Insight

I don't know where I've heard this but what I've heard is Baseball is 90% negativity. I'm starting to think my life is about the same. Maybe not that drastic but Life in general has a lot of negativity.

Let's start with I am a recent college graduate. I lived on a wonderfully close knit downtown campus. You know just about everyone and enjoy all your friends down the hall, a few floors away or a block away in a very close building. The hardest thing to get together with your friends would be seeing who would be the one to truck it through the snow to get to the others place. Now I live in an apartment I rent in the outer suburbs of Pittsburgh. I do enjoy the location but friends (the ones I talk to), aren't always willing to truck it all the way out here. I live far.

Let's go to the other new basis of my schedule. I am used to taking 6 classes, usually 1 or 2 online, 2 or 3 at night and 2 or 3 during the day. My weekends consisted of Thursday night, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I never had a class that started earlier than 9:40 AM and my most common class met from 6-10 PM. Now my schedule is get up at 6:30 AM and be in the office until about 4 or 4:30 PM. Let's just say I'm not used to being a morning person in just 2 months. I think it takes longer. I love seeing the daylight, I love enjoying breakfast, these things take time and when I get up at 6:30 AM and hit the snooze, it just doesn't feel like I'm enjoying it. I must stop hitting snooze. It's bad for you to hit snooze anyway. I have heard or read that as well.

The next part of my life what brought me to think of this quote. My job title is a Financial Adviser. I want to help people that are awful with money, don't know what to do with their money, or someone that truly wants help from a financial professional. I studied Business Economics and Finance in school and although it was heavily economically weighted, it is really what I want to do. The company I work for isn't like most Financial Advisers and I enjoy that aspect even more. Yet again, I am still in sales. This is the negativity part of the job. People realize that it is an important topic. People realize that it is a necessity to discuss or prioritize. But somehow people are not wanting to take action. Everyone has a different situation, but there are 2 guarantees in life; Death & Taxes. What I do can help prepare for both and help you save on losing less! I know that sounds crazy but talk to a financial professional and see if they say any different. It's true.

What I'm trying to let you see is that being a post grad is not a walk in the park. You are still figuring out who you are. If you have a job, that is great! I'm so proud of you =). I'm really proud of myself and I deserve to be! You deserve to be proud of yourself too! You did it! WE did it. It doesn't mean we're all fine and dandy though. There is still so much more life to live. We haven't figured it all out and we don't know it all. The only thing I do know is I am the only me out there and I am going to be the best me I possibly can. It may sound silly, but it's not. It's who I am =).

So when I get like this and don't immediately type it all out, I watch this. I'm not being funny, but you can make fun of me for it, I don't care, but it helps me.

Now this Carrot Soup I was really looking forward to. I peeled my carrots, got the pot ready with the broth and other goodies.

I let them all simmer and get warm for 20 minutes just as the recipe says. Then I realized the stove barely got the soup warm and the carrots were still very much uncooked. Just look how many carrots there are! They were cut up by the way, didn't simmer them whole. Maybe I should have? Anyway, I turned the heat up because I have an electric stove so maybe that was effecting how it wasn't getting warm, and let another 20 minutes pass. The carrots seemed to be warmer and I just went ahead and put it all in the blender. Well, the blender didn't puree the carrots as expected. So I put everything back into the pot, covered it for a bit longer, put it back in the blender, and then it actually looked like the blender was working! Then I poured it back into the pot and I don't think it worked so well. I added the rest of the ingredients anyway and then poured half of the soup into the blender again. This was a process of back and forth and I either have too cheap of a blender, wasn't patient enough with the blender or really really just need an immersion blender. Hey everyone, Christmas is right around the corner, put it on my list! Haha, along with a rolling pin, a better blender and a bigger kitchen... Hahaha, I like space to move and If I could cook on more than the tiny little bit of counter I have, that would be kind of cool too. For my next place I will be looking for more space in the kitchen.

Now this picture doesn't look like the soup turned out chunky, but if you look at the side, you can see the chunks I'm talking about... It's ok I still ate it but I should have tried blending it one or three more times... Haha

Now you're all probably wondering how I am blogging 3 days in a row and the answer is I am not able to really work in the office. As I said before, we are moving offices and it wasn't really realized how hard it would be to work without computers and cubicles at once place, but no internet at the other. So I get to study at home and craft in between.

After I took a test at work (and got a 90%!!!), I came home to my little Luna and worked on fusing the quilt together. The adhesive has a warning on the can that says it may cause dizziness so I opened all my windows and made sure to not have any candles burning. The adhesive is also extremely flammable. After all the safety measures, I think it turned out pretty nice. My living room is back to normal and I am awaiting to finish the other side. I'm going to The Strip District tomorrow to have lunch with a friend and I think I'll grab a Steelers shirt or something PGH to put on the college side. Stay tuned! This quilt IS happening.

<3 Carly =)

Crafting Day Off

With the long Labor Day Weekend, I forgot to mention my office is moving. Not far, just a block away from it is now, but the cubicles are being moved today, so I wouldn't have had anywhere to sit if I went in. So I am taking advantage of the time and crafting my little heart out.

I started off with more hearts for my bedroom. I have this wire thing I got from IKEA. It's pretty sweet. Anyway, I cut hearts out of paint samples and had them hanging in my dorm at school. I decided to make it a much bigger kind of project and expand it to my bedroom wall. I cut a lot of hearts and you have to make sure there is a heart on both sides so that you don't just see the back of the paint sample. You'd be surprised how often that is when you don't have another heart on the back, haha.

Luna thought she was helping out. I have found out she likes to craft too.

Now yesterday/last night I decided to really commit to the T-shirt Blanket and I am. I am working only on the "high school" side right now because I don't have the college side just the way I want it yet. I have some connections still at PPU and want to have more PPU throughout the "college" side. I only have 6 PPU shirts for the college side. That sounds like a good deal, but I counted 15 Lebo shirts for the high school side... So clearly I got more free shirts in high school/middle school, haha.

Here are the pieces I had done last night.

And here is where I am now. I must figure out how I want to attach the batting... I'm not a quilter by any means and this is all new to me. I think it'll work out just fine, but it is quite a process I must say. I need to go get some more fabric for the edging of the blanket. I completely didn't think of that. Also, I can't decide if I'm going to get just a little bit of fabric for the edging and just keep cutting it into pieces or get enough to cover an entire side. That just might be 2 yards of fabric though! That's a lot of fabric just to edge a blanket... This thing is massive, if you can't already tell in the photo.

I have also been knitting in between all these projects! Haha, I told you it was a completely crafting day.

Here is my sock I have been working on. The pattern is called Monkey =). Everyone is always in love with the color of the yarn. It is quite lovely and I'm not sure the camera caught it as well as it should. The pattern is from this book that I have an electric copy of. I really want to print it though. It has gorgeous patterns throughout it. Truly will be making tons of the socks from this book.

There is another knitting project I want to work on today because that would mean one knitted Christmas gift would be done. That would be fantastic if I could get that out of the way.

Then there is cooking. I think I want to make some carrot cream soup for dinner and take for lunch tomorrow. I have a bunch of carrots, all I need is some cream though from the store. I need to get some milk and eggs anyway so I'll double check to see if I need anything else for that dish.

Until next time, ;)

<3 Carly & Luna

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I'm not in school anymore and I must admit it was bittersweet not moving into the dorms or apartments and getting ready for classes. Just 2 weeks ago during my drive into work on the parkway there were the traffic signs tell good old Point Park students to get off at the Grant Street exit to go move in. I'm not necessarily saying I miss school, but it was definitely odd not to be packing up and moving in myself.

Now I have been meaning to blog, just as I always do, but much like how I always said while I was in school, I have really watch the time slip away. I have been at my job for 2 months now! That's crazy to think about. I'm thoroughly enjoying it though and very excited to be doing what I do.

With all the time slipping away though, I haven't been able to knit nearly as often as I wish I could. I am still working on my purple monkey socks, some xmas gifts and I'm really wanting to swatch/gauge for my swirl sweater. Remember when I bought all that madelinetosh? Still haven't started that yet. I am a yarn/knitting addict through and through.

I have been cooking still. Baking too =). Made some delicious chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips and walnuts. They're very good and I've had too many, haha. I will forever to love baking for a crowd.

Luna is getting bigger, though whenever people meet her they say she's so small, haha. I say, you should of seen her when I got her! This is double what she was!

My apartment continues to get decorated with me and my crafting. I am thinking of going back to my t-shirt blanket and really beginning to work on that. That would be time consuming, but I want to get it down so that I can use it! It'll be a great big blanket.

My man is wonderful as always too. I keep thinking of more and more things I want to knit him but the time just slips on by and sprints passed me. I know how bad he wants those beer cozies. I'm thinking those will be good traveling projects. I will be starting them soon. I swear. I mean it is already September.

I promise the next post will have some photos. Of beautiful knit items and probably a picture or two of my Little Luna =).

Until next time,

<3 Carly

Finished Chicken & Rice

I am very proud of my cooking skills now a days. I still must admit that I am more hesitant to cook than to bake but I must eat therefore I must cook, haha. As much as I would love to eat brownies and ice cream and cookies for my meals, I do crave the other foods that count as actual meals, haha.



I first shredded up the chicken. Just with forks, nothing fancy.



I then started my rice. Just a cup of rice, and 2 cups of water.



Look, it's already starting to look like actual soup with the shredded chicken in it! =) I'm cooking!!



Here's my bubbling rice! It cooked a lot faster than I thought. I was going to give it the 15 minutes but it took just 10 minutes for it to cook. I boiled it then simmered it just like the directions said but I guess my oven/stove is hotter than I realize.



Here's the soup all finished! Look how soup like it looks! hahaha



Now here's me trying to be a photographer. I'm not so great at it, but it does the trick.



I think I did a pretty good job for never making soup before. I should have added more salt to the entire soup but I just did to my bowl. I'm proud of myself =) and surprisingly Luna stayed napping the entire time I cooked chicken and everything. That was a shocker. Cats in the past of ours have plopped themselves onto the counter and had at the turkey during Thanksgiving. Guess Luna just goes nuts for crinkling papers and yarn. My food is safe, haha.

Until next time!

<3 Carly

Is it Summer?

Really though? Is it summer? This odd weather has got me all frazzled. Which by the way, frazzled is one of my new favorite terms. It explains the confusion, but heart ache without confessing that you are truly mind boggled.

For my so called summer thus far, I have been studying. I really thought I would be knitting more than I am and with the weather it seems like the perfect pass-time but alas I cannot. I must study and study until there is no more brain power. You can't see how many times I spell things wrong here, but if you could I can't really spell anymore with all this brain power used towards studying and the backspace bar and I are getting really close I must admit, haha.

Do you wanna hear the greatest news though?

I FINISHED THE TEXTBOOK!

I am now reviewing and want to bake lots of cookies to celebrate or just eat the dough because that's what cookie dough is for right?

Anyway, between my studying and bathroom breaks, I check out a few blogs I must admit. And reading all of them lately has made me miss mine more and more and I love that I still have mine from high school, but it also saddens me that I always have a down time where I don't blog and it throughly upsets me. Not as much as how long it took me to read a 500 page text book but still it upsets me.

Let's backtrack to this 500 page text book just a bit. I'm usually a quick doer, get it done kind of gal. This 500 page text put me in my place though. My college years of cramming and absorbing in class were not useful because I had to read the whole thing. Even when others told me not to. I kept seeing "READ THE ENTIRE THING" over and over that I could not ignore. But now I must recall those 25 chapters all the time. Good thing I have lots of flash-cards! =)

But there is also a little distracting cutie in my apartment now. Her name is Luna and she is a 12 week old kitten! She is adorable and a little nutty at times(I call her a Lun, hehe). She tried to eat my homework multiple times after I had let her snuggle with me as I study, she'd wake up to eat and nom on my notebook. I feed her just fine, she is just a teething kitten. She likes to chew on hangers, windows, wires, anything hard and able to get her teeth on, haha.

I put her up there but she cries a lot to be put on my shelves.

But this is her favorite spot. I didn't always have the blanket on the chair but now she loves it once I put it there (yes this chair looks like the ones from Market Square).

She's a cutie and I just cannot get enough of her. Once I got this dinning room table, I could stay home and study(which didn't stop me too much before), I hate leaving her. She's still just a baby!

Back to my studying though, I passed the Certificate and then the big State Exam! I am just relaxing and knitting and let me tell you I love not studying right now, but at the same time, it's weird not to have to study now.

So after all my knitting, I got to making some soup for dinner tonight. It already smells good! =)

I defrosted a chicken breast the other day to specifically make chicken and rice soup. Now I've always been a little addicted to my Pinterest, but I've been doing really well and actually making the things I pin lately.

Except I didn't pick any recipe from Pinterest and I only merely used Pioneer Woman's as a guide.

I cut up the rest of the carrots I had in my fridge, a lot of celery and an onion(don't tell handsome, because if he eats the soup he won't if there are onions!).

I also bought some bay leaves at the grocery store because I am becoming more passionate about cooking and it seemed like the time I should get some bay leaves. =)

When I was cutting the celery and carrots and onion I realized how great it is to have a garbage bowl or something close to you when you are peeling carrots and cutting gross ends off. I took advantage of the container being in the sink.

Now for the broth, I used the chicken broth I bought at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and added some water so I could cover the chicken.

Now all these ingredients are just just simmering after I boiled the chicken and broth together (although it said to boil everything together, I was still chopping when I got to that part, haha). Guess I just wasn't completely ready...

Anyway, stay tuned to hear about the final bowl! I'll be sure to update this and let you know how it tastes =)

<3 Carly

Graduation Begins a New Chapter

I finished all of those assignments I had listed. It was hard and time consuming and I had to make sure that some shifts were covered for me at the Country Club, but I got it all done and I graduated Magna Cum Laude =).



My Aunt took this picture and it was a capture of THE perfect moment on the jumbotron. I had a full audience there, my mommy, my man, my best friend and my aunt & uncle.



Look at my very proud mama =). Every time I looked back to look at my crowd cheering me on, I saw her tearing up. Can you believe that she didn't bring tissues for herself to my graduation? What was she thinking?! Haha, my uncle came prepared though and passed his tissue pack down to her.

After graduation we went to lunch in Market Square at Sienna. Sienna is an adorable little restaurant that is all organic and locally grown food. Naturally my man and I are drawn to this place ;-). I am going to miss Market Square bunches I must say. At lunch though I finally got my ears!



I am very proud of my ears, but most importantly all that I've accomplished the past 4 years. I said it all along the way, it goes by extremely fast. People warn you of this and it is always brushed off. Everyone needs to enjoy those 4 years. It's a great wonderful crazy time to have and you don't know how much you're going to learn about yourself in those years. I'll give a hint though, it's a lot.

Enough sap now, I want to give you a little tour!



This is my new apartment. It's just my size and I absolutely love it. I know my mom has been dying to come see it but I will get this from everyone because I live through tunnels. Pittsburgh and their tunnels. If you live on one side of one of the tunnels, watch out, people are going to be saying they can't come because they are afraid of tunnels, traffic, it's too far, etc. I understand people getting tunnel vision (I get actual tunnel vision during a migraine), I don't understand the fear- it's a road that has shelter basically, right? The traffic is inevitable. And distance is nothing. If you want to see someone, you will see them, end of story.

Anyway, It's coming along. I do want to get a cute little table and chairs for the dining room because I really am missing a table you can sit at. Especially for my computer and crafting =).

I also wanted to share with you all my FAVORITE breakfast. It's a real treat for yourself and super super easy.

Eggs In A Basket:
What you'll need is simply 2 eggs, 2 slices of bread, some butter, a skillet, spatula and a small juice glass(or mini mason jar as I use).



The first thing you do is get the 2 slices of bread and use the juice glass or small mason jar to cut a hole in the center.



You then want to put your skillet on the burner on Med-High with some butter in there. You want this butter to coat the pan pretty well. Then you want to put 1 of the pieces of bread in there and flip it so each side is buttered. Then you want to crack in your first egg inside the hole.



It should look somewhat like this. Now let the bottom form a bit before you tempt to flip this. I like to push it a little with the spatula to see if it'll be a tricky flip or an easy flip. The butter is usually the key to this, but sometime the egg is just finicky.



I apologize I did not get an action shot but I have been doing this for a good while and it was a flawless flip. If you did not get a flawless flip, keep trying. It gets easier I promise =)



You just repeat those steps for the 2nd piece of bread! I like to butter the centers in the skillet between the eggs in the baskets. It helps clean the pan up a bit and then they are extra for soaking up delicious egg =). I only add a little bit of salt and pepper and then these are good to go! I'm sure ketchup wouldn't be too bad of an idea with this either though ;-)

I was asked where I got this idea by a friend at work the other day and I told them whenever I watched V for Vendetta I wanted to make them immediately. Breakfast is my favorite meal and eggs I can never get enough of, so I naturally tried them right away. I was not the greatest at them my first try, but once I got the hang of them, I became flawless and it is a staple breakfast (lunch or dinner) for me =) hehe.

Now don't think that was all I was going to show you. I must show you my finished coffee table! I don't know if I shared with all of you that I was making this table, with my man of course! Because it did take a good bit of time, but it is finally finished and looks fabulous =)



If any of you are Pinterest Pinners I'm sure you've seen this before, but I actually did it! Now I have been asked by people already if I drank all of those wine bottles and the answer is HECK NO! Hahaha, I work at a restaurant and I would NOT have been able to get this done without the corks from there. Thank you to the bartenders for stashing these away for me at the end of the night =)

The window I got at Construction Junction for $1. Just a DOLLAR! Then the legs were 50 cents each I believe? My man put the rest of the wood together and then I hot glued corks to the board for a good while, haha. Took me longer than I thought! Once I got it to my new place I was completely finished and pestering my man to get it finished. Once it was all up together I stained the sides of the wood with black paint and hot water to make the new wood blend with the obvious old wood. I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

Alright. Now I do have knitting I should show you but I did NOT take a picture of that. I must go to studying though. Now you did read this whole post and realized I finished school but yet I say studying, what could I be studying for? Oh I got 2 job offers right out of school and I need to study to get a license to sell insurance because I'm going to be a financial planner! That's right! I'm really proud of myself. Alright, hope you all take some time to make some good breakfast or craft your day away. I'll be studying ;-).

My new chapter has just begun. Stay tuned!

<3 Carly

Last Few Weeks

I have said this before, time flies. Everyone will tell you entering college to enjoy it because it goes by so quickly and you don't realize it until the same time every year.

I have so much to do, so much left for the last few weeks, but I need to continue to remind myself to enjoy the last few weeks. I've been told by friends all around me that I really do need to just relax. I think I've listened to them a little too much. I am rather calm for all the work I have left to do. I am glad that some of it is done but heres what's left.

MBA Class:
Final DONE
20 Page Research Paper DONE
Book Review YET TO BE COMPLETED

PR Intro Class:
Events Calendar DUE TUESDAY
Present PR Plan TUESDAY
Final THURSDAY

Geography Class:
Paper on Economics of India (how Ironic right?) DUE TUESDAY
Final FOLLOWING TUESDAY

Independent Study:
15 Page Term Paper DUE MONDAY

It doesn't look like a lot, but I am also applying to jobs, trying to find a place to live, and not pull my hair out because of pet fees for a cat I don't even own yet!

My man doesn't want a pet in his house but for my apartment I will be getting a little kitten or adopt an elder cat. I want to name the cat Shia or Channing so I can come home to Shia Labeouf or Channing Tatum. Hahaha, yes, I really thought this through. The stressful thing about looking up apartments is that the location may or may not have parking. You may be tricked into the "maintenance fees" that consist of a 1 a summer lawn cutting. Reading the reviews on google or yelp is very helpful. Then there are the awesome stared sections of "$295 non-refundable pet fee, then $25 per pet, per month (limit 2)". WHAT IS THAT FEE FOR?! Are you taking my pet to the doctors 5 times a year for me? I promise I will get their shots. I also promise to clean their shit. Also, do you have an animal? Are you charged an extra $300 down payment and $25/month per pet on your property? NO? Maybe in taxes there is a non-refundable pet fee. Still no? Hmmm, why then are you charging me $300+ to own an animal? I don't even understand it. And I don't even have a place or cat of my very own yet.

Anyway, the job hunting feels like another class. There are a lot of online profiles and personality profiles that companies want to check. They also want you to do these on PC's (but I love my MAC). It's all fine and easy because they are just about me but they are time consuming. I just want a job when I graduate. Something that pays.

Now onto my knitting. I finished my man's stocking just a few weeks ago, FINALLY, I know.



Very happy with how it turned out. It's HUGE but it looks good. I used duplicate stitch to put his name up top and I think it looks really good. I was going to use a darker blue but I think it would've looked too harsh. I was originally going to make myself one just the same but I think I may use a different pattern from the holiday knits book I bought around Christmas time. I should start now so it'll be ready for Santa before XMAS EVE, hahaha.

I'm working on some socks now. I seriously dream about knitting now and really wanted a pair of purple socks. Luckily I had some MadelineTosh purple (Flashdance) sock yarn that I have wounded up and started. It's slow moving because I have to use US 1's to get gauge but they're going to be gorgeous when finished.

I also finished my first shawl! Which desperately needs blocked, but with yarn from Portland! =) I really want to wind up some of the the tweedy looking yarn for hats for me and my man but I must resist until all the assignments up above are complete.

Alright, I have procrastinated enough. I must get back to my term paper now.

<3 Carly