Cubbies make all the difference!

Not baby bears. Not a baseball team from Chicago. These...

I've been in my new office/yarn room for a couple of months now, but I still didn't have it completely organized to my liking. Also, I hadn't yet decided if I wanted to try and put a bed in here, or a futon, or nothing, so that wall where the cubbies are remained empty and the room looked pretty funny.

Over the weeks, though, I've decided that I really liked having the open floor space. I could set up my ironing board in here, out of the way, or I could put mats down and block things in here. It was nice to not be squished because, frankly, we live in a small house, and we pretty much live in every square foot of it! To have some extra space and open floor, well...it felt like a luxury. So I decided to skip the bed and instead put in cubbies for more storage. That was what I really needed anyway.

So, now that the room is offiically DONE, let me give you the official TOUR! =)

(By the way, the rest of these room photos are linked through Flickr, so if you click on them, you'll go to the Flickr images where you can see the notes I've imbedded in the photos. The trade off is I can't get Blogger and Flickr to play nice, thus the photos will not center. Ok, now they're centering, but I've got line spacing issues. Sigh.)

Here we are, entering the room...

...and the if you look to the left, you'll see the cubbies as they are in the picture above. Want a closer look at the cubbies? Sure you do! Remember, click through the Flickr images because I've got notes galore on what you're seeing. (I enjoy learning the details of people's living spaces...maybe it satisfies some deep, voyeuristic tendencies I have?)

I love having all of this color and texture right out in the open! Today, after I finished arranging it all, I just sat on the floor, entranced. Chris walked in and asked, "Um, having fun staring at your yarn?" Why yes, I really was!

My Loopy collection. :)

Turning again to the left, we come to the original book cases that were in the room...

I originally thought I would have plenty of space for yarn in just those top three shelves in the left case. Ha! Didn't hold nearly as much as I needed them to. Now with the cubbies, I've opened up nearly an entire shelf (which I'm sure will be filled with something soon) and now I also have room to put my scrapbooking papers out where I can actually get to them and possibly even use them again (novel idea...I really would like to scrap occasionally again...it's been so long!). (BTW, tons of notes on the Flickr picture of this one! LOL)

As you turn to the left again, you will pass the room's door, which, when open, hides the closet. I didn't take a picture of that because, frankly, it's still kind of a disaster in there, but not quite as much as it was. Right now, it houses all of my batts and bumps of spinning fiber (the braids are all out in the cubbies! Yeay!), as well as fiber to be dyed and also all of the yarn I have up on my sell/trade page on Rav, or plan to put there soon. It also has my shipping supplies, boxes of pictures, a huge box of old journals, kali sticks, machetes and some sewing supplies. Yeah, quite a motley assortment of goods.

So! Turn to the left again, and we come to the dresser...

Only the top drawer has any yarn in it now, though the top two used to have sock yarn in it. More than anything, I just love this piece of furniture. It was from Kevin's grandma's house and it is old and just has such charm and character!

I love buttons!

If you turn to the left again, you've done a complete circle around the room, returning to my desk.

And then if you look down, you will likely find this at your feet...

She really is not happy about this. She is probably plotting where
she will do something nasty that I will then need to clean up.

Christmas snow!

We enjoyed a most wonderful early winter snow storm this weekend. While we got a modest 6" here, compared to what those in other areas received, I'll take it! It's beautiful!

It came down overnight Friday into Saturday and continued until Saturday night before finally coming to an end. What made it more beautiful for me was that I had nowhere to go on Saturday, so I could just enjoy being snowed in and watching it fall. I spent a good part of the day in the dining room where I had a wonderful view of this winter wonderland while I was wrapping gifts. Then I sat and spent time knitting by the light of the Christmas tree. What a perfect day it was!

This was, as far as we know, Muffin's first chance to ever be out in a big snow. Well, big for her, anyway...

It was hard to get a good picture of her because she just wanted to leap and bound around in it! Leaping was essential to her, as those six inches came up to her furry little belly. She was so cute! She kept sticking her muzzle all the way into the deep snow, then she'd snuffle and sneeze after inhaling it. Then she decided it tasted great and spent a lot of time eating it. What's funny is that Kevin actually plowed a path to the side yard where she has her potty spot, but when she walks over there and meets the wall of snow at the end of the path -- which separates her from her favorite potty tree -- she won't go unless she traverses the high snow and gets to the tree! She is not interested in going at the end of the plowed path. Too funny.

I've gotten some knitted gifts finished, but I'll wait until they get to their intended recipients before posting photos. And aside from a few minor items, I am happy to say that I am ready for Christmas! I only had one day last week where I totally went into freak-out mode, but ever since, I've been fine. Baking is done, cards are (mostly) out, gifts are all bought and (mostly) wrapped. Today will be our last day of school before taking two weeks off. And I can't quit thinking about just how blessed I feel right now. Life is good, thank you God! :)

Because I have no new knitting to show you...

...I'm still working on the same two pairs of socks, which don't look much different right now, and I have made no progress on the girlie's vest -- I thought I'd at least post some pictures of yarn. And the dog. Yarn first.

I've been really, really good about not adding to the stash lately, other than yarn I've spun (which I haven't done any spinning real recently either...sigh...). My main exception has been my membership in Three Irish Girls' Pick of the Knitter monthly yarn club. I love Sharon's yarns soooo much. I'm into my third three-month subscription now, and I can't stop. If you're looking for a yarn club to join, check it out. I think there's a waiting list for it at this point, but it's worth it.

Anyway, my most recent PotK yarnie goodness...

Seacoast and Sandcastle in the Adorn yarnbase...these are club-only colorways, though!

To further illuminate how good I've been about adding new yarn to my life, I should point out that I have not placed an order with The Loopy Ewe since APRIL. Seriously! Can you believe it? I know! Well, ok...I hadn't placed an order since April until last week, when I broke down and bought this...

Tempted Yarns, Festival of Lights colorway. As soon as I saw it, I envisioned a snowflake motif shawl or wrap...if only I could find the perfect pattern for such a thing!

and this...

Fiberphile, Batwings colorway...love that name! LOL I'm going to use this for the sock pattern I've been designing. Really wanted a nice brown for it. I think this will do well.

and a cool hat pattern from Born to Knit (I rarely ever buy hat patterns, but this one was too cool to pass up as it features a dragon!) But hey...I had a $25 gift credit sitting there...since April! So it was almost like not buying anything really. :} (Yes, Rationalizations R Us. Problem?)

The other thing that kept me from adding to the stash in recent months was just avoiding the LYS. Yeah. Funny that. If you don't go to a yarn store, you don't tend to buy yarn. But, a couple weeks ago, I had to go there because I needed a couple pair of needles (I know, unbelievable that I was lacking needles, trust me, but I don't have huge numbers of 16" circs, and I needed two sizes that I didn't have...not that I've actually started the project I needed them for yet, but that's beside the point). Of course, I had to take a spin around the shop and check out the yarn while I was there. I was so good, though. I picked up nothing. Until. I came to the sale bin, and there was an entire cubby full of this:

Now, if you're like me, you'll probably think, "That colorway is kind of...ugly." LOL Seriously, neon purple and brown and a pukey yellow...it is such an odd combo of colors and it in no way screams "yum" to me like so many Malabrigo colorways do. But, see, THAT was the challenge. I thought a yarn that looks this ugly surely will knit up to be a surprise and delight! I must try and see what I get! So I bought two hanks of it, and, well...we'll see. (As I was checking out, the person ringing me up asked what my plans were for this yarn...and I told her my theory...and then it dawned on me that maybe it is not considered polite to tell LYS salespeople that their yarn is ugly, even if there is a whole bin of it in the discount area, which pretty much says to me that I'm probably not the only person who thought it was ugly. But, you know... :})

Ok. Now, doggie photos!

Hi! I'm cute!

Why is she sitting me in this pile of crunchy stuff?

I'm not so sure about this...

But maybe I can eat it. Blech. Or not.

Muffin

Meet Muffin...

...the newest member of our family...

...she's a 3 year old Miniature Schnauzer...

...and she spent all but the last two weeks of those three years as a breeding dog in a puppy mill. :(

I'll be honest...I've never thought of myself as a dog person. I've always liked dogs more in theory than in practice. However, over the past year, the idea of getting a dog has been one I've batted around more and more. The kids had brought it up a lot, and I kept putting them off. But then we'd go over to the nearby park and see all of the people and their dogs and I realized...I wanted to be a dog person.

So I started scoping out the Petfinder.com listings now and then in the past few months. If we were going to get a dog, it needed to be a small dog that would remain small. I preferred for it to be female and not a puppy. Short hair was also a preference due to Chris's allergies. I thought maybe a Yorkie or a Maltese would be nice, but I never found one that really struck me as right for us. And then last week I did a search for mini schnauzers...my grandmother had one of these dogs when I was a kid, and I loved that dog! She was great. And so I searched and suddenly -- there was Muffin. I don't know why, but I knew she was the right one.

We're basically doing a crash course, learn-as-we-go, of how to deal with a puppy mill survivor. It's clear that patience is going to be key as she learns to trust us and learns what it is to be loved and to be part of a family. Surprisingly, she loves to be held, loves to cuddle. She's slept each night in my daughter's bed. After spending her first full day here mostly sleeping, she finally has begun exploring her new world today, and she finally started to eat as well. Pottying...well...that's going to take time, but we'll deal.

Last evening, I was the only one in the room with her and she was looking around for the kids. I called to her, as we're trying to get her used to her name, and for the first time, she came over to me on her own. It might seem like a simple thing, but I think for her, it is a big, big thing...it was a sign to me that Muffin is going to be ok.

And so now I find myself wiping doggie paws after we've been outside, and calling my daughter from the pet store to have her measure Muffin so I could buy a little jacket to help keep her warm when we go out to do the potty thing. And I find my heart just oozing and melting when this little face comes over to me and wants to be picked up.

My God, I think I am turning into a dog person after all. :}