little woman

Paul installed a new microwave above the oven today!

And I made him a Jayne hat.

It was a productive weekend.

Our love for him now
Ain’t hard to explain
The hero of Canton
The man they call Jayne.

Man walks down the street in a hat like that, you know he’s not afraid of anything.

Haven’t posted in awhile! We have been pretty busy. Might be a little rambly…

We helped Ryan and Sarah move and their new house is awesome! We saw Swan Lake and the Fire Bird at Ballet Austin. We went up North to visit Paul’s pops for his birthday last weekend. My mom was out of town so we also took care of her poodle, Shirley. I am a moron and left my key to my mother’s house in Austin so Paul broke into the house. We were able to break a window in the garage so it wasn’t too bad.

We have decorated for Halloween. It feels like we have so few decorations! It will be nice to add to them every year.

Paul put together a Larson Scanner so we could make a Cylon pumpkin!

I went to see Spring Awakening this week… I hadn’t ever really sat down and listened to the music before. I like the story… the lesson being to teach your children about sex and their changing bodies so they can make smart decisions. And I enjoyed the music more than I thought I would! My favorite piece was “Don’t Do Sadness/Blue Wind”. The only thing that really bothered me was the odd combination of the period (late nineteenth century) with (sometimes) modern lyrics and choreography… Sometimes it just seemed very out of place.

ANYWAY, I finally got to knit a little something for Nora… I hope she likes it and will get as much use out of it as Will gets out of the one I made him.

YUM!! The Bavarian Hefeweizen is really tasty. The Shiner will be ready in a few weeks.

Other updates… I went to North Texas and celebrated Father’s Day at a Ranger’s game with Paul, Dad and… um… Kellye. Kellye is my dad’s… um…. girl friend and we have never all hung out before. It wasn’t as awkward as I thought it was going to be. Dad seems happy. And she was… um… nice.

Also, I finished a little winter hat for Will… if he wants it. It was a really quick project and my first hat! I think it came out well.

And, YAY!, Mom’s Singer is finally here in Austown!! I took it to the Singer hospital and got a tune up. All is well.

Mom is coming to town this weekend and I am hoping we can squeeze in some fabric shopping. I would like to start making the sheer panels for the windows so we can hang them as soon as we move in. Wish me luck! I am hopelessly inexperienced…

Not sure what spurned it on, but I woke up Saturday and make a Sourdough Starter. My previous attempt did not work. HOWEVER, this time has been much more successful. I just let it sit out this weekend and stirred it a couple of times. This morning I put it in the refrigerator. I hope to make a loaf next weekend! Yippee!

Paul got to move his beer from bucket to carboy. After a week in the bucket, it smelled like beer and looked like ick. There was a 1/2 inch of muck at the bottom of the bucket.

On Sunday we went to Austin Homebrew Supply for some supplies (bottles and caps, etc). While we were there I just HAD to get a mozzarella making kit. IS there a better summer meal than tomato, fresh basil and mozzarella in any form whatsoever???

I tried my hand before Sunday movie and it worked… kinda. The final result tastes very good… just like mozzarella. But the consistency is more like ricotta. No matter… I am making a pizza tonight with it The instructions said that if this was the case, use another brand of milk. This time I used 2% (more than we normally get) Central Market Organics. I might try Whole milk next time but I doubt the fat content had anything to do with it. Maybe I will get Horizon… or the Church milk.

Anyway, in all of these projects there was crazy science happening… which is awesome! We also had fun pool time and Syzygy time and lots o good movie time (Clash of the Titans, The King and I, part of Arsenic and Old Lace and Into the Wild). Fun weekend!

TOTALLY UNRELATED! My boss had a bunch of her Ren Faire costumes up at work… she had an awesome chain mail shirt. It was sooooo heavy!

I wanted a quick, summer-friendly knitting project. I started this last weekend and finished it this morning while watching The King and I.

You might recognize this yarn from my very FIRST knitting project… my scarf last year.

I also started a Sourdough Starter this morning but I won’t post pictures of that HAPPY SATURDAY!

Today we blew off the world and had fun together! We went to Strait Music for a new violin shoulder rest and a chord that will connect my keyboard to my computer… no, not that kind of keyboard… the musical kind! They were, of course, closed. So we came home and made beer with Paul’s handy dandy beer making kit!

In 5 weeks time, we will be the proud parents of 50 Bavarian Hefeweizen!

They have cheese making kits and wine kits too! I can’t wait to make some mozzarella!!

I was also able to finish up a knitting project that has been hanging over my head… I just didnt want to mess with french knots again!

This is going to replace the first attempt at a knit stuffed animal that I gave to Andy and Christina at one of their showers. My stitches are tighter which is better for baby.

I also started a knit head scarf which is a fun, quick, summer-friendly project. I will post a picture when it is finished.

AND I found a nifty website with Celtic knotwork drawing tutorials and tried my hand!

It was a fun and productive Sunday together!!

This is really my first attempt at calligraphy… if you couldn’t tell. Here I am using a Sharpie calligraphy marker which is best for beginners who need a lot of practice. I also decided to use the green one because it is the ugliest. Ha! But I have a cool dip pen and several ink colors for when I am get more advanced!

I want to work my way up to illumination which is incredibly beautiful! Here are examples:

A long time ago, Abbie created a folder that only had pictures of me and Paul and named it KPPS… and it has stuck. Inspired by looking at the Tolkien Monogram:

… I doodled this one day:

It is only somewhat exciting but it peaked my interest in calligraphy and illumination! Hopefully I will get better and can post more work! Wish me luck.

Ok ya I didn’t know what to call this post… but I knew it had to have the word slab in it.

Last week we had our first inspection by a third-party inspector to make sure they are building the house with good materials and using standard practice. This is not the City inspector to make sure it is up to code… that is something different. This is just our watchdog on Centex to make sure they are taking care of business.

It went well! There were just a few things and were taken care of before they poured the slab this morning. Here is what it looked like on Friday, May 15:

and on Saturday, May 16:

Heather and I had fun times this Saturday at Joann’s. I found a couple of fabrics I like… I think Paul’s non-involvment with colors and fabric, etc means he doesnt hate my ideas?

This is a raw silk material I was thinking about for the curtains.

This is an accent fabric that I really liked. It is kind of girly but if it is only used to offset the other (maybe as tiebacks for the curtains?) it won’t be so bad. AND when Paul saw it he said, “That isn’t bad”!

Also, I had to make note of this awesome garden craft project that I hope to tackle some day!

Tin Butterflies for your garden!

They are very pretty and inexpensive because you can use recycled materials for the most part.

woowoo! recyclingandcraftingatthesametime.com!

I know sooooo many geeks… I know so many that I am starting to think I am one… And I think the fact that I love reading the feed from this blog makes it official…

http://geekcrafts.com/

Current posts on the front page…

Star Trek TOS Cross Stitch

Periodic Table Duvet Cover

IT Crowd Cross Stitch

and this one i found and just wanted to include because it fits…

I recently purchased a Medieval Queen Cross Stitch Bookmark so I can learn how to Cross Stitch…

CAN YOU SEE WHY?!