It's cold outside and I've been in knitting mode. I only seem to feel like knitting when it's cold outside. I've been working on various small things, hats, coffee cup cozy, an anti-nursing sweater for Pumpkin, and now a pair of socks. I'm in the middle of the first sock so far, so I'll have to wait and see if I fall victim to the second sock syndrome. My boss at the library brought up the possibility of a knitting group, though I think I'd like to expand it to a fiber arts group, since I tend to only knit in the winter, and there are people out there who enjoy other fiber arts other than knitting and crocheting.

Work on the house is still plugging along. I still have some painting to do and P. needs to fix a window upstairs. Soon we'll be able to convert the construction loan into a regular mortgage, and I'll be able to stop worrying so much about it. After that, we'll be able to focus on unpacking the rest of the boxes and setting up the craft room. It's been a long journey, and I really hope it's going to be worth it.

Wow, February was a little crazy. I forgot to do a blog post, even though I set myself multiple reminders and thought of it often. It just got away from me. P. got a job at the library, not my branches, but he has the same title. This has taken a lot of pressure off of us. He's working in a job that's not retail and is meaningful and actually pays decently. He should be happy there, especially if he has coworkers as awesome as I do. I've been working on library crafts, mostly for teens/adults to take and make, since everyone else tends to do kids crafts. I just hope they're successful. My first projects are set for April and May. I've also been making the kid's area display the past couple months. It's challenging, and kind of fun. This month I put up a Reading Rainbow display.

It's hard to make stuff when the craft room is full of boxed. I kind of lost steam on knitting. The weather's turning warmer, so my crafting itch tends to move away from knitting and towards other things. I'm thinking of learning macrame. Tiny macrame for jewelry sounds interesting. My next projects are for work. I need to make my take and make for May; a hand sewn pocket to store small items in, like earbuds; and I need to sew 8 flag straps for the funeral home. The flag straps are just lengths of elastic sewn in a loop to put on the casket over a flag to keep it from blowing off in the wind.

We had to get a new boiler for the house. Thankfully we still have some funds left for the construction loan to cover the cost. It was a very cold few days while they were putting in the new one. This one is a high-efficiency unit that should last the life of the house and hopefully lower our winter gas bill. Getting the other stuff done with the house has been difficult. I work a lot and had to go into the Cities to do peer reviews on the funeral homes and whatnot two weeks in a row, so I haven't had time to get much of anything done. When I have to go into the Cities, I get so tired from the hour and a half drive (one way), and I tend to push myself to exhaustion.

Anyway, here's to hoping March is better than February, and that April and May brings us to a conventional mortgage and getting the house put together enough to really make it feel like home.

It's April! Hex and Charm are now a year old, Pumpkin has been spayed, and the babies go in to get fixed next week. No more kittens in this house! We've made a climbing wall for the cats. It's just really cheap carpeting up on the wall that we're going to put shelves on for the cats, but the cats love it. Pumpkin, Honey, and Acorn have all made it to the ceiling, and I expect the shelves will be a popular napping spot.

My crafting efforts have mainly been work related. I tried out a punch needle kit from work that was fun. Not exactly my thing, my loops are all over the place length-wise, and the yarn isn't secure at all unless you glue it down. I don't know if I'll try it again. It was a nice, fun, little project, though. My moon and stars origami kit is going out to the public this month. I'm nervous about it. It's my first take-and-make for the library.

Home crafting is on hold still. The craft room is still full of boxes. I really need to start getting everything put away and set up.