Getting this party started....

Hello!

It's been a while since I posted last. I'm going to try to post more often now. Things have been pretty rocky trying to adjust to my new lifestyle and get things up and running for myself. We've also been traveling quite often. Things are great now. :) I'm starting to feel really great about things.

Our trip to California was EXCELLENT. We crammed a ton of stuff into one week!! We visited with Bryan's relatives in Napa, checked out the town, as well as the surrounding towns of Sonoma, Petaluma, and Sebastopol. We drove through San Fransisco on our way from the airport and walked on the Golden Gate Bridge. We briefly checked out a winery before deciding that the 4th of July weekend was a really bad time to do that. lol We drove up the coastal highway all the way to Crescent City up by the border of Oregon! Along the way we stopped to check out all the towns in Humboldt County, we drove the Avenue of the Giants and got out to explore and climb on fallen redwoods, we stopped at Bodega Bay for an AMAZING seafood dinner and some salt water taffy, stopped at a reservation to get some smoked salmon (WOW!! Can't wait to taste that again!!!), and we went to the Trees of Mystery in Klamath, CA and rode the skytram through the tops of the redwoods! .....WHEW! What a crazy week! It was awesome. I can't wait to go there again in a couple weeks. Of course this time will just be for a few days. You can check out our pictures from the trip at http://rockymountaintrudy.myphotoalbum.com

I've also got my teaching studio up and running now with a small handful of students, and I'm adding more students every week, so that's good. I'm knitting and designing and waiting for more money to come my way so I can buy a ton of yarn to make more awesome things!! :) I'm designing a sweater that will be made out of Malabrigo Silky Merino. SOO pretty and shiny and soft. :) And I'm going to make the Mystic Earth stole (finally) out of Dream In Color Baby in the color Tea Party (a rich brown shade).... For now, I'm working on my Waving Lace socks, and waiting impatiently for the Peacock Feather Shawl pattern to get to me in the mail so I can make it with my Claudia Hand Painted Silk Lace in a bright red color. Woohoo! :)

On another exciting note, I'm starting to write. And this time I think it's the start of something more permanent for me. The other day I had this great idea for a book, and I decided to make a short story out of it first. Kind of like a synopsis. Something I've never done before. And I think that will really help me so that I don't start keep on starting a big long book, getting a few chapters in and not know where to go from there in the storyline, and giving up. If I know the whole story already, then the book length version is simply expanding on that original story. So yeah! I'll let you know how it goes. :) Ever since I was 7, I've wanted to be an author. And that is the one longing that has always been there and never changed or left. I'm going to start following it, damnit!

Well, I'm going to get going now. I have a hot date with some great books next door at Barnes & Noble. :-P ........I like this lifestyle. hahaha.... Oh, oh!! And also I'm going through the background check process to become a volunteer at Crittenton Children's Center, a place for traumatized children. They have a dire need for tutors, so I'm going to be tutoring some young children in math and other subjects. Yay!!

Have a great sunny day!
~Trudy~

Woohoo!! The fun times are here!

Well here we finally go. Bryan is officially done with his 3 month probation, and now he gets every other weekend off and a trip home to Napa Valley, CA once a month! We leave for Napa in two days and I CANNOT WAIT!! I've never been to northern California at all, and I've always wanted to go. This is going to be so much fun! I will have my camera and video camera and will be posting a bunch of stuff as soon as we get back I'm sure. Today is all about doing laundry and other things to get ready to go.

So when we fly into Oakland, the first thing we're going to do is pick up our rental car and cruise the long way home via the Golden Gate Bridge because I've always wanted to see it. Bryan said we can walk around on it. That would be awesome. :) Then we're going to his Grandma's house, which is where we'll be staying for a few days. That's in Napa. We'll be exploring the town he grew up in, and doing a little bit of wine tasting probably. We're also going to do a lot of walking/driving around exploring the beautiful countryside. Then we're going to head down Highway 101 along the coast either north to stay by Humboldt and the redwoods at the Avenue of the Giants and everything, or we'll head south to stay by Big Sur and the Monterey Bay Aquarium and stuff. Oh, decisions.... :) My cameras are ready and waiting!!

In other good news, I believe I've chosen a studio! It's called the Rogers Foundation of Music, and I'll have a good-sized studio there as well as gaining access to free private lessons in jazz/improv and recording. I'll also have free unlimited access to a recording studio for me and my students, and might even have an opportunity to do some paid-to-sing type gigs recording on various recording projects they do there. I'm excited! It's going to be very nice.

We've been exploring the city a little more lately, and we went to the World War 1 Museum last weekend. That was pretty neat. I have some favorite restaurants and hangouts now, and I can even go to the Kansas City Conservatory to play the uprights and grands in their practice rooms. So that's nice too. One place I know I want to revisit is the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, which is free all day every day. There's some rooms I haven't seen yet. And I want to go to The Yarn Barn in Lawrence, Kansas about an hour away from here!! It's an incredible warehouse-sized mecca of yarn and spinning and all things fiber. :-P Mmmmm..... yarn, needles, drop spindles....

Speaking of knitting, I've been taking a break lately but not by choice!! I just realized that the yarn I bought for this amazing shawl was completely wrong for the project. Not even close to thick enough! :( And we're short on cash at the moment but all that will change in a month. However, I did a yarn swap recently through Ravelry, and my partner sent me the coolest yarns. :) I've decided to use a really cool sock pattern I've been wanting to try in this fingering-weight hand-painted sock yarn that she got me. It's these gorgeous colors of maroon and emerald with a touch of cream. It's going to be really pretty! I hope I can modify the gauge enough to be small enough for my feet! The trouble is that the yarn is heavier than the pattern calls for, and the pattern itself is already too big for my feet. lol But I went down a needle size, and I think I'm going to change the pattern a bit too. It's an easy one to modify, so that's why I picked it. Right now I'm fighting with the tangly mess I made of the skein trying to wind it into a ball, but as soon as that fiasco is over I'll be making pretty things with string again before you can say, "Bob's your uncle." lol :)

Well I'd better go. Mountains of laundry await.....

~Trudy~

Knitting, Designing, and Traveling

Hello! Well, I haven't updated in quite some time. I've been in and out lately, so that's probably why. For Memorial Day weekend Bryan and I went to visit my Mom while my Dad was gone fishing in Canada. We spent a day at the Brookfield Zoo while we were there, so that was very fun! Today I'm packing to leave this hotel tomorrow since Bryan will be traveling about Missouri doing various trainings and blitz stuff for the next two weeks. So I'm packing up to go to my parents' house for a couple weeks. That will be fun. Hopefully my cat Mia agrees....

This week I've been mostly running errands and hanging out at the hotel designing and knitting. I've got this new idea in my head lately about designing knitting patterns for all kinds of garments for people to buy on Ravelry. If you're not a knitter, Ravelry is a knitter's home on the internet. :) It's like Facebook for knitters, except better because you can find any pattern, yarn, book, designer, etc. on Ravelry and buy, trade, sell, and network. It's awesome! Anyway, I want to start creating designs and selling them on Ravelry. And who knows where it might go from there? There's all kinds of new young upstarts making it as designers these days in the knitting world, and many of them only started knitting advanced things like some of the stuff I'm doing now anywhere from three to six years ago! What if I could design things and actually start making a name for myself? So anyway, that's an idea that has been popping up in my mind lately for the past six months or so, and I'm ready to run with it now. .....Now if I only had the money to buy yarn to test out my designs! lol :) Well, I think I will be able to start teaching music again at least by the end of June. So that will be good.

Well, here are some of the projects I've finished lately. These are NOT my own designs. The first one is called Delphine from the book French Girl Knits:

It's made with Blue Sky Alpacas - Alpaca and Silk yarn (50% alpaca, 50% silk) in the "Blush" colorway. SO luxurious to knit with!! And to wear. :) I am SO happy with this top. This was supposed to be for my Mom, but it was just a bit too snug for her. :-/ So I adopted it, and I'm going to make it again for her in a larger size.

The next one is a pattern called Diagonal Rib Socks, and I think the designer is Ann Budd if I remember correctly. I changed the pattern a bit to fit my small feet! (Made the straight ribbing panels thinner but left the diagonal ones as written.) Here they are:

These are made with Claudia Hand Painted Fingering (100% merino) in the "Just Plum" colorway. The pictures don't do the pattern justice at all. It's really awesome!

Right now I'm working on winding this behemoth into the most gigantic ball on earth....

The Unique Sheep's Aurora in the "Chocolate" colorway. It's going to be the Mystic Earth wrap by a designer I have recently discovered and really love, and I believe her name is Anna Dalvi... Something like that. lol :) ....I've got the skein about halfway wound or more and the yarn ball is bigger than a softball already! Good Lord! 1300 yards of lace!

And then, to keep me busy until I have the money to buy the yarn I want to use for my new blouse that I'm designing, I am going to use this delicious stuff right here....

.....Claudia Hand Painted Silk Lace (100% silk) *drools a little bit* .... to make the Peacock Shawl by Dorothy Siemens! I can't wait! So many great goodies to get started on. :) Life is great.

After those comes a pretty Estonian Lace scarf designed by Nancy Bush that I'm going to make out of my ivy-colored KnitPicks Shimmer (alpaca and silk)... and sometime in the middle of all those I want to make both a pair of socks and a really awesome sweater for my amazing fiance Bryan. :) .....By the time I finish all of those things I suppose it will probably be just about time to start planning out who's getting knitted Christmas gifts this year and what they will be. .......Man, I really can't believe how much I've progressed in my knitting this year! Before this whole past year I had only ever really made scarves, one poorly made jacket, one poorly made sweater, sweatpants, and..... I think that's it! Now I can make socks, awesome tank tops, sweaters, baby blankets, and do really intricate lace patterns and other advanced techniques, and I'm starting to design! ....Woohoo! :) There's really nothing in the knitting world that I have much fear about trying anymore. .....Except steeks. Don't ever ask me to steek anything. I'll punch you... I also know a ton about different types of fiber now, which I had no clue about before. So that is an enormous help. Now nothing I make is scratchy or awkward and I know how to choose the best fibers and yarns to show off certain patterns or modify the look and feel of a garment.

I think a lot of my new knitting expertise comes from having gone to the knitting group for so long in Albuquerque too. Kim is the one who taught me how to make socks. :) I'll always think of her now every time I knit a sock.... And I learned and got ideas from seeing what other people were doing. It really got me out of my little comfort box.

Well, I suppose I'll go for now. I'm going to do a little more gigantic ball winding before finishing up the car packing. ...Ooh!! And Bryan just called and said he's taking me out to an Italian dinner with his coworker Roger. Yippee! :)

"For those of you who are about to knit..... I salute you." (LMAO, I'm such a dork.)
~Trudy~ :)

The good life...

Hello! Everything is going great here in Independence, and we're just happy to be here. Bryan's job is going great! I'm having a great time exploring the city, meeting new people, and doing a lot of knitting. I'm cooking a bit more, and cleaning a lot, and it's nice to finally get into the habit of those things. Bryan is the sweetest. :) He's so thoughtful and supportive. Yesterday he asked if it was okay if he makes a short to-do list for me, since he works until 8 or 9 almost every day. I said of course, and he gave me a couple things to do for him, and then as we were going to sleep he said there was one more thing he'd like me to do this week: go out and find new people to hang out with. He said, "Hell, if I were you and I had all this free time, I'd go to a different knitting group every day of the week." lol :) I told him I was trying not to live it up too much or he'll get jealous, and he said it was too late for that anyway. Haha... Yesterday I looked up all kinds of different volunteer stuff, visited a couple yarn shops, and went to a really cool knitting group. I think I'll have lots of fun with those girls!

Oh my gosh, I had the most AMAZING weekend ever!! Seeing my old college buddy Bettina and her boyfriend Greg was SO much fun! :) We went to downtown Kansas City and ate at a cool little place called Tom Foolery's. Then we took pictures and walked around downtown together, and after we said goodbye to them Bryan and I drove to the art museum and walked around there a bit, and then walked around outside at an Earth Fair going on across the street, and then we went home and relaxed in the hot tub, and then we went out to this AWESOME and highly entertaining dinner at the Samurai Chef Steak and Sushi House. It was one of those places where you sit with other people around a big table and the chef comes and cooks right in front of you and sets things on fire and throws food at you and stuff. :) It was so much fun!! We'll definitely be going back there again. ...What... a day. We felt so pampered that day. :)

My Mom's tank top is almost finished! It looks awesome... I just hope it's not too snug. I'm really excited to give it to her over Memorial Day weekend, and to visit with people up in Illinois again. That will be very nice.

Well, today I'm going to go visit a few more yarn shops, see if I can find some nice ribbon to use for the tank top, and then do some laundry later on. I was going to do dishes too but... apparently the maid did them for me yesterday.... So, la-dee-da! lol :)

Next month when Bryan's probation period ends, we're moving into corporate housing out in Lee's Summit, MO - just a short ways away from where we are right now. Alright, I'm going to get going. Maybe later I'll post some pictures finally??? We'll see how long I take at the yarn shops. :)

~Trudy~

Settling in

Hello again from Missouri...

Well, things have slowed down here and I'm settling into my new lifestyle. It's definitely an interesting one. I'm cooking a lot more now and I have a lot more free time... both of which is very nice and refreshing. I've read a lot about Kansas City and yesterday I stopped at the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, which is pretty incredible by the way and charges no admission fee! I thoroughly enjoyed that. I think Bryan and I are going to go there together this weekend. I also checked out Union Station for just a bit. There's an "Extreme Screen" theater there that shows huge 3D movies, and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is there too. :) I got a couple chocolate haystacks for Bryan and I. It sounds like Bryan might actually have his first 2 day weekend off this week! Maybe even Friday if he does super well today... That would be awesome. My college buddy Bettina is coming into town on Saturday afternoon with her new boyfriend to say hi to us too! So it will be a nice weekend.

Right now, I'm blocking the tank top I made for my Mom. :) Then I have to graft the straps together, put the picot edging around the neckline and armholes, sew on the little pearl buttons and get a pretty ribbon to put around the neckline. Then it's done! Sweet!

Two nights ago I gave my first massage treatment here at the hotel to one of Bryan's colleagues Kiki. Tonight I'm giving another treatment to his campaign lead. Yay! Money! :) This could be very, very good.... Heehee...

I am feeling a bit homesick for Albuquerque with its gorgeous mountains and awesome people and friends. But I'm also enjoying the green and "wetness" of Missouri. Well, I will write more this weekend. Hope you are all doing well!

~Trudy~

Endings and Beginnings...

Hello from Missouri!!

Well I know this blog has been completely silent for a couple weeks, but I was extremely busy preparing for my imminent move. But now here I am, settled into the hotel suite with Bryan in Independence, MO. It's a little suburb just about 10 min. east of Kansas City. It sure is a convenient area! I can walk out the hotel door and practically be in a mall already. Right across the street is Kohl's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, all kinds of other stores and restaurants, a full mall, an AMC 20 movie theater, and other things. So that's nice...

The room is VERY nice. We've got a good-sized bedroom and bath area with a door leading into the kitchen and living room. The kitchen has everything a full kitchen would have except for an oven. We do have a range though, and of course a full fridge and dishwasher and stuff like that. Two TVs. lol... We get continental breakfast 7 days a week, a daily maid, all expenses paid by Bryan's job of course. My kitty Mia has settled in very well so far. She's such a good little girl... Poor thing. I almost lost her on the drive!! We stopped for a litter box break, and she wriggled out of her leash and harness and ran into this barred area where some vending machines were, so I had to grab her real hard by the scruff of the neck and get this guy to help me lift her out from behind the bars. What made her wriggle free and bolt?? .....A bird. ...Yes, a BIRD. ....Yes, my cat is a complete wuss. LOL :) At least she's all fine now. She got lavished with treats after that.

Tomorrow Bryan goes to work, and I am going to do laundry, get some groceries, and buy hangers so I can put my clothes away. Oh yeah, and bring my keyboard up here so it's not in my car anymore. I think we'll store it in the closet for now. There's not really enough space for it here. But my goal is to have a studio within a few weeks. I also have my guitar here, and I'm learning a Joni Mitchell song on it right now called, "Both Sides Now." I think I'll actually be able to play guitar pretty soon after all! :) At least enough to accompany myself singing. That's all I want. And then to understand the guitar enough to write songs for voice and guitar.

Well, that's all I got for right now that I can think of. I did the drive (which wound up taking 14 hours with stops) all in one day. I was exhausted by the time I arrived but miraculously I never got even a little bit sleepy on the road. Must have been the adrenaline from the move. lol :) Anyway, the only mishap, luckily, was almost losing my cat. Thankfully, that was definitely an ALMOST. So, I say it was a good trip. It was really bizarre to watch the grass slowly appear and then turn from yellow to emerald green as I drove, and also to feel the air turn more and more humid! It was a cool day as I drove, but I started the drive in Albuquerque with short sleeves feeling dehydrated, and ended it wearing a coat and feeling like every inch of my body was slightly wet. LOL What a weird experience. :) I can definitely feel the humidity a lot more now that I've been out of it for so long.

Alright, time for bed around here. Talk to you later!
~Trudy~

In a nutshell...

Monday in a nutshell:

-- Got flirted with three times - one of them resulted in a free chai latte, and one of them was a decade younger than me (what the hell, people??)...

-- Did NOT have a cat with diarrhea (that was a plus)

-- Spent an hour talking myself out of buying more yarn... again... when I've got three projects in my lineup waiting to be started....

-- Helped a woman get rid of her migraine and severe pain caused by whiplash at the massage clinic and gave her ideas for curing her allergies

-- Read about social injustice, knitted a lacy tank top, and taught music to a bunch of people :)

-- Stayed up too late on the internet drooling at yarn, playing with Facebook, and writing in my blog ;)

Summary: A day well spent.