Sunday, December 28, 2008
Maybe I'm Contagious?
Sunday, December 14, 2008
We're back in business
(Pardon the pumpkin pie on her face...I had to hurry up and take the picture right before leaving so there was no time to clean her up)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Featured Etsy Shop of the Week: hippofabulous
Sparkle Vinyl Cupcake Wallet
Happy Cloud Vinyl Wallet
Sparkle Vinyl Pirate Wallet
Find her on etsy, or check out her blog: http://hippofabulous.wordpress.com/
Monday, November 10, 2008
Geared up for life in the Promise Land
Jack now has a cute little rain coat that protects is top side and his tummy from getting too wet when he goes out for walks. Plus, now he's not the same color as wet pavement and I can worry less about him getting run over by a car speeding through our parking lot.
PS I could still use some help with cranberry recipes.
Cranberries anyone?
I love cranberries. They definitely make the "top three" list of my favorite things to bake with in the fall....apples, pumpkin and cranberries.
I was so excited that cranberries were now available that I went out and bought 2 large bags. I made a cranberry apple crisp to go with the amazing apples we got from The Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch. It was yummy but didn't use enough cranberries. So now I have about a bag and a half of cranberries and I could use some inspiration.
Do you have a favorite cranberry recipe? Please share!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Rediscovering a Good Thing
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Almost Fixed!
One day at work I thought to myself "My blog is boring. And my pictures don't fit very well in the little column Blogger gives me. I need a new template!"
So bright eyed and hopeful, off I went in search of a new template. And I found lots of really cool ones. But no matter how meticulously I followed the directions for installing them, they never worked. Ever. I kept getting error messages from Blogger or a screen of garbely gook. I just couldn't figure it out. In the meantime, while I was trying to figure it out all my little gizmo gadgets in my side bar disappeared.
So everyday for about a week I would spend time trying to fix it.
Was it the blogger server? Wait for a day. Nope. Not it.
Was it the computer I was on? Change computers. Nope.
Browser? Maybe it doesn't like IE? Firefox? Chrome? Oh come on!
Maybe it's the template? (try maybe 15 different templates from different sources). No
XML? No
HTML only? Sorry.
Google the error codes showing up. Nothing. Except 2 hits in French. I don't speak French.
Crap
BLOG! WHY ARE YOU BROKEN!?! STOP TORTURING ME!
**sigh**
Seriosuly. I was thisclose to just deleting my blog and starting over again.
So today while putting in some blog fixing time and researching transfering posts to a new blog, I decided I'd try changing the template on a different blog I own. It worked! It was cake! Hmmmm.
So after puttering around for a bit I figured out at least one of my gizmos (which had never given me any problems before) was broken. So I deleted it (and a bunch of other gizmos that weren't broken in an effort to find the broken one). And you know what happened?
It worked! No error message. No computer code vomit. A blog! With cupcakes! Yay!
I even got ambitious and tweaked the code a bit to fix the size of my main posting column. Changed some colors, etc.
I do still have quite a bit of re-configuring left....especially with the right column gizmos and links but I'm pleased to say that my blog works, you can read it, AND the pictures fit in the main column (which was the thing that started this mess to begin with).
Any suggestions for things you'd like to see on my blog? Let me know in the comments! With the exception of actual entries, I'm kind of starting from scratch again so I'd love ideas for fun things to do with my new space. It's kind of like moving into a new apartment...same stuff but new digs and a new chance to re-decorate and re-organize in a (potentially) more useful way.
Maybe it's a good sign for things to come.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Fall is here
Saturday, August 2, 2008
The tale of a confused tomato
The very friendly people in the container gardeners group on Ravelry told me that as the fruit get bigger that the stalk will straighten out. Since the plant in the above picture already had 13 fruits on it, I thought it would gradually get pulled down as the fruit get bigger and heavier.
So went to work on Thursday with the plant looking exactly as it does in the above picture but when I came home it was doing this:
It almost completely straightened out over a 6 hour period!
But now that the stalks are growing down, the stems and the fruit (which had been growing parallel to the ground) are now growing sideways:
I hope the stems re-correct as well because I'm worried as the fruit gets bigger that gravity might start pulling it off the stem pre-maturely.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Garden pics
I've got 2 tomato plants (one regular, one upside down), a basil plant, a very sad looking hydrangea, an avocado tree sproutling, and some morning glory/beans.
Tomato #1 is in the picture above. While it's very large and bushy, it has no tomatoes. It had quite a few flowers but they seem to be infertile. I'm curious to see if maybe it will get some later.
Tomato #2, I'm growing upside down.
I drilled a 1.5" hole in the bottom of a 5 gallon pot, put coffee filters around the hole so the dirt wouldn't fall out and threaded a (much smaller) tomato start through. It did okay like this for a while but then decided to rebel (red lines show how the stalks are growing):
It grew down for a bit but then did a u-turn up to the right. The fork to the left is actually just a really big branch coming off the main stalk. Both are growing in a decidedly upward fashion.
And while it's definitely an "interesting" looking plant, it was the first one to make one of these!
There are currently 13 tomatoes growing on the upside-down plant with many more pregnant-looking flowers that I'm sure will turn into tomatoes soon. :-)
This pot didn't get the memo:
Since I took this picture last week, the beans have since flowered and are growing mini-beans....but they forgot to climb. They're just hanging out near the pot. The morning glories in this pot were trying to climb the beans so I tried to re-direct them to the rail and now thery are being grumpy at me.
This is the only pot of the 4 which is doing what it's supposed to:
The bean in this pot is still short, but at least the morning glory figured it out. I've got quite a ways to go to get to my "wall of vines" look I was going for. *sigh* oh well.
We're looking to buy a house so hopefully this time next year, I'll own dirt that isn't contained in pots and my garden will be behaving a bit nicer.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Swaps!
TEAL APPEAL
This is part 2 of the swap. Purdy stitch markers:
Stitch Markers Swap
This is my second set from this swap. From Lisa M.:
Etsy Tools Swap
This is a swap we set up over in the Ravelry Etsy Shops group to swap tools. If got both packages on the same day.
The first package from Chris at SugarBeeStudios:
(the "no PC" tag on the sheep has to do with her non-PC yarn names. Pretty stuff, though. Go sheck out her shop)
My second package cam from Sarah (SLOrnamentals on Ravelry). The Package had a knitting needle case (with an embroidered cupcake):
And inside were cupcake knitting needles and stitch markers!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
chicken sure is expensive
Thursday, June 5, 2008
I'm so proud
It's still under construction, but she sure has some cute stuff!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Stuff
So here's a bit of collaboration of what's going on in the other online venues which have caused me to neglect said blog.
The Cupcake Factory
Yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. Here are some pictures of the yarn I've been making:
Frosting (worsted weight merino. Dyed in such a way as not to pool):
(the orange one and the last teal/purple ones are still available...the others have sold. I've 2 more skeins waiting to be photographed and listed in the morning)
Buttercream (Really soft superwash merino/nylon sock yarn in purdy colors...currently sold out)
Sugar Paste (merino/silk blend sockyarn. The purple one is still for sale)
Fluff (American Wool Roving)
(I like this one a lot. If it doesn't sell soon, I may end up spinning it myself)
And Finally...Meringue (a light, airy lace weight).
It's pretty, but I'm not sure I'm the biggest fan of dyeing lace weight. I've got 2 more blank skeins and depending on how they sell, this might be the end of this line.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So there's all my yarn. I've done some other stuff but I realized I'm lacking pictures (will need to fix that later). Anyway, if you like yarn you might be interested in my very own iGoogle gadget that I made yesterday. It looks like this:
If you add it to your iGoogle page, you'll automatically get pictures and info on my newest yarns fed straight onto your screen.
Right now, it's available by invitation only, but if you e-mail me at carissamarie[at!]gmail[dot]com I can hook you up.
I guess that's it for now. Have a great night everyone!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Maybe I'm Contagious?
Sunday, December 14, 2008
We're back in business
(Pardon the pumpkin pie on her face...I had to hurry up and take the picture right before leaving so there was no time to clean her up)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Featured Etsy Shop of the Week: hippofabulous
Sparkle Vinyl Cupcake Wallet
Happy Cloud Vinyl Wallet
Sparkle Vinyl Pirate Wallet
Find her on etsy, or check out her blog: http://hippofabulous.wordpress.com/
Monday, November 10, 2008
Geared up for life in the Promise Land
Jack now has a cute little rain coat that protects is top side and his tummy from getting too wet when he goes out for walks. Plus, now he's not the same color as wet pavement and I can worry less about him getting run over by a car speeding through our parking lot.
PS I could still use some help with cranberry recipes.
Cranberries anyone?
I love cranberries. They definitely make the "top three" list of my favorite things to bake with in the fall....apples, pumpkin and cranberries.
I was so excited that cranberries were now available that I went out and bought 2 large bags. I made a cranberry apple crisp to go with the amazing apples we got from The Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch. It was yummy but didn't use enough cranberries. So now I have about a bag and a half of cranberries and I could use some inspiration.
Do you have a favorite cranberry recipe? Please share!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Rediscovering a Good Thing
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Almost Fixed!
One day at work I thought to myself "My blog is boring. And my pictures don't fit very well in the little column Blogger gives me. I need a new template!"
So bright eyed and hopeful, off I went in search of a new template. And I found lots of really cool ones. But no matter how meticulously I followed the directions for installing them, they never worked. Ever. I kept getting error messages from Blogger or a screen of garbely gook. I just couldn't figure it out. In the meantime, while I was trying to figure it out all my little gizmo gadgets in my side bar disappeared.
So everyday for about a week I would spend time trying to fix it.
Was it the blogger server? Wait for a day. Nope. Not it.
Was it the computer I was on? Change computers. Nope.
Browser? Maybe it doesn't like IE? Firefox? Chrome? Oh come on!
Maybe it's the template? (try maybe 15 different templates from different sources). No
XML? No
HTML only? Sorry.
Google the error codes showing up. Nothing. Except 2 hits in French. I don't speak French.
Crap
BLOG! WHY ARE YOU BROKEN!?! STOP TORTURING ME!
**sigh**
Seriosuly. I was thisclose to just deleting my blog and starting over again.
So today while putting in some blog fixing time and researching transfering posts to a new blog, I decided I'd try changing the template on a different blog I own. It worked! It was cake! Hmmmm.
So after puttering around for a bit I figured out at least one of my gizmos (which had never given me any problems before) was broken. So I deleted it (and a bunch of other gizmos that weren't broken in an effort to find the broken one). And you know what happened?
It worked! No error message. No computer code vomit. A blog! With cupcakes! Yay!
I even got ambitious and tweaked the code a bit to fix the size of my main posting column. Changed some colors, etc.
I do still have quite a bit of re-configuring left....especially with the right column gizmos and links but I'm pleased to say that my blog works, you can read it, AND the pictures fit in the main column (which was the thing that started this mess to begin with).
Any suggestions for things you'd like to see on my blog? Let me know in the comments! With the exception of actual entries, I'm kind of starting from scratch again so I'd love ideas for fun things to do with my new space. It's kind of like moving into a new apartment...same stuff but new digs and a new chance to re-decorate and re-organize in a (potentially) more useful way.
Maybe it's a good sign for things to come.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Fall is here
Saturday, August 2, 2008
The tale of a confused tomato
The very friendly people in the container gardeners group on Ravelry told me that as the fruit get bigger that the stalk will straighten out. Since the plant in the above picture already had 13 fruits on it, I thought it would gradually get pulled down as the fruit get bigger and heavier.
So went to work on Thursday with the plant looking exactly as it does in the above picture but when I came home it was doing this:
It almost completely straightened out over a 6 hour period!
But now that the stalks are growing down, the stems and the fruit (which had been growing parallel to the ground) are now growing sideways:
I hope the stems re-correct as well because I'm worried as the fruit gets bigger that gravity might start pulling it off the stem pre-maturely.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Garden pics
I've got 2 tomato plants (one regular, one upside down), a basil plant, a very sad looking hydrangea, an avocado tree sproutling, and some morning glory/beans.
Tomato #1 is in the picture above. While it's very large and bushy, it has no tomatoes. It had quite a few flowers but they seem to be infertile. I'm curious to see if maybe it will get some later.
Tomato #2, I'm growing upside down.
I drilled a 1.5" hole in the bottom of a 5 gallon pot, put coffee filters around the hole so the dirt wouldn't fall out and threaded a (much smaller) tomato start through. It did okay like this for a while but then decided to rebel (red lines show how the stalks are growing):
It grew down for a bit but then did a u-turn up to the right. The fork to the left is actually just a really big branch coming off the main stalk. Both are growing in a decidedly upward fashion.
And while it's definitely an "interesting" looking plant, it was the first one to make one of these!
There are currently 13 tomatoes growing on the upside-down plant with many more pregnant-looking flowers that I'm sure will turn into tomatoes soon. :-)
This pot didn't get the memo:
Since I took this picture last week, the beans have since flowered and are growing mini-beans....but they forgot to climb. They're just hanging out near the pot. The morning glories in this pot were trying to climb the beans so I tried to re-direct them to the rail and now thery are being grumpy at me.
This is the only pot of the 4 which is doing what it's supposed to:
The bean in this pot is still short, but at least the morning glory figured it out. I've got quite a ways to go to get to my "wall of vines" look I was going for. *sigh* oh well.
We're looking to buy a house so hopefully this time next year, I'll own dirt that isn't contained in pots and my garden will be behaving a bit nicer.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Swaps!
TEAL APPEAL
This is part 2 of the swap. Purdy stitch markers:
Stitch Markers Swap
This is my second set from this swap. From Lisa M.:
Etsy Tools Swap
This is a swap we set up over in the Ravelry Etsy Shops group to swap tools. If got both packages on the same day.
The first package from Chris at SugarBeeStudios:
(the "no PC" tag on the sheep has to do with her non-PC yarn names. Pretty stuff, though. Go sheck out her shop)
My second package cam from Sarah (SLOrnamentals on Ravelry). The Package had a knitting needle case (with an embroidered cupcake):
And inside were cupcake knitting needles and stitch markers!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
chicken sure is expensive
Thursday, June 5, 2008
I'm so proud
It's still under construction, but she sure has some cute stuff!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Stuff
So here's a bit of collaboration of what's going on in the other online venues which have caused me to neglect said blog.
The Cupcake Factory
Yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. Here are some pictures of the yarn I've been making:
Frosting (worsted weight merino. Dyed in such a way as not to pool):
(the orange one and the last teal/purple ones are still available...the others have sold. I've 2 more skeins waiting to be photographed and listed in the morning)
Buttercream (Really soft superwash merino/nylon sock yarn in purdy colors...currently sold out)
Sugar Paste (merino/silk blend sockyarn. The purple one is still for sale)
Fluff (American Wool Roving)
(I like this one a lot. If it doesn't sell soon, I may end up spinning it myself)
And Finally...Meringue (a light, airy lace weight).
It's pretty, but I'm not sure I'm the biggest fan of dyeing lace weight. I've got 2 more blank skeins and depending on how they sell, this might be the end of this line.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So there's all my yarn. I've done some other stuff but I realized I'm lacking pictures (will need to fix that later). Anyway, if you like yarn you might be interested in my very own iGoogle gadget that I made yesterday. It looks like this:
If you add it to your iGoogle page, you'll automatically get pictures and info on my newest yarns fed straight onto your screen.
Right now, it's available by invitation only, but if you e-mail me at carissamarie[at!]gmail[dot]com I can hook you up.
I guess that's it for now. Have a great night everyone!