NaBloPoMo

Yep. It's that time again. Another year where I am going to try to blog for the entire month of November. Yep. Every day. I think I can make it, and hopefully won't bore everyone to death! Finally uploaded my pictures of the Balloon Glow, so that will be coming up, and planning on posting some Halloween pictures tomorrow. I'm also planning to share some knitting, and thought I would visit some of my older projects and give updates on them. November sounds like a good time to start Soap Wars, too. Sounds like it should be an interesting month! Anything you guys would like me to blog about?

Epic Fail.

I totally dropped the ball on blogging. A few weeks ago, in my mad preparation for our SCA event, I decided to forgo blogging for a few days. It turned into a multi-week stand-off with the blog. Yep, I've failed at my blogging duties. Sorry. I'm going to try to get back on track here, I promise! I've kind of missed blogging every day, but it's definitely been hard to get back into the groove. Well, consider me grooving. I have a TON of stuff to blog about! SCA, knitting, Soap Wars...These things need to get out of my head and onto the hypothetical paper of my online journal here. Stay tuned, folks, we're getting back into the swing of things here at Chez Saving Nine. See you tomorrow! (Maybe this afternoon, if you're lucky. don't push it, though.)

Here We Go

Alright, so it's the first of November, and NaBloPoMo is underway! I had some grand plans for my first post, but, uh, probably not going to happen. It's escaped me. Anyways, I was wondering- if I was to have a cohesive theme, which would you guys prefer? Whatever I decide to do, it won't be the main focus- just a thread to hold my posts together this month. You'll still get ramblings and knitting updates, don't worry. Here are the options: A. The "selfabet" meme- each post is dedicated in part to a letter, which I name a few things correlating with said letter that relate to my life. B. 100 Things About Me Meme- at the end of every post, I'll list a few things about myself. some may be really lame, especially after the first 50. I'll do my best, though. C. Picture a Day- Every day, I'll take a picture and post it. These might be equally lame, especially since I don't leave the apartment much. D. Nothing. Just good old regular blogging. Vote in the comments, just let me know what you think! I may blow you off and just do what I feel like anyways, but it will be nice to have your opinion. See you tomorrow!

Shiny New Comments

So, I decided that I would like to be able to actually respond to comments, so I switched from Blogger comments, to Haloscan. Let me know if there is any weirdness there. Also, you can still see all the old blogger comments- just click on the time stamp to see comments on old posts. Yaay for being able to respond to you guys!

A Poll

So, it was recently brought to my attention by a person who's opinion I value that the new blog design is a bit hard to read with the transparency of it. I did make it a little less transparent, but what do you think? What should I do? Make the post section completely white. I hate it like this. I think it looks, fine, leave it. I don't really give a shit what you do with it. free forms Thanks for the help, guys!

Hey, It's a Party!

First off, sorry for once again being a bad blogger. I have all kinds of stuff to blog about, just not the time! Last Monday I started working full time, so life has been a little hectic trying to adjust. All is going well, though, and I'll try to get my other really awesome blog posts up in the next few days. Really! For those of you visiting for the blog party, hi! I thought I would share a bit about myself for those of you who don't know me. My name is Nichole, and I currently live in Albuquerque, New Mexico with my awesome husband and darling daughter. I work full time at a daycare center, and am liking it so far. I get to bring my daughter to work with me, too- how cool is that?! I am an avid craftster, my chosen method being knitting. I have been knitting for about 2 years now, and feel like I am beginning to master the craft. I love lots of other crafty stuff, too, including crochet and sewing. I blog mostly about my knitting, but also about my crazy life, and my other love, books. I try to read a lot, and am reading more now that I am working full time. My favorite authors include Neil Gaiman, Barbara Kingsolver, Anita Shreve, and Orson Scott Card, to name a few. Feel free to browse through my posts to get a feel for me, and If you love it (how could you not?) feel free to visit often!

It's A Party!

I thought this was a really cool idea, plus I'm a sucker for anything that involves fantabulous prizes. Why don't you guys join me, and get ready to party on your blog? You can always just come here and party, too. Anyways, you can click on the fancy button for more details. consider yourself invited!

The End...Or Is It?

Well, here I am, making my final post on the last day of NaBloPoMo. I really enjoyed posting every day. I was actually surprised that I found stuff to blog about, whether it be things that my lovely readers suggested, memes, or my own random mumblings. You guys didn't have to see what I ate for dinner once! Aren't you proud of me? This has been such a great challenge for me. I started blogging mostly to share news with my friends and talk about being pregnant. Blogging for me has evolved so much further than that! Yes, I still like to give you all the news and talk about Joie, but I somehow have wedged my way into this huge online blogging/knitting community, and am making new friends all the time. I learned a butt load of css and html along the way. I've begun archiving my knitting here.( Who knew I would ever have enough to archive?!) I can't believe that one day I just happened to stumble upon all that is knitting and the Internet. I'm glad to be here, though! It is so much fun to make connections to people you never would have known otherwise. Bloglines is now a major part of my morning routine, and I really do enjoy reading every one of the 50 or so blogs that I am subscribed to. I hope you all have been enjoying mine as well! Well, I have some news, but before I break that out, I thought I would share with everyone my most recent Google hits. I check these every other week or so, and I always think it's funny what comes up. ~I'm not an addict baby ~Malabrigo Scarf ~how to interchange pumkin and pumkin pie mix (I really need to fix the spelling on that post.) ~Malabrigo Velvet Grapes ~One Skein Malabrigo Scarf ~blogspot pie crust ~Control-a-Woman Remote ~"short row ribbed" ~knitting dice bags for dnd I always have at least one hit from the dice bag. I really should put my patterns into pdf and put them on the sidebar, huh? Sometimes I get really weird stuff, too. The control-a-woman remote is a bit out there. The only reason I got a hit for that one was because in my blogroll "a ball of yarn and a remote control" comes right before "a woman obsessed". Funny! I've been getting a lot of Malabrigo hits as well, which is cool, and all the more reason to put my scarf pattern up on the sidebar so it's easy to find. Well, before this gets any longer, I have some news. For those of you who enjoy my blog, it'll be great. For those of you who are tired of reading me every day and wish I would shut up, you may be disappointed. I've joined another post-every-day-this-month thing! This one is Holidailies. I debated wither or not I wanted to, but I really liked posting every day, even though some days were crazy. I think I can do it for another month! It'll be a little weird with holiday travel and such, but I'm pretty sure I can do it. This one doesn't seem as hip or fun as NaBloPoMo, but good motivation, at least. They're not accepting wee little blurbs, either- each post mast have at least 50 words or one photo to count. They're still taking sign ups, so go check it out! SEE YOU TOMORROW!

HEY!!

So, for whatever reason, the craphole that is Blogger Beta decided to switch how they do their feeds. So, for all of you out there who are subscribed to my site through bloglines or some other nifty notifier, you have to click here and subscribe to the url that comes up. That is my new feed. Make sure to read all the posts you've missed bacause of wonky Blogger Beta. If you want to do it another time, just find the little guy that tells you how over in the "Who I Am" section on my right sidebar. This really pisses me off, by the way. I think Blogger Beta sucks nuts. Seriously, it has taken me all week just to adjust everything and get it working properly.(Erin, when you're ready to switch over, give me a holler, because you're template is based off of mine. ) Hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Blog Problems

So, I switched over to Blogger Beta a few days before I had finished my new design. Thankfully, they let you still use the old template style, because the new one is all full of widgets and absolutes and other weird things that I don't understand. (I guess it's some weird server code or something stupid like that.) Well, folks, all is not coming up roses here. for whatever reason, Blogger decided that in their beta version, each post page would be it's very own website. (the post page would be the one that displays just the post you want to see and none of the others.) This has been my major headache for two days now. For whatever reason, when you click the link that takes you to the post page from my main blog site, it fucks all of the layout up and stacks it instead of setting it up all pretty side by side. so far, the only thing I have been able to fix is to put the sidebars in the right place, but then the whole body of the post disappears. This really sucks, folks. I may just break down and figure out all the mumbo jumbo that is Blogger Beta. Moving right along, I finished the Pink Muppet Murder Scarf and now am cranking out the purple one. The knitting is easy and fairly mindless (Fun Fur can be tricky!) so hopefully this one will be done in a few days as well, and then I can move on to other knitting goodness. Once I get this one done, I'll post pictures of both of them together. I don't think I can allow more than one post a year that involves pictures of Fun Fur. Once these are done, I have just a few dwindling Super Secret Christmas Gifts that I need to get needles for. Very do-able in the next month. Yaay! I may have time to knit for myself before Christmas!

Tada!!

I finally got everything just the way I wanted it! Unfortunately, I was up until about 3 this morning trying to figure out the problem, with no success. It only took me about an hour after I woke up this morning to get it fixed. Lesson learned: adequate sleep does wonders for thinking. For those of you who were curious, I was having trouble with my table opacity causing everything inside the table to be become semi-transparent as well. Text wasn't a big issue, but I didn't like seeing my background through pictures I had posted. The problem was easily solved by taking out the opacity commands and just replacing the background with a semi-transparent PNG! Cool, huh? Last night's meeting was even more suckage than I had anticipated. Plus, my boss said I couldn't knit because it would be "distracting to others". C'mon, what's distracting about hot pink Fun Fur?! At any rate, I'm planning to work on it as soon as I am done blogging, hopefully I can finish it today. I'm going to do one for her slightly older sister, too, but in bright purple. I would just like to state for the record I am really proud of my Christmas Knitting progress this year. I stumbled upon this somehow, and it's kind of cute and fun, so go check it out!

An Act of Desperation

Apparently, the draw of possibly winning a box of goodies was not enough for some of you to leave me a blogging idea, so I've decided that everyone who leaves me a suggestion will get some awesome hand-made swanky stitch markers! There. Does that motivate you? Seriously, I'm desperate for some bloggy ideas. Sure I have a few of my own, but nowhere near 29 more. So if you haven't already, leave a suggestion. Tell your friends that just for leaving a comment with a post idea, they can get there very own swanky stitch markers. My favorite will still get a lovely parcel with more goodies. (Heh heh. Parcel. How very British of me.) And, seriously, you can leave me any idea that pops into your little head. Questions. Topics. Bizarre stuff. Picture ideas. Product reviews of things I already own. Anything! So go now, my little bloglettes, and spread the word. Free stitch markers for all!! P.S. An actual blog post with some knitterly content will be here later today, I think. For sure by tomorrow. But probably later today. I'm off to the craft store. I need supplies for mounds of stitch markers.

Seriously?

You guys don't have any ideas for me to blog about? You can't think of ANYTHING?! Even the offer of a possible box of goodies isn't thought provoking? I know you guys have something. Anything at all. Really. I'll blog about any suggestion you give me. Otherwise, you will have to read about what I had for dinner and other weird things, like chess notations and detailed accounts of my vacuuming.I'll even extend the contest to November 3rd. So please, for my sanity, and your reading pleasure, give me something to blog about all month! I promise I will use all of your ideas, as long as it isn't something completely insane, like nude pictures of me lying in my yarn stash. You can leave an anonymous comment, too, if you're too scared to own up to your suggestion. Let's get commenting, folks!

Blog Makeover

TADA!! Well, folks, here is the new and improved blog! I hope everyone likes it. If you don't, well, you can suck it, because I've put a good 15 hours of work into this. I have to thank a few cool people for the background and the font- you can check them out in the box at the bottom of the right side. I really like what I ahve going on here, and I think it will stay this way for a while. Let me know what you think, and if you ahve any issues with links or anytihng like that. Okay? Okay. In other news, our regualrly scheduled gaming session was a bit different tonight- we finished up our last game and are kind of in limbo at the moment. Tonight was one of those fun board game nights. I am quite proud to say that I am the reigning Scrabble Master! I won by a mere 3 points, and contribute my success to the words hex, pyre, yu, and lah. I couldn't have done it without you! Wish you could've been there, Erin, to bask in my glory! *wink* Friday James and I decided to try somewhere new for lunch, so we went to Saggio's. Let me tell you, if you live in Albuquerque, you NEED TO GO. It is that simple. The food is amazing Italian cuisine- from gourmet pizza to giant calzones to custom-made lasagna. They sell pizza by the (gigantic) slice as weel, and had some sinful looking desserts (which we were to stuffed to try-next time!). Not quite sit-down, but not quite fast food either. If you've been to The Frontier Restaurant, it is exactly like that. Actually, it is directly across the street. Check it out! YUM! Current knitting is making slow progress, but I seem to need a little breather after I finish something, even if it is a measly little bag. I'm planning to pick up the needles again here this week, though. I'm really just enjoying my weekend hanging out with my man. I've also been still mildly busy with the Favorite Color Swap, trying to sort out people who haven't heard from their pals yet, et cetera. I'm glad the insanity of making matches and sending a gazillion emails is over, though, and I have some treats in store for my pal that I think she will love! Now just to get started on them. signing off now- I really should get to bed!

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog everyone! I started this blog here for a few reasons. Mainly, because I thought it would be nice to have a blog devoted mainly to my craftiness. I like that anyone, not just members, can comment, and I like the format a little better. I will still post blogs on MySpace for those who like it there, and will also post updates for this blog on my MySpace blog. I hope I didn't confuse anyone there... So, this blog is dedicated to my crafting. Knitting, sewing, and cross-stitch, and any other crafty endeavors I might venture into. On that note, the bunny is finished! It looks a little 'tarded, but I'm pretty proud of it, being my first time making any kind of stuffed creature. I would like some suggestions on how to attatch the extremitites without it looking all home-made and crappy from all you fellow knitters out there. As you can see, though, Joie likes it! Here is a picture of it by itself. Wel, I'm off to cast-on for the wrap dress for Joie- I'm doing it in bright yellow cotton for Project Spectrum this month. Thanks for stopping by to check it out, and I hope to see everyone back here soon- I'll try and post at least every other day. And now for something completely different...