Drip.... drip.... drip....

It goes without saying that there is no such thing as a maintenance-free home! Luckily, because we live in an apartment, maintenance issues are taken care of for us. The latest? Check out the new gaping hole in our ceiling!

The air conditioning pipes up in the ceiling had been dripping through our ceiling, so yesterday they cut out a chunk of the ceiling so they can fix it. The plastic thingy you see is temporarily covering the hole until they come back with the parts they'll need to finish the job. It's got a little hole through which the water continues to drip (down into a pail on the floor).

On the bright side, we also have a new, awesome dishwasher! The old one (and I mean REALLY old) was a disgrace, and didn't work at all. They approved a new dishwasher for us, and ta-da! The very next day we have a brand new, energy-saving, super quiet dishwasher! Yay!

This little piggy...

Thanks to my hubby for sending me this amigurumi tutorial video, I gave it a shot and successfully crocheted my first adorable little thing-a-ma-bobs! First I made a little orange ball (use your imagination... no photo) and filled it with fiberfill, catnip, and a little bell, and Casper LOVES his new toy!

Not being satisfied with a mere sphere, I used some leftover peach yarn from my lace scarf and improvised this cute little piggy! Complete with little snout, sequin/beaded eyes, teeny legs, and a curly tail. I just made it up as I went along.

Strawberry picking!

We've had unseasonably warm weather so far this spring (except for today... brrr!), causing the strawberries to ripen earlier than usual. We drove over to Pell Farm in Somers to pick some fresh, yummy strawberries! I'm thinking some tarts or pies are called for.

Not to brag, but...

Ok, so this is kind of the opposite of bragging. I'd have to be a completely narcissistic nutcase to brag about THIS:

You're probably thinking "A potholder? You're posting about making a potholder? Well woop-dee-doo!" I know, I know, a masterpiece it's not. However, it's the first thing I've crocheted since my freshman year of college, when my friend Julia taught me a basic stitch that I used to make an afghan. I don't even know what stitch it was, either. Yesterday I took a Crochet 101 class at JoAnn, and I learned to chain, single crochet, half-double crochet, and double crochet, and what I used on my afghan was definitely none of the above. Oh well! The important thing is, that after all of these years, it hasn't fallen apart, and my cats have all loved to make their beds on it. This potholder I made won't be going into my Crafting Hall of Fame, but I'm kind of proud of it because I was able to pick up crochet again pretty quickly and easily. I'm still completely partial to knitting, but now at least I have try something different when I want to! I also adore amigurumi, those cute little Japanese crocheted (or sometimes knitted) stuffed animals: 

I'd love to try some sometime!

My first sweater.... continued

My sweater is coming along quite well, I'm very happy to say! I think it'll actually look like a real sweater! I've done the back part and the two sleeves:

Knitting this sweater was also recently made even more fun and special; my dear hubby surprised me with a beautiful set of rosewood interchangeable needles! They are so fantastic! It includes needles from size 4-11, with cables in 16", 24", and 32" lengths. It also includes adapters to combine for longer lengths, along with stoppers for the ends. Right now I'm knitting using the size 10s made into straight flexi-needles, which I'm enjoying much more than the aluminum needles I was using before. I found them rather slippery to knit with.

I've started a little bit of the front left panel now, which follows a more intricate pattern and includes beads. Here's a little preview: