ARTWORK:
SPIRIT
NEEDLES
BLOGS
- Creative Yarns
- Dani...Black Belt Stitching Wizard
- Earthchick Knits
- Faery Glade
- Knitpickin'
- Knitspot
- Poor Miss Finch
- Purly Whites
- Quietish
- Soule Mama
- Wendy Knits
- Xtreme-Knitting!
- Yarn Rambles
CREATIVE
PAST
- 08.04
- 09.04
- 10.04
- 11.04
- 12.04
- 01.05
- 02.05
- 03.05
- 04.05
- 05.05
- 11.05
- 12.05
- 01.06
- 02.06
- 03.06
- 04.06
- 06.06
- 07.06
- 11.06
- 12.06
- 01.07
- 03.07
- 04.07
- 06.07
- 07.07
- 08.07
- 11.09
...i am a princess on the way to my throne...
1.31.2007
Help Me Choose
Okay...I'm at an impass and just can't make up my mind. So I'm doing what any self-respecting knitter would do: I'm passing the monkey to you so you can make up my mind for me.
Here's the pattern: Wing 'O the Moth
Here is the yarn: Alchemy Haiku
I can't pick a color. I've tried. I like them *all*. So I'm taking votes. Go 'head, people! Pick a color for me!
Yes, I am a grown woman with children. But in this matter, that changes nothing.Posted by: Stacey /
5:56 PM
|
Here's the pattern: Wing 'O the Moth
Here is the yarn: Alchemy Haiku
I can't pick a color. I've tried. I like them *all*. So I'm taking votes. Go 'head, people! Pick a color for me!
Yes, I am a grown woman with children. But in this matter, that changes nothing.
Posted by: Stacey / 5:56 PM
|
1.29.2007
35 Things You Probably Knew
I'm in kind of a reflective mood, so I thought I would do a little "35 things about me" post. Just in that kind of mood, I suppose.
1) I'm Southern, which means I like to gab, eat, and sit on front porches.
2) Despite being Southern, I hate grits, ice-tea, and biscuits covered in chicken-fried steak. This will get you thrown out of some counties, but I take my chances.
3) My eye color depends on who you ask: my husband will say they are blue, but my son swears they're green.
4) I have very, very dark red hair that photographs nearly black but is obviously red in person.
5) I'm very fair-skinned with freckles. 'Angel kisses', indeed.
6) Once I tried to tan by slathering Crisco all over my body and baked in the sun for three hours. It was one of the worst sunburns I ever encountered. I wish I could say I have never done anything that stupid again.
7) I have two children: a russet-haired boy with eyes like espresso beans, and a little blonde girl with eyes like cornflowers. Genetics fascinate me.
8) When my husband dies I will remain a widow, for I know I will never meet anyone who could possibly understand or love me the way he does.
9) I am a trained vocalist. My specialty in college was musical theater.
10) I have a BA in Liberal Arts. My major was theater.
11) I'm starting to enjoy some modest success with my artwork, and that's a fabulous feeling.
12) Especially considering I'm painfully insecure about my art.
13) If I had to classify myself politically, I would say I'm an indepedant-conservative.
14) My faith dictates my politics. I cannot seperate the two.
15) I'm a Christian, but not in name only; I believe the Bible is the real McCoy.
16) I love 'strange' people, those that are a little off-center and unique. I find them darling.
17) I love all colors, but pale pink seems to be my perinneal favorite.
18) My favorite TV shows are The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, Monk, and Firefly.
19) My style can be defined as 'simple-comfort'. I'm usually found in an oversized sweatshirt, long skirt, and bare feet ('cept in winter when they scream for socks).
20) I have not cut my hair for 10 years and it's almost to my waist.
21) I am a perfume junkie! But my current favorite is Amarige. Other favorites include Heavenly, Vera Wang, and Design.
22) Origins is my favorite skincare.
23) I wear glasses mainly for reading, but because I'm always losing them I leave them on at all times.
24) I have a tattoo of a scorpion on my shoulder. I had thought about getting it removed but decided not to.
25) I am a city-girl at heart who loves small villages as long as they have a real community feel.
26) Autumn in my favorite season.
27) Yanni is my favorite musician.
28) I *heart* coffee!
29) The ocean must flow in my viens for I feel my pulse quicken when I'm near it. I love the ocean with everything I am, and yet you are doing good to even get me to wade.
30) I wish Alice was a real person and worked for me. Life would be perfect!
31) My favorite PC game is Fairies.
32) The world seems a lot less fun without Steve Irwin. I will always miss him.
33) I drink Diet Coke.
34) I don't eat sushi.
35) White chocolate or dark? Yes.Posted by: Stacey /
12:21 PM
|
1) I'm Southern, which means I like to gab, eat, and sit on front porches.
2) Despite being Southern, I hate grits, ice-tea, and biscuits covered in chicken-fried steak. This will get you thrown out of some counties, but I take my chances.
3) My eye color depends on who you ask: my husband will say they are blue, but my son swears they're green.
4) I have very, very dark red hair that photographs nearly black but is obviously red in person.
5) I'm very fair-skinned with freckles. 'Angel kisses', indeed.
6) Once I tried to tan by slathering Crisco all over my body and baked in the sun for three hours. It was one of the worst sunburns I ever encountered. I wish I could say I have never done anything that stupid again.
7) I have two children: a russet-haired boy with eyes like espresso beans, and a little blonde girl with eyes like cornflowers. Genetics fascinate me.
8) When my husband dies I will remain a widow, for I know I will never meet anyone who could possibly understand or love me the way he does.
9) I am a trained vocalist. My specialty in college was musical theater.
10) I have a BA in Liberal Arts. My major was theater.
11) I'm starting to enjoy some modest success with my artwork, and that's a fabulous feeling.
12) Especially considering I'm painfully insecure about my art.
13) If I had to classify myself politically, I would say I'm an indepedant-conservative.
14) My faith dictates my politics. I cannot seperate the two.
15) I'm a Christian, but not in name only; I believe the Bible is the real McCoy.
16) I love 'strange' people, those that are a little off-center and unique. I find them darling.
17) I love all colors, but pale pink seems to be my perinneal favorite.
18) My favorite TV shows are The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, Monk, and Firefly.
19) My style can be defined as 'simple-comfort'. I'm usually found in an oversized sweatshirt, long skirt, and bare feet ('cept in winter when they scream for socks).
20) I have not cut my hair for 10 years and it's almost to my waist.
21) I am a perfume junkie! But my current favorite is Amarige. Other favorites include Heavenly, Vera Wang, and Design.
22) Origins is my favorite skincare.
23) I wear glasses mainly for reading, but because I'm always losing them I leave them on at all times.
24) I have a tattoo of a scorpion on my shoulder. I had thought about getting it removed but decided not to.
25) I am a city-girl at heart who loves small villages as long as they have a real community feel.
26) Autumn in my favorite season.
27) Yanni is my favorite musician.
28) I *heart* coffee!
29) The ocean must flow in my viens for I feel my pulse quicken when I'm near it. I love the ocean with everything I am, and yet you are doing good to even get me to wade.
30) I wish Alice was a real person and worked for me. Life would be perfect!
31) My favorite PC game is Fairies.
32) The world seems a lot less fun without Steve Irwin. I will always miss him.
33) I drink Diet Coke.
34) I don't eat sushi.
35) White chocolate or dark? Yes.
Posted by: Stacey / 12:21 PM
|
1.23.2007
Arty Goodness!
I got a new art piece finished! Stay tuned...
...and I got her uploaded at http://staceytippin.livejournal.com/! I tried to upload her here, but the file was too big and I'm too lazy to downsize. I'm still learning all this newfangled jazz at Blogger, so please bear with me.
BTW, I'll have another art piece uploaded later today. New art...wheeee!Posted by: Stacey /
7:06 AM
|
...and I got her uploaded at http://staceytippin.livejournal.com/! I tried to upload her here, but the file was too big and I'm too lazy to downsize. I'm still learning all this newfangled jazz at Blogger, so please bear with me.
BTW, I'll have another art piece uploaded later today. New art...wheeee!
Posted by: Stacey / 7:06 AM
|
1.18.2007
New Look at the Caffeinated
New Aslan heading. You likey?
I've been wanting to give my blog a change, but nothing that meant long hours and much gnashing of teeth so I just updated the logo and fiddled with the background. I kept everything else pretty much the same. I'm thinking of streamlining by list of blogs by listing the names of the bloggers instead of the blog names, in an aid to make it more personal and less cluttered looking. We shall see.
Not much else to report. I'm not feeling great (read: I've got The Ick) so I've been slowly working on a scarf. Remember the ill-fated Cheshire Cat scarf I started ages ago? Yep, it's back, only I've restarted it on circular needles. Whee! Only 10 more rows to go and I can switch yarns. The colors I've chosen are Royal Purple and Fuschia in Paton's Merino Wool, and both are dark, rich colors that perfectly match the Cheshire Cat (which is the *only* thing I like out of the creepy Alice In Wonderland stories, with the exception of Disney's rendition of the singing flowers. Artistically, those flower-ladies were brilliant). I really want to work on my Seraphim Shawl, but that requires concentration and I don't know if I'm up for that right now. I'm getting ready to take a couple of muscle relaxers for my back, so pretty soon I'll be in snooze land anyway.Posted by: Stacey /
9:33 AM
|
I've been wanting to give my blog a change, but nothing that meant long hours and much gnashing of teeth so I just updated the logo and fiddled with the background. I kept everything else pretty much the same. I'm thinking of streamlining by list of blogs by listing the names of the bloggers instead of the blog names, in an aid to make it more personal and less cluttered looking. We shall see.
Not much else to report. I'm not feeling great (read: I've got The Ick) so I've been slowly working on a scarf. Remember the ill-fated Cheshire Cat scarf I started ages ago? Yep, it's back, only I've restarted it on circular needles. Whee! Only 10 more rows to go and I can switch yarns. The colors I've chosen are Royal Purple and Fuschia in Paton's Merino Wool, and both are dark, rich colors that perfectly match the Cheshire Cat (which is the *only* thing I like out of the creepy Alice In Wonderland stories, with the exception of Disney's rendition of the singing flowers. Artistically, those flower-ladies were brilliant). I really want to work on my Seraphim Shawl, but that requires concentration and I don't know if I'm up for that right now. I'm getting ready to take a couple of muscle relaxers for my back, so pretty soon I'll be in snooze land anyway.
Posted by: Stacey / 9:33 AM
|
1.17.2007
Saving pains
Ugh. Me headache.
And wow, me wants! 'Lovers Leap' and 'Sunstone'...me wants me wants me wants!
*sigh*
Thou shalt not covet. Methinks it's time to go stitch on my scarf for a bit 'till the urge to clicky clicky on Blue Moon passes. Trying to save money, trying to save money, trying to save money...
*sigh*Posted by: Stacey /
2:40 PM
|
And wow, me wants! 'Lovers Leap' and 'Sunstone'...me wants me wants me wants!
*sigh*
Thou shalt not covet. Methinks it's time to go stitch on my scarf for a bit 'till the urge to clicky clicky on Blue Moon passes. Trying to save money, trying to save money, trying to save money...
*sigh*
Posted by: Stacey / 2:40 PM
|
1.12.2007
For Lana
See? Proof that I did actually do some artwork this holiday!:)
Forest Maiden II sketch
Posted by: Stacey /
10:35 AM
|
Forest Maiden II sketch
Posted by: Stacey / 10:35 AM
|
1.11.2007
I, Borg
Okay, my inner-geek has sprung fully-fledged this morning and, doing what any other self-respecting nerd would do, I'm going to throw caution to the wind and blare it from the rooftops:
"I am Circuitous of Borg!"
'What?' you ask, with an oh-so-curious look on your face? Well, it's quite simple; I just finished downloading Episode 12.5 of CraftBorg (incidentaly, the only podcast I currently listen to because, frankly, Rose and Julie sound like people I would hang with and share my nerdy-goodness), and I started thinking about the Borg from Star Trek and all their Borg-y names. You know the type: Seven of Nine, Three of Ten, Eleventy-one of Thousandy-two, that kind of thing. It also doesn't hurt that one of my top most favorite of all time STNG episode is "I, Borg" that centers of the Borg who calls himself Hugh and is, as far as I know, still enjoying his unusual Borg-y individuality. And of course, we all know Jean-Luc as Lucutious of Borg (who looked mighty fine in his Borg-like apparel, but I digress), which led my to want a Borg name for myself since I am part of the CraftBorg collective. Well, I thought and thought, and nothing came to mind until I saw my circular knitting needles. With the exception of DPNs, I've been stitching everything lately exclusively with circulars. I have fallen in love with circular needles, and I have them from size 4 up to size 11 and plan to get more. And then it dawned on me: I am a circular knitter! I knit is a circuitous fashion, which makes me circuitous! I am Circuitous of Borg!
Yaaaaaaaah!!
*ahem*
Okay, so maybe it's not that fabulous to those of you who are scratching your head and wondering if I've completely lost my marbles, but that's who I am in the CraftBorg world and I'm happy about it. Told you I was a geek.
Anywho, other than my intensely deep thoughts about assimilation being futile and all that, I've actually been knitting. No picuture, of course, 'cause I'm not cool but I can tell you that I'm half way done with one of my Gandalf the Grey armwarmers. I'm using Patons Classic Merino wool in the most gorgeous charcoal grey. I'm using size 3 DPNs and it's coming along swimmingly. Hopefully I will finish with one today so I can at least keep one arm and wrist warm while I knit the other (it's been cold here for Georgia! Brr!). I'm also working on my Tumnas scarf, which is a simply 1x1 rib. It's not a fancy yarn (Lion Brand Wool-Ease) but the color is *perfect*. It's Ranch Red, and it's this bright, happy red that is not too orange and not too blue. The only thing I would do differently with this scarf is add one strand of red mohair to make if fuzzier, but I'm anxious to get it finished so I can wear it and not freeze to death in the mornings while taking my kiddos to school. And I promise: once I get these finished I will bug my hubby to death about finding our digicam software and uploading it so I can actually prove I'm knitting.
Random Totally Off Subject Question of the Day: can those of you who live in apartments tell me the pros and cons of apartment living vs. owning a house? And those of you who have lived in both apartment and houses, can you chime in as well? We've been wanting to move for a while, and frankly I don't know if I want to buy another house. I'm not into yard work a the moment, and I love the idea of an apartment or town house but then again, I've always owned a home and I love the security that brings. I just don't know what would be the best route for us. We do have two children and four cats, and that's a factor as well. Hmm, just don't know...Posted by: Stacey /
8:59 AM
|
"I am Circuitous of Borg!"
'What?' you ask, with an oh-so-curious look on your face? Well, it's quite simple; I just finished downloading Episode 12.5 of CraftBorg (incidentaly, the only podcast I currently listen to because, frankly, Rose and Julie sound like people I would hang with and share my nerdy-goodness), and I started thinking about the Borg from Star Trek and all their Borg-y names. You know the type: Seven of Nine, Three of Ten, Eleventy-one of Thousandy-two, that kind of thing. It also doesn't hurt that one of my top most favorite of all time STNG episode is "I, Borg" that centers of the Borg who calls himself Hugh and is, as far as I know, still enjoying his unusual Borg-y individuality. And of course, we all know Jean-Luc as Lucutious of Borg (who looked mighty fine in his Borg-like apparel, but I digress), which led my to want a Borg name for myself since I am part of the CraftBorg collective. Well, I thought and thought, and nothing came to mind until I saw my circular knitting needles. With the exception of DPNs, I've been stitching everything lately exclusively with circulars. I have fallen in love with circular needles, and I have them from size 4 up to size 11 and plan to get more. And then it dawned on me: I am a circular knitter! I knit is a circuitous fashion, which makes me circuitous! I am Circuitous of Borg!
Yaaaaaaaah!!
*ahem*
Okay, so maybe it's not that fabulous to those of you who are scratching your head and wondering if I've completely lost my marbles, but that's who I am in the CraftBorg world and I'm happy about it. Told you I was a geek.
Anywho, other than my intensely deep thoughts about assimilation being futile and all that, I've actually been knitting. No picuture, of course, 'cause I'm not cool but I can tell you that I'm half way done with one of my Gandalf the Grey armwarmers. I'm using Patons Classic Merino wool in the most gorgeous charcoal grey. I'm using size 3 DPNs and it's coming along swimmingly. Hopefully I will finish with one today so I can at least keep one arm and wrist warm while I knit the other (it's been cold here for Georgia! Brr!). I'm also working on my Tumnas scarf, which is a simply 1x1 rib. It's not a fancy yarn (Lion Brand Wool-Ease) but the color is *perfect*. It's Ranch Red, and it's this bright, happy red that is not too orange and not too blue. The only thing I would do differently with this scarf is add one strand of red mohair to make if fuzzier, but I'm anxious to get it finished so I can wear it and not freeze to death in the mornings while taking my kiddos to school. And I promise: once I get these finished I will bug my hubby to death about finding our digicam software and uploading it so I can actually prove I'm knitting.
Random Totally Off Subject Question of the Day: can those of you who live in apartments tell me the pros and cons of apartment living vs. owning a house? And those of you who have lived in both apartment and houses, can you chime in as well? We've been wanting to move for a while, and frankly I don't know if I want to buy another house. I'm not into yard work a the moment, and I love the idea of an apartment or town house but then again, I've always owned a home and I love the security that brings. I just don't know what would be the best route for us. We do have two children and four cats, and that's a factor as well. Hmm, just don't know...
Posted by: Stacey / 8:59 AM
|
1.03.2007
2006 Year in Review
I'm sitting here, drinking caffeine-free Diet Coke and contemplating my canker sore the size of Rhode Island that has chosen to wart its way on the inside of my upper lip. Yes, this is the result from Christmas in the South, and what comes with Christmas in the South: *lots* of food, all of it fried, fatty, totally delicious and gooey, all of which tastes wonderful and are sure breeding grounds for canker sores and other mouth nasties of the sort. And it hurts! You don't know pain until you've had a canker sore born out of rich gravy, savory roasts, too many sodas and lots of ooey candy. But I'm Southern, and the one thing Southerners do during the holidays is eat, canker sores be cursed.
And one of the cursed things has unpacked its bags and moved in where I sure as all git out don't want it, but it's my own fault and so there.
Anywho, if I may possibly move along, I was going to make this post a list of my New Year's Resolutions. You know the ones: be a better person, lose weight, give more, live more, save money, be happy, don't worry so much, actually finish a cross stitch pattern, knit something other than a couple of rows before ripping them out yaddayaddayadda; you know, the basics. Well, freaky dahlings, this time I'm not going to list them. It's not as if I don't want to, it's just I don't want to start out the year breaking half of my resolutions. It seems as soon as I put something to paper (or computer, as the case may be) I immediately lose my resolve. So, I plan to keep my resolutions private, and then if I break them I'm accountable to no one but myself. And if I do keep them, then I'll be shouting them from the rooftops during my next 2007 Year in Review. Huzzah!
Frankly, I'm glad 2006 is gone. It was a horrible year. It went something like this:
1) Feb: Close internet friend commits suicide.
2) April: majorly messed up my back which results with me being on some kind of drug, either pain killers or muscle relaxers, for the rest of 2006.
3) May/June: Husband gets whacked with pancreatitus and is in the hospital for two weeks, out of work for 2 more.
4) July: Husband gets gall bladder removed, out of work for 3 weeks.
5) September: I get an annonymous package in mail informing me I'm in denial about my son and claiming he has a serious mental condition (which is really spooky to get something like this, even though the sender claims to have had the best of intentions).
6) October: I get rear-ended by a huge Ford truck that sends me to the emergency room for a leg injury (thank God it was not very serious) but that puts us in a rental for nearly two months.
7) November: Fully Caffeinated gets revisited by Ohio stalker in comments box
8) The one great thing: In December, I got to meet my 19 year old stepson for the first time and we all had a great Christmas.
So, that's my year in review. It's not as bad as it could have been, but I'm ready to move on to greener pastures. I'm ready to live a boring, vanilla life.
On another note, I've been finding new blogs to stick my nose in and enjoy. On this particular jewel, I found this joke that I felt you crafty people would appreciate (particularly you knitters):
A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper rolled down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "PULL OVER!"
"NO!" the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!"
Hyuk hyuk! And before I get any "you mean, anti-blonde person" kind of mail, may I remind everyone that the person who first posted that joke is a blonde herself, and a lovely pale blonde at that. So there.:)
Let's raise a glass and hail a toast for 2007! May it be everything 2006 was not and all the better for it.
{{hugs}}Posted by: Stacey /
1:46 PM
|
And one of the cursed things has unpacked its bags and moved in where I sure as all git out don't want it, but it's my own fault and so there.
Anywho, if I may possibly move along, I was going to make this post a list of my New Year's Resolutions. You know the ones: be a better person, lose weight, give more, live more, save money, be happy, don't worry so much, actually finish a cross stitch pattern, knit something other than a couple of rows before ripping them out yaddayaddayadda; you know, the basics. Well, freaky dahlings, this time I'm not going to list them. It's not as if I don't want to, it's just I don't want to start out the year breaking half of my resolutions. It seems as soon as I put something to paper (or computer, as the case may be) I immediately lose my resolve. So, I plan to keep my resolutions private, and then if I break them I'm accountable to no one but myself. And if I do keep them, then I'll be shouting them from the rooftops during my next 2007 Year in Review. Huzzah!
Frankly, I'm glad 2006 is gone. It was a horrible year. It went something like this:
1) Feb: Close internet friend commits suicide.
2) April: majorly messed up my back which results with me being on some kind of drug, either pain killers or muscle relaxers, for the rest of 2006.
3) May/June: Husband gets whacked with pancreatitus and is in the hospital for two weeks, out of work for 2 more.
4) July: Husband gets gall bladder removed, out of work for 3 weeks.
5) September: I get an annonymous package in mail informing me I'm in denial about my son and claiming he has a serious mental condition (which is really spooky to get something like this, even though the sender claims to have had the best of intentions).
6) October: I get rear-ended by a huge Ford truck that sends me to the emergency room for a leg injury (thank God it was not very serious) but that puts us in a rental for nearly two months.
7) November: Fully Caffeinated gets revisited by Ohio stalker in comments box
8) The one great thing: In December, I got to meet my 19 year old stepson for the first time and we all had a great Christmas.
So, that's my year in review. It's not as bad as it could have been, but I'm ready to move on to greener pastures. I'm ready to live a boring, vanilla life.
On another note, I've been finding new blogs to stick my nose in and enjoy. On this particular jewel, I found this joke that I felt you crafty people would appreciate (particularly you knitters):
A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper rolled down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "PULL OVER!"
"NO!" the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!"
Hyuk hyuk! And before I get any "you mean, anti-blonde person" kind of mail, may I remind everyone that the person who first posted that joke is a blonde herself, and a lovely pale blonde at that. So there.:)
Let's raise a glass and hail a toast for 2007! May it be everything 2006 was not and all the better for it.
{{hugs}}
Posted by: Stacey / 1:46 PM
|
