Updates

So these events happened:
The apartment in Birmingham got packed and moved (still in transit):

After a few cancelled flights (people, get travel insurance if you travel in the winter), I finally landed in Boston, on the one runway that was open, thanks to our wonderful pilot and crew:

This is a shot of the courtyard at work - long are gone the mild fall days when one could eat lunch there:

Snowed-in activities

The curb (on my side, the neighbors have been plowing) is piled up with about 2-2.5 ft of snow by my estimates. You can see some additional accumulation on the rail from this morning.

this morning

this afternoon, look at the rail details

When you have your pantry accessible all day, things get done in the kitchen: butternut squash soup, grilled chicken and veggies, and oatmeal trail mix bars, half with peanut butter topping. 

craft update

In the past month, I haven't been too productive with crafts and only made two baby afghans.
This one is a past due afghan for Tom's cousin's baby girl who was born in November. I hope that they will like it. I call this one Neapolitan ice cream.

This one is for my co-worker, who is expecting a baby in April. She is not finding out the gender of the baby ahead of time, so I went with gender neutral colors. I like to think of this as lemon-lime meringue.

 
Last night, while watching the news of Blizzard 2015, I learned to do a new border, the picot. I think it turned out fine.

If I lose power and cannot continue to work, I have two other projects that I can work on.

Blizzard 2015

Getting used to living in New England made it inevitable that I would see a snow storm, wasn't expecting it to happen during my first winter here.
Louisiana and Alabama have taught me well, be prepared for an emergency. And our backpacking supplies serve two purposes: fun when we are in the woods and emergency readiness kit.
Onto the events here. As of this morning, I still have power, heat, and water.
It's hard to tell how much snow fell since the winds are so strong that we have drifting snow.
This is my living room window (my living room is above the garage) and I have snow on the window sill.

 

Look at the third level window on my neighbors' place - see what I mean by blowing snow?

I know the meaning of being snowed in. There is snow outside my front, basement, and garage doors, around 2 ft, more in some places, less in others. The basement door can be cracked, pushing the foot of snow out of the way so I can take pictures.
 















 More snow pictures. Look at the cars: they are not covered but you can see the snow level by their tires.

 

There was no snow on these trash cans before the snow started. I would say there's about 18-19 inches. Look on the right picture, you can see the snow still going up on the right (still because of the wind)

I checked the back door and if I want to shovel, this would be the way to go (about 8 inches under a covered porch).

Then, there was this: my neighbors' backdoor. It is likely that high winds blew the doors open, and there is snow leading to the basement. Boy, I can't wait to see my heating bill.

I'm doing okay. I have supplies, and power. Our office is closed but we are expected to work from home.

Crafting recap

Now that Xmas is over and gifts have been given, here are two projects that I had to keep under wraps:
Link, from Zelda for my father in law (he's a big fan of the video game). He has a sword in the back, and he can stand up on his own most of the time.

 

And gloves for my sister-in-law. When Tom saw my fingerless gloves, he asked that I make a pair for his sister. Hopefully she liked them and gets some use out of them.

Making this place home

While most of the Xmas stuff is in Birmingham, on my last visit, I managed to take a couple of things - the small Xmas tree (and ornaments) and the Xmas sign that Laurie sent us last year. I also fixed this - all the sparkle almost make the plastic bowl look like fancy crystal.

I also fixed this - all the sparkle almost make the plastic bowl look like fancy crystal. 

Happy Holidays

This year, we went with Tacky. Hope you're having a wonderful holiday season!

Hashtags

Here's my attempt at using hashtags:
#minimalistliving #relocation #newplace #openlayout

Living room: TV, bean bag chair, yarn bag, and book

Dining room/kitchen: workstation and storage

crafting lately

I've been in the Xmas spirit lately. These limited edition wreaths have gone out to 3 people who have always encouraged my crafting adventures.

I finished a grey shrug that was intended for one of my close friends but I don't think it looks good. I think it needed to have been done with varigated or colorful yarn. Plus I can't get the size right - it needs to be bigger and it's already >2 lbs. So I'm putting it on the back burner for now.

Finally Friday

After a rather stressful week, where several candy bars might have been eaten, and about 2 pounds heavier, I give you holiday office attire:

:
 Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving recap

So this year, I didn't get to post 30 days of being thankful but it's far from meaning that I wasn't thankful. Even though we are doing the dreaded long distance relationship, we've seen each other 4 times in the past 2.5 months. I've been able to visit with old and new friends and find new hobbies. And to cap it, my new job is very flexible. I was able to work from home in Birmingham for 1.5 weeks.
I left Boston early on Thursday morning (Nov 20). I was able to see friends, attend book club and craft night, and watch two Packer games with hubby. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the beach this year.
We decided for low key Thanksgiving. Tom picked up two great steaks from the local butcher, Mr. P's, and grilled them perfectly to medium rare and I made green bean casserole (yes, the fine china came out).

Two pies, pecan and pumpkin. I may have eaten 80% of the pecan pie, and yes, I'm a few pounds heavier in this fourth quarter of 2014.

Tom made his family recipe for artichoke dip in a bread bowl, and I made a wrapped baked brie with homemade jalapeno pepper jelly.

 

On Saturday, we attempted to replicate the seafood chowder from the Pump House, a restaurant that we went to in Fairbanks. It was very yummy, with our own twists.

It was great to be home, with family and friends, enjoy great food and be comfy. We managed to finish most of our Xmas shopping and I completed a few craft projects, including these fingerless gloves with the yarn from Kelly and Molly.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving.

Snow?

This was a first for me: Driving in snow in New England. Well, it was just a dusting but I was glad for my scraper/brush thingy.

Yes, I will post about Thanksgiving soon.

Weekend Update

Lately, my days have been full of meetings and Friday was no different. Earlier in the day, I had joked with our admin that all this running didn't even get me a balloon. What a surprise to come back to my cube in between meetings to find this: 

After work, I met up with a co-worker and checked out a burger joint in my part of town. At 12: 10 am -ish, Tom landed in Boston and I picked him up from the airport.

Saturday started early - we toured 11 apartments trying to find our next rental, starting at 10 am and skipping lunch. We found one that had everything we were looking for and by 4 pm we were tired and done. We got a late lunch/early dinner, then stopped by the Home Depot where Tom got me a snow shovel and a snow brush. 

Sunday started early again to meet the owner of the house and sign the lease! So we have a place! 

We then went to hangout with family and watched the Packers game. Tom's aunt, Katy, had a birthday about two weeks ago and I knew that she wouldn't let me treat her to lunch. So instead, on Sunday, a bit late, she received a cowl from the merino wool I had purchased. 

We traded gifts as she had a nice cookbook and spices for my birthday that I can't wait to try. She had also ordered a chocolate cake and a raspberry mousse cake. Yum! 

And soon again, it was Monday morning 5 am, and Tom had to go and my meetings had to start again. 

Finally Friday

My favorite cake:

I brought this in and it was gone within 1 hr. I guess other people like it?
And Tom made up for not being here today by sending me this:

It's a heavy (about 2.5 lb) pillow (think the U-shape travel pillow that's really heavy) that I discovered at Massage Envy, which Tom and I joined a few months ago after hearing great things from friends. This, heated, and placed on the neck, back, legs, is just bliss. Can't wait to try it.

Weekend update

I tend to be a hermit so last week was a bit more social than others.
As the apartment search continues, I found myself driving by a house that I found on Craigslist to check out the parking situation after work one evening. That place would not work for us but since this was close to where cousin Ben lives, I met up with him for a couple of drinks and food.
Then on Friday, I met up with friend Jennifer who was in town for a conference, for dinner and drinks in Boston. This time, it only took me about 50 mins to get from work to downtown. It had taken me 1h45mins when I met up with Mike, Kate, and Ben for a comedy show (Jim Gaffigan is awesome) to celebrate Kate's birthday.
On Saturday, I went back to Boston twice. First in the morning for some window shopping and then again to check out an LSU bar... yes, I found an LSU bar, and yes, it is awesome. It reminded me of my college days and the South in general. I met up with some friends from UAB and much fun was had.

On Sunday, I went back in that direction to participate in a 5K walk with work folks to raise money for Autism Speaks. It was a bit cool but I got to see the new outlet mall in Somerville and found the Christmas Tree Shop. After the race, we caught a quick lunch and you guessed it, I went to check out my favorite store.
After all this socializing, I was glad to be on the couch to play with this:

I found a yarn store on Saturday, and purchased my first merino wool skeins. If I remember correctly, the owner of the store dyed those herself. It's a variegated blue. I already made a gift out of it so it will be gifted soon, after which I will post pictures.
It is getting cold and it will be very cold soon. Too bad these amazing boots will have to be returned - these Sorels are not comfy especially with thick socks on. I don't think that I will be ordering shoes online anytime soon. I can only hope that I can find something in stores but that should be easier now that I've had input from mom-in-law and friends Anne and Megan.

Lately

Hmm, where to begin.
Two weekends ago, I met up with Zak and Megan for the last day of apple picking. I reluctantly bought a bag to fill but we had a lot of fun. I even tried these apple donuts, which were delicious. I've been managing to eat an apple or two a day and this weekend I got a few cooking supplies to make some apple crumble and apple oatmeal. Will post pictures when (if) this happens.

Last weekend, I went to Birmingham. It was great to see the hubs and friends. Trips like these make it so much harder to come back to Boston. But I had a few things to take back with me. Take a guess... yarn! I picked up some yarn that I needed at the store and Kelly and Molly surprised me with some luxurious and soft yarn that they dyed, in my favorite color. I'm a lucky gal!
This weekend was cold and windy and overall yucky. I was supposed to check out a yarn store, go buy winter boots, and hang out with Anne. What's a girl to do but drink wine and Irish coffee and tackle chores and crafts.
It even snowed for about 5 hours on Sunday:

I finished the green potholder for my cousin's wedding present (roughly the same size, washed and dried and ready to be mailed):

 Then I decided to make a hat for me using the yarn from Kelly and Molly (it's more of a purple than a blue):

The basic hat pattern was very easy and decided to be a bit more adventurous and make a hat for my cousin's daughter in Texas as she has a birthday coming and like me, she likes pink. I hope that it will fit. The instructions were a bit more complex for the last rows and after two attempts, decided to keep it simple.

I have another skein of yarn from Kelly and Molly and I printed the pattern already so I have another project coming up soon.