Weddings, Cupcakes, Shawls and Stones

No pictures of the apartment yet. I decided to wait till my parents bring the rest of the furniture so it'll look prettier ;-).

I've been keeping busy the last month with work. On the July 3rd, I was attacked at work and my right arm got beat up pretty badly. I was told if I wanted to have it looked at I had to find someone to come in and cover my shift. The day before the 4th this was nearly impossible so I worked for 7 hours after it happened. When I got off at 10pm the only place that was open was the ER, so the company gets to pay worker's comp for me to go to the ER and make sure nothing was fractured. It wasn't. But, I started to get pretty fed up with all the BS that's happened at work. I'd already applied for a few jobs so that I could back off to part-time hours. But after that incident and another one (where I was yelled at for about 5 hours straight and threatened by a client and when I called my boss for suggestions was yelled at by her too), I've put in my two weeks notice that I will no longer be working for them. I started working for a coffee shop the week after my arm was beat up and so far LOVE it. Granted I'm becoming addicted to caffeine more than I should be, but all my co-workers are great and I can only burn myself instead of getting beat up!

Last weekend, I had the pleasure to be a bridesmaid in one of my dear friends, Diana's, wedding. Diana let us all pick our dresses as long as they were the same colour, "Apple" from David's Bridal. I found mine in September last year on the clearance rack for $25. It was 2 sizes too big, but I figured I had plenty of time to take it in. I, of course, did not start the altering process until May, but I still managed to finish almost a whole week before the wedding (ask me sometime about finishing a prom dress the night before prom). Because I was taking in the side seams, I added in pockets (because dresses + pockets = <3).

This week, I've been in the mood to bake. Which is actually a little weird considering the temperatures outside, but nonetheless I wanted cupcakes. I thought about waiting till Timm comes down next week, because, although I can, I probably shouldn't eat a dozen or so cupcakes by myself. So I asked Timm what kind of cupcakes sounded good. His reply was "chocolate with no frosting." I love chocolate, I also love frosting, but strawberry is what sounded really good. So I debated between ignoring what Timm wanted and making him eat strawberry cupcakes, or sucking it up and eating chocolate cupcakes, or finding a way to make chocolate-strawberry cupcakes (saw some really awesome recipes online). But finally, I decided to make a small batch of strawberry cupcakes now and then make a small batch of chocolate cupcakes next week when Timm is here.



My mouth is very happy with my decision. I made a full batch of frosting, because it's so delicious I might put it on some of the chocolate cupcakes next week (or you know just eat it out of the container).

Although I'm pigging out on sweets, I'm still on my yarn diet and I've been craving lace knitting. I have lace weight alpaca that has been calling to me for about a month, but I wasn't finding a pattern that I loved. Last week, I was searching Ravelry when I came across this shawl. I was immediately in love with it and had to have it. Then, I looked at where the pattern came from. An Icelandic book that cost $58+shipping and is only available through Schoolhouse Press. They do provide a booklet with English translation of techniques, but that's still a lot of money to spend on a book. I tried to look at borrowing it from the library, even through inter-library loan. The only library that has it is Cornell University and they charge $20 to send it. My mother, who is not a knitter and usually doesn't enable me when it comes to knitting, said, "Well $20 to borrow it, versus $58 to have it forever, it's probably more worth it just to buy it." I went through a few days in moral dilemma about spending so much on a book when there are plenty of free shawl patterns, but I decided I couldn't resist and now am waiting impatiently for the boo0k's arrival.

I also justified buying the book because I know that I'll be doing lots of knitting in the near future. Over the past few weeks, I've been woken up a couple of times in the middle of the night with severe stomach pain. The pain is up right where my rib cage separates and will keep me up for a few hours before I can get myself back to sleep. When it happened the first time, I was really freaked out and of course looked on the internet. After this happened a second time, I set up an appointment to see a doctor. I had already determined that I had gallstones, but of course I had to pay $$$ to have this confirmed. I was told I could stop eating fatty foods or have my gallbladder taken out. I'm 22. I love all sorts of fatty foods. I do not want to live the next 60 years without fatty foods. The gallbladder comes out on the 4th, in time for me to recover before school starts. Like I said, perfect time to lay around and knit. My parents pushed back when they are bringing my furniture so that they'll be here for my surgery, which is nice, but it means I probably won't be able to get stuff moved around and sorted out into the furniture for a little while because of being restricted on lifting stuff, etc.

Hopefully pictures of some recently finished projects and the start of a shawl soon!!