Still here!

Man oh man. What a busy couple of weeks! Lots of house stuff and work stuff has kept me from blogging (but it’s given me a lot to blog about!).

First of all, my work stresses are over… for now. The grant application was submitted and my tenure file was turned in for my 3rd year review. I’m sooooo glad to have that damn thing off my shoulders. It’s been stressing me out for months. But not anymore! I’m enjoying a celebratory glass of wine!

And we are doing tons of stuff around the house. First of all, remember the new chairs I mentioned in my last post? Well they came and they both fit in our tiny house! So my new favorite knitting spot is this new leather chair… MY chair…

It’s so comfortable! I love it!!

And ever since Geoff and I got central heating and air installed back in February, we have been puzzled by what to do with this…

That is a window a/c unit in the wall of our kitchen. Removing it would leave a gaping hole in the wall and patching it would have been difficult because on the interior wall there is wood paneling that’s been painted (so a patch made of drywall would have been noticeable) and trying to match the siding on the outside of the house would have been almost impossible. What to do?

I know! Make the hole BIGGER and fill it with something pretty!

As you can see, we are still doing some painting and touch-ups (and are getting ready to paint the kitchen a different color), but I love all of the light that the kitchen gets now! And now while dining we can look out on our side patio. And it has a great ledge for potted plants and herbs! I want to find some cute pots!

We also tore down the screen on our porch and reframed it to replace some rotting wood (you can see a teeny bit of it in the left of the window above). Plans in the coming weeks include painting and rescreening so we can enjoy some nice dinners on it during the fall. And my big strong hubby gave us a new driveway by putting down 6 tons of gravel and he jackhammered and removed the very old ugly sidewalk that led up to our front door. We are planning on replacing it with a nice walkway made of flagstone. Lots of excitement in our little home!

All of this craziness has led to a noticeable lack of knitting the past couple of weeks. I had been cranking out that blanket for my nephew and then hit the brakes HARD. I just finished up that second strip over the weekend and went ahead a seamed up those first two strips. Just two more strips to knit and seam and then add a border! You can see it in the above picture draped over my chair. I’m hoping that now that my life is a bit less stressful, I’ll regain that knitting momentum and finish that blanket soon!

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! Geoff and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine Friday night and we LOVED it. Hilarious. Go see it!

Just three more days in my work week! I love long weekends!